The key to "winning" in this System was to compound effects. I had [Grandmaster Royal Order] which allowed me to grant quests for my subjects. I sacrificed X of my own Exp for the quest, and that was the reward the subject gained. But all my subjects gained a 3.05 Exp multiplier so long they were faithful to me. But I grouped the fairies into teams, so I could use Exp Split with them. For an imaginary group of 100 fairies, the Exp was divided by 33 and then distributed by all hundred group members. That's another three-times multiplier on the amount of overall raw Exp. Then I got one share of that and half-percent of what everyone gained as tithes. Then each person in the split used their multipliers.
For every hundred Exp I gave out as quests, I got roughly forty-two back and my subjects split more than nine hundred among themselves. The final multiplier was around sixteen times. I intended to cheese it over with the mermaids soon.
Long story short, we had our arts and crafts contest among the fairies. Music, sculpture, enchanting, landscaping, even weaving for the few silkies that attended. The promise of Exp drew other fairies from different realms, teleporting through the network of fairy circles to visit.
Including a particular Scottish-sounding Brownie.
"A'm amazed at whit ye did 'ere, lassy. Mah een ur delighted wi' th' sights o` yer realm," Neep said.
"I'm so happy you came, Neep!" I gushed while holding the ancient brownie's arm. "I fear dire times are coming and I won't be around to protect them forever. I need strong fairies and mermaids if the Realm is to survive and thrive."
What I really feared was that I would slowly lose my power. {Bygone Hero} let me live in borrowed time but every month I waned and shed another level.
"That's guid thinking. Mony dryads hae come tae bond wi' th' trees ye hae 'ere. Pure tough magic, guid enchantments, stoatin sicht. Ah mist say, ah spent a' mah lee in Queen Brenna's glade far fae th' ocean, bit ah dinnae hate th' sound o' th' crashing waves," The brownie said as he admired the environment.
What he said about the dryads was true along the whole spectrum of fairy species. We got a sudden migration flow from fairies that wanted the novelty of living on the island. Even some elves that unlocked the secrets of fairy teleportation came, although they weren't from Fulgen. The elves were a godsend. They were willing to help with their wood-shaping magic to create housing for our explosively growing fairy population. I too could shape wood but my duties as royalty and hostess of the festival left me with no time to spare.
They brought gifts fitting for a Queen from them and a request to visit them in the northernmost forests of Auvanini one day. That made me think of Windemere and the hidden valley where that Tuisto guy lived. I had my doubts he was really a deity hidden here. When I asked the godmothers, they said they didn't know of any deity outside the pantheon on this world.
I needed to go and confront him one day. Why did he want Bundeus' core? Who was him?
I felt the tug of wanderlust driving Arista to leave the nest and travel the world. Maybe I should. Once we had several third and fourth-tier fairies and mermaids here, I could safely leave and go on my journey.
Speaking of the fire fairy, she landed next to us. Brenna was a tall one. "Child, we wish to talk to you. Are you free now?"
She glanced at Neep. "Tis better if ye gang, lassie. Dinnae lea th' elders waiting. We hae eternity tae catch up."
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I guess I am free, now that my escort dumped me!"
"Good. Let's go."
She made a gate and I followed. One less known secret about fairy circle gates was that you could make one linking two spots on the same circle. The rings weren't usually large enough to make a difference but this, in particular, was ninety meters in radius and covered almost the entire island.
Yes, we had an island full of fairies with Portal Guns.
I wept for our would-be invaders.
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"Have you decided on your Perks?" The elder fairies asked me once we reached the meeting room they carved on a particular thick sequoia tree.
We had trees of all kinds. The dryads each had a preference for a particular species, and they could change a tree's type. A botanist would go insane trying to pin us into an ecosystem or another from the tree variety alone.
"I did, godmothers. Although I wished there were three choices and not two. I am picking the first one but I am split between the other two."
I took a piece of parchment with the Perks.
> Deadman's Switch: You can designate one Ability, Skill, Spell, or Perk as your Deadman's Switch. Immediately upon your death, the Switch triggers and the effect takes place. Set aside an amount of MP and/or SP for the Switch. Your maximums are temporarily lowered by that much to pay for the Switch's activation. Should the reserved amount prove less than necessary, the Switch fails.
