System Change

Derek led the group up the stairs to the second floor. On the second floor, he walked down the hall and placed his hand on a door. “Are ya’ll ready?”

He pushed slightly, but before the door opened even an inch, Silvi jumped off his shoulder and slammed into it, causing the door to swing wide open.

Derek shook his head and walked in behind the impatient bunny, who was now sitting in the middle of the dining room table with her head facing down. She obviously thought Derek would take them to the kitchen first. Unfortunately for the anxious bunny, he wanted to show off the dining room.

“As you can all see… this is not the kitchen. It’s the dining room.” He walked to the side and placed his hand on a rune. A light fixture hung on the ceiling in the middle of the room, giving it a classic feel. “We can adjust the lighting however we want with this rune. We can adjust it at percentages instead of just on or off.”

At the center of the room was a luxurious dining room table made of a fine mahogany that Geoffrey had thrown in for free. Derek knew the man did him a solid, because he’d seen that particular mahogany when he was viewing materials, and it was not cheap. In fact, if the Pixy Yew building was destroyed, the table might yet survive.

As for seating, Derek had chosen comfort over formality. Instead of going with the typical wood chair, Derek selected a set of cushioned chairs with great back support. Geoffrey begged him to go with something that would fit the table more regally, but he refused. He did eventually cave and let Geoffrey change the upholstered material to a material that matched the mahogany finish on the table.

The chairs looked slightly out of place, but not by much, and not enough to embarrass him as a host if the time came. Plus, they more than made up for it with the comfort they provided.

There were 12 chairs in total. Five on each side of the table, and one on each end. Derek walked up to an end chair and pulled it out. “Sit.” He motioned Malorie over.

Malorie let out a slight chuckled, then sat in the chair. Her eyes lit out. “Wow… that’s much more comfortable than I expected.”

“Right?” Derek agreed. “It seems like every meeting or dining experience I’ve had while in this Kingdom has been marred by uncomfortable seating. It all started at Rayna’s Village. Even the Crown Restaurants prefer quality over comfort. It just isn’t right.”

“I never thought about that.” The woman said.

Derek nodded fiercely. “Every ass needs a proper cushion… at least at home. How else are you supposed to properly enjoy your dining experience?” He said. “I can forgive Stella, Alanah, and the rest of the Crown for it, though. It’s a restaurant that gets its profits based on the amount of customers. If they had comfortable chairs, too many people would stay far longer once the finished their meal. It could become a problem.”

“I want to try it.” Brandi ran over and pulled out a chair of her own and hopped in. “Wow! It is comfortable.”

Derek smiled and nodded. He glanced at Silvi and noticed her giddiness. The lazy bunny had become even more impatient. “Alright… enough about chairs. Who’s ready to see the kitchen?”

Out of nowhere, Silvi appeared back on Derek’s shoulder. He chuckled as he walked to the door separating the dining room from the kitchen and opened it. Again, Silvi was through the door before anyone else.

It was an entertaining sight. They had all just watched Rudy run around his shop and office. Now they were watching Silvi do the same thing. Except with Rudy, they physically saw him move from one place to the next, but with Silvi, she would disappear before reappearing next to a different appliance.

Out of the corner of his eye, Derek could see Malorie fidgeting. She, too, wanted to examine the area. She would be spending a lot of her time here if she could receive a proper class change the next time she leveled.

The level 50 class change wouldn’t be too late for her to do what she truly wanted to. He knew she enjoyed cooking and also seemed to be drawn to the managerial side of things when he mentioned it. She would be the perfect store keeper. Plus, he trusted her.

“This is yours too.” Derek told her. “Go, have a look.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. She was much calmer than Silvi and Rudy as she walked over and examined everything. Brandi giggled, seeing her mother act like this.

Derek gave them a rundown of everything in the kitchen. From the ovens and stoves to the sinks and runes. The kitchen was amazing.

Soon, their group had calmed down, and everyone was standing around the kitchen island.

“Silvi, come here.” He said, and the bunny hopped across the kitchen island, landing in front of him. “So, I figured the green crystals were getting expensive, and you’ve been going through them so quickly that you needed an upgrade.”

