World Keeper: Birth of a World

by Justin Miller

  Next, I tried to be more vague. Maybe the windows didn’t open by thought commands, but by some other means. This proved correct, because I tried imagining what the Map of my world should look like, but kept the image of my world blank. Sure enough, it was quickly filled in. I saw the eight massive continents, the thousands of islands, and could even make out the shapes of the mountain ranges.

  Focusing on one area, I found my mental view of the map zooming in, further and further until I stopped focusing. What I ended up looking at was… a single leaf, atop a tall tree in the center of the forest on one of the uninhabited continents. Okay, maybe I zoomed in a little too far there.

  Next, I ‘closed’ the map by mentally moving it out of view, and tried something else. This time, I tried to imagine what the options menu would look like, though as before I left the details out. Like with the map, the different choices filled themselves in without me even really trying. Huh… that’s handy. Though, this level of control was likely only available in the Admin Room. Otherwise, the last Keeper wouldn’t have been hit by a truck before he could think about logging out.

  Anyways, I focused on the option to fast forward, and chose the conditions to stop. If the halfling population ever fell below ten thousand, or if a thousand years passed. Whichever came first. With that done, I decided to take a moment to relax against Terra, since I apparently didn’t need to get up after all.

  * * *

  In the Plains of Beginning, the reign of Mara proved a prosperous one. On her deathbed, she had elected a Lycan girl named Thalia to take her place. In secret, she informed the girl about how the goddess Terra had chosen her, and how she must always listen for the words of the goddess. Thalia didn’t have time to question, before the gentle voice floated into her mind. That was one of only two times that Terra ever spoke to Thalia.

  The second time was when Thalia herself was about to pass away, telling her to appoint an Ursa girl. Unlike the previous generations, Terra did not specify who among the race to put in power, only what race to choose. In the end, it was a young warrior named Grella.

  With each generation, Terra’s influence grew less and less, simply ensuring that the beastkin maintained the cycle of leadership. Felyn, Kitsune, Lycan, Ursa, this cycle repeated again and again, until the tradition was all but set in stone. Within a thousand years, the people prospered with this system. No race felt excluded, or underprivileged. And at the same time, the territory of the beastkin continued to expand. From two cities came five, from five came ten.

  By the end of the thousand year cycle, there were fifteen cities of beastkin. Each one possessed both strong warriors to hunt, and wide fields from which they would harvest crops. And, thanks to the goddesses providing them information all those years ago, their technology had further improved.

  Now, the Felyn and Kitsune, less suited for frontal assaults than the Ursa and Lycan, carried bows on their backs, as well as leather quivers full of arrows. The vanguards wore thick hides, taken from their prey and sewn together with ivory needles. Like this, they were able to hunt even the strongest of foes that appeared.

  * * *

  It had been a thousand years since the discovery of stone tools, and the people of Gandor had made great strides in their development. Aside from the spells granted with the increase in class levels, they had even developed nearly a dozen of their own spells. Using stone knives, they began carving out small medallions for spells onto wood that people would carry with them. This made defense easy to maintain, and their city began expanding outwards.

  Although Gandor was still only a single city, it seemed to have grown massively during the last generation of elves. Some elves had even begun to develop a written language, although it consisted merely of vague images at this point. Julian and Therna, Eldwynn Ryon’s daughter and granddaughter respectively, led the kingdom to prosperity. Although the strength of the monsters continued to increase, so did the power and knowledge of the elves.

  * * *

  Among the Seven Tribes of the dwarves, the former Mountain Tribe suffered the most. When their god made himself known by warning them of the dangers in their mountain, they were forced to flee their home. Barely five years later, they watched in horror as liquid fire spewed forth from their mountain, ending the lives of the few dozen dwarves that stubbornly stayed behind.

  However, there was a silver lining to this, as they saw the liquid fire harden into stone. The thoughts they had before about melting stone proved to have some truth. They saw the stone melt in the liquid fire, and now they saw the liquid fire return to stone. For them, this was amazing, something that they had never even been willing to believe to be true.

  But now, they had seen it. And, after moving to a new mountain, they began their new mission, a way to reproduce this. Liquid fire could melt stone, so why not normal fire? With that thought in mind, they erected stone pits, carved with the simplest of Mage spells. One dwarf fed in stones, while ten others channeled their energy to maintain the flame.

  This experiment was unsuccessful for many years, to an extent where the other tribes all laughed at their foolishness. However, nearly fifty years later, their first success was achieved. With ten people standing around a wide stone pit, carved into the earth with their own blood, sweat and tears, they saw as one of the stones began to melt. Then another, and another, until the liquid rock had seeped into the carved lines of the spell, obscuring it enough to forcefully cancel it.

