Chapers 46+47: The Territory System Parts 2 and 3

Walker's smile graced everyone who came running over. Today was a special day. In the history of his time in the protocol, events on Sonata had always been rather slow, but right now, big things were happening all at once. He could hardly contain himself.

"What have you done now?" Virgil said.

"I started the first territory of course!" Walker said in excitement as he ignored the notification blinking in his overlay, "This way we can look at what the updates are doing in real-time. Also, I needed the extra mana bump so we can really build some wild stuff here."

"Yayy!" Neus said, and by tradition, Cagna taught him how to do the high-five.

Virgil, though, was less impressed, "So, not only are you growing four overwhelming Mana Trees, but you have also placed your magical...bomb...into Sonata." He took a breath, "are you out of your mind!"

"Nope, but I have reasons for everything I'm doing, I just...." Walker was interrupted by the ground beneath him shaking roughly. Walker dreaded what was about to happen, but it was too late. His overlay updated.

Unknown changes occurring.

The Tree of the Gods is maturing!

.....Scanning.....

.....

The Tree of the Gods has borne fruit.

"Son of a bitch...." He looked over at Athena and asked if she'd handle them.

The goddess of wisdom shrugged, "I will, but I have to warn you....it is Artemis and Apollo. They tend to be..."

"Rambunctious." Echidna supplied.

Athena nodded in the affirmative, "Yes. The twins will be hard to contain I'm afraid. Not to mention Hephaestus was just released."

Walker scratched his chin, "Fine, I'll talk to them in a minute. But I have things I'm doing and..."

"And you need to be quick, I understand Walker. We're all on board here." She said, and the others around him gave differing acts of encouragement. The blonde woman squared her shoulders and walked over to a very attractive man and woman wrestling on the ground, heedless of the dirt gathering onto their fine clothes. To the side of them, a man with a deep scar on his face looked around in curiosity. Walker noticed Aphrodite jump skipping toward him.

"Alright, whatever." He said with a blast of air out of his mouth, "As I was saying, we're going to be a Foundation Stone factory. Because of how much magic it takes to create new ones, I needed to exponentially increase the amount of magic permeating Sonata."

Virgil waved to get his attention, "Walker....go into your world editor right now please."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Walker nodded and stepped into the world editor. There were several things to note as he looked around. One, it had exponentially increased in size so that it was now almost equal to Symphony. Walker wasn't an astrophysicist, but he knew that couldn't be a good thing.

The second thing he noticed was that the steel shell had grown with the planet at each increase, probably something to do with the magic starting to reach it. But as he looked around the shell, he already found the Mana Tree's roots spreading down and touching them, as well as a few holes in the steel from being overstretched. The roots were already seeking each other out as well, and the Tree of the Gods roots, which had always been rather shallow, albeit widespread, were now stretching toward them as well.

"Oh what the fuck."

"Indeed. If you take us out of the time dilation right now, or advance Symphony to our speed, the two landmasses will begin to have a gravitational attraction to each other. Your small sea's tides will kickstart and have power unseen in your home world. The atmospheres may start to exchange conditions, wherein your massive amount of ambient magic on Sonata will sync with Symphony, and create a cascading magical revolution, completely changing how Symphony works and destroying your systems in the process. Everyone will likely die." He took a quick breath, "So I heavily suggest you do not do that." Virgil shrugged, "But that is only if you would like to continue on as the Creator of Symphony. This moonlet, which is quickly approaching the size of your Earth standard moon, is going to continue to grow." He pointed down to Symphony, "What would Chipper see if he looked up here when the dilation ends? The moon would shift from being relatively small to that world to suddenly ten times its former size." He held up a finger, "That's only problem number one."

"Don't gas me up man." Walker complained, but Virgil ignored him.

The large squirrel held up another finger, "Problem number two, which is also problem number three, is that the Tree of the Gods will connect with those Mana Trees. It is inevitable. The Mana Trees are currently being....juiced up....by your Foundation Stone explosion."

"You said that couldn't happen." Walker pointed out.

"Yes, but I also said sudden magical inundation can cause unknown repercussions with Spirit Trees."

"Mana Trees."

