Report
"I got something called solar flames and spear user."
"I got earth master, air manipulator, and shield techniques."
"I got lightning magic."
"You only got one skill? That sucks."
"Nah it looks like it's a type of magic you can typically only get if you manage to evolve air, water, and light magic at the same time, so I'll be able to use all those on top of lightning spells."
"Oh hell, that's pretty cool."
When Ben arrived at dinner everyone else had already gathered. It looked like he was delayed from spending so long verifying that this was another world, and they were already discussing the skills and abilities they had received. It seemed like a few were still pretty down to learn that they had died and there was no going back home, but many were at least ignoring that fact for now with the excitement of the situation.
He took a seat between Steph and his pal Will and chatted with them as a priest brought him a plate to eat.
"How is it?" He asked them, looking at the unusual purple mush beside some far too yellow-looking meat.
"Not poison." Will was quick to say.
"It's not bad. The taste is a little weird but who knows what it came from so I guess we'll just have to get used to these sorts of meals from now on." Steph said a little sadly.
Now that there was food in front of him he was feeling pretty hungry and wanted to dig in, but the looks of it still made him cautious, so he started with a small bite. Steph was right, a little weird but overall not bad. The meat was slightly spicy and the texture was unusual, but he could stomach it. The purple mush with it sort of made him think of berries mixed with mashed potatoes, but not in a bad way. It had a mellow sweetness to it.
As he was working his way through his plate Will popped the question that he was dreading. The question everyone else seemed to be talking about.
"So what skills did you get? I ended up getting unarmed master, tough skin, and advanced enhanced strength, probably because I do some boxing."
"And I got spacial master, time controller, and high life magic." Steph chipped in.
"...I got crafting, enchanting, and focus."
"That suits you to a T."
"Those skills are super on the ball with you."
"Thanks guys, but the priest who was talking to me didn't seem very positive about them at all, not to mention my other stats apparently suck."
"Well how bad could it be?" Will asked, so Ben pulled out his card to show them both.
"Oof, okay that's pretty bad."
"Will don't be so negative, let me see...oh… well your resistances are incredible at least!"
"Yeah, and that stamina is great too, mine's only four hundred."
"Thanks for the encouragement guys, but I've already been told I'm far from great. Unneeded skills, pretty average attributes, and from what Lehie said, the worst affinities she has ever seen, I'll just have to see how tomorrow goes." He then asked to see their cards, thinking that he might as well see how far he falls in comparison after all. They both looked a bit sheepish at the request but they gave him their cards to take a look at.
With the exception of his stamina, they dwarfed him in all of his other attributes with values over 1000, not to mention that they also had high magic affinities.Even Will, without any blessed magic skills, could probably learn magic in a pinch if he felt like it. They also already had some passive and active skills, probably because they had higher forms of their blessed skills automatically. They were definitely the sort of people this world was hoping for when they were brought here. He gave a long sigh and was about to give them back when one thing caught his eye.
"All of your skills are at level 0?"
"Yeah it looks like you at least got lucky with having one level automatically in a couple of yours, from what I was told the skills go from 0 to 9, and if you meet the conditions will evolve at level 10 into a new level 0 skill." Steph explained to him.
"Well even if I'm not needed at least I can probably enjoy crafting to an extent."
"Don't be so down. I was told they were looking for strong fighters, but even if your skills aren't for combat that doesn't mean you won't be of any use, don't let it get to you."
"Yeah don't worry, my skills aren't really combat oriented either but I was told they should be useful for healing and helping supply troops, I'm sure they could use someone who could do things like make tools or weapons."
With the motivation of his friends his mood started to improve a bit. Sure his stats weren't exactly incredible, but there must be some way to use them. He would just have to wait and see how tomorrow would go.
After dinner Lehie led him to a small library at the back of the church. It really gave him a sense of scale for the place as they made his way there. It was large. Ridiculously so. With every wall lined with statues and paintings of different figures, some humanoid, some he would be more inclined to consider monsters.
"What are all these?"
"Representations of the various gods."
"What? We must have passed a few hundred."
"Yes, and there are a few thousand total."
"Why would one world possibly need so many gods?" He asked curiously, a development Lehie seemed pleased with.
"Good question, It all goes back to the founding of the world." Lehie said, starting her story.
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It seemed that this world didn't start out with thousands of gods, and hundreds of races to go with them, but it happened as a result of circumstance. The threat they had been brought to fight was an ancient one, destroying and conquering hundreds of worlds over the millennia. The gods of those worlds gathered whatever survivors they could and brought them to this far away land, to rebuild with other races whose worlds have been ravaged. In that time the gods joined forces to help strengthen all the residents of this world, and worked together to create the status system. A means for them to grow stronger and for their work to yield greater efforts, all so that when invaders came for their current home they would be ready.
"Wait, and that's what we're here for? To fight against a force that had destroyed countless worlds, you guys summoned twenty something heroes?"
"Well other locations summoned other heroes from other worlds, but from what I understand reaching beyond the edge of one universe into another is a difficult task, there shouldn't be more than 200 summoned heroes from various worlds who had been brought to different communal churches throughout the land."
"Still 200 isn't a lot, how long until these invaders come?"
"The various prophet gods are in some disagreement on the matter, but the general consensus is between three and twenty years."
"...Well I guess I'll hope for twenty then."
"Hope for twenty but plan for three." She told him with a gentle smile. "Anyway here we are. You should have no trouble understanding the written systems of this world thanks to your skill, but if you have any issues I'll be in the corner reading myself to pass the time. Now let's find you something about your skills."
She took a moment to look amongst the shelves that lined the wall, looking at books and scrolls before pulling out a three to give to him.
"Here we go, books on skills. The first volume is common skills, with information on how to acquire them and level them up, as well as information on what you can do with them. The second is a book on the higher variants of skills, the first book should include some of the names of what different skills can evolve into, so use that to find what you're looking for in the second book. The final one is on rare skills, ones that are either hard to get or the method to acquire it is not certain. Just remember that these books don't cover everything, I would be surprised if they have even a tenth of all known skills, but they're a start."
Ben thanked her and then dug into his pile, reading everything that seemed relevant at first before just trying to find whatever seemed interesting or useful. He was thankfully able to learn more about enchanting, finding out that he could attach not just his skills, but also his aptitudes and resistances to items as well. Although how powerful he could make something was dependent on his skill level. Crafting for its part listed all of the known disciplines that fell into it, as well as how learning the best way to level it up was apparently to use it in such a way that it would train multiple of its sub-abilities at once. That made sense to him, if you challenge yourself you make greater progress.
Focus was the odd one out, he didn't see it when he was flipping through the first book looking for it and didn't find it until he made his way through the book of rare skills. Apparently it wasn't clear on what one would have to do to develop the skill itself, as plenty of professionals would spend hours of each day focusing on their work, only to never get it. On the plus side, once it was acquired it isn't too hard to level, the method seems to be just doing work that requires focus is all.
With that done he made a mental note to see if the library had any books more specialized in enchanting when he had time and continued to flip through the books around him, trying to make a list of any skills he may want to try and acquire later. The biggest issue was how cool so many of them sounded until he read the conditions to acquire them. Magic was out automatically, while it was technically possible for him to get certain rare magic skills if he improved his attributes, all of them advised not even trying for affinities ones unless he had an aptitude of at least twenty in the skill he wanted to learn, otherwise it would be all but impossible to acquire.
