His mind wandered in the emptiness of the void. All five senses numbed until a chanting startled him awake. He opened his eyes finding himself inside a cave. As he was standing there, his body was materializing out of a thick black smoke.
He turned his head to see a woman praying. Her eyes were out of focus and she had a shocked look on her face.
She had done the ritual just as it was written... but she hadn't expected it to actually work! She just summoned a god?! An actual real life god!? She focused her eyes back on the menu in front of her. It appeared as soon as she completed the ritual. It showed everything about her; name, race, stats, and... level. Dispirited, she finds herself at level one. While familiarizing herself with the menu, she notices movement. She pushes the menu out of the way to reveal the naked body of the god she had just summoned. Pale skin, long dark hair, toned body... yup, not bad.
The man looked toward the lady who had summoned him. She was currently occupied with taking hundreds of screenshots in her mind as she devoured his body with her gaze.
He hmphed and flicked his wrist causing dark smoke to envelope his body. It twisted around him before turning solid. In the smoke's place appeared a long black robe. His new look paired with his noble demeanor made him seem like a lord, completely out of place in this damp and dirty cave.
The look she had on her face before totally vanished to be replaced by reverence and awe. That's right this is no ordinary man. This is a god she had summoned. She should at least show the proper respect right?
She knelt on the floor pledging her allegiance, while he listened patiently. When she was done she looked up and asked, "This humble follower is called Jaycee. May I ask what to call your holiness?"
"You may just call me Detan. What has happened? Why was I summoned here?"
"I was part of a caravan that was heading to a nearby village, we were almost there when we got intercepted by a group of bandits. They used the forest for cover as they surrounded us. Although bandits seem bloodthirsty they usually let caravans and travelers pass through their territory for a fee, but not this time. They saw that our caravan had quite a few beautiful women so they offered a different kind of fee. They offered to let all the men pass through without paying a fee as long as they left all the women behind. The leader of the caravan refused and led the guards to open a whole in the encirclement for us to escape. As I was fleeing through the woods I got lost and eventually found shelter here. Little did I expect there would be an ancient ritual to summon a god here. So I followed it and prayed toward the altar for seven days. Then you appeared."
Detan scanned her with his gaze. He could tell she wasn't lying through his connection with her as his follower... but would the bandits really risk their lives to capture a woman like her?
She had brown hair that was clumped together at points with dried dirt. Her clothes were in tatters, and her body had a mixture of sweat and dirt that was especially distasteful. If he had to say, she would be more like a cute dog panting after it played in the mud, rather than a beautiful woman that the bandits would endanger their lives for.
The rest of her story checks out. She prayed to the altar for seven days in order to summon him. That must be why he feels so weak. Having only one follower who's only prayed for a week is like drinking water to a godly being such as himself, it's only enough to keep him alive. If this one follower happens to die or convert before he can find another, then he will no longer have any attachments to this world and he will disappear back into the void. So although the dog is dirty, it's still his dog, and he should take good care of it.
"So you have been hiding here this whole time?"
"Yes."
"What about food and water, how have you been living?"
She pointed over toward a stream of water flowing down the wall of the cave. "I just drink that when I'm thirsty, and when I'm hungry I go outside. The entrance to this cave is covered in berry bushes, so I eat those."
Detan shook his head. A human needs much more to survive than food and water. Oh well, first things first. Detan summoned a menu in front of him. It's a highly detailed map of the terrain. Although his strength is weak from the lack of followers, he can still put to use the functions of his system. Right now the map is updated with information from over a mile away.
He tells Jaycee to follow him as he walks toward the entrance to the cave. As he gets close, he realizes just how dark it was in there. The light is blinding, but his eyes almost immediately adapt to it. Jaycee on the other hand, has to cover her eyes.
He walks out of the bushes covering the cave. He is surprised that she was even able to find such a well hidden place. The entrance is just a crack in the side of what looks like a pile of rocks. With the bushes covering it, it's almost impossible to notice. Detan inwardly sighed, being able to find a place like this shows how desperate she must have been. Well, at least she has me now. As the god she has chosen I should do my best to repay her.
Once Jaycee's eyes got used to the light, Detan started to lead her through the forest.
"Um, your holiness? Where are we heading?"
"Just call me Detan."
"Mm, okay."
He was about to answer her question when he realized, he never taught her how to use his blessing. They stopped walking as he showed her how to summon her map.
"Just think the command 'map' in your mind and it will appear, or if you want to look through all the commands just use this button." He pointed at the top left corner of her menu toward a symbol.
"This is the help button. If you ever want to explore the system on your own, or if I'm not around to answer your question, you can use this."
Jaycee nodded her head. Then she closed her eyes and thought of the word 'map'. When she opened her eyes it was just as he said. A new screen appeared in front of her. Most of it was blank except for the spot she was standing at, and a small trail leading back to the cave.