《Divine Smith [Mythos LitRPG]》 1: The Ending is just another Beginning I slowly limped up to the once pristine main halls of Olympus, where many immortals once walked. The golden ichor of those very immortals dripped down my hammer and soaked the malformed, dented armor covering my body. Approaching the entrance to the Main Temple, I pushed through the massive doors and entered the Hallway of History. I gazed at the ornate carvings, bringing my hand to feel the smooth groves running across the walls, the carvings telling the stories and conquests of the gods and heroes. The depictions began with the battles of Zeus, Mother, and the rest of their siblings destroying and banishing Kronos, the Titan of time, to the depths of Tartarus. Continuing along the wall shows the many adventures of the Gods, displaying the benevolence and power of Posiden, the creation and management of the Underworld, and huge storms and rains brought along by Zeus. Walking farther along, the wall continues to show the many ¡®wonderful¡¯ actions and gifts the gods did in order to fix the world and help the many mortals below, granting gifts and power beyond mortal imagination. Looking at them with disdain, I mutter, ¡°What absolute bullshit.¡± Every last one of them was a lie created by the gods to hide their weaknesses and reliance on the mortals who worshiped them. After fighting dozens of them and slaying almost all of the Olympians, I learned that they were nothing too special. Other than a few exceptions, I had been able to take out the Olympians Hopefully, one more will be on that list after I finish off Step Father. I let out a mirthless laugh. Who am I kidding? I have long since broken all my other weapons and tools, not to mention almost completely out of divinity. I am nothing more than a bug to him. Still, I kept walking down the hallway to the throne room; if I stopped now, all the bloodshed and sacrifices my allies and I had made would have been for nothing. Finally, the carvings end, ending only with a picture of a few strings and a wheel. Leaving only the blank marble wall and a huge door at the end of the hallway.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I pause with my arm touching the doorway, taking a deep breath to stabilize and calm myself. Here goes nothing, and quickly pushed open the door to the throne room. Awaiting me is the King of the Gods himself, Zeus, standing before his great throne. He looks dispassionately at me, coldly stating, ¡°It took you long enough. I was afraid you would die before you got here.¡± I do not say a word and instead launch my hammer at him; he snaps his fingers and vaporizes the hammer when it¡¯s about to slam into him. He sneered and launched toward me, instantly traveling the distance between us, and lifted me off my feet. ¡°Pathetic, I expected a bit more.¡± I shiver slightly as he searches for my core. His eyes momentarily widened, incredulously asking, ¡°You came to me. The king of gods, with that small trickle of divinity?! You¡¯re more of a fool than I thought.¡± I spit in his eyes ¡°No more of one than you.¡± With that remark, Zeus angrily tossed me to the side, slamming my body into a nearby pillar, rendering me immobile. I lay against the cold pillar. My body was motionless, but my mind was still whirling. Well¡­ that was a pitiful attempt, but at least I gave it a shot. My eyes flicked down to my damaged self, and mentally laughed. Who am I fooling? There were so many things I could have done to make this easier, so many people that could have been saved. As Zeus slowly walks out to the Hall of History, likely to repair the damage my allies and I caused to Olympus, I have one last thought as my eyes close. Releasing a breath, I remark to myself, If only I could relive my life, just one more time. Maybe that would be enough. Maybe I would have crushed him. My eyes closed, and drew in my last breath before Ether took me. *** As the young god was dying, a figure covered in a cloak appeared alongside a mystical wheel in the center of the throne room; Zeus, feeling the power emanating from both, turned around in shock, his eyes widening. Releasing his strength, he leaps toward the wheel in panic, attempting to stop the figure from spinning the wheel. Allas, Zeus was too late as the wheel began to spin. The universe froze and then began to flow backward, time-reversed. The quicker the wheel spun, the quicker the reversal was. Watching this take place. The being walks to the pillar and crouches to see the dying god. ¡°Here is your chance, grandson. I trust you will take it.¡± As abruptly as the wheel and being appeared, they vanished into the Ether. And the crumpled god faded from existence. 