I stood within the emptiness, deep in the vacuum of space. There was no better place for me to practice my Martial Intent, as I did not need to worry about potentially destroying anything around me. Just to play it absolutely safe, I wasn’t even in one of the primary realms, but rather in the realm that Tsubaki and Dana had once used for research.
Using my ki, I anchored myself to the space around me, creating an improvised foothold while unleashing that same punch again and again. I was constantly activating my Fist Will, focusing all of my effort on destroying an invisible target in front of myself. I needed to master this ability before the next invasion occurred. Having the ability to crush everything with this one punch could very easily turn into a critical tipping point in battle.
Thinking back to the last dangerous invasion I had… I wasn’t able to unleash hardly any of my power, because there were multiple gods that were constantly restraining my actions. The others were generally the same until Mara showed up to turn the tables. If we had the power of Martial Will at that time, the battle would have been a far simpler matter to resolve.
That was why the invisible target I was focusing on was none other than the leader of that invasion, as well as the forces that he had brought along with him. Every time I punched, I mentally measured how many of those gods I would be able to take out at once. Typically, I averaged at about three or four, which was admittedly impressive when I considered the fact that I wasn’t using any martial arts techniques.
However, I could feel the punch constantly getting stronger. Originally, I had only been able to take out two of the targets in my mind. I knew that once my Martial Intent was really completed, I should be able to take out at least half of them with a single punch.
As I was thinking about that, I suddenly felt a new presence appear behind me. A space monster? I was momentarily alert, before feeling something familiar about the sensation, turning around and smiling at the sight of Tsubaki. Not one of her avatars, but the true Tsubaki.
Have you finished your legend? I asked mentally, given that we were currently in a vacuum.
I have, my Keeper. Tsubaki nodded her head in response. I apologize for making you wait, but I have returned to your side once again.
I gave a small smile, looking around for a moment. In the distance, I spotted an insignificant speck in the darkness, a blue planet that was covered almost entirely in oceans. Show me. I told her, before ripping open space to send myself to the surface of that planet.
Naturally, Tsubaki followed along, her hands folded in front of her torso. When she arrived, she swept her gaze across the water, focusing. Green lights gathered around her, forming a large sheet of ice more than a mile across for us to land on. “This should be a good enough location for a demonstration.” She said, before extending her hand.
First, a silver sphere appeared, which she lightly threw out and into the air. Afterwards, a trace of mana and ki followed it, interweaving and forming the physical shape of the avatar. World Sight, Elemental Ki, every energy that Tsubaki had mastered flew out in thin strands, piercing into the cloud of energy as it condensed into Tsubaki’s shape.
“As Scarlet said, the presence of the legend makes it far easier for me to achieve the same result again, allowing me to reproduce the avatars without needing as much concentration. At the same time, it allows my avatars to maintain themselves with only a minor amount of focus on maintaining the balance of their energies.”
I nodded my head at Tsubaki’s explanation. “How many avatars do you have active right now? Counting the one you just created.”
Tsubaki didn’t even need to think for a moment to answer. “This is my eleventh avatar. Currently, I have dedicated avatars training the Monk, Elemental Monk, Mage, Enchanter, Martial Artist, Warrior, Weaponmaster, Ninja, Knight, and Farmer classes.”
“...Okay, I understood why for most of those, but why Farmer? I figured you would have gone with Alchemist, Chef, or even Pilot.”
Tsubaki offered a smile, glancing at her new avatar. “This new one shall be my chef. As for why Farmer, I wanted to use it to experience the new systems that you recently added to the world. Each of my avatars has their own, individual resource pools, so they are not drawing from my energy when they train. However, this also means that they must each consume their own share of resources in order to recover their power. With the Farmer class, I will be able to minimize my expenses in this regard. I plan to develop an avatar for the Hunter class as well, for similar reasons.”
“Right… what is the name of your legend?” When I asked that question, Tsubaki paused for a moment, glancing off to the side.
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“It is… Restless Fox.” My eyes widened at her words, and I could barely refrain from laughing. “Be honest with me, my Keeper. Do you or anyone among the Greater Pantheon decide the legend titles?”
I shook my head quickly at that. “I didn’t even know that they were a thing until Ashley mentioned it. If it’s anything like an advanced version of a normal title, it’s purely decided by the system.”
Tsubaki’s cheeks puffed out slightly at that, but she nodded her head. “I understand. If I may ask, how are you coming along with your own training?”
I smiled, proud of myself. “I managed to complete my Gun Intent, so all that’s left is my Fist Intent now. Additionally, I’ve been working on new domain powers that I could integrate into my fighting style. Watch this.”
