“Are you guys in?” Rick asked his sister.

It had been his dream to open a shop since the first day after the Heaven’s Dictate. With the Lemegeton in his possession, he wanted to become the information broker. Now that he had the chance to start his first shop at the Blessed Exchange, he couldn't let the opportunity slip!

With countless City-states popping all over Earth and little in the name of communication between all of them, Rick could easily see the Blessed Exchange becoming a common meeting point. Maya or whoever her boss was appeared to have similar plans. They first laid a rule to stop all sort of violence and then allowed people to buy land and start businesses! With no fear of violence and Maya’s watch, the place was bound to draw people.

But different from Maya’s plans for the betterment of humanity, Rick’s ambitions were more selfish.

His recent stint at the Harow trainyard and the Celestial City made it abundantly clear how lacking his preparations were. He had the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, and little information to go on.

‘I need a place of my own,’ Rick thought.

He needed to find information that would let him become a summoner. But it was dangerous to keep moving from place to place, hoping to make it alive. Instead, he wanted a place where others would gather!

Almost four months of his one-year deadline were over. If he didn’t buckle up now, it would definitely be too late. Rick didn’t have just one trouble looming on his back – but two! First, it was the prophesized alien invasion that all of humanity had to faces. The second was the threat from the Kings of Hell. Rick was on a timer here, if the Kings figured out he wasn’t technically the true Ruler of Hell, the Kings would have his head!

There was only one way out – to summon at least one King before the one-years deadline came to an end.

For that, he had to learn to become a Master Summoner, while he was stuck at the Apprentice rank! There were at least two-ranks in between – Practitioner and Veteran before he could reach the elusive rank of Master Summoner! The worst of all was that he had no idea if there were other ranks in between!

Rick only had once clue on becoming a Master Summoner.

The Lemegeton had hinted that becoming an Elemental Mage would further his summoning abilities. But up till now, he had only succeeded in becoming a fire-elemental mage. He had tried to delve up information about the core-runes from everyone he came across, but with little success. No one seemed to have any clue there existed something called Core-Runes!

It wasn’t that he hadn’t made any progress either. He did succeed in summoning Grant! That alone pushed him to the brink of overcoming the barrier from Apprentice rank to Practitioner!

But he knew it wasn’t enough.

Becoming a summoner meant he had to become an Elemental-Mage, which in turn required him to hunt for the Core-Runes which Rick had no idea where to even start looking. But now people from all over the new world were gathering in the Blessed Exchange. Surely someone would have the information he needed.

“Of course, we are dude,” Jay replied instead. “We’ll have our own shop here in the Blessed Exchange. Count me in as well.”

“Thanks, Jay,” said Rick with a grateful smile. He looked at the fourth face and asked pensively, “What about you Dale?

He already counted on Samira and Jay to agree, but he wanted to gather as many trustworthy people with him as he could. The more time passed, the more Rick realized the limitations of the things that could accomplish alone. He needed people he could trust or at least rely on. There was no doubt that he didn’t have the power or numbers like the big cities, but what Rick wanted was a small group of people that everyone thought twice before aggravating.

“I… have to think about it,” Dale replied, hesitation visible in his voice. The ex-soldier gestured towards the stage where Maya was still answering questions.

“Take your time,” Rick replied with a smile.

Dale’s non-committal answer did bother him a little, but he was sure the older ex-soldier would join his camp. Instead of dwelling on what he couldn’t change anymore, Rick shifted his focus back to the stage instead.

“… and yes, I will only accept Blessed Stones as payment. After you buy it, the land is yours. So, you can do whatever you want with it,” said Maya answering a question.

Right after one question was over, a second one would shoot up right after.

“Are you all deaf? Why do you keep asking questions?” Rick mumbled under his breath. It was getting rather infuriating to stand around listening to Maya answer question after question while all he wanted now was for this announcement to get over so that he could buy the land and build a shop as soon as possible. From where he stood, Maya’s explanation couldn’t have been clearer.

The system was pretty straight-forward. Land could be bought directly by clicking on a map of the Blessed Exchange in the Lesser God’s System. All they had to do was buy the property with Blessed Stones and the ownership would automatically get registered. It didn’t even matter how many people pulled in their money – all Maya cared was that the required Blessed Stones be paid!

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“Damn it,” Rick said as realization struck. He looked back at his sister and asked, “How many of those Blessed Stones do you have.”

He saw Jay and Samira make the realisation as well and check at their balance.

Fifty-six. The answer was hardly flattering. Even after both Samira and Jay chipped into the pool, the three of them only had fifty-six Blessed Stones in their hands.

“This doesn’t look good,” Rick said as an anxious tug pulled at his heartstrings.

The continuous barrage of questions poured at Maya was a clear indication that others were interested in owning land in the Blessed Exchange as well. But if his fears were right, it wouldn’t be individuals that would be buying land here. It would be large groups of survivors and leaders of the City-states that would stake their claim first!

Rick anxiously opened the Lesser God’s System, but the map hadn’t been updated yet. With a resigned sigh, he closed the screen and looked back at the stage. There was nothing he could do but hope that that fifty-six was enough to buy something at least.

“Alright, now onto the final announcement. We have discussed the laws that must be followed, where you will be teleported once you arrive in the Blessed Exchange and how to buy land here. But now, we will discuss the most significant change to the Blessed Exchange – The Temple,” said Maya, drawing the murmuring crowd to silence.

