System Change

Chapter 429: Great Team

“That’s just…” Klaus looked down at Derek’s severed pinky laying in the center of the desk, then up at his already fully recovered hand. “Do you have a healing skill?” he asked.

“I do,” Derek replied with a smile. He was talking about Rejuvenation—it really was a healing skill, however… “But I don’t have one that can regrow limbs or… fingers, if that is what you were asking.”

“So, your body can just regenerate like that? Naturally?”

“Apparently so,” Derek said. “But you should really… uh…” he pointed at the finger that was still laying in a small puddle of blood.

“Oh, right!” In a few seconds, Derek’s finger had vanished inside one of Klaus’s storage rings. “I am in your debt, really,” he said. “But if you don’t mind, may I ask you a few more questions?”

“I thought you didn’t have a lot of time,” Derek said. “Aren’t you busy? Don’t you need to prepare for the Adventurer’s Guild to basically open back up?”

“For something like this? I have time,” Klaus replied. “When I first asked, I knew it would be interesting, but I didn’t know how interesting.”

“I’ll answer a couple of questions if I can,” Derek said. “Just because they may help you with your research.”

“Your class,” Klaus started. “It is legendary? Or is it… mythical?”

“Truly?” Klaus widened his eyes, and Derek nodded. “In my entire life, I have seen legendary classes. I, myself, have a legendary class. But in all that time, I was never able to to witness someone break through and reach mythical. At least, as far as I know. There is still the off chance that I’ve met others with mythical classes, but they didn’t make it known. However, I doubt that is the case.”

“You’re probably right,” Derek said.

“If you don’t mind… how did you come upon such a class?”

“Well…” Derek leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. In his head, he was going over what he could and couldn’t say. Best to keep out the Origin System and even the evolution. Klaus may actually be able to guess that there was an evolution involved, anyway. And probably shouldn’t talk about ‘real’ affinity for classes. In the end, Derek told Klaus pretty much the same thing that he and Silvi had told Marrick, which wasn’t much more than the fact that he had a mythical class and that there were many things that he ‘couldn’t’ speak about on the subject. At least he already knew that speaking of that information wouldn’t be breaking any forced oath from the Origin System—anything else could get a bit risky.

“Then it is possible that this is just what the molecular structure of someone who has pushed themselves far enough to receive a mythic class looks like,” the Guild Leader sighed deeply and rubbed his chin in thought. “You know, there were rumors of an elf from Indria obtaining a mythical class. It was still way before my time, but not so far away that it had been forgotten.”

“Really?” Derek asked. What Klaus just told him lined up perfectly with what Marrick had said. Though Marrick spoke of it more as if it was a myth, where Klaus seemed to genuinely believe the rumors.

“Yes,” Klaus nodded. “Supposedly, he was one of the greatest earth mages to exist on this continent, or even the entire world.”

“Do you know what happened to him?” Derek asked.

“I couldn’t say,” Klaus said. “The rumors I heard all that time ago all ended with him just disappearing—never to be seen again. He could have just gone into solitude to die—which happens more than you would think. That is what I believed, too. Until meeting you. If his earth class changed his structure the same way that your void class has, then I doubt he would have just died of old age… interesting… so interesting.”

“It is,” Derek agreed with a nod.

“This opens up so many possibilities that I’ve never thought about before.” Klaus shook his head. “If only I didn’t have the duties to the guild, I could put all my time and effort into this fascinating subject.”

“You’re the Guild Leader, right?” Derek asked.

“Yes?”

“Then… isn’t that what underlin… er… employees are for?” Derek asked. “I know Shae leaves most of the boring stuff to his wife to handle. And I’m pretty sure that she secretly enjoys it. But you, you have an entire guild of employees and members willing to help.”

“It is, but I have always been hands on. It is why I want to find a good replacement.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“And you thought I would be a good idea?” Derek rolled his eyes. “I don’t even run my own little business and you expected me to run an entire guild?”

“Perhaps I let your strength and possible longevity cloud my judgement…”

“You think?” Derek laughed. “Just do a round of promotions for everyone. Call Cain up to be the new Guild Leader instead of the Guild Master of the Adventurer’s Guild in the capital.”

“Cain is well behaved and a very good second,” Klaus sighed. “But I do not believe he has the strength needed for someone in such a position.”

“Then ask Edgar, or Avery… or even ask Edward if they’d allow Vanessa to switch teams. Hell, she’s very strong, and she has management experience from the Assassin’s Guild,” Derek recommended.

“All three are strong enough for the position. However, I don’t believe any of the three would take it. And I wouldn’t trust leaving it in the hands of a former Assassin’s Guild Vice Leader.”

“Then the solution is simple,” Derek replied.

“What?”

“Do the round of promotions for everyone who was loyal during these ‘tumultuous’ times and give Cain the position of Vice Leader. A position that comes with no real benefits and multiple times more work. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled,” Derek suggested.

