Altura

I readied myself as the First Warrior began to glow. A myriad of natural disasters began in the vicinity as I attempted to kill the First Warrior before he finished doing what he was about to do.

But it was for naught. The First Warrior endured all the attacks and emerged practically unscathed. I prepared to defend myself, forming defenses before myself. And not a moment too soon.

The First Warrior immediately exploded into a series of attacks. The speed now quite a bit faster than me. I defended myself, scrambling to match his attacks. At least he was physically attacking me for some reason, I could not have defended against natural disasters.

But this could not go on. Grand Elder Artica was having it even worse than me, her already slow speed making her vulnerable to the attacks. Had the First Warrior not been concentrating on me, she would have already died. So I did the next best thing. I invoked the lock.

The battle with Elder Norvane had helped me greatly, his lock strategy was priceless with dealing with speedsters like this. I locked space, Air, Water…just about everything I could. I even slowed the flow of spirit in the area.

The First Warrior, as predicted, tried to fight through my lock. But I was not going to let him. The battle had to be decided here, it was the only way. I did not have the Qi to hold the lock for long.

An invisible battle of wills occurred as I locked the First Warrior in, and he fought back. The cast had an ocean of sweat flowing down my eyebrows and my scepter heating up. But I did not relent, I could not relent. Not at this point.

Grand Elder Artica joined her will in, forcing the First Warrior some more. And just like that, the First Warrior crumpled. The vines throughout his body began to dry and crack as the lock continued, clearly losing power. But so was I. I had less than a hundred million Qi left.

The cracks spread, the glow dimming. A few minutes past, I had less than a million Qi remaining, and the vines were nearly done for. But not far enough. A minute later, my Qi dropped to 1, and I let go of my cast. But the vines were not done. Now it was up to Grand Elder Artica to defeat them.

And so she did. The vines finally cracked and fell to dust, leaving a dead First Warrior.

The duel is over, hearty congratulations to-

Error! Subroutine Bug-removal has broken main guidelines and deemed the System in spiral failure, rerouting power…rerouting failed, cascade failure of System operations in progress…deploying emergency measures…

And it was not done yet. I felt the Qi go into havoc, the System’s control fading as Qi returned to an unbalanced state. And then my surroundings changed, something teleporting me. I found myself shifted from my original location to a strange place. A large screen stood before, lines of code running through it. I did not recognize the language, the alphabet, or anything other than the fact that it resembled code.

But I had a guess as to what it was. The System. And that meant that this was the inside of the System Tree.

Hello Archduchess,

As you can see, this is the System Tree. The reason you have been brought here is simple: to fix the System by destroying the Subroutine Bug removal.

Please hold as the System diverts Qi towards you, the process may be undertaken only by someone at the Grandmaster level. The level is not defined under the seed system, conventionally someone on this level controls a planet.

Error! The main guidelines state that Qi must be granted only under satisfactory reasons. The System requests that Archduchess Altura make decisions to satisfy the Qi requirement.

System, did it occur to you that you needed to clarify things? And how much Qi was it to this net level anyway? 10 billion? Yeah, that was not going to be easy System. And what exactly was happening on the planet? System, please clarify.

The Qi needed to level up is, in total, 10066329600

The Archduchess is already in possession of 3 billion Qi post the killing of the First Warrior. The System only requests that you gain the other 7 billion needed for the level up.

The Subroutine Bug Removal deemed the Main routine of the System to be under a state of spiral failure, an event under which the Main routine takes a series of questionable decisions that lead to the planets' destruction.

The Subroutine may, under this state, replace the Main routine and continue operation. The change shall institute a temporary loss of control that shall lead to a minor cataclysmic event on the planet. The estimated death toll is one point three (1.3) trillion humans, or a tenth of the current population.

The System has invoked the time of discussion under which it may converse with the new planetary custodian on matters of governance of the planet. The state shall last for, at maximum, seventy-two hours, after which the Subroutine Bugremoval shall regain control.

