System Change

Jace was sitting in his command tent, staring into space, while his squad’s blacksmith, Rodrick, gathered up his broken kukri and pieces of armor to see if anything was salvageable. Some time ago, he had declined the system’s request to become a Champion. So what if I miss out on a few rewards? he thought.

His Battle Instincts skill had never let him down before, and he was sure that it wasn’t going to now. The skill had taken over as soon as he read through the messages. It always seemed to know what he needed more than he did. It was attuned perfectly to his mindset.

Not to mention the fact that the last conversation he had with Kelvin flashed through his Battlelust-riddled mind and helped him accept that decision. Thinking about that damn man-made Jace grit his teeth. He knew that the man was manipulating him to do his bidding. The man knew just what buttons to push—it was like he’d done a staggering amount of research on him. Still, if Jace didn’t want to do something, there was no way that man could have forced him.

Before setting out on his battleground crusades, Kelvin had taken Jace to the side to give him an order. Of course, Jace told the man to fuck off at first. That led to Kelvin mentioning his good friend, Derek, and how he’d come back to Earth. That bastard even got to fight him, Jace thought.

So, Jace listened to the man’s tale without interrupting. It was quite the story. Apparently, his friend could travel through the void like a true Void Beast. Those are always fun to fight, Jace thought. Also, it turned out that Derek had created a big stir among the council back when he first disappeared. The man even let it slip that Derek was on some other planet that wasn’t a part of the system, and that the odds were all the elites of the system would be invading that planet soon.

Now, whether all of that was true or not, Jace didn’t know. That man could have been lying to him, but his Battle Instincts skill seemed to think otherwise. After a quick visit to Earth and a nice chat with Silvi, Jace learned that Derek did, indeed, visit Earth not long ago. Jace couldn’t help but grin when he thought about Derek wiping the floor with Kelvin.

Kelvin had told him that Derek was strong, and that he and his friend were evenly matched. Silvi was quick to correct what Kelvin had said. Of course, my friend was going to kick his ass, Jace thought. I can kick his ass, so why wouldn’t Derek be able to? It’s only natural. Jace snorted. And it seems like Derek even asked about me. A true friend.

When he came back from his visit with Silvi, he took Kelvin up on his offers to send him to the most dangerous battlefields. That decision caused his Battle Instincts skill to flare happily, so he knew he was making the right choice.

After agreeing to Kelvin’s missions, he’d been able to sharpen himself over and over in the last few weeks. He’d almost died countless times, but in the end, he came out stronger every single time. He’d been gaining more Titles, his class was at a legendary rank, and he’d received some cryptic notification about an advancement that he promptly ignored. Then, he kept pushing and kept growing stronger.

Honestly, he’d probably had more growth in the past handful of weeks than he’d had in a year or two. And that was all so he didn’t disappoint his friend when the time came—if Kelvin was telling the truth and not just prodding him along. If Kelvin was lying, then the council would soon need to find a new member.That all brought him back to today after he finished destroying an epic-grade hive on a battlefield planet—allowing Kelvin’s soldiers to go in and start the process of safely taking over more of the planet. He’d come back to his command tent with his aura full of battle lust. Nobody could get near him until his skills deactivated, and he calmed down.

However, while he was sitting in his tent waiting for the urge to fight to go away, he was hit by a system request to become a Champion. Not totally in his right mind and going strictly off of his Battle Instincts and Battlelust, he pretty much instantly declined. Now that the Battlelust was gone, he’d had some time to think, and he was happy that he’d declined the offer. Even if his reasoning wasn’t perfect, he trusted his skill.

As far as he knew, there were usually two kinds of Champions—the kind that leads and the kind that is sent to fight other Champions. If he knew for a fact that the latter was what the system was talking about, he obviously would have agreed to it. But Kelvin had called it an invasion when they spoke—if he could be believed—which led him to think that more than just Champions were going to be fighting. Being a lieutenant was already a pain in the ass, so becoming some Champion to the system sounded even worse if it was the former.

Having tons of people around trying to interfere in his battles made his skin crawl. He wouldn’t even be a lieutenant if he’d been given any choice in the matter. Though, during his latest missions, his team had all stayed at base camp while he went out alone, so he did have one of the better teams out there. Everyone made themselves very useful by not interfering in his battles, and Rodrick made himself useful by fixing his shit when he could.

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Jace looked down at his bracelet and interacted with it for a few seconds. Once he was finished, he smiled and stood.

“Sir!” Rodrick instantly straightened his back and saluted.

“Stop that shit,” Jace said. “Hurry up and get that repaired if you can.”

