“Why did you help him? Did you do it to spread fear?”

  “I did it for Ka. Because Ka was an experienced alchemist who had tried to create the elixir of life, he was my first apostle.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “He died as everything did in the age of war. I, myself, am barely a remnant of what I once was” said Elijah saying the game lore to avoid explaining, the scene of Ka murdering his friend.

  “Make no mistake Timothy, There is a reason I am an evil god. I chose the life of Ka and his daughter over everyone in the village.”

  “So you mean you care about those who follow you regardless of the consequence, and that is why you are an evil god. Does that mean my life now means more to you than the town’s people” said Timothy finally taking the bait.

  “Exactly, Are you not standing on the corpses of men used as training partners for you? Look carefully and see the ones who did not get to fight you, have killed the most wolves”

  Timothy did look carefully through the carnage.

  “You prepared this entire setup for me. Used them for my growth. You are selfish by our standards and evil in our eyes. However, if I were to look at it from a dragon’s perspective, I knew I could destroy a mortal town easily. I knew they were mere ants to me but one of them is mine now. So I would use these ants to make mine stronger. You care for me?!!”

  “gods are not dragons, but the conclusion you reached is right. I did tell you you could become an apostle”

  Timothy appeared to have a hard time accepting this, but he seemed to have made some sort of decision.

  “If you care for me. Then it is only right I care for you. A knight oath is of virtue but I know of one above it. I vow to become your sword, I vow to become a paladin serving you for eternity.”

  It seemed he once again skipped the great follower rank. Only know its name because of the skill description mentioning it.

  He was surprised. He thought level 1 was special. Which RPG game would take the joy of stat distribution? He brought up his status.

  He was not overly disappointed though. He was mostly using the skills and incantations anyway. Except for telekinesis, he had nothing that scaled with DP. Though he knew that his divinity was the reason his incantations did not require DP much.

  The mention of his extensive use of skills hinted at an interesting fact. Even with nightmare as divinity, if he had used DP extensively it would have risen more.

  He had wanted to experiment if he could somehow gain the ability to bless an item. Now that Timothy had given him the influence to finally become level 2; he deserved a reward. Arthurian childhood dream would be a good gift for Timothy.

  “If that is the case. Kneel and present your sword to me”

  Timothy was taken aback. He hurriedly knelt. He seemed to care neither for the bloody scene nor the corpses of men and wolves. He was excited. He presented his sword”

  Elijah took it carefully. He tried to be as elegant as possible. He did the knighthood ceremony.

  “You shall be my paladin for eternity”

  To make the moment special, he cast the great blessing right then. He was imagining the golden light CG effect. That was why he was so surprised at the dark purple flame that appeared on Timothy’s body. He almost lost his composure.

  Using the skill, the sword flew from his hand. It hovered in the air. Purple flames ignited from thin air and engulfed the sword. The sword was blackened. It became a gorgeous black sword with a purple gem as adornment. Blessing an item required naming it. He named this sword Nyx after the primordial goddess of night in Greek mythology. Timothy had changed too. His hair changed from dirty blond to pitch black. His ocean-green eyes had a sinister taint to them. Elijah checked his status.

  Elijah was sure that the original level of Timothy could not be this high. His leveling arena should have worked. What intrigued him more was the class. Ka despite being a level 52 NPC had not changed class when he became an apostle. It either was because he had not become a god at that point or a blank NPC had its advantage. He appraised the sword as well.

  Timothy waved his sword and a green crescent light was shot out. The tree struck by it fell. Strangely the fallen trunk began to whither and vanish into green motes of light.

  “So this is the power of an apostle,” said Timothy, strangely calm.

  Elijah was surprised. Everything had gone better than he expected. Timothy's demeanor had changed. His change of class had brought him power. Nyx had become a growth weapon. If there was one thing he wanted to complain about, it was Timothy’s appearance change. It was cool but this was too conspicuous. However, this was not the tutorial village. This was a city and there would be some cosmetic items made by mages. For now, he had to tell this to Timothy. The plan could not go without its leader.

  “Yes, and there is more to come. Timothy, it is time for you to know exactly what would be your mission”

  “My mission?”

  “Yes, an apostle is how a god spreads their influence. I want you to create a cult”

  So he explained what exactly he wanted to do. He could not believe he was explaining things to an AI. It always made him feel ridiculous but knew that the best way to treat them was as characters. They were designed that way. The more advanced the game, these interactions will be more natural. The companies did it for profit, but to a gamer like him meant that in this game there would be AI rights protesters or those sympathetic. They were simply the flat earthers of the modern world. He shuddered to think about them. They were everywhere too, even in Oxford he had heard a few people complaining about the morality issue. One girl Salome, the pro player well known in Oxford, once talked so passionately about her defeating the immoral player who killed NPCs, that he wanted to throw up.

  The plan was for Timothy to select a few people he knew. As these were the first stages of his cult, he would ensure they were cult material. To make sure the NPC would be suitable, he would use something similar to cults’ initiation rites. He had no idea if it would create the feeling of belonging to the community, like real-world cults and some universities fraternities. He had decided this initiation for now would be giving these people a dream, checking the dream, and then appearing in it. He wanted them to be hidden as much as possible. He was sure he had seen other player’s believers. He could not see anything. The game did not show any indicators. This meant without some special skills it was likely he could develop hidden in the city.