Hard Mode Awakening Challenge

Ian was leaning his head back against the sofa in Claire's office. He was absolutely exhausted from the dungeon run he had finished less than an hour before. It had been a new dungeon with creatures that excelled in agility while lacking in nearly every other stat. He had only been there for four hours, but he felt like it had been a year.

"Oh, you beat me here," Claire said, coming through the door and shutting it.

He waved as she went to her desk and secured the room.

"Yeah, I had to keep moving or I would have probably not been able to get back up," Ian said, giving her a lopsided grin.

"Well, the wolfmen apparently turned out to be a great idea, even if it did take me two days to get everything signed off so you could enter it early. I mean, you jumped up to level 918. That is nearly a hundred and fifty levels in a single run.

"I was watching the stream during breakfast. You were completely shutting down their smaller packs. They may average around level 1,150, but you just cut them down like you were still dealing with goblins."

Ian snorted. "Claire, I don't know what you saw, but there were a ton of close calls while I was in there. Dealing with one or two was fine. Even the groups of three weren't too bad. When they started throwing multiple packs at me, I thought I was moments away from not walking back out of there. Those little bastards were quick."

"Yes, they were," she agreed. "Though they barely scraped you when they got through your armor. You have nearly twice the endurance and strength they do, even if you barely outclass them in agility."

Ian had to agree. He was probably more afraid than he needed to be in those few moments he had thought he was going to be swarmed. With his Magic Soul skill giving him extra reach and damage by creating magical blades around his weapons, he had been able to cut right through most of the creatures. They had still managed to get their claws into him over a dozen times, but soothing touch had been able to heal the damage quickly. He had to admit, though, the superficial wounds hurt worse than the serious ones sometimes.

Ian pulled up his information and looked it over, thankful he was able to change it to sort by grade and mark any maxed-out skills with an M.

Name: Ian Spelling (Hidden)

Alias: Zero

LVL: 918

Status:

STR: 6863

END: 6087

AGI: 6200

WIL: 5720

INT: 5866

Skills: Prestige Mode (Awakened), Prestige Leader (Inherent), Statistical Synchronization (Inherent),

Common: Enhanced Body (M), Enhanced Mind (M),

Uncommon: Conceal Identity, Analyze 1/5, Poison Resistance 1/5, Basic Item Storage (M), Strength 3/10, Agility 3/10, Endurance 2/10, Willpower 3/10, Intelligence 3/10, Basic Mana Regeneration 3/5, Soothing Touch 1/5

Rare: Magic Soul

Available SP: 360

What he saw brought a smile to his face. He was going to be able to provide 45% of his stats to his party members when they started their dungeon running on Saturday. Lana and Tram had gratefully taken the opportunity provided by Claire to learn dungeon tactics under a few seasoned instructors with his sister, Ashlyn. He had been surprised to discover they were learning just as much as she was. If he wasn't trying to get as many upgrades for them as possible, he would have loved to have joined them.

"You got that far-off look that you get when you are lost in thought," Claire commented, looking up from her tablet.

"Sorry," he replied, sitting up to face her. "I was just looking at my status and thinking about how overpowered the others are going to be when they start running together this weekend."

Claire began to chuckle, "You mean how both Lana and Tram will be stronger when they prestige compared to when they were both just under level 500 outside of your party? I'm not gonna lie, I'm half tempted to prestige and join them. Unfortunately, they don't allow us to make exceptions to level requirements while they are still in the novice tier, or I would have them jumping directly into a low-tier dungeon.

"I think you will hit level one thousand tomorrow if you go back to fight the wolfmen. I know you would probably be in there a little longer now that you aren't getting multiple levels per kill, but it would be a great milestone to reach before you meet with the Faeorcen representative on Friday."

"Yeah," Ian agreed. "I'm also looking forward to seeing if any of my inherent skills will evolve, and what my new ones will be."

"You maxed out your synchronization skill, so they should all be eligible. No point in thinking about it too hard, though. We could literally spend all day here pondering different possibilities, but it won't matter in the end. The only thing you can do is hit your goal, so we can start making more plans."

"Fair," Ian said, trying to focus on the here and now instead of the different ways that his inherent skills could grow. He knew she was right because the last few ideas had been absolutely insane, like giving his party members 100% of his status as a buff or being able to use his prestige skill on them to provide them with the same benefits he enjoyed.

"So, do you think you can do it?" Claire asked.

