"Hi, Selene, It's very nice to finally officially meet you also." Damien said with a smile.
Selene returned a warm smile back to him. This is the first time she's done so in a long while. Despite all she has been through Selene felt as though she could trust this mage. He didn't carry the air of arrogance that the few mages that have passed through her village displayed.
"So, Sir mage what now?" She asked.
"Well I was actually on a search to find civilization. I have been alone for weeks and was looking to find a place that I could call home for a while. Somewhere to learn and study magic safely. I have an important mission to accomplish so that I can return home." He responded.
"A place to call home? And where is your home? Now, that I'm not running for my life, I haven't had a chance to think about where you could be possibly coming from. I can't believe anyone was even out here. Nothing is in this directions except the wilds. My tiny village, Alto, is the last known human village furthest to the West of the Algarian Empire. That's definitely not safe by any means. In fact, we are so far to the East, that the Kingdom of Algaria does not even claim Alto as one of its own charges. Which is also the reason for the plight that we have had in recent years." Selene said as her voice trailed off and with a distant look in her eyes.
Damien took this time to think before responding. He hadn't thought of these questions beforehand and he was lucky these questions were being asked now and not in front of a royal court of a Kingdom or somewhere else more important. How could he explain anything that has happened to him to anyone? Any sane person would think he was crazy and most likely he'd be thrown in a prison of some kind.
Then again if anyone would have told me I'd be training in magic, killing monsters and bandits with water blasts, or throwing boulders that are weigh hundreds of pounds for fun, Damien would have laughed them right out of a room. That's not even to mention him being a Harbinger to some god. The thought that could also be potentially worshipped to gather points for a system given to me by a god was actually terrifying. Damien couldn't fathom the thought of being worshipped. But to get home...he would literally do anything. None of these people matter. Getting home to his daughter Tasha was all their was.
If I'm strong enough, will I become a god myself? Compared to earth standards, I'd be considered a WMD already most likely. My heads hurting just thinking about the absurdity of it all. Yet, by ignoring just how absurd this whole thing was, that strangely helps me to cope and not go completely bat sh** crazy. Damien felt like he had to give the woman some kind of answer and ignorance seems like the way to go.
"I really don't remember where I'm from. I was in a battle with a powerful mage in the forest East of here, and all that I can remember is waking up without any memory of my home or where I am from. I only know that it was in the East because of a massive battle that had taken place there. I then battled my way through the beasts in the forest that I could handle and luckily I was able to make my in this direction. I followed the river and eventually ran into you. I even forgot many of my spells so I'm on a mission to see if I can relearn as much as possible so that my memory can hopefully be jogged again. Your village sounds like the perfect place to go to try to help me deal with my amnesia. Why don't we start there?"
Selenes face lit up at the mention of her going home, but the look faded away just as quickly as it had come. She remembered her village's betrayal and the last moments of her parents being beaten and dragged away. Her heart ached thinking about it. Selene put the thought on the back of her mind and looked around at the dome around her in shock. If this was the mage forgetting his magic then she paled at thinking about how powerful this mage was. Once, an expert earth mage had come to her village but he was only able to build smaller, thinner walls and make a few small boulder sized rocks float in the air. Here this man rose a massive dome, created hot water in moments, and pulled out a strange large chest full of even stranger clothing from thin air. That mage was not a fraction of the prowess of this mage in front of her. He could keep her safe.
"My village isn't a safe haven any longer it is hell now. The men you have seen chasing me were part of a large bandit group who pulling raids on nearby villages taking what they want and ravaging the lands uncontested. Our plea for help from the nobles of the empire has gone unheard of for years. None of the nobles from the Duke down to the Baron will sacrifice men to a small backwater village that the king does not even claim.
Anyone who would have fought back is either already dead or too afraid to do anything. I don't think we can save my village as we are now. The bandit camp has hundreds of men who will do anything Marcus tells them to do, no matter how vile. I am afraid my village is already lost." At this last statement, Selene's tear began swelling up in her eyes and her shell was on the verge of cracking again.
