Chapter 237

A week passed in a flash as Ben dug through his bag on the way to the gate. He’d packed plenty for the trip, including a crate of books, a variety of materials to use for the coming contest, his prized chef’s hat and ‘kiss the cook’ apron, a bunch of items he’d made prior to sell while the competition ran, and most importantly, Thera’s spare cloak.

Since they had so much to bring and it sounded like it would be exciting, she was eager to join, not to mention the fact it was an excuse to leave the heat stonewall was facing for somewhere cooler, so they made sure to bring the one Ben had made her when they’d first started getting to know one and other better, something they should have been keeping in the bags anyway. Even if it didn’t allow one to see through it the way a proper fanet’ail cloak would, it would give them the chance to get a replacement if anything happened, even if she’d have to be led to it.

It was as they got to the gate after far too quick of a ride in the cart, ready to drive through to their destination that Ben paused to admire it. Now that he’d read up on its construction and the enchantments that made it up, he couldn’t help but get lost in its beauty, the delicate weaves of mana tearing a hole in space to allow the fast and convenient level of transport that made travel around the world possible, even if the more standard means of transportation were lacking. He could only dream of making one himself, while at the same time questioning how it could be improved. After all, gate construction depended on having both an awakened enchanting skill on top of space magic, something that was already rare enough, but what if there were even more options available? What if the enchantment was modified using awakened versions of other magics to enhance it? He couldn’t help but fiddle with the idea in the back of his head as they passed through the gate.

Once they did though, making it through the crowds of people traveling through the empty space that connected lands to go far and wide, he found himself in a completely foreign environment to him. Despite living in a mixed town, the architecture he was used to seeing was fairly consistent, with only a few changes here and there to account for different body types. Not so with allfaith.

Towers stretching into the sky next to pits receding into the earth, temples and churches, monuments and mausoleums, tents and tabernacles, all blending together in a mess of cultures showing one another how they lived, while trying to maintain some sort of harmony, and Ben knew there was even more. The smell of the salty sea air told him they were on a coast, with the buildings of aquatic and semi-aquatic races having their place too.

More than that though was a feeling of one of his skills screaming out to him as he looked around, a feeling he tried to ignore as he was able to easily pick out where on each structure or monument he would go to if he wanted to destroy them, people walking by that he couldn’t help but notice how to take apart and had to assume he was seeing either due to their level of faith or else because they were major figures in it. Priests, oracles, apostles, all were present in the city after all, either working to guide their believers or gain new ones, and all were equal targets of his sacrilege skill, even if he bore them no ill will.

Pushing the feeling of it back, he instead looked to his companions. Thera clearly wanted to look around and explore while Falk led them to their destination, one of many embassies in the city, the one for Anailia, where they would be staying for the next few weeks.

“You know, if this guy was going to go out of his way to invite you he could have at least offered rooms,” Ben said, not that he minded the accommodations.

“He did, but I’ll be damned if I stay somewhere that he can come and bother me whenever he pleases. Sometimes if you have connections you gotta use them to your benefit, now come on.”

He led them in and to a desk where he showed a note to a waiting incubus who rushed into action upon seeing it. Ben looked to Thera, question in his eyes but she only shrugged back, having no more idea than he did what her uncle had just shown as they were led up a flight of stairs to some private rooms, one for each of them with all of the amenities they might need during their stay and gave them time to unpack before he started leading them around the city, explaining the sites for them since he’d been there before.

Given the nature of the place, not only was it big but there were plenty of tourist attractions on top of the churches. Since many people would come to pray and give their faith to various gods, it was good to do something to capture their attention all the more while they were there to get them to spend some money. It wouldn’t be good for the city’s economy if people only passed through after doing what they needed to after all, and while Thera enjoyed learning the history of the various cultures and faiths present there, Ben’s focus was more on food, at least until he saw his first trial.

He had been wondering how there could be multiple ones in the city given how big the one in Anailia was, but they were structures and places that took all sorts of shapes and sizes, with the one before him taking the form of a cave and capturing his attention completely. With the magic bound to it built in a similar way to what was found in the one he’d participated in during his first visit to Anailia, there were subtle differences he wanted to explore in detail, the only thing keeping him from pressing his face against it as he looked it over was the presence of guards at its front, as well as Falk and Thera’s firm grips holding him back.

“Come on guys, I just want to see a little bit more,” He begged as he was dragged away.

