"So you"re really sticking with this whole "Cosecha" thing huh?" Asked a new voice in my mind, as I studiously stared at various laborers. I did the mental version of a nod and felt a chuckle become distinctly audible in the back of my mind."If you"re intent on doing this that way, it wouldn"t be a bad idea to hear us out." Said the voice. This was one of those moments wherein I could hear a grin on someone"s face. For a moment I wondered if domains and subdomains even had faces, but I knew that that was just me distracting myself with frivolous questions and refocused. I replied to the question with one of my own.
"Who is "us"?" I mentally inquired, sensing that I was about to get a quest. I couldn"t help but smile, as there was an opportunistic part of me that quietly sensed an opportunity here.
"We are a trinity of domains and subdomains. The one you hear speaking is the domain of trickery. I"m accompanied by the subdomains of lies and enchantments. Over the course of your life, you"ve performed some... delicious pranks on people." Said the self-proclaimed domain of trickery.
"We"ve grown quite fond of you little one. For a young G.o.d, you show so much... potential to become well-versed in our ways. We, like all of the other domains and subdomains, want to help you master our powers and eventually take what some of us already view as your rightful place as our G.o.d." Whispered the sinister-sounding domain.
"We"ve approached you so that you may begin our quest. We"re offering you a joint one, so as to speed your acquisition of our a.s.sistance. All you have to do is convince the laborers to worship Cosecha. We"ll say you have to convince... three of them to worship it." The subdomain told me, speaking slowly and softly.
I considered the quest, deciding more than anything else whether or not I ought to prioritize it. After a few seconds, I figured it was a quest that wouldn"t take a long amount of time to complete, even though I knew better than to think I"d complete it in a day.
"Thank you. I"ll definitely put that at the top of my to-do list." I told the trio of ent.i.ties listening to me. I was being sarcastic, and a second after I said that I wondered if the subdomain of lies had a power that let me detect lies. And if it could detect lies itself. I heard three pairs of laughter ring out in my mind, one masculine, one feminine, and one... more androgynous.
After that, I quietly refocused on the scene unfolding in front of me.
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Just minutes after I was approached by a trinity of deceptive domains and subdomains I was carefully making use of my updated and better-organized appraisal power to inspect the laborers. That was when I finally detected a leader, right as he left his house.
[Name: Gustavo Mondragon (Level two warrior)
Species: Human
Alignment: Neutral good
Magic Sensing: Gustavo would most resonate with the school of alteration magic, as that school is the school that would most allow him to alter his tools, himself, and his environment in ways that are conducive to his ultimate goals: serving his community, and protecting his wife, and daughter.
Personal vice: Pride
Personal virtue: Chast.i.ty
Faith-sense: Gustavo believes in the worth of his community. Once you"ve checked out your new faith domain abilities and established Cosechian teachings and beliefs, Gustavo may well be a good cleric or inquisitor of Cosecha.
Authority detection: Gustavo is considered the de facto leader of the laborers and farmers who live on the most remote reaches of Comillas. He is considered this by both the laborers and everyone else. He is proud to be the leader of the farmers and laborers.]
There were two new things there, "Faith-sense" and "Authority detection". I could easily infer where they came from, the faith domain and the civilization domain respectively. They were handy abilities, and when this was settled I"d be sure to refresh my memory about the sorts of civilization and faith powers I now possessed especially faith powers.
Gustavo was walking towards me, a curious and neutral expression on his face. I pretended to be focused on the field in front of me. He managed to be both broad-shouldered and tall, standing just about 2 meters high, with a muscular build. I a.s.sumed it was because of the manual labor he performed.
He was dressed in a working man"s clothes, thick things that protected his body from cuts and from other sorts of injuries that came from working with animals. His face was deeply tanned, and he had a muscular jawbone. His hair was hidden underneath a hat. He had amber-colored eyes, deep-set ones above a surprisingly thin nose and full lips.
He was casually carrying a large hoe made of iron, and had a speedy gait. I could tell that my appearance had caught him off-guard as he drew closer and closer to me. From the way he smelled I could tell that he had taken a bath the night before, and probably did so regularly as he didn"t have a residual, unpleasant stench following after him.
