World Keeper

Chapter 12: Revelations

During my training with Terra, I had managed to develop two new spells, the Elemental Shield and the Force Bolt. These spells were created thanks to Terra helping me identify some key structures of the magic diagram. In particular, the blast spells all shared many common properties, with only a few of the major shapes being different. After some testing, I discovered that those parts of the diagram were related to the element being used in the spell.

From there, I began experimenting with the Shield spell, until I found a way to include those elements in the spell itself. This changed it from being a shield of pure force, to a shield of fire, ice, or lightning. Likewise, this helped me identify the ‘force’ element, which I was able to transplant into the blast spells, creating the Force Bolt spell.

To my surprise, I had actually earned another 10 points, for discovering a secret to magic and developing abilities that had not been known to my people yet. I was slowly getting closer to being able to implement an afterlife for my world, though there were also other ideas I had been thinking of. Primarily, I had thought about creating a new race, though I wasn’t sure what one I wanted to put in at this time.

When Terra heard this, she gave me some news that surprised me. “It’s actually possible to create a new race for your world whenever you want, as long as you either have a free race slot, or buy a new one. As long as your world has not been entirely explored yet, you can also isolate a section of your world, and have it run at a different timeframe. For instance, if you place a new race right now, you could choose one of the empty areas of your planet.”

“From there, you could choose to ‘rewind’ that area of the planet, and place that race there. Then, they will begin developing under your supervision, until they either reached a level you were comfortable with, or began exploring into ‘known territory’ on your world. This is how new planets are typically handled in technological worlds, by having the races develop when the world itself is found, and then reintroducing them to the timeline.”

That was certainly an interesting thought, but I couldn’t help but ask. “Can’t I do the same thing with the races I already have? Like, if I wanted to give the humans more time to develop, could I isolate them and pause the rest of the world?”

Terra gave me a small nod, watching me stare at the various diagrams. “That’s right. It would cost a few points, but you could use that as an easy way to balance the races, if one got too far behind the others. Or, if one got too far ahead, you could just freeze that race until the others caught up. Of course, this is only possible as long as the races have had absolutely no contact with each other, and have therefore not influenced the other races in any way.”

I nodded to that, thinking that it would be interesting. I still had a vast majority of my world unexplored, so fitting in a new race would be pretty easy. It was just a matter of not knowing what kind of race to put in. Well, I still had time to think about that. Maybe I could get an idea from Alkahest after our meeting.

After I was done training in the basement with Terra, we once again headed back up to the bedroom, and I decided to check up on the world. I hadn’t expected many changes, since the last fast forward had only been roughly ten years or so. In the great timeline of the world, ten years is really not a lot of time for change, especially in this age. However, there were a couple of things that surprised me

First of all, I noticed that the leader of Terraria was no longer Ardra, and was in fact no longer a Felyn at all. I sent a curious glance to Terra, who asked what was the matter. “I almost thought that you wanted to keep your own race in power with the beastkin. Didn’t expect to see a Kitsune in charge.”

Terra gave me a wry smile, and shrugged her shoulders. “I do want the Felyn to be important, but wouldn’t it be more fun if the races took turns leading? And, Mara really did have the best talent for being a leader out of everyone. So it only makes sense to put her in charge.” Saying that, she turned back to the bed and crawled up on it, turning around to give me a small grin.

“Ahh, that’s true.” I nodded slightly, before checking out the other thing which caught my eye, a flashing prompt in the corner of the screen.

After I opened them up, two windows appeared in front of me.

I nodded my head slightly, appreciating the extra 35 points to my balance. Though, I was curious who had begun exploring science. Naturally, my first thought was the elves, since they were without a doubt the furthest along out of any of the races. But, that thought was refuted when I checked the Science window, which seemed to display the progress of science in my world. This window had never been available before, likely because my world had yet to begin any research.

To put it simply… it was not the elves who had begun working on science, but the dwarves. And, it was a rather obvious science as well. According to the window, the dwarves had begun working on crafting technology, though I wasn’t sure what had prompted such a sudden interest. According to what Terra had said, the bonus for them that I purchased shouldn’t have kicked in yet.

Investigating a bit, I found what could possibly be the cause… and what could also possibly be quite dangerous. One of the dwarven tribes had settled on top of a mountain. But, this was not just any mountain… this was an active volcano. Did they see how rocks melt when they fall into lava, and get a sudden inspiration or something?

