System Change

With a vicious strike through the air, Harbinger cut into a tree, just missing the ducking Avery by inches. With the glaive stuck, Avery dashed in and released a flurry of slashes to Derek’s abdomen, causing wound after wound to appear before regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eyes.

Avery clicked his tongue, then jumped high in the air, pulling out and nocking an arrow in the process. By the time Harbinger was free of the thick tree, an all too familiar Drill Shot from Avery’s bow was already en route to Derek. Even knowing what the shot had done to the wyvern in the trial, Derek braced himself and crossed his arms over his chest-glaive still gripped in one hand.

The Drill Shot landed just as Derek got his hands up. The tip of the arrow slowly, but surely, dug into his naked forearm as he felt the pains from his back and legs sprout up. Pain caused by Avery moving behind him as soon as he released his shot, and taking his frustration out on Derek. Soon, a dagger found the back of Derek’s knee and he fell.

Now down on one knee, the blows began to get more fierce, now aiming for vital areas. But Derek had slipped into Greater Meditation the moment he got his guard up. Before, the healing was visible, but now, it was near instant. And with his armor-like skin caused by his over 1,500 points in endurance and whatever unknown increases his newly forged void body had given him, the healing was almost instant.

Of course, this wasn’t an all out fight. He and Avery had set some ground rules. For the spar, Derek wasn’t using any void skills, and Avery wasn’t using any of his overdrive skills, which is what Avery called his rapid stamina consuming skills he used. They were battling based on pure physicality. That was the best way for him to get used to his new weapon. Plus, it would be good to fight with someone that had such speed.

Avery had agreed instantly when Derek asked to spar. He was bored with sitting around already, even though he’d only been out of the trial for a couple of weeks. So, when Derek mentioned sparring, Avery had taken him up on it, and they were in the air looking for a good battleground almost instantly.

Now, why was Avery aiming for Derek’s vitals in a spar? Well, that was because Derek told him to. He had given the man one rule, and that was not to aim for his brain. Derek was sure he could heal from anything else, but he didn’t want to risk his brain.

So the two fought. Actually, they fought endlessly for almost an entire day. Derek was doing it all to learn more about his new weapon before bonding with it. Avery may not have been the perfect opponent, but he was all Derek had. The prince still had to go around and do princely things, and Tyron was busy crafting.

Actually, if Derek could choose, he would want to fight against Tyron. At least he would be able to have a hit or two land on the man. But it was still good practice, and even though sparring didn’t provide as good of skill increases as fighting for one’s life, it was better than nothing. However, in the day of sparring, Derek hadn’t gained a single level in anything.

“Whew!” Avery said as he gasped for breath. “How are you not even breathing hard?” the archer panted like he was dying, pulling out some water and gulping it down in between breaths.

“I’m built different.” Derek shrugged with a smile. “High endurance equals high stamina,” Derek said. “Besides, I’m not the one dancing around and bouncing from tree to tree. I was damn near standing in that one spot all day. Also, you should really look into evolving your Meditation skill. It would do someone as stamina based as yourself wonder.”

Avery snorted. “You don’t have to tell me that. I’ve been jealous ever since I found out about it. I’ve been kicking myself for spending the few Skill Upgrade Points I had years ago. You know how hard it is to level Meditation… especially when you’re already sitting at level 250.”

Derek smiled. He was in a generous mood right now. If it was possible to use Void Call while inside a dungeon, he would think about bringing some Void Beasts inside so Avery could farm himself up some Skill Upgrade Points from the Slayer of the Unknown Achievement.

Actually, that’s not a bad idea, Derek thought. After learning about even another probably more powerful system in the universe, he wondered about the Void Beasts, and if it was possible to summon one that was much more powerful than the current power ceiling of the Great System. But if he brought Avery, Lyra, and Silvi along, surely they could handle just about anything that appeared.

“How about when we get out of here, we go on a little side quest to get some more… ingredients?” Derek asked, knowing full well that Avery already knew that Derek had a way to easily summon Void Beasts. “Maybe you can get your Slayer of the Unknown skill up, which would, in turn, grant you some extra Skill Upgrades Points.”

Avery blinked rapidly for a few moments. “You serious?” he asked, still kind of stunned at the opportunity.

“As serious as Silvi when she’s making breakfast,” Derek laughed.

“I don’t know how serious that is, but yes. If you want to offer it, I would be a fool to turn it down. I’ll just need to check in with Alanah when we get out-make sure there isn’t anything going on that she can’t spare me a bit more time,” Avery nodded seriously.

“Good. It’s set, then. We’ll go hunting once this dungeon is over.”

With plans made, the two went back to sparring well into the night and into the morning. Their former tree covered battlefield looked more like a gladiatorial arena now. With all the powerful and vicious blows by the two, an area of well over 3,000 square feet had been carved out in the earth.

After over a day and a half of near nonstop fighting with his new weapon, Derek called for a break, and Avery went off to spend time with Lyra. He was pretty used to the weapon now, and he had already practiced moving his void based mana through it enough to be proficient in it, so he was ready to forge his bond. First, though, he wanted to test Harbinger’s ability to repair itself out.