Even ignoring those though he still didn't have the best options just based on how his attributes worked out. His high intelligence and mana regeneration made him a candidate for an okay mage, but again there was the issue of his affinities as well as low mana. His strength and agility made it clear that even if he could use combat skills he wouldn't be very good at them, and other skills he just didn't meet the requirements of completing certain tasks for.
In the end he was only able to find two that he wanted to try and acquire. Dismantling was something that could be gained by stripping monsters for parts, it required some practice and training, but it shouldn't be too hard, plus it looked like different monster materials could be used as crafting items, it would certainly help him with any future work he may get. As for the other one, well it may be useful as an enchantment to put on items, but he would leave it for later.
He was about to flip through the book again to try and find more when he felt two hands firmly placed on his shoulders.
"Ben, I'm sure this is all very interesting to you and helpful for deciding how you want to study and grow, but you've been reading without moving for five hours now. There's one more thing we need to do then get some rest before the representatives arrive tomorrow." The strength in her grip left no room for arguments and Ben briefly wondered if she had been there with him the entire time before she dragged him off, through the halls and corridor before they came to a brightly illuminated room bathed in moonlight from a skylight above, as well as the glow of a crystal within.
"This is the job change rooms you'll find in any church or town. Ours is a little more grand than a usual one, but the function is the same. Go place your hands on the crystal and select one of the available Jobs that show up in your mind."
Not feeling the need to test the safety of everything anymore he did as he was told and placed his hands on the crystal, feeling a strange warmth filling him up. He closed his eyes, excited to see whatever options would present themselves to him.
AVAILABLE JOBS
Apprentice craftsman
...Yeah that tracks.
With no other Jobs available to him he selected apprentice craftsman in his mind.
"What the hell was that!" he yelled out, surprised to suddenly have a thundering voice yelling in his mind.
Lehie tried to hide a small giggle as she explained. "That was the system itself explaining the benefits of your new job. Getting a job improves attributes and skills related to it, making it an invaluable resource to improving yourself. So what did you pick?"
"Apprentice craftsman." Seeing a small grimace appear on her face he quickly explained. "I only had the one option, does that mean I'm stuck with this forever or what?"
"No no no, you can change your new job at any time, the only thing is if you don't get it up to level 99 you won't be able to take any advanced version of the job in the future, nor will you be able to keep the skill and attribute bonus after you complete it."
"How long should it take me to complete then?"
"If you work hard on using skills related to the job it shouldn't take that long, especially since it uses your blessed skills It should only take about a year."
"That feels like a long time to me?"
"Oh? Is your race particularly short lived?"
"I mean if I'm very lucky I may manage a century."
"Then you're fine. With that sort of lifespan you could reasonably expect to get five or six jobs in your time, they will take longer the more advanced they are."
Well when she put it that way a year wasn't too bad at all, he would have to just start using his skills and get crafting. Hopefully whoever ended up grabbing him would put him to work under a decent teacher.
With that done for the day Lehie led him back to his room so he could get some rest before meeting the representatives of various nations.
Looks like nobody's coming." Ben said, giving Lehie a self-deprecating smile, while she for her part only looked more and more uncomfortable as the hours passed.
When she came to wake him up this morning she gave him a rundown for the day. First she took down the information from his card for each of the representatives to inspect, after which they would take an hour or so to decide who exactly to approach and what offers they would make. Everyone was to stay in their rooms with their caretakers as they heard out each offer, and afterwards they could go out and discuss where they thought they were going to go with everyone else, in the hopes that they would each choose what would be right for them instead of getting swept away by what any of the more charismatic students picked.
"I'm going to be honest here, your offers probably won't be as good as your classmates unfortunately, just try and keep your expectations in moderation."
When she told him that he hadn't been bothered by her words, it was already clear his skills weren't as incredible as what he had heard from the rest during dinner, but he originally hadn't cared too much. As long as he could find stable work to keep himself alive that should be enough. But here he was a few hours into the interviews, having finished a book on magic with a section on enchanting Lehie had managed to find for him earlier to help pass the first part of the day, and his prospects were looking grim.
"Don't be so negative." She told him, trying to force some cheer into her voice. "There's just a lot of students they probably want to look at first. Someone will come."
He tried to give her a more genuine smile than before and went to re-read a few passages of his book that caught his eye. As he was trying to understand a few of the trickier concepts in it he heard a knock on the door.
"I told you someone would come!" She said, getting up and hurrying to the door.
For his part he was ready to accept whoever it was and whatever they were offering, but his hopes were quickly dashed.
Lehie pulled open the door to greet the representative that should have been behind it, but her face froze at the priest who was there instead.
"All of the representatives are done with their discussions, it's fine to come out and talk to the others about where you are considering now."
"That can't be right." She protested. "Nobody has talked to Ben yet!"
Clearly not expecting this the priest was flustered, looking back and forth between Ben and Lehie, stammering out he was sorry but everyone had already made their offers.
"It's alright, don't worry about it." Ben told them. "It's sad, but it's not exactly shocking is it?"
"It is NOT alright!" Lehie yelled back at him, looking like she may cry from the situation. "Just wait here, I'm going to talk to the head priest."
She rushed out of the room with the other priest in tow and he did as he was told, trying to get back into his book to pass the time while he waited but just couldn't get into it. Instead he ended up laying down in his bed, staring at the ceiling.
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It's not like this is shocking, I knew from the moment Lehie first saw my status that things weren't looking good… but not even one person? Not a single one of the dozens of representatives out there thought they would have a use for me?
It was too much. Tossed into this world and apparently unwanted, it was better than being dead on Earth, but it still hurt.
He thought back to Earth and home for a bit. How were his parents doing? His brother? His friends who either didn't go on the trip or were in another class seeing other sights? It had only been a day, at most they would be considered missing now, there was a good chance nobody even knew he died.
He felt himself sinking into a depressive spiral when luckily Lehie came back with someone he hadn't met yet, who looked like what he could describe as a one-eyed lizardman.
"Hello Ben, we haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet, my name is father Yan." He said, introducing himself with an elegant bow. "Lehie has appraised me of your… situation. It's unfortunate, but we can't compel a nation to take you, nor should we. Wouldn't want you to suffer any unreasonable treatment as a result. We can however let you stay at the church for as long as you like, until you are ready to venture into the world yourself. Of course we will also provide you with the funds promised if you had chosen to leave instead of helping. It may not feel like much after what these few days have brought you but it should be of some help. Of course if you want to talk to your classmate's dinner will be served soon, you can always discuss your options with them."
"Thank you, I'll try to give it some proper thought." It was nice to hear he wasn't being tossed into the wilds immediately, but he was still feeling disparaged. The thought of seeing his classmates made him feel even more uncomfortable right now, talking to everyone who apparently had worth that he couldn't offer, but he needed to at least tell his friends what was going on, and for that matter find out what they would be doing themselves.
Working up his willpower he got out of bed and left to get some food.
"What do you mean you didn't get an offer!" Steph yelled as soon as he explained what happened to her and Will. He was glad she cared enough to be outraged and all, but now all of his classmates were looking at him with faces of shock, confusion, and pity as they started to mutter amongst themselves.
"Wait, he didn't get an offer?"
"I thought I heard him say his skills weren't great yesterday, but just how bad are they?"
"Isn't that too sad."
"Feel like he maybe didn't want to have everyone aware of that Steph." Will reprimanded her. "So what will you do?"
