World Keeper

Chapter 16: Death Walks Among Us

Before unpausing my world, I had one last thing to do. This was pretty important, because of the setting for my world being one of a game. I had to make classes for the Daeva. Due to them not having corporeal bodies, they couldn’t use normal classes like Warrior, Rogue, or so on. I wasn’t even entirely sure whether they could use the magic classes, so I definitely needed to make something special for them!

Opening up the options window, I navigated to the class selection. In it, I narrowed my search only for classes applicable to incorporeal beings. There were… surprisingly few results.

Reaper Those who walk through the boundaries between life and death, wielding the strength of their own soul as a weapon. The Reaper's abilities focus primarily on severing spirits of the dead from corporeal attachments, and combating them in their ethereal form.

Spirit Hunter For when the spirits have gone rogue, call in the Spirit Hunters! Both the living and the spirits themselves are capable of taking this job, though the latter is typically more effective with it. Spirit Hunters construct weapons out of their spirit, and use those to combat incorporeal creatures.

Chimera Soul Some spirits just don't want to let go. They just don't want to move on. If these spirits feel terrible anger, they may consume other spirits, taking on their aspects to strengthen themselves.

Empty Self When a spirit is filled with regret, and refuses to enter the afterlife, it may gain the power to possess the living, slowly consuming them from within. Once this process is complete, the Empty Self can gain new powers from its host, and start the process again.

Poltergeist Malevolent spirits often find ways of making mischief. Moving objects when you're not looking… whispering into the ears of children… turning sane adults into murderous demons. These are all the works of the Poltergeist.

Looking at the five classes, I immediately dismissed the last three. I knew what kind of trouble those classes could cause, and I wanted no part of it in my world. As for the other two… They seemed pretty reasonable, like a sort of spiritual police force.

Selecting those classes, I looked at the various requirement options for them. For Reaper, there was one simple requirement: to be a spirit. With only that, the class became free, although it was generally more powerful than the Spirit Hunter from what I was seeing. In terms of versatility, at least.

For the Spirit Hunter, there were far more options to choose from. And given my budget, I had to choose one that made the class free. So, in the end, I selected two requirements. ‘Ability to control Spiritual Energy’ and ‘Being a spirit or encountering a near death experience’. With these two requirements, the class became free, and I was able to go through and modify the abilities that were automatically awarded per levels. This gave me a much better look at the classes themselves, and how they functioned.

Spirit Hunters were your typical fighting force for spirits. Whether ranged attacks or melee, they would shape their spirit into weapons for battle. At higher levels, they could contract to a powerful spirit, merging with it to increase their fighting potential. Naturally, this reminded me of a certain anime, but no! This was not the same, as the contracted spirit could be chosen freely, and was not automatically available. I swear, the previous Earth Keeper did not just steal this idea to plant the seed for that anime… I hope.

As for Reapers, they took a more magical approach. They learned how to wield Spiritual Energy to create different types of spell effects, such as exorcisms, banishments, and… spiritual fireballs? What the heck? They also had the ability to tap into the spirits of the living, using their will to erase or alter short term memory. The main weakness of this class seemed to be that it had no ability to actually influence the corporeal world. Whereas a high level Spirit Hunter can condense their weapon’s energy enough to cause it to have a physical impact.

Each of the classes also had a new energy type listed, Spiritual Energy, or SE. Their SE functioned as both their health and mana, and would only recover when they were either back in the spirit world or absorbed the Spiritual Energy of others. There was no natural recovery, and it actually seemed to automatically deplete itself over time…

Done with checking these classes out, I finalized the selection, and imported them to my world. From what I could tell, every Daeva or spirit should automatically get the first level of both Spirit Hunter and Reaper, so I didn’t have to worry about them not finding out about the classes. Though, I did begin to think about whether I should eventually add more advanced classes to the world.

I’ll save that for later. Right now, they haven’t even discovered half of the basic classes available. I nodded to myself, finally hitting the ‘resume’ button for the world. Now, Irena should be running around and quickly gathering up all the dead spirits she can. If she had a personality already, I’d feel kind of sorry for her.

