"I owe you one then." Ikaris thanked the priest for his initiative. "Have you decided on the location of your chapel?"
Abram strolled around a bit with the teen walking silently behind him, then uttered,
"With your Stele, it should be possible for you to relocate the buildings by paying some kind of fee, am I wrong?
Ikaris did not answer right away. It was not currently possible, but he had already predicted that such a feature would eventually appear as his Stele and his nation flourished.
"Not yet." He admitted, acting sincere. "For now, I can only duplicate the model of already existing buildings in my territory by paying a cost in resources that slightly exceeds their actual construction cost."
Abram was taken aback. "From which Saint does your Stele come?"
"Elsisn." Ikaris didn't think it was a secret to hide.
The old priest nodded, giving him a knowing look. "I thought it might have been Zar, Veel or Seorn, or maybe another Minor Saint. Seorn is still okay, but Zar Steles are not well regarded in the Warring Lands because of the dominance of Faulch's cult prevailing here."
"And the Veel Steles?" Ikaris inquired, already having an inkling of the answer.
"Veel Steles are not welcome anywhere in the Forsaken Lands unless you are an undercover Glenring." Abram rolled his eyes as if it were a stupid question.
'I'm a Crawling Thrall.' Ikaris retorted inwardly with no change of expression.
The Sinner Saint who had betrayed the Confederation to join the Glenrings was a taboo topic in the Forsaken Lands, but as the most ancient Major Saint of whom there was concrete evidence of activity, there were undoubtedly many ambitious smartasses secretly worshiping him.
Magnus had already recounted to him that most Lords, especially when they ruled a well established nation such as a kingdom or empire, usually kept the origin of their Stele secret. When earned through legitimate and traceable channels such as an award ceremony or an offering to a public temple, the Lords would choose to advertise it, but it could also be a cover to hide their true primary Stele.
It should not be forgotten that a Stele could also evolve by feeding on other Stele. For this reason, it was best to use a Major Saint's Stele as a primary Stele whenever possible. If someone got a Veel Stele, it would be very difficult to give it up.
"Duplication is good too." Abram returned to the original topic of conversation. Pointing to the Elsisn and Faulch temples, he stated, "I have enough resources, so if you use them, could you build me a Basic Temple like these two? My team will modify it afterwards. It will save us time. I'll place it a little further away to anticipate the expansion of your village and hopefully by then your Stele will have unlocked that Relocation feature so I don't have to tear it down."
"Let's do it that way." Ikaris readily agreed.
A moment later, a Basic Jessup Temple was born. Abram's designated priest, a man in his thirties named Boros, arranged several statues of Jessup at the entrance and inside, while the rest of the staff hurriedly plastered all the walls with red clay.
He then made a symbolic offering and prayer to gain the approval of his patron Saint, and even before he could finish the offering table miraculously filled with sand as a warm, saharan wind suddenly blew over Last Saint.
"Jessup has bestowed his blessing on your territory." Abram explained to Ikaris with a big smile.
"Could he have refused?" The youth frowned.
" Usually not, but you never know. "The old priest laughed evasively.
Curious, Ikaris then used his Appraisal Spell on the new temple and was able to confirm that they had indeed received Jessup's blessing.
[Basic Jessup Temple: A place of worship dedicated to the Desert and Traveler Saint]
[Blessing of Jessup: Raises resident movement speed and stamina by 1%]
[Number of followers: 12]
[Offering pool: 0/3. Fills the pool to receive a blessing from Jessup. NB: A priest of Jessup and the appropriate prayer can influence the result]
[Upgrade requirements: At least 100 followers]
Because this temple was not generated solely by his Elsisn Stele, there was only the requirement of a certain number of followers to upgrade. Also, even if it met the conditions, the building would not change in appearance unlike those of Elsisn and Faulch which would upgrade along with the village once the upgrade requirements were met.
It was just another regular building that was only valuable because Abram had decided to make it a worship place for Jessup. In theory, he could immediately build a huge cathedral dedicated to Jessup if he could afford it, but the blessing would not change.
Aside from the effects of the blessing, which were decent, Ikaris especially noticed the huge difference regarding the Offering Pool. While an offering to Elsisn or Faulch required 100 units of something yet to be determined, Jessup's offering required only 3 units.
It could already be concluded that it was much easier and cheaper to obtain Jessup's favor, which made his great popularity with travelers and merchants all the more credible. If the cost of the offering was reasonable, Ikaris wouldn't mind making a small donation before an important trip.
After asking Abram and Boros questions about the matter, he left them alone and walked towards the two twins. Mira was sulking, clearly in a bad mood as she noticed the difference between her modest Kinah Prayer Hall and the other temples. Her sister Newen was trying to cheer her up.
Ikaris chuckled as he heard them badmouthing him behind his back.
"Are you talking about me?" He grinned as he weaved in between the two sisters, who flinched as they recognized his face.
Newen blushed, blurting out an embarrassed apology, but Mira just snorted and looked away. Amused, Ikaris scoffed,
"What are you complaining about? Unlike the Jessup temple I just built, this Prayer Hall was entirely generated by my Elsisn Stele. It looks like this because it has not yet received Kinah's recognition. Once recognized by the Knowledge Saint, this building will evolve along with Last Saint as long as its number of followers keeps up. You are the Knowledge Saint's priestess and you didn't know that?"
Mira froze. She opened her mouth as if to retort that it wasn't true, then changed her mind. Instead, she decided to check his claim.
Informally, she walked over to the Kinah statue, then clasped her hands in a prayer pose and closed her eyes. No words were spoken, no offerings were made. But not even a second later, Kinah Prayer Hall began to glow and grow, reconfiguring its architecture before their very eyes.
A Basic Kinah Temple joined the other three Basic Temples of Elsisn, Faulch and Jessup. Unlike the latter whose modifications were still in progress, this one already had a distinct architectural and aesthetic identity.
From the outside, the temple resembled Elsisn's except for the difference between their statues, but once inside, there was no mistaking it. The walls were filled with wooden shelves full of books and grimoires neatly arranged and labeled. If it wasn't for the offering table and the statue of Kinah at the end of the room, one could have thought they were in a neighborhood library.
Mira and Newen gasped as they discovered the interior of the temple. The priestess of Kinah, who usually kept her cool, ran overexcited to a shelf of books and, after taking one, began to leaf through it with great concentration.
Her sister, Newen apologized for her twin's inappropriate behavior but she too was having trouble hiding her excitement.
"Can I get a temple like that for Asanah too?" She asked, batting her puppy eyes at him.
Ikaris hesitated, but finally revealed the truth to her. "Not at the moment. I can duplicate this temple with the proper resources, but it won't be able to evolve on its own unless my Stele upgrades again and grants me new Prayer Halls like this one."
Ikaris smiled at the young woman's disappointed pout and decided to reassure her, "Don't worry. At the rate Last Saint is developing, the next Stele evolution could take place within ten to fifteen days. Maybe less if I'm lucky."
Hearing that it was possible to get an upgradeable temple like her sister's with a little patience, Newen's spirits rose and she promised to wait. With her agreement, Ikaris spent the required resources from his personal coffers to build an Asanah Prayer Hall next to that of Kinah. Newen replaced the default statuette with one of her own featuring Asanah and closed her eyes.
Just as her sister had done a minute earlier, Newen uttered a short prayer and a mystical presence descended upon the statuette and the young woman. It left as it had come, but as Ikaris scanned the building, he knew that the blessing had been granted.
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