How-not to be an Olympian God!

Chapter 52 - The Cult Of Alex(2)

Back when Hermes told that he should expand his realm of influence, Alex was perplexed on how to do so.

But then, he realized he could skip over 2 millenniums of history and technology and introduce an invention that would forever change how knowledge spread, and to the eyes of the mortals of this era, it would be nothing less than divine work.

In school back on Earth, Alex learned of a man by the name of Johannes Gutenberg. He was a german most well-known for the invention, or at least refinement, of the printing press with moveable type.

The printing press allowed for text material to be produced at an incredibly fast speed and books that were previously only accessible to the upper classes became common.

The influence this had on the rest of history, through democratizing knowledge and causing many repercussions centuries later, was nothing short of incredible.

Alex had one use in mind for the printing press, but after a few seconds of brainstorming that was only improved by Athena's Essence, he realized the printing press would not be fully appropriate for his desired use.

Therefore, he fast-forwarded 4 centuries later and focused his attention on the invention of the mechanical typewriter.

While the typewriter had much less output than the printing press, it was much more convenient as it allowed for unprecedented flexibility in writing, which was formerly restricted by the available metal types.

'How did they make typewriters, though?' Alex was perplexed.

After thinking further on it, however, he realized his typewriter only needed two features.

"It needs to be able to type letters onto paper, obviously."

"And, it needs to be able to switch positions every time you type a letter."

It would be a bit complicated, but Alex got an idea.

Through a complicated system of levers and strings, every time he would type on the letter of the keyboard, that he would hand-make, the mechanism would imprint his desired symbol on the paper and another lever would be responsible for moving the strings left-to-right, and top-to-bottom.

He was working with metal pieces, so to allow for that kind of flexibility, he needed to make the entire machine modular.

Athena excitedly agreed to help him and granted him all of her stock of string that she used for various applications.

As for the reasons why he was going through all of this hassle, it was all part of the first axiom of his plan for world domination.

His plan for consolidating his status as an Olympian god.*

He was going to write a book on various topics of the modern age, including medicine, health, politics, love and mental wellness, and propaganda for his cult.

He would print it out using the typewriter and assign a mortal to print more copies that would be spread among the upper classes, where rates of literacy were very high.

The information in the book would be elementary to Alex, concerning pasteurization and cures for common diseases, but these were all unknown to people of this era.

When the book and the typewriter, these revolutionary inventions are all attributed to him, Alex was sure he would gain a lot of devouts.

"I'm pretty sure it's a bit unethical to steal ideas from the modern world and use them to make a cult, but that's none of my concern." Alex felt like a cartoon villain.

Over the following days, he attempted making the typewriter at a smaller scale just to see if his method worked.

He even invited Athena and Herms, who happily obliged to see the typewriter in action. Alex took a parchment he used when he was writing with Crista.

'I think Crista would love this invention...' Alex didn't forget how much she loved writing.

Under the questioning stares of two deities of Olympus, Alex typed on 'Alpha' the first letter of the Hellenic(Greek) script.

He then, accordingly, typed 'Beta'.

After that, he took out the paper, and there they were, two letters, imprinted in sharp strokes next to each other.

Athena and Hermes looked on with admiration and praised.

"Alexei-boy, you never cease to surprise me!"

"This is revolutionary, Alex..."

Since his prototype worked, Alex would now begin the work on the real deal.

The process took a whopping six days, but the results were nothing short of spectacular.

____________________________________________________

(Typewriter)

Quality: Divine

State: Great

Additional Information: An invention far ahead of its time made by a craftsman with divine skills.

______________________________________________________

Alex was extremely proud of himself.

This was something only he could make, through the combination of Hephaestus' incredible metalworking skills and Athena's thorough dexterity.

He got to write the first page of his book as soon as he finished.

He titled it "Ways of Life from Alex of Olympus."

In one chapter, he spoke of the first antibiotic, penicillin.

'Leave a piece of undesirable bread in a warm and humid environment and when blue mushrooms grow on it, harvest them and use them on wounds to kill disease.'

On Earth, this was a revolutionary medicine and saved countless lives.

In another chapter, he explored humanism, freedom, and ideas, and conceptions on the value of humans that normally only appeared in the Renaissance.

Another chapter was concerning the health of the body and the mind.

'Eat to your full, in a varied diet of animal and vegetal products, and move enough to digest and use your energy, and laugh enough for the heart, allowing for a long and healthy life.'

There were many more, and every idea and concept he discussed in the book, massively improved the quality of life of people back on his Earth.

When he was over with the book, which took him two weeks to write, he showed the finished result to Athena.

"This is incredible, the wisdom that this book of yours contains will push humanity much further." She praised him with wide eyes.

Alex wrote the book in Koine Greek, the most common dialect of Greek after the conquests of Alexander the Great.

Now, he needed to find a way to spread word of it.

He knew, though, what to do.

On an uneventful afternoon, he went down to Olep. The city was as sprawling and active as ever.

The last time he came here, with Crista, the residents recognized him as the Nightmare Slayer, a title he gained from vanquishing Lucky in Atreksos.

This time, however, it seemed that the hype had died down, and he went through the streets peacefully, even though the residents stared at the big wooden box he was holding.

His destination was the consul's estate.

Alex wanted to convince the consul to subsidize the further printing of the book and spread word of it. After all, the consul owed him a favor from the time he solved the city's conflicts with Aklypso, the port city down south.

When he was in front of the beautiful palace, the guards recognized him, but he wasn't going to let them shamefully carry him in a palanquin like last time.

*Kuhum*

He outran the guards and entered the house.

After navigating through the halls and rooms of the estate, he asked a servant about the consul's current location.

The servant led him to the study.

The consul's middle-aged face was buried in a mountain of documents, and only the scholar next to him recognized him and bowed, "Greetings, Sofos."

'Sofos? Ah, that's the title the consul conferred me last time.'

The man in question heard that and immediately stood up and bowed too, "Good afternoon to you, sir. May I ask what you are here for?"

"I'm not here as sent by Aphrodite this time. I come here as Alex, a recently ascended god of Olympus."

The two in front of him looked perplexed but they were still bowing down.

"I have a request to make," Alex stated.

He saw a bead of sweat run down the consul's face as he replied, "Anything for you, sir."

Alex nodded and took out the typewriter. The two looked confused at this intricate-looking machine but to demonstrate it, he put a sheet of blank parchment in it and wrote a common saying in Koine Greek.

'Worship food, Lord Zeus and the wisdom of the Athenians.'

The scholar looked dumbfounded as the letters imprinted themselves on the paper.

"I made this. It is a tool that will allow writing at a much faster pace than manuscript." Alex informed them.

"I brought this because I want you to spread the word of my doctrine and make more copies of my book." He showed them the book.

"Lord, can I examine your 'book'?" The scholar looked extremely excited.

Alex passed him the book and the scholar carefully analyzed the cover page, read the first page, and skimmed through the pages.

"It's so...long, and the pages are so carefully tied and organized. Lord, did you use this machine to write your 'book'?" The scholar asked him with bright eyes.

Alex nodded in response.

The scholar, unexpectedly, started kowtowing.

The consul looked confused and the scholar exclaimed, "Sir, do you know how much more knowledge could be spread if we used this machine?!"

After that, he turned to Alex, "Lord, I will do my very best to spread the word of your divine invention to all the people of Olep."

Alex thanked him, and with that, his plan was over.

The consul seemed a bit troubled by this.

'I think, I only ever bring the poor man trouble...' Alex thanked the consul and left Olep.

Now, the first plan of his plan, to rapidly spread reverence of him, was over.

Now, the second part of his plan would begin.