Jack held the object in his hands and nodded approvingly. This object was gold in color and appeared to be solid as if made of solid gold. It was a thin rectangle shape, that appeared to be like a thick serving plate.
He held this object as if he had just been united with a long-lost friend. If Jack could cry, he would shed a tear, at this moment!
"Just how long has it been?" Jack looked at the object with love. He fiddled with the edges of this object and found the clasp. He lifted it apart, as it unfolded at the edge, and what appeared was a screen attached at the back to reveal a keyboard.
"This is what I needed so bad! A fucking computer!" Jack nodded, as he saw the screen booting. This was what took him so much time to complete. This was why he made so many spells to form it. It wasn't the shape, but the function he created. Every spell he could find in the books and all the knowledge he had in his last life poured into this creation.
He released his hands, and the Laptop floated in midair. The screen showed an image booting, with an undead Penguin appearing, with a caption below showing briefly stating 'Powered by Undead inside."
After a moment, the interface came on, and Jack stared at the familiar but foreign-looking screen.
"I can't believe! I just don't believe it. I want to howl at the moon. I want to go crazy! I want to find Leslie and bone for a month! HAHAHA! I did it! I fucking did it!!!!!" Jack was hopping around, and fist-pumping the air. He, literally, was acting a fool. It was a good thing that his library was for personal use and closed doors. Even Leslie wouldn't believe her eyes if she had seen Jack acting like this, least any that worshiped him as the God-King.
It took Jack a full fifteen minutes to calm down, from his excitement. He finally swaggered over to the floating laptop and pointed at the screen clicking on the start menu and pulling a list of applications. Jack had made this computer with some snazzy magical engineering, including touch screen and voice command.
After clicking an app called, Familiar, an Undead Penguin with a stylized appearance appeared on the screen. It moved its stubbed legs a bit before it spoke aloud.
"Hello! I am the AI of this Quantum Computer Laptop, powered with Undead Inside."
"I know... I'm the creator..." Jack spoke, unconsciously.
"Thank you, Creator. Please provide me with a name, so that I may respond to future commands." The Penguin nodded.
"Huh?"
Jack had incorporated many spells he found interesting in his findings within the library. One of which was called "Familiar Creation," which he added as an app. He was going to use this as an assistant. Was this intelligence a product of this spell, as well? Jack figured it would bind the laptop to him like a pet, but he didn't expect it to have this level of intellect.
"Hmmmmm... Tux... Your name will be Tux" Jack remembered the mascot in his last life and casually called the undead Penguin on the screen.
"Tux, it is. What can I do for you today, Creator?" The creature replied.
"interesting, very interesting." Jack spoke, and then randomly called out, "What is 12/845*6341+14^2"
"286.05 depending on decimal placement, I rounded up."
"And if it isn't rounded?"
"286.049704142"
Jack walked over to one of the pushed away tables and used an unused scroll to complete the long math, and came to the same number.
He exclaimed, throwing the pen down, "OUTSTANDING!"
Tux, the Undead Penguin, bowed on the screen. Jack found it funny this thing had personality. [Is this what they call AI?] Jack thought.
"Good, Good, very very good!" Jack clapped his bony hands together.
Jack mused for a few minutes, [I bet those nerds at my job would sell their women to me for this thing if I had it in my last life.] Jack laughed out loud.
The Penguin tilted its head on the screen in puzzlement.
Jack paused while looking at the familiar's almost human-like expression, and wondered just how much this thing understood. Never the less, he had something to use this tool on...
"Tux, make a new project. Name it... Project Helios..." Jack spoke his first true command to the Penguin, in which it nodded. [Damn, I'm good at naming things.] Jack was beyond satisfied, at the moment. Contrary to Jack's thoughts, his naming sense was abysmal.
He walked over to the Tome of the Heretical Side of the Light, "Scan this tome into your Light Drive, and save it as the index for Project Helios.
"Please bring Tux to the Book, and flip the pages to be scanned."
Jack shook his head, he should have made some type of mass scanner... What a stupid thing to forget...
He picked up the laptop from where it was floating and walked over to the Tome. He flipped open the tome, and a flash of light scanned the pages, as he flipped through each one. It took more time to flip the page than it did for the Laptop to scan it.
After about fifteen minutes of this boring task, the whole book was scanned. Jack thought for a moment before he brought all the books in the library to be scanned. Jack boringly flipped pages for the computer to scan... And scan... And scan... Jack felt that this task was more boring than writing the spell work for this laptop, but he had to build a database. A solid week later he was completed, as he pulled a chair and fell into it. Jack didn't need to sleep as an undead, but working continuously for twenty-four hours a day for four months were draining his sanity.
He pulled himself together, before he ordered, "Alright, Tux for project Helios, I want you to use the information from Chapter twenty-seven through Chapter thirty for the 'Light's Apex Connection Ritual.' Use this information to theory craft a device that will allow the wielder to connect to the Light."
