With the System’s assistance mode on. When Cedric looked at Lacius with his Divine Sight, there is now an additional screen next to the light that shows his life level and potential.
[Life Level: Upper level 0
Potential: Peak level 1]
Cedric observed the screen and asked, “Does that mean Lacius is currently at level 0 and will receive a boost until he reaches the peak of level 1?”
[Correct.]
“What will happen after he reaches peak level 1? Can he continue to the next level?”
[Yes. It is still possible to advance to the next level through training. But, he won’t receive a boost nor other benefits that can push his growth in life level.]
Cedric nodded before he asked another thing. “How many levels are there anyway?”
[There are twenty life levels in total, from level 0 to level 19. Each level grants a qualitative leap in their existence and power. Level 0 to 15 are the transformation from mortals to something divine. Those below level 16 are still bound by lifespans. Although they have many means to extend their lifespans, the time they have is still limited nevertheless.]
[Starting from level 16, which is the level you’re at, living creatures can condense their godhood. They will attain eternal life, free from the limit of lifespan.]
Cedric silently remembered it as he felt that information is extremely important. Then, he stopped bothering about it and closed his eyes to check the situation on Crystal Cube world.
Inside the Crystal Cube world, the elves and dwarves are still pretty calm and no important event has happened. Seeing that, he smiled and moved his attention to the humans.
During his chat with the System and experiment to activate Divine Sight, the burial ceremony held in the recently renamed Sacred Kingdom has finished.
Now, Lacius can be seen sitting inside an office at River Stone city. On his head, he wore the golden crown Gratian always said to symbolize his authority as king.
Holding a newly crafted golden scepter, he observed his subordinates who prepared for his raise as the new human king. They are currently discussing the way to stabilize the kingdom after Gratian’s death.
After a few hours of intense discussion, the meeting ended and their plan began to be put in motion.
Pushed by Lacius’s subordinates who traveled through every city, news of Gratian’s demise and the rise of a new king began to spread. Along with the news, Lacius has also ceased Gratian’s previous order for tribute and manpowers. In exchange, he began a new order to forbid the humans from spreading Gratian’s tale. Those who failed to comply are greatly punished.
Under Lacius’s unforgiving rule, the talk of Gratian slowly ceased and his name slowly but surely became forgotten. Especially once the young men taken by Gratian’s order to build his palace and city wall have returned to their respective city, everyone begins to happily resume their daily lives.
Seeing the situation has stabilized, Lacius, Yasu, and their subordinates rode several horses together to the Winter City. Upon arriving at the city, they quickly marched into the palace and searched for Gratian’s family. Everytime they found any people tied to Gratian through familial bond, they heartlessly slaughtered every single one of them.
Once all of Gratian’s family members they found had been killed, Lacius traveled through the bloodied half-finished palace with expressionless face before sitting on the throne in the throne room.
Watching the young Lacius sit on it, Yasu and the surrounding people bowed. Just like the day when many people bowed to Gratian to show their allegiance, The people inside the throne room gave their full allegiance to Lacius.
***
Meanwhile, in the Divine Space. When Cedric saw Lacius’s slaughter of Gratian’s family, he could only stare at it blankly. Suddenly watching such a graphic scene is quite a shock for him. Although similar bloodied battle also happens during the war, at least both sides are fighting to either kill or get killed.
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As for the slaughter that just happened, their targets are mostly incapable of fighting. Except for some of Gratian’s adult children and wives, most of them consisted of young childrens. Some of the women are even still pregnant with Gratian’s unborn children.
After a long silence, Cedric spoke. “This situation is pretty fucked up.”
He then stopped observing the situation on Crystal Cube world and stood up from his chair. Once he stood up, he walked around the house he created in the Divine Space to calm down. After circling the house once, he went outside and used his ability to create things in the Divine Space to create several neighboring houses.
Only when a small neighborhood has been created does he return to his house and enter his room. Now with a calmer state of mind, Cedric asked the System. “I’ve counted it, the previous war and Lacius’s slaughter has decreased the human race’s population by almost five percent. Are there any means to increase their numbers?”
[There are many ways to increase a world’s population. But, for your current situation, System recommended the Level 4 Consumable Divine Item, Species Fertility Blessing.]
