Chapter 166.5: System Window & Future Plans
🕑 Added 2024-07-05 22:14:57 +0000 UTCSomeone couldn't see the system window. As such, here is also the PDF for download from my GitHub if you have problems reading it. Click!
...
Place: Alexander's Room
Time: Evening after Training
Lying on the bed, Alexander couldn't move. Calling his state exhausted would diminish the problem that he couldn't move at all, even having problems using his mana since all of his mana veins and core were severely constricted and fatigued.
'I still like Ipe, though.'
After ten hours, his favorite healer had no mana and energy, leaving him in a pitiful state. His training went for too long and was far beyond brutal, shattering bones and ripping fibers, not having one place on his body that wasn't assaulted and rebuilt again.
'It's time, I guess.'
The timing of his Mother's desire to train him more extensively was perfect. Alexander felt that everyone around him had reached their limits, and continuing as he did would only have negative consequences in the long term.
'They will all burn out.'
When Alexander saw his retainers endure sleepless nights and mountains of work, he ignored it, thinking of the greater good. However, after a nasty training session, he realized that he needed to change the current flow, with him now having a much clearer mind and an opportunity to grow personally before him.
It was time to stop the progress, solidify all the projects he was working on, and prepare for the future when he would make another massive push toward the ideal society he envisioned.
'I need to find some blacksmiths and construction workers for my train project, organize the ball, and plan the attack on the island, but here I will stop... I am so fucked.'
The manpower problem was still the most significant bottleneck Alexander and his people experienced. He had the resources and paid an amount most merchants would dream of, but many decided not to work for him or weren't qualified. As such, his taking a break was perfect, so he had time to hire more workers for future projects.
'At least Dad is back.'
Fortunately, his Father would be back since the demon run slowed down significantly, and he would have enough people for Alexander to borrow, so he wouldn't need to give it to his retainers since they were overwhelmed already.
'Hm, but Narsi could handle the camp and dungeon problem.'
After the assault on the Essence Alliance, Alexander also decided to give Narsiz the responsibility for the dungeon and camp since he was about to become an administrator on that island.
It was an excellent opportunity for his brother, who had also had grand ambitions in the past and was now about to manage a very chaotic territory. It had a gold mine metaphorically, bordered a hostile nation, a secret ally, and would need to work on relations with the Eros Alliance.
'He will kill me though but will like it... I think.'
Alexander didn't decide on it out of nowhere since Narsiz told him once that he always felt very unsure in front of him. They had some serious talks when they became closer after the breakdown in the skill test.
'It makes sense in retrospect.'
His brother had little to no self-esteem and trust after he was poisoned, and with Alexander appearing and being the boisterous little monster, he cut his wings off, not even trying.
However, Alexander saw the sparkle when he looked his brother in the eyes. It was the greed and ambitions of a great politician. He would support Narsiz and put him on a pedestal since he was genuinely talented.
'I can't pass on such an opportunity.'
Alexander was genuinely thankful for his Mother's taking the time to continue his training, which would last at least five hours daily. The results were fantastic, as he simultaneously increased his physical body, martial arts, and mana skills.
Usually, he would only get at most a two-hour body strengthening session daily with her, and his progress slowed significantly down since they discovered multiple problems.
First, the potions he needed to take so the various resistances would increase at the same pace as before would immediately kill him since he was still too young. Every potion was now ostensively expensive and rare, and they only increased his levels slowly.
Second, the demonic energy his Mother used to break down his body accumulated to such an extent that he had become too resistant. She now had to be more careful when breaking down his body without killing him. Again, his age was the big problem since energy would strengthen a body significantly.
As such, his ability to break his personal bottleneck was a priority. He couldn't pass up five or more hours of training per day.
'Fortunately, I have excellent stamina and can work through most of the following weeks and train... wait, that's right! My body has changed...'
Alexander suddenly remembered that he had received a blessing. Without much waiting and deliberation about the future, which he had already decided on, he wanted to see what improvements he made, immediately opening his system window.
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
However, his system window underwent a significant change. He made it more stylized, like an app of sorts. He always wanted something more detailed and organized to sort through his skills and details without having everything crowded on one page.
The entrance page worked pretty well, but the construct for the mess he created became massively complicated. He could avoid using a 3D construct by utilizing multiple 2D ones.
