In the span of moments between when I felt ready to unleash chaotic divine power into the air in front of me, I thought back on my life. I thought back on life before I knew about the system, recalling moments when I unleashed my divine power in mostly unaided and mostly unguided ways. I drew upon that as I readied myself for what was to come. And then I thought about my powers themselves.

My mind turned to my powers over earth, and my interest in nature. And thinking upon that I was struck with curiosity: could I influence the elements not yet under my control, fire, air, and water, in naturalistic and unstructured ways? That was the question that drove me to focus on nature while I was in the plains.

And so I began to practice more naturalistic, unaided and unfiltered expressions of divine power. And I started off by unleashing a wave of chaotic power from out of my palm.

Over the course of my fairly short lifetime, I occasionally had moments with which to experiment and learn about the ways that my named divine powers seemed to work. What knowledge I had gained through experimentation and mental note-taking was very informative to me as I watched the effects of my unfettered, unguided divine power and magic unfold before me.

In my desired solitude I reflected on what I knew about my named, and structured powers while standing in my moonlit plain. As far as I could tell the named divine powers I possessed seemed to provide a sort of metaphysical blueprint for my divine energy and magic to follow in an attempt to execute my will and make manifest my desires. Knowing this was actually useful for me as I was able to consider the ways those powers worked and relate it back to what I was watching unfold before me.

Chaotic divine power, much like my chaotic state of mind at that moment, surged out of my palm and into the air before me. The air in front of me shimmered and began to change, as my will began to infect it, my power injecting even the very atoms of the air with my influence. An area of a few dozen meters in front and above me was infected with my power, altered and changed by my consciousness.

Do not bind yourself to the declarations of the system. Do not think its limits are your limits. Remember: there are older, more naturalistic ways to use divine power. Explore them. I told myself, as I focused my vision on the strange events happening before me. I watched as the air I had infected began to change color.

Before my very eyes, the air was visibly changing. I studied it, curiously watching the once colorless air become an eerie and radiant shade of silver. It was the same shade of silver as the diamond-shaped marks of my brand. How curious. I mused, amused by the sight of the changed air.

I reached out with my other hand and attempted to interact with the silvered air. At first, all I did was literally attempt to reach out and grab the air. Nothing happened, aside from me looking silly for a few moments. I chuckled in mild amusement at the fanciful nature of what I had just tried and took a mental step back to assess what was in front of me.

So the air in front of me is... somehow affected or perhaps infected, by my power and presence. Interacting physically with this air yields results no different than interacting physically with unaffected air. But what about if I attempt to reach out with my mind?

After my brief observations, I reached out and attempted to touch the silver air with my mind. And this time I was able to feel the air as if I was holding it, I was delighted and surprised at the same time.

"And now to test it, test this." I told myself, my voice breaking the otherwise complete silence within the plains.

This appears to be mind oriented. So let's focus on... generating a mini-tornado. I thought, a neutral expression on my face. I visualized the air under my control becoming a slim and short tornado, one that would obey me and not run amok throughout my plains.

I concentrated hard on the mental image I had of the silver-tinted tornado forming before me and dancing to my whims. And then again I unleashed chaotic divine power, hoping that my intentions and my understanding would be enough for my will and my power to be unleashed in ways that aligned with my goals.

The air before me did, in fact, begin to rotate. It was nowhere near as powerful as I would have liked, but it did demonstrate that I possessed the power to influence the air.

It spun slowly, and upon completion of the rotation in a full 360-degree sphere centered around me, the silvery air was now not just in front of me but also beside and behind me. Once colorless air was left changed by the passage of air under my influence, and now there was a complete sphere around me that was silvery in color.

So it does work... I may need practice, but I can, in fact, exert influence over the air around me without using a named, structured power. I realized, a wide grin gradually breaking the past stoicism that had dominated my face these past few minutes.

I paused for a second to check my ego and to confirm that the air that surrounded me was in fact under my influence, and not just smacked with the leftover residue of the air that was actually under my influence.

I looked inward and ignored many of the parts of my H.U.D. that were trying to distract and tempt me into my old, system-using ways. There were even new parts icons crowding the corners of my vision, but they too were ignored. I'll admit, they tempted me. It would have been easy for me to give into the temptation and use them, they were after all apparently made to be used by a god who wanted a more user-friendly approach to divinity. But I rejected the temptation. For now anyway.

"I need to wait and learn what I can learn about this alternative, traditional route to divinity. Or at least I need to wait and learn what I learn about the domains that opted to trick me and keep me in the dark." I muttered, steeling my mind against the temptation to opt for an easy-mode.

