Quis' POV:
About a week and a half has passed since the mission of stealing Convir's money source went into place. As of yet, the only people acting were Vernam, who has been watching Convir's every move since I asked her to, and Onvima whose job was to survey the possible places the merchant group could meet up with Convir. I'd much rather Onvima notice something first than Vernam because it would mean we wouldn't have to compete with Convir, but as of now, there's been no movement from either front.
Of course, this isn't the only thing we've been doing. I also made sure not to let our presence slip out of the minds of these impressionable people. At first, we established an official "fan club", which can seem tacky to some, but it didn't matter much. Something that wanted to become a cult couldn't afford to be humble. At first, only a couple dozen people chose to join, as they were more extreme fans of the play we gave before. But once we made our next move, it exploded.
One focal point of creating a cult is the impossibility of it, the suspension of disbelief if you will. The reason people join cults is because they are so fantastical, so you have to make it seem out of this world. One of the common instruments of this is the "miracle". Doing something impossible and then promising that you can do that bountiful thing to them, or give them the power to do the same. In lieu of the more lore-defining moves that I planned, but cost a good chunk of change, these smaller actions would cause people to both remember us and create an air of legitimacy around us.
For example, how do you think people would react if a person used the effects of a Magic Path Fruit, without using that Fruit? Or, what if someone had a never-ending supply of Genesis Liquid? Two souls in one body? An intellect that passes even the Sovereigns themself? Drinking without ever getting drunk, but still able to get drunk when you want? These were all things that you could spin to be very mystical, granted some more than others. But each still creates intrigue.
Of course, some of these things could attract unwanted attention, but that is that not what a cult would want? "A bastardly group of people are trying to steal the divinity blessed unto me by the Gods themselves!" is a line that would work perfectly. And if we catch a fish too big, so what? Sacrifice some followers, and increase the patriotism of the survivors, then move on to the next. In this Region, information takes a while to get places, so it wasn't ridiculous to think that I'd have the entire sect under my thumb by the time someone too strong did show up. Therefore, it wouldn't be a big deal.
With that in mind, I set off my remaining "apostles" to figure out their unique traits that they could spin into something divine. I could probably give them their roles myself, but I'd rather them do it for themself. It would be much more personal if they did it, creating an air of individualism that I sought to cultivate. And, on top of that, it also took a workload off of me. A great man once said, "Never do yourself what others can do for you." And now that I had people I controlled, I would abuse that quote as much as possible.
The old man's move was the most obvious. Since he revealed his discovery to me, he's been practicing it feverishly and now could replicate Stone Class Fruits with only his soul. So he took that skill, demonstrated it out of the research-heavy discovery that it was, and painted it in the light of a gift from Athena. He was the first of the group to do this, and it wasn't an exaggeration to say that it caused a brouhaha.
It was easy to reject this notion and claim it to be something Devilish, but the way he exposed it made it much better. Rather than give a simple performance, he did it similar to an event. He was like a magician showing off his skills, except that when he did his "trick", it was grounded in reality. The hype of the audience caused most people to ignore how it could connect to a Devil Technique and instead made it seem as incredible as the old man wanted it to.
As a result, the fan club we created exploded in popularity. After which, the rest of the gang gave their performances as well, but the top prize still went to the old man, or Senex as he's referred to by others. Senex wasn't simply a popular figure either, he was ascending to godhood in the eyes of people. Unfortunately, the others were only referred to as his 9 Abettors, but this was fine with me. I was still seen as the mysterious figure behind everything, and everyone would have their own time to shine. With time, we would create a ten-denomination system with me behind every one of them. The only thing that mattered right now was that we had a foothold.
Throughout this entire process, the Sect Faction has had almost no reaction, mostly because they were trying to recover their loss of eight Elders, but I also believed that they just didn't have a clear way of stopping me. What could they do? If they tried to ban it or something similar then they would receive a big backlash from the community we've developed, so they couldn't take the easy way out. The only other thing they could do was persuade, but humans have a nature of not doing what they are told to do by others, so it was difficult even with the promise of rewards. Long story short, they were having a major difficulty in putting a stop to the growth of our cult.
Other than that, the only thing I was focusing on was cultivating and meeting up with Onvima now and then for both planned and surprise lessons. Cultivation was going as normal. With the lack of Dschungels, all I could do was cultivate my Duranian with Genesis Essence and cultivate my body with the Physique Technique given to me from the inheritance. It was strenuous on my body, but I was already feeling it grow stronger, so it was worth it. On the other hand, there was still no movement in my Duranian.
