“-and that’s what they said once you left,” Myriad told Ben, explaining how the conversation between the greys continued once he’d left the room.

“It could have been for show. Just putting on an act while they thought you were watching.”

“I don’t think so. I couldn’t read Quiliths thoughts since his actual brain or whatever he has that acts as one resides in another universe at the moment, but in the case of Glob he seemed to be in genuine distress when he was told more attempts failed, though he didn’t think in clear terms on just what those plans were.”

“Doesn’t matter I guess, sounds like they’re only going to want my help if they can’t get someone better, that’s basically a guarantee it won’t be my problem.”

“...”

“What?” The silence Myriad was giving Ben spoke volumes, he just wasn’t sure he knew what it was meant to be saying.

“Nothing, I just don’t think you should sell yourself short. You just managed to blackmail an entire race into helping us, and they aren’t wrong about your growth speed.”

Ben for his part was having none of it. “I’m glad you think so well of me, but you heard their conversation Myriad, it sounds like they were going to have to end up helping eventually, all I did was give them a little push and score a benefit for myself,” And he was already thinking about how to use that. On the one hand, he still wanted to figure out some sort of weapon to keep himself safe, but on the other, he really wanted to increase his quality of life in the world, first and foremost he wanted a shower. Wiping himself down with a warm bucket of water just didn’t do it for him. Well, he wasn’t actually given a limit on what he could ask, he fully intended on taking complete advantage of the little grey.

Shaking himself from his fantasies he got back on track. “As for my growth, I’m not even at the point that all of my classmates arrived in the world at. I’m just shrinking the distance a little.”

“I think being summoned amongst a group of people with nothing but awakened skills has left you incapable of appreciating just how hard they are to get, but whatever. You’re on the right track for growing even stronger after completing the quest and getting your compensation from the other gods, you’ll be done with your current job before you know it.”

“Uhg, don’t remind me. When I was told I’d be compensated I thought that I might be getting a gift skill, maybe a blessing. Not just an extra five measly job levels.”

“Every job you complete represents a permanent boost to your strength and potential, I wouldn’t be so down about it. What’s your current level anyway?”

“Nineteen.” Eight from making the coat, five for the achievement, five for compensation, with one leftover he got in the middle of the trial, presumably from his actions causing a few more nations to compel some of their enchanters to convert.

“Even if it’s the easiest bit you’re basically a fifth of the way there after a week. Speaking of, ready to hear about your new quest options?

“Absolutely. Hit me.”

“Unfortunately still nothing crazy exciting. Once again I can give you the option of completing an achievement in my name for five job levels, growing my faith to an additional hundred people for twenty job levels, or… well that’s it unfortunately,” Ben actually had one more option, establish a holy land, that would reward him enough that he could complete a job in a single go with the reward he would get, but after his stunt with the coat Myriad wasn’t willing to leave this task to Ben, no matter how fond of his apostle he was. Especially now that the boy had sacrilege, and had apparently managed to level it up by knowingly attacking an avatar of Anailia, he shuddered to think what he might do with such a request. Better to ignore it and give it to a more reasonable apostle once Ben passed on in the future.

“The exact same two again? Man I gotta say, that's pretty lame.”

“If I’m not mistaken for the ones following this I should be able to give you one that would reward you with a skill level in one of your low-level skills, but you need to complete one of those two first.”

“Okay, give me some time to think about it. Getting you 100 followers still seems ridiculous, but I can’t imagine how I’m going to complete another achievement. Maybe if something conveniently falls into my lap like the trial again I’ll take that one.”

“No rush, on a final note, I have a small request for you.”

“Hm? Sure, what can I do?”

“Let me inspect your soul.”

Ben instinctively took a step back. “Oof, let the god that munches down on his believer’s souls get a close look at mine? I like you Myriad, I even count you among my friends in this world, but that sounds a little sketch.”

“I don’t eat my believers' souls! When you die you’ll have the option of merging with me rather than phasing to a different plane. Of course, I’m hopeful you’ll choose that option, as the first being outside of my race I’m sure it would be quite an honor for you and an interesting experience for myself, but worry about that when you’re dead. No, I'm just concerned about the state of your soul, especially as it relates to some of the skills you’ve been developing recently.”

“Wait, does this have to do with complex mind?” As soon as he left the trial and spoke to his god, he asked if Myriad would be able to find some information on the skill, and it looked like it was paying off.

“Partially. You gained three rather rare skills in short order between getting hidden mind, tolerance, and complex mind. The newest one is especially worrying as from what I’ve seen, almost no other hominid types get that skill, instead getting ones like parallel thought or split thought.”

“Is that bad?”

“No skill acquisition is truly bad, not even sacrilege as much as I hate to admit that. Just odd is all, and worth looking into to be sure it’s not related to any problems.” What Myriad didn’t tell Ben was the types of people who typically received those skills. Hidden mind was gained by mostly paranoids, fearing their thoughts being invaded. Complex mind seemed to only appear in hominid types when they’d reached a breaking point causing their minds to split as opposed to through training, and even then it was considerably rare, and tolerance was gained when an apostle was so obsessed with their god they were willing to fight past the presence of their divinity just to gaze upon them longer.

