Duke Wingraden passed an orb to Danya and Sala.

"Use these, and I'll activate your network access before you leave and continue shopping for supplies."

---
Congratulations, you have learned Virtual Intelligence: Mark V! Your Spark of Divinity has activated!

Artificial Intelligence
A personal assistant capable of directly interfacing with your mind.
Rank: A
Passive:
Has all functions of the original Virtual Intelligence skill.
Able to directly interact with the system.
Processes information at a rate 10x faster than your mind.
Once connected to a network, distance limitations are removed.
Infinite data storage capacity.
---

After she dismissed the notification, her vision was obscured by informational readouts. A vast amount of data points, including everything from the current time to approximations of how many steps she would need to reach every object in the area.

Too much clutter! As soon as the thought crossed her mind, the overwhelming amount of information disappeared, as if it was never there in the first place. All that remained was the time and a small bell icon in the corner of her vision.

As she focused on the icon, curious about its purpose, a screen similar to a system prompt appeared before her.

***
The user manual is available. It will be directly integrated with your mind.
Proceed?
***

She winced after accepting the prompt. The sudden flood of information caused a minor headache.

"You mentioned something about network access?" Danya asked the duke as the pain faded, and she began customizing the AI's settings.

"You've already finished reading the manual?" He asked, shocked.

Shaking her head, she responded, "I didn't have to read it."

Noting the confusion on the duke's face, she elaborated, "The manual was directly merged into my mind."

"The skill was mutated by my champion perk. I guess that's not a standard option?" Danya asked after the duke still appeared confused.

"No, nobody has yet to achieve such a feat. All attempts have put any testers into long-lasting comas. Even just attempting to 'read' something at a slightly faster rate causes extreme amounts of pain." Duke Wingraden said with an exasperated sigh.

Shaking his head, he continued, "The king sent me a special set of access keys for you. They should grant you a much higher level of access than what I can provide."

***
Duke Dalamo Wingraden has transferred encryption keys. Installing.

Network connection activated.
Unrestricted access to all kingdom-level and lower networks has been granted.
Partial access to world-level networks has been granted.
***

Danya now had an unfathomable amount of information available to her, only a thought away. She quickly decided to take advantage of her AI's unlimited data storage and instructed it to begin copying all of the data. In this way, she ensured that she wouldn't be without information as long as she had her AI, even if her access keys were revoked.

After giving the AI a list of parameters and priorities, she began browsing for things that she remembered her classmates talking about. She had never had access to any network outside of school-specific literature and was incredibly curious about the 'memes' she had heard so much about.

However, her foray into the broader world of modern culture was interrupted by a notification just as she was attempting to figure out what a 'waifu' was.

***
Duke Dalamo Wingraden has transferred credits.

Current Balance: 1,000,000,000
***

Her eyes widened in shock at the number of zeroes. "I can't accept-" She began to protest but was cut off by the duke's raised hand.

"While the amount that I transferred to you is in no way small, anyone that reaches my level of power can gather that much wealth relatively easily." He paused, seeming lost in thought, "Consider it as a start to the remuneration you are owed for the injustice you suffered at the hands of corrupt officials."

He smiled and continued, "Besides, you are a champion, one of only two in our kingdom. It is only proper that I offer you all the support I can. You and your cohorts are the hope of our world after all."

Danya sighed, dropping any further thoughts of refusal with a nod.

Seeing that Sala had finished with his VI, the duke continued, "I would suggest that the two of you allow your VI's to interface with the system. While they can only read information, a lot of what they can access is not directly visible to you. This data is useful for several things, especially training."

He turned to face Sala directly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm leaving you as Lady Danya's escort for the rest of the evening. Ensure that everything she needs for the week-long journey to the capital is purchased." He paused for a moment, "I don't believe it needs to be said but contact me at the first sign of any trouble, and I'll come at my fastest speed. Do whatever you must to guarantee her safety until I arrive."

Sala nodded with a grave expression. "No one will harm even a single hair on her head as long as I still breathe."

Duke Wingraden nodded and turned back to Danya. "I'll be going now. I have much to prepare so that you can leave tomorrow. I will see you both this evening for dinner."

Before Danya could muster a reply, the duke was gone.

She sighed and shook her head. She decided to follow the duke's advice and enabled her AI's system integration. The information provided was incredibly helpful. For example, after analyzing Blessed Regeneration, it informed her that once she reached Level 10, she would be able to survive decapitation, assuming that she had all of her mana at the time. If she managed to raise her stats higher than the minimum requirement before leveling up, she would be capable of this much earlier.

The conditions she had to meet to level up were also displayed. To reach Level 2, she needed to have all stats at Rank B or higher. She could only initiate the level up during a ten-minute window after giving birth.

Danya spewed curse after curse as she read the requirements for her level up.