This only made sense though. I had a D in Cultivation Talent right now and I couldn't temporarily upgrade it with my Arrow Trepanation Fruit or permanently upgrade it with my Talent Plunder Fruit because they were both Dirt Class Fruits. It wasn't that I couldn't activate them, it was just that they wouldn't have any effect on me. In fact, they could easily backlash and make a bigger mess than before. So I had to upgrade them both to their Stone Class counterparts. I had the Guides that I needed to upgrade them, I was just missing the materials. And to get those materials, who would have thought, I needed money. So it was now a game of waiting.
I took a sudden deep breath before my body gave out, and untangled itself. After this, I fell back-first into the ground beneath me and took long deep breaths to recover my stamina. I had just gotten a new record of 60 seconds in that strange position that didn't make much sense to me. I mean, you think that you're flexible until you're asked to put your leg over your shoulder and then touch your chest while performing five other extreme stretches. This was just one of the ten or so all-encompassing exercises I was cultivating over the past weeks. This one, unsurprisingly, focused on flexibility.
I winced a little bit as my muscles ached along with my movements. Soon enough though, I was able to get myself back on my first and began to walk back to Onvima's house to get some sleep. But as I was forcing myself through the pain of soreness, my vision blurred as a flash of pink entered my vision. I didn't freak out or anything, and instead waited for it to stop in front of me. Once the pink glow faded into the sunless world, a person was revealed to be under it.
Onvima wasted no time with formalities and said to me, "Quis, it's the Specie Sprouts, I've found them."
____________________________________________
"Alright, everyone. It's that time. Tonight, or after this meeting I should say, this room won't be the only piece of property that we can convene at. We're going to make thousands in one fell swoop. Perhaps even tens of thousands... that's right. We've found them, the Specie Sprouts."
Everyone here already knew that we had found them, but me putting it into words seemed to get rid of whatever doubts they had, cultivating a positive atmosphere. I waited for a moment to let them revel in it before continuing to speak, "That means that we're going to have to go into action. We've already discussed this, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, so I'll go over it again."
It was unfortunate that I didn't have a chalkboard to write on, or enough space to get up and move at all... but it's what I have to work with, so I must. After resisting the urge to stand up and give a good presentation because of the lack of room, I used my hands and the table in front of me to add symbolism to my narration.
"Right now, we don't know if Convir has met up with them yet, or is currently meeting them, so we'll have to do this quickly and carefully. To start with, I'll be leading the charge in this mission as I'm the head of our faction. It's probably going to go badly at first since I'm only in Stone Class, and many of them are going to be in Coal Class, but I'll figure out a way to show my strength. After that, I should be able to give them a rundown of what I want, offer them a trade, and then get out. But, as with all things, it probably won't turn out like this. Something will almost certainly go wrong."
I took four utensils and placed them in front of me, "There are four main scenarios I've come up with. The first one is that everything goes according to plan and we get out safely." I took the spoon that represented that possibility and moved it out of the way, "The next is that when I show up, Convir is already there, talking to the Specie Sprouts." I took the fork and held it up to emphasize it.
"This prospect is not good, but it still leaves us with wiggle room. In this case, we'll use Fragitus to create a distraction inside of the sect, and in the case that the merchant's leader tries to follow Convir, the old man will be tasked with separating them so that we can talk to the leader directly."
I put the fork to the side as I picked up the next utensil, a butter knife, "There is a chance that Convir was already able to contact and commence his trade with the merchants. If that is the case, then we'll have to switch out the target to Convir himself. You see, making a good deal with a merchant doesn't involve straight money, that's too straightforward. Instead, you use resources that change value based on where you are. Buy all of the stuff that's rare here from them, and sell them the stuff that's too common but rare somewhere else and everyone is happy. What this means, is that we have the chance to steal the products Convir bought before he sells them."
I placed the butter knife near the other utensils and then picked up the final one, a straight-up knife, "The final, big possibility, is that we get there and Convir has had no interactions with them, but they refuse to deal with us. In that case, things will probably get forceful. Worst case, we have to kill them and take the good for ourselves. I don't want to stoop to banditry, but if it's for the sake of bettering our sect, I won't hesitate. I do hope that it won't come to that though, as I'd rather secure a constant source of income. So let's hope that we can help them see reason."
I put the knife back down and finished up the main idea of the meeting, "There are more possibilities than just these, but with the time we have, these are the ones we should plan for. If something else does happen, then just follow my lead and it should be fine... And that's about it. This is going to be the next wave of each of our lives, so I want all of you to put your utmost effort into it. If we succeed, then we'll become heroes of our sect, if we don't then we'll fall into obscurity."
"I believe in every one of you as I've seen you all for who you are."
"So go make both me and your sect proud!"