130. Temple 5 · Mental Connection Protocol

"Mitoka, what the hell is a temple, anyway?"

As Shiro and the others lounged in the room, Shiro suddenly asked Mitoka.

"...That came out of nowhere. It's a place designated by Firumia-sama for communication between miko and the divine."

"How exactly does it work?"

"A magical array is embedded in the floor of the shrine. It's a special communication-assist spell array that also serves as a barrier, ensuring safe transmission between the divine realm and the miko's divine messages."

"Can you make sense of that array?" Shiro asked.

"Wait a moment... Yes, I consulted Yurashir. I can understand it."

"Great! Then let's build a temple in this settlement!" Shiro declared.

"...Eh? H-Here? Why here, exactly?" Mitoka stammered, caught off guard.

Even Mitoka had her limits.

"Shiro, can you really build a temple that easily?" Shestia asked, eyes bright with curiosity.

"Senior, what are you scheming? You've got that look on your face," Kotone said, watching him closely.

She’d known Shiro for years—reading his expressions was second nature.

"...No, I’m not plotting anything weird. I just want to talk to Firumia-sama through the temple."

"Senior? You want to talk to a god, so you’re building a temple? That’s not exactly normal, is it? And can you really just summon a god like that?" Kotone asked.

"No, it's serious business," Shiro said, dead serious. He nodded once, then quickly left the room, already scanning for a suitable location.

◇

He asked Gilbert to lend him an empty room. Incidentally, the golem tribe’s village was, for some reason, carved into the inside of a cave—tunneling through the mountain entirely.

"Alright, reinforce the entire room—generate mithril plating on the floor, inscribe a ward with elir, and channel magic into it. Activate it as a sanctum," Shiro murmured.

The center of the room glowed, and a translucent Firumia materialized.

"...Shiro-san, this is the first time a god has been summoned in this world," Firumia said with a faint smile. Her expression had a slightly sidelong, knowing look.

"Your Divinity. Sorry to disturb you—there's an urgent matter."

"Urgent? You went through the trouble of constructing a shrine just to call a god?"

"...No, I suppose it's not *that* urgent. I just have a question—about the protocol for connecting mind and entity."

"Mind connection protocol? Ah yes, the bond between soul and entity. What is it?"

Shiro explained the incident with Mitoka and the golem body, then voiced his doubts about the relationship between soul and entity.

"You've mentioned the soul's latent potential many times, Firumia. That made me wonder—this point slipped my mind entirely. What's the nature of the soul's domain, the Soul Realm? And how does time flow there, compared to this world?"

"Fufu. A good question, indeed. In standard operation, the time ratio between the Soul Realm and the world system is 10,000 to 1."

"Wait—10,000 to 1? So, uh... that means...? I mean, like, if the soul—no, the mind—has a higher clock speed?"

"Exactly. So if you truly engage in rapid thought, you can process at 10,000 times the speed of time in this world."

"...I see. I *have* been neglecting the soul's full capabilities. Now that I think about it, my mental processing speed is laughably slow."

Shiro was stunned by the sheer difference in processing speed—shocked, even.

“That’s right. Well, I think we can fix that with training. But the real issue with Mitoka right now is that she’s already running her soul’s speed at full capacity.”

“Wait—Mitoka? Really?”

“Huh-huh. Shiro, do you finally acknowledge just a sliver of my ability? Divine approval, right here.”

“Huh… I’ll admit, Mitoka’s processing power is impressive. Is that why her clock speed is so high…?” Shiro murmured.

“Also due to high core count,” Mitoka added.

“…So what’s the connection to this situation?”

“The control center of this body is silicon-based, and the whole frame is a golem construct. It handles connections far faster than biological DNA ever could. But even so, it’s still way slower than Mitoka’s usual magical manifestation.”

Then Mitoka said quietly,

“…I see. Understood, Firumia-sama. I need to adjust my entity connection parameters. Adjusting the reaction speed coefficient, yes?”

“Exactly,” Firumia smiled at her.

“Huh. So the system engine here is way faster than I imagined? No wonder you’re a goddess.”

Shiro muttered, dead serious.

This world is a reality crafted by the gods. Its processing power is far beyond my expectations—massively parallel, possibly even quantum-level. The throughput per unit is mind-boggling.

And magical manifestation? That was using it to the absolute limit—explaining the insane acceleration.

But this golem body? It’s slower. Still much faster than biology—but still slow.

“Incidentally, the reason golems can’t interface with that body is the same. Their brain processing speed doesn’t sync with the body’s clock rate. A design or implementation flaw, really.”

“Huh? So if we fix that, they could use it too?”

“Unfortunately, no. Both their systems and this body have fixed clock speeds. Only someone like Mitoka could adjust it dynamically, connect to it, and still use it practically.”

Hearing that, Mitoka flashed a small, proud smile and glanced at Shiro.

“Yeah, Mitoka’s impressive,” Shiro said, and without thinking, ruffled her hair.

“Specifically, you’d need asynchronous alignment between soul processing speed and body control, plus special core allocation for physical control. Perfect practice, really, for future alternate-body operation.”

The goddess said this with a knowing smile directed at Mitoka.

“Still, that golem body is well-crafted. And with a mana crystal built in, it can materialize independently—no need to drain Shiro’s magic at all,” Firumia remarked.

“Understood. I’ll test it later,” Mitoka said.

“Thank you, Firumia-sama,” Shiro said.

“You’re welcome. See you next time.”

With that, Firumia vanished.

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