World Keeper: Birth of a World

by Justin Miller

  Do you wish to rewind the Time Zone so that the purchased race reaches a particular level of development at the currently selected time? Y/N

  I blinked as the message appeared in front of me, having forgotten that when I first purchased the original races, Terra had to fast forward until there was an average of ten thousand members of each race. This time, I opted to do the same thing, and could see on the map how that one continent continuously brightened and darkened, possessing its own cycle of day and night moving in rapid motion.

  I tried to pay attention, just in case some emergency cropped up that would prevent the centaurs from raising their population. However, a knock on the door to the room distracted me. Turning around, I saw Irena standing in the doorway, watching me. “Is now a bad time?” She asked in a somewhat cold manner that caught me off guard.

  “No, not really… why?”

  Straightening her shirt, she took a few steps forward, tucking her wings in so that they wouldn’t get caught on the door. “I am here to ask for a report on what is going on. I feel the presence of new souls being born, but the world seems to be stopped at the moment.”

  Ahh, I guess it makes sense that she would be able to sense that kind of stuff, being the goddess of the underworld. I nodded my head, and began explaining to her about my plan to introduce the centaur race into the world. When I was done, her brows furrowed and she looked at the screen.

  “Is that an idea you got at the meeting you went to by yourself?” She asked, in that same tone of voice as before.

  “That’s right. Is something the matter?”

  “No, sir, nothing is the matter.” She said abruptly, then turned and left the room, leaving me extremely confused. Even when I design the women myself, I shall never understand them!

  Shaking my head, I turned back to my computer, only to find that the continent had stopped fast forwarding. Looking at the population, I saw that there were exactly ten thousand centaurs. Huh, guess it can be pretty accurate when it wants to be.

  Out of curiosity, I ran a search through the system to look at the population more closely, that way I could see how many of each type of variant there were. Unsurprisingly, there were no qilin centaurs, and only two unicorn centaurs. However, there was not a single pegasus centaur either, which surprised me.

  Don’t tell me… I gave a slight sigh, and navigated the map to find the two unicorn centaurs. To my surprise, they were a pair of young girls, twins from the looks of things. With their long hair covering their foreheads, it was almost impossible to even see the small nub of a horn starting to poke out.

  They either exile or kill the unique ones out of fear? I was hoping that wouldn’t start until much later. I lowered my head in thought, trying to come up with ideas. Unicorn centaurs were already very rare, just one in ten thousand, and these two were born as twins. If my theory about the treatment of the unique centaurs was right, then as soon as their horns were discovered, they could very well be killed. Or at the very least, thrown out to fend for themselves.

  If one of the unicorns had been a male, I could arrange for the two of them to meet, and maybe even start an isolated family. I wasn’t too familiar on how their mating habits worked, but at least they’d have a chance. The main thing was that, if I wanted to resolve this issue of the variants being outcast, I would have to do so right from the start.

  First thing, I needed to create a god for the centaurs. Not a lifeless doll like the current ones, aside from Irena, Aurivy, and Terra. A true, influential god that could help guide the race. Closing my eyes, I paid the full 45 points for a companion with a personality. First, I needed to design his body.

  A large centaur, the normal breed, with pitch black hair. Since the vast majority of the population is the normal breed, it makes sense for the god to be, as well. Also, having him as the normal breed of centaur should help prevent superiority complexes from the variants thinking themselves as the chosen ones. Anyways, pitch black hair covering his muscular horse body. A muscled human torso connecting to it, with a little bit of stubble and a head of short, black hair.

  For his personality, I wanted to make him caring of his people. His goal should be for all centaurs to be treated equally, with neither the variants or the normal breed suppressing each other. A thought ran through me, and I suddenly imagined him hitting on the goddesses in the Admin Room. Nuh uh, no way. I added in a note that he is disinterested in two-legged women, just to prevent any problems. This Earth doesn’t need a new Zeus.

  Finally, I made sure that he was obedient towards me. Not as a relative or anything like with Aurivy, or a love interest like Terra, but more as an employee. The Keeper is the boss in this relationship, and that fact should never be excluded, lest you get rebellious deities. Lastly, I needed a name for him… And since I was making him a god, I needed a domain for him to rule.

  Focusing on the last few details, I submitted the entry to the system. Golden light shone from above, gradually building a body from the ground up. As soon as the body was done, I was expecting to have to give him some kind of job, but I didn’t even have the time to open my mouth before he vanished from the room, the space he was in suddenly empty.

  And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Tryval, God of the Plains… I sighed, moving to look at the screen again when I suddenly heard a sound from outside my room.

