World Keeper

Chapter 116: The Devil’s in the Details

When we returned to the Admin Room, I was unsurprised to find that the three information orbs were no longer on my desk. No doubt, someone had come by and taken them to study while I was down in the world below with Leowynn. Father, may I come out again? I heard her voice echoing out from inside me before I realized I hadn’t summoned her out yet.

“Sorry, sure. Still not used to needing to do this every time.” I said as I called her out to appear in front of me. Leowynn nodded with a faint smile, before turning her head to look at where the orbs had previously been. Given the pensive expression on her face, she was no doubt wanting to learn what I had shown myself able to do just now.

“Is it alright if I return to assist mother?” She asked as she looked at me. When I gave a nod, her smile grew further. She rushed to the door as I sat down at my desk.

Next up on my agenda was a rather big step for me. Part of it included the creation of another goddess, so I grabbed the communication paper that Terra had created for me so I could send a message to everyone. I considered using the mental communication, but… I was somewhat worried that doing so would send the message to everyone. I didn’t exactly want to broadcast the creation of a new goddess to all of Earth.

Everyone, I’m about to create another goddess to govern a new planet. Anyone who’d like to take part can meet me in the living room in ten minutes. After letting that note transmit to the others, I got up and began moving towards the living room myself. “I really need to create an actual meeting room one of these days.” I muttered quietly, shaking my head. I could worry about that after I was done with this.

To my surprise, I actually noticed a couple of the doors down the hall opening up as I passed by, a few figures walking out to join me. The first was naturally Aurivy, who happily jumped over to my side, holding my hand as we walked. “So, we’re getting another big sis now, huh?” She asked with a wide smile.

I chuckled slightly, shrugging my shoulders. “Maybe. I haven’t decided what kind of personality to give her yet, only the race.”

Aurivy looked curious, but decided not to ask as she saw Irena stepping out of her room to walk with us. “Dale.” She greeted me with a nod and a small smile. Unlike Aurivy, who was wearing an orange shirt that hung off her shoulders, with an orange and green skirt, Irena was wearing a dark blue business suit.

Just when I thought nobody else would be joining us, I saw another door open. This time, I almost didn’t recognize the girl that stepped through. I could quickly tell it was Keliope, due to there only being one girl with teddy-bear ears in the Admin Room, but her hair length and skin tone had changed quite a lot.

Originally, she had been fair-skinned like the rest of the gods and goddesses. However, now she had a much darker skin color. And her hair, which had originally been down to the middle of her back, now just barely reached her shoulders. She wore a small red top and baggy blue cargo pants, a pair of uneven-length red gloves on her hands. “Hey, boss!” She said with a grin as she walked to join us. “Like the new look?”

“How did you even get a new look?” I asked curiously. While I was surprised, the appearance did suit her. She was made to look like an amazon, and the darker skin tone only added to that.

“Ah, sis told us how we can change little aspects of our appearance. Bihena and I got so annoyed that our long hair was getting in the way of our spars that we had to go ask her for help. After all, we can’t be ‘damaged’ here, so we can’t cut our hair normally.” She explained, bringing a gloved hand up to hold the end of her hair gently.

“And the skin color?” I asked, honestly more curious about that. Granted, the goddess I wanted to create would have a vastly different skin color than any of the ones present, but this seemed like the more drastic change with Keliope.

“Ah, that’s a personal thing. More and more of my people are starting to darken like this as they move further south and expand Kelios, so I figured that I’d change to match. Don’t want to have them feel ashamed that they lost the image of their goddess, right?” She answered with a slight shrug, as if it was nothing major.

“I see.” It did make sense, and I couldn’t really fault her for it. Besides, it really didn’t look bad on her. I noticed Irena casting a glance over towards Keliope as we walked, seeming curious about something. However, she didn’t speak before we arrived at the living room.

When we got there, we found that nobody else was present. Looking around, I glanced back to the three that had come with me. “Let’s give a few more minutes for people to show up. But, otherwise it might just be us four.”

Aurivy, Irena, and I made our way to sit on the sofa, while Keliope sat herself down on the recliner. “So, what kinda goddess you wanna make this time, Dale?” Aurivy asked with a hint of excitement as she faced me on the couch. With Irena on my other side, I couldn’t exactly turn to completely face either of them.

At her question, the other two seemed to have curious expressions as well, so I went ahead and explained. It wouldn’t hurt to repeat myself if more did show up later. “I want to make a demon.” I said with a slight nod. “For my second world, I’m thinking that I should go a different route than the world we have now, at least to start. No magic, or supernatural energies like that. I’ll let them develop naturally until they reach a high enough level on their own. After that, I’ll probably create a link between the two worlds, so that they can benefit from each other.”

