World Keeper

Chapter 470: Prelude to Shadow

After watching the scene of Sirin spending his final moments with Jonas, I turned my attention towards Ryone. “I think… it’s about time that I go for another adventure.” I had been in the Admin Room for a while, and gods were now starting to appear in my world. The ‘formula’ for godhood was known, so it was only a matter of time before the numbers increased exponentially.

Given that, it was time to slow things down. If I produced too many god-level figures, my rank would increase again, and I wasn’t ready for that yet. So, if I was going to just take things slow, I might as well simply descend myself.

“Okay.” Ryone agreed without any worry. She had already given me what could be considered a supreme life-saving treasure, so a lot of her fears had already been taken care of. “But… do you have any idea what to do this time?”

“Not in the slightest.” I admitted with a small grin. “Any suggestions?”

“Why not do something on one of your newer worlds? You could be part of the first interstellar voyage, but… I don’t expect it’d be too much different for you than the first intercontinental voyage.” She asked, and I had to take a moment to give it some thought. It was true that I hadn’t really explored those new worlds much yet since I acquired them.

Thinking that far, I sent off a mental message towards Accalia. I’m looking to do some work down below. Got any adventures for me in Kione?

There was a faint laugh that accompanied her words when she responded. Finally getting stir crazy? Let’s see… there’s a family of dragonriders in the Kiyara Mountains that are starting to turn to banditry. A demonic sect in southern Sashu is trying to gather sacrifices to summon the Shadow King. Oh, or there’s the cult trying to cultivate a divinity by gathering subjects to pour their divine sparks into a single person.

I blinked in surprise as I heard the options that Accalia had given me. Dragonriders, demonic sects, and this cult… it suddenly felt like I was missing so much in the world. However… none of these were really suited for my full power, so it wasn’t like I’d be in true danger from them.

What’s this about a Shadow King? I couldn’t help but ask, thinking that the demonic sect sounded like the most interesting problem to help resolve.

There’s not really a Shadow King. Well, not yet. Accalia explained patiently. However, because Kione’s field of magic is based on the imagination system, it’s possible that their ritual could create one. Even if they did, he should be a demigod at best. That world has yet to discover how to use fourth tier magic.

The problem is that they are gathering sacrifices, right? I nodded my head, already somewhat determined to handle this. Though, as I did with problems in the past, it would be in a disguise. I didn’t want to give the appearance of being willing to settle all of the world’s problems.

Right. They use the special characteristics of their demonic familiars to lure in unsuspecting victims.

Well, that raised an alarm. Special characteristics? I thought that all familiars were essentially the same, aside from body shape and spell capacity?

That’s… true for the first and second tiers. From my understanding, the world that you adventured in at the Keeper Meeting only had up to second tier magic. When a mage graduates to the third tier, their familiar undergoes an evolution. Some gain increased combat abilities, some get special attributes of magic that don’t occupy their capacity.

For instance, Leoywnn should actually be a third tier familiar for you, maybe even a fourth given her divine energy. You’d have to have Ryone check her to see what her special characteristic was, but most human-shaped familiars in the third tier have a degree of personal spellcasting that they can use.

Anyways, for demonic familiars, their specialty is in either combat, mental manipulation, or contract magic. The exact specifics depends on the type of demon.

Hearing Accalia’s explanation naturally piqued my curiosity, so I turned to regard Ryone. After explaining to her what Accalia had said, she closed her eyes in focus. “Hmm? Ah, Leowynn has two innate talents that I can see. The first one allows her to summon armor, and the second is an increase to physical strength.” After saying that, she fell silent once again, allowing me to continue my conversation with Accalia.

Okay, I’ll head down to take care of that. You said that it was in Sashu? As I asked that, I opened a map of Kione, looking for a region by that name. What I found was a kingdom in one of the largest continents, far away from the Fairy Gates.

That’s right. Though, I’d suggest using a disguise for Leowynn as well. Her face is… pretty well known in Kione.

It’s what now? I blinked in surprise, having not expected that news at all.

Vision Expanse is a big hit in my world. And they were more open to learning about new gods, so a lot of them started on ‘Leowynn’s world’ due to the overcrowding in the other starting planets. I think Kione is one of the few places where Leowynn is worshipped as a legitimate god on the same standing as the rest of us.

I was sure that Leowynn would be happy to hear about that, and changing her appearance shouldn’t be that difficult. Energy beings like the two of us should be able to theoretically change our bodies however we want. A perfect example was how Tsubaki had once taken on the habit of changing between different races herself before again settling on kitsune.

We typically only stuck to one appearance because it was what our minds identified as natural. Maintaining a different form required concentration, until it became a second nature to the individual.

