System Change

Derek, with Silvi still perched on his shoulder after coming out of the vault, left Tyler alone in the treasury to clean up while he sneaked away. As for Tyler? The young man was still standing in the center of the room, staring stunned in Derek’s direction as they moved out of his line of sight.

I’m sure he’ll figure everything out. If nothing else, it will give him something to do to get his mind off of everything that has happened recently, Derek thought. It would be much better for the young man to focus more on the odd overpowered guy and acquisition of many of the items in the kingdom’s treasury than the fact that he’d lost almost all of his relatives in the span of a week.

As Derek walked down one of the hopefully familiar halls on his way back to everyone else, he hummed a happy tune. It had been a while since he’d accomplished a task that really increased his mood. More than anything, I can’t wait to try out these skill increase potions. Those had been the items that he’d been particularly jealous of when he saw some of the others in the raid dungeon be rewarded with them.

Now, thanks to Astrus’s abundant generosity, I have many times more than any of the others do. And here I was thinking about trying to trade some Void Beast stuff for some, he thought. Actually, it’s surprising that Astrus had so many of them. I wonder if they have a dungeon somewhere around here that can reward them as part of its loot. If there is one, it’d be level 250, right? If that was so, it would definitely be a dungeon worth running a few times—at least, depending on how the potions ended up working on the skills he wanted to level.

While thinking of those skills—particularly Multi-Strike and Greater Meditation—Derek made multiple wrong turns and was lost for a bit until he found his way back to an area he had recognized from before. From there, he was easily able to navigate back to the palace entrance, where he hoped everyone would still be. I wasn’t gone that long, was I?

He let out a silent sigh of relief when he made it to the entrance and he saw that nobody else had left. In fact, Edward and Osian were now standing in the middle of the massive courtyard with the representatives of all the noble houses surrounding them—each trying to ask questions or talk all at once. Really, it looked almost like a scene from Hollywood—two stars surrounded by a group of paparazzi who were all trying to get the latest scoop. I’m sure they just want to bring as much information back to their families as they can.

As Derek was staring out over the group and thinking, Alanah caught his attention.

“Where have you been?” her voice sounded as she walked over from the top step where she had still been chatting with Avery. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you leave… where did you go, anyway?”

“Oh…” Derek said. “I was around. Just went exploring, you know?” he asked with a cheshire grin.

“Ah,” Alanah said. “I understand. You went exploring.” She emphasized the word. “I’ve been known to explore some places as well. By the look of that smile on your face, I take it that your exploration was successful?”

“It was… very successful, actually,” he replied.

“And is your successful exploration going to cause a lot of problems for us in the future?” she asked.

“For us?” Derek questioned, then shook his head. “No, it’s not going to cause any problems for us. What could really cause problems for us, anyway?”

Alanah snorted, then said, “You’d be surprised… but I understand your meaning. Something like that… you were just getting what you were owed.”

“Exactly,” Derek said. “I was just collecting on a little payment. Speaking of payment, you deserve some too. They have quite a bit of stuff left to explore if you want. If you don’t like that, I’d be happy to share what I found.”

“That’s fine.” Alanah waved the thought away. “Thanks for the gesture, but I have more than enough. There are not many things that interest me.”

“I see,” Derek said. “Well then… more for me.”

“Yes, more for you.”

“Anyway.” Derek began to change the subject. “What’s going on down there?” he asked. “Are they still kissing hands and shaking babies?”

“Shaking babies? Kissing hands? What are you talking about?” Alanah asked with a frown.

“Oh… it’s nothing,” Derek answered. “It’s just something people used to say back where I came from. Well, the saying was a little different, but I like that one better.”

“I… see…” Alanah said. “One day, you’re going to have to explain to me where all these odd things you say and do… and wear, come from.”

“Sure,” Derek said. “And you can tell me all about yourself while we sit around a campfire roasting marshmallows and telling scary stories.”

“Deal,” Alanah said, catching Derek by surprise. “We’ll schedule campfire cooking, scary stories, and spilling secrets between dungeon delves.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I…” he was going to say he was just kidding, which he already knew that she knew. But really, what does it matter anymore? I really don’t think anyone would be strong enough to harm me, and I don’t think learning that I’m from another world and system would actually give anyone cause to, anyway. “You know what? Sure, let’s do that.”

“Great.” Alanah smiled. “Then we’ll head off after the wedding.”

Derek shrugged. They had talked about going dungeon diving multiple times in the past and never got around to it. He’d want to stop and check in with everyone first before going. He didn’t figure he and Alanah would be away for all that long, so another week or two after over a year and a half shouldn’t hurt anything. The only thing he’d really feel bad about was not staying with Brandi for a while after how excited she was when he came back.

A while later, most of the nobles began to clear out after having met with Osian and Edward and gotten whatever questions they had answered. Finally free, the two walked back through the courtyard and up the steps. Behind them were Edgar and Ryven, who had been watching close just in case anything happened. A few steps later, they reached Derek and Alanah.

“Derek,” Edward said. “May I ask you to do us one more favor?”

“A favor?” Derek frowned. He’d already done quite a lot. To be honest, he’d been thinking that his role in everything was pretty much over—otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have gone looking for his reward just yet. “What do you want?” he finally asked.

