World Keeper: Birth of a World

by Justin Miller

  I smiled bitterly, but agreed. “That’s fine. Anyways, we’re going to have a meeting in a little bit. It’d be best if everyone shows up.”

  At that, Bihena seemed to smile slightly. “It seems he can be taught, after all. Now, go ahead and get out of here. I still have some stuff to take care of.”

  After that, I left the room, moving to the living room to wait for everyone. To my surprise, it only took about a half hour before Terra woke up and everyone was called together. Looking around and seeing everyone, I couldn’t help but acknowledge that this was the first time that they were all in the same room.

  Terra lazily stretched out, waving a hand to dismiss the current living room furniture, instead summoning a long table. Around it were six chairs, as well as what looked like a small cloud of fluff. The girls and I all sat in the chairs, while Tryval navigated his way onto the fluff cloud. Terra sat on my right, between myself and Ryone. Across from her was Aurivy, flanked by Irena and Bihena. Finally, Tryval sat at the end of the table, as he needed more room.

  “So.” Tryval spoke first, looking towards me. “What is it that you called us all here for?”

  At his words, everyone else also nodded, looking for me to answer. “Well, we’ve never really had a meeting like this, and I thought that it would be good to start doing them on a semi-regular basis. As you all have probably noticed… I’m not too good at the whole planning aspect.” There were a few discreet snickers from around the table at that, mostly from my side of the table…

  “Anyways, I wanted to get together with everyone and decide on a general plan. To help develop the world eventually, I went ahead and bought a new race for us to use.” Focusing my mind, I created a set of papers in front of me with the information about the dungeon core race. I even checked one of the papers to make sure that it didn’t come out blurry or anything.

  Everyone grabbed one of the papers when they were slid to them, and looked it over. Ryone was the first one to speak up, a small smile on her face. “I want one.”

  I tried not to imagine this as a request for a sex dungeon, and looked at her. “For?”

  Her smile spread a bit wider as she saw the questioning look on my face. “Where am I going to find a better field to practice new magic? It’s hard to properly gauge power in the admin room, so a dungeon down in the world would be the perfect solution. Maybe I could even take it as a student eventually.”

  I had to nod at her reasoning. It made sense. And, it got me to stop imagining her with a sex dungeon. “Alright. You can place one down in the world, as long as it’s not somewhere that it will be easily found in the future.” She nodded her head quickly at that, and I looked to the rest of them. “For the dungeons, I want all of us to share this job, rather than creating a single ‘dungeon god’. It’s too easy for dungeons to be seen as evil creations, so making them into a domain for any of you would only make it easier for people to see you like that as well.”

  Terra nodded her head slightly, a small smile on her face as she heard that. “That sounds cool. We should place a few down as experiments first, see how they work.” I was a bit surprised by her sudden suggestion, but the confident look in her eyes made me think that there might be some defect with the dungeon that I don’t know about.

  “Alright. We’ll do it that way. Next, I wanted to make an announcement.” Everyone looked at me seriously, even Aurivy. It’s weird to see her looking serious. “With one of Ryone’s domains being Wealth, I wanted to put her in charge of managing the points, so that we don’t run into any bad situations.”

  Irena glanced at Ryone, nodding her head slightly. “It does make sense. Can she even buy things from the market with your permission, though?

  Terra shook her head in response. “Only the Keeper can make purchases. But, any companion can browse the market. So, she can find systems that we need, and list them out for Dale to review.”

  Ryone’s smile grew even wider when she heard about her new job. “Very nice. I take it that means you won’t be aimlessly spending points anymore?” She pointedly looked at me with that last comment.

  “Well… I might make small purchases. But, I’ll try to keep any spending in the triple digits on hold until I verify it with you first.” I didn’t really trust myself enough to say that I would entirely let her handle the budget, because sometimes there were things I wanted to get without really thinking too much into it. “Anyways, on this subject, there is a system that I wanted to introduce. I’ve been working on it in my spare time for a while, so it is a bit more detailed than what I usually come up with.”

  Once again, they looked at me seriously. This time, I manifested seven folders, each one holding a few papers. Then, I slid the folders over to them, keeping one for myself. Opening up the folder, I spread out the papers in front of me to make sure that I had accurately copied down the system I had saved on the notepad in my computer.

  It took a few minutes for everyone to finish looking over the papers. Terra let out a low whistle when she finished. “Really wanted to make a flexible system, didn’t you?” I nodded my head. “Well, it’s good. There are some storage devices already, like bags of holding, but nothing this complex. It should be able to earn a fair amount of points.”

  After Aurivy was done, she decided to speak up. “Oooh, can we get this? It’d really help everyone down below!” As she spoke, she highlighted a few lines with her fingers, causing those lines to light up. Words floated up off the page, showing everyone what she chose. In essence, she chose a basic game inventory system, with one hundred slots.

