They had saggy, beige-colored skin, and wore shoddily made fur armor. The shorter ogress had light brown hair that was cut short, and the taller one had long black hair that flowed down past her shoulders. They each had the corpses of small animals slung over their shoulders, freshly killed small animals whose blood was dripping onto the armor they wore.

The women had arrogant expressions on their faces and seemed to project an air of unearned and untested confidence. There was a tiny part of me that wanted to wipe those looks off their faces, and it was surprising to me but I was easily able to ignore it.

They carried what appeared to be handmade stone clubs, which dripped what I a.s.sumed was blood, and had lazy looks in their bark-colored eyes. They couldn"t see me yet, as I was roughly half a kilometer away from them.

This was because I was also approaching them. However, the distance coupled with the fact that my followers and I happened to be in a darkened part of the forest, added to their inability to see us.

I studied them, inspecting their lazy but confident saunter, their amateurishly made armor which was even at a glance probably more effective as clothing than as armor, and their brutish demeanor. It was at this point that I asked the system a question.

"You said you wanted me to make those creatures my playthings. Care to expand on that?" I asked my oldest companion, as I studied the two women that I was approaching. I heard a soft, robotic chuckle in the back of my mind.

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[You are an interesting G.o.d. So far many of your actions could be described accurately as good actions, morally speaking, even if your motivation itself isn"t good. Ogres and ogresses are evil creatures, violent, malicious, and sinful. We want you to make them your servants. So you can begin to gain evil allies who aren"t the undead.] My friend told me. I had never "heard" an evil grin before, but somehow I could almost hear one in the ent.i.ty"s voice.

[You see... G.o.ds are influenced, subtly, by a number of things. Chief among those influences are the influences of the domains and subdomains a G.o.d has influence over. You"ve sort of begun to learn that already. But another thing that influences G.o.ds are the worshipers a G.o.d has. This is a much quieter influence, but it"s still worth noting. We want you to have worshipers of all alignment types. Having evil, living worshipers, matters. But this isn"t really about that.] The odd ent.i.ty declared.

[We are not asking you to make them your worshipers. Not yet anyway. The purpose of this is for you to experiment with your powers, use them on and amaze mortals, and begin to build an awareness of who you are. We are quite curious to watch the events of the next few minutes unfold. Give us a good show, would you?] The system asked, teasingly.

I nodded, a grin on my face. That said, now that I had asked one question, I figured I ought to ask others. One other, specifically.

"What are succubi and incubi? One of my l.u.s.t subdomain powers mentioned them." I asked, curiously.

[Succubi and incubi are demons. They are demons of desire, succubi have a feminine true form and incubi have a masculine true form, though both species possess incredible shapeshifting power. They possess l.u.s.t-based and dream-based abilities. You were born with l.u.s.t and dream powers so there"s a strong chance they"ll recognize you as a G.o.d, maybe even of theirs, when you eventually encounter them.] The system explained, satisfying my curiosity.

I refocused on the scene in front of me and urged my companions onwards with renewed vigor. There was a smile on my face that spoke to a small amount of excitement and curiosity I felt, which was growing with each step I took towards the ogresses.

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I was silent as I approached the ogresses. My companions were also silent. We glided through the forest, the only noises coming from us being the eerie noises of our feet falling on the gra.s.s and dirt beneath us.

My skeletal stag remained a bit behind us. It was as if the thing was hiding. Eventually I opted to ask it about that, speaking mentally to my companion. "Why are you behind us?" I asked it, using my necromantic connection to the thing to facilitate the communication.

"Because I am different from you. I am obviously undead. The other two are not obviously undead. This way if a living creature spots us it won"t be immediately hostile." The creature explained, demonstrating the intelligence I had heard that skeletons possessed. I nodded as I considered the thoughtfulness of its answer, grateful to have such an intelligent servant.

The ogresses noticed us when we were about 15 meters away from them, and they stopped moving and began to study us. I took that as an invitation to approach and could finally smell the creatures. When I first sniffed the air close to them, an unintentional reflex, I felt immediate regret.

The air around the ogresses smelled rancid. They had unwashed skin and were covered in the blood of what was most likely their most recent kills.

I was the only one of my companions who could smell, as I was the only one alive, and my enhancing ability to smell only served to make this a worse experience. Fortunately, the smell quickly lost its intensity, and after a few seconds ceased bothering me altogether.

I stopped walking towards them when both of our groups were about 7 meters apart. I stopped, and my followers stopped. A silence descended over the six of us. That silence didn"t last long.

"Who are you?" One of the ogresses, the one named Iret, asked. I turned to her and grinned. I activated "Apprisal", targeting both of them and waited for the informative notification to appear before I said anything to them. I focused on the new information I would gain, not what I already knew.

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[Personal vice: Pride (Okig), l.u.s.t (Iret)

Fetishes and addictions: Okig is a straight, dominant ogress who enjoys humiliating her underling. She enjoys tormenting the young berserker and almost feeds on the fear Iret feels, especially since Iret is a berserker and dangerously powerful physically. Okig feels superior to her underling and is addicted to the wails of pain that Iret emits when she gets beaten.

