World Keeper

Chapter 388: What Sorcery is This

I gave a small chuckle as I watched the scene of Tsubaki guarding the door of the Sky Citadel. Indeed, I had asked her not to prevent people from claiming this base for the event. But, I was somewhat glad that I hadn’t told her to completely ignore this citadel. This was a good chance for her to get recognition with the upper echelon of players as more than just the Keeper’s Servant. Here, she was a player as well. Just one with a rather intense drive to grow in personal strength, and knowledge of how to do just that.

Perhaps due to Vivi’s planning, the media crews that were watching the various players inside the citadel had all been ejected out once it had been claimed. This included the media liaison that was accompanying Legion, which allowed them to record the scene of the other groups trying to raid the citadel.

While I watched the scene through Tsubaki’s computer, Leowynn sitting happily in the chair in front of me, I heard another message I had been waiting for. I’ve got it ready, Dale!

Naturally, that message had come from Ryone, her tone eager and excited. I shook my head, smiling as I reached down to tap on Leowynn’s shoulder. “We’ve got to go back for a little bit. I’ll make sure that you can watch the broadcast once they air it.”

Leowynn gave a small pout at having to pull herself away from watching, just as the main fight was starting to break out. Still, she nodded her head, dispersing into a golden cloud that rushed into my body. Mentally, I apologized to her, but I wouldn’t be able to do what I needed to do without returning to the Admin Room, and the timing was pretty important with this.

The next moment, I was in my room, an excited Ryone sitting on my bed. There was a grin that threatened to split her face open, and I could see her lightly bouncing in her seat. “I take it that you’ve got something rather nice planned?”

Ryone’s head nodded faster than I thought should be physically possible. “Yes! I made something extra special for this!” Reaching out her hand, she produced a thin notebook with a pitch black cover.

Taking the book, I opened it up to begin reading, and was pleasantly surprised. As I did so, Ryone explained the contents… largely for Leowynn, I imagine. “I wanted to create a new type of magic, like Udona did with her cards. But it couldn’t just be anything… I wanted to make this special.”

“There are already advanced starlight magic types within the market, but they weren’t what I wanted. They turned the stars and planets into giant masses of mana that radiate outwards. This would probably make space travel a bit difficult, I think… so I wanted something different. Something that could potentially qualify as a base magic type.”

“I drew a lot of my inspiration for this from Lorek’s Profound Star Laws. Essentially, the outer layer of the atmosphere catches the light from celestial bodies, using that light to create mana. The intensity and spectrum of the celestial light changes the specific type of mana produced. For instance, naturally during the day, the star that the planet rotates would provide heavy amounts of light, empowering magic. But only one specific type of magic.”

“It would be the goal of a mage to connect with the atmospheric mana, sifting through it to take the spectrums that they wanted for their spells. It will also greatly encourage the native species to have an interest in the stars as well, but comes with some clear weaknesses.”

I gave a nod at that, able to imagine some of those. “If they’re connecting to starlight, it will probably be harder to use underground. They’ll need a mana storage or some other magical item.”

“Well… a bit more than that, actually.” Ryone chuckled, shaking her head. “You see, the mana is generated from starlight in the atmosphere. This means that, once they leave the atmosphere, they won’t have access to that energy anymore… In order for them to use magic outside of their own world, I imagine that they will need to create a device that replicates that effect. But it will mean that they will need to heavily rely on technology for space travel.”

Gradually, as we were discussing, the golden mist surfaced from my body again. Leowynn stepped out, looking towards her mother. “You made this… because of me?”

Ryone’s grin shifted into a gentle, warm smile, and she nodded her head. “That’s right, dear. I wanted something special for you. You are our little star, aren’t you? And after hearing about your domains in that game, I knew that I definitely needed to make something related to stars, once it got to my turn.”

Leowynn dove forward, wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck and holding her tight. It was clear that she was incredibly touched by the sentiment, her shoulders even starting to shake slightly. Ryone’s eyes softened, and she held her daughter in a gentle embrace while I continued to read.

Ryone hadn’t just written about her magic system in the notebook. She had written down her desired race, which was unsurprisingly elves. Though, I noticed that they weren’t the same elves as I had created for Earth. For the most part, they were the same… same stats, same appearance, but there was an added effect for them. ‘Genetic Adaptation’, with the description being the ability to rapidly undergo evolution in only a few generations to adapt to different climates.

It had been a while since I received notifications about my races evolving. But, again, I had not been fast forwarding as much lately either. Aside from the race, she also gave a list of what classes she wanted for the world’s game system. Unsurprisingly, the list mirrored what we had in the other worlds.

One thing that she did add special was an ore. I couldn’t tell if it was one of her own creation, or one that she was getting from the market. Either way, it was listed as ‘starmetal’. An ore created by saturating other raw materials in the essence of starlight found only in deep space. Depending on the original material that was altered in this way, the starmetal would have different properties.

