System Change: Chapter 33

Derek took a quick look at his kill notification while waiting for his group.

The others soon came out of the cabin, and he dismissed the window.

“Woah! Was that the last boss of the dungeon?” Brandi yelled.

“Hmm… Oh, yeah. I figured it would be fun for you to make something out of a hide so big.” Derek looked at Mal. “You want to Dismantle? Or should I?”

She shook her head. “I think it’s better for you to do it. My skill isn’t very high yet.”

Derek made quick work of the task and soon had the hide in his storage bracelet. He also went ahead and kept all the other hides that had been accumulated.

“Okay. Let’s get to the orb. I really want to make sure Brandi gets the rewards, even though she never left the safe zone.” He led the group over to the dungeon orb.

They all arrived at the orb and placed their hands on it. A notification popped up for Derek.

Scrolls materialized in front of Derek and the others. Derek grabbed the one in front of him and examined it.

Derek sighed. He was disappointed in his reward, but he hadn’t expected much in the first place. He looked around and found that everyone, including Brandi, was holding their own scrolls. Oddly, Malorie seemed to be staring at her scroll with tears in her eyes.

“What wrong?” he asked.

She sniffed but kept her voice from breaking. “I got a Scroll of Resurrection.” She shook her head. “If only I’d had this before…” she trailed off.

Derek checked on the scroll she was holding.

Damn. This system really likes to fuck with people. He sighed. He asked the others what scrolls they received.

Rayna was the first to speak. “I got a scroll for a skill called ‘Chain Strike.’” She held the scroll out for him to see.

Derek was impressed with Rayna’s luck. He assumed that Skill Scrolls were quite rare in lower-level dungeons like the current one.

Next was Thomas’s turn. The boy sighed after hearing about Rayna’s scroll. “I got a Scroll of Restoration.”

Derek nodded at that. He looked at Brandi. “What about you, kid? Anything good?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “It said it was a beast-type Contract Scroll.”

That caught Derek’s attention. He identified the scroll.

The first thing Derek thought about after reading the window was the Horned Rabbit, Silvi. He had hoped for some type of Beast Tamer skill in the first dungeon, but he came out of it with the Cure Toxin skill. He never expected there to be a scroll like this in this dungeon.

Now, he was in a predicament. He really wanted the scroll, but he was having a hard time bringing himself to ask the child to give it to him. Finally, his shamelessness prevailed. “Uh… Brandi. Do you mind if I take that scroll? I… uh… have a use for it.”

“Of course. Here you go.” Brandi handed the scroll over with no hesitation.

Derek held the scroll in stunned silence.

Seeing his awkwardness in asking for the scroll, everyone in the group laughed. Malorie spoke. “There’s no need to be embarrassed. All you have done is give to us. Of course, we want to find a way to pay you back.”

Derek shook his head and put the scroll away. I guess I was overthinking things. I hope Silvi is still close to where I left her. It has been a while. He looked over at the group. “Alright, everybody, put your masks on.” He focused on Mal. “Or in your case, the hood on the robe.” The group did as told. “Time to leave.” He focused on the ‘Leave Dungeon’ tab, and the countdown began. Five seconds later, the bright light flashed, and they were out of the dungeon.

They all appeared standing around the dungeon orb. Derek scanned the area. This time, there was no one outside waiting to enter the dungeon. He wanted to immediately look for Silvi, but, knowing that her level was in the 60s, he worried she wouldn’t be able to enter the dungeons, and he didn’t want to find out if that meant he couldn’t enter too.

Instead, he pulled out his map and looked it over. After coming to a decision, he put it away and picked Brandi up. He motioned to his group. “This way, let’s go.”

This time, the group lasted a lot longer before they had to take a rest. While they were running, he could feel Brandi’s stomach rumbling. He hadn’t thought about it since he really didn’t have to eat much, but they had been in the dungeon for hours, and it had taken some time to reach it, too. Of course, everyone would be tired and hungry. He decided to stop. It was almost sundown anyway.

“Here is good for now. Let’s set up camp. We can continue our dungeon runs tomorrow,” he said. Everyone agreed it was a good idea, and they all broke off to do different tasks. Not long after, there was a fire built, and Malorie was cooking up something delicious in some of the cookware she borrowed from him.

