In the thrall of mana exhaustion, Dylan had trouble processing the System notification in front of him.
What?
His sluggish thoughts stumbled over the words but got stuck on the string of characters in the middle of the message. He kept trying to read them only to lose himself and have to start over before reaching the end. It wasn’t until he felt a hand jostling his shoulder that he managed to pull himself from the loop.
“Dylan!” It was a girl’s voice.
…Jaiden.
His mind took a moment to find the name, but slowly, his thoughts began to run more smoothly.
“Dylan, are you okay?”
“Ye-yeah,” he said, “I’m here.”
“I asked if you were okay, not if you were here.” Despite the correction, Dylan could hear obvious relief in her voice.
“I’m okay.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll be okay. Mana exhaustion.”
“Well, if you’re talking, you should be past the worst of it.” She began to pull at his arm. “You need to get up. We have to move.”
Dylan was about to ask why when another message from the System flashed before him.
[ERROR]
[CORE MISSING]
[DUNGEON 10784-AT149-S312 WILL BE RECYCLED IN 9 MINUTES]
[CORE ROOM WILL BE RESET IN 59 MINUTES]
“Shit,” he cursed. With Jaiden’s help, he quickly got to his feet. “What are we supposed to do.”
“Chester says get to the core room.”
Looking over to the Guardian, Dylan saw the man lifting an unconscious Rowan onto his back. The lizard boss was dead at his feet. Dena and Alice were standing close by, looking ready to set off.
Dylan stumbled over to the group through another tremor and asked, “What’s going on?”
“Dungeon collapse,” Chester said. “My grandfather warned me this could happen. Core goes missing, and the rest of the place essentially eats itself. Core room lasts the longest, so that’s where we go.”
“If everything’s falling apart, why don’t we just quit now?”
“Rewards. We don’t count as having cleared the dungeon until we reach the core room.” The Guardian shifted the man on his back to a more comfortable position, “And Rowan. He can’t quit until he wakes up. We just have to hope that happens before the core room resets.”
“Got it,” Dylan said.
“Then let’s get moving.” And with that, Chester began walking toward the back of the cavern.
Dylan was just about to follow when he once again noticed the boss on the ground. He’d been planning on trying to use it to make a new card, but he didn’t have the time or the mana right now.
He thought of Chester carrying Rowan with him. If I can get it to the core room…
Reaching down to the creature, he tried to lift it, and while he got it off the ground, it was too heavy and too unwieldy to move by himself.
He looked up at the rest of the group as they moved away from him.
“Alice,” he called out, “can you help me with this?” Chester already had a burden, Rowan was unconscious, and of the rest, the Blacksmith had the greatest physical power.
The woman turned around, eyes widening a bit when she saw what he was doing. “Are you kidding me right now?”
A notification popped up to inform the group that there were only eight minutes left before the dungeon was recycled.
“I know it’s not the best time, but if we work together, it shouldn’t be a problem to get this to the core room.” He thought for a second. “Look, I’ll give you one of my mana crystals if you help.”
Alice sighed. “You don’t need to do that,” she jogged back to meet him. “Card?”
Dylan nodded.
“Fine,” she helped take over the majority of the lizard’s weight and then began to move forward. “Let’s go.”
They trailed behind the group and carefully moved across the shaking cavern. There was a constant rain of smaller rocks, but the larger stalactites they’d been cautious of during the fight remained on the ceiling. Still, whenever they saw them, the group was wary of the potential danger and weaved around the patches of ground they’d be most likely to impact.
When a System message marked that another minute had passed, Alice said, “If we’re not there with three minutes to go, I’m dropping it. Even if you give me all of your mana crystals, I’m not carrying it.”
“Understood.”
It wasn’t long before the group moved beyond the light reaching out from the chasm. Dylan and Alice slowed a bit while their eyes adjusted but kept moving forward despite the darkness.
Around the five-minute mark, a spot of dim light glowed in front of them.
“Think that’s it?” he asked the Blacksmith.
