I lay on my back on the almost finished dragon statue, looking at the clouds that passed overhead, still bright against the quickly darkening sky. The last things needed to finish the statue were such minute details that I'd have to finish them when we stopped tonight. The same counted for the two daggers I'd crafted and parts of a set of armor. The last things I'd made for myself had turned out much better than I'd imagined. My mind was slowly swirling as I thought of ways to bind them together, but I kept coming back to a leather harness, which I didn't have.

A ping came from my status, and absently I pulled it up, already knowing what it would be.

> Your title, "Fearless four-armed Prime, was used to describe you

> You've gained karma: 1

> Karma 31/200

I wonder how many people are in this caravan… Are they all going to call me this from now on?

I sighed as I pushed it from my mind. A quick look around the forest showed red eyes blinking at me. Guess the guard-dogs are still here, I thought with a grin. That meant I now had time for something else, a game of questions! I closed my eyes and stepped into my mind-scape.

The sounds of the caravan and the forest disappeared, to be replaced by the soft rustling of a single large tree.

"You're back! Is it night already?" Par shouted as he climbed down from the tree.

"No, but something happened."

"Yeah- you mean that giant dog thing that kept looking around, trying to find a way in?" Par said as he looked up.

"Wait- you could see Wyerg from here?" I asked in surprise.

"If that was the dog-headed one? Yes. He reminds me of someone I used to know, but then less ugly. I thought it was a Chaos Demon first, but it was a deity."

Only dog-headed? I blinked as an image of an ancient god from Earth appeared in my mind's eye. Par was still looking at me, his small squirrel eyes glittering with what I hoped were questions.

"He is the deity of the Wyergin, some ancient race that Preyatar's followers hunted into extinction," I said, wondering if any of this meant anything to the ancient deity.

Raparion froze and cocked his little head. "Preyatar..." he muttered. "Preyatar, Preyatar, where have I heard that name before?"

Curious how he would know about a deity that existed long after he was locked away, I waited to see if Par would remember. I didn't have to wait long, for all of a sudden Par screeched.

"Him," he shouted, and for a moment, his voice dripped with anger. Then he began sulking.

"So, I guess you do know him?" I asked, annoyed that he wasn't just continuing.

Par looked up and sniffed. "A long time ago, there was another Prime that found the Librarian's Tome. Some elven warrior… Blara or Clara or something. I don't recall her name, just that it was obnoxiously long, with lots of lalalalas in there. I tried to get her to take me out, but she wanted us to come up with some way to stop a war between deities." Par shook his head.

"She was just a Prime, so there wasn't any way for that, but I tried to string her along. At one point, she began blabbering about the Deities that were in that war, and one of them was this Preyatar."

"That's it?" I asked, confused why this would cause him to screech like someone pulled his tail.

"Well," Par said with a weary sigh. "I might have concocted a rather elaborate lie to get her to bring me out. Something about me being able to stop the war if she did. She was bringing the Tome to one of the exits when a group of deities found her."

Par began grumbling again.

"And?" I asked.

"Oh, right. The Primes killed her," Par stated, as if it made all the sense in the world, before continuing. "I had just started trying to get them to take me out when their deity spoke to them. Not sure how he knew, but he told them to put us in some remote area of the library."

"And this deity was Preyatar?" I asked.

Par sniffed. "I wouldn't be telling you otherwise, would I?"

I sighed. "So, did you find out anything else about Preyatar?"

"Other than that, he must be one single-minded Relistrin. His followers just talked about hunting and killing, ignoring everything I said."

"Relistrin?" I muttered, utterly confused now. How was any of this useful?

"Oh, a creature that lived on the world where I was formed. A bit bigger than this shape, they feed on other creature's shit."

"Tell me about Pantheons," I said, trying to ignore the useless information I'd just gained.

Par didn't respond, and after a while, I tried again.

"Par, tell me about Pantheons?"

"Yes, yes!" he snapped. "Give me a moment to figure out what I can and can't tell you."

As I waited, thinking he must be afraid of the Prime Deity again, I looked around and wondered what would happen if I made a statue to Rathica in my mindscape. Would that grant her entrance?

"So, Pantheons," Par said. "Have you been in Rathica's realm yet?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Alright, so those Realms are positioned somewhere in the primal chaos, and although they can move, it's not a fast process. The primal chaos is filled with dangers that can even harm deities. Some actively hunt for deity realms, intent on breaching and feeding on the karma inside. Well, you also know deities sometimes war."

As Par continued talking, his voice turned from his usual annoyance, to one that reminded me of a school teacher. He continued on about the dangers of the primal chaos for a while.

"Now, to battle these dangers, deities sometimes form groups around one stronger deity. There are many… details that I can't go into, but in the end, the group gets access to a single, shared realm. It is like a massive bubble that floats in the primal chaos, and they can place their own individual realms inside. The Pantheon realm as it is called has a barrier strength that is much higher than that of a single realm."

"So creating a pantheon is just a way to guard their realms?" I muttered.

"Let me finish," Par snapped, and for a moment, I recognized his old, annoyed self.

"Guarding their realms is one part of it. The thing is, we don't just hang out in our realms all the time. We need new followers and karma. All of us do..." Par said, letting the word hang as he looked at me.

"No? Don't get it? We fight each other!" Par snapped. Then he looked up and around as if he expected something to happen.

"I already knew that," I said. "Rathica had to fight many of the other deities out there before."

"It's not the same," Par said. "She just fooled around and only fought on occasion. I'm talking about a standoff. Multiple deities ready to unleash their full power on each other. You haven't ever seen anything like that, believe me. This planet would be a wasteland if you had."

I frowned as I recalled some of the battles between the deities I'd seen back when Preyatar and the others had tried to stop Rathica.

