Chapter 40: Who Gets to Be the One in Charge?
Utopic World Builder—an enigmatic constellation that suddenly appeared one day, meeting a newborn constellation from a budding world and teaching her the ropes to godhood.
Little is known about this constellation. The junior constellation in question had spoken of this mysterious entity with great praise, but the senior constellations of the Constellation Community Server couldn’t trust every word she spoke.
PantheonST0RMDaddy:
I do not like this… ‘Utopic World Builder’. Who is he to assume how another god governs their devotees? What arrogance.
HeraHatesNTR:
Arrogance? You are one to talk. Who better embodies arrogance than the King of the Pantheon himself? Perhaps you are bitter that no one thought it worth their time to seek tutelage from someone so foul-tempered as yourself?
PantheonST0RMDaddy:
Silence, woman. I have no interest in entertaining the opinions of someone so obsessed with low-quality soap operas.
HeraHatesNTR:
You dare insult these fine pieces of art?
2-BalledAngelos:
Request: Please provide more information on the subject of the conversation.
analectualthinker551:
Teaching others is among the highest moral acts. It is proof of their virtue.
MaliMintMonster:
I agree. This constellation appears to be quite the generous sort, is he not?
For this reason, the constellations agreed to send an observer to witness the quality of his mentorship. To see if he was the real deal.
Naturally, it was Ramube who took up this role. And the constellations were eagerly waiting to glimpse even a speck of truth about the enigmatic constellation.
ChicksOut4Ramube:
Oog.
WhatDefinesaUsername?:
I would appreciate a translation of his words.
2-BalledAngelos:
Request accepted. Transcript is as follows:
While progress has been slow as expected, it appears that ‘Utopic World Builder’ is indeed an effective teacher and quite an intelligent constellation. He appears to possess a myriad of methods for establishing footholds to gather and elevate faith. Perhaps he may even be capable of elevating ascended constellations to godhood.
PantheonST0RMDaddy:
Preposterous. A constellation’s growth eventually hits a ceiling. This rings especially true for ascended constellations, who cannot gain faith naturally. Yet you dare claim they can achieve godhood?
HeraHatesNTR:
Though this is rare for me, I must agree with him. Godhood simply cannot and must not be achieved. It is a birthright. It is destiny.
Praise_D_Sun:
This will upset the natural balance and order of all things. Divinity must not be treated so lightly, as if it were a gift so easily given.
There were voices of discontent among the gods of the server, but also curiosity and interest among other constellations.
Opinions on this constellation were as diverse as the ocean of stars above. The Constellation Community Server was no monolith.
WhatDefinesaUsername?:
Before we go any further, we should clarify this: is godhood a thing one is, or a thing one possesses? If it is the latter, then we must ask: What is godhood?
DemonKingofUnification:
Raising the ascended constellations to godhood is quite the claim to make, I must agree. But if your words are true, then you have drawn my interest.
Potheadthotslayer:
I would personally like to have more Gods to solo.
Boulder_Masochist:
It is unsurprising to see Gods oppose this. We will see a great many of them feel that their positions are being challenged.
…
2-BalledAngelos:
The very existence of this “Utopic World Builder” constellation will surely be beneficial for overcoming the doomed future that “Gorilla of Fates and Twisted Futures” foresaw. We must position him to provide his aid to more constellations.
It was clear that the tides of change were coming fast. Whether this change would be welcomed with open arms or violently shunned is yet to be seen.
Despite all this, it seemed the very subject of all this online attention was sorely unaware of what was to come. Somewhere, in another world, he was busy doing what he did best: larping.
After we held another feast at Gnomewood, we returned to our camp to discuss our plans. While Tumble and the rest wanted us to stay, we couldn’t exactly speak of divine matters in front of them, so we had to decline their offer.
Today was the day after our return.
“Our rivalry (technically) spans hundreds of years, but I’ll end it here today! Here I go!”
Kreeee?
I struck a fighting pose, tucking a spell stone between my fingers. Balling my hand into a fist, I charge at the dragon with udders, which was surprised by my sudden appearance from a bush.
“Take this! Sparkling Fister!”
Silver energy emanated from my hand holding onto the spell stone. I shoot my fist forward, connecting with the winged cow rex’s jaw, causing silver and dark energy to explode on impact.
SCREEEEEEE!
Thud!
“FUCK YEAH!”
The punch knocked that damn lizard out cold on its side. Today was my first-ever win against one of these abominations to nature. A historical moment for my NEET ass. However, this would’ve been a lot cooler if I were in a mech.
“... What the fuck are you doing?”
