CH370

“What?” She asked him, not able to believe he’d fight her on that. “What do you mean you think we should keep going? Ben, we beat three floors so we can at least get a very good blessing and not have to worry about you almost dying again. You didn’t want to do this anyway and now I’m agreeing so let’s just go.”

“I mean, yeah you’re right I don’t want to do this, but you do. That’s reason enough to keep going. Also, the gods only lose out on how much faith they have to spend if we make it to the top and I’m still feeling just a little spiteful.”

“Infinite hells, you’re being impossible. I don’t want to keep going, plus I leveled up both of my magics so I got a bit stronger just like I wanted. This is the perfect time to leave.”

“Then why did you keep looking at the door to the next floor like that?” He shot back. “You said you wanted to be as strong as you could for what’s to come, right? Then getting another level immediately after that one is a great shortcut to it.”

“Can’t you see I’m worried about you! You got hurt on the last two floors! What if it happens again on the next ones? There isn’t a break like the first three have so this is our last chance to leave.”

“Yeah, but I was also pretty damn handy on the last few floors too. I figured out the map, saved Yuzu, and figured out we could just avoid the waves to get through the last one, and I’ll keep being useful for whatever’s next. More important than any of that though is that you want to, and I don’t want to be the kind of guy that keeps you from achieving your goals.”

Seeing how serious he looked, she couldn’t help but deflate, resting her forehead against his shoulder as she muttered. “Has anyone ever told you you’re impossible?”

“Just my lovely girlfriend, my lovely teacher, and my lovely god. That’s it.”

“That’s the majority of the people you’re close to. You should probably work on that.”

“Bah, details details, it’s fine. Instead, let’s rest up for a bit before going through there. I’ll cook for everyone.”

And hope I haven’t just given us both a death sentence.

He really, really wanted to take her up on that offer of leaving. It felt like it would have been the smart choice too, but even if she didn’t think she was giving it away, he could see that Thera wanted to keep going, and he didn’t want to stop her.

Just going to tell myself it’s a difference of dying now or in a few months time. That’s kind of optimistic, right?

For a second he longed for the voice of Myriad to speak up, to complain that even if there was the potential for his life to be cut short in the future it didn’t mean he should be willing to walk into danger now, but as with any other time he’d done a trial in the past his god couldn’t respond to him, so he instead cooked a meal while Jake, Amy, and Yuzu had their own discussions on if they even wanted to go on.

With the fact that the two of them would be remaining with the group, it sounded like the answer was a clear yes, their confidence in having a larger party giving them what they needed to see things through to the end of their true goal as his eyes eventually drifted to the last door they would go through.

As per what Myriad and Nare had told him before, he knew that once they entered it they were committed to doing the last two floors, no escaping them no matter how much he wanted to.

Well, there might be a potential to break things a bit, we’ll see. If there’s another section like the colosseum where the door is already there, just blocked, I might be able to do something. Can’t exactly count on that though, the extent I’ve been able to affect trials has been too hit or miss in the past. Plus, it looks like there might be something different here too.

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Like the last few doors, this one had a symbol of a mountain on it front and center, representing the earth magic that the tower they were in was meant to challenge, but unlike every other one, this only had that symbol, none of the other ten for each other magic option was present like they had been in the past.