"It doesn't matter," Par said. "What matters is this. One of the deities of the pantheon is the leader and gets to use part of the strength of the others. This deity is far more powerful than the others, and if a regular group of deities fight a pantheon, they are doomed to lose."

So that's what's going on, I thought, wondering why he couldn't have just started with this.

"Alright," I said. "So, a Pantheon is a way to make one deity stronger so he can beat others easily, while at the same time giving them a safe place for their Realm?"

Par was quiet, then snorted. "Fine, you can explain better than me. Good for you."

"That other deity, Wyerg, wants to form a Pantheon with Rathica and some others. Apparently, the other deities formed one and are coming after Rathica and the others."

"That's not possible."

I blinked at the finality of Par's words. "Why not?"

"To make a pantheon, one of the deities has to be tier two. There can't be any tier two deity in this universe yet."

"Wyerg seemed pretty convinced," I said before wondering what a tier two deity was supposed to be. "He also said that he had what was needed to make the pantheon," I said.

Par froze, and for a while, he just stood there, muttering.

"Impossible… there's only one thing…"

Then he looked up, and his eyes were glittering brightly. "If you talk with Rathica, tell her that if she doesn't want to do it, she can break me out of here. I'll lead that pantheon!"

Yeah, that's not going to happen, I thought. Besides, the fact that breaking him out didn't sound like a good thing for my mindscape, having Raparion in control of that much power might be worse than Nimron.

Par didn't seem to care, but he nodded fervently. "Tell her I used to be a tier-three deity! Even if-"

A rumbling came from outside my mindscape, and pressure pushed down upon it. I looked up to find an odd entity hovering above. Covered in eyes, each almost half the size of my entire mindscape, it brushed across the surface of my mindscape, and I could see the barrier shake and shiver.

"What the hell is that," I whispered.

The creature passed by, not seeming to notice us, and when it was gone, I shivered. As I turned to Par, I found that the small squirrel was looking up, its mouth open and its body shivering uncontrollably.

"Par?"

"I might have told you a bit too much," Par whispered after what seemed like minutes. "How about you go outside and contact Rathica."

Before I could ask anything else, Par rushed towards the tree and climbed inside. He quickly disappeared inside the foliage.

What was that about, I wondered. I could just follow him into the tree and harass him, but the massive creature had him riled up. Besides, Par was right. It was time to see if we had reached the last waystation. With a last look at the chaotic clouds of energy outside the barrier, I stepped out of my mindscape.

The first thing I noticed was soft chatter all around me. Then I realized the sound of the trees was dulled. Sitting up, I saw the now-familiar walls of one of the waystations. The caravan handlers were walking around, and groups of guards stood on the walls. There was no sign of Dibidi, Libidi or Galir. I stretched, feeling rested and energetic.

So, to finish my mount and armor, get far from the forest and somewhere safe enough to contact Rathica, I reiterated my next steps to myself. Somewhere along the way, I'd find time to grow my mindscape some more. I rolled from the mount, feeling the small scales scratch across my skin, and backed up from it, inspecting its current state.

A six-meter long, almost meter high crouching reptile sat before me. Although it had no wings, it would be obvious to any Earthling what it was based on. The muscular frame and head screamed dragon, even if the eyes and details weren't all finished. Large patches of scales were carved all over it. I moved to the face with my dagger in hand, looking at the long thin snout, noting the parts that needed more work. With utmost concentration, I began carving the details into it. As my hand moved fluently, the small scraps of wood curls dropped to the ground, and my conscious thoughts faded to the background.

How long I was busy, I couldn't say, but a ping from my status window snapped me out of my fugue. I was standing in front of the statue, my knife drawn back as I examined the statue. Well-defined features around the snout gave the dragon a serious demeanor. Its eyes were partially closed, the still dead orbs staring straight ahead. A soft muttering from behind made me look back. A group of people was watching me, some sitting on the wagons, the others standing in a half-circle. Galir was with the hooded archers, and all of them were looking at the carving with wide eyes.

I guess it is a good attempt, I thought as I took another look at my work. I hadn't put this much effort into anything of this size before- well, nothing that wasn't a statue of Rathica. Remembering the notification, I pulled up the status window.

> Inspired by the vivid imagination of your kind, you have created a unique piece of excellent-grade art

> You have created your first masterpiece

> Woodcrafting gains doubled for one day starting now

> Woodcrafting increased by 1

> Woodcrafting 4/10

I whistled, staring at the bonus. The last time I had something like that was the boost to my learning rate. As soon as I thought of that, I remembered something. Wasn't there supposed to be some connection between my mindscape and my learning rate? I tried recalling it, but the desire to continue carving distracted me. I took one last look at the dragon, deciding to finish crafting before I pulled in a spirit. There wasn't really a good reason for it other than that I wanted to summon it when it was light out.

Moving forward, I took the half-finished armor and daggers. I still needed something to connect the chest plate, pauldrons, and other elements too, but I still wanted to finish them. Sitting down beside the dragon, I began working on the parts of the armor. I was about to carve Rathica's symbol on the chestpiece when I stopped. If I did that, anybody who recognized it would know who I was. I wasn't about to paint a target on myself. Thinking about the dragon, I carved dragon claws around the edge of the chestpiece, leaving a free space in the middle for later.

Hours later, the armor and the daggers were finished, and the people watching me had gone to bed. It was the middle of the night, dark and cold. Although the cold didn't bother me much yet, I knew it might if it became much worse. What remained of my leather armor and clothing was ripped, torn, and filthy.

I guess I'll go look for some good leather armor later, I decided. Even without money, I should be able to barter for some Basilwood Armor items. I had a massive pile of it left, which reminded me I'd need a bag for it. I carried my things to the wagon, glad to find it empty. Not having to practice my mindscape tonight was a welcome change.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the bed.