World Keeper

Chapter 943: Tricksy Little Goddesses

While my Virtual self was off having adventures, and Tsubaki was devoting herself to her trial, I decided that I needed to visit the world from a more personal perspective. Though… doing so would be rather difficult if I descended in my normal appearance.

With that in mind, I made my way to my personal palace. There, I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone disturbing me unless there was a serious problem. As for further exploring my own palace… I’ll save that for later. There was only so much that one could handle being impressed by Tubrock’s ingenuity before they became numb to it. Tsubaki could tell me that I had an independent world built within the walls of my bathroom, and I wouldn’t even doubt her. I would question why, but I wouldn’t doubt it.

Once in my bedroom, I laid down on the bed, closing my eyes and focusing. If I wanted to explore the world normally, I would need to do so in a disguise. My normal appearance was widely known, and my aura as a Keeper was somewhat overwhelming.

My solution to this was to create a divine avatar, one forged by my three primary domains. With the Mirrors domain, I would make it a copy of myself. With the Illusions domain, I would change its appearance and aura. Finally, with the Souls domain, I altered its soul so that even spiritual detection methods would identify it as another being.

Of course, in order to explain its divine aura, I did make the Souls domain visible. Once I was done crafting my avatar, I transferred a strand of my consciousness over to it. Because this wasn’t my main body, I wouldn’t be in danger even if it died. Like this, I could be perfectly safe when exploring the world, without giving anyone reason to complain.

Aurivy, can you send me to Gandor? I had my avatar ask. Aurivy would be one of the few that would be able to see through my disguise easily, due to being a companion. But I wasn’t worried about her seeing through it.

Huh? Oh, sure! Going out for a stroll? She asked, as golden mist spread around the avatar’s body.

That’s right. I gave a small smile to myself as I felt my body being swept away. Just to be on the safe side, I made sure to take a modest sum of money with me, so that I could buy whatever I needed while I was out.

Lily hummed to herself as she skipped along the street, enjoying the lively atmosphere. The announcement of Olympus had triggered a new festival, and the city was in full swing with preparations. The Ascension Festival, they were calling it.

Personally, Lily just thought that the people were looking for any reason that they could to throw a festival, especially when it concerned the Keeper. Granted, she knew that he was a big deal, such a big deal that even gods like her had to pay attention. Still, a festival because he got a new house?

While keeping those potentially blasphemous thoughts to herself, she skipped over to a street vendor with sparkling eyes, spending a silver coin to get a grilled cheese skewer. Biting into the snack, she gave a satisfied groan, offering a thumbs up to the vendor before skipping away.

As she did, her eyes glanced off to the right, where she saw a tall ursa being trailed by a pair of shady figures. They’re not half bad, I guess… what do they want with him, though? Not trying to pick a fight in the city, right?

While Lily’s main preference for people to save were young children in abusive situations, that did not mean that she would turn a blind eye to the plights of adults. If anything, she often had to save the parents from a bad situation in order to save the child.

While nibbling on her snack, she hummed softly to herself, skipping down the road in the opposite direction that the ursa was moving. As she got close to him, a wisp of mana-infused spiritual energy swept out, tapping just the boundary of his soul. A standard rogue trick acquired after level two hundred, Stealth Scan allowed a rogue to check the other party’s information. Ever since the release of the inventory system, this technique had expanded to be able to scan that as well.

What? Lily blinked in surprise. The man’s levels seemed rather ordinary, but his inventory… was almost completely empty. Almost everyone carried around modern accessories like portable terminals, extra clothes, even their tools for their job. Storing it in the inventory was just the most convenient way to keep it all. Lily herself had a number of weapons stored in her inventory, as well as food and drink, and clothes of various sizes. Of course, the weapons were all disguised to look like something else, to prevent thieves or guards from noticing them.

Is he one of those ninjas? She had heard that there were ninja clans roaming around in the dark, and that they often acted mysteriously while blending in with the modern world. Of course, these were rumors, and she had never actually met a ninja from any clan. The only ninjas that she knew were regular people that happened to train the class.

Wait…what!? Lily practically stumbled when her gaze went down to his currency. Five thousand black gold?! Okay, even for a god, why would you carry that much!? It was popular belief that one hundred black gold coins had divinity comparable to a newly born god. With five thousand of them, that was the total divinity of fifty newly born gods, or one moderately old one. Even Lily felt that she’d have to suffer if she wanted to extract that much divinity from herself.

No wonder those guys are following him… they want an easy payday. Lily let out a sigh, shaking her head. Really, I should just let them do it to teach him an important life lesson. Still… everyone has their own circumstances. 

On the off chance that the man losing that much wealth would negatively impact his family, Lily couldn’t just watch without doing anything. With a shake of her head, her figure disappeared into the darkness. Unlike the two rogues following the ursa, she had cultivated her class to the pinnacle. Shadowing a pair of less experienced crooks was a simple matter.