“The Temple is the Lord’s holy sanctuary. It is like those Parliaments, Headquarters and whatnot you had on old-Earth. Just know this – the Temple it is the Lord’s seat in the Blessed exchange. And importantly, it is the Temple where you will arrive, every time you enter the Blessed Exchange unless you draw your teleportation-circle elsewhere.”

This drew numerous murmurs from the crowd. Maya’s words were simple – place a teleportation circle elsewhere, but if you can’t you have only one option – get teleported to the Temple.

“I need to make the teleportation-circles as well!” Rick clicked his tongue. The number of things in his to-do-list was getting exceedingly longer!

As Maya continued to explain the scope of the Temple, it became evident rather quickly that this structure would be anything but a small shrine for the Lord. It was more likely to be a castle! The Temple would have an outer-garden large enough for all the surviving humans to teleport at once. Not just that, but the outer-garden would even have a few stores as well!

Maya didn’t explain what would be sold at these shops, but one item for sale was the teleportation-circle prints. Beyond the outer-garden was the inner garden and the Temple itself, which were closed off to everyone except those that performed deeds of courage. From the scale of the number of people in the ground itself, it was quite simple to gather that the Temple had to be an enormous structure.

‘There has to be something more to it. What are you not telling us?’ Rick wondered. He was truly surprised how expansive the changes at the Blessed Exchange were. The rules, the shops and now the temple. While Maya didn’t say it outright, he suspected it had a deeper purpose.

“Now, a final word,” Maya said. The cheery saleswoman tone vanished for an ice-cold glare instead. “There have been many rogue-heroes among who instead of walking the true path of getting strong, chose to accept the powers of the heretics that were returned to Earth. Instead of slaying them, you idiots chose to accept their evil powers instead. Did you think that the Lord wouldn’t notice it? All you infidels deserve nothing but death for betraying the Lords trust!”

“Fuck!” Rick felt his blood run cold. He was in deep trouble. With his Lemegeton and the Signet, Rick was in a literal sense the Ruler of Hell! He was definitely one of these rogue-heroes for sure! Was this the real reason – to bunch them together? He stepped back and tried to bent his shoulders, trying to make himself smaller.

“But despite my misgivings, the Lord is merciful,” Maya continued.

As soon as he heard this, a ray of hope appeared in his heart.

Maya continued in a fervent tone. “In spite of your outlandish actions, Lord is willing to give you a chance at redemption. You will not be killed; you are Hero’s none the less. Come to the Temple and accept the Lord’s blessings. If you are deemed worthy you could become an acolyte or even an Emissary!”

The crowd fell silent at her words. Rick too didn’t know what to do. For a moment there, he felt like he was done for. But suddenly he was given a new lease on life.

‘Is that it?’ he looked around unsurely.

Even though this Lord wasn’t too pleased with the conduct of these rogue-heroes, it didn’t look like he would go as far as to kill. Instead of that, it felt like this Lord was trying to draw him into his camp instead. With his thoughts reaching there, he immediately decided to avoid taking this blessing if he could.

First of all, Rick still wasn’t fully convinced at the motive behind it. After all, it could very well be a trap to the rogue-heroes. And secondly, and more importantly, even if it wasn’t a trap, the blessings weren’t simple.

“Now, if you look behind you,” Maya’s voice pulled his attention back to the stage, “You’ll see where the temple is.”

Everyone in the crowd turned to look back simultaneously.

“What! How?” it wasn’t just Rick, everyone in the crowd gasped in surprise, it was monumental magic like never before.

The empty endless field behind them had disappeared and was replaced by an elegant and expansive castle. A faint blue hue exuded from the walls of the towering castle. It was large. The caste itself was kilometres away, with a huge garden sprawling in front. This was the first time Rick saw vegetation in the Blessed Exchange as well. Rows of exotic trees he had never seen before lined the pavement stretching from the large gates endlessly towards the castle.

Rick was entranced by the sheer scale and architecture of the building. It was a perfect balance of modern architecture while retaining the grandeur and enigma of historical monuments.

“Everything beyond these gates is the Temple grounds” Maya's voice startled him. “Many of you may have already realized, but the Blessed Exchange a different world from Earth. The Temple is the sole arbiter in the World of Blessed Exchange and you would be wise to not cause troubles within its holy grounds. That’s all I had to said. Have a nice time at the Blessed Exchange.”

Maya ended her speech like a flight attendant.

“This… isn’t Earth!” Rick gulped in fearful wonder.

He had an inkling that this place felt woefully alien – unlike anything on Earth. But the admission that this wasn’t Earth was too big for him to fathom. There was a million question in his mind. Was this another planet? Is this the solar system? Is this even the same Universe?

Rick raised his hand along with thousands of others in the crowd hoping Maya would pick them for asking the question. But instead, it was Maya’s voice that droned from in the sky again.

“No more doubts will be answered. The heroes are requested to find the rest of the answers themselves.”

With that, the blue-haired manager of the Blessed Exchange disappeared from the stage without a trace.

“What do we do now?” he heard someone in the crowd as aloud.

The ending to the entire speech was so abrupt that everyone just stood there not knowing what to do next.

“Guys, the map’s updated…” Samira spoke with her eyes distracted, looking vacantly in air. “We can start buying!