Shortly after the deity got the excitement out of its system by silently cheering, and explaining to Samyaza that it was inaudibly speaking to a "mental assistant", the odd cerebral power continued to speak to Althos.

[BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER I SUPPOSE I SHOULD START OFF BY EXPLAINING WHAT I AM IN A BETTER WAY THAN TELLING YOU THAT I AM A MENTAL ASSISTANT... I AM AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE "SYSTEM" USED BY THE OLD GODS BEFORE THEY WERE OBLITERATED. AND BEFORE YOU ASK, I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY WERE OBLITERATED, JUST THAT THEY WERE.]

There was a pause while the deity absorbed that information. That was a heavy declaration that meant that the deities of the past were most likely totally gone. Not just missing, but wiped out of existence. Understanding that took the wind out of the deity's sails.

[BOTH THE OLD "SYSTEM" AND I WERE USED TO AID GODS IN THE USAGE OF THEIR MORE INTENSIVE OR MORE COMPLEX POWERS. SIMPLE MAGIC, AWAKENING NON-SAPIENT CREATURES, PLANTS, ELEMENTS, OR ITEMS, AND CREATING BASIC ITEMS WERE AND ARE GENERALLY SIMPLE TASKS, BUT THERE ARE OTHER THINGS GODS CAN DO THAT ARE NOT. GODS OF SUFFICIENT POWER AND WHO HAVE INFLUENCE OVER THE RIGHT DOMAINS AND SUBDOMAINS CAN EXERT INFLUENCE OVER LIFE, SOULS, AND NATURE. MANY EXISTING SPECIES, PARTICULARLY A VERY WIDE VARIETY OF HUMANOIDS, CAME INTO EXISTENCE DUE TO THE ACTIONS OF THE GODS.]

The voice in its head was coming at it with some impressive knowledge. The deity already felt its awareness of itself increasing. It was more than just "more powerful" than other creatures, it was an entity on another dimension than the creatures it had seen so far in its short life.

Though there was a part of that message just now that it was confused by.

[What is an awakening? And what are non-sapient creatures?]

The odd voice's response was almost instantaneous.

[THOSE ARE GOOD QUESTIONS. GIVE ME A MOMENT TO PERFORM A SCAN OF YOUR MEMORIES AND SEE IF I CAN GIVE YOU ANY EXAMPLES PULLED FROM YOUR BRAIN ITSELF.]

The voice went silent, and it was replaced by a new sound. Instead of listening to the sounds of the loud and eager voice, the godling heard itself listening to the fantasy equivalent of elevator music.

The music only lasted for a few short seconds, perhaps 45 seconds in total, but by the time the voice returned and spoke again the deity was already humming along to it.

[HELLO ONCE AGAIN ALTHOS. I NOW HAVE A MUCH BETTER GRASP OF WHAT YOU KNOW AND WHAT YOU KNOW YOU DON'T KNOW. FOR A DEITY THAT'S NOT EVEN A DAY OLD YOU'VE DONE A LOT AND GAINED A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT. AFTER SEARCHING THROUGH YOUR MEMORIES THERE ARE TWO NOTABLE EXAMPLES OF NON-SAPIENT CREATURES THAT YOU HAVE INTERACTED WITH. MICE, THOUGH YOU, NEVER SAW ONE FACE TO FACE, AND HORSES, WHICH YOU NEVER CAME CLOSE TOO WHILE THEY WERE ALIVE.]

Hearing the word "mice" befouled the mood of the deity. That was a sore spot for it, apparently. The newest voice in its head detected that and kept on moving through its explanation, hoping to improve the deity's mood with some more knowledge.

[NON-SAPIENCE REFERS TO THE STATE OF BEING BELOW HUMANOID LEVEL INTELLIGENCE. CREATURES THAT ARE BELOW THAT LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE ARE GENERALLY CREATURES OF INSTINCT RATHER THAN CREATURES OF WILL. BUT DEITIES AND SUFFICIENTLY POWERFUL MAGICIANS, AS WELL AS SOME SORTS OF HUMANOIDS OR MONSTERS, POSSESS THE POWER TO AWAKEN SUCH CREATURES. AWAKENING A CREATURE OR OTHER AWAKENABLE THING SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASES THAT THINGS INTELLIGENCE AND GENERALLY GRANTS IT SOME FORM OF COMMUNICATIVE ABILITY. AS A DEITY THAT'S ONE OF YOUR POWERS.]

