The pain soon faded away as my senses returned. However, despite possessing divine senses, I had managed to get wrapped up so much in my transformation and the creation of the Dragon God’s System that I didn’t pay attention to my surroundings. I suddenly realized that below the towering spire, a group of black robed men and women had congregated around the base of the building. Not only that, but there were also skeletons, ghouls, wights, wraiths, specters, shadows, mummies, ghosts, and liches.
More continued to arrive as I gazed down upon them. The undead creatures would approach, and then once they were close enough, they would stop and kneel down and kowtow in my direction. Even some of the black robed individuals had dropped to one knee. Although I doubted they had seen me, I was sure that I had created some type of disturbance when I ascended to become a god. I might even have caused one when I created the system. Either that, or they sensed something.
Realizing they could tell that a God of Death had been born, I decided to fly down and see how they would react to me being a small black dragon. Before doing this though, I placed the newly created bloodline balls of blood into my divine realm. Even before I landed, I was able to tell how they felt with my divine senses.
Predictably, the undead creatures showed the least emotions. It was more like an ingrained reaction in most of the undead. The only ones who showed a little more emotion were the liches, although there were only a few of them. The biggest reactions were from the black robed men and women.
Most of them were struck by an overwhelming sense of both dread and reverence. Before them was a god whose presence exuded an aura of profound connection to death. For the clerics and necromancers who had spent much of their life studying the dark arts and the mysteries of the afterlife, they had unexpectedly met a new god of death. While they still respected Banasár, they also had to acknowledge that I was the new god of death.
They were caught between the urge to prostrate themselves in reverence and the instinct to retreat in the face of divine power. Every cleric and necromancer remained motionless, their breaths hitching in their throats as I flew down. As soon as my claws touched the ground, one of the black robed men, who was obviously a leader among the humans, spoke while his head was still bowed down. “Greetings Great God of Death. Let me be the first to congratulate you on your ascension.”
Not wanting to make a mistake, I infused faith points into my telepathic ability. While I could have tried using telepathy to read his thoughts without boosting it with faith points, I was also afraid it would fail since the black robed man seemed powerful.
“This is our chance,” the man thought. “We have to gain the favor of the new death god.”
Seeing that the man obviously wanted to get on my good side, I decided to make it easy for him. Afterall, I needed new believers. In fact, I also needed clerics. While I had to admit that I was enjoying the feeling of power and respect, I also didn’t feel comfortable yet with such a display. Therefore, I said “Do not kneel before me. Instead, stand tall in the face of death. A simple bow is more than sufficient to show your sincerity.”
“A fine sentiment,” the black robed man thought as he stood up. Everyone else also stood up, following his lead. Even the undead began to stand tall. “Thank you for your kindness. How may I address you with the respect that you are due?” “I hope none of the others ruin this moment by mentioning how tiny the god is for a dragon,” the man’s thoughts continued.
“I am Nóttormr, the God of Death and Twilight” I replied politely, trying not to be annoyed by the man’s thoughts about my size. Afterall, at least he didn’t want to offend me.
“I’ve never heard of a God of Twilight,” the man thought before actually saying, “Let me be the first to congratulate you on your ascension to the divine, Lord Nóttormr.” Then he continued with his thought, “I hope he gives me his favor.”
I almost started laughing at the man’s greed. Although I wasn’t sure whether he was a cleric or a necromancer, the man obviously wanted to benefit from my power before he even did anything for me. Still, I was actually tempted to give it to him. This was especially true since I had just finished creating the Dragon God’s System. Even if the black robed men and women didn’t become my believers, they might spread the word about my divine birth.
“Thank you,” I said. “In honor of this occasion, I will bestow upon each of you a chance to reshape your destiny, just as I have reshaped mine.” After saying that, I realized I had a problem. The undead probably didn’t have blood, except for the vampires at least. Even the liches probably didn’t have blood.
Taking a moment, I withdrew a bloodline ball of blood from my divine realm and started creating new ones inside my divine realm with some of my remaining faith points. Creating these Bloodline Contracts, which I instantly dubbed them, only took a few seconds of time. After I was done, I held out one of the Bloodline Contracts to the man. “I will allow you to be the first to accept one of the Bloodline Contracts. With this, you can gain the powers of a dragon.”
The black robed man looked at me. Then he looked at the bead of blood before looking at me once again. Reluctantly, almost as if he was forcing himself, he reached out to take the Bloodline Contract. “Thank you Lord Nóttormr,” he said, although his voice cracked somewhat.
At first, I was quite pleased. However, after hearing what he was thinking, I barely resisted the urge to smash him.
“Yeah, thanks for giving me something that might kill me,” the man thought as he looked down at the bead of blood that he held in his hand. “You’re a freaking god of death! This will probably kill me. Am I going to rot away a slow lingering death? Hopefully, I’ll die in a fiery blaze of glory.”
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At this point, the man turned around and looked at the other black robed men and women who surrounded him, his eyes begging for someone to save him. “Come on guys, give me a plausible reason to say no to this miniature god.” However, no one said anything. Instead, they waited expectantly, deeply curious to see what would happen to the man.
“Fine you ungrateful dogs, I’ll remember this,” he thought as he finally swallowed the Bloodline Contract. “If I survive that is.”
