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Chapter 436: A Job Just Unique For Me. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2023-07-19 07:43:34 +0000 UTC_____________________________________________________________________
Job: Star Idol
Benefit Slots: [Musical Crescendo] [Bardic Cadenza] [Heavenly Performance] [Musical Renaissance Diva Lv. 1]
Level: 30/30
Prestige Level: 5
_____________________________________________________________________
Job: Fire Mage
Benefit Slots: [Magic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 4] [Fire Element Lv. 1] [Arcane Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1]
Level: 35/35
Prestige Level: 10
_____________________________________________________________________
Job: Tyrant Hatchling
Benefit Slots: None
Level: 30/30
Prestige Level: 8
_____________________________________________________________________
<[Star Idol] Prestige Points: 5
[Fire Mage] Prestige Points: 5
[Tyrant Hatchling] Prestige Points: 8
You may spend your prestige points after your unique Job evolution>
<Evolution choices for [Idol Tyrant Hatchling]. Evolution choice affected by unique choice from [Star Idol]’s [Musical Renaissance Diva], [Fire Mage] evolution
- [Tyrant Diva]
- Benefits: Skill evolution [Draconic Roar], [Draconic Barrier], [Benevolent Aura]
- [Dragon Diva]
- Benefits: [Heavenly Performance] evolves into [Heavenly Performance Act 1], Job evolution [Star Idol] + [Fire Mage]>
“And those are my options,” I told everybody of my Job evolutions, before taking my hands off the moist, freshly planted soil. I stood back up. “Okay, done!”
Cernust waved at me, shooting me a thumbs up after Rita and Tasianna also stood up and dusted the soil from the hands. Pulling some seeds out of his pouch, he spread them on the outer ring of the garden field, and once done, turned back into his two-floor house-sized drake form. The moss and wood-like carapace covered dragonkin roared and shook his head, loosening up his antlers.
“It’s been a while,” he said in draconic, or that’s what I believe he said. My mastery of the dragon tongue was still at the very bottom, as I had no need to practice it.
He then smacked his tail on the ground, sending some dirt flying onto him, before he roared again. At the same time, I activated [Mana Eyes], noticing mana streaming from his body into the ground to create something like a root system. Rita did the same, but unlike our drake friend, her body was slowly digging itself into the ground, essentially rooting herself in the ground like the dryad she was.
Once the both of them were done with whatever they were doing, Cernust then cast a brown magic circle on the entire room, causing the seeds within it to speed up their growth to the point we could see them sprouting from the ground. The outer ring of this large garden was mostly grass with a couple of trees, while the very middle was our alchemical and botanical fields. If we added a river or pond, this place could be an amazing recreation room.
[“Rita and I spread the mana we injected into the ground as far and wide as we could. Make sure every little guy gets its fair share of draconic mana,”] Cernust explained.
“Oooh, you didn’t get to feel it, but you know the insects and super small beings inside the ground—those microorganisms mentioned in the description? I got to touch them with my roots! The ones from the divine soil!” Rita cheered, almost squeaking. “Soil made from the gods! Ahhh, I am walking on blessed ground! Ahaha, they feel so good to touch. Made my roots feel so comfortable!”
She might be a faefolk, but she still had the body of a plant, so her feedback on this was the closest we could get aside from asking spriggans. Speaking of …
“They like it, Lady Hestia!” Tasianna exclaimed. “They are really enjoying the field, right now. Some even mentioned wanting to stick around and live here, even if it feels ‘cramped.’”
Tasianna was a fae whisperer after all, so I had her cajole from spriggans to come and live inside the subspace as free labor. To simulate an actual garden, we also had to emulate an actual ecosystem to assure our plants were of the highest quality, and that meant getting some lesser faefolk inside—a fact Cernust and Rita heavily emphasized to us.
