System Change

”If you become our house’s first Transcendent, I will call you whatever you’d like me to,” Sheen replied to the Patriarch of House Loomis. Derek was still a bit stunned that the man who had been commentating on the fight and helping him to understand it all was the patriarch.

”Then it is a deal,” Patriarch Logan replied. ”Ancestor Sheen Loomis, I hereby release you of your duties as a hall master from this day forth. As an Ancestor of House Loomis, you may do as you wish as long as it has the potential to profit the clan, or at least not harm the clan.”

Even with the dull look in Sheen’s eyes, his grin grew wider, and he even bowed a little. ”Thank you, Young Logan. And I do hope you become a Transcendent soon so I can feel what it’s like to have a proper patriarch after all these centuries.”

”Are you saying that my great-uncle wasn’t a proper patriarch?” Logan asked with raised eyebrows.

Instead of backing off or changing what he said, Sheen laughed and replied, ”That is certainly what it sounded like, is it not? I’ve traveled around the System Universe and know better than most that clans and organizations without a Transcendent in their ranks aren’t taken anywhere near as seriously as the clans and organizations with Transcendents... well... except for one organization, that is...”

Derek tilted his head and looked at Sheen, trying to figure out what he meant, but that was answered for him immediately before he even had a chance to ask.

”Yes, that organization of Battlelust user maniacs. It’s a shame that you do not have a Battlelust affinity. It would have suited you well,” the patriarch replied—his mouth even turning upwards in a smile.

Ah... Derek thought. Just a bunch of Jaces running around creating chaos. It makes sense that they wouldn’t be looked down upon like other organizations that don’t have Transcendents. I wonder if there are any Battlelust users that are Transcendent, though. It may be worth asking Sheen or Alex... or waiting and asking Dave when I get to Origin City. It would be good to know a bit more about them and their organization so I can let Jace know about it all when I go and pick him up later.

”And, it’s like they say,” Sheen said, breaking Derek out of his thoughts. ”Once a family has one Transcendent, the second is much easier to produce.”

That makes sense, Derek thought. Right now, the goalpost for everyone in this family is Ascendant since that is the strongest tier any of them get to see on a regular basis, and their clan doesn’t have any history of anyone reaching Transcendent. But once the patriarch reaches that tier, it will essentially move the goalpost. The kids will stop dreaming of reaching Ascendant and becoming a hall master and instead dream of reaching Transcendent and becoming someone even more important in the clan.

”We can only hope that is the case,” Logan replied to Sheen. ”I am actually hoping for that as well. I plan to be more heavily involved in matters of the younger generation once I have transcended.”

”That is very smart and kind of you, patriarch,” one of the older women floating beside them all commented. ”Allowing the young ones to have such a role model will increase morale and, hopefully, ambition.”

”Elaine,” the patriarch turned to the woman who had just spoken.

”Yes, patriarch?” she replied.

”Would you be so kind as to take the young boy from House Warp to his home to say his goodbyes and prepare what he is allowed to take with him on his new decade-long journey that Ancestor Sheen was nice enough to allow him?” Logan asked.

”Of course, patriarch,” Elaine replied with a bow, then floated over to the still-bowing Garrett. ”Come on, boy. You no longer have the right to be here with the ancestors and elders.”

”Y-yes, Elder Elaine,” Garrett muttered, but managed to get through it.

Suddenly, before Derek’s eyes, the woman and young man vanished from his sight. He blinked, and they were gone. He couldn’t feel their aura—well, he’d never been able to feel the woman’s aura anyway—or anything. After a second of staring at where the woman used to be, he shrugged.

”Are you happy with this outcome, Mr. Hunt?” Logan asked.

”It really doesn’t have much to do with me,” Derek replied with a shrug. ”If it has a chance to let him grow as a person and become someone who helps your clan, then that is what you should do, I guess. If it had been a real fight and he had acted the way he did, he would have been dead in seconds at most. My friend from the Gravenholt family told me that I shouldn’t leave those who try to do me harm alive, so I guess I’m technically going against his wishes, but I also feel like that boy acted without thinking in a highly emotional setting. We can call it temporary insanity.”

Stolen from NovelPhoenix, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

”That is quite kind of you, Derek,” Sheen replied. ”Especially with... well... nevermind. Your ’friend’ from the Gravenholt family is not wrong. It is not very smart to leave enemies alive, but perhaps ’the boy’—who is older than you by at least a decade, by the way—will learn from it and will not dedicate the rest of his life to destroying you and everyone and everything you care about. Love that optimism!”

”Sheen!” Logan clicked his tongue.

”What? Isn’t that what usually happens? I wouldn’t know... I’ve never had the problem of leaving someone like that alive,” Sheen replied.

”That is NOT what usually happens... well... it’s not what always happens, at least,” the patriarch said.

Derek shrugged. Technically, Dave said to kill anyone who saw me use the void until I was at least an Ascendant. Instead, I had Alex make an oath, and Garrett never saw me use or even suspected me of using the void. The only other person is Sheen and... yeah... that would be just about the quickest way for me to die—and I like the old guy.

