Chapter 15

I was incredibly glad that everyone enjoyed Glaaki’s ritual today. Sadly the guild investigator had already left before I had a chance to talk to him. Sluggo told me that it wasn't necessary, but I would have preferred to meet a new friend.

  Having a body for the first time was a very different experience. My new body was wonderful but it was still limiting in a lot of ways. I was unable to move my mind around in its mana form and I wasn't able to move from the core room like my friends were able to. I didn't even have legs at the time. Instead, I had to slowly grow my body out in the direction I wanted to reach. My new body was closer to a tree made of flesh than something like the bodies of my goblin friends, which I adored ever so much. In fact, once I evolved from a dungeon core I even gained a new line in my status window. It said: ‘Species - Flesh Tree.’

  I spent most of my time moving my fleshy roots towards the dungeon below me so that I would be able to see and hear things that happen down there. I had also wanted to spread to the town but it was pretty safe there, so I decided I would spread myself there later.

  I asked Sluggo and the other members of the council what I'm supposed to do with Divinity Points. I had unlocked two of them after Glaaki’s ritual. Unfortunately, Sluggo and the others had no idea how they are used. Sluggo said those were not part of the dungeon systems, so they were mostly acquired in another way. Maybe they were granted because so many people worship me? Or maybe it was because of the house of horrors title again? I wasn't too sure.

  I tried opening various menus looking for a place to allocate them but I wasn't able to find anything. After spending a fair amount of time thinking about it, I realized something. Maybe they are used in a way similar to research points? The goblins did name me Shiny God and gods should have blessings and powers right? Immediately upon that thought reaching me, a status window appeared before me.

Divinity System

The divinity system allows the use of Divinity Points to perform miracles, create blessing, and change aspects of the world system.

Status

You are currently a lesser god. Lesser gods often serve as local deities for a small town or population.

  Suddenly I was flooded with multiple messages.

Congratulations on becoming a Lesser God!

Notifications

You have been named the Shiny God by your worshipers.

You are now the god of the goblins. Goblins across the world will now worship you and spread their faith. Goblin Divinities are now available.

You have obtained the physical form of the Flesh Tree. Plant based Divinities are now available.

You are a lesser god that is also a dungeon core. Dungeon Divinities are now available.

Warning, other gods are now aware of your presence.

  That was a lot of information to absorb. Other gods were now aware of me and I wasn't sure if that was good or bad yet. Probably bad, considering how much Sluggo had warned me about the Holy God’s church in the past. That did explain why I couldn't find a menu to use these divinity points though. I rummaged through my menus and found a place to allocate them. I didn't know how often I was going to get those points, so I decided to only use one.

Divinity System Tree

The divinity system allows the use of Divinity Points to perform miracles, create blessing, and change aspects of the world system. Please purchase upgrades to unlock more options.

Divinity Cost

Description

1

Increase the crop yield for the next five years in your territory.

1

Decrease the chance of monster spawning in your territory.

1

Add goblins to the world's enlightened race pool. Warning this will remove goblins from the worlds monster pool.

5

Allow the House of Horrors title to influence the divinity system.

1

The local dungeon will immediately gain a new floor.

  The goblins had already done so much for me, so I felt I should use the first Divinity Point to help them. I remembered Hugh Man told me that enlightened races could get jobs and grow stronger so that seemed like a great place to start. I assigned the Divinity Point to the goblin enlightenment choice.

Notifications

Goblins have been added to the world's enlightened race pool. Goblins have been removed from the worlds monster pool.

  Strangely enough, this time there was no flash of light or mana stretching out like when I purchased previous upgrades. Did anything really change? I would have to talk to the goblins later and see if they felt different in any way.

  While I was thinking over the strangeness of the situation, I felt one of my fleshy roots reach the dungeon floor below my core room. My new appendage had immediately sprouted an eyeball, allowing me to take a look around. I was then able to see into the boss room.

  "With a little more growing I should be able to see everything down here." I said aloud. After which I suddenly found myself interrupted by a voice.

  "Master, I am assuming you found out a purpose for your Divinity Points?" asks Sluggo.

  "Oh, Sluggo. Yes I did, how did you know?" I asked while patting him on the head with one of my tentacles. I loved petting all my adorable friends.

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  "The goblins are all freaking out right now because one of your workers unlocked the miner job. Dungeon monsters can't have jobs so I felt this must be a blessing from you." said Sluggo while giving a nod.

  "I figured that's what it would do! But nothing seemed to happen when I used the point. I'm glad it worked!" I said.

  "Did anything else happen?" asked Sluggo.

  "Yes the notification said goblins have been removed from the worlds monster pool and added to the enlightened race pool." I said.

