As it turned out, Tsubaki’s wait for her points to accumulate was far more rapid than she had anticipated. As the system had put her new proposal on the market under her name, priced at fifty thousand points, she earned five thousand points herself any time someone bought it. With her previous instructions to Dana, that meant six new worlds every purchase automatically.
For the first hour or so, Tsubaki didn’t particularly notice anything strange. She stayed within one of the training rooms of the Sky Citadel, practicing her control over the energies of Demiris. If she were going to create the Contractual Obligation energy, then she would need to make sure that she had mastered the subtleties of Demiris’s various energies. Furthermore, that would make it easier for her to do so when she returned to her Keeper’s world.
After that hour passed, however, Tsubaki began to see the results of other Keepers noticing the new item on the market. Every few minutes, a prompt would appear in the corner of her vision, notifying her that she had earned five thousand points in royalties. Out of almost ten thousand other Keepers, this meant that she needed to sell this system forty times to meet her goal.
Tsubaki, naturally, was more concerned with her own training, so she ignored these prompts, focusing on mastering the method to use mana to open a gate to the afterlife. This would no doubt be her biggest hurdle when creating her new energy, after all.
It was easy for Tsubaki to become absorbed in her training, and thus she quite easily lost track of time. As she sat cross-legged in the training room, creating various spell diagrams above her hands, Dana suddenly opened the door and rushed in. “Tsuba!”
Tsubaki’s concentration shattered, the spell she was working on fizzling out as she looked up, blinking. “Did an emergency come up?” She asked with furrowed brows, causing Dana to blink and shake her head.
“No, you’ve hit your goal, so I had to come and let you know.” She responded, causing Tsubaki to simply sit there, blinking at her.
“My… goal? It’s not been nearly long enough, has it?” Tsubaki asked, slowly tilting her head. Dana, meanwhile, beamed a bright smile at her.
“Over ninety-five percent of the points came from royalties. None of the worlds you had me create have reached the stage to reset yet.” Tsubaki blinked again at that information, slowly standing up.
“In that case… please purchase the first three tiers of information for all four base energy types, as well as the Contractual Obligation information.” Even with the new item on the market, Tsubaki assumed that it would take days to get all of the points that she would need for this endeavor. Now, since it had been cut so short, she instead had to spend more points to buy the information of other energy types to form the foundation.
Dana nodded her head, holding her hand out to create a familiar blue sphere. “I compacted all the data on this, so you can just use it to look up whatever you want.”
Tsubaki offered a small smile of thanks, reaching out to receive the orb. “Thank you.” She said in a soft tone. “Please recreate Demiris with all previous settings, and accelerate it until second tier magic is discovered. After that, let the world flow as normal until I am ready.”
After she said that, she closed her eyes, focusing on the orb in her hands. Although she had said for the world to be accelerated to the second tier, that was only to create a foundation for development. After all, once she was done with mastering Contractual Obligation, she would still need to complete the simulation that she was in.
Thus, her mind dove into the information that she had been given, studying the different nuances to each energy. Every now and again, she would set the crystal sphere aside and stretch her arm out to practice what she had studied. It was interesting to her how the knowledge was so similar to what she knew from her Keeper’s world, and yet just different enough that she could not properly apply all of her knowledge.
In total, the process of mastering the fundamental energies took her more than two full days, during which time she remained within this training room. Every now and then, she could see Dana standing just inside the door, smiling and watching her without saying a word. It was clear that Dana didn’t wish to disturb her training, just wanting to be with her throughout the process.
When she was done with the fundamental training, it was time to delve into practicing Contractual Obligation. This would be the big test. Not only did she have to learn how to create this energy, but she had to master it to the point where she would not be able to fail when the time came. Additionally, she had to understand the process on a deep enough level to reproduce these results in her Keeper’s world.
Thus, this process took more than fifteen days of trial and error, with varying degrees of success and explosive results. Every time she failed, Tsubaki grew more and more determined. Likewise, every time she succeeded, she reviewed what she had done and if it could be improved.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Eventually, as Dana sat on the ledge of the Sky Citadel’s courtyard, she heard footsteps walking up behind her. Looking back, she saw a confident Tsubaki approaching. “Fifty consecutive successes… that was sort of harsh on yourself, don’t you think?”
Tsubaki, meanwhile, merely shook her head. “If I could not guarantee my success, it is as good as ensuring that I would be defeated by my hubris. Sorry for making you put up with all of this on your own while I was training.”
“It’s fine!” Dana assured her with a bright smile. “This is what I’m here for, right? I take it that the show is really starting now?”
