While Ray weaved her way through the crowded streets towards the Magic Quarter. I spent the time fiddling with my new UI.

At first, I was intrigued by the medieval fantasy setting with random bits of modern technology here and there. But I honestly found the UI just a little bit more worthy of my attention for now. Especially the Perks, Divine Mandates, and Tenets tabs.

I really wanted perks. The options I had were absurdly powerful. My first perk would allow me to choose a quality that would define my followers. This quality would then become enhanced for any who were officially part of my religion. Dallin presumably chose strength and Jocelyn chose charisma. Those two options were greyed out, so the info Kelsey gave Ray was probably correct.

Of the remaining options, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Endurance, and Luck, both Endurance and Luck were greyed out, so those were the ones that Loki and Mumblegrumble chose, though I wasn’t sure which chose which.

That left Dexterity, Agility, or Intelligence for my own followers. I had plenty of time to consider what would be best for us before I would even be able to choose, though. I would be able to unlock my first perk when I reached one hundred followers and my second perk at one thousand. It seemed to ramp up from there to ten thousand, one hundred thousand, one million, and so on. I wasn’t sure what the population of this continent was like, but with how many Overseer-less monster races there were, it wouldn’t be too long to hit a million followers, right?

A million people… that would be a lot to handle. I couldn’t really imagine it. I hadn’t the slightest idea how Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or any other big religion back on Earth did it with so many millions of adherents. Since the heads of those religions were apparently Overseers, I was curious about a few things, like who the head Overseer was in some of the polytheistic religions, and if there are different Overseers for different branches of Christianity, and about a few Tenets and historical decisions of certain religions.

I especially had questions about the current revolution being led by the Director. If he were a Tether with divine backing, it would explain many things.

Regardless of the answers to my questions, it could be fun and/or interesting to hang out with Thor or Jesus if I ever found a way to visit Earth.

The Divine Mandate tab was a list of currently outstanding divine mandates and the option to create them. I just had to ‘type’ in text and the leaders of my religion would receive some sort of revelation.

The process was automated to a ridiculous degree, but I suppose that would increase overall efficiency.

The Tenets tab was one that I felt nervous about. It was where I would build the core of my religion. Here, I would put the rules that my followers would need to follow, and it said that I would gain holy power for strong acts of faith. In other words, I would need to create a list of dos and don’ts for my followers, and I would get power to grant miracles if they follow the list. There were no requirements that the items on the list had to have a valid reason, neither were there requirements saying that they had to be ‘good’ or ‘evil’ things.

There were just no limits in general. I could ban my followers from drinking water, wine, coffee, or all three. I could ban them from certain foods or require them to eat certain things at certain times or on certain occasions. I could ban murder or require it. Rules on sexual orientation, gender roles, discrimination… in all things, my word was law, and my moral code would be the moral code of my church and anybody who joined it.

That was a lot of pressure.

I looked over the windows again, and a little blinking red circle next to the Prayer Log caught my attention.

Curious about the meaning, I focused on it and the circle expanded, displaying a number:

415,532 unread messages.

Oh shit.

“Who could possibly be praying to me? I don’t have any followers yet if I don’t count Ray.”

“This is a support function of the Overseer System for those who are just starting out on a world. It gathers the prayers of individuals who are praying but don’t know who or what to pray to.”

I opened up the log and a huge list of names appeared.

Damn, that was far too many prayers! How did gods do it?

I opened up a few of the messages and scanned them. After clicking on a few dozen, many of them had similar contents.

Speaking of automated processes…

“Hey Auto, can I set up an auto-response function?”

“Affirmative, though it is not advised…”

“I just want to filter out the prayers a little. A lot of these are people expressing gratitude for food and asking for it to ‘nourish and strengthen their bodies’. That'd cost way too much holy power. I want to have an automated response for those prayers. Something like… ‘kk, np’.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little... cold? Those people are asking for your blessings.”

“Bless the food to what? Not give them a heart attack?”

I pointed at the message I had just read. “This guy asked me to bless his cheeseburger. There’s no way in hell he seriously expects my blessing to make that greasy trash healthy.”

“... I see your point.”

After fiddling with the options for a few moments, I pressed enter and 204,936 messages disappeared. I then began to scan through the remaining prayers.

