Chapter 11: Well, that sucks.
In the strange cave of the god of knowledge three gods talked. Viral, still at the kitchen table chewed away on an assortment of things he kept pulling from his robe. “So, what I want to know.” Viral managed to get out between bites, “Is what are you wearing?”
The orc sitting at the computer desk turned around in his chair just noticing for the first time what Viral was talking about. She was sitting upside down on his couch, legs dangling in the air, her hair touching the ground. Her vine dress wrapped all about her. Her skin a glistening green, with glittering flakes of divinity seeping out. She didn’t seem to hear the question. She just hummed away a strange tune while her legs swayed about.
“Our sister here has been hanging out with the mother tree and the dryads.”
“Wow, how did you know?” She shot up. “Have you been spying on me?”
The orc just looked at her, he motioned to her, everything. She looked down and noticed for the first time what he was indicating.
“Oh, wow.”
“Do you want to use the bathhouse?”
“Do you mind?”
“Does that matter?”
“No!” She ran off to an empty wall still carved of rock, the orc waved his hand and a door appeared. She ran inside and the door shut behind her.
“So, what was that?” Viral asked.
“If I had to guess, she was in the middle of getting a full body scrub from the dryads when she jumped up and left when she smelled the human.”
“Well, it’s a good thing she let them wrap her first. You remember the time she was taking a lava bath and left to get tacos. She was at the city gate before Vice stopped her.”
“Poor Vice, his worshipers quadrupled after that incident. He hasn’t been able to leave his city ever since.”
A red flash lit up the cave. The orc turned around in his chair and pulled up his security feed. A few feet away from the entrance to his cave a portal appeared on the floor. A black smoke unfolded from its depths taking the shape of a cloaked figure. It walked to the wall and tapped. Inside the cave shook.
“Who is it?” Came an angry reply over the com system.
“Sorry, I was mid nightmare when I left.” The cloak dissolved away back in the portal as it faded away. Left in the wake of the smoke was a small child, maybe five or six in appearance, dressed in dinosaur pajamas with alligator slippers. Under his arm was a matching pillow. His skin was lavender
with a red undertone, on his head were two small horns barely peaking through. With his empty hand he rubbed his eye and yawned. The wall opened up and the child walked in.
“Who is it?” Viral asked, standing way too close to the orc. The orc put his hand on Viral’s chest and slowly slid him back a few feet.
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“It’s Asp. It looks like he finally woke up.”
The child walking in, set his pillow on the couch on his way to the kitchen where he proceeded to make himself a bowl of cereal. He sat in the seat closest to the fridge and ate. The orc took note that the cereal box stayed on the table as the child ate. The child stopped mid bite and looked over at the rest. His spoon tipped slightly as milk fell down back into the bowl. “Morning” the kid managed. Before continuing his meal.
“Morning” the others said together.
“So, Asp. You glimpsed any interesting dreams lately?”
“Sure.”
“Would you care to elaborate?”
“Not really. But you know, we do have a new traveler about.”
“So I have heard. Viral here has met him.”
“Yeah, he seems nice, he gave me a mandrake for breakfast the other day.”
“Really? A mandrake?”
“Yeah, it was tasty.”
“Have you guys seen sis? This new traveler kind of smelled like her.”
“She is in the bath. She told us as much. What do you think that means?”
“Who knows.”
“Well, not me, and I am the god of knowledge.”
“But are you really?”
“If you want another bowl of that cereal I am.”
“Yes o great and knowledgeable god of the bestest cereal.” Asp giggled to himself and reached for the box that slid away.
“Okay, I am sorry. Can I have the box back now?”
---
Sam and Cam made it to the adventures guild, it was a quiet trip. Sam seemed to like taking his time walking slow and measured. Cam could tell this was his normal habit. During this time of day he was probably mapping out his day, coming up with daily or weekly quota. Sam didn’t seem to do anything by accident. As they walked in Sam took his post behind the counter. Cam mechanically walked over to the board and began pulling down slips he could turn in. Ingredients he gathered and potions he had made.
He set one contract on the counter and began passing Sam the items one at a time. “I can’t believe you guys don’t have a green goddess. She didn’t even give me her name! How the hell am I supposed to find her now?” Cam reached down to the cubby that opened up and grabbed his gold.
“Yeah, who knows. Maybe she was in disguise on purpose. Maybe it’s like some sort of hidden quest.” Sam placed the next slip in and waited for Cam to hand over the supplies.
“Do you guys have temples on this world? Or books that breakdown each god and their domains or something?”
“I think I know what you are talking about, but no. The closes we have to a temple is the city of Vice; he is the god of, well, I think it’s something like games or vacation. It’s hard to say. All I know is people flock to his city like some holy land and most never leave. It’s one of the many reasons why the adventures guild stays out of that city. We honestly don’t know what happens there. Everyone that does leave doesn’t talk about it much, only to say they want to go back soon.”
“Hmm, that sounds like Vegas.” Cam reaches for the next sum of gold. “So if you don’t have temples who worships the gods? Do they have a priesthood or something?”
“Is that anything like an assistant?”
“Well, kind of. Maybe more of an intern? I honestly don’t know if they get paid.” Cam set down another slip and began handing potions over.
“You seem to know more about how gods should work than I do and you say you came from a world without gods?” Sam loaded the potions into the box.
“Well, it’s possible that we had a God, but that’s hard to say. You see, we had, lets say, representatives of a god asking for donations for the temples and the service the god offered to the people by way of the representatives. Sadly no god came down and talked to the people, well at least for the last few thousand years.”
“You make it sound like business, where the CEO stops making public appearances.”
“Well, kind of.” Cam grabbed his coin and closed the concealed door before folding his arms on the counter. “Yeah, the more I think about it, the more my world sounds strange.”
“Well, it’s not like the gods need worship, or money for that matter, to maintain divinity. If I am honest, from what I know of our gods, most do like their privacy and are usually focused on an aspect of their existence to further study. They do hand out quests and have hidden quests from time to time, but that usually is because it’s a task they are either to busy or to powerful to perform.”
“These gods sound more like adventurers that have gotten too strong more than divine being. They don’t give off the same energy that you think a god would give off.”
“Ha, surely you jest. Yes, they do give off an everyday vibe compared to having a grand temple in their names, but I promise you that is by choice. They suppress their auras so they don’t kill us. Unfortunately, from what I hear from high rankers it’s pretty hard to do that. A and S rankers have it easier, but some at B rank find it easier to simply turn off their auras rather than to suppress them. Perhaps that is the same for them. It’s easier to turn them off rather than to suppress. Anyway, it looks like you are up for a rank up as it stands. Let me get your Parchment of script, we can update it and see how far you have come.”
“Sure thing.” Cam went over and sat on the couch. He knew Sam would be a while, he still had to set the items in the back for delivery, as well as set aside the potions for stock. Cam took this opportunity to move a small flame between his fingers in a figure eight. He read that dexterity exercises like this would help level his accuracy with his spell cast and his ability to concentrate. Usually when trying something new he leveled up pretty fast, but nothing happened. So, Cam started using his other hand as well with a second flame.
Ba-da: New Ability: Mental Acuity -passive-
Mental Acuity: Dividing your attention just got easier. Using and controlling multiple spells has now become your norm. Mana: +20, Power +10, Speed +10, Perception +10.
