System Change

“It has certainly been something that I’ve thought about since the question marks disappeared and I was able to see numbers above 1,500,” Derek explained to the siren.

“I would be the same,” Alanah replied. “Currently, I am interested in what it takes to unlock such a possibility. Even though I am soon to ascend, I continue to have the ‘cap’ of 1,500 stat points in each stat. However, I know that it is one of the things which you cannot explain to me, and that reaching a mythic rarity class seems to not be the real reason, so I will cease my questioning on the subject.”

“Thanks,” Derek said. It was easy enough for Alanah to read between the lines of his explanation and to know that there was likely more to it than just earning a mythic class. Still, there was a chance that he unlocked the cap by obtaining the class—even if it was much, much less likely than it being caused by the evolution. This was especially so based on the little that Dave had explained to him about essence. “I am very anxious to raise my level to 250, but, at the same time, I don’t want to rush and miss the opportunity to raise my skills at a faster pace.”

“Don’t worry about it on my part,” Alanah said.

“Don’t worry,” Derek laughed. “I’m sure I’ll get there naturally while we run dungeons…” he continued. “Speaking of which…” Derek nodded his head at Alanah to take out her map of the dungeons.

“Right!” Alanah nodded back, then, with a flick of her wrist, the same map as before appeared. Alanah held the map up and traced her index finger down it. “I was thinking that from here, we can go to this dungeon here.”

Derek walked over to beside the siren and studied where she was pointing. “One in Astrus… er… Indaria?” he asked.

“Yes,” Alanah replied.

As he continued to look at the dungeon and everything around it, he asked, “Are you sure you want to go to this one?” The dungeon she had selected was decent, but it wasn’t anything special. It was another one sort of like the golem dungeon, except with a low number of bigger beasts. As for the reward, it was common weapons—such as bows, swords, and daggers. “What kind of rarity are we looking at with the weapon reward?”

“Nothing that you or I would use,” Alanah said. “Nor any higher tier member of noble society.”

“Then why select this one?” Derek asked.

“I figured that it would help with your skills while not providing a ton of experience points, and the reward can help you fill your shop with some mid-level quality weapons,” Alanah explained. “It is a win-win.”

“And nothing in it for you?” Derek asked. He’d already gone over this. “Still just the ones that you selected to help me and nothing for you?”

“Well…” Alanah started.

“That’s a no, then,” Derek said. “Go ahead and mark out any of the dungeons you are doing solely because of me or my people. Then we can choose what to do next.”

“About that…” Alanah went through and did as Derek had asked, and, in the end, there were only a few dungeons left. “There aren’t many.”

“That’s fine by me,” Derek said. “You wanted to go to the other continent anyway, right? You’re under a time crunch—if we do all the ones you’ve selected just for me, then we’ll never make it there before you have to go.”

“I guess that’s true,” Alanah replied.

“Okay,” from beside them, they heard Silvi’s voice chime in. “I’m going to go cook chicken now. Be back later. If you find a juicy, tasty dungeon, don’t forget to come get me.”

“Don’t worry,” Derek replied to his bunny companion. “I will.”

After a nod of her small head, Silvi created a portal with Void Travel one last time. Then she eyed everyone again before hopping inside. Soon after, the portal disappeared, and Derek was left alone with Alanah and her Deathsworn. Derek and Alanah looked at one another.

“Very well,” Alanah said. “We can just do these, then.”

“These remaining dungeons would be the ones that you think could be fun or challenging?” Derek asked once she had gotten rid of the ones solely chose to help him out.

“Yes,” Alanah said. “Not necessarily challenging, but they could be fun.”

Derek looked at the description of the remaining dungeons and snorted. She was right. The dungeons wouldn’t be challenging, but for some, they could be considered fun. Derek was not one who would considered them fun, as all that remained were puzzle-type dungeons. Derek didn’t voice his concern, though, and he just went along with the siren. On the bright side, you only ever really need to complete a puzzle dungeon once to get as much ‘fun’ out of it as you can.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

For the next week or so, the duo, along with Alanah’s Deathsworn, ran around the continent completing ‘fun’ dungeons. By the time they finished the last one—which they actually had to complete a puzzle for to finish—Derek’s brain was completely fried.

“I think that is enough to get me used to all the different types of dungeons I may encounter once I leave,” Alanah said as they appeared outside a dungeon they had just finished in Vallum. It was a very unpopular dungeon, so the duo didn’t have to wait for anyone to finish it before going in—they were able to just sign up and go straight inside. All the dungeons in Vallum were monitored, so this was the case for them all. Though Vallum only monitored, they did not disallow or force payment.

“I hope so,” Derek said. “I don’t think I could handle another brain teaser.” Derek looked at the light blue dungeon orb beside them and mentally crossed it off the list of any dungeons he may do again in the future.

