System Change

After using her boots and learning what she needed to do to make them work more efficiently and better, then testing out her new skills on Derek, Brandi was beat. Slaving away in her smithy day after day was exhausting to her, but using the rocket boots and fighting skills required her to ‘stretch’ muscles that she normally didn’t use—especially when she had to continuously direct mana into the correct pathways to the runes on them.

She was both mentally and physically exhausted when everyone got back to the shop that evening—so much so that instead of going directly back down to her workplace and working on an even better version of her boots or writing down her current findings, she decided to head upstairs and have dinner with everyone. This seemed to help get Malorie over the bit of anger and irritation she’d had during all the testing.

Nothing like having everyone at the dinner table to bring the mood up, Derek thought as he served himself another helping of chilled zesty pasta that Silvi had prepared while they were gone. This normally wasn’t a favorite dish for Derek, as he preferred his pasta hot… or spaghetti—but it seemed like Silvi could make even his least favorite dishes worth eating.

“And then I face-planted into the ground and mom almost had a heart attack,” Brandi said to Rayna and Rudy as she stuffed her mouth full of the pasta.

“Oh, no!” Rayna said. “It didn’t hurt too much, did it?”

“Not at all,” Brandi said, and her eyes shifted to Malorie before turning back to Rayna. “I thought mom was gonna kill Derek though. It was bad. He told her to calm down.”

“He didn’t?” Rayna’s mouth dropped, and she turned to look at Derek. “You didn’t really, did you?”

“It just kind of slipped out.” Derek shrugged. “But she was perfectly fine. What’s a couple of bumps and bruises here and there, anyway? It’s still much safer than running dungeons with people at her level. You should have seen Thomas in his first dungeon. He got hurt much worse than Brandi just did, but he came out of it with a much better mindset, and I think he’s better off for it.”

“Speaking of Thomas,” Malorie said. “When are you going to go see him?”

“I was thinking about heading to the academy to give it a look sometime within the next few days,” Derek replied. “I’m interested to see how he’s doing and if he’s made any real friends. He’s probably been a lot more cautious over things like that since the incident in Torith.” Everyone at the table had already heard the story of what happened, and they could only nod their heads in agreement.

Of course, Derek was talking about the boy befriending a girl and then being betrayed and almost killed by Malcolm Torith’s son, Clay. There was no way that something like that wouldn’t have long-lasting effects on a 13, now 14, year old boy.

“I’m sure that he’d like that very much,” Malorie said.

“What happened to his grandparents?” Derek asked. He knew that Alanah had gotten Delilah and Richard to safety, but he hadn’t looked any deeper into it. “Do you know?”

“They are fine,” Malorie said. “They stayed here in Savannah for a while, but after Miss Swan and Prince Edgar pushed back the armies when they tried to take over the city, she made arrangements for Richard and Delilah to go to the capital to visit Thomas. Though Leon, Sana, Bart, and Laura should still be here in Savannah. They come visit occasionally, but mostly they are just enjoying the city, thanks to Miss Swan and Stella.”

“I see…” Derek said. He remembered Leon and Sana, they were husband and wife and Leon was the chief of Brandi’s village, which was destroyed, and Bart was the innkeeper—or bartender—at Rayna’s village. Connecting the dots, he figured that Laura was Bart’s wife that he only barely met when she examined the hide that he used to buy a room at their inn, but he wanted to make sure. “Laura?” he asked.

“Bart’s wife,” Rayna confirmed. “She’s never been too sociable—which was always funny, considering her husband.”

“I can see that,” Derek replied with a chuckle. “Bart was definitely something else. How about the rest of the village? Do you know about it?”

“Unfortunately,” Malorie said. “We don’t. We don’t get a lot of news here—we’re not exactly high on the list of people who need to know things. But, from what I’ve heard, most of the people from the cities and villages that were either captured or destroyed are okay, at least—with some casualties.”

“Like Francesco Jaccobs,” Derek said.

“Who?” Malorie asked.

“Oh, he was the manager of the Torith Adventurer’s Guild. I had a contract with him as the proxy, but he disappeared from my contract list while I was in the raid dungeon,” Derek explained. “I wasn’t sure if he was part of the Torith problem, or if got caught up in war. I’m still not certain, but it’s looking more like it was because of the war.”

The author’s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I wouldn’t know,” Malorie said. “You could visit Stella and find out.”

“Maybe,” Derek said. “I didn’t know him well, and he was a bit of an ass, if I’m honest. Well… until he saw me fight, then his personality did a complete one eighty. I’ve got a lot of other things to worry about before I worry about him, though.”

“Ha!” Jacks laughed loudly. “I can completely understand someone having a change of heart about you after seeing you in action.”

“He’s scary,” Rudy added from across the table.

Derek rolled his eyes and continued with his pasta. The rest of the meal was spent in small talk and Silvi praising herself for a job well done. After that, everyone chatted for a little longer before retiring for the night—even Brandi, to the satisfaction of her mother, chose to get a good night’s rest after the day she had.

