System Change

The tank slowly pushed himself back up to his feet. Once up, he stood directly in front of Derek. The boy even had the courage to look him—a person who just claimed himself to be the strongest person in the kingdom and who just put his entire class down with an aura display—directly in the eyes. Derek held the boy’s gaze for a few moments, then, to his surprise, the tank bowed deeply and said, “Thank you.”

Holy shit, Derek thought. He wasn’t expecting the student to act the way he was. He’d been pretty much at the forefront of everything, so he expected the boy to be haughty or something—instead, he seemed to be humble. Thomas needs to make this boy his friend. They do work well together, after all.

“What’s your name?” Derek asked the tank.

“Syd,” the boy said, then caught himself. “Sydney Ibarra.”

“Ibarra?” Derek asked with raised eyebrows. “Any relation to Cain?”

“He is my uncle,” the boy answered.

Derek looked Syd up and down before shrugging. “A tank, huh?” he asked. “Not an elementalist or some other kind of mage?” Cain Ibarra, the capital’s Adventurer’s Guild Master who went on the raid with Derek and the others, was a high rank elementalist. Usually, it seemed that most children of noble houses followed the path as the elders—with some slight alterations as no two classes were the same. Maybe Cain is the odd one? Derek thought.

“I…” Syd looked around at everyone and hesitated.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” Derek said. “Whatever secrets you have aren’t for me or anyone else to know. If you don’t feel like sharing, nobody’s going to think any lesser of you.” Derek still had some of his own secrets that he hadn’t shared yet, so he would be a hypocrite if he forced the kid to do so. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been one before, but this was something he really didn’t care much about. He just had a slight curiosity, and Cain had left a decent enough impression on him.

“I just didn’t take to magic very well,” Syd finally answered. “Turned out that I was well suited for defense over everything else.”“Good,” Derek said. “Defense is the way to go.” He laughed. “The only reason I’m still alive to this day. Tank classes are the best classes, after all.”

“You’re a tank?” Syd asked with wide eyes. At around this time, the instructors had begun discussing some things, and many of the other students, including Thomas, were beginning to stand.

“I started out as one—a solo one, actually,” Derek said. “Which meant I didn’t really need any taunts or ways to control aggro,” he explained. “But you know how class upgrades can be. Sometimes you have to change down the line because you got a better opportunity, or you picked wrong in the beginning.” He looked past Syd at Thomas and grinned. Focusing back on the elite student, he continued. “I still have all my tankiness, but now with a little extra oomph.”

The boy seemed to be taking everything Derek said in. If he was the only tank in his family, then that meant he couldn’t have had too much guidance in things—of course, Derek was sure that wouldn’t stop Cain from nurturing the kid. Derek was about to pat the kid on the shoulder and send him on his way, but some chatter he caught from the instructors made his eye twitch.

“What was that?” Derek asked as he turned his head. “Acting big?” He hadn’t cared all too much about them talking about him, but the students were also able to hear the gossip. All would become clear once everyone else returned, but until then… who was he?

“Yes.” One of the bigger instructors stepped forward and spoke. “You’ve done nothing but show the children an amount of aura that any one of us instructors can unleash. You say that you are feared and respected throughout the kingdoms on our continent, yet I’ve heard nothing more than rumor. You may have the king’s badge, which may show that you are valued by the king, but does not the king’s adviser and other such people also hold the same badge? So yes… you are acting big in front of the children with no proof other than rumor.”

Actually… Derek thought. The king’s adviser currently doesn’t have one of these badges. He stifled a laugh at the thought. He expected that within the next week or so, those rumors that people have been hearing would be confirmed. Until then, though, he had nothing more than those rumors and whatever proof he could show on his own. The only real public fight he’d had in the kingdom was against Gerald Torith, but that had been blocked out by Vanessa and her shadow dome. As they say, seeing is believing.

I was just going to hit the instructors with my controlled, but full aura. Instead… I think they’d welcome a spar. “I guess I am acting big, huh? I haven’t done anything to prove myself to you yet, after all.” Then, he gazed past a couple of the other instructors, then to the one that he had summoned to the king’s booth earlier. “I said earlier that these tests were going to be for more than just the student’s right? That I’ll give a lesson to the instructors, too?”

“Uh…” the man stammered. “Y-yes?”

“I thought so,” Derek said and cracked his knuckles. “I haven’t had any decent practice in a while. I had an okay spar with Simeon Ileal a few days ago, but he ended up being pretty squishy and kind of died. Poor guy got trapped in an invisible barrier with me. It wasn’t much of a spar. The lot of you ought to do much better.”

