Red stared at the flickering prompt on the obsidian slab.
[ REGISTRATION REQUIRED: DIVINE DESIGNATION ]
He had been operating as "User" or "New Deity" for too long. The Kobolds called him "Ka-lam-tee," but that was a phonetic butchering of a concept, not a name. And he refused to name himself something like "The Destroyer" or "God of Death." That was the kind of cringe-inducing edge-lord branding that screamed 'I am insecure about my power.'
Other gods would see the name and immediately dismiss him as a lowly god.
The note below the input field was clear: Names are permanent. Names carry weight. A name defines how the System perceives you, not just your followers.
"Red," he muttered. It was simple. It was him. But it was too common.
He needed something that meant Red, but felt… older. More alchemical. A final stage of transformation.
He typed it in.
[ RUBEDO ]
System Check… Available.
It was the alchemical term for the final stage of Magnus Opus, also known as the reddening, the point where base matter becomes gold, where mortality becomes divinity. It fit his [ 100x GROWTH ] trait perfectly.
[ CONFIRMED. DEITY NAME SET: RUBEDO ]
The interface shimmered, the grey edges turning a deep, rich crimson. It felt… official.
He checked his Avatar settings. He still only had the default grey silhouette. There were options to upload a mental image, but he didn't want to use his human face, which he no longer had, and he didn't have a cool stone hammer like Gorr.
"I'll stay a mystery for now," Red decided.
He looked at the [ SOCIAL ] tab. He knew he shouldn't. He knew she had told him not to call unless it was about payment.
He pressed the [ VIDEO CALL ] button anyway.
CLANG… CLANG… CLANG…
The ringing stopped abruptly. The massive Stone Hammer avatar appeared on the screen, rotating aggressively.
"You have a death wish, Ru…bedo…?" Gorr's raspy female voice boomed. She dragged out his new name, tasting it. "Rubedo… Hah. You should have named yourself The Muck-Rat. Or perhaps The Honorless One. Maybe The Despicable demon."
"Those were high on my list," Red replied dryly, leaning back in his void. "But the character limit wouldn't allow it. Tragically, I am stuck with this."
"What do you want, Spirit?" Gorr snapped. "I am busy smelting your iron."
"Intel," Red said. "I want to know the neighborhood. Who else is out here? What are their territories? How many followers?"
"Why would I tell you that?" Gorr scoffed. "Information is worth more than iron."
"Business," Red countered. "You are a God of Labor. You make things. But you live in a hole. You have no distribution network."
Red leaned forward, pitching the idea he had been cooking up.
"My Kobolds are surface dwellers. They are fast, and they navigate the swamp and forest better than your blind Molekin. In the future, I establish a trade route. My tribe acts as the merchants. We take your high-quality goods to other civilizations, sell them, and split the profit."
The Hammer stopped rotating. Gorr was listening.
"I take 50% of the profit for logistics and risk," Red said.
"Twenty percent," Gorr shot back instantly. "And you handle the transport."
Red pretended to hesitate. He tapped his chin, looking pained. "Twenty is low… The swamp is dangerous…"
"Twenty. Or I collapse the tunnel and you get nothing."
"Deal," Red said.
Internally, he smiled. 'I would have done it for 10%. All I'm doing is carrying a box from Point A to Point B. And I can always increase my share in the future when she is dependant on me.'
"Fine," Gorr grumbled. "You want to know why I'm hiding in this miserable sector? It's because of them."
A map file transferred to Red's screen. It showed the macro-scale of the continent. Two massive red zones dominated the North and East.
"There are two Great Powers near us," Gorr explained, her voice heavy with bitterness. "To the North is Aurelius, The Golden King. Rank 9. He commands the Sun-Paladins. To the East is Sylara, The Mycelium Queen. Rank 17. She controls the fungal hive-minds."
Rank 9. Rank 17.
Red looked at his own Rank 3 status. He was an ant beneath boots.
"Are they hostile?" Red asked.
