Life aboard the citadel was… not as boring as I had expected it to be. And at the same time, not as exhausting as I had worried. Among the representatives, nobody living in the citadel really had a problem with each other. Well, aside from the dwarf. But that was less hostility, and more because he was just grumpy that we didn’t have a mine for him.
Thankfully, with some help from Tubrock, we managed to work something out. The dwarven god created a set of gates, much like those that the heroc used to travel between their cities. However, there were two key differences with their gates and the ones that Tubrock set up.
First of all, the range on the gates was far shorter. This wasn’t a problem of the gate being weaker than what the heroc could build. Quite the opposite, which led to the second difference. The connection between the gates was significantly strengthened. Even the world spirits couldn’t jump in and out of the citadel, so it was clear just how strong the barrier surrounding it was. Yet, these gates were able to open up a path through that barrier.
With this, the dwarf’s complaint was taken care of, as he could visit the mines whenever the citadel was close enough to a location that Tubrock had set a gate down. Next came the demon. In truth, the new demon representative wasn’t all that social. He was nice, sure, and he did not seem to harbor any ill intentions. However, perhaps it was a result of his normal life being turned on its head or some other factor, but he mostly kept to himself.
The new Deckan representative… Well… she had taken a liking to Tsubaki. The few times I caught the two of them together, she was wearing a maid outfit identical to Tsubaki’s and asking Tsubaki to accept her as her disciple. She seemed to be under the impression that Tsubaki had become so powerful because of her profession, so she wanted to learn from her.
Unfortunately for her, things weren’t so easy. Tsubaki was quite adamant in her refusal to teach the new representative. She never gave a reason verbally while I was within earshot, but whatever reason she had didn’t appear to be enough to deter the kitsune woman.
Like this, our days passed slowly, one blending into the next as I enjoyed a simple life descended among the representatives. After every meal, I injected my mana, my ki, and a healthy dose of natural energy into the seed of world sight within my soul. And every time, I felt it grow just a bit stronger.
Since I had already formed the energy, there was no need to dismiss Leowynn or lock out the gods when I was simply ‘feeding’ it. After all, even if they knew how much energy I was feeding the world sight, that would not tell them how to create it themselves originally.
All throughout the three realms, changes were unfolding. As the two that had known each other the longest, Deckan and Desbar had established a deep relationship that allowed them to trade their magic and science with one another. Items born from this fusion of technology and sorcery soon became common household appliances. Cars that used natural energy as their fuel source, locks that faded away from existence until the proper key was brought near them. There were even those studying on how to harness the special energy of Deckan’s cards to create special prisons for the growing strength of violent criminals.
On Earth, an entirely different sort of change was taking place. Throughout history, they had to focus their development on survival, their inventions meant to protect them from the threats posed by the elements, the monsters, and even other people. Whether it was their forging skills, the way they constructed their cities, even the Tower of Communication that the elves had set up was meant to ensure their protection.
However, now, the Voices of the Keeper, the very people that they placed in a position to connect them with the creator of the world, were giving them something else. For the first time in a long, long time, they were creating new items not for the sake of survival, but for the sake of convenience… for fun. The first of these creations came in the form of an Imagination Stone, an enchanted item which allowed them to record their thoughts as an illusion, and then replay those thoughts for others to see.
Naturally, the first application of this device did not go towards recreation. Instead, it was used in law enforcement for victims and witnesses to record their testimony. It was used by scouts to show the safe routes through dangerous territories.
Only when the next set of items arrived were the Imagination Stones put to the use they were intended for. Transmission Stones, capable of playing those illusions to the masses, or to show people events happening in real time. There was a small mana cost to using them that made it difficult for those families without a trained mage, but even this issue was soon taken care of.
Not three weeks after the Voices had released the method to create the TS, as it was being called, they sent down plans for something bigger. Something much bigger. They released the concept of an upgraded Mage’s Tower, a building that would serve as both the training grounds for powerful mages, and as a power source for the masses.
The secret to these towers rested within a special ward that had been placed within them. Whenever a spell was cast inside the tower, the mana of that spell was collected after it had been used, rather than allowing it to dissipate harmlessly in the area. This, combined with durable targets and research labs, gave mages a place where they could practice their craft.
At the same time, the gathered mana, far larger than what a normal mage would produce, was stored within the tower itself. Each tower came equipped with a Mana Transmission Stone, which allowed them to send the stored mana to other towers, or to the nearby areas. This soon sparked a new wave of mana-powered devices, ranging from city security to simply controlling the lighting of a room.
