Chapter 34
Berserker
For a single moment it seemed that the room, or at least the telepathic connection between the alleged rage maid and her baffled princess, had been overtaken by what to Mary felt like a deafening, and yet somehow almost contemplative, silence.
Briefly, the two minds of Mary struggled to take in the now-revealed reality of Sylvia's previous adventuring specialisation before exploding with questions.
“Sorry, I must have misheard. You were a what?!” {We thought you were some kind of frontline knight, maybe a typical sword princess… How the hell are you a berserker?!}
The two minds telepathically exclaimed together, their voices overlapping in their haste to be heard.
Sylvia, far from being dismayed at the sudden noise, let out an audible chuckle at their abject confusion. Privately, the friend of Elizabeth had been waiting for the correct moment to reveal this part of her true nature, having long since enjoyed the surprise she could garner from the truth in the years before her association with the princess had begun.
For a single brief moment, the beautiful maid allowed her mind to flash back to what, for her, were happier times, to when Mary’s mother, the then secret princess Elizabeth, had reacted with total shock as Sylvia had charged into battle with a massive weapon that should never have been wielded by the hand of a woman as slender as Sylvia was.
“Hehe. I’m relatively certain that I’ve mentioned parts of this before.”
The maid admitted, embarrassed, a light blush beginning to dust her cheeks.
“I don’t have any talent for what people would usually call traditional magic. Sure, in theory I can throw a fireball as well as anybody else; of course, I know how to throw one, you’ve seen me do it after all, but I totally lack talent for traditional spellcasting such as that.”
The maid fully revealed to Sylvia her ineptitude with most types of magic and then moved on to disclose something that was arguably more surprising.
“There’s also the simple fact that I just don’t enjoy it very much.”
Mary raised her eyebrows at the last part of the maid’s explanation; a short mental glance at the mental representation of her doppelganger echoes what they were both thinking: who doesn’t enjoy throwing fireballs?
“I’ve always been more of a physical type, you see. I have always enjoyed being active; when I was much younger, that involved regular exercise, and then I discovered that combat truly provides the most enjoyment. There’s nothing else like it if you want to get your blood pumping.”
The now revealed battle addicted maid said with what to the peaceful and unaggressive Alexander, would have been regarded as a highly terrifying, and yet clearly restrained maniacal grin.
On her part, Mary stared at the beautiful maid as if she had seen her for the first time, having just learnt that Sylvia was, in actuality, some sort of battle maniac.
“It’s a family trait that we all share, in fact; naturally, it was, of course, inherited from my revered ancestor.”
Mary's eyes blanked out for a moment as she considered what she knew of Sylvia's otherworldly ancestor.
From what the maid had told her, the summoned hero had been a big fan of the relatively famed, although by the time of Alexander highly obscure, video game series called the Touhou Project.
In fact, she had probably renamed herself at some point to Sakuya Izayoi; at least that is what Mary would conclude, given that she assumed no parent would actually name their child after a video game character. Such habits had caused significant trouble in the 21st century, especially disagreements among family.
Whether such a name change was done legally while the summoned hero was still living on Earth is not impossible, as, unlike parents naming their children after beloved fictional characters, people still did that all of the time. Or the name was something she proclaimed after she was summoned; Mary couldn’t be certain.
The only way to confirm that theory, whether in support of it or against it, would be to obtain information from one of the many diaries of the famed maid impersonator or to somehow communicate with the deceased.
One of those things is more likely to happen than the other, given Sylvia has access to those diaries.
But it wasn’t merely her name, was it?
The hero had clearly gone much further than that; during her life on Earth, she had obviously undergone significant gene-crafting, allowing her to not only resemble the fictional maid but also ensure that her descendants would inherit a similar general appearance.
‘Some people, I swear.’
Mary mentally whispered in exasperation, sharing the bafflement that Alexander often felt when he encountered similar situations.
Clearly, the otherworlder had decided to go all of the way and purchased what were in all likelihood significant, genetically inheritable upgrades to her physique.
And considering that the maid had just informed Mary that the entire Izayoi family enjoying fighting was apparently a family trait, there were probably some startling changes to Sylvia's biochemistry relative to a non-augmented baseline human.
{That no doubt helped Sakuya with whatever she was summoned to fight.}
Mary nodded in agreement at the second mind's observation and then proceeded to reach further, intent on considering what the longer-reaching consequences of such a degree of augmentation would be.
