Chapter 907: Peeping Thelsa

Chapter 907: Peeping Thelsa

Putting aside Tsubaki’s current state, I explained to her what I had discovered about this floor. Seeing that I was being serious about the topic at hand, she diligently listened to my explanation, committing everything to memory. While she didn’t seem all too pleased by the way the Angel nation treated me, she was satisfied with how I handled the situation. “So, what do you plan to do with the Archons?” She asked tentatively, once I was done catching her up on everything that had happened.

“Their queen has agreed to have people move her palace. Once that’s done, I’ll establish a facility around the gate. Until then...” I shook my head. “I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself. I still need to let the people of Fyor occupy the cities that I’ve built for them. I’m going to grab the orb from the fortieth floor to send down, but that will be the last that I’ll directly intervene for the moment.”

Tsubaki offered a small nod of understanding at that. “The fact that you have directly pushed them nearly a dozen floors ahead is already quite a large assistance.”

Thinking of that, I chuckled. “I just power leveled them a little bit. Honestly, you could do it just as easily as I could now. The requirements to do so are rather simple. First, you need access to someone that can open the gates. Second, you need a method like that bracelet for a high level individual to get to the next floor. Finally, you need a method to find the gate and level orb on each floor.”

“Once you have all of that, it would be easy to pass through the floors. However, while those requirements are simple for us, they would be daunting for anyone else. The first one is easy, and the second is doable, but the third... without access to the Admin Room, you would need a highly refined fourth-tier spell or equivalent ability.”

Tsubaki quickly nodded her head, before tilting it slightly. “Would you perhaps be able to create something like that? I recall that you passed an item to the researcher some time ago using a remarkably advanced piece of spellwork that allowed them to track primordial relics across the galaxy.”

I couldn’t help but furrow my brow, nodding my head. “One of my titles allows me to beseech the system once every standard month to ask a magic-related question. It’s a unique title that can only be acquired because of an action I did as a Keeper. Theoretically, I could use it to create a spell to locate either the level orbs or the gates. In order to get both, I would need a way to include both within the same spell.”

“That’s not all that hard, sir.” A familiar voice spoke up behind me, causing me to jolt slightly. Turning around, I saw Dana wearing a black dress, her hair hanging over her shoulders as she grinned up at me

You did that on purpose... I muttered inwardly, seeing the bracelet on her wrist. “Oh? What’s your idea for it?”

“Well, first of all, you’re oversimplifying the scale of magic. A spell doesn’t only have to have one function.” As the apostle to the Goddess of Magic, Dana had likely had that very fact drilled into her skull. “It’s entirely possible for a single spell of the fourth tier to have hundreds of different functions. Of course, doing so requires an exponentially increased complexity. But, if you are using the powers of the system to fill that gap, it wouldn’t matter all that much, right?”

I gave a small nod, agreeing somewhat with her words. “So, you’re saying that I should just package both as a single spell to submit as a question?”

To my surprise, Dana quickly shook her head. “No, that’d be too wasteful. If it’s a spell that only you can cast, there’s no difference between that and having you do the ‘power leveling’ yourself. You can design the spell as an advanced mapping software, requiring that an individual taps into the mana spire at the center of every floor. For a god, exceeding the speed of light is incredibly easy, as long as we reach a high enough altitude that our flight won’t cause negative impacts on the ground. However, even sub-light speeds would be feasible.”

“To go from here to the sky of this world, if I were to fly instead of teleport, would take about fifteen seconds at light speed. If I gradually increase my speed, and extend the journey to three minutes, I can prevent any substantial damage to the surface. Once I’m at the ceiling, I would be able to quickly locate the pillar by simply looking down. If I don’t see it, it would be on the opposite side of the layer, and I just spend an hour flying in any random direction.”

“Any god can do this same exercise without much trouble. Then, once they reach the mana spire, they just have to plug the device you create with the system’s assistance into it. At that point, the mana already being spread throughout the layer acts as your mapping spell. Make sure to make the spell penetrative, just in case the target is buried underground. Unless it is within a man-made structure designed to block divination type spells, this method would allow for most orbs and gates to be found at an average of one hour each.”

