The elderly gnome plucked at my disciple’s ragged tunic with crooked, dirty fingers and gestured toward the far corner of the cavern, where the mushrooms’ shadowy forms lurked. Reluctantly, Gneil threw one last, lingering glance at my gem before trudging off with the old woman.

‘What does old Granny here think she’s doing? Gneil’s mine!’ I exclaimed, outraged.

‘Gneil still has a job to do, Corey,’ said Ket calmly. ‘The gnomes’ world doesn’t revolve around you, you know. Yet.’

The two of them headed down the hillock and across the stream, the ancient female shuffling ahead, Gneil plodding along behind her until they passed beneath the mushrooms’ canopy. Still a bit annoyed at losing my lone, apparently part-time, worshiper, I followed them, mulling over what Ket had told me about ‘god tiers’.

‘So I have access to new skills now I’ve reached tier two?’ I asked her. ‘What are they?’

‘Hold on. I’ll show you.’

There was a faint glow, and then tiny silver writing shone in front of me. The arcane symbols hovered in the air, just like the Faith hourglass and the mana globes, and the blueprints that appeared whenever I used Insight.

Ket saw me ogling and explained, ‘As a god, you have the power to augment reality – though only in limited ways – using this.’ She gestured at the glowing silver words. I stared at them, mesmerized.

‘And what exactly is “this”?’

‘I like to call it the Augmentary. It contains a wealth of information, and provides you with a toolkit with which to influence the world around you. You can view it at will.’

‘The Augmentary?’

‘Yes. As I’ve said, with each god tier you Ascend to, you’ll gain new abilities. You can view and keep track of these new abilities in your Augmentary, which only you and I are able to see. What you’re looking at right now are the abilities – or ‘augments’ – you’ve learned so far.’

‘I thought you said I couldn’t forget that stuff?’ I asked as I scanned the short list.

‘You can’t,’ she replied. ‘But sometimes it helps with problem solving to have your options laid out in front of you. You’ll see.’

‘Mhm.’ I squinted at the bottom of the list. ‘Growth?’

‘Ah, yes! Your newest ability. And a very useful one, might I add.’

‘Growth,’ I read aloud from the silvery writing. ‘Tier two ability. Enhances and accelerates the growth of vegetation, including fungi. Wait – vegetation?’ I protested. ‘That doesn’t sound very god-like. You told me I’m to be the god of gnomes, not the god of mushrooms.’

‘Yes, Corey,’ said Ket patiently, ‘but there are many ways in which you can help the gnomes. Growth is one of them.’

The sprite gestured toward Gneil and the elderly female, now scrubbing about among the mushrooms.

‘These little guys might not look like much, but imagine the things they could accomplish if they didn’t have to spend quite so much time on tasks they’re clearly not trained to do! Growth could be used to make the lives of Gneil and Granny – as you call her – just that little bit easier.’

I watched Granny hand Gneil the tiniest bucket I’d ever seen. Calling it a ‘bucket’ was optimistic; it was barely even a container, a battered scrap of bent metal with some string attached. Gneil took it from her and ambled down to the stream at his usual snail’s pace while she chivvied him on from afar, leaning on a knobby walking stick. Their progress was almost painful to watch. My sprite had a point. Growth would come in very useful here, if you cared about that sort of thing. Besides, hadn’t Ket said that the healthier the life form, the stronger the flow of ambient mana into my gem? All I had to do was cast Growth on these mushrooms and I’d instantly become more powerful – not to mention impress the other gnomes, heretical wretches though they were.

I thought about asking Ket how to do it, but decided I was tired of being told what to do. Surely I could figure this out without the need for a lecture. I blinked away the silver symbols of the Augmentary and got to work.

First, I accessed my mana. It was surprisingly easy; a cool, blue pool waiting calmly in the back of my mind. A little over one entire globe, just waiting to be used.

Picking a mushroom at random, I focused and thought hard about what I’d just read about the Growth ability, expecting to summon up more symbols that would instruct me what to do next. Instead, another blueprint appeared, covering the mushroom in much the same way as it had earlier when I’d first experimented with Insight.

Here goes, I thought, reaching for the first time toward that source of juicy mana. Growth!

