World Keeper

Chapter 974: Anticipation

Ashley sat in her office, looking over the information given to her by her team. It was nearing the end of the Standard Month, and the game project was coming along rather well. Without the need to consider things such as a graphics or physics engine, all that they needed to worry about was adding the features. Given her work in the old world, this made it feel almost too easy to create a game, especially when she considered that the true scope of the game they were making was an entire universe.

So far, it looks like almost everything is in a presentable state. The research tree needs some tweaking, and so does the Sylvan AI. Aside from that, we should be good to launch at the start of the year. Thankfully, the monster fusion system doesn’t appear to be causing any problems.

This system was something that they had to create on the market, and then applied to the game. Given that it was a new creation, there was always the chance that the system would throw a curveball and give it undesired effects. However,  with the strict wording that Ashley had used when creating the system, it seemed like that wasn’t an immediate issue.

Currently, they were well under the budget that the Keeper had given them. Between purchasing the research tree, the Natural Seed system, and the Monster Pet Fusion system, they had only spent a total of fifteen hundred points. Everything else that they were using in the game was being repurposed from the other worlds under their control, such as the Guild, Kingdom, Party, or Private Message system.

Ashley wanted to avoid using more advanced systems like the Skill Proficiency system, since that would be giving information away about their own world. Still, she was proud of the work that her team was doing. If there was one thing that was giving her problems… it was setting up the admin commands for the World Spirit of this game.

Dale had previously expressed that he did not want to have to reset a world unless absolutely necessary, so they were testing all of these features on their testbed world. However, that was not possible when it came to the existence of the World Spirit, as it was intrinsically connected to the world that it was born in.

To avoid other people using time-related abilities to observe their people after the world was sent over, Ashley planned to get everything prepared, and then only have Dale purchase the final world when it was ready to go live on the market. That meant that she needed to have the admin commands in a working state without any way to test them.

We can test the basic commands with Vivi and Fifi, but the commands more unique to World Seed will have to be done blind.

She let out a small sigh at that, shaking her head. There was no other way to handle something like this without completely wiping the world when they were done testing.

I furrowed my brow, glancing back at Tsubaki. Or rather, the silver-haired avatar of Tsubaki. It had been nearly two weeks since I last saw the true Tsubaki, and I wasn’t the only one. Even Dana had expressed her dissatisfaction at not seeing her lately.

“Is there something that I can do for you, my Keeper?” The avatar of Tsubaki asked, a gentle smile on her face.

“Can you tell me how Tsubaki is doing with her training?” If I didn’t know that Tsubaki was working on mastering her legend, I would have assumed that she had gone for another Trial of Blood. Though… given what I had heard about her plan, she might still do that as well.

“Of course.” The avatar nodded her head, closing her eyes. “Currently, my main body is in the process of the sixty-third experiment to form an avatar with the Servant Energy as the core. According to her findings, this experiment has a low chance of success, but will give important insights into the process. Depending on the information gained, the next iteration may have the highest chance to succeed.”

I gave a small nod at that, wishing her the best in my mind. I knew that there were many ways to make autonomous avatars, outside of just the Servant Energy that the Maid Class uses. However, most of those methods required splitting your soul, a process that damaged the original body. Even someone with the Perfect Soul couldn’t split themselves infinitely.

Meanwhile, the Servant Energy had a unique connection with the host, allowing the avatars to function autonomously while still sharing information and experience as needed. I knew that this was the basis for the legend that Tsubaki wanted. Her avatar had explained as much to me when asking for permission to pursue this legend.

Naturally, I did not have a problem agreeing, but I was surprised to find it taking so long. Is this the difference between purposely seeking out a legend and spontaneously realizing it? Hopefully, the legend that Tsubaki was creating would be worth the time and effort invested. If she managed to get one that didn’t work how she wanted it, I could imagine the pain it would cause.

“Just let Tsubaki know that I hope she’s doing well, and I'm looking forward to her success. Let me know when she is done.” I told the avatar, before walking towards the elevator. With how hard Tsubaki was training, I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

My Gun Intent had finished forming with the ‘Homing’ attribute after practicing with Scarlet. Now, all that I was lacking was my Fist Intent. Because of the fact that I was training with a single punch rather than a martial style, my Fist Will focused purely on that one punch, and I had to take that to the extreme. Scarlet had to analyze this Martial Will for a while before she managed to reproduce it, as she had to match my punch as closely as possible.

Still, the sight of her using the Fist Intent I was pursuing to shatter a small moon was… quite the sight to see. And it gave me a glimpse of what my future achievements would be like.

