Hello readers!
Welcome to the next installment of God Maker App!
ShirouKuroEmiya
Chapter One "Prayer"
"Congratulations, Emiya-sama. The test results show that you have become a Blessed," said the receptionist of the Blessed Alliance with a bright smile and bowed respectfully to me.
I stared in disbelief at the receptionist and pointed at myself. "You're saying that I am a Blessed, right?"
"That's correct, Emiya-sama." The receptionist nodded his head.
I glanced around. I was inside a room that easily matched the size of a football court. Everywhere I saw were people wishing to get tested if they were Blessed. Those that were confirmed cheered as if a positive life-changing event had occurred. Others that had received negative result seemed as if their dreams had been crushed.
Well, I could understand why people reacted happily or seemed like their souls had left their body. The life of someone that was a Blessed and not one was like heaven and earth. As the name obviously suggested, Blessed were those rare individuals that had somehow garnered the attention of a god and received divine blessings. That wasn't to say that your life was guaranteed to be successful if you were a Blessed. It was like winning the lottery for a small fortune or being admitted to the top national university. You were given a golden opportunity, and it was up to you if you took advantage of it or squandered it.
"Would you like to register your new status? Do you want additional testing to discover who your patron Divine Spirit is?"
I slowly recovered from my shock and frowned. The news that I was a Blessed didn't seem right. I clearly remember the God Maker app saying that I was one step closer of becoming a Divine Spirit. The mystery whether I was a Blessed or one step closer to becoming a Divine Spirit was pushed aside as I weighed on the receptionist's question.
"What are the benefits of registering?"
"Plenty," smiled the receptionist. "The first and most popular benefit is that your tax rates are significantly reduced, or possibly even waivered depending on your career path as a Blessed. The immense resources and influence of the Blessed Union will help nurture your blessings and find job suitable for you."
I nodded in appreciation at the information. It matched exactly what I had found on the internet.
The urge ask more about the benefits was quickly suppressed when I suddenly recalled the main purpose of visiting the Blessed Alliance. I nervously glanced at my phone, containing the Divine Coin, and Blessed all around me.
"Is it true that a Blessed go into frenzy to find Divine Coins? Do Divine Coins have to do something to do with becoming a Divine Spirit?" I couldn't help but ask, remembering the conspiracy theories going around hypothesising the Blessed' madness with doing just about anything to find Divine Coins.
"Of course, not!" The receptionist waved her hand. "That is an urban legend. Although, I cannot deny that the crazy to find Divine Coins has caused all sorts of tragic disasters. That is why the Blessed Alliance exist. We aim to prevent disasters created to find Divine Coins and punish those criminal Blessed."
The news relieved a great amount of concern I had about possessing a Divine Coin. Although, that sense of relief was fleeting as I recalled classified knowledge that the public didn't know, and I had learned upon passing the examination to become a mage. I wanted to ask for more information regarding the bad rumours going around about Blessed when the receptionist spoke up.
"Please follow me, Emiya-sama."
I followed behind the male receptionist but asked, "Where are we going?"
"To find who is your patron Divine Spirit, Emiya-sama."
I pondered what the connection between the Blessed and Divine Spirits were, using what information I knew that was public knowledge.
My musing came to an end when the receptionist called out my name. I found myself in a sound-proof room with all sorts of equipment that I had only seen on television.
"I will leave you to Lina."
"Thanks, Minato!" replied the woman standing in the room as the receptionist left the room. "My name is Lina and conducting tests to find out the identity of your patron Divine Spirit."
"Hello, Lina." I bowed to the female tester. "Please take care of me."
"Emiya-sama, please walk towards the centre of the room."
In the center of the room, I found something that looked similar to the full body scanner used at airports to scan the human body for any illegal items such as weapons or drugs. I walked up to it and calmly stood in the center of the machine.
"Please try and stay still as much as possible."
I raised a brow when the tester typed away on a holographic keyboard. The tester didn't seem much older than me by a few years. She seemed like a university graduate with several months of experience on the job. So, she could be considered as someone of my generation. A generation where keyboards were considered a tedious and inefficient ways of using a computer when with Spirit Hacking we could directly interface with the computer more quickly and precisely.