“Let’s hope so.”
They unconsciously sped up until Dylan stumbled over a patch of uneven stones and almost fell.
As they moved forward, the light became brighter, but as it did, their time became shorter.
Four minutes.
Three minutes.
Despite her earlier words, Alice didn’t drop the boss and continued to help.
When there were only two minutes left, they could finally make out a door outlined by a complex series of glowing runes. Chester was waiting for them in front of it, visibly relieved when he saw them. “Thought we’d lost you.”
“No,” Dylan said, “I just had another stupid idea.” He nodded his head at the corpse they were carrying.
“Well, hurry up and get in here. It’s almost time.”
They rushed through the door and dropped the lizard on the ground.
The richest mana Dylan had ever felt wrapped around him, instantly reinvigorating his tired muscles and overworked mind. He reveled in the sensation as a new System message appeared in front of him. This one not warning of impending doom.
[Congratulations on clearing section 3 of the dungeon.]
[As a reward, you will be given the following.]
[Resilience: 6]
[Physical Power: 2]
[Magic Power: 6]
[Mana: 10]
[Mana Regeneration: 0.1/minute]
[Mana Crystals: 3]
[No more monsters will attack.]
[Touch the ERROR to receive your accumulated rewards.]
[You will now have ERROR until the dungeon closes.]
[Congratulations on completing the Tutorial.]
Based on what he knew about how things usually worked, the messages were supposed to be telling him to touch the core to receive his accumulated reward and that he’d have five hours before the dungeon closed.
Dylan reached out to catch the three mana crystals condensing in the air before him, and just as he put them in his pocket with the rest, he saw another notification.
[ERROR]
[CORE MISSING]
[DUNGEON 10784-AT149-S312 WILL BE RECYCLED IN 1 MINUTE]
[CORE ROOM WILL BE RESET IN 51 MINUTES]
Just barely in time.
Dylan stretched and looked around. The space was like a mix between the training room he’d started the Tutorial in and the stone rooms marking the beginnings and ends of each section of the dungeon.
A seemingly random combination of luminescent white tiles and smoothly carved grey stones paved every surface, and each corner of the room held a large metal brazier lit with a pale-yellow fire.
At center of it all was a pedestal made of a white substance reminiscent of the pillar that had held the Awakening Stone. But it was empty.
That’s where the core should be.
“What happens now?” he asked Chester.
“Dungeon recycles itself.” The man looked out to the cavern they’d just passed through. “When it’s done, this room will be all that’s left.”
“And what about our reward? How do we get it without the core?” Jaiden asked.
“Same way as anyone who doesn’t make it to the end gets theirs.” Chester kept watching the dark cave. “Quit.”
“Will that affect what the System gives us?” Alice joined the conversation.
“Hard to say. This doesn’t happen often, and when it does, there aren’t many details to work from.”
So, how do you know so much about it?
“Why do you know so much, then?” Dena asked what Dylan was thinking.
“Like I said, my grandfather told me.”
“Same grandfather who told you about the world advancing?” Dylan asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then, is this mess a part of that?”
“The world advancing?” Chester thought for a moment. “Unlikely.”
“Why?” Jaiden asked, but before she could get an answer, the ground shook.
Dylan looked out the door and saw the entire cavern collapsing. Unlike when the System had recycled the previous sections of the dungeon, this time, there was no gate rising to block his vision. The details etched themselves into his mind with a painful precision.
More mana patterns than he’d ever seen raced around the room in a chaotic dance. They illuminated the area around them but didn’t create any shadows. Dylan almost felt that he was seeing a space simultaneously lit by day and shrouded by night.
Wherever the patterns moved, they would disintegrate everything they touched. When they met a rock, the rock would shatter. No. It was more like the rock was falling apart, fraying into nothingness. Even the air wasn’t immune.
Dylan’s sight was uncontrollably drawn to one of the patterns as it passed through the open area at the center of the cavern. As it jittered forward, the space around it cracked and broke. Torn apart like the earth around it.
