The white void of long distance teleportation was something of a fable to Max. He wanted to learn the secrets behind such an ability, but knew it was far outside his grasp. He could ask Sahhgen for help, but there were too many limiting factors. Would Sahhgen even want to explain Divine secrets, would she ask for more in compensation, would she laugh at him? He was brought here due to a Pocket World, better stay on topic.

Honestly, Max wasn’t too keen with making more deals with Gods. His track record has been nothing but being a tool and being put into the firefight. Sahhgen was one of the more elusive Gods, making Max all the more careful.

The white tunnel ended abruptly. There was no sense of discomfort or nausea, but he knew it was coming. He could still remember the hen…

Sahhgen’s domain was not what Max expected. The Goddess of Space and The Infinite… Pod, in his eyes, would have been mystical and expansive. Maybe a solar system or arcane mountain range. A hall of mirrors or house of portals.

A rainforest was the exact opposite of what he thought would greet him.

A small trail wove through the moss-covered trees. They stretched high into the sky, much like Esmel, and a thick, overgrown canopy draped shade. The air was thick and moist, but oddly cool and calm. There was no sense of urgency, no predators hiding in the underbrush. The rainforest was inviting.

As Max walked the path, he tried to Inspect multiple types of plants and bugs. But most attempts failed, as the plants were only plants – no mana detected. The bugs, however, were a different story. Windcaller Bee’s, Ugita Butterflies, Goliath Slugs, and many, many types of snails caked the floor and extra-wet areas.

By the time Max reached the end of the trail, he hadn’t been able to find a non-mana producing insect.

The rainforest opened into a large clearing. A massive mound of loose dirt took up the center. A leafy green vegetable top protruded from the patch of dirt and hung high in the air, like a ship’s mast. It waved and danced, uninhibited by the canopy and dire shade.

The mound suddenly broke open and a creature slithered through it. Max recognized the being instantly. A snail, size of a small car and stretched like a highway, otherwise known as Sahhgen. The Goddess slowly inched her way out of the soil, a majority of her body still packed away.

She also wore a wizard hat – pointy and green, covered in slime and mucus.

“Interrrresting.” Sahhgen spoke, over enunciating the word, “Most Interrrresting.”

“Hello. I am Max Fowler. It is an honor to meet you, Goddess.”

The snail made a sound akin to a snort, “Then why do you not kneel beffffore me? Even after I invvvvite you to my home?”

Max’s eyes went wide, he fell to his knee and lowered his head, “Sorry, my Lady. My… interactions with other Gods may have skewed my views on proper etiquette. I did not mean to offend. Thank you for this meeting. Your home is lovely.”

Sahhgen’s tongue flickered out like a snake tasting the air, “Fine. Stannnnd.”

A purple portal opened beside her wizard hat and an ethereal humanoid arm pulled out a glass sphere. The fake arms pulled the memory globe in front of the Goddess, like a Human holding a book. She eyed the memory carefully, savoring every aspect.

“Starrrrgate… Interrrresting. Very interrresting. This will be worrrth a lot when trading withhh the othersss.”

“Others?” Max asked.

“Gods.” The globe disappeared into a portal, “I trade withhh the othersss quite offften.”

Max began to wonder if he messed up with the memory. It was only a two second long clip of the gate firing-up. But it showed electrical lights in the background. Could that come back to bite him? Probably not, no. Maybe the whole movie would, guns, spaceships, bombs, and other weapons were very prevalent, but he didn’t include those.

“Is… Is my offering to your satisfaction?” He asked after a moment.

Sahhgen slithered around, coiling to use herself like a chair, “Verrry much, yes. It shall ssssell for a lot. I need to recovvver my lossesss after buying knowledge of my kind frrrom Ulissss!”

Max gulped, maybe he did mess up. Ulis was the God of Knowledge and known hoarder of secrets. Some even pertaining to Earth.

She continued, “Now then, on to why you arrre here. Guidenccce.”

Max took his chance, “Yes, I was going to ask about making inventory rings. I understand the rune aspect of the item, but not how to form the pocket dimension.”

“Interrresssting… Very interrresting.”

An ethereal hand reached through a freshly opened portal. On the other side was a fiery inferno kicking flames and heat into the rainforest. Sahhgen’s fake hands quickly pulled off her drenched wizard hat, threw it into the fire, and slammed the portal closed like an overstuffed washing machine. The hand then retrieved a fresh hat – this time black.

“No.” The snail Goddess finally said, “Much to sssimple for my instrrruction. I will guide you in Divineee Pocket Worldssss. Like my own.”

Her ethereal hands went from hands on the hips position to gesturing around at the rainforest.