"He'll come with me! I got plenty of the representatives offering to accommodate me however they could, getting you to come shouldn't be that hard." She told them, trying to ignore the looks she caused to sprout up everywhere.
"Thanks but I'm going to pass on that, I think being baggage will actually be worse than sticking out here on my own. Besides the church offered to let me stay here until I figure out what I want to do, and they'll even provide me with some money when I do, it won't be so bad."
"But you'll be alone!"
"Well then you guys will just have to visit me when you get some breaks."
Steph still didn't seem happy about any of that, and Will was at a loss as to what to do as well. Eventually they just had to accept his choice, even if they didn't like it at all.
Things had quieted down around the table as they were talking, people couldn't help but be curious about his situation, but eventually it all picked up again as he focused on his meal.
They all talked about their offers and what each representative would provide or where they would be going, some of them having abilities so impressive or important that nations actually decided to share them, just to ensure they would get the best training they could.
He only got snippets of conversation as he tried to focus on his food, but it was enough to make him want to crawl into bed again and just hide from the world for a while.
The next day he woke up to see everyone off. It felt far too quick to him, they only got their offers yesterday. But it was literally the world at stake, every second wasted deciding was time spent that could be used for training and improving their skills. Not to mention that there was nothing really holding them back. They came to this place without any possessions, all they had right now was each other.
His friends told him where they would be training and made him promise that if things got too bad he would come to them, and a few others he was acquainted with put out the offer as well, just in case he needed it.
Everyone shared a teary heartfelt goodbye, promising to visit when they could, and went off their separate ways. Ben for his part went back to bed.
He laid there for two days, ignoring Lehie as she came to check on him and just getting up to eat the meals she left him.
On the third day when he woke up there was only one thought on his mind. God this is boring. Even if he was still depressed he couldn't wallow in it any longer, he needed something to occupy his mind. Looking out the window he could see the sun had just barely risen, so he decided to find Lehie to plan out what to do for now.
When he left he immediately realised he was faced with a problem already, she always came to him, he never found her. This changed his first task to finding someone else that could help and after searching around fruitlessly for a few minutes he came across a passing priest, who was thankfully able to give him directions to her room.
After a little walk he was able to give a knock on her door. "Coming!" She yelled, throwing it open a few seconds later.
"Ben! You're finally up! Are you in better spirits now?" She asked, grabbing his arm and giving it a friendly squeeze.
"At least better enough to figure out what to do now." He told her, doing his best to focus on her face instead of the fact that she was wearing some rather cute frilly pajamas instead of her usual robes.
"Well me and Father Yan have been working on that while you pulled yourself together. He should already be in his office, let's go discuss it together and see what he thinks." She was already dragging him off before he could reply.
"Sure but maybe you should change first."
Stopping in her tracks she took a quick look down at herself, gave a small squeak, and ran back to her room.
My caretaker's a bit of an airhead, huh.
A few minutes after that minor detour they were in Father Yan's office, discussing where to go from here
"Unfortunately we don't have many ways we could truly help you develop your blessed skills, so the best course of action would be to find a suitable teacher when you feel ready to venture into the world. Of course there is also the option of staying here permanently, joining as a monk or priest of the church and offering your faith to help strengthen the gods."
"Thanks for the offer Yan, but I don't really feel like I have much faith to give. What do you think I should do while I'm here?"
"If that's the case then the plan we had discussed would involve using this time to learn. Lehie is already working on preparing you lessons about the world, but other than that I was told you had already reviewed some books on skills, if there were any you wanted to try acquiring we would be more than happy to accommodate you in any way you can."
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"In that case there's actually two I saw that sounded worth getting if you guys can help, I was looking at dismantling and stealth."
Yan stroked his chin in thought. "I understand the use of dismantling for your blessed skills, but why stealth?"
"On paper, because it would be something I could hopefully use for enchanting since magic isn't an option. In practice it just sounds really cool."
It briefly looked like Yan was unhinging his jaw as a clicking sound came from his throat. Ben was unsure what was happening for a minute before understanding that he was laughing. "Yes wonderful! There really is no better reason to learn something than an interest in the subject. We have both hunters and butchers among our priests so it should be easy enough to find you a teacher for both skills, I'll get on it right away. In the meantime Lehie can begin her lessons for you in the library."
Feeling the conversation was done Ben got up to go, but Yan stopped him.
"One last thing, how are you at waking up in the mornings?"
"Not terrible I guess. Why?"
"I was thinking of having you help out with preparing meals throughout the day if you would be interested."
"Yeah I guess I should do something to earn my keep, I can help." But Yan shook his head at Ben's response.
"This isn't about earning your keep Ben. I looked into your crafting skill a bit the other day myself, cooking should fall under it as a skill that produces an item or product, so it should be able to provide a bit of experience to leveling it up. It would also just be good practice to learn how to use ingredients you aren't familiar with here."
They really had put thought into how to make his time with them as useful as possible, Ben couldn't help but be a little touched they were doing so much. He thanked them both as sincerely as he could before going off with Lehie to begin his lessons.
The month that followed dragged on at first. Ben tried his best to throw himself into his lessons, using focus to its full potential so as to try and keep him from any negative feelings, and in doing so lead him to his biggest breakthrough in accepting his new environment.
In the middle of one particularly boring lesson with Lehie, where he was learning about the different kingdoms and city-states in the world and how they would interact, he had been doing everything in his power to keep paying attention, despite just how dry and dull it all was. It was when he was sure he was going to fall asleep from the boringness of it all that he heard it.
Suddenly the world was clear again, his energy restored. He felt at that moment that he could sit down and listen to an explanation on the trade relationship between the Scylla and Wolren for hours.
Lehie could tell something had changed just by looking at him and asked what happened.
"My focus skill just leveled up! It's incredible everything seems so bright and I feel like I could study all day!"
As he spoke he saw her smile take on a scary edge. "Oh that's wonderful. Say you know skills improve by repeatedly using them and pushing them to their max potential, don't you? You aren't telling me that my lessons are so boring that you leveled up, are you? Not with all the time I put into putting these together for you."
Oh crap, I'm in danger.
"No of course not!" He told her, trying to think on his feet. "I was devoting my full attention to what you were teaching, trying to do my best to learn, that must have caused it."
"Really! That's wonderful!" She beamed.
Safe. He thought, mentally pumping his fist.
"In that case I'll prepare a test for you tomorrow, we really should see how well you're taking this all in."
… Crap.
The next few months he continued his new routine with significantly more enthusiasm, cooking meals with the priests, having lessons with Lehie, trying and eventually succeeding in getting the 0th level in the two skills he desired, and time spent in both the library and working on his art for some fun.
Someone from his old world once said time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time, and the statement should apply to his last four months, but he needed to move on. Having a solid basis for his knowledge on the world now he wanted to use the skills the world saw fit to give him and see what they could be good for.
Are you sure you're ready to leave?" Lehie asked for the seventh time, worry etched into her face. "The world isn't the safest you know, there's danger around every corner, it wouldn't hurt to stay a little longer."
"If I stay any longer I may never leave." He said, giving her a smile. "I will always be grateful for everything you've both done for me."
"Just remember you can come back any time Ben, you're always welcome here. Now before you head off give me your card." Father Yan told him, taking it and tapping his own against it. "There we go, as promised the money you were offered. I spoke to the other churches and they agreed you should be allowed a bit extra given your circumstances, so as long as you're careful with it you should be able to survive on that alone for at least six months."
