As soon as the message disappears everything around me seems to stop in place almost like its frozen in time except for Dawn who flits to me from around the corner. As she approaches her face shows distress before another figure follows her out, this one unknown. The man stands ten feet tall with arms hanging past his knee's. His legs are covered in a sort of robe yet his body is lanky yet well muscled. A small goatee rests on his chin as a tanned face of a handsome native american man stares at me, a third eye on his forehead as small horns poke out of his black hair that hangs down his back in a ponytail.
"We finally meet my friend! Let me formally introduce myself before I walk you through your new faction option. I am the infamous and amazing Toma! God of creativity and all amazing benefactor of yourself!" The man says as my mouth hangs open before I finally smile and start laughing under my breathe.
"I thought you'd be all surfer bro from the conversation we had in the cave way back but your more like a damn tall priesty dude! Holy shit that's fantastic!" I can't help but blurt out as I laugh while noticing the god's third eye twitching before an invisible force surrounds me in a deathgrip and lifts me off the ground so I'm eye level with the being.
"Remember 'Jayce' regardless of my looks and friendliness I am still a god. Never and I repeat NEVER insult or antagonize a god or higher being unless you know you can deal with it, understood?" The god says before I nod as cold sweat runs down my back before I'm unceremoniously dropped on my ass in front of him.
"But we both know you actually need me! Plus drop the high and mighty deal dude your totally just trying to lord over me right now." i say smirking as Toma finally cracks a smile and nods before clearing his throat.
"So factions dude. Basically think guilds and cliques from your world. In this one they're made differently between reborns like you and locals like say Wug or Harold. Locals can make a faction by either being either honored or so notorious to gain the fame needed to be recognized as an established group in an area. There are also factions like trading and mercenary guilds that you apply for the right to run in kingdoms. For reborns like you and Zadin there, the requirements are different. First is you have to have a home base that's expandable. You have your settlement so that's check one. Next is it requires at least two reborns in order to be allowed by this world, us gods decided way back when we started dragging you guys here that if you wanted to have your own groups fine but you needed a leader and someone else to fall back on considering reborns are gifted with both a type of system that allows you to adapt to this world easier as well as certain advantages to help you play on a level field with the locals. Which is why you level so fast and everything is in gaming terms for you guys mostly. So with Zadin you guys can officially create a faction and name it." Toma says quickly as I nod along with his explanation glad that several puzzle pieces are finally sliding into place.
"Quick question dude, are we the only ones that reincarnate here or are there other species and races? And how many are there exactly if you can tell me?" I ask quickly before he can begin explaining more.
"Ok so that's tricky to answer. Short answer is yes there are multiple species from different planets, worlds, realms, and dimensions that are pulled here randomly. strangest one I've seen is a giant egg shaped plant with tentacle arms and a flower at its head that spoke through musical humming. But they're forms in this world are chosen by whoever snags them. Some get turned into new creatures while others keep their original forms but are randomly placed in the world. As to how many there's no real way of knowing, its a random grab. Could be a few dozen, could be thousands. Just so you can wrap your head around the size of this world, the continent your on now is roughly the same size as your entire planet back home if it was flattened out, there are oceans, mountains, swamps, and even underground area's so in that amount of space your liable to find who knows what." he says as my eyes grow wide in astonishment at the size of a single continent of this world and just thinking that I've barely even scraped the surface of exploring it.
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"As I was saying, factions for reborns like you guys are actually more useful than for locals. For starters once the faction is made your given a dimensional storage vault like the guild vaults in games. Only difference is these vaults are accessible to anyone in the faction if they want to donate something to it but only officers and those chosen by you are allowed to withdraw money or materials. Second difference is reborns can donate materials regardless of where they are using their system, hence why the snake materials disappeared and triggered this, Zadin being reborn as well offered it freely to you acknowledging you as a leader of the faction and automatically recruiting him into it as the second. Once it's named and you build a faction hall back in your settlement you can assign quests for members as well as missions to those who wish to earn a place in it. All your members will gain a magical tattoo signifying your faction that you can choose to allow everyone to see or just members too depending on your enemies. Factions are also a good way of making alliances or creating businesses since any allies cannot attack you unless they nullify their alliance. Alliances are bound by divine magic so if its broken in an unapproved way the leadership or whoever is responsible gets a good smiting or curse, sometimes even a mutation into a monstrous horror or something equally entertaining." Toma says the last part wistfully as his eyes close in remembrance as an amused chuckle escapes his mouth.
"Anyways last thing before I can answer some questions man. Each faction usually has a patron that watches over it. Some people use the names of demons, ancient spirits, elementals, or even powerful beings that have magic such as Lich's, dragons, and other beasts and creatures of great power. In exchange for their watching over the faction those patrons gain a small trickle of power that can allow them to give a boon to all faction members while also helping them gain power and in rare cases grow strong enough to enter divinity. At this I request you make me your patron so I can watch your progress easier and maybe block anyone from trying to get to you or others. I'll also be honest that the power I get from it could help me grow stronger plus it'd allow me to peak with you rarely outside of area's of dense magical energy and these random info dumps I'm required to throw at you. But I can bribe you as well as anyone else honestly so here's my offer, you make me patron of your faction and I'll give you a Soul Reader specific weapon, blessed with my magic, as well as creating a unique local and sending them to your settlement to join you and provide you counsel. Sound like a deal?" Toma says excitedly as he holds out his hand for a shake while staring my in the eyes happily.
"Almost sounds good enough. I want one more thing from you dude, bring back Wake. Dude didn't deserve to go out like that and it was my fault so I want him back." I say with determination as I watch the smile fall from Toma's face and his hand fall limply to his side.
"Dude, I wish I could but It's not possible any longer. The most that could happen is bringing him back as an undead but his soul is inside you which would mean it would just be an empty shell. Be grateful that he can live within you now and teach you his skills at least, this swamp is infested with something that's pure evil and if you hadn't gained the skill to save him, chances are that he would've been turned into a powerful undead soldier to fight against you. Cleanse this area man, if you find a temple or altar spread my name in it and when I get more power there's a chance I might be able to do something with his soul, but until I'm stronger you gotta live with that. Now do we have a deal?" Toma says more seriously before he squats before me and holds out his freakishly long arm for me to shake his hand, which I weakly grab and shake before he vanishes in front of me before several prompts appear.