I also watched, curious to see how he would react. I already knew what he would immediately see. Although I could have verified it by telepathically listening to him as he mentally read the words, I didn’t have to since I could see the popup screen in his mind. After all, the system was connected to me, which meant that if I wanted to, I knew everything about it as long as I paid attention to it.
Imagine unlocking the powers of a dragon. By accepting this contract, you gain the chance to transcend mortal limitations and gain divine powers. Envision yourself casting arcane spells, soaring through the skies, or possessing other draconic abilities. Embrace this opportunity to become a legend. Protect those you love. Reshape your destiny! The path to greatness awaits. Are you willing to seize this opportunity? YES or NO
I watched as the crowd looked at the man, clearly interested in finding out if he would survive. Apparently, death gods weren’t known for their generosity and were more inclined toward killing they met. As for the man, I could clearly hear his thoughts.
“What? Uh, so I can become more powerful by accepting the contract? What happens if I choose no? Will I die? What happens if I choose yes? Will I turn into a dragon? Will I transform into a dragonborn? Will I become a bloodline sorcerer? What does seizing this opportunity entail? Really? Couldn’t you give me some more information? How am I supposed to make a choice if this is all that I am told? I’m not a mushroom that needs to be kept in the dark. Then again, I guess you can’t expect much from a newborn god. I mean, look at his size. He’s not even big enough to be considered a runt among dragons. I’ve seen dragon poop bigger than him. I hope he can’t read my thoughts.”
With that, he looked at me. However, that didn’t stop him from continuing to be dissatisfied with the system for not providing more information. The more he thought, the more I got annoyed. I had just made the system. Cut me some slack. Sheesh, as for my size, screw you. I continued to get annoyed. Perhaps, sensing something, the man hurriedly selected yes. I nodded, satisfied, hoping the man would learn to respect my system instead of insulting it.
Finally, after accepting the contract, information about how to obtain draconic points and how they could be used were shown to him. It also imprinted the Ritual of Sacrifice into his mind so that he could make offerings to me in the future. I was starting to regret using telepathy to read his mind since his disrespect continued.
However, realizing that maybe I should have added more information, I started making changes in the system to include additional popup windows that would provide more information. I didn’t even make him waste any magic items to upgrade the system. I just did it myself. That was how it should be done.
The black robed man continued thinking as he looked through the information screens, “Is he trying to make me a believer? How does this have anything to do with being a god of death? Death isn’t even mentioned here. Is it all about draconic powers? Does this stupid dragon even know that it is a god of death? I mean, I felt the aura of death from halfway across the city. However, it instead offers me draconic powers. I’m a necromancer. I’m not a dragon blooded sorcerer.
“Wait, I don’t even have to pray to him if I don’t want to? I just need to make offerings or kill people? Okay, I admit, this isn’t too bad. Hmm, let’s give it a try. I have a Broom of Flying. The auctioning cost of such a flying broom often starts between one hundred to five hundred gold pieces, but will usually end up costing about 1500 gold pieces. If I combine that with ten potions of health, that should be enough to get what I need.”
All this raced through the man’s mind as everyone waited, including myself. I was starting to get annoyed, but I struggled not to show it. At least the man was going to choose wings as his first power. Draconic transformations like that actually didn’t even require too many faith points. I just needed to invest a little blood essence, which I could recover after taking a long rest.
To save time, I used faith points to create the Ritual of Sacrifice sigil on the ground. If I had to wait for the man to do it, it would have taken him a while. I had neither the patience or the time to wait around for him. Also, I needed to strike while the iron was hot. If it took too long for the man to show off his power, the other men and women might not decide to accept the Bloodline Contract.
After thanking me, the man took the items he had chosen out of a Bag of Holding and placed them on the proper spot. Then he started chanting. A minute later, the items disappeared as if they had never been there. There wasn’t even a flash of light. The items were just gone.
Then the man nodded, as if pleased to see something. Of course, I wasn’t as pleased when I heard his thoughts, “Stingy system. Those items were worth two thousand gold, but you only gave me a thousand draconic points. I’m your first customer. Couldn’t you have given me a discount? What about some type of welcoming bag? I am basically paying for everything. How is this a gift? This is more like a trading center. Well, at least I can get rid of some junk I don’t use any longer.”
I was also quite annoyed about the fact that I was giving the necromancer the gift of flight with draconic wings, while all I was getting in return was a magic item that was almost useless to me. Then again, if the magic items were too worthless, I could always extract the magic from them.
However, I became much more pleased when a pair of draconic wings suddenly tore through the back of his robes and began flapping, raising him up into the air. After a few seconds though, he landed and tested to see if he could make the wings retract. Fortunately, when I designed the wings, I made sure that they were temporary, much like the Alter Self spell.
Users could activate their bloodline to make the wings grow. The stronger their constitution, the longer they could maintain the change. However, even the unhealthiest person would still be able to sustain the wings for over an hour. They didn’t even require concentration.
Needless to say, the necromancer’s display of power prompted every eye to switch toward me. They no longer looked at me like I was the god of death. Instead, they looked at me like I was the god of gold. Suddenly, I felt like I was surrounded by an enormous group of greedy gnomes where I was a glittering gold coin. I barely repressed the urge to shudder. Gods shouldn’t fear mortals, right?