System Change

Everyone at the table went silent as they took in the small bunny that had appeared out of nowhere. Silvi tilted her head and looked around the table until her gaze fell on the massive giant of a man sitting at the side of the table.

“Is this him?” Silvi’s voice rang out from the communication crystals attached to her collar. “The meatball?”

“Yes, this is him,” Derek said for all to hear. It seemed that Silvi had chosen this conversation to be a public one, so he would go along. “Silvi, this man is Ogre. Because of his unique constitution, it seems that he needs to consume more food, or at least higher quality food, than a normal person.”

“Hmm…” Silvi’s voice chimed as she looked the man over.

“Ogre,” Derek said, turning the giant man’s attention away from Silvi and back toward himself. “This is Silvi. I have talked with her, and she may be able to help you with your food problem.”

Ogre frowned and looked back and forth between Derek and his companion. “Too small,” he finally said. “Ogre would still be hungry after eating.”

Derek stared at the man for a moment before what he was saying clicked. He thinks Silvi is here so he can eat her… At that moment, he almost burst out laughing. I think the two of them are going to make a great pair. I bet Silvi is currently assessing Ogre and wondering what a giant would taste like. Truly two peas in a pod.

“Uh… no,” Derek said. “Silvi is not here to consume. She is a chef, a very good one, might I add, and she has agreed to allow you to… work with her. That means you will be consuming the food she cooks quite often. You can literally think of her as your meal ticket.”

Silvi snorted. “As if the meatball could hurt me.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I hope the two of you can get along in the future. If things go well, you’ll be spending a lot of time together.”

As soon as Derek finished his sentence, a variety of dishes appeared on the table in front of Ogre.

“Eat them,” Silvi said.

She didn’t need to tell the big man twice, as he had already started for the food almost as soon as it appeared. However, after grabbing and stuff his face with multiple items at once, Silvi quickly flashed over and kicked a slab of meat out of his hand before he could cram it in his mouth as well.

“One at a time,” her voice sounded out as she appeared back on the table. “And wait at least thirty seconds between each item.”

Derek frowned and mentally asked Silvi a question. ‘What are you doing? What’s up with the food?’

‘Experimental recipes,’ she replied. ‘Changed by stupid Void Travel. Want to see if poisonous.’

Derek’s eyes widened. Of course, she’s the same as Roman. Derek nearly facepalmed, but held back. Instead, he transferred a bunch of health potions from his bracelet to one of the rings on his fingers and slid it over to Silvi.

‘There are some very good potions in there,’ he said to her. ‘Don’t let him die.’

‘I don’t need this,’ Silvi said, but didn’t slide the ring back to Derek. ‘I am smart. I have my own.’ Still, Derek watched as the ring he had given her levitated in the air and was gently tucked away somewhere inside her cloak.

After that, Bones and Derek laid out all the terms of the oath Bones and Ogre would be swearing. It was quite simple and easy to understand. It was all very one sided in Derek’s favor. Though, some of that would be remedied when they got back to Savannah and had Rudy draw up some contracts.

Derek also made a mental note after seeing the way Silvi interacted with Ogre. There would have to be some clause about accidental injury caused by taste testing.

Once Bones and Derek were through, Bones made the oath. After he made the oath, it was all Ogre could do to pull himself away from the great ‘meal’ Silvi had prepared for him and make an oath himself. Finally, with all that settled, Derek moved on to the next thing he wanted to do.

“Follow me,” Derek said to Bones, then stood from the table, taking his chair with him. He would hate it if Ogre decided to change seats while he was gone. “I’ll leave the two of you here,” he said to Silvi and Ogre. “You two can do what you want,” he told Vanessa and Avery. Of course, he didn’t need to tell Avery that. The archer was only tagging along as it was because he was bored.

Derek then led Bones out of the Time Prison—or, at least, he tried to lead the man out of the Time Prison. Unfortunately, when Bones tried to pass through the exit, he was stopped by an invisible wall. It was the same as when the Void Beast tried to exit after he brought it into a dungeon.

Hmm… Derek thought. Clay didn’t have any problems exiting the Time Prison and entering the Golem Dungeon before. He searched through his memories and thought about everything that had happened. Finally, he sighed. I bet it’s because all the participant positions were taken when we entered the dungeon. That’s the only difference between now and what happened with Clay.

With Clay, Derek was the only participant who entered the dungeon, which left its capacity at one out of five when he entered. I guess it doesn’t matter that Edgar left or that the others died. It must be tied to the participants at the start of the dungeon. Derek clicked his tongue. There goes that plan. He had hoped to allow Bone and Ogre to join in.

Even though their levels weren’t up to snuff for the dungeon, they could have stayed back and ‘contributed’ to the boss fight. He had hoped that they would get the dungeon completion rewards and boss experience if they did that. Unfortunately, all that was dashed by what he could only describe as system fail-safes. I wonder if that’s actually it, or if the system patched the bug I found after I left the Golem Dungeon.