This caused Max to think. His Pocket World was in fact sourced by the Divine… It was himself, after all. He went over the spell box.

Pocket World (Mythic Unique: Source - Max Fowler):

A World fit for a Creator.

You have created a land so promising and full of hope, those you look down upon wish they could catch a glimpse of the inside.

Mana cost expunged on creation.

Anchoring can be changed at any time for 400 mana.

28 mana used when living material passes through the boundary. Set to a flat cost to limit cost for large entities.

While the spell didn’t explicitly state Max was a source of Divine, he technically was regardless. His Demigod racial trait gave him a few extra features than just listed on the System box. First of all was his ability for Divine Aura, secondly was the opportunity to source spells.

The only two spells he had that needed a source was Divine Waters of Life – the spell he received for using his racial trait to heal himself and Bishop while fighting Buzluc – and Pocket World – a spell created using the Demigod racial trait as well.

“This is a Pocket World?” Max asked, time finally catching up to him.

“Indeeeed.” Sahhgen shifted a bit, pulling more of her body out of the mound, “A rathhher large one, as well. I’vvvve been stooooking the borderrrs for decadesss at thisss point.”

Max recoiled a bit, “Are you saying I can make my Pocket World… larger?”

The black wizard hat suddenly turned to stone, falling off the Goddess’s head like an anvil. She commanded her ethereal arms to toss the hat through the portal of fire and replaced her empty head with a fresh yellow one.

“Yes.” She finally said, “And here’sss how you do it.”

The next couple of hours were filled with drawn out scholarly lectures of how stretching a Pocket World was possible. The simple answer was to constantly push on the edges with a specific formation of space mana interlaced with Divine Aspect.

When Max explained he didn’t know how to tap into his Divine Aspect for space mana, Sahhgen huffed, replaced her yellow hat with a blue one, and calmly explained the idea. It was exactly as Max had already been doing with Divine healing – bolstering the mana with drops of the Divine.

Once they were back on track, Sahhgen finished her explanation of stretching. She implied many things, hints as Max realized, about the concepts flowing into other space spells. In the end, Max had a solid grasp on how to elongate or shorten things.

All in all, the guidance was very welcome.

“Thank you for your help.” Max said with a bow, “But I must be getting back to Nava. My friends are waiting.”

An ethereal hand waved the Lost Lord off as the snail Goddess munched on a large leaf, “Do not frrret, I will sssend you back jussst momentsss after you leffft.”

Max nodded along – Wait what!

“You can send me back to the moment I left? How? How is that possible?” His mind instantly went to Lester and him having watched Star Wars as a young adult even though he is a few hundred years older than Max.

“Magic.” Sahhgen said, an eye forming on her hat and winking at him.

He was in the white tunnel a second later. The journey back to Lesterwood’s Church was filled with thought. So many new revelations, so much new potential. So much to think about. Too much, even. In the end, he decided not to think about it. The fact of the matter was that Max was weak. Very weak.

Time magic… or some form of time dilation space magic, was far out of his realm of possibilities. Maybe just maybe, if he knew the concept better he might be able to create something with his Divine racial trait. But even then, it was optimistic.

The white void tunnel ended, much to the surprise of the floor [Priest]. The man’s face went from question to exclamation to wonderment to something unreadable.

“… How long was I gone?” Max asked.

“Two breaths, maybe three.” The holy man replied, “Your offering must have been rather special, Lost Lord, she usually sends people back days later.”

“Lost Lord, huh…” Max shook his head, he had tried to hide his title for so long. A lackluster endeavor, “She said that she could recoup her payment to God Ulis.”

The man’s eyes sparkled, “Good! Now she can stop moping. I told her buying her kinds’ name for such a price was a scam.”

“Kinds’ name?”

“Gastropod – information Ulis could easily have made up! I’ve never heard of a Gastropod!”

Max finally got it, “The Infinite Pod, I get it now.”

“Yes, yes. The others laugh at her for her title which only caused our numbers to dwindle slightly… My Lady loves it, even though some compromises had to be made.”

Uhhh… What? Max thought. He put on his best smile and excused himself.

He found the others quickly, making use of his and Emi’s bond as a guiding light. The little monster was manipulating multiple bubbles of water to refract light into a show of rainbows. Celenia’s smile explained her happiness as well as how impressed she was.

Max sent his meeting with Goddess Sahhgen to Emi, who then laughed manically. She, for a reason Max couldn’t quite figure out, decided she wanted a wizard hat. Maybe even a wardrobe of wizard hats. One for each day of the week.

He did have to give it to her, Emi wearing a wizard hat would be pretty cute. He just might make a stop at a [Tailor]’s.

