killed a number of people before level 20 ( perhaps a good dozen? ) praying after each kill and got empowered.

After that I ranked up until I reached a state where I could no longer practice supplications (it turned out I was empowered until this big damage commune old shamans used to get, the usual cutoff point for a two stage empowerment process) I started killing again, attempting to repeat the process. (My made up deity was a blood-thirsty one so this was fitting.)

Never had a second interaction with any imm and deleted after two weeks. I should add that while I got some kills, since (I) people are more careful and better prepped at higher levels and (ii) there are simply fewer characters level 35-45 than level 11-21 I was getting kills at a much slower rate than before.