System Change

The last few minutes passed at a crawl, with everyone waiting in anticipation. Everyone had something to gain from another wave of enemies, so they all hoped to hear the screeching of a wyvern or a roar of another dragonkin at least one more time.

Just as the last minute passed, they heard it. Another almost deafening roar sounded in the distance, followed by a chorus of similar roars. With the sound of one beast, the tension between the five party members disappeared, and everyone relaxed.

“It looks like luck is on our side today,” Edgar said.

“Yeah, it’s a good thing you suck at taming beasts. Imagine if you would have finished contracting with Blitz any sooner. The trial would have been over… at least, I think,” Derek said. He really wasn’t sure about the ending condition of the trial. It had been to survive for ten days or defeat the enemy champions, and he was almost sure that the wyverns were considered the champions.

If they weren’t then he couldn’t imagine what would come next. Well, actually, he could. It would have to be some form of Ancient Dragon, and if the rarity of the current monsters were anything to go by, they would end up being at a rank higher than legendary. But that shouldn’t be possible, as the rank of the trial they were currently in was only legendary.

So, either they had to defeat a certain amount of wyverns, or defeat them within the time limit of the attack. The system hadn’t exactly been clear on its conditions.

Edgar rolled his eyes at Derek’s comment, and Avery snickered. It was all in jest and good fun. Who would actually taunt a person that had literally just tamed a legendary dragon species in only around one hour of fighting? Honestly, it was quite impressive.

With everything prepared and the wave incoming, Derek took the lead. “Jasper… Tara… cast your buffs on everyone. Tara, avoid casting on Jasper just in case there is dragonkin out there that his healing is a perfect counter for.”

With that command, multiple auras of light fell around the group, including the new additions to the party: Blitz and Lyra. The two dragonkin being hit by the auras shined like a beacon of light on a dark night, even though it seemed to be in a constant dusk since they started the trial.

Once all the spells were cast, even though Derek doubted anyone would actually need them anymore, especially with the two additional team members, he continued, “Alright, now the two of you need to go inside the prison and get in one of the cells closest to the door. We’ll be taking the beasts to the back. That way, you will be out of the way and won’t risk any injury if Avery and Lyra lose control.”

With no arguments, the two supporters made their way into his Time Prison. Of course, toward the end, they would have to leave the cells to make space for any additional beasts, but for now, it was the safest place for them.

“Edgar, you’re on tanking duty. Draw all the attention and kite… err… lead them around while Avery picks some out. Avery, get some good ones. If you find a plant-based wyrm, get it. Also, look for anything smaller, like we discussed. If it’s small, get it. Also, see if you can find something that may be weak against wind,” he directed, and both Avery and Edgar nodded before disappearing along with their new companions.

Derek internally nodded to himself. If he could find some plant or nature-based beasts, he may be able to help Jacks out when he returned… if the man was able to get an epic based class, that is. And something weak against the wind element would give Rayna a good shot at obtaining a beast companion.

Thomas probably wouldn’t need any specific type of beast, as his soul-based spear attack would most likely be able to handle most of the smaller dragonkin once he got strong enough. Same was true for Brandi. But she would be mostly physical and would have to fight like Avery. However, he was sure by that point in time, she would have made herself some phenomenal equipment to fight with.

He also kind of wanted to get an extra wyvern on the high chance that Brandi’s class upgraded to legendary. There was no doubt in his mind that the All Smith would get there. Hell, she may even end up with an even higher rarity class by the end of everything.

Once everyone was gone, he too went to his Time Prison, where he had prepared everything. The prison was now empty aside from the few lights still left to give the room at least a bit of a glow. But even with the lighting, it was still mostly dark.

Derek moved to the back, where he had opened up the first cell to fit Lyra into. In the time they spent waiting, he had come back and opened a few more cells up at various sizes so it wouldn’t be too time consuming to fit a new beast.

Finally, he set out to wait for Avery, but to his surprise, only a couple minutes after he entered the prison lobby, he saw Avery leading Lyra back to the prison from outside through the door. What Derek then saw was quite chilling.

Behind the pair was another small amphithere. It was bigger than Lyra’s previous form, but was still smaller than all the other ones he had seen. What sent a shiver down his back, though, was the dragonkin’s eyes. They were vacant and glossed over.

