The notifications included countless alerts. One of the big ones was that the miracle I had performed caused me to become a level twenty druid, since I had tended to nature in an incredible way. And, as was appropriate, I had gained a range of cla.s.s features, a few of which were quite intriguing to me.

I had also gained permission to perform the quests to gain the first tier of influence over the Serpentes, Ursidae, f.a.gaceae and Canis subdomains. None of that mattered as much as the fact that I had acquired permission to pursue the quest that would allow me to gain the first tier of influence over the domain of souls. The domain of disease was also there, offering me its first tier of influence. I didn"t know how to feel about that one, given what it was asking me to do.

Half an hour after we started lazily making our way towards the seat of my burgeoning empire we finally found ourselves inside of an alienly designed foyer. The foyer was designed to show off a gigantic spiral staircase made from white stones that ascended upwards, higher and higher until it reached the peak of the tower, hundreds of meters in the cavernous air. The foyer was designed to encircle the odd staircase.

I had designed it that way purposefully. This foyer had a secret that I would make use of to quickly transport my allies and myself to where I wanted us to spend at least a few minutes. Something I quickly informed them about.

"Alright, you all. We don"t need to walk up the staircase. That"s a safety feature designed to prevent mortal armies from being able to reach me, by exhausting them before they can get to me. That said, there is just one more thing we need to do before we can go and rest." I announced, causing my ogress companions to sigh in relief. I gave them a sympathetic look, aware that they were tired.

"I want us to have a strategy meeting. I"d like to hear your insights and use your knowledge, which in mundane things is far greater than mine, to help me begin to plan what the future looks like for me. Is that something you can do?" I asked the two ogresses, who were far from home and doing their best in an odd and unthinkable situation.

The two of them looked inward for a second, both of them casting their eyes downward and contemplating what I was asking them. I planned to start off by chatting almost exclusively with them, so seconds later when both of them looked up and nodded at me I nodded appreciatively at them.

I quickly and quietly activated one of my newer abilities, the power to create portals, and willed one to open at one of the foyer"s corners. The foyer was a pentagon, and a bright, shining portal opened up at one of its sides, the side closest to us.

The portal itself was a glowing, and gigantic circle. It appeared just inside of the foyer"s wall, so walking towards and into it was almost like walking into the foyer"s wall. I turned and led my allies into the portal, walking towards and through the thing with no hesitation at all.

I stepped through the portal, and for a moment one foot of mine was within the foyer and another was within what could only be called a war council room.

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My war council room was an empty chamber. It was a high roofed place, that was presently devoid of furniture. I couldn"t let craft furniture using my civilization domain abilities, but I had an alternative that I was grateful to make use of.

I focused and envisioned a table and thick, size-appropriate chairs fashioned from dim, blue light. My companions watched as such radiant pieces of furniture phased into existence, existing as little more than beautiful outlines of what they were about to become.

I willed them to become solid, making usage of my ability to manipulate light, and then tested it myself by walking from the portal behind my companions and I to a chair at the head of the table. When I reached the thing I quietly sat down, carefully testing my chair"s stability and solidity, and finding both to my liking. When I was sure that my powers had worked as intended I motioned for my servants to join me.

They all carefully arranged themselves in seats that were appropriate for their body-types and when everyone was seated I began to speak.

"Thank you all for all of your work today. It has been an exciting and monumental day for me, and without you that wouldn"t have been possible." I explained to them. The creatures all looked at me quietly and I began to explain myself.

"When I first came to life, three days ago, I was put into a weakened state known as a "tutorial". This state served to force me to learn to subtly wield my powers and gain worshipers while less capable of using my powers than I am now. I was released from the restraints of the tutorial earlier today, with your unwitting a.s.sistance. I plan to reward you for that. All of you." I declared, explaining some of my circ.u.mstances.

"In order to be freed from the tutorial I had to build the beginnings of two cults, each one containing ten worshipers. The undead I"ve created today far exceed the seven I"ve gathered here, but you seven and the three skeletal stags protecting the goblins were the first ten I created." I told my gathered companions.

"And the goblins formed the other cult which is dedicated to "Cosecha" after our activities over in their encampment." I revealed all while a sly grin appeared on my face.

"I have also done other things you don"t know about. I performed something called a "ma.s.s-miracle" minutes ago, wherein I healed every ent.i.ty in the forest using one of my more dramatic powers. Because of that I"ve gained a few hundred disorganized forest worshipers." I declared, nonchalantly.

