While I was waiting for my divinity to be fully refined, watching the progress of the machine across from me working tirelessly, I began to think about how I could properly train my divinity to obtain the domain that I wanted to receive next. As the Keeper, it was possible for me to obtain the Souls domain as long as I vaguely trained in the proper direction, but I wouldn’t be satisfied with just that.
If I wanted this domain, I wanted to make sure that I fully understood its power and potential. It would be all too easy for me to just gain it and misuse the power if I did not properly grasp it, but that would not really fit the image that I wanted to build for myself. There had been too many times in the past when I only dabbled in different abilities, and that led me to a point where I couldn’t really follow along when I saw someone using those skills at a high level.
The perfect example of this was magic. Although I had been able to pull off great feats of runic magic in the past, that was only due to my Keeper trait of understanding all languages, and the fact that it applied to runes. When it came to geometric magic, I was only able to gain a suitable level of power whenever I copied Ryone. It was likely that even Aurivy would be able to use proper magic better than I would.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and focused. The concept of a soul was something that I had come into contact with numerous times in the past. While Leowynn traveled with me, I practiced Aki Seppo to deepen our bond. In doing so, I learned that a soul’s power could wildly vary from person to person. In the case of Leowynn, she was able to manifest the power of constellations, whereas other people might wield the powers of light or darkness.
In essence, the domain of Souls covered an incredibly broad spectrum of powers. Even the concept of classes was something that was carved into our soul, making it potentially possible for me to edit what classes someone had obtained.
On the other hand, I could go the same path that Dana had with that power. Harnessing the spirits of monsters to fight for me, forming my own legion. An inexhaustible army ready to mow down my enemies.
What is it that I really want to do with this power? I asked myself, reminded of Aurivy’s reason for suggesting it. This was a power I was receiving to ready myself for an invasion. First and foremost, I needed to focus on that front, and develop a method for me to use the power there.
Obviously, the first thing I needed with the Souls domain was a method of extracting information. Most people who were sent off to Keeper battles had their own measures to protect their secrets, and I needed a way to crack that. Saving an image of a soul before their death…
My eyes opened, and I flicked my wrist, producing a circular mirror that hovered in the air before me. I looked into the mirror, seeing myself in it, and confidently nodded my head. This was a trinity that I would be able to properly use, though I would have to run some tests in order to experiment with it.
Of course, I still needed to master the rest of the domain as well. I couldn’t allow myself to be satisfied with merely one part of the greater whole. As I was thinking that, I heard the machine whirring for several moments, before the sound of hammering filled the room. Clearly, it was moving on to the next stage of the forging process.
Back in the Admin Room, Scarlet was sitting across from Aurivy, a fierce look on her face. She looked at the halfling as if confronting the most powerful foe she had ever had to deal with, before her eyes slowly drifted downwards. “I play… the Spirit’s Guard!” She said with a triumphant smile, playing one of the cards from her hand.
Aurivy simply chuckled, casually countering the card with one of her own. “Ah, by the way.” She suddenly spoke up in the midst of their game. “Have you ever given any thought to joining the Divine Caravan?”
“I’m not going to let you throw me off that easily.” Scarlet said with barely a twitch of her eyebrows.
“No, I’m being serious. There’s actually a lot that we could have you help us with.” Aurivy shook her head, setting her cards down on the table to show that this wasn’t part of the game. Scarlet couldn’t help but blink at that, starting to take her seriously.
“Wait… really? I mean, I suppose I could use my tokens like Ryone’s, to make an emergency ki supply. What brought this up?”
Aurivy smiled, going over the conversation that she had just finished with James and the others. Scarlet’s expression turned more and more pensive as she listened. She hadn’t really been planning on making any kind of grand debut. To her, it was fine if it was never even discovered that she was a part of the Greater Pantheon now. Even if someone found out, she didn’t feel like it would change anything, aside from maybe making her nation even more secure. Not like anyone was willing to touch Bloodhave with her protecting it anyways.
“I’ll ask dad when he gets back.” Scarlet answered hesitantly, clearly wanting to know her father’s feelings on the subject before making a decision herself. “At the very least, I don’t want to include any ki-forged equipment. That is Bloodhaven’s only real export, aside from some of our special herbs, but even those can be obtained from the caravan. Without the equipment sales, Bloodhaven will hit an economic decline.”
Aurivy gave a small nod at that. “That’s totally fine. Honestly, we all have stuff that we don’t want to put on the caravan, even though we technically could. For instance, both Ryone and Udona could place the magic cards of Deckan on the caravan under their names, but they choose not to for the sake of Deckan’s economy. As for me, well… technically I could put something up to help people find their true love, but I don’t. My priests have asked me for that too many times to count, but I’ve always refused.”
“…Why’s that, if you don’t mind me asking?” Scarlet spoke up after a moment of hesitation, Aurivy simply letting out a long sigh in response.
