System Change: Chapter 5

“Ugh.” Derek groaned as something heavy landed on his armor-encased body. Derek was groggy, still in the process of waking. It had never taken him so long to get his bearings after waking. Something was wrong. His head was fuzzy, and though he could make out some noise in the distance, he couldn’t figure out what was happening because of his current state.

“Ugh, stop it. Just give me a few more minutes,” he muttered. There was a tugging on his hand that he didn’t understand. “Let go of me.” He shooed whoever was trying to pull him from his sleep, but the tugging continued, becoming even fiercer.

“I said stop!” This time, he slapped at the person messing with him. Not entirely aware, he was unable to control his strength.

A loud yelp broke through the foggy barrier of his mind.

Derek’s eyes shot open. He shifted his head around, taking in everything in sight. What the hell happened? he wondered. Moving his gaze to the beast in front of him, he got excited.

“A puppy! Come here, boy,” he exclaimed after studying the snarling creature. Derek sat up and frowned. He shifted his body and noticed the boy lying underneath him, shaking.

“It’s not that cold yet. Why are you shivering? Did you use me as a blanket?” he asked.

“N-no… I didn’t,” the boy said.

Wait! I can understand him now. What the hell? Derek was really confused now. He couldn’t figure out how one minute the boy was speaking gibberish, then the next minute, he was speaking perfect English.

“Boy! Why can I understand you now? Were you toying with me earlier?” Derek asked. His memory was still fuzzy, and all he could remember was that the boy was staring at him from across the fire before he passed out.

“I… uh… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the boy muttered.

“You were speaking a different language earlier, and now you’re speaking the same language as me,” Derek explained.

Suddenly, the wolf pounced on Derek again. He let the wolf latch on to his bracer while still staring at the boy. “Well?”

“I… we… we’re speaking the language of the Great System. It’s the only language we use because everyone has the Great System.” The boy stared at Derek incredulously. Derek was now rubbing the top of the wolf’s head with his gloved hand, treating it like a pet.

Great System language? Derek couldn’t wrap his head around it. There’s no universal language from the system. If you want to understand other languages, you need to spend an ungodly amount of time leveling up the Linguistics skill, and I certainly didn’t waste time on that. While he was processing this information, the wolf charged at his face. He quickly grabbed it from the bottom of its mouth.

Noticing that the teeth on the right side of its mouth were missing, Derek asked, “Awe, what happened to you? Was somebody mean to you?” He cooed quietly to the wolf.

“I th… think you knocked some of its teeth out when you slapped it away earlier,” the boy spoke.

“Awe… I’m so sorry… Did I hurt it?” Derek baby-talked the monstrous beast as the boy stared on in shock.

“Anyway.” Derek grabbed the boy’s attention from the beast. “What is this Great System Language?”

“It’s the language of the Great System,” the boy answered as if it was the most common knowledge a person could know.

“No shit,” Derek said. “I’m asking what it is. Why is there a system language?” The way the kid looked at him like he was a moron didn’t escape him.

“I… I’m not sure what you mean,” the boy said. “The language has been around as long as the Great System has, and nobody I know knows how long that is. I’ve heard of people talking about ancient languages, but I don’t know anything about them other than that we used them before the Great System arrived. But that’s fairy tales and myths every kid hears when they are little.”

Derek didn’t expect much information from a boy as young as this one, but he was surprised by his answer. At least the boy seemed more mature than boys of his age back on Earth. He expected an ‘I dunno,’ but he got a little information.

“Hey, kid. What level are you, anyway? Why are you so scared of this little guy? He can’t be too high of a level.” He couldn’t understand why the boy, even as young as he was, was so terrified of the wolf in front of them. Back on Earth, with the system, there were 10-year-olds who were as powerful as the wolf.

“Level? I’m level zero. I’m not old enough to use the Great System. I’m not 13 yet, so I haven’t unlocked the features. Even then, leveling isn’t exactly easy, you know?” the boy answered.

“Oh, so you can’t use the system until your 13^th birthday?” Derek was interested in these new system rules. They were completely different from the system he knew.

“Yes… basically.”

“So, when you turn 13, the system just says what? ‘Congratulations, you survived 13 years without becoming monster chow, have some levels.’” Derek didn’t understand why the system would keep its people from leveling for 13 whole years, basically being defenseless the whole time.

“Kind of…” the boy answered. “When you are 13, you are given the chance to access and use the Great System. How well you use it depends on yourself. Some people never even choose a class. Some never even unlock the ability to use the system. Unlocking the Great System can be easy or impossible.”

“Oh? How does one access the system?”

“Well, everyone can pull up the interface by thinking about their ‘Status,’ even those under 13. To do more than that, you have to be over 13 years old,” the boy explained.