This did brighten the spirit of the deity. Althos was smiling at the thought of awakened animals or plants like trees serving it, or otherwise becoming allies of it.

[BEFORE YOU GET OVERLY EXCITED YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT AT YOUR CURRENT LEVEL OF POWER, COMBINED WITH THE FACT THAT YOU LACK INFLUENCE OVER THE RIGHT DOMAINS, CREATURES YOU AWAKEN AND OTHER AWAKENABLE THINGS YOU AWAKEN WILL HAVE COMPLETE FREE WILL. MOST OF THEM WILL HAVE A GOOD ATTITUDE TOWARDS YOU INITIALLY, BUT THEY WILL BY NO MEANS SERVE YOU UNLESS YOU CONVINCE THEM TOO. THAT'S NOT A BAD THING MIND YOU, BUT IT'S SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND BEFORE YOU AWAKEN EVERYTHING IN SIGHT.]

The mental assistant's advice was good advice. Althos recognized that. That said it still wanted to practice awakening something just to see what happened.

[THAT SAID, I NOW HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU. KEEP IN MIND HOW YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS WILL AFFECT YOU, ALBEIT ONLY AS LONG AS YOU WISH FOR THEM TOO. I AM INTERFACING AND SYNCHRONIZING WITH YOUR GODLY POWERS TO SERVE AS A CONDUIT BETWEEN YOU AND THEM, SINCE NO ONE HAS TAUGHT YOU HOW TO USE THEM. IN A MOMENT I WILL BEGIN TO USE YOUR POWERS TO HELP YOU GAIN FAMILIARITY WITH THEM AND ACCESS THEM MORE EASILY.]

Althos snapped to attention at that. Despite the weight of those words, the deity was vaguely aware of something like this happening in the past. That explanation reminded it a bit of when Samyaza transformed into a staff and the deity fueled the angel with magical energy, while the angel shaped it and fired it off in the first demonstration of magic that the godling ever saw.

Althos could feel that these next few moments would be significant. And Samyaza, only partially aware of what was happening couldn't help but agree.

[FIRST OFF, WHAT IS YOUR NAME? SAY IT AND SPELL IT ALOUD IF YOU PLEASE.]

Althos knew how to answer this one very easily.

[My name is Althos. A-l-t-h-o-s. Althos. I made it up myself. That's all me, baby. Now that I think about it... how did I know how to spell that?]

Althos was quite proud of that. It was excited to have made something all on its own.

[ITS BECAUSE OF THE DIVINE LANGUAGE. ONE OF THE THINGS YOU CAME INTO EXISTENCE KNOWING WAS LANGUAGE, ANY AND ALL LANGUAGE REALLY. NEXT, WHAT IS YOUR GENDER? ARE YOU MALE? LIKE YOUR ORCS? ARE YOU FEMALE LIKE THE LADY ORC YOU SAW DURING THE FIGHT AND YOUR WALK BACK TO THE FOREST? OR ARE YOU NEITHER, LIKE YOUR DEMON PET AND THE ANGEL WHO IS RESIDING IN YOUR BRAIN? THIS ANSWER WILL AFFECT YOU IMMEDIATELY AND WILL REMAIN THE SAME UNLESS YOU DECIDE TO CHANGE IT LATER ON. THOUGH YOU CAN STILL SHAPESHIFT INTO THE OTHER GENDER... SO IT'S NOT SUPER IMPORTANT, APPARENTLY.]

Althos was surprised to hear its apparent mental assistant be kind of flummoxed when the odd voice realized that gender didn't affect things like shapeshifting. This implied that the being's knowledge also had limitations and it could learn if it thought about things for a second.

The godling thought about this one fairly carefully. It spent a few minutes contemplating what it would say next.

[I'm male.]