He flicked his wrist and a purple collar with two blue crystal-like studs appeared in his hand. “While meeting with Geoffrey’s jeweler to get communication crystals, I thought of this.” He placed the collar around Silvi’s neck.

“One of the crystals are connected to everyone else’s crystal, so you can call on any of us when you want. The other crystal is only connected to the crystal next to it. So, when you connect the two of them, you can talk out loud. Just like with the green crystals, but these won’t break.” He explained. “Try it out. It may be difficult moving mana through your neck like that, but it just takes practice.”

It turned out, it wasn’t difficult for the bunny. She’d been using Mage Hand and Telekinesis so much, that controlling the pure mana was child’s play for her. In an instant, her childlike voice sounded out.

“Like this?”

“Exactly like that. What do you think?” Derek asked.

“It’s easy. Don’t have to use paws. Can talk while cooking.” The voice chimed.

“Good. Do you like the kitchen?” Derek asked.

“I love it, I love it, I love it. We need to cook now. This instant. Missed lunch the other day… have to make up for it. It’s late outside, dinner time. Come, Mal… let’s use our kitchen.” Silvi hopped up and into Malorie’s arms.

“I guess we’re going to make dinner.” She said.

“Do you have the ingredients?” Derek asked.

She nodded. “I spent most of the gold you gave me on different ingredients. I stuck to cheaper items, but we should be able to make some good food for the next couple of weeks.” She said.

“Actually.” Derek interrupted. “If you plan on changing classes to something that involves cooking, you need to rapidly increase your Cooking skill. Which means working with higher-level materials. I’ll be hitting some dungeons soon, so there’s that, but you’ll need other ingredients as well.”

“What do you suggest?” She asked.

“I’m going to bring you to the bank soon and give you access to my account. Other than the rent that has to be paid monthly, you will have full access to everything. The Crown will automatically deposit my earnings at the beginning of each month.” He said. “You can manage the shop and all the business here. Essentially, being my Stella.”

Malorie stared wide eyed at Derek. “Really? You would trust me with all that?”

“You’ve done nothing to lose my trust, and you want to do everything you can for Brandi. She’ll need someone with access to the funds to help get her material, too. I would suggest looking for whole carcasses. She can Dismantle them for the materials, then you and Silvi can use the meat to cook.” He explained.

“It would be my pleasure.” Malorie said.

“Good. I also suggest spending some Skill Points on any business related General Skills you can find. Do you have Skill Points available?” He asked.

She nodded. “I have a couple left from the dungeon we ran a while back.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah… I didn’t spend any of them because of how many skill points the last class skill costed.” She said.

“I see.” He laughed. “Then that’s good. I’m sure business skills will grow extremely well in this environment. Whenever you raise the skills to your satisfaction, I’ll take you somewhere to level you to level 50 for a class change. Hopefully, something good comes out of it.”

Malorie nodded. “That’s good. I just hope I can get a class as good as the one I have now. It would be terrible to go from an uncommon growth type class to a basic lifestyle class.”

“That’s why you really need to focus on your General Skills.” Derek said.

Malorie nodded.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Silvi repeated.

“Go ahead.” Derek dismissed everyone.

A little over an hour later, Derek and company had their first meal together at their new place. They were only missing Rayna and Jacks, but those two were scheduled to be back soon.

The next morning, Derek opened his eyes to a knocking on the front door of the shop. Maybe they’re back? He wondered. Nobody else was awake, and he had chosen to meditate for the night. He walked down to the shop and looked out the glass pane on the door.

Two figures in wearing cloaks stood outside. However, the hoods weren’t covering their heads, so they weren’t hiding, at least not from him.

Derek opened the door.

One man had shoulder length white hair and intense blue eyes, not the deep blue Derek used to have, but a lighter blue that seemed to contain electric currents. The other man stood with neatly shaven brown hair. His eyes were a fierce crimson.

The man with the brown hair looked familiar.

“Can I help you?” He asked.

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