“Just think of the magic powers” Gavin muttered with gritted teeth an hour of exhausted stumbling later “pain is just weakness leaving the body, so now there's room for more magic. Definitely how that works. Pretty sure, anyway”

  He was wrapped up in his own world, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other while coming up with ever more creative ways to bitch about his string of bad luck while completely giddy with excitement at the possibilities in front of him. His attention was focused on his notes as he realised he'd bumbled his way right into an unfolding life or death situation right in his path.

  He felt a now familiar wave of disorientation, looking up he saw he'd stumbled right into another pocket dimension.

  “Oh shit” he muttered, startled at the scene.

  Three people were fighting a seven foot tall dinosaur. It looked like a knock off Jurassic Park velociraptor, a terrifying cartoon brought to life. It would have been comical if its teeth weren't covered in gore.

  A blue robed wizard was shooting bolts of fire and lightning every few seconds from his fingertips, scorching small welts across its flank, though half of his shots were going wide. He chugged the contents of a vial of blue liquid before resuming his assault, dodging and weaving unnecessary as the dinosaur paid him no interest whatsoever.

  The second combatant, a woman with a thin pointed face, had a spear and was using it to jab ineffectually at the scaled creature, the gleaming tip was skittering off its hide as she failed to commit to powerful strikes, with either fear or inexperience keeping her from hitting its weak points. All she was doing was annoying it. Periodically she'd shoot a green beam at the third and most competent fighter.

  The third person, a woman, covered in her own blood stood between the two others and the dinosaur. She seemed every bit an avenging valkyrie, short cropped blond hair, fine features and bright blue eyes twisted into hate. Her breastplate was stained red and had several puncture marks as if it’d been bitten once before. She wielded a two handed sword with ease, thrusting its tip into joints and soft parts while dashing and dodging its lashing bite. The dinosaur seemed to resist her attacks, as if her weapon were blunt.

  Gavin watched as the creature, inhumanly fast, thrashed its tail to clobber the elf across the chest who crumpled to the ground. The swordswoman launched into a blurring series of attacks too quick for Gavin to follow, finished with a mighty strike that tore a gash across the dinosaur's neck. Thick blood oozed from the wound, but it looked nowhere close to fatal.

  The spear wielder staggered to her feet placing a hand over her chest as it glowed with green light. Before she could bring her spear to the ready, the dinosaur hit her again with its tail, this time on the shoulder. Gavin heard her arm crunch as a bone broke. She fell screaming, clutching at the jagged splinters sticking through her skin. Blood flowed freely from the wound as she tore strips off her clothes and wrapped them around her arm tightly.

  The wizard relentlessly fired bolt after bolt of energy. Individually they weren't doing much, but over time they were beginning to stack up enough to matter. Scales were beginning to flake away as they turned to ash, revealing ruined flesh beneath. He paused for a moment, readying himself for a big attack. He called out an incantation as his hands glowed red. A spiraling helix of red and yellow shot out, carving a line from the dinosaur's hind quarter, across its belly and finishing just below its head. Spent, the wizard slumped to the ground looking dazed, as if his body just refused to work anymore.

  Enraged, the dinosaur broke off its attack with the swordswoman to pounce at the wizard, its jaw open wide. She scored a vicious hit as it barrelled past, opening a line across its ruined back and tail. The sight of the wizard's throat being torn out shocked Gavin into action.

  “Time to sack up Gav, you aren’t going to get ‘OP’ by being a coward”

  Sprinting to the downed woman he snatched up her discarded spear. He wheeled, gritting his teeth against his wounds and launched himself back towards the combat.

  The dinosaur, finished with its kill, whipped around to lash out at the fighter who blurred to avoid the attack with inhuman speed, slashing her sword out to open up another gash, this one across its cheek, separating the skin on its jaw to reveal its bloodstained teeth.

