I had to admit, there was a clear benefit to creating a game manually, as opposed to creating it through the system. That was the fact that we were able to test it out ourselves and see if it needed to be tweaked at all before publishing it to the market. Of course, there was also the issue of stability. I heard from Ashley’s team over the days following the release of Night Code that there were several bugs that needed to be fixed.
And, when you are talking about a game on a universal scale, these bugs aren’t as simple as a missing texture, or rewards not being properly issued for a quest. Instead, the bugs can be anything from gravity not working properly in a certain area to a spontaneous rift in reality. Whenever a new bug came in, Ashley and her team had to scramble to fix it, and then double and triple check that the fix worked.
This process continued for roughly two weeks after the game’s release, when I received a notification from Dana. Hey, boss. Mind coming to watch something with an avatar? I’ll have Sienna bring you over if you want.
I couldn’t help but blink at that, curious. Any particular reason why you specified me using an avatar?
Well… there is still the slight risk of failure, and failure would almost assuredly mean that everything within a million kilometers will be shattered beyond recognition. So, an avatar! I just thought that you’d like to be there to witness the birth of your world’s first true Origin.
My eyes widened slightly at that. You managed to crack the process?
Oh, we cracked the process as soon as you sent me here. Chelsea had basically figured most of it out herself. We’ve just spent the last couple of weeks improving on the base creation. As it stands, we think that we have a fairly decent understanding of what an Origin is and how to make one. At least, for those with only one domain. I’d like to give Tsuba the chance, but we’re still working on that part.
Hearing that report, I gave a nod, closing my eyes and generating an avatar of myself. This avatar quickly left Olympus’s main gate, finding Sienna standing outside with her usual stoic expression on her face. “Let’s go.” She said, tearing open a gate in the void for the two of us.
On the other side of the gate, I found Chelsea, Clara, and Dana, as well as a large machine filled with Mage Heart crystals. I could tell that we were in the same universe as the research planet, but this was clearly not the same area. After all, we were currently in a binary star system, the two suns blazing overhead.
“Hey, boss man!” Clara grinned, waving at me. “Glad you could make it to the show. Though, it’s not really all that exciting to watch, if you ask me.”
I gave a slight chuckle at that, walking over. “You and Sienna will be fine after the transition, right?” I asked, to which she nodded her head.
“Nothing bad has ever happened to the two of us in the streams, as long as we weren’t inside her at the moment when she did her thing.” Clara shrugged her shoulders. “It might be different in the real world, but part of the whole deal with those educational streams is that they perfectly simulate the real world’s laws, right?”
I nodded my head, relieved that they had considered that concern. “Which one of them is going first, then?” I looked over, and Chelsea chuckled.
“I decided to let Dana go first. Of the two of us, she is the more likely one to enter into battle on a regular basis. If there is any kind of achievement bonus that comes from being the first Origin, she would benefit from it more than I would.”
I blinked, nodding once again. “That’s a good point. I take it that means that you didn’t get any achievements in the stream?”
“Not a one!” Clara laughed. “We figured it was because, no matter how much it’s simulating the real world, it was after all a controlled environment. Moreover, it was one where nothing that we did would directly impact the real world. Now, the spell to create the Origin world is coming from Dana, and she is also the one undergoing the process. By all rights, she’d better receive that achievement!”
I couldn’t help but agree with that, looking over at Dana and Chelsea. “We can begin whenever you are ready.” I said, and Chelsea smiled, giving a thumbs up at Dana, who began to focus her energies.
While Dana was undergoing the basic transformation, Chelsea began to explain something to me. “We’ve made quite a few discoveries, once we started working together. By default, an Origin is actually pretty weak. They can manifest natural events related to their domain, but they can’t do anything truly ‘special’.”
“This is because what an Origin really does is manifest their domain from within their inner world. That’s why the Origin of Fate was limited to prophecies, or manipulating probability. Without an inner world, she could only access the surface level of fate. But, if she had an inner world that had a special system regarding fate, she would be able to bring that into the real world.”
“Similarly, the world that we designed for Dana is one in which darkness exists in many forms. There are planets where darkness devours anything that enters its path, where shadows can come to life, or even entire solar systems made of shadow, fueled by a black star. Customizing the inner worlds for the two of us is actually what took the most time, as we had to experiment with a few different things.”
After saying that, Chelsea noticed something with Dana’s transformation, and immediately hit the button on the machine before her. The machine flared to life, firing a beam of concentrated mana at the small elf. “At the same time, we were able to somewhat confirm the hierarchy of Origins. When two Origins are born with the same domain, the two inner worlds will attempt to merge.”
“We found this to be extremely odd, as the worlds are not actually within the void. However, as the two Origin bodies are engraved with the same domain, we believe that there is a resonance between them. Once the worlds attempt to merge, there is a very limited time to act. If nothing is done, whichever Origin has the most stable inner world will survive, devouring the inner world of the other.”
