System Change

“Derek!” Rudy called out. “You’re back!”

Derek looked over the two people having a meeting and found it kind of funny. Malorie was sitting behind the desk like it was her office, while Rudy was in a chair opposite her. It was plain to see the hierarchy in the room.

“Derek! You’re finally back,” Malorie’s eyes shined. “I was beginning to think you were never going to get back here.”

“If you think about it, Mal… we actually finished the dungeon much quicker than planned,” Derek said. “How have things been on this side? At least for the business and such.”

“I’m going to get back to the shop,” Jacks said, dismissing himself from the room. Derek looked at him and nodded.

“Awful,” Malorie said once Jacks closed the door behind him. “Do you know how much work you left me with? Oh, and that’s on top of making sure my daughter doesn’t forget about eating and doesn’t kill herself in an explosion. By the way, what were you thinking leaving those mana things with her before you left? Do you know how irresponsible that was?”

Uh oh. Mal’s gone into mom mode. Derek slowly backed away and held up his hands. “That… you’re probably right about the mana cores, actually. She promised she would be safe with them, and I trust her. Why? Did she get hurt trying to use them as materials?”

“Well… no…” Malorie said. “Not really. But… but… I’ve gotten more used to seeing her without eyebrows than with them. That’s just not right.”

“Oh…” Derek couldn’t stop himself from breaking out in a smile. “Is that it? Eyebrows are overrated, anyway. It comes with the territory of being a crafter.”

“Hmph…” Malorie snorted. “She even has facial protection and goggles, but she forgets to wear them half the time when she gets excited. No matter how many times I tell her…” she breathed out in a harrumph.

“I’ll uh… let you two catch up,” Rudy made to leave, but Derek stopped him.

“Actually, Rudy. I needed to talk with you right now.”

“Me?” Rudy asked. “Why?”

“I’m going to need a couple of contracts prepared and signed in a moment. I’m on kind of a tight schedule, so I needed to get this done before anything else.”

Both Rudy and Malorie gave Derek a questioning look. “What kind of contracts?” Malorie asked.

“One second,” Derek said, then turned to a free corner of the room and opened up his Time Prison—he made sure to make the door large enough for Ogre to pass through.

Next, he opened the door and took a step inside. Finally inside, he found Bones and Ogre sitting alone in the middle of the lobby. Bones, of course, noticed instantly when the door to the outside opened and the scrawny man was already looking in Derek’s direction. “Is it time? Are we out?” he asked.

“Yup,” Derek said. “We’re in Savannah already—back at my shop. I just need the two of you to come meet with Rudy and we’ll get the contracts all set up.”

“Very good.” Bones stood with a bow. “Come on, Oggy, it’s time to start out new lives as store workers.”

Derek snorted. “Indeed.” From there, Derek went out changing the time on all the other cells—the ones holding all the dragonkin. It was the perfect time to do so. He wanted to set them to open close together, but not all at the same time. They needed to be staggered just in case things became iffy with Avery, Lyra, Rocky, and Tyron trying to keep control of the beasts.

That way, if the plan failed, Derek could come back inside his prison with time to spare and slow the rate at which their sentences released them. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to do that. Finally, Derek walked back out of his Time Prison and looked up. “I’m glad I decided on tall ceilings…” he muttered.

Next, the skeletal like Bones stepped through the passageway from the Time Prison and into Rudy’s office before looking around. “This may become a little crowded…” he also muttered to himself before moving further away—close to the opposite wall as Ogre stuck his head out of the passage.

“These two are… the assassins? Right?” Malorie asked.

“Former assassins,” Derek clarified. “They have been… reformed.”

Finally, the half-giant Ogre took his first steps into the outside world after being locked away for some time. With a frown, he said, “Small room. Can Ogre go back?”

Derek shook his head, and Bones gestured for Ogre to stand by him. “Unfortunately, Ogre, my Time Prison will be off limits for some time,” he said as he shuffled past the big man so he could shut the door and close the rift in the void… or is it space? He questioned.

Once all that was finished, Derek introduced their two new guests. “Malorie, Rudy, this is Bones and Ogre. I’m sure you can tell which one’s which. Bones, Ogre, this is Malorie and Rudy. Rudy is going to help you with your contracts, and Malorie is in charge. Anything she requests, you can think of it as a request from me. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Bones did his best butler bow.

“Malorie,” Derek said. “Bones will basically become the butler of the house and shop. After signing the contracts, I plan on sending him to the capital to train with Bronson—if the man agrees to it—then he will come back to work. Ogre will hold two positions. First and foremost, he will be Silvi’s taste-tester.” Derek felt Silvi nod from his shoulder. “When he is not doing that, he will be a guard for the shop.”

After that, Derek went on to explain all the details of the contracts he wanted Rudy to draw up and the oaths that the two new additions had already taken. “Finally, I expect the two of them to grow stronger, just like everyone else. They are currently very underpowered, and I hope to remedy that as soon as possible.”

“Got it,” Rudy said.

Derek was amazed while speaking and watching the man draw up two contracts simultaneously. Once he finished speaking, it took Rudy another half minute before he finished up and held the contracts out for Derek to take. Derek shook his head. “Just have Malorie do it. She’s going to be seeing them much more often than me, anyway.”

