“So this is a training hall, huh? Gotta admit, I was expecting a bit more...” Callan glanced around at the empty room. It didn’t even have any piles to indicate where equipment might have once been. “...Well, more.”

Hmm. Perhaps the sensors did not detect our entrance. Just a moment.

Xeph’s presence in his head shifted towards the back, a sensation that was as alien as it was uncomfortable. Callan stood, trying to think about anything besides the fact a strange incorporeal entity was currently rooting around inside of his skull.

There. I have manually activated the room’s training program.

“What does that mean exactly?” Callan asked, only to blink as a section of the floor pulled away, and a trio of mannequins rose in front of him. “Actually, never mind, I think I figured it out for myself.”

He approached the first of the mannequins. It was vaguely human-shaped and wore a set of armor that looked straight out of a fantasy novel, all interwoven chain with a few pieces of leather where the joints would be on a person.

“Am I supposed to wear that?”

No. You’re supposed to strike that.

“What, with like my fists?” Callan knew some basics, but he was no professional fighter, that was for certain. “Pretty sure hitting that barehanded is a good way to end up with bloody knuckles. Besides, is wasting my time training really a good idea? I thought we were looking for an exit.”

We can spare a few minutes.

Callan frowned. “For what? I’m not going to put on enough muscle mass in the next ten minutes to make it worth the trouble.”

You aren’t here for that kind of training, Xeph said with a sigh like the wind over a borehole. But so that you can familiarize yourself with your new abilities. I would rather you learn of the quirks and eccentricities of wielding a god’s power now, before called to do so in a crisis.

“Oh, right! Those things.” With a flick, Callan pulled up his stat screen. Under Bounties, it currently listed two abilities, a manifestation called Mountainform, and an orison called Shape Stone.

Since the dummy didn’t have any stone for him to reshape, he focused on the manifestation. Another box appeared in front of him.

Manifestation: Mountainform

Encases the user in a protective layer of stone. Quantity of coverage and quality of stone dependent upon ranking. Remains until dismissed.

Cost to activate = 10% Apotheosis

“Soooooo, how do I activate this? Do I just concentrate like I do for the stat screen?”

Callan gave the ability a mental nudge. Nothing happened.

It is less a mental command and more an innate feeling. Reflect inward, and you should find the power dwelling in your core. Once you know where to look, calling up it will be as natural as breathing.

“My core? Please tell me you’re not going to start spouting a bunch of nonsense about channeling my chi next. I get enough of that from my uncle. The guy can’t even come over for a visit without making me watch at least one terrible old kung fu flick from the seventies.”

I don’t know what any of those things are. Just focus.

“Right, right.” Callan sighed, then closed his eyes. He tried to focus his thoughts “inward”, whatever the hell that meant. A bunch of mystical mumbo-jumbo if you asked him—

Oh.

There it was. A shining ball of light nestled inside of him, like it had always been there, just waiting to be discovered. Even though Callan knew it hadn’t existed in him before coming to this world, it felt like it had always been a part of him.

Opening his eyes again, he looked down at his hands. As he watched, his skin shimmered, and a thin layer of chalky white stone oozed from his pores, spreading out and solidifying between one breath and the next. It stopped just a little ways past his wrists, leaving him looking like he was wearing the world’s grittiest pair of boxing gloves.

Alert: 9.5% Apotheosis used.

Total Apotheosis is at 9.5%

Flexing his fingers, he was surprised how easy it was to still move them. They felt a little bulkier than usual, but not so much he couldn’t easily form a fist.

Good. There was a note of pride in Xeph’s voice. Now, let us see what you can accomplish.

Tentatively, Callan squared off in front of the mannequin, raising his fists into a starting position. He struck out with a quick jab.

His stone-encrusted fist hit the mannequin in the middle of its armored chest. The practice dummy rocked slightly back and forth from the impact. Callan was mildly surprised: he had thought the stone covering him would provide more solid feedback, but he hadn’t felt the strike at all.