“Oh, Ori. Hey.”
Did she hear the commotion from the camp?
When I spotted one of these things hiding about in the forest (these lizards are pretty good at camouflaging themselves, despite their enormous frame, so it took me a moment to notice them), I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to put one of the newly developed spell stones to the test.
So, I snuck around it and ambushed it from behind. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t expect to be targeted by a tiny human of all things. The surprise attack was a resounding success.
“You crazy… Did you do this?”
“Fuck yeah, I did. It felt really good, too.”
For once, I felt like one of those shounen anime protagonists defeating a powerful foe in one blow with their special move. My weeb ass has never been more satisfied in my life.
“This dumbass…! What would you have done if that didn’t work?”
“What else? Use the Bozo family’s secret technique.”
“What’s that?”
“Running away.”
Slap.
I felt a dull force hit the back of my head.
“Ow.”
“You fucking idiot. You’ve been getting way too ahead of yourself ever since you made one of those things. You’re still human, you know? One wrong move and you could die from a fart from one of them. Don’t let all this larping go to your head.”
“... Yeah. Thanks.”
Despite Ori’s sharp tongue, she can be surprisingly caring of others sometimes. During our time here within the crater region, she’d voluntarily take on the role of caretaker whenever Ramube and Graille were busy with something.
She’s also been looking out for me whenever I try something risky with the new spell stones, just as she’s doing right now.
“So are you going to carve that thing out or not?”
“Ah, yes. The classic Slayer of Monsters game mechanic of extracting materials directly from the corpse of a slain monster. Unfortunately, this monster is not exactly dead just yet. It’s just unconscious.”
“What? You didn’t kill this thing yet?”
“Did you think killing a giant beast like this was easy? I’m still just a human, you know. Killing things like this in one blow is a pipe dream for mere mortals like me.”
“Yet this ‘mere mortal’ somehow managed to knock out a weird-looking dragon on his own, and rope two goddesses into becoming his disciples… What a load of bull…” (Muttering)
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. Just finish the thing off already. We need to extract its mana stone.”
“Alright.”
Mana stones. Mysterious stones that have recently made their appearance in this new era of human history. They hold within them magic energy that could be used to summon spirits and cast spells with the right runic inscriptions, as we’ve begun to call them.
Foragers occasionally find them in places where magic beasts met their ends. The reason was obvious: these stones were organs from those beasts that help regulate mana throughout their body.
“I didn’t think I’d get to do this again.”
I pull out a kitchen knife that had been embedded with a spell stone. The spell stone was inscribed with the runic sigil for fire. After activating the stone, the blade heated up to a thousand degrees.
Zing!
“Do it quickly. The mana will run out in an instant.”
“I know.”
Stab.
Psssh!
It sank into its flesh like stabbing into butter. The knife easily dug deep into the false dragon’s reverse scale, ending its life in one swift move.
At the same time, the knife blade shattered the instant the stone ran out of power. It was a bit of a waste, but I could always buy a new knife whenever.
“Gross.”
“Wanna try digging your hand in for its mana stone?”
“No thanks.”
I pushed my arm into its open wound and felt around for the stone. Then, after feeling something uniquely shaped and hotter than most of the other still-warm flesh of the beast, I clutched onto the unseen object and yanked it out.
Splash!
“AH! You fuck! Don’t just splash all that blood around like that!”
“Sorry. Here’s your pay. Catch.”
Thwick.
Ori deftly caught the mana stone with one hand, dyeing her pale hand red. Her face grimaced as she felt the slimy surface of the stone.
“Good reflexes.”
“Ugh. Couldn’t you have cleaned it first?
“Yes. But I’m too lazy.”
“You’re such an ass.”
Just as we originally agreed, Ori planned to make some quick bucks off of some otherworldly items we find during her time here. Among the objects we found possibly marketable on Earth were these mana stones, which looked like pretty gems with enough polish.
“Hey, in manhwa and stuff, don’t magical beasts usually eat mana stones to get stronger? Why don’t the ones here do that? They always just leave the stones behind after they’re done eating their prey.”
“Maybe because they don’t have the organs to digest those stones? I mean, these are rocks after all. I don’t think I know of many animals that eat rocks.”
I flicked the blood off my hand with a few shakes. Then, I wiped my hand down with a hand towel I brought along. That didn’t get rid of the stink of blood, but it did make my hand look a lot cleaner.
“Don’t chickens do that? I heard it helps with their digestion.”
“Chickens eat rocks? You’re not messing with me, right?”
“My grandfather is a farmer. It’s something I heard from him when I visited the farm with my family once.”
