*Lucas' Pov*
A week passed and the training of the group yielded decent results.
This 3 hour long raid was going to become the longest 3 days of any of these student's lives.
The monsters that were going to break out in the dungeon ranged anywhere from 3rd tier to 5th.
I know a 6th tier boss does show up, but since it's the final boss and I'll have everyone grouped up at that point I'll be okay.
Now as for the materials.
The rations in our bags will last us all 3 days although, the actual duration of the practice is only a few hours.
This means that two people in our group can move their rations to the other two, and have more room for other important items.
In our groups case it would be a couple of artifacts.
Thankfully the school is allowing artifacts since although it's only a red door dungeon, it's still a dungeon.
They would be critical in surviving the not so easy to spot monsters.
I also packed a healing and communication item, because when we inevitably lose connection to the outside world, I need to send a distress signal back to the duchy.
This will likely save lives.
Now the reason I don't just alert the academy to the outbreak is because the outbreak occurs because of the cullers' inadequacy.
They would tell the academy I'm lying.
And even if the academy decides to investigate, their investigation will turn up good.
It's almost corrupt, and the school will find out now.
My only goal is to clear the dungeon and reduce casualties.
"Alright students, let me make this abundantly clear."
"This dungeon dive serves two purposes."
"The first is to give you exposure to dungeons."
"The second is our evaluation."
"This evaluation will be based half in teamwork, and half in personal achievement."
"A reminder to those who are trying to go with solo raiding, you will gain no points in the teamwork category, and as such, will fail."
"That is all. Line up at the red door with your group and standby for insertion."
All the groups at that message geared up and walked out of the classroom to the dungeon area of the school.
Today was probably the only day in our school year our ID would open up the doors to this facility.
We all walked through the tightly guarded doors.
"This way, students."
There were some older students here.
Only a few, and they sat in front of green doors.
They were extremely skilled.
If I were to guess, they would wipe the floor with me in seconds.
In game for green door status, your stats had to be over 130.
You also had to be at least 6th tier.
Stats in game were measured in 50's for their markers.
Every 50 stat boosts, you would be 16 times stronger exponentially.
For example at stat level 50 you would be 256 times stronger than the average person.
At 100, 4096 times. At 130 it was almost 22,000 times.
As stats progressed all players gained a new stat called 'stat resistance'.
It was a new stat that shows off the player's resistance to increase their stats.
As the average stat of the player got higher, the number and subsequently the difficulty in raising stats got higher.
The maximum in game was 200 before 9th tier.
After 9th tier, specific stats depending on the mana path and attributes with them, some stats would lose the 'stat resistant' status, at least until you got to 900.
However the number of times you were stronger than a normal human was so bloated, the number meant nothing, which is why 9th tier beings aren't scaled anymore.
Their stats either are incomprehensible, or even if calculatable aren't reproduceable in any meaningful way.
In this way, comparing their strongest stats to each other is a more sensible metric.
As for the formula for stats, it would be 16^n + 1. Where n is the number you get after dividing your average stat by 50.
The way players even found this out, was some computer geniuses doing some snooping in the code, and having other members of the community help understand the stat breakdown.
Some players of 'Total Brake' were [no lifers] just like me.
But now we weren't the same, they were no lifers, I was a real lifer in game.
I quickly found the others before we grouped up at the red door.
"Lucas aren't you at least a little nervous?"
"Not really, we're all strong enough to be okay."
"Alright."
Morgan and I were bordering on 4th circle.
I couldn't be sure if she would awaken after the 3 days of before, but what mattered, at least for her individual score, was that she didn't power up before the outbreak started.
I would not awaken within the dungeon.
I was certain I would awaken to my concept sometime before the 3rd episode, but for now, the outbreak needed my full attention.
'Isla after all the practice you're ready to kill the outbreak monsters right?'
'Yes, master.'
'Good.'
'One more thing master.'
'Yes?'
'Are you perhaps a clairvoyant?'
'Not at all.'
'Then perhaps a saint, which would explain your divinity exploding from your body.'
'Divinity?'
'Well, actually, more like holy power, master, the actual divinity in you is a mere spark.'
I had a spark of divinity?
Was that due to my transmigration?
Also, where did the holy power come from?
I didn't pray to any god despite the fact I went to church and took care of the kids there.
'Isla, can you explain if gods really exist?'
'Master, gods exist, or at least a way to channel their power does.'
'The method is called miracle, or judgment.'
'Clerics use miracles, paladins use judgment.'
'Saints have a unique ability to use both.'
'I know that, but does power actually scale in faith?'
'I wouldn't know master, the only master I had previously who believed in a god, didn't speak about them.'
'I see thank you Isla.'
I already knew most of what she said from the classes in the game, but I had hoped she would have given me more insight into the beings if there were any that brought me to this world.
