Tsubaki closed her eyes as she stepped through the door that had presented itself to her and Dana in the Keeper meeting, promising an adventure that she simply couldn’t say no to.
Welcome, Tsubaki, to the World Keeper System.
Tsubaki’s vision spun, finding herself in an endless, gray mist. With a thought, her body formed around her consciousness, creating a blonde kitsune with nine flowing tails, long hair, and soft blue eyes. Her hair was parted over her forehead, and she wore a frilly maid uniform. For a moment, she thought she might have died somehow, as this scene reminded her of her trips to the Underworld. “Where is Dana?” She asked, her brow furrowed.
You must choose to create a System Companion.
With the system’s reminder, she made the selection, and Dana appeared next to her. Dana was a petite elven girl with long, black hair, gray eyes, and wearing an elegant black dress with dark blue highlights.
Dana blinked in confusion, looking around at the space they were in. “Wait, isn’t this--oh, no, this is the Admin Room. Wait, this feels weird. Give me a second, I know things… Wow, I can’t even say what I know? Okay, this is freaky. It’ll definitely take some getting used to.” Dana shook her head, blinking rapidly.
Afterwards, she turned to look at Tsubaki. “I’m assuming that I don’t need to tell you how to set up the Admin Room, right?” She asked, and Tsubaki nodded her head. In a moment, the gray mist receded, turning into a stone structure that Dana found rather familiar.
“The Sky Citadel, huh?” She asked with a grin. “Oh, by the way. Your Keeper title is Tsubaki here. I don’t know why it didn’t give you EarthForceOne like Dale, but it just gave you your name. You’ll be interacting with other Keepers throughout this trial, though they will be simulations created by the system. Huh, I’m allowed to say that part? Neat.”
“Will there be any problems if it takes me more than one Standard year to complete the trial?” Tsubaki asked, though Dana shook her head.
“Nope, the system is prepared for that. You can’t go to the meeting unless you are a First Ranked Keeper, and that’s when this trial ends. You can visit the simulated Keepers’ Admin Rooms if you get invited, though. So! What type of world do you want to make?”
Tsubaki hesitated, suddenly not sure. “I had never really thought about that… can you show me the options?” She didn’t know what choices Dale had access to when creating worlds, so she didn’t really know where to begin when it came to something like this.
Dana simply chuckled, nodding quickly. “That’s what I’m here for, Tsuba!” With that, a series of windows all appeared in front of Tsubaki, detailing various different world types that she could choose from. To her dismay, Tsubaki found that she only had a small five hundred points to design her initial world, an amount that would not even purchase many of the additions that they had asked for from Dale in the past.
“I-I see.” She nodded her head, suddenly feeling as if their requests might have been excessive without realizing it. “Well… let’s go with a game world, since that’s something we already know…”
Dana nodded in understanding. “Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem. Do you want to set it up similar to Dale’s, or go for something new?”
Tsubaki hesitated, closing her eyes and thinking. This journey of hers was not meant to see if she could be a better Keeper than her own. After all, she had far more information to work with than her Keeper had when he began. Even more, she had been tempered by time, living far beyond the mortal limits to increase her patience.
“Let us start with something new.” She began, opening her eyes to look at Dana. “The only starter combat classes that I want are Mage, Fighter, Monk, Rogue, Cleric, Archer, Druid, and Bard. Use the full set of crafter and gatherer classes from our old world, though. Additionally… adjust the leveling system.”
Dana arched her brow, nodding as she listened to each of Tsubaki’s instructions. “Everyone can make a choice for their own starter classes. Assign the combat classes as a Primary class, and the crafter and gatherer classes as Secondary classes. People may have one primary and two secondary classes to start.”
“Should they reach the level cap in a class, they can obtain a new class of that type, or enter ‘prestige’ mode. In prestige mode, they continue to develop skills for their class, which can be saved to the system and imparted on those they wish to teach. If they leave prestige mode, they can choose a new class, but can only enter prestige mode again after they have reached the limit in their new class.”
“Finally, I don’t want stats to be awarded in the form of an evolution like they were in our world. Rather, if it is possible, I want it to be an adjustment by the system itself to imbue them with the relevant properties… is all of that alright?” Tsubaki finished, looking at Dana.
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Meanwhile, the small elf had a complicated expression on her face. “We… can work our way up to some of that? You don’t have enough points to get all of that, even if you forget about a magic system, deities, or an afterlife.”
Tsubaki winced slightly, nodding her head as her ears drooped down. “How much of that can we get with our allowance, and still have room for other necessities?”
Dana thought it over for a moment. “The starter classes, as well as the designation between Primary and Secondary, those are fine. The level cap and stat adjustment is just an easy setting. I’d suggest waiting for the prestige system, since that requires purchasing a skill system from the market, and those can get expensive.”
