“Huh, that’s surprising,” Ben muttered as the notification went off in his head, drawing the eyes of his two students while he watched them work.

“What, did we do something wrong?” Nati asked as she looked at what she’d been enchanting, trying to spy any issue.

“No, I just finished my job, I wasn’t expecting to have it done for another couple weeks.”

“Do you have a teaching-themed one?”

“No, master adventurer. Thera must have gained a lot of experience today, good for both of us.”

“Wait, you’re making your girlfriend get experience for you while you’re here?” Xilly asked him, judgment clear on her face.

“I’m not making her do anything, this was just convenient for the both of us. When she had the job, I was the one who got the experience for the two of us so now she was taking a turn at it. We’re a team, we raise one another up when we can.”

He could see neither believed him, both having the impression he was stealing growth off of his girlfriend’s work and it was enough for him to decide to end things for the day.

“Alright, it looks like I need to go change my job so why don’t we finish things here for now? I’ll be back tomorrow at the same time and we can start looking at one of the other topics a bit now that you’re getting the foundations of ritual magic.”

“I’ve had arrangements made for practicing connect tomorrow so let’s worry about it the next day instead.”

“Alright, in that case, do you want me to join you to give whatever advice I can?”

Both women looked at each other, with Nati giving in at the end. Even if she didn’t like it, this was a request from her grandfather, she couldn’t just brush him off entirely.

“If you’d meet us at my grandfather's church in the afternoon then I’ll take what advice you can give.”

“Sounds like a plan. In that case, you guys have a good night.”

He slipped off with that, happy to have the excuse to leave as he did, not going to find a job crystal like he’d implied, instead reaching down to pull out the one on his necklace while making his way back to where he was staying, letting the options fill his mind to decide what to take next.

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 High tank Otherworldly craftsman Destructive craftsman Soul defiling gardener Summoned enchanter Ritual enchanter Divine enchanter High marksman High destruction mage World killer Material creator Beginner puppeteer Freak mind user Unholy thinker Connect master Polymath Holy adversary Title master Master of all

Three new ones huh, neat.

Not just three new ones, three strange new ones, with only one he was already aware of, leaving the other two to be guessed at.

Master of all is gained from finishing five master jobs and gives bonuses to everything so that’s great to get. I didn’t actually think master adventurer counted but it’s cool to see it there. Then obviously title master has to be related to either all of the titles I’ve gained or because of the title holder title specifically, not that there’s really a difference between the two, which just leaves the last one.

Holy adversary. Despite the name, Ben didn’t think he was the holy one it was referring to, with him far more likely taking the role of adversary. He had enough titles that could contribute to it with the two most likely culprits being both of his enemy titles, essentially already placing him as an adversary to two gods, but he wasn’t going to doubt that king of sacrilege might have played a role in it as well.

Which means I’d definitely be getting sacrilege bonuses for it, there’s no way I wouldn’t, but… Not this time. Probably not the next either.

He had thought he’d known what he was going for before he’d seen the new options, having planned on taking otherworldly craftsman since he wanted more bonuses to his crafting specifically, but one of the new options made him second guess his choice.

Master of all was a good job. An exceptionally good job, on a similar level to master adventurer. It gave bonuses to everything, with only one real drawback. It would be slow. Slower than anything else he was likely to take and he couldn’t think of a good strategy to speed through it. Given that it would give bonuses to everything and gain experience from just as much, it sounded like the couple of people who’d managed to gain it in the past had found the leveling difficulty had spiked, and without an adventurer to merge his pool with, he wouldn’t be able to cheese it.

But it could still be worth it to get bonuses for everything… No. Next time.

Getting master bonuses to every attribute and skill would be incredible, but otherworldly craftsman would give bonuses beyond the master rank to his core skills and given all he had already learned it wouldn’t be too long for him to complete it. Better to take the easier one first that focused on what he really wanted and to move on to that one next.

I’ll take otherworldly 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, Destined holder of Connect, God of Destruction, Creator of Life, Awakener, Maniac, Brutal Blacksmith, Defier of Gods, Title Holder, Enemy of Olensia

Jobs: Otherworldly craftsman (lv 9)

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, Infernal craftsman, Marksman, Destruction mage, Material mage, High material mage, Profane enchanter, Master material mage, Impious creator, Mind master, Master adventurer

Attributes:

Vitality: 1165 Vitality recovery rate: 31/hr Mana: 1351 Mana recovery rate: 98/min Strength: 945 Agility: 288 Stamina: 2352 Intelligence: 5158

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 lv5* Divine enchanting lv5* Unnatural mind lv4*

Passive skills:

King of sacrilege lv9* Bind Integrated demonic body lv6 Defense enhancement lv9 Absorption resistance lv8 Knowledge lv7* All affinity resistance enhancement lv6 Lesser inspiration lv9 Fine motor control lv8 Bite enhancement lv1 Piercing resistance lv4 Artisan’s touch

Active skills:

Stealth lv1 Deep connection lv3* Cycling lv1 Marksmanship lv6 Material manipulation lv5* Swimming lv1 Dance lv0 Unnatural thought speed lv2* Mental symbiosis lv9 Puppetry lv7

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 Life Pantheon’s Blessing Dark Pantheon’s Blessing Olensia’s Blessing

Trials:

Trial of Anailia and Tolona Trial of the Dead God Earth Tower Life Tower Dark Tower

“Huh, that’s a little odd,” He muttered as the various notifications rang out in his head.

None of it was bad. By all reasonable standards, everything he just got was actually quite good, making him feel confident in the choice he’d made. Gaining enough levels right off the bat to put a healthy dent into the job was fantastic, along with getting the ones he had been wanting. The point of taking it had been to level up his crafting and now that was already done.

No, what was odd was how the notifications had gone off, placing the new skill he’d gained in the middle of everything else instead of the beginning or the end. A skill he hadn’t heard of. There was nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it did pick at his curiosity and he called up to his god, looking for any answer as he kept on his way.

“Myriad Myriad Myriad, your humble apostle has a question so free up some time and answer me.”

“I’m a little humble sometimes. Anyway, I took a new job and got a new skill. Artisan’s touch, no level attached to it. Any chance you’re familiar with it?”

“Odd how? Come on buddy, if you know then no holding out on me.”

“Okay, ignoring that last bit then, what does it do? If it’s a trial reward it has to be pretty damn good.”

His rising excitement was met by Myriad’s silence, dampening his enthusiasm with each passing second.

“God damn it, alright, fine. Tell me the problem with me getting it already.”

“Weird but I’m listening.”

“I am.”

It was a rare class of skill, uncommon enough that he only had two examples of it in his ring library but a boon for whoever gained them. They essentially acted the same way affinities would for magics, only for skills instead, making a person more compatible with the class of skills that matched the type of inclination. It was honestly something he would have loved to get, but he didn’t think there was any real chance of him finding someone with crafting inclination and then getting Zandale to gain the skill for him to learn later.

When his god put it like that, he really couldn’t help but agree with the assessment, even if he decided not to let it get to him. Unleveled skills were an order of magnitude harder to awaken, essentially already being in their perfect form so there wasn’t much chance of growing it farther but given how good it already was and that it had likely just pushed both unending crafting and material manipulation to the next level, he wasn’t going to complain and look that gift horse in the mouth.

After all, Given that we’re getting closer to the next wave I probably wouldn’t even live to see myself awaken a crafting inclination, might as well take this as it is now and be happy with it.