Simultaneously, 204,936 individuals on the continent of Nathea paused as a feeling of warmth filled them. Amongst those who were called ‘monsters’, a small portion of them realized instinctively that the impossible had just occurred.

For the first time, a god had answered their prayers.

***

As Ray lightly crossed into the far edge of the Magic Quarter, she felt that something was off. For almost a minute now, she hadn’t seen another person. A jolt of alarm ran through her and she took an instinctive step back in response to the sense of danger. She flinched as a wave of fire and heat passed in front of her face.

If she hadn’t taken a step back, that would have hit her.

“By Mumblegrumble's feathered fins, what are you doing here?” an angry voice demanded.

Ray followed the sound of the voice to a large figure. He wasn’t as big as Siegfried, but he was still several inches over six feet tall. He had long, greasy hair and he looked as if he hadn’t shaved in a few days. There were dark circles under his eyes and the wind carried a foul stench from his body. Despite his rugged appearance, his piercing gaze seemed to penetrate her soul.

“You’re forty-three seconds late! You think you can just prance in here all smiles and whatnot?”

Erm. Ray wasn’t quite sure how to respond, so she shrugged while remaining silent.

“Dallin caught your tongue, eh? Well then, get on with it. Why are you bothering me at this unholy hour?”

Was she bothering him? This was the middle of the street though…

This man didn’t seem entirely sane. At the very least, he was certainly unreasonable. Ray took out the letter from Eileen and held it out to him.

“Are you Master Rambalt? Sister Eileen gave me a letter of recommendation.”

Master Rambalt approached her and yanked the letter out of her hand.

“I know that much. I’m asking why you are here.”

“To take the aptitude test…?” Ray replied with a hint of uncertainty, not quite sure what the man was asking.

Master Rambalt released the seal on the letter and very briefly scanned the contents. In reality, he barely glanced at them before he tossed the letter in the air. With a snap of his fingers, the letter burst into flames, dust, and ashes scattering into the wind.

“Incorrect. You are here to impress me and convince me to teach you magic. You’re off to an unbelievably bad start if you think that using your connections will help you get away with being late.”

Ray was starting to wonder if she really wanted this angry man as her teacher. He was highly recommended by Eileen but, in her opinion, he was a bit unpleasant. She decided to stick around for a bit longer before making a decision. She took a step forward and bowed.

“I apologize for being late, Master Rambalt. It was not my intention, but that does not change the fact that I have caused you displeasure. Please allow me to continue.”

Master Rambalt grunted as he examined Ray with a bit more interest. Finally, he turned sharply and began to walk away.

“Come, the other students are waiting. Let us discover your aptitudes.”

Ray hid a faint smile as she released her bow and followed him into a nearby building that looked somewhat like a tower from the outside.

The inside of the tower was exactly what one might expect from seeing Master Rambalt’s shabby appearance.

In other words, the inside of the tower was a mess.

There were books scattered throughout the room on the floor and on tables and chairs. The entire right side of the tower was scorched black while the left side had moss and mold growing from the cracks between stones. There was a small, speckled lizard floating through the air on a wizard’s hat near the winding staircase that wrapped around the wall of the tower, leading up to the next floor.

In the center of the room, three people were sitting at a table drinking from cups of some steaming liquid. One of them was enormous. He was at least five Ray’s wide and wore a similarly large white robe to cover his ample mass. He was balding, his remaining hair thin and stringy and he held a long, golden staff in his meaty hands. Sitting next to the fat man was a small, scrawny boy with dark hair. He was wearing a black robe and his attention was focused on the leatherbound journal that he was busily writing in.

Next to the scrawny boy was a familiar, blonde-haired figure in her white robe. Kelsey waved briefly as their eyes met. Ray waved back with a wide grin. She didn’t know that Kelsey would be here, but it was a rather pleasant surprise.

Finally, hiding underneath the staircase was a cat-human hybrid with a chain on her left wrist. She had dark hair, matched by black triangular ears and a black tail coiled around her body as she huddled in the darkness. Her nose was small and stubby, and her arms and neck were covered in a thin layer of dark fur that blended into the shadows.

