Hard Mode Awakening Challenge

"Ian, you missed the entire evaluation," Claire said, glaring at him as he closed the door to her office. "I thought you said you were just going to take a quick look."

Ian looked over to see Claire at her desk and Selenia sitting on the sofa with perfect posture. He made an apologetic gesture before he moved to take the seat next to Selenia.

"I know, but you won't believe what's in those reports," Ian said, still surprised himself. "They weren't just the six reports of the challenges, but a lot of personal notes from Leonian himself. It seems that most hard mode awakening challenges are just stupidly difficult for people to complete. Of the individuals who received one, only three were able to complete them—none of whom are still alive today."

Selenia nodded, "My father mentioned that the last one died very young, and that was over two hundred years ago."

"They all died young," Ian added.

"We can get back to that," Claire said, her eyes bright. "Tell us what you learned!"

Ian chuckled and relented, "Leonian seemed to think that the different tiers of awakening challenges help determine the initial strength and potential of the additional inherent skill granted. As we all know, most people only start out with one. People with awakening challenges can start out with two. But it seems to be more complicated than that.

"Easy mode challenges tend to either increase the first skill's potential, or give a second, weaker inherent skill on top of the normal one. These two skills rarely have anything to do with each other, but both are like normal, inherent skills. There is also an increase in SP gain or a reduction in skill cost attached to either the new powerful skill or the second one.

"Standard mode challenges always come with two skills, and one of the skills is usually considerably stronger than its normal counterpart. Like having a fireball that pulls in enemies the moment before it explodes, or having a summon skill that creates two creatures instead of one. The SP modifiers are also larger and attached to the better skill.

"Hard modes are different, though," Ian said, as a pensive look crossed his features. "However, there are so few cases it is hard to tell if the information is fully fleshed out or not." He shrugged as he thought for a second. "Either way, the skills are both incredibly powerful, though the three they were able to document were not as intertwined as mine are. For example, the first person to complete one on their planet had skills that gave her a huge bonus to her physique, while the second gave her incredible control over fire magic.

"But their challenges, to include those who failed, were all much less intensive than mine," Ian said, getting questioning gazes from both women now that Selenia was too engrossed in the information to maintain her poise. "The three that completed their runs had to hit level one hundred in fewer than ten hours in the dungeon. The three that failed had more complex challenges.

"Complex?" Claire asked.

"Yeah, they would have to hit level one hundred within a single day, but they would also need to complete additional requirements. One required the adventurer to not take any damage. While it seemed easy, he failed at the first mob. Another was a natural mage who was given the task to kill five mobs in a row with a dagger while staying undetected. The third was given the task of beating ten monsters in a row in single combat using their bare fists.

"Those seem nearly impossible," Claire mused. "Though I think you are the only person who could actually level fast enough to make it matter."

"My people don't have the same level requirements to enter dungeons as yours do," Selenia said. "While I have never been in a dungeon, my siblings always spoke of power ranges. Since the ambient mana is so much higher on my home world, many of us are much stronger starting than you humans because our bodies are used to utilizing mana.

"I-uh," stopping and looking around, Selenia suddenly looked very embarrassed. "With how low the ambient mana is here, I am actually feeling incredibly weak. It is like my body hasn't rested in days, or that I have carried far too many things, and my arms and legs are too weak to move properly."

"Mana sickness!" Claire said, eyes getting wide before grabbing her tablet. Holding it out, she gave it to Selenia. "It is something I was looking up because I was worried about the effects of using the prestige skill early. Without the levels to store the mana internally, people who prestige feel weaker when in a dungeon due to their loss of stats. It goes away after a few hours, but it is one of the main things that kills people who prestige.

"Since your body has only utilized external mana up to this point, it's no wonder that you feel weak in our atmosphere. Though you should feel a lot better when entering the dungeon tomorrow."

Selenia gave Claire a small smile as she read the tablet.

"What does that mean for me?" Ian asked. "I'm going to be losing more than most tomorrow."