I can't just be a tool that is strung along for everyone else's approval and convenience. Gaining influence over the domains is a smart move and an important tactic, but I need to showcase my independence and before I fall back into my old ways I need to wait until I learn where the domains stood when I was basically an infant and they made a significant choice that altered my life, without consulting me.

What they did was wrong, it goes belong merely influencing me to act in small ways that allow me to master my powers and into the realm of using me for my powers, which are two wholly different things. I don't know how I feel about it, aside from the fact that it made me mad. Since they are independent, thinking beings and not some sort of mindless entities, I don't know if I can trust them, and that matters.

I can't hold this against them forever, nor should I, but I do need to figure out how to be a self-sufficient, self-aware god who can get by even without the aid of the system.

I'm in pain and feeling that pain is valid. But I can't let it control me. I can't let my pain blind me to the utility of the domains and the structured path created by Anthem, and I can't just shut out the domains. But for now I can at least make sure I could operate on my own if I was cut off from the system by someone or something else. Or if I were tricked by it and the domains again.

Emotional pain sucks. Emotions are hard.

After reflecting on my emotional state, I redirected my attention and energy. What I then focused on was reaching out to the sphere of air that surrounded me.

And then in the same way that I reached out to the first patch of air I had infected, I reached out to the air behind and beside me. And just like last time, it reacted to my mental touch, revealing itself to indeed be under my influence. I practically jumped in delight when I realized that I was able to control it.

Alright! That confirms that if nowhere else I can use my divine powers chaotically and successfully here in my realm in ways that are genuinely beyond the confines of the system. I realized, as I quietly celebrated the success of my first experiment. And then I was struck with a flash of inspiration.

"Maybe I should wander back to the world of my birth. And conduct at least some experiments over there." I mused.

"And after all... I could go ahead and begin to work towards transforming the forest into my first holy site. I already know the process, so if I can kill two birds with one stone that's the most efficient usage of my time." I told myself, mere moments before I shifted my form to that of a youthful human druid, the form I sprang to life possessing, snuggly wrapped myself in my teleportative aura and warped to the forest of my birth.

Once again in the span of the time it took the average human to blink I went from standing in the middle of a sphere of silvery air in my plain to teleporting across a cosmic expanse and arriving in the forest of my birth. I didn't just teleport myself to any old spot in the forest of my birth either, I willed myself to the place where an old friend was basking in one of the few rays of sunlight to penetrate the dense canopy of the forest.

In front of me sat the familiar figure of the fungal lurker I had met during my second time traveling throughout this forest. The thing was relaxing and the area around it was filled with leftover bits and pieces of corpses, armor, clothing, and other waste left behind by victims of the lurker.

I watched the thing for a second and chuckled lightly at it. And then I walked over to its strange, fungoid mass and placed a hand on one of its loose tendrils. This awoke the thing, who reacted by swiftly clambering to its feet and examining its surroundings. When the thing realized that I was the only person around it, it focused its attention on me and made several threatening noises before it realized who I was.

[Fungal lord!] The monster mentally roared, referring to me by one of my first titles. It was delighted that I had returned to the forest. I laughed and began to speak to the thing.

"Hello old friend." I said to it, a gentle smile settling on my face in the wake of my return to the place of my birth and my reunion with a friend I hadn't seen in years.

[Lord... why are you here? Have you come to see your friend?] The thing asked, somewhat pitifully. I frowned at it, picking up the strained emotions in the mental voice of the monstrosity, a monster whose species were not known for displaying emotions.

"Oh, friend... have you missed me?" I asked. The creature was a simple being, like the majority of its kind. I hadn't considered that the thing might evolve to the extent that it was conscious of genuine and complex emotions.

The fungal lurker in front of me was the first fungoid being that was mobile and capable of truly independent action that had ever begun to worship me. Though now I had a number of fungoid servants of all sorts and had used the majority of my fungus-centric abilities at least once, I hadn't really had a chance to visit the lurker.

The lurker was a rare creature in that I considered it a friend and not a servant. I had enjoyed my conversation with it, and at times daydreamed about coming back here to see it. And to see it in this pitiful state saddened me.

[You are lord. I... missed you. I feel... smart, when you are around. And... I am... alone, here.] The thing told me, using our mental connection to also and almost certainly unintentionally transmit the shallow but real emotions it felt.

I frowned, disappointed in myself, and immediately resolved to make it up to the creature in front of me. I wondered about how to do that, but it didn't take me long to figure it out. It was an experimental three-part process.

"Hey buddy. I know how to make this right. Do you like feeling smart?" I asked, sincerely. The creature nodded, a surprising gesture given its anatomy, and I grinned at it.

