Erin stood at the exit of the village waiting for the other children to arrive. There was already a mass of people standing around the group in order to say their goodbyes. Dean was the last to show up. He quickly apologized to Erin before joining his team.
"Thank you everyone for coming today to wish these kids luck. I promise to help theses children during their trials and keep them alive." Everyone cheered Erin as he finished his speech. The chief looked towards Erin and smiled.
"I have complete trust in you Mr. Silver." He then gave his daughter a warm hug before setting her free. Even as they left, Parents and siblings of the children continued to wish them a safe trip and cry.
Erin lead the group to a big dark cave. Brook and the others gulped as they felt the cold air emitting from the inside. Erin turned and smiled nonchalantly at the group.
"Ok I know this might look a little bad but I promise it is probably a lot worse than you think. " This only added more worry in the children's eyes. Erin completely ignored their anxious faces as he continued to speak.
"Well, I have observed your skills over the last few weeks and I have a idea on what your main classes will end up being but, I am not the system master I can't know for sure. Just make sure to perform well kids!" Everyone nodded as they became serious. With one step, they entered the dark cave. For the trial kids, it was the first time entering a dungeon. They could barely see what was right in front of them. In order to help the kids a bit, Erin brought out a flash light but it only showed how long the tunnel was. They looked forward but, all they saw was darkness. Chi held on to Brooks hand. Brook could feel the goosebumps forming in Chi's hand as he grabbed it. He was about to comfort his friend when suddenly they heard a ding. Many of the children looked a little surprised.
They had been prepared for it but it was much louder than they expected.
~Ding~
~ You have entered the D- level Dungeon Grizzly's Dome. Grizzly is the king of this cave and he hates visitors. The creature's main attribute is Lightning.
~ Awakening trial is in process. 24 children are participating. 4 guides are present. The goal is to clear the dungeon within 12 hours. Failure to do so means failure to awaken which will disqualify the participants.
~ Rewards
~ Status
~ Skills such as [Examine]
~ Main class
~ Stats
~ Exp depending on performance. Good luck~
The children were surprised as they saw the message on the hologram screen. The adults in the dungeon also read the same message. Suddenly Dean asked,
"What happens if we get disqualified?"
"Death." Dean's body shivered as he heard Erin's answer.
"Now that the trial has officially began I hope you all remember to stay focused and always be alert. If you need help, just shout and I will be there." Everyone took a readied stance and held on to their daggers. Johanna brought out her staff and so did Vince. Wallace brought out a sword and Shield while Erin brought out a steel made bow and arrow. Brook looked curiously at Erin's weapon. He had never seen Erin fight in a battle before and was surprised at his weapon. He had expected a large sword like heroes always had. Brook shook his head as he realized what he was thinking. He quickly reminded himself again that Erin was not a hero.
GRRRRR
They group turned towards them as they heard the low growls and loud footsteps.
"This is the real deal boys and girls. First group, we will take this down." Erin called for Brook's team to step forward. They hesitantly walked forward as they gripped their daggers tightly. Sally was the bravest out of the 5 and walked at the same pace as Erin.
With the flash light allowing them to see forward, it did not take them long to spot the monster. Erin quickly examined the monster.
Grizzly cub Species: Bear Att: Lightning
Health: 800 Str: 16 Ag: 8 Def: 15 int: 3 Rec: 10 Wis: low Con: 13 lck: 8
Description: A baby cub who was born just a few days ago. These cubs are very violent and have a tendency to shoot lightning bolt randomly.
"Be careful kids, this baby cub is not alone." Erin put his flashlight up to show 30 other cubs growling at the group. They looked viciously at Erin and did not waste time in attacking the group. Before they crowded the children, Erin used a wind barrier to block many of the cubs leaving only 6 to fight the 6 kids.
Sally was the first to try her hand at combat. She attacked the closet monster with her daggers. Erin and the other groups stayed back and watched as Sally did well in sparing with the monster. The other cubs did not waste time and tried to group up against the girl. Brook was the first to come in and help Sally fight against the cubs. The other 4 slowly came in as they hyped themselves up.
The match was very hard at first as the cubs were relentless in their attack but, due to their young age and lack of experience, they could not get a advantage. Whenever a cub was about to get an advantage, Erin interfered with some magic and causes the cub to become distracted. Slowly but surly, The children started to get an advantage. Brook was surprisingly the first to kill a monster. He was still attacking the monster until he heard a ding.
~ You have killed a Grizzly cub.
Brook just stood still and panted for a moment as he realized that he killed something. Brook kept panting as he turned to Erin who gave him a thumbs up. Awakening trials were different to the trials that he had taken. In those trials, there was no time to think. Before Erin knew it, he had killed 10 goblins and was totally numb to the situation. To these kids, killing was a new experience, and they had time to realize what they were doing before their minds were numbed to it.
Erin did not allow the Kids to think too hard about it as he allowed 6 more cubs to come forward. When these wave of cubs were killed, another one soon came after. This helped the children get used to killing and also allowed them to start finding a style. After the last batch of cubs were killed, the 6 kids finally got a chance to catch a breath. Erin turned to Vince as he saw that the kids had done well.
