I selected a place for the dryad to spawn that was directly in front of us but that was also far enough from us so that we'd be unable to see the spirit when it came to life. I could still see it, as the thing was easily within my particular line of sight, but that was fine. It was gonna come to life well over five kilometers away.

After giving me a sorely needed explanation as to what dryads were, I was asked to name the spirit I was about to create. I felt a word immediately call out to me, powerfully coming into being in my mind. Raiz.

I informed the system of my choice and then was greeted by a whole new screen.

[Welcome to the lifeform creation menu. By creating a true spirit you are creating life. This is something you've yet to do, so we're gonna take you through it step by step.] The system declared in my mind. Hearing such a declaration brought a smile to my face.

[First things first, the entity you're creating will be lacking a soul for the moment. This is fine, for a creature like a dryad that's not that big of a deal, but we advise that you complete the quest to gain the first tier of influence over the soul domain so you can grant her a soul.] The system informed me. It didn't explain exactly how that was bad, just that it was, which wasn't hugely helpful.

The new screen in front of me was a strange one. In the middle of it there was a shadowy outline of a person, a regular, human-sized and shaped person.

On the left, there were a bunch of words like "Stats" and "Special qualities" each of which had several options and words underneath them. On the right, there were words about physical qualities like "Hair color" "Skin color" "Height and width".

[Spirits you create will automatically worship and serve you. They gain more freedom as they grow older, but for a spirit to turn against a god who directly created it was rare in the mythic age. The menu before you depicts the stat block of the dryad and the physical appearance of the thing. Experiment with both to create the sort of dryad you wish to create.] The system explained.

I spent the next few moments pouring over the words on both sides. When I tapped them they showed me what I could give my creation, and how I could modify her even before she was created. I ended up giving my dryad only some strength but gifting her high charisma, wisdom, and intelligence. I made her a short, pale-skinned beauty with hair the color of a Winesap apple.

I was delighted to see a number of special qualities pop up when I tapped on that word as if part of some strange drop-down menu. Among other things, I could give her "Omnilingualism" which was the name for my ability to understand and speak all languages, select her class and levels, and grant her the ability to generate light.

Upon completely filling out this screen I was asked to review what I had entered. I quickly did so, and then was asked one final question.

[Would you like to give Raiz classes and class levels? With your current overall strength, you can grant her up to two classes, and cause her to come into being with an overall total level of three.] My companion asked me, quietly doing so with an unusual solemnness. I could tell this was a serious moment.

"Can I make her a level two druid and a level one cleric?" I asked, curiously. I received an immediate response.

[Absolutely! That is well within your capabilities. However, if you wish to do that there are a few religion-based things you must do first. Are you willing and ready to do those things right now?] The system asked, curiously. I did the mental version of a nod and heard an excited laugh escape the metaphysical lips of the system.

[Come up with three teachings of the Cosechian faith. These need not be profound, but there absolutely must be three.] My companion told me. I thought for a second about what three teachings would be the most relevant to my agricultural and civilization-based cult. And then I came up with a single teaching.

"Through Cosecha starvation is either a choice or a consequence of pride. Pray to Cosecha and it will always provide you with food to eat and water to drink." I informed the system, feeling quite satisfied with that particular teaching.

As I informed the system about the teaching I quietly realized that the teaching could also eventually be used to link Cosechians to the sins of sloth and gluttony, which brought a smile to my face. That'd be handy in the near future when I focused on getting to the next tier of influence over the corruption subdomain. That was when I came up with my second teaching.

"Animals are friends. Whether one is facing the biggest bear, the stealthiest snake, or the cruelest crocodile, all animals are potential allies and partners. Treat animals with respect and look forward to Cosecha's blessing." I told the system.

This teaching was unusual because it was the byproduct of many different things. It was partially because I didn't like violence, partially due to my druidic nature, and also somewhat a product of my desire to gain omnipotence. That said I quite liked it, and quietly made gathering druids a priority, a lesser one, but a priority nonetheless. I liked the idea of having more druids and more animals under my control.

My final teaching was an easy one. It took me barely a few seconds to come up with. And I was quite proud as I said it to the system.

"Cosecha works to create a world of harmony. Show Cosecha your gratitude by having large families, and teaching them what Cosecha has taught you. Devote yourself to Cosecha and act on your desires." This teaching was sinful and encouraged worshipers to surrender to lust, for the sake of reproduction.

