CH717

Back at the shop, Ben looked at both what he had and what he’d need, with the answer to the latter being largely vague when the only thing he’d really been told about his coming quest was that it was centered around watching as another group fought.

Still, there was one obvious standout, more apparent than anything else. His jacket, his strongest line of defense that he’d filled with tens of thousands of souls to take advantage of that he was going to have to leave behind for exactly that fact.

If he was being honest with himself he had to admit that he was in a horribly messy place with his training. He was trying to avoid overusing it which meant trying to avoid that one aspect of connect when that was the very skill he was pinning his hopes on trying to awaken. If he could and if it pulled in his divine enchanting like he so desired then in theory he’d be able to add third-tier skills to his rings to enchant with on the fly, making new items as needed when trying to deal with Oaun.

A skill he then wouldn’t be able to use any other aspect of around that same god for the fact that every other major part of it meant his soul would be expanding out of his body, leaving the safety of his vessel to expose it to a god of souls. Even if his other goal was to awaken sacrilege as well, he couldn’t count on the changes that would come with that to keep him safe.

Which created the horrible conundrum of the fact that he wanted to get to the third tier for a skill he couldn’t constantly use at its full potential. So long as he got to the ninth level of it he could think of options to push it over the edge but as it was he was slowing himself down.

“But I need to slow myself down because I can’t be relying on having infinite freaking power when facing the strongest god in the galaxy and probably this whole stupid universe,” He complained, trying to rub the forming headache out of his temples as he went. “Which really means I shouldn’t be using any non-enchanting application for it either but if I draw that line then I’m never going to get enough practice for leveling it and if I do get it to the third tier then that’s something I’ll have to consider but… Yeah, this isn’t helping. I’ve already said I’m not using the stupid jacket which means I’m making myself something new to wear for whatever defense it will give out there and seeing how I’m not the biggest armour person, that just means I’m designing an even newer jacket to use. And pants too. Okay, plan made so let’s get started.”

He walked over to his warehouse and pulled out his clones, getting bodies moving to pull materials he had stored to essentially remake the one he already had while adding any improvements he saw fit along the way.

Leather was cut and stitched, an inner lining was made and meshed and the entire structure of it was enhanced with any magic materials he could add in, creating wires and alloys that threaded through the entire thing while powders were forced within the leather itself for what bits of strength and magic resistance it would grant while the entire thing was being enchanted.

It wouldn’t have the benefits of what extra strength the church of Myriad would get for acting as a receptacle for his god’s faith but it did have the benefit of the additional levels he’d claimed for himself since he’d done his last serious renovation on the old one, making up for that small loss in every way except for the power it held. It would be even safer than the old one, with the church not having gotten to enjoy the time or faith needed for it to properly mature as a defensive structure and he was happy to slip it on, feeling right at home as he did.

“Oh god, without looking I’ve become a jacket guy. It just feels so good and right.”

The defensive properties of it would be top-notch too which was what was going to be most important but a part of him couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be until they’d be breached like the church had so often been in the past. It may have been the pessimist in him but it did at times feel like no matter how well he constructed something, something else was always going to come along to knock it down.

<Then make real armour for yourself.> Myriad told him as the god popped into his head. <If there was ever going to be a time it’s now.>

“Look Myriad, on the one hand, you’re absolutely correct, but on the other, and I want to stress this, I’m not actually a fighter. I haven’t trained to deal with all of the issues that come with wearing armour no matter how good I can make it for myself and I don’t have time to get good at it now. I just have to hope that little fact doesn’t eventually bite me in the ass.”

<What a disgusting way of tempting fate. It’s good you made a will since you basically just told me you plan to die.>

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I’ve told you how I think things will go since I’ve been back and there’s no fate in this reality to tempt. That reminds me though, I should ask the grey if it looks like any other universe has anything like that. They’ve looked around, they’ve probably seen a couple.”

<I’m pretty sure the creatures of an entirely deterministic universe wouldn’t be ensouled. Fate rather heavily clashes with the idea of free will.>

“Are they completely incompatible?”