World Keeper

Chapter 244: Min Maxer

When I arrived in Fyor, I found myself standing amidst a red field. Glancing to the horizon, I could just barely see patches of green in the distance, showing just how large this marking had been. Please tell me that the two of you have a way to fix this? I asked, sending the message to both Bihena and Aurivy.

Of course. Bihena replied, and I could almost feel her nodding. It’ll just take a couple of days, but we can burn the area to remove the marking.

I gave a small nod, giving one more look around before pulling up my status window. They had mentioned that i would be a lot weaker here than i was used to, so figured I should go ahead and see exactly what had changed. Especially since she said that only sixteen classes were unlocked so far.

I couldn’t help but wince as I saw the list of classes that had been unlocked. Out of the sixteen… only six were actual combat classes. I was also able to see that the classes unlocked made it difficult to balance the stats… Why aren’t more classes unlocked yet? Could they really all be on higher layers?

Most are. Aurivy confirmed my suspicion rather quickly. However, there are some that are on layers that haven’t been fully explored. For instance, the Guard class… that’s down on the sixth layer, but it’s tucked away in a cave so nobody has found it yet.

“Well, that won’t be good.” I said with a brief shake of my head, reaching down and picking up the orb that I had come for. I was greeted with the message telling me to take the orb to the ‘central mana spire’ to unlock my reward. Thankfully, my stats weren’t so skewed that I would have trouble operating if I needed my Keeper abilities. “Alright… hit me with a sample of tier two runes.”

I didn’t trust that the seven tiers were all the same language of magic. If they were, it would only make sense for a Keeper to be able to speak them naturally, regardless of whether or not the words had been purchased. However, if they were treated as seven different languages of varying power…

It only took a minute for another stone slab to drop at my feet, much like the one I had learned my first rune from. This one… also said the word ‘fire’… but the writing was more complex, and when I tried to mentally pronounce it, I found that the word itself was more difficult to say. At this rate, third or fourth tier magic might turn into a summoning ritual for some elder gods. I mused with a small smile.

What’s that? Aurivy asked, seeming interested by my idle thought.

Ah, sorry, nothing. By the way, how far away is the nearest habitation? I don’t want to put on too much of a show…

To my surprise, it was Bihena that answered quickly. The only village that has been built on this layer is immediately around the gate leading down. They’ve yet to expand very far beyond it yet.

Giving a quick nod, I set the gate as my destination, discovering that it was quite far away. “Well… let’s see if we can speed this up.” I said to myself with a small grin, ready to test out some of this world’s magic.

“Quick flight. Shield against wind. Enhance perception. Maximum enhance speed.” I chanted four spells, one after another, using my Keeper mana to power them. I could feel my body lifting up with the familiar sensation of flying, the wind not touching my clothes. My eyes quickly became able to focus in on the horizon, nearly as well as if I were back in my Earth body.

And finally, the world around me seemed to slow down while my body sped forward. I could hear a few dings, ignoring the messages that appeared to notify me of my level increasing. Instead, my eyes simply scanned the horizon, looking for the local monsters. And it did not take me long to find them.

Roughly ten kilometers out from where I had spawned, I saw a large silver snake prowling through the grass. A quick moment of focus revealed that they were level ninety-eight chameleon serpents… and that there were in fact twelve of them. I could only see one at first, due to the other eleven concealing themselves.

Glancing upwards, I estimated that the ceiling had to be at least thirty kilometers, giving me plenty of room to fly above the snakes. Each snake was only five or so meters long, so while they may be pretty scary to look at up close, they were not much to worry about while flying.

Okay… time for a real magic test… I had a small grin on my face as I flew up above the snakes, looking down at them with my hands spread. “Maximum twin array, controlled explosive arrows of light.”

It sounded a lot more mystical in the original language, I swear… Seven runes began to slowly circle around each of my wrists, my hands glowing with light as I chanted the spell. The air around me began to shimmer, specks of light appearing. I felt the tug on my mana as more and more specks of light formed into arrows around me. Ten, twenty, soon numbering over a hundred.

