‘I suppose I might as well,’ Dominic sighed. It was possible that the goddess would have something useful to tell him. He wondered from the ‘her local realm’ bit if it was going to be a different space from where they had met before.

  Accepting the offer, Dominic soon found himself back in the reddish jungle. Apparently even if it was a different space, she’d made it look the same. Or had she changed the other one to look like this? As he turned his head to look around more, he jumped to the side in shock, his wings flaring out.

  At his side stood another lion, identical to him, wings, long dark mane, and sharp teeth all included. A very recognisable lion.

  ‘Leo?!’ he exclaimed. ‘What are you doing here?’ The other lion had briefly bared his teeth at Dominic in surprise, but quickly relaxed as recognition hit him too. Leo stepped forwards to rub his head against Dominic’s, his mane tickly on the nose. Dominic quickly reciprocated the greeting.

  ‘Wow, I look good,’ the lion said happily, taking a couple of steps back to survey Dominic’s body. ‘Why haven’t we recently spent time together in our mental space? I’ve been missing out on seeing how muscular and strong I look. And what a nice mane we have. Though it could always be darker,’ he finished critically.

  ‘Leo…’ Dominic growled. ‘What. Are. You. Doing. Here?’ he ground out again.

  The lion ruffled his mane and then stretched his front paws straight out in front of himself, yawning widely.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he answered in his own time, when Dominic was only a few moments away from pouncing on him.

  ‘You don’t know,’ repeated Dominic flatly, his claws unsheathing to dig into the ground.

  ‘No. I just appeared here. But I recognise the place from your descriptions. This is where you meet the goddess, right?’

  ‘Right,’ Dominic confirmed and then had a disturbing thought. Leo was here which meant that he was soon going to meet-

  ‘Hello Dominic, good to see you again. And this must be Leo,’ a rich voice rumbled through the jungle around. Both lions turned to see the source of the voice step out from the trees.

  Selessa was in her four-pawed form with her three tails gently swaying behind her. She had clearly chosen to bring her size more to their level, her two sets of eyes a little higher than his head at about the height Dominic’s would be in his human body.

  Wondering whether he should change, Dominic’s thoughts were interrupted by Leo.

  ‘Why hello beautiful,’ he immediately rumble-purred. Dominic whipped his head around to stare incredulously at his leonine companion. The lion was stalking towards the larger goddess, his head held high, his movements showing off the sinuousness of his body. ‘My brother’s words really didn’t do you justice.’

  ‘Leo, what are you doing?’ Dominic demanded again, horror rooting him to the spot. But the other lion ignored him.

  ‘You look like you haven’t been mated in far too long. Why don’t you join my Pride?’

  Dominic immediately facepalmed. He didn’t care that he was in his lion form and thus just got a faceful of paw pads and the prick of hidden claws. The movement was just automatic. He went there, he said to himself, not sure whether to feel impressed, despairing, horrified, or a mixture of all three. He really went there.

  A moment later, he leapt over to put himself between Leo and the goddess, ignoring the lion’s annoyed growl.

  ‘My apologies for that, Selessa. Leo is…well, he doesn’t understand what deities are.’ Not that Dominic could say that he understood them much more either, but he was at least confident that propositioning one on their first meeting was probably not the best of ideas.

  ‘You withdraw his offer on his behalf then?’ Selessa answered, almost sounding disappointed. Dominic just froze, staring at her.

  ‘You…you mean you were considering it?’ He croaked out, shocked.

  The goddess just looked at him for a long moment while both lions hung on her next words. Then she made an odd chirping sound.

  ‘Perhaps if you were three tiers higher,’ she responded finally and from her tone Dominic realised that the strange sound before must have been laughter. ‘Right now you are a little…weak for me. I would probably break you in half before we got to the good bit.’

  Both lions deflated. Dominic in relief, Leo in disappointment.

  ‘Well, I had to try,’ Leo said to Dominic prosaically. ‘How many males can boast that they have a goddess in their pride? And one so beautiful as this?’

