System Change

With his thoughts gathered and new plans loosely laid out, time flew by. During that time, Derek slowly checked off one box after another. First came Brandi’s birthday, which they celebrated by having Silvi make her a delicious cake and gifting the smith with even more materials to choose from—materials that Derek had painstakingly bought and traded for from Tyron.

During that time, Brandi even finished the project that had been giving her a headache, then moved on to some new ones. She had created a pretty great pair of gloved bracers. Usually, the gloves and the bracers would be separate pieces of armor, but she had run into an issue etching all the runes she needed on the back of the gloves—and doing the runesmithing on the front wasn’t an option, as the runes would eventually come off with the wear and tear. Then, there was the matter of placing the mana cores. There just wasn’t enough room on the gloves for everything.

So, to combat this problem, Brandi added a pair of bracers to the mix and turned them all into a single piece of armor—well, a single piece for each arm and hand. Once she added the bracers, the rest of the process had been smooth sailing for her. She was able to etch the runes with room to spare, and it was no problem fitting the cores on, either.

Now, what exactly was so special about the armor that she had to do such things? Well, she had combined wind element mana cores to the drake hide to create them.

She had piggybacked off of some of her last inventions, the boots with fire cores used for boosts, and gloves with wind cores for direction. An issue she had with the gloves after updating them was their durability. She solved this issue with the drake hide. However, she hadn’t just left it at that. Instead, she wanted to create something that could be used in combat as well.

So now, she had a pair of gloves—and bracers—that not only helped direct her when she flew with her boots, but also allowed her to release actual deadly attacks. One of the most common skills for wind-based users was the Wind Blade. It was one of Rayna’s go to moves, and one that Brandi had seen over and over. Now, with nothing but the gloves, she could release wind blades at a frightening speed that was comparable to Rayna’s own Wind Blades.

Both Brandi and Derek saw this as a great success. However, there was one thing that disappointed the both of them. She hadn’t received an Achievement for creating the items out of the drake hide. So, her version of the ‘Draconic Infusion’ Achievement that Roman had received would have to wait until she was confident and skilled enough to create something truly unique with materials from the wyverns.

It would come eventually, and at the rate she was progressing… soon. So, neither of them were all too worried about the fact that she hadn’t gotten the Achievement. That was also if she could get it, as Tyron had crafted items from the wyverns, and he had said nothing about the Achievement. Then again, he mostly crafted things he knew—with the only difference being the material used. He never really created anything truly imaginative. So, Derek figured that was why he hadn’t received the Achievement, but Brandi would.

Sure, Harbinger was an amazing legendary weapon, but it was created as nothing more than a standard glaive that happened to be made out of the dark wyvern and infused with Derek’s own mana. Tyron knew what worked for him, so that’s what he stuck with—and Derek couldn’t complain about that. He loved his glaive, after all. But Brandi was on a completely different level when it came to imagination.

It wasn’t hard at all imagining the girl creating armor that she could wear that would allow her to rival the strength and power of anyone with a fighting class that was at or around her level. She was truly fit to be a blacksmith.

A short while after Brandi’s birthday was Thomas’s. Again, they hadn’t done anything too special for it. Silvi made another cake, and Derek rounded up a bunch of helpful items for an up-and-coming adventurer like Thomas. The boy was growing rapidly, so they figured it would be best to allow him to outgrow all his current equipment before Brandi created some that he could grow into from there later. Besides, the girl was still growing, too, so the longer he took, the better the armor and weapons would be in the end.

One thing that Thomas was ecstatic about was his team’s ranking in his classes. It was obvious to Derek that they were good enough to become number one, so he wasn’t surprised when Thomas came home with the news, but he was still very happy for the boy.

Both Brandi and Thomas had come a long way from the crying kids they were when they first met. If someone would have told Derek that Thomas would be on his way to becoming a fierce adventurer one day, Derek would have laughed—especially after their initial meeting, where he’d cried and pissed himself. But there the boy was, well on his way.

Brandi… well, she’d had the drive since the day they’d met. Still, even with all the drive and passion she’d shown back then, he never could have imagined the strides she’d take in just two years—at least for them. It had maybe been almost a year for Derek… he wasn’t exactly sure. Time dungeons were weird.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Derek had also done some of his own growing in that time. He’d decided to focus on one skill at a time, and the first one he focused on was Time Prison, as it seemed like it would be the easiest for him. He’d gone around looking for high-level, mindless beasts to capture and imprison. Now, he didn’t feel that what he was doing was exactly ethical, but it was the best way he could think of. And it sure as hell beat imprisoning humans or actual intelligent beasts.

He also made sure to capture a variety of beasts, too. He didn’t know how much it would matter, but it made sense to him that the prison wouldn’t level as fast if he had all the same type of beast inside, and he didn’t want to waste the time if that turned out to be the case. So, for that matter, he got some help from Avery and Edgar.