“Okay, everything’s finally starting to shape up.” Clara said with a grin, looking at the galactic map. The new machine empire that she had founded had claimed a territory with a radius of forty lightyears, marking them as a true galactic civilization. They had even managed to find several indigenous races to uplift in recent days, advanced civilizations on the cusp of space travel.

By inviting these races into the empire, they managed to secure their first batch of NPCs, though there would be a period of education before they could be properly implemented. What made Clara rather disappointed was that she hadn’t found any ‘special NPCs’ among the various civilizations that they had uplifted.

Are they deemed too insignificant by the system to require an NPC because they had yet to reach the interstellar stage, or was I just unlucky? Clara wasn’t sure the exact conditions needed for an NPC to become special. Whether it was something decided from the NPCs birth, or if it could be adjusted in the future, she couldn’t be sure.

What she did know was that it wouldn’t be too long before people began to locate this new empire. With how far she had expanded, she was currently only just out of reach of the nearest Hyperspace Network. Once she went that extra distance, or if someone decided to be an intrepid explorer, they would be added to the galactic map.

Still, Clara had reservations about opening the machine empire up. Currently, the planets within the empire were all automated, with Elisae’s people taking various jobs here or there, or exploring the frontier. While this meant that they were incredibly efficient in terms of production… they were also not incredibly secure.

I need planetary defense systems. And the first batch of NPCs need to be assigned to monitor the various regions to prevent anyone from coming in and claiming our tech. For a machine empire like the one that Clara had made, everything would fall apart the moment another nation had studied and fully understood their technology.

In under a year, a single person had created a mechanical nation spanning dozens of lightyears. Clara was fully aware of what would happen if an existing superpower got their hands on the same level of technology.

Sienna sat atop a black throne, hovering in the air while hugging the white weasel against her chest. Her legs swayed beneath her as she stared down at the training monsters. She was creating more and more soldiers for the shadow army, both humanoid and monstrous, with each type serving a distinct purpose. For instance, the four-armed soldier wielding four bladed weapons, the rabbit-eared general that could pulverize a boulder with a light stomp, or the monstrous elephant-like creature with a flat back that served as a mobile artillery platform.

However, although Sienna was diligently working on training these monsters, her thoughts were elsewhere. In the back of her mind, she was excited, looking forward to the new game that Ashley had come to tell her about several days before.

In order to get ideas for their monster fusion system, Ashley had come to Sienna, asking her to provide real, working examples of how various monsters could fuse, with different possibilities for each fusion. A large bird was combined with a wolf, which could either turn the fur of the wolf into feathers it could flutter in different patterns for camouflage, or alternatively it provided the wolf with wings.

Sienna even suggested combining monsters with existing structures, though that idea had sadly been turned down. The goal of this new game was development via natural forces, so modern industry would be far less prevalent. Understanding this, Sienna instead suggested combining monsters of vastly different types, such as plant monsters with animal ones.

The initial experiment was to combine a Dead Man Tree--a tree that appeared to be a normal, withered tree, but would suddenly swing its branches down to grab the necks of passing creatures-- with a Human-Faced Spider. This spider was a massive arachnid measuring roughly two meters long, and had what looked like a person’s face on their back that they used to lure in prey.

The result was something that Sienna called the Hangman Tree. Similar to the Dead Man Tree, this looked like a normal, withered tree. However, it also had a series of cobwebs connecting the branches, making it appear far older and darker. Unlike the Dead Man Tree, this new monster did not lash out with its branches. Rather, it was able to use them to release webbing, grabbing creatures and pulling them up into the tree’s branches. Once in the branches, the tree would begin shifting its prey to the center, the very top of the tree’s trunk, where a gaping maw waited to devour them.

Although this example deeply disturbed Ashley, she had to admit that it was feasible to include it in the game that they were making. She promised to include plant monsters, mineral monsters, and even elemental monsters in the fusion system.

Now, it was Sienna’s turn to wait. This new game was supposed to be a real world game like Fragment of Acidia or Vision Expanse, so she wanted to see if she could reproduce any of her own creations in the game. At the same time, she wanted to try to get inspiration for all new monsters to create for her shadow army.

An enthusiastic smile appeared on the typically calm girl’s face, and she hugged the weasel against her chest a bit tighter, causing it to cry out in her mind. Gah! My bones! S-Sienna, gentle, I beg you!

Sienna blinked, a slight flush on her cheeks as she eased her grip on Kama. Sorry, I was distracted.