At this point, Dana had gone still, hovering in the air with her hair fluttering behind herself. “Naturally, whichever Origin survives this process will be strengthened, but it is still a risk. Furthermore, we don’t know how it will work when an Origin from another Keeper’s realm comes over with the same domain. They could either resonate immediately, or it would not kick in until after the invasion was over.”
I nodded slightly, my eyes focused on Dana. I didn’t dare to use my World Sight to investigate the changes within her body, worried that the very slight imbalance of energies would cause a catastrophic failure. “According to your description so far, it doesn’t seem like Origins are all that much stronger than gods, does it?”
Chelsea gave a wide grin when I said that, glancing over at me. “From a versatility standpoint, they’re not. They can’t just make powers on the fly, and have to create instances of them within their inner world. This limits their options. However, as far as scale goes, their power resonates with the void itself. They can manifest their power anywhere they want. Theoretically, an Origin of Death could choose to kill anyone in any universe, so long as they were aware of who they were targeting.”
My eyes widened at that, but Chelsea chuckled. “Don’t worry. The Origin of Death wouldn’t actually be that scary. That’s because of what I said before, how an Origin needs to have instances of their domain within their world. While an Origin of Death could create a zone of instant death, they wouldn’t be able to do a targeted ‘instant death’ ability, because the instance of that ability in their world would have died as soon as they created it. Granted, the zone would still be horrifying, but it’s something that can be defended against.”
“You’ve created Origin countermeasures?” I asked in surprise, but Chelsea shook her head.
“Not yet. Dana had some thoughts on that, but there is still a lot of work. What we have confirmed is that an Origin’s powers are weaker when they have to pass through void defenses. If an Origin wants to do something to the world that they are currently in, they can. However, if an Origin in Deckan wanted to use its power on Fyor, it would have to force its way past Fyor’s natural void defenses, as well as any defensive installations in the void. Think of it like the apocalypse invasion. So, an instant death ability zone would still cause a lot of damage, but unless it was cast from within the defenses, it would not be completely fatal.”
That, admittedly, was a relief. I had been considering Origins as truly omnipotent beings within their field. To actually understand their abilities and limitations made me far more comfortable with the idea of dealing with them in the future. “So, rather than being more powerful than a god, the Origin has a similar level of strength, but with a vastly wider scope.”
“It’s possible for them to be stronger, of course.” Chelsea corrected. “Again, it all depends on what they create in their inner world. Take Dana as an example. She could create a shadow monster that can devour divinity. In order to do that, of course, she would need to have a surplus of gods within her inner world, but if she managed that, then she could manifest that monster anywhere she wanted. She could create thousands of them, and slaughter gods en masse. However, it is safe to say that they are not truly all-powerful.”
Dana let out a sudden gasp, a burst of black energy radiating in a ring around her, sweeping in all directions. Seeming prepared, Chelsea activated a barrier around the large machine, blocking the wave of energy from damaging it.
At the same time, I received a notification. Due to an Origin being born in my world, I received the ‘Origin of Origins’ achievement. Unfortunately, there weren’t any special powers that came with this achievement, but I turned my attention back to Dana.
The small elf looked largely unchanged. Her eyes were pitch black, but they quickly returned to normal with a small bit of focus. It seemed that, although that was the standard appearance for an Origin, it was able to be changed. “Looks like it worked.” Dana said with a grin. “I just got the achievement, True Origin. Like we thought, it comes with a small buff to my inner world.”
After saying that, she looked at her familiars. “Are you two ready?” She asked, and they nodded their heads. With a wave of her hand, they disappeared into black vortexes. Before I could question it, Dana turned to me with a smile. “I sent them to my inner world. It’s easier for them to work there, and they won’t be as necessary in a direct fight anymore.”
I hesitated for a moment, before nodding my head. “Is there anything else that I should know? Any downsides or anything?”
Dana pursed her lips, thinking. “There is one pretty big downside of becoming an Origin. Aside from the Saint energy that you used in your ascension process, you won’t be able to make any others. I can still use the basic energies, don’t worry. However, when we were testing, we learned that an Origin can no longer store a composite energy within their body. So, I can externally make chakra, but I can’t make an energy core for it. Likewise, I can’t use World Sight anymore.”
“We even tried the tail method created by James. However, because it still relies on internal energy channels, it all broke down as soon as we tried it on an Origin.” Chelsea said with a shake of her head. “The only solution that we’ve been able to come up with is having a completely external energy core. As long as it’s storing the energy outside of the Origin body, it still works.”
“That’s… certainly a large demerit.” I said, my brow furrowed. “Also, when you tell Tsubaki about this, make sure to emphasize that you are still working on the method of promoting those with multiple domains, and that it is only impossible at the moment.” I said, causing the other two to blink.
After a moment, Dana’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah… if it’s her, she’d totally find a way to shatter two of her domains if she thought that there wasn’t a chance of her becoming an Origin due to them. She might even go as far as to get rid of all three, and choose one domain to recultivate.”
Chelsea’s face went pale, clearly remembering something unpleasant, and she nodded her head repeatedly. “Right, I’ll make sure to stress that point if I see her.”