2: Deja-vu? A bright light shines through my eyelids. I grumbled, covering my eyes with my hands, getting adjusted to the light levels. Suddenly, I pause, the recent events flooding back into my mind. I quickly scrambled to get to my feet, looking around, and to my shock, I was standing in a field of barley and wheat with a distant view of an ocean or sea. I rubbed my eyes with my hands, not believing what I saw. Wait¡­ hands? What in Hades happened?! how did my arm heal? Ares permanently damaged it! A wound like that shouldn¡¯t be possible to heal, even with divinity. On the topic of divinity, I looked at my core, and to my horror, I barely saw the tiniest bit of it; if the divinity I had during the one-sided battle with Zeus was like a small bottle full of water, this was no more than a couple of drops of water. Shaking myself from my stupor and apparent lack of power, I investigated my surroundings a little closer; I stood in the center of a small crater about 5 feet in diameter, surrounded by a large hilly field of barley and wheat with quite sandy terrain. An uncanny feeling of familiarity sweeps over me. This¡­ is familiar. But why. I stood still for several minutes, listening to the ocean in the distance and the smell of a salty sea. In the end, the sight of the sea and the rocky outcroppings finally jogged my memory. Lemnos? But this was where one of my battles with the other gods occurred. I remember it was reduced to a pool of magma. However, it looks exactly how I remember it when I arrived. I sighed, brushing my hands off on a thin wool tunic I woke up in, which was not the most surprising thing I had seen today, so I didn¡¯t worry about it. Speaking out loud, I say, ¡°I need to find someone who can explain what happened. If someone had restored Lemnos, it would have taken a very long time and a lot of power.¡± I walked through the fields, making my way to the rocky beach of Lemnos. A few minutes later, I stood before the gentle waves; I forgot how much I loved it here. this was my home for many years, not necessarily by choice, but still. I look both ways down the beach but do not see anything or anyone, so I simply pick a direction and walk; while doing so, I release a breath, my body relaxing slightly. Well. With as weak as I am, I should find someone. While I do not have much divinity left, I should still be able to get to a settlement, preferably human. I continued to walk for several hours before something snapped me out of my thoughts. Or rather, the lack of something. My senses heightened, and I realized what was missing, Sound. The waves were still crashing against the shore, but there are no animals, and while there aren¡¯t a lot of animals in Lemnos, there are certainly enough to make an ambient noise. Something must be near. A few seconds later, a sudden rustling sound a few dozen feet away revealed a 12-foot-long Caspian whipsnake moving through the rough terrain. Fortunately for my continued survival, this is one of the smaller ones whose scales haven¡¯t completely grown, and I could sense the divinity in its body was negligible, likely only containing a few strands; while this did reduce the danger, and while my divine core was a major upgrade from the divine threads, I maintained my wariness. Its unusual for a snake to have divine threads While I investigated the snake, it noticed my presence by the shore. Making direct eye contact, it sized me up, apparently not seeing much in me, lining up to lunge at me. Well, one way or another, if a feral creature will likely attack, you might as well hit it first. Grinning at the creature, I slowly back up to grab a few jagged stones from the beach. Once I retrieve some, back out of its lunge range and channel a tiny bit of my divinity to the stone; upon reaching an acceptable power, I wind back my arm and launch it full force, aiming at the snake''s head.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I hear a CRACK and see that my throw had missed, but only by a few inches; instead, it hit part of its body, shattering several scales on its side. Wincing, I charge up a few more shots before it can shake itself from its stupor. Really was going for a one-hit wonder. It could be nice to make something out of it. Gotta do with what you have available, after all. After missing twice, I decided it was a waste to use what little divinity I had and ran toward the snake. The long reptile also apparently agreed as it lunged at me, successfully wrapping around my upper body. Readjusting to this new constraint, I stumble slightly, grabbing the snake with my hands and fighting against its tightening form. It had become a competition of who had more strength and endurance; the snake and I were seemingly matched, and neither was making much progress. As both of us were straining against the other, the snake cunningly climbed up my body and poised itself to stab into my