Jerald fell in love with his sanctuary the moment he appeared in it, and he thought to himself it was well worth the credits he spent. The problem now was he had to earn more credits and he had been told they have to come from donations from a world.

He still had no idea exactly how he was supposed to do that and even how it worked. After getting on clothes, he went to the center fountain and the moment he stepped close a holographic blueprint of his new sanctuary appeared hovering over the fountain.

The three-dimensional illustration of the sanctuary spun around and with a thought one of the portal pads came up and grew so it was clear. The portal pad was almost like a stage with a giant archway on it, but currently the archway was empty, and you could see to the back side of the room as if was normal.

The other portal pad was the same with nothing between the archway, and Jerald zoomed out and with a thought exchanged the three-dimensional image for the interface. Just like before his personal screen and the choice boxes were hovering before him.

The Core, Personas, Financial, Followers, Seeds, bloodlines and Sanctuary boxes sat there, and currently he had only explored the core and sanctuary ones. He opened the financial and saw it had a breakdown of the UC and what he had used and paid, and he backed out and went to the bloodlines and it had the Demon and Belmarion bloodlines available.

He clicked on demons and it had a list of different types of demons and the bloodline abilities they had, and he quickly went back and to the belmarion and it had a list of different types and abilities. These he didn’t have a clear understanding and would have to go through and see what it gave him.

He backed out to the start area again and hesitated a moment before going into the seeds section. The moment he entered found another selection of tabs and a frustrated look came over his face. The tabs that he saw were Seed Creation, Current Seeds, Seed Bloodline and Seed Resurrection.

“What are the purposes of the Seeds?” Jared asked out loud.

“Seeds are tools you can use with out going to the worlds yourself, and they cost .1 spiritual units. Any world you have access through your portals to can be viewed by you, and by creating a seed you can insert a seed into a person during the pregnancy period and that will create a bond with them. The bond will give the fetus a boon of one of your traits, abilities or bloodlines. This bond will grow the more you use it and pay attention to it, but in the end, you can only guide the seed you can’t control it. The way you guide it could lead it to good or bad results, and there are many positive or negative consequences that can come from there lives.” The voice explains. “The strength of the bond can carry over to offspring of the seed as well, but on a weaker scale. If you do not pay attention to the offspring and strengthen that bond, then the bond can eventually snap, and you will lose all connection with them.”

“So, in a way this is like playing Sims on a greater scale.” Jared mumbled and then asked. “What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of the seeds?”

“A seed that does good things and brings positive change to others can gain karma, and you can gain karma too if you are guiding it. You can also gain UC from donations from them if you build an altar in your sanctuary. They can also spread the word about you to others and if your altar grows in levels you can affect those that pray to you buy giving out temporary boons as well. Only a seed can have a permanent boon though.” The voice said. “The problem is that the good things you get can also turn bad if your seed brings negative changes, and you could lose karma and bring down wrath on your seeds or family of the seeds. The stronger your bond and influence also directs how much it will negatively effect you as well.”

“So, your saying that Seeds are a viable way to grow my UC and karma with out me spending a huge expense on creating a persona?” Jared questioned.

“It is and a well-placed Seed or two can help your persona as well if it is planned well.” The voice added. “Though seeds can only get you so much, and to truly grow your personas are much more efficient.”

“What is the difference between seeds and followers then?” Jerald questioned.

“Seeds are pretty much having freedom of choice, while followers you have control over, and their bond is permanent. A seed can become a follower of a persona that it meets in person or not depending on the seed.” The voice said. “Followers also can ascend to your sanctuary if they meet the requirements and their bond is solid.”

“You said that seeds use up percentages of spirit units to create, but is there a way for me to grow my spirit units back?”

“Yes, depending on the devotion or faith of your seeds, there offerings or prayers may convert into spirit units.” The voice said. “Just like a person that is converted and believes in you can form a bond and become a seed. The amount you gain depends on a number of variables.”

“So, making a few seeds might be a good choice so I can have a better understanding of the world I am going into.” Jerald mumbled.

Jerald thought about the possibilities, but a question seemed to constantly nag pop up in his thoughts. Why was he here and how could this happen to him? He wasn’t anything special and he wasn’t god material at all. He had been a patsy that loved a woman and trusted a friend that stabbed him in the back and the sad thing was he knew it would happen deep down. Was he truly good enough to be a powerful figure like this or would he truly screw up others lives just like he did his own?

“Does everybody that is digitized become people with the ability to have a sanctuary?” Jerald asked.

“No of course not.” The voice said mockingly. “Only those with a positive karma above 50 get this right. The contract with the governing body that sent you were for those that committed crimes that were destructive to society. These would have gone into the purgatory system and their souls would enter the cycle of rebirth. Your karma level and the truth of your actions was what gave you the high UC total and the compensation of where you are placed.”

Jerald only nodded even though he wasn’t sure it was correct it was where he was at. He had always been a realist at heart even when he was the pawn of his emotions. He took in a shallow breath making sure he was still alive, and this wasn’t a dream and then started to create steps to what he could do. The first thing he needed before anything was to find out what worlds he was created and then he needed to create a seed and watch and explore those worlds. He needed to know about the worlds to go there himself.

“Where do I find out about the worlds attached to my portals?” He asked.

“Currently you have not been assigned worlds yet, but that would be done the moment you activate them.” The voice explained. “Once activated they will randomly choose a world in that ranking.”

“I believe we went over this before, but do the rankings signify the development of the world?” Jerald asked. “The worst ranking means that the world has no technology and is still in the stone age?”

“The rating of the world is more than that.” The voice stated. “The rating primary depicts the location and potential of the world. It has partly to do with technology, but mainly to do with the potential of the world. If the world is in a highly populated part of space it would be a higher rated world than if it was the lone inhabited planet of a large section of space. Your planet of Earth was a D rated world, because it had quite a few other races near it, and it was high enough technology wise to enter the alliance of worlds. It has potential to raise to a higher rating, but not currently to the ratings of other planets around it.”

“How much does it cost to increase the rating of a portal?” Jerald asked.

“Currently the E rated portal pad is 100 million UC.” The voice answered.

Jerald took in a deep breath at the amount and sighed and then asked. “You said Earth could increase its rating. Does that mean that worlds can increase there rating naturally and then do I lose access to the pad if they do?”

“If a world increases its rating naturally your pad upgrades with it.” The voice answered. “That is very rare to say the least.”

“How do I open the portal to have it choose its world?”

“You need to go down and step on to the portal pad and it will start right away, and once it solidifies it means the world has been chosen. Once the world is chosen your system will update with what type and the general information about the world that is known currently.” The voice explained.

Jerald just nodded and walked away from the fountain and toward the hallway leading to the portal pads. He found the mist that was outside the glass hallways somewhat relaxing as he made his way to the end and had two choice to turn right or left. He smiled and turned right and walked another ten feet before he came to a sliding door to the pad. He walked into the small room and stepped on to the pad, and the moment he did he could feel energy start to ripple as small waves of energy started to move inside the archway.

A small ball of energy appeared in the center of the archway as lines of energy arched outward toward the edges and as the ball grew the arches were expanding so it looked like a sea of energy in front of him. The energy ball started to spin and then it exploded the energy created a solid layer and turned from arches of energy to a smooth surface. The smooth layer of energy swirled around till finally it settled, and it now looked like a glass wall inside the arch still hiding what was beyond.

“Portal completed.” The voice stated.