God I love knowledge skills, they’re so easy to level with just a bit of work.

They could if they started buying my circlets with my mind skills tied to them. I still can’t believe all the ones I made are rotting in the shop without any buyers. Don’t people have taste?

Hey, don’t act like you aren’t enjoying the faith you’re getting right now. I could always pull out all of the nails if you’re really against it.

Myriad was quick to say, changing his tune. Despite the optics of the act, it really was harmless, and it ensured a steady, if small, stream of faith for as long as the forest survived.

Yeah I figured as much. He thought to his god with a laugh as he reached into his jacket pocket to touch his job crystal, feeling the options flood his head but only seeing one new one.

Hey, any chance you’ve heard of the scholar job?

Hmm, tempting, but I know what I want. I’m heading into a crafting competition after all, I should at least be a proper craftsman.

“Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.”

It had been a long time since he had taken the craftsman job, having devoted a lot of time and energy to other interests along the way, but even if this didn’t grant him a skill or any level-ups, it felt good. It felt right. Like this was the path he was meant to be on. As nice as it was when he’d had both ‘magic item maker’ and ‘magic weapon maker’ as options, this was a direct part of the path he knew he wanted to walk. A path that technically ended if he managed to awaken the skill to unlock the master craftsman job, but if what he’d heard was correct, the system got more creative with options after that, leaving him with nothing but curiosity for what the future held for him if he got to that point.

Hey, we did the best we could, right? Ben thought to his god as he closed his eyes.

Rather than respond to that, Ben laid in bed and let himself drift off, opening his eyes again as he found himself in his god’s realm, both Helori and Xizle already there and waiting.

Helori stood, impatiently tapping her foot to get to the results as Xizle just looked disappointed. He had wanted to win, but not like this. A challenge on equal footing was what he’d desired between the contest of the two apostles, but even though he started with what he couldn’t help but view as an unfair lead, the fact that he’d seen Ben wasting away his afternoons exploring the town and treating each day like a game instead of doing his best to bridge that initial gap was disheartening to say the least. If he was going to give up, he shouldn’t have accepted in the first place and saved his god some trouble.

“Well, shall we get this started already?” Helori asked, eager to claim her victory as Myriad hovered in the air, feeling far less confident despite how Ben’s planning and efforts had worked out.

“Let’s just get this over with,” The cube said with a sigh as both revealed just how much faith their apostles had earned them as they both lit up and the system rang out.

“What, how?” Helori called out while Xizle simply seemed shocked from the side. Neither had expected this turn of events but Helori was especially stunned. She hadn’t done something as distasteful as spying on the other apostle to judge his progress, but she knew enough to guess what he’d probably do to gain more believers. She was certain he’d either preach the benefits of the connect skill his god offered, as well as visit some of the nations he’d already had converts to as a way to try and gain some more, but her apostle had been laying the groundwork for ages, getting people to the edge of converting and working to seal the deal after the challenge was issued, ending it with thirteen new believers she could gather faith from. She had been certain that Myriad would gain a couple at most in that time, it simply didn’t make sense.

“Devil’s in the details,” Ben told her cheerfully, his relief that it had worked out clear to both gods. “Anyway, time to make good on your rewards, I didn’t work my butt off for nothing.”

Myriad wanted to refute that Ben had worked anything off but let it be. He was simply too happy that he didn’t get stuck having to spend so much faith that he had to hold himself back from giving a cheer of relief as he watched Helori deal with her loss and give Ben her blessing.

“And what sort of magic would you like then?” She asked, feeling exhausted as she did. With thousands of believers, she wasn’t nearly as poor off for doing this as Myriad would be, but it was still an unfortunate loss to have to give a skill to someone outside of her faith.

Ben though couldn’t care less about that. Even if Myriad said she couldn’t give him one he was still going to ask, and he’d thought long and hard on what he’d want.

As cool and useful as affinitied magics would be, it would simply be far too hard for him to level with his abysmal affinities. Even if he didn’t intend to devote himself to whatever magic skill he got the way he did for his crafting ones, he wanted one that would be helpful to him, and with that in mind he voiced the first option that he thought he could put to use.

“I’ll take telekinesis then.”

