In hindsight, I could’ve gone to the Matriarch's Cathedral and obtained the same information without the commotion and save twelve gold. On the other hand, we needed an Adventurer’s Guild license to enter the Labyrinth. Unless I wanted to ask the King to give us a Royal Writ of Exploration, which I didn’t. He was already aware of us, as I could see a few agents from the Royal Ackerton Assassin Guild watching us.
I let these amateurs know I noticed them and they did nothing. I was inclined to reveal myself to the King just to make him let me discipline these people. Sloppy Assassins meant an exposed organization, and I wanted the Guild to prosper. Ackerton was part of my deal with the dragons to keep 1000 kilometers away from places I considered important to me.
We entered the cathedral and I got a notification.
> You stand on ground consecrated to yourself. All Divine actions are 20% stronger.
The priests also got a notification saying the boss was home. An older cat-kin priestess which I recognized from Windemere rushed to kneel before both of us.
“Lady Nenandil. Matriarch. Welcome to your humble house,” her voice broke from sheer excitement. “How may we serve you?”
The other priests knelt along with the head bishop, especially after hearing the names she called. Several temple patrons also knelt, unsure of what was happening but afraid to offend someone so important the bishop had to kneel.
In hindsight, I should’ve avoided the temple. Now someone would surely tell the King a living goddess was visiting his Realm, and I would be dragged into at least a few meetings and maybe some social events. To refuse that would signal I didn’t favor the King, and the political implications would be far-reaching, weakening him. I didn’t want that, so I resigned.
“Send a priest to the King, informing of my arrival,” I ordered with a solemn cadence of words as I shapeshifted into Haru’s half-kitsune form. “Kindly ask him if he may be available for breakfast tomorrow.”
“Jamathar, you know the Crown Prince. You go now,” the bishop ordered.
A young human priest stood up, greeted me, and dashed out the doors as if his life depended on that. In the meanwhile, I accessed my priest roster to cheat and add the priests’ names to the {Appraise} results automatically.
I raised my arms open and spoke softly, “Stand, my children. The Matriarch does not demand subservience but I’m touched by your affection nonetheless. Come, Bishop Sophie. Give me a hug.”
> Bishop Sophie’s Faith score increased by 1.
I got similar notices from the other priests as well. Some of them had tears in their eyes. I hugged Sophie and placed a minor blessing spell on all the priests.
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After everything at the temple went back to normal, I explained what I needed and asked Sophie to send priests to GENTLY invite the city bowyers to visit. I also said that any [Bowyer] who could prove they had a Proficiency score of 200 or more that answered my summons would be paid one platinum coin if they accepted the job.
Within one hour of my reveal, the cathedral was crowded. Everyone wanted to see the living Goddess. The priests used their silk to weave a majestic dress for Haru, insisting on not letting me do anything. It was their token of devotion and I allowed myself to be spoiled by them.
I stood before the altar looking at a sea of hopeful faces. Nenandil sat on my shoulder, barely holding her giggles. I raised my hands and turned on my {Mana Wellspring}. Then I used a minute of {Cosmos Within} divided by a few thousand just to get everyone’s attention. The nave became silent at once.
“Greetings, my children, and welcome to my humble house. Those that seek hearth, knowledge, or peace of mind will always be welcome here. Open your hearts to my blessings!”
I sang one of the hymns of my church as I spent Divinity to empower one of my old spells, the one that increased Luck I used to cheat the Human shop before they plugged the loophole. It might have the effect of unlocking the Luck Attribute for a few of them that barely met the requirements and that would have a profound impact later on. It would also see a spike in babies named “Cosmos (and variants)” a few years down the road. Chaining on that spell, I added a regeneration and general cure spell to heal wounds then remove mild poisons, parasites, and diseases.
It was like making purchases with a credit card that granted 300% cashback. The Divinity I spent came back as the faith of the visitors swayed in my favor. That’s what Galbarar did at the arena when Snowdrop was captured by the Pekothas. I could convert the whole world, all I had to do was to visit each country. I didn’t have the same constraints as the other deities regarding visiting the material world. I wouldn’t because as of right now, I was walking on thin ice and I intended to start the second round of my fight with Wyxnos for the shit-covered desert.
Maybe I should let it slip but I couldn’t let it go and Lorna was there somewhere. I had to go back.
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The next day, breakfast with the King became a banquet with the entirety of Ackerton’s high society. Decades ago, I purged the Virturian nobility when I conquered the Kingdom but if there’s one thing nobles were good at is filling power voids and making themselves easy to replace by obsessing with successors. They even created such voids intentionally with their scheming and murdering. At least in Ackerton assassination was the sole province of the King.
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The whole city was decorated with the Matriarch’s Holy Symbol overnight. Food from the Royal granaries was distributed to the people so they too could celebrate my advent. As I went to the palace on an open carriage, they raised their children and threw flowers in my way. One could easily get addicted to such attention. The influx of Faith and the admiration of the people was titillating and heartwarming. Yet I only needed to remember Rosalinda’s stone form to know what lied at the end of such path. To embrace Divinity was to abandon mortality and reduce people to mere insects. Or worse, Divinity batteries. No wonder [Heroes] almost always defied the Gods.
I’d gladly let myself be crushed by the Kobold [Saintess Queen] again than to allow my resolve slip and become one of “them”.
