The Hollow God

Ralfe looked up from the letter of invitation as he heard Malik's confused voice and found him deep in thought.

"Oh! Forgive me! It slipped my mind that your holiness had come from the sea!" The fatty quickly lowered his head as if asking for forgiveness though not very far as his body shape wouldn't allow it.

"It's fine, just explain." The black haired man said as he waved his hand, not caring whatsoever.

Ralfe quickly sprung back up and started to explain in excitement.

"The Holy tournament is the biggest tournament for Chosen in the whole enlightened continent! I heard that an invitation was extremely hard to get and even the powerful divines would pay a huge sum for it, yet your holiness was able to easily get one! that's amazing!" He said with his eyes shining in admiration.

'Looks like that bluebird is nicer than she looks, at least now I know she didn't rip me off.'

Seeing that the young man wasn't going to explain, Ralfe cleared his throat and continued with his explanation.

"Ahem, The Burning Light City is owned by Kong the sun monkey divine with the elements of fire and light. They only send out 100 invitations two years before the tournament takes place and if sold at an auction they can go for up to a low demigod beast core in price!" You could basically see money signs in Ralfe's eyes as he stared at the invitation.

Malik frowned and quickly swiped the invitation out of Ralfe's hands before asking "What makes this so expensive? Aren't I a low demigod divine? So doesn't that mean this invitation is basically worth my life?"

Realizing he almost let his greed take over, Ralfe scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Not exactly. A living divine would be worth more than just the core of one and also they can't be sold especially in the enlightened continent as long as both of the churches remain in power, though the rules don't apply if the cores are from the wildlands though."

The black haired young man nodded and urged him to continue.

"The last reason is the prizes! After all, how can there be a tournament with no prizes? Every tournament there is something different but it's always something extremely valuable even for Divines!" He said, not realizing he had gone back into teacher mode.

"Like what exactly?" Malik asked curiously.

"Ancient artifacts, Invitations, Cores of powerful divines are some of the prizes from the past that I heard but these are all rumors after all. The prizes are not for the chosen taking place but the divines behind them so how could I get any detailed information on a transaction between divines? I'm merely an artificer that was in line to become a Chosen after all." Ralfe sighed in hopelessness.

"I see." He said while feeling a bit disappointed but he was still satisfied with the amount of information the fatty had given him.

'No wonder these invitations are so valuable. I wouldn't be surprised if there were divines that would even kill for these. I'm not innocent enough to believe that just the Church's names are enough of a deterrent to hold back the evil and sneaky divines. Wait now that I think about it?'

"What does he gain?"

"???"

"Putting out so many benefits and such valuable prizes, what does the sun monkey gain from this to make it worth it?" Malik asked the question that started to bother him, these aren't charities after all.

"He's the one that gains the most from this. Ask any of the villagers here and see which one of them doesn't know of the holy tournament and the sun monkey divine? Isn't that one of the most important things for demigods? To have their names spread to as many living beings as possible?" The fatty responded with a smile.

'He's right! What a genius way to spread your name! With the amount of people that know of the tournament how strong must he be now? If even one of these things work out maybe my name will be known to even the small villages in the corners of the continent just like his' He thought touching the scroll under his robe that he had written last night.

"Go get ready, the village will be having an important meeting later. I'll be waiting for you at the village center." The black haired young man said as he got up off the couch and moved to the door. He had gotten all the information he needed also he could clearly see a dimpled face looking and him stealthy from the top of the stairs that was making him feel uncomfortable.

As he left the house and closed the door he looked up at the sun and calculated it should be around 7 am. Though it was a bit early he headed towards the village center with the small crab sleeping soundly on his shoulder. He could use the extra time to think up some more ideas before everyone arrived.

Walking through the village he found there were many people already awake going around each with a bucket in their hands towards the village well. They all of course stopped as soon as they noticed him and lowered their heads greeting him with words like your holiness, your godliness, master ect. ect.

'I should establish a way for them to call me as well. All these names are a bit awkward' He quietly thought to himself as he reached the large wooden building at the village center. It was the same building they used as a last defense when they were being attacked by the bison beasts. The ceiling still had a hole on it and some parts were broken as well but he noticed someone had done a quick fix with some boards and the inside looked to have been cleaned as well.

Walking in he found he really was the first one there so he sat down at the end of a large table that was made by putting together many other tables and gently picked up the small crab on his shoulder before putting it down on the table a bit to the side. Fortunately there was some ink and a pen on a corner he could use which wasn't a surprise since this place was basically used for meetings.

After unrolling the scroll he put it down on the table before picking up a feathered pen and dabbing it in the small pot of ink on the table before starting to write. For some time the only sound in the large wooden house was the sound of a pen meeting a leather scroll.

Only half an hour later was when the first 2 people finally showed up. It was the village head along with his grandson Jino.

When they noticed that Malik was in there waiting for them they were both startled. The meeting was supposed to take place before lunch so they showed up a couple of hours earlier to tidy up the place yet they were still late.

The two lowered their heads and apologized and only stood up when the young divine said it was fine and that he came early on purpose to work on something.

They sighed in relief and sat down next to each other on the other opposite side of the table and quietly watched as the young man continued to write without paying them any attention. They both felt like they should say something but what should they say? What conversation could a village person have with a divine being that wasn't even human?

As the time passed the complete silence made the two start to feel a heaviness in the air which of course was all in their heads. It only became heavier and heavier with each passing minute making them start to think that the divine might be displeased with them for some reason which made the pressure feel even worse. The old village head wanted to break the silence but he had nothing important to say, fortunately Jino did have something he wanted to talk to him about later when they were alone however this pressure was getting too uncomfortable for him so he decided to say it now instead.

The young man got up off the chair and stood up before lowering his head and asked in a loud voice. "Your holiness please make me one of your Chosen!"