System Change

Derek stored his new weapon, leaned against the wall to the side, and waited quietly in the room with Alanah and Stella. Not long after the blacksmith left, the door opened once again and one of the Crown workers let the King, Edward, and Edgar inside.

Stella had gotten up and allowed Alanah to have the main seat behind the desk. The red-haired woman stood behind the green-haired half elf as the King took the seat on the other side of the desk.

Edward kept his position behind the King, while Edgar locked eyes with Derek and leaned against the wall beside him.

“That was a pretty neat auction,” Edgar whispered to Derek.

“It was at least a little more interesting than I thought it would be.” Derek agreed.

The King shot Derek a quick look and slightly frowned before turning his attention back on Alanah.

“King Edwin.” Alanah began. “Congratulations on your wins today.”

“Thank you,” the King answered. “Though I feel like I should have walked away with a little more. I let my excitement get the best of me out there.” He chided himself.

“Well… the items were quite rare,” Alanah said. “There’s no shame in getting overly excited about them… even if it did mean losing them to Natalie.”

The King showed a self-depreciating smile before continuing. “It was unfortunate, but at least I came away with a few smaller items and the big finale. That’s what matters the most.”

“And for the payment?” Alanah asked.

“Of course.”

First, the King transferred funds from one of his cards to Alanah’s own to take care of the part of the payment required to be paid in gold. Then, he sighed as he took a thick book out of his storage ring and sat it on the desk in front of Alanah.

“This is?” she asked cautiously as her hand fell onto the book.

“That is the inventory of all the skill scrolls currently being held by the Royal Family. Listed is the name of the scroll and the worth in gold of each. I know I said three skills, but to make sure the total is correct, you may choose any amount of scrolls as long as the total equals 500,000 gold or less. That way, neither of us is cheated. Would that be fine?” the King asked.

Alanah flipped the book open and read over the first couple of pages. “I see. You have some very good scrolls in here. If I were to pick the top three, you would be losing out by quite a bit.” She then flipped to the back of the book and raised her eyebrows. “You also have regular scrolls listed as well?”

“Like I said, that is ALL the skill scrolls we have available. Minus what my children may have on their persons,” the King explained.

“Hmm…” Alanah hummed as she flipped through the book. “That is fine by me. I have no need for any of those expensive scrolls.” Then she looked over to at Derek. “Is that okay with you?” she asked.

Derek pushed himself off the wall and walked over behind the desk, beside Alanah. He leaned down and looked at the first page of the book. The top skill was worth 350,000 gold, at least according to the book, and seeing how Alanah seemed to accept it, it was actually worth that price.

The skill was called Gravity Domain. And the short description of the skill basically said that it increases the gravity a certain diameter around a person by X percent based on the skill level and Intelligence. The user and anyone designated by the user are unaffected by the skill. The skill also affects objects and spells as well.

It was a fantastic skill. Not only would it help in a physical fight, arrows and spells would be weighed down by the gravity and fall as well. Derek could think of many uses for such a skill.

“Why would you not use skills like this? Edward certainly could have used something like this when he was fighting against Gerald and his people,” Derek asked.

“What kind of King would I be if I used all the Kingdom’s skills and scrolls only to empower myself or my family? Usually, the items listed here, along with others, are used as gifts and rewards for those loyal to the Kingdom.” the King answered.

“Yet you are giving them up for an increase in your own Vitality?” Derek asked. It seemed quite hypocritical to him.

The King must have known exactly what Derek was thinking, as he explained. “Yes, I am a hypocrite. However, I am so close to a breakthrough in my Vitality, and the elixir will push me past that point. Plus, I have been fairly frugal when it comes to spending on myself or my children. Even with my current spending, I will still be far behind the selfishness of other Kings or nobles. Including my own father and grandfather.”

Derek shrugged. In reality, he didn’t care about any of that. If the King wanted to give Derek the Royal Family’s hard-earned money and items, who was he to stop him?

“Whatever…” Derek said. “It’s fine by me.” He handed the book back to Alanah to let her have her picks.

