“A divinity crystal? What’s that?” I asked.

The nobles looked at me with surprise.

“You’re a rank B dragon, but you don’t know what a divinity crystal is?” Asty asked with a hint of incredulity.

“Look, I am a year and a few months old, there’s plenty of stuff that wasn’t explained to me just yet!” I answered.

That left the entire room speechless, with the exception of Nico, who already knew, and Durreg, who was barely a few months older himself.

“Anyway,” Nico interjected forcefully, “the short version of it is that when a god dies, they leave behind a portion of their divinity in the form of a divinity crystal. Anyone who breaks the crystal will gain a number of divine shards depending on the rank of the God who left the crystal behind. And before you ask, yes, gods have ranks.” She said.

“The ones we know of so far are ‘Petty,’ ‘Lesser,’ and ‘Greater.’ Gods without such modifiers are presumed to be a rank above ‘Lesser,’ and are informally known as ‘Common’ Gods in academic settings, though the system makes no such distinction on its own. All the major gods of the four nations, with one exception, fall into that latest category. The only two known gods who held the rank of ‘Greater God’ were the slain head of the Dragon Cult and God-King Katu of Kengir – the aforementioned exception.”

“Huh.” I nodded.

Before I could ask about the differences between the ranks, the Major glared at Nico and me.

“We are in the presence of the Pharaoh. You can talk as much as you like once we’re done here.” She said.

Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s smile widened slightly as Nico bowed her head in chagrin.

“As enlightening as your conversation had been, we are admittedly on a short schedule. Asten, dear, in the interest of time, we’ll be discussing your reward in private as well. That brings us to you two, our foreign guests.”

The Pharaoh’s smile widened ever so slightly.

“Lady Azoth, Lord Durreg, the two of you have performed wonderfully throughout the tournament. For bringing victory to both Tamery and the Isles, and in the interest of a better tomorrow between the Dragons and Humankind, it is my pleasure to bestow these rewards upon you.” She said.

With a wave of her hand, two magic items appeared on the table next to the magic contracts she summoned earlier.

“For you, Lord Durreg, an extremely rare artifact fashioned from an even rarer rank S monster: a [Phoenix Feather].” She said.

My eyes widened in recognition of the monster’s name.

“Not only is the monster this artifact was fashioned from rarely encountered in the fourth layer of the Abyss, but the required expertise in salvaging the required parts before they spoil is extensive. And if that wasn’t difficult enough, the success rate in creating it is one in a thousand for even the most talented craftsmen. However, when you do succeed, you emerge with a single-use artifact that will resurrect the user upon death, with full HP, MP, and Stamina.”

Durreg stared at the item wide-eyed, and I was certain he was appraising it over and over to make sure the Pharaoh’s words were right.

“In all of Tameryian history, only one other such item was ever fashioned, and it was used during the battle between the dragon cult and the united front of the Gods and the rebelling Dragons. This one was only fashioned months ago, during the Revenge of the Abyss. It is my hope that you will never have to use it, but it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”

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For a front-line tank, there was no better gift to receive. Each reward declared so far had shown great care into everyone’s circumstances and goals, showing attention to detail next to the generosity in the Pharaoh.

“As for you, Lady Azoth, I struggled more in finding something to award you with than everyone else put together.” She laughed.

“Erm… I am sorry?” I said, rubbing the back of my head.

“Don’t be, don’t be. I managed it in the end, and I think you’ll be just as satisfied: for you, I have a single-use item known as a skill ascendancy stone.”

Seeing the proverbial question marks floating over my head, the Pharaoh elaborated.

“On very rare occasions, the System bestows one of these little treasures upon a classer; usually for accomplishing a legendary feat in a non-combat related task. The stone itself acts exactly as its name implies – it will greatly improve a single one of your non-class related skills. As you can imagine, most who earn one of these are seldom willing to part with it – imagine what each of them could do with the same skill they earned the stone with in the first place?”

Half of the room stared at the stone with naked desire or clear admiration, but as the recipient of this reward, I had another question in mind.

“If this stone is so rare, how’d you manage to get one for me?” I asked.

“Why, I earned it myself.” She said nonchalantly.

“Moth-, Your Grace!” Asten protested.

“As worthy as Lady Azoth is of a reward, why give up something you earned through hard work? Is there truly nothing else the Theocracy can offer her?!”

The Pharaoh smiled and shook her head.

“I got this stone for exercising strong leadership over this nation and bringing it to great prosperity – and I did it without a single war or conflict to speak of since my coronation fifty years ago. Now that I am abdicating the throne and retiring in the Field of Reeds, wouldn’t you agree such a reward is wasted on me?”

Asten tried to protest further, but the Pharaoh shut him down.

“This stone would be of little benefit to the Gods, who already earned enough of these for their own skills, the new Pharaoh, who has yet to prove herself worthy, or the members of our army and bureaucracy, whose strength is derived from institutional power rather than individual talent. It would be best to invest this stone in rewarding the young Dragon for her service and to earn her goodwill – it is clear she will have great influence amongst her own kind in the coming centuries.”

With that, Asten conceded and let the matter rest.

“Well, now,” the Pharaoh clapped, “with the official state awards conferred to the representatives of the nation, allow me to present you with one more award each, courtesy of Lady Renet, the Goddess of Fortune. Please welcome Lord Khemri, the man who served as Lady Renet’s Champion for over five hundred years. The longest serving human champion has personally arrived to deliver his Lady’s rewards to you, so make sure to pay him the respect he deserves!” The Pharaoh announced.

“Hohoho, I will strive to be worthy of your words, Your Grace.” Khemri, who was standing beside the Pharaoh the whole time, finally said as he stroked his beard.

My eyes widened as I realized that Khemri was the same man who met me in the dungeon, and, more importantly, that he wasn’t just some random old worshipper. The longest serving human champion is surely no simple character, especially with a goddess as fickle as Renet. I also had a feeling that his name was very familiar to me.

“I will be manifesting my Lady’s power to read your fortunes.” He said.

“This power is costly and exhausting for my Lady, but she has decided to grant it to you, nonetheless. Please offer her your thanks, or don’t. I am not sure if she particularly cares for it.”

The old man laughed heartily, but no one present dared to join him in his laughter. Eventually, his laughter settled down and he continued speaking.

“Major Amset, my Lady referred to you by name as an included beneficiary of this reward. Once the members of both teams have received their readings, please step forth to take one of your own.” He said.

The Major looked briefly surprised but nodded in understanding.

“Anywho, whose first? You over there, come on over!” Khemri said, pointing to Nishem.

When Nishem stepped forward, Khemri continued.

“Place your hand on my shoulder. Doesn’t matter which one – I just need you to be physically in contact with me as I channel my Lady’s divine magic.”

Nishem did as he was asked, then Khemri snapped a finger, and a leatherbound notebook with an oversized quill appeared between the two. Khemri grabbed the floating book and quill, and a blue aura emerged from his body as he fell into a trance and began writing mechanically into one of the book’s pages.

Khemri then ripped the page he wrote on and handed it over to Nishem; the blue aura never vanished from Khemri’s body and eyes until Nishem had taken the page from him.

“Hohoho, who’s next?!” Khemri said energetically.

“Don’t worry, I don’t actually see whatever your fortunes are as I write them, so you have total privacy!”

It didn’t take long for the rest of us to jump on the old man’s offer.