I recognized that this was me giving something to corruption, but I also knew that this was a reward to the domain of faith as it served to increase my worshipers in the long-term. I was okay with giving corruption this small victory, knowing that I'd need to give it small victories to gain further influence over it, which was something I'd need to do to eventually become all-powerful. I was musing on that when the system next spoke to me.

[Your teachings have been accepted and will be transmitted to all of Cosechians as well as to all Althonians who revere you as a god of nature and healing.] The system announced. I nodded at it, right as it asked me one final question.

[Can you come up with a dogma for Cosechians? Dogmas are a set of principals for your followers to follow to please you. This would apply specifically to Cosechians, and Raiz would know to repeat it to humanoids in your presence. She will be gifted knowledge of your current predicament and will aid you as soon as you and your allies come across her.] My companion asked me.

I spent a few moments thinking of one that felt worth telling the system. It was difficult at first, but eventually one finally came into being that I felt proud of.

"Protect the earth and the earth shall provide. By working with nature rather than against it, one can have one's needs met while keeping the world clean and beautiful for those to come. Trust in Cosecha and it shall ensure that your needs are met. Strive to live peacefully and honorably with your neighbors, and to establish happy homes and families." I confidently told the system. And then the entity began to laugh softly. It stopped shortly after starting and began to talk to me.

[I apologize for laughing Althos, I just find it interesting that Cosecha is now, in essence, a spirit of civilization. The cult of the harvest you're making is a cult that promotes careful living, peaceful-relationships with one's neighbors, and happy home life. It's an interesting transformation.] My first friend told me. I chuckled softly, not really disagreeing with what it said and began to reply.

"In fairness, those things do help with successful harvests. Farming is hard work, and to do so as successfully as possible requires a lot of stability and control over one's own environment." I told my companion, speaking inwardly.

[That's a very fair point, but it's worth noting that you've created what could reasonably be described as a lawful-good cult while you yourself are chaotic-neutral.] My friend retorted.

I laughed, audibly at that. That caused my companions to look over at me curiously as we strode deeper and deeper into the woods. I looked away sheepishly and muttered something about remembering a funny joke. They smirked at me, skeptically, but appeared to accept my excuse.

"I am not a foolish or ignorant person my friend. I am keenly aware that I will need to do such things to become all-powerful. Eventually, I'll need to create chaotic evil cults. Possibly to begin to control demons. I know that the road to omnipotence is paved with contradictory actions. I am... well I am as ready to do such things as I possibly can be, given my youth." I told the system, speaking honestly.

[Hmm... we see. The domains, subdomains, and I are excited to hear that. And now... I will play my part in the activation of this power, and finish bringing Raiz to life.] The system announced, speaking proudly and boldly.

[All you have to do is select your Cosechian symbol. Is a golden apple okay with you?] My ally asked before my mind was filled with the image of a single golden apple. It was slightly stylized to glow more than the golden apples I had created had, but not much more. I mentally nodded and the system made a joy-filled sound.

[Do you care to share with us what you envision Raiz's purpose being? That will help us craft her into precisely the sort of spirit that will be maximally effective at serving you.] The system, speaking for itself as well as for all of the domains and subdomains asked me. I allowed myself a moment to thoughtfully consider the question.

"Purpose? Hmm... what would I do with Raiz after I create her?" I asked myself. "I suppose I should make her my high-priestess? It's a fitting role for a dryad." I mused, before quietly settling on that. I informed the system of my choice and heard a faint laugh emanate from the thing.

[I suppose that makes sense. In that case, we'll add a few extra features to her, to make her feel like a real high-priestess.] My ally told me, bring a smile to my face.

I watched as far off in the distance a new being sprung to life. At first, the entity was smooth and hairless, and more eerily she was a short, human-shaped, featureless doll. But seconds after she phased into existence, she was given actual features.

The woman was given a sharp nose, pointed ears, beautiful green eyes, long, wavy red hair, and her curvy, sensual body-parts were covered in leaves and other assorted natural detritus. She had a birthmark of a shimmering apple on her exposed shoulder. She smiled, and I sent her a mental message.

"Welcome to life Raiz. You are now the high-priestess of the Cosechian faith." I told her, smiling.

"Thank you master. I look forward to serving you." She replied, her voice a sing-songy one that filled my head with the pleasant sensation of music and song. She began to make her way towards the elves and I.

I sped us up, encouraging us to venture deeper into the forest in hopes of uncovering the mysteries that lay before us. My elven allies looked at me curiously but obliged me and we sped forth, drawing ever closer to my newest servant and worshiper.

As we drew closer and closer to the first lifeform I had ever created, the Cosechian high-priestess named Raiz, my elven allies began to sense something. They were tight-lipped about it, but they couldn't hide their physical reactions from me.