"Damien had already made up his mind he was going to head towards the village of Alto it was just finding the place from here. "Where is your village from here?" Damien asked.
"I had run straight into the wilds from the direction that I had fallen from when I had escaped the bandit's camp. Other than that I do not know. I know that my village is to the East of the bandit's camp." She responded.
"Okay, we'll start there. I have to make preparations for us before we travel. Please stay here while I go to collect some….companions that I have met along the way. Just rest for now and I'll return by tomorrow." Damien had said unconvincingly.
At the same time, he created a 'sand bed' as he had come to call them, to sleep on. Then a water basin and reheated the makeshift bathtub. He then made a door leading out to an open roofed squared area that was to have a large fire pit in the middle with a rotating spit over the top. He took out 4 of the skinned rabbits and laid them down on a makeshift table that was surrounded by stone benches. Then he willed roots from the earth to come out of the center of the fire pit. With his fire magic, he willed a stream of fire to light the middle of the pit so that she could cook the rabbits.
Selene, in awe at what she saw, just nodded. Damien willed a hole to the outside of the dome and walked out before closing it shut.
Damien walked outside to the smell of death and bodily excrement. Large, 2 headed dark purple buzzards like creatures were already feasting on the dead bodies and some even looked like look like they had been dragged into the woods. Damien was glad he had come out here first. Convincing Selene to come with him to the village after her seeing this would have been a taxing ordeal. He covered the remaining bodies with earth magic and willed them deeper into the earth so that they couldn' be dug up by animals. Not that he cared about the bodies, but he didn't want to attract any large beasts with strong noses.
Now it was time for Damien to have a talk with the system. He's not foolish enough to not realize that he has the skills to survive all on his own. He had just been extremely lucky up to this point and has almost died multiple times within a month on this planet. That was with starting out with all of this help from the system.
The system greatly downplayed the dangers of this planet. Twelve men made him bleed, what would fifty archers with a quiver of arrows have done to him? It's not like the arrows penetrated his flesh, but what if the arrows had poison on them? Yes, I do have divine touch but, with my mana core depleted as it was, I could have used it what, once or maybe twice? My mana shield falling apart by force was beyond a major drain and my mana was not recovering after it had broken. I was completely vulnerable. I know too little about magic to think I know anything at all. In my arrogance, I was a variable away from death. I need some assistance.
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"System, please display any spells that I have currently have on my status screen."
[[Done.]]
Okay, "Show me my Status screen".
I have a decent group of basic spells to work with but they are much stronger than a mage at my same level due to my boons.
"System What would you recommend for my current situation? What does a higher hero rank grant me? I need knowledgeable and competent companions and well as skills that assist with traveling long distances with the points that I have."
The two skills are complete game changers. With Divine Transmutation, there is literally no limit to what I can do at least up to the sizes of what I want. Just the strength could be stronger or weaker based on the material used and the skill imbue is amazing. It is essentially creation magic. That is how I'll explain it to the world.
The only drawback is I have no control over the imbued attributes and I'm limited on the skills I can grant. It's all mostly innate. Either way, I'll have the most powerful civilization once I find a place to call my own. I still don't know how that works yet, but I'll cross that bridge whenever I get to it. If I ever learned anything from the religions from the earth, to get a population to worship me or a deity, perform a few miracles.
"I'm definitely taking the two spells."
"Okay, I want to recruit:
1 Unarmored Ranged Commander
1 Unarmored Duel wield Commander
2 Hunters
1 Archer
2 Fighters
1 Knight
1 Novice Mage"
After Damien had chosen his new troops they began to appear in front of him every 5 minutes. They were all humans of different races and varied in body types. The only similarities were that all the men looked battle ready and were physically imposing. The two biggest troops being the commanders. The ranged commander was named Dulan and the duel wields commander name was Bartus. The Novice mage would be under my personal command, his name Attis. With the nine new recruits finally summoned, it was time for Damien to get these men equipped with gear and mounts.