System Change

“You cheated,” Alanah said as they stood at the entrance to the next dungeon.

“Nope,” Derek replied. “You didn’t say I couldn’t use Void Shift.” Somehow, Alanah was still faster than Derek, even with his increased dexterity and his Powerstride skill. However, this time, he was at least able to stay behind the siren without losing sight of her. When he saw the dungeon orb getting close, he shifted into the void and made his move before he was broken out of it.

Even with all his stats and skills, his skill grew shaky when he got close to Alanah in her Dawn Siren form, and he was eventually broken out of it. It was a bit like when he was going up against the wyverns in the raid dungeon, but more intense. Though, he expected that which each level in the skill, it would be harder and harder to break him out of it. He was sure that if he entered Void Shift against the wyverns again, they would have a hard time stopping him from using the skill, or at least it would take them more than just focusing on his presence to do so.

He couldn’t help but wonder what the skill would be like when it hit level 20—it was already level 15, so he wouldn’t have to wait too long to see. He just hoped Alanah was still there to test it on once it did—she, and to a lesser extent, Marrick, were probably the only people on the continent able to counter the skill as it was. And he wasn’t exactly sure that Marrick would be up to the task at the moment.

“I thought it was implied,” Alanah snorted.

“If my skill is banned, then I would have to pick a skill of yours that you can’t use,” Derek tossed back. “And I’m pretty sure you know which skill that would be.” He was, of course, talking about her transformation skill.

“Oh well…” Alanah relented. “Just wait until I get my dexterity up. Then, even with that cheat skill of yours, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“We’ll see,” Derek said.

Once their discussion was over, the duo still had to wait for all of Alanah’s Deathsworn to join up. Alanah’s and Derek’s speed was so fast that the first Deathsworn to arrive—the elven light mage—was multiple minutes behind the two. Derek could only guess that, while the light mage could teleport to places almost instantly, she couldn’t do it many times, or at least she couldn’t go very far each time. He wasn’t exactly sure, but those were his best guesses.

“Let’s go,” Alanah said as she stepped forward toward the dungeon orb. Derek looked around and realized that they were missing people.

“But all your Deathsworn aren’t here yet,” Derek said.

“It’s a four person dungeon,” Alanah answered. “We only need the two extras.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, you aren’t killing anything in this dungeon,” Alanah began. “You are only here to leech the reward from it.”

“I see,” Derek said. Then, with a nod, he stepped forward and put his hand opposite Alanah’s on the orb. It wasn’t necessary for him to do so, but it felt right. He could have just stood around and waited for Alanah to select him. Instead, Alanah quickly selected two of her Deathsworn and all the dungeon notifications popped up. Derek quickly looked at the dungeon’s status.

Dungeon Status

Dungeon Level

250

Dungeon Type

Beast

Dungeon State

Stable

Dungeon Rewards

Material (Ingredients)

Max Participants

4

Derek nodded. It was obvious that the dungeon they were about to run was one that was completed often. There weren’t any signs of instability, which was shown once he read the dungeon’s state. With an almost imperceptible nod of his head, Derek exited the dungeon status menu, readied up, and waited for Alanah to start it.

“Ready,” Derek said.

“Okay,” Alanah answered. Soon after, the countdown timer began, and once it reached zero, they were teleported to the dungeon.

Once the blinding light disappeared, Derek looked around, only to find himself in a very familiar setting.

“Oh,” he said. “So, this dungeon has a safe zone?” he asked. The four of them—Alanah, Derek, and Alanah’s two Deathsworn—were in a very small, cabin-like room. It wasn’t decorated with anything—it was four walls, a roof, a floor, and a door. There weren’t even any windows.

“Like I said,” Alanah started. “Some of the dungeons have a safe room and some don’t. Usually, the easier the dungeon, the more likely it will have a safe zone for people to gather and prepare. They are great for freshly leveled level 250s to get the hang of higher leveled dungeons. There are also plenty of people who can only do this kind of dungeon because of the way they gained power. If nothing else, these dungeons keep the markets and shops stocked with items.”

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“I see,” Derek replied. He could definitely think of a few people who would need to stick to dungeons like the one they were currently in—most of those people were the lazier of the nobles.

“Let’s go,” Alanah said. After that, she walked forward and opened the door. Once she stepped outside, Derek followed behind her.

“Wait, are they not coming?” he asked once he stepped outside and realized that the door closed behind him. After waiting for a moment, the door never opened.

“Nope,” Alanah said. “I’m going to show you how to ‘farm.’”

“Are you now?” Derek asked with a smirk. He was quite proud of his farming skills after all the years of practice. Usually, it involved gathering all the enemies and kiting them in a circle until they were all dead. “We’ll see,” he said.

Almost as soon as he spoke, dozens, if not hundreds, of flashes of light appeared out in front of him. It was a complete poultry-fest. There were both flightless and flying birds in the area—an area which he just realized looked almost like a small farm. He could easily see multiple beasts that resembled chickens on the ground, and hawk and eagle-like birds in the air.

He gulped as he even saw what looked like a bipedal-type bird flying. He thought it may have had some actual intelligence, but after further inspection, he saw that the bipedal bird was only a mindless dungeon beast after all. Removing his attention from the bipedal birds, he looked back at the ground. His mouth was almost watering at the sight of the chickens, but then his eyes landed on what looked like a penguin. Nope! he shouted inwardly shouted. I am not eating a penguin. He shuddered at the thought of it.