  The dinosaur rushed forward, attempting to bully her to the ground. She backpedalled, dodging around it as she stumbled, flailing her arms to get her balance. The dinosaur lashed its tail as it passed her, clipping her with its tail and throwing her bodily to the dirt. The dinosaur, sensing the kill, pounced at the prone fighter.

  Gavin slid to a halt beside her, spear braced against the ground, tip pointed straight at its face. The spear thrust up between its maw of teeth as it landed, the tip skewering into its soft palate, parting the flesh and plunging through its brain to stop dead against the back of the dinosaur's skull.

  Gavin lay on his back, using all of his strength to keep the spear steady as the dinosaur thrashed its clawed arms at the two fighters with its remaining life. Bloody drool splattered from its open mouth as its gasping foetid breath washed over them. Raking claws drew closer as it impaled it further on the shaft, even with its dying moments still focused on killing them.

  “A little help?” Gavin grunted, eyeing the woman beside him.

  She rolled out from under them in a flash, kicking it in the side, toppling it past him, then used her sword like a machete to hack at its neck. The dinosaur's life ebbed away in a bloody mess as Gavin lay panting, the swordswoman making grizzly work of the dying beast. The brief burst of adrenaline wore off as pain crashed back into Gavin's body.

  With the dinosaur thoroughly dead, the woman rushed over to her downed companion, the elfin looking woman with the broken arm. She was deathly still. She began rummaging around in a small pouch on her hip, then a discarded satchel nearby, looking for something she couldn't find.

  “Fuck!” she swore, dashing across to the wizard and looking through his backpack. After a minute of searching she upended the bag on the ground, snatching at a red vial that tumbled out. She sprinted back to the elf, spraying clumps of dirt as she slid to a stop against her downed companion. She ripped the stopper from the vial, and began pouring the liquid down her throat. Nothing happened. The red liquid welled up out of her mouth to dribble down her cheek.

  “No, fuck, you can't be dead! It's just a broken arm!” she pleaded searching around for something else to help her companion. Coming up with nothing she fell across her chest sobbing ugly tears.

  “Hey, are you ok? Physically I mean, not uhh…” Gavin trailed off from his position beside the dinosaur corpse, the woman seemed not to hear him

  Unsure of what to do and too tired to move, he sat beside the dinosaur and waited. While he avoided looking at the woman crying over her friend he noticed another swirling light, like the one from earlier that had coalesced into the tiny pocket dimension.

  This time the light became a deep crimson flecked with streaks of black. The light flashed brilliantly, another squash ball sized orb falling to the dirt, its pulsing light lessening to a dull glow in the dappled shade of the trees.

  Grunting with the exertion, Gavin hobbled over to collect the stone.

  [Item: Demon soul, Spoils of War]

  [Type: Battle]

  [Rarity: Very Rare]

  [Description: Loot monster corpses to convert their remaining latent energy into various permanent items.]

  (Level 1): Loot a single corpse to create thematically appropriate items. Quality of looted items is proportional to monster level and latent magical force. Looting corpses above your level of magical integration has a reduced effect. Items may be looted directly into any extradimensional storage spaces owned by the user.]

  “I should probably research what powers I want before just picking up whatever falls into my lap” Gavin mused, turning the glowing sphere over in his hands. “Fuck it, let's try it, I can figure the rest out later.”

  He willed himself to use or absorb it without any initial success, then remembering he had an inventory he placed it inside and selected it from there, a menu popped up prompting him to use the soul power, and another asking if he was sure. Clicking through the menus he saw the item disappear from his inventory and a rush of power coursed through his body. It was an odd sensation, like a door in his mind had just unlocked itself and a whole new world of possibilities lay beyond it. He had an instinctive understanding of how his power worked and how to trigger it, like a child picking up a loaded handgun for the first time he Placed a hand on the dinosaur and pulled the trigger.

  The corpse wasted away to ash like the eel had done earlier, this time instead of a lame waterbreathing crystal appearing on the ground a stack of materials appeared in his inventory accompanied by a new popup window.

