Published at 12th of January 2022 12:13 pm

Chapter 745: The Next Generation

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I let out a sigh of relief as I felt my avatar returning to my body, still writing the various prologues for the books that I wanted to create. As I returned to the Citadel, I had had the idea for this experiment, and decided to test it out. I wanted to see what would be possible if someone were to use the trinity of domains in a specific fashion.

The method that I chose was to replicate how the domains were arranged within the divine energy itself. The triangular pattern corresponded to the stable form that the domains within my divinity appeared, locking together in such a way that it prevented the slightest disturbance.

For this test, I decided that the easiest way to test it was to use a situation that I did not completely control, such as enhancing Julia’s divine artifacts. These were items that I had not made, wielded by someone else. Although I was aware of their basic functions, this made it a situation that was as far out of my control as I could get without finding monsters to test on.

As part of the test, I had admitted to myself that there was a certain level of danger. Given that I was directly enhancing the divine artifacts of another god, there was the chance that the artifacts could reject my power, leading to them self-destructing. If that had happened, I was prepared to compensate Julia by offering her a chance to obtain a second domain.

Thankfully, the situation did not come to that. It was not easy to find the primordial relics containing domains, and I didn’t know how long it would take to find one suitable for Julia. At worst, I could take her to the ice relic within Lorek and allow her to obtain that.

Regardless, the results of my experiments were a resounding success. As soon as I formed the trinity by replicating the position of the domains within my divinity, the process became considerably smoother for me to channel my energy. Enchanting her wand had only taken as long as it did because I had personally tested out its new function before ending the process.

As for the sword… there was nothing more to really say about that. When I invoked the trinity there, it was a simple matter to promote her familiar to the fifth tier while fusing her with the blade. I thought about aiming for the sixth tier, but the moment it crossed my mind, I felt as if the energy consumption would be enough to drain even my reserves as the Keeper.

Using what I learned from this experiment… it should be possible to mass produce these books through a similar method. However, I was not going to do that right away. No, first I would make twenty different prologues to set the scenes for various stories. I would only begin mass production after that, and only to copy the already produced works.

Sadly, I discovered once again the downside to possessing a trinity, as well. Or rather, the need to have domains that worked together to form a proper synergy.

Aurivy… I whispered to her within my mind, the response coming back several moments later.

Huh? Yeah, what’s up, Dale? She seemed curious, as if unsure what I was calling her about. I didn’t know if she was simply humoring me, or if she had been distracted enough that she wasn’t paying attention to things over here.

Is there anything I can do to help with your domains? I can ask Terra if it’s possible for me to change them. I didn’t realize just how much my choices for your powers were hindering you until now.

There was another pause before a light laugh echoed in my mind. Oh, that? You don’t have to worry about that, Dale! I promise, I’ve already gotten it figured out. Besides, I love being the Goddess of Love. I think all of my domains are great!

We’ve all managed to find our niche, Dale. You don’t need to worry there. I’d be more concerned about how Lifre is going to be asking you to enhance her artifact later. Or figuring out what you’ll do for Lorek and Spica.

What do you mean? I sat upright at her mention of the two planets, not immediately aware that there was a problem with them.

Well, they’re sort of drifting away from the rest of the worlds, culturally speaking. Thanks to the time dilation and the different sets of laws, they don’t really see themselves as part of the same ‘batch’ of worlds as the others. Keliope and I have tried coming up with ways to help with that, but it hasn’t really gone anywhere yet.

Just think, in the time that we’re having this conversation, hours have already passed in those worlds. Of course, I can’t really blame you for any of this. The time dilation is necessary for them to maintain the same power level as the rest of the worlds. Though, it might be best to cut it down from a fifty times acceleration to twenty, now that more and more gods are starting to appear.

I gave a small chuckle at that. I think they’ve taken to calling themselves ‘immortals’.

That’s the problem! Aurivy retorted with a huff. They play by an entirely different rulebook. What works for us just doesn’t work for them, and vice versa. They don’t make use of Sanctum because they can’t harvest the energy of the stars in these worlds. They can’t play any online games with the rest of the worlds because of the time dilation.

I nodded my head at that. Alright… what do you suggest?

Well, one thing that I think could work would be introducing a method of divine ascension that works for both world types. It’ll cost some points, sure, but it’s better than nothing. It will give them a common ground to work off of.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help raising a brow. That seems a bit high-level to form a common ground. And couldn’t they use the same method as the rest of my worlds? It should be possible to train divinity in the bard or knight classes in the cultivation worlds.