With those thoughts out of his mind, he turned to Alanah, who seemed to be waiting on him while the avian beasts locked on to them as targets. “Well?” he asked.

“I was just waiting on you,” Alanah said. “You can cover your ears if you want.”

Derek shrugged and didn’t bother with covering his ears. Anything Alanah did that would also affect him would do nothing but help him level up his Mental Resistance skill. Seeing his shrug, Alanah turned back to the charging beasts.

“Suit yourself,” she said. Then she transformed back into her siren form and drew her rapier.

Derek watched as Alanah held her rapier out in front of her. This again? He wondered. He’d seen her flick the rapier multiple times as some kind of area of effect attack. However, this time, her dull aura built up around her hand and in her rapier.

“Remember how I told you that I lived much of my early life in a place where it was all I could do to survive?” Alanah asked as she prepared whatever skill it was that she was using.

“Yeah?” Derek nodded. Is this somehow like my Channel Void skill? He wondered internally. It looks like she’s channeling her… element into her hands, just like how I do.

“Well, I was trapped there with nothing but rabid beasts—beasts that would attack anything and everything. They had been driven crazy by the sounds and vibrations coming from there. I, too, was driven crazy on multiple occasions. Which is why I believe I unlocked the skills and class that I did,” Alanah explained.

“I get that,” Derek said as he shifted his eyes toward the incoming beasts. They were getting closer by the second, and they would be on them in mere moments.

“Well…” the siren started. “It kind of rubbed off on me,” she said.

Then, with a powerful flick of her finger, Derek watched as all the energy she had been building up in her hand instantly transferred itself to her rapier. After that, an almost silent ring was let out around them. Derek could barely hear it, but he actually felt his vision blur because of it. However, it didn’t do much damage—if anything, he would say it felt like a debuff that only lasted for a few moments.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“It is tailored to and works better on beasts as those are what I grew up around,” Alanah said, then nodded ahead of her at the incoming—formerly incoming—avians.

“What the…” Derek muttered. The beasts hadn’t all just fallen from the sky or died on the ground. No… instead, every one of them had blood-red eyes, and looked like they had been driven insane. In fact, they had all turned on each other before they reached the duo.

It was just as she had said. Her skills were all modified to suit the area in which she grew up. If she had been telling the truth about her circumstances—which Derek had no doubt that she was—then what was going on was further proof of that, and a reason that she had an idea about affinity.

It was a slaughter. The thing was, it was like none of the creatures knew that Derek and Alanah were standing so close to them. As soon as they were hit with the skill, they had all gone to attack the closest living thing to them—and since the duo was still further away than the avians’ companions, they could only attack each other.

“This is brutal,” Derek said honestly. He never expected to see a penguin-like bird flap its wings and cut the head off a chicken, but it was something that he witnessed right before his eyes.

“It is,” Alanah replied. “It’s a shame that it doesn’t work well on people—or system users, I guess. Well, it works fine on anyone of lower level, but an actual intelligent being with more than 1,000 points invested into their wisdom… you get nothing but blurry vision and a migraine for a while.”

“Still,” Derek said. “You weren’t wrong… it is a fantastic way to farm beasts. If only they weren’t tearing each other apart so badly.”

“It’s the price for the power of the skill,” Alanah said with a shrug. “I have a feeling that I’m going to be needing it again soon, so I thought this would make the perfect place to use it once again. It has been decades since I used Echoes of the Abyss on anything. It was my first skill to reach level 20 because of the chaos it caused.”

“I can see that,” Derek said. “It is definitely a good skill to have in your bag.”

“Mhm…” Alanah nodded, then took a few steps forward.

Derek looked out in front of them and noticed that only a single avian creature remained alive—it was a falcon-like bird that was half the size of a car. After it won the fight, its attention moved to Alanah and Derek—the closest living things to it.

Instantly, Alanah disappeared, then Derek saw a stream of blood fly out of the bird’s head. The next instant, he saw the hole, and Alanah appeared back right beside him—her siren form disabled.

“That was fun,” she said, then the door behind them opened and her Deathsworn ran out. “I kept them back just in case my skill was much stronger than it was before because of my stats. I don’t want to rid myself of the Deathsworn just yet.”

Derek only nodded as he watched the Deathsworn go to work dismantling the corpses. “Oh!” he half shouted, then withdrew a blade from his storage and did the same. His level 12 Dismantle skill was an eyesore, and he figured that this would be the perfect time to get it leveled because of the creatures’ high levels. He was also sure that Brandi could use a few feathers in her crafting if she ever decided to make arrows or something.

Sure enough, by the time he was able to Dismantle what he could of the birds, the skill had already gained two levels. After that, Alanah walked forward and claimed their rewards.

Dungeon Complete…

Assigning Rewards…

Congratulations, you have received items: Frostmint x5

Five small, leafy plants appeared in his hands. Derek moved the Frostmint to his nose and took in a deep breath. Hmm… it’s kind of like menthol, but colder and stronger. He nodded as he stored the plants.

“Okay, time to…” Alanah started, but stopped mid-sentence.

A couple of seconds later, a portal appeared and Silvi hopped out with a floating pot made of the void beside her. She quickly closed the portal behind her, then dismissed her creation—allowing her to equip her storage items. The bunny frantically looked around, and when her eyes landed on the corpses that were too mangled to be worth saving, her voice chimed out from her communication crystal, “No! Am I too late? What happened to all the poultry?”

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