World Keeper

Chapter 551: Advance

After separating from Balu, Irena informed me that she wished to go ‘enjoy the festivities’ and earn some points of her own. Though, I couldn’t help but suspect her decision had something to do with the red-headed elf walking towards me. Leowynn was nowhere in sight, so I was guessing that Ryone left her to play some games on her own as well.

“Someone seems to be in a good mood.” Ryone spoke in a teasing tone, hooking her arm through mine. “Wanna tell me about it?”

Thinking it over, I nodded my head. “Actually, there is something that I wanted to tell you about.” Her eyebrow perked up slightly at that, and I began to explain my idea to expand the market that she and Leowynn had created.

“Normally, I would be opposed to any system that arbitrarily removes or inserts items into a world’s economy.” As she said that, the two of us began walking back towards the town. “However, if we establish it properly, it might work. If we set the tokens generated through offerings to be of less ‘divine cost’ than the divinity the offering itself generates, we’ll see a net profit for energy.”

When I heard that, I suddenly became curious. “You receive divine energy from offerings? I knew Tubrock could receive ores and crafting materials, but I haven’t heard much beyond that.”

Ryone chuckled slightly, smiling towards me. “We have two different forms of offerings, really. One, we can accept the items as they are offered. This is what Tubrock does with any crafting materials. On the other hand, we can convert the offerings into divine power.”

“For this method, it isn’t the value of the object itself that determines how much energy we obtain, but rather… how much value it has to the person that offered it. A poor orphan that starved herself for a week to save up a small handful of coins to offer once gave me more energy than a man who offered a literal fortune.”

“To the girl, those coins represented all of the pain she had endured for those days, the hunger she felt, and the devout belief that led her to perform those actions. Her heart was genuinely in the offering. On the other hand, although the rich man offered a far larger sum, it was a mere pittance compared to his full wealth.”

I furrowed my brow slightly, considering those comparisons. “Then, if we were to compare the situation to what we were just talking about… how much would that girl be able to receive from you for that offering?”

Ryone seemed to understand what I was getting at, and shook her head to deny my concerns. “If she viewed the coins as only a means to get more wealth, the value of the offering would not have been that high. It was her sacrifice that truly made that offering valuable. Perhaps, if she was not aware of the tokens that could be generated from an offering, she would earn quite a few. Enough that, if used through this system to buy wealth, could afford her a small house in a prime location.”

“If she knew about the conversion, and was only using the offering for that purpose, then the tokens generated would be far less, and likely not even enough to recover the initial sum she spent on it. However, there’s something that I think you’ll need to consider before we decide to bring this up to the others.”

I blinked, looking towards Ryone curiously, before she explained. “All of these additions rely on Leowynn’s theoretical ability to create materials from the void. Every transaction will require her tokens to be present as well. I’m sure that you can understand what this would mean for her…”

“It means she’d become the most popular goddess, as far as the market was concerned.” I admitted with a sigh, nodding my head in acknowledgement. “I’m not really against that. With this new cooperation between the two of you, she’s already quickly becoming very popular. If we’re talking about Spica and Lorek, she’s on her way towards replacing even you, Tubrock, and Keliope as the key deity.”

When I said that, Ryone gave a somewhat wry grin. “I did make that magic system as a reference to her, after all… I suppose it’s only right that people connected it to her once she became a goddess.”

That earned a small chuckle from me. It was true, Leowynn’s popularity skyrocketed within the various worlds after Terra put on that display for everyone. If there was one world that was the least affected… it would probably be Fyor.

How much impact would a Stellar Goddess have on a planet that could not even see a single star? The only one of her domains that was truly appreciated with Fyor was the Gravity domain, as it allowed her priests to bless people to withstand the intense gravity of the higher floors.

For every other world, however? Most of them were currently in the age of exploring the stars, so she became an obvious choice for those travelers to worship. “We’ll bring it up when we get back home. I can’t see it being too much of a problem, but I’d like to get everyone’s opinions on it.”

Ryone nodded her head, and the two of us stepped into the performance hall to enjoy a show. Although I had been here once before with Irena, this was my first time bringing Ryone. As we entered, we were greeted with the sight of a man sitting down on the stage, focusing his brows. Above his head was a large display, similar to a movie being played. The two of us gave a small grin, moving to watch the show.

Tsubaki let out a sigh of relief as she leaned back in her chair, having completed the first ‘year’ of the game after several hours. This was considered as a checkpoint, and she would be allowed to resume her progress from this point even if she stopped now, or died later on.

In order to reach this point, she had needed to craft numerous weapons for herself, as well as building a stable shelter that could blend in with its surroundings enough to not be attacked by nearby monsters. Then, the final objective of this ‘year’, she had to hunt the strongest monster in the area. This was a feline beast whose fur was as strong as iron.

