10 Another path

The mystery of the world was part solved. The reason why the people here were so much more advanced despite the world being only two million years was due to Wisdomwood.

'It's impressive how the humans here still turned out so… humanlike. Perhaps it was God's influence.'

Touching the tree helped mages expel their foreign mana, like Savine mentioned, but there was one more benefit that she didn't mention. Its ability to affect the genes of the species that touched it, making living beings in contact of the tree more and more likely to develop positive mutations. 

Hence, a world with Wisdomwood usually tended to have an accelerated evolution. That could be an explanation to why this planet developed so quickly, but there were still many more questions left unanswered.

"Regardless, today was a productive day."

She gained quite a few important things. First and foremost was a certain amount of reverence, and thus, freedom. Vevian was under the assumption that he had found a goldmine in her and that she would be willing to make money with him, holding hands and singing jolly songs.

Savine had a few talks with him about how that wasn't the case, but either willfully or ignorantly, he did not take her seriously.

Today's incident should've opened his eyes. Savine was not someone he could keep locked. She was not some gratis God's Blessing that fell upon his laps. She was a gift, yes, but only to those with the ability and qualifications to receive them, the self-control to be content with what they received, and the humility and modesty required to not offend her.

Savine did not mind allowing others to look at her that way. A God's Gift. For many, that was enough to believe in God. Why should Savine care if some people objectified her, if it meant she could get believers?

Of course, her and God's blessings needed to have limits. People shouldn't rely on God for everything in the first place. God's work was much more fundamental than that and Savine's job was to simply help with that. Sometimes, when she was feeling generous or when it was necessary, she would help a random soul.

'Though, the moments of my generosity seemed to have gotten much rarer…'

When she started taking over worlds by force, most did not want her or God's generosity. That was fine as well. Eventually, they were going to be forced to appreciate it.

Savine reached her room and plopped onto the bed. But as she passed by the mirror, she noticed something odd. Curious, she got up and looked at her reflection.

"What?"

A girl with snow-white hair stared back at her.

"What the fuck?"

Like Ney's parents, her hair was a dull black. There was no way Savine could've seen wrong.

'Is that why the two of them were staring at me so confusedly?'

However, she soon shook away the useless thoughts and focused on the why.

'Is it because of Jibril?'s intervention?'

Savine immediately stripped and checked her whole body. Her skin still looked pale and unhealthy, her eyes were still the same dull brown, the yellow in her teeth still lingered, and her body still felt full and weary. But aside from her hair, nothing else was different. Though… there was something.

Frowning, she looked again.

'I look a bit… prettier?'

Ney's face was, of course, not something to mention home about. She was, after all, from the lowrungs. She was automatically not pretty, but she wasn't that ugly either. Her chin was well-defined, and not that sharp as her mother. Thankfully, she didn't inherit her mother's large forehead, but she did inherit her father's slightly pointy head.

The end result was a somewhat geometric head. She planned to do something with her hair to fix it. Maybe a hat would've done the trick.

But that pointiness seemed less now, and her face looked more balanced.

"Hmm…"

Even though she was an angel, the same as Jibril, Savine couldn't really get what she was trying to do. Was God's Oracle giving her a facelift every time she sinned?

Eventually, though, Savine shook her head and fell on the bed again. Her body still wasn't up to par. And she still had many things to ponder about.

She stared at the Vasa in her hands and smiled with disappointment.

She couldn't use the Vasa as her own. At this point, it was no different than the Initiate's limb. The process of taming a piece of Wisdomwood was slow and arduous, but it was extremely thorough.

With the same reasoning as to why one can't attach another hand on their side and try to use it, the Vasa was useless in Savine's hands.

Hence, she needed her own piece.

"I suppose I need to hurry on towards the Sovereignty."

The existence of Wisdomwood forced her upon a single path. To join a faction and to receive her Vasa legitimately.

Wisdomwood was great, but it was also greedy. In worlds where the tree existed, basically no other magical material existed except for mana stones. But those were only good for storing mana, not taming it.

As for the trees, they were enormous. The word didn't grant it justice. It was as big as mountains.

And it was a mountain that absorbed every inch of mana it could get. Though the world here produced mana naturally, it wasn't that wrong to assume that 70% of all that mana was concentrated in the Wisdomwood. As for the rest, 20% was stored in mana stones, while 10% resided inside the mages' bodies.

Thus, the only ways Savine could get herself magical material was to join a faction and receive Wisdomwood from them… or slaughter mages and use their mana-storing organs as magical material. But that was, of course, impossible, as magic was necessary for the process. Not to mention Jibril's seal.

'Which means that the only choice I have is what faction I will join.'

Two months later, she would have enough money to make the decision herself. Before then, she could take her time and research the choices available to her. If she found somewhere that sounded good, she could go there, but if there was none, she would join the Sovereignty's Temple.

She was, after all, God's Chosen.

As long as the religious power there wasn't rotten to the core, it was better for her to rise from there, instead of creating her own religious group.

What Savine cared most about was the people's devotion to a higher power. It didn't matter if their gods had different names and variations. If the people wanted to create myths and legends of a dozen realms and a hundred gods to make their beliefs more interesting, then Savine was not going to stop them.

It wasn't really an important matter, because all gods culminated in God.

Praying to God directly was better, but as long as the people maintained a healthy amount of piety to even imaginary deities, it was enough to keep that world safe. 

'That's why...'

Savine turned in her bed, thinking. 

Today's incident had taught her something rather interesting. She could order others around to do her dirty work. When she was heatedly talking about torturing the Initiate, Jibril immediately struck Divinity down on her, but nothing of the sort happened when Savine was convincing Vevian to do the same.

Back there, she thought that it was because if the Initiate was allowed to roam free, then it really would spell doom for her... but even if he escaped and brought other mages, it wouldn't be impossible for Savine to survive. 

She possessed no mana of her own and no Divinity to work with, but she still had her Gift. It wasn't at its strongest, not even close, but it was enough for her to avoid being discovered. 

Since that was the case, it was hard to imagine Jibril being unwilling to exact the same punishment once more. And it wasn't like Savine was going to die. The Divinity that assaulted her body was only designed to make her feel pain. Savine was not giving it justice, by describing it so lightly, but it was true that It wasn't designed to cripple or incapacitate. 

'That means that I'm free to command others, no? Even if that command leads to violence.' 

She needed to prove this point of hers, but she was 90% confident.

That simple fact created a million opportunities for Savine. 

Without this bit of freedom, Savine would probably be forced to act as Jibril wanted. To become an idol of worship for the masses, a symbol of holiness, justice, or whatever else necessary to grasp the attention of the people.

But now, she didn't need to become a religious icon. She now had a chance to become a stray warlord - create an army of her own, unrelated to the already established powers. A legitimate ruler - either a proper Magus in the Magicracy or a Noble in the Sovereignty. And if all else fails, a syndicate boss.

With people to rule over, she would have many more options available to her.

'Mmm...'

Quickly, she started to think of the feasibility of the three choices.