“Hot, hot, hot, hot!” A voice sounded out in the world of natural energies before a figure erged. The figure appeared for all intents and purposes to be a dark-skinned human with short black hair and a muscular figure. He wore simple wool clothes, which were emitting smoke as he appeared. There was a trace of embers on his hair, speaking to the environnt that he had just co from.
“Hmm?” He glanced around his small hut, looking for any changes since his previous visit. It wasn’t uncommon for him to find this place wrecked by the local wildlife, causing him to have to take the ti to fix it up again before leaving. He might not be able to create all of the modern comforts he liked, but it was always important to be able to co back ho!
He was just about to leave again when he noticed the stone slab on his door, and the new line written at the bottom. His face broke out in a grin as he realized that ant he had succeeded in contacting the current Keeper. “Guess I should stick around, then.” He nodded to himself reaching out with his energy to create a barrier around the hut. It wouldn’t be good for him to be in the middle of combat when the Keeper appeared.
Just as he was thinking that, he sensed sothing. Turning to the side, he saw a golden line tracing its way through the air in a circular pattern. After five full rotations, silver light flashed within the circle, forming a mirror. However, it wasn’t his own reflection that he saw in the mirror, but that of a light-skinned human sitting atop a throne.
“Hmm? Oh, hey! Good timing. I was just about to wait for you.” Jas smiled pleasantly, while the Keeper let out a sigh of exasperation. “What’s wrong?”
“What happened to the ‘six pulse’ tir?” The Keeper asked, rubbing his temples. “I’ve been staring at that pattern for hours, and it still hasn’t co.”
“Ah… did I get my timing wrong? Sorry, hard to keep track of the ti in my head. I thought about making a watch, but haven’t found any materials that can stand up to the pressure in so of these areas without breaking.” Jas shrugged his shoulders at that, reaching up to pat his head when he realized he was still slightly burning.
“Fair enough.” The Keeper nodded. “Anyways, I wanted to thank you for taking care of my world spirit last ti. I had been worried that this place would be too hard on her.”
“It’s fine.” Jas waved it off. “I just taught her a little energy trick. It’s sothing I picked up in one of my old experintal worlds. Though, if you were so worried, why’d you send the girl here in the first place?”
That was sothing that had been bugging Jas ever since he t the world spirit. He was worried that throwing an innocent girl like that into such a hostile territory with no combat experience only to die again and again would an that the current Keeper was an evil one.
“Honestly… it was a mistake. When I created her, the world wasn’t able to accept the existence of world spirits yet. A special item had to be found and installed at a certain location before the world ‘allowed’ them. I thought that just ant that they wouldn’t be able to train and gain levels. But when I made her, she was almost imdiately ejected.”
“At the ti, I thought she was just going dormant until the class was unlocked. It was a while before I found that area you’re in now, and found her in it. Since that place can be seen as the ‘origin’ of natural energy in this world, she was ejected there to wait until her class was accepted by the world.”
Jas let out a whistle when he heard that. “Wow. And yeah, I noticed that about this place, too. I’ve been using that link to explore the different areas of this world ever since I found it. Neat trick with the layered environnts, by the way. I thought they were just ‘bubble worlds’ until I dug deep enough to find the floor once.”
“How many floors have you been to?” The Keeper asked, raising an eyebrow.
“A couple dozen, I think?” Jas shrugged his shoulders. “It’s hard to tell sotis when it’s a new layer, or just a different environnt within that layer. A lot of the ti, I have to flee as soon as I encounter the local monsters, so I don’t get the chance to take notes. I did find so other special areas like this, though.”
The Keeper gave a knowing nod at that. “As you’ve likely guessed, the world you’re in is one where the higher one ascends, the greater the threat. Though, I would very much like to hear about these other ‘special areas’.”
Jas grinned, realizing that the Keeper himself had yet to discover those places. “Well, I just ca from one where the entire world was a floating crystal. It sort of reminded of those information orbs from back in the day. However, floating around its surface were four different symbols, projected by mana.”
Focusing, Jas lifted his hand, and those four symbols he had seen were recreated with his own energy to show the Keeper. “When I tried to touch one of them, it was like the entire world turned into a fireball, and I had to leave before I burnt up.”
The Keeper’s eyes opened wide in surprise, and he leaned forward in his seat. “Have you found other crystal worlds like this?” He asked, his tone more serious than before.
“A few. Though, they all had different symbols, and only had three each until a while ago. But usually, when I touch the symbols, nothing bad happens like that. I’m guessing this world operates with a type of Rune magic?”