“Yes!” Rodrick nodded and picked up the other broken kukri.

Jace glanced at the weapon in the smith’s hand, then thought, Useless… Then, without another word, Jace left his tent in nothing more than a pair of pants and headed to the middle of the base camp, where he could access the system store.

When he arrived, everyone went quiet and got out of his way. His aura had been so useful in keeping all the flies away, and his status had done the rest. He reached the center, then placed his hand on an orb and accessed the system store.

Clearing all the battlefields had netted him a crazy amount of system credits and even more materials to use or sell. So, knowing that there might be some elite invasion coming up, once he had saved a good sum of credits and useful materials, Jace had gone to the store and searched for a grandmaster blacksmith to make him a pair of kukri since his kept breaking when he battled high-level, high-rarity creatures and had to go all out with his Battlelust.

Jace found his order in the store and paid an unimaginable sum to rush the job. He’d already met the smith while in his full Battlelust state, which was very tricky and almost ended with a bunch of city guards, smiths, and other leaders dead. However, he’d marched straight to where the smith’s workshop was. The smith was waiting for him after their communications and quickly brought him inside to channel his aura into the blades.

It had been a while since then. According to the smith, once that part of the job was done, he could work slowly on the project and do other projects without worrying about something going wrong. Jace knew it was just a way for him to fleece people out of more credits just so they could get their weapons faster, but it seemed that Jace would have to be one of those people.

After rushing the job, Jace walked back to his now-empty tent and sat back down on his cot. The front lines are where the most danger will be, Jace thought. I’ll make damn sure I’m on the front line, and I’m sure I’ll see Derek again sooner rather than later. Once again, his Battle Instincts flared happily, and he knew he was on the right path. He couldn’t help but let a grin creep over his face as he thought about reuniting with his friend once again.

***

Darvin sat dumbfounded at the notification that Jace had declined the opportunity to become a Champion. Sure, nobody knew what becoming a Champion exactly entailed, but just the fact that the system was giving the opportunity meant that it had to be good. I just can’t figure out what goes on inside that kid’s head, Darvin thought. But, to be honest, it isn’t exactly unexpected. He never does anything expected, and I guess that’s how and why he even had the opportunity.

Being so young and having the system for such a short amount of time, then being given the opportunity… Darvin shook his head. If being a Champion is about strength, which, based on the current list, it seems to be, then I’ve never seen someone grow so strong in such a short amount of time. The kid is a monster. Exactly how strong is he, anyway? Single-handedly taking on epic or higher hives and battlefields… I don’t even know how Jakis would fare when it comes to that…

Oh, well… Darvin sighed. There’s nothing I can do about it, anyway, so I might as well not dwell on it. As long as Kelvin brings him back and he joins in when the time comes, then that’s good enough. Darvin looked over his list once again, then at the option to select a Champion. I guess it’s Kelvin’s lucky day, he thought, then added the man to the list of the other nine Champions.

***

A chill ran down Derek’s back as he waited for everyone to make their decisions. That was odd, he thought. He didn’t get weird shivers like that very often. He didn’t dwell on it because, moments later, he received a new notification from the Davenresh System.

All Guardians and Champions have been chosen…

Now Choosing Davenresh System Strongholds…

“Strongholds?” Stella muttered from the side. In the short time between the current notification and the last, Derek and Avery had explained to her and Natalie about the notifications that they had been getting since they hadn’t received anything.

“You see it?” Derek asked.

“Yes,” Stella replied with a nod. “All the Guardians and Champions have been chosen, and the system is choosing Strongholds, yes?”

“Yup,” Derek confirmed.

“What’s a Champion?” Natalie asked.

“Don’t know,” Derek said. “But I would imagine that it’s the Universal System’s version of our Guardians. They are invading, and we are defending, so it makes sense.”

“That it does,” Natalie said as she rubbed her chin in thought. “I wonder who our Guardians are and how many we have.”

“No clue,” Derek said. “But I’m sure we’ll find out soon.” A few moments later, the ground shook yet again, and he was shown another notification.

Strongholds Selected…

Prepare for invasion protocols…

“O…kay,” Derek muttered.

“Look!” Stella said. When the city shook, she had gotten up and gone over to a window. Now, she was peering outside with a shocked look on her face.

Derek quickly stood and ran outside. Once again, a bright blue beam of mana had shot down from the sky. This time, however, the mana had circled what looked like the entire city of Savannah. It wasn’t hard for Derek to put two and two together.

He turned and looked at Natalie, who had followed him to the doorway of her estate, and said, “Congratulations… I guess… It looks like Savannah is going to be one of the Strongholds.”