GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

He doesn’t think lamp bearers are stupid simply because of his dislike for zealots and fanatics. He thinks they are stupid for taking that much time to come up with the obvious solution because the god of justice himself wasn’t restricted to the pathway of justice.

From the little information he knows about the history of the god of justice, the man was on a dual pathway of justice and knighthood. It was with the power and versatility of the two pathways that the god of justice was able to defeat the strongest god back then and became known as the strongest god currently.

If the god of justice himself had to rely on more than the pathway of justice to achieve what he did, it should have been common sense that the lamp bearers needed more than one pathway.

He thought to himself in disdain, “Maybe one or two of them thought about it, but they were too afraid to say it for fear of being labeled as blasphemous, or some even made the suggestion but were ignored.”

This is why he hates zealots even though he used to be a god. They are just too stupid.

Zealots don’t rely on critical thinking or on logic to find solutions to their problems. They only rely on faith and won’t do something obvious until it is pointed out by their god.

They rarely take the initiative to solve their problems. The only time they will take the initiative is to fight blasphemy and prove their faith.

She smiled contently at his performance. Then she said somewhat guiltily, “It is good that you are thankful for this opportunity, but I have to be honest with you, this opportunity might not be a good thing for you.”

He asked in surprise, “What do you mean?”

Even before she replied, he knew that she was about to warn him just like she wanted him not to become a godclad. It is something she must do at every step.

Despite having great power and needing more godclads as manpower for the organization, she can’t force anyone to become a godclad. She can’t coerce them with words or her actions.

Even if someone comes asking to become a godclad, she has to warn them and do her best to make them understand the danger. She has to dissuade them every step of the way. It is all because of the restrictions of her pathway and the oath she took as a lamp bearer.

This behavior makes him look down on her and the lamp bearers. But he likes it very much, as he can use it to his advantage.

They are like sheep to him. They live by rules, so they are shackled sheep. He, on the other hand, is a wolf. He is a predator and he is looking forward to using their rules against them.

Captain Sheckel didn’t know what he was thinking about. She continued what she was saying guiltily. “If you were to pick the Judge pathway, you would encounter very little problems because we know everything there is to know in the pathway.”

“We know every step of ascension from rank 1 to rank 10. We even have a true god in control of the pathway. It is not an exaggeration to say that we lamp bearers own the judge pathway. Whatever problem you can encounter, we already know about it, and every godclad on the pathway will be friendly with you and won’t try to kill you at any chance they get.”

“These are not the case with other pathways. We lack control and knowledge of many pathways, so we will only be able to offer limited help to you if you choose pathways other than the judge pathway.”

He listened attentively without offering his opinion. The opinion he wanted to express the most would be that he could never choose the judge pathway.

If he had all the freedom in the world and could choose any pathway, he would never choose a pathway with a true god in it. It is because once he does so, he will lose that freedom that he has.

Secondly, since there is already a true god in control of the pathway, that pathway will be a dead end for him. He won’t be able to go further after some point without the permission of the true god, and after a while, he will need to kill and replace the true god.

Getting permission from a true god is very difficult. It can be done or impossible to do. It all depends on the mood of the god. This is why he hates this.

But killing the true god and replacing him is nearly impossible to do. If it were possible, the god of steam would have replaced the god of craft a long time ago.

Because of the presence of a true god, both the machinist pathway and the judge pathway are a no-go for him. This is his opinion on the matter of using the judge pathway.

This opinion would be considered blasphemy by zealots and by people like Captain Sheckel. They won’t like that he dared to covet the power of the true god.

These people might kill him for this blasphemous opinion or at least punish him severely for it, so he kept his opinion to himself.

Captain Sheckel continued to try to sell him on why choosing other pathways might be good for him. She said, “On the bright side, allowing you to choose which pathway you want to use to ascend can allow for better compatibility between you and the pathway.”

He sneered at her inwardly. But outwardly he asked with confusion, “How so?”

She smiled weakly and said, “It is believed that everyone has an innate ability. This ability might awaken in the individual on its own, or it might awaken when the individual becomes a godclad.”

“If this innate ability matches the pathway of ascension, then your compatibility with that pathway, chances of survival, and progress of ascension in it will be very high.”