"h.e.l.lo Althos, I am Farrane." Said the woman, finally introducing herself. I knew her name already, but she didn"t know that. Farrane had brown hair and white orbs for eyes. Calorron had blonde hair and green orbs for eyes.

"And I am Calorron. We are scouts who dwell not far away from here. We came here because a superior of ours asked us to investigate something." Explained Calorron, who based on levels alone might well have been Farrane"s superior in their shared tasks. I looked at Calorron curiously, not feigning the look of intrigue on my face.

"What brings you to a quaint little community like this?" I asked the elf, curious if this had something to do with myself or my actions but not having enough information to attempt to guess one way or another. Calorron chuckled, the sound faint and musical.

"Well Althos, we aren"t here to investigate Comillas. We"re here to investigate the Rodan forest." Explained the male elf, his voice growing fainter as he spoke. And at this point, Farrane spoke up again.

"In fact, the only reason why we"re here now and not at Rodan is because of you. Isadora told us about you, and the fact that you"re a druid who has spent some time in Rodan. Would you like to come with us while we investigate the place?" Farrane asked, curiously.

"Sure! That sounds like a good way to spend today. Provided you"re willing to pay me for my labor, I"ll happily accompany you." I told the elves, a smile perking up my lips. They both grinned slyly at me.

"Oh Althos... We"re a fair people. Fair folks you could say. We pay those who aid us. What are your terms?" Calorron asked.

And so began a quaint series of negotiations, which my mind would only be in half-heartedly. My thoughts were elsewhere. In the safety of my mind, I quickly began to ask myself a few questions.

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"Is the Rodan forest the name given by humanoids to the forest I"ve frequented?" I wondered while in the safety and relative isolation of my mind.

"Yes, it is. It"s a misheard version of the name given to the forest by ancient, alien inhabitants of the forest." Claimed the domain of knowledge. I was unsurprised by this, and in fact, welcomed it.

""Alien inhabitants"?" I asked, hoping to probe the domain for more information. I heard a soft giggle from the domain as it recognized my attempts to milk it for more knowledge.

"Yes, Althos. Alien inhabitants. If you want to learn more though, you"ll need to investigate things in the forest. That"ll be a lot easier now though since you performed a ma.s.s-miracle and gained the reverence of thousands of the forest"s inhabitants." The domain told me, a smile audible in her voice. I nodded, unsurprised by this but I didn"t regret having tried to gain more knowledge now.

"I wonder if they"re investigating me... Or something I did?" I asked myself, a small smile on my lips as I pondered that possibility. I heard a soft, affirmative sigh from the domain of knowledge and grinned wider now. I thanked the domain with the power of my emotions, and refocused, more knowledgable than ever.

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Perhaps half an hour later I found myself just outside of the oddly bright-looking forest I had spent every afternoon of my life in to date. I chalked up this strange brightness to a simple fact: this was easily the earliest I"d arrived here during the day. The sun hung low in the morning sky and the trek was mostly silent.

My new allies, newcomers to this place, didn"t have experience with this place. So they were ignorant of the forest"s habitual darkness and weren"t odded out by the bizarre illumination that dimly illuminated the edges of the forest. I opted not to comment on it, for now anyway.

My elven companions weren"t especially interested in talking until we got to where we were now. Calorron looked to me, when we were but steps outside of the forest.

"So, do you happen to know anything about this forest?" The blonde-haired elf asked me. I looked at him and shrugged.

"Sadly, I am a newcomer to this part of the world myself. I spent a long time here in Puerto Rico in a distant part of the island. I only just began exploring Rodan." I told the elf ranger, mixing truth and lies quite easily. He slumped his shoulders as I spoke, and I could tell that I had just disappointed him. Internally I chuckled at this obvious display of disappointment.

Farrane let us speak, and when I was done talking she began to speak herself. "Come friends. It is time that we go forth. There are mysteries to uncover." The wizard said, an excited grin on her face. She was the first of us to take the steps into the forest, and I followed quickly after her.

I was a bit surprised to receive a notification immediately upon entering the forest but was even more surprised to hear a sudden and utter silence fall over the forest and my other surroundings. The silence was one of those eerie ones where its suddenness makes it feel loud.

