Chapter 292: The Fifth Trial Begins Now

{The Fifth Trial Will Begin Now}

The message came before the heroes of Marimgar even had a chance to celebrate the rewards that they had gotten from the fourth trial. They were much more practical than the ones that had come before them, but in a way, they were something much better.

They would let everyone with System Access modify their home, and fill their closets with casual clothes, the sort of thing that you did when you were really living life and not just surviving it.

Now, the question was whether they were going to get to enjoy the benefits.

{Fifth Trial Challenge}

{To complete the fifth trial, each faction must complete an individualized task. The faction that completes this task to the highest standard will be granted extra rewards.

No set time limit.}

{ For the city of Marimgar, the lone remaining human faction, the trial will be as follows:

[ Goal 1 ] Prepare Humanity for the Ascension of the world.

[ Goal 2 ] Awaken System Interface among as many humans as possible.

These two goals will be judged together, and evenly weighted towards the completion status of the Fifth Trial. Final results will be judged against the individual trial results of the other factions. }

The messages disappeared, and Kalli realized that there was still vital information missing.

They didn’t know when the trial ended.

Not that it changed much at this point, they were going to do their very best anyhow. But if they knew the end date, they had a clear goal to work towards, and not just a vaguely defined goal of "Preparing Humanity for the Ascension of the world."

She wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but suspected that it meant this world was going to gain more mana, which likely meant more monsters, more danger, and everything that came with it.

Sanchez frowned. "Where do we even start? I mean, it appears that Vinnie was right to bring the level 0 sorts through the dungeons to get them to level 1, so there is that. But other than that, what are we even supposed to be doing?

There isn’t some super obvious way to get people started on the path, only to push them up once they have reached level 0 and started."

Vinnie looked inordinately proud of himself.

Kalli shrugged before she replied. "I think that for now, we might actually be doing all we can on that front. Until we figure out how to get people to level 0, I don’t know if we can do more on that front.

It’s the other challenge, about a change in the world, that I’m concerned with.

Ascension suggests that the world is going to get more powerful, and that means we need more powerful Heroes, not just more of them. However, our highest level dungeon is level ten.

So, we’re going to have to find something that will let us push up past level fifteen or twenty.

Level ten feels powerful to us now, but we might be working on a scale of one to a hundred, not one to twenty. There is a vehicle in the store that can withstand attacks from level twenty monsters for some time.

And that suggests that we’re going to see things stronger than that."

The team leaders in the room all sat silently, wondering what they could do about that. They had the dungeons, they had quests, but there was nothing in the region to hunt except sea monsters, and they knew they couldn’t defeat those easily.

So, they were going to have to find something else.

"Perhaps we’re going to see more monsters now that the trials have switched? Maybe not a tide like the combat trials, but it might bring back some to replace all the ones that died. That would at least give us missions to complete outside the city," Sanchez noted.

"That would be interesting, and I think it’s possible." Yara agreed. "Every trial changes the world a bit, and it said that the world will be changing a lot after this trial, so it makes sense that we might get a fresh batch of monsters."

Kalli drummed her fingers on the desk, and then nodded in satisfaction.

"In that case, we keep up the scouting. If we find targets, especially more powerful ones, we can send teams to deal with them. That will help us keep up our strength. However, look at the trial message.

We didn’t all get the same objective.

So, there is a chance that there are other groups that are going to come looking for us to complete their mission. Whether it’s a mission to eliminate a group, or to move up a spot, there is a good chance that they’re going to travel.

However, don’t immediately attack when you see other factions on the list.

The giants, we can probably safely assume are assholes.

But the mermen didn’t attack us during the flood, and we haven’t met the Lycans or the Werewolves, so they might be friendly, or they might not.

The trolls sound like monsters, but their King is named Larry. How serious could they be if they have a King Larry? They might just be ugly and misunderstood."

That made the heroes laugh. Trolls as a misunderstood potential good faction? That was just ridiculous. But Kalli had a point. If they happened to meet the trolls, and they didn’t attack on sight, then there was a chance that they could actually work together on something that would help the Marimgar residents achieve their goal.

Trolls might have magic that the humans needed, since they had clearly managed to make it this far in decent shape.

While the team leaders considered their options, Kalli had a random thought come to mind.

Were Werewolves fluffy? Like, were they some bristle furred giant monster? Or did they transform into something like an overgrown husky? Since they should be able to turn into something human in appearance, they might be allies in the future.

Or at the very least, they might be able to understand the language.