System Change

“Okay, everyone! Listen up!” Silvi commanded her team to listen, and they all dropped what they were doing and turned to her. “Good.” She nodded. “The first half of The Ravaging Claw Dungeon was less of a challenge than we thought it would be. True, we may have over-prepared, but that’s how we do things. As the saying goes, ‘It’s better to have and not need than to need and not have.’

“However, we know that the dungeon takes a big step up in difficulty from now on.” Silvi pulled out a map and began tracing certain points with her finger. “Before, the maximum number of beasts ambushing us was limited to five per pack. However, starting now, that limit has increased to eight, and the levels have gone up by five. The lowest-leveled beast that we’re going to run into from now on will be level 175.”

Silvi looked out over her team and smiled as they all nodded. Tanner and Christine were both elemental dual-blade wielders, which made sense because they were twins and did almost everything together since birth. Their coordination was second to none. Silvi couldn’t help but find herself lucky to have found two damage dealers—one ice, one fire—who didn’t care about the rumors about her.

Behind the siblings was Archer. He was… an archer. According to him, he’d chosen the class as more of a joke when the system first appeared because he didn’t really believe what was going on. Since then, he’d learned to become a pretty good one. His attacks were pretty much physical only, and consumed stamina, so he didn’t have much in the way of magical resistances. Still, he was great to have as a ranged fighter.

Then there was Kate. She was the team’s healer. Honestly, to Silvi, she seemed like the stereotypical healer class. She did not enjoy fighting and hated that they had to kill, but understood that it was either the monsters or humans. The only reason the woman was even at a low enough level to join Silvi’s team was because it had taken her a long time to come to terms with everything, because she was a top-tier healer. She even had hopes of obtaining an Epic-ranked healing class down the line.

Finally, there was her ever-faithful rock, her shoulder to cry on… Gerard. He’d been with her since the beginning—through thick and thin. The man never left her when she was down and continued by her side now that she was thriving as an adventurer. He was her team’s tank… her shield.

“Okay!” Silvi shouted again. “We have one mini-boss left, the Gorehorn Bison. The thing has great strength but is slow and dumb. The biggest problem we’re going to have is its armor. But with time, I think we’ll be able to whittle its health down without too much of a problem.”

“Especially since we have you,” Tanner said.

“Yes,” Silvi said with a nod. “I’ll do my best to keep everyone out of harm’s way.”

Silvi had to change her class up a lot since she figured out that the Portal skill wasn’t what it seemed. All of her stat points had mostly gone to intelligence and wisdom, and she had a few support skills that she could still use after vowing to never use Portal again. So, she continued down the path of an unorthodox support class.She had a couple of buffs for her team, which were only for speed and defense—both physical and magical. But she’d been so obsessed with Portal and teleporting before that she’d heavily invested in a new skill that was somewhat similar, and built her strategy around it. It was a skill called Blink. After much effort, she was able to get the skills Resonate Blink and Blink Command.

Her entire fighting style was built around the three skills. Blink allowed her to teleport short-range and instantly. Resonate Blink let her support and teleport her allies, which took a lot of practice and getting used to for both parties. It took a lot of trust to accept that your support class could make a decision, and the next instant, you’d be standing in front of a monster. Finally, there was Blink Command, which was the same as Resonate Blink, but allowed her to control enemies.

Not all enemies could be teleported, though. Some had much too high wisdom for it to be effective. Still, even with those enemies, it usually created a slight pause, which led to an opening for their attackers. Her team had come to call her a battlefield controller, and she couldn’t help but think that was an apt assessment.

“Once we kill the bison, we’ll be in the final rest zone. After that, it’s a push to this dungeon’s boss: The Bloodfang Ravager. The direwolf will be fast and deadly. The key to the fight is to not let it draw blood, because the more blood that is in the air, the bigger a buff it will get. But we’ll speak more about the boss at the final checkpoint. For now, is everyone ready?”

Everyone stood stoically and nodded.

“Then let’s go!”

Gerard took point beside Archer, who doubled as a scout but wasn’t good enough to scout alone. Tanner and Christine walked in the back to take care of any ambushes from behind, and Silvi and Kate stayed in the middle of the group for their own protection.

Not more than a hundred feet from the checkpoint, the group encountered their first ambush. Eight Thornback Jackals tried to jump down on their group from above.

“Above!” Archer shouted.

Silvi saw the group of beasts and waved her hand. “Chris, Tanner! It’s you!”