Derek name-dropped the patriarch of House Ileal, as the Noble House seemed to be pretty famous among those in Astrus. He closely watched the look on all the instructors’ faces. Out of them, four showed shock, and the color drained from three. The forth instructor, the bulky one who spoke earlier, initially showed a shocked expression, but soon that changed to one of skepticism. That was about what he was expecting. He didn’t know if there were any political classes or classes on other countries in the academy, but he’d gotten the reaction he wanted.

The other two instructors looked at the others in confusion, but didn’t dare to speak up.

“Really?” Derek heard from in front of him. Cain’s nephew stood staring at him with a new expression on his face—one he hadn’t seen on the quiet kid before. It was a look of pure curiosity and… envy. “Did you really fight him? And you killed him?”

“Yup,” Derek said. “I had an assist from Osian—he put the invisible cage around us. It just made it where he couldn’t escape is all.”

“Trapped… with a poison master?” Syd breathed deep. “And you won…”

“Yup, yup,” Derek said happily. It was even less surprising that the nephew of the Adventurer’s Guild Master knew about foreign noble houses. He seemed to take combat seriously. Why wouldn’t he take other matters seriously, too? Looking over all the kids that had finally gotten back to their feet, then to the other ones off to the side, Derek nodded.

“Okay, students,” Derek clapped his hands to make sure he got everyone’s attention. “Everyone head to the distant stands in the arena. Your instructors are going to put on a show for you.” His evil smile returned, and he looked back at the instructors. “You’re a healer, right?” he asked a female instructor to the right. He’d seen her healing some of the students after their battles earlier.

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“Yes?” she answered.

“Good,” Derek said. “Prepare yourself… your colleagues are going to need you soon.”

The instructors hesitated until one of the two who hadn’t recognized the Ileal name spoke up. “He’s just one man. We’ve already seen his aura. Besides, it will be good for the students to see how professionals work as a team.”

Finally, the instructors stepped forward. Derek held up his hand to stop them from continuing. “Wait until the children are clear,” he said. Then, once they were in the stands and far enough away, he held up his index finger. He was sparring, after all, so he planned on going back to his classic sparring outfit. In an instant, his shirt disappeared and his jeans were replaced by one of his remaining pairs of shorts. He’d pretty much used them exclusively for sleeping since the last time he helped train Rayna.

“What… are you wearing?” the lead instructor asked hesitantly.

“A pair of shorts,” Derek said. “Everyone always asks that question.” He shook his head. “Do you know what happened to the last person who destroyed one of my custom-made shirts? He died… we were just talking about him, actually.”

“Arrogant,” the bulky instructor who had spoken before hissed from the side as he pulled out a sword and shield, and a bulky set of plate armor encompassed him.

“Maybe…” Derek shrugged. “Or maybe I’m just confident?”

The other five instructors soon prepped for battle as well. The healer, who was standing at the back, changed into a bright white robe and what looked like an oaken staff appeared in her hand. The instructor who had visited him in the king’s booth was soon covered in a medium scale-like armor—it had some similarities to Derek’s own wyvern armor, but it wasn’t quite the same. Snake? Maybe lizard? Derek wondered. In the man’s hand, two shortswords appeared, and he spun them for good measure.

Okay, a tank, DPS, and a healer. What’s next? He soon found out. The other woman soon found herself wearing a robe not unlike the healer, and she had a small… is that a wand? He thought. On her waist, two potions appeared tied to the robe. Derek waited for one of the last two guys to get summon a robe and staff, but it turned out they didn’t have a support class. Instead, one summoned some plate armor just as big as the tank’s armor, but instead of a sword and shield, he summoned a greatsword that would put Bronson’s to shame, and the other a set of leathers and a bow.

I guess it’s not like they’re an actual party or anything… just a group of instructors, Derek thought. Poor guys… he inwardly muttered as he looked at the thick plate armor on the two warriors. That plate’s not going to do them any good. Derek held out his right arm to the side and channeled the void through him. It had been a minute since he fought barehanded, but it was natural to him. The void flowed through his body, then appeared as a deep purple glow on his right hand. With his wisdom as it was at 1500, he focused a small amount, and the void shot through his body to his left hand.

He nodded, then moved it back into him and focused harder. Soon, it split in two and eventually, both of his hand showed the same deep purple glow. Neat! He inwardly called out. Derek had mostly gotten by with just instantly moving the void from one hand to the other, and he hadn’t experimented—or needed to experiment—with it because he had Harbinger. With the quality, thickness, and control now provided by his 1500 point intelligence and wisdom, and his maxed out Channel Void skill, he’d learned that he could do more than just that. And it’s not hard to maintain, either.

“A pugilist?” the deep voice inside the tank’s armor echoed out. “No, you’re not a pugilist, are you? I recall you commissioned a weapon at that auction. One from the Walking Forge—it was news all over. Where’s your weapon?”

“Trust me,” Derek said with a chuckle. “You don’t want me to use it.”

“Suit yourself,” the tank said.

