World Keeper

Chapter 595: The Seeds of Growth

Chapter 595: The Seeds of Growth

After returning to the Admin Room, I first made sure to check the announcement for my next invasion. Once again, I was on the offensive side, but this time the name of my opponent was more familiar. However, I wasn’t aware that she was already a second Ranked Keeper.

My opponent was listed as SentinelSeven, otherwise known as the arachne Kathy. I let out a small sigh of relief when I saw that, before a message immediately appeared in front of me.

Chat request has been received from SentinelSeven. Do you wish to accept?

Naturally, I didn’t decline. I knew that she would want to talk to me as soon as she saw who her opponent was.

SentinelSeven: Ohmygod, I finally got paired up with you!

SentinelSeven: This is so awesome! Does this mean we get to trade now? Can you show me what kinds of things you have!?

SentinelSeven: Oh! There was that really cool plant race Tsubaki showed me at the meeting! Do you have those?!

I let out a laugh as I saw her messages coming through one after the other, without leaving me any room to respond. Shaking my head, I worked on replying to her after she had calmed down.

EarthForceOne: Calm down, Kathy. I’ll get the list sent over. To answer your question, I should be able to send someone from my plant race over to kickstart the species. I was planning on fast forwarding soon, so I’ll have more of them to send.

The Sylvans couldn’t exactly be considered a ‘secret weapon’ of mine, merely one that hadn’t had the chance to fully develop yet. There wouldn’t be a problem with me sending a golden sylvan to Kathy, as long as I had an extra one to give. Thankfully, it wouldn’t be long before the next golden sylvan was available from the tree in Spica’s realm.

SentinelSeven: Awesome! Let me know whenever you have the list ready, and I’ll look through it!

In truth, I had to update my list, as I hadn’t done so in quite a while. There were many new inventions within my world that I could add, not to mention the new races. Thinking about that, I looked over my races, debating which I wanted to put on that list.

While I wouldn’t do so for everyone, it was alright for me to give Kathy the Sylvans. Those would be on a ‘friends only’ list. It wouldn’t be a good idea for me to use the golem races for these trades, as their minds might contain a lot more information than I was willing to share with even allies. Aside from the golems, the slimes, and the dungeon cores, I felt like it would probably be alright for me to list the rest of my races.

In terms of items, there were a few that I would absolutely never list. For example, the reality marbles that Tsubaki and Dana had been creating. Those were weapons of mass destruction that I didn’t even trust with most of my own people. Aside from that, most of the inventions from my world should be suitable to list.

However, I knew that having the list too cluttered wouldn’t be a good thing, as it would both reveal more information about my world and detract from the more special items. Better to keep it short and sweet.

While I was thinking about that, I suddenly remembered the second matter that I had wanted to take care of after coming to the Admin Room. Accalia, could you come to my room for a moment? There’s something that I’d like to talk to you about.

Hmm? Sure, Dale! Be right over! She sounded particularly happy, though I couldn’t be sure what had gotten her in such a good mood. Perhaps something had happened in the world below that she liked?

Either way, it only took a moment before she was walking into my room, humming softly to herself. She wore a loose-fitting, peach-colored shirt and short jeans with torn legs. “What did you need me for?” She asked with a smile, moving over to sit near me on my bed.

“I… actually wanted to assign you a new task, if you were willing to accept it. It’s something that I feel would be best left to you out of everyone here.” When I told her that I was giving her more work, her lips curled down in a small pout. However, at the end of my words, she blinked in surprise.

“You’re wanting me to make your shopping list for the other Keepers?” She guessed, and it was my turn to blink, though more in confusion than anything else.

“Huh? No, what makes you think that?” If I was going to assign anyone for that job, it would be either Tsubaki or Tubrock.

“Oh, just the timing. Anyways, if that’s not it, what’s this new job you want for me?” She let out a light laugh after realizing she had guessed wrongly, and I shook my head with a small sigh.

“There are going to be more and more gods coming in the future. It’ll be increasingly problematic for me to decide everyone’s domain on my own, especially when I’m trying to fast forward. Having to stop every few seconds to come up with a suitable domain would slow progress to a halt.”

“So, given your Wisdom domain, I was hoping that you would be able to help me out with that. With your permission, I would like to give you the authority to choose domains for people who ascend to godhood.”

When Accalia heard my real request, her eyes went wide. “And I’m your first pick for that? Wow, I figured that you would choose Terra or Irena before me. I guess nepotism really doesn’t get you everywhere, huh?” She asked in a teasing tone.

