System Change

“One last thing?” Avery asked.

“One second,” Derek said. “I’ll be right back.”

From there, Derek jumped high in the sky with Silvi still sitting on his shoulder, then, his foot found a void ripple and he went even higher. Finally, well above the massive clearing where they decided to relocate the dragonkin, Derek got to work exploring.

The clearing was pretty much clear of any monsters other than the dragonkin. If the lesser dragonkin didn’t make it so, then the roars from the wyverns had caused everything to run off. So, Derek took off in a random direction. He was soon over a small forest of trees, and still scanning his surroundings. After searching for a couple minutes, his eyes locked onto what he was looking for.

“There you are,” he said aloud. “I’m void shifting, Silvi, so you can either come with me or just go back and wait with the others.” Derek heard a snort from his shoulder and smiled before using Active Void Shift and appearing directly next to a monster.

He wasn’t looking for any specific beast, so he picked the first ones he saw. What he ended up finding was a flock of flightless birds that looked like giant turkeys, but with forest green colored talons and beards. Derek cast a quick Identify on the flock of beasts and found them to be level 145+ monsters called Avethorns. They will work just fine, he thought as he reached out with both hands and wrapped them around the creature’s necks.

He only needed two, which was good because as soon as he made his move, the others scattered in all different directions. Of course, he wouldn’t have had any problem catching them, but it would have been a bit of a hassle, nonetheless.

With the two turkeys in hand, Derek jumped back up into the sky and made his way back to the clearing with Void Steps, where he was met by a waiting Silvi and the rest. During the short distance between where he captured the beasts and the clearing, the two creatures tried their best to do damage to him and escape, but the vines and thorns they cast at him wasn’t able to break his armor, much less his skin.

“The last thing you needed to do was go catch some Avethorns?” Avery asked, deadpanned. “Are you planning on having Silvi make you a poultry dish before you go?”

Derek rolled his eyes. “The monsters don’t matter. I just needed two of anything,” he said. Then, Derek opened his Time Prison once again. This time, though, he kept the passageway at a regular human height. Once the passage was open and he opened to door leading to the lobby, he tossed one of the turkey-like creatures inside before closing the door and pulling the void back together. “I needed them to run an experiment,” Derek said.

If he was going to be using Void Travel, he wanted to see what kind of effect it had on both creatures or people stored inside his Time Prison and those who went into the void with him. This would allow him to find out exactly how safe it would be to take others inside. The two beasts that he captured weren’t exactly high stat creatures, especially in the endurance department, but they were better than nothing. Depending on the effect caused by the Void Travel, he would know what other types of experiments to try.

“I… see…” Avery said.

“Okay, Silvi, it’s time to go,” Derek said as he looked around at the present company and all the dragonkin in the distance. “I think we’re going to go off a distance before I use the skill. I don’t want it spooking everything and causing them to break out of Lyra’s effects. She’s already got a hard enough job as it is.”

“Then go kick some ass,” Avery said. “Don’t let that princeling beat you.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure Edgar will be relieved to get some more backup.”

With that, Derek and Silvi moved far away from everyone in the clearing before Derek focused on his skill and finally used it. It was only the second time for him to open the tunnel-like skill, and it would be the first time for him to actually step inside and use it. Luckily, he had an expert on the skill with him. Silvi had already used it multiple times—she even used it to successfully appear inside an enemy’s belly.

‘Okay,’ Derek sent to the lazy bunny perched on his shoulder. ‘How does this work?’

‘Open the portal. Go inside. Close portal. Find Big Sparky. Hop to him. Open portal. Exit.’ The bunny gave him short, but concise, instructions on how to use Void Travel. He didn’t exactly know how he was going to ‘Find Big Sparky’ but he was sure he’d figure it out once he was inside.

So, while drawing on the skill, he opened the void in front of him. The weird feeling of dread appeared when the skill activated, but he was used to it by now. Finally, with Silvi still on his shoulder and the second turkey-like beast in his grasp, he stepped inside. Surprisingly, once he was inside, the dreadful feeling he got by standing next to the entrance on the outside left him.

Not wanting anything or anyone to stumble upon the entrance and end up hurting themselves, Derek did as Silvi instructed and closed the portal behind him. He was then left in the near pitch blackness of the void. It brought back memories that he would rather not remember. The only saving grace was that he was with Silvi this time and not alone.

He also felt a multitude of different auras around him in each direction. So that’s what she meant by ‘Find Big Sparky,’ Derek thought as he pushed Void Sense to the maximum and each aura grew, and he could even get some distinct feeling from each one.

Right next to him, he could feel a sense of endurance, and with his eyes closed and him concentrating on the endurance, the aura that he was feeling turned gray in his mind. Directly beside that aura was one of intense heat and earth. Focusing on it, he found that it was a metallic color with a sharp reddish-orange glow. Derek instantly knew that those two auras belonged to Avery and Tyron.