With the students far enough away in the stands, and his shirt and jeans tucked away safely, Derek held out his void covered palm and motioned for the instructors to ‘come on.’

“Argh.” The tank charged at Derek while the greatsword user and dual swordsman circled to the side and the mage and archer dropped back to get a better view of the field.

“Don’t hold back,” Derek said as he sidestepped the greatsword and Active Void Shifted away from the dual swordsman.

“On me!” the tank shouted.

Derek felt a light tug at his mind, but nothing more. That must have been an aggro skill. I always wondered how they worked on humans and others with the Great System here. It was nothing compared to Alanah or Lyra—especially if Alanah was just speaking normally, but in her siren form.

“That’s not going to work,” Derek laughed, then appeared directly in front of the tank anyway with a shift. “Here I am.” With an open palm, he struck forward. His palm hit the tank directly where his armor covered his stomach. Let’s see how that does. He didn’t want to hit a vital part or use Multi-Strike with his current amount of intelligence. He didn’t know how much the instructors would be able to take.

He’d tried using Identify on them, but the skill was pretty much useless against anyone close to the mid 200s and with their own Identify skill leveled. Still, he doubted the academy would employ instructors that were lower than level 230 or so unless they had a high rarity class or had somehow stumbled upon a great deal of stat points, so they should all have decent endurance.

The delayed reaction that his channeled void was always fun for Derek to watch. As an icicle and an arrow crashed into his shoulder and side—both splintering upon impact and causing nothing more than a couple of white marks—he saw the tank clutch at his stomach and grunt. His knees shook a little, too. I see… Derek thought. He had just about figured how much strength he should use for the fight.

With another flash from Active Void Shift, he appeared behind the mage and, with another palm, hit her in the lower back. Say goodbye to your kidneys… and maybe liver… and stomach… he thought with a shrug before appearing back in front of the tank.

“Hold him down!” he heard the dual swordsman shout. The man was sprinting back and forth with Derek’s shifts. He was using some movement skills, but they weren’t enough to keep up with how instant Derek was moving.

Using both hands, he clutched them in fists and punched the tank in the same spot as before. At that same time, he heard the female mage cry out and saw her fall to the ground—her wand laying a few feet away. Instantly, a white light fell over her and she slowly began to stand.

Derek laughed and appeared behind the healer. With his hand, he reached out and clutched her by the nape of the neck. “You’re dead,” he said, then let go. “No more healing for now, kay?”

“Y-yes, sir…” she mumbled.

“Good,” Derek said. “You’ll get your chance to shine soon.” Instantly, he appeared behind the archer and launched a void covered fist directly into his back. If he wasn’t built like Avery, it would be more than enough to take him out of the fight for a while with their healer already down.

The archer stumbled forward, then fell to the ground and Derek disappeared once again. With a chuckle, he appeared in the distance—away from everyone. Then, with a bit of focus, he created a small dagger out of Void Creation. He’d gotten better with it since he had to use it as armor or a protective coating to transport people through Void Travel. With it in his hand, he flipped it over and between his fingers before lightly slashing out toward the greatsword user.

The man was slow, and he wasn’t able to avoid the space that appeared beside him, then and cut him in his side. Derek had used Spatial Rend. The cut was big and basically disappeared the part of the armor that it touched. Ah… I shouldn’t have done that, Derek thought. He knew how bad it felt to have armor destroyed, after all, and this was just a spar. He’d also said he wasn’t going to use his weapon, but he ended up creating one with Void Creation. He wasn’t sure if that was going against what he said before, but it wasn’t like it was a ‘real’ weapon.

And on top of all that, the wound began to bleed profusely and the surrounding area had an odd dark color of space around it. That’s going to be a pain to heal, Derek thought. The man pushed on the wound, but he couldn’t get it to stop bleeding. He was pretty much out of the fight. That left the tank, who was surprisingly still on his feet, the instructor who visited him in the king’s booth, and the mage who had been healed.

Derek flashed back in front of the tank again. “Resilient, aren’t you?” he said as he closed his right fist, then drove it into his gut while activating Multi-Strike. “That should do it.”

While speaking, a massive ice bolt shot toward Derek at an extreme speed. Just before it arrived, he used Spatial Redirection and caught it out of the air mid-flight. Then, with a wave of his hand, the space opened behind the dual swordsman and crashed into his back. The man went flying and landed with a crash as the tank finally fell to his knees and vomited a mouthful of blood.

With that, there was only the mage. Derek appeared behind her and grabbed her by the neck as well. “You’re also dead,” he said. Finally, he appeared back by the healer. He placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “Okay… they’re all yours.” With that, Derek disappeared one last time and the next time he appeared, he was sitting beside Thomas in the stands—his usual jeans and black t-shirt already on him. “Well… that was fun.”