World Keeper: Birth of a World

by Justin Miller

  Giving a mild chuckle at her state, I got up and moved over to the computer, glad that I did not have to worry about certain biological needs anymore. I mean, I basically don’t have to worry about any of it if I don’t want to. I can still sleep, but it’s not like I need it, you know?

  Back on topic, when I got to the computer, I gave a quick look at the map of the world. This was actually more information than I had received when I was simply looking at the world from above, as it clearly marked the locations of the various racial settlements. Furthermore, it also included things such as population.

  The first race of Earth has entered the Civilization Era. Elves have begun joining together to found a country, naming it Gandor.

  Elves - Population: 12,000. Average level: 5

  Humans - Population: 25,000. Average level: 7

  Felyn - Population: 15,000. Average level: 7

  Lycan - Population: 12,000. Average level: 6

  Ursa - Population: 13,000. Average level: 8

  Kitsune - Population: 18,000. Average level: 7

  Dwarf - Population: 20,000. Average level: 6

  Halfling- Population: 25,000. Average level: 4

  Current kingdoms established - Gandor

  Well, that was interesting, at least. And, looking at the map, the various beast tribes were starting to come together as well, just a little bit behind the elves. Or, at least, they were moving to the same area, and not showing signs of fighting. As for the humans, halflings, and dwarves… they were still little more than scattered tribes.

  On the bright side, the different races spawned on vastly different parts of the planet, meaning that there would still be a long time before they encountered each other. That should give each race enough of a start to build up their own empires before worrying about any sort of invasion. Well, I’d let that play out a little more. As such, I decided to have it fast forward until the next kingdom was established, and check on the progress then.

  * * *

  Eldwynn Ryon was the elected leader of the elven people. Following her mother’s death centuries ago, she had chosen to devote herself to the elves, to help them understand this strange new world that they lived in. Lesser races may not remember, but the long-lived elves knew clearly that things had changed. It was Eldwynn’s grandmother who was one of the first to be introduced to the ‘World System’, which has since become a common part of their lives.

  With the System, came certain knowledge and abilities. Abilities far beyond their knowledge. Suddenly, certain elves had gained the ability to create fire by drawing strange symbols in the ground. These were recognized as Mages by the System, and for some years they were seen as a disease. It couldn’t be helped, the elves were still yet to properly develop.

  But Eldwynn sought to change that. She herself was a Mage, and had unlocked the second of these strange ‘spells’. This second spell was one completely different from the first, as it would conjure ice that could trap a foe. Displaying her power to the other elves, as well as her apparent relation to the elven goddess, Ryone, it did not take long for people to rally behind her.

  With her guidance, she led the elves to settle on the plains of her birth, where she began ordering them to construct shelters. This would be their first true home. No more would they wander, no more would they be afraid of the barghests and the grue. Now, they would be the ones in control of their land. To honor her ancestors, Eldwynn named this new settlement Gandor, after her grandmother.

  Although the density of the population invited attacks from the braver monsters, it did not take long before they learned how to set up patrols, to guard the city day and night. And in this manner, the guards gradually became more powerful as well. They received things known as Skills, some even obtained new Classes. But they all remembered that this was brought to them by Eldwynn, who they now revered as being close to the Goddess.

  * * *

  Off in the far plains to the east, on an entirely different continent from the elves, a muscular woman was running on all fours. She had fiery red hair, and fur-covered ears and a tail. Those around would know her as a Felyn, one of the cat beastkin. But more importantly, she was Ardra, a Priestess in service to the great Goddess Terra.

  For years she had wished to be given a sign from her goddess, who had chosen her at birth. She had been lost, confused. Her people scattered across the hills and plains. Wandering tribes with no true home, living off the land and moving when danger neared. However, she finally had her prayers answered. The Goddess had given her a message.

  Go forth, my child, and gather the tribes. Though you may be weak alone, together you will thrive. Deliver my message to the leaders of every family. A new dawn is approaching for your people, and under the leadership of the Felyn, the beastkin shall see power they have never known before.

  At first, Ardra had doubted her sanity, thinking that the voice in her mind had been a mere dream. However, it came again the next day, and the day after. Finally, she told the leader of her own family, and a light from the heavens descended down upon her as she spoke. From that point, none doubted her words, least of all herself. She ran day and night, sleeping and eating only when necessary. She did not even think about where she was going, letting her Goddess guide her steps.

  Yet somehow, she would always find her way to another wandering family. And, upon delivering the message, the light would again shine upon her from above, as if reassuring her of her mission. She lost count of the number of families she had already spoken with, how many she had convinced to join the gathering. But, the voice once again whispered in Ardra’s mind.

  Soon, my child. Soon, your mission will be over. Soon, you will see the reward for your work, for you have done well in my name.

