Nah, not really.

The interior of the tavern wasn't too different than when we had left. It had a few individuals passed out upon the bar and tables, average for a drinking establishment this late in the day. Other than that, the place was not absurdly trashed or anything.

The barkeep looked up to us as we entered, and gave a nod of recognition before going back to buffing the bar. Looking to the table the party always sat at, I could indeed see them waiting, or at least they had been. Gru was out cold, presumably from drinking. Silvia was similarly knocked out, though she looked like it may have been caused by a spell. Lastly, Natalia looked groggily in our direction, seemingly happy that she was able to stay awake until we got back, before faceplanting into the table.

After a few moment of awkward silence, I turned to Oliver. "How late is it? I wasn't aware it was this late in the evening."

Oliver shrugged, "They have irregular sleep schedules. I'll take care of them." With that, he began walking towards them.

I walked to the barkeep, and paid for my room this night. I gave one last look to Oliver, seeing him pick up Silvia, before going to my room. Once within, I considered what to do with my time until morning. To start, I checked my notifications on the HUD.

New Quest: Gather Devotion
Baptize a church in your name
Reward: 5 Divine Power, 1 Divine Ritual

New Quest: The Holy Lands
Acquire ownership of the land gifted your power by any means
Reward: 3 Divine Power, 1 Title

Your divinity has been acknowledged by an influential member of the "Light" faction, +1 Divine Power

Your divinity has been acknowledged by an influential member of the "Fallen" faction, +1 Divine Power.

You defeated a priest of the "Light" faction, +25 generic xp.

You broke the will of a member of the "Dark" faction, +10 generic xp.

I was surprised by the messages. I had accidentally set the first quest in motion before reading it. The second quest seemed interesting; I would see what I could do in that regard. Then came the other messages, being acknowledged was apparently very useful. I was also very curious as to who the "Fallen" faction was, but that could wait. Now that I had more xp, I needed to check my character sheet.

Moged-Ruun
Title: none

Core: Doom
Race: lvl 9 Spirit (I) (1206/1250xp)
Class: lvl 9 Priest (II) (1198/1250xp)
Health: 260/260
Mana: 26/26

Stats:
Magic attack: 31.2 (2059.2=26+5.2(+62.4 if spell(+936 if life(+1,029.6 if healing human))))
Physical attack: 78 (85.8=26+5.2+46.8(+7.8 when fighting dark))
Magic defense: 78 (468=26+52(+390 if light or dark))
Physical defense: 195 (1170=26+39+130(+975 if light or dark))
Pierce: 5

Achievements:
Overgrowth
One Pu~nch!
Fighting Against Fate

I choked on the air as I looked at my stats. 'God damn, I really get powerful fast don't I? It's almost excessive.' Regardless, I still had a few more messages to look at.

Skill Unlock
You have reached level 7 (and 9) of your class for the first time; you may choose 1 (2) of the following 5 (7) spell/ability options:
(Ability) Holy Inspiration (Class) (passive), (Spell) Lesser Enhancement (Class) (divine), (Spell) Aura of Growth (Class) (life) (DOMAIN), (Ability) Sermon (Class) (divine) (active), (Spell) Mutation (life) (DOMAIN), (Ability) Blessed Fuel (life) (passive) (DOMAIN), (Spell) Incur Momentary Evolution (life) (DOMAIN)

There were some interesting options. All but one of the new options stated they were related to my new(ish) domain. The last was Sermon, which sounded like an ability related to speaking of, well, myself. I was intrigued by the three new options, but I also wanted to consider the old ones. Aura of Growth was now tied to my domain, so it was most certainly more powerful. I ended up deciding against Incur Momentary Evolution as it did not sound quite as useful as the others could be. With my current line of actions, Mutation didn't sound excessively good either. I definitely could utilize Aura of Growth, as I could always use more ways to seem powerful. For my second choice, I was simply too curious as to what Blessed Fuel was to not pick it.

Aura of Growth (Class) (life) (DOMAIN): Allows the user to disperse magic of growth into a larger area, functions as "Incur Growth" with less efficiency but with an area of affect instead of a target.

Blessed Fuel (life) (passive) (DOMAIN): Food that your mana is emplaced within channels the power of your divinity. Any creature aside from your god and creatures that are created with mana that consume food imbued with your mana have boosted growth for a time after. Food imbued with your mana is also far healthier and more nutritious.

I nodded to myself, these were useful indeed. A shame Blessed Fuel would not work on myself or my creations, but it was understandable. Then I realized something. There was an entire forest currently imbued with my mana. I went wide eyed in slight horror at the realization of what was to come of that soon to be twisted landscape. To get my mind off of the coming disaster, I checked my remaining notification.

Skill Unlock
You have reached level 7 (and 9) of your race for the first time; you may choose 1 (2) of the following 5 (7) options:
Ethereal Form (active), Charm (active), Spiritual Enlightenment (passive), Inspirit (active), (Spell) Minor Illusion (mental), Vengeance (passive), (Spell) Consecrate (divine)

There were some interesting choices here as well. Illusions could be useful, but that wasn't my style. Neither was Inspiriting or charming. Ethereal Form could perhaps be useful, but the fact that there was a passive ability called Vengeance was interesting. I realized something then, 'My Spirit has Ethereal Form when I don't, meaning that it gains abilities from this list on its own. This means, I can be careful with my choices as long as the ones I leave would be picks for the Spirit.' I was proud of this realization. With how the spirit was going, I was certain it would not grab Consecrate, so I did. It was a divine spell, after all. For my last choice, I begrudgingly grabbed Spiritual Enlightenment. Before I could check what those abilities did, another window appeared.

Skill Synergy Detected
Spiritual Enlightenment, God's Eye, Warmth
Spiritual Enlightenment will be evolved into Sacred Sage

With that interesting development, I looked at what these two abilities did.

Consecrate (divine): Marks a land or object as holy. The target will emit the divine power of the user, and repel anything weaker than the power imbued within it that opposes it. The target is also enhanced, increasing its effectiveness.

Sacred Sage (passive): Your godly nature grants you inherit knowledge that others seek to learn. You may use "God's Eye" upon non-creatures in order to learn details, such as what kind of creature left a type of track. Other creatures will be more likely to believe your statements as intelligent or wise while in your true form.

These were both very good. Consecrate would be a perfect way to enhance followers without going all in with Divine Talisman or Mark of Divine. Sacred Sage would allow me to not have to ask a bunch of questions and seem a fool, however it was slightly disappointing that its bonus feature wouldn't work with my current path, but that was fine.

With that done, I took a look towards the window to see how much more time I had to kill.