Sight was pulled forward. Zooming in. Focusing.
Consciousness was pulled with it. Rending. Resisting.
Agony.
Dylan collapsed to the ground.
Blood pooled onto the tile from his nose and mouth. More spilled from his eyes like tears.
He couldn’t move. A familiar feeling.
Mana exhaustion.
Why?
He thought he heard someone call his name, and it was only then that he realized more blood had pooled in his ears.
Everything felt distant. All his senses one step removed from his control or perception.
Someone turned him over, and he saw the rest of the group standing above him.
He couldn’t breathe. Blood blocked his throat.
He tried to cough, but it wouldn’t come. The abortive attempt caused pain to rip through his chest.
He panicked, and his eyes must have shown it.
Chester got down and turned him over again before lifting him up a little.
Hands and knees on the ground, Dylan tried to cough again. This time blood vomited from his mouth, splattering across the tile beneath him.
He felt Chester’s hand on his back and heard the Guardian’s voice as if it were coming through a veil of water. “Are you okay?”
The exhaustion was beginning to recede. Dylan tried to nod, but the motion made his head hurt. “Yeah,” he coughed out.
Jaiden started to say something that Dylan didn’t catch but Chester interrupted, “Get some rest. We’ll talk later.”
With the man’s help, Dylan leaned against one of the walls and immediately closed his eyes to meditate. He didn’t let himself think about what had just happened. He only focused on recovery.
And recovery came surprisingly fast.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He felt a strong rush of mana run through his veins, replenishing his reserves and repairing his body.
Should be a benefit of the core room.
Even though the core was gone, the energy it had left behind was still there for the group to access. As Dylan began to feel better, he wondered what meditating here would have been like with the core still in it. After all, it was supposed to be a part of the reward for those who successfully cleared the entire dungeon.
Ten minutes later, Dylan’s mana was already full and the pain he'd felt was gone. He opened his eyes and looked down, ready to try and clean some of the blood off of him, but most of it had vanished.
“You good?” asked Chester, and Dylan was surprised to hear that his voice sounded normal again. The blood clogging his ears should have also been cleared.
“Yeah,” Dylan nodded, “I’m okay.” Looking around, he found that rest of the group looked cleaner as well.
“What happened back there?” Jaiden asked.
“It was those mana patterns,” Dylan said. “Every time I see them, my head hurts.”
“What mana patterns?” the Mage looked confused.
“The ones flying all over and destroying the cavern?” Dylan glanced around the room.
“There was nothing in the cavern. Just a dark room full of a bunch of collapsing rocks.” Jaiden said.
“I didn’t see anything either,” Chester added.
Alice and Dena both shook their heads to indicate the same.
“You mean, I’m the only one seeing them?” Dylan asked.
“Right,” the Guardian nodded, “if you saw something, it was only you.”
Dylan went quiet.
He’d been seeing the patterns since the mana storm in Fairbasin. He hadn’t been initiated by the System at the time. No class, no stats. He’d figured that they must have been something that everyone could see.
But now, after the largest and most destructive display of the patterns that he’d ever witnessed, he was being told that he was alone in his ability to perceive them.
He’d worried that something was wrong with him when his experience with the Awakening Stone was different from what his friends and family had described. And he’d never heard about anything resembling the mana patterns before he’d first seen them.
Still, being directly told that he was seeing something that no one else saw hit him differently than his own worries and speculations.
He almost felt as if he’d been hallucinating before being shocked back to consciousness, and he might even believe that were actually the case if it weren’t for the very real and very painful consequences those patterns had inflicted on him. This time, he'd even been drained and forced into mana exhaustion. That hadn’t been fake.
Dylan let out a breath and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” He looked up to the rest of the group. “I’m fine now.”
“You sure?” Chester asked.
Dylan nodded, but he couldn’t help thinking back to the vision of the of the dungeon being recycled. He then remembered Jaiden’s question just before it’d started. “Can I ask something?”
“Sure,” the Guardian nodded.