  When Ardra heard the voice again, her tired limbs seemed to gain new life, her speed increasing further. Whether this was some divine intervention or her own body overcoming its limits out of excitement, she knew not. Nor did she care, for she was doing the Goddess’s work.

  * * *

  While I was waiting for the world to progress, I decided to go wake Terra up. This was a surprisingly easy task, considering how soundly she seemed to be sleeping. Once I rubbed her back and called her name a couple of times, she let out a loud purr and turned over to smile at me. “Yes, Dale? Is there something I can help you with?”

  I nodded my head, saying something I was probably going to regret forever. “Yeah. Do you think that you could put in a wardrobe or something in the Admin Room? Not that I don’t love to look at you naked or anything, but it’d be nice to be able to wear clothes again.” She snickered slightly when she heard my question, before nodding.

  “Sure thing. Anything else?”

  “Hmm… could you help me research magic? You said that I have access to any of the powers that are present in my world, but I don’t really know how to make them work yet.” This time, her eyes seemed to brighten, waking up considerably as she nodded, sitting up on the bed.

  “Alright, I can help with that. Although I can’t directly teach you anything that hasn’t been discovered yet, I can show you all of the known diagrams, and give you the information behind them. That way, you should be able to come up with some of the information yourself, once you have enough to piece things together.”

  “That sounds… pretty neat, actually. So, how do we get started? You said that I can’t be hurt in the Admin room, but I don’t want to take the chance of hurting you if I mess up during the practice.”

  When I said that, she grinned happily, before wrapping me up in a warm hug. “Oh, don’t worry about that. Unless you purposely choose to delete or injure us through the system, the AIs in the Admin Room are also functionally immortal.” She winked playfully at me. “You could abuse me all day and night and it wouldn’t leave a single mark when you were done.”

  Well, can’t really say I’d want to abuse her, but there were other physically exhausting things that could be done. I’ll just file that away for later. “That’
s good. So, how many spells are actually known so far?”

  Terra tilted her head in thought, before nodding slightly. “Looks like there are five. One for the Priest class, two for Mage, one for Spirit Tamer, and one for Druid. Hadn’t expected anyone to get the Spirit Tamer class so soon, but it looks like the elves managed to stumble on it. For right now, we’ll be going over the Mage spells. The other classes all use a different casting method, so it wouldn’t be too good to try to train them all at once.”

  That sounded pretty reasonable, so I agreed. Terra focused on something for a moment, before the area around us shifted. We were now in a wide open, stone room, with torches lining the walls. “This can be our testing ground. I put it in the basement of the Admin Room, if you ever decide to come down here without me.” She smiled slightly when she said that. “Now, I’ll show you the basic spell diagram for the ‘Fire’ spell.”

  Terra knelt down, and began tracing various shapes with her hand. Whenever her finger touched the ground, it seemed to light up, leaving the image of what she was drawing clear to see. “In order to cast the spell, you can either draw this on something and channel your energy through it, or visualize it in your mind. Naturally, the first method uses a lot less energy, but has less freedom. Specifically…” She moved her finger to point at the center of the formation.

  “Whatever you draw here will be the path your fire takes. Leaving it blank will simply create a stationary fire, while drawing a line will make the fire shoot out, or drawing a circle will make the fire fly in a circle. If you draw this on an object, you’ll generally have to carry that object with you, and not have enough time to alter it for different scenarios. You give it a shot. Since this is the Admin Room, you should have unlimited energy reserves to work with, once you can get the control right.”

  Well, that didn’t seem too hard. I stared at the pattern she had drawn on the ground, burning it into my mind. Once I was confident I had fully copied it, I closed my eyes and tried to feel inside of myself for the energy that Terra had mentioned. I didn’t know if this was supposed to be chi, or mana, or whatever, but I soon felt several different energies.

  Furrowing my brow, I tried to sort through them. One felt chaotic, like it could erupt at any moment. One felt peaceful, like a flowing ocean. Yet another felt as if it was a gas, evading my grip every time I thought I had it. Finally, I settled on one that felt like a warm, blue light inside of myself. That seemed like the closest thing to magic, but I would need to ask Terra what the other energies were once I was done with this.

  Grasping what I assumed was my magical energy, I once again conjured the image of the Fire spell diagram into my mind, guiding my magic into it. I could feel as the diagram lit up with the same warm blue light. But… nothing happened. Opening my eyes, I confirmed that there was nothing different about my surroundings.

  “Well, it seems like you found your magic… You probably just forgot part of the diagram.” She shook her head with a small smile, giving me time to stare at the diagram again. This time, I already had my magic ready, so once I closed my eyes, I focused on the diagram. I wouldn’t allow myself time to forget, and before I knew it, I felt something warm in front of me. Very warm. Hot!