While she was watching the duo, she naturally had to keep a steady eye on their target. He seemed rather carefree, walking the streets with no obvious destination. Every now and then, he would stop and buy some small snack to eat as he walked. He didn’t stop to talk to anyone in particular, nor did anyone seem to recognize him.

No way, is he a tourist? No… no tourist would walk around with an empty inventory like that. Maybe he’s on a business trip, delivering money on behalf of his boss? His levels weren’t high enough to fit someone that was supremely confident in their own abilities. Maybe he has mastered a martial will?

Her thoughts were running wild when she saw the two thieves make a move. They seemed to be partners, given how they synchronized their timing. The two didn’t make any obvious moves, just speeding up a bit to walk past him, keeping their hands in their pockets. Ah… so that’s it. Link exchange, was it?

Link exchange was a small trick rogues had come up with after the inventory system was released. The trick could only be done by two or more people, and required careful coordination. First, they had to link up their spiritual energy with a special technique before approaching the target. Then, when the target was directly between them, one person sent a trade request for the other.

Because the target was in the path of the spiritual energy, their inventory was overlaid onto the inventory of the thief’s partner. They simply requested what they wanted from the target, and waited to confirm the trade until they passed by. At that point, the trade was no longer related to the target, so the target did not get a confirmation window. Instead, it was the thief that got it.

Naturally, accepting this trade wouldn’t steal the items from the target. Instead, they had to deny the trade. There is a little trick in the system where an inventory is meant to be ‘secured’ during trades to prevent a thief from taking an item of value and running off. However, that very safeguard turned into an exploit after a few years. Once the trade was denied, the system registers that the money was not in the inventory that it was supposed to be in, and quietly removes it from the target’s inventory.

After passing by the ursa, the two thieves seemed completely uninterested in him, continuing along their way. Why would they bother with him after they had just taken all of his money?

Lily shook her head, sighing as she rushed ahead. She had applied a divine disguise to herself, blending in with the very air around her. It wasn’t hard for her to find which thief had stolen the money. All she had to do was check both of their inventories, and see which one had the suddenly inflated balance.

When she did so, her face darkened. Her method of retrieving an item from an inventory was far more straightforward, but also required greater skill. She synchronized her spiritual wavelength with her target, tricking the system into letting her intercept messages intended for him. While doing so, she opened the trade window and quietly traded herself the money that he had stolen.

With the thieves none the wiser, she slipped back to the ursa, repeating the process once again to give the money back to him. With that out of the way, she let out a relieved sigh, moving off into the distance before lifting her disguise in a nearby alley.

“That was a really nice thing you did.” A voice spoke up beside her, startling Lily. Her eyes went wide, and she turned to see a black-haired girl with golden eyes. Although she appeared to be a child, her divine senses were screaming at her that the being before her was something else. Not a child, but not not a child at the same time. As if her very existence were a mask, and Lily couldn’t see whether her current form was real or not.

“Uhm… what are you talking about?” Lily asked, letting out a light laugh. The other party had obviously seen her drop her stealth, but she shouldn’t have been able to see what she had done while hidden.

The little girl gave a small smile. “You helped that man get his money back, right? I was planning on doing so, but then I saw you, so I stopped.”

“You… saw me?” Lily blinked, her eyes flashing. In an instant, she read the other party’s domains. I figured she was a god… but five domains? I’ve never heard of anyone getting more than four, and even that is through luck… maybe she’s a hardcore Acidia player?

“Yup.” The girl nodded her head, glancing back at the ursa as he walked away. “I owe him a favor, so I had been thinking of how I could pay it back while keeping an eye on him. If I go up to him directly, he’ll say that it’s not a problem, but… I still want to.” Her cheeks puffed out in a small pout at that.

Lily looked at the girl, her curiosity piqued. “Do you know who he is? You should tell him next time not to run around with that much money. It’s just asking for trouble.”

The other girl simply nodded. “Of course I do. Oh… right, you wouldn’t recognize him like this. Anyways… what are you going to do about those thieves? You saw it, right?”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint behind her gaze. “You saw their inventories, too?”

The other girl gave another small nod. “Mhm… a severed finger. Pinky, and fresh. Either young or from a halfling. They’re kidnappers and traffickers. They disguised it as a wooden spoon, so they know what they’re doing.” As she said that, she began fiddling with a golden coin, though not one that resembled the common currency.

“I need to find whoever they’re holding and get them out.” Lily answered in a firm tone, clenching her fists tight.

“Do you… want me to help you?” The other girl asked, though Lily could sense hesitation behind her eyes.

How can you gain five domains while being so unwilling to fight… Lily shook her head at that, smiling at the girl. “I’ll take care of it. Thanks for the offer, though.”

The girl bit her lips, nodding her head. As Lily turned and walked off, she held the coin beneath her thumb, closing her eyes tight. “Sometimes… sometimes, there’s a reason to fight.” She muttered softly, before flicking the coin into the air.