Chapter 40: Ch 40: Hooking for a Big Fish

"So, you are saying that you opened up the possibility of becoming a god yourself? And you are conflicted about what you should do next?"

Goddess Apophis had listened to what Aiden had to say with an open mind. He felt lucky to have such an understanding goddess as her looking over him.

But still, his current situation worried him a little, and he kept a careful eye on his goddess to see her reaction.

Goddess Apophis was relatively calmer than he expected, and her eyes blinked with affection as she looked at Aiden’s worried expression.

"This situation is surprising, but it is not unheard of. Most powerful gods usually have followers that are gods as well. It is nothing new. Besides, since we share a bond, it is a given that you will one day come to share your affinity."

"But Goddess Apophis, I-"

"I understand your concern. However, your authority is my authority and vice versa. Since I claimed you as mine, we are no different. So if you increase your influence, my own will increase as well. This is how gods work."

The goddess explained to Aiden, and his panic started to slowly calm down.

Since his goddess had told him this, Aiden saw no point in questioning her regarding this. She was connected to him, and she knew that he cared for her. So he was also sure that she wouldn’t lie to him about such an important matter.

Aiden decided to see this as an opportunity rather than a hindrance.

"If increasing my own worth will increase yours as well, then I promise I will do my best for you."

Aiden gave a low bow before he decided to leave his goddess to sleep. She was getting disturbed too often, and he wanted her to have a nice and deep sleep for once.

For now, he decided to shift his focus to the village and its development. And first, he needed to welcome the dwarfs.

...

Within a week, the dwarfs had built homes that were comparable to modern houses. There was still no electricity supply, but that was the next project Aiden was going to work on.

Luckily, the system had blueprints of clean energy that did not require a lot of space or resources, and he handed them over to the dwarfs as well.

They looked happy to take care of the supply, and a new power station was built underground for usage.

But the dwarfs’ houses created another problem: they stood out too much within the village landscape and made it look disharmonious.

Aiden did not bring it up with the dwarf leader, but that man must have picked this up from his expression.

"Sir Priest, we have finished settling down, so we will return to work on the main temple now. And since there are more of us now, we can also start working on the village homes and streets at the same time. That will make our work twice as fast."

The dwarfs told Aiden, and he had to admit that it was a plausible assumption to make.

The number of dwarfs in the village was 10 times the amount before, and the workforce had also increased.

Moreover, the villagers were starting to show interest as well, which meant that the construction would happen even faster.

Aiden had no reason to reject this request.

"Then, I will leave it up to you. Please do as much as you can until the end of the month because we will be holding a festival."

Aiden reminded the chief, who laughed and nodded. He did not seem too put off by the tight deadline he had been given.

"Please don’t worry about it. We shall do our best with the time frame. We will also start laying down roads and sanitary passages to connect the waterworks and other resource systems."

The dwarfs had a lot of ideas, and most of what they said went over Aiden’s head. Still, he could tell that the dwarfs were capable and passionate about what they were doing.

They would handle this themselves, so he needed to focus on the other aspects.

First, Aiden needed to spread the news of the festival, and Lord Rain had a good idea. It was to spread the news through travelling merchants.

Aiden’s village was still a no-name small village with not a lot of foot traffic, which meant that there was no publicity for what was happening here.

But he had herbs that could be sold to create buzz outside.

So he sought out the selected merchants and decided to sell the herbs to outsiders in the nearby bigger village.

Lumi was a big help in this since she knew the market quite well. So Aiden sent her with the merchants to make a name for them.

The herbs sold quite well and created the buzz that he needed. And finally, after a full week, their village got their first outside merchant.

It was customary for the merchant to come and visit the local temple to ask the local god for their blessing, and Aiden had specifically instructed the dwarfs to pay attention to the village temple first.

Aiden himself decided to greet the guests since Lumi was busy, and he watched the merchants looking around the temple with awed faces.

"Welcome to Goddess Apophis’s temple. I do apologize for the mess here. We are in the middle of construction. We are trying to catch up to the main temple’s level, but I am afraid we will need more time here. If you come for the festival, do make sure to visit the main temple as well."

Aiden made sure to stress these words to inform the outsiders that things could be even better than this, and the merchants’ eyes widened in shock.

He could tell that they were itching to see the main temple as soon as possible.

And finally, his gamble paid off.

"Hmm, the festival is still two weeks away, right? It would be a shame to wait that long. So, can we trouble you for a place to stay for one night? We would like to look around for a day before we head back. After all, we are merchants, and we need to know what the people here need so that we can bring it to you."

Finally, these merchants were caught in Aiden’s net.