karami92

Author's Corner: Fanmail is here!

The maid class, huh? I thought to myself later, when I was alone in my room. After Dana had teased her about it, Tsubaki had agreed that she wouldn’t be opposed to such a class being introduced to the system. Though, with the flush of her cheeks and how her tails were waving, it was clear that she really wanted it.

I nodded my head, laying down on the oversized bed prepared in my room. Before going to the Admin Room, I made sure to synchronize myself with my Virtual self this time, just to make sure that I did not cause any undue worries with the rest of the group. As it turned out, we were in the middle of continuing our base construction from our previous game. Since I was waiting for some parts to be delivered, it was fine for me to be away for a few minutes.

After closing my eyes, I wished myself up to the Admin Room, where I found Ashley already waiting for me with a playful expression. “You were watching?” I asked curiously, to which she nodded her head

“I have a bit more time to keep an eye on things now, and I know you like to reward them, so I wanted to be prepared in case they asked for anything outrageous.”

I let out a long sigh upon hearing that. “So, the maid class? Think you can do it?”

Ashley pursed her lips, not quite sure how to answer at first. “If you want it to be a reskinned Knight, with a bit of Bard, Chef, Guard, and Tailor thrown in, sure. I can grab the code and create an amalgam class. But, I imagine that’s not what you want. If you’re looking for a class with unique mechanics, you’ll have to grab it from the system, and we’ll integrate it with a quick hotfix once we’ve isolated the code.”

“Classes are that hard, huh?” I asked curiously. It was true, if I just wanted an amalgam like that, Tsubaki could simply make a Legacy Class. But, I wanted this to be a real class for her.

“Oh, yeah. Way harder than you’d think.” Ashley admitted with a groan. “For instance, we can’t even see all of the code for the Mage class, yet. There’s a little tidbit at the end of the code that causes it to evolve whenever someone reaches a new level threshold. We can see maybe two, three levels ahead of the highest, but anything after that is hard-locked within the system itself.”

“All that we could do was find the relevant code, and put it in its own module, that way the expansions will all happen in the same module. I honestly think that how the system was all tangled up was probably the reason for those anomalies like Phisher or the Terra twins could appear, coupled with freak genetic mutation.”

That made sense, causing me to nod my head. “Alright. How long do you think it will take for you to find the code for a new class, then?” I asked, already opening the market to browse through the list of available classes. If ‘Maid’ was not already a class, I fully intended to create it as one to submit on the market. In the end, I found two possibilities.

I read through the descriptions of the two classes, somewhat arching my brow as I got to the second one. It had more restrictions, and a price several times higher. Typically, that meant a greater degree of power or more alterations required to the world in order to make the class feasible.

“Honestly? Since we’ve already cracked the code of the rest of the system, it should take us just a few hours to find all of the dependencies in other areas and pull them together.” Ashley said while I was looking at the list.

I gave a small nod at what she was saying, before letting out a long sigh. “I found one, but it requires the Noble class for the maid to serve. I have it… but it’s still only level one.” I remembered gaining that class way back in the day when I sailed the ocean to claim a plot of land with the beastkin.

Ashley rolled her eyes at that. “I already fixed that. Honestly, how the Noble class was set up was pretty bad to begin with. In order to advance as a noble, you needed the recognition of nobles of an equal or higher rank than yourself, or to personally manage the finances and trade details of your region. You basically locked yourself out of gaining levels. So when we were tidying things up, I asked the team to change that, and now Noble levels are also gained based on the size of the territory you control, and the number of people that serve you. Your Host was probably spammed with level up messages before you descended.”

I blinked at that, slowly nodding my head again. “I guess that makes sense. Were there any other classes that you changed like that?” I wasn’t upset. If anything, I was grateful. When I first set up the classes, I was still so new to this and wasn’t taking anything seriously. I was sure that there were a bunch of other classes that needed work.

“I changed the Archmage as well, yeah.” She revealed readily. “Originally, all that it required to level up was to make spells without the system’s help. That basically makes it no different from the Mage class in the present day. Nobody really relies just on the system’s prepared basic spells for combat, anymore.”

“Instead, you gain Archmage levels by teaching spells that you create to others. The more people you teach a certain spell, the greater the experience. Alternatively, you could gain levels in the same way as the Hero class, by defeating enemies above your own level with your magic. Since we made the class harder to level, I tweaked the stats awarded to balance.”

