System Change

“Alanah!” Derek called out with a bright smile as he stood. Then, realizing something, he looked over to the chair that Malorie was sitting in and noticed that the woman was acting perfectly fine. Malorie had a decent amount of wisdom because of the skills and class that she hoped to obtain in the future, but he wasn’t sure that she had enough to combat the effects of even Alanah’s casual speaking.

Maybe she’s had a massive improvement in her willpower as well during the time I’ve been gone, Derek thought to himself. Or maybe Alanah’s just been here all day and Malorie has had enough time to get acclimated to her presence. With that thought in mind, he looked past Alanah and saw Stella—that had been the method that she used when she was going to be around Alanah for any length of time, so it would make perfect sense if Malorie had already gone through the same process.

Derek mentally shrugged and cast the questions out of his mind. In reality, it didn’t matter how Malorie was able to sit there casually, just that she was.

“Derek, dear,” Alanah said with a smile even brighter than his own as she walked over to where he was sitting. “It’s been too long. I’m sorry I was unable to visit until now.”

“You’re here now,” Derek said with a shrug. “Take a seat. We have plenty.” Alanah nodded, then casually moved over to one of the chairs and sat down lightly. Stella took a seat in the chair next to her, then Derek sat back down. “Nice, huh?” Derek asked.

“Quite nice, indeed,” Alanah answered.

“So, you wanted to talk?” Derek asked.

“I did,” Alanah replied. “But first, I have a question for you.”

“Oh?” Derek raised his eyebrows. “What is that?”

“Are you ready to go?” she asked.“To go?” Derek tilted his head in confusion and furrowed his brow. “To go dungeon running?” It was the only thing he could think of that she would be asking about. That, on top of the fact that he and Malorie had just been speaking about it when Alanah arrived.

“Yes,” Alanah answered. “There were many things that I had to take care of at the Crown.” She turned her head and looked at Stella, but the woman only sat there without a reaction—almost even avoiding looking at her. “But now that I am finished with those tasks, I am quite ready for a little adventure. I’ve even gone as far as to find information on some of the more intriguing level 250 dungeons.”

“I see…” Derek said. Am I ready? He asked himself. “Well, I guess I’m ready anytime,” Derek said. “Like Malorie said, I’m only a skill away from coming back. Technically, I don’t even need to tell anyone goodbye because of how soon I can come back. So yeah… I’m ready.”

“Great!” Alanah said happily, then quickly stood. With a flick of her wrist, a small golden badge appeared in her hand and she tossed it over to Derek, who easily caught it.

“What’s this?” he asked as he flipped it around in his hand a few times.

“That… is an Indaria Token of Merit from the allied kingdoms,” Alanah explained.

“Okay…” Derek said. That explanation didn’t help him one bit. “And what exactly is it good for? What does it do?”

“Well, first and foremost, it is a sign of you status among the kingdoms. It is the highest merit that the allied kingdoms has chosen to hand out. But, I’m sure that you don’t care about any of that, am I correct?” Alanah asked with a sly smile.

“Yeah,” Derek said. “Though I have been getting used to people parting as I walk down the street because of my diamond ranked adventurer’s badge. Will it have the same effect in the other kingdoms that the diamond badge has here?”

“Currently? Probably not,” Alanah answered truthfully. “It is a new merit, and it will take some time for regular citizens to learn to recognize it. I imagine most of the noble houses—at least the higher tier ones—in the kingdoms and their guard will recognize it and act accordingly very soon.”

“Oh,” Derek said. “Then what else is it good for?” he asked.

“Well…” With another flick of her wrist, Alanah pulled out another one of the tokens. “The best part is that it comes with unlimited free teleportations to any city within the three kingdoms, and we get to skip any pesky lines. I believe that it will be quite the boon for our little adventure. What do you think?”

“You should have led with that,” Derek said, then stored his Indaria Token of Merit into his own storage bracelet. “Lines are the worst,” he said with a laugh.

“Indeed, they are,” Alanah said with a giggle, then turned to Stella. “Stella,” she said, causing the woman to finally look up at her. “I’ll leave everything here to Avery. You may decide what it is you want to do from now on.”

“Yes… Alanah,” Stella answered with a light nod.

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Watching the interaction between the two women, Derek didn’t know what to think. He couldn’t help but wonder what exactly had gone on with Alanah and the Crown over the last weeks. It was definitely the strangest interaction he’d ever seen Stella have with Alanah—not to mention that when not in private, Stella was very careful to call Alanah her ‘mistress’ instead of by her name. Since he didn’t know how close Stella and Malorie had grown since he was gone, he could have just been overthinking things. Plus, it was a very casual setting and environment, and he knew that Alanah much preferred being called her name instead of any titles.

“Good,” Alanah said, then turned to Malorie. “Miss Fields, as always, it was a pleasure speaking with you.”

“And you,” Malorie said as she stood and slightly bowed. “Miss Swan.”

Finally, Alanah turned back to Derek and opened her mouth to speak.

“Hold that thought,” Derek said and held his index finger up. After that, he rushed out of the room, then down to the basement where Brandi was working. He didn’t need to tell anyone what he was doing, but since she was right there, and would probably be the one to take him leaving the hardest, he figured it was the best option, and that he should at least give her a head’s up.

Brandi took it quite well—especially once he mentioned that he would be coming back often with his skill. She gave him a light hug, and he tousled her hair before heading back up. But before he turned to go back to the sitting room, he stuck his head in the kitchen that was under renovation.

