The First Archmage

(Gavin)

"Gavin?" Michael asks as I rejoin him and the Dark Knights to watch more fights.

"Yeah?" I pull some food out of my ring and start eating. I'm famished, after that. "Want some?"

"Sure," he accepts a sandwich. "You do realize we can tell you Advanced a Species, right?"

"How?"

"Your Aura of Power got stronger before you shut it off," he looks at me pointedly.

"Subspecies don't affect it."

"No, they don't," he says. "And you didn't have a zierna around your tail before the change in your Aura of Power."

"I have a zierna there?" I twist around, looking down as best I can. Sure enough, there's a shimmering violet zierna that flows above and to the sides of my tail. It's quite graceful and beautiful. "Huh. So that happened. Do you think anyone will notice back home?"

"Yes," Michael answers. "They will notice for sure, just like they noticed that you acquired a zierna on your other arm."

"Everyone imagined that," I wave dismissively.

"Gavin," he says. "They might have believed that, but I know you Advanced yourself to the Second Tier of Fairy that night. What kind of Beastborn did you get to be?"

"I had a bunch of options," I shrug. "But I picked the best one."

"Wolfborn?"

"That was the second-best," I tell him, and his eyes widen. "Be proud of achieving it at only nineteen, Michael – getting past Grand is difficult enough. The best is actually Ascendant, and it's nearly impossible to achieve as a Tier II."

"As a Tier II?" He asks. "Does that mean it can be a Tier III?"

"I believe so," I nod. "Though it'd be Ascendant Wolfborn instead of Ascendant Beastborn (Wolf), like I have. The bonus might be the same, or it might be stronger, I'm not sure. Work hard enough, and you might earn it."

Michael sighs, probably deciding not to push me just Advancing my Species again, especially since he knows I probably pushed my two new Subpsecies Tiers to their max. Why leave it to just acquire Experience naturally when I can simply add them in.

Speaking of that.

Quest Issued to Michael Burrclaw

Eat Five Sandwiches

Requirement: Eat the five sandwiches offered by Gavin Jakran

Reward: 10,000 Experience

-8,500 Experience

Experience Remaining: 157,500

"Seriously, Gavin?"

"Seriously," I ruffle his hair.

"Seriously?" He almost yells.

"Seriously."

"You really need to stop doing this," he mutters.

"Just accept it."

He accepts the Quest, so I hand him five sandwiches as he mutters about me being unfair.

"Don't worry," I tell him. "I'm giving Warren some, too."

"That's not the issue, here," Michael says.

"It is the sauce on your lip?"

"The what?" He rubs his mouth with his sleeve. "Oh."

He inspects the sauce, then snaps his head to look at me.

"No, it's not!" He says. "That's not the issue! Stop doing that!"

"Doing what?"

"I'm not going to get anywhere with you, am I?"

"Not really," I answer. "Do you think they'd let me examine the space underneath the Grind Arena?"

"Why?" He asks.

"Just a theory of mine."

"Let me see."

Michael leaves, and once he's out of earshot, the Dark Knights decide to strike up a conversation with me to find out a bit more information. I indulge them a bit, as it's good to see how they'd feel about a few things.

Namely, having a shrine built to Nies around here, as well as potentially joining my Order. A few of the Dark Knights seem like they'd be interested in joining such an Order, though they wouldn't want to lose access to the Grind Arenas, and traveling between continents just for that would turn into a long voyage, especially with the time restrictions on them.

They don't see an issue with having a shrine built to Nies, and the ones I talk to actually seem interested in the idea of adding an Origin God to their worships – especially the Origin of Adventures and Blood Oaths.

"What is your status within his Order?" One of the Dark Knights, Devion Kab'Inai, asks. He seems to be a leader around here, and I'm not basing that just on his Level 25 Party Leader Class. "Are you a simple missionary, and your power standard, or…?"

"I'm abnormal," I shake my head. "This level of power is definitely not normal, and most of his followers are just normal people."

Though they do tend to advance faster. Having his blessing on Quests and adventurers really gives a boost. I won't just say that, though, and will let them discover it on their own.

"So you're a Paladin?" He asks. "Not a mere Missionary, but the Champion of Adventurers and Blood Oaths?"

They seem to be focused on the Blood Oaths part, which I suppose makes sense. From what I've learned of them, they actually perform Blood Oaths frequently, and take them seriously, as seriously as any religion.

Being as they use their own blood for their techniques, focusing heavily in Blood and Life, it makes sense that something like this would catch their attention. I hadn't thought about that, and was trying to play it up from the adventures angle, and I'm sure he caught onto that.

"If I want to be," I answer. "I actually have to take on a different form to be the Champion of Nies."

"You… what?" He looks confused. "How can you-"

"I have the Formshift Skill," I clarify. "While I was going through a calming period to temper my anger, Nies didn't realize that he was talking to me and sort of named the Form I was in at the time his Champion. Formshifts are people in their own right, so it didn't register as being me."

I've made sure, Nies says. That if that happens again, I will know it's you.

"I'm sure you have, Nies," I say, and the Dark Knight's eyes widen. "He randomly talks to me."

This isn't random, Gavin. I just got a sudden increase in followers in an area that's had none, save you and Michael, and that was only for a few hours. So I was looking in, especially since my Hero was chatting about me a lot. Are you really building me another shrine?

