Stray Soul

“...Huh? What did you say?” I asked the All Mother in confusion.

“I asked if you wanted to become a deity or not.” She replied, acting as if a god asking someone if they wanted to ascend to godhood was a simple matter.

“W-wait, let me get this straight. You are offering me an ascension to godhood, just like that?!” I asked, bewildered.

And after a few seconds of wait, she responded.

“I see. While you are more intelligent and knowledgeable than one would expect of an undead such as yourself, you still lack knowledge in many areas.

No, I am not offering you an ascension to godhood. I am offering to help you achieve deity hood. If I knew of a way to become a proper god, I’d have become one myself instead of offering it to a random undead that caught my interest.” She said which confused me because... wasn’t she a god?

Did this mean the Dark Lord or whatever was also a deity? And what was even the difference between a god and a deity?

Swiftly, I asked her my questions, hoping she’d answer them instead of following the troupe of gods that just said a few words and fucked off after leaving the fate of the world on the shoulders of a 12-year-old child. And she actually answered!

“No, unlike myself, the Dark Lord is a proper god, with many other lesser gods and countless deities under his command.

What I am proposing to help you become, a deity, is different from a god in that deities reside in the mortal plane, while gods are beings that have managed to break the boundaries between the realms and have ascended to the divine plane and have created their own sub dimension, or paradise.” She finished, and her voice didn’t even waver when she said that the Dark Lord, other than being a proper god, had even more gods and deities under his employ! While she was just a deity!

A deity which I helped destroy a divine artifact of the fucking Dark Lord!

Not noticing that I was sweating bullets at the prospect of receiving divine retribution, she continued talking.

“Do you want to become a deity now that you know the difference between a god and a deity, little undead?” She asked, like there wasn’t an elephant in the room!

“Wait wait wait, let me get this straight. You just destroyed a divine artifact of the Dark Lord a few moments ago, right?” I asked.

“Yes.” She replied.

“And what happens if the Dark Lord wants to take revenge on us for destroying his divine artifact! If we go by what you said, he doesn’t even have to do the deed himself as he can just send a lesser god or a few deities to kill us!” I asked exasperated, and scared.

After a few moments, she replied.

“Simple, if the Dark Lord sends even a single god to kill us, we die.” She replied matter of factly, and just as I had started saying my last prayers to the gods of reincarnation for the short adventure, they’d granted me, she continued.

“But he won’t, because he doesn’t know or care that we destroyed a divine artifact of his.” She then replied, which baffled me because... he was a god, was he not?

How could a god not know or care that some random undead and a forest spirit decided to destroy an artifact of his?

And as these thoughts swirled in my head, she continued.

“You see, for decades I’ve been at war with the forces of the Dark Lord, but not the Dark Lord himself.

His domain is the underworld, all of the underworld. At all times does his armies of undead and other abominations continue their endless march under our very feet. But sometimes small tendrils, led by deities and other times lesser gods, shoot out from the greater force and attack the overworld, seeking recognition from other lesser gods and the Dark Lord himself.

So, even though thousands of believers of his have died at the hands of my armies, and I’ve destroyed more divine artifacts than I can count in the last few decades, the Dark Lord won’t make a move.

Because he simply doesn’t care if one or a thousand believers of his have died and divine artifacts of his are destroyed left and right. Even if we start hunting down his countless deities, he won’t care.

Because, as I said, his deities are countless. His forces cover the entire underworld. And the few small tendrils that are destroyed or repelled are only that—small tendrils with not much value.

Unless we manage to extinguish a lesser god under his command, the Dark Lord won’t do anything.

So, do not worry that he will send deities to hunt us down because we destroyed an ‘artifact’ made by a random priest in the wilderness. Because, believe me when I say this, I’ve done worst, and I still stand.” She finished, but seeing that I didn’t respond after a few seconds, she continued.

“Seeing that you still don’t seem satisfied... tell me, how many flies landed on you today, or ants passed below your feet?”

“What? How am I supposed to know that?”

“Exactly.”

...Well, that actually makes a lot of sense.

The Dark Lord is just a power so above us that even if we did our best to annoy him or get his attention, he wouldn’t even notice us.