My companions had also stopped moving, and the way that I was able to tell that this wasn"t natural was when I looked at Calorron and saw that his feet were still. In mid-air. He was clearly artificially frozen.

That was the moment I checked out the notification and got the answers to questions that were mentally on the tip of my tongue.

[Intervention alert:

The forest is still reacting to the ma.s.s-miracle you performed last night. The domain of time, one of the greater domains, has authorized the system to perform what is, in essence, a quiet intervention before you enter the forest.

The lesser creatures of the forest, insects, some plants, and lesser animals, have recognized you as their master and savior. As have a handful of greater creatures throughout the forest. This would complicate things for you as you enter the forest.

The domain of knowledge is strongly suggesting we don"t reveal the precise nature of the elven investigation, but it has authorized us to ask you how you would like to proceed. Would you be fine allowing the forest creatures to recognize and react to you in your true might?

Weirdly enough it is easier for simple creatures to react to your divinity and accept it, which normally advantages G.o.ds, hence why even the first tiers of influence over life-form subdomains tend to come with powers that grant mastery over lesser, unevolved lifeforms. Today, sadly, that is the problem.

Your intelligent followers in the forest will recognize you unless you actively wish to be hidden from their understanding and they"ll be cautious to not rush towards you as long as you have the elves with you. The real question is do you wish to be hidden from your simple followers. Unevolved animals, the plants themselves, and other simple lifeforms.

Do you wish to conceal your presence from those who serve you?]

I quietly considered the question, before answering it in the affirmative. "I do wish, for now anyway, to not be recognized right away. Aside from by wolves. Direct wolves towards us, and deter other lesser animals. At least non-sapient ones. Allow my sapient followers to recognize me and be filled with awe and caution in my presence." I told the system.

An instant later time was unfrozen. And the elves and I continued into the forest, uninterrupted by domains, subdomains, the system, or other, less powerful and more corporeal lifeforms.

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Our expedition continued uneventfully as we strode far enough into the forest that the elves couldn"t see out of the place. My immense senses confirmed that no nearby animals moved close to us, aside from a single wolf who was gradually coming closer and closer to me.

We were deep enough in the forest that trees stretched around us in each direction. Strangely enough, these trees radiated a dim, silvery light which prevented the forest from being as dark as it ought to have been. The gra.s.s itself also felt thick and fuller than it had felt the day before.

It was at this point that my companions opted to finally begin to educate me as to what had brought them to my neck of the woods, in a very literal sense.

"Althos, since you live in Comillas even if you"re a newcomer, you should know a bit about what we"re investigating." Began Farrane. I turned to look at her, my head tilting slightly to the left as I did so.

"We"re here on a potentially urgent, but by no means secret mission. Last night this forest radiated strange, distinct energy. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Our elven thaumaturge-technology detected the ripples of power, but it wasn"t magic. It was something else. Something... purer." Said Farrane, her voice filled with something resembling childlike wonder as she explained the purpose of the mission that brought the elves here.

"We have been asked by our superiors to investigate this forest and determine exactly what happened last night. Our mission is not one we are ashamed of, and in fact, anything we find might be in the public interest of Comillas." She explained.

With each word of hers the wolf who was approaching us drew nearer and nearer. I smiled as I feigned listening attentively to Farrane. I heard her and registered her words, but I also knew now what I needed to know. They were almost certainly investigating me, albeit indirectly.

I turned my mind to something else altogether now. I opened up my list of faith domain abilities in preparation for the creation of a dryad, what I needed to do to acquire the first tier of influence over the subdomain of f.a.gaceae, a tree-type subdomain.

[Faith domain pa.s.sive powers:

Create lesser spirit: This power allows you to create spirits related to the domains you have influence over. You can create oreads and dryads at the moment. Using this power is necessary to gain influence over the spirit domain, one of the greater domains.

Soul sensing: This power, a synergistic one that is the result of possessing access to the powers granted to you by virtue of your tier of influence over the knowledge domain, allows you to glean someone"s soul and see specific information.

Specifically, you"d be able to determine if someone would make for a good cleric, paladin, dark knight, templar, inquisitor, monk, or one of the pact cla.s.ses, the witches, warlocks, and wards.

Cla.s.s granting: You can grant someone some of the religious cla.s.ses. The cla.s.ses you can currently grant are the cleric, witch/warlock/ward, templar, inquisitor, monks, paladin, and the dark knight cla.s.ses.

