Nox's POV:
"Holy shit! What the fuck is up with that grandpa? It's only been two days, and he is already buffer than Meathead!"
So, if you are wondering, my great idea for overthrowing the popsicle castle, starts with me in my new persona, titled 'The Flavor Savor' forming my own prison cult. The idea was to recruit people by offering them some nutritional soup, spiked with a dash of hallucinogens to make me seem a little bit more divine. The people I would start with were the ones I saw starving to death inside manmade prison holes, but never did I imagine just two servings of this stuff would create such a holy mess.
I had guessed the old dude was a paladin or something by the fact he was wearing one of my anti-god-support collars that my Crybaby probably gifted this place with, which cuts off any direct connections to the divine realm, but what the fuck is with this guy.
I had only handed him a couple bowls of soup and made him a new ear just because it seemed on theme, but the ludicrous amount of divine energy coming out of this schmuck is insane. He managed to turn himself from an emaciated skeleton into a wall of muscles on his own in just 2 days. The amount of divine energy your normal priest or druid makes in that amount of time is enough to maybe fill a cup of water, but I am pretty sure this guy could fill a small lake in a weak at the rate he is producing it.
"With that collar on, he shouldn't be able to receive any divine energy from the divine realm. Has he been using the pain from the torture to ferment all the remaining qi in his body? The stimuli could have increased his energy production rate, but then how come he didn't use it up until now?" I wondered.
As he is now, being unable to give or receive divine energy from a god, he is essentially a druid, a type of divine magician that produces and stores their own divine energy, either in their body or in their environment to perform their own miracles. However, druids tend to have difficulty producing large amounts of divine energy as praying or believing in an object of worship while doing so would essentially giftwrap most of that energy to a god associated with it.
"So, the collar blocks the divine energy from leaving his body, resulting in all his divine energy remaining in spite of any gods it might have flown too otherwise! Then is the reason why he was so emaciated that he just didn't believe hard enough to live off the energy he made, or maybe it has something to do with the typing? Divine energy does have some subtle differences between them based on the belief behind it! Maybe that's it?"
While all divine energy is essentially the same, there are minor differences that affect the ratio needed for certain miracles. Like say for example, you had a fire god and a water god compete to create each other's elements. The amount of divine energy the water god would need to light a candle would be equivalent to what the fire god would need to burn down a mountain. Meanwhile, the fire god would need just as much divine energy to fill a cup of water, as the water god would need to flood a city.
Divine energy is essentially the same thing no matter where it comes from, but there are some differences between their origins that make some more efficient than others when creating specific phenomena. So maybe, by converting to the flavor saving cult, his divine energy's affinity changed in a way that made it easier for him to perform nutritional miracles, making it possible for him to speed up his own recovery.
"I guess that might be it, but I feel like there is more to it? Or maybe I'm just overthinking it? Either way, I got time to study him while I grow my cult!"
While the grandpa was a serious surprise I was not expecting, the rest of my followers have been just as slow as I expected. Unlike the muscle grandpa on holy steroids, most of the people in the holes are slow to recover. The ones who were on the verge of death seem to be the ones responding the best to my flavor saving, while many of the ones who still have their stomachs pointing the right way are more skeptical of my glow-in-the-dark soup. Maybe I should not be adding the soul-peppers which make it glow like that, it might slow the fermentation speed a bit, but as long as they have enough in total for the supper ritual, I guess it's fine.
"Especially seeing as the grandpa over there might be able to fuel the whole thing on his own if he keeps going like that." I muttered to myself as I finished digging the tunnel underneath my Judy's hole.
"Hey, Wang? Seen any more chicks in there?"
*chuckle*
"I'm telling you the truth!"
"Yeah sure! And did she give you some glowing bread with the soup to?"
"Damn that wench! Am I really seeing things! If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be stuck in here! I would still have my cultivation, and that arrogant brat would be dead! Is the hunger really making me hallucinate all this?"
Seeing that his guard buddies had left, I made my move.
"No, my dear Judy! I the flavor savor am really before you!" I said, as I popped out of the ground holding his special bowl of red glowing soup.
"Y-YOU!"
"Yes, Judy! Tis I, the flavor savor! Here to bless you with my flavor! Drink of this soup, for it is my blood! Eat of this stick, because it is my flesh!" I said, as I handed him some breadsticks too.
However, he did not eat it right away like last time. Instead, he tried to shout for the guards so he could share my blessings with them. He is such a kind traitor. Unfortunately, I had already finished drawing the sound isolating barrier enchantment in the tunnel below us, so he could eat in peace.
"HEY! SHE IS HERE! I'M NOT CRAZY! SHE REALLY IS HERE THIS TIME! PLEASE! ANYBODY! …"
"Tis no use my dear Judy! For this meal, is for you and you alone!" I said, as I got tired of waiting and grabbed the food out of his hands.
"Wait, no! GIVE THAT BACK!" He shouted, as he tried to stand up, only to fall back down, as he was still pretty malnourished.
*Thud*
Judy, formerly known as commander Wang, is a bit of an outlier amongst my starved believers. Amongst the people I saved from the brink of starvation, he is the one who has shown the most devotion. While most of the emaciated guys just silently pray in their holes while resting their bony bodies, this guy has been spending every drop of energy he has regained to shout and scream about my holy figure to the masses above.
"What are you-!"
*Gargle*
As I force-fed him his meal of the day, I can't help but be relieved he doesn't seem to hold a grudge against me for getting him locked up here back when I saved that ungrateful playboy's ass. An enemy of an enemy is a friend as they say.
"Ugh! What do you want from me?"
*Gag*
"Do not fear, dear Judy, for your pious efforts have not gone unnoticed!"
"What?"
"The last night of this week, when the kitchen is empty, when the guards' eyes grow heavy, I shall whisk you all away to the halls of which they dine, where my twelve most devout shall feast like kings!" I said, before turning on my invisibility to fade away.
I then hopped back down into the tunnel I came from, and filled up the area under his hole, in case he convinced the guards to try and dig his hole deeper again.
"Let's see, with the old grandpa there, it doesn't really matter who else I pick for the party! Breakfast has been served, the stage is more or less set for the supper, so I guess I can start serving dinner now." I muttered to myself.