"The God of Humanity wanted to say that he approves your efforts to spread technologies among this world's humans. Sadly for you, Nectus, this approval will give you nothing of substance. Those evolution points that don't trickle into your system are currently going to strengthen humans of Earth-Oga-0048 against illnesses and other calamities."
It was really weird to hear a voice coming from my cup of tea. This was way bigger than so image of Jesus on a person's toast! If anybody entered, they'd think I was going insane…
Nah, they wouldn't. My girls saw weirder things.
But right now, I wished I could take a large gulp of tea. Instead, I just sighed.
Of course, humans world-wide were in trouble. I was sure that if the Goddess of Bees had any influence to spare, she wouldn't use it to help out of principle, too.
"I see. Thank you for the warning, Mr. Dalmanrach. Now I know to not expect any more that I was expecting… And I was already expecting a huge pile of stinky *nothing*."
Dalmanrach's image in the cup craned its neck in the god's strange bird smile.
"You already know that your path is a hard one, Nectus. So is mine, and right now, I need your help on it. After our last eting, I succeeded in arranging several minor alliances, which also let talk with you right now. But I need sothing more to re-enter the Ga of Evolution and be able to act fully."
I straightened in my seat.
"What is it?"
"I need you to add to the human pantheon and make a high-ranked god worthy of a lot of worship and having his own temple. Which must be build by human worshippers, of course."
I frowned in confusion. As far as I understood the rules (although I never got the opportunity to hear them in full), worship didn't give gods anything. The ability to have intelligence and worship things was a relatively recent developnt in the Ga, anyway!
That was why God of Humanity didn't care who people worshiped. And I was only using religion as a way to unite humans under my rule. Unlike bees, they were very susceptible to it.
"Yes, it's normally useless," Dalmanrach said, reading my confusion. "But I made a public bet that I can achieve human veneration, and being returned to the Ga at the cost of the gods who will lose this bet will be my reward."
I raised my eyebrows.
"A bet, seriously?"
Dalmanrach snapped his large beak in annoyance.
"Yes! It was a living proof that we beca a joke. Even mortals can see how pathetic it is! Living creatures aren't innately better or worse than others, but these pompous peacocks can't see it. When I suggested that even a 'loser' like myself can be revered by intelligent creatures, they were excited to see fail."
"Ha, yes, that's very like them—wait, fail? You didn't ntion failure conditions."
"Ah—I apologize. You only have a month for humans to build a temple in my honor and start their worship as God of Dodos who looks as I look now. And those must be humans, not bees—gods aren't blind to how much influence you have on them, and they find it too easy. The temple can't be a simple hut, either… It has to be a proper shrine, at least."
My shoulders dropped. Then my hands rose toward the ceiling.
"A month?! That's way too little! Even if I can convince humans fast enough—they are too busy fighting and not dying to build anything so quickly! Why am I always getting tasks that are so strictly ti-gated? And surely, if I lose, there will be so terribly harsh penalty and *definitely* no second chances…"
I stopped grumbling and just scowled at the wall opposite of .
Dalmanrach, anwhile, continued on as if he didn't hear my complaints at all.
"If you succeed, dodos will reappear in this world. I will do my best to bring them closer to your position, so our species could act in an alliance. It will give a lot more freedom of action and help you in developnt as well. If you fail… Well, you won't be punished, and I have little to lose at this point. Except for my hopes and dreams… And any chance to help you escape this vicious ga."
I stared glumly at Dalmanrach's image in response.
"This is all I wanted to say. If you have questions, Nectus, ask now, while we still have ti for them."
I jolted in place. Of course, I had a lot of questions!
"Can you tell more about divine politics? I want to know what species to be prepared to fight!"
"The short answer—all of them. The long answer… The Goddess of Hornets (she actually rules only giant murder hornets, but she won this title from other hornet goddesses) has a particular grudge against the Goddess of Bees, which doesn't seem to dissipate. Although so far she didn't act openly, I'd recomnd you to be careful. There are also so gods of viruses who failed to defeat humans in other worlds and are eager to try their chances again on Earth-Oga-0048."
I clicked this tongue.
More plagues weren't anything new, but the murder hornets… So far, we dealt with all the hives we've t without problems. I didn't hear about any problems with them so far. But then again, if I wanted to prepare a hive of unkillable super-hornets, I'd do it away from where my enemy could kill them before they fully develop.
"Thank you, Mr. Dalmanrach."
I wanted to ask more questions—for example, to hear the full version of the Ga of Evolution's rules!—but Dalmanrach spoke first.
"Our ti is over. I must leave before soone except the God of Humanity has a valid right to bring to court. I hope to see you again."
And the image in my tea cup went away like it never happened.
I took a good sip.
'Well, and how am I going to complete this task?'
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