World Keeper

“Owww…” I complained, collapsing on the bed as soon as I got back into the Admin Room. “Never… again.” I didn’t have any tools with me while I was down in the world, so I ended up having to dig with my hands the entire time. Even worse, I had to do it with my normal body stats, not even able to tap into my Keeper abilities due to all the witnesses.

On the bright side, I did have some gains during my hunt. I managed to get a couple more levels in the Ninja class while fighting some large boars. And, after killing them, I absorbed and refined their spirits. I was tempted to also refine the boar spirit I had contracted with, but I wanted to wait to do that until I found something suitable to replace it.

Since I was lost in thought, I didn’t even notice Terra sitting next to me with a wide grin on her face until she spoke. “Aww, there there, Dale. Are you ready for fun kitty time~?” She teased, bending down to give me a seductive show of her cleavage.

As much as that sounded nice… “Too sore… can’t fun. Words. Oww.”

When I said that, she tilted her head back and laughed uproariously, holding her stomach with one hand. “Really, Dale. You do have to be more careful at times. I mean, yes you went several hours away from the city before you did your work, and I applaud the foresight that took. But, was it enough?” She asked me with a grin.

“No… How… found out?” Words were not currently my strong suit, as I was physically and mentally fatigued. I needed a nap, desperately. Like, for a century.

“Dale, you have mana that is roughly fifty times that of the next most powerful being, and you were using that energy constantly while enchanting. At that distance, anyone would be able to feel the presence of your power, thanks to your auras. Once the world gets stronger, you can mitigate that, but what did you learn today?”

“You’re… mean. Knew?”

It took Terra a moment to decipher my half-speech. When she did, her grin grew a bit wider. “I knew that you’d probably want to do your enchanting, now that you found out that the class was available to you, yes. But, I figured you would have gone far enough away that only the druids would have had any idea of what was going on. Instead, you stayed just close enough that even normal people with just a little sensitivity could feel it. Congratulations, you just inspired a Holy City for Bihena.”

“Not cool…” I closed my eyes, grabbing one corner of the blanket and wrapping it around myself. I could vaguely hear Bihena burst into the room a short while later, before her and Terra spoke to each other, and they then left. Finally, sleep.

I wasn’t sure how long I slept, but when I woke up I was feeling refreshed. All the soreness from the activities down on the world had faded, and I felt like I could actually form a coherent thought. Sitting up, I stretched, yawning as I let out the last bit of tiredness that I felt. When I was about to get up, I saw the human goddess sitting in my computer chair, watching me. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she did not look entirely happy.

“Uhm… how long were you sitting there?” I asked, cautiously.

“Too long.” She immediately replied. “I didn’t want to take the chance that you’d run away the moment you woke up.”

“Ah…” I couldn’t help but gulp slightly. “Can I help you with something?”

“Yes, you can.” She showed a wicked smile on her face. “The next time you go down, you’re going to do a quest for me. And then one for Aurivy, and Irena, and Tryval. We had a talk about this, and this is the only way to curb your bad habit of rewriting history accidentally.”

I must have shown my confusion on my face, because she took a deep breath and explained. “If you do quests for us, we can be added to your patrons for your Priest class. Terra’s idea. Anyways, there are limits to how much we can talk to you if you aren’t our Priest. If you become our Priest, we can warn you whenever you are about to do something colossally stupid. Like, say, announcing your presence to a major city, and having them establish a holy site?”

Ouch… true, but ouch. “Okay, okay, I get your point. I suppose I’ll have to do this for all the new gods, too?” When I asked that, Bihena nodded her head. “Okay, well, can you go tell the others that I was planning on giving the elf goddess her personality now?”

Giving Ryone a personality has two big benefits, thanks to her domain. With her Magic domain, she can start researching new kinds of spells more easily than I can. With her Wealth domain, she can help me manage my points, so that I don’t spend more than I need to. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.

Bihena grumbles under her breath before standing up. “This time. But, I’m not a messenger, so don’t get used to it.” Saying that, she turned and walked out of the room. While she was letting the others know, I focused my mind. Reaching out, I changed the Admin Room just slightly, moving Ryone from her position in the ‘god storage locker’ to my room.

Appearing before me was the elven goddess, her lithe body covered with a green dress that went down to her knees. Her golden eyes looked lifeless, staring at the wall. Her ruby-colored hair swept down half of her back, pointed ears just visible on either side of her head.

While I was waiting for the others to show up, I went ahead and decided to skip ahead ten more years in the world.

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After traveling for over a year, the beastkin finally reached the center of the Great Forest, the position labeled on the quest scroll. Now, there was only one step left before they were done, and that was to construct permanent houses. Due to the dangers of the travel, they had lost five people before finally arriving, bringing their total members down just below fifty. Thankfully, they still met the requirements of twenty ninjas to complete the quest.

Constructing houses did not take too long. One man, a felyn who had joined just after they left, was a Priest to the Goddess of Fate. Through his prayer, they were given the knowledge of how to make a home for themselves. These homes came in two types. For the Ninjas, they were given designs to build their houses among the tallest of trees, using the thickest branches for support. For everyone else, they had homes along the bases of those trees.