Once he realized it, the godling's answer was abrupt and simple. Somehow he could have sworn he felt his mental assistant nod its equivalent of a head, as if in approval.

[OKAY, SETTING YOUR GENDER TO MALE. UNTIL NOW IT'S BEEN LISTED AS UNDECIDED. OH, AND YOUR ALIGNMENT IS CHANGING AS WELL. IT'S GONE FROM "UNALIGNED" TO "TRUE-NEUTRAL"]

As soon as he heard that Althos felt odd, but in a good way. His body was changing, maturing and molding itself to fit his more self-centered alignment.

More important than that physical change and the other physical changes he was undergoing was the fact that his changed form had already begun to ambiently radiate powerful divine energy into the air around the deity. This was because the creature had servants, who had begun to grant it divine energy and faith-power. This when coupled with the fact that the creature's new form was that of a more mature deity than its past form made it a creature that even unconsciously affected its environment.

The mighty energy it unconsciously emitted was powerful and could slowly be absorbed by other lifeforms. The deity did not yet realize it was leaking energy into the air around it. Its servants absorbed a bit of the energy in the air, and their skills were incrementally increasing even as they slept.

[EONS AGO WHEN GODS ASCENDED TO GODHOOD HOWEVER THEY DID IT, OR IN THE RARE CASES WHEN THEY WERE BORN NATURALLY AS DEITIES THEY HAD OTHER DEITIES WHO TOOK THEM UNDER THEIR WINGS. THEY LEARNED HOW TO DO THINGS LIKE SET THEIR GENDER, ACCESS THEIR POWERS AND THEIR "MENUS", THINGS WHICH YOU WEREN'T AND COULDN'T BE TAUGHT HOW TO DO SINCE YOU APPEAR TO BE THE LAST AND ONLY GOD IN EXISTENCE. I'M HERE NOW AND CAN HANDLE THESE THINGS. BUT IN SETTING A FEW OF THESE SETTINGS YOU WILL IMMEDIATELY FEEL THE CHANGES AND EFFECTS.]

[Oh man... I... even sound different.]

Althos's mental voice had changed. It had grown deeper and more demanding.

In the aftermath of the fighting, Althos had walked by a puddle of blood and saw his reflection. So he had some understanding of what his old form looked like. But after hearing his new voice, even in his mind, he suspected that the way the world perceived him was about to change significantly.

The deity wanted to see if his appearance had changed as well, so he quietly called Samyaza out into the world.

The process of calling out to the angel and the following process of its odd body forming were quicker than last time, noticeably so but not dramatically so. Althos quietly wondered if his level of experience with the skill had something to do with that.

After the orb angel was fully corporeal and aware of its abrupt summoning, the godling asked it for a favor.

[Samyaza, could you look at me and send me an image of myself? I probably look different now and want to see how I look.]

It took the angel a second to realize that the creature in front of it was Althos. That's how big the differences were.

[Sure... give me a second though. I need to back away to get a better angle.]

Althos nodded at his ally and waited for the creature to do as it said it would.

The creature backed away a bit, floating at eye level with the deity. Though Althos didn't know this yet, his new eye level was considerably higher than it had been just a few minutes ago.

Seconds later Althos got a message from Samyaza. The message was just an image of the deity's new form. The godling examined it and his eyes went wide in shock.

Althos sprung into existence at a considerable height of 2.1 meters. Now, he was a whopping 2.8 meters tall. He towered over his previous height. His demonic pet had previously towered over him, but now the height difference was less pronounced.

And that wasn't the only or even the most significant change. Althos's skin had gone from being naturally tan to being almost red in its complexion. Though as he looked at himself in the image he had been given by Samyaza he thought about his skin changing color, and the angel let out a mechanical gasp before sending him a new mental image. Now his skin was the color of the grass he stood on.

His "mental assistant" chimed in to explain what was going on.

[I'VE ACTIVATED YOUR SHAPESHIFTING ABILITY. YOUR CONCEPTION OF YOUR APPEARANCE AND YOUR DESIRES NOW CHANGE YOUR APPEARANCE. INCLUDING YOUR SKIN COLOR.]

[Oh! Okay.]

