In the time it took me to reach and slay the dark elf I had been asked to kill, the “me” that was in the bazaar I lorded over had entered a vast building near the center of the world. At the moment I was inside of it and I quietly approached a seat that wasn’t quite a throne but was more like a throne than any other seat I had ever seen.
When I got to the seat I immediately sat in it and activated the potent power of the essence that was my favorite one at this very moment; the essence of the manipulator. It was a mighty essence that was perfectly suited for moments like this, where things like one’s personal power didn’t matter but one’s aptitude for social situations did.
As I activated it I forcibly manipulated my own charisma. I wasn’t interested in subtlety or anything like that, I was allowed to be overwhelming and domineering in this set of interactions. And I planned to flex that.
A number of richly dressed merchants were kneeling in front of me. They were the very first such individuals that Ben had tasked with approaching me and negotiating with me so that we could open the dimension to the greater public.
The group, consisting of five merchants, were all older individuals and they were quietly waiting for me to allow them to rise. I wasn’t using my powers on them or anything, they were just showing me deference by kneeling before me.
I turned my gaze upon one of them, the man in the middle of the group, and gestured towards him. I rose my hand to command him to rise, as I knew that if I opted to talk right now it’d reduce the magnificence of my initial impression. I could sense how they viewed me at the moment, and I liked it.
In the eyes of the merchants assembled before me, I was a mighty divinity who despite my infancy as far as being a divinity went had powers that went above and beyond the norm. They had only had time to see the interior of this quasi-palace but they could feel the magic that suffused the very air itself. They had also been able to see my homunculi, some of whom had accompanied me into the quasi-palace as a sort of royal guard.
To them, I was a mysterious and powerful divinity of wealth, life, and maybe even civilization, who had a staggering array of powers. They weren’t far off in some components of that assessment, even if they were completely off in other ways. I was a mysterious divinity who possessed potent control over a number of mighty domains.
The truth was that I was a powerful newcomer, a… mighty toddler with no experience utilizing my powers in grand and reality-altering ways. I was, quite possibly, the most dangerous newborn in the omniverse. Fortunately, they didn’t need to know that. All I had to do was master my powers, develop a coherent philosophy for rulership, and leverage my abilities to become a being worthy of my essence-derived might.
The four remaining merchants, the ones who I hadn’t commanded to rise, stared enviously at the one who had been given permission to rise first. I sensed their envy and internally smiled at them. The man was dressed in a set of royal purple robes and he smiled gratefully at me as he got off of his knees.
“Oh noble lord Nathanael, allow me to extend a most sincere greeting from the great lords of the Clearbrass Estate.” He said, as his official greeting. There was a clear and confident look on his face as he spoke and I sensed his ease with the words he was uttering.
The man was a clear believer in the power of this faction, the so-called “Clearbrass Estate”. As I studied him and mused on his words I felt the perpetual power of the Tree of Knowledge activate and fill me with an awareness of the powerful djinn who bickered in a distant universe. I gained a significant awareness of their might and even the knowledge of a few of the names of their most prominent leaders!
“Ah yes, the cosmic djinn.” I replied, casually. I had… some of their powers, thanks to an essence I drank earlier today. Wish-granting powers and a djinn’s physiology were actually quite powerful, though thanks to my limitless greed that particular essence would probably mostly come in handy for when I wanted to trick someone rather than me genuinely needing something only it could do.
The man smiled at me when he heard me refer to those he served. The djinn were the lords and ladies of the Clearbrass Estate, and they were incredibly powerful in their particular multiverse. That particular multiverse was located a healthy distance from the one I was in, but thanks to me laying my eyes on a real native of that distant place I now knew how to step through to where he was from.
“My lord, have you heard of my superiors?” He asked, excitedly. I chuckled and opted to indulge him. I closed my eyes and began to speak, channeling some of the knowledge I had acquired through my pseudo-omniscience.
“Yes I have, my friend. I know of the games played by the lords and ladies of the Estate. I am aware of the various alliances and fierce feuds that plague that vast dimension.” I proclaimed, allowing my voice to take on some of the endless pride that I felt lurking in the depths of my heart. My words excited the guest to my realm, and I heard his heart pound quickly in his chest.
“That is… most excellent, oh gracious one! You see, we seek not only to trade with you but to extend our reach into the furthest and most remote reaches of this pleniverse.” He explained. He had an eager look on his face and seemed quite excited to tell me more.
“Those I represent seek your permission to do more than just set up a store in this multiverse. We would happily make generous arrangements to acquire your permission to use this bazaar and dimension as a waypoint into the rest of the multiverse of your birth.” He revealed.
