They both woke up with the sun peaking through the treetop canopy. It was still early morning so they hadn’t slept long but it was the first real sleep that Eli had since they entered the dungeon. Both feeling rested, they didn’t get up out of the water, Bethany’s water node meant that she felt refreshed being in water this long and Eli’s magical and physical resistance meant he didn’t have to worry about getting ‘pruny’ skin. He went back to playing with her hair and humming some song he couldn’t place and she kissed his chest and ran her hands over his muscles, delighting in the hard feeling of each bump. She wasn’t sure but she could swear that his latest transformation had made his muscles even more attractive.

  They both knew that they had things to do, responsibilities to get back to after being away for so long, but at that moment, in that moment, they just wanted to feel each other. They wanted to be present to each other and for each other. An hour must have gone by before Eli got a message and his peace was interrupted. He had been shocked he didn’t have fifty messages waiting for him when he got out, but he guessed that Bethany did and she just was letting him recover first. Now that he had received one, he was curious from who and what it said. Without missing a beat in his humming tune and without a change in his hair-playing, he opened it.

  It was from Audrey, she was upset that he still wasn’t home and that he was spending time with Bethany alone. She didn’t seem upset, but he wanted to be sure and was surprised when he was able to write longer messages. He guessed it had to do with his rank upgrade so he didn't pay any attention to it and just wrote her back saying he did a magic whoopsie and broke the dungeon. He will take a few more days to fully recover from it and didn’t want to return until he was better. He didn't say this to her but he needed to be in top form returning as a Demi-God, he needed to have an image about himself, Demi-gods were supposed to be living legends, not weakened and tired mortals.

  Eli leaned over to Bethany with a raised eyebrow, “your hands are doing a lot of wandering.”

  She smirked up at him, “so are your eyes.”

  They kissed and engaged in passions with each other on and off for three days, always close enough to touch each other the entire time. When they were resting he answered some messages, or asked questions about what to expect when he got back and how everyone was doing. From the look on Bethany’s face she was doing much more, it wasn’t until half way through the second day that he realized that a new planet wide auction system was available through a tab on your inventory. It was a bit of a hectic thing since you had 23 hours to get what you wanted posted to the auction system, then for one hour a day, noon to 1pm, things could be bought. During that time new items couldn’t be posted.

  The hard part of this system was that there were three categories, crafting materials, gear, and consumables. Everything in each category was arranged by rarity and then alphabetically. So if you wanted to find a ring, you had to search through the gear tab and hope you got to it before someone else bought it. Although gear items could be posted in the auction system as bids, it was a risk because the starting bid was determined by rarity and they weren’t very high. Even if what you posted was valuable and everyone wanted it, if not enough people find it the bid wont go high enough so more than half of people are posting with buy-out prices. Things might change when it slows down in a month or so but right now everyone is trying to sell what they have to try and grab some of the top gear.

  Also, in the consumables tab, skill tokens were selling for massively inflated prices, Eli wondered how many he could afford and then noticed that his money counter was a lot higher than he was expecting.

  “Acolyte, are we sharing a money pool now?” he asked her, it was the only thing he could think of as to why it would have over double the amount he was expecting. He really didn’t want to call her Acolyte, but she still wouldn’t let him call her a pet name, or even just Beth, the shortened version of her name. So in protest to not getting a pet name for her he started calling her Acolyte, and to his chagrin, she loved it. To get him back she started calling him God, but as if she was calling him Joe or John, with no reverence, he didn’t ‘want’ to be called God, but if she was going to say it, she might as well have some reverence in her voice.

  “Yes, and I’m starting to get a feel for this auction system, it definitely favors those of higher level with higher stats. We can scroll almost the entire thing with our increased perception, but lower level people won't even get through half of one tab so they only get to look at one small section of one tab per day.” she explained. He hadn’t asked for the information but was happy she had shared, she was becoming really intuitive on when to share information and when not to.

  “Ok, so…” Eli paused, unsure how to address this since neither of them had been wearing clothes for the better part of three days now. “Should I see about getting some gear?”

  “Well, that depends on why. If you want something that looks distinctive or expensive then sure, but if you want actual gear to improve your capability, there isn't anything out there yet that can compete with your cloak and mask. Maybe a ring, or some boots, but you can only receive benefits from 5 items at a time, no matter what or where they are.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Boots and a necklace sound good, I don't want to equip rings if I can avoid it.”