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In the Plains of Beginning, people were busily preparing for winter. Food was stockpiled, shelters constructed, and all the while, nobody noticed an invisible entity walking in their midst. With an elderly body, a certain catgirl was looking at the progress made by her people.

Every now and then, Ardra would try to call out to anyone that looked in her direction, hoping that they might have seen her. However, she would soon discover that they were merely looking at something behind her. Why? She asked herself. Hadn’t she already completed her final mission?

She watched her daughter growing into a beautiful woman, and had felt pride at her achievements. That had been exactly as the Goddess had promised. So where was her rest, her release from this world?

Just as Ardra was thinking that, a black rift opened behind her. Such rifts were opening all across the planet, out of sight from the eyes of the living. Before she even knew what had happened, a hand lashed out like lightning, grabbing her neck and dragging her back through the rift. Ardra let out a silent scream, eyes going wide as she felt the hand grab onto her, powerless to resist.

By the time she was able to react, the world around her had changed. Now, she stood in a vast meadow of grey mist, watching as it swirled in meaningless patterns. The void above and beneath her feet was black, and all around there was nothing to be seen. Is this the end? She thought to herself, before other beings began appearing alongside her. Or rather… on top of her.

As if she was standing at a dumping ground, one grey mass after another fell onto her head. Some she recognized as former comrades, others as beasts or monsters. Still more belonged to races that she had never seen, strange, furless people. They continued to rain down from the empty sky, the mist spreading out to welcome them.

Finally getting control of herself, she squirmed out from under the pile of spirits, finding it surprisingly easy before leaping away to watch. Other spirits followed her example, and some of them slowly began to change. From a grey mass, their skin started to gain color, density. Their empty eyes became livened. Looking down, she saw her own body had gone through the same changes. Not only that, but her greyed fur and wrinkled skin seemed to have returned to its youth.

The grey bodies rained for over an hour, piling up higher than Ardra would have thought possible, before suddenly it stopped. At the same time, one final rift opened up next to Ardra, a beautiful woman stepping through. Like the others, she belonged to a species that Ardra didn’t recognize. With the wings of a bird, the horns of a young bull, and eyes as black as her new sky. She seemed to be wearing some strange black furs that clung tightly to her body, giving her an intimidating appearance.

Gradually, Ardra realized as others of the same species began to appear around the mountain of grey mist that had been formed. They looked around, as confused as Ardra herself, until the well-dressed stranger spoke. Her voice was monotonous, as if she was extremely bored, and lacked any proper motivation to be here.

“I am Irena, the Goddess of the Underworld. This is my realm, and your new home. Live in it well, and you will be rewarded. Otherwise, you will be punished.” Her words were simple, but the complete lack of emotion sent a shiver down Ardra’s spine, the same as many of the people gathered here. They had no time to wonder what sort of punishment would be issued, before they were forced to find out.

No sooner had Irena finished speaking than the mountain of grey bodies erupted. From it, hundreds of different monsters charged out, letting loose angry roars as they did. Ardra knew of these monsters, the ones that had kept her up at night when she was but a kitten. The fear that had been instilled in her, which she had fought her entire life to surpass.

However, Irena showed no emotion on her face, even as they charged her. “Disobedience, rioting, mass violence. Punishment.” One hand stretched off to her side, aiming at the incoming horde. Suddenly, the mist seemed to convulse, as if fleeing from this powerful woman. It was at this point that Ardra truly came to understand the power that a Goddess could wield. The hundreds of monsters, enough to wipe out entire villages, froze in terror.

Had they been aware of their crimes, they would have prostrated themselves in forgiveness, but they were given no chance to do so. Their bodies exploded, shrill screams issued from their ghostly mouths before they faded away, joining the empty mist around them. After that, nobody dared to question Irena’s orders. She had shown clearly that she was more powerful than any of them, maybe even more powerful than all of them together.

Still with that same emotionless face, she turned around and began walking. In front of her appeared a wooden wall, which she grabbed onto and pushed forward. It swung open under her touch, and she walked beyond, letting it fade behind her.

