Chapter 975: Restless Fox
<span style="font-weight:400">I stood within the emptiness, deep in the vacuum of space. There was no better ce for me to practice my Martial Intent, as I did not need to worry about potentially destroying anything around me. Just to y it absolutely safe, I wasn’t even in one of the primary realms, but rather in the realm that Tsubaki and Dana had once used for research.
<span style="font-weight:400">Using my ki, I anchored myself to the space around me, creating an improvised foothold while unleashing that same punch again and again. I was constantly activating my Fist Will, focusing all of my effort on destroying an invisible target in front of myself. I needed to master this ability before the next invasion urred. Having the ability to crush everything with this one punch could very easily turn into a critical tipping point in battle.
<span style="font-weight:400">Thinking back to thest dangerous invasion I had… I wasn’t able to unleash hardly any of my power, because there were multiple gods that were constantly restraining my actions. The others were generally the same until Mara showed up to turn the tables. If we had the power of Martial Will at that time, the battle would have been a far simpler matter to resolve.
<span style="font-weight:400">That was why the invisible target I was focusing on was none other than the leader of that invasion, as well as the forces that he had brought along with him. Every time I punched, I mentally measured how many of those gods I would be able to take out at once. Typically, I averaged at about three or four, which was admittedly impressive when I considered the fact that I wasn’t using any martial arts techniques.
<span style="font-weight:400">However, I could feel the punch constantly getting stronger. Originally, I had only been able to take out two of the targets in my mind. I knew that once my Martial Intent was reallypleted, I should be able to take out at least half of them with a single punch.
<span style="font-weight:400">As I was thinking about that, I suddenly felt a new presence appear behind me. <i><span style="font-weight:400">A space monster?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> I was momentarily alert, before feeling something familiar about the sensation, turning around and smiling at the sight of Tsubaki. Not one of her avatars, but the true Tsubaki.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Have you finished your legend?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> I asked mentally, given that we were currently in a vacuum.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">I have, my Keeper.</i><span style="font-weight:400"> Tsubaki nodded her head in response. <i><span style="font-weight:400">I apologize for making you wait, but I have returned to your side once again.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">I gave a small smile, looking around for a moment. In the distance, I spotted an insignificant speck in the darkness, a blue that was covered almost entirely in oceans. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Show me.</i><span style="font-weight:400"> I told her, before ripping open space to send myself to the surface of that.
<span style="font-weight:400">Naturally, Tsubaki followed along, her hands folded in front of her torso. When she arrived, she swept her gaze across the water, focusing. Green lights gathered around her, forming arge sheet of ice more than a mile across for us tond on. “This should be a good enough location for a demonstration.” She said, before extending her hand.
<span style="font-weight:400">First, a silver sphere appeared, which she lightly threw out and into the air. Afterwards, a trace of mana and ki followed it, interweaving and forming the physical shape of the avatar. World Sight, Elemental Ki, every energy that Tsubaki had mastered flew out in thin strands, piercing into the cloud of energy as it condensed into Tsubaki’s shape.
<span style="font-weight:400">“As Scarlet said, the presence of the legend makes it far easier for me to achieve the same result again, allowing me to reproduce the avatars without needing as much concentration. At the same time, it allows my avatars to maintain themselves with only a minor amount of focus on maintaining the bnce of their energies.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I nodded my head at Tsubaki’s exnation. “How many avatars do you have active right now? Counting the one you just created.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki didn’t even need to think for a moment to answer. “This is my eleventh avatar. Currently, I have dedicated avatars training the Monk, Elemental Monk, Mage, Enchanter, Martial Artist, Warrior, Weaponmaster, Ninja, Knight, and Farmer sses.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“...Okay, I understood why for most of those, but why Farmer? I figured you would have gone with Alchemist, Chef, or even Pilot.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki offered a smile, ncing at her new avatar. “This new one shall be my chef. As for why Farmer, I wanted to use it to experience the new systems that you recently added to the world. Each of my avatars has their own, individual resource pools, so they are not drawing from my energy when they train. However, this also means that they must each consume their own share of resources in order to recover their power. With the Farmer ss, I will be able to minimize my expenses in this regard. I n to develop an avatar for the Hunter ss as well, for simr reasons.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Right… what is the name of your legend?” When I asked that question, Tsubaki paused for a moment, ncing off to the side.
<span style="font-weight:400">“It is… Restless Fox.” My eyes widened at her words, and I could barely refrain fromughing. “Be honest with me, my Keeper. Do you or anyone among the Greater Pantheon decide the legend titles?”
<span style="font-weight:400">I shook my head quickly at that. “I didn’t even know that they were a thing until Ashley mentioned it. If it’s anything like an advanced version of a normal title, it’s purely decided by the system.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki’s cheeks puffed out slightly at that, but she nodded her head. “I understand. If I may ask, how are youing along with your own training?”
