Chapter 688: Realizations
<span style="font-weight:400">Once the contribution had been calcted, there was a day of rest for those gods that had taken part, before the announcement was made to the public. In order to not make the gods seem as if they were simply hired for the task, the mention of payment had been excluded from the announcement that Udona prepared.
<span style="font-weight:400">Simply put, the Goddess introduced the threat that had previously set out in an attempt to conquer or destroy her world. This alone sent tremors throughout the poption, before she moved on to show a recording that they had made of the battle. This recording was made using Udona’s own memories from the scene, which she had transferred into an illusion for the sake of this production.
<span style="font-weight:400">Thankfully, the God of the Stage was more than happy to contribute to this project, and hemented the fact that he was unable to participate in the battle itself. Due to his work as a director, he rarely paid a visit to Sanctum, preferring to spend his time in Deckan where he could properly put his talents to use.
<span style="font-weight:400">With this announcement, those gods that actively participated in the battle were able to spread their names to new audiences, gaining even greater recognition. As for those that had either tried to escape or cowered in front of the enemy, they earned their own type of recognition…
<span style="font-weight:400">Finally, those who had been feeling a sense of dread in the air were atst able to rx. The danger hade and gone, with the world beingrgely unharmed throughout the entire process. Although there was a death of a friendly god, it was not such a shocking scene that people across the world would mourn for them. Especially so given that same god had tried to flee the battle as soon as he saw the enemy’s strength.
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<span style="font-weight:400">Kris watched the broadcast with wide eyes, seeing the special news being sent over from Deckan. “That lot…” He shook his head, not sure exactly what to make of it. As he was no god, it was hardly his ce toment on things of that nature. However, he found it hard to swallow that an individual person could have the power to overturn a like that.
<span style="font-weight:400">After saying that, he looked down to his own hand. With barely a thought, he was able to see straight through his wrinkled skin and into the floor below. Remembering the young girl whose extraordinary power had swept over the world, he knew that people with such power <i><span style="font-weight:400">did</i><span style="font-weight:400"> exist. It was just hard to ept them as part of his normal life.
<span style="font-weight:400">The average civilian, through personal training and schooling, tends to reach a level of roughly two hundred and fifty in total. Most of these levels naturallye from the Schr ss, which is trained simply by studying in school. Those whose upation involve training a ss often reach between five hundred and seven hundred.
<span style="font-weight:400">Even then, these people are typically notbatants. Their sses are either academic or production rted, meaning that their physical stats experience only negligible increases. Kris himself had rather low physical stats.
<span style="font-weight:400">Then there were thew enforcers. These individuals were trainedbatants. Disregarding their schooling, they learned a wide range of sses before picking their specialty. Once they hadpleted their training in that specialty, it wasn’t umon for them to have levels in the eight hundreds, or even higher.
<span style="font-weight:400">Kris took a moment to consider that. A fully trained police officer had the power to overthrow an entire city of normal civilians. That was the highest level of power he encountered on a daily basis, but he knew that was far from the end.
<span style="font-weight:400">Adventurers, like his friend Jin, oftentimes reached over level one thousand. Furthermore, as they were typically out fighting monsters to either protect people or gather materials to sell, they had realbat experience. Unlike police officers, whose mere presence served as a deterrent for crime, adventurers would find themselves beset by bandits and beasts alike.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was not hard to believe that one adventurer could take on five police officers, maybe even ten. And then… you had the Maxers of Fyor. The group who had raised themselves to level one thousand, one hundred and fifty. This was the level cap currently allowed within that world, and they often specialized in their particr role, training to fight monsters up to a hundred levels stronger than themselves.
<span style="font-weight:400">If a trained adventurer could take on five police officers, a proper Maxer could take on five trained adventurers just as easily. There had even been reports of Maxers that had feuds within Fyor, their fights spanning multiple levels. At times, entire cities disappeared under their battles, as it was hard to employ such people to protect every city.
<span style="font-weight:400">Finally… even above the Maxers, there were apparently the gods. Kris couldn’t even imagine how many Maxers a singlebat deity could handle on their own. Ten? A hundred? Maybe even a thousand, depending onpatibility? It was a realm that he couldn’t properly fathom, and clearly one where it was no longer a matter of being able to destroy mere cities.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">So this is what you meant, young’in. Is the world ready for the kind of power that this thing can give them?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> Kris questioned whether such a thing was true, but… in the end, were there not already far more powerful forces at y in the world? At most, this would elevate the status of the working ss, such as himself, and offer them some means of protection in the wild.
<span style="font-weight:400">As he realized that these powers were truly nothingpared to what was already avable, he resolved to take the achievement with him to his grave. That way, this gift prepared by that young girl would not be wasted on an old fool like himself.
<span style="font-weight:400">Of course… he was in no hurry to reach his grave, and the prospect of a long life was quite appealing to his old bones. But when the time <i><span style="font-weight:400">did</i><span style="font-weight:400">e, he wouldn’t have regrets! Probably.
