CH683

There wasn’t much rest to be had that night. After finding Falk and filling him in on exactly what happened and spending what felt like far too many hours going over it with some embassy employees who didn’t wake up that day expecting to have to deal with an incident involving the daughter of their nation’s queen, the three of them were only able to get a couple of hours of sleep before getting up and heading out.

There’d been a serious conversation on if they should go at all but ultimately they’d decided to stick to the original plan. As unfortunate as that turn of events was, there was no reason to stop what they were doing when as far as they were concerned, none of them were in the wrong. If it caused issues down the line then they’d deal with it but for the time being, they walked through the streets to get where they needed to be.

“So just try and keep on good behaviour,” Falk told them while looking at his apprentice in particular. “I’m not ‘expectin’ any issues but this isn’t a crowd you want making enemies outa.”

“I’m literally always on my best behaviour,” He said in his defense while Thera spoke up too.

“And even if that’s completely untrue, both soul mages should be there so I’m sure they’ll help out if he does anything wrong.”

“Thera, please, I need you on my side when I’m being slandered.”

“It was only a couple days ago I watched you attack Eneth’s church.”

“Well first off, they deserved it. Secondly, I challenged them to a fight, it was their choice to accept.”

“So if they’d said no you would have just left?”

“Maybe. There’s no way to know for sure in hypothetical situations like that.”

It was obvious neither was buying it and he tried not to let it hurt given that in that example they were one hundred percent right. If they hadn’t gone for it he’d have just started punching and dealt with the consequences of having less justification.

In hindsight, that route may have even been a better option for awakening my sacrilege. Oh well, maybe next time.

“Fine, fine, I’ll be my most upstanding self,” He eventually gave in. “So how much farther are we?”

“Right there,” Falk nodded to the end of the road, at an otherwise unassuming building built into the coast with a single man waiting out front watching the door as they made their way over.

“Falk, plus two,” His teacher told the guard, getting a small nod in exchange as the door opened to let them in, immediately showing a wide stairway leading down for them to traverse, ending on another door into what was by all accounts a conference room.

With less than twenty people in it, more than a few Ben already knew, the most striking feature of it had to be the enchantments that covered it, dividing the room in two across a large round table, with the other half being filled fully with water for the aquatic races among them, creating an environment where both groups could talk as equals.

Just looking at it, he judged that if something went wrong with the enchantment there’d still be enough water in there for breathing room for either group, but despite how interesting he viewed the arrangement, that wasn’t what caught the majority of his attention.

Sitting at the table with so many others was the satyr from the day before, looking no worse for wear from Thera’s attack and instead seeming mostly bored until they caught his eye, leaving the man to give a broad smirk.

Falk, small hitch on me being on my best behaviour. Ben thought at both his teacher and Thera. The satyr at the table is the one that attacked us.

What? His teacher thought back, his face betraying the silent conversation going through his head. Boy, the table is reserved for the third tiers, everyone behind them are their guests. How… No, never mind. The both of you just keep quiet for now, I’ll help deal with this later if need be. For now, just stand behind me.

Both he and Thera did as Falk told them with the yeti taking the last available seat, all while Ben took in the rest of the room, stretching out with deep connection to get a sense for the rest of them around.

The satyr was the only one he couldn’t read and even when looking through the eyes of either Yuzu or Elvat, it seemed they were both blocked off too, but they weren’t his only options.

Beside Killi, Verbum also had a seat at the table and his skill had less to do with interpreting the information on souls than it did interacting with the system itself, creating a different avenue to go through and letting Ben see the information being hidden from him.

By and large, it was what he would describe as a fairly average status. The man’s attributes were impressive, ranging in the high thousands and to low ten thousands, likely in part thanks to any potions he’d received made from the forbidden gods, but when it came to skills Ben would have described his as underwhelming, with no second tier ones and the highest first tier being the ninth leveled space magic he’d used to attack with the day before.

Considering his seat at the table, Ben would have described him as a disappointment if not for what had earned him his place, not a single skill like the rest of them but instead two of them in the form of the grand-sounding immortality and absolute defense.

Absolute defense huh, I have to assume that’s what’s keeping me from reading his mind or seeing his status, it wouldn’t exactly be absolute if it kept either his thoughts or soul exposed, but… Immortality too. I guess it’s obvious how he survived Thera’s attack and I can pretty easily imagine how he ended up with two awakened skills.

Immortality sat higher on his status, telling him the man, Ben could see his name was Rook, had gotten it first and he could imagine how one would lead into the other. Assuming no attack he could face would kill him, training defensive skills after that point would be easy so long as the holder could put up with any pain attached to it.

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