World Keeper: Birth of a World

by Justin Miller

  Honestly, Culture and Tech Race seemed the most interesting to me. However, given that my own experience as a Keeper was lacking, I probably would not know where to start to get whatever technology ended up assigned to us. Likewise, with Culture mode, I’m still not really that good at directing civilizations yet. And, since Exploration mode functioned like Battle mode anyways, there was really only one choice. “Let’s go with Battle mode for this game.”

  Kathy nodded rapidly when she heard that, instantly agreeing. Immediately, the platform between us began to change. A blue sky appeared in a dome above it, complete with clouds. Mountains and rivers began molding themselves into place, and soon we were given another window.

  Please select your race from the listings below.

  Following that was a truly massive list of races. I had to guess that there were around a hundred in total, ranging from everything between demons, beasts, humans, elves, and many different monster races. For this test, I decided to go with the centaur race. Their mobility should be able to give them an advantage, and each one is practically a mounted unit.

  On the platform in front of me, a screen appeared. In it, I saw a large wooden hut in the center of a grassy plain. Behind the hut were five pillars of blue gems, and surrounding it were three people. Each one of them had the lower body of a horse, and the upper body of a human. Of the three, two were male and one was a woman, though none of them were clothes.

  As they appeared, one of the men looked towards the sky, speaking out in a voice that I was sure Kathy didn’t hear. “How may we serve, supreme one?”

  I had no idea how to direct the units, so I tried to play it like I would any similar game in my previous life. Using my fingers, I drew a circle around the three units, after which they lit up with a yellow aura. Guess that means they are selected… I then poked the area on the screen where the crystals were, and the three centaurs immediately turned and ran for them.

  Although they were not armed with tools, that did not seem to stop them. Merely placing their hands on the pillars of gems was enough that they were able to draw out a small stone. Once each one had taken a stone, they ran it back to the hut, and I saw a number appear above the building.

  +3

  After depositing the gems, they ran back and repeated the cycle. Each time, the centaurs deposited one gem each. Once I had ten gems saved up, I took a look at the available units and buildings that I could purchase. The most basic ‘laborer’ unit cost five gems each, and seemed to be a requirement for any of the later units. In order to speed up production, I immediately bought two laborers, and watched as my income started increasing.

  Roughly a minute later, I bought a ‘Cartography Hut’, which required a full twenty gems to purchase. However, doing so would allow me to train scouts that could map the terrain. After my purchase, wood and stones suddenly appeared on the ground. The five centaurs looked at the site, and then up into the sky as if waiting as they continued running back and forth between the central hut and the gem pillars.

  Having an idea of what I was supposed to do, I selected two of the male centaurs, and had them move to the construction site. Once there, the stones and wooden boards began flying into the air, performing the construction automatically. Did I simply need to assign units to trigger the construction?

  Ten seconds later, and the hut was complete. I chose to put one of the laborers that had ‘built’ the new building into it, upgrading that unit to a scout. The other one was sent back to work collecting gems.

  With my one scout, I now needed to figure out how to make him explore. I couldn’t manually direct him the entire time. Of course, there weren’t any obvious buttons I could choose from. Instead, I decided that the option must be there, so I went with the only thing I could think of. Poking the scout on the screen with one finger, his body began glowing with the aura of a selected unit. “Explore.” I spoke simply, and the centaur nodded, running off and out of my screen.

  I really hope I can find him later, or that there is some way for me to know when he finds something. I thought to myself, before continuing my base expansion. Given the size of the map, it should still be quite a while before Kathy’s units find my base, but I couldn’t bet on that.

  Seeing that I had another twenty-three gems waiting, I immediately bought four more laborers. Not counting the one I sent out to scout, this gave me eight people farming gems. Though, I soon found that only one centaur could harvest from a pillar at a time. This left the remaining three to harvest while the first batch were running back and forth to deposit them.

  Once I had enough, I purchased two final laborers to make a constant cycle of harvesting gems, and maximize my profits. From here, I should be able to slowly purchase what I need. For instance, the next thing I bought was an archery range, which would let me train my centaurs into archers.

  Following this pattern, I soon had a dozen archers ready, and a knight academy in progress that would let me train melee units. However, at the same time, the platform in between myself and Kathy gave a drastic shift. From the landscape of mountains and rivers, it suddenly shifted to a wide grassy field. In that field was the centaur I had sent out to scout, but he was not alone.

  Charging at him from above were two winged humanoids. If I remembered their listing right, they were known as harpies. Their wings were a part of their arms, ending in three-fingered hands with sharp talons. On their feet were similar talons, proving to be deadly natural weapons. As they swooped down on the lone centaur, he let out a pitiful cry, the talons tearing through his body.