The tester seemed to sense more staring and looked at me sheepishly. "I prefer to type." She explained as if she was a guilty criminal. "Are you an SpiHac (short for Spirit Hacker)?"
"That's right." I nodded and extended my consciousness to the machine around me. "What's the password?"
Instead of replying to me, the tester typed on her keyboard. I suddenly felt the machine's response change. The thick walls that encapsulated the machine's software and manned with heavily armed guards warily staring at me disappeared. The firewall opened up and the antivirus stopped treating me a potential threat. My consciously quickly entered through the electronic entrance without any problems.
The machine started to get to work. I watched curiously as data regarding the scan on my body. What I read was different from the previous medical data stored away in my mind. I willed for the latest file regarding my last health check done little over six months ago.
My brow rose as I compared the medical data currently being gathered to my previous check-up. I became alarmed, but no because I saw bad news. In fact, I was delighted to hear that I was healthier than ever. My Stats had risen.
Depending on how you saw it, my Stats improvement could be low or high on what standards you were using. If I used the standards of normal high schooler then I had undergone a drastic as such improvements in Stats was normally the product of several months of hard training. My improvements could be considered relatively low if I had drunk a good Stat Boosting potion or when someone received a Blessing from a patron Divine Spirit.
"I am sorry."
I snapped out of my musing.
"What's the problem?" I asked at the bowing tester.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't who is your patron Divine Spirit."
"You couldn't find the identity of my patron Divine Spirit?" I asked while frowning in confusion.
"This can happen when your patron god tries to hide their identity."
The tester's words only further confirmed my suspicions that I didn't have a patron Divine Spirit. How did I know this? Well because it was well published what happened to someone became a Blessed. They would feel invigorated in a manner that they had never felt before, felt as if their body had undergone a transformation that drastically improved them in every manner; mind, body and soul. Just about every Blessed, with a few exceptions, would learn some important clue to deducing who their patron Divine Spirit was.
None of this had happened to me. So, it was unlikely that I ever had a patron Divine Spirit in the first place. And I had a very strong feeling that I had was even being mistaken as a Blessed was because of the God Maker app.
"Thank you for your help," I gratefully bowed to the tester. "I appreciate your assistance. Is there any more tests that need to be conducted?"
The tester shook her head. "No."
I thanked the tester once more before leaving the room. As I walked, my eyes unconsciously turned to my pockets where my smartphone was that was vibrating.
- O -
Liliruca Arde stared at her wounded and tired compatriots. It was hard for her to imagine the stories that adventurers of old had been the powerful enough that a single adventurer could kill scores of monsters and come out alive. In her three years as an adventurer, those stories seemed more like wish fulfilment for powers that would allow adventurer to survive just one more day.
She stared grimly at the exhausted adventurers who had been unlucky to draw the short stick. It wasn't like she had been much luckier than the guards as she was given kitchen duty to prepare for tonight's meals. Lili glanced jealously as the lucky few adventurers that had been blessed with the long sticks, which allowed them to have the envious opportunity to sleep.
Lili stopped cursing at her bad luck when from the corner of her eyes she saw one guard's drowsy eyes that darted around fearfully into the dark forest around them. She shuddered as Lili imagined being in the guards' shoes. Not only were they bone-tired, but they plagued with the fear of possible monster attacks and keeping an eye out for it despite how exhausted they were.
"I can't believe I am using my blacksmith lineage's magical gift of using fire to light wood for cooking," growled Welf Crozzo as carefully tended to the fire that Lili was going to cook with.
"The world has changed," Lili sighed. "The standards of the old world don't apply to our era."
"I agree," Welf grudgingly nodded. "But that still doesn't change the fact that my ancestors would be rolling around in their graves if they could see me using my blood given fire magic for not forging swords."
"Why aren't you using your gifts to work as a blacksmith? That is a valuable skill that should exempted you from being conscripted as an adventurer."
"You are really naïve to believe that." snorted Welf as he angrily snapped a branch and threw into the fire. "Many of the surviving blacksmiths that come from long living species like elves and dwarves have a grudge against my ancestors' gift for creating magical swords. They are jealous and fear what I could do if I was allowed to be a blacksmith, so they arranged for my conscription as an adventurer."