And, though the fact that All Mother is waging a war that has last for decades worries me... it seems that I have nothing to worry at all!

“It seems that I’ve been worrying for nothing but, tell me, why do you want me to become a deity, what is special about me, because surely there must be a few others than me that are qualified to become deities, and most importantly, how will you even help me become a deity?”

Then after a few seconds of silence, the All Mother started talking once more.

“I want to help you become a deity because, like what I said, I am at war with a deity under the Dark Lord’s employ, and vanquishing this foe is becoming an annoyance, and I need someone to go down south and ask for help from a goddess.

You see, a millennium or so ago a bishop from the pantheon of the sun visited my domain and established a connection between me and his pantheon. Over time, they came to me with propositions of trade, and asked for permission to build outpost in the outer edges of my territory, which I allowed because their deals interested me, and giving out lands I was not using didn’t seem like a loss for me.

But a few centuries ago, they abandoned their outposts and churches, leaving with a promise of return after things had stabilized for their gods, but they never did.

Their structures, left to rot and decay, soon started collapsing, so I removed most of them from the surface, but before I could move on to the ones below ground and remove them too, the deity I mentioned before moved in and occupied them with his forces, and started using them as staging grounds for his invasions.

But our war quickly evolved into a stalemate. My forces strong enough to repel his forces and push them, but not strong enough to take his renovated fortresses, and his forces strong and endless enough to defend them.

Seeing the war would not stop for another century or so, I started seeking out other neutral deities, but they didn’t want to go south and seek out a pantheon they knew nothing about just to help me, so I decided to make my own allies by raising promising beings into deity hood.

Now we come to you, like what I said, you are just another promising candidate to raise into deity hood, but not the only one I’ve helped or will help. There are others going through their own trials right now, and a few others whom I’ve got an eye on.

If you decide not to accept my offer, I will accept and let you live as you’ve before in my domain or outside, assuming you stay in the outskirts of my domain and don’t bother my people of course.

But if you decide to accept it, I of course have a plan to help you get started on your path to deity hood.” She finished, and I wondered for a moment if the structure inside the dungeon was making of the pantheon she talked about, or something the dungeon did all alone, but that wasn’t that important now, was it?

The important thing was me deciding on my future.

Now, I’ve always been the one to joke about gods with my friends on earth, you could say I never was the most religious person, though I wouldn’t call myself an atheist either.

But actually becoming a deity? That, that was a whole another thing than just joking about gods.

But I think I should just ignore if I wanted to larp as the emperor of man for the rest of my life or not and should think of what will be in my future if I choose to become a deity or continued as normal.

If I choose to be a deity, I’ll basically become a minion under the All Mother, even if its for a short time as she wants me to venture south and bring a pantheon of sorts back here to help her deal with the deity that’s attacking her right now.

But I am not sure if I’ll remain as a minion of hers forever, or if she’ll let me roam free when I am done with her request... well, might as well ask her.

“Neither do I need, nor do I want to make a minion. When you ascend to deity hood you’ll owe me a favour, which I’ll cash in in the form of wanting you to venture south and ask the pantheon of the sun for help in defeating the deity whose attacking me, and maybe reclaim their outposts too.

If they don’t exist anymore or don’t want to come back, that’s okay, and I’ll accept as my one favour used. And as an extra, I’ll even let you roam and built in the outer edges of my domain, so in the areas like this, as long as you follow the few rules I put out.

But other than completing the favour I want; you are free to do whatever you want.

Built grant cities and palaces in my outer domain or beyond, do whatever you want. As long as you accomplish the favour you owe me, I’ll accept us as being equals.”

Oh, well, that’s actually a better deal than I thought... though I wonder, can’t she just send an expedition of her own or ask the adventurers to deliver a message for her?

“No, I cannot send my people south because plant beings such as my children are seen as nothing more than weeds that needs to be pulled out.

If the first being they encounter is not a bishop, or at least a priest, of the pantheon, they’ll be as good as dead. That’s why I need another deity to go and ask for help.

And I will not be asking those wanderers for help as I want the first being to hear my request to be at least a bishop. Not a priest, an archpriest, or anything else.

You must find a bishop to relay my message to, and I will not be accepting anything else, and because of this I will not be asking help from those wanderers, and under no conditions do I want you to compromise on this either.