This one hunt alone took her over half an hour of careful preparations and kiting. However, once she killed it, she ‘claimed’ the territory. From the description the system gave, she knew that the beasts would flee from this area in the second year, leaving all of that space for her to develop. In the second year, she could already imagine that she would need to create a farm, mine, and possibly even a smithy.

At the same time, her challenge would likely be that valuable resources were hidden beyond her current area, so she would have to explore and fight stronger beasts to acquire them. She was playing out this pattern in her mind, and could guess that she would be fully equipped with metal and leather gear by the time she faced her second boss. In order to complete the game, was it going to have her personally advance through every level of technology in such a survival setting?

Tsubaki certainly felt that it was possible. Perhaps the final objective would be to complete a spaceship that could carry her away from the world. However, even if she had all of the technical knowledge to create all of that herself, she knew it was not something she would be able to do in the time allotted. It was far more likely that this was a game meant to be played repeatedly over the course of multiple meetings.

Up above the computer, Tsubaki looked at the sign which displayed the game’s main prizes. For every ‘year’ she completed, she would earn points. However, there were two prizes that caught her eye aside from that. One of them was listed as the fifty percent completion award, and the other was one hundred percent.

Both of them required her to get Terra’s help in understanding them. For the first one, it was a ‘save token’. This item had drawn the eyes of numerous Keepers, and Tsubaki soon noticed that there were others lined up along the wall playing the same game as her. This token would allow one to create a save state for their world, that they could revert to only once. They could not update the save state later, and could only use each function a single time.

This token was apparently used to help Keepers instantly recover from a difficult invasion, making it as though the invasion never happened. Doing so, however, also meant that any items left behind after the invasion would disappear. Aside from that, it could be used to save the world before a major experiment or system implementation, and if the Keeper didn’t like the results, they could revert it.

Tsubaki couldn’t truly see why such a thing was so valuable. After all, its single use meant that you would always be holding onto it until a moment of true desperation, at which point it would likely be too late to use. Instead, her goal was the total completion award, a defense ticket. This was far easier to understand, as it would allow a Keeper to simply cancel one invasion. Of course, the fact that the ticket had an expiration date of one year similarly lessened its value.

Just as she was getting ready to start the second year of her game to earn more points, she felt a small hand pressing against her shoulder. Turning around, she noticed Aurivy standing there, grinning happily at Tsubaki. “Would you like to join us for a game upstairs? We need one more, and I thought you’d be awesome for this!”

Tsubaki blinked, looking back at her own console. She had just earned three thousand points for completing the first year, and was tempted to go for more. After all, if one were to discuss basic blacksmithing techniques, she already knew how to craft up to that level. It would be the third year that offered her a true challenge.

Still, she did not forget her loyalty towards her Keeper and the major gods and goddesses he had created. Thus, she nodded her head, slowly rising to her feet. “Very well, lead the way, Lady Aurivy.”

Aurivy pumped her fists into the air, turning and guiding Tsubaki to the second floor, which Terra had told her was reserved for multiplayer games. When she arrived, she noticed Udona standing at a raised platform with four podiums. Next to Udona was a… woman that had the lower body of a massive, black spider.

Tsubaki’s guard was instantly raised as she saw this person, before she noticed Aurivy happily running towards them. “I got my partner, Kathy!” When Tsubaki noticed Aurivy treating this other being as a friend, she relaxed, moving towards the platform with the smaller goddess.

“Yay! I don’t think I’ve met her before? Is she another one of yours?” Kathy asked, her legs tapping along the ground with excitement as she stood at her podium.

“Yeah, she’s one of ours, a champion of our world!” Aurivy proudly declared, causing Tsubaki to give a faint smile at the praise. “Tsubaki, meet Kathy. She’s another Keeper like Dale.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Tsubaki greeted, bowing politely towards the woman. This was the first time she had interacted with another Keeper, so she wanted to give her best impression as a representative of her Keeper. “Lady Aurivy, would you mind explaining this game to me? I’m afraid I haven’t visited this floor before.”

“Oh! Right, sorry.” Aurivy giggled, hopping up to one of the empty podiums. “Essentially, when you play this game, you turn into a sort of mini-Keeper. Everyone gets a starting position, and their choice of a single race. The goal is to find the enemy’s base and destroy it. Along the way, you can gather resources, research technology, and train your troops. We’re playing the team version now, so you’ll be paired up with me against Udona and Kathy. Each of us gets our own base and race, but we’ll share our vision.”

Tsubaki gave a small nod, understanding the core concepts from Aurivy’s explanation. “Then, what races are available to choose from, so that I can prepare?”

“Anything you can imagine!” Kathy called out happily. “Any race in your world, or any race you want to create! Oh, but watch out, more powerful races are balanced with high resource costs!”

Tsubaki blinked at the freedom given by this game, before nodding her head again. Already, she was considering what type of race she wanted to use.

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