System Change

As Derek walked out the front door of his shop, he couldn’t help but chuckle again at Brandi. The girl had been working so hard that she’d exploded herself numerous times. I wonder how long ago she got that Achievement? He thought. And how many more times has she accidentally exploded herself since then? That Achievement seems easy to obtain, but, if it only counts for accidental explosions, it would be much harder than it seems. I’m sure the system can detect whether something is an accident or not.

Derek took his time as he walked through Savannah. There wasn’t exactly a set time that he needed to be back, but he figured by now, if they weren’t already waiting for him, they would be getting close. He was sure that those that were in Astrus were well informed and prepared for everything that was to come. In fact, they were most likely only waiting on the teleporters to all be linked—however it was that they would accomplish that… he didn’t know much about runes or teleporters.

Actually… Derek stopped and turned around. They can wait for a little longer. For the next couple of seconds, he climbed into the air with his Void Step—it was very frowned upon in the city, but he figured he’d get a pass. After that, he positioned himself in the direction he wanted to go, then activated his new movement skill to see how well it paired with Void Steps.

With the skill’s activation, Derek felt the swift surge of mana flood through his body and into his lower limbs. His muscles tensed as it felt like they grew larger. With a breath, he stepped forward. The surroundings blurred as Derek moved through the air at a higher speed than ever before. The instantaneous travel from using Void Shift or Active Void Shift was nothing like what he was currently experiencing.

With the speed he was moving in a single step came extreme disorientation. Because Derek was used to moving based only on his on physical stats or with his instantaneous skills, he wasn’t ready for how his new skill was going to feel. Also, he imagined that the usual person wouldn’t be able to flood the skill with as much mana as he did with it being such a low level. He had maxed out the allowed mana in his first use of the skill.

As fast as the movement started, it stopped. Derek had to catch himself from falling to the ground by finding a ripple in the void to step onto. With the end of the skill, the pressure disappeared from his legs, and he was left with a tingling sensation. With that much mana put into the skill, it’s going to be a while until I am able to control it well, he thought.

The disorientation that Derek felt had instantly subsided the moment the skill stopped, and he believed that the next time he activated the skill, there would be even less disorientation—if any. It’ll be best to start small—maybe half of the mana that I just used—then work my way up. He had thought the skill was going to come just as naturally to him as Silvi’s Active Void Shift, but he had been wrong. I wonder if that has to do with the nature of the skills, or if it has something to do with my affinity for the void.

After a few more thoughts about his new skill, Derek turned and looked back. He wasn’t the greatest judge of distance, but with the single use of the skill, he was well outside of Savannah in mere seconds—if that. Not bad, Derek thought. This skill will definitely come in useful, especially once I get it leveled and am able to use it all the time without having to wait for my mana to regenerate. Both the cost of the skill and the extra cost from the mana he channeled had eaten up a large portion of his mana pool.

Luckily for Derek, he had Greater Meditation and a huge mana pool to compensate for his use of the skill. With the amount of mana he just used, it had depleted his mana pool by a bit over twenty percent. With that, he would only be able to use the skill five times before he had to either drink a potion or wait for Greater Meditation and his natural regeneration to refill his tanks—which wouldn’t take too terribly long.

Okay, let’s see if I can get the hang of this a little bit, Derek thought as he activated the skill once again, this time without pouring as much mana as possible into it. Not long later, and after learning to use his new skill easily at around fifty percent, Derek reached his destination. As he stood in the air with Void Steps, he looked down.

Tyron had been busy. In the time that they’d been gone, Tyron and Rocky—who had been left babysitting the remaining wyvern—had built something of a stable for dragons. The area looked like the perfect place for the dragonkin.

How did Derek know that it would be the perfect place for the dragonkin? Well, he knew because they were already there. It seemed like Avery or Lyra had taken it upon themselves to fly the dragonkin back since they were no longer needed and would just cause a ruckus if they stayed in Astrus. Derek looked around and was unable to see any sign of Avery, but Lyra was coiled on the ground just outside of the new dragon kennel.