“Earlier, you said that it was unlikely what happened with the core was because of the chaos around the world advancing. Why is that?”
“Because it’s been going on for too long.” Chester spread his hands out as he talked. “Our world is just beginning to feel the growing pains from its advancement, but cores have been going missing in the Tutorial for at least a couple decades.”
“If it’s been happening for that long, then why has hardly anyone heard of it?” Jaiden asked.
“Like I said, it’s rare. The few accounts we have of it are pretty scattered, and most are sparse on the details.” Chester looked up in thought, as if he were trying to remember something. “We don’t know what causes it. All my grandfather told me was that if it happened during my Tutorial, get to the core room. I’d be safe from being recycled, and even though I couldn’t get the full meditation time, I’d still have about an hour to benefit from the room.” He waved his finger, pointing to the air around him.
“And how does your grandfather know so much about this?” Jaiden continued to press.
“My family travels a lot.” The man obviously didn’t want to give out more personal information. “Now, I suggest we all take advantage of what time we have left. There should be just over half an hour before we need to leave.” He leaned back and closed his eyes.
Dylan wanted to join in; the mana in the room had just felt so comfortable while he was recovering, but he had something to take care of first.
He looked over to the corpse lying on the ground, summoned his catalog, and pulled out one of his last two Blank Cards.
Okay, he thought, how do I do this?
He wanted to try turning the boss into a creature he could summon, but he hadn’t had great success with his past attempts with the card type.
He didn’t want to turn the boss into another card like Lizard Corpse, and while Living Spider Shield wasn’t exactly useless, it definitely wasn’t what he’d been going for.
He thought back to the process of making each card, thinking about what had worked and what hadn’t.
The intent he’d held in his mind about summoning had successfully allowed him to create cards of the correct type each time he’d used it, so that was something to keep.
When using the armored spider as a material, he’d focused on life, motion, and defense. That had successfully gotten him a creature. But it was off in both form and function. Despite trying to keep a picture of the complete, living spider in his mind while making the card, something had gone wrong.
Dylan sighed, and decided to begin by taking extra time to observe the monster in front of him. He looked over the way its muscles were shaped, the way its scales grew across its skin. He reached out to feel its texture.
He remembered the battle. Its agile movements and powerful attacks. The tearing pain it had subjected his mind to as it had resisted Immobilize.
Subconsciously, Dylan began to circulate mana through his body, and when it reached his hand, he felt a tug from beneath the scales he was touching.
There.
Not knowing what was happening, Dylan let the pull guide him, subtly dragging his hand until it stopped over the creature’s heart. He felt a resonance build and instinctively sank into the state of near meditation he’d come to associate with card creation.
He pooled all his previous thoughts together. Focusing on summoning. Life. The lizard’s physical form. The way it had behaved. Its drive to fight and resist.
He wrapped it all around the resonating force coming from the creature’s heart and then reached out with the Blank Card in his other hand.
Light flashed, and Dylan fell forward, the weight he’d been resting on the corpse pulling him to the ground after losing its support.
He opened his eyes and sat up. In his hand was a pale-gold card branded with the image of the boss.
[Name: Lizard Ravager]
[Type: Summon]
[Subtypes: Creature, Lizard]
[Summoning Cost: 5 Mana]
[Activation Cost: 4 Energy]
[Effect: Summon a Lizard Ravager. Lasts for the duration of Card Play or until destroyed. Has a Resilience of 24, a Physical Power of 33.6, and a Defense of 1. Skill: Unfettered.]
It worked.
The card was just as expensive as Siphoning Veil, but it had worked.
Based on the image on the card and the text it displayed, he’d made a creature resembling the boss. How powerful it actually was still needed to be determined, but even if it turned out weaker than he wanted, its existence was proof of his progress with card creation.
For a moment, he was excited that the creature’s stats were much higher than what he’d seen on his phantoms, but then he remembered that most of his cards scaled with his own magic power. And that had just been boosted by the System’s reward. Still, after examining the numbers, the scaling shouldn’t be too bad.