“For that, I’ll need a goddess that can guide the world without interfering too much. I appreciate what you all have been doing, but I think that Earth might be advancing a bit faster than they can keep up with.” I looked to the three goddesses, who averted their eyes slightly.

“It’s not really a problem. But, Ryone brought it to my attention. With everyone actively guiding their races’ development, it seems like their culture is having a hard time keeping up. I mean, it wasn’t five hundred years ago that I went down to the beastkin territory and they hadn’t even developed a proper currency yet.” I wasn’t sure how it was like in the other areas, but given how both Keliope and Aurivy strengthened their attempts to not look at me, I’m guessing it’s like that in most places.

“Are you suggesting that we slow down the advancement of our people?” Irena asked curiously, tilting her head slightly beside me.

“The underworld is probably fine, I think. I haven’t checked in a little while, but because of their circumstances they should have a bit more room to develop. However, for the living races, it would be a good idea to slow down a bit, maybe. If it keeps going how it is now, we might really be shoved into the games before any of us are ready.”

Hearing my answer, Irena nodded her head. I’d have to ask Terra, but I was pretty sure that the underworld would only play a minimal involvement in the evaluation from the system. “Fiiine.” Aurivy answered, though seemed somewhat reluctant. Keliope seemed a bit more hesitant, but did end up nodding her head in agreement.

“It’s not like we have to completely stop communicating with them or anything, right? We just have to stop driving them to develop faster.” The ursa goddess said with a slight nod. “It wouldn’t be too late to have them start developing more again after everyone’s at least finished exploring their own continents.

“Right. I’d appreciate it if you help relay that to the others. Now, back to the main topic. I don’t know what kind of personality I want to give this goddess, or her domain. She’s going to be governing this world mostly by herself, after all. I’ll still be checking in, but most of my focus will be on Earth until we reach a stage I’m more comfortable leaving it alone.”

This caused the three goddesses to nod slightly, sinking into thought. “You could give her the Love domain like I have.” Aurivy eventually suggested, but I could only shake my head at that.

“I want to eventually link the two worlds, so I don’t want her to have a domain already covered by anyone else. That would probably cause confusion, and maybe even a war. Otherwise, I’d just give her Tubrock’s innovation domain.”

“Why not just make her the Goddess of Technology?” Kelope asked from her seat on the sofa.

“Because at first, ‘Technology’ won’t really mean anything to the demons. I was thinking that would be a good second domain, but I need to give her something else for the first one.” I answered with a small shrug.

“Fire?” Irena spoke up from the other side of me, causing me to glance over. “If my talks with Terra are to be believed, then demons are mythological creatures from your world often associated with death and flame. Neither of these are particularly beneficial for a peaceful world, but flame is a key element in the development of technology.”

I glanced at the other two, who nodded their head in agreement. “Alright, let’s go with the Goddess of Flame, then. Anyone have any ideas for her personality?”

Almost instantly, Aurivy spoke up as if she had been waiting for this chance. “Let’s make her a mom!” She said with a wide grin, looking at the three of us. “We have a lot of sisters, a couple brothers, but no mother!”

I knit my brows together as I thought about that. However, before I could speak up, Keliope interjected. “But… with the memories. If we label her as a mother, she’ll probably have memories of children. If so, then wouldn’t she panic when she appeared here without her children?”

I nodded my head, agreeing with her. “And also, I’m somewhat against having a mother figure among the goddesses.” Aurivy pouted slightly after hearing that, but began flailing when I rubbed the crown of her head to apologize. “Doing so would give her a feeling of authority over the other gods and goddesses, and probably cause some friction when she tries to tell us all what to do.”

“Uhh… fiine, I guess.” Aurivy relented, dropping her arms back down to her side. “How about a friend, then?” She asked, looking up at me. “Big sis told me that you could use real people as a template for a companion. Is there anyone from your old world that you’d like to have brought back as a goddess?”

Well… that caught me a bit off guard. I could only look at Aurivy with wide eyes before slowly sinking into thought. Her idea was completely valid, and one I hadn’t considered before. The problem was, I didn’t have many people I was close to before I died. My boss? No way was I turning my boss into a literal goddess and giving her an entire planet to govern.

“There is… one girl, maybe.” I considered it. “We weren’t as close as we used to be, but I had an old friend from where I used to live. We could probably bring her in for this.” The more I thought about it, the more I remembered her and the world I had left behind.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Keliope said with a grin. “I’ve been wanting to meet more people from your world, boss. Never thought I’d actually get the chance to do it.”

Seeing that nobody seemed to have a problem with it, I closed my eyes to send a message to Terra. Would you mind joining us in the living room? I need your help with how we decided to make this goddess.