neck, and while I was certain I could survive the constricting, I doubted a direct attack to my vital points would be fine in my weakened state. Briefly cursing Hades, I let go of the main body with my left hand and snagged the head instead, compressing its head so it couldn¡¯t use its mouth. Using the divinity I could muster on such short notice, I shoved as much of my fire-attuned divinity into the snake''s skull as possible. The snake, noticing this, began to panic and desperately tried to get out of my grip. Ha, like I would let that happen. The least you can do after all this effort is to give me your core. Finally, after what was close to half a minute later, the snake loosened its grip and ceased its struggle. A small smile spread as I stopped infusing it with divinity and pulled it off my body, it falling limply in my hand. Fortunately, I don¡¯t think I hit anything particularly valuable with those rocks; most of the snake¡¯s body was in decent condition. Sighing, I mentally prepared myself for the worst part; grabbing a particularly sharp-looking branch nearby, I once again pushed a trickle of divinity into it, reinforcing it. Taking my new makeshift weapon, I press the knife against the snake¡¯s heart region, searching around for the threads hidden in it¡¯s organ. A few minutes and a small pool of blood later. I managed to find the divinity and pull it out. Holding up the thin and dull strand to the setting light of the sun, I wince a little. The brighter the divinity was, the more power it contains, and this was some of the weakest you could find. However, it should still be enough to help increase my meager amount. After evaluating the strand, I found a small divot in the ground that was slightly hidden from sight. Holding the thread in one hand, I calm my breathing and crush the small string, absorbing the divinity contained within. As it took time to absorb divinity, even the meager amount contained in the snake, I sat down and refreshed my memories. Divinity is the lifeblood of every living thing. Immortals, such as other Gods or monsters, have much more of it, but it was a requirement for life. There are several ways to gain Divinity, but only three have decent yields. The first is, of course, worship. This is how gods like Zeus and the other Olympians grew in strength; they took a small portion of their natural regeneration whenever a mortal worshipped them, essentially consuming a slice of their life span. Damn parasites, I thought with disgust. The second option would be meditation. It can be an extremely slow process as it requires you to pull divinity from the Ether, but greatly increases the purity of your core. The main benefit of purity is it increases how much divinity you can hold in a much more condensed space. Imagine having a tiny core barely the size of a grape; if it had a radiant gold sheen, it could contain much more power than a larger, less purified core. Lastly, (this would be my preferred option) is battle; whether it¡¯s a spar with a challenging opponent or to the death, it doesn¡¯t matter. The idea is that the Ether rewards the winner. Ether is essentially the fabric of the universe. The primordial soup that makes up everything. While even the gods do not know the exact reasons it does so, we believe that the more you grow in skill, the more the Ether infuses you, granting you much more power than if you received it via worship, and because of how you do not necessarily need to fight to the death for it to increase your divinity, it led to the creation of several coliseums where gladiators dueled and fought each other for the increase in power. The influx of divinity slowed, snapping me out of my trance. Looking at how the sky had become twilight, I guessed a little less than half an hour passed. Stretching slightly, I stood back up, picking up the snake nearby. With it not weighing a lot, I shrugged. Better to have it than not. Continuing my path along the beach shore, I see several dozen lights begin to flicker in the far distance near the shore. With a grin, I pick up my pace. Finally, seems I found a village. Let''s see what happened to Lemnos while I was away. 3: Outsider The single moon was halfway across the night sky when I reached the village. Thinking about it, I decided it was much better to wait for morning to approach the village. Very rarely do people enter villages with good intentions in the dead of the night. Not wanting to be too close so I wouldn¡¯t be seen from inside the village, I walk a few hundred yards away and find a somewhat comfortable place to settle down for the night. With a little free time on my hands, I decided to take my makeshift wooden knife and harvest the snake¡¯s fangs and scaley skin. I can¡¯t wait to make something out of this; I am not the god of