Looking at the holographic eye in front of me that was offering me help I, of course, accepted it.

No reason the create unnecessary conflict if there’s no need for it after all.

“Of course! I’d be more than happy to get help from an established deity like you, Ojciec Lasu, but... how do you plan on helping me?

“My current plan is about going in quickly, rescuing a few dozen to a hundred people, and then returning to my lands. I can hardly see you being able to help me with accomplishing my plan... unless your people help me directly.

“But surely, you know how dangerous it’d be for you to even send a few men to help me with my goals as that’d be more than enough of a justification for Deity Tilk, and by proxy her nation of Teria, to declare war on your realm after she comes back and fixes her nation.” I told Ojciec Lasu, and he went silent for a moment before starting to talk again and offering something unexpected.

“What if that wasn’t your plan then?” Ojciec Lasu asked suddenly.

“If that... wasn’t my plan? You know how few men I brought with me, right? I’d doubt I could pull of a plan that different from the one I already have with much success... but do tell if you have another plan in mind, I am all ears.” I told Ojciec Lasu after a few moments of contemplation in my mind.

He had offered to help me a few moments ago after all, and surely his plan would be an interesting offer, even if I decided on not going along with it.

“Before I start talking about my plan, I want to know something, how will you be transporting the people you “rescue” from Teria back to your lands? Surely you won’t expect them to walk for days in wilderness, right?”

“Of course not! I have a valuable contact that I will be relying on to carry back the people I rescue to my lands.”

“And this contact of yours, how many people can they carry back to your lands?”

“Hmm... that depends on how much I am willing to pay them I reckon, so easily a few hundred people if I decide to pay enough.”

“Then, shouldn’t you be trying to get as many hundreds of people as you can instead of being satisfied with only a few dozen? Then, my plan will work wonders for you...” Ojciec Lasu started, and his eye glowed for a moment before he continued.

“First of all, you will start using Lublin as your HQ for the next few weeks.” He started, and I just stared at him for a few moments in bafflement.

“Didn’t I just say—”

“Yes, you did just say how dangerous it’d be for me to lend you any men—but I am not lending you any now, am I?”

“But—” I started, wanting to complain as I couldn’t be bothered with giving him a favour or whatever he wanted, but he quickly cut me off.

“I didn’t finish, that’s just the first step of the plan. Now, be quiet and listen.” He said harshly, and I just decided to let him talk for now.

“Secondly, I will give you a map of the nearest Terian town of Prady, and its surroundings.

“There lives around 2-3k people in the town itself and its villages if I am not mistaken, and you, my dear friend and ally, will be “rescuing” the poor villagers from their oppressors and bringing them here, where my people will take care of them until your contact comes along and carries them off!

“But as you can understand by now, you will still have to be careful with your movements and focus on converting the poor villagers as I said as if you step out from your boundaries and are spotted by the town’s guard or priests, you will assaulted by a few dozen guards.

“And, while it’d be quite sad for a deity to be beaten by a few hundred soldiers from a random town in the middle of nowhere... you are also a just deity candidate for now, so it’d be understandable if you were to be scared of their forces.”

“...So, your “plan” is basically the same one I had before, but instead of escaping with the first batch of people I manage to convert to my side, I will just bring them here, and you will keep them safe? Is that all the support you’ll be giving me?” I asked Ojciec Lasu as, while the prospect of a few hundred more followers was enticing... I wasn’t sure if I could actually defend myself against a small army, especially with all the fanatics they’d get who’d want to fight with them after realising a foreign deity was in their lands, stealing their people.

Hell, that may even be enough of a common enemy for them that the people of Prady may unite against me, and stop the oppression of the various minorities in their lands slightly... for a while.

“Well, I said I’d help you, so I’ll give you a few people, but I’ll only be able to send small forces to you that won’t come any time soon as they need to be quite stealthy while they come here, and after as well otherwise they may be the thing that gives you out, and not a mistake of your own doing.

“But I can give you one of my priests in the village to help you with the lay of the land right away if you want?” Ojciec Lasu asked, and I thought about it for a few moments.

Stolen story; please report.

“...Sure, that’d be helpful right now, but can I also ask for something else?”

“Oooh? A small favour then?”

“You said you’d help me until I get on my feet as a deity, right? So, if anything everything you are doing right now, including hearing me out and complying with my requests are also something you’ve already promised me.”

“Hmm... fair. Fire away then my dear friend, what is it that you wish of me?” Ojciec Lasu asked, and I fired away with my request.

“Corpses—as many as you can bring here.” I told him, and for a moment, his hologram eye, which constantly swayed in the air as if it was subject to an unseen wind, stopped in its place completely before coming back to life as Ojciec Lasu started talking.

“...An interesting request... and do tell, why do you need these corpses?”

“Well, I am the Lord of Souls after all, and an undead myself, so, if I am going to start a fight with a proper deity and her people, I should at least start the construction of my eternal army, should I not?”

“Hmm...” Ojciec Lasu hummed for a moment in thought before answering me.