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After Irena was done with her work, I heard the door to the bedroom close. Turning, I saw her standing there, staring blankly at the wall. Seeing that, Terra laughed lightly from the bed. “You never ordered her to go to one of the other rooms when she was done, so she came right back here.”

I paused, starting to say something then stopping. I thought she would just stay in the spirit world to manage things, but I guess that was too much to ask right now. And, I had not received any points from her actions, either. Did it not count because it was part of her assigned job?

MindScape has purchased The Forgotten! You earned 8 points in royalties.

Convenient timing is convenient! Without further waiting, I immediately opened up the options menu again, to buy Irena a personality. Hopefully after this she’ll be able to do her job better.

Please define the desired personality. Undefined traits will be assigned randomly.

Hmm? Well, that’s easy enough, I guess. I thought about what kind of personality I wanted Irena to have. Given her appearance, I couldn’t help but think of her as a cool beauty, an ice queen. Strict with her work, unwavering in her commitments. But, at the same time, I did not want to run the risk that her personality would be assigned as one that hated me, her creator. So, I put in that she had a deep love for me. That way, even if she was an ice queen, she wouldn’t do anything bad, right?

There was a cracking sound from behind me, and I glanced over to see Terra, her eyes twitching in apparent annoyance. “Dale… Would you mind explaining that?”

Uhm… she couldn’t read my mind, right? “Explain what…?” I asked, doing my best to feign innocence.

“Making this new goddess love you… Are you trying to build a harem or something?” Since when did she have claws, and why are they digging into the bedsheets?!

“Uhm… it’s not like that? I mean, I needed to make sure that she will listen to me, right? If I don’t make her like me, then she might go wild!” Terra seemed to calm slightly at my words, but then she looked up at me with wide, watery eyes.

“Am I not enough for you anymore?” She asked, pitifully. Her claws retracted, and she curled up at the foot of the bed, watching. “It’s only been a few days, and you’re already making another goddess love you. Do you dislike me that much?”

Gah! Find the right answer, find the right answer… I got up, and walked over to the bed, sitting down on it next to her. She leaned away from me, but I reached over and pet her head. “It’s not like that at all, Terra. I just need to make sure that she will listen. We don’t want one of the gods going and doing something crazy because they hate us, right?”

Terra looked at me, her ears flat against her head. “…Promise?” When I nodded, she slowly scooted over to lean against me. “Okay, but I’m the only one that gets your bed. I’m laying claim to you.” Well… this was awkward. To be honest, I really did hope to have a goddess harem, eventually. Maybe I could get her to open up to it, slowly?

“Alright, we’ll see how this goes. But you have to remember, Terra. You’re literally my dream girl.” I stroked a hand down her back, and felt her purr in response. “Even if other women come along, that won’t change. So no attacking the goddesses if I make them like me, deal?”

She glanced up at me, and lightly nodded. “Okay… but you have to make her like me, too. If I can’t deal with her, I need her to listen to me as well, okay?”

I didn’t entirely like the way she said ‘deal with her’, but I did agree. I didn’t want Terra to get bullied one-sidedly because I forbid her from acting out against one of the goddesses. So, I made a quick edit to what I had established, making it so that she loved both me and Terra. The catgirl goddess’s ears twitched cutely at that, which I guess meant that she approved of it. Though, I feel like I fell into one of her schemes again.

Finalizing the personality, I watched as a warm glow surrounded Irena. Her eyes, previously dull and lifeless, began shining. Her motionless wings stretched out, as if she was flexing as she looked around the room. When her eyes landed on me and Terra at the bed, a ghost of a smile appeared on her face. “Dale, Terra.” She nodded in greeting.

“Irena.” Terra responded, her voice much calmer than previously. I guess she still doesn’t really like her, huh?

Irena, however, did not seem to mind the somewhat cold greeting, taking it in stride. “If the two of you need anything, please call for me. Given the current state of affairs, I believe I will be quite busy for a while.” She brought her hand up to adjust her glasses, abruptly turning around and leaving the room.

Death Goddess secretary, get!