crafting for nothing. About half an hour later, I finished, finding a spot to toss the snake so no wild and potentially dangerous animal found it near me. It took a few more minutes, but I quickly returned to where I had decided to stay for the night and lie down, facing the sky. While waiting for sleep, I watch the stars and enjoy the warm wind against my body. With Lemnos not having a large population, I didn¡¯t have to worry about the bright bonfires and lanterns blocking the view of the stars. While it''s not a normal thing for a god to want to go to sleep, I always enjoyed the nice reset. I never thought I would return here¡­ with it being reduced to almost nothing. There was no reason to return. Clearing my mind, I drift off¡­ *** A large, smooth, rocky platform appears under my feet, and a large void surrounds it. Damn it, I was hoping I wouldn¡¯t receive any messages. I sigh. Well. I am already here. Hopefully, it¡¯s not any of my surviving family. On the rare occasion when a god does decide to sleep (there is no reason to sleep other than to spend time), they are left in a state where they can contacted by another creature with significant power (generally tending to be another god or rarely a titan.) and while its not the only reason gods don¡¯t tend to sleep, its definitely pretty high up there. Speaking aloud, I state, ¡°If you don¡¯t show up soon, I will just wake myself up.¡± Momentarily after that, a cloaked figure appears before me and walks closer. As it gets closer, I can make out his face under the cloak; the face revealed was a gauntly pale one and one that any god who was worth their salt would know. It was Kronos, the Titan of Time. He laughs a little bit, seeing my wide-eyed reaction. Holding his wrinkled and decayed arms out wide, attempting to seemingly hug me, he smiles wide. ¡°Is that how you treat your one and only grandfather? With silence?¡± Still shocked, I remark to myself, Kronos? He shouldn¡¯t be capable of leaving Tartarus, even in only spiritual form. The things my family has done should have ensured that. Backing up slightly, I shrugged off his hug. ¡°I know you are my grandfather, but other than that, you haven¡¯t done a thing for me.¡± Kronos stepped back dramatically, clutching his chest as if seriously injured, ¡°Now, now, I wouldn¡¯t say that. I even gave you that second chance you were talking about.¡± Second chance? Does he mean he reversed time? That wouldn¡¯t be possible if he had been weakened, and if he could have always reversed time, he would have easily won against my aunts and uncles. Seemingly reading my confused face, he continues, ¡°And yes. I could have won against my children, and I still could. But that wouldn¡¯t be half as entertaining to do, would it? When I saw you slaying the rest of the ¡®Olympians¡¯ but failing at the last major obstacle, I cannot lie; I felt somewhat disappointed in you. So much potential.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. He widens his arms in what was intended to be a grandiose display (unfortunately, his skin condition did not assist with the image). ¡°So you''re welcome.¡± A long pause fills the awkward silence. Before I can speak, he snaps his fingers, his face showing some displeasure as if he is remembering something annoying. ¡°Now, I know this chat has been nice and all, but ironically, the Titan of Time is out of time; you are not currently strong enough to survive much more of this interaction, and someone has been trying to wake you up for a while now.¡± True to his word, Kronos began to dematerialize, and the rest of the dreamscape went with him. As the dreamscape dissolved, I thought through the frankly abrupt conversion. Grimly, I thought, if time has been reversed, as Kronos said, then that should mean all the parasites I killed were back. My face turns dark; I will simply need to slay them again. While waking, I heard several voices, one closer than the other, and an uncomfortable sensation in my side. ¡°-ke up, you big oaf.¡± A male¡¯s voice says. Apparently, the feeling in my side was him kicking me. Quickly coming to my senses, I catch his foot as he winds his leg for another kick. I release his foot to stand, quickly looking at the people interrupting my sleep. They were two ivory-skinned males; the one kicking me seemed to be a young man barely older than 16, and the other looked a few decades older, out of breath from running up to the kid. I notice another older-looking man now beside the kid. I ask, a little heated, ¡°Who are you calling an oaf?¡± The young man regained his balance after I caught his leg and pales slightly, clearly not expecting me to wake up. Amused by his reaction, I think He must have thought I wouldn¡¯t wake up. Looking at the older man, I ask, ¡°Who are you, and why is this kid kicking me while I slept?