"Alright students get ready we're about to dive."
With that students got alert and we began to enter the door in groups of four.
After we had entered, we were spit out into the further part of this mini labyrinth dungeon.
'Arecea's Lament' was the name of this dungeon.
In the center of the labyrinth was an arena, and there was a minotaur, a 5th level beast, if barely.
The reason for it's classification into the high ranked emergency was it's ability to charge and regenerate quickly.
Therefore any damage that didn't kill it in the charge, or stun and kill it, would be healed.
They were trick opponents.
Soon enough though the minotaur would die with the outbreak and be replaced with a tyrant.
A tyrant was a dangerous creature, it was a 6th tier beast and dominated the entire intermediate tier stratum.
They had 5 eyes, and a pair of wings.
They were essentially omnipresent and omniscient in their area.
The 5 eyes all served different purposes.
As a tyrant grows and opens more eyes, the more abilities they unlock.
The first eye is sight.
The second is magic.
The third is intelligence.
The fourth is clairvoyance, although limited to only a few moments and only about themselves.
The fifth eye, called annihilation is the most important.
It was unclear the actual effects of the eye in game.
However, being targeted by the eye made all other monsters target you, and would weaken you significantly.
Usually this was the first eye to be removed from the tyrant.
By no means was this monster slow or weak either.
It's body was built, and the wings made the monster deceptively fast.
Aside from the main boss of the dungeon the other dangerous monster lied in the outskirts.
The labyrinth was actually a fortress leveled.
The entrance was called the gates. The east and west side were called the barracks and armory respectively.
The south side was called the prison.
And deep into the prison lied a 7th tier monster.
Thankfully it wouldn't break it's shackles.
This monster could be returned to later in the game for easy experience.
"Lucas what are you thinking about so deeply?"
"Just the monsters in this dungeon."
"Why we are clearing them out just fine right?"
We had made progress forward towards the barracks.
We were on the outskirts of the east side.
Currently all students had no communication with each other or the outside world aside from the examiners watching us through magical devices, and a flare in case they needed to be pulled away immediately.
That would be massive important seen as monsters were attracted to light, but were also scared of flames.
The flares we were equipped with would be massively important in gathering students.
My plan was to hide them in the barracks, while I cleared the dungeon with a select few people.
For now my group was clearing a slow and steady pace towards the barracks.
We weren't first in terms of points, but we didn't care too much, the ranking was no indication of grades.
So we methodically cleared our path ahead checking for monsters, killing them, and resting when we needed to.
After about an hour we had successfully infiltrated part of the barracks.
There were no important weapons here, because they had all been cleared out by the explorers, or clean up crew.
The dungeon itself, wasn't cleared yet, so monsters would continue to spawn.
The reason this gate was classified as red, despite the 7th tier, was that the shackles were ancient magic shackles, no being that was below the 9th tier would break them on their own.
So theoretically the actual highest level monster was the minotaur that spawned regularly in 2 day intervals.
Aside from the minotaur in the center, there were two more roaming in the labyrinth and I planned to take at least one of the roamers out.
"Grooooooooaaagagagh"
And there was it's roar.
"Lucas, we're near a strong enemy, do you want to to keep going?"
I missed the voicelines of Harry while he was in your party.
The good old 'There are strong monsters ahead' voiceline.
Nostalgic.
"Lucas?"
"Ah, yes, we're going to kill that minotaur."
"Okay. Um, it sounds to be nearly an adult, but not yet."
"Great, could you give me a description of it's power level?"
Of course I knew both of the levels and stats of the minotaurs.
If my average stats were around 70 and my level 30, he would be around 90 and 45.
Not a massive stat difference currently.
There were two minotaurs. One held a blue axe, the other had a red shield.
I honestly didn't care about either.
Both were fine opponents, but Harry would be suspicious of me, since I've never shown off my monster knowledge.
So I asked him about it's stats.
As we walked forward, an axehead poked out from the corridor ahead of us.
"Alright that's it."
I whispered as I pointed at the axe, waiting.
"It's probably waiting for enemies at the end of the corridor to charge."
"So, Harry and I will be bait, you two will shoot him from behind okay?"
"We won't get attacked by any other creatures right?"
"No minotaurs usually don't move from corridor ends unless attacked first."
With that Harry and I made our way north of the current corridor.
We arrived at a 4 way crossing and saw some classmates coming this way.
We waved our hands.
"Guys stay away from us."
"Yeah, right, you guys are trying to hog an are to yourselves."
They continued to walk towards the perpendicular hallway.
*Grunt*
The Minotaur let out a snort.
That certainly hampered the group's forward momentum.
"What the hell was that?"
"A minotaur and the reason we asked you to get away?"
"You're crazy!"