<span style="font-weight:400">I smiled, proud of myself. “I managed toplete my Gun Intent, so all that’s left is my Fist Intent now. Additionally, I’ve been working on new domain powers that I could integrate into my fighting style. Watch this.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I spread my hand out to the side, and six figures appeared alongside me, each one an identical copy of myself. “I based the idea on the clones that you were wanting to make. I can’t use them for training, but having additional beings in a fight at my level of power would certainly be able to make a difference.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki nodded her head in agreement. “I see. In that case, shall we return?”
<span style="font-weight:400">I nodded my head. Now that Tsubaki was done with her training, I was sure she wanted to take a break for a moment. Well… it was more likely that she wanted to take a break to try to disprove the system giving her the title of ‘Restless Fox’.
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">“Tsuba!!” Dana rushed for the elevator as soon as it was triggered, almost lunging at Tsubaki. “Why did you have to take so long to train this time?! Do you have any idea how boring it was without you here?!”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki’s smile turned gentle as she looked at Dana, leaning down and patting her head. She knew that Dana wouldn’t be satisfied just ying with one of Tsubaki’s avatars, so she didn’t try to bring that up. Instead… “I’m sorry, Dana. Would you like to y together now?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Finally!” Dana grinned at the expected question. She had spent all of this time working on her own various projects, and wanted the chance to do something else for a change, something to take her mind off of work. “What do you want to y?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm…” Tsubaki thought about it for a moment. However, before she spoke up, another voice interrupted her.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I have an idea for something that you could y together. It would also help me out quite a bit.” Ashley’s voice spoke up from nearby as she stepped out of a shadow, smiling down at the two of them.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Eh?” Dana blinked, looking at Ashley. “No way… is the new game out already? I thought it was still a couple weeks away from the beta phase?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It is.” Ashley agreed. “However, I have a way for you two to perform an alpha test of it. It’ll just be the two of you in the game for now, and it will have to be your real selves, not your Virtual selves. I’d appreciate it if the two of you could give me some feedback for how the game can be improved.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki blinked, but Dana immediately nodded her head. “Sure! Should I bring my familiars along? Sienna told me that she’s really looking forward to this.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Unfortunately, Ashley shook her head. “The game’s not ready for that yet. Right now, I can only bring the two of you in by condensing all of our current work on the game and turning it into a divine ability through the Games domain, given to me by nk. That’s why it can’t be your Virtual selves, because I will be using this ability on your true bodies.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Dana hesitated, before giving another nod of confirmation. “Sure. It should be fun to give it a try. How long do we have to y?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“To have both of you in the game, and fully import our work… the time limit is six hours. Any longer than that, and my divinity is likely to be stretched too thin to properly maintain the different systems. Also, you will not be bringing any of your real world powers or items into the game, as new bodies are provided for you. This will also be true in the final product. However, the final product will allow the Digital Conversion system to be used on it to bring items in and out of the game, once you have the proper resources.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki nodded at that, slowly standing up. “What do we need to do for this to work?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Ashley smiled wide, holding out both hands. A pair of sleek, metal sses appeared in each of her hands, and she handed one to each of the girls. “Get somewherefortable, and put those on. I created them with my Technology domain, so they are linked directly to my divinity and can interface with the divine game I created.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Dana looked over the sses, nodding her head. Given that it was a divine power, there was no need for it to take the form of arger visor or anything like that. Rather, a smaller form would allow Ashley to conserve her divinity. “You know, you could probably put these up on the Boundless Caravan to ask for beta testers. Anyone who is willing to pay the price you have to exhaust to keep the game up for them can have early ess to the game.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Ashley paused, before shaking her head with a rather bitter expression. “As nice as that idea sounds, the price would simply be too much. Each person would need to pay hundreds of ck gold coins per hour. However… I’ll keep that idea in mind. If I can create a divine server to support this power, I should be able to lessen the load considerably. I’ll check if there is something like that in Fragments of Acidia, and if not I’ll try to make my own.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Dana nodded quickly. “Sure. Anyways, I’m off to try the new game!” She said, pulling Tsubaki along with her towards the gaming room. There was a wide grin stered across her face, eager to try out the new game with Tsubaki.
<span style="font-weight:400">Tsubaki simply chuckled, allowing herself to be pulled along. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help butin at the system. <i><span style="font-weight:400">See? I can have fun… I’m not always restless.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">Once the two of them got to the gaming room, Dana hopped up into her usual chair, Tsubaki taking a seat next to her. The two of them smiled at one another, before putting their new sses on. At the same time, their eyes lost focus, their bodies slumping back in the chair as their consciousness left their bodies to enter the divine game that Ashley had created.