Waking up from a brief nap an hour after the battle had ended, Jaden checked his map. Thirteen miles, with only two days left. Groaning, he rolled to his feet; having to readjust his trajectory as he almost put his hand into Niko’s sleeping form. He looked at her speculatively as he stood. Jaden hadn’t had much time to explore their burgeoning relationship, but it seemed strange how quickly they had become attached to each other. These thoughts were replaced a moment later as he bent down almost against his will to brush the hair from her face.

Reacting to his touch, Niko snuggled into his hand, bringing her own up to press it into her head. Slowly, Niko’s eyes opened, staring into his own as a small smile played along her lips.

“Good morning beautiful.” Jaden said, grinning rakishly.

“And you beautiful morning.” Niko mumbled, mind still jumbled from sleep.

Winking, Jaden extended his hand; helping Niko to her feet. “We go?” She asked.

“Yep, just gotta wake up Lois, and we can get moving. Do you need to do anything before we leave?”

Niko shook her head, prompting Jaden to find Lois; who had settled into a spot a dozen yards away. Lois mumbled angrily at Jaden, but dragged herself to an upright position as he walked back to Niko. “Alright, lets move out.”

The trio resumed their journey as Aki moved up alongside Jaden.

“Do you have any orders for me sir?” Aki asked pointedly.

“Orders? Not particularly, no. Why?”

“It’s just I’ve done very little besides generate, and coordinate Jeffs for the past several days. I have reached a point where I actually have slightly more mana than even you due to the constant work. I feel there is so much more I could be doing.” Aki complained.

“Like what?” Jaden asked, looking at Aki curiously.

Aki’s face turned sly. “I could be making garrisons. I could make more of myself, and distribute copies of the “Loyal Soldier” card to my underlings. This would speed up production, and allow us to build power quickly. If you wished, I could have them tithe some of their power to you as they accrue it. Say ten percent?”

Jadens felt as if his mind had fallen sideways as he realized the implications of Aki’s words. “Wait, you can do that?”

Aki smiled. “Indeed. Anyone may donate part of their power base to anyone they wish. This is usually used as a component of religions, or for commerce.”

“Wait how do you know that? I don’t even know it.” Jaden complained.

Aki shrugged. “Most of my being was created by you, but as I understand it, the universe installs a set of basic knowledge into any sentient creation for the sake of fairness unless you specifically choose to prevent access to that knowledge.”

“Ok then, what do you know about what you just said?” Jaden asked, hungry for new information.

Aki pondered this for a moment. “Well, most races seem to use their own mana as a currency. Since any object, or material can be easily replicated through magic, power is the only currency that cannot be duplicated. This can mean either storing generated mana in a soul gem, or donating a part of your actual soul, which is absorbed by the other party. Essentially, you are trading away part of your maximum mana when doing that. Also, religions can be created by anyone willing and able to devote sufficient power. That tends to work somewhat differently. People donate a portion of their mana generation to a chosen deity, or pantheon the same way you apportion mana to stats. As far as my suggestions earlier, I was thinking of treating you as a deity, having my people passively donate a portion of their mana to you. As an extra benefit of doing this, the strain of the extra mana being stored inside you will cause your mana generation to grow at an incredible rate as your soul will constantly be past its storage capacity. Whether this eventually becomes an actual religion is another question for another time.”

Jaden looked uncomfortable when Aki mentioned treating Jaden as a god. “Alright, but I’m not a god. I’d rather this didn’t become a religion.”

Aki nodded, keeping his expression immobile as he analyzed Jaden’s words. The ban on forming a religion hadn’t been worded as a command, which gave Aki some leeway in how he implemented the new system. “As you command my lord.”

Walking away from Jaden, Aki waited until the party had moved far enough to not hear him speak as he opened a magical communications channel to all of the Jeffs.

“This is a command to all soldiers. According to our new orders, Jaden is now god-emperor of the Jeff race. All Jeffs are to tithe ten percent of their mana to him per his holy edict. As his second in command, with him being an emperor, I name myself a king under his command. As king of the Jeffs, all Jeffs are hereby charged a five percent tax on your mana.”

There was a sound of generalized grumbling over the communications line, but Aki quickly closed it before anyone could voice an objection. Aki smiled with a kind of cruel joy. After all, Aki had created all of the Jeffs currently in existence. Didn’t they owe it to him? It was a small price to pay for their existence. Aki laughed as he felt the power begin to flow into him.

-----------------------------------

Jaden choked as a massive wave of mana hit him like the sudden rush of a drug. Coughing, he fell to his knees as Niko rushed to his side. Jaden could tell that her voice was concerned, but couldn’t make out the words as his cognition was consumed by the raging torrent of mana. It took several minutes before his mind gained enough of a handle on the flowing river of power.

Jaden imagined that it must feel this way to experience a bipolar manic phase as his thoughts raced at a mile a minute. Finally, he turned to Niko, allowing himself to hear what she was saying.

“What? Talk to me? What’s wrong?” She asked, looking slightly panicked.

“Sorry, I’m fine. I just found a way to farm a lot of mana, and it kind’ve feels like I just took an overdose of ecstasy.”