  But, nonetheless, this was a success. They had melted stone, watched as it once more hardened. There were many dwarves that did not know what to do next, now that they had achieved their mission. The answer the tribe came up with? Do it better! Their mountains were safe, as few monsters were willing to climb it. That gave them the security to continue their experiments happily.

  And so, the years went by, the dwarves rejoicing at each success. They found that certain rocks melted more easily than others, and began to use those in their experiments. Six hundred years later, the first Blacksmith class was awarded. This happened when one dwarf carved a stone mold, shaping it to look like a long block. Then, he drilled a hole in the bottom of his fire pit, and put those same special rocks in the center to melt and drip into the hole. By the time he was done, and his mold was full, he emptied the block to find that the contents did not splash out. They stuck together, harder and stronger than the mold itself.

  Sadly, his work was hard to reproduce, and it was another hundred years before the birth of another Blacksmith.

  * * *

  The Bihendor clan of the humans had long since established themselves as the rulers of the human clans. This was not from diplomacy or trade, but from conquest. Their family was one of strong warriors, and they used that strength to subdue the others. When the knowledge of weapons was granted to their people, they were the first to fully utilize it.

  With stone spears, bows, and knives, they increased their control of the other families, expanding their territory. Unlike the dwarves, they had no interest in melting stones. They watched as other families created bowls out of water and spoiled fruits. The process was fascinating, but not something the Bihendor family took part in.

  They had their sights set on the distant horizons, wanting to control all that fell within their grasp.

  * * *

  The beasts grew, the dwarves smithed, the elves learned, and the humans fought. But what of the halflings? How could they, with the greatest population of the races, not evolve with the passing of time? Although their nature made this process slower, it did not halt.

  While the other races built villages and kingdoms, the halflings wandered. While the other races fought to survive, the halflings stayed out of sight. They explored more of their land than all of the other races combined. They formed families that traveled the plains and hills, the mountains and rivers.

  With the knowledge of stone tools, their safety grew. They would leave behind carved images in stones or trees, telling those that came later what th
ey had seen or where they were going. Rather than the elves, it was the halflings with no kingdom that advanced the furthest with language.

  The halflings had another remarkable field of advancement as well. While the other races hunted the animals and monsters of the world, the halflings saw no need to. With their stealth abilities, avoiding monsters was easy. They would often climb trees or pick berries to serve as their meals, only rarely eating meat.

  Instead, they would often play with beasts, purposely letting one notice them and then letting it chase them around. Though a risky game that claimed the life of more than a few halflings, this yielded unforeseen benefits. Some of the monsters and beasts that encountered halflings in this way more than once would seem to enjoy the chase. Even if they caught their ‘prey’, they would not attack. And, when those halflings began feeding them, they earned new classes.

  With the Hunter class, they could befriend animals, follow tracks, and learn things about the terrain. With the Monster Tamer class, they could similarly befriend monsters, turning them into fighting and traveling companions. These two classes were almost exclusive to the halflings during this period, showing that they prospered more when given the freedom to make their own way.

  * * *

  Now, there is still one last area left to discuss. After Irena returned to the afterlife, it underwent a shocking change. Wooden buildings began springing up out of the misty ground, solidified from the grey vapors of the world. Between them, grassy fields and dirt roads manifested, leaving the various daeva and spirits amazed.

  What Irena had created was the first city of the underworld, with her seat of power placed directly in the center. Although she had to leave once every day to retrieve new spirits, she kept the area of her city small enough that she could maintain easily. If she truly exerted herself, she could reshape the entire afterlife to suit her designs, that would require her to focus fully on that every day. It was much easier to just create a single city to serve as an important landmark for the spirits.

  Doing this, the spirits and daeva discovered the ability to manipulate the mist around them. They earned the unique classes available to them, playing with the mist to make it form various shapes. Although ironic, it was only after death that the spirits truly felt that they could live safely.

  Chapter 19

  By the time I was done leaning against Terra and Aurivy--I didn’t fall asleep, I swear. They are just too comfortable. Anyways, by the time I was done, and went back to the computer in the bedroom, I found a string of notifications waiting for me. Yes, I was using the computer again. Even if I could access this stuff in my head, a computer just felt better. More like what I was used to. But nevermind that, it looked like the fast forward was a success, so I opened up the notifications to see what happened.

  You have sold 2 units of World Host . You earned 6 points in royalties.

  Your civilizations have advanced naturally, and discovered new technologies!

  Smithing 1 - 15 points

  Language 1 - 15 points * 3

  Pottery - 15 points

  Domestication 1 - 15 points

  Agriculture 1 - 15 points

  Agriculture 2 - 15 points

  Trade 1 - 15 points

  Construction 1 - 15 points * 4

  Your civilizations have advanced naturally, and discovered new magic techniques!

