Great Expectations

"He's still in there…" Old Un said when he noticed the look on Exile's face.

Exile raised an eyebrow at Old Un's statement. He could not hide the look of surprise that crossed his face, which made Old Un laugh.

"Don't underestimate Clay. He's stronger than you think." Leggy said with a boastful voice and a look that said their group was amazing.

'That or his trial is better suited to him…' Exile hummed as he considered the likelihood of that being true. 'Maybe these tombs are designed to be completed by people with specific elements.'

Exile felt his latest theory was probably a stretch too far. Although, it would not surprise him if the legacy item could only be claimed by someone with a matching element. Besides that, it should be possible to claim the rest of the items. Seeing how everyone else had resigned themselves to wait it out, Exile took a seat on the floor nearby.

When another half hour had passed, the group became irritated. Waiting was one thing, but not knowing the situation was worse. What would they do if Clay had become trapped with no way out? Although they doubted the possibility of it actually happening, they could not stop worrying about it.

'If I knew how long Clay would still be in there, I could use Avatar to find out what's going on in Eraldsfen.' Exile sighed as he glanced at his companions. 'But I'd be defenceless if Clay exits while my consciousness is in the Mortal Realms. There's no telling if they would honour our deal at that point.'

He was not keen on wasting time, but it looked like he had no other choice. Exile had to stick with the party until they returned to Valheim at least. Unless he wanted to leave himself open to an ambush from Kaleidoscope. 'I just hope they stand and fight if Kaleidoscope really tries something.'

Exile waited patiently while browsing his thoughts on the game so far. There were plenty of new ideas that he had never seen before. In all honesty, he felt that the game would go far. 'It just remains to be seen what approach they'll take during general release.' Exile struggled to see what game the developers were playing with Pantheon.

It was groundbreaking in many areas. However, if players were to be banned from the game then who would be willing to pay for it? 'Not many, I bet.' He was certain they would have a plan on how to deal with financing the game. Luckily, he was not forced to wait around much longer, as a flash of light appeared next to them.

Clay took several moments to digest what had happened before he broke into a wide grin. "We did it, boys!"

A chorus of cheers went up from the group, well from everyone except Exile. He squinted at Clay as he tried to figure out what he had gained from the trials. Besides the horn, of course. But Clay did not appear to have any new equipment.

Clay flashed a smirk in Exile's direction when he saw that he was being studied. "I'm not hiding anything. I chose an amulet for myself."

Exile raised an eyebrow at how casually Clay had shared that information. 'Well, so far he hasn't tried anything, and everyone is being pretty transparent. Maybe they're not so bad?'

Even though he thought that, he still would prefer to seek his own comrades and build his own Pantheon. If he were to join these guys, then Clay would definitely end up as the leader. Which would mean that he would have to trust him not to get his account ruined by bad decisions.

'I'd rather make the decisions myself… At least then I only have myself to blame if it goes wrong.' Exile sighed as he looked over the joyous expressions on their faces. It reminded him of better times with a team that were genuinely excited to just play games.

"Since we're all here, we may as well head back to Valheim." Clay announced as before turning his attention to the indigo barrier.

"Wait…" Exile frowned as he glanced at the group as they stood up. "We still need to deal with the Lost Warriors on the other side."

Clay raised an eyebrow as he studied Exile's expression. "What do you mean? Don't they disappear once we complete the tomb?"

Needless to say, the others stared at Exile with confused expressions. It was an established fact in other games that the enemies would disappear whenever a dungeon was completed. They would obviously question this piece of information.

"I'm not saying that they haven't. But be prepared to fight your way out. It's better to be prepared and we're still two men down." Exile shared a knowing look with Clay.

They considered the weight of his words as they remembered what they had left behind when they had entered the tomb. None of them felt hopeful about being able to pull off another miracle.

"Uh, Clay. I lost half of my stats. There's no way I can survive for long if they are waiting for us." Leggy hung his head as he spoke. Everyone glanced at him with a grim expression.

"So, we really only have three effective team members?" Clay rubbed his face as he thought about what they could do if Exile was correct. "Ok, here's what we'll do. No matter what… Exile must survive."

Exile's eyes went wide as he stared at Clay with his mouth wide open. 'What did he just say?'

"Exile… You probably have the highest survivability out of all of us. With your Endurance and healing spells you have the best chance of surviving." Clay sighed while he glanced at everyone. "Just… try to secure our Orbs if we die."

Clay and the others stared at Exile with expectant expressions. But Exile was unsure how to feel about the sudden display of trust. What really made him realise they were being serious was when he was handed the Orbs of those who had already died during the quest…