Arganthes: The Capital Of Dungeons 62 Chapter 27: The Portal To Another World

"Cooperation? What do you mean?"

I looked confused as I knew I had become indebted to whatever the system might want me to do. Unable to refuse whatever their request might be I waited in antic.i.p.ation for their request.

Right at that moment, the system began to introduce itself.

"We known as "The System" are an artificial intelligence known as A.I. created by the G.o.ddess of technology, research, and knowledge, who is commonly known as "NOVA".

NOVA created and spread us out throughout the fast reaches of s.p.a.ce and time to find potential candidates to protect and defend the worlds flouris.h.i.+ng with life as an imminent thread is has been trying to take over said worlds.

We do understand that nothing we say right now will make much sense as your sense of self hasn't evolved beyond your being yet...

Not to worry, as we will provide you with opportunities to evolve and develop your inner self.

Or like how our master likes to call it,

"Inner Consciousness."

The System knew I couldn't make much sense of it as it was going beyond my perception and decided to focus on the more important things at hand.

"I the system have been send to Arganthes millennia ago as an "Evaluating Virtual Ent.i.ty"

which will guide those through their progress of unlocking their potential."

I scratched my head as I tried to make sense of it all.

"Hmm... so, basically you will help me, what you call "The Drifter" in question to unlock my inner potential right? But I have to say... calling you "the system" all the time will grow to be annoying quite quickly. And calling you A.I. all the time doesn't feel good,

like you pus.h.i.+ng on the fact that you were created by someone else as if, you aren't alive..."

I noticed I had hit a sore spot mentioning the ent.i.ty's name, but it quickly recovered as there were more important things at hand. That, and it became curious about possible other names.

"Hmm... you have b.a.l.l.s drifter... calling the name master NOVA had worked on for so long annoying right of the bet... Not to mention, calling me "lifeless" I'll get you for that!

But before I do, I'd like to see you try and come up with a better name!"

The A.I jumped out of my mind as it began pouting against me. Then it became clear that I had hurt its feelings. Thinking it was cute as the white drifting round marshmallow had shown its appearance small blue electrical currents began popping out of its virtual body. Quickly its small orb-like hands pouted against my head as the jolts shot through my brain. Tickling me in the process.

Behaving in a way a cat would do, minding its own business yet being curious and playful.

I then told the A.I. its full name out loud.

"Evaluating, Virtual, Ent.i.ty, or E.V.E. for short!"

When I mentioned the shortened version of the name,

E.V.E. began to blush to signal that it liked the name I had come up with.

"See, I am better at picking names than your master, right?"

As Eve turned all shy she hid away in my mind.

Even if she had to tell me why she was brought here to Arganthes she now proceeded to do so with pop-up screens.

A window popped up as she ranted about the name.

Whereas quickly after she continued her explanation.

"Aaahhh, I'm too embarra.s.sed to look at you right now... calling me cute and playful like a cat...

and even giving me a name that gives a silly little artificial program like me a personality...

Mooaahh I can't just look you in the eyes right now, you idiot!!"

Again another window popped up as Eve did not forget what she had to tell me.

"We like you to cooperate in finding the other "Artifacts" for us... but the request won't stop with simple that as we want you to find those worthy of their power, like yourself for example."

Hyped as it felt like I was about to embark on a grand adventure I quickly tried to calm myself down. Realizing this was bigger than just this world alone I worried about the possibility of living life like I had been doing up till now. Again a window popped up.

"Don't worry about things like that, worrying about yourself and those you love is only human, trust our G.o.ddess as she will allow you total freedom in exchange for your cooperation."

The deal in a way felt too good to be true, but I knew it was part of something far greater than myself or even this world, which in turn gave me a sense of importance toward myself.

After Eve had made her request another window popped up asking me if I liked to accept.

"NOVA requests your a.s.sistance in the survival of worlds. Do you accept [YES] / [NO]"

Deciding it was the best I could do for those granting me a presence with those dearest to me, and as I wanted to be of help to those in need I pushed [YES] with my thumb.

