“What has you so cheerful?” Thera asked as they met in the morning, Ben taking her in his arms and spinning around out of joy.

“Being an apostle has finally paid off ‘cause my glorious, wonderful, majestic god pulled some favours and now my headache isn’t as bad. Apparently, I’ll be all healed up a month sooner than expected so just around three more to deal with. Oh man, it's so nice to be alive.”

Despite still being far from one hundred percent, it was the best he’d felt in weeks and he was happy to take it since it was a weight from his mind as Thera smiled back, just as happy to be hearing that bit of good news.

“That’s great! Just don’t let that get you in the mind frame to be pushing your mind skills though, okay?”

“Yes ma’am, don’t worry, I already promised Myriad I was going to get to the third tier of meditation before I let myself go through this again. Forget being a zen master, I’m going to become some sort of zen god. I’ll reach nirvana and be free of all of my worldly suffering.”

She had no idea what he was going on about but laughed anyway, his good mood rubbing off on her as she felt better for knowing he was getting better before they went off to breakfast, followed by another day in the library.

Well, I guess that’s something. Ben thought with a sigh as he put the book down.

He’d spent the last bit of the day going through some of the books in the library that were considered earth and death magic adjacent, their contents easier to learn for him thanks to the fact that they were related to his knowledge skill which ended with his getting a level up, but all of that had only happened after many long hours reading up on enchanting.

Even if slightly underwhelming, he’d consider the time he’d spent on the topic to have been worthwhile. He’d gotten to learn some more enchanting spells, even if they seemed obscure and less valuable than what he could manage by just using his skill rings, and just as interestingly, he’d gotten to read up on the many subtle differences between different awakened enchanting skills.

There were many known and recorded paths to the skill, from the more typical high enchanting that was a more linear growth to the skill, to options where it would combine with a magic, granting the user the ability to enchant with it at a higher level than it could normally be cast, along with options where it combined with different crafting disciplines, getting skills like magic crafting or enchanted smithing, the name depending on specifically what combined with it and how, along with some influence from the past experience of the skill holder.

Of those, his divine enchanting seemed most comparable to the standard high variant, with the main difference that even when it was at the zeroth level it was significantly farther along. He wasn’t certain, in fact he felt a lot of doubt in it, but it seemed like when he’d first gained the skill it would have been the equivalent of the fifth level in high enchanting, potentially even beyond that, with every level since being worth multiple levels of the high skill.

I mean, I’d really want to see what someone with high enchanting could do to properly compare, but I have been told that it was pretty much unheard of to get the prefix divine added to a second-tier skill so maybe there’s some truth in it. What else could be making that difference though? The fact that it’s my blessed skill must be doing something, but the only skill it combined with when it awakened was enchanting knowledge. How much difference could that have made for things?

It had been proving to be an unusually handy skill, and it wasn’t like its effects vanished when it combined. If anything they’d grown greater. For whatever reason the skill had let him learn not just information on enchanting with greater ease, but knowledge on magic and skills in general.

On that note, Myriad did you ever end up finding out why my enchanting knowledge was so versatile?

Helori cut in, the answer being clear to her at least.

I’ll have an easier time learning anything that involves skills; gotcha. Oh man, I love knowledge skills so so much. Definitely hope I get a few more, wonder what potential jobs might give some? Soul defiling gardener might give me something like soul or god knowledge if I’m lucky. What do you think the odds are?

His god told him.

Mmh, I know, I know, but I can’t help but be a little curious about it. It’s definitely a job that nobody else has had before, how could I not want to take it?

Eh, there’s plenty of ways out of that. I could go ham during the war to try and gain as much experience from killing demons as I can or I could just keep completing achievements in your name for the harder bits of job experience. Hell, going that way, I’d just need to do what? Twentyish achievements to complete the job without earning a single bit properly.

Myriad grumbled.

Actually, speaking of, what are the odds I can do it and use finishing the trial again?

Mmh, fair but honestly it’s been a while since I’ve taken one anyway since no good options have popped up so I’ll take it.

Annoyingly, the best perk of being an apostle, having quests he could complete for his god to earn a reward, was starting to seem like a well that was running dry. The last three he’d finished, being to write a holy text, earn one hundred believers, and establish a holy land hadn’t resulted in any further ones since they were completed, meaning he was stuck with only two. Complete an achievement in Myriad’s name for five job levels or to lead at least three of his believers in accomplishing a greater goal, getting him a level to a lower skill and getting the believers who’d helped him three job levels each for their trouble.

Even if it means I might miss out on a good chance to take the other one by taking this now, probably better to just have it. I’ve definitely missed out on some free job experience in the past by not having it selected.

His god had told him before that he could potentially complete that one by doing things like slaying a powerful monster, helping his believers as a whole, and achieving great acts that could have been directed at Myriad or doing something as a craftsman, such a presenting an ultra-rare item to a great warrior, and he’d done a few of those things already without even meaning to, meaning that he’d missed out on free levels that could have potentially saved him weeks of work.

And I can’t keep doing the same achievement again and again for easy experience either. Ugh, let’s see, even though I gave Amy a lower ultra-rare item without grabbing those sweet sweet achievement points, I could potentially do the same thing in the future by handing off a middle-grade one. What else though? I’m sure there’s a few ways I could work the quest to my benefit, I’ll just have to do my best.

‘Cause I’m a cute little scamp, obviously. Ben thought back, grinning in the empty shelves he was sitting in for nobody else to see.