At that moment, if the Archduchess is not ready, then the planet shall experience the minor cataclysmic event and come under the governance of the Subroutine Bug-removal.

Oh well, that wasn’t worrisome at all. I totally didn’t need to get an impossible number of Qi in seventy-two hours, or a trillion people died. And whatever this subroutine was ended up in charge. I could bet it had something to with the vines, everything seemed to be too connected for it to be otherwise.

Hmm, what could I do? Well, the moon was sure to give me hundreds of millions of Qi post colonization. System, can I leave this place? Or contact others?

No, but the System can relay the Archduchess’ orders to those outside this area.

Ok, System. So, I could ask Retre and the others to speed up colonization of the moon and ask Grand Elder Artica to colonize the planets, but did we have enough cultivators to get it done in seventy-two hours?

Wait. Was there life on the planets? System?

No, but such an action is not restricted by the main guidelines if the custodian agrees.

System, please add very weak life there that has slightly increased defense but is slow, dumb, and harmless. And then allow people to go there to become cultivators. No, wait. The criminals and slavers would also level up like that…but it was just at Seedling level. Grand Elder Artica could handle them all, and it would give her Qi too. I was sure I would get some from cleaning up things in the world. But the Qi rush had to be handled too. And the only way to do so was for the seeds to no longer focus on only war. System, can you change this ?

The System cannot execute such instructions. The assignment of seeds is governed by the society at the time. The setting can only be changed by the Archduchess after attaining the Grandmaster stage.

So, the stage granted me the ability to change things in the System? Well, that made sense. I would just have to take the risk and change things after I leveled up. System, please do this.

The System acknowledges the instructions.

The Archduchess is requested to proceed with the Mid-Warrior Tree trial.

Qi gained!

First Warrior killed: 1.3 billion Qi.

Yes, sure, why not? The make everyone a cultivator process would take a while.

I was once again before my hole, and it was once again asking me things.

‘To pass this stage the Archduchess must solve three bugs that plague the System. Bug #3: The System has detected an asteroid field near the fourth planet that may be attracted by this planet's gravity. The first asteroid will collide in three thousand years. The asteroids may cause several extinction level events.

Bug#5: The System has not been able to make cultivation available for everyone. Bug#7: The System has refused Subroutine Bug-removal access to persons undergoing a breakthrough. Please give your answers as fast as you can.

Well, those were easy. I had a feeling a certain System had something to do with that. After all, it wouldn’t do if I were to fail at this juncture.

‘Bug#3 may be solved by my ordering Grand Elder Artica to send people to destroy said asteroids, or at least correct their course and colonize them while they are at it. Bug#5 is already in the process of being solved. Bug#7 is not a bug at all.’ I answered.

‘The answers were satisfactory, Archduchess.’ The hole said as it went away.

I emerged outside to find myself facing another notification.

The process, termed ‘The great gift’ by residents of the world, has completed.

Qi gained! 5 billion Qi

Please send further instructions and proceed to the next trial. 12 hours have passed outside the System Tree; less than 60 remain.

System, tell Grand Elder Artica to send people to colonize the asteroid field and make sure it does not crash on the planet, and then begin the trial.

The System accepts the instructions

And I was back before the hole.

``The last question that me or my brothers shall ever pose to you, Archduchess, is: What makes the world run in this day and age?”

And we were back to trick questions. What was the answer? The government? Just power? Or maybe the System? The Subroutines? I had no idea if there were more, but it would make sense in this day and age. Oh, fudge you System. Why did you have to ask such a hard question at the last minute? I couldn’t even think clearly, I was already panicking.

What do I say…Ugh whatever. I would just wing it.

‘The System runs the cultivation, I run the government and everybody runs themselves of their own free will. As it stands, none of us hold all the power.’ I answered.

‘The answer is…factually correct’ The hole said and went away. Ok, I had no idea if that meant there was something wrong with it or not, but whatever, I would take the win.

