Jasper and Celeste slowly slipped into the game, which was becoming a rather familiar experience, and they realized that they weren't standing in the rundown area they had expected. Having logged out inside the orphanage they both expected to find themselves in something similar. However, they were standing in a small church.
Martin looked around and saw pews upon pews all pointing towards an altar. The altar showed a figure, who could only really be Kelllwan, handing out bread to the people, at the altar a smiling priest was standing, and Jasper recognized him instantly. "I did not suspect you to be around." The god of magic said, but the priest just shook his head.
"A rare event should be witnessed, it is not every day that I get to see my creator." It was the golden dragon of charity in his human guise, and he had clearly been working on the orphanage.
The church was made from stone and was fairly squat. Jasper couldn't see any tower where a bell could ring from, indicating that it was still a fairly small church, which was supported by the stone which made up the walls, they were barely hewn, most likely collected from the surrounding area instead of made in a quarry.
Celeste inspected the handiwork with a frown on her face. "I could fix this." She said then she shook her head. "I am going to fix this. I mean, it is going to annoy me if I don't."
Jasper laughed a little and nodded. "Sure, we have to wait for Martin anyway, you can do a bit of handiwork." He saw the notification in his vision just as he had spoken.
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2 ranks gained
Message: You have gained two ranks, ensuring that your divine power is mightier than ever.
You have 6 Divine Power Points to use.
While Celeste worked, Jasper looked over his options. It seemed like they were really making progress in the world. After all, they had been shooting up through the ranks rather quickly. He suspected that their progress would probably stagnate fairly soon, but if that happened they could always make a new character to try a different build.
He liked his magic build, but since the world already had a magic god in the form of Ewen, Jasper wasn't sure if he could change things that much. He still needed to reinforce the barriers between the planes as well. There was a lot he needed to do.
Jasper refocused himself, he could look over his powers, or find a new Domain. However, there was something that he at least wanted to try. Since the AI didn't have to perform as much work fixing bugs through cause and effect, he had been investigating if the system could create any powers based on his previous actions, and he decided to test it out, allowing the system to generate him 3.
Jasper was honestly impressed by the fact that the system had created such amazingly detailed powers based on what he had done. He had honestly expected it to come up with three dragon-themed powers, but these were varied. He wasn't too proud of the second power option, but the ability seemed great.
Dragon Overlord would be useful, with his ability to hold magic and release it, it would essentially turn him into a bomber, streaking overhead and bombing anything in his way. He kept it in mind but didn't pick it up right away.
Loss of Knowledge was good too, though he wasn't really trying to prevent anyone from knowing his nature, it sorta just happened over time, with no real worshippers, Armandos was destined to be forgotten, especially since their clerics would only really be able to cast magic when they were logged in. Who would want to worship a god that granted them benefits for 7 days every 100 years?
Lord of Wards was probably very powerful as well. However, it wasn't something that he had needed.
There was, however, something that Jasper had needed more times than he would have liked. He had needed Ur-magic to go toe to toe with the other gods. Even Ewen couldn't control Ur-magic... yet.
Jasper looked through his Magic Domain and found what he was looking for. The three powers that would let him cast Ur-Magic.
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Deified Ur-mage
Type: constant
Energy usage: N/A
Full effect: You have been initiated into the Way of the Deified Ur-mage, the humblest level of Ur-magic, albeit still one beyond all but the mightiest mortal wizards.
You may choose four spells to master as part of this learning and may learn more as you find them. You do not need to spend Energy to remember these four spells, however, if you want to cast any the other spells of the Deified Ur-mage, then you need to spend one Energy to learn it temporarily and one Energy to cast it.
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Supreme Ur-mage
Type: Constant
Energy usage: N/A
Full effect: You have been initiated into the way of the Supreme Ur-mage, the second tier of Ur-magic.
You master three spells of this tier as part of this learning, which you do not need to spend Energy to remember. You may learn more as you find them. When casting Ur-magic you may spend a day to cast the spell without spending any Energy.
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Unbound Ur-mage
Type: Constant
Energy usage: N/A
Full effect: You have been initiated into the way of the Unbound Ur-mage, the deepest degree of Ur-magic.
You master two spells of this tier as part of this learning, which you do not need to spend Energy to remember. You may learn more as your find them. When casting Ur-magic you may spend a minute to cast the spell without taking any damage.
He picked them, knowing that he would have to study Ur-magic closer to know what it was able to do, last he had used it, not only had he been burning himself up to the point of scorching a realm, but he had also used it more instinctively. Not thinking through his options, but just unleashing his divine will.
As Jasper picked the powers he saved picking the spells for another time, not really wanting to spend the rest of the day in menus. He knew that he would end up focusing on building his character when he needed to spend time with the people around him.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
It did leave him with a single Divine Power Point. He thought about what he could use it for. He could get wings, but he could also get something that would protect him further. It was honestly a tough choice. He was going to fly. He picked the Dragon Overlord power he had been offered.
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Dragon Overlord
Type: Constant
Energy usage: N/A
Full effect: You gain wings that can be used to fly through the sky. These wings allow for perfect flight and rapid manoeuvres and on uninterrupted stretches you can reach speeds of up to Mach 2. Your body will be able to resist any wind pressure or lack of oxygen you may be exposed to while flying.
As he picked the power he felt thick wings sprout from his back, spreading wide for just a moment, before folding in and taking on the appearance of a cape. The inside of the cape had a metallic hue for sure, but seemed to shift colours constantly like diesel spilled on the ground or bismuth. The outside of the cape was a light blue, matching the rest of his outfit quite nicely.