  However, Terra only let out a knowing smile. “Well, how about we find out?” She looked towards me. “Go ahead and submit it. Then, we can see what kind of price tag the market would put on what she wants.”

  I nodded my head, mentally submitting this system to the market. As soon as I did, Ryone began working as well, waving her fingers around. Like with Aurivy, words floated in front of her, the same ones that Aurivy herself had chosen. However, once the options were all set, she made a small gasp of astonishment. Finally, a number rose up below the words. 2205.

  “That’s how much it would cost, Aurivy.” She said with a regretful tone. “We won’t be able to afford that for a long time, unless this sells particularly well. However, if I may make a suggestion…”

  Once again, Ryone fiddled with the system, causing words to fly up. Unlike Aurivy’s game system menu, what Ryone was going for was the enchantment option. Along with it, she chose the cheapest choices for slowing time, size, and weight. At the end, the number 320 appeared below the list of options.

  “With this, it is an enchantment that we can apply to items, rather than a new system. Am I understanding that right?” She looked to Terra, who nodded her head. “Then, am I correct in assuming that the system would make it so that this is possible?”

  Terra smiled slightly, nodding again. “As long as it does not completely contradict the world. For instance, we couldn’t get the digitization options, because computer code would be a completely foreign concept to the current Earth. As long as it is even remotely possible, the system will adjust the natural laws to make any purchase applicable.”

  Ryone’s smile grew again. “Then, am I correct in assuming that, once those changes are made, it will be possible to improve upon them?”

  Terra couldn’t help but laugh at that, reaching over and putting a hand on Ryone’s shoulder gently. “Within reason. But, for what I think you’re wanting, yes. It should be possible.”

  “Alright!” She made a victorious fist bump into the air, then turned to look at the rest of us. “So, I want to get this. With the options I chose, we can use it as a starting point to develop better ones. Using the time aspects, we can evolve it to frozen time, with the weight aspects, we can evolve it to weightless. And naturally, we can expand the capacity as well. We can’t afford it quite yet, but that should be taken care of once word of this system spreads.”

  The others all nodded, though
Aurivy still looked upset that her suggestion wasn’t chosen. Bihena smiled down to the little goddess, patting her back. Aurivy quickly looked up in surprise to Bihena, and leaned over to give her a hug, surprising her.

  Tryval watched the scene, and then turned over to look at me. “My liege, since we are in this meeting…” A grin slowly spread over his face. “I would officially like to ask for permission to mingle with my people again.”

  “Uhm… why?” I asked, confused. It hadn’t been very long since I placed those restrictions on him, and he was already asking for them to be removed?

  “You see, you gave me the Fellowship domain. However, I am still forbidden from being with my own race. Is that not contrary to the power I was given?” He explained confidently, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

  “I… guess so? But, there will still have to be rules.” He clicked his tongue when he heard that. “We can’t have you going around spreading half-gods everywhere. It’d be best if they didn’t know it was you. At times, you can reveal your identity in order to act. However…” I gave him a stern look as I spoke, wanting to make this clear. “Each time you do so, you will have to remove yourself from the public for fifty years, to allow the news to die down. When you come back in, it will be with a new face and a new identity. And you are not allowed to leave behind heirs.”

  I got an approving nod from Terra, but only a grumble from Tryval. “Fine. I will accept these terms. It is still better from being forced to remain in the shadows.”

  I nodded at that, then turned to look at the others. “Does anyone have anything that they want to bring up?” The girls all shook their heads, so I let out a sigh. “Then, the first meeting is adjourned. Let’s go see how these dungeons work.”

  Chapter 47

  Soon, all seven of us found our way to the basement area, where I would normally go to train my magic. However this was not so that we could train, but so that we could place down a dungeon core. And no, we aren’t placing it in this basement. My bedroom just felt like it’d be too cramped with all of us in there, so we decided to convert the floor of the basement into a larger ‘map’ of the world below.

  Of course, this was provided by Terra, who was smiling as we all tried to dance around the map without stepping on any mountains or trees. It’s like walking through a little kid’s room and trying to avoid all the toys. There’s always that one that manages to find its way into the bottom of your foot.

  Anyways, back on topic. Since we didn’t know what to expect with this dungeon, we were going to place it on an uninhabited island. Worst case scenario, we wind up with a flying island dungeon, which would be kind of cool.

  “Alright… this one should work.” Ryone says with a nod as she points to an island about as big as my toe, standing ankle deep in the ocean. I was really glad that we wouldn’t actually be leaving giant footprints throughout the world or anything, because that would not be good.

  I nodded, looking to Terra. However, the catgirl goddess was giving Aurivy a piggyback ride while watching us. With a shrug, I focused on that island, and attempted to spawn a dungeon.

  * * *

  Among the thousands of islands of Earth, one sat alone in its own little corner of the world. This island was inhabited by nothing but a few birds and a pair of thin trees. However, at that moment, the ground shook. A red gem, roughly ten centimeters in diameter, appeared on the ground as if dropped from the sky.