I gave a small nod as I read over everything. Putting the options into the system, I decided to make this world the same size as Desbar. That was still plenty of space for them, with the main goal being that they would expand to the stars, as opposed to the other worlds that had to be convinced of what might await them.

As I finished entering the options in to the system, I couldn’t help but arch my brow towards Ryone. She knew that the typical limit for one of these worlds that I set was five hundred points. I had made an exception with Fyor, but only because Bihena and Aurivy had personally earned the points that they used for it.

And for this world that she had created, which she had named Spica, the total cost came to… four hundred and ninety-five points. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had spent the last few days adjusting her requests such that it would use up her full budget.

Seeing that, I shook my head with a small smile, purchasing the world and placing it in its own universe. “You know the deal. If you want to use the points you earn in your world to buy anything, just let me know. Depending on how the world develops, I’ll be figuring out when to join it with the others.” As I purchased the world, golden confetti seemed to spring up out of my body, a window appearing in front of me.

Ryone gave a soft nod, still holding Leowynn. She didn’t even seem to pay any attention towards the fanfare that came with the achievement, only giving a knowing smile. I decided to give them a moment alone, turning and walking out of the room. It wouldn’t feel right to ask Leowynn to come back with me to Earth right now, so I wanted to take a walk for a bit, maybe look into the new title that came with the achievement.

While I was walking down the hall, I noticed a loud, repeated crashing sound from one of the rooms. Giving it a quick glance, I noticed that it was Keliope’s room. Going by the pattern, it sounded like she was punching something. Training to pass the time, maybe?

It had been a while since I spent any time with the ursa goddess, so I walked over and knocked on the door. There was a pause in the repeated pattern of crashing, before a voice called out. “Just a sec!”

After a moment, the door opened and the tall, dark-skinned form of Keliope stood in the doorway, smiling towards me. “Hey, Dale! Wasn’t expecting a visit from you.” She was wearing her typical red crop top, and baggy blue jeans. “What’s up?”

“Just got done setting Ryone up with her world, and figured I’d give her and Leowynn some time to themselves.” I explained with a small shrug of my shoulders. “Heard you from the hall, and figured I’d see how you were doing.”

“Hmm?” Keliope leaned to the side, against the frame of the doorway, and seemed to think it over. “I mean, no real complaints here. Been feeling a bit cramped, but I am able to go have fun on Earth and in that new game whenever I want. Congrats on becoming a god yourself, by the way. Udo’ was pretty happy for you.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out who she was referring to. “Thanks. Sorry about not consulting any of you on which world came next.”

Keliope simply gave another shrug. “Doesn’t really bother me. I’ve been having fun studying Lorek. I think that if I were to make a world myself, it would probably be a cultivation world like Tubrock’s. But I doubt I’d have the patience for that whole ancient civilization stuff he did to lay the groundwork for it all.”

That… gave me a thought. “Do you think you’d have other changes as well, or would it just be a world like his, but with ursa as the leading race?”

“Hmm?” Keliope raised her eyebrows at me. “I mean, I guess I’d keep everything else the same? I kind of like that world’s cultivation method, but it is a bit hard to step onto the right path. You know me, Dale. I’m not exactly the type to go through and overly plan stuff like that.” She waved a hand dismissively, shaking her head.

“Well, then.” I smiled slightly. “You can talk about it with Tubrock. But, if that’s the way you want it, you could potentially get a world in the same universe as him. Since you don’t mind everything being the same, it wouldn’t make too much sense to make you an entirely different world, right?”

Keliope blinked at that, seeming a bit caught off-guard by the proposal as she considered it for a moment. “Heh, I guess you’re right, huh? Sure, I’ll go chat him up about it. Given the size of his world, though, I doubt it’ll be any time soon when the two meet.”

I hadn’t considered that… I had forgotten just how truly massive Lorek was. Even with as strong as the people have gotten, they weren’t explorers by nature. It was hard to tell when they would finish exploring their own world, let alone moving out past it to see others. “Well… just see what he says. If he wants, I could even see about adding the ursa to an unexplored region of Lorek.”

Keliope nodded her head, appearing to be happy with the suggestion. “Sure, I’ll bring it up with him. I take it that you’re planning to finish giving the rest of us worlds of our own pretty soon?”

Thinking about it, doing this would make it so that only three of the eligible deities would remain without a world of their own. Well, two if you counted the Underworld as Irena’s domain. But I’d still like to offer her the option of making her own world, as well. “Probably, yeah… I’ll be speaking with Accalia, Tryval, and Irena about it here before too long. I am sure Accalia at least has had ideas for what she’s wanted for a while.”

Keliope rolled her eyes playfully at that. “Oh, ages. She keeps trying to rope me and Udo’ in to help her fine-tune her plans. She’ll be all over you like a happy puppy once you tell her it’s finally her turn.”