This revelation was interesting to me and I allowed that to register on my face. The thought of acquiring treasures without doing more work was interesting to me, for a number of reasons but mostly because it ran counter to so much of my lived experiences until earlier today. The man grinned excitedly at me as he saw my interest.
“I admit my interest in this theoretical arrangement, little one. But for now, let us focus on more immediate things.” I uttered, refocusing and opting to focus on what lay before us rather than try to deal with a far-off future. The excited man seemed to deflate a little, but he was a professional and he accepted my ruling without any sort of immediate comment.
“Of course my lord. I have come here with an initial tribute in the form of a number of treasures from my superiors. We hope that they are enough to allow you to become open to further talks with us.” He explained meekly. I listened to his words thoughtfully and then nodded at him.
While he was speaking I focused on his words and through them got a sense of the sort of tribute he was offering me. His tribute would mostly come in the form of various items of material significance to showcase the friendship that his superiors and I enjoyed, though I also knew that it’d include items of magical power and in all likelihood other, rarer treasures.
“My superiors will want to sell a range of things to both other visitors to the bazaar, but also items that only we can produce. Things such as magical lamps and other items associated with djinn. We’ll negotiate a specific arrangement for those items when we acquire them. I can only hope that you smile upon our initial gifts.” He told me, sounding legitimately rather humble.
The man began to kneel again, and I silently turned my attention to another of the five merchants that had come to parley with me. This time my eyes fell on the oddest looking merchant, a creature dressed in human-like robes but with a body not unlike what I imagined a gigantic, bipedal mantis would look like.
The creature wordlessly rose and nodded deferentially at me. It had a number of eyes, all of which had been focused on me the entire time I had been speaking to the other merchant.
“Greee-eee-eeetings my lord.” The creature began, and I watched it curiously.
“I am a representative of a sapient species from a universe not far from yours. Our kind is on the cusp of attaining universal travel, and we have become a… I believe your kind calls it ‘Type four’ civilization.” The mantis-like creature explained. My eyes widened when I heard this since it meant that the creature’s people either had absolute lordship over their universe, or near-absolute control over it.
“Universal control… Impressive.” I muttered, legitimately impressed by it. What’s more is that they likely didn’t have someone like Ben or me on their side, since ROBs were only so common, and quick usage of the tree of knowledge confirmed that there were no known essence-users who had done what I had done. That meant that they didn’t need anomalous science to do what they had done…
The mantis’s antennae flickered quickly from side to side as I spoke. I could sense that that was an example of the excitement the creature felt at my words.
“Yeeeeee-eeeee-eesss my lord. We are a careful species, and we unified in the distant past. As we approach a technological milestone in the form of the utter conquest of our universe we seek to make contact with other universes in our multiverse. One of them happens to be the humanity of the Earth this dimension is connected to.” The mantis-like being told me.
“We sought to make contact with you before we offered our tribute. We believe that knowing the desires and intentions of those you wish to parley with matters more than offering layer upon layer of tribute.” The creature uttered, its speech becoming more confident now than it had been before.
As it spoke I allowed myself to enter an area of its mind just beyond where surface thoughts were uttered. In doing so I got a chance to peer into the creature’s memories and got to learn more about its strange race.
In the mind of the thing, I could clearly see that the creature’s race consisted of numerous subraces, each of which had the DNA of beautiful and handsome humans and of powerful insects. The creature’s race were fascinating examples of a nightmarish version of genetic editing and I quite liked them.
Each of the creature’s subraces had peculiar perks and advantages that made them fascinating to me. Spider-humanoid hybrids could produce silk and venom, ant-humanoid hybrids could produce workers at tremendous rates and had intensely social lifestyles, and so on and so forth. A small part of me wanted to study the creatures, and wondered how to negotiate a chance to do just that…
Unsurprisingly, for the next few minutes the conversations filling the room would be diplomatic in nature. I met and negotiated with a number of merchants. By the time these initial talks were done an hour of subjugative time had passed.
With the passage of all of that time came more introductions, more revelations of tribute, and when we had exchanged all of the words we needed to exchange I felt my attention beginning to shift. I could feel my mind increasing in potency, and every aspect of myself undergoing a monumental shift.
I was growing. I could feel my body beginning to grow in power and my powers beginning to grow in scale. Even as time began to return in a more real and solid sense, I could feel my passive perception of time greatly increasing.
The “me” that was on Earth began to smile savagely. As I felt time beginning to flow I smiled wider than I ever had. At last, the time had come for me to begin to have fun… Now it was my time to rise, and my time to grow ever greater.
Finally, I was free to enact my whims and begin my great journey!
