[Alert:

Mawby the goblin has uttered a prayer to your persona the ent.i.ty named Cosecha. Would you like to hear it?]

The notification roused me from my bed, and I quietly informed the system that I would indeed like to hear the prayer. It entered my mind suddenly, and its contents were intriguing.

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[Good morning Cosecha. This is Mawby. I don"t really know how to do this... This whole "praying" thing I mean. How are you today? Are you doing well? I hope you are. Please provide me with some guidance about how to... pray good, I guess? I want to do it, I just genuinely don"t know how.]

The prayer made me laugh, and revealed a mistake I had made: I a.s.sumed she knew how to pray, baselessly at that since I was the first G.o.d to exist in untold millennia and I doubted many other creatures asked for beings to send them prayers. I spent a moment chiding myself, and quickly prepared a response to the little goblin.

[Good morning Mawby. I am well. I hope you are too. I apologize for not properly explaining prayer to you. "Prayer" to me means mentally conversing with me. As a G.o.d, though my ident.i.ty as a G.o.d is a secret, I can hear messages that come from mortals and are addressed to me.] I began to explain, eager to educate the girl.

She must have been in a place where she could relax, perhaps she had just woken up because she replied to me almost immediately.

[Oh! What is the purpose of prayer? Or... what is it"s purpose when you are the recipient of prayer?] She asked me, curiosity embedded in her voice. I chuckled at her curiosity and felt enthused by it.

[The purpose of prayer, when praying to me, is to ask for aid in healing someone, or inform me of creatures who are in danger of starving. That said I like conversing with creatures and if you just want to talk to me that"d make me quite happy.] I told her, continuing our unusual conversation.

[Oh! Well that"s very nice of you.] She said, pleasantly surprised by the interaction we were having. I doubted that she had expected a G.o.d to be personable and friendly, so for a moment, I opted to ask her what she knew about deities.

[Had you ever heard of G.o.ds before you met... insofar as you could call our interaction us "meeting" me?] I inquired, wondering about what she knew about my species.

[Yes! Goblins tell stories of a mythic age, an age wherein creatures that no longer exist roamed the worlds. G.o.ds, angels, demons, creatures that since gone... exti... extint?] She mentally uttered, starting off nice and confident but finishing rather insecurely.

Her statement struck me as curious. And so far in my life, I had gotten far by being curious. I wasn"t about to stop today. So my next statement wasn"t directed towards her, but the system itself.

"So... I know G.o.ds aren"t extinct. I can a.s.sume demons aren"t, given the name of the condition that Troik is suffering from, but are "angels" extinct? And also... what are angels?" I asked it, curiously. The response I got wasn"t one I had to wait for.

[No. We don"t know where she got the idea that demons and angels went extinct. Both have entire dimensions they live in and rule over. Demons are chaotic evil creatures who dwell in a dimension known as "The Heart of Darkness", a place of infinite environments and equally infinite evil. They themselves are the physical manifestations of liberated evil and cruelty without order.] The system explained, briefly.

[Angels are neutral creatures who came into being at the whims of the G.o.ds. In the ancient past, they devotedly served the G.o.ds. The rules that G.o.dly communities made and lived by often prohibited deity-to-mortal contact aside from in dreams but the angels were not beholden to such rules and G.o.ds made use of them to enforce their wills.] My companion revealed.

[Angels haven"t gone extinct, but there aren"t any in this world. That explains why this goblin thinks that they"ve gone extinct... And the more overt and brutal demons are likely to eventually have been banished from this planet, though it"s likely that the more subtle ones successfully escaped being expelled from this dimension.] The voice muttered, mulling over things that were out of its wheelhouse.

I allowed it to ponder the possibilities it was contemplating and turned my attention back to Mawby. [Do you mind telling me about the stories you mentioned? The ones that mentioned the G.o.ds.] I asked her, curiously.

[Sure! Do you mind if I mull over the stories today, and pray to you at another time to share them with you?] She asked me. I smiled, though she didn"t know that, and I politely responded to her.

[Absolutely! I am looking forward to hearing those stories.] I responded, happy that she was sharing with me her folkloric tales.

[Great! Thank you Cosecha, I hope you have a wonderful day. I"ll pray to you soon.] She replied, sounding quite energetic. I could tell the little goblin probably have things to do and people to see.

Not long after I finished this mental discussion I went out and made my way over to Isadora"s desk.

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A number of different papers were laid in front of me. Each of them was a different quest-request form. They ran the gamut.

Some of them asked about hunting down wild animals. Others asked for help retrieving rare items, and those were the ones I felt the most like doing. But others still promised rewards in exchange for labor.

"Yesterday I did healing quests... and the day before that I did quests that involved retrieving rare items..." I mused, recalling the events of my first two days of life.

"I want to continue to do new things, and part of that means that I continue to diversify the sorts of quests that I do." I told myself, speaking internally and debating what to do from here.

The truth was that a part of me enjoyed combat. That same part of me was curious about taking on a hunting quest. I didn"t doubt my ability to successfully accomplish the quest if that was what I chose to do, but I didn"t want to go out and hunt.

"I wish there were a way I could train my combat abilities against willing opponents. If there were I"d feel fine engaging in combat." I mentally muttered, complaining to no one about the conundrum I found myself in.

"I should be diversifying my skills and if I were to do that then I guess I should select a quest that allows me to gain new experiences. If not hunting that"s probably one of the day-laborer jobs." I realized, my thoughts taking on a life of their own.

After I spent a few more moments mulling over what to do, a familiar voice chimed in with a suggestion. [If you want to gain combat skills, experience, and work towards gaining influence over combat domains, you should just hunt. But if you want to build your experience with agriculture, labor, and the advanced skills needed to successfully run a settlement, just stay here and work as a day laborer somewhere.] The system suggested, its voice coming into my mind out of the blue.

[And before you ask, I didn"t hear you but it doesn"t take a genius to figure out what"s going through your mind.] The ent.i.ty expressed, almost laughing as it did so. I chuckled in response to this, and nodded in understanding.

"This is really tough..." I said in the safety of my own mind. But ultimately my reluctance to hurt things, especially to mark them down as enemies just because a quest form said too, made me opt for the other option.

I grabbed one of the quest-request forms. It was one that involved something called "Alchemy" and the quest-giver wrote down that they"d explain how it all worked once I arrived at their little shop. I nodded at Isadora and began my early-morning walk out of the Silver Xana and towards the quest-givers location.

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When I left the Silver Xana I was surprised to see that the early morning sky wasn"t crystal clear and beautifully blue. Instead, the sky that greeted me was cloudy, and the clouds that blocked my view of the sky were fat with soon-to-be-raindrops. They loomed menacingly overhead, and I felt my face fall as I studied them.

"d.a.m.n, it"s gonna be rainy today." I said aloud, cursing at the sky. I sighed and began my walk towards today"s place of employment. As I did so, I tried to look on the bright side: at least I"d probably be indoors.