System Change

Derek left Bones and Ogre in their cell and turned to walk out. The two former captives had decided that they might as well stay in the cell until everything was completely over. There was no sense in leaving it if they couldn’t come outside, anyway. Actually, would they be able to leave the prison once we gather the rewards and the dungeon is complete? He wondered. I may have to try it once we complete the dungeon.

With that thought, he surveyed all the injured and dead once again and sighed. Then he turned back to the door to the outside and began to walk forward. But no sooner than when he took his first step, he was interrupted by a frantic Silvi.

‘Derek! It’s awful. It’s terrible!’ Silvi’s childlike voice rang out in his head. He’d never heard her so panicked. ‘Hurry! I need help!’

Without any delay, Derek rushed forward, out of the Time Prison, then he shifted into the void. He quickly pulled himself through a rift and appeared next to Silvi before canceling Void Shift.

“Silvi, what’s wrong? Is everybody okay? Is there another monster?” Derek frantically looked around at those who were not in the Time Prison and their surroundings.

“Help! Make it stop!” Silvi cried out once again, this time through her collar with her communication crystals.

“What is it?”

At that time, Avery walked forward and tapped Derek on the shoulder. Derek looked at him, then, without saying anything, the archer pointed toward the motionless body of the Starfury Leonarus. Derek followed the direction and his eyes landed on the beast. He frowned. “What is it?” he asked.

However, before anyone responded, Derek saw that dark blue and black specks of light were detaching themselves from the corpse before floating up into the air over the dungeon orb and disappearing into it. Is it? No! That was his and Silvi’s loot. He’d been screwed out of rewards too many times, and he doubted the final dungeon reward would be any different. Plus, he wanted to know what Silvi’s Cook What You Kill skill would do for such a beast. He was already looking forward to the meal. He couldn’t just let it disappear.

“We’ve already tried to store it,” Avery said from behind him. “Nothing worked.”

Derek’s hand went directly through the corpse and he couldn’t put it in the ring. What about my bracelet? His bracelet worked a little differently than the rings—it could even store spatial rings, so maybe it could stop the nonsense playing out in front of him. Derek put his hand, and bracelet, through the incorporeal beast and willed it to go inside his bracelet. Once again, he was let down.

This isn’t over. With one last ditch effort, Derek tore a hole in the space directly over the beast. If normal methods of storing it didn’t work, the maybe Void Storage would be able to. Alas, he had no way to move the incorporeal beast into the Void Storage. He even tried shifting into the void to see if he could gain purchase on the corpse that way.

With his final attempt at saving the materials from the Starfury Leonarus thwarted, Derek walked back to Silvi, defeated. “There’s nothing I can do,” he said. Derek was actually much more disappointed with himself over losing the materials for Silvi than he thought he should have been. It hit him in the gut almost as bad as losing five members of the raid party.

His companion had given so much in the battle, and risked her life at the end to defeat the beast, yet the only thing she wanted from doing so was disappearing in front of their eyes. And it’s all my fault because the stupid system seems to want to screw me over time and time again.

“I’m sorry,” Derek said to Silvi as he reached down and place his hand on her head. “We’ll have to find some other things for you and your skill. Once everything is over here and in the kingdom, we’ll go find some good dungeons or something.”

Silvi wasn’t looking so good. She was totally healed, other than the few missing patches of fur, but she actually looked worse off right now than she had when she had made her way out from inside the beast.

“Promise?” she asked.

“I promise,” Derek said. “It is close to the top of our to do list.”

With that promised, Silvi disappeared and reappeared on Derek’s shoulder. For the next five minutes, they stood and watched the remainder of the boss monster disappear from in front of them. Nobody else chose to speak during the sight—it was a solemn moment.

Finally, the corpse of the beast had completely disappeared into the dungeon orb, and the orb began glowing brighter and spinning. It just sat there spinning, doing nothing else. I guess that’s it, Derek thought. Time to be ripped off again.

“Is everyone ready to finish this dungeon and collect our loot?” Derek asked.

The mood around him shifted to excitement at the mention of finishing the dungeon—or, more likely, collecting the loot.

“Okay, here I go.” Derek, with Silvi still perched on his shoulder, moved in front of the dungeon orb, then placed his hand on it and waited for the completion status. Soon, the notification he had been both waiting for and dreading popped up.

Dungeon Complete…

Assigning Rewards…

Assigning Rewards…

Error…

Unable to Assign Reward…

System Interference Detected...

Assigning Rewards…

Error…

Unable to Assign Reward…

System Interference Detected...

Assigning Rewards…

Error…

Unable to Assign Reward…

System Interference Detected...

Congratulations, as you are one of the first to complete this dungeon, rewards are doubled

Derek took a deep breath in, this notification was something he'd been expecting since it seemed like the other system had been interfering or something ever since his evolution. It looked like there were three rewards for completing the dungeon, and he wasn’t going to receive any. Just before he let out his anger at the sense of injustice he felt, a new notification appeared in front of him. But this one came from the pesky system that seemed to keep interfering in his rewards.

Challenge Complete…

Rewards Received: Starfury Boots, Skill Scroll of Spatial Redirection x2

Congratulations!

Title Unlocked!

User can not currently use received Titles.