You either talk to a bishop about my request, or you don’t talk about it at all.”

Well... that bishop requirement seems a bit tight, but I am sure it won’t be that big of a problem, right?

I mean, there is going to be a bishop in the first big city I encounter down south so I just need to stroll in and—wait, I am an undead abomination. I cannot stroll into jack shit otherwise I’ll be put down like her children.

So, I need to somehow achieve deity hood with her help, then go south for... god knows how long, maybe weeks or maybe even months, don’t get seen by a random joe shmoe, and manage to find a bishop without entering a city and pray for dear life that they won’t send some holy knights at me because I am some sort of undead abomination, which are associated with the Dark Lord... sounds easy, not.

But even though it won’t be easy, it is not impossible too. And if I am able to make a humanoid body that is... not too disfigured, I may be able to enter a city or town in the winter, though there may not be any need for me to enter a town myself as being a deity will put me in a game of civilization, not a jrpg, so I can always—maybe recruit a human to do my bidding.

Hell, I may even get some to pray to me—which feels really weird to say. Maybe I don’t want to become a literal deity as much as I thought?

Anyways, one step at a time. Now, I need to just accept the Mother’s offer, and let her guide me.

“Well then, I accept All Mother. Now, what do I need to do to ascend to deity hood?” I asked, still a bit unsure about the whole making people pray to me thing, but willing to give it a try.

“Excellent, but we’ll need a way to communicate as you coming back to this spirit tree to talk to me every few days is going to be annoying... can you put the medallion and the branch on my roots?” She asked, to which I complied quickly.

Then, as the medallion and the branch touched the roots, the roots came alive and started moving like my branches, they opened the medallion and touched the mana stone, turning it from a stone that was green with definable edges, like how one would expect of a raw crystal, into an error in reality that seemed like a one dimensional green thing, similar to how it was before when it a divine artifact of the Dark Lord.

As that was happening to the medallion, the branch of the spirit tree changed too, when the roots touched it, it started warping from a branch into a perfectly straight one, and started to grow longer and continued to grow until it was a bit longer than 1.5 metres, and its top widened a bit and a small dent appeared.

Then the roots separated the mana stone from the medallion, and placed it on the top of the branch, which looked more like a sceptre now.

Then the roots bringed the empty medallion near the sceptre, and it suddenly turned liquid even though there was no heat of any shorts, and the liquid metal solidified into weird symbols and circles that started at the top of the sceptre, where the magic stone was, and continued for 10 or so centimetres down, and stopped.

Then all the roots, except one, returned to their place in the ground, and the sole root bringed the sceptre to me, and after I took it, it returned into the ground as well, and then everything was quiet, and seemed like nothing had happened.

There wasn’t even a spec of dirt on the grass on the ground and the spirit tree, everything seemingly returned back to what it was.

*ding*

Inspect the divine artefact?

Y/N

*ding*

Sceptre of the Forest (G)

Description: A divine artefact made by the All Mother using a semi-divine core and a branch of a spirit tree. Allows the being in possession of it to commune with the All Mother and cast basic plant spells.

“Well, this is quite good... what spells can I cast with this?”

“Nothing impressive, it just allows you to control plants like how I controlled the roots of the spirit tree, though you won’t be able to affect the spirit tree because of the sceptre’s low rank. But it should give you a few more options to fight. Just be careful with it, and make sure you don’t use it like a club, because it is not that strong.”

Taking my claw off of the spirit tree, I felt my connection to the All Mother was still present, like how the description of the sceptre said, we were able to commune without any problems.

Pointing the sceptre at a tree a bit away from me, I pushed some mana into it and willed the branch of the tree to bent, and it did, but less than I had hoped.

The fact that it was a low-ranking artefact must be the reason why, and its performance was totally not bad because I skimped on mana. Totally not.

But I wonder... can’t I just learn plant magic myself? Then I quickly asked the mother if she’d teach me plant magic and other things, including other magics and, you know, godly stuff.

“I was already planning on teaching you things like city building, architecture, metallurgy, and a few magics and languages to help you get started in your journey but... if I am not wrong, you are using soul magic, yes?” She asked, to which I quickly responded to with a yes.

