10 Anneliese III

Ahan had finally accumulated enough faith power to stabilize and merge with his Divinity and Godhood through the merciless farming of monsters in The Himalaya Mountains and Rakshasa Forest by the players. Though, stabilizing and merging with his divinity and ascending to Godhood once again was not as simple a process as filling up the EXP bar and leveling up.

His Divine Kingdom currently was just a semi-plane. His Godhood, which contained his domain and laws had not merged with him. All of this needed the help of his believers in the Mortal World.

Therefore, at the moment, a point of caution was to not expose the City-in-construction, Anneleise, as a base for his believers and bring on their own destruction. The other was to ensure that the Players did not provoke the Rakshasa Tribe without restraint.

It was not that Ahan had been reluctant to let the Players purge that wretched tribe -- in fact, he hoped more than anyone else that Players would easily clear the entire Rakshasa Forest of those evil demons. But in the Mortal World, an adult man would have the capabilities of a Level 5 Bronze Player. If he had received training and had served the army, he would at-least match a Level 15 Bronze Player. An elite soldier or an officer would be Silver tier. Gold tier was what separated the strong and the weak.

The Rakshasa Tribe had plenty of Supreme level Elders as well as a Legendary Tribe Leader and countless Gold, Silver and peak Bronze grade minions. They were a Behemoth Empire level power restrained inside the Rakshasa Forest by the power of the armies he had stationed there in the past and the power of his clones.

The gods condensed clones to use them instead of their true bodies to walk in the secular world.

Feeble divine force rank Gods or simply Lesser Gods could condense one clone, Weak divine force rank Gods could condense two clones, Intermediate divine force rank Gods could condense three clones, Strong divine force rank Gods could condense four clones, and his previous level which was Overlord rank Gods could condense five clones. There were both strong and weak clones, and divinity or even godhood could be placed in them.

That is why, though the beta-players were now high on morale, truth be told, Ahan could imagine the players who were still in their early levels being wiped out entirely and instantly even if they stepped anywhere near the outskirts of the Rakshasa village by mistake.

Also, if the Rakshasa Tribe was provoked and started a war, they would realize that he had been defeated and there wasn't his clone with an elite army waiting right outside the forest to guard it! They would wreak havoc in the entire Eastern Islands. If that happened, the players would be killed again and again and even if they could be revived, soon they would run out of faith coins and reach the limit he had set for the players to re-spawn, which was negative 500 faith coins!

This would affect all of Ahan's future plans. As he was completely sure that the Players would select adventuring out and not help the starter City construction efforts -- when playing a VR game, compared to spending a dull seven to eight hours mining for resources and building walls, wouldn't a thrilling adventure with the potential of gaining Silver dropped weapons seem so much more appealing?

Moreover, seeking death was in itself engraved deeply into the DNA of players! That was why he kicked out all the players from the game and introduced the first Beta Version Update.

***

Meanwhile, thirty minutes later.

When all the beta players logged in once again, all of them simultaneously received a message from the game. In contrast to the other Players who were left baffled, Asjad, who was the first player of the game once again smelled opportunity.

[Beta Version Update 1.0]

[Currency System fully unlocked: Players can now obtain faith coins through clearing city construction quests and killing monsters. Faith coins can be used to purchase items and equipment from the unlocked Shop in the System.]

[Reputation System unlocked: Only the Anneleise City presently allows the gaining of reputation points through the completion of commissioned quests. Commissioned quests can be accepted from Saintess Nandini.]

[Main Mission: Complete the construction of the Starter City as soon as possible for the official launch of the game! Contribution in city construction will secure corresponding limited edition titles and rewards.]

The actual message was not very long, and Asjad finished reading through it soon enough.

The other players were done as well, and now the future starter city was bursting with lively discussion.

"Finally I can farm reputation with all these NPCs!"

"All the Gajodhars are walking money bags. Time to farm money for the official launch has come!"

"Move aside buggers. I need to take on the commission to carry bricks for the wall!"

"Finally GM is listening to us?"

"Shop! Silver grade equipment? Hell yeah!"

"We get to construct the starter city ourselves?! Beta version is awesome!! Respect++"

***

Meanwhile, at The Last Church

Saintess Nandini was browsing through all the building blueprints given to her by God Maugus.

There were multistorey stone houses and cheaper multistorey wooden houses. Aside from that, there were also log workshops, mines, shipyards, warehouses, shops, and other buildings, along with some blueprints that left Nandini rather baffled.

Some of those included Hot-springs bath houses. It appeared that the effect of the particular building was 'ease fatigue to a certain extent'.

"I guess it'll have to be the main temple first!" Nandini muttered to herself.

Still, like the other Players, Nandini had also received Ahan's notifications about the beta version update.

It was just that for her, apart from more building blueprints being unlocked, there was now a new page called the Contribution list.

Now, Nandini would be able to assign commissioned quests such as construction quests, resource quests and farming quests to the Players. While Players would accomplish the quests and receive EXP and faith coins, Nandini would be able to see their different contribution values.

When Players completed their commissioned quests, which were all related to building the starter City Anneliese, they would be able to enter the top 10 leader-board which will be visible to all the beta-players if their contribution value rises above one hundred.

This first player event had begun!