The room was dim, lit only by the orange glow of a cracked lantern. Ethan Gray sat at the head of the rough wooden table, waiting as the footsteps of his lieutenants echoed through the corridor.
One by one, five men entered — the core of the Hunters' Gang. They smelled of blood and iron, their armor scratched from the day's work. None spoke; Ethan's expression told them this wasn't an ordinary meeting.
When the last man sat down, Ethan reached into his coat and placed a small golden-edged card on the table.
The others leaned forward.
"This," Ethan said quietly, "came from a god."
A ripple of disbelief moved through the group.
He ignored it and went on. "I prayed using this card. Said his name — The Divine Watcher. And he answered."
He raised his hand, summoning his divine card. The surface glowed faintly, and lines of golden text appeared — new, impossible text that hadn't been there before.
[Blessing: Enhanced Perception]
Murmurs filled the room.
"You all know how it works," Ethan said. "Without a god's blessing, a card's just a shell. You get your basic class and one skill. Mine was Berserk — nothing special. But this—" he tapped the card, the glow brightening "—this came after I prayed. The moment I finished, I felt it. My senses sharpened. My strength doubled."
The men exchanged glances — wary, uncertain, but intrigued.
"I don't care if you believe me," Ethan said. "The gods of the inner cities don't listen to us. But this one did. He heard me. He chose us."
He looked at them, eyes fierce. "The Divine Watcher is real. And if he's willing to bless someone from the slums… then maybe he's the god the rest of us have been waiting for."
Silence stretched, thick and heavy — not disbelief this time, but the beginning of conviction.
....
Stratos sat quietly, the room still shimmering faintly from the afterglow of his first blessing. The faint hum of power hadn't yet settled; his veins still tingled with the lingering energy of newly gained divinity. He stared at the interface before him. It felt unreal — a single mortal's prayer had poured such immense energy into him. The numbers alone were staggering.
He couldn't help but murmur, "Just how powerful is this system…?"
The room had only just settled when another tone resonated in his mind.
[Detected Follower Eva Granfield has offered New Source of Faith.]
[Faith Offered: 10 Points.]
[Random Divine Wheel Amplification Activated — x1,000,000.]
[Faith Converted → 10,000,000.]
[Divinity +10,000.]
Stratos blinked, almost certain he'd misread it. "...Ten million faith?"
The golden glow around him flared brighter than before, flooding the room in divine brilliance. The air rippled as if time itself hesitated. The energy was immense — thicker, purer, heavier. It wasn't wild like Ethan's; it was steady and radiant, carrying a depth of emotion that tugged faintly at his chest.
He could feel it — sincerity. Devotion. A prayer made not in fear, but in genuine belief.
Stratos stared at the message for a long moment, realization dawning slowly. "So… the stronger the devotion, the greater the amplification?"
It made perfect sense. The Divine Wheel didn't just convert belief into energy — it measured the heart behind it. Where Ethan's offering had been desperate, Eva's had been pure. Her compassion had translated directly into divine potency.
He leaned back, exhaling a slow, disbelieving laugh. "One prayer… and I gained ten thousand Divinity."
The numbers still looked unreal, but the power was unmistakable. He could feel his divine essence solidifying, expanding, like the foundation of a realm forming beneath his feet.
Stratos' lips curved slightly. "Then you deserve something worthy in return."
He selected Eva's name. A brief prompt appeared:
[Blessing available. Choose type.][Enhance Target's Card — Cost: 10 Divinity.]
"Perfect," he muttered, confirming the command.
A soft glow spread from his fingertips, dissolving into motes of light that vanished through the air. Somewhere in the mortal realm, that light would find her.
[Card Enhancement Complete.][Eva Granfield's Card: Common → Uncommon.][Skill Evolved: Minor Heal → Restoration.]
The window dimmed again, leaving him in silence.
Stratos exhaled, a faint trace of fatigue settling in his divine core — the first true cost he'd felt for intervening directly. Still, it was worth it. He could sense Eva's growing faith — a flicker of awe, gratitude, and disbelief rising from the mortal plane.
He smiled faintly. "Good. Now, let the miracle spread."
Eva's POV
Eva Granfield stared at the small, folded flyer lying on her table. The parchment was cheap, barely holding together, yet the words printed across it caught her attention again and again:
"The Divine Watcher — a god who answers as long as you call his name during prayer and make the blood contract with your divine card."
