Welcome to Wishmaker, God of Victory.
The trials you will face as a god in this world will be fierce, but we believe you will overcome them all. As a show of good faith, we have prepared a brief tutorial for you, starting with the Armament System.
[Continue...]
Takehiko starred at his screen with brief contemplation.
Maybe I should have looked at what the other god types had to offer...oh well.
Takehiko was confident in his ability to seize victory, although his confidence likely stemmed from a coping mechanism. It was a desperation ploy—a futile effort to convince himself that he was worth something to the world. And so, without any sense of humbleness, Takehiko truly believed that achieving victory, in any sense, would be child's play to him.
And truthfully, he wasn't incorrect, at least, he wasn't in the context of Star Captains. But as he had proven time-and-time again, Takehiko was remarkably incompetent at achieving victory in the real world. If he was competent, then he wouldn't have been forced to isolate himself.
But Wishmaker isn't real life—the website said so, Takehiko thought. Of course, that wasn't exactly what the website had said, but Takehiko was blissfully choosing to ignore that fact. His skill in strategy games was the only thing keeping him running. He hit the "Continue" button, and soon the game resumed.
Charlotte continued to flip through the pages as if the sudden time stop hadn't happened. Her faced was coveted with awe, but it was slowly replaced with confusion.
"The pages...they're blank."
...Is that my fault?
Takehiko hadn't received a prompt to write anything in the book, but Charlotte's confusion clearly showcased that this situation was abnormal. He scratched his head as she continued to skim the blank pages.
Slam! After a minute or so of frantically flipping back-and-forth, Charlotte shut the book closed.
<"If you truly are a divine article...I'll be able to transform you into an Armament.">
Charlotte's thoughts echoed through the computer screen as Takehiko frowned.
Where have I heard that term before...ah!
The dialog box that had popped up on his screen earlier had mentioned the Armament System. Was this part of the tutorial?
Huh, it must be a game after all. Takehiko thought, attributing the scene occurring before him as a scripted event. It was possible that the girl he saw on his screen was some kind of super-complicated AI. Nothing about the game made sense so far, so Takehiko decided to go with that for now.
Charlotte held the book out and front of her and began to close her eyes. As she did so, a bright white light began to encompass the room once more.
And time stopped.
It's now time to design your Armament, God of Victory!
Armaments are weapons that can be formed through unison between your first follower and their God's Tome. Think of it like they're manifesting your power into their world!
You can freely customize what your Armament looks like, and how it performs in combat. Of course, not every god will want a Armament that is purely used for combat: some may want to spread wealth and prosperity through the lands, and others might want to use their Armament as a vehicle to directly speak with their follower!
At the end of the day, you will decide what becomes of your Armament. But choose wisely! While you can upgrade your Armament later during your play in Wishmaker, you can't ever change it!
[I understand and wish to continue.]
Freely design my Armament, huh? Takehiko's interest was piqued. He loved games where he could freely add little embellishes, especially strategy games with things like ship and flag design. Perhaps he'd use his signature "Takehero" banner here?
He affirmed his understanding via the dialog option, and a laundry list of options flooded his screen. The center of the game was filled with a 5x4 box containing a 3D model of a small wand. It was currently formless—that is to say, an empty gray mesh with no textures at all. Several options were lined up to the side which Takehiko recognized, including a paint brush tool, magic eraser, and marquess tool (one of those selector things that let you cut up an image).
However, there were many more symbols that Takehiko didn't recognize. Clicking on them caused geometric points to appear all over the mesh of the wand, sort of like the images he'd see when studying geometry. His mixing pot of YouTube tutorial knowledge told him that these were probably tools which modified the 3D model itself, truly making the possibilities of his Armament endless.
The bottom-right of the screen had a single "Confirm" option, but it was currently grayed-out. Takehiko hovered over it.
Missing!
- Design of Armament must exceed 10,000 TB.
- Exterior mesh cannot remain blank!
- You have not selected any effects for your Armament.
- Summoning rule has not been dictated.
- Canvas tool is not properly aligned with dimensions of Armament.
- ...
The list of errors was so long, it nearly trailed off Takehiko's screen. He scratched his head. Despite the impossibly herculean task of creating a 3D model that measured over 10,000 TB of data, Takehiko wasn't particularly worried—the amount of memory to run this game must be astronomical, but his computer only informed him that it took up less than 100 MB.
It must be AI magic, or something. In short, Takehiko wasn't concerned.
What was more concerning was which Armament he would actually make. After fooling around in the editor for a few minutes, he eventually found a drop-down menu near the top-left. Clicking it brought up several pre-made models, and clicking on them just about alleviated 90% of the "Confirm" errors he was receiving.
He selected the "Wooden Staff" option.
A non-descript wooden staff morphed itself onto his screen. As usual, the textures were incredibly lifelike—the tip of the staff curled outwards and then back in-on-itself, forming a crook. It was sort of like a basic RPG staff your wizard would get in the early-game. Takehiko vibed with the aesthetic, but the God of Victory would need something much different.
Curious, he plugged the USB of his art pad into his computer. The game buffered for a moment, but the editing tool changed significantly. It seemed to have successfully hooked-in to the program. Takehiko smiled.
I think Charlotte looks a bit like a shrine maiden, so let's give her a khakkhara.
The item that Takehiko was describing was a traditionally metal staff topped with an ovular mouth and adorned with rings. It was a noisemaker utilized by Buddhist monks to announce their presence and scare away animals—not as adornment for a shrine maiden. As someone who was a big fan of visiting shrines in the colder months in Sapporo, Takehiko surely should have known this.
And of course, he did. You see, what Takehiko was envisioning wasn't a traditional shrine maiden with a gohei, but rather a priestess from a light novel. The one in particular he was imagining was the priestess from Gob*in Sl*yer.
