Erys gave him a weird look before finally speaking her thoughts.
“Why would it be hard? Just declare it yours and be done with it,” she said, once more revealing her draconic heritage with her way of thinking.
Because, why wouldn’t an Elder Dragon just say that something was theirs and expect everyone to accept their words as fact, or just go along with it.
“Because I’m not a dragon?” he asked, getting yet another weird look from Erys in return as she finished her bottle of wine.
“Seriously. You’re stronger than me, so what’s the problem?” she asked, looking more than a little bit confused at his reluctance to just go and claim a portion of a sovereign territory for his own use.
“Because I don’t want endless wars with Muryn? The kingdom- uh, ‘queendom’- isn’t a weak nation. Do you know how annoying it’d be to have to be constantly on guard against their attacks or even assassins?” he asked, shaking his head, exasperated. “Sure, I could wipe out their armies if I really needed to. But why would I when I can just get things done peacefully?”
Erys shrugged again as she started on a new bottle, making him think that some sort of magic was at play with just how much her bust was jiggling with those slight movements of her shoulders.
“Well, I’m sure they’ll listen when I speak,” said Erys as her focus returned to the more important matter of her alcohol.
Joram let it drop, not really caring too much if he convinced her or not, as she’d still listen to him, one way or another.
That they’d been there almost 2 weeks now was beyond his expectations. Especially since the evidence of that group of summoners was plain and straightforward. In his eyes, anyways.
The nearly endless bickering, nitpicking, and political maneuvering that was happening right now was worse than he could have ever imagined. Which, really, wasn’t saying much as he’d avoided politics back on Earth nearly as stringently as people had avoided one another during that pandemic before he’d arrived here, on this world.
Still, the queen, Bryana vas Muryn, had been quite reasonable with helping him with Myriad Wonders and a few of the legal issues still outstanding with that company. Actually, the young queen was entirely pleasant to speak with… compared to what he’d imagined she’d be like, anyways.
At least Bryana was both pleasant to see and to listen to. He’d read one too many manga/manhua/manhwa where the ruler of the kingdom/country/empire was an ugly, fat, old man entirely bent on attaining his own ambitions by using hapless heroes summoned by his court magician(s).
Heck, he’d even read a few where the gorgeous woman who’d summoned the batch of heroes wound up being the worst sort of person/goddess imaginable. But, after a quick [Read Thoughts], he’d surmised that Bryana was actually a pretty decent person, if one tainted by the obligations of a crown and the need to please her court and nobility.
And not quite being twenty years-old wasn’t doing her any favours either.
“So, you gonna try and take her as your woman too?” Erys asked with a wolfish- draconic, grin and a glint in her eyes.
“No,” he said, shooting down that thought before it could take flight.
“I’ve seen how she looks at you,” Erys persisted, practically purring… for a dragon-woman. Dragonkin, as they’d call it here.
“And why would I want that headache, eh?” he asked, shaking his head once more. “Sure, she’s gorgeous, but I’m not one to go looking for more headaches,” he finished, pointedly ignoring the flat look Erys gave him.
‘It actually wouldn’t be too bad for you,’ Avi piped in, choosing that moment to strike when his argument was weakest to counterattack.
‘Why?’ he asked simply, wondering in what universe her words would be true in.
‘Well, if you marry Bryana, you’ll become a king. Well, king-consort, or whatever they’d call it here. That said, her power base would be greatly stabilized while also getting you a decent-sized queendom to make sure other nations don’t come to bother you,’ she finished, sounding entirely too convincing for his comfort.
Then Erys basically repeated Avi’s words, making him wonder if they were chatting on their own Network or something.
“If I’m not comfortable getting any more intimate with Asami or Myra, why in the world would you think that a stranger would be any better?” he asked, now exasperated nearly beyond words.
“Well, political marriages aren’t very touchy-feely, for the most part,” Erys started, using an expression that roughly translated to a more modern English expression back on Earth. “You get married, spend some time here, maybe make an heir with her, and then not have to worry about any emotional attachments,” Erys finished with yet another shrug that needed ignoring.