The trio took a break for lunch – fish and other river foods – then Max was back to the Church. This time he brought the others along because of the God he was going to speak to - Yepu, God of the Hunt, should be a short meeting.

The Floor for such a prominent God was much more populated, even if he was considered a minor God. Sahhgen’s floor only had her [Priest] while Yepu’s had dozens of practitioners and patrons. Multiple statues of different species of bizarre animals filled the walls – all of which had wounds or were held within traps. Birds, wolves, goats, rams, crocodiles, snails, even penguins all oversized and slightly different than the equivalent from Earth.

A bird with six wings? Check. Wolves with a spiky horn? Check. Goats the size of a barn? Check. Rams with three mouths? Check. Crocodiles with giraffe legs? Check. Snails with… Max couldn’t figure out what was different about the snails. Penguins with dorsal fins and gills? Check.

A [Priestess] approached the group, “Welcome to the floor. It is an honor to have guests of such high regard.” She bowed; the others reciprocated, and she led them to a statue of a Centauri.

The strange thing about the Centaur was that his lower body was that of a Pegasus rather than a normal horse. The upper portion of the statue looked like a man who had been lost on an island for thirty years with a volleyball as his only friend. He was covered in thick scars, a bow draped across his shoulders, as well as a zebra-striped hide covering his back.

“They say Pterocentaur are born every one-hundred thousand years.” The [Priestess] said as her leaving statement.

Max knelt before the statue and whispered something about receiving a favor. A notification appeared not a heartbeat later. He took a moment to briefly explain his plan to Emi, she nodded in agreement.

“Hey… Celenia… If you had the choice to kill a single horrible person to save countless others or empower yourself with an unknown power, which would you choose?”

The Elf looked strangely at Max, “I guess I would go with the guaranteed. But I don’t like the idea of murdering anyone. Is there a third option?”

Max gently planted a kiss on her forehead, “No third option. And don’t worry, you don’t have to kill anyone.” He returned to kneeling at the statue. In a whisper only he and Emi could hear, he spoke, “I will”

He selected Y and fell into traversing the white void of long-distance teleportation. Max tried something, he felt out with his space affinity and mana – pulling the tunnel in a way Sahhgen had described. He didn’t change anything, nor did he effect anything, the exercise was like holding your hand out the window of a speeding car.

This particular teleport was rather short, only a minute or so. He was spewed out in a vast field. The Lost Lord took a minute to orient himself. There was no path, no cathedral in the distance, nothing but endless grass and the sparce tree. A savanna as far as the eye could see - birds flocked high in the sky and the warm dry sun burnt the flat land yellow-brown.

Distantly, Max could hear the sound of beating drums. They sounded far off but impossibly close as well. The only issue was that there was nothing around. A few predators stalked the tall straw and the occasional prey lapped water from a shallow pond – besides that, there was nothing.

Except for the drum.

Max rolled his eye at the ceremony. It was obvious he was supposed to track the sound through the dangerous land. Prove he was a hunter, sort of thing… But didn’t he already do that? Didn’t he rank first on Yepu’s leaderboard? He protected the Yepu Plains more than any other. Did he really have to go through this?

No. He decided. A teleport into the air followed by an Immovable Platform gave him an unmatched vantage point. He teleported to the horizon, then again… Then a third time. The distance Max had just covered was far, very far – but he saw it.

A small hunter’s camp was set up at the base of a Baobab tree. It held a campfire as well as a strung up monster-lion thing. Blood drained from its open wound, staining the nearby grass sickly red. A winged Centaur moved around with practiced alacrity, cutting meat with a knife to eating jerky to stoking the fire to drinking from a jug to banging on a hide drum.

Max teleported to the side of the camp, “Hunter Yepu.” He said falling into a kneel.

The God spun around, a huge smile breaking his bearded chin. He trotted closer before enveloping the Human in a deep hug, “Welcome, Max. Welcome. Please come, sit.” Yepu pointed to a log and removed a jar from his pouch, “Jerky? Made it myself. It should keep your Stamina at maximum for an hour or so.”

Max hesitantly took a slice of dried meat. He Inspected the mana-ridden food.

Nighpoint Blue Striped Wyvern Jerky

Upon Eating: Stamina recovers at a rate of 600 per minute for one-hour.

Max didn’t have six-hundred stamina. With Yepu’s back turned, he placed the jerky in his inventory, “Ooo… This is very good. Is that hickory I taste?”

Yepu turned an raised an eyebrow before snorting, “I knew I liked you.” He gestured to a clear patch of grass, “You were supposed to land there, but someone was messing with my spell.”

