To Rebuild a Mageocracy

Thirty

^^ Lesser Deity of Astral Mana ^^

— Nonith, Anitra's Divine Dungeon Arena, Anitra —

Getting from Tier Three to Tier Five in one day was not exactly my plan for today. I mean, I intended to Recreate Arcata, and I assumed that would give me a chunk of XP, but then Muradin, that big fuckin' drama queen, decided to piss me off inside my own territory, and apparently me kicking their little ass and force-choking them was enough to count as 'Defeating them in Honorable Combat', for some reason. I mean, I get the difference between us is pretty massive, even as weakened as they are, but Twelve Levels at once seemed a little bit like Overkill. Add in my XP Modifier, and... yeah. Still, the 1/3 XP thing was enough to take my 74.91 Levels of nonsense and turn it into 24.97... and then of course the Lesser Deity I captured as part of that Oath Process bumped me up a bit more than the measly .3% I needed.

The Lesser Deity in question was a Lesser Deity of Slaughter called 'Avtç', according to themselves and Muradin, though the name really only worked mentally, so the Gate was a little difficult, but overall manageable. I was quite happy to get that particular Deity out of the way, considering all the utter chaos they could've caused if they made any more Pacts. Plus, their Divine Realm was useful when fused with mine, because all the Death inside the Dungeons now actually produced Prana for me, even when just Monsters died, meaning every single person in the dungeons, whoever they worshiped, now made me Prana with every kill, even while their Mana went to someone else. Very useful.

Of course, with Muradin's nerf on our deal, I didn't get to get 80 stat points a level, so instead I settled for the highest 'paying' class, the one that gave me 64, (10 in each stat and 4 extra,) the Paladin Oath of Slaughter Class from Avtç, and now I was back inside the Class change place, looking at a very surprised and ice-blue tiefling-esque woman in leather clothing who, eschewing the apparent tradition of making a version of me for her Class Portrait, was just standing in the mirror with her Spellbook and icy hair, staring down at me with an expression of confused awe.

"Weren't you... just here?"

"I had a lot of XP Banked." I shrugged.

"HOW?!?"

"Beat up a god, got a couple Titles, but that's not important; you're a Lesser Deity of some form of Magic, right? But not a disciple or subordinate of Muradin?"Her pallid skin rippled with colors for a moment, catching my attention briefly before I kicked myself mentally. 'No, bad Laura, no shiny for you!!! Pay attention!!! Get her name!!! Honey, is she on the list of Evil Deities?'

"I am most certainly not a Disciple of that faceless hack!!! My Magic is based on using Emotions as Fuel, and it's called 'Astral Magic' or 'Infernal Magic' by the uneducated fools who only see how it is used, and not it's potential!!!"

'She is on the list, yes: she may talk a good talk, but she glassed three planets to fuel the spell that became her Apotheosis. Her morals are bankrupt, even if she's right about her Magic being logically and ethically neutral when used with solid ethics.'

"Mm... I see, so you can turn the chemicals of the mind into Mana? That's interesting..."

"The Soul interacts with The Weave, in small amounts, and those ripples of Astral Energy can be harvested for Magic. As for Chemicals of the Mind... how do you mean?"