Derek made sure to close the void behind him once he exited it and entered his travel room. Once there, he had a chuckle for a good minute or two. He did warn Marrick before he took him to meet Nick—maybe not about all the specifics, but he had warned him. It wasn’t his fault if the old man was expecting a fun fight, and instead was inflicted with a critical amount of mental damage that no resistance skill could counter.
He couldn’t help but wonder what some of Nick’s skills were. Whatever they were, they were surely maxed out. Derek got a chill just thinking about having to stand there and have a conversation with the elf. The thought of heading back and saving Marrick even crossed his mind for a split second before he shrugged and chuckled again. If nothing else, the old elf would have a new story to tell his great, great, great… grandchildren about how he survived a solo encounter with his own world boss.
After laughing at the thought for a few more seconds, Derek walked out of his travel room and into the shop’s basement. Brandi was banging away on an anvil, crafting something that he was sure was going to impress him once he found out what it was. But he wasn’t looking for that information. Instead, he had a ring full of materials that he needed to give to her. Well, he needed to give it to her and Silvi.
‘Silvi!’ Derek sent via their telepathic connection.
‘What?’ she sent back. She didn’t seem irritated, but she also didn’t seem happy to be interrupted doing whatever it was that she was doing.
‘I just got back from visiting Marrick. He gave me a ring full of…’ he started, but was near instantly cut off by the dreadful feeling that comes from Void Travel being used. Sure enough, a much smaller portal appeared behind him, back in the travel room, and Silvi hopped out.
“Did you just use Void Travel to go from the kitchen to here?” Derek asked, half in shock that his companion would use the skill just to save a second or two. He wasn’t even sure that it was faster, because she actually had to store her items so the void space wouldn’t damage them.
“Was faster,” Silvi answered as she began to put all her accessories back on and closed the portal.
“Sure it was…” Derek muttered. Maybe it’s more convenient if you don’t like stairs… he rolled his eyes.
“Derek!” Brandi’s shout came from behind him, and he looked over to see the young smith running over. Silvi’s portal appeared before Derek was able to shut the door, and Brandi had definitely felt it. The aura dampening runes didn’t work near as well when there was a big door left open for the aura to seep through.
“Hey Brandi!” Derek tussled the young smith’s hair when she went in for a hug. “You having fun down here?” he asked. “Sorry about disturbing your crafting. I should have shut the door sooner.” He reached over and shut the door behind himself and Silvi.
“I’m always enjoying my crafting,” she answered enthusiastically. “And don’t worry about the interruption. I know what that aura is, and won’t let it distract me if I’m in the middle of something really important.”
“That’s good,” Derek said. He was impressed that the girl had such a high amount of focus. Sure, she’d felt the aura many times at this point, but it still wasn’t anything to scoff at. “Well, I needed to…” he started, but was interrupted.
“Where is ring?” Silvi hopped to Derek’s shoulder and asked through her communication crystal.
Derek sighed and rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t keep himself from smiling. He’d been having a pretty good day, after all. “It’s here,” he said, and took the ring that Marrick had given him off of one of his fingers and held it in his palm.
“What’s that?” Brandi asked.
“Well, as I was explaining to Silvi before she decided to come here in person, I finally had a good amount of free time and decided that I’d better make good on my word to Marrick and go visit him,” Derek explained. “Good thing I did, too, because he was having some problems.”
“Mr. Marrick was having problems?” Brandi asked with wide eyes. “Isn’t he like… really strong?”
“He is,” Derek said. Then he explained to them about the predicament that the old elf had gotten himself into by getting lost and not having enough boats.
“Wow…” Brandi said. “He really is lucky that you visited him. If you would have waited a few more days…”
“He wouldn’t have been able to give us the materials,” Silvi interrupted and finished the young smith’s sentence with something that Brandi was definitely not going to say. “That would have been very bad.”
“Materials from Mr. Marrick?” Brandi’s eyes lit up at Silvi’s words. “He actually gathered materials for me?” It seemed like with just the mention of the materials, Brandi had already forgotten about the old goblin’s situation.
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“He said he was going to, didn’t he?” Derek asked rhetorically. “He’s definitely someone who keeps his word if he says he’s going to do something. There’s no need to be surprised.”
“Mhm… Marrick… very nice goblin,” Silvi said. “Now, give.”
“Fine, fine…” Derek said. He could see that Brandi was thinking the same thing. She was just polite enough to not say anything. Silvi, on the other hand, didn’t have that problem. “Here you go.” Derek dropped the ring into Brandi’s hands, and Silvi’s position instantly changed from his shoulder to her head. “Now, don’t forget to share,” Derek said.
“We will!” Both Silvi and Brandi replied in unison.
“Oh,” Derek said. “I almost forgot. I have something for you, too… uh…” He looked around, but there really wasn’t enough room to release all the giant octopus that he’d killed. Instead, he just waved his hand, and a small portion of a tentacle fell onto the floor. “I fought this huge octopus before taking Marrick to the other continent. I’m sure you will like the hide…” He motioned to Brandi. “And you will like everything else,” he said to Silvi.
