World Keeper: Birth of a World

by Justin Miller

  45 points per True Divinity

  Looking through the Special Class list, it seemed that all of them were cases that had to be approved by either a Keeper or a god, and typically all of them were paid per unit, rather than just paying once to unlock the class in the system. I suppose that made sense, though. With the False Divinity class, only one could exist within the world’s system at a time. Though, from what Grimor said, it might be possible for other people to train themselves to that level.

  Anyways, with this I had an answer to my question about the energy types. The different combinations do possess their own results… But with Ninja being the only basic class, the others must all be either incredibly difficult to achieve, or else incredibly powerful.

  I was tempted to buy up the advanced classes with what points I had remaining, but managed to restrain myself. The world was not yet ready for the stronger powers to be known. They hadn’t even finished discovering all of the current classes, yet.

  ...I forgot to ask how to do enchanting! I had wanted to ask that at the Keeper meeting, but the games distracted me! I even forgot to ask about other achievements! I hurriedly opened up the message window to consult Grimor about that again. While I didn’t want to rely on him too much, the only other option was to go back to the meeting and find random Keepers to ask. Even then, I’d have to rely on Grimor to get me an invitation back.

  Now, onto the things he told me, because this was pretty helpful. Enchanting wasn’t possible yet with the level of magic unlocked in my world, because none of the known spells had the ‘bestowal’ component. I could manually carve a spell into an item and ‘technically’ it would be a magic item, but rather than an enchanted item, it would merely serve as a container for the spell.

  For achievements, he did manage to tell me about a few that I could unlock early on, but he wasn’t of as much help here. After all, it had been a long time since he himself was at the stage to unlock these personal achievements. He could help with the world achievements, but that was it. Nonetheless, it was good information.

  I doubted that I would be earning some of those achievements, like the one for me to ‘breed’ a hero, by knocking up mortal women like Tryval is doing. I mean, the only reward for that one he mentioned is higher potential for any of my own offspring, so that’s not major. Sorry, Earth girls, but I have Terra. She’s much more attractive than anyone in the present age of Earth.

  Now, achievements that I can do. If I personally unlock all of the basic classes for the world, then that will be an achievement. Apparently, the reward for that one differs based on the number of classes. Likewise, I can make my presence known to the world, and become an ‘unofficial’ King of the Gods. The reward there is actually pretty good, as it allows me to grant each god a second domain for free. However, according to Grimor, it makes interfering in the world harder, because perceptive people will be able to see through to my true nature and know who I am.

  Maybe I can do that one later… I thought to myself. An achievement that I could do now… There is one, but I wasn’t sure if the reward was worth going out of my way for it. Shrugging, because I didn’t have much else needing done at the immediate time, I went ahead and decided to go through with it.

  Opening the menu, I chose to remodel my current Keeper body. This achievement required me to get used to a body considerably different from my own. Unsurprisingly, simply adding fox ears and a tail didn’t cut it, so I had to do some more drastic changes.

  As the only race different enough from humans for me to interact with were centaurs, I based my new body off of that. Unlike Tryval, I gave myself brown hair, and kept the features of my upper body the way they normally are. Once I confirmed the changes, I closed my eyes and waiting for the light to descend and change my body.

  The first change I noticed was a crashing sound, reminding me both that I had been sitting in my computer chair at the time, and that horses don’t tend to fit in those. Whoops… Next, I felt extreme discomfort from my lower body. I could feel that I was standing, but my legs felt as if they had fallen asleep.

  I knew what I would see when I opened my eyes, but that still didn’t stop me from being surprised by my large, equine half. Glancing back, I saw my chair had blasted itself back to the far wall to make room for me. Startled by the noise, Terra and Aurivy soon threw the door open and ran into the room, looking at me in wide eyes.

  “Big bro got bigger…” Aurivy said, looking up at me in amazement.

  “Yes… he did.” Terra grinned, though she wasn’t exactly looking up. No, bad catgirl! This form isn’t for that!

  Chapter 32

  After shooing the two of them out of the room, I glanced around our bedroom with mild dissatisfaction. This wasn’t nearly enough room for me to practice moving as a centaur. Closing my eyes, I tried to do what I had seen Terra do several times before. She was able to rearrange the entire Admin Room with but a thought, and had told me that I possess the same power as well. So, focusing, I tried to imagine the current room as a wide open field.

  When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to find that my little experiment had worked. No more were the walls of the bedroom blocking me in. Gone was the giant, soft bed that I enjoyed lying in whenever the opportunity arose. Now, the land around me was filled with tall grass, gently swaying in the breeze.

  “Great… Now, let’s get started.” I said to myself, before trying to take a step forward with my front right leg, then back left leg. Oh god, no! My leg doesn’t bend like that! I thought as pain erupted in my hind legs, and I tumbled to the side.

