World Keeper

Chapter 1191: The Fox’s Plight

When Tsubaki had arrived at the hidden dungeon via her avatar, she had expected it to be a simple matter to go down at least twenty floors. Given her admittedly extreme level, she thought that even an avatar of hers would have no trouble with monsters of this level. Granted, these avatars actually had a good portion of her strength, each one able to use more than half of her total power. This should have been enough to carry her at least twenty or thirty floors, if not all the way to the core of the dungeon world.

Yet, it was only a measly five levels before her avatar began to be killed by local monsters. Whether she employed her divinity, her special martial arts, or even her divine relics, it was a life and death struggle to simply take down one of these creatures.

After she finally managed to fell the fire giant, with the sacrifice of numerous avatars in consecutive battles, she was skeptical about whether the levels reported by the dungeon were accurate. How could a creature of no more than level eight thousand kill her avatar, when her avatar should have been the equivalent of roughly twice that level, at least.

At first, she considered that this creature must have been an outlier, and went searching for another target to hunt from the same floor. The next creature she found was a water giant, its body like a massive, dark ocean. Unlike the fire giant, this one did not have any form of solid frame, and seemed to flow in a vaguely humanoid shape. A humanoid shape that stood taller than could be seen with the naked eye.

At this size, its power should be spread out throughout its entire body. There is no logical reason as to why it would be capable of attacking with enough force to instantly destroy my avatar. She thought to herself, readying her daggers. She knew that the monster had not even perceived her existence, as she appeared to be less than a single grain of sand before it.

Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself. Against a target so large, the Way of Hidden Truths was useless, so she began to channel the Heart of Combat. As she did, a red aura spread around her body, which she slashed out with one of her daggers. Using her Martial Will, she created what looked like a deep gash in the creature’s leg, though it closed almost instantly.

I wasn’t able to cut cleanly through its leg? She questioned, unsure if she had simply not used enough ki. As she was thinking this, the creature lifted one of its massive legs, stomping towards Tsubaki. It looked as if an entire planet were crashing down upon her, but she didn’t panic.

Instead, she slashed out again, this time directly upwards. Theoretically, if she were able to break the surface tension of the water before it hit her, it would greatly reduce the force of the impact. After that, it should have simply been water, at least in her understanding.

The red crescent swept through the air, striking the descending limb and cleaving a gash into it. Tsubaki rushed up into this gash, entering before it could close again. In her mind, this was the safest strategy to avoid being destroyed by the attack, given that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to move fast enough to get out of the way in time.

However, even still, her avatar was instantly destroyed as soon as the wound closed. This surprised Tsubaki, who had another avatar watching from far in the distance. To avoid getting caught up in the monster’s attacks, it was in a completely different region of that layer, simply watching through World Sight.

With my divine body, I can even walk in and out of a black hole with minimal damage. How did my avatar get destroyed by mere water pressure? She thought to herself in alarm. None of this made any sense to her. If she was helpless before this creature, then there should be nobody capable of slaughtering it.

However, where others may have felt despair at this revelation, Tsubaki instead felt excitement. The simple fact was that she had never had the chance to fight an opponent at this level. Nothing that she faced in the past even came close. And, although it seemed hopeless, she knew that she did have the level advantage. In terms of raw power, she should have been capable of defeating this monster.

All she had to do was identify how she was lacking, and fix those areas. Her attack had been unable to sever the creature’s leg, despite having been infused with her Martial Will. Perhaps her ki wasn’t dense enough, or her will was not strong enough.

If I blindly rush against these creatures again and again, there will be no improvement. I will only be wasting my own energy. I need to create a training plan that is right for me to refine my strength. She thought to herself, turning and flying away. She had a new destination in mind, leaving the water titan back where she had originally found it.

Tsubaki’s new destination was the mana spire of this floor. She had already been there once to register the destination, but now she was going for a different reason. Lady Aurivy praised just how useful the rewards of these hidden dungeons were, so let’s see if they will be able to help me.

Thankfully, going through the previous four floors had earned Tsubaki enough points that she could exchange for runic comprehension. This would allow her to properly ask for her reward, as long as she could find the words to do so.

These rewards could only be obtained through third-tier runes, so asking for an intelligent evaluation of her combat abilities to determine a path of growth was impossible. Such intelligences could only be created with fourth-tier magic, after all.

Instead, Tsubaki phrased her request differently. ‘Evaluate my body according to the level standards of this dungeon’. This would be a very simple request, one which would be more than possible with a highly advanced third-tier spell.

