Glancing inwardly at my spiritual realm, I gave a small, satisfied nod when I saw the seed of world sight. Currently, it was too small to offer me any real benefits, but I would be able to expand it over time. It would just… require me to stay descended for a while.

That in itself wasn’t that much of a bad thing anymore. The world had advanced to a point where I could be satisfied staying for a prolonged period. At least, more satisfied than I was when I was on the ocean voyage. As I mentally summoned Leowynn back, I called up the character window to see how much progress had been made over the last few years.

Name

Dale Mitchell

Race

Human(Keeper)

Health

2285/2285 (1474826/1474826)

Mana

2310/2310 (142781/753165)

Strength

22(898)

Ki

2864/2864 (583736/990658)

Stamina

25(896)

Intelligence

19(836)

Dexterity

58(845)

Wisdom

48(1201)

Luck

24(458)

Charm

17(466)

Class List

Alchemist 1(173)

Archer 0(192)

Architect 0(103)

Archmage 0(114)

Armorer 0(152)

Artisan 0(129)

Assassin 26(101)

Bard 0(156)

Berserker 0(150)

Black Knight 0(39)

Blacksmith 5(161)

Carpenter 1(141)

Chef 0(110)

Cleric 0(125)

Crusader 0(84)

Druid 30(150)

Enchanter 5(152)

Engineer 0(183)

Fallen Priest 0(21)

Farmer 0(109)

Gambler 0(103)

Guard 0(142)

Herbalist 2(137)

Hero 4(162)

Hunter 0(136)

Jeweler 0(108)

Knight 0(160)

Leader 1(126)

Leatherworker 0(119)

Mage 3(172)

Martial Artist 7(149)

Merchant 0(99)

Miner 0(124)

Monk 16(142)

Monster Tamer 2(99)

Ninja 51(152)

Noble 1(79)

Painter 0(101)

Paladin 0(75)

Pirate 10(99)

Priest 1(149)

Rogue 0(136)

Scholar 3(193)

Scout 25(108)

Sculptor 0(103)

Shaman 10(115)

Spirit Hunter 21(99)

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Spirit Tamer 6(99)

Swordsman 2(139)

Tailor 0(124)

Templar 0(99)

Warrior 3(150)

Weaponmaster 0(75)

Advanced Classes

Elementalist 4(113)

Elemental Monk 2(101)

Martial Spirit 0(189)

Perfect Self 0(139)

Summoner 11(112)

World Spirit 1(190)

There were a few things that struck out at me when I saw my new information page. Granted, it had been a while since I bothered opening it up, so some things were bound to change. But, still, some things had changed a bit too much. Over one thousand wisdom? A large part of that was probably from the scholar class being so high, now that Desbar was being included in the numbers.

More importantly… the level of the perfect self class… I knew that there was only one person in all three worlds that had that class, and she had only had it for a short ten years. It made sense that she was a high level since she had literally been training in Hell for six years, I just hadn’t expected her to be that high of a level.

While I was going over the information, Leowynn had silently returned back to my body, merging into my spiritual realm once more. Is that a new star? She questioned, seeing the seed of world sight in her familiar sky.

“Right. That’s the thing I was working on.” I said with a small nod, and I felt Leowynn focusing on it for a long moment before she let out a huff of frustration.

Nope, can’t attune to it… It looks pretty, but nothing I can do with it. It seemed as if Leowynn had held some expectations when she saw the seed as a star in her sky. Honestly, it would have been a bit weird if Leowynn could draw power from it, but I suppose anything is possible when dealing with the unknown.

Aurivy, mind giving us a lift to-- Oh, right… It took me a moment to remember that she wouldn’t be able to hear me presently, so I quickly ascended back to the Admin Room. Once there, I reactivated everyone’s privileges to their normal levels, letting out a quick sigh of relief. Alright everyone, business may resume as normal.

After I said that, I set down at the computer, to finally accept that conversation with Balu. Given how long it had been, there was no doubt that she was growing impatient, or perhaps worried that something might have happened.

Starkiller: There you are! Wait, this is the right Keeper right? Dale?

EarthForceOne: Yeah, you got it right. Sorry, was finishing World Sight, so I wasn’t available when you messaged me before.

Starkiller: World Sight? Oh right, I gave you that formula. You figured out how to blend it already? Congratulations!

EarthForceOne: Thanks. I take it you found out who your next opponent is?

Starkiller: Yup! Just found out a few days ago. I’ll be going after a known Tyrant from our list, so I’ll probably have to reset again after next month.

I was a bit surprised with how casually she talked about resetting her world, before I realized that she has probably done this too many times for her to keep track of it. She was doing this for a long time, and has been through these battles a lot.

EarthForceOne: Isn’t it hard to always have to reset your world like that? Or do you keep one that you can relax in?

Starkiller: You mean a Standby World? Yeah, I’ve got one of those. Makes it a lot easier to have friends down there that I can go hang out with from time to time!

EarthForceOne: New Keeper here… Standby World?

StarKiller: Oh right, sorry. It’s what we call it when you keep a world below the threshold to enter the Games. As long as you never connect it to one of your other worlds, you can save that world even when you need to reset. Lots of Keepers have one or two that they use to relax in between rounds.