Iret is bis.e.xual and she is secretly quite submissive. Her ma.s.sive size intimidates many other ogres near her. This has caused her to develop a size fetish as well that renders her more vulnerable to advances made by men smaller than her and women larger than her, though no such women in her tribe exist.

She hates Okig with a pa.s.sion and would do anything to get to beat her without fear of serious, violent consequences.]

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The notification vanished as quickly as it had appeared. And the ideas it inspired were loud, violent, and more than a little evil. But I had made a deal, and I could feel the different domains and subdomains in my mind clamoring for influence, providing quiet, whispered, tips and urging me to support one scheme or another. It made my grin turn a little bit malicious.

I looked at the ogress" and studied them. Up close I could make out their curves, and study the way their bulging bodies pushed up against the clothing they wore, stretching and stressing it. A not small part of me wanted to walk over to them and take my time familiarizing myself with their bodies, especially Iret"s body.

I wasn"t sure if this was because a part of me l.u.s.ted for them, or if this part of me was driven by curiosity and maybe even a necromantically influenced desire to make them zombies or ghouls. I suspected it was the result of a combination of different domains and subdomains influencing me as well as my own genuine curiosity that instilled this strange, but not unpleasant desire in me.

I fell silent and activated my faith domain ability, "Religious Fervor". A blue vapor began to emanate out of the ground underneath all six of us. It engulfed the area around the ogresses" in particular.

I took a second to think and to focus. I was about to speak and I wanted to project an air of might and authority. I wanted them to feel my power, to feel it around them, and to desire to experience more of it. I was silent while I did this, and right before I opened my mouth to speak I attempted to infuse my voice with the pride I a.s.sumed a G.o.d should feel.

"I am Althos. And I am a G.o.d." I declared, speaking as haughtily as I could. They looked at me, silently for a second, and then both of them began to laugh. This annoyed me. But while they were laughing they both inhaled some of the blue vapor that surrounded them. And this made me smile.

The sounds of their mutual peals of laughter were loud. They were also deep and rumbled through the forest that surrounded us all.

While they were laughing, I turned my angered, hateful gaze on Okig. I stared at her chest, not her b.r.e.a.s.t.s but her actual stomach. I focused hard on it, narrowing my eyes as much as I could. And then I envisioned the area I was staring at turning to stone. When I did I received a notification.

[Alert: Would you like to turn the ogress, Okig, to stone?] The system asked me, causing a cruel smile to appear on my face. I mentally informed it that nothing would make me happier than for her to turn to stone.

A split second later Okig stopped laughing and gasped as she felt something strange happen to her. I watched as a strange gray substance, what I knew must have been some sort of stone, began to appear over her skin. It didn"t start at her chest, rather it started at one of her unarmored hands but it moved fast. Iret stopped laughing as well and watched as her companion"s skin was overtaken.

Iret was silent, her eyes filled with fear, as Okig began to cry out in terror as the stone overtook her arm, and then aggressively spread over the rest of her body. The only thing that caught me, the source of her petrification via a so-called "baleful glare", off guard, was that the stone seemed to save her head for last. That gave her time to continue to cry out in shock and horror, which suited me fine enough but was also a pleasantly cruel and unexpected surprise.

By the time Okig"s head was also entombed and made into a strange statue, Iret was scared out of her wits. The woman turned to me, and her eyes were fear-filled saucers. I grinned and began to approach the statue.

I studied the thing and was surprised to note that the animals Okig had slung over her shoulder had also turned to stone. They made surprising additions to the "art" I had just created.

"Stay." I mentally commanded my minions. They obeyed me, but I suspected that they kept their eyes glued to Iret, in case the still unpetrified woman mustered the bravery to try and do something to me. I doubted she would though. As I approached Iret, I received a notification that let me know something delightful.

[Alert: You are now close enough to the ogresses that your auric powers are active. Okig is petrified so she is temporarily unaffected by your powers, but Iret isn"t.] The system alerted me, causing me to relax and be a.s.sured that this was going as perfectly as possible.

When I was close enough to the statue to reach out and touch it, I instead turned to Iret. "h.e.l.lo, Iret. Would you like to play with the statue?" I asked, her eyes locked on hers.

"You can do anything you want to it. If you agree to my terms, first, that is." I said, my voice lingering for a moment on the word "anything". It sounded lecherous due to the innately sensual nature my voice had taken on thanks to the influence of l.u.s.t, but what I had been hoping was that it would sound like was an opportunity to inflict violence on a helpless target.

Iret stared at me, terror still visible in her gaze. I sighed, disappointed by her lack of initiative. "Well at least you aren"t running. That"d be unwise of you." I said, grinning smugly at the ogre. And almost as if I had just given her an idea the ogress turned around in a deft motion and sprinted into the woods.

I chuckled and asked the system a question. "How do I activate "Earth Control"?" I asked my first friend. My tone was equally curious and malicious.