  “Huh? Where you going, sis?” The high pitched voice of Aurivy caught my attention, and I couldn’t help but grin slightly when I noticed a slightly disappointed tone to her voice. A moment later, Terra walked into the room, looking around.

  “He already left?” She asked, obviously surprised. Had she wanted to come here and see him, since he was the first male god I had granted a personality to?

  “Yeah. As soon as I finished making him.” I said, shaking my head with a bitter smile. Terra shared the same expression, before closing her eyes. A few moments later, I swear I saw her cheeks redden.

  “Oh… there he is.” She said in a somewhat embarrassed tone, before the screen of my computer shifted. Since it had already been locked onto the twin unicorn centaurs, it did not have to go far, only zooming out a little bit to show a new figure entering the screen.

  * * *

  “Come on, Thessa. We have to hurry.” A girl could be seen amidst the plains, urging her sister to continue. Both were obviously inhuman, with the lower body of a pure white horse. Even though they had the upper body of a lovely young woman, it was impossible to confuse them with a normal human. Both of them also had silky smooth hair trailing down their backs all the way to the bottom of their human half.

  “I know, Kara, I’m coming.” The second centaur called out, only a short distance behind the first. The two were on the run, having abandoned their families, but this was not a decision made out of spite. Rather, it was one of desperation. They had heard rumors passed through the families of foals born with wings. The stories never ended well, as each one had abandoned their foal as soon as the mother was able to move. Sometimes, the father would actively trample the young body, mercilessly crippling it to ensure that it couldn’t follow.

  These sisters had a miraculous birth, being the only known case of twins among the centaur families they had encountered. However, their mother had paid the price for an extra life by giving her own. They had lived with the rest of their herd, always on the move, and never once thinking they were anything other than beautiful specimens of their own race.

  At least, until recently, that is. Roughly a year ago, they had each noticed a strange growth appearing on their foreheads, a hard white spike. Its appearance was accompanied by a powerful headache that left their entire herd thinking that they had fallen ill. Only the two of them knew the terrifying truth, however.

  With the appearance of their horns, they had started using their hair to cover their face whenever possible, hiding their foreheads from their herd. They had hoped that this new addition would stop growing, or go away entirely, but reality proved differently. Every day, it
grew further and further, and now they could no longer fully conceal it.

  Telling their herd that they were going for a drink, the twins finally planned to make their escape. It wasn’t uncommon for herd to split apart, so they hoped that they wouldn’t be followed, that the herd would assume they had perished. So now, the two twins, Thessa and Kara, cantered across the plains, tears in their eyes as they put as much distance between themselves and everything they knew as they possibly could.

  That is, until a golden light shined down from the skies, and a muscular figure appeared some distance away from them. The girls felt their hearts jump as they saw the man, with his hair as black as night. More amazing than his appearance, the moment they saw him, a name echoed through their minds. It was a name that they had never heard before, yet felt like they knew it all their life.

  The sisters slowed to a trot, then stopped entirely before the figure before them. Unable to help themselves, they maintained a distance from this man, their heads lowered in submission. That was, until he called their names.

  “Thessa, Kara.” The man said, his voice strong, yet gentle. The girls couldn’t help their heads jerking up to look at him in shock. They had never seen this man in their lives, and yet he felt so familiar. They had never spoken, yet knew each other’s names. What they saw was a smile on his face, and his eyes which seemed to look straight through them.

  This man… no, Tryval walked up towards them slowly. The twins barely even registered that their hair had been pushed to the side during their canter, and their horns were clearly visible. Yet, Tryval was still smiling at them, as if they were the most beautiful creatures in existence. For the first time since their horns began to grow, they did not feel like freaks. They didn’t feel hopeless.

  If it was with this man, maybe they could be happy.

  Chapter 31

  So… the centaur god is a playboy… I’m glad that I took those precautions. I shook my head and sighed, before turning my attention to the screen again. The other races were all paused right now, so there was not much point to giving the other deities a personality yet. Instead, it would be more beneficial to focus on the centaurs.

  But first… I looked at Terra, who was getting ready to vacate the room. “So, what happens if a god has a kid with a mortal?”

  Terra froze as she was turning around, then looked over towards me. “That child will have an exceptional innate talent, such that they could earn a class like Hero far more easily than others. They will also typically have a small starting buff to one attribute, determined randomly.”

  I raised a curious eyebrow at her as she listed the effects. “And the drawbacks?”

  “Sometimes, the offspring will have an innate weakness in a field as well, and their strength can make them arrogant. The child of a god is not always good, and could plunge a world into chaos in the extreme scenarios.”

  “Ahh…” I nodded my head at that, understanding. “Hopefully, he doesn’t cause any trouble, then.”