  As I had been used to walking with a certain type of leg my whole life, suddenly changing that was… difficult. While a horse’s front legs may be similar enough to what I was used to that I could control them, the back legs were the exact opposite. Bending my back legs, it felt like I was trying to twist my knees in a direction they were never meant to go.

  Well… now I was on the ground, so walking was out of the question. And, since I had fallen onto my side, I had enough room to practice stretching out and bending all of my horse legs. Really, though, the front legs felt almost like arms, with how they moved.

  After a few minutes of adjusting to how my new legs worked, I felt confident enough to stand up. Using one of my arms to push up, I rolled my lower body onto my stomach. Next, I extended my front two legs out to serve as a brace, while pushing my hind legs up.

  Slowly but surely, I found my way to my feet. I still felt unsteady, but at least I knew that I could get back up if I fell down. Now, let’s try this again. Front right leg, back left leg, front left leg, back right leg… repeat. Although each movement was shaky, with both my arms spread out to try and balance myself, I managed to slowly walk forward.

  “Okay… next, let’s try to pick up the speed a bit.” I said with a sigh, once I managed to start walking at a steady pace. I gradually picked up speed, walking faster and faster until either both my back left and front right legs, or my back right and front left legs were off the ground at the same time. This should be what is known as a trot, right?

  My knees still felt uneasy bending in this way, but it was nowhere near as unpleasant as that first step had been. Finally, I did my best to speed up further, moving to a full gallop. For this, my back right leg touched down first, pushing off while both my back left and front right legs touched down to balance me, finishing with my front left leg coming down and pushing off again.

  After a minute of running like this, and feeling the wind through my hair, I almost tripped again when a message window appeared in front of me.

  You have earned a personal achievement!

  For familiarizing yourself with a body type sufficiently different from your own, you have earned the Flexible achievement. Body Familiarity unlocked.

  I smiled slightly, slowing down to a walk as I read the message. According to Grimor, this achievement would make it so that I could easily become familiar with various body types in the future. While not supremely
useful now, such a quality could be a great deal of help in the future.

  With that taken care of, I focused on returning the area around me to the bedroom I had previously been using, before changing my body back to normal as well. I felt unsteady on my feet for a brief moment when I returned to just two legs, but that feeling quickly passed. With a sigh of relief, I went to see how the others were doing.

  In the next room, I found Terra and Aurivy playing dress-up again. This time, the smaller goddess was wearing a cute schoolgirl uniform, with a blue skirt that went down just above her knees and a white long sleeved shirt. “Muuu… big sis!” She complained as she looked at herself in the mirror.

  “Oh, come on. Just a few more.” Terra said with a large grin. Noticing me in the mirror, she turned and gave me a playful wink. “Done horsing around now, and ready to get back to work?”

  I chuckled lightly at the pun, but shook my head. “Nothing incredibly major happening right now that needs my attention. Probably going to talk with Tryval for a moment, and then fast forward. That should give the centaurs some time to get oriented before we make more drastic changes.” I then thought to myself. Depending on Tryval’s ability as a leader, I might not even need to particularly interfere for the thousand year period. I’ll need to figure out his plans for the centaurs when I call him up.

  Terra, listening to my words, nodded her head. “That sounds like a good idea. You still have a long way to go before the world can be brought together, and the races united. Until then, it will either be a case of waiting for the world to eventually advance on its own, or playing an active role to balance things out.”

  Well, from what all the other Keepers had told me, the latter was definitely the most beneficial. Even if I drastically raised the level limit and simply fast forwarded far enough, I could enter the games within a week. However, I would not be able to freely control the amount of power I’d have as a Keeper, and would be severely under-trained. Speaking of… “There is one more thing I was wanting to ask you about.”

  “Hmm?” Terra glanced over to me, about to move to Aurivy’s wardrobe, likely to find her another outfit.

  “How can I hide my Keeper powers a bit better? The family I met before seemed… almost like they could feel it. I certainly never expected them to behave that obediently.”

  Terra gave a small smile, pulling one outfit out of the wardrobe. This one looked like a uniform for a small witch, consisting of tiny black robes and a matching pointed hat. “That, huh? Well, it certainly would become a problem later, once people are able to piece together what it means.”

  Giving a small nod, she laid the outfit on Aurivy’s bed, before pulling the small girl up into her lap to hug while she spoke. “The matter of training yourself to hide your Keeper status is fairly simple. You just have to be able to determine what powers come from yourself, and what ones come from being a Keeper. After that, imagine a wall between the two. Now, that wall won’t do you any good if you start pulling from your Keeper powers, so you’ll need to be careful to only use your personal abilities.”

  “Put me down~!” Aurivy cried out pitifully in Terra’s lap, flailing her short arms to try to get free while the older goddess explained.

