World Keeper

Chapter 579: Uncontrolled Evolution

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Udona asked, sitting on the large red bed, wearing an elegant robe that covered her body. There was a trace of worry in her eyes as she looked at the queen across from her. “You know that there’s no going back once you embark on this path, right..?”

Bria nodded her head, offering a gentle smile towards Udona. “Of course I know. I’ve been preparing for this ever since achieving perfection. In fact… I don’t really have much of a choice about it at this point.” Saying so, she let out a soft sigh, moving to sit on the bed next to the goddess, leaning over and resting her head on Udona’s shoulder.

“What do you mean by that?” Udona asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You know how people get. Now that I don’t have a ‘flesh’ body, my legitimacy to the throne is in question. Without the ability to provide an heir, and having not already given one, there are a slew of nobles from ancient kingdoms claiming that I should step down for the good of the planet.”

Udona grit her teeth when she heard that. She knew that there was a way for those who had achieved perfection to have children, she had simply not learned the exact method yet. “So your only hope is to overwhelm them by becoming a goddess?”

“That’s right.” Bria gave a small nod. “Otherwise, the people will take the side of those nobles, and I’ll be forced to step down or face a rebellion. Most likely, whoever takes the throne after me will make me a simple concubine under the guise of an advisor. Assuming that there isn’t a civil war to determine which of them gets the throne in the first place.”

“I could–”

“No.” Udona’s words were cut off by the queen squeezing her hand gently. “If you step in and claim that I should keep the throne, it will only complicate matters. People will see me as a link to get to you. Or… in the worst case, a weakness of yours that could be exploited. This is something that I have to resolve on my own. I must become a goddess under my own power.”

Udona let out a long sigh, a bitter smile coming over her lips. “You’ve thought this through… have you decided on your domain, then? I can pull some strings to help you out when the time comes.”

Bria thought that over for a moment. “I’m debating between two at the moment. Goddess of Queens sounds a bit too on the nose… but what do you think of the Goddess of Law?”

“Really wanna hammer that message home, don’t you?” The goddess asked with a light laugh. “Alright… have you researched the process to know what you need to do?”

“I have, and I’ve asked Jonas to visit me tomorrow. Just in case I happen to fail. At least it will allow me to preserve a bit of legacy.”

“Don’t talk like that.” Udona told her, ears flattened against her skull. “You’ll do this, Bria. You’ll make an excellent goddess.”

Deep within the void of space, in a far-off star system, a pink-haired girl appeared with a gruff dwarf. “This the place?” The dwarf asked, staring at the two living worlds in the distance. One of them was little more than a barren rock surrounding a massive dungeon core, while the other was a massive slime in the shape of a small planet.

“That’s right!” Aurivy responded, nodding her head quickly. “Think you’d be able to take care of it, Tubby?”

“Told’ya not ta call me that!” The dwarf bellowed, causing the halfling to laugh, their voices somehow carrying even in the empty space. “And it’ll do. Get Leowynn to clear any star systems in the way.”

After he said that, he took out a small stone from his beard, before placing it on the ground. “Range, one solar system. Anchor point, local star. Array type, barrier.” He reached into his beard again, pulling out a long, metal handle that connected to a hammer head. One which could not have possibly fit the space it was pulled from.

“Mass… production!” He shouted, lifting the hammer high above his head, before striking it down at the stone. Instead of the stone being sent flying into the void, it remained perfectly stationary. However, as Aurivy looked around, she could see similar stones springing into existence every few thousand miles in every direction. These stones wrapped themselves around the solar system to form a network.

“How long did’ya want this to last?” Tubrock asked, watching how the worlds within the system began to rotate more quickly, entire revolutions around the star taking no more than a minute. Gradually, the entire system began to drift along its cosmic route. The system was moving at millions of kilometers per second, displacing itself from its spot on the stellar charts.

“Until some kind of sentient race appears on Tower’s planet.” Aurivy responded with a shrug, pointing towards the dungeon world. “That’s the promise I made them. They help me with getting a slime god, and I help them create a living world that they can use to produce followers.”

“I saw that… you really put those restrictions on the slime?” Tubrock raised an eyebrow, looking towards the halfling, who simply shrugged helplessly.

“I didn’t want to. I mean, I’m cutting off their hope for divinity. Who would want that? But if I didn’t, there would be millions of god slimes by the time this was over, and Dale would really get mad at me. You know better than most how quickly they learn and adapt. If I see any promising individuals, I’ll grant them individual rights of ascension.”

