Chapter 378

In the second church of Myriad, Ben stood and waited, admiring the structure he’d put so much work into designing as he did.

He was in the main hall, the public area that wasn’t locked away to hold his spare books and supplies where anyone with the connect skill could come to copy the enchantments on the hundreds of metal tiles coating the walls. Not that the church saw much use in that capacity for the simple fact that it didn’t get many visitors.

Sure, some would stop by occasionally, giving a prayer here or there as they passed or going out of their way since the town held both the church’s apostle and oracle, but in the end that was it. While people would pray, there were only those two dedicated believers in town, and considering that Ben could give his god just as much, if not more faith by praying in his coat, it was really just left to Sachel.

Myriad spoke up.

Myriad, I’m not going to lie to you, that sounds so boring. Sachel’s back now, right? I’ll leave it to her.

Excuse me, you’re supposed to be showing me blatant favouritism. But fine, yeah I can make her something like a decent armour. I should probably make Ralia something too then but I don’t really know what a shape-shifting snake lady might need. I guess if I just make Sachel a job necklace too since that’s kind of a gift to her whole party. I’ll throw another one together tomorrow so make sure you appreciate the high material cost that’s going to be going towards her.

Just because I’m rich doesn’t mean it’s not a ton of money. Just remember that the next time you feel like I don’t do enough for the church.

He did have to admit he was more than happy to leave most of the church responsibilities to her, and while he didn’t feel too bad about it, with the girl having a far better understanding of what she was getting into than he had, it still wouldn’t do him any harm to take whatever small measures might keep her alive, lest he start being hounded to do more for it again.

Still though, that’s a later issue. The main star of the day has finally arrived.

Thera opened the church door and walked in, her expression showing misery and exhaustion at the ordeal Ben was about to put her through as a swarm of spirits only she could see flew around her, the air thick with them in a way that left her feeling pressed in, even if they didn’t truly take up any space.

Ben for his part put on the most respectful expression he could, trying to keep from grinning at the little play he was about to put on.

“Thera Oress, princess of the spirits and daughter of the great spirit Abrus, thank you for meeting me here in the second church of the god Myriad.”

She did her best to keep from swearing at him there and then. She wasn’t self-conscious of the spirits the way she might be of a typical mortal, but this was pushing the limits of that tolerance to the extreme.

“Can we get this over with please?”

Don’t laugh, I’ll be safer when this is done if I just take it seriously and don’t laugh.

“Of course, I’m sure you’re busy, but as the apostle of the wonderful god Myriad, he and I couldn’t help but be touched to learn just how much you’re working for your people, along with how much they love you for it, and as such we wished to give you two items to help ensure you could keep doing so much, letting you grow and keeping you safe.”

Thera could hear the sounds of the spirits swarming around her, asking questions amongst themselves and getting answers from others who were forming their own ideas on what was happening, all while she tried to keep herself from just walking out before things could get any more embarrassing.

“Alright, so what do you have for me then?”

“I’m glad you asked!” He said, getting more and more into it as he did. “This humble servant has worked hard to make you both a necklace containing a job crystal, removing your need to find one any time you complete the one you’re on, as well as this circlet with a powerful mind enchantment designed specifically to quickly multicast as need be, able to aid you in using your spells to reach even greater levels of power.”

The spirits around her buzzed at the news. They understood what job crystals were for and knew that an item like that would only let her grow stronger, and the idea of the person they’d all grown to love so dearly being able to be even a little bit safer was tremendously desirable as well. While many of them didn’t typically pay too much mind to mortals in their typical lives, they couldn’t help but show an interest in the one working so hard for her, even if a couple of them questioned the display, knowing full well how much they were together anyway.

That didn’t matter though. Word amongst spirits traveled fast, and with it the knowledge of what the apostle of Myriad had just done for their princess.

In comparison to the elevated mood that came to him with the notification, Thera only looked at him with cold eyes. “You made me a tiara.”

“A circlet! It’s completely different!” Minus the insanely expensive materials put into it, plus the artistic flourishes and the way I tried to cut the mana crystals to catch the light. Hmm, yep, she’s totally right, I accidentally made her a tiara. Oops.

She didn’t believe it was an accident in the slightest, but the way Ben’s eyes lit up told Thera all she needed to know about whether doing all of that had worked, and since it had, it at least managed to clear up just a bit of her annoyance to be helping in such an embarrassing fashion, with the addition that at least one of the things he was giving her did in fact sound both incredibly useful and desirable. Even still, she was happier it meant she could bring it to a close.