Sadly, nobody liked it, not because of the great design but because it was too hard to construct. Most were still not interested in increasing their efficiency in magic but wanted only to have the lifestyle spells to ease their life.
'I should've predicted it.'
It was the same on Earth, with most people having the world's knowledge at their fingertips but liking to play games with overweight birds. The people at the estate were the same, seeing this as another tool only after the initial awe and dispersing of the mysticism.
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
This page was his biggest failure because it had the most bugs. There was a lot of testing, like adding bars or trying to establish notes, which worked pretty well, as well as adding additional information.
However, everything time-related bugged out for some reason, and he had no idea why the algorithm didn't work. It was the same on Earth; everything related to time and dates was a nuisance when it came to coding.
Of course, Alexander could just write down some numbers on the calendar, but his goal was to automatize it, which was more complex than he thought, regarding how something was defined and what he could use as a reference. He was still figuring it out, evident by some elements going crazy when he opened his system window.
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
When he opened the attributes window, he expected the same minimal increase as always but was suddenly surprised by what he saw instead.
'Fuck me... that's a lot.'
However, being a pessimist, he closed the system window and opened it normally, only to see the same. Staring at those numbers for some minutes, he suddenly understood his overwhelming stamina when training.
'That's... a lot.'
Most [Standard Attributes] almost doubled, if not more, making him realize the immense work he would've had to do to kill his nature break, still itching.
However, he slowly calmed down, already knowing why his attributes were that high. Still, his joy wasn't affected by this at all.
'The Temple's blessing is really amazing.'
It was through his merits that he received it, with him thinking of talking to Green and working through a scheme that would cost him no time to receive another one. He had the resources to make it, hopefully, happen.
'Amazing... it's too addictive to look at my progress.'
When he finally calmed down, he looked at the other elements he had implemented. Most were useless to him since he couldn't use [Status Points] or his [Experience] to increase anything, but for others, it was great.
'It was a bitch to work it out.'
Calculating the distribution using math was possible, but writing the algorithm and making those calculations a practical reality was still challenging. At least he was rewarded for it.
'Oh, at least I have now two other skills in the green.'
To the right was the ideal distribution, he learned from Anastasia. It showed which had the most significant benefits per attribute point. Of the four areas, the fourth, from the left, had the most significant increase while the second was somewhat acceptable.
It was not complicated to do without any visualizations. However, it was still a great way to save time, which his Mother liked the most since she wouldn't need to write everything down to get the ideal allocation of her attribute points.
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Oh... what's this?'
He was surprised by something unusual when he opened his next subwindow, responsible for his divine skills. Normally, he wouldn't have seen it if it were not for his laziness. He still hadn't implemented the function of jumping from one page to another and needed to iterate through all of them.
'A hooray to my laziness!'
Typically, there was nothing, but he now had something in his [Divine Skills] window called [Meritious Gifts], which was probably why his attributes increased so much.
'Minor, huh...'
Remembering how Green said his Father had multiple Major blessings, his one seemed like child's play. He wanted a more significant buff, probably impossible to receive since he wasn't a great Temple member but more of an ally.
Still, seeing a [No.] in the header, it should be possible to get another minor, which was an excellent blessing, too.
'It makes sense now, though.'
Alexander never understood why everyone said his Father was more powerful than his Mother, but seeing what those blessings were capable of, those rumors suddenly made much more sense.
'I never really saw him getting serious... actually, Mom, too?!'
He couldn't think of a time when his parents were fighting with their lives on the line, and the sparing with him or his siblings was usually them getting intentionally hit but never doing anything brutal.
However, he immediately ignored it since his thoughts drifted away to new ideas to get another blessing, which was a risky gamble and something he decided not to do, 'First, I need to get through my legacy.'
It was too time-consuming for him, and he would rather concentrate on the training and maybe try some things out, which would barely cost any time.
'So, let's continue.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
Some parts were designed like an app, with which he tried to sort through his skills, giving them a more appropriate theme. Sometimes, it didn't fit, but he needed to sort them out somehow, and he was already criticized for many skills that did not fit into a category.
'Salyna really liked it, even discussing how to improve it.'
Many already learning more advanced spells liked his version of the spell with all those design choices. It was mainly for those who collected too many skills over their lifetime, becoming slightly overwhelmed if they wanted to oversee the progress of specific skills.