He wouldn’t put it past the system to do such a thing. He’d already assumed that the system was a living, thinking thing. And when the other system came in for his evolution, the final words that it left him with had pretty much verified his thoughts about it.

Whelp… there’s no helping it. Derek looked at Bones, who was still examining the invisible wall in between them. “Did you get any message or anything from the system?” he asked.

Bones shook his head. “I received nothing.”

“It looks like I can’t just bring a bunch of people into a dungeon and swap them out when they get tired. That’s too bad,” Derek said.

“I can see why the Great System would not allow such a thing,” Bones nodded.

“Do me a favor,” Derek said. “Use your skill and attack me from inside. Let’s see if the attacks can actually make their way out.” Since it was a specific direction given to attack him, doing so wouldn’t break the oath that Bones made.

Bones backed up, and Derek watched as a small spatial tear appeared behind the skeletal man. It was the first time Derek saw the skill up close. From the tear, various knives and blades began to shoot out. Unfortunately, it seemed that the system knew what Derek was planning, and the weapons were stopped by the invisible barrier just as the man himself had been.

“It doesn’t look like you’ll be able to get in on the upcoming fight,” Derek said. “That’s a shame,” he muttered. He had hoped to at least bask in some rewards from his two loyal employees if the system didn’t give him any after the fight. Still, he planned to leave the Time Prison door open in case anyone decided that the fight was too much for them and needed to run to a safe place.

Perhaps Bones and Ogre would get rewards for just being there with the door open. He could hope, couldn’t he? But none of that mattered right now. Instead, Derek was still looking at the small spatial tear in the air behind Bones. After fighting the man once, he had wondered about the man’s class, but never got the chance to speak about it. Now that he knew about affinities, he wondered if Bones might actually have an affinity for space.

Derek turned around and walked back inside the Time Prison with Bones. The two were alone by the doorway, it seemed that Avery was still intrigued with Silvi and Ogre’s interaction, so he’d chosen to stay. Vanessa was also still sitting at the table, looking relatively bored.

Not one to beat around the bush, at least not currently, Derek asked Bones his questions. “You don’t need to answer if you don’t want, but I wanted to know a few things.” He began, and seeing Bones nod, he continued. “Do you use the space element? Also, how do you control so many weapons?”

Bones stayed silent for a moment, as if formulating a response, then he said, “I have a mark that leave on any weapon I want to control. When I mark it, a portion of my mana is tied to the weapon, which also decreases my maximum amount of mana available. Fortunately, controlling the weapons after linking them isn’t as costly as one would think.”

Derek nodded along with his explanation. It made sense. Most of the weapons that he used had a blue glow to them. He had gotten a decent look at them when he tried to attack from inside the Time Prison. He also made yet another mental note that Bones needed to upgrade his weapons. They honestly weren’t of very good quality. It seemed he had just marked whatever weapons he found.

Derek would remedy that soon. Those weapons may have worked against the people Bones was used to fighting, but now that he worked for Derek, there was no telling what idiot might get it in their head and come after him. So, the man would have to be properly equipped. Luckily, just like they had a resident chef to take care of Ogre’s needs, they also had a resident smith. And Derek looked forward to seeing just how much she had grown since he’d been gone.

“What about the element?” Derek broke out of his daydream and asked.

“I can not say for certain,” Bones replied. “The Weapon Storage skill came with my class, and I have since learned to use it in tandem while controlling my weapons. I am more drawn to the blades, so I do not believe my class is elemental based. Unless that element is purely the mana I use to mark my weapons.”

Hmm… Derek rubbed his chin in thought. He may actually have a blade or sharpness affinity. I don’t entirely know how affinities work, but I know it isn’t possible for them to all be elements like void or lightning. If that was the case, people like Avery would never have the chance to increase it… though, thinking about Avery, I would be that man has a stamina affinity. I think affinity is just what your subconscious is drawn to—whether you want it or not.

“That makes sense,” Derek said. “By the way, you said that Ogre’s hunger comes from his race and class, right? What is his race? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“He’s never concealed it,” Bones said. “He is a half-giant. I can’t be for certain, but I believe there has to be a giant race somewhere out there on one of the other continents. If not that, then he was just born special. His mother died during birth, so too did any answers she carried with her. But, as you have seen, Ogre isn’t one to dwell on such things.”

“I guess he isn’t,” Derek agreed. “Alright, I’ll let you get back to Ogre. I have some things to take care of. If all goes well, we should be back in Cydaria in around two days.” Derek was hoping that the final boss wouldn’t take up much more of his time. With the time dilation, every minute counted.

Derek left his Time Prison and headed back to camp. He was ready, and he needed to make sure everyone else was ready. He cracked his knuckles and went on his way. He was itching for a real fight, and couldn’t wait to see what the system had in store for him.