  Sluggo’s grin stretched from one ear to the other as soon as I uttered the words. It was hard to tell that the smile was there, but I just managed to see it behind the tentacles hanging from his face.

  "Master, this is amazing. In just a few weeks you went from a weak dungeon core to a lesser god and now you have even managed to grant enlightenment to goblins?" he shouted with excitement.

  "We are accomplishing so much, so quickly!" I shouted back to him, mirroring his excitement.

  "The state of the world will turn to chaos. Master, it is wonderful. We shall continue to spread your influence and corrupt the entire system itself!" Despite my joy with the situation, I still had questions that needed to be answered.

  "But what is the monster pool Sluggo? I have seen it a few times now." I asked, hating to interrupt his celebration. Sluggo, quickly calmed down before beginning to lecture me.

  "Master, monsters that can spawn in the world or in a dungeon are pulled from that pool. This means goblins will no longer spawn from mana. Of course your corrupted system seems to bypass that." He said while motioning to one of the goblin birthing sacs.

  "What!? Sluggo that's not good. The world needs goblins." I screamed while lashing my tentacles around the room in a tantrum.

  Sluggo tried to calm me, "Master they can still reproduce, do not worry. The world will never run out of goblins," He paused for a moment, "Probably."

  "What do you mean probably?" I asked, demanding an answer.

  "The Holy God and their progeny may hunt them down. A race hasn't been enlightened in centuries, and plenty of the races hate goblins."

  "Hate goblins?" I screamed, causing the chamber to shake. I flailed my tentacles around the chamber, smashing them into the walls and pillars around the room. After a few moments of my unsightly behavior, I was able to finally manage to compose myself long enough to continue the conversation. "Sluggo the Holy God is definitely evil. How can anyone hate this?" I said, waving one of my tentacles around my core room in demonstration. Sluggo immediately noticed that in my grasp was a single goblin who for some reason thought it would be the perfect time to pick his own nose.

  "Look at it. It is literal perfection." I belted out, shaking the hapless goblin with my tentacle.

  "Master I understand your… preferences, but other races don't think the same way you do." said Sluggo.

  "Oh I understand! The church is just a bunch of Steve's. I hate them." I said while crossing my tentacles and pouting. Sluggo stroked one of his tentacles for awhile, similar in fashion to how one would stroke a beard before speaking.

  "Well master I suppose you could always change how they think with a few mindeaters if they do ever show up."

  "Sluggo you are a genius. " I said while extending a tentacle towards him and hanging it in the air in front of him. Sluggo looked back and forth between me and the tentacle for a moment in confusion.

  "Geeze Sluggo it's called a high five, Dak taught me it. Raise your hand up." I said while Sluggo raised his hand in confusion. I immediately slapped my tentacle against it. I cheered as soon as we made contact.

  During the conversation, I had managed to spread my roots into most of the dungeon below us. As I sprouted some eyes I noticed a few different things. The first thing I noticed was that I had been getting pretty good at multitasking. The second thing I noticed is that it seemed like my palmtails were doing great. At this point, it seemed as if they had pretty much spread across the whole dungeon. I wasn't aware that they were able to reproduce on their own. The third thing I noticed was my molfs. I had forgotten about those guys up until now. I did hope that didn't make me a bad parent. I was no longer using Steve's stupid dungeon point system so I was able to purchase some of the upgrades I couldnt before.

  "I bet Steve came up with the dungeon point system just because he hates cute goblins and molfs because hes ugly and dumb." I said to myself while I purchased the upgrades. A familiar feeling hit me as my mana spilled out across the molf nest. Once the flash of light faded I observed the nest.

  "We have puppies now!" I shouted with excitement and began clapping my tentacles together once I saw the little baby molfs that had appeared. They were currently playing with each other while their mother watched over them. The molfs I had spawned the other day ran over suddenly and started barking at my roots while wagging their tails. They must have appreciated the upgrade. Based on my conversation with Sluggo I came to the conclusion that my other purchase that added molfs to the world monster pool should now be in effect. I assumed that meant that molfs would now be appearing around the world and in other dungeons.

  "Obviously that is great, who wouldnt want molfs?" I said to myself. From what I was able to see around the dungeon, it seemed like it has pretty much reached completion. I would have to talk to the goblins about making a new floor soon. I checked in on Hugh Man’s child and they were glad to talk with me, but they had little to report. I would have to get some adventurers to try the dungeon soon.

  "I can't forget to give Hugh Man some time off either, parent child bonding is important!" I said to myself.

  As I was checking out the areas of the dungeons completed first floor I felt a strange sensation. I forced one of my tentacle roots to grow rapidly towards the direction. It used a lot of mana to force myself to grow more quickly but I needed to know what that feeling was. Suddenly I felt my fleshy root pop out of the soil.