Tsubaki’s answer was a firm nod. “That’s right. Now that I have mastered the creation method, there is no longer anything for me to worry about here. Are there any problems that I need to take care of within the world?”
Dana tilted her head, thinking about it. “There are three superstorms brewing along the southern continent, and one decently sized volcano to the north. Thankfully, the volcano territory has been evacuated, but there’s nothing much that can be done about the storms.”
Tsubaki’s eye twitched at that, her head lowering. “Are these storms normal, or the punishment from the system for how many worlds we created and reset?”
Dana chuckled softly. “Maybe a bit of both? At the very least, they’re not extinction level events, though they could easily tear through some cities, maybe even a kingdom or two. Do you want to try doing something about them?”
Tsubaki thought about that for a moment. “Are there any kingdoms in the path of these storms that are particularly admirable?”
“There’s… one. The Elven kingdom of Saeron. They’ve embraced the longevity of elves and taken to seeing themselves as guides and protectors of the kitsune nations around them. Although their military is well developed, they’ve only ever used it to fight back against the monsters or invading nations trying to harm their allies.”
Tsubaki gave a firm nod. “How long is it before the storm will be affecting Saeron and its neighbors?”
Dana let out a soft chuckle. “It’s already there. Their druids are working to reduce the damage as much as possible, but some villages have already been destroyed.”
Tsubaki’s eyes widened, immediately walking over to the ledge. “Send me there.” She said, walking straight off the ledge and allowing herself to plummet towards the world below. She could see the massive storms as she fell, finding herself guided towards one in particular.
As she fell, blue light wrapped around her body, and she soon found herself standing atop a marble building. Powerful winds swept against her hair, threatening to throw her about. I suppose this is another benefit to evolutionary statistics… it’s harder to be affected by severe weather.
Tsubaki attached herself to the rooftop with ki, opening her eyes to look at the dark clouds circling overhead. She could count more than twenty tornadoes within view, and several druids standing in the open with their staves in the air, doing their best to calm the winds.
Closing her eyes, Tsubaki focused. Her power was on full display, but that didn’t matter right now. Instead, what she focused on was creating dozens of small spheres of energy outside of her body. Some were blue, some red, but the vast majority were silver. She could hear someone calling out to her, but ignored the voice while stretching her hand out.
A spell diagram appeared in the air, opening and causing a silver mist to emerge. It wrapped around the silver spheres, reinforcing them. Then, the red and blue spheres began to melt, mixing together to wrap around the silver spheres. Then, these began to melt to mix together as well, green lights flowing in to wrap around the newly created product.
Once there was only one sphere remaining before her, Tsubaki began to compress it, stretching her hand out towards it. “My name is Tsubaki. I create this covenant with myself, to adhere to all promises I set forth.”
As she finished speaking, the condensed orb sank into her hand, vanishing. Although she could feel this new energy, there was no indication of its presence on her status screen. I should suggest an update to the game system in my Keeper’s world to track energies that an individual creates.
Finished with creating her new energy, she opened her eyes, finding an elven druid standing before her. “Are you listening now? What was that? You need to get to shelter quickly!” His voice was raised, having to talk over the sounds of the storm raging around him.
Tsubaki simply shook her head. “There is no need for that. I am here to help.” As she said that, she walked forward, staring at the storm. “My promise is to save this land. My request is to control the energy of nature.” She spoke in a soft voice, a silver light wrapping around her body.
The enhancement from the contract is minimal… it looks like the promise wasn’t strict enough, or perhaps I simply haven’t allowed enough time for the energy to grow. Both were entirely possible, as she had discovered that the enhancement provided by Contractual Obligation directly correlated to the promise she made. And, should she fail to uphold that promise, she would suffer a backlash of energy.
Still… it should be enough. Tsubaki lifted a hand, recalling the information that she had absorbed about natural energy. Originally, the druid next to her hadn’t been able to properly feel her power due to the chaotic situation, but now that it was being displayed, his face went pale.
“Disperse.” She commanded, gathering a green sphere of light in her hand. Once it was fully condensed, it shot into the sky, piercing into the clouds like a bullet. Then, it was as if an explosion had occurred within the cloud, shredding the storm into nothing. The tornados melted away, the winds halted, and the rain came to an abrupt end. All throughout the city, druids stood dumbfounded, unable to process what they had just seen.
“You… Tsubaki, was it..? Who… who are you?” The druid nearest her asked, having never witnessed power of that level before.
“As I said, my name is Tsubaki.” She spoke, turning to face him as the sun shone down on the land again. “And I am the Keeper of this world.”