He also felt Rocky’s aura, which was like Tyron’s but weighted more heavily to the earth side than the fire side. The wyrm had transformed, but hadn’t gone entirely to Tyron’s metal affinity. That was interesting. Lyra’s aura was a mystical pink aura that he didn’t even want to get close to. It just felt weird when he concentrated on it.

Having figured that part out, Derek also felt that he could travel to certain places that he was very familiar with without having to focus on a person’s aura. First, he found his Void Emporium before he even searched for the auras of Mal and Brandi. Interesting… he thought. If I can feel the Void Emporium and Savannah… then…

In an instant, he focused hard, and his mind wandered. Far, far in the distance, after searching as hard as he could, he could feel a very slight connection. No way… he thought. The place that he felt, if he wasn’t mistaken, was the location back on Earth where his old cabin was. The one he had moved into to be alone well before the system took over. Does that mean…

He kept his focus on that area and tried to expand it from there. Eventually, he found a near faded purple-pink aura. It was so far away that he could barely feel it, but it was there. It was like the flames on a candle flickering out; he had to expend all his focus to keep it in view.

However, after focusing on it for a second, he was hit with a massive headache and lost his concentration. Quickly pulling up his status, he saw that his mana had bottomed out and hit zero. Dammit, he thought. He didn’t even know that the skill took mana with its use. He at least hadn’t felt it draining when he was focusing on Avery and Tyron. Maybe it was because of the distance.

Derek kept his eyes closed and focused hard on meditating and recovering his mana. After some time, he opened his eyes, but kept with his active meditation. Finally, he remembered about the passenger he had brought with him. With Void Creation, Derek made a small ball of glowing purple and held it close to his other hand before looking down at the creature he was holding.

To his horror, the turkey-like creature had turned into an abomination. The bottom half of the creature had grown and grayed—like it had aged hundreds of years in the short time that he’d been inside the void. Some of the top half, however, looked young and vibrant, like a chick that had only just recently hatched from its egg. On top of that, there were many small holes in the creature’s body.

It was like something had just taken whole chunks of the Avethorn body out all at once. The disappearance of the flesh actually reminded Derek of when he used Harbinger’s Material Drain skill on something. Needless to say, the beast he was carrying was no longer moving. Derek didn’t even know how long it had taken for it to die.

Derek’s eyes shot open and in a panic, he reached over to his shoulder and turned his head. He sighed in relief when his own eyes met Silvi’s. She had her head tilted and was looking at Derek with a tinge of concern.

‘Never bringing ingredients in here again,’ Silvi sent to him after also taking a good look at the creature he’d dropped. ‘That could have made some good chicken…’

‘Yeah…’ Derek laughed, happy that Silvi was with him to help ease the tension he was feeling. ‘That was unfortunate,’he said to her. ‘It looks like it’s being affected by both the time and space elements at the same time. Some of it aged and some of it even grew younger, but the whole time, space was eating away at its body.’

‘Looks that way,’ Silvi agreed.

With his makeshift light in his hand, the two continued to watch the Avethorn’s body change right before their eyes. After a couple of minutes, the space aspect of the void had eaten away the entire body of the beast. I wonder what’s going on with the one I locked away inside my Time Prison.

Derek let the void ball in his hand die out and allowed his mana to finish recharging. He reached out once again into the distance. He just wanted to see. This time, he kept an eye on his mana. The further he reached with Void Sense, the quicker the mana went down. With that, it was confirmed. Finally, he made it to his old cabin once again, then he began looking for the only other person he’d had a decent amount of contact with back on Earth.

He was pretty sure that the pink-purple flickering aura he had found belonged to Silvi Jaccobs. The only other aura he knew—and knew better than Silvi Jaccobs’s aura—was Jace’s. However, he couldn’t find it anywhere near Silvi’s. Did… he die? The thought actually saddened Derek a bit. He never really cared for the man, and even went as far as to call him a psychopath, but he had to admit that at a certain point, he looked forward to Jace’s visits—even if they did end up with him getting his ass kicked and being on the verge of death.

Derek sighed and began to pull his senses back. He didn’t want his aura to bottom out once again. However, as he was pulling back, he felt it. A very solid red colored aura way away from Silvi’s on Earth. Is that… him? That doesn’t make sense. The aura was so far away, there was no way that it was on Earth. But it had to be Jace’s. Did he leave the planet?

Derek didn’t have time to think much about it. But he did feel relieved at sensing the aura he was looking for. Maybe I’ll be the one to visit him one day, and he’ll be the one to get his ass kicked. With a smile, Derek pulled his aura back completely, then reached out for the one he needed to find. It was so much easier to find Edgar, Blitz, and Alanah’s auras after searching for the distant one.

“There you are,” he said. Now, I just need to… hop to them. Derek rolled his eyes. Nah… I think I’ll walk.