Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Wiina———

“It’ll be fine. The most that can happen is stuff exploding, you all can tank that anyway.” I said while enjoying the cold breeze. “...I guess if the formula went wrong you could end up creating a chimera instead of a cake, but that’s not… Nevermind.”

“Did you peer forward to see that happen?” Karra immediately asked upon hearing me cutting myself off.

“Maybe.” I bluntly answered. “The process of creating both out of those materials is surprisingly closer than you would’ve thought. It’s almost random in terms of what could come out of it at the very end. I hope no stray soul ends up in that process, that’ll cause quite a dilemma.”

“Yeah, I don’t think any of us can perceive souls right now.” Karra pointed out.

“That won’t really be a problem. If a soul still anchored itself to this plane, their presence would’ve been quite noticeable. Unless the automatic process or the Eight Death Gods were slacking they should all be whisked away to the afterlife immediately.” Souls in general are a fickle thing so even with some of the most powerful beings in reality a few would slip through the crack, but I don’t see any around here, so I’m not particularly concerned. Always a chance of one popping in from a different universe, but that’s not something I should be obligated to deal with, and trying to intercept the trajectory of the soul is considered taboo for a reason. Only someone so impossibly strong that they could kickstart the Reboot would’ve been given leeway.

“...I see?” She seems unsure about the overall possibility of something like that happening.

“Don’t worry about it. It’ll go smoothly enough.” I said to give her some reassurance. From someone like me those words hold a lot of weight. “...So what else are you doing?”

“Nothing. I’m just waiting until class starts back up.” She answered. So no missions, no socializing, just relaxing here besides me. “...Hey. We barely talked about the intricacies of magic nowadays.”

“Because I already told you quite a lot. Most stuff beyond that are trivia or something you don’t need to worry about for at the earliest a few decades.” She already knows all the basics at this point, the practically of other topics is either questionable or situational.

“...Maybe. But it’s still fun to hear about certain topics. Like… I don’t know. What those Innate Traits can do, or what is actually out there in space? Also, what the hell are the Death Gods?” She threw out a few ideas. “There’s a lot you already know, right?”

“Yeah, but it would’ve ruined the fun of you seeing it for yourself.” It’s more than that. The more she knows the more she’ll stress over it. I know she hasn’t been doing those chatting streams talking about magic, but there are certain topics that shouldn’t be widespread.

“Come on… At least one of those things?” She pleaded. It’s looking like she honestly has nothing better to do.

“...Okay. Fine. How about we talk a bit more Special Traits then? Or whatever you wanna call it.” If she’s going to insist on that then let’s talk about something on the more innocuous end. “You already know that it could be an active or passive ability. An active ability is usually a more efficient version of a common ability. Something like Emmie’s [Weaving] is something you or I could replicate, but not on the same level of efficiency that allows her to use it like a blueprint for spells instead of a spell of its own. Some are nearly impossible to replicate like [Liquid Shadow], which basically turned your body into a shadow-like substance that allow for quick escape or stealth, most beings would’ve basically been brain dead trying to replicate it, but thanks to it being an Innate Ability it will circumvent any downside the common version would’ve had.”

“...You’re throwing out a name I haven’t heard of before.” Karra pointed out.

“There’s plenty of names you would’ve never heard of if I kept explaining this stuff…” She only has one point of reference, so that’s not a lot to go off on. “Onto the passives. They are generally seen as more valuable since replicating them is impossible. They gave you an advantage that your raw talent can’t really compensate for. Some of them are combat-related, while some aren’t. Something like [Tempo Eden] is combat-related, as long as you string combos and keep pushing your advantage state, your power increases exponentially, but it does have a downside of being dispelled if you tripped up and have to start over. Something like [Experience Boost] is kind of dubious, but it’s a very powerful passive ability that means that catching up to even the mightiest of foes takes very little time. There are also things like [Ancient Power] or [Longevity], letting you get stronger passively with age or live way longer than the average lifespan of your species, but these are pretty mundane in comparison, and some races already have them as a racial trait.”

“Like you?” She spoke up.

“I have all of it. Not really a fair comparison.” Insanely unfair comparison, it’s best to not bring up my circumstances at all when talking about anything. I’m going to be one of the exceptions when it comes to any topic. “Back on the topic at hand. There is a rare chance you could acquire an Innate Trait even after you have fully developed, but there is usually either a massive caveat or relying on a massive amount of luck. Also, while they usually carry over between each reincarnation, not all of it does, and some can even be passed down from parents to children. Weird how an abstract thing could be passed down.”

“Not a lot of things seem to make sense anyway.” She remarked.

“That’s the gist of it all. I wouldn’t get too worked up about this aspect even if it seems very unfair. There are layers to this, you know? Some people are badly attuned to mana while others can use it like second nature.” The super special privilege thing is simply not something we really need to focus on when some people can accidentally lit themselves on fire if their magic formula goes even a little bit wrong. “And even without that, with this school’s training and accessible facilities there’s no need to worry about talent. As long as you want it more, it should be good enough… In a practical sense of being strong enough to avoid most disasters, mind you, not super lofty goals like being the strongest or whatever.”

