System Change

Chapter 463: The Real Beast

As Derek had found out before when he was farming Void Beasts by himself, the call to draw the beasts near was near instant, but their response was not. So, once he watched the purple beam of void energy disappear and focused on regaining his mana, he let out a sigh.

“If we are going to be farming Void Beasts, shouldn’t we message Avery and Silvi to come out? I’m sure our communication crystals would work with us being this close to Savannah,” Derek asked Alanah, who was standing by, waiting for the Void Beast to appear. “I doubt Silvi will like the fact that I didn’t bring her out to do this with me.”

“I think it will be okay,” Alanah replied as she continued to look up at the sky where the energy had disappeared. “I only want to do this to satisfy my own curiosity and because I suddenly have a little extra time to spare since we skipped so many of those dungeons I had picked out for you...” she continued. “Besides, I only want a few of them—enough to see how your skill works and to see if we can get one of the better ones. After that, we can cross the sea and I can take care of a few... loose ends.”

“Okay...” Derek said. “But you have to tell Silvi that it was your idea if she asks. I would rather not spend my mornings eating burnt toast and scrambled eggs.” That was just about the only thing that Derek could cook, other than the usual steak and potatoes. He’d also become quite proficient in frying fish before the system came.

“Silvi would never ruin food just for revenge,” Alanah said.

“No,” Derek replied. “She definitely wouldn’t. But she would refuse to cook for me, and then cook extra just so she could eat it in front of me.”

“Oh...” Alanah touched her chin in thought. “Yeah, I could see her doing that.”

As Derek was about to speak again, his Void Sense caused him to turn his head to look into the sky. Sure enough, he saw a fluctuation of void energy leaking out. And soon after that, the telltale sign of a Void Beast appearing began. A pounding sound like that of a hammer beating on a hollow drum began sounding out from the sky.

“This is it?” Alanah asked—her eyes locked on the part of the sky where the pounding seemed to be coming from.

“Yup,” Derek answered. “It’s the typical appearance of a Void Beast,” he explained. “This is a pretty good-sized one, too.”

“You can see it?”

“I can see the energy it’s emitting,” Derek replied. “It’s not the strongest that I’ve seen, but it should be just a bit less powerful than ones that are able to speak intelligently. Actually, there’s a possibility that it will be able to speak now that I think about it.”

“Exciting,” Alanah replied. “What now? Will it just break out? Will it make a Portal and come out?”

“How did it work with that skill? Portal?” Derek asked.

“There was no warning like this,” Alanah replied. “The beast would just somehow find its way to the tunnel that connected both sides of a portal, then it would come out of one of the exits.”

“I see,” Derek said.

“This looks like it is more like how they tend to escape when being chased by a being more powerful,” Alanah continued. “How it shatters the sky, then jumps inside—allowing the sky to heal behind it.”

He was able to watch as multiple emotions appeared on the savage beast’s face throughout the process. At first, before Derek used even Void Sense, the beast looked rabid—like it wanted to kill anything and everything in sight. Then, when some of his aura leaked out with Void Sense, all of its focus was drawn to him, and it seemed like it wanted to do the same to him as the first intelligent Void Beast he fought did—it wanted to take him out before he got too powerful.

Then, when he began letting more and more of his aura seep out, he watched as the beast’s anger and ferociousness changed to caution and hesitation. But Derek’s aura continued to pour out and become stronger and stronger, which led the beast’s caution to be replaced by fear. Derek had never seen such a look of fear in a beast’s eyes before.

With that look of fear, the Void Beast no longer wanted to be there, and its body instinctively began to turn in an attempt to flee. Unfortunately for the Void Beast, Derek still wasn’t finished unleashing his aura at that time. No, he pushed it harder and unleashed more until he could no longer do so—until it actually became mentally draining to just direct it.

At that point, the beast was no longer scared, cautious, or mad... it looked... emotionless. The beast was now standing stock still, and the look in its eyes displayed absolutely no emotion. It was like it had accepted its fate that it was going to die, and now stood there, waiting for it to happen.

With the intelligent and aware Void Beasts, it seemed they were able to instinctively feel or see the void running through Derek, as, the last time he faced off against one, it instantly tried to run as soon as its feet hit the ground. However, it turned out that the Void Beast, now in front of him, hadn’t quite gathered such an amount of intelligence or awareness, and relied strictly on its emotions and instincts.

“I... think it’s catatonic,” Alanah said from the side, causing Derek to break out of his thoughts.

“That would seem to be the case,” Derek said. “Let’s see if it regains its vigor when I cancel my aura.” With those words, Derek withdrew his aura and even turned his Void Sense down a bit.

“Whew...” Alanah let out a breath from the side. “That was a bit more than I was expecting.”

“I told you to prepare yourself,” Derek replied with a smirk.

“More than I was expecting, but not near enough to really affect me,” Alanah said. “Even so, did you see your surroundings?”

“My surroundings?” Derek asked. “I was focused on the Void Beast the whole time.” He nodded at the beast, which had yet to regain the light in its eyes, and was still staring blankly at nothing.

“Mhm...” Alanah nodded her head in confirmation. “The surrounding space was distorted by your aura... Like... actually distorted. It even had a small amount of that dreadful feeling that your traveling skill has when you or Silvi use it.”

“Oh... really?” Derek asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing.” Many different thoughts ran through his head. It seemed like every time his power increased, he was left with more and more questions about it. “If it’s like inside the portal created by Void Travel,” he started. “Then, what would happen if someone like... Thomas was around me when I went full out? Would the void hurt him physically like it does inside the tunnel?”

“I don’t know,” Alanah replied. “But I was standing this close to you, and I’m no worse for wear.” The half elf siren turned her hands and arms over and examined them. “Not missing any health points either,” she continued. “Maybe it’s just a visual thing? Or the beginnings of a natural evolution of your aura?”

“I don’t know,” Derek said. “But I’m going to have to be very careful with it from now on, and only use it when there are no allies around.”

“That would probably be for the best,” Alanah agreed.

“Now...” Derek raised his hand again and pointed at the near comatose Void Beast in front of him. The beast was still showing no signs of coming to. Am I the real void beast now? He wondered, but didn’t think too long about it. Instead, he shoved those thoughts aside and asked Alanah, “What are we going to do with that?”