EarthForceOne: I think I get it. Earth’s last Keeper was that kind of person… except that he only had the one world, and never advanced it far enough.

Starkiller: Yuck, one of those. I mean, I see the appeal, you get a safe haven and don’t have to worry about risking your life. But it just gets so BORING after you do that for a few decades.

Starkiller: Anyways, is everything okay for me to head back over now? It’s been a while, and I wanted to hang out with Bihena again!

I gave a light laugh as I heard that, passing the question off to the human goddess. Once she had responded, I sent the invitation to Starkiller. Once again, I had sealed off my own room so that she wouldn’t be able to come and interfere with the computer.

As I was making my way out towards the living room, I heard a familiar voice cheering. “Lucky!” Seems like Balu got one of the more pleasant transfer methods.

Thankfully, it seemed that Bihena was already waiting for her on the couch. By the time I entered the living room, Balu had wrapped her arms and legs around Bihena’s torso, rubbing her furred head against the woman’s cheek. Bihena just let out a light laugh, prying Balu off of her. “Good to see you, too.”

I cleared my throat to get the attention of the two of them. “I’ll be heading back down to Earth now. And I’ll probably be there until the invasion starts.”

“Oh!” Balu turned to face me as I said that. “This’ll be your first one, so you don’t know yet. The annual Keeper Meeting hosted by the system starts in… thirty-eight days? Something like that. It’s before the next round of battles start. So you’ll get your chance to attend before your first invasion!”

I gave a nod, briefly thanking her for the information. “So, not quite as long as I expected. Still, just wanted to let you know that I wouldn’t be back up here for a while. If you need anything, Bihena can get ahold of me.”

Balu nodding her head rapidly, before turning to face Bihena. “There are so many new games I want to teach you!” She shouted out with a grin, grabbing Bihena’s hands and pulling her up from the couch to drag her off towards Bihena’s room.

With a sigh, I moved to sit down on the couch, closing my eyes as I once again descended, this time choosing the form of a silver-haired felyn. Since I was going to be down here for so long, I wanted a body as close to my original as possible, without giving anyone a reason to think that I was being particularly biased towards any one race.

“Already coming back?” Aurivy’s voice spoke up from beside me at the same time that I had descended, causing me to jump slightly. “Figured you would have wanted to spend more time up there.”

“No, I’ll be down here for a while.” I answered, opening my eyes. I would need to feed ki, mana, and natural energy to the seed of world sight within me in order to let it grow. Right now, I was too worried to test it, afraid that pulling from it when it was so small would just extinguish it entirely. Better to wait until it was big enough for me to properly experiment.

As expected, I felt a familiar presence appear before me just a few moments after I descended. Standing there kneeling, I saw Tsubaki in the same posture she always greeted me. “Tsubaki greets the Keeper.” She said, though I could feel a hint of pride and joy in her voice compared to before.

And it was no wonder, when I looked at her level. The perfect self class wasn’t the only thing that had risen explosively from her time in Hell. It was completely safe to say that aside from myself and the gods, Tsubaki was the strongest person in all three worlds now.

Level 621 Tsubaki

She had gained over two hundred and fifty levels… I couldn’t help but double take when I saw that. Most of those levels could be accounted for with the perfect self class, but that still meant that she gained roughly a hundred other levels as well.

She had every reason to be proud of her achievement. “Hello, Tsubaki. Your training went well, I see.”

“Indeed, Keeper. I have grown far stronger thanks to the mission you gave me. I am now able to sustain this size as long as I wish, and will no longer have to worry about becoming unable to fulfill my duties over time.”

Ahh… so she wasn’t really proud of getting stronger… just that she was no longer in danger of ‘losing her job’ over something as meddlesome as dying of old age… Yeah, I could see that fitting her personality a lot more. I let a laugh escape me when I realized that. “Yes, I suppose that’s true, isn’t it? Though, you will have to take more care not to harm any of the other representatives, since it seems that you are so much stronger than the norm now.”

“I have been practicing that during my regular spars with Trixy and Pool. I believe that I am presently capable of restraining my own power so as to not inadvertently harm others. Furthermore, since your last visit, there have been six representatives that have retired. The demon, dwarf, Deckan, and three heroc representatives have retired.”

I felt my eye twitch slightly when I heard that three heroc Voices had retired in the ten years I skipped. And knowing the heroc, that meant that they had died. “I see… is there anything else?”

“The new dwarven representative is currently living in the Sky Citadel.” Tsubaki reported, still keeping her head down to stare at the floor. “However, he often complains about the lack of materials to use in the forge. With the lack of access to a mine, this has since not been resolved.”

I nodded my head as I listened to that. I had no intention to add a mine to the Citadel, even if it was expected that dwarves would want easy access to ores. We could find another way to take care of that requirement. “Understood. I’ll be staying down here for a few weeks this time, if no problems arise.”

Tsubaki’s energy seemed to briefly rise as her excitement was practically tangible. “Yes, Keeper!” I didn’t have to look into her mind to realize that she enjoyed the idea of being able to serve me for more than a few minutes at a time for now.