Many minds felt this to be contradicting, that one person cannot represent both aspects. You cannot call for peace while walking amidst a field of blood. However, they were forced to accept this, for now. None had forgotten the words she had left behind, and none doubted that she would truly be willing to carry out her threats.
For the centaurs, there were mixed feelings regarding the new power which Tryval held. Those of the variant city immediately began proclaiming their willingness to follow this new direction, while the standard herds hesitated. They had not truly grown accustomed to the existence of their unfamiliar kin, and could not entirely accept fellowship with them yet. However, they knew from stories of old what would happen to those that angered the God of the Plains, and could only hide their unwillingness in their hearts.
Next were the dwarves, whose reaction was among the least between the different races. They had no word to describe the new realm of power their deity held, but they knew its meaning. However, this did not change their daily life. They still mined their mountains and lit their forges, finding new and interesting shapes that they could bend their metal towards.
For those in the afterlife, given that they were a conglomeration of every race, they naturally understood that it wasn’t just their own god or goddess that had obtained new power. Every deity had been enhanced, and it made them look at the statue standing in the Temple Square with even more reverence.
Among the spirits, many began working to build around the statue, with permission from Irena. They were going to create the first true temple, a place to worship all gods, as well as the mysterious figure that was shrouded in mystery. Many didn’t understand why Irena would look at their work with a complicated gaze, but many stories began to spread.
Some said that the sculptor that made the work was a secret lover to their goddess, and that she was reminded of both him and the man who held power over her whenever she looked at the statue. The cold image of the goddess was replaced with the figure of a troubled girl whose heart was torn between two men for those who believed this story. Others, suspected that the man who sculpted the statue may have been an emissary from the hidden king of the gods, and that Irena was not sure if he would approve of a temple surrounding his work. Yet, she never moved to stop them, for whatever reason.
Finally came the beastkin. Like in the afterlife, the presence of four races gave them the knowledge of four gods expanding in power. And, similar to the afterlife, they began to have the desire to erect shrines for their goddesses. Although there was no memory of their goddesses directly interfering with the course of history, they would forever know of their power.
Among the beastkin cities, more than half began gathering as many as they could find with even the most primitive crafting abilities. Even if it was a statue of sticks and rough stones, they would place it in a seat of power within their walls. Doing so caused them to feel a strange warmth, and made many receive such classes as Priest or Sculptor.
* * *
I gave a small nod after I confirmed the changes, but when I looked up, I found four women looking at me in a slightly irritated manner. All four of the sentient goddesses, even little Aurivy was among them. “Big brother, why’d you suddenly give us all a new domain?” She asked, a small amount of frustration in her voice.
“Well… I mean, isn’t it a good thing?” I was a bit confused, not understanding why they seemed upset. Having a second domain would only increase their power, right?
“Muuu….” Aurivy puffed her cheeks up, pouting slightly as she looked to Terra. However, it was the newest goddess that spoke next.
“You idiot, now we have twice as much work to do!” Bihena shouted out, throwing her arms into the air. “Especially me, now I have to manage both war and peace! You made me the fucking god of politics!”
Terra nodded her head lightly. “I’ve got it easy, at least my new domain isn’t widely used yet.” She gave a light sigh, shaking her head. “Really, Dale, you know how to give us more work.” She looked at me, smirking lightly. “Though, I do approve of the domain, just not the suddenness of it.”
Next came Irena, who had her arms at her side, looking conflicted. “I suppose you had the best intentions, but this is going to play havoc with the underworld, you know?” Aurivy leaned over and hugged Irena’s waist as she said that, causing the daeva goddess to relax slightly, petting her head.
“Gah, I can already hear all of their voices!” Aurivy complained, shaking her head and burying it in Irena’s side.
Terra looked at the halfling goddess, kneeling down and patting her back. “It’s okay, Rivy, I’ll teach you how to block out the prayers. That should help some.” She offered a gentle smile, and Aurivy turned around to cling to Terra instead, as if the hug was her way of thanking her. Of course, by the silly grin on Terra’s face, she was more than happy to accept this reward.
“Anyways, Dale!” Bihena shook her head, as if trying to bring back the tense atmosphere that began to fade away. “You need to consult us when you’re doing shit like this! It’s bad enough that we didn’t get a say in what domains you gave us, but we didn’t even see it coming until it was too late! How the fuck are we supposed to react to that?!”
“Ah… sorry about that. Didn’t think that there would be that side to it.” Honestly, I was still unclear on exactly what responsibilities the goddesses had. I mean, the ones still waiting for their personalities naturally weren’t doing anything. Yet, life did not end with Udona’s inactivity, people still hunted without Accalia’s guidance. All that I really knew was that they could influence those domains, and that they would receive the prayers of people following their domains.
