CH267

“Oh, hey Quilith, wasn’t expecting to see you so soon,” Ben said, casually giving him a wave. “Isn’t there still a few days before we’re supposed to meet up?”

“Given the nature of the situation you find yourself in, I assumed it would be better to come early. It’s nice to see you’re somehow in good spirits despite everything.”

“Legs, what the hell is going on,” Greed asked in confusion as he looked between Ben and the alien, not understanding how he had appeared.

“You probably heard about the race that one of the groups of summoned individuals was helping the world, right? He’s one of them. Stops by every now and then to teach me some stuff.”

“Just what sort of freaking connections do you have?” The crab asked as it shook in disbelief, an act Ben ignored to focus on the grey before him.

“Well, I appreciate you stopping by, but unless you have any info that could help me I think I’m going to need to skip on lessons this month,” Ben told him before his eyes lit up. “Unless of course you could peek into the next sections of this trial and give me some spoilers? It would be really helpful for this whole not dying thing I’m trying to do.”

Unfortunately, things were never that easy and the grey shook his head. “We’ve already checked. It needs an actual person to go through it to activate. Without that it’s just an empty room, no bigger than a closet. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Ben told him as he deflated. “That really would have been too lucky, wouldn’t it? So what brings you here to this little nightmare?”

“Compassion I suppose,” Quilith answered. “We’ve spoken enough that I have some fondness for you. Since I’m the only one who can, I thought I’d collect your last words, to be passed on to whoever you’d like. Of course, since I’m here I’ll do my best for you as well Greed.”

“Really, in that case great cause I got a lot,” The ruby crab began as Ben stood stunned. It was something he never did on his last world, something he should have done rather than spending his last night alive on the planet doing a little drawing, but Quilith was right. He was facing his end, since he had the chance, he needed to pass on just what he wanted to say.

“-and to Wizzley, Tretru, and Jaspl, tell them all I’m sorry about the whole running away the next morning and not stopping by again,” Greed finished while Ben was in his thoughts, leaving Quilith looking far more exhausted as he did.

“I feel like you should have solved some of these issues long ago, not waited till your death approached,” Quilith said, getting a shrug in return.

“Hey, it’s a lot easier to forgive a dead guy. If I go in person they’ll be out for blood.”

The alien only shook his head as he turned to Ben. “Well?”

“If you could tell Thera, Falk, Sonya, Steph, and Will for me that I love them and I’m sorry I won’t be around to see the end of the world with them, it would mean a lot,” He said with a small bow of his head. “Also, I guess you can’t do it since you’re not really in this universe, but if you could ask one of them to pray to Myriad and tell him I say thanks for everything, I would appreciate it.”

“I can do that.”

“Thank you. But since I know you have eyes on me, do me one more favour and don’t pass it on until I’m actually dead. No matter how hopeless it seems, I haven’t given up yet.”

“Very well, many of us are watching with great interest so do your best. For what it’s worth, I hope you make it through this.”

With that he was gone, leaving Ben alone with Greed again. He took a deep breath as he turned to the crab, thinking about what would come next as he did.

“Alright, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather live than have any goodbyes so let’s figure out what to do from here,” He began as he took stock of everything they both had. Greed was far easier than him. He had his amplifier and that was it. As for Ben, he had sixteen rings on his fingers, the ten level nine affinitied rings, a level six charm ring, level eight barrier ring, and then the four rings he’d gotten from Pelenia to improve Thera’s brace.

He had worn them over dinner, fully intending to put them to use that night, but now they were just another resource to take advantage of as he moved on from there. Aside from that, he didn’t have much. He had the clothes on his back, a couple blank skill rings as well as his cursed ring in his pocket, along with his job crystal, a small disc of white mana crystal with a little bit of mythril set in it, and most important of all, he had his coat, the first church of Myriad.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It had already helped save his life on the last section of the trial so he immediately got to work stripping the defensive enchantments already on it in favour of adding all of the higher-level skills he now had access to while he spoke to Greed.

“Alright, so one of my skills lets me enchant with the skills other people have. I won’t be able to use anything over the eighth level so your awakened skills are out for me sadly, but other than that can you tell me what you have?”