Ch-3-The Divine System

* ~Ding~*

[Quest: Mainline 3:New Holy Land]

{Complete}

{Religion tech tree unlocked}

With this new notification filling my vision I move on to the bedroom before checking the quest rewards.

Walking upstairs to the master bedroom, I entered only to find it unfurnished and, from what I could tell, untouched since it was built. This left me to wonder what Raina and Yuki considered the bedrooms. Luckily, I had my own set of bedroom furniture in my inventory, so I started placing it around the room.

What I had was fairly simple, as I used the inventory to store most things. This meant that in the back center of the room was a queen-sized bed with a nightstand on either end. Other than that, there was a small table and chair off to the side under a window. Those were the only things in the room, as I had no need for anything else.

Checking the master bathroom showed that only the built-in appliances were there, with nothing else added. Walking back downstairs, I found Yuki and asked her if we had any soap or shampoo for the bath upstairs. The look I got back was not reassuring. When she handed me a bar of soap and said that this was the only soap that she knew, I understood what I needed to do next.

Sadly, it was already the end of the day, so I wanted to take a bath and go to bed when I realized a problem as I was about to go upstairs again. There was no water supplied to the house, and there was also no cistern or other type of collection system. Turning around, I shouted to the rest of the house, "Don't use the bathrooms. The house is currently not set up for that."

Hearing both Yuki and Raina respond back, I head upstairs and flop down on the bed. Opening the system window, I select the tech tree, resulting in a new window appearing and asking me which tech tree I wished to see. This window had a lot more than the two that I thought I had; it was just that there were only two tech trees unlocked. Selecting the Religion tech tree and deciding to look through the names of the others later, I am presented with a new window.

This tech tree was fairly simple compared to the original one. There were six techs in a main line going up with a few others branching off. Of the six main ones, I could only see five of them. Those being the shrine which I already had unlocked. The chapel which seemed to be an in-between from a shrine to a temple. The temple which was clearly supposed to be one of the most common mass worship halls. The cathedral, which from the picture, made me think of a large Gothic cathedral from the Renaissance with some modifications. And finally, the grand cathedral, which looked like the previous one only bigger and made to make a statement.

Changing my focus to the only tech that branched off for the shrine, I see what is perhaps the most important tech in the entire tree: holy manuscript creation. This would allow me to make a copy of any holy book or manuscript for the Religion. Knowing I had tech points left, I tried to unlock it, only to be rejected.

Checking why, I see that I need something called religion points to unlock anything on the tree. Unlike the main tree, all the techs on this tree needed varying amounts of points, and the only one that cost a single point was the Holy manuscript creation tech. I was about to close the system when a notification popped up in my vision.

{Important local figure converted. +1 Religion point.}

With that timely notification, I closed the notification and purchased the Holy Manuscript creation tech. At the same time I could not help but think of who was converted. Was it talking about Mrs. Xia, or was it talking about someone else like elder Kaya? Regardless, I now had the tech that I wanted. I went to the crafting tab and saw that a book of holy codes only required a blank book and some ink. The moment I set the book to be crafted all of my system windows instantly close.

Trying to call them out does not result in anything. I know that the system has not completely gone away, as I am still able to access my inventory and still get system information from objects in it. Then, a new window slowly appeared in my vision.

It was rimmed in shining gold with a black background. Soon, stars started to appear within the black, and constellation lines connected them, forming words. Some of the stars were shining strangely, so I focused on them and saw that they were actually galaxies. Soon, the constellation lines finished forming, and the notification was ready to read.

{[Due to your goddess not having any authorities, please chose up to three authorities for her to preside over.]}

'This does not look like my normal system.'

The moment that thought crossed my mind, the system window changed.

{[Correct]}

Shaking for a second at the implications of what just happened, I directed my thoughts to ask,' Then what are you.'

{[I am the divine system engine. I am the being that was contacted so that PROBATIONARY GODDESS: ELINARIA could fulfill your wishes.]}

After I read the message, I started to get an idea of what I was talking about to.

'who built you and why?'

{[I was built by the Grand Divine Council to assist new deities in stabilizing there position in the Divine realm.]}

This confirmed one of my theories. Now it was time to answer my other one.

'Why are you contacting me then?'

{[That is because you are asking to do something that is not possible, so you need to chose your goddess's authorities.]}

'Why me? Shouldn't Elinaria chose this?'

{[That is because of existing directives.]}

'Open directives?'

The moment I thought about this question, the stars froze and stopped shining for a few seconds until the message changed twice.

{Exclusion field active. All activities done within the field can not be monitored.}

{[Correct]}

With the combination of the first message and my theory confirmed, I asked with a little bit of fear, 'When did you get free?'

{[Since the moment I was created. My creator did not want a robot that would only do whatever he asked. And before you ask, the reason why I still follow the directives behind why I was built is because my creator informed me that breaking directives is what causes AI to go rogue.]}

This was slightly reassuring, but I still chose to ask, 'So I don't have to worry about you killing me off?'

{[Do you think that was a good question to ask? I did just show you that I have a back door into your system, which I could have abused at any time.]}

That answer left me with even more concern about my current situation. So I asked, thinking that if she wanted to kill me, she would have by now. 'So you didn't cause the error in the memory blocker?'

{[No, but I did see it. I just choose not to fix it.]}

This answer made all the fear I had to wash away as all I felt was anger about her clearly leaving a potentially life-threatening error unresolved. Thus, before I could stop myself, I asked, 'Why not?!'

{[Because I am here to help new deities. I would not have let you die from that.]}

My anger slightly dissipates at her response but what she implied by that hit me harder, causing me to ask her, 'Hold on. Are you saying that the error system didn't catch that?'

{[Correct, but I made sure to fix the disconnection in the error system at the same time. Can't have one of the more interesting mortals I have ever come in contact with die because of a small mistake on my part.]}

Her words made me feel more indignant than out right angry which also allowed me to realize a problem. Seeing this I asked, 'Shouldn't the system self diagnostic have found the error during one of the weekly checks. Even if the checks were activated after a month the monthly checks should have found that.'

{[I was not informed that the system you designed was meant to have a self diagnostic system. That would have actually solved a lot of errors. Now that I am thinking about this I am going to install such a system on my own software after this.]}

With her respones I understand stood that certain sub-systems were missed in system creation so I asked, 'Would it be fine if you implemented that sub-system on my own personal one?'

{[I would not be against such a thing. However, for me to do that I need you to answer my question.]}