Leowynn, are you free to descend with me? I found us an adventure.

Of course, father, just one moment. She spoke up briefly, seeming distracted, so I gave her a bit of time. I continued to sit there on the couch, Ryone in my lap as the two of us waited.

Leowynn? I messaged her again after ten minutes passed by.

Huh? Oh, sorry! I felt her rushing through the Admin Room, appearing in the living room. Her face was flustered, clearly embarrassed at having lost track of time. Still, when she arrived, she leaned forward to give her mother a tight hug. “See you when I get back, mom.”

Ryone simply giggled, returning the embrace. “See you soon, honey.”

While the two of them were saying their farewells, I was setting up my own appearance and history for this venture. Since we were going to Kione, and a region of the world far removed from the gate, I chose to descend as a lycan.

In order to avoid creating too many waves with my identity, I placed myself as a normal citizen, an adventuring mage by the name of… let’s go with Clover Kyr, with Leowynn’s alias here being Val. Val Kyr… it seemed a suitable name for Leowynn, and gave me an idea for her disguise.

Once Ryone had gotten off of my lap, Leowynn merged into my body, and the two of us descended. The area we appeared at was quite a ways from the town where I had set myself as living. Since I needed to take care of several additional details before we returned, it was important to not set down in the center of town.

The first thing that I needed to do was adjust my aura. I focused on the golden pearl of my soul, and set myself to appear as someone with roughly two hundred levels each in Mage, Monk, and Ninja, and sixty levels of Scholar. Then, I threw in a smattering of miscellaneous classes such as Chef, Hunter, Herbalist, and other such life skills that someone would easily be able to acquire through my defined lifestyle.

While I was doing that, I explained to Leowynn our current situation, as well as the need for her to establish a disguise. As I expected, she was quite intrigued at the idea of a major church devoted to her. She even asked that we make sure to visit at some point while we were here, a request I didn’t have any problems agreeing to.

Finally, after my aura and her disguise were taken care of, there was only one matter left to settle. In order to pass as a mage of Kione, I had to utilize magic through my familiar instead of the normal magic with which I was… well, familiar.

Leowynn and I spent a good three hours together, simply establishing the magical repertoire of spells to store within her. Following the theme of her name, I gave her spells focused on melee combat, archery, and a few elemental effects. Combined with her appearance of an armored maiden, she truly fit the image of a valkyrie.

To my surprise, though, even those few hours of developing spells did not seem to fill her capacity. I remembered back when I was in the simulation, my lion had enough room for barely a dozen simple spells, but I had already long since passed that number with Leowynn.

Seeming to sense my surprise, Accalia whispered into my mind. As familiars evolve, they naturally gain a greater capacity for magic. Leowynn should be able to hold… quite a lot, honestly. More than you could fit in five of those grimoires you bought from Starkiller. In fact, it’s quite rare for a familiar at the third tier to ever completely fill their capacity, because their mages prefer to stick to a smaller array of spells.

Well, that was reassuring at least. The fact that nobody would question if Leowynn didn’t have a full arsenal meant that I didn’t need to worry about spending the rest of the day just to come up with more spells. “Let’s get going.” I spoke up, taking a deep breath before guiding Leowynn to walk back towards the town.

While the two of us walked, Accalia gave us additional information about our targets. From what she said, it sounded as if the demons often targeted lone adventurers, particularly those of high level. From their theories, the Shadow King would only be appeased through the most powerful offerings.

With me establishing myself as an adventurer with a total level above six hundred, this made me a prime target for them. Even without me going out of the way to find them, they would eventually come looking for me themselves. This gave me some time to simply enjoy Kione’s culture while I waited.

The walk back to town took a little over an hour, during which we encountered a few larger beasts. Using Leowynn’s innate talents, we easily slew them. After each kill, I took my time to harvest their meat. This wasn’t my first time hunting with Leowynn, so I at least had an idea of what I was doing, and we could sell the meat when we got back to town. Even though I had Ryone, who could simply give me as much money as I needed, it still helped to sell the image of a normal adventurer if I was seen earning for myself.

When we got back to town, I was able to see that… there were no walls to this city. At first, I felt that to be an unusual trait in a world with monsters. In any situation where the city was able to be attacked at any moment, a certain amount of defenses seemed to be a requirement.

However, as I got closer, I noticed that there were a pair of guards posted on either side of a road. As with other cities I’d seen, there was a short line of people entering the city along that road. Furrowing my brow, I deployed my world sight, before suddenly understanding what was going on. There was a wall around the city, of a sort. A barrier surrounded it on almost all sides, projected by a group of familiars within the city itself. The only openings to the barrier were along the roads.

I gave a small nod as I began to understand, moving to stand in line with the others.