“Hot, hot, hot, hot!” A voice sounded out in the world of natural energies before a figure emerged. The figure appeared for all intents and purposes to be a dark-skinned human with short black hair and a muscular figure. He wore simple wool clothes, which were emitting smoke as he appeared. There was a trace of embers on his hair, speaking to the environment that he had just come from.

“Hmm?” He glanced around his small hut, looking for any changes since his previous visit. It wasn’t uncommon for him to find this place wrecked by the local wildlife, causing him to have to take the time to fix it up again before leaving. He might not be able to create all of the modern comforts he liked, but it was always important to be able to come back home!

He was just about to leave again when he noticed the stone slab on his door, and the new line written at the bottom. His face broke out in a grin as he realized that meant he had succeeded in contacting the current Keeper. “Guess I should stick around, then.” He nodded to himself reaching out with his energy to create a barrier around the hut. It wouldn’t be good for him to be in the middle of combat when the Keeper appeared.

Just as he was thinking that, he sensed something. Turning to the side, he saw a golden line tracing its way through the air in a circular pattern. After five full rotations, silver light flashed within the circle, forming a mirror. However, it wasn’t his own reflection that he saw in the mirror, but that of a light-skinned human sitting atop a throne.

“Hmm? Oh, hey! Good timing. I was just about to wait for you.” James smiled pleasantly, while the Keeper let out a sigh of exasperation. “What’s wrong?”

“What happened to the ‘six pulse’ timer?” The Keeper asked, rubbing his temples. “I’ve been staring at that pattern for hours, and it still hasn’t come.”

“Ah… did I get my timing wrong? Sorry, hard to keep track of the time in my head. I thought about making a watch, but haven’t found any materials that can stand up to the pressure in some of these areas without breaking.” James shrugged his shoulders at that, reaching up to pat his head when he realized he was still slightly burning.

“Fair enough.” The Keeper nodded. “Anyways, I wanted to thank you for taking care of my world spirit last time. I had been worried that this place would be too hard on her.”

“It’s fine.” James waved it off. “I just taught her a little energy trick. It’s something I picked up in one of my old experimental worlds. Though, if you were so worried, why’d you send the girl here in the first place?”

That was something that had been bugging James ever since he met the world spirit. He was worried that throwing an innocent girl like that into such a hostile territory with no combat experience only to die again and again would mean that the current Keeper was an evil one.

“Honestly… it was a mistake. When I created her, the world wasn’t able to accept the existence of world spirits yet. A special item had to be found and installed at a certain location before the world ‘allowed’ them. I thought that just meant that they wouldn’t be able to train and gain levels. But when I made her, she was almost immediately ejected.”

“At the time, I thought she was just going dormant until the class was unlocked. It was a while before I found that area you’re in now, and found her in it. Since that place can be seen as the ‘origin’ of natural energy in this world, she was ejected there to wait until her class was accepted by the world.”

James let out a whistle when he heard that. “Wow. And yeah, I noticed that about this place, too. I’ve been using that link to explore the different areas of this world ever since I found it. Neat trick with the layered environments, by the way. I thought they were just ‘bubble worlds’ until I dug deep enough to find the floor once.”

“How many floors have you been to?” The Keeper asked, raising an eyebrow.

“A couple dozen, I think?” James shrugged his shoulders. “It’s hard to tell sometimes when it’s a new layer, or just a different environment within that layer. A lot of the time, I have to flee as soon as I encounter the local monsters, so I don’t get the chance to take notes. I did find some other special areas like this, though.”

The Keeper gave a knowing nod at that. “As you’ve likely guessed, the world you’re in is one where the higher one ascends, the greater the threat. Though, I would very much like to hear about these other ‘special areas’.”

James grinned, realizing that the Keeper himself had yet to discover those places. “Well, I just came from one where the entire world was a floating crystal. It sort of reminded me of those information orbs from back in the day. However, floating around its surface were four different symbols, projected by mana.”

Focusing, James lifted his hand, and those four symbols he had seen were recreated with his own energy to show the Keeper. “When I tried to touch one of them, it was like the entire world turned into a fireball, and I had to leave before I burnt up.”

The Keeper’s eyes opened wide in surprise, and he leaned forward in his seat. “Have you found other crystal worlds like this?” He asked, his tone more serious than before.

“A few. Though, they all had different symbols, and only had three each until a while ago. But usually, when I touch the symbols, nothing bad happens like that. I’m guessing this world operates with a type of Rune magic?”

