“You said you’re going to protect us, almighty Zeus?” asked a man who looked incredibly old but was still walking with relative ease, though he was leaning on wooden cane.
“Indeed,” I replied with pride. “The people of Melathria should now be considered under my protection. As long as you all swear fealty to me and my queen.”
“We have seen gods come and go but nobody cared about our safety,” the old man said, and the people around him started nodding in agreement. “They offered only words and left us to the mercy of the powerful. That is why we only believe in the constants that have existed since the time of our fathers’ fathers.”
“The sun and the sea are there because we gods wish them to be there,” I said, trying to sound as respectful as possible. “They alone will not protect you.”
“And you promise you will?” the man asked.
“Gods do not give promises to mortals,” I said, a bit annoyed by the old man’s persistence, though I did not have much choice at this point. “However, I sense something has been bothering you. Tell us what it is and I will prove to you how Zeus protects his own.”
“There is a band of thieves,” the man started to explain, but his voice was soon drowned out by others.
“They come and steal my catches every other day,” said a man holding a fishing rod.
“One of them broke my jugs of wine when I told him he couldn’t have them!” shouted a woman.
“They’re stealing most of my eggs every day!” shouted another man.
“And they’re violent,” the old man continued. “We are a peaceful village and offered them a place to build their home and as well as some money to make their new start. They took our money, killed my son who offered it to them, and then continued their reign of terror.”
“And you want these people gone?” I asked the old man.
I didn’t have to wait for an answer from him as all of the villagers quickly shouted in agreement.
“How many are there and what are their levels?” I asked.
“We have seen at least seven of them,” the man explained, “and their levels range from ten to fourteen.”
“They haven’t even upgraded their classes yet,” I chuckled. “This should be easy. Do you know where they are now?”
“They had us build a big wooden house for them on the outskirts of the village,” a man said. “Overlooking the sea.”
* * *
Quest Name: Bandits Begone
Availability: Single
Rarity: D Grade
Description: A band of thieves and murderers have been terrorizing the village of Melathria. The villagers have put their hope in gods far too many times only to be let down and ignored when they pleaded for help. These bandits are the latest threat they face.
Success: Get rid of the bandits.
Failure: Abandon the villagers of Melathria to their fates.
Status: 0/11
Time Left: Unlimited
Reward: The villagers of Melathria will start worshipping you, Zeus, god of thunder.
Do you accept the quest?
Yes No
* * *
It had been a couple of centuries since I’d last been given a quest. After gaining my godhood and stopping going on adventures regularly, I’d been the one giving quests to individuals and not the other way round. I hadn’t completed a D-grade quest since I was probably only a hundred years old.
I mentally clicked on “Yes” to accept the quest and turned to Aphrodite.
“So our villains have a taste for houses with sea views,” I whispered to her, before addressing the crowds again. “You need not worry. All you need to do is believe in me. If you send your prayers toward me, you will be protected. And soon, this cloud will disperse.”
I was expecting some kind of cheer, or at least a tiny show of excitement, but the people just looked at me.
“He means he’s going to kill the bandits for you,” Aphrodite explained, and the crowd then exploded in cheers that slowly turned to chants of my name.
“Zeus! Zeus! Zeus!”
“Not the smartest tools in the shed, are they?” Aphrodite said to me, as we were escorted toward the northern exit of the humble village amid scenes of celebration.
“Mortals can be as dumb as logs for all I care,” I replied honestly, “as long as they spend their time praying to me.”
Aphrodite tried to say something but held herself back as we crossed through the open gates of the village and started on a path that looked like it had been made for horses and carriages. I turned around to look back at the crowds that had cheered us all the way here and gave them one last reminder to offer their prayers to their new god.
“So you decided to go with the prayer route?” Aphrodite finally asked when we were some distance away from the village. “Of course, you can probably afford to do such a thing.”
“Hey, replenishing your Divinity Points with prayers isn’t the easiest of things,” I said. “I need people to spend their time praying to me every day. Taking sacrifices is much easier.”
“Then why didn’t you take the sacrifice path?” she pushed.