“Most of the more common genetic physical upgrades would cause some degree of longevity; taken all together, she could have easily lived two centuries, perhaps even more. It is mildly surprising that she went for the inheritable traits, though, and not just inheritable either; she made them persistent and dominant. Those are extremely expensive augments, not to mention unavailable without special permissions.”
Sylvia answered Mary’s observation with a bitter smile; immediately, Mary assumed that things had not worked out how she would have expected, with Sakuya sticking around for many years after she otherwise would have.
Mary would soon learn that she was correct, but not in the way that she originally assumed.
“My ancestor did live a very long life by human standards.”
Sylvia answered in confirmation.
“But her longevity, that we as her descendants inherited, has caused us problems with other families, especially among the nobility and royalty. They get very jealous over our long lives, you see.”
The maid revealed this information, causing Mary to sigh in exasperation, as it was to be expected; longevity treatments were highly coveted on Earth as well.
“Of course, as it turns out, not all otherworlders are created equal. Or I suppose made equal, as the benefits I enjoy were purchased after my ancestor’s birth.”
Mary nodded at that, the princess becoming increasingly certain that she understood where the maid was going.
“Many families across the world are descended from heroes, relatively speaking at least. But very few of them inherited long life spans like my family did.”
{Makes sense. It is just as Mary Prime said; it’s more surprising that your ancestor got the inheritable options.}
Mary twitched in annoyance at being called Mary Prime and mentally chastised the second mind for the misnomer.
However, Mary continued to explain the reasoning of the second mind.
“It was so cheap and easy to get gene-crafted upgrades that buying non-inheritable traits was considered good form.”
“There were some exceptions, of course, like editing out a few diseases, because some of those diseases so heavily affected people’s lives that removing them from the gene pool became non-optional. But generally, gene editing was something you decided once you were old enough to provide informed consent. It was in the end a body autonomy thing.”
Mary revealed to the maid that the restraint shown around inheritable genetics was more due to social norms than capability.
{And a financial thing. The world's biologically focused companies couldn’t continue extracting so much money from people if all of the good traits were inherited at birth.}
The second mind added a cynical, and yet ultimately truthful, fact to Mary's explanation.
“Most of what you’re saying matches what my ancestor left in her diaries. The only thing I can really add is that according to her writings, she was from what was called a super-rich family, and that they all had inheritable augments.”
Mary feels a physical twitch of annoyance at being essentially corrected for what was, in truth, an extreme outlier.
Distantly, she sensed that her second mind was experiencing similar feelings.
“The super-rich have always operated under a different set of rules.”
Mary answered in despondent exasperation.
{And wouldn’t you know, it is just our luck that we might be technically one of the rich in this world. But the social mores here are so twisted that it doesn’t benefit us in the slightest. It is the opposite even, as we would be home free if we weren’t born amongst the nobility.}
Sylvia lets out a wet, sad chuckle at the second mind's bitter sarcasm.
“Then I apologise for the trouble.”
“Instead of complaining about how twisted this world has become, can we focus on the fact that Sylvia is a berserker? What does that mean, like practically speaking?”
“Oh! So, right. I told you that I’m not a very good traditional spellcaster, didn’t I?”
“You did.” {Yes.}
Both Marys confirmed shortly, becoming somewhat impatient to move on.
“Well, the majority of the magic that I use is for self-enhancement.”
Sylvia begins her cheerful explanation.
“Due to my ancestors’ genetic inheritance, I was already born physically stronger than most people, and levelling up helped with that tremendously too, of course.”
Mary blinked at the appearance of a strange turn of phrase in the maid’s explanation but chose to not interject for now.
“What really helped develop the combat style of the Izayoi family is the magic that my ancestor had passed on after she had created it. It goes without saying that she dedicated a significant portion of her life to crafting numerous high-quality time spells.”
“From what I understand about the fictional character she named herself for, they were known for using some sort of time magic, right?”
Mary nodded in confirmation; that was certainly one way to put it.
Sylvia's cheerful demeanour shifted to one of annoyance as she continued her explanation.
"People have even attacked our family in their quest to obtain the spells created by our ancestor."
“But they quickly learnt that we wouldn’t fold easily; after all, the spell that my family tends to use the most, what we are most famous for even, is what is called a haste spell variant.”
Mary nodded to herself; given that they were discussing someone who had named themselves after Sakuya, some degree of time magic was to be expected. And there was no more typical time spell than haste magic, the ability to manipulate time to vastly increase a person’s speed.
It was also not surprising that the family would be attacked by people attempting to steal their ancestor's works; such actions were common events both on Earth and in fiction.