“As long as you understand.” Bihena huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. Without waiting for the atmosphere to lighten again, she immediately stormed out of the room. “Now I’ve got to manage all the fucking empires…” She muttered quietly under her breath as she left, drawing a giggle from Terra, who was still happily holding a pouting Aurivy.
Chapter 41
After Bihena left, the other girls began calming down. Aurivy was still pouting, complaining about all the new voices in her head, so Terra picked her up and carried her away to teach her how to block them. I hadn’t even known that was possible, or I might have actually made myself a god. Then again, it’s still not a good decision. I mean, Terra already mentioned that the companions from the system can mentally keep track of the world even while it’s fast forwarding.
Irena, being the last in the room, sighed and shook her head, glancing over to me. “Just, let us know next time, alright?” I nodded my head in apology, and she smiled slightly before leaving. “And thanks for the door.” I heard her add that last line as she walked off.
Okay, now what… I looked to the computer screen, wanting to check on some things before I decided on my next move. First… the ninja family. After this last fast forward, it should have been about fifty years since they saw me. Assuming nothing strange happened, that should mean that the original ones I met had already died, and there should be a new generation.
Even though I did not know their exact location, finding them was not a difficult matter. I opened up the search function on the map, and chose to look for everyone with the ninja class. Given the requirements for it, I did not believe that anyone else should have been able to discover it yet, and my assumptions proved accurate.
There was a small cluster of dots on the beastkin island, showing a total of… Thirty ninjas? I wasn’t sure if I should be surprised that there were already that many, or concerned that there weren’t more. Zooming in, I saw that they were steadily moving deeper and deeper into the giant forest. Some of them were running normally, while others appeared to teleport between steps.
If I had to compare this forest by Earth standards… wait, let me zoom out. Hmm… this forest should be roughly the size of Europe, if I was doing my measurements right. Anyways, they were still a considerable distance from the center of the forest
, but they were moving directly in that direction. Naturally, this made me curious.
Zooming in further, I saw that several members of the group were carrying leather bundles, and the man in the front was looking at one in his hand. On it, there were… surprisingly, english letters. Thanks to that, I was able to figure out what was going on, simply by reading the contents.
Establish the Hidden Village
Arrive in the deepest region of the forest, construct one permanent home for every family. You must have at least twenty Ninjas present in order to complete this quest.
Reward: 5 levels in the Ninja class for every Ninja present.
I let out a sigh when I saw the contents of the quest. It was obvious that a god had issued it, since the reward was something that only a god could hand out. Speaking of which… shouldn’t I be able to do that, too? It might be limited to quest rewards.
Below the quest description, there was a map of the forest, with two dots. One showed their current position, while the other showed the position they needed to reach to complete the quest. That part surprised me a bit more, as I hadn’t remembered putting a map function into the quest system.
Well, there was really only one goddess that could have done this. I’ll ask Terra how she did the map later, after she’s done calming Aurivy down. Should also find out why she sent them to the deepest part of the forest, where they likely aren’t going to see another soul for at least a century, and why she used this quest system instead of the normal god-bestowed quests.
Taking a look at the group, there were actually around fifty people traveling. However, only thirty had the ninja class. Among the others, there were scouts, mages, monks, and alchemists. I could only guess that the others hadn’t received the training to get the class yet, and they were steadily training as they moved.
Shaking my head, I left the scene of them running through the forest, and turned towards the elves. Aside from the first kingdom, other groups of elves that had initially traveled further away had started coming together, forming their own villages. Though they did not share the mindset of uniting the race that Gandor held, it was clear that they were working in their own way to establish civilization.
Gandor itself was prospering, having slowly replaced their buildings with those made of worked stone and clay. Out of curiosity, I checked the levels of what appeared to be the key figures of the kingdom, namely those that were speaking with the current queen at the time. Aside from their levels, there was something else that shocked me.
One man who stood off to the side, speaking only when spoken to, had a strange aura. Unlike those of the others I’ve seen, his was not just one color, but looked like a rainbow of light shining off his body. Even though the aura only extended out six inches, it was still a curiosity, and something I would have to file away to ask Terra about later.
Now, back to their levels, which was also important. One of them, who held the title ‘Chief Mage of Gandor’, had thirty levels in the Mage class. While this might not seem like much to celebrate, it opened a door I have been waiting for.
At level 25, a Mage gains the spell Strengthen Other. This is a simple spell, which only has the purpose of increasing the strength stat of the target by 10. However, one of the aspects of the spell was the ‘imbue’ property, which I needed in order to begin enchanting. Leaning over to the side, I grabbed the spellbook that Terra made me, which had been updating with all of the spells unlocked in the world. Turning through the pages, I found that the Strengthen Other spell was indeed present.