“Sounds like it was probably for the best.” I agreed, before clicking on the Maid/Butler class to purchase it for the testbed world. “Alright, the class is set. Speaking of… do you need a second testbed world to handle the laws of Spica and Lorek?”

Ashley blinked when I asked that, before furrowing her brow. “It… would probably help, yeah. It was fine to use just one so far, because we weren’t adding anything new. Now that we’re adding in new content, we need to see how the new content interacts with both sets of laws. Do you mind?”

I shook my head, quickly buying up a blank, second world. “It’s done.” I smiled, and Ashley quickly vanished. I could see her on my new map, appearing and constructing a development facility with her divinity. Once done, she activated the ‘raw code’ of Lorek that she had saved. Only after that was done did I buy the same class again for this new world.

Afterwards, I browsed through the market to find the details on the Perfect Will. Since I had taken care of Tsubaki’s wish, it was now time for me to answer Dana’s. It did not take me too long to find it, though it was for an entire thousand points. Udona, I’m about to purchase some information. Can you have it transcribed to the Sky Citadel’s personal library?

I’m on it, chief! Udona’s reply was energetic, causing me to chuckle before I clicked on the purchase button. As expected, a portal opened up to snatch the blue orb from the air in front of me as soon as it began to form. I smirked slightly, shaking my head before descending back to the mortal world.

“Looks like the boss went to get your present.” Dana said with a playful grin, having just emerged from the workshop to deliver a pile of parts to the Keeper to have them put together according to the schematic they had prepared. Tsubaki’s back stiffened when she heard that, though Lifre looked over curiously.

“Present? You guys already asked for yours?” She asked with wide eyes, to which Dana nodded her head. “Well… what’d you ask for?”

“I asked the boss to grab the information for us to get the Perfect Will, so we can finally have the full set. Tsuba here wanted the maid class.” The little elf answered in a teasing tone, causing Tsubaki’s eyes to go wide.

“I-It was your idea.” Tsubaki retorted defensively, though Lifre peered at Tsubaki for a long moment. “What? What’s the matter?”

“Huh? Oh, I’ve just never seen you this flustered!” Lifre said with a shake of her head. “You look like a girl that is secretly getting what she’s always wanted, but is just too ashamed to admit it.”

Tsubaki froze at Lifre’s words, while Dana clutched her stomach from laughing. “Hear that, Tsuba? Even Lifre thinks so!”

Tsubaki lowered her head, her face red. “W-Well, what are you going to ask for, Lifre?” She asked, desperate to change the subject.

“Hmm, I’m not sure yet. I was thinking maybe a new game world like Vision Expanse. You know, like how it’s ‘endorsed and produced by the Keeper’? I figure that means he got it with points, right?”

Dana nodded her head in agreement, though she was still grinning at Tsubaki. “Yeah, he told us once that one of his good friends made that world. She’s something of a game designer, so she makes a business out of it.”

Lifre’s eyes flashed with excitement. “Then, can we get a science fiction game? With aliens and space battles like those ones you hear about from the Deckan ships!”

“I… doubt it.” Dana shook her head with a long sigh. “I asked him why the game doesn’t have fully sentient NPCs, since it should be possible for a Keeper. He said that it’s because that other Keeper doesn’t want to put real people in that position, where they are forced to live a life at the whims of players, killed and respawned for eternity.”

“Hmm, I guess so.” Lifre nodded her head, crossing her arms in front of herself and thinking. “I guess that an NPC race would be out of the question, too. I’d ask for an identification system, but…”

“Yeah, that was already covered in the patch notes.” Dana confirmed, snapping her fingers and bringing up a window. “Mages can register identification spells with the inventory system, and quick-cast them on magical items in their inventory. That’s a good enough identification system for most.”

“Gah!” Lifre brought her hands up to her head, shaking side to side. “Everything I want is impossible or already in use!” Her arms flailed out to her side, before she suddenly froze.

“Uhm… Lifre?” Dana looked over in concern, even Tsubaki raising her head.

“I thought of something!” She grinned, her smile splitting across her face. “Private messaging system! Guilds can send out messages to different branches through their system, but that doesn’t really help much anymore with the internet. And this would let people register contacts and talk remotely without needing magic or a communication crystal!”

Dana blinked, but nodded her head. “Private messaging is a basic mechanic when it comes to games, true. Once he’s back from his trip, you should go ahead and mention it to him.”