Shadow's POV
I groan, a mix of nausea and fatigue washing over me as I recoil from pushing our body to the limit. I've reappeared at the same spot I was waiting for the Satori in. Next to me, there's a sizable pile of fruits and berries. Behind it, several piles of monster carcasses.
Ah- yes- I didn't instruct them to do anything to the bodies... Shit.
*Accessing all World Knowledge of Part Extraction, Meat Extraction and Perishables Handling.*
I wince as my mind fills with knowledge. I see...
Getting to work, I quickly store the monster corpses. Leaving them out would just spoil the meat, but in the Hidden Space, that won't happen. I then get to work with the pile of fruit and berries. It seems the Satori didn't discern between what is poisonous and what isn't.
A minor modification to the Abstract Positioning lets me store all of a specified type of item nearby, let's call it the Loot All Function. It certainly speeds up the process. Once I identify a fruit or berry as safe to eat, I store all of them in the pile. As such, the pile rapidly shrinks until there's only a few kilos of poisonous plant-matter left.
It'd be a shame to toss it, and besides, I'm starving. Ignoring the seething sourness of one type of mango-like fruit, I start eating. I actually get so engrossed in doing so, I almost scream when Yggdrasil contacts me.
[Mill- er... Shadow, I've just ensured that Valena is completely free of the traces of Malice that were still clinging to her. Just before she entered the Spring, though, something seemed to overcome her and she uttered a prayer to the All-Mother in a strange voice...]
!
What did... what did it make her say?
["Dear Mother, forgive me, for I have strayed from your Path. May whatever punishment you desire for me come to pass so I may be forgiven for my sin."]
...
I highly doubt it would be the Malice itself speaking through her. Perhaps some repressed part of Leichers mind? He did mention that it was he that devised that 'Oblivion' Status...
[From your interaction with him, I suspect his Will has been ripped apart. I hope you don't mind, but I've been keeping an eye on you when you're away... I could tell, he's highly unstable. I doubt there's much time left before he loses himself completely.]
You've been watching us? How? No, wait. The sap.
[I hope you can forgive me! It's just that... Whenever you leave, I get this intense fear that you'll get hurt or something... You're my maker. Without you, and without a source of Faith... I'll wither and die... Again.]
I pause, absentmindedly chewing on the hard seed of a fruit. Of course she's keeping an eye on us. She's already 'died' once, by her own hand even. It seems that at the moment, the only thing keeping her healthy is our presence...
I spit out the pit and ask Yggdrasil, "If you had a temple, and people that prayed to you, and I then died, what would happen to you?"
There's a long pause, then;
[I'd be fine. It happened last time... My maker that time was... He was a peculiar creature. I don't think his kind exist anymore, though. He was some sort of plant/monster hybrid, similar to those Em-Bush creatures, but he was much bigger and smarter.]
[Well, once I was discovered they thought him a dangerous monster... They killed him. However, between them discovering me and him dying, they'd already started worshiping me as a Demigod. I felt intense pain when he died, but other than that, and several years of sorrow, I didn't feel weaker.]
[I suspect that if they'd killed him earlier, I'd have been severely weakened before eventually dying if they didn't start providing me Faith.]
I see... So you'll keep spying on us until you're certain our untimely death doesn't cause your own?
Crystal clear laughter rings out in my head.
[Apologies. It's just that... I highly doubt anything would be able to end your life save for the Malice itself. That's why I keep an eye on you. I'm worried about you... You felt it, when you killed those corrupted humanoids. The Malice latches onto the power you absorb with your Power Osmosis. If at all possible, I suggest seeking a method to avoid triggering that Skill when facing the Malice.]
Ah... Hm, I wonder...
*If the User provides a suitable Vessel, a Hitodama can be reborn as a Tsukumogami, a myriad-formed kind of Eastern Spirit. The form of the Tsukumogami is determined by the Vessel it is provided with, providing a method of bypassing the activation of Power Osmosis when using it to kill.*
Haha... A Living Weapon, huh? I wonder how this World's history would have changed, if the method of creating Tsukumogami was found instead of using Malice to create Chimera?
...
Whatever. I'm too busy to do it right this moment, the villages take priority. Finishing up the poisonous fruits and berries, I get to work on the monsters. Seems most died from blunt force to the head... The Satori certainly are a vicious bunch.
Using my webs, I create makeshift mosquito netting to keep the smallest and less noticeable Insectoids away from the meat before stringing a carcass up by its hind feet. I take a moment to thank the monster for its sacrifice as I remove its head. Thick, viscous blood, quite smelly from being left stagnant in the body, oozes from the stump of its neck.
