After dealing with their business in Eraldsfen, they went around every location linked to one of them. There were obviously some disgruntled Oracles when they discovered that there was a God that sat above their own. But what made it worse was discovering that there was now a head Oracle above them! Still, they complied with their God's wishes and set new altars out.
However, Exile clarified that each of their temples would be the head one to their own God. His own altar should be the first to the right of the main one. This significantly brightened their moods, but Exile felt exhausted by the end of it. When they returned to their bodies in The Raiders Horn, the others burst out laughing at the high and mighty performance he had been forced to perform!
"What the hell was that?" Clay finally managed to say through his laughter.
"Well, we're supposed to be gods, aren't we? They expect us to act like we're above them!" Exile's face turned slightly red as he shook his head.
"Dude! They're NPC's! They don't care how we act! They'll go along with it anyway!" Desa barely managed to say in response. "Don't think so much about it."
Exile sighed while he waited for the laughter to die down. 'Somehow, I don't think it's as simple as that...' He had his own misgivings in treating them like that, but with the level of realism in the game, he felt like something bad would happen if they did not live up to expectations. 'Oh, right... Bjorn mentioned something about sacrifices before we left.'
Exile rubbed his chin as he thought about it. So far, he had not noticed anything different that could have occurred due to it. The laughter finally came to an end. The others looked towards Exile with watery eyes and sheepish smiles.
"So, what now?" Clay asked with a raised eyebrow.
Exile frowned as he realised what he had been forgetting. Things had been happening so quickly lately that he had forgotten that gaining new quests seemed to be a rare occurrence! At least, as far as he had seen so far.
"Do you guys have any more uncompleted quests?" Exile asked, without much hope.
His answer came in the form of shaking heads, causing him to sigh as he considered their options. 'We could grind the wolves, but it's too close to Valheim. Kaleidoscope are still hunting us so that's a no go. We could try searching the city for any unfound quests but who knows how long that will take. So... Our only option is to explore further afield.'
"Ok, we'll stop by the temple and gather any offerings. Then we'll head out and do some exploring. Now that we have a Pantheon we have to start saving gold. There's bound to be something similar to Guild Halls." As Exile spoke, the others voiced their agreement with his words.
When they left The Raiders Horn, they felt as if Valheim was eerily silent. Even though there were few players in the city usually, it still felt more empty than before. 'What's going on?' Exile squinted up and down the alley, as he felt that something was off.
"Everyone's probably outside doing there best to kill each other." Clay stated matter-of-factly. "Think about it, people are more likely to watch a channel that has a ton of combat and killing. They're probably after content and orbs to level up fast."
Exile heaved a sigh of relief. After all, Clay's observation was a good one. It made sense, considering everyone would be panicking around about now. There was sure to be an influx of new players ascending soon. At that point, the city would become much more lively and competition would become fierce.
'If everyone wants to fight it out close to Valheim, that's good news for us. We just have to keep our distance and grind to make steady growth.' Exile chuckled lightly as he led the group to the temple. For once, there was nobody queuing up outside. In fact, there was nobody nearby at all.
"Huh? This doesn't feel right..." Leggy whispered as they approached the temple's entrance. "If everyone is fighting, then shouldn't people be respawning here?"
Leggy's words caught them off-guard. Now they understood why something felt off, despite Clay's reasoning making sense! 'He's right! Player's should be dying and coming back. We should be hearing them swearing and racing back to the battlefield!
[Your Oracle, Ania Eraldsen, is trying to reach you...]
Exile's eyes narrowed as the notification entered his mind. He wasted no time in accepting it! 'What the hell happened in the short time since we left!' The others noticed that he had paused and waited patiently while glancing around them.
[Lord Exile?]
'What is it Ania? Has something happened already?' Exile frowned as he tried to think about what could have gone wrong.
[Not exactly... Some strangers have appeared in the village claiming to be Oracles of the Gods...]
Exile's mind froze. He quickly thought about it and realised that they had wasted quite a bit of time going around introducing the Pantheon to their various villages. During that time, it was possible for new players to find themselves an Oracle and head to a nearby village. After all, word must have spread amongst the NPC's by now that the Gods were returning. So surely there would be more opportunities to find someone praying!
Exile's expression turned into a grim frown. 'This is why there's nobody here! Their areas in the Mortal Realms are already being invaded by the new players!' Exile took a deep breath before sending his next mental message to Ania.
'How many of them are there?'
[There's around ten... Bjorn has gathered them in one area. He's pretending to be your Oracle so that nobody targets me...]
Exile heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed like Bjorn had some brains, after all. 'Can you see any Gods?'
[Yes... There are thirteen of them...]