The Newbie God Is Summoning Heroes From Earth [World Creation/ Management]

Now that Lacius had his hands on Elisa's Level 4 training method, he began planning how to gather experimental materials.

Sitting on a chair while staring at the book containing Elisa's training method, Lacius thought, 'The main material is ready, and it's even better than what I initially planned.'

When Lacius learned about Elisa's existence, he initially thought he would rob her and, at most, obtain part of her body in exchange for getting injured.

However, things somehow turned for the better after he decided to try an exchange upon learning about Elisa's character.

Seeing the book with Elisa's training method, Lacius sighed lightly, "The world is still full of surprises."

He shook his head and tapped the book several times with his finger. 'Now that I have this training method, I just need to turn it into a method suitable for humans with the earth element blessing.'

'It's easy to say, but turning a method made for a tree into one usable by humans will definitely be difficult. After all, the physiology of a tree and a human is just too different.'

Lacius sighed, "Although I don't need to start from zero, the experiment material I need will be quite immense."

Before he began studying Elisa's training method, Lacius went to the Temple once more. This time, he met with the current high priest and ordered, "Go and secretly gather as many talented children with Earth-element blessings as you can. Use whatever resources are necessary to help them advance quickly."

"Also, spread the news that I shall share the method to reach Level 3 for earth elements blessed depending on their contribution to the temple."

The current High Priest immediately bowed and went to do his job.

Seeing the High Priest getting busy, Lacius nodded, 'Gathering earth element blessed who has reached Level 3 as my experiment material will take a lot of time. I suppose I'll read Elisa's training method before petrifying myself to decrease my lifespan consumption.'

Lacius returned to his underground room and started reading Elisa's training method. He also does several simple experiments that won't cause injuries to his body.

After a year of study, Lacius finally got satisfied and petrified himself.

It wasn't until a few years had passed, and the high priest finally came down to the underground passage, that Lacius removed his petrification.

Looking at the High Priest, who had grown older since the last time he saw him, Lacius asked, "Have you finished gathering the people I requested?"

While kneeling on the ground, the High Priest responded, "Yes, my lord! We have gathered as many talented earth element blessed and spread the news of your grace to every Peak Level 2 earth element blessed in the world."

Lacius nodded, "First, bring the peak Level 2 earth element blessed loyal to the temple. I shall teach them the method to reach Level 3."

The High Priest immediately left, and after half an hour, he returned to the underground with three other people. One was a woman in her fifties, while the other two were men who looked to be in their fifties and sixties, respectively.

Although they looked that way, it's important to remember that those who had reached Level 2 would have longer lifespans and remain youthful for much longer. That meant all three of them were probably at least eighty years old to appear that aged.

When the three men and the woman saw Lacius, they knelt on the ground with zealous expressions. It was unclear what they were thinking, but one of them even shed tears of joy.

Lacius nodded as he looked at the expressions of the three earth element blessed. 'These three will do. With three Level 3 Earth-element blessed, the Temple should be able to maintain control even if new Level 3s appear.'

Lacius turned to the High Priest and initially wanted to dismiss him. But his gut feeling felt something, so he asked the High Priest, "Are you also a Peak Level 2 blessed?"

"Yes, my lord." The High Priest instantly responded.

"Alright. Then, we shall not waste any more time. I'll guide the three of you to reach Level 3."

For the next two days, Lacius spent his time guiding the four people in front of him. By the time they were almost ready to advance, he shared the excess magic ores that had accumulated in a corner of his underground room with them.

Absorbing the mana-rich ores, the four of them steadily reached Level 3.

While those three are feeling the change in their body and the increase in their power, Lacius coldly spoke, "Go above and choose a Peak Level 2 earth element blessed who has greatly contributed to the temple. Give them the Level 3 training method in advance and let them reach Level 3 in the temple before sending them to a mission to investigate an unknown area at the southern sea and bring back the corpse of a Level 2 magical creature."

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"Immediately report back to me after you give the training method."

The High Priest knelt and said, "Yes, my lord."

The High Priest brought the other three newly advanced Level 3 blessed above ground.

An hour later, he returned to Lacius's underground secret room. "My lord, I've given the training method and your task to the blessed."

Lacius nodded. "Make sure they don't leak the training method. Then inform me once they have completed their task of bringing Level 2 magical creatures."

"I understand." The High Priest knelt and retreated.

In the empty room, Lacius recalled his plan.

This time, he took a two-pronged approach to collect strong blessed as his experimental materials.

The first method he planned was to secretly train loyal blessed from the start and then use them as experimental material.

Although this wouldn't cause chaos or risk leaking his true intentions to the world, the weakness of this method was also glaring. The time required to train a Level 3 blessed was simply too long.

The second method, on the other hand, was to gather Peak Level 2 blessed from around the world, allow them to advance to Level 3, and then send them on a "dangerous" mission into unexplored territory. An area where some of them would conveniently go "missing."

