Ed for the first time in a long time had a dream. It was a confusing dream. He wasn't quite sure he knew what he was looking at.
It was a forest. A heavily forested one at that, the thick foliage covered the light of the sun, it wrapped all the things beneath it in darkness.
A thick fog surrounded the area. Silence. There were no sounds of animals that could be heard.
'Hm?' Ed saw something emit a faint glow at that moment. The object was covered by the dense gray fog.
'What is it?' The blurry object could not be made out. So Ed slowly inched closer...
He tried to move forward only to trip and falter. He looked back at the object from his position as he couldn't get up anymore. The object seemed like some sort of altar or podium, Ed wasn't sure but every now and then it would emit a faint glow, it created a mythical ambient.
Ed's curiosity only increased the more he saw it, he tried to get closer again but still couldn't get up.
'Get up?' He tried to look down at his body but Ed's dream distorted and he was abruptly woken up.
He woke up and found himself in the vast darkness. The forest was seemingly a distant illusion. Ed was extremely confused by the development but there were things he had to do. He chalked it up to his increase in level and put the matter in the back of his mind, he couldn't make sense of it right now.
He saw the usual envelope in the corner of his vision and proceeded to open up the missed messages.
[Opening missed messages]
The system quickly got on the task and a couple of glowing messages appeared before Ed.
[Punishment has been reserved]
[Champion has leveled up]
[<???> Acquired]
For some reason, the skill Ed had acquired was concealed. He couldn't make heads or tail of the situation.
'Let's give it another go... Status!' The status usually has descriptions for all skills.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Level 4 Consciousness.
Health: 500/500
Bodies: Skeleton
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 1] -Show info-
[Mental Fortitude lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Deduction lvl. 7] -Show info-
[Assimilation lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Language lvl. 1] -Show info-
[???]
There's a time and place for everything.
Ed didn't bother looking at his entire status as he was only interested in the new skill, opening the status was a sort of formality at this point.
'Huh???' Ed was confused by the oddly familiar skill description. Still, he couldn't help but grumble internally. He wanted a skill, not a life lesson.
A new message suddenly appeared in front of Ed's field of vision.
[02:57 hours until respawn]
It wasn't something he requested but he did welcome that the system took the initiative. He couldn't help wonder why he needed to wait that long, however. But he couldn't come up with a convincing conjecture.
'Why don't I just ask?' Ed wanted to shake his head at himself but he had no body.
'Why is there a timer?' Perhaps he had become used to solving everything by himself as of late.
[Creating Champion avatar]
After hearing that short message Ed could more or less understand what was going on.
'I grew stronger so summoning me is much more difficult now'
It does make sense, otherwise, why doesn't the dungeon just infinitely spawn overpowered mobs?
'There must be a limit' The dungeon needed to manage its resources, It seemed magical minions didn't appear out of thin air.
When Ed looked at it that way things started to more or less make sense. The reason why there were so many low leveled enemies in the dungeon was that they took no time to create and/or they saved resources.
'Is that why the li-' Before Ed could finish his train of thought a system alert interrupted him.
[Summoning dungeon Champion]
'What?!? What happened out there?!?'
A vacuum opened up in the thick darkness and started to suck up Ed's consciousness. For some reason Ed felt reluctant as his consciousness wavered and left the boundless dark space.
***
"It's your turn now" Samuel said as he squinted looking at the lich in the distance.
The Lich's purple flames shone brighter after receiving his stare, it seemed to be taunting him. It continued to wave its ominous staff and chant.
"Tsk, let's go!" Samuel didn't want to waste any more time and find out what spell the lich intended to cast.
Samuel ran at a moderate pace and the tired and injured adventurers slowly followed after him. The debuffs were still affecting them and they were riddled with injuries, Samuel's moderate pace was still too fast for them. Upon realizing this, Samuel took off a golden pendant that hung around his neck and tossed it to a female warrior who was near him, she caught it reflexively.
"Pass it around, I need you at full strength then give it back quickly"
A black haze exited her body and was eaten by the pendant, she quickly passed it to another adventurer. They tossed the pendant around two more times while moving until Samuel received it again. Samuel looked at his pendant which had lost some of its golden luster. He didn't plan on using it after the battle again so he hung it around his neck again and looked ahead.
The lich slammed its staff and the ground trembled fiercely. Walls started to rise out of the ground forming a small fortress. Samuel's expression turned serious as he saw what seemed to be skeletons atop the walls. The skeletons readied their bows and shot their arrows.
"Shit! Get behind me!" Samuel readied his sword and looked at the imminent rain of arrows.
His concentration heightened and he knocked away all the arrows that were raining down upon them, some more of his mana was gone in the process.
"Damn it!" Samuel became extremely frustrated by the situation, it was hard to help the adventurers and defeat the lich at the same time.
"Sir Samuel please go ahead" said a meek-looking young man. The other adventurers were flustered by the young man's sudden words, was he crazy?!?
The skeletons were readying for another volley, Samuel could easily reach the walls if he abandoned the adventurers and left them to get skewered. Time seemed to slow down as Samuel thought deeply about what to do.
The sincere words of the young man were deeply embedded in his mind. But more importantly, was he worth it? All he was thinking about was his family even at this moment and something in the back of his mind was inciting him to listen to the young man. He then thought about the lives of the other five adventurers, they would be forfeited without purpose if he didn't kill the lich.
His face darkened and he then ran towards the wall.
"Sir Samuel what are you doing!?!" The flustered woman was seemingly telling him to get back but Samuel kept on running.
The arrows were then released and Samuel continued running.
"Samuel! Please!" The other adventurer apart from the young man cried out towards the running Samuel.
The volley of arrows rained down upon them soon after, they did the best they could to shield themselves or run away but it was all in vain. The lucky ones died on the spot.
Samuel's expression was contorted as he slashed away the arrows that were aiming at him. If he had enough mana! If only he had more mana!
"I am still too weak!" He yelled out as he slashed another arrow.
He thought he had reached the peak, he thought he was in a position to settle down! Was an A-class adventurer not enough to live in the world without worries!?!
Samuel neared the walls of the fortress, his feet glowed green as he leaped atop the walls. The skeletons in front of him were too stupid to anticipate such a move, they were blown away by Samuel as he landed. The bow-wielding skeletons were just as weak as the ones in the dungeon so they died soon after.
Samuel ignored the arrows that were flying towards him and used the last bit of his boost to leap towards the center of the fortress. The lich was surrounded by an eerie black haze, its purple flames burned brightly as they looked at the approaching Samuel. The lich then let out a chuckle as the haze fully enveloped him.
"My sacrifice will not be in vain" It muttered as the darkness started to swallow its body.
"YOU-!!!" Samuel lunged at the disappearing lich with an angry expression.
The lich disappeared before Samuel's hit could make any contact with its body. The fortress-like structure started to crumble soon after and all of the archers started to similarly disassemble. The boss room quieted down after the fortress stopped crumbling. Leaving Samuel by himself in the center.
"DAMN IIIIT!!!" Samuel kicked away some of the debris in an attempt to vent out his anger. What was he supposed to do with that anger now?