Let's see... Other than its canine teeth, the head has few uses. I carefully extract the four sharp teeth from the hyena-like monster. As there's nothing left of value, and there's next to no meat on it, I decide to eat it myself. The big issue with having such a large SP pool is that it takes a lot to refill it.
Moving onto the main body, I remove the front paws and open up the chest cavity, carefully cutting out the useful organs before disposing/eating what's useless. Flaying the body, I can now let it finish emptying of blood before I cut it up further.
This process repeats seemingly forever. Hang up the body, cut off the head, disembowel and skin. Return to the carcasses that are ready to cut them into five and store them. For monsters that aren't normally eaten due to their... less than appetizing appearance, despite being perfectly edible otherwise, I further cut them up to make the meat less recognizable.
By the end, there's another small pile of fruits and berries, and even more monster bodies, next to me. This should do for now, though. I store the edible plant-matter and the monster bodies before telling the Satori to stop gathering food. It'd be no good if we razed this place bare.
Changing into the high-speed flight form, I make my way towards the village that used to be led by the Kings first cousin. Their situation is by far the most dire, though I fear their reaction when I return.
As I approach the village, I see many people milling about, some clearing snow, others seem to be trying to brave the deep snow outside to look for food. I can more or less feel the desperation emanating from the village.
Slowing down, I hover in the air above the village. Reaching out with Telepathy, I contact the Guild Master of the village. He's the person here with the most authority at the moment.
"Guild Master, I return, as promised, with food. May I land in the village?"
I sense shock, then elation from him, so I choose to believe I've got the go-ahead. Transforming out of our flight form, I slowly lower myself into the village center. Running up to me, red-cheeked and almost crying, is the Guild Master.
"Great Monarch! I- I thought..." He pauses, collecting himself slightly before he continues. "I'm... I'm sorry, your Highness, for causing what happened. I feared we'd offended you." He bows deeply to me.
"If anything, I'm just glad you wanted me back after what my Servant did." I glance around, many curious villagers are gathered around, some hiding behind the corner of buildings, others brazenly walking closer. "I've gathered food. Berries, fruit and meat. The meat... I forgot to tell my Servants how to treat it, so it might not be the best it could be, but it is edible provided it's cooked thoroughly."
The Guild Master nods eagerly. "We have a storage-room for easily perishable foods in the Hall. Please, come with me."
We walk together towards the Guild Hall. There's still the lingering scent of unwashed bodies inside, but I ignore it as we enter the food storage. It's a large room, the walls, roof and floor are each one slab of white-speckled stone. It's even colder here than outside, and the air hums with Cold Element.
The Minars gestures towards the metal shelves lining the room, and I fill them with berries, fruit and meat. It should be enough here to last at least a week provided they ration it a little, and in the meanwhile I'd be able to gather more. World Knowledge estimates that the snow would have melted enough for people to safely go out and forage in about two weeks, so it's not like we'd have to provide food for the entire winter.
I feel something emanating from the Guild Master... It seems to be some sort of energy? It's slowly drawn to me, entering our body...
*User has acquired Faith.*
Huh?
*Faith, known as 'Power for the Gods', is an Universal Energy similar to Magic. By being Praised as a Deity, God, Demigod or as an Envoy or Messenger, Faith is accumulated. User is classified as a Messenger. Messengers cannot use Faith directly, only collect it for and share it with Demigods, Gods and Deities.*
So... Since they believe I'm a Messenger from the Divine... I've collected their goodwill?
*Affirmative. Records show that Faith can be used to speed up the process of awakening a Demigod, so this is a benefit for the User's goals as well.*
Is... Is there a limit to how much Faith I can store?
*There isn't. However, Faith stored by a Messenger will vanish upon the death of the Messenger, making hoarding of Faith by Messengers a problem. After all, the more Faith, the more leverage the Messenger might have in their requests for rewards.*
Something tells me there's a history of Messengers being greedy... But this is good! We're sure to collect more as we help the villages, and then we can use it to fast-track the rebirth of the other three Demigods!
"Guild Master, I have to tend to the other villages as well. I'll be back before the end of next week with more food." I pause for a moment, almost forgetting something important. "Give me a moment, and I'll supply you with some Water Gems. Simply have someone with Water Affinity run their MP through the gem, and it will produce water."
Focusing a small sphere of pure Water Element, I use Crystallize on it. I can't help smile when I see the flabbergasted expression of the people now present. Repeating this a few times, I hand over five deep marine-blue gems, each the size of a fist.
There's enough Water Element in each to yield over a hundred liters (~26,4 US Gallons~) of water. Combined with melted snow, they should have more than enough water for now.
I bow to the Guild Master before taking my leave. With the interruption of Valena's crisis, I'm running a bit late, so I speed off towards the next destination; the village where I killed Esmer.