As such, his sorting choices became a lively debate, which annoyed him quickly since many visitors were trying to give him their opinions. Because of that, he put a little box in front of his office where everyone could throw letters with suggestions, mostly single sentences or multi-pages with explanations and flowery language.
'It really reminds me of working through tickets, huh.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Not much changed.'
Alexander increased two skills to the [Intermediate] Tier and earned three [Strength]s, which represent the effectiveness of skills. It was not an official name; he just gave it, thinking it was appropriate.
The first [Major] he received was in [Algorithmics] because of the way he could reverse engineer the exact distribution of [Attributes].
The second was for [Spell-Theory], which he got when creating multi-layered 2D spells, and for [Spell-Casting] when he understood its more fundamental principle.
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Ohhhh!'
Seeing the [Specialization] window, which depicted all sorts of technical skills, he was joyfully surprised. He acquired three skills: [Enchanting], [Artificing], and [Engineering], while also getting a [Strength] in [Enchanting], which was even a [Greater], which was a level better than [Major].
'The system really acknowledged the heap of trash.'
The engine, which was an enchantment, was acknowledged, which made him happy since he had also put a lot of thought into it and liked the concept of his idea to make enchantments as a whole into something akin to machinery.
'Well, not much else.'
Besides that, he also saw his [Biochemistry] and [Toxicology] skills from when he tried to understand the love potion but quickly ignored them, giving the work to the Temple and Healer Union to figure out. He only suggested some ways to tackle the problem.
Maybe when he knew it was too much, 'Never mind, I decided, and that's it.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Nothing changed except Gardening... I really need someone to take this now away from me.'
He still had his greenhouse, where he tried to plant, grow, and cultivate various produce. However, he needed someone to help him with this.
Alexander suddenly smiled, or at least thought so since he couldn't feel his face, 'Well, I can get them in a week or so.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Woah!'
His [Martial Arts] skill increased quite a bit, and he gained a new [Strength], which was [Major], which made his decision to concentrate on the training he already wanted to go through even more certain.
'That's not all, though...'
In addition to increasing his movement skills by some levels, he also gained new ones: [Balance] and [Poise].
'I really slacked with my combat training.'
While Alexander liked to train, he did it too little, doing the minimum since he saw himself as a mage, but slowly realized that it was stupid to box himself into some category.
With all the superb techniques his ancestors invented and cultivated, it would be stupid not to learn them. Furthermore, thanks to his Mother, his understanding of how to use mana would increase, too, when he trained those techniques.
'That... isn't that a skill Quill mentioned once?'
He suddenly saw a new skill called [Contortionist] and suddenly knew why he got it.
'Well, stretching my tendons until they ripped apart was worth something, at least.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Nothing new here.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Empty as always... many liked the cow, though.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'[Tactics] skill from suggesting those amateurish tactics, but I have still no idea when it comes to war. My rank was too low for such decisions to make.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Nothing new really... urgh, this created the most uproar.'
[Torturing] was in the category of [Judicial Skills], and Noriken bothered him to no end in changing it, finding it insulting, which Alexander could understand.
'Later, though. Will write in my notes so I remember... hm.'
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'As always.'
He got two [Strengths] in [Mathematics] and [Logics] for creating the stupid algorithm, which also had a lot of math behind it, and [Logics] for the system window as a whole, with him needing to use some more complex ways to jerry-rig the 2D Constructs.
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Nothing mu... oh! Look at that!'
He got a new skill called [Inventiveness], which was quite a surprise since it apparently could increase one's creativity regarding technical inventions.
Furthermore, he also changed something else very carefully since his [Noble Pridefulness] became [Royal Pridefulness], which meant that it was another [Strength]. However, he never found anything about it, only that some of his ancestors had either version of that skill.
Should the Image not appear, here you go with a PNG Version. Click!
'Oh, look at that!'
[Acrobatic] increased significantly and even got a [Strength]. However, he was breaking his back when he tried to avoid getting beat up, so it was somewhat expected after seeing all those other increases.
After perusing all those skills, he closed his window. As he was about to plan his day for tomorrow, overwhelmingly satisfied with his progress, he fell asleep, dead tired and happy as he could be.
...
Author's Note: This is why I needed so much fucking time.
Comments
Chiril Kret
Ohhh, give me a minute. I will make some jpegs and upload them :)
Constantin
I can't open the system window
Wyatt Hilbert
Thanks for the chapter
