Chapter 252: No Free Meals

While everyone was inside the Time Prison, Derek walked over to the trial orbs. There wasn’t much he could do at the moment. He didn’t have a craft like others, and it’s not like there were any television or novels for him to read. Though, I never did search any libraries. Maybe I should have. He thought.

No, he was stuck waiting for everyone to finish the trial. Maybe I should volunteer for the remaining trials. I can say that since I have the Time Prison, and I’m neigh invulnerable, it would be safe for whoever goes into a trial with me. Soon, he shook his head at the thought. He’d seen how some of the others reacted when they weren’t allowed to enter the first trial. How would they react if he entered all the rest of them?

Finally, Derek sat in his most used meditative position and closed his eyes. If nothing else, he was sure he had more experience passing time by meditating than anyone else in the raid, and probably anyone else on the entire planet.

He soon closed his eyes and slipped into Greater Meditation. He kept his Void Sense active and made sure he still had plenty of awareness of his surroundings, but like this, he was able to make time pass in a blink of an eye.

It wasn’t long before he was broken out of his trance by a notification. What if the ten people who went in had wiped? Was the difficulty much harder than expected? He quickly examined the notification and breathed a sigh of relief before a strange smile appeared on his face.

A contract with ‘Natalie Savannah’ including ‘Roman Pascal’ and ‘Geoffrey Tate’ has been formed through proxy ‘Malorie Fields’ and the entity ‘Unknown.’

See proxy for contract details.

I wonder what they named the entity? Obviously, ‘entity’ was talking about the name of the business, whatever Malorie had chosen to name it. Unfortunately, it seemed that the actual details of the contract was cut of from him while he was in the dungeon, and he could only see those who had entered into it. Malorie hadn’t taken her job lightly, as she had already set up a contract with Natalie. Derek was impressed.

Wow. Not only did she get Roman to go along with the potion contract, but she even got Geoffrey to agree to a deal. With Natalie supporting the new showers, I don’t have to worry about any of it. Way to go, Mal! He knew he was making a good decision when he chose Malorie to be the manager of his business. She would go far.

Derek then exited the notifications and slipped back into Greater Meditation for a bit longer before he was once again interrupted. This time, it wasn’t a notification that interrupted him, but a bored Edgar looking for something to do.

“Let’s spar.” Was the first thing the prince said after making his approach. “I’m sick of cards.”

“Why don’t you try meditating?” Derek asked. “It’s a great skill to improve. It has unimaginable benefits.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Edgar chided. “Of course I know the benefits of Meditation. But my skill leveling speed is atrocious since becoming level 250. Meditation already leveled slowly. Now I don’t know if I’ll ever get another level in it.”

“Sure you will. Just need to use it a bit differently than usual,” Derek said with a smile. “Just jump into a beast horde, sit down, and meditate. Easy. Everything levels up easier when you’re under stress.”

“Sounds like a really good way to die.”

“I didn’t say you wouldn’t die. Just that the skill would probably level quickly.” Derek snickered.

Suddenly, Edgar’s eyes gleamed. “What if… I do that, but you protect me while I’m meditating? You wouldn’t let me die, would you? We can try that. I’m willing if you are.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” Derek said. He knew that he would be considered crazy just for being a tank and preferring to take damage to deal it. But Edgar was something else. If he was serious, his crazy was on an entirely different level. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

Edgar nodded. “Worst-case scenario… you can’t handle it, and I stop the skill and fight with you.”

“So, your skill is already at a decent enough level to sense your surroundings?” Derek asked.

“Oh, it’s well past that,” Edgar confirmed. “Now… about that spar?”

With his meditation interrupted, and the young prince bored, it didn’t seem Derek would be getting back to his trance any time soon. He might as well see how he faired against Edgar. Natalie had said that they were similar in aura, but Derek beat him out by a bit.

“Why not?” Derek finally said. “Is there a good place around here to spar? Should probably look for somewhere big, and well away from the prison space.”

“I just figured we would walk that way for a few miles, and that would be good.” Edgar pointed past the trial orbs into the distance. It was just a desolate, beachy area for as long as the eyes could see.

