Stray Soul

“Thanks for the gear, Gram. I’ll be equipping my armour at a later date though as the process can take quite some time as you can guess.” I said, and willed one of my lesser souls that was nearby to take my weapons and armour pieces inside.

The golems I had gotten from the dungeon were good enough to do many things, from keeping watch to helping in construction. Though for the life of them they couldn’t fight.

Though, that was probably due to my inefficient way of spreading the mana cloud network in the golems as the ones I saw in the dungeon had enough mana regeneration to move around, and fight as well.

Though, that may have been due to the high ambient mana in the dungeon... it probably was a combination of both of those things, was it not?

Yeah, it probably was...

“Now that you’ve got what you wanted...” Gram started after the golem started moving the carts inside the church, and I got cold feet the moment he did because my con was about to be exposed!

How do the other deities continue their con until they get divinity?! Surely, they don’t get their first hundred followers in a matter of days!

Okay William, now’s the time to think! You have to give yourself some time until you’ve selected your first clergymen!

You can, of course, always lie and say that you are yet to find someone that’s good enough for you, but that may bring upon you the ire of some of the goblins, seeing as their old gods gave them a shaman immediately, and even had the decency to send a demon to their aid in time of need!

So doing that, will be just a bad play on your part, and will lose you quite a few followers for no reason at all!

So, what to do? Not like you can just come up with some stupid rite of passage ritual that your acolyte candidates need to pass through... wait a second.

“...now it’s the time to—" Gram continued, but I raised a hand and stopped him to talk.

“You want me to select a priest, yes?” I said, and he nodded.

“Well Gram, I’ve been thinking about who to choose as my first priest or as my first acolyte, but, after thinking on it for days, I’ve come to the conclusion that I simply can’t choose anyone as... well, there are just no candidates for me to choose from.”

“No candidates to choose from?” Gram asked, raising an eyebrow as he had probably seen, or heard that a few people had entered the church and met up with me.

And yes, those people were potential candidates but... all of them also talked about becoming the tribe’s shaman, so I was already aware of their ulterior motives... not that they did a lot to hide them though.

“Let me re-phrase myself. There have been people who wanted to become my priests, but I am still not sure that any of them are... enough to become my first priest.

“And I am not saying that they are not good enough to become my priests, I am saying they are not good enough to become my FIRST priest. And I believe what I mean by that, yes?”

“...Yes, I do.” Gram said, nodding.

He knew as well as I that whoever became my first priest would have a lot of sway, and hold a lot of political power due to being my first priest, even if I never planned on directly intervening with the burgeoning senate we had going on here.

Which had around 6 members, and all of them were not elders! So, that’s a progress for the goblins... though I’ll have to make sure that Gram doesn’t get too much influence in the senate lest this nation just becomes another kingdom, and senators its nobles.

“Then, what do you want to do? I am sure you don’t plan on leaving on that journey of yours without leaving a priest here...”

“Actually, that’s exactly what I want to do.” I said, and watched as Gram’s and the faces of all the nearby goblins contort in confusion.

“...What?” Gram muttered aloud due to the sheer stupidity of what I said I planned on doing.

And he seemed like he had something else to say but I raised my hand to stop him before he could begin.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on never giving you a priest. I just want my first priest to be someone I approve of, and I’ve thought of a rite of passage ritual to test these priest candidates to find out whose most worthy of becoming my first priest!

“Not that I’ll only make one of the candidates a priest. The other’s will become acolytes to help manage my churches, and temples.

“And seeing as I plan on bringing at least a few hundred people from my journey up north, my first priest is going to need all the help he can get!” I said, and Gram... didn’t really seem convinced.

“So, you still plan on leaving us for... how long again without a priest?”

“2 months at most. But I’ll be leaving my golems here so you should be able to manage.

“Afterall, I am the lord of souls, and these golems are not like the ones you’ve seen in the dungeon, and I can see and hear through the.

“I believe I’ve made that clear before, yes?” I said, remembering the “experiment” we had done where I proved to Gram and the other goblins that I could see and hear through any of my undead, and golems.

It wasn’t that impressive, but hey, if it helped keep up the image, I was fine with it.

“I am not worried about not being able to contact you, I am worried about the passage.” Gram said, and I quickly remembered the time where he explained the origins of his people here, and where they’d come from.

Most of them had apparently originated from an assortment of small and large tribes that resided under the northern side of a mountain range called the Thousand Peak Mountains, and it had taken them a few months to get from there, to here.