“You’re not that bad at them,” Alanah replied. “Though I do finally know that you aren’t the strongest when it comes to everything. It is good to know that I am still better in some aspects.”

“And it’s something that you will forever stay better than me in,” Derek said. “It is something that I never plan on wasting my time on to get good at,” he continued. “Anyway, now that we have completed your ‘fun’ dungeons, what next? Is it time to start traveling across the sea? Do you have enough time left for us to get there, even?”

“There is plenty of time if it is just the two of us,” Alanah replied. “It may be a good distance away, but with our speed, we will have no problem,” she explained. “But no, it is not time. There is something I would like you to do for me before we get to that.”

“What do you need?” Derek asked. If he could help her, he would.

“I know you plan on taking Avery hunting later, but after thinking about it, I was hoping to get my hands on a few Void Beasts,” Alanah explained. “But not just that, I mostly would just like to pacify my curiosity—to see with my own eyes your skill at work.”

“Ah…” Derek said. “I see… Well, that’s completely fine by me. I have just the spot, but we’ll have to leave your Deathsworn here because I don’t want to have to go back and forth gathering them all up.”

“That is okay,” Alanah replied. “I do not think we will need them anymore. In fact, I believe it would be best for this to be as far as my Deathsworn go.”

With that, Derek saw the Deathsworn all circle around Alanah. He watched the siren’s eyes get distant, then, almost out of nowhere, the Deathsworn surrounding the woman all fell limp to the ground. When it was all finished, Alanah looked over at Derek somberly.

“That was harder than I thought it would be,” Alanah said as she went around the circle of now dead Deathsworn collecting their storage rings. “They were all some of the biggest scum I’ve run into in all my years, but many among these Deathsworn have technically accompanied me for decades.”

“Did that take care of all of them?” Derek asked.

“No,” Alanah said with a shake of her head. “There are still Deathsworn that are not here remaining. But these were the strongest—and would have been the biggest problems of the bunch if they were ever to break away from my control. I will take care of the rest before I leave. Right now, they have been given the command to gather, so it will be easy for me to handle later on.”

“I see…” Derek replied as Alanah stored the bodies in one of her storage rings. “I guess that’s it, then.” With a thought, he summoned a portal through Void Travel, then, with Void Sense activated at its max, he locked on to where he planned on taking Alanah. “Are you ready?”

“I am,” Alanah came forth and stood in front of Derek—between him and the portal.

“Don’t move,” Derek said as he placed his right hand on the woman’s right shoulder, then his left on her side—by her hip. Once he had a good hold of the siren, he slowly formed a thin armor of void around her. Derek went ahead and stretched it over himself, too, so it would completely cover any storage items. Then, he stepped inside—making sure to close the entrance once he did.

Moments later, Derek walked out of the portal while carefully carrying Alanah. He closed the portal behind him, then looked around. They were in a very small clearing inside a forest. The clearing definitely wasn’t natural and was something he’d created a while ago.

“This is…” Alanah started.

“We’re pretty close to Savannah,” Derek said. “It’s where I farmed a bunch of Void Beasts before. It may not have been such a good idea doing it at a place so close to Savannah before, but now, I don’t think we have to worry about that.”

“Oh,” Alanah muttered. “So we are due east of that golem dungeon that is close to Savannah.”

“You really are well informed,” Derek confirmed. “Give me one second,” Derek said. “Then we can get started.” Derek jumped into the air with Void Steps and went higher and higher. The odds were that they were alone, but he wanted to make sure. He gave the entire area a few scans to make sure there weren’t any people that could get caught up in their actions close by. Once he confirmed that they were alone—at least as far as he could tell—he came back down.

“Are we clear?” Alanah asked, already knowing what Derek was doing.

“Seem to be,” Derek confirmed. “Are you ready?” he asked. He sure was, though. After all, Void Call was the skill that he needed to level up the most, but also the skill that was hard to do so.

“I’ve been waiting to see this with my own eyes,” Alanah said as she took a step back to allow Derek to do his thing. “I am ready.”

“Alright,” Derek replied. Then, with his eyes closed, he thought about activating Void Call. He felt the void energy rush throughout his body as always, then it gathered toward the top of his head. He felt the void build and build until, after a bit, it was all gathered. Finally, all the void energy needed was gathered, and it exploded from him and shot into the sky.

That was much easier than any of the times before, he thought. This time, the skill hadn’t almost depleted his mana—he still had plenty left to work with. In fact, he had enough that he could use the skill again before it even regenerated any. Still, he made sure to keep Greater Meditation going for his mana to recover even quicker.

“There we go,” he said to Alanah, who had watched the beam shoot into the air until it slowly vanished.

“So it is more like a beacon that draws them to it,” Alanah said.

“Pretty much,” Derek replied.

“What do we do now?” Alanah asked.

“What do we do?” Derek mirrored her question. “Easy… we wait.”