System Change

Derek ripped open the void and stepped outside. As he did, he quickly used Void Steps to avoid falling. Finally, he looked around. What he saw was a very familiar scene—blue as far as his eyes could see, and a sky just as blue with few clouds. Finally, he turned to his right and saw who he had been looking for.

Marrick was slowly floating towards him on a cloud of sand. The old man had a big grin on his face. Derek couldn’t help but smile as he saw the elf get closer—his apparent joy was contagious. I never thought the old man would be so happy to see me. He must have really missed me, Derek thought.

“Derek!” The old elf shouted as he got close.

“Marrick!” Derek shouted back, then closed the rip in space behind him and took a couple of leaps forward. “It’s been a while,” he said when he was within a few feet of the man. “How have you been? Having fun on your ‘final’ adventure?” he asked.

“I have been having the time of my life,” Marrick said. The man seemed to be in a much different mood that he had been all the previous times they’d met. Like some depression or weight had fallen off his shoulders. It really seemed like adventuring was doing him good.

“I have to say, adventuring looks good on you,” Derek said. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you looked ten years younger.”

“I looked the same ten years ago,” Marrick replied.

“Oh…” Derek muttered. “Twenty-five?”

“Try a hundred,” Marrick replied with a cheeky grin. “Maybe more… I can honestly say that I do not remember what I looked like that many years ago. I probably had more hair.”

“Well, there is always that hair restora…” Derek started, but was cut off.“No!” Marrick stopped him. “Never again will I try something like that. It was like a horror story. One of the dumbest things I’ve done in my very long life.”

“Fair enough,” Derek said with a chuckle. “Anyway,” Derek said while looking around with a frown. “Where exactly are you headed?”

“Where?” Marrick repeated. “To the other continent, obviously.”

“The… other continent?” Derek asked. “Is there more than two?” He’d wondered about this for a while, but never asked. He had no clue how big Alanah’s continent actually was, or how big the world was. He did know that the sea, or ocean, or whatever it was considered, was extremely large. It would make sense to him if there was another continent along with the previous two. Though it was also possible that there were only two massive ones.

“Three?” Marrick tilted his head in confusion. “I do not believe so.”

“So… You’re headed to the continent that Alanah was born on?” Derek asked.

“Where else would I be going while traveling over the sea?” Marrick asked.

“Uh…” Derek didn’t know how to tell him he was probably further away from the other continent right now than he was when he was still on land. “You’re not going the right way,” he finally said.

“I’m not?” Marrick furrowed his brow. “How do you know?” Then his eyes brightened. “Wait, do you have a map of the sea? That would be so very helpful.”

“Hah!” Derek laughed. “No, I don’t have anything of the sort. It’s just… I’ve already been to the other continent and back with Alanah. We began our own adventuring shortly after you left Savannah.”

“How did you get there so quickly?” Marrick asked. “Did that siren have a map?”

“No, she had a weird device that pointed toward the closest large landmass. So, once we got far enough away from the continent with Cydaria and the other kingdoms, it changed directions and pointed to the other. Sure, we didn’t land in the kingdom that Alanah would have liked us to, but it didn’t take long to travel from there.”

“I… I didn’t think about something like that…” Marrick said, then, with a mutter, he said, “I wonder if I can make something like that.” He rubbed his chin. “No… I don’t have the correct crafting skills. But I’m sure I could find an Earth Mage who does, or a crafter who specializes in earth products.” Finally, he shook his head and broke out of his thoughts. “Do you, by any chance, have it?”

“No,” Derek laughed. “I don’t need it.”

“Ah… right,” Marrick said, as if remembering that Derek could basically go to any place he’s been or to anyone he’d met.

“So, you tried to go to the other continent,” Derek said. “But you go lost?”

“I did,” Marrick sighed. “I am not so prideful as to not admit that I did not make enough preparation before trying to cross the sea. If I had thought of such a device…” The old elf shook his head. “But I did not, so here I am.”

“Well, you were kind of in a hurry,” Derek said. “You know, with your being ancient and all.”

