System Change

Derek was sitting on the bed in their room next to Silvi. He kept tossing the storage ring from one hand to the other, watching as Silvi’s head moved from left to right, following the motion of the ring.

“So.” Derek caught the ring in his right hand and held it in front of Silvi. “This is yours. But first, we have to make sure you’re able to use it.” Derek placed the ring on the bed. “Put your paw on it and try channeling your mana into the ring.”

Silvi did as instructed. ‘What’s… Oh… Cooking! This cooking stuff!’

That settles it. Derek thought. He did not have to ask if she could access the ring based on her reaction. “Good, that means you can use storage devices.” Derek said to her. “Now for the hard part.”

Silvi ignored Derek, still focusing on the ring, her eyes closed.

‘I SAID!’ Derek yelled through their connection to break her out of her trance. ‘It’s time for the hard part.’

Silvi lifted her head up and looked him in the eyes. ‘What hard part?’

“Well, I checked back downstairs, and the ring doesn’t fit over your paws. We could put it on a chain for a necklace or something, but that’s a good way to lose it.” Derek said aloud.

Silvi’s eyes narrowed. ‘Then?’ She asked.

Derek sighed and pulled out the knife he borrowed from Stella. “Well, I borrowed this just in case you couldn’t wear the ring.” He flashed the knife in front of Silvi. “Worst-case scenario, we meld it to you.”

Silvi, staring at the knife, answered. ‘Do it.’

Derek raised his eyebrows. “Really? Just like that?”

Soon, he heard a mental sigh, and a slight groan before Silvi continued. ‘It’s just pain. No worse than jumping into a tree that doesn’t break.’

Derek smiled. “No, I guess it isn’t.” He chuckled. I’m pretty sure the sigh was because she knew she was going to actually complete a sentence. He shook his head. “Okay… Nose, ear, mouth… eyelid?” He asked.

‘Hold at nose.’ She said.

Derek did as told. Soon, a spoon fell out of the ring and onto the bed in front of Silvi. Then, Silvi put her paw on the spoon and it disappeared.

‘Hold to ear.’

Holding the ring to the lower part of her left ear, Derek watched as Silvi concentrated. Soon, the spoon fell out of the ring again, this time hitting her on the way down to the bed.

‘Nose. Easy to control. Can use knife without killing me.’

Like a knife used for cooking could kill her from a short fall. But Derek knew what Silvi was thinking. It takes time to get used to storage devices. It’s easy to put things away with any kind of touch, but it’s harder to control where the item is summoned. Most people only summon items directly to the hand wearing the ring. With good control, however, a person can summon an item with any part of their body.

Some can even make an item appear at a small distance from their body. It just depends on how far someone can stretch their mana outside of their body. Those people usually have classes that give some type of mana manipulation skill. Derek, for example, has to have physical contact when he pulls something out of his bracelet.

“Hold on.” Derek said as he stared at Silvi’s horn. He placed the ring over and slid it down. It made it about three quarters down before it could not get any bigger. “We can put it there. Maybe find something to stop it so it doesn’t come off?”

‘Nose fine. Void Lightning Bolt break stuff. Charge hit with horn, too.’ She replied.

Derek nodded. “Okay.” After placing the ring on his little finger to resize it as small as it could go, he took the knife and held it to her cute purple nose. “Stay still. It will only hurt for a minute.”

Silvi did not move an inch as the blade grew bigger and bigger in her eyes. Derek, however, had a hard time focusing. He did not like that he was going to have to hurt his friend. The knife stopped right in front of her nose.

‘Hurry up!’ Silvi prodded.

“I know, I know. Hold on.” Derek took the knife and sliced at his own hand. It was just able to break his skin. He nodded. With more than half of his stats, the knife should be more than enough for Silvi. “Okay. I just had to test it.”

Derek put the knife back up to her. “Here we go.” He said as he sliced deep into her nose. Quickly, he stuck the ring in and cast Rejuvenation directly on the wound, hoping the healing process would not push the ring out. “Focus your regeneration to heal around the ring.” He said.

Seconds later, with Derek’s Rejuvenation and Silvi’s natural healing, her nose was restored, and the ring embedded. For Silvi’s part, she did not twitch, or even make a peep. Derek was just glad it was over… hopefully.

“Okay. How does it feel? Is it annoying?” He asked.

