Tess yawned, rubbing her eyes as she stared down at the slate in front of her.

"You need to take a break?" Fortune asked, giving Tess a motherly smile. "We've been at this for a few hours."

"I'm fine." Tess mumbled. "I'd just like to get this done sooner rather than later."

"There's no reason it needs to be done right this second." Fortune reminded her. "Tell you what, why don't we all go eat some food, and we can come back to this refreshed. It'll probably help with work efficiency, and worst-case scenario we just come back tomorrow and do this again."

"I think we should." Maven said, stretching and letting out a yawn of her own. "I'm getting a bit tired too."

"How much do we have left?" Dungeons asked. "We're just hunting down stray Skills and Attributes for the two of them, right? We've got all the 'important' stuff out of the way?"

"I think so, yeah." Tess said.

"I'll stay back here and keep looking, then." Dungeons replied. "I got into a groove and I'd like to keep it going."

Tess turned to say something to her mother, but Fortune was already talking. "Don't pick up her bad habits." She said sternly. "Dungeons always works late like this, even if she shouldn't."

Dungeons paused, looking like a kid who had been caught sneaking treats before bed. "Okay, that's…a fair point, I shouldn't set a bad example. I'll come have dinner with you all."

"Good." Fortune said. "Tess, Maven, have either of you gotten food here before?"

"Only stuff you or Death bring when we hang out." Tess said. "So, I haven't actually got it myself."

"Likewise." Maven said. "I believe I have eaten here…once?"

"Then I'll show you how we do it here, I'm sure it'll be helpful in the future." Fortune said. "Why don't you go put your tablets away while I invite the others?"

Tess obediently shuffled over to the terminal and deposited the tablet she was holding, a window appearing in front of as she did.

Fortune: Hey, Ellie, Life, Death, the four of us who've been in the monster archives are going to get some dinner, and I'm going to be teaching Tess and Maven how to get food here. Are you three interested in joining?

Life: I appreciate the offer, but I just ate. I will join you another time.

Death: Ellie and I were actually just talking about food, so that works out. Meet you in the usual kitchen?

Fortune: Yup, we're just putting away our stuff here and then we'll be right over.

Once everyone had put away the various tablets they had been perusing, the group left the monster archives and made their way to the teleporter. They reappeared back in the wing where their go-to meeting spot was, then took a right down a hallway Tess had never been down. After walking for a few feet, they took another right through an arch and emerged into a kitchen, where Ellie and Death were waiting.

"So, how's it going?" Death asked, hopping off of an island. "Making good progress?"

"Yup." Tess replied. "We've got all the main stuff decided, we're just looking for odds and ends at this point. How about you, did you actually manage to beat Ellie?"

"I took two games off of her today." Death said. "So, I'm basically better than her in every conceivable way."

"Ellie, how many games did you play today?" Fortune asked.

"Of Tetris? Probably twenty or thirty." Ellie said. "We've been playing co-op stuff for the last hour or so though."

"Like I said, better than her in every conceivable way." Death joked. "Anyway, why don't we talk about this over food? And who wants to give the how-to spiel?"

"I got it." Fortune said, walking over to what appeared to be a fridge. "Now, this is highly technical, so pay close attention." She opened the fridge dramatically and pulled out a bowl filled with stuff Tess couldn't quite see. "Open the fridge-thing while picturing what you want. Remove the food. Enjoy."

"That's it?" Ellie asked. "No using Worship or Mana or anything?"

"Nope, no need." Fortune replied. "It tops up by itself. Something something…offerings to the gods become Worship used for this kinda stuff?"

"Yeah, that's more or less it." Dungeons added. "The amount of Worship we get from those sorts of things are miniscule, but you need basically nothing to make daily necessities so we have quite a buffer built up."

"Ah, is that why offerings are still around?" Maven asked. "I thought that was a thing of tradition more than anything."

"Most people do, and offerings have decreased somewhat in recent centuries, but at this rate we won't run into problems for several tens of thousands of years so we're not worried." Dungeons replied. "Even if offerings cease altogether, we'll just have to use our own reserves, so…not a big deal."