Spriggans, though, were nature loving faefolk and found the subspace extremely claustrophobic to live inside, as they couldn’t open the door to exit by themselves. Healthy soil and solar energy were needed for us to start a garden, but spriggans were like the topping on top, as they spread mana naturally around without Rita and Cernust’s help. By living and playing inside this garden, they made sure Rita and Cernust didn’t have to constantly come over and make sure the mana was well balanced.
As such, I couldn’t be happier, as the divine soil Bleidla gave us everything we needed to assure our ecosystem was as close to natural as possible. We didn’t need new soil or the wind to spread pollen, as the microorganism inside the soil made sure the soil would remain fertile. No need for slash-and-burn or crop rotation, essentially.
“That stubborn basthuda can actually do more than forge, huh?” Grimnir smiled as he touched the ground.
Tatsuya clapped, grinning widely as he looked at a large patch reserved for our fulinoe leaves. “Couldn’t say it better! We upgraded from that small garden inside the RV into this huge place! One, two, three—there are so many more fulinoe plants now! We can sell even more boxes to the Sarlenzia company while keeping our own stocks full!”
“Good to hear, but what do we do with the RV now?” Kyouya asked.
Grimnir shrugged. “What do you mean? We’re still gonna have to use it, lad. Just because we’ve been using the nexus all this time, doesn’t mean we can just walk to places we haven’t been yet. Or, you want to get on the lass and fly over there?”
Kyouya apologized to me, but I told him it was all right. With this new garden, the need for our RV has been reduced to a traveling tool, but we’ve been using it for that function alone for a long time already. Admittedly, it was slow, but so was traveling in general. The only way to improve it was to switch from it being pulled by Saori’s shadow pack to something else … Which was an idea Daichi shared with me.
“We could always turn the thing into an actual RV. Put a motor in, and it’s a car,” he stated nonchalantly, as if it was obvious. “The issue is that neither Haruka or I know how to make one. You can only learn so much from physics classes; nobody in our class has a background in the automobile industry.”
“Well, if we’re thinking of the same kind of motor, then we can always ask the railroad guild for tips on their engine. The issue is that compressing it for the RV will probably be an issue,” Grimnir replied.
The main power source of this world was mana, after all, and that meant manatech was everywhere, instead of coal-fueled or electricity based machines. The train I rode was mana-powered, and Daichi just confirmed none of us could recreate a car motor properly. We had to use this world’s tech if we wanted to make any progress, unless we had as much time as the Revolution Queen to create something revolutionary.
Well, it didn’t matter to me that much. I preferred slower adventures over all the hecticness recently.
With the garden now ready, it was time for Tasianna to take care of the rest as our botanist. I turned to Gravy and inspected its mana.
<Total Mana: 1048>
Takes a while. Well, at least it can walk around the garden now.
“Do you guys believe monsters can spawn inside?” I asked.
Cernust shrugged. “Considering you have the training room right next door, but nothing has happened yet, then I guess you have nothing to worry about. We aren’t technically in Peolynca, but in a subspace of it. The Divine System still works since we’re inside a subspace you created with its help, but maybe other functions don’t work?”
Since we drenched this entire room with mana, I did worry a rank B would randomly spawn inside here. Only monsters related to Gravy’s monster spawning would be docile.
“Gravy, if monsters were to spawn inside this room without my permission, would they belong to you?”
It shook its head.
“If an intruder were to enter this room—so anybody I hadn’t given permission to enter my subspace—would you be able to inform me?”
It nodded.
“Through the Divine System’s notification?”
Another nod. Little guy was smart, all right.
I then went over to the door connecting this room with the training field and opened it, before telling Gravy that it should increase its range of influence into this room, as well. It confirmed my choice and after some wait it walked into the room with a nod to inform me it was done. I also tried to have it enter another room as well, but it couldn’t enter places it hadn’t turned into a monster room.
I did feel like I was isolating Gravy, but it was for the best that I didn’t expand its control too much for now. I didn’t know how the monster spawning functioned, and I didn’t want some accident to happen while our restaurant was open. For now, it should just guard these two rooms, and once I get things handled, it should be able to help us train.