¡± I nod my head toward the kid. The kid¡¯s chest puffed up, and his face turned red again. He was seemingly miffed that I ignored him and talked to the person next to him. He huffs, crossing his arms with irritation and arrogance. ¡°I am Petros the son of Dalphne, chief of-¡± Before the kid could finish his introduction, which immediately cemented him in my mind as a spoiled brat, the man beside him interrupted, stepping forward to put an arm in front of the kid. He reached out with his other hand, going for a handshake. I step forward, take his hand, and shake it firmly. He politely says, ¡°Hello, outsider; my name is Demitros. I apologize for our initial¡­ greeting. But may I ask what your name and purpose are as you are close to our village? Releasing his hand, I give him a reassuring smile. ¡°My name is Hephaestus, and I can promise you I was simply trying to find other people.¡± When Demitros or the boy didn¡¯t react to my name, which used to be known across the entire dimension, I thought It still requires a bit more investigation, but it seems Kronos wasn¡¯t lying about somehow rewinding time. Continuing talking to Demitros, I begin weaving in a few lies, ¡°A day or two ago, I found myself on this island, abandoned by my family. You wouldn¡¯t believe my relief when I saw a village.¡± Demitros¡¯s eyes widened, quickly approaching and putting his arm behind my back, pulling me toward the village while saying, ¡°If you were truly abandoned here and have no ill intentions, then, please! Come with us. You must be starving.¡± Looking over his shoulder at the stunned Petros left behind, he said, raising his voice, ¡°Come along, Petros, let us return to your mother. I will be telling her of your actions.¡± Petros, mumbling under his breath and looking angry, huffed for a moment before following behind. When approaching the village, I noticed two guards, one with a slingshot and another with a bow, who were waved off by the man dragging me along. Passing the guards and a small, short stone wall, I see several dozen houses built in rows, made of clay and ceramic tiles for the roof. There are likely a few more than a hundred people who can live in this village. It is neatly planned for being so remote. Remembering Petros¡¯s quick and unfinished introduction, Delphne must be a good chief then. As we walked past the rows of houses, several people poked their heads out to watch us pass by, a few gasping and pointing at me. Looking down at myself, I don¡¯t notice much that would warrant such a reaction, that was, of course, until I remember the huge snake I decided to bring along with me, as well as my bronze-like skin. Looking at Demitros, I remark, Honestly, I am surprised he didn¡¯t mention it. While it isn¡¯t exactly a widely known thing, beings who can hold a large amount of divinity do have physical differences from another of their kind. Or that he didn¡¯t even ask about the snake. Shrugging to myself, I will have to deal with it. Reaching the center of the small village, I found myself in front of a building that was slightly larger than the rest and made out of stone. It must be the Chief¡¯s hut. Demitros proves me right by stopping near the entrance and saying, ¡°Wait here for a moment while I go grab Delphne; I will get someone to bring you food and a drink shortly.¡± Pushing open the front door, he walks into the house, closing it behind him. I momentarily searched for somewhere to sit, and low and behold, I found a nearby tree stump and sat down on it, breathing out in a tiny bit of relief. A few minutes passed without anyone appearing from the house; about to give up and talk to some people passing by, I stood up and turned away from the door. Before I could actually do anything, however, the entrance opened, and Demitros¡¯s voice came flooding out. ¡°I don¡¯t know, Delphne; he seemed to be telling the truth.¡± A feminine voice responded, ¡°As always, I have to be sure.¡± I put a large and hopefully disarming smile on my face and spin around on my back heel. Seeing a stunning woman exiting the building, I quickly say, holding out my hand to shake, ¡°Hello, it''s great to meet you. My name is Hephaestus, but my friends call me Heph.¡± 4: Meeting The People of Lemnos’ I put a large and hopefully disarming smile on my face and spin around on my back heel. Seeing a stunning woman exiting the building, I quickly say, holding out my hand to shake, ¡°Hello, it''s great to meet you. My name is Hephaestus, but my friends call me Heph.