“Are you ready to embark?” a voice asked from a small window between the control and portal rooms.

“Yes, we are,” answered Dhagon. The former Draconian liaison.

“Activating portal, you may go as soon as it is fully open.” The voice replied.

“How do you tell them apart Toby?” one of the other Draconians asked, apparently confused about who the voice belonged to..

“You can't.” Toby shrugged, causing a mild outbreak of nervous laughter from everyone present.

“Are you guys ready?” Toby asked his party, consisting of the usual cast of Alice, Urist, and Ortho.

“Ready and eager,” Urist replied with a grin, Thumbs up. Earning him an eye-roll from Ortho and a slight smirk from Alice at his eagerness for what was to come.

Toby himself, however, felt nothing but trepidation, as the portal swirled into being in front of them. Opening up to a vista high up on a mountaintop somewhere on the continent of Aethea.

Today's destination was chosen for the Convenience of the Draconians, rather than Toby and the others. If everything went as planned, it would be irrelevant where the crew landed anyway. As God's they could just fly or teleport to wherever they wanted to be. They could even enter a spacial dimension set aside to be used by them for various divine tasks if they wanted. Being a Divine afforded them many advantages like this.

Toby already had some ideas on how to use it effectively to maintain the illusion that the world was real for those who were to be reincarnated as adults directly from Earth.

When Toby passed through the portal, the view instantly took his breath away. From this high up, it was quite possible to even see the curvature of this seriously oversized world when compared to Earth.

It was also possible to see extremely far into the distance with the incredibly clean air and open skies this far above the cloud layer.

Toby tried to peer into the distance, to see if he could see all the way over to where his planned civilization starting point would be, but it was simply too far away even from this height. The distance was on the order of trying to watch clear from one side of Australia to the other, So Toby didn't exactly find it surprising. What he could see, was rows upon rows of jagged-looking mountain ridges going on for hundreds of miles towards the horizon.

Defining the slopes of the mountain range they had officially dubbed the spine.

Beyond the ridges, Toby could barely see a strip of green before it all faded into blue. He knew from experience that the green belt more than a thousand miles of forested hills.

Some of them even taller than some of the larger mountains of Earth, but here they were too small to have an appreciable visual impact when compared to the true mountains of this world.

On Earth, he would have officially been in space at this altitude, while here it was only the 4th tallest mountaintop of the spine.

“This is where we part ways Toby,” Dhagon said.

“It's a pleasure to get to know you, and we will meet again when fate makes it so.”

“When fate wills it,” Toby replied with a respectful bow.

The 4 Draconains each took out their transformation tokens for their new species and swallowed them in a single smooth motion.

The effect was as sudden as it was impressive, with the Draconians bodies growing and reshaping themselves into the species that Toby had created just for them, in a matter of seconds.

By the end of the process, 4 huge western style dragons stood at the edge of the cliffs each with their own distinct body color, red, blue, green, and golden.

The dragons stretched their wings in unison and took off one after the other with jubilant screeches.

Huge flaps of their wings sending gusts of icy wind back towards Toby and his party.

The Dragons circled them a couple of rounds before the golden one roared. “You will find the great dragon Dhagon at the tallest mountain in the world down south!”

As the last word echoed across the mountain, he veered off and flew southwards.

The red one peeled off next, Flying toward the north, She too roared her farewell “I am the great dragon Nidergar, You will find me at the second tallest mountain of the world far to the north.

The blue dragon did a loop and barrel roll before roaring his own farewell. “I am the great dragon Jorngar, You will find me at the third tallest mountain in the world, the next mountain North of here.”

Toby watched him as he did another barrel roll before receding into the distance at great speed.

“He is such a showoff!” The green dragon laughed with a laughter that made the mountain rumble with its echoes before she went in for landing rather than fly off into the distance like the others.

She Landed right next to Toby before speaking in a surprisingly normal voice considering her great size.

“I am the great dragon Evargon. You will be able to find me here on this very mountain.”

“It's a pleasure to have you here great dragon Evargon,” Toby replied with a bow.

Their roles in the world as its great dragons were now in action, and treating them as the humbling creatures they were, was only basic politeness on his part.

“Will you let me have the honor to witness the birth of this worlds God's?” She asked, causing Toby to almost get a coughing fit in surprise. He didn't expect a request like that to come from a mighty dragon.

“It would be an honor to have you bear our testimony to the world of Aethea,” Alice replied, rescuing Toby from his tongue tied state.

As if taking Alice's words as a cue, Toby and friends took their white glowing marbles of divinity out of their inventories and put them in their mouths and swallowed them whole.

Toby could feel an intense fire spreading out from his chest as soon as it went down.

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In seconds the fire had spread all through his body, radiating a light so strong that it washed out the surroundings.

Blinding him, making him incapable of doing more than barely perceive the light emanating from the others as well.

When the light reached its apex, his body started to transform from the inside out.

He felt himself grow taller and straighter, muscles bulging, and great strength flowing through his limbs.

Waves and eddies of an incredible power surged through his mind and heart, making him feel almost invincible and drunk at the same time.

When the euphoria finally faded, he could see that his skin had gotten a golden sheen, while Alice had become a goddess of unreal beauty, with golden hair and skin glowing with a calming light, pulsing with the power of holiness.

