<~> Chapter 62We spent several hours outside of town w on ic. Luckily, no monsters have run into our clearing since we started practig. We were still close to town so it was uhere was going to be many prowling around but it's not like there was no monsters in the area either. I had settled on a lightning magic spell that shot sparks into the air. It wasn't a particurly useful spell really but it was the circle that had the most individual lines in it so it seemed like a pretty good spell to practice casting everything at once.

  I had been able to get the new spell cast sistently ihan 20 seds. It didn't sound like much of an improvement over my fire spell but sidering how much lo would have taken to physically draw it pared to the fire spell it felt like quite the aplishment. I found that visualizing the ritual symbols came pretty natural to me and the hardest part was 'double cheg' it so everything was 'in focus' so to speak. If I got zy it would distort too mud the ritual circle would e out too messed up to cast. I had been practig picturing, building, and exeg the circles repeatedly until I got an ued notification.

  [Drawing has increased from level 8 to level 9]

  Drawing? I... suppose the visualization aspect could be reted to drawing. Using [Light Signal] to mark out the shapes could be akin to drawing them but at this point I'm just kind of... putting the circle together all at once like a photocopier. Hmm, maybe I have been going about this in the wrong way. Maybe I should lean into the idea of 'drawing' the circle in my mind rather than just making the circle appear whole in my mind. Maybe something like 'animating' a ritual circle.

  I took a deep breath and imagihe individual parts of the magic circle quickly being scrawled into pce. The outer circle that tains the power and gives it structure, spinning around the rest of the shape. The sparks of lightning crag off the ter of the circle. Two more symbols that have unknown meanings to me but shape how the form of the spell will ma, written like a cursive script. Then I imagine all of these pieces running all at oogether, the motion just as important as the final product. I opened my eyes and activated [Light Signal] using [Light Manipution] to 'run' the animation I had been picturing.

  Rather than instantly appearing each part of the circle simultaneously drew itself in front of me. Strangely enough the circle was more memorable to me this way, improving my casting time from 20 seds to only 3 seds. I was able to restruct the ritual over and over now, creating spshes of harmless sparks all around me. I smiled as I felt the echoes of a good memory, of sparklers all surrounding me, of cold wind and the smell of the beach.

  [Ritual Magic has increased from level 3 to level 10][Drawing has increased from level 9 to level 11][You have created the new spell Light Scribing][Level increases by 1][You have gaihe notice of Sorsette the Goddess of Knowledge and Innovation]

  I felt a shiver down my spine and the hairs on the bay neck rose. I looked around but didn't see anything. Nothing really seemed different but I got that prickly feeling of being watched. However, I wasn't sure if it was because I was being watched or if I was feeling paranoid because the system told me I was.

  I took a deep breath and put it out of my mind. I had no trol over it so I might as well just let it go.

  [Light Scribing - Light Magic Spell]Draw and cast ritual magic using light magic as its base. This spell increases the ease at which you are able to build and cast plex rituals and manipute them before and after being cast. Strength of the effects are increased by [Magic Force] and trol of its effects are affected by [Magitrol].

  "Hey Lilith, are you okay? You looked like you were having fun a sed ago but then you just stopped and now you look like you've seen a ghost."

  "I uh... got a system message. It says I've... gaihe notice of Sorsette the Goddess of Knowledge and Innovation."

  "Really!? Wait, did that teique turn into a new spell? Gods, that's so cool! I thought you might get a new spell but to have created ohat's way cooler."

  I turan, "Wait, how did you know?"

  "Lilith, she's the goddess of innovation. It's obviously pretty rare to create a new spell but getting Sorsette's notice or even a blessing from her when this happens is pretty well doted. Sorsette is actually one of the most active of the gods, encing the spread of knowledge and rewarding the creation of hings. It's a badge of honor to get her notice."

  "Is she ected to the Tamin church?"

  Man's mood soured instantly. "If I didn't know you better than that I would have taken that as an insult. On paper the Sorsette churd the Tamin church are ral, in practice the two churches flict with each other stantly. Sorsette's followers ence the spread of knowledge to everyohat includes all other races. Her church is also the only ohat doesn't produy padins. Sure, you could argue that Sorsette affiliated mages are like padins but without any padins the Sorsette church doesn't directly interfere with wars. Well... at least in the same way. Being affiliated with the Sorsette church makes you somewhat of a free agent, they're truly ral, to the extent that there are often Sorsette mages on both sides of any given flid individuals don't always get along. For better or worse, while Sorsette mages are often hired by everyohey're rarely given any positions of power because they aren't allowed to restriy knowledge 'that could help society' which make them a huge liability, or so people say."

  I scratched the base of my horn. "You have a lot to say about this. Are you affiliated with the Sorsette church?"

  "No, even if I wao they don't take sves. They don't mind teag sves, they're actually one of the few churches who will, but you aren't allowed to join the chur any capacity unless you're freed first. Generally the church has an unfavorable view towards svery but because they don't directly try to influeny wars that sort of thing is restricted to politics alone."

  "Mmm, that actually sounds good then. I'm curious though, what is Tamin like then? I'm not used to... active gods so I hought to ask about it."

