Chương 13: Acquiring My First Believer as a Rock?!

Chapter Thirteen Acquiring My First Believer as a Rock?! Urd ran like a bull set loose in a china shop, but Alice's focus remained on the notification. Requirements for a new class have been met. Would you like to become an [Object of Worship]? [Y/N]"An object of worship...?" A hum of confused excitement began to fill her nonexistent body. She forgot all about Dale and Petre as she read and reread the ridiculous text in front of her. Requirements for a new class have been met.

Would you like to become an [Object of Worship]? [Y/N]"Is that even a real class?" It felt as though the system was playing a cruel joke on her. She had not actually given much thought to classes before, though she realized now she had seen the likes of [Pyromancer], [Prostitute], and [Merchant]. In hindsight, [Prostitute] was a rather unusual class, but not nearly as unusual as... Would you like to become an [Object of Worship]? [Y/N]"Y-Yes?" What else was there to say?

The text disappeared, but there was no flash of light like before. It seemed unlocking a new class was not as dramatic as evolving into a new kind of rock.

"Oh." A rush of notifications filled her vision, however, and she felt the earlier hum of excitement transform into a roar. Congratulations on your new class! Race: Grudge Stone > Divine Grudge Stone She was not allowed to think about what being divine meant as new notifications quickly pushed aside the old. New Skill Unlocked: Bless I Bless (Rank I): The Divine are a river that carries happiness to the mortal realm. You can bless mortals and their instruments, granting them strength and healing.

New Skill Unlocked: Smite I Smite (Rank I): The Divine are a river that carries judgment to the mortal realm. You can smite mortals and their instruments, punishing those that displease you.

"W-Wow..." Alice found herself a little speechless as she looked between the two new skills. Her nonexistent eyes grew particularly wide as she read [Smite]. It almost sounded like some kind of... offensive skill. She had been waiting for over a decade for something like that! But she soon forgot all about her new skills as a particularly strange notification appeared. Requirements for [Divine Development] have been met. Would you like to request access to [Divine Development]?

[Y̶̱̼͂ /N] Alice had not even finished reading the notification before it disappeared and was replaced. Your request for access to [D i̷͉̽̿͘͠ vine Development] ha ş̸̪͍̎̀̅̇ b e e̸̤͇͓̓̐͠ n rece i v e̶̠̭̦̠͘ d!

Ȳ̴̮̼̻͎͊͂̐ȍ̸̡͌û̵͈̖̮̇͘ r request w̸̻̆ȉ̵̙l̵̝̈́͠ͅl̶̳̜̀̿ ̶͎͉͑͆b̶̙̆̄ē̷̯ͅ rev i̸̙͊͊ ewed by reviewed by the closest [Magi] w̶̦̜̅i̶͔͝ḹ̷̤ḻ̵̘̾̀ ̸̫̆͜b̵͊ͅë̸̱̟́͝ f̸̥͘ o r̶̩͆̚ acc e̷̪͍̚͠ ss will be r ê̸͙ viewed reviewed will be Even Urd disappeared from Alice's thoughts as the text in front of her warped with corruption. It made no sense, but for the second time since waking up as a rock, Alice felt fear. Something about this garbled text was wrong.

She did not understand the spiders that crawled across her nonexistent spine, but somehow she knew- Congratulations! You have unlocked [Divine Development]!

"Eh?" The corrupted text disappeared and was replaced with a cheerful congratulations. The strange sense of doom she had felt vanished just as instantly, though [Geological Memory] meant some of the anxiety still remained. Because the broken notification had mentioned something about [Magi], that the closest [Magi] would review her request. But her request for what? [Divine Development]? Alice did not even know what those words meant. It suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea what The System was.

She had been receiving these notifications for more than a decade but had not once thought the black text unusual. She had read half a hundred stories with this very same mechanic, after all.

"But... But what is it?" Alice wondered to herself.

"What is sending me all these messages?" Unfortunately, no amount of wondering would answer that question. It was not as if there was anyone she could ask. Alice was not even sure if Urd and the others received notifications like this.

"I'll... I'll worry about it another time..." And with that noncommittal thought, she summoned a mystery a little closer to her rock heart. Name: Alice Merryweather Race: Divine Grudge Stone Class: Object of Worship (Rank F) Level: 8 FTH: 10 CE: 20/200 STR: 0 AGI: 0 VIT: 15 END: 40 PER: 22 INT: 71 WIL: 43"W-Well, that's an improvement!" Alice tried her best to bury her lingering discomfort as she looked at her stats. It seemed her new class had more than tripled some of them.

