System, why and how exactly did my level up get archived?

Due to the activation of the archival system, the notification and its consequential level up was archived.

Archival system? That system that I activated yesterday? Didn’t that just archive things when I wanted it to? How’d it become automatic? System?

The archival System is an automatic process that may be stimulated manually. All notifications are automatically archived on arrival.

Wait what. All the notifications were archived? System, why?

During the early phase of implementation it was noted that any process beyond delaying notifications during periods of Qi consumption was impractical in use. The process required the constant observation and interpretation of large amounts of factors.

This was deemed unnecessary when a simpler system could be implemented effectively.

Hmm. How exactly did the System process triggers? There was definitely some form of constant monitoring inherent with any System, it wouldn’t work otherwise. But the System seemed to only pay any attention to certain triggers. Things like numeration, archive etc. would immediately bring the System’s attention.

So the System was constantly monitoring the entire world for certain words, actions, etc. The System had also shown that it was fully capable of reading my mind, so that meant that it was reading the mind of every living being in the world too. It had to be every living being because beasts evolved too.

So say for the System to allow for automatic archival and dearchival of the notifications, it would have to set cultural triggers, mental triggers and… yeah there were far too many triggers. But it also meant that the System had limits. Very large limits, but limits.

And that could be good for me. It meant that if for some reason I needed to fool the System, I could do it by avoiding thinking of any trigger words. That would make me, pass right through the radar as long as I did not spend any Qi either. It would still be hard though… but at least I knew it was possible.

Now for the archival system, presuming that I even could turn it off, should I do it? Right now I could just open notifications and see them all at once, so what was the harm? All I had to do was open notifications when I had time. Basically I had set notifications on manual instead of auto. Guess the manual mode was staying.

Aswelth

Aswelth sighed as he looked at a piece of paper. Choosing trustworthy candidates was apparently harder than he thought. It had taken him three hours to cross-reference every person in the guard with his memory. If he hadn’t been a Treeling with near perfect memory it would have been impossible.

But he did it, and now he had a list of people. The only problem was that it was far from satisfactory. For one there were only three people on the list with any kind of administrative experience or training. And none of them had any experience in education, there had been no formal education in the valley previously, making for a lack of capable people.

It left him at a loss on what to do, but he was sure that the Archduchess would know what to do. And that brought him to the Archduchess’ ‘plan’. It was ambitious, expansive and, to the best of his admittedly lacking knowledge, completely unprecedented.

If it worked then it would completely overturn the Kingdom’s society, nay, it would cause an uproar throughout the Land of the Six Jewels. An Adventurers Guild that allowed mortals to apply to be cultivators? A plan to make every mortal a cultivator? It was both a dream come true and a nightmare in the making.

The only reason the current society worked was because most cultivators were sworn to more powerful cultivators. The ones that weren’t sworn were either the ones in power or too weak to make a difference. No mortal could ever protest anything a cultivator did. Nor could a weaker cultivator protest the actions of a stronger one. The strong preyed on the weak.

But this adventurers' guild would break that. The strong could only prey on the weak if the weak could not become strong. And this guild would give exactly that opportunity. If he wasn’t dealing with the living anomaly of an Archduchess he would worry about someone catching up and demanding power.

But he was dealing with the same person who just broke through to Plantling stage. Oh yes, he noticed that, it took her how long? A month? Sure, she had the advantage of accepting him as a retainer, whatever happened in that two-week trip she took to the forest, and the forest was basically spoon-feeding her Qi, but a month was a month.

Besides, the forest wasn’t going anywhere, it would likely feed her all the way to Treeling at this rate. Then there were all of these organizations she was making. Each and every one of them was sure to give Qi for making them and be a constant source of Qi. It was after all how normal nobility type seeds gained Qi, through their land’s organizations, its economy, it’s growth.

Nobles with nobility type seeds did not get down from their thrones to hunt beasts. Not like the Archduchess that left to go check out every threat. Nor did their lands suffer many threats, not unless they made the threats. It was why nobility type seeds were avoided, they were slow to grow in such conditions.

But as he was coming to realize, this duchy was very different. Just like how building a military from scratch was a gold mine of Qi for him, this remote duchy was a mine of spirit stones. Those old coots in the Capital had probably sent her here thinking that the ten-year-old Archduchess would die here. After all, what other ten-year-old could think up so many revolutionary ways to improve the duchy?

Which one could predict the needs of the duchy in the future so accurately? And then there was her retainer. The Archduchess did groundbreaking unbelievable things to gain Qi, but this guy. This guy went to sleep. It was practically an insult. A naked slap to his face. Years of his effort were useless before this guy’s sleep.

Sure he awakened some bloodline, but wouldn’t the bloodline just promote his growth more? Aswelth was jealous. And he did what he always did when faced with jealousy, he worked harder. That was exactly why he had never fallen behind the other generals, he worked harder than them.

And he would do it here too, he had a head start even, he would build the best army in the entire Lands of the Six Jewels, no, the best in the entire continent. And when the Archduchess took the throne, he would be General to the entirety of the Kingdom's army.

When, not if, for who else even stood a chance now? The great ducal heirs who were likely still in the Sapling stage? The generals who would likely never break through to the Treeling stage? No, Altura Selrin would be Queen. And he would be her General as they swept through the Land of the Six Jewels and beyond.

Carsen Selrin (the ancestor)

Carsen was having the most fun he’d had in years. It had been years since he last visited that old duchy of his. There was no way he could stop himself from killing a few idiots if he did. But he had long found out that it was impossible to change how things worked, he had tried to change things for years, right up until his own son had tried to kill him over it.

If he had been even half a realm weaker he would have died, but he did not. Instead, it was his son that died. The backlash from the failed technique too much for him to bear. But imagine his surprise when he found himself coming back to a descendant that was taking the same path as him, albeit differently.

Not only had she given that General of hers an actual fair reward, a simple check had turned a surprising number of facts. Days after arriving, she had established a judicial system, had increased wages to far beyond the cost of life, and already started planning for the future.

But that could all go away in an instant. And then he had overheard her ‘plan’ in the treehouse. It was revolutionary. It completely changed the game, instead of asking for rights for mortals, it eliminated mortals altogether. Oh, how he wished he had thought of it, but the thought of making everyone a cultivator, eliminating the very thing that differentiated between him and them did not even occur to him.

It would not be possible anyway, the Selrin duchy did not have the forest. That forest of hers, a mystery wrapped in a delicious treat. A treat that could easily turn to poison. But that was enough for now, the Dark Empress of the Empire had summoned representatives from each of the Jewels, and it would be a great slight if he was late. Being one of the royal family’s hidden elders came with its own problems after all.