I started reading through the book that Kitsun gave me. It was as I surmised, a book on leading a faction. Yet it was so much more. Within the pages contained were memories. Memories that downloaded directly into my mind to teach me the lessons contained within. I watched demigods, godlings and gods battling through. Saw the interactions between them. The misunderstandings. Saw the differences between what a faction and a pantheon was. One was about the power, and the other was about how you used the power. Saw the effects it could have on it surroundings and on the mortals involved. It could be so glorious, yet so very terrible.
And I managed to divine my path that I wanted to take, or at least what I think I wanted to attempt for. I was certain Kusog would be with me. Less certain about the others. But that was ok. For I was slowly realising. I didn't have to do everything as quickly as I thought. I had time once I got through the academy. One of the scenes showed to me was about a demigod who just wandered a planet for 700 years. Never using a level of power above basic save for healing. She would examine plants and heal everyone she could and also anything. She opened a new world up for herself through the earth spirit of the world, deciding to show her hidden secrets that it had not shown anyone else. It ended up making her a goddess and now several temples are established around the universe for her and her clergy are famed for their healing.
Healing was not strictly a path I wanted for myself, but from talking with Kusog and trying to figure out what I did want, I did know the path I wanted to follow at first was among the more mundane. I didn't want instant power. I wanted to earn it. Furthermore, I wanted to earn it by the deeds of my own hands and current power. I knew Kusog felt the same way. We never had the chance to become adventurers. We never had the chance to test ourselves as much as we liked. I did not want the combat path. I would fight if I had to, and chances were, there would be times. But I preferred to achieve it by working to the root of it. Being attacked? Build defences. Now we got time. Time to find out the why. To see if we could solve it another way. Or the power of level changed in an area and the village are struggling to keep up? Then we help to improve things, so they can keep up or get to the level needed to be able to survive. This could be by building defences, teaching them better ways, or just a lot of little things mashed together. If they didn't want to, no shame, we could lead them safely to somewhere they could survive.
The point being, we had the power. We had the means. We just had to figure out the best way forward. Right now, that was building a faction to get through this stage. If it meant I had to rebuild it at a later date, so be it. I had the time. Which is what this book was trying to teach factions. We were essentially a planted tree. We could achieve what we wanted with time and effort. Decide what I wanted to be. The power could come later.
The other thing the book taught me was that my difficult job was going to be my teammates. People didn't always tell the truth. We're not always honest about their true feelings and objectives. So it was going to be up to me to make sure we were all on the same page. For the academy, I was confident about this. It was what came after that could make it a problem. Yet what I learned in the meantime, might mean I would know if I could trust them more or to cut ties after. A faction lives and dies with it people. At the moment, we didn't even have half those people, and I have no idea how many of them would want to stay after. So for now, all I could do was observe and show what I wanted to do. With this, I might be able to figure out who was actually interested and who wasn't.
I came out of my room after a month to find Kusog similarly coming out of his. We sat down at the table and looked at each other. "How are you feeling, Kusog?"
"Thoughtful. Very thoughtful. I am guessing your book was about the long term leadership of the faction and the direction to head in?" I nodded to him. "Mine focused on the more day to day of faction running, and also about managing a combat team. I am going to be interested in what Mitsun and the others have found out, but I was thinking that we probably won't be able to recruit a team. We will probably be building from scratch?" Surprise hit me on this, and I decided to ask him why he thought this. He nodded as expecting me to ask and replied.
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"Here what I am thinking. As you most likely don't know, a conventional combat team or normal adventure team since they are built off the same archetypes as it were, normally consist of a tank, a healer, two damage dealers and the last being a support type or damage dealer. That the conventional team, and they are normally conventional builds. However, let be honest here, we are not conventional, are we?" He cocked an eyebrow at me and I shrugged and then nodded agreement with him. "Therefore, we might as well build as we mean to go on. So we find individuals that we can mesh together to form a squad. I don't know exactly what comes after we get through those doors, but by all guesses it should operate as an adventurer's guild, just for us demigods instead. If that the case, the missions offered will probably be a lot of the same types as offered at the adventurer's guild." He sat back.
"You and me have spoken. We know our eventual goals. We are planning to tread our own path. I say we start now. We recruit with this in mind. Maybe not everyone will stay after the academy, but we will be at an advantage with those who do." He was right. I had seen a path for us, and he was right. It would be easier with people we knew. We would recruit to our strengths.
Mitsun, Dougda and Charses came walking back in. We greeted each other happily and just talked of lighter things at first. Then I brought the meeting to an actual start.
"Mitsun, You and Charses were going to look into potential combat recruits. What did you find?" Mitsun looked a bit awkwardly at Charses and eventually answered.
"We looked around a bit, and I have to say, none of the combat teams themselves are what we think would work for us long term. Oh, we could team up, but I would not invite them into the faction." I and Kusog exchanged looks.
"We did actually talk just now and thought that might be the case. What do you recommend?"
"Well, Charses knows a lot of people. As a result, we ended up seeing a lot of people doing sparring and such, that was not for general view. Also, I reviewed some paperwork and ah 'sources' of my own. We managed to gather quite a list of people who might be interested in working with us and being part of a team." She pulled out several dossiers and passed them around. We all looked through them.
"Ok, let this information just settle in the back of the mind. Let move on to Dougda for the moment. What did you find out about the upgrade disk?" Dougda smiled and began to talk.
"First off, let me start by saying that it not just an upgrade disk. It is an actual base disk. We will be able to take it when we leave and set up an outpost, so long we have the needed materials. We will also be able to upgrade that to a home base disk, again with the right materials. This is huge. Don't get me wrong, a lot of materials needed, none of it cheap. But I say this will make us a lot safer when we finally get out there." This was big. It would mean that we would be able to build something to keep us safe. While we were effectively immortal, we could still die if hit with the right level of power. This would give us a chance to survive in hostile places.
"Now as to the upgrade, well. We do have a choice. We have our rooms and the conference rooms at the moment. The disk is offering to either create a combat room or a library compromised of all of our separate libraries for a start." I knew what I would choose. While a combat room might come in useful later, the fact was, with the arena basically next door, it was useless. But the library..... We all had our strength and flaws. This would enable us to find and rectify this as good as we could. Maybe not the best we could, but it would be a start and less of a painful beginning. "For a second chance, we can either choose additional training from the academy or we can build our own dojo." This was a more difficult choice. The advice would definitely be helpful. But if we had motivated individuals, the dojo would be the best choice. I decided on the dojo. If somebody could not improve using it, then it was a sign that they would not be suitable for us. It was a tough decision, as even I could benefit from the advice to a possibly ridiculous degree. But we were looking to build to the future and as such, I decided the personnel was more important.
The last decision to make, we would not have to make until we built a proper outpost. A minor blessing, although I wondered what I would choose. What would the real world teach me, as it were? I could only speculate and do the best I could do until then. I informed the rest of my choices. Mitsun was clearly ok. Dougda seemed ok with my choices as well. Charses I had no idea about. But then again, it was for giving that kind of scrutiny to others that I hired him for. I could not well complain if he was showing that face to me while unsure of the way it was going. I just had to hope and believe. Have faith, as it were.