The moment that Sirin set foot in the village of dark elves, an announcement rang out through the whole of the game. Every player was immediately made aware of a new ‘starting planet’. This soon became a hot topic, as there were only the two inhabited worlds of Vespa’s star system. While the major guilds and corporations were close to developing their own warp drives, they had not yet made that advancement. As such, there were very few people who knew why a new world had been discovered…
“You did something, didn’t you?” Crystal asked suspiciously as she and Dana walked through the halls of the citadel, moving to inspect their remaining supplies.
Dana simply giggled at first, grinning up to the taller elf. “I just helped big sis take care of something~.”
‘Big sis’ was Dana’s greatest excuse to get out of trouble… especially once Crystal had realized who Dana was talking about. In all of the worlds, there was only one woman that would be able to teach Dana everything that she did, knowledge thought limited only to the Keeper himself. And so above the rules that she could easily acquire permission for Dana to perform certain techniques.
Crystal let out a sigh, shaking her head. Even without Dana saying anything, at this point she knew that ‘Big sis’ was the Keeper’s Servant. Which meant that Dana herself likely lived in the true Sky Citadel. A thought that always made a question occur to Crystal…
“So… Just curious, but how is this citadel compared to the real thing?” She asked, curious as they arrived at the storeroom.
Dana thought about it for a moment, before answering naturally. “It’s alright, I guess? The floorplan is all wrong, so I usually end up getting lost. And obviously, we don’t have so many workshops. Oh, and the garden is way better in reality! But then again, we don’t really have to eat in the game, so that makes sense.”
Seeing Crystal contemplating over Dana’s answer, the younger elf gave a small smile. “If you want, I could bring you to look around? You could even be the representative of the elves, if you want!”
Crystal’s eyes went wide at that. “N-no, that’s fine. I don’t need that kind of responsibility. I’d love to have a look around sometime, if that’s alright with Lady Tsubaki, but I do not want to impose.”
“It’ll be fiiiine~!” Dana assured her. “You can even meet Faffy! We haven’t been getting visitors for a long time, and none of the representatives want to live there, so it’d be great to have you!”
Crystal still hesitated at that, before nodding her head. “As a visitor.” Even though the function of the representatives had long been communicated to the new worlds, very few ever visited the Citadel for more than a few days. The fact that they were unable to see their friends and families while they were within the citadel, coupled with the knowledge that their presence there was optional, tended to have them perform their ‘representative responsibilities’ from home.
Dana smiled even wider, nodding her head. “Big sis says that she can be at your place to pick you up whenever you want!”
Crystal let out a small, reluctant sigh. “Why am I not surprised that she knows where I live…?”
Dana simply giggled again, and the two approached one of the larger crates. “Hmm… looks like we’re about out of paper. Do you think we have enough materials for the raid?”
Crystal grasped onto the change of topic like a life raft. “We have two supreme-tier spell scrolls, along with the plans to modify the rest of the weapons on the citadel… But the Mad King has obviously grown way more powerful than we expected. Just crashing into a moon was enough to shatter large chunks of it.”
“We shouldn’t expect to be able to clear the raid unless we go at it with enough power to destroy a small planet. Anything less, and the citadel is what will likely be destroyed instead…”
The more Crystal thought about it, the less certain she was of their chances. “It’d be great if we could harness the powers of one of Spica’s spatial storms, or one of those black holes.” Thanks to the long range scans of the citadel, they had been able to observe mana celestial events that others could only dream of.
Dana gave a bitter smile, shaking her head. “I don’t think our engines are good enough to escape a black hole… But I might be able to come up with something that could cripple the Mad King if I use a piece of that fragment we found.”
Sirin was… a bit overwhelmed when he arrived at the dark elven village. He saw the dusky-skinned individuals walking alongside untamed monsters, and yet neither side was attacking the other. If not for the fact that his interface registered the monsters as enemies, he might have thought that they were entirely domesticated.
In fact… when he entered the city, those same monsters began to growl threateningly at him, as if he was drawing their aggro. However, a few words from the elves caused them to calm down. Those same elves then approached and began speaking in a language that Sirin was unable to understand.
This world did not have the ‘universal translator’ that was the quest scrolls. The language barrier was far more difficult to overcome than it had ever been in the past. Seeming to realize this, one of the elves gestured for Sirin to follow him into a nearby temple.
Once the two of them entered the temple, Sirin saw a towering statue of an elven woman wearing a long, flowing dress. Her eyes were kind, her wavy hair falling down her back. At the base of the statue were symbols that Sirin could not understand. However, a single word from the elves seemed to change everything.