”We’ll see in ten years, I guess,” Derek said.

”So you will come back in a decade to judge the young man’s growth?” Sheen asked.

”If I’m around and don’t have anything more important to do,” Derek said. ”But a lot can happen in a decade, so I can’t make any promises.”

”Very true, young friend,” Sheen said, and then he looked around. ”Logan... elders... I must go rest my soul for a short time. If you don’t mind taking care of my young friend here.” He then looked at Derek. ”I will pick you up at your friend’s home in the morning. Travel restrictions will have been lifted by then, and we can be on our way.” He then turned back to the vice patriarch one last time. ”You have grown stronger, old friend. However, you rely too much on your formations and tricks—at least you rely on them far too much for a duel.”

”I know that already,” Bastian clicked his tongue. ”But since I have grown, and you have stalled, I believed I would be a match for you. Turns out, you may have stalled power-wise, but you continued to learn and adapt. We will fight again, and the next time, I will win.”

”You keep telling yourself that,” Sheen replied with a chuckle. ”I can’t wait for you to become a Transcendent, too. Because that’s the only way you’re going to beat me one-on-one in this life.”

”You!” Bastian started, but Logan held his hand up, and he stopped instantly.

”Stop teasing the vice patriarch, Sheen,” the patriarch said. ”Unless you would like to have a little spar with me, too.”

Sheen cracked his neck, then looked over at Logan with a shine in his eyes that wasn’t there before. ”I will certainly take you up on that, Logan. But I want a good fight, so we will have to wait for my soul to recover so we can both get as much out of it as possible.” He licked his lips. ”Attack versus defense, I can’t wait.”

After saying that, the glow around Ancestor Sheen brightened, and when it dimmed again, he was nowhere to be seen. What’s up with all these Ascendants and their vanishing acts? Do they just move that fast? Are they using a skill to do it? When will I be able to move like that? Derek was pretty proud of his perception, but staring directly at someone and seeing them vanish before his eyes was not exactly encouraging in that regard.

After Sheen disappeared, the patriarch looked at the vice patriarch. ”Bastian, are you going to be okay?”

”Mental fatigue will fade soon enough,” the man replied. ”Sheen... went easy on me in the end. He could have really damaged my soul by disrupting my final attack. Instead, he took it straight on and damaged his own. It seems that I, too, let my emotions get the better of me in my duel. Any destruction was my fault, and I will see to it that anything that needs to be repaired will be upgraded as well. And I will do so with my own credits—not the family’s.”

”Yes, you will,” Logan replied. ”It is only right that you do so.”

”Yes, patriarch,” Bastian bowed. He then turned to Derek and gave him a slight nod. It was a lot of respect for him to do so with someone so far beneath his station. ”And young man, I must thank you for not pushing for execution. I do believe that the boy will come out better for it. It is always a pity to lose a promising young family member. You have Ancestor Sheen’s backing, but if you need something, you also have mine, too.”

Derek looked surprised at the old man’s words. It seemed that even though the man was a bit stuck-up, he at least really did care about the entire clan as a whole. So far, it was like even the people Derek wasn’t particularly fond of in the Loomis Clan weren’t all that bad—aside from Garrett attacking a vital point after the duel was already over.

”Thank you,” was all that Derek could think of to say as he bowed to the vice patriarch.

”And you may return any time you wish, and you may keep your VIP status within our house,” the patriarch said. He then turned around and said, ”Everyone else, you are dismissed. I’m going to have a moment alone with our young friend here.”

A couple of the elders’ eyes went wide, but they all soon cleared out. Derek certainly didn’t go anywhere since, well... he was unable to. The patriarch was the one who lifted him into the sky so easily, and even though it felt like he was standing on solid ground, he was still in the air. Also, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how to lower himself to the ground.

”You are a friend of Davenresh’s?” the patriarch said suddenly, once everyone else was gone.

”Uh... something like that,” Derek said. ”I didn’t know what he was when we first met, so I just spoke normally, and we sort of hit it off. Then he visited me a few more times.”

”So you come from his system? Or did you go through his brother’s system as well? Or maybe you found yourself in his father’s system?” the patriarch dropped a bomb on Derek right then and there.

”There is no need to look so surprised. I know that Ancestor Sheen is keeping certain things to himself, but he did have to report your story of using a randomized teleportation talisman. That could have worked, but the odds of it sending you to a planet perfect for your current level and abilities when there are so many others out there?” The man shook his head. ”That would be very much a coincidence.”

”I...” Derek was tongue-tied.

”Not to mention the fact that you said he just up and visited you multiple times,” Logan continued. ”It would be far too time-consuming and annoying even for a Transcendent to leave and go somewhere just to visit a low-level person like yourself—no matter the genius. But if he could just use an avatar and meet you in his system-controlled world... that is a different story.”

”Oh...”

”I have met a few system users in my life who came from the lesser systems,” the patriarch said. ”You try to hide it, but from what I have gathered, you seem just as clueless about the Origin System and this part of the System Universe as they all did. So, tell me, what was like? Ascending from a lower system?”