World Keeper

Chapter 821: Completion And Competition

After some trial and error, the system stone managed to be fully printed after one full day of watching the machine. By the end of it, James was utterly bored, but managed to hold it all in. At the very least, he managed to get some practical information from studying the different malfunctions, so he was able to prepare ways to fix them for the second iteration of the device.

One downside to the device itself was that it actually cost quite a large sum to produce. Over time, they may be able to lower that cost, but it was currently not feasible to try to mass produce system stones on a scale that would allow the conversion of an entire race.

However, this did open up a new field of research for James and the others to study, and that was spherical construction. In the present day, there were several items that were mass produced as spheres, the most common being the terminal that nearly everyone used as both a home computer and a communication device. It was a completely spherical crystal created through a magical enchantment designed to let it interface with technology.

Now that they have the foundation for spherical construction, they could find more efficient means of producing those terminals as the technology improved. That would have to come later, though, as the current method was more efficient than immediately swapping to the printer, which was costly and prone to errors.

James took the system stone out of the machine after shutting everything down, and carried it out of the range of the nearby field projector. Once it was within the realm of the system, the stone immediately shifted from a pure white to deep blue color, confirming that it had been properly printed.

Still need to find someone to test this on for one final check, though… He thought to himself, walking back to the teleporter room that took him to his main research office. Once he arrived, Chel smiled, looking over at him.

“So, that’s our first product, right?” She asked, causing James to nod with a small sigh. “If you’re thinking about having someone to test it on, just outsource that to the metong. They have loads of people that aren’t part of the system. And if anyone has the tech we need to shrink down the printer, it will be them.”

James thought about that for a moment, before nodding his head. In truth, the metong were the ones that had the greatest need for the system stone, as they had tens of thousands of different worlds under their control, with all of those races being exempt from the system. That was trillions of people who were unable to gain levels.

He walked over to his desk, closing his eyes and focusing. High Mother, Goddess of Heat, please answer my call. Ever since the High Mother of the metong had ascended, it became a lot easier to get in touch with her. At least, that was what he was thinking before his terminal began to ring. James looked over in confusion, noting that the caller was none other than the High Mother herself.

He answered the call, turning to face his terminal. What he saw was a gentle smile on a silver face. “I apologize, but this method is much easier for me to focus on.” She said, causing James to nod his head in understanding.

“That’s fine, I just needed to get in contact with you.”

“Then, may I ask what this is about?” As the High Mother asked that, James lifted up the system stone that had just been produced. “Is that the level transfer orb? I had heard that you released the design to several top companies, and the production has already begun.”

It was clear that the High Mother was interested in the level transfer orb, but James shook his head. “No, this is the other one that came from the Aurans.” The High Mother’s eyes went slightly wide when she heard that, remembering the conversation when Aurivy was present.

“That is… I believe it was called the system stone?” James gave a small nod when he heard her question. “May I ask why you are calling me about this?”

“This is a system stone that we have produced.” James answered, attracting her attention even more. “I would appreciate it if you could take this and find someone to test it on. We need to make sure that the system is properly installed on the chosen individual.”

The High Mother gave a small nod, clearly ready to accept this arrangement. “Would it be alright if we studied the orb first, before using it for the experiment?”

However, James shook his head. “I’ll send you the file on its construction with my research notes. For the cliff notes version… unlike the level transfer orb which can be constructed with a specific spiritual and magical fusion enchantment, this has to be printed from the core outwards with a very specific energy frequency. It appears completely solid at a glance, but the surface is composed of millions of tiny ‘threads’ that are all linked together in an organized pattern.”

The High Mother nodded her head, running through a series of rapid calculations. “I see… so that’s why it took you this long to produce a prototype.” It was clear that she was similarly troubled by the stringent requirements, but was still looking forward to the research notes that James had promised. “Either way, we will be able to have the information back to you by the end of the week. Once we have selected the individual, we will run them through the different systems to make sure that everything is functioning normally.”

James offered her a nod of thanks at that. “Excellent. Oh, and by the way, have you scheduled your divine forging yet?”

The High Mother blinked at that, the thought having slipped her mind it seems. “I shall contact the Goddess of Ki to request the necessary blood blessing. If she accepts, I’ll be sure to make an appointment when I return the test results to you.”

“Perfect. In that case, I’ll have the sphere ready for when one of your people arrives.” James said as he set it down, the call with the High Mother closing. Just as he was letting out a sigh of relief, Three-Fifty walked over with heavy steps, his electronic voice speaking out.