Of course, Level 3 blessed are already the top combat force in the world. Except for demons at the demon king's level, nothing is dangerous for them.

That's why the reason those people would go missing was simple. Lacius would secretly intercept and capture them while they were on their missions.

As more and more Level 3 blessed disappeared in unexplored regions, it would soon become common knowledge that those areas were dangerous. Using that as cover, Lacius could continue kidnapping others who ventured there.

This second method was also the reason he allowed the High Priest and the other three to reach Level 3.

There's a high chance for the Temple to get retaliation from the force behind those blessed and even other forces with Peak Level 2 blessed.

There might even be a chance that those newly advanced Level 3 blessed would join the mess. That was why Lacius needed a large number of loyal, powerful people to maintain the Temple's position as the strongest force in human territory.

As more people advanced, he also planned to steadily increase the number of Level 3 blessed within the Temple, ensuring they could keep up with the times.

Once he was confident there were no flaws in his plan, Lacius began working out the finer details.

'I should probably let the first blessed who reaches Level 3 return safely. That way, the other Peak Level 2 blessed wo aimed to advance won't grow suspicious of the mission. I'll only start making a move on the second or third person to reach Level 3.'

'As for the first method, although the Temple has worked hard to gather talented people, it's still not enough. I need a method to check someone's earth element talent to make this plan more effective. But, I don't want to waste my time researching this.'

'Perhaps I should create a contest for the alchemists of the world. The main topic will be a method to test whether someone can awaken as an Earth Element blessed, and to measure how much talent they possess.'

Lacius immediately got to work. From his bookshelves, he selected several texts related to Earth Element blessing and summoned the High Priest.

Pointing at the chosen books, Lacius commanded, "Copy these and summon every alchemist in the world to participate in a competition. The goal is to devise a method that can detect talent capable of awakening as Earth Element blessed even before they awaken their blessing."

"You can allow the participating alchemists to study the copied books as reference material. As for the reward, give them whatever you see fit, as long as it's enough to tempt most alchemists."

The High Priest kneeled and left. He immediately mobilized the temple to start the alchemy competition in three months.

Although Lacius doesn't mention when the competition must be held, as the High Priest closest to god, he knew not to dilly dally on such an important task.

He understood that this task must be connected to the first mission Lacius, the god of alchemy, had given him a few years ago.

Now that Lacius has created this kind of competition, the High Priest feels he hasn't collected enough talented earth elements blessed to satisfy the god.

A month later, the news of the competition spread throughout the human territory, an alchemy competition of unprecedented size with a reward that's enough to tempt every alchemist and even non-alchemists. After three months, almost every alchemist, regardless of their ranks, arrived at the Temple Headquarters.

After every alchemist gives their prayers to a massive statue of the creator god and the god of alchemy that's enshrined at the temple's main hall, the competition begins. Competition that'll last for two whole years.

Yet, even with the sheer amounts of genius alchemists, the alchemical knowledge humanity has accumulated for centuries, and the knowledge Lacius shared that's several decades ahead of current knowledge, it still took half a year of experiments and endless resources before a few inventions appeared. Even so, those inventions are either too costly, inefficient, or have a side effect.

By the time the two-year mark of the competition arrived, the High Priest returned to Lacius's underground room, accompanied by several high-ranking members of the Temple. Each of them pushed a cart piled high with papers and samples.

Sensing their arrival, Lacius dispelled his petrification and began reading through the documents they had brought.

Meanwhile, the High Priest and the others knelt, doing their utmost to minimize their presence so as not to disturb him.

After carefully reading through everything, Lacius let out a faint sigh. 'As expected, the power of the masses still outweighs that of a single person. At least, the current me wouldn't have been able to discover a suitable method this quickly.'

Holding one of the papers, Lacius walked toward the cart holding samples.

Grabbing a glass box with many complicated mechanisms, needles, and numbers ranging from 0 to 10, Lacius noticed a precious-looking cubical polished rock attached to the top of the intricate device. He recalled the paper he had just read and moved his hand toward the rock.

When his hand touched it, Lacius felt a faint mana forcefully entering his body. He could have easily stopped the mana from flowing in, but instead, he allowed it to continue.

At the same time, the mechanism inside the glass box was activated, and the needles shifted. From pointing at the number '0,' they now pointed at '6.'

Lacius asked the High Priest and other high-ranking members of the Temple to touch the stone as well, observing as the needles moved to various numbers.

'What an interesting mechanism. To think someone actually came up with a way to detect mana. Not only that, they even found a method to make magic ore automatically enter someone's body. When combined, these two inventions created this incredible talent detector that can determine someone's talent by seeing the amount of mana they can absorb from the stone.'

'This method isn't perfect yet. But it's the best in both cost-effectiveness and accuracy among all other inventions.'

While still holding the device, Lacius told the High Priest, "This one is the winner. Create as many of these as possible and use them to search for more talented blessed with the earth element. At the same time, you can also let another Peak Level 2 advance."