The rest of the monsters managed to make it in over the next minute, but only one of the Giants, a Commander Rank female, had vanished so far.
That was not the success that their Totem Rank leader had expected, and the frustration was visible in both his expression and his posture.
That was making the other Giants nervous that they would be punished for failure, and the more nervous they were, the less likely they were to succeed.
The one who had the easiest time of anyone was Lotus, as she fully and immediately embraced any opportunity that the Gods granted, without even taking a second to wonder what it was.
It was an opportunity, and that meant it was something new. There were few things that Nature Clerics loved more than something new.
Even Tessa had taken a few seconds to mentally prepare herself.
That was when the first of the Newbon Empire Soldiers to enter came back out with a huge smile on his face.
“Colonel Lu, report.” The Totem Rank General insisted.
“The orb brought me to a space controlled by the system. Then it insulted me for being so slow to awaken a Class ability, and sent repeated messages denigrating my level of motivation to better myself.”
Karl did his best not to laugh as the aging Minotaur went through the list of grievances that the System had with a man well past his middle years finally awakening a Class ability.
“Then it awarded me the Warrior Class and said that was all I deserved.” The Colonel finished.
“So, it did grant you access to the System? That is wonderful news.” The General cheered.
“Yes, General. It appears that I now have access to the System.”
The Giant growled, and the General’s hand went to his sword, while the Black Dragon huffed in annoyance.
Then, the massive creature reached a forelimb into a distorted area of space and pulled out a five-metre wide basket full of blankets and eggs. He whispered something that Karl couldn’t make out, and a few seconds later, all of the eggs in the basket vanished.
So that was his play. He wasn’t trying to awaken a Class for existing Dragons, but for the next generation.
That way, the Dragons would have System users for thousands of years, even if the resurgence began to fade instead of growing stronger.
The frustration of the Giants was building as their group continued to fail to get any more members into the trial, right up to the moment that the lone female Giant to enter returned.
“What did you find?” The Giant demanded as she came back out in shining silver plate armour.
“It is a trial set by the World Dragon. We must request his permission to enter. However, I have made great gains today. I was awarded the Class of Knight, and access to a Skill Tree of new abilities.”
The leader of the Giants nodded in satisfaction, then gestured to the remainder of his force.
They had all been listening intently, and once they changed their strategy, it didn’t take long before another Giant managed to enter, then a third.
But by then, most of the Newbon Empire group had started to emerge from the trial.
Karl was listening to them giving their reports of being assigned the fighter class, with only one Shaman and a Blood Mage among them. That last one was a slender demon man with red skin, and Karl assumed that it was likely an exclusive only available to his species.
Behind him, he felt a growth of power, and saw that Lotus’ eyes were glowing green. She had moved behind Tessa, and was facing away from the Totems, likely hoping that they would mistake whatever she was doing for a healing spell.
But when the power peaked, the Black Dragon turned to face her, focused directly on the Nature Priestess for a moment before looking back to the purple orb, where his clutch of eggs should be finishing their trials.
Karl suspected that Lotus had been letting her dragon patron see through her eyes, but the Black Dragon Totem looked somehow smug as he waited now, and Karl suspected that there was more going on here than he was comprehending.
If it was possible for the offspring of the Divine Dragons to use their link to their Clerics to access a trial like this, they might be using it to grow their own powers.
As Karl understood what Tessa had told him about the situation, the Dragons they were paired with weren’t necessarily dragons from this world, only adherents to the same God. So, they might have never seen a Holy Relic of the World Dragon before.
Given the personality of the Green Dragons, they wouldn’t pass up the chance to go in and play, even if it meant just watching a historical movie.
By the time that the second Giant came out, all of the Newbon army troops were out, and they were just waiting to see what happened with the Dragons.
They might get a class, or they might not. The Black Dragon had sent eggs into the trial, and while Dragons were sentient for a while before they hatched, legends said that most species couldn’t awaken a system until puberty.
That was deemed to be a safety measure by the gods, so that small children didn’t wreak havoc in the cities. But whether it applied to dragons or not, nobody knew.
The first one of the dragons out was Lotus’ Green Dragon companion, if Karl’s guess about what the glowing eyes meant was correct.
Then, a small white dragon hatchling emerged from the trial, and landed in the basket all of the eggs had arrived in.
It was adorable, no larger than a full-grown house cat. For a moment, even Karl was enraptured by its cuteness, until Thor broke him from his distraction.
[Do you think that they would let us borrow one? Scaled creatures grow up very fast in your care. I’m sure the little ones wouldn’t mind.] He suggested.
[Oh, you need to learn the skill. If you already had the head pat for a skill ability, they would definitely give you a hatchling to raise.] Remi added.
Karl sighed. [That’s fifty skill points. I have one left.]
[Boo this man! I joke, we know that you needed to get Rampage before you changed classes.] Remi amended.
The Dragon stared down at Karl. {You look like you’ve got something on your mind.}
Karl shrugged. “I was just thinking that I’ve gotten rather good at raising scaled friends, and they grow up exceptionally strong and healthy in my care.”
{You can’t have a baby dragon.}
“He can’t have a baby dragon.”
“Please don’t give him a baby dragon.”
The black dragon, the General and the Archbishop all spoke at the same time, then paused as they realized that they were all on the same side of what they had expected to be an argument.
“Are you certain? I swear, I’m superb with scale rubs, and I have a supplemental Nature Cleric to assist.” Karl joked.
The Black Dragon huffed in amusement as another pair of hatchlings came out and began chattering with the white dragon whelp to find out what was going on. It was an interesting offer, but they quickly realized that the big dragons wouldn’t allow it before they were fully trained and grown enough to travel alone.