"That said, before now I had lived a life of subtlely. I had carefully done minor things, healing people and creatures, feeding them, slyly entering their dreams, and generally being low-key. My basic reason for doing that was that I felt... weak isn"t the right word, but I didn"t feel powerful or possess the world-changing abilities I do now. But that doesn"t change one critical thing: I am ignorant." I told the creatures gathered around me. This caused the eyes of the undead to flare with anger.

I looked around and sighed at my followers. I appreciated their energy, but I knew that what I was saying was true.

"I am correct. I possess incredible, legitimately world-changing abilities. I made this cavern, this kilometer-long area, in an instant without breaking a sweat. I could probably tear islands in half. And I possess the power to break a mountain with a punch. But I do not possess the knowledge I need to possess." I said to my a.s.sembled minions. And then someone spoke up.

"Master, what knowledge do you feel you need to possess?" Asked my lovely drider companion, the beautiful woman named Imbrosa. I looked to her and considered her question.

"I want to possess all knowledge. It is perhaps my one goal that is internal and wasn"t given to me by someone else. It is not my only goal, mind you, but it is one of them." I told the blue-skinned spider-woman. She nodded at me and then her facial expression shifted from one of focus to a more thoughtful, contemplative one.

"Althos... can you tell us what your goals are, in your own words?" Iret, the ogress barbarian asked me. She had an intense look in her eyes, and I could tell she was curious to learn about whatever could drive a creature as powerful as I was. I turned to look at me and smiled.

"My goals are to gain all knowledge and become all-powerful. I don"t just want to possess more knowledge than anyone else or to become more powerful than anyone else, I want to become the deity who can do literally anything. And who knows literally everything." I confessed, declaring for the first time in my own words that I was pursuing omnipotence and omniscience.

A hush fell over the room. Internally I registered a feeling of shock coming off of both the system and the domains and subdomains that it often spoke with and for. I also registered feelings of pride and hope. I had confirmed that I was pursuing these things before, but never out loud and never to mortals. My bold declaration must have impressed some of the ent.i.ties who dwelled in my mind.

I smiled as I observed the strange silence, quite enjoying it. I had other minor goals of course, such goals consisted of me wanting to increase my power over individual domains and subdomains and eventually selecting worlds for annihilation.

I wasn"t pleased with that last part, but I knew it was necessary if I sought to achieve my overall goals. Plus, a curious of me did truly want to see what a dead world would be like, a world populated solely by the undead. I"d never see that unless I went out and did it myself. I recognized that, and I accepted it. But that was far off, in the distant future. I refocused and continued to speak.

"I"ll be forthright with you. I don"t care about conquering this world. I want to become its G.o.d, not its emperor." I told my gathered minions and worshipers.

"I want to spread my faith, and I am fine with my worshipers worshipping me in different ways. In fact it"s kind of necessary if I am to achieve my overall objectives." I told the creatures who were seated before me.

"Wait, can you clarify that?" Asked Nivar, the grave-giant who I had risen earlier. I smiled at her and began to expand on my statement.

"Divine powers, which are the majority of the powers that I"ve shown you all, are powers that are unique to G.o.ds. Those powers come, at least as far as I can tell, from domains and subdomains. Domains and subdomains are concepts given consciousness that helped the G.o.ds govern the multiverse." I revealed, explaining a bit about the apparent true nature of the multiverse.

"G.o.ds gain "influence" or power over domains and subdomains by completing tasks for them and building followings that revere them as "G.o.d of this" or "G.o.d of that", relevant to the domain or subdomain. When a G.o.d gains a large enough folllowing, aside from when earning that first and lowest tier of influence over a domain or subdomain, they undertake a quest decided by the domain or subdomain. Completion of the quest grants them new powers." I explained.

Risa turned to me and asked a question I didn"t doubt the others were thinking. "Can you tell us what you have "influence" over, or is that some sort of secret?" The medusa asked, her voice tinged with curiosity. I grinned and took a second to recall of the domains and subdomains I had engaged with so far.

"Well in terms of domains there are... the domains of nature, knowledge, magic, light, civilization, faith, chaos, minds, and dreams. And for subdomains, I have influence over vermin, earth, agriculture, necromancy, purity, corruption Hymenoptera, and healing." I declared, after a few moments of silence. Nine domains and eight subdomains.

"I had influence all over all of the domains but the domain of light at birth, and for subdomains, I only earned influence over the subdomains of necromancy and Hymenoptera, which is the name of a particular biological cla.s.sification of creatures that includes ants, bees, and wasps." I explained, knowing innately that that was the reason why the name for that particular subdomain was what it was.

