World Keeper

Chapter 43: The Keeper’s Visit

After turning away from the temple, I decided to walk through the city, exploring it from the perspective of an inhabitant. I had to say, doing so gave a much different impression compared to the overhead view I normally used at the computer. Mostly… it was less impressive. From the map, it seemed as if they were creating the makings for a great city, the first of its kind. In person, it smelled like a farm. Not even a well-kept farm, either!

Well, I had to hand it to them that they seemed fairly organized for the amount of time they had been at this. There were two-men patrols walking outside the walls of the city, which were little more than sharpened sticks planted in the ground. Each guard carried a stone spear, and had a leather shield.

A short distance away from the temple was a large wooden hut, with stitched leathers draped all along the walls and ceiling like an odd wallpaper. The size of the hut was almost as large as the temple, so I took it to be the home of the leader. Do they not have any kind of weather proofing at all?

I almost wanted to interfere with their development then and there, to teach them how to build things that would withstand storms and earthquakes. Problem was… I am not exactly an expert on that subject myself. I may know what obviously doesn’t work, but that doesn’t mean I know how to fix it!

Now, if I was carrying my sword with me, they would likely take notice of that, but then I’d probably be attacked for it. I considered teaching them how to smith, but their positioning didn’t make that easy. While there were mountains in the distance, they were not close enough for the current civilization to use for mining.

Maybe once they explore a bit more, if they don’t discover it on their own… I nodded my head to myself, as I walked towards the city’s exterior. I kept a casual watch for everyone’s auras as I passed, just in case I found someone exceptional that I wanted to train. However, aside from those with the aura for fighting, there were not many strong auras present.

Surprisingly, nobody even stopped me to talk, and everyone seemed busy with their own thing. Soldiers were constantly running back and forth through the streets, seemingly in training. Craftsmen were directing people to carry stones for building. At the construction site, which was just outside the wall, there was even a pair of men wearing fur cloaks.

From what I could tell, they were working on a new wall. Every time someone placed a stone down on what was already present, they used their magic to merge the stone with the current construction. A quick examination told me that both men were low level druids, so this kind of work isn’t that difficult for them. If they tried, they might even be able to create the wall themselves, though that would probably use more mana than they had available.

Again, I thought about interfering, but what would it look like if a random man suddenly created a wall surrounding the entire city by himself? No, Dale! You’ve got to start playing this smarter. I started to think of how I could make a difference, without drastically altering the course of history.

Honestly, I could just help carry rocks. But… that doesn’t sound like something someone would willingly volunteer to do, so it may look suspicious. Maybe going out to hunt and bring some meat back? That way, I can even get some training in while I’m at it. I nodded my head at that, and kept walking past the wall, planning to exit the city.

“Halt!” A voice called out to me from behind, and I turned to see one of the two guards that had been stationed at this exit. He was walking up to me with his spear in hand. “Why are you leaving the city empty-handed?”

Really? Leaving the city qualifies as suspicious activity? I raised my hands to placate the man, which didn’t seem to help much. “I’m going out to hunt.”

“The hunting party already left in the early sun.” His eyes narrowed as he continued his questioning.

“I’m hunting on my own, so that I can train myself. Is that a problem?” I asked, worrying about whether or not he was even going to let me out of the city. For some reason, he suddenly shrunk back at my words, tightening his grip on his spear.

“No… not a problem. Just be back by last light.” He backed up towards his post, not looking away from me.

Raising my eyebrows, I realized I had relaxed my control over the mental barrier keeping in my Godking aura. Crap… did I really just frighten a trained soldier into submission because I got distracted? Well… at least he won’t stop me now.

I sighed, turning around and moving out. Since he already recognizes me as a strong being, I might as well capitalize on that. Channeling some ki into my feet, I shot away from the city with an explosive burst of speed. In under five minutes, the city was just a blurred speck on the horizon. By that time, I knew that I could do whatever I wanted at this distance without being disturbed, so long as the actual hunting party never stumbled upon me.

Now… I guess I should grab the enchantment class while I have a free moment? I nodded at that plan, and then looked up to the sky. “Oh great Goddess of Fate and Stories. Mind sending me one of my swords down here real quick?”

I stood there, waiting, wondering if Terra had heard my ‘prayer’. Just as I was about to call out to her again, I saw something in the sky, a reflective glint as light bounced off of what appeared to be… one of my swords. It was falling straight towards the ground, just a short distance in front of me. “Oh please don’t break…” This time, I earnestly prayed, because each of those swords had been forged with blood, sweat, and an ample supply of tears.

Thankfully, the sword seemed to abruptly stop just above the ground, hovering there for a few moments as I watched. Then, it simply fell down to the side. Heaving a sigh of relief, I walked over to pick it up, and began using the sword to draw out the enchantment diagram on the ground. For this enchantment, I decided to fill in the eight circles with alternating Strength and Heal spells.

Once again, I poured a full three hundred mana into the enchantment. I was hoping that this would create a regenerative effect, along with the strengthening. As such, once it was done, I examined the weapon.

Healing Sword of Strength

Sharpness: 7(+4)

Weight: 1kg

Durability: 97/97(+58/58)

Special: Strength +12, Heal 10 to target on hit

…Fuck! I had made a healing sword alright, but it healed whoever was cut with it, instead of me!

Enchanter class unlocked!

Basic Enchantment recipe unlocked!

