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Chapter 673: New Residents

When the two of them appeared, Thessa quickly turned, scouring the area with her vision. “I don’t see any signs of monsters.” She reported, to which Theon nodded his head.

“According to the reports I read, the system provides a brief grace period before monsters start appearing near new settlements.” He told her, his body relaxing slightly.

“Eh? Where did you hear about that?” Thessa wondered, having not heard such information herself.

“You’ll hear about it when you look at the first settler reports in history.” Theon waved off her question. “Whether it was Sorii or Harvus Prime, or any of the tertiary worlds of Desbar, they all had a one year grace period before monsters appeared after settlers arrived. If this world was just created as the Goddess said, then that grace period won’t have passed yet.”

Thessa nodded her head, accepting this answer. “Still… where are we going?” Her eyes glanced around once again. “I don’t see any signs of civilization nearby.”

“That’s not unusual, either.” Theon sighed reluctantly, having hoped that they would appear in a more populated area, as well. “There are only so many gods, and this world is so large. Let’s try to scout around first, and see what we can find.”

After he said that, the two of them felt a slight tremor in the ground. Far in the distance, the earth was shifting heavily, the shockwaves felt all the way in the forest. “I guess we’ll be looking in that direction.” He said with a wry smile.

Thessa smiled slightly as well, jumping up to climb the branches of the trees around them. As they had already determined that there wouldn’t be any monsters in the area, she had no qualms about moving on her own to get a better view. Soon, the halfling girl had arrived at the top of the tree, at which point she was able to see the source of the disturbance far away on the horizon.

The ground seemed to be rolling, large structures rising up from the ground. Some were made of wood, while others consisted of stone or steel. At the very center of the sprouting city was a grand tree that seemed to be rising along with the growth of the land around it. Thessa searched her memory, trying to recall the identities of the known gods.

Once she believed she had an accurate guess, she jumped back down to join her brother as he was walking forward. “It seems like Philia is up ahead.” She reported, guessing that the identity of the perpetrator had to be the Goddess of Cities. “Either her or Jonas.”

“I heard that Jonas has a flying city of his own.” Theon reminded, shaking his head and picking up his pace. “If he were to bring that here, I doubt the disturbance would be so small. Either way, let’s go see what she has to say.”

It did not take long for the two of them to exit the forest, once they decided on their goal. They rapidly made their way through the adjacent meadow, towards the city that was still rising from the ground. By now, the two of them were able to feel the divine energy becoming more active in the area, even more so than when they first appeared.

As soon as the two of them arrived within the growing city, they noticed an immediate change. The buildings rapidly taking shape around them halted, some of which had yet to rise up to their full height. One building nearby froze, appearing half-sunken beneath the soil. Thessa looked around in confusion while Theon kept his eyes forward. He could see someone walking in their direction.

Philia, as Thessa had correctly surmised, was a golden Sylvan that had long since ascended to godhood, becoming the first of her kind to take this momentous step. This was despite her kind being naturally born demigods. She wore a golden robe that appeared to be made from a collection of large, soft leaves, bound by thin vines.

“I’m sorry, were the two of you planning to claim this area?” She asked in a polite tone as she arrived in front of the two halflings. Due to Theon’s domain, he could naturally sense that Philia was stronger than himself in terms of pure divine energy, causing him to be somewhat more cautious despite her domain being one most suited for construction.

“No…” He shook his head. “We just arrived as well, and noticed someone was building over here.” Given the situation, nothing would be gained from dishonesty, and they may learn more if they told the truth.

Philia offered a small nod, her eyes scanning over the two of them. “Balance and Archery…? I don’t think either of you should have the ability to make your own homes. If you’d like, you could live in this city of mine.”

Theon blinked as he realized that she had just scanned their domains. It was true that such a thing wasn’t really that hard to do, but he thought it would likely be considered rude. Then again, Philia was not from an area with many deities to worry about such things. Instead, he put on a wry smile, now that their domains had been seen through. “And what would that cost?”

Philia had a somewhat contemplative expression on her face, before shaking her head. “I don’t want to charge residents for simply staying in the city. I believe everyone should at least be guaranteed a place to live. Instead, I intend to charge a fee for those wishing to do business, such as renting one of the stores in the city.”

“There is no guarantee that someone merely looking for a place to stay will have the spare divinity to pay any form of rental fee, yet those looking to ply their trade would naturally be earning an income.” Philia gave a firm nod as she confirmed her own desires. “I don’t have any apartment buildings set up yet, so you can feel free to choose a house within the city, and the key should be inside.”

After she said that, she turned and began walking away, the city once again rising from the soil. It seemed that Philia herself did not know how many people to expect, as she had already created a city capable of housing hundreds of individuals.

I watched as numerous gods began to establish their domains within Sanctum. Some of them, like Philia, chose to establish entire cities. Others, like the more modest Kiria, chose to only create themselves a workshop. Regardless, I could predict a substantial change that this world would likely soon bring about, once its features had been explored.

Given the nature of divine beings, and the ability to trade in faith in Sanctum, I could see many gods choosing to nurture subordinate deities of specific domains. This would let them set up a sort of ‘company’ in Sanctum, dealing with business of a larger scale. Those deities who ascended on their own would have the potential to become the leaders of their respective companies, while those who they helped to ascend would become their ‘employees’.

