Chapter 165: Free From The Constraints Of My Own Standard

With the creation of this next heroine, Lancet needed to hit three birds at once.

The first and the most obvious: He needed to create a heroine powerful enough to fix his broken Grace Channels. Broken cores and channels were one of the most difficult things to heal.

Although they were not impossible, accomplishing it meant a long journey, days of mental and magical exercises, and weeks without using Grace or risk breaking the channels over again.

Lancet needed to save himself from that torture. There were no other methods; even magic body surgery was inefficient. So, creating a new heroine powerful enough to do it, was his only strategy.

However, with power like that, it meant this new character was also going to be a Platinum, even though much lower compared to Astensia, Thor and Spectra.

The second bird was the Serpent Society. Lancet hadn’t forgotten about the plan to insert someone into the high ranks of the secret organization, making it look like she’d not only always been a student in Awakener Supreme, but also a respected member of the Serpents.

Lancet didn’t know whether to do that directly or indirectly. From the novel, he knew all the positions of power in the Society, and all the snake codenames they gave each other.

There were no empty positions for him to directly put her into. Lancet thought about just making one but couldn’t exactly think of where. To start breaking down every composite of the Society to find where to stuff his new creation into seemed like a lot of work.

So the best move was to make her really close to one of the Serpents in the highest positions.

Lancet already had two candidates: the one they called Viper, Reon Godgraham, and the other called Rattlesnake, Oden Fyrebloom.

Reon Godgraham, Viper, was a really smart guy from what Lancet remembered, so avoiding him was probably the cleverer decision. That left Lancet with Oden Fyrebloom aka Rattlesnake.

Which brings us to the third bird: He had to give her a reason to betray the Serpent Society and help Lancet.

This was the toughest part. Her reason not only had to be aligned with her overall motives as a character, but it also had to be reinforced with her backstory.

Lancet took a deep breath, thinking hard. He could feel his soul core pumping above his heart, weak and slow, as the channels were too wounded to allow normal passage of Grace.

There was no way Lancet could allow this to carry on so he had to create her tonight. That way, he would have enough time to convince her to heal him before the next competition.

So he thought really hard. ’What relationship should she have with Oden Fyrebloom that would make her want to rebel against the Society?’

Maybe a protective, concerned girlfriend?

That would certainly make things interesting. Though he hadn’t created a heroine who already had a love interest, and Lancet wasn’t sure if he was going to anytime soon.

But the idea of betraying the Serpent Society out of concern for Oden’s welfare seemed like a really good angle and Lancet was keen on going with it.

’Who would be just as worried as a girlfriend... or a mom to get that out of the way... for a boy,’ Lancet thought, tapping his chin.

The answer came a second later. A sister!

Indeed. A sister was the way to go. Lancet was still pretty nervous as this was about to be his first bound Summon.

This Heroine or Villainess—whatever she ultimately came out to be—would not reside in the Summon Space like the other three. She would live in the real world, have living friends and families, be connected to a lot of things in the ongoing story.

Lancet knew that he was very likely to fail the Lore Attunement with this one. He just had to be careful.

He picked up one of his already-made designs for a Healer Mage that he had drawn some days ago. After making a mental note to tear and burn it once he was done — cause if someone saw a picture of her on his bed it would be weird — Lancet began the creation.

⸢ HEROINE CREATION SYSTEM ⸥

He came with a name that had been in his head for the past few days.

⸢ Name: Espel Fyrebloom ⸥

Lancet always thought that he was good with names. He did care if anybody opposed that, not if anyone even knew that he was the one naming everyone.

The next tab was ⸢ Appearance ⸥. Lancet looked at his sketch and began to write down what he had drawn in more formal words.

⸢ Appearance: Height: 172cm. Physique: Elegant, statuesque, and has an ethereal look about her. Hair: Long, voluminous dark hair with pink shading. Eyes: Piercing cyan eyes that glow whenever she’s having intense emotions, making her easy to read. Attire: A pristine, form-fitting white and pink regalia with some gold. Adornments: Translucent pink butterfly wings manifest from her headwear and back when channeling her Grace. Weapon: A heavy, ornate golden staff topped with a dormant spell-gem. ⸥

Lancet was going for a look that seemed somewhat inviting and nice. However, he had no plans of making her nice at all.

In fact, he came to a conclusion right then as ideas stormed into his big head. Espel was going to be a Villainess. But not just any Villainess. Not in the ordinary sense.

⸢ Personality: Ethereal, chillingly serene, and philosophically detached. Espel views the world entirely through the lens of transformation. Because she sees no moral difference between the miraculous reconstruction of a shattered soul and the rotting decay of human flesh, she is terrifyingly calm even in the most gruesome situations. She’s an anti-villain, neither inherently evil nor classically good; she acts on a twisted, deeply protective sense of care for her brother, Oden, unbothered by the ethical boundaries she crosses to ensure his safety. ⸥

⸢ Role Assignment : Villainess ⸥

⸢ Backstory ⸥

⸢ Family/Birthplace: The esteemed Fyrebloom Family. She is the sister of Oden Fyrebloom (Rattlesnake), deeply embedded within the high society of the Awakener Supreme Institute while navigating the lethal, secretive politics of the Serpent Society. ⸥

⸢ Event: ⸥

Lancet looked at the tab with pouted lips. He decided to get back to it later. And also decided the same for ⸢ Motive: ⸥.

⸢ Villainess Details ⸥

⸢ Class: Healer Mage ⸥

⸢ Advanced Class: Entropy Mage ⸥ 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Lancet smiled at the Class. Naturally, if she was Platinum, she also had to have an Advanced form of her Class. And Entropy Mage was something that Lancet had been thinking about for a long time.

⸢ Description: Espel’s power is built on two opposite authorities: butterflies that restore, and moths that decay. While her Bloomwings can reconstruct anything to its original form as long as there’s an atom of it left, her Gravewings accelerate entropy until there’s nothing left. She treats healing and destruction merely as different stages of the same transformation. ⸥

As expected, the system warned Lancet that the CP price was high because of the really overpowered ability. But Lancet remembered that he had over 20,000 CP.

Hah! For the first time, Lancet didn’t have to worry about subsidizing the cost with the Narrative Coupon. He could create the most simplest backstory and get away with it.

Finally!

’Free from the constraints of my own standard,’ Lancet thought with a sigh. ’Come on, Espel. What is gonna be your backstory?’