Chapter 76: The Second Test (Patreon)

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Cayden fidgetted in place as he waited for their team's turn. He shouldn't have been nervous – there wasn't likely to be any true danger in the test, there was nothing more he could do to prepare, and nerves caused uncharacteristic mistakes. Unfortunately, nervousness didn't follow logic, and nothing could make Cayden forget the importance of the test. According to Velic, there would only be two more team assessments after this one. A bad showing here could put the first-place prize out of their reach forever.

So, in an effort to distract himself, Cayden pulled up his status.

Name: Cayden Johannson

Age: 15

Race: Gargoyle

Racial Level: 15

Class: Athlete

Class Level: 9

Stats:

  Vitality: 42

  Charisma: 8

  Strength: 34

  Endurance: 34

  Agility: 26

  Dexterity: 22

  Perception: 13

  Mind: 22

  Magic Power: 9

  Magic Control: 8

  Mana: 89

  Mana Regeneration: 7 mana per min

  Free Stats: 28

Racial Skills:

  Boost Passive

  Clawed Grasp

  Skin of Stone

General Skills (max 6):

  Blade Sense (lvl 4)

  Inertia (lvl 4)

  Resilience (lvl 10)

  Resistance (lvl 11)

  Taunt (lvl 8)

  Mind is a Temple (lvl 3)

Class Skills:

  Enhanced Flexibility (lvl 9)

  Physical Training (lvl 10)

  Recovery (lvl 10)

  The Moment (lvl 9)

He'd been making good progress since arriving at the academy, and thankfully, his status reflected it.

[Physical Training] and recovery had both already leveled up to ten, only a few weeks after [Athlete] hit level nine. Class skills didn't 'store' previous experience while maxed out, so the quick levels were a testament to how heavily Cayden pushed both of the skills to their limits on a daily basis. He'd also gained single stat points naturally in vitality, endurance, agility, and – most surprisingly – two in mind. [Blade Sense] had truly been a boon in training his mind stat, as two points in two months was a faster improvement than he'd seen in all the hours spent studying under Elise.

The improvement in his physical stats, though, could be attributed entirely to Cayden's dedication to exercising. Most of the other students at Delver's Academy were a few years older than him and had already maxed out, or come close to maxing out, the amount of natural improvement they could gain via exercise. And Cayden, with the deadline of his level-ten class upgrade fast approaching, could see that same cap coming for him.

[Physical Training] was an amazing skill. If his math was correct, the fifty percent increase to the cap of his physical stats (after [Boost Passive] was applied) had already netted him close to thirty points of extra stats. Yet it wasn't a skill he had any intention of permanently keeping. And once it was gone, he couldn't be expecting any more improvements to his base stats to come for a long, long time – if ever.

Cayden was fighting the clock on what increases to his base stats he'd be able to expect. He hoped to still squeeze out a point or two from each of his physical stats – strength especially was overdue for an increase – but even with [Physical Training], his rate of natural growth was slowing down.

Thankfully, he'd still be able to increase his stats using the system after losing [Physical Training]. After his two recent level-ups, he had twenty-eight free stat points saved up. It felt strange to stockpile so many stat points, especially before such an important test. Yet he was still lacking a definite plan for the tier-three offensive skill to round out his build. Though it was unlikely, he didn't want to dump all his stats into strength only to find the perfect skill that required a higher perception for him to effectively use. And besides, his stat points were unlikely to be the deciding factor in their team's success.

Individual talent had never been their issue. By all accounts, they were swimming in talent. It was their ability to combine their talents into an effective whole in which their team was lacking. And, as much as he wished it might be otherwise, a few stat points wouldn't be able to fix that issue.

"Is everyone ready? You all have your potions? Cayden, remember, you're second engager until we figure out what we're fighting. Marvenal, let Cayden take over if I call out. Delphia, don't get in anyone's way."

Cayden nodded at Velic's instructions, withholding the grimace that he felt at his teammate's words. While their time spent training together had manifested in better teamwork, he couldn't say the same for their interpersonal relationships.

Cayden had no desire to lead the team, and it was unusual for the frontliner to be the one calling the shots. And of course neither Delphia nor Marvenal would be the team leaders, Delphia much too reserved and Marvenal completely subservient to his employer. But Cayden just wished that someone other than Velic could lead them.

It wasn't that he was particularly bad at his job. He was always positive with a smile on his face and advice – usually solid – on what they could do better. But after so many hours training together and sharing a dorm, the boy was starting to grate on Cayden. He wasn't entirely sure what it was – maybe the slightly condescending way he always gave his instructions? Or how he never actually asked to be the leader or consulted with them on his directions, instead simply assuming the position was his and his ideas were correct as a matter of course?

It was never enough for Cayden to call the boy out, and of course neither of his other roommates would do so. Marvenal annoyed Cayden just as much in the way he blindly supported everything Velic said, ignoring Cayden and Delphia's presence completely unless Velic explicitly told him otherwise. Delphia...Cayden didn't actually have any issues with her, but neither did he actually know her. She was decisive and determined while they were training, but would shrink in on herself the minute training ended. If Cayden had one pet peeve with Delphia, it was the way she let Velic walk all over her with his words. Though Cayden wasn't confronting the noble boy, either, so he couldn't throw stones.

For the moment, though, none of that was important. Even if there was someone to take Velic's place as the team leader, minutes before a delve wasn't the time to do so. Because that was their test – they were to complete a delve. Alone.