“Ecstasy?” Niko asked, not knowing the word.

“Sorry, I’ll explain later.” Jaden muttered, already being pulled back into his reeling thoughts. Niko eyed him critically. His pupils were dilated, and his face was slightly slack. Suddenly, she understood. Smacking him, she grabbed his face.

“The problem. Too much mana?” She asked.

Jaden nodded, still looking as if he was somewhere else.

“Spend it. Right now.” She said firmly.

His altered thoughts raced through the options available to him, until he settled on one. Pulling out a card, one of his rarest; Jaden called out its name, giggling slightly at the pompous name.

“I summon Champion of the Light!” He called, channeling his excess mana into it. His thoughts became more coherent as the mana was siphoned into the spell.

“You not keep too much mana. Not like that. Dangerous. Like drugs.” Niko said firmly, struggling against her anxiety to voice her thoughts.

Glancing at the paladin-like figure in glowing armor, Jaden decided he agreed. He was all for the occasional blunt or experimental swig of a mysterious liquid; but being high in this dangerous new world would get him killed. With a sigh, he clicked through his interface; having to invent a few simple functions of his own to permanently siphon the excess power into the summoned creature. Jaden watched as the paladin took off its helmet, revealing glowing silver eyes, and flowing blond hair. Jaden distantly felt as if he was the one removing the helmet from his own head.

“What are your orders?” He asked. Experiencing both the feeling of asking, and being the one asked delayed Jaden’s response for a moment.

Jaden shrugged. “I mostly made you to store my extra mana. I guess you can help fight off any creatures that attack the main party? That’s it. You’re my personal bodyguard.”

The paladin nodded. “As you command, god-emperor.”

Jaden winced. “God-emperor? Where did that come from? Call me Jaden. I guess you need a name too. I’ll name you Kyle. Sorry, it’s not your fault, but you look like a douchebag who used to beat me up in high school.”

Lois walked from several feet away to smack Jaden in the back of the head wordlessly. Jaden grinned sheepishly. “I deserved that one. Is the name ok with you?” He asked the paladin. As he asked, he could feel the paladin’s internal conflict as if it was his own.

Looking uncomfortable, the man nodded. “I… yes my lord. I will be Kyle.”

Jaden nodded. “Alright. Kyle it is.” Jaden patted the man on the shoulder, marveling at the simultaneous feeling of his hand impacting the shining steel, and the slight impact against his shoulder.

“I’m curious, can you feel my thoughts or feelings at all?” Jaden asked.

“Yes, lord. I can feel your holy will. I must admit, it is somewhat disconcerting.” Kyle acknowledged, looking somewhat chagrined.

Jaden nodded. “Same here. Also, please stop referring to me as if I’m some kind of god. Why do you keep doing that?”

Kyle cocked his head at Jaden. “Because that is what you are. My inherent knowledge tells me that you have declared yourself the god-emperor to those you summon. Even now, I am tithing you ten percent of my mana, though in my case there is likely not much point since it immediately circulates back to myself.”

Jaden’s mind made the connection the moment he heard about the tithe. Grumbling to himself, Jaden pulled up his communications spell. “Aki what did you do?” Jaden asked harshly.

-----------------------------------

Four grumbled to himself as he stabbed his spear through a monster that was reminiscent of a lion with hooves. The creature expired a moment later, Four stoically accepting the notification indicating he had absorbed its soul. Despite his pragmatism, Four found that he wasn’t averse to engaging in a fight he knew he could win. His confidence was proven correct as he hadn’t lost a single soldier. Not for lack of trying on their part of course. Four walked up to Eighty-Two, and smacked him in the back of the head. He had seen Lois do it to Jaden multiple times now, and it always seemed effective in disciplining him.

“What did you learn?” Four asked the errant soldier.

Eighty-Two looked away in embarrassment. “Don’t charge in by myself?”

“Good to know you can learn. If you need to think of it this way, remember that if you die it hurts Jaden.” Four admonished.

“It does?” Eighty-Two asked in surprise. The others in the squad murmured their own surprise.

“Yes. He cares when we die. He feels guilty about it because he thinks of us as people. He was even talking about holding a funeral for those who have died so far.”

The assembled Jeffs upgraded from murmuring to a full argument among themselves about how to interpret this new revelation.

“Everyone stop. I am your appointed squad leader, which means I’m the one who gets to decide what it means. Are we clear?” Everyone nodded in relief. The mixture of being soldiers, and being summons made chain of command an important concept to them.

“What it means is that you don’t take stupid risks. If you die because you have to, that’s ok. If you die because you were being reckless, then the only purpose your deaths serves is to hurt Jaden. So fight carefully, and don’t sacrifice yourself needlessly. Understood?” Four glared balefully at the assembled Jeffs.

The squad nodded in unison. The new concept made sense to them, which caused the magical constructs in their minds to readjust. The simple revelation that their god cared about their lives changed the nature of their realities.

“I was such a fool.” Eighty-Two whispered to himself.

Four nodded, schooling his face into a stoic mask as he gave a single consolatory pat to the man’s shoulder. “It’s ok. So is Jaden from time to time.”