Their ears perked up, a strange sight when such a thing happened to an elf, and their hearts began to race. I could audibly hear the pounding of their hearts quicken thanks to my enhanced senses. Their hands, previously at their sides, twisted and stretched towards their weaponry.

Inwardly I chuckled, as I began to piece together that they could in all likelihood somehow sense Raiz. I quietly sent her a message as well. "Be careful, my allies might have detected you. I'm unsure of why, but their hands are atop their weaponry and their body language indicates that something has spooked them. Don't attack if they attack." I told her, commanding the newborn to stay calm.

"But master, am I in danger?" She asked, replying to me in the exact same method in which I communicated with her. I was tempted to shake my head, but we were still over three kilometers apart. It wasn't likely that she could see me, and it'd surely confuse my already tense allies.

"No Raiz, you are not in danger. I doubt they'd strike first, and even if they did I have light-speed reflexes and can manipulate light into forming protective barriers. You're safe." I told the newborn dryad while explaining just one way in which I could protect her.

Inwardly I knew that if I needed too I could also drain Farrane of her ability to use magic and telekinetically catch any arrows or any other weapons that Calorron might use against my servant. I felt ready to play defense if worst came to worst.

Earlier in the day, the moment I had arrived in the forest, a wolf began to dash towards me. That wolf, being a beautifully persist thing, was continuing to approach me. It was still far away though.

It took us a few minutes, but eventually, we did manage to reach Raiz. We were still in a darkened part of the forest though, and so it took my companions longer than it would have otherwise to actually detect the short, red-headed dryad who at that point had begun to patiently stand still and wait for us to reach her.

It was while we were walking towards her that I received the notification alerting me to the powers I had just gained from the Fagaceae subdomain for creating Raiz, which was my reason for doing so.

Shortly after reading through the entry, a process that took me a few seconds, I realized that I had a chance to set Raiz at ease using these newfound abilities. I quietly began to activate and experiment with my new abilities. I did so in a location that was far from me: right beside Raiz.

---

I mentally focused on three distant trees. None of them were particularly large, and all three of them were close to my newest ally: Raiz. I quietly envisioned their diminutive, for trees anyway, forms shifting into distinct shapes, making rough use of my new ability to transform trees.

One of the trees seemed to shrink, becoming shorter and thicker, and taking on a distinctly lupine form. This process was a noisy one, one which caused Raiz's head to turn and examine my work. As she did so she mentally messaged me.

"Master, is this your doing or should I prepare myself for combat?" She asked, fear and awe mixing in equal parts in her mental tone as I was weaving together an arboreal wolf right next to her. I chuckled and formulated a response to her.

"Sorry Raiz, I just wanted to go ahead and begin doing what I needed to do. I am creating a... honor-guard of sorts for you, as is befitting a high priestess of a spirit of nature and civilization alike." I told her, as I envisioned a tree-like wolf and set about making my will manifest. I heard her sigh and relax when she knew that I was protecting her.

This power of mine seemed to work by taking the mental images I created in my mind and shaping the targeted tree or trees in a way to create that image. It didn't require much focus, but I still paid it significant attention, because I wanted to thoroughly master it. I could sense the potential of this power, and knew that to make such potent manifest I'd need to pay careful attention to this power.

The tree I was using as my base to form the wolf was one that was large enough for me to make the thing taller than Raiz, and look like an impossibly muscled wolf. I imagined that its paws would be enormous and that its claws would be misshapen spines made from leaves.

In order to make its face, I smoothed and thinned a bit of its trunk, and created the necessary body parts, the eyes, the snout, and the teeth, using different powers. It was an experiment, one that took a great deal of concentration since I was relying on an instinctual understanding of what a "wolf" even was. I had only ever encountered coyotes, not wolves.

For the thing's eyes, I activated my created dark green lights where its eyes would have been located, had it been an actual wolf. For its snout, I kept thinning and smoothing out part of its trunk, elongating its face further. And for its teeth, I used my new ability to manipulate roots and wove them together tightly.

"Say hello to your new pet." I told Raiz, as I quietly awoke the thing, feeling a surge of power leave myself and invisibly sail towards and then into what had once been little more than a lupine statue. The second the transformed tree was struck by my power, it began to move slowly. Its paws shuddered, and then the rest of it began to lightly vibrate. I smiled and turned my attention to the other two trees I had targeted.

