(L) Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? [WN]

[Tcol]

Ariel just keep giving me feel flags while Sariel keep giving her rekt flags

[K2Grey]

Well, my predictions that the elf village battle would go straight into the end game were wrong; actually, they were mostly all wrong. I like the Gloria setup that Potimas had. It would have been too straightforward if Potimas just came out in a giant robot and they had a Mecha-Godzilla vs Kumonga battle. Instead, he had a variety of robots using abilities which have either been seen already or which are believable given what we previously saw, and the big deal came from the sheer amount of energy in them, which makes sense given that he's been siphoning MA energy for millennia.

Sue getting Greed was kind of obvious in hindsight, but I don't think anyone was expecting it since it seemed like it wasn't an available option (even though we've known that Yuugo died for ages). Well played, Baba Okina.

It seems like dumping the robots' energy into the System could potentially be sufficient to save the world, but it obviously isn't since Shiro isn't changing her plan. There's also this quote:

Basically, we’re in checkmate. The Demon King probably doesn’t know about this. She thinks that this world will be saved, so long as humans and demons are forced into a huge war, and if the scant amount of MA Energy is replenished. But, it’s not that simple. Already, even if the MA Energy is replenished it won’t be enough. Because the source of the Energy supply is about to start decreasing. Also, if my prediction is correct, then it won’t begin gradually, but all at once. At the time when I realized this it had already become way too late.

It's possible this paragraph actually refers to Sariel, but she's been decreasing for quite a while and gradually too. I'm wondering if there is stuff in Taboo that would be new to the readers, and if so, whether we will get a Shun chapter soon. It certainly feels like we're going to be getting a bunch of alternative PoV chapters now.

[J4n1]

The elf village battle was about as great as i could have hoped for.

Now going to the future, i can't help but wonder how Oka will react if/when she learns that it was Potimas who would have been killing the students, and she was helping him collect them?

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by J4n1

The elf village battle was about as great as i could have hoped for.

Now going to the future, i can't help but wonder how Oka will react if/when she learns that it was Potimas who would have been killing the students, and she was helping him collect them?

It's not going to be easy for her. She didn't really trust Potimas in the first place but I don't think she ever had any idea just how much of a scum he was. Compared to that, I wonder how much of a surprise it'll be that one of her students has become a god?

It's hard to be sure from Shiro's latest chapter but it's possible that she's already spoken to Oka-chan sensei and gotten the Charity Ruler authority. I wouldn't be surprised if several hours have passed so it's possible. Maybe I'll be completely wrong but I get a sneaky suspicion that we might not get many POVs from Shiro for a while, to disguise all the things she's planning.

I wonder if Shiro plans to send the students back to Earth immediately... or only after she's put an end to the System? For all we know she's sent them back already, which could explain the line that there's no pure elves left on the planet. (I'd be surprised if this was the case though...)


On a different note, I wonder what Ronant is going to do. I'm sure he could figure out that Shiro is on the demon army side, so he might go over there. I have this imagine in my head of Sophia meeting with him and him talking about his previous meetings with Shiro... and then when Shiro finally turns up, Sophia goes "Goshujin-sama, your boyfriend is here!"

[tsunade666]

boyfriend? more like worshipper. Ronan should start a cul5 worshipping Shiro-sama.

I worry that vampire girl would betray them and join with Dustin. she starts calling him uncle and that secret talk hasn't been revealed yet. the reason on why she called him that. and that response of mera to shiro is kinda rude. just because she refuse to take vampire girl with her. shirt is still a bit worried with her but he just brushed her off as someone who is not needed to know the reason.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by tsunade666

boyfriend? more like worshipper. Ronan should start a cul5 worshipping Shiro-sama.

I know, I know, but this is Sophia we're talking about

I worry that vampire girl would betray them and join with Dustin. she starts calling him uncle and that secret talk hasn't been revealed yet. the reason on why she called him that. and that response of mera to shiro is kinda rude. just because she refuse to take vampire girl with her. shirt is still a bit worried with her but he just brushed her off as someone who is not needed to know the reason.

I have similar concerns... though somehow it's hard to imagine Sophia intentionally betraying Shiro.

With regards to Mera: He was definitely rude. However, I can see his point. If Shiro is going to abandon Sophia then it could be argued that she's giving up responsibility for Sophia and therefore whatever Sophia does in her private life is no longer her concern. Essentially, he wants a "clean break" for Sophia. Alternatively, he might hope that Shiro changes her mind or at least explains herself.

