Author here: Sorry i forgot to do the loser battles but they won't matter, so I'm just gonna say that the losers did battles to confirm positions.
Ranks:
1.Nova
2.Nexus
3.Fission
4.Stardust
5.Almighty
6.Pharmacist
7.Cosmos
8.Lust
9.All seeing eye
10.Science
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[Reward distribution will now begin]
[Ranks 10 to 7: will receive 100 divinity and a C ranked artefact]
[Ranks 6 to 4: will receive 150 divinity and a B ranked artefact]
[Rank 3: Will receive 200 divinity, a B ranked artefact and a C ranked talent]
[Rank 2: Will receive 250 divinity, a B ranked artefact and a B ranked talent]
[Rank 1: Will receive 300 divinity, a B ranked artefact, a B ranked talent and the chance to ask the system a single question.]
As the glowing text scrolled across my vision I couldn't help but stare at it for a few seconds, reading the lines as if that would make them change. Looking at the rewards, I was actually happy to see that the disparity between the 1st and 2nd place wasn't nearly as large as I had been expecting. Yes, the chance to ask the system a single question could be useful maybe even game changing in the right hands but it wasn't something that directly bolstered the strength of the organisms on a god's planet. Divinity, artefacts, and talents could all be put to immediate use. A question? That was a gamble.
Still, the sight of so much power being promised all at once made my heart race. The words glimmered like molten gold in the air above the arena, hanging there for all to see. Even though my loss to Nova had been humiliating, at least it had placed me high enough to claim something valuable.
What did surprise me was that no one outside of the top ten got anything at all. No consolation prizes, no scraps of divinity, nothing. For a competition that had billions of gods, you'd expect some kind of minor blessing for those in the top 100,000, but there was only silence. It didn't take long before the gods in the stands noticed this too. Their cheers of excitement turned into jeers, and then into full-throated rage.
Curses and insults rained down like arrows from every direction. The crowd swelled with fury, shouting not only at the system but at whatever unknown being might stand behind its creation. Names of old ancestors and forgotten deities were spat like venom, echoing around the vast arena. Even the air seemed to tremble with their anger.
I stayed silent, eyes fixed on the glowing announcements. My heart thudded heavily in my chest as the noise rose to a deafening pitch. Nova, of course, seemed utterly unbothered. If anything, he looked even happier than before, soaking up the chaos like it was some kind of nectar. That smug grin never left his face.
Almost a full minute passed after the rewards had been displayed, the outrage only growing louder. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, everything shifted. The light around me shimmered and I felt my body start to dissolve. One by one, everyone except Nova was pulled away, breaking into streams of light that shot upward and out of the arena.
Before I knew it, I was gone too. The next moment I was back in that endless void, standing once again before the familiar one-meter-by-one-meter sphere. Despite its emptiness, the void gave me a strange sense of security. Out here, I was alone. Out here, no one could hurt me.
As I stared at my planet, noticing how it seemed to have undergone changes while I was gone, a fresh set of system notifications flickered into existence before my eyes, pulling my attention away.
[Congratulations on ranking second in the competition]
[Your rewards will now be bestowed]
[250 divinity has been granted]
[Current divinity: 283]
Looking at the large amount of divinity I now had, I was ecstatic. With this much, I could finally buy that Talent Appraisal Orb in the system shop, along with the Common Blessing I had been eyeing since the start of my godhood. Both would help me push my world forward one by letting me understand the potential of my creations, and the other in a multitude of ways depending on what kind of blessing it is.
But before I could even open the shop interface, the next set of notifications appeared, glowing a soft gold that made my heart skip a beat.
[Name: Staff of Knowledge (B)]
Effect: Once a day, you may bestow this staff upon an organism. When bestowed, the staff will begin recording all knowledge, memories, and learned abilities of that organism throughout the day. When the day ends, the staff will automatically return to you, containing everything the organism has ever known. The following day, you may bestow it upon another organism, who will instantly gain all the accumulated knowledge within the staff.
[Note 1: If the organism currently bearing the staff is still alive when the day ends, the god may choose to let it retain the staff for an additional day.]
[Note 2: If the organism dies, the staff will immediately return to the god, though it cannot be re-bestowed until the next day.]
[Note 3: The god automatically receives all recorded knowledge whenever the staff returns, allowing direct comprehension of any skills, discoveries, or concepts stored within.]
[Note 4: If the staff is destroyed, it will automatically return to the god fully repaired, though it cannot be re-bestowed until the day resets.]
[Note 5: The Organisms will instinctively know that they staff was given by a higher being and will automatically know the name of the one that gave it to them.]
The staff's image briefly appeared before me a slender, silver rod wrapped in threads of glowing script, its tip shaped like a crystal eye that seemed to look through reality itself. Just holding it filled me with a strange pressure, as if the staff was silently whispering countless truths all at once.
Its ability was nothing short of incredible. Not only could it create a lineage of ever-learning creatures by sharing accumulated wisdom, but I would also gain that same knowledge every time it returned. Every discovery, every adaptation, every new technique all of it would eventually flow back to me. The implications were enormous.
With enough time, I could develop an ecosystem of scholars, each generation smarter than the last, each adding to the vast archive of understanding the staff carried. It was an artefact that could accelerate the very evolution of civilization itself.
Looking at its almost broken effect, I couldn't help but wonder just how powerful the higher-ranked artefacts must be.