The system’s grace was back and Aiden did not have to make the sacrifice for the extra coin. It was a game of snakes and ladders this time, and it took Aiden some time to complete the board.
But he did complete it in the end and was finally awarded the last coin needed to buy the medicine.
[Due to the effect of the store, the effect of the medicine has been enhanced.]
The system popped up with another reminder and Aiden just nodded along to show that he understood what it was trying to tell him (even if he had no idea what it meant.)
But what he did know was that he needed to give the pill to the patient. And the most effective way was to crush it and mix it with water to make it easier for the young woman to digest.
"Can I get some water? This young lady might choke on the pill if we give it to her like this. So we need to mix it with water and administer it to her slowly."
Aiden warned and the patient’s husband quickly ran to get him some water.
It was brought in a clay cup and Aiden carefully crushed the medicine before mixing it into the water.
"Give this to her to drink. She needs to finish the whole cup and rest for the day. She should start showing improvement by tomorrow morning."
Aiden promised and the family did not even question him or his methods.
Had it been modern times, he would have gotten a thousand questions about how he managed to manifest a pill out of thin air. But because this was a time when faith and magic existed, people easily made excuses for his powers.
The sick lady started to look better as soon as she was given a few spoonfuls of the medicine. Soon, she gained enough strength to pull herself up and drink the medicinal water.
Seeing their daughter-in-law sitting upright on her own, the elderly couple had tears in their eyes.
"Sir Priest, we cannot thank you enough. We will make sure to submit a lot of offerings to your Goddess’s temple. We will even bring our daughter-in-law to visit you once she recovers enough."
The old lady promised with earnest eyes and Aiden got another notification.
[One of your believers’ faith in the Goddess has deepened.]
[Reward: +0.01% Divinity.]
[Current Divinity: 0.13%]
So there were other methods of raising divinity other than simply completing missions? That made sense since the other gods likely did not have a system to help them...at least, Aiden wanted to believe his goddess was special in this regard.
Anyway, he felt like he had just discovered a key point about how this system and divinity worked.
If people had faith and trust in the goddess, or if they revered her, then her divinity would increase. Likewise, if their faith wavered or they stopped looking at her in a favorable light, her divinity would decrease.
’Hmm, looks like my decision to come down and investigate was the right one. There is nothing better for me to do than to spread my goddess’s name.’
Luckily, Goddess Apophis was happy with what Aiden did as well because she rubbed her tail against his wrist to show her appreciation.
...
Aiden’s decision to help the old couple paid off big time.
Not only did it clear the misunderstanding that his spices were the cause behind this new disease, but the news of him having found a cure for the local illness spread as well.
As a result, more and more people started to make their way toward Goddess Apophis’s temple in order to get the cure and herbs from him.
The tributes Aiden received increased as well and he gathered a small fortune quickly.
He immediately bought a special bed for his goddess’s snake form and other necessities she might need first. And with the leftover money, he decided to buy a lot of medicine.
People continued to come to him to buy the typhoid medicine, but that was not all they wanted. Aiden ran out of things to sell too soon, which made him buy more to keep in stock.
’Honestly, I should start a business in my Goddess’s name. I bet that would flourish more than a temple...Perhaps, I will do that soon.’
An ironic part of this new world of his was the fact that despite having magic and holy powers, it lacked basic amenities like medicine and even modern utilities. A huge part of this was that most of this world was governed by gods who did not want to see humanity flourish.
After all, the more humans flourished, the weaker the gods’ influence would become. And it would not take long before humans lost their faith in the gods.
Earth’s history was similar in this regard. However, there were a few key differences as well...or maybe Aiden was biased because he had lived his life on Earth until now. The resources on Earth felt much easier to use compared to those here.
Unlike Earth, even normal rivers in this world were controlled by gods. So a single boundary being overstepped could cause a massive disaster...
But Aiden was going to raise his goddess into a being of unparalleled power, so it was not something for him to worry about. And he would start this by bringing technology over.
The system shop was incredible and Aiden browsed through it. There were alternatives to modern technology and if he had enough money, he could even buy "green technology," which was essentially modern conveniences without any pollution or energy requirements.
No matter how you looked at it, wasn’t this too much of a cheat?
And yet, Aiden was never going to complain about this because it benefited his goddess.
That night, he went to sleep late. But he had to wake up quickly because of the loud noises coming from outside the temple’s doors. He could hear almost a dozen people banging on the temple walls frantically, and Aiden quickly headed out to check what they needed.
"Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Sir Priest, we need your medicine and the spices! A huge outbreak of the disease broke out yesterday and the only ones who are safe are the ones who took your spices and medicine! Please help us out!"