Ian thought for a moment. It would probably take him just as long to get the last eighty-two levels as it would to get the huge amount he'd earned today. Most of the monsters were still over two hundred levels above him, so he was getting a ton of bonus experience compared to normal parties. Combine that with the multiplier from his prestige skill, and he was sure he could do it.

"Yeah, I think I'll be done about the same time tomorrow," Ian answered. "I should also probably get some nice clothes to wear for my meeting with the representative."

Claire just laughed at him. "Your wardrobe does leave something to be desired."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Eh, it's comfy," he responded before her smile vanished.

"My parents want you to come for a short visit tomorrow night," she said after a moment. "My mother said she wants to talk to you about the meeting. She said she has some information that will make it much easier."

Ian just nodded, "What time?"

"After you get cleaned up from your dungeon run," Claire said before sighing. "I'm sure she knows almost exactly when we will be getting there. She told me that she would make tea, so just let me know when you are ready. I'll have your stream up, so I'll start getting around when it ends."

Ian nodded. Claire's mother was the retired adventurer known as Prophet. She had the ability to see into the future, though Ian didn't know how far or how much. They always made it seem like she got little snippets here and there to help them in the dungeons, but he was beginning to feel like it was something she had a lot more control over. She had given him a few nudges behind the scenes to help him get to where he was now, so he didn't have any reason to complain so far.

"Will do," Ian said with a yawn. "The others should still be training for a couple of hours, so I should probably find something to do."

"Ha, you look like you're gonna fall asleep any minute now. Just lie back and relax for a few. You did a lot of good work today and deserve a bit of a break."

Ian just smiled, took a deep breath, and leaned his head back. He'd just rest for a moment before heading back to his room to go over some more dungeon information.

*~*~*

A hand shook Ian's shoulder, causing his eyes to snap open as he went to bolt up.

"Relax, Ian," Claire said, as his eyes finally focused enough to see her. "You fell asleep, but it's time for us to get up and head over to meet everyone for dinner."

Ian ran his hand over his face as he blinked away at the last bit of sleepiness. He hadn't even remembered falling asleep, though he was sure he slept like a rock. Not only was the mental fog gone, but his body felt great. Standing up, he stretched before catching the smile on Claire's face.

"Eh, what's up?" he said, mouth a little dry.

"Oh, just thinking about how similar you are to my old cat. He'd always groan when he stretched after a nap, too."

Ian just smirked as he followed her out of the room.

Walking into the dining facility a few minutes later, Ian saw Ashlyn waving at him from their normal table. She was sitting with Tram, Lana, and Jason, who were waving as well. He internally sighed when he saw they were watching a rerun of his stream from earlier. They had done so during dinner every night for the past week. Ashlyn kept saying that it was to better understand the dungeons, but Tram had admitted they watched it to see how far Ian had progressed during the day. He had pointed out that it was more fun to see the action than just looking at the leaderboards for the levels. While he understood, he still thought it was embarrassing.

Grabbing his food and a mug, he made his way over to the table and sat next to Jason.

"So, you all didn't get to see him very often?" Jason asked before nodding a greeting to Ian.

Everyone else waved, most with their mouths full, as Tram swallowed and addressed the question.

"Not really," he said, brow furrowing. "He was originally supposed to be the leader of our party, but he got into it with Avra before we started. He apparently had a better read on her than we did when we all first met.

"After that, he began running the dungeons solo and shot way past us in level. We'd only see him every few weeks when he came to drop off stones and collect his money. I think he spoke with Lana more than me, though."

"Yeah, we talked a bit," she said, putting her fork down. "Vince seemed to be a pretty understanding person and didn't hold it against us that we were part of The Conquerors. He found me after a particularly bad day and helped give me a push to get me back on my feet. While we were talking, he let it slip that his contract requires him to meet leveling goals, as well as provide a certain number of essence stones per month.

"He has a character clause like we do, but he refuses to talk on stream or in dungeons. As long as he doesn't say anything, he can't break his contract. His penalties were supposedly a lot harsher than ours were."

"I can't wait until his contract is done," Jason said with a sigh. "I'm sorry to hear that he had to deal with all of that crap. I should never have pushed him to join a clan like I did."

"It's not your fault," Ian said, patting the older adventurer on the shoulder. "Peerless has only been around for a few years, and it marketed itself really well. I even thought Avra had made a great decision when she originally signed up for Peerless. They may be run by an awful human being, but they had great optics and advertising."

