CH171

With the brace done, Ben discreetly tested the effectiveness of it before Thera woke up with the results being that the amount of dark resistance someone would need was down to 17 at a distance and 27 on contact, a measly one point off both. While it did show that improving the quality of the item was able to increase the power of his enchantment, considering just how much better this brace was compared to the first one, only to get a single point of resistance off, chances were good there wasn’t any point in making another unless he could get it to ultra-rare through technique alone, before he applied a single enchantment to it.

It was frankly disappointing. He knew it wasn’t guaranteed to work, but if it did he was sure it would have taken at least three points off, not just a single one. He knew his ultimate goal of completely suppressing her charm was a slow march to progress but wasn’t this too slow?

He sighed and left her room, slinking to his own to work on something to take his mind off his disappointment until Thera woke up, namely tending to his plant, Fredrick.

His houseplant was looking exceptionally healthy, which shouldn’t have been a surprise given the amount of care he put towards it. Since he still practiced his connect with it frequently he had been able to pick up on various things about it to improve its life, some far less obvious than others, and since he had the time he focused on the current issue it need attending to as he snacked on some of its berries, namely repotting it

He’d had to do it once in the past already and this time he had a larger pot and soil already prepared, having made the pot himself to try and give it a specific role, namely helping his dear plants growth. While he had been in the dryad village he made sure to make a ring with plant magic on it for his use with the help of Fontesh, who had the skill at the fifth level. An interesting problem arose when he came back and showed it to Falk though, learning he’d only been able to copy the skill to the third level, and while he had his theories on why that was the case there was nothing to be done. At least he could still use it as he intended.

In a blatant bout of wastefulness of the magic materials in his possession, he incorporated the smallest amount of mythril he could into making the pot, before tying in a low-plant magic enchantment to aid in both the health and growth of his dear plant. As his first constant training partner, he’d grown invested in its well-being, making sure it got nothing but the best for its simple life.

<But is that even necessary?> His god asked as he watched down on them. <If I remember correctly, it was only supposed to grow those berries every few months right? Hasn’t it started doing it slightly more than every other month now?>

I’m sure it’s because I give it so much love and affection. Ben thought positively as he briefly connected with it, feeling it respond in kind. Though not by much, he had noticed the speed of the small plant’s thoughts increasing slightly as it grew, giving Ben no end of joy. Still, I’m surprised you aren’t annoyed at all that I’m focusing on this instead of writing out your holy book.

<It’s not like this is taking too long. Besides, the plant reminds me a little of my homeworld so it has its charm.>

Wait, really? You had plants like this one on your world?

<Saying I had plants like that would be a bit of a stretch seeing how it might be hard to argue that the things on my world technically qualify as plants, but it has more to do with you. It looks like you’ve prayed with it enough that I’m able to get a little bit of faith from it.>

What? Does that mean I should go around the forest and pray with some trees for you?

<I mean, you can if you want, but it would be a waste of your time. All gods are able to gain a bit of faith from the life on their homeworld, but it doesn’t come close to comparing to the quality of faith we gain from a sapient believer. It’s part of why it takes so long for a god to develop their race anyway, a lot of faith needs to be acquired before anything can be raised up like that.>

Myriad immediately regretted sharing that as he felt Ben create a mental file in his head, labeling it as ‘potentially abusable info’ and pressing his god with a request.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

So if you can get faith from Fredrick, does that mean you could give it your blessing?

<…It’s not something I’ve tried in the past, but it should be possible.> He felt the expectations raise in his believer’s mind before he put a stop to it. <But absolutely not, there’s no reason for it. Do you know how hard it is for me to gather the faith for that sort of thing? It would be so wasteful after all I’ve managed to gather through all of these years without believers.>

Come on, it never hurts to experiment a little. Think of it this way, it’s only costly to give a blessing to something that doesn’t worship you, right? Since you’re already getting faith from it that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, and wouldn’t it be interesting to see if it has any effects?

Ben had no reason to want this other than pure curiosity, but he seemed determined to convince his god, just to see what would happen. Myriad sensed this and decided that rather than deal with his believer’s pestering, he would compromise.

<If you want to see if anything happens so badly then fine, but I have two conditions. First is that it’s only going to be a minor blessing. Think of it like when you got those five points to your mana from Jagal, but unspecialized like the standard blessing gods give out. Second and more importantly, I want a proper church.>

What? Isn’t that a bit much?