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Chapter 185: Final Preparations
🕑 Added 2022-05-05 23:46:00 +0000 UTCChapter 185: Final Preparations
After Derek left Roman’s, he went back home. With everything he could think of taken care of, he planned on leaving for a dungeon the next morning. He asked Silvi if she wanted to go with him, but once she learned they would be fighting against stone golems, and that rocks weren’t in the least bit tasty, she decided to stay home and practice cooking.
Thomas wanted to go, but he still had his training with Shae. He could be power leveled anytime, but he wouldn’t be able to get the training of a true spear master often.
Only Silvi knew exactly where he was going. The others only knew he was heading to a dungeon.
At the end of the day, Derek lay on his bed and checked his stats.
With his constant use, failure or success, of Identify, it had gained a level. Most people didn’t know or have the Enigma Award, so he didn’t worry about being found out.
His Greater Meditation also increased a bit. It made sense, as he did more meditating than he actually did sleeping.
Void Sense was always active, thus slowly increasing in level. When he really tried to look at the ripples and the void all around him, it was clearer than before. Derek felt he would be able to use his void skill more easily the higher Void Sense leveled. He tried to keep it in mind to try to actively level the skill, but the senses overload he received when he focused on it was still annoying.
Speaking of void skills, he gained a level in Void Steps when he rushed to help Jacks a few days ago. Everyone else was ignoring the ground as they rushed over, so he did too. It had gotten a few odd looks, as nobody was able to tell what element the skill was using. It was blatantly obvious with Edgar’s crackling lightning trail and Jake’s exploding steps what element they used, but other than Derek’s eyes, nobody he didn’t want to know knew about his void attribute.
Time Prison was the skill Derek was most interested in at the moment. It had leveled to level 4. That, plus the fact that his prisoners’ sentences were going to be up soon, drew his attention.
I suppose I need to go in and settle all that before I leave tomorrow. Derek hopped up from his bed and moved down to the basement below. When he opened the door, the clanging of metal rang out. He smiled at the girl, still hard at work, and walked over to an unused section of the basement.
When he ripped the void, the clanging stopped.
“Derek? What are you doing down here?” Brandi asked.
“Nothing much. I need to check on some things in here before I leave tomorrow. Sorry for distracting you.” He replied.
“Oh… it’s fine. I was just practicing my hammering. I wasn’t making anything.” The girl said. “Is it the… people that you’re checking on?”
Derek nodded. “Yes… the prisoners.”
“You’re not letting them out, right?”
“Nope. Definitely not.” Derek said.
“That’s good. Jacks said they were all bad people. And the one even tried to kill Thomas.” Brandi said.
Derek nodded. “Yup. You don’t have to worry about them. I just need to make some adjustments. You can get back to work. Don’t let me distract you.”
Brandi nodded, and soon, the clanging of metal sounded again.
Derek reached forward and grabbed the handle of the door to the prison. He pulled. Once again, he stepped into the dark lobby. He still hadn’t looked for any temporary light fixtures to brighten the room, it wasn’t something he currently needed.
Derek stepped forward and moved to the door containing Clay Torith. He reached out and placed his hand on it. As of now, it showed that just under three weeks were left. The timer was still counting down one second for every two seconds that Derek felt.
With the skill at a higher level, with a thought, Derek adjusted the countdown timer. Soon, for every five seconds that passed, the cell only ticked down one second.
There, that will make sure I don’t have to worry about it for a while. If I have the need to talk to either Clay or one of the assassins, I can always speed the time up. At the rate he adjusted the prison cell, it would be almost four months before the timer expired.
Once he finished adjusting Cell #003, he moved over and adjusted the other two active cells. When he was finished, he also noticed the addition of more prison cells than before. By his calculations, once the skill leveled to 20, he would have exactly 100 cells available. He doubted he would ever need so many, but there was a chance that the time served in the nothingness of the void could possibly change someone. The possibility was slim, but it was there.
Having put the Time Prison out of his mind for now, Derek walked back out into the basement and closed the door. Then, he reached out and pulled the void back together and watched the space heal itself.
After that, he walked back over to Brandi, who was currently looking at a piece of some metal.
“I’m finished in here.” He said. “I’m going to go sleep. You should too. You don’t want to worry your mother too much.”
Brandi nodded. “I will soon. Just a bit more and all the durability of this…” she flashed the metal piece at Derek. “will be gone. I want to finish what I started tonight so I can work on something else tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Derek said. “Good night.” He tapped the top of the girl’s head with his finger.
Brandi reached up and put her hand on her head and rubbed. “Good night.”
Derek walked out of the basement and back up to his room. After going through a mental checklist, he decided that he took care of everything that required his immediate attention, and he wouldn’t have to worry about things while he was gone.
He sat on his bed, then laid back and closed his eyes. Soon, he drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Derek awoke to the smell of freshly cooked breakfast. After a quick trip to the bathroom, and the hope that Geoffrey would have a working shower prototype ready for when he got back, he moved on to the dining room, where Malorie met him at the door.
“You’re just in time.” Malorie said.
“Huh?”
“Silvi and I woke up early to make a big breakfast before you left. We wanted to send you off on a full stomach.” She said.
Derek looked past Malorie and saw Silvi sitting on the table drooling over the freshly baked bread, sausages, eggs, and other food.
“Mhm…” He said. “I’m sure that’s all Silvi had on her mind when you were preparing everything. She looks really concerned about me right now.”
Malorie smiled and shook her head. “Well, it was the plan until the food was ready. Once she’s finished cooking, everything else goes out the window until she’s eaten.” She said. “Now, come on and eat. The others won’t be up for awhile, so you don’t have to wait.”
Derek did as told and had a great meal. Surprisingly, Edgar arrived at the dining room not long after Derek. He asked if Derek needed any company on his trip, most likely so he could stay away from the political side of things for as long as possible, but Derek refused as he didn’t want others to learn of his actual level yet.
If everything went well, he would so raise his level high enough that he wouldn’t have to worry about hiding it. He could just reduce the power he showed to others, making it seem like he was still Onyx Ranked.
Nobody else arrived during his breakfast. He said his goodbyes to Mal and Edgar, and patted his crazy kitchen bunny on the head before leaving. He took out a map, then hopped into the air with Void Steps and took off towards his destination, The Golem Dungeon.
