At his computer desk, Lince had switched his point of view and was keeping a close watch on York.
Having heard York and Lucia's conversation with the merchant, and connecting it to the information from the previous hundred-day simulation video, he finally had a clear understanding of the current Game World.
On the Oakland Continent, the Human Race had a total of Three Great Empires, which were the most powerful.
These Three Great Empires also occupied the central territories of the Human Race and were considered the de facto leaders of all human nations.
Surrounding the Three Great Empires were twelve Kingdoms, and under their command were hundreds of Duchies.
The Silver Lion Duchy, where York resided, was within the sphere of influence of the Western Border Eagle Kingdom.
Of course, Lince wasn't really interested in any of this.
What he was actually interested in was the situation regarding the Deities in the Game World.
And as it happened, Lince learned about this very topic during their conversation.
According to the old merchant, the Deities of the Human Race on the Oakland Continent had indeed not descended to the mortal world in three hundred years.
In fact, it wasn't just the Deities of the Human Race; the same was true for the Deities of the Alien Races.
Furthermore, it could be inferred from their conversation that the old merchant even doubted the so-called Descent of the Storm God three hundred years ago.
After all, the records stated that the Storm God never sent down a Divine Body, acting only through a mortal vessel.
Therefore, it was highly possible the entire event was a fabrication.
After all, the Church had plenty of reason to fabricate it. Even the so-called mortal vessel of the Beast God in the Beastman Empire was likely a fake.
It was just an unspoken agreement among everyone.
As for the great war between the Human Race and the Beastmen, that was certainly real. But whether the leaders on both sides were actual 'Deities' was another matter entirely.
So, discounting the matter of the Divine Descent three hundred years ago, one could deduce that the Deities might not have appeared in the mortal world of the Oakland Continent for over a thousand years.
Anything further back than that was truly the stuff of myth.
Aside from Saint Tier legends and Demigod-like existences, almost no one could live that long.
Of course, no one denied the existence of the Deities.
But the Deities must have been preoccupied with something; otherwise, it was impossible that they hadn't appeared or walked the mortal world for such a long time.
On this topic, the ones with the most authority to speak were undoubtedly the Saint Tier and Demigod-like beings among the various races.
Unfortunately, it was impossible for ordinary Nobility to ever come into contact with such existences.
Even if a common noble could make contact, such beings wouldn't necessarily reveal what they knew about the Deities.
In any case, in the world today, even Saint Tier legends and Demigods rarely appeared before ordinary people.
The situation was utterly bizarre.
Yet, whether it was the various Kingdoms and Empires of the Human Race or the Alien Races, everyone maintained an uncanny peace and mutual understanding.
Although there were major and minor wars among the races during this period, they had all shown a great deal of restraint in a sense over the past millennium.
No race had been completely annihilated. In fact, compared to a thousand years ago, the general borders of each race's territory had not changed dramatically.
And it was precisely because the Deities of all races had been absent for what was likely over a thousand years that the power of the divine had been significantly weakened.
Take the Churches in the human Kingdoms, for example. The power of the Church was a far cry from its ancient glory.
The world today was one of royal authority, where secular power and divine authority were relatively separate.
This led to the saying "Deities to their own affairs, mortals to their own" appearing in many nations.
Even some traditional forms of religious punishment by torture were abolished by the monarchies.
'Divine authority isn't as strong as I imagined. That's a good thing.'
'But it's still not something York and the Swamp Territory can handle at the moment, especially since this so-called Truth Church still holds significant power in the Eagle Kingdom.'
'Hmm... York's wife is pretty sharp. She only said she saw a deity, but that it was shrouded in divine light, so she didn't know if it was the God of Truth. Her wording is very careful and cautious.'
'She wants to downplay this Miracle as much as possible. In that case, maybe I should also try to avoid using the "Descent" function from now on.'
Lince understood the principle that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
Lince's use of "Descent" this time had indeed been somewhat reckless. But he was only running a test and hadn't expected it to cause such a huge scene.
Otherwise, he definitely wouldn't have been so conspicuous this early in the game.
Especially since there were other Players in the game.
Fortunately, when the special effects for the Descent occurred, it was only dusk in the game, so it wasn't overly conspicuous.
Still, this Descent would certainly have some future consequences for the Swamp Territory.
He just didn't know whether those consequences would be good or bad.
However, success depended on human effort. From now on, it was all up to York and Lucia.
Of course, perhaps York's father, Baron Eric, and even Lucia's father, Viscount Calum, could play a role in this matter.
As he mused to himself, Lince continued to enjoy the cinematic-quality graphics from his god's-eye perspective.
He also tried switching his view to that of the Magic Pet Giant-toothed Rat King.
He used his mouse to select the Giant-toothed Rat King's hundred-odd minions, then had the Rat King lead these smaller rats on a patrol of the Swamp Territory.
Whenever they spotted any other threatening Demon Beasts, Lince had the horde swarm forward and eliminate them.
This served to clear out some threats in advance for the Swamp Territory's development.
At the same time, it provided a few snacks for the Rock Dragon Giant Lizard.
However, Tierless Demon Beasts had a very limited effect on the Rock Dragon Giant Lizard's growth.
One wolf, for instance, only yielded a "Growth Level +0.0001%."
And that was it. With less than 1% Growth Level, the Rock Dragon Giant Lizard's status panel showed no change at all.
'Realistic. This is too realistic!'
'Just as I thought, once the tutorial story is over and the game mode is set, the character's development slows way down.'
'From now on, everything will depend on the development of the York family and the Swamp Territory.'
And just like that, as he switched his perspective back and forth, his eight hours of game time were soon up.
At the same time, Lince's computer screen went black and displayed a familiar line of text.
[Daily Game Time Limit Reached. Player Forcibly Logged Out.]
[Please Set Behavioral Parameters for Your Character During Offline Period.]
(Conservative OR Aggressive)
[Special Notice: After two days of testing, the game will undergo maintenance in the early hours of tomorrow to fix some issues and implement the first version update. For details, please see the official game website.]
Huh?
The sudden logout notification didn't surprise Lince.
However, the abrupt announcement of a version update did catch him by surprise.
Lince quickly selected the "Conservative" character parameters again.
But just as Lince was about to close the game client and head to the official website to check for updates, he saw another familiar round of golden text appear on the black screen.
[Congratulations, Player, on completing your second day of gameplay.]
[In accordance with the gameplay update rules of the next version, you are hereby awarded a special reward exclusive to the 'Family Faction' territory-building playstyle.]
[Character Cards for all directly contracted subordinates!]
Lince had only just skimmed the golden text when, in the next instant, the words rapidly merged, transformed into a streak of golden light, and shot out of the screen.