He didn’t want to waste experience points on completing dungeons solo, and the most mindless beasts all came from dungeons—at least, if he could trust what all he’d learned about them. Even the dragonkin hadn’t gained actual intelligence until they left the dungeon and enter the outside world. So, when he wanted to look for a beast, he’d go to Avery or Edgar, or both, and see if they wanted to help.

Edgar was always keen on helping—anything to get him away from all the politics. Avery helped some, but he spent most of his time focusing on his own skills and helping his wards with their own. This allowed Derek to go through the level 250 dungeons without worrying about hitting the cap, then possibly passing it, then being barred from entering dungeons because his level somehow outgrew the max level dungeons.

No, he wanted to save that for some other skill grinding—probably a combination of Void Shift and Greater Meditation. Those were some skills that he really needed to focus on, and they were skills that didn’t kill enemies when used. So, theoretically, he’d be able to increase them a bit faster if he put himself in some dangerous situations and used the skills to dodge and recover mana and stamina. At least as dangerous as a situation could be for the current him.

He also needed to focus on Void Call, but he’d do that when he decided to go hunting for Void Beasts again. He still wasn’t over meeting Asher, but he was definitely working himself back up to it.

But Time Prison, Void Call, and Void Shift were his three class skills he needed to get to max level. That was one possibility that he’d thought could be the next requirement for advancement. Or, it could just be to hit level 250, or even surpass level 250—that was another one of his hypotheses. One way or another, he’d figure it out, and once he did, he’d be able to really work on getting back to Alanah.

He’d also worked on some of his less needed skills where he could. Mostly the Dismantle and Cleaning skills. They were very easy to use and level when following the destruction caused by Avery or Edgar in a dungeon. Hell, he even stopped by Roman’s bar and fixed some tables with his Basic Repair skill when he could.

He still had his Upgrade Points from the Origin System, and they taunted him. It took all his willpower to not use them on Greater Meditation, but he’d wait. He’d wait for either advancement or until he could ask Dave.

One thing that he wanted to do, but unfortunately, couldn’t, was visit Marrick. He wondered what the old man was up to, but he had a full Time Prison, so using Void Travel was out of the question for the time being.

Overall, however, it was a good and productive few months for Derek. It was also a productive time for his shop, as well.

Geoffrey had completed all the renovations and expansions to the shop and the rest of Derek’s property in that time, and business was booming. Brandi had begun selling more equipment occasionally—mostly prototypes that would be improved in their next iterations, so she had no reason to keep them. This gave the Void Emporium a reputation for occasionally having mysterious and imaginative equipment, which meant that people kept coming back even though they were always low on stock of the cool stuff.

Malorie somehow kept the shop well stocked on other, more basic things, though. She’d created partnerships with different alchemists and smiths in Savannah and the other cities, so she always had a supply. Basically, the Void Emporium had become a bit of a one stop shop with the added bonus of a unique piece of gear occasionally. They were very profitable—so much so that Malorie did her best to get payment in materials and other unique items instead of just gold.

Speaking of shops, the Crown Restaurants and Hotels suffered a bit of a setback after Alanah left, but Stella and Avery worked together to right the ship. But the person who truly stepped up was Ester from the Crown Restaurant in the Capital. Stella was having a hard time managing everything herself, and Avery wasn’t exactly the best when it came to helping, so, eventually, Ester became Stella’s own Stella. That settled things down and helped a lot.

Stella also began giving more responsibility to other employees, too, and eventually, her workload diminished by quite a bit.

Silvi… was Silvi. She mostly cooked and gathered ingredients. When she found a beast or monster that looked very tasty, she would go borrow someone to kill it for her so she didn’t gain unnecessary experience points. Though, Derek had given her permission to use her Cook What You Kill skill on the rare occasion that she came across something that looked very, very tasty. She was a smart and loyal bunny, so she didn’t overindulge in it.

Also, big family dinners became a pretty common thing when Silvi created a new dish that she wanted everyone to try. It seemed like she had begun getting as much out of watching everyone enjoy her food as she did eating it herself.

On top of all that, Bones and Ogre made great strides as well. The Assassin’s Guild held up their end of the deal and nobody tried to mess with the two as they traveled and adventured when they weren’t working. Those two were really pushing themselves to be strong.

Finally, there was the newlywed, and soon to be parents—well, Jacks was already a parent, but he was soon to be one again. It seemed like Rayna would burst at any moment—she’d carried the child to full term, and then some. Everyone was anxious for them as the day drew nearer and nearer. It almost seemed like it would never happen, that was… until his communication crystal finally went off with a panicked Jacks on the other end.