Chapter 359

Chapter 359

“It’s not too late Ben, Tell them you’ll actually be in the library waiting for them all to finish up and pass the time reading some books instead,” Myriad futilely begged him, with Nare choosing a different avenue.

“Or face craftsman’s tower instead since it would pay off a lot better for you in the long run. Come on, it’s been ages since we’ve had a challenger and it’s comparatively safe.”

“No and no. Guys, I’m not going to stand by while my friends put their lives on the line and I’m not taking a completely different trial. Seriously, why are you pushing that?”

“Mostly curiosity,” Nare said with a shrug. “As more and more of Myriad’s believers are reaching the point that they can use that connect skill for enchanting, the more the various crafting gods are growing interested in it. As a person who not only has the highest level of the skill on the planet, but also has two awakened crafting skills, there are plenty of us who want to see how far you can go with it,” He explained, his form glowing slightly brighter as he brought up what he thought would sweeten the deal. “That’s not mentioning the fact that it’s at least partially acting as crafting skill, meaning that if you get to the top we could push it over the edge for you.”

Nare had been right in saying it, that tempted him. It tempted him so much that he almost gave in, resisting only for the fact that he didn’t believe that as things stood he’d make it to the top, meaning he’d be wasting his time and potentially throwing himself into danger for at most the blessing.

Maybe if I had some actual colleagues I could do it with that would be one thing, but as it is, do I even know anyone with any high-level crafting skills who I’m close enough to do a trial with?

As he asked himself though, the obvious name came to mind and his eyes lit up at the thought.

“If I could talk Falk into joining he could one hundred percent carry me to the top. There’s no way he couldn’t.”The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

“Except he can’t take the trial again,” Nare said, letting a bit of info slip that Ben made sure to file away.

Of course a person with a ninth-leveled awakened skill would have already done the trial. Ugh, I mean, I guess I don’t know for sure his smithing skill is the ninth level one, but still, if he can make legendary items why wouldn’t he have done it already?

“Well in that case I’ll continue to pass,” Ben sighed. “Maybe if I get a couple more levels to my crafting and enchanting I will, but it would be nothing but a waste if I try and can’t get the best reward. If I’m going to be doing this, I’m not doing it till I’m certain.”

“You know there’s no guarantee you’ll raise your skills more,” Nare pointed out in a final attempt to talk him into it. “Plenty of people never get a level after awakening, you shouldn’t just blindly count on it. Trying to grab this chance to awaken your connect skill could even be your best chance to keep raising your other skills as well.”

Hearing all of that though, Ben could only look at him blankly. “Seriously, you’re going to tell me I’m not going to gain any more levels when I’m only at two and already making ultra-rare stuff on the regular?”

At that, Nare had to give up. Part of his interest lay specifically in how far above what was expected of his level the boy was hitting, to the point the crafting gods who were taking notice were confident that he’d at least get to the fourth level of his awakened skills before coming to a stop, but with the very real chance that Ben could die on the first or second wave, he and some of the others simply wanted him to awaken his connect to see what it could do before that could happen.

“Fine, fine, I give. Just don’t go regretting not doing it when the world’s burning around you,” The god grumbled, with Myriad feeling at least a little relieved with how the conversation had turned out. He knew Ben well enough that he didn’t think his apostle would abandon Thera to take a different trial, but there was always the risk that he would give in and do it right after for whatever small chance it would give him of awakening his connect skill.

“So are you feeling ready?” Myriad asked, knowing the answer wouldn’t change anything.

“As I can be. Pretty sure the ol’ headache isn’t going to be too much of a distraction and I made most things I could think would be helpful, And hey, I’ll be resting up here for hours so I should be in top shape.”

“They are indeed. If any one of us gets separated then you can follow the pointer to their direction. It’s just going to send you into a straight line towards the person if you follow it, but hopefully we won’t even need them to begin with.”

They were extensions of him learning to enchant with his bind skill, and clever applications of it too. He vividly remembered the constant worry that he and Greed might get separated in any of the stages of the last trial he went through, and considering he couldn’t just shove anyone he was currently with into a pocket or the same armour as him, that meant he wanted a way to find each other if need be.

The three of them did a quick test, making sure they understood how to use them as their teachers watched from the back, feeling impressed as they did.

“Don’t suppose that we could get something like that for finding these three?” Vasta asked, thinking of how useful it would be for keeping those in their charge safe.

“Assuming we don’t die horrible deaths and manage to get out of there, you two can just have the ones me and Thera are using at the moment,” He told them. After they finished the trial it wasn’t like either of them would be needing them, so he had no issues parting like that to earn some goodwill.

“So are we all ready then?” Amy asked them as she looked at her four companions, with three of them cautiously agreeing while Jake objected.

“Hold it! We can’t go in like this, someone needs to say something! We need to set the mood a bit!”

She couldn’t help but rub her temples hearing it, with Jake making the same assertion before they’d done the life trial together, but she gave in since she knew it would be quicker than arguing the point.

“Fine. What do you want to say?”

“Ah, me? I got nothing.” Jake said, not noticing the death look he was getting from his girlfriend as his wife just smiled at his free spirit. “Ben, Thera, one of you say something. Come on and inspire us!”

“Um, pass,” Thera told him, stepping away and leaving only Ben in the other man's view as Amy mouthed him an apology.

“...Do I seriously have to do this?”

He looked at the four with him, and with Jake and Yuzu’s positive spirits about it while Thera was trying to keep from laughing, he could see it was doing wonders to break the tension at least, so without getting an answer he gave it.

“Fine, fine. Speaking purely from my own experience, there’s only one thing you need to remember when doing a trial. The gods are your enemies. Their goal is to squeeze as much faith from you as humanly possible and since they don’t seem to much care if you die as it happens, your goal should be to ensure that they get basically nothing while taking all you can. Do whatever it takes to survive no matter how many levels of sacrilege you gain or what you break doing it and let’s get this over with.”

His god asked as other voices filled his head as well.

Helori told him, paying no mind to the fact that she’d once challenged him and his god to a fight to be petty.

Nare asked as the god’s laughter rang out in his head, all of which Ben ignored as he focused in on his friends who all had their own varied reactions to everything he’d said, with Jake being the most positive, letting out a cheer.

“Hell yeah guys, onward!” He called out, and before anyone could stop him moved to open the door, letting himself inside.