After killing the dungeon boss, Eldrian hadn't blacked out. He had managed to survive the blast and his collision with the wall. His body truly had grown stronger. Normally, he would be dead right now.
Sure, he was in a bad state. But his friends had reacted quickly and moved to help him. He hadn't even needed to force himself to cast some self-heals.
Of course, it wasn't just his body that had grown stronger. His soul had also been conditioned, and while Eldrian still had room to grow, he was doing so at a proper pace.
Still, that didn't mean he had joined the others in the cleanup. Sure, for once, he was able to. But he couldn't answer their questions, so he faked unconsciousness by hiding in his mind space.
He had tried to reach out to Ziraili, wishing to talk about what had just happened. But that wasn't working. Either she was busy, or the dungeon subspace was interrupting his communications.
With that being the case, Eldrian went around to confirm the state of his soul. Honestly, he didn't find much damage. Sure the void (excess) space had shrunk considerably. But that wasn't really important to Eldrian. As long as there was enough of a buffer before his actual soul world, everything was still fine.
Sadly, any and all kills made in the dungeon didn't reward any XP. The monsters also disappeared after a while, as did all their equipment. The only rewards from a dungeon was that which it gave upon being cleared.
This, of course, made sense. It wouldn't be balanced if you got XP or items but didn't lose any when dying. So no one had complained.
Eldrian was certainly the first player to ever lose XP in a dungeon. Not that it worried him. He had plenty in excess which could spent, and could only be spent in this way. Sure, when he died he might lose some. But as he didn't gain levels from quests anymore, he also didn't lose levels with his deaths.
Eldrian still wasn't sure if this was just the AI throwing him a bone or if there was an actual reason for this. But he couldn't complain.
'Yeah, this worked out. But... I still lost control.' Eldrian had overestimated himself. His fights against the monsters in the Core had made him confident. And the Death Knight had nearly made him pay.
'I also have no idea why the others were unharmed.' As far as Eldrian could tell, they had all been affected by the time dilation. Time had been slowed for everyone, not just him and the Death Knight.
Which made sense. He had sent out a massive amount of energy as a bubble. Everything inside would have been affected unless they could withstand its effects.
'Is that even possible?' Eldrian wondered. Time wasn't so simple. Honestly, he was still struggling to wrap his head around how time actually worked.
He kind of understood how typical time dilation worked through gravity or relative velocity. With time moving faster the higher those things are, due to how spacetime interacts. Or something like that.
But he hadn't felt any gravitational difference when he had slowed time. 'But my thoughts had been fast. So... did I instead speed myself up then slow everything down?'
'Still, time isn't a single factor that can... perhaps it actually is?' With how smooth things had gone, Eldrian had to conclude that perhaps it wasn't as complicated as he, and Ziraili too, had tried to make it.
Sure, slowing time brought problems. 'In fact, some things don't make sense. The air had been slowed, when I attacked the Death Knight there had been far less sound and shockwaves produced.'
Yet, Eldrian had still been able to see. Did that mean he hadn't been able to slow the speed of photons. Or did his mind make up what he saw?
He hadn't needed to breathe, since things had come to an end within a short timeframe. But if he had needed, would he have been able.
Or did he actually speed himself up and just convince himself that he had slowed everything else? 'But then... why the bubble of energy release?'
Eldrian didn't know.
Honestly, he was completely and utterly confused. Which was why he wanted to talk with Ziraili. Sadly, she wasn't responding to him.
—
"So, what are we picking?" Elizabeth asked the others. They had returned the seed of corruption to the fort and thus cleared the dungeon.
It had all gone smoothly. Most of the undead had died during Eldrian's fight with the dungeon boss. Some had survived in the same way the players had, but they hadn't posed much of a problem.
Speculation was that only an area near the explosion center had really been influenced. They had been too far. And thus everyone had survived.
Which, considering the strength of the explosion didn't make any sense. But it was the only answer they could get. Eldrian was still (playing) unconscious, after all.
"What are our options?" Judith asked, trying to look at the screen Elizabeth had opened. Sadly, only the party leader could see it.
For obvious reasons (past experiences) Eldrian hadn't been made the party leader.
"Well, our options are a greatsword, shield, chestplate, helmet, crown, greaves, bow, poleaxe, glaive, and a whip—"
"Whip?"
"Yeah, a whip," Elizabeth confirmed. "I'm as confused as you are. It isn't a weapon we've seen used. I assume it won't be too bad considering magic might make it user-friendly. But..."
"Yeah, no one uses a whip. Unless?" Zyviss looked at the others, wondering if anyone had any strange... 'hobbies'.
"Stop looking at me like that!" Judith shouted. She understood where he was coming from, but she was dressed like this for her aesthetic as a barbarian. Not a dominatrix. "I'm a barbarian. What barbarian used a whip instead of a sword or axe?!"
"You sure?" Zyviss teased.
"If I want anything, it would be the greatsword!" Judith shouted, trying to confirm this. However, her flushed cheeks made it seem like Zyviss had struck the nail on the head.
For once, she felt embarrassed with her attire despite this being in the game.
"Well, you have a good weapon already. So it won't be the biggest upgrade." Therdul countered. "I personally would prefer if we pick the shield. Or one of the armor pieces. Always good to be harder to kill."
"Oh, oh, oh!" Shooting her hand up, Nikki looked towards Elizabeth. "Let's get the crown. We need to get you some regal flare."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Elizabeth countered, giving Nikki a quick tap on the head. Trying to knock some sense back into her head.
"I doubt we need to get anything for Eldrian," Erik noted. "Therdul's armor is still new, and Judith..."
"I'm a barbarian! A barbarian!"
"Right, a whip would look really cool—ugck!"
"Shut up!" Slamming her fist into Zyviss's stomach, she sent him flying.
"See... *Cough* ... She's perfect..." He said through coughs, jumping out of the way as Judith tried to pummel him into silence.
"Guys, we still have cameras on us!" Nikki shouted, turning red in embarrassment. Meanwhile, Therdul was laughing his ass off.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l