“Then sadly I won’t be able to teach you plant magic.” She said the moment she learned that I was using soul magic.

“But, why?” I asked, confused.

“Hmm... tell me, little undead, what is a plant to you?”

“What is a plant to me?”

“Yes, what makes a plant, a plant. Or an animal, an animal. Explain that to me.”

“Well... plants and animals are separated by the composition of their bodies, plants are made from wood and leaf while animals are made from organs, skeletons, and muscle. But most importantly, the soul structure of plants and animals are fundamentally different.

While animals have a soul ‘core’ of sorts, which stands near where their heart is and acts as a central place from where their soul spreads outwards into their bodies, plants have one soul line that goes from one end of their bodies to the other, or smaller twisting structures that are connected with small lines of soul that go around their bodies.” I replied, remembering what I had seen when I inspected the souls of whatever I could get my hands on.

And yes, I was generalizing every animal based on the few bugs I had inspected. Was there different soul structure in different species? Probably, but I’ve never seen them, so they don’t exist, and no one can argue with my perfect logic!

“And that’s the problem.” Mother said, which confused me, but she soon continued.

“You only have surface knowledge about plants and animals, and your knowledge about what they exactly are is related to your knowledge on their souls. If you had learned plant magic before you had learned soul magic, you would have been able to use both, and maybe be better at soul magic because you would’ve an understanding of the beings whose souls you manipulate.

But because you learned soul magic first, it inhibits you from learning plant magic. It is not impossible perse for you to learn plant magic, but it is improbable.” She finished, and I felt like I was slowly starting to have an idea of how magic worked but decided to just ask her.

“So, if you can understand something, or grasp the concept of it, you can cast magic related to it?” I asked and she replied.

“Basically, yes. There are basic elements, like fire, earth, water, and air, they are the most commonly used because they are all around us and any being can easily grasp an understanding of them.

Then there are the advanced elements, which gets a bit tricky as elements like light, darkness, plants, magma, and ice are here. Grasping an understanding of the elements classified as advanced is, while not impossible, hard, as they are mostly not easily graspable things. For example, plant, light, and dark magics are just not things than can be understood or classified easily, and while magma and ice are easier to understand, they still take some time grasp.”

“Quick question, isn’t magma just another state of earth? Its just liquid stone, so shouldn’t it be classified together with normal earth?” I cut in and asked.

“You are right to think that magma or lava is just another state of earth, but not exactly. Like what I said, advanced elements are not easy to grasp.

Then we come to unique elements. These are the most esoteric elements, like soul, time, luck, and space. They are nearly impossible to grasp an understanding of, but some do. Like you who has managed to understand souls.

Holy, or divine, magic is also considered as a unique element, but it is only usable by deities and gods, and they can grant holy spells to their followers, so it doesn’t exactly count.”

“Hmm... interesting, I’ll have to ask you more questions, but later. Now, where do we start with, you know, ascending me to deity hood?” I told the All Mother after taking a bit to digest all the new information I had taken.

“The quickest way to complete your ascension will be to make the nearby goblins your followers. So, firstly, put the sceptre somewhere safe inside of you, then start heading north, and then east after talking for 2 days. While we walk, I’ll think of a way to convince them to stop following their deity and convert to you.

Though my mere presence probably will be enough to convert a few, to convert the whole encampment you’re going to need to impress them.”

“And how am I going to do that?” I asked her, while putting the sceptre inside my chest, and securing it in place.

“We’ll see...” She said and went silent... oh well, what’s the worst can happen.

Then I started walking north, wandering what she’ll come up with...

“While I think of a way to convert the goblins, want to start with learning how to run a city? After all, you are going to need to know this after they become your subjects.”

“Err... what do I need to learn in order to run a city again?”

“Oh, nothing much. Just like I said before, architecture, agriculture, weatherology, agroforestry, mining, metallurgy, and so on. You’ll basically have to close the gap between the goblin’s technology level and mine by yourself as I doubt there are many experts in their village, but don’t worry, you’ll only have to cram a few centuries worth of knowledge into your head while also learning a few languages. Nothing you can’t do if you put your mind into it.”

...I am already starting to regret accepting to become a deity.