>
> MP Substitution (not unique): You can use MP in place of SP.
>
> Any Animal Shape: You can take the shape of any animal that ever existed, regardless of size or other limitations.
"You are correct, MP substitution is not unique," Doris remarked. "I think we can arrange that. Yznera?"
I looked over my shoulder and saw a fairy-sized Goddess behind me. For someone supposedly burdened with keeping the world's vegetation alive with only three hours of sunlight a day, she was unexpectedly carefree.
As if reading my mind, she deadpanned staring at me, "This is just a tiny avatar. It uses little of my concentration and power. I have a Quest to reward. It's normal."
If she says so.
At first, I was scared the Gods had learned to hide from my Perks but it wasn't the case. My [Detection] abilities were semi-active. While I didn't need to ping them like radar, they demanded a limited amount of concentration to work.
"No. There are too many eyes on us. I'm afraid we cannot fudge the Quest rewards this time."
"I'm gambling then, to get the MP substitution Perk from the human shop," I told them. "Would a non-elemental spell that boosts my Luck be within the limits of the blessing part of the reward?"
Yznera snapped her finger and smiled at me. "Now you're talking, girl! Luck is more along the lines of the fairies' powers, but I can pull it off."
The loophole that allowed me to purchase Perks by selecting something unobtainable and then having the System give me a voucher was patched some time ago. That's why I needed the Luck boost.
> Quest Reward:
>
> You learned the spell:
>
> * Fickle Blessing of Luck: Boost your Luck paying 7*(Bonus^2) MP/second.
>
> You were granted the following Perks:
>
> * Deadman's Switch (unique): You can designate one Ability, Skill, Spell, or Perk as your Deadman's Switch. Immediately upon your death, the Switch triggers and the effect takes place. Set aside an amount of MP and/or SP for the Switch. Your maximums are temporarily lowered by that much to pay for the Switch's activation. Should the reserved amount prove less than necessary, the Switch fails.
> * Any Animal Shape (unique): You can take the shape of any animal that ever existed, regardless of size or other restrictions.
With fourteen million MP, how much Luck could I add? About fourteen hundred. Now, if I used {Fortissimo} to double the cost and effect, I could get two thousand. Coupling it with an offensive spell and throwing it into a {Sonata}, I could use it for half the cost and double the effect. Fifty-six hundred Luck for one second.
I left the Perk shop open and quickly sung the chorus to "Get Lucky", using a dummy stun spell on the wall to fulfill the offensive part of the {Sonata}. One second was all I needed.
> You purchased the Perk:
>
> * MP Substitution (ultra-rare): You can use MP in place of SP.
>
> MP Substitution and SP Substitution were merged into the Perk:
>
> * MP-SP Fusion (unique): Your MP and SP resources are fused and are now called Energy. All Perks and effects regarding the MP or SP pools affect the other as well.
>
> Reassigning redundant Perks. 4 Perks reassigned, 3 Perks deleted. Recalculating...
Right after my stunt, the System shut down my newest exploit.
> WARNING: From now on, Attribute-boosting spells are limite to 3 times your own Attribute value.
My updated Status gave me over six million more Energy than the previous MP and SP combined. The recovery rate was also about 25% faster. With some fiddling, I changed the recovery values to per-minute instead of per-hour.
> Level 117
>
> Strength: 30+26 (56) / 40 - Dexterity: 34+42 (76) / 40 - Endurance: 40+36 (76)
>
> Mind: 40+42 (82) - Willpower: 40+40 (80) - Charisma: 30+40 (70) / 40
>
> Magic: 40+68 (108)
>
> Ego: 40+26 (66) - Luck: 40+41 (81) - Soul: 40+40 (80)
>
> HP 14.268.502 (5.841 HP/s)
>
> Energy: 29.924.606 (26.879 E/min)
Satisfied with my rewards and now with a way to escape my predicament, we continued on with the fairy cultural festival. Some mermaids with the {Land Legs} Perk and elves among the prisoners also attended.
We had a fun two months of rapid development until a flotilla of warships showed up on the horizon. It seems Virtruria wanted their [Prince] back. Dead or alive, it didn't matter. My hunch and knowledge of Yznarian politics told me they would prefer dead: a martyr to rally the country.