World Keeper

Chapter 552: Wild Growth

As Tsubaki climbed up to the one free podium, she was already trying to imagine what type of race she wanted to use for this game. After all, from what the others said, there seemed to be unlimited possibilities. However, that also made it more difficult of a decision, as there was too much to choose from.

In the end… she decided that the best course of action for her, at least to start, would be to select a race from her own world. When she chose that option, the list of such races appeared before her to consider. As for which race to choose, she wanted only the most versatile race she knew of.

You have chosen to play as the Sylvan race!

This was a race born to adapt to any environment, a hybrid between a hyper-adaptable plant and the soul of an elf. It seemed to be a natural choice for her, though she suspected that at least one of the goddesses would be using this race as well. As the game began, she received a pair of prompts that surprised her.

Your chosen race has an automatic unit production mode. Resources may be spent to awaken units early.

Please choose the first Golden Sylvan from the randomized options below.

War

Slaughter

Cloud

Mine

Jewel

Youth

Scholar

Light

Rain

Fire

Tsubaki imagined that this was similar to how the original sylvans had appeared with one golden woman leading them. Was it Cicily of Learning? She could assume that this title would grant special functions towards the units, and perhaps even the entire base would change depending on her choice.

In the end, she chose the Scholar option, as it was likely to have an influence over learning new technologies. Such a thing would be very important to have at the start of the game. Tsubaki had been tempted to choose the Mine option for extra resource gathering, but that seemed less practical when she considered the race’s automatic production.

Under her watchful eyes, her base was assigned, a large tree being created near giant purple gems. From the base of the tree, seven green sylvans emerged with a single gold one. Tsubaki found that she had two methods to command the troops, either through relaying commands to each unit directly, or by communicating with the lone golden troop.

Curious, Tsubaki chose the latter option, telling her to begin gathering resources. Without a moment’s delay, the golden sylvan walked over and touched each of the green ones. Immediately, they began to move. Waving their arms, they created trees from the roots of her base, placed atop the resource nodes.

Tsubaki was somewhat surprised to find the trees able to passively harvest resources. And, after thirty seconds had passed, seven more green units emerged, along with four blue ones. Without further orders, the green units began expanding their forest outwards, clearing the fog of war. Meanwhile, the blue units worked together with the golden one, waiting for a research order.

“Oh? You picked those guys, huh?” Aurivy’s voice startled Tsubaki, who suddenly glanced over and remembered that she had an ally. “Not a bad choice. I’ve actually been wondering how they would do here.”

The halfling goddess had a genuine smile on her face as she said that, and Tsubaki glanced towards her side of the field. Aurivy’s race was one Tsubaki was extremely familiar with, due to the Goddess’s obsession with talking about them at any opportunity. She had chosen slimes…

Shaking her head, Tsubaki found her lips tugging upwards as she looked towards her research options. There were the normal choices for magic and technology that she expected, but also another that surprised her. The third option for advancement was labeled ‘Mutation’.

Thinking back, Tsubaki recalled how the first golden sylvan had created a type of fruit that allowed sylvans to communicate verbally. That was most likely classified as a mutation.

When she opened up that option, she noticed a number of different choices available. There were things such as Mutation: Communication, or Mutation: Weaponry, as well as Mutation: Disguise. Noticing that she had two choices, she chose both Communication and Disguise as her research options.

By now, another minute had passed, and more troops had passively spawned. A total of fourteen green sylvans, four more blue sylvans, and two red ones. Recalling the known life cycle of sylvans, she couldn’t help but voice out a question. “Lady Aurivy, how long does it take for a golden sylvan to be born?”

Aurivy shook her head slightly. “We only have a rough estimate, since there hasn’t been that much time that has passed yet. If we’re right… somewhere between once every seventy-five and one hundred years.”

Tsubaki furrowed her brow at that. Going by the rate of one ‘year’ every thirty seconds, that meant she could be waiting up to fifty minutes for her second golden unit? She doubted the game would last that long. When her eyes turned towards the resource production, she was tempted to use it to speed up the process.

Just as she was thinking that, the first tiers of her two research projects were completed. Tsubaki already knew what to expect from the Communication option, so she instead focused on the other one, curious to see what bonuses it would provide.

When she saw a green sylvan plucking an orange fruit and eating it, she quickly had her answer. Disguise did not mean something like invisibility, or anything of that nature. Instead, the green sylvans grew large flowers on their heads, and began to take root in the ground. When they closed their eyes, their bodies shifted to resemble extremely tall flowers.

Like this, they would ‘plant’ themselves in an area, expand the forest, and then move to the next spot. Tsubaki was quite curious to pursue this path further, and began to focus primarily on mutations. After twenty minutes of expansion and development, when Tsubaki still only had ten military troops, she received a new notification.

One of your units has stumbled across a new base location! Would you like to grow a second Progenitor? Doing so will cost you one Golden Sylvan.

Tsubaki’s eyes went wide as she read the message, understanding its meaning quickly. The rare commodity that was a golden sylvan had to be spent to create a new ‘ancestor tree’. As she recalled the sudden disappearance of Cicily, she couldn’t help but question if that sylvan had gone to create a new tree somewhere.

