[CH399+ Continued] Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power

Chapter 538

It takes more than five extra minutes for the Apex Elites team to finish up this trial. According to Natalie, there's a more battle-equipped healer on their main squad. He is their tank with an extreme strength skill, but also has a similar healing ability that must have healed the mechanic in the same way Nat did to get a time like that.

However, their bit of lag time behind us must have been the need to allocate more hunters to defending the village from rogue monsters.

One team must have been sent to clear both dungeons individually while the other stayed behind in the valley to fend off the dozens, if not hundreds, of monsters attacking.

I keep this bit of information to myself as it takes another fifteen minutes for any other teams to finish this round.

Once the timer runs out, there are even four total teams that don't finish and miss out on the basic completion points.

Even after the long rest we're allotted, I can tell that the stamina of my teammates is not going to last forever.

Ember and I may be able to play these games for hours or even days on end without having to rest. At the rate that I see the other three restoring their MP and even HP after a simple round like this, I realize soon I'll be doing some of these rounds solo with Ember.

This becomes more and more clear as the rounds go on.

Trial three begins, and we're put in a large open icy cave environment. Hundreds of level 500-550 ice golems attack us, and a few dozen between level 600-650 in total spawn once all of the lower mobs are defeated. There is no boss room or clear exit to this large icy lair; there is only a prompt reading [Defeat All of the Enemies[⅙]] in the sky. There are multiple waves, and the next waves only begin once the previous are cleared entirely. We take about forty minutes to clear all six waves, and once the trial is complete, we come in fourth place.

Ember wins the MVP point, as he must have gotten the most final blows on the golems.

The fourth trial is a similar event; with a clear goal and no way to really cheat it. We have to escort three carriages through a mountainous region and protect them from enormous monkey creatures that wield fire magic.

We also come in fourth place this round, and I win the MVP point, but I'm unsure how we could have won either of the last two events. The team of Elites from the Apex Region has somehow won every event so far other than the one we managed to squeeze a victory.

I come to the conclusion that they're definitely working with more information than us.

However, it may just be that they're strategically positioning their most capable hunters to complete the tasks.

I believe this is the case because when they come in first place and win the bonus points, not all 6 of them are always rewarded. It's only a select few, meaning they've already begun to leave hunters behind during certain trials.

It's clear that both Dane and Natalie are nearing their limits after the labor-intensive trials we're completing. Dane has been giving it his all, launching hundreds of long-range attacks and contributing a lot to our battles, but he can't continue at this rate. Natalie healed up Marcie's arms after the ice golem dungeon as she was frozen pretty badly from continued exposure, while Dane got caught up in a large fire attack during the escort mission.

Marcie is holding up fine after the heal, but Dane and Natalie are considerably weak. Both Ember and I are still not showing any signs of wear.

They stay behind during the fifth round, and I assure them we'll pass it and get them points.

Since the second round, where we managed to luck out on a first place win, the Apex Region team has been hoarding all of the first place bonus points since.