I stood in the precise place my primary will had transformed Lugh into a loyal, Sidhe vampire. And I watched, a smile on my devilish face, as Lugh and his friend and occasional lover Aoine approached me, Lugh's eyes filled with admiration for me, and Aoine's eyes filled with intrigue at whatever my vampiric minion had told him.
Unlike my other-self, I was in my devilish form. While waiting I had filled Lugh's mind with knowledge and awareness of my devilish form, so that Aoine may approach me in a form I was more comfortable in, and so that I may not frighten him away with a glance.
I studied the two creatures who were approaching me with mild interest, focusing on Aoine more than Lugh who I had already previously studied to a keen extent. Aoine was a girtablilu, like Lugh. He wasn't much taller than Lugh, though he was slimmer and more youthful-looking.
The girtablilu had silver hair, bronze skin, and a carapace the color of blood. He had a spear attached to his chest via a strap that tied the two together until Aoine felt the need to put his hands on his weapon, whether it be for comfort or for combat.
His scorpion-lower half had eyes, unlike Lugh's, and had fierce, perpetually snapping pedipalps. Both halves were equally powerful and skilled in battle, though in very different ways.
The scorpion-man walked right up to me and regarded me quite coolly while I studied him. His eyes were the color of liquid gold, and he had smile-lines on his face from a lifetime of attempted, false joy.
After a few moments of silence, I broke the atmosphere of quiet tension that had filled the space between us by speaking first.
"Hello, Aoine." I said, revealing that I knew the creature's name. I didn't doubt that my servant, Lugh, had revealed this but it was a good thing to confirm right away. The bronze-skinned girtablilu looked at me and smiled gently, a surprisingly genuine smile that easily reached his eyes.
"Hello, Althos. It is nice to meet you." The girtablilu greeted me, his voice confident and powerful. There was a palpable sense of pride radiating out of his eyes, and internally I chuckled at it. Precisely what I need. I thought as I acknowledged the pride in those eyes.
"It's nice to meet you as well. We share a goal you know. Something that unites us." I told him, my eyes gleaming with pride of my own. He looked at me with interest and mirth and responded to my words in a casual, slightly curious tone.
"Oh? Do you wish to share what that is?" The girtablilu asked me, his voice husky and containing a quiet excitement. I could sense that he had some inkling of what he was about to hear. I laughed, audibly this time, and responded with a conspiratorial amount of excitement myself.
"My goal is for you to take over your village. I possess not only knowledge but power as well. Powers that I intend to use to aid you in your conquest of your village. For a price, of course." I informed the thing, aware that he'd likely ask for a demonstration of my power. He listened to me with some interest, and when I was finished he looked up at me and opened his mouth to speak.
"Do you care to show me an example of your power?" The young man asked, his eyes alight with dark fascination and intrigue. I grinned at him and began to consider what would be the most suitable power to convince him of the varied powers at my disposal.
After a few moments of introspection, I opted to instead seek the system's aid.
[Hello system, may I have some assistance?] I asked the thing, well-aware that it'd be able to aid me in convincing the figure before me not only of my power, but that my aid would be worth the price he'd pay.
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[Hello Althos, how may we help you today?]
[Good question! Well I'm attempting to persuade Aoine to surrender his soul to me in exchange for my aid in helping him take over his village. I would like to know which of my powers you think may have the most influence on persuading him to most efficiently give in to the temptations my powers offer.]
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[Hmm... Do you think your ability to create life would work? You have the power to create Girtablilus you know.]
[That is an impressive power, and one I've used to great effect, but I don't know if it would be sufficiently tempting to someone as power-mad and ambitious as Aoine.]
[That's a fair point... If this person is as driven as you say they are and are as power-hungry as you think they are, why not offer them a class? If it's as you say it is, then that'll be the most potent way to get him to recognize your power since you will directly be offering him free power.]
[That's a really good idea! Speaking of that... why is it that gods can offer classes? I mean, I can understand some of the classes gods can offer, like clerics and witches, but others like rogue and monk make less sense to me.]
[That's a good question! Just so you know, normally classes are offered to people when they behave in certain ways. Classes were designed as rewards for certain kinds of behavior. The simplest reason why gods can reward others with classes is that they are the architects of reality.]
The system wasn't done talking, but there was a pause at this point. It was like the system was taking a breath.
[Many of the seemingly random rules that the multiverse follows are rules that were determined by ancient gods. Even the system itself, and the entity you've dubbed M.A. were and are creations of ancient gods. Among many other things, the gods designed classes, hence why gods can award their followers with them once they gain access to certain domains and subdomains.]
[Gods designing classes makes sense, but that leaves me wondering... will I be able to do that sort of stuff in the future? Design classes and alter rules of reality myself I mean.]
[Yes actually! Once you reach a high enough tier of influence over greater domains like reality and magic you can design new-classes and schools of magic by hand. Among other things. In some universes, universes where magic doesn't exist or where the inhabitants don't live with the system you can cause magic to come into being, and you can spread the system into these places.]
[That's great! Umm... since species-knowledge notifications exist, is there one for gods?]
[New Species Knowledge Notification: Gods
Gods are among the oldest creatures in existence. Or... they were, anyway. And now, with your reappearance, they manage to be among both the oldest and youngest creatures in existence, since they went extinct for an incredibly long time.
Gods are among the beings known informally as "Higher Beings". This is a classification meant to designate creatures capable of manipulating souls and includes a surprisingly high number of beings like angel kings, archon-queens, archdevils, demon lords, and other creatures of immense soul-warping power.
Ancient gods designed the vast majority of the dimensions and created things like domains, subdomains, the system, classes, and many schools of magic to govern reality. Gods created new creatures by hand, and they dwelt both in their own dimensions, dimensions which may yet still exist in ancient, forgotten places throughout the multiverse, and in the dimensions inhabited by mortals and other creatures.
Gods were creatures of creation, destruction, and power. They were, and thus you are, capable of both shaping and unmaking reality and the most powerful of your kind were among the exceptionally rare beings who can cross from one universe to another.
Godly social structures were fascinating things. Godly community building was a challenge for even the strongest gods, creatures powerful enough to unmake entire universes.
In the mythic age, some gods created communities known as pantheons and created and enforced rules that even their evil members tended to follow so as to grow in power together. These gods were ambitious, but they were also subtle and so they aided their followers in pursuing mutual goals, as opposed to going out and adventuring themselves as you do.
Other gods, fairly rare ones, weren't worshipped but they did go out and establish communities populated by creatures of their own creation who served them.
Gods like you, the active sort, were the rarest sort, and they tended to exist in their own isolated universes rather than existing in universes with multiple gods where they'd be expected to follow rules they might not have agreed too. Those of them that were more powerful tended to create, govern, and adventure in their own universes instead of locating ones abandoned by their original creators.
Gods don't have evolutions. When they become powerful enough they become transcendental beings. For now, information on transcendental beings is locked. Once you get strong enough you'll receive notifications and alerts about those sorts of beings.]
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"So you want an example of my power, do you? Well... I suppose I can give you a free sample. As a treat." I informed the girtablilu before me. I grinned at him, my eyes glowing with mischief. And then I used one of my favorite and most handy powers on the ambitious man-scorpion: Identify.