“Sit,” Master Rambalt instructed.

Ray obeyed, moving to an empty chair next to Kelsey.

“These are my apprentices. The fat lard is Jantzen, the scrawny bundle of lust is Peter, and I’m told you already know Kelsey. You lot, this is Ray. She’s taking the aptitude test.”

Jantzen flinched but Peter didn’t even look up from his writing.

Ray braced her heart, preparing to receive backlash as she raised her hand.

“So how do I go about taking this test?”

Master Rambalt glared at her, scowling with obvious irritation.

“Just summon your mana and I’ll tell you.”

Ray hesitated for a heartbeat before coughing lightly into her hand, covering an embarrassed smile.

“Ummm, how do I do that?”

She heard a pen clattering against the table and turned to see that the other three students were all staring at her with incredulous expressions.

Master Rambalt, for his part, was staring at her appraisingly. Her question seemed to pique his interest.

“Are you telling me that you have never consciously accessed your mana before?”

Ray shrugged.

He observed her carefully for a long, drawn-out moment. Ray could almost see the wheels turning in his mind as he thought about something.

“Girl, we are going to summon your mana right now! This is critical!” His voice took on an almost urgent tone.

“What do you mean?” Ray asked, her voice betraying a hint of unease.

“Because you aren’t using your mana right now, right? Yet I currently sense an abnormally high concentration of mana being emitted. If you truly are not emitting any mana consciously then there are two possible reasons for this, and both require immediate action.”

“Are you going to explain what those reasons are?” Jantzen asked, his beady eyes focusing on Ray with interest.

“Imbecile! What part of the word ‘immediate’ did you not understand?” Master Rambalt roared. He snapped his fingers twice and the table sank into the ground. Peter anxiously snatched his journal, storing it away in a pouch hanging from his belt.

Then Ray’s chair began to move until it rested directly in front of the scroungy elementalist.

“Girl, follow my instructions as if your life depends on it.”

Ray nodded meekly, fear swelling inside of her. Her heart drummed in her chest and her face flushed. She had no idea what was happening, but she knew from his tone that the situation was bad.

“Close your eyes and search within yourself. Every living being has a core. Some call it energy, others call it mana, and some call it ki. It is all fundamentally the same and can be harnessed in different ways for different types of magic.”

Ray complied, closing her eyes while searching inside of herself. She wasn’t sure what to look for, though.

“What does the core feel like?” she asked.

“Every mage describes the feeling differently. Mine is somewhat tangy.”

“Tangy?”

“When I use my mana, it feels like I’m sucking on oranges,” Master Rambalt supplied.

She searched for something ‘tangy’ within her, but she found nothing. Then a thought came to her.

“Do you like oranges?” Ray asked.

“Indeed. Oranges are my favorite fruit.”

That was something she could work with. She hadn’t personally experienced eating oranges or anything ‘tangy’ since she woke up so that sense was probably not what she was looking for. Instead, she focused on the first sensation she experienced after awakening on the mountaintop.

The taste of that man’s blood.

She pursued the memory, salivating as she let the taste flow through her mind. She followed the deliciousness as an overwhelming euphoria spread throughout her body.

She felt something shift and then a warm sensation filled her. The scent of that man’s blood permeated the air as she felt a well of power spring up inside of her. Her vision tinted red, and her hair started to levitate a barely noticeable amount.

Master Rambalt coughed in surprise.

“What is this…?!” he shouted; his eyes wide with excitement.

Ray gulped, swallowing her saliva.

“What?”

“Not only do you have an aptitude for all types of magic, but the quantity and quality... It’s almost as if… no, it definitely is. Girl, return here every afternoon.”

Ray tried to follow the incomplete series of thoughts but gave up after realizing that it was impossible.

“So, I take it I passed?”

Master Rambalt reached down and patted her on the head.

“You are now my apprentice. My first rule is simple: don’t ask stupid questions.”

Ray shook his hand away, standing up as she started to drag her seat back to its original position.

She was met with three questioning stares from Kelsey, Jantzen, and Peter.

“All of you, get out. Class is over for the day. Dismissed. Leave!” the cranky old magician ordered while shooing them towards the door.

The four of them filtered out of the tower with bewildered expressions.