“Of course! An undead deity cannot live without his eternal servants! But, how decayed do you want the corpses?”

“Fresh, if possible, but I’ll accept any even if they are just bleached bones, I don’t mind. But I will have to kill a bit of the local wildlife to build them new muscles if you bring me only bones.”

“...Fair, but couldn’t you just use the corpses of your future enemies to fuel the construction and repair of your forces?”

“...What?”

“Hmm? Of, my dear friend, please don’t tell me you didn’t think you’d have to kill people even if you didn’t encounter any of Prady’s guards or priests!

“You are stealing the followers of another deity after all, and there will be many, many obstacles in the shape of men and beast in your way to get even one or two people to convert to your cause!” Ojciec Lasu said, and for a few moments I was silent, deciding on what to say.

“...I am under no delusion that says that I can leave these lands without spilling blood, but I’d rather not desecrate the corpses of my enemies, whether they be man, or woman.

“Beast are fine though... I doubt there will be a convenient dungeon nearby that I can enter to kill some monsters, right?”

“Sadly not. Though, I have to say, I find it a bit weird that you wouldn’t choose the fastest route to power, but I respect your decision non the less.” Ojciec Lasu said before muttering something.

“...Though, your undead army is going to mess with my inquisitors either way...” He muttered, and I decided to ask him a question about deity hood as I saw the opportunity for it.

“Ojciec Lasu, while we are here and talking about my future, and paving my path into deity hood, can you talk to me a bit about classes I’ll be able to give to my followers in the future and how they work?”

“Hmm? Has The All Mother not talked about that to you?”

“Well... only a little. I am sure she’d tell me more about them, but I’ve been quite busy the last month or so with my quest to reach deity hood and all.”

“I see... then, is there a specific aspect of the classes you’ll be able to grant that you are curious about, or would you like me to give you a general rundown?”

“A general rundown if possible, and can you tell me how you grant classes and how you choose which classes to grant as well?”

“Hmm... she really didn’t tell you anything, huh?” Ojciec Lasu wondered aloud for a moment before starting giving me a rundown of classes I’d be able to grant after I reached deity hood.

“There are 8 tiers to the classes you can give out to your followers by default, and yes, I am saying tiers, not ranks, as you can give a tier 8 clergymen, the lowest tier, an S rank class if you want—the system doesn’t care. But, you should. As, giving a tier 8 deacon an A rank class while giving a tier 2 Grand-Cardinal a B rank class will cause some problems.

“And the higher the tier, and rank of class you bestow, the more divinity you’ll have to spend on them. Though, you can artificially decrease this by decreasing the amount of divinity you spend on each holy mana or by creating more tiers for your church, and yes you can do that, system basically allows you to do anything you want with your divinity as long as you have enough Divinity to spare.

“And as the system allows you to do anything with your Divinity, you can add classes, remove classes, or entire tiers!

“Though, don’t worry, you won’t have to create classes from 0 as the system will give you multiple default classes, and as you discover more classes through just... learning about them from others, or specially creating your own, you will be able grant more classes than the few the system gives you as default!

“But, if you want to create a new class from 0 using your divinity, you’ll only be able to mix and match the skills of your other holly classes, and every other skill you give them will have to come from your own list of skills, and even then, they’ll just be lesser versions of your skills.

“And to grant classes, you just need someone who’s a follower of yours. And how do you determine if someone is a follower or not? You don’t! You just hope they tell you the truth thing while talking to you or interacting with your divine cores!

“And if a liar manages to get granted a class by you... don’t worry, the pure divinity that will enter their body will make their bodies either wither in mere moments or explode!”

“Wait, divinity can do that?”

“Ohoho! Divinity can do a lot more than that! Though, if you want to use divinity to torture people... don’t.

“While it’s an extremely efficient torture method, its also very, very expensive... if you choose to use divinity that is.

“If you make a specialised torturer class, and give them some specialised equipment, they should be able to pour their holy mana into certain parts of your prisoners’ bodies, and cause them great pain. Though, this is still a bit expensive as the specialised equipment they need is... well, specialised. Extremely specialised.

“Though, I’d be willing to sell you some of my old ones if you are interested? They in need of some repairs, but they should still work wonders!” Ojciec Lasu said excitedly, and I just turned down his offer, and asked him to continue talking about his priests, how they acted, and how they used their classes and their skills, to which he obliged to wholeheartedly and continued talking once again.

I... didn’t exactly like both of my allies being... well, just war criminals, and I didn’t like that I had to act like they weren’t actually abominable beings... but I was willing to leave it as is right now.

Afterall, Rifu-san was just an isolationist, and I could mostly stop her from being her worst self after dealing with The Pale Lord, and for Ojciec Lasu, I could probably... “convince” him to stop being a literal war criminal after I became strong enough to be equals, or above him.

I felt like shit thinking about betraying them in the future, or just manipulating them, but I still had my morals. And what do you do when your allies are committing war crimes? You punch them in the face!

...Or you just get them executed, but I don’t feel like pledging to do that right now.