Tubrock grunted, nodding his head. “I s’pose. Was just a surprise to see it from you of all people.”

Aurivy chuckled, a small grin forming on her face. “You say that… but do you see what I see?” Her eyes were directed towards the quickly moving slime world. When Tubrock followed her gaze, his eyes widened in shock.

The slime planet had grown massively over the accelerated years, now every bit the size of the planet Earth. There were oceans and forests, trees and clouds. Creatures could be seen walking the surface. Yes… walking, not hopping or jiggling or even slithering. Walking.

These creatures appeared green and slightly translucent, vaguely mimicking the halfling form. Their cores were kept within their chests, roughly placed where the heart would be. Other, less intelligent slimes mimicked beasts, appearing as foxes and deer, wolves and bears. There was even the odd treasure chest tucked against the side of a tree. Whenever an unsuspecting ‘animal’ walked by, it shot out a massive tongue and dragged them inside.

“It’s only been twenty years by now, no?” Tubrock asked in surprise, seeing the thriving ecosystem of the world.

“Give or take. But everything in this world is a slime. Wind slimes floating in the sky to become clouds. Water slimes filling the crevices of the world to create oceans. Wood slimes planting themselves in the ground to create trees. Under the guidance of Pietra, their evolution is so fast that it would scare even me if I didn’t know about them already.”

As Aurivy let out a happy sigh, her face suddenly cramped up when a message spoke into her mind. Really, Aurivy… I leave you alone for two hours, and we have a slime race…

Don’t be mad? I took precautions, I swear! They won’t go out of control and become an unbeatable race of monsters or anything like that!

I saw. But… take a look at their information, first.

When Aurivy heard that, she blinked. Then, her main body within the Admin Room focused, summoning the racial chart for the slimes.

I see nothing wrong with this. Aurivy said proudly, only wincing slightly when she saw how high their comprehension stat was.

The race is worth five hundred points. Okay, that made Aurivy wince further. Something something, infinite lifespan and unlimited capacity to evolve.

But.. but their divinity is locked! Aurivy called out in a panic. They shouldn’t be considered that powerful by the system if they can’t achieve divinity.

She knew that her race fell into the same special loophole that Tubrock’s golems had fallen through. Dale wouldn’t need to spend points on them because they had been created fully sapient by the residents of his world. In this case, by Aurivy, Pietra, and Atraxi. With Aurivy counting as a true resident, and the other two being her subordinates, the slime race received a ‘free pass’, for better or worse.

They can still copy other energies, like saint energies. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they could eventually learn how to access chaos energy. When Aurivy heard that last part, she let out a gasp. She had been so focused on disallowing their divinity that she forgot about its polar opposite.

She quickly measured her own divine reserves before focusing. “By my authority as the God of Slimes, I place a restriction on all slimes. None shall access the power of chaos without my approval!”

She could feel a large drop in her divinity as this declaration took effect. Even larger than when she declared divinity off-limits, which suggested there may have been slimes already cultivating this ‘dark power’. How is it now…?

Let me see… two hundred and fifty points. Still a good deal more than the dungeon cores were, but at least it’s not as bad as it was. Aurivy let out a sigh of relief when she heard that. Tubrock, not being privy to their entire conversation, looked at Aurivy with a raised brow. “Sorry… apparently I almost made a race of god-killing slimes.”

“Ah… yeah, I can see how that’d be a problem.” Tubrock shook his head. “How long d’ya think it’ll take before they’re ready to meet the other races?”

Aurivy pursed her lips in thought at that, once again looking at the slime world. “Let’s see what kind of monster Tower cultivates. If it’s a peaceful one, we’ll start the interactions with them as a trial run. If not… I’ll set up a gate between here and Deckan. They seem like they’d be able to handle it if something went wrong, with that old Keeper there.”

Tubrock thought about that for a moment, before agreeing. At the very least, this planet didn’t have to worry about some space monsters coming along and destroying it. If anything, the space monsters themselves had to worry about the inhabitants of this planet eating them.

As he thought that, his eyes drifted towards one of those ‘cloud slimes’. It had half a dozen cores floating about in its body, showing that it was actually a composite of multiple slimes. When it swept past a mountain, a few fire slimes spewed lava at it, which angered the cloud.

At that point, the numerous wind slimes that made up the cloud came together and began spinning, forming a tornado that pierced down into the volcanic slime pit. Seeing how the sky itself had become angry at a volcano, Tubrock couldn’t help but shudder. He pitied whoever wandered into this world, thinking it was just a normal planet.