"It won't matter for you because you are going to prestige right before you walk into a dungeon. Besides, with your buffs…"

Ian watched as Claire tilted her head to the side and looked over at Selenia, who was struggling to hold the tablet up to keep reading.

"What are you thinking about?" Ian asked, following her gaze.

"Can you buff Selenia right now? She's already officially added to the party."

Selenia looked up as Ian activated his Status Synchronization skill on her. She nearly tossed the tablet as her arms shot up.

"What is this?" she exclaimed, quickly standing to her feet and jumping in place. "All the fatigue and pain are gone."

"Victory!" Claire said, raising her hands and spinning in her chair.

Snorting, Ian smiled as Selenia started stretching and moving around, testing herself.

"How does your buff do this?" Selenia asked, locking eyes with Ian. When he shrugged, she turned her attention to Claire.

"While I'm not entirely certain, I would say that his buff helps trap mana for the body to utilize," Claire said. "We'll have him buff everyone before we go in tomorrow, because Tram, Lana, and I are going to be struggling if we don't."

"Definitely," Ian said with a smile. "Speaking of tomorrow, what did you learn about Selenia's skills today?"

"Well, Zero—"

"Please call me Ian, Selenia." Ian said, cutting in. "Zero is my official adventuring alias, but I want my friends to call me Ian."

Selenia just stared at him for a moment before she spoke in nearly a whisper. "You are willing to be my friend?"

"Of course he is," Claire said before coming around the desk and standing next to her. "Both of us are your friends, and I'm sure the rest of the team will feel the same way."

"Okay. Yes. Okay," Selenia muttered to herself for a moment. "I have only ever had one friend, and that was my older brother, who left my father's faction. He called me Nia, so I would like you all to call me that as well."

"Sure thing, Nia," Claire said, giving the smaller woman a hug. Ian got up off the sofa so the two could sit down together. He sat on the edge of the desk as the conversation returned to the original topic.

"Where was I?" Selenia said before turning her attention back to Ian. "Oh, yes. I learned that I am proficient in both Ice and Water magic, which is a surprise to me because my father's wives always said that I had no aptitude for magic and refused to waste money on teaching me."

"Ha!" Claire exclaimed with a huge grin. "Listen to this, Ian. Nia walks out there, picks up the ice staff, and is able to shoot half a dozen ice bolts at the targets in the room. When she puts it back down, she just looks at her hand for a moment before shooting another off without any assistance.

"Aunt Mavis was in the booth with me and nearly fell out of her chair in shock! Then she did the same thing with the water staff. She's literally a natural mage, not the skill-based ones like we have. I think only half a dozen humans have been able to manipulate the mana in the atmosphere without the dungeon's assistance, and all of them are still children."

"But the spells were much weaker than with the staves," Nia murmured.

"Well, those have their own essence stones," Claire said, giving the other woman a knowing smile. "It's entirely possible that your internal mana reserves were still high enough from only recently arriving, but I am certain that your mana control is going to be phenomenal."

"With you being a spellcaster, we are going to have a pretty well-rounded party," Ian said before a thought struck him. "Actually, you've never told me what your role in your last party was, Claire."

Claire went from smiling to grimacing. "I'd love to tell you that I'd rather not talk about it, but that really won't cut it here." She took a deep breath and sat up. "I was and am a logistic style supporter. My inherent skill doesn't lend itself to combat, and I don't have the natural speed or stealth to take up my father's role of scout. Instead, I loaded up on storage space and grabbed a nature skill called Bark Skin to help increase my party's defense.

"I am proficient in space magic, which greatly increased my item box's potential. However, it costs stupid amounts of SP to get to the point I can even unlock additional space magic skills. I would have had to be in the high-tier before I could even purchase my first spell, and most parties that go that high want a supporter that is focusing on boosting their stats. Most parties would only see me as a burden, and they wouldn't be willing to stick with me for the decade or more it would normally take to get that high."