  Terra gave a small smile. “What about you? Any plans for what you’re doing now that he is ‘taking care’ of the centaurs?”

  I thought about that for a long moment, but did eventually come up with something. “There is something I want to work on, but I’m not sure if it’s already available.”

  When Terra gave me a curious look, I continued. “Mana and Ki make Chakra with an even amount of each. Mana represents training the mind, while Ki represents training the body. But, what about other combinations? Could you combine Mana and Spiritual Energy, or Ki with Natural Energy?”

  Terra’s smile grew a bit wider. “I can’t answer that question, but you know someone who should be able to.”

  I looked at her for a long moment before understanding her meaning. Turning back to my computer, I heard her giggle before walking out of the room, only to hear the distressed cry of Aurivy when she realized that Terra was back. I didn’t worry much about that at the moment, though, as I was working on sending a message.

  EarthForceOne: You free right now? Got a question for you.

  I had to wait for a few minutes before a reply came in, but thankfully he did not seem too preoccupied.

  Alkahest: Still at the meeting. Guessing you took off early?

  EarthForceOne: Yeah, had some things to take care of.

  Alkahest: Alright. What’s on your mind?

  I repeated the same question I had asked Terra previously to Grimor. Since he has been in this for a long time, he should be able to provide me with some answers. At least, that’s what I was hoping.

  Alkahest: Hmmm… There are some combinations, yes. Though, Chakra is the easiest since it is an even ratio. You’re using the Game System for your world, if I remember right, yeah? Look up the Advanced Classes for the next set of mixtures, and the Legend Classes for the highest one.

  EarthForceOne: What’s the difference between an Advanced Class and a Legend Class?

  Alkahest: An Advanced Class is accessible to anyone that meets the prerequisite, like a basic class. However, the classes tend to be considerably more powerful. Even the weakest advanced class would be on par with the Hero class. As for Legend Classes, they are unique to an individual. There can only be one of a particular legend class in existence at a time, even if others qualify. Other people can still diligently train the special abilities of the class by studying it, but they won’t get the class itself.

  EarthForceOne: So, an advanced class is just a higher form of a normal class, and a legend class is the strongest, then?

  Alkahest: Right. All of the basic classes are available to any world, no matter what other systems they have in place. However, some advanced and legend classes have requirements that you’ll need to meet first. It’ll be easier to understand when you see it for yourself.

  EarthForceOne: Alright, thanks.

  With that, I let him get back to what he was doing, and went to check the market for the advanced classes that he mentioned. The results I found were… numerous, to say the least. They even had packages available, to help narrow things down. However, there were a few that caught my eye, the ones that combined the different energies.

  Elemental Monk

  Combining the energy of the body with the energy of the world, the Elemental Monk gains the ability to imbue their physical form with aspects of nature.

  10 points

  Martial Spirit

  Combining the energies of the body and soul together, the Martial Spirit is capable of existing as both a living being and a spirit, and gains special powers associated with such.

  10 points

  Elementalist

  By merging Natural Energy into their spells, a mage may greatly enhance the efficiency and power of a spell, and learn new applications for such elemental energy.

  10 points

  Summoner

  Using the spirit as a base, and the mana to shape it, a Summoner is able to create powerful entities to fight for them.

  15 points

  World Spirit

  By merging the spirit of a soul with the spirit of the world, it is possible to create a spirit born of nature.

  15 points

  Looking a bit further, there was even one other class listed, and this one actually amazed me.

  Perfect Self

  By unifying the body, mind, and soul, one may find perfection. With this power, they will be the true masters of themselves.

  50 points

  If I were to buy all six classes, they are included in a single package labeled ‘Basic Energy Masters’ for a full hundred points. However, first I wanted to look at the Legend Class that Grimor mentioned. If the advanced ones already reached that level of power, I was curious to see what the pinnacle was.

  False Divinity

  Only one who has reached the pinnacle of perfection, and learned how to merge their energy with the world around them may step into this realm. A False Divinity will never age, and fears none below the true gods, able to establish themselves as the height
of power. Those with this class are granted a powerful domain, and can use their domain to bestow power on their followers, generating their own priests.

  100 points

  Wow… just, wow. That definitely qualifies as a legendary class. The class name had me curious, so I searched a bit more, finding something else. Surprisingly, this wasn’t listed as a legendary class, but in a different ‘Special Class’ section.

  True Divinity

  This class may be granted, but never sought. Only the gods themselves may grant it, and only with the approval of the Keeper. Once a mortal has risen to True Divinity, they will be treated as a Companion, with all the rules and restrictions that entails. A True Divinity will be granted a domain, and retain all of the powers they had in life.