Teach a Man to Fish

Meanwhile, far away in the Divine Kingdom, Noven let out a long sigh of relief.

"Just as I thought, my judgment was correct."

The information that had appeared out of thin air in Pett Chinar's mind had naturally been written and supplied by Noven himself, its purpose being to verify one of Noven's theories.

As for why he had made it look like a series of quest prompts, even going so far as to include a convincing "ding," that had been a precaution Noven had thought of on the spur of the moment.

After all, with the distinctly evil-god flavor of his divine power, if he wanted to preach properly and gather believers, he had better wrap it in a more normal-looking shell so that mortals would see him as a respectable god.

Otherwise, they might think they had been targeted by some evil god. If they decided to pull something like dying rather than submitting, Noven would have nowhere to cry.

Well, in a sense, the mortals chosen by Noven really had been targeted by an evil god.

But Noven felt that he should not count as an evil god. At the very least, he was doing his best not to look like one.

The test conducted on Pete ultimately produced results that left Noven quite satisfied.

"Confirmed! Even so-called divine power must follow certain laws in this world—or rather, rules!"

"At first, I thought divine power would directly grant believers the ability to cast spells. They would not need to understand how a spell was constructed or how it worked. As long as they consumed bestowed divine power, they could successfully cast it—something akin to a conceptual, causality-defying force."

"But the test showed the exact opposite. This world is actually quite rigorous."

"The casting process does not disappear. Rather, after a god answers a believer's request, the god expends Their own divine power to complete the spell in the believer's place."

"From my perspective, the casting process is completely transparent. Every specific movement required for each step, the incantations, even the precise shape and details of the spell model; how magical energy is arranged according to the corresponding rules; and even all kinds of advanced knowledge."

"These things have absolutely nothing to do with divine power. They are the most fundamental knowledge, knowledge common to the entire world!"

"If a mortal could learn this knowledge, they could completely bypass the steps of offering faith to a god and receiving divine power, casting spells through their own efforts."

"Pete successfully casting [Hada's Hunger] proves it!"

"But precisely because praying to gods is such a simple and convenient method, mortals do not need to put in much effort at all!"

"After all, whenever they encounter trouble, they only need to call upon the god they believe in, then wait for that god to manifest and solve their problem."

Noven realized the key reason why this world's development differed so drastically from that of his previous life.

The development of mortal civilization would naturally encounter countless difficulties. In the earliest tribal age, natural disasters, ferocious beasts, viruses and plagues, even shortages of food and clothing—these were all grave threats that could bring extinction upon weak mortals. One misstep could lead to the destruction of an entire tribe.

In Noven's original world, countless predecessors had paid tremendous prices and worked hard to make full use of mortal ingenuity. Bit by bit, they summarized patterns and created tools, eventually cultivating a flourishing technology tree that allowed civilization to survive and develop.

But in the world Noven had transmigrated into, the path of mortal development had gone off course from the very beginning!

Because they could directly seek help from gods whenever they faced any difficulty.

And when gods were called upon, they really showed up!

So if mortal civilization wanted to grow stronger, the most worthwhile thing to study was undoubtedly how to obtain gods' responses more efficiently and reliably.

As for studying knowledge and understanding the world?

When there was clearly a shortcut available, why waste time and effort on something so thankless?

"Tsk... It's hard to say which model of civilization is superior. But since I've come to this world, and since my divine power has such a huge problem—any power mortals gain by praying to me will only corrupt them into aberrant monsters—then I have only one option left."

Noven settled on his course of action.

"I can't give a man a fish, but I can teach him how to fish!"

"As long as a believer prays to me, I can obtain the knowledge and information related to what they need. Then I can guide mortals through something like divine revelations, allowing them to accomplish it step by step through their own efforts."

"And I have another unique advantage."

"Divine power!"

"Even gods cannot answer every request from every believer without cost or conditions. After all, miracles require divine power to manifest, and divine power is converted from mortal faith."

"The faith mortals provide through prayer is often far less than what is consumed when a god grants a blessing."

"So, to maintain a certain balance between income and expenditure, other gods cannot grant every request. They must rank their believers into different tiers in order to keep divine power and faith conversion stable."

"But I'm different!"

"All I need to do is package the relevant knowledge as divine revelations and pass it along, then keep an eye on my believers' conditions and update the revelations' information at any time according to their progress."

"The divine power consumed by this process is far less than that required for a divine blessing!"

Noven could clearly sense the difference between the two.

If the divine power converted from the faith provided when those black-robed people in the cave had first prayed to him together was counted as ten units—

Then the first blessing, which caused the black-robed people to mutate, had consumed at least thirty units of divine power!

In other words, that bestowal had been a pure loss for Noven. The divine power earned from his believers' prayers had not been enough, and he had needed to put in quite a bit of his own. And it had only given one mortal "power."

But later, when he provided Pett Chinar with a divine revelation containing knowledge of the [Hada's Hunger] spell, the entire process had consumed only about one unit of divine power. In theory, Noven had even made a net profit!

"Although my believers can't gain power as quickly as other gods' believers, I have my own unique advantages," Noven said, nodding in satisfaction. "Unlike those other gods who only make empty promises, as long as my believers are willing to work hard according to the methods I provide, they will definitely be rewarded in the end!"

"Other gods rely on vast numbers of prayers to obtain faith, but in the end, they can only cultivate a few high-quality believers. Their divine power is limited, and they cannot afford to support the consumption required to nurture more believers. Most believers can only pick up scraps and never receive a god's special favor."

"I can completely carve out a different path!"

"My focus will be winning through quantity!"

"As long as they are willing to provide me with faith, they can receive the rewards they deserve from me!"

"Although the initial results won't be as immediate as those of other gods, there will be plenty to go around, and it will last long enough!"

"As for how to find more believers..."

Noven slowly turned his gaze toward his only shallow believer at present—Pett Chinar.

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