Cain sighs and lays back down on the pew when the program is finished, glancing at the time on his wrist. Ack… it's already 8:40 am. I need to hurry it up.
—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (8ms)
Cain: Prepare a bunch of snacks and meat for me please. The next few hours are going to be busy.
Dresil: Yes, Master. Where should I put them?
Cain: We'll be going to the campsite soon, so the usual spot.
Dresil: Understood, Master.
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—Spatial Requesting Interface (SRI)— (600ms)
Cain: Create a portal to the church prison. Use Draven's memories to create the portal.
SRI: Locating "Draven"...
SRI: "Draven" found (34ms)
SRI: Retrieving memories…
SRI: Memories retrieved (420ms)
SRI: Processing request…
SRI: Request processed (102ms)
SRI: Performing request…
SRI: Request performed (42ms)
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Cain reduces Rex's ban on the memes within the digital storage to 4 days while walking through the portal SRI created. He uses his mana zone to navigate the damp, dark, dank prison for the prisoner who interrupted the ceremony. The sounds of his steps bounce off the stone walls as he beelines to the prison cell.
The prisoner sits in the corner of his cell, resting his left side against the bars, idling about like any other day. He hears the echoes of Cain's footsteps and assumes them to be a guard. "Here to mock me again, eh?" The former priest laments. Cain's figure slowly emerges from the darkness of the cellar, illuminated by the torches. The prisoner looks up at Cain from within his cell, shock written all over his face. "You… You aren't supposed to be here…" The prisoner utters while firmly biting down on a tooth, releasing a poison that kills him instantly.
...Well. So much for that. I don't know anything about poison either so it's not like I can resuscitate him since it'll still be in his system. Guess I'll just nab whatever memories I can before his brain stops functioning. Wait… why does that mark look familiar? Cain conjures a flame in his right palm, kneeling down to take a closer look at the prisoner's tattooed arm while using his mana to copy as many memories from the corpse as possible, starting with the most recent ones. The tattoo is of a shield on top of two crossed swords with "Vivere vel Superesse" written underneath it, similar to a certain bloody symbol.
Cain looks at the tattoo suspiciously, bringing his flame closer to it and poking it a few times. His constant poking causes the corpse to fall along the wall, away from the bars it was propped up on. Meh… I wonder if the latin phrase is original or if Dresil translated it.
—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (3008ms)
Cain: Dresil, did you translate that slogan on his arm?
<3 seconds later>
Cain: Dresil…?
Dresil: Oh, sorry Master. I was busy binging anime.
Dresil: Nope, I didn't translate that. It is originally Latin.
Cain: Interesting…
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—Spatial Requesting Interface (SRI)— (243ms)
Cain: Create a portal to the campsite in the mountains.
SRI: Processing request…
SRI: Request processed (200ms)
SRI: Performing request…
SRI: Request performed (42ms)
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SRI opened up a portal on Cain's left within the narrow walls of the prison. Cain suddenly remembered to leave a note on Draven so that anyone who finds him will hand him over to the pope. He made the necessary changes to the terminal on Draven's chest and walked through the portal. Dresil unmerged from his clothes and created the usual mats for both of them the moment SRI closed the portal behind Cain. He sat down on his mat while she set up her usual binging corner.
Cain created a base magic circle in front of him, analyzing its form. He created another magic circle to the right of it, then another within the second to make the set's effective area a ring. Cain proceeded to create every form of magic circles he knew of and line them up accordingly.
The leftmost magic circle was a normal one. On its right lay the setup with an effective area in the shape of a ring, and to the right of that, two intersecting, perpendicular magic circles emitting a mana zone were created. This setup made the effective zone a sphere.
To the right of the sphere, six magic circles were created and arranged in a cubic formation. To the right of the cubic formation, Cain created two intersecting, perpendicular magic circles and programmed the terminal to emit a mana zone in the shape of a cube. Roughly 5 minutes had passed since he started creating the lineup.
Cain spent the next 30 minutes analyzing each magic circle. Instead of analyzing the code, he studied the runes and behavior of the magic circle themselves, trying to piece together how to make a magic circle that wasn't a circle. At this moment, Dresil deposited the snacks she had collected on a mat next to Cain.
He began snacking while creating various prototypes of magic circles. From squares, to triangles, to squiggly lines. Roughly an hour passed until he finally made a magic circle, that wasn't a circle and managed to maintain its form. He then spent the next five minutes ensuring that there was no difference from interacting with it compared to a normal magic circle.
Ha… Finally, now for the actual project. Cain created his signature symbol and established it as a magic circle. He programmed it to read through the caster's memories by comparing the mana used to make the spell and mana of tagged beings in the vicinity. Their memories were scanned to discover their intentions and if they were acting on his orders or not. He programmed several additional functions that served as punishments if this rule was violated.
From having a limbed burned off, to getting multiple cuts and then having lemonade poured on the wounds, Cain programmed a variety of methods. The most important factor wasn't the pain, but the fear factor instilled into others when they saw someone being punished for not following the rule correctly.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Cain understood that this symbol would be increasingly vital to prevent any schemes or framing against him. Especially since in this medieval world, if someone told another person a sheep was a deer, unless the second person knew what a sheep was, then they'd believe it to be a deer.
Cain exported the completed program of the symbol to the one placed on Draven's forehead. He split the magic circle into a normal one and his signature spell. The normal one was completely disguised and managed Draven's memories and its interface. The signature spell was left visible to establish the validity of the "present." Although, Cain would need a crowd to introduce this spell to and some test subjects for it to be complete.