I couldn’t help but blink as Dana finished her explanation, about to speak up. However, before I could, she continued. “After getting the result of the scan, make sure to include the option to narrow search results to predefined fields, such as spheres matching the size and material composition of the level orbs, or the black stone gates. Oh, and I only think that this would give us another ten or fifteen floors at most, before the progress slows down.”

Seeing that she was done, I figured it was as good of a time as any to ask a question. “Why do you say that? If the spell works how you described, we should easily be able to get another thirty floors.”

Dana quickly shook her head at that. “According to my estimations, floor fifty-five is our limit for now. Anything higher would be outside of our ability, even if you throw the high level fighters from the other worlds into the mix. Someone like Tsuba might be able to last until floor sixty-eight, but she would be the absolute minority.”

“Once we get past the sixties, you have to consider that the monsters we fight will likely have the same level of raw power as James. Even disregarding his research on different energy types, his raw power is nothing to scoff at. Most gods would be crushed under a full power strike from him.”

That was the primary difference between Dana and Thelsa. Dana created monsters, and didn’t recognize those creations as independent beings. Thelsa, on the other hand, created people, and respected each one as their own person. Although Dana had similarly created a few individual people, Thelsa had never had the chance to meet them personally, only sense them during a brief visit to Deckan.

Then, she heard Dana calling her by name, glancing up and out of the shadow to find the black-haired girl staring straight at her, a small smile tugging at her lips. “You should be a part of this talk, not just sulking there in the dark.”

“I was not sulking.” Thelsa spoke out in retort, slowly rising to the surface. “I merely did not want to interrupt your conversation.”

The Keeper cleared his throat, doing his best to look more composed than he had been just a moment ago when he was talking to the other two. Thelsa merely shook her head at that. “It’s fine. If it makes you comfortable to speak normally, please do so.”

“How much did you hear?” He asked in return.

“Around the time that you were talking about making me your subordinate deity.”

The Keeper let out a long sigh at that. “So, what do you think?”

There wasn’t much point in clarifying the detail of her supposed Saint Body, as she didn’t even know what the term properly meant. Maybe if she upgraded her Shadow Saint title, she would get a hint. “It’s... possible. However, to prevent a clash of divinity, I would prefer if Lady Ashley was the one to do so, if that is all the same. Petra was created by her divine power. I had long suspected that if I became a god, Petra’s existence would cause me to become a Goddess of Shadows, subordinate to Ashley.”

“That’s true.” The Keeper agreed with a nod. “I’ll ask Ashley about it soon, but I don’t think she’d object. She’s probably your biggest fan in the pantheon.”

Thelsa’s brow twitched at that, suppressing the flush that threatened to rise in her cheeks. “I see. For the record... I don’t think that I will really be as strong as you claim my potential is until I become a god. If I do take the Shadows domain, that would mean that my divinity would extend to the shadows I have created. It’s... technically possible for me to train shadows like that now, but I wouldn’t want to create an army of puppets.”

“Then don’t make them puppets!” Dana rolled her eyes playfully. “You have exponentially more territory to work with than either myself or the boss here. You can create an entire civilization of shadows. When they’re not needed to fight, just let them enjoy life.”

“That’s right.” The Keeper added. “If you like, you can create a key between our worlds, to let your shadows freely come and go to both Deckan and Earth.”

Thelsa’s eyes went wide at that offer, having never heard of such a thing. “That’s possible?”

Dana blinked, clearing her throat and glancing off to the side. “Uh, boss... I don’t have that divine power anymore... I had to give it up when I was becoming a Fallen God. Terra warned me that trying to become Fallen when I already had that pseudo-divine power you gave me would result in, and I quote, an apocalyptic boom. So I severed the connection from my end and destroyed the paper.”

The Keeper hesitated for a moment, looking over at Dana. “To be honest, I had forgotten that I had made that title for you in the first place.”

“Of course you did.” She rolled her eyes at that, smirking playfully. “Anyways, if you want to give her a key to the other shadows, it’ll need to be done from your end. I don’t have the fine control to do so anymore, and I’m hesitant to mix the powers of the void with the World’s Shadow. Especially when you’re talking about making her a god.”

The Keeper nodded his head, before looking back at Thelsa. “Well, what do you say? Would you like to expand your shadow to connect with Deckan and Earth?”

Thelsa hesitated for a moment, thinking the offer over before nodding her head. “Yes, I would like that.”