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Claire gave Ian a guilty glance.

"Psh," Ian said with a knowing smile. "I know you've already worked out the math and planned your skill purchases. How long until you become 'Claire, Space Mistress of the Universe?'"

"Uh, we are definitely not calling me that," Claire said with a giggle. "But you're right, and I have. I should be rolling into it around level 1,240 at the earliest. However, I'm planning for a bit beyond that due to any random skills I need to grab for safety."

"Probably a safe bet," Ian replied. "So, we have two mages, a tank, a healer, an archer, and me? That sounds like a pretty sweet setup, even if I am incredibly biased."

"We'll be pretty well-rounded," Claire agreed, before glancing at Nia. "You interested in getting some food and meeting the rest of the team?"

"Oh, yes, please!" Nia said, jumping up out of the seat. "I hope they have apples and grapes!"

"You're in for a real treat," Ian chuckled as he followed both women to the door.

*~*~*

"I thought a Faeorcen would draw more attention," Selenia whispered to Ian as they signed in to get food. "I feel like there are more eyes on you than anything else. I assumed I would be a spectacle for a time, like my father was."

Ian looked over his shoulder at the few dozen people already eating. Only a couple seemed to be looking in his direction, though a few others did turn their attention away when he looked.

"There are quite a few humans who take skills to adopt similar looks to yours," he replied, turning his attention back to her. "If I had to guess, it's one of the more common body modification skills you will find. It's pretty cheap for the changes provided. Though you will find that most of them will call themselves an elf."

Nia's face scrunched up as Ian said the word.

"Now don't be like that," Ian said. "You may look similar, but humans have made up their own fantasy worlds and cultures around the elves in our stories. It wasn't until the dungeon system was activated that we even knew your people existed. Now you get the benefit of everyone thinking you are awesome instead of something to gawk at."

"I understand your meaning, but I still find the idea that people are pretending to be Faeorcen distasteful. Wouldn't you find it awful if other races decided to pretend to be human?"

"Actually, I'd find it pretty ironic," Ian said, placing half a banana and a small bowl of assorted fruit on her tray. "Trust me, they taste awesome. But yes, ironic, because so many humans spend their free time wishing to become something more. To us, humans are baseline, so everything else is exciting. Which is why everyone here probably thinks you are using one of the elven skills humans get."

"So…they don't even know I'm not human?" Selenia said, eyes getting wide.

"Since most people here are pretty low level, barely anyone would have a way to analyze you to see that you aren't," Ian said, pointing over at the table the rest of the party was sitting at. "And other than the other members of our party, we haven't told anyone and don't plan to. So, tonight you are just one of us silly humans to the unwashed masses."

Her eyes got large as she inspected the crowd. Turning back towards Ian, she whispered, "Do they really not bathe?"

Ian snorted and began to laugh. "It's just a saying. Let's go sit and eat."

When they reached the table, Claire offered Selenia the seat next to her.

"Alright, everyone, this is the young lady who I was just talking about, Selenia."

"Oh, please call me Nia."

Claire smiled at her before she continued. "Nia, the young woman next to me is Ian's sister, Ashlyn. She is amazing with a bow. The woman on the other side of her is Lana, and the man next to her is Tram—"

"I remember them. They were both in the Conquerors with Ian's former partner, correct?" Selenia asked.

"That is us," Lana said with a hint of embarrassment. "Unfortunately, we were under contractual obligations to run dungeons with her. We are now forced to completely start over again if we ever want to progress. The skill choices that were foisted on us weakened our fighting potential to the point that we couldn't stand against normal monsters in our level range."

"Yeah, it was awful," Tram said, grimacing at the memory. "Luckily, we ran into Ian when we did though, and we hit it off. So, not only do we get to hang out with cool people, but we also finally get to see what we are capable of with the correct skills.

"I'm hoping my inherent skill hasn't changed too much. If all goes well, I'll be able to be a proper front-line tank. Just let me take all the hits, and I'll do my best to keep everyone safe."