“Indeed, I was,” Marrick agreed and didn’t even take offense at Derek calling him ancient. “But the sea traveling has been very interesting.”

“I bet,” Derek said. “Did you bring a boat or a small ship?” he asked.

“I did!” Marrick said with a mocking smile. “I brought three of them… and I lost three of them.”

“Oh… so you’re just kind of floating around lost, then, with no way to rest.”

“I am indeed doing that,” Marrick confirmed.

“And that big squid over there?” Derek pointed behind them to a sea creature that was floating with only its head and eyes poking out.

“That octopus has been following me for some time,” Marrick said with a sigh. “It destroyed my last boat, and now it’s waiting for me to tire. It would be easy enough for me to kill, but I wanted to preserve what resources I have, and it cannot harm me from where I am. I consume the same amount whether I travel high up like now—keeping out of range of its water abilities—or closer to the water.”

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“I see,” Derek said. If he was in the same situation and his Greater Meditation wasn’t enough to cover all his costs, he’d probably do the same if he had a limited number of recovery potions. “Well… want me to take care of it?” he asked. “I’m sure Silvi would like some more exotic seafood.” And one kill won’t give me too much experience points. Besides, I’m going to max out my level soon enough, anyway. If I have a max level…

“You can if you want to,” Marrick said. “I’m limited on the amount of sand and earth that I can use. I can make some myself, but I am much stronger when I can draw from that which is already around me. So, though it doesn’t take much, I lose some to the water with each battle—even if it is only a grain or two—and creating more requires even more resources that I would rather not use.”

“Well, since I’m here,” Derek said. “You really don’t have to worry about conserving your mana anymore.”

“That is true,” Marrick said. “However, if I am to fight a creature big like that, I’m afraid most of its parts will become inedible once I am finished.”

“Fair enough,” Derek said. Then he summoned Harbinger in his right hand before grasping it with both. After that, he began channeling a massive amount of void into the blade—so much so that the void blade overlapping it was completely solid and giant. After that, he turned to Marrick and asked, “Uh… where is the best place to hit it to dispatch it in one shot?”

“See that hump on its head?” Marrick asked.

“Yeah?”

“I believe that holds many of its vital organs,” Marrick explained. “And if you can hit it between the eyes… wait… your energy will go through and damage internally, correct?”

“It will,” Derek said.

“Then yes, if you can also hit between its eyes, you will surely hit its brain,” Marrick said as he looked at the massive void blade overlapping the glaive’s own blade by an extreme margin. “And if you can hit both some of the hump and behind the eyes, you should be able to destroy a bit of everything.”

“Alright, sounds good,” Derek said. “I’ll give it a shot.” With those words, Derek brought Harbinger up over his head, then swung down with as much force as he could muster while also activating Multi-Strike and Sweeping Slash, and the energy from his skill and void blade flew toward the octopus at great speed.

Before reaching the beast, it brought up four tentacles to block Derek’s attack. The tentacles crossed over each other just in front of its head, creating a physical shield of four layers. A thick wall of water also shot up out of the sea to create even another barrier. It seemed that the octopus pulled out all the stops to defend against Derek—it was using all its power to defend. It certainly wasn’t underestimating him, that’s for sure.

Unfortunately, against Derek and his void, none of that was enough. The physical attack from Sweeping Slash cut through the water barrier relatively easily, but lost a lot of momentum in the process. Then it hit the creature’s tentacles and made it through two of them—chopping them clean off—before dissipating.

Derek could have sworn he saw the creature’s eyes widen in shock through the gap in the water barrier as its limbs fell to the water. The next instant, the water barrier dropped, and the octopus looked at Derek before turning around and bolting.

“They never understand,” Derek said. “They are already dead the second they try to block instead of dodge.”

“Indeed,” Marrick said from the side as he watched the fate of the sea creature.

Sure enough, the creature made it roughly a hundred yards out before it ceased all movement and began floating motionlessly in the sea. Derek jumped forward a few times and collected the severed limbs before going and collecting the rest of the body. It was so big that he had to have Marrick lift it up with his sand so he could dismantle it enough to fit in his storage rings.