"Had," Lana clarified with a smile. "Every morning, I wake up and read about how much money they've lost. I just picture the veins on Peter's head bulging out to start my day off right."

Tram nodded, "I haven't mentioned it yet, but I called my bro Kambis yesterday. Apparently, they have new standing orders to not be publicly seen with any of us, so he's not going to be able to come visit anytime soon.

"Though he did let it slip that they moved Evaline's remaining members into the Conqueror's underneath Avra. That brings them up to a full team of six, and gives them a real tank and healer, along with two melee DPS."

"And more catfights than you can shake a stick at," Lana said with a scoff. "Evaline and Avra hate, and I mean hate each other. Both of them have that need to control everything around them and blame everyone else for their failures." Lana stopped as it looked like she had an epiphany. "Maybe the fact that they are so easy to manipulate is the reason Peter put them in charge?"

"Entirely possible," Ashlyn piped in. "Either way, I'm hoping I get to kill them in the tournament next month."

"Woah there!" Jason said with a smirk. "That's an awful lot of violence for a young, upstanding lady such as yourself. You should find a better outlet for your anger, or you are just gonna be really annoyed when they don't stay dead."

Ashlyn gave him a nod and a smile. "You got me there. I don't want her dead; I just want her to feel some of the pain she has inflicted on others. My brother may be a doofus and have horrible taste in women, but he didn't deserve what she did to him."

"I'm right here," Ian said with a smirk. "Not that I disagree. My track record is less than stellar."

"That's putting it lightly," Claire jabbed from her seat next to Ashlyn.

"Eh tu!" Ian said, clutching his chest in mock surprise as everyone chuckled.

Once everyone calmed down, Jason nudged Ian, "So a little birdie told me that you are meeting up with one of those elves from Envit? The planet that became enlightened a few hundred years ago."

Claire coughed, trying and failing not to spit out her drink. As soon as she got herself under control, she turned and gave Ian a serious expression. "Ian, whatever you do, never call them elves. Got that?"

Ian chuckled as he watched Ashlyn wiping off her arm as she gave Claire a dirty look. "So Mavis has said. I understand that it is a serious point of pride for their people?"

Jason chuckled. "Yeah, they are kinda stuck up like that. Apparently, there are other elven groups out there in the universe, just like there are other groups of humans. The ones from Envit—the Faeorcen, as they call themselves—seem to think they are culturally superior to everyone. They can be a contentious lot, not unlike many of the old folktales about the fae."

"So never enter a contract with one, and don't agree to anything?" Ian said with a smirk.

Jason's face became serious as he looked at Ian. "That would actually be a pretty safe bet. They may have a few hundred-year head start, but they aren't actually that far ahead of us. Our highest adventurers are nearing the mid thirty thousands, which is pretty uncommon for their adventurers. Their top level is somewhere around fifty-five thousand."

"Yeah, he goes by the name Leonian. He apparently wants to meet me for some reason, though I'm not entirely sure I am going to enjoy finding out why."

"I think he is banking on something in the future," Claire chimed in. "If you keep leveling like you are and are able to pull the amount of essence stones from the ultra-tier that you are pulling in right now in the low tier, we might actually see a real increase in our ambient mana. Especially if we can develop better weapons and armor. Our adventurers have talent and drive, but we just lack the gear to support their rapid advancement.

"Most of our top adventurers have scaling gear sets farmed from low-tier dungeons, but most of those max out in the mid-tier."

"Think he'll give you gear?" Tram asked. "Like a cool armor set or a really nice spear?"

"He can't," Claire responded with a frown. "The dungeon curator doesn't allow the gifting of weapons and armor to planets with lower mana levels than your own. Since we are pretty much at the bottom of the barrel, it might be information or something. I'm honestly not sure."

"Well, we'll see in a couple of days," Ian said. "How about we meet up here Friday night for dinner to see what it is?"

"Like we do every night?" Ashlyn said with a smirk.

"Almost," Claire agreed. "Tomorrow night, we might not make it. Ian has a meeting, and I don't know when we'll get back."

"I'll also be in a dungeon tomorrow night," Jason said, before turning to Ian with the look of a challenge in his eyes. "Apparently, there is some young soloist who is trying to race me to the mid-tier, and I'm not gonna let him beat me without a fight."

Tram let out a low and drawn-out 'oh' before shotgunning his new mug of ale.

Ian chuckled as he patted Jason on the shoulder. "Do what you need to, old man. Just make sure you don't break a hip."