"Get out of my head, Nies."

Are you telling a god what to do?

"Where's your son?"

He's- Nies cuts off. I gotta go find him.

His presence leaves my mind, and I smirk.

"What… was that?" Devion, the Dark Knight I was speaking with, asks.

"Hm?" I ask. "Oh, Nies. He has a son who's pretty chaotic and gets up to mischief. It's always a safe bet his son's up to something. Anyway, I'm not a Champion in my True Form, but his Hero."

"The Hero of the Origin of the Blood Oaths?" He asks. "Do you have a way to verify this?"

They will recognize the Divine Confirmation, if they truly do perform Blood Oaths on a regular basis.

"Yes," I answer. "I swear on the blood that flows through my veins that I am the Hero of Nies, the Origin of Oaths, Blood Oaths, Adventurers, and Quests, and potentially other things that I'm either unaware of or haven't confirmed."

My body glows with the crimson light touched with Divine Power, and judging by their reactions, they believe me.

"It is the Blood Confirmation," Devion nods. "Had you lied, you'd have turned into a shower of blood."

"Yeah," I shudder, remembering the burst of blood from earlier. "Watching those isn't fun, being one would be less so."

"Watching those?" He asks. "You've seen it?"

"Something similar," I shrug. "A spider decided she wanted to kill me, so I turned her into a shower of blood."

"Didn't you instigate the fight?" Michael returns with another Dark Knight, this one dressed in simple clothes rather than armor. "You did go in there with the intention of killing her."

"Her son hired me?"

"Are you referring," Devion says. "To the Mind Spider Matriarch?"

"You know of her?" I ask.

"We've only got legends," he nods. "But it's mentioned that she's a being who's ascended several Tiers to her Species and mastered several Classes, and lived for fifty centuries or more."

"All true," I answer. "However, she's dead now, as she was in my way and posed a problem. I also eliminated the majority of the spiders in the fields, so the numbers in the forests and swamps should be lessening as they retreat a bit. That, or they'll surge up and try to take the land near it. If you'd like assistance, I'm sure Michael here and a few others of the Order would be willing to help you clear things out. There are plenty of resources to be found in that area that you likely haven't access to."

The Dark Knights stare at me in shock.

"You… killed a being of several Species Tiers because she stood in your way?" He asks.

"Don't worry," I smile. "I have no intention of harming any of you. There is a large difference between people and monsters, and you are the former. She was nothing short of a monster, and her only goal and purpose was to rule and reign. Combining that with my desire for something to help the people of my Order grow strong and be able to protect themselves, and it was only natural that I'd attempt to kill her. Especially since, though I did attack first, she did attempt to take control of my mind as I simply walked through her territory."

I can see the answer satisfies them, though only somewhat. It's fine, though. I cannot expect the lesser beings to fully understand-

Stop that. Seriously, this is getting annoying. Even knowing it happens, you still find yourself doing it. This is ridiculous. Yes, they are lesser beings, but you should still try to work with them.

I am, so hush.

Michael explains to them a bit differently what happened, stating that I chose to kill an evil over killing a guardian, and then he brings up that the higher one's Species Tier is, the less they're able to properly convey things like that, and the more they'll simply make it 'because I wanted to', regardless of whatever legitimate reason they have.

Yeah, you really should've thought of explaining it that way.

"Alright," Michael looks at me. "They've agreed to allow you to inspect underneath. They wanted you to explain what happened with your own words, but I already did."

I nod, then follow the Dark Knight he came with, along with Devion, into the tunnels under the arena. They give me some information about it, including that they don't know who built or constructed them.

As we walk, I read the magics that make it up, and determine that this Divine Power simply permeates it. It is and it isn't. There's no central location for it, no area where it's stronger than the rest. The Grind Arena's constructed that way, too – it simply functions without a central location to power everything.

The walk is enough for me to determine how the Grind Arena works and how it's powered. I don't even need to create the monsters or give it any – it'll simply know on its own, the same way a Dungeon does.

Dungeons…

"Michael?" I call out to the Wolfborn as we leave the Grind Arena to find a hotel for the night.

"Yes?"

"Do you think giving the Order its own Grind Arena is enough?" I ask. "Or do you think I should figure out how to construct a Tower Dungeon, too?"

"Is that why you wanted to check under the Grind Arena?" He asks. "So you could figure out how to build one of your own? Isn't it constructed by the Divine Beings?"

"No," I shake my head. "It's very much mortal in construction, and from old times. It's possible the false Dekami built it, and possibly the Tower Dungeons, though it's possible they predate the asses. The Dekami Scholar doesn't know, so it wasn't the true Dekami."

Michael thinks about it for awhile.

"I think the Tower Dungeon would be a nice addition," he says. "Just… no undead?"

Thinking back to my time in the Tower Dungeon, I suppress a shiver. Even as powerful as I am, even as much training and adjustments I did, I never did fully get over my issues with undead, even if I can simply erase them from existence with but a thought.

"Yeah," I agree. "No undead in it."

There's an Undead Dungeon that could probably use a purging, though…

"Hey, Michael?"

"Yeah?" He tilts his head to the side.

"Wanna help me destroy a Dungeon?"