Chapter 366: Talent Change Dungeon (2)
"This room is pretty big."
"Look Allen, I think there's something over there."
They had been transported to the first floor of the Talent Change Dungeon, where they would receive their first assignment.
It started inside a rather large room.
A cubic object floated in the center of the room.
Allen figured that the cube had something to do with their first assignment, so he and his group approached it.
'Welcome, Abandoned Gamers. I'm the Talent Change Dungeon's assignment issuer T 10235. I'll give you a question shortly, then you may approach the door with what you believe is the correct solution.'
(T? Is it the T from Talent Change Dungeon?)
"A question?"
Allen was curious about T's name, but he had to focus on the assignments as well.
'Yes. This is your question, which of the following Talents doesn't have healing abilities?'
"Woah! Something is glowing!!"
Glowing letters appeared in mid-air in front of them.
Merle was a bit shocked, but even more excited.
<ol role="list" class="css-13a5a39">Holy KnightPaladinMonkMage KnightSaint
"Hmm, I'm pretty sure it's 4, Mage Knight. Right?"
"Yeah, I think so too."
Cecile was the first one to answer, and Sophie agreed with her.
Cecile had found the answer.
She remembered that Mage Knights were a hybrid of mages and knights, neither of which had any healing abilities.
(I see, this could be a bit complicated for someone who didn't study Talents like us.)
Allen wrote down the question and answers in his notes.
He was planning on letting everyone in Allen's Army know about it too.
Considering how this world did not have a reliable network of information, it was hard for most people to research such questions.
Further inside the room, five doors appeared.
"There's doors too now! And there's something written on them!!"
Seeing how excited Merle was about everything, Allen felt like Digragni's efforts had paid off.
The doors that Merle pointed at were numerated 1 through 5.
They had to cross through the respective door to their answer.
"Alright, I'll be going through door 3, you should all go to door 4."
Allen picked the obviously wrong door, the one for Monk, while telling the rest to go through the correct door.
"Huh? Are you going to be alright though?"
"Well, I doubt there are any traps that would kill me instantly."
(I hope.)
Saying that, Allen went on the separate door.
It was Allen doing that, so the rest did not have much reason to worry.
Allen opened the 3 door, finding a long and straight corridor behind it.
He summoned a Beast A and Wraith A summons to walk alongside him before venturing inside.
After walking for what felt like an eternity, he reached a door at the end of the corridor.
(Hm? That's it?)
He barely had any time to look at that door though.
<em class="chakra-text css-0">Pahh!!
"Hm?"
'Grrrr!!'
An enormous tiger-like monster appeared out of the blue.
It quickly lunged towards Allen.
"Hayate!"
'Yessir!!'
The Beast A summon jumped next to Allen, catching the tiger's throat in mid-air and tearing it open.
(Hmhmm, Strengthening is at Level 9 already, but that still took some effort. I guess that's an A Rank monster then.)
Cecile felt like this assignment was a really easy task for Allen to solve.
Allen took the lead, walking towards a cube he selected at random. The obstacles were all rocks strewn in the way there, and they eventually reached a wide canal filled with water.
The water looked rather deep, and they could see the shadows of fish a few meters long in size.
There seemed to be fish-type monsters in the water.
There was a lever placed nearby.
Pulling it changed the flow of water slightly.
"I feel like there are more levers like this one, and we can probably move the rocks around here to create a bridge too."
There seemed to be a way to move the rocks nearby to construct a dry passage across the canal.
"I see, that's an amazing deduction Master Allen."
"I wonder what this has to do with Changing Talents though?"
The answer to the first assignment was something easy to answer if one studied Talents.
But Cecile could not see how pulling levers and shoving rocks like a puzzle to build a bridge could be connected to Changing Talents.
"Huh? I mean, if you don't solve it you don't get to Change Talents."
Allen did not comprehend Cecile's question.
He was used to completing senseless and random questlines in his past life.
Now he did not even question why a fetching quest in one city would increase his levels.
"That's not what I mean, I just want to know what's the point of doing this."
"Like I said, if you don't solve-"
"Shut up already!"
Cecile was no longer in the mood to discuss the assignments.
Sometimes trying to talk with Allen would end like that.
(I feel like moving these rocks would be hard for someone without a Talent and without much strength though.)
After a deep breath, Allen focused on the assignment again.
He could have called a Bird B summon to carry everyone across the water, solving the assignment in just a few minutes, but he had to take things a bit more seriously for everyone in his army.
Looking more closely, he noticed there were treasure chests underwater, which constantly tempted him.
He used his summons to open them, but they were almost always monsters in disguise.
There were B Rank Mimics, and even some A Rank Abyss Boxes.
He could easily see other adventurers losing their lives after being trapped by them.
Allen wrote down the possibility of such booby traps in his notes too.
He had been trying to solve the assignment properly, but he had already obtained the location of the goal with his Bird E summon, so he tried to work the problem backwards to arrive at the correct way to solve it.
Around an hour later the group arrived at the cube device.
"That didn't feel like a challenge at all.."
"I know."
Merle had been walking absentmindedly behind Allen all the way to the end.
'Congratulations for passing the assignment. Do you wish to proceed to the next one? Or would you prefer leaving the Talent Change Dungeon?'
"Hm? Actually, are you the only Teleporter System in here?"
Allen decided to ask that before leaving.
'I can't answer that.'
(Seriously?)
"Wait a moment everyone, I'll try talking to the other cubes."
"Alright, we have to check everything after all."
Cecile did not mind waiting.
Allen summoned a Bird B and went to look for the other cubes he spotted earlier.
They all answered the same way as the first one they encountered.
By the fifth one, Allen felt like there was nothing more to learn there when something unexpected happened.
<em class="chakra-text css-0">Whump
He was not talking to the cube yet, or close enough for that matter, but his view changed.
'''Grawrrr!!'''
"It seems we've been taken to the middle of a pack of monsters."
"...Yep, seems that way."
Wolf-type monsters were surrounding them.
They did not wait to attack the group.