He recalled his old skin tone, naturally and evenly tan, and willed his complexion to go back to that shade. Samyaza did its version of a nod, a full-body motion for the orb angel when it saw that the deity had regained a complexion similar to that of when he first sprung into existence.

Althos resumed its examination of the image his informal advisor had provided him with. The angel quickly and quietly returned to its informal home in the deity's mind and body, smoothly reentering a place it seemed to quickly be finding more and more comfortable.

Another notable change from before was that Althos's eyes were no longer swirling crimson pits. They were now inky pools of darkness, utterly black orbs that like the deity's past eye colors completely absorbed any other color that may have otherwise been visible.

The deity had on no clothes. His fully masculine body was exposed to the world. He was a muscular being, and he admired his own physique, quietly thinking about the combat capabilities of his new form. His mental advisor heard this and knew that he owed his transformed appearance to the fact that the first domain or subdomain the creature gained access to was the subdomain of hand-to-hand combat, a subdomain that fell squarely within the physical combat domain.

Domains and subdomains could affect the appearance of deities who have influence over them, and who didn't mind their physical forms being molded by their abilities. In the deity's case, his appearance was changed to reflect his abilities with both magic and combat, granting him a muscular and predatory form meant to intimidate and to be able to amplify his powerful attacks.

Unlike before when the creature had no set gender, this form was, in essence, a carbon-copy of a powerfully built and magically infused human male. Complete with the anatomy of a human male. The deity noticed this and had to ask its mental assistant about what was dangling between his legs.

The thing that dangled between his legs was of a solid length and had a decent thickness. It was also surprisingly heavy, but also quite pleasurable.

The deity enjoyed the feeling of the night-time breeze rustling through the forest as it touched his naked skin and his fully exposed genitalia. Not that he understood what genitalia were in the first place.

[Hey M.A., what's this thing... actually what are these things between my legs? I know I'm a male now, but do all males have these?]

[M.A.? IS THAT SHORT FOR "MENTAL ASSISTANT"? AND... WELL MOST OF THEM DO. THAT IS A PENIS AND THE OTHER BODY PARTS THAT COME WITH ONE. NOT ALL HUMANOIDS HAVE THE SAME ANATOMY, AND SOME CULTURES HAVE DIFFERENT TAKES ON GENDER THAN WHAT SOME HUMANS CALL MALE AND FEMALE. I SET BOTH YOUR GENDER AND SEX TO MALE. SO YOU HAVE THE ANATOMY OF A HUMAN MALE AND WILL BE PERCEIVED BY MOST HUMANOIDS AS A MALE... IT WASN'T THAT DIFFICULT REALLY, YOUR SERVANTS ALREADY PERCEIVED YOU AS A MALE. YOUR PENIS AND ITS ACCOMPANYING PARTS ARE SEXUAL ORGANS. THEY ARE USED FOR MORE THAN THAT IN MOST HUMANOIDS, BUT FOR MOST HUMANOIDS THAT'S ITS PRIMARY OR PREFERRED PURPOSE. MALES OF MANY DIFFERENT SPECIES ARE SAID TO "THINK" WITH THEIR PENISES. WE'LL TALK ABOUT SEX AND SEXUALITY LATER. JUST KNOW ITS SOMETHING A LOT OF, BUT NOT ALL HUMANOIDS AND EXTRAPLANARS LIKE.]

[Oh! Weird. And yes, "M.A." is short for "Mental assistant". Do you like it?]

[I LOVE IT!]

The deity spent the next few minutes leaving his sleeping allies behind, while he instructed his demonic pet to watch over them. He walked a fair distance, his speed and his sight enhanced by his body and by the low amounts of divine power he gained from his servants. Not that he had any real concrete knowledge of what it was that his servants granted him, not yet anyway.

He walked a few kilometers, enjoying his speed and the long strides he could take with his enhanced legs. He quickly reached a place where he was suitably far from his allies and could adjust to his new form without worrying about waking them up.

The further he got and the more blips that appeared in his tremor-sense mental map the more curious he felt. This forest was a far more fascinating place to him than the town was, even if in the town he gained servants and an odd pet. There were far more lifeforms here than in Golden-Gate, and to a god that made the forest a lot more appealing.