  Once dead, his body seemed to evaporate into mist, and the scene once again became that of mountains and rivers. “Oooh…” Kathy said from across the platform, then grinned sheepishly at me. “I just picked the scariest looking thing on the list. Don’t worry, there’s still more to go yet!” She called out, as if trying to cheer me up.

  Shaking my head with a bitter smile, I looked back to my screen. At least now I knew that we weren’t too far apart. And, I was right in training archers first, as they were the best counters for her airborne race. Selecting the main hut, I looked at the ‘technology upgrade’ option. In its description, it would allow me to advance the level of technology my units were equipped with. Such things as changing bows into crossbows, or creating computers.

  I chose the first upgrade, which let me advance my people into the ‘metal age’. As I did so, clothes began to appear on my people. For the men, they would get leather tunics, while the women received dresses that went down to the bottom of their human body. Now, in the archery range, there was the option to upgrade my bows to using iron arrowheads. Naturally, I chose that, since they would deal much more damage than normal arrows. At the same time, looking closely, I saw that the bows in the hands of the centaurs seemed to shift slightly, becoming more durable and larger.

  I could have upgraded to crossbows, but I felt that normal bows fit centaurs better for now. Back at the central hut, I chose to buy another upgrade, this one for my laborers. It was an obvious upgrade, and one that was sorely needed. After buying it with the last of my gems, pickaxes suddenly appeared in the hands of my laborers. Now, they were able to each mine two gems at a time, doubling my income.

  For every fifteen points I got, I bought one more centaur and upgraded them to become an archer, then worked on having my archers create an encirclement around my base. Each of those options cost me five points, leaving me one third of my income to save for new buildings and upgrades. Once I got to fifty points, I again upgraded my technology, this time to the industry age. This caused the most drastic shift yet for my buildings.

  The original wooden and stone buildings seemed to shift and contort, turning more steady, made primarily of stone with a touch of metal. There were even glass windows along the walls. And, at this point, I received a very welcome option. Instead of ‘laborers’, I had the option to buy ‘citizens’ or ‘mining units’.

  Unlike the laborers, these mining units were specializ
ed engines that would automatically mine gems. I only needed one citizen promoted to an engineer assigned to all five units. The one I chose to promote was that first female centaur that had been there since the beginning. When I chose to promote her, a blue work suit appeared on her body, replacing the previous dress.

  After buying the five mining units, I now had a steady stream of income. More importantly, I could upgrade my archery range into a firing range. Doing so would promote all of my archers to musketeers. Though, at the time, I still did not have the gems for it.

  Just before I had the points to afford that upgrade, the platform ahead of me shifted. This time, it created a perfect depiction of my base. “Found you~.” Kathy said confidently, as the same two harpies as before descended from the skies in an automated attack pattern. “Wait, no, turn back!” She called out, flustered. However, it was too late. The archers guarding the base had already taken aim and shot into the sky.

  Although one harpy had been able to turn back in time, the other was shot through the chest, and began falling to the ground. Before he landed, his body turned into grey mist. Kathy looked down at her screen, pressing against it with one finger and saying something. Although I saw her lips moving, no sound seemed to be transmitted to where I was standing. I saw as the harpy on the screen flew up out of range of the archers on the ground, but still close enough for the platform to continue displaying the situation of the village.

  “My game, it looks like~.” She spoke proudly, likely working on sending other units over. However, by this time I had enough to upgrade my archery range. As I did so, the bows and quivers vanished from my archers, leaving Kathy surprised before the centaurs then lifted up long metal shafts, aiming at the sky. “Oh, not fair!” She called out, as puffs of smoke were shot out from each rifle, sniping the lone avian out of the sky. “I’m still coming, you know.” She puffed up her cheeks in a pout.

  I could only grin wryly, buying more archers and scouts. This time, I also bought an upgrade to the scouts that gave them binoculars, increasing their vision range. Meanwhile, I began counting the seconds in my head, timing how long it took for Kathy’s units to arrive.

  Thirty seconds later, three dozen harpies appeared in the sky above my base. This time, my people were well prepared. The scouts were able to spot them early, and the musketeers were easily able to take aim at those numbers. By the time the harpies finished their first round of attacks, their three dozen members were trimmed down to an even ten, and I had only lost two centaurs.

  They never had the chance to launch their second attack, as my musketeers quickly finished reloading their weapons and fired a second wave of attacks. The ten harpies all fell to the ground and became clouds of mist. I smiled as I watched the platform return to the scene of mountains and rivers. “My turn, I guess.”

  Given the time and direction of their approach, I roughly knew where Kathy’s base was. As such, I mobilized half of my musketeers and half of my scouts and sent them in that direction. Meanwhile, at my base, I purchased another upgrade to my technology to put my people in the exploration age, and one from my firing range to decrease the reload time of my weapons.

