Market

As they flew over the city they were stunned by the view. Aside from the rare other flying cars, the only thing they could see were identical houses and gardens wherever they looked. The only thing that differed was the size of the houses in terms of height. Probably for gods who were very big or small.

But aside from the houses they were actually unable to spot anything else. As they flew closer towards their destination, there was finally some variation. Bigger estates and villas with even higher trees and more beautiful gardens appeared. They covered almost 500.000 square meters. They had a size of 1.000 by 500 meters.

„Woah, it seems like those are the houses for Lesser Gods, right?" Marie pressed her face against the window to get a better view of the scenery below them.

„Probably. Just wait a bit longer. I promise you that we will also live in such a house in less than three years." Ezequiel said with a lot of conviction, but to Marie it didn't matter that much. Their house was already plenty big for them and she was even content if they could live like this forever. She was only happy because she knew Ezequiel worked hard for her sake.

Finally they landed before the teleportation platform. It was somewhat similar to the summoning platform inside Ezequiel's territory. It was just bigger and the runes on it were obviously somewhat different.

As they arrived, a few people were already standing in a queue before the platform so they stood at the end of the line. Ezequiel also ordered the flying car to fly back to their villa so that they could use it on the way back as well.

When they arrived at the front they were surprised. They didn't even have to pay for the usage and simply had to step on it. As they did, they instantly felt their location shift. It was a weird feeling. Almost as if they hadn't moved at all.

On the other side an impressive hall greeted them. It was held up by large black-golden pillars and their entire surroundings were filled with teleportation pads just like theirs. There was a constant stream of people, or rather gods, stepping in and out of the hall.

„Keep in mind that we need to get back to teleportation pad #187. Otherwise it will be hard for us to get home." Ezequiel tried to make Marie listen but her attention was completely focused on the gods around them.

There were all kinds of gods. Mostly humans but also slimes, kobolds, goblins (Ezequiel almost tried to attack them instinctively), beastmen and women and also some rarer creatures like elves. It seemed like straight from a fantasy novel. There were even some creatures that Ezequiel had never even imagined. For some reason though almost all gods that came from their teleportation platform were human. Maybe they were also from earth?

„Let's go!" Ezequiel took Marie's hand and tried to get her out of the hall. Though she was unwilling, she knew that they were not here to look at other gods.

As they stepped out of the building Ezequiel was completely overwhelmed by all the sensations he felt. Luckily his processing speed has already increased a lot with his slight cultivation progress.

A variety of different smells, sounds and sights wafted towards them, most of them Ezequiel had never even come into contact with on earth. There were people playing weird instruments and selling food the likes of which he had never seen.

The architecture around him also couldn't have been more diverse. There were modern high-rise buildings made mostly from glass, ancient-style pagodas as well as buildings that floated in the air and took on shapes that defied all laws of physics. There was a building that strongly resembled a donut and people were entering it through its own teleportation platform.

Meanwhile there were street-vendors standing in front and between the buildings, trying to sell everything you could imagine.

Ezequiel pitied those street-vendors. Those were gods that had lost all their followers. As a consequence they couldn't earn any faith points and had no hopes of breaking through the next major realm. Though they still had their residence and could cultivate to the top of their current realm, they would forever be stuck in it.

Most of these people had probably lost their believers early on. This actually happened to most gods who were unlucky and started with a low-level species.

If the species on the planet they started on was different from their own, then it was basically game over for them. They wouldn't have enough time to grow and the local population would wipe them out immediatly.

Only some lucky ones encountered a foreign species that acknowledged the fact that believing in a god would instead bring them advantages and therefore chose to give up their planet willingly. But the reality was that 9 out of 10 gods who started with a low-level species didn't make it past the first few years until their summoning platform was destroyed.

At that point their only choice was to do some odd jobs in the Divine Realm in the hopes to somehow amass enough faith points to eventually break through to the next realm. But usually that would take millions of years. After all they couldn't really offer any services of value. Most of them chose to either play instruments or become cooks like you could see here.

Yet there were also those who didn't fail. Most of the stores on this street were clearly opened by those gods who at least reached the lesser god realm. Like the giant donut in the air.

„Ezequiel! Ezequiel! Let's go into the giant donut! I want to try their food. Maybe they even carry bagels as well." Though he was pretty sure that one of the most impressive stores on the entire market was most likely not a Dunkin' donuts, Ezequiel still went towards the store with Marie. He was interested in their products as well after all.

As they were teleported upwards right into the bagel, a large hall opened up. Interestingly the floor wasn't actually curved, but maybe they were on the second floor or something. But the windows weren't curved either. Weird.

Anyways, as Ezequiel focused ahead of him, he was greeted by a giant, green signboard with golden letters that spelled „Greenwood's Emporium". Ezequiel seemed to notice some writing in the bottom left that stated „No Refunds" but it was so small that he couldn't recognize it.

„Seems like you're in for a surprise. This isn't some kind of donut shop but instead a store that sells items. But now that we're here already we might as well look inside."

You could see the clear disappointment in Marie's gaze by the way her eyes lost their brilliance but she didn't object. Maybe they also had a small snack-shop inside. For some reason Marie seemed to forget that she could simply create a donut for just a few Faith Points. But to her the bought ones always tasted better.

Especially inside the Divine Realm. Every store kept their recipes a close secret to ensure that not every single god could just replicate them for cheaper.

After she got over her initial dissatisfaction, Marie took Ezequiel's hand and walked towards the main entry with him.