"Their jealousy and fear are rightly justified," remarked Riveria Ljos Alf as she approached the fire that Lili and Welf was tending too. "Your family has created many magical weapons that have claimed the lives of countless and brought down nations."
"If I was allowed to work as a blacksmith and given the opportunity to grow then I could produce the very same legendary magical weapons that could turn the tide," growled Welf as he glared at Riveria.
"That might have been true in the old world where monster only used their bodies or natural magical abilities." Riveria shook her head. "The monsters we face today can use the very items we use against them. Every powerful weapon that could slay hundreds of monsters can be also used to slay hundreds of adventurers."
"So you're saying that the potential harm of my creations is a good reason for my talent as a blacksmith to be wasted?!" snapped Welf and he seemed ready to charge at Riveria in a fit of rage.
"Welf, please calm down!" shouted Lili as she quickly got up and placed herself in front of him. "It is pointless to attack Riveria. She isn't the one that got you conscripted, nor can you defeat her. In fact, you're asking for a beating attempting to fight her."
Welf gritted his teeth and balled his fists. He really wanted to slug a punch at Riveria's face but he knew rationally it was suicide. The elf had lived for two centuries and served as an adventurer for decades. She was several times more powerful and experienced than him. If he provoked her and Riveria wanted to kill him then there was nothing stopping them from happening.
He didn't need to glance around the camp to see that no one would step in to protect him if Riveria tried to kill him. Riveria was too important to the group for anyone to risk offending her. She was after all the strongest adventurer in the group and many looked to her as the leader.
Welf took a deep breath. "You can relax, Lili. I'm not going to do anything stupid."
"Are you really not going to pick a fight with Riveria?" asked Lili, eying Welf suspiciously.
"I'm calm, Lili."
"Patience is an important skill to have." Riveria nodded in approval. "You will need plenty of it if you're going to endure what your enemies will throw at you."
"Are you playing with me or trying to teach me some wisdom?" Welf asked in a baffled tone.
Riveria never replied and instead walked away with a smile.
"Help me out here!" called out Lili as she tended to the fire. "Get some more firewood!"
"Okay!" Welf shouted as he rushed over to a growing pile of firewood being made by an adventure given the wood-cutting duty.
- O -
I took the smartphone from my pocket to see why it had been vibrating. A list of notifications greeted my eyes. A few of them had been my family or friends sending messages or a call. Most of the notifications were related to the God Maker app. It didn't take long for me to make a few calls and sent messages back to my family and friends, of course I didn't reveal the truth as being discovered to be a Blessed was a big deal.
My head just hurt thinking about if I ever let it slip that I was now a Blessed. It was akin with being born with golden spoon, good looks or talent, except being Blessed was much more. The blessings of a Divine Spirit was like having a sugar daddy/mommy that could alter just about every aspect of someone.
You needed money? That's easy, rain down precious metals like gold and platinum.
Want to look better? Fix your appearance by arranging bone and flesh.
Are you lacking in a certain field? Give you the talent to excel in that field.
The limits of a Divine Spirit's blessing just what a Divine Spirit could do that was feats known as True Magic such bring time travel, bring back the dead that had already entered the cycle of reincarnation, making something out of nothing while ignoring the laws of conservation of mass and energy.
This was why many people were so desperate to become Blessed and go to all lengths to attract the attention of a Divine Spirit, or why those that couldn't become Blessed were jealous of them.
I snapped out of my musing as my phone vibrated.
The first thing I did was to browse my profile.
Name: Shirou Emiya (Muramasa)
Species: Human
Classes: Mage Lvl 1, Warrior, Blacksmith Lvl 1
Level: 1 (human self), 1 (divine self)
Status:
Strength: I00 (453)
Agility: I00 (391)
Endurance: I00 (246)
Stamina (Od): I00 (492)
Magic: I00 (672)
Mana: I00 (526)
Intelligence: I00 (377)
Senses: I00 (729)
"Divine Self. Where did that come from?"