"Whatever. I did warn about this some time ago. Because of the magical saturation caused by your Foundation Stone, the Mana Trees modification was overridden and they have grown exponentially. I would estimate." He looked at his screens, "that they've already reached about 10 years in size, and that will continue to go up. When they connect to the Tree of the Gods, I do not know what will happen." He walked over and patted Walker's back once, "Congratulations Walker, you found a way to break our first successful project together. Well done." Virgil threw his hands up in the air and left, walking over to his now eight evolution chambers.

Walker scratched the back of his head. No spiraling.

He chose to be optimistic, "Well....yeah. Okay. One thing at a time." He noticed everyone looking at him, "Nothing to see here folks. Move along." He said with a wave of his hand.

A few of the Primigenials grumbled as they walked away, Zeus trying and failing to talk to Hades as the darkly dressed man just continued to walk at a sedate pace, keeping his distance from his older brother. Walker noticed as he watched them walk away, that the Tree of the Gods, now a good distance away, was hundreds of feet tall. Each branch bore fruit, although one branch had already shrunk by close to a third of its size if he remembered correctly.

That must be the Greek one, he thought to himself. He came to the logical conclusion that as the fruit, or the Primigenials in this case, dropped, the branch became more and more withered. Like the Tree was being drained. As he looked at it, he counted no less than twelve more branches with fruit growing from them.

That is a shitload of incoming gods.

He scanned his eyes over and saw Rimi running to join Virgil at the evolution chamber. They placed another anteater in it, then began looking at the other chambers for damage. Lucky for Walker, neither of the human's chambers had taken any damage aside from the superficial. He breathed a mental sigh at not angering the advanced assistant any further.

Neus disappeared, likely to head off to the Territory system, and Cagna moved over to her pink armchair to work on Milestones.

Walker sighed as he was suddenly alone again. A lot was happening nowadays. He still remembered when it was just him and Virgil on a small moonlet trying to figure out how to get magic into Symphony. He missed that a little bit. It was nice to have company on Sonata, but he also didn't necessarily like constantly being surrounded by people. He had always been an extroverted-introvert. Put a group of people around him and he was the star of the show, but it always felt incredibly draining afterward. Walker felt his chest pulse for a second before it went away. Right, he had work to do.

Walker clicked Item and stepped in.

Hello Creator

"Not to be rude, but you don't have to do that every time."

Command recognized.

What would you like to create?

"Am I able to make a series of items in some form of a que system?"

Yes, that is possible

"How long, at our current and improving Magical reserves, would it take to create a single Foundation stone?"

.....Analyzing.....

...

One day each

"Excellent. Please begin producing them each day. Also, am I able to say where I want them placed when they're done?"

Yes.

You may choose a location to place any items you create within fifty feet of your entry point to the system.

"Very good. Please place all future foundation stones near the Creation Instrument for the near future. Please also make sure they're separated enough so that they do not touch each other.

Command recognized.

Warning: You must continuously enter the system near the Creation Instrument for the que to produce results in your desired location.

"I understand, thank you." Walker said as he stepped out. He looked at the notification he'd ignored for the moment.

Territory task complete: Establish the first territory: Part 1

Territory established: Yes

Reward for completion: Variable.

Secondary reward for completion: Decided by the Alpha Protocol Council

Territory task given: Create your tasks: Part 2

No description provided

Tasks created: 0/10

Reward for completion: Variable.

Secondary reward for completion: Decided by the Alpha Protocol Council

- - -

Reward for completing the first territory task:

Congratulations Dante! You've gained two-hundred Primordial resources.

No description provided

Secondary reward for completing the first territory task:

Congratulations Dante! You've gained an assortment of rare resources.

For the Territory system to work as you see it Dante, you must have the tools to expand. Use this to help you continue to move forward. Enjoy.

"Hey Vir....nevermind." He said, rethinking calling Virgil over. He was busy and probably still pretty mad after he blew up his test entity.

Walker looked at the rewards again. The Primordial resources were nice, as were the rare resources, although he had no idea what any of them did. It was a little strange to see the Council writing targeted descriptions for him, but they were watching him rather closely right now. He went into his resources tab and clicked on the filter that let him see what was recently added. "What the shit are these?" He said, as he pulled up each new resource's description.