“As good a place as any.” Derek shrugged.

“Great! Just give me a minute.” With that, Edgar hurried back to the prison space and soon walked out with two people in tow. One was Jasper Ross, the level 250 healer, and the other was the level 219 wind mage, John Doyle.

Derek frowned when Edgar approached with them. He nodded at them, then to Edgar.

“Jasper is going to come with us in case anything goes wrong. It never hurts to have a healer with you, especially with sparring between to powerhouses. Besides, it will be a good idea to have him with us to get used to our fighting styles,” Edgar explained.

“Okay. That makes sense, I guess… What about him?” Derek asked about John.

“He’s just here to watch over the trial orbs. Like you said, we should always have at least one person watching them at all times.” Edgar explained.

“That’s fine, then,” Derek said. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” A voice called out, and Derek looked back over at the prison. Avery came running out with the giant-like Tyron following behind. “You don’t think you two can go have fun and not invite me, do you?” he said when he got there.

“Uhem…” Tyron cleared his throat. “It would also be advantageous if I were to see you fight a bit before making your weapon. Research and all that…”

“I’m sure that’s why you want to come,” Derek snorted. “Oh well, it doesn’t matter. The more the merrier… I guess. Let’s go.”

With that, Derek, Edgar, Tyron, Avery, and Jasper all moved past the trial orbs and into the distance at the brisk pace of a sport’s car from Earth. It was no biggie, being able to run at such speed. If Derek had to guess, he was probably the slowest in an out right sprint between the three of them.

He wasn’t exactly sure, but he knew Avery could pass him easily, and Edgar most likely had a lot of Dexterity as well, considering the way he wielded his sword. Tyron probably had max Strength and enough Dexterity to support that, so the lumbering giant wouldn’t be slow at all.

The healer was the only person who Derek was quite sure he could take in a straight up race. The man obviously specced into Intelligence and Wisdom because of his class. They were the two best stats for a healer to focus on. Derek doubted the man had much Strength and Dexterity at all. His theory was proved quickly, as he began to fall behind right off the bat.

“Healers…” Tyron chuckled as he lifted the flailing healer over his shoulder and caught back up with the group.

Of course, Derek could always enter Void Shift at anytime and move far ahead of anyone here. Well… unless one of them had a way to break him out of the shift like Alanah did, which he wouldn’t put it past any of them. They were all some of the strongest figures in the kingdom.

“Here’s good,” Edgar stopped after a few minutes of running. “We shouldn’t have to worry about any battling disturbing the trial orbs or the prison back there…” Edgar then frowned for a second before turning to Derek. “How far can you get from the prison before it closes? I never asked.”

That… was a question Derek had never thought about. He never figured he would be away from the prison when it was up, so he never tested it. “Uh…” he muttered. “Give me one second.”

He then quickly used Void Shift and made his way back to the prison. Luckily, when he got there, the prison was still up and showed no signs of going away. At least he was fine at the distance that the spar was going to be away from the prison. Still, just for fair warning, he exited Void Shift and poked his head inside and gave everyone a heads up.

“Just letting everyone know I’m moving away from the prison. I don’t think it will be an issue, but if it closes, just know I’ll be back to get you out shortly.” He wasn’t sure everyone heard him, but plenty did by the wide eyes he received. Good enough. He thought as he backed away and turned back to the sparring position.

He quickly entered Void Shift once again and made his way back to the others. When he got to them, he canceled the skill and reappeared he had previously been.

“That skill…” Edgar frowned. He, of course, recognized it as the skill Derek used to beat him to the fight with Gerald.

“The prison was fine. It doesn’t seem like this is enough distance to do anything to it. I’ll have to remember to test it when we are finished here,” Derek informed. “Are you ready? Me versus Edgar, right?”

“Sounds good to me.” Edgar licked his lips in anticipation before looking over at Avery and Tyron. “Then the two of you will provide us with some entertainment. There are no free meals. If you are going to watch, you’re going to have to participate.”