She even had a new stat, which she assumed was faith.

"My stats have always been so low I never really paid any attention to them." It had been rather difficult to get excited about six intelligence points.

"Will they finally start making a difference?" She did not look at her stats for long, however. Her eyes flicked further and further down the transparent screen until she found what she was most excited for. Unlocked Achievements First Blood! The Patient Hunter First Kill! Spreading a Little Misfortune [Legendary] It Always Starts With One (Claim Reward)"That's what I was hoping to see!" Alice's nonexistent eyes filled with delight as she saw that the legendary achievement had a reward.

"Let's see what I got!" She focused on [It Always Starts With One], and a gold-tinted screen appeared. It Always Starts With One Requirements: Acquire your first believer. New Skill Unlocked: Empowering Belief Empowering Belief (Rank X): All stats are increased by 1% for each unique believer. Alice stared at the text as her excitement drained away.

"Huh." She had expected something a little more grand from a legendary achievement. Even the skill description seemed uninspired.

"Hard to get excited over one percent..." But then her nonexistent brow furrowed.

"1% for each believer..." Her thoughts turned to Buddhism, and her nonexistent stomach did a little flip. Because a religion like that had hundreds of millions of followers.

"Forget a million, though. Imagine if I had a hundred thousand... or even just ten thousand! Is this skill actually broken?" Not that Alice had ten thousand believers. She was not even sure what a believer was. She had tried not to think too hard about it, but what was all that [Divine Development] business from earlier? Why had it made The System glitch out? As if summoned by the thought, a new window appeared in front of Alice.

Divine Development Title: Alice of the Merry W eather Rank: Infant Divine Caretaker: F̶͍́a̶̖͗v̷̻̚o̶̢͛r̷̛͙ș̷́ ̴̭̿O̸̺͐n̸̲̓ë̶͉́ ̴̠͠T̸͕̽a̸̗͘s̴̡̉k̸̖̄ If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

of Believers: 1 Total Faith Accumulated: 10 Divine Miracles [Divine Miracle] available for selection Divine Traits Acquire (10) unique believers to unlock [Divine Traits] Divine Alignment Acquire (50) unique believers to unlock [Divine Alignment] Divine Conclave Reach [Mature Divine] to access [Divine Conclave] Alice stared at the screen, her thoughts numb with confusion. It looked much like her normal status screen aside from the glitched text, but all the sections had to do with...

"Divine Miracles?" Her confused thoughts anchored onto the text that said one such mystery was available.

"Oh!" And that was all it took to summon yet another window in front of her dizzying vision. Select Miracle to Unlock Divine Trial: Once a week, you can give a believer a [Divine Trial]. If the believer is able to complete the T rial, they will receive a reward equal to the difficulty of the T rial. You will receive an amount of faith and experience equal to the difficulty and success/ failure of the T rial. Divine Communion: Once a month, you can form a special bond with a believer.

The bond will last for one month. While bonded, you r believer will learn [Skills] appropriate for their [Race] and [Class] that you have unlocked. You will similarly learn [Skills] that the believer has unlocked. Divine Revelation: Once a day, you can visit the dream of a believer. While within their dream, you will have complete control over what they experience. Upon waking, the nature of the dream you created will have a powerful psychological effect upon the believer.

Alice might have fallen over if she had legs of her own. Looking at the three miracles left her completely overwhelmed. She had lied to Urd about being a god, but these three skills... For some reason, the [Object of Worship] class, the [Smite] and [Bless] skills, and even the achievement about acquiring a believer, n one of it had really driven home what [Divine Development] was all about. But these three miracles...

"They're godlike." She felt rather stupid all of a sudden. It was more than just god like. Everything that was flashing past her eyes was godly.

"It... It kind of feels like I'm turning into a god." It was not fear that filled her then. Despite her lack of lungs, Alice found herself lightheaded and short of breath. Because she wasn't a god. She was just a rock!

"B-But this screen won't go away until I make a choice..." Alice mumbled to herself as she studied the three godly abilities. The [Divine Trial] sounded cool... but it seemed kind of useless right now. [Divine Revelation] just looked like another form of mind control. She already had [Serpent's Whisper] for that, though she had a feeling the skill's dreams would be much more powerful.

"I guess that just leaves [Divine Communion]," Alice said, rereading the text. She focused mostly on the first bit about a special bond.