They'd been at the academy for two months now. Time enough, in the instructors' eyes, to learn the basics and acquire a combat class if they so chose. And with the increased competency thee students were expected to display, there would be an increased level of danger.

There would be no safety net on this delve, no Cassius to pull them out if a serious injury were to occur. They would be on their own. Just their teams versus a C-ranked dungeon. Them versus the monsters.

That was the theory, at least. In practice, the consequences weren't likely to be quite so severe. There were too many nobles attending the academy for the administration to entrust the kids entirely with their own safety. An instructor would be monitoring their progress with a scrying stone the entire way, ready to assist if the students truly needed help. Of course, the students were instructed not to rely on the help – as powerful as the instructors were, they couldn't be everywhere at once. The dungeon was extremely large, and it would take time for them to get to where they needed to be.

The size of the dungeon, apparently, was what made this test possible.

Most dungeons took one to two hours to fully reset after a clear. Some could reset in as fast as thirty minutes, but teams going in so soon after another team would run the risk of facing the dungeon at less than full strength, something the instructors obviously wanted to avoid for a fair test. And even if they were able to send in teams every hour and a half, giving teams an hour to clear the dungeon and then thirty minutes to reset, with forty-eight different teams that added up to six twelve-hour days of running the test. The instructors obviously didn't want to spend so much time on a single test, and this dungeon, known only as 'the Gauntlet', was their solution.

Information on the Gauntlet was limited, as the instructors actively tried to suppress what students were able to learn about the test prior to entering. But it was a dungeon owned by the kingdom and used primarily for training soldiers and academy students, so intel was bound to leak out. What was common knowledge was that it was one of the largest dungeons in the kingdom and classified as an underground maze dungeon. There were numerous routes to get to the 'end', each of which was crowded with different types of monsters, and the academy was taking advantage of that by sending in six teams at a time.

Each team was assigned a different section of the Gauntlet. The academy had long since mapped out the entirety of the maze and separated it into six regions. Someone smart had crafted items – Cayden wasn't sure if they were runed or enchanted – that would glow based on their location in the maze, each section getting assigned its own color. It would still take time – giving each team an hour and a half for their delves and then another hour and a half for the dungeon to fully reset the routes meant it would still take two long days to complete the test – but that was much better than any other option.

"...and remember, stay in your region," an instructor Cayden didn't know lectured the team, and he refocused on their upcoming delve. It seemed they'd waited long enough, and their turn was finally approaching. "Any moves outside of your region will count heavily against your final score. And we will be watching." The instructor stared heavily at them for several seconds, waiting until each of them gave nods of acknowledgment, before turning on her heel. "Follow me, then, and we'll get you started."

The four teammates trailed after the instructor, Velic in the lead, as they marched through a gate in a wall guarded by two legion guardsmen. They were a few miles outside of the city, but the Gauntlet was considered a strategic resource owned by the kingdom and was guarded day and night. Cayden wasn't sure what the original entryway into the dungeon might have looked like, as it clearly had been built over by the kingdom sometime in the last hundred years. The instructor led them into a small building with a metal trapdoor in the middle: their entrance to the dungeon. Each academy team would be entering the dungeon from a different location miles apart directly into their own regions, which made it even more unlikely for them to run into each other. The instructor lifted the top of the trapdoor to reveal the glowing blue barrier demarcating the border of the dungeon, and without fanfare, Velic climbed down the ladder, the rest of the team following closely behind.

Even though they'd entered the dungeon, they hadn't officially started 'the Gauntlet'. The first room of the dungeon was set up as a semi-permanent office with enchantments to protect from dungeon monsters and was where the instructor would be monitoring their progress with the scrying stone. Cayden had no idea how scrying stones functioned, but apparently, the barrier at the entrance to the dungeon did more than just prevent monsters from escaping – it also kept magical effects like the scrying stone from being able to observe what was happening within the dungeon from outside the dungeon. It prevented most skills from crossing, too, which was what prevented people with long-range skills like Velic's from being able to clear open-air dungeons without ever setting foot inside.

None of that mattered to Cayden's team, however, and they passed the small desk and exited the small room into a stone corridor, this time with Marvenal leading and Velic bringing up the rear. They weren't sure which monsters they would be facing; the dungeon was populated with six different kinds of monsters whose territories roughly corresponded with the six colored regions the academy had divided the maze into. Velic was able to get profiles on each of the monsters, but they weren't sure which of the six they would be facing. Until then, Marvenal would lead the group, ensuring that, should they have need of his web skill, Cayden wouldn't be in the way and get tangled up.

The corridor was dimly lit, a perfect environment to enable Marvenal and Delphia's skills, and only a few feet wide. That could present some issues later on if they got attacked from behind by some monsters and both Cayden and Marvenal were stuck at the front. Cayden could [Taunt] any flanking monsters, but it wouldn't matter if they were focused on Cayden if they had to run through Delphia and Velic to get to him. And unlike many other enclosed dungeons, the twisting and splitting paths of the maze meant it was impossible to know if they’d fully cleared everything behind them. For now, though, that didn't matter, as they’d walked through a single corridor from the entrance without forks.

It had been weeks since Cayden had last been in a dungeon, weeks since he'd last pitted himself against monsters that were hungry for his life. Many would say that that was no time at all, that someone of sound mind should do their best to stretch out the time when their life was on the line for as long as possible.

For Cayden, though, it had been far, far too long. And he was happy to return.

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