Wish Fulfillment System

Even a long time after they had eaten dinner, Ais still couldn't help but occasionally blush in embarrassment when she thought back on what had happened earlier. Due to her not having fully acclimated herself to her newly upgraded physical body, she had crushed a couple of potato snacks accidentally while simply trying to grab them. She hadn't noticed anything wrong when she had taken Isaac's hand before that, but because of his high stats, even if she had grasped his hand a little too forcefully, he wouldn't have been hurt at all. However, her poor potato snacks weren't as resilient.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she calmly explored her improved body, and adjusted herself to it. The process was a bit slow, especially considering how astonishingly many stats that she had gained this time, but she still made progress over time.

Glancing at her from his seat on the bed every so often, Isaac, who was immersed in Mana Cultivation, smiled gently. It had been two hours since they had eaten, and all of his subordinates were currently enjoying their grimoire-induced naps.

Due to the presence of his Ichor in their Falnas, a part of himself had also been 'transported' in front of their respective mirrors. This blood was still a part of himself, even though it wasn't currently in his body, so he could send some mana from his mental layer into it to observe the whole process. He didn't pay close attention, however, because he didn't feel it necessary to intrude upon everyone's privacy like this - aside from that, he also aimed to try out a grimoire himself at a later date. The main reason for him watching over them was so that he could be there, just in case something dangerous happened.

To his annoyance, the being responsible for the bestowal of the Magics had actually taken a very unwelcome interest in his most highly regarded subordinate, Mina! Initially, this was because she hadn't been in a trance upon arrival. The reason for this was indeed mostly as that being had deduced - it was the presence of her Devotion stat. This both gave her the mental fortitude necessary to withstand such influences on her own, as well as a stronger connection with the system, which would also have canceled out the 'high tier automated control influence' should the Chienthrope girl not have been capable of doing so herself.

Afterwards, the being had become far more aggressive when it had realized that some memories weren't accessible to it. However, it had been mistaken about the cause of this. Isaac hadn't actually protected any of Mina's memories in particular. Instead, when that being had acquired the dog girl's memories, the system had just automatically filtered out any that would reveal its existence, or were too closely connected to it. And when that being had tried to read Mina's memories directly, it had done the same thing once again.

The reason for this was simple: That being hadn't been 'given access' by Isaac or the system. When he told somebody about his secrets - whether directly or via showing them to someone - then that person would henceforth not be blocked from acquiring and accessing memories about these topics. It was an automated process, one that Isaac hadn't even been aware of before this incident had occurred. Only by making certain deductions and then asking the system to let him know whether his speculations were indeed correct did he become certain of this.

Just like countless other features, this one had been built into the system by his past self. As to why, he could only theorize yet again: Was it to protect himself - unlikely - or those close to him? Whatever it may be, it was certainly welcome.

What had been anything but was the insolence of that being. It had even attempted to attack the system itself directly, albeit unknowingly! Not that that would have actually been possible, but the intention had been there.

When his favourite subordinate had been cornered like that, for a bit, the spectating Isaac had lost a part of his cool, so he had lashed out by tracing the laws of the world back to the being in question, manipulating them into destroying the part of its consciousness that had mimicked Mina's reflection and then utilizing them once again to intimidate it.

Honestly, he had been capable of performing feats like this ever since he had arrived in this world. It was clearly a power that only beings that were far more powerful than even primordial deities should have control over, but because he could easily see through the laws of this world whenever he felt like it, doing what he had done… had been easy. He had only previously refrained from ever doing so as it would have been… well, too easy. It would have made his journey less enjoyable in the long run.

Because of this moment of hotheadedness, he realized that his ability to dabble in things like this was a problem, therefore he contacted the system, to put another restriction in place.

'System, I have a request. Please deduce 10,000 AP from my current savings as a penalty. As long as I haven't obtained the rights and or power to manipulate a particular world's laws by following the path of advancement of that world, lock this ability of mine behind an AP cost of at least 10,000. Depending on each specific world's circ.u.mstances, I'll leave the exact number up to you.'

[ Primary host's input confirmed.

While he was waiting for his subordinates' awakening, Isaac didn't just laze around - well, to be honest, when did he ever do that anyway?