"We don't make as much Worship as the gods, would it be a drain on us if we use these things?" Tess asked curiously.

"Nah, not really." Death replied. "Again, it needs basically nothing; Tess has already used enough Worship to power it for at least half a year, and she's used basically nothing on a cosmic scale."

"Come to think of it, where did that Worship come from?" Tess asked. "I've only been a Higher Being for like…what, a couple months now? How'd I get enough to change the system?"

"You didn't." Fortune replied. "Or…sort of didn't? You need a lot less Worship to do things that fall under your Domain, so you get to do that sort of thing for cheap. As for where the initial stuff came from, the process of becoming a Higher Being gives you some, and you've already made a splash with some of the changeups you've been making, so you had some to work with. Plus, you have the boost of your Domain being one you made yourself rather than one assigned to you, so…it was a combination of all that, really."

"Oh." Tess replied. "Is there a way to quantify how much Worship we have?"

"We need to get those lessons with Amy started ASAP." Death said. "Those will help get you three up to speed. But, for now, yes, there is a way, but it takes a bit of know-how if you want accurate readings. Otherwise, you just sorta feel it out."

"We'll talk more about this later." Fortune said, walking over to another archway and into an attached dining room. "Go get your food and we can chat while we eat."

Tess nodded, walking up to the fridge and opening it up while picturing her desired meal. And, sure enough, inside she found a simple bacon and cheese sandwich on a plate, just like she had wanted. She reached inside, noting that it wasn't actually cold, and grabbed the sandwich, which was slightly warm. She took it out, then went to the table and sat down next to her mother and began to eat. Everyone else joined shortly thereafter, and began to talk.

"Wow, Dungeons, you're eating with us?" Death said. "I thought you were gonna go back to the archives after grabbing food."

"I wasn't even going to get food, but then realized I shouldn't be a bad example after Fortune told Tess not to follow my example." Dungeons said, blushing in embarrassment. "So, I'm eating properly tonight."

"I can't believe it." Death said. "It's like I don't even know you anymore. Turns out getting an Appointed really changes a god."

"Then what does that mean for you?" Dungeons asked, smirking. "How have you changed?"

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"I'm in my Tetris arc." Death said. "I didn't play much before I got to know Ellie. I'm unrotting my brain, it's nothing short of miraculous."

"Well, you've got decades of rot to work through, so it's gonna take a minute." Fortune said. "And at the end of the day, I'll rain supreme as the god with the most rotted brain."

"Oh…" Death said glumly. "I didn't consider having to give up my title…"

Fortune reached over and gave her a conciliatory pat on the shoulder. "It's alright, Grandma. I'll make sure you get to bingo night on time."

"Bingo is a time-honored tradition." Death said haughtily. "If you're a second late, then I'll make it the death of you."

Ellie rolled her eyes. "I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure your brainrot is terminal." She said. "It's going to take more than Tetris to fix you."

Death perked up. "Oh, so there's nothing to worry about, then. Seeing as how that's no longer a pressing issue…what have you all decided so far? For Silky and Isabella, that is."

"Well, I've decided to go back a bit on how powerful of a core I'm willing to use for them." Tess said. "For Silky, we're using this level eighty savage dungeon boss that splits into a bunch of spiders as the base, and for Isabella…well, we don't have a base pinned down right now, but Dungeons is going to be making one that fits her."

Dungeons nodded. "I realized there's a lack of any monsters that truly challenge traditional intangibility counters in Savage Dungeons, so Isabella's going to help us out in testing some."

"And, aside from that, we're expanding their roles." Tess continued. "Silky is going to become an assassin in addition to a scout, so we're loading her up with a bunch of strong toxins, defense-piercing effects, critical damage bonuses, and the like in addition to all the stealth and mobility stuff we're giving her."

"How does the splitting thing work?" Ellie asked. "Does it split her stats?"

"No." Tess replied. "Well, it splits her HP, but nothing else; the boss is designed around the splitting mechanic, so its stats are a lot lower than something of the same level, but we've boosted her stats with a bunch of stat-enhancing Attributes, so she's going to be a lot tougher to deal with than that boss."

