The Nebula’s Civilization

Sung-Woon checked and confirmed that both Divinity and Small Area: Insects had leveled up. In the beginning, the Divinity level only played a role in increasing the limit of accumulating Faith, so there was no need to pay much attention to it right away. The important part was that Small Area: Insects had leveled up. Even though it only reached level 2, the second level allowed him to grant Blessings.

‘Now I should be able to make Customs.’

In the game The Lost World, it was possible to grant a special ability to the believers who supported the Small Area once the player’s Small Area leveled up. This was called ‘God’s Blessing’ in the system, but was known as ‘Custom’ among players. For example, if one had the Small Area: Fire, it was possible to make the believers resistant to heat, and in the Small Area: Grass, believers could be resistant to grass irritation. In other words, the believers could evolve. The Blessings would change the appearance of the species, and the change would be passed down to the descendents.

‘But there’s a problem.’

One Blessing consumed 10 Faith points for each believer. Sung-Woon had 36 Faith points, with a maximum limit of 50. There were about 3 good Blessings per Small Area, so blessing even one of the believers would pretty much consume all his Faith.

‘If the blessed individual continued to reproduce, of course, it wouldn’t be considered a waste…’

However, there wasn’t time to wait forever. Considering how he needed to get more Small Areas later on and created Blessings and Miracles to support them long-term, Lakrak's Clan needed to be granted a Blessing soon.

‘I need to gather more Faith.’

Luckily, there were many ways to gather Faith, and even at this stage, many of them were viable.

A High Priest was a title that could be held until the Middle Ages. Appropriate hints could be given to someone chosen as a Priest through dreams while consuming only a small bit of Faith. In addition, Lakrak was a ‘special individual’ with a high level of a special ability.

[Lakrak (Warrior Lv.1)

Strength 14

Intelligence 15

Sociability 16

Willpower 9]

‘Does he have that much willpower because he saved his group members from the sabertooth tiger? Or did he save them because he had that much willpower? Either way, willpower is a good ability to have.’

Willpower was the foundation that allowed one to continuously put in effort and not give up when doing something challenging. It being 9 did not seem like much, but if it had been truly average, it wouldn’t even have been marked in an individual’s stats.

‘Next is the altar. Buildings like temples aren’t the best idea right now, but there should be no problem making an altar.’

In primitive faith, praying to a god at an altar was the most basic foundation. This kind of altar was able to provide a continuous supply of Faith, and the Faith could be strengthened through sacrificial rituals led by priests.

‘And to hold a sacrificial ritual, we need an offering.’

If offerings were made in the proper ways of the Small Area on the altar, a great amount of Faith could be accumulated. The more precious and important the offering was, the more difficult it would be to obtain, which would thus serve as proof of how strong their faith was in their god, in turn leading to more Faith being generated. However, there was a trap in all of that.

‘This reminds me of the early days of playing The Lost World.’

When the mechanism linking sacrifices and Faith became known, many people were fascinated by the special build. Having the most precious, important, and hardest thing to obtain in the game as a sacrificial offering on the altar, resulting in great amounts of Faith, was the build called ‘Human Sacrifice.’ After all, people were the most valuable things. However, the build was not popular for long. It shined and guaranteed a high winning rate, but soon it’d turn into the Destruction build. If the Human Sacrifice build was used, and one’s fellow tribe members or relatives were offered as a living sacrifice, relationships would be broken.

Then, rather than relying on their god, fear of their god would grow. As societal rules would become rigid, priests would make restrictions and laws that the player did not intend, and those who violated said restrictions and laws would be sacrificed. It would also become difficult for a technological civilization to develop, and human resources that could otherwise produce more valuable results would be converted into Faith, making it difficult to transfer to other builds.

‘Though, it is valid to offer a living sacrifice of a race other than your own under certain circumstances, but…’

Even that would be problematic, as diplomatic relations would be broken instead of familial relationships. Such a build was no better than a standard build unless it was in a special situation like the Aztec civilization that existed on Earth. Sung-Woon did need an offering, but the Human Sacrifice build was not in the discussion at all.

‘There is a need for Lakrak’s Clan to take on a challenge.’

Sung-Woon determined that the location where Lakrak’s Clan was at was not very good. They were on a peninsula that made it hard to get to another continent. A large portion of it was wilderness, so there weren't enough useful resources in the beginning either. In order to get ahead of others, a risk had to be taken.

‘Not to the point of the Human Sacrifice build, but I do need a living sacrifice. The bigger, the better.’

However, there was nothing big around Lakrak’s Clan. Although the clan was located on a hill overlooking the wilderness, the forest that they thought to be large was only a product of the stream descending from the hill. The forest was not big, and past it was the wilderness once again. The biggest prey in the forest were rabbits.

Deep in the wilderness, there were sabertooth tiger like the ones that had attacked Lakrak, drakes that were stronger than sabertooth tiger, and a herd of water buffalos which were prey of the top predators. But it was problematic to urge Lakrak’s clan, who had just begun to settle down, to leave for the wilderness again.

‘Let’s bless Lakrak with the remaining Faith points first and start from there.’

Sung-Woon looked down at Lakrak’s clan.