  I quickly opened my eyes, and discovered… that my hand was on fire. I knew I should be screaming from pain right now, but it really didn’t hurt that bad. I felt hot, as if my hand was hovering above a burning fire, rather than as if my hand was ON fire. I like Admin Room cheats… I really do.

  Congratulations! You have earned a new achievement!

  For learning your first ability from your world, you earned the Copycat achievement. +10 points.

  “You did it, Dale!” Terra called out happily, though maybe it would have been more of a triumph if I didn’t light myself on fire. Nonetheless, she seemed excited since it worked, and moved on to show me the rest of the known magic. This was going to be a pretty busy day.

  Chapter 4

  After my little study session to grasp the two known spells, Terra sat down a distance away from me while I practiced them. According to her, I would not have the auto-cast benefit that people of my world would have for the spells acquired at different levels. The exception to this was if I went down to the world and manually trained the classes. Even then, the auto-cast feature would only work for the basic spells that the casting classes automatically received. With that in mind, I decided that it would be better to get used to doing the work myself.

  I’d like to say I mastered it all in just a few hours, but I actually got bored after a couple dozen times casting the same spell, and decided to sit down on the ground for a bit to relax. Looking over to Terra, I went ahead and asked something that had been on my mind for a bit. “Are there any other energy types, other than magic? I felt something different when I focused earlier.”

  I explained to her about the three other energies that seemed to be contained in my body, and she nodded with a satisfied smile. “That’s right, Dale. Right now, your world has four kinds of energy that can be wielded, though that might grow later on depending on how you develop. These are Mana, Ki, Spiritual Energy, and Natural Energy. The first two are internal energies, while the latter are external ones.”

  “If we weren’t in the Admin Room, you probably would not be able to feel Spiritual or Natural Energy in yourself, but this is a place where you are meant to be able to test whatever you want. So, I’ll go over them in order. The energy you described as a peaceful ocean was probably your Ki. That is an energy wielded primarily by the Monk class, but other fighting classes will eventually get some access to it.”

  Terra then closed her eyes and seemed lost in thought. “Right now, it looks like there are almost twenty monks in your world, but none of them have gone beyond level three in that class. So, they have only really gotten one ability that I can help you learn, and that is the Ki Fist. If you want to try it, simply channel your Ki to your hand, and push it out with a punch.”

  I nodded, deciding that I would try that after her explanation was over. “Next, the chaotic energy. That is Natural Energy, which exists everywhere. Druids, Shamans, and other nature-related classes use this to perform their magic, in a different way than the classes that use Mana. They send their will into the Natural Energy around them, and issue commands. If their will is strong enough to tame the energy, then their magic will work. But, the more complicated the command, the more difficult it is to create.”

  “I told you that there is one spell available for Druids right now, and that is the ‘Burn’ spell. Unlike the Mage’s Fire spell, Burn directly ignites the target, dealing damage over time. As you can imagine, that is done by connecting with the Natural Energy surrounding the target, and commanding it to burn.”

  Finally coming to the last type of energy, Terra took a deep breath. “Really, why did you need to add all of the classes… The last energy, Spiritual Energy, is found wherever the dead are gathered. This energy is built upon the souls of man and beast. By weaving the energy together, you can tame spirits to become your companions, or even create entirely new ones by taking fragmented souls.”

  “Nobody has gone past level two for Spirit Tamer yet, so they only have the basic spell to see spirit essence. This is actually done with Mana, not Spiritual Energy. However, it is a raw application of mana, not a diagram. Simply focus the mana in your eyes while concentrating on finding spirits, and it will work. You shouldn’t bother to try it here, because naturally nothing dies in the Admin Room.”

  I nodded my head at that. “I see.. So, the spells of the Mage class are actually the hardest to learn and use, huh?” I gave a bitter smile as I realized that.

  Terra simply giggled, nodding her head. “That’s right. However, they are also generally the most powerful, with the system you’ve designed. One druid might be able to do five times the variety of magic as a mage, but a single mage can cast magic for twice as long, and at double the strength. That’s due to the diagram system that was put in place. With
it, magic spells are more difficult to cast, but use less energy for more power.”

  I thought about that, and it did seem like a good balancing mechanic. “Alright… Well, let’s get back to this.” Sighing, I stood up and resumed the practice of the two spells. “I don’t suppose it would be possible to get a spellbook that has these spells for easy reference, would it?” I asked with a wry smile.

  Terra grinned, “Yup, you could. But, the people of your world haven’t discovered how to make paper yet, so you won’t be able to take it with you if you descend. You could use it as a study guide, though.” As she spoke, a book appeared in my hand, thick with hundreds of pages. In surprise, I opened it, only to be disappointed that just the first two pages had been filled. “Didn’t think I was allowed to make it that easy for you, did you?” She asked with a small smile.