System Change

“Ugh…” Jace rolled his eyes, pretending to be put out. “What do you want to know exactly? Ask, and if I can answer, I’ll tell you… if I feel like it. And I don’t need your help to get myself ready to fight.”

In the background of the feed, he saw Darvin’s eye twitch and Briya’s ears stiffen slightly. He held back the smile that wanted to form on his face and waited. “First,” Amelia said. “How about you tell us exactly where you are right now?”

“Where am I?” Jace looked around. “I don’t know. I’m in a room in a village that shouldn’t be too far away from that Stronghold.” He shrugged.

“Do you know which direction the village is from the Stronghold?”

“How the hell would I know that?” Jace asked. “I had more important things to do than ask for a map.”

Amelia scrunched her face, then sighed. “I guess that is true. How about this? Try to sense the Guardians and tell me which direction they are from you. That should let us know.”

Jace closed his eyes for a second but didn’t even bother trying to focus on the pull. When he reopened them, he held his hand up and pointed directly at Derek. “There’s definitely a Guardian or two over there. They are still pretty close by. It wouldn’t take too long to get from there to where I am or vice versa.”

Derek struggled to keep from laughing. Jace was telling the absolute truth. There really was a Guardian in the direction he was pointing. It was just that the Champions would never know just how close the Guardian was.

“As for the direction…” Jace shrugged. “Like I said. I don’t know. They are that way. I’m in a small room. I don’t know which direction is which or what direction I came in from.” He winced and grabbed at the wound on his chest as he finished.

“Hmm…” Amelia rubbed her chin in thought. “I apologize. It seems that I did not think the question through.”

“Whatever,” Jace said. “What else do you want to know?”

“How about we focus on your friend, Derek Hunt?” Amelia asked.

“Sure,” Jace said. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything that you know,” Amelia said.

“Oh… well… he’s about this tall.” Jace raised the hand that was clutching his wound into the air, then stretched a little and winced. He brought his hand back down and continued. “Has some purple-black hair and purple eyes. Weird shit… used to have blue eyes and black hair. Looked much cooler like that. I never really liked the way the classes changed my appearance. Just imagine if I didn’t shave my head. Could you imagine me with red hair…”

“Jace…” Amelia took a deep breath in, then exhaled. “Could you please stay on topic?”

“That was on topic,” Jace said.

“How about we discuss something other than his appearance?” Amelia said. “We already know what the man looks like.”

“Oh… okay,” Jace said. “So you don’t want to know what he was wearing then? Or his weapon?”

“That…” Amelia frowned, and it looked like Darvin was going to blow a gasket. “Please go ahead. What kind of armor was he wearing?”

“None!” Jace said with a smile. “He fought me in a pair of shorts. That was it. He said he didn’t need armor, and he really didn’t. How cool is that? He’s not a wuss at all… at least not like you lot.”

“What did you just say!?” Darvin yelled from the feed, but Amelia held her hand up and caused him to go quiet.

“Be that as it may…” Amelia started, then Jace frowned and held his hand up for her to stop speaking. His eyes glanced up toward the wall behind the feed.

“Come in,” he said, causing everyone on the feed to frown.

At that moment, David’s granddaughter opened the door and walked inside. Derek had sent her a telepathic message that they were ready for her, so Jace was already expecting the interruption. However, the person who interrupted didn’t actually look much like the old man’s granddaughter. Instead, she was wearing a modest brown robe. Her hair color had been changed to dark brown, and her eye color had been changed to match.

The woman walked forward and glanced at Derek in the corner, then stepped in front of the bed before stopping and stammering, “S-sir… Sir Invader…” She gulped. “W-would yo-you like me to… change your bandages again?” The woman looked to be a nervous wreck.

From where the feed was positioned, the people on the other end couldn’t see the woman, but they could hear her. To show that he wasn’t hiding anything, Jace turned a little and allowed the woman to appear within the frame.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Ah!” The woman saw the feed, then jumped back. “I… I’m sorry!” She bowed.

“It’s fine,” Jace said. Then he looked down at his wound. “I think I’m good on the bandages. The wound seems to be a lot better than it was yesterday. I think it will start healing for real shortly.”

“As you say… sir,” the woman said softly.

“Hey,” Jace said.

“Y-yes?”

“You haven’t told anyone about me, have you?”

“O-of course not!” David’s granddaughter quickly stammered. “I… I made an oath to the Great System. I wouldn’t be able to say anything even if I wanted to.”

“Good,” Jace said. “You can go.”

“Y-yes, sir,” the woman bowed and began to scurry away.

“Stop calling me sir!” Jace shouted after her.

“Y-yes!” she squeaked. Then, once Jace turned his body back, the woman’s demeanor completely changed again, and she walked towards the door. Derek gave her two thumbs up—causing her to roll her eyes. Then, she opened the door and left.

“Who was that?” Amelia asked.

“That?” Jace shrugged. “I don’t know her name. She’s like… the chief or something of this village,” he said. “Even in my defeated state, it was easy enough to sneak into the village and find this place. She was inside. She’s like… level 100 or something. Nothing to worry about. Wasn’t hard to have her swear an oath by promising that I would leave everyone alone and leave the place once I was healed.”