[EvilSociopath323]

Hmm, I don't know if kari mentioned this but Fei taking so long to hatch was actually not due to dragons taking a long time to hatch. Normally a dragon egg gets magical energy from their parents and hatches in a much shorter time but because Fei got separated from her parents it took her years to hatch.

Also in the fight with Sophia she didn't participate. She was just observing the fight from above and when it looked like Shun was loosing his confidence she finally intervened asking Sophia if they couldn't surrender to her. She seemed pretty much the most reliable out of Shun's group.

Also I wonder if the LN version of the what happened after Shiro arrived will have more dialog then the web version. We basically have sensei, Fei and Shun still awake so maybe things get more interesting. In the LN Shiro did say at least hello to sensei so she definitely has already more dialog there than in the web version. Though hoping for more dialog from Shiro is probably a bit too much.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Amuris

oh great, so much for Shun's redemption as a character/plot device. Well, I guess he'll be a bigger plot device from now on, since imouto now is crazier, pushing harder for him, and now can see with appraisal that Ariel has weakened if she ever finds her.

OH! So that's the big dramatic plot twist! Appraisal-sama's betrayal!

Just as well she didn't get Lust, since that's the one with the OP brainwashing.

[tsunade666]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

I have similar concerns... though somehow it's hard to imagine Sophia intentionally betraying Shiro.

I don't think that vampire girl would totally betray Shiro but her goal might differ from the talk with the Pope. The pope might offer something to her to at least protect the humanity.

Now that Shiro is going full-frontal on the humanity's end, the pope would need every card he could use for the humanity's survival.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by tsunade666

I don't think that vampire girl would totally betray Shiro but her goal might differ from the talk with the Pope. The pope might offer something to her to at least protect the humanity.

Now that Shiro is going full-frontal on the humanity's end, the pope would need every card he could use for the humanity's survival.

Sophia's actions (after meeting with the pope) seen from Shiro's POV does not feel anything like someone about to betray someone or anything serious. Going to be curious finding out.

I think the pope has only two options: 1) don't oppose Shiro at all and focus on mitigation/survival 2) Beg Kuro to intervene. After Shiro kerb-stomped Potimas I doubt the pope is going to want to risk angering Shiro.

I wonder if Shiro was just being melodramatic in the latest chapter... or what exactly does she expect to happen? Before it sounded like a reasonable percentage of the population could die. Sounds more serious now. Also, are the demons included in "humanity"?

[Okashira]

Hmmmmn.... Thinking about it, I half expect for Dustin and Sophia's master plan to be to force Shiro into the administration of the planet I mean, I don't imagine any other alternative that would make Sophia that happy after hearing it...

Oh, and about young ace, poison spider is there.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Okashira

Hmmmmn.... Thinking about it, I half expect for Dustin and Sophia's master plan to be to force Shiro into the administration of the planet I mean, I don't imagine any other alternative that would make Sophia that happy after hearing it...

Oooh! Nice idea!

"We're going to need cake... lots of cake... and whatever other sweets we can make"

I wonder what the chance is that they could invent chocolate... or ice cream

Oh, and about young ace, poison spider is there.

The manga discussion thread needs some love

[Xacual]

Ronant is the Prophet of the religion of the White Spider. He just hasn't gotten a chance to start it yet.

[kari-no-sugata II]

In the latest chapter, Shiro makes it clear that "breaking through the limit" (to godhood) is more than a matter of collecting a bunch of souls/energy together. I'm not sure if this limit is a "hard" limit (ie something about nature of the universe) or a "soft' one (some arbitrary value that D picked). However, despite all the talk about gods about having lots of energy, breaking through the limit itself is not about having lots of energy, but something else. So what might it be?

So far, the vast quantities of energy that gods posses has been presented as more of a static value. Not completely static but more like there's just one "mode" and there's not an equivalent to the various skill based power-ups that the System allows. I don't remember it ever being suggested that gods can create new energy. It can't be discounted either but for now I'm going to downplay the idea that this "limit" is some kind of threshold that involves generating energy, until we get evidence otherwise.

So, what might this limit be? Well, it obviously could be some arbitrary soft limit that D set but a hard limit would be more typical of this series. Well, here's a conceptual model for what the limit might be: electrical resistance, with gods being more like a "super conductor".

