Seriously… Akashic Records?

What kind of fantasy trope bullshit is this?

[Hey, Johann, have you ever heard of something called Akashic Records]

Having someone so close by who is ancient and is ready to talk, I immediately asked him rather than waste my time trying to look into it myself.

I went on to explain what just happened to Johann, but it seems he only knows what Hero’s Hand does.

As it turns out Hero’s Hand is the counterpart to Lord’s Shadow.

Basically it is just a storage skill.

My personal guess is that Akashic Records is likely an evolution of both.

“Huh, that is kind of lame.”

I couldn’t help but agree with Alice’s comment.

There is probably some kind of useful gimmick if it is the combination of a Hero and Demon Lord skill. But, I have no idea how it works regardless, so I guess I can just forget about it for now.

[Well, what you should be more concerned about is that this is likely an omen of things to come.]

After discussing the possibilities of the skill for a while, Johann said something I wished I could ignore.

[What do you mean?]

[I am thinking that the universe is preparing you for something. You said you were brought here by a god, yes?]

[That’s right.]

Or at least half right.

I am not just a single soul, but a weird mixture of a girl from earth and a noble lady from this world.

It often gets confusing in my own mind as the warped memories try to reconcile and my perspective gets funky on some subjects.

That information is not really relevant to any conversations so I just go along with whatever people assume when I say I have memories of another world.

It is easier that way.

As I pretend that I don’t just find explaining things every time annoying, Johann continues on with the explanation.

[My assumption is that everything has been set up to give you as much power as possible. I am even starting to suspect Lucadon is more involved than they had let on.]

That is something I had been thinking about too.

That stupid demon is just so shady that I can’t see there being any other possibility.

I mean, I just so happened to end up in the perfect place in the first ring to run into them.

Then I coincidentally met all the requirements to become the Demon Lord.

Nah, I am one hundred percent sure that this was all one big setup.

[Damn, that bastard left us behind so I can’t even interrogate them!]

[Hahaha, well good luck with finding that pain in the ass.]

Even Johann can’t find any kind words to say right now.

[Now, as for your ascension I can tell you a bit more. I believe that you have actually met all the starting requirements necessary after what you have just told me.]

Now that is a shocker.

He had seemed to believe that I had not met them before, but after explaining the weird achievements for the Hero stuff and all my other Demon Lord antics, he has changed his tune.

[Then why can’t I ascend?]

[I am getting there, so relax.]

Clearly my impatience is showing despite us just chatting through text.

[To ascend one needs to first resonate with their magic. You have accomplished this already by my estimate of your descriptions. However, it is not that you can’t ascend, it’s that you are assuming that things will work like before and be automatic.]

[I wouldn’t call threading my soul to those cores “automatic.”]

Threading those cores was painful and meticulous work so I really can’t see it as being automatic in any way.

Sadly, I was wrong about that.

[The process after that was simply a natural part of reality as your body shifted. That is why I consider it automatic.]

Now I am sweating rather harshly, as I consider what that means.

Weird, my body should not have the ability to sweat anymore.

I didn’t want to think about it, but there was only one thing Johann could be hinting at.

[Ugh, are you saying I have to disconnect my magic from my body manually?]

[Correct!]

Fuck.

[How do I even do that?]

[First, you need a safe environment. One filled with mana and Qi that matches your own. The more powerful the space, the easier this will be. Next you need to decide on what form your magic will take when it materializes…]

As Johann explains the process in detail I try and think about how Drask explained The System’s way of doing things.

He said that as soon as you reach the proper requirements that you are directed to a location rich in your magic’s attribute.

Once there The System automatically creates a form best suited to your soul and materializes your magic into that form.

Both reaching the requirements and finding a suitable location are extremely difficult considering the dangers in this world along with how The System can lead people to lack understanding of their own magic.

These reasons are why Class 4s are so much stronger than Class 3s, they have proved that they understand their magic and most have managed to invent spells outside of The System’s skill shop.

It is like an amateur mashing preset buttons versus a master who can do everything themselves.

Class 4s are most likely to have little issue being disconnected from The System from what I can tell.

According to Johann, I will need to decide on the forms I want my magic to take on my own and stitch my magic into the world by hand.

I can already see this being far from an enjoyable experience.

As for an environment suited to light magic, golemancy, Qi as well as my Hero and Demon Lord Titles… Well my best bet is to create one myself, which will take a while.

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After getting as many details as I could from Johann I thanked him and started going over my plans.

“I will need to modify a few things so I can have time to make myself an ascension room.”

Mumbling to myself, I turn over to look at Alice who is messaging Prim and the other kids.

“Are you going to wait for me to ascend again?”

Not even looking in my direction, Alice responds instantly.

“Yep.”

By the cube god I don’t deserve this woman.

I smile to myself at her answer.

“Any ideas on what form you want your magic to take?”

Alice takes a moment to think but ultimately comes up with nothing.

“Hmmm. I am not sure, you?”

“I know damn well I want to turn my light magic into wings.”

She starts laughing pretty loudly at my confession.

“You really are hung up on that aren’t you?” Alice says teasingly as she pokes me in the side.

“Of course! Flying would be sooo useful.”

She continues to chuckle at my childish enthusiasm.

“What about the others?”

I have a lot of magics and other powers to materialize, so I have to think about more than just my light magic.

“I don’t know, I wonder if I can combine some. I know I will need to find some way to conceal whatever my Demon Lord Title materializes as.”

“Ah… That is going to be a tough one. Good luck with that sweetie!”

