World Keeper

Chapter 1200: All For One Goal

Jonas sat in his control room, eyes glued to the screens before him. He could leave most of the monsters to his community to defeat, but he would need to use the turrets to cover them. If anything slipped past the group, and the martial division wasn’t able to take care of it in time, it would be up to him to shoot them down.

“Really wish Pierce gave us proper information for times like this.” He muttered under his breath. If they had been properly prepared for what was coming, they wouldn’t have needed to waste time with the initial survey.

Of course, he knew that that was a bit too much to ask for. Most prophetic abilities had restrictions on how much detail they could give, in order to lessen the amount of energy they would need to consume when peering into the fabric of fate.

“Bria!” Jonas called out as soon as he sensed the scouting team returning. “Send a message to Earth, and let them know that we need a security team dispatched to Sevast Pole.”

“I’m on it.” Bria reported, rushing back to her console.

Even if the karma system just went down, this is too many monsters. Jonas thought to himself, aiming the turrets at a few serpentine creatures that passed by the troops outside. There must be a nest nearby. They were lucky enough to have the creatures ignore them previously, due to their karma, but now this planet is a buffet.

Such planets like this should be incredibly rare, since karma typically had a way of balancing itself on a large scale. For instance, if just one person with horrible karma had come to Sevast Pole, then the helpful attitudes of the natives would have turned against themselves, tainting their karma and ending the feedback loop.

Likewise, it was even more difficult for a nexus like this to appear with negative karma, because that would imply a large community of people with such bad karma all helping each other, without causing any harm to one another. Which, if they could do that, would result in them not having such bad karma in the first place.

With every enemy that pierced through the wave of troops, Jonas quickly aimed the turrets. Every now and then, one of the people outside would perish, and Jonas could feel their divinity returning to him. Thankfully, he had long ago constructed a facility within his city that would allow for the members of his community to revive again, so long as Jonas himself survived.

Pierce looked down at his notebook, a small smile on his face as he noticed Sevast Pole’s name returning to normal. Jonas was always a reliable comrade, partially because he was largely removed from the rest of society. This made it very easy for Pierce to talk to him without worrying about information making its way to unwanted ears.

Flipping through the rest of his notebook, he saw that several of the other planets with previously marked names were similarly being resolved. With a small nod, he confirmed that solving Sevast Pole’s issue led to an awareness for other planets to increase their own security forces.

He hadn’t immediately been aware of just what problem Sevast Pole was facing. If he had, he really would have told Jonas in advance. However, he was able to get a better understanding as time went on, especially once Jonas himself deduced the correct answer. 

Closing his notebook, he looked up at the blue sky above, his thoughts drifting to what other future changes would result from the removal of this ancient system.

Within the uppermost floors of the hidden dungeon X-444, a fierce battle was underway. Tsubaki danced between more than twenty of her avatars, her body growing more and more relaxed the more they pushed her to her limits. As she grew, the disparity between her and her avatars became wider and wider, allowing her to comfortably handle more of them attacking at once.

These avatars were not under her direct control, and were all operating with their own awareness. Thus, Tsubaki could not easily predict their movements. Some of them attacked like assassins, sneaking in between the attacks of others, while some bombarded the area with beams of deadly light.

At first, Tsubaki had struggled, barely able to handle two or three of them at once. Now, however, it felt as if invisible shackles had been removed from her body and mind. Her energy was flowing more smoothly, and her mind was able to easily process attacks faster than when she had arrived.@@novelbin@@

There were still more than twenty of her avatars standing off to the side, but Tsubaki didn’t call them to join the battle. It was not that they would be able to overwhelm her, but rather there was practically no room for anyone else to join the brawl. At least, not as long as they were fighting in such close quarters. Let’s increase the difficulty. She thought to herself, transmitting a command to her army of avatars.

Immediately, the large group dispersed, scattering in all directions as specks of light. Now that Tsubaki had adapted to close-quarters combat, it was time for her to adjust to fights on a grander scale. After all, the attacks that she had to dodge were from beings that could use lightyears as a casual system of measurement. Simply being able to dodge attacks from her immediate vicinity would not be nearly enough.

Tsubaki’s ears twitched, and she bent her body back until her shoulders nearly touched the ground. A blade of ki swept over her body, slicing into the ground next to her. The order that she had sent to her avatars was simple. It was time for a true death battle. They would scatter and do everything in their power to kill her, while she would similarly attempt to kill them in retaliation.

In this fight, Tsubaki realized that she had reached the limits of what she could reliably train with her avatars, and now she needed to consolidate all of that training into her combat style. For this reason, it was fine if she killed off her avatars, as she could recreate them later for the purpose of housework or other chores. 

As for the possibility of Tsubaki losing and being killed? While it was certainly possible, Tsubaki did not foresee this being a likely outcome. If it did, she was aware that the Keeper had ways to return her to the mortal world at this point. Even if she died, it would merely inconvenience him in terms of points, whereas success with this training would mean that she would return more powerful than ever before.

While she did not want to inconvenience him, this was a calculated gamble. Tsubaki stood upright, extending her arms to the side and producing a pair of pistols. Her body launched into the air, flying in the direction that the ki blade had come from.

