Subscriber of the Gods

-You have defeated someone with a notorious reputation!

-Your fame greatly increases!

Ethan let out a short sigh and caught his breath.

“Immortal Hero’s Breathing is truly amazing. To think it could completely block an 11th Apostle’s superhuman ability. I thought it would work a few times, but…”

Ethan gained a lot from this battle.

‘I’ve clearly confirmed how strong I am now.’

This was the biggest gain.

Although he had the advantage of blocking the opponent’s superhuman ability, he was able to overwhelm an 11th Apostle without losing the initiative for even a moment.

“Plus, killing the one I wanted to kill the most is also a big gain.”

Ethan examined the corpse of the fallen Arc Deisotos.

“The mace is all broken, so I don’t need it, and I don’t need the gold either.”

As Ethan rummaged through the lifeless Arc’s belongings, his hand caught on something.

“Here it is.”

He found Arc’s divine item, the 11th Apostle’s green jade.

Its shape was different from the green jade of Luna Spirit, one of the Twelve Apostles.

‘It’s diamond-shaped.’

“Huh?”

When Ethan grasped the two green jades, they suddenly began to resonate with each other.

Ziiing-!

Then the two green jades merged into one.

Shaaaa-.

-The green jades have merged!

-The green jade has recognized you as its new master.

-A specific stat increases by 4!

-Your stamina stat increases by 4.

“It has this function too?”

Ethan was quite surprised.

He thought he knew everything about the Followers of the Moon. But since he hadn’t risen to Apostle, there was clearly information he didn’t know.

“This is even better.”

Unintentionally, he received the green jade’s recognition as its master and even got a bonus effect.

“I thought it was just an item to prove one’s identity.”

Ethan grinned.

“The higher the stats, the better.”

Shaaaa-.

After swinging his Frost Sword to make sure the 11th Apostle was dead, Ethan headed back to the cave.

***

The Followers of the Moon were still discussing the situation, unable to understand it.

“Why did the Apostles fight each other?”

“Seems like some big trouble happened.”

“Hmm, I can’t understand.”

“By the way, which numbered Apostle is this new Apostle?”

As everyone was speculating about the situation, Ethan appeared.

“Lord Apostle!”

“Welcome, Lord Apostle!”

The followers welcomed Ethan while sneakily looking behind him. The 11th Apostle who had fought with him was nowhere to be seen.

“Can we perhaps know what happened…?”

“Yes, you should know.”

Ethan said.

Then he drew out his Frost Sword and swung it.

Shaaaa-.

The Followers of the Moon who were close by froze solid from Ethan’s Frost Sword.

Then Ethan stomped his foot hard.

-You use Earthquake!

Rumble-!

The frozen Followers of the Moon fell to the ground as ice chunks.

“Go ask the 11th Apostle directly in the afterlife. About what happened.”

“Wh-What! What are you doing!”

“You! You’re not an Apostle!”

“Do you really think I’m not an Apostle?”

At Ethan’s words, the Followers of the Moon couldn’t hide their confusion. Clearly, even this action was very Apostle-like.

“Then why!”

“Why are you killing us like this! We believed in Moon Mother and worked hard according to her will!”

“You should be rewarding us, not punishing us, so why are you killing us!”

“Are you curious about that too?”

Ethan knew their tendencies very well.

From First Order to Third Order gathered here. When an order is given, they carry it out regardless of the content.

They’re different from the uneducated devotees.

‘Not a single one of them is decent.’

He knows because he experienced it directly. These are people who would give their lives for the Dawn Council. They were brainwashed to do so and educated for it.

‘It wasn’t someone else who pushed the uneducated devotees to the abyss.’

No matter how sadistic a hobby the 11th Apostle had, he wouldn’t personally manage hundreds of people one by one.

‘The rest was all done by these guys.’

“Death is salvation. I’m giving you salvation now, so why are you trying to reject this grace?”

It was one of the Dawn Council’s doctrines. Those brainwashed by this doctrine move for the council without discretion.

That’s why they don’t mind losing their lives. Because they believe they’ll be saved through death.

“B-But!”

“You can all go and check for yourselves. It’s a waste to say it here, so I’ll personally bestow my mercy. So you can go and check as soon as possible.”

After dealing with the Followers of the Moon, Ethan brought out the new Moonforce devotees as per his original plan.

They were still trembling in fear.

It was natural that they couldn’t easily escape that fear, having suffered terrible things from the 11th Apostle countless times.

“There’s no need to worry, everyone. It’s all over. There will be no one forcing Moon Mother on you now.”

Ethan led the new Moonforce devotees towards the temple.

