Bihena’s glare turned to face me for a moment, before she took a deep breath to calm herself. “The humans are being idiots, naturally. As soon as that kingdom system went live, they started to declare war. Fuck, I even warned them that I’d be back if they went through with stuff like this.”
I was… honestly surprised that she wasn’t mad at me this time, given the circumstances that caused her anger. Seeing my apparent confusion, she shook her head with a bitter smile. “Not your fault this time. Ryone gave me a heads up earlier that this system would come in, so I had plenty of warning. Not opposed to the system or anything, just wish they weren’t so battle-hungry.”
“I see…” I nodded my head slightly, giving a mental thanks to the absent elf goddess. “Well, if you can’t get them to stop fighting, why not try to set down rules on how they can fight?”
Bihena’s head snapped up to look at me as I said that. “Explain, quickly.”
“W-well..” Her suddenly urgent tone caught me off guard, but I suppose she likely wanted to take care of this before the situation became irreparable. “For instance, passing down rules such as not wantonly killing innocent bystanders. Fighting the enemy army is one thing, but killing people that aren’t fighting is something else entirely.”
Bihena listened closely to my idea, nodding her head heavily when I was done. “I think I get it. If they have to fight, fight in a way that minimizes losses.” With that said, she closed her eyes, focusing on something.
* * *
In almost every human city, a statue of Bihena had been erected. These statues became something that the people deemed as necessary, as if not having one would incur the wrath of the goddess of battle. Even though it had been some time since she descended upon the world, few dared to think what would happen if they truly angered her.
And now, at the same time, every statue of Bihena among the human cities seemed to come alive all at once. Each one spoke with moving lips, no matter how crude their design. “Listen well, for I shall speak this only once.”
The moment the booming voice called out from the statue, it seemed to cover every corner of the city, as well as a considerable distance outside the walls. Men cowered in fear at the angry tone their goddess used. Kings and Queens alike tensed up, remembering the orders for war that they had sent mere moments earlier. But no matter which city you looked at, none dared to ignore Bihena’s words.
“These are the doctrines of war, and shall be the rules by which you engage in battles. Any army found to break these rules will be treated as if they wish to defy my orders.” The statue then began to spout several rules which must be followed. These rules were generally along the lines of preventing people from attacking the innocent in times of war. Although no rules were set to monitor the acts of individual soldiers, it was clear that any army openly committing heinous acts would have to personally answer to Bihena.
Those who were able to were quickly writing down any notes that they could take from Bihena’s words, unwilling to allow their people to accidentally break these doctrines in the future. It was at this point that a familiar voice rang out in their ears, notifying them that they had unlocked a new class.
* * *
While Bihena was busy doing… whatever it was she was doing, I started to put the living room back to how it was before I gave Tubrock his personality. Thankfully, she had positioned herself out of the way, so there was no need to disturb her while I placed the furniture and the TV back down. By the time I was done, Bihena still had not come out of the trance that she seemed to have placed herself in.
It was only roughly ten minutes later when she finally opened her eyes, letting out a long sigh of relief. Looking around the room, she blinked in surprise, before moving to sit down on the couch. “Okay… that is taken care of. Hopefully, they’ll manage themselves well enough that I won’t have to take action any time soon.”
I nodded my head, sitting atop a chair next to the couch. “Would be nice. So, how did it go with Tubrock?”
Bihena looked at me questioningly for several long moments, before something seemed to register. “Oh shit, I left him alone in the kitchen.” Forgetting her earlier tension, the human goddess bolted to her feet and rushed out of the room, as if she were running to prevent a disaster.
I could only let out a brief laugh, shaking my head back and forth as I watched her run out in a panic. “Okay… what’s left.” I thought on it for a bit, and decided to finally get the calendar from the market. It was only five points, and would help me keep track of time better. Considering that I don’t need to sleep anymore, it is very difficult to properly track days.
Following that, I went ahead and started making a forge area for Tubrock. Thanks to Terra’s ‘teaching’ earlier on, I was familiar with the basic construction of a forge, and could easily implement it into a new room. As for his own personal room… I’ll let him create that himself. I’m not being less considerate because he’s a guy, okay? I made him the forge, after all! I’m not, okay?!
Anyways, with that taken care of, I started heading back up to my room again, so that I could take a look at the computer. It seemed like a good time to fast forward again, now that all the civilizations had a deity to watch over them. Not only that, but I was running out of systems that seemed like they would be good to add to the world. At this point, it was just a matter of watching their civilizations grow for a while.