"You'd better at least try to block and dodge some of them, or I won't be able to keep you up," Lana said, glaring at him. She sighed before turning back to Selenia, who had discovered the wonders of lemon-basted chicken. "I have an affinity for nature magic, so I am hoping to pick up some healing spells. My old inherent skill had to do with analyzing enemies, so it will be useful even if it doesn't change. However, I'm switching to a staff, as I am a pretty poor shot with a bow."

Ashly snorted before nudging her playfully. "Yeah, you are. I thought you were exaggerating, but they really did you dirty."

"But she always seemed to hit when my family saw you on the holo deck," Selenia said, eyes wide in surprise.

Lana just shook her head and grimaced, "That is only because it showed me using my skills. I'm pretty terrifying without them, and not in a good way."

"Do we know if anyone else is gonna show up tonight?" Ian asked.

"I don't think so," Ashlyn answered. "James took his group in this morning to do a stream on how to effectively fight insect type monsters. Diana is in the middle of a deep dive with her team, and her siblings said they would be back from their vacation on Monday.

"Which leaves Jason. He got into it with a party last night, so he is gonna be gone for a while."

"Gone?" Claire asked, concern in her voice. "Is he alright?"

Tram and Ashlyn both started laughing.

"Apparently," Lana said, taking over, "they were a new group that's still in the middle range for the novice bracket. They had been drinking for a few hours and were more than a little toasted. So, they started talking about how they were the future, and everyone else was garbage. It only took them a few minutes to get into it with another party that's been around for a while. When things started to look rough, Jason stepped in between the groups. The older group backed off, but the newer one called him a 'crusty old man' and threatened to 'break his hip' if he didn't get out of their way."

Ian was laughing right along with Claire as Lana struggled to continue.

"Why is this funny? It is horrible to threaten your elders!" Selenia said, shocked at her new friend's action.

"Oh, please tell him that he is an elder when you meet him," Claire squeaked out, trying to get her laughing under control.

"Anyways…" Lana drawled, pulling attention back to her. "Upon hearing their words, everyone—"

"And she means everyone!" Tram clarified.

"Everyone," she repeated, glaring at him, "got quiet and took a few steps back. The leader of the first group must have been really drunk, because he moved to take a swing at Jason. Before he could bring his fist forward, Jason had palmed the kid's head and lifted him clean off the ground. The man was holding onto Jason's arm with both of his hands and kicking his legs like one of those really old cartoons.

"We thought Jason was furious, but he just looked between both groups involved with a small frown and shook his head." Lana suddenly shook as if a chill ran up her back.

"It reminded me of when I did something bad, and Grandpa was disappointed in me," Ashlyn added with a shudder of her own.

Ian grimaced at the memories that were brought up. Tram continued before he could delve too deeply down memory lane.

"He just looked back and forth between them for a moment, before he just stated that they needed training to help 'build their character.' He started walking towards the door and turned back around to find everyone still standing stock still—other than the dude whose face he was still treating like a basketball. Then he said that both groups had until the count of three to be outside, and it would be worse for every number he reached."

"I've never seen anyone move so fast in my life," Ashlyn interjected. "They all ran out with him walking out behind them. Then, when we went to leave after dinner, all twelve of them were in a row doing sprint drills in full armor."

"Even the mages!" Lana said with a giggle. "I thought that tall, scrawny guy in the huge robe was gonna die."

"Yeah, he's dead," Tram added with a solemn nod. "I should have asked for his pointy mage hat."

"Okay," Claire said, still giggling, "but why isn't he going to be here tonight? He usually runs dungeons in the morning."

"Oh, both groups got Stockholm syndrome or something and have imprinted onto him like ducklings," Ashlyn said with a smirk. "With him being such a big softy, he even volunteered to tag along on an extended dungeon run today so he can evaluate both teams and help identify what training they are going to need to make them stronger."

