I raised a brow as I watched the man from the Realm of Eternity talking to the queen of a nation. However, the discussion between them, as well as my own personal research, helped me shed some light on how the karma system worked. Contrary to my original opinion, it had nothing to do with one’s personality or motives.

In my mind, the number of people within the palace did indeed seem to be too low, given the sheer number of people in my domain. No matter how strict the requirements were to get in, there should have been at least a million souls to make it by this point in time. This thought process revealed to me that the people who made it into the palace were not selfless saints. By many standards, there were better people than them that failed to get in.

Through my searching, I learned that karma functioned on a simple principle that had nothing to do with someone’s personal motives. It was possible to accrue good karma with wicked intentions, as well as bad karma with a pure heart.

Instead, the karma system functioned by a simple measure of suffering and aid. Helping someone would grant a certain amount of karma based on that person’s current balance. If you helped a bad person, even if you did so simply to be kind, it would stain you with negative karma. Likewise, even unintentionally causing the suffering of someone with positive karma would yield negative karma.

This was how Thane received his karma, through helping the pure, unborn souls of children. While some of them would naturally be the reborn souls of those with negative karma, there were a great many more that were either fresh souls or ones with positive karma.

It is also why true saints almost never receive enough karma to gain their ticket to eternity. Those true saints believe in helping anyone, good or evil, and so they continuously accrue negative karma as well as positive. While it is true that they would no doubt end with a net positive, it would not be enough to get in the palace.

On the other hand, it is instead easier for a soldier to earn good karma, as long as they perform their jobs right. By hunting evil and aiding the unfortunate, they gradually build up more and more good karma. Perhaps not enough to earn entry within a single lifespan, but certainly more than those that help indiscriminately.

The ones who actually have it the hardest are the kings and queens, and the leaders of financial empires. When you command someone to perform an action, you create a karmic link with that individual. Thereafter, you receive a large portion of whatever karma they acquire through performing that action. Any king or queen that has gone to war would have had to have ordered their men to fight.

Given the ease in which soldiers gather good karma, this translates to a leader of a warring nation suddenly receiving a massive amount of negative karma. On the same note, the leaders of a business empire would have to issue out a great many orders on a regular basis. Some of their business decisions are bound to hurt people, such as the raising of prices to match the market fluctuations.

In this sense, Thane was truly a rare case. Because his karma came from the millions of newborns that he helped bring into the world, his balance was increased to such an extent that any of his previous negatives no longer mattered. The moment he created that medicine and made it easily available, he was practically guaranteed entry.

With that in mind, I didn’t know how confident I could be in regards to his new test. Even if he managed to ease the suffering of all of Hanbei, there would be negative karma mixed in with that positive.

If I were him, and knew the things that I did, I would create an alliance with Scarlet. Her ability to read karma would allow me to go around and help only positively-aligned individuals, while giving instructions to others that would target those that needed to be taken care of in a different manner.

Of course, there are problems with this plan as well. I wouldn’t be able to enter into a pact with Scarlet, because in doing so I would forfeit my right to enter the palace again upon death. Instead, she would consume it per the conditions of the pact itself. It would have to be an alliance of mutual benefit that did not involve that pact.

Shaking my head, I cast those thoughts aside. Most likely, Thane had other plans for what to do after he was done helping Hanbei. If he planned to end his own life after he believed that he had gathered the requisite amount of karma, then things would end very poorly for him.

And to be honest… I was somewhat rooting for him. I had always been a sucker for a good love story, and Thane’s was one that I felt deserved a happy ending. He might not realize that the woman within the palace was his true love, but she did. In time, he may come to realize it himself, but he had to make it there for that to happen.

In the meantime…

James was sitting in his office, thinking back to the young man that he had recently encountered within Udona’s palace. The idea of being able to freely tap into the weave of fate not to predict the future, but as a means of training, inspired him. It was an all new level of broken metaphysics that he couldn’t even fully understand himself.

Ever since he had received permission from Udona, he had been deploying his senses to constantly scan Phisher’s body from afar, comparing his information with the information of those like himself. Even with his powerful detection energy, he could only just barely sense the lingering energy of the system on each person.

With a bit of training and calculation, he would be able to accurately read anyone’s class levels and stats. However, things such as titles were far more complex, as there was very little to use as reference when many were unique. Even when measuring just class levels, it was far more practical to examine the soul directly, as the levels were similarly imprinted there.