Immediately after another window popped up.

Almost making it feel like I was now inside a videogame.

"Thank you for accepting our request, We will now finalize the initiating of E.V.E. inside your being. Combining systems. Please hold..."

Multiple windows flashed by as the cautiousness inside Hikari got fully transferred into my brain. While this transpired, the altar began to rumble, during which Hikari collapsed onto the floor. I quickly jumped down catching her just before she could hit the ground.

As I gently lay her on the floor, slowly the altar where the artifact first lay, was now changing… different shades of blue light began to surface from the creaks in the floor as the altar changed ever so slightly.

Quickly I stepped away as the altar opened up and runes formed, the runes, in turn,

lighted up almost identically to the other lights as a portal began to surface.

Unsure of what this meant I reached for the portal when suddenly another window popped up.

This time asking me if I liked to enter the portal.

Unsure if that was the best option right now, this time I pushed [NO]. The portal remained idle, without forcing anyone to act.

I took a step backward, making sure I wouldn't get sucked into the now idle portal and faced the artificial doll which had bonded with the spirits of my dearest friends,

as their soul energy was now fully integrated it began to synchronize with the flow of my spiritual energy, slowly booting up…

While the doll was initiating its start-up protocols, Eve introduced what she called a Magi-doll to me. But before she did a window popped up.

[Integration protocol, finalized…]

As I closed the window I became clear Eve's systems had fully integrated with my spiritual being.

"Allow me to call you master as Eve has now fully integrated with your soul sea and inner spiritual being. At the same time, allow Eve to introduce what my creator likes to call a "magi-doll".

As it has fully integrated with the spirits of those dearest to you,

it is now taking the necessary precautions to initiate it's operating systems.

This in turn will allow the "magi-doll" to bond with the first one it makes contact with.

Aside from the bonding, its operating systems will allow said spirits to perceive the world around them as if they were alive, making them almost identical to you "human-beings".

While the "magi-doll" is booting up its systems allow me to explain what it is we want from you and why it is we want to request your help in the events to come. As you already know we want you to find others such as yourself as they are worthy to harness the prowess of the "Artifacts".

But, to be honest that is only a small portion of what we would like you to do.

For you see, the lands of Arganthes have fallen to the sins of void and chaos.

As you venture not only to distant worlds but also through vastly different lands we would like you to fight off and cleanse said leaders and locations of this sickening void in which life has plummeted to their very depths."

As Eve showed herself once again I got lost in thought.

Thinking back at what had happened, Ragnee's clan must have been one of many,

fallen victim to the king of Mineral. As I thought about why he wanted to get rid of those posing a threat to his position I began to realize the "Sins" Eve was talking about were rooted deep within our beings, as they would probably latch on to their most primal desires.

Such as; Envy, Gluttony, Greed, l.u.s.t, Pride, Sloth, and Wrath.

Quickly I realized that in the small portion of what I had seen and experienced in the world of Arganthes of the town of Sharoo for that matter, that I had already had an encounter of multiple sins as they had surfaced inside those whom I had encountered.

Thinking back, I already had twice the encounter with "l.u.s.t" as Christine Von Darkflame had me completely entranced. Not to mention my first experience with the three full moons,

thinking back at my "first-time" I turned red. As the memories with Alive "Midnight" Thumper resurfaced. Quickly I tried to think of something else as my body began to react in honesty towards my memories.

Eve being synchronized with my being also experienced the heat going up and didn't know how to react as she looked down. Thankfully I could calm myself down as I began to think aloud.

"Thinking about the king's intentions, it might have been quite a lot of sins…

Sloth, Pride, Greed, and even Envy… hmm…"

Eve cut me short as the magi-doll began to boot-up.

"Quickly now, she's about to take physical form and open up her eyes!"

We both quickly turned toward the magi-doll, when Eve began to mumble and worry if it final initialization would become a success. Surely moments later the doll took shape,

at first the doll had the appearance of both those dear to me when suddenly her appearance began to slowly s.h.i.+ft and change. Not sure about what I saw the doll had taken the form of a young woman with short white hair.

