World Keeper

Chapter 19: The Windfall

By the time I was done leaning against Terra and Aurivy–I didn’t fall asleep, I swear. They are just too comfortable. Anyways, by the time I was done, and went back to the computer in the bedroom, I found a string of notifications waiting for me. Yes, I was using the computer again. Even if I could access this stuff in my head, a computer just felt better. More like what I was used to. But nevermind that, it looked like the fast forward was a success, so I opened up the notifications to see what happened.

…I froze as I read over all of that. While the first line was something normal, the rest that followed surprised me greatly. In disbelief, I looked over to my point balance, just to confirm if it was real. And indeed, I had a total of 276 points available to spend now.

Perhaps the most important thing I noticed was how the points were awarded. When I personally enlightened the races about a technology, I received twenty points at first, and then diminishing returns. But, letting them discover it themselves, I earned a flat fifteen points reward. And, from the looks of things, that reward was based on each civilization. So, since four civilization learned basic construction techniques after being taught how to make stone tools, I received fifteen points from each one.

However, I noticed that I didn’t get anything from the Daeva. Does it not count if a goddess or a member of another civilization teaches them? Since Irena had been staying in the afterlife, the Daeva probably learned any of their notable advancements by seeing how she did things. Still, over two hundred points, was quite the advancement. Out of curiosity, I opened up a window to display the racial populations.

The area with the most growth was undoubtedly the beastkin. After forming a civilization built on four races working together, they were able to drastically limit their natural predators, letting their numbers flourish. On the other hand, the halflings that originally had the highest and fastest growing population alongside humans, had grown far less.

Though, the levels of the halflings were second only to the elves, who had the advantage of centuries to train. With these numbers, if there were really an all out war between elves and halflings, the halflings would most likely win. And again, because of the civilization building that led to them having less predators, the levels of the beastkin had dropped below other races.

Another race that surprised me a bit was the Daeva. They had gone from merely a few hundred, to nine thousand in just a short thousand years. That kind of explosive growth was unheard of, even in the previous Earth’s recent history. Something to question Irena about, I think.

The one race that confused me was the dwarves. They had the same type of growth as the beastkin, despite not having a strong civilization. I’d have to ask Terra about that later. For now, I had a good number of points to spend, and I needed to figure out how to do so wisely.

The first expense was obvious. I still had two goddesses that I needed to buy before I finished a complete set for my races. The first, the lycan goddess. Hmm… lycans are built to be experts at hunting, so I’ll give her that domain.

For her appearance, I closed my eyes and pictured a five foot eight girl, with tanned skin and a slim body. Black hair coming down just past her shoulders, and a pair of dog ears coming up from the side of her head to match. For her chest, let’s go with modest. Still decently sized, but not something that would get in the way of her movement. She is the Goddess of the Hunt, after all. And finally, a dog tail extending from the base of her back.

Nodding at myself, I gave her a name… I suck at names, did I ever mention that? Let’s go with… Accalia. And like that, twenty-five points were invested to give birth to Accalia, the goddess of the hunt. A ray of golden light shined down in my room, focusing on one spot. Slowly, from the ground up, the image I built materialized in the form of a cute dog girl.

When she was done being made, a suit of tight-fitting leather armor faded into being on her body, emphasizing her curves. However, at the same time, an almost desperate plea came from outside the room. “Daaale!” Terra cried out as she ran into the room, carrying Aurivy in her arms like a stuffed toy.

“Uhm… yes?” I asked in confusion. Did something big happen when I wasn’t looking?

“Her next!” She said, holding up the short goddess with her arms outstretched. Ahh… she was notified that I was buying something, I guess.

“You mean, a personality for her?” I raised an eyebrow as I looked at the dull expression on Aurivy’s face.

“Right!” Terra answered with a decisive nod. “She needs one, totally needs one!”

“Well… I have to get a couple of major features first. After that, I should have some points left to get her one, alright?”

Hearing that, Terra pouted slightly, looking down. “Can’t you just do her first? Give her a cute personality, and liven up the place around here?”

I sighed, shaking my head. “Need to make sure that I get the major systems put into the world first.” If it weren’t for the afterlife needing a proper ruler, I probably wouldn’t have even given Irena a personality before I had made all nine deities. It didn’t seem like the races were at a stage where they’d be able to fully benefit from the deities yet. “Speaking of, I had a question for you.”

Terra perked up her ears at that, but kept her pouting expression, so I went ahead and asked. “The dwarves, they don’t seem to have as much problem growing as the other races. Do you know why?”

Terra thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. “Yeah… but you have to promise. Aurivy gets a personality before the end of the day!” She again looked at me, holding Aurivy up a bit higher to make me look at her instead of Terra.

Well… I planned to give her one anyways. Still, do you have to make it so obvious, Terra? I sighed, slowly nodding my head. “Fine, fine, I’ll give her one as soon as I’m done buying the important systems. Agreed?”

Terra let out a bright smile, lowering the halfling goddess and pulling her back into a standing embrace. “It’s because of their layout. The rules you set for monster spawning requires the ‘first generation’ monsters to appear a set distance away from sapient beings. But, they are close enough together that the three inner tribes don’t see any monsters unless they slip past the four outer ones.”

Ahh… so only four of the villages have to worry about monsters. Meaning the inner three villages are able to more easily reproduce, and their lack of training brings down the average level of the race. I nodded in understanding. I hadn’t expected a situation like that to occur, and would probably need to come up with a solution to it eventually.

Anyways, on to the last goddess. This would be the goddess of the ursa, who emphasized strength. Immediately, I imagined a particular amazonian figure from popular Earth culture. Roughly six feet tall, with a slim, yet well toned build. Not bulging muscles, but enough to give off a feeling of subtle strength.

Unlike the lycan goddess, this one had an ample chest, with flowing black hair that reached down the middle of her back. On top of her head were two furry, circular ears that stood out cutely, while at the base of her back was a very short black tail. For the name, I decided to go with Keliope, the Goddess of Strength.

Again, a golden pillar of light appeared next to Accalia. Terra looked over with interest as the new goddess materialized. After which, she was adorned with similar leather armor to Accalia, although much more revealing. The style reminded me of the same character I pulled the inspiration for Keliope from, though it was uncolored. 

Nodding my head in satisfaction, I sent both of the new goddesses to the ‘storage room’. I really need to get them personalities eventually, so that they can have their own rooms… Now, on to the next purchase.

This one is a system I’ve been wanting to get since I saw it listed. Opening up the market, I navigated through the various game system options, and purchased the achievement system. With this, the people’s strengths should be able to advance, even with the level limit in place.

Speaking of which, I went ahead and increased the level limit from 30 to 50. At the same time, I bought the next tier of monsters for 50 points. This gave me creatures up to level one hundred, including the first few sea monsters. The strongest monster at this tier were listed as orcs, a race that had the potential to develop sapience over long periods of time.

With this, I had spent a total of two hundred points today, leaving me with just 76. Before I could even ask myself if there was anything else I should get next, I noticed Terra standing beside me with a determined look on her face. She was again holding Aurivy in her outstretched arms, the loli goddess just a few inches from me.

“Her turn!” She said, a smile slowly appearing on her face.

Sighing, I nodded, opening up the interface again. I did promise that I would get her a personality, and if I bought anything else, I might not be able to afford to keep that promise. So, I guess it was her turn.