Hmm… I looked at the culture options again, considering whether or not I should do something with them now that I had a surplus of points. This was not something to do with the market, so I wouldn’t be breaking my own rules to let Ryone handle that stuff! It was just a matter of if I thought that it would help.
Now, I admit that it would be fun to do something erotic with some of the cultures, but that was not really what I wanted with this. I mean, if I build their culture around sex, then what are they supposed to do when the games start? They aren’t demons that get stronger through sex or anything like that, so it’d just be for the entertainment value.
I could focus some of them on developing science, or magic, or building a stronger culture… After thinking about it, I decided to assign a few civilizations a fifty year secondary priority, like I had initially done with the elven kingdom. This way, it would help balance things out a bit more.
For the dwarves, I gave the mountain kingdom Flame’s Peak a fifty year priority on crafting sciences. For the humans, I gave them a fifty year priority on internal security, so that they can better protect themselves from monsters. Halflings had only barely established what could be called a kingdom, with the mayor of one of the vagrant cities being appointed the ruler of the area around it. For them, I gave them the priority of developing language and communication.
I didn’t assign anything to the Daeva, as they were basically getting the leftovers of all the other races combined, which would likely help them grow faster than any one race. But, for the centaurs, I had them work on construction techniques for fifty years. That seemed like it would be the biggest hurdle for them, given their unconventional body type.
And finally, I assigned the kingdom of Terraria fifty years of developing their own culture. As they already had the advantage in numbers, and a significant lead in multiple fields of research, I figured that this was the best direction for them to proceed in. Nodding to myself, I committed the changes, and spent the necessary fifty points to confirm them.
And now… let’s do a fifty year fast-forward, to see the results of those choices.
Chapter 53
I watched the map as time quickly passed, notifications popping up one after another. Each race was diving into their own specialties more and more after the points had been spent. In under a minute, fifty years had passed already. Looking at each race’s abilities now, I found that there had been several advancements.
For example, the citizens of the halfling city seemed to have reached the next level of the Language technology, meaning that they had given b
irth to a more flexible writing system than what they had before. However, most importantly, there was another technology that appeared throughout the world, which every race seemed to have learned over the last fifty years.
* * *
Jarl Waterspout laid back on a tall hill, the grass around him soaked in his blood. On either side of him, the bodies of beasts could be seen. To his right, a tiger with spines running down its back. And to his left, a bird as big as a man. Both of these creatures laid unmoving, wounds covering their bodies.
Having finally managed to flee one beast, the other had ambushed him, leading to a three-way fight to the death. And death is all that came of such a fight. Now, he could only stare at the night sky, praying to the gods that some miracle would save him. His right eye had been clawed out, his canine tail bitten off. His side had a hole in it large enough that he had to hold his insides in.
Please… anyone… He looked up at the sky, wishing for the gods to answer. However, no matter how hard he prayed, no matter how much he wished, no miracle would save him. He held on for several long minutes, before his faith turned into despair. He knew that the gods existed, such knowledge is given to every man and woman at their birth. But, at this moment, he had to wonder if they were really watching from that sky littered with shining dots.
If those shining lights weren’t the eyes of the goddesses watching over them, then what were they? Did they exist purely to taunt those people who existed beneath the heavens? As these thoughts occurred to him, a strange scene took place, one which had never occurred throughout all of history.
The sky moved. The stars danced within the night, shooting to and fro under some unknown power. Lines of light littered the sky, painting a picture none had ever seen. Some lights flickered out of existence, while others fell, and still more appeared from nowhere.
What… is… This was the last sight that Jarl ever saw, as the lights of his eyes faded away while he watched the night sky dance. Throughout the world, people noticed the changing of the sky, and for the first time, people questioned what the heavens truly held. For seven days, the nights danced. And seven nights later, the sky fell.
* * *
Krasla sat beneath the trees, her tiny body watching the ever-slowing dance of the stars above. To her left sat her beloved companion, the wolf which had accompanied her through most of her adult life. Ever since the changing of the sky, she had been fascinated with watching how the mysterious lights moved about.
Sadly, it seemed that the performance was nearly over. For the last two nights, the lights above had moved less and less, and now they were barely moving at all. The halfling girl was just about to turn in for the night, when a strange whistling noise caught her attention. Quickly looking up, she saw the lights dancing again!
However, this dance was not the same as what had been occurring for the last week. The lights drew a path along the horizon, upon which a bright light momentarily lit up. Several moments later, she could feel the ground shaking, as if the world itself was angered with this performance.
Krasla didn’t know what to do. How could she soothe the anger of the entire world? She looked up at the sky, and quietly pleaded for it to go back to its former dance. Her words seemed to have some effect, but not at all what she was hoping for. Her wolf companion jolted itself awake, letting out a miserable howl as it tugged on her leather shirt.