"I can proudly say that she, in no way, would be a boss that I would allow to be put in a dungeon." Dungeons said. "She shouldn't need much changing for a long time."

"Is that okay?" Death asked. "It kind of sounds like she'll be able to solo basically anything up to level one hundred, which is…a long time. What level are you guys right now?"

"I'm level forty-nine." Tess said.

"Forty-five." Ellie added.

"Forty-four." Maven said. "However, our levels are essentially immaterial. There's little stopping us from going to extremely high-level dungeons and using my Blessing to defeat enemies that aren't fighting back until we reach whatever level we desire. Which…I have to ask, is that how the gods handle training?"

"Once you get into Higher Being combat, levels don't really matter as much." Fortune said. "It's more about Worship and how skilled you are than what your level is. It's part of the reason the Appointed system is so effective on a large scale; it leaves us gods free to focus on practicing with Worship while the Appointed handle having a well-trained body and combat skills. But, yeah, if we ever feel the need, that's how we handle leveling."

"Yeah, that." Death said. "But, back to my original point, are you fine with that? Silky might end up needing to hang back as much as she is now, but because she's too strong instead of too weak."

"If she doesn't use the split in-combat, she'll be a lot closer to a normal level eighty-ish boss." Tess said. "Which is still very strong for our level, but we're looking into dungeons in the late fifty to early sixty-ish range right now, so it won't be too overwhelming. Obviously, yes, she'd still be stronger than anything in those, but…well, so are the rest of us. Maybe not to that extent, but still."

"Fair enough." Death said. "What about Isabella?"

"We're taking her out of a pure support role and into a generalist caster." Tess replied. "Since the plan is for her to be hiding inside me most of the time, we've basically chosen to ignore all defense abilities, you know, outside of the ones that are shared from me, and are going to pump her magic and boost her Mana regen as high as we can. After that it's just a matter of getting her some sort of Attribute or Skill that'll give her access to all magic, and then dumping as many boosting effects, utility Attributes and Skills, and whatever else we find on her."

"Basically, we're making her discount Tess, at least for magic. That sort of generalist build." Fortune said. "Or, discount Tess as soon as Tess gets the magic part of her build online, but we're only just starting with that."

"She'll have a lot more raw power than me, though." Tess pointed out. "Just by virtue of her stats being higher."

"Give it time for your build to get online." Fortune said. "You'll have the edge after stacking up bonuses."

"It's true." Death said. "There are a lot of buffs that Isabella won't be able to use because she doesn't use any physical attacks. Those Skills are designed to fill a sort of spellsword niche, but since your build cuts all the fat that we normally expect people to have, and can use all of those, the effects will be much more pronounced for you."

"In much the same way that unarmed Skills are more powerful than weapon Skills due to most weapons being far stronger than someone's fists, these sorts of mixed Skills tend to be more powerful, in a vacuum, than dedicated Skills." Fortune added. "Remember that, for anyone who isn't you, Skills are most reliably obtained via Classes, and so they'll usually have an imbalanced number of physical and magical Skills, as well as imbalanced stats.

"That means that to reliably use these mixed Skills, you normally have to use your weaker style of attack. Once you have all your Skills and everything's properly fleshed out, you won't have that weakness. Your magic abilities will roughly equal your physical abilities, with the one caveat that, in order to use high-level magic, you'll have to spend a little time spreading around some status conditions to use in place of Mana. But that's a minor thing, really. It just means you can't open with high-level magic unless you're willing to inflict status effects on yourself first."

"If you say so." Tess said, taking another bite of her sandwich.

"They're right." Amy said, poking her head through the archway. "Sorry for eavesdropping, I was coming to get some food and couldn't help but overhear. Besides, it's not like you're going to be stuck with the lowest stats forever."

Tess stared at Amy in disbelief. "I'm not?"

