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Tzekel-kan had independently, within minutes, produced more or less the method that the Kali Familia used to create high-level Adventurers in the absence of monsters stronger than goblins for them to fight. If you don't have monsters to present a challenge, then just fight and kill other Adventurers. Your own Familia members, in fact.

Jaguar wasn't sure what to make of that, but in hindsight, he probably should have expected something of the sort to be proposed. Given that Tannabok didn't seem to have any ideas at all, beyond making impractical jokes?

Jaguar supposed that in the future his empire was going to be known for the arena matches, and possibly something like battle-high-schools.

Very Light Novel. Not a bad idea though, even if it was going to take significant time and effort investments to get any of the Jaguar Warriors to level up repeatedly. Kali had managed it though, so... that was possible, anyway.

It was also the sort of proposition that made Jaguar half-seriously consider bringing Tzekel-kan to Orario to dungeon delve. Either he would grow stronger and thus stick around longer to come up with plans like that, or he would die and Jaguar wouldn't have to worry about what he might get up to in the future, both of which were technically good things for him but in different ways.

Well... He was a zealot. That was a good thing for Jaguar, albeit probably a bad one for everyone else.

Much of the inflowing trickle of faith from El Dorado was from him and his efforts, once Jaguar took the time to closely inspect where it was coming from. A fairly thick strand, spun and twined with many other smaller ones from the golden city's inhabitants, recently added to by the introduction of the Jaguar Warriors with their own disproportionately large strands of flowing faith. Aside from them, gossamer-thin hairlike strands were seeping into his reservoir from the Orario region... from people who had encountered Jaguar there, and who had recognized him as a god, if not particularly their own, and thus deserving of respect.

That the Falna amplified the faith an individual poured out towards Jaguar was unanticipated, but it made logical sense. They were no longer just average mortals going about their lives, bowing briefly at a shrine and then putting it out of their mind as they left to their own business. They were Jaguar's warriors, bearing Jaguar's blessing, and acting in Jaguar's name. Effectively, everything they did became an act of worship.

Jaguar couldn't help but think about what that meant for if he put the Falna on someone like Tzekel-kan. That was honestly the largest reason he'd decided to do it, to see how the increase compared to an average person set against his Blessed Jaguar Warriors.

Setting that aside, the flow was steadily, albeit slowly refilling Jaguar's reservoir of Faith... that had been bitten into, losing much of it. That had left Jaguar concerned about what to do next, because the Faith itself converted to the usable but more short-lived Divine Energy that could be burned to smite someone, or perform a miracle of some kind.

The faithful of other gods might well be poisoned bait, it seemed. Something to keep in mind. That meant there could be other things to worry about... and Jaguar would have to think about how to use Tulio and Miguel. Carefully strip away any hooks leading off across the sea... if that was possible. Or just... getting rid of them wasn't going to be possible without creating questions, even if people didn't ask, but letting them grow old and die on their own.

Blood Sacrifice was a method to quickly add a large mass of energy to the reservoir, waiting to be processed and used. More slowly, tithes and other ceremonial offerings would do similarly, and with the benefit of the offering making its way here, to Jaguar's demi-plane. Food stocking the larders, valuables sitting around and awaiting use... some of the golden objects that had been cast into the Spirit World by the denizens of El Dorado over the years had already made their way into Jaguar's domain.

... With that in mind, would the sacrificed people end up here?

No, thinking about it, they were typically sacrificed in the context of feeding the gods. So they might end up in the pantry, but not as a person.

Well, in any case, the Familia of Orario would probably be something that pulled double duty, with both individuals that provided more faith naturally and also providing a tithe to their own god... acting as highly militant churches, effectively.

It left Jaguar wanting to go back, despite the danger of being kidnapped, in order to shore up an improved revenue of Faith there... he could always disappear from captivity, after all.

But that was all he could do. In another world, just breaking any facade he might be upholding to smite a problem with divine energy, or burn power for a miracle solution, that might be an option. In the world surrounding Orario, though? It was explicitly not. The Arcanum of the gods was sealed, and if he got picked up making use of divine energy to do things? That meant a one-way trip 'back' to Tenkai, the realm of the gods, for an eternity of sorting and distributing souls to where they had to go, like the universe's most miserable office drone that wouldn't have another vacation for the next thousand years.

Jaguar would gladly pass on that.

What he needed was one of three things: to learn human-level and human-scale magic, through human methodologies, which he did not have to amplify with divine energy. To learn human-level and human-scale combat methods. Or to pick up a bodyguard somewhere that could act in his stead.

The last was the typical method of the gods of Orario, so it was entirely plausible that Jaguar could just go right back and... find someone willing to take on the role. This was the ordinary method of operation.

That said, it had its own complications. Jaguar was only willing to really consider taking select and specific people between worlds with him. In Orario? Those individuals either hadn't been born yet, or they wouldn't be willing to leave. Hephaestus, for a start, was lodged into place with her smithing Familia. She wasn't a traveler or the sort of person who did things directly: she devoted everything to her hobby of metalworking, and moving away to somewhere else meant that she would have to set up a lot of forges and smithing equipment into the new place.

In other words, it was a nuisance that she would want to avoid. It was possible that she would want to take a break and vacation in other ways every now and again, but... Jaguar hadn't even met her, so making personal judgement calls might be hasty, actually. It seemed a reasonable bet, though.

Between martial arts and magic... either of them could see Jaguar finding close associates that he would be willing to keep, and they were both things that could be passed on, to at least some degree, once Jaguar had learned them. Not everyone had intrinsic magical talent, though, so the martial arts made more sense, between the two of them.

As for just finding a bodyguard? There were lots of options to pick up someone in a bad position that would jump on anything Jaguar offered with both hands. But at the same time... they were often in dangerous positions, or worlds, themselves. And while Jaguar could burn divine power in order to assure safety, there was only so much of that available to him and it didn't recover quickly enough for him to be happy starting up such habits.

Ideally, it should be somewhere that he could both learn and also pick up a bodyguard, shouldn't it? A two for one deal.

Jaguar thought hard about where to go, as the blank pillar that represented a potential connection to another world neared completion.

Martial arts then. Something that would allow him to defend himself regardless of it being a high or low magic setting, and which wouldn't need the use of divine empowerment to be useful. He could also possibly find a bodyguard there as well.

But where?

Ranma... had quite the cast of characters, but that was a no-go. People didn't learn there, unless they were some kind of savant. The kung-fu nonsense was only explained when it was something like hot and cold battle energy interacting like hot and cold air fronts in order to form an entirely literal, though momentary, tornado.

Regrettably, it wasn't an option to learn the basics in.

Anything too Wuxia was off the table, because it was far too close to being Xianxia, and that would leave Jaguar only a half-step from crossing paths with some semi-immortal asshole that would decide to grant him the honor of becoming pill materials to advance their cultivation with.

No thanks.

.... Kenichi. That was the ticket. A place with plenty of interesting characters, and where the teachers would actually teach their students in ways that they could learn the fundamental from. And while dangerous... it wasn't insurmountably dangerous either, and few of even the worst people would jump right to rendering him down for parts the way that would be standard practice for anyone of importance in a Xianxia setting.

It was decided, then.