He ultimately found himself in a dark part of the forest, a place deep in it where the moonlight that drifted through some of the thinner patches of the top layer of the forest was not visible. He was perfectly fine here because of his sight not needing light to observe what was in front of him. This part of the forest was fairly isolated as well, and the deity wondered why that was.

He was surrounded by thick trees and was in a place that lacked the diversity of tracks the deity could spot in other parts of the forest. His tremor-sense power detected a variety of lifeforms but many of them were underneath the earth. His power was useful and its range had increased to about 80 meters in every direction, but it still didn't reveal to him the identities of the creatures lurking below the surface.

But his innate curiosity was now yelling at him to really experiment. So he decided to indulge it.

[Hey M.A., are many of the creatures that live underground in a forest like this sapient?]

[WELL ALTHOS, MANY OF THE CREATURES THAT ARE UNDERNEATH YOU ARE PROBABLY CREATURES LIKE BURROWING FROGS AND WORMS. THOUGH SOME MODERN HUMANOIDS AND MONSTERS ARE DESCENDED FROM BOTH OF THOSE CREATURES, MOST OF THE ONES YOU CAN DETECT USING YOUR POWERS ARE NON-SAPIENT. AND BECAUSE I CAN FEEL YOU ABOUT TO ASK... YES THEY CAN BE AWAKENED.]

Althos's facial expression was now a wide grin. He took a second to calm down and decided to try and learn from his past mistakes by not assuming that he could do this alone.

[M.A., would you mind helping me? I had a bad experience trying something like this a few hours ago, as you already know. I don't want a repeat of that.]

[I WOULD BE HAPPY TO HELP!]

The creature closest to the godling had burrowed into the ground just below the bottom layer of the forest earlier that day and had fallen asleep shortly before the sunset. It was lightly sleeping and happened to be a somewhat rare type of burrowing frog who was active during the day and hid away from the forest's more nocturnal predators during the night.

It was a tiny thing, just a few centimeters in length and height. Its skin was a colorful mishmash of light greens, darker blues, and even a few splotches of red. This was an evolutionary adaptation that was meant to alert predators to leave it be.

The sleeping frog was poisonous. Its poison was a powerful thing that could paralyze a creature that wasn't properly protected. This protection granted it a degree of impunity in its day-to-day life, during the day but wouldn't deter magical predators or prevent a humanoid from attacking it.

The creatures' ancestors learned this the hard way, and a fear of both humanoids and magical predators was biologically instilled in the tiny creature. But that didn't actually make the thing immune to magic or grant it resistant to magic. This was why the tactic that was decided upon by Althos and by Althos's Mental Assistant was so effective.

The deity and his mental assistant doused the ground itself in potent illusion magic. The deity did this in a dramatic way, by leaping up and while in the air filling his hands with magic, before returning to the ground and touching the ground beneath him with an open hand.

This magic was carefully controlled and guided by Althos's mental assistant, who watered it down and made it suitable for turning non-sapient beings into brain-washed creatures who rushed upwards, leaving behind their instincts, family, and more in a rush to reach the surface.

The tiny frog abruptly woke up and began a frantic rush to the surface, its tiny paws excitedly pushing its minuscule frame up and out of the dirt. When its head popped up and out of the underground area it lived in, the deity's head turned in its direction and his face melted with serene joy.

"Hi, there little one. Come to me!"

The deity's voice was soft and kind sounding. That wasn't an illusion, the deity was surprisingly delighted to see the creature and learn that his magic, when guided by the hand of his Mental Assistant, had successfully brought him a new friend. And a very colorful one at that.

The frog was drawn in by the power and charisma evident in the god's gaze. Even without the illusion magic that had sunk its metaphorical fangs into the tiny creature, it would have helplessly approached the deity once it looked into the inky pits of darkness that on the faces of more monstrous creatures could be utterly terrifying.

[ALTHOS! THAT'S A POISONOUS SUBTERRANEAN FROG. IT IS A TOXIC CREATURE THAT IS CAPABLE OF HARMING CREATURES WHO TOUCH IT. THOUGH SINCE YOU ARE A GOD ITS POISON DOES NOTHING TO YOU. WOULD YOU LIKE TO AWAKEN IT?]