“Well thank you, I’m sure I’ll be able to put them both to use,” She told him, resolving to hide the tiara in a drawer to never subject herself to whatever mind effect was on it before turning to address the spirits. “And thank all of you for coming to watch, I’m sorry to have pulled you away from whatever you had planned for the day. I have plenty of mana so any of you that need to be topped up, just let me know and I’ll help you out now.”

With that she shot Ben one final look before taking a seat, chatting with the spirits around her as she gave them what mana she could while Ben slipped on his necklace, touching it and feeling each option fill his mind.

AVAILABLE JOBS

• Trap user
• Craftsman- alchemy path
• Craftsman- artistic path
• Craftsman- blacksmith path
• Craftsman- cooking path
• Craftsman- stonecrafts path
• Craftsman- sewing path
• Holy craftsman
• Mathematician
• Cursed item maker
• Material mage
• Destruction mage
• High tank
• Otherworldly craftsman
• Infernal craftsman
• Destructive craftsman
• Master adventurer
• Soul defiling gardener
• Summoned enchanter
• Ritual enchanter
• Divine enchanter
• Profane enchanter

There were no new ones around to tempt him or pick at his interest so he went with the choice he’d been planning on ever since he picked his last.

“I’ll take infernal craftsman.”

Name: Ben Heph

Race: Human

Titles: Apostle of Myriad, The Forgotten One, Miracle Maker, Skill learner, Enemy of Eneth, Trial Defier, Trial Breaker, Godslayer, Monster, Madman, God killer, Threat, The mad apostle

Jobs: Infernal Craftsman (lv 3)

Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman, Priest, Enchanter, Mind user, Magic item maker, Magic weapon maker, High enchanter, Fractured mind user, Tree tamer, High craftsman, Apprentice mage, True mage, Tank, Heretic, Adventurer, Divine heretic, Kin, Master craftsman, Master enchanter, Scholar, Connected enchanter

Attributes:

• Vitality: 801
• Vitality recovery rate: 21/hr
• Mana: 695
• Mana recovery rate: 49/min
• Strength: 660
• Agility: 224
• Stamina: 1834
• Intelligence: 1973

Affinities:

• Light: 3
• Life: 2
• Fire: 4
• Water: 3
• Air: 4
• Earth: 2
• Death: 3
• Dark: 1
• Space: 4
• Time: 5

Resistances:

• Light: 68
• Life: 72
• Fire: 75
• Water: 69
• Air: 66
• Earth: 81
• Death: 78
• Dark: 85
• Space: 63
• Time: 61

Blessed skills:

• Unending crafting lv2*
• Divine enchanting lv3*
• Focus lv9

Passive skills:

• World speak+
• King of sacrilege lv9*
• Complex mind lv9
• Bind
• Integrated demonic body lv5
• Defense enhancement lv5
• Parallel thought lv8
• Absorption resistance lv5
• Plant knowledge lv6
• Mental expansion lv8
• All affinity resistance enhancement lv3
• Material knowledge lv8
• Biology knowledge lv3
• Trap knowledge lv4
• Physics knowledge lv4

Active skills:

• Stealth lv1
• Connect lv9
• Hidden mind lv8
• Calculate lv5
• Meditation lv9
• Cycling lv1
• Marksmanship lv0
• Speed reading lv7
• Material user lv9
• Destruction lv8
• Swimming lv1
• Dance lv0

Blessings:

• Myriad’s Blessing
• Anailia’s Blessing
• Helori’s Blessing
• Galwax’s Blessing
• Elvat’s mana regeneration Blessing
• Eneth’s Blessing
• Earth Pantheon’s Blessing

Trials:

• Trial of Anailia and Tolona
• Trial of the Dead God
• Earth tower

You are actually the worst.>

Maybe, but at the same time you can’t deny this is a really really good one. Oh man, and I bet that profane enchanter will have the same bonuses too.

My headache is gone so it’s probably fine if I accidentally get a level to parallel thought or mental expansion, right? Besides, by the time I take it again my soul will be in tip-top shape.

He could hear the doubt in Myriad’s voice, his god already sure he’d do something to level them up, and in general he wasn’t exactly wrong about that. There was something Ben wanted to do that he knew would be risking it, but with the end of the world feeling imminent he couldn’t help but want to try. He had two months to awaken connect if it was going to happen at all, he just needed to put them to use.

…And figure out how to bring it up with Thera. Maybe when she’s less annoyed with me.