The next instant, the entire group of beasts was on the ground behind the group—only a few feet away from the siblings. Each jackal was facing the wrong way.

Before the beasts even knew what was happening—as they had been pulled from the air and onto the ground and needed to get their bearings—four had been eliminated.

“Gerard!” Silvi shouted, then waved her hand again. Moments later, the jackals turned to attack their attackers but were met by a giant shield blocking them.

The next two jackals were taken out by Tanner and Christine as they worked around Gerard’s shield. Gerard crushed one of the jackals with his shield, while the final one jumped over the fighters and aimed at Kate. “Archer!” Silvi called out.

The final jackal disappeared and reappeared in the air in front of the group. One arrow pierced its chest, and the second pierced its head.

“Good target practice,” Archer commented as the lifeless body of the jackal fell to the ground. Archer had never left his location as a scout the entire time, just in case there were more enemies to come. He wasn’t stealthy, but he had great senses, so as long as he was there, Gerard could give aid wherever he was needed.

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“Great fight, everyone!” Silvi pumped her fist in victory. She’d spent so much time and system currency on her skills that their mana costs were finally very low. It was a pain to get to the point where she was, but after each successful encounter, she couldn’t help but think that all her pain and suffering was worth it. Eight enemies at a time was pushing it, but since they weren’t wisdom-based enemies, she was able to do it. She was the bane of purely physical monsters.

“Great command, boss!” Tanner shouted back.

“Mhm,” Gerard agreed. “We are all getting stronger. But we mustn’t let it go to our heads. Next fight, I say we use it to sharpen our skills.”

“Good idea,” Silvi agreed with a nod. “I’ll buff you all, but no blinking unless the situation is dire. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes!” Everyone agreed in unison.

After that, they dismantled the jackals and continued on their way. Soon enough, after having fought dozens more beasts, the massive cave system they’d been in opened up into a clearing, and in that clearing stood a massive beast.

“Final fight until final checkpoint, then the boss,” Silvi said in a much lower tone, so as not to aggro the boss with noise. “Is everyone prepared?”

Once they all nodded, Silvi cast Haste and Fortification on her team.

“Okay, I have an idea,” Silvi said. “It’s a big, dumb beast. A fall from the top of this place wouldn’t hurt many beasts because the ceiling isn’t that tall, but it should do some damage, and most importantly, disorient the thing. So, we’ll start the fight with me dropping it from the ceiling, then move from there.”

The fight went as planned. Silvi started the fight by using Blink Command on the Razorback Bison and sending it as high as possible. The thing fell and created a crater when it hit the ground. Luckily, one of its legs landed awkwardly, and it broke in the process—severely limiting the creature’s mobility.

The team didn’t give it time to heal, as they all rushed forward. Blinking such a large creature did take a good amount of mana from Silvi, but since the beast was slow, she didn’t have to use her skills much and was able to recover. Everyone held their own and dodged when needed. It was a very one-sided contest.

That’s what happens when you prepare for a dungeon, Silvi mused. “It’s raging!” she shouted, and everyone jumped back as its eyes began to glow. This was the point where the spikes on its back shot out and covered most of the battleground. However, Silvi was ready for it, and she had already made sure she would be able to handle it.

Just as the spikes appeared, Silvi sent the beast into the top corner of the ceiling. Most of the spikes hit the walls and ceiling, and the others were so far away that it wasn’t any problem for her team to dodge when they eventually made it to them.

This time, a very wounded bison hit the ground and was hurt even worse. To not let up, Silvi Blinked her team to the beast, and minutes later, they all received the kill notification.

“Another boss fight with no injuries!” Tanner shouted from atop the dead beast.

“Mini-boss,” his sister corrected.

“Same thing!” Tanner replied.

“You wish…” Christine shook her head.

“I am going to have to heal someone eventually,” Kate replied.

“At least your regeneration spells give you a cut of the experience points,” Silvi said.

“True,” Kate responded. “There is at least that.”

After collecting the materials from the large beast, the team continued on. After a short rest at the checkpoint, all that was left was the boss. The team slowly entered the boss room. Just as before, it was an empty meadow with stone walls on each side and a relatively high ceiling. As soon as the final person stepped into the room, the cavern behind them closed.

It was pretty much how all boss rooms were after the system came. When it came to the boss, it was either it or the party. Only one would walk out unless the team had escape scrolls or tokens.