  ‘You realise Selessa can probably hear you,’ Dominic muttered to him, sending a glance at the still amused deity.

  ‘Oh, I can,’ she confirmed, making that chirping sound again. ‘But I take it as a compliment.’

  At which point Dominic mentally threw his hands up in the air and gave up on the whole lot. Clearly felines would be felines, whether they were a male lion or a female goddess or weren’t even from Earth.

  ‘Alright. Why did you want me – us – to come here, Selessa? And how come Leo is here too this time?’ he asked, trying to get the meeting back on track.

  The goddess sobered, lying down on the ground as if in preparation for a long discussion. Leo quickly followed her example, happily slumping onto the ground, though not going to full relaxation mode. Dominic slowly lay down too with his head near Leo’s back legs, taking the third side of a rough triangle shape. The most human of the three pointedly didn’t notice the way his leonine companion had laid so his head was close to the goddess’ rear, nor how he kept hopefully looking and sniffing at it.

  ‘Leo is here this time because you accepted me as your patron on behalf of both of you. So now you both have access to this space upon my invitation. As for why I have invited you, I thought that this would be a good moment to clarify a few more short-term goals. Accomplishing the goal of bringing back a dungeon Core to strengthen our linked Place of Power offered me the opportunity to invite you without spending too much of my own power to do so.’

  ‘Wait, let me get this straight – you’re saying you can invite us at any time, but that certain times let you save power?’

  ‘Exactly. Fulfilling a task that I have set you is one of those ways. May I continue?’ she asks with a wry tone.

  ‘Sure,’ Dominic answered blithely. Leo slapped his head with his tail.

  ‘Be polite,’ the lion reprimanded Dominic.

  ‘Thank you,’ Selessa answered even as Dominic stared incredulously at Leo. ‘Now that you have added your first dungeon Core to it, it would be well for you to learn some more details about the best way to manage it.’

  ‘In what way? And why are you volunteering this information?’ Dominic asked slightly suspiciously. ‘I thought I had to earn boons for you to tell me things.’

  ‘You do. Or I can choose to tell you information – and pay the price myself.’

  ‘You seem to be incurring a lot of debt on my behalf,’ Dominic replied slowly, his eyes fixed on Selessa’s. He growled at Leo as the lion once more slapped him with his tail. If he did it again, Dominic would bite it.

  ‘More than you realise,’ the goddess answered, completely seriously. Dominic’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘What do you mean?’

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  ‘That lioness of yours. You don’t think she somehow summoned extra speed from somewhere within her, do you? That was me. Responding to your prayer. You’re welcome.’

  ‘You mean…with Jenkins?’ Dominic remembered what Jenkins told him of the fight and his suspicion.

  ‘Yes. You prayed for her to survive the attack, and I made sure that she did,’ Selessa answered, sounding completely honest. Leo was staring at Dominic.

  ‘You prayed to keep the female safe?’ he asked in surprise.

  ‘Of course I did,’ Dominic answered defensively. The lion was silent for a long moment which Selessa chose to not interrupt. Dominic practically thrummed with tension, waiting for his companion to criticise him for relying on a goddess to keep his Pride safe.

  ‘Thank you,’ Leo said finally.

  ‘Wait, what?’ Dominic asked, wondering if he’d misheard.

  ‘Thank you. To both of you. Dominic for asking for help; Selessa for giving it.’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ Selessa repeated again, this time that same pleased rumble-purr she had used in the beginning. The contrast demonstrated just how much tenser she had been when speaking to Dominic.

  ‘Yes, thank you,’ he repeated Leo’s words, though unable to prevent caution from creeping in. ‘But…why?’

  Selessa sighed again, that tension creeping back into her body language.