Startled out of his thoughts, Sala asked, "Is everything ok? Did you forget something at the orphanage?"

"No, nothing like that... I was looking at the requirements that I have to meet in order to level up, and it's higher than what it's supposed to be. I have to reach Rank B stats instead of the normal C and can only level up within a certain time frame after a specific event." She replied with a huff.

Sala smiled and said, "Well, I guess something had to be done to balance out all of the ridiculous potential you have. It's fairly common for powerful classes to be balanced in ways like that. After all, I can tell that you've already ranked up your Body and probably your other stats as well... The fact that you've only had your class for a few hours at this point just makes it even more incredible."

He shook his head and continued, "Well, I'm ready to head out whenever you are. We should be able to purchase everything you'll need before this evening's auction. Anything that we might forget should be small enough for me to have shipped to you directly through the teleportation arrays."

"I'm good to go now. I'd like to start with clothing if that's alright with you." Danya said with a smile

"Of course! I know just the place to begin. Follow me!" Sala exclaimed before turning on his heel and walking down the street.

Now that the duke isn't with us, he's more expressive. He wasn't exactly bland before, but he was more... controlled in his actions. Danya thought as she stepped next to Sala, pressed herself against him, and held his arm between her breasts.

She giggled and looked up at Sala, who had stopped moving. "Oh, are we there already? I thought it would be a longer walk than this."

"N-no. S-sorry. Y-you just caught me off guard." Sala said with a blush before continuing with stiff steps.

Danya smirked mischievously at his reaction and spoke, "I know that guys like it when girls hold onto them like this, and I wanted to do a little something for you as thanks for helping me out." Working hard to suppress her grin, she frowned and continued, "Am I doing something wrong? Or am I not attractive enough? I thought I was hot after my new race brought all these changes to my body." She massaged her breast vigorously for emphasis. "But maybe I was wrong..." She trailed off, lowering her head to conceal her silent giggling.

Her words caused Sala to trip, narrowly avoiding falling flat on his face. "No, no, no! You're so very beautiful. I just wasn't prepared, and the feeling of your amazing breasts against my arm caught me off-"

Danya interrupted him by placing a finger on his lips. "I was just messing with you, though I'm glad you like my boobs. I think I'll give you a closer look later today. A much closer look."

They walked for several minutes before Danya asked, "You mentioned that you'd ship me anything we forget to buy... Why would you ship it? Aren't you going to be in the capital at the academy?"

Sala looked away and was silent for a long moment. "I'm sorry, I thought Father had told you already. He must not have wanted to speak of this embarrassment." He sighed tiredly, "I won't qualify for the Royal Academy. My class has a major restriction, preventing me from even applying."

He sighed again. "I'm an embarrassment to my family. The first member in five millennia to not enter the Royal Academy."

Danya opened her mouth to comfort him but realized that she had no idea what to say. She instead settled on holding him tighter and grasping his hand with her own.

Sala smiled and said, "It's okay, I've accepted it. I had a feeling that I'd have issues with my class but had hoped that it would be something that I could work with. Besides, it's not like my class is weak or anything. I think it has incredible potential if I can get lucky and lift the restriction."

Curious, Danya asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what's the restriction?"

"My class is called Sworn Sword. It's a fairly powerful warrior class, except its strength can only be exerted after binding myself to another through a system-enforced oath."

Danya tilted her head, confused. "Why does that disqualify you from the academy?"

Sala responded with a wry smile. "My power is restricted by a minimum of 90% if I haven't sworn my sword to another, and it's much worse if I break my oath. More importantly, the requirements for the person who would hold my oath are stupidly strict."

Understanding flashed across her face, and she asked, "And you haven't found anyone who meets those requirements?

Sighing again, for what felt like the thousandth time, Sala answered, "Out of all the people that I have met throughout my life, I've only met one individual that qualifies."

Danya perked up at this. "Then you need to go ask them! Where are they now? We can get to shopping later. Your future is much more important!"

Sala gave a slight smile and answered, "It doesn't matter. The individual is destined to achieve great things, and I cannot bear to increase their burden, even by a little. And that doesn't even account for the fact that I don't believe Father would approve of me swearing fealty to another. I am the son of a duke, after all."

Danya shook her head vigorously and scolded, "That's not fair to you! You don't know for certain what your father would say, and I'm one hundred percent positive that you wouldn't be a burden on this person! The fact that you worry about such a thing tells me that you wouldn't allow yourself to become one!"

Sala stopped and stared into her eyes for what seemed like an eternity.

Danya, not used to such an intense gaze being directed at her, began to blush furiously. She chided herself mentally for being embarrassed by this when she could hold his arm between her tits just fine.

Just before steam began pouring out of her ears, Sala shook his head and said with conviction, "You're right. Let's step off here and contact my father."