Ben didn't know what to say, they had done so much for him already, as long as he could find work he would have no problems surviving in the world thanks to all the help he had received. As he was struggling to find the words Lehie pulled him into a hug and Yan gave him a powerful handshake.
"Best of luck to you Ben, may our paths cross again."
"Make sure you write to us every now and then so we know how you're doing, and make sure to stay safe. It would be a waste for you to die after all the time I spent on teaching you."
"Will do, thanks for everything."
With goodbyes said and done it was finally time to depart. The sun was setting and the nearest town was about a week's walk away, but Yan had been kind enough to arrange a ride for him with one of the merchants that would come up to deliver supplies every couple weeks. No matter how comfortable he had gotten in the last few months he still hadn't left the church, and there were plenty of dangerous beasts that could be found in the wood between it and the city, walking by himself was out of the question.
He spent some time talking to the merchant, some sort of bird person by the name of Ty, who was happy to talk at length about his passion for the footwear the various races of the world would use, before he decided to curl up in the back and get some sleep.
"Ben, Beennn…"
He thought he heard someone calling out to him, but he did his best to ignore it, he was too comfortable to want to open his eyes.
"Wake uuuupp…" It continued on in a sing song-voice, trying to get his attention still. This carried on for some long agonising minutes while he was just trying to rest, and it started to take on a more desperate sounding edge, before stopping all together.
Finally. He thought to himself, drifting back deeper into sleep.
"WAKE UP KID!" Came a scream from beside his ear.
"GAH WHAT?" He yelled back bolting upright, only to find he had no idea where he was. Last he remembered he had been sleeping in a carriage, waiting to get to the town but now he was in an endless greyish blue void. He was standing on something, but there was no visible ground beneath him, no distinct boundary on the horizon to separate earth and sky.
Not seeing anyone he turned around, trying to find the voice that was calling out to him, only to be caught completely off guard by finding a silver cube, maybe the size of a car, floating ominously above him.
"Well that's not concerning at all." he muttered to himself, before calling out. "Hello! Is there anyone out here?"
"Ah Ben, finally awake are you? I have to say it's pretty surprising to see someone so determined to stay asleep inside of their own dream." The voice called out to him.
He looked around but still didn't see anyone. "Hey do you think you could show yourself, then we can talk?"
"Of course, I'm right here above you."
"You're in the cube?" He asked, looking back up at it.
"I am the cube."
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"Of fucking course you are." He muttered under his breath, still not used to the bizarreness of this world. "In that case who are you? And where am I?"
"Straight to the point huh, well the name's Myriad, and I brought you here…" He stopped for dramatic effect and the sounds of a drum roll filled the space. "...To offer you the position as my believer!" He yelled, the entire backdrop behind him exploding into fireworks.
"I decline."
The fireworks and drums immediately cut off, creating a sudden and uncomfortable silence. "Wait! Don't decide so soon on your own, at least hear me out."
"I mean from what I heard in the church about divine realms and the fact that you're asking for me to be your believer, you must be some sort of god right? Showing up in my dream and asking me to be your believer is just too sketchy." Ben knew this world was filled to the brim with gods, some would say too many, but from what he learned in the church they weren't allowed to try to talk you into being their followers, that was up to their oracles, priests, and apostles.
"Wait, you have that a little bit wrong. We aren't allowed to actively try and steal the believers of other gods, but you have no faith, contacting you is fair game."
So this thing can read my mind, great. He wasn't wrong though, Ben didn't worship any gods in this world. Both Lehie and Yan tried to talk him into finding one who suited him, you didn't need to be one of the races that came to this world with a particular god, and they were known to occasionally bless their believers with skills and knowledge, but Ben just lacked interest. It's not that he didn't see the value in it, and he had plenty of options recommended to him that may be a good fit, but it felt like the gods just tossed him into the world without any thought. He only survived through the kindness of people. That wasn't even to mention how suspicious it was that a god would want him as a worshipper of all people.
"Okay I can't help the mind reading though, it's not really something a god can turn off, but I have all sorts of handy advice for you, I'm super helpful!"
"And coming on really strong, why does such a shady god want little old me so bad then? It can't just be the fact that you're allowed to try and recruit me."
"Damn it kid has anyone ever told you you're merciless? Alright I don't have any worshippers so I'm slowly losing power, even just one worshipper would be able to make a big difference for me compared to where I'm currently at."
That actually captured Ben's interest. "Why don't you have any worshippers? Did your original race turn against you or something?"
"No, they're all just dead."
"...So how do I get out of here? Do I just have to make myself wake up or something?"
"Wait wait wait! Hear me out!"
"I mean, back at the church I was warned that there were gods here that ran off and left all their people to die, didn't think I would get to meet one though. Maybe if I just think awake thoughts…"
"That's not what happened! My connection to my race was just a bit unique among the gods is all, when they would die they'd become a part of me, and they knew it. Rather than just escape with a few and leave the rest, and letting the invaders take our world, they opted for a slightly different strategy."
"Oh, what did they do?" He asked, his interest caught again despite himself.
"They elected to destroy the world and have all of their souls merge with me. My race may be dead, but at the same time you are also talking to the sum total of them."
If what it said was true that was definitely unique as far as gods went. He may not have known a ton about them, but he did get some education on the topic, and he had never heard anything like that before. Leaving aside the mentality of any people and god that could decide to use a scorched earth strategy with their entire planet, he decided it would at least be interesting to hear what it had to say.
"Okay then, and what are you offering in exchange for my worship?"
"Love and affection."
Ben turned around and started to walk away, surely there would be an exit somewhere for him.
"That was a joke! A joke! Right now I can only give you information, but after I've been worshipped for a while I should be able to grant you a skill, just give me a chance!"
The offer of a skill was hard to pass up, no matter how long you would worship a god it wasn't guaranteed you would get one in your life unless you got their attention, either through actions or devotion. Of course since he was already at the center of this particular god's attention that didn't seem to be a problem.
"And what information can I get from you to make this worth my while?"
"You don't have to sound so hard done by. I'm not asking for too much, a prayer or two a day, tell people how great I am so they want to worshi- WAIT STOP TRYING TO LEAVE I'LL GET TO THE POINT! By the time you wake up you'll have arrived at the town of Stonewall at around a few hours after sunrise. You're looking for a master to teach you how to use your crafting and enchantment right? There's maybe eight or nine places you could train under for only focusing on one of your skills, and four if you want to focus on both. Of those four you want to go to Falk's shop and convince him to take you on as an apprentice, It will be worth your while I swear."
"Why him?"
"Because he's the best you're going to find without a few weeks or maybe even months of travels." Ben thought he heard Myriad click his tongue, but did he even have a tongue? Before he continued. "Looks like we're out of time, If you agree with my advice once you see him make sure to throw me a prayer, we can talk again then."
As he said those final words the world faded away, and Ben woke up to sunlight falling onto his face.
After passing through the stone gate of the town and saying his goodbyes to the merchant, the first thing Ben did was not find Falk, but instead look into the other thirteenish places that he might apprentice under. Just because Falk came recommended by a god didn't mean that he wouldn't decide for himself at the end of the day.
First things being first he spent a few hours walking around the town, trying to get acquainted with the area, while also stopping at an inn to book himself a week so he would have somewhere to sleep while deciding on whether or not to stay in this town.