Primarily, he was focusing on adding more of his mana drops to his mental layer's mana flow, but there was only so much that he could do. After a certain point, he couldn't increase the speed of his advancement anymore. Currently, it was limited to around 1,000 drops per hour, which was already extremely good. But because he had so much leftover focus, he enveloped the entire Twilight Manor grounds and the immediate surroundings around Ray, who was currently far, far away from him, in his Eyes of Hermes.

In the process, he discovered something great: The restriction that kept him from sending his mana drops further than a certain distance from his body could partially be circ.u.mvented by making use of a loophole. Because he could still contact and control any part of his body, like his Ichor, even when it wasn't physically connected to him, he could theoretically split off parts of his physical vessel and utilize each one of them as a point of origin for that certain distance restriction. That way, he would be able to cover far more ground.

However, this wasn't actually all that useful for his dungeon exploration plans as it appeared at first glance - he only had that many mana drops, and he would always only be capable of fully covering a certain sphere around him fully with his Eyes of Hermes. Even if he could make use of a few miniscule tissue samples of his to send them out into the distance via manipulation of the wind - originating from the mana sent to these parts of himself via his mental layer - he would still only be able to cover a certain amount of three-dimensional space with his mana thoroughly. There was an upside, though. If he didn't want to go somewhere with his physical body, he could simply split off a microscopic part of himself and send it on a journey of dungeon exploration - or anything else, for that matter - in the main body's stead.

In any case, the current minor usage of his Eyes of Hermes didn't need much of his focus, so he still had some left over, which he utilized to research some future Magics for himself. He made use of an empty training courtyard somewhere on the Twilight Manor's grounds and continuously created magical phenomena remotely. His progress was slow, but steady - as usual.

Around 9:30 p.m., the first to rise again was Averin, so Isaac quickly handed him information about his new Magic. While its chant was a real mouthful, its effects were extremely convenient. They made up for two huge weaknesses of the rooster, so Isaac couldn't be happier. Additionally, they also reminded him of something else: He could make use of his mana to reinforce his physical stats further. He would have to observe Averin's use of the Magic quite a bit in the future to figure out its detailed workings, before he could then dedicate himself to creating his own - optimized - physical enhancement Magic.

A little closer to 10 p.m., two other events took place.

Firstly, Jakk, who had awoken around the same time as Averin, got his Status updated by Loki. Because Isaac currently had all of the Twilight Manor under his casual surveillance, he of course didn't miss this and unabashedly read the Status sheet that the mischievous but currently downtrodden goddess handed the Hume Bunny youth. He was positively surprised by how wholesome Jakk's new Magic was and looked forward to how it would be utilized in the future.

Secondly, Ray had finally escaped Fear's clutches and had found a secluded spot, so he swiftly updated her Status and let her know about the new addition to her abilities. He couldn't help but smirk amusedly when he saw which Magic that she had obtained, and also penned a note to Hel shortly after, to alleviate her of her worries. He and the underworld goddess had been working together on a few plans and projects over these past few weeks, and she had long since decided to join… well, whatever this collection of misfits and oddities should be called - his faction, perhaps? In conclusion, it was only fair of him to inform her of Ray being the one who had gotten her wings on a Magic based upon her Shroud of Hel.

What was worth mentioning was that Ray's Loyalty saw an increase of 5 after he displayed his remote Status update capabilities to her. Maybe, she had simply felt thankful to him for silently looking out for her from afar.

Thirty minutes after these matters had been taken care of, it was Aselina's and Kalin's turn to wake up. To his surprise, both the raccoon girl and the young human had actually obtained a defense-oriented Magic. While Aselina's was solely focused on protecting herself, Kalin's was a lot more versatile in nature, and even had offensive potential.

After smiling a bit at the raccoon girl's adorable attempt at using Magic without even having a single drop of mana available to her, he soon bore witness to another noteworthy event - aside from Aselina's Loyalty increasing by 2, that is.

Over the past few days, he had already been aware that Kalin's stone ring - as expected - had been trying to pass messages to him. While he had the capabilities to listen in, he felt it inappropriate to do so, so even when the young man finally heard what the female Archē's voice coming from the ring had wanted to tell him - yes, Isaac had paid attention to what the being in the mirror had said - he was none the wiser about the exact details. However, it wasn't difficult to infer a few things based upon Kalin's change in expression and his confused glances at the red-haired enchantress cradling him in her arms with worry glittering in her slightly teary eyes.