  "Did I reach the surface?" My question was quickly answered. My root grew a few eyes and I looked around. The first thing I noticed was that I seemed to still be underground but there was a lot more light. I must have been inside some cave near the surface now. As I continued looking around the cave I was shocked by what I saw. A shattered dungeon core lied on the ground of the cave floor.

  "Why is there a dungeon core here? This seems oddly close for two dungeons." I said to myself. Was that feeling from before some sort of dungeon distress signal? It looked like the core broke before it got any help from Steve. As usual, Steve was useless. I took a look around the cave to see who could have possibly destroyed the core. I didn't feel any lingering attachment to the fallen core but it was still good to be aware of possible threats. I made out the image of five creatures standing in a circle near a wall, past the shattered core. The creatures seemed to be some sort of bipedal lizard, each standing about two feet tall. Four of the creatures were holding spears and shields and the other seemed to be carrying a staff with a red gem.

  "We have defeated dungeon! We true dragons!" said the staff wielding lizard while raising their staff towards the ceiling of the cave while cheering.

  "We feast on mushrooms, yes?" asked one of the spearman.

  "Yes we feast in victory!" shouted another.

  "Yes we feast. Then we tell tribe!" said the staff holder while motioning to a wall covered in mushrooms.

  Their odd form of speech was so charming!

  I continued staring at the little creatures while slowly growing my roots across the wall to get closer to them. The creature’s toothy grins soon came into view.

  "Adorable!" I said aloud, this was by accident however. Apparently my new tentacle grew a mouth in order to accomodate my need for speech in the cave.

  "Ambush! Shield formation!" shouted one of the lizardmen.

  The four shielded lizards suddenly went alert and took on the formation. They locked their shields together to form a wall in front of the staff wielding lizard. They were apparently more organized than my goblin friends.

  "Who there? Why you speak dragon tongue?" asked the lizard with the staff.

  I quickly lashed my tentacle root out and picked up the staff wielding lizard. Of course the little lizard people were shocked, but they were too cute for me to ignore.

  "No hurt queen!" shouted a spearman as he attempted to stab at my root.

  I felt a bit of pain, but ignored the little guy. They were too adorable to hurt after all! I quickly extended another tentacle from the wall and slowly patted the head of the struggling lizard queen. I didn't know lizards had royalty.

  "I'm the Shiny God! Let's be friends!" I said.

  The lizards looked at me in shock while I continued petting their queen.

  "No hurt us Shiny God?" asked the struggling lizard queen.

  "What are you guys? You are so damn cute!" I said.

  "We no cute. We fierce dragons!" shouted one of the spearman.

  "Yes. Tiny, cute, and fierce dragons!" I said in agreement.

  "We kobolds. We have dragonblood. You want be friends with kobolds?" said the queen with a confused look.

  "Yes let's be friends! Why did you guys break this core? Did Steve tell it to hurt you?" I asked.

  "Who Steve? We break core to get strong! Need win war!" said one of the kobold spearman.

  "We worship shiny god and Shiny God give power, yes?" Asked the kobold queen.

  "Sure! If you want you guys can come to my town. I'm sure the goblins can help with your war!" I said, in an attempt to be as persuasive as possible.

  "Goblins bad. Goblins kill Kobold." Said one of the shieldmen, still unsure. The queen glared at the soldier while still in my grasp.

  "We come. We need win war. Goblins better than no help." said the queen.

  This was perfect. "More cuteness for my dungeon! " I shouted while laughing. The walls vibrated from my laughter. The kobolds were shaking in fear.

  "We no mean to anger Shiny God. Goblins are good, yes? No kill kobolds?" asked one of the soldiers, not quite sure of my opinion of them.

  "We lure enemy to town with kobold tactics. Goblins help win war. Then we worship Shiny god. We all benefit." said the queen.

  "That sounds adorable… I mean perfect." I said while gently placing the queen back on the ground. "

  My tentacle quivered as a large sac quickly formed on it. I pumped extra mana into it while it rapidly grew before bursting. Blood and pus exploded out across the cave and a goblin body fell to the ground. The goblin stood and immediately cheered.

  "Yay me born! Thank you Shiny God!" said the goblin before it turned towards me and started waving. The kobolds all bowed in unison while staring on in awe.

  "Shiny God powerful." said the queen.

  "This little goblin friend will show you how to get to the town." I said while pushing the goblin towards the kobolds.. I waved my tentacle while they left the cave with my newly created goblin friend.

  "Have a fun war!" I was soon the only one left, still waving my tentacle in utter joy.