My followers were pleasantly surprised to hear that I had power over a fairly wide earth of things. So Okig"s next question made sense.

"That"s a lot of things Althos. Are there any particular things you want to gain influence over in general, or anythings that you currently have influence over and wish to gain more of?" Okig asked, speaking up for the first time since we sat down at the table. I considered her question for a second before answering it.

"I want to gain further influence over everything but especially the subdomains of healing and necromancy, and the domains of minds and dreams. As for other things I wish to gain any influence over? Hmm... I want to gain influence over the subdomains of spiders, liquid, and evocation magic, and the domains of stars." I told the a.s.sembled creatures, pleasantly surprising them. And then I took control of the conversation once more.

"That said, I think that"s enough about me for right now." I declared, working to get the conversation back on track.

"I want to work carefully and thoughtfully moving forward. I had fun tonight, using my powers in big and explosive ways, but I don"t yet know what the consequences of that will be. I felt the need to experiment with my powers and so I did, but I"m not going to make doing that, in the particular explosive ways I did today, a habit." I sternly told my gathered servants.

"For now I want to gain more servants slowly and carefully. Okig, Iret, what do ogres value? I wish to bring your kin into my service." I told the pair of ogresses. Surprise and delight crossed Okig"s face, while surprise and mixed emotions crossed Iret"s. Okig was the first to speak up.

"Ogres value power. Defeating one is often enough to earn its service, though... ogre service isn"t that great unless you want to intimidate someone. If you wish for it to worship you... well it depends on the ogre in question really." She said, speaking truthfully about her own kind. I grinned at her.

"How did I earn your worship?" I asked, curiously. I had healed her mind, and cured her addiction to tormenting Iret, and she was a worshipper of mine. I wanted to hear from her in her own words how it was that I became a divine figure to her.

"I worship you partially out of reverence and partially out of fear. You broke my mind with disturbing ease. And then you fixed it even more casually. I recognize that very real power. I am both in awe of it and terrified of it. I know that if you wanted too you could kill me at any time. I"ve never met another creature who could do that." She confessed, speaking candidly.

"Althos, you showed me mind-bending and perception distorting pleasure. I know it broke my mind, and that you healed me, but there"s a part of me that wants to experience it again. A part of me worships you in the hopes that someday I"ll earn that pleasure once more." She added, speaking that last part more softly. There was eerie lunacy audible in her voice, a sort of brokenness that I easily detected.

A part of me, a cruel and corrupted part, stirred when she said that. I wanted to do what I had done to her to more people, to tear their minds apart from pleasure and then "fix" them.

I didn"t want to do this to showcase mercy or even power. I knew that this desire stirred in me because doing so would stain their minds. The memories of their time experiencing the pleasures that would overwhelm them would leave them wanting to be broken once more. I quietly and quickly quashed that desire of mine, silencing it and forcing back down.

"I see." I said softly, as nonjudgmentally as I could manage. I also had to work to keep excitement out of my voice. The part of me that was influenced by the subdomain of corruption vowed to remember this moment, and to treat Okig tenderly later on, perhaps in a dream.

I mentally noted that Okig"s worship of me came due to my power. My power to kill, to heal, and to corrupt. I knew that the goblins who worshiped me worshiped me as a guardian spirit who healed them, protects them, and who will provide with what they need to survive.

I knew why the undead worshiped me. To them, I was a provider of reanimation, of their own unholy mockery of life, and I embodied power itself. After all, I could take back the energy that reanimated them with but a thought, meaning their very existence was tied to my whims.

I pondered how to gather worshipers, wondering for a moment what tools I possessed that I could make use of to most efficiently gather new servants and begin to organize my followers. I was silent for a moment as I did so, my mind both recalling every single one of the varied abilities I had gained over the course of the last three days, while also considering which powers would be the most effective.

It didn"t take me long to understand that I had a few extremely powerful abilities with regard to gathering worshipers. I had the ability to render someone immortal, provided they worshiped and served me. My entropic manipulation ability allowed me to turn infants into young adults instantly, and to easily gain the worship of older individuals afraid of dying of old age.

At this point I created portals behind Okig and Iret, portals that would take them to their beds. I looked at them and smiled.

"You two are allowed to stay here if you wish. You can spend the night here, and then in the morning I"ll return you to your homes, or I can whisk you away to your homes right now. Whichever choice you pick I will respect." I informed them, as I was grateful for their a.s.sistance and company today.

