Chapter 750: Guiding Darkness

Aurivy rocked within her seat, sitting within a large, well-furnished office. The tall, glass windows were tinted to block out the sunlight, while Ashley sat across from her behind the desk. “You’re saying that you received this information directly from Chel?” She asked carefully, observing her fellow goddess.

Aurivy nodded her head. “That’s right! She said that it could solve your problems. We just need Leowynn to help us imbue the initial code.” When she said that, Ashley let out a brief sigh.

“Really… after everything we tried, and all it came down to was just needing to copy and paste some enchanted code?” She muttered to herself. “As for Leowynn… you can ask her, but I wouldn’t expect much right now. I expect that she is fairly drained at the moment.”

Aurivy hesitated when she heard that, seeming to calm down and lean forward in her seat. “Is it that bad?” She knew about the shark creature that Leowynn had defeated, as well as the creature that she had created within the void to do so. However, she hadn’t realized just how much of Leowynn’s energy went into these two feats.

Ashley simply nodded, her expression heavy. “I’ve been monitoring the energy levels of the different gods as a side project. It helps me fine-tune the faith exchange system on Sanctum. Leowynn dropped to an almost critical level with the creation of the Guardian. To help her recover, I’ve been looking for materials on the Boundless Caravan that have a high exchange cost but a low cost for her to produce.”

“She won’t let us just give her our energy, so I want to use this trick with the market to send some of her own invested energy back to her. In the meantime, we can only rely on the faith of the people to restore her power.”

Aurivy furrowed her brows, thinking over Ashley’s plan. “I didn’t know that it was that bad. How long do you think it will take her to get back to her previous level?”

Ashley closed her eyes, running through some quick calculations. “Given the average amount of faith we receive… it will take roughly one hundred years on Earth, or five thousand from Lorek and Spica.” Aurivy’s eyes went wide in shock at that estimate, before she recalled how she had advised changing the time dilation.

“What if the time of Lorek and Spica is slowed down to only twenty times the normal flow?” She asked hesitantly, Ashley running the numbers mentally once more.

“A hundred and twenty years. Thankfully, the vast majority of her faith comes from Earth. Although Lorek and Spica are heavily focused on the stars, their total population only amounts to a tiny fraction of those in the other worlds that worship her. If we could convince her to take a subordinate deity, that would cut the amount of time required down considerably, but I haven’t been able to look for a good candidate yet.”

Aurivy nodded, giving the idea some thought. “I’ll look into it. Knowing her, she wants her subordinate to be special. After all, she is seen as the direct daughter of the Keeper himself. It might not really sound fair to say it, but her position is even higher than ours in some circles.” Ashley gave a bitter smile at that, but nodded her head. It was something that neither of them were able to help, and they were honestly proud of Leowynn for coming this far.

“If this is a standard use of void energy, I’d say that it will likely use about two days worth of her faith. That is to get it tested and confirmed safe, as well as ensure that it is powerful enough to not be cracked easily. She can spare it right now, but that’s only if another situation doesn’t appear that would require her intervention. Until then, she’s training fallen deities, but we don’t know if the Fallen can be our subordinates, given the contrasting energy types.”

Listening to Ashley’s explanation, Aurivy simply let out a small sigh. “Well, at least we have a starting point now. Once we get the safeguard from her, how are you doing on the hardware aspect?”

Ashley smiled softly, slowly rising from her seat. “It would be easier to show you.” She said, turning around and walking towards the wall behind her. As if this were completely natural, Aurivy hopped to her feet and followed.

The two of them swiftly disappeared into a shadow that rose up from the wall, appearing within a land of darkness. “I haven’t been here in a while.” Aurivy remarked with a small grin, hearing the sound of pounding metal in the distance. “Have you upgraded it?”

Ashley simply nodded. “Time flies a lot faster on this side, remember.” As she said that, the darkness ahead of them gave way to a tower of steel, flames rising from a number of pipes leading up and out of it at different angles.

Near the base of this tower was a sliding door, which opened on its own as the two approached. Within, the space seemed almost boundless, a metal corridor extending without end. Dozens of doors lined the hall at different intervals, and Aurivy could see at least half a dozen intersections before she was unable to see any further.

“Think you made it big enough?” She remarked sarcastically, a small grin on her face. “Which one is the one we want?”

“This way.” Ashley answered, leading Aurivy down the halls. The Goddess of Travel knew what this was. In fact, most of the deities were aware of the special powers that each of them developed and employed in the world. Traveler had been Aurivy’s secret, but there were other powers of hers that the others were aware of as well.

This was the Factory, Ashley’s own special assembly line. Nested within a dimension of darkness, it holds links to a number of designated shadows. These shadows exist in the real world to funnel resources in, which in turn are used to produce various devices according to the blueprints that she either designs or receives from the outside. Of course, she still has to personally establish each assembly line. Once she has done so, the machines operate automatically, fueled by her divine energy.

