"That was not fun…" I muttered as we left the dungeon. Spending a day in the dungeon, doing nothing but follow Zolast's instructions to fiddle with the dungeon had been particularly boring.

"Really? Just a day, and you're already complaining," Zolast teased. "You're lucky that I have Awakened every related stat, or upgrading the dungeon to a workable quality would have taken months."

I shuddered. Lucky indeed. It had been boring, particularly since there was nothing important for me to do. The experiments Zolast had been running to discover the link between the dungeon and the completeness of the skill were shockingly complicated. Even with my stats, I couldn't even begin to understand what he was doing.

And, since I had nothing to do, the 'glorious' task of sorting and examining every skill had been left for me. It was boring to a mind-numbing degree. "But I'm bored."

"Stop exaggerating, you big baby. We have discovered a way to mass-produce Expert Skills already, and Master Skills won't be too far."

I had to admit, he was right. The results were certainly worth that terrible boredom. The ability to produce Expert skills on demand was already a strategic boon. Unfortunately, greed was a part of us, and once we realized producing Master Skills was possible, relying on Expert ones stung like failure.

"Well, at least you can still fix those master skills for emergencies," I said, happy to see his smile turn into a frown. "Too bad I can't help you with my weak magic skills."

I win.

"Yeah, laugh it up, you windbag," he grumbled and we walked out silently. "In a couple days, or in a week at most, I will fix it so that we can produce master skills."

I nodded, even though I wasn't sure I agreed with his certainty about Master skills, mostly due to the perspective I inherited from Earth.

The quality of the dungeon affected the quality of the skill significantly. And, improving it wasn't a simple affair.

In a way, the dungeon was similar to a precision manufacturing machine, and improving it further represented a significant challenge. It was the difference between two CNC machines, one with a millimeter error margin, and the other with half a millimeter. The latter would be at least ten times more expensive, and just as hard to build.

From what I had seen last night, the dungeon worked similarly. Every fractional increase in quality required much better materials and more ingenious spells. We were able to figure out how to reliably produce Expert skills of decent quality that didn't require any repair in half a day, but that was nowhere near enough for the master skills.

I was afraid that we needed to poke into the secrets of the royal families and steal the unique spells and materials they had developed for that purpose. Not a task I wanted to deal with, not with everything that was going on.

Unfortunately, the other way of improving the dungeon was even more difficult. We discovered that the templates that the System provided initially were perfect, which increased the quality of the final product significantly. In contrast, the skills we provided had many flaws, even after repairing them to the limit.

The Skill Library of the System could have solved the problem, but collecting the necessary Authority was even harder than raiding Royal families. I didn't know how much Authority was required, but at best, it would require ten million. Considering the System's love for exponential growth, I wouldn't be surprised if that particular point only arrived at a hundred million.

Worse, a billion points was a likely possibility, not helped by the fact that the ordinary corrupted beast equivalents didn't grant any Authority, and the Lord Beast variants provided only one point.

Hardly a process that could be rushed … assuming it was possible in the first place.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn't say anything as I followed Zolast to a private room, one where a young man had already been waiting for us.

"High Priest. Holy Steward," he intoned respectfully as he bowed for us. He was Herkut, a young man who had been working for the church with distinction. He was nowhere near the best that worked for us, or the most important employee. He didn't have a rare class either.

But he had a very important distinction. He was at level ten, with no divine alignment. The reason was simple: before he joined the church and was cured by Zolast, he was unable to walk due to an accident caused by a spell. Zolast had cured him easily — along with hundreds of others.

Herkut was one of the many who had decided to hold back their promotions until they were accepted by the non-existent Sun God. Back then, I had been against it, but now that I ended up as a Divine Aspirant — which was essentially an Intern God — it had become useful.

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We chose Herkut, ironically because among the devoted, he was the one that was the least 'devoted'. There were many that picked the exact same direction, but most had shown far more zeal. I didn't want to experiment on one of them, because we didn't know which name would appear in their alignment column.

I didn't want to deal with the potential crisis of faith in case something absurd happened.

"Do you know why you are here?" I asked.

"No, Holy Steward," he said. "They asked for volunteers, and I was lucky enough to be chosen," he said.

I sighed. He was the least devoted … but only in comparison. The ones that refused to level up despite the clear benefits, hoping for the favor of the Sun God were far more zealous than the others. I was ready to admit the irony that I still disliked religious zealotry despite joining the ranks of the Divine.

Albeit as an Intern God.

