Chapter 482

Heavenly Sacred Flame appeared to be a considerably taxing skill, and the angel already showed clear signs of fatigue.

Thinking to ask Nana to use Curse Magic to bolster her recovery, Tatsuro then reconsidered - this angel had a rather convenient skill of her own, didn't she.

"Mind if I bathe you in fire right now?"

"I will recover on my own without any fuss, Master. You appeared to have exhausted yourself creating me as well."

"That was nothing worth worrying about. Just hold still for me."

"Yes, Master."

Complete Fire Absorption Healing - a skill that Antares, Retainer of Egeria, also possessed.

Thanks to this skill, when Tatsuro bathed the angel - who bore no injuries at present - in fire, she absorbed it eagerly into her body, and as far as his Spirit Eye could tell, her Magical Power had recovered to very nearly what it had been at the start.

"Watching the recovery actually happen makes the usefulness of that skill all the more apparent."

"If it's just healing wounds, Life Magic or something similar can take care of that right away - but for Magical Power and the like, unless you have something like Nana's Dragon Absorption, there's really no other way to handle it besides boosting the recovery speed."

As she said this, Ai made a Mental Note to consult with the Martial God about whether she might be able to learn a skill along those lines herself.

"By the way, this time around Sis Jeanne and Sis Nana were both involved in the creation besides Dad - so in the angel's eyes, how does the pecking order actually work?"

Athena's casual curiosity.

Jiya prioritized the orders of his Creator, Jeanne, above all else. It was unthinkable that Jeanne would ever issue such a command, but if Jiya were told by Jeanne to attack Tatsuro, he would do so without a moment's hesitation. The words of a Creator carried that much weight for those they had created.

Which meant that in this case, there were effectively three parent figures at play. It was only natural to wonder how that sorted itself out within the angel.

Posed with that question and with everyone's eyes now on her, the angel gave her answer regarding the hierarchy;

Tatsuro ranked first. Nana ranked second. Jeanne ranked third. That appeared to be the order.

"It makes sense that Tatsuro is first, since he led the process and was also involved in the Monster Human Tribe Creation - but why did a ranking appear between Nana and Jeanne?"

To Leela's eyes, Nana and Jeanne had contributed in equal measure. The others seemed to share that impression, yet the angel made it clear that Nana held the higher priority - though even the angel herself didn't know the reason.

Tatsuro also found himself wondering whether something had occurred during the creation process, and he pulled Ai gently closer as he turned it over in his mind. Going forward, as they continued with creations, he wanted to clear up as many unknowns as possible.

And just then, as he held Ai close, Leah who had been cradling the baby panda while she thought arrived at an answer.

"It is likely because, in the process of preparing the materials, only Nana applied her hand through Necro Dragon Arts - would that not be it?"

"Oh now that you mention it, I did work on the Archangel this time around to make her Undead, but because Jeanne Onee-sama was already equivalent to Holy Substance from the start, she did nothing of the sort."

"Neigh!"

Jeanne, who had been in her Child Form, sat on the sandy beach with just her hindquarters touching the ground and nodded in agreement, bringing her front hooves together with a light clap.

Indeed, for the Demon Tribe Creation this time, the Evil Substance had been a necessity, which meant that aspect had required considerably more effort. Taking everything into account, it was fair to say that Nana's contribution had surpassed Jeanne's.

"If that's what it comes down to, then a ranking makes perfect sense. Well, it's not as though it changes much in practical terms - but let's keep it in mind that this sort of thing can happen."

With that settled, they moved on to the matter everyone had been waiting for: choosing a name for the angel.

"You can use fire, can't you, little angel? And your armor is bright red, too."

"What of it?"

"When I think of fire and angels, wasn't there some famous angel connected to that?"

"Famous angels... you mean the Four Great Angels - the Archangels, the Seraphim, that sort of thing?"

"That might be it."

Tatsuro reached around Ai, whom he still held against him, and drew out his Smartphone, craning his neck out past her shoulder to look up his hazy knowledge with a dictionary app.

