System Change

Inside the room of the defeated Chosen, it was so silent that one could hear a pin drop. Even though the screen that they were all watching the fight on had gone dark, nobody could peel their eyes away from it. Even the sullen and sulky Vendra was staring at it with a look of astonishment.

Finally, Edgar broke the silence. “Well… that was something,” he said. That was enough to at least pull Jakis away. The short man staggered backward and fell onto a couch.

“The recovery and regeneration…” the man muttered.

“Of which one?” Edgar asked.

“Of… both,” Jakis replied. “But especially Derek Hunt. Jace was healing almost instantly, just as Derek was—no, he may have been healing even faster. But he was also using a skill that allowed him to do so the longer he fought. He wouldn’t have that at the start, and there’s no reason to think that his skill wouldn’t have some sort of time limit on it, too. If nothing else, I bet that after a really long time, the toll it takes mentally would be unbelievable.”

“That is true,” the Queen finally pulled herself away and sat down. “I can’t believe that there is someone on our continent with such strength. I have been a frog in a well.”

“Don’t say that,” Edgar said with a chuckle. “He’s from my continent. He’s just able to teleport anywhere he wishes… I wonder if he could come here…” Edgar rubbed his chin in thought. Silvi had teleported from the outside to the inside of an active dungeon. Why wouldn’t Derek be able to come to where they were?

“Why would he risk it?” the Queen asked. “For all we know, if he did come here, the systems would consider him to have given up.”

“True…” Edgar replied.

The whole time, Jakis had been ignoring the two’s conversation and had been stuck focusing on the fight that had just taken place—particularly their regeneration. “But Derek Hunt’s regeneration… that was natural. And he regrew his fingers during the fight. There must be parts of him just lying around the battlefield. I didn’t see him use any skill to do so, either.”

“Oh, he was using a skill,” Edgar said.

“What?” Jakis looked over at the duke in shock. “He was? Was it a passive? He didn’t activate anything. I was watching closely.”

“Well…” Edgar wasn’t sure if he wanted to give away any more of Derek’s secrets. At least, he didn’t want to give away any that Derek had not already shown to others. It was already well known that he could appear anywhere he wanted in seconds, but how many people knew of Greater Meditation? “That’s not my secret to share,” he finally said.

Surprisingly, Jakis didn’t push. Instead, he only nodded. “Understandable,” he said. “The two old men were quite strong, too. They would make a good challenge for me if they continued to fight together.”

“Marrick is very strong,” Edgar said with a nod. “I don’t know much about the other.”

“I will have to have a nice long spar with Jace once I get out of here,” Jakis said. “I do not believe that the system will allow us to stay, and I will have no way to get back to challenge the light swordsman and this… Marrick, but Jace will likely be sent back to our system. I will look for him upon return, and challenge him before I as—” he started, then winced.

Edgar’s eyes widened at Jakis’s words, or at least, what he heard of them. It wasn’t hard to put them together. “You, too? Is everyone just doing that now?” he asked, then tried the man telepathically, ‘You’ve completed the requirements? Both of them? Why did you even choose to invade?’

Jakis looked at Edgar and narrowed his eyes. Finally, he relented. ‘I did not earn the right until my fight with Derek. He led me around like a child—played with me like a toy. My anger while transformed kept growing. But just before I lost, I regained consciousness while still transformed—if only for a moment. The requirement was completed then.’

‘That’s going to make our rematch harder…’ Edgar replied, and Jakis shrugged.

“What is it? What are the two of you speaking about?” The centaur was finally able to move away from the screen, too, and was looking at Edgar and Jakis with narrowed eyes.

“It is something that the likes of you cannot yet know,” Jakis said. “I am surprised that this man…” he nodded at Edgar. “Already knows of it. I would tell you, but the system will not allow it. Just know that I owe Derek Hunt a debt, and leave it at that.”

“Yes…” the centaur bowed slightly to Jakis. “If the system forbids it, then I will not speak of it again.”

Finally, Edgar threw himself onto one of the more comfortable pieces of furniture arranged around the room. “What do we do now?”

“Now?” the Queen stretched and yawned. “It seems that all we must do is wait for Mr. Hunt to find each Champion and send them to visit us.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Hunt… and Jace,” Jakis said—causing everyone to look at him in confusion. “Well, the fight ended with Jace down, and the screen went out. He wasn’t dead. Not to mention, it is quite well known that the two of them know each other, and from the fight—as deadly as it looked—they were very friendly.”

Edgar just smiled and nodded.

“So, with Jace’s help,” Jakis said, “it stands to reason that Derek Hunt has just recruited an inside man. If Holcom has started or even finished the tasks he was to complete once we arrived, then it shouldn’t be hard for Jace to find the Champions. He may already know where they are.”

***

“Are the two of you young idiots still alive?” Marrick asked as he hovered just above Derek and Jace while looking down at them. He snorted when he saw Derek. Other than the blood and dirt that covered him, he looked practically uninjured. He waved his hand over the man and activated Cleaning. Sure enough, once the light disappeared, Derek was lying there in his armor and clothing and looked as pristine as can be.

Jace was another story. The Old Goblin hesitated, then did the same to Derek’s ‘best friend.’ He winced once the spell dissipated from the man. Jace was practically naked, and even with the recovery rate that he showed, he was emaciated. He was basically nothing but skin and bones. His cheeks were sunk in, and even his fingernails were falling off.

