Hi, hello, future me speaking; this is something I learned after the initial event took place, but apparently what I had decided to do caused quite a stir in the world around me. Upon accepting to absorb all the divine power that was stored inside of Bahamuts' old body, I not only created a magical shockwave that could be felt everywhere within a 500 mile radius (for an idea of the size, it would be felt through most of the west side of the United States), but it also blasted a hole into the ceiling of the cave I was in, with a pillar of silvery white light that could be seen within half of that radius.
So, suffice to say, I had let everyone know that something really big happened and my plans to remain undetected were effectively ruined by my own bad choices, anyway back to the present moment.
~
The procedure was similar to the reincarnation process, in the sense that it was wildly painful and uncomfortable. That's pretty much where the similarities end tho.
Have you ever been to a build-a-bear store? If you have, you might recall that station where an employee stuffs the toy and asks how stuffed you want it to be. It was kind of like that, except instead of stopping when the toy was decently stuffed, they just… kept going. The toy would just keep expanding and start to bulge at odd places.
Then at some point the toy would no longer be able to expand, the stuffing would begin to break out from the seams, and the toy and stuffing would just fall to the ground in a broken heaped mess.
I'm not saying that happened to me, that would be horrifying. This was a visual exercise to give you an idea of what it felt like.
So no, thankfully I did not explode. I did feel very bloated with a hint of heartburn, but that beats exploding by a long shot.
I've been laying on the ground face down since then. My ears are still ringing and I'm pretty sure the "system", as I've come to call it, is in the middle of doing a hard reboot.
So, laying on the floor of the cave, with my eyes closed, the last thing I expected was to start seeing something.
Ok, I need to explain, it wasn't exactly "seeing", yes very confusing but let me keep going. For some reason, I've had a spatial awareness of everything inside this cave since I regained consciousness. It was just this room in particular with the center area, where the Shrine was, being the clearest.
I'm not exactly sure why, since my system seems to be taking a break, but I have a hypothesis. After I absorbed all of that Divine power, or DP for short, I not only gained all the powers that were previously dormant, but some of it leaked out of me while I was imitating a balloon being filled with water.
What this means is that what I'm seeing is a room full of DP, and that at the center of it all, with the highest concentration currently, is me and the shrine.
Now that I'm done speculating what all this means, I am now unable to ignore the fact that I am not alone in this cave any longer.
I'm not exactly sure what happened between me headbutting the dead dragon body and laying on the ground, but somewhere between these two events, a large group of small creatures and one tall humanoid came into the room.
It's now been about five minutes since I regained consciousness and now the ringing from earlier has stopped and I can actually hear words.
I want to clarify right now, I am still laying face down on the cave floor with my eyes closed. I've been kind of pretending to be unconscious still because I haven't the slightest idea what is going on.
To paint a picture with my limited mind vision..
The ceiling of this cave? Gone.
The massive body of a dead dragon? Gone.
The humanoid? Standing with their back facing me with a spear-like weapon pointed towards the small creatures.
Also their words sound… I'm not sure actually. The way they talk feels like I should understand what they are saying, but it's just not quite right. Like, a super heavy accent that occasionally uses words that I'm unfamiliar with. I guess it's like… if you knew Tagalog (filipino dialect) but you were speaking to someone speaking Ilocano (different filipino dialect).
Either way, somehow I can just tell that they don't mean me any harm, in fact I'm positive that what they are doing is trying to defend my body from the small creatures.
Speaking of the small creatures, I actually CAN understand what they are saying. This is probably the most awkward thing about this whole situation, because they ALSO are trying to defend me.
I'm assuming there is a language-based misunderstanding going on here because this is what the little creatures are saying.
"Get away from the Glowing One!"
"Scary black dragon leave our home!"
"Save the Glowing One! Save from evil black dragon!"
I'm not exactly sure why I can understand the little creatures but not the humanoid.
[Answer: They are speaking the Ancient Dragon language, one of the languages you know]
Oh, welcome back System. Wait, why do I know the Ancient Dragon language?
[Because you are Bahamuts' kin, therefore an Ancient Dragon]
Right, forgot about that, but why can't I understand the humanoid looking one?
[They are speaking Common, a language used by most humans, this one happens to be using a dialect that is not yet acquired]
Doesn't Bahamut have some sorta translating skill? I must have gotten something like that when I absorbed his body or whatever.
[Skill "All Speak" activated]
Why does that skill sound familiar? Anyway, good I can now stop pretending to be dead and stop this misunderstanding before someone dies. I just have to act like I'm gradually waking up and calm everyone down.
This is easier said than done since as soon as I start to sit up, everyone in the room notices, panics and gets louder.
The little creatures seem to have resolved themselves to attack the humanoid to protect me and the humanoid is dead set on protecting me.
"EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP" I yell loudly. I can hear my own voice reverberate inside the cave and feel everything shake. I knew my voice was obnoxiously loud, but I wasn't expecting it to affect anything physically.
