Gacha Kingdom Building

[Greater Might] x3, [Swordsmanship] x3, [Stealth Strike] x3, [Stamina Increase] x2, [X Slash] x2, [Trap Disarmament] x2, [Culinary Arts] x2, [Appraisal] x1, [Better Mana Regeneration] x1, [Eagle Eye] x1, [Faster tree climbing] x1, [Movement speed up] x1, [Wind Magic] x1.

I also had to share skills around with everyone so that they could do their best in the upcoming event.

[Better Mana Regeneration] is a pretty powerful skill, so I shared it with everyone, I also gave Licia, Claire, Mia, and Anna the strengthened [Greater Might].

Both [Information Blocking] and [Block Analysis] are useful at preventing the enemy from getting the upper hand, and with the seventh floor making a point of how much information is important, I deemed it necessary to share these two around with everyone too.

[Movement speed up] is another skill that gives a flat bonus to status, with it being at such a high level, it was costly to share it around, but I had quite a few kingdom points stored thanks to the Merchant, so while hefty, I thought it was worth the cost.

[Eagle Eye] would enable Ellie to shoot from greater distances. thus giving her a bit more leeway in a straight fight. [Stealth Strike] would also be useful for her since she can get behind an enemy to use it.

I could also apply the same logic to Claire and Bea who might end up taking roles as artillery if the battle demands it, so these two also got [Eagle Eye] and [Stealth Strike].

Since we might also end up having to go face the demon, taking Erika's experience into account, I shared [Mental Resistance] with everyone in order to prevent any mind attacks as much as possible.

Even 5000 points weren't enough to share every single skill due to their high levels and the amount of people I was sharing them with, not the mention the frequency I've been sharing skills, as such, I had to consider carefully what would be useful and what would not.

[Unending Determination] had good effects, but I decided to share it with only the frontliners since they are often the ones more exposed to danger.

I also gave them [Focused Breathing] as it might help even if a little bit.

As for the remaining points, I kept them in order to deal with whatever unpredictable circumstances the event might bring about.

While those were absolutely preparations for a fight, I was hoping to solve this without needing one, but that would be a first.

Even if a fight broke out though, we've stored quite a few health potions and some that cure debuffs, so we should be fine.

In today's dive, we proceeded with a bit more caution so as to not risk any injuries since we were so close to the event. If any happened we would use a potion of course, but that would still hurt us a little bit on that front.

Since yesterday we were close to a fourth level-up, by pushing slightly more than what I wanted to, we managed to get three level-ups, alongside a hefty sum of $1433.

We also ended a bit early today so that everyone could rest as much as possible.

The only exception for that was going to be Beatrice as I needed to talk with her for a while.

The subject was Arcanum magic, while she said that she would tell me about it later, in reality, she never did.

While there's a possibility that she simply forgot about it, I couldn't help finding it suspicious. Perhaps it's my own bias against Beatrice telling me this, but if I had to bet on someone purposefully keeping a secret from me, I'd bet on her 100%.

The last time that Arcanum magic came into talks was when she was having her little face-off against Erika, so I thought perhaps it would be of importance against the demon queen too.

I had never heard of it and couldn't find anything on the internet either, so it must be some concept that Earth has not developed yet.

Either way, I would be uncovering it today, so I visited her inside the kingdom.

The room she shares with Ellie is full of bookshelves, and I've been contemplating adding a basement to give more space for her to experiment and store her books.

Beatrice: "Hm... As I told you, Arcanum is an elementless type of magic... it converts the users' intentions and their mana into an all-use magic. The most basic use is strengthening elemental magic, but you can also use it to manipulate certain concepts.

You'll need to have a good grasp on how and why these concepts work, which is why that succubus girl was so effective in applying Arcanum to manipulate how persuasive her words were."

With her explanation, it seems incredibly useful, but she also said a bit more when I first asked her about it.

Back then, she also referred to it as being sinful, so I had to confront that about it as well.

Beatrice: "Well, there's a few reasons for it being called sinful. First, there's no skill for Arcanum. This led to the theory that whatever it is, the Gods themselves don't want us to delve into it. Thus, learning and utilizing Arcanum is seen as an affront to the Gods."

It seems like there's not much evidence for it, but I can see the reasoning.

In their perspective, the Gods are responsible for giving them their Gifts and skills, in the form of a blessing, so anything that is acquired outside of that system must not be a Gift from the Gods. It's either not their intent for us, or it might be the opposite of a blessing.