"Aurelius is the reason I am here," Gorr admitted, the anger vibrating the audio feed. "I was Rank 6. I had a mountain range. I had twenty thousand Molekin. My mines were ten times the size of this rathole."
"What happened?"
"He offered me 'protection.' I refused. He wiped out seventeen thousand of my people in a week. To save the last three thousand, I had to surrender my territory and my Divine Core. I fled here, to the edge of the map, to start over."
"Twenty thousand…" Red whispered.
"I cannot claim this sector," Gorr continued. "You need 5,000 Followers to officially claim a Territory and erect a Divine Barrier. I have 3,000. So I am just a squatter. Just like you."
"Wait," Red interrupted. "If you lose all your followers or their faith generation reaches zero..."
"You die," Gorr said bluntly. "Or worse. You fall into the Void. The System penalizes you based on your Rank. If a Rank 6 loses their flock, the backlash shatters their soul. You… you are small. A gnat. If you lose your twenty lizards, the System barely notices. That is the only reason you are still alive."
Red went cold. When the ants died, he was low Rank. If he hadn't saved the remaining ants, he might have vanished before he even began his journey as a God. He had dodged a bullet he didn't even know was fired.
"Is there anything else, Muck-Rat?" Gorr asked, sounding tired.
"How long?" Red asked. "How long have you been doing this?"
"Sixty years," Gorr said. "I assume you have been at this for what… ten? Twenty years?"
"Something like that," Red lied smoothly. He had been a god for less than a few weeks.
There was a silence on the line. The Stone Hammer bobbed slightly.
"I have a request," Gorr said suddenly. "A favor."
"Payment first," Red said automatically. "That's how mercenaries work."
"I cannot pay you now. My resources are tied up in rebuilding the ventilation you destroyed," Gorr growled. "But I will owe you. A Divine Favor. From a Rank 4 to a Rank 3. That has value."
Red weighed it. A favor from a senior Deity was a rare currency. "What is it?"
"The Full Moon," Gorr said. "It rises in three days. Every month, on the full moon, a beast rises from the swamp lake nearby. It is a Moon-Crazed Hydra. It rampages. It eats everything on the surface."
Red frowned. "If it eats everything on the surface, that includes my Kobolds."
"Exactly," Gorr said. "My Molekin are safe underground, usually. But the Hydra smashes the tunnel entrances, collapsing my upper levels. It kills my efficiency for weeks. I cannot fight it as my soldiers are useless in the water and under moonlight. You… you are a swamp spirit."
"You want me to kill a Boss Monster?"
"I want you to distract it, or kill it. If you do," Gorr hesitated, then dropped the bombshell, "The Territory restrictions… they are flexible."
"Explain," Red demanded. "You said I need 5,000 followers to claim land."
"You do," Gorr confirmed. "But that beast? It is a Region Guardian. It holds the 'Key' to the local Node. If you kill it, you don't get the Territory Claim… but you get the Node Rights."
"Node Rights?"
"The resource generation. The Mana, the Faith, the materials. You can own the yield of the land without owning the title of the land. It would allow you to expand fast enough to get your 5,000 followers."
Red's mind raced. This was the loophole. He couldn't claim the land legally, but he could loot the bank vault.
"But," Red narrowed his eyes. "If I kill it, I get the Node. What do you get?"
"Peace," Gorr said. "And I don't have to spend a fortune repairing my mine entrance every month. Do we have a deal, Rubedo?"
Red looked at the imaginary calendar.
'Three days.'
He had twenty-four Kobolds with bronze-tipped spears and a few traps. Facing a Hydra.
"Three days," Red said. "I'll handle it."
[ QUEST ACCEPTED: THE MOON-CRAZED HYDRA ]
[ DIFFICULTY: S-RANK (RELATIVE TO CURRENT POWER) ]
[ REWARD: NODE RIGHTS / DIVINE FAVOR (GORR) ]
The call cut.
Red stood alone in the void.
"I need more than spears," Red whispered. He looked at his Faith counter. He looked at his DP. "I need an army. Or... I need a really, really big trap."