  ‘I do not understand why you continue to be so suspicious of me,’ she said to him frankly. ‘I have told you of my situation. I have laid myself bare before you, revealing that this is the only chance I’ve had in a very, very long time to perhaps escape my imprisonment and take my long-held revenge. Your strength is my strength. The stronger the Place of Power gets, the more power I receive, even if you never increase my tithe. And the strength of your Pride affects the Place of Power too. Which is, in fact, the reason I invited you here: to learn all of that. I have no reason to see you weak and every reason to see you strengthen. And if I can earn your gratitude by helping you in what small ways I can manage despite my weakness, then you might be willing to help me in other ways. Like dedicating a few of your kills to me. Or doing a task here or there for me.’

  Oddly enough, it made Dominic feel better to have Selessa’s motivations so clearly laid out. To know that she wasn’t just helping out of the ‘goodness of her heart’ but that she was acting with her own benefit in mind. It gave him more faith that she was telling the truth, that this wasn’t some kind of scam again.

  ‘Alright,’ Dominic said finally. ‘I’ll dedicate the next few kills to you in thanks for helping Jenkins. Sound good?’ He hesitated for a moment. ‘Actually, how do I do that? Is it just…saying that it’s dedicated to you?’

  ‘You can either have it in your mind when you go into battle. In that case, you will not receive Prey Points as they will be dedicated to me. Alternatively, you can trigger consumption of the prey after it is dead with me in mind. You will receive no benefit from the consumption in that case either. You could even do both, if you wish to truly show your gratitude. ’

  ‘Right,’ Dominic sighed, thinking wryly that expecting to be able to dedicate something to a goddess without actually sacrificing anything had been a bit of a fool’s hope. ‘At least it’s simple enough.’

  ‘That it is,’ Selessa agreed. ‘I hope that at some point we’ll be able to move past a tit for tat relationship, but for now it is serviceable. Now, regarding the Place of Power, as you already know, as it expands its territory, it increases the amount of power it can send to all parties. Other ways to increase its power include gaining more denizens, feeding dungeon Cores and other objects of Power to the central node, bringing other Places of Power under the influence of your primary node, or simply giving it time to grow by itself. Even if it’s not actively expanding, it will slowly increase in level as time goes on.’

  ‘It’s possible to do that?’ Dominic asked, his eyes wide and his tail flicking in surprise as his attention was caught by one particular detail. ‘Bring other Places of Power under the influence of one…node?’

  ‘Oh, it’s certainly possible, and in some areas, it’s inevitable. The more densely populated an area, the more Places of Power are seeded but there is a good number even in very lightly populated areas. The bigger your Place of Power grows, the more chance there is that you will touch the influence of another one. As for the terminology, a Place of Power is a single node or a network of connected nodes. A node can be a Place of Power if it is singular.’

  ‘And what happens if one Place of Power touches another?’ Dominic asked curiously.

  ‘Nothing automatically. Both Places of Power are unable to expand any more in that direction. However, if the controller of one can conquer the other and combine it with their primary node, it will add both Places of Power to each other. This automatically causes the primary node to increase in level at least once. It is also possible for the primary node to absorb some or all of the secondary node’s levels and benefits. Also, be aware that though levels are maintained, any progress towards the next level is lost when it is conquered by another. The progress is maintained if it is ceded willingly, however.’

  Dominic got the idea. It wasn’t all that dissimilar to some games he’d played as a young teen where the objective of the game was to either control a certain number of points on a map or to take something that the other player or players had. Heck, it wasn’t all that dissimilar from the concept of Monopoly, though it was more about fighting than paying for things. Then again….

  ‘Cede willingly…so someone could buy the Place of Power from the person – or being – who originally owned it?’ he checked with the goddess.

  ‘That’s one way,’ she agreed. Dominic huffed with ironic amusement. It looked like even in this new world wealth was still king – as ever it had been. Though he did have another question.

  ‘What happens to the god, the deity…sponsoring the Place of Power which is absorbed?’

  ‘They are given the choice to become subservient in that area of power to the deity sponsoring the new primary node. Or they may choose to cede the node entirely.’ Selessa didn’t need to say any more – Dominic knew enough about her circumstances to realise that neither would be good for her. Seeing her increased tension, he decided not to press, instead asking another question that was bugging him.