Rudy nodded and made a couple of quick changes to the contract before handing them to Malorie.

“Great… more paperwork,” Malorie sighed and took the contracts. She didn’t even bother reading them and injected her mana into them.

Finally, Rudy took the contracts back and looked them over before handing them to Bones and Ogre. “If you two will just imprint your mana into those contracts,” Rudy said. “They have been drawn up just as we discussed, but feel free to go over them.”

Ogre stared at the contract in his hand like it was some foreign object while Bones quickly flipped through his. Finally, with a nod, Bones injected the contract with his mana. Seeing what Bones had done, Ogre did the same, and soon, both had ‘signed’ their contracts, then, both contracts turned into energy and flowed into Malorie, Bones, and Ogre.

“Great!” Derek said. “Bones, Ogre… you two can make yourself at home. Malorie, could you let Natalie know that Bones and Ogre work for me now? I would rather them not be arrested or killed as soon as they leave the building.”

After that, Derek gave Ogre another look up and down. “Also, Mal… Could you look into buying the lot next door? I think we may need to make a separate living quarters for our two new recruits.”

“I think you may be right,” Malorie agreed. “I’ll head over to the City Building tomorrow morning and get things settled. Would you like to use the same contractor?”

“Yes, just use Geoffrey,” Derek replied. “Do we have enough capital for another lot and building to be built?” he asked.

“Yes,” Malorie chuckled. “We have plenty. Would you like to go over your finances?”

Derek almost bolted out the door right then and there—it took every ounce of willpower he had not to. He frantically shook his head. “No, I’ll leave all that to you. I trust you.”

“Of course you do,” Malorie rolled her eyes.

“What?” Derek knowingly smiled. “You seem to be doing a great job. Not sense fixing what’s not broken.”

“It’s like you haven’t even been gone for almost two years…” Malorie shook her head. “Is there anything else? You didn’t conquer a country that you would like me to run while you were out, did you? Maybe have some dragons you would like me to take care of?”

“Actually…” Derek started.

“Don’t you even,” Malorie warned.

“Uhem…” Derek stopped before he was reprimanded again. Besides, he already had a plan for the dragons, and it was a good plan. So instead, he took a step forward toward the desk and began removing each of his storage rings one by one.

He didn’t want to risk anything being damaged while in the void, and who better to leave his items with than Malorie? Finally, he fidgeted with his bracelet before removing it, too. It was a very odd sensation, being without his storage bracelet for the first time in… I don’t even know how long. I had it for a couple of years on Earth, then all that time in the void. He felt kind of naked without it.

“What’s this?” Malorie asked.

“These are all my storage items and everything.” He didn’t even plan to keep a potion on him. There was no telling what a healing potion would turn into. Potions seemed like the prime candidates for going bad from the use of his skill. “There’s something I have to do soon, and I can’t take my storage rings along.”

“Why would you not be able…” she started, but eventually just accepted it. “What do you plan on doing?”

“I heard that Edgar and Alanah are out fighting. I thought they could use some backup.”

“Oh,” Malorie nodded and pulled all the storage items to her.

“Do you have any empty storage ring?” Derek asked.

“Middle drawer,” Rudy cut in. “I keep some just in case.”

Malorie nodded and pulled out one of the drawers, then gave Derek the rings.

“Great,” Derek said, then he opened up his Void Storage and began emptying it out. He had a lot of dragonkin meat and materials stored in. If he was going as far as to give up his storage items, he wouldn’t trust his Void Storage space either. He would experiment with it later, but now wasn’t the time.

Once he emptied out his Void Storage and handed over those rings, Silvi hopped off his shoulder and onto the desk. “These are mine,” her voice chimed out as all of her storage items floated out of her pockets from her Telekinesis. “Don’t look in them. Private things.”

“I’ll do my best not to let my curiosity get the better of me.” Malorie smiled at Silvi.

Derek obviously knew what the woman was thinking. ‘Why would she want to look in storage rings that she knew contained only food and ingredients?’ Finally, Silvi took off her collar as well. It was created with some storage rings interwoven into it, so she would be unable to take it with her. That also meant that she wasn’t going to be able to communicate outside of Telepathy.

Derek took solace in the fact that Silvi had obviously decided that going with Derek to fight was more important than whatever deal she had with the king. She was a true companion.

‘Thanks for deciding to help,’ Derek sent to his companion.

‘Of course,’ Silvi replied. ‘And then maybe we can try an elf burger?’ she asked with hope.

‘Maybe,’ Derek replied.

‘Really?’ the excitement in her voice was palpable.

‘No! No eating elves.’

‘Meanie,’ she sent back.

‘Just use your helping his other son to try to sucker more ingredients out of the king,’ Derek replied.

‘Deal!’

“Okay, Mal,” Derek said. “We’ll have to catch up later. I’m going to stop by the basement, then we have to go. We’ll be back soon.”

“Be careful,” Malorie replied.

With that, Derek dismissed himself and left Rudy and Malorie to take care of Bones and Ogre. He needed to check in with Brandi, then he had some dragons to deal with.