  Inscribing - 15 points

  Spell Theory 1 - 15 points

  Ward 1 - 15 points

  Congratulations! You have earned a new achievement!

  For allowing your civilizations to make 10 natural advancements, you earned the Watcher achievement. +20 points

  ...I froze as I read over all of that. While the first line was something normal, the rest that followed surprised me greatly. In disbelief, I looked over to my point balance, just to confirm if it was real. And indeed, I had a total of 276 points available to spend now.

  Perhaps the most important thing I noticed was how the points were awarded. When I personally enlightened the races about a technology, I received twenty points at first, and then diminishing returns. But, letting them discover it themselves, I earned a flat fifteen points reward. And, from the looks of things, that reward was based on each civilization. So, since four civilization learned basic construction techniques after being taught how to make stone tools, I received fifteen points from each one.

  However, I noticed that I didn’t get anything from the Daeva. Does it not count if a goddess or a member of another civilization teaches them? Since Irena had been staying in the afterlife, the Daeva probably learned any of their notable advancements by seeing how she did things. Still, over two hundred points, was quite the advancement. Out of curiosity, I opened up a window to display the racial populations.

  Elves - Population: 15,000. Average level: 24

  Humans - Population: 90,000. Average level: 17

  Felyn - Population: 80,000. Average level: 14

  Lycan - Population: 100,000. Average level: 15

  Ursa - Population: 95,000. Average level: 16

  Kitsune - Population: 80,000. Average level: 13

  Dwarf - Population: 70,000. Average level: 13

  Halfling- Population: 70,000. Average level: 19

  Daeva - Population: 9,000. Average level: 10

  The area with the most growth was undoubtedly the beastkin. After forming a civilization built on four races working together, they were able to drastically limit their natural predators, letting their numbers flourish. On the other hand, the halflings that originally had the highest and fastest growing population alongside humans, had grown far less.

  Though, the levels of the halflings were second only to the elves, who had the advantage of centuries to train. With these numbers, if there were really an all out war between elves and halflings, the halflings would most likely win. And again, because of the civilization building that led to them having less predators, the levels of the beastkin had dropped below other races.

  Another race that surprised me a bit was the Daeva. They had gone from merely a few hundred, to nine thousand in just a short thousand years. That kind of explosive growth was unheard of, even in the previous Earth’s recent history. Something to question Irena about, I think.

  The one race that confused me was the dwarves. They had the same type of growth as the beastkin, despite not having a strong civilization. I’d have to ask Terra about that later. For now, I had a good number of points to spend, and I needed to figure out how to do so wisely.

  The first expense was obvious. I still had two goddesses that I needed to buy before I finished a complete set for my races. The first, the lycan goddess. Hmm… lycans are built to be experts at hunting, so I’ll give her that domain.

  For her appearance, I closed my eyes and pictured a five foot eight girl, with tanned skin and a slim body. Black hair coming down just past her shoulders, and a pair of dog ears coming up from the side of her head to match. For her chest, let’s go with modest. Still decently sized, but not something that would get in the way of her movement. She is the Goddess of the Hunt, after all. And finally, a dog tail extending from the base of her back.

  Nodding at myself, I gave her a name… I suck at names, did I ever mention that? Let’s go with… Accalia. And like that, twenty-five points were invested to give birth to Accalia, the goddess of the hunt. A ray of golden light shined down in my room, focusing on one spot. Slowly, from the ground up, the image I built materialized in the form of a cute dog girl.

  When she was done being made, a suit of tight-fitting leather armor faded into being on her body, emphasizing her curves. However, at the same time, an almost desperate plea came from outside the room. “Daaale!” Terra cried out as she ran into the room, carrying Aurivy in her arms like a stuffed toy.

  “Uhm… yes?” I asked in confusion. Did something big happen when I wasn’t looking?

  “Her next!” She said, holding up the short goddess with her arms outstretched. Ahh… she was notified that I wa
s buying something, I guess.

  “You mean, a personality for her?” I raised an eyebrow as I looked at the dull expression on Aurivy’s face.

  “Right!” Terra answered with a decisive nod. “She needs one, totally needs one!”

  “Well… I have to get a couple of major features first. After that, I should have some points left to get her one, alright?”

  Hearing that, Terra pouted slightly, looking down. “Can’t you just do her first? Give her a cute personality, and liven up the place around here?”

  I sighed, shaking my head. “Need to make sure that I get the major systems put into the world first.” If it weren’t for the afterlife needing a proper ruler, I probably wouldn’t have even given Irena a personality before I had made all nine deities. It didn’t seem like the races were at a stage where they’d be able to fully benefit from the deities yet. “Speaking of, I had a question for you.”