Harbinger hadn’t lost much durability during the sparring sessions, but it has still dropped five points, down to 1,495. There weren’t any visible signs of damage, and it still pretty much looked like new. But with some durability off, he should be able to activate the skill.

Forgive me, Silvi, Derek thought as he pulled a truck sized slab of wyrm meat out of one of the storage rings Tyron had given him. He didn’t want to waste any actual crafting material at this point, so he chose the lesser of the evils.

Then, not knowing what else to do, and guessing, he stabbed the bladed end of Harbinger into the thick slab of wyrm meat. Hoping it was like using one of his own skills, he channeled his mana into the weapon and thought about activating Material Drain. Sure enough, it worked almost instantly.

Within seconds, a portion of the giant slab of meat was encompassed in a deep purple sphere, almost resembling his Absolute Nullify skill. The sphere grew larger and larger before disappearing along with any meat it had encompassed. Once the sphere disappeared, Derek checked his weapon’s durability once again. He smiled when he saw it was back up to 1,500 durability.

He also let out a sigh of relief, seeing that Harbinger had taken only about a quarter of the meat to repair itself. It was still an awful lot, but Derek had been scared that it would actually take more than the giant slab for five measly points of durability. He nodded internally and put the meat back into his storage ring.

Now, with Harbinger fully repaired and his familiarity with the weapon increased, he sat crosse legged in the center of the dueling arena and laid the glaive across his legs. With a thought, he selected his Polearm Specialty from his skill list.

Weapon Bond Available

Select Weapon

He wasn’t sure what the bond would be like, as when he upgraded his Unarmed Combat Mastery, he had gone the bare fisted route, and of course, he wasn’t allowed to bond with his bare fists. Then, with a thought, Derek focused his attention on Harbinger, laying in his lap. A new notification appeared in front of his eyes.

Weapon Selected: Void’s Harbinger

Is this your final decision?

Note: Only one bond with a weapon can be active at a time.

With another thought, he confirmed his decision. Instantly, Harbinger began to glow. It wasn’t the usual purple glow Derek was used to seeing, but a bright, almost white glow. Then, the glow around Harbinger spread to himself. Finally, the glow disappeared, and Derek felt it. It was almost like the connection he had with Silvi, but much more faint.

With their bond, Derek was able to locate Silvi by feel from a great distance, and that distance had only grown since they had been bonded. Now, he had the feeling he could do the same with Harbinger, only to a lesser degree. Of course, he couldn’t communicate with the weapon like he could with Silvi. How did he know? He tried, then he felt silly for trying. He’d read way too many novels in the past.

Next, he opened another new notification.

Congratulations

You have successfully bonded with Void’s Harbinger.

With your bond, you have unlocked various upgrades for Void’s Harbinger.

Okay… This has to be kind of like the upgrades from my Bare Fist Specialty skill, right? With that thought, Derek moved on to the next message.

Please Choose Upgrade

Durability, Heaviness, Length, Lightness, Merge, Size

There were six upgrades that could pick from on the list compared to the three he had for his bare fists. Durability was just as it seemed. It increased the weapon’s durability by a certain percentage for each level he obtained in his skill; it was pretty much the same skill as Toughness. With the weapon’s innate ability, it made that upgrade next to useless.

Next was Heaviness. That upgrade was basically an ability that allowed him to increase the weapon’s weight by a certain percentage, which was the same as Lightness, except with Lightness, he would be able to basically make the weapon weigh next to nothing at a higher level. He immediately crossed Lightness of the list, but Heaviness may end up good if there aren’t any better upgrades in the future.

Length allowed him to extend the polearm’s length at will, and the length that he could extend it grew based on the skill level. It was an ability he’d seen on TV and read about many times in fiction, though it usually came with a staff instead of a glaive.

Merge had him interested. It was basically two abilities in one. First, it allowed him to store Harbinger within himself instead of having to store it in a storage item. Next, since it became part of him, it would make it where no useful information would be given out when an appraisal type skill was used on the weapon unless the person using the skill was that much stronger than Derek. The higher the skill level, the easier it was to summon and unsummon the weapon. It was definitely the base upgrade he was leaning towards.

Finally, was Size. It was the upgrade that Tyron had obviously chosen. He could select any part of the weapon and increase its overall size. The size increase grew proportionally. Honestly, it was a pretty great upgrade. Though, for him, he couldn’t see using it much. He could already control the size of the void blade that was generated when he used Channel Void.

So, looking the choices over again, he made his decision and chose Merge.

Merge Selected

Ability to store Harbinger in your body has been unlocked. Harbinger’s status has been successfully merged with your own. If information cannot be viewed about you, it cannot be viewed about Harbinger. Continue to level the skill to select more upgrades.

Like that, with a thought, Harbinger turned into a flash of light and disappeared inside his chest, going to the same place that contracts seemed to go to. With another thought, Derek held out his right arm and tried to summon the weapon. Harbinger then appeared in his hand. The speed of summoning the weapon was about the same as summoning it out of his storage bracelet. What he liked most, though, was that if his storage items ever got lost, destroyed, or taken, he would still have his weapon.

With a sigh, Derek stretched and stood. He had finished just about everything he needed to. He would now go check on everyone else.

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