How do I level Gravy, though? I wondered, but decided to postpone trying to find the answer. For now, my unique Job was more important.
I looked at my options once again and asked Tatsuya and Kyouya about it since they had evolved their Jobs before me.
“We only got one option each,” Tatsuya responded. “Both of our evolutions upgraded our unique skills and boosted our stats. Yours, however, look like they will only benefit your skills and development Jobs.”
In other words, the Job evolution would be different for every other person. I did wonder if the unique Jobs considered our current Profile and stats, as the boys would benefit the most if they got general stat boosts, while I wouldn’t benefit too much from it. Obviously, even with my buffs, I still got simply outstatted by Vifi multiple times when we fought in Elyonda, so it wasn’t like stats weren’t important.
Haa, her voltaic movements still outspeeds my rocket boosters. Maybe she’ll reveal her full stats to us one day.
In any case, that did make it a bit difficult for me though, as I wasn’t sure what the correct choice was. Well, it was certainly better than my normal evolutions, as I had far too many choices, but even two made me mentally fatigued. [Tyrant Diva] would focus on improving three skills, with [Draconic Roar] and [Draconic Barrier] being important to my fighting style, while [Dragon Diva] was entirely ambiguous.
I tried appraising the information, but the System gave me nothing. Oh, how much I enjoyed the unknown … Sadly, it was due to this lack of information that I wanted to take it. [Heavenly Performance Act 1]? That ambiguous skill I’ve had since Elyonda could finally become useful?
<Heavenly Performance: An idol’s voice and body are their most prized possession during a performance for the world to hear and see! The art itself is reward enough!>
Absolutely nothing, and the System gave me nothing for “act 1” either. Uuuh, maybe I should take [Tyrant Diva], even if it sounded annoying to continue going around with that stupid “tyrant” business. It was obviously from my lineage, since Neill had [Esoteric Tyrant Fist] as her unique Job, but it felt bad going around with that moniker.
There was also the fact that the evolution would merge [Star Idol] and [Fire Mage] into one, reducing my four available development Jobs down to three, and would make it possible for me to take [Dragoon] as my last. Although, what exactly would a merger do? If it just combined things, then merging might not actually be pretty bad, as I had to share prestige points for both [Star Idol] and [Fire Mage] related skills.
Yup, the choice was clear.
I’m taking [Tyrant Diva] as my evolution!
<Job evolution commences for [Idol Tyrant Hatchling] into [Tyrant Diva]>
Woah!
My body suddenly jerked as I felt something suddenly enter my body, touching the core in my torso. I had my parallel minds check on me, and thankfully nothing was wrong; it was more like an altered version of what felt whenever I leveled up. Normally, leveling gave me a good, cleansing feeling. How strange that this one was sooo different, it scared me for a moment.
When I brought it up to the boys, they shook their heads, claiming the feeling they had was like the leveling one. This really was strange, but it was made by Crustacia, Aurena, and the rest, right? It couldn’t be bad … right? Yeah, actually, yes, it wasn’t bad. I really shouldn’t engage with fearmongering. Oh!
<Evolution finished. [Idol Tyrant Hatchling] has evolved into [Tyrant Diva]>
<Skill requirement fulfilled. [Draconic Roar Lv. 1] evolved into skill [Tyrant’s Voice Lv. 1]>
<Skill requirement fulfilled. [Draconic Barrier Lv. 9] evolved into skill [True Draconic Barrier Lv. 1]>
<Skill requirement fulfilled. [Benevolent Aura Lv. 6] evolved into skill [Saint’s Aura Lv. 1]>
I clapped. Boom! That feeling of seeing my skills improving with such a massive leap reappeared, and I couldn’t help but push Gravy out of the training room. I cast [Air Shield] around the door, and turned around, aiming at one of the training dummies. With a wide grin, I activated [Aerokinesis] and took in a deep breath, before—
“Kriiaaaa—” I roared but stopped myself prematurely out of instinct as the second my voice was raised, I felt a sharp sting in my throat, but not before my roar shot through the room like a projectile, blowing the dummy away as my voice kept echoing that “Kriiaaaa” I let out.