He then took the ring he was keeping it in off and handed it to Brandi as well. “There’s other stuff in there that’s mine, so just bring me the ring back when you finish divvying up the octopus. Do the same for Marrick’s ring. He’ll be wanting it back, too.”
“Why?” Silvi said out of nowhere.
“Why?” Derek asked with a furrowed brow. “Because the stuff in the ring is mine? And you never know if Marrick is going to need the extra space to store more materials. You wouldn’t want him to not have the room to get you more ingredients, would you?” he asked.
“No… not that…” Silvi said. “Why did you not get me to kill the sushi? Big monster… lots of Cook What You Kill ingredients,” she pouted.
“Oh…” Derek said. “I really didn’t think about it… I’m sorry.” He actually did feel bad. Silvi had been very good about not going out and killing things for her skill. Then Derek just went out and randomly killed a big octopus. “I should have come and got you. I’ll make it up to you, though,” he said. “We’re almost finished conserving experience points. I’m starting to think…” He looked at Brandi and stopped speaking. What he wanted to say to Silvi wasn’t something that the system would allow him to say in front of the young smith.
“Starting to think what?” Brandi looked at him quizzically.
“Oh… sorry,” Derek apologized. “It’s not something that me and Silvi can discuss with just everyone.” He looked up, then said, “It’s not something the Great System will let us do.”
“Oh,” Brandi said. “Okay!” She smiled, then began looking through the ring that Marrick left her.
‘I’m starting to think that skills aren’t the way for us to reach that second requirement,’ he sent to his companion telepathically. ‘So we might as well get those last levels. That way, you won’t have to worry about using and leveling your skill, and you can go get whatever food you want with it. And who knows? Maybe getting to level 250 is the way to the second requirement.’
‘Whatever food I want?’ Silvi asked, completely ignoring the last half of Derek’s explanation. However, he did not like the tone with which she asked the question.
‘No elves!’ Derek said. ‘You know exactly what I mean when I say whatever food you want.’
‘Fine… no elves…’ she relented, but he knew it wasn’t going to be the last time she tried to get his permission to gather some… ‘exotic’ materials. And, after his short stint in Linderis, he was a little closer to letting her go ‘explore’ that kingdom. The Dawn Siren was gone. Maybe it was time for them to have a different bogeyman.
‘Good,’ Derek said, inwardly chuckling. ‘I’ll let you know when I’m ready. It won’t be long. Just need to take Edgar and Avery out to get some Void Beast… I promised them both that I would do so, and I also promised Alanah that I would look after Stella and Avery. What better way to do that than to get them a bunch of Void Beast materials?’ he sent. Even if I’m not sure how I feel about all that after meeting Asher. That Void Beast certainly didn’t seem to care.
‘I go too!’ Silvi cut in, breaking Derek out of his thoughts.
‘Yes, you can go, too,’ he said. Actually… I think the time is up and I can give Silvi my Void Call skill with our shared skills ability… that could make the hunting go twice as fast… but it would mean less skill leveling for me, he thought about it for a moment, then decided against it. She relied on his Void Travel and Void Sense skills too much for him to take them away for something that she wouldn’t use near as often.
‘Kay!’ Silvi replied happily, then stopped talking and focused on the ring that Brandi was holding. “Come over here,” she said as she hopped off of Brandi’s head and over onto one of her workbenches. “Let me see, too.”
“Oh,” Brandi said. “Okay!” She clutched the rings in her hand, ran over to the table, then placed the rings on it so that both she and Silvi could have a look. “Thank you, Derek!” she turned and shouted back at Derek.
“Anytime,” Derek said with a laugh. “You two have fun, and don’t fight. I’m sure there’s enough for the both of you.”
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“Okay!” they both replied in unison.
Derek snorted and shook his head. It was like he was telling two small children to be nice and share. He took one last look at the two, then turned and went upstairs. Once there, he went back to Malorie’s office.
“You’re back already?” she asked. “Didn’t you say that you were going to be gone for a while?”
“I am, but probably not for long,” Derek said. “I just wanted to check in and fill you in on everything.” He then told her the same thing he’d told Silvi and Brandi. Except, he also told her the part about Nick.
“Poor old man,” Malorie said with a shake of her head. “I hope his heart can handle it.” Then, she placed her index finger on her chin, and finally said, “I think I would like to meet this ‘Nick’ one day. He seems like an interesting person… but only for a very short amount of time.”
“Maybe,” Derek said. “I don’t think you know what you’ll be getting into. But if you really want to, I can make it happen.”
“Maybe some other time,” Malorie said.
“Good idea.”
“So, you’re going to go hunting now?” she asked.
“I was thinking about it,” Derek said. “I’m about to go check with Avery and Edgar. It depends on them, and if they are up for it or not.”
“I’m sure they will be,” Malorie said.
“Me too,” Derek said with a grin. “Then, I’m off! I’ll try to keep us close enough for the communication crystals to work. Silvi will be joining me this time.”
“Go it,” Malorie said. “Have fun.”