"I suppose that'd be the most useful right now. Maybe I can learn a useful skill from Urd?" Still full of doubt, Alice focused on [Divine Communion]. No words were needed as the three skills disappeared and were replaced instead with a simple confirmation. New Skill Unlocked: Divine Communion I Divine Communion (Rank I): Once a month, you can form a special bond with a believer. The bond will last for one month.

While bonded, you r believer will learn [Skills] appropriate for their [Race] and [Class] that you have unlocked. You will similarly learn [Skills] that the believer has unlocked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I already read all that." Alice was glad when the text finally disappeared from her vision. She felt as though she had looked at enough screens for two lifetimes. She scarcely even recognized the night-covered streets around her as the last menu disappeared. Urd continued to run like a spooked wildebeest, hellbent on escaping whatever danger she felt was chasing after them. The road before her was completely deserted.

"Doesn't feel that different..." Alice mumbled as she thought about [Divine Communion].

"But I still need to form that special bond, right? How am I supposed to do that?" She started to wonder if she had chosen the wrong skill. She focused on Urd... A bond has been formed with [Tyri Karlvold].... and an explosion of sensation washed over Alice the Rock.

"Wha... What is this...?!" She could feel the delirious pounding of Urd's chest as the child struggled to put one foot in front of the next. She could feel the fire that coursed beneath the child's limbs as her body begged for a moment's rest. The world expanded beyond the ten feet Alice had seen for the last sixteen years. Everything that Urd saw filled Alice's own vision. The skill description had not said anything about this! Alice felt like a passenger in Urd's body.

"This... This is amazing!" she said, exhilarated, and Urd almost tripped. The Girl looked wildly around before turning to Alice the Rock held tight in her hands.

"G-God? Was... Was that... you?" Urd could barely spit the words out as her chest continued to heave with exhaustion.

"Eh?" Alice blinked her nonexistent eyes in surprise.

"Did she... hear me?"

"I... I can... hear you!" Urd gasped, her throat a canal of fire.

"Your voice... is so... so clear...!" Alice felt her heart leap for joy. Or perhaps that was Urd's heart. This skill was amazing!

"Y-You should take a break!" Alice practically blurted the words out. The child's heart felt as though it was about to burst.

"You aren't... I can tell... You just need t-to stop!" As soon as the words left her nonexistent mouth, however, she thought of Dale. Was it actually a good idea to stop? Dale did not seem like the sort to let even a crippled child get away. But he lost an arm, Alice thought to herself. She wondered idly if Urd could hear her thoughts. Alice would need to experiment later. But... But I don't think Dale is a danger! He had lost an arm, after all.

Even if he had managed to defeat Petre afterwards, Alice could not see him chasing after them. He might have even died! Fantasy world or not, having your arm cut off was sort of a big deal.

"Do you... Is there somewhere you could hide?" Alice asked Urd after marshaling her thoughts. It still felt wild to be having a conversation like this. Would she even need [Malevolent Whispers] anymore?

"Y-Yes!" Urd sputtered.

"I... I know... a spot...!" Alice nodded her nonexistent head. This skill was great, but she quickly reminded herself that she was limited to one connection a month. She would still need to rely on [Malevolent Whispers].

"But what if I rank up [Divine Communion]?" Alice wondered. It made sense that higher ranks would allow for more active bonds. She would worry about that another time, however. Without realizing it, she had slipped out of Urd's senses. Alice's vision had shrunk back to ten feet, and the burning of the child's chest had disappeared. Alice slid back into Urd's skin, reveling in the horrible aches that consumed her. After a decade of nothing, even these burning limbs felt delightful.

It was not long before Urd arrived at her destination. Alice had just received another infusion of cursed energy when Urd came to an exhausted stop before a derelict building. Calling it a building was a little misleading, though. It was a ruin. Alice was not sure if even rats would call it home.

"This... This is it..." Urd gasped, her sweat-strewn face victorious. She had lost her bandages in all her running, though she did not seem to notice.

"Are you sure this place is... safe?" Alice asked, but Urd had already gotten onto all fours. The Girl dragged a piece of wooden debris aside, revealing what looked like a haphazard tunnel.

"Yes... Yes..." Urd panted as she began to crawl into the pitch darkness. She had to move very slowly as she held Alice the Rock deferentially off the ground, scraping her elbows as she shimmied her way deeper and deeper inside.

"It's... safe..." Urd seemed to know the darkness of the ruins very well. She crawled through a twist of pitch-black tunnel for only a short while before the way opened to a small room that had somehow survived the rest of the building's collapse. An enormous hole in the ceiling filled the cramped space with just enough light to reveal Urd's miserable exhaustion.

