World Keeper

Chapter 690: New Hire

Lifre blinked as she stared at the goddess standing before her. “Wait, I’ve seen you somewhere before.” She said, before tilting her head at a wholly unnatural angle, as if that would give her a better look at the goddess.

The pink-haired girl merely waited with an amused smile on her face while Lifre sifted through her memories, before the latter suddenly jolted upright in realization. “Ah! You’re Aurivy, the Goddess of Love, Travel, and Whatnot!”

Aurivy’s eye twitched slightly at that. “Dungeons. Love, Travel, and Dungeons. But yes, that’s me.”

“Don’t sweat the details.” Lifre shrugged her shoulders, waving it off. “So, what is this proposition you’ve got for me? Just so you know, I’m already married--”

“No, you’re not.” Aurivy smirked, raising an eyebrow as she interrupted Lifre.

“--I’m married to the idea of staying single!” She stuck her tongue out, earning a faint chuckle from the halfling goddess. Her cheeks puffed up, and she stared at Aurivy in silence to prompt her to talk.

“Do they still teach kids about the Keeper back home?” Aurivy asked, planting her hands on her hips and grinning towards Lifre.

“Keeper… that’s like, the boss above the boss above the boss, right?” Lifre asked. “The big guy of all creation?”

“That would be the one.” Aurivy gave a small nod. “He’s currently looking for an additional helper. He has two right now, but they are needing reinforcements for various tasks. Given your recent battle against the God of Wind in the dungeon, I think you have met the qualifications to serve as the Keeper’s personal aide.”

The white-skinned Lifre was practically bubbling with excitement as she listened to the job offer. No… she was actually bubbling. Still, she calmed herself enough to ask what she felt like were the important questions. “What do I get if I accept? And what will I be needing to do?”

Aurivy’s smile grew a touch wider. “Well, first of all… it is my power that is locking the slimes’ abilities to ascend to divinity. You guys just learn and adapt too quickly, and we can’t have millions of gods suddenly appearing, you know? If you accept the deal, I’ll undo your seal, and you will be able to properly integrate the divine power of the wolf you just ate to ascend to divinity. Additionally--”

“I’ll do it!” She shouted out happily, bouncing over to rest directly in front of Aurivy. Her eyes began to sparkle with the realization that this would allow her to ascend and become a true goddess. “Becoming the Keeper’s assistant or whatever, I’ll do it!”

It had been Lifre’s dream ever since she began training to one day become a goddess herself. She studied every form of instruction manual she could get her hand one, whether they were for crafting, magic, combat, even farming. She thought that a goddess should know as much as she can about everything.

Partly due to Lifre’s persistence, Tower had even opened an academy in his dungeon city. It was hidden away through a maze of secret passages, but he allowed word of it to spread through the workers of the city. Within a week, Lifre had deciphered almost every secret passage in the city to find the academy, until she finally charged into the building.

As the city’s workers were the other dungeon cores found throughout the various worlds, they were able to teach a wide selection of topics. At the very least, it was far more than she would have learned from any library, and she was able to get hands-on instruction from someone that seemed to know everything she could want to learn about a subject.

After Lifre herself discovered the academy, it was years before their next student appeared, this one a studious young nethrak that wanted to simply learn more about the world. To Lifre, it was terrible to have taken so long to find a few hidden passages. Sure, there were a few traps, and some of them teleported you straight into the dungeon, but that was part of the fun! If you didn’t want to go to the dungeon, why would you live in a dungeon city?!

Sadly, even after learning everything she could learn from the academy, she did not feel herself coming any closer to her dream. She looked through various legends of both her own race and those of the nethrak, and eventually found an old story that speculated slimes could only become a god if they devoured the divine energy of another god.

With her new goal, Lifre redoubled her training. She dragged her friend, Flandre, into the dungeon with her to fight and gain experience. Her level soared as she was able to put the information she acquired from the academy to practical use, developing her own fighting style of using her body as the ultimate weapon.

However… even that hope was dashed after she defeated her most recent adversary, as she had properly absorbed his divine essence without having the chance to reach divinity herself. Now, she had learned that the reason why she and other slimes had not been able to ascend was because of the small goddess in front of her. At first, she was frustrated with this knowledge, but that immediately faded when she heard the offer made by the goddess.

This was the chance to accomplish her lifelong dream. Furthermore, the way the goddess had worded her new offer made it sound as if there would be another adventure awaiting her after she accepted. She did not even need to hesitate, as there was nothing more that Lifre could ask for.

Aurivy blinked at Lifre’s sudden acceptance, realizing that she hadn’t even gotten to explain what Lifre’s actual job would be. “Okay. I’ll release your seal, and then send you to the home of the Keeper. Once you’re there, there will be someone that can help you use the divine power within your body to ascend. Until then, I’d suggest filtering it as much as you can to remove the traces of the Wind domain. Unless, of course, that’s the domain you want.”

Lifre shook her head adamantly at that, immediately setting to work filtering the divine energy. Even if she had never possessed the ability to wield divine power before, this was one of the things that had been taught in the academy. A course that she had been especially attentive for.