I emerged, hoping that there would be another notification and level up waiting for me.

The colonization has not completed. A little over 57 hours remain.

And no. I had to wait. And as one would expect, the wait was excruciating. In the end, I decided to trouble the System with questions. I didn’t know much about the solar system, for example.

System, could you tell me something about the solar system?

The solar system consists of eight planets, three terrestrial and five gas giants. The system also has a small asteroid field and six dwarf planets. Though only three moons exist in the solar system that may naturally support life, the terrestrial may be terraformed.

The first planet however, remains too close to the sun to be viable for long term living. A scalding vacation spot may be an option. At the moment, the first two planets are being turned into metropolises at a slow rate.

The System must concede that the possibility of the Archduchess gaining enough Qi through this process to level up is low.

Oh fudge, even that wasn’t enough. Ok, ok, think Altura. What else can you do that would allow you to pass. Hmm, the continents, did I ever conquer them? And did Grand Elder Artica end up killing some Spirit Trees? I could install democracy there! System, please do that, and tell the Grand Elder why I am doing so if you have not done that already.

The System acknowledges the instructions. The Grand Elder was supplied the pertinent information after she requested it.

And so I waited. The System, I was sure, was tired of my constant questions about every little part of its operations over the next two days. But finally, at the fifteen-hour mark, I had my Qi.

Archduchess, the System, wishes you good luck in your endeavor. The question is something not set by the System, or by its programmer. The process of breakthrough is governed by something within the river of spirit itself.

The programmer left only one word of warning: The question is very, very deep. Please keep that in mind while answering.

Well System, if I didn’t know any better than I would say you sounded worried, you machine. But I began the trial anyway, waiting for the question. But nothing changed on my Warrior Tree, in fact, nothing changed at all.

Just as I was about to start panicking, the question came. Not from anything in my spirit space, but from somewhere else, somewhere deep inside my psyche that I didn't even know existed.

‘What are you? Please answer in only one word’.

Oh, come on. Why did everyone love trick questions?! What was I? I was a human. But this was supposedly a deep question. So that meant there was more to it. And then there was the one word barrier. Ugh, so irritating.

Hmm, so what was I? In one word. A girl? A person? A human being? A ruler? Wait no…an Archduchess. The thing that defined me was the fact that I was an Archduchess, it haunted my thoughts and everything along with it. So that was it, it was going to be: Archduchess.

‘Archduchess’ I answered, crossing my fingers in hope.

At first nothing happened, and I feared that I had failed, but then things changed. I felt power flow into me, I felt my Spirit Qi change, just about everything changed. I didn't know how I knew, but I did.But I had left the seed system, the Warrior Tree was still around, but destroying it would do little to me now.

And not just that, I had changed, my entire body had been filled with some other kind of energy. A result of my personality and Qi. Alturan Qi.

And I left my spirit space, going back to the System Tree. But there was no notification greeting me. System? I asked, and found myself facing a rather strange, purple notification.

Class

Qi management

Status

Operational

Running process

#133: a meeting with incumbent custodian

Ready process

#3: The replacement of Main routine

Blocked process

#0: none

Custodian

Altura Selrin, grandmaster.

Well, that couldn’t be the status of the System, could it? And could I just, umm, block process #3 permanently.

The process #3 has been blocked permanently

And decommission the Subroutine bug-removal permanently?

The Subroutine bug-removal has been decommissioned. The process may not be reversed.

And switch back to the normal System?

The administrative mode has now been switched off. Have a good day administrator.

And that was done.I just hoped that it wasn’t another rogue part of the System doing things. System, how’s the situation outside?

The System detects the beginning of Bug#1: the great mess.

The society has collapsed, the governments are barely holding onto power and there are several massacres in progress. The System requests that the focus of seeds be changed.

Ah, that. Please change the Qi management system to give Qi only when actions that further society are taken.

The changes have been carried out.

Well that was that. I wonder how long it would take me to fix this great mess?

The end

except for epilogue