A window popped up in front of me as it finalized the last settings.

[Reading personal preference of synchronized host…

Finalizing registration… Opening eyes for registration…]

"Quickly now, stand in front of her!"

I did as Eve instructed and stood in front of the doll when it began opening its eyes…

Golden glowing shards could be seen as she began to scan what was in front of her, me.

[Registering, master… Checking, Soul Synchronization… Check…]

The doll turned its head fully taking in my appearance, whenever so slightly it began to smile.

[Registration… Complete… Finalizing, personal preferences… Synchronizing with mental image…]

The dolls' eyes began to glow brightly as it changed its appearance to what I was thinking about. Now the doll had taken on the features I had been thinking about shortly when I finally realized I looked at the doll in awe as I wasn't able to hold back my feelings.

[Thank you for using magi-tech, would you like to register a name?]

[YES] / [NO]

I quickly tabbed yes and inserted her name. "Haruka".

The doll smiled and gladly accepted her new name.

"Haruka is ready for your a.s.sistance master, please allow Haruka to help with whatever you need."

Unable to look away blood began streaming down my nose,

as I finally snapped out of the state of trance I had found myself in.

Fl.u.s.tered and embarra.s.sed I looked away and ordered Haruka to put on some clothes.

"d.a.m.nit! Haruka… you can't walk around like that, I think I won't be able to handle it."

Haruka smirked and teased me with a s.e.xy pose before manifesting a set of clothes perfect for her figure. Her clothes as they tightly fit around her body consisted of green and white attire,

her s.h.i.+rt had open shoulders while it still sleeves.

Unable to fully cover her cleavage with it she noticed I liked her get-up and decided to leave it as is because the zipper got blocked because of the sheer majestic size of them.

Her trunks were really short and mostly white as the same pattern with different shades of green was still visible. I wasn't able to keep my eyes off her as she continued to tease me throughout the entire examination.

Realizing we weren't there for fun I quickly turned, facing towards the portal.

But before continuing I noticed something during the boot-up sequence and asked Eve about Haruka.

"Say, Eve…I know Haruka feeds on the combined souls of my dearest friends, which in a way is incredibly dark… almost even inhumane… yet her personality is exactly the combination of those two. Now… What I would like to now, if why you were stressing throughout the entire sequence,

not to mention how relieved you were when the registration was finished… Don't tell me…"

Eve sighed as it became clear she was caught red-handed.

*sigh*

"Okay… okay… the deal we made with you, giving you what you desired…"

"Yes…?"

"To be honest, it was an experiment from my creator, a prototype so to speak.

You see, the creator wasn't certain it would have worked with only one soul, which is what she wanted to accomplish, as we have used two souls this time it seems it has been successfully finished. But, maybe we should have told you beforehand?"

I grabbed eve and looked her straight into her eyes, as I confronted her with the way she had handled things.

"You think?! Say… you didn't even consider either of it beforehand did you?"

Expecting me to get mad at her and flat out refuse to cooperate with her,

Eve braced for wrath to be unleashed upon her. When suddenly it ended rather anti-climactic.

"Well… I'm glad it all worked out the way you hoped,

and to be honest, now I have both my best friends back. In a sense that is, haha.

Which is why I can't wait to help you on this journey to find those worthy of "The Artifacts of The Ancients!"

Something inside Eve began to ache as she knew what she had done was wrong,

yet I was willing to forgive not only her but also her creator for it, even joining her on her quest.

Haruka turned towards the portal as she took me by the hand unable to pick up Hikari,

it looked like we left her behind… not wanting to do so, I wanted to quickly turn and pick her up… Yet… I was unable to do so.

"Come on, we are losing daylight here, weren't we supposed to pa.s.s through the portal, master?"

Quickly pulling me along as we made our way towards the portal,

the window asking me if I wanted to enter popped up once more.

This time I answered [YES]. The portal began to glow as it allowed us to pa.s.s through…