172 Killing Time

I had a few advantages compared to mortals when I went on long-distance walks. The first was that my stamina was unlimited. The second was that I was capable of walking as fast or as slow as I wanted, due in part to my unlimited stamina. I had teleported from not far from Geoffrey's house and teleported to a road that was surrounded by a dense forest.

The road was poorly maintained and was one of the few that led in or out of Glendale. This gave me the impression that this was the sort of place that tended to trap those unfortunate enough to get stuck here. I liked the way it looked, and a part of me was tempted to further break it but I couldn't. Seamus and Saoirse were on their way here and this was the road they were traveling on. So for now I ignored it and made my way towards civilization.

I speedily walked, traveling far faster than cars could, and before a minute had passed I found myself closing in on the outskirts of Glendale. Soon enough I'd be close enough to people to be spotted by them so I began to quietly prepare for my first interactions with Htreaians I didn't intend to immediately dominate.

I began activating one of my newer powers: "Currency creation". I immediately felt the pockets of my jeans begin to be filled by papers, and I pulled one out and was delighted to get my first look at what was considered "currency" in this nation. In my hand was a thin blue piece of paper, adorned with symbols of various buildings on both the front and back of the paper. At each corner of the paper in my hand, also on both sides, was a small but visible number: 10.

"How odd..." I mused, amused by the note's design. I knew, from the memories I'd absorbed, that this money was called a "Solite". I used telekinesis to pull out all of my money while also using "Instantaneous creation" to create a wallet made of leather. I then used my mental powers to store the money within my wallet, and place the wallet within my right pocket.

I entered the town's outskirts with a smile on my face and I deactivated my "mesmerizing presence" power as I made my way towards a diner that Seamus was quite fond of. The diner was a small place, which made it the perfect spot for me to hide out until the government buildings I needed to visit were actually open. It was only six forty-five in the morning, and though the sun was out and visible in the sky, that didn't mean that the places I actually needed to go too were open yet.

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In a matter of moments, I reached the entrance to the diner and opened the glass door with ease. As I pushed it open I heard the soft sound of a bell from within the diner's kitchen and the not-so-distant noise of various types of machinery. And from within the diner's kitchen, a soft voice delicately spoke.

He wasn't the only person in the diner either, there were two other humans in the diner and assorted animal and plant life as well. The animals that most interested me in the restaurant were the spiders I could sense lurking in hidden corners and underneath machines. I really liked them, and I looked forward to awakening them.

I walked towards the closest table, one which was stylized in a "retro" way, according to Seamus' memories, and slid into one of the two long seats. As I did, I silently activated a particular power I was fond of: "Aura of normalcy", a handy ability which allows me to walk anywhere without raising alarm.

I was doing this partially because I didn't feel like dealing with any questions that may arise from any mistakes I may make. This was a new world for me, and if I wasn't careful even I could make mistakes. "Aura of normalcy" gives me a level of security against that, without bending minds like "Absolute beauty" did.

I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. As I did so I allowed my other senses to come to the forefront of my mind, and for the first time in a few days, my "vision" went from being purely physical to being more conceptual as my not-so-mini-map appeared in my field of view.

At first my not-so-mini-map's field of view was huge, showing me the entire planet, thanks to "stellar awareness". I silently chuckled, and "zoomed in" on the general area where I could see myself, thanks to the icons I recognized from so many usages of this power. As I zoomed in on myself, I got to see a view of the continent on which I currently resided and I even got to see Andrea, on the map at least. She was one of the few pink-colored circles on the map, pink being the color the system used to identify allies, worshippers, or servants of mine.

I momentarily considered checking in on her, but then decided against it. For now anyway. I didn't doubt that in time I'd visit her, but for now, I had more I wanted to do than toy with the life of someone I had made rich. I knew, sooner or later, she'd want more. So I instead turned my focus elsewhere, back to myself.

I zoomed in on my current location until I was as zoomed in as I could be. I saw myself, the crew who were working in the dinner, the animals in the diner, and then the rest of Glendale. The place itself was pretty wide, though sparsely populated and so I had tons of room to mess around with.

I began by selecting the spiders who dwelt within the diner and smiling as I awoke them. I sensed their power abruptly growing, and I felt their hearts turn towards me in worship and devotion and at the same time their shapes on the not-so-mini-map went from being the familiar blue of neutrality to the warmth of devoted pink. I felt their minds expanding, and their mental capacities increasing, and their first thoughts were ones devoted to me, who they recognized as their master and awakener.

For a moment I considered making them evolve here and now, transforming them into driders and thus gaining even further worship and love from them. But then I remembered where we were, and just as importantly that there were humans here. So instead I did something else, something I liked far more. I began to alter them.

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The spiders lurked and laired underneath the assorted machines that helped the staff of the diner keep it afloat. Until they had been awoken by Althos they were largely indifferent to humans, aside from when a human accidentally endangered them. That changed when Althos' sinister machinations touched the minds of the creatures.