Verdammt, that hurt! I grabbed my throat, massaging it before taking out some water and warming it up to drink. I knew exactly what this was—I just strained my vocal cords.
Muscle tension dysphonia—in normal words, just the worst. I had it once as a trainee, and I was forced by my trainer to stop singing, even speaking loudly, for over two weeks just to recover, preventing it from deteriorating. Nothing could be worse than to strain your throat muscles, as it could vastly alter the quality and clarity of your singing, meaning your career as a singer could nosedive depending on the lingering effects of the injury.
The moment a singer felt it, it was advised to just stop singing and speaking right there. It was better to blow a momentary chance than to lose your voice forever, in other words.
Which begged the question, how the hell did this happen so suddenly? I roared. There was nothing special about it, in fact, I could just heal my injury up right now with magic, but this … this has never, ever happened to me before. I mean, I got tired multiple times, definitely after singing through a concert. However, a stinging pain the moment I tried to roar?
Never. This was a beginner’s mistake.
I dispelled the air shield.
Holding my throat, I turned around. “Tasianna, I need warm tea. Throat soother, please.”
She immediately bowed. “Yes, of course.”
She closed the door before opening it up again, revealing a change of scenery behind it—it was the kitchen. Once she entered through it, I closed the door and opened it again, bringing it back to the garden. Subspace power, yo.
Once I explained what happened to the others, I let out an annoyed sigh as I waited for Tasianna to return. Once she did, I drank the tea and heaved an overjoyed moan—Tasianna’s tea was the best. [Tyrant’s Voice] had to be tested later, as I had a concert tomorrow which I couldn’t afford to blow. Even with healing magic, I was not risking my voice at any cost.
So, instead, I checked [True Dragonkin Barrier]. Neill actually had this skill, so I already knew what the skill did before appraising it.
<True Dragonkin Barrier: A skill that embodies the indomitable defence of the true dragon, beings who rose above the limits of normal monsters. Creates a barrier composed out of the dragon’s mana infused with its energy to protect itself from elemental and physical attacks, ignoring even the most threatening attacks>
Shedding some scales, I built a shield with them in front of me, before asking Tasianna to shoot an ice spell at it. She summoned an [Icicle Spike], and smashed the projectile against my scales, shattering into fine icy mist. With a nod, Tasianna then pulled out her catalyst and created a mana slime ice blade, before using it to dig into the scale shield, barely making it through.
I walked up to it and let my arm slide along the blade. I then looked at my arm, noticing the barrier was only partially damaged, before I was unable to stop myself from smiling.
“… I feel conflicted,” Tasianna stated with a deadpan face. “Our greatest tool against you if you were to go on a rampage was water and ice damage. Due to your weakness, [Draconic Barrier] couldn’t block them. Now, though, I feel like I need to use [Tor Eiclere’s Finulaflei] to even break through your scales …”
“Ehehe, at least it makes me stronger, right?” I scratched the back of my head.
Tasianna closed her eyes. “Of course, my lady. The less you may be harmed, the better I will feel. Please, make sure you take your [Battle Frenzy] training seriously.”
…That last part was definitely her real feeling speaking. I’m sorry for speeding forward again, Tasianna! You’re still a big threat with how the blade got through my scales!
Essentially, [True Dragonkin Barrier] alleviated the worst weakness of my mana barrier, and that was that my elemental weaknesses could completely pierce through the barrier, inflicting either massive mana and stamina damage, or health. Now, though, that weakness was completely gone from my barrier, even if my innate weakness to water and ice wasn’t. Oh yeah, I also quickly tested it out but dragonblood weapons still were super effective, which made sense, as Neill had trouble with them, too.
