System Change

Derek watched Jacks drag Jake through the shop and into Rudy’s office. They have a lot of catching up to do. Back in the shop, Rayna, Mal, Silvi, Brandi, and Derek chatted with Edgar about some things. Brandi was super excited about being able to talk to an actual prince.

Edgar didn’t actually know too much about the political side of the Kingdom. He preferred fighting and adventuring. Even though he was considered a General of the King’s army, and he had worked his way up from one of the lower ranks, he didn’t particularly enjoy that, either.

The Kingdom had been peaceful for over two decades at this point, so the army mostly patrolled the borders. Cydaria was bordered by Vallum and the dwarves, Indria and the elves, and Astrus, which was a Kingdom made up like Cydaria, one accepting of all, to a certain extent.

Edgar told them stories of patrolling the borders and the state of everything. The borders with Indria and Vallum were lax, as both countries had multiple trade deals with Cydaria and had a good relationship, even though the elves of Indria had a very elitist attitude towards humans. Apparently, they even allowed a certain amount of slaves, as long as they weren’t elves.

Derek didn’t like that, but it seemed common. When he asked about it, Edgar told him that only Vallum and Cydaria frown on the tradition. The dwarves of Vallum despise slavery because they think a person should be able to do everything on their own, with their own hands. Derek liked that attitude.

As for the border with Astrus, it was more heavily guarded. They had been at a standstill since the last war ended 23 years ago. Neither country came out for the better. It seemed like a bit of a Cold War situation to Derek.

The Rampant Sea bordered the entire eastern side of Cydaria, which required as many, if not more, of the army’s attention. There were many monsters that appeared from the sea onto the land and occasionally attacked villages and cities close by. If Derek would have continued east after arriving at Wimette, he soon would have run into the sea.

Derek still didn’t understand the size of the continent they were on, but from everything he gathered, it was massive. Cydaria had as much landmass as Russia, and the three kingdoms that bordered it weren’t much smaller. The planet had to be at least 10 times bigger than Earth.

When Derek asked about the population of Cydaria, he was surprised to learn that it was over a billion. It didn’t’ make sense. There didn’t seem to be more than a few million people in Savannah, and it was supposed to be one of the best cities in the Kingdom.

Then he remembered the fee to enter, and all the businesses. When he asked about it, he learned that there were over 600 million people in and around the Cydarian Capital. The villages around the capital were more like sub cities than the actual sub cities were. Because of the presence of the army, and even though the area and dungeons around the capital were dangerous, it was still the safest place to live in the Kingdom.

It all blew Derek’s mind. He couldn’t wait to see the capital city. But he wanted to see it from the outside.

During their discussion, Thomas dragged his disheveled body back to the shop. Shae really didn’t take it easy on the kid. Derek was happy for him. Shae was a much better mentor than Derek could have ever been.

Once Derek finished getting information about the Kingdom out of Edgar, he left Mal, Brandi, and Thomas with the Prince to keep him company. He then dragged Rayna downstairs to discuss her training.

She followed him down to the basement. When they got there, Derek activated the soundproofing runes Geoffrey installed for Brandi so the racket wouldn’t reach upstairs. Derek hopped on top of the workbench, and Rayna took a seat on the anvil.

“So, other than being ambushed by a crazy cult, how was your training? When I mentioned that Jacks was training you, Jake asked if you had strong willpower. Was it pretty harsh?” Derek asked.

“Harsh?” Rayna visibly shuddered. “I received an Award for dying…” she said.

“What?”

“Yeah… Jacks went to an Alchemy shop before we left to fight the apes. I didn’t know what he was planning, but he must have spent tens of thousands of gold in there. He bought resurrection potions. A lot of them.” She explained.

“And the Award?” Derek asked.

Rayna’s face blushed. “It’s called Damsel… apparently after entering a dying state and being pulled out of it ten times, you get the Award. It significantly decreases the chance that a critical hit will kill you instantly. While in a dying state, it dramatically increases the countdown timer. And, it has a slight chance of auto revival once the timer depletes. It’s one of the most versatile Awards I’ve ever seen or heard of.”