“Because once I have enough followers to unlock some boons for them,” I explained, “they won’t even need to do their daily prayers. They’ll be praying to me subconsciously throughout the whole day. I won’t even need to rest in order to replenish my DP. They’ll just remain full.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Aphrodite interrupted. “Being the son of the titan king meant that you didn’t have to think about protecting yourself or your divinity from others. If you were in constant danger, perhaps taking sacrifices wouldn’t seem like such an unreasonable choice anymore.”
“I can’t change the fact that I was born the son of a king,” I retorted, not sure why I was being judged over something I had no control of. “What about you? Did you choose the sacrifice path?”
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“My followers are very keen to pray to me,” she said, and I was sure I could hear a hint of pride in her voice. “You see, praying to the goddess of love is a bit different than doing so to the god of thunder.”
“Don’t tell me...” I said, and smiled widely. “Do you get your DP back when your followers fuck?”
“Isn’t that amazing?” she said. “I also made sure to unlock these two skills.”
I saw a skill window flash in my periphery and pulled it up, instantly absorbing its information.
* * *
Name: Love is in the Air
Level: 1
Type: Passive - Divine
HP Consumed: 0
MP Consumed: 100
DP Consumed: 1
Power: -
Range: 200 miles radius around the deity
Precondition: -
Description: Increases the likelihood of followers within range of this passive skill performing sexual rituals in honor of their goddess for 24 hours.
* * *
“Wait, so you replenish your DP when your followers have sex, and this passive skill increases the possibility of that happening?” I asked. “That feels like cheating.”
Another notification for a skill window popped up and I opened it.
* * *
Name: Enhanced Breeding
Level: 1
Type: Passive - Divine
HP Consumed: 0
MP Consumed: 200
DP Consumed: 2
Power: -
Range: 200 miles radius around the deity
Precondition: -
Description: Increases the likelihood of followers successfully procreating for 24 hours.
* * *
“And you make sure the sex they have leads to more followers!” I exclaimed. “Talk about a good plan for growing as a goddess.”
“Love can be much stronger than the sword,” she said with a smile.
“No doubt about that,” I agreed.
She had created a perfect circle of almost infinite Divinity Points. She would spend three of her DP to make sure her people would become more fertile and thus have more children that would eventually grow up to become her followers too, but also to make sure they would have more sex, which in turn would replenish her recently used DP. Quite an ingenious plan.
“Being on the small island of Mykonos meant that I would soon run out of growing space,” she explained, answering a question I was already wondering about.
“Which is why you joined me,” I deduced.
She nodded in agreement. “I think this mountain has enough land for our people to grow in numbers.”
“And how do you suggest we split them?” I asked.
“We don’t need to divide them, do we?” she said. “They can believe in both of us. That way they will be able to take advantage of all the boons your people will have—”
“And their numbers will grow faster because of your Enhanced Breeding skill,” I said. “I like working with you more and more with every passing second.”
“And we’re just getting started,” she said with an evil grin on her face.
“You see that smoke up there?” I asked, pointing at a thin pillar of black smoke that was rising in the distance.
“I guess we’ve found our bad guys.”
“Killing bandits and gaining followers,” I said, crossing my hands behind my head as we walked. “All in a day’s work.”
“I guess you’re not one of those gods who’d try to make them see the evil of their ways then?” she asked.
“To the crows with that. I barely have enough time to devote to the righteous ones, much less the bad eggs,” I said. Then I remembered I still hadn’t seen any of her combat abilities. “I know we’ll probably have no issue with these mortals, but perhaps you could tell me what kind of skills you have that might prove useful?”
“Prove useful in what sense?” she asked, and folded her hands in front of her, pressing her breasts up.
“Don’t try to change the subject,” I said, but looked all the same. “I mean in case we get attacked by powerful monsters or agents of my father.”
“Just because I’m a buffer, it doesn’t mean you need to know my abilities,” she said coldly and let her hands drop to her sides. “You won’t be asking for buffs or calling the shots for me.”
“I would never presume to do so,” I agreed. “But you know so much about me. It’s only fair that I get to know you a bit as well.”
“Oh, so you want to know me better than just seeing two of my divine skills,” she said, mocking enthusiasm. “In that case, I guess I can show you some of my buffs.”
Instead of showing me, she started casting one buff after another and I pulled them up from the periphery of my vision, absorbing their information as we moved closer to the bandits’ lair.