Oh, Max realized, I did effect the tunnel. Oops. “Sorry about that.” He said aloud.

“Indeed. That kind of magic is very precise. I thought you of all people would know that… But one can’t quench a curious mind, now can he?” The Centaur bellowed wild and loud.

“It has gotten me this far, hasn’t it?” Max said with a bit of pride.

“Indeed it has. Indeed it has. Brought you into some danger also, but without your drive, my Plains would be toast!” Yepu pulled a piece of toast from his pouch, “Toast?”

Max graciously accepted the crunchy bread but was saddened to see there was no magical effect. He began to eat it anyways – it was dry.

“I thought about your owed favor. I’ve been known to think too quickly over such a boon, so I’ve thought about this since I opened my reward notification.”

Yepu stopped fiddling with this tools and gave Max his full attention.

Max continued, “I want you to kill Serana Cresthill – the [Blood Mage] [Queen] that opened the portal in the Plains.”

The God of Hunting walked around a bit pondering, “I can’t do it for a few reasons. The first being she is too protected. All of Vast Empire is too protected – they are essentially off limits as far as the other Gods are concerned.”

“Weren’t a few thousand members killed recently? For the event in the Plains?”

“Yes. As a punishment. A punishment that was paid in full. As far as the Divine as concerned, Cresthill, Vast Empire, and God Ikzag are now neutral.”

Max recoiled, “Neutral!?”

Yepu nodded, “They do something vile; they get punished. They accept the punishment and are treated equal until they do something vile again.”

A few deep breaths later, Max spoke, “What about giving me her location? Or the bases of Vast Empire?”

“Can’t do it nor will I do it.” The Centaur sighed, his wings flinching to knock off flies, “That leads into the second reason. I don’t hunt other humanoids. I am a pacifist.”

Max looked at the God dumbfoundedly. He switched his glance to the strung-up monster, “A… pacifist?”

“Indeed. I hunt monsters. Beings that terrorize cities, kill caravans, wreak havoc.”

“Vast Empire does all of those things.” Max said with bite.

“Indeed they do. But where do I draw the line? I kill Cresthill, then what? Kill the other members? When am I treated as a monster? When am I feared like a monster?” Yepu looked off to the horizon, the sun was setting, glistening the grass with golden light, “Vast Empire are monsters, Ikzag as well, but killing humanoids goes against what I stand for. I am a God because I held my convictions high.”

Max couldn’t argue with him. He saw the hypocrisy in his own request, but he also saw the realistic world he lived in. Killing monsters – killing humanoid monsters – saved lives. Killing murderers was a good thing even if it was a harsh stance. Even on Earth he thought murderers should be killed rather than left to rot in a prison. Why should they get to live when their victims don’t?

“I understand.”

Yepu shook his head, “No, Max, I don’t think you do. Where does a monster start and a person end?”

A horrible feeling rose in Max’s chest, “I would say that line is crossed when someone murders their entire kingdom. Or when they open a portal to a dangerous Dimension in the middle of a populated Plain.” His tone was less than respectable - anger and resentment were front and center.

Yepu said nothing.

“Fine,” Max sputtered, “Teach Celenia Longstem something worthy of a Divine Favor. Gods know she needs direction right now.”

“Consider it done.” The God spoke, “I’ve seen her desires, they look respectable to me.”

Max held a sarcastic snort.

They both stared at each other for a long while, Yepu eventually yielded and spoke first, “I think we are finished here. Goodbye Lost Lord Max Fowler. Thank you for saving my Plains, and might I offer you some unsolicited advice? You should think about what you want to be. Monster or Human.”

With that, Max was stumbling through a white void tunnel. This transit took quite a bit longer than the first and when he arrived back in the Church, a horrible nausea overcame him. Something, he noted, was absent when Sahhgen sent him back.

“Max?” Celenia’s lovely voice said, “I have a notification to be taken to Yepu’s Domain… Just what was your favor?”

Water healed Max’s weakened stomach – courtesy of Emi – before he spoke, “My favor was first to kill Cresthill, but he wouldn’t do that. So, I asked for him to teach you something. He said your desires were respectable.”

“My… desires…”

“A word of advice? Speak to him like any other after a respectful greeting. Make sure you get what you want before he sends you back – there is no way I’m letting him cheap-out on a Divine Favor.”

Celenia grabbed Max and held him close, “Did something happen?”

Max took a few breaths. Yepu had gotten to him more than he wanted to admit. Man or Monster, “A clash of opinion. Sorry for worrying you. Make sure you ask questions!”

A kiss later, the Elven ex-[Druid] apprentice was gone. Hopefully she will find a path that suited her.