  “Of course, this doesn’t apply to your health, so that one will simply take a bit of acting. You’ll need to pretend that injuries are as bad as they appear, and maybe even play dead when your health would normally be depleted.” Terra continued, completely ignoring Aurivy’s attempt to free herself.

  “That… sounds pretty simple, actually.” Honestly, I had been expecting to go through another set of hellish training with Terra when I brought it up. But, I much prefer this answer! “Well, can you call up Tryval? I’m about to go pause the world so I can talk with him without his unicorn ladies noticing he’s missing.”

  Terra nodded in response, so I turned and went back to my room, quickly finding the option to pause that Time Zone. Almost as soon as I did, I heard hooves hitting the floor behind me. “What do you require, my liege?” Turning around, I saw Tryval in all his glory, standing in front of me with his arms crossed at his chest.

  “Let’s talk for a bit. Some things I need you to understand, and other things I need to hear from you.” He gave a passive nod to what I said, so I started.

  “First, what is your plan for the centaurs? This is something I need to know, so that there won’t be conflicts, and can either aid you or correct you if needed.” Tryval wasn’t born with system knowledge like Terra was, so he only has what he has seen, or what thoughts I put in him when I made him.

  There was another brief nod before Tryval began speaking. “First, I will raise a family with the two women I have accepted as my priestesses. Once the family is large enough, I intend to showcase their power to the wandering herds as they fall to danger. At the same time, I will keep on the lookout for other variants born that I may take into the family, if their parents would not have them.”

  I nodded my head as I listened to his words. “And what are you going to do about the parents who would rather kill their variant offspring?” Although I had not witnessed such actions firsthand, the fact that not a single pegasus centaur was alive was a strong indicator that it happened.

  Tryval’s face darkened. “They will be warned beforehand. If they do not heed that warning, and a parent still dares to harm their foal, I will not be merciful. No parent should do such a thing to a child, simply for being born.”

  Well, I liked his logic, but not how far he was preparing to go. “How about this? Send the warning to every centaur of the world, and then do so again in another fifty years. At first, they will fear your wrath, especially if a herd or two disobey you. But, once a few variants begin appearing, things might get better for them. After that, you can showcase your unicorn family.”

  Tryval considered my words for a few moments. “Very well, my liege. I will follow your words. I will strive to raise my herd high enough in that period.”

  I nodded, and then a thought occurred to me. “What are you going to do about the offspring for the twins? I mean, they’ll need breeding partners, too, won’t they?”

  Tryval didn’t even hesitate before giving his answer. “Naturally, if there are no suitable stallions for the task, I shall take care of it myself. It is important to continue the lineage.”

  “Wait, wait, wait, no!” I violently shook my head, waving my arms in front of me. “Denied, not allowed. New rule, the father shall not breed the daughter. This rule must be kept!” It might sound wrong of me to want to enforce modern day morals onto an archaic society, but I can’t help it! Fathers can’t do that!

  “Pardon, my liege?” Tryval looked at me in confusion. “Then, what is it I am supposed to do? As you said, I need to raise the herd. If I am not an active breeding partner beyond the first generation, there is a chance that there might not be any males born.”

  “Well… find someone! Use a son from the other twin if you have to, at least that way they’re only half-siblings. Or, find a willing male centaur. But, fathers can’t mate with their daughters! Completely not allowed!”

  Tryval had a troubled look on his face as he listened. “Very well, my liege. I shall do my best to uphold your words. You said there were things you needed to tell me, as well?”

  Distraction sighted, and accepted! “That’s right. I need to show you some things.” Reaching down to my computer desk, I grabbed my book of spells to hand to Tryval. “Unicorn variants, and the so far unseen qilin variants, are both extremely talented in magic. Memorize these spells, and begin training the twins. When their children are born and ready to train, have their mothers teach them. Assuming, of course, that they are born as the same variant.”

  Tryval accepted the book, slowly looking through it. After a few long minutes of committing the patterns within to memory, he handed it back. “My thanks. I shall follow your words in this matter, as well. Is there anything else you require of me?”

  I thought about it, but sho
ok my head. “That should be all. I’ll be speeding up the world after I send you back, and see how things look in a few years.” He gave me a brief nod, before again vanishing into thin air. With a shrug, I turned around and resumed the Time Zone. Let’s see how this ends up, then.

  Chapter 33

  Fifty years passed in the blink of an eye. For the majority of the centaurs, that fifty years did not amount to much. However, I checked the population statistics for the variant races, and discovered something. First, the pegasus centaurs. There were actually two that had been born and were still alive. Looking into it, they were each still treated as outcasts within their herd, but they had not been trampled.

  Now, for the unicorn centaurs… Tryval has been busy… I let out a small sigh as I looked at the numbers. There were a total of fifty-seven unicorn centaurs now, and all of them were in his herd. One of the variants that I had been worried about not having the ability to establish a stable population had started to do so thanks to divine intervention.