“I see…” Amelia said. “You should have asked her where the Stronghold was. If she is the chief, then I’m sure she’d know.”

“Wasn’t thinking about it.” Jace shrugged. “I really don’t care about it. They are that way.” He pointed at Derek again. “And that is the way I will go once I’m healed.”

“Very well,” Amelia said. “Now, let’s get back to Derek, shall we?”

“Oh, yeah,” Jace said. “Well, he fought me practically naked. Called you a coward. Said Jakis was the only Champion worth a damn…” Jace scratched his chin, then said, “What else did he say? Hmm… he was actually really talkative during the fight.”

“He called… me? A coward?” Finally, Amelia’s facial expression cracked.

“Yeah,” Jace replied. “Said, and I quote, ‘That Amelia woman didn’t deserve to be at the top of the list. And the only thing she knows how to do is run away.’”

“That…” Amelia took a deep breath, then said, “That was a strategic retreat.”

“Sounds like you ran away without even trying to fight,” Jace said with a shrug.

Jace heard Amelia’s knuckles crack through the audio of the feed as she took a deep breath and tried to keep her emotions in check. Finally, she calmed down, glanced at Darvin with an irritated expression, then continued.

“Let’s talk about Derek’s battle skills,” she said.

“Oh, sure…” Jace replied. He then spoke a bit about some of Derek’s skills. He spoke mostly about the ones they had discussed previously, and he made sure to mention the ones that Derek had already shown to Kelvin. They even made up a few dangerous-sounding spatial skills while they were brainstorming. “Yeah…” Jace said. “So, really, his void skills aren’t what I would worry about. They pack a punch, sure, but you can at least heal from them as long as they don’t take you out in one hit… which is entirely possible for the majority of you… actually. But it’s like all the spatial skills have some kind of debuff to them.

“I mean… I was able to heal from most of them during the fight, but I have vitality and endurance well over that 1500 cap with all the question marks when I’m fully charged. And potions don’t really work at all. It all requires natural healing. Well… I don’t know about someone with a healing class… that could help… I guess. Meditation is the only thing that’s really helped. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past few days.”

“Hmm…” Amelia rubbed her chin again. “Is there anything else about him that you think we should know?”

“His glaive is at least legendary rank,” Jace said with a shrug. “It’s a very good weapon.”

“I see,” the near-giant red woman replied.

“What about his companion?” Darvin asked. “Kelvin mentioned a companion who was also very strong. She could make… meals that give Titles.”

“Companion?” Jace frowned. “Did Kelvin say something about a companion to me?” he muttered to himself, but made sure that the feed could barely pick up his audio. Then he looked up. “I don’t know about any companion. And if Kelvin told me about one, I wasn’t paying attention. You said the companion is strong?” His eyes blazed, and a smile formed on his face.

“Never mind…” Darvin replied, shaking his head. He was looking through the feed at Jace in frustration.

“There were two other Guardians, though,” Jace said. “They were both pretty strong… in their own way.”

“Tell us about them,” Amelia said.

“Say please,” Jace replied.

“Please… tell us about them,” Amelia said.

“Since you asked nicely,” Jace replied. “The Old Goblin was awesome. He actually looked just like a goblin. Has like… three strands of hair on his head. Really, really, really old. I think he was an elf or something. Really pointy ears. He could have actually been a goblin… but he wasn’t green. He had the best control of sand that I’ve ever seen in my life. He could probably take out most of you Champions by himself. Could definitely beat anyone weaker than Jakis.”

“That strong?” Amelia asked.

“If he’d been prepared… he could have given me a run for my money.” Of course, Jace didn’t say that would only happen if he had less than half of his Battlelust built up. He instinctively rubbed his cheek, then said, “The guy gives some mean road rash.”

“And the other one? Sir Brandt?” Darvin asked.

“Light guy,” Jace said with a shrug. “He’s pretty strong, but not as strong as the goblin. Shoots lasers and stuff. Oh!” Jace’s eyes widened as they landed on the cat-like Briya. “I bet he’d be trouble for Briya.”

“Why is that?” Amelia tilted her head in confusion.

“Have you ever seen a cat chase a laser?” Jace shook his head. “The man would absolutely be her arch-nemesis. It would be devastating.”

“Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face!?” Briya finally had enough and yelled out.

“Because I’m sick,” Jace said with a shrug. “By the way,” he continued. “You know it would have probably been better if you had brought both of your arms to the invasion. I don’t know why you’d want to give yourself a handicap before coming here.” Jace looked at his arm in contemplation, then nodded. “Actually… I get it. Some people just aren’t strong, and you have to do something like handicap yourself in order to have a fun fight.” He looked back up at Briya, who was staring at him, speechless. “You have my respect.”

“Uhem…” Amelia reached over and put her hand on the cat-like woman’s shoulder to try to settle her down. Then she said, “Jace… thank you for the… information. We have some things that we must discuss. I would like to contact you again once our discussions have finished. Would that be fine with you?”

“Give me at least three hours,” Jace said. “I can feel my wound healing. If you call before then, I’m never picking up again.”

“We can do that,” Amelia replied. “I will speak to you again in three hours.”

“Whatever.” Jace waved, then clicked a prompt on his bracelet and hung up. Finally, he looked up at Derek and said, “That was fun. What else do you want to tell them?”