None of them were bad or harmful in any way. Unlike sacrilege, Ben wouldn’t need to be concerned about people finding out he had those skills, many would even find them desirable. As well, Ben didn’t display any characteristics that would make him worry he possessed the traits one normally would to gain those skills. There were perfectly reasonable explanations for why he had each of them, but nonetheless Myriad worried. This was about his apostle’s health and well-being, he didn’t want to lose him so soon.

“Okay fine, I trust you so take a look, however you do that.”

“Oh don’t worry, it will be quick and easy.”

Before Ben’s eyes, he saw Myriad begin to open at the seams and his mind refused to process what was inside. His brain didn’t shut down, not really, but as Myriad unfolded it continued to simply blank out what it was seeing before him, even as Myriad came closer, enveloping him

“God damn Myriad, I sure hope that was nothing because you just raised my tolerance doing that!” Not to mention left me with a pounding headache. What the hell did you do?

When Myriad enveloped him it was like he stopped being able to process information altogether, not an experience he was keen to repeat, even if it looked like doing so could train his tolerance.

“Not much and don’t worry. It looks like my concerns are unfounded, it’s likely you just have a good compatibility with mind-type skills. Shouldn’t be surprising since one of your blessed ones is focus, but it was still worth a check.”

“So I’m good to keep leveling them up?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. At this point, my only concerns are what you have planned with the queen. Are you really going to take advantage of the situation like that?”

“Hey now, she’s the one that tricked me into getting engaged, I’m just trying to work things to my benefit a bit. I’m sure it won’t be too crazy.”

“You know, some might think she was trying to help you by creating a situation where you couldn’t be approached by other nations."

“Maybe,” Ben conceded. “Or maybe she wanted to tie me closer to her people since I’m currently the best one at making the resistance braces. Either way Myriad, I won’t go too crazy. Just want to take any advantage I can get."

The next day over breakfast Pelenia looked exhausted, with Abrus seeming surprisingly lethargic himself, and Ben could understand why. It seemed that the greys had stayed true to their agreement, and shortly after he left them, Glob had gone to Pelenia’s room and set up an immediate meeting.

Discovering that there was an entire planet in another universe willing to provide aid in the form of knowledge and attempts to gain information on the invaders was far more than she’d expected to deal with in the middle of the night, and as a result she’d been swamped with emergency meetings without rest. Really she would still be trying to do her best to sort out the information they were being given, as well as finding the best people to act as liaisons in her nation to interact with their new allies, but with her daughter set to leave in a few days she wanted to at least make sure to get her meals with her.

Ben, having a good idea of most of this information, simply did not care at the moment.

“So Mom, I was hoping we could talk about my engagement to Thera,” He said, and causing Pelenia no small amount of surprise by being addressed as such, though she tried to hide it.

“Oh? I sure hope you aren’t feeling any displeasure about this turn of event’s Ben. You did such a lovely gesture to my daughter. No breaking her heart.”

“Mother, please,” Thera begged. “Can you just put an end to this? I doubt many citizens in the nation would be surprised to know you set that up as a joke.”

“No can do. Unless you find another nice man I’d prefer you have this option kicking around. Besides, you don’t seem too resistant Thera. What do you say? I could have a ceremony set up before you’d leave the country and when you get back to Stonewall you could work on giving me my first grandchild. I’m personally hoping your first is a boy, but a granddaughter would be great too when I think of how cute you were as a baby.”

“And I’m personally hoping to have some peace for my last little bit home, but I guess that's not going to happen either,” Thera sighed.

“Anyway,” Ben spoke up, trying to get the conversation on track. “I don’t have any problem being engaged to your daughter, she’s a wonderful girl and it’s not like I’m involved with anyone else.”

The queen smiled in genuine joy hearing that while Thera tried to ignore the blood rushing to her face. Even though she knew what Ben was up to it didn’t make it any less embarrassing to hear.

“Well isn’t that wonderful! Maybe we really should do the ceremony after all.”

“I think it would be best to wait a bit,” he told her, looking at Thera laying face down on the table trying to ignore them. “I’m not sure how if Thera would be able to handle it if that talk continued, and we still haven’t known each other long. The trial really went to show how much more we have to learn before we should actually tie the knot.”

“Oh fair enough, boring choice though. Sometimes it’s better to let the passion take you in the heat of the moment. But very well, if you don’t want to try and break it off or wed immediately, then what did you want to talk about?”

“Simple really, just a custom from my world I was hoping you’d fulfill, just to really make me feel part of the family.”

The queen hesitated. On one hand, she’d just demonstrated the folly that comes with participating in unknown customs without considering the consequences, but on the other, she very publicly approved of the boy as well. She couldn't exactly turn him down, especially when she was genuinely hoping to have him as a son in law.

“May I perhaps hear the custom first?”

“Of course, it’s nothing too crazy. Just having the parents of the bride provide a dowry to help the couple start their lives together.” It wasn’t even strictly a lie. Sure it wasn’t really a practice in his part of the world, but plenty of parents would help their children with such things.

Pelenia sighed. She could see a mile away where this was going, the only question was how much was he hoping to get. “And what, may I ask, would be an appropriate one?”

“Oh it doesn’t have to be anything too crazy,” He told her, nothing but smiles. “Just give whatever you think Thera is worth of course.”