I grumbled, and stomped out the few circles that had the healing diagram in them. “Terra… Mind sending down the rest, too?” I had hoped to just make one good sword to hunt with, but now I needed to get Enchanter a couple levels, and hope that there was a disenchant ability I could learn. Otherwise, this would be a thoroughly useless sword.

Just like before, I had to wait a little bit before the rest of the swords and daggers came down, but they all appeared around me. Thus, the enchanting process began anew. I made one sword that was given a normal enchant, and one that had a full strength enchant. Each time, I leveled up my Enchanter class, until it hit level 5.

Strength Enchantment recipe unlocked!

I wanted to go back in time and smack myself in the head right about then, because I was getting enchantment recipes I already knew. Think… did I put in a disenchant ability…? I am pretty sure I saw the option… what level was that…

Thankfully, my mana was refilled every time I leveled up, so I still had a lot to spare. However, after that point, I went and enchanted all of my remaining weapons, only getting one level before I was done. Either I needed to do new things, or the Enchanter class was always meant to be a grind fest.

Anyways, once I was done, I picked up two of the weapons I had enchanted. One was a dagger with a full general enchant, and the other was a sword with a fully strength enchant. With it like this, the dagger actually had a higher damage output than the sword, but I still held it in my off hand. It would feel too unbalanced if I held the lighter weapon in my right hand, after all.

Now, it was time to hunt!

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“What’s the matter, Jorm?” One guard called to another after seeing him cautiously backing away from a strange, unarmed man. He had never seen that kind of behavior from the other guard before.

“I… don’t know. I just felt like I shouldn’t make things difficult for him.” Although he said that, the guard had a cold sweat covering his body. Moments ago, he felt as if one wrong move might result in him being crushed.

“Think he’s one of the ‘nobles’ of the Bihendor clan?” The current queen of Thuul had discovered that she had the ability to confer the Noble class onto people. Doing so would give them a measure of influence over the people they were assigned to govern. It was rumored that some nobles had an intimidating presence, able to get what they wanted of people with ease.

“It didn’t feel like that… I don’t know.” The man shook his head, returning to his guard duty.

It was about fifteen minutes later when a commotion arose. Suddenly, the druids that had been assigned to constructing a stone wall around the city stopped their work, their heads turning to the east. As casters that are naturally more sensitive to the energies around them, they could easily feel a giant surge of power from that direction, stronger than anything they had felt before.

Even some of the guards and artisans turned their heads to look in that direction, though they could not feel as clearly what was happening. All they felt was that some strange pressure seemed to be coming from that direction. The guard who had spoken to Dale when he left paled, remembering that the stranger had run in that direction. But, the feeling was from too far away, so it couldn’t have been him. Instead, it was more likely that the stranger he had met was running directly towards the source of that energy.

However, a moment later, an elderly woman burst out of the queen’s hut, looking to the east. She felt the pressure as well, and it reminded her all too well of the feeling she felt in the presence of the goddess. A warm feeling rose in her heart, as if this was a sign.

“Soldiers!” Clarissa yelled, gathering the attention of the various men that had been running through the dirt streets to train. “Gather the men, anyone you can, and head for the rising sun! Our goddess has descended again!”

The soldiers raised their fists to the sky, shouting an affirmative. Every able soldier, as well as the two druids who could more clearly sense the energy, immediately began traveling east. Although the energy only lasted half an hour before it faded, they still moved.

Almost two hours into their journey, Jorm saw the man he had seen running in this direction. He was returning to the town, carrying a full boar over his shoulder. Jorm called out to him from his position near the front of the expedition force. “You there!”

The man looked side to side, before realizing that Jorm was talking to him. “Yes?”

“Did you see anything in this direction?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t believe so. I was just on my way back from hunting. Why, did something happen?”

“Drop the boar and join the group. All forces are required to march! The Goddess has descended!” Jorm wasn’t sure why, but the man’s face had a momentary look of panic, before he nodded and joined the group. Another boar could be hunted later, but they were moving on the orders of the queen!

They walked until the sun was setting at their backs, before the druids told them they had arrived at their destination. There were no traces of the goddess, but they could still feel that overwhelming energy in the air. The two druids knew, without a doubt, that this was the spot that they had sensed the energy from.

Some of the guards searched the ground around them, before finally finding something. “Over here! The dirt seems to have been disturbed!” One of the guards called the others over. They found a large patch of dirt which seemed to have been overturned recently. Expecting that something may have been buried, they ordered the men to dig.

And so, the men dug. Without rest, throughout the night, they scraped at the ground with their stone tools. When their tools broke, they scooped the ground up with their hands. It wasn’t until the sun rose in the morning when they were allowed to stop. By that time, the hole they had dug was deeper than a grown man was tall, but they had yet to find any trace of anything the Goddess may have left behind.

After letting the men who had been digging rest for an hour, they began their walk home. This took another eight hours, but when they arrived they reported that there had been nothing unusual, aside from some upturned soil. Clarissa, who had been eagerly awaiting their arrival, nodded to herself.

“I see, I see… this must be a sign from Bihena… she wishes for us to take notice of that area. We will construct a new city at that location, men! It is a place blessed by the Goddess of Battle and Peace, and we shall treat it as such!”

Nobody noticed the statue of the very goddess they spoke of in the temple changing slightly, one eyelid starting to twitch in annoyance. Nor did anyone notice a single man among the group lumbering out and into an alley, where he promptly vanished.