"Also, consider what you want for your reward. I was being sincere when I said that, I plan to reward you for your help. Take your time to think about it, and then inform me of whatever you desire via prayer when you know." I explained.

Both ogresses looked at me and then stood up and walked into the portals behind them without uttering a single word. I watched as they fell onto beds fashioned from light and swiftly fell asleep. I chuckled and willed the portals they had entered to fade from existence.

I looked to my undead followers and grinned. "Now that the mortals are gone, let"s talk about necromancy." I said, my eyes wide with delight. My followers, particularly the grave-giant, all looked at me with abject interest now. It was like a switch had been flipped in their minds.

One thing I was actively doing was using my ability to channel my powers through my swarm to animate every single corpse I could find, and I had gained over a dozen levels in necromancy because of it.

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[Alert: You have reached the pinnacle of mortal druidry. You have gained the following cla.s.s features:

Natural form: You can shapeshift into any non-magical creature. This power can be used at will. At level 20 you gained the ability to use magic while shapeshifted. In your case this was a redundant power.

Disaster caller: You can call forth localized natural disasters, such as lightning strikes, earthquakes, and flash floods.

Enhanced casting: You can boost the potency of any spells that replicate or trigger natural phenomena.

Animal companion: You can establish a magical bond between yourself and a natural animal that makes it into a familiar of yours.

Herald of nature: At the pinnacle of mortal druidry you can ask nature itself to intervene in a situation, allowing you to animate and temporarily awaken all manner of natural creatures. You also gain the power to make elementals of any sort, respect you as a champion of nature.

Divine levels: Mortals can only go to level 20. Deities are not so limited. As a deity, you can reach up to level 30 of a cla.s.s, with each level beyond level 20 granting you features related to cla.s.s specialties, which are paths that mortals take to acquire greater, specialized power in different parts of a cla.s.s. At level 30 you basically become an overG.o.d of a cla.s.s itself.

To level up beyond level 20 you must undertake specialized quests, quests that only become accessible to you once you have acquired sufficient knowledge of a cla.s.s"s history, traditions, and sources of power. To truly master a cla.s.s it"s not enough to gain levels and new abilities. You must actually gain an understanding of the cla.s.s itself.

Necromancer cla.s.s alerts: You can no longer gain experience by transforming ants into skeletons. You must actually diversify the sorts of undead you create.

Empower the undead: Undead you create are more powerful than others of their kind, and become stronger than they were in life.

Fear nothing: You are immune to attempts to make you feel fear, and diseases cannot harm you.

The reaper embodied: Your melee attacks now inflict extra damage on the living, as unlife energy surges into any weapon you wield.

Quests:

Serpentes: To gain the first tier of influence over the subdomain that governs snakes, be bit by a snake and make three snake familiars.

Ursidae: To gain the first tier of influence over the subdomain that governs bears, cause a single bear to evolve.

f.a.gaceae: To gain the first tier of influence over the subdomain that governs a quarter of all tree types, create a dryad. This is a power you can now use that is synergistic between the domains of nature and magic.

Canis: To gain the first tier of influence over the subdomain of wolves befriend three wolves.

Soul: To gain the first tier of influence over the domain of souls, devour three souls.

Disease: Hit five different mortals with the disease bolt spell. You can cure them, just hit them with it first.

You have gained access to all non-legendary druidic spells, and many necromantic spells.]

I spent the next few hours chatting with my undead worshipers. During this time I decided to pursue the quest of the domain of disease, solely because it contacted me and told between sickening choughs that when I gained the first tier of influence over it I could I cure people of magical diseases. That alone changed my mind.

Well that and the fact that I could cure those I sickened with the disease bolt spell and still complete the quest.

By the time the fourth day of my life rolled around I was still underground, and still in my lair. It was at this point, that I finally excused myself from the table I had fashioned from light and used my power as a lesser deity to teleport back to the Silver Xana.

I still wanted to get to know people throughout Comillas and build connections after all. That hadn"t changed just because I now possessed world-shaping and world-changing abilities fully under my control.

It felt strange to be leaving a place where I was known and worshiped as a G.o.d, and to be returning to a place where I was thought of as a druidic novice. But in a way, it also felt right. I was after all basically a child, and completing quests given to me by the Silver Xana and Isadora allowed me to safely explore my powers. I was grateful to have a place where I could do that without fear.

Armed with goals, with quests, and with new magic and abilities, I phased out of my tower and into my room in Comillas" tiny inn.