World Keeper

Chapter 451: Investment

Every day, more and more dungeons were choosing their masters. For some, it was an easy matter, simply observing the adventurers that made their way inside. As part of their ‘experiment’, there were some dungeons who even accepted vicious killers as their master. They needed to observe all facets of the races, and so each dungeon chose traits that they would primarily look for.

The dungeon which had named itself Sirin looked for those with the ability to see past deception and understand what lies within. The flame dungeon which had rejected the arrogant noble sought a courageous heart that would not waver in the face of danger. Initially, the dungeon known as Storm had chosen to look for an individual with excellent intuition and judgement, such that they would be able to navigate the chaotic storms.

Of course, not everything went as planned. The presence of a demigoddess caused Storm to immediately abandon its initial goal to accept her, instead. Naturally, there were others that had abandoned their original plans when they met someone that surpassed their expectations.

Within a month, there were more than five hundred confirmed dungeons that had been ‘conquered’. These consisted of every dungeon whose location was known to the Guild. Yet, this was not even five percent of the grand total of dungeons within the various worlds. There were still so many that had not yet been discovered, who were awaiting the day that they would be encountered.

As such, the dungeons enacted the second stage of their plan. The dungeon of the elven capital sent an anonymous missive to the guild, which contained the locations of various previously undiscovered dungeons. This information was easy to verify, as all someone needed to do was to visit the location in question. And given the importance of the information at the time, it was only natural that they immediately checked its validity.

Like this, more and more dungeons gradually came into the light. More cores pledged their allegiance to a master, gaining the power to control their own divinity. However, there was one core that was different from the rest. One with the strictest requirements out of any.

A previously undiscovered dungeon which sat within a deep valley. Following information of its location being leaked, it erected a mighty tower above its location to serve as a guide. Unlike the other dungeons, it stated its requirements directly on the entrance to the tower.

‘Only one who has reached perfection shall become my master’. These words were written in the ancient script of the dungeons, which had taken many years to previously decipher. This dungeon’s condition was chosen due to the realization within the network that ‘perfection’ was merely the first step along the road to ascension.

They were able to arrive at this conclusion due to the fact that the slimes no longer had truly physical forms. Yet at the same time, only their bodies had reached divinity. It stood to reason then, that divinity could only be accomplished after shedding the physical body.

If they knew that the Keeper himself had gone through the process from the opposite direction, it was likely that many of the cores would get headaches thinking about the possibilities. However, they only had a limited sample size to study, which gave them limited clues to expand upon. Perhaps only Tsubaki herself would realize that the Keeper did not reach divinity through the body, but the soul. But, to her, the Keeper had always been a divine being, regardless of the quality of his divinity.

When word spread of this dungeon, which had been named the ‘Tower of Perfection’ by the guild, many came to challenge it. Of these people, not a single one returned. It was unknown exactly what method the tower used to kill the adventurers, only that those who entered unconditionally died within six hours.

This caused those remaining to view the tower with apprehension, heeding its warning. There were still far too few people who had crossed over the threshold of perfection, as the process was quite risky. Of those who had followed Jonas’s method, most were still recovering from the ordeal, left as shadows of their former figures.

Everyone knew that someday, it would be one of these individuals that managed to claim this dungeon, if not Jonas himself. For now, though, there were none that stepped forward to attempt it.

“Hey, I’ve got a question that I’ve been thinking about for a while.” I spoke up while watching the world fast forward in front of us. We had a map set up to highlight whenever a dungeon had been claimed by a master, so it was easy for us to track the activity.

“Hmm?” Aurivy responded as she bit off the tip of a pocky stick. A treat that she had no doubt learned about from Udona.

“Why are there no active dungeons on Fyor?” This was something that had always confused me. Yes, Fyor itself was a dungeon. But dungeons were… well, they were Aurivy’s thing. To have dungeons within Fyor as well would only be normal in my eyes.

“Another project I’m waiting on~.” Aurivy replied, a mysterious glint in her eye before she giggled, shaking her head. “It’s actually not a secret. Bihena knows about it, too. It’s just something that we won’t be able to achieve for a long

“Oh?” I couldn’t help but press for more information.

“Those crystal spheres, the ones that everyone submits to the central spire to unlock new features… don’t you think that they look a little bit like dungeon cores?” Her words made me think, and it was true that both took the shape of small, blue spheres made of crystal. Aside from the dungeon cores being a bit larger, the two held a lot of similarities.

“I noticed something about that a few months back, and tried an experiment with Bihena. After distracting the guards, I took a new dungeon core into the spire, and tried to insert it like a normal feature orb. It was just a silly little idea at first, neither Bihena nor myself really thought anything would happen.”