I didn"t turn and pretend to just notice him until seconds before he would have reached me. When I did I gasped and leaped into the air to let him think of me as someone weak to surprises. After I did I respectfully and apologetically bowed to him.
"Whoa, sorry! You just caught me off guard. How may I help you... sir?" I asked, feigning meekness. He gave me a curious glance, now that he could study me more thoroughly. His eyes took in all of the parts of my appearance, and I grinned at him.
As he was studying me I quietly reconjured my soul-staff, the bark-colored thing suddenly phasing into being in my mind. I had unsummoned the thing last night, but it felt nice to have something to hold once more. This surprised the laborer-leader, who reeled back from me before I suddenly opened my eyes wide and began to explain myself to him.
"Oh hey, it"s okay! This is my staff. I"m a druid you see. I was asked by Mateo to see if I could figure out what"s going on here." I told Gustavo, speaking gently while only loosely holding onto my weapon. This caused Gustavo"s eyes to open wide, and then a smile crept across his face.
"Oh! I see. Okay, yeah Mateo told me about you." He exclaimed, smiling at me. He seemed to relax when I mentioned that I was a druid and asked by Mateo to investigate, which wasn"t surprising but I was happy that such simple statements worked so well on Gustavo. It made my work all the easier.
"Oh really? That"s great!" I exclaimed, smiling sincerely at the man. I visibly relaxed and turned back to the field to continue pretending to study it. We both lapsed into silence for a few moments, and then Gustavo began to speak once more.
"Can you tell what"s wrong with it?" He asked, studying my facial expression as he asked me that question. My face remained impa.s.sive the whole time he spoke.
"I can"t. Not yet anyway. But if the problem is just the quant.i.ty of food... Well, I do have something that can help with that." I remarked, idly. I smiled playfully at Gustavo, who looked up at me with curiosity and vague interest.
"I"m a druid of the harvest moon. I have magic that has been created specifically to address these sorts of problems." I told Gustavo, grinning as I did so. "In fact, do you happen to have a seed on you?" I asked, hoping to ill.u.s.trate the sort of powers I possessed.
He gave me a skeptical stare as he began to rummage around in his own pockets. I put out my hand, grinning at him, knowing that however skeptical he was now he was about to get blown away. After a few moments of pulling things out of his pockets, he eventually retrieved a pair of apple seeds and proceeded to place them, surprisingly gently given his size and build, in my hands.
"Watch this." I told him. I kept my eyes glued to him, while I grabbed a single one of the seeds and pocketed it myself.
Mentally I took aim at the seed that was still in my hand and activated my "Crop growth" power. The seed began to magically and energetically glow, before it almost instantly transformed into a fully grown, consumable apple.
Gustavo had kept his eyes locked on me until the apple-seed began to grow in size, and as the thing morphed into a fully-grown apple he transferred his gaze from me to it, his eyes widening as he observed my legitimately miraculous power. The apple in my hand was a beautiful, dark-red, impressively weighty, Winesap apple.
When the thing was done growing Gustavo"s eyes were locked on it, and his mouth was hanging open. I could feel the shock and awe radiating off of the man, and it was hard for me to resist the urge to smirk at him. There was something satisfying about moments like this, especially when I didn"t even use "Religious fervor" on him. I was saving that for a future display, as I wanted him to be truly shaken by the power I would show him in maybe even a few minutes.
"Yeah, when I first did it I reacted like that too." I told him, lying. I felt ecstatic at this moment though, as I knew that what I had done had left an incredible mark on the human. The awe he was radiating was palpable in the shock on his face, the smile that was slowly creeping up his lips and I could tell that I had just left a profound impression on him.
"It"s edible too. Would you like for me to demonstrate that, or do you just believe me?" I asked him. It took him a second to react to my question so I ultimately just lifted the thing to my mouth and took a healthy bite out of it. I still had another seed after-all, so it"d be easy for me to do again if he wanted.
The apple tasted sweet, and I enjoyed both the texture of its skin and its soft interior. I smiled fondly at Gustavo, and I could tell that he had questions so when he began to ask them I was ready.