Derek thought that it more so seemed that Brandi was trying to mollify Malory instead of really wanting to rest well. But he would take it, as by the end of the meal, Malorie was completely back to her normal self and even more jovial. I’m definitely going to have to have a talk with Brandi. It looks like she needs to spend more time with Mal. He thought back to the way the mother doted on her daughter and smiled as he, too, made it to his room and went to sleep.

The next morning, Derek woke up not really sure how he was going to spend his day. He wanted to go visit Thomas at some point, but he also wanted to visit Roman and Stella, too. Then, there was Clare, who was supposed to be in at the Crown Restaurant in the capital, that he planned on visiting either before or after going to see Thomas. It’s nice not having anything urgent going on right now, he thought as he made his way to the dining room for another lovely breakfast.

After breakfast, Derek decided that Thomas and Clare could wait another day. He collected some of the wyvern and other materials that he’d previously left with Malorie, and headed to Roman’s Potions and Brews. Once there, he opened the door, which made a ringing sound to alert the staff that a customer had entered, then walked inside.

As for the staff that was alerted… well, that was just Freia, Roman’s assistant and apprentice. “You can examine our potions while you wait,” Freia’s voice rang out in a monotone voice. She was not the best shopkeeper. “I’ll be with you soon.” The woman was at a counter toward the back of the lobby with her head down—fiercely writing in what looked like a notebook.

Derek didn’t bother looked at any of Roman’s wares, he wasn’t exactly there to shop, and he wasn’t in need of any potions at the moment. So, he instead just stood in the middle of the lobby and waited for Freia to finish whatever it was that she was doing.

“Oh?” he heard Freia’s voice finally and looked up. “Mr. Hunt! You’re back?” It seemed that no matter who he ran into, they all had the same question for him.

“For the time being,” he answered.

“Are you here to test some of the new potions?” she asked with a gleam in her eyes as she quickly moved around the counter and made her way to him—notebook still in hand. “I’ve been able to produce some too, if you don’t mind. It’s not easy to find someone of your constitution to help with our research.”

“I, uh…” Derek smiled and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “I wasn’t really planning on that.”

The excitement in Freia’s eyes disappeared, and she said, “Oh… how can I help you, then?”

“Well…” he said. “I was wanting to see Roman and talk with him about the permanence potions and give him a few other materials to work with. I think I have some that could help produce some great new potions.”

“Really?” Once again, Freia’s attitude changed, and another fire was lit in her eyes. “What kind of material? No… wait, don’t tell me. We can find out together, that’s much more efficient. Hold on for one second.”

Freia then sidestepped Derek and walked to the entrance to the shop. Just before she got there, the sound indicating a new customer was entering rang out. Derek turned and watched as Freia rapidly explained to the person that they were closing down for some time to take inventory, then hurried him back outside before closing the door, locking it, then placing a sign on the glass saying that they were closed.

It was very entertaining, to say the least. Freia was another one of those people, like Brandi or Edgar. They were all dedicated to their craft—or fighting, in Edgar’s case—so much so that it came first over almost anything else. And, like Brandi was with her smithing, Freia was like that with her alchemy research and herbology.

Derek was actually a little surprised that she had made her own potions that needed to be tested. Then again, he thought. I’m sure she has to level up and increase her alchemy skills, just like every other alchemist. He just couldn’t see straight up research being able to level. Unless she actually has research skills… which would be interesting.

“Okay, that’s that. Follow me. Roman is in the back,” Freia said as she walked back past him and through the door to the back of the shop. Derek smiled wryly and followed the woman. She wasn’t one for mincing words, especially when there was research to be had.

Freia led Derek to the same room they had been in when Derek became Roman’s guinea pig and tested his potions that would have killed a lesser person.

“I’ll go get him,” Freia said, then disappeared without waiting for a reply. Moments later, she re-entered the room, this time practically dragging Roman behind her.

“I said… I wasn’t finis—” the halfling half shouted at Freia as they entered, then he paused when he saw Derek standing there. “Oh, Derek. You’re back!” His demeanor completely changed. “Okay, okay. You can let me go now,” he pleaded with his assistant, who finally did just that.

“That seems to be the case,” Derek replied.

“It’s good to see you again. It’s been awhile,” Roman said. “I heard that you’d made it back from the raid in one piece, then up and joined the shenanigans between the countries. So that’s finished now?”

“Pretty much,” Derek said. “Everyone else is still back there dotting the T’s and crossing the I’s, but that paperwork stuff doesn’t involve me, so I came back before them.”

“I see… I see,” Roman said. “That’s good, then. That war stuff wasn’t good for anybody. Made it much harder to get materials. Luckily, I had already bought enough to last me a few years if anything happened. It’s always best to be prepared.”

“I agree,” Derek said, then was interrupted.

“Tell him about the new materials,” Freia said, one hand holding her notebook, the other a writing utensil.

“What materials?” Roman asked, his eyes finally matching his assistants.

“Well…” Derek started. “Have you ever worked with wyverns?”