Making a list of any potential places he might look into as he went, he checked out two smiths, an apothecary, three restaurants, and what looked like an art studio, but found them all lacking. It hadn't even seemed worth his time to ask the owners if they would take any students or staff at the moment, it all just looked boring.
Even worse though was he only found those seven locations, he had no clue what the rest were that the god mentioned, nor had he found Falks. He figured that he should at least check that one out, he would just have to ask around for directions.
Since he realised he didn't actually know what Falk's shop did other than that it could be a place to train both of his skills he barely knew what to ask for help with, but acting under the assumption that someone who could use both of those skills would be either an apothecary or a smith, he started asking the various warriors and adventurers around for directs. It wasn't long before he was able to find out the way.
"Take your item and don't you dare come back!" This was the first thing Ben heard as he approached the shop, followed quickly by a man being thrown out of the shop and rolling down the street.
Okay well that's probably good enough, sorry Myriad but I'm not in the mood to be killed twice this year. That display was already enough to give him serious second thoughts about going in. Still nothing else looked promising at the moment so he gathered his resolve; hopefully as long as he was polite he could get out with only minor injuries.
He took a deep breath, gathered his will, and walked inside.
You'd think the first thing he would notice would be the shop's wares, but no, the first thing that caught his eye was the shopkeeper himself. At eight feet tall, covered in white fur and rippling muscles, and having a surprisingly impressive topknot on his head, there was only one word that came to mind for him. Yeti.
During his walk around the city he had gotten to see all sorts of different races than at the church, some falling farther outside of his frame of reference then this man did, but that didn't change how impressive it was to see a creature that would be considered a thing of legend back on Earth. A tiny voice in the back of his mind said that Lehie would also qualify for that distinction, but he just couldn't make himself think of her as something so impressive.
"You need something brat?" The creature, presumably Falk, asked him.
"Just wanted to take a look around, maybe see for myself what's available."
"Suit yourself." He said and went back to work at a forge in the back of his shop.
Ben for his part took some time to look around. It looked like he was a blacksmith, and a busy one at that. There may not have been any other customers in the store at the moment but the walls were covered with items of various styles and designs, lining the walls and filling crates on the floor. Every single item he saw was immediately catching his attention, maybe it was a function of his crafting skill, but he could tell right away that everything he was seeing stood above the other shops by a mile. When he considered that it actually seemed strange that he wasn't constantly sold out, but maybe his rough attitude had been keeping some more faint-hearted customers away.
Aside from just being higher quality though there was something else that he couldn't put his finger on about a few of the items, something that made them stand out compared to the others. He stared so hard it felt like he was trying to see through them, searching for what secrets they kept, but in the end there was only one way to really know.
"Hey you're Falk right?"
"What's it to you brat?"
"I was just recommended this store and I was just curious if I'm talking to the owner or one of his apprentices."
"Alright I am Falk, now what do you want?"
Ben pointed out four items that had caught his eye in particular. "Something about these ones seem different from the rest to me, I was just wondering if it was in my head or if they're unique in some way?"
While Falk seemed indifferent, if not a little rude, at first, he suddenly switched to openly hostile. "You got an appraisal skill or something brat?" stepping forward and baring his teeth at him.
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Looks like my chances of escaping with only minor injuries have just dropped significantly. Still if he had gotten on his bad side from a misunderstanding of his skills then maybe telling the truth would help.
"No appraisal skill on me, it's probably because I have crafting and enchantment I would guess."
He seemed to relax a bit at that, but was still on guard. "In that case what do you want with a back alley store like this?"
This is it, now or never. "I was told if I wanted to become a good craftsman I would need a teacher, and you were recommended to me."
"If you can tell just by looking at them that there's something different about those four then you should be a decently high level, why would you need a teacher at this point?"
"I'm only level one in both crafting and enchanting though?"
"Brat do you think you'll have any luck with such a bad lie? There's no way you can tell that with just level one, not to mention having crafting instead of something like blacksmithing."
"It's true though." Ben told him, showing him his status card.
"...Crafting and enchanting as blessed skills huh? I guess that might do it. But what's with these magics and resistances?" he quietly spoke to himself while looking at his card before looking back up at him. "And why would you show me such a pathetic status when you're asking to become somebody's apprentice Brat? It usually isn't recommended someone become an enchanter without a blessed magic skill to use for items, and from the looks of it I doubt you would be able to use magic to begin with."
"I have been told that it's probably not possible for me to use magic, but consider me showing this a point of my sincerity. I wouldn't hide anything from the person I would have as my teacher!" He knew after looking around that Myriad had been right, this was definitely the store that Ben had to be working at if he wanted the best results he could get. All that was left was convincing his would-be teacher.
"Find somewhere else, I don't take apprentices, and even if I did, you'd never make it as one."
"Don't decide that before you give me a chance, I swear I'll live up to whatever standards you set if you give me a shot."
"Brat you don't even know what you're getting yourself into. Aside from just making things, craftsmen need to be able to gather their own materials when they start if they aren't working for a kingdom or have some sort of patron. Gods know I couldn't supply you with everything you'd need while you start your training. That means hunting for it yourself. Look at you, your stats are average at best with no magic or combat. Give up."
"I won't." He said, staring him in the eye and standing his ground. "All I'm asking for is one opportunity to prove myself. Just one."
Falk matched his stare before sighing and massaging his brow. "Tell you what kid, go get yourself killed hunting an Amarok wolf. If you can do it by yourself without hiring any adventurers then I'll take you on, but if you can't even manage that then give up."
Ben broke into a smile and quickly grabbed Falk's hand, giving it a shake. "Works for me Falk. Just wait, in a few days you're going to have the best student you could hope for." With that he ran off, eager to figure out what he would need to do to get it done.
"Dumb brat doesn't even know what what an Amarok is. Well if he has any brains he'll quit when he finds out."
After running off Ben went to find something to eat before returning to his inn to turn in for the night. Deciding that Myriad had indeed proven to have some worth he gave a quick prayer of gratitude before drifting off to sleep.
"I know I was the one to recommend Falk and said to convince him, but please give up here."
Before he knew it he was in the god's realm again staring at a much smaller Myriad, maybe around the size of a small TV, as he tried to change Ben's mind.
"So can you just appear whenever you want? Seems pretty handy." Ben said, ignoring the god's plea.
"Ben he gave you a task you could never reasonably be expected to accomplish."
"Well yeah, obviously."
"Wait you knew? Then why did you agree?"
"He clearly didn't want to take me in, and if I kept pushing I probably would have gotten something even harder assigned, if he didn't just kick me out of the store. Honestly I was lucky he offered a task at all."
"But it doesn't matter if you die!"
"If I really think I'll die then I won't do it, but that's not what matters. What matters is if Falk is a man of his word."
Myriad let out a long sigh. Did he even have anything like lungs? Before he continued. "He should be. You saw that little altercation at his store before you walked in right? He still gave that man his item before kicking him out. He's rough but he should be a man of character."
"Wait, were you watching me all day?"
"Yeah I got to see you spend hours checking out all the places I already told you weren't worth your time."
Ben gave him an uncaring shrug. "Trust but verify. Well not much trust yet but if you keep up the good work we'll get there. Actually where were the other places you said weren't worth my time, I only found seven?"
"You're not going to waste time checking those out too are you?"
"If things don't work out with Falk I may as well."
