System Change: Chapter 36

Derek approached the tomb door and opened it. This time, he didn’t have to worry about an enemy pushing inside. There was still the one remaining skeleton he had not previously taken care of.

He stepped out and closed the tomb behind him. He then walked over to his battleground and found the one skeleton that still had a soul fire burning. Lifting his hand, he cast Chain Lightning. Small streaks of lightning flew from his fingertips toward the target. Because of the low cost of the skill, Derek thought it wouldn’t deal much damage. He was mistaken.

The cost for the skill was only 25 mana per second, and it didn’t have a cooldown. As long as his mana could sustain it, he could cast it. With Derek’s mana pool, he could channel the spell for over three minutes, and that was if he didn’t combine it with Greater Meditation.

Seeing the soul fire of the skeleton extinguish in seconds, all that Derek could think of was his intelligence stat. If 500 Intelligence gives this spell that much power, what will it do to my costly void skills?

Derek snapped out of his thoughts as glowing pillars began forming all around him, covering the entire graveyard. I wonder what the next enemy will be. He waited for the pillars to fade before he could finally see the new monsters. Seeing what had spawned, he sighed.

I should have guessed. He looked around and identified the other creatures. All ghouls, just different types. Every enemy was level 110. There were Acidic Ghouls, Toxic Ghouls, Putrid Ghouls, and others. This is going to be a pain in the ass.

Derek prepared for the fight by rushing to a relatively open area with a wall behind him. At this point, he was happy that he pumped up his stats for the achievement. With dozens of Ghouls around, he decided that keeping his distance would be the safest option.

Of course, when he ran to an open area, he did not do so stealthily. He had already drawn the attention of dozens of ghouls. Here goes. Derek first began his meditation while keeping his awareness. Then, while concentrating on maintaining his Greater Meditation, he cast Chain Lightning at the closest approaching ghoul.

It wasn’t easy keeping Greater Meditation activated while fighting. The only reason he could do it now was that Chain Lightning didn’t require active aiming or even moving, and he could count on the wall behind him to keep his enemies up front.

The blue streaks of lightning flew from his fingers and hit the closest ghoul. After settling on the target for a second, the lightning jumped to the next enemy, then the next. Currently, three enemies were the limit, but Derek was counting on his intelligence to amplify the strength of the spell.

Four seconds… that’s how long it took for the first ghoul to fall. The lightning jumped to the next closest ghoul, and the slaughter commenced. Derek looked at his status and noticed that his meditation could keep his mana from depleting too fast. With the regeneration rate, the cost came out to him losing around 5 mana per second, which allowed him to continuously cast the spell for over 15 minutes. Of course, this was only if he didn’t get overrun.

With the screeching of the ghouls and the popping of the lightning, Derek guessed that just about every ghoul had already been alerted and was on their way.

Notifications were flashing across his vision rapidly as he killed ghoul after ghoul. He ignored them. The focus it was taking to keep both skills activated was already causing a headache, and he couldn’t imagine doing it with any less wisdom than he already had.

Oh? Derek saw one of his lightning chains jump to an extra ghoul. Must have leveled. He wanted to check the skills level, but instead, he kept calm and focused.

Minutes passed, and the skill must have leveled multiple times because the pressure of being overrun decreased greatly, and the field in front of him was just a string of blue lights. Of course, the multiple bodies piled up in front of him had also slowed the charge by quite a bit.

The strain on his mind also lessened too, leading Derek to think that Greater Meditation had leveled up too. He looked at the 20 or so still-standing ghouls and counted. 6… 7… The skill can already flow to seven enemies at a time. He checked his mana and was surprised to see that it was at max—it kept falling to 4,995 and then jumping back to 5,000.

That’s badass. He chuckled. Derek canceled Greater Meditation and jumped forward, over the pile of bodies in front. He spread his arms out and aimed the lightning. The ghouls died one after another as he slowly brought his hands together, laughing evilly all the while. When his hands reached one another, the final ghoul in front fell. Toasty!