Basically, if we think of gods (and souls in general) as being like an energy store, then if there's something that would "resist" moving that energy around (and waste energy doing so) then that would limit things. It could limit both how much energy can be safely stored and how much can be used at any one time. If there's continuous resistance then energy would effectively leak.

But if this "god = super conductor" analogy works reasonably well, then it does make a nice "hard" limit. Essentially, as the "quality" of the soul improves, the more the resistance drops and the more energy the soul can store and use safely. Once it crosses the threshold to a "super conductor" then that energy can be stored indefinitely. Like with real super conductors, that doesn't necessarily mean that infinite amount of energy can be used and stored though - different super conducting materials can handle different amounts. Anyway, if we consider a soul that is basically a "minimum level god" then that soul would have an equivalent maximum amount of energy it can store which is where the energy threshold for a god comes from. As the quality of the soul further increases beyond that, the more energy it can store (and perhaps the more can be used at any one time).

This is just a theory. Well, an analogy presented as a theoretical model for trying to explain what might be going on. Hopefully we can find out more about the "limit" (and a long list of other things) - whether it is hard or soft. It does seem to be more of a "quality" value rather than an "amount" value though.

[Cathrain]

Manga raw is out !!

She now has earring and "knee"-high socks.

Too bad I can't read Japanese.

[Lazgrane]

The limit is how much energy a soul can hold.

One must expand their "Divinity Area" to suitable size first.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Cathrain

Manga raw is out !!

She now has earring and "knee"-high socks.

Too bad I can't read Japanese.

Please take it to the manga discussion thread. I've even written a short summary of the latest chapter.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Lazgrane

The limit is how much energy a soul can hold.

One must expand their "Divinity Area" to suitable size first.

I'm guessing you were replying to my long post?

Anyway, while I agree that Divinity Area is important, it has yet to be explained exactly what it is a measure of. Having a "large" soul that can handle a lot of energy is critically important to being a god. However, from what Shiro is saying, merging souls together isn't a method that makes it possible to surpass the limit (to godhood). If the limit she's talking about is "Divinity Area Expansion LV10" then that means that merging souls together will not increase the level of "Divinity Area Expansion". Or at least, it won't let you reach LV10. If that's true then if you take 10 people with "Divinity Area Expansion LV5" and merge their souls together then the merged soul will still be "Divinity Area Expansion LV5".

Hmm. I had an idea. When "Kumoko" eats Mother and gains her status/skills, her Divinity Area Expansion goes up 2 levels (to LV9). However, it had been some time since the last update so it's not certain if that's a side-effect of eating Mother. But, in LN4, we see Mother's status (Divinity Area Expansion LV2) and in both the WN and LN, when Kumoko eats Mother her goes up by 2 levels. Kumoko had gone up 23 levels in the meantime so it could be due to normal levelling but that seems a little unlikely. So did eating Mother increase Divinity Area Expansion by 2 levels? Seems quite possible.

In which case that contradictions the first paragraph. Though I did say that this is only under the assumption that this "limit" is Divinity Area Expansion LV10. So then, maybe it's not and maybe the real limit is something else? Hopefully this'll make sense some day...

[J4n1]

Maybe divinity area expansion lv10 is needed, but not enough to become a god.
It might be a matter of raw willpower, drive, intellect, maybe even luck in part, that let's you go through the final push from simply powerful mortal into godhood.
Maybe you need to plunge into the abyss, not knowing if you can survive to come out the other side, to finally become a god.
And Potimas, being so obsessed about living forever, is not willing to take the risk, and is trying to find a safe method.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by J4n1

Maybe divinity area expansion lv10 is needed, but not enough to become a god.
It might be a matter of raw willpower, drive, intellect, maybe even luck in part, that let's you go through the final push from simply powerful mortal into godhood.
Maybe you need to plunge into the abyss, not knowing if you can survive to come out the other side, to finally become a god.
And Potimas, being so obsessed about living forever, is not willing to take the risk, and is trying to find a safe method.

Well, Ariel says she can't become a god either. (I wonder how she can be so certain? I guess she knows that her soul is at the limit?)

D seemed quite confident that Kumoko could become a god, though we have no idea about what sort of time frame she expected that to occur in. So presumably Kumoko was on the right path, without knowing it.

As well as Divinity Area I'm guessing that being a Ruler was one of the requirements. This does seem likely - particularly when you consider the skill description. Maybe a minimum of two are necessary?