World Keeper

Chapter 692: Expectations Overturned

Flandre waited outside the stone door of the dungeon, staring at the entrance. His body shifted occasionally as he hoped that the door would open at any moment. Flandre had heard of fights taking hours, or even days to reach their conclusion, but he could not feel any intense vibrations from within the room. Was it the power of the dungeon itself that blocked those reverberations?

He had been waiting outside this room for two days at this point, unsure of the fate of his friend. During those two days, there had been no change within the door itself, the word ‘Wind’ still carved above it. Finally, he was unable to hold himself back anymore, and called out towards the walls of the dungeon.

“Lord Tower, may I know the status of the battle in the following room? My friend should be in there.” It was rare for the God of Monsters to respond to such a call, but this was the five star dungeon. As it was situated directly beneath the home of Tower, he assumed that it would be easy to get his attention.

And, it seemed as if Tower had decided to humor him, as he responded barely a moment later. “The battle within has long since settled. I am sorry, but your friend is no longer part of this world.” When the white slime heard that, his entire body shook violently. He couldn’t believe that Lifre would simply die alone in a quiet corner like that, and he dipped his head as if paying his respects for her.

“I see… I apologize for inconveniencing you, Lord Tower. I will return and perform the proper ceremonies.” After saying that, he turned to leave, but was cut off as the God of Monsters spoke to him again.

“You misunderstand my meaning. Your friend emerged victorious, and has left through a portal that appears when the god is slain.” Flandre’s form trembled even more violently when he heard that, his despair quickly vanishing. He looked up in amazement, realizing that Lifre truly did have the strength to kill a god as a mortal.

However, there is something that still bothered him. “Then… why did you apologize?”

“Because the battle only lasted ten minutes.” The answer confused Flandre, unsure why that would warrant an apology from a divine being. And then, he realized… he had been standing there for two days. It had been two days since Lifre left through the portal without saying anything.

“...Is it possible that the portal is only one-way, or it opens to an even more dangerous area?” He asked, forcing out a dry chuckle. How a slime was able to do anything dryly was already a wonder unto itself.

“Anyone who can earn the portal appearing will naturally be able to find a way to summon a similar portal. As for the destination… I am not at liberty to tell you the specifics, but know that the area is no more dangerous than this world.”

“In other words… she forgot?” He muttered, letting out a long groan. That was… very like Lifre, getting caught up in her own passions and forgetting about everything else for extended periods of time. There was one point where he lost track of her for over a year, only to later learn that she had found some hidden academy within the dungeon city.

“It would appear that way.” The deity confirmed, and Flandre could only shake his head bitterly. Realizing that there was truly no point in waiting for her any longer, he turned around and left the dungeon.

Once outside, he saw a swarm of people that had been eagerly awaiting news of Lifre’s conquest or defeat. Such people gathered around whenever anyone attempted the five star dungeon, so this came as no surprise. However, when they saw Flandre ascending the stairs alone, their expressions turned sorrowful.

Flandre was unsure how he should react to them. Should he tell them that the challenge was successful, but that Lifre forgot to return and celebrate her victory with her friends and the rest of the city? This was the very first time anyone had cleared the ‘god stage’ of the dungeon, so it was a fairly big deal. But… was it right to celebrate the victory without the main character present?

He merely shook his head, which further cemented the image that Lifre had lost the challenge. As the crowd began to disperse, Flandre looked over at them. Before anything else, he decided that he needed to inform Lifre’s friends that she was alive, even if there was no grand celebration of her victory.

Lifre felt… dizzy. As her consciousness returned, she felt the warmth was over her form, jiggling on a soft carpet. With a dramatic yawn, her body shifted, taking on the same appearance of the nethrak youth that she had become familiar with.

However, she felt something distinctly different, which was hard to put into words. Originally, a slime’s perception did not work the same as a normal person’s. They had their core, which was their true ‘body’ that contained their mind and soul. And then, they had their slime itself, which was produced by the core and connected to it.

As long as the slime body was connected to its core, every cell would simultaneously act as a muscle, a sensory organ, and potentially a mouth. Every single slime cell was identical to any other within the same slime, and stored the information of everything the slime had currently digested.

In this way, the slime’s only weak point was its core. No matter how much of its slime was pierced, bludgeoned, boiled, shredded, flattened, or severed, it wouldn’t do a single point of damage to the slime itself. On the other hand, if the core was attacked, it would be like directly attacking the heart and brain of a normal person. Any attack capable of surpassing the core’s defense would deal massive damage.

In terms of perception, this meant that a slime had two forms of perception. One was from the core itself, and the other from the linked slime body. The core would always feel as if it was drifting in an endless sea of comfort, with no eyes of its own to perceive the world. Meanwhile, the slime body would perceive light and sound from every direction at once, and even ‘taste’ everything it was in contact with. Unless, of course, it had set up a thin barrier to block out rather unpleasant tastes.