Isaac's brows furrowed momentarily, before relaxing again. While what had happened wasn't perfectly in line with his plans and had indeed caused him to need to restructure them a little, the whole situation also had its upsides.

After having rearranged everything in accordance to this development, he closed his eyes again to fully focus on his three concurrent activities. He was a bit baffled at how long it took for his faithful dog to rise and shine, but he wasn't annoyed by it - he needed quite a few days to 'stabilize his foundation' anyway - in other words, to add all of his available mana drops. It was therefore actually preferable if not too many events took place simultaneously during that time. His focus had an upper limit, after all.

Finally, shortly before midnight, the loyal Chienthrope girl finally got up again. As he took a look at her Phagein Aeon, he couldn't help but be speechless. Out of all of the Magics that his subordinates, as well as Jakk, had acquired, this one was by far the most 'broken'.

Even if he ignored everything else, the ability to absorb one's enemies' lifespan and take it for oneself was enough to hand her functional immortality. If she played her cards right and hunted enough monsters - or other opponents - then she would live forever, unless she got killed. He had assumed that it would take his kids a little longer to reach this step, but Mina had grown far faster than he had predicted. Admittedly, this wasn't due to her legitimately making it to this point, but it was rather a result of him using his overly abundant valis to gift her with a 'pay to win' benefit. To be honest, he hadn't expected grimoires to be this… potent.

Oh well, what was done was done.

This had given him a good insight into what these Magic Items were capable of, so it most definitely wasn't a loss. There had to be some limits as to the Magics that could be granted by them, but as long as one stayed within those boundaries, pretty much every wish or d.e.s.i.r.e could be fulfilled.

That sounded great on paper, but the problem was that nearly nobody could prevent themselves from falling into a trance upon reading a grimoire, so one couldn't just directly aim for the most benefits. Only if one's utmost d.e.s.i.r.e just so happened to be one that would result in a 'broken' Magic like this one, could such a situation occur. Or, well, if one managed to be like Mina and to stay fully conscious during the entire process. Judging from that being's reaction, it wasn't unheard of for this to happen, but it certainly wasn't a common occurrence.

Amongst Isaac's subordinates, Mina had also, yet again, seen the most impressive stat increase. Because of what she had been led to believe during her confrontation with that being, her Devotion had risen by another ten points, having now reached 90. Beyond this point, any more stat growth should be even more difficult.

Sometime during the night, Ais decided to get some well-earned rest, as she had gotten mostly accustomed to her post-rank up body. Because Isaac had been sitting on the bed and leaning against the wall this entire time, she cuddled up next to him, rested her head on his shoulder and dozed off peacefully. A doting smile played across his lips as he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, before closing his eyes to regain his full focus.

-----

Can I trust the one in the stone ring? Is there really something off about Valenoa? Or is she just trying to play tricks on me, to make me go paranoid?

Countless questions just like these swam around Kalin's mind for the entire night, and he only got about a handful of hours of sleep because of that. He had used the excuse of feeling a little under the weather due to having just acquired a new Magic and overusing it to pacify Valenoa and get some privacy, then he had been overwhelmed by all of these doubts. They hadn't left him alone even in his dreams.

On the one hand, he felt like this lovely girl that he had been with for so long now couldn't possibly be a danger to him. But on the other hand, now that someone had warned him to be careful of her, even if he fully trusted her, his subconscious mind would still question her every so often. The only reasons as to why he seriously considered the words of the one in the stone ring were because they were connected to the object that his father had left behind… and because the voice had sounded extremely genuine. But perhaps that was just another devilish method used to warp his mind and mislead him? The more that he thought about it, the more confused he became.

Honestly, the only possibility that he could think of that would allow both the one in the stone ring and Valenoa to be 'innocent' was that the owner of the voice had realized something about pre-amnesia Valenoa, and that information had made her incredibly wary. The memory-less Valenoa, however, simply didn't have any current connection to whatever it was that the voice was worried about, and therefore wasn't a danger at the moment.

Of course, that was just wishful thinking. What if Valenoa had misled him all this time? It was certainly possible, but… would anyone really be capable of that? Of keeping up such a flawless disguise for so long? Then what if the voice from the stone ring had lied to him? It was also a possibility, one that was far more likely. But then… why did he feel like believing what she had said!?