“If we let you stick to that one you’ll be there all day,” Thera told him before Falk spoke up.

“You have some days before the contest starts so if you want to look so bad do it tomorrow. May as well see the other ones around to see if there’s any in particular you want to focus on.”

That caught his attention. He did only have so much time after all, he needed to know where to direct his focus if he was going to be using his free time on it so that he wouldn’t have any regrets when it was time to leave, not that he couldn’t just come back another time. Just knowing how much there was to see, he couldn’t help but think on how he’d have to have a real vacation sometime to make proper use of the gates to see the world, and more importantly examine every trial he could. The way the magic was placed on them was similar enough to enchantments that he knew he could learn something if he properly took the time, a fact that made him want to dive into the topic in earnest.

There must be some books on trial structure. He couldn’t help but think. Even if my mana sense is good, it’s not like nobody is better, and given how many of these things there are this is a valuable bit of research. Actually, given how big this place is they must have some good libraries on top of crafting and mages guild branches, I should see if there’s any books I haven’t already seen.

With curiosity filling his heart he let himself be dragged away as the day passed, walking by another handful of trials, each of which begged for his attention as Falk pointed out the other sites he was looking for. Libraries and guilds, all places he knew he’d need to hit up as he made mental notes on where they were as the day began to fade, and with one final stop Falk wanted to show they went on their way, grabbing the scruff of Ben’s neck as he saw where they were heading and keeping him from running ahead.

“This is cruelty Falk, you can’t show me something like this and not let me get a better look!” He complained as his teacher grinned back.

“What has you so excited this time?” Thera asked, having grown used to Ben’s enthusiasm when encountering something new. “Isn’t it just a tower?”

The structure had to be eleven stories tall. Big by the standards of plenty of the world, but on the smaller side when compared to what Anailia typically had.

“You only think that ‘cause you can’t see the enchantments on it, whatever god built it made a thing of beauty!”

Of all the ones he’d passed, he couldn’t help but find himself focusing in on that one more than any other and knowing immediately that looking it over would be the thing that would take up most of his free time if he let it. It wasn’t just a trial, it was one unlike any other he’d seen that day.

Even if he couldn’t immediately understand the magic on them, he had at least been familiar with the systems the enchantments had used on the other trials, many of them using a weave structure for their magic while others used less popular options, still good in their own way yet not ones Ben found particularly useful for himself when compared to the way he weaved and blended his mana.

This one was different though. The mana that made it up was laid down in ways he’d never encountered before in all of his reading and study. It was a structure of enchantments completely foreign to him, and that fact made it more exciting than any other.

“Falk, why have I never heard that mana could be used like this? It’s built like what, spirals and rings? What’s the effect of creating something this way? What does it do? How does it compare to the more standard ways of enchanting?”

“Hey now, one question at a time. Or at least that’s what I would say if I couldn’t sum it up in one answer. I don’t know. What you’re looking at is the dead god’s trial, neither the god that made it nor the race that worshiped him is around to tell us anything about how they’d enchant on their world.”

In the thousands of years that races had been escaping to this world, many had found their way there. There were the founders of course, a group of different gods that had managed to find each other after the loss of their worlds with the remnants of those who worshiped them that came together to settle this one and built the system, and as more worlds fell more races joined, spatial gods going out to lead whatever surviving souls could be found to this refuge as more and more unique beings made their way there.

The mana-based lifeforms, spirits and fairies and elementals, all creatures unlike any other and all united in both the unique natures of their bodies, as well as their lack of gods. The forbidden gods too, those few who’d fled their homeworld, only focused on saving themselves and forsaking those who gave them their faith. A unique god in so many ways, made up of the totality of its race after they sacrificed themselves to deal a devastating blow to those who would plunder their world, and so many more that Ben wasn’t aware of, one of which only being known as the dead god.

Whatever its name was had been lost to time, when it came to the world with only its trial, not a single survivor of its race, the others thought they had another forbidden god on their hands and were prepared to lay down the rules for if they were going to stay.

Instead though, they simply placed down their trial and left, explaining that his people had insisted on fighting to the last man, and now that he’d ensured a part of his world would go on to exist, he intended to do the same as he went to fight and die, leaving only a tower with none of the knowledge of the people who would challenge it.

“And as interesting as that all is Myriad, you’ve got to know something about the enchantments on it, come on I’m dying of curiosity here!”