When I clenched my fists, the spell was launched. I was mentally focusing on the twelve targets, so it was no surprise that the arrows split up and attacked each one, as I had thrown in the ‘control’ rune. Over a dozen arrow struck each snake, and when every arrow landed, it created a small explosion.

I saw twelve health bars appear and vanish just as quickly as the snakes were killed under the attack. And once again, I was ‘assaulted’ with a barrage of messages alerting me that I had leveled up. Giving it a quick check, my new Mage level was… fifty-seven. Quite the leap from where I was, but I wasn’t done yet.

It was hard to measure how much mana I had spent on the spell, as I had leveled up during its cast, and thus my mana was again recharged. But, given how this was the least mana-intensive of all the major magic types, I knew that there was still a lot more that I could do.

I once again began flying at top speeds, moving towards the direction that the system was pointing me in. Now that I had an idea of my own strength with this world’s magic, I did not stop to fight every monster that I saw. As I had noticed earlier, it was quite a ways to the gate…

What I wouldn’t give to have access to portals again… I thought inwardly, pushing my speed to its limits. A small pop rang out around my wind shield, and I saw a mach cone forming in front of me, showing that I had managed to accelerate beyond the speed of sound with the combination of spells.

At this point, the wind began to break through my shield, making it a bit more difficult to fly properly, so I had to slow down. Going just below the speed of sound… it took me about six hours of constant flight before I saw the village Bihena had told me about. A quaint little village that reminded me of the early days of Earth. Walls made of wooden spikes, humans and walking outside the walls armed with stone daggers and leather armors.

The lack of halfling guards made me worried at first, until I arrived closer. As I was in a hurry, and not wanted to reveal too much yet, I chanted a brief invisibility spell, flying straight towards the gate. Then, I saw halflings moving about in nearly equal numbers as well, though they seemed to be doing mostly physical labor.

And… calling it a gate was about as appropriate as with the Fairy Gate. Rather than a gate, it was a… black wall. There didn’t seem to be a doorway at first in the wall, so I wasn’t immediately sure how to use it. The wall stretched twenty meters high, just as wide, but was only a couple of feet thick.

As I approached, I saw a small hole open up in the wall, and a halfling carrying a woven basket ran through. Moments later, another halfling ran towards the wall, and it opened up to let them through without any resistance. Narrowing my eyes, I began to fly towards the wall, albeit more slowly than I had flown here, and was relieved to see the wall opening up for me as well.

When I passed through, the village I saw on the other end was… larger, more flourishing. I could see farmland just outside the walls of the village, people chatting as they wandered by. A few cast curious glances towards the wall, as it had apparently opened up for nobody, but they quickly went about their day.

Which systems have been unlocked so far? I asked towards the two goddesses, landing between two huts to catch my breath. I had been a long flight, but that was only one floor…

So far… the Party system, and Quests. Everything else is still waiting to be found. Why, did you have something in mind?

Hearing Aurivy’s answer, I let out a brief groan. Well, if guilds were already a thing, I was going to see if there was an adventurer’s guild that I could put in a request with to send this thing back. How long will it take me at this speed to reach the first layer?

Hmm… at the speed you were going before, you would arrive in two days. Three if you stop to rest along the way. The gates of the third and sixth floors are actually pretty close to each other.

I gave a small nod, leaning my back against the wall behind me. I don’t suppose that the druid orb is somewhere on one of these layers? It would have made travel so much easier if I could simply use a gate network, but then again that would only apply if it had already been established for a while.

Heheh… Aurivy laughed mischievously after I asked that. The druid orb was actually back on the tenth layer that you just left…

That brought out another groan, before my eyes suddenly opened wide. Hey… Aurivy… how come you haven’t just taken me directly to the first layer?

Hmm? Aurivy asked in surprise at my question. I thought you wanted to explore manually, rather than rely on me this time, so I didn’t bring it up. If you just want to go the quick route, though… well, you can either have me do it, or visit one of my temples.