I considered intervening to stop the volcano from erupting… But doing so would cost points, as it is preventing a natural phenomena. I’m sorry, but I wish for the best for you guys. I gave them a silent prayer. I couldn’t just delete every disaster that could befall my world. Some disasters are needed in order to help them grow. Now… if this volcano was big enough to wipe out the entire dwarven race, I would probably interfere. But just one tribe is an acceptable loss right now.

Turning away from the computer, I set it to fast forward again, to the next era or until a disaster occurred. Afterwords, I began discarding my clothes, and joined my very attractive catgirl companion in bed. Even God took a break one day a week, right!?

In the Plains of Beginning, a change was happening to the people of Terraria. The acceptance of their new Grand Elder was not an easy one, but few were willing to deny the dying wish of Ardra Firebrand. Now, with Mara Eversong in control, she was being taught how to rule by her three aides. First, the Kitsune elder, a middle aged fox with black hair and fur, taught her about the strange powers the people possessed, that which was known as magic. Ardra had always believed this to be an important power, but had never truly been able to study it.

Next, the Lycan elder, an aged wolf with a missing eye, taught her to hunt. Although Mara did not seem especially powerful, she would always do her utmost to fulfill the expectations placed on her. However, she seemed to be learning in a different direction than the Lycan elder was teaching. Where he taught her to track and stalk a prey, she began to develop ideas on how to capture that prey through the use of sticks or covered holes.

Finally, the Ursa elder, a strong man with brown fur and ears, taught her what Ardra had taught them of building. Here again, Mara seemed to think of things that others had not. Where they haphazardly stacked logs together to make their ramshackle huts, she would disappear into the woods, finding thick vines to wrap around the logs, holding them together.

By the time Mara had finished growing, she had fully taken to her role as a leader. With Ardra’s daughter, Kyra, as the new representative for the Felyn, they began to discover new abilities, new methods of helping their people. Kyra had found small, bulbous plants hanging from the trees, and had decided to bury them later. Although this was mostly in an attempt to save them for herself for later, this led to a remarkable discovery.

Later, after Kyra had forgotten where she buried those fruits, weeks passed, and a small plant could be seen growing in the plains. Few thought this plant was worth notice, but Kyra recalled having buried something in the area. As such, she continued to watch the growth of this new life, out of curiosity.

Seasons passed, and soon that small plant had turned into another tree, bearing fruits similar to those which she had harvested from originally. The growth may have been too slow for others to pay attention to it, but Kyra excitedly told Mara all about it. How she had buried the mysterious fruit in the ground, and now this tree had appeared.

Mara had initially planned to pay no heed to this news, as there were more pressing matters. However, a voice spoke in her head, one which she had only heard three or four times since Ardra’s passing. And, each time it had spoken, it had given her very simple instructions, instructions that could ultimately lead to a great change.

This time, the voice had told her to listen to Kyra. So, Mara did exactly that. They gathered more of the edible plants which grew from both the ground and the trees, and set aside small tracts of land to plant them in. After that, they returned to their normal work, and weeks passed again. Mara had all but forgotten the matter, but Kyra had diligently watched the plants growing day after day.

When the first one had finished, she once again approached Mara, telling her the news. This time, Mara had indeed been influenced by Kyra’s ideas. If they could grow food from the ground, however slowly, then it would help them through the harsh winters, where it is difficult to hunt for prey.

Mara gathered a large group of beastkin from the varying races, and had them establish a second village some distance away from the first. The beastkin were stunned, thinking that they were being exiled, but Mara dispelled their fears. She assured them that they could return at any time, and that the purpose of this second village was to help their people grow, while also providing additional food through this new method of harvesting.

Several were still reluctant about this, but ultimately agreed to her decision. And, as she said, they would often return to speak with their families or friends, or when they needed to request aid from the first village. Furthermore, the first village would frequently send meats to help them, because they had moved away from the ideal hunting ground.

Like this, Terraria was the first of the kingdoms to develop agriculture. And soon after, a basic system of trade.

The rest of the day passed by pretty slowly, with me only checking the computer every now and then in order to check the development of the world, or look for new achievements. Most of the time, I spent lounging with Terra, watching archived movies from the past Earth. That night, I decided to check the forums, and found that there were several replies to both my World Host and The Forgotten submissions in the custom content section.

I gave a small sigh as I read that last post. Naturally, I had not been thinking of romantic situations or things like that when I made the World Host! Though, from the post he made, I could guess some more of his personality, which would help in our coming meeting.