Kingdom Building: Civilization Starts with Divinity-Chapter 61: Cute Little Children

|<A new day has started! You’ve gained 2011 Divine Power, thanks to your followers! Your citizens will start getting hungry soon. Feed them 130 units of food before the end of the day, or they will begin suffering from starvation!>|

|<The System will go through a Major update in 3 days!>|

|<Your FAI stat has increased by 4!>|

A smile appeared on her face as she opened her eyes to the daily notifications. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"It worked! My Faith increased!"

Although she had spent an entire night meditating, she gained less than she had last time, but that wasn’t important. She could slowly fine-tune it as long she figured out how it worked.

That being said, Alchemy still wasn’t entirely sure what she did wrong in her previous attempt. All three attempts had her trying to control those tiny particles of Divine Energy, but she couldn’t find them during her second attempt.

"Then maybe I can..."

Standing from her throne, Alchemy held out her hand in an attempt to coat it with Divine Energy.

She closed her eyes, imagining the Divine Energy seeping out of her hand. Then, she squeezed that energy like she was juicing a fruit. Simply letting it drip was far too slow. By the time enough escaped to coat any part of her, she’d already have been killed.

|<Notice: Unrelated SP drainage detected. The Failsafe of the system cannot be activated! Please remember that going below 0 SP can lead to permanent damage.>|

Whenever she opened her eyes, there it was! Divine Energy coating her hand! Before she could celebrate, however, it was gone.

She frowned slightly due to not getting the hang of it, but progress was progress. She couldn’t be too upset.

"How the heck is Nera so natural at this?"

Pushing that to the back of her mind, Alchemy woke Sapphire up, and the two went outside. She had briefed the young deer and Nera about today’s plans. Sapphire made a minor fuss about it, but Nera somehow convinced her.

Alchemy was surprised by how close the two seemed. Nera still had that radicalism of the Verminae, but it didn’t cause her to look down on other species as much as Alchemy thought it would.

"Are you sure you’ll be okay? Miss Nera said you grow weaker when you’re outside of your blessed area... Whatever that means." Sapphire asked.

Alchemy shrugged as she watched the Verminae scuttling and flying around in a hurry as per usual. It was nice seeing her settlement thrive.

"It shouldn’t be too bad. I’m only really going to support this time around since you two need more experience anyway. Whatever the case, Let’s go check up on Nera."

The duo briefly greeted the working Verminae before heading to the small holy water pond they had made in the river.

There, Nera was resting, meditating, it seemed like.

Alchemy signaled Sapphire to be quiet and take a seat. Alchemy has read enough cultivation novels to know you shouldn’t interrupt someone’s cultivation.

Eventually, Nera opened her eyes and exhaled.

She moved her arms around for a few moments, and whenever she confirmed that her body was healed, an innocent, almost child-like smile appeared on her face.

"Finally!" She chimed playfully, splashing a bit of water around.

She giggled to herself as she let herself fall backward and float in the water.

"I’ll need to protect Mother Goddess from that evil werewolf during this trip." She said to herself, her soft expression making her look more like a cat than a moth.

Just then, however, as she floated in the river, Alchemy and Sapphire appeared in her peripherals.

In an instant, no, in even less than an instant, she shot up from the pond.

"M-Mother Goddess! Sapphi! Hi, hey, hello! How long have you been there?" She questioned.

Both Alchemy and Sapphire chuckled, the prior of the two looking at her wrist as she checked her imaginary watch.

"20 minutes or so."

"Y-you heard all of that?" Nera’s entire face flushed red.

"Oh, don’t worry, honey. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I especially can’t wait to see how my adorable daughter protects me from the big bad werewolf." Alchemy continued to make fun of her.

"R-right! You don’t need to worry! B-big sister will help you along the way!" Sapphire joined in at Alchemy’s request.

Nera looked at Sapphire, giving her a look that screamed, "You traitor!" Before forcing her head underwater in an attempt to drown herself due to the embarrassment.

"See, Sapphire. No matter how you look at it, these kids aren’t scary. They’re just that, cute little children." Alchemy continued to chuckle while Nera tried to drown herself.

{Mother. That large Vermin has arrived.} One of the Granitects called through the telepathic link.

"Ah, it seems Teacher is here. Let’s head back. We have quite the journey to make, apparently."

The group, with Nera sulking behind them, returned to the settlement and were greeted by Gravana.

"There you are, Disciple! Are you ready for some practical training?"

"Yup. Oh, right, I suppose you and Sapphire haven’t really been introduced to each other yet. Sapphire, this is my martial arts teacher, Gravana. Teacher, this is my other aid, Sapphire."

"U-uhm... Hello M-mister." Sapphire greeted meekly, hiding behind Alchemy.

"Graha! No need to be scared, little deer. You look far too difficult to chew to make a good meal."

"EEP!" Sapphire jumped, slowly backing away.

"Teacher... Can you please stop bullying my children?" Alchemy sighed.

"Oh? This deer is your child, too?"

"Adopted, but yes. All of my believers are my children. Would you like to become my child as well, teacher?"

Gravana raised an eyebrow before laughing at the thought.

"If you can prove to me that you’re a Goddess worthy of my worship, you’ll naturally get it, Disciple. Now, let’s begin our trip!" He said, beginning to run off.

"Well, it’s not a no. Let’s go."

The two nodded in response to Alchemy and began running behind her.

Gravana paced himself so they weren’t left in the dust, allowing the group to catch up.

"So Teacher. Where are we going exactly?" Alchemy asked.

"We’re going to the place where I get my strong rocks! It’s usually swarming with monsters and needs cleared out occasionally."

"A cave, then?"

A cave seemed like an interesting place for training. Although the cramped space shouldn’t be too much of an issue for herself, Alchemy could see it posing some problems for Nera since she likes using reinforced sticks and trees to replace weapons.

"Yes, but not really. You’ll see."