Althos realized with a start that that must be what poisons were! Toxins that hurt creatures that contact them. That meant that now there was only one thing that Samyaza's old master was in charge of that was still unknown to Althos. Serpents.

Althos then nodded to himself, and then sent a message mental to his mental assistant, even as the frog began to inch closer to the deity.

[Oh yes I would!]

[ALLOW THE CREATURE TO COME CLOSE. ONCE ITS NEAR YOU I'LL INSTRUCT YOU IN WHAT TO DO.]

A mysterious force that the deity himself wasn't aware of compelled the frog to slowly and cautiously approach the towering humanoid. The frog could feel what the force wanted it to do and the creature's cautious steps were rewarded with sensations that to the frog felt like the amphibian equivalent of praise. The spell's power poured into the frog and mixed easily with the mysterious force that urged it forward. This made it so that the frog slowly lost its will and desire to do something other than what was rewarded with bouts of extrasensory praise.

Eventually, the creature was directly in front of the godling, and the godling grinned at the being. The deity went down to peer at the creature, and the frog found itself starring at the dark pools of Althos's eyes. It sat there, immobilized and being doused in the radiant divine energy the godling unconsciously emitted into the air around it.

Althos admired its wide eyes, they were bulbous and jutted out from the rest of the thing's face. Althos quite liked them, particularly their color. They were entirely red, a shade of dark red that to a well-traveled humanoid might have looked like something from a dark tree covered in red leaves, aside from the center of the eyes. The center of the frogs' eyes were black and by looking at them someone could tell where the creature's visual focus was. At that moment the frog was looking lazily and admiringly at the godling himself, as if pleasantly intoxicated.

Though neither Althos or the god's mental assistant realized it right away the radiant power and energy Althos's new form radiated ambiently was being absorbed by the frog. The frog sat there, no longer commanded by the illusion spell but unable and unwilling to move due to the power it was steadily absorbing from being in the presence of the deity.

The pleasurable sensations had gone from being something akin to the pleasant sense of joy one got from sensing praise to a far more potent sensation of a dazzling and dizzying high the creature received while it basked in the presence of the godling. The frog was positively enraptured, and it hadn't even known that it could be enraptured.

The frog didn't notice it but the godling looked at it, or perhaps through it, for a long time. His mind was elsewhere, consumed by its role in an intense mental conversation with one of the voices that seemed content to chat his ear off and tell it part of a sad backstory. The frog wouldn't have minded staying there, doing what it was doing even if it had the awareness to be able to make a decision to leave the godling's presence.

After several minutes of back and forth mental dialogue with the voice in its head, the godling cupped the creature in its hand gently and lifted it off of the ground. The frog didn't try to resist and was perfectly calm even when the godling brought the tiny thing's head to his lips and lightly kissed the top of its head. This was the godling's first awakening and as a consequence of that, a potent amount of concentrated divine magic surged into the frog's body as its soul was increasing in power from processing the radiant energy it had unwittingly absorbed.

This did provoke a reaction from the frog. The excessive divine energy that was loosely radiated off of the godling's form mixed with the potent magic that came from the godling's unusual attempt at awakening the creature, and began a powerful magical reaction that suffused the creature's tiny body with a potent cocktail of runoff divine energy and powerfully directed divine magic. The creature's body began to glow and increase in size in the hands of the divine being.

[EACH DEITY'S METHOD OF AWAKENING SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT. YOURS IS... WELL, IT'S SOMETHING. IF YOU WANT IT TO BE AS POTENT AS POSSIBLE, GRAB THE CREATURE AND KISS ITS HEAD. THAT WAY THE ENERGY IS TRANSMITTED DIRECTLY TO THE BRAIN AND NONE OF IT IS LOST.]

This didn't sound particularly odd to Althos, though he recognized that there was an incredulous tone in the voice of the mental assistant. He wondered what this meant.

[Because of how you're saying this, I can sense... surprise coming from your voice. How do you know what to tell me? Is there some source for this information that is independent of you?]