Holy shit! I got something! I got two… no, three somethings and a Title! Derek had immediately been disappointed when the first notification said that it was unable to assign a reward, but then something magical happened. The other system had appeared and saved the day. Saved the day after probably being the reason I gained nothing from some of the other trials. But still… I really did need a pair of boots. Derek looked at his feet. One foot was completely bare, and the other was wearing a shoe that was beat up and almost out of commission.

Seeing that he was being rewarded, Derek held out his hands and felt the two skill scrolls fall into them, and he instantly tucked them safely away into his storage bracelet. Next, a pair of midnight blue boots with sparkling white patterns on them appeared. Instantly, he threw the pair of boots inside his storage bracelet, then, with a thought, he removed his single remaining shoe and directed his new pair of boots to appear on his feet.

With his eyes now on his newly equipped pair of boots, Derek smiled. Damn, these boots will go really well with the material I used for my shop. Other than his boots, he also received two skill scrolls—scrolls that he knew exactly what the skill did. He was happy with the skill, as there was no doubt in his mind that it was the skill that the beast had used to intercept his attack and redirect it into one of his party members.

It was bitter sweet that he had just obtain two skill scrolls of the skill that had been used to kill one of the raid members. He was a little sad that he hadn’t gotten a domain type skill like the one the beast had used. It had darkened the area and summoned stars to fire at enemies. It was purely offensive, something he was entirely lacking.

But, even as much as he would have like to shoot stars at people, he would take his redirection skill. If used correctly, it could easily be used offensively.

“Here,” Derek told Silvi as the extra scroll appeared in his hand. “It’s not much, but it’s at least a consolation prize.”

Without saying anything, Silvi placed her paw on the skill and learned it. Immediately after, the scroll disappeared. Next, Derek took out the remaining scroll and focused his mana on it.

Skill Scroll: Spatial Redirection

Upon activation, the user will learn the skill, ‘Spatial Redirection.’ As this is a skill from a scroll, no skill points are required, and it will not be forgotten upon class change.

Would you like to learn? Y/N

Yes. He mentally agreed.

Congratulations

You have learned the skill, ‘Spatial Redirection.’

Derek inwardly jumped for joy. On the outside, he couldn’t keep a smile from appearing on his face. To be honest, it was another defensive type or utility type skill, but it still fit perfectly with his meatshield defensive build he’d had since the system arrived on Earth. I wonder if it will be affected by my affinity. My affinity is void, which seems to be a combination of space and time, so maybe…

He thought that, but he couldn’t really see how affinity would help with a defensive skill such as Spatial Redirection. Maybe it will increase the power of the attacks that can be redirected or something. Derek shrugged. He would look over the skill, his stats, and upgrades later. For now, he wanted to move on to what was next.

That’s the third ‘Title’ I’ve received from the other system, and also the third Title that I couldn’t have. He wondered if those titles were things that were now just in the wind and forgotten, or if the other system was saving them and he would eventually get to a point where he could receive them. No use thinking about it right now. Instead, he turned and looked at the others.

Each one of them—from Avery and Vanessa to Walter and Shae—had dumb grins on their faces. They had all obviously received something great. Though it didn’t look like any of them had received items or skill scrolls like he had.

“So, what did you get?” Derek asked Avery, who was the closest person to him other than Silvi.

Avery broke himself out of his stupor and looked Derek up and down, his eyes eventually falling on his new boots. “Nice boots… were those your reward?” he asked quizzically.

“Yup,” Derek said.

“Hmm… I can’t Identify them. Strange…”

Derek shrugged. He hadn’t bothered to try to Identify them yet, either. For now, he only knew that they were comfortable as hell. “What about you? What did you get?”

“This raid dungeon has been pretty good in terms of physical growth. And the three rewards for completing the dungeon are enough to make even Alanah somewhat jealous,” Avery said.

“Oh?”

“You really don’t get the same rewards as others, do you?” Avery frowned. “I thought you were acting weird in the last trial. Now I know. Don’t worry, I won’t ask for details about it or anything.”

Derek nodded. “Thanks. I couldn’t give you the details, even if I wanted to.”

“Well,” Avery started. “First were the stat points. 75 free points to put anywhere. That’s pretty damn good, all things considered. Next, we received 4 Skill Upgrade Points, which are always useful. Finally, and I think we all received it, we got an Achievement for completing a dungeon at maximum rarity. All dungeons have a 5% chance of rewarding higher rarity rewards at the end now.”

“Hmm…” Those rewards were good and all, and Derek would very much like the Achievement and Skill Upgrade Points, but, being overstatted as he was, he actually preferred his rewards. I still have plenty of Void Beast meals to increase my strength, and can get more any time I want. Plus, Roman should have a lot of the potions made in the time it's taken to complete the dungeon. Those even give dexterity.

“Oh,” Avery said. “And all of that was doubled since we were the first ones to complete the dungeon. 150 stat points, 8 Skill Upgrade Points, and the Achievement even gives a 10% change to upgrade the rarity of rewards.”

Dammit! Derek inwardly cursed. 8 Skill Upgrade Points would have… ugh… He really was still missing out. But this time, at least he was going to walk away with something to show for it.

“Congratulations!” Derek said, able to keep any of the bitterness out of his words.

Avery nodded. “Edgar is going to be pissed.”

Derek laughed. At least he could take comfort in the fact that he wasn’t the only person who didn’t receive the personal rewards. “Yes, yes, he will be.”

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