And, through their travels they had crossed across the lands of many kingdoms and lands of the underworld, though I didn’t really care about The Diktat Of Sal and the stupendous amount they charged for a nightly stay at their inns.

Instead, my focus was mostly on the last leg of their journey which saw them travelling through the lands of the White Scales, a kingdom of kobolds ran by their god king Deraj, The Pale Lord. Who was a Wyrm that had apparently awakened his draconic bloodline, and yes, I am as clueless as you as to what that means.

I asked Rifu-san what that meant, but she could only give me vague answers as she had never seen or heard about a draconoid awakening their bloodline.

Anyways, that’s not really important as I am not in any position to think about helping Rifu against the monster that is a proper deity working for the Dark Lord.

What’s important is the way they came to the surface, which was through a series of man-made tunnels and natural caves that made up the “Passage”, which seemed like just a normal cave from the surface.

And why did they come here in the first place? Colonization.

That’s it. That’s the end of the story!

No over complicated plot or anything like that, just simple greed for more resources and political power!

Anyways.

Gram was worried about the passage because it led to an uninhabited area that was close to the borders of the White Scales, and either The Pale Lord, or The Great One could use it to send forces up here if they wanted to.

Though, Gram was not really worried about any kobold raids as The Pale Lord was unlikely to do anything for The Great One who was just a troll that had ascended to deity hood a few years ago.

Was he an intelligent Troll? Yes. But still we counted on The Pale Lord seeing him as a stupid troll, and not helping him in any way whatsoever.

Though, there was still a chance that an arrangement could be made between the wyrm and the troll, so Gram and the other goblins wanted some kind of reassurance from me in the shape of a priest.

But I can’t due that for... obvious reasons. So, how do I give them some reassurances...

“Gram, hold on a moment.” I said, and turned toward Ryuji.

“Ryuji, do you know what an explosive is?”

“Oh, I do of course William-sama! Are you in need of some scrolls that will give a fiery blast to your enemies?”

“Something like that, but more specifically, one that can cause cave-ins. Do you know how to get something like that?”

“Oh, of course I do William-sama! And I’d be more than willing to sell you some but... as you can understand scrolls like these can be a bit hard to—”

“I’ll give you a month-long access to the 5th floor of the dungeon, in exchange for you providing me 10 of those scrolls, and 30% of the profit from the 5th floor for that month.”

“I am grateful for your offer William-sama! But as you know these types of things require quite a bit of—”

“Watanabe Ryuji, I know how much money you will make from simply providing the golem’s corpse, core, or both of them combined. Not to mention how much you could make from simply bringing the golem out alive, and selling it to the magicians in The Mother’s domain.

“This is my last offer to you. Accept it, or get out of my sight. I have no further need for your services for today.”

“...I’ll gratefully accept this wonderful deal you’ve given me William-sama! But I wonder, when does the month-long lease start?”

“The moment the first of the delvers you sent enter the dungeon.”

“Great! I’ll have the explosive scrolls ready in 5 days William-sama!”

“Is there a way you can shorten the time?”

“Sadly no, William-sama, shortening the time more is impossible. I am going to be making the scrolls myself as is, as going back to a tower or an academy would take more than a week or two, which I believe won’t be enough time to accommodate for your plans of going out soon.”

“...You know how to speak goblin.”

“It’s called Grei William-sama!”

“Well then, I’ll be waiting for you to be done with the scrolls.” I said, and as he nodded towards me, I turned towards Gram.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be staying here for 5 more days, and after that, I’ll set off with a few golems and all the candidates for becoming priests.

“And on our way, I’ll use a few scrolls to cause cave-ins in the passage, so they can’t be easily used.

“In addition to stationing a golem or two there to keep watch that is.” I told Gram, and while he didn’t seem too keen about the idea, he was willing to give me a chance it seems.

Then we parted ways, and I retreated into the church and started assembling my brass armour, which I wished was bronze.

Bit by bit, I put the plates onto one another, and after a few gruelling hours of just boring work, I was done.

I looked at my hand covered in the orange metal, and clasped it, and felt the segments of my gloves move.

The armour for my hand, feet, head, neck, and other joints were slightly different from the rest of the armour which was just made of plates that could be changed at a moment’s notice, and while I knew this armour would be almost necessary in my future encounters, it felt extremely stuffy.

I stepped forwards, and felt the plates press onto my body and it was somewhat difficult to move.

But nothing that couldn’t be overcome with practice.

Afterall, I had 5 days to get used to this armour and all of my weapons. Which was, hopefully, enough time to develop some proficiency with them.