( John POV )

The farther Zane gets into his explanation the more restless I get.

Finally I simply get up from my seat and slowly start pacing back and forth trying to focus.

If what he is saying is true then the consequensces will change everything I planned out so far.

"Jade, I expect you know what to do?"

She doesn’t even bother responding, in a simple flash she disappears into the ether.

in the bottom right corner of my vision a small message pops up, telling me she logged into TtA.

What could it mean? Will everyone get a cult worshipping them, or will only certain people get it?

If only certain people get it then why did we get it and what does it do?

Does it provide us with power? Or does it require us to do more micromanaging?

Zane said that we can provide blessings and wards, but how and what are the effects of each one?

With a bright flash of light Jade returns, only to strike a dramatic pose while hovering a few feet above the ground before loudly announcing her presence.

"Bow before me mortals for I have been uplifted to godhood!!"

I roll my eyes while she has her moment but when after a few seconds she isn’t getting back to acting normal I decide to step in.

"Quit it Jade, and tell me what you found."

She glares at me before straightening her outfit and floating down in order to sit down in her usual chair.

"It took a bit of digging but I managed to find it in the end, normally you should have to go through the religion overview screen but that only unlocks after you have had one religion reach majority.

I swiftly contacted the AI that manages the game-to-player interfaces, and he rapidly provide a work around."

"But how did you two get access to this religion in the first place in the first place?"

"I think I know, when we directly interfered with Jormund, I had to pull him to a mini server that allows for modifying your people, while doing this we glanced upon my glorious self and decided that I was worthy of worship."

"Watch out Zane, it looks like you have competition."

"But that what the entire game is about right? The competition between multiple players?"

I almost forgot about the damnable owl, it acts almost like a character you would see in a cringy sitcom.

"What else do we have in terms of information?"

"We have access to two powers currently the lesser blessing of fertility and the lesser ward of health.

The lesser blessing of fertility gives an increase in the amount of pregnancies of 5% in the chosen village for five years, the cost for this is 500 faith points.

The lesser ward of health provides a buff to the chosen village which reduces the chances of sickness spreading by 15% for 1 year, once more for the cost of 500 faith points.

In addition, anyone following our religion gets an increased fertility rating, but this number is an almost neglectable 1%."

"That seems kinda underwhelming doesn’t it?"

"Not really, since the boosts that they provide are multiplicative, every blessing of fertility will be stronger than the last one due to the already increase population, which seems small but as we saw when fighting the goblins, numbers do make a difference.

Now Jade how much faith points do we have?"

"Currently we have access to twenty-nine faith point, the majority of these are from converting Zane’s tribe for the first time, since we get 25 points for each tribe converted for the first time, it’s a nice kick start but it isn’t much in the long term.

Our main source of points will be these acts of worship.

We will get one faith point from each successful pregnancy, important to notice that this is pregnancies not children.

In addition we get five points each year a family that follows our religion is above the average family size for its species, this will probably be our biggest source of points in the long term.

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and finally the last source is for each person that dies of old age, in this case we get one point for every thirty years that they were alive."

I stop and start running the numbers in my head, early on we will certainly have some problems getting faith but if we spread the faith we should be getting plenty of points.

"Any additional information?"

"Nothing in terms of powers, but we can unlock more by converting more people which will increase our rank."

This definitely throws off our previous plans, maybe I should just get out of VR for a second…

"I feel like going to bed early, Jade prepare to log me out.

And Zane, thank you, if you need anything just ask Jade she will help you."

I exit the room and slowly the world around me fades away into nothing.

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( Nym POV )

Drying the leaves, grinding the roots, stirring the water, adding a mix of chewed herbs, heating up the solution, drinking the draught, muscle contractions, cleansing my body from toxins, repeat.

Drying the leaves, grinding the roots, stirring the water, adding a mix of chewed herbs, heating up the solution, drinking the draught, loss of smell and taste, cleansing my body from toxins, repeat.

Drying the leaves, grinding the roots, stirring the water, adding a mix of chewed herbs, heating up the solution, drinking the draught, minor paralyzation, cleansing my body from toxins, repeat.

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I wake from a daze when I feel a hand on my shoulder, it takes me a few seconds to recognize the person who woke me up as my sister.

"Lani? Whatss wrong?"

Why i am I slurring my words? I haven't done that since I was a child

"I worry about you, mom told me that the only thing you have been doing for the last few days was getting up, start working on some kind of herbal drink and repeating this over and over again."

"No I haven’t done that, or have I? Don’t remember that clearly…"

"Alright that is it! I am taking you to see Gordune! There is clearly something wrong with you."

She pulls me up and as I finally get on my feet, my vision fades.

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"Stupid apprentice practising on yourself, tsh what do you think we have anklebiters for…"

"Will she be alright?"

"Oh yes, off course she will be, I cleared all the remaining poisons from her body, but she will need to stay in bed for awhile…

Maybe three days, yes yes."

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A loud thumping sound wakes me, my head hurts with each thump almost as if someone is trying to break it open, similar to how the kids break open Candur eggs.

"Where am I?"

"Finally awake are we? Hmm, you should know where we are.

After all most of your lessons happened in here!"

When he shout that last line my head only hurts more, I reach up in order to cover my ears from which the painful sound reached me but gordune stops my hands by hitting them with his cane.

"No! You listen and explain, afterwards I heal and you go back to sleep."

I try to crawl away but he stops me with a hard poke in my ribs.

"I taught you well and what do you do! You almost poison yourself to dead! Explain yourself."

I grunt in order to suppress the pain, the constant thumping making it hard to concentrate.

I try to sit up in order to answer but once more I receive a poke in between my ribs.

"And no more moving! You remain in bed until further notice!"

"Just be quiet, please everything hurts."

My whimpering seems to have fallen on deaf ears since I just receive another poke.

"I stop pain when we done, now tell me."

"Kali asked me to make a lure for a Gylari queen for him, but I didn’t know how to so I simply tried every flower that Gylari get their nectar from and every fruit they gather in their nests, but nothing worked."

Another barrage of pain hits my head, and I grunt again in order to suppress it.

"So I decided to simply try every plant I could get my hands on until I got something useful, but I must have started losing track of what I was doing quite rapidly since I don’t remember anything past the first ten plants…"

"Fine that’s good enough, now lie still yes?"

Gordune places his hands on my ribs and a green glow starts to appear around his hands.

Slowly the sound of my heartbeat quites down until its nothing more then a vague back ground noise instead of an the moud sounds that cause me so much pain and shorthly after I fall back asleep.

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( Gordune POV )

When Nym falls back asleep I get up using my cane and slowly walk towards the exit.

I should go tell her parents that she is fine.

And tell Kali that next time when he gives someone a challenge to complete that maybe he should warn them when its already completed.

Nym is gonna be so angry when she finds out about that…

I chuckle to myself.

Maybe I can see whether the rumor that she has a water affinity is actually true.

The image of Kali finally learning his lesson brings a smile to my old face, after all him finally growing up is a thing I would like to see before my death.