Chapter 21: The Price of Faith

“Faith?” Nerez asked, leaning against the railing.

The two had stopped on a small bridge over one of the many streams that flowed down through the city of the five peaks.

“Yes. Why? Are you deaf?” Cerys shot back, hands on her hips.

“It just seems a little strange to me. I would’ve associated faith with the spiritual energy of gods… Or is that precisely why it has economic value?”

“Of course. Faith can be converted into SPE through a reverse temple in your domain,” Cerys explained, raising a finger as she puffed out her chest, proud of her knowledge.

Nerez covered his mouth to keep from laughing. If he annoyed her, she would stop explaining things, and he had no intention of losing the encyclopedia he had just acquired.

“Wait… They could’ve explained all of this to you at the Palace of Concord!”

“I’d rather hear it from you. The less I have to do with the other gods, the fewer problems I’ll have.”

“Tch… don’t get used to it.”

“But then, do mortals who believe in the gods give them faith? Is that how the economy works?”

“Not exactly. Temples and altars are what send faith to the gods,” Cerys explained, raising a finger again to emphasize that point. “And of course, it depends a lot on how large each one is and how many believers it serves.”

“I see, it’s a lot more complicated than it looks…”

“By the way, one SPE is roughly equal to ten units of faith.”

“So it takes ten units of faith just to make one unit of spiritual energy… but how much faith do altars and temples give in the first place?”

“I don’t know about temples. But I heard that even a small altar has to serve an entire community before it can send any faith to its patron god. And only then does it contribute around one unit of faith a month, I think…”

“In other words, one person’s faith isn’t even enough to make a single ‘unit of faith’… And personally, I don’t know if I’d want to visit a community with an altar to the god of death…”

Nerez let out a sigh and lowered his gaze to the stream.

“To begin with, I doubt there are many of those… I guess I’m destined to be poor,” he mused, one hand on his chin. “Then again, it’s not like I need many comforts in a cave.”

“I do! And who do you think has to feed me too?!”

“I feel like I adopted a pet…”

“Dare say that one more time!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Haha, sorry, sorry.”

“Tch… for your information, gods of death have important temples in all the major cities of other worlds.”

“Yes, I know, and that’s a lot more normal. It’s just the altar part that gives me chills for some reason…”

“Aren’t you the god of death…?” Cerys sighed. “Besides, aren’t you going to sell that fruit of Yggdrasil? It’s worth 50,000 faith, isn’t it?”

“Now that you mention it, you’re right. If it grants 5,000 SPE, that means it’s worth 50,000 units of faith… wow, that’s the equivalent of 50,000 altars…”

“And before I forget, besides temples, there are other ways to obtain faith, or even spiritual energy directly. Things like controlling sacred objects and holy places, among others… Are you even listening to me?! Who do you think is going to all this trouble to teach you all this?!”

“Ah, sorry. I’m in the middle of an important transaction, so don’t distract me for a second.”

Nerez worked his way through the holographic screen with a serious expression while holding the Yggdrasil fruit in his free hand.

“I’m going to…! I’m going to…! I’m going to bite you!”

And then she doesn’t want anyone calling her a pet…

The transaction was instantaneous. The fruit vanished from his hands, and his bank account… divine account? swelled considerably.