Theoretically, they can. But doing so essentially cuts off their path of cultivation. Once they start cultivating a divinity that differs from the path that they have chosen, it leads to chaos within their inner sky.

Now that was something that I was not aware of. Is that a flaw in the cultivation system? I can’t imagine that Balu would recommend something to me with such a defect…

I don’t think it’s a flaw. I think that the profound laws were meant to be a complete path to ascension on their own. However, going off that path before reaching the end causes them to lose their way. It should be possible for them to ascend only either before they started cultivating, like you did, or after they have ascended with the profound laws.

As Aurivy sent that, she let out a long sigh. Once you introduce the new method of ascension, it will make things easier. The way that the people of the other worlds do it is the most basic way. In fact, it’s so basic that it can only be done by a ‘beginner god’. Once their energy has already ascended, they can’t go back to this method to try it out. That’s why nobody’s been able to get two domains aside from you and one lucky elf.

I thought over Aurivy’s words, resting my head on my hand. It will cost fifty-thousand points to get the detailed steps for all common ascension types. Using the information I bought before, I can probably buy a specific type for a cheaper price, if I’m unwilling to buy the full package. But still… this is all high-level. What are you going to do for the masses? This cultural disconnect can’t simply be fixed by introducing a new ascension method.

We’re working on that part now. She assured me with a relieved sigh. The newest generation of gaming console is the first step. Because it allows us to directly convert our real world class profile and soul into data, it’s the stepping stone we’ve been waiting for. Next, we are going to be creating an online game in which people stay connected even after they log out.

Basically, the next generation console will let people save their profiles to the device. These profiles will then take the form of living digital representations of that individual. They will play the games and interact with others according to the standard time of most worlds, allowing for the two sides to maintain regular interaction.

Whenever the user connects to their device, they synchronize with the digital representation, sharing memories and experiences to update the shared profile. You can get the thrill of playing games for hours just by synchronizing for a few minutes. Furthermore, this will hopefully allow people to accumulate class experience, providing another method of leveling up.

I blinked in surprise at that description, finding it to be a rather incredible invention. How long is it going to be before that is released?

Well… I convinced Ashley to handle the research and development portion over on Spica, to take advantage of the time difference. Naturally, it will still take the normal amount of time for them, but everyone in the world will get it sooner than if it were developed on Deckan.

Still, I’m looking at it being a few months away from the public announcement. Right now, they’re working out some security problems. For instance, if someone were to use a mind or soul controlling effect on your digital representation within an online world, that effect would transmit to the main body once they synchronized again. This is a major concern that is delaying production.

Nodding my head, I thought over the problem, before offering a suggestion. Why not make it so that each mind and soul are ‘password protected’ to make sure that tampering like that won’t take place.

There was a faint giggle in response to my suggestion. Passwords, like physical locks, only keep out honest people. For people that really want to break in, they’ll have the means to circumvent a password. No, we need something that’s more of a guarantee for the consumers, or it will turn into a major problem as soon as it occurs.

The current thought process is to create a way to identify such attacks. Think of it like a spiritual firewall. Since we have already digitized and defined the soul in computer terms, we just need to identify the methods by which the soul can be attacked.

Makes sense. I gave another nod, before a thought occurred to me. What about the use of memetic effects? Like how Chel wrote that letter to the ninjas… how did that go, by the way?

Huh? Oh, let me check… it looks like he just delivered his confession speech earlier today. They’re in a bit of an uproar about it in their world, since he managed to turn the public opinion against him. That said, everyone already knew what they were doing, so it’s just limited to them being upset for now.

Anyways, what do you mean by using a memetic effect like that?

With a smile, I explained my idea. Chel seems to know a lot about different kinds of memetic abilities using the void. From what I read of her surface thoughts while she was writing the letter, these memetic effects work based on the perception of the person that they’re affecting.

If you include a memetic effect like that hardcoded into the digital souls, set to prevent them from doing any action that would directly harm either a person’s mind or soul… it should theoretically work? Once they’re under that effect, the thought of using such an ability shouldn’t even occur to them.

There was a long pause as Aurivy seemed to consider this. Huh… this could work. I’ll get in touch with Chel to see if there is a way for us to digitize the effect like that. If so, we can make it a standard feature of the digital representations, and it would handle a lot of our security problems. I’ll need to see what it would take to bypass that type of effect as well, so that we can plan for the future.

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