karami92

Author's Corner: Thank you to Jon Pedersen for joining the Patreon!

It was only a few more weeks before Ashley was able to release the update for the world system. Apparently, what took the most time wasn’t even deciphering the newly modified code of the other systems. Instead, what delayed them the most was creating a way to save skill proficiencies between updates. Understandably, she didn’t particularly like the idea that everyone’s skills would be wiped each time the code mutated like this and they had to update it.

Either way, the code framework was in place, and she believed that it would work even if the skill proficiency system mutated in the future. Whether or not that would hold true would need to be tested when it happened.

However, I had to say that Tsubaki was quite… excited when the patch was released. Immediately, she immersed herself in training the new class that she had been waiting for. It took her only a few minutes to first acquire the class, and then she began using its abilities to feel out what it was meant for.

As if wanting to report her progress, Tsubaki kept me informed whenever a new ability was unlocked for the Maid class. It was honestly amusing to watch her update me with her happily waving tails. Clearly, this was something that made her truly happy.

“Did you catch that, my Keeper?” She asked, drawing me out of my brief mental distraction. I looked up at her and nodded my head, smiling.

“Yes, you were saying that you have something akin to a knight’s pledge weapon? Is it formed from your divinity like the knight weapon?” While I was wanting to avoid too much overlap, I thought it would be fine if it made her happy. Thankfully, she quickly denied my words.

“Surprisingly not, my Keeper.” She shook her head. “There seems to be a unique energy combination formed from all four base elements, with ki being the leading factor. The system refers to this energy as ‘Servant Force’.” Her tails shook especially quickly when she reported the name.

“Through testing the energy, I have found that it functions rather similarly to telekinesis, but it can be given a corporeal shape. Through this method, I can create any weapon that I am familiar with.” As if to demonstrate, she waved her hand, and a silver dagger appeared in it. After she released the dagger, it hovered in the air for a few moments before shattering, the fragments coming together to form a staff.

“This energy seems to be particularly suitable for forming avatars, as well. When I began experimenting with that, I found that my levels increased incredibly quickly. Essentially, the energy contains a subtle trace of my consciousness, allowing it to act even without me directly controlling it. When an avatar is formed of this energy, the consciousness is strengthened, and the avatar becomes fully capable of acting as an independent copy of myself.”

Once again, Tsubaki demonstrated this by creating an avatar of herself, though this avatar had silver hair instead of blonde. The avatar smiled, offering a deep bow while Tsubaki continued. “Of course, I can still manually control the avatar if I want to, but this allows me to condense a higher number of avatars without focusing heavily on their every action. Normally, if I push myself, I can control ten avatars at a time. If I disregard my own safety, and keep the actions of the avatars as limited as possible, I can control up to one hundred.”

“With this Servant Force, I can maintain fifty avatars without any strain on my body or mind, so long as I can maintain the output of energy. Because of their semi-independent consciousness, they are not constantly relaying sensory feedback to me, as well. If one chooses to, they can relay information that they deem relevant. Alternatively, if an avatar is destroyed, they will automatically relay their last ten seconds.”

“What is the combat power of the avatars like?” I asked curiously, knowing fully well that Tsubaki would have tested that extensively.

Sure enough, she pursed her lips, shaking her head. “They do not have access to my divinity, or any energy outside of the Servant Force. Additionally, they only have as much of that energy as I provide at their conception. If they consume that, they can only manually request additional energy over our connection.”

“With that in mind, they do possess my level of skill with various weapons and techniques, it is just that they are restricted to what they can do with their physical bodies and the Servant Force. Aside from that, their combat effectiveness is quite limited. While they can remove hordes of lesser foes, an enemy deity would have no trouble dispatching them.”

After Tsubaki explained that, her avatar dipped its head lower. “I apologize for not meeting your standard of battle, my Keeper.”

“It’s fine.” I shook my head quickly, not wanting to upset either Tsubaki. “The fact that they can do this much is already amazing. It’s like they were designed to allow a single maid to take care of an entire mansion, but at the same time they are able to act as secondary guards. Have you tried to create energy cores for other energies inside the avatars, to try and let them have some renewable power?”

Tsubaki nodded her head. “I have tried to do so, my Keeper. However, the Servant Force is not compatible with other energy types. After its fusion, all other energies seem to be treated as invaders, and are purged the moment they try to integrate. There may be the chance for this energy to evolve to the Saint level, but that would likely not happen until the class reaches at least level five hundred.”

I gave a small nod of understanding. It had only been two weeks, but Tsubaki had already climbed to level one hundred and fifty as a Maid. I had no doubt that she’d be able to get another hundred levels easily before reaching a plateau. As for level five hundred… that would certainly take a long time for anyone

At the moment, there were only two classes that had reached beyond level five hundred in our entire system. And both of those classes are ‘racial’ classes, being the Martial Spirit and World Spirit classes. Understandably, the former was held firmly by Scarlet, while the latter was something that the various perfected World Spirits had achieved.