Curious about the details, Dylan willed the information displayed on the card to change.
[Name: Lizard Ravager, Mastery Progress 0.00%]
[Type: Summon]
[Subtypes: Creature, Lizard]
[Summoning Cost: 5 Mana]
[Activation Cost: 4 Energy]
[Effect: Summon a Lizard Ravager. Lasts for the duration of Card Play or until destroyed. Has a Resilience with, power = Magic Power. Uses maximum of 100 Magic Power. Has a Physical Power with, power = (1.4) * (Magic Power). Uses maximum of 100 Magic Power. Has a Defense with, power = Class Tier. Skill: Unfettered.]
The overall numbers were easily the best of what he could summon, and the Lizard Ravager had another advantage with its duration. Like the Living Spider Shield, so long as it wasn’t killed, it would stick around until his deck dissipated.
And on top of everything else, the card also added the defense stat and a skill to the creature.
Defense was common among classes like Guardian and was a part of what made Chester so durable. By reducing the damage taken, it helped whatever resilience someone had last longer.
As for Unfettered, Dylan looked over to his card catalog and checked its definition.
[Unfettered: A creature with Unfettered is resistant to all forms of control effects. There is a medium chance to completely ignore such effects, and any that the creature fails to resist will have their durations reduced by 75%.]
The skill definitely reminded Dylan of the boss. He was more than satisfied.
Sitting back to recover the mana he’d just expended, Dylan thought about how to use his last Blank Card.
Originally, he’d had a half-baked idea to try and use it with the dungeon core, but that was obviously impossible now. Besides, even if the thing hadn't already gone missing, he doubted the group would have allowed it.
He thought about trying to turn the rich mana saturating the room into a card, but he worried that would simply speed up whatever reset the System was preparing. If that happened, he might not even have time to get out before being disintegrated like the cavern had been.
After a short rest, he looked out the door to the dark void that had replaced the dungeon.
Destructive power on that level wasn’t something he’d seen before.
And then another very stupid idea crossed Dylan’s mind.
What if I could harness that power for myself?
He pulled the remaining Blank Card from the catalog and thought about how to even begin.
He knew that the materials he used didn’t need to be physical. According to what the System had said, they could also be energy, ideas, or essence. Its explanation had even left his options open to more possibilities. But until he understood the rest of it, looking for something unknown and undefined didn’t seem like the best use of his time.
Thinking through what he did understand and what was around him, Dylan started looking for a way to channel the power he’d witnessed into a card.
Physical substance was the easiest material to understand, but there was none he could think to use that would help right now.
Energy was also simple to grasp. Like the solar energy the System had simulated for his card creation practice, maybe there was something in the void that could help fuel the card he wanted.
Ideas seemed self-explanatory, but when Dylan thought about how to actual use them, he fumbled a bit. He’d wanted to try and picture the mana pattern he’d seen tearing through space as the core material for his card but struggled with how to implement that plan. How did he distinguish an idea meant to be a card creation material from one meant to be channeled into an intent?
Essence used to be the most obscure material for him, but he felt that he’d found a doorway to understanding it when he’d made the Lizard Ravager. He couldn’t say why, but he couldn’t describe the resonance he’d felt as anything other than the creature’s essence. He just didn’t know if it was a phenomenon unique to living, or formerly living, beings, or if essence existed in multiple forms. He thought about how he’d subconsciously been channeling mana when he'd discovered the resonance and felt that it would be a good idea to try that with other materials he encountered.
Maybe he could try while looking for energy in the void?
Dylan walked over to the door and tentatively reached into the darkness with the hand holding his Blank Card.
Around his fingers was nothing but biting cold.
Gritting his teeth and calming his mind, Dylan began to circulate his mana, searching for anything that pulled at him.
It was faint, but there was something there.
Unlike with the lizard’s heart, there was no singular point that resonated with him; instead, it was pervasive. Echoes of power thrummed throughout the entire space.
He couldn’t tell if it was energy, essence, or something else. But he was going to use it.