***

Lakrak had been recently feeling a change in his body. First, his scales were turning black. He was initially afraid as he thought it might be a disease, but after shedding skin, his scales gained a smoother glossiness, and they were softer but sturdier than before, just like a beetle’s carapace. There were also other changes. Lakrak, who had been originally dwarfed by the others, was now becoming average sized and stronger than anyone else. When they were building a hut, no one was able to carry a tree bigger than what Lakrak carried.

There were also other interesting occurrences.

Red mushrooms that had never been seen in the forest were now growing there. Lakrak initially suspected that they were poisonous, but it didn’t feel like it when he touched one with a part of his finger that wasn’t covered in scales. He ate a little part of the mushroom, thinking that it would be okay, and when he experienced no adverse effects the next day, he finished eating the whole mushroom. It wasn’t delicious, but it didn’t give him a stomachache, either.

However, for some reason, the other Lizardmen in the clan who tried to eat the mushrooms alongside Lakrak found their fingers swollen just by touching them. The swelling did get better after a few days, but it was clear that the mushrooms were poisonous.

These sudden changes were all a novelty, and the group, including Lakrak himself, were in awe of them. The changes could have been brought about by the Nameless Beetle God.

‘But why did God give me this power?’

A few days later, Lakrak became aware of the reason.

***

Lakrak escaped the group and walked through the wilderness, looking for someone. After walking for several days and nights, he could see the back of a Lizardman. It was the one that Lakrak was looking for. Lakrak gladly ran and tried to catch them, but he was hardly getting any closer.

As Lakrak became exhausted and kneeled down, the Lizardman, who had only been showing him their back, slowly turned around. As they did, the bright sky darkened, and the face of the Lizardman that Lakrak was chasing also became hidden in the dark.

Lakrak tried to get a glimpse of the face, but he couldn’t. The unknown Lizardman reached out his hand. Lakrak had wondered if they were offering to help him up, but soon realized that wasn’t the case; before he knew it, he had a water buffalo skull in his arms. Giant horns were rising from the head, the orbits and nasal cavity were hollow, and the teeth of the upper jawbone were still firmly attached.

Lakrak handed the water buffalo skull to the Lizardman. The Lizardman wore the skull on top of his head and reached out again. Lakrak looked at his hands, wondering if there was something else given to him, but there was nothing, and as he raised his head, the Lizardman was gone.

Then, Lakrak woke up from his dream.

***

“We have to hunt water buffalo.”

These were the first words Lakrak said after gathering the clan.

Zaol grumbled, “We have to go deep into the wilderness to hunt buffalo.”

Zaol was the large Lizardman who had originally led the clan. As Lakrak had found the sacred ground, Zaol had handed the authority to Lakrak without much trouble, but her voice was the most influential after Lakrak’s.

Lakrak nodded and said, “The Nameless Beetle God wants us to catch water buffalo.”

“God? Did you see God?”

“Yes, he appeared in my dream today.”

Lakrak cautiously told the story of his dream. Anyone could tell that God wanted a water buffalo as an offering, and everyone started talking about Lakrak’s dream.

Zaol shook her head. “To catch a buffalo, all our hunters need to go. If all of the hunters leave, who’s going to protect the remaining who are weak? The hunters could also get lost along the way. It’s too dangerous.”

Her opposition made sense, and Lakrak did not dislike Zaol. But blind faith excluded differing opinions, and Lakrak thought differently from Zaol.

“I’ll go alone.”

“What?”

“God appeared in my dream. God means for me to do the work.”

Zaol growled.

“No. There are many people in the group who trust and follow you. Are you trying to split the clan? And how do you plan on catching a buffalo by yourself?”

“I’ll show you.”

Lakrak took a spear and got up. The spear, which was a crude yet sharp stone blade tied to a wooden shaft, was his favorite weapon.

He walked to the front of the group and pointed at an old tree in the distance. Standing on one leg, he then threw the spear. Its trajectory was not a parabola, but a perfect straight line. With a thud, the spear was buried into the dry old tree. The tree split with a crack.

At the sight of such phenomenal power, the whole group cheered, while Zaol kept her mouth shut. Lakrak looked at Zaol and then walked to the edge of the hill where the old tree was located to retrieve his spear. As he was pulling out his spear, he saw the scenery at the bottom of the hill and paused. He smiled.

“Zaol! Look at that, our quarrel was useless in the face of God’s will.”

Something was approaching from the bottom of the hill. It was a herd of water buffaloes, precisely what Lakrak wanted to sacrifice. It wasn’t a big herd, so hunting them was not that big of a problem.

It seemed that the herd was slowly approaching after smelling the water on the hill. However, considering that they had never seen a herd of buffaloes make their way to this hill, there was no doubt that the buffaloes were also lost. It was strange that a herd of buffaloes, who always moved around the same place, would be lost.

‘This could never have happened without God’s arrangement.’

The clan let out a shout at the sight of the herd of buffaloes. God hadn’t appeared in Lakrak’s dream for the purpose of dispersing the group.

Lakrak pulled out his spear and exclaimed, “He who desires to glorify God, follow me!”

And as he took the lead, the hunters of the group followed him.