Walker searched in his memories for the last time he'd gained rare resources from the protocol. He remembered gaining Faer metal for creating his first Guardian, Chipper. Virgil had said that anytime he gained a non-Earth resource, it was automatically added to his system for placement on Symphony. Now that he'd gained some from his reward, he could place them whenever he wanted. Also, with his rare ore upgrade Symphony had received long ago, Ethereal ore could now spawn randomly in different places. All in all, this was a pretty solid reward.

"That's actually helpful, thank you." He said to no-one in particular, assuming that Virgil's bat-like ears had heard him and would naturally update the council in his next transmission.

Nodding his head, Walker scanned through his overlay. He found a new tab that had appeared when he started the territory with the simple name "My Territory". Of course it was basic...and boring, because they hadn't worked on the Territory interface yet. Knowing what he needed to do, he clicked on Territory and waited for the alternate dimension to fade in. As his eyes adjusted, he said a quick "Hello John" to the Cardinal, and found Neus in his lime-green chair beside him. Walker sat down.

"So, what have you two been working on?" He asked with genuine curiosity.

"Oh oh!" Neus said with a raised hand, another throwback taught to him presumably by Cagna, He started talking at Walker's nod, "We've been working on the tracking and levels so far. Can I show you?"

"Sure!"

At Walker's approval, Neus had John pop up the system on the screens around them.

Walker looked it over and shook his head. Neus beside him seemed to deflate into the green padding.

"I told you Neus." John said, "It violates the principle of having an Adaptive system run by an advanced AI. I said he wouldn't like there being generic names for different levels. Each of the different options needs to have its own name, and unlocked choices as they move up in tiers.

"Yep. It's handy having you in my head John." Walker confirmed with a thumbs up.

"Thank you." The cardinal said with a winged bow. "Now, here are some changes I propose." He sat still on his branch as the screens went through a series of modifications. "I've increased the levels and tiers as that way there isn't a true limit to the system, and I've modified the names of the upgraded territories, but those are only placeholders."

"Because if they choose to focus on wine it's a Vineyard, but if they choose to focus on rice it's a farm?" Walker guessed.

The Cardinals image crowed in delight, "That's right! We can't get bogged down in what the names will be, but rather, we need to focus on what each tier will unlock across the board for the rising territory. The names of the tiers will change organically. I've included some placeholder names for what I think may work in the future, but I need you to consider what the unlocked structures and systems will involve."

Walker scratched his chin, "That's hard to do without having those systems already built. Not to mention we're scraping the bottom of the barrel in regards to items and structures right now."

John nodded, "True, but if you give me the spirit of the idea, I can work with Neus to see it come to fruition. Pun intended." Walker laughed, "I am not allowed to make changes to the Territory system myself, but I am allowed to modify what you've programmed for the system moving forward as long as it follows the spirit of what you've intended. It is a little dicey, but that is my purpose here as an advanced AI. To take your decisions, your orders, and modify them for each entity. Or, in this instance, territory." John tried to smile.

Walker and even Neus shifted back in their chairs a bit. It was disconcerting to see a bird try to twist their beak into what amounted to a human smile, "I really appreciate it John, but you don't have to do that. It's kind of terrifying."

"I understand." John said, stopping the action immediately.

"Okay, lets get to this." Walker said, then he began dictating and pacing simultaneously. Every so often Neus would speak up, and Walker would debate with him for a moment before they settled on a course of action. He was mindful of taking Neus's opinion seriously, so he didn't destroy what little confidence the green squirrel had built up since first coming to Sonata. Walker didn't want a repeat of the Cagna situation. John didn't quite have the same amount of input as the assigned subsystem assistant, but he did help them refine what they were trying to do. After a long period of debate and discussion, with John doing his best to update the system, they finished up and took a look at what they'd created.

They all agreed that at Rank ten every Territory should have a name that works for all. City-State was an obvious choice, and a direct tie-back to one of Walker's favorite video games growing up. The term itself implied that the territory held their own sovereignty, and Walker had very long-term plans for any Territory that reached this far-off marker. Any city that became a City-State would have to select a specialty that further refined the uniqueness of the territory. Underground levels...if they didn't have them already. Use the Mana tree(s) to help them fly? Dungeon focused? All were options he was hoping to build over-time.

