Looking at Faellen, you wouldn’t think anything had really changed. Sure, it was distracted looking at invisible screens, but nothing overt had changed.

“Well, how is it?” I asked. “I also got some… worrying notifications.”

“It’s- it’s a lot. Iv can go through it all later. What’s up?” One thing that only now struck me was that I had no control over the fairy’s System access. For the Sipalians I could customize things almost however I wanted, but not with Faellen.

“Right, yes. Two things, actually. One, you’re apparently my champion now? I don’t know, but what worries me more is that the System sort of bugged out and gave me two messages for you becoming my Champion.”

“Two messages?”

“Yes. The first was that Dungeon fairy Faellen had become my champion,” I pause for a moment, “and the other that Faellen Goldenbrush of the Forgotten Court had become my champion.”

“…”

“But in better news! The second thing is that apparently you’re qualified to be a System Anchor!” I tried to pick up the mood.

“No, this is getting stupid,” Faellen replied. “Why does that shit keep coming up? Hell, why is a fairy like me the one that got selected for the only Dungeon that fucks with time? And why do I not know anything about the surname Goldenbrush and my own immediate past?!”

“…” now it was my turn to be silent. Not that I could stay so for long. “You don’t know your past?”

“No! Maybe! I don’t know!” the little fairy takes a deep breath. “I thought I knew, but ever since the stupid time police called me Goldenbrush I’ve tried to remember, I’ve tried to remind myself of any details of my own life and- and- and it all seems so fabricated! The only things that keep turning up are my ancestral memories about my general situation and what happened to the Court, but nothing about me.”

I didn’t know what to say. Frankly, that was exactly the sort of thing I would be terrified of happening to me. I said the only thing I could.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

We stayed like that for some time. Both just contemplating our own existence.

“Alright, what’s the plan?” I broke the silence.

“Plan for what?”

“To get you your memories back or whatever? Where do we begin?”

Faellen stared at me, unblinking.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“What about Lapis and the System apocalypse? The Sipalians won’t survive without assistance. Not many of them, at least.”

“Consider it like this,” I replied, “I doubt we’ll need to fully leave the planet for just the first step of mission ‘Faellen memory recovery’, name pending. And even if we did, the present Dungeon Seeds should be sufficient to Control the mana. At least somewhat. It wouldn’t be a complete catastrophe, especially if I directly direct them myself. Plus, we can just redo it all in another loop.”

“I’ll… get back to you on that. I have to think,” and with that, Faellen flies of.

I’m tempted to reach out, but if thinking is what it needs and thinking is what it asked for, then I’m gonna let it think.

In the meantime, there are more things for me to figure out myself. For one, there’s the whole question of what my blessing actually does. And another is what champions do.

Of the two, only one had the System actually offer me information for once, so let’s start with that.

System, I’m ready for your info dump about Champions.

Congratulations and welcome to a major step of your path to godhood!

Correction: Eldritch godhood!

With the choosing of your first Champion you’ve inadvertently entered what is commonly referred to as the Divine Game.

Deities of all shapes and sizes compete with each other. Not in power and followers, but also more esoteric things like influence. Influence over what, you may ask? Good question! Keep guessing!

A Champion is a deities most common and direct method of affecting the world. They also act as extensions of the deities power. Sort of like your Dungeon Seeds!

Of course, this also means that your Champion can, to a limited degree, access your own Abilities. But don’t worry, we’re sure it’s fine.

And you do want your Champion to be affecting the world. The more they do so, and the more well known they become, the more influence they gain for you. Influence over what, you again ask? Who knows? No, really, who knows?

What is known is that every deity wants as much of it as possible, as well as that those with a lot of it are much more powerful.

Anyway, that’s all. Bye!

P.S.:

I’ve been told I should sign this, since it’s so different from the System’s usual style.

- signed Fu’Rench Fu’Ries, deity of tutorials*

(*it’s a custom among deities to only list your most relevant domain to the situation at hand. Fu’Rench Fu’Ries most definitely has a few more domains)

Hmm, that name sounds familiar.

Anyway, what this tells me is basically nothing. Okay, maybe I now know that Faellen can use my Abilities. Which, gotta say, is kind of awesome.

Not sure about the whole influence thing. I think I’m not going to bother with it for the time being. I’ve got other things on my plate already, arguably bigger things, and don’t need another distraction.

While Faellen thinks things over, I might as well return to my work on my Dungeon Seeds and network. I’ve got a lot to catch up on since we’ve reset the time loop. Again.

Maybe this time I’ll finally get everything into a state of completion I’m satisfied with. And if not, oh well.

I conjure up another set of seeds and send them down. A monster designed purely for digging tunnels, which I’ve been slowly perfecting over the loops, starts working on connecting the new Seeds to the network.

After that’s all done I should have enough mana to once again start System locking the Dungeons.