While laughing at his own dumb joke, a giant pillar beamed down into the middle of the graveyard. The glow disappeared, and Derek recognized the enemy in an instant. It was a skeleton in a black robe with a weird, glowing necklace hanging from its neck, floating half a meter above the ground. It held a bone staff with a purple crystal in its left hand.

Soon, the crystal began to glow. Derek looked around him at the dead ghouls that were beginning to move. “Oh, fuck that!” he yelled and dashed forward, his hands glowing a deep purple.

He flew forward at breakneck speed and slammed his right hand into the Lich’s face. A crater formed below them as he slammed the skeleton’s head into the ground. He smashed its face with his void-covered fist while yelling at the monster: “No… Way… In… Hell… Are… You… Doing… That!”

The Lich’s skull crumbled to dust. Derek reached down and ripped the necklace from what was left of its neck. “I’ve played way too many games and read way too many novels to not know what this is.” He placed the glowing three-dimensional star-shaped decoration in between his void-laced hands and squeezed until it crumbled. “Dumbass, wearing your phylactery around your neck.” He shook his head. “You’re supposed to hide it, it’s liching 101.”

Derek dropped what was left of the necklace and looked up at the glowing orb coming into existence. I guess that’s it. Derek looked around at the carnage he let loose. Magic is pretty neat.

He turned back to the tomb and walked back over. Opening the door, he poked his head in. “Hey, guys, you can come out now. All the bad people are gone.” He backed away as Rayna walked out, followed by the rest of the group.

Derek watched as they looked around at the two enemy piles and one crater. He walked over to the pile of ghouls and searched around until he found what he was looking for. He grabbed the arm of an Acidic Ghoul and ripped it off. He then placed it inside his bracelet. He turned back around to his team, who were giving him odd looks. “What? It’s part of the plan.”

“Ah!” Brandi gave out a cry. Derek looked over and saw her picking up the bats. “These will make great materials.”

He shook his head and took all but one of the bodies of the adventurers out of his bracelet. He took what money he could find off them and tossed their bodies into the pile of ghouls. “Part one of the plan, done,” he said. “Now, let’s go see what the reward is.” He motioned for the group to follow him.

They all walked toward the dungeon orb. When they arrived, they reached out like they had time after time and placed their hands on it to receive their reward. The message that followed was a happy surprise.

Everyone gasped. Derek looked at them as they clutched their storage rings. “What? Is it that good?”

Rayna answered. “Storage rings are rare but can still be bought by rich people and nobles, but a dungeon that gives them as rewards…” She shook her head. “When they find out, everyone is going to want to run it. People will come from other cities, maybe even the capital.” She sighed. “I don’t know if this will be a boon or a calamity for our villages.”

“I see,” Derek replied. He fiddled with his rings and injected mana into one. He frowned. Not even half as big as the space in my bracelet. Oh well, it will be a good way to hide that my bracelet is a storage device.

“So much space…” Thomas said. “Do storage rings usually have this much room?”

Rayna paused and looked at the ring she was holding. After a couple of seconds, she sighed again. “They’re large storage rings, too,” she said. “That will cause an even greater commotion.”

Derek furrowed his brows. He reached out to Rayna. “Can I see the one you looked in?” He had already confirmed that both of his had the same amount of storage space. Rayna was taken aback but nodded and handed him her ring. He looked inside. It was the same. He handed it back. “So you consider this a big storage ring?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

I wonder what they would think if they saw inside my bracelet. He shook his head and laughed. He looked around. “Okay. I’m going to need one ring from you. Who wants to give one up?” he asked.

Instantly, Mal, Rayna, Thomas, and Brandi all held out one ring to him. He chuckled and took the one from Thomas. “This is fine.”

Brandi seemed to get an idea at about that time. “I’m going to go collect all the bats in my storage ring,” she said as she ran off. Thomas followed her.

Derek chose that time to deal with all his notifications. Holy shit! he thought as he went through everything. When he finally dismissed the last window, he viewed his new status.

Derek closed his status and prepared for the next step.