Chapter: 140
Even after the hero set off for paradise, the world was changing at lightning speed.
There were many changes, but the first thing worth mentioning is… public safety.
The chaotic world, thrown into turmoil by the rise of monsters, found peace thanks to the hero’s heroics.
Humans, who had been desperately on the receiving end of monster attacks, started to see monsters as something they could actually hunt after witnessing the hero take down a few.
Hmm, I didn’t expect it to turn out this way. I just sent the hero on adventures to handle a few pesky monsters…
Well, if the results are good, doesn’t that make everything worthwhile?
Thus, humans began hunting monsters, and for those beasts that were just too powerful for individuals to take on, they started to form armies.
To capture all those relatively strong monsters, they needed actual combat-trained soldiers, not just a bunch of farmers with pitchforks joining forces, which led to the creation of professional soldiers.
These newly trained soldiers not only beefed up the nation’s military might, but they were also dispatched to handle public order during the calm periods when there were no wars or monster hunts.
Out went the temporary, makeshift guards and in came the full-fledged, professionally-trained security forces!
Sure, guards had existed before, but there’s a world of difference between those old-school guards who just checked IDs at the entrance and the new ones whose job is actually to maintain public order.
Anyhow, with the number of these capable guards rising, they not only drove back monsters invading human territory but also stepped up patrols along the main roads.
This, of course, led to a safer road experience for humans.
Previously, it was the pilgrims of the Temple of Life ensuring road safety, but in all honesty, the world is huge and the number of these pilgrims was quite limited.
Plus, not every pilgrim was a dragon, which meant human pilgrims often found themselves in dangerous situations.
Still, those human pilgrims had enough strength to fend off the average monster.
Anyhow, by putting military troops to work maintaining order and patrolling roads during peaceful times, the traffic conditions for humans and various sub-races began to genuinely improve.
In the days gone by, most traveling merchants were lugging heavy loads on their backs or pushing carts, but thanks to better road security and some advancements in livestock farming, merchants started showing up with carts pulled by oxen or horses.
This led to smoother logistics, and suddenly merchants were able to deliver goods that had previously been out of reach.
The ones who hit the jackpot from this widespread distribution of goods? The lizardmen who made papyrus, the mages of Procyon crafting scrolls, and the dwarves peddling iron goods.
These were mainly limited production regional specialties that saw their reach grow much wider thanks to the logistics boom.
Elves? Not so much… They’re over there doing some leather crafting with hides they managed to snag from hunting, but that’s something every hunter does, so it’s not exactly a unique product. Hence, they’re not raking in the cash.
Ahem, enough about the elves for now. Let’s talk about papyrus first.
Before papyrus became a thing, folks were either chiseling letters into clay tablets and baking them, scrawling with charcoal on wooden boards, or putting pen to expensive parchment… but the arrival of papyrus flipped the script entirely.
Papyrus was easier to write on than clay, lighter than wood, and way cheaper than parchment.
Sure, it’s pricier than clay or wood… but let’s be real, those two were a hassle.
Plus, thanks to the lizardmen’s impressive production capacity, households with some extra cash began to stockpile one or two papyrus scrolls.
The content most commonly scrawled on the now widely available papyrus? Stories.
Stories that were once etched in clay, tales spun from the imaginations of people, and those lively accounts brought forth by pilgrims from distant lands.
And don’t forget, people started replicating scrolls written by others by copying them down.
That’s how papyrus scrolls began morphing into primitive books.
But, alas, papyrus had its downside too.
Because it was produced in limited regions, it never really saw widespread distribution.
However, after the hero’s exploits, as logistics started flowing more smoothly, the supply range of papyrus skyrocketed.
Which meant? People began eagerly writing down all the stories they knew on papyrus.
Tales of real events, legends inspired by the hero’s deeds, stories dreamt up from human imaginations, and others born out of a longing for transcendent beings.
And thus, new mythologies started springing up, different from the old ones.
Well, among those stories, the most common ones were about… me, the Goddess of Life, followed closely by tales about the hero.
Perhaps this surge in stories about me was fueled by the Temple of Life’s pilgrims traveling the globe helping people, stirring up faith in me through those narratives.
As the numbers of stories about me multiplied and more people embraced their faith in me… I discovered something new.
That humans could construct divine identities through public opinion manipulation!
But as a side effect, this also meant that many humans’ perceptions began to overlay onto existing divine beings.
And guess who was the main target? Yep, that would be me.
For instance, when a belief like this takes hold:
“The Goddess of Life lovingly cares for countless lives with her kind heart,”
Such a belief spreads and influences me just enough to nudge my nature, making me want to look out for the lives around me.
Hmm, funny how I used to be only mildly interested in life and all things living, yet now I feel a hefty sense of responsibility for it all.
Well, there isn’t any rule that says manipulating the concepts surrounding existing gods to invent new deities won’t work. After all, even the Cloud Whale gained intelligence and ascended through that method.
Still, I couldn’t continue receiving such divine faith indefinitely.
Not that it’s a bad thing, but having my own identity constantly shifting is slightly problematic. I want to remain true to myself. If I put on the mask of the Goddess of Life and can’t ever take it off, that’ll lead to trouble.
Hmm, a mask? Right, a persona.
It’s like I exist as my true self while swapping out various masks depending on the circumstances.
With this in mind, is it possible for me to hold multiple divine identities at once?
By leveraging that, I could receive faith while minimizing the changes affecting me.
But we can save that pondering for later.
The spread of papyrus led to the wide propagation of faith and folklore!
Next up, let’s discuss scrolls. Specifically, the scrolls created by the mages of Procyon.
Manipulating magical energy to create effects was basically the mages’ exclusive playground.
Mages instinctively moving magical energy around, using it without really grasping the principles—just doing what they could because they could!
In order to overcome this reality, mages researching the phenomenon of magic succeeded in transcribing their spells onto parchment or papyrus, giving birth to magic scrolls.
As a result, even those who had zero knowledge of magic could start wielding it, and the city of Babel, later known as Procyon, the mages’ haven, amassed great riches.
Then, a lot of stuff happened, and boom—Babel’s tower crumbled, but we can skip that for now.
Even with Babel collapsing and transforming into Procyon, it didn’t hinder the sales of magic scrolls.
In fact, thanks to better logistics, mages were now able to sell even more scrolls, using their newfound riches to ramp up scroll production and recruit young mages, all while continually advancing their magical research.
Eventually, they started figuring out how to use magic without relying on scrolls.
Those mages who used magic on instinct began proving their methods through various theories, solidifying magic knowledge.
And thus, basic magic started to come to light.
Of course, since it was just basic magic, it didn’t yield grand results.
While instinctive magic could conjure a hefty fireball, basic magic was just sparking a little flame.
We’re talking about weak telekinesis to lift a few items, conjuring small orbs of light, creating a glass of water, or blowing a gentle breeze—pretty basic stuff.
But hey, it was a monumental first step!
Mages managed to clarify instinctive magic, turning it into theoretical knowledge.
Sure, there was the issue of using up their own magical energy, but as every living being has some degree of magic within them, it’s not a major stumbling block.
That said, this doesn’t mean ordinary folks could cast magic. It’s all relative to the mages, after all.
The mage who could only summon fireballs through instinct was now able to conjure a glass of water thanks to learning basic magic.
They decoded the mysteries behind unexplained phenomena, converting them into solid theoretical knowledge.
This was the dawn of the magic utilized by humans.
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