The first one-hundred levels, as associated by his original Level system, would all be red. They set the visual to start at the Foundation Stone or Mana Tree, and to expand from there using ambient magic for fuel. This way, every city that leveled up would reveal such to its citizens as it expanded throughout the territory. Walker had a running bet with John that the first time a city saw orange-level notifications they would freak out. The cardinal bet against him. He liked John.

To get ahead of any issues, they set it so citizens would only be classified as either sapients or monsters that could at least sign their name. That way nobody could cheat by trying to plant one-million trees in their territory as they tried to game the system. Walker didn't mind smart moves that allowed his future people to work around his requirements, but there was a certain way of life he was trying to build into Symphony. He plugged up some holes and gaps he found here and there, but let others go through. If he didn't, he was worried people would grow to hate his systems as they would be too strict and unchanging. The smart would always find a way forward in his worlds.

The reward for first starting their territory, aside from the starter buildings and access to the interconnected Item system, was a Mana Sapling. It would take time to grow, and would likely greatly slow down many territories when they first got started. He made sure it was added into every territory's first unlockable. This way, those who are magically inclined can stack the magical inundation in their area with an already present Mana Tree.

For those who didn't have a mana tree, the magical empowerment from the Foundation Stone would be enough to at least jumpstart their ambient magic, and they had to plant it to get the Mana Sapling in the first place. That way nobody would be overriding the Mana Trees modifications at the start. He figured that anyone who picked the magical archetype would be in for some interesting Mana Tree variations, but he would deal with those as they came.

For this to work, Walker was forced to step out and link the Entity subsystem to both the Territory System and Neus, with a new update streaming into his overlay.

.....Scanning.....

Congratulations Dante! Your subsystem assistant has upgraded to a full assistant!

Error...

Subsystem assistant not found

"Really now?" Walker said quietly to himself as some interesting thoughts began to percolate in his mind. He slid them into the backseat and grabbed Neus, pulling him out and letting the update happen while Cagna loudly complained in the background. Once Neus grew his extra height and finished downloading the system, they popped back into John's dimension.

Working together, they figured out a basic breakdown with unlocks and systems for the first tier, and began to work on the rest of the series. They ran into several roadblocks as they went, then tried to fix some while knowingly leaving others open for those who were smart enough to find them. Walker had a very long argument with Neus about it, as the green squirrel wanted to create what he called a "seamless system", but John sided with him. They both felt it was important to allow the clever to rise on Symphony just as much as the strong.

Once they finished the generic portions, they had another lengthy round of pushing each other around on their ideas with the agriculturally specific tasks. Neus began to show more initiative the longer they worked at it, as he had a better understanding of what Walker was looking for as time went on. After a break where Walker did some soul work on his crappy couch, he jumped back in and asked John to show them a single screen for reference. The reason he asked for only one was because the tiered breakdowns had bloated to a massive size.

Looking at the update, he smiled. This was exactly what he had always wanted. As the territories grew in size, they would naturally...wait a second...Walker asked what the controlled area of each Territory was set for and received a stark answer.

One mile.

This began another series of pokes and prods at what the generic system unlocks would provide, and a systematic expansion of territorial boundaries. It also required them to restrict which landmasses could even hold territories in the first place. Chipper's land was too small for the system's scale to work on. Walker began to theorycraft with John and Neus about the potential of merging landmasses entirely so that Territories could expand over the maximum limit, which was currently set for level 100. They settled on the first level granting a mile, and the one-hundredth, or tenth tier, granting fifty miles in segmented incremental expansion through levels. Each level would push the distance of the territorial control, or what they could build on, by half a mile until it maxed out.

Walker also worked with John to better understand how to create a territory extender as a form of reward. They discussed it for a moment until John requested that Walker provide another Foundation Stone for study. Since it'd been a full day, he stepped out and grabbed one from near the Creation Instrument, then popped back into the Territory system. John analyzed the magical shotgun again and said he would only need a foundation stone at a tenth of the power Walker was currently holding in order to classify it as a territory extender.

