System Change

“A lizard?” Silvi asked as she sniffed at the tail. “How strong? As strong as wyvern?”

“Yes, probably,” Jace replied. “I’d say that he wouldn’t have a problem against most beasts in the system. The bastard put up a good fight against me when I didn’t have any Battlelust built up, and even after I built up a bit.” He turned to look at Derek and said, “I had to use my Surge of War skill against him. Of course, I didn’t have much Battlelust, so my strength didn’t jump as much as when I fought you. But the backlash from using the skill wasn’t nearly as bad as it is now.”

Derek furrowed his brow and looked at the tail. “You said… he? As in… a person? A system user?”

“Yeah,” Jace answered with a nod. “I told him I’d take his tail and make some steaks out of it after he pissed me off.”

Derek facepalmed. “Not you, too…” he muttered, then looked at Silvi, who was already looking up at him with puppy-dog eyes. “You remember what he said, right?” Derek wasn’t exactly sure how serious Dave was when he told Silvi not to eat any system users, but he wasn’t going to risk it. The man knew way more than he said. He especially knew more about system-related things than Derek did.

“But…” Silvi muttered through her communication crystal. “You said… if I can’t make friends with it, I can eat it.”

“That… is not what I said,” Derek snorted. “I said that if it looks like you can make friends with it, then you can’t eat it.”

“But… we never met,” Silvi replied. “So… can’t be friends.”

“Her logic is sound,” Jace said with a nod.

“You shut up!” Derek snapped at Jace. “Ugh…” he rubbed his hands over his face. “No sapient beings of a system.” He then looked back at the bald, ghoulish man. “Jace, do you think that you could ever be friends with someone of his species?”

“I don’t even get along with humans…” Jace said.

“Right… you’re not the person to be asking…” Derek sighed. “Do you think I could become friends with one of his species? Not necessarily him?”

“I guess…” Jace said. “If you want to. The ones I’ve met are all pretty simple-minded, though. They are very… follow the strongest and don’t think for themselves.”

“And… you’re not simple-minded?” Derek asked.

“I’m not…”

“Mr. Fight, Fight, Fight,” Derek said.

“And win,” Jace said. “I like to win, too.”

“But you didn’t,” Derek chuckled.

“But I usually do.”

“That’s not the point,” Derek said. “So, you’re saying that I could become friends with one?”

“Yes…”

“See,” Derek turned back to Silvi, only to see that she was still sitting in the same place looking up at him, but the tail was nowhere to be seen. “Silvi… where’s the tail?”

The bunny looked around in faux panic, then said, “Don’t know… must have vanished.”

Derek sighed. “Give me the tail. We don’t know what will happen if you eat a sapient being of a system. Void Beasts are already pushing it.”

“Void Beasts are mindless beasts,” Jace cut in.

“Not all of them,” Derek replied. “They grow more intelligent the stronger they become. I know one with a name who probably has close to the same level of empathy as you…”

“Empathy? I have empathy!”

“Sure…” Derek said. Jace bringing him the boxes of pictures showed him that. “But certainly not a lot, or at least, not for many people.” Derek shook his head. “Anyway, we’re off topic. I’m not discussing philosophy with you—or anyone else for that matter.”

Derek sighed. He never thought he’d be ganged up on about sapient food. “Now, tail…” he reached out to Silvi. “Do you really want to get some type of system user cannibal Title or Achievement? Who knows what that would entail? At least wait until you can learn more about it.”

“Fiiiine…” Silvi muttered, then the tail reappeared back on the floor.

Derek quickly snatched it up and tossed it back to Jace. A shiver went down his spine when he thought about what may have happened had Silvi not asked Jace whether the tail came from something strong or not. He wouldn’t have ever thought twice about it because it looked like a normal tail from some type of lizard beast, which is how Jace presented it at first.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

A drop of sweat ran down his forehead as he thought about Silvi cooking steaks for everyone and having them all unknowingly eat a sapient system user.

Jace clicked his tongue, then stored the tail. “I guess you’re not wrong about eating it,” he finally said. “It didn’t sound good to me, anyway. But don’t think you can talk me out of making armor with the scales. They are very durable.”

Derek shrugged. That was another moral discussion that he didn’t feel the need to argue about at the moment. He wasn’t even sure of his stance on the matter, anyway. He was wearing armor made of dragonkin, after all. Not to mention the fact that it was quite possible that the mysterious dragonkin material that Shaemus had used to create it could have come from a real dragon. And who knows what level of sapience an actual ancient dragon has?

“Here you go, Silvi,” Jace said, breaking Derek out of his thoughts and causing him to whip his head back toward the man. Jace flicked his wrist, and a whole slew of beast bodies and materials fell to the ground. “Since they are all level 250, I usually just sell them for whatever system credits I can get, but right now, they’ve just been taking up room in my storage. They were a bother until I got some of these extra storage devices. But you can have them.”

“Are any of them…” Derek started.

“Sapient?” Jace asked, then shook his head. “Not that I know of. They all came from Battleground Planets.”

