Chapter 172: They Lose Their Self – Chapter 171

Out in the field in front of the town of Wolf’s Rest, Ace is standing with half his core people and a hundred commoners. He watches as thirty some cattle walk in their direction, seemingly not spooked by so many people. In fact, they walk right up to Ace and start to graze with the bull offering its benoted horn to him. Ace shrugs and takes the note off, after which the bull joins the other cattle in grazing.

Jim laughs at this, “Well that is one way to deliver a note! Looks like quality leather too.”

Ace sighs, “I interrupted my work to come out and get a note delivered by a small herd of cows. If we get to keep the cattle, then it is just barely on this side of worth it. Only the fact that someone was able to get these beasts right up to our town without being noticed means I had to be out here. If we had noticed them a day or more out, I would have left this to the Barrais, if only because they might have managed to get them here in a quieter manner.”

Jim nods, “Fair enough, now what does the note say?”

Ace rolls his eyes and holds the note up so the both of them can read it.

“Hello! I’m [Moota], a Golden Alchemy Cow and a Lesser Goddess of Alchemy.

The dungeon in your town has a really interesting effect on cows and that dungeon nonsense lets me get this in. Suffice to say, any cows that are born within a decent distance of it will be greater milk producers plus a few interesting kickers. So yeah, I don’t want you worshiping me? That wouldn’t do much good for me. What I would like is for any cows you raise to worship me.

I know, I know, what does that do for you? Well, cows that worship me develop better. Of course if a cowherd worships a god related to that they would provide a bonus but it would also prevent the cows from advancing. Sure, cows that worship me have a chance to develop sapience, but they can also develop into better cows! So if the idea of variant cows interests you and you don’t want to force your farmers to pledge themselves to a specific god just request my info from your town hall.

Also, while I am a monster god, I do deal with alchemy. In fact, I was the one that deposited a bunch of potions in your dungeon. That was completely on me, so don’t feel you owe me anything as I just wanted it to develop more cows. But part of what a cow can develop to do is produce milk with potion-like effects if that helps you make a decision.

Good luck and you can keep the herd,

[Moota]”

Jim blinks, “Well that wasn’t what I expected.”

Ace shakes his head, “More paperwork.”

Jim nods, “So are you going to go with this goddess’s suggestion?”

Ace sighs, “I don’t think I can do anything but. First is the issue of the whole religious freedom thing that most people claim they believe in. We, of course, will have a bunch of people who won’t give up worshiping their pre-system religions, which won’t be helped by them being actual religions even if the teachings differ some. Even if I wanted to have our farmers worship whatever god gives the most benefits, I don’t have any power to command people on who to worship.

“Besides that, though, I do know a bit about how worshiping a god works because of my position. While you can worship as many gods as you want, you only get one effect. This is partly because no matter how much someone claims to worship multiple gods, faith only goes to those you truly, well, have faith in. But the system is to blame for why even those who have faith in multiple gods only get one effect.

“Everyone starts with a slot for a single faith effect. I’m sure paths or some such can change it, but that isn’t really a matter here. Rather, unless someone here is from a family that has been worshiping a proper deity for a few generations we won’t get broad enough effects from it. Generational piety goes a long way towards unlocking more powerful blessings”

Jim frowns at that last bit. “That sounds like it would trap people into a role. If your family worships a farming god, you can’t not be a farmer because of the bonuses. If your family worships a war god, you’re going to be stuck fighting things.”

Ace makes a face and shrugs, “Eh, a little yes and a little no. Generational piety tends to only be a thing for jobs like being a farmer. Stuff that requires patience and taking care of something for long spans of time. A god of war isn’t going to provide special bonuses for someone because their family has been worshiping them. They’re going to provide small bonuses for each of their worshipers.

“But that is honestly something I worry about. It might not have been as much of a reality as would have been wanted, we all grew up with the idea that you can do whatever you want. I don’t want my children’s children’s children being forced into a bureaucratic job just because I ended up worshiping some god of paperwork.”

Someone else in the crowd shouts out the question, “Do cows get the generational faith stuff?”

Not that others haven’t, but this one Ace bothers to answer. “Honestly, unless otherwise mentioned it is better to assume most faiths don’t have it. This is especially true for those gods worshiped by non-sapients and non-traditional sapients. Though that more comes from the fact it is hard enough already to gain worshipers in the first place. But the real importance of this is that we can’t trust the gods.”

