ADMINISTRATOR POV
Things had not gone quite as planned, but it seemed as if they’d still work out. Then again, when had my plans ever gone exactly as I wanted, lately?
It turned out, running a universe was hard – who knew?
I had hoped that Tastka would manage to work out some ways to pierce Umbral veils before she ran into the other elves in the area, but that had been a long shot. They were already so close to the territory that it was inevitable, and asking the young mage to whip up an entirely unique spell of that nature within a few days was unrealistic, at best.
Even so I couldn’t help but ‘wake up’ with a grumble of annoyance at the young elf. She’d worked out a sort of flashlight spell that worked decently at detecting hidden things, no doubt she could have made an inefficient but workable detection spell for an area if she wanted to. Instead, she’d wasted time and energy trying to adapt a combat shield spell into an umbrella that she didn’t even really need.
I caught myself during the grumbling as I realized that I’d probably have done the same thing. In fact… I did, after a fashion. Even if I thought of her as separate, Tastka was my soul. She was basically the version of me I’d have been if I’d grown up as a magic-using female elf in the stone age.
That was a weird thought to have.
I shook my head. Not important right now. I was awake and just finishing up the modifications that Diamon had left with me. I’d double-checked the math as best I could – he was definitely better than I was at this – and it didn’t look like it would do anything unexpected. It would take a few centuries, but the oversight with the sunlight should hopefully be fixed soon.
Strange to think of centuries as soon, though.
This might also fix the problem with the sunset. I’d made the world with a gradual curve so it would look flat, but the sun’s path gave the place an obvious curve. Tastka’s dawns and dusks, when I saw them from her perspective, clearly showed the sun spawning in from the left of the sky, and then dipping to the right when it was time for night. So far they hadn’t connected this with a curved world, as far as I knew, but moving around the tube would show it rising and setting from different angles.
Another oversight of my original design. There’d been so many. I’d been a little lucky that only a few of them had been real problems, and aside from the mass extinction when I first started, all could be patched relatively easily.
Such patches tended to make new problems, every time. I’d been more careful of late, and was very confident of this recent change, but I had to be extra careful how it was introduced.
Luckily, my avatar was working on that right now.
I checked my status quickly, then heavily slumped into my recliner. The debt was going down at least, but my Reality Points were going down faster as I kept spending what little I gained, and then some. I’d have to be careful, or else hope that this adjustment paid off in a few cycles.
It had only been two cycles since I’d started using the avatar, so if my plan worked, next cycle’s numbers would be very different. I just hoped that the idea was sustainable.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Diamon seemed intrigued but unsure about it. That was actually a good sign. If the Senior Administrator had never seen something like this, but was interested, that meant it was much more likely to have a major effect… right? Of course, that effect could end up bankrupting me…
I really needed to chew out Orpheus about this stupid system.
But first I needed to show her that I knew what I was talking about. They’d lucked out with me, but could have done better. There were people on Earth who designed weird worlds and systems as hobbies, and those would have probably avoided a few of the pitfalls I fell into.
I pulled up my interface and considered the region where my avatar was wandering. At their rate of travel it would be… longer than I’d like before they got where they were going, but that was from Tastka’s perspective. From my own it would be well before the next cycle began.
My mouth opened… then closed again. Tastka had the rest of her companions, and I’d had Diamon here for a while. Was I getting used to company? It had not even been a day, surely I didn’t need company?
I hopped to my feet and opened up the Sanctuary menu, scrolling through the decorations. What I wanted was pretty small and incredibly cheap. I kept it classic, too. In another moment I’d set the rubber duck down on the desk I worked at, and began pacing back and forth in front of it.
“So, it’s been long enough that language started diverging even with these tribes,” I muttered, speaking to the duck. “I could still understand it mostly, but that’s interesting. Or am I speaking the divergent and that’s the original? Those are Aravel elves, so that’s probably it. I wonder if I should fix that?”
I rubbed the tip of my snout with a small grumble. “Mm… you’re probably right. I shouldn’t touch things unless I know it’ll be a problem. Too much control is just a waste of energy. I have to trust my world, right?”
The duck stared at me in silent approval.
Feeling satisfied, I resumed pacing. “I just hope Tastka triggers the patch conditions. If this doesn’t fire off correctly it’s back to the drawing board. I suppose I’ll have to introduce gods after all, if that happens.”
I paused at the look in the duck’s eyes, and sighed, my tail flicking back and forth.
“Yeah, I know, I’ll need to eventually anyway. Right now I just think it’s a bit early. I’d like to see more inter-tribal communication, you know? Melding and shifting of beliefs, so there’s some consistency in the pantheon. Or maybe they’ll go monotheistic, that would be interesting. Would I just make one sub-terminal for that?”
A long, slow breath, and I stared at the duck, imagining its argument back to me. Which… put me on a tangent.
“It’s tempting, but I think that’d be a waste,” I replied to the imaginary question. “Being a god myself would make certain things easier, but sub-terminals have more freedom and don’t take as much Reality Points to run, apparently. Besides, I kind of like being the one in the shadows.”
Saying that, I closed my eyes and considered.
“As for Orpheus… it’s pretty clear she wasn’t ready to run this place.” My tail began to flick back and forth faster in agitation. “I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say she got rid of her old boss. That seems too competent for her. I think she really just doesn’t understand why her methods aren’t working.”
I looked up at the ceiling and pondered. “Though maybe I could get an assistant? Earth’s time frame has probably advanced way beyond what I knew. Besides, my memories are erased. I wonder if that’s actually necessary?”
Then I looked down at the duck sharply. “Hey, that doesn’t mean anything! I mean, it’s not… a good sign that I immediately imagined a busty lady who would do everything I wanted, but that doesn’t mean I was a jerk. Maybe just uh… lonely.”
I made a face. Who knew an imaginary duck to talk to would start getting hostile? Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea at all.
“Okay, maybe I should just focus on… making the whole journey a little easier.”
My interface expanded, showing me a close-up of the intended route Tastka and Eyssa would take. Of course for me, close-up was relative, and it covered a pretty wide swath of territory. Struggle and hardship gave energy, yes, but… that actually wasn’t the point of this journey.
The rainstorm covered a pretty big area right now, and it would get worse. That wouldn’t be a struggle, that would just delay them. Not really ideal. So, I arranged for it to be blown through a little faster. That should help.
I could have deleted it, but some niggling feeling told me that just messing with the natural weather cycle too much would end up being one of those things I’d regret down the road.
Of course I could probably adjust for that if I really wanted to, but I’d better preserve energy. Maybe once I had a good surplus coming in, and had paid off my debt, I could fiddle around in an uninhabited area just to see how much damage it might do, and how to fix it.
It was neat that I could do that once I had some breathing room, I realized.
Okay it was kinda fun playing god. Just a little. As a treat.
Objective