Alright Takehiko, it's time to show these devs why you were Skeb's 122nd top earner!
And so, Takehiko began designing. The entire process took about one hour, and he had to leave to take a total of two piss breaks and one juice box break, but eventually, the starry-eyed Takehiko gazed upon his beautiful work. The staff's design was surprisingly complex and immaculate—likely aided by the "AI magic" (as Takehiko referred to it as) of the game, but a great deal was also Takehiko's impeccable design sense.
When he put his mind to it, Takehiko wasn't simply a great strategy gamer, but also an amazing artist. Unfortunately, his tastes were poor, and he often botched orders by injecting his own sensibilities into his products. In addition, he had a weak grasp of the English language, and so most of his customizers (which were native English speakers using DeepL) weren't able to properly convey their ideas to him.
And as you might imagine, his confident streak didn't win him any favors, as he constantly insisted that his end product was "correct". Instead of saying he only earned 3000¥ a month from his work, you should instead be saying that despite his failings, he was able to earn 3000¥ a month. That was simply how good of an artist Takehiko was. "Wasted talent tarnished by a twisted personality" was a sentence that could easily describe Takehiko.
The staff's main color profile was white and gold—Takehiko thought it looked very "priestess" like, although in his head he still referred to it as a "shrine maiden's armament". The rings accompanying the edge of the staff were also adjacent to white streamers which ran down the rings in a zig-zag pattern. This was his implementation of the gohei design, fusing the two into a sort of "exorcist staff".
While the design was certainly intriguing, Takehiko's weird tastes were now publicly apparent. He was the God of Victory—why was his Armament a khakkhara?
Smiling at his work, Takehiko hit "Confirm", and the game paused for a moment before spitting him back to the on-going action. As the light faded, the staff being held in Charlotte's hand was none other than what he had painstakingly crafted moments ago. Teary-eyed, Takehiko watched for Charlotte's reaction.
She was beaming.
Takehiko sniffed.
She likes it...I'm glad.
<"I can't believe it! Did I just get contracted to the God of Fortune?">
...Eh?
Takehiko rubbed at his eyes and turned up the volume to his speakers. Surely she hadn't expressed excitement at being bound to that shitty god—Takehiko had read his stats. His build was completely unpredictable!
<"Nobody has been contracted to the God of Fortune in centuries, but this is surely his Armament...it looks like the weapon of Miko the Hero! I can't believe this...wooohh, calm down Charlotte...">
What's this about Miko the Hero? Isn't that a bit on the nose?! And why you are so excited about this "God of Fortune" fellow?! Takehiko screamed internally as he grabbed the edges of his monitor. It wasn't a very romantic situation, but the closest equivalent to Takehiko's current feelings was that of a husband coming home after a long day of work, only to find his wife in bed with another man.
And anyway, why did this Charlotte girl think his Armament belonged to the God of Fortune? That was certainly the weapon of the God of Victory!
Well, she'll figure it out when she uses the badass summoning mechanic I designed, he smirked. Sure enough, Charlotte attempted to merge the book with her soul—a dialog box had briefly explained this to Takehiko when he had begun designing the "Summoning Rule" tab, but each Armament had a unique way of being summoned. Effects could be added to make the transformation process more awe-inspiring, and the god could even choose the words to be uttered to summon them!
As you might imagine, storing and summoning your divine article from within yourself was incredibly useful, not only so that a god's first follower could hide themselves from other devotees, but also so that their divine article could not be stolen. The only downside was that Wishmaker required the utterance of a specific phrase that the god must supply, meaning that divine article summoning was not instant. There was a 16 word minimum, but there was not a maximum. Takehiko braced himself in anticipation.
But contrary to his original beliefs, Charlotte's face morphed into that of confusion and irritation.
<"The phrase...is so long?">
—Eh?
<"Eh?">
Takehiko and Charlotte both reacted with surprise at the same time, but for very different reasons. Shaking her head, Charlotte began to utter the God of Victory's unique summoning phrase.
"Blessed in life and condemned in death, victory rises with the ashes of debt. To be betrayed is an act of war, and to demean me—the Empire God—is an act of scorn. To turn the tide of battle and death, one must grab hold to the light of brevet. I act as an arbiter of the fortunes of war, discern me as your disciple—Charlotte the Forlorn!"
Cherry-blossoms painted the room as Charlotte immediately entered a coughing fit—truly, there were much too many cherry-blossoms revolving around her. They were illusionary, yes, but the feeling of suffocation remained as they danced around the room, slowly inching closer before wrapping themselves tightly in the visage of a staff. Seconds later, they dispersed, and the Staff of Victory began to levitate itself into Charlotte's hands.
She gripped onto his cold metal with one final cough as a nauseous expression overcame her.
<"That summoning chant...didn't sound like a god from the Domain of Light. D-Did I contract with an evil god?">
"What? Of course not!" That shout was of course Takehiko, as he stood up from his chair with a flourish. "Can't you tell? That's clearly the chant that a follower of Victory would speak at the climax of a battle! It's art!"
Of course, Charlotte couldn't hear Takehiko's ego being shattered from across the screen. She merely tilted her head in concern.
<"No, that doesn't make any sense. Arida is far away from the Demon Continent...that must mean—did I contract with a god from the Domain of War?!">
Takehiko stopped shouting and broke out into a grin, "Yes, Charlotte! You did! You've contracted with the strongest god from the Domain of War! It's a pleasure to meet you—I'm the God of Victory!"
But of course, Charlotte still couldn't hear Takehiko, so she merely tilted her head to the other side.
<"...But there aren't any powerful Domain of War gods that are still unclaimed, are there? Did I contract with a minor god?">
Takehiko froze.
"—Eh?"