My mind automatically came up with the answer. I wanted to slap myself for how stupid I had been. The answer laid right in my hands… The notification, "you are one step closer to becoming a Divine Spirit," echoed in my mind.
I sighed at the absurdity that a phone app had made me into a Divine Spirit before looking at my Stats.
The results of my Stats wasn't too surprising. It matched roughly what I had estimated. I had always had very physically capable thanks to my regular shooting practice in the Fuyuki High Archer Club, my daily kendo sparring with Fuji-nee and learning my biological family's Muramasa style blacksmith.
The numbers I saw regarding Magic and Mana was much higher than I had originally expected. It was as if… My brows rose up at the sudden burst of wild imagination that had entered my mind.
"That could be possible…" I muttered while tapping on my smartphone and navigating to section named Health Report. "Wow this is much more detailed than I had expected… I will have to read in more in depth later. Let's see. Medical history…" My eyes widened. "I was right! The reason why my Magic and Mana stats were higher was because I was no longer affected by Angra Mainyu's curse. So my lost potential has been restored."
A smile grew on my face, but if I had been any other mage had been in my shoes then would have been celebrating as if there as no tomorrow. To any normal mage, the smallest improvements to their Magic Circuits was very important to them. It meant their magical abilities had increased.
I continued reading more about my profile for a while then I closed it before moving onto the world map tab.
"What is Zelretch doing to do?"
That was a question that had been plaguing be ever since I had gotten the Divine Coin. The True Magician was legendary for his self-appointed of being mankind's protector. He didn't seem the type to just make an phone app that just one single human into a Divine Spirit. That time and effort could have been better invested in any ways of protecting humanity.
My pondering on the matter was put aside as my screen displayed the map I had last seen. The map was filled with several fold more monsters. I was surprised to find humans and demi-humans.
I watched in fascination as the monsters started to surround a perimeter around the camp of humans and demi-humans.
- O -
"Monsters. We are being ambushed by monsters!" screamed one of the adventurers on guard duty.
Lili and Welf, who had just fallen asleep after finishing their cooking duties, quickly snapped awake. They jumped out of their sleeping rolls and reached for their nearby weapons. Many other sleeping adventurers reacted the same way as them.
The semi-conscious and awaking adventurers quickly found that their attackers were goblins and their larger cousins, hobgoblin.
Goblins and hobgoblins did not just attack from a single direction or two different directions. They came from all directions under a very clearly organized manner that benefited properly trained military units.
"Damn! I hate how monster these days can use proper equipment like us!" roared Gareth Landrock, one of the oldest and most experienced adventurers in the group.
Lili fought for her life as she was one of the youngest and least experienced adventurers in the group. Her primary weapon was a wrist-mounted crossbow that was completely useless in her current predicament where goblins rushed at her and forced her into close combat. The weapon in her hand, a utility dagger meant for non-combat role such as cutting rope and meat for food preparations, struggled to pierce through the tough leather armor many of the goblins wore.
"Ha!" shouted Welf as he delivered a wide slash, hitting many of the goblins that had been attacking Lili.
Many of the goblins were sent flying from the sheer momentum of Welf's slash but they suffered no serious wounds as their leather armor took the brunt of the force, leaving only deep gashes in their leather armor and cuts to their limbs.
"Thanks for the help!" Lili screamed gratefully as she quickly rushed to Welf's side so that they were back to back. "We really got unlucky. Orario is less than two hours away, but we got ambushed."
"If we had just pushed a little bit more than we could have been safely to Orario," growled Welf as delivered a sweeping slash that forced several goblins back least they suffer and some were sent flying.
"Ducking, swing!"
Lili didn't need any explanation from Welf. She was familiar with Welf as they had fought together many times to understand him immediately. The girl ducked immediately and Welf's greatsword swept over her head.
Goblins screamed as they were hit by the unexpected attack. The first batch of goblins hit at the start of horizontal slash. The first goblin was separated from its lower body, and each following goblin suffered less damage until by the end of Welf's slash, the last few goblins were sent flying only to be saved from death thanks to their leather armor.
