The sounds of its footfalls thundered and echoed through the otherwise still forest. All around us the forest hushed and grew quiet in the wake of our pa.s.sing. It was interesting because as I was growing stronger and stronger my senses were slowly interesting their range and overall quality, so I was even more sensitive to their gradual vanishment then I would have been a few minutes ago.

As we wandered deeper and deeper into the forest, I learned more and more about my wiser friend companion. "What do spiders normally eat?" I asked the thing, though I could guess at least a bit of the answer to my question just from looking at my friend"s maw. Sharp fangs protruded from my friend"s mouth, so large that they were visible even when its lips were as closed as the creature could force them.

"I am a predator. A carnivore." Chizi replied, its voice entering my mind easily and naturally like it made perfect sense for us to engage in mind to mind communication. I wasn"t surprised to hear the thing declare that it was a carnivore. My next question wasn"t asked audibly, but instead was aimed at the system and was a physically silent one.

"What sort of domains and subdomains are there for animals and nature?" I asked, my mental voice speaking in the "direction" the system"s own voice always seemed to come from in my mind. I was met with silence for a moment before I heard a reply begin to come from that same spot in my mind.

[There are all sorts honestly. Nature is the domain that governs them all but animals and plants have a considerable number of subdomains. Some of them are ones like the subdomains of radiation, liquid, air, and earth. Serpents have a subdomain, reptiles have one, insects have one, fungi have one, fish have one, anthropods have one, and many more have one.] My incorporeal companion whispered.

[Fungi have a subdomain, as you well know agriculture has one, trees have one, vines have one, flowers have one, and more have one.] The system explained, expanding my overall knowledge while also revealing a bit of the scope of the work I have to do to become all-powerful. I sighed but also smiled. I was now more knowledgeable than before and that mattered.

My companions and I began to close in on the corpse I was moving us towards.

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As we zeroed in on the body I was hunting down the forest ahead of us stopped tightening and instead began to grow wider. We had spent several minutes, close to half an hour, leisurely strolling through a tight forest path, and so I was excited to see us all get more wiggle-room.

Ahead of us the trees began to thin out. I noticed it before we reached the area where it began to become visibly noticeable, thanks to my tremorsense power. It brought a smile to my face, as my pair of allies first stepped into the widening area beside and behind me.

I was the first of the three of us to see the rays of sunlight that began to more easily penetrate the thinning canopy of the trees ahead of us. I stared at the area they brightly lit, and urged my companions onward with more speed than ever. The three of us hustled and moved with greater urgency than before.

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We broke out of the forest proper before reaching the corpse I had set out to find. We were now walking through an opening in the forest where no treeline intercepted sunlight. And so we felt the warm rays of the sun heat our skin. And off in the distance, I saw it: the third corpse I had set out to find.

It laid peacefully on some rocks. Blood had pooled around it and begun to dry under the constant heat of the sun. There were insects hovering around it, only visible as tiny dots to me and even that was only thanks to my slowly improving vision. I watched them whiz around the body, right before a notification buzzed into view in my mind.

[Alert: The system has seen fit to award you access to your vermin subdomain powers. Unlocking those, or at least those of them are unlocked at the moment, right now.

Details about the vermin subdomain:

Though the subdomain of vermin is known as the subdomain of vermin an equally accurate label would be the subdomain of parasites. Vermin are all manner of creatures that are harmful or a nuisance to humanoids, and that includes parasites.

To gain more influence over this subdomain, work hard to expand your swarm to include such creatures and when they begin to worship you, especially as you cause them to become sapient, steadily work to better the lives of the vermin and parasites who worship you.

Vermin subdomain pa.s.sive power:

Vermin command: This power grants you the ability to command and control even entire swarms of vermin at once. This intersects with your "Sovereign of the Swarm" power and adds vermin and parasites under your control into the swarm unless they are sapient.

This power also renders unintelligent vermin utterly uninterested in attacking you unless you attack first. You can use this power infinitely, and it applies to a range of creatures. You activate it by targeting the vermin you wish to command, and if they are susceptible to the power they automatically fall utterly under your influence.

Vermin aura: This power is an auric ability that affects foes. Whenever a foe approaches you a phantasmal swarm of vermin and parasites phases into being a few meters around you and harries them.

This swarm causes them to become nauseated and forces them to slow down or else risk tripping. An enemy of human size or smaller who trips is immediately and mercilessly devoured by your swarm. As you gain greater influence over the vermin subdomain and become a more powerful G.o.d, the range and strength of your aura will increase.

Vermin subdomain active power:

Vermin creation: This power allows you to create real vermin. Once every three hours, you can create up to five vermin. These vermin are unintelligent and exist to serve you. So far you can only create mosquitos, giant mosquitos, coyotes, rats, and giant rats. Meet more vermin and parasites to expand the sorts of vermin and parasites you can create.

