Hard Mode Awakening Challenge

It took a couple of hours to walk back to the AO campus. There were a couple of photographers who took some pictures of them. Instead of being upset, Ian and Lana just waved as they walked through the checkpoint and headed inside.

"Look at the size of those things!" exclaimed a young man.

"They have to be her summons," came a woman's voice. "But how does she have more than one?"

"Forget the number, how are they that powerful?" said another woman.

Ian and Lana both slowed as they looked up at the screen that was surrounded by adventurers. They both turned to look at each other, excitement etched across their features. Lana motioned towards the crowd as the two walked up behind them to watch.

"I mean, Nia is just throwing out those huge ice shards left and right," one of the young men was saying from the front of the crowd. "I'd only be able to cast maybe half a dozen spells in an hour, but she is popping them every couple of minutes and not even slowing down."

"I know, man. I think I'm in love!" another boy exclaimed, causing half the people around him to start laughing.

"Seriously, though," came another woman in the crowd. "I thought that Zero was the real power in that party, but these two are decimating the dungeon easier than he did when he ran it. They've already downed the goblin boss three times and the kobold boss twice."

Ian looked over to see Lana staring at him with wide eyes.

"I mean, they are coming up on the boss's room again," the woman continued. "With their levels, they are still getting full drop rates from them, and can hit it another dozen times before they stop getting bonus levels and the rates start to drop."

"Yeah, they might get most of the pieces of those armor sets," another woman mused.

"Oh, shush now. They are almost there."

Ian watched as more people came over to crowd around the display. The kobolds outside of the door were quickly dispatched as an ice shard hit one guard center mass while an arrow took the second in the chest, quickly followed by another in the throat.

Quickly looting the two guards, Ashlyn pushed the door open and let Mara, Spot, and Socks run into the room first before coming in with Nia. The kobold hunter stood up and roared as the salamander got up to charge. However, the salamander never got the chance as an ice shard caught it right in the head as it began to move.

The kobold saw its pet die and tossed its head up to roar in fury, which left it wide open for Ashlyn's spirit arrow. It tried to dodge, but only managed to move far enough away for the arrow to catch it in the right shoulder, blowing off a huge chunk and rendering the arm useless.

As the creature's spear began to fall to the floor, Mara charged the injured kobold. When it tried to reach down with its left arm to grab the weapon, Socks bowled the monster over from its blind spot and began to shake the smaller humanoid now stuck in its jaws. Mara reached them just as the kobold managed to pull out one of its daggers. She closed her jaws around the back of the creature's neck and bit down before he could stab her pack mate.

"Damn," Ian whispered. "Less than twenty seconds."

"They are amazing," Lana replied, giving him a grin. "And it doesn't look like they are going to stop anytime soon.

They watched as Ashlyn started dancing with Nia after looting the boss. When they were teleported, she began to pull her wrist guards off and put a familiar-looking pair on.

"She got another piece!"

"That makes three now?"

"I think that's when they start getting additional bonuses."

"The red leather looks so good!"

As they watched, Nia and Ash gave each of the moon prowlers quick scratches before they began to jog down the flights of stairs to the final floor again.

"I just wish we knew what to call her," sighed one of the adventurers. "Saying her name is such a mouthful."

"The news crews are having a fit trying to talk about her, and most of the e-zines seem to be tiptoeing around her name. I bet she made it so hard to say because she's dating Zero."

Lana burst out laughing, causing a bunch of the crowd to turn back towards them. Ian just shook his head before waving his arms in front of him quickly.

"I'm definitely NOT dating her," Ian said, pointing up at the screen. "She's my little sister, and everyone should probably just call her Ash."

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Zero. I didn't mean to—"

"Don't worry about it," Ian said, waving it off. "And please, just call me Zero or Ian. I'm still new to this, like most of you."

"I mean, you may be new to this, but you are still tearing through the rankings, Zero," said another adventurer. "Any tips you can share to new folks getting ready to run their first dungeon today?"

Ian thought for a moment, "Actually, yes. If you get a notification to complete an awakening challenge, make sure you do everything in your power to accomplish it," he said. "Actually, if you think it will be too difficult, leave the dungeon and come back here to the AO and ask for help."

"What's an awakening challenge?" he asked.

"They are challenges assigned by the system to challenge some people. If you complete them, they give you stronger inherent skills, or sometimes multiple inherent skills," Ian replied. "Right now, as I understand it, we lack the supplies to properly equip people to push much farther past the ten thousand level range. Even in the lower levels, the gear is so expensive, most of us can't afford it. It's why most people join clans to get into mid-tier."

"And you completed one of these challenges?" asked a young woman next to him.

"I did," he said. "In doing so, I got a chance to meet with the lead adventurer of the Faeorcen last week, and he gave me information that I plan to have released through the AO.

"From what I understand, if those with awakening challenges put in the effort to help collect materials and develop new weapons and armor, we can help raise the normal level range of adventurers by making it safer for everyone to level up."