Given his number of minds it was the obvious choice and would work with his crafting too. To be able to move multiple objects with his thoughts at once would be a huge asset if he learned to do it with any level of skill, but the small grimace that graced the face of the goddess told him all he needed to know.

“I rule over affinitied magics, pick one of those.”

“Not in the agreement but fine, whatever. In that case, I’ll take earth magic.”

It was another that would be useful for crafting, even if it wouldn’t be ideal for him. He’d probably have to level it exclusively through completing quests for his god and there was still a limit to how high he could get it, but at the very least it could make his work easier.

Not that it mattered. Her first failure had already shown him that his god had been right, a fact made all the more clear as he watched the goddess before him scrunch her brow in concentration as she tried to give him what he asked for, failing again and again before giving up.

“What’s your earth affinity?” She asked him accusingly, as if he was the one being unreasonable.

“Two, what’s it matter?”

“What’s it matter?” She asked, outraged. “A god would struggle to give you that at the height of their power, it would mean altering the very base of your soul. You’re an enchanter, having any magic will be in your favour so request one you have at an affinity above twenty, fifteen at the very worst.”

“Well first, if I was just looking to use it for my enchanting then I wouldn’t even need it. Myriad’s skill does plenty for me on that account, so I wanted to get something actually useful. Gotta say, you’re being pretty choosy for someone who lost. More importantly though, I don’t have an affinity above five. I guess if you can work with that I’ll take the time magic skill for all the good it does me.”

As he explained there was a change to her expression. Anger changed to a subtle horror, the sort that was all but unnoticeable unless one knew where to look as she walked right up to him and called out to his god as she plunged her arms into his chest.

“Myriad I’m taking a look at your apostle’s soul.”

The experience wasn’t as unpleasant as the time Myriad looked at it. Her body didn’t open up the way his god’s did and he didn’t black out. All he had to do was deal with the experience of seeing a woman shove her arms into his chest, another experience he’d had before that he didn’t think he’d be repeating as she felt something inside of him he couldn’t perceive, the shock becoming more apparent on her face as each second passed.

“Infinite hells,” She cursed as she pulled them out. “Why didn’t I hear anything about this? I was only told he didn’t have any magic skills, not that he couldn’t learn any affinitied ones at all!”

“The fact that he was the only one without awakened skills probably overshadowed that bit of info as word spread to the less interested gods,” Myriad said sympathetically.

“Wait, you all gossip about me up here?” Ben complained.

“I wouldn’t say gossip, but word about certain things gets around.”

“Sounds like gossip to me.”

“But why didn’t either of you tell me?” Helori asked in complaint. “How am I supposed to grant a reward like this when you both knew I couldn’t?”

She was asking to lessen the blow. She had lost fair and square, even if she didn’t understand how, and now she had to pay the price. The fact that she couldn’t would bring nothing but shame to her, but at the same time it could be argued that by not informing her that she couldn't give the prize, they’d taken advantage of her ignorance. Unfortunately for her, it was a fact quickly disputed.

“If you’ll remember, neither of you let me get a word in,” Myriad said in his defense as Ben brought forth his own.

“And I assumed a goddess of magic would be able to actually grant me a magic,” He complained. “I was at least expecting a non-affinitied one, so how are we going to work this out? I didn’t do all that work for nothing when you’re the one who challenged us.”

With the truth before her, all she could do was curse herself. “Very well, since I can’t give you the promised magic, what do you want?”

He didn’t know what his god would say about it, but he had two things in mind since it was supposed to be his prize to begin with. “There’s two things I want, and since you don’t even need to spend any of your faith on it it should be pretty reasonable. Put a statue of Myriad in each of your churches for people to pray to, and answer all my questions for me.”

The look he got could have chilled him to his core, but she quickly turned away to address her apostle as he stood quietly to the side, watching this all happen.

“Xizle, it shouldn’t be long until your eggs hatch and they start eating their way out of your flesh so go rest up while you can. I’ll finish dealing with this.”

With no parting words the starfish man vanished, leaving Ben and Myriad alone with the goddess before them, both wondering what things would come to as she turned to face them, before deeply bowing her head as she pleaded.

“Please don’t ruin my church!”