With Tsubaki still in her Trial of Blood, the days seemed to pass rather slowly. To my surprise, Athena’s estimate of Tsubaki’s trial time was actually rather accurate. Almost three days after she began her test, she managed to come out of it with a refreshed face. As usual when she finished the trial, her level didn’t noticeably increase, but she had gained experience of a different sort.

Similarly, Dana returned not too long before Tsubaki, having finished up with her own business of checking on her familiars. The only one to not come back in a timely manner was Lifre, still out exploring the different regions of Fyor.

Even without Lifre, Olympus seemed more lively than the Citadel had ever been, given that most of the gods and goddesses had chosen to have their incarnations living in the city made by Tubrock. Furthermore, it was only a few days after Tsubaki finished her trial that I received the notification about my next opponent. It was someone named… Triaxie?

I didn’t really know any Rank Four Keepers outside of Sarah, so it was no real surprise that I hadn’t heard of them. If anything, I’d be amazed if it was someone that I actually knew. For instance, Sanctum could potentially be at this rank by now, given the systems possessed by his world.

As usual, the first thing that I did when I heard about the pairing was return to my Admin Room and fire off a message into the guild chat. If it was a Rank Four Keeper, Sarah might know them. And, after mentioning them…

EverLasting: Triaxie? Why does that name seem familiar..? Give me just a second, and I’ll check!

Oldbeard: More importantly, are you the attacker or the defender in this one?

EarthForceOne: I’m on the attacking end, but I’ve still got a free attack ticket from last year. So if it’s a monster Keeper or something, I’d be willing to see if anyone would be able to benefit more from it.

EverLasting: Found it! Triaxie is a pretty common customer of mine. It’s been so long since I was paired against them that I thought that they had already risen to Rank 5!

EarthForceOne: If it’s a customer of yours, does that mean that they’re a decent person?

EverLasting: Oh, no! Definitely not! They’re a total tyrant. They buy games so that they can throw them at their world in the form of apocalypses. I got a few refugees from an invasion a few years back. Apparently, if they go too long without playing one of the ‘apocalypse games’ after coming of age, they automatically die. Even worse, the games have true death. And sometimes he just lets monsters from the game loose to ‘simulate’ an invasion.

EarthForceOne: …Surely that wouldn’t be too bad for the gods, but the mortals would have it really rough.

EverLasting: If their methods haven’t changed, then divine powers are locked inside the games, and everyone is forced to start at level one. The only bright side is that power gained in the game can be taken out to the real world.

EarthForceOne: Okay, so this is definitely not someone that I want to trade with.

Oldbeard: Ah… one of those. Yeah, the tyrants that spam apocalypses are the ones that I avoid the most. They’ve got that whole survival of the fittest mindset, and consider other people, even Keepers, as inferior beings. Typically, it’s a mindset where they think that whatever they lived through is worse than anything they can throw at their people, so they should be able to survive it if they are strong enough.

EarthForceOne: Thanks. I’ll give my friend in the Gilded Branch a call to see if there is anyone that wants to buy a ‘Get Out of Battle Free’ card.

Oldbeard: Is it really free if they’re paying for it?

EarthForceOne: …Sorry, cultural reference.

I let out a sigh when I closed that message window, thinking about when I should call Balu. My match against Triaxie wasn’t this month, but next. If I called now, there would likely be a confusion in the scheduling. It was better to call after the month had switched over, when everyone knew for sure who they would be facing that month.

With that in mind, I set an alarm to trigger one day after the month cycled over, long enough that people would have started looking up information on their opponents. After that, it was a return to my daily life in Olympus. Granted, I didn’t spend all of my time there.

Now that I had learned the two Martial Wills, that of the gun and fist, I had to regularly train those, seeking to hone my skills and one day awaken the Martial Intent. I knew the direction that I wanted to go, it was just a matter of training diligently until I reached that point.

As for the others… well, it was hard for me to properly keep track of their own training, given how much of my time I had to devote to training my Martial Will. All that I knew was that our progress in the game was going rather smoothly.

----------------------------------------

“Wait, they want what?” Dana stared at the request on the screen incredulously. It had taken her a few days to receive the report from James’s research team, due to them drafting up a sizable report on what they wanted and, more importantly, why they wanted it. In addition, Dana hadn’t been at Olympus recently to receive it even if it did arrive earlier.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“That’s… not an easy request.” Dana said with a faint groan. In fact, after they decided to abolish the marbles, they had made sure to destroy every trace of their construction method. Their potential as a weapon of mass destruction couldn’t be overlooked, even incidentally, so they had been very thorough. The original mountain where they did their tests had been completely leveled by powerful magic, and all of their computers had been scrubbed of the formula.

Looking back, Dana was rather glad that they had gone to such extreme methods. These days, there were no shortages of artificial or arcane intelligences that could access their personal records. Had they been less forceful in their cleanup, there would have likely already been numerous catastrophes as a result of improper handling.

Though, this is James we’re talking about. And, they are planning to have their energy plant far away from any inhabited world… the problem is, how do I get that diagram now that it’s been deleted?