[Passive Skill "Divine Authority" was activated]
I'm sorry what? I've never even heard of that sort of skill before, how did I activate it?
[ "Divine Authority" is a passive skill that is activated when a god and/or vessel is within their ruling domain. Any creature under the ruling authority of the domain, that is within the boundary, can be influenced by the ruling authority. Creatures who are not under the authority have a higher chance to resist the influence, and those under a higher authority can not be influenced.]
That was a lot of words, but I think I get it. Anyway, that isn't important right now, I need to stop getting sidetracked. Just a moment ago I was doing my best impression of a dead person, and now I have the attention of everyone in the room.
I still have my eyes closed don't I? Damnit.
I open my eyes and I'm almost blinded for the second time since I first blacked out.
Why the hell is everything suddenly so bright?
I squint and quickly assessed the situation.
The humanoid, who was holding a bright sphere of light, was in fact just a human, at least from what I could see despite being blinded momentarily.
He looked like someone straight out of an ancient Chinese drama. The best way to describe his appearance would be Zhao Yun, from Dynasty Warriors 9. If you don't play video games or haven't heard of that game series you're probably lost so I guess I can explain his appearance more.
He has the black hair and dark eyes that are common among Asian people. He also just has very asian features in general, maybe Chinese?
He's also in obnoxiously ornate armor, identical to fantasy movies and games. There's this big sigil on the front that looks like a black dragon, so I assume that's his house symbol. I remember the little creatures saying something about an evil black dragon.
Speaking of the creatures, unlike the guy standing dumbfounded next to me, they have all knelt down in reverence, almost in prayer worship.
Getting a good look at them now I can see that they are actually very lizard-like or maybe amphibious is the better word.
You know axolotls? The cute little salamander looking things with the little head frills that are like external gills or something. I remember watching many videos of them just swimming around and being unable to exist outside of water.
I assume these guys are different from axolotls, what with being bipedal and not needing to be in water 24/7, but they very much remind me of them.
Anyway, side tracked again, they have been murmuring prayer-like chants while bowing for awhile now. I look at the human and he looks considerably confused on what to do now.
Understandable I guess, one second he was about ready to fight to the death trying to save someone he thought was a human captive. Next thing you know, he's faced with some unknown dragonoid and their posse of small lizard friends. I would also be incredibly confused, in fact I AM confused.
I'm also hungry, I just realized now that I am incredibly hungry.
My stomach growls audibly and the human reflexibly holds his spear out.
"That's fair, but also unnecessary," I say walking past him and up to the offering table looking at the still fresh fish, "I prefer normal food items to people. You're welcome to have some too if you can find me a place to cook this."
The human is completely lost despite clearly understanding what I said, but he comes along with me regardless, with some axolotls keeping him at a distance of course. He's at a disadvantage so it's in his best interest to play it safe till he can figure out what to do. I prefer it this way anyway.
The axolotls are still very cautious of him, but look more excited to be following me around.
I've been calling them axolotls in my head, but really I have no idea what they are.
Besides their multi-colored luminescent frills and fins, their bodies are completely white. Their feet and hands are webbed which means they are built for swimming, but the fingertips end with sharp claws. The body shape is stout and rather pear shaped ending with a long finned tail. The tail looks like it works like a rudder in the water, but being so large, out of the water it makes these little guys waddle in an amusing way. It doesn't seem to slow them down though since they are still waddling/running ahead of me.
I'm trying to think of all the mythical creatures I know about from various video games but I'm drawing a blank. I guess I should see if the system knows what they are, maybe there's some inspection skill I could use.
[Appraisal skill activated]
Alright! That's what I'm talking about! The most basic of abilities in any rpg, also super essential. I guess I'll focus my sight on one of these axolotls and see what comes up.
[Race: Kobold, Subspecies variant: Aquatic
Lineage: Platinum Dragon]
Oh, so an aquatic Kobold. That explains the axolotl features- wait…
They're related to Bahamut?
The very thought is shocking, did Bahamut make babies with Kobolds? I know he was desperate for followers but I didn't know it was this bad.
[Negative. The conclusion is not correct.]
…
Ok I know this system is something Bahamut made for me but I feel like he himself said that with the tone it just gave me. So then, how are they related to him?
[ … There is no data for an answer.]
I have to physically stop myself from laughing suddenly because, I mean come on. You just said the conclusion I came to was incorrect, but you actually have no idea?
[... Answers will be found when enough data is gathered to form a conclusion.]
Well it looks like neither of us knows what this means and I'll have to find out myself. Maybe if I scan enough of them we'll be able to find an answer I suppose.
I really hope I haven't been making stupid faces while I've been thinking to myself. I can feel someone staring at me and look to the side, the human warrior is watching me intensely. Now I REALLY hope I wasn't making weird faces.