“Sir, we have received another divine forging request. This one comes from an individual tagged as a person of interest.” When James heard that, he lifted a brow. Most of the ‘persons of interest’ were already gods, or had gone through the forging process already.

“Which one is it?” He asked, flipping through his mental list.

“Cariah Crimson, the Impaler.” When James heard that, the name connected in his mind. A former student of the Empress of Bloodhaven, currently a powerful card magician and martial spirit. She had managed to obtain her mana through the same method as Scarlet, but had yet to complete her own ascension.

“It seems like she’s wanting to expand the market for advanced forging.” When he had first added her to the list of people to watch out for, it was because he was certain that she would first ascend to her divinity, and then come with a sample of her own divine blood for the advanced forging.

The fact that she was first ascending with the forging method meant that she had lost her patience, or she was looking at this as a business opportunity. As of yet, no other martial spirit had come forward to take the forging process. Perhaps they had not yet acquired their mana, or there were some other factors stopping them.

Either way, with the Impaler taking the first step, people would no longer need to turn to the Goddess of Blood once her divinity had been completed. James gave a small nod at the thought, already planning to release the full crafting method, as well as the schematic for the divine forge itself. Once the Impaler had her divinity, there would be no point in trying to stem the tide of gods coming through, as she would be able to freely sell her divine blood for a high cost that other gods would be happy to pay. It was better to let other companies handle them, that way things would be a bit more quiet for the researchers.

“Just put her in the first opening.” James said, waving the golem off.

Chel walked over behind James, looking over his shoulder as he began working. “Setting up the next generation printer?” She asked, to which he shook his head. “...Okay, then what is it?”

“I’m working on a failsafe. If Cariah’s going to become a god, and sell off her divine blood en masse, I want to be prepared in case some of the people that she gives it to decide that having more domains means they can throw their weight around.” As he said that, he was rapidly typing, working on a number of formulas and just as quickly discarding them. “So, I’ll need to come up with an energy that can specifically target those with forged divinities.”

Chel rolled her eyes, lightly tapping James’s shoulder. “You’re worrying too much. If people go bad, we have just as many ways of dealing with them without specific energy combinations.”

James slowly turned, looking at Chel and placing a hand on her forehead. “No fever… you already have a failsafe, don’t you?”

Chel stuck her tongue out playfully. “Void scripts. I’ve got a few dozen prepared for different purposes that can be integrated with regular broadcasts. Some reduce crime rates, others raise awareness to look for suspicious individuals, and there was one I made to help someone find their lost slime pet. That one was interesting.”

“Are they mutation-proof?” James asked nervously, causing Chel to pause briefly.

“For the most part? I only plan to flash them at most once a week and major networks if the situation gets to the point where they’re needed.”

James let out a faint groan. “Just tell me you have the anti-memes prepared for if a mutation begins spreading…”

Chel rolled her eyes at that. “Of course. I’m not going to make a meme without crafting the anti-meme to go with it.”

“Test number one thousand, six hundred, and I’ve lost count… begin.” Ashley said in an exhausted tone, hitting the key to finalize the patch she had written for the system. Once again, the system briefly shut down to apply the patch, before booting back up slowly.

Ashley made sure to give it plenty of time to finish updating, before taking a deep breath. “Wardrobe.” She called out, and widened her eyes as a screen appeared before her. The screen showed every item that she was wearing, assigning them to various anchor points, or ‘slots’ on her body. There was also the option to assign the outfit as a saved slot, swap to a new slot, or manually customize it.

This was the first entirely complete system that Ashley had managed to create, and it functioned as a pseudo-inventory for clothing and armor. It was painful to think about how much work it had taken to get this one little system operational. Not only had she needed to code the system itself dozens of times over, but she had to make an entire debugging software.

Every module within the greater world system was interconnected on some level. It was kind of spaghetti code that made Ashley recoil just from the thought of how interlinked everything was. In order to properly get this one aspect working, she had to use the debugging software to identify all of the places within the system where it would integrate itself, and then modify those specific lines such that they would not clash with the other modules. And sometimes, that caused the connections to change, and she had to do it all over again until everything fit in place perfectly.

Okay… now I can make a proper inventory. As she said that, she saved the new wardrobe system, thinking of ways to improve upon it in the future. For instance, setting it to be self-cleaning would allow people to need to worry less about laundry. Self-repairing… that would probably be a lot harder, as it would be an incredibly complex code to repair any type of material. Self-cleaning, and the ability to save enchantments would be more than enough.

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