World Keeper

Chapter 950: Batteries Not Required

“Looks like people are finally using those camps.” Petra chuckled, sitting atop a high ledge overlooking the construction progress on the fifty-second floor. This particular floor was rather precarious to build upon, as the landscape was covered with stone spirals that connected the land and sky, stretching over a billion kilometers into the sky.

Although that number seemed absurd, the reality was apparent. When Thelsa’s group sought to find the crystal pillar of this floor, it took them longer than any other due to the need to navigate around the spires connected to the highest point in the floor. At the same time, this meant that one could not recklessly mine out the pillars. If one of them fell, the resulting crash could level an entire region.

It was also for this reason that it was incredibly dangerous for adventurers to fight on this floor, as many of their abilities would damage the landscape around them. Thanks to all of this, there was little value in the floor from an adventurer standpoint. However, at the same time, there were many businesses just waiting to get moved in.

The fifty-second floor of Fyor did not have very many monsters, and those that it did have were considered relatively weaker for their level, due to being small and not carrying much innate destructive power. As long as they were properly managed, it was not hard for corporations to manage this local population.

If they did so, they would have access to the greatest mining field discovered to date. Disregarding the fact that the value of ores increased the further up in Fyor one went, a single pillar on the fifty-second floor could hold as much ore as the entirety of Earth, if not more.

When these businesses realized that, it was no surprise that they hired Thelsa’s team to protect the small city during its construction period. If the pillars they were building near happened to collapse, then the entire city would have to be scrapped and relocated.

Next to Petra, Thelsa gave a small nod. “I was expecting them to develop for a few more years, but it seems that the criminal underworld has been stirred up.” She couldn’t help but smile as she thought of that. Thelsa had left hundreds of these Shadow Camps scattered around Fyor, releasing the details about them through some of her more anonymous shadows.

Of these camps, there were several that had still yet to be discovered, while others had been found by more law-abiding groups that turned it into a camping site for adventurers. Most, however, had become occupied by various criminal groups. Anyone that had a reason to want to hide from the gods sought shelter. And given that these camps were led by Thelsa’s shadows, they were naturally welcomed.

“When are you planning to make your move?” Sora asked in a playful tone, clearly excited for the grand finale that they had prepared in these camps.

“No rush.” Thelsa shook her head. “There are bound to be more people that will take the bait. If we spring the trap too early, we’ll lose the rest of them.”

These camps were Thelsa’s idea, a way to lure in those who sought to seek shelter in the darkness, only to remove them from this world. For many of them, their crimes were beyond the realm of forgiveness, including torture, slaughter, or even morbid experiments. “How are you coming on the list, Petra?”

Petra let out a low groan, shaking her head. “I’m not cut out for that kind of thing. I asked for some help from the others, so we should have an idea of which ones don’t have any warrants out on them, at the very least. I can’t say we’ll get everyone like this, though.”

Thelsa gave a warm smile, reaching over to place a hand on Petra’s shoulder. “Still, I’d rather not kill those who haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t need to know all of the criminals, as long as I know who is there and for what reason.”

Petra smiled bitterly, nodding at that. “We’ve got people asking around to ‘network’. They’re going to be stuck in the camps for a while, so most people are willing to open up. We’ll have to see how far that goes, though.”

Udona hummed to herself as she sat in front of her terminal, going through the different reports being sent to her from Deckan. Naturally, there were quite a lot, especially after Aurivy’s recent crusade. Udona couldn’t blame Aurivy for what she did, though. Had Udona been the one to learn about what was going on first, things may have turned a fair bit… messier.

If there was something that she could be thankful for, it was that none of her nobility had been engaged in such affairs. Udona could imagine that each of the others were checking their own upper echelons to make sure that there wasn’t anything unforgivable going on behind the scenes. Worshiping a dark god here or there was fine, but ritual sacrifice was cutting it a bit far.

Stick to goats. She muttered inwardly, before arching a brow. One of the reports coming in caught her eye, this one from none other than James himself.

He’s finished the automation of a Saint Body? Udona pursed her lips, curious what Saint Energy he had used as the basis of this automation, given that each one would have a different result. She pulled up the report, flipping through it, before blinking.

Hey, Aznod, are you free? She asked in a sweet tone, transmitting her voice to Aznod in the kitchen.

I’ve just finished preparing lunch. Is something bothering you?

I was just curious. Did James come to you at any point for help creating a powerful energy? The energy that Udona was looking at on the report was not one that she was familiar with, and she had given at least a cursory glance through all of the energies in the Metong database. There weren’t any in that database that were truly at the Saint level.

Hmm? Oh, yes. That was back while the others were in that Admin Room. I believe you were busy entertaining guests from Desbar when he and Chelsea pulled me aside to ask for my assistance.

Udona nodded her head, having figured as much. Without access to the market, Aznod was one of the few people that could intentionally formulate a Saint level energy, though doing so would still be difficult for him. Do you happen to remember what the energy does? Naturally, she could search back through the records to look it up herself if she wanted, but she would much rather hear the details from him.

