System Change

They must have found Clare some decent skill scrolls to use before she’s able to unlock her own through her class, Derek thought as he watched the young, classless girl, who was only level 7, weave streams of water around her body. Looks like some kind of water manipulation skill, he thought. Maybe the water equivalent of my Channel Void skill? Whatever it is, he thought. Having it should really help her once she’s finally able to choose a class.

Whatever the skill was, Clare wasn’t using it offensively at the moment—well, at least not exactly. Instead, she was focused much more on her brass knuckles and brawling style. While she was brawling, she had the water moving around her naturally—providing some extra defense. There were times when she even used the water as a platform to launch herself into the air, then catch her on her way down.

Her main attacks and offensive power came from her physicality, and her water elemental affinity seemed to be used as a utility more than anything. If that’s the way she’s learned to use it, I can’t knock it, Derek thought. She’s already really smooth with it, and it seems to come naturally. Not to mention that her fighting style already seems leagues above many other children at her same age. Of course, those other children did not include Zachary and Lucas.

Derek could already tell that the pair of boys would become great fighters if they continued on training in whatever ways that Avery and Alanah had set for them. Hell, they could end up becoming monstrous, even, Derek thought. Now, he couldn’t get a full read on the boy with the shield in such a spar—other than the fact that, as far as Derek could tell, he was making all the right decisions for his team.

However, that’s what a group looked for in a tank. For a team, a tank being consistent and reliable was much more important than showing off and flashy moves. It was also a reason why Derek was a great tank, but a terrible tank when it came to being in a group or on a team. Because of his ‘lone wolf’ style of surviving back on Earth, all of his skills were meant to help him, and him alone. He’d even forgone any ‘aggro’ skills and instead chose to focus on skills like Impenetrable Skin and Wide Sweep—which had combined with Sweeping Slash when he arrived in Cydaria.

But the boy Derek was watching was different. If Derek had to describe it, he would say that the boy was a tank that wanted to protect instead of one like Derek—one built up strictly for survival above all else. He was well on his way to being a true and proper tank. He may even give Cain’s nephew a run for his money one day… and speaking about giving someone a run for their money. Derek did eventually catch something interesting about the tank, though. Occasionally, it seemed like the greatshield he was wielding would extend and block an attack that looked to be going around it. Interesting… he thought. Is that a shield skill? Or maybe metal?

Derek focused on the lightning user. He was controlling and using the yellow lightning much in the same fashion that Clare was using her water. The only difference was that he was also peppering in a lot of offensive strikes with it as well. The boy also occasionally timed one of Clare’s defensive blocks and injected her water with his lightning, causing what would have been a very painful combination for Jensen if the healer wasn’t so much higher of a level than the children were. Derek got the feeling that he was watching a young Edgar learning to fight.

As for Jensen, Derek had heard that he had joined Rayna and the others occasionally, so he assumed the young man was a good healer. For the moment, he wasn’t able to tell. Him sparring with children isn’t quite enough to let me see what he’s made out of, Derek thought.

For the next half hour or so, Derek continued watching the children and Jensen spar from his perch atop the building. During the children’s’ training—both Thomas’s and Clare’s—Derek found out something about himself after being gone for some time. He really enjoyed watching those he’d helped, and those he cared about shine in the field of battle.

He hadn’t given Clare as much help as Thomas or Brandi—especially Brandi—but to see what help he had given her, and the advice he gave Walter for her training, be put to good use was quite heartening. She was well on her way to becoming strong.

Finally, the training ended once the children began to run dry on mana and Jensen took them down one-by-one. It was a bit anti-climactic, but also just about what Derek expected to see. From there, the three children gathered in front of Walter and the old healer started walking them through their spar—highlighting what they had done correct, and what they should work to improve on.

Derek smiled as he used Active Void Shift and appeared directly behind the children and Jensen, who were all facing toward Walter. He had to give the old man credit, even though Derek appeared out of nowhere, other than a slight pause and cough, the man had barely acknowledged his arrival and continued to go over the spar. Dang, Derek thought. I was hoping for some kind of surprised reaction…

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“And Jensen,” Walter said. “Next time you train with the children, I want you to lean on your water element during the spar. On top of physical fighting, they need to get used to fighting against magic attacks.” The old man’s eyes then gazed over all four of them, before landing on Derek. “What do you think?” he asked with a grin.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Derek replied, startling the three children and causing them to jump before turning around to see who it was that spoke. Jensen was much less startled, but still quickly turned to see Derek before letting out a sigh.

“Derek!” Clare cried out, then took off running at him.

Derek smiled, took two steps back, then held his hands up, palms facing forward. Clare, unlike Thomas and Brandi, greeted Derek with a mini-spar instead of a giant hug. She led with her right hand, then left. Derek blocked each thrown punch that came from the small girl. Then he almost laughed when he saw a small stream of water wrap around his ankle.

