System Change

Derek stared in awe as the siren worked on shutting down the lightning golem’s core like he had done with the nature golem. Still, he was unsure what her plan was and what exactly it was that she was doing. All he could see from where he was at was her floating at its core height with her hands placed on the core itself.

He may have been confused, but if the golems had emotions, the lightning one could be considered pissed. Derek winced as he saw a bolt of lightning land directly on the siren’s back. He expected Alanah to dodge or have some kind of reaction, but she seemed far too focused on the task in front of her to do anything else. Maybe I should go tank some of the blows for her? Derek thought to himself. Nah. He shook his head. She said that she wanted to go see if she could do it on her own. Me helping would just be defeating the purpose.

So, instead of helping, Derek kept one eye on the ‘fight’ and another on the timer. There was less than a minute left until the next wave came. That didn’t mean much to him, as he wasn’t worried about it in the slightest, but he was concerned that the next wave would ruin whatever it was that Alanah was trying to do. I doubt I can get rid of them all without any of them interfering.

Luckily, he didn’t have to worry about any of that. Or, as Alanah might put it, ‘unluckily,’ because whatever she was trying failed after another bolt of lightning zapped her, then was followed by a massive stone fist. She kicked back from the core to dodge the fist—finally allowing Derek to have a good look.

The core was brightening at a visible rate, and cracks began to spread throughout it. Alanah launched herself back to the core and reached for it, but a few seconds after she grasped it, the golem exploded just like all the other ones—minus the one Derek deactivated with his void skills—had done.

With dust and shrapnel flying all around, and some even reaching Derek in the distance, he lost track of the siren. Soon, however, she appeared next to him, not looking much worse for wear. Other than some slight golem dust on her face and a pair of singed hands that had finished healing before his eyes, Alanah was fine—a bit dejected, but fine.

“That didn’t work,” Derek said keenly.

“No…” Alanah replied. “It did not.”

“Oh, well,” Derek said. “I guess that means there’s more for me.”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself.” Alanah shook her head and smiled slyly. “That was just my first practice round.” She raised her hands in front of herself, and Derek finally saw what she was doing.

Or… he almost couldn’t see what she was doing. At first glance, her hands looked like they were static—not moving at all. But upon another quick inspection, he saw they were actually moving—or vibrating—so fast that they looked like they weren’t moving at all. The movements were so small that it was almost impossible to see.

“Is that vibration how you fly?” he asked. He had wondered about her skills for a while now. Derek had seen her fight on a few different occasions, but had never really gotten a chance to really watch her.

“There’s a bit more to it than that, but the vibration plays a key role in most of my movement skills and many of my other ones,” she explained.

“Oh,” Derek replied. “So, you were trying to push the vibrations through the core without breaking it from the outside—trying to shut it down before it exploded.”

“Exactly.” She nodded. “And I think I almost had it. I think that if I start slower, then ramp up the vibrations much quicker than I did just then, I’ll be able to do so before it explodes—and maybe even before it’s able to unleash an attack on me.”

“Oh?” Derek raised his eyebrows. “You actually think you can do it?” he asked. If she was able to do it, then that would mean that there was hope that even more people would be able to do it in the future. If both void and vibration can shut down the cores, who’s to say that some other elements won’t be able to?

“I’m quite certain of it, actually,” Alanah replied. Then, apparently thinking along the same lines as Derek was, she said, “And I’m pretty sure that the lightning element will be able to do so as well. Actually, I think that it could work almost as well, if not better, than what I’m doing.”

“I see,” Derek said. “So basically, any element or way that can damage the inside without cracking the outside.”

“Exactly,” Alanah said with a nod. “But I also think that one could get away with a small crack in the core—one just enough to get inside and disrupt the mana flow. And if that’s possible, then perhaps even more people of other elements will be able to gather the cores. I especially think that’s the case with darkness or shadow elements.

“Those elements are above most others when it comes to restraint. If someone with enough control—someone like The Shadow Witch, Vanessa—went in and tried, she could possibly find the golem a particular easy and profitable opponent. And, since she basically works for the royal family now…”

“Cydaria could profit heavily because of her,” Derek finished her sentence.

“Exactly.” Alanah nodded. “Not to mention that the royal family is nothing but lightning users. With Edgar and Vanessa—and possibly even Eloise—they could stock up on cores rather quickly.”

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“Maybe,” Derek said. “I’m not sure any of them other than Edgar would be able to tank an explosion like you just did and still come out unscathed.”

“That is their problem to deal with,” Alanah said with a shrug. “If Prince Edgar wants, he can babysit them until they figure everything out.”

“Mhm.” Derek nodded. “Once they get the hang of it, it won’t be a problem.” Derek was happy that they may have found a way for others to obtain the cores. That meant that he wouldn’t have to be the only person who could supply Brandi. However, it also meant that Brandi could be looking at some competition in that market soon. I’m sure she’ll welcome it. Derek shrugged. Either that, or she’ll move on to even better creations.

“Speaking of getting the hang of it…” Alanah said as the notification for the next wave appeared in their vision.

Wave Two Incoming in 3… 2… 1…

“Here we go,” Derek replied. “Same as before?” he asked.