‘I thought I’d have to look around here and there since they didn’t tell me the exact location.’

There was a reason they didn’t bother to tell the location.

“I can see it clearly.”

Coming out of the cave, a temple that wasn’t visible before now stood tall.

“What is this place……”

“This building definitely wasn’t here before……”

Knowing this area very well, they were surprised and confused to see the suddenly appeared Moonforce temple.

“This is the Moonforce temple. The temple of the goddess who will watch over you.”

Ethan said.

“As I said before, you don’t need to live here. Just praying to Moonforce once in a while when you think of her is enough. You are free now.”

“Free……”

It was something these people never had until now.

It was taken away while being forced to believe in Moon Mother.

“It must be confusing to suddenly talk about freedom. Plus, some of you might have been receiving potions from the council for treatment. You probably can’t live without the council’s help in many ways.”

Ethan recommended Prochet to them.

“Go to Prochet. I will support all the necessary resources, so just go there and mention my name.”

“……Can we hear the name of the divine messenger who saved us?”

To the devotees’ question, asked with their hands clasped together, Ethan nodded and answered.

“Ethan Whiskers.”

***

Ethan returned to the cave and healed the captured holy knights.

“Ugh, where is this……”

“Van, you were truly amazing. To handle so many followers alone. It was truly impressive non-lethal combat. I didn’t expect the followers to be enchanted and rush in on their own when you danced with the mace.”

“……Pardon?”

Van Crow had a confused expression.

But as Ethan kept praising him for his great achievements, Van’s expression changed to one that seemed to say, “Did I really do that?”

“Thank you, Van!”

“Thank you, Sir Van!”

“We survived thanks to you!”

“Thank you, Sir Ethan. I really… thought we were going to die.”

At the holy knights’ praise, Van set aside his bewilderment and laughed loudly. Ethan chuckled at this sight and pointed towards the exit.

“Let’s all head back first. I’ve already dealt with all the followers here.”

“Aren’t you coming with us?”

“I have something else to do.”

The most important task remained.

‘I need to receive the reward at Moonforce’s temple.’

After all the knights left, Ethan came out of the cave and entered the new Moonforce temple.

Unlike other Moonforce temples, perhaps because it had been destroyed once and rebuilt, its scale was quite small.

But befitting a Moonforce temple, there was a statue of Moonforce.

Ethan stood before the statue and clasped his hands as if praying.

-Moonforce bestows a blessing on your prayer.

-Check your reward!

Light swirled around the altar next to the statue, and then a box appeared.

Ethan immediately opened the box.

-Checking the reward!

“This is……”

It was a pair of shoes. They were shoes with a rather simple design, with no particular features visible.

-You have obtained Moonforce’s Leather Boots (S)!

-These are boots imbued with a special ability.

Though they looked simple, they didn’t feel ordinary.

As expected, when viewed with the Eye of Horus, the boots were imbued with cold energy.

‘Cold attribute shoes?’

Ethan immediately put on the leather boots.

“Oh.”

And when he infused mana, an astonishing situation unfolded.

Small wings sprouted from the leather boots and spread out.

The white wings that sprouted along with ice-blue cold energy lifted Ethan’s body into the air.

However, the flight didn’t last long.

“Seems the duration is determined by the amount of mana retained.”

With his current mana, Ethan could only fly for exactly 1 second.

“It’s awkward right now, but if used properly, it could be useful when going to the Sky Island.”

As he felt every time he received one, Moonforce’s rewards had extremely high utility value.

“I’ll continue to do well like this, Goddess. I’ll increase the number of devotees and rebuild forgotten temples.”

Shaaaa-.

Moonforce’s blessing descended upon Ethan.

***

When Ethan returned after rescuing all the missing holy knights, Archbishop Innosine immediately appointed him as an honorary bishop.

“I pray that the goddess’s blessing will always be with Mr. Ethan, who has become Holylight’s new bishop. I am truly grateful for this incident. I heard everything from the holy knights.”

This incident was such a great achievement that even Archbishop Innosine was surprised.

Of course, Ethan didn’t mention the fact that he fought an Apostle.

When he said that he was fortunately able to win because the Apostle was absent, Archbishop Innosine had no choice but to agree.

‘It’s better to hide the fact that I killed an Apostle for as long as I can.’

The impressed Archbishop Innosine felt even more awe towards Ethan as he saw him downplaying his great achievements.

“I will remember that fair and righteous heart.”

Saying so, Archbishop Innosine bestowed a blessing upon Ethan.

Archbishop Innosine’s blessing was much more divine than Bishop Vincent’s blessing from before.

This was because he possessed much more vast divine power.

