World Keeper: Birth of a World

by Justin Miller

  “Now, with magic, there is the Archaic age, where magic is first discovered. When it is expanded, and people begin to explore its possibilities, you enter the Arcanum Age. After that comes the Enhancement, Exploration, Development, and Planar ages. Though, keep in mind that these are general terms. It’s possible to go in different orders, depending on the world.” Terra nodded as she finished the explanation of the ages.

  “Back on track. The dwarves are the closest to developing proper stone tools, and then we can focus on sharing the information with the other races. But, if you want points rewarded, you had to understand it yourself.”

  I nodded in response, and the scenery around us shifted. From an underground basement, we now stood atop a large mountain. Grassy plains could be seen in the distance, and the sounds of animals filled my ears. “This is a recreation of the area surrounding the dwarven mountain. We’ll start here.”

  After that began my lessons of how to create rope, use it to bind tools together, and various techniques to create stone axes, hammers, spears, even bows and arrows. I imagine that, if I had been descended during these lessons, I probably would have earned a new class or two. Instead, I spent two full days in that landscape, learning everything I needed to.

  When I was finally done, I felt as if I had lost all of my energy. Terra had kept me there until I proved that I could make each item she wanted with whatever materials were at my disposal. Why do I feel like I was just punished for something? I complained internally while going towards the room with the goddesses.

  Although we had agreed that the dwarves needed this the most… I first sent the information to the human goddess Bihena, earning me another 20 points. Then, I did the same thing to Ryone, the elven goddess, and Udona the kitsune goddess. Those two each earned me 10 and 5 points respectively. Guess it would be a bit much to hope for the full value with each one?

  Finally, with my 36 points… time to buy a new god! This time, I wanted to make a dwarven god, so that I could send the information to the dwarves. So, another 25 points when down the drain, and I began picturing the dwarven god I wanted to make.

  Now, you may be wondering. Dale, why are you making a god? Isn’t your dream to have a harem of sexy goddesses?! Yes, yes it is. But… I just can’t find dwarves that appealing. Nothing against short people, but dwarves… just aren’t my cup of tea. So, I would rather make a male dwarf that can eventually become a friend I can share my troubles with!

  As such, I made a robust, muscular dwarf, with a long and thick beard. Most of his body weight had to have been muscle, and I had no doubt he could easily lift me with one arm. Once I was done, and satisfied with his appearance, I granted him the name Tubrock, God of the Forge. To be honest, I almost mistyped and made him God of the Force… but thankfully I caught myself.

  Once that was taken care of, I sadly watched the points fade away to bring him to life, and then once again had him transmit the information to the dwarves. Each tribe received the knowledge of tools, ropes, and basic weapons. However, this had only given me four points… I had been hoping that with seven tribes, I would get seven rewards, but that was not the case. So now, I was down to 15 points… not enough to make the next goddess to enlighten the halflings.

  Before I left, I instructed Tubrock to try to lead the dwarves away from the volcano, warning them of the impending dangers. To my surprise, that actually netted me another three points. I guess that it is possible to earn points by avoiding disasters, as well? Either way, I made my way back up to the bedroom, and fell down into the bed, not even bothering to see if Terra was in it at the time or not.

  * * *

  Across the globe, the various sapient tribes all received a revelation. Whether it was the humans, the dwarves, the elves, or the beastkin, members began speaking up about new knowledge entering their minds. Perhaps, the only ones excluded from this were the halflings. But they had no reason to despair. They were completely unaware of the happenings on the other parts of the planet.

  * * *

  When I woke up, I checked the time on the computer, cursing inwardly when I found that only two hours had passed. I mean, I know that I don’t really need sleep, but it’s still nice to be able to! Well… no use just sitting around, might as well keep myself busy.

  Due to my constant shortage of points thus far, I again opened up the forums. This time, my goal was to find a listing of early achievements. I mean, there had to be some kind of list, right? Even if it wasn’t a detailed one, or had stuff I couldn’t do right now, knowing was better than not knowing.

  And, sure enough, I did find a list of common beginner achievements, as well as a guide on how to acquire them. There were… actually, quite a lot. And some, I never expected to be an achievement. I mean, one of the achievements was ‘Demigod’s Descent’. To complete it, you had to be a god, and have sex with one of your world’s inhabitants. According to the explanation, that was an almost guaranteed way to create a child with powerful talents. It may even have extra powers, depending on the domain you possess.

  I dismissed that one for two reasons. First, because I was not a god of this world, and had no desire to appoint myself as one. Second… Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Especially two goddesses, one of which is in charge of Hell itself… Sorry, but I think I’ll avoid that achievement for now. Maybe I’ll have Tubrock go down and procreate, after I give him a personality.

