71 Judy

Her status showed him just how powerful Baran truly was. His battle with him was already in the monster's favour, he couldn't imagine what would have happened if Baran was fully resurrected and wasn't pressured to actually fight him. 

Judy wasn't just some automaton, he had created it just because he wanted to. He had created her with a purpose in mind…

Using the materials provided, Steve immediately went to work and soon a small orb was before him. It was dull and didn't seem all that special but it was. 

He placed his hand on it as the orb lit up, sending a bright lit and a subtle wave of mana to the surroundings, the orb was activated as a holographic screen appeared before him. 

It was a computer. 

If Judy was a Magical Artificial Intelligence, he could also have created computers. 

The screen before him even had a home screen, a functioning Operating system and everything. Of course, since it was just a heavily enchanted orb. 

It didn't have any other hardware, his magical programming skills were improving massively. 

"Well thank you Baran" Steve said as he began operating his computer 

Baran's death didn't just give him more power when he died, it had passed on these weird symbols to his head. 

He called them runes, they were symbols or words that could interface with reality itself using any mana-empowered object as a medium. 

It was the real reason why Judy existed now, he had simply thought to create a new automaton from Baran's body and implant First's chip into it but he discovered that the symbols had meaning. 

"Sit" Steve ordered as he created a chair for her 

Obeying his command, she sat down as Steve turned back to the computer, he still had a lot to do. 

After about three seconds of wait, Steve finally turned to Judy who was still sitting quietly on the chair. 

Placing his hand on her forward, he activated his abilities as some form of energy emerged from her body. 

 The energy swirled and seemed to disperse on multiple occasions only to take form later on. Before him, now stood an energy being, a spirit or a ghost. 

It was a soul. This was what he was working on. Judy wasn't just some automaton, she was a full-on human that he had created. 

She had a heart, a brain, lungs, bones etc. She was complete… At least she appeared like that. She was an experiment, a rushed one that turned out better than he expected. 

Of course, he didn't create a soul from scratch. Since he could sense it and interact with it using his abilities, there was nothing stopping him from creating a full soul from the excess soul energy in that forest. 

It was what he had spent days on after he defeated Baran. With Judy's soul out, Steve suddenly compressed it as he slammed the tiny soul into the new 'computer' before him. 

As soon as he did so, a smaller version of her appeared in holographic form just to the side of the screen then Steve began to work. 

He couldn't say that he was an expert in creating souls or intelligent beings so he had made Judy in a way that he could easily upgrade or update her. 

Typing away at the holographic keyboard before him, Steve began his upgrade. He needed to refine her personality better… Well no, he needed to better balance her emotions. 

The situation in the car would have resulted in that kid's early death for no good reason. He had designed her to react to his mental state, if he considered something a danger then she too considered it a danger but she wasn't designed to attack that thing just like that. 

She had nearly attacked if he didn't stop her, her personality wasn't fully encoded and her emotions were out of whack. 

Of course, he added in a few more upgrades he thought of on the way here. Many of them would be useful and very noticeable in the future while most were subtle and more internal than outward. 

After he was done, he extracted the soul and emerged it back to her body. However, he still didn't activate her. 

He had a lot more to do, most of which involved putting down all that he had initially written within his notebook while in the Red Gate. They were all valuable information that would help him rise higher in his business. 

Steve did so quickly before finally Activating Judy. As soon as he did, her once dull eyes lit up as she came to life, her face seemed a bit more lively than the resting face she usually had on.