The meal, as expected, was delicious. Even if it was only meat. With the group full, they all talked a bit before night fell. Finally, they all turned in. Derek let them know he would keep watch so they could have a good night’s sleep.

The next morning, as they were packing up the camp, Derek joked, “Too bad none of you were able to get some kind of Water Mage class. It would be nice to have as much fresh water as we could use at all times,” he finished as he poured some water from a flask into his hand and rubbed it on his face.

Soon, the camp was packed up, and they were all ready to go. “Which one are we going to now? I never asked,” Rayna said.

“I figured it would be a good idea to do the skill point dungeon. They seem pretty common, but, as we have learned, it’s always a good idea to have as many skill points as possible,” he replied.

Everyone nodded. Malorie and Brandi had been happy to get the extra skill points from the achievements they unlocked after running their first dungeon. Malorie was especially happy. She had no clue how many skill points her next skills would cost, and just the skill points from the class upgrade would most likely not cover them.

Finally, the group of five took off toward their next conquest.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at the dungeon orb. Again, the area was vacant, so there was no worry about being discovered.

Soon, all the members placed their hands on the orb, and they were transported into the dungeon.

The new dungeon was a fire affinity dungeon. When the group got their bearings, they were able to look around and see the cavern walls around them. It wasn’t unlike the first dungeon that Derek and Thomas had completed, with the only real difference in the safe room being the red veins flowing through the stone. The glow of the veins was enough to light up the room.

“Okay, same plan as before. I’m going to go check it out first,” Derek said as he opened the cavern door and stepped out. The surrounding cave was enormous. There were pools of lava scattered around the area, along with a few different kinds of beasts. The most prevalent was a large black lizard with red stripes. There were also groups of crab-like creatures in shells that wandered around the lava pools, and there was what Derek could only assume were fish in the small lava pools.

After Derek surveyed the area and formulated his game plan, he went back to the safe zone and brought back Rayna. Her Wind Blade should easily take the lizards out, and if Derek could get the crabs to chase him, they could dispose of them, just like the wolves from the previous dungeon.

Derek told Rayna the plan, and they set off. The same strategy worked like a charm, and everything went without a hitch. They settled into a rhythm and began clearing the dungeon at a rapid pace. Thomas and Mal would pop out and get their kills when needed, and Rayna would take care of most of the rest. She could also solo kill the fish in the lava pools.

Before long, the first cave was clear. Everybody moved up, Derek and Rayna moving to the second cave, and the rest staying safe in the first. Other than the higher levels, there were few differences from the first cave to the second. It felt just like the first.

Derek went alone to the third monster cave. After the last two boss monsters, he decided not to even risk having someone with him. The boss turned out to be a rock giant, which died even faster than the previous boss. For the fight, Derek channeled the void into his hands and struck the giant in what he guessed to be its vitals. He still didn’t know if his guess was right, but the boss died, nonetheless.

After the fight, everyone received their dungeon reward and exited. Soon, they were on their way to the next dungeon.

Like this, the group spent the next week and a half clearing the surrounding level 50 dungeons—even the ones with poor rewards. Rayna hit level 49 during the fourth dungeon run. As she leveled and gained combat experience, she was able to kill more and more enemies without the aid of Derek. But when she leveled to 49, she stopped her progress so as to not level to 50 and begin the class upgrade.

Not only did she want to have more accomplishments before the class upgrade, but she didn’t want to accidentally out-level the dungeons. One couldn’t enter a dungeon with a class upgrade available, so she decided it was best to stay at level 49.

Still, this was an opportunity for both Thomas and Malorie. With Rayna no longer fighting, they could take her place and soak up all the XP, other than the boss, in the remaining fourth dungeon and the fifth, and last, level 50 dungeon.

After finishing the fifth dungeon, Derek looked over his new stats.

Not bad. Now, all that’s left is to spend some stat points before going to the Undying Dungeon. After collecting the dungeon rewards, which were just different lower-ranked potions, Derek decided it was best for him and his group to stay in the freshly cleared dungeon while he prepared for the level 100 dungeon dive.