  Kathy appeared to be panicking slightly, her eight legs frantically tapping at the ground as she issued silent commands. However, by the time my units arrived, she had only managed to create another ten harpies. Maybe eight, if the two mining gems had been there from the start. Unlike my base, hers seemed to be a large nest. I doubted that she had bought any upgrades, and simply sent the harpies in to act as natural attackers.

  Her plan failed, though, when the platform showed her base being destroyed, her harpies killed and the nest trampled. She crossed her arms under her chest and let out a frustrated ‘hmph!’. Looking at me for a long moment, she let out a soft sigh. “Good game, alright?” She didn’t really seem that upset by her loss, more that it happened so quickly after thinking she was winning.

  Chapter 27

  “So… how did you win so easily?” Kathy asked from across the platform, still confused by her loss. “My harpies seemed to have had an advantage at the start, right?”

  I nodded, and then began explaining. “You never upgraded them, so my centaurs were able to overpower them. Games like this were pretty popular in my world, and upgrading your units is typically a basic strategy.”

  “Oh…” She said, dejectedly, looking down. “My world never got that far, I guess. This is my first time ever seeing a game like this.” Suddenly, she looked up, slapping her cheeks with both hands. “No, I won’t give up that easily! Let’s play another game, I can do better this time!”

  We played a second game, and again I chose the centaur race. It’s not like they are overpowered or anything, but I am already getting familiar with them. Maybe next game, I’ll try something new.

  Anyways, the second game lasted over twice as long as the first. On my end, I again decided to stock up on archers quickly, building a defensive fort. However, I managed to get all the way to the exploration age with technology before my scouts found her base. Or, I guess you could call it a hive, instead.

  This time, Kathy had chosen to go with her own people, the arachne. Maybe she had more confidence with playing them, but either way it turned into a big disadvantage for me. The base for her arachne was a cave system in a tall mountain. Given the centaur’s size and body types, they were not really suitable for climbs like that.

  I almost thought that I would have to either concede the match, or wait until I got a big gun to level the entire mountain. And, it really did almost come to that. Being forced into a defensive strategy once again, I concentrated on advancing my people further and further. When I reached the information age, I got exactly what I was needing.

  Centaurs, being unable to properly traverse certain terrains, had equipment and technology available in the information age that solved that issue. Specifically, they possessed flying drones. After setting up an automated drone factory, I built up my future invasion force, when something truly terrifying happened.

  I had set up a sentry tower near Kathy’s mountain, so that the main display would let me keep an eye on it. And, on that large display at the center of the platform, I saw a flood of black oozing out of the mountain. There had to be thousands of arachne, enough that when they had fully exited the cave system, the mountain itself had turned black.

  I could only watch as that flood of enemies made its way to the sentry tower, immediately engulfing it. Just barely, I saw a few puffs of smoke rise up from the defeated centaur, before the screen returned to the standard view of mountains and plains. “Here I come~.” Kathy called out with a smile, obviously pleased with herself.

  I wasn’t sure if she had spent everything on new units, just to flood me in the late game, but whatever it was definitely worked in her favor. I deployed my few dozen drones to meet her army, having them attack from a safe distance. The automated weapons mowed down wide paths of enemies, but soon they too were destroyed. About a third of the way into her army, the arachne seemed to be carrying weapons. These were rifles, of a sort. Rather than destructive ammunition, they fired sticky nets.

  These nets wrapped around my turrets, jamming the propellers and causing them to crash into the ground. From there, it was a simple matter for her army to advance to my base. Fun fact, building walls will not stop spider people from invading…

  The end result, although I managed to take quite a few with me, my forces were ultimately crushed. Across from me, Kathy’s legs were skittering along the podium happily, while she raised her hands into the air. “Yay! I did it!” She exclaimed happily.

  At that time, I was just about to ask for another game, when the same voice we heard before echoed out through the room. “The tournament is about to begin. Non-participants, please vacate the gaming platforms. Anyone still remaining on a platform at the end of the count will be considered a participant.”

  “The first prize for this tournament is one thousand points. Second place will earn
three hundred, and third place will earn one hundred. In each match, the contestants may decide amongst themselves which game mode they wish to play. Each contestant will be required to face every other contestant before the tournament is concluded, and the amount of wins will determine the final placings.”

  “In the event of a tie, both parties will face each other to settle the final victor.” There was a brief pause before the voice began speaking again. “The tournament will begin in thirty seconds. Thirty, twenty-nine..” He slowly counted down, and I looked around to see several people climb up to the platforms, until all of them were occupied. Looking across from myself, I saw that Kathy was excited to participate in this tournament, and showed no signs of moving.

  As for myself, I might as well. The other rooms were likely starting their first tournaments about now, so I didn’t have any time to learn another game before it began. Even if I have no hope of winning, it should be fun.

  “Three, two, one. Let the games, begin!” There was a brief flash of white throughout the room, and I realized that the positions of the participants had all changed. Across from me was no longer Kathy, but a tall, blue man with four arms.