  “I’ll grab some next time I get a chance, god.”

  “Call me Eli or at least say god with more meaning behind it, when you say it it's like you're calling me God Smith, like it's just a first name.” Eli said with a huff and crossed his arms.

  “Look at you, only been a god for less than a week and already insisting on reverence.” She snicked at him with a playful smirk. “What is a god like you going to do to smite your devoted Acolyte?” She asked with growing excitement in her voice.

  He got on top of her and pinned her down, “You will receive my wrath,” he said in the most pretentious voice he could manage.

  It was finally time, his magic restriction for payment to his past self was over and he had completely recovered. He felt strong, like he should be standing up straighter than before. He was well rested and both physically and emotionally sated, it was time to go home and get things in order. With his magic back in full they weren’t going to walk, he was going to make an entrance, he grabbed Bethany around the waist and pulled her in close, then blinked them home before even telling her he was doing it. They were both still naked but he had blinked them into his room at the center of the town and no one was inside.

  “Ill let everyone know you are back and…” she trailed off as his hut transformed before her eyes. It had been a dome with a large bed, three platforms for meditation then a long table with ten chairs on it and a fireplace. It had grown in size since they left, but not by too much, and Eli decided that he wanted to use that size, walls came up giving the space rooms. The table chairs and fireplace were moved to near the entrance door, while a wall boxed that section in so it was separate from the rest and a doorway opened with roots blocking passage and anyone from seeing in. The rest of the dome was left open, the bed moved to one part, the platforms in the middle and the other end became something new. A bath and shower area that looked very similar to the hot springs where they had just been for almost a week.

  Bethany’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she finally got words out, “You have that much control now? Can you put a shower in my hut?” she asked, trying to joke around to lighten the mood a bit.

  “This is your place now, you will stay here with me, in my bed.” Eli said with so much confidence it took Bethany a second to process it.

  “Well that is what I want, so I'm sure it will work out, but what about Tara?” Bethany asked, feeling just a bit of shame about taking her place.

  “She can stay here too if she wants, but something you may not have noticed about how our connection has changed. Your distance from me will affect you. It won't be noticeable if we are both in Crater town, but you will need to travel with me from now on, it will be easier for her and others to accept if you live with me as well.” Eli explained. He could sense her noticing and agreeing with the facts, but there was a lot of hesitation when he said that she will have to travel with him.

  “So, what if I don’t want to go where you're going for a time? If I stay here will I shrivel up and die?” there was a little fear in her voice, something that he hadn’t heard from her before.

  “No, you could probably stay here and be fine for a long time, since this is my town, an extension of me. However, there are two problems that I can think of that will come from that. First, the power-up from your rank will diminish and if we are apart too long your rank itself may decrease. Secondly, you know that feeling of being full of love, acceptance, and purpose that you have been feeling since I wiped your tears?” Eli asked, and he waited for her to nod yes before continuing. “That feeling is because you are near me, it would be something like going through withdrawal symptoms if I was far away for a while.”

  He took a breath, then another one, then continued, “This is all just a guess, we might be fine or you might just die after we are a certain distance apart.” Eli said with complete lack of confidence. “I will be here for the next 4 to 6 days working on my shadow node, we can figure it out before I leave again, and if it's too harsh and you want out, I'm sure we can get you out of being my acolyte.”

  Bethany physically shivered, as if her whole body rejected the idea of not being his acolyte. “Lets not go crazy, you work on your thing, I’ll go into town tomorrow and see how that distance works.”

  Eli leaned closer to her and kissed her on her forehead, "There's no rush, I have a feeling not everyone connected to me will want to stay after they find out what I am, and what that means for them.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that, I guess it would have some kind of religious implications. I think Tara is on the fence already so I’m not sure how she will handle it. Audrey will probably want to leave, or if not leave maybe just follow someone who isn't you, it would give her more wiggle room. Lucy is trouble though, she already thought of you as something of a ruler, calling you prince and such, she could go either way.” Bethany paused and thought for a moment, “What is it that you want, do you want them all to stay? To go? I’ll help if I can.”

  Eli held up a hand to stop her, “I want them to have all the information I can give, and I want them to make up their own mind. My life isn’t going to get easier, the stronger I get, the stronger the shenanigans that the system throws at me will be. Everyone should be informed about what they are getting into if they decide to stay connected to me.”