  [You have looted: Bone Snapper]

  [You have looted:]

  [5 Bone Snapper meat]

  [2 Bone Snapper teeth]

  [1 Bone Snapper Hide]

  [1 Level 1 Platinum coin]

  [3 Level 1 Gold coin]

  [5 Level 1 Silver coins]

  [10 Level 1 Iron coins]

  [20 Level 1 Bronze coins]

  [50 Level 1 Copper coins]

  [1 Level 1 uncommon healing potion]

  The haul of looted items appeared in his inventory as single icons with a number in the bottom corner indicating how many were in the stack, the coins filtering into their own currency tab.

  “Wonder what the limit on the stacks is?” he said, as soon as he had the thought he felt it instinctively that it should be ninety nine for most things with exceptions being for powerful or unique items. He idly wondered if that was a property of the power or an arbitrary restriction he’d somehow instinctually placed on the power.

  He experimented with taking the items out of his inventory to inspect them, mentally dragging and dropping each item out into the world. The meat appeared first, wrapped in butcher's paper, a cross of twine securing each chink. The teeth were loose, dropping to the ground while the coins clinked beside them in loose piles. The hide was rolled up like a large gaming mat, grey-green scales on the outside and a piece of twine holding it tight near each end. The healing potion lay in the middle, slightly larger than the vials he'd seen used earlier.

  Reaching down he grabbed the potion, uncorked it and drank it back. It was like drinking warm fizzy lemonade, the tingling sensation washed down into him, its magic working instantly. His pained leg re-knitted before his eyes, his various bumps and scrapes vanishing moments later. He checked his character sheet to see his health was once again at eleven of eleven.

  Noticing the woman staring at him, he glanced down at his near naked and filthy body. He was about to say something when the small universe began to collapse, the ground flaking away beneath them. Panicked, Sam began hauling on her friend's arm, dragging her to the edge of the world.

  “Grab him” Sam yelled, a note of desperation in her voice “please.”

  Gavin sprinted over to her other companion, sweeping an array of gear into his inventory as he did. He pulled on the dead man's corpse, struggling to move it. The ground was becoming unstable as he braced himself pulling with all his strength against the flaking world.

  “Shit.” Gavin swore, knowing he wouldn't be able to get out in time.

  He felt some instinctual revulsion to what he tried next, pulling the corpse into his inventory. He felt his gorge rise, having a person inside him, freshly gored to death was wrong on a fundamental level. Fighting down the nausea he ran for the cracking dome, stumbling through it as he vomited on the ground. He threw the corpse from his inventory like shaking off a spider, not willing to have it inside him a second longer than necessary.

  Panting, he fell to the side, rolling away from his pool of red stained chunks of mystery goo seeping into the packed earth.

  Catching his breath he sat up, she was watching him, a complicated look on her face. She was sitting beside her friend, a short trail of blood behind her leading to where the dimensional space had just been.

  “You alright mate?” Gavin asked.

  “No” she said flatly, staring bloody daggers. Her face softened “thanks for the help. Having a body to take back- thank you”

  Gavin unrolled his newly looted dinosaur hide and wrapped it around himself like a toga. He was expecting it to be much more cumbersome to do, but it was surprisingly flexible, like wearing a cool blanket.

  “No problem, I just wish- Ahh, shit you don't need to hear platitudes” he trailed off “I’m sorry about your friends.”

  “Thanks” she said, pushing herself unsteadily to her feet. “Who are you, why were you out here in your underwear?”

  “I’m Gavin” he said, holding out his hand to shake hers. “Funny story, I kinda just appeared in the bush back there without clothes on. What’s your name?”

  “Samania. Samania Starbourne.” said Samania, her voice cracking only slightly.

  She was tall and strongly built. Gavin thought that she looked like a poster child for an early forties German propaganda film, all she needed was to look off into the middle distance with a breeze to tousle her hair and a problematic uniform.

