Chapter 246: The First Trial

    He stepped forward and spoke in agreement with Edgar. Since its a low difficulty beast wave, it is the best opportunity for levels. It will be good for those of a lower level with decent AOE attacks. I say we choose those, along with a high-level healer and support. I think Vanessa should take command. Her shadows are flexible. She should be the more than capable of keeping watch over everyone.

    After that, there was another small discussion and Vanessa, Elena Webb, and Kieron Dawson were selected as the high-level participants. Elena Webb was a level 250 healer, and Kieron was a level 245 support. The remaining participants were all level 230 or lower and included both Shae and Walter.

    Soon, with everyone in agreement, Vanessa stepped forward and touched the trial orb. Were off, she said, then ten people disappeared from the surroundings.

    Edgar and Derek then looked at one another.

    What now? Derek asked.

    Edgar shrugged. I guess we should set up camp.

    ***

    Vanessa couldnt help but wonder how she ended up in the position she was in. No, she wasnt complaining; she was actually happy about finally being able to disconnect herself from the Assassins Guild. The guild had treated her well, and she had worked her way up to the top, but because of the contracts, the freedom wasnt really there.

    Being captured so swiftly, like she was, she was then thrown into that forsaken prison to be interrogated by that monster who had easily gotten around her contract to the Assassins Guild. And, since she had done everything she could to avoid capture before giving up, the contract that was broken didnt cause any sequela. She was also lucky, as her contract didnt have as many conditions as most members because of her status in the guild.

    As long as she didnt speak of any of the internals of the Assassins Guild to anyone, now that she wasnt a part of it, she would be fine. Luckily, that monster of a woman didnt seem too interested in the Assassins Guild, only that creepy old man.

    Vanessa hadnt looked too deeply into any of her clients. Its not good for an assassin to be nosy, after all. However, hearing what that old codger may have been a part of even left her disgusted. As an assassin, she didnt have any qualms about killing for money, as long as the target was of age, but trafficking was another story.

    Leave it to the assassin to draw a moral line in the sand. She thought to herself as she appeared with the nine others in a desolate field.

    She was now part of the kingdom. She had some pretty heavy oaths and contracts, but she felt as free as she ever had. This was her first raid dungeon ever, and her first dungeon in quite some time. She was honestly a little excited, even if she did her best not to show it.

    The fact that she had been given the task as the leader for the first trial was surprising, but she was up for it. She needed to prove her worth to the young prince. She was glad that the odd man was the one who made the suggestion, as well. He seemed to have quite the pull with the young prince. Other than her few interactions with Derek Hunt, she didnt know too much about him. But after seeing just a bit of his power and skills, she knew he was dangerous.

    Obviously, she had faith in Elena Webb, as she was a level 250 healer, because as soon as Sachikos taunt was off of cooldown, she would cast it again, keeping dozens of the beasts on her at all times. Though, she wasnt struggling and Elena wasnt actually doing much to help out, currently.

    Healing the tank had actually fallen to the old disgraced nobleman well, formerly disgraced nobleman. And he was doing quite the job. He would send an occasional single target heal onto Sachiko as she took damage, but would also drop an area heal occasionally when one of the damage dealers, particularly Ciera Cook, a dual blade swordswoman, moved in too close and got injured.

    It seemed that the healer, known as Walter, also had some other interesting skill and spells to his repertoire. When Ciera moved in too close and a wolf bit right between the joints of her light armor, a pretty bad bleed status appeared on the woman. The bite itself wasnt too bad, but Vanessa knew how grating the bleed status could be.

    Surprisingly, with a quick flick of his wrist, the bleed healed before it could cause any real damage or discomfort. Vanessa guessed that the old man had some kind of status heal as well, along with regular heals. If he could pump up his level and get some more stats into Wisdom and Intelligence, he would be a very welcome member to the raid.

    Its no wonder he was allowed to join, even with such a low level. Vanessa inwardly praised the man.

    Of course, those two werent the only ones doing their jobs, just the standouts. Wolf after wolf fell to the spear of Shae Holmes, but Vanessa would expect nothing less of the Guild Master of the Savannah Adventurers Guild. If he couldnt do this much, even at his relatively low level, he wouldnt have that position.

    Felix Ayala bombarded the wolves with fire magic, as expected from a pure fire mage. He was neither unimpressive nor outstanding, just a pretty average fire mage that was good at following orders. The same was true with Louise Bonilla. She was a good archer, but she hadnt shown anything great yet. Though the battle was still young and there were ten days of fighting to be had.

    Kieron Dawson was a level 245 support class, and he went ahead and buffed up the whole party before the battle before standing back and allowing John Newman to focus on dishing out debuffs to the wolves.

    Overall, the group had little to no problems dealing with the first wave of wolves. Which was good, because the second the last wolf fell, another group was summoned and began their charge. This time, they were at level 170 and the pack was larger than the previous.

    Still, the wolves were like an egg hitting a brick wall. They did nothing more than leave the battlefield messy and most of the fighters bloody. Fortunately, once the second wave of wolves were dealt with, nothing else came.

    Those of you who have spent Stamina, Health, or Mana, meditate and recover. Those who have not, remove the corpses from the battlefield. Whether you choose to incinerate, store, or move them to the side, that is up to you. Just do it quickly, we dont know when the next wave is coming, Vanessa gave the command, and the group got to work. If you have leveled up, I suggest using your stats now. None of you are new to this. Im sure you know what you need to do.

    Five minutes later, and the battlefield was clear. Nobody thought much about the corpses of level 170 and lower wolves, so they left the job of incinerating them up to the fire mage. They would obviously fight higher level monsters that were worth much more later.

    Fifteen minutes later, Vanessa spotted the next wave of beasts appear. Mentally, she noted that they had received twenty minutes of rest between waves before she began to command once again.

    Ready!