"Please state the form of this theoretical device." Tux replied.
"Uhh..." Jack thought for moment, bringing his hand to his chin.
"Make it into a chair, no... Make it a throne!"
"Understood. Calculating time needed for project... Calculation complete. This task will take an estimated 1,177 hours."
"How long is that in days?"
"49 days and 3 Minutes."
[Almost two months!!!! This is a friggin super computer beast, so why is it going to take two months to solve a problem like this for a quantum computer?!] Jack howled in his mind.
After calming slightly, Jack sighed aloud, "Whatever... Just do it... I'm going to go cultivate. Alert me when it's done."
The Penguin bowed, and replied, "The Creator's will be done!"
Jack's flaming eyes danced slowly, as he saw the familiar fade into the background, and a large hourglass appeared on the screen, showing the number of hours counting down.
[I might have had to move overseas in my last life, but I really did good getting that Job... I bet if my old company had magic, they could make one of these too... I bet my boss would shit his pants if he knew I had a Laptop with the equivalent of a 720-qubit processor.] Jack chuckled to himself, as to comfort himself for the long wait.
He didn't even bother with putting the tables back to where they were properly, or fixing the tomes haphazardly strung about, as he went to the same place under the Glow Stone on the wall.
[I really need to make a better cultivation place... I think I will make this new throne my cultivation place... Sounds like something a badass would do.]
Jack used a scroll he made to conceal himself during his cultivation, as he turned off his vision and started in earnest to absorb the light. This concealing spell worked, and a barrier of light formed around him, as not to show the pillar of light in the sky. Jack still thought he had done well, as not to cause in commotion outside from his doings... How wrong he was...
*******
It had been four months and half a week since The Holy Witch King entered into closed-door cultivation, and it had been a week since the Blackout incident. The rumor started among the faithful that it was the God-King that blew out the light. It was only that the faithful didn't understand why. They were helped by their Prophet Lightborn who spoke on the subject that 'It is not our place to question the God-King, but to serve and die again for him!'
Lucius was currently meeting with Leslie, Emily, and Verruca. Emily had been meeting with them on a regular bases for the last three months.
Lucius had brought the meeting to order, "Any news that should be discussed?"
"Yes! I have great news. In one week, Neolith will be sending over the first part of my dowry. This part will be twenty-five thousand Zombie slaves, and enough food for five years."
Verruca was the first to speak, "And where are we going to house that many... Slaves?"
"...I don't know... That's for you guys to figure out. I got the resources from my moth- I was able to negotiate them into coming early. We can use them however you want."
"The God-King does not like slaves," Lucius added.
"Can you stop calling him God-King... Lucius, honestly..." Verruca shook her head, as she looked back to Lucius.
"I'm only stating facts, as given by the Lexos Divinus," Lucius spoke calmly.
"...Lucius... This isn't one of your gatherings... We can just call him Jack." Leslie added.
"Maybe you can, but I as the Grand Minister, and soon to be Supreme Pontifex, can not," Lucius said righteously.
"I don't mind if Jack is the God-King, but that Title sounds so made-up." Emily spoke up while staring at Lucius, "Besides, I thought Jack was the Supreme Pontiff..."
"Not if he's a god." Lucius nodded to himself.
Leslie disregarded Lucius' crazy banter, "Emily, I think it's great we are getting an influx of people."
"Well... Consorts... What do we do with them? Saigunrai can't hold them all." Verruca spoke glaring at both Leslie and Emily.
"I'll take care of it." Lucius decided to aid in this issue.
"Uh-huh... You're not going to make them build a church are you?" Emily asked.
"No. I'm going to free them, as the God-King desires," Lucius spoke with more zeal.
"Well, As long as they are useful to the Kingdom, then that's all that matters... I guess..." Emily spoke, as she wasn't sure what the Kingdom needed. She was just here to bridge the gap between Neolith and Deagoth.
Leslie patter Emily's head, "We can count on Lucius to handle this well... He's very meticulous." She turned to look at the rest, "What we really need to discuss is the growing reports from the surroundings of Souigak and LaZorn... In fact... The towns above Souigak, Wighamwat and Aymocksey, have disappeared..."
"Disappeared?" Verruca questioned.
"Ghost towns. From the people that have went that way, the ones that return tell a story of deserted towns. They show to be small fights, but no major battles. The oddest thing is that they say that the ground is littered with some type of black substance. It isn't ichor, blood or sweat... We don't know what it is..." Leslie reported grimly.
"That's really spooky..." Emily rattled slightly.
"Has this happened in Borda or Stonedge?" Verruca questioned.
"That... I don't know yet. I'm trying to find out. This is just so strange, that I thought to mention it." Leslie responded.