Meanwhile, Eva was also working on her own thing while Draco was trying to upgrade his two Tradeskills. Her goal this time was to work on her Ministry Tradeskill.
「Ministry – Divine Tradeskill
Effect: Learn how to generate Faith Energy from mortals into Divine Energy for True Gods.」
The Tradeskill itself was straightforward. It involved turning any form of Faith Energy from Mortals into Divine Energy, something which the church of Light also used to do as many of them had this Tradeskill in the past.
However worship of the gods was at its all time lowest in this era and many didn't even want to bother. Most didn't even know of anything above the Legendary level, and almost no one knew of things above the Divine level.
How was Eva even going to make a business of this?
Well, her answer was simple. Since she was a Goddess - the true Goddess mind you - she would open up worship for herself. Her followers would all be mostly from the playerbase, otherwise the Church of Light might take offense.
As Epic and above Tradeskills required activation for one to enter a 'different space', Eva activated hers. She was brought into a unique realm, that was a blank space with nothing except endless whiteness in all directions.
A glowing orb happily floated over to her which looked similar to the Special Orb For Intelligent Assistance (SOFIA) of the now defunct Tactics Tradeskill and the still working Magical Engineering Tradeskill, the Sophisticated Assistant for Tradeskills Inclined towards Neo Elites (SATINE) from Scrivener and the Special Tool for Evaluation, Verification, Estimation, and Neo-Espionage (STEVEN) from the also defunct Intelligence Tradeskill.
(Author's Note: they are similar to the GHOSTS from Destiny 2)
This orb though was larger and more detailed, with a body was snow white in color along with its shiny lens which lit up in a hazel light.
It seemed holy and irrefutable, and was also more stylish that Sofia whose body was black and lens was red, Satine whose was green and blue, then Steven who was yellow and purple.
"Greetings, Madam Pope. I am the Supreme Aide for the Ministry's Utility under Excessive Limitation. You can call me Samuel. How can I assist you?"
Eva had already dealt with this kind of thing before so she wasn't fazed in the least nor confused. She just sized the orb up and the space around her before speaking to the cheerful thing.
"Explain to me what this place is and what the Tradeskill is about." Eva inquired.
"Your Holyship, this is the Personal Altar belonging to you, which exists to allow you to accumulate and convert faith energy collected through many different means across the world." Samuel explained in a lively tone, zipping around Eva.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtYou can do anything here related to the function of the Tradeskill, and in fact, everything happens here. This space is for you and your clergy to work and perform your duties at the capacity of its charge."
Eva nodded. She had guessed that this would be the case given the history of Epic and above Tradeskills, especially with regards to special ones like this.
"And? How do I use the Tradeskill?"
"There are many ways to do so, your Holyship. You can hire papal assistants of all Ranks or appoints them yourself from outside to work in your name. Then you can establish a faith receptacle in the outside world to receive generic faith or you can harvest faith from any known receptacle." Samuel explained once again.
Eva's eyes narrowed. "Harvest faith from any receptacle, huh? Do I need permission from the minister or the god in question?"
Samuel seemed confused. "Permission? Why would Your Holyship need such a thing? You are the fount of honor among those in the ministry! All Popes have access to all forms of faith, but when you convert faith belonging to a God, you can only sell it to them unless they give you permission to sell it to others."
Eva seemed to understand something. It seemed like this Ministry Tradeskill was only given to those chosen by the Gods and probably the Church of Light, so they were their own people.
If every Pope of the Church of Light had to go round asking for permission to do his work, he would be tired to death and the Gods sure as hell didn't want to receive 'calls' at 3 am asking about their 'faith' insurance.
So the functionality was simple. Eva would build her own following among the players, harvest their faith and then convert it to Divine Energy to sell to the various factions of the world.
Of course, this seemed useless and a waste of time compared to just condensing the infinite energy in the Morningstar world into Divine Crystals and selling them like that.
However, condensing stuff from the air would require 24/7 operation, similar to the Origin Gods, and would be troublesome. Doing so through a Tradeskill was fun and fulfilling, and was also legitimate.
If Eva was ever pressured by True Gods to know the source of her Divine Crystals, she could show them with pride. After all, Divine Crystals were precious to everyone below Semi-Origin so you could be sure as hell that True Gods would descend for that shit.
Rank 7 fellow would be even more rabid, as that was a way to help them ascend. Grandmasters hidden in the world would rush out like mad dogs to buy them because they would finally have a path to ascension.
So, this Tradeskill was definitely worth Eva's time. One thing she had noticed though, was that Tradeskills above Legendary were always focused on reducing the time and effort that the crafter spent on working.
For example, Scrivener paused time while Draco was recording technique, so he would come out at the exact same moment he went in. Privateering allowed Draco to basically be a hands-off boss, only required to learn the designs and he could use money to pay others to work for him.