¡± The woman looks blankly at me, confused by the abrupt conversation. During this, I use the brief moment to assess the person before me. Delphne was definitely a good looker; the lady in front of me had long black hair pulled into a ponytail and skin like the others I met today. What stood out the most to me, however, was her large muscles. She has definitely spent a great deal of effort on building muscles that don¡¯t grow from sitting around and letting everyone else do all the work. Plus, she is quite pretty, not as good as Aphrodite, but that¡¯s a high standard to beat. Demitros lightly coughed from behind Delphne, startling her out of her thoughts. Looking at me, she says slightly embarrassed, ¡°Ah yes, sorry about that.¡± Quickly adjusting to the situation, she calms down, grabs my hand, and shakes it. ¡°I am the chief of this town, Delphne, and my advisor here told me about your situation. However, I do have a few questions to ask.¡± Holding my hands in a ¡®wait a sec¡¯ gesture, I say, ¡°Apologise for cutting you off, but may we do this over some food? I am famished.¡± Let¡¯s ignore how I can last several weeks without eating. Sometimes, just eating food is nice, even if it¡¯s not that important to my survival. ¡°Ah¡­ yes, we have food from last night¡¯s meal if that is acceptable.¡± I nodded. ¡°That would be great. Thank you¡± A few minutes later, I ended up sitting at a huge feast table where a few villagers were eating breakfast, with a large bowl of pasta and a few small strips of meat with some cheese on the side. Delphne and Demitros sat across from me with their own smaller bowls. They must have given me a lot more. Using a trident-like utensil made of bronze, I took a bite of the cheese and immediately loved it. Seeing my expression, Delphne explained, ¡°Ah, that would be the Melichloro. It¡¯s made of fresh goat and sheep milk. We don¡¯t have many animals, but enough to make it.¡± I nodded in acknowledgment but didn¡¯t stop eating. I forgot how great the cheese was here on Lemnos. It might sound silly that a piece of cheese was one of the things I remember the best, but it definitely was something that stuck. Quickly finishing my meal, I used a spare cloth to wipe my mouth. Leaning back in the chair, I pat my stomach, looking at Delphne, ¡°Alright, what questions do you have?¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. She swallowed a bite of pasta. ¡°Well, first, you mentioned that your family left you here. But where are you from?¡± Hm. Where do I want this persona of mine? I always loved Scicly, so let''s do that. I say aloud, ¡°I am from Sicily. My family, however, stranded me here.¡± Delphne looks a bit sceptical but also curious. ¡°You are from such a large city? Why did your family leave you here, so far away from Scicly?¡± Chuckling, I reply, ¡°Trust me, my mom wants nothing to do with me, and the rest couldn¡¯t care less.¡± Sighing, Delphne looks me in the eye, ¡°Look, I know that you aren¡¯t telling the truth, maybe some of it, but not all of it¡­ but as long as you have no mal intentions and can be useful to the village. I don¡¯t care about your background.¡± Suddenly piping up, Demitros says, ¡°Speaking of useful, what can you do?¡± Glancing down at the snake pelt I had draped over my shoulder, he continues, ¡°Obviously, you can fight, but anything else.¡± Smiling, I rub my hands together. ¡°Say friends¡­ do you have a smithy?¡± *** To say the least, I was not impressed. Standing in front of an old, dilapidated building with a rusty anvil, a hearth built into the corner that had seen much better days, and a few rusty tools. The building had a large opening in the front with a small splintered door, presumably leading to a bedroom. Yeahhh¡­ this place hasn¡¯t been used in years. It will take some time for me to repair all of this. Walking up to the large anvil, I pat it. ¡°Well. It¡¯s certainly not in the best shape, but that''s no matter. The hearth at least looks in decent shape.¡± Rubbing the back of his head, Demitros sheepishly says, ¡°Due to some unfortunate circumstances, our blacksmith was killed during a beast wave.¡± ¡°Beast wave?¡± He nods, ¡°Yes, occasionally, when the wildlife grows in numbers, large herds and groups are attracted because of the life force in the village. A venomous snake killed the blacksmith while she slept.¡± The people of this village must think their divinity is this ¡®lifeforce.¡¯ It is unlikely that they know much about it. Speaking aloud, ¡°Alright, I don¡¯t mind living here for a while. Give me some time and some metal and I will begin after cleaning this up.¡± Grabbing one of the tools off the rack, I brush it off, sending a large wave of dust across the open area. Sneezing, Demitros backed up, stepping outside. ¡°I guess that¡¯s my cue to leave. Just return to the Chief¡¯s house if you need anything.¡± Watching him walk off, I mirthfully call after him, ¡°I need help moving something!¡± Demitros, not looking back, shrugged, yelling over his shoulder, ¡°I think you¡¯ll live!