  Anyways… let’s see… achievements that I can do at this time… Already did the enlightenment one. Can’t do the Kingmaker ones. Let’s narrow this down to ones that I can actually do through the system.

  Aha! Found one. This one is actually very easy, and I am almost at the level of being able to get it. ‘Submit 5 pieces of custom content’. Let’s see… Daeva, Forgotten, Community Afterlife, and World Host… I only need to submit one more thing, and it will be good. Well, that’s easy enough, and explains why there are so many random things in the User-Submitted Content section.

  Thinking about it for a while, I couldn’t really come up with anything unique. I mean, everything has been done before. It just hasn’t necessarily been done by the Keepers. Yes, they have had a lot more time to create things than Earth had, but they had less than ten thousand people working on it. There’s bound to be a difference! As such, I started wracking my head for more ideas I could ‘borrow’ from the culture of the previous Earth.

  After about a half hour of referencing random ideas with items that already existed, I finally found one that would work! Although a different version of it existed in the system already, it would be an inferior one to the one I was about to create. Again, I opened up the notepad program on the computer and began listing out the details of this item.

  This item is known as a grimoire, though it does not have to come in the shape of a book. Its appearance can be determined by the creator, so long as it possesses the proper magical imbuements.

  The grimoire is capable of storing spells known by its owner through the process of recording. So long as the owner himself understands the use of the spell, they can expend some energy to record it within their grimoire.

  Recorded spells do not require basic components or preparation, and can be cast directly from the grimoire by calling out an assigned name or chant.

  Spells cast from the grimoire cost extra energy to perform, based on the amount of materials and preparation skipped due to the use of the grimoire.

  High tier grimoire are capable of bypassing the need for advanced components and preparations, but require far more time and materials to create. These grimoire are capable of obtaining a consciousness, and can thereafter speak to their owner.

  If a grimoire passes hands to a new owner, that owner must first research the spells within the grimoire before gaining the ability to cast them.

  Looking over those six rules, I nodded happily. The current grimoire in the system was simply a magic book for writing down spell instructions. Although it would never run out of pages, it could not be c
ompared to this one. When asked to name this crafting item, I thought about it for a long moment, before typing in the first thing that came to mind.

  Trinity’s Sin has been submitted to the system as a craftable item.

  Congratulations! You have earned an achievement!

  For submitting 5 pieces of custom content, you have earned the System Designer achievement. +20 points

  Finally! I sighed deeply, smiling as I watched my point total go up. Though, it was about to go right back down again…

  Shaking my head, I once again pulled up the options window to create another goddess! The halflings desperately needed someone to lead them, or they just might go extinct before the other races even discover them. This cannot be allowed! Loli is justice!

  What? You thought I was only into big breasted figures like Terra and Irena? No, lolis have their own appeal. Rather than the sexual charm of an adult form like Terra, a loli has a cute appearance that makes you want to protect them. And the best are the adult lolis, those who just never grew into an adult body, even though they are fully grown. Those are definitely the best, if only because they are fun to tease.

  Anyways, back on track. Height… average height for adult halflings seems to be just under five feet. Weight… she’s slim. Hair, let’s give her a unique hair color. Bright pink! Why? Because it adds to her cuteness. Hair length down to just above her shoulders. Finally, a name… Why do I blank at the most important parts?

  “Call her Aurivy.” I heard a voice speak up beside me. Turning, I saw Terra looking at me with a wide smile. “What? I want to help, and she looks adorable! You better not mistreat her, okay?”

  I haven’t even made her yet, though… “Are you able to read my mind?”

  “Hmm? Nope. I can just read what you’re putting into the system. Now go on!” She urged, and I typed in the name. Because I thought it’d be even more cute, I made her the Goddess of Love. This earned a small giggle from Terra, who I imagined had the same kind of thoughts as I did.

  Finally, after spending the points to create her, I watched as she materialized in front of me. This one, Terra had equipped with a small dress, which was two thin straps that cross over her chest, just barely hiding her almost nonexistent breasts, and coming down to hold up a frilly skirt at her waist. I swear, I never heard a higher pitched squee than when Terra saw Aurivy appear. Even though her eyes were still lifeless, Terra immediately ran forward and pulled her into a hug.

  Naturally, once they were done, I had Aurivy send the same message of crafting knowledge down to the halflings. Just three points from this one…

  Chapter 18

  I decided to ‘take a break’ for the next few days, not fast forwarding my world or making any big changes. There was, however, a reason for this! I now had several systems uploaded to the Keeper’s custom content, and only needed to wait for them to be sold. Whether it was the World Host, Community Afterlife, or the Trinity’s Sin, I expected each would become fairly popular in worlds that qualified for them.

  To prove this point, after waiting for just a day, I had sold enough World Hosts to bring my point total back up to 25. After that, Trinity’s Sin started selling slowly. So, by the end of the second day, my point total was now 50.