In any case, [Saint’s Aura] was your usual advanced aura type, similar to [Tyrant’s Aura] for [Terror Aura]. As such, it was an even better charisma skill now, which was perfect as I was still involved in the summit. Which means, all I had left to do now was to check up on my prestige points.
_____________________________________________________________________
Job: Star Idol
Benefit Slots: [Musical Crescendo] [Bardic Cadenza] [Heavenly Performance] [Musical Renaissance Diva Lv. 1]
Level: 30/30
Prestige Level: 5
_____________________________________________________________________
Job: Fire Mage
Benefit Slots: [Magic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 6] [Fire Element Lv. 1] [Arcane Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1]
Level: 35/35
Prestige Level: 10
_____________________________________________________________________
Job: Tyrant Hatchling
Benefit Slots: None
Level: 30/30
Prestige Level: 8
_____________________________________________________________________
<[Star Idol] Prestige Points: 5
[Fire Mage] Prestige Points: 5
[Tyrant Hatchling] Prestige Points: 8
You may spend your prestige points when you are ready>
<[Star Idol] prestige points: 5
- Benefit Slot increase
- Job Skill: [Acoustic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1] [Acoustic Power Lv. 1] Evolve [Heavenly Performance]
- Growth Boosts: [Mana] [Intelligence] [Wisdom]
- Spell song slot (3 prestige point)>
<[Fire Mage] prestige points: 5
- Benefit Slot increase
- Job Skill: [Elemental Resistances: Proficiency Lv. 1]
- Growth Boosts: [Mana] [Intelligence] [Wisdom]>
As before, I was saving up for the prestige ten skill on [Tyrant Hatchling], so that left me with the other two—[Star Idol] and [Fire Mage]. Funnily enough, I could just evolve [Heavenly Performance] now, but that just seemed silly after I rejected [Dragon Diva].
To be honest, depending on how difficult it would be to level up my development Jobs to gain prestige points, it might have been good to get the free [Heavenly Performance] level, although the merging of my two development Jobs still worried me. It was done. Nothing worth mentioning any longer.
<[Star Idol] Prestige spent. Benefit Slot gained, [Acoustic Power Lv. 1] gained>
Three more left.
[Tyrant’s Voice] made my vocal attacks stronger; it was clear after what happened. This was essentially a power boost to it as long as I remained a dragonewt, probably to make it on-par to my dragon form’s roar. Then again, leaving so many skills at level one really irked me, but gaining prestige points meant leveling a ton.
I did consider [Acoustic Skills: Proficiency] and [Heavenly Performance] for a moment, but I found them not worth the investment for now. The proficiency skill, unless they affected everything in general like [Fire Mage]’s [Magic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 6] and [Arcane Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1], would only become wasted investment in the future, as I only had [Tyrant’s Voice] and [Idol] as my acoustic-based skills.
Also, I had to invest in a benefit slot to carry the skill for [Star Idol]. That wasn’t worth it, either.
<[Star Idol] Prestige spent. 3 points to [Acoustic Power Lv. 1] -> [Acoustic Power Lv. 4] gained>
<[Fire Mage] Prestige spent. 4 points to [Magic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 6] -> [Magic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 10] gained>
It was a bad investment for the far future, but it would be for the best that I got all my elemental magic skills up to level ten for the System spells due to the imminent threat of the Prince of Envy. This was the time when short-term rewards would benefit me the most.
With this skill done, it was time to think about the future.
<[Fire Mage] Prestige spent. 1 point to [Fire Element Lv. 1] -> [Fire Element Lv. 2] gained>
MORE FIRE POWER! MORE SCALE-DUST EXPLOSIONS! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! … Yeah, pretty much just more damage modifiers. It wasn’t anything special, but it did the trick, and I personally was a fan of simple skills like these considering how much unique stuff I had to juggle around already.
With this done, that was pretty much it on my list of fun duties. Now came the annoying business duties, as I had to speak with Arcanuess Helvas, Amelia, and her father regarding the concert that was tomorrow. To be exact, tomorrow was Goddess Chihiro’s birthday, and it was celebrated as “Revolution’s Birth” by Ankor-Nazta.
