System Programmer Chapter 18: Aftermath

It appeared that no matter what they were doing, Catherine and Joshua never had enough time on their hands. Working under pressure was one thing, but every time they managed to solve an issue, several more popped up.

Joshua saw his evergrowing to-do list and sighed. He was fairly confident that the security measure he put in place would be useful, but it didn't solve the core issue. For example, the other groups heading for the ruins would probably face the same problem of having their spirit taken over. It was, therefore, a genuine possibility they would have to face the other parties' spirits. That was, of course, assuming the other parties would live long enough to reach the ruins.

Furthermore, even with the system that he had fully handed over to Catherine, his mind could still be taken over. It is important to note that what Joshua valued the most about himself was his intelligence. Having his mind taken over was probably one the scariest thing he could imagine. No matter what, he had to find a way to counter that effect.

The only clue Damien was able to give them was that some strange music was playing when the event happened. Joshua doubted mere music could take over his mind and there probably was more to it. Nevertheless, he wouldn't ignore the matter and prepared some soundproof headphones. It was a simple measure, but it was the best he could pull off for now.

Thanks to the dam he had deployed, his energy reserves were expanding rapidly. Two days after the battle, he added a second dam to her world. This only boosted his deployment speed and the third and fourth dam with an interval of a single day.

In the meantime, Catherine had started to consume the fragments Damien had given her. Since they were pure water energy, they were a perfect fit for her and the size of her lake was rapidly expanding. Training one's soul was a long process and those fragments saved her at least a year of work.

She even managed to add a fifth mountain with waterfall to her world. This was good news for Joshua since it meant he had one extra dam to deploy. With five dams running, his world was literally filled with bots. He couldn't help but smile seeing the numbers on the status screen of Luna going up constantly. With his current speed, he could actually rank up again soon. This left Catherine speechless, his growth wasn't normal. Hearing this, he just said nothing was normal about his existence anyway.

As they had agreed, there were two major topics of discussion between the two. The first was Catherine informing Joshua about summoners and the various magic they could perform. In short, all summoners are born with the ability to summon a spirit, bind a contract with it, see other spirits, interact with them and banish them in case of emergency. What bothered Joshua is that they were born with such abilities. There had to be something different about Catherine's body compared to regular people, but no matter how many times he scanned her with Luna and compared the results to other people, he didn't find anything. The best guess he could make was the possibility a hidden rune was inscribed in her body somewhere. They had discovered the rune in people's brain by chance, but Luna had been unable to detect runes in the Crow assassins before. In any case, he got stuck on this particular investigation and put it on hold.

In contrary, teaching Catherine about machines had been a delight. Joshua spent an hour every day teaching her about every type of machine he could imagine, starting with those from the 19th century. He explained her the general gist of how people started using electricity as a power source and slowly made his way to the earliest computers. He showed her generation after generation of technical prowess to her. The amazed look on her face was a delight to him. He eventually added a desktop computer just for her and taught her most of the basic stuff. He even showed her how to make a simple program and soon Catherine had made her first "Hello World!" application. He considered teaching her how to play video games but accounted for the possibility of her becoming addicted to them and stopping her training, so he refrained from doing so for now. In the end, the only thing he regretted was that due to their lack of internet he couldn't teach Catherine how to troll people online.

The last thing Joshua did was trying to analyze the Hydra's rune. The fact the rune was attached the beast's soul was interesting, but the rune was far too complex for his current level. He really hoped he could find something down in the ruins, otherwise, this whole operation would have been for nothing.

The other members of the group had long recovered from the battle. Cynthia was had been the most injured but thanks to Catherine's daily care, she made a speedy recovery. Catherine also repaired her staff, while her skill in nature magic was far lower than her skill in water magic, it was still powerful enough allowed her to mend the broken wood.

Cynthia was grateful upon recovering her weapon, but she was secretly worried. After all, her weapon had been completely useless against the monster. She did talk to it with her sister since her bow had faced similar difficulties. Lydia had to admit that she was right and after much debating with her twin, she reported the matter to Catherine.

Thanks to Joachim, Catherine had obtained a weapon inscribed with a rune, which had proven to be very useful against the Hydra. The simple fact it had been a gift and not something they got mandatory equipped with for the mission was, according to Joshua, a clear sign about the foolishness of this nation's ruler. Upon hearing Lydia's concern about their weaponry, Joshua couldn't help but sigh.

"The irony of the situation is that the place we're going probably contains the answer to the problem with the issue being we need the answer right now because of the trouble ahead that stands between us and the answer we seek," he told Catherine mentally.

"I know that making runic weapons takes time, but can't you make some temporary ones like those exploding drones of yours?"

"I could try… but there are a few issues. There is a limit on how many things I can materialize, so if I make weapons for everyone, it limits the number of drones I can produce. With the progress I made in the last few days, I could probably pop out two more drones, bringing their number up to five. That is for the simple single rune model of course."

"You could alternate between the weapons and the runes, no?"

"I could, but remember objects I create can be destroyed with enough force and it disperses the energy in the air. For drones, I can wait a few seconds to replenish the needed energy but were they to be disarmed in battle, they could be dead before the next weapon is ready."

"You're right but won't that be the case with their current weapons too? Cynthia's staff broke last battle."

"That's true, but the biggest problem we face is the fact I may be rendered useless once down there. Should that happen, no matter how badass the weapons I would create would be, they will be unable to exist."

"I guess… So, basically you won't do it?"

"You misunderstand me. I will prepare weapons for them as requested. There might be a situation where they come in handy. We just have to make them aware of all the restrictions placed on them. They're experienced fighters, they should understand."

Catherine left out a deep breath and nodded. It wasn't ideal, but it should still improve their chances. Honestly, they needed any bit of help they could muster for now.

Joshua went back into his lab and changed his outfit to look like a blacksmith. He was wearing a large black apron, summoned an anvil and a forge as well as several tools. Of course, this was all for show, he would make them as usual using his rune laboratory. Still, he picked up a hammer and thought:

"Time to make some epic level gear!"

Chapter end