System Change: Chapter 35

The blinding light disappeared, and Derek found his footing. His first thought was to make sure that they were all in a safe room as this was the first level 100 dungeon they had explored. Derek looked around. They were all enclosed in a stone room.

The air was still, and there was a gloominess that sent a chill down his spine. “Alright, everyone, you all stay safe in here. Don’t open the door after I close it. I’ll come get you when I’m finished.” Derek waited for a moment, and seeing that there were no objections or complaints, he made his way toward the room door.

He placed his hands on the door and slowly slid it open. Once the door was opened a crack, he peeked through and shivered. They were in a graveyard, and the so-called safe room was actually a tomb.

I guess I should have figured as much. It makes sense that a dungeon with undying monsters would have a setting like this. Derek scanned what surroundings he could see through the crack. Oh, good… Skeletons. Even with his time on Earth, Derek had never fought against skeletons. He had, however, heard horror stories from people who had.

The unfortunate thing about skeletons, if they were the same as the ones on Earth, was that only magic could completely kill them. Fire magic was best, but any magic worked. Of course, physical attacks could still render them useless. If one were to separate a skeleton’s head from its body, it would only be able to control its head. The only way to vanquish a skeleton was to extinguish the soul flame behind its eyes.

Derek let out a sigh. If it had been earlier, before he unlocked his void magic, he would have been useless in this dungeon. He started thinking about the ghoul he killed. It had bright eyes. I wonder if it had the same traits as the skeletons. It might be lucky that I used the void in my final attack on it.

Derek used Identify on one of the skeletons.

It seemed like skeletons were all the same. Derek identified multiple other skeletons. There were Skeleton Warriors, Skeleton Archers, and Skeleton Mages. What made Derek sigh was the number of enemies he would be facing. There were dozens of skeletons, and they were all level 100. There were also Vampire Bats flying around at extreme speeds. He suspected that if anyone other than him were to walk out, they would be executed immediately.

I’m definitely going to be level 80 or more by the time this is over. I guess the Extreme Overflow is causing the enemies to be packed so densely. Derek turned to his team. “Make sure no one opens this door. Not even a crack,” he reiterated, this time in a more serious tone.

Here we go. Derek pulled the door open quickly and stepped out. Immediately, he turned and closed the door. As soon as the door was closed, a Vampire Bat flew into the stone door. Holy shit! If he had been any slower, his entire group would be dead.

He quickly reached over and grabbed the stunned bat and squeezed it with his newfound strength. The bat turned to mush almost immediately, and he threw the corpse away. For this fight, Derek was wearing his most worn-out pair of jeans and shirt. None of the armor in his bracelet would be effective against anything at level 100, so he went with comfort.

Derek summoned his glaive, wincing at the chip in the blade. He knew he wouldn’t have enough mana to take care of everything, so he decided to disable as many skeletons as he could before gathering their heads and finishing them.

He ran past tombstones to get to the first skeleton. His aim was strictly at the neck. Before the Skeleton Warrior could turn around, he swung his glaive. With a smooth cut, its head disconnected from its spine. Bones crashed to the ground as Derek kicked the head towards a relatively unpopulated area of the graveyard. That’s one.

The disturbance caused by the first kill drew aggro from the surrounding undead. Another bat swooped in to bite Derek, but he slapped it out of the air. He then continued his charge through the skeleton horde.

His upgraded dexterity allowed him to dodge the incoming spells and arrows with ease. Slash after slash, more and more skeletons fell. Derek always tried to move their heads away from their bodies so they couldn’t rebuild. More and more bats swooped in, all being killed in the process.

Eventually, Derek noticed he hadn’t had to kill a bat for some time. He looked around as he went after a Skeleton Mage and found that he didn’t see any more flying around. I guess that’s the last bat. With the bats gone, he could play a little more recklessly. He moved faster, occasionally using Sweeping Slash towards groups. The still-standing skeletons dwindled down one by one until Derek was the only thing left standing.

Derek began gathering the skulls from the disabled skeletons, moving them all to one area. Damn, I hate fetch quests. Soon, all the skulls with soul flames were gathered, and Derek began channeling the void.