Silvi’s nose wiggled and twitched. Then she tossed her head back and forth. ‘It’s fine. Very stuck. Can’t feel it… much.’

Derek nodded. “Good. In that case, try taking out that spoon again.”

Silvi did, and this time she was even faster than before. ‘Works good.’ Silvi then stored the spoon. Moments later, a piece of paper was summoned. Derek watched as her eyes brightened. She placed a paw on the paper. Then the paper shined blue, almost like a contract and disappeared.

“What was that?” He asked.

‘Recipe.’

That’s interesting. I didn’t think the recipes would be bound. I guess it makes sense, though. Derek watched Silvi as the same thing happened again. “What is the recipe for?” He asked, wondering what ingredients he should buy for her to practice later.

‘Makes food.’ Silvi answered.

Derek’s face deadpanned. “I know that. I mean, what kind of recipe is it? What ingredients do you need me to go get for you?”

Silvi looked Derek in the eyes. ‘Most ingredients are in the ring already. We need a bunch of different types of beast meats to try the recipe with to find our favorite. Boar type monsters are suggested.’

Derek smiled. I may have found a way to get her to actually talk to me. “Well, we can get that settled later. I still have some boar meat in my storage, too. But, there’s no need for that right now. Are you ready for the second part of your gift?”

‘Second? There’s more?’ She asked excitedly.

“Yup. I talked to Stella, the manager of the Crown Restaurant. She’s agreed that you can go watch the chefs on the first floor cook. We didn’t set a specific amount of time you can spend there, so you could basically stay there until we decide to leave the city. The chefs will answer any questions you have. Though, I will have to stop by occasionally to communicate them, or I can write them down for you.” He answered.

‘I need Telepathy… or some other mental transmission kind of skill. Or a skill that lets me speak out loud.’ Silvi looked up at Derek, eyes pleading. ‘There has to be skill scrolls, right? Do you think anyone is selling?’

Derek shook his head. “Not here. Torith isn’t even a real city. There is the dungeon that gives skill scrolls, but I doubt there is a big supply. I’ll talk to Stella and Walter tomorrow after I drop you off in the kitchen. If anyone knows, they do.”

With that, Silvi hopped off the bed and went to the corner of the room to practice using her new storage ring. Different items began to fall out onto the floor in front of her. Then, she would touch them with a paw and store them again. As Derek observed, he could feel the frustration building in her because of her lack of control.

“Maybe the chefs will have an idea about how you could handle the cookware. We could try Mage Hand or General Telekinesis, but those aren’t very good outside of extremely simple tasks. I’m not even sure you could chop an onion with General Telekinesis. I’ll have to ask if there is a scroll for Telekinesis. We could try Mage Hand, though. What do you think? It has very limited range and chews through mana, but you do have a decent mana pool.”

Silvi stored a pan and looked up. ‘I’d like to try.’ She communicated.

Derek nodded and pulled up the General Skills menu. He scrolled through until he found Mage Hand, then paid the two skill points it costs to give her the skill.

Silvi closed her eyes. Soon, an almost transparent blue wave grew out in front of her. Finally, the blue blur took form. Derek almost choked when the ‘Mage Hand’ turned out to be a ‘Mage Paw.’

Silvi’s eyes shot open to vast in her glorious success to summon the Mage Hand, but as soon as her eyes opened, her head slumped from the failure.

“It’s fine. I think you’re just used to the shape of your paws. Concentrate… I think you will be able to change the shape as you please once you get the hang of it.” Derek tried to cheer her up. For Silvi’s part, she did just that. Over the next few minutes, the mana paw’s shape changed. It never got anywhere close to something that would be able to hold a knife, but at least it showed them that it was possible.

However, after a little over five minutes, the skill abruptly ended and Silvi let out a small squeal. Derek chuckled. “That was probably the first time you used up all your mana, huh?” He knew that the squeal was more from the surprise headache than the actual pain. “I guess you’re going to need Meditation.” He said as he went through the list and bought her the skill.

The most surprising thing was when the skill started at level 10 for the bunny. Must be because of the link. I wonder if it would work with other skills? He looked through his list, but the only other possibility was Identify. I’ll think about it. I only have 11 skill points left right now…

And so began Silvi’s vigorous training routine of Meditation and Mage Hand. All for the chance that she will one day be able to chop a carrot.