Jod had almost gotten back to the town by the time Mafu got out of his swirling thoughts about what Jormun had told him.

  The two most important pieces of information he had gained were that the system was not absolute and the story about the world fragments.

  Mafu had felt the effects of the system not being this all-encompassing, infallible, and resolute rule. After all, Mafu never needed any skill or system help to feel mana. From the first moment he was born in his mushroom body, he had felt this new resource coursing through his veins.

  For an inhabitant of these world fragments, mana was a given. It was no different from air or water. Simply a natural resource.

  But for someone with memories of Earth, it was new. And even though the system used mana as the resource for skills, you could technically use it without the system.

  So, maybe mages could be classified as people who used magic without the system? Mafu had wanted to raise mages ever since he settled down in this world. However, the orcs were a bad fit. Through the fungal pool, he had realized that both the orcs and the dwarves were genetically specialized towards physical stats.

  Dwarves were especially weird in that case. They were much stronger and much tougher than both the orcs and the humans. Their genetics had exchanged speed and size for these boons, but an unexpected thing had happened.

  It was, of course, Athena that had found it. She had told Mafu after examining a lot of the dwarves:

  "Dwarves, like the ants, seem to have no natural fatal terminal velocity." She said it matter-of-factly. As if that was not a ridiculous statement.

  If a human were to fall out of an airplane without a parachute, they would quickly reach terminal velocity. Terminal velocity is when your speed of falling is constant, due to gravity being counteracted by drag.

  For humans it was somewhere around 250 km/h. However, when ants reach terminal velocity and then land, they don't die. They can thus survive any fall.

  This made no sense to Mafu though, as the reason ants had that capability was due to their large surface area and low body weight. Dwarves were the opposite, small and heavy.

  "How?" was all he could ask Athena.

  "Their bodies are simply built to absorb impact. It would not be possible on Earth, but with the help of mana circulating inside their bones and muscles, they cannot fall to death as long as they land either on their feet or on their back."

  Huh. Plans for an air force of paratrooper dwarves, but without parachutes, quickly formed in Mafu's mind.

  Athena seemed to notice, as she mentioned, "A large reduction in mana will also be the result of such a fall."

  Ah, so if the dwarf was out of mana, the fall would still be lethal. And airdropping dwarves would then land with less mana, which could be lethal in enemy territory.

  Returning to the thoughts about the system, this was also an effect outside the system. Dwarves had no passive skill that explained this or informed them that they had such an ability.

  Another thing that Jormun had said that made Mafu quite uncomfortable was that "with sacrifice, mostly anything is possible."

  He did not feel happy about that. It seemed like a thing that could be abused by evil people, yet it was hard to find a use for if you were a reasonable, good person.

  As Mafu thought about it, he realized that his thinking was too narrow. Sacrifice is not only the sacrifice of lives. You could sacrifice a hand, for example.

  Or blood. Blood sacrifices have been done throughout history on earth, after all. You would not need to kill the creature, sacrificing the blood, although that was often what happened on earth.

  A new idea slowly formed in Mafu's mind. He recalled the deal he had made with Tarlyeeh for mana. It was dutifully delivered to him through the system. Could Mafu not do the same, but with the people in the territory?

  Could he not give them mana in exchange for something else?

  He quickly ordered Athena to come help him figure this out.

  ---

  Jod put away his backpack and traveling gear and hung Flameleaf in its proper place on the wall of his home. He had just gotten his boots off as Tenia ambushed him with a kiss on the cheek.

  Jod jumped up in surprise.

  "I did not notice you! I must be more tired than I thought." Jod said as he smiled and kissed her back.

  "Maybe I am an assassin blacksmith?" Tenia smiled back as she embraced him.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Jod laughed, and they stood there for a few seconds embracing each other.

  "Speaking of blacksmithing, aren't you supposed to be at the smithy this time of day?" Jod asked.

  "Mafu informed me you were coming back, so I let Till handle the smithy for now. I'll go back there after dinner."

  "You didn't have to—" Jod started but was quickly silenced with Tenias hand over his mouth.

  "No. You don't get to say that. I worried the whole time you were gone." She looked a little bit angry, so Jod simply nodded.

  Jod was both happy and sad that she had worried, but after all there was nothing that could be done about it. He was the king, and thus the mission to meet with the dragons could not have been completed without him.

  They laid down in bed for a nap, holding each other close, and Jod felt all the tension of his journey release from his muscles and his mind.

  He was home.

  ---

  By using the Blood Trumpet mushroom that he had simply thought had no use, he and Athena had succeeded.

  They had combined that mushroom and a storage mushroom with a smattering of mana and the blood of a few orcs.

  This had unlocked a new mushroom, which was a part of Mafu's new plan on how to gain military strength.

  [Sacrificial Altar Mushroom] A mushroom that will absorb blood poured on the altar and form a contract between the owner of the blood and Mafu. The words to initiate the contract must be assigned and then spoken as the blood is poured on top of the sacrificial altar mushroom cap.

  In exchange for blood, the owner of the blood will be able to draw upon the mana of Mafu.