“Thanks,” Derek said.

“No problem,” Marrick replied with a shake of his head. “Yes, as I said before, I do not believe there is anyone else in this world as capable as you. Not even that siren.”

“Oh…” Derek muttered. “Alanah isn’t in this world anymore.”

“What?!” The man’s eyes widened, and he drew in a deep breath. “She’s dead?” he asked. “How?”

“On, no.” Derek waved him off. “She didn’t die, she left.”

“She left? The world?” Marrick furrowed his brows. “How is that?”

“Well… she met both… re—” He tested the waters to see if he could speak of some of the things with Marrick, and he didn’t feel the system growing angry, so he continued. “She met the requirements and advanced.” There was only one reason he could tell the old man that, and it was because he had to have already met one of the requirements, which meant that he could at least tell him the same amount as he did Avery.

“She did?” Marrick muttered. “I hadn’t thought it was possible. I’ve been stuck at one requirement for over a century now.”

“Which one?” Derek asked, hopeful that he’d get an idea on how to get his second.

“It’s something that I haven’t forgotten,” Marrick said. “I met it when I leveled Sand Manipulation skill to max. It truly felt like I had become one with the sand on that day.”

“I see,” Derek said. “And was it the final sand related skill that you level to twenty?” he asked.

“Hmm…” Marrick rubbed his chin. “No, I do not believe it was. I have some… less than useful skills that I ignored in favor of others, and I do not believe they had maxed out yet. Though, I could be remembering wrong. It was a long time ago.”

“I see,” Derek said. He was beginning to think that his skills weren’t what was needed for his second requirement. If it even has anything to do with skills, Derek thought. Maybe… affinity? If that was the case, then that was the requirement he’d already met during his evolution. After thinking this, he frowned. “Why have you not met the second requirement yet?”

“Poor distribution of stats when I was younger,” Marrick answered. “And stagnation and regression from growing old and feeble. It is not something that humans really experience, but elves can eventually live long enough for such things to happen.”

“So, that’s the tradeoff for having such longer lives,” Derek said.

“Yes,” Marrick replied. “That, our very low fertility rates, and some, but not all, of our skills leveling slower than the human counterparts. Though not even most elves live long enough to see the decline. It’s a dangerous world out there, after all, and a millennium or even longer sure is enough time to make a lot of enemies. I also suspect that the reason I have been able to live as long as I have, is because I have met the first requirement.”

“So, it’s like the system gave you extra time to work on the other,” Derek said. Then thought, I wonder if my skills are leveling slower than before since I went through that evolution… They don’t seem to be… But I’m also not sure how evolving changed my longevity. He inwardly shrugged and put the thought out of his mind. Just more things to find out later.

“Maybe…” Marrick replied. “Who knows? I may just have very good genes. It’s all just guesses. There are advantages and disadvantages to every race.”

“But you’re still so strong,” Derek said.

“I am, in intelligence and wisdom,” Marrick replied. “Those have not regressed, and they are my fighting stats. But my strength, dexterity, endurance, and vitality… they are not what they once were, and it’s the vitality that is dropping fastest of all.”

“I see…” Derek said. It was almost the same issue that Klaus, the overall Leader of the Adventurer’s Guild, had. Though, Derek guessed that Klaus’s skills allowed him to fight stagnation and old age by manually regressing his own stats. “What about Void Beast meals?”

“It is very hard to come by dexterity, wisdom, and vitality. Before you arrived, Void Beast meals were extremely scarce in general unless you were the siren or very close with her. And I was not very close with Alanah Swan at the time. And I do not believe I have long enough to live to allow my body to digest enough meals to get me there.”

“Interesting…” Derek said. It was probably true. It took time for one’s body to digest the meals without over-saturating and no longer gaining stats—at least according to Alanah and Stella. He’d not tried it, but he trusted their words.

“Now, how about we cease this depressing talk about me dying and you get me the hell out of here,” Marrick said, breaking Derek out of his thoughts. “I’m tired of the sea.”

“That’s fine by me,” Derek said. “Where would you like to go?”