“And then there is our all-important self-healing magic; it’s difficult to fight for long periods of time without some means of healing.”
Mary blinked in surprise; she hadn’t expected a healing magic to appear in this conversation, although for battle continuation purposes, perhaps it makes sense?
“My family, the world in general really, calls the magic that we have a regeneration spell, but my ancestor baked in some formulaic obstruction, so all we can do is copy what she taught us instead of learning the spell's runes.”
Mary, not wanting to interrupt but wanting to discuss what was being said regardless, mentally turned part of her attention to her second mind and opened a conversation thread.
‘So, she went out of her way to conceal her work then? I guess she didn’t want it to be easily stolen.’ {We’ll end up having to use our own spell masking; hopefully that’s something we can learn before we get into trouble.}
‘But still, I wonder what runes you would use for a regeneration spell?’ {As expected, would simply using regeneration as the keyword work? But then why is it so rare?}
“The spell is famous; it’s one of the few healing spells not related to the Church and the Goddess.”
Based on the new information that Sylvia had provided, the second mind reached a tentative conclusion.
{It might simply be that the Church crushes any attempts to create healing magic that is outside of their purview then.}
“We also use some specialist physical buffs, the sort that can damage or even kill people who aren’t part of the family.”
“By which you mean they are dependent on your already enhanced biology.”
Sylvia smiled at her princess and nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. Amongst many other things, our bones start out much harder than they would otherwise be.”
The maid revealed.
“In fact, your average C-ranked adventurer doesn’t have the hardiness that a non-combat member of our family can enjoy. However, this does not mean that a non-combat Izayoi, no matter how rare such a person is, would necessarily win a fight against a C-ranked adventurer.”
“By which you mean that only those above B-ranked could be expected to be able to use the physical enhancement spells that your family has access to?”
Mary asked, impressed, at the clear superiority that Earth money could buy for a person’s descendants.
{There is also the implication that a person becomes quantifiably stronger as they advance up the adventurer ranks. No doubt it has something to do with the levelling up that you mentioned.}
Sylvia smirked at the second mind's question, having expected it the moment she had alluded to the phenomenon.
“The exact mechanics behind levelling up aren’t known, at least not publicly. And there’s no real indication; it’s a nomen culture that we inherited from otherworlders at some point.”
The maid admitted, once again revealing that otherworlders had much to answer for.
“But what I can tell you is that as you gain real quantifiable experience in your chosen profession, and especially the more monsters you kill, the stronger you will become.”
{Sounds far too much like a video game. I can almost see why some enterprising otherworlder would use terms like ‘levelling up’ and ‘experience’.}
“I wouldn’t worry about that princess. There’s nothing like stats being gained, or anything like that; it is actually a very gradual thing that most people wouldn’t notice.”
Sylvia pauses for a second before adding an additional qualifier.
“Unless they’re the obsessive type anyway.”
“My ancestor believed that actions involving mana cause it to accumulate within you, specifically in the areas where you direct it; therefore, the more mana you use, the more your body becomes accustomed to using mana for that particular task.”
Mary nodded at the explanation; it sounded logical enough that it could be something like the truth.
“Additionally, when you kill monsters, you absorb a small portion of their mana, which slightly enhances your abilities based on the type of monster you defeat.”
{What do you mean? The nature of the monster that you kill?}
Sylvia smirked, proving that the answer was obvious.
“It’s actually very simple: if the monster has focused its mana on becoming a powerful mage and you absorb its mana, you will get better at magic. Every aspect of mana that could be associated with spellcasting might improve: quantity, quality, and denseness. If you kill enough of a particular magic-casting monster, then you might even gain an element or aspect.”
Mary considered this with a degree of amazed bafflement. So, if all magic is often about dedicated study, a savant could absolutely surpass guild mages by simply killing enough goblin shamans?
Sylvia continued with a smile on her face, clearly enjoying the expressions of her princess.
“What about if the monster focused its growth on agility? Killing it will make you faster.”
“Whatever the speciality a monster has dedicated its life to, whatever the focus of the monster is, you get just a little bit better at that thing for absorbing their mana.”
“No doubt it has something to do with mana natures then.”
Sylvia nodded in agreement.
“That was what my ancestor thought was most likely too.”
{As fascinating as all of this is, our mothers' books will likely greatly expand upon most of the information we’re exchanging. So can we get to working with those, please?}
Mary twitched in annoyance; they had got distracted by Sylvia revealing herself as a battle-maniac berserker, hadn’t they?