The golden dragon dressed as a priest cleared his throat. "That is indeed very impressive, and though you wield our strength your aura has changed, telling me that even combined the dragons might have difficulty defeating you." He said and Jasper nodded at those words.
"Indeed, I decided to investigate the Ur-magic, though I am unaware of what spells I have access to. I believe that the type of magic will either destroy us or elevate us to new heights." Jasper explained and he could see the disgust on the human face that the dragon was wielding.
Jasper didn't let that touch him, instead, he looked around the church to find it a work of art. The walls seemed to be made from a single block of stone, though all around there were carvings of people giving to each other. The display of charity was definitely something that would enhance the dragon's image. Even the rafters had been upgraded to show acts of charity, and they seemed a lot sturdier. Jasper gave a soft little whistle.
Celeste grinned at him and couldn't help but twirl a hammer in her hand like it was a revolver that she had just used. Jasper could swear that he even saw the tip of it smoking slightly.
"There we go, much better for sure." She said with a satisfied smile. "Did you see that we got more points to spend on powers?" She asked, and Jasper nodded. He had seen that for sure.
"I have been toying with a new feature where the game creates abilities based on what you have accomplished. It is a bit wonky, but if you wanna try it, then you might find something good. Especially since it gave me these here wings." He explained, before letting his wings flap a single time, sending dust through the church.
Celeste thought about it and nodded. "Sure, I will give it a try, though I have some things that I need to take care of. For one, I can feel that Marcusburg has broken their contract with me. It took longer than I expected, but I still think that I need to go take care of that." She explained, opening her options and making the AI generate some new powers.
Celeste's eyes were almost falling out of her head. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. This was, to her surprise, some of the more thematic abilities that she had ever seen.
"You should have the AI generate abilities like this for anyone who wishes them in the game. It would be a massive feature." She said, trying not to drool too badly at her options. The Royal Bearing would probably help her with that.
Jasper snorted, then laughed so hard that Celeste had to look up from the powers and over at him. He wiped a tear away from his eye before snorting a little again. "Oooh! That is fun. This game will, without a doubt be Player versus Player, or PvP, to some degree, and imagining the hardcore fanbase complaining about how unbalanced things are... oh man, that really made my day, thank you, love." He said before pulling her into a hug and kissing her on the cheek.
Celeste didn't really know much about the gaming world, but she knew that people would probably argue a lot about how to get special abilities, so that might not be the best idea.
With that thought out of the way, she looked over what she was being offered. She liked Heart of the Metropolis, however it would require her to stay in the same place for an entire day, which wasn't really that appealing.
Royal Bearing was probably really good as well, it might even help her out when convincing people, but it felt a little cheaty. She felt like she was picking it thanks to how it worked rather than what made sense for her character. She didn't consider her character to be one of grace and elegance, but much more tomboyish. Royal Bearing simply wouldn't fit what she wanted, though it was definitely good.
Entropy Beyond All seemed like it would be really useful as well. She could speed time up for things, but she didn't really have anything that properly fit her entropy theme at the moment.
She decided only to pick Entropy Beyond All, before turning her attention to what else she could pick. Behind her Jasper cleared his throat.
"Aren't you going to see what that power does?" He asked, which made Celeste roll her eyes. Her husband did have a point though. It might be nice to read it out fully instead of just reading the brief description.
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Entropy Beyond All
Type: Constant
Energy usage: Energy for the day.
Full effect: Target a visible object no larger than a house. The object immediately decays as if aged a thousand years.
It wasn't as good as she had expected, the power consuming Energy for the entire day, instead of just until the next loading screen, as she had assumed. She shrugged and moved on, it would probably be useful at some point.
Looking over the powers available to her, she was surprised to see that a couple of new ones had appeared. One for Time caught her attention.
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Timed Acceleration
Type: Constant
Energy usage: N/A
Full effect: Your own time is just slightly faster than everyone else's, allowing your actions to be more fluid and gracious, effectively setting your dexterity to 18.
It was a lesser power as well, which seemed really powerful. She picked it and she couldn't really feel any difference, then it hit her.
It wasn't something major, well, at least not what she could tell, but the world seemed to become a little more stable. As if she had been viewing something in 20 frames per second and it had jumped up to 60. Everything was much more smooth and the world seemed easier to react to.
She cleared her throat and felt her dexterous movements be complimented perfectly by the ability to see future attacks coming. She would actually be able to dodge anything at this point.
She had four points left, and she wondered what she should spend them on. She paused and really thought it through before deciding to pick another Domain.
She already knew what she wanted, since she had taken the Death Domain, her perception of the character had been unbalanced. She had been leaning more towards the destruction and disruption of things. That was fun and all, but she needed something for bringing life to the world.
She had considered taking Fertility, but hearing that Martin was going to be some kind of Dungeon god, she suspected that he would be picking that instead. So instead, she took the Health Divine Domain.
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Divine Domain Unlocked: Health
You have an invincible defense against diseases and poisons, and can diagnose them instantly. You may set your constitution to 16, or to 18 if it's already 16 or higher.
Celeste was quite happy with the constitution boost. She was practically a tank at this point. She didn't need to look too far through her options, after all, she could only afford a lesser Power, however, she knew what she wanted as soon as she saw it.
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Flesh Made True
Type: Activated Ability
Energy usage: N/A
Full effect: You are able to cure a target's maimings, blindings, poisons, mutilations, and birth defects by simply looking at them. This does not restore any HP.
Having picked what she wanted and not having any more Domain Power Points, Celeste closed the menus and turned her attention to her husband. He was talking with the priestess and she took the opportunity to interrupt the two slightly.
"So what do you wanna do?" She asked.