His potent powers and corruptive influence washed over the arachnids and suffused them with intelligence, and malice. And that was only the first thing he infused the creatures with. Althos was feeling creative and inspired in his own way and so began to do other things to them as well, other, far more directly sinister things.

Even as the spiders began to transmit thoughts of gratitude to their awakener, Althos was hard at work modifying them in his own way. One of the first things he did was grant them classes, a highly unusual thing to do to creatures who were merely awakened and not evolved beings.

In all, eight spiders lurked within the diner's kitchen. And all eight of them were granted either the rogue, or the assassin class, deadly and stealthy classes that were naturally suited to their vile needs. And those weren't the only alterations he was making either.

The god continued to target all eight of the little creatures and spent a few moments greatly enhancing their venom through altering them and blessing them with the arachnid subdomain and the poison subdomain, as well as blessing their dexterity. One especially nasty alteration he gave the creatures was that he gave them a mosquito-like proboscis, the nasty appendage that the tiny vermin used to drain the blood of those they bit, which incidentally were great for spreading all sorts of vile diseases.

Althos, through the domains of knowledge and disease, knew that mosquitos were vectors, or agents, that carried and transmitted infectious pathogens. He also knew that whether the diseases were brought on by pathogens or parasites, many of them were transmitted when mosquitos used their proboscises on those they fed on.

He also infected the spiders with a number of diseases, while turning the diseases within the spiders asymptomatic so that his worshipers wouldn't be hurt by the diseases but could spread them.

The god also genuinely liked spiders. For reasons even he didn't understand, the odd deity had always felt a special fondness for the creatures, from the moment he first met Chizi, one of the very first creatures he ever reanimated. And that was before he met Imbrosa Ravenfist, the very first creature he had ever experienced any sort of attraction too, who was herself an evolved spider who had died and been reanimated, before eventually being truly resurrected by the god as one of the first creatures Althos ever fully revived.

He impatiently wanted to cause the spiders to evolve and become driders, but he patiently refused to do so. That would happen tonight at the latest.

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[Alert: Congratulations!

Althos, the god who awoke you, has bestowed you with a class level. You are now a level 1 rogue.

Class information:

Rogues are experts at stealth and survival. They are capable of hiding in plain view and are masters of placing traps and surviving through the usage of underhanded tactics.

Class abilities:

Stealth: Level 1 rogues can attempt to hide in plain sight and may well be able to escape detection by those who aren't actively looking for them.

Ambush: Even a level 1 rogue can launch dangerous attacks that deal extra damage to those who are caught off guard by the attack, and even more extra damage to those who are totally unaware of your presence.

Move silently: This is a bonus given to you as a consequence of you gaining this class through bestowal by a god. With it, your steps are inaudible to creatures of your size and larger. This makes you harder to detect at will.]

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[Alert: Congratulations!

Althos, the god who awoke you, has bestowed you with a class level. You are now a level 1 assassin.

Class information:

Assassins are deadly killers who specialize in one or two hit kills. Each assassin is a bit unique, and many of them utilize tricks like venom, diseases, and even special weapons that leave wounds that are difficult or even impossible to naturally recover from. Some assassins make use of abilities that leave opponents sickened or permanently weakened.

Class abilities:

Stealth: Like rogues, assassins are capable of hiding in plain sight.

Poison expertise: Assassins, even at level 1, are natural experts at the usage of venom and poison. The damage done by their poisoned or envenomed attacks is increased as a consequence of their class.

Survivability: This is a bonus given to you as a consequence of you gaining this class through bestowal by a god. With this power, you survive any non-magical attack that would kill you by inflicting massive damage. You can survive one attack like this a day, which will probably be the difference between life and death for you at level 1.]

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Over the course of the next hour I would order a simple omelet and chat with the same young boy who asked me all the questions I expected to be asked. He asked me my name, where I was from, and what I was doing in town. None of it caught me off guard, and it gave me a chance to hone the story I was going with.

I told him that my name was Cian, and that I was from another town and was a relative of the reclusive old man who lived a few kilometers away. When I said that the boy began to nod, and chuckled at me. After my order was placed, the boy continued to speak to me, and I never felt like telling him to go away. The company was nice enough for the time being, and when I left the diner I left a generous tip to thank him for the time he spent with me, something the boy was fond of.

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It didn't take me long to walk from the diner to my real destination: the generic town hall which I knew housed the majority of the services I needed to make use of. In a matter of minutes, I was standing in front of the place I truly intended to go wild within.

I arrived five minutes before the place opened but since I did so I quietly reached out with my mind and began to awaken assorted vermin throughout the area, from rats within the actual building, to mosquitoes which were up early and were floating about in search of prey. I intended to help the creatures since they were vermin. I smiled as awakened mosquitoes began to congregate above me and their thoughts and feelings flowed into me. It nourished me, and I felt energized by the energies they inadvertently transmitted. It gave me the confidence that I was grateful to receive in the moments before the building opened and I began to put my schemes into action.

"A god of vermin indeed..." I muttered, under my breath as I took my first steps towards the building where I hoped to set in motions events that would culminate in me making an organized cult based around spreading diseases.