Granted, there was still the method for a subordinate god to break free of the relationship with their parent deity, but doing so was no easy feat. I had given such a thing a considerable amount of thought before, and realized just how hard it would be. Given that the parent deity had full access to the divine energy of their subordinate, the subordinate would have to slowly embezzle divine energy in a solid form.

Once that subordinate had accumulated more divine energy than the total that their parent deity had access to, they would be able to absorb it all at once to break the connection. Only through this would they be able to sever their connection with their parent deity.

Personally, I did not need to worry too much about it, perhaps because I had been very selective in who I chose to help ascend. Tsubaki, one of the most worshipped of the mortal gods, regularly donated over half of her divinity to me. My other subordinate deity, Scarlet, had quite literally become the sovereign goddess of the martial spirits. While she did not contribute as large a portion of her divinity as Tsubaki, it was still more than enough.

Thinking about this, I turned my attention elsewhere. Quite a while back, I had suggested to Tsubaki that she assign herself a priest, that way she could more easily gather the faith of those that believe in her. Naturally, as with any suggestion I gave her, she had carried it out immediately.

In fact, she did not only have one priest, but nine. There was one Church of Light established in each of the main nine realms. Though her believers were many, these were the true churches, with each having a single official personally appointed by Tsubaki.

Part of me considered whether or not I should establish a church of my own. I was getting an ample amount of divinity already, even before considering my buff as the Keeper. The only true benefit that I could imagine coming from having a personal church was the ability to assign divine abilities for my priests to use.

While it was interesting… I didn’t really believe it would help too much. Instead, it was likely to cause whoever was chosen to have an inflated sense of superiority. Realizing that, I shook my head. Better to just let it be seen that the Greater Pantheon are my ‘followers’.

Turning my gaze back to Sanctum, I began looking for the homes of the others from the Admin Room. Ashley had established her Night City, and Aurivy naturally lived with Julia, but what of the others? After all, I was certain that they all had taken up some manner of residence in this world, if for no other sake than to appear unified, even if they couldn’t take their living incarnations there.

It didn’t take long for me to find them, either. Accalia established a log cabin in the woods, chopping down trees with blades of wind. Bihena had a floating palace resting in the ocean, decorated with shining pearls. Udona had created a giant theater, and had a bedroom for herself behind the stage. Ryone had taken up residence in Night City, where she ran the commercial district together with Leowynn.

Tubrock, naturally, had created a forge for himself deep within a mountain. Tryval, rather than having a dedicated house, he had taken to inhabiting a certain meadow with his daughter. I was a bit surprised to see that Alme had managed to ascend to divinity, but soon saw that she was Tryval’s subordinate goddess.

Irena’s home was an obsidian castle, which seemed to mirror the appearance of the one she created for herself in the Underworld. Finally, for Keliope and Terra…

Julia and Aurivy were sitting on the couch, watching the recording of Aurivy’s announcement. Despite herself, Julia couldn’t help but feel proud for how Aurivy had acted in front of such a massive audience. She had not lost her cool, and maintained the image of a great deity. If it was Julia herself, she knew she was likely to freeze up for a moment, even though she had a history as a world-renowned video gamer.

Just as she was opening her mouth to say something, the recording coming to a close, she heard a faint knock on the door. Blinking, she looked over in that direction before standing up. “I’ll be right back.” She said, making her way to the front door. With how sparsely populated the planet was, this was the first time that they had gotten visitors since moving here, and she was curious who it was.

When she opened the door, she saw two figures standing before her. One was tall, with darker skin and long brown hair, her body muscular. Atop her head were two round, twitching ears. The other was a bit shorter, and with a more lithe frame, sporting triangular ears atop a head of red hair.

“L-Ladies Terra and Udona?” Julia asked, caught off guard by the unexpected guests. She had met them before, and even played various games with them, but it was never quite as easy to address them as casually as she did Aurivy. “Are you here for Rivy?”

“Actually… we came here to see you.” Terra shook her head with a knowing smile, confusing Julia further. It was at this moment that Keliope clasped her hands, offering a slight bow.

“Please build us a couple houses!” She called out, almost desperately. Julia blinked again, looking over at Terra, who simply nodded her head.

“I’m Fate, Inspiration, and Stories. She’s Strength, Defense, and Fortitude… neither of us are particularly suited for construction.” Terra explained, with Keliope lifting her head to look pleadingly at Julia.

“W-Why aren’t you just living with Lady Ashley? She has an entire city, right?”

At her question, Terra shrugged her shoulders. “We wanted to spread out a bit more, each one showing their strength in a different field. Ryone can stay there, because she needs a commercial district to show off, and Leowynn because she’s Ryone’s actual daughter. But, what I need is some kind of grand library, and this muscle-brain…”

Terra glanced at Keliope, who explained for herself. “Can I have a dojo, please? It should be easy for you to make, since it’s all wood! I’ll pay you for it and everything!”

Julia brought a hand up to rub her temples, nodding her head. “Alright… you two can take me where you want them built, and I’ll do my best.”