“Okay, dropping it from high won’t cause any problems for this wolf,” Silvi said. “So, for this battle, my role will be pure injury prevention. Do your best not to become disoriented.”

“We’ve got all the training we need for that,” Tanner replied.

“You’re going to need it,” Silvi said. “This boss is level 185—the highest-leveled boss that we’ve come across. I’ll try to keep focus and Blinks on the boss, but if it looks like there’s a good chance of landing a blow, I’ll move the person instead of it. Everyone ready?”

“Yes!”

Silvi took a step forward, held her hand up, then dropped it. “Attack!”

Gerard took the lead, and soon the direwolf saw them. The beast tilted its head, then stalked forward, blood dripping from its mouth. It let out a howl, and the team felt dread like never before.

“What…” Silvi muttered as the entire party halted their steps. “It’s… it shouldn’t have an aura this strong.”

“I… can barely breathe,” Kate said from behind her.

“This is bad,” Tanner said.

Gerard jammed his shield into the ground and cast one of his protection skills—creating an invisible barrier both twenty feet tall and wide. His breathing turned heavy. They watched as the wolf took another step forward, its hackles raised.

“This… wasn’t supposed to happen,” Silvi said. “The map, the guides… nothing mentioned this aura.” Silvi looked around and saw Kate gasping for breath, Tanner and Chris were both shaking, and Archer was on one knee with his head down. The only person seemingly not affected was Gerard. He seemed steadfast in his protection, but Silvi knew the man better than that.

He had great willpower and could hide his fear and dread, but she saw the sweat forming on his brow and the look in his eyes. The man was putting on a brave front, but he feared for the worst.

I have to do something, Silvi thought. I can’t lose another team. I have to use it. In that instant, Silvi thought Portal was their only chance. It couldn’t take them out of the dungeon, but just maybe… it could take them to the previous checkpoint. No… she thought. I tried that before. The dungeon blocks it… But if I could get the wolf inside and close it… She had a flashback of Derek disappearing into the Portal and never returning.

However, while all those thoughts were flashing through her mind, she heard Tanner say, “Look… the wolf.”

Silvi turned and saw what he was talking about. The wolf was shaking. It hadn’t taken another step since the last. It was even close to cowering down.

As she looked at the beast, she saw something else that made her heart sink. A line formed in the space behind the beast, then what could only be described as a dark portal to the void opened up. A flash of purple lightning shot out and hit the beast. The direwolf—which was going to be her team’s greatest challenge yet—fell over… dead.

A notification of the boss being killed flashed before her eyes, and the dungeon portal appeared. However, the portal was behind the dreadful one that had just formed.

“What… is… that…”

“Void Beast…” Silvi muttered. “It has to be… but… how?” She hadn’t used Portal in such a long time. Does just having the skill draw the beasts to me? “I’m sorry… everyone.” She’d never heard that it did, but it was the only explanation. “I’ll keep it busy. You all run for the dungeon portal. It’s our only chance. I just hope my skills work on it.”

“I’m staying with you,” Gerard said, and Silvi didn’t respond. She knew that there was nothing she could say to get him to leave her side.

“Us too!” the twins said, and then everyone else agreed.

“No!” Silvi commanded. “If you don’t go, I’ll Blink you all into the portal myself.” In fact, that was her plan. Just maybe… she could send the beast away and everyone could get out safely. She’d just have to get them all around the void portal, as it was blocking her line of sight to the dungeon portal. She just wasn’t sure that they’d be able to move so close to it.

“Fine…” her team said.

“Good,” Silvi replied. “It’s been great knowing you all. In case I don’t make it, just know that I thank you all for being with me.” A tear dropped from Silvi’s eye, then she steadied herself.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, but wasn’t long at all, she saw it. A silverish and purple horn slowly appeared from the portal. It had a thin purple glow to it. Then… the head appeared.

“What!?” Tanner shouted, voicing what they were all thinking.

A small body on a floating platform came next.

“Void Beasts are… so tiny,” Tanner said. “And it’s wearing clothes. Is it a… bunny?”

The moment the Void Beast was through, it turned its head in their direction, as if hearing Tanner speak. When Silvi locked eyes with the creature, it sent a shiver down her spine. The next instant, the purple glow that covered its body disappeared, and then it, too, disappeared.

No time later, the beast was floating in front of Silvi, their eyes no more than a few inches apart. Everyone froze. Nobody knew what to do, or what they could do. Were they all going to die? But then, something unexpected happened. The Void Beast… it spoke.

“Are you Silvi?”