System Change

It wasn’t hard for Derek to find the area that he originally left from—near where they were holding the dragonkin. He could see Tyron, Avery, and surprisingly, Alanah’s aura all close by, but he chose to appear a good distance away so his skill wouldn’t spook any of the dragonkin. He was surprised that Alanah was already there because she couldn’t have left much earlier than he had. She must have come straight here without any stops, he thought.

Derek opened the portal and stepped out with the prince in hand and Silvi on his shoulder. He made sure to quickly close the portal behind him to keep its effects to a minimum.

“Come on,” Derek said to Edward and began to move toward where he had left the others. Edward followed along without saying a word.

They soon broke out of the surrounding trees and into the giant clearing that Avery had picked for their ventures. To his surprise, as he wasn’t really looking before, there were two other people standing around. One was Tara Perez, the elven support who they’d promised to give a drake to. Which meant that the tall elven man standing next to her was most likely her son, who had come to tame his new companion.

“Hey!” Derek shouted from the side, getting everyone’s attention. “Tara! I didn’t think you’d already be here. I figured that you would all still be resting at that outpost.”

Everyone waited for Derek to get close, then Tara replied, “King Edwin began reactivating most of the teleporters in the kingdom last night, and we were able to teleport out of the area at the same one that we used to get there. I’m sure that by now, everyone’s already settled in. As soon as I got home, I got a message that Avery was waiting for me, so I picked up Trent and headed right over.”

“I see,” Derek said. “Did you pick out which drake you wanted?” he asked the young elven man. “The lightning one is reserved, but either of the other two is good to go.”

“I think I’m going to try to tame the elementless one,” he said. “It’s smaller, and I think it will be easier than the earth one. I’m not really suited for fighting things that can alter the ground and cast area skills, and I haven’t reached max level either. Would that be okay?”

“Go for it,” Derek said. “It’s yours whenever you’re ready. You don’t have to get it first try, either. Especially right now that we have a bunch of people here.”

Trent nodded seriously.

“Lyra is sending it this way. She made sure not to do anything to it that will affect it in a fight, so it shouldn’t change any of the chances of a contract working,” Avery said.

Soon, a gray-ish brown drake appeared in the distance. It reached everyone, including the two wyverns, and ignored them. The drake kept walking past everyone until it stopped alone in the distance. It looked up, confused—like Lyra had broken off any and all control from it.

“You better get going,” Avery said. “Lyra’s not controlling it anymore. I’d hate to see it escape.”

“Yes!” Trent half shouted and began running in the drake’s direction. The young elf was wearing a set of medium plate armor trimmed in silver and green. As his speed increased, three buffs fell over him. One of haste, one of strength, and one of mana regeneration.

Derek looked at Tara, but saw that she hadn’t been the one to cast it. She looked back and smiled.

“He started out as a support class and was able to keep many of his basic buffs as he switched. It was surprising, really,” she said.

“I see,” Derek said. “Then his current class?”

“Just watch,” Tara replied.

As the group watched on, a pair of short-swords appeared in the young man’s hands. So some time of swordsman? Derek wondered. At about that time, the drake noticed the elf running toward him and turned to face the man.

Derek waited in anticipation of seeing what the young man was going to do, and when it happened, he wasn’t let down. Trent took a step, then doubled. Instantly, there were two of the man, but it didn’t stop there. With each step he took toward the drake, the number of Trents doubled. After four steps, there were sixteen of the young elven warrior.

“Illusions?” Avery asked from the side.

“Yes,” Tara said with pride. “But they are special.”

“How so?”

“Keep watching.” She smiled.

The sixteen Trents circled the drake and caused not a small amount of confusion. It didn’t know which to go after first. Then, two of the Trents began to attack. The Trent on the far side jumped into the air and tried to bring his swords down onto the drake’s back, but the drake noticed this and quickly swiped its tail at the elf. However, the drake’s tail went straight through the man—it was an illusion.

The Trent on the opposite side found himself under the head of the distracted drake and thrust his swords up into its lower jaw. His swords struck true, and although they didn’t cut too deep, they still penetrated and drew blood. The drake roared and slung its head from side to side, launching Trent and his swords into the air. Then, it readied itself to go after the man, but instead, something strange happened.

The illusion that the tail had gone through drove his swords into the back leg of the beast pulled them through its flesh, creating a long cut in its leg. The creature roared again in anger, then the rest of the illusions struck.

“Are they actually illusions?” Derek asked. “Or are they clones? It looks like he can clone his weapons and armor as well.”

“No,” Tara answered. “They are illusions. There is always only one real Trent, but he can switch places with each illusion at will.”