“Because a love that is handed to you is as easily broken as it is obtained. Yes, you may find out that you have perfect chemistry with the other party. But, if you’re just told ‘She’s perfect for you’, even by a higher power, that relationship will forever be based on that one aspect. When it comes to matters of love, I keep my blessings for those who have found it on their own, confirming the feelings that they have already accumulated.”
“Even for me, it would be wrong to take away those precious moments. The little evenings where you get to know someone, or the battles where you fight together. Those are all memories that should be cherished, not traded for simple advice from a higher power. They might be satisfied with that kind of thing, but there’s no way I would be, as the one who knows what they’re missing.”
“Besides, do you know how rare it is for there to be only one person that is a perfect match for someone?” She let out a deep groan. “Let’s take you, for instance. There are no less than thirty people in the world that would make perfect romantic partners for you. And that’s just counting Earth, not all the other realms!”
Scarlet’s eyes went wide at that, having remained single throughout her life. It wasn’t that she had never met anyone that she did not like, but she knew that she was different from most. Both the fact that she was the Keeper’s daughter, as well as her station as Empress of Bloodhaven. There was no need for her to consider the matter of a marriage to produce an heir, and part of her suspected that anyone who actively tried to get close to her was aiming for her title rather than her heart.
“Of course, most of those thirty are the general ‘perfect guy’ types.” Aurivy rolled her eyes. “The kind that most people would love to be with. One of them has over a million ‘perfect’ partner prospects, and that’s low balling it. The point is, there is at least someone out there for everyone. As long as you put in the effort to find them, there’s no excuse for you to be asking me to do the work for you.”
Scarlet gave a small nod as Aurivy finished her little rant. “What about your Dungeon side? Is there anything that you have on the caravan for that?” She wondered, having never really looked that closely at the caravan herself. There were simply too many options on it, both from the gods and other people.
Aurivy gave a small chuckle, nodding her head. “I’ve got a couple of things there. The most popular pick is a dungeon compass. It just points out where the nearest dungeon is, so you can challenge it or use it as a point of reference. Though, I do have some items on the caravan that are exclusive to dungeons. Mostly to help them grow, get emergency assistance, or even relocate to a better environment.”
Scarlet nodded her head, but Aurivy grinned. “Your turn, what would you do with your other domains? Aside from ki, I mean. You’ve got Blood and Red to consider yet.”
Scarlet furrowed her brows for a long moment. “With Blood… I don’t know what I can offer that won’t already be available. The blood of beasts is sold by Accalia from what I know, while Udona obviously offers healing tonics. I don’t want to offer the same, even if I could potentially do so at a cheaper price. That would be depriving them of their chances to earn divinity.”
“You’re looking into it too deeply.” Aurivy waved a hand to stop Scarlet. “Accalia would probably be happy if you could produce the blood for her. Do you know how busy she is, trying to keep up with the demands of alchemists wanting the blood of special beasts? She doesn’t have a domain to produce creatures, remember, so she has to actually find everything she needs to kill. That’s why her monster components typically have a ‘shipping period’, unlike most of the divine options from the caravan.”
Scarlet’s eyes went wide at that, nodding her head. “I never realized… she must have an avatar constantly hunting to keep up… I’ll talk to her about taking over the blood aspect. Though, why don’t you bring in Tower to spawn the monsters for her?”
Aurivy gave a somewhat bitter grin. “The only people that worship Tower are dungeon cores, and those that live on his planet. If we introduced him to the caravan for the sake of convenience, it would basically cut off that branch of the market. After all, neither of those groups regularly trade with the rest of the population, so his tokens wouldn’t be in heavy circulation.”
“Until we get another god or goddess to handle monster spawns, it’s being left to Accalia. That said, Ashley and Udona are working with her to set up a monster spawn zone using the Life and Maps domains, so hopefully they’ll be able to take some of the pressure off of her.”
“I see… though, I really don’t know what I can offer for the color red.” Scarlet gave a faint chuckle, her head shaking. “I took the domain because it fit me so well, but that also means that I don’t know how to apply it to others.”
“Mind if I make a suggestion?” Aurivy asked, eyes sparkling mischievously. Scarlet raised a curious brow, nodding her head. “Why not offer a ‘red space’? You could set up a combination system with Leowynn, allowing people to convert a red item into a storage space via your combined domains. Basically, if they apply it to a red surface, they would simply be able to reach their hand into it and grab whatever they put in.”
Scarlet blinked in surprise, having not considered something like that. “But… wouldn’t a storage space like that have incredibly low security?”
Aurivy grinned in response. “Oh, absolutely terrible. Anyone would be able to simply reach into the established red space. It’d be entirely up to the customer to provide their own security. But it would be a storage space that they could easily conceal on their person, and hiding it inside a color like that could remove the concept of weight. Just imagine if someone set it to their personal terminal, where the space would only be accessible when displaying a fully red screen. It’d be just like a personal inventory, right?”
Scarlet simply nodded her head, surprised by Aurivy’s idea. It definitely didn’t sound wrong, and people would surely want something like that.