But Ethan was already Moonforce’s descendant.

Receiving Holylight goddess’s blessing didn’t have much meaning.

‘Still, it looks cool.’

Archbishop Innosine’s blessing was clearly different from other bishops’ blessings. The sparkling feeling mixed with a slight blue color was incredibly stylish at a glance.

‘I should remember this.’

This blessing will later become a new product to be sold neatly at Ethan’s workshop.

“Now Mr. Ethan has become an honorary bishop of our Holylight. From now on, Holylight will provide much help for Mr. Ethan, so I hope Mr. Ethan will also work for Holylight.”

“I look forward to working with you, Archbishop Innosine.”

With this, the work on the Holylight side was finished.

‘The plan to meet the Saintess, the preparation on the church side, has taken a big step forward with this.’

Now all that remained was to open various routes to increase the possibility of meeting the Saintess.

‘I’ll execute the next plan.’

***

-Have you seen [Only subscribed to the right gods] answering questions so diligently lately?

-Yes, they answered my question too. I was having trouble training Lord Hang Woo’s Counter-Radiance, so I asked a question and they answered right away. When I moved my body as they instructed, my proficiency in Counter-Radiance really increased.

-Oh? I also asked about Lord Cheok Jun-gyeong’s technique…

-Mine was a question about Lord Heo Jun.

[Only subscribed to the right gods], who appeared on the community’s Q&A board, started answering numerous questions.

Not only was the number of answers surprising, but the content was also on a different level from other typical answers.

The content was easy to understand and easy to try right away.

-I guess experienced workers are different. It was the same when writing the subscription review, they must be able to do this because they understand everything they’ve learned in this New World from the start.

-I feel like I want to give them 100 more contribution points if I could.

Ethan checked the reactions of New World subscribers mentioning him through the community.

‘Fortunately, there’s no backlash.’

Some subscribers might have tried to interfere with Ethan out of jealousy. Or they might have tried to imitate Ethan’s sudden behavior of answering questions, thinking he was doing something new again.

‘Everyone has their own standards.’

Contrary to his worries, no one immediately tried to imitate Ethan blindly.

‘Thanks to that, a lot of contribution points are accumulating.’

Now there weren’t many contribution points left that he needed.

If just five more of the answers he had posted were confirmed, he would finally have 200 contribution points.

-You have collected 200 contribution points!

-You have become an expert on the Q&A board.

-You have risen to the Hero rank on the [Q&A Board].

“Oh.”

To think he’d risen to the Hero rank.

Then there must surely be a reward.

[Heroic Expert!]

-From now on, your answers will be provided preferentially to all questioners.

“As expected, there are benefits.”

Ethan grinned. If answers are displayed first, it will be a great help when collecting contribution points later.

-A new contribution points shop opens.

-The items available for purchase in the contribution points shop differ according to rank.

[Welcome to the contribution points shop]

[Your current contribution points: 200]

[Items]

-Right to merge with a god [100 contribution points]

-New World Project [1,000 contribution points]

-Divine Possession Right [2,000 contribution points]

……

“What is this?”

The newly appeared contribution points shop. There were two items of unknown identity.

“New World Project? What is this that requires 1,000 contribution points?”

Moreover, the Divine Possession Right below it required as many as 2,000 contribution points.

“As the rank went up, I can clearly buy something amazing.”

Even 200 took quite some time to obtain. 1,000 or 2,000 was still an unimaginable number.

“If I keep answering steadily, I’ll be able to buy it.”

Ethan was particularly interested in the New World Project.

Isn’t the name itself intriguing?

“When they accumulate, I should buy that first.”

Since it can only be obtained by paying as much as 1,000 contribution points, it must surely be an extraordinary item.

“Now that I’ve collected 200…”

What’s important now was the Algorithm Enhancement Ticket that could be bought with these 200 contribution points.

-Using 200 contribution points.

-You have purchased [Algorithm Enhancement Ticket]!

-Algorithm enhancement has been temporarily applied.

“So it’s not permanent.”

Well, in a way, that’s natural.

The algorithm enhancement is already effective.

If it could be enhanced for just 200 contribution points, that would be broken the balance.

‘Well, let’s see. Whether this Algorithm Enhancement Ticket bought with 200 contribution points is worth its value.’

Ethan searched for a keyword.

The keyword was the same as before.

[How to Train Your Dragon]

As soon as he searched, the algorithm responded.

-The algorithm is finding a god according to your situation.

Not long after, with a ding sound, the algorithm recommended one god.

“This is……”

Ethan looked at the name of the god recommended by the algorithm with surprised eyes.

Author's Thoughts

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