Listening to the kid, Derek thought about his status, just as he had done thousands of times before. Once again, after years, decades even, he was able to see his status.

“What?” Derek screamed aloud as he did a double-take at his status sheet. “How in the hell am I 29 years old? Is this a joke to you? I was in there for decades, if not centuries. Yet, you say I was only stuck inside for two years? You can’t be serious!” He lost it when he saw his age. It meant that he had only physically aged two years while trapped in the darkness.

Of course, after his outburst, the boy was staring at him like he was a crazy person. Well… like he was an even crazier person. Derek had a long way to go in order to earn the trust of his new companion.

Derek finally calmed down. Okay… just think rationally. How could I have only aged two years? Surely, I didn’t hallucinate everything. Now, that’s not possible. Everything was too real. Maybe time flowed differently in there? No… if that was the case, I still would have aged… right? Ahh! I’m going to go crazy thinking about this. I’ll just move it to the back of my mind and circle back to it later.

After calming down, Derek checked his status again just to see what had changed.

No level yet, since I’m apparently using a new system. A new fucking system. That means there are at least two systems in the universe. For all I know, there’s an entire universe full of systems. A system universe… ugh… Derek pushed the rampant thoughts out of his head and continued inspecting his status.

Why is my race ‘modified?’ Maybe it’s because my body was changed by my old system previously. At least now I know that the system affects you on a physical level. If not, I would have lost my stats along with the system. Derek frowned as thoughts raced through his head.

Derek studied his stats. It seems like my base stats are my overall stats, including all my titles other than Solo King. It makes sense since I’m not alone right now. Suddenly, he had a thought. “Hey, kid, stay right there and don’t move.”

“Huh? Why…” the boy began, but Derek was already kicking up dust, wolf cradled in his arms. “Wh… where are you going?” the boy yelled, but Derek kept running. “So fast…” the boy muttered.

After running some distance away, Derek checked his stats again.

Damn! It’s the same. He had hoped that once he put some distance between him and the boy, his Solo King title would kick in and all his stats would rise by 15%. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. Dammit! So this means that I don’t actually have the titles anymore, and whatever buffs I had when I went unconscious is what my permanent base stats became. Still, for base stats, at level 0, it’s pretty awesome. Derek turned to head back to camp. He still had so many questions for the boy. Like what his name was.

The boy was still staring at Derek with his mouth agape when he got back. He sat a few feet away from the boy and snorted in his direction, causing the boy to become confused. Derek was still a little mad that he lost out on a 15 percent stat increase, but he would deal with it.

“What’s your name?” he asked the boy.

The boy let out a long breath and answered, “Thomas.”

“Alright, Tommy, I’m Derek. It’s good to meet you.”

“Thomas… not Tommy,” the boy muttered, seemingly upset.

“That’s what I said. Anyway, Tommy, you were talking about the requirements that a person has to unlock the system.” Derek didn’t care if the boy didn’t like his nickname. He was going to be called Tommy until Derek got over losing those precious stats from his title.

“It’s Thomas,” the boy quipped, but after receiving a deadpan stare from Derek, he continued. “You’re able to see your level and stats?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I don’t know what level you are, but those that haven’t unlocked the ability to use the Great System are level 0,” Thomas explained.

Derek motioned for the boy to continue.

“Like I said, it can be easy or hard to unlock the Great System. It depends on the person,” Thomas lectured. “In order to unlock it, you have to kill something. It can be anything as long as it is above level 0, gives experience, and you are the only person to damage it.”

“All nobles have it easy when it comes to unlocking the Great System. They will have their guards capture a beast, then kill it while it’s caged,” the boy spoke with disgust. Obviously, he was not fond of nobles.

Thomas continued, “There are many adult level 0s because not all people have the courage or ability to hunt a monster by themselves, and there is no one to provide them with the same treatment as a noble. Unless there is a strong person in their circle of family or friends.”

Thomas then became excited. “My grandpa said he would find a monster that’s level ten for me to kill to unlock the Great System. That will allow me to get awarded a skill point before I choose a class. Then—”

“Hold on,” Derek cut him off. “What do you mean ‘get awarded a skill point?’” Derek had seen the ‘Achievements’ row when studying his status and was curious.

“Oh, if you kill an enemy ten levels above your own, you get an achievement called Lesser Giant Slayer that grants you a free skill point. There’s one for killing an enemy 25 levels above your own, as well. That’s the one that most nobles try to get. I’ve heard that there’s one for 50 levels, too, but it’s just hearsay. I’ve never met anyone who has actually done it,” Thomas explained.

“Really?” Derek was excited to try it out. So, the only reason I haven’t unlocked system use is that I haven’t earned any experience from a kill yet. The achievements seem to be like titles, but they give awards like skill points instead of stat bonuses. Or maybe just this one gives skill points.