“But something did?” For the first time in a while, my attention was drawn fully away from the map to watch Aurivy, who nodded her head.

“The core went in. For ten seconds, Fyor was completely under the control of a dungeon core, and nobody knew a thing about it. Because… after those ten seconds, it was violently ejected.” Aurivy shook her head with a resigned sigh. “During that brief time, it was assimilating itself with the various floors of Fyor through the crystal spires. But, it was forcefully stopped once it hit the limit of ‘explored’ territory. The spire lashed out, and the core was almost destroyed in the chaos.”

“So the world still won’t allow a core to access any floors beyond what has been considered our territory… Surely you would have tried to use another core, and tell this one to limit its own reach?”

When I asked that, Aurivy nodded her head. “That’s right. I did that almost right away. But, the assimilation is an instinctive process. It can’t stop even if it wants to. The second core was shot out just like the first.”

“So, Bihena and I arrived at a conclusion based on this.” At that, Aurivy let out a bright smile. “The day the final floor enters our territory, Fyor will become a true dungeon planet! Until then, I don’t want to ‘spoil’ the world with lesser dungeons. There could be conflicts between them once the super-dungeon is installed, so I want to plan ahead.”

“…You realize that the final floor of Fyor likely won’t be revealed until I’m at least a rank six or seven Keeper, right?”

“Planning way ahead.” Aurivy nodded her head sagely.

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh. “Well, it’s been a couple of years now, let’s check on Jonas’s progress.”

Jonas sat in the depths of his basement, staring at the triangular shard of divinity that he had acquired some time ago from Ryone. It had been six months since he had experienced the agonizing pain of his soul being torn apart and reforged by the flames of his divinity.

Since that time, he had no longer felt the same stifling pressure, yet he continued to regularly exert his divinity to perform miracles for those around him. Even though both his body and soul had been assimilated as part of his divine power, he knew that there was still one step left to go.

His hand trembled as he recalled the pain of the event. In his heart, he had always thought that upgrading his body would be the most torturous experience he would ever face. Yet, what he had felt then shattered his confidence. The mere memory of it was enough to cause him to tremble.

There was only one step left, but Jonas couldn’t take it. Not yet. Whenever he thought about it, his mind would go back to the day when he upgraded his soul. What if every stage is a harder trial? He always wondered.

His will had almost entirely broken while he was upgrading his spirit. If it had lasted even a moment longer, he may have been destroyed. Until he was able to overcome this trauma, there was no way that he could even consider upgrading his mind to the same level as his body and soul.

And yet, he kept staring at that shard. Despite the memories that it caused to float to the surface, how it made him relive the worst of pains, beyond anything he had ever imagined possible. He couldn’t bring himself to give up his dream.

He brought his other hand up, using it to steady the shaking. “Oh, holy mother, I speak to you at this time to ask for your guidance. My goal is in sight, yet every day it feels as if it slips further away from me. I fear that my resolve is not enough for this final trial, that everything I have built will crumble as I vanish from this world.”

A soft laughter entered into Jonas’s ear. Silly child. Have you forgotten that treasure which you stare at every day? Have you not yet realized what it means?

Jonas blinked, looking down at the fragment once again, as if it could answer his questions. “This child is foolish, holy mother, and can only ask for your aid.”

I am the Goddess of Merchants, dear Jonas. That fragment I gave you is an investment. Do you expect the Goddess of Merchants to make a bad investment?

“An… investment.” He nodded, as if he had come to understand something. However, what Ryone did not immediately realize was that his understanding was not what she had intended at all.

When Ryone dove deeper into Jonas’s thoughts, seeking to guide him, she saw what he was truly ‘realizing’, and it made her gasp secretly. “No, bad Jonas!” She called out, though did not transmit her words to him. “That divinity was meant to be used to forge your own artifact, not as a shortcut to reach godhood! Gah!”

“Okay, okay… calm down Ryone. That fragment isn’t really all that powerful. He’ll be able to make a new one easily, once he learns the method. But still, that’s frustrating! I condensed that fragment specifically for him, after all!”

Ryone brought her hands up to hold her forehead, letting out a frustrated groan. “I swear, if he uses that fragment and still fails to ascend to divinity, I’ll personally descend and piece his soul back together just so I can slap him silly!”

As it turns out, the Goddess of Merchants could make bad investments at times. Only… good luck ever getting her to admit that. Thankfully, her investment this time had been relatively little, and she had still managed to get the present for Aurivy out of it. So… it wasn’t a total loss, right?