Venerable Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Six more to go

Read chapter 31 of Venerable by Jade_White on NovelPedia.

Chapter 31: Forfeit Dustin and his team were finally in the last layer. Layer four. They had already declined the option to leave the dungeon. There was no point in backing out now. Once again, there was another team waiting in front of them. It meant another fight was coming, but what kind of fight or how it would happen was not clear yet. Both teams were resting in their own separate corners, sitting on the floor and completely ignoring each other. "I think this layer is going to be about that rare grade item," Dustin reminded Zac and Saya quietly. "The one that was supposed to be hidden somewhere in this dungeon. I am not completely sure, but it makes the most sense." Dustin suddenly sat up straight. "Oh right." He quickly opened his stats screen. [ Physical Strength: 79 ] [ Vitality: 67 ] [ Agility: 86 ] [ Stamina: 69 ] [ Endurance: 63 ] [ Wisdom: 17 ] [ Intelligence: 34 ] [ Bonus stats points: 18 ] During that intense fight against Zama and his team in the last layer, Dustin had completely forgotten about his unspent bonus stat points. Using them wouldn't have made him a very strong, but allocating them wisely definitely would have made that fight a lot easier to manage. “Let’s see. How should I distribute these?” Dustin thought, rubbing his chin. [ Physical Strength: 85 ] [ Vitality: 70 ] [ Agility: 89 ] [ Stamina: 73 ] [ Endurance: 65 ] [ Wisdom: 17 ] [ Intelligence: 34 ] [ Bonus stats points: 0 ] He dumped six points into Physical Strength. Three each into Vitality and Agility. Four into Stamina. He tossed the last two remaining points into Endurance. “The next time I level up, I need to focus entirely on getting my Strength, Vitality, and Agility past the one hundred mark,” Dustin analyzed internally. "Are you two friends in the real world?" Saya asked Zac while Dustin was busy messing with his glowing screen. "Or did you just meet here?" "We just met a few days ago," Zac replied, leaning back on his hands. "Right after all those tutorial zones merged. But we are going to stick together for a while. So yeah, I guess you could call us friends. Right, Dustin?" "Yeah. Anyway, Saya, what is your..." DING. A familiar sound interrupted Dustin mid-sentence. [ Task: To clear layer 4, one team must either force all members of the opposing team to forfeit, or kill them. ] [ Note: A rare grade item is hidden in one of the boxes in this room. Whoever finds it becomes the owner. The item cannot be stolen. The owner can willingly give it to someone else, or another person can take it by killing the current owner. Once the owner successfully activates the item, they will gain full control of this room. The owner will automatically become the main leader of their team, and the other members must follow them. The item can also be carried and used outside the dungeon. ] [ The match begins in 5 minutes. ] [ Time remaining: 00:04:59 ] "We have to find that item first," Dustin said urgently, his eyes locked on the timer. "If we get control of this room... I do not know what that actually means, but it will definitely raise our chances of winning." "I do not think it is going to be that simple," Saya corrected him, pointing at the text. "It says 'if' the owner manages to activate it. That means there is probably a condition, or maybe a time limit before it actually works." She looked at both of them. "Our best bet is to find it, survive long enough to activate it, take out their mage, and then force the other two to forfeit." "But what happens if they find it first?" Zac asked, frowning. "Or what if we do get it, and we somehow manage to heavily injure their mage, but the other two just refuse to quit?" "It is a rare grade item, Zac. It is going to have limits," Dustin argued quietly. "Look at them. There is a good chance they just grouped up for this dungeon, exactly like we did. If we take out their strongest member, the other two might just break. But if they do not... well, you remember that crazy guy from the last layer. We have to be