My target had just finished welding a narrow band of armor to the right side of one of the armored behemoths as I approached. As I waited for [Essence Reading] to give me more details, I activated [Assassin’s Mark] over the course of a few seconds, something I’d forgotten to do on my previous target. What it finally reported didn’t surprise me, but it did infuriate me.

  [Name: Dahlia Shortblade

  Race: Quarterling (Half-Human, Half-Halfling)

  Class: Battlefield Mechanic - Rare - Rank B

  Level: 31

  Emotional Status: Focused/Content]

  Below the normal window was another, smaller box, but it held the most relevant information of everything I had available.

  [Chosen of Dominus: Dahlia is a devout follower of Devourer, as are all of the people in this glade besides you and your companions.]

  So that’s what [Chosen of Dominus] does besides mark me as her Chosen.

  My eyes narrowed on the woman where she was working on a smaller panel of black-green metal in a large forge full of purple flame.

  Devourer, you bastard! This place isn’t for you and your shitty cultists. I’m of half a mind to claim this glade for Dominus directly and see what fucking happens to your cannon fodder.

  Surprisingly, a red box ringed with gold snapped into existence in the corner of my vision, but I banished it to the tiny icon for silenced notifications as I snuck up on my target. I have a feeling I’m going to want to consider that for a bit, so it can wait ten seconds.

  Reaching out to the forge with [Elemental Mastery], I pushed some Mana into it to cause it to flare up. Dahlia reared back before cursing under her breath. “Stupid [Holy Forge], shoulda just used a regular [Arcforge]. There have been nothing but problems since we got this damned thing.” She half giggled. “Damned thing, for a [Holy Forge]! I’m funny!”

  Those were her final words.

  As she reached toward the dials on the side of the forge to try and get them under control I slid forward the final five feet to bury [Night’s Fury] in the base of her skull. I ripped the wrist mounted blade out of her corpse and sent the blood on the blade flicking into the forge, where the newly reduced flames surged once more until her blood burned off.

  ‘Both of my targets are down.’ I huddled beneath the armored vehicle my latest target had been working on. ‘Any issues with the dude popping in and out of the vehicle, Volta?’

  Nearly thirty seconds of tense waiting later, she replied. ‘I caught him just as he was crawling out with a blade through his heart. His body is in the metal monstrosity. The other is now roasting in his own forge with his throat cut.’

  Ylsa didn’t wait for me to react before putting in her two coppers. ‘Two [Mechanists] neutralized. Tossed both in the big forge over here and their bodies are charring away…’

  ‘Did you loot them?’ Realization struck me as I realized they didn’t need to do that with the Party Interface. ‘Nevermind, stupid question. Their bodies should have decomposed in a few minutes after looting if they’re all at a similar level to the one I checked, but I guess it can’t hurt.’

  It kind of amazes me to have the Party Interface sometimes. Looting your target tells the System it’s time to reclaim the body of the slain, which my Party members do automatically, unlike everyone else on Genovia. They all have to touch their targets, putting ranged damage dealers at a severe disadvantage when the time to loot comes.

  I wonder if Mom…nope, not going to let myself dive down that rabbit hole right now. It’s time to look at that notification.

  With a flex of my will, the gold rimmed red window reappeared before me. Despite their similarities, it somehow felt more than the other windows unique to [Suzerain]. Like it had some holy mojo going on, which – I guess – it did.

  [Would you like to officially contest the Grove of Corruption in the name of Dominus against Devourer? Y/N]

  A sub-window unfolded to the side as I considered what this thing actually meant and really clarified what I was dealing with.

  [Note: Officially contesting a location as the Chosen of a deity makes you their champion by default. If you accept this request, Devourer will have one minute to name a temporary champion as long as their Chosen isn’t present. After that minute, you and the other champion will be teleported to the center of the contested space where you will fight to the death. The loser of the contest will have all their followers in the area slain and their energy delivered directly to the winner’s deity.]

  Holy shit, I kind of guessed it would be something like that, but to read it in black on red…it makes it all real. My mind began to spin and I sat down on the pavers with my back to the forge. Am I ready to directly contest a god? Even if it is that piece of shit, Devourer. Am I ready for the world to know I exist? There’s no way a notification regarding a contest between two deities doesn’t get broadcast to at least the nearest city. Am I ready for Chalcedony to know I’m the Chosen of Dominus?

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  It wasn’t the combat I was worried about. I had enough tricks and life saving potions in my bandolier to outlast most people, though if they were on a similar level as my parents…I’d be screwed.

  As I sat there in a state of decision paralysis, Volta and Ylsa found their way over and stood guard over me. Silent guardians against the demon that was my mind. Nearly five minutes later, I made my decision, or at least decided how I’d make the decision.

  “It’s up to you, Dominus. Tell me what you want me to do.” I pushed a quarter of my Mana into [Dominus’ Insight] when the usual eighth didn’t do it and the resulting golden window finally flared to life.

  [The choice is ultimately yours, Artie, but with this I can lay out the facts of the situation so you can make an insightful decision. Heh, insightful. Anyway… There are seventy-eight followers of Devourer at this location with levels between ten and forty, though the average is twenty-seven. Their leader is a level forty Priest of Devourer, a Rare A-Ranked Class. I won’t tell you the idea of siphoning so much power from my most ungrateful progeny doesn’t make me happy, but I don’t want you to do this for me. I want you to do it because you want to embrace who you are meant to be, this world’s Suzerain.]