* * *
Name: Enforced Body
Type: Buff
Level: 3
Effect: Increases Maximum HP by 20%
Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds
Description: A concentrated amount of mana is absorbed by the receiver’s pores and travels through their body, invigorating it and making them feel healthier for a limited period of time.
* * *
This buff was amazing. I’d done raids with buffers before but never had I been blessed with the Enforced Body buff at the third level. With just this single buff, my HP shot up by more than six hundred. I could only imagine what else she might have in store for me.
* * *
Name: Enlightened Soul
Type: Buff
Level: 3
Effect: Increases Maximum MP by 20%
Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds
Description: The caster directs mana to the core of the spell’s target, breaking down blocks and opening new pathways in the core’s mana corridors, enabling the target to store more mana.
* * *
This buff might not be all that useful if we were taken by surprise, but might make all the difference if we were the ones making the surprise attack. Having twenty percent more MP would mean being able to cast spells and perform attack skills for longer than your unprepared enemies.
But the next buff was the best I had seen yet.
* * *
Name: Hastened Attack
Type: Buff
Level: 2
Effect: Increases Attack Speed by 33%
Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds
Description: The hand movements of the spell’s target become faster and the weapon they wield becomes lighter as a layer of mana surrounds them and aids them in their attacks.
* * *
Increasing my speed by one third was an immense boost. Considering that I was able to strike multiple targets with my spear, perhaps going back to XP grinding might even make sense again. I would finally be able to do Area of Effect XPing without worrying about pulling too many monsters.
This woman was a treasure and I knew I had to keep her by my side at all costs. Even if it meant her taking advantage of me.
“Why are you smiling like that?” she said, snapping me out of my quickly spiraling thoughts.
“No reason. I just like these buffs,” I said. Then I saw a man approaching us, his hands in front of him. “Looks like it’s time to do some god work.”
“Who the fuck are you?” the man asked, and immediately unsheathed his sword.
* * *
Name: Ioloas of Namekios
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Level: 11
* * *
I had seen his type a thousand times over. The fastest to open their mouths and always the last to back down. Not even when it was time for them to die would they ask for forgiveness or mercy. Only when they were absolutely sure that nobody was around watching would they plead for the life, as though their pride and the image they projected to others was more important.
The rest of the criminals emerged from the building holding their weapons at the ready before I addressed them again.
“Put down your weapons, lest you feel the wrath of your new god,” I said. My lance crackled with energy.
My Divinity Points were full and I thought of frying the first one to attack me as an example for everyone else. That might work to deter most of them, or at least I’d be able to identify the ones with hardcore suicide-by-god tendencies.
“You’re supposed to be our new god?” the man asked, but there was already a tremble in his voice.
“I really don’t want to—” I started saying, but then considered my words. “Actually, I really don’t care about killing you… but you should at least consider getting your regrets straight before you move on.”
With those words, my spear shined bright as electricity coursed through it. Most of the men were now hesitant to approach us, but this Ioloas guy was still holding his ground.
“If you’re as strong as you claim to be, why don’t you show us your level?” he shouted.
“Foolish mortal,” Aphrodite replied instead. “Don’t you think there’s a reason our levels are hidden from you? You can’t even fathom the difference in our power, yet you want to see our levels?”
“Nobody was talking to y—” the man said, but a boom of thunder swallowed his last words.
When the lightning cleared, there was nothing but a smoking black mark on the ground in his stead. The man with the big mouth was no more. It was at that point that what I needed to do here suddenly became clear.
I wasn’t particularly keen on killing them all. I wouldn’t even have minded letting them go, especially after they’d watched their comrade blink out of existence. I doubted they would offer any resistance at all. They couldn’t possibly be so stupid.
However, if Ioloas had such a big mouth, I could only imagine his comrades would too. Letting them go would certainly grow my name in popularity and people would know of me as a generous and forgiving god. I had never considered myself to be particularly forgiving but that wasn’t the main issue I had with this whole scenario.
If word got out that I was doing deeds here, it wouldn’t take too long before my father heard about it and sent someone to investigate. As bothersome as it sounded, I needed to take every single one of them down.
“Ah, you mortals,” I sighed, and looked at Aphrodite. “Can you pin down the ones that run away?”
“Gladly,” she said.
I launched myself forward.