World Keeper

Chapter 901: A Journey Of Shadows

It was an unexpected boon to be able to learn about the requirements for the fifth tier, as well as the special ability that came with it. As for anything beyond that, I wasn’t that rushed in finding out. If there were more rewards for advancing without resetting, I would discover those over time. There was no need for me to spend points to find out early. Though… as I thought about that, there was someone else that I needed to send a message to.

EarthForceOne: Are you free?

SentinelSeven: Hey, Dale! It’s been a while! I wanted to thank you again for sending Charlotte, by the way! She’s really helped, and now my world is habitable on the surface again!

EarthForceOne: I’m glad to hear that. I’m sure that she’d be happy to know that her rain brought happiness to your world, as well. Though, I wanted to let you know something else today.

SentinelSeven: Oh, what is it?

EarthForceOne: I advanced to Rank 4 today, and there’s a special perk you get if you get this far without resetting your world. I wanted to let you know so that you don’t reset if you can avoid it.

SentinelSeven: Ah, congratulations! Oh, but… I already reset, I think? Back a couple days after I got started, I realized that I set my world up wrong, so I did a quick reset before it got too far. Do you think that would count?

EarthForceOne: …Probably. Well, it’s not anything critical, either way. Just wanted to let you know in case you qualified for it.

SentinelSeven: Thanks, either way! And be sure to let me know whenever I can come over and hang out!

I let out a small sigh when the conversation ended, shaking my head. Kathy had grown quite rapidly alongside me, so I thought that she had simply not reset yet. It turned out that she had reset in her earliest days, so there was nothing that I could do to help her in regards to the special perks.

Either way, there was something that I needed to investigate while Tsubaki and the others were being trained for their Divine Circuits. With a thought, my body descended to the Sky Citadel once again, and I got up to begin exploring. It didn’t take me long to find the target of my search, one of Tsubaki’s numerous servant avatars.

To my surprise, she was still cleaning the halls as if nothing had changed, smiling at me as I appeared. It seems that the avatars of those with the Heaven’s Gate can still function while they are in the Admin Room. I had half expected them to simply freeze, similar to how my Virtual self froze whenever I went to the Admin Room.

Really, shouldn’t my Virtual self be linked to my World Host, instead of my main body? Or is it because my consciousness ascends from both at the same time, so the World Host version of my Virtual self goes into the same standby mode that my main host does? No, that wouldn’t explain the time differences whenever my main and Virtual selves are in different worlds.

My brow furrowed as I thought about the problem, trying to understand what was going on. The only thing that I could think of was that the system recognized the Virtual world as being partially its own world, rather than a purely digital construct.

I shook my head, waving at the silver-haired Tsubaki avatar, before making my way back to the throne room. Now that I had my circuit set up, I could expand my available powers while I waited for the others to arrive. At the same time, I sent out a message to Terra, deciding to probe for a bit of information.

Are you available?

That’s right! I just finished my own circuits a bit after you did. What are you wanting to ask? There was a knowing, playful tone to her words, causing me to click my tongue.

I was just curious if you are able to assist the twins with training their Origin yet.

Sorry, but nope. That thing is still beyond your rank. Though, now that you’ve gotten this far, I can tell you the basic standard for when Origins begin appearing. Origins are typically late into the fifth rank, or more commonly in the sixth. That’s why I can’t make a move yet.

Of course, it’s possible for an Origin to appear in a Rank Four world, but it is beyond simply being called ‘rare’. That’s because, like Sarah told you, the benchmark for the next rank is a cultural advancement, the ability to create worlds. It’s possible for a world to advance to the point of creating Origins before reaching that goal, but it’s really, really rare.

I couldn’t help but nod at that. I had expected that the Origin would be a later thing, I just wanted to see if there was any new information that I had ‘unlocked’. So you’ll be able to train the Origin only if another one is born in this world, or we hit the next rank.

Pretty much! Terra confirmed readily.

On that note, wouldn’t the Fairy Gate be considered world creation? If the random destination option is chosen, it connects to a previously nonexistent world with preset laws.

Terra clicked her tongue at that, and I could just imagine her shaking her head. That isn’t creating a world from scratch, but procedurally generating a random world and anchoring it to your void. The durability of the world is also substantially lower than that of a world created by the system.

Durability…? My mind froze for a moment when Terra used that word. Terra… the condition to advance to the fourth tier. The level of power required…

You guessed it. Terra confirmed my thoughts before I could even voice them. To reach this level, your realm needs the power to destroy an entire universe created by the system.

When she said that, I thought back to the marbles that Tsubaki and the others had previously made. Leowynn had been able to easily destroy those worlds, popping them from the void. If that happened to Earth, or Deckan, or any of the other worlds, everything in that universe would simply be destroyed.

That was the level of threat that I would have to face in upcoming invasions. No… that was the level of threat I may have to deal with now. Since my world had risen to that point, it was possible that monsters could be born with the power to sunder dimensions within the void. Are Fallen Gods able to repair damage done to a world’s barrier?

They are. Thankfully, Terra confirmed my hopes as well as my fears. Of course, that requires that they get there in time. Also, they can only repair it from the void, not from within the world itself. Trying to mobilize the power of the void within a damaged world will only cause the damage to intensify.

I couldn’t help but gulp when I heard that. This meant that the true battles for most invasions from now on would take place within the void, where it was harder to distance oneself from the enemies. Otherwise, if the enemy attacked the void when I wasn’t ready, the only result would be the complete destruction of an entire universe. In the worst case scenario, I might be within said universe. My eyes narrowed, and I vanished from within the Citadel. This wouldn’t do. I needed to make a move.