Clenching her fists, Tsubaki decided to do it. She needed the extra unit production. However, while her ‘Scholar’ sylvan was transporting itself to this base, Tsubaki used the majority of the resources that she had saved up to that point to spawn a second golden sylvan. As expected, she had the same list to choose from before, with ‘Scholar’ crossed out.

With the game advancing towards the inevitable confrontation, she decided to choose the War option this time. When she did so, she noticed an immediate improvement in the coordination between her units. The red troops formed teams and began training with their chosen mutations, while the blue ones retreated to bunkers formed within the hollows of large trees.

Soon, her original sylvan arrived at the new base location, and Tsubaki watched as it transformed into a tall tree. Its branches spread out to cover the sky, and the kitsune found that this new tree seemed to possess all of the research that her original one had. Whether that was because of the ‘Scholar’ portfolio or not, she wasn’t sure. Thankfully, she saw a highly anticipated window appearing in front of her as well.

Please choose the first Golden Sylvan from the randomized options below.

Protection

Madness

Joy

Blade

Grass

Mirror

Weather

Gale

Gravity

Gold

Another ten options. From what she had seen so far, Tsubaki was able to make some deductions. Every ‘Progenitor’ could only produce ten golden sylvans, and each golden sylvan had the chance to become a Progenitor under the right conditions. If that was the case, it meant that a single Progenitor could likely live for nine hundred years, unless it possessed the ability to survive after exhausting its reproductive abilities.

Tsubaki didn’t know what would happen to the lower class sylvans after their home tree died. Would they perish as well, would they seek out a new tree, or would they scatter and integrate with the rest of society? All questions that she knew she would eventually receive an answer for, though perhaps not an answer she was looking forward to.

For the second tree, she chose the Gravity option as her starting sylvan. Although she was tempted to select Mirror, in honor of her Keeper, such a thing would not be practical for the current sylvan race that had focused so heavily on mutations. Unfortunately, the Gravity option did not seem to have any immediate advantage for her base or units.

“Careful, I just saw them entering your forest.” Aurivy warned, snapping Tsubaki’s attention away from the new tree. Indeed, there were a few lightly armored creatures walking through the woods. The invaders were split between two types. The first type were those with the lower body of snakes, while the second were far more recognizable as kitsune.

These troops seemed to be coordinating well, with the kitsune already carrying silver guns, and the snake-people holding metal tridents. They passed by a disguised sylvan, and didn’t seem to recognize it. Without knowing that Tsubaki had chosen this race, this would simply appear as a normal, albeit large forest.

As she thought about that, Tsubaki turned towards Aurivy’s base, where she saw something that confused her greatly. “Where are your slimes?” Aurivy’s base seemed barren, with not a single troop or building in sight.

The halfling goddess giggled, issuing a command. Tsubai saw Aurivy’s resource node shake, no… jiggle. “Oh, they’re around.”

It took Tsubaki a moment to catch on, before she nodded her head. It seemed that both of them had opted to go with a camouflage tactic. Unless the enemy opted to use a scorched earth policy, it should prove effective.

Once the units had been caught on Tsubaki’s radar, an unusual change happened back at her original base. One hundred blue sylvans came together with two hundred green sylvans, all ten of the red sylvans and the lone golden sylvan. They formed layers of circles, with the golden unit standing in the very center and everyone else surrounding her.

This seemed to be an automatic action that they were taking in response to an invader, so Tsubaki decided to let it play out and see what was happening. And soon enough, she received her answer. Just… not quite how she expected it.

As the invaders were passing through a certain stretch of forest, they suddenly stopped, feeling the ground shaking beneath them. Their weapons aimed beneath themselves, preparing for an underground attack while they slowly moved towards the trees in hopes of seeking higher ground. Before they arrived, however, wooden spikes rose from the ground by the hundred, flooding the entire section of land and skewering the enemy.

After that scene, Tsubaki had a feeling that the enemy would begin destroying the forest. Even though it was not obvious that she was using the sylvan race, it was obvious that the forest was killing the enemy troops. As such, Tsubaki immediately began researching things such as fire resistance or increased armor.

On the other hand, when she glanced over towards Aurivy’s side of the field, she saw the vision silently expanding. There were still no troops moving, no buildings or anything to explain the expansion. Only Aurivy’s wicked grin as she eyed the land below, whispering to herself. “All your base are belong to me.”

Tsubaki… did not understand what Aurivy meant by that. However, soon the vision expanded enough that a base was revealed. One that seemed heavily influenced by technology, with numerous kitsune running about. When that base was encountered, the spread of vision seemed to slow to a grinding halt.

People within the base were still excavating resources when odd expressions appeared on their faces. They stared at the resource nodes in confusion, rushing to flee the scene and report something to their superiors. As soon as they left, the crystal node seemed to… melt, vanishing into the floor. Aurivy laughed like a mad scientist, her eyes focusing on the scene. “The ultimate mimic is born.”

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