Another long sigh. "A few others were enchanters that work independently of other stores so you could bring items from a regular smith to them in order to enchant. Then the adventures guild has someone you could work under for conducting minor repairs on either armor and weapons, although that wouldn't give you too much experience as a craftsman. There's also a private stonemason in town that would probably be more useful than those folks at the adventurers guild. He has a high skill level too, but he's too specialized. You may be able to grow to level four in crafting under him, but after that you would just need to find a new teacher again or do some serious self study."
"Well maybe he would be worth looking into later then. For now what do you know about Amarok wolves?"
"I can tell you they're notorious newbie adventurer killers. If you go to the guild you could probably find more out, but they'll definitely try to stop you."
"Well just let me figure that out."
While it's a guild policy to accept anyone who has the will, I personally can't in good conscience let you join without trying to talk you out of it." The guild receptionist told him with a look he wanted to call pitying, though it was hard as they didn't strictly have anything that could be described as a face.
After his talk with Myriad, Ben woke up feeling well-rested and ready to take on the day. He sent up a quick prayer of thanks and then headed straight to the guild. He needed to register to get the information he wanted, but it was going about as well as he expected it would when it came time to show his skills.
"Don't worry, as you can see I'm just a prospective craftsman in town trying to find a teacher. I just figured that while I was doing that I could do some gathering quests to make some money, and take a look at the guild archive to see what materials are in the area that I could collect or buy." He confidently mixed truths with lies. The archive was definitely his main goal when coming here, but he would be taking a more active role in gathering what he needed.
"Well if that's all then I suppose it should be fine. With the skills you possess I can only make you a rank 7 adventurer anyway so you can't accept any harder quests, just don't venture too far into the woods, you never know what's going to be out there." She took his card and added a new mark to it, symbolizing his adventure rank, and let him go on his way.
The first thing he did was head to the archive. He had been told it should have all of the information he would need on monsters that could be found in the area, so he grabbed any books that looked like they could be relevant and sat down to get reading.
It was pretty interesting to learn more about the creatures that inhabit the world. There were beautiful rainbow colours pterodactyl-like creatures that would soar through the skies, a subterranean kingdom of mole people that would take in the few other sentient underground races to accept as family, fairies that were each attuned to a specific element of magic, having subtle effects on any land they stayed in for too long. It really was a land of beauty and wonder if he was open to seeing it.
On the other end of the spectrum was the Amarok wolf, a real bastard of a beast. It was a large black wolf, about two to three meters in length, that was particularly known for preying on anyone foolish enough to be hunting alone at night. It would take its time toying with its prey, making it think it had a chance to escape before finally finishing it off. If its prey wasn't alone it would still hunt its targets if it thought it was more powerful, though it probably just wouldn't enjoy it as much.
The wolf couldn't use any magic itself though, so it was considered barely acceptable for a group of five rank 6 adventurers to hunt it, or one or two rank 5. Well, that seems like it's only the case if you're going to do something dumb like try and play fair.
"...So I can hear you when I'm awake too huh?"
"Well whatever. We clearly see this pretty differently, I would say I feel pretty confident after all that I've read."
"Watch and see."
The next week had been long, really really long. He had to buy and gather his materials, turn them into something usable, and then trick the various guild members into telling him where this creature was likely to be found under the guise of hoping to avoid any danger as a solo gatherer. But it would soon be worth it.
Night was falling and camp was set up under a tree, while a figure sat by an open fire. There was the meat of a small animal being cooked above it, while a few more that had been skinned were hung up to bleed, with the smell filling the area. The wind moved to carry it through all corners of the forest, hopefully attracting what he needed it to.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
But Ben just ignored Myriad, staying silent and focusing on his task. The only thing he wanted to hear was if it was approaching.
Instead he focused on enjoying the feeling of the night, the atmosphere of a camping trip filling him with pleasant memories of past family outings. He was bundled up in a warm blanket, looking up at the stars when he wasn't observing the area around him, wondering if any of them were home.
It's been mentioned, but I still don't really understand the point of going through all that, sounds like a lot of work.
So that was the reason?
Wait, does that mean that of all the people summoned, I was the only one who could have been scouted but wasn't?
<...>
The silence spoke volumes and Ben did his best not to fall down another depressive spiral. He already knew he was the most worthless among the twenty he came with, what was another 180 on top of that? He couldn't let it keep getting to him and had to just do his best from here on out.
As a god, Myriad was privy to the thoughts of mortals. He knew that as Ben was thanking him for the support that he hadn't really believed it, but for now there was nothing he could do to help him. Ben would have to find his self-worth himself, maybe if he succeeded here it would help with that. Of course a larger part of his mind expected Ben to die and that he would be back to where he started, believerless, but there wasn't much point in telling him that. He knew the boy had made up his mind, and that nothing he could say would change that.
Ben tensed up. It all came down to this. He was pretty sure he would be able to avoid getting killed so Lehie wouldn't get too mad about all of the time she spent trying to teach him going down the drain, but they would find out soon.
The creature for its part spotted the figure by the fire, dressed in an unreasonably red outfit, and loudly approached, trying its best to get his attention. It wanted him to know it was there, to feel afraid, but he wouldn't give in. When there was no reaction It seemed angry, personally offended that a scrawny thing so far beneath it would have the gall to ignore its majestic presence. Three meters long and covered in thick black fur, it was definitely an incredible sight, but what Ben really saw were materials to be collected.
He might not be able to do anything with the meat, but from what he had read the claws, bones, and fur were all good as crafting materials. He couldn't wait to get his hands on them.
For its part, the pile of materials decided it couldn't wait to get its claws into him either. It had had enough of being ignored, and jumped towards its future victim, ready to rip off a limb or two to teach it some fear before digging into its flesh. At least that was the plan, but the moment he landed on it after clearing the fire the ground gave away, and long wooden stakes pierced its majestic body. It thrashed about in pain, but as Ben watched it from the tree above, he dropped two large rocks down on it. His aim was true, and its skull shattered under the weight of the falling stones.
I told you didn't I, these things are probably plenty tough when dealt with head on, but they're used to going after solo hunters that aren't expecting them, they aren't actually smart enough to spot a trap.
Myriad actually found that to be a bit unfair to the beast, Ben had just used his skills and resources to his fullest advantage. When he started his plan he only bought a handful of items. A shovel for digging a large pit, taking up nearly eight hours to make it big and deep enough to serve the purpose Ben had in mind, as well as a knife to carve spikes from branches he had found gathered around the forest. That alone wouldn't have been enough, but he also got a large but thin tarp, a blanket, and a bright red cloth to aid in his scheme, not to mention the application of his skills.
When he was still at the church he tried playing around with enchanting a bit, just to see how it would go, and once he had gotten dismantling one of the first things he did was apply it to a knife at the church. Once he did it had a small but noticeable improvement in its ability to cut through objects. Learning from this he spent some time applying it to all of the wooden spikes he had carved, hoping that plus the creature's weight would help them easily pierce its flesh. From there he did his best to apply stealth to his blanket and his tarp, to help hide himself and cover the spikes so that it wouldn't be able to see them, hopefully thinking it was just solid ground.
To both sell that illusion and distract the creature from seeing it he sprinkled it with dirt to make it blend in more and set up some garbage to look like a person, wrapping it in a bright red cloth to capture its attention and make it not inspect the area too hard. When all was said and done the plan had worked out excellently. All that was left to do was get that apprenticeship.
