"I feel like I was expecting there to be more of them."
"Compared to the Death Zones, yeah."
The cube had sent the group to the center of a pack of monsters. There was one A Rank monster, and ten B Rank ones.
That was similar to the final boss of an A Rank Dungeon.
Still a far cry from the Death Zones in the S Rank Dungeon, where more than a hundred A Rank monsters would swarm a party.
(A well-balanced party of eight should be able to pull through. Though if some members don't have any Talents it would be harder. The fight started with the enemy surrounding us completely too.)
The main difference with the final bosses was that the fight would not start in such a surrounded state there.
Allen wanted to streamline the way through the Dungeon for his army to undergo Talent Changes, but there did not seem to be any specific strategy for that so far.
Some cubes seemed to be rigged to teleport the party into the middle of a pack of monsters.
There had been five cubes in total, one of which was the trap one.
The odds were low, but unlike the first assignment, there was no way to avoid it this time.
Luck seemed to play a part in one's ability to go through the Talent Change Dungeon as well.
Once they defeated all the monsters, they approached the cube further inside that room.
It had been there the entire time, but evading the monsters and getting to it without being attacked was not so easy.
'Congratulations for passing the assignment. Do you wish to proceed to the next one? Or would you prefer leaving the Talent Change Dungeon?'
The cube announced they had passed the assignment.
While it had been a bit different from the first assignment, killing all the monsters also meant passing it.
There was nothing left to explore, so they went to the last assignment.
The group was teleported to the floor where the third assignment would be conducted.
It was a large room, similar to the other two.
There were corridors leading to the front, back, and both sides.
A cube floated in the center, like always.
'Hello, I'm the Talent Change Dungeon's assignment issuer T 30235. Your assignment will be complete when you find and talk to a Teleporter System located somewhere in here. You have 24 hours.'
"Hm, so now there's a time limit. What happens if we take too long?"
'The assignment will be marked as failed, and you'll be taken outside the Talent Change Dungeon. You'll need to start over from the beginning.'
The party would be ejected from the Dungeon, whether they wanted to or not.
And they would need to go through every assignment again.
"Let's see what's in front then."
"Okay!"
They were moving slowly and methodically to study the Dungeon, but Merle still sounded excited.
She really wanted to Change Talents as soon as possible, but she also understood the importance of Allen's investigation.
They walked straight forward.
"I guess this is a maze."
"Seems so. The other paths seem to branch out a lot more though."
"Really?"
Allen decided to explain a bit more to Cecile.
The third assignment was navigating through a maze.
For some reason the path in front of them was like a straight corridor without detours, while the other paths twisted and split into more branches.
While they continued down the front path, Allen's summons were checking the other ones.
'Oh, so you just walked forward without thinking? Foolish humans.'
After walking on the straight corridor for a long time, they reached a corner, and turning it they encountered a dragon.
A cube was behind him.
They had to defeat the dragon if they wanted to reach it.
"Get him, Orochi."
'''Yessir'''
'Hm? Grahhh?!'
Allen called his Dragon A summon.
An enormous dragon appeared, his Strength boosted to 15'000 with Strengthening.
Allen's friends also joined the fight and easily knocked out the dragon.
In just a few minutes they had defeated the dragon that acted so haughtily earlier, and reached the cube.
Meanwhile the Bird A summons with 15'000 of Agility after Strengthening had already mapped out the entire maze.
The front path had no detours, but led to an A Rank monster.
The left corridor had many branches, but the length of the correct path was short, and housed quite a few B Rank monsters.
The right side had few branches, the corridors were longer, and also had numerous B Rank monsters.
The one to the back had many branches, long corridors, and some C Rank monsters dotted about.
One hour was enough to walk through the front path, even at a leisure pace.
The left and right ones could take around 4 or 5 hours if one checked most branches to find the correct path.
The one to the back could easily take ten hours even if one followed the optimal path only.
Just like during the second assignment, there were multiple monsters posing as treasure chests in this maze.
Allen had Wraith A summons open them, but they were always monsters.
They were there to attack anyone who was greedy enough to check them.
Allen wrote down in his notes that given the excessive amount of mimics in the Talent Change Dungeon, if one wanted to obtain loot, it was best to just rush through the Dungeon and then visit a different one after undergoing the Talent Change.
Something had become obvious from reaching this point in the third assignment too.
The Talent Change Dungeon had been built in a way that made it possible for people without Talents to clear it.
But some luck was needed to avoid traps like the one in the second assignment.
The third one would be nearly impossible for them if they took the front, left, or right paths.
In a way, the chances of someone without a Talent passing through everything was only 10 or 20 percent.
Allen decided it was best to report his findings to the Adventurer's Guild's information desk, just to avoid the senseless deaths of beginner adventurers.