Dylan took a deep breath and thought, Okay, let’s try this.
First, he thought of the scene of the cavern fraying apart.
Then, he pictured the chaotic mess of patterns. Not focusing on any one image, he imagined the accumulated mass tearing its way through everything it touched.
Finally, there was the specific pattern he’d been drawn to. What it’d looked like. Space fracturing around it. And as much as he wanted to avoid them, the feelings he’d had while observing it. The pain. The attraction.
When the image of the pattern solidified in his mind, his head instantly began to hurt, but the rest of the card creation process seemed to click into place.
His mana ran away from him, operating without his control. And it drained fast.
Whatever it was he’d felt resounding through the void pulsed before being drawn to the card. An invisible, intangible vortex rushed toward Dylan’s hand.
His mana began to burn. The sensation of it flowing through his body bringing agony in place of its usual comfort. He could feel nothing else.
He was sure that he was bleeding again, but he couldn’t tell how much.
He felt mana exhaustion come, but the card creation process didn’t stop.
A current of power swept out from the core room behind him, scalding his entire being as it passed. It rushed into the vortex around his hand, supplying the mana he was no longer capable of producing.
It was the worst pain he’d ever felt.
I’ve got to stop thinking that. Weirdly, a part of his mind seemed to become detached from everything around him. Every time I feel like something is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced, there’s always something else coming to turn that statement into a lie.
Dylan forced himself to live in that disassociated portion of his mind. Trying to ignore every sensation and every worry working together to drown him.
It was impossible to know how long it took.
The card flashed with light. The vortex stopped. Dylan collapsed.
If it weren’t for a strong pair of hands grabbing him from behind, he would have fallen into the void.
Luckily, his fingers had been frozen with the cold and didn’t drop the card.
His mana came back, and it hurt. It was like he was covered with a network of fine cuts and the circulating mana was saltwater repeatedly washing through them.
Tears forced their way from his eyes, joining the blood he was sure was already there.
Might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.
When he was able to sit up again, he heard Alice’s voice. “Are you a masochist or something?”
Dylan coughed, trying and failing to put on a wry smile. “I’m starting to think I might be.” It still hurt to talk.
“What happened?” Chester asked.
“Tried something beyond my capabilities.”
“No shit.” It was Rowan’s voice.
“You’re awake.” Dylan looked over to the redhead. He was resting against the wall with his sword across his lap.
“Hard to stay under with the racket you were making.”
“Don’t know if I should say sorry or you’re welcome.”
“Funny.”
[ERROR]
[CORE MISSING]
[CORE ROOM WILL BE RESET IN 15 MINUTES]
“We need to be careful with the time,” Chester said. “Rest, but pay attention to the notifications.”
The group nodded.
Before closing his eyes again, Dylan wanted to get a look at what his suffering had bought him.
His hand was still stiff, but he managed to open it enough to remove what it held.
The card was black.
The image on its front was imprinted with mana. His eyes couldn’t see it, but he felt it all the same. It was an imperfect representation of the mana pattern. He could tell it was wrong because it didn’t hurt as much to observe. There was still pain, but it was manageable.
Dylan pushed past his discomfort and read the text.
[Name: DESTROY]
[Type: DESTROY]
[Summoning Cost: 999 Mana]
[Activation Cost: 999 Resilience]
[Effect: DESTROY]
Fuck.
Dylan avoided looking at the pattern on the card.
I don’t even know what to make of that.
Name, type, and effect were all simply DESTROY. It was self-explanatory what the pattern meant.
But what would happen when he played the card? How much of the pattern’s power did it actually contain? And how was he even supposed to pay for something that cost 999 mana to summon and 999 resilience to play? If he activated it, would he just drop dead?
He recalled the experience of being forced to channel mana even after all of his was gone.
Fuck, he repeated.
It seemed like the mana patterns were a viable way to make cards, but they were much too advanced for him right now. He wasn’t currently capable of reproducing them, and even his defective attempt was too expensive for him to use any time soon.