“Well…” Edward started. Derek hadn’t acted in the way he’d expected. “We’ve kind of scheduled a date for the wedding while talking to the other nobles.”

“Okay,” Derek said. “What does that have to do with me?”

“It’s supposed to happen in five days, and as you know, that’s not enough time to prepare if we have to wait for all of our teleporters to be connected together—which we are currently working on—or if we return on dragon back.”

“Oh,” Derek replied. Now he knew what the crown prince was getting at. “You need to use my traveling skill again…”

“That is correct,” Edward replied. “If possible, I hope you can take my father and Duke Ryven back to the Capital of Cydaria so they can prepare Sabrina and Robert for the event. Then, I would hope you could bring them all back. Hopefully, by then we will have most of the teleporters between the three kingdoms active and can bring some families from both Indria and Cydaria here as well.”

“I mean… I guess I can do that,” Derek said. “But I’ll have to have Avery’s help if I want to.”

Osian and Edward looked at Avery in confusion.

“He doesn’t need my help,” Avery said. “He needs Lyra’s help.” Soon after that, the massive shadow of Lyra appeared over Icecrest. She was alone—none of the other dragonkin had followed. Slowly, the winged-serpent beat her wings and drifted down to the half empty courtyard—many nobles were still in the process of clearing out.

Many of the nobles who were still in the courtyard panicked and tried to hurry out, while some of the others who had already left turned back in curiosity. Finally, Lyra landed on the ground, away from everyone. With her sitting there, Derek walked forward.

‘You’re should charge the kingdom for all the babysitting you’ve had to do,’ he sent to her. He’d not really talked with the serpent before, but, even though her affinity made him feel a bit weird, it was nothing compared to Alanah’s, and they got along just fine.

‘They’ve nothing that interests me,’ Lyra replied with her own Telepathy. The sound of her voice that appeared in Derek’s head was feminine and slightly seductive—almost like that of Alanah’s, but lower pitched. Her reply was basically the same one that he’d received from Alanah, too.

Leave it to Avery… Derek thought. ‘Well, I’m sure you could find something if you try hard enough. There are three kingdom’s worth of treasuries that could have skills or potions or something that you may find interesting or that may help you.’

‘Maybe…’ she replied, then said nothing else.

“Okay,” Derek said. “Everyone stand back. We’re lucky this courtyard is so big.” Though… I could have just done this outside the city… but that would have taken too much work.

With that thought, Derek opened his Time Prison wide—revealing the giant door once again instead of the small, human-sized one. Finally, he opened the door and the remaining lesser dragonkin he had stored rushed out one by one—each halting and slowly moving to the side as soon as their eyes met Lyra’s. Soon enough, the massive courtyard no longer looked so big, as it was filled with dragonkin.

Derek closed his Time Prison, then turned to his audience. Only a select few had seen his Time Prison in action, and even few knew that he had or could store dragonkin inside. Marrick was one who hadn’t known, but the old man didn’t look surprised—instead, he looked to be evaluating Derek. On his face was a slight grin as his eyes moved from Derek to the dragonkin.

That done, Derek moved back to Alanah and began removing his storage rings and bracelet. With them in hand, he reached out. “Would you mind taking care of these while I’m gone?” Derek said. He’d trusted her with his items before, so he’d do it again.

“Of course,” Alanah took the items.

“Also, I doubt she’s going to have any problems, as the remaining wyvern is still back in Cydaria, but if something happens and Lyra loses control, you’re probably the best person to help wrangle the dragonkin back in,” Derek explained.

“It’s only natural,” Alanah said with a smile. In the next instant, Silvi appeared on Alanah’s shoulder, which caused the woman to flinch slightly, but that was all.

“Oh…” Derek began. “And Silvi doesn’t want to let go of her storage rings right now, so she won’t be coming.” It was a sign of respect that Silvi had chosen Alanah’s shoulder to rest on instead of her head. Derek still wanted to try to cover his storage items in the void or in one of Silvi’s void creations and give that a try, but it wasn’t the right time for that yet.

“Alright,” Derek said. “Are you all ready? If so, let’s go to the Throne Room. I don’t want to spook the dragonkin.” Everyone agreed and soon they were all standing in the Throne Room. Derek directed Edwin and Ryven to remove any and all storage items that they were wearing—which they did.

Derek then used Void Travel and opened the tunnel—causing the feeling of doom and dread to fall onto everyone in the room. With his hand on Edwin’s back, he covered the king in the void and stepped inside. Soon enough, the two appeared inside the Throne Room in Cydaria—in front of Phillip Musgrave, who looked to have rushed over when he felt the dread from the portal opening.

With the king dropped off, Derek went back to Astrus to get Ryven. Everyone watched as he stepped out of the portal created by Void Travel and gestured to the elven duke. With Ryven standing in front of him, Derek placed his hand on the elven duke’s back and covered him with void.

As they began to step inside the tunnel, one of the side doors to Astrus’s Throne Room swung open and a servant rushed in. “It’s terrible!” the servant yelled. “Someone has broken into the treasury!”

With that, Derek took his last step into the tunnel then closed the portal behind them—they were gone. He was nothing if not efficient.

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