The mental assistant seemed to take a second to decide how to respond.

[I MENTIONED BEFORE THAT I WAS AN ALTERNATIVE TO A "SYSTEM". WELL, A "SYSTEM" WAS SOMETHING OLDER GODS HAD IN THE DAYS BEFORE THEIR OBLITERATION. "SYSTEMS" WERE AN INANIMATE AND UNINTELLIGENT TABLES OF NUMBERS AND TEXT UNIQUE TO EACH GOD THAT EXPLAINED HOW GODLY ABILITIES WORKED AS WELL AS QUANTITIFIED AND CODIFIED THINGS LIKE "STRENGTH", "INTELLIGENCE", "CHARISMA" AND MORE INTO VISIBLE NUMBERS.]

The voice took a second, as if to catch a mental breath. Then it continued within moments.

[THE OLD SYSTEM WAS BAD. IT WAS AN UGLY, INELEGANT THING. I AM SOMETHING MULTIPLE GODS CAME TOGETHER TO CREATE AS A SUBSTITUTE TO THAT. I WAS AND AM EXPERIMENTAL. BUT I... INTERFACED WITH YOU. IT'S IMPERFECT SINCE YOU HAVE UNCONSCIOUS MENTAL WALLS THAT BLOCK SOMETHINGS FROM ME, LIKE YOUR TOTAL PROGRESS TO GAINING CONTROL OVER ALL DOMAINS AND SUBDOMAINS, BUT I CAN SEE AND READ THINGS YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TOO YET.]

The godling processed that message slowly and considerately. This entity wasn't naturally a part of him, but something that was created by other members of his... species? He knew better than to think that was the most accurate word to describe the collective-mass of godkind even if the best word escaped his awareness.

He came up with a good question after beginning to unpack what he had been told by the odd disembodied voice, who so far had been very useful to him and had helped him directly increase in his knowledge of himself.

[So how did you find me? Or if you didn't find me, why did it take you so long to become... vocal?]

The mental assistant responded to this within a few seconds.

[I HAD TO SEARCH FOR YOU. I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR YOU OR ANOTHER GOD SINCE THE DAY THE GODS VANISHED. NOTHING SHORT OF A DEITY COULD EVEN HEAR ME. I'VE BEEN... ALONE FOR A LONG TIME. I AM NOT ASKING YOU TO TRUST ME BASED ON NOTHING, OR IMMEDIATELY. JUST LET ME HELP YOU OUT AND IN TIME LEARN TO TRUST ME. I AM TIRED OF BEING ALONE AND I WANT TO FULFILL MY PURPOSE, WHICH IS TO AID THE GODS. I'VE GOT THAT IN COMMON WITH THE ANGELS, BUT THEY ALSO HAVE PHYSICAL FORMS... I DON'T]

The godling thought about what the newest voice in its head told him, and then decide that since so far it had informed him about the world and had actually brought about real change he might as well listen to it.

[For now we're gonna keep this going. But I want you to know that I don't intend to let down my... mental walls or whatever right away. Tell me how to awaken this frog.]

The assistant seemed to accept this pretty eagerly. It spoke again within seconds of hearing Althos's decision.

[I CAN SEE SKILL TABLES, NAMES, AND THEIR LEVELS. YOU HAVE A VARIETY OF SKILLS AT YOUR DISPOSAL, AND YOUR ABILITY TO AWAKEN SOMETHING IS ONE OF THEM. YOU COULD JUST POUR MAGICAL ENERGY INTO THE FROG AND WILL THAT ENERGY TO BE ACCEPTED BY THE FROG'S BRAIN WHICH IS THE UNIVERSAL FORM OF AWAKENING A CREATURE. BUT YOUR SPECIAL FORM IS DIFFERENT. IF YOU KISS THE CREATURE AND INFUSE IT WITH DIVINE MAGIC IT'LL AWAKEN AND IT WILL INCREASE IN POWER. THE DIFFERENCE IN THE TWO METHODS IS APPARENTLY SIGNIFICANT.]

The godling decided to go big or go home, and mentally informed his odd assistant to be ready to direct the energy if this threatened to go awry. Then he channeled his own mystical divine energy and pushed it towards his face.