¡± Chuckling I turn back to the mess in front of me. As if it was waiting for me to look, a chunk of the wall collapsed inward, covering everything in another layer of dust. Yeaaahhhh, this is gonna take some time. *** Sometime later *** Returning to the smithy from the village¡¯s dining table after successfully retrieving dinner, I sighed. It took all day to get the building back to a somewhat livable condition, thanks to a civilian who lent me a broom, I had managed to free the smithy off the dust infestation, and the smaller bits of rubble. Unfortunately the larger debris would take some more time to move but the smithy looked substantially better than it did early today, now the metal tools and anvil were wiped down with a wet rag, ridding it of the grime built up. Walking into my new home for the foreseeable future, I grabbed some empty linen sacks and walked to the door in the back (which indeed led to a small room that unfortunately lacked a bed,) laying the bags out as something to sleep on. Laying back, looking through a hole in the roof; I saw the night sky above and combination of the bright stars and night insects chirping, lulled me to the realm of Hypnos. 5: Creating a System I woke up to the sunlight pouring in through the same large hole in the roof I used for stargazing. Grumbling to myself, I mentally push fixing the hole up the list of priorities. While I enjoyed the night view, I didn¡¯t care for the sun directly in my eyes. Sighing, I picked up the bags I had used as cushions and began my daily stretches. While many people do not enjoy morning stretches, they improved my general mood and athleticism throughout the day, so I made it a habit. Wrapping up my stretches, I quickly got up and went to the feast table and ate the daily meal, a conglomerate of grains, fish, and a small portion of meat, Of which type I do not know, and frankly, I do not want to know. Since the hole in the ceiling guaranteed I would wake up early in the morning; there were only a few villagers, mostly the people who had to leave early to hunt. I am surprised they can do that with those large snakes around. Shrugging, I stand up, finishing the food and stacking the plate on the few others at the end of the large table. Walking back to the forge, I probe my core, measuring my divinity. The small, dull core was rather pathetic, but the amount of energy I had gained from the snake and a few days of rest and food helped me regenerate the limited amount, but it should be enough for what I wished to make today. Getting back to my smithy, I closed my eyes before the anvil, meditating and entering my soul. The soul space is a unique region of the body, and it takes many decades to be able to enter it; only around half of the gods could do it, and a much smaller portion of mortals could. However, in my previous overthrowing of Olympus, it was preparation I had done ahead of time. It had taken me close to 23 years, if I remember correctly, and even longer to do anything with it. The special thing about the soul is its effect on reality. While divinity has the ability to interact with it, it is more of a temporary change in the laws of space rather than a rewriting of it. On the other hand, divinity can affect others, while the soul only affects an individual. Much later on in my life, I learned a method to manipulate the soul to define in quantifiable terms your capabilities and power. Once I had created this method, it increased my power level significantly. There are many situations where other major deities created ways of doing this, but my personal favorite ¨Cthe one I had created¨C was the most efficient. This was the system. It allows me to determine how far I am away from ascension and my relative power level. If I wanted to begin my destruction of Olympus earlier than the last time, I would need to create it now. Taking a moment to view my soul, I looked around and enjoyed it, most would never see the soul, but it truely is a stunning sight, long strands of glowing silky white wrapping my soul space in a large bubble, seemingly rippling like a river pouring around me. Bringing my attention away from the strands. I begin preparations for the system. Confirming that my early estimates were correct, I observed my core once more. It has just enough; creating the basic framework of the system will take 97% of the energy, and that is just for the basic features¡­ Shrugging, I decided to begin. In the worst-case scenario, I burn through most of my divinity and will need to take some time to regenerate until I can try again. The concept behind the system is an interface that allows me to interact with my soul¡¯s and body¡¯s power more directly. It has some basic automatic processes that run in the background, consuming tiny bits of divinity to maintain it, but I found it to be more useful than some of the other methods of power quantification that other gods created. The hardest part of constructing it, was the forging of the soul itself, fortunately, I happen to be the deity of the forge and fire.