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Someone who had come over to see what was going on and clearly part of one of the pre-system religions shouts, “And what do you mean by that, huh? I have full faith in my god!”

Jim laughs, “As if that matters! I’m not saying your god isn’t real. We are well beyond the point of old school atheism. Gods are real, the difference is we know yours isn’t the only one out there and they need us. The fact that they have loyalty programs like some kind of credit card company? Laugh and a half there. This cow goddess? We’re going to get the best deal from her because we’re equals.”

The religious person seems extra salty about this. “What do you mean equal! We can never be equal to those on high! Gods are above us mortals.”

The founders all turn towards them and glare them down. Ace shakes his head, “Gods aren’t at the top of the pile. We know that for certain because that is the source of magic. If you can’t accept the reality of our new world, we don’t need you here. I don’t care if you continue to follow your religion, but you sound like the kind of person who would try to force it on others.”

The religious nut screeches, “I’ve stayed until now to try and save you all from the devils that have infiltrated the world but it seems you’re all too far gone! A pox upon you for even considering those false gods. God is the one most high!”

Ace sighs, “You’re not the first one, you know? I’ve had more than my fair share of people coming to my office to complain about all the false gods and magic that I’m allowing to take root. Your type all say that, to me, a magic user. I say to you a second time, control yourself or you will have to leave.”

They scream back at Ace, “Like you have any control over me! My god protects me and I now own my land! When the government comes in, they will come down on you if you try to censor me!”

Ace starts to smile, “And so for a third time I say, slow your roll or we’re going to roll you right out of here.”

The crazy laughs wildly, “This so-called town isn’t even recognized by the government so what can you do? Fools, all of you! If I had my guns, none of you would be acting so uppity.”

They rant a bit longer but slow down and stop when they realize Ace is slow clapping. With his silence, Ace chuckles, “You think a government that wasn’t even global can do anything about a truly universal system? You think the government might even still exist at this point? Look around! Look at the ages represented by the people here. I’d be willing to bet Doctor is, if not the oldest, one of the oldest people here.

“All those politicians and officials? The top level ones were all waiting for the reaper to make a house call. Even your god can’t save you even if they wanted to. Though more likely they don’t even know who you are. But all that aside, this is my town by the right of founding and supported by my and my fellow founders’ power.”

The crazy tries to interrupt at this point but Ace makes a gesture, and their voice is silenced. Ace sighs, “There is a saying I’ve heard. To kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. Basically, the idea of taking out a small fry to scare away larger problems. Rejoice though, for I’m not going to kill you. Not because I can’t or won’t, but because it doesn’t make sense and you serve as a better object lesson alive.

“No, instead you will allow me to display one of the powers that someone who truly rules a town has access to. Yes, those of you from upriver can take that as a ding against your so-called leadership. Anyway, I didn’t have to ask three times and could have instead just done this but I feel the ritual of it has power.

“So let it be declared. Three times I gave you the choice to stay and follow our rules or leave. Three times you denied my rules. So from this moment onward I banish you from Wolve’s Rest! I deny you citizenship. I deny you room and board. And most of all, I deny you access to the dungeon.”

Then the unexpected happens. Ace can not actually prevent someone from entering the town. Well, he does have the power to, but the actual enforcement is on him as well. The official banishment just gives town guards a bonus to spotting him and prevents him from using the system facilities in the town.

On the down-low, Ace had already banished a number of people. Some known such as when someone caused a ruckus in the dungeon and brought it out into the town. That one in particular caught even Doyle’s attention and the System had a fun little answer. Of course, it took Ace a little while to notice the change in his options. Now, though, any person who was banished will find that the dungeon had taken off the kid gloves.

Besides the obvious ones, there were more secretive banishments. Though most of those involved malicious spying. A futile endeavor when none of the places nearby apparently had anyone trained in it pre-system and Wolf’s Rest had the Barrais. While levels in various stealth skills can bootstrap you up, proper training is still important to turn regular memory into proper muscle memory.

But this time, with this particular religious nut, things went differently. Ace’s insistence on following steps and specifically mentioning room and board had kicked off something no one expected. The crazy started to glow with rainbow sparkles in all the colors of black, all the while fading away.

With crazed eyes, the person pushed their way through the crowd and made a mad dash out of town. It was only once they had left the boundaries of the town that they stopped fading away, though it didn’t seem to bring them back. Rather, they stayed as a half faded outline of a person. Even their name and gender seems to have faded from people’s mind.

Akhier

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