"If you are being serious, you would make at least a few of us here at the AO pretty happy," came a stern female voice from behind him. Ian turned to see a woman in her mid to late twenties standing next to a man who appeared to be the same age. "My husband and I have crafting inherent skills, but we don't bring a lot to the table when it comes to dungeon diving. We either waste all of our SP on being a weak adventurer, or we mooch off everyone while building up our ability to craft."

"Have none of the development companies tried to recruit you?" Lana asked.

"Crafting skills don't work with mass production at our levels," the woman's husband said. "There isn't enough money to be made for a large company on single low-level orders. Especially since they would need to help us get levels to further increase our capabilities. The risk is just not worth the investment."

Ian pondered on that. It wasn't worth it for a large company, but clans and parties would benefit from having dedicated crafters. Ian looked back over his shoulder at his sister and Selenia tearing through the monsters in the dungeon and smiled.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Do you two want to grab a late lunch or afternoon snack with us?" Ian said, turning back to the woman and her husband.

The two looked confused before turning to look at each other. When the husband shrugged and nodded, the woman turned back to him, "Sure. We were going to head into the dungeon in a bit, but why not?"

"Wonderful," Ian said before turning back to the rest of the crowd. "Sorry, gotta run. Look for an AO announcement about awakening challenges in the next couple of days. I wish you all safe and lucrative dives!"

Everyone waved and began chatting as Lana and Ian walked over to the couple.

"My name is Lana, and this is Ian. It is a pleasure to meet you both."

"I'm Ruth, and this is my husband Jimmy," said the woman. "I'm not really sure what you want, but there probably isn't much we can do for you."

"We haven't eaten anything other than a scone so far today," Ian said. "Let's head to the cafeteria and grab some food, then I would love to hear about how your crafting skills work. Combined with my inherent skills, we may be able to really help each other out."

"Sure," said Jimmy. "A couple of hours away from the dungeon won't really mean much."

*~*~*

"So, you can help increase the potency of an armor or weapon through layering spell enhancements across it?" Ian asked, dumbfounded.

"I can, but there are limited slots on each item based on the quality of the material utilized in its creation," Ruth said, taking a sip from her coffee. "I can even enhance dungeon items if I have the right skills. The biggest problem is that SP requirements force me to stay highly specialized, even with my inherent skill increasing the efficiency and reducing the SP cost."

Lana nodded in understanding, "It also doesn't help that you have to spend it on other skills to just run the dungeon."

James nodded, taking another sip from his ale, "Ruth and I are beginning to hit the point where we have to start spending SP on attack skills. Our armor and weapons are as good as we can make them right now, but we are getting to the point that we are too weak to fight monsters half our level without it becoming too dangerous."

"I can understand that," Ian said, taking a drink from his own ale. "So, you and Ruth are both right around level 155. You have an inherent skill that increases the quality of items you craft, and she is an enchanter. Neither of you has put any of your skill points into anything other than crafting skills, and now you are hitting the barrier to what you can do without any SP placed into combat skills."

"Depressingly accurate," Ruth said with a sigh. "We've been running dungeons on the weekends for over six years. We love making things, but we aren't getting anywhere with it. With how dangerous it is to progress, we've been talking about possibly giving it up."

"But you love enchanting," Jimmy said, reaching out and squeezing his wife's hand. "I could also start putting some SP in combat so we can get you a little farther."

Ian looked over at Lana, who was giving the couple a small smile.

"So," Ian said, drawing everyone's attention to him. "One of the biggest worries I have had recently is that my group is going to be outleveling its ability to purchase gear. We are fine right now, mainly because half of us started with gear that will get us through the low-tier. That advantage is going to quickly fall to the wayside as we progress into the mid-tier.

"I've already found out through experience that my armor won't stand up to the scarier monsters in the starting dungeons of the mid-tier, and I'd rather not have my sister or friends have to deal with that. Given what you have told me, I think we may be able to help each other out in that regard if you are willing to help us with gear."

Ruth looked over at her husband before turning back to Ian, "Don't get me wrong, we would love to. But we are way too low a level to work with the materials required to make gear for you all at that level. Doing so would be amazing, but…we just can't."

"Ian, you really need to work on letting people know what you are thinking," Lana said teasingly before turning to the couple. "What Ian is trying to do is invite you to our party. Let us worry about getting your levels and whatnot. Our party has some…advantages that will help you in more ways than you think. We'd ask you to prestige, but it isn't a guarantee that you would get the same inherent skills when you hit level one hundred again."

"I'd never want to change my skill," Ruth said, eyes wide. "Why would I ever reset? That doesn't make any sense."

"I'd hazard a guess that it has something to do with a skill of his," Jimmy said, tipping his glass toward Ian. "Your entire party reset, and Tram completely changed his fighting style. I also haven't seen you with a bow."

"It does, and if you accept, we'll tell you more about it in a secure room," Ian said. "However, I don't think you will really need to reset. Over time, the bonus will be so small that it isn't worth the possibility of you losing your inherent skill."

