That's exactly what I imagined would happen, but where did that... mini Stonehenge come from?
Honestly, I didn't even see when they did that, but it didn't really matter, seconds later a real crowd formed in front of him, and one of the fanatics stood in front of everyone, you could tell the difference between them and the other believers and common NPCs due to the fact that the 5 fanatics are no longer just figures that only differentiate gender.
They were already more pixelated characters that you could see much more details, and to be honest the fanatic in front of them, Hannah, was very beautiful, you could see how much effort the developers put into her design.
Long black hair, Caucasian woman, with purple eyes and from what could be formed of her skin she was well... developed, if the art they used on her was more "common" in terms of pixeladed art, I'm sure she would be the mascot of the game.
In front of them she seemed to be giving a speech, but I wasn't quite understanding, confident emoji, sad emoji, happy emoji, they kept appearing every now and then for almost 1 minute, and considering that one day in the game is equivalent to 20, so it was almost 1 /10 of the time you have in sunlight with this.
I more or less understood what she meant when another fanatic, Ivan, showed up bringing a wild boar to the mini-Stonehenge, and even I could tell that it wasn't an ordinary wild boar, how many wild boars need 4 people to bring it. As soon as they placed the boar just in front of him, Hannah and several of the figures joined their hands and a white light began to emanate from them and went towards the... stone altar? Which they lifted and a notification appeared.
[Your followers humbly offer you a sacrifice and prayers in gratitude for your help.
Do you want to accept them?
Yes/No]
Could there be any answer other than yes, honestly would there be anyone who would choose no?
Soon other notifications appeared after I accepted.
[You have received 67 prayers
Do you want to convert them into:
- Divine Power (PD)
– Experience (Exp)?]
This is the first time something like this has appeared, and can I decide how much experience I gain?
Hmm... I think I'm starting to understand how the idle aspect of this game works.
I actively do divine things and get followers, actively I get exp by killing some specific things, but passively I can increase my level with the prayers of the followers I make and from what I have seen so far the number of followers (faithful, believers, fanatics, etc.) that I can have is not limited by my level.
Not only can I get experience as well as money (PD), just like in the overwhelming majority of idle games out there, but not in an annoying way that gets boring in 2 days. Very good, now it's time to decide what I want more, increase my level or get more PD to buy things in the store.
....
I think it's better that divine power not only serves as money but also as one of the sources of power in the game. When I clicked on PD, a quantity adjustment bar appeared, cool so I can define what I want when I need it! So I decided to put 35 in PD and 32 in Exp.
Nothing like a good balance to keep your mind calm, at least for me.
Yet another notification appeared.
[You received:
1 mutated wild boar
You want:
- Send to inventory
- Convert to 3 Sacrificial Coins?]
Well, I said that that boar wasn't normal, but what does mutated mean in the game? It's not the virus type... probably.
It doesn't matter, the important thing is that I can choose between keeping what my followers give me as an offering or tribute in my inventory or transforming them into sacrificial coins.
... Why would I want this in my inventory, I would basically be a God here and I wouldn't need to eat to replenish my HP when I fell, especially since I don't have HP, my followers have more, I still have 4 more bottles of potion of healing, not to mention that I can use the PD to get more in the store (after I increase the level enough).
Adding this to the fact that in this game the logic of dragging and clicking with items does not guarantee that the effect will happen immediately, it must also be taken into account.
Seriously, I don't think I noticed it, but when I dragged the potion to the guy that Hannah asked me to save, instead of him being enveloped in a little green light and recovering his health right away, it took I think about 3 whole seconds to take effect, and Anyone who is already familiar with the world of games (of any type) knows that even 0.1 seconds counts a lot for the result, let alone 3 whole seconds.
So I think my only option ends up being the coin, even though it's useless with just 3 it's already something (the cheapest thing you can buy with sacrificial coins is a plant called Resurrection, and it costs 10 coins so... )
As soon as I finished with the notifications and returned to the village, all the NPCs had emojis of astonishment above their heads, some still had emojis of astonishment and disappointment, others of astonishment and happiness and some even had astonishment and anger.
Why would people be angry? No idea, maybe just to give more variety?
Well, with that, what I classify as an offering ceremony is over.
....
But is it good to end so easily?
Like in several stories, whether ancient or more recent, yes, gods are mainly portrayed as figures who receive reverence, worship and tribute. But several times they offer something in return, whether in the form of knowledge or natural phenomena as believed in ancient times or in more tangible forms such as weapons or blessings in modern entertainment stories.
Even though gods are most often petty and vindictive (Greeks are the main but not the only example of this), they still recognize the need to take care of their followers by giving them some must-have gifts every now and then. And since I would effectively still have just under 100 followers without counting the fanatics, I need to take care of them even more with a goblin inversion on the way.
With that said, I paused the game and went to the inventory to see if there was anything I could give them in exchange for the boar.
Of course, I could even get it from a store that would have things of higher "quality", but there's still that idea that if you have something lying around in your wardrobe, it's not better to donate it than buy something new.
I do feel an emotional attachment to them and everything, but it's also worth remembering that the game basically cheated me and took 150 from me last night, giving it back with something cheap isn't even that petty compared to what I could do... isn't it? right?
Aaaaaahhhh it doesn't matter, it's better to have some spaces in your inventory anyway, what's the point of holding onto something and not using it as they say. So I did a little check, just what I have to give them....
But being honest, we all know that you only have one option from the beginning, right? Well, okay, maybe two, but there's not much difference between them, right?
[Ordinary sword x1
Durable staff x1]
These are the items that I got in the gacha, you know, the one that took a big hit in my 150 pocket without giving me a chance to defend myself. Best boot for use since for me there won't be much to do with it.
And so I first dragged the sword to the stone altar, but nothing happened. This was probably the type that wouldn't let you interact while it was paused, I clicked play and then placed the sword followed by the staff.
From the amount of surprise emojis that appeared, I'd say it worked this time.
But in the midst of the surprises there was an NPC who not only showed surprise but also confusion, anger and sadness, if it was some random person in the crowd I wouldn't even bother talking about it, the problem was that it was one of my fanatics who "helped" healing the boy who had received the cut, Sofi.