‘Hey, Lyra!’ Derek called out with his Telepathy skill to the resting amphithere. She had already spotted him and raised her head slightly, so he wasn’t worried that she was sleeping. ‘I didn’t know you were coming back. What happened? Where’s Avery?’

‘I thought it better to bring the kin back here than have them there when all the ‘festivities’ began,’ Lyra sent back. ‘Avery and his ‘mistress’ are…’ she raised her head higher and turned it in the direction facing the capital. ‘They are back in the capital since last night. It seems that the teleportation between cities that everyone was so worried about has been completed.’

‘Huh,’ Derek sent. ‘I wonder why they didn’t contact me.’

‘Judging from Avery’s and Alanah’s condition,’ the lower-pitched feminine voice of the winged serpent sounded in his head. ‘I imagine the two of them are taking this time to rest and recover. Did you not do the same? You are looking much less ragged than the last time we spoke.’

Ragged? Was I looking ragged? Derek thought to himself. Well, I was wearing my armor with the knee out of it, and I could imagine the bags under my eyes from exhaustion, if not sleepiness. I never looked into a mirror, but I guess I could see myself looking ragged.

‘I did,’ he replied to Lyra. ‘You should, too.’

‘It is what I am doing,’ she replied.

‘Oh… right,’ Derek said. ‘What about all of this?’ he gestured with his hands at the massive area that was now home to his remaining dragonkin.

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‘The blacksmith apparently chose to build a Dragon Containment Area or Haven for my kin while we were gone,’ Lyra said.

‘Dragon Containment Area? Haven?’ Derek asked.

‘Depending on how you view it,’ Lyra began to explain. ‘It is a containment area if viewed with the idea that my kin are harmful to the humans and others, but a haven if viewed from the perspective of the others being harmful to my kin.’

‘It’s a dragon kennel,’ Derek said. ‘Though, I would imagine that—with the exception of the wyvern—the dragonkin would be in more danger from us than we would of them.’

‘My thoughts are the same,’ Lyra said.

‘How is it working?’

‘Quite well, actually,’ she gave him a surprising answer. ‘My kin seemed quite content. I have not had to exert my influence over them to maintain order since doing so the first time when we arrived, and once as we tested the facilities.’

‘That’s… odd,’ Derek said. ‘I wonder why.’

‘My kin over there are proper beasts and do not have much intelligence. They are essentially newborns or infants, as they were created for the sole purpose of the dungeon when you entered. And since they have not bonded with anyone, they are very instinctual. Basically, they want food. And since that lady is here and giving them all the food they can eat, they are content.’

‘Lady?’ Derek asked, confused. He didn’t know what lady would be bringing the dragonkin food.

‘I do not know her,’ Lyra said. ‘The blacksmith brought her in to do so. I did not pry. She seems to be a beast master of sorts. She is easily able to exert control over the lesser beasts in the area for the purpose of food. If you fly overhead, you will even see an area that she has been preparing. My guess is that it is an area for breeding and nurturing creatures destined for sustenance.’

‘I see,’ Derek said. They had talked about bringing in a Beast Tamer or something along those lines, and it seemed that Tyron had decided to do that. ‘What about Tyron?’

‘I do not know,’ Lyra said. ‘After testing the… kennel, the smith and the wyrmkin left. He asked for me to watch over them until we see that everything is right and proper.’

‘Ah, gotcha,’ Derek said. ‘And what is this testing that you’ve mentioned?’

‘Nothing much. I just commanded all of my kin to go all out and try to break the place apart. They were unable to and their restraints held well, with no signs of giving. The blacksmith and wyrmkin did a suitable job creating everything, and there are power dampening runes throughout the area as well.’

‘That’s good,’ Derek said. ‘That’s much better than having to carry them around with me and losing my ability to travel without jeopardizing their health.’

‘It is also better than having to babysit my kin for hours on end,’ Lyra agreed. ‘Though, it has been great training for my mental skills.’

‘I would imagine so,’ Derek said. ‘Hmm…How about hitting me with your best shot?’ he asked, not wanting to waste the opportunity to level his Mental Resistance skill up while nobody else was around. ‘Let’s see how powerful it is?’

‘You humans…’ Derek could practically hear the sigh coming from her internal voice. ‘Very well, but only once, and not at full strength.’