Marrick flicked his wrist, then floated down and force-fed the man a high-ranked healing potion. After hovering back up, he frowned. The man didn’t have any superficial wounds or anything, but even though he wasn’t super muscular before, what he’d had did not grow back after feeding him the potion. “What kind of skill did you use at the end?” Marrick whispered quietly to himself and shook his head.

Finally, he heard a slight groan, then Derek kipped up and stretched. “Whew!” he sighed. “What a fight. I needed that. It’s been too long.”

“Y… yes,” Jace was barely able to wheeze out from the ground. “F… fun.”

“Idiots,” Marrick said again, then waved his hand. A fluffy cloud of sand formed below Jace, then slowly lifted the man into the air. “Let’s get the two of you inside before you cause any other problems.”

“Where did David go?” Derek asked as he looked around for the light-based swordsman.

“He had a few things to take care of,” Marrick said. “He’ll meet us inside soon enough.”

“Oh… okay.” Derek shrugged.

Marrick floated himself and Jace alongside Derek as they very slowly made the walk towards the city run by David Brandt. The guards only hesitated for a moment before they opened the gates to let them inside. As soon as he stepped inside, Derek scanned his surroundings. It was a very clean city.

It reminded him a lot of Savannah, but the layout was a bit different. Still, it was easy to see what he figured was the Brandt family’s residence at the center of the city. It was quite big, after all.

“That’s good,” Marrick said out of nowhere.

“What?” Derek asked.

“Your friend is inside the mana circle surrounding the city, yet the Stronghold status did not change. It seems that as long as he is not attacking, it will stay the same,” Marrick explained.

“Oh, yeah,” Derek said. “That’s good to know.”

About halfway to the residence, Jace was finally able to speak in full, albeit strained, sentences. However, Derek shushed him and told him to wait until they made it somewhere more private. The majority of the city was empty—with most of the citizens safely hiding inside their homes. But he still saw some heads peeking out of buildings, and there were plenty of guards walking around.

A short time later, Derek looked down at Jace’s wrist. “You’re buzzing,” he said as he saw the man’s bracelet light up and begin the telltale sign of someone trying to contact him.

“Just some asshole,” Jace said. “I’m sure of it.” He winced as he slowly brought his forearm close to his face. “Yeah… just a short, blue asshole. No need to answer.” His strength then gave out, and his arm fell down onto his chest. He sighed. “You really wanted that first win…”

Derek chuckled and was about to reply, but just before he could, he heard a light snoring coming from Jace. He shook his head and stayed quiet.

“Your friend sure is trusting,” Marrick said. “To think he would use such a skill in a fight that he clearly didn’t want to kill his opponent in.”

“Well… he is a pretty insane guy,” Derek said. “And… well… he’s not… well… I guess we could be considered friends.”

***

“What the hell is going on!?” Darvin smashed his fist down on the desk. “Is he dead?”

“I do not know,” Amelia said. “I had people in contact with scouts up to the point where they saw Jace moving towards the Stronghold. After their last report, the scouts have gone silent. There is no way to know what happened to the man now. It is easy to discern that the Ascending Monarch showed up while he was fighting the other two Guardians, but all that I know is that the most likely scenario is that Jace failed. He is most probably either dead or captured.

“I should have accompanied the man to battle,” Amelia finished.

Darvin huffed again, then leaned back in his chair. “That man would not listen to anyone, whether we tried to help him or not. I know what you said, but he was a lost cause. You heard what he did and said at the other arrays. He was crazy.”

Amelia just shrugged and didn’t say anything else.

“Luckily, Holcom has been moving quickly, and we will soon have all the Champions gathered,” Darvin said. “Once that happens, then we will… move forward with your plan. We must find the Ascending Monarch alone and attack.”

***

Inside an extravagant room in the Brandt Family Estates, Jace lay unmoving on a couch. Both Derek and Marrick sat in their reclining chairs, sipping coffee and chatting. Finally, after waiting for the man for quite a while, David Brandt opened the door to the room and walked in.

Behind him walked a young lady with striking similarities to the man, along with multiple other guards dressed similarly. They all dressed very much like David. Personal guards? Derek wondered as he looked at the new arrivals. What stood out more than anything else was the fact that the guards were carrying four unconscious bodies of invaders with them.

“What’s all that?” Marrick asked.

“We have been monitoring invader activity around the area, and when he showed up…” David nodded at the sleeping Jace. “I ordered my granddaughter and her men to capture those individuals.”

“Is that all of them?” Marrick asked.

“It is all that would have been close enough to be a concern,” David’s granddaughter answered. “We incapacitated them before the fighting began.”

“Then they didn’t see me?” Derek asked.

“That is correct,” the woman replied. “Sir…”

“That’s good,” Derek said with a nod.

“Go put them in the dungeons with the few other invaders we have captured,” David said, dismissing his granddaughter.

“Yes, grandfather!” the woman saluted, then left with her men.

Finally, David walked over to Derek and said, “Mr. Hunt, Sir Marrick has spoken quite fondly of you. It is a pleasure to meet one of the Dawn Siren’s true friends.”

Derek stood up and shook the man’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, too. Alanah only ever had good things to say about you.” He looked the man up and down, then said, “Though I thought you would look… older.”