Once Dick and the rest of his group returned to Jack’s apartment his rank in the cult elevated. He had received a great blessing from the goddess Keres and was now the right hand man of Jack. Jack was very pleased that the goddess had decided to reward him for finding such a promising recruit. Dick on the other hand was worried he had starting to hear voices in his head. The voices urged him to kill and images of the goblins he had slain filled his head.

A hand clamped around his shoulder jerking him away from these images. Jack stood over him smiling “you have done well and have served the goddess well, I will see you next Sunday brother Juria?” Dick nodded and bowed before Jack he had to keep his cover as Juria Lockly a troubled teen looking for a purpose. 

“I will see you next Sunday brother Jack praise be to the Goddess Keres” Dick nearly vomited at his words. He was never religious but having to praise a woman who had caused so much death disgusted him. But the mark on his hand seemed to get hotter and hotter Dick gritted his teeth in pain as he exited the apartment. Keres watched him from her realm as he entered a boom tube portal. This world was home to the Young Justice Team and Robin was still a team member. 

Keres peered into Mount Justice Kid Flash, Miss Martian and Artemis were there as well. Dick sat on a couch heavily and started taking deep breaths the mark on his hand started glowing again. The images of how he would kill his friends entered his head. One image showed him stabbing Kid Flash with a pencil, the next image was impaling Artemis with one of her own arrows. The last image showed him flambéing Miss Martian as she begged for her life. His fist slammed into the couch arm breaking it and breaking the legs on his side. This earned the glances of the others only Artemis approached him.

“Something happen on your assignment Robin?” She glanced at the glowing red mark.

“Yeah I got branded by the cults goddess and it’s messing me up” he shook his head. “Batman is probably waiting for me to report back” he waved the team goodbye and quietly left.

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Keres smiled she spent ten thousand SP to create her first Trained level monster she now only had eight thousand eight hundred SP left.

Keres now looked at her creature template.

‘At least now I don’t have to rely on Rookie level creatures for now’ Keres thought as she tapped the arm of her skull throne. Keres wondered if she should get herself some platform shoes as her hundred and thirty four centimetre height might make her seem less intimidating. Keres pushed this thought aside and decided to look at her new Gorgon unit. The Gorgon units were completely comprised of female members. Each Gorgon’s hair was completely made out of a wide variety of snakes of different species and colours. The body was human with the snake body being at the waist the snake part of the Gorgon’s could be a multitude of colours.

All Gorgons wore large different coloured loin cloths and leather bras that were very revealing and that barely held their large breasts. Keres made them like this so potential victims could potentially be distracted by the massive breasts of the Gorgon’s. The Gorgon’s faces were extremely pretty and beautiful but that changed slightly when they activated their Stone Glare. Their eyes were human but they to changed to yellow serpentine eyes when they used Stone Glare. Keres sighed and decided to create them some underling creatures. This cost Keres and additional two thousand one hundred SP.

Keres decided to start a little lore book about her monsters and she smiled. The Naga were pretty much serpents with arms, their entire bodies were covered in scales and their heads were snakes as well. Their golden serpentine eyes gleamed in the dark of Keres world. 

She decided to create the Gorgon’s, Naga’s and Big ass snakes a world to live in. It set her back five thousand points but she was sure her monsters would fight better if they had a place to live. The realm was mostly jungle with enormous towering trees and a bright warm sun. The Gorgon’s hissed at each other before splitting in different directions. The Naga split as well with Naga following the Gorgon’s, the snakes just slithered around unintelligently. The snakes weren’t massive but they were were ruffly the size of her worlds Titanoboa.

She left her new creations to their own devices and decided to check up on Maximilian.

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Maximilian slouched in his office’s chair his muscular arms bulged as he continued his crossword. “Twenty three down a five letter word for an illegal act” he taped his chin with his left hand. Max jotted down crime and looked down on the dance floor below. The criminal underworld of Detroit belonged to him and his gang the Red Oni’s. He eyed several pretty waitresses giving drinks to the party goers.

The DJ announced that the Clubs top dancer was taking to the stage. Max remembered her as the only one of the dancers that wanted to bargain with him. She wanted the dancers and other staff members to keep a higher percentage of  money and gifts they received. Max had agreed the staff got to keep all the gifts they received and seventy percent of the money they received. The previous gang got all the gifts and eighty percent of the money so the new deal was better than she was expecting. The Dancer’s name was Sapphire because of her blue eyes that looked like sapphire’s. 

