World Keeper

Chapter 704: Eating Contest

When the fighting in the town ceased, and the last of the monsters were finally slain, the adventurer’s guild leader let out a silent sigh of relief. He could feel the power he had been granted leaving his body, causing him to feel vaguely weakened, but at the same time something had been left behind. He could not immediately ascertain what this feeling was, and knew that the only person who could tell him was the young girl with pale skin that had appeared at the start of the fight.

Glancing around, he found her jumping down from the body of the monstrous ape that she had slain previously in the fight. Her sword was nowhere to be seen. While he admitted that the fight would have likely been over sooner had the girl slain more of the beasts, he was happy that she had at least shown up to offer aid when she did. Otherwise, even if they did not perish altogether, they would have likely lost a considerable number of forces.

“Thank you for your assistance, my lady. May I know whom it is that has come to our aid?” The man asked politely, looking at the girl that appeared young enough to be his grandchild. However, he knew more than most that looks could be deceiving in this day and age. Any young child could be an old monster with centuries of experience. Nobody wanted to simply appear their age after a certain point.

“Hmm?” The girl looked over at him, before smiling wide. “My name is Lifre, third servant of the Keeper! Miss Bihena asked me to come take care of this situation, so I rushed over to help. Is there anything else that you need me to take care of before I head back?”

The guild leader was astounded, having never personally met a servant of the Keeper. However, he had always heard that there were two such individuals. One was the ancient fox revered as the Ancestor by the heroc, while the other was an elf with raven-black hair. Now, it would appear that there was a third, a girl of unknown race with snow-white skin.

He wanted to tell Lifre that there was nothing else requiring the attention of a figure as important as herself to pay attention to. However… he saw that she had a look of eagerness when she asked, as if pleading for him to find something for her to do. Is she being given some form of test to prove herself as a servant?

That thought naturally crossed his mind when he considered the circumstances. The appointment of figures such as the popes of various churches would not compare to appointing a servant that directly follows the orders of the Keeper himself. Had she been known to the world previously, there was no way that someone like him would not have heard of her.

Taking a deep breath, the man nodded his head. “If it would not trouble you too much, it would be a great help if you were able to assist in our rebuilding.”

“Got it!” Lifre nodded her head, looking at the damaged outskirts of the town. “Do you have any floor plans, or should I just wing it with what I have on hand?”

The man appeared confused at her question. “We don’t specifically keep floor plans for buildings like these. There might be some in the town center, however. If you’d like, I can go and look.”

“Don’t worry about it. If you don’t have it, I’ll just make do with what I can.” There was a playful grin on the girl’s face that did not match the context, and she hastily ran over towards the wreckage. “Let’s see… this looks like a small home? Wait, no, too many glass shards from beakers and burners lying around. Definitely an alchemist’s home.”

“They’ll need to re-draw their magic, but a basic repair spell should work here.” After muttering that, Lifre waved her hand, conjuring a thick tome that she began flipping through. “I know that they had a repair spell in here. Ah! Here it is!”

With a grin, Lifre lifted the book, causing the projection of a fourth-tier spell to appear above it. Tsubaki and Dana were no longer using the reality gems that they had been wielding in the past, so Lifre had no choice but to rely on her own mana to cast the spell. Regardless, Lifre had plenty of mana to use for this spell, causing the model above the book to glow a bright blue before activating.

The guildmaster watched as various scattered shards and wooden planks shook on the ground, floating back to their common source. Glass shards pieced themselves together as if they were part of some great puzzle before seamlessly fusing, while the broken wood planks placed themselves back against their walls. Collapsed roofs lifted up and buckled pillars straightened themselves out as the first house was repaired completely within only a few moments.

“Phew… okay, that’s one down!” Lifre responded with a bright smile, before looking at the dozen other buildings needing fixed. “Uhh… I don’t think I have that much mana…” Reaching that conclusion, her eyes glanced over the area, trying to find some way to remedy her situation. Naturally, she could just manually piece things back together, but such was hardly the style of the little mimic.

“Wait… what are these crystals made out of?” She asked the guildmaster, getting a strange feeling from the crystals beneath her.

“Huh? You mean you came here without knowing?” He responded in alarm, eyes going wide. “Quick, you have to get off the ground! The crystals here are made of solidified mana, and will consume any creature with sufficient magic that isn’t properly attuned!”

“Oh? So that’s why it’s been trying to eat me.” Lifre nodded her head in realization, looking down at her feet. “I thought it might be some hidden monster or something.”

“Wait, it’s already trying to… then, may I ask, how are you still standing there?” The man gulped, having never heard of a situation where someone was able to resist the power of the crystal maze without any forewarning.

“It’s actually really simple! I’m eating it faster.” Lifre grinned proudly, lifting up one of her feet. Crystal shards fell off the sole of her foot, some vanishing into her shoe. “But, if this is all made of mana, that takes care of that issue, at least.”