Well, the request that they gave me was to create a complex energy that was focused  on information transmission. I thought that such an energy sounded strange, but they insisted it was important for their research. I believe that the final result of the energy was referred to be the system as Cyber Mind, and has the effect of allowing the user to treat their mind as if it were a computer. You can save and transmit files, interface with other machines, or even write mental programs for yourself.

Udona nodded her head, noting that the name matched with what was listed on the report. In a way, she could understand why they had used this energy as the basis for their Saint Path. It was not a destructive energy, and was instead something that could allow individuals to enhance their daily lives. She was only concerned that it might have offensive powers, or detection abilities like World Sight. If that had been the case, there would be some major problems in the very near future.

Thank you, Aznod. That’s all I needed. What did you make for lunch? Udona licked her lips, recalling what he had said he was doing.

I made curry using that recipe you taught me last week, with a few of my own modifications. And yes, there is enough for everyone, and for leftovers. Udona could hear the amused chuckle in his voice when he said that.

You’re the best! Love you!

And you as well. The two exchanged sweet words before Udona returned her focus to her reports. If it was time to eat, she needed to quickly get through what was left.

“So, what’s the next project, now that we’ve finished the Saint Graph?” Chel asked James once the duo were alone in their research lab, the others having taken a well deserved break. “I think we’ve introduced just about all of the advanced tech we can that applies to this world, and even a few that were only hypothetical for us.”

James gave a slow nod at that, thinking it over. “True.” He sighed. Although he was known as the leading researcher of the myriad worlds, the truth was that most of his inventions came from his history as a Keeper. In a sense, he was plagiarizing himself. “I suppose that we could pick a proper direction for researching future projects?”

Chel couldn’t help but grin, easily able to perceive his thoughts. “Got any areas in mind? I could think of a few that this world could benefit from, but there are too many subjects to say that just one would be the best.”

“That’s fair. Though… we could try to solve the energy crisis?” When James said that, Chel gave a slight chuckle.

“I assume you aren’t talking about using those old marbles?” Chel arched her brow, a playful grin tugging at her lips.

“No… I think that Tsubaki had the right idea, but the execution was handled poorly. They just didn’t know that until it was too late to salvage the project.” Originally, Tsubaki’s method of obtaining essentially limitless energy was to create miniature universes with specialized laws that caused their physical manifestations to constantly leak increasingly greater energy.

In a way, Tsubaki and Dana’s project had almost touched on the realm of a Fifth Rank Keeper, even back when the fourth tier of magic was just being mastered. If she had managed to perfect that research, and apply it to other fields aside from energy generation, it was likely that Dale’s world would have risen even higher by this point.

“So, which part of it do you plan to change?” Chel couldn’t help but ask, leaning forward to look at James. “This is a tricky project, and there are going to be people that don’t want it to succeed. As well as a lot of void monsters looking for a tasty snack.”

“Firstly, the biggest issue is that these items should not be mass produced in the way that Tsubaki had done previously.” James said in a firm tone. “From what they have told me, they did this so that they could conduct research on mixing the different worlds, wanting to create their own. However, they almost brought about a catastrophe. If such a thing happened in the present day, those miniature worlds would be destroyed within days.”

“Secondly, we need to erect defenses for them as soon as they are established. Like you said, there will be those seeking to destroy the source of energy. This is going to be the hardest part, given how fragile those worlds are.”

“Once we have these set up, they won’t be ‘independent worlds’. Just like how we create energy from the void with our Void Core, this will just be another type of generator. Just… one with far more potential.”

“And more potential to explode.” Chel added. “Wherever we put the physical manifestation on this side, it has to be somewhere far away from civilization. As in, I don’t want that marble within a lightyear of any inhabited world. Deal?”

“...Deal.” James nodded after a moment. “Which means we’ll need to set up an energy refinement and transmission system.” After saying that, he let out a long sigh. “Why can’t we just make a bigger Void Core?”

Chel gave a small grin, knowing he knew the answer to that already. “The one powering Olympus is already the biggest we can safely make with our tech. Anything stronger would punch a hole in the world’s shell.”

“Yeah, I know… but you’re the one always going on that anything magic can do, technology can do. If Tsubaki can make those marbles with fourth tier magic, why can’t we make a Void Core that’s just as powerful?”

Chel paused, blinking. She held a hand up, blinking again, and lowered it. “I mean… we could?”

“Eh?” James looked over. “But you just said that it would punch a hole in the world shell…”

“If we did it our way, yeah. But what if we did it her way, our way?” Chel asked, before realizing how little sense that made. “I mean, if we make a Void Core that generates a world within the void and functions similarly to that marble. If we do it that way, we’re not punching through this world’s shell, we are just siphoning power off of the newly created world.”

James hesitated for a moment, slowly nodding his head. “Yeah… that could work. See if you can give them a call, find out if they have the old records for the spell diagram. At the very least, we can use that design as a reference point.”

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