A flurry of bolts followed in rapid succession at the goblins that hadn't been killed by Welf's sweeping slash. Each goblin was struck right between the gaps of their leather helmets, punching through the where the bone of the skull was thinnest and forever ending the goblins' lives.
"Nice work, Lili!"
"Keep your head in the game. We still have more monsters to fight!"
"Cover me!" shouted Welf as he dashed towards the closest adventurer fighting for her life.
The three goblins fighting the adventurer never expected to be attacked from behind. Welf slashed the right goblin. Its head went flying off as Welf struck it from the back at the exposed neck where the leather breastplate and helmet failed to cover. The second goblin barely at time to turn around when Welf's greatsword nicked its throat. Gargles escaped its lips as the goblin clutched at its bleeding neck as it futilely attempt to stem the blood.
Welf was about to dispatch the last goblin when it turned around and prepared to face him. It let out a pained scream when a cut from behind distracted the goblin. Seeing an opportunity, thrusted his greatsword forward. The large size and goblin's smaller size easily allowed to utterly annihilate the goblin's heart and a large chuck of its lungs.
"Thanks for the help," said the grateful female adventurer that Welf had helped out.
"Hey, Tiona! A little help here," screamed the female adventurer's twin.
"Sorry, Tione!" shouted the amazoness and she leapt to her twin's aid.
Just as Tiona was about to take a goblin, a flurry of bolts hit the goblin. It screamed and bended over in pain, giving Tione the chance to take it out by stabbing its throat.
Several more goblins attacking Tione went down. Either being killed outright or injured by a bolt before Tione and Tiona took out the surviving goblins.
"Thanks, Lili for the assist!" called out a grateful Tione.
"I owe you one for helping my sister!" added a happy Tiona.
"A little help please!" shouted a struggling Welf as he engaged a hobgoblin supported by four smaller goblins.
"Coming!" chirped the twin amazons as they rushed to Welf's aid.
Lili instead of replying with her voice answered by firing three bolts at the hobgoblin before she had to stop firing to replace the empty magazine. Her reloading was interrupted when she heard Welf scream in pain. She looked up to see Welf clutching his bleeding right arm with his left arm and his greatsword trembled as his wounded arm struggled to hold the weapon up.
"Welf we got this!" shouted the twin amazons as they intercepted the hobgoblin, preventing it from pursuing the injured Welf.
"Thanks," grumbled Welf as he stabbed his greatsword into the ground quickly attended to his wounded arm.
Lili let out a relieved sigh and returned to replacing her empty magazine. At least that had been the plan until she saw several goblins sneak up to the distracted Welf busily tending to his wound. She quickly screamed out a warning.
The distracted Welf barely had any time to respond. He managed to get out of the way but not before taking some blows. Thankfully, most of the attacks were absorbed by his armor with a few scratches were the goblin's weapons had glanced off.
"Tione, Tiona, you got to he-"
"Can't you see we are busy here!" screamed the twin amazons as Lili found that they were not just fighting one hobgoblin and three goblins, but they were fighting three hobgoblins and a dozen goblins now. As Lili watched, the twin amazons quickly suffered minor wounds and forced to stand back-to-back with each other as they became surrounded.
The female supporter was about to ask other adventurer if they could help Welf or the amazon twins out, but Lili quickly found that all the other adventurers in similar predicaments of their own where they had to prioritize their own lives.
Lili shook her head and knew it was up to her to help Welf but before she could finish reloading her crossbow she found herself driven into the ground as a goblin leapt until her chest.
Damn, why did a goblin attack me when I need to help my comrades!? Lili cursed as she quickly used her wrist-mounted crossbow as a makeshift shield to block the goblin's dagger aimed for her throat.
She struggled but despite her best efforts the dagger came ever so her throat. Lili had always cursed the gods for leaving Genkai as the once prosperous world had fallen into chaos because their departure. She and her fellow adventurer's would have such a hard life where death was a daily constant where someone they knew seemed to die every week.
The blade started to come closer to her throat and with the threat of death being so close Lili tried something that she hadn't done for a long time.
Lili started praying for salvation. From any god that was willingly to answer her prayers.
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Thank you for reading!