Both of the other trees were taller than the tree that was now a slowly animating and awakening lupine-shaped tree. They stood around five meters tall. I was gonna reduce their height significantly, but neither tree was particularly tall relative to the other trees I could see throughout the forest.

Their intended shapes were easier for me to conceptualize. I wanted them to become human-like bodyguards and servants of Raiz, to give her the appearance of someone loved and cared for by her master. Which in fairness was exactly what she was.

I envisioned the other two trees, one of which was behind the newly animated wolf-tree, and one of which was not far from either tree, thickening and losing their height in exchange for the appearance of muscle mass. I watched as both things went from standing just over five meters tall to a modest height of just under three meters, and nearly doubling in thickness even as took on a human-like appearance.

Their "skin" was made of dark brown bark, and they had enormous arms. They had powerfully "muscled" chests, made of particularly dense bark, the thickest and hardest parts of their trunks. And this was when I got brave.

"Let's see if I can speed this up." I told myself, feeling courageous, as I suddenly pictured two whole men made of bark and other tree parts. I pictured their faces, mouths made from parted wood, teeth made of sharpened leaves, and empty eye sockets. I pictured their hands made from wood and their leafy fingers. I even pictured their root-based legs, covered in a wooden exoskeleton.

Raiz was once again alarmed as the other two trees suddenly transformed into fully-formed statues of men. An instant later I once again expelled two invisible surges of awakening energy, surges that collided with the statues quite easily just moments after I expelled them, and animated the trees.

As the elves and I got closer and closer to Raiz and her newly created honor-guard, my mind turned to what sort of items, particularly what sort of weapons I ought to give the trees, and indeed my high-priestess herself. I wanted them to be armed with items that fit their overall nature motif. It was while I was thinking about how to arm my worshipers that I received a handy notification.

I mentally informed the system that that was exactly what I wanted to do. And then I reached into the minds of my new creations out of curiosity to see what such environments would be like.

---

The three trees that ambled to life, were still in the process of ambling upwards and beginning to gain some real sense of consciousness when their "creator" peered into their newly elevated minds. What he found was both disappointing and intriguing.

He found himself in three strange places. All of them were dark, empty, and filled with potential. Althos could quietly sense the potential that existed in these minds, but he couldn't sense memories, fears, hopes, or anything else. These three places, places he existed in all at once, were unpopulated.

The young god spent a few moments in these locations, before vacating them. But as he did, he gave his creations their first orders. They weren't complex.

"Obey me." He told them, mentally commanding them in an incredibly powerful and authoritative tone. He had created them to obey him, and to fulfill one other purpose. That other purpose was his second command.

"Protect her." He demanded, before picturing Raiz's face. He didn't demand that they obey her, merely that they protect her. That was deliberate, a willful, conscious choice that he made.

The three infantile minds made quiet noises of affirmation and obedience. Althos smiled, satisfied that his creations had heard him, and vacated their minds. As he did so, the three entities immediately began to miss the presence of their "creator".

It was around this time that the three began to fully stand up. And as they did so, the hands belonging to the two humanoid-trees were immediately filled with equipment constructed by their creator.

While portions of his mind had been in their minds, another portion of his mind had been actively manipulating light to a specific end. Althos had been hand-crafting weapons and armor from light, weapons which now found themselves in the hands of the two human-like awakened trees, and armor which found itself protectively clinging to the wooden forms of the awakened trees.

A spear found its way into the hands of each of the humanoid trees. One spear was fashioned from light that Althos had manipulated to "look" red, making it clearly visible to any virtually humanoid's eyes. A sword found its way into the hand of the other humanoid tree. The sword was fashioned from what looked like bright yellow light, light that drew in one's vision.

The spear-wielder found itself holding onto a dark "leash" made of tempered light that was connected to the lupine-tree, and immediately sensed that it had received one extra task: to be the animal handler of their little party. The tree was unsure of if it was ready for this responsibility, but it felt sure that its awakener wouldn't ask it to do the impossible and committed itself to the task Althos asked of it.

The one holding the sword was given a shield as well, and quietly sent feelings of gratitude towards its mysterious maker. The trees didn't know the identity of their awakener, they only knew that he was close, and he was approaching them. They knew that their creator had tasks for them to do, and all three creatures readied themselves to obey their maker, even as he drew ever closer to them.

Althos and the elves were inching closer and closer to the new party of woodland beings and as both groups readied themselves for their meeting, Althos and Raiz began to mentally communicate once more.

The god and creator of the arboreal party rightfully felt that it was wise for him and his dryadic high-priestess to be on the same page as he led the elves ever-nearer to his wooden and spiritual servants.