Alright guys, sorry for the delay...Now on to the plot... (I had to argue with myself over where to take this, among other things...)
------------------------
With the established objective, I started my planning...
Of course, for now I am useless in everything except for my ridiculously high magic attack. This rendered any "short term" plans for vengeance against this god to be cast aside from sheer impossibility.
After the ceremony was over I walked up to the man that I assumed was the "pope", this was the same man who
had gotten everyone in the room, including the king, to kneel and pray while awaiting my name. He smiled as I approached.
"Greeting Lord Tinklebim. How my I assist our lords chosen hero?" He said with a serious face. For some reason nobody else took any offense or thought of my name as comical. While I assumed this was due to their reverence to their god or the popes declaration that it was a divine oracle, I decided to put this to the side for now, and continue on with my original question.
"Greeting, I had a small question mr...?"
"Ah! I am lord pope Gon-phahtmmahn. I would be happy to help in any way possible." He said with a slight chuckle. Inwardly laughed at his name, wondering if lord fatman's was also given to him by the divine asshole.
"Ah yes, as I am quite new to this world, I lack knowledge of magic, specifically if there exists something that could aide me in casting magic for less mana, or in expanding my maximum mana or something of the sort that I could use to supplement my own mana pool." I said seemingly reverent to his position in this room. In actuality though, I didn't give a fatman for who Mr. Fatman was, but making my aggression and anger known would only make my life harder and could very possibly get me killed.
"Ah of course Lord Tinklebim; While what you seek only exists in myth, there are references made to it in the holy texts of our lord. You seek the eye of Sarobrax." He nodded a few times, but seeing as how I had no idea what he was talking about, he continued, "Sarobrax was the queen of all dragons. She was sealed long ago, it was hinted at in the texts that her power over the dragons and their mastery of magic. With her power comes a massively increased mana pool and the opportunity to gain the loyalty of the remaining dragons should you best them in combat. Other then this however, there is only one method to attain a larger mana pool, and this is to take someone's mana. This mana is only temporary however, and will kill the person should you take more then half of what they have. It is also extremely painful for both sides. For the target because his/her life force is being forcibly pulled out by another force, and for the user because their body cannot withstand the mana that they are taking, causing the body to break down from the inside out. Regardless,both methods have been banned, for obvious reasons. " The pope said with a small sigh.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"That is a shame, All of my magic requires a pool larger then what I have..." I muttered under my breath. The pope seems to have heard my comment, and proceeded to say,
"Of course, for the hero, no method is truly "forbidden" except unleashing the dragon queen. Should you ask I could subtly arrange for a few... subordinates, who's sole job would be to aide you in your quest against our enemies. You would be sure to take care not to kill them with over leeching right?" The pope said, as he lowered his voice and glanced around at the higher ups in the room. All of them were minding their own business and had not been paying much attention to our conversation, or they were simply respecting pope Fatman. Regardless of their reasons, all of them were out of earshot when he and I were talking.
"That would be much appreciated your grace, now, who exactly are we fighting?" I asked still unsure if this method of revenge actually just fell into my lap this easily. They were not only sanctioning my usage of "forbidden" methods but were even allowing me hosts to take mana from. This was the best news that I had heard all day. Now I only needed to subtly make my way to the enemy capitol and defect so that I could destroy this idiot country that worshiped this asshole god.
"Of course, the explanation is a long one, I will be sure to personally explain it to you after dinner." With the mention of dinner the fat man chuckled to himself. " By then I will have hand picked a group of guards for your personal use. Each of them will be utterly loyal and have a high base mana pool. I might even throw in a few... extras... but do keep in mind, that although our lord sanctions 'freedom' some things are best kept separate from war... Now, I am off to attend my duties Lord Tinklebim, I will see you later when I have completed my preparations..." And with that the pope sauntered off, leaving me "unattended" by nobles for only a few moments as I was soon overwhelmed by a large amount of minor and major nobles.
After an hour or so, when everyone's curiosity had been sated, they disperesed, leaving me alone in the room. I heard a small whisper from behind the throne beckoning to me.
"Lord Tinklebim, please, this way..." I turned and saw a cute lady, in her late teens telling me to follow her down a hallway....