"Remind me about scheduling regular Higher Being lessons with you and your wives sometime soon." Amy said. "No, you're not, at least not in the long term. Stat spreads are mostly a reflection of the amount of base Mana a soul is born with, and stats themselves are just an expression of your base Mana. Normally the best way to increase that level of base Mana is to kill other things that have Mana and absorb it for yourself, which the system displays as EXP.

"However, you are a Higher Being now, and you'll find that your base Mana increases far more effectively than a regular person's due to the Worship you hold. The system isn't built to account for someone becoming a Higher Being in the middle of their life then continuing to live a normal life down there, so I might need to do a little tinkering to allow it to properly reflect the changes you'll be going through.

"Point is, eventually the Worship you carry is going to, over the course of the next century or so, bring all the Appointed up to more or less an even playing field. And, at that point, Blessings, personal expression of said Mana, and Worship income will be what differentiate you all. For instance, Evan will have higher Worship income due to his position in global politics, but he's more magic focused than someone like Atum, so he'll likely have lower HP and defense than him.

"Similarly, Tess has an exceptionally powerful Blessing, Ellie has two Blessings, and, of course, Maven will be unparalleled in dungeons due to her Blessing, so those will set you apart in those ways. You get the idea."

"Oh." Tess said. "I thought…I assumed my stats were forever."

"Things changed when you became a Higher Being. Systems are mostly built for the benefit of mortals, and you are now a fundamentally different kind of existence than them, so things fall apart to some extent. Systems are still useful tools for you, but are far less important."

"I hadn't thought about that." Dungeons admitted. "It just didn't cross my mind."

"Honestly, it hadn't crossed my mind until recently." Amy said, shrugging. "It's just not something that we normally need to think about. Anyway, all I was saying is that you'll never need to worry about being forever outclassed by your attendants, that just isn't going to happen. So…I'll let you get back to your dinner, feel free to shoot me a message if you have any other questions, I'm more than happy to answer."

"Thanks, Amy." Tess said. "I'll message you tomorrow about setting up those lessons."

"Excellent. I'll be seeing the three of you soon, then." Amy replied, heading back into the kitchen.

Fortune slung an arm around Tess's shoulder. "See? You won't even have to worry about not being able to fire powerful magic from the get-go, you can just start blasting. Just give it a little time and you and your wives will be up there with all the other Appointed in terms of strength."

Tess blushed and went back to her sandwich. From there, they ended up talking about nothing in particular, and they spent another fifteen or so minutes just enjoying each other's company. When they had all finished, Dungeons was the first one to stand up.

"Tell you what", she began, "since most of what we're doing is just looking for miscellaneous bits and pieces, and we're still waiting for me to make that core for Isabella, I'll just take care of the rest of it. I'll have to be referencing most of the high-level abilities anyway when I'm making that core, so it won't really even be any extra work. I'll just note down anything that catches my eye and send a list for you to look through when I'm done. Is that alright?"

"Are you sure you don't want help looking through those abilities?" Tess asked. "You helped me out, so it's only fair I help you out."

"Nah, it's really not necessary. This is my main job, so there's not much of a need to bother you with doing the legwork, just like you don't have us there in Descent the whole time you're doing Appointed stuff. Plus, what we've already looked at today gives me a pretty good head start."

"It's true, we have relatively little to do up here." Death said. "Plus, this is Dungeons' number one hobby, so it's really not a chore for her."

"That too." Dungeons said.

"You, Fortune, and Maven could come hang out with me and Ellie." Death suggested. "We've got room for three more in the game we're playing."

"As long as they're fine with it, I don't see why not." Maven said.

"I'm down, like always." Fortune said. "What about you, sweetie?"

"Well, if it's really alright, then…sure." Tess said.

"Go, have fun!" Dungeons said enthusiastically.

"You too!" Death replied, standing up grabbing her plate. "Oh, and you three, about the plates and stuff, just put them in the sink-thing, it'll recycle them for you. Or…take them home, I guess, but I don't think you need any of this stuff, right?"

"Yeah, we're good." Ellie said.

"Perfect. Now, Tess, Maven, have you heard of Adventure Simulator? No? Well, it's a game based loosely on freelancing…"

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