With both mental and physical exhaustion written all over his face, he had left the base and made his way towards Isaac's private world a little earlier than when the students and subordinates would usually convene there to set off into the dungeon. Just as he had hoped, he found his teacher waiting for him, reclining on a chair and simulating some magical phenomena somewhere in the distance, too far for him to make out anything in particular.

The response that he got was not one that he had hoped for. With an apologetic smile on his face, Isaac sighed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but I can't solve this riddle for you. Mind you, that's not because I don't know the answer to it. From the very beginning, I've been well aware of the essence of what is troubling you now. However, this might make you wonder: Why am I not telling you what you want to know?"

Slightly disgruntled and dazed, but still obediently listening, Kalin nodded his head. That was indeed the question that had just come to his mind.

Showing a more encouraging expression, Isaac's explanation continued.

"You are one of my students, and one of my subordinates. I can't do everything for you. In the future, you will often have to rely on yourself to deal with hardsh.i.p.s or to solve mysteries. Now that there is such an opportunity for growth and experience in front of you, if I were to resolve the problem myself, that would be a complete waste. It would also cause you to subconsciously rely on me even more, which wouldn't be a good thing. Basically, I want you to learn how to fly, how to stand proudly on your own two feet and how to overcome challenges head-on. Of course, I will still intervene if things escalate too much, but it would be better for your own future growth to not have me step in more than absolutely necessary."

Sporting a slightly stern, but nonetheless friendly smile, Isaac fell silent, waiting for Kalin to take in all that he had just confronted him with.

It took a while, but eventually, the young man heaved a sigh and shot a grateful smile at his teacher.

"I understand. Thank you."

Although he was still deep in thought, and his troubles hadn't lessened by much, at least he now had the assurance that this entire situation was still within Isaac's control. It felt more like a 'test' than a crisis, so a part of the burden on his shoulders had quietly disappeared.

There were many reasons to feel thankful, but the main one was this: From a teacher's perspective, it would have been better for Isaac to leave him completely in the dark, as that would have enabled him to learn more in the process of solving and overcoming this problem. But at the same time, he would have probably come to slightly resent Isaac for never telling him anything. By revealing that he was aware of what was going on, Isaac had let part of the teaching opportunity slip away, which could be considered a sacrifice on his part, depending on how one looked at it.

Watching his more heroically inclined subordinate leave, Isaac could clearly deduce what he was thinking based upon the slight changes in his expression. An amused smile momentarily appeared on his lips. Kalin wasn't incorrect, this was indeed not the most optimal path that Isaac had initially charted, but the sacrifice wasn't as large as Kalin had assumed either. Originally, even in Isaac's best plan, there had still been a need for him to step in at the very end, to deal with a few problems that the young man simply wasn't equipped to handle yet.

A couple of hours after he had bidden farewell to his students and subordinates, as well as Ais who was bringing the Loki Familia's strongest party to the dungeon again, for a fair few hours of combat and excelia acc.u.mulation, at around 9 a.m., Isaac eventually arrived at another bottleneck in his Mana Cultivation.

Because he had been anticipating it, before he attempted to add the 100,000th drop to his mana flow, he had stopped his magic research and focused entirely on this particular task. Although some ignorant people might claim that he always 'easily' advanced further, he wasn't actually taking any shortcuts here whatsoever. He simply shouldered the - for others - unbearable mental strain and pain, and overcame these obstacles with unswerving determination and effort.

This time wasn't any different. With a relieved sigh, he momentarily allowed himself to bask in the wave of comfort assaulting the entirety of the physical and mental layers of his body. Very quickly, however, he gathered himself again and read the system notification that had appeared.

[ Mana Cultivation - Foundation Establishment (A): Enables one to interact with their surroundings by using mana. Reduction in mana expenditure: 21% ]

'Judging from the pattern in which the required mana drops for each advancement in grade have increased so far, the next threshold should be at 140,000 drops. Following that logic, the last one should be at 220,000, but I'm reasonably certain that it will be higher than that. After all, the advancement to SSS-grade brings a lot more benefits than previous grade increases, so the requirement should also be significantly higher.'

Some calculations and guesses later, Isaac resumed his research on new Magics as well as his Mana Cultivation. At the same time, he picked up the Occulus that Fels had given him before utilizing the teleportation nodes to form a temporary connection with the DanMachi world.

"Sorry to bother you, Fels, but please patch me through to Lord Ouranos. There are a few more details that we need to discuss."