He activated Sweeping Slash while also channeling the void, and the normal white projection from the slash took on a purple hue. The slash hit the pile of skulls and went through them. Notification after notification appeared in the corner of Derek’s vision. Derek took a quick look at his status. His level paused at 50 and was calling for a class upgrade.

Derek sighed and continued using the void to finish the skeletons. When he finally got to what looked like the final skull with a soul flame, he stopped. He moved the skull to a solitary location and walked back to the tomb.

He slid the tomb door open to see his team all in a battle stance. As he walked in, he nodded his head in approval.

“What happened?” Rayna asked.

“Shit ton of skeletons and bats. What you would expect from a graveyard. I leveled to my next class upgrade, so I figured it would be best to do it now, just in case something unexpected happens later. I left one ‘alive’ so the next wave doesn’t spawn,” he answered.

Derek sat on a stone bench on one side of the tomb and focused on the ‘Upgrade Class’ option. Skimming through all the class change options, Derek found that there really wasn’t anything new. He then looked at his Champion of the Void class upgrade.

Oh? His eyes went wide as he looked at his next upgrade.

Holy shit! He had never suspected that his growth-type class would upgrade so quickly—and into a legendary class at that. Derek was a bit disappointed that the legendary class only gave two new skills, but the ten extra stat points per level more than made up for the limited class skills. Who knows? By the time I leave this dungeon, I’ll probably be able to have all my stats at 500 and probably much more.

At level 49, Derek had already earned enough stat points to get his wisdom stat to 500, and he needed less than 200 more points to complete the process. Six levels, with the new free stat points. All I will need is six more levels. One thing that did scare him was the amount of XP that he would need to level up a legendary class. He could already tell that the amount of XP he needed for his epic class was at least twice as much as someone with a common one.

Derek looked at the final level-up notification he had received.

Derek took a deep breath, then upgraded his class. A deep purple glow shot out from his body, startling everyone in the room. If they thought Malorie’s class upgrade was special, the phenomenon that Derek caused was otherworldly. Even they could see the disturbance in the void caused by his class upgrade. The disturbance lasted for several minutes before it finally calmed. Derek finally opened his eyes, but instead of the normal blue color that everyone was used to, they were a deep, darker purple, and it did not seem like they would turn back.

Seeing everyone staring at him, Derek spoke. “What?”

“Your eyes, they’re purple,” Thomas answered.

Derek frowned and closed his eyes. He made sure that his Void Sense was turned down and checked his body to make sure he was not channeling any void. Afterward, he looked up and asked. “What about now?”

Thomas shook his head. “Still purple.”

Derek inwardly cursed. He had really liked his blue eyes. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to get used to it. New notifications manifested after the upgrade, and he opened one.

Derek smiled. I like that… Now, Derek just needed to see how much he had leveled from his slaughter and what his two new skills were.

Derek calmly cycled through his kill notifications. He stared at the notifications in stunned silence. Almost 1.5 million XP… plus, I’m level 64 now… will I even be able to get out of this dungeon below level 100?

Derek didn’t know what to think about all that. The scary thing was that he had to go back in for a round two, and who knew if the dungeon would even end after two waves. One thing that he could confirm was that he needed way more experience to level as a legendary class than as an epic class. 187,000 experience just to level from 64 to 65… He pulled up his information.

He checked his skills and was thrilled that the fighting had actually leveled up his Channel Void two whole levels, and Identify had even been bumped up one. Looks like I don’t have to worry about getting enough stat points to bring intelligence and wisdom up to 500 anymore.

Next was to check on the new skills that came with his upgraded class.

Derek read the skill over and over. It was, of course, a great skill for him, but something in the back of his mind kept annoying him. Why the hell do I need Magic Resistance when I have this? But, as he thought about it, he realized that having both would actually be good. I guess it’s good if I get sneak attacked or run out of mana. Just thinking about the time it’s going to take to level everything up gives me a headache, though.

Derek confirmed that he wanted to learn the skill.

Derek moved on to his other new skill.

Hmm… Well, it never hurts to have more storage, and I can see the benefit of a non-item-based storage system. Derek learned the new skill.

Derek wasn’t disappointed in his upgraded class or skills. Absolute Nullify was one of the strongest defensive skills that he had ever seen. Void Shift was also an amazing skill that could be used both offensively and defensively, but it would take Derek a long while before he was comfortable using it.