Followers and allies of yours can catch and eat these creatures and have their nutritional needs met and their hunger sated for a full twenty-four hours, as well as fall considerably under your influence. These creatures will fade into nothingness in a day, though they provide experience and physically exist. Any food they eat, or liquids they drink fill your stomach, especially at this unupgraded version of this power.

This is a significant power and as your influence over the vermin subdomain increases and as you grow as a G.o.d the more you"ll be able to do with this power such as apply templates and mutations to the vermin you create, make them more often, make them intelligent, and even make them stop fading from existing after a day has pa.s.sed.

Vermin subdomain blessing and curse details:

Blessing someone with a vermin subdomain blessing will either significantly increase their resistance to vermin and parasites, or greatly increases their stats if they are a vermin or parasite themselves. This power can also be used to awaken sufficiently powerful vermin and parasites, such as giant vermin and parasites whom you create with your powers.

If you curse someone with this subdomain then they go from being nauseated when interacting with a number of vermin and parasites to being sickened automatically and they become fearful of swarms of the creatures.]

After the notification vanished from view, I grinned and decided to test my newfound powers.

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I ordered my companions to stay behind me and began to walk over to the deer"s corpse. As I did so, I rose my hand in the direction of the deer"s body and quietly began to visually scan the area around the corpse. I could see dozens of tiny insects flying around my future companion"s body.

A quick usage of appraisal told me that there were over two dozen flies and two dozen mosquitos I grinned. I suspected they would be easy enough to transform into my minions and so I focused on them, mentally targeting each of them. Once I was satisfied that they were all being targeted by me, I sent out a single mental, forceful command.

"Obey." I thought, pouring as much power and radiance into the word as possible before I shipped it out of my mind and into the minds of the creatures I had targeted. And then one by one the creatures stopped buzzing around the corpse of the deer in front of me. Instead, they began to hover around it and turned to look at me.

"Come." I commanded them, speaking to my newest minions. I again began to walk, as a tiny cloud of variously colored insects began to lazily drift towards me. As I did so I laid my eyes on the corpse on the ground.

Its flesh was rather disgusting, filled with puncture holes and partially melted by a.s.sorted digestive juices. It also looked to be turning a sickening shade of grey. I frowned at it, even as the cloud of servants I had just acquired reached me and began to surround me.

The sound of their buzzing wings filled my ears now that they were all around me and the sight of their fat, swollen bodies filled my vision. I sighed at them, annoyed that they were responsible for this but grateful to have new servants, living ones, and also that I could tell that they were full.

I examined them, my eyes focused on their anatomies, while I idly targeted the dead deer with my "Create undead" spell. I focused on their bizarre appendages and looked at their peculiar body parts which stuck out to me, from their surprisingly pretty wings to their long and fascinating legs. While I did this, I was going through the motions of applying a template to the deer.

When I was asked by the "Create Undead" spell what type of undead I wanted it to be, I had to stop. I actually wasn"t sure myself.

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"What to do with this one... I suppose I could just transform it into a skeleton. After all, my "inventory" ability should allow me to collect its fallen flesh, right?" I asked myself, and also the system.

I was referring to what I had learned earlier about what happens a skeleton is created from a creature who has flesh attached to its bones: the flesh falls off. I heard a robotic chuckle in my mind and was immediately responded too by the system.

[h.e.l.lo Althos. Yes, you"d be able to collect its fallen flesh and stuff it into your inventory.] The system explained, causing me to sigh in relief. I immediately informed the part of the system that asked me to determine what type of undead being I was going to create that I intended to transform this deer into a skeletal deer.

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The magic immediately took hold. The corpse began to shake violently, pushing itself off the ground, as bones ripped through flesh and began to labor to get up and stand upright. This was a much faster, much more b.l.o.o.d.y process than the other two times I had created undead creatures, and it was also much more satisfying to watch.

Bones sundered flesh, causing even more blood to fall to the ground underneath and around the deer"s corpse. Organs and muscles were shredded apart, into little more than fine paste. A visceral sound filled the air as sharpened bone began grossly visible, covered in sanguine fluid and made me smirk.

As I watched it unfold, I was immediately delighted to receive another notification. One that I felt powerfully empower me, even as the skeletal deer"s mind awoke and filled me with similarly powerful sensations as when I reanimated Chizi and transformed it into a ghoul.

[Alert: You have upheld your end of the bargain the system struck with you. It is upholding its end. You have unlocked the "Shapeless One" wild trait. Congratulations!

The "Shapeless One" wild trait is a particularly potent wild trait that allows you to shapeshift at will, into any form. This includes doing away with a physical form altogether if you wish, something that the old G.o.ds only could have done after decades of practice otherwise. You are now free to change your form as you see fit as well as create new forms altogether.

Usage of this power helps you gain influence over the domains of chaos, and creativity and the subdomains of shapeshifting, lies, freedom, mutations, imagination, and falsehoods. It"s powerful and should be treated as such.]

Reading the notification made me smile. I felt both far more powerful and far more free at once, even as the notification vanished into the recesses of my mind.