Petra stood before the gate leading to the twenty-ninth floor. The construction of the underwater city had finally been completed, the structure able to withstand the intense pressure of the ocean floor. Due to her contributions, Petra had been given permission to be the first one to step through the gate.

Just as she was reaching forward, a portal appearing on the black stone gate and a wave of heat rushing out over her body, she heard a voice calling out to her. “Petra!” She turned, looking at the source of the voice. It was a halfling woman that rushed over, one she recognized as the receptionist of the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Yes?” Petra asked with a kind smile, backing away from the portal. She could tell just from the heat that the environment on the other side was vastly different.

“There is a special request for you at the guild, requiring your immediate attention!” The halfling said as she came to a stop in front of Petra, having to take a moment to catch her breath.

“Could it not have waited for two more minutes? I was just about to get the information about the next floor?” Petra asked wryly, before the halfling’s next words caught her entirely off-guard.

“It’s the Keeper!” The other woman reported. “The Keeper has a mission requesting you specifically!”

Petra’s eyes went wide at that, her shadow trembling at the information. This wouldn’t be their first time meeting the Keeper, but if he was requesting them through the guild, something had changed. “Take me there.” She said with a nod, though was speaking more towards her shadow, which leapt up and wrapped around both herself and the halfling.

Petra’s identity as the Demigoddess of Shadows was widely known, but the halfling was nonetheless surprised by this sudden mode of transportation. After only a moment, they were back at Gate’s Rest, standing within the guild’s hall. There, she saw the familiar face of the Keeper waiting next to the counter, and quickly walked over to bow.

“Keeper. It is an unexpected honor.” She said, though the Keeper shook his head. She could see a serious expression on his face.

“Let’s cut down to business.” He said, looking at Petra. “I want you to join me on an expedition. I will pay one hundred times your normal wage, due to the urgency of the matter.”

Petra’s eyes went wide at that. A hundred times the wage for a Maxer was an astronomical sum, but it was understandable for the Keeper to be able to pay it. After all, he was the boss of the Goddess of Wealth. “I understand, sir. Wherever it is you want to go, let us be off.”

The Keeper nodded, looking back at the receptionist for this branch. He quickly wrote up the papers to make it an official mission, having the Keeper sign the document. “First, let’s go back to the gate where you just were. I would have met you there, but this is something we should do through official channels, and the guild branch there hasn’t been fully finished.”

Petra nodded her head, once again wrapping her shadow around the Keeper, herself, and the receptionist for Gate’s Rise. A moment later, they were back at the gate, the Keeper gesturing her forward. “I’ll tell you the details of the mission on the other side.”

Petra could tell that he was wanting to keep things confidential, so she didn’t waste any time, stepping through the portal. She knew that the Keeper had already passed the level limit of Fyor, and needed someone else to step through first, before he could use his own methods to appear. She had learned that much the last time.

As she appeared within the twenty-ninth floor of Fyor, the Keeper suddenly teleported next to her. “Can you tell me the details now?”

The Keeper nodded his head, looking at the desert landscape surrounding them. Clearly, this floor, or at least this region of it, was a large, arid waste. “We’re going to rush through the next few floors. Fyor has been lagging behind the other worlds, and we need to get it caught up. I’ll take care of establishing a safe base around each gate, but I will need you to open the way for me.” As he said that, he closed his eyes to focus.

When he opened his eyes again, a pulse of divine energy spread out around him. There was a shriek of insectoid creatures buried beneath the sands as they were shredded. At the same time, the sand smoothed out, hardening to stone as an entire city began to rise up around the gate.

Petra’s eyes went wide, the rare display of power from the Keeper making her take this even more seriously. “How far are we going, sir?”

“We’ll advance until we hit the fortieth floor for today.” He said, causing Petra to gasp in shock. Counting the floor that they were on, that meant that they would be going through twelve floors back to back. “With your physique as a barbarian, you should be able to handle the pressure. Additionally, tell Thelsa that after this is done, I will help her become a Goddess. And I’ll make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself.”

Petra’s brow twitched at that, knowing what the Keeper was referring to. When Thelsa had achieved the Perfect Self, the price had been the loss of two of her shadows, two of her closest friends. “I understand, sir. I’ll pass the message along.”

The Keeper gave a small nod. “Go ahead and expand your shadow world whenever we hit a new layer. Our goal in each layer is to locate the level orb and move on after securing both gates.”

Petra blinked, but nodded her head. “Is there not the chance that monsters will overrun the cities while we are gone?”

However, the Keeper shook his head, pointing towards one of the walls of the city. When Petra looked over, she saw the wall open up, an advanced turret deploying and scanning the area before retreating into the wall. “I’m installing defenses in each city we pass, as well as a barrier. Unless there is an anomalous monster far above the floor’s level, the cities will be even safer than those the people have made until now.”

“I remember that Ashley created you with the powers of a Priest, so you should be able to serve to help transport other priests to the gates we visit and populate these cities.” Petra gave a wry smile when she heard that. She was a Priest of Ashley, not Aurivy, after all. However, when she said that, the Keeper just shook his head.

“I’ll have Aurivy give you her blessing as well. It’s inconvenient to have other people for this expedition.” Certainly, that was within the Keeper’s authority, though Petra could only chuckle dryly at the situation.

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