  As for what I was doing during these two days? Mostly, I was just sitting on the couch with Terra, in the living room for our Admin Room. We were conducting ‘research’ on systems that could potentially be invented for the Keeper system. That’s right, we were watching TV shows and movies from the previous Earth incarnation. Terra had them archived in her head, so recreating them like this wasn’t a problem for her.

  For the last couple days, Terra had kept Aurivy close, ignoring the fact that the halfling goddess had no personality yet. To Terra, she still seemed adorable, and she refused to simply stick her in the same room with all the other deities. I made a mental note to have Aurivy be the next goddess to get a personality, if for no other reason than to give Terra someone to play with. I mean, eventually they’ll all get one, so it’s just a matter of the order.

  I could probably wait for a week or two and get enough points to buy the last two goddesses I needed, and personalities for all of them. But first, there was something else I needed to do. After two days of ‘research’, I bought the Level Limit system for 25 points. There were a few options within the system itself, which let me limit either individual class levels, cumulative levels, or some combination of the two.

  For now, I set a cumulative level limit at 30. That should be plenty of room for them to grow, while also keeping the monsters a challenge to help develop them. As for when I’ll increase the level cap? I don’t know, it depends on how far they get with this. I also still need to save up points for the next tier of monsters before then, but that didn’t look like it would be too much of a problem.

  Anyways, after the level limit was put in place, I didn’t have to worry so much about the world spiralling out of control. At this point… it should be fine to do my first big fast forward. Well, first one since the elves established their kingdom. But first, I decided to consult Terra on the matter. I mean, she’d know more than me whether it would be a horrible idea, given past experiences.

  “Terra?” I asked, finding her on the couch nuzzling against the vacant Aurivy.

  “Hmm?” She looked up to me, only half paying attention.

  “Wanted your opinion on something real quick.” I sat down on the couch beside her. This was a red leather couch, which was almost as comfortable as the bed that Terra had created in our room. So, it was no real surprise to find her here.

  “What’s up?” She asked, closing her eyes for a moment, probably to see if anything had happened with the system. When she found nothing unusual, she looked at me more curiously.

  “I was thinking about doing another fast forward. This one by a thousand years or so. Wanted your input on the matter.”

  When she heard what I had said, she nodded her head slightly. It seemed like a small smile appeared on her face a moment. “Ah, is that it? Well, let’s see… most of your races would be just fine with a thousand year advancement, or even ten thousand years. But, the halflings.. They haven’t made nearly as much progress, or established a clear sanctuary.”

  “Without supervision, forget a thousand years, they might not last a hundred. So… if you’re going to do it, I’d suggest making an ‘emergency’ alarm. That way, if their population falls by a certain amount, it will alert you and pause the world.”

  Her suggestion was reasonable, and entirely valid. Aside from the halflings, nobody else was in immediate danger of extinction. “Could Aurivy start directing some halflings to gather together and form a community?”

  Terra thought about it for a moment. “She could, but at the moment it’s unlikely that most of them would listen. They have a strong spirit of exploration, and if a voice appeared in their heads telling them to go back, they would probably shrug it off. Right now, two small populations, averaging a thousand halflings each, have come together to make villages. Most of those are children or elderly, so the vast majority is still exploring.”

  I nodded my head at that. “Alright, I’ll go set it to fast forward, then. Hopefully, more villages form, or the current ones grow.” I got up to head to the room, but Terra grabbed my hand to stop me, pulling me back down on the couch. I yelped in surprise, nearly falling onto her, before looking at her curiously.

  “Why not just do it from here?” She asked as she lifted Aurivy to put her between us, then leaned over. “More comfortable.”

  “Huh?” I couldn’t help voicing my confusion. “I thought I had to use the computer now?”

  Terra shook her head, closing her eyes as she cuddled up against Aurivy and I. “Nope, can do it wherever.”

  “Isn’t that just something you can do as a system companion?”

  Her answer was simply to shake her head again. “Nope. You’ve got the same power. You just never bothered trying to test it. Only a few things c
ompanions can do that Keepers can’t.”

  Seeing that she might doze off using Aurivy as a hugpillow if I didn’t say something, I prompted her for an explanation. “Like what? This is something rather important to know.”

  Terra let out a grudging sigh, looking up at me with half-lidded eyes. “Obviously, you don’t have all of the system information in your head like I do. The others don’t have that either, since they are custom companions. Keepers also can’t interact with the world while it is fast forwarding like we can, because your minds aren’t made to handle that. Aside from that, you can do anything I can do.”

  Finishing her explanation, she closed her eyes and laid her head back against Aurivy’s. Although I was still tempted to go do this on the computer, I wanted to see if what she said was correct. So… how do I do this. System Menu, open! World Map! … Options? I tried going through various commands in my head, all of which proved futile.