“Same as before,” Alanah said with a nod.

“Leave any exotic ones alive—or at least another one for you to experiment on again,” Derek said.

“That’s the plan.”

“Great,” Derek replied. “Let’s go!”

By the time they had finished speaking, the blinding lights of multiple golems being summoned in the dungeon had faded, and their enemies were on the move. With the skill potion still active, Derek shot forward—toward one of the golems—with his Powerstride skill. As soon as he stopped, Harbinger appeared in his grasp, and he swung it directly at the golem in front.

Once again, Spatial Rend completely devastated a golem. Before it had even had the chance to attack, Spatial Rend had completely removed a chunk of its core and it exploded. And, because the level of his skill had increased in the previous wave, the explosion caused by damage to its core was less than before. This, Derek assumed, was because of the fact that his skill had removed even more of the core than before—leaving it with less power to use in the explosion.

Next, Derek turned and reached out toward another of the golems—this one of fire. He clenched his fist, and smiled as he felt Spatial Collapse land true. He couldn’t physically see his skill activate because it had landed almost perfectly in the center of the golem’s core. However, his smile grew even wider as he watched the brightly glowing red core dim, then deactivate. Huh… he thought. Does that prove Alanah’s theory?

He actually wasn’t sure. Space-type skills were weird, to say the least. It does prove that all that is needed to deactivate the cores is a strong skill that can disrupt the mana inside… I think. If that was the case, then it was quite possible that the Cydarian Royal Family would easily be able to farm the cores. It also opened up a wide range of possibilities for other elements.

While Derek was thinking, he felt a massive chill coming from behind him, and turned in time to see what appeared to be a beam of ice rapidly approaching him. With a quick thought, he activated Spatial Redirection and directed the beam to the core of another golem—a wind golem—that was close by. The beam continued for quite some time—long enough to completely freeze the wind golem’s core, causing the golem to lag in its movement until it stopped.

I guess that’s another way to disrupt the flow, Derek thought. Freezing may work just as well as lightning… maybe. The frozen core hadn’t deactivated or exploded… just stopped. If nothing else, it’s a way to bind some of the golems while others find a way to deactivate the core. With a shrug, Harbinger disappeared and Derek activated Powerstride, almost crashing into the ice golem—stopping just in front.

With both hands, he channeled the void and began swinging as fast as he could. After three rounds, the core began glowing brightly—an indicator that it was about to explode. However, instead of backing away, Derek continued beating on the core. All-in-all, it took him over five rounds of punches to get the core to power down, and he came very close to tanking an explosion just like Alanah had. But he was successful in deactivating the core using none of his active skills—other than Channel Void.

Nice! He thought as he collected the core and brushed some frost from multiple attacks he’d had to tank while punching it. I don’t have to wait until Multi-Strike or Spatial Collapse comes off of cooldown to deactivate the cores. With that thought, Derek went around and started collecting cores from each golem he came across, while also using any skills that needed leveling while doing so.

This time, he had moved quicker than Alanah, and was waiting in the center of the arena for the boss of the wave to spawn. Surprisingly, however, from Alanah’s side of the arena, he had only felt a couple of explosions during his whole time fighting. He looked it over and saw that multiple piles of stones were lying around—stones that were whole and that had not been turned into shrapnel. Looks like she figured out how to do it, he thought.

Soon enough, there were only two minutes left until the next wave, and Derek readied himself. Just as expected, another massive boss golem began to appear in the center of the arena. With a deep breath, Derek prepared to extract the core from the boss. He knew it would be much more troublesome than any of the others, so he had made a plan.

He would use Spatial Collapse, then charge in with Multi-Strike and Channel Void. If that wasn’t enough, he would continue pounding away. It wasn’t exactly the best plan, and it was very brute force, but it was the best he could think to do with the skills he had.

Once the glow went away, the golem became visible. It was pure fire—even the stones that created it looked to be burning. That’s… going to be harder than I thought. Derek let out a sigh. What’s a little fire going to do to me, anyway? Nothing… hopefully.

With his foot on a void ripple, he kicked off it toward the golem and started his plan of attack. Spatial Collapse landed perfectly, and the next thing Derek knew, he was covered in flames and striking the core with all he had. The core started glowing, but Derek kept going. However, the glow intensified instead of slowing. Dammit! I guess it’s not… he began to think as he pounded away, but just when he knew the core was going to explode, a completely transformed Alanah appeared next to him and practically hugged part of the core.

Not hesitating, Derek struck out again, and it happened. The glow in the core dimmed slowly until it stopped altogether. The fire surrounding the golem disappeared and the multiple tons of stone that made up the enemy fell to the ground—stirring up dust as it landed.

All that was left was Alanah hovering in front of him, holding the massive deactivated core. With a creepy smile and a voice that was almost able to command Derek, the transformed Alanah said, “Next time, we do it together.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Derek said with a laugh as Alanah tossed him the core. Even though you didn’t wait for me for the first one… he thought but didn’t say.

With a quick peek, Derek looked over a notification that had continuously been updating during the fight and laughed. Ten whole levels in Fire Resistance. Derek looked at the massive core in his hands and smiled. Worth it.

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