With the way all these skills are, I’m going to have to start speccing into more of a mage build than my tank build. Derek shook his head.

Okay, next thing is to get the Award for Intelligence and Wisdom. He had thought about waiting to use his stat points for the achievement, but with the dungeon and his reliance on magic to complete it, he thought it best to use some of his stat points and hope for a powerful spell. Derek spent 330 of his stat points and increased his two remaining stats to 500.

The instant his wisdom hit 500, Derek’s mind cleared. He had thought that he kept a pretty clear head before, but now, it was in an entirely different realm. When his intelligence increased to 500, his ability to process information hit a new milestone. Before, he felt like using Void Shift would take a great toll on his mind, having to process all the ripples with Void Sense, then move accordingly, but now, Derek felt like it was something he could do in his sleep.

Derek also channeled the void into his fist to see if there was a difference. It was near-instant. Before, he had to start the skill up, then move the void accumulated inside his body to his fist or weapon. Now, with his intelligence and wisdom, he was able to directly channel the void into his fist, and the glow from the void was much deeper and bigger. I should have done this a long time ago.

With all that finished, he viewed his new achievement notification.

He dismissed the notification and checked the next one.

Derek focused on the active skill choice.

Derek looked at the five available skills to choose from. He wasn’t overly excited by the skills, but he couldn’t complain much. At least it isn’t Fireball and Water Gun, he mused.

Acidic Spike was an earth-type toxic spell. It pulled a piece of earth from the ground, shaped it like a spike, and launched it into a foe. Oh, and the spike just happened to have acid on it, so it would corrode anything it came into contact with.

Chain Lightning, which had always been one of Derek’s favorite spells from the video games he played, was a lightning skill cast over an area. It was not as damaging as a lightning bolt-type spell, but once it hit an enemy, it could jump from enemy to enemy, eventually covering everyone. That was, of course, at a higher level as there was a limit on how many targets the spell could affect at once.

Shadow Orb was weird. It was literally just a dark orb launched at a target dealing dark damage. Derek was sure that the ability would have its uses, maybe against light-type enemies, but he couldn’t see the current need for it.

Fiery Tempest was a mix of fire and wind elements. It sounded almost like a fire tornado, but instead of constant rotation, it spread out in all directions from the user. Derek shuddered as he thought about how much damage would be caused if he used the spell in a forest.

Finally, Life Siphon was a skill like Life Leech, only magical instead of physical. Casting the spell would shoot a beam at a target and siphon HP from it and direct it back to the spell user.

After viewing all the skills, Derek didn’t find it challenging to decide. Shadow Orb didn’t seem useful, and Life Siphon was cool and all, but not what Derek needed. Fiery Tempest was way too destructive to be useful, and he already had enough single target damage, which got rid of Acidic Spike. That only left Chain Lightning. Derek chose the skill and confirmed his choice.

Derek smiled, then moved on to choosing the next skill.

An odd expression fell over Derek’s face as he viewed his choices. He hadn’t thought that Physical Resistance would be on the list again. I wonder if Magic Resistance would be there if I hadn’t chosen it before.

Discerning Eyes was an ability that allowed the user to read texts and ancient languages. It was definitely an explorer’s dream ability. Derek, however, had no need for it as the system language was more than enough for him.

Depth Diver let the user hold their breath longer and move more freely in the water. It was a good skill to have if you were in an ocean environment.

Derek laughed at the Enhanced Perception ability. It was the same ability he had learned just before his old system was cut off. It brought up some bad memories. Of course, it would still be a great skill to have.

Magic Sense was a skill that let the user pinpoint magic. It would help keep the user from being magically ambushed and could also be used in investigations.

Of course, Physical Resistance was still the overpowered skill that he wished he had been able to choose earlier on. He had great defense and regeneration already, but with the Physical Resistance skill, it would go up another notch, and he could focus less on his endurance and vitality without feeling bad about it.

In the end, Derek narrowed the choices down to Enhanced Perception and Physical Resistance. The only reason that he wanted Enhanced Perception was so it would auto level because it was a skill he already had. However, Physical Resistance was just too good to pass up, so he selected it and confirmed his decision.

With that, Derek smiled and stood up. It was time to finish the dungeon.