Alanah took the book and began flipping through the pages once again. Finally, her gaze landed on a certain skill scroll and she touched it with her finger. “I want both of these.”

The King looked over at what she was pointing out and winced slightly. “Very well.”

Derek leaned over her shoulder to see the skill scroll. It was Mental Resistance. The Kingdom had two of the skill scrolls in stock, and Alanah wanted both of them. It was understandable. The woman needed more than just a few people to talk to.

With these skill scrolls, she would be able to invest in the future of some others, while also taking away the possibility of the Kingdom giving the opportunity to resist her skills to someone else. Derek was sure she was thinking about both of those things.

Each of the Mental Resistance scrolls was worth 145,000 gold coins. Just like that, Alanah spent 290,000 of the 500,000 allotment. Then, surprisingly, she handed to book over to Derek.

“The rest is yours,” she said.

“Really?” he asked, and she nodded. “But that’s over 200,000 worth.”

“I already got what I want. Now you get what you need.”

“Okay.” He took the book and began rifling through it. Both Edward and Edwin stared daggers at him as he went through the list. Edgar was still leaning against the wall and had summoned a dagger to pick at his fingernails.

Honestly, Derek wasn’t finding many of the more expensive skills worth it. Passive skill wise, there were quite a few. The more expensive ones were the general resistance skills like Physical Resistance, Mental Resistance, Magical Resistance, and Toxic Resistance. Then, there were specific resistance skills that were cheaper.

Skills like Lightning Resistance, Fire Resistance, and Water Resistance cost around 50,000 gold coins each. Revive skill were also listed for an enormous price, not much less than the Gravity Domain skill. There was one revive skill that could actually revive as long as the person hadn’t been dead for longer than an hour. It was the second most expensive skill.

Other revive skills were for those who were in the ‘dying’ state. They were still expensive, but nowhere near as costly as the full-on resurrection skill scroll.

For a split second, Derek thought about grabbing multiple resistance skills to stack on top of his physical and magical resistance skills. That would go a long way in making him a pure tank. Instead, he decided to go in another direction.

The problem with skill scrolls was that even if you had the money, there wasn’t always a supply. That was true for both the rare skills and the common ones. Derek flipped to the back of the book and began examining the more common skills. Things like Cleaning, Repair, Telekinesis, and Telepathy.

Derek wasn’t in need of many offensive or defensive skills, as he already had both Channel Void and his resistance skills, on top of his extremely high Vitality and Endurance. So instead, he thought about his… people, and the skills they may need.

First, he found the Telepathy skill scroll. The Kingdom had dozens of the scrolls, and it was one of the cheapest skill scrolls in the book at 2,500 gold coins. He wanted seven of those scrolls. That skill would come in handy for everyone.

He took out a writing utensil and paper and began making a list. After the Telepathy skills scrolls, he wanted to buy some appraisal and lie detection scrolls for Malorie. Both of those would be perfect for someone in a managerial position, such as her.

With those in mind, he asked for Stella’s advice. She flipped through the book and pointed out the ones she thought would be best and most cost effective for Malorie. That took another 100,000 of his gold, as those skills weren’t cheap at all, landing between 10,000 and 35,000 each.

Honestly, he couldn’t think of much for either Rayna or Jacks, or even Rudy for that matter. Fortunately, all three of them already knew what they were doing and had the skills for it. Brandi was another one that he chose not to find skills for. The only thing he could think she could make use of was Fire Resistance, but as long as she was careful or wore proper clothing, she wouldn’t need it.

Silvi, of course, got upgraded versions of Mage Hand and Telekinesis, along with Enhanced Cooking. And with the remaining gold allotment, he made sure everyone would have Basic Repair and Cleaning, and grabbed a few cheap to mid-range spear skills that Thomas would be able to use. He even picked up a few cheap skills for Clare to use when she unlocked the system. Nothing special, just Meditation, Unarmed Combat Mastery, and a couple base water skills to use.

At the end of his spending spree, he had spent a total of 205,000 gold coins. So, being the nice person he was… he crossed out the seven Telepathy scrolls and turned it into a nine. He had 210,000 gold to spend, and he wasn’t going to waste a cent.