John continued his explanation, "It's about not draining the Territory while still providing a just reward. Each time the territory expands, it's going to drain the ambient magical resonance within the immediate area to claim it for themselves. It wouldn't be a great reward if everytime you wanted to gain the advantage provided to you, you also weakened your immediate area."

"I agree." Walker replied after thinking it over. He hopped over to the Item System and spoke with the basic AI provided. The system stated it could re-absorb the current Foundation Stone Walker was holding and use the magical output to create a smaller, less powerful version, although doing so would sacrifice his first que'd stone. He agreed, then Walker asked if they could attach this option to all future Foundation Stones and received a positive response. The reason he wanted it was simple. Options.

Each time an entity gained a Foundation Stone as a reward, they'd have the option to start a new territory. But what if they already had one? Symphony's economy was a deviously tricky situation that he had been considering for quite a while. How do you jumpstart an economy in a world that doesn't have one? Trade and barter would only last so long. It was something he had focused on in his last soul-work. The answer was obviously the Faction system, but he could sow the seeds early to make things easier in the future.

Walker hopped over to John and Neus again, holding a newly minted Foundation Seed. He considered naming it a Foundation Pebble for the thematic matching, but it wasn't the same. John added it into the system as a possible reward, dependent on the current magical resonance found on Sonata. Sure, territories could try to make them with the interconnected item system if they wanted, but it would also drain them heavily of any magical permeance around them. That could set them back in other ways. In other words, more options were provided.

Refocusing on the Agrarian series, they completed the basis for what the territorial levels would look like with a promise that the series would be like a living document. As they found issues, they would add to it over time to fix them. Walker then had them shift to the next-in-line alphabetically.

Communal territories are a focus he chose because some people like to live life...differently. Walker had always been a big advocate for personal privacy. His time in the military had prepared him for a loss of such privilege, but that had always been for relatively short bursts of time except for his one deployment. But, ever since he'd arrived here, every step they'd made had forced him to methodically destroy his old viewpoint. He absolutely hated to use the term "Greater Good", but without the Milestone system and the subsequent Leveling system, nothing would make sense. He had created a Communal territory archetype for those who liked that lack of privacy, and Walker didn't want the Territory system to be too exclusive, allowing for as many directions for the entity involved to choose as possible.

They began their work on the new archetype and continued to argue for several hours as they built it, literally, from the ground up. John showed an update screen after a particularly heated marathon in which Neus pushed for Communal territory rewards that just seemed nonsensical to his Creator. He lost, but not until he'd had his say, becoming more forceful the longer Walker denied him.

The problem with Neus's argumentative style was that he kept saying the same thing in different directions. He was still relatively too young to be able to form a coherent response, downloaded information or not. No, Communal archetypes didn't need to be formed by only tents dipped in pheromones. No, they didn't need to be focused on creating sexytime paraphernalia. No....they didn't need one single bed the size of a building. If they wanted to go that way, great. But they wouldn't be responsible for creating a massive amount of weird sex cults.

Honestly, for a squirrel robot, he had some weird thoughts.

They finished up the series and Walker had John present the screen showing the third tier this time.

In the third tier, they had removed the need for citizens to have pre-allocated professions. At that point, citizens should have an understanding of the benefits that professions bring to the community and what value they hold in the overarching world that is Symphony. Walker had replaced it with the town's prescribed requirement of two defensive structures. Even Communal-focused territories should have an understanding of what kind of dangers this world can bring to their doorstep, and this was his way of making sure everyone had a chance at surviving.

Allowing the creation of advanced structures and items within the third tier would be important. Not every territory would be a catch-all, with the ability to focus not only on creating a smithy, but also a museum or amphitheater. By giving Stewards and Holders the ability to just slam down a pre-designed advanced structure, they would be able to pick and choose what their town needed at that time. They could build their own and donate the blueprints to the interconnected item system, but that was up to them. Walker said the last part out loud and Neus spoke up with an idea.

"What if every time a Citizen donated something to the interconnected item system in their territory, they were granted something of equal value?"