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that’s what she’d say.” I tossed the trio of notifications to my pair of guards and let them read through them while I pondered their contents. “What do you think I should do?” I entreated them.

  Volta finished first. She closed the notifications and looked back at me with eyes that sparkled like the black opal she’d used to evolve. “Before evolving, I’d have said to continue what we started, but now? I can’t help but say you should assert your dominance. Let the world hear you roar, even if it’s only in this tiny corner of it.”

  “Despite how long she’s been mortal, I can’t say I disagree.” Ylsa stared down at me before extending her hand and hauling me to my feet. “You’ve dealt with far worse than a level forty priest in just the past few days.” She flashed me a surprisingly wild grin. “Slaughter him and feed our goddess the power of those heathens!”

  Yeah, I really should have seen that coming. I smiled at the pair of them. Ylsa’s the most devout follower of Dominus after me that I know. Of course she’d want to empower her goddess with the blood of her enemies.

  “It’s time for a tactical assassination.” I clicked the yes option.

  A moment later, the bark of the [Barrier Oaks] surrounding the glade began to glow and soon a barrier of emerald light rippled out to surround the entire space. A notification snapped into existence before all of our faces, even though we already knew what it would say.

  [Arthur Bajbub Neilson, Chosen of Dominus, has officially challenged Devourer for control of the Grove of Corruption in the name of his goddess. Should Devourer’s Chosen not be present, he shall have one minute to select a suitable proxy within the barrier or immediately forfeit control of the Grove of Corruption and the lives of his followers within it.]

  From my vantage point, I watched as dozens of robed figures began to get pushed out of the central tree by a barrier matching the same emerald surrounding the glade. The cultists, as I’d decided to continue referring to them as, were in a panic. A quartet of them worked together to coalesce a massive [Fireball] and hurl it at the emerald wall around the glade, but the moment it struck the barrier it disappeared like it never existed. All around the glade, a smattering of other groups tried to pierce the barrier, but I knew they’d never succeed.

  There’s a reason Uncle Galloway planted those [Barrier Oaks] around his glade. Their barrier, though insanely Mana inefficient when not under attack, was nearly indestructible for anyone under level two fifty. Once under attack, the barrier could absorb any Mana used to attack it and use the absorbed Mana to continue powering the barrier. Sunhome has a ring of far larger [Grand Barrier Oaks] surrounding it, though they hadn’t been activated since the day before the Gold Elves welcomed the rest of their elven brethren into the city millenia ago.

  I moved to the center of a small group of the [Consuming Colossi] and had Ylsa and Volta pile me up with all the buffs they could in the forty-five seconds we had left before I’d be teleported away to the rotted [Celestial Oak] I’d once called a home away from home. The resulting suite of buffs was surprising as, until just then, [Skill Dominance] had never triggered on any of them before. Later, Ylsa explained how she usually buffed up in the privy, as one of them forced her to expunge…impurities, something I was glad I didn’t end up dealing with for some reason.

  From Ylsa, I received three buffs. [Might of the Mountain] was a racial Skill that granted the user a twenty percent buff to [Might] and [Toughness] for ten minutes at the mastery she had. [Mountain Spring] served to clear debuffs, or prevent them from applying in the first place for a full twenty-four hour period, something I was very glad to have against a [Priest of Devourer] who were known for their powerful debuffs. Her final buff was innocuous but very welcome, [Purity of Purpose]. It was a buff usually found on Priest style Classes, but more powerful Warrior style Classes usually unlocked it around level thirty, and its purpose was painfully simple.

  It prevented you from overthinking everything while it was active, helping you focus on the task at hand. That’s not to say it didn’t let you strategize, far from it in fact. Upon casting, the buffer would select a mission or task and anything unrelated to said mission or task would be relegated to the buffed entity’s subconscious until the end of the buff, an hour for Ylsa. [Purity of Purpose] was dangerous to use too often, as it had been known to lead more powerful users to forget to eat as they worked toward some sort of grand goal.

  I’m not going to be slotting any of those three very often, am I? Now that I know about [Mountain Spring], I’ll just ask Ylsa to use it on our Party before giving her a Mana potion each morning to refill her pool. [Purity of Purpose] seems almost too useful and I know I’d use it all the time if I had easy access to it. It’s good to know I have it available, but I should really avoid using it myself.

  Volta only had a pair of buffs for me, but they were no less impressive than Ylsa’s offerings. [Lightning Fast] was an evolved form of [Haste], though not one I’d probably pick if I got to that point, focused more on increasing arm speed than it did movement speed. The real game changer she offered up was deceptively simple for how effective it was, [Mislead]. It was a Skill that gave the buffed individual a channel to push Mana into and the more you gave it, the harder it would be for those with hostile intent to aim directly at you. I had a lot of Mana and there was almost no way I’d run into issues with a lack thereof against a single opponent, making [Mislead] nearly perfect for my current situation.

  [Might of the Mountain, Mountain Spring, Purity of Purpose, and Mislead Acquired with Skill Dominance]

  [Active Skills - Mastery

  Skill Dominance - 48%]

  “Thank you both.” My limbs began to feel lighter as the teleportation effect took hold. “I’ll see you both soon.”