Getting back to the room I had claimed as my own was an easy enough affair. That said it took me long enough to get back home that the sun had fallen below the horizon and by the time I was back inside of the Silver Xana night had come out and overtaken the strange land I found myself in. In my room, I sat on my bed and closed my eyes. I allowed my mind to drift for a second, as I wanted to give the system a fair chance to speak to me before I began to reach out to creatures I had influence over.
[So do you feel ready to begin to dive into more dreams tonight?] The system, my long-time companion, asked me. I nodded, even with my eyes closed, a confident smirk on my face.
"Yes I do. I feel... more powerful today. I want to begin to do the work of acquiring worshippers." I told the one figure in my life who knew the truth of my nature. A part of me knew I"d be changing that today.
[We can feel the excitement radiating off of you. It makes sense for you to be excited, the you of today is both smarter and stronger than the you of yesterday. Do you think you might gain a worshiper or two tonight?] The voice asked me, curiosity audible in its voice. I wasn"t arrogant.
I shook my head before I began to explain why I didn"t think tonight would be the night I gained a worshiper. "I don"t think so. I think tonight is the night I begin to gain an understanding of what it"ll take for me to acquire worshipers." I told it, not bothering to take a breath until the end of my second sentence.
"And I think tonight might be the night I meet some of the first creatures to become worshipers of mine. But I"d be surprised if tonight is the night I actually gain worshipers." I continued, not daring to be arrogant right now.
[That isn"t a bad response. It"s a humble one, which almost always helps a response be not that bad. That"s definitely the proper att.i.tude to have going into this sort of thing, so that"s absolutely a good sign.] My odd friend told me, recognizing the humbleness in my answer to it.
I grinned, but not before receiving a pleasant surprise from my ally and frequent partner. [We"re going to go ahead and partially unlock your faith domain powers. You"ll find that one of them, in particular, will be especially useful in the shenanigans you"re about to get up too.] It told me, and I could almost hear the mischevious grin in its robotic voice.
A second later I received a handy new notification, alerting me to the powers I now had under my control.
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[Alert:
The domain of faith"s powers, aside from the ability to listen to prayers, has been unlocked for your usage.
Faith domain pa.s.sive power:
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 or paladin.
Faith domain active power:
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.
Faith domain knowledge:
This domain is a potent one that governs belief, religion, and superst.i.tion. Deities who quickly master this domain become experts at building cults and religious movements to themselves. It also synergizes well with the domains of the soul, knowledge, life, and the subdomains of corruption and purity.
Faith domain blessing and curse information:
The faith domain"s blessing is a blessing multiplier that increases the strength of other blessings. The question worth asking is "By how much do other blessings get multiplied?" And the answer to that is dependent on the worshiper who has the blessing.
Their level of fanaticism is what determines how much bang they get for this blessing"s buck. The more they worship you the stronger this blessing will be.
With regard to cursing someone using this domain, they fall victim to a mind-affecting curse that fills them with cynicism towards everything. For a bit they become bitter and morose. For right now this just makes them apathetic, though the more tiers of influence you gain over this domain the stronger this divine power becomes.]
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I smiled as I read through the notification, feeling more of my powers, powers that ought to have been under my control and usable the minute I first opened my eyes, revealing themselves to me. I was beginning to slowly feel more and more... G.o.dlike, and like I was slowly stepping more and more into my own skin. It was a good feeling.
"I think... I think I"m ready now." I muttered, trying to get myself more excited and in the right state of mind. "I do wish I could see all of my powers displayed in one place though..." I said, quietly.
[Oh that can be arranged.] The system told me, right before a notification like list of all of the powers I had gained flashed into being before me. I looked it over, and began to smirk.
"I already have such a wild and fascinating diversity of powers at my disposal!" I observed, inspired by the list of a.s.sorted abilities that had sprung into being before my very eyes.
[And you"ll get even more in the days to come. Allow us a second before you go any further, because we think it"s time that you get a clear understanding of what it is that being a G.o.d means.] The system proudly told me. The odd ent.i.ty took a second to clear its throat before beginning to speak once more.
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[G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses are creatures of supreme power. Once a deity has matured they have the power to lay waste to entire galaxies without breaking a sweat. In the ancient past, before the devastating cataclysm which decimated all higher beings throughout the multiverse happened, deities stood at the top of an eco-system made of species with similar but ultimately pared down power.] The system uttered, reverentially remembering the ancient past.
[We don"t know much about the multiverse spanning catastrophe that wiped out... well until you came along we were certain that it had eliminated all higher-beings but not much about the catastrophe besides that. It was a tragedy that forever altered the course of history.] The voice mournfully declared.
[And now that you are here... well we don"t want to get ahead of ourselves but we are very excited. You being here means there"s a chance, a small one at least, to right the wrongs of the enigmatic past. And to discover the mysteries at the heart of that inscrutable past.] The voice told me, the tone of its utterances suggesting that it spoke the truth.
They also suggested a particular order to the thing"s priorities, which struck me as rather curious since it wanted to "right the wrongs" more than learn about the past.
[Listen, we"re on your side. We, as in the system, and we, as in the domains, want to see you succeed. All of us.] I heard the voice say, speaking to me as if I knew what it meant to "succeed" in this context.
"But what does "success" mean to you?" I asked the system, curious to have a definitive answer to this.
[That"s a fair question and one that you deserve answers too. "Success" to us means two things. First and foremost it means that you become an omnipotent G.o.d. We want you to become a legitimately all-powerful ent.i.ty. You"d be... the first to ever exist. But if you opt to pursue that goal you wouldn"t be going about it alone. And we have plans...] The system uttered, speaking cryptically but also powerfully.
"Omnipotence..." I said to myself, quietly. That was a big word, and it was one of the ones that made sense to me. Whispering it to myself felt right. It felt good to say it aloud. I wondered what the system"s more cryptic plans meant for a second, but the thing wasn"t done talking.
[The second thing "success" means to us is that we, through you, learn the true nature of the cataclysmic event from eons ago that wiped out all of your ancestors. We need to know.] My friend told me, revealing the truth surprisingly candidly to me at this moment.
[An immature G.o.d can mess around and create a continent in a day. A mature G.o.d can bring a planet to ruin in half a day. A truly powerful G.o.d, one of the great ones, can cause a lifeless galaxy to teem with life in an hour. An omnipotent deity could theoretically create entire universes in the time it takes to blink.] The voice muttered, before projecting images into my mind of deities doing those very things.
[We need you Althos. And we"re here to help you. So... go visit the dreams of the creatures you want to converse with. We"ll discuss this more when you return. Each second you"re here you"re wasting valuable time.] My companion reminded me, causing me to snap out of my curiosity-driven mode and into my more opportunistic and opportunity seizing state of mind.
I nodded, appreciating my companion"s attempt at candor. I now felt that I had a clearer picture of the circ.u.mstances and objectives of the system than I had had moments before this. It wasn"t a much clearer picture, but it was one that I could begin to work with since I now knew a few things I hadn"t before.
It was at that moment that I activated my dreamwalker power and selected the first figure whose dream I"d be visiting tonight: The dreams of the goblin named Mawby, one of the goblins who prayed to Cosecha last night.
In an instant, I was whisked away to the dreams of the girl goblin. There was a smile on my lips as my consciousness was phased out of my mind-place and into the outskirts of the goblin"s dream.