I gave a small smirk, shaking my head again. “I doubt Terra would be able to do so with the restrictions on her. As for Irena, while she is more accustomed to judging people, that is only through the system’s assistance at the moment of their death. Her Justice domain isn’t nearly as applicable here as your Wisdom.”

Hearing that, Accalia smiled a bit more gently, seeming to think the request over. “Hmm, alright. I’ll give it a test run, at least. If I start having trouble, I’ll put the decision on hold and come back to you, that alright?”

“That’s totally fine.” I agreed readily, having never expected an unconditional acceptance. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay with this change instead of pushing it onto you. It’s not a small responsibility.”

“Which is why I’m really happy you picked me!” Accalia nodded her head firmly at my words. “Anyways, is there anything else you need my help with?”

“No, that’s all. Is there something happening you need to get back to?” I had the feeling that this had to do with her good mood, and was met with a small grin.

“Yup!” She nodded quickly, her black canine ears flopping around on her head. “I just got my newest incarnation out into the world, and I’m working on developing her as a monster tamer. Monster Tamers get this new feature at level three hundred that I want to build up to, and I have to find the right partners to get me there!”

“New feature?” I looked to her curiously, not knowing what this new feature was she mentioned. I knew that engineers at level three hundred were able to use a new kind of energy to assemble items, but I hadn’t noticed monster tamers breaking that threshold as well.

“Yup! At level three hundred, monster tamers become able to fuse their monsters together permanently in order to evolve them past their normal limits. You set one monster as the dominant material, and that one will keep its mind, while the second monster is used as a supplement to strengthen it. Right now, there are only like five or six people that high in the class, so I haven’t learned many combinations, but I want to try it out!”

No wonder she was so happy. Accalia had always been really interested when it came to new types of monsters. And now she was getting the ability to freely create her own through fusion. From her point of view, the monster tamer class just became far more interesting.

“Alright, I’ll let you get back to it.” I told her with a small smile, and she hopped up off the bed with a bounce, cheering before she ran out of the room. However, the weight on the bed never seemed to entirely fade away as a new arm wrapped slowly around my waist.

When I looked over, I saw Terra looking at me with a playful grin. “She seemed to like that deal just now.” As Terra said that, she leaned over to rest her head against my shoulder. “You really could have asked me first, you know?”

“Would you have been able to do it?” I returned in a soft tone, my arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her just a bit closer to me.

“Well, no… but it’s still nice to be considered.” I could tell that she wasn’t really upset at me not asking her, just looking to make conversation. So, with a slight chuckle, I leaned over and kissed the top of her forehead.

“If it makes you feel better, I do have another job that I can give to you as well.” She looked up at me with interest, feline ears flicking as she waited for me to elaborate. “The Sylvans. I’m about to fast forward the world by a few years, so they’ll have a lot of time to grow in Spica’s realm. I’m curious to see what would happen if a golden sylvan managed to ascend to godhood. Or if any of the other types even have the ability to do so.”

“More importantly, if they do their ‘random transport’ again, I want to make sure that they stay in a world with time acceleration. That race grows too slow to really mingle with everyone, for now at least. You’re the only one I can count on to both steer them in that direction and make sure that they stay where they can grow faster.”

Terra let out a happy laugh when she heard my requests, nodding her head. “Sure, I’ll manage the Sylvans. Just as a warning, I can’t determine what domains they’ll get. That’s beyond the power of Fate, since the golden ones are all natural-born demigods. But I’ll see what the next one that appears is before choosing my candidate.”

Hearing that, I gave a small nod, before a thought occurred to me. “By the way, would it be possible for someone from the Admin Room to use the incarnation system to directly become a golden sylvan that was soon to be born?”

To my surprise, Terra shook her head. “Sylvans are ‘born’ when the tree first starts bearing fruits. They are just waiting to get the necessary nutrients to grow until then. If we wanted to become a golden sylvan, or any sylvan for that matter, we would need to do so when the tree was first planted. And right now, there are still only two of those trees in the world.”

I couldn’t help but grumble in frustration when I heard that, though it did make sense. “Alright, thought I’d ask. Speaking of… what would happen if an incarnation of one of you guys ascended to become a full god? Would you get a free extra domain or something?”

Terra rolled her eyes at the implications behind that. “No, nothing like that. It’s safe to say now, since we’re in the ‘divine age’ as you could call it. Our divinity would be revealed, and our incarnation would immediately receive all of our domains, instead of the other way around. Think of it like our own personal World Host. Only, we have no way to communicate with them during an invasion.”