"Vince, your team will go next." Erin then threw the flashlight towards Vince. Vince nodded seriously and held on to the flashlight tightly. He knew that Erin had a lot of expectations for him and the other two. That was why, he gave them a lot of responsibilities.
The team ran into a few grown up Grizzly bears during their hunt for cubs. In these cases, Vince took the lead and was the main attacker while Wallace and Johanne supported him. The kids could only observe the battle as the bears were much to strong for them to face.
It did not take them a long time to find another large group of cubs. The children in front could see that the bears were eating something but they did not want to know what that was.
Like Erin, Vince made sure to block most of the grizzly cubs with an earth barrier. This group of students struggled much more than the last and so Erin ended up assisting much more than he did before. In the end, the children were relatively alright after defeating the cubs. The few that did have some injuries were easily healed by Johanne.
This pattern continued as they went through the tunnels. After killing a hundred grizzly cubs, Equipment started to drop. This helped the children as they switched their daggers for bear bone blades and swords and equipped teeth necklaces and bear armour.
They would encounter Full grown grizzly bears which Wallace, Vince and Johanne would take care of. Erin never once took action himself. All he did was throw out some wind magic every once in a while to assist them. 6 hours past like this. The children were taking a break as they ate some lunch. Erin had created a wind barrier around their area just in case some bears decided to show up.
Erin so far was very satisfied with the raid. Only 6 people had shat their pants and many of them were fully equipped with armour. The rule for equipment was that those who killed it had first dibs. This was why the equipment was evenly distributed since everyone got the chance to perform on their own.
Erin looked at the kids faces as they talked and laughed with each other. He could tell that their confidence and abilities had grown in this raid and he was happy for that. He looked at Brook to see that although he had also grown, his mind was still wondering. Erin sighed as he saw this. He had hoped to bring the boy out of his daydreaming ways but some things are just stuck with people.
As the children finished eating, they suddenly heard growls coming from the front. They children stood up as they got their equipments in excitement.
"I am gonna get that tall one." Chi screamed
"I want the strongest looking one." Sally added.
Erin took off the barrier and watched the children stampede towards the wave of cubs coming their way. Vince stood up nervously as he saw this.
"Wait! You guys have to be in groups. If you all fight together like that, it will be hard for us to keep track." Vince said this loudly as he started to become agitated.
"Its fine, its fine." Erin commented as he drank from his juice box.
"But we can't trap the bears like this. The children are too scattered" Vince stated.
"We can't control them forever. Let kids be kids is what I say. If they want to group up and massacre a bunch of baby bears, who am I to block them?" Vince stood there speechless as he heard this. Sometimes he wonders whether Erin was all there or not.
" I spot 49 Bears and there are 24 students. Some will have to double or triple kill. This will let us see how much they have learned. It will also allow us to see the alphas and the betas." The four guides observed as the children began their battle. It did not take long for some to fight solo while others fought in small groups.
Sally did not waste time as she killed her first cub with her dual blades and spotted another cub to attack. Chi, Dean and Brook teamed up and fought against 5 cubs at the same time. Dean would shield the two as they would attack at all sides on the cubs. Lapis and George also teamed up with two others to fight some cubs as well. Although these sets of children were fighting on their own quite well, many others fell at a disadvantage very quickly.
"Mr Silver..." Vince said nervously as he looked at Erin. Erin finished his juice box quickly as he sighed and stood up. The bow that he had been carrying like a souvenir finally was brought out to use.
He pointed at the crowd of children and cubs and squinted his eyes to focus. Vince almost popped his eyes from their sockets.
"Wanderer, you can't possibly be thinki-" Before he could finish his thought. A bow had hit a cub that was about to strike a little girl to the ground. The girl looked up to see that Erin was getting another arrow out.
Erin shot 5 more arrows and they all hit the hearts of grizzly cubs. Brook was at awe as he saw this. He stopped paying attention to his target which allowed the cub to get a hit on him. Brook screamed as he landed on the ground. The cub quickly got on top of him and opened its jaw to bit Brooks head off. Brook's had his eyes wide opened in fear as he felt all his muscles tense. He had been paralyzed by a lightning bolt. His fear of getting eaten was about to come true when the bear suddenly flew across the room.
Johanne ran towards her brother and was quick to remove the debuff.
"Oh my gosh! Are you ok Brook?" Brook was still too flustered to answer. He could only turn to Erin who put the bow back on his back.
"No ones dying today. Not on my watch." Erin's words calmed down the children who's confidence had taken a bit of a beating.
"I let you guys have your fun but I hope you can see how dangerous it is to start attacking without listening to your guides." Many children looked down as they heard this. They had gotten too excited and tried to fight on their own and it almost cost some of them their lives.
"From now on, continue to follow your group leaders and battle when you are told to." Everyone nodded as they heard this. Vince looked at Erin with a complicated expression as the children packed their lunch boxes orderly. Was this all another test? Did Erin allow them to realize this for a reason? Was he testing me as well? Did I fail?
Vince mind wondered as he began to realize how complex Erin was. His mind came back to reality when he was patted in the shoulder by Erin.
"Hey Vince, we still got places to go." Vince quickly nodded before following Erin's lead. Brook kept looking at Erin as they went forward. A small smile appeared on his face as his eyes started to sparkle once again.