Technically, this was supposed to be the original date of the summit—the 30th of AutumnSun. Obviously, due to all the recent events, it was pushed forward and that was why I decided to make the best out of it and hold a concert. For that, I needed to make a ton of preparations, as I had only decided to do it after the summit—yesterday.
“We can get the workers and staff ready three bells after the lunch bell, but we will have to pay extra for the pastries and merchandise, as I had to pay my workers overtime,” Amelia stated inside the subspace’s meeting room.
Her father, Duke Greenveil, agreed, “The Sarlenzia company has managed to provide us with the ingredients in a timely manner, so we should have no issues on that front. Lady Hestia, after the last concert, I had received feedback from our noble customers that they would wish for a better viewing experience. Watching your show right in the front is brilliant, but most feel like they behold the ‘masses’ too often.”
“Goodness gracious, we already have the bleachers for that. We made them extra comfortable and luxurious with instant access to butlers and maids!” I complained. “Where do they expect me to put this ‘better viewing experience’ anyways? The Obsidian Orchestra is designed to be humongous and to circle around the stage, I can’t just add more or higher bleachers, as that will only obstruct the view for the others. Their complaints will be worse!”
“Then how about we put the seats on the ceiling? Every noble from Artorias and Yeos has a gargoyle, and if Estralian’s or the dwarves don’t, we can offer that service for them. House Helvas has spares to provide,” Arcanuess Helvas suggested, making me actually consider it. “The ceiling is massive, yes, but you should be able to lower it and attach the ceiling seats. Therefore, you provide more seats overall, and we can demand even more exorbitantly priced tickets for them! The bleachers can be priced as usual, and that should attract the merchants, as not every noble can spend!”
“My goodness …” I stared in shock.
“You need to pay off your debt, Lady Hestia. We need to slowly make these concerts actually profitable to run if you wish to make your plan come true. We cannot push our employees to perform these tasks without proper recompense!”
The burden of having investors … He was right, though. Even if my Obsidian Orchestra was, at the end of the day, my “boss stage” for battles where I could, first, afford to transport people into my subspace and, secondly, require the full breadth of an entire room to defeat, it was still where I performed my concerts nowadays. Considering how much debt I’ve been accruing, I needed to think like Saori.
After I decided to build those extra seats, we then continued going over my finances and other details. Once that was done, we all left the room completely exhausted, but happy that we got everything done. It was a refreshing change from the summit … which prompted me to quickly thank Sis once she got back home.
“I hate it so much …” She just flopped onto the couch, accompanied by Ellaine and Fleindia, who both looked like their souls had left their bodies. “I managed to get them to stop talking about the war, but we had to go through the tedious details concerning trade routes, immigrations, borders, and so many other topics for the alliance.”
“It was not my place to speak …” Fleindia looked sullen. “At the very least, we did switch to religion mid-way through, where I managed to inquire on some Church of Aurena details within Saelariel and Artorias. Champion Hestia, we must speak with the current cardinal of Artorias.”
Theodore Samuel Sirius—it had been a long time since I last spoke with him, but I suspected as much that would need to change very soon. Since he was my greatest religious supporter, aside from Aurena and Fleindia, it was necessary that I got his opinion on how to tackle this faith war.
Regardless, he would be on my list for later, as it was finally time for me to practice. Practice like never before.
The day for my concert was here.
Comments
Theory from school is something you learn, but unless it was a topic you were heavily invested in, I don't think most will remember it. Don't forget, in story, it had been nearly 2 years since the students got transported into this world. Hestia wasn't the best student and she was 15 back on earth, so she just entered high school/was in her last year of school. Saori? She's smart in her subject, but she's not a physics major.
Diego Rossi
Thanks for the chapter. Producing electric power by using mana shouldn't be that difficult, and an electric motor is relatively simple. Most high schoolers have an idea of how it works.