"Let's see... Seraphim... are... Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. And among those, the ones that seem connected to fire are... Michael or Uriel, I'd say. Michael corresponds to fire when represented through the Four Great Elements of water, wind, fire, and earth, while Uriel corresponds to earth in the Four Great Elements - but the name itself apparently means 'the flame of God' in the first place."

"Oh my, that's two candidates then. But I think the one I had in mind was Uriel."

"I mean, the Four Great Elements don't really paint a clear picture for me, but the moment you say 'the flame of God' that's instantly the image that comes to mind."

"Right, right. So how about we call her Uriel?"

"If that is what you wish to call me, Master, I have no objection whatsoever. Above all, 'the flame of God' - I find that quite to my liking."

"Is that so. If she likes it herself, then we can settle on Uriel."

And so the angel's name was decided: Uriel.

With that done, Tatsuro found his thoughts drifting to something he had happened to come across while searching the dictionary app just now - not an angel, but the existence known as Valkyries.

Valkyries, as it were, were the semi-divine women of Norse mythology - beings most often depicted as beautiful, armored female knights.

By that measure, Uriel before him was indeed an angel, yet she was also a Half-Divine Being, and if she were to don armor and take up a spear, she would make for a magnificent female knight in every sense.

And so Tatsuro entertained a thought.

Couldn't he build a Valkyrie unit within his own forces? He was no Ai or Ishtar, but there was something that stirred the boyish - or perhaps Chuunibyou - heart in him.

(If I'm going to have a female knight order, then I'd want a male knight order too. For men, something like the Knights of the Round Table, maybe?If someday a male Retainer is born who looks the part of a great sword at his side, I'll name him Arthur.And then I'd want a Lancelot and a Gawain, too.The dream only keeps growing.)

His imagination continued to run pleasantly wild.

As things stood, it had already been confirmed through a glimpse of the future that Tatsuro and his companions would one day become famous - and with that fame would inevitably come those who set their sights on goods bearing Tatsuro's name. Villains, great and small, existed in every era, every world, and every nation without exception.

When that day came, they would need capable hands to guard the merchant caravans carrying goods to market, and to defend the shops and Bases. Skilled ones, at that. Since Retainers would never betray Tatsuro, he could trust them completely - and if he were to form both that Valkyrie unit and the Knights of the Round Table, then assign his Familiars to serve as adjutants to the Retainers for good measure, the result would be nothing short of the strongest knight order imaginable.

(But doing all that is well and good - the problem is that we burned through quite a few Duplication Points this time around...)

Duplication Points only increased by 1 per day, meaning that Uriel's creation alone - setting aside Shirota and the panda - had consumed 40 days' worth of Points.

As a result, the current Duplication Point total now stood at 79.

It might sound like a reasonable amount, but between Leah's research and the crafting of Equipment, there were plenty of other uses ahead - so spending them so freely going forward wasn't really an option.

The vision was taking shape, but without the resources to fund it, nothing could be done. Creating powerful personnel required consuming correspondingly rare materials, and accomplishing that without the duplication function of the 《Infinite Item Field》 simply wasn't realistic.

(But wait... if something as convenient as Restoration Magic exists, then couldn't something like Duplication Magic exist as well?)

He hadn't come across any such skill when scanning his skill list, but this was a world where magic was real, and there was already a functioning duplication capability in existence - so the possibility wasn't zero.

(Hey there. Magic God? Yoo-hoo. Mind if I ask you something?)

(...Mm? What is it, Tatsuro? Go ahead and ask me anything I'm able to answer.)

If searching on his own yielded nothing, he could always ask the head authority on magic - Magic God - directly. Having a direct line and not using it would be a waste.

Without delay, Tatsuro asked the Magic God whether Duplication Magic existed.

(Hmm. Duplication isn't really related to Spacetime, you see. It doesn't exist in magic. If anything, that falls under the domain of the Material God. The Item Box line of skills is also managed under his purview. Incidentally, his rank is one above mine.)