“Wow, that’s great.” Derek said. That sounds like something everyone needs to have. “I wonder how many people know about it.”

“I asked Jacks, and he said he learned about it from a noble he adventured with back in the day, who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. One of those types that are always bragging about what they have that others can’t get.”

“It would be a very hard Award to get. You would have to have the money to buy enough potions to revive somebody ten times, which would cost more than this shop probably. Or, you would need a high level healer who happened to have a resurrection spell, which I hear is rare unless the class is of higher rarity.” Derek said.

Rayna nodded. “I owe Jacks a lot.”

Derek shrugged. “Maybe… maybe he’s looking for a good partner to go adventuring with. When I mentioned it earlier, his eyes lit up like a child. It seems he really enjoyed the life back when he was able to. If he can build you up into something great, the two of you could make Onyx, or even Diamond rank together.”

And by the time that happens, I will have made my presence known enough that nobody will want to fuck with my people. He didn’t say out loud. He smiled. “He’s going to be especially motivated after seeing that his son has already caught up, if not surpassed him.”

“That… would be great. I never thought about that.” Rayna said.

“Speaking of being strong.” Derek said. “Did you level well? Upgrade your skills?”

Rayna’s eyes brightened. “I did, but I haven’t been able to go over everything yet. I hit level 100 for my class upgrade, but I was going to wait until I got home to do it. But the half elves attacked, so I did the upgrade without viewing anything. Just to get the extra points so I could rush back.

“After that, I spent all my time worrying if you were going to make it to Jacks in time, so I haven’t had a chance to see anything other than the fact that it upgraded to epic rarity.” She answered.

“Oh, that’s amazing! I had hoped it would upgrade for you at level 100. That means you may even have a shot at legendary at the level 200 upgrade.” Derek said.

“Legendary…” she mumbled. “I can’t believe I’m going to have a chance to get a legendary class. It’s kind of overwhelming.”

“Well…” Derek prodded. “C’mon, what’s your class like?”

Rayna closed her eyes. “The name changed. It’s no longer Zephyr’s Gale, it’s Zephyr’s Fury. It’s still a ranged wind swordsman type class. I get three points in Endurance and Vitality per level. Two points into Strength. And five points into Dexterity, Wisdom, and Intelligence.”

“Oh? A total of 23 stat points per level. That’s not bad.” Derek said. Brandi was the first anomaly with odd stat points, but her class was crazy. It was rare, and she almost got epic class stats. Three more points than a normal epic rarity class made more sense.

It seemed that growth type classes received a bit more of a push than regular classes. Derek inwardly cursed at the system. He had only received 20 points when his was epic, yet it was a growth type class. He did have the ability to put the points wherever he wished, though, so he couldn’t complain much.

“What did you get?” Derek asked.

Rayna closed her eyes again. “There are three skills, but I haven’t bought them yet. I’ll need to buy and test them later.” She scoffed. “One of them is a passive increase in movement speed. It’s called Swift Footing. It doesn’t have any requirements, it’s always on. I could have used that when running away.”

“Hindsight…” Derek said.

“One is called Cyclone… it makes tornadoes I can control. It’s an area of effect spell.” She said. “The last one is Wind Bolt. It charges wind on the tip of my finger, or sword, then shoots it out at high speed. The speed and density of the bolt increases as it levels. It doesn’t cost a lot of mana, either.”

“Sounds like pretty good skills.” Derek said. The Cyclone skill is probably the same as the one that the Canis Cyclonis used back in that early beast dungeon… the one that I used Void Shift for the first time to kill. “By the way, did anyone tell you that your eyes are different yet?”

“What? What do you mean?” She hurriedly asked.

“I think it has something to do with obtaining a certain amount of skill in an element. If you look closely at Edgar, you can see the lightning currents running through his eyes. Remember when I upgraded my class and my eyes turned purple? I don’t even have black pupils anymore.” Derek explained.

Rayna nodded.

“Well, congratulations. You don’t have pupils anymore, either. And your eye color is now a bluish green. The same color as your Wind Blade after you changed to the Zephyr class at level 50,” Derek said.

Rayna frowned and asked in a worried tone, “Do they still match my hair?”