Clare swung wide, then the stream of water pulled hard, causing Derek to… do nothing. It would have been a decent move if the girl was fighting against someone at or around her level. It would be perfect to pull someone’s leg out from under them, then take advantage of their loss of balance. It was a trick that would only work once—unless the person she was fighting was extra dense. But against Derek, all it did was tug on his leg a bit.

“That’s enough, Clare,” Walter said, causing the girl to huff.

“It’s fine,” Derek said and ruffled the girl’s hair. “We can spar some other time. I’m more interested in how you’ve been doing over the last year and a half.”

“I’ve been doing just like you told me to,” Clare said proudly. “I was able to get a couple of achievements that rewarded skill points, and I got Identify, Bartering, and Dismantle to go with Meditation and the other skills you got for me.”

“Bartering?” Derek asked. “That’s an interesting choice.”

“It seemed interesting,” Clare said with a big smile. “If I’m going to fight giant monsters, I need to be able to sell their parts for as much as I can.”

“I can’t argue with that logic,” Derek said with a laugh. “What about that Aqua Veil skill?” he asked. “Is it any good?”

“It is!” Clare nodded fiercely, before concentrating. A thin layer of water then formed over her like a second set of skin. It reminded Derek of when he used his Void Creation skill to cover someone before they traversed the void with him. However, after just a couple of seconds, the veil shattered, and the water splashed onto the ground. “It just takes soooo much mana.”

“I can see that being a problem for now.” Derek nodded. “I didn’t think about that when I got it at the auction.”

“It’s going to be real useful later on,” Clare said. “I won’t have to rely so much on the Water Manipulation skill that Ms. Swan got for me once I have a big enough mana pool to use Aqua Veil.”

“Oh? So it was Water Manipulation?” Derek asked rhetorically. “I thought so.” He nodded. “What about Geyser and Heavy Blow? Are you able to use those?” Knowing that the girl’s mana was bottomed out from the spar and trying to use Aqua Veil, Derek produced a lesser mana potion from his storage bracelet and handed it to the girl.

Without any hesitation, Clare gulped down the potion, then stuck her hand out. “Ready?” she asked excitedly.

“Ready,” Derek replied.

A burst of steaming water soon shot out of Clare’s small, brass knuckle covered hand. The water crashed into Derek’s palm, then fell harmlessly to the ground.

“Good!” Derek said. “Now, Heavy Blow!”

Clare canceled her Geyser skill, then launched herself forward at Derek. In her flight, she cocked her arm back and activated the skill. Derek saw the muscles tighten and veins appear throughout her small arm as she threw it forward into his chest.

Her fist landed on his chest and Derek felt the jarring feeling that comes from a blunt attack. Of course, what he felt wasn’t much, but compared to her size, level, and age, her punch held a pretty large amount of power.

“Great!” Derek said. “You’re well on your way to becoming one hell of a fighter. Just continue what you’ve been doing and don’t let up, and nobody’s going to be able to keep up.” He ruffled the girl’s head again, then turned his attention to Zachary and Lucas. “The two of you must be Zachary and Lucas,” he said.

“Yes, sir!” Both boys took a step forward and bowed slightly to him.

“I’m Derek Hunt, but I’m sure that you’ve already gathered that,” he said.

“Yes!” they both replied in unison again.

“Excuse my ignorance,” Derek said to the boys. “But… which one of you is Zachary, and which is Lucas?”

“I’m Zac,” the boy who had been controlling the lightning throughout the spar earlier took a step forward and introduced himself.

“I’m Luke,” the tank said as he stepped up beside his friend.

“It’s good to meet the two of you,” Derek held out his hand and the two boys shook it, one after another. “It looks like the two of you have been training hard.”

The boys nodded and did their best to hide the pride that was forming on their faces, but weren’t able to.

“Zac,” Derek said. “Continue to use lightning like that, and you’ll be better at it than the royal family. You already remind me of Prince Edgar, so I expect great things out of you.” Zac blushed deeply, but finally nodded seriously. “And Luke, you’ve got the makings of one hell of a tank already. If you don’t mind my asking, was that a shield skill that allowed you to extend your shield like that, or was it metal magic?”

“It was metal, sir,” Luke answered.

“That’s what I thought,” Derek said. “Very good. With your skills, if you keep developing the way you are, you’re going to be an essential piece in any party you end up joining if you choose to go that route. But I also have no doubt that you’ll be able to shift to a solo tank if you choose to.”

“No sir,” Luke said. “I am my brother’s shield, and he is the sword.”

“Ah,” Derek said. “Gotcha.”

After that, Derek nodded to Jensen and received a nod back, then he looked at the whole group. “What say we all go get something to eat? I’m famished!”

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