"Very good," I said. Deciding that since he wasn't looking for an explanation, I decided to start experimenting to see if his knowledge made any difference. "Kneel." At the same time, I stopped taking experience from Youngsters through the Heroic Party, not wanting to miss anything important.

I put my hand on his head, careful not to extend my Heroic Party.

Nothing happened.

I covered my hand with mana.

Nothing happened.

I called my new screen, the increase in Authority coming as a nice surprise. Takis had told me the battle was going nicely, but the amount still surprised me, particularly since for me to receive it, they needed to deliver the last hit, and not their soldiers.

Unfortunately, the points were far from useful.

[Status: Divine Aspirant

Authority: 46

Contribution: 0

Followers (0)

Demesne (1/1)]

Still, only after I radiated some mana from my hand while keeping the connection, a new screen appeared.

[Potential Follower Detected

Analyze

Offer]

I clicked "Analyze".

[Farmer, Level 10]

I closed it, and returned to the main menu. I clicked "Offer", expecting to end up floating in the Astral Dimension once more. To my surprise, I stayed corporeal.

Even when another notification appeared, suggesting success.

[-10,000 Experience]

Followed by another.

[+185,291 Experience]

For a moment, I paused wondering if I made a mistake with Hero Party and took some experience from the others. Then, it clicked. The experience Herkut had stored.

Herkut stayed kneeling even as a magical sigil appeared right on top of his heart, noticeable despite him wearing a shirt. His eyes opened a moment later. "Thank you, Holy Steward. I won't let you, or our great Divine Patron down," he said as he started kowtowing in front of me.

I couldn't help but sigh at the display, trying not to blame him. We were the ones that chose to create a fake church after all … damn, it wasn't even a fake one anymore!

"Tell us what happened, my son," Zolast said, his tone soft, kind, yet demanding. I had to admit, he made a good high priest.

"I was kneeling when suddenly, a notification appeared, offering me the glorious chance to join the ranks of the exalted ranks of our church," he started. "Then, I found myself floating in the void, in front of the glorious demigod of our church, wrapped in flames and shadows, his presence bright as the sun, yet impossible to see at the same time."

"Be more specific," I said. "What exactly did it say?"

"Divine Alignment, Shadow Warden," he said. "Then, there was another line with two options, accept and reject."

I frowned, it was different from my own experience when I had leveled up. I looked at Zolast, and he nodded, showing that it was to be expected. I still cast a sound-blocking spell on Herkut. "So, that's normal?"

"From the other side, yes. But what he saw is surprising," he said, pausing for a smirk. "The name is interesting as well."

I grunted. I understood what he meant. The System had clearly assigned a name automatically. I would have appreciated a name that a teenager wouldn't have happily used as a nickname.

"Don't be like that. It's not the worst it could have been," Zolast said. "At least it's fitting with the sun theme."

"Laugh it up," I growled, though I understood what he meant. It fitted well with the story we're trying to sell, as the shadow was easy to spin as a part of the Sun God's followers.

Also, while it was edgier than I would have preferred, it was a nice descriptor of everything I had been doing, not just here, but my whole life. Stay in the shadows, and try to protect others. I wasn't always as selfless as I could be … but who could be. I was just a man, and not a saint.

I sighed, ignoring my desire to act in introspection and removing the silence spell. "Show me your sigil," I ordered.

Herkut did, revealing a complicated rune that somehow felt extremely familiar. The system probably assigned it along with the name. A fitting timing, as that sigil essentially worked as my new signature.

New name, new signature.

I called the screen up again, but there was little change.

[Status: Divine Aspirant

Authority: 46

Contribution: 0

Followers (1)

Demesne (1/1)]

I clicked 'Followers', and a list with only one line appeared, and clicking showed the details, and nothing else.

[Farmer, Level 10]

"Follow us," I said, and brought him outside the city for a quick hunting expedition. His devotion was useful, as it prevented him from asking any pesky questions while we asked him to kill monsters.

Our experiments showed that the working principles were the same as what we had expected. The Experience was reduced automatically, the excess was taken by me. There were some surprises, however.

First, I had no way of changing the method of Experience Point stealing. That part felt hard-coded. Interestingly, the Experience requirement was the same as the other people, far lower than what I — and my heroic party — needed.

Interesting distinction.

With our combined help, it didn't take long for him to reach the next promotion, though it required me to trigger.

[-1,000,000 Experience]

A good second step.

"I feel amazing," Herkut muttered, though he was walking around like he was drunk. Leveling that much in quick succession was not simple. It would have been even worse without Zolast's constant spellcasting.

"Take five. We still have some work to do," I said.