After soothing her mood with some dinner and dancing, along with a healthy show of gratitude for her help in getting those last five levels he’d needed, Ben slipped off to his room as the night came to a close, finding an expected guest waiting for him as he did.

“Quilith, always a pleasure, how’s it going?”

“Better than you I’d say. We’re expecting a lot of people to tune it to watch your world end.”

“And I’m not exactly feeling crazy about getting to hear that,” Ben told him, giving the alien a funny look. “A little morbid, don’t you think?”

“Blame the fact that you live in such an interesting reality. We’ve seen a few interstellar wars conducted across different universes’ versions of stars and galaxies, or at least anything semi-comparable, but the ones that happen where the rules of a reality seem more malleable are always the most interesting.”

“Still not really into the idea that the doomed planet I’m stuck on gets to be entertainment.”

“One doomed planet watching another,” Quilith said with a shrug. “You can take comfort in the fact that everyone on my world is rooting for you all to win, given that if all else fails you’re all our last, desperate hope.”

“Hmm, what I’m hearing though is you guys at least have a few other options you can put to the test.”

“One or two,” He admitted. “We’re about to run an attempt to see if we can alter the physical processes that’s going to cause our star’s death. It’s not exactly breaking the physics of our reality, but it bending them for all it’s worth.”

“Neat, well good luck with that. And if it fails, any word on some of the ideas I’ve floated before?”

It was the same ones he’d discussed with Helori months back, the basics of it being that more of the grey could be saved if they could act as guides between universes, as well as open the hole to their own for the gods to go through.

“I’ve at least looked into the history of it,” Quilith told him with a nod. “The higher-ups aren’t exactly thrilled at the prospect, it was around three thousand years ago that all serious tests finally confirmed that there was no way for us to survive interuniversal space to make it to any of the realities we’d found thats physics would allow our bodies to exist as is, at least as far as we can see, but then again at the time we didn’t have any proof of such things as souls. That bit is still annoying actually, we’re fairly sure the reality we live in essentially hides any way of proving their existence from us, meaning that we can’t even do much study on them now that we’ve had their existence confirmed, so all of our models on the topic need to come from what we hear from your current universe, along with re-examining a few bits from other realities we’d gathered in the past that we’d previously dismissed. Since opening a hole ourselves means we’d be abandoning our bodies for the trip, there are plenty who want to avoid it at all costs, especially given what’s out there.”

Ben just looked at him curiously, not knowing where the alien was going with it as he waited for him to continue.

“Aside from the fact that we’d essentially have to die first to get to your reality, many of us just don’t want to encounter any of the things between,” The alien admitted. “One of the few times we observed them didn’t go well.”

“Are you talking about outsiders?” Ben asked, remembering the word Helori dropped once when he’d spoken to her about it.

“I guess it’s an appropriate enough term if that’s what your gods call them. Admittedly the threat is low, creatures that exist between realities typically either avoid them entirely or else groups of them end up strangely hyper-fixated on specific ones, with both the one you’re in and all of the ones your gods pulled from being safe. Still, some do wander and no matter how slim the odds, our history leaves the idea of encountering them even just as naked souls far from desirable.”

“…Do I even want to know?”

“It’s probably not as bad as you’re thinking,” Quilith casually told him. “Back in the infancy of us viewing other realities, there were of course those who wanted to see the space between. As an area without any fixed physics, calling it interesting would be putting it mildly, but the moment a stray outsider came into view for the first time, our technology capturing its image in as perfect detail as possible given that properly showing such a thing in a universe bound by proper rules is well, impossible, and around thirty percent of those who saw it broke down.”

“What?”

“It surprised us too, or at least I’m told since this is ancient history for my kind, but anything that doesn’t require a rigid set of physics to exist, is, well, for a lack of a better word, wrong. We can peer into other realities with life that evolved under laws radically different from ours without issue, but there’s something about the things adapted to it that’s simply incompatible with my kind at least, since I can’t speak for how creatures from other realities would handle it. The reality you live in has plenty of races that exist within the void, but that’s nothing compared to a creature that could exist in interuniversal space.”

“Alright, you’ve got me curious, tell me more about interuniversal space.”

At that, the alien couldn’t help but give a small smile. “I believe that would fall under the realm of physics you hate so much. Are you sure?”

“You just told me it’s a place without a set physics, and like I said I’m curious. Teach away, I’m all ears.”

“Very well, it looks like we have a rather unusual topic for your lessons tonight.”

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