"If we did accept, how often would you all be looking to run dungeons?" Ruth asked. "Jimmy and I have normal day jobs to cover our apartment and basic living expenses. We'd need to keep them until we are high enough level to pull in enough money to support ourselves."

"How attached are you to your apartment?" Lana asked, putting down her phone.

"We're not. It isn't in the best part of town, but it is cheap enough that we can afford it and still purchase materials to make our armor and weapons."

"Well, Claire said that there is one more apartment on our floor that is yours if you want it, and she can have the AO cover the cost of breaking your lease. You two would be given the same benefits as the rest of us, so there wouldn't be a cost associated with living expenses. Plus, we could get you over to the dungeon really quick to join Nia and Ash. I doubt those two are going to stop until they are dying of hunger."

Ian smiled at the shocked looks on their faces, "If you are in, we need to get over to the main building to get you registered. Every thirty minutes, they are rolling through the bosses." Ian pointed to the display as Nia and Ash were teleported back to the beginning.

"We're in," they both said in unison.

"Sweet!" Lana said, standing up. "Claire just put in the requests, so it will only take us a moment to finalize them at the front. Let's get you two over to the dungeon before they finish another round.

"Oh, and Ian," Lana said, switching her attention. "I already texted Tram, he and Claire know you are gonna drop their buffs for this since they won't be near a dungeon."

"Thinking of everything tonight, huh?" Ian chuckled.

"Someone has to when Claire isn't here," she giggled. "Besides, this is the most fun I've ever had."

*~*~*

"Ruth and Jimmy seem to finally be getting into a rhythm," Tram said, looking at the display.

The two newcomers were following behind Nia and Ash as they quickly and efficiently slaughtered the goblins in their path. Any that didn't go down instantly were quickly torn apart by the huge moon prowlers.

"It's been four rounds so far," Lana said, texting someone on her phone. "Besides, they've already broken level two hundred. At the rate they are going, I wouldn't be surprised if they hit three hundred before Ash and Nia stop."

"Yeah, but look at the smiles on their faces," Ian said, pointing to the screen. "They nearly freaked out the first time they leveled. And they are getting a ton of small essence stones to either sell or use in their enchanting."

"Not to mention a single piece of equipment from either boss sells for a ton of money," Tram said. "Though I have the feeling they are going to give most of those extra pieces away to other members of the party who can use them. Your sister seems a little bit hyper-focused on completing that set.

"Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if she asked to keep going tomorrow to get any pieces she's missing," Ian chuckled. "She always was a completionist at heart.

"With how much we are going to be collecting, I think we need to start dividing the loot up into different categories," Lana said. "I was texting with Claire earlier, and it might be better to set aside all the crafting materials and half the essence stones for our new members. Then Claire can sell the remaining stones once a week and split the money between everyone. That way, we have extra stones sitting around most of the time just in case the prowlers need them for milestones."

"Probably a good idea," Ian said. "Then, once we get a surplus of stuff, Ruth and Jimmy can start selling their crafted goods to get their names out there. We'll have to work something out with them to ensure they are being properly compensated for their skills." Ian suddenly smiled. "Crafting was always one of my favorite things to do in video games. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with when we start farming the mid-tier dungeons."

"I'd say that we were going to have a while to wait, but I have the feeling that it won't take that long," Tram said, taking another drink before turning to look at Ian with a smile. "I heard from a friend that you were openly hitting on my little sister over there."

Ian coughed as he choked on his beer. "What was that?"

"Just saying that I got a call today about a little drama in a certain little coffee shop," Tram said with a shit eating grin. "They said you might have implied that Lana there is not only way hotter than your ex, but also a better person before holding the door for her on the way out and disappearing into a park."

Lana rolled her eyes. "I take it Mom told you?"

"Yeah, she called right after you left," he said, chuckling at the confused look on Ian's face. "Our foster parents own that coffee shop. Their biological daughter runs it most of the time, but we make sure to come by and say hello.

"Anyways, apparently Avra just sat there and stared into her hands for like ten minutes after you two left. She kept shaking her head and mumbling to herself, lost in her own little world. Mom even said she was a little worried about her, but she got up and left before mom could find a minute to go talk to her."

"Probably for the best," Lana retorted. "Mom doesn't need to deal with her craziness."

"Yeah," Tram said thoughtfully before looking back at Ian. "Anyways, you gotta be careful hitting on other people's sisters, man. You never know when they will hit on your sister back."

Ian did spit out his ale this time as Lana glared at Tram. Getting himself under control, Ian looked up at the screen where his sister was petting Mara and smiling, both completely covered in blood and gore.

"If you think you could possible handle that," he said, pointing at the screen. "You are more than welcome to try, but never say your good buddy Ian didn't warn you. I've lived with her, and this is the side she lets the outside world see."

Tram sighed, looking over at Lana as she giggled.

"Fine, fine," Tram said with a smirk. "You know, you are a lot better at the whole 'scaring away potential suitors thing' than I am. I'm gonna have to take notes."

"Psh, it ain't me," Ian said, grabbing Tram's mug as he stood to refill his own. "She's perfectly capable of doing that all on her own."