Chapter 109: Ch 109 : Seeds of Change
In the week that followed, a quiet transformation took place in the village of Taewe. The children, once wary and fearful of the outsider, now flocked to him.
Light had become their favorite person, a source of endless wonder and fascinating new games. He didn’t lecture them from a book; he taught them by doing, turning lessons into joyful activities.
Today’s lesson was pottery. Light sat with a dozen eager children by the riverbank, their hands and faces smeared with wet clay. He watched them work, his eyes filled with a patient warmth.
Some, he noted, had a natural feel for the craft, their small hands expertly coaxing bowls and cups from the shapeless mud. Others struggled, their creations lopsided and clumsy.
Through his knowledge from the divine library, he was aware of all their talents; none were extraordinary, ordinary at best. They were the kind of children who would never be accepted into even the lowest of the formal academies.
For any other teacher, this would be an arduous task. But Light was different. His own S-Grade Comprehension talent, which enhanced his understanding tenfold, was already a formidable tool. Layered on top of that was the passive blessing from God Cosmos’s Divine Comprehension, granting all lifeforms under his domain a fivefold increase.
For Light, this meant he possessed a staggering fifty times the normal rate of comprehension. He could look at a complex technique, instantly break it down into its simplest components, and then guide his students through the process with an ease that felt like magic.
"No, Bolg, not like that," he said gently, moving behind the young pigman who was struggling to form the lip of a small pot. "You’re fighting the clay. Let it follow your hands. Feel the spin, and guide it, don’t force it." Light placed his hands over Bolg’s, and in that simple touch, the boy suddenly understood.
The clay yielded, and a perfectly formed rim rose under his fingers. Bolg gasped, looking from the pot to Light with wide, astonished eyes.
This was Light’s method. With his access to the Divine Library, he could call upon any technique in the multiverse, comprehend its essence in a heartbeat, and translate it into a lesson a child could understand.
He taught them archery not with drills, but by turning it into a game of hitting swinging fruit. He taught them swordsmanship with sticks, framing it as a dance of balance and movement. For those with no aptitude for combat, he led them on walks through the forest, teaching them basic alchemy by identifying different plants, their effects, and the parts of monsters that held value.
The village, which had once been a wall of suspicion, began to thaw. The adults saw their children returning home each day, not just happy, but smarter, more skilled.
Warriors watched in silent amazement as their sons and daughters demonstrated a proper archery stance they had never been taught.
Mothers were gifted crude but functional clay bowls, the first utensils their children had ever made. The change was undeniable.
From the doorway of his hut, Chief Gulata watched, his massive arms crossed, his face a mask of conflicted emotions. He saw the joy, he saw the progress, but his ingrained suspicion was a stubborn beast. "You can win the trust of these kids," he growled under his breath, "but you can’t fool me. I will reveal your true nature soon." With a snort, he vanished back into the shadows of his home.
Light had noticed him eavesdropping multiple times but said nothing. Through the Divine Library, he knew Gulata’s heart. The chief was a proud, hot-tempered warrior, but his every action was driven by a fierce love for his village. He was a man who saved every spare cosmic coin in the hopes of one day sending a single talented child to a proper academy.
"You worry too much, old chief," Light chuckled to himself, turning his attention back to the triumphant look on Bolg’s face. He was planting seeds, and he knew, with a teacher’s patience, that they would eventually grow.
Far beyond the mortal plane, a clone of Sunny observed this quiet scene in Taewe, a pleasant expression on his face. The gamble of letting Aerion reincarnate had succeeded beyond his wildest expectations.
Light was walking a path of creation and redemption, a far cry from his past life of conquest. "Lux is also on the verge of conquering his own world," the clone mused. "But with Asura ready to join as my subordinate, it matters little. Soon, all the Gods will be ready to come under my protection."
Suddenly, he felt a strange and unexpected wave of faith. Such surges were ordinary for Sunny, whose reserves were now counted in the tens of billions, but this was different. What fascinated him was the source. This faith was not generated by a mortal lifeform. It was coming directly from Zir, another God.
"A God can generate faith?" The thought sent a jolt through his consciousness. "Didn’t Adam deny that? Is it because of my origin as a child of the Void?" His mind filled with a million questions, but the answers were mere speculation. "I will have to consult Adam again," Sunny decided, the mystery too profound to ignore.
While Sunny pondered this cosmic anomaly, his will was already at work across the multiverse.
Thea’s particles, fueled by Sunny’s immense faith, spread like a celestial nervous system, her consciousness expanding into every corner of the Realm of Advancement and the known universes. She was a silent, omnipresent collector of knowledge.
Information about new treasures became the basis for quests given to chosen individuals through her systems. Data on alien plants and strange monsters was cataloged and sent directly to Isiah, enriching the Divine Library.
Thea had become a goddess in her own right, finding talented beings like Lux and Ragnok, and gifting them with systems that would guide them to greatness.
Her strategy was a self-perpetuating cycle of power. These chosen champions would become beacons of hope in their own worlds. The lifeforms who believed in them, who followed them, would offer up their faith.
And that faith, through the invisible link of the system, would flow directly back to Thea, and in turn, to Sunny. Thea then used that faith as she saw fit: to expand her network ever further, her particles reaching into new, uncharted realms, forever seeking more knowledge and more power for her master.