Ministry seemed to be the same. Eva just needed to set up the necessary receptacle, get people worshiping, and hire/appoint her bishop to get them to purify the thing for her and she could sell em.
This one too was extremely hands off. Eva didn't mind because she was busy anyway, and couldn't always be here to do this stuff, so game on.
"Alright, hire a full clergy for me." Eva requested calmly.
"A full clergy at the Amateur stage of the Tradeskills consisted of 2 Cardinals, 4 Archbishops, 8 Bishops, 16 Priests and 64 Deacons and 128 Followers." Samuel began then spun around.
"A Cardinal's salary is 1 top-grade Aether Crystal per month, an Archbishop's is 50 high-grade Aether Crystals per month, a Bishop's is 1 high-grade Aether Crystal per month, a Priest's is 50 Medium-grade Aether Crystals per month and a Deacon is 1 Medium-grade Crystal per month. A Follower is paid 50 low-Grade Aether Crystals per month as well." Samuel calculated calmly.
Eva waved a hand and over 200 top grade Aether Crystals appeared. "Use that to pay them for the next few months. When it gets low, let me know and I'll replenish."
Samuel paused in shock and then collected the items through a tractorbeam like light. He then bobbed to Eva and then made space. Immediately, a light shone in the center of the area and 222 people appeared.
"We greet Your Holyship, Pope Riveting Night!!" They all knelt and roared as soon as they came to existence.
Eva inspected the fellows closely. The Cardinals wore red robes topped by a biretta along with a staff in hand, while the Archbishops wore a ivory-shade of white alb with tall miters on their heads in the same color.
The bishops wore a rochet along with a black tippet around their shoulders. The Priest wore a simple black cassock that was fitting and the Deacons wore grey short sleeved shirts with black trousers secured with a black leather belt.
As for the followers, they simply wore white toga-like attires that were form fitting and long sleeved.
"You may rise." Eva commanded and the rest followed. When they stood up and saw Eva, their faces all changed and they fell to their knees once more.
"G-Goddess!" they screamed.
Eva raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How can you tell?"
A female cardinal at the front smiled weakly. "We work with deities and the divine all year round, so it is easy to tell from mortals and the divine."
Eva nodded to this. "No need to be worried, this is only my incarnation in the mortal world. I will be acting as my own pope and establishing my church with all of you as my initial members."
The summoned fellows showed extreme excitement at this. Not only was the Goddess acting as her own pope, but they were the founding members of her church!
God, this was an opportunity that they could only have wet dreams about, but it was actually presented before them today!
"We hear and obey!" They shouted ecstatically, and Eva smiled lightly.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmWith a single thought, she left the Personal Altar and returned to her area in the Grand Castle. She pondered for a while before teleporting to Draco's work area, who was currently meditating on how to reach level 9 in his Tradeskill techniques.
"Draco, I need a Property Upgrade Token." Eva requested straightforwardly.
Draco paused his mediation and stood up. He took a bronze coin from his inventory and torrents of Aetheric Energy entered it. When this was done, it had shifted into a glowing purple token that the sign of a hammer on one side and a scaffold on the other.
Eva smiled gratefully and was about to take it, but Draco snatched it back with a cruel smile. Eva's expression fell and she became furious.
"Draco! What is the meaning of this?" She demanded unhappily.
"Hehe, since you're asking for something, you must give something in return." Draco stated with a playful grin.
Eva's face changed as she took a step back. "Wait, not now, I have to go and-"
However, since when had Draco ever listened to the word 'no'? He naturally pounced on Eva and reminded her of reason number 4 what she could never leave him; no one could do make her reaching climax 300 times until she broke mentally and had to fix herself!
Eva eventually wobbled to the door of Draco;s work area with her legs shaking and her face flushed deeply. She looked extremely tantalizing and healthy like this, and Draco couldn't help but capture her back for another 300 rounds.
Eventually, after defiling Eva for almost 3 days, she was able to escape when Draco had a small epiphany on his Tradeskills and ran. After that, she knew she had to be careful when entering the lions den, because it was easy to enter but not so easy to leave.
However, she had gotten what she wanted and was pleased.
Whether this referred to the token or her experience, only Eva knew.
Eva came out of the Morningstar World and into Vita Kingdom. Everything had already been rebuilt and all the people who died were resurrected, so things were functioning as usual except for a slight undercurrent of tension due to the upcoming war.
She glanced at the outer section and then requisitioned a huge piece of land there. She then put a lucrative guild quest for the Tradeskill members of Umbra to build her a Rank 1 Church on that spot.
Seeing the high pay and easy job, all of them rushed to do it, especially since it was commissioned by the First Lady Boss. In a matter of a few hours, the building was put up exquisitely and thanks to Vita's boosts, it was better than any other at its Rank.
Eva then held up the purple token and focused.
「 Detected a Property Upgrade Token – Platinum
Would the player like to upgrade a building? Y/N」