Tsubaki let out a sigh of relief, hearing that the main problem with her plan was simply the prestige system. “I see… is there anything else we need?” She hadn’t ever really had the chance to appreciate the value of points, so she considered this as a lesson for her in Keeper economics.
“Well, you included Mage, that means we need a magic system. Also, you have to decide what type of starter world you want, such as how big it is, whether it has any special traits, and so on.” As Dana said that, a series of windows appeared in front of Tsubaki, presenting the various options to her, though she already had an idea of what she wanted.
“Geometric magic, world size the same as Deckan. Increase the affinity for magic, and… I want two races, elves and kitsune.” Dana blinked when she heard Tsubaki’s request, offering a small grin in response.
“Alright. Normally, your starter world would have a default name, like how Dale’s was Earth. However, since you’re doing things a bit differently, you can choose the name for your world.” After she explained that, Tsubaki took a moment to think over the name.
“Demiris.” Tsubaki smiled, Dana practically snorting when she heard the ancient Beastkin word for Loyalty.
“Fine, fine, Demiris it is. Anyways, after all of those purchases… you’ll have eighty points remaining. I didn’t add the evolutions Dale bought for the two races, because you can’t afford it, so they’re just in their base form. Do you want to set up a god or two?”
Tsubaki bit her lip, tempted to suggest herself as a goddess. However, she denied that thought, remembering the very reason her Keeper hadn’t made that decision. “I would like you to be the Goddess, if that is okay with you?”
Dana quickly nodded. “It’s fine! As part of my transformation package, my mind’s been temporarily adjusted to be able to handle things like that.”
Tsubaki simply stared down at the elven girl. “I don’t like hearing that your mind has been altered for this, Dana… but I suppose it is fine. The system guaranteed that it would undo any changes done. In that case… I need a domain that will allow you to act as freely as possible, within the limits of what you can do as a system companion. Given your talents… it would need to be either Magic, Souls, or Shadows. Do you have a preference between those three?”
Dana thought it over for a moment, before nodding. “Ryone’s helped me train a lot as her apostle, so I’ll take Magic, Tsuba!”
Tsubaki gave a soft smile at that, nodding her head. “Then please, make yourself the Goddess of Magic. And assign yourself as the patron deity to both races.”
Dana grinned, snapping her fingers. “Done!” Tsubaki briefly checked her balance, finding that it had dipped once again. At the same time, she had a slew of basic achievements for setting up her world and spending points. Which actually brought her balance back up to just over a hundred.
With a small sigh, Tsubaki turned to look at Dana. “Before we go any further, can you tell me how I will be ‘scored’ for this activity? For when we finish this and are ready to leave.”
Dana pursed her lips, thinking it over. “It doesn’t have to do with directly managing your world, so it seems like the system is letting me tell you. There are three main parameters that the system will look at after you’ve either died or completed the simulation.”
“The first parameter is your total point balance, including everything that you have earned or spent along the way. This will be the upper limit of your score, and you will only get the full allotment if you achieve a perfect rating in the other two fields.”
“The second parameter is the progress towards achieving the First Rank, and opening up your world to the Keeper Games. You’ll achieve a perfect score on this only if you manage to completely clear the trial without dying or surrendering.”
“Finally, the third parameter is how long you remain as Keeper. I’m not allowed to tell you the exact cutoff points, but after a certain duration, your score will begin to drop if you haven’t made any progress.”
Dana held her arms behind her back, smiling as she gave her explanation. “While it is possible for you to earn no points if you perform badly, I have no doubt that you’ll do great, Tsuba!”
Tsubaki hesitated for a moment, before nodding her head. “Very well. My main goal here is not to earn points, anyways. I wish to fully experience life as a Keeper, so that I may be of greater help to my Keeper upon our return. My secondary objective is to see if I can gain any ideas or information that can be brought back for our own world, with points as a tertiary objective.”
Still… She thought silently to herself. If there is a punishment for taking too long, I will not want to descend for excessive training periods.
Dana’s smile brightened as Tsubaki listed out her objectives. “Alright, then I’ll do everything within my power to help you achieve your goals!” As she said that, the world outside of the Sky Citadel shifted, a massive planet revealing itself below.
Tsubaki’s eyes widened at this change, exiting to the courtyard and looking over the ledge. “You moved the Admin Room to the skies of the world? Is such a thing possible?”
“Nope!” Dana shook her head quickly. “I just changed the world below into a display of Demiris. They won’t be able to see us, no matter how advanced they become. I thought that this would feel more natural to you.”
Tsubaki’s gaze softened at those words, reaching over to pat Dana on the head. “Thank you for that. Now… please accelerate time, let’s see how things develop, and we’ll worry about more systems as we get more points.”