I spread my hand out to the side, and six figures appeared alongside me, each one an identical copy of myself. “I based the idea on the clones that you were wanting to make. I can’t use them for training, but having additional beings in a fight at my level of power would certainly be able to make a difference.”
Tsubaki nodded her head in agreement. “I see. In that case, shall we return?”
I nodded my head. Now that Tsubaki was done with her training, I was sure she wanted to take a break for a moment. Well… it was more likely that she wanted to take a break to try to disprove the system giving her the title of ‘Restless Fox’.
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“Tsuba!!” Dana rushed for the elevator as soon as it was triggered, almost lunging at Tsubaki. “Why did you have to take so long to train this time?! Do you have any idea how boring it was without you here?!”
Tsubaki’s smile turned gentle as she looked at Dana, leaning down and patting her head. She knew that Dana wouldn’t be satisfied just playing with one of Tsubaki’s avatars, so she didn’t try to bring that up. Instead… “I’m sorry, Dana. Would you like to play together now?”
“Finally!” Dana grinned at the expected question. She had spent all of this time working on her own various projects, and wanted the chance to do something else for a change, something to take her mind off of work. “What do you want to play?”
“Hmm…” Tsubaki thought about it for a moment. However, before she spoke up, another voice interrupted her.
“I have an idea for something that you could play together. It would also help me out quite a bit.” Ashley’s voice spoke up from nearby as she stepped out of a shadow, smiling down at the two of them.
“Eh?” Dana blinked, looking at Ashley. “No way… is the new game out already? I thought it was still a couple weeks away from the beta phase?”
“It is.” Ashley agreed. “However, I have a way for you two to perform an alpha test of it. It’ll just be the two of you in the game for now, and it will have to be your real selves, not your Virtual selves. I’d appreciate it if the two of you could give me some feedback for how the game can be improved.”
Tsubaki blinked, but Dana immediately nodded her head. “Sure! Should I bring my familiars along? Sienna told me that she’s really looking forward to this.”
Unfortunately, Ashley shook her head. “The game’s not ready for that yet. Right now, I can only bring the two of you in by condensing all of our current work on the game and turning it into a divine ability through the Games domain, given to me by Blank. That’s why it can’t be your Virtual selves, because I will be using this ability on your true bodies.”
Dana hesitated, before giving another nod of confirmation. “Sure. It should be fun to give it a try. How long do we have to play?”
“To have both of you in the game, and fully import our work… the time limit is six hours. Any longer than that, and my divinity is likely to be stretched too thin to properly maintain the different systems. Also, you will not be bringing any of your real world powers or items into the game, as new bodies are provided for you. This will also be true in the final product. However, the final product will allow the Digital Conversion system to be used on it to bring items in and out of the game, once you have the proper resources.”
Tsubaki nodded at that, slowly standing up. “What do we need to do for this to work?”
Ashley smiled wide, holding out both hands. A pair of sleek, metal glasses appeared in each of her hands, and she handed one to each of the girls. “Get somewhere comfortable, and put those on. I created them with my Technology domain, so they are linked directly to my divinity and can interface with the divine game I created.”
Dana looked over the glasses, nodding her head. Given that it was a divine power, there was no need for it to take the form of a larger visor or anything like that. Rather, a smaller form would allow Ashley to conserve her divinity. “You know, you could probably put these up on the Boundless Caravan to ask for beta testers. Anyone who is willing to pay the price you have to exhaust to keep the game up for them can have early access to the game.”
Ashley paused, before shaking her head with a rather bitter expression. “As nice as that idea sounds, the price would simply be too much. Each person would need to pay hundreds of black gold coins per hour. However… I’ll keep that idea in mind. If I can create a divine server to support this power, I should be able to lessen the load considerably. I’ll check if there is something like that in Fragments of Acidia, and if not I’ll try to make my own.”
Dana nodded quickly. “Sure. Anyways, I’m off to try the new game!” She said, pulling Tsubaki along with her towards the gaming room. There was a wide grin plastered across her face, eager to try out the new game with Tsubaki.
Tsubaki simply chuckled, allowing herself to be pulled along. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but complain at the system. See? I can have fun… I’m not always restless.
Once the two of them got to the gaming room, Dana hopped up into her usual chair, Tsubaki taking a seat next to her. The two of them smiled at one another, before putting their new glasses on. At the same time, their eyes lost focus, their bodies slumping back in the chair as their consciousness left their bodies to enter the divine game that Ashley had created.