The halfling girl could sense the fear in the wolf, but did not know what was so wrong. Was she not supposed to ask the sky to stop angering the world? When she looked back up to plead once again, she saw one particular light growing brighter and brighter. A dreadful roar, louder than any beast shook the area.
Finally, when the light could go no brighter, the earth shook once again. Sadly, Krasla was no longer able to plead with the sky.
* * *
Cosmic Knowledge 1 has been unlocked on your world. The cosmos is now expanding beyond the world itself, and new planets may be automatically unlocked. These planets will contain all installed systems, but will be beyond the direct control of the Keeper, unless they pay the appropriate cost. From now on, random cosmic effects may occur within the unlocked cosmos.
Current Cosmic Scale: Single Planetary System
One planet has been created in your cosmos that has been deemed capable of supporting life. The price to purchase control over this planet will be calculated based on the planet’s size, inhabitants, and civilization levels.
I couldn’t help but be surprised when I saw those notifications appear. Given that none of the options I selected had anything to do with watching the sky, I wasn’t really expecting anything like this. More importantly, the map of the world had expanded dramatically. To be precise, I could now view the entire solar system when I zoomed the map out.
Unlike what I had always been taught in science class, there were actually thirteen planets in this solar system. Among them, Earth was the sixth from the sun. I couldn’t be sure if the gravity of this sun was especially powerful, or if the laws of physics had simply been tweaked to accommodate a planet of the size I chose for Earth.
Either way, I naturally checked the dozen other planets in the system, looking for the one that the system had said was able to support life. What I found was that the seventh planet from the sun, one that seemed far smaller than the current Earth, was locked out of time. It rotated extremely rapidly, and I could only zoom in to watch the desolate world slowly covering in blue and green.
“Ah, looks like you got lucky.” I suddenly heard Terra’s voice behind me, so I silently turned back to her for an explanation. “It’s pretty rare to get multiple planets in a starting system that can support life. You could say it’s both good and bad, in a way.”
“What do you mean?” I could see the potential good in it, but why was it bad?
“Well, it can end up pretty bad if you don’t actually buy the planet. But, if you do, then you have to manage a second world. At this stage, few Keepers are comfortable enough to actually get a second planet, which is entirely understandable.” She walked over to sit on the bed, lounging back and stretching herself out.
“What happens if I don’t buy the planet?”
She offered me a small, patient smile. “If you don’t control the planet, then naturally you can’t determine how they advance. They could be wiped out by natural disasters, kill themselves, or any number of things. The gods you elect also have no power over a planet that you do not control, so we couldn’t interfere if we wanted.”
“Okay…” That seemed somewhat reasonable. So, there was the chance that this planet could even develop to eventually be antagonistic with Earth. “What’s with the sudden acceleration of time on the planet, then?”
This time, she let out a small sigh before answering. “The world is going to fast forward until some species evolves and develops sapience. However, none of these species are protected by the system, so it is entirely possible that they could simply be driven extinct before that happens. That’s what happened to your Mars. A race on the verge of sapience was killed off by a natural disaster, and the world just continued to move on until the planet had no hope of developing new lifeforms anymore.”
“Ah…” Well, that sucks.
“But that’s not the most important part.” Terra said with a small grin. “You haven’t finished going through your notifications yet.”
I blinked briefly, looking back to the computer. She was right, but could you blame me? The whole cosmos thing was kind of distracting. Once again, I opened up the notifications to see what was left.
Some of your species have undergone a natural evolution, and will have their base stats permanently changed for all successive generations.
Humans: Strength +1
Halflings: Awareness +1
Okay, now that caught me off-guard. “They can do that? I mean, they can really do that?” Nobody had ever mentioned anything about my races evolving past the point I set them at!
Terra let out a small giggle
as she heard me. “It’s only natural, isn’t it? With every generation growing more and more powerful before they pass on their genes, it’s bound to happen where a bit of that power is left behind. Of course, it won’t show a notification like that until the extra power has had time to spread through the gene pool, to show an effect on the entire population, rather than just a select few.”
I nodded my head slightly, still looking at the notification window. “Why only those two races, though? I mean, I can understand why it would take longer for the elves with their long lives, but why not the beastkin, dwarves, or centaurs?”
Terra thought about it for a moment, before offering her opinion. “The beastkin have a much larger population than most, so it will probably take them longer to show an evolution. The centaurs are probably not too far off from one themselves. As for the dwarves, they don’t improve their power as quickly as the other races, so they are probably a bit behind on that.”
World Keeper: Birth of a World Page 40