Finally that's done… Cain plops down onto the mats, glancing at his half eaten snack pile and the time. Damn… it's already 10:46am ...I really can't rest at all lately. He lazily sat back up and began his next project.
Dresil sneakily glanced at Cain, then checked his memories to see if he would be busy for the next few moments. Realizing her chance, she silently stood up from her binging chair and climbed on top of the debris blocking the mountain pathway. Her right hand turned to a mixture of roots and vines. A bronze medallion surfaced from this hand as if it were rising from the depths of a pond. Dresil stared long and hard at it, then chucked it off the mountain side, hoping it would never be seen again.
During Dresil's stunt, Cain created a mana zone around his brain, linking it to the freshly created magic circles on his skull within the 1st layer of the mana layers. He opened up three terminals linked to the set of circles. So… How the heck do I create a firewall to prevent others from influencing my mind… Should I just do it like a normal computer firewall? Nah… that won't be enough though… Meh, let's just slap some thermo, dynamics, and doujins in there as well. Cain sorted out his crazy thoughts while eating a few kebabs of freshly grilled wolf meat.
—Dms: Cain and Bob— (23ms)
Cain: Try to create a portal on that medallion's flight path to catch it. Use my knowledge of physics and dynamics if need be.
Cain: Then put it into its own dimension and seal it up so that not even an atom or a mana particle can get inside. Lock every being except for you from having access to that dimension, SRI included.
Cain: Leave a note for the GB&D stating to leave its contents alone.
Bob: Will this be okay? Dresil might get mad if she finds out.
Cain: It's fine.
Cain: If she does read my memories and finds out, she'll also see that I'm just doing this to prevent any evidence, clue, or trace that's connected to the conspiracy behind my summoning from slipping away.
Bob: I'll take your word for it... I'm not too fond of this idea though.
Cain: If she contacts you, just say it was 100% my idea.
--------------------------
He finished his snack then jumped into programming the firewall for his mind. He spent the next hour creating the three layers to the firewall. The first layer consisted of a multitude of thermodynamics, differential equations, dynamics, orbital mechanics, and various other problems from the engineering classes Cain took with a very short amount of time to solve the problem.
The second layer was a firewall that created prime numbers consistently and randomly; it was also made up of the same numbers. Every second it would generate a new prime number, in which the infiltrator would have to guess in order to bypass it. There was no formula for creating these prime numbers, just a program generating a new number then checking to see if it was prime. The prime numbers were added to the database from which they were randomly drawn from, while the others were discarded.
The third layer forcibly imported all of the doujins and other 18+ videos or books that Cain read into the infiltrator's mind. This was more of a delaying mechanism than a means of defense. A last ditch effort to buy time for Cain to do something about the infiltrator.
The actual composition of the firewall was a dense field of mana containing roughly 5 million total units of mana. Each layer in the firewall added security to it but also served to delay and check the intelligence of the infiltrator. When an infiltrator attempted to access Cain's mind, his firewall forcibly opened prompts in the infiltrator's brain, triggering the start of its three phases.
The first phase would send various problems from the engineering courses Cain took, with less than two seconds to solve each one. Upon the completion of this phase, the second phase would flood the infiltrator's mind with a bunch of numbers and a prompt stating "Guess the next prime number."
The influx of numbers was just a distraction since the actual prime number would be picked using a random number generator and the internal database of prime numbers. Each guessing phase will last for two seconds. If the infiltrator managed to successfully bypass these two phases, their mind would be once again flooded with vast amounts of information; the horny kind.
Each phase lasts until the infiltrator bypasses it or their brain gives out due to information overload. The only way to prevent being harrassed by these three phases is to attempt to break through the firewall with a large quantity of mana; smashing it into smithereens. However, one would need to launch an assault with more than 5 million mana at once since that is how much mana the firewall consists of. Not to mention the frequent attacks needed to prevent the repairs done by Cain with mana from his mana zone or the Mana Storage.
Cain reviewed the firewalls functions then proceeded to fix any bugs and run some basic tests. He spent the next 10 minutes while finishing off his snack pile. Cain checked the time to see if there was still time left before meeting up with Veronica for their training. Heck… only a few minutes left before it's time to go. Meh, let's just head over now.
—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (8ms)
Cain: Dresil, pack up and get ready to head out.
Cain: I assume you can just keep binging while in my clothes?
Dresil: Yep.
Cain: Sweet. I'll wait for you to finish up.
Dresil: Ok.
--------------------------
Cain stood up and walked over to the piece of debris, leaning his back against it and staying out of the way so Dresil could work freely. She spent the next few minutes cleaning up the campsite and the remains of Cain's snacks. She tossed the trash into the Mana Trash dimension and stored whatever mats that could be reused. After she was done, she walked over to Cain and merged into his clothes. Shortly after they all constricted abruptly, causing slight pain to Cain.
Yep… She's mad I stored that medallion thing… Meh, I just have to wait it out… Cain sighed and contacted Veronica to make sure she was ready for their training. [You ready?] Less than a second later, Veronica replied with a short [Yep.], almost as if she were waiting for Cain. Well dang… replying at the speed of sound… He thinks while contacting SRI to open up a portal.
—Spatial Requesting Interface (SRI)— (622ms)
Cain: Open a portal in an open area near Veronica.
SRI: Locating "Veronica"...
SRI: "Veronica" located (69ms)
SRI: Processing request…
SRI: Request processed (510ms)
SRI: Performing request…
SRI: Request performed (42ms)
--------------------------