Silvi looked at Derek, then released a high-pitched, cute snort. Then, she turned her head away and began collecting the ingredients. Finally, she finished and turned back to Derek and Jace.

“Shiny Head Jace is good, good person,” she said. “Very good friend.” She paused, then continued. “I will make delicious meals and come back. New friend Jace deserves taste.”

“I’ll be waiting for it,” Jace said. “I could use something good to eat.” He looked down at his emaciated body. “I got to get some meat back on my bones.”

“Mhm.” Silvi nodded at the man, then tossed everything that could be damaged by the void into a pot created by her Void Creation (Cooking) skill. After that, she sealed the lid, hopped on top of the whole thing, then floated into the portal. A few seconds later, the portal disappeared, and she was gone.

“Did you hear that? We’re new friends,” Jace said. “I like her. She is much better than the other Silvi.”

“She called you bald,” Derek replied with a smile.

“No, she said I have a shiny head,” Jace chuckled. “That… is a compliment.”

“If you say so,” Derek said. “But she seems to like you, too. The two of you are… like-minded.”

“That’s a compliment, too,” Jace said. “She knows what she wants and goes and gets it. In her case, it’s food and ingredients.”

“And she doesn’t shy away from a fight,” Derek replied.

“That, too…” Jace said. “If you want to collect ingredients, you can’t just rely on other people. You need to be able to fight.”

At about that time, the door to the room opened, and Marrick came in, followed by David.

“You’re still here?” Marrick asked as soon as he stepped inside. “I felt the aura from your portal. I thought you might have left.”

“That was Silvi,” Derek said. “She was checking in.”

“I see,” Marrick replied, then flicked his wrist—causing a nice chair to appear in the room—and sat down. “It looks like the crazy young man is finally awake,” the Old Goblin said. Behind him, David walked around and sat in one of the chairs that was already placed in the room.

Jace looked to Marrick, then back at Derek, then back at the smug-looking Marrick. “What’s the deal with the chairs?” He completely ignored the jab at him being a crazy young man, and instead asked what was really on his mind.

“They are very comfortable,” Marrick said. “That is what the ‘deal’ is with the chairs. I’m too old to sit on this…” he motioned around him at the room that was decorated for formality and grace, not for comfort. “Purely decorative furniture.”

“And where is yours?” Jace asked David.

“I… do not have one,” David replied. Then, under his breath, he muttered, “But I have someone working on it.”

“Oh…” Jace replied, then looked at Derek. “You had that made, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Derek replied.

“So… you’re bringing laziness into this world.” Jace nodded. “Got it.”

“Hey…” Derek said. “There have been some… a few… comfortable pieces of furniture that I’ve seen. I don’t actually know that many people—at least not well enough that I’ve been to their manors and stuff—but I’m sure there are nobles out there with furniture just as comfortable.”

“Right…”

“I brought coffee into this world, too,” Derek said as he pulled out a steaming hot mug of coffee from his storage bracelet.

“So did I,” Jace said, then took his own cup out. “But it’s pre-made from the system shop and gives a nice boost to your stamina. Though, it only works for a cup or two. Then you have to wait a long time to get the boost again.”

“Trade?” Derek asked, then held his mug out.

“Why not?” Jace shrugged, and they both took a sip. Jace frowned. “This… tastes a bit funny.”

Derek sighed in comfort as he held the cup with both hands. “They didn’t actually have anything resembling a coffee bean, so they had to reverse-engineer the can I brought that was already dried and ground. They did a good job with what they had, and I’ve had some that taste practically identical. I’ve just learned to like the way that kind tastes.”

“It isn’t bad,” Jace said. “But it needs a couple sugars and some cream.” He flicked his wrist, and both the sugar and the cream appeared, which he quickly poured into the mug and stirred.

“And this needs less,” Derek replied.

“You monster…” Jace said. “Drinking your coffee black.”

“Are the two of you about finished?” Marrick finally asked, breaking them out of their conversation.

“Sure…” Derek said with a shrug. “What do you need?” he asked. “We’ve just been catching up since it’s been such a long time since we saw each other.”

“My granddaughter and her team have been questioning the scouts that they captured before the fight with… Jace,” David said as he looked a little wearily at the bald man. “We have learned some information about the Champions.”

“Is it that they have finally established communication with each other and are working on all gathering at the Stronghold that I accidentally took after fighting those two assassins when I first got here?” Jace asked.

“Uh… well… yes… but…” David stuttered as he didn’t know what to say. They’d spent days getting that information out of the captured invaders, and Jace already knew and spoke about it so nonchalantly.

“You knew?” Derek asked.

“Yeah… that lizard was trying to take me back to the Stronghold to meet up with the Champions before he suddenly found himself dead,” Jace said. Seeing the look that David was giving him, he shrugged and said, “I’m not a big fan of being told what to do by people I don’t like, and when he wanted to get really serious about it, I got serious about it. Now he is dead and is totally not going to be turned into steak by a talking bunny with a purple horn.”