The point being… Lifre only felt one form of perception, that being the slime body she was currently in. There was no feeling of swimming through a gentle stream, being safely wrapped in her own embrace. She could not feel the existence of her core at all. “Heh… that can’t be right, right?” She chuckled awkwardly, focusing on searching through her body again with her special senses.

In fact, even the perception she had from her slime body was subtly different when compared to before. It felt more… solid than it used to, as if she were truly in the body of a nethrak now, instead of merely mimicking one. She sensed numerous organs within her that had always just been idle, a beating heart and working lungs.

“No, no, no, this is wrong! This is very wrong.” She shook her head, and realized that her heart had stopped at that comment. “I’m sorry, heart! Please don’t kill me!” When she saw that she had a heart, and that it had stopped, she had assumed that meant that she would die. However, the seconds ticked by, and she realized that she did not feel any pain from her ‘heart’ stopping like this.

Letting out a long sigh of relief, she opened her eyes, looking down at herself. Afterwards, she promptly closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “Nethrak aren’t golden… they’re white. I should be a cute girl with skin as white as a happy little snowman.” When she opened her eyes again, she saw the color fading entirely from her skin, the gold receding and forming the natural tone of the nethrak.

Still, she was unable to sense the existence of the core within her body, which caused her far greater concern than the color of her skin. “Uhm, hello? Miss maid lady with the fluffy tails? I think I’m broken!” She called out, not sure where to go or what to do within this building.

Thankfully, she did not have to wait long, as the door opened only seconds after her call. “Oh good, you’re here! I was worried because I can’t feel my core, and slimes always have a core, and why do I feel something strange from you?”

Tsubaki blinked as she entered the room, working to process each comment in turn. “Lady Aurivy told me that when a slime ascends to godhood, their core dissolves and merges with their body. As for why you feel something from me… perhaps it is because we are both subordinates to the Keeper? I can sense a very faint flow of divinity leaving your body, as well.”

“Oh.” Lifre nodded, thinking it over as she heard Tsubaki’s explanation. “But wait, I have a heart! I’ve never had one of those before! Well, not one that works… see?!” She shoved her hand through her own chest, pulling out the red, pulsating organ. Where her hand had left, there was no hole, or even a bloody mark, as if the heart had been cleanly removed without so much as a speck of blood dripping from it.

Tsubaki’s eye twitched as she saw Lifre holding her beating heart in her hand. “You’re a god now. That means that your body will shape itself according to your will.” To demonstrate, Tsubaki created eight additional tails behind her body, bringing her to the nine-tailed state she often showed the public.

“Ooh… so I don’t need this, then?” She asked, looking at the heart she was holding. Only now did she seem to realize that she had plucked a supposedly vital organ from her own body, at which point she shoved it back in with just as little care. “But wait… if I don’t have a core…” She gasped, eyes going comically wide. “Does that mean I’m immortal!?”

“...In a sense.” Tsubaki did not deny that. “Gods are existences that can survive as long as their divinity remains intact. Your divinity is currently forming your entire body. If someone were to destroy or disperse that divine energy, you would naturally perish.”

“Should you choose to, you can create divine avatars to explore the world in your place or undertake various tasks for you. When you do so, you choose one body to hold the bulk of your divine soul. If that divine soul is destroyed, it will be the same as destroying your divinity altogether. Thus, it is common practice to place your divine soul in an avatar that will not be putting itself in excessive danger.”

Lifre’s head bobbed up and down repeatedly as she listened to Tsubaki’s words, taking in the information that she had been given. “Oh! Right, if I’m a god, that means I have a domain now, right?! What did I get? Life? Death? Oh! Was it something like Time? That would be awesome!”

Tsubaki blinked again, shaking her head. “The domain you were granted when you ascended seems to be Adventure. From now on, you are Lifre, Goddess of Adventure.”

“Ooooh!” Despite not getting any of the domains she had named, she was still excited upon hearing what she did have. “I’ll have to see what I can do with that! Maybe I can make really awesome adventures for people to go on, like epic quests.”

“Perhaps.” Tsubaki agreed. “However, there is something else that must be done first.” Lifre looked over at her in confusion, not understanding what could be more important than testing her godly powers. “In exchange for making you a goddess, you promised to become an assistant in the Sky Citadel. That means that you have certain responsibilities.”

After saying that, Tsubaki walked over and handed Lifre a small crystal tablet. Swiping her finger across it, she created dozens of projections that filled the air around them, each one a separate file. “These are all of the countries and organizations that you need to familiarize yourself with, as well as their customs, special traits, and laws. You’ll need to memorize this information before you can start working.”

“...I finally get my godhood, and the first thing I have to do is study?” She asked blankly, looking at Tsubaki, who nodded her head.

“Think of it like an adventure.” The kitsune teased lightly. “Every file is its own quest, and you are a brave hero looking to conquer the great evil that is paperwork.”

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