“I can see how that would be a pain to fight against,” Derek said. “But I imagine that it would take a lot of hard work and time to control.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Tara said. “If the boy isn’t recovering, he’s training. You don’t know how hard it was for me to pull him away from his training just to come here. It wasn’t until I mentioned that having such a good companion would make for the perfect training partner that he stopped and agreed to come.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Derek chuckled. “That just means that he’ll be ready when the time comes to fight. And, since he isn’t yet max level—though it doesn’t look like he’s far off from it—it should be easier to increase his skill levels.”

The talking soon ceased, and everyone watched the illusionist and drake go at it. Derek had to agree that choosing the smaller drake with no element had been the correct choice for the man. While it seemed like he was overwhelming the confused drake, his blows weren’t actually causing a great amount of damage.

But luckily, the young man was able to keep his buffs up—including a stamina buff—and keep going. It took a long while, but eventually, the young man was able to hamstring the beast and immobilize it. Then, after a few more attacks to make a point, he broke out the contract scroll and tried his luck at taming it.

Derek could only imagine how cool the drake would be if it ended up with the same illusion affinity and skills that the young man had. He still wasn’t entirely sure about how the evolution process worked—it seemed to have something to do with both the will of the beast and the person. In fact, he had a theory that if Edgar had wanted to keep Blitz as a fire affinity wyvern, he could have willed it, and it wouldn’t have changed so much.

He had this idea after Silvi’s class changed from pure void to a void and crafting hybrid class. She clearly enjoyed using the void, but her focus was on cooking, so when she evolved for the second time, the evolution had taken that into account, and she came out as a Gluttonous Void Bunny. Oh, yeah… she likes eating as well…

The young elven warrior seemed to luck out as the drake accepted the contract on the first try. Then, in typical fashion, the young man initiated a bond, and the drake was covered in its own evolution sphere. Soon, an exhausted Trent walked back over to everyone else.

“Good job, kid,” Derek said. Then, he thought about how elves and humans aged and realized that there was a very good chance that the ‘kid’ he just congratulated was much, much older than he was.

Trent didn’t seem to mind. He was probably used to his mother calling him a boy, so he just nodded and smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “I thought I was done for a couple times back there. I think I got lucky. The beast had a lot more stamina and regeneration than I expected.”

“You did so good!” Tara came over and yoked the young man up in a big hug. “I’m so proud of you!”

Soon, everyone congratulated the young man on his accomplishment.

“You’ll have to stop by the restaurant one of these days,” Alanah said. “You can have a meal on me. That was quite the show.”

Another tell that the boy was actually strong or had very high willpower was that other than an intense blush at Alanah’s words, he hadn’t lost himself. Of course, she wasn’t trying and didn’t put anything extra in her voice, but it was still impressive that it didn’t have any kind of mental effect on him.

“Alright, that’s one down,” Derek said. “That’s going to be tough to follow, but we need to do it as soon as possible. Are you ready for your turn, Edward?”

Edward let out a sigh, then nodded. “I am.”

“Okay,” Derek said. “There is one drake and… two amphitheres left… I think.” He looked over at Avery, and the archer nodded. “Which do you want?”

“I’ll take the winged serpent,” the crown prince answered. “I need something that can fly. I can’t be too outdone by my little brother.”

Too late, Derek thought, but didn’t let his thoughts escape his lips. “Do you care which one you fight?” he asked.

“No,” he replied. “Just send whichever you think is best over.”

Derek looked at Avery, and the man nodded.

“Lyra’s sending another over. Wait until she lets it loose before you attack,” Avery said.

“Will do.”

Soon, a medium-sized amphithere flew over from where Lyra was keeping the lesser dragonkin. It was bigger than Lyra was initially, but that didn’t mean anything. Derek actually hoped that Edward’s class would upgrade just like Avery’s had. He wasn’t sure of what conditions it would take, but being at max level seemed to be one, and he was sure that the crown prince had enjoyed at least some Void Beast meals in his time.

The winged serpent flew overhead, and a pair of lightning wings appeared from Edward’s back. He shot up into the sky to meet the beast.

‘Poor guy,’ Derek heard Silvi’s voice in his head.

‘Why is that?’ he asked.

‘He used to have two thumbs. Now he only has one. He doesn’t know what he lost,’ Silvi said.

Derek rolled his eyes, not deigning to give his lazy companion a reply.

Soon, the telltale sign of the beast breaking out of Lyra’s command happened, and it began to look around in confusion, just like the drake had. Edward, with his sword in his only remaining hand, charged at the beast before it could get its bearing.

The creature noticed Edward at the last second, and the two clashed. It was the second time Derek would see a prince battle with a dragonkin. This time, though, it was a lesser prince battling against a lesser dragonkin. But, after everything that had happened, he was still rooting for Little Sparky.