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. After confirming the mental image of the soul construct, I breathed out and began tugging on the strands that made up my soul. Infusing my actions with my concept of the forge, using the image it conjured in my mind, I wove the strands together into a coherent pattern, slowly changing the chaotic but beautiful rhythm into one no less stunning but considerably more organized. Every additional strand added to the new weave interrupted the natural flow, putting strain on both my will and the soul, making it harder to add new pieces. Nonetheless, I continued, pulling more and more of the soul, ensuring that it was the strongest I could make it at the moment. As I approached the halfway point of the process, I felt my divinity drop, a large portion of it being consumed to essentially give the system a kick for it to begin automatic construction. After maintaining a steady stream of energy for some time, the new fabric that ran the system took over, taking the strain off my will and instead draining divinity as it grew, causing it to pulse with a golden light. Taking a moment to breathe, it looked as if the system was wrapping up, which was good as my divinity was beginning to sputter out. Eventually, I would need to come back to develop the system more, but for now, it was sufficient for my needs. Feeling it is finishing up, I exit my soul as the rest would be done by itself. The sun had already passed the middle of the sky, meaning I likely missed lunch or was at the back end the lunch rush. Before I could eat, however, I had a screen in my face to deal with first
System Greeting
The system has been successfully activated; the current system version is [1.0]. Please invest more time and divinity into Soul Fabric to upgrade. Current abilities of the System: Status, Basic Leveling
Grinning, I mentally acknowledge its greeting and dismiss it. First things first, while time may not have felt like it passed in my soul space, my body wouldn¡¯t be upset with eating something. Even if I am a deity that can sustain myself off divinity, I never liked to, as it always felt similar to cannibalizing. I got a few looks from the natives as I whistled happily, but not a lot would put me down after I made my first step to ripping down Olympus again. Also helps I made something, even if it¡¯s not metal just crafting something gives me a small amount of divinity back. Sitting down at the feast table next to a man slightly shorter than 6 feet, I grabbed another plate of the same thing earlier today and a small addition of an apricot. The man grunted acknowledgment before looking at who was next to him; he became slightly stunned to be sitting next to a much larger man. Looking at him, I chuckled and began eating the meal. Choosing to focus on my new abilities instead of the shocked man. Pull up my status
Status: [Lesser Deity] Lvl 1 (7/25xp)
Mind [Tier 1] 14 Body [Tier 1] 8
Soul [Tier 1] 17 Divinity [Tier 1] 5
I grimaced. My status was considerably lower than I had preferred but higher than expected. Some of my mental and soul strength had been kept from the time reset, which I assume is why they are considerably higher than my body or divinity. It¡¯s better than last time, I suppose, but it''s still disappointing. The basic version of the system only had a few statistics that it could show, with all of them being rather self-explanatory. The mind was really a category for my willpower, and processing speed, but does not increase my intelligence. Soul being for the general shape and size of my soul space. With Body being for strength, dexterity, and other similar aspects. The only two things that are different: Divinity, and the Tier. The Tier of a stat directly impacts the efficiency of the stat point; at Body [Tier 1], a single stat point is the strength of an average man, with each point representing an additional man¡¯s worth of strength, but if I had Body [Tier 2] it increases the worth of a stat point by 25%, with each tier after adding a 25% increase on top of that. Meaning Tier 2 is 125%, while Tier 3 is 156.25%. While it may seem a bit extreme and overpowered, after the first Tier or two in any stat, it becomes much harder to progress, taking an extreme event or encounter to begin the process needed to upgrade. If I remember correctly, in my first life, it took being burned for days by the fires of Apollo to increase my body¡¯s tier to 5. Alas, if it were easier I wouldn¡¯t be here. About to walk away after finishing my food, a familiar voice called. Chieftess Delphne jogged up, ¡°Hepheasus! Wait up!¡±