System Change

Derek walked out of The Void Emporium, with Silvi still perched on his shoulder, then gave it one last look and smiled. It’s good to be back. It was only a handful of weeks for me, but everyone and everything else grew so much. Derek was, of course, talking about the store already being open and him missing the grand opening, and Brandi having grown so much. He really did look forward to having one of their chats about classes and levels later. Huh, back on Earth, I don’t think I’d have ever looked forward to something like that.

I wonder how things are back on Earth. Where he was hadn’t mattered much to him. Derek didn’t have any attachments left on Earth—any that he had disappeared well before the system came. Derek sighed as he turned back and looked ahead, toward the path to the center of the city where the Crown and the Crown Restaurant were. No sense thinking about it now.

He actually had some attachments in Cydaria, and those attachments had been threatened while he was gone. Now that he was back, he’d see to it that those threats were dealt with. With that decision in his mind, Derek took a step forward—it was time to meet up with Avery.

Derek made short work of the long distance between his shop and the city center. The distance was nothing when someone had skills like Active Void Shift and didn’t care about etiquette keeping him from using them in the city. He was sure Natalie wouldn’t mind him doing so, anyway. It was for a good cause, after all. The worst thing about using the skill in the city was the pissed off bunny who had to also use the skill to keep up. Such a lazy bunny when she wants to be.

Are we supposed to meet at the hotel or the restaurant? Derek inwardly questioned. He looked back and forth between the two businesses and shrugged before walking toward the restaurant. Derek opened the door and walked inside before getting the attention of the hostess.

“Welcome to the Crown Restaurant. May I see your membership?” the woman asked.

Derek actually didn’t have his membership on him at the moment—it had been left with Malorie, along with the rest of his items. “I’m not here to dine,” Derek replied. “Is Avery here? I’m supposed to meet with him right about now.”

“Avery?” the woman asked, then her eyes widened. “You mean Master Swan?” The woman shook her head. “Master Swan is currently away.”

“Gotcha,” Derek said. I guess he’s at the hotel. It looks like he hasn’t made himself known to many people yet. He turned and left the restaurant before making his way to the hotel. However, before he made it there, he saw Tyron and Rocky walk through the doors to the hotel, followed by Avery. Right on time, he thought.

“Perfect timing,” Avery waved as Derek approached them. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yup,” Derek said. “Did you get everything taken care of?”

“Stella has everything under control. I’m not really needed. I just need to go check on the boys at some point. I can’t wait to see how they’ve progressed under Alanah’s care.”

“Yeah, everyone’s grown a lot,” Derek replied. “By the way, where’s Lyra?”

“She’s coming,” Avery answered and pointed straight up into the air.

Derek looked up and saw it. The winged serpent was barely a dot in the sky, but as he stared and she approached, Lyra’s figured grew at a rapid pace.

“Not again…” Tyron sighed.

“I’m afraid so,” Avery laughed. “We don’t want her coming too close to the city, so we need to go to her. I assume you won’t have a problem getting to her?” he asked Derek.

As Avery was speaking, Lyra slowed her descent until she eventually stopped high in the sky. I guess that’s as close as Avery’s comfortable letting Lyra get to the middle of the city. She was still at a distance where she couldn’t really be seen unless someone was really looking for her. “I have no problem getting up there.”

“What about you, Tyron?”

“Do I look like I can fly? We’re meant to be on the ground.” The smith grunted.

“We’ll meet you up,” Avery told Derek. “Grab Rocky,” he said to Tyron.

Tyron sighed and Rocky wrapped himself around the large smith’s shoulders.

“Here we go,” Avery said, as his pair of dragon wings sprouted out from his back. Derek watched with hope that he was going to princess carry the giant smith, but to his dismay, Avery picked up the man by the waist and began his ascent. It wasn’t what Derek had hoped, but the scene still made him chuckle.

Derek began to channel his mana to activate Active Void Shift, but was stopped before he activated it by Silvi.

‘No! You use Void Steps.’

‘Fine…’ Derek replied. It would take a short time longer, but he couldn’t level up Active Void Shift, and he still had some levels to go with Void Steps. He should probably be using his own skill more often, anyway. But having a quick teleportation-like skill was just too fun.

Derek kicked off the ground and flew into the air. His foot found purchase on a void ripple, and he pushed off it again. One jump after another, Derek and Silvi made their way higher and higher into the air, closer to the flying Lyra. Finally, with one last hop, they landed on the back of Avery’s companion.

“Took you long enough,” Avery said.

“I had a disgruntled passenger, and had to provide some customer service,” Derek chuckled as he glanced at the lazy bunny, who was motionless on his shoulder. “Anyway, are we ready?”

“Was just waiting for you,” Avery said. “Hold on. Lyra, let’s go.” With that, Lyra flapped her enormous wings, and the group sped away.