"Th-there..." With the last of her strength, Urd placed Alice the Rock on a small collection of blankets.

"Are you... OK?" Alice asked, and she slipped back into Urd's skin. The question had not needed asking. Urd felt as though she might roll over and die at any moment.

"F-Fine!" Urd sputtered breathlessly, staring in wide-eyed amazement at Alice the Rock.

"I'm... I'm f-fine!" The Girl's answer did little to lift Alice's spirits. If only she could-"Oh!" Alice was surprised the room did not start to glow as a brilliant idea suddenly occurred to her.

"One minute, Urd!" Alice said, feeling giddy with excitement.

"This might help." [Malevolent Whispers] and [Serpent's Whisper] had been easy enough to use, but she did not think [Bless] would work the same way. Instead, Alice simply focused on Urd, her mind's eye full of a desire to bless the poor child, to heal the poor child, to take away all her aches. A curse has grown weaker. The notification was the first indication that something had happened. Alice didn't feel anything herself, but sliding into Urd's body proved that [Bless] had been a tremendous success.

Almost all of the child's pain had disappeared.

"Eh...?" It was Urd's turn to be confused. The Girl had been huffing and puffing like a chain smoker, but now she went very still. Alice watched Urd probe her body, almost nervously, pulling and tugging on her arms and legs... and then finally her face.

"Feel better?" Alice asked, surprised Alice the Rock did not roll back and forth in excitement. Urd answered with a horrible howl.

"Wh-what?!" Alice's nonexistent chest grew cold as Urd filled the derelict building with a low wail. The child's body writhed as though she were having a seizure.

"A-Are you OK?!" Alice's thoughts turned to the notification about the curse. It had never occurred to her that [Bless] might do anything other than heal the child. Was it possible that-"Th-tha... tha..." Urd seemed to be having trouble breathing. She crawled miserably towards where Alice the Rock lay.

"Thaaaaaaaaaaank youuuuuuuuuuu!"

"Eh?" Urd said no more as she continued to wail. The Girl clasped her bandaged hands together and pressed her face against the rotten floorboards in what looked like prayer.

"Th-the p-paaain!" Urd wept, a small pond collecting below her tears.

"I-It's gooooone!"

"Th-that's good, right?!" Alice slipped once more into Urd's body, but that did little to resolve her confusion. Just as The Girl had said, the terrible pain from before seemed to have vanished.

"All... All my life...!" Urd looked up, revealing a delirious mask of snot and tears. The bloody scabs that had covered her face seemed to have softened and transformed into almost armor-like scales.

"It hurt... every day... always... But now... now I can't... can't feel it!"

"And that's good, right?!" Alice repeated. She was not sure whether to laugh or cry.

"D-Don't you feel better?!" Urd snorted several more times and then crawled a little closer to where Alice the Rock lay.

"I'm... I'm shorry...!" Urd sputtered between her torrent of tears.

"For all m-my... my mean words...!"

"It's OK!" Alice said, wishing she could do more to calm down this wailing child. Unfortunately, Urd seemed scarcely to hear her.

"I have... h-have nothing to g-give you... but myself!" Urd said, and Alice was overcome with a wave of euphoric sensation. Powerful act of faith performed by believer. Received experience! Received faith!

"Ooooo!" Alice's nonexistent body shivered with delight. She had received cursed energy, experience points, and leveled up, but she had never felt something like this before.

"Receiving faith..." Alice giggled almost drunkenly as her rock body purred with delight.

"Receiving faith feels really, really good!" Urd might have believed that Alice was a god before, but it was clear the blessing had turned her into a true believer. The Girl continued to tremble, her face pressed against the floor in front of Alice the Rock. Alice knew it wasn't the best look, but she would be lying if she said it didn't feel good to have someone bowing to her for a change. The idea would have seemed rather absurd just a few days ago, but if this was what being a god was like...

Divine Traits Acquire (10) unique believers to unlock [Divine Traits] Divine Alignment Acquire (50) unique believers to unlock [Divine Alignment] Divine Conclave Reach [Mature Divine] to access [Divine Conclave] Her mind turned back to the [Divine Development] screen. She had not even scratched the surface of this whole god business. There was so much more she had yet to experience.

"Huh." A smile spread across Alice's nonexistent face as Urd filled the cramped room with still more prayer.

