CH65

<How! How did that work?> Myriad screamed in despair while Ben had his own concerns.

“I maxed out my job before getting the quest reward? So those levels are going to go to the easiest bit of experience for me to get on the next one? That’s so lame.”

<Ben I cannot begin to express how little that matters! How did you make this work!>

“I mean it fit the qualifications you gave me, why wouldn’t it have worked?”

<This isn’t a church! It’s a jacket! Only a crazy person would call this a church!> Myriad tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing but kept falling short. The quest shouldn’t have been completed, it wasn’t possible, but he could feel energy flow from him to Ben to raise his level, and he could sense his divinity from the coat. <Tell me exactly how you made this.> He ordered his believer as calmly as he could manage given the circumstances.

Ben, from the perspective of his god at least, was annoyingly happy to discuss the finer details of his work. “Okay, so my thought process was like this. You want your church to be comfortable on top of safe, right?”

<Sure, I suppose if people enjoy being in it then that would be for the best.>

“Right! So I figured some temperature control would be the way to go, and if it was just a bit on the smaller side it would be less mana intense. But then I thought about how small I could make it, and at what point it would be conceivable to power it with the mythril I have on hand to keep the price down, and then it occurred to me. All it needed was to be something someone would enter with your figure on the outside, then couldn’t I make it a jacket? Once I figured that out all I had to do was have some threads enchanted with fire and water spells to control the temp and blend them with a thin mythril wire to power them, then use that to make the jacket lining. I also made the zipper from mythril too, just to be sure the enchantment would get enough power, though honestly I’m pretty sure I overdid it a bit. After that, it just came down to getting a nice strong leather to go with it to complement any boost to defense it gets and put the entire thing together.”

<Okay but what about a figure of me? Don’t tell me you just stitched something on the inside?>

“No of course not, I couldn’t just hide away your representation, and I also wasn’t just going to bedazzle you on. That would be rude and eat at my artistic pride. Well mostly it would make the coat look like crap, so I just went subtle with it. Look.”

Ben threw on the jacket and zipped it up, revealing that the zipper itself was shaped like a cube.

<You call that… wait. Is that also made of mythril?>

“Yeah, looks good doesn’t it, I figured it matched your sheen.”

Myriad wanted to cry. <I think I figured out how you actually managed it. I can barely believe it, but it looks like you really believe what you’re telling me. Combining genuine faith with the amount of mythril you used for it and that may have been enough to force this stupid project into working.>

“What does using mythril have to do with anything?”

<For other gods, nothing. But both myself and my race as a whole had a strong connection to the metal. Using a material so deeply bound to me on top of having true faith that you were within the rules probably allowed this to happen.>

“Great, mystery solved. Now mind if I ask a question?”

<What?> After all of this he really wasn’t in the mood, but he couldn’t just brush off his apostle either.

“What does the sacrilege skill do?”

<Oh all that’s good! Of course you gained Sacrilege! Of course!>

“Um, is it bad?”

<It’s sacrilege, doesn’t that sound bad! It means when you die you’re ending up somewhere in the infinite hells!>

“Oh damn.” The infinite hells. During his time at the church the topic had come up despite his lack of interest and from what he could remember it was some sort of fractured plane of reality the gods would send the souls of the particularly wicked. It was a scary thought, being trapped there for all of eternity when he died. The only problem was that it was scary in a hypothetical sense, he couldn’t actually work up any will to care.

<Is that really all you have to say? How are you not even a little concerned about what I just told you?>

“Well I mean before I got here I was somewhere between an agnostic and an atheist. Being told I’m going to hell just doesn’t have a huge impact on me since I didn’t even know it was real until I started living in this world.”

He could actually hear his god deflate as he spoke. <You’re honestly insane aren’t you? Alright, ignore what I said, you aren’t destined to suffer any eternal damnation, I just wanted to scare you for what you pulled.>

“That doesn’t seem super godly.”

<Well taking such major liberties with a divine quest isn’t very apostly!>

Touché. He wasn’t going to try and argue that. Even if he really believed it qualified there was no denying that he knew it wasn’t what Myriad had in mind. “So what does it do then?”

<Sacrilege is a skill gained through misusing or violating anything deemed exceptionally sacred. For the most part it allows the skill holder to misuse the gifts of gods to an easier extent. I know people who’ve gotten it in the past have done so through willfully destroying some of the items the gods have gifted the world or doing things like using a church in a way that doesn’t represent the will of its ruling god.> What Myriad tried to skirt around was the fact that it might make it easier for Ben to twist his quests in the future, even without having proper faith that he was in the right. He was sure that if he knew that Ben would immediately start trying to test the limits of his skill. Thankfully his apostle seemed to accept the answer he was given and moved on.

“Okay, so there’s no real problem with having the skill either, right?”

Myriad was quiet for a moment, contemplating his answer. <There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, it is possible for people to get it by acting in a way inappropriate for the land they are in, even if their actions would be acceptable in their homeland, but it’s also a skill others may judge you for possessing. Especially for more formal gods or the incredibly pious, if they were to learn you have that skill you may be viewed as a potential enemy. Revealing you’re an apostle may ease any damage revealing that skill could cause, but I’d still recommend keeping you got a level in it secret.>

“Two actually.”

<… You’re going to get a third if you keep trying to kill me with these surprises. How am I supposed to have my believers make a pilgrimage now? When the other gods find out about this I’m going to be humiliated.>

“Okay look I’m sorry, but can I just ask one more thing.”

<What?>

“Does the length they travel matter at all?”

<No, the point is to visit the church and pay proper respects. I could get significantly more power from the prayers that way.>

“And do they have to be inside it while they pray?”

<No. Having a statue outside is perfectly acceptable for praying to.>

“So would it work if I go on a trip to greet your followers? I would assume that every faith has a large number of people who just don’t bother making long journeys, but if I’m in the same city as them then a lot more would show up right? Plus I can offer you prayers while I wear it if it will make it more powerful.”

There was a long stretch of silence as Myriad thought over what Ben had said. <It’s possible.> His voice was filled with cautious optimism. <We’d have to test it to be sure it would really work, but in principle that all makes sense. Okay Ben, as much as I don’t like it if you actually created a portable church everything is forgiven.>

“Ben, do you hate your god?” Thera asked once he’d explained exactly what he had done and how the coat worked. Even though he’d just been told by Myriad that he should keep his new skill to himself he figured telling her would be fine.

In any case it seemed like Myriad shared her sentiment. <I wonder the same thing constantly.> He spoke in Ben’s mind, which he pretended not to hear.

“Me and Myriad get on great, this was just some creative differences after all. So anyway I wanted to ask if you could take me to the nearest job change room, it looks like I managed to complete my current one just in time.”

“You’ve only had this one for a few months! That’s ridiculous.”

“I finished two quests in a week, it shouldn’t be too surprising.” He elected not to mention that somehow completing the coat gave him enough experience that his current quest reward was just waiting to go into his next job.

Thera was still giving him a look, but she walked out with him. “There should be one in the craftsmen’s guild so let’s just go there, I want to hear what weird options you’re going to have anyway.”

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“I only had one or two unusual jobs last time, that’s all. What are the chances of getting more?”

She gave him another look but eventually just sighed and spoke about how her training had been going while they walked there.

Once they arrived and were pointed towards the job change room he placed his hands on the crystal and let the options fill his mind.

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