“I can’t even begin to express just how wrong all of that is to me,” he said as his mind whirled around dozens, if not hundreds, of thoughts all denying what she was saying. “That said, befriending a queen isn’t out of the realms of possibility.
“But first, I need to establish myself in Myrmeze. Once everything is completed, and things are running much more smoothly, I can focus on… getting to know the nobility, and Bryana, better,” he finished, not at all excited to have to shmooze-up random strangers, especially ones like the nobility and royalty here. Or anywhere, really.
From there, the conversation changed to less socially terrifying things for him and moved onto subjects that he loved. Like building and making things.
He spit-balled with Erys for a while as Avi threw in her own thoughts on things occasionally. If he really could get “control” of his land, and perhaps more, then he had more than a few ideas that he wanted to play with. Not the least of which was his thoughts on building an actual Tower.
Yes, with a capital “T”.
With how much matter he could manipulate, or create, he wouldn’t need to worry about supply issues. Then, with his ability to make Dungeons, let alone demi-planes, he certainly wanted to get to experimenting as soon as possible.
Though, with not only [Schism] running, but also [Fission], he would need to take it a bit slower, as the draw on his resources wasn’t negligible. In fact, after having experimented with [Fission] a bit more, he’d found a few interesting things.
Like the fact that all of his resource pools were evenly divided amongst his “clones”. So, instead of having a Power Pool and Mana Pool of 6,536 and 4,650 respectively, with two of him running around, they were 3,268 and 2,325 respectively.
With three of him, they were 2,178 and 1,550 respectively. So on, and so forth. It also divided his resource regeneration rates the same way. Which, really, was fair considering that even with four of him around, he was still a ridiculously powerful caster-type.
Funny enough, his actual Attributes weren’t divided. Which, while awesome, felt a bit broken to him. He’d gone so far as creating five clones, and still they’d been more than enough to contend with anything he could find. Namely anything in his Dungeons back at the manor.
So, even with the reduced resource pools and regenerations rates of said pools, he was still more than enough to deal with the S-Rank Dungeon he’d added to the bottom of his farming Dungeon. It went from Levels 31-40, all of which were solidly in the “S-Rank” of things. Sure, he hadn’t gone right to the limit of S-Rank, which was Level 45, but the tests had been good enough, in his opinion anyways.
His raw stats were more than good enough to deal with those threats, especially when he was using his Soulknife and Soulbolt class features, let alone when those five clones were working together to take down those monsters. Which had also had the benefit of providing many S-Rank Cores, not to mention new meats and materials for the crafters… when they got high enough level to use them, that is.
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All-told, he was confident that he could proceed with his plans, even if there was resistance from the Crown or the nobles.
“I think that I’ll leave one of me here and continue with my search for the descendants of the World Tree,” he said, bringing their conversations to a close.
Erys just shrugged again, not bothering to go over the point once more. She’s already told him that he was on a fools’ errand with trying to find them all, even after he’d shared his [Quest] from the System.
“Just don’t ignore my advice with the queen,” Erys said before heading off to take a nap.
He was about to once more deny any such thing when Avi also piped in her agreement before cutting off the line, as it were.
Now slightly grumpy, Joram pulled out his guitar and began strumming as he started to plan things out a bit more.
* * *
Stubborn one, Avi thought as she sat at her desk in her office at the Academy, going over the few reports she received from the various instructors. Really, it could have all been condensed to one page given how little there was, but at least it gave her something to do other than worry about Joram. Or Joram Prime, or Avi Prime, for that matter.
She’d been getting more and more from her… link to Avi Prime, or maybe Avi Aneath would be a better appellation? She shrugged, as it really didn’t matter. What mattered was that Joram Aneath was much more… outgoing, than Joram Smith was. Not to mention exponentially more powerful, in his own way.
Well, on a power scale, he was. On a “break the world with what he could do” scale… he was still up there. But with what this System had given Joram Smith, she truly wondered what it was planning, if indeed it was capable of planning things out.
