Chapter 122: The pace has speed up

A year had passed since the Pantheons began actively interacting with the world, and during that single year, the planet had changed drastically.

What had once been little more than scattered houses, primitive settlements, and small groups of people struggling to survive had now begun transforming into something far greater. Villages had expanded into towns, towns had connected with one another, and some of those towns had grown large enough to be recognized as the foundations of true civilizations.

Stone walls now surrounded important settlements, wooden roads connected districts, and large buildings had begun appearing in places that had previously contained nothing but empty fields. Markets had become common gathering places, with farmers, craftsmen, hunters, merchants, and adventurers all bringing different goods into the same streets.

Some civilizations had even begun constructing their own capitals.

Unlike the previous timeline, where organized religion had remained almost nonexistent for a long period, this timeline had developed around centralized religious groups from the beginning.

The teachings of the Pantheons had spread alongside the growth of civilization, with temples, churches, shrines, and religious organizations becoming deeply connected to the settlements that worshipped them.

Some rulers even relied upon religious leaders to maintain order within their territories.

The blessings given by the Pantheons had also created another difference between this timeline and the previous one. Rather than developing entirely through natural trial and error, many civilizations now had access to teachings that encouraged agriculture, warfare, protection, invention, knowledge, and cooperation.

This influence became particularly noticeable among the scholars who worshipped Wias and Moleius.

The followers of Wias constantly sought new methods of improving tools, structures, transportation, and production, while the followers of Moleius focused on recording knowledge, studying magic, observing nature, and preserving discoveries made by previous generations. Their combined efforts allowed information to spread between settlements far faster than it had in the previous timeline.

As a result, technological and magical development began accelerating.

However, civilization did not bring peace.

With the rise of centralized religions came disagreements between different faiths, and those disagreements eventually developed into conflicts. Temples began competing for followers, religious leaders argued over interpretations of the Divine and Abyssal Testaments, and some rulers began using religion as a justification for expanding their territories.

Settlements that once had little reason to fight each other now had beliefs, resources, and ideologies worth fighting over.

Among the most infamous were the Blood Magicians.

The Blood Magicians had discovered that blood could be used as a powerful magical resource, and rather than relying on ordinary sources, they began hunting settlements for it. They would raid isolated villages, capture inhabitants, and collect their blood before using it in rituals that allowed them to increase their magical power.

Their actions quickly turned them into enemies of numerous civilizations.

Elsewhere, another familiar force began appearing.

Werewolf settlements had started forming once again, and with them came an organization that Liam remembered from the previous era.

The Werewolf Eradicators.

They existed for one purpose: hunting werewolves.

Their presence created an endless cycle of conflict between werewolf communities and the humans, elves, and other races who feared them. Some settlements attempted to negotiate with the werewolves, while others considered every member of the race an enemy.

Meanwhile, the world outside the major conflicts continued developing.

Trade routes began appearing between settlements, with merchants traveling along roads that had previously been nothing more than paths through wilderness. Wagons carried grain, tools, weapons, magical materials, clothing, and countless other goods from one town to another.

Merchants gradually became important figures within civilization.

Some specialized in traveling between distant regions, while others established permanent markets where goods from several civilizations could be exchanged. The growth of trade also encouraged settlements to establish safer roads, guarded checkpoints, and even small outposts along dangerous routes.

Yet the growth of civilization also created something Liam had not expected.

False gods.

Some individuals began claiming themselves to be gods equal to the Pantheons. Some were powerful magicians who had gathered enough followers to create their own religions, while others simply manipulated people through lies and fear. They created symbols, temples, rituals, and stories surrounding themselves, attempting to convince mortals that they possessed divine authority.

Most were eventually exposed.

Others, however, managed to gain enough followers that their religions became genuine political powers.

Across the world, the races themselves had also developed differently from the previous timeline.

In this era, the gnomes still existed.

They remained largely solitary, continuing their isolated development away from the major civilizations. The Yetis had also survived rather than becoming extinct, although they too avoided contact with the outside world whenever possible.

Both races remained mysteries to many of the civilizations that had begun spreading across the continents.

The balance of power between the major races had also changed.

In the previous timeline, the lizardmen had dominated much of the southern continent, while the demons held enormous influence across the western continent. That was no longer the case.

Instead, the races had developed at a much more equal rate.

Elves, dwarves, lizardmen, beastmen, fishmen, humans, demons, and other races had all established their own settlements and civilizations, with none of them possessing the overwhelming dominance they once held.

There were exceptions, of course.

The gnomes and Yetis remained isolated from the rest of the world, deliberately refusing most outside contact. But among the races actively participating in civilization, the difference in development was far smaller than before.

The world was progressing differently because the people within it had been given something they never possessed in the previous timeline.

And that is guidance.

Through the teachings of the pantheons, the civilizations had begun to understand things that would have taken generations to discover on their own. Knowledge of agriculture, warfare, magic, craftsmanship, and even the organization of kingdoms spread between settlements, allowing entire races to advance at a pace that would have been impossible through natural development alone.

What once took hundreds of years to accomplish could now be achieved within decades, as each generation inherited not only the knowledge of their ancestors, but also the teachings left behind by beings they believed to be gods.