This area is currently under someone else’s control. Would you like to seize it? ▼ Yes / No
The wording was more aggressive than I would have liked, but I chose Yes. I was using a feature I’d learned after unlocking level six, Territory Takeover.
✦ ✦ ✦
This territory has been annexed. It is now part of your village.
And just like that, a portion of their village became part of mine.
✦ ✦ ✦
Would you like to construct Underground Tunnel? ▼ Yes / No
Now that this area was part of my land, I could build facilities on it. I spent twenty points, and a stone staircase suddenly rose out of the earth.
“Wh-What was that?!” Philia gasped.
“Let’s go.” I ignored her reaction and began descending the stairs. At the bottom was a short tunnel that led to a dead end.
✦ ✦ ✦
Would you like to extend Underground Tunnel? ▼ Yes / No
I spent another twenty points to add onto it and, if I kept going, I’d eventually reach our village. I’d burn through a lot of points, but I’d been saving up for this. I was pretty sure I had just enough. As fate would have it, I made it just as I dropped below a hundred points. All I had to do now was create another set of stairs on this end to connect the tunnel to the surface.
“Home, sweet home!” I said.
As we emerged at the surface, Philia stared in disbelief at the familiar farmland. “Y-You just connected our villages with this underground road?” she asked.
“I think you’ll get that reconstruction work done in no time using this passage,” I said.
“Y-Yes, definitely.” (“Damn it, but this means we get less time to enjoy this village... Fine. I’ll just make sure we work really, really slowly...”)
✦ ✦ ✦
“Everyone, I’ve called you here today to deliver a divine revelation of great importance,” Myria’s solemn voice rang out. The villagers inside the chapel stirred in anticipation. They were all Gifted who’d received powers, which was why every one of them listened with deep reverence and trust as Myria spoke from the altar.
“This is about our village mayor, Lord Luke.”
The villagers leaned forward with serious expressions, hanging onto Myria’s every word.
“The mayor?”
“What kind of revelation?”
She looked over the audience with satisfaction, then raised her voice, full of conviction. “Lord Luke is a savior sent by the gods themselves to bring peace to this war-torn world!”
The magnitude of her proclamation left the whole crowd frozen in place, unable to process what they’d heard.
She wasn’t finished either.
“That’s right. Lord Luke is our savior. He was granted an extraordinary Gift by the gods, as you’ve all seen for yourselves. And that’s just the beginning. His power will grow far beyond what you’ve witnessed.”
The Gift of Village-Making came with a leveling system; the higher the level, the more advanced facilities and skills I could unlock. Even though I’d only just started, my powers were already way beyond normal limits.
The villagers glanced at one another.
“He has even more power?”
“I-I knew the mayor wasn’t ordinary, but I never imagined he was that important...”
“This makes sense, though. If anyone could be that powerful, it would be him. It looks like we ended up in the right village after all.”
The villagers were all shocked, but not one of them doubted Myria. After all, she was a priestess who’d received the Gift of Oracle.
That meant no one had any way of knowing the truth.
(“The gods haven’t given me revelations, but I don’t need divine insight to know that Lord Luke is the gods’ messenger, sent to save this world!”)
I knew, of course, the truth: all this came from Myria’s own deeply personal convictions.
“Come, everyone! Let us all praise Lord Luke and devote ourselves to his cause, work for him with all our strength, and build this village into a beacon of hope so that we will one day save the world!”
“Yeaaaah!”
And just like that, a new religion had been born, without my knowledge or input.