She was inclined to believe that it could, given the interactions Joram had told her about, let alone the various notifications he’d received that very much pointed to- at the very least- a sentient System, if not an outright sapient System.
Then she wondered, not for the first time, if Altaea had somehow influenced or outright changed the System before she’d wandered off again. Why else would the System seem to favour Joram so much? Like, she was sure that with his current class abilities, he could actually try to take over the System if he really wanted to. But would he?
Hells, no. He was certainly less ambitious than Joram Aneath was, that was for sure. Which, really, was probably for the best.
But what was the System’s goal there? Why give Joram Quests? Why was the World Tree so important to it? Or, rather, the descendants of the World Tree?
Too many questions, too few answers for her liking.
Well, at least she was now free to act autonomously now that she had her own body, something she thanked her Prime self for having worked out already. Along with many other things. Which led her to reviewing what Joram had shared with her about his ridiculous Path, [Creationist].
She then mentally reviewed their stocks of Dust Crystals and nodded to herself. With all six Jorams producing Dust Crystals over the past couple of weeks, they now had almost a hundred thousand Dust Crystals in storage, more than enough to bump her stats to what they needed to be to qualify for [Creationist].
It was just that… did she really want to? She knew that her Prime Self had gone that route: cultivating the same way as Joram Aneath. But was she destined to just do the same things as her host, as Joram? Could she find, with Joram’s help, a Path that would compliment his? Or should she double-down and just go with it, as it were?
But with Joram’s- evidently unprecedented- access to the System, wouldn’t that be a waste? Even if she didn’t go with the other options the System gave her, she should still qualify for [Creationist], right? So, what was holding her back?
Uncertainty, that’s what. She didn’t know what the goal of the System really was, nor what power it might hold over her should she take a Path, effectively tying herself to it, and what it allowed her to do.
Though, she had already learned dozens of Skills from the Skill Books that Joram had given her. So, was she already “trapped”? Upon further reflection, she supposed that she was.
Avi shrugged, then withdrew a sizable pile of Dust Crystals from Joram’s Realm and stared at them for a while as she thought.
With how Joram had gone through the stat increases, she was confident that she would be able to do the same, especially after having used a stack of crystals to increase her [Pain Resistance] Skill to the “Greater” stage. Which would hopefully mitigate, if not negate, the negative aspect of pushing her Strength Attribute past its limit. She’d also increased her [Toughness] Skill, hoping that it would also help mitigate the negative effects of pushing the limit.
With a sigh, Avi instructed her additional Minds to monitor things as they progressed, as well as tasking them to keep her healed if the need arose. Well, she hoped that [Schism] would keep running if she fell unconscious or was otherwise incapacitated by what she was about to do.
* * *
Kasumi Shirogane looked over at the “Japanese” [Heroes] and wondered again if her people and theirs had had… interactions in the past. They certainly looked like anyone from her tribe would, if they weren’t so dark-skinned and had white hair instead of their black hair.
Mentally shrugging it off yet again, she focussed on the kata that she was learning with the others in Myra Manelle’s class. It was certainly much more difficult than anything she’d ever needed to do before this, and thus demanded much more of her attention than the morning’s class did.
Right hand up, palm out, rotate wrist just so, step in while keeping her centre of gravity balanced, then a strike with her left hand to the training dummy’s torso. Step back, breath, repeat, though with her left hand leading this time.
Given how young she was amongst her people, she hadn’t gotten around to choosing a Path just yet. She was still holding off on doing so, especially with just how much she was learning, and gaining, while training in Joram Smith’s Academy, as he called it.
If he was to be believed, anyone who trained extensively before choosing their Path would have much greater gains once they chose one. They would even get offered a better Path, something that she’d wondered about more than once in the past. For if those more privileged- rich, if she was being truthful- could get offered better Paths, it would make sense that those Paths came from special training that they’d gone through.