Toby looked over at Urist and Orho and was equally impressed by their transformations.

Urist was still short and with a great beard, but his skin had the look of polished bronze, his beard the color of the deep earth while his icy blue eyes sparkled in the light as if they were precious gems. His aura felt as solid as if it radiated the power of the mountains themselves.

Ortho, on the other hand, had his hair changed into a verdant green, his skin was deeply tanned. Eyes deep blue giving the feeling as if they were ponds of water. A strong aura of teeming life completed the image.

They had indeed turned into the kind of God's one would expect to rule a world of might and magic Toby mused.

“I greet you, divine lords of Aethea,” Evargon said humbly, head bowed in supplication.

“As repayment of this great favor you have bestowed upon me, I will be keeping an eye out for your people during my stay in this world.”

“I believe they will be doing great things with this world during the next thousand years, and I will be happy to see them thrive under your divine guidance”

“We will do our best,” Toby vowed earnestly, It was his hope too that a great civilization would grow on this world, one that could still be a safe haven for humanity thousands of years from today after all.

“it's time we got to work Toby,” Alice said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

“Yes, we need to get going,” Toby nodded back.

“Farewell, for now, Evargon,” Toby called back to the great Dragon, as he and the others launched themselves into the air and flew towards the horizon at great speed.

Being a God felt incredibly great, especially when one could just jump off a cliff and soar like a bird.

The terrain flashing by in a blur, high mountains giving way to highland plateaus, and scrub-land.

Toby spotted a great river below and flew down towards it.

Soaring past the Highlands and into the undulating forests of the Midlands.

The river passing through great sections of woods and plains, where it was joined by other smaller rivers on its inexorable way towards the ocean that was gradually becoming visible on the horizon from up high.

It Cutt across the landscape in lazy turns, Cascading through huge canyons and onwards towards the monstrously large bay area Toby had chosen as a starting point for the settlement of humanity.

They slowed down again as the coast drew near, keeping a keen eye out for a suitable location for the first village to settle.

“There,” Toby pointed out to the others.

“What do you think about that place where this river, and the one from the north, meet up just before they enter the bay?”

“It's defensible,” Urist responded thoughtfully.

“Good access to water-based travel as well.”

“I can definitely envision a great port town here in the future,” Ortho added his assent.

“I agree,” Alice added.

“That hill a little east of the bay is much taller than the rest, and could make a perfect spot for a planetary pantheon as well.”

“It's decided then,” Toby nodded as he flew down and landed on the hill Alice had pointed out.

“We will set down our pantheon here, and found the first village on that small hill just where the 2 great rivers join together just before they enter the bay."

“Let's perform the ritual then,” Ortho said, pulling out his symbol of divinity, A green leafy wine.

Toby and the others pulled theirs out too, A Blazing sun for Alice, A bright red emerald for Urist, and 3 blue stars for Toby. Representing the trifecta of civilization. Knowledge, Justice, and Unity.

Without another word, all 4 of them tossed their symbols into the air above the hilltop, and channeled power into them, to activate their first true miracle.

At first, very little happened apart from a slight glow appearing on the symbols, but as they poured more power into them, they started to shine brighter and rotate around a common epicenter.

Faster and faster they rotated until it was impossible to tell them apart. The glow intensified until a portal opened up in the middle, and a giant pillar of stone descended slowly towards the ground.

As soon as it touched down, rocks erupted from the ground, turning the ground around the pillar into a crude cobblestone plaza.

Toby sat down heavily, his body and mind completely exhausted from the summoning of their pantheon.

Until they had some worshipers, they would remain practically powerless for now.

As he sat there resting, Toby could feel a faint pulse of power trickling towards him from far to the south-east. It carried with it the whispering of a prayer from Dhagon.

“Does anyone else sense a prayer?” Ortho exclaimed excitedly.

“Yes,” Urist replied. “It sounds like Nidegar is whispering to me.”

“I can hear Evargon,” Ortho added.

“Jorngar,” Alice said, giving Toby a nod, Prodding him to share as well.

“Dhagon,” Toby replied. The dragons had apparently planned this beforehand, well aware of the party's need for the power granted to divines through prayer.

Toby suddenly started laughing out loud, causing the others to look at him with worried eyes.

“It makes so much sense why they chose their attributes the way they did now,” Toby exclaimed.

They chose the ones that would be the most compatible with our respective divine powers.”

“But not even we knew what powers would be ours beforehand,” Ortho replied, doubt evident in his voice.

“They didn't have to,” Toby explained, giving Alice a look to tell her to continue the explanation.

“Toby's right,” She nodded, taking his cue.

“They made it their desire to be compatible with us.

Just like the system used our desires and personalities to give us our current powers, it made certain that they would be compatible those powers as well.”

“But they got their attributes first,” Urist pointed out the flaw in their logic.

“True enough,” Toby nodded, taking over again.

“But the system had already decided on what we would be given the day we got the divine upgrade marbles.”

The gang kept talking about the future while resting up.

This is a turning point, Toby mused to himself as the dusk settled upon the vast landscape.  Tomorrow the real work would begin, but for tonight they would rest.

Guild; Quest completed: Surveyor of the land

Reward active, The recruitment pool containing all the lost children of Terra is now available. Choose your summons wisely.