Chương 16: Starting a Religion as a Rock?!

Chapter Sixteen Starting a Religion as a Rock?! The newest believer trembled. Alice wondered how the boy had earned his black eye as he bowed his head low, pushing his face against the dusty floorboards in prayer.

"I don't... I don't have much ta give," the boy said in a whisper. Alice was fairly certain his name was Erik. He crawled closer to Alice the Rock's bundle and deposited a broken toy before her. Offering received from a believer. Received experience! Received faith! The dilapidated building was crammed full of Alice's flock. Rather than sheep, however, all she had were lambs. It had been two days since she had become a god, and she found herself surrounded by seven street urchins, Urd and the twins included.

"Tell him that I accept his offering," Alice said with a rehearsed divinity. Urd knelt beside Alice the Rock, her scales hidden behind fresh bandages. Her long black-and-gray hair was tied back in its usual ponytail. Axel and Iver stood on either side of her, the de facto enforcers of Alice's new faith.

"Master Merry Weather accepts y-your offering," Urd said solemnly. She hardly ever tripped over her words now.

"If you have a prayer, offer it now in s-silence." Alice felt a little guilty about the second half of this show. She felt like a con artist as a voice began to scratch at the edge of her hearing. When she focused on it, Alice immediately recognized it as the heartfelt prayer of the black-eyed boy.... want to...... make them pay...... beat them...... up... New Prayer Received Petitioner: Erik Hood Status: Believer (weak) Category: Strength Description: Erik Hood desires the strength to best a larger boy in combat.

Would you like to accept this prayer? [Y/N] Hmm... Alice thought on it for a moment and then nodded her nonexistent head. That seems easy enough. She had experimented with [Bless] over the last two days and had even managed to get the skill to Rank II. While there was only so much she could test while hidden away in this decrepit house, [Bless] seemed to be a very versatile skill. [Bless] could improve someone's health, their luck, and even their strength.

Just like the description said, [Bless] could even be used on inanimate objects. While most of Alice's tests had involved her fledgling flock, the food she had blessed had been described as being much, much tastier. Yeah, a [Bless] should be enough for Erik to beat up some snot-nosed brat. [Erik Hood]'s prayer has been accepted.

"Tell him... Tell him that I will grant him the strength he needs," Alice said to Urd, who nodded dutifully as Alice shared her Divine Proclamation.

"S-So long as his faith remains true, he will win his fight!" Alice concentrated on the skinny brat and willed that he had the strength to black and bloody his opponent. That was all it took for [Bless] to activate. She simply imagined a situation and wished it to happen. She had found that the harder she concentrated, the stronger the blessing. She might have given everyone full-powered blessings, but each [Bless] used up some of her accumulated faith.

Unfortunately, offerings of shiny rocks and scraps of bread did not generate enough of that divine goodness for her to be overly generous with her blessings.

"God has spoken!" Urd declared, and Alice smiled for her miniature priestess. The Girl had taken on her role with enthusiasm, and these little theatrics were all of her own design.

"So long as you remain true in faith, Master Merry Weather w-will ensure you win your fight." The boy's battered face broke into an awe-inspired smile at Urd's proclamation.

"Th-thank you, Master Merry Weather!" Erik said, and he crawled away to join the rest of the boys who waited, with some impatience, for what was about to come. Urd stepped forward, a shabby basket in her bandaged hands. Iver and Axel stood on either side of her as she held up the day's offerings. All the food that Alice's flock offered up to Alice the Rock was returned to them, and so a sort of communal meal system had come about.

"We give thanks to Master Merry Weather for this bounty!" Urd said, raising the basket over her head. A couple of Alice's flock grunted the words in answer. Prayer received from believers. Received experience! Received faith! Everyone's faces became excited as Iver and Axel began to distribute the food. Nobody said anything about Urd's dragonrot. Nobody dared. She even handed out a toy to Mouse, who took it with only a moment's hesitation.

Alice had started to [Bless] Urd each morning, and while both of her curses remained, The Girl's face seemed to grow brighter and kinder each day. Within the blink of an eye, the cramped room became more like a kindergarten than a church as Alice's believers began to eat and play. But Alice was fine with that. Urd put down the offering basket and returned to Alice's side.

The twins had been very quick to tell each new believer that only Urd was allowed to touch Alice the Rock, and so The Girl lifted the black stone and sat down on a pile of blankets. As if Alice the Rock were a puppy, Urd began to slowly stroke her rock body.

"This is the life..." Alice cooed as she basked in the morning's accumulated faith. The euphoric sensation was not nearly as intense as it had been before, though.

"Maybe I'm just getting used to it." She idly opened [Divine Development] and took a look at her total accumulated faith. Divine Development Title: Alice of the Merry W eather Rank: Infant Divine Caretaker: F̶͍́a̶̖͗v̷̻̚o̶̢͛r̷̛͙ș̷́ ̴̭̿O̸̺͐n̸̲̓ë̶͉́ ̴̠͠T̸͕̽a̸̗͘s̴̡̉k̸̖̄ of Believers: 7 Stolen novel; please report. Total Faith Accumulated: 1 35 Can't really tell if that' s a lot, Alice thought to herself, but she was not worried. She had not known happiness like this for years.