Maxing out one's Level while not having a Talent was hard work.
One needed 250'000'000 points of Experience.
That was not an easy goal to achieve, and required incredible effort.
There were many people without a Talent that wished to have one though.
So in the end each one of them would need to weigh out the risks.
Allen wrote down the information he gathered throughout the day as they walked.
They reached the cube.
'Congratulations for completing the third assignment, Abandoned Gamers. You'll be taken to the Talent Change area now.'
Voom
They were teleported to yet another location.
"Are you the one in charge of conducting the Talent Change?"
Allen spoke to the cube in the room.
'Yes. I'm the Talent Change System T0235. In your group Merle is the only one who hasn't undergone a Talent Change yet. Do you wish to proceed?'
Just like they had heard before, those who had already Changed Talents once, could not do it again.
Only Merle was eligible.
"Yes!"
'As a Magic Rock General, you can only change to Magic Rock King. Is that choice agreeable? A Talent Change will nullify any God's Trials completed thus far, creating the necessity to endure them again. Half of your current power will be transferred as is, however.'
"I see. I still want to do it though!"
(That reminds me, the Hero also looked at my stats, but didn't mention levels at all.)
Allen realized that no one there used terms like Levels or Skill Levels.
Elmea's Church had popularized the term 'God's Trials' instead.
It was possible that Helmios had no way of seeing Levels.
Leveling up was tightly tied to religion for many.
'Alright, your Talent will be changed then, Merle.'
"Ohh! Merle became a Magic Rock King!! Good job!!"
"R-Really?!"
Her stats had changed, so Merle also felt some change.
But she wanted to look at it expressed with definite numbers, so she rushed to Allen's side to look at the Grimoire.
Everyone else joined in, seeing that Merle's Talent had been changed in fact.
[Talent]: Magic Rock King
[Level]: 1
[Strength]: 839
[Mana]: 1210
[Attack]: 391
[Endurance]: 659
[Agility]: 391
[Intelligence]: 1210
[Luck]: 752
[Skills]: Magic Rock General (1), Flying Arm (1), Spearmanship (3), Shield Technique (3)
[Extra]: Combination (right arm)
-Skill Level:
[Magic Rock General] 1
[Flying Arm] 1
-Skill Experience
[Flying Arm] 0/10
"I wonder if I'll get to use a Hihiirokane Golem now too."
"Well, there's plenty of space here, so why don't you give it a try?"
"Okay!"
Merle took the Mithril Golem Stone Slab out of her Magic Board, and replaced it with the Hihiirokane Golem Stone Slab.
"Tam-Tam Descend!"
"Ohh!! This is the stuff dreams are made of!!"
Allen shouted excitedly.
[Strength]: 25'000 + 15'000
[Mana]: 25'000
[Attack]: 25'000 + 10'000
[Endurance]: 25'000 + 15'000
[Agility]: 25'000 + 10'000
[Intelligence]: 25'000
[Luck]: 25'000
(There's a pretty big jump in stats too. I'm sure it'll go even higher once Merle's Skills reach Levels 3 or 6. Actually, isn't this even more powerful than a Demon General?)
Allen looked at the enormous 100 meter long Hihiirokane Golem Tam-Tam, a vermillion sheen on it.
Stone slabs could boost a Hihiirokane's stats by 5000 each.
As part of the rewards for being the first ones to clear the S Rank Dungeon, Merle had obtained a Magic Board with a total of 20 slots.
After using the main body Stone Slab, and multiple others to increase the golem's size, she still had ten slots left for stat boosting Stone Slabs.
But in a real use-case she often used around five slots to activate Mode Eagle, and others to have the Vulcan Cannon functional to attack from long range, so it was not often that she used every slot to boost Tam-Tam's stats.
"If you work hard, I'm sure you'll get to challenge Gordino again like this."
Her stats were good enough on paper, but she still needed practice with her Skills.
"I feel like we'll end up staying in that Dungeon endlessly again now."
"Yup, we'll have to go back until we obtain everything we need for the future."
They needed more Stone Slabs for the Hihiirokane Golem.
More unique effects Stone Slabs would be useful, and some to boost the Vulcan Cannon too.
Iron Golems were not the final boss of the Dungeon, so even the members of Allen's Army could fight them. There were few enemies like that that were so useful for Allen's party though.
Cecile rolled her eyes hearing Allen's reply.
She could not escape returning to the days when Allen insisted on challenging a hundred Iron Golems a day.
The other group with Dogora was already there, and now once Merle grew strong enough, she would be able to attempt to defeat the final boss of the S Rank Dungeon again.
"I can feel the power! Mwahahahah! It's coursing through me!!"
Merle shouted like the final boss of a game, and struck a cool pose together with Tam-Tam, making the ground tremble.
Allen was happy about future prospects seeing the two like that.