‘Suit yourself,’ Derek said. ‘I’m ready.’

Derek watched intently as Lyra turned her head directly at him. Smart thinking, Derek, he thought. You just recovered from being almost mentally exhausted. Now you ask probably the second strongest mind controlling creature on the continent to hit you with its best mental skills. He chided himself, but internally, he wanted to see what happened—wanted to experience a blow from the evolved Lyra.

Lyra’s eyes met Derek’s own, and slowly, they turned a pinkish color. Then, the aura that he’d seen from within his Void Travel ability sprouted, and he was hit like a freight train. It felt like a professional boxer had punched right through his skull and into his brain. He stumbled a step back before catching his balance. By the time he looked back at Lyra, her eyes were back to normal and the aura had receded.

A quick check of his health pool showed that the attack had knocked him down over fifteen percent. It took over 6,000 health points away from him. ‘Wow,’ Derek said. ‘That was at half power?’

‘It was,’ Lyra replied. ‘You received the attack surprisingly well—especially for what Avery would call a ‘kill shot.’’

‘That was your kill shot?’ Derek asked. ‘What… exactly does it do?’

‘It renders the target dead… most of the time. It is my Psionic Surge ability. I do not use it often, as I do not enjoy killing. It is a skill that assaults the mind with raw mental power—overloading it. You withstood it quite well. Congratulations on not being dead.’

“Hahaha,” Derek laughed out loud. He thought that the ability that Lyra was going to use would be some controlling ability, not pure attack ability. But his stats held strong, and he was already almost healed from the attack. On top of that, he gained a whopping two levels in his Mental Resistance skill, raising it all the way to level 7—and that was truly what mattered. ‘Thanks for that. How often can you do that?’

‘Once every six hours,’ Lyra replied with no hesitation to reveal the truth.

‘I’m sure that the skill is almost instantaneously deadly to most creatures you fight,’ Derek said. Fifteen percent of his health may not seem like a lot, but that was with his vitality, endurance, intelligence, and wisdom, all at 1500 points or greater. He felt like it was even more damage than one of Avery’s Drill Shot’s through his chest would do to him, and he’d seen that skill kill many times before.

‘It is,’ Lyra said straightforwardly. ‘It would be better if I focused on leveling it, but as I said, I do not enjoy killing.’

‘Well, thanks for the enlightenment,’ Derek said. ‘I’m going to go check out this dragon kennel, then head to the capital. Take care.’ In reply, Lyra only lowered her head and rested it back on her body.

For the next half hour, Derek looked over the place that Tyron had made for the dragonkin. It really was nice. Each dragonkin had its own stable, and the stable was made out of an obsidian-like material that Derek wished he could have built his shop with. As Lyra said, there were many of the same runes on the stables that he’d seen when in Natalie’s dungeon before.

Tyron seemed to be so sure of his work that he’d taken the muzzle off of the wyvern, as well. I guess with all the dampening runes and whatever those other ones are, it doesn’t really matter how strong the wyvern is, Derek thought. After that, he met the Beast Master that was taking care of the place. Her name was Lindsay, and it seemed like she’d want to work there even if she wasn’t being paid.

“It’s truly an honor to help take care of such magnificent beasts,” she said.

“Well, thanks for your help,” Derek replied.

After that interaction, he made a little more small-talk before he was interrupted by his storage bracelet—specifically the red communication crystal inside it. It was Alanah.

‘Hey Alanah, what’s up?’ he answered.

‘I’m surprised that you aren’t surprised that I’m contacting you,’ Alanah said from the other side.

‘I just finished chatting with Lyra here at the Dragon Kennels,’ he said.

‘Oh, I see,’ Alanah replied. ‘That’s good. That means you’re already up and out of the house. Were you on the way to the capital?’

‘I was. I just wanted to check in on Tyron, but… well, you know.’

‘In that case. We’re at the palace waiting if you still wish to attend the wedding,’ Alanah said.

‘I do,’ Derek replied. So they really were already waiting. There was no way in hell he wasn’t going to make sure the wedding went off without a hitch after all the effort he’d put into it. ‘I’ll see you there.’