From Kiana the Lord Ravager Onward: A Grand Fabricated History
Author: Better Hang Myself Than Write
Listening to the system notification, Kiana felt like the corners of her mouth were about to lose control altogether.
Wasn't this just too perfect?
From nothing more than one heart-to-heart conversation, she had squeezed 1,500 Fabricated History Points out of Asta, and even upgraded two of her personas in the process. The efficiency was downright astonishing.
Looks like the wide-net strategy really was the right call. If she wanted to gather points faster, she obviously couldn't hang herself from a single tree.
And more importantly, thanks to Asta's trust, it wasn't only Kiana's own power that had risen significantly this time—even Cecilia's persona had also gained the preliminary status of an Emanator.
That meant the stories she fabricated through different personas were now beginning to reinforce one another, corroborating one another and forming a healthy cycle of mutually strengthening false histories.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Kiana suddenly threw her arms open and hugged Asta tightly.
"Thank you for being willing to listen to all that, Asta!"
"You really are a very, very good person."
The warm softness of the embrace, along with the faint fresh scent clinging to the girl, instantly wrapped itself around Asta.
Asta's cheeks flared red in an instant.
"Wah… M-Miss Kiana?"
Ever since childhood, aside from family members, Asta had never had such intimate physical contact with anyone.
Seeing that reaction, Kiana laughed inwardly. On the surface, however, she only tightened the hug a little further, even deliberately rubbing her cheek against Asta's burning face.
"Ah—!"
Asta finally couldn't take it anymore. Like a startled little animal, she wriggled free of Kiana's embrace.
"M-Miss Kiana, p-please wait a moment!"
"Hm? But isn't Asta my friend?" Kiana blinked innocently.
"N-no, that's not the issue!"
Asta struggled to steady her breathing, trying to recover the dignity expected of the station master of Herta Space Station.
But the bright red tips of her ears had already betrayed her.
"A-anyway, Miss Kiana, please get some proper rest first. You already know how to use all the room's facilities. If you need anything, you can contact me through the terminal. I-I still have station affairs to deal with, so I'll be taking my leave first!"
Having said that, she practically fled the room.
The door clicked softly shut, and the room fell quiet.
Whew. So the little girl's skin was actually pretty thin, huh?
The smile on Kiana's face slowly faded.
Still, it didn't matter. As long as Asta properly fulfilled her responsibilities as a power bank, Kiana could tolerate any shortcomings she might have!
"But the real main event is Herta. The puppet's gone offline, and the real body is on the way. I'd better think carefully about how to deal with the truly troublesome genius lady."
Kiana flexed her fingers, feeling out the gains she had just made.
The trust she had harvested from Herta and Asta had caused the strength of this persona to rise sharply. The only problem was that she had no reference point, so she had no idea what level she was actually at now.
Still, she had also accumulated a decent number of Fabricated History Points.
Which meant it was about time to spend some.
Kiana cheerfully opened the system shop.
[Herrscher of the Void Core: 5000 points (special discount)]
[Herrscher of Flames Core: 5000 points (special discount)]
[Herrscher of Death Core: 50000 points]
[Key of Destruction: Judgment of Shamash: 50000 points]
[Key of Creation: Abyss Flower: 70000 points]
[Persona Adjustment: 200000 points]
...
Mm…
The system's pricing really was excellent value for money. Such fair and reasonable prices—surely it wouldn't be long before she could clean the whole shop out—
Yeah, right!
No, seriously, what the hell kind of pricing was this?
Why was a Divine Key more expensive than a Herrscher Core?
And not just by a little, either. It was more than ten times more expensive!
What, did the processing fees cost that much?
The wool she had worked so hard to fleece from others wasn't supposed to be handed over so some middleman could profit off the difference!
Even though the prices felt absurd, Kiana still skimmed through the shop at speed.
Besides Herrscher Cores and Divine Keys, she saw many other familiar names.
Well… by which she meant more Herrscher Cores and Divine Keys.
Did this system shop only sell stuff from the neighboring franchise?
And the prices got even more horrifying the further down she looked, easily reaching tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of points.
But the item that caught her attention the most was [Persona Adjustment].
It cost a staggering 200,000 points, and its description was extremely vague.
[Applies adaptive adjustments according to persona characteristics, unlocking or strengthening its unique abilities, allowing it to better fit the current world's system and display the power it ought to possess.]
That short line of text made Kiana's heart jump.
This thing seemed capable of directly raising a persona's strength. Perhaps Persona Adjustment was a fast route to gaining real power—though exactly how far that "adjustment" could go remained unclear.
And Kiana noticed something else:
The price of Persona Adjustment did not appear to be fixed.
If used on Kiana, it cost 200,000 points.
If used on Cecilia, it cost 300,000 points.
As for the other blank-template personas?
Haha.
500,000.
Forget 500,000 or 300,000—even the lowest price of 200,000 was already so outrageous that Kiana didn't even want to look at it for too long.
Forget it. Better to focus on the things she could actually afford first.
Looking at her current balance of 5009 points, Kiana's gaze landed on the Herrscher of the Void Core and the Herrscher of Flames Core.
Unlike the other Herrscher Cores priced at 40,000, these two really could be called a bargain.
Kiana guessed that this probably had something to do with the current strength of her persona.
Just as Persona Adjustment varied in price depending on the persona, perhaps it was precisely because Kiana herself had already grown strong enough that these two cores—which originally belonged to Kiana in the other world—had become so cheap.
In that case, the answer was obvious.
"Let's gamble on it."
Kiana made up her mind.
There was no point hoarding points just for the sake of hoarding them. Better to turn them into immediate combat strength.
Herta's true body was about to arrive, and Kiana needed more trump cards.
"System, exchange for the Herrscher of the Void Core."
[Confirm consumption of 5000 Fabricated History Points to exchange for and use the Herrscher of the Void Core?]
Kiana did not hesitate in the slightest.
"Confirm."
The instant the words left her mouth, an indescribable tremor rose from the depths of her soul.
It was a strange feeling of completion, as though some long-missing fragment had suddenly been restored. At the same time, a great flood of understanding and authority related to space poured into Kiana's consciousness.
She raised a hand. With a single thought, a Void Lance materialized instantly before her.
"So this is the power of the Herrscher of the Void?"
Feeling the surging new strength coursing through her body, Kiana couldn't help but marvel.
There was a reason she had not chosen the Herrscher of Flames Core.
Purely in terms of raw strength, it wasn't as though one could easily say the Void Core was stronger than the Flames Core, or vice versa.
But compared to the brute-force spectacle of the Flames Core, didn't mastery over space just feel far more intimidating?
After all, Kiana needed more than combat power alone.
She also needed something with enough style to hold up the scene.
Manipulating space simply sounded far more mysterious and grand than playing with fire.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 130)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 105)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 105)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter99)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter91)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter65)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter80)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 58
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 62
From Junkman to Wasteland 45
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 32
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 35
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 31
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