  She shook his hand as a grin crinkled across Gavin's face. “That's a proper main character name right there. Mind if I call you Sam though, saying Samania every time is gonna wear out real quick. Also, call me Gav, after what we just went through I think we can safely say we’re mates now.”

  Sam looked at him a long moment before nodding slightly. “Very well. Where’s that accent from? It's not local.”

  “Yeah nah, it's from pretty far away eh. I’m from a little town in New Zealand, pretty sure that's on a different world to this one. Just got here today”

  “Different world?”

  “Yeah, I'm pretty sure anyway, and the last thing I remember was going to bed in my own house then I woke up in the bush a couple k’s that way” Gavin said pointing a finger back the way he'd come from.

  “K’s?”

  “Kilometres? Don't tell me you use imperial measurements here?”

  “What are those?

  “Inches, feet, yards, fahrenheit.”

  “I haven't heard of fahrenheit, but the other ones are common units of measurement.”

  “Ugh, this is the actual worst.” Gavin grumbled “a kilometre is like, six tenths of a mile, give or take.”

  “Sounds like an odd measurement system.”

  “I think you can go back to calling me Gavin at this rate. A kilometre is a thousand metres, kilo means one thousand. There are one hundred centimetres in a metre and ten millimetres in a centimetre. A litre of water takes up a volume of one thousand cubic centimetres and also weighs a kilogram. The whole system is really easy to convert between measuring distance, weight, volume, whatever else you could want to measure.”

  “Are you a researcher from your world?”

  “No, not quite, I’m a sparky, basically a person who makes machines work by plugging coloured wires into them.”

  “You’re an artificer?”

  “That's what my character sheet says. My world doesn't have magic so the skills probably aren't the same. We use the laws of physics and technology to make things work.”

  “Laws of physics? What are th-”

  “Something I’d advise you not to ask about Samania Starbourne” said a voice that washed over them with a wave of power, Gavin felt his bones creak with the force of it. It felt like being scoured by a pile of old books.

  “Jesus Christ!” Gavin exclaimed, startled by the new person in their presence.

  “Not quite. I am Soliece, the goddess of Intellect” she said, smiling coquettishly. She was tall and slim, wearing a plain cream robe. She appeared to be the exact stereotype of an idealised middle aged librarian, the sort of person who inspires teenage boys to read.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Where the shit did you come from?”

  "Usually people are more deferential when they meet a god."

  “You’re a god? No shit? Well,if you are a god you already know my feelings are regarding you lot"

  "Yes, I do. Gavin Friedrich Pēne”

  “How’d you know my name?”

  “I know everything that anyone on this world ever thinks, you have thought about your name, and therefore I know it.”

  “What about my world?”

  “Just this one, though I do now know a little bit about your world because you know about your world, thank you for that, unique thoughts aren’t as common as one might think.” Soliece said, smiling at him with a self impressed look.

  “Yeah, no worries, did you know about me waking up in the bush over there, getting my leg fucked up, then walking half the day through the bush? Or about this happening here?” He asked, his voice growing more accusatory.

  “Gavin! You can't talk to the gods like that” Samania said, startled.

  Gavin ignored her and stared at the god before him waiting for an answer

  “Yes.”

  “Could you have shown up a bit earlier to give us a heads up about what the story is, or give us a hand?”

  “I could have.”

  “Sounds like a bit of a dick move then. Is there a god of healing that could have helped save these guys?”

  “Her name is Florin, though she does not make a habit of intervening in mortal affairs either”

  “She sounds like a bit of a prick too.”

  “Gavin!”

  “Bro, if there's gods here and they don't help people then I feel pretty justified in calling them whatever I want. They have a duty to help if they have the power and ability.”

  “The gods have killed people for talking about them like that” Samania warned.

  “Is that true?” Gavin asked rounding on the deity.

  “Yes. Some of my siblings are a little less open minded as others. I’d advise not talking to Entropy like that.”

  “Fuckin great. Turns out gods are real here and they're the smite you dead if you step a hair out of line types.”