"Like what?" Walker asked as he leaned forward in his chair.

Neus mirrored him, "Well, we don't have any form of currency yet, but if it's advanced enough, you could build direct rewards based upon the initial analysis the territory provides. Like 500...I don't know...schmeckles for an advanced item"

"Weird currency, but that's interesssting." Walker said as he scratched his chin, "Do you have an example in mind?"

"Reminder." John interrupted, "Aside from the basic items provided upon the initial inception of the Territory system, you have not set up different tiers as of yet."

Walker leaned back, "That's because we don't have any items! Wait a second...I have a guy outside who can do that!" Walker hopped out of his chair and quickly clicked out of the system.

As he faded in, he started to run around the much larger Sonata, looking for one particular person. He who he was looking for after he turned a corner around the Tree of the Gods close to an hour later. Aphrodite was squirming underneath the attention of a heavily scarred man who had recently exited the Tree of the Gods. He quick-stepped over and soon entered hearing range.

"I just know you offered yourself to him." The man said in a calm voice as he looked at the green-dressed woman in front of him.

The beautiful goddess replied, "I did not! You can ask anyone here!"

She looked left and right but didn't find anyone, at least, until Walker entered her viewpoint, "You! Creator! Tell him I did not offer my body to you!"

"Ummm...." Walker mumbled as he came near. He popped the memory out of his mind and did a quick review. He didn't care so much if Aphrodite got in trouble, but he didn't want to alienate Hephaustus. He decided the truth was always best, "Technically she didn't. She asked Cupid if he thought I would make...love...to her. She angled the conversation in that direction, but didn't explicitly say so."

"See!" She said with a proud expression on her face as she planted both hands on her hips, "I didn't try to bed him!"

The scarred man's face shifted from angry, to neutral, before going back to angry again, "You just worked around the idea of it! That's not the same as not asking! Pahh!" He waved a hand at her, "I don't know why I even try, wife. All you ever do is try to bed the nearest man or woman next to you." He ran a hand through his short-cropped hair, "ughh...I really need to pound some metal."

A moment later, five basic iron ingots dropped next to his feet as Walker jumped out of the Item system. "Here you go" He said with a smile.

The god of smithing eyeballed the iron without touching it, "That's cast iron. I can't work with that garbage. I need something purer than that if you want me to make something." He looked up from the iron and met Walker's eyes, "So, you're the Creator huh? Thanks for not fucking my wife."

Walker mentally stumbled on that for a moment, "You're...uh....welcome I guess, Hephaustus."

"Call me Heph. It's less of a load on your mouth." Walker winced at how he framed that. Hephaustus looked to his left quickly, "Ah, here she is" He said with open arms as Athena walked over. They embraced each other warmly. After they separated, he asked, "How're you doing little sister?"

She smiled in return, "I am quite well brother. You're not causing Walker any trouble, are you?

"Me? No....wait a second. Walker?" He scratched the top of his head, "Except for Father, you really only use people's titles when you speak to them." He looked over at Walker with a perplexed expression on his face, "Could it be..."

Athena's cheeks brightened a little as she looked back at him, but a laugh echoed out from the goddess of love.

She had a twisted look on her face as she said, "The virgin goddess is considering the Creator for a life-partner? What a joke. As if he would want..."

A pulse of gold washed out of Athena as she turned to look at Aphrodite."Do we have a problem here?" the goddess of wisdom asked in a tight voice. The golden aura came back all at once, covering her body with small golden touches.

A similar pulse of pink responded from the goddess of love before covering her as well, "Would you like one?" she replied.

"STOP" Walker yelled out, as his own forest green burst out and smothered both of theirs. Like a flame finding a sudden lack of oxygen, they faded away until nothing was left. Athena gave him a quick grin while Aphrodite looked horrified.

"Well well." was all Hephaestus said as he looked at Walker more closely than before. "You're not all for show." He looked over at Athena, "Fine, I approve but only for courtship right now. Not that you need it of course." He looked back at Walker, "Give me something real to work with, and I'll change the landscape of your world."

Walker clicked into the world editor and dropped hundreds of pounds of steel in front of him, "This is what I have for now. I'm looking at making.."

