My surroundings changed, it was covered in white fog, I could hear the sound of water flowing around me, but there was no river around, I did not feel the presence of anyone around me.

The fog slowly cleared, now I could see a human-like figure in front of me.

Now, I could see who it was, it was an old man, he looked really fragile, he was holding a stick to support himself and was wearing simple clothes. His eyes had no pupils.

I could not feel his presence, I could also not feel his power,

“I was expecting a young lady, but I did not expect the goddess of virtue to be an old man.”

“….”

Wasn’t I invited to talk? Why is it so silent?

The surrounding changed again, this time there was a well in front of me completely filled with water, and the old man was standing on the other side.

Now, that he was so close, I realized even though he was standing in a bent posture with the help of a stick his height matched mine, if the old man was standing straight, he would have been taller than me.

“I welcome you here, this is the spiritual land where my daughter meets other beings, she has taken an interest in”

Unlike his appearance, his voice was sharp and had some pressure to it, I did not feel any sort of hostility from him. He said this place belonged to his daughter, if this place belonged to the goddess of virtue, he would be her father, but I had never heard gods being born through parents

“So, shouldn’t I meet your daughter instead?”

“Ah, I am afraid that’s not possible anymore, even us gods have some rules to follow. she had a habit of bringing anyone she took an interest to over here without seeing who that person is affiliated with, I allowed her as it did not pose any problems until now, but now she is facing the consequences.”

“So, I wasted my time coming here.”

“No, I wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“About humans, the humans that worship gods.”

“Oh, are you scared that I might kill your dear precious worshippers?”

“I would say I am a bit worried, but right now, I am in no position to care about them.”

“How cruel, abandoning your followers like that.”

“Abandoning? Those who carry their faith in their gods shall never be abandoned by their gods.”

“Their gods?”

“You are still naïve to understand how the world works, so, I will give you a chance, a chance to learn, consider it my goodwill.”

“How?”

“You will find your answers when you complete your task for me.”

“Task? Why would I do anything for you?”

“Doing a task for a god, many would be considered it great honor”

“Honor? What honor is there in being someone else tool?”

He took a sigh, “Well, if you disagree, I can’t force you but let me warn you a day will come when you will pay for every life you have ever taken, and that will be the day when your glass of arrogance finally scatters.”

With a smile, I simply said, “I shall await that day patiently.”

“Then how about an offer.”

“What kind of offer?”

“I shall provide a massage to priests, and they will grant you a task, you would need to complete the task with alongside some young worshippers.”

“What would I get in return?”

“If you can make them question their own faith towards the gods during the journey, then I would consider that as a god I failed to look over this world, and I would grant you the blessing of the light. once you possess it unlike your replica, your original body’s one and only weakness towards light attribute would cease to exist but should you fail you would leave the humans alone.”

“You can either be used by me, or you can use me, it all depends on you.”

“Interesting offer but why should I care about any of that? I can simply choose to ignore it, what has the faith of humans over the gods got anything to do with me, as for my weakness I am sure I can find one way or another to remove it.”

“A wisdom of a sage or the wisdom of a god? which do you think is better?”

“What?”

“That was the question that led to the birth of war, the war caused the downfall of the gods, you possess the wisdom of a sage, don’t you? Then I will teach you how to use it, using it you can find out, about your life, the life you lived before you were a skeleton.”

“You think I would fall for your tricks?”

“Tricks? As I god I cannot lie, I am telling the very truth, why not accept it, you have nothing to lose, the task won’t take long, it will just take few weeks to complete.”

Faith? The unconditional trust people place in gods, with faith, came the subject of trust, I have lived a short life and rarely faced any situation where the concept of trust came into me. But considering how most of the knowledge I had obtained was through the system, I could even look at it in a way, like whoever had the control of the system had complete control over me,

A foolish man thinks he knows everything, a wise man knows he still has much to learn.

“Very Well, I accept but why young worshippers, wouldn’t it be more advantageous for you if they were a bit old.”

“You will find out everything soon.”

He faded away with the fog.

I got out of the spiritual world and returned to the room

“An oracle has appeared after many years.”

“Someone has spoken with the gods.”

Suddenly I became the centre of attention.