With the exception of the monk, no secular equivalents of these cla.s.ses exist in this universe. Lay-monks work as archivists and guardians of knowledge, but otherwise, these cla.s.ses were some of the lost-cla.s.ses, cla.s.ses that have ceased to exist since the end of the mythic age.

Clerics are immensely devoted followers of the G.o.ds. They seek to enact the will of whatever G.o.d or G.o.ddess they follow, and see no greater purpose in their lives than that. G.o.ds sent them omens, granted them magic, and told them their wills and the clerics served them faithfully and freely.

Witches, warlocks, and wards are the ambitious mortals and extraplanars who make pacts of servitude with G.o.ds, G.o.ddesses, or other higher beings. In exchange for servitude, the mortal or extraplanar pact-makers are granted magic and other unique cla.s.s features dependent on the nature of their pacts and the nature of their patrons. Witches are female, warlocks are male, and wards are for creatures whose genders are not binary.

Paladins and dark knights were the respectively good and evil-aligned servitors of G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses of their chosen alignments. They were the traveling champions of their deities and served as both mobile missionaries of their lords, as well as militant leaders of the armed forces of their chosen deities. G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses granted them lesser divine powers as a way to reward their service and aid in their successes.

Templars were the lesser soldiers of their G.o.ds. These warriors had been convinced of G.o.dly glory and devoted their lives to service to their G.o.ds. Every templar sought to become a paladin or a dark knight eventually and prayed daily.

Inquisitors were the followers of G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses who sought to ensure that people obeyed the precepts of their faiths. They were the brutal enforcers of theocracies. Deities, no matter their alignments, had inquisitors, though how feared their inquisitors tended to be depended on the alignments of the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses themselves.

Monks were followers of G.o.ds of law and or knowledge who lived in cloistered communities and stored and protected all manner of knowledge. Religious monks often built orders devoted to specific types of knowledge, usually after asking their G.o.ds or G.o.ddesses for guidance. Secular monks exist who work for brotherhoods and sisterhoods that collect, archive, and protect all manner of knowledge.

New cla.s.ses: You now possess the "G.o.d" and "Patron" cla.s.ses. These cla.s.ses come with distinct features, which you can learn about later on by clicking on the "Religion" symbol. The "Patron" cla.s.s relates to your abilities to make pacts with mortals and extraplanars.

You can also learn more about the cla.s.ses you can grant mortals if you wish by clicking on the "Religion" symbol. The symbol is the shortcut to access all sorts of handy information about the various religions devoted to worshipping you in all sorts of ways.

Demographic a.n.a.lysis: This power allows you to gain an understanding of who all worship you. It will grant you access to a considerable amount of information about your followers.

Create teaching: By using this power you can begin to establish the more social and community-based aspects of the religions devoted to you and your glory. Upon using this power you"ll be asked to select particular groups of worshipers and they"ll automatically learn the teachings you impart on them.

Faith domain active powers:

Religious fervor: This is the name of an unusual active power gained by any and all deities when they gain access to their faith domain powers. Using it causes you to create a zone of awe wherein those who witness your divine acts because more susceptible and more likely to become worshipers of yours.

This potent power is one of the key abilities gained by G.o.ds at an early age. It works on any sentient creature regardless of their alignment and lowers their resistance to your worship. In essence, this power renders people more likely to find themselves in awe of your power and more likely to believe your claims that you are divine.

At the lowest tier of influence over the faith domain, this is a short-range ability and one that isn"t extremely strong but it"s still an incredibly useful power that can speed the process of acquiring worshipers.

This divine power can be used freely, but it cannot be incorporated into your aura. That said if your goal is to acquire worshipers and just that then this is the perfect power for you.

Unfettered divinity: This active power creates a small zone in which mortals are forced to accept the truth of your divinity. It doesn"t force them to worship you, but it can be used if mortals insist on denying your divinity as a way to force them to reckon with the reality that you are divine. It can be used twice every 3.5 days and lasts for an hour when used.]

I quietly activated my "Create lesser spirit power" and was surprised when my not-so-mini-map opened up and I was asked to select a sp.a.w.ning point for the dryad I was about to create.