  “There is a balance that must be struck, gods do act to intervene in events both directly and indirectly, but if you would have Florin turn up here to heal the injured or myself to warn you of the dangers would you also have the gods Entropy or Malice be given leave to lay it all to waste?”

  “OK, fair enough.” Gavin said, his tension flattening slightly. “A bit of a hand when I arrived would have been nice though, is there a god of clothes that could have hooked me up with something to wear?”

  “I think we should discuss why I’ve come here” Soliece said, arresting Gavin's tirade.

  “I'm listening”

  “There is knowledge from your world that I don't want you sharing.”

  “And why the fuck not? Aren't you the god of knowledge?”

  “I am the god of thinking, and ideas, not the god of hoarded knowledge.”

  “Great, you're the actual thought police?”

  “Yes Gavin, literally nineteen eighty four.” Soliece said, smiling crookedly.

  “Excellent. Is this the do as I say or die sort of thing, or is it the buy my silence with cool shit sort of thing?”

  “Are you asking a god to bribe you?”

  “I bet the gods have the best bribes. Am I right?”

  The goddess chuckled light-heartedly “to use an expression from your world, we can use a carrot and stick approach.”

  “So bribe, yes, but also smiting?”

  “Something like that”

  “Specifics?” Gavin said, adopting his serious business attitude.

  “You want a contract?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

  “Uhh, not especially, I doubt I'm super great at contract negotiation with a god. How about something a bit less formal? A deal in good faith?”

  “I think that will work out best for everyone.”

  “So, in exchange for me not running my mouth about quarks or whatever I get, what, exactly?”

  Soliece held out a strong willowy hand, a leatherbound book appearing in it.

  “Information.”

  “What is it?”

  “A book that outlines every known soul power and their effects.”

  Gavin took the book and flicked through it, the writing was neat and dense though layed out in a very easy to follow format. He quickly found the ability he’d just unlocked which showed additional effects as it went through the ranks. The book itself was roughly the size of a highschool maths textbook, though as he rifled through the pages he was sure it was actually a lot bigger than its size.

  “OK, that's pretty sweet, but I feel like I'm going to be pretty inconvenienced for my whole life in exchange for something I could probably get with a bit of time and effort, got anything else to sweeten the deal?”

  Soliece erupted in a belly laugh that sounded like cuddles from a thousand sleeping puppies. “There is a reason the gods tend to humour new arrivals Gavin. I think I can accommodate your request. I'll offer you something more permanent in addition to the information.”

  Three small glowing balls appeared in Soliece’s hand. One rusty orange and black, pitted with imperfections, the second jet black, like a hole in reality, and the last swirling with rainbow colour.

  “Sweet magic powers?”

  “Yes.”

  “Deal”

  Gavin took the orbs in his left hand then shook her hand with his right

  “How come I didn't get the notification to absorb these?”

  “Intention is a key component in the process. You didn't want to use them right away so they remained in their inert form.”

  “Gotcha. One other thing, does a lot of this magic stuff work on intuition? When I used the looting ability just now I kinda just knew how it worked.”

  “That is correct.”

  “Okay, so, now that I've been thoroughly bribed, what knowledge can and can't I share?”

  “Your history, culture, the lamington recipe your aunt taught you are all fine. I specifically don't want you spreading things like the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. I will let you know if you are straying into territory I’d like you to reconsider.”

  “OK, got it. Good chat.”

  “Farewell Gavin, I look forward to our next meeting.”

  “Well, that was pretty intense,” said Gavin, turning to look at the stunned and pale looking Samania. “You alright mate?”

  “Ahh, yes. I think so. You are a very odd person” she breathed

  “Yeah, I bet”

  [Title: imperturbable]

  [Your nonchalance in the face of a god has left a mark on your soul

  Gain a small resistance to effects that impede your abilities]

  “Oh neat. A title”

  “What?” Samania gawped.