In minutes, they were hovering over an open clearing that spanned for miles. “This is it,” Avery said. “There are nothing but a few low-level beasts around. Easy enough to clear out, or even feed the dragonkin with if needed.”

Derek nodded. “Sounds good. I won’t be able to put them back in cells for a week, but if it turns out that you and Lyra can’t handle them for that long, I can still put them inside my Time Prison. If it comes to that, hopefully they won’t end up killing each other inside.”

Avery pat Lyra’s back a couple times, then she swooped down toward the ground. Before Derek even realized it, she had landed. Tyron and Rocky were the first off. There was no way he was staying on the back of Lyra for a second longer than he needed to. Everyone else followed.

“When we’re finished, I’m walking back,” Tyron said.

“Fine by me,” Avery replied.

“Is everyone ready?” Derek asked. “If so, I’m going to go start bringing them out one by one.”

“Start with the winged serpents, then go from there. Lyra wants to see how much control is needed to just keep them all settled without them trying to escape or fighting back,” Avery explained.

“Will do,” Derek said, then moved over away from everyone and channeled what mana he could into his skill before ripping the space open. It took a lot of focus and mana to make the Time Prison passage big enough to bring all the dragonkin out.

With the door open, Derek walked inside and straight to the cells, where some of the amphithere were locked away. He placed his hand on the door and sped up the countdown timer as much as he could—he’d already adjusted them back at the Void Emporium, so it wouldn’t take long for each of their sentences to be up when he adjusted them again. It also helped that his Time Prison had been leveling like crazy since putting the dragonkin away.

The countdown timer quickly hit zero and the enormous door unlocked, then shot open. As soon as the door swung open, a gigantic head shot out and tried to latch onto Derek with its maw. Derek laughed and jumped backwards. Soon, the rest of the winged serpent’s body was out of its cell and chasing Derek. Derek casually made his way out of the Time Prison while leading the serpent behind him.

As soon as the winged serpent’s head made its way out of the Time Prison, it froze. Lyra was ready and had immediately stopped it once it was out. Once she was in control, she had the rest of its body move out. Finally, it seemed that she had lessened her control by a great deal.

The serpent no longer seemed mindless, but just much less aggressive. It no longer tried to bite or snap at anyone, and didn’t try to cast any skills either.

“How is it?” Derek asked.

“Lyra put a suggestion that this is its home and everyone here currently is its allies. Lyra’s ability is straight mind control, so it should work longer than Alanah’s manipulation that comes with her voice. She’ll have to refresh the command occasionally, but this clearing being their home should stick for a while—especially on the ones like this one, without a lot of wisdom to help fight the control,” Avery explained. “I also raided the Crown and brought a lot of Mana Potions for Lyra, so she shouldn’t have a problem.”

“Great,” Derek replied.

“It would be best if we could start having those who plan on contracting the beasts to come out and do so. Each one would be one less that she would need to control.”

Derek nodded. He didn’t know what levels Rayna or Jacks were. I should have asked Jacks about it when we talked. It’s been a long time, but with the war, I’m sure they haven’t leveled up a lot. It could be a good idea to give Bones and Ogre one each once they level, too. But that will depend on how well they do. Then there’s Thomas one, and Tyron already got Rocky. He was sure that Brandi wasn’t ready to tame one, though. “You should contact Tara and have her send her son here to tame his drake. Surely he’s a high enough level, right?”

“I’ll contact her later and see, and he can come pick it up whenever.” Avery said. “There are what? Four dragonkin that don’t have planned bonds? Any idea what you plan on doing with those?”

“Three,” Derek said. “And we’ve got to give Edgar one of them. You and Lyra did most of the work, and we’re giving one to Alanah and Stella. Anyone else who should take the final ones?” If not, then Bones and Ogre really might not be a bad idea.

“Not that I can immediately think of,” Avery said with a shrug. “But Stella seemed kind of jealous of Lyra. Once this war is settled, I’ll put her through some training and make sure she’s capable enough to tame one, so she can claim hers quicker. She may also want one of the winged serpents instead of the drake.”

Derek nodded in agreements. “I was also thinking about finding someone with a tamer class,” Derek said. “Not to give any to, but maybe they would be able to help with controlling them, or even breed them. It would be quite the profitable business. But we’d have to use Alanah’s network because I wouldn’t want to sell any to bad owners.”

“Maybe,” Avery said. “I doubt dragonkin have a high fertility rate. If they did, we’d see more of them and the world would probably be much more dangerous.”

“True…” Derek agreed. “It still may be worth it looking for someone with a tamer class… but that’s all in the future.”

“I’ll look into it later,” Avery said.

“Is Lyra ready for the next one?” Derek asked.

“Just waiting on you,” Avery said with a smile.

“Alright then. Let’s do it.” With that, Derek went back into the Time Prison and began pulling the dragonkin out one by one. Not long later, there were only a couple smaller dragonkin left, and the two wyverns. It was time to see if their plan was possible.