Chapter 1523: This Is My Crown And My Staff

I told my girls about the effects of the new artefacts after I had used [Screened] on them.

There wasn’t even a vote about it as everyone just agreed collectively that I should be the one to hold on to it.

Well... It kind of is a support type item anyway so I guess it makes sense for me to have it.

Katsuki did raise an important question though...

"Mistress... Do your Shadow Guards count?"

Good point.

Because err... I have a lot of Shadow Guards right now so if they were to count them... Then we will never be outnumbered.

Guess we’ll have to experiment then...

We used the Dungeon to teleport ourselves to the same floor outside so that we could experiment with the undead.

So first thing I tried was to bring a couple of those zombies with me into the dimensional space while leaving my girls outside to check the effects of the staff.

If we don’t count the Shadow Guards, it would mean that I should be outnumbered and my own stats should increase by ten percent for each enemy in this space with me.

And what do you know? When I checked my stats with [Screened], I found that my stats have been increased.

Even when I summoned my Shadow Guards to outnumber the zombies afterwards, my stats still remained in the increased version and did not decrease at all.

So does the artefact just consider my Shadow Guards as non entities or something?

Just to be sure... After I killed this group of zombies, I left my Shadow Guards around me and targeted another group of zombies, this time making sure we outnumber the zombies instead before I brought us all into the dimensional space.

When I checked my stats this time... It did not increase. In fact, it was the zombies’ stats that were decreased.

Huh... I see now...

Basically the artefact does recognise my Shadow Guards as entities to be counted when deciding if one side is outnumbered or not, but they only calculate that when bringing the entities inside the dimensional space itself.

Which means... Even if I have a whole ton of Shadow Guards in my shadow, they will still count me as a single person as long as they aren’t summoned outside when I bring them in.

That’s... Actually kind of broken, isn’t it?

If there is a really strong enemy, I could just summon a whole ton of my Shadow Guards and then use this to bring them into that space to nerf them into the ground. And if I want to gain the other effect of the artefact against a group of enemies that number more than our group, I could bring them into the space first to get the buffs from the enemies before summoning my Shadow Guards alongside us to turn the tables around and outnumber them instead.

Although... There is one downside about this.

The Shadow Guards that I summon while inside the space will not receive any buffs from the artefact.

Which means that if I were to first summon a few Shadow Guards and bring them with me to fight an enemy group that outnumbered us, all of us will get the stat boost. But if I were to summon more Shadow Guards after that, the new Shadow Guards do not get the stat boosts and remain at their original stats.

So if I were to get the first effect of the staff and increase my stats through it, any Shadow Guards I summon after entering the space will remain at their original stats and will not scale up with me.

That’s unfortunate, but I guess it’s not really that bad of a downside compared to the rest of the upsides about it.

As for the crown... It works independently of the staff so I don’t need to be in that dimensional space for it to work.

Once I get into battle, the enchantment on the crown will activate.

I tested it out on several scenarios where I fought a few undead with my girls watching me from behind.

The crown seemed to operate on intent since I could have Katsuki standing right beside me while I flung spells at the undead and it would treat me as being alone in the fight with no allies that were ’active participants’.

Also, it seems like being an ’active participant’ doesn’t require them to be fighting either, because if Katsuki was feeding me cookies, she would count as a participant because she’s technically participating in that fight by feeding me.

And I tried to see if I could just... Not see them as allies but it seemed like it was impossible as it kind of operated on a subconscious level instead of a conscious level so I couldn’t trick the crown into thinking that my girls were not my allies to get the two hundred percent buff all the time.

The good thing was that it also operated similarly to the staff where it did not count the Shadow Guards hidden in my shadow and will only count them if I summon them.

So technically... I could just summon two hundred Shadow Guards to participate in the battle in some way and get the two hundred percent anyway.

That was when I realised that the one percent increase was also compounded instead of a flat increase so I actually only needed to summon a hundred and eleven to meet the two hundred percent increase without any allies.

Yeah... Ok... Honestly... These two artefacts are really good and are pretty powerful. Normal Dungeoneers would definitely see these two as pretty good enchanted items that will increase the power of their party by a little.

But only because it’s me, these two items are completely broken in my hands.

I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that out of everyone here, I’m the only one who is able to completely break the limits of what these two artefacts could do...

And speaking of which... If I were to use these two together... The crown would also still work while inside the dimensional space independently of the staff.

So even though the staff will only calculate the number of battle participants and the stats increase or decrease upon the first entry, the crown will continuously search for entities while still inside the space.

Which means I could first jump inside a space with more enemies to get the stacks of ten percent increase on my stats, then summon more Shadow Guards to get the stacks of one percent increase from the crown.

The only downside is that the crown only buffs the wielder and not the allies.

Yeah... I think I just became an especially broken character. This is officially broken beyond reason.

Just saying... At my current strength... If I were to use just the crown to fight against the Hell Dragon... I would have more strength than the dragon if I were to just call out about six hundred of my Shadow Guards...

And yes, I have more than six hundred Shadow Guards to do that...

Is it possible to be scared of yourself? Because I think I am quite scared of myself at this point.

"I’m err... Actually quite scared to use this now," I admitted.

Emilia raised an eyebrow at me, "What? Why?! It’s literally tailor made for you! This is the best thing ever!"

Lisa also nodded, "I believe you are the only one who is able to use this thing to its full potential, Aster! Even an actual king commanding an army would not be able to use this thing as well as you can!"

I scratched my cheek, "I mean... Isn’t it... Too strong?"

Ira frowned, "Why are you complaining about that? Isn’t that a good thing? Perhaps... With something like this, you could even challenge the Gods themselves."

I am definitely not planning on doing that, Ira... And please, I’m pretty sure some of them are listening... Don’t give them any ideas... Especially the one that was wearing a shock collar that I have the remote for...

Tsara scowled at Ira for even suggesting that before turning back to me, "While I believe that it is indeed an artefact that is best suited to be used by you, Lady Aster... I’m not entirely convinced that there aren’t any downsides to it. After all, we had to defeat a Lich King just to get it."

Odeta let out a bark of laughter, "Wahahaha! You don’t need to worry, Sister Aster! I know exactly how you feel! You’re afraid that you will get too accustomed to borrowed strength and neglect training yourself, right?!"

Err... I wasn’t really thinking about that but I guess that was definitely something to be concerned about.

If I get too complacent and think that I could just rely on this to be strong and start getting lazy and stop improving myself... I’ll stagnate and never move further.

Odeta might not have meant it but... I think she actually just saved me from unintentionally stagnating myself.

Thanks Odeta, you really saved me there! I’ll definitely continue to strengthen myself!