  This red gem shined faintly, and then slowly sank into the sandy surface. It was trembling slightly, its light flickering. The gem was afraid. It had appeared in a strange area, not knowing who or what it was. It could only see up to a meter around it. Above was a sky whose limits it could not reach, while below was a safe and comforting earth. Naturally, it burrowed its way deeper, using the unfamiliar ground to shield itself from its surroundings.

  After a few minutes, it seemed to calm down. The flickering light stabilized into a steady glow, and it began to examine what little it could of its surroundings. It was at that time that a voice spoke in its mind, thoughts not of its own.

  Hello? Are you okay? The voice held a high pitch, distinctly different from the way the gem sounded in its own mind.

  ‘What is this?’ It thought to itself, only to be surprised when the voice answered.

  I am Aurivy, Goddess of Love and Travel. The gem trembled again slightly. It did not understand the concept of a goddess, but the voice suddenly held a sense of pressure for it. It no longer wanted to communicate with the voice, afraid that it might be from the boundless sky above, afraid that it might damage its fragile existence.

  * * *

  “It’s no use, it won’t talk to me anymore.” Aurivy said with a frown, still held up on Terra’s back.

  “It’s alright, Rivy.” Terra smiled back to her. “It’s still young. Give it a bit of time, and I’m sure it’ll get lonely. Then it’ll want to talk to you some more. But Dale, do you notice anything?” She looked at me as she asked that last part.

  “Hmm…” I looked down at the dungeon and focused on it. “There’s a strange flow of mana around the core, but it doesn’t extend very far, and isn’t particularly strong.” I felt a frown cover my face. “I suppose this is normal for new dungeons?”

  Terra nodded her head slightly. “If you watch closely, it is very slowly expanding. But, if you don’t fast forward, you’d have to zoom in extremely close to see it.” She smiled bitterly. “So… if you aren’t planning on buying time zones for every dungeon you get… it’d probably be a good idea to plant some around in advance.”

  “Ahh…” Well, I guess that doesn’t ruin my plans too much. I mean, if I desperately want a dungeon right away, I can always buy a time zone to go with it to speed up its growth. Glancing over, I looked at a sullen Ryone, who was realizing that this meant that her dungeon experiment chamber would have to wait. “Want to plant one down somewhere, and then fast forward? There is nothing happening immediately that we need to focus on.”

  Ryone looked up, smiling slightly. “I’d like that, sure. Anyways, there are some things I need to take care of first, since I haven’t made any changes to my society yet.” The other gods all frowned when they heard that. “What? You all did it!”

  “...Fair enough.” It was Irena who answered, surprisingly, sighing and shaking her head. “I must also return to my people before the fast forward, lest they think I am absent.” I nodded at her words, and let her go. Soon, the others also began leaving one by one, either to go play or to attend to other business.

  I decided to give Ryone a couple of hours to get her plans laid out before starting the fast forward.

  * * *

  Back on the deserted island, days passed by overhead in silence. The scared gem had yet to make any attempts to communicate with the voice that had previously spoken with it. It wasn’t until over a month passed that it began to feel regret, that it considered whether that voice was the only comfort that it would be able to find.

  ‘Are you still there?’ It thought to itself, hoping that the voice would respond once again. Sure enough, the voice once again responded, speaking as if it had only been moments since they last talked.

  Meanwhile, in the depths of the Underworld, monsters continued devouring each other. These were no longer simply the goblins and the grue. No, they had changed, become something different. Towering monsters hundreds of meters long, looking like amorphous blobs covered in hungry maws. They devoured everything in their path, be it friend or foe alike.

  They knew nothing except their insatiable hunger, having long since lost any other reason they may have had. Anything they ate simply added to their own power, letting them become bigger, stronger. Until one day, something changed.

  One of these devourer spirits felt as if a great weight was pressing down on it. Like with all things, it decided to devour that pressure. Black light began to shine from the body of the devourer, before visible cracks spread out in the space around it. When the monstrous spirit roar
ed, those cracks shattered like a broken mirror, revealing a gaping black hole.

  Feeling as if there would be more food beyond this hole, it slipped through quietly, unnoticed by any around it. What it found on the other side of the doorway was a large mountain, with its body resting along its side. The spirit could not feel any way to return to its home, and found that the food on this side of the door seemed to be far more scarce.

  Angered by this discovery, it felt as if it was suddenly starving, so it dived down the mountain with an impossible speed, literally splashing across the ground when it made contact. Any of the lingering souls of the wildlife were instantly devoured the moment they came into contact with this creature. But this wasn’t enough, this was nowhere near enough for the ravenous monster.

  Picking a direction at random, it charged forward, slowly spreading out across the land in order to gather more food. Although this reduced its strength, the spirits here offered little resistance to its feasting.