Sure enough, the request was even simpler than she thought, costing only five points. Once she confirmed the price, a number appeared on the screen, and Tsubaki pursed her lips. According to the system’s evaluation, her body’s actual stats, disregarding her skill level, was only a little under six thousand.

With a level difference of more than two thousand, it’s no wonder that my body is destroyed any time I take a hit. With that thought in mind, Tsubaki sat on the floor within the crystal space, crossing her legs and focusing.

While this might have seemed like an insurmountable gap, Tsubaki was acutely aware of the cause. The energy in her body was too relaxed, unused to exerting itself at the level necessary to fight such foes. Even though she had trained so many classes up to the legendary level, she had never pit them against a truly worthy opponent that would push her.

Thinking about this, Tsubaki blinked, before suddenly letting out an uncharacteristic laugh. This problem was one that Tsubaki was acutely familiar with, which was why she was able to identify it so easily. I’ve become like my Keeper.

Her mind flashed back to when she would often train with the Keeper, pushing him to his limits to force him to adapt and grow. His body was so powerful, yet he did not possess the ability to bring that power out to the fullest. In comparison, Tsubaki at that time was still growing, able to use the most of her power to challenge him.

Now, after training in so many different classes… was she any different? The only true difference was that she didn’t have anyone to safely push her beyond her preconceived limits. She would have to overcome these limits on her own.

Realizing this, it was not only this avatar that stopped what it was doing. All of Tsubaki’s avatars halted their activities, whether they were training or performing their chores. The main body of Tsubaki, which stood in her usual place at the Keeper’s side, offered a small bow. “Apologies, my Keeper, but I must enter a period of isolated training.”Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The Keeper looked over at Tsubaki in surprise when he heard that. “Is everything okay?” He asked, and she simply nodded her head.

“Of course, my Keeper. This is not some problem that I need seek the guidance of others.” She assured him with a warm smile. “Once I am done with this training, I should have become far stronger than I am at the current moment.”

The Keeper blinked in confusion, but simply nodded his head. “In that case, is there anything that I can do to help?”

Tsubaki thought about that for a moment. “I would appreciate a leave of absence. In order to perform this training, I need to exert more power than I can do within the confines of Olympus. Additionally, this will require all of my attention, so I will not be leaving any of my avatars behind to act as cleaning staff.”

The Keeper nodded his head thoughtfully. “Of course. You go and do whatever you need to do to train yourself. I’ll be eagerly awaiting your return.”

Tsubaki smiled at that, feeling her Service domain triggered by his words. “I will be as swift as I can be.” She assured him, before turning to walk out of his office, the rest of her avatars following her to leave Olympus.

Tsubaki had already decided on the perfect training ground for herself. While she could have simply set up an educational stream for herself, she didn’t want the training to be so readily broadcast to the rest of Olympus. Those present could find her through the Admin Room if they wished, but it wouldn’t be as easy as turning on her stream. With the plan that she had created for herself, she was worried that those who watched might misunderstand her intentions.

Thus, Tsubaki traveled to the eighty-ninth floor of Fyor, which existed as nothing but an empty landscape. There was not a shred of life to be seen, and those who were strong enough to reach this place would have the means to bypass it and go straight to the surface.

Thus, Tsubaki traveled several light years out, away from both the gates and the mana spire. Only then did she finally stop with her army of avatars. Tsubaki drew both of her daggers, turning to face the army that had produced similar weapons. “Let’s start with… five.”

As soon as her words left her mouth, five of her avatars charged forward, their faces carrying a firm resolve. This was Tsubaki’s plan, to use her own avatars to force out her latent power. Each avatar may have been weaker than Tsubaki herself, but by making them attack in greater numbers, she would pressure herself to dodge all of their various attacks.

Furthermore, if Tsubaki achieved any growth, that growth would feed back into her avatars, further strengthening them as well. As the disparity between her main body and avatars increased, she could have more and more of her avatars join the fight. This was the best training method that she could come up with, as well as the most safe, since Tsubaki was able to keenly sense her own condition to prevent her avatars from dealing a fatal blow.

The only question in Tsubaki’s mind was how long it would take for her to be able to unleash her true power. She wasn’t able to specify a duration for this training because she herself wasn’t confident that she’d be done soon. In the worst case scenario, she would have to ask the Keeper to return to the Admin Room and give her several years to train on her own, to make sure that she was ready for the upcoming invasion.