“Um, is this going to be okay?” Thera asked, the confidence she was feeling for the quest waning now that the day had properly come and she was seeing just who she was supposed to be looking after. “We’re protecting him, right? Not delivering him for an execution?”

It was easy to see why anyone might think such a thing given how Verbum was acting. Laying on the ground, he clung to Killi’s leg, seeming more like he was pleading for his life than off on an adventure.

“Please please please don’t make me do this,” He begged, tears in his eyes. “Let them check it out on their own, if they’re rank one then they don’t need me.”

“We need answers fast, so they actually do,” Killi told him calmly, putting up with the outburst far better than any of them hoped. “And you’ll be perfectly safe with them both, I’ve looked into the matter personally.”

“Sure, unless they’re the ones who turn on me! The two of them are monsters, Killi! You’d agree if you could see their status!”

“I’ve already seen the entirety of Ben’s and the relevant sections of Thera’s. You aren’t getting out of this.”

“No! No I won’t go! You can’t make me!”

“Are you really sure about that?” She sighed, wishing she didn’t have to put up with this sort of thing when she was so close to a break.

“I am! I’m standing firm, I’m not going!”

“I see.”

The calmness of her expression was betrayed by her clenching fists, clearly done with his outburst as she turned to focus on Thera.

“If you’d be so kind, could you place him under a sleep spell for now?”

“Uh, what?”

She was basically being asked to commit a crime, placing a spell with any sort of mind effect on a civilian without the authority to do such a thing, but Killi just waved the concern away.

“I’m asking on my authority as the knowledge holder. I’m in charge of his education and he won’t grow if he doesn’t go out. Really, place any spell you need to on him during the outing and I’ll approve it.”

Hearing how calmly she said that just made him scream all of the more, but everyone ignored him as Thera gave in. She had clear misgivings about the fact, but the level of power and authority that anyone who’d achieved the third tier wielded wasn’t to be argued with. If she said to do it then nobody would stop her.

The dark mana flew from Thera’s staff, its density having an instantaneous effect. Verbum’s eyes snapped shut while his teacher carelessly hoisted him up and threw him into the back of their cart, leaving them ready to set off.

“If he gives you too much trouble, don’t hesitate to do it again,” She called out, considering the potential benefits of keeping a dark mage on staff for all of his future lessons as the three of them drove off, making their way through one of the wild gates before Thera raised them up into the air, leisurely heading off to their first destination.

While they were tasked with helping Verbum get to the four locations that needed a deeper level of searching than a typical party could provide, they weren’t exactly pressed for time, making her drive just a little slower for the unsecured passenger in the back and letting Ben handle the trip far better than he usually would as he took the chance to chat with her, treating their unconscious companion like he wasn’t even there.

“Excited?”

“Obviously. This is our first official rank-one quest! How could I not be?”

When they’d gained the rank, both had been expecting far more to come in for them than really had, but in the year since they’d reached the pinnacle of the career, there’d been no calls for either of them, much to Ben’s satisfaction and Thera’s dismay. She would still do any of the harder jobs that came up around Stonewall but it hadn’t come close to scratching the itch of something big. Protecting someone at the third tier though? That would absolutely do it.

“Ha, hopefully it will be quick and easy and then we can finally head home.”

“What, you don’t want to stay longer to read more?”

“Eh, maybe if it was for something different, but as things stand since I’ve read through the top three floors, I don’t really want to spend weeks reading through the first two. Maybe next time we’re by the gate I’ll pop through for a few hours of reading, but right now all I want is to get back to my forge. I’ve got ideas to test and homunculi to abuse.”

He had plenty he wanted to try making, being thoroughly inspired by everything he’d consumed while he’d been there, and the homunculi were tools to help train his crafting as much as they had been to help with his reading. He fully believed they would help him reach greater heights by removing the limit that was his singular body.

I miss them already. He sighed to himself, all of them locked in their crates and waiting for his return. But I am so not risking damaging them by taking them into the woods to encounter who knows what.

Hey, it didn’t seem like I’ll be able to get more from Vividus so unless Thera gets a little better at it I need to take care of them so they don’t get damaged. Just you watch, they’re going to be my path to raising my crafting to a completely different realm.

He barely noticed the vaguely dissatisfied sounds his god made in his head over the sudden scream as Verbum woke up and in one smooth movement tried to escape, not noticing their location as they flew amongst the clouds when he was trying to toss himself over the cart's edge.

Luckily for him, Ben was quick to react, his fastest minds moving his body, making him lunge to the back of the cart and grab Verbum as he was just starting to notice his mistake, pulling him back to safety to keep them from failing the quest so soon after it started.

“No killing yourself please,” Ben told him, seeing the clear panic in Verbum’s expression after almost meeting his end. “I’m pretty sure I’d end up in a lot of trouble if things went wrong.”

“Why are we flying!”

“Because it’s faster to avoid the treetops. Now relax a bit, would you?”

“How am I supposed to relax! How are you so relaxed? One false move and we’re plummeting to our deaths! Does this thing even have seatbelts?”