“Hey, kid,” Derek said. “Can you earn achievements that give things other than skill points?”

“Of course. Though, I don’t know specifics. That information isn’t really shared among people. I heard you can earn skill, skill points, stat points… anything really. I just don’t know what to do to get them,” Thomas answered.

Derek went silent, deep in thought. So, achievements are like titles but with more diversity. I wonder… Derek tightened his grip on the wolf in his grasp and squeezed until a loud crack was heard and the beast went limp.

Thomas jumped up and backed away, falling over a log. “What?” He stared at Derek in confusion. “Why did you kill it? You were just playing with it.”

Derek found it amusing that he was standing up for the beast he was terrified of just moments ago. He looked at the boy like he was an idiot. “Kid, I thought you were smart for your age. Turns out you’re still naïve.” He shook his head. “Do you have a Beast Master class or a class with a taming skill? I sure as hell don’t. This guy was still trying its hardest to rip me apart. What do you think would have happened if I would have let it go?”

“Th… then why were you treating it so nice earlier? I thought you were going to tame it,” Thomas asked.

“No.” Derek shook his head. “It’s been a while since I’ve been around people… or beasts. I was playing with it while gauging its strength. It was fun to play for a bit, but it would have ripped you apart the second it got a chance. A beast is a beast, and if it’s a threat to someone in your party, it’s best to take care of it.” He smiled at the boy. “Now, give me a second.”

Derek noticed that there were new notifications in his vision. With a thought, he pulled them to the front.

From a single kill, Derek leveled up four times, increasing his level to 5. He checked the next notification.

Obviously, he received 10 stat points for unlocking the system and getting to level 1, giving a total of 50 points after the kill. It will be nice getting stats from level 1 again. He moved on to the next notification.

Derek was excited to see what he could use these skill points on, but he noticed that there were more notifications to be viewed.

Oh shit. It wasn’t able to eliminate the other system. I wonder what would have happened if it would have. He was glad that the other system was still there, only dormant. He couldn’t imagine what the system would have taken with it if it were eradicated.

He let out a sigh and checked his new achievement.

“Hey, kid. What’s the name of the achievement for killing something 25 levels above you? You said that it was called ‘Lesser’ for 10 levels, right?” he asked Thomas.

“I think they call it Minor Giant Slayer,” the boy answered.

So, there’s lesser, then minor, and I got one without any modifier. If I’m guessing correctly, there should be a major and greater above the one I received if it doesn’t just stop at the third tier. He pondered the new system’s achievements.

After perusing his status again, he noticed that new tabs for experience, skill points, and stat points appeared. I don’t know enough about the system yet, so I’ll save the stat points for now. I need to see if the kid knows anything about skill points. In the old system, I could just buy skills from the System Shop, then level them by using them.

Derek was going to ask the kid about skills but was cut off by the rumbling of the boy’s stomach. He smiled. “You hungry?

“Starving!” The boy was ecstatic at his question.

Derek didn’t know how long the defenseless boy had been alone in the wilderness. “Alright, I’ll throw the wolf on the fire and let it cook while we chat. I doubt it tastes great, but food’s food.” Derek summoned his dagger, sliding it up the belly of the deceased beast, careful not to puncture any organs and taint the meat. After, he removed the innards and put them in a pile out of the way. Soon, the wolf was ready. He made a spit to hold the wolf and started roasting it over the campfire.

Derek flicked his hand, and a bottle appeared. He rinsed his hands with the water inside, then tossed it to the boy. “Drink.”

Not holding back, Thomas turned the bottle up and drank, not stopping until it was dry. He looked up at Derek sheepishly as if he had done something wrong.

“Don’t worry about it. I have plenty if I need it, but you probably shouldn’t drink so much at once like that, especially if you’re dehydrated. You’ll get sick.” He held his hand out and received the bottle from the boy. “Now, while the meat’s cooking, tell me what you know about skill points.

Thomas tilted his head in thought. “Skill points are used to buy skills from the Great System. One skill point can usually buy one skill. If you focus on the skill points, a list of available skills should show up.

“Some achievements give points, and you usually get five points every time you upgrade your class. Five points for getting your class at level 10, five for level 25, and 5 for level 50. After that, I’m not sure. I’ve never even met anyone at level 50.” The boy came to another realization. “Oh, there are two kinds of skills. General Skills and Class Skills.”

“What is the difference?” Derek asked.

“Any class can learn General Skills. Those are skills like Identify or Meditation,” Thomas replied.

“Meditation,” Derek muttered. It’s probably one of, if not, the most useful skills I used to have. It won’t be a wasted skill point if I buy it. If it’s anywhere as good as the previous one, it will be well worth it.