However, James was never one to easily give up simply because a task was difficult. He had originally told Udona that there was merely a one percent chance of success. That chance hinged entirely on him being able to identify and replicate the mutated strain of system energy.

The problem was… that energy mutation would only trigger in the event that Phisher entered into another anomalous dream. Otherwise, it would likely remain dormant, increasing the difficulty in identifying it exponentially.

With Phisher now being a god due to his first anomalous dream, he no longer needed to sleep. If he did so, it was purely voluntary, which reduced the amount of time that James had to study him and look for that flaring energy.

James. A familiar voice spoke into his mind, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Looking around, James confirmed that everyone else had gone home for the night. Aside from a very stubborn golem that insisted on remaining behind to work on a breakthrough in its own manufactured energy.

With a wave of his hand, he created an invisible, soundproof barrier around himself. At the same time, just in case the golem called for him, he created a hidden sensor outside of the barrier to alert him if he was called. “What’s up, boss man?”

I’ve got a new project for you. James felt his shoulders sagging when he heard that, knowing that this would inevitably take priority over his new passion project. Still, he similarly knew that there was nothing that could be done about Phisher’s case until he managed to identify the energy strain.

“Alright. What is it this time? Another energy combination? Or maybe you want to go into void manipulation a bit more?” He had heard from Tsubaki about the previous experiments into the void, and remembered his own thoughts on the matter. It was only natural to him for the storage bags to borrow territory from the void, as there was no such thing as an entirely secure storage mechanic.

More the former. I’m getting ready to buy a new class, and I would like you to work on how to more easily handle the process of making it widely available. Similar to what you did for the Perfect Self and Pilot classes.

James raised an eyebrow when he heard about that. “I’ll bite. Which class is it? I’ve probably got some personal experience with the energy, or at least enough to have a starting point.”

The Perfect Soul.

James let out a groan when he heard that. “You’re really going for the three steps of perfection. I’ll do what I can… but perfection of the soul is a way harder prospect than perfection of the body. At least if the body is broken and the step fails at a certain point, it is possible to recover as a different energy lifeform.”

“But if the soul is broken, there is no hope of recovery for any creature. Worst yet… it can only be performed by someone that hasn’t reached physical perfection.”

It took a moment for the Keeper to respond to that. You’re going to have to explain that bit to me. The three steps, and the requirement.

“Yeah, I figured…” James shook his head in resignation. “The three steps of perfection are the Perfect Soul, Perfect Self, and Perfect Will. They are the preliminary steps of divinity, matching the pace of Divine Soul, Divine Body, and Divine Will.”

“If someone completes all three steps of perfection, their path to godhood is all but assured. At the same time, they will have the chance to walk the Saint’s path instead. But the steps have to be taken in order. Once you create the Perfect Self, your soul is permanently combined with your body, making it impossible to backtrack to perfect the soul. Similarly, perfecting your will results in the body merging with the mind.”

Okay… this is the first I’m hearing of this. All I heard previously was that the Perfect Self was a sort of trap, because Keepers are unable to practice it without personally dying. I’ve never heard of this Saint’s path.

“Not surprised.” James said lightly, leaning back in his chair and glancing upwards, as if that would let him see the Keeper. “Keepers aren’t able to walk the path, like you said. So most typically avoid it on principle. I like to experiment with things, so I bought the full set and had my people try it out. We may not have been a civilization focused as heavily on energy cultivation as you are, but we had our own methods.”

“After I got someone to finish all three steps, they found that their body was able to change its own energy composition over time. If they needed more mana, they could increase their mana capacity at the cost of another energy, for example.”

“The Saint’s path is a path I found after having someone fully convert their body into a saint-level energy. It took a few years, granted, but it was worth it. This is a path to power different from becoming a god, but it is not any weaker. People who reach the end of that path are typically able to release their own energy with every bit the same potency as a divine domain.”

How many saint-level energies are you familiar with? There was a hint of surprise mixed in with his curious tone, causing James to chuckle.

“I bought five of them when it was me. The Ki of Origin, the Eye of Ruin, the One Light, the Dark Truth, and the Beastshaper Heart.” James closed his eyes, thinking back to those energies. “Some of them are just ridiculous names, especially the Ki of Origin and the Beastshaper Heart. The ki is just a really advanced form of elemental ki with unique properties, while the heart sounded like it would let me shapeshift into any creature. Instead, it allowed me to create replicas of creatures that mimicked their true form and mind.”