GREED: ALL FOR WHAT? C.1786: State Of Affairs

There were no sounds as Legion-9 worked. His work was silent, as no hammer was striking against an anvil, and he wasn't actually using a heated forge or needing his hands for anything to make divine weapons. It was their altar that made the weapon for them.

They just have to give the altar instructions, such as the different steps of material combination, individual material ratio, temperature, duration of heat, density, and shaping. Each of these instructions affects the outcome of their product.

They haven't found the necessary material ratio to mix divinity gold with the other raw materials or the steps needed to combine them, which is causing them to fail at creating a superior product with the more powerful material. But by eliminating the other materials and focusing on divine gold, they have removed the need for different steps of material

combination and ratio of combination.

This allowed them to focus more on studying the temperature of divine gold, the duration of the heating, and the required density after pressurization and shaping techniques.

Even so, there are still a lot of factors to consider. But they are not impatient. They understand that forging must have a set of rules that they are not privy to. One year is small compared to the amount of time it took them to learn their first law in the void universe, so they don't think they are going too slowly.

What they are impatient about currently is overcoming the obstacles in the mortal realm and increasing their Authority quickly. So as soon as Legion-1's avatar descended, he went searching for the Oracles of the true gods beyond his territory.

The Bull Horn tribe has become bigger. This is due to their victory in expansion over the year. These victories have led to the increase in Authority of the 9 Crowns. Unfortunately, it is not nearly enough for them.

They could have had more believers, but some tribes resisted, which led to violence. The war between tribes caused a lot of suffering, pain, and death, so the rate at which they gained believers has been slow.

Maybe if they had moved slowly and used time to grind down the resistance of the mortals, they would have gained more believers per tribe. But that method is too slow, and they are clearly in a rush.

Fortunately, orcs are not strangers to violence. In fact, they respect it and are more receptive to it than peaceful negotiations. If they were humans, for example, they would bear some grudges even if they lost.

Actually, humans seem to bear a lot more grudges and hatred when they lose. Legion heard about this and the struggle that human gods were going through. Their orcs, on the other hand, don't hold much of a grudge against their victor, especially if it is supported by the divine.

Orcs respect the strong. If a chief is weak, he will be replaced immediately. In the past, this used to be by death. But due to a modicum of civilization, they don't need to kill to replace the chief. Just like so, if a god is weak, then he or she will be replaced by a stronger god.

The 9 Crowns have proven themselves to be the stronger god, so they deserve their faith. It doesn't matter that they were subdued by violence. Their previous gods will remain false gods, while the 9 Crowns will remain the one true god, until they are defeated.

All they need is time for total society saturation of the tribes they had captured and time for reproduction. Then the potential of their territory will be fully realized. But they don't have that time. They have to look outwards for new sources of Authority.

The Bull Horn tribe has not gotten big enough to cover all the land they have available, but they are already in conflict with the tribes at their border. It is a significant conflict because those tribes are supported by true gods. So the mortal army can't defeat them on their own. They need the help of their god.

Their current territory is in the shape of a rectangle. It is a rectangle at the very edge of the northern domain. Behind them is something they can't overcome, and in front of them is a fortified mountain fortress limiting their expansion.

Because of these two blockades, they have only been able to expand sideways. So the breath of their territory has remained fixed while the length has increased. But the tribes of the other true gods have intervened to stop the increase of the length of their territory.

They can't overcome the tall mountain range behind them. It is so tall that it reaches the divine realm. As for the blockade in front of them, it is the barrier that separates the human territories from the orcs's.

If the Bull Horn's tribe is to expand forward, they would be expanding towards the center of the continent. The center of the continent happens to be occupied by the human race.

Legion is ready to fight for Authority, but a fight with the humans is not palatable because the Bull Horn tribe is currently flanked by enemies and because humans are not their source of faith. They don't even want the humans if they could have them. The humans are too problematic for them.

So rather than fight a wasteful war for human territories, they would ratter target the orc true gods nearby. It is not something that they have just started doing. They have just been taking it slowly because of caution.

They have enjoyed some succession trying to get rid of the religion of the other true gods. But it has come at a cost. They have lost 4 priests out of 10 due to the attack from all sides. Those are 4 tools that they can never recover despite taking a lot of precautions.

Their enemies have tried to kill Warshaw several times, but they managed to save her through possession and descending in time. Now the remaining priests can't leave Warshaw's side and have to have an altar nearby for timely assistance, or they will be killed.