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<span style="font-weight:400">“I’m boooored!” Dana shouted as she rolled around on the floor in her workshop, Tsubaki watching with an amused smile. “I upgraded the storage space with space-folding enchantments to prevent void encroachment, enhanced the automatic sorting feature, wrote a program to create enchantment diagrams, and finished enchanting <i><span style="font-weight:400">everything</i><span style="font-weight:400"> in the storage!”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Have you considered writing a trantion program for Fyor’s rune magic?” Tsubaki asked as she watched the little elf roll along the ground.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Did that way back! It prints rune-script and phics to help people learn thenguage! I need something new!” Dana had thoroughly run out of projects to work on within the Sky Citadel. “I was going to work on upgrading the propulsion system of the Sky Citadel, but whenever I talk about doing that…” She abruptly rolled to the side as a small brick appeared out of nowhere, crashing towards where she had been previously.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ye’ll break it,ss! Don’t touch the Citadel’s systems!” Tubrock’s voice boomed from the empty air, causing Tsubaki to blink in surprise.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sky Citadel, Sky Citadel, Sky Citadel!” Dana repeated, constantly rolling to the side as brick after brick crashed into the floor. Tsubaki could tell that Tubrock wasn’t truly trying to hit her. If anything, he was entertaining her.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Why not y one of your games?” Tsubaki suggested, knowing that Dana very clearly needed something to keep her busy. Thest thing the world needed was a thousand year old shadow elf with too much time on her hands and nothing to do.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah… after ying the same games for a few decades, they get a bit stale.” Dana pouted, rolling onto her stomach to stare up at Tsubaki. “It’d be more fun if we could y together, but I know you’ve got a lot on your te managing that pce in Sanctum.” She gave aforting smile up towards Tsubaki, making sure she knew that there were no hard feelings there.
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki only offered a soft smile in return. She knew that she couldn’t y as many games as she and Dana used to, at least not until she became proficient enough with multitasking that she could have an avatar actively handling matters in Sanctum, one in the Citadel, and one in the game. Although it sounded easy,pared to having over a dozen avatars actively doing chores, those avatars were all performing highly practiced actions, involving little active thought on her end.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was an entirely different matter to prepare herself for a position where she would potentially have to carry on multiple conversations at the same time. Not to mention listening to the priests she had scattered through the world to act as her eyes… Tsubaki let out a long sigh as she thought to that point. “Maybe I should think about getting some more help here?” She considered, earning a scandalized gasp from Dana.
<span style="font-weight:400">“What?” She nced off to the side. “I can still do my work, but I can’t really spend much time with youtely, and that time gets stretched thinner the more tasks I take on…”
<span style="font-weight:400">Dana hopped up to her feet, lunging over to wrap her arms around Tsubaki. “The great and powerful Tsuba, the ultimate workaholic, is thinking about recruiting extra help so that she can have more time to rx?! The end times are upon us!”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki rolled her eyes with a smirk, bringing her hand down to pat Dana’s head. “We’ve been alone in this ce for a long time. Maybe it would be nice to have a third person here to share the load and spend our time with…” Solitude was no problem for Tsubaki personally, and she was more than capable of having an avatar stand in one position for decades at a time to watch for the slightest movement from the Keeper.
<span style="font-weight:400">However… solitude and stagnation were perhaps the most terrifying things in the world for Dana, as they often reminded her of her time alone in Hell. As long as it was not creating trouble for her Keeper, Tsubaki would happily save Dana from that kind of experience. “In the meantime, though… if there aren’t any new games that you’re interested in, why not see if you can work with nk to create your own?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Dana’s eyes went wide as saucers at that, clearly having not thought of such a solution. “Making a new game… we’ll need a lot of server space… no wait, we’ll need some upgraded servers. What did James call them… micro-servers? I’ll get the design off of him and go talk to nk!”
<span style="font-weight:400">After she said that, she gave Tsubaki a tight hug, before running past her and leaving the workshop. Tsubaki watched her, her smile turning warmer as she saw the little elf revitalized. After watching her leave, she turned and walked to her room, sitting down in her bed. She closed her eyes, sending a prayer up towards the gods and goddesses above.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Lords and Ladies at my Keeper’s side. I’m looking to recruit an additional servant of the Sky Citadel. As my grasp on the people in this world cannotpare to all of you, I ask of you if there is one suitable to serve my Keeper along with Dana and myself.</i>
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<span style="font-weight:400">With the golem situation handled, those of us in the Admin Room were taking our time to enjoy a game of Keeper’s Cards. It had been a while since most of us came together to y, so we were just taking the chance to have some fun together. As I was looking over my deck, thinking how I wanted to expand a kitsune cyberpunk world, a series of sharp gasps rose up from nearby.
<span style="font-weight:400">I looked over, seeing that Bihena, Aurivy, Udona, alia, and Keliope were all exchanging shocked expressions. “..What happened?” I couldn’t help asking, as they all reacted at practically the same time.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, this is…” Bihena didn’t seem to know how to exin, but Keliope grinned broadly.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Your little fox just put out a ‘Help Wanted’ ad in a prayer. Says they finally need another servant for you.”
<span style="font-weight:400">After Keliope said that, Aurivy giggled. “Tsubaki’s been overworking herself again. I think the fact that she’s recognizing it and stopping it from going too far shows that she’s grown quite a lot since back in the day…”
<span style="font-weight:400">I nodded, remembering how Tsubaki had almost pushed herself to her death to train the legions for my first invasion. By the time they were done, there was barely any energy left in her body. While I was surprised that she took the initiative to ask for help, I was also happy. I never wanted her to force herself to endure more than she could handle, even if it was for my sake.