  “Title. Just got one. Gives me resistance to stuff that impedes my abilities.”

  “Gaining a title is no small thing, they’re exceedingly rare.”

  “Ha.” Gavin laughed. Good to know. Anyway” Gavin said, his voice going sombre “what are we going to do about all this?” He said motioning at the scene of death.

  “I- need to take them back. You have an inventory power right? Can you take them?”

  “I'd really rather not, having that bloke in my inventory for even a few seconds made me want to claw my insides out.”

  “If I carry Allan, can you carry Gail then?”

  “Ah, sure, what about their gear? I picked up a bunch of it, but quite a bit got left behind.”

  “It's probably best I take their gear, I'll return it to their families”

  Gavin stashed and organized his new possessions, taking out the weapons and trinkets he'd picked up before the pocket world fell apart. Sam took them, placing them into a small pouch at her hip that easily fit the spear and other assorted items without issue.

  “I reckon we could make a litter to drag these two, got any rope? Or anything that can cut some branches?”

  “We have plenty of rope and I can get branches if you can assemble it.”

  “Yeah sure, no worries.”

  Samania bought Gavin good sturdy branches she’d hacked off nearby trees with her greatsword while Gavin lashed them together into a makeshift litter. Once it was complete, they loaded each mangled body on before hefting their burden with a loop of rope over their shoulders. With a heave they began the long trek back to civilization.

  While they walked Gavin quizzed Sam on how the world worked.

  “So, how does magic work here exactly? I've unlocked a power, how many can I get?

  “That’s complicated, about half of people have inert souls, they can't use magic at all, some people can activate magical items but that's about it. One in ten or so are warlocks, we can use demon soul crystals to bind to our souls to get magical abilities.”

  “like this thing?” Gavin said holding out the one he'd picked up off the eel

  “Yes, how did you get it?”

  “I got sucked into this little bubble world a couple hours ago, smashed this eel thing with a rock and this came out of it, it says I can use it to breathe water. Then I got another one that just appeared by that bonesnapper thing.”

  “That’s odd. Was it the looting power I saw you use?” Samania asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “And the ones Soliece just gave you?”

  “I think I’ll spend a bit of time trying to understand how all this works before I absorb any more powers.”

  “What were they?” Samania asked curiously.

  “Something called Deconstruct, Gate of infinity, and empowered intellect.”

  “I don't know about Deconstruct, but Gate of infinity sounds like a teleport power, which are about as rare as they come and empowered intellect is one of the most important powers for wizard type builds.”

  “Does rarer mean better?”

  “Typically yes, to a degree anyway. That waterbreathing power is better if you need to breathe underwater, but generally the rarer a power is the more impact it will have but be less versatile, conventional combination theory says you want one or two signature powers and the rest to round out your abilities to maximise their effect. That intellect power will boost your ability to cast spells and generate mana faster, it's absolutely necessary if you plan on focusing on magic, and even useful for people that want to use a lot of special attacks.”

  “How many powers can I get? Is there a limit?”

  “There isn’t a hard limit to the number, there’s a soft limit of nine where you wont notice any effect, after that they will start interfering with each other, you’ll notice your progression slowing down and if you get enough of them it taxes your body and mana supply just having them.”

  “Is there like a meta that people follow with the number of powers they get?”

  “Fifteen is usually where people stop, at least until they get to tier twenty and continue to progress their strength, then taking on three or four more powers is fairly common.”

  “I see.” said Gavin, suddenly feeling like a small fish in a big pond. He was a commoner in a world of epic scale powers. “I think I should use the intellect power, if it's as important as you say there’s not much point mucking about. I’ll save the others for later.”

  “Suit yourself.” Samania said, shrugging.

  She didn’t have much stake in his magical progression, and it was an excellent power, if a little unexciting. Gavin resolved himself, selecting the power in his inventory and activating it feeling a rush of power as his intellect stat increased by five. Checking his character sheet over he saw his mana capacity had also increased by five up to eighteen.