“I see. Is there anything else that you’d like to report, then?” I asked curiously. This Servant Force was a more advanced feature of the Maid class, with the basic functions being ways to identify what the maid’s ‘master’ wanted. Alternatively, they could create energy nodes that functioned as permanent security cameras through special mana techniques.

In truth, there were… also quite a lot of combat abilities of the Maid class. Not only this ability to create weapons, but even lower level skills focused around concealing weapons, or using any improvised tool as a weapon. While I wouldn’t say that they were as strong as a purely combat class of the same level, they were certainly not weak either.

Tsubaki thought it over for a moment, before nodding her head quickly. “There is one other usage for this Servant Force, my Keeper. I had almost forgotten, as I could not imagine it being used very often between the two of us.” Well, that just had me even more interested.

“Go on.” I told her, gesturing for her to continue.

Tsubaki smiled, nodding her head again. “It is possible to form a pact with a single individual through the Servant Force. After forming this pact, I would be able to make my avatars take on your appearance and personality, as well as gaining your combat-oriented training. Finally, I believe that we would have a permanent mental connection due to the subtle consciousness of this energy.”

“I… see. May I ask why you didn’t imagine this being used?” I couldn’t help but ask, Tsubaki giving a somewhat wry smile.

“I mean no disrespect to you, my Keeper. However, I believe that my own personal combat training would cause the avatars of myself to have more powerful capabilities than the avatars I create of you. While you are undeniably more powerful than myself, this is because of the advantages that you possess as a Keeper. These advantages would not be transferable to my avatars. At most, they would serve as body doubles, but I would rather avoid such a tactic that would have me see your image destroyed.”

I blinked, surprised at how blunt Tsubaki was being with her assessment. “Wow, really not holding back there, are you?” I asked with a small grin.

Tsubaki dipped her head low, cheeks flushed. “I apologize, my Keeper. I will accept any punishment for my words that you deem fit to give.”

I thought about it for a moment, before nodding and standing up. She seemed surprised that I was actually going to punish her, but only dropped her head a bit lower in preparation. Without a word, I walked over towards her, reaching my hand out… and stroked the head of the silver-haired Tsubaki. “This shall be your punishment.” I said in a somewhat playful tone, both Tsubaki’s stiffening at the same time.

Slowly, the original Tsubaki lifted her head, curious what I was doing, and saw the silver tails shaking wildly next to her, her avatar pushing her head into my hand. She stared at her clone, eyes narrowing in what I could easily guess was envy, while I simply chuckled in response. “I’m proud of you for being willing to say something like that to me.” I told her in an honest tone, Tsubaki blinking in surprise.

“Then, can I also..?” She asked, lowering her head once again in a rather obvious gesture. I let out a hearty laugh at that, stepping over to pet her head as well.

“Now, even if my avatars would be weaker than yours, I think it is important that we do this pact.” My voice was gentle as I pet both of the fox girls before me. “There is a chance that you will eventually face a milestone in your advancement, where you won’t be able to progress if you do not have this pact for a certain duration or something like that. We can already communicate through our divinity, and the new private messaging system makes communication especially easy. However, for the sake of your growth, we should perform this pact regardless. Who knows, there might be special details of it that you haven’t inferred yet?”

Tsubaki gave a small nod, keeping her head against my hand. It was the silver-haired Tsubaki that acted first, bringing her hand up to gently grab my wrist. “Do you accept me as your servant, my Keeper?” She asked, bands of silver light forming over both of our wrists.

“Of course, my Tsubaki.” I responded, both of the girls going stiff for a moment at that form of address, before their tails became even more energetic. I could feel the energy from the avatar seeping into my body, rushing towards my soul. There, an image of Tsubaki appeared, kneeling before the golden orb of my soul.

“It is done, my Keeper.” The original Tsubaki said, her voice radiating happiness, but not the level of surprise that I would expect if she were aware of the message that I had seen.

“It seems that you weren’t entirely aware of what this contract entailed, after all.” I said with a grin, Tsubaki looking up at me in surprise.

“What do you mean?” She asked, and I began to explain to her the message that had appeared after the contract was signed. Her eyes went wide, and she let out a soft gasp.

Clearly, this was meant as a way for the Noble to reinforce their Maid, through either the delivery of coins to purchase items on their behalf, or energy to enable them to fight longer. Granted, Tsubaki was the one that managed the treasury of the Citadel, but this would let me temporarily give her items such as the divine tomes I had been creating, or my near endless reserves of ki or mana. Certainly, the passage would be more practical for other nobles and maids, but it was quite convenient for our situation.