“I think everyone here knows better than to strive for something like that. That will usually make you make terrible and hasty decisions.” Karra replied to assure me she’s not going down a path like that. There’s quite a significant difference between wanting to improve and be the strongest. It’s quite a massive leap in scope. “...So how the hell do we deal with the aftermath of the stream?”

“I’ll handle it if anything does go catastrophically wrong. Also, I won’t fix the flavor of the cake if you did something wrong and it tastes rancid. Go eat it in front of the camera and make a reaction either way.” I know she was probably either going to do that herself or make the others do it, but just so we’re clear that there is a line drawn on my end.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Hopefully nothing goes wrong in the first place.” She responded.

“It’s all content anyway. If anything you want it to go catastrophically wrong. It’s a good story, isn’t it?” I said while noticing a weird shift in the movement of the clouds.

“...Well spoken.” She begrudgingly said. She is supposed to be the shrew one. Streamers are nothing but con artists, so she should know how to squeeze out opportunities for more views and be way more shameless of her approach. You don’t exactly get views by acting normal. You could be the most despicable human being on the planet and have a following as long as you’re interesting in some way. Ordinary wouldn’t cut it.

“Either way, just make sure it’s entertaining.” Not that she doesn’t understand it. I do hope no sensitive information came out of anyone’s mouth. “Well? What else are we gonna talk about? Plenty of time left before Rico’s little torture game.”

“...So what’s the overall progress of the students? You have the back end data, right?” She asked.

“Most of them can level a few buildings without getting tired, there will obviously be a few quite averse to fighting, so a few are going to be quite below average.” I recounted. “They have been ramping up the difficulty of training recently. If they didn’t have advanced healing magic then it would’ve been all pain and no gain. Those strains would’ve offset all progress.”

“...What even is the minimum level?” Karra asked.

“They can still demolish a decently-sized building, but just one would exhaust them. That is usually enough to deter people, so it’s not as if training those folks was a failure.” Even if they were more on the pacifist end they would still train per the curriculum and learn the art of magic and self-defense. If they want a passing grade they need to go through it.

“Yeah. A walking bomb is definitely a deterrent.” Karra sarcastically replied. It does sound like overkill, but with both the floor and the ceiling increasing, there is a new baseline you need to commit to. “...Also, one more thing I want to ask.”

“What is it?” It sounds like something she just remembered.

“About Parallel-Self Reflection Phenomenon.” Hm? That’s an odd topic to bring up at this time.

“What about it?” For her to bring up something like that is a cause for attention.

“I was thinking… Wouldn’t other worlds also know about us?” She asked.

“That is a possibility, but if you’re talking about our story specifically, I doubt they’ll know everything. I have scoured through enough data to know that no one has that specific knowledge in their head, outside of a few that figured it out by themselves.” I made sure to breach everyone’s privacy to make sure my own wasn’t compromised. “Why even bring that up now? It’s not like we never discussed the parallel worlds.”

“It’s just that… Feel like we’re close to a breaking point, something that would’ve been recorded somewhere, you know?” She explained.

“What? With those warlords causing a ruckus? I suppose that is a sign for something.” A story coming out of either the inciting incident or the aftermath isn’t out of the question. In fact, considering the type of stories that are a reflection of other worlds, it’d be weirder if the transition that breaks the World of Steel doesn’t leave a massive impact in some people’s subconsciousness. “No need to worry about that, and the only way anything can be spoiled is if someone crosses from another world. It’s not impossible, of course, but the odds of someone like that also managing to learn something about me being crossing over is simply not possible. I already checked.”

“How do you even check that again?” She asked.

“It’s pretty boring. I wouldn’t ask that if I were you.” It’s not something she could even remotely replicate anyway, or simply too ridiculous for her to feel satisfied as an explanation. “I do understand the concern though. If someone has intimate knowledge on the future events the amount of advantages that can be stacked up is quite high, and due to how all the multiverse and time shenanigans work, there isn’t anything in place stopping that kind of individual from exploiting the knowledge. That kind of person wouldn’t hold a candle to me though. There’s so many formidable forces lying around that maybe they don’t even get to start. You know Coach Wana could’ve technically killed me when Eclipse happened, because my power wouldn’t be fully developed for the few minutes after the change. If even I was at such a risk during my starting point, try to think of how someone with way less cheats than I do would’ve fared.”

“...Huh.” She doesn’t give much of a reaction.

“Got anything else to ask?” It doesn’t look like she’s pursuing that topic further.

“Uhhh… I got nothing.” She said while scratching her head.

“...Then get going already! Make sure to talk to the others about the experiment. Also, make sure there are enough materials going around.” I think Kenni is more than capable of doing that. Making sure there is more contingency in place other than just my existence.