To my alarm, the blueprint instantly began growing. So too did the mushroom beneath it, as though the blue lines were a net being pulled, stretching the fungus until it was twice as tall as the others – no, three times taller – no, four times taller.

In the corner of my vision, I noticed my mana already beginning to deplete at a shockingly rapid rate. I’d been using Growth for barely a handful of seconds, yet the first globe of mana – the one at the bottom – was already halfway empty. I recalled Ket’s earlier warning – ‘You must never expend all of your mana at once, otherwise your gem will shatter’ – and began to panic.

Ket’s answering trill of alarm was drowned out by an ominous wooden crack. Time stood still as the mushroom’s stalk snapped beneath the sudden and unexpected weight, then, with a splintering creak, the bulk of the mushroom came toppling down – straight toward where Gneil and Granny loitered, gawking.

‘Corey, no!’

At the sound of Ket’s voice, I tore my gaze away, desperately seeking a way to stop the parasitic ability – which was still in effect, despite its destructive impact on its target – from sucking away the rest of my mana. I now had less than a quarter of a globe remaining.

Luckily, as soon as I stopped looking at the blueprint, my connection to the mushroom ceased, and my mana level stabilized. Just in time, too – there was barely a fraction of the globe left.

The monstrous fungus hit the ground with a thud. Feeling dizzy and sick from the near miss with my mana, I braced myself for what I was about to see. Two pairs of still, grubby gnome feet sticking out from beneath the colossal mushroom carcass, most likely.

I saw them. Gneil and Granny were sprawled in a heap beneath the mushroom, as I’d feared – but thankfully they were cowering in the gap between the stalk and the ground created by the edge of the mushroom’s giant cap. They climbed to their feet, shaken but clearly unhurt.

Relieved I’d managed to avoid squishing my only source of worship, I looked around for Ket, already anticipating a furious lecture about the irresponsible use of my new powers, or some such.

The sprite hovered beside me, her glow somewhat dimmer than usual. I braced myself for a tirade.

‘Don’t ever do something like that again without consulting me first,’ she scolded squeakily. Then she burst into delighted laughter and began to bounce around. ‘But you did it! You used Growth! And all by yourself, too. I’m so proud of you!’

‘Wait. You’re not mad?’ I relaxed a little.

‘Well, it would have been nice – and decidedly less traumatic for the little ones – if you’d checked with me first,’ she pointed out, gesturing to where Gneil and Granny huddled together, peering at the fallen behemoth in suspicious wonder. I felt a twinge of guilt, which I immediately bit back against.

‘They’re both fine!’ I said defensively. It was true. Granted, they had very nearly not been fine, but still.

I sensed Ket preparing to argue. ‘They’re fine,’ I said again, ‘and that’s all that matters.’

‘I had no idea you cared so much about them.’

She said this with more than a touch of sarcasm. Still, how dare she insinuate that I felt anything other than vague revulsion – or at best, tolerance – for these creatures?

‘Caring has nothing to do with it,’ I replied loftily. ‘Gneil is my only source of worship right now. Of course I’m glad he didn’t just die.’

‘Whatever you say, Corey. Well, you may have ruined his mushroom patch, but he seems happy enough. And so does Granny! Look!’

Grinning like an idiot, Gneil handed Granny his miserable bucket, which he’d somehow kept hold of all this time. He said something to the old woman, then both he and Granny turned to stare across the cavern at my hillock, their eyes shining. Both gnomes fell to their knees – Granny more slowly than Gneil, though no less surely – and began to worship.

My mana began to slowly replenish. Even better, in addition to those blue lines of mana, the telltale green aura of Faith also began to shine from Granny for the first time. I’d gained my second Faithful denizen!

In the bottom left corner of my vision, the green triangle suddenly glowed brightly. The second tier had filled entirely, and now the number on the triangle read ‘three’.

Ecstasy that transcended physical sensation swept through every molecule of my being, a sudden inrush of blissfulness telling me I’d Ascended once again, this time to tier three.

Oh, I could get used to this.

‘Look at them,’ Ket crooned. ‘Aren’t you happy to be their god now, Corey?’

‘Yes,’ I murmured, still floating on a cloud of rapture. ‘Yes, I suppose I am.’