World Keeper

Chapter 253: Understanding the Beginning

Sure enough, the dummy that was made by Keliope was not so easily destroyed. In fact, it survived long enough to make contact with my hand when I struck, sending an intense heat back through my palm that forced me to pull back. When I did so, I saw that the chest of the metal target where I had struck was only half melted.

Still, she gave a low whistle of appreciation at that. “Pretty impressive. Looks like I might need to give this a shot sometime.” The ursa goddess said with a wide grin.

Shaking my head, I began switching to test out the other three elements. If the normal ki of beginning was able to mend, and combining it with fire made it destroy, I wanted to see what the rest of the elements did.

When I merged this new ki with water, I was somewhat surprised to find that the ‘water’ surrounding my hands had turned pitch black. What surprised me even more was that nothing at all happened when I struck the target dummy. I even pulled my hands back and tried it again, but it was still as hard as ever, with no discernible damage!

Similarly, nothing happened when I switched to the earth element. The dummy simply stayed rooted in its position with not a mark on it. If this were an attack with normal earth element ki, I was sure that it would have been at least heavily dented, if not utterly destroyed.

Finally, I attacked it with wind ki, a silver gust swirling around my hands. This time, something definitely changed. Even as I pushed my hands out, I could feel a power building in the ki. The moment it struck the dummy, there was an explosive roar, and the support anchoring it to the ground snapped.

Immediately, the dummy flew violently to the far wall of the room, crashing against it heavily. Okay, now that was definitely effective. But… more importantly… Terra? I should have met the requirements for more information now, correct?

That’s right. Come back to the room, and I’ll explain things to you. I think you’ll quite like this, even if it’s not what you originally wanted.

Nodding my head, I turned to look back at Keliope. “Well, looks like I’m going to learn some things. Good luck practicing this in the future.”

“Huh? Oh, sure…” She nodded slowly while I moved myself directly to my bedroom. Sure enough, Terra was already there, sitting cross legged on the bed with a thoughtful expression, her lips tugged upwards when she saw me arrive.

“So, is your ‘origin energy’ all that you hoped it would be?” She asked in a teasing tone, causing me to groan.

“Hey, I had to try, right? Just imagine if I had been able to do stuff like creating top tier weapons on the fly, or even just making special ores with it.” I shook my head with a groan.

“Oh, don’t worry. The guy who first invented that energy had the same idea. That’s why he named it the Ki of Beginning before giving it a proper test. He was so sure of having made a creation energy to rival the divine. Instead, he enhanced ki to what could be considered its pinnacle form by most.”

Hearing that, my eyes widened, but I did not interrupt Terra, letting her go on with her explanation. “The Ki of Beginning emphasises five attributes of ki, fully bringing out their potential. As you guessed, the first attribute is restoration, the ability to mend objects and creatures. Thanks to the spiritual and magical energies mixed in, you don’t even have to do all the little calculations for it yourself, and the energy does most of the work for you.”

She let out a small chuckle when she said that, shrugging her shoulders. “As long as you let the pure Ki of Beginning flow through your body, you can consider it as directly adding to your health pool. But, the real power it exerts can be seen when it is combined with an elemental ki, focusing its power in one of four directions.”

“With fire, what you saw was not simple burning. When an object is heated, its molecules and atoms vibrate faster and faster. The Beginning Fire takes that and amplifies it. When you struck the wooden target, its atoms were pulled apart under the intense vibration, disintegrating the affected area. However, the metal target was more dense, and only slightly began to liquify. More importantly, because it didn’t offer you protection from the heat… if this weren’t the Admin Room, you’d have burnt your hand.”

I couldn’t help but nod at that, agreeing with her. I had felt the intense heat from that time, so I knew it would have dealt some damage to me. “Next was the Beginning Water. Its effects were the total opposite. Instead of making the object vibrate, it cancels those vibrations. This gives the appearance of freezing whatever you touch with it. Naturally, on a cold target like the metal you struck, it would be hard to notice a change.”

“The same can be said with the Beginning Earth. Its function is somewhat similar to that of water. But instead of cancelling the vibrations of the molecules, it halts the momentum of the object as a whole. When facing physical attacks, this turns it into a great defense, as it allows you to nullify the momentum behind that attack so long as you spend sufficient energy.”

“Then… the ‘Beginning Wind’ would be the opposite of that, right?” I asked, recalling what had happened when I tried it. “Amplify the momentum, to the point where my strike sent the dummy flying?”

She nodded her head, acknowledging my words. “Right. Like with normal wind ki, it does not directly do much damage. But the knockback effect can’t be underestimated. Especially when you use it through other methods, such as running. Each of the ‘five lights’ exerts a terrifying power when used properly.”