(So he's the same rank as the Grade God, then. But would there be a skill within that Material God's family of skills that duplicates physical matter?)

(Nothing like that exists. The duplication that Tatsuro uses is about as far as we gods can go in what we provide to people.)

In plain terms, then - there was no such convenient skill. Period.

Tatsuro slumped and buried his face in the back of Ai's head. His breath must have grazed her nape, because Ai squirmed and wriggled as though ticklish.

"What is it, Tatsuro? That tickles~"

"Ah - my bad, my bad-"

"Hyaan! Don't suddenly kiss my neck like that, honestly~"

While stroking Ai's head as she pushed it back against his chest in protest, he calmed her down with a gentle "there, there" and returned to the conversation with the Magic God.

(So it sounds like it's just not possible then. Sorry for asking something strange out of nowhere. Well then, I'll let you go-)

(Hold on.)

(Hm? What's the matter, Magic God?)

He had run out of questions, and figuring the Magic God likely had things to attend to as well, Tatsuro had been about to wrap things up - when the Magic God cut him off as though something had just occurred to him.

Without any answer to Tatsuro's questioning pause, the silence stretched on for several dozen seconds before the Magic God finally spoke again.

(It might be a long shot, but - there's a chance I could persuade the Material God to create a skill that converts your Skill Points into Duplication Points, and make it available for acquisition. The conversion rate would need some thought, so further consideration is required - but even if it's set a bit high, you'd have no trouble accumulating as many as you needed, am I right?)

(Are you serious!? It's true with Level Eater, I could pull Skill Points from monsters in the area, so gathering them should be easy enough. But why would that be a more persuasive argument?)

(Skill Points are like a form of currency that intelligent beings pay to us gods through the System. The more that flows in, the more it benefits us as well.)

(Benefits? Like - business is good so wages go up?)

(Something like that, perhaps. Using the Skill Points paid to us, we gods can receive blessings from the world. Since our very existence is entirely different from yours, explaining it is difficult - but if I were to put it in terms a human could relate to, it would be like one's home becoming grander, or being able to eat finer things - that is to say, life becomes more comfortable all around.)

(So in other words, even the gods have something like a "home," and they get to make it bigger or buy furniture they like... something along those lines?)

(You could think of it that way, yes. Of course, some skills are more popular than others, so there's some variation in how points are weighted - and gods who aren't heavily involved in skills at all receive a fixed monthly distribution of Skill Points, so it's not as though there's a dramatic gap between the gods.)

(Following that logic... could it be that because of me - or rather, thanks to me - the Magic God is doing rather well for himself?)

(Oh, I'm swimming in it. So please, keep pouring into magic-related skills all you like!)

(Ah. Right.)

Tatsuro felt a complicated mix of emotions wash over him.

(But that's also caused some jealousy on my end, you see. So if we can spread the benefit by sharing Skill Points converted into duplication at a reasonable threshold with the Material God, that ought to distribute things more evenly.)

(I can see that... if anything, it might even end up being more lucrative for him.)

Magic could only be leveled up to 20, so in a sense, there was a cap on SP payments for any given skill. But the conversion of Duplication Points, to put it grandly, was unlimited. If that were the case, the 'jealousy' the Magic God spoke of might naturally end up being directed even more strongly toward the Material God.

(I've been working diligently on developing new magic on my end as well, so it's not as though there's a completely hard cap. So what do you say? I still don't know for certain whether it's possible, but I think it's not beyond the realm of persuasion.)

(Please - I'm begging you!!)

(Understood! Look forward to good news!)

Tatsuro decided on the spot. Whether the gods prospered or faced jealousy among themselves was frankly none of his concern. If a choice offered him clear benefit, then obviously he should take it.

And as the Magic God's exceedingly cheerful reply reached his ears, Tatsuro found himself breaking into an involuntary smile - for perhaps now, at last, his dream of a Valkyrie unit and Knights of the Round Table might actually come to life.