  ‘Is it possible to gain control over another Place of Power which isn’t touching the area of influence of your primary ‘node’?’

  ‘Yes,’ Selessa answered immediately, ‘but until their areas of influence touch, they cannot be added together, meaning that they will all remain at the same level as they were when you captured them and the benefits of combining Places of Power will not be felt. Each will need to be levelled independently. On the other hand, it is possible to hold multiple primary nodes as long as their areas of influence do not touch.’

  So very much like Monopoly, then – it was fine having a single property in the blues and oranges or reds and yellows, but until the player had all the blues or all the oranges, their options would be limited. On the other hand, having all the blues, pinks, and oranges gave the player a significant advantage even if they couldn’t be combined directly – and someone having all the reds, greens and purples was a death knell for everyone else. Which did make Dominic worry about what might happen if someone was able to get control of several ‘monopolies’. Though he was sure it would be different with this in comparison to a board game, he doubted that one person controlling too many Places of Power would be a good thing for their enemies.

  ‘What about the other ways you mentioned of increasing the level of the Place of Power? And why do we need to increase the level, anyway?’ Obviously it was better to be a higher level – that always seemed to be the idea of this world: more, bigger, better. But was there a specific reason, he wondered.

  ‘You have already fed a dungeon Core to your Place of Power and so will be able to see the benefits of that once it has fully processed the Core.’

  ‘Yeah, what’s up with that taking four hours?!’ Dominic interrupted.

  Selessa flicked her tails in slight irritation.

  ‘The time varies based on the level of the Place of Power absorbing the Core and the rank of the Core being absorbed. Now, to go back to your previous question,’ she continued pointedly; Dominic looked away in a little embarrassment, ‘The most stable way of slowly but surely increasing your Place of Power’s influence is to combine increasing territory with increasing numbers of denizens. The two do naturally go together – the more land your Place of Power covers, the more denizens there can be; the more denizens there are, the higher your Prey Points. However, this is not the fastest way of progressing the Place of Power’s level. Since the Place of Power is all about influence, progress will be made fastest by increasing the numbers and levels of affiliated denizens. Next most beneficial for progress is increasing the numbers and levels of recognised denizens.’

  ‘But increasing those numbers means that there are fewer Prey Points to share around,’ protested Dominic. 40% shared among nearly 40 pride members meant just over 1% of the Prey Points went to each member every hour. If he doubled the number, that would mean halving the amount of Prey Points per member.

  ‘That is the cost,’ Selessa agreed. ‘There is a cost to everything in this multiverse. But the benefits of a higher level Place of Power will be evident to you when your dungeon Core is completely processed. Temporary sacrifices often pay off far more later than was invested – as long as you are still alive to claim the rewards.’

  ‘Alright, I think I get it,’ Dominic said thoughtfully. ‘One, check out the benefits from this particular dungeon Core. Two, increase the level and the number of affiliated denizens in order to help the Place of Power reach the next level faster. Three, capture any other Places of Power or dungeons I encounter, ideally adding them all together. Stop anyone else trying to do that to mine. And while doing all of that, dedicate a few kills and carcasses to you. Sound about right?’

  ‘That it does, though I suspect you will not find it as easy to put into action as it is to put into words,’ she observed wryly. Dominic and Leo simultaneously huffed in agreement. ‘Now, we are running out of time again. I just wanted to reiterate again that your power is my power, and while that remains the case, my power is also your power. I will work as I can on your behalf, as long as you do the same for me. Great opportunities lie ahead of you; I urge you to take full advantage of them.’

  ‘That seems unnecessarily cryptic,’ Dominic complained. Selessa made the chirping sound again at that.

  ‘I am forbidden from revealing too much. All will become clear in time. But I would suggest that you pay better attention to the quest you have recently completed.’

  And with that, the realm around them disintegrated and Dominic found himself back in his physical body again.

  here!