“Silvi,” he said, getting the bunny’s attention. She had been staring hard at a stove, and Derek was unsure why.

“What?” she asked bluntly when she turned around.

“It looks like I’m going adventuring with Alanah for a little while,” he said. “Do you want to come?”

“No,” Silvi said, then tilted her head. “Come get me if you find any tasty ingredients to kill.” She nodded seriously. “Or Void Beast. If you summon some, get me. Don’t forget.”

“Okay,” Derek said with a chuckle. “I’ll be sure to remember. You need to work on that skill of yours.” After that, he left and made his way back to the sitting room with.

“Alright,” he said to Alanah once the door closed behind him. With a flick of his wrist, his wyvern armor appeared over his body.

“You got the leg repaired?” Alanah asked as his eyes drifted down to the part of his armor that had been destroyed by the Starfury Leonaris before. He’d fought with the damaged armor on ever since he came back from the raid.

“Yup,” Derek said. “Tyron found me a couple of weeks ago with my gloves, then repaired the rest of my armor from there.” He held his arms up, showing the new wyvern-made gloves and light gauntlets.

“I see,” Alanah said with a nod. “It looks much better without your bare leg sticking out.” Then, with a flick of her own wrist, her very own beautiful set of green plate armor appeared over her body—it was the same armor that she’d worn the whole time, too. Though, it was much more polished and shiny and any and all of the blemishes caused during her past fights had been repaired and removed.

“Since we’re doing this,” Derek started, then pulled out his diamond-ranked adventurer’s badge before fastening it to his upper arm. “Might as well look the part.” He then took his new token and put it on his other arm.

“Might as well…” Alanah said, and did the same—placing both a diamond-ranked badge and the Indaria Token of Merit on the same arm, one right under the other.

“I should have figured that you’d be diamond-ranked,” Derek said with a laugh.

“Never had cause to use it,” Alanah replied.

“Until now,” Derek said.

“Yes.” Alanah nodded. “Until now.”

“Well…” Derek said and turned to Malorie. “Are you sure you don’t need me for anything?”

“Do I need you for anything?” Malorie asked, then laughed loudly. “It seems like I end up with much more work when you come back and start making deals. I thought it was bad when you were in the raid dungeon, but now I believe that was all the struggles of getting the business up and running. I think I can handle everything while you’re gone.”

“Well…” Derek said with a faux sigh and turned to Alanah. “It seems that I’m not needed here anymore.”

“That seems to be the case,” Alanah said, then, to Malorie, said, “Don’t start a full service business like a restaurant or hotel. You will never have any time if you do that.”

“Especially if it doubles as an information gathering business,” Derek chuckled.

“Don’t worry,” Malorie said. “We’re going to stick strictly to retail for now. If Silvi wants to create a small restaurant or something, I will hire someone to manage it all, and Rudy is good at doing it all himself and just giving me reports.”

“That is the best way to do it,” Alanah said, then turned back to Derek one last time. “Shall we go?” she asked.

“Sure,” Derek replied, then quickly gathered up a couple of chairs in the sitting room. “Just in case,” he said to Malorie when she gave him a deadpan stare.

“Don’t forget to come back in two weeks to see Thomas,” Malorie reminded.

“Don’t worry,” Derek said. “I’m looking forward to his tales of dungeon exploration just as much as I’m looking forward to doing it myself.”

“Good,” Malorie said. “In that case, you better get going before everything closes.”

“The teleportation buildings are never closed with these,” Alanah pointed to the merit badge on her arm. “Another perk.”

“That’s something,” Derek said. Though, once I go somewhere, I won’t need to teleport anymore because of Void Travel… but still, I guess it’s less exhausting. Derek inwardly chuckled. It’s kind of like unlocking fast travel locations. It’s such a cheat.

“Let’s go,” Alanah said.

“Sure,” Derek replied, then followed the woman out of the sitting room, down the stairs, then out the shop.

“So,” Derek started as Alanah took the lead—bringing them to the teleportation building that Derek had dropped Thomas off at earlier that day. “What’s the deal with you and Stella? Seems kind of… tense.”

“We’ll get into the specifics of that later when we get to somewhere more private,” Alanah said with a sigh. “For now, just know that there are some changes that must happen, and that have happened, that not everyone is happy about.”

“I see,” Derek said. “Well, it’s none of my business, anyway.”

“It may be,” Alanah said, but then said nothing else. Derek didn’t prod any further.

Soon enough, the two easily made it to the teleportation building. Their looks and the badges on their arms made it easy to get where they were going without any interference what-so-ever.

“W-welcome,” a worker in the building said with a stutter. It was the same man who knew Jacks when they first came to Savannah. Derek didn’t know if the man was nervous because Alanah was in front of him, or because there were two people with diamond-ranked badges on their arms. “Miss Swan.”

“Tavors?” Derek said, hoping he remembered the man’s name correctly.

“Mr. Hunt?” the man questioned. He had much less trouble speaking to Derek than to Alanah.

“That’s me,” Derek said. Must have been because he was speaking to Alanah, I be she gets that everywhere, especially when in that armor, he thought. “Looks like we need to use your teleportation circle.”

“Right,” Tavors replied. “Where to?”

Derek looked at Alanah, and Alanah looked back at him before turning her head to Tavors. “Eloria.”