  [Empower intellect]

  [Description: Increases users magical capacity.]

  (Level 1): Users Intellect attribute is increased proportional to their level in this ability.]

  They walked in silence for a while, Gavin turning over the thoughts running through his mind. He’d need to get a better idea of what his attributes did. He had just increased his intellect attribute by almost fifty percent but didn't feel any smarter, if it was a raw intelligence increase he should be up there intuiting the nature of the universe with the great minds of his world. He needed to figure out what his attributes did if anything, his health certainly wasn't representative of how likely he was to die, he'd been close to done earlier in the day but he hadn’t really been injured that badly.

  Sam was doing the majority of the work, she was easily stronger than he was. His muscles ached as the rope bit into his shoulder, every caught tree root and stone was an annoyance for him while she barely seemed to notice. A while later they stopped for a break and she offered him some rations and a stamina potion to stave off his wariness. The yellow liquid tasted sour but flushed his exhaustion away. Reinvigorated, he began asking questions again, eager to learn as much about this world as he could.

  ***

  The trees opened up to reveal the edge of the small town Samania called Wildeness, it was the central hub for several surrounding towns, it had the only patrolled road leading out through the forest to the towns and cities beyond. The town sprawled out over the landscape nestled in the lee of a wide bay at the mouth of an estuary. Standing on the road was a man dressed in storm grey vestments, a silver necklace with a strange symbol featured prominently on his chest.

  “Know him?” Gavin gasped as he heaved another step with his burden

  “Priest of Nepharon, he's the god of death and dying. Probably here to take Allan and Gail from us.”

  “That right, mate?” Gavin called “you here for these two?”

  “Yes. I will take them and return them to their families, and let them know what happened”

  “Good shout, I'm buggered”

  “New arrival, you get used to it.” Samania clarified, noting the clerics' confused expression.

  They dropped the makeshift litter with a sigh of relief as the priest busied himself over the corpses, cleansing the gore with a gesture. They looked like two wax sculptures rather than people, gavin felt odd when the priest cast another spell to levitate them up to waist height like they were goods to be transported.

  “Could you take their gear back to their families too?” Samania asked tentatively.

  “I will.”

  “These belong to Gail” said Sam producing a stained satchel “and this is Allan's” she said retrieving his pack.

  The priest bid them farewell and departed into the town, hailing a low dirge as he walked, trailing the two bodies.

  “The God of death isn't like some sort of evil God right? That guy seemed alright but-”

  “The God of death is a neutral God, they are responsible for taking the souls of the dead and returning them to the ether.”

  “Oh, like Hades,” Gavin said, “probably not Disney Hades though.”

  “What's Hades?”

  “A god from my world, fictional god, none have ever popped in for a chat, except for one bloke that claimed to be a god, or the son of god who is still also the god he's the son of, though there's not very good evidence he was even real, that was over two thousand years ago. How many gods are there? Is there one for everything? Oh, shit, is there a god of a really good beer at the end of a long day?”

  “There is not a god of beer. There are eight majors in total, and some number of minor gods, plus the prime fundamental forces, which are sort of like gods, but they aren’t sentient.”

  “Specifically eight big ones and you don't know how many little ones?”

  “They come and go, I’m not a theologian, I only know a little on that front.”

  “Okay, that's fair, was Soliece one of the major ones?”

  “Yes, she is one of the more active gods. Some gods spread their influence far and wide, performing minor miracles like Soliece creating that book for you, or the gods of order and entropy just slowly but constantly working to nudge the world where they want it to go while others tend to be passive, saving their influence for big effects. When the god of death turns up you'd better run.”

  “Didn't you just say the god of death was neutral?”

  “Yes, they are responsible for shepherding souls back into the ether. When they turn up they're usually coming to collect a due, people that cheat too many times find themselves getting smited, Nepharon likes to do it in waves, like he's clearing house once in a while.”

  “The god of death is an admin rolling out ban waves. That's only a little terrifying.”