“If that energy spread throughout the world, and everyone started mastering it… I imagine the ‘rating’ of the world would rise by quite a bit?” I asked, concerned that this would create more troubles in the future. However, Terra laughed lightly, tilting her head back and bringing a hand to cover her mouth.

“Oh, definitely! But it’s not so easy for people to do that!” She told me. “I mean… maybe it’s hard for you to realize, since you are able to take the easy way now, but just imagine if you had to build the ki path you used manually instead of through the interface? There would be errors, crossed connections, failed bridges… you’d have to start over again and again, each time taking who knows how long to complete one rotation.”

Terra slowly began to calm down as she talked, before shaking her head lightly. “No, even if the knowledge of the information did spread, only a few masters would ever be able to complete the ki path needed for it. And after they do that, they have to perform the merging of all those energy types. Which means that they can’t be purely a ki master. They have to be proficient with mana, natural energy, and even spiritual energy.”

“That alone would eliminate ninety-nine percent of the people who actually managed to create a ki path capable of holding the five different ki types. Now, out of that one percent, maybe one in a thousand would actually be able to successfully perform the merger without blowing themselves up. Not everyone has access to an energy that lets them immediately feel the imbalance of the different components and correct them.”

“No, if I had to guess… If you spread the knowledge of this energy to everyone in the three worlds right now… And every single one of them tried it… Half of the population would suffer accidents during the training process and be left crippled or worse. Many would simply either make it part of the way and get the elemental ki, or receive no power at all. There would only be maybe ten people out of all three worlds that manage to create the Ki of Beginning.”

I let out a sigh of relief when I heard that, silently apologizing to Keliope for the trouble she was likely to face in the near future. “Okay, then… so there is no problem with buying the class, then?” I asked, causing Terra to turn thoughtful, her brows creasing together while she lowered her head.

“According to the example I just gave, only those ten people would be able to unlock the class in the first place. Given the harsh requirements for the class, their personal power wouldn’t likely be higher than someone who specialized in a single field. In the time it took them to simply create the Ki of Beginning, people who started at the same level as them could easily level up a hundred times if they had the same potential. They’ll be able to catch up more quickly… but not to the point where it would upset the balance of the world.”

Shaking her head again, Terra looked up at me. “No, it should be fine for you to purchase the class. However, just to be safe you shouldn’t publicise the information of it. Let people discover it themselves. Until they do, it will be a class exclusive to you yourself, maybe the gods if they successfully practice it.”

That didn’t seem like such a bad thought, a class exclusive to the Keeper. And one of a higher grade than the normal advanced classes. I gave a quick nod, sending a message to Ryone that I’d be buying the class before proceeding to do just that. I’d work on training it a bit more the next time I descended.

But first, I should work on that ki path… I thought inwardly, glancing towards my computer. After thanking Terra for the information, I got up and moved over to the desk. The ki path that I had previously set up only allowed me to have one of my energies active at a time, because there would naturally be conflicts between any of the normal ki types. It was this new one that was strange in that regards.

So, I set up a channel that would allow me to have both the Ki of Beginning and an elemental ki activated simultaneously, though kept that channel separate from the rest so as not to create… problems for myself. The last thing I wanted was to merge those energies in side my own body. Just imagine if I did that… any one of the four combinations could likely kill me, either by burning up my body from the inside, freezing it, shattering my blood vessels, or just outright stopping my heart.

No, I wasn’t going to take any chances with that. Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to anything that could kill me with a simple moment of negligence. Once I was done with that, I took another look at the various different worlds, checking to see if there was anything the required my urgent attention.

I saw the new worlds of the demons, where Aurivy had placed a new dungeon on each. They would one day become the network for mapping out these new worlds in case I didn’t feel the need to buy them.

Then, turning my eyes towards Fyor, I saw that the world was still moving quickly, the goddesses in control of it fast forwarding constantly. However, it seemed like they had made contact with the dark elves, so I was hopeful that they would break through and reach the next floor soon.

Finally, turning my sight back to Earth… I spotted Tsubaki inside the Sky Citadel. Only, she wasn’t alone. It wasn’t Soreya with her, but rather someone else I was familiar with, and had all but forgotten about. The only other survivor from the first generation of Voices, the centauress Alme Dien.

Curious if they had Aurivy transfer her to the Citadel or not, I began looking through the history of that area for a few moments. Soon, I found my answer. Tsubaki, standing outside in the garden, opening up a portal through which Alme Dien appeared. She still looked as young as the day I first saw her, and seemed quite happy to see Tsubaki again.

As for the kitsune maid herself, it appeared that this was just a practice exercise for her. The result of her working on creating portals that could move outside the barrier without the need to trouble Aurivy. Well, hopefully that information doesn’t spread around too much. Assuming it can be done without the perfect self class. I’d have to have a talk with her about that soon.

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