Hephaustus waved a hand, "No no, this is just fine. Steel is it? I've seen some of that in your memories." He hefted a piece of steel in his hand, making Walker wonder just how strong the Primigenial was,"I've worked with similar material before, so this shouldn't be an issue." Taking the piece of steel, he tried to twist it, and while it gave in to the enormous pressure he was applying, it was only by a small amount. "Excellent. I've already seen the pitiful excuse for tools you've dropped for me. I'll make my own, thank you." He picked up the steel on the ground, likely weighing several hundred pounds, and walked away. "Give me a little bit of time." He called over his shoulder.

Aphrodite glared at Athena, gave Walker what he would assume was a smoldering look, then hopped after her husband.

"How is he going to...never mind." Walker said with a shrug.

"Soul Crafting." She said with a smile, "Maybe you'll get lucky and he'll teach you how to do it as well. He only ever taught his Cyclops partners in the past, but who knows?" She said with a shrug. "He seems to like you."

"Why did you start a fight with Aphrodite?" Walker asked, still confused by the turn of events.

"So she would know just how powerful you are, and so Hephaustus could gain a measure of you."

Walker laughed, "goddess of wisdom indeed."

She smiled back at him, "I know you are still busy, but can you answer a few more questions for me?"

"Sure!"

"What was your perfect day like back on Earth?"

"Oh...umm. I always enjoyed going to the beach and surfing if I got the chance. Hit a local 7-11 after for a quick ice-cold slurpee and I was in heaven."

"Slurpee?' She asked with a weird look on her face. "Who is 7-11 and why are you hitting them?"

Walker laughed, "Oh, sorry! A 7-11 is a...umm...merchant. They sell food and drinks. Slurpees are an ice-cold drink that is full of sugar and goodness, but will likely eventually kill you."

"Ah, I see. Okay. So, what's your favorite book and why?" She asked with a serious look on her face.

Walker laughed again, "Oh! The big, serious questions now is it? That drives to the heart of a man. Once upon a time, a man had an idea for a new type of book. What would happen if he wrote a series around a world where the hero succeeds in saving the day, but then goes insane and destroys everything he ever worked for. What if life was just a wheel, constantly spitting out the same people in a cyclical fashion?"

Walker explained who Robert Jordan was, and how his books had influenced his life. Regardless of the sub-par ending, and the strange harem fantasy too few people have noticed, not to mention all of the strange filler in the middle books, it was still an amazing series. He also explained about how he used to love another series about a boy named Garion, until he got older and realized just how racist and sexist the entire series was. Athena lamented his lost love for the book series with him. Struck by another idea, he convinced Athena to walk with him without explaining anything, and they quickly made their way over to the couch near his Creation Instrument.

He stepped into the item system and had it produce a basic book and pen. He then asked her to sit with him and reached into his memories. Since he'd awakened he could recall anything with perfect clarity, including the time he'd spent reading the series. There were no copyrights in Symphony....yet.

For several hours Walker became a scribe, and wrote down what he had read in the past. Athena got up every so often to put out some fires with the other Primigenials, particularly when Cupid tried to play a prank on Apollo and got a split lip for it. Walker still hadn't talked to the twins, but that was fine. He'd deal with them when he could. Walker dotted the last period of the first book, albeit in the third basic book and eight pen he'd had to make, and wrote The Eye of the World parts one, two, and three on each cover. Writing the author's name down just below them, he finished up and handed them over to the goddess of wisdom when she returned.

"Here you go. The start of one amazing series. I hope you enjoy them. Oh, one second."

Walker registered all three books into the item system, causing them to disappear, and then reproduced them for her. "Sorry they're not the original ones I wrote for you, but they're basically the same."

Athena gave him a huge smile, like the sunrise on a new day after witnessing a terrible event the night before, "Thank you so much, Walker. You have no idea what this means for me. I have been without anything to read for....thousands of years." A few tears dropped from her eyes as she held the books in her hands.

"My pleasure." He said as he smiled back. After he saw her sit down and carefully place the second and third books beside her before opening the first's cover, he stepped back into the Territory system feeling refreshed.

"Where were we?"