It seemed the stone provided some sort of cushioning effect, making his attacks feel more like shadowboxing. Actually, it reminded him of the time Lyle had him try out his VR headgear. He’d played a sort of boxing game there too, and even though he hadn’t felt his fists impact anything but air, by the end of a half hour playing the game he’d been drenched in sweat. Lyle had laughed, and explained something about how the anticipation of a strike was as much of a workout as the real thing. Though Callan doubted his friend knew that from experience. Lyle was many things, but athletic was definitely not one of them.

Again! Xeph barked, bringing Callan’s attention back to the present. He practiced a few more moves against the mannequin, rocking it about but never getting close to knocking it over. Callan wasn’t sure if it was because the thing was weighted at the bottom, or if his strength was seriously that weak.

Had to be the first one. The implications of the second were too depressing to think about.

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Time to move on to the second golem. You seem to have a solid grasp of combat maneuvers already, that is good. It places you well above my previous incarnations.

“Oh yeah, I’m totally a badass warrior. Also, what’s a golem?”

Focus! Xeph’s voice rattled in his head, and Callan let out a sigh. Raising his fists again, he stepped in front of the second mannequin. This one was similarly attired to the first but also contained a pair of wooden arms to each side. A small, metal shield was wrapped around one of them. Callan dimly recalled seeing a similar one before. He thought it was called a... buckler?

Just like with the first mannequin, he started out with a quick jab to the chest.

Instead of rocking back and forth, the mannequin leapt backwards, buckler coming up to intercept his strike. Callan let out a yelp of surprise.

Ah, good, this golem appears to be operational.

“Yeah, you think?” Callan eyed the wooden dummy suspiciously. After he had retracted his arm, it let the shield drop back to its side, but he suspected it was poised and waiting for his next attack.

Hopping on the balls of his feet, he danced to one side and tried a few more jabs. The dummy flicked its arm out and blocked each attack, though the second one managed to rock it a bit. Callan fell back and considered his opponent.

It only had one shield, and its arms were too short for full coverage. Which meant...

Darting in quick, he shot off another jab, then followed up with a rear hook with his other arm. The dummy blocked the first but couldn’t move its shield quickly enough to stop the hook from getting through. It rocked backwards a bit and almost fell over.

Hmm. Promising. Now for the third.

“How are these things moving, anyway?” Callan asked, stepping up to the final dummy, or golem, or whatever. “Are you funneling your power into them too?”

Don’t be ridiculous. These are simple dveorgan golems.

“They’re what now?”

Dveorgan. They’re... Xeph trailed off, and a sense of confusion suddenly rippled through Callan, originating from the back of his skull. It was a strange feeling, especially since he knew that it hadn’t come from him.

“Can’t remember?’

Indeed. It appears that particular memory remains compressed. Strange. I know of the dveorg, but I cannot seem to recall what, exactly, they are. It is a most frustrating sensation.

“Well, at least we have that in common.”

I suppose, Xeph muttered, though he didn’t sound as if he fully agreed.

Callan stopped in front of the final golem and studied it. This one, in addition to being armed with a buckler, was holding a small steel blade.

Yeah, that looked way too sharp for something which had been underground for nearly two millennia.

“Is this thing going to fight back?”

Possibly. Only one way to know for certain.

Callan sighed. “Alright, but if I die from my injuries, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.”

If you die, I will of course offer my most heartfelt sympathies.

Tensing for an attack, Callan started with a simple jab-cross combo. The golem lurched to life, blocking the jab with its shield and cracking its blade across Callan’s knuckles.

The blade bounced off his stone gloves with little effect.

Another reason for this training session, Xeph drawled as Callan stared at his unharmed hand. You must think about your Mountainform both offensively and defensively. While its uses are limited at this early stage, as the numbers of our followers swell, it will become one of the most important tools in your possession.

“I’m beginning to see that.” Raising his fists again, Callan darted in, and the golem had to leap back to avoid his flurry of strikes. Its sword flashed out, but he merely turned it aside with the back of his hand, the blade raking uselessly against stone.

Then Callan’s other fist slammed into the golem’s chest, rocking it backwards.

“Alright!” He pumped a stone fist in the air. Inside his head, Xeph let out a chuckle.

I see you are taking well to the role of avatar. Soon, when my worshippers outnumber the grains of sand in the sea, you will taste true power like you can barely imagine. A flick of a finger will leave these pitiful constructs as little more than dust and ruin!