She sighed softly. "A god who answers, huh?"
The child who'd brought it — a scrawny boy with bright eyes and sticky hands from the sweets she'd given him earlier — had said someone asked him to deliver it personally. Normally, she would have ignored such nonsense. The slums were filled with strange cults and desperate promises.
But something about this was… different. The symbol of a golden wheel printed on the card shimmered faintly, though no light touched it.
Still, skepticism ruled her. She sat on the edge of her cot, fingers tracing the edges of her worn Healer's Card.
Her lips twitched into a tired smile as she held the card and followed the instructions written in neat, simple text:
"Pray with sincerity. Offer a drop of blood. Speak the name of the Divine Watcher."
She hesitated — then pricked her thumb with a pin and pressed it to the card.
"O Divine Watcher, unseen but ever near,You who turn the Wheel of Fate,Guide my path when I am lost,Strengthen my hands when I falter,And let your light see me through the dark.
I offer faith and blood,So that your gaze may fall upon me.Watch over me, and I shall follow your will."
......
The moment the words left her lips, the air shifted.
A low hum filled the room — faint but growing, vibrating in her chest. Her card trembled. The soft, worn light of its surface brightened, flooding the room in gold. The temperature rose, warmth enveloping her like sunlight through stained glass.
Her breath hitched. "Wh–what is this…?"
Before her eyes, text began to appear across the card — not printed, but burning themselves into existence with radiant lines of light:
[Blessing Granted by the Divine Watcher.]
[Card Enhancement Detected.]
[Rank: Common → Uncommon.]
[Skill Evolved: Minor Heal → Restoration.]
Eva stood frozen, her heart pounding as the glow softened, leaving behind a faint warmth in her chest — like something alive, something holy.
Her trembling fingers hovered over the transformed card. "It's real…" she whispered. "He answered."
A long silence filled the room, broken only by her uneven breathing. Then she sank to her knees, clutching the card to her chest as tears welled in her eyes.
Her voice was soft but certain. "I… I will serve you, Divine Watcher. You who heard me when no one else did."
Outside, the night wind swept gently through the slums — and somewhere, high above, Stratos Cosminus felt the pulse of her unwavering faith flicker to life.
........
He felt the air in his small apartment thicken — heavy, humming with power. The glow around his body refused to fade this time. It pressed outward, coiling in waves, warping the shadows of the walls.
His divinity had reached a dangerous saturation. He could feel it burning beneath his skin, leaking from every pore like invisible fire. His mortal shell was straining to contain it.
"Tch… this won't hold much longer," he muttered, clutching his temple. "I need a domain. Now."
He steadied his breath and called out in his mind, System, initiate Divine Domain construction.
[Divine Domain Construction Confirmed.][Consuming 1,000 Divinity…]
The moment he approved it, the air split.Golden light poured from his chest and spread across the floor like liquid sunlight. The room around him vanished — replaced by an endless void streaked with threads of gold.
The energy surged outward, forming the foundation of his first divine territory.
[Domain Established — Size: 5 km.]
The ground beneath him solidified into a circular platform of light, faintly rotating like a wheel. He could feel it — his divinity anchoring, stabilizing, expanding into something tangible.
But before he could even process it, the Divine Wheel within him spun on its own, releasing a brilliant flash.
[Random Divine Wheel Amplification Activated — x100,000.]
The foundation shook. The golden horizon expanded outward at impossible speed — mountains of light rising, rivers of energy carving themselves into the void. The newborn domain swelled until it reached a scale that defied reason.
Then the light faded, leaving silence.
He stood at the center of it all, on the heart of a world that now stretched endlessly in every direction — his world.
[Final Domain Size: 500,000 km.]
He froze, eyes wide. "That's… half a million kilometers…"
The realization hit him like thunder. A normal Lesser God's domain barely reached a few hundred kilometers — at most, a hundred thousand for the truly gifted.
His was five times that. Equal to the territory of a Virtual God(Rank 2).
The air around him shimmered with power — faint stars forming, winds carrying divine energy, the first traces of a world waiting to be shaped by his will.
He spread his hand, feeling the pulse of the realm respond.A domain vast enough to rival gods above his rank — a statement to the cosmos that Stratos Cosminus was no ordinary Lesser God.