The Keeper gave a nod in reply. “It does. Those are the four tiers of ‘Fire’ that are unlocked for this world.”
“Eh? All the sa one?” He looked at the symbols again, before a new grin erged on his face. “Well, isn’t that interesting? Aside from these ‘rune worlds’, I found the origin world for ki, and a world filled with darkness. Let tell you… the ki origin is a world made of blood. I thought I had stumbled onto an ancient martial spirit at first.”
“We’ve gotten sidetracked.” The Keeper suddenly interrupted with a faint sigh. “I wanted to know what your intentions are here. From what it sounds like, it’s only a matter of ti before you are able to find one of the layers that my people inhabit. Obviously, I can’t make you the Keeper again.”
Jas chuckled a bit at that. “I don’t need to be the Keeper. At best, I’d love to et Chel again, but I know that wouldn’t happen even if I took your job. I’d just get a new one with a random personality. I could make her myself, but she wouldn’t be able to forgive for killing you just to see her again.”
A softer look appeared on the Keeper’s face. “Chel was your system companion?”
“Yeah… short for Chelsea.” Jas admitted with a shake of his head. “Man, if you could make her for again, and it really was her…” Clearing his thoughts, he changed the subject. “How’s yours, by the way? Your system companion, I an.”
“She’s great.” The Keeper smiled subconsciously, a smile Jas was all too familiar with. “She actually says quite a lot of good things about you. I just wanted to et you myself before I made any decisions on what to do.”
Jas gave a small nod. “Honestly, if I was let out, I’d probably either just go exploring or settle down and start helping out with experints again. Going by what you said about this world, I should be a bit too strong for the place to handle right now, right?”
“That’s right.” The Keeper agreed. “Level five thousand and seventeen… I can’t even buy you with my points, because if I did, that would unlock every floor you’ve been to previously. If soone at level five thousand had to flee, then that would be enough to shoot my rank up a few notches.”
Jas couldn’t help but grumble as he followed that line of logic. “And without buying , you can’t use the ‘smite’ option to kill in body, mind, and soul before making a companion copy. I’d either have to do the deed myself, or there would be two copies of existing at once. But that would an I’d have to trust you to make the copy, and not simply watch die and move on. Right?”
“Right. For the copy to be your true self, they have to have all of your mories and knowledge, up to your final monts. If the copy is created prematurely, the two minds diverge. This divergence, theoretically, would be next to aningless. But, soone with a mind like yours would naturally linger on it, wondering if you were truly the sa person in the end.”
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I don’t plan on dying yet.” Jas chuckled a bit as he said that. “Maybe if I had Chel waiting for , but I think she’d be more happy just to co down here and et herself.”
For a short while after that, the Keeper seed lost in thought. Perhaps speaking with his own system companion, or simply debating his options. What he decided in the end, however, surprised Jas. “I’ll get her. I have a system in place where any resident of the Admin Room is able to descend in the body of an infant born in the world, and live out their life. You’ll have to wait a few years, but she’d be there.”
Jas looked at the Keeper in shock at his decision. “Aren’t you worried that I’ll get too attached, and take it out on you when her mortal body dies?”
The Keeper shook his head slightly. “The path to godhood is open to my people. If the two of you strive for it, she’ll be able to reach it in just one or two lives. Besides, I’d much rather have you as an ally I can trust, as opposed to a wanderer with no attachnt to the world outside of his own enjoynt.”
“I guess I can understand that.” Jas admitted, feeling a soft smile playing at his lips. “Well, just put where you want , then. But first, I need to know the ‘story’ you told the world with regards to Keepers.”
I groaned, falling back in my chair after finishing the call. It’s done. I whispered ntally towards Terra. She had asked if I would be willing to carry out this plan, both for my sake as well as his.
If it worked, I would gain a powerful ally, one that would fight for this world to his dying breath. As long as Chel existed in the Admin World, he would do everything in his power to protect her. I could understand that logic easily enough. And I had to admit that it wouldn’t be that bad to have a more experienced Keeper to consult with when I needed to.
I was leaving the recreation of Chel’s personality profile to Terra, the only one really capable of such a thing. Once that was done, I’d ascend to make it official. Now it was just a matter of deciding where I wanted Jas to help out.
With his specialty in technology, Desbar was a decent choice. But at the sa ti, Deckan was getting more innovative with space travel, which was where Jas’ passion seed to lie in his old world. It was also a much larger world, and offered more room for him to explore various possibilities. Not to ntion the dinsional material that could likely inspire many new ideas for him.
Yeah… I think he’d fit right in on Deckan. I smiled to myself as I made the decision.
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