And the best part? As mana was a limited resource for the mages, and thus not something that they could endlessly do, they were actually paid to test out their spells within the tower every day. This caused a small cost on the part of those who would later use that mana to power their homes, but this was still far more convenient for everyone.
Sitting in the throne room of the citadel, I had my eyes closed while I watched the world. It had been just over thirty days now since I had started living in the citadel. Thirty days of constantly strengthening the seed of world sight. Where once it was as small as a single grain of rice, it had now grown to be the size of my fist, and resembled a dark purple jewel shining in the sky of my spiritual realm.
It didn’t take me long after I was ready to start my experiments that I began to realize something… In truth, there had never been a need to wait. What I saw as a faint seed, something that would vanish if I touched it, was actually not so fragile. In fact, although the gem did lose its luster after I used too much of its energy, it did not shrink, and only took a short while for it to regain its former light.
Though, one thing that I do want to complain to Balu about… I had not been prepared for just what was coming when I first released my world sight. At that time, my eyes began to glow the same dark violet as the gem within my soul, and I saw the entirety of the citadel at once. Every speck of dust, every hair on every representative. It was as if the information were being drilled into my skull.
There were things that I learned at that time that I really had no desire to know. In the face of world sight, there was no concept of privacy, and nothing was off limits. Even the room which Tubrock and Ryone had designed to seal off energies had been easily seen through in that brief moment.
Releasing my world sight in this manner had only taken me a few seconds. However, recovering from the shock of its effects had taken me at least ten minutes. If there was any benefit, it was that not even Tsubaki seemed to be able to detect that I had used the energy to observe her. Or at least, if she did then she was doing a very good job of not showing it.
My second attempt had been more successful. For that attempt, I actually focused the energy away from me, rather than detecting my immediate surroundings. The area I chose was one familiar to me, the dungeon where I had explored during the voyage to the elven lands. This time, I was able to see the various hidden rooms within the dungeon, and all of the myriad slimes that Aurivy had been producing.
Everything I looked at, I had an… almost instinctive understanding of. Nothing as deep or detailed as the information that I received with the Keeper observation method. Rather, I looked at a glowing golden slime, and I felt that it had the power of the sun within its body. A fire slime beyond any other, which scorched the stone it slid across.
Similarly, I saw the ‘treasure trove’ of the dungeon, where it had stored all of the items that it had created over the years. With a rush of sensations, I was able to focus in on any one object and immediately knew what it did, even without referencing the writing so often found along those items.
It was then that I realized that the world sight could be ‘focused’. The amount of information that I received would change depending on how broad or narrow my focus. Similarly, the more I tried to broaden my focus, the more energy was drained from the gem within my spiritual realm.
Currently, I was in my… fifth test? I think it was the fifth, I didn’t really bother to count them after the first two. Either way, this time I was observing a construction site within a city shared by halflings and centaurs. Even without the information provided by this new energy, I was able to tell that it was a construction site for the new Mage Tower.
The normal centaurs could be seen dragging large carts of stones, which halfling and unicorn druids caused to rise up into the air, reshaping and joining the steadily growing frame of the tower. Nearby, I could see artisans mixing the components to create the necessary materials for the Mana Transmission Stones, and enchanters working with blacksmiths to create an enchanting platform.
Narrowing my sight a bit, I found one particular young centaur among the enchanters, happily walking back and forth as she checked on the work being done. If the dark purple coloring of her hair wasn’t enough to identify her, her eternally youthful looks and the strange markings on her black-furred hide immediately let me recognize Alme Dien.
When I focused on her, I found that I did not just know her level, but I knew all of her class levels. Unsurprisingly, her Priest class was the highest, followed shortly after by Scout. Beyond that, it seemed that she had spent time training nearly every class, to some extent. The only ones not on her list at all were Black Knight, Fallen Priest, and Assassin.
Naturally, most of those classes weren’t very high level. Many, like the Berserker or the Weaponmaster classes, weren’t even in the double digits. In terms of overall level, she still fell far short of Tsubaki, by at least a good two hundred levels.
Pulling my focus away from Alme, I felt that the energy within the gem was running low. As such, I pulled my world sight back, and allowed my vision to return to the throne room. Just a few more days until the Keeper Meeting… and then my first invasion. Wonder who will be the one to invade me in the second round…
I felt my mind starting to wander as I stared off into the distance.