"I think... I think I'll need to find some more believers." A Hundred Miles Away in a Secluded Forest A grandfatherly man with startling eyes of gold grabbed a heretic by the head. It might have looked like a loving embrace had the heretic not been piss-stained and white with fear.

"May The Fates guide you true in the next life," High Inquisitor Godfrey said with a priestly calm. He even pressed his massive hands together as though in prayer. The heretic's head popped like an overripe tomato as the High Inquisitor's hands met with a thunderous clap. Godfrey did not seem to mind the blood or the bits of brain that stained his wrinkled face and slid between his oven mitt hands.

"As gruesome as ever, Godfrey." The High Inquisitor perked up at the sultry voice. He looked particularly frightful as his blood-spattered face broke into an ear-to-ear smile.

"Piia!" The High Inquisitor was a great large man, and he waddled rather awkwardly over to where the newcomer had appeared. While none would have ever called Godfrey fast, he could waddle quickly enough to be a nuisance.

"Eh? W-Wait! Don't touch me!" The woman seemed to be made half of shadow. Her lithe body had a transparent quality to it, one that was only amplified by the tight-fitting black clothes she wore. A cat-eared hood covered much of her face, as did a skin-tight mask.

"Ho, ho, ho!" Godfrey bellowed with laughter as Piia started to dissolve into the ground. She had almost fully disappeared into a pool of inky darkness when the High Inquisitor thrust a hand in after her.

"And where do you think you're running off to?"

"Nyoooooooo!" Piia cried with feline revulsion as Godfrey slowly lifted her ink-black body out from the pool of darkness.

"Your hands are all sticky! Let me go! Let me go right nyaow!"

"Look at how much you've grown!" the High Inquisitor said with a grandfatherly grin. He did not put the night-clad catgirl down. Rather, he started to throw her up into the air over and over, much like a grandfather delighted to see his granddaughter after a long time spent apart.

"S-Stop it! I'm getting... Ugh... I'm gonna..." Piia covered her masked face with an ink-black hand.

"M-Mission! Nyew mission!" High Inquisitor Godfrey stopped tossing her up and down.

"Oh." He lowered the queasy catgirl back onto the ground where she bent over and took in several deep breaths. She shot him a venomous look, which seemed to make Godfrey blush.

"I thought... I had hoped you just wanted to say hello." Piia was able to recover without emptying her stomach. She took several anxious steps away from the High Inquisitor's prodigious girth, however.

"The Counsel has another assignment for you," she said from a safe distance. Godfrey let out a long sigh, casting a look over his shoulder to where the last heretic lay dead.

"Another lost lamb? Who is this newest fool that defies Fate's Guidance?"

"This assignment is... a little different," Piia said, and Godfrey's grandfatherly wrinkles broke into a look of pleasant surprise.

"Oh?" He began to stroke his long white beard, more evidence than any that he was growing excited.

"What would the Counsel ask of me?"

"A new god [Awakened]," Piia said simply.

"What a blessed day," Godfrey said, just as simply, and he started to pull even more excitedly on his beard.

"But I am no [Magi]. What does the Counsel- ""And then they disappeared," Piia said. The catgirl shivered despite herself.

"I don't understand," Godfrey said, tilting his head. He had stopped stroking his beard.

"Disappeared?"

"This all happened near The Origin," Piia said, as if this was an answer, but Godfrey seemed to understand. Much of the playfulness in his expression disappeared when he next spoke.

"They think the Witch has returned to her old haunt?" Godfrey's words were punctuated by the gravely grinding of his teeth. Piia quickly shook her head.

"Nyo, nyo. The Witch is elsewhere," she said with an involuntary shudder.

"This was... was something else."

"How ominous," Godfrey said, and he quickly resumed stroking his beard.

"I fear the worst for this... fledgling god that has disappeared."

"Those are the Counsel's exact thoughts," Piia said, and she knelt formally.

"The Counsel of Magi cannot take any chances when The Origin is involved. They realize now it was a mistake to allow the Lossen Valley to remain populated. It must be purged. Not even the smallest seed of Kaos can be allowed to take root." Godfrey seemed to deflate slightly as he chewed on Piia's words.

"There are thankfully only a few settlements in the valley," he said, lost in thought.

"How sad. The largest would be..."

"Waterhold," Piia finished for him. The night-black catgirl began to dissolve into the ground, but not before she offered Godfrey one last piece of instruction.

"You and your inquisitors are to work with the Border Princes. For the good of the world, the Lossen Valley must be cleansed."