This was not an attempt to discriminate against those who did not hold the aptitude to become a ninja. Rather, it was simply because it was dangerous for them to live so high without that class. At the same time, having houses up in the trees made it possible for their residents to have a safe place to retreat to if a monster attacked.

This was clearly explained to the Priest, who in turn explained it to everyone else. While the main focus of their fighting force consisted of their Ninjas, they could not oppress those unable to use chakra. It was said that one day, the limit of power would rise again, and those who had trained to their fullest would be able to break their previous limits. Those who had been unable to train as a ninja would likewise become able to do so. fre𝙚𝓌𝒆𝚋noѵel.c𝚘m

Like this, the group spent weeks getting their homes made. The Priest of Terra promised them that, after the quest was over, there would be more people joining them. Lost souls in need of their own homes. Although many in the group were skeptical, they had no reason to doubt the man’s words. Even after they had finished all of the houses on the ground, they continued making more, all in good faith that they would indeed gain new members.

Over a month later, they had finally completed their quest. Along the trees and ground, dozens of homes had been built. At this time, a gentle voice spoke within the wind, heard by all in the village. “Thank you, my children. You have done a great deed, and will be rewarded.”

The leather scroll, which had always been held in the hands of their leader, suddenly changed. Spiderweb cracks of light formed along its rough surface, and it exploded in a blast of energy. This energy then poured out in streams, which targeted each and every Ninja among the group. Aside from those who had long since hit the limit of power, all Ninjas received an immediate five levels.

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It took a few minutes, but eventually Terra and Aurivy came back to the room. From the others, including Bihena, I received messages saying that they weren’t really interested in watching this event, and that they’d meet Ryone later. Only Aurivy seemed truly excited, because it meant that she’d get another big sister to play with.

“After this, mind if we have a chat?” Terra asked me, to which I nodded. “You too, Rivy. You’ll wanna hear this too.” She smiled. Aurivy’s eyes widened, and she nodded her head repeatedly.

Seeing that she had something to talk about with both of us, I went ahead and asked. “Would it be better to go ahead and talk about it, then give Ryone her personality when we’re done?”

Terra thought about it for a few moments, and agreed. “Alright. It won’t take long, I just wanted to ask your permission for something.”

Okay, now I was surprised. “Since when do you ask for my permission for things?”

Terra had a small grin on her face when she answered. “Since it involved using divine powers for certain reasons. Anyways, you’ll see if you check the map, but the ninja village was established during the recent skip. If it’s just the people I sent originally, they’ll die out from lack of numbers before they have any room to grow. So, I wanted to get permission to have little Rivy here,” She pet Aurivy’s head, causing the smaller goddess to squirm, “use her Travel domain to send people in the forest who are lost to the village.”

Aurivy stopped her uncomfortable squirming when she heard that, and her head snapped up. “Really, sis?! I can help make the ninja village, too?!” Her eyes were wide and practically sparkling, and when she turned that gaze to look at me, I couldn’t really deny it.

“Okay… But only within reason. Only people who have actually lost their way, and only from that same forest. I don’t want you to accidentally split up families because someone got lost going for a walk in the woods, okay?” Aurivy’s head nodded rapidly to these conditions, excited by the idea of the ninja village.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” She called out happily, pulling me over and giving both Terra and I a tight hug. “Oh I love you both, thank you! This is so cool!”

Terra had a silly grin on her face as Aurivy thanked her, and I could only chuckle helplessly. It seemed that Terra really was weak to the cuteness of the little goddess. “Okay, now, I think we had other plans to do first?” Aurivy seemed to remember why she was here in the first place when I said that, backing up to look at the still motionless Ryone.

Closing my eyes, I began taking notes for what I wanted from Ryone’s personality. First, I wanted her to enjoy magical research, so that she would help advance magic for the world. Secondly, I wanted her to be good with money, for various reasons. And finally, like with the others, I wanted to bind her to me and Terra with love, while making her see Aurivy as a cute little sister.

Once those choices were set, and I spent the twenty points to buy the personality, the familiar golden light descended. As it wrapped around Ryone, infusing itself into her body and mind, I saw her muscles seem to relax. Her chest started to rise and fall in steady breaths, and her eyes became more focused as she looked at me.

When the light faded, she gave a quick glance around the room, blinking rapidly. After a few moments, she smiled and walked over towards me without a word. Not knowing what to expect, I was certainly caught off guard when she suddenly grabbed my head, pulling me in for a kiss. Her tongue danced around my mouth, and she pressed her body against mine. My eyes were wide in surprise, and I could see Terra’s anger rising behind Ryone.

However, just as she was about to charge over and rip the elven goddess off of me, Ryone broke the kiss with a wide smile. Turning around, Terra was just about to say something when she too was pulled into a kiss by the goddess. She let out a muffled shout at first, but soon her eyes lazily closed, and I could hear a soft purring coming from her throat. Meanwhile, Aurivy had both of her hands covering her eyes, as if she was afraid to see what was going on.

I… think the love setting may have been a bit too strong on this one.