I let out a quick laugh, having forgotten to ask her to simply send me there in my eagerness to try out this world’s brand of magic. My laugh cancelled my invisibility out, so there were people glancing oddly at me as they passed by the two huts I was between. Your temples can do it as well?

Even Aurivy seemed to be getting infected with my laugh, giggling slightly over the connection. That’s one of the powers bestowed on my Priests in this world. They can open portals to any gate that they have personally walked through. Just go to the temple, and tell them that you are delivering a sacred orb. Once you show it to them, they’ll send you off right away.

I pushed myself to my feet, scolding myself mentally. I had been so willing to take advantage of her travel cheats all this time that I had forgotten that I could do such a thing now that was in her own world.

Walking out of the alley I had landed myself in, I canceled the rest of the spells I had set on my person. By now, my mana was actually running pretty low, even with the relatively low usage. If not for me gaining a Scout level about halfway through the trip, I might not have had the energy to make it all the way to the first gate.

My eyes darted from side to side, before I noticed a stone sculpture of Aurivy just down the road from me. Standing in front of it was an old halfling carrying a wooden staff, his robes bleached white. When I approached, he sent a soft smile my way. “What can I do for you today, my child?”

I wasn’t sure what the proper etiquette was in Fyor, so I cut straight to the point. “I found a sacred orb, and wanted to take it back.” As I spoke, I held up the orb that I had retrieved.

The old man’s eyes opened wide for a brief moment, before he reached out and took the orb from my palm. “Hmm… hmm, yes. Very well. I suppose you’ll be wanting the first world, then.” He spoke with a small nod, handing me the orb back. Without saying anything else, he tapped his staff against the ground.

“May the Goddess smile upon your journey.” He spoke as if in prayer, while a golden portal opened up next to him, sparks flickering off of its edge. Through the portal, I could see yet another sprawling village, this one even more active than the one I was in now.

Not wanting to lose my chance, I jumped through the portal, watching it close behind me with a quiet snap. Surprisingly, nobody sent a glance my way at my arrival, as if it were an everyday occurance. “Ohh? Are you one of the maxers from the upper worlds?” Well… almost nobody.

Turning around, I saw a young human girl, standing just a bit taller than myself in my halfling body. “Hmm?” She tilted her head, catching my glance. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, sorry… I just wasn’t expecting to see anyone here.” I answered quickly, sending out a mental request for information.

Thankfully, Bihena once again came to the rescue. Maxers are the term for those who try to max out a single class as much as they can, to get the greatest benefits of it. They’re the ones who most often explore the uppermost floors, forming parties with other maxers. More often than not, only one of them would be finding the orbs, so she probably assumed you were one.

“Oh, okay!” She nodded her head happily while I was receiving the much needed information. “Do you need help getting the rest of the way to the holy pillar, sir?” She offered, turning to look at the towering blue crystal in the distance. Well… distance being relative, as it was far closer than it appeared.

“Not this time, sorry.” I refused with a small smile. “I’m in a bit of a hurry, so…” Switching to the language of magic, I cast another fly spell, lifting myself off the ground. I could hear a gasp from the girl I had left behind, as well as others from those around, before I rushed off towards the spire.

I’m going to guess that people haven’t found the flight rune yet, have they? I asked mentally, my smile turning a bit more bitter while I increased my speed. Aurivy’s laugh was enough of an answer to let me know that people flying was definitely not a normal sight.

This time, it only took me about five minutes to reach the spire. Just as I was beginning to question what I should do to activate the orb, I felt it tugging towards the spire on its own, even while I was still holding onto it.

Seeing that the orb was being drawn in on its own, I felt no need to resist, and simply placed it against the edge of the spire. Down below, I saw a group of people gathering around the spire’s base, staring up at me. However, a moment later, a new message appeared, one which caused shouts to ring out from the ground below, followed by a message that only I could see.