"Well... I can make you very smart." I told the lumbering beast. This surprised the creature, whose mouth opened wide as a way to physically demonstrate its surprise, its toothless maw revealing naught but a void within. I took a step back and then aimed an open hand at the creature.

"This may... feel funny." I told my friend, a grin on my face, as I set out to correct my mistake and make it up to my loyal worshiper.

I focused on my ability to influence minds, and began my second ever attempt to manually bless a creature. The first time I had ever done that was when I first blessed my orc servants before they fought a human spell-singer. And now I harkened back to that moment.

I visualized a fungoid brain, one made of green matter rather than gray matter, and I pictured it getting bigger and faster. I focused hard on that visual image, locking it in my mind. I made it the object of my desires, and then I gathered divine energy in my open hand. And finally, I unleashed that energy, that power, aiming it squarely at the center of the lurker's mass.

And at that same instant, I unleashed the only ritual in my repertoire, aiming the mental magics at the same place that I aimed the blessing. The magic of Birth Of A New Mind exploded out of me, shooting forth from my mind and into the mind of the fungal monster in front of me.

The creature was bathed in potent divine and mental energy, and its mind was assailed by alien energy, energy which aggressively invaded and expanded its mind. The lurker began to shudder. And it began to glow, its fungal mass exuding a gentle silvery aura.

It took the thing about three minutes to recover from the first part of my experimental plan to right the wrong I had inflicted on the fungal lurker by increasing its intelligence and then leaving it alone, with no allies to converse with.

It finished shuddering with a start. Going from shuddering to utter stillness in the matter of a single instant. The thing opened its mouth, and to my surprise began to speak.

"Hello... 'master'? 'Lord'? Which do you prefer?" The thing asked, its first attempt at speaking impressing me. I grinned at it for a moment, contemplating how to answer. And at the same time, I received a notification alerting me that the lurker wanted to become my familiar, as creatures who were awakened by me almost universally wanted to do. I accepted the lurker as my familiar and then responded to it.

"I prefer 'Lord'. Especially if you're talking about me to others. But you know, I'm not done yet. I wronged you, and I seek to make amends. Making you smarter and doing nothing else would exacerbate the problems caused by me going away. It would intensify your feelings of loneliness, not cure them." I explained to the intelligent lurker. It looked at me and it was still for a moment, while it considered my words.

"I... see. Do you care to explain what your plan is?" It asked, its voice quiet but rather deep. I nodded at it, and began to speak once again.

"Of course! I plan on increasing your strength further, by causing you to evolve. And then I want to make friends who'll accompany you. Other intelligent fungoid beings, ones who can relate to you and who will keep you company so that you aren't alone anymore." I explained. It responded by questioning the first part of my statement.

"Wait... you can make me evolve?" It asked, curiosity and skepticism filling its voice in equal measure. I chuckled and nodded at the thing.

"Yes I can. All it takes is for you to drink a bit of my blood." I informed it, and the creature gasped in shock. And then I began to speak again, sensing that if I waited it may try to tell me not to make myself bleed.

"You will drink my blood. I will make you strong, and you will serve me. Either at my side directly, or as a protector of fungi in this forest, the place of my birth." I told the hulking monster. It opened its mouth but said nothing. I could tell that whatever thoughts were on its mind the thing ultimately decided not to say them. I grinned at it, and then looked at my hand.

For a second I wondered how to I ought to make myself bleed. But only for a second. I walked over to the fungoid monster I was about to cause to evolve, and stuck a single finger, my pinkie finger on my left hand, into its open maw. And then I gave my follower a command.

"Use a hypha to drink a bit of my blood." I told it. There was a moment of hesitation, where the creature didn't respond to me, but only a moment. A single strand of the threadlike substances used by fungi to eat stretched down from the top of its open maw, and wormed its way down to just over my pinkie. It hovered there for a second, and I felt the hesitation the monster was feeling. And then the hypha shot forward, stabbing into my smallest finger with ease.

The thin thing penetrated my skin with ease, and I winched as I felt a piercing pain shoot through my consciousness. And then I felt the appendage absorb some of my blood. I hissed as the monster I had commanded to drink some of my blood did just that, not having fully prepared myself for the pain I'd experience while it did so. The creature quickly retracted its hypha and I immediately cast a spell to numb the pain I felt, before making a mental note to numb myself the next time I sought to induce evolution in one of my servants.

And as soon as the singular strand of hypha was back within the gum-like substances that gave the monster the illusion of a mouth it began to evolve, but as it did so I received a notification. And this was one I didn't discard in disgust. This one caught my eye.

I found myself looking at the evolution menu, a menu I had long ago gained access too but hadn't ever gotten a notification for until today. I grinned at it and began to study it with an inquisitive glow in my eyes, one made of curiosity and excitement.