“We’ll see,” Klaus said. “There may be other solutions, but for now, I will at least leave the preparation for the incoming wave to him, and recuse myself for some time to study this… sample. I am interested to see how the sample behaves now that it is detached from the source.”

“Yeah…” Derek said. Klaus was back to speaking of him like an experiment. “That sounds like an idea. In that case, I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you once again.” Klaus stood and nodded to Derek. “If there is ever anything that is within my power to help you with, please do not hesitate to ask.”

“Will do.” Derek stood from his own chair and nodded back before turning to leave.

“Oh, Mr. Hunt,” Klaus called out.

“Yeah?”

“Please inform Nathan that something has come up and that he should speak to Cain instead.”

“Will do,” Derek said with a shrug, then left the room. Soon enough, Derek was back in the lobby with Nathan and Cain.

“Welcome back,” Cain said. “I assume your impromptu meeting went well?”

“I guess.” Derek shrugged. “He’s… different.”

“Yes, he is,” Cain said with a nod.

“But he isn’t a bad guy,” Nathan chimed in. “He’s quite good, as far as I know. Even if he sometimes chooses to do things in a questionable manner.”

“That’s not for me to decide,” Derek said. “But he did tell me to tell you to that something has come up that has to take priority and that you should speak to Cain instead.”

“Oh, okay,” Nathan said. He didn’t seem all that broken up about it. “We were discussing creating a team of dungeon surveyors, since we’re most likely about to have access to a whole new range of dungeons.”

“Sounds like an idea,” Derek said.

“It is…” Nathan replied.

“In that case, I’ll let you all get down to business.” Derek grabbed the diamond ranked badge from his shoulder and placed it inside his storage bracelet. “Thanks for the badge.”

Derek left the Adventurer’s a diamond ranked badge heavier and with more questions if he ever had the chance to meet Dave again. “Let’s see…” he murmured as he looked around. It was late, but there was still a couple hours of sun left. This is frowned upon, but oh well. What are they going to do? Arrest me? He thought.

Looking into the sky, Derek used Active Void Shift and appeared high up. Okay… which way was it again? He looked around until he found what looked to be what he was searching for. There it is. With another flash, Derek disappeared and reappeared in the sky over the Crown Restaurant and Hotel that he had passed by on his way to the academy. Oh, good, he thought as he looked down onto the courtyard separating the two establishments.

In the courtyard, he saw four people training, and there was another off to the side. He recognized three of them—Clare, Jensen, and Walter Searidge. The other two, he didn’t know, but it didn’t take a genius to guess their identities.

With a smile, Derek shifted into the void and pulled himself down toward the action. It was easier for Derek to use Void Shift over Active Void Shift to get exactly where he wanted because he could precisely control himself and he was able to get a better feel for the situation since everything from his point of view seemed to be slowed to an extreme—almost paused even.

Derek soon pulled himself through a ripple in the void and appeared on the edge of the building, looking down on everyone. From there, he looked at the situation happening in the middle of the courtyard. In the paused scene before him, he saw Clare in her brawling stance with a pair of knuckles equipped on her hands. However, on top of the weapons she was using, small streams of water coiled themselves around both of her arms.

Other than Clare, there were the two boys. One of the boys wielded a shield bigger than his own body. He was covered from head to toe in thick, shoddy metal armor. Why would he be wearing that? Derek questioned to himself. On the other hand, the other boy was wearing a thin mixture of plate and leather armor, and he was in the process of using a skill.

He had his hand held out, palm forward, and yellow, sparking energy was gathering. Lightning? Derek wondered. That’s what it seemed to be because of the spark, but it wasn’t the same blue lightning that he’d seen the royal family use on countless occasions. Interesting… I wonder if it has any different properties than Edgar’s lightning, or if it’s the same, just a different color.

As for the final person, Jensen, he was dressed in a light, ocean-blue robe with a white trim. He had a big smile plastered on his face as he was in the process of side-stepping a shield bash from one of the boys. So the three of them are sparring against Jensen. I wonder how they’ll do.

With that thought, Derek left the void and time resumed. He quickly used Identify on Clare to see if she was still doing as planned. She was still only level 7, so Derek smiled. Good, he thought. She’s still working on her affinity before choosing a class at level 10. It was only natural that she had gained some levels along the way. There were some Achievements that she needed to get that would definitely level her up a bit, after all.

The other two boys, however, had already chosen their classes, but they were still under level 25. The one with the shield was level 23 and the lightning wielder was level 22. It seemed that all three of the children seemed to be taking a very slow and methodical approach to training themselves with the system. If they continued like they were, who knew how high they would climb by the time they reached the level 200 class upgrade? One thing was sure, though, he was looking at the makings of a great team.