According to Beatrice, another reason why it's not viewed with good eyes is thanks to the fact that demons are known to use it quite frequently.

This goes both ways in hurting the reputation of Arcanum Magic and demons alike.

Given that they use it so much, I thought that there might be a reason for it, even more so when considering that Erika said something about a cost for non-humans to use, which Beatrice didn't deny at the time, instead, choosing to focus on the fact that the rest of Erika's party wouldn't be able to handle us.

Beatrice: "Haah... that girl said too much... Let's see... the main reason is that demons seem to be able to spend their demonic power in order to use it. It's almost like an extension of the power itself. The same way the Gods seem to use divinity to shape things to their will and perform miracles..."

Interesting. The Merchant talked a lot about these concepts, but aside from them being more powerful than magic, and allowing for certain things that normally wouldn't happen, he refused to talk about it in much detail.

In his note, he left a few basic explanations, but I still don't get it completely.

Beatrice also doesn't seem to be completely in the loop about all of that, but I guess that's understandable since she's approaching it from a single angle as she can't really get a God to do research, and the only guy who could give her some insight was a complete clown.

With that being said, I'd have to be stupid to not notice how she evaded the most important part of this discussion.

Miwen: "So... since you're not a demon and you don't have demonic power, what is the cost of using Arcanum for you?"

Beatrice: "... It's not a big deal since I've become quite used to it. More importantly, since it's just the two of us, wouldn't it be fine to have some fun?"

She approached me for a kiss, thinking that it would be enough to distract me from the fact that she had yet to answer me.

Either way, I was ready to fight back this time, so she would see that this tactic would do her more harm than good.

Before even 3 minutes had passed she was already melting, and even though she wanted to break off to grasp for air, I forcefully brought her closer, making her unable to escape.

I was definitely going to emerge the victor on this one, but before I could go further, we were interrupted by someone.

Anna: "Miwen! Claire said that she... whoops. S-sorry to interrupt..."

Thanks to the surprise Beatrice managed to escape, but that was fine. I knew I'd have another chance in the future.

Once Anna left, I could see Beatrice in shambles as she gasped for air, not only that, but for the first in maybe forever I could see her being extremely embarrassed.

It's a bit strange since she didn't seem to mind Ellie but... perhaps... Anna might've given me a big tip right now, I'll be sure to reward her later.

Beatrice: "That was a bit too intense... I think I'm gonna need a time-out."

Miwen: "Sure, you can take a break after you tell me what's the price of arcanum for humans."

Beatrice: "Tsk..."

Miwen: "Beatrice. If you don't tell me, I'll have no choice but to order you to not use it."

I don't like resorting to the orders, but without knowing if this might hurt the others, I'm left with no options.

Beatrice: "...For Arcanum... You have to offer something that is unique to you... generally, we use our memories or our feelings. This either leaves us with a gap or a distortion... But it's not as bad as it seems, it might just be that you'll misremember the color of someone's clothes and the like... still, it's said that Devils inhabit these gaps or hide in these distortions so..."

Miwen: "..."

Beatrice: "A-and if you're good with it you can... kind of guess what is going to be affected... and like, I'm very used to it, so I can even predict what the effect will be... sometimes..."

She seems incredibly flustered as she tries to make an argument in favor of it, but...

I can't see it as a fair price.

Even when she's trying to make it look as good as possible, the downsides are incredibly obvious. She's listing the minimal effects, so on the stronger side, it might be that she loses her memory or her emotions.

Even if they only get distorted, that's equivalent to dementia and might lead to a mental illness or straight-up make her insane.

Miwen: "...Bea... You're not allowed to use it."

I didn't give her an order using kingdom points, but I also showed how serious I was about it.

In this kind of situation, she would definitely offer me something in return to change my mind, but it was clear that it wasn't going to work this time.

Miwen: "You can still research all you like, but don't use Arcanum. If we see the Merchant again I'll hire him as your teacher for a few classes."

Does the Merchant know about Arcanum? I have absolutely no doubts about it.

It seems right up his alley. Even more so considering he has both Demonic Power and Divinity.

I wonder if I can buy some of his demonic power so that Bea can use Arcanum without trading her sanity for it, but since this seems to be quite important for him, it might not be an option.

As for Beatrice, she seemed a bit upset with my decision, but she didn't try to complain and ended up accepting it.

Knowing that the event was soon to come, I didn't want her to think that it would be fine to engage in this type of battle against the demon queen.