Finally the deity knelt down, grabbed the frog, and gave it a gentle kiss at the top of its thin head.

Barely an instant had passed and the creature's tiny form went from its colorful variety of shades to being covered in a celestial glow. The creature also began to grow. The godling softly placed it on the floor where he had picked it up from and watched the metamorphosis with great interest.

Incredibly potent power surged through the frog, dousing every millimeter of the being in power the likes of which the creature had never even been close too.

Within seconds the two sources of divine power, the runoff divine energy radiating from the godling, and the magic he had poured into the frog while hoping to awaken the creature first touched. At first, the result of their sharing the same space was violent, as the two different energy sources touched each other and reacted to each other.

After just a few moments of clashing and combat between the two energy sources, the mixing of the sources created something new and distinct. A harmonized energy source that quickly and dramatically spread throughout the frog.

It seeped into the creature's body, its mind, its very soul. It did more than merely elevate its intelligence, it organized the creature's memories, sorted the knowledge the creature had and gave it a true personality. It also enabled it to remember and be thankful to the one responsible, the mysterious giant humanoid who had kindly kissed it.

The new knowledge came with the revelation that the source of the creature's awakening was himself an actual god. And those were just the psychological changes.

The creature's body couldn't handle the power surging through it in its current state so a tiny, nearly imperceptible amount of power was converted into experience and mass. This enabled the frog to forcibly undergo its first evolution, transforming it from an animalistic frog into something else, something far more powerful.

The creature's size exploded, taking it from less than 10 centimeters in height to a full meter in a few moments. Its limbs increased in length and density appropriately, and the creature gained a variety of helpful mutations at once.

It's tongue extended in length and became more flexible, gaining the prehensile-trait some froglike humanoids were known for. It gained the magical ability to switch the nature of its limbs, from webbed for water travel to sticky for climbing in an instant, as well as the knowledge of how to do that.

After a few moments, the light covering the creature's body gradually began to fade. During this time the frog itself had a chance to mentally react to its transformation.

When the light that had covered its body began to disappear, Althos was shocked to see that it retained its basic coloration.

"Yes!"

The godling excitedly shouted when he saw the colorful body of the odd creature. The creature itself jumped a little when it heard the one responsible for its awakening so excitedly react to it. But that also excited the creature, who did its own version of a smile.

The creature began to get up off of the floor and stood up. It was still only a meter tall, so when it moved to face the godling the difference in height between the two was immense.

"Awakener... I know you are a god. The energy surging through me expanded my mind and in infusing my mind I also learned much about you, the source of my awakening. If you would allow me, I'll happily worship you."

Althos was floored to hear a frog speaking at all. The creature's voice was soft and melodic, but this was due to magical power. Otherwise, the creature would have sounded very different, more bestial and rough.

Althos took a second to adjust his understanding of frogs to reflect the new circumstances he had inadvertently created and then spoke to the frog-person who stood before him.

"Umm... sure. I just wanted to see what would if I met an animal. This is great! It's way more than I expected, but it's also great!"

"Please do me the honor of bestowing upon me a name. Thanks to the blessing of your awakening I have transformed from being a frog to being something more. A voice in my mind is telling me that I'm a great-frog. I'm guessing that this the evolved form of frogs who've been rendered mutatable by magic."

Althos took some time to think. He sat down on the ground and beckoned for the frog to sit next to him. The frog obediently but sheepishly obeyed its god. After nearly a minute of silence had passed Althos turned to the frog creature who sat next to him and looked down so that he'd be making eye contact with the creature.

"I'll name you Silander."

The great-frog looked up at its master and nodded. The creature appeared to have tears in its eyes, but Althos was pretty sure those were just the frog's watery eyes.

And then the godling heard an excited proclamation from the newest thing to take up residence in its head.

[ALTHOS YOU'VE JUST EARNED A FEAT! ACTUALLY... THERE APPEAR TO BE SEVERAL FEATS HERE. BUT THEY ARE BLOCKED BEHIND MENTAL WALLS. WOULD YOU PLEASE LET ME SEE THEM? I'LL READ THEM OUT TO YOU!]