Waves of Xeph’s excitement rippled through him as the god continued to crow about their inevitable return to glory, but Callan just couldn’t bring himself to feel the same. This power was amazing, true, but it only mattered if the god could chase away his cancer for good. Otherwise, all of this was meaningless.

A few moments later, the god collected himself. That is sufficient work with Mountainform for now. It is time you mastered your orison as well.

“You mean Shape Stone?” This time Callan didn’t even need to shut his eyes to sense a second ball of light inside. He had barely even reached out for it before the power welled up inside of him, ready to be used.

A hazy circle appeared on the ground, showing the maximum range of his ability, if he had to guess. With a thought, he activated his orison.

Immediately, a sense of solidity settled between his fingers, like he held a particularly tough piece of putty, one he could just barely mold. At the same time, a small glow formed on the floor below. Callan found that it moved with his vision, to the very edge of the circle. So this power not only showed him his range, but what area of stone it would affect?

As an experiment, Callan turned and directed the glow towards the nearest golem. While it would move near, he discovered that it stopped short of touching them.

The glow also wouldn’t cross over the section of floor from which the golems had emerged. It would disappear on one side and reappear once his eyes moved to the other. Apparently whatever mechanism had brought the golems up wasn’t made of stone, though it had the look of it. Or maybe the stone simply wasn’t thick enough to manipulate.

Questions to answer later. For now, he redirected the glow to directly in front of him again, then gave the invisible putty in his hands a squeeze.

A small ridge began to rise from the floor. When it was about six inches high and maybe half that across, it came to a stop.

Alert: 4.75% Apotheosis used.

Total Apotheosis is at 10.25%

“Huh.” Callan stared at the results of his efforts. The little ridge on the floor wasn’t particularly impressive. Might have been enough to trip somebody running at him, but that was about it.

They spent a bit more time letting him learn how to shape the stone. He managed to create a good-sized divot in the floor, and once even crafted something that had the general shape of a spike, though he doubted it was sharp enough to cause any real damage.

Finally, Xeph called a halt to his efforts. That is enough for now, mortal. You do not want to push past your current limit unless it is a true emergency.

As if in response to the god’s words, another message flashed across his vision.

Alert: 4.75% Apotheosis used.

Total Apotheosis is at 24.5%

Callan frowned as he read. “Hey, Xeph.”

Yes, Mortal?

“Something doesn’t seem to be adding up right. I should have way exceeded twenty-five percent by now. And earlier, Mountainform only cost 9.5% instead of 10% like it said in the description.”

Ah, yes. Xeph let out a dry chuckle. Apotheosis will slowly drop on its own, quicker if you take the time to eat or sleep, which is why you have not exceeded your allotted usage.

“Okay. And the discrepancy with Mountainform?”

Open your stat screen and look at the information for your God Bond.

Callan did so. Immediately, a new window appeared in his vision.

God Bond: Talc — I

Reduces Apotheosis cost of all bounties by 5%

Followers to next level: 10

“Oh hey, only three more followers until the next level.” Callan stretched and glanced towards the door. “Guess we’d better get back on that, huh?”

What do you mean, Human? We still have more training to complete.

“Really? I mean, I can’t exactly use my Shape Stone anymore for the moment. Do you want me to practice on those golems again?”

No, no. There was a note to Xeph’s voice that Callan didn’t like one bit. While that was good for the start, those particular models are only good at defensive maneuvers. This one, however...

The floor rumbled again, and another golem appeared. It immediately drew a pair of blades and began advancing towards him.

“Uh, Xeph?” Callan took a hesitant step back. “Remember what I said about dying earlier? I’m not sure this is the best idea.”

Bah, have more confidence in yourself, mortal. You said that you were a warrior. I’m certain this is nothing you cannot handle.

“That was sarcasm!” The golem swung a blade at him, and Callan yelped as he just barely managed to knock it away.

Really? Why would you—

“Not the time, Xeph!”

Fine. Just a moment while I deactivate... Oh. Oh dear.

“What?” Callan asked, already afraid to know the answer. The golem swung at him, and he dove out of the way.

Well, let us both just consider this a valuable learning experience. The god hesitated, then added, One where we learn the value of running away.