“Yes actually.”

“He was super insistent on putting some in,” Thera called back as she drove, not paying much mind to what was going on behind her as soon as it was clear their passenger wasn’t about to meet his grisly end.

“And she’s driving a lot slower than usual so this isn’t even that bad,” Ben added.

“Not that bad? We’re flying in a cart! Rotten earth, I hate it here!”

It looked like he wanted to run away, the only thing stopping him being how trapped he was in the sky and Ben briefly considered if it would be worthwhile to ask Thera to put him to sleep again until they landed but ultimately thought better of it. He did have an agreement with Killi after all and fully intended on cashing it in.

“Well, if you need a distraction so badly then I can think of something,” Ben told him as he moved to sit beside him, helping Verbum buckle up as he did. “In exchange for doing this and keeping you alive, I do need you looking at my status after all so what do you say we get to it?”

“If I tell you now then what motivation do you have to actually look after me afterwards?”

“The motivation would be not being the guy who let a third-tier skill holder die while acting as his guard. Seriously man, I get you’ve got your issues but it’s in my own best interest that you be okay by the end of this little outing so try and relax a little.”

Ben felt himself being appraised with eyes full of suspicion, but it seemed that Verbum decided to give in. Even if he had zero intention of giving any faith in the matter, Ben was right. He was trapped up there and needed the distraction.

“...Fine. What am I looking at?”

“Everything.”

He wasted no time connecting to him, wanting to see everything the other could as Verbum began using his skill, making Ben’s full status visible to him in a way it would normally never be before looking deeper as a flood of information sprung forth for his first title, apostle of Myriad.

Ben read all that was available to see in his view before Verbum began to mentally scroll, revealing more and more information for Ben as he took in all he could. The information was presented without rhyme or reason, no order to any of it. It instead seemed to show every single thing the system had about apostle titles, leaving him to understand why the other had trouble with the skill as he was shown how it related to skills and jobs he’d never held and likely never would.

He let Verbum know that he could scroll through it significantly faster but it made little difference, there was simply too much. After ten whole minutes of it, he hadn’t seen a single thing that was actually relevant to him, even when that was comparable to reading multiple books on that one small topic and he knew that something needed to change.

“Um, any way to narrow this down a bit?”

“It’s not the easiest thing, but yeah. How do you want it shrunk?”

“General information about the title, job, or skill, along with how it relates to anything else in my status. I don’t need anything that’s not related to anything I already have. At least not right now.”

There were some things he might want to expand further on later, but for the time being that would be enough and he felt Verbum do as he’d asked as the information above shrank to a far more manageable level, at least for him. There was still a lot that was irrelevant to his interests but plenty hit on the things he actually wanted to know as he got reading, going from title to title, job to job, and skill to skill.

A lot of it was exactly as he’d expected with things like apostle of Myriad giving him bonuses to his connect and the forgotten one giving a growth bonus to the stealth, even if it didn’t get much use, along with plenty of his jobs and titles granting bonuses to his sacrilege, but there was a few interesting ones as well.

Enemy of Eneth gave some minor bonuses to both combat and magic, something he’d never have expected but was happy to take, especially considering that unending crafting had taken in both knife and hammer wielder when they awakened and the mad apostle gave connect bonuses as well.

Many of his jobs would provide a small bit of growth to skills other than the category the notifications would give as well, with the effects not being worth mentioning when they’d be taken yet building up more and more with all of the ones he’d gained which was plenty nice to know in its own way, adding even more motivation to get through them as quick as he could for all of the benefits it would entail, but even that wasn’t the standout of what he was seeing. Two of his titles managed to blow everything else out of the water.

Miracle maker being the first. When he’d gained it, his god had told him that the few people who had gained it in the past had gone on to do incredible things, but that didn’t reveal much about the title’s effects. Knowing what he did now, it became a lot more obvious.

The title was basically a minor blessing, giving him a small amount of growth in all areas. It wasn’t even as good as the adventurer’s job which did the same thing, but considering that it was something he’d gained freely, it was an absolute boon, though even that paled in comparison to the second one.

Awakener. His newest title, the one he’d gained for helping to forcefully awaken so many mages to the second tier had instantly become one of the best things on his status. It reduced the difficulty he would have awakening someone to a second tier of a skill, but that meant nothing to him compared to its other effect. It reduced the difficulty of him getting any of his own skills to awaken.

It made it very clear it was only to the second tier for him as well, crushing his dreams of finally getting king of sacrilege over the edge, but that didn’t matter. That was another tool in his arsenal that he was damn sure he was going to be putting to use again in the future.

At least as soon as I can. I have two skills at the eighth level right now so nothing I can immediately start testing but I have other skills I want to push over the edge one day if I can. Defense enhancement, you might be level six now but just wait, one day I’ll have you awakened and then I won’t need to worry about just how mortal I feel on this planet anymore.

He let himself indulge his small fantasy of being injured less as he read through more and more, all the while continuing to their first destination.