Seeing how eager Lifre was to get started, Aurivy offered a small smile. “I guess I chose right.” She said, stretching her hand out to place it on the center of Lifre’s chest. “Child of my child, one who has been sealed by the restrictions of slimes, I release your lock. May your future be boundless and unhindered.”

Lifre felt as if something shifted inside of her when Aurivy said that. Like there was a sudden warmth within her core that seemed to radiate with the new energy that she had obtained. Lifre jumped with joy as golden mist swirled around her body, blinking as she realized she was being transported away. “Wait, I never told Flandre I beat--”

Tsubaki and Dana were walking the halls of the Sky Citadel together, inspecting for anything that needed cleaning. It had been three days since Tsubaki’s request to have a new servant join their ranks. When she had made her request, Aurivy said that she would find someone shortly to send by for Tsubaki to appraise. Sadly, she did not say when this new arrival would appear, so they could only go about their days as normal for the time being.

Dana still appeared to be in high spirits, something that Tsubaki was relieved to find, as she had been worried that her adopted sister might quickly sink into depression. Thankfully, the fact that Tsubaki was making an effort to find help so that they could spend more time together appeared to help Dana’s mindset quite a lot.

“I think we got everywhere today…” Dana muttered, looking into the final room. “Anything new from the other world reports?”

Tsubaki shook her head at that, smiling towards Dana. “Not today. Have you and Blank decided what sort of game you want to make together?”

Dana’s face lit up at that. “We’re still in the planning stage right now. I’m thinking a hardcore survival game so far. Imagine it like Vision Expanse, but without any NPCs. The entire game is operated by players, and only up to a thousand players can start on the same planet. That means that they’ll need to develop all the tools necessary to reach other planets with just that select group of people.”

Tsubaki blinked as she heard about that concept. “Are you not concerned that the difficulty will be too high and it will turn players away?”

Dana shook her head, a small grin on her face. “This is only meant to be a game for people that enjoy that kind of challenge! I might set up a more casual server as well, though, where planets have a much higher population limit.”

“-the boss!” Suddenly, the two girls heard an unfamiliar voice just ahead of them, and both of them prepared to fight. Dana’s shadows surged as she drew a sword from the ground behind her, and Tsubaki’s tails lit up with brilliant light.

This was the Sky Citadel, after all. Although there were numerous spells and techniques that could penetrate its barrier, there were few daring enough to do so without making a prior request. Thus, the two girls were immediately ready to fight when they heard the voice of the stranger, their eyes turning to look at the arrival.

What they found was a pale white girl wrapped in golden mist, her skin a wholly unnatural shade for any race belonging to the primary worlds. The girl barely stood taller than Dana, landing on her feet with a faint bounce and looking around in confusion. “Is this the Keeper’s home?” She asked with a tilt of her head.

“That’s right…” Dana nodded slowly, her hand grasping tight the handle of the sword she was holding. “Who are you?”

“I’m Lifre! Aurivy sent me so that you can make me a goddess!” Lifre beamed happily at that, before blinking. “Oh, and I can help out here and become an assistant. I’m not a bad slime, so please take care of me!” She clasped her hands together when she said that, causing the other two to look at her in confusion.

“A… slime?” Tsubaki asked, certain that she had misheard.

“Yup! I’m a mimic slime. This is a body I gained when I found a little girl deep in the dungeon. She was already dead, but I didn’t want her family to think she just ran away from home, so I ate her body and went to find them!” Lifre smiled proudly when she said that.

“You… ate her body because you didn’t want her parents to worry… why didn’t you just carry it back?” Dana questioned, seeming more concerned for the slime’s mental wellbeing than for the fact she could have been a hostile entity at this point.

“Well, I didn’t know where she lived, obviously!” Lifre rolled her eyes as she said that. “When a mimic eats someone, we get just a little bit of their memories. It was enough for me to figure out where she lived so that I could go find her parents and tell them what happened!”

Dana looked over at Tsubaki, whispering to the kitsune. “Since when have there been talking mimics? Did I miss an important memo?”

Tsubaki shook her head at that, being equally clueless. “You said that Lady Aurivy sent you?”

“Oooh, Lady, huh? That sounds fancy! Will I be a Lady after I become a goddess? Wait, no, don’t answer that, I’ll find out myself. And yeah, she sent me! She said you wanted an assistant, and that I was fit for the job after killing some wolf god. She even promised one of you could help me become a god myself!” Lifre smiled expectantly towards the two, watching as their bodies slumped down.

“I guess that would be me, then.” Tsubaki nodded her head, as she had experienced the process of helping someone ascend firsthand. “Have you made any progress yourself?”

“Nope!” Lifre proudly declared. “Aurivy said that she sealed slimes so that they can’t become gods without her permission, but she released my seal before sending me here. But, I’ve got a bunch of divine energy from eating the wolf god!”

Tsubaki’s brow twitched slightly at that, thinking that this new ‘recruit’ of theirs had quite a lot of energy, but not in the divine sense. “Alright, let’s get to work then.”

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