All because they had the resources- physical, financial, and academic- to allow for such. Now? Now she had all they did, and much more, if she wasn’t wrong about just how ridiculous Joram Smith was. [Skill Tome]s for top achievers! Those were supposed to be so rare that they sold for gold coins, at the very least! And that was for the [Common] grade Skills!
Kasumi suppressed a yelp when her strike connected wrong with the training dummy, causing her to bruise her knuckles something fierce. Reprimanding her lack of focus, she shook out her hand as she waved away Myra Manelle’s inquiring look with her left, and uninjured, hand.
Normally, something like that would have had her seeking treatment. But now? Now, she just used a bit of her [Cryokinesis] to cool the throbbing enough for her to continue. Well, continue with another kata, that is.
*Ding!*
Kasumi smiled as she read the notification from the Great Protector.
Congratulations!
Through your hard work and perseverance, you’ve gained the following Skill:
- Pain Resistance
Congratulations! You’ve leveled the following Skill:
- Pain Resistance 1 -> 2
Kasumi wasn’t sure how to feel about gaining 2 levels in a new Skill like [Pain Resistance], making her think that maybe she’d done more severe damage to her hand than she’d initially thought. But then chose to ignore those thoughts in favour of pushing on. She very much wanted to become an asset rather than a burden for Joram Smith- just “Joram”.
She silently chided herself for not calling him by just his given name as he’d repeatedly requested of them since he’d bought and subsequently freed them all. The least she could do for him was to address him how he wanted to be addressed.
So, she started on her footwork, paying close attention to her balance, as well as where her arms were. Improper arm placement while moving about could cost you an arm. Literally.
Now properly focussed on practice, Kasumi flowed through her forms with a grace that would have astonished her past self. All because she wanted- no, needed, to better herself. Nothing to do with the dozens of other young women who were doing the same. Likely for the same reason.
No. Nothing to do with that whatsoever. Nope.
* * *
“So, Kal,” Jin said, motioning towards the rows of young women hitting strange rotating posts in the ground. “Anyone catch your fancy?” he finished with a roguish grin, letting Kal know exactly what he was thinking.
“Not so much that as wondering if I should join them,” he said, not wanting to get dragged into yet another conversation about picking up girls with Jin.
“No, hear me out,” Jin said, slipping into his salesperson-like persona. “There’s almost a hundred girls that that guy Joram bought. I’m sure that they’re all wondering what they’ll do in the future. So. Why don’t we head over, perhaps join them in their exercise, and start planting the seeds, as it were.
“That way, when they’ve thought about things more, they’ll be more amenable to our incredible charms!” Jin finished with what he likely assumed to be a winning smile, but just managed to come off as a slightly desperate young man in search of a girlfriend.
Kal really couldn’t blame him. Since Joram had gone and practically single-handedly saved Kirkwall from that Overflowing Dungeon, almost every young woman- and some not-so-young ones- had all basically fixated on the young man. It didn’t hurt that he was somewhat attractive, not to mention just how ripped the guy looked. Pair all that with the fact that he seemed to genuinely be a good guy and was seemingly filthy rich….
Well, all that left the young men of Kirkwall in a state of romantic despair.
“I think that you’re forgetting about one very important detail,” Kal said with a sigh.
Jin poked him until he spoke up again, though Kal’s eyes were on the issue, as he saw it.
“Myra’s in charge of those classes,” he said, nodding his chin towards his twin sister.
“Yup,” Carson said, finally joining their conversation. “She may have mellowed a bit over the past few months, but have you so soon forgotten the beating she gave you? What do you think it’ll be like now that she’s got a Class that boosts her hand-to-hand fighting?” he asked, giving Jin the flattest of looks that could have been used to plane a countertop.
“Crap,” Jin said with a sigh, obviously remembering the pain inflicted upon him not-so-long-ago.
“Crap, indeed,” Kal said, nodding sagely. “Maybe we’ll have better luck if we approach Asami Miki’s class?”
Little did they know that Myra’s class was the one that would have gone easier on them….