Each day brought new followers, and sometimes even good news. Just that morning she had heard about Dale. Though I suppose that wa sn't good news so much as not bad news, Alice thought to herself as Urd continued to stroke Alice the Rock. Urd had not returned to the brothel since her conversion, but others had brought back word that nobody knew where Urd's Uncle had gone. Alice had made The Girl promise to keep everything that had happened with Petre Bearblood a secret.

While Dale's disappearance was welcome news, Alice could not be sure if it meant the man was dying in some underground hospital or if his corpse had simply been unrecognizable the morning after his fight with Petre.

"Not that it matters," Alice said, banishing the thought from her mind. Urd paused her stroking, alert for instruction, but when Alice said nothing else, she continued to pet Alice the Rock like an oversized lapdog. As Alice studied Urd's bandaged smile, she could not help but regret that she had not accepted The Girl's first prayer. Because I will keep her happy, Alice promised herself. Master Merry Weather will... will keep her safe! Alice's flock ate their bread and played with their toys.

An hour passed, and one by one, the urchins slipped out from the dilapidated house. Some even bowed to Alice the Rock on their way out. The last to leave were Urd and the twins. The three had become practically inseparable since that first day. They would come back later with still more food to share with the others. It seemed all these urchins did was fill their bellies. Weird how they all stayed so thin.

"Watch over us, Master Merry Weather," Urd said with a hidden smile. She covered Alice the Rock with several blankets before she left, as if tucking Alice's rock body in for a nap.

"Be safe," Alice told Urd, and The Girl beamed as she left with the twins. And just like that, Alice was alone.

"Haaah." She loosed a nonexistent sigh as she luxuriated in the simple pleasure of solitude. It was nice being a god even if her flock was made up entirely of children. It was also nice, however, to spend some time by herself.

"Gives me a chance to check up on everything," Alice said, bringing up the different skills that had ranked up over the last two days. Active Skills Serpent's Whisper (Rank II I): The mortal mind is ever eager to fall into deeper depravity. You can plant such desires into the thoughts of others. Your accursed are more likely to obey your suggestions, however. Passive Skills Earthen Anchor (Rank II I): Moss, muck, and mud are quick to form around you and bind you to the ground.

Glamour (Rank III): You are exceedingly beautiful to the mortal eye. Others cannot help but want to possess you. Alice was full of smiles to see her small advancement.

"Though I haven't learned any skills from Urd yet," Alice said as she thought about [Divine Communion]. The skill's description had said Urd would learn from Alice and Alice from Urd.

"I wonder if she's unlocked any of my skills." Alice made an internal note to ask Urd when she returned. Alice still was not sure if others could interact with the system like her. Obviously, Sorin had mentioned being a [Pyromancer], so there was at least an awareness of classes. Her eyes continued to gloss over her stat screen and soon anchored onto the newest addition to her growing list of abilities.

Passive Skills Wellspring of Woe (Rank I): The world is full of misery, but how can one vessel hope to contain it all? Each individual afflicted with your curse will store a small amount of the cursed energy you collect. [Wellspring of Woe] had been the reward for the [Spreading Some More Misfortune] achievement. Alice had been astonished to learn she had already spread her curse to fifteen people.

While she had been more than a little annoyed when she first received the achievement, she couldn't have been happier now. The skill's description was a little opaque, but [Wellspring of Woe] almost doubled her maximum cursed energy.

"Not sure how literal the description is, though," Alice muttered to herself. She didn't even know what cursed energy was. While Alice did not particularly care about her other afflicted, she did not want Urd to get a tummy ache or something because [Wellspring of Woe] was storing cursed energy in her belly. Alice's thoughts naturally turned to Urd and the Curse of the Dragon's Decay. Alice had not asked or said anything about dragonkin or dragonrot since the day she first received the curse.

Nor had that particular curse spread either.

"But if it only spreads from blood..." Alice's nonexistent face split into a grin.

"I don't think I have to worry about that. Isn't there even a saying about getting blood from a stone?" [Inevit ā̸̡ ble Discovery] h̵͔͌ as reached R å̷̝ nk II. Alice blinked in surprise as a notification interrupted her thoughts.

"Why'd that skill rank up?" She squinted suspiciously at the glitched text.

"Is it broken or something?" [Inevitable Discovery] had once seemed like her most important skill, but now that she had Urd and the others, it had essentially become as useless as [Stalk] and [Earthen Anchor].

"Well, [Earthen Anchor] at least covers me in a lot of dust," Alice conceded. Urd had even complained yesterday, apologizing almost immediately afterwards, about how quickly a coat of grime covered Alice the Rock.

"But [Inevitable Discovery]..." Alice frowned at the words Rank II. The rest of her skills only seemed to rank up when she used them.

