System Change

Everyone’s day wasn’t as bad or rough as Derek had suspected. The girls all woke up late and barely made it down in time for breakfast. According to Brandi, they had to fight hard for the hotel to recognize Silvi as a guest and not just a pet.

The hotel staff refused to let Silvi have her own breakfast initially. It took the bunny pulling out two of its few remaining communication crystals and talking to the staff herself for them to allow it. However, after the confusion was cleared up, news of Silvi was spread to the rest of the hotel staff, and it shouldn’t happen again.

After breakfast, they went out and walked around the city most of the day. They basically window shopped, since they didn’t have enough money to buy much of anything. The three had barely ever seen any city, much less one as big as Savannah.

According to Rayna, who was the most observant of the bunch, most of the residents who saw them were nice enough, though there were a handful that stared at them in disgust, as though they were offended that villagers dressed as them were breathing the same air.

Derek nearly facepalmed at hearing that. Before he left Torith, he had visited a shop and bought the women a bunch of clothes, mostly for travel, but they still looked much better than the village garb they were all wearing. Also, Brandi was more worried about making Derek shirts when she could than updating the clothing they were all wearing.

Derek walked over to one of the empty beds and, while holding his food in one hand, reached over with the other and dumped the clothes he bought for them on the bed. He also put the clothing he had looted from Katrisha on the bed as well. Most of it looked rather expensive and quite beautiful.

He placed the dead woman’s undergarments in another pile and said, “Burn those.” Afterwards, he went back to the group and sat on the floor.

“I’m sorry, it slipped my mind that I had bought you all some new clothes before I left Torith. I was preparing to give it to you for traveling clothes, but the Katrisha incident happened and I completely forgot that I was carrying them.” Derek apologized.

Brandi ran over to the bed and started going through all the clothes. She was giddy with excitement. The classes she had worked on the most were Leatherworking and Tailoring, so clothing was her thing.

Before long, the girl came back to her senses and resumed her meal with the rest of the bunch.

“What do you think?” Derek asked her.

“A lot of it is too big, but I should be able to fix that easily.” Brandi replied. “The pretty clothes should fit mom almost perfect. To fit Rayna, I will need to let it out in a few places.” She said matter-of-factly.

Rayna and Mal both blushed a bit, but didn’t comment.

“Okay, so what else happened today?” Derek asked.

The group continued eating while recounting their day. Nothing overly exciting happened to them. They came back to the hotel and enjoyed lunch that Mal had already prepared before going back out and wandering around more of the city.

Rayna did tell an interesting story about what she called a ‘spoiled elf maiden’ commanding all those around her and throwing a fit when something she didn’t like happened. Derek was sure it was the same elf he encountered multiple times throughout the day. It was hard to miss her.

Finally, the group came back to the hotel and waited for Derek to get back.

“By the way, I don’t have too much more prepared food. Maybe enough for three more days, five if we stretch it. We have plenty of ingredients, but no place to use them, and I’m not about to start a fire in the middle of this hotel room, or the street.” Malorie explained.

Derek nodded. “I had some thoughts about that as well.” He said. “I bought… well, technically rented a plot of land today. It’s where I will put the building, and where we will live in the city, as well as do business. I’m hoping the builders work fast and will be able to have all the living functions of the building in a few days.”

“I don’t think I need to care too much about aesthetics. I plan to make the design simple and easy to build. Just a two-story building with a basement. The top floor will be used for our personal things. I’m thinking of nine small bedrooms on one side. Then, a kitchen, dining room, and two bathrooms on the other.” Derek said.

“That sounds good.” Mal said. “Once the kitchen is complete, Silvi and I can cook and save a lot by not having to go out to eat.”

Derek nodded. “I’ll try to have the kitchen furnished before anything else.” He said. “Now, for the first floor, we’ll just go with an open floor design with a counter at the side. Like one of the shops I visited today. We’ll have any products we sell out in the open. That may change based on Brandi, but I think it will be good for now.” Derek took his last bite of food and set his plate down.

He looked over at Rudy. “How big of a space do you need for your contract store?” He asked.

Rudy looked up in thought. “Not very big. Just enough for a place to work and a few seats for customers. It doesn’t take me long to create contracts.”

Derek nodded. “Okay, I’ll make it about the size of a bedroom or two and go from there.”

Finally, Derek looked over at Brandi. “Now, for your crafting space.” He got her attention. “I think I’m just going to go with a fully open area, and you can arrange all your tools and things as you need. I’ll install some basic rooms to keep the air clean and at a decent temperature, and some lights so you can see what you’re doing.”

“Okay.” Brandi said with a glimmer in her eyes. “What about the crafting stuff? I have a lot of material, but nothing to work with.”

Derek smiled. “Well, I’m going to put everything you need for Blacksmithing in first. I already bought you a set of smithing tools today.” He bent forward and dumped out all the hammers, tongs, and other smithing tools he bought. “Once the smithy part is up and running, you can start making your own tools and crafting gear. I’ll check my finances at the end of the month, then give you gold so you can buy any materials you need for it. You’ll have to keep track of the expenses yourself.”

Brandi nodded seriously.

“I’ll also go run some dungeons and bring you whatever materials I obtain while doing so.” Derek said. “Also, I found an interesting Alchemist today. I want you to come meet him with me either tomorrow or the day after. Maybe he can give you some tips. I’ll try to find some books for Runesmithing as well, but I don’t know how much they will cost.”

“I know some basic runes.” Brandi said. “When I took my class, I ended up with all kinds of basic information about different crafts. It’s… hard to sort through what I know. There’s just so much.”

Derek laughed. “That’s to be expected. I can’t even believe that a class like that even exists. To be frank, I’m jealous.”

Brandi smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

Derek turned to Jacks. “The shop is definitely going to need a guard or two, and you have the experience and power. So, if you don’t mind, I would like you to do that. Of course, we’ll work out the pay and time off. You definitely need to see your son if possible. There should be enough room for him to stay with us if he decides to visit. I know he’s probably busy.”

The scarred man smiled. “Hopefully, he gets back to me soon.”

Finally, Derek looked over at Rayna. “I’m not sure about what you want to do. I figure Mal will help out around the shop and help Brandi, but what about you? What do you want?”

“I want to get stronger.” Rayna said. “I don’t want to feel helpless like I did in the village ever again.” She clenched her fist.

“You should join the Adventurer’s Guild first.” Derek said. “You already have a decent quality class, so you will be stronger than most once you gain some more levels.”

“I planned on doing that.” Rayna said.

“The problem is how to get levels safely. It’s hard for me to trust random teams from the guild. Especially with what happened to Thomas in Torith.” Derek ran through different options in his head before settling on one.

“Jacks, would you mind helping Rayna get to level 100 or so? You know, keep her safe while she kills things. I’m sure there are plenty of areas around the city that she could level in.” Derek asked.

“I’m find doing whatever you need.” Jacks answered. “It should be fun adventuring again, even if it is just to protect Rayna.”

“Great.” Derek said. “I’ll talk to Shae, Savannah’s Adventurer’s Guild Master, later. I’m sure he has a map of grinding areas.”

“You met the Guild Master?” Jacks asked.

Derek nodded. “Yeah. He’s a decent fellow. I sparred with him as a test to receive this.” He pointed out the badge on his upper arm.

“That’s… Onyx.” Jacks muttered.

“Yes, yes it is.”