Chapter 402: Faith

*Ding!*

[For more authority, and options please upgrade the newly added Innate Skill: [Primal Heritage: ?????] (Level 1 - Progress: 1%)]

[Note: The skill is unique and locked. Progress can only be made by unlocking more of the dormant knowledge, and by utilizing the available divinities.]

'What the…' Once more, for the umpteenth time, Aiden turned speechless at the updates of the system.

'How do I already have progress in a skill that I have just gained?' He asked inwardly.

'[Every time you actively use your divinity, the skill would gain progress. For example, if you come to Haven, and spend your accumulated faith, your proficiency with the skill will increase. Although the gains may be marginal, remember you will gain more and more knowledge as you continue on your quest to visit all of the Primal shrines.]' Enya's voice came a moment later, shedding some light on the mystery.

'I see…' He mumbled, taking a breath of the fresh Haven air, and forcefully calming himself down.

A few moments later, returning to his senses, he once again focused on the Screen Map still floating in front of his eyes.

His gaze first wandered to the thin stream of the river that sailed across the plains seemingly, uncertain where it was actually coming from or where it was actually flowing towards. 

Regardless of what the explanation was, it didn't matter at the moment. Aiden focused his attention on the area next to the village of Gupta, and in his mind reached for the river tiles.

Slowly, but steadily, he stretched it out, reshaping it, turning it from a simple stream into a large, beautifully almond-shaped lake, whilst also giving it a bit more depth than before.

He also made sure to keep a constant eye on the cost, as it was absolutely vital that he retains around half of the available 992 Faith Points for the second part of his plan. 

In the end, he spent a bit over 300 Points reforming the small riverbed into a spacious and deep lake. He even made sure to create a couple of underwater caverns, and crevices, whilst also retaining a bit of the soil for some flora to spread and grow there eventually.

Once that was done, he shifted his attention focusing it on the other, eastern end of the settlement. Making sure to give another tile of free space to expand the farmlands, he reached for several markers spread in a straight line running parallel with the river, and with a swift motion, he raised the landscape by pulling the markers to greater heights. 

Aiden spent the next couple of minutes in creating a shape of an elevated region, something similar to a not-too-steep nor-too-high mountainous hillside watching with growing sadness as his remaining points tanked at a rapid pace ultimately stopping at a whopping 53 points, making his overall estimated cost at 950 Faith.  In the end, he gave a gentle curve to the straight line of what he planned the hillside should be, creating a sort of natural barrier that gently covered one side of the constantly developing village.

What he planned was a very simple knowledge about how rainwater was made. With constant steady sunshine, the evaporating lake water would turn into small puffy white clouds carrying their weight towards the inland, over the village. When reaching the mountain range, the climb would cause it to cool and condense ultimately losing most of the vapor as rain that would, hopefully, fall down on the farmlands spread around the hillside. 

Well, that was what Aiden could recall from his studies from his previous life… He could only hope that his idea would bear some fruit, otherwise, he would not just waste all the points he created since the arrival of these brave pioneers, but would also potentially question their belief, their devotion. 

Although, after witnessing as the landscape shifts and suddenly reshapes itself, Aiden honestly didn't know what the end result would be in terms of his Faith Point Accumulation.

Before hitting the flashing 'Confirm' button at the bottom right corner of his vision, Aiden glanced over his shoulders. A thin smirk crept up at the edges of his lips, as he called for his 3 servants still standing at attention behind him.

"[Orc] Guys, you might want to pay attention to the area around the village. Hopefully, everything goes as I planned it."

Before the group could react, Aiden pressed on the Confirm button, finalizing his planned changes.

Immediately, the small window disappeared and with that, his accumulated faith points began to drop at lightning-fast pace. 

At the same time, a golden shine began to wrap around Aiden, slowly but surely forming a cocoon-like shape made out of the blinding, golden luster. Energy began to surge out of his body, rippling across the air causing the air itself to distort and turn blurry.

Following the energy release, in the next instant, the entire landscape quaked. The originally small trembles soon grew in power and consistency. The village itself seemed to be safe, but the area around its left and right felt like, as if the end of times, the apocalypse itself have arrived.

The ground below the thin riverbed cracked, suddenly creating a dark chasm whilst the underwater peninsulas traversed farther and farther away from each other. The riverbed grew in size, both in length, and width, slowly forming a giant almond shape, growing in size to at least 5 or maybe even 10 times the size of Gupta.

At the same time, on the other side, a similar event was happening. A sudden crack separated the two parts of the previously grassy meadow, as a silvery shining metallic ridge shot towards the skies. 

In mere seconds, under the eyes of the frightened and trembling orcs, the apocalypse has arrived. Most of the villagers were already on their knees kowtowing towards the skies above and begging the creator, the lord, to spare them from their doom and let this disaster come to an end.

And to answer their prayers, the quakes slowly began to ease up, the ground stopped its nervous trembling as the newly emerged mountains took their places on this new plane. 

Whilst the ground was still steaming hot, with traces of what might have been molten minerals turned to lava, miraculously neither of it reached the farmlands nor the territory of the village. 

Black smoke shot forth towards the skies, covering the peaks in a dark ominous shroud.

Due to the tectonic movements, large waves traversed towards the newly formed sandy shores splashing them with crystal clear healthy water.

The entire event took at most a dozen or so minutes, but the changes were unbelievably grand to stay the least. 

As the terraforming slowly came to an end, the golden energy cocoon also began to fade, its blinding glory slowly vanished, merging into the air and space around the youthful Lord of this still infantile plane of existence.

As the light finally faded out, a heaving, tired figure was all that could be seen. Drenched in sweat, his body was perspiring, his chest was running up and down as he was heavily gasping for air.

His legs wobbling, Aiden suddenly fell on his knees, barely holding himself up with the remaining full strength of his arms…