Cedric searched for the item and quickly found it.
[Level 4 Consumable Divine Item, Species Fertility Blessing.
Cost: 100 GP
Description: Increase the fertility of one or several species within an area. The item’s effect and duration depends on the number of creatures affected, their average life level, the complicatedness of their life structure, the area included, the amount of races affected, etc.]
He read through the description and saw many complicated things that can affect [Species Fertility Blessing] and shrugged. He decided to simply ask the System about its function. “Once I use the items on humans, how big will the population increase going to be?”
[Including the chance of death due to illness and other things. One usage of the Species Fertility Blessing is enough for the human population to reach 150.000 within ten years, which is also the item’s duration according to System’s calculation.]
“It sounds pretty good.” Cedric nodded as he spent 300 GP and bought three [Species Fertility Blessing]
Initially, he only wishes to purchase one, but he suddenly thought of something and purchased three [Species Fertility Blessing] instead. “I’ll use one on the humans, elves, and dwarves respectively. Although I feel I am a bit too skewed toward humanity, as the god of the Crystal Cube world, I must try my best to be impartial!”
As he saw his GP decrease by 300, Cedric saw three bright pink octahedron crystals appear in front of him. Looking at those crystals, he got dumbfounded.
“Why is it another pink octahedron? Aren’t there other shapes and colors?” He can’t help but ridicule the uncreativity of whoever created these items.
With the crystal at hand, he asked,"How do I use this item?"
[Simply place your mental power on it and pull the energy inside the crystal into your world. Then, select a target you wish to bless.]
Cedric nodded and closed his eyes while spreading his mental power outside. He moved them inside one of the crystals and controlled the energy within.
The feeling of controlling the [Species Fertility Blessing] is quite similar to controlling his GP. The familiarity made him easily scoop those energy and bring them into the Crystal Cube world.
Inside the Crystal Cube world, Cedric saw his mental power had arrived near the dwarves’ magic mountain and decided to use the [Species Fertility Blessing] on them.
‘Damn it, I forgot to ask what I should do after I brought the energy inside.’ As he thought so, the energy from [Species Fertility Blessing] seemed to heed his will and slowly seeped into the body of a dwarf. Because Cedric hasn’t set any area for the item’s range. Soon, it began to spread and merged with the body of every single dwarf in his world.
When the energy has entirely merged with all dwarves, he could faintly sense that the dwarven race’s fertilization chance increased. Their chance of giving birth to twins, triplets, or more has also been increased. Furthermore, the babies born within the blessing’s duration will also be more robust. Which should increase their survival rate to a certain extent.
‘That means the blessing should’ve been activated right?’ Cedric thought while slowly retrieving his mental power back into his body.
[Indeed]
The sudden screen shocked him and almost caused his mental power to disperse. “Damn it, you shocked me! Also, stop peeking at my thoughts. Where is the basic trust between humans? Don’t you even know about privacy?”
[The System isn’t human though.]
Its replies make Cedric speechless. He decided to stop speaking and just silently retrieved his mental power before opening his eyes.
Feeling the three octahedron crystal on his hand, he saw one of them had stopped glowing and lost its bright pink luster.
Placing the crystal he has used, Cedric repeated the action he has done before two more times and blessed both the humans and elves.
Cedric then spent some time silently watching the three intelligent races on his world prosper as their populations quickly exploded. It lasted for a whole year before he felt something was wrong and stopped.
Using the memory and calculation boosts from the godhood, Cedric begins calculating the source of his uneasiness.
After a minute, he finally found the source. It is actually something quite simple.
With his usage of [Species Fertility Blessing], the three races will soon have a population boom. But, except for the elves that’s blessed by their magic forest to have plenty of food, the food production of dwarves and humans is barely enough to feed their current population.
“Damn it, I am careless.” Cedric groaned. “If this goes on, the 300 GP I spent will come to waste. Furthermore, who knows what kind of mess will happen. If another war somehow happened, the population would decrease even more instead of increasing.”
He begins to rack his brain in search of a solution. Soon, he quickly grabbed the pale pink octahedron shaped [Divine Intervention: Dream] with a helpless face. “Guess I need to use this once more.”
Cedric toyed around with the octahedron crystal while preparing the information he wished to share with the people he will soon pull into the dream space.