Besides, he didn't know what would happen to him if he tried to make another without the support of the core room's mana. The creation process might be stopped when he bottoms out, or he might be drained past his limit and die.
He shoved the card into the catalog.
Think about it later.
There wasn’t much time left. He needed to restore his condition and get ready to return to Fairbasin.
Dylan began to meditate, but the room was less saturated than before. It took longer. His mana, his injuries. They recovered faster than they normally would, but it still wasn't enough to fix everything before he had to leave.
When he received the System’s five-minute warning, Dylan checked his status.
[Statistics]
[Resilience: 25, Tier 1]
[Physical Power: 7.8, Tier 0]
[Magic Power: 25, Tier 1]
[Mana: 87/121]
[Mana Regeneration: 1.22/minute]
[Class Statistics: Resilience, Magic Power]
His limited time in the room had helped increase his stats again.
It would’ve been nice to have the full five hours.
His mana had recovered enough to summon his deck, and while he was still in pain, his injuries weren’t debilitating.
If Fairbasin was still dangerous, he’d have a chance to protect himself.
With the time difference from teleporting, maybe I’ll be fully recovered by the time I get back. But then Dylan remembered how people returning from Boon Wars were often still hurt. Maybe there’s something about System teleportation that freezes regeneration stats.
He’d been healed from his fight with the welf when he’d arrived in the training room; though, he guessed the System probably did that for everyone at the beginning of the Tutorial. But that wasn’t something he’d studied too deeply at school. No one expected to enter the Tutorial from the middle of a fight.
“Chester, before we leave, there’s something I wanted to know.” Jaiden’s voice pulled Dylan from his thoughts.
“What is it?”
“So, we’ve established that the world’s probably on the verge of advancing, but do you know how long that will take?" the Mage asked. "How long is it until things really start? And how long will it all last?”
“Don't know,” the man shook his head, “it’s something we’ll have to find out for ourselves.”
“Great,” Rowan said.
Chester looked thoughtful for a moment before glancing around the room. “There is one thing I can say, though.” He hesitated. “We should be entering a sort of pre-advancement stage right now, and according to what my grandfather learned, the System should announce a special Boon War just before full advancement begins.”
“What’s special about it?” Alice asked.
“Everything. The size, the risks, and the rewards. It’ll be more dangerous than normal, but it should give both individual and worldwide rewards that will help us get through the advancement safely.” Chester’s eyes swept the other five people in the room. “I don’t know when it will start, but don’t relax when you get back. Keep training. It’s going to be one of the biggest opportunities of our generation.”
“But what about all the high-tiers that will participate?” Dylan asked.
“I was just about to get to that.” Chester smiled. “We can’t know for sure if our Boon War will be set up in the same way as what my grandfather heard about, but if it is, then it will be divided by tier. If you enter, the only people with higher tiers you should face are the ones who advanced during the Boon War itself. And if you prepare well enough, that could include you.”
[ERROR]
[CORE MISSING]
[CORE ROOM WILL BE RESET IN 1 MINUTE]
“Okay, I’ve said what I have to say. It’s time for us to go.” Chester stood up. “No use going through all this just to be reset with the core room.”
The rest of the group climbed to their feet.
“Later,” Alice said and disappeared.
Dena nodded and followed.
“It was an experience,” said Jaiden as she left.
Just before Chester vanished, he looked at Rowan. “Don’t work too hard.”
“The fuck was that supposed to mean?” the redhead muttered, grabbing his sword. “I’m out.”
And then Dylan was left alone in the room.
He took one last look at the void outside the door before deciding it was time.
He had to go home.
He couldn’t put off dealing with whatever it was that was waiting for him anymore. Whether Fairbasin was still standing or a ruin, he had to face it.
He thought about summoning his deck before leaving, but he worried the teleportation time may mess with his ability to maintain it. He’d just have to be ready to act as soon as he arrived instead.
Dylan took a deep breath, focused his will, and thought, Exit Tutorial.