Ashley took them to a room marked ‘NG-VR-HS’. Once she opened the door, the space within seemed to expand once again. Conveyor belts carried parts from one machine to another, some being pulled in from external shadows while others were made on-site. Every now and then, Aurivy could even see excess components shipped out via another shadow, no doubt to a different assembly line.

“...You used Blank’s domain to set this up, didn’t you?” She asked, the Goddess of Technology allowing a smile to come across her face.

“It’s really convenient to be able to replicate a resource management game when placing my assembly lines. Anyways, the finished products are kept over here.” After saying that, she walked to a nearby door within the assembly line, where Aurivy could see fully packaged headsets being delivered.

After opening this door, Aurivy saw a warehouse filled with stacked boxes. “They’re all set up with temporary wireless receivers. Once I have the operating system with the finished failsafes, I can wirelessly install it onto the finished products. After that, it is only a matter of marketing and shipping.”

Aurivy let out a low whistle at Ashley’s explanation. “I’ve seen Tubrock’s Grand Forge, but I still think this is more impressive. He can’t really do space folding with his domains, but it looks like you copied the tech from those guild bases. Have you considered marketing that, yet?”

Ashley shook her head at that. “I can copy its form and function, but I don’t understand enough of the mechanics behind it. Here, everything works with my divine energy, and can thus be made self-repairing. But if one of these machines breaks down outside, we don’t have a qualified engineer capable of repairing it.”

“Now that I have the hardware aspect of these headsets dealt with, I plan on investing some manpower to study this technology next. I doubt I’ll make more headway than James’ researchers, but it should at least be enough for me to train some technicians. How is he doing, by the way?”

Aurivy shook her head. “He’s gotten about a tenth of his energy back so far. He told Chel that he could easily get back to work with his current recovery, but she insisted that he wait until he was at least half recovered. I swear, given his status in the system, I’m surprised she hasn’t gotten any Monster Tamer levels for handling him…”

Ashley gave a small grin. “She might have. She’s good at hiding stuff like that, and wouldn’t want him to see himself as a monster. Anyways, is there anything else you want to look at while you’re here?”

The halfling Goddess gave that a moment of thought. “Do you have any new toys you want to show me?”

Ashley rolled her eyes, closing the door to the warehouse. “Not this time. Between getting these headsets in working order and looking into Leowynn’s issue, I’ve been kept pretty busy. Though, if you want to help with the Leowynn situation… you could talk to her mother. If nothing else, Ryone’s Wealth domain could let her transfer some energy discreetly in the form of faith.”

There was a bitter smile on Aurivy’s face as she nodded. “We’ll have two weakened Goddesses instead of one, but at least they’ll both be at a level where they can intervene in an emergency. At least Ryone has some subordinates to help her recover.”

Keenan and Jace walked together down a dirt path, Jace in the lead as he consulted his staff. The two of them had been forced to relocate after Keenan’s forest was left ravaged by the storm shark. Given that Keenan did not know the outside world, he chose to rely on Jace to find them a path.

Although Jace was effectively blind, he had managed to cross a large distance to find Keenan without mishap. Along their way, they first came near a city… or what used to be a city. There were obvious signs of traffic going in and out, but the location had been reduced to a deep crater, without a single building left standing.

Naturally, Jace didn’t know what had happened, or where they were. When he asked, Keenan simply said that they had found a fallen settlement. He couldn’t bring himself to say that the jagged marks along the rim of the crater resembled the jaws of the shark, as that would mean that one of those creatures had been big enough to devour an entire city.

After they left these ruins, the two of them traveled along the road for several days. Whenever their rations began to run low, Jace would always somehow stumble on something suitable for them to eat. One time, they ran into a group of bandits, and were able to rob their supplies. Another time, Jace found an abandoned cart, its goods mostly untouched. At one point, they even managed to pass a wandering monk, Jace pointing out that they needed to search for supplies just before the man had gotten out of earshot.

The monk, seeing little more than two young men wandering the world, had been kind enough to share some of his own provisions. In exchange, Jace told the man that the person he was looking for lived thirty kilometers to the south, in a wooden hut atop a tall hill. The man was immediately startled, but overjoyed at the news, and ran off towards the south.

When Keenan asked how he knew who the man was looking for, Jace simply shrugged. “Some travelers we passed yesterday mentioned that hut, and that a reclusive alchemist was living there. I thought that he might be looking for them, is all. Why else would someone travel alone around here?”

We’re traveling alone… Keenan wanted to point out, but ultimately refused to do so. He knew that it was just another lucky guess, and a smile started to tug at his lips. For the first time, he had met someone with such overwhelming luck that they didn’t appear to suffer from his presence.