A grin slowly formed over my mouth as I studied the spell, memorizing the new aspect. With this, I can finally start making some magic items. I thought back to all of the various swords and daggers that Terra made me create when she was teaching me how to smith, and how I could do something with them now, rather than keeping them as just pieces of sharp metal.
With a thought, I was in the training room, transitioning more naturally than I had any time before. I summoned out ten swords, and ten daggers, which appeared out of thin air from the room I had stored them. After scattering them around, I placed one directly in front of me, and began drawing the diagram to enchant. I knew the basic process for it, so this wasn’t hard.
Enchanting came in two main flavors, general enchants and ability enchants. The former merely amplified the natural attributes of the enchanted item, and was much simpler to perform, while the latter was more complicated, but allowed you to give items special properties. What I was doing right now was a general enchant on one of my swords.
General enchants were easy, with the only special requirement being that you needed to know the ‘imbue’ property. This came in the form of a single eight-sided star, with the points curved to form circles. Then, inside that eight-sided star, you needed to draw a circle that connected the eight innermost lines. Finally, place the item inside that circle.
I wasn’t going to risk my first time enchanting on doing this mentally, because I could easily get it wrong and ruin the whole spell. So, I simply drew out the diagram on the ground, and placed the sword over it. To finish it off, I began pouring mana into the diagram, which lit up with a brilliant white light.
Honestly, I was wasting this sword right now, and I knew it. Each material should have a limit for the amount of mana it can hold, and by constantly pouring mana into the enchantment diagram, I was seeing where that limit was. I had to make sure to regulate my mana, in order to steadily use one hundred every second.
About five seconds in, the blade began glowing with the same white light of the diagram, with cracks spreading out along its length. Almost immediately afterwards, it shattered in an explosion of light, the shrapnel spreading all throughout the room. And this is why I wanted to do this in the Admin Room. I thought to myself with a smile, as the fragments harmlessly bounced off my body.
So, normal iron swords can’t handle more than five hundred mana. So… a dagger should only be able to hold up to a little less than two hundred, then? I nodded inwardly, waving my hand for the next sword to fly up from the ground to appear above the circle.
This time, I directly enchanted it with three hundred mana before cutting off the supply. Once I stopped fueling the diagram, the sword began glowing with a gentle light, as if absorbing the diagram itself into it. When that was over, I brought the sword to my hand, grabbing it by the hilt. Focusing on it, a small window appeared in front of me.
Do you wish to name this item?
I shook my head to decline, after which a second window appeared, showing the item’s stats.
Enchanted Longsword
Sharpness: 8(+24)
Weight: 1kg
Durability: 100/100(+300)
I smiled slightly when I saw it’s abilities, and decided that I would try it out myself once I descended again. If its sharpness represented how well it could normally cut, then it should now be four times as effective. While that might not seem like a lot to me, who is used to more modern weapons, this would surely be one of the most powerful weapons on Earth right now.
Next, I decided to try doing ability enchantments. The reason this one was so much harder was because of the added complexity in the diagram. Inside each of the circles at the end of the eight sided star, I needed to draw the spell diagrams that I would be imbuing into the weapon. This gave a limit of eight abilities per enchant, but at the same time additional enchants should be possible later.
For triggered abilities, such as wrapping the weapon in fire on command, the center circle would be where the trigger is defined. However, I hadn’t unlocked any of the trigger diagrams yet, so I had to do a permanent enchantment. Out of the spells I knew that could be used to create permanent enchantments without harming the user… Light, Barrier, Heal, and Strengthen should be it.
Putting the first enchanted weapon to the side, I started drawing a Strengthen Other diagram inside each of the circles. Then, once that was done, I once again put another sword into the center, and used another three hundre
d mana to power it up. This time, aside from the simple glow of the enchanting diagram, the eight spell circles began rising up into the air, slowly spinning as they revolved around the sword, steadily drawing closer. When they all came into contact with the blade, they would fade into it, causing a pulsating light to appear along its length.
Eager to inspect the sword, I brought it over to me to identify once again, and once again chose not to personally name it.
Sword of Strength
Sharpness: 8(+5)
Weight: 1kg
Durability: 100/100(+60/60)
Special: +24 Strength
Now, this one really had me excited. The strength might not seem like enough, since most games use ten as the basic average. However, five is the normal human average in this system, meaning that this sword grants nearly five times an adult human’s strength. It’s enough that just wielding this sword would bring my normal stats up to the level my Keeper stats were, the last time I descended.
World Keeper: Birth of a World Page 31