“I don’t know what I don’t know Ben,” Myriad told him in exhaustion. “Most races that got to the stage of their development where they would enchant figured out how to do it in very similar ways. Sure, there were a few that came up with novel ideas that either got incorporated into the world’s methods or discarded after coming here, but without a representative to explain their more unique system it’s an unnecessary level of research. You could check a library to see how far mortals have gotten on it, but I can say with a fair level of certainty that no god has spent any time trying to unravel just what it means when we have bigger concerns. Perhaps if the world survives one of the crafting or magic-focused gods will devote themselves to it, but that’s a big if.”

“Ugh, fine I’ll look into it myself tomorrow then. There has to be someone who’s studied it, I can only hope they published their findings. In that case, since the god who made it’s dead, can you at least tell me what the trial is like? It might help me understand what I’m seeing from it.”

“No can do,” He told him, speaking up before his apostle could complain. “I can’t tell you because I don’t know. Nobody does. There’s never been a survivor anytime someone’s attempted the trial, and the way it’s god designed it has it thoroughly in his domain. While we can easily peek into each other’s trials up here so long as we have permission, nobody was granted it before its creator went off to die.”

“So you can’t tell me anything? Without a god would it even give any rewards, or would you survive whatever it throws at you, only to be sent off without so much as a pat on the back?”

“Again, who’s to say? It’s equally possible that it was made to automatically distribute rewards as it is that it gives nothing. Hell, it’s possible that without its god it simply doesn’t let people out, instead forcing them to starve to death as it tries to call on its maker to reward and free them. It goes without saying, but please don’t do something as crazy as attempting it. Hell, don’t attempt any of the other trials either. I’d rather not have to choose a new apostle any time soon when I still need a head priest.”

“Relax, doing one was enough, thank you very much. As much as I want to study it you couldn’t drag me into it. I’ve got more than enough to go off of looking at it from the outside, of course, I’ll be asking a lot of advice while I’m here.”

“If that’s all then that’s fine,” His god said with a sigh of relief as he moved on to a different, more troubling topic. “I have to say though, I still can’t believe you’re in allfaith of all places. How’s the sacrilege been?”

Ben could only shrug. “I mean, I’m feeling it everywhere but it’s not like the skill compels me to do anything so much as it points things out so it’s fine.”

“Mmh, pointing things out is an uncomfortably good way to get your interest though. I guess as long as you don’t get involved with anyone you shouldn’t and don’t destroy any monuments then it’s fine. What’s really important though is making sure you don’t act in a way that would keep my church out of the city, I want a location here one day you know.”

“Really? It’s a bit packed for my taste, a few too many people.”

“Ha, as much of an issue as that is for you it would be a blessing for me. Plenty of the world’s more devout come here to offer their faith to as many churches as they can. Heck, the little bit of faith I’d receive from the communal churches was nice, but if I had a proper church and statue in this town that people could give their respects to then that would be all the better.”

“Well, I think you’ll need some proper priests if you want that. I mean, I guess I could buy a plot of land to make you a small shrine or something and add a plaque to explain who you are a bit. How much would that set me back?”

“Honestly, too much. As glad as I am for the suggestion, the business side of the city has land prices ridiculously high. While the church is against it and wants it to be lowered, at least to the point that each god could have their own faith represented, tourism is unfortunately as big a part of it as anything and it’s an argument that hasn’t ended. Of course, since you’re probably going to die pretty rich if you want to leave your money to the church when you pass I could probably put it to good use in a couple hundred years,” His god was happy to suggest. “If you live out your natural lifespan and keep making all sorts of things I suspect you’ll end up quite wealthy.”

“I’m already wealthy and soft maybe,” Ben told him as he waved off the request. “I’ll put more thought into my will when I’m a bit closer to the end of things thanks.”

“Sure sure, just remember all I’ve done for you when the time comes.”

“Badmouthed me to your other believers enough that they were scared when we met?”

“Remember something else.”

“Getting me to be your believer and not explaining that I’d have to be an apostle by agreeing?”

“Or we could talk about the incredibly useful skill and guidance I’ve given you over these last two years?”

“Relax, you know I appreciate you,” Ben told his god with a laugh. “I’ll at least leave the church something, but you’re not allowed to look forward to getting it. In fact, you should put some of whatever money I leave you towards making a statue of your first apostle on the world, that would be pretty cool right?”

“Just make it yourself while you’re alive so I don’t have to.”

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