  It was a simple description, but through testing it with Parek and a few orc warriors, it soon emerged to have worked out better than Mafu thought.

  One warrior was ordered by Parek to slit a shallow wound on his arm and pour out a cup of blood on the altar. He then had to say the words.

  Toqlan had interceded on this point and offered a suggestion. More and more of the population had come to see Mafu as some sort of "pseudo-god."

  Thus, Toqlan had the idea that if Mafu played into that part, it would be easier to both incorporate new arrivals from Dolorans' world and form a simple religion.

  Mafu had denied the idea at first; he was not comfortable being worshipped. But the more Toqlan talked, the more sense it made.

  He was going to invade Doloran's world, and eventually he or Doloran would lose. One of them would die.

  How do you kill a god? By removing the religion. But in Earth's history, no religion had ever been extinguished and then replaced with nothing. Not without a genocide, and Mafu was not wanting a genocide.

  In Sweden, where Mafu was originally from, the Nordic mythology had been replaced with Christianity. In all parts of the world, as long as religion existed, it would always exist in one form or another.

  So what was his plan for the worshippers of Doloran and any other hostile god he could encounter in the future?

  He would have to replace them. And starting now, with a populace that trusted and liked Mafu, would be the right choice.

  He still felt awkward about it, but Parek found it natural. After all, he knew nothing of gods apart from some very old stories from Bulok. But to him, Mafu seemed like something different than any other orc, human, or dwarf.

  Mafu left it in Toqlan's hands to decide upon the basics. After all, it was his idea. Mafu had thought Toqlan would be horrified at the idea, but the old man simply nodded and said that he would confer with some others about it.

  So back to the sacrifice. The orc warrior said the words to initiate the ritual as he poured his blood over the cap:

  "This is my offering to you, Mafu." Simple words were the best after all. Mafu was not going to make him say, "Almighty God, hear my plea and grant my wish," or something like that.

  But Toqlan would most likely come up with some more "religious" way of speaking for the ritual. This was a test, after all, to see if the contract would work.

  Mafu felt a little tug on his mana reserve as the contract was completed. Barely noticeable.

  The orc warrior, Kalu, looked unchanged. Parek ordered Kalu to use his skills repeatedly as they would test his new mana capacity.

  After an hour or so, Kalu fell to his knees out of exhaustion. He had not run out of mana but rather physical fitness from reactivating his skills over and over.

  Parek was positively giddy about this new development. Mafu had been monitoring his mana drain, and with one warrior spamming his skills, he could not even notice it.

  They would have to test it out more in the future, with a hundred or a thousand people.

  Next on the list was talking to Benoit. He had been wanting to talk with Mafu, but the dragons and these experiments had taken priority.

  "What do you wish to speak to me about?" Mafu asked Benoit unceremoniously. Benoit was taking a nap in his new house.

  Benoit quickly jumped to his feet and then replied:

  "I have a weird situation that I think might have to do with the symbiote you implanted in me."

  "Huh? What is the issue?" Mafu asked.

  "Well... ummm, it is quite embarrassing, but I have not been able to... defecate since a while ago."

  Mafu took a few seconds to digest that statement. He lost his ability to shit?

  Why would the symbiote do that?

  "Are you sure this is related to the symbiote?"

  "I have tried figuring it out, but it seems to be the only explanation."

  A lightbulb suddenly illuminated Mafu's mind. Inwardly he ordered, "Bub! Get here right now!"

  "You called, sir?" Beelzebub said as he joined the conversation.

  "Did you... make Benoit unable to shit?"

  "Yes, sir." Bub replied in a tone as if it was a totally normal thing to do.

  "...Why?"

  "You tasked me with handling the waste of the people of the kingdom. I simply did what I was tasked to do."

  So, Mafu had meant for Beelzebub to use [Decomposition] in the toilets and sewers of the town. But he had used it inside Benoit?

  "You used it inside of him?" Mafu was astonished it was even possible.

  "Yes, as the symbiote is classed as mycelium, the usage of core skills can be activated by any of us mycelium minds, or by you, sir."

  "Did you do anything else?"

  "I removed all waste that was inside of the individual Benoit, sir."

  "And what did that include?"

  "The entire body. I removed waste from the lymphatic system, kidneys, liver, and brain, not to mention the colon. The intestines were also the obvious place to look, but some blemishes on the skin and old wounds also had dead cells to remove and recycle."

  Mafu was astonished. If what Bub said was true, the symbiote was not as weak as Mafu once thought. A lot of diseases and issues in the human body stemmed from infections and other conditions created by waste in the body.

  The more pressing issue at hand, though, was how Benoit was perceiving this. Bub had only let his voice be heard to Mafu, so Mafu asked Benoit:

  "Other than the issue with your toilet visits, how do you feel?"

  "Quite healthy. In fact, I don't think I've ever felt better."

  Okay. That was all the green light Mafu needed. He would have to give a symbiote to all that wanted it. He planned to recruit Benoit for a PR event highlighting the greatness of never having to go number two ever again.

  He also needed to praise Bub for his work.

  No matter how weird it was. And it was weird. Very weird.