King Cadrel Ackerton the II, son of the Duke I once spared and converted mermaid Callisto’s younger brother sat to the right next to me. I jest not, the King conceded the top seat to me. To my left sat Nenandil and then the Queen, with the young child princes to father’s side and the young child princesses to the mother’s side in order of seniority. From there, it was chaos as nobles tried to put themselves in places of high visibility to try and catch my attention. All of them wore my Holy Symbol, sometimes along with the one of their own patron deity.
Food was served by [Mages] specialized in Force magic who could levitate the dishes to the patrons. Especially because nobody could approach me from behind, with my twenty-something tails waving in mesmerizing patterns behind me. It took some of my concentration but it drew the gaze of the brunch patrons almost as well as {Cosmos Within}.
The King demanded attention as he stood up, “Lords and Ladies of fair Ackerton, today we are blessed. The Matriarch, long-time benefactor of our Realm has descended from the Heavens to grace us with her presence. She once walked this land as the [First Hero], defending this very city from the First Demon Lord. Centuries later, she returned as the [Siren] to excise the wicked Virturian plague from our fair home and return it to their rightful owners. Now it’s her third advent. Look to the lands of Ackerton, the lush forests, the bountiful farms, the gentle sea, and our friends living underneath it. All of this was her gift to us. This banquet is but a weak gesture of thanks for we would need a dozen lifetimes to repay her kindness. All praise the Matriarch!”
They raised their glasses and faked their smiles. We ate a delicious breakfast. I made a speech I can’t quite remember as I burned forty thousand Energy permanently to bless the princes and princesses of Ackerton. The Royal Family position was secured as none would risk drawing my anger.
And I was done with the formalities. All I wanted was a pixie-sized bow.
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As if.
After my return to the cathedral, I found that the priests had to set a dais and altar outside the cathedral and take turns reading the liturgy and performing the rites. The square was full of believers and recent converts, all of them waving flags with my Symbol. I also started to earn tithed Exp from people who sworn allegiance to me.
Inside the nave, a lot of rugged craftsmen and woodsmen waited for me. Most of them had their best bow in their hands as they bowed and offered the weapons to me. {Crafter’s Respect} granted me a +39 Charisma bonus when dealing with them. All that I needed was to confirm their Proficiency, but there was an Ability for that.
> Appraiser (*) [ 272 ]. Select 1 Ability
>
> * Proficiency: A willing target may choose to reveal their score in one Proficiency.
Someone like me could fake a Proficinecy score using {Status Forgery} to fool this Ability but I could Geas the craftsmen to be truthful. If they could fake their Status and bypass the Geas, then they deserved to deceive me.
I explained to them what I was going to do and they should allow me to see their [Bowyer] proficiency. Nenandil collected the bows they brought as offerings and paid them the platinum coin for showing up after I confirmed who had a [Bowyer] Proficiency above 200.
One could reach 200 in a Proficiency by merely practicing it as a hobby and leveling up. The guaranteed points each level and the fast-growth would make it happen. But the System favored the hard-working. Those who took the time to learn the craft and gain the first points without spending a pick on the Proficiency would reap the reward of fast-growth later in their careers when points were exponentially harder to come by rather than earlier. Those were the ones who broke the bottleneck of the 200 points and who really knew their craft rather than depending on the System doing the heavy lifting.
In a sense, I had a ridiculously unfair advantage. I could pick up from where I left off in the previous life and enjoy fast-growth even well into the 500 and beyond. On the other hand, it was the fruit of hard work across thousands of years. I considered it my reward for literally saving this world a handful of times.
The bows they brought were all their masterpieces. I could tell even without using {Appraise}. But they were useless for a pixie in a dead magic zone. I could whip up the right spell and shrink the bows or enlarge myself but in there, the only “magic” available was the very System that created and ruled the anomaly.
I also didn’t need to pick one bowyer to make me one bow. I could benefit from having spares. After a couple of hours checking the craftsmen, I selected five, all of them with Proficiency scores above 300. Then I dismissed the rest. Even though they earned more in a single afternoon than they would make in a decade, they still were dismayed as they were let go. The bragging rights of working for a Goddess were nothing to scoff at.
With only Sophie, Nenandil, the five bowyers, and me in the nave, I returned to my pixie form.
“The five of you each shall craft a bow for a fairy of my stature to use. It should require a Strength score of around eighty to pull without any magic involved. These bows will not be enchanted. I’ll supply the raw wood and craft any metal parts you need myself. You’ll come with me to my mystical realm and work with the tools I shall conjure.”
I focused and used {Sanctuary Gates}, the ultimate Zenko Kitsune Perk. The massive Torii gate violently grew behind me and threatened to destroy the temple but gently stopped right as it touched the walls and ceiling. Beyond the gates, a lush woodland with all kinds of trees known to two worlds. The trees were only decorative as I couldn’t use the environment of the Sanctuary as raw materials but I knew I could grow any tree they needed. The forest was just so they could determine what wood to use.
I put a hand through the gate interface and summoned the {Shadow Workshop}. Tools, workbenches, everything they could need.
“Come inside, those who believe. I’ll be your {Inspiring Muse} and lift your craft to the next level. Today, you shall carve a bow worthy of a Goddess.”
It was theatrical but necessary. I needed to wonder them into believeing they could and incite their creativity so they would bring out the best in them.