“Rude!”

I pout and flail at Alice’s total disregard for such a huge problem.

Ignoring her laughs I manage to calm down after hitting her with a pillow a few times.

Her laughs never stop though.

“Hmmm, now that I think about it, the Hero and Demon Lord Titles seem to have some connection with the weird starry sky themed notification window and ability.”

My quiet contemplation about that strange notification finally snaps Alice out of her giggling long enough to respond.

“You want to try and combine them into a single form?”

“I wonder if that is what the universe wants.”

“If it is, I am really worried about Johann’s prediction.”

“Yeah…”

If the universe is preparing me for something, I can’t even imagine what would need me to have all this power to fight against.

As Alice and I discuss possible forms for our materialized magics, we pass the time cheerily until we both fall asleep.

…

..

.

The next morning we wake up to meetings, meetings, and more meetings.

I wanted to bash my head into a wall several times, but the details are not important.

It was eventually decided that I would teach my party to use their magic without The System and then disconnect them.

This would be done as part of a whole show for representatives of all the nations in the human alliance.

The Oracle seemed really insistent on it being my team taking the lead.

This would serve as a really good example as I have a Class 1, 2, and 3 in my party who, once this is completed, can then help me investigate the Temple of Rebellion that the Demon Lord is “suspected” to have taken over.

It however takes several days for word to be spread to all the other nations and transport to be arranged, so I have to wait on the whole lesson thing.

The Oracle put a lot of effort into arranging things because she wanted to spread this technique to as many people as possible for the sake of the war against the Demon Lord.

This works out really well for me so I don’t mind waiting.

I am extremely thankful that her paranoia is helping accelerate things so smoothly.

…

..

.

I take a few steps back and forth as I shake off the boredom, the hard dirt crunching beneath my feet.

I am currently standing out in the middle of a large training field for the kingdom’s knights.

All around me is a sea of representatives seated in what are basically really fancy folding chairs, making this feel like a school assembly.

A short distance away you can see the walls of the castle with their smooth stone finishes rising into the air and glowing with mana.

As for the field I am standing in, directly in front of me are the members of my party, Sera, Agera, and Randall.

Alice however is standing by my side and ignoring the glares from a few members of the audience.

It is taking everything in my not to glare back at these assholes who look down on her just because she looks even slightly like an elf.

I will be adding a few names to my assassin squad’s hit list after this as it seems they flew under the radar of Drask’s dossiers on each nation.

The people from my Hero party all look incredibly nervous as there are people from every country on the continent watching them intently.

Personally, I hate this too, but I have to suck it up.

“Ok! Let’s get started.”

I had already given a long boring speech to the representatives alongside the king and the oracle so I can finally start on the lesson.

I walk up to Sera and gently place my hand on the back of her neck.

“Sera, I want you to use one of your active skills on me and focus on the sensation of the mana moving inside your core and through your body.”

Sera gained a lot of achievements in the battle against the stampede so she ended up with several shiny new skills.

She is even right at the edge of reaching Class 2 due to the sheer number of high level monsters she helped defeat in a single day.

Sera closes her eyes and activates some kind of mental attack.

Naturally, it bounces right off of me, but the mana still moves properly as the spell channels activate.

“Good, now I want you to try to replicate that same feeling without calling out to the skill, I will temporarily cut off your connection to The System so that you have to do it on your own.”

This statement gets the whole crowd in a slight frenzy.

Most of the people are just interested in what I am doing and how I am doing it.

But, there were naturally some people who were resistant to the idea of breaking free from The System, some even screaming that I was a heretic.

These people were promptly asked to leave thanks to the rules I set in place with the help of the King and The Oracle.

Thankfully the majority of the audience was receptive to my ideas.

Mainly because I killed off most of the people who would be against me.

But that is neither here nor there.

Monitoring the channels in her core I block off the pathway The System uses to get in without fully locking it out.

Fully blocking off the path is a more involved process and rather permanent so it is not something I can do in a few seconds.

Sera struggles to even feel her mana moving at first, but after switching back and forth between using the skill and trying on her own, she finally manages to cast the spell without The System’s help.

“Great job, now we are going to move on to your passive skills like [Detect Lie].”

It takes far less time for her to locate the skill in her core and understand how it is different now that she can move her mana on her own.

“You already have these skills inside of your mana core and if you want a new one you can look at the structure of the runes and begin building from there…”

Since this is more of a show than a normal lesson, I have to play things up and explain everything like I am talking to a 5 year old.

For the next several hours I go over different methods to develop new skills and how ascension will be different without The System.

The main focus however was getting all of my party members to learn about mana movements on their own and how to start changing skills to suit their needs.

Finally, the big selling point - quite literally if I might add - was my Anti-System Rings and A half collar made of wood and crystal to do the temporary system blocking.

For simplicity I called the device the TWC or Training Wheels Collar.

The chair I have the demon’s using is called the System Breaker by the way.

I demonstrated the collar on Agera and Randall so that the audience could see people making the same progress on their own.

Several hours passed, and when the showcase finally came to an end I was flooded with questions and invitations to other nations.

It took far too much time to calm everyone down, and I ended up gifting the rings and collars to all the members of the audience.

Once I finally made it to bed I collapsed and passed out in moments from the nerves.

The whole situation was extremely stressful and I hope I never have to do it again.

It wouldn’t take long for the fruits of my labor to see results however.

National leaders from across the continent now have multiple golems in their possession that are always spying on everything they do.

Unfortunately, The System was not quite as stupid as I had hoped.