Falk had just finished giving a new staff to his favourite customer and was back at the forge to start making a few pans for a neighbour, when he spared a thought to his encounter with the boy from a week prior.
He had selected a target for him that, while not so ridiculously challenging as to make his intent obvious, should have been enough to scare the brat away and seek work with someone else. He wouldn't make a good teacher, and he couldn't figure out why the boy had selected him to begin with. He didn't seem like he'd tried the other stores around and been rejected, but he couldn't know just what skills Falk possessed, he always kept those close to his chest, there was no reason to seek him out.
Still though, a human… Shouldn't one of the bigger nations be out training him? Why was he searching for a teacher by himself?
Like all the other city residents Falk was aware of the hero summoning that had taken place around their world, and with the humans having been summoned so close to his home city of course he had heard of them, a few even passed through this city to get to the nearest gate to travel to their new training grounds.
Still the boy would best give up and find somewhere else that was equipped to take on students, and Falk was best to focus on his own work for now, gods knowing he had plenty of other things to worry about than the state of one brat.
As he decided to put these unnecessary thoughts behind him he heard the door of his shop open. When he turned to see what this prospective customer was looking for he was instead greeted by Ben, as if his previous thoughts had summoned him.
"Damn it Brat I told you, I'm not taking you if you can't hunt an Amarok, now get lost." He dismissed him, getting back to his own work.
Ben ignored him, walking right up to Falk and handed a bundle over to him. "That's why I'm here, one Amarok pelt, freshish and ready to be tanned."
Falk took a moment to look at what he had been handed and then took a closer look at the boy. It was clearly an Amarok pelt, he had hunted a few in his own time, wouldn't mistake one; and the boy for his part was an absolute mess now that he stopped to look, covered in dirt and blood. But he still couldn't believe the kid had actually managed it.
"Sure it's an Amarok, I'll give you that. The condition of its pretty trash though, way too many punctures. Not to mention that I told you to get it yourself, no adventurers."
"The condition it's in wasn't a part of the deal, and I did get it myself."
"Cut the crap kid, there's no way you managed to stab the beast this many times and walk back here yourself. Hell if you were in stabbing range a monster like this could sink its teeth into you no problem."
Ben was a little offended that all of his hard work was being dismissed just like that, so he stopped Falk and explained in every little detail how he had managed it, from research to crafting and set up to finally tricking the beast. The plan had taken him a week to pull off, it wasn't something he was willing to just have denied for the sake of the shopkeeper's convenience.
"...So after it was dead I just hung out in the tree for the rest of the night to avoid getting murdered by anything else walking the woods, and when morning came I took some time to skin it, bury its bones to grab later, as well as take down the spikes and fill in the hole. Then I came back here."
At a certain point Falk put his head into his hands. What the boy was saying was possible. Usually when an adventurer goes out, the point is to work on improving their skills as much as it is for completing their quests or collecting raw materials from animals, so traps aren't in common use. But it could work, he couldn't deny it.
"So then." Ben started, interrupting his thoughts. "Are you going to keep your end of the deal?"
"My end?"
"You said if I could kill one you'd take me on. I killed one, so when should I start?"
Falk let out a long unhappy sigh. "Damnable brat, I wouldn't make a good teacher, if you want to learn you should find somewhere else."
"I'll be the judge of that. Now when do I start."
If this ever comes up again I'm telling the next would-be student to hunt a bloody demon. "Fine, you start tomorrow. The shop opens at the crack of dawn. Don't be late."
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"You won't regret this Mr. Falk! I'll see you bright and early!" Ben told him with a smile before running off.
"Yeah yeah. And take a bath before you get here! Tracking blood and dirt through my bloody shop." He mumbled, pulling out a broom as tidying up a bit.
"Sooooooooooo?"
"Yeah yeah, you showed your usefulness. I'll accept you as my god and toss you some prayers."
As soon as Ben went to sleep at night he found himself again in Myriads divine realm, with him somehow managing to look antsy despite lacking a face or limbs or any other feature one could use to convey emotion. Knowing what he wanted Ben gave in immediately, he had to admit that having a god around had its uses.
As soon as Ben said the words Myriad's body started to glow a divine light. Like a cubic disco ball. Ben quietly thought to himself.
Even though Myriad could hear that thought he wasn't going to let it get him down. This was the first believer he had had in a millennia, just being properly acknowledged by a mortal felt incredible.
"Sorry to interrupt your little light show, but what now?"
"Well as my believer I can grant you my blessing for starters. Though it will be weak now it should get stronger if I grow in power a bit. I can also grant you a quest."
"No gift skill?"
"I need you to pray to me consistently for a bit longer if I'm going to do that, a skill takes a lot of energy, and with the amount of strength I have now it will have to be incredibly close to my properties as a god and the properties of my race."
"Okay sounds neat, what sort will it be?"
"There's a couple options, but not to worry I'll make something that will suit you to the best of my abilities."
"Alright I'll leave it in your hands, and what do you mean by a quest?"
"Hmm the church must have not bothered explaining it since they didn't think it would be relevant to you, but gods can issue quests to the people. The more powerful the god, the more powerful the quest reward. I can't currently do anything too grand, but the good news about being my number one believer is I should be able to issue them to you more often than an average person could hope to get them."
"Oh cool, then what's the reward?"
Myriad let out a small groan. "Think you could hide your greed for a minute and ask what the quest is first? I'll be having you grow my faith. If you get me five new believers I will raise your job level by six."
That sounded like an okay reward for now, after his months here he hadn't done too much crafting, just some cooking, dismantling, and other experimenting at the church had only raised him to level 14, he was hoping he would get some more interesting options for whatever came next. There was only one small issue.
"There's no way I'm going to be able to find you five other believers." He said bluntly.
"Wait don't be so pessimistic, it's not impossible!"
"An unknown god with little power and not much that can be immediately offered, sounds pretty impossible to me."
"Urk…"
"Not to mention why would anyone switch their faith from presumably a powerful god to a weak one? Maybe if one of the world's deities is outed as being evil we could scoop up some of their followers, but right now it just seems impossible."
"Well if you accomplish something impressive, it may tempt some people towards me as a result."
"Me, the apprentice craftsman with level one skills at most, accomplish anything impressive? Come on Myriad you need to have some realism here."
With the cruel reality of Ben's words, Myriad fell to the ground defeated, all the joy and energy he had been feeling from getting a believer vanished.
"Hey now, no need to be so sad, the decks just stacked against you. Need power to get power, need followers to get followers. It's rough but let's do our best."
Myriad looked up, a bit of hope returning. "So you'll take the quest?"
"...is there literally any other option?"
"This is the easiest one I can currently give you."
"Is there a time limit? Any penalty for failing?"
"Nope, no limit or penalties. The only drawback is I can't give you another one until you complete this one."
"Alright, might as well give it a try."
He rose again, rainbows flowing out of his silvery form. "I know you'll figure something out Ben, I believe in you. Now time to wake up, you wouldn't want to be late."
With that Ben felt himself coming to consciousness, but before he even opened his eyes he felt the world screaming in his head
I'm sorry, what of Myriad?
Falk arrived at his shop, silently hoping the boy would sleep in or not show up so he would have an excuse to dismiss him, but no such luck. The brat managed to show up before even he did and was sitting outside the shop, laying against the door.