"I don't suppose someone just found me." The thought filled Alice's rock body with a nonexistent laugh. She was all smiles as she sat beneath her blankets, alone in the comfy solitude of the dilapidated house. But she was not alone. Alice could not be sure when she first became aware of T̶͇̻͆̆ẖ̶̡̎̀͝e̶͈̊̄m, but all the warm joy that had filled her rock body began to leak out. Alice's thoughts became numb with a prickling sensation not unlike the crawling of a dozen spiders.

It suddenly became very difficult to breathe. Ț̸̳̪̓͊ḧ̸͙̐́ề̷̞y did not speak. T̷͕̻̫͊h̷͓͔͆͠͠e̶̞͛͒͝y simply stared at Alice with two mismatched eyes. One was the color of molten gold. The other was the crimson of freshly drawn blood. Alice's thoughts had stopped working. T̴̹̳͛̂̓h̴̛̝͚̰͐͘ĕ̷̙͐͝y stood over Alice the Rock, unmoving, but all Alice could see was T̴̳̂̈͝ĥ̴͙͎̼ę̷͎̉́i̵̟̘͗r eyes, as if no body was attached.

With a sinking sense of doom, Alice slowly realized T̵͚̤̀̀̈h̷͖̠͉̏̑͌ě̷̗͝y were not even looking down at Alice the Rock. It made no sense. It defied all reason. But F̶͍́a̶̖͗v̷̻̚o̶̢͛r̷̛͙ș̷́ ̴̭̿O̸̺͐n̸̲̓ë̶͉́ ̴̠͠T̸͕̽a̸̗͘s̴̡̉k̸̖̄ was looking up at Alice. [Erik Hood]'s prayer has failed.

"E-Eh?" Alice took in a shuddering breath, though she did not have either lungs or a mouth. She blinked several confused tears from her eyes, though she did not have eyes or even tear ducts to cry with. They were gone. Rather, they had never even been there.

"Wh-what the...?" [Geological Memory] revealed nothing. She was and had always been alone. But Alice could have sworn...

"What... What just happened?" Like a leaky faucet, the memory that did not exist began to slowly slide out of her thoughts. She had been... thinking about Urd's curse. Yes, and then [Inevitable Discovery] had ranked up. She had found that odd... and then the notification about Erik's prayer had appeared. It must have startled her.

"Weird," Alice said. She wondered why Erik's prayer failing would fill her with such unease.

"Wait, what? Prayer failed?" [Erik Hood]'s prayer has failed. The last of her confusion vanished as she focused on the unwelcome notification.

"Erik Hood..." [Geological Memory] replayed the boy's prayer like a movie.

"I guess he was kind of small..." That was unfortunate. He had only become a believer yesterday, but it was not hard to compare him to a champion sent out to defeat one of Alice's enemies. It did not reflect well on a god when their champion failed.

"I should have sent Iver and Axel along with him," Alice said to herself, though she quickly shook the thought from her nonexistent head. She was leading a religion here, not a gang. She did not dwell on Erik for long, however. Gods ignored prayers all the time. Her unwashed flock returned by ones and twos. Everyone had learned not to even touch Alice's sanctified blankets. The lesson had involved one boy's face being beaten black and blue, courtesy of an overzealous Axel and Iver.

"Oh!" Alice felt a tug at the edge of her senses as Urd came back. [Divine Communion], at least at Rank I, had a rather limited range, but Alice could tell immediately when Urd re-entered its reach.

"You're back!" Alice slid into Urd's skin and felt delight radiate through The Girl's chest. Just the sound of Alice's voice seemed to inspire faith in Urd. The Girl was like a puppy eager to lick their master's face as she crawled through the tunnel, threw aside the blankets, and pulled Alice the Rock tight against her chest. The cramped room was made even more cramped as most of Alice's flock sat around the floor, sharing nibbles of food and crude stories. Alice did not see the black-eyed Erik Hood, however. Hmm.

She could not help but frown inwardly at his absence. He had clearly gone off to fight some bully, and the failed prayer notification told Alice all she needed to know about how that went. I... I hope he's OK... The problem was these were not normal kids. She had seen more than one of her street urchin believers take out and sharpen a small knife.

"U-Urd?" Alice bit her nonexistent lip as her spokesperson perked up. It was a shameful worry, but part of Alice was afraid to tell Urd that Erik's prayer had failed. Before she could voice the concern, however, there came a noise from the tunnel. A moment later, a familiar face appeared, although they had undergone quite the grizzly transformation.

"Wh-what happened to you, Hood?!" Mouse shouted. Erik Hood straightened up in the cramped room, his black eye now a red lump, his shabby clothes torn as though he had been attacked by a pair of rabid dogs. His lips were so swollen that he seemed incapable of speech. Or perhaps that was just his white-faced fear.

"Sh-sh-shorry...!" Erik whimpered as he collapsed onto the floor.

"H-He'd kill me if... if I didn't- " A voice from outside snatched the rest of Erik's words from his throat. It was a cruel voice, and its words inspired looks of horror amongst Alice's believers.

"Listen here, you little shits! Bring out that funny stone you found or I'm burning this shitheap down!"