It had been so long ago at this point that she was sure that she wouldn’t be able to reproduce it accurately. With how many times they had failed to get it right the first time, she didn’t want to risk giving them a flawed formula.

When she thought to that point, she couldn’t help but close her eyes. Hey, Ryone? Is there any chance that you still remember it?

Hmm? Oh, that old spell? Of course, I am the Goddess of Magic, after all. I can easily remember any spell that has been cast in any of Dale’s worlds.

Dana let out a sigh of relief when she heard Ryone’s confident words. Would you mind refreshing my memory? If their plans are right, this could be the key to turn our current situation into an energy utopia.

Ryone simply chuckled at that. I doubt we’ll hit the level of a true utopia, but this would clear a lot of future problems. And maybe create some new ones we aren’t aware of yet. Still… this is all information that exists in the back of your mind. If you tried hard enough, you’d be able to remember it before too long. There’s no harm in speeding the process up slightly.

After she sent that message, Dana was struck with a revelation. In mere moments, she had been able to recall the complex diagram that they had spent months, maybe years to perfect. Now that she had this information in her head, it was just a matter of how to go about using it. Back in the day, it might have taken a hundred normal mages to activate this spell. We even had to bring the boss in for help. Nowadays… it would just take five skilled mages, or one with a considerable amount of backup mana sources.

Thanks to that knowledge, Dana wasn’t willing to risk sending the information over the internet, for fear of it being intercepted. Instead, she stood from her seat, slashing at the void to teleport straight to Deckan.

In order to avoid triggering Chel’s frankly excessive security system, Dana teleported more than a hundred meters away from the research facility, quickly walking towards it. Along the way, she happened to pass a vaguely familiar figure, an elf moving along the same path as herself. “Treisha?” She called out, prompting the elf to turn to face her.

“Oh? Miss Jafer?” Treisha’s face showed a touch of surprise. “What brings you by the office? Or, did you just happen to be in the neighborhood?”

Dana shook her head. “I’ve got to meet up with your boss. I’m surprised I caught you like this. Not busy with anything at the moment?”

Treisha gave a somewhat bitter smile. “Oh, we certainly are. In fact, possibly now more so than ever. I’ll explain when we’re inside.”

After saying that, Treisha led the duo towards the large research building, scanning her palm to unlock the door. Once they were inside, she began to speak. “Up until now, it’s always felt as if those of us on the team were just playing catch-up. James knew most of the answers, but he wanted us to figure it out for ourselves. It was… honestly frustrating. For some of us, it made us feel as if our presence wasn’t even that necessary for the projects that we were working on.”

Dana’s eye twitched when she heard that. “I can imagine… it’s not research if someone already knows the answer from the start.”

“Right?” Treisha let out a heavy sigh. “I actually thought about quitting a few times. But after so long, I don’t know where I’d go. Despite the frustration, this is probably the most fun and relaxed research center around. I bet the others feel the same way.”

“Things changed recently, though. In our latest project, the Saint Graph, James was legitimately stumped for a while. It was the first time that we had seen that kind of reaction from him that wasn’t just trying to convert laws from his world to this one to arrive at an answer. For once, he legitimately didn’t know a piece to the puzzle, and neither did Chel.”

“And let me guess, you managed to solve it for them?” Dana asked in a teasing tone, earning a snort from Treisha.

“Me? No, sadly. Though, it was solved by the team. Eventually, Thea and Nora came to the answer together, and we were able to perfect the Saint Graph. The two of them were even the first to go through it, once the trials were done.”

Dana blinked in surprise, nodding her head. “So you’re happy that you’re able to contribute more, but that also means you’re being worked harder?”

Treisha gave another nod at that. “That’s right. For instance, James had me run to the Boundless Caravan just now to stock up on about two hundred different types of materials he wants to run detailed tests on for some upcoming project. I was just on my way back with the supplies when I ran into you.”

Dana chuckled, giving a wry smile. “I think I’m coming back with the project you’re talking about…”

Treisha’s eyes went wide, the door of the lab opening as Chel stepped out. “You are!?” She asked in excitement. “Does that mean you brought it with you?”

Realizing that Chel had heard everything they were talking about, Treisha’s head dipped slightly, and Dana nodded. “Yeah. Though, I don’t have a digital record of it. I had Ryone restore my memory of the original spell, and I want to transfer it to the two of you using a method that the boss taught me.”

Chel blinked briefly, before nodding her head with a serious expression. Of all people, she knew the importance of secrecy at times like this. “Alright. Just to be clear, is this a method that we can use, as well, or does it require a special energy technique?”

“It should be available to anyone, as long as they understand the concept.” Dana said, before holding out her hand and generating a silvery pearl. She had watched the Keeper use this method to teach them about World Sight, though he had done so through the power of his Souls domain. As for Dana… manipulating her own soul was something of a specialty of hers, so she was able to create the memory marbles without too much trouble.

Chel looked down at the marble, a look of understanding dawning on her face. “I see. That’s certainly a way to transfer secret information. If it were someone else, I’d have to run a detailed analysis on the spiritual energy to prevent any malicious tampering, but I know you’re smarter than that.” Chel said with a grin, taking the pearl and popping it into her mouth.