"Of course not, silly. Did you think that your body from the simulation was real? Everything else was fake, but your body was for some reason material." Between giggles, Katherine explained the absurdity of that question to the dumbfounded Mitch.
"That- but…" He looked down at his body, at his hands, and his feet. His face changed to one of confusion. "What do you mean? I know you might not have actual eyes, but I didn't think you couldn't actually see."
"I can see very well, thank you very much. And what you're seeing is not your body, but your soul. Khads are technically living souls that are anchored to their personal dimension. If you leave like you are now, your soul will dissipate and you will die."
From confusion to absolute horror. All the coping mechanisms Mitch had painstakingly built up to manage the situation were crumbling like a house of cards exposed to a strong wind.
"What do you mean 'DIE'? Am I stuck in this white void forever? Why would I revive Theodor if all we can do is sit here and do nothing?" Mitch felt like a fool.
Of course, nothing ever came for free. What good would being rich do if there was nowhere to spend that money?
His eyes were turning into a mixture of bright red and dark blue, and the color of the void took on the same shades. A wind started picking up, knocking down many of the decorations that Mitch had materialized.
"Calm down, Mitch. I just said that your soul would dissipate if you leave LIKE YOU ARE NOW. What do you think would happen to a soul without a body and without anything holding it together?"
Understanding that he might be overreacting to a misunderstanding, Mitch started taking deep breaths. His eyes returned to their normal, green color, and the void went back to its white, calm state.
"I might have not fully understood what you meant. I cannot leave as I am right now... but you mean to say that if I somehow get a body I can leave?"
"There are some exceptions, but if you were to force yourself into a material world, you will die. There are two ways to prevent this from happening: incarnation and descension. Descension requires a follower for you to descend into, while incarnation requires Mynt for materialize a body."
Mitch let out a sigh of relief and looked over to his stats, where he saw the big '5', his jaw locking up in terror.
"The five Mynt I have might in reality only be something more along the lines of four or three... I can't descend to convince the Legio into becoming my believers since I have no followers. That leaves creating an incarnation, I guess?" His face fell as he realized this.
"That is incorrect." Mitch felt hope returning to his body as he heard Katherine deny his assumption. But…
"You will also need to bless at least one of the Legios for them to become intelligent. They are practially still only a few days old children. More likely, if you want to have any chance of long-term survival, you only have one Mynt to your name."
"Hahaha. I'm sorry, I must have misheard. I thought you said that I am on my way to run out of Mynt. That can't be, right?"
He was clinging onto the last whisper of hope that still remained, praying that him becoming a Khad had affected his hearing.
"No, that sounds about right. Sorry for informing you so suddenly, but this is why I needed you to create the world as soon as possible. In fact, every minute not trying to gain Mynt is actively losing you time. Here, let me show you what I mean."
In front of Mitch, the very same status window he was familiar with appeared, but this time it was a bit more detailed.
[Name: Mitch Khadeic (Human)/Mitch (Khad)]
[Title: Lesser Khad (Tier 1)]
[Mynt: 4.98575342]
[Power System: Devouring—Body Strengthening (0.0001%)]
[Followers: N/A]
[Skills: N/A]
[Khad skills: {Manifestation}, {Blessing}]
[Unique Khad skills: {Gene Tree}]
There were some differences, but nothing out of the ordinary to Mitch. His eyes locked onto the Mynt count, and he could feel his heart jolt as he saw it decreasing in real-time.
"It doesn't seem like I have lost a lot after creating my world. How much time has passed?"
"About two and a half days. It might not look like much, but it'll be gone before you know it, at a rate of two Mynt per year."
A sense of urgency started to set into Mitch. He only had about six months before he would run out of Mynt, provided that he does incarnate and bless a Legio to make it his follower.
What other choice did he have? Pray that some Legio developed intelligence naturally, became a philosopher, questioned the meaning of life, pondered about the creation of the world, and then decided to create a religion in Mitch's name?
"How do I get Mynt? You said 'enough followers', do you mean that I need more than one to get Mynt?" The situation was more dire than he could have possibly perceived.
He thought he still had time, that those five Mynt would last him the entirety of the ten-year period Katherine mentioned.
"The amount of Mynt gained is proportional to how many followers you have, how pious they are, and how strong they themselves are physically and mentally. There is no set guideline to follow, but a thousand religious humans from Tellus would generate around one Mynt per year."
Just hearing that was enough to terrify Mitch, but she hadn't even reached the worst part yet.
"And when I say religious I do not mean those who call themselves religious because of culture, but the kind that actively prayed and made it their life's mission to live up to the standards set by the religion. In other words, a devout follower."
Thunk
Mitch fell out of his seat and onto his knees on the ground. His head was held down and he was shaking.
"I'm... I'm actually doomed, aren't I? Not to mention one follower, I would need two thousand zealots actively following my religion just to not run out of Mynt. What happens when I run out? Please Katherine, tell me it's fine."
"Cessation. Not all Khads survive, a lot of them die in fact. Of course, your situation is a bit unique. For some reason your simulation consumed more Mynt to recreate than it usually should. This is good though—this just means that your world's foundation is much more stable than others'."