CH331 A consequence of awakening

In the heavens, the gods watched down on the world as they did all they needed to. Preparing for the war wasn’t just something to be dealt with on their end after all, they needed to be sure their believers were doing their best as well, along with any mortals who’d been doing any work for them specifically.

Of them, the most important groups were the ones who had gotten to reap the benefits that killing the forbidden gods had brought. By enjoying potions that immediately boosted one’s stats so significantly, everyone who’d enjoyed one was made to work all of the harder for it, with gods and nations alike expecting to see a payoff for the investment.

Of course, every tier three skill user got to enjoy one immediately, then it just came down to which of the tier two skill holders would get to partake of them as well, with many of the summoned making the cut by virtue of their already great power. For all the trouble the forbidden gods had caused with their choice, at the very least there was some good to be gained from it.

Aside from potions alone though, there were also the weapons that would be gained from making use of the skins and bones that were left. Weapons that needed to be split fairly across each nation, not letting any one gain more benefits than the others as various gods and rulers decided amongst themselves just who they would be made for specifically, and as the weeks passed and various orders were fulfilled, things began to calm down enough for each deity to stop restraining their people on one single thing. Contacting the unaligned awakened craftsman, the apostle Ben.

It was uncommon for anyone who had made the jump to awakening a skill to not tie themselves to any nation for all of the benefits it would bring, and rarer still for those who didn’t to be so publicly known for awakening. Joining anyone would lead to a level of wealth one normally wouldn’t be able to get otherwise at their fingertips when in return they’d be asked almost nothing, in the case of anyone with a crafting skill the only real drawback being that the nation who supported them would have their work as a priority, with the potential to ask them to ignore the requests of others depending on various factors and international relationships.

It was simply too good of a deal, with the only reason people hadn’t flocked to him despite knowing he only had a vague attachment to Anailia being that no god wanted to cause any distractions while the god bone weapons were being worked on, but even the ones who had voted to toss Ben into the infinite hells would want him if they could get him, and with most of the weapons almost done, they stopped holding their people back from trying to bring him into their fold, as other, less desirable intentions made themselves known as well.

“Boss, I’m not sure about this,” One imp spoke up amongst their group. “We’ve heard the rumours, this seems like a quick way to be ripped in half before being tossed into the infinite hells.”

A round of agreement went up amongst them all, but their leader was taking no objections, smacking each of them silent.

“You can’t just focus on rumours you idiots, you actually gotta think a bit. The only part of this that’s gonna be true is that he’s an awakened craftsman and that he completed the trial, the rest is just fluff that got added on as the story went around.”

“But they say he’s an apostle boss,” One whined. “I don’t want to learn firsthand what an eternity of torture looks like.”

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“And he completed that trial,” Complained another. “There’s no way he’s weak enough for us, let’s just pick a safer target, come on.”

Again, each of them, even those who stayed silent, was smacked as their boss ground his teeth, disgusted with their idiocy.

“Listen up you complete fools, the same things scaring you are enough proof that it’s nothing more than rumours if you’d just think about it for a little bit,” He took a moment, looking among them to see if any would get it but only finding confusion in their eyes before he shook his head and explained for them. “Look, you’re all worried about attacking an apostle, right?”

“Right.”

“Right.”

“Right.”