As the sun rose for the second day of the new age, the citizens of Asharia were surprised to see shrines erected with statues of Shiro within them. They knew that Shiro probably didnât do this considering the fact that it wasnât made from nanobots but a sort of marble that was extremely hard to even scratch.
After asking around, they heard that Samuel had stated that an unknown person had crafted all of these statues through the night.
Quite a few of the citizens were quite inspired by the act and started to carve their own statues as thanks to Shiro for saving them during the chaos.
While this was happening, a few of the humans that were saved prayed at the statue wishing for good fortune and received a small buff which surprised them.
It was a small blessing that gave them a small increase to luck during the day along with a small increase to EXP gained.
Once this news was disclosed, more people started to pray at the shrines while Shiro, the culprit of the shrines, was screaming into her pillow.
###
Sitting in the command centre, Shiro suppressed the blush on her face while getting some of the police to disperse the crowd a little since there were more shrines around the city.
With a few of them carving their own statues, Shiro didnât stop them since it was a good distraction from everything that happened.
"S â H â I â R â O ~"
Hearing Nimueâs call, Shiro felt a shiver down her spine.
What is it?" Shiro forced a smile as she turned around meekly.
"I didnât take you for one that enjoyed seeing people pray at your shrine so much. It just so happens that the shrines give you some small buffs huh?" Nimue smiled as she could see that Shiro was embarrassed about it.
Knowing what Shiro is like, Nimue just knew that Shiro was dying inside right now.
As revenge for waking her up during her sleep, Nimue wanted to the torment the sh*t out of Shiro right now!
"Ahahaha I wonder who created all of these shrines. Itâs quite surprising isnât it. I donât need to do it myself." Shiro forced a laugh as she glanced to the side with sweat rolling down her cheeks.
"Hou hou~ I truly wonder who was able to create so many shrines that give you so many bonuses. Itâs almost as if you were the one putting them down thanks to the system though mn? But surely not right? Youâre not so egotistical as to put so many statues of yourself personally now would you? It makes more sense for someone else to create one in your honour." Nimue asked as she had a smug smile on her face.
Staying silent, Shiro wanted to shed a tear.
If it wasnât for the benefits it granted in the form of faith, she wouldnât want to create statues of herself!
[Gaia praises the quality of statues.]
[Gaia wants one herself so that she can put it in her recently crafted room.]
[Gaia wants to get a statue for all the primordial gods so that they can admire Shiro.]
[Nyx shakes her head.]
[Ouranos face palms.]
[Chronos rejects politely.]
[Tartarus is speechless and reprimands Gaia about her conduct as a primordial god.]
[Gaia scoffs and retorts saying this kind of behaviour is ok when it comes to Shiro.]
Looking at the system messages popping up, Shiro wanted to cry remembering that they could see everything that she did.
[Nyx sends a voice message using her authority.]
âHuh???â Raising her eyebrow, Shiro knew that sending messages took quite a bit out of them never mind sending voice messages.
Pressing play, it was silent for a moment before Shiro heard a laugh.
"Heh."
Hearing the laugh, she could already imagine Nyxâs smug face while looking at her die on the inside.
*PUCHI!
"ARG! Alright, enough about the statues. Letâs get to business. Nimue, I want you to use your power to revitalise the land a little with Iziuel. A single glance at the ground below and youâll know that itâs a bit f*cked." Shiro ordered as she summoned Iziuel.
Locking away her embarrassment to the corner of her mind, Shiro had a serious expression on right now.
Nodding her head, Nimue decided that sheâll have a bit of fun later but work comes first.
Watching Nimue and Iziuel leave, Shiro sent a notification to Isilia and Madison.
After a short moment, the two arrived at the office.
"Madi, Isilia, Iâm planning to make a second city but there has been a small problem. Astral Horizons is currently occupied by an Ancestral Dragon so making a city there is a little difficult."
"Are we going to be attacking as a group of three?" Madison asked curiously.
"Oh god no. It killed me with a tiny puff of fire. If I didnât have my revival skill this world would have gone bye bye." Shiro shook her head.
"I mentioned the mountain so that you girls will be careful around the portals linked to it which brings the potions to this city. Right now, it doesnât notice anything so donât stimulate the mountain at all if possible. If a breath of fire comes through the portal, it might be bad. I already have drones near the harvesting spot keeping an eye out for the dragon. If it appears, Iâll close the portals immediately.
"What I want you two to do is help me make the second city. You see, without Astral Horizons, making a second city similar to Asharia is impossible due to the small power source. Instead, Iâm opting for a smaller city thatâs powered by three branch anchors so that it could keep its defences while also having some offensive capabilities. If we find anywhere better, weâll finalise the anchors so that the city can expand." Shiro explained.
"Wait finalise, you mean weâre going to be making incomplete anchors?" Isilia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yup. You see, I have a small theory. Anchors are pretty much the same right? With just unique materials while constructing the main one. All three of our anchors are pretty similar, especially mine and Madisonâs since weâre both Queens that came from this garden. Her situation is a little special since Demons came from a different garden but the materials used still include materials from this garden.
"Therefore, I believe that if we are each responsible for a portion of the anchor, we can combine it to make a pseudo complete anchor while leaving room for improvement in all three anchors. As you know, once an anchor is complete, we canât change it. We can make more but since Iâm making a city around it, I want to make the increase in the power source a little easier. Because otherwise weâll have hundreds of tiny cities that canât be compared to Asharia rather than tens of powerful cities. We want to aim for quality over quantity." Shiro said while showing them the blueprint she had. It was similar to making a puzzle and each of them was responsible for a third of the anchor.
"You know this is a little crazy right?" Madison raised her eyebrow since their understanding of anchors was a little limited. They were experimenting with the unknown.
"Pft itâll be fine. At most itâll explode but I can contain it." Shiro waved it off with a smile.
"But you forget that making an anchor requires our stats. If it fails, we would lose stats permanently." Isilia reminded.
Remembering that the two of them didnât have as many stats to spare as she does, Shiro paused for a moment.
"Hmm... Iâll keep that plan for another time then. I guess we can make three normal branch anchors and I just link it to the main city. With the faith generation of the shrines, Iâve noticed something a little interesting." Shiro smiled since she had been observing the changes in the city while waiting for people to wake up.
Flicking her fingers, a graph appeared, and they noticed a jump at the end of the graph.
"This is a graph of the divine energy generated by my main anchor. Using the app that Nan Tian made, I noticed a change in the atmosphere within the city and snooped around a little.
"Since the shrines were made by me and they generate faith, itâs something thatâs linked to my Demi God identity similar to divine energy. Faith can be converted to divine energy when needed so since there is no use for it right now, itâs bolstering the main anchor. I do believe that if we link the second city to the main one, the increase of divine energy would benefit the second city quite a lot considering itâs only being powered by three branch anchors of mediocre quality." Shiro smiled as Isilia nodded her head.
"That sounds easier than the first idea." Madison admitted.
"Mn, though if we used the first idea the power generated would be much higher. Regardless, our main priority now is landmass. We need more space for more people since itâs a bit cramped in the small city underground. They need some sunlight too." Shiro shrugged.
"Pft what are they? Plants?" Isilia joked.
Discussing the plans for a bit, the three of them left the command room and started the construction of three branch anchors.