Ian looked over to see a bewildered look on Selenia's face. He gently touched her arm to get her attention.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

"Just very confused," she replied with a small frown. "It seems you all have a lot of respect for this man…who is an elder—which is a fact that you all find humorous? And he was insulted by some hooligans, whom he did not kill, and is instead now helping to become more successful?

"I feel like what was said, and the emotions you all showed upon hearing the story…do not match. On my home world, my father and his wives would have laughed as the hooligans were killed in subsequent duels with the elder they had insulted—especially if they were much weaker than the elder. Though I must admit I've never found my family's idea of humor funny."

"Not gonna lie, I'm pretty happy you don't find other people dying funny," Ian said, giving her a reassuring smile. "I can also see why you're confused, since you haven't met him and are missing a lot of context. You see, Jason is a very, very kind person who wants all adventurers to be safe and successful. He's known around here for helping everyone else with advice and training. He even helped me out on my first night here. Everyone respects him, which is why we found it funny when he helped set some drunk kids back on the right path.

"We also do not kill fellow adventurers here for any reason. In our society, it is illegal for anyone to kill another unless it is in self-defense. For adventurers, the dungeon system alerts the authorities when our laws are broken by our adventurers, as our society wants to ensure power is not given to individuals who will abuse it."

"I see," she said, picking up her spoon and grabbing the last bowl on her plate. "So, in essence, you find this story funny because it highlights an event that showcases the character and mannerisms of this man in an ironic or silly way?" She looked to Ian, who nodded in return. Before she could stick the spoon in her mouth she stopped to ask, "Does that mean he isn't actually old?"

"No, he's absolutely ancient," Claire said, with a stern expression. "When speaking to him, we always use the honorific 'Elder One' or 'Ancient One' to ensure he gets the proper respect he deserves."

"Oh," Selenia said, finally putting the spoon in her mouth. Her eyes got wide, and she quickly stood up, staring down at her bowl. "What in the name of the Moon Goddess is this amazing delight! It is cold, rich, creamy, and fluffy! I don't know what the under flavor is, but it has to be the greatest creation in the universe."

"I see we have another lady of culture!" Ashlyn said, getting up and walking over to Selenia as everyone else was laughing. "What the hell, Ian? Why did you get her vanilla ice cream? It's an affront to our entire species to introduce the blandest version of our culinary excellence to an elf, especially when we have strawberry, chocolate, and toffee on the menu tonight."

Ashlyn barely blinked before the other woman turned around and grabbed her shoulders. Selenia stared into her eyes with such intensity that it had pulled Claire and Ian from their laughter.

"I'm sorry, Nia. I forgot you don't like being called that," Ashlyn quietly apologized.

"No, no, that isn't important right now," Selenia said, still not blinking. "You can call me whatever you please as long as you show me where to get this 'iced cream' in additional flavors. It's a moral imperative."

Ashlyn suddenly squealed, wrapping the petite woman in a hug before dragging her off to the ice cream machines.

"Those two are going to be BFFs by the time we start our dungeon run tomorrow morning," Tram said as the group watched the girls go. "Also, her English is amazing. I wonder how long it took her to learn it."

"Like three days," Claire said with a sigh. "She absorbs information like a sponge, and no, that doesn't seem to be a racial thing either. She learned two spellforms today after casting them through trainers just a few times. She doesn't get our idioms, and is mixing a ton of context, but she will probably pick all of it up over the next few weeks. I give it a month before she sounds and acts like just another human adventurer."

"We'll, we'll definitely help her out in any way we can," Tram replied before a smirk replaced his pensive expression. "But the straight-faced way you told her that Jason was an elder…"

"Don't any of you dare ruin this for me," Claire said with an evil grin.

"You can be evil when you want to be," Ian chuckled.

"Yeah, and I'm going to steal one of Ashlyn's four bowls of ice cream when she gets back," Claire said, watching as Selenia and Ashlyn laughed as they filled up their trays. "You with me Lana?"

"All is fair in love and ice cream," came the other woman's reply.