All he could do was groan a bit, forced to accept what he agreed to. "Alright get up, first things first give the shop a sweep and we'll figure out where to go from there."
Ben immediately got to it, cleaning up the shop with enthusiasm while Falk had no choice but to use the few minutes he had to focus on something he had been wracking his brain about all night, just how to train the brat.
Unfortunately for him, Ben was thorough but quick, too quick. The shop looked fine to open and he was standing in front of Falk, looking up at him expectantly.
"Huuuh, alright kid, first I guess you should make me something. We'll see where we should go from there." He brought him to a room in the back that looked like a combination of supply closet and work area. Buckets and drawers of materials were piled around, with a desk and tools hung around it, and a small shelf of books nearby.
Ben's first thought seeing all of it was basically that it looked like fun. It was definitely somewhere he could sink a lot of hours if he was given the chance. He just had one minor problem.
"What am I supposed to make?"
"Whatever you can for now, I just want to watch your process and see where you could improve at first. Help me pull the desk out front unless you're going to want to use the forge, then grab the supplies you'll need. To be clear, I'm only letting you grab from my stock today, in the future you'll have to supply yourself."
Ben did his best to help move the desk the Yeti worked at into the front of the shop, before going back and looking around.
There were metals and materials of all sorts. He saw the bones and teeth and skins of a variety of creatures, the woods from all kinds of trees and materials that were clearly organic in nature but that he had no clue as to what they could be. There was also an unusual amount of stone, of various types, all organised in a back corner.
He wondered about the room for a minute, taking it all in, making a mental list of what to explore in the future, while he tried to figure out what he was going to make. The options before him seemed limited. He originally considered himself something of an artist, dabbling in a variety of arts, but he didn't think that would work. He could stitch together furs to make a cloak or jacket but that didn't feel right either.
It wasn't until he came across some metal wire that he remembered an unfinished project he would never get the chance to complete, giving him a good idea of what to do.
Taking the supplies and tools he would need to the front workshop he sat down at the desk and got to work as his teacher stood above him, watching as he went.
It only took two minutes for him to stop Ben from his work. "What are you doing?"
"I was going to make chainmail, I thought I would add stealth to it while I went to at least give it a bit more benefit."
"Yes I can see that, I more meant why are you doing it so wrong?"
Falk seemed genuinely confused which kept Ben from being too annoyed. He came here to learn and that's what he would do. "What exactly am I doing wrong here?"
"God's where do I even begin, you're going to make all that wire unusable if you keep this up, and it doesn't even seem like you're crafting."
"Falk I'm going to need you to give me a bit more than that."
Realising he hadn't properly explained himself, Falk took a second to put his thoughts together and started again. "You look like you're trying to enchant every single individual wire. That can be possible at a higher level but right now you can't do that for something so small, the enchantment won't take and you'll render the material unusable." He picked up the wire Ben had been using and ground it between his fingers. It seemed to have lost all of its malleability, causing it to break into shards and dust. "What you have to do is slowly add the enchantment to the entire thing as you go, spreading the enchantment across the entire item. Aside from that, do you not know how to use your crafting?"
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He clearly did not with what was being asked, but he had to confirm anyway. "Is it not just a way to have a better idea of how to put stuff together while also making you better at the process?"
"Well you're not wrong, but it's also like most other skills, you have to burn up a little Mana to get its full effects. Since you can enchant you should know how to do that, yeah?"
He did, it had taken a fair amount of trial and error at the church, as well as a lot of questions to the priests to figure it out, but when he got it was incredible. "Alright so just use Mana with the skill and try again."
He got back to work, doing as he was told and immediately felt a difference. He could feel it flowing out of him into the wires, making them slightly more easy to work with, bending as he wanted them to and holding their shape a bit better. This wasn't even considering the improvements to his body. He could feel his movements improving, making less mistakes that needed to be corrected. He couldn't help but think of how long carving all of the spikes had taken before and how much time he could have saved, but no point worrying about that now.
With his teacher's advice he immediately lost himself in the task, devoting all of his attention to the project before him.
He wasn't sure how much time passed, but before he knew it he was holding onto a full set of mail, enchanted with stealth as well. He couldn't help but think how incredible skills were. While he had been chipping away at the piece he had been making at home, getting a few hours a day done here or there, he now has a finished product in one go.
Sighing in contentment he stretched and looked to see Falk snoozing at his chair. He figured it probably wasn't good for the man to be sleeping on the job, so decided to have some fun.
"Hey Falk, what do you think!" He yelled, waking the man up.
He shot up from his seat with a start. "Damn it boy! Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"No?"
"I decided to sleep at midnight!" He threw open the door dramatically, making it clear that the sun had fallen and moonlight streamed in through the door. "You must have been working at that for almost twenty hours!"
"Ah, haha…" maybe yelling to wake him up hadn't been the best idea. Ben knew he was prone to getting lost in a task, his family used to have to tell him lights out whenever he got into a project, but he didn't think he'd ever gone this long before. "Sorry about that, using crafting ended up being more entertaining than I thought."
"I'd say you got more use out of your focus skill than anything." He grumbled, waving his hand for Ben to hand over his item. "Come on now, let's see how it went so I can go back to sleep."
Falk stared at it for a few minutes, slowly losing the tired expression in his eyes. "Looks like you managed to make a lower common item, not bad for your first attempt considering you didn't even know how to properly craft when you started."
Items could be divided into six levels of rarity. There was common, uncommon, rare, ultra-rare, legendary, and mythic. On top of this, each level was further subdivided into lower, middle, and upper to show just how well it would compare to items in its own category.
"How can you be sure, shouldn't an enchanted item be a bit better than that?" The disappointment was clear in his voice. Even if the time flew by for him, all of that to make something of only lower common quality was pretty disappointing.
"When you reach the ninth level of your skill you'll be able to see the quality of the item without issue. Since I have blacksmithing I can see this no problem, but since you have crafting you'll be able to see the quality of basically any manufactured item. That's basically the biggest benefit of your particular skill. As for its quality I would say don't worry about it. I was fully expecting you to make a failed product, the fact that it turned out this good at all is promising."
While he may have been playing it down a bit Falk was actually fairly impressed. One of the biggest issues in any crafting skill was how often items failed at the beginning few levels of a skill. Often students would misjudge how much magic to use in their enchantments or rush too much to get an item complete, not to mention the basic difficulty associated with getting acquainted with a skills use. If the boy could continue making items of this quality he should be able to make enough to live on while he worked here.
"Anyway." He continued. "Don't worry about it too much. Almost all items are of common quality because that's going to be reasonably priced enough for an average person to buy. While any good craftsman should be able to make uncommon and the occasional rare item, there aren't many who can consistently make rare ones, and someone who can make ultra-rare ones regularly only shows up once or twice every few hundred years."
This raised Ben's confidence a little but left him with another question. "What about craftsmen who make Legendary or mythic items?"
"Ha boy, you're a few centuries away from that if it's your goal. While anyone who can consistently make ultra-rare items may manage to spit out one or two legendary items in their lifetime, someone who can make them consistently only shows up once or twice a millennium. As for mythic, well I've never heard of any mortal making them. From what I know the few that exist were gifted from the gods."
"Well if I'm going to have any goals they may as well be big goals."
Falk gave him a large, toothy, scarier than intended grin. "You say some good stuff brat. With how late it is there's no point in you going home, there's a blanket and pillow in the storage room. Sleep there and I'll wake you for work in the morning."