  "The Tamin church is actually kind of an odd ohere isn't actually a god amin, the church is actually a colle of three separate gods. The church is rather hush hush on the core of their religion though, despite how spread out and open they are about what they don't like. You would actually have to join the churd raise in rank a bit to even find out which three gods they worship. There's some specution that one or more of the gods the Tamin church worship are also worshiped separately, which is where a lot of the church's resources supposedly e from but that's all just a rumor. This is actually really frustrating for many of the other churches because a lot of beastkin are scared of supp any of the religions because they'd rather not ce supp the Tamin church even ily. The only two gods that are almost certainly not part of the Tamin church are Sorsette and Morkihe god of love ay. Sorsette for a lot of different, if minor, reasons and Morkinnen primarily because the Morkinnen church is very openly supportive of same-sex and inter-race love and marriages. Morkinnen is the most popur church for beastkin by far, partially because there's no way they're affiliated with the Tamin churd also because inter-race retionships are really on for beastkin who have extremely varied tastes in partners. Hence how on demi-humans are."

  I was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this. "So... you mentioned padins earlier, how on are wars based ion here? I feel kind of uneasy about the idea that the gods could be fighting some sort of proxy war using the people who live here."

  "Not all that on really. The gods themselves are more or less immortal. They don't age and are hard to kill, but they aren't impossible to kill. Especially among their own kind. There are only a few dead gods though, the most notable being Erimikai the god of war aru. A number of the gods discovered that Erimikai was influeng mortals to incite wars almost stantly and when fronted about it made his followers actively hunt dowher churches' followers. Despite all of the other churches and gods banding together, Erimikai almost defeated all the ods simultaneously while fighting on multiple fronts. The god of Death was the one who killed him in the end, he had mostly beeral through the entire flict so the gods were all really surprised wheepped in."

  "What caused Charon to step in?"

  "His motives were never clear to the ods and he doesn't have any direct followers or a church. The only people who have any affiliation with him at all are those who receive blessings or marks of Death." Man awkwardly looked at my arm where my hidden mark was when she said this.

  "How do you know about all of this anyway? How long ago did all of this happen?" I asked.

  "I'm not sure how long ago this happened but at least a couple thousand years. The only reason any of this is known is because Sorsette has made a deal with the ods to spread this specififormation. Each church has its own slightly different version of the story, focused on their own history in the flict. It's a on enough story that basically everyone's heard it in some form. Religious schors specute Sorsette wahis information to spread to dissuade the churches from fighting each other directly. Padins do fight directly in flicts but it's taboo for them to fight battles that could be perceived as attag another church directly. Like, they could fight a different chur battle over which lord they prefer in a succession dispute but they 't fight a war over nds held by a rival church."

  "What stops them?" I asked.

  "It's said to be an accord of the gods, all of the churches teach it and any time they would be in direct flict with another church the leaders of the respective churches have to approve their participation in the flict. There have been a few wars where churches spicuously didn't participate because it seemed too close to breaking the accord."

  "That sounds very political."

  "It is." Man replied with a shrug. "While churches are only occasionally in flict during war, they're in stant fli politics. It's often said the gods' aerely shifted the battlefield."

  "So with the direct presence of the gods, is being a member of a church expected?"

  "Well... it's on enough to join a church for various bes but most people will only pray and visit their temples for specific reted things. There are bes to joining the chur a mur capacity but it's kind of treated as a profession or a trade. If you want to be a padin or a priest then you would have to join a church for that. Otherwise, it's not necessary for most people. Nobles are also not allowed to join any churches uhey give up their family affiliation, supposedly so they remain loyal to their church rather than their namesake. Most churches don't even actively recruit and the only ohat aggressively recruits is the Tamin church, mostly because they try to exert their influence everywhere they ."

  "How does the Tamin church get away with being so aggressive towards beastfolk and same-sex retionships? It sounds like there's a lot of people whainst them."

  "Well, it's plicated. They've been around for so long now that their followers are deeply rooted all over the pce, including most guilds. Their influence is likely iher churches as well sihe gods they worship are unknown and tightly held. And the group that dislikes them the most are the other churches and they 't move for fear of breaking the gods' accord. Their power varies though. Some pces they may as well be the try's enforcers, other pces they're basically outws. It really depends where you are. Out here on the frohey probably don't have a lot of influeside of the guilds but there also are less people around to rein in some of their extreme members. The kingdom of Torlimal is generally in favor of the Tamin church's as but stop short of end any wbreaking activities. Not that they really do much to stop it either."

  I stretched my arms and looked around the clearing. "You know wheher girls aren't around it's pretty easy for us to get caught in versation."

  Man ughed. "Well, I don't mind talking about this stuff. Now that I actually know why you don't know any of it, I don't feel as silly talking your ear off."

  Saine

  Hello! I'm posting a bit early today so that I don't miss my upload window when I'm busy with other things today. Lots of fun world building this chapter. I try to be careful and not overload with too much all at once, I hope I've struck a good bance so far. ime we'll get some fun character development! I hope you enjoyed reading, see you ime!

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