When she sensed the avatar that had attacked her, she began firing her pistols in rapid succession. Bullets made of pure ki flashed out and seemed to disappear into space, immediately landing on their target and piercing deep holes through the avatar’s body.

This was a martial will that she had begun to master during her training, and she referred to it as Speed Will. One of the biggest problems with her attacks was the fact that they were too slow and weak to handle battles at this scale. Strong monsters weren’t harmed by her strikes, and she couldn’t even hit the faster ones. Thus, she considered what forms of energy would be suitable for this training.

In the end, she settled on developing new martial wills. These were relatively easy to acquire with her level of understanding, and would be able to smoothly interact with any of her other ki-based energies like the Heart of Combat.

Tsubaki watched as the clone began to dissolve, its core accurately pierced through by one of the bullets. However, before she could celebrate her victory, a bright light began to shine above her. Looking up, she saw countless streams of light pouring down from above, each one a dense laser filled with destructive power.

Tsubaki took a deep breath, channeling her Speed Will into her feet. Then, she seemed to vanish, just as the beams struck the area around her. When she reappeared, she was standing in midair, a dozen meters behind another of her avatars, and holding its severed head in one hand. It’s amazing that my mind can keep up with my movements… that means that there is still room for my body to adapt.

Tsubaki tossed aside the dissolving head, looking at the swarm of attacks that came in from the distance. Her grip tightened on her pistols, ready to prove herself ready to continue challenging the dungeon.

Terra and Irena sat within the Admin Room, watching the scene of Tsubaki slaughtering her avatars. Terra had a confident smile on her face, while Irena looked over at her in confusion. “Terra?”

“Yeah, Renny?” Terra asked, glancing back at Irena with a gentle look. “Something on your mind.”

Irena cleared her throat slightly, nodding towards the screen. “Yeah, I was just wondering… why didn’t you just tell her about the optimization procedure?” Irena asked, looking back at Terra. “It would have the same effects as this training that she’s doing, right? Bringing her energy up to its optimal state.”

Terra couldn’t help but chuckle. “Maybe. Honestly, the main reason is because it’s Tsubaki. For anyone else, I’d recommend that procedure, but not her. After all, her levels are higher than anyone else’s. Which means that her energy body naturally has more that it needs to adapt to.”

“Really?” Irena asked in confusion. “But, didn’t the procedure work fine for Dale?”

“That’s because Dale took it with his normal body, not with his Keeper stats active.” Terra pointed out. “James doesn’t have any data when it comes to using his device on someone with as much energy as Tsubaki, or Dale in his Keeper mode. There is a chance that the procedure could work, of course. However, in my opinion, it is far more likely that the devices would just fail to activate. Remember, they’re built to shut down if they detect any resistance. Having an unusually dense energy body could qualify as enough resistance to stop them from working.”

Irena blinked, but ultimately nodded her head. “I see… still, there should be less dangerous ways for her to achieve the same result. If Aznod used his Optimization domain on her, for instance, it should work even if she is this strong.”

“It might.” Terra agreed. “However, this was the decision that Tsubaki herself came to. She doesn’t just want to optimize her energy body, but she wants to adapt to combat of a higher level than anything she has experienced before. In her mind, the natural answer is to push herself to the limits with live combat.”

As Terra said that, the two of them watched as Tsubaki’s arm was severed by an invisible blade of energy that swept past her while she was dealing with another of her avatars. “This is also increasing her understanding of her own techniques. Though, I know why you’re really questioning this.” Terra spoke up in a teasing tone, causing Irena to flinch. “You want her to value her own life more.”

Irena groaned, before letting out a long sigh and nodding her head. “I spent so long training her to value her life before, and not be so reckless. Now that Dale has the ability to pay points to send Companions to the mortal world, it feels like her last excuse for self-preservation went out the window.”

Terra chuckled slightly, shaking her head. “Once she’s done with this training, we can fix that. He might be able to use points to send her back again after she dies, but… she isn’t considering the cost. Tsubaki’s not just your average fighter. She’s essentially strong enough to be a second Keeper, although lacking access to the varied domains. It would cost… between half a million and a million points to send her down after she dies.”

Irena’s eyes widened at that, her jaw hanging open. “Tsubaki’s existence alone is more valuable than the Digital Conversion system?”

Terra nodded her head. “If Tsubaki truly wanted to, she could conquer entire universes with her full power. I can’t even confidently say that the Greater Pantheon would be able to stop her at this point, unless the Origin of Fate worked together with at least three or four other combat-oriented members. So, let her know that if she allows herself to be killed, it will probably be a long time before Dale has the points to spare to bring her back.”

Irena gulped, nodding her head. She would rather tell Tsubaki about that right now, but knew why Terra had said to wait. If Irena distracted Tsubaki right now, there was a greater risk of danger, and Tsubaki’s efforts with her training would be cut short. However, given how casual Terra was being with this… “You’re using your incarnation’s power, aren’t you?”

Terra glanced over with a knowing smile. “There’s not much that I can do directly, but I can at least tip the odds in her favor to help her survive this hell of her own creation.”