The eyes looked the same as the ones on the beasts he had hit with his void channeled attack to stun them. The only difference was that instead of being stunned and standing stock still, it was gently following behind the human and dragon pair-both of which were casually walking toward the prison entrance as if they didn’t have an untamed beast following behind them.

He had learned about Lyra’s mental capabilities, but seeing them in action was something else. It seemed to be even more controlling than the few times he’d seen Alanah’s abilities take effect on people. Yes, this actively used and wrenched the control from another’s mind. He hadn’t seen Alanah use her skills actively, directly on someone else, so how would he know what that would look like? She may have the same effect as Lyra.

Soon, they made it to the prison, and Avery walked inside along with the captured beast. Lyra stayed outside, but kept her gaze locked on the amphithere slithering behind the archer. Derek hurriedly directed Avery to one of the open, but smaller, cells and the man led the winged serpent to it and it went inside with no problem.

Once it was inside, Derek quickly slammed the door to the cell shut and set the sentencing timer to the minimum amount of time it could serve, before decreasing the speed at which it counted down. This way, he would be able to speed up the time and get the beast out swiftly if he ever needed to, but he could still keep it put away for a long time as long as he used the proper time speed.

“One down,” Derek said.

Avery nodded with a big smile on his face. “That was even easier than expected.” Then, he turned and looked at Lyra, who had turned around and was now guarding the door instead of leering inside. “Though, Lyra will only be able to do that a few more times with the lesser beasts before she needs to recharge. It takes a lot out of her. And we may need your help with the wyvern when it’s time.”

“That’s no problem. Just let me know when you need me,” Derek said.

With that, Avery turned around and jogged out of the prison, hopping on Lyra’s back and soaring off into the distance as soon as he got outside. Derek sighed and looked back at the cell door. He really did miss Silvi. I should have forced her to come along with me.

He could only lament and get back to work. With one of the cells now occupied by a new resident, Derek put all his focus on it and tried to shrink it down. To his delight, it began shrinking. He was actually shocked that it was working.

However, after shrinking for a few moments, and even unabsorbing one of the cells beside it, it refused to shrink any further. He then realized that he was at the smallest sized the system, or at least his Time Prison, would allow him to adjust a cell with a beast the size of the amphithere inside. It was still a success, in his opinion.

He wouldn’t have to worry about proficiency. No matter the beast stored inside, he would be able to place it in the smallest cell possible without too much extra hassle. On that note, he ran over to the cells that Bones and Ogre were in and were actually able to shrink the cell that Bones was in by a small amount. The same couldn’t be said for Ogre, as the mountain of a man barely fit in that cell to begin with.

The slightly shrunken cell didn’t actually allow for much extra room for the cell beside it, but an argument could be made that every bit of space counted. So, Derek wouldn’t complain. He actually agreed with that argument.

Derek went back to the end of the lobby, next to the cell that now contained an amphithere. One other thing that he wasn’t sure about was whether the imprisoned beasts would count toward the end goal of the trial, or if he would even be able to let them out of his Time Prison once the trial or dungeon ended.

That had failed before doing the reverse with a Void Beast, but he hadn’t tried to take anything out. Though, he suspect he wouldn’t have much of a problem because of his encounter with the Acidic Ghoul back at the undying dungeon, and the fact that dungeon breaks were a thing. It meant that the system shouldn’t have a problem with removing beasts from the dungeon.

He also knew that he could put someone inside his prison and bring them into a dungeon, but that also hadn’t been completely experimented with. He did, however, draw the conclusion that it was based solely on the number of people allowed in the dungeon.

He still needed to figure out if that meant once the participant limit was reached, nobody would be allowed outside the prison, even if one of the original members died, or if it was less stringent and would allow him to sub people in and out like a basketball team. He imagined it was the former, and he planned on testing it one day, preferably with more people he trusted.

Whether any of that was how it worked or not, he would have to find out later. Right now, Avery was on his way back with a drake, and Derek needed to prepare its new home. We gotta catch ‘em all. Well… at least ten or so… the rest have to be relegated to XP and material. I hope I can get a good glaive out of this.

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