Max also gave free dental, health checkups and even paid leave to all employees. The dancers always had a problem because there would always be a customer that wanted to get a bit handsy. That also changed when he took over and thanks to that woman his men were much better than before. Angus and Mathew became his top enforcers acting as the club’s primary bouncers. Max had to bribe a lot of the police force and city hall but no one could touch him. He had made contact with Jack and they both helped each other. He would fund the cult and they would deal with problems that he couldn’t be connected to. 

The newspaper that had the crossword he was doing also had an advertisement for some dress and other fashion shit. He noticed that one of the models looked exactly like the woman that survived the first trial with them. He smiled ‘looks like I found you little girl’ a knock at the office door got his attention. Angus entered clutching an envelope “is this the protection money for this block?”

Angus nodded and Max started to pour himself some whisky from a personal bottle he kept in the office. Another thing he had decided to change about himself was his attire. Before he could only afford clothes that made him look like a thug. But now with that woman’s help he was wearing a five thousand dollar suit, a gold chain. Several gold and silver rings rested on his fingers and a small gold loop earring was in his left ear. “To think this would never have been possible without that Keres!” He giggled. He had read about the attack on Central City but an attack didn’t worry him. He was steadily building up his groups power and had even tested out the higher level Goblin Coronation trial.

He had received five hundred SP from the boon and a piece of Rookie level equipment.

The club was indeed heavy he doubted he could lift it without the minor Red Oni strength. The club was dark sliver in colour and had little bumps on the club part itself. The handle was made of wood and had a red rope wrapped around part of the handle probably to help with gripping the weapon. 

He also received several wooden staffs and an old book which he found out from Keres could be sold on the player market. Nothing was for sale probably because there were few players. The book could teach someone with an appropriate Job one magic in the book. Had had given the book to one of his subordinates that had picked a magic based job. The wooden staffs were placed in his personal inventory. All players had one and could store their items, loot and other items like copious amounts of Cocaine. Each of his Rookie level players could hold a hundred kilos of the white powder.

It also made cleaning up bodies easy as the inventory could also hold bodies, they could even donate the bodies to Keres. Probably to feed those goblin monsters she kept in that cave. “Angus what are the local heroes up to these days?” Angus groaned slightly.

“They are continuing their crusade on us and our drug operations, it would help if we could identify who the hell they are.” Max nodded in agreement the local heroes were trying to squeeze his gang because they knew the police couldn’t. His main threats were Captain Steel, Gypsy, Firestorm and someone calling themselves Detroit Man. Detroit Man from what Max had gathered was like Batman but he hasn’t got any fancy gadgets and just beats people up with a tire iron. 

“Summon the hounds we have a job for them” Max had a wicked grin on his face. The hounds were fanatical cultists that Jack allowed him to call upon. Each of them had picked a job perfectly suited for hunting down opponents and then ganging up on said targets.

Keres watched on as Max left his office and went to the dance floor.

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Juli was staring at the news papers in the stall on the the street. She had to wear a mask everywhere she went now as people who had seen the advertisement started to mob her. It was like magic she had her own fan club growing and it was weird and scary. She checked her stat page to pick the skill she wanted from her level up.

Juli was slightly worried by the words crazed fan  but she wasn’t exactly a normal human anymore. She wondered if she could use this crazed fan to her advantage. She also needed a manager as she was receiving lots of offers from different companies. The sales for the outfit she wore in the advertisement skyrocketed. Apparently the company didn’t expect the sales to be as great as they were as they had a massive back log of shops wanting them.

Juli thanked Keres for the opportunities that the trial had given her. Normal people were so easy to manipulate thanks to her Lesser Charm. She had already got every boy and male teacher in her University eyeing her. Men were putty in her hands she was like that villain from Gotham. Poison Ivy was her name but Juli had one problem. Women got easily jealous of her looks especially if their boyfriends were eyeing her.

She had lost her fear of the Goblins and of killing people as it only took one dead player to win. She had ordered her last group to a commit suicide to keep her identity a secret. Her phone began to ring “Hello?”

“Hello is this Miss Juli Smith?” The tone on the other end full of life and sounded British.

“Yes this is Juli may I know who I’m speaking with please?” The voice coughed slightly.

“Yes this is Angina Catherine my boss wants you to star in his latest movie are you interested?”