Huh. If I remember correctly, Ori’s father was a fairly successful businessman. The family must have taken quite the career shift.
“That’s quite the class change.”
“... Let’s not talk about my father, please.”
“Oh, right. Sorry…”
I forgot that was a landmine subject for a second. Shit. I'd better change the topic.
“Ah! Um, speaking of business, Two-Balls said something strange to me recently. Something about starting a business, or whatever.”
“‘Two-Balls’? What kind of fucking name is–Oh, that drone that delivered the pizza yesterday?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
I take a seat on the winged cow rex’s head. Teabagging was the privilege of the winner, so naturally, I had to make sure it knew its place well in the lizard afterlife.
Ori threw the stone in a plastic bag and tied the handles to keep it from falling out. Then, she took a seat on the false dragon’s paw.
“So, what did he say?”
“It seems he… no, is it more like an ‘it’? I dunno. Whatever the case, he wants me to make more connections with constellations. He thinks that I can help grow other constellations, too. Not just the rookies like Esphera and Graille.”
“What?”
I know, right? Isn’t that a bit too much? I already have a lot on my plate as is with Esphera and Graille. And he expects me to add other constellations into the mix, too?
“How would you even do that? Doesn’t this mentorship thing you’re doing only work because you’re working with newborn constellations?”
“Pretty much. There’s also the fact that some constellations are basically gods of dead religions, like Zeus or Hades, and other constellations aren’t even gods at all. They’re ascended with no real faith tied to them.”
Of course, Ramube was an exception to this rule, since he is both an ascended and a god, despite being a gorilla, but that’s besides the point.
The problem here is that, as far as we can tell, they’ve already hit their peak in their own respective worlds, like Earth. The chances of getting more faithful worshippers in modern settings like Earth, or more sci-fi settings like wherever the hell Two-Balls is from, are especially slim.
“... Say, Vell.”
“Yeah?”
“What if they pull a ‘prestige’ elsewhere?”
“Huh?”
“No, maybe calling it ‘prestige’ doesn’t sound right. They’re not starting over from zero, after all. What I mean is, what if they spread their religious roots elsewhere?”
“... You’re a fucking genius, Ori.”
If they spread their influence in another world, they can bring some new life back into their faith. As for the ascended constellations, since they probably possess god-like powers anyway, it shouldn’t be too difficult to inspire faith in them and push them up to godhood.
“But where would we even do something like that? The world in which this would need to take place has to practically be a clean slate for unfettered faith to develop. One that’s still in the budding stages of developme–”
Wait a second. Doesn’t this world right here check off all of the boxes?
I should probably consult Esphera about this… No, there’s Graille now too. And likely more constellations on the way, as sentient life grows ever more abundantly in this world.
There’ll probably be competitions for faith everywhere in the far future. And somebody will need to be there to moderate all that to act as a leader-figure and a mediator between all of them.
So, now that there are two Goddesses in this world…
Who gets to be the one in charge?
BWAUUUuuuuuuhhhkkk…!
Ehehehehe~!
“Did you like that, Sylvie? Oh, you are such an adorable child, you are!”
Step.
Step.
Step.
“... Ah, senior. Welcome. I was just playing with my dear Sylvariel. Do you need something from me?”
At the back of the camp, Graille was playing with Sylvariel on a picnic blanket when Esphera arrived.
In Graille’s hands was a yellow rubber chicken toy that made loud noises when squeezed. Little Sylvie loved the wailing sounds that the toy made whenever Graille gave it a good squeeze.
Esphera took one glance at the rubber chicken before meeting Graille’s wary gaze.
“Could you put the chicken down for a minute? There is something important I would like to discuss with you, as a fellow Goddess of this world. It is a topic I would like to cover before Lord Yvell returns to camp.”
Graille raised a brow in suspicion.
“Oh my. If you, of all people, are attempting to hide a secret from Sir Yvell like this, then this truly must be as important as you claim it to be.”
Before standing up to meet Esphera on her level, Graille handed the rubber chicken to Sylvie, who proceeded to bite down on the rubber chicken’s head. As if in response to this bite, the rubber chicken appeared to have wailed in pain, its cries swallowed by the high elf baby.
–uckaaaaw… (Muffled)
“Now, senior, what is it that you wished to speak to me about?”
Graille put on the guise of a junior who was welcome to conversation. Before her was a powerful Goddess who commanded control over the ringed sun hovering in the sky above. She was not someone whom she could treat lightly, despite her feelings towards her.
“Junior, I would just like to ask you…”
How would you prefer we determine which of us should rule this world?