“Leowynn…”
|
You have discovered the unknown goddess, Leowynn! |
|
Leowynn’s Domains are unknown! |
|
Leowynn’s Blessing: Family is someone who understands – Share language with all of Leowynn’s followers. |
|
You have discovered one of Leowynn’s Domains – Family! |
As the messages flashed by in front of his face, Sirin’s eyes went wide. He had never heard of a goddess by the name of Leowynn before. It was possible that this was simply a setting in the game, as so many others had invented their own deities to fill their lore. However, he thought that that was unlikely here, as this game had been personally handed down by the Keeper.
“Can you understand me now?” The elf that led him into the temple asked, looking over towards Sirin. He was a friendly old man with a kind smile that almost seemed to break the established convention of artificial intelligence.
“Yes, sir.” Sirin spoke respectfully, still in awe over what he was seeing. Outside of the temple, new players were beginning to appear, those who had chosen to make new characters in order to discover this new world.
When these new players looked up at the night sky, and saw the three moons, one of which was shattered, they felt a strange sense of wonder. In a way, the game had started fresh for these people.
“Huh…” I blinked, seeing the screen land on Sirin, and the statue standing in front of him. Leowynn?
Yes, father? She replied after a moment, and I could tell that she seemed a bit distracted with her training.
You might want to come take a look at this. It seems like someone ‘found’ you. As soon as I finished saying that, I could feel her rushing to escape my soul, landing in my lap. Leowynn’s eyes immediately focused in on the screen, letting out a small gasp.
“It’s only a matter of time now.” Aurivy spoke up from next to the two of us with a happy smile. One of her hands came over to gently grip Leowynn’s. It was obvious that she had a hand to play with the discovery of this world, but nobody was going to call her out on it. Right now, Leowynn was simply happy that the world would know who she was.
Tsubaki gave a small smile as she watched the conversation between Dana and Crystal. In fact, Tsubaki did indeed know where Crystal lived, and had known so for years, since before Crystal retired from being a professional gamer. Although she still made a sizable income due to her share of Legion’s businesses, she did not live such an extravagant life as she once did.
Now, Julia lived within one of the trade cities of the elves, Loras Tor. She had the newest game capsule, and spent the majority of her day inside of it. When she wasn’t gaming, she would work at the local Mage Tower. With the knowledge of magic that Dana helped her acquire, she had developed a few of her own spells.
Like most other mages in recent years, Julia had even summoned her own familiar. A rather… unusual familiar at that. A crystal golem in the shape of a young girl sat beside Julia’s gaming capsule, her eyes closed as she shared in Crystal’s experiences. Although it was possible to get a special capsule for intelligent familiar or similar spirit entities, such things were ludicrously expensive.
Thinking about that, Tsubaki leaned back in her chair, making a mental call. Lady Ashley, may I have a word?
Tsubaki had considered simply purchasing the spirit capsule for Julia as a gift, a way of thanking her for being friends with Dana for so long. The only problem with that, however… was that being the Keeper’s Servant was not exactly a paying career. Dale did not grant her a salary, nor did she ask for compensation when contributing to the advancement of the people.
Even the Daily Magic Tome that she had developed with Dana had been freely gifted to the research institutes. Nobody would argue if Tsubaki had asked for money, and there were even those that wished to offer donations. However, they were all refused. Tsubaki did not wish to give people the image that favors with the Keeper could be bought. As such, she was entirely self sufficient.
In the rare event that she needed something she could not simply acquire on her own, she had two methods of acquiring them. The first was to acquire something of equal value, and use a disguise to trade for those items. The second method, as she was doing now, was to seek aid from one of the Pantheon. As Ashley was the founder of the company which produced the spirit capsules, Tsubaki decided to go directly to her.
Thankfully, the gods and goddesses rarely refused her requests. They realized that her contributions so far had far outweighed anything she asked in return. Some of them, such as Ryone, even encouraged her to make such requests more often.
Julia was unaware that she was about to receive such a present, that she was soon going to have yet another player running about in the citadel within the game. Currently, she was simply nervous about meeting Dana’s ‘big sister’.
Of course, Tsubaki. Ashley responded to the request in a kind tone, able to understand what Tsubaki wanted before the question was even voiced. I’ll have someone handle the delivery, and it should be there within a few days. I assume you want to remain anonymous?
Tsubaki’s lip curved up at the corner, shaking her head. She’s smart enough to know that it was from me.