The man looked at the sight before him incredulously, not sure how to make out what he was seeing. All he knew was that Lifre took the projection of the spell, and sank it into the ground at her feet. “Now, just control the output, and…” She focused, channeling the spell into the various damaged buildings along the perimeter of the town.

Like before, the shattered buildings began to piece themselves back together one by one, returning to their previous conditions. At the same time, the light coming from the surrounding walls seemed to dim as their mana was used to fuel the powerful spell. “But… how could you eat it…” The man stumbled over his words, still unsure of what he had seen. If it was something that could be replicated, he had hoped to be able to spread it to others to replace the potions that they had to consume on a regular basis.

Sadly, he doubted that something as out of the norm as ‘eating it faster’ was a feat that could be replicated. Especially when he heard the girl’s answer. “Huh? Oh, that’s only natural. You never challenge a slime to an eating contest.”

“A… what?”

After returning to the Sky Citadel, Lifre hummed to herself in contentment. It may have been her first time really interacting with the people of this world, but she still found it quite fun. Not to mention, she had been able to test out her divine abilities in proper combat.

“Oh, right, I should check back with them later to see if the after-effects persist.” She muttered to herself as she walked back towards the library.

Lifre’s divine power didn’t entirely end simply because the adventure itself did. Like any true adventure, the one who overcame danger had to find some form of reward at the end. Lifre took this into consideration when creating her divine powers.

First, there were multiple ‘forms’ that an adventure could take. Because of this, the mimic decided that it would be easier to establish rules for a particular adventure when it happens, as opposed to using just one power to try and cover every situation. She could create an adventure to have her battle her paperwork, or to aid her friends against a terrifying monster. Either way, an adventure had to have a reward waiting at the end.

Thus, a part of Lifre’s power would linger whenever an adventure ended. Depending on the type of adventure one had overcome, they would be rewarded with a different benefit. As an example, when Lifre was finished with her paperwork battle, she was able to reward herself with a small boost to her intelligence and wisdom if she fought on the frontlines. If she simply commanded the battle from the back, she would instead receive an increase to her charisma.

Since she was unable to directly influence the system itself, this would not be an immediate change. Rather, the power would continue to linger inside the adventurer, slowly remodeling their body to accommodate the reward. Once the reward had been fully issued, the power would finally fade away.

I hope that leftover energy won’t cause anyone any problems. She bit her lip when she thought about that, considering the potential consequences if someone used a perfection chamber while under the influence of her divine gift. “I’ll just go talk to the research guy about that later. If anyone would be able to answer that, it would be him.”

“Answer what?” A voice spoke up from behind Lifre, making her jump in shock. There was a wet squelch as her body crashed against the ceiling, before she dripped back down to the floor to reform her body.

“Don’t sneak up on people like that, Tsubaki!” She flailed her arms at her side, pouting towards the kitsune that startled her.

Tsubaki merely raised an eyebrow in response, unsure why Lifre was so on edge. However, her nose soon twitched as she caught an unfamiliar scent. “Did you go outside?”

“Yup!” The mimic girl announced proudly. “Miss Bihena came by with a mission for me, and I just got back from taking care of it!”

Tsubaki nodded her head, not wanting to press the matter. If the gods truly did have a mission for Lifre, it was not her place to question it. “Very well. How are you coming with your paperwork assignments, then?”

“Already done!” Lifre proclaimed. “I was just getting ready to study some rune magic when she showed up earlier. So… please… can I not do paperwork for a little while?” She gave a weak chuckle when she asked that. “I’ll take on whatever other task you have, as long as I don’t have to review any more tax sheets.”

“Don’t worry.” Tsubaki assured her with a warm smile. “We don’t normally handle that kind of thing. I only wanted to use it as a way to get you familiar with the worlds that we oversee. Now that you have finished, we can move on to stage two.”

“Is it fighting monsters? I would appreciate fighting monsters.”

Tsubaki’s head shook at Lifre’s vain hope. “We only take to the field and fight in an emergency. More often than not, our duty is to monitor such things as diplomatic relationships. For instance, we will need to know if there is unrest between two nations that could affect the stability of the world as a whole. To this end, we have been assigned a number of artificial intelligences that monitor official channels, and I have personally established a church within each world to assign a priest or priestess. If they hear anything out of the ordinary, they transmit the knowledge back to me via a prayer.”

“Finally, I have established a base within the Divine Realm, so that the ascended gods can contact us in case of emergencies.” As Tsubaki explained, Lifre was nodding her head, her expression gradually becoming more and more concerned.

“So… what exactly do I need to do for stage two, then?”

Hearing her question, Tsubaki answered as if it were only natural. “I will have you learn the art of controlling multiple avatars. Once you are able to handle two avatars at once, we can send one to the Divine Realm, and the other can begin establishing your church within the various worlds.”

Once she had finished this step of the training, Tsubaki was confident that she would finally have more time to spend with Dana, as a large part of her responsibility would be shared with Lifre. Regardless of how much the slime was wishing to return to the days of paperwork.

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