The Keeper gave a nod in reply. “It does. Those are the four tiers of ‘Fire’ that are unlocked for this world.”

“Eh? All the same one?” He looked at the symbols again, before a new grin emerged on his face. “Well, isn’t that interesting? Aside from these ‘rune worlds’, I found the origin world for ki, and a world filled with darkness. Let me tell you… the ki origin is a world made of blood. I thought I had stumbled onto an ancient martial spirit at first.”

“We’ve gotten sidetracked.” The Keeper suddenly interrupted with a faint sigh. “I wanted to know what your intentions are here. From what it sounds like, it’s only a matter of time before you are able to find one of the layers that my people inhabit. Obviously, I can’t make you the Keeper again.”

James chuckled a bit at that. “I don’t need to be the Keeper. At best, I’d love to meet Chel again, but I know that wouldn’t happen even if I took your job. I’d just get a new one with a random personality. I could make her myself, but she wouldn’t be able to forgive me for killing you just to see her again.”

A softer look appeared on the Keeper’s face. “Chel was your system companion?”

“Yeah… short for Chelsea.” James admitted with a shake of his head. “Man, if you could make her for me again, and it really was her…” Clearing his thoughts, he changed the subject. “How’s yours, by the way? Your system companion, I mean.”

“She’s great.” The Keeper smiled subconsciously, a smile James was all too familiar with. “She actually says quite a lot of good things about you. I just wanted to meet you myself before I made any decisions on what to do.”

James gave a small nod. “Honestly, if I was let out, I’d probably either just go exploring or settle down and start helping out with experiments again. Going by what you said about this world, I should be a bit too strong for the place to handle right now, right?”

“That’s right.” The Keeper agreed. “Level five thousand and seventeen… I can’t even buy you with my points, because if I did, that would unlock every floor you’ve been to previously. If someone at level five thousand had to flee, then that would be enough to shoot my rank up a few notches.”

James couldn’t help but grumble as he followed that line of logic. “And without buying me, you can’t use the ‘smite’ option to kill me in body, mind, and soul before making a companion copy. I’d either have to do the deed myself, or there would be two copies of me existing at once. But that would mean I’d have to trust you to make the copy, and not simply watch me die and move on. Right?”

“Right. For the copy to be your true self, they have to have all of your memories and knowledge, up to your final moments. If the copy is created prematurely, the two minds diverge. This divergence, theoretically, would be next to meaningless. But, someone with a mind like yours would naturally linger on it, wondering if you were truly the same person in the end.”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I don’t plan on dying yet.” James chuckled a bit as he said that. “Maybe if I had Chel waiting for me, but I think she’d be more happy just to come down here and meet me herself.”

For a short while after that, the Keeper seemed lost in thought. Perhaps speaking with his own system companion, or simply debating his options. What he decided in the end, however, surprised James. “I’ll get her. I have a system in place where any resident of the Admin Room is able to descend in the body of an infant born in the world, and live out their life. You’ll have to wait a few years, but she’d be there.”

James looked at the Keeper in shock at his decision. “Aren’t you worried that I’ll get too attached, and take it out on you when her mortal body dies?”

The Keeper shook his head slightly. “The path to godhood is open to my people. If the two of you strive for it, she’ll be able to reach it in just one or two lives. Besides, I’d much rather have you as an ally I can trust, as opposed to a wanderer with no attachment to the world outside of his own enjoyment.”

“I guess I can understand that.” James admitted, feeling a soft smile playing at his lips. “Well, just put me where you want me, then. But first, I need to know the ‘story’ you told the world with regards to Keepers.”

I groaned, falling back in my chair after finishing the call. It’s done. I whispered mentally towards Terra. She had asked me if I would be willing to carry out this plan, both for my sake as well as his.

If it worked, I would gain a powerful ally, one that would fight for this world to his dying breath. As long as Chel existed in the Admin World, he would do everything in his power to protect her. I could understand that logic easily enough. And I had to admit that it wouldn’t be that bad to have a more experienced Keeper to consult with when I needed to.

I was leaving the recreation of Chel’s personality profile to Terra, the only one really capable of such a thing. Once that was done, I’d ascend to make it official. Now it was just a matter of deciding where I wanted James to help out.

With his specialty in technology, Desbar was a decent choice. But at the same time, Deckan was getting more innovative with space travel, which was where James’ passion seemed to lie in his old world. It was also a much larger world, and offered more room for him to explore various possibilities. Not to mention the dimensional material that could likely inspire many new ideas for him.

Yeah… I think he’d fit right in on Deckan. I smiled to myself as I made the decision.