CH752

“You want to try and negotiate now?”

“Is there any reason not to?”

A good reason for Ben was that he comfortably felt like he already had a foot out the door when it came to life on that planet. Agreeing would mean staying and committing to helping instead of just taking whoever he felt like and running off to the first safe planet he could find. It would mean taking the hit and slowing down his growth where plenty of gods still didn’t like him and it would mean ultimately putting his life on the line. Wouldn’t it be better and easier on him to just turn it all down and run off with the people he cared about?

His minds flashed to people he didn’t know. Faces of those he’d never shared a word with but passed on the street each day and he sighed. “Fine, let’s negotiate. What are the odds I can get some more blessings for my work then? You said the ones you gave me were to show that I am at least somewhat appreciated and sorry but I fully intend to take them as such, not partial payment.”

“I’d expect no less, but as for other blessings… it’s unlikely.”

“Not enough remaining gods like me enough to wanna give in, huh?”

“Partially but not exactly. The mind gods seemed willing to an extent when I spoke to them but not many of the ones that qualify as such are particularly powerful, they’d feel the hit more than most. As for the crafting gods, well, they seem like they’d be happy to but they’d prefer you acquire it a different way.”

“What, how?”

“I’m sure you’re clever enough to take a guess.”

“…I’ll think about it.”

It wasn’t like he didn’t have an idea, Nare had been pretty motivated he do something that would land him their collective blessing before the first wave but he pushed that thought to the side for the moment. He hadn’t actually expected the request to be accepted and it seemed the Phixth was used to him enough by that point to understand that as he waited for a real offer while Ben put his thoughts together, trying to figure out what would be best for him.

If he was staying on the planet then he still needed to awaken his two skills and he still needed to grow further, meaning he needed to think about how to compensate for how slowed he was about to be trying to help the third tiers and how to ensure that whatever he got would still help him in the long run as he mind flashed through his current job options before he spoke again.

“Alright, first off and non-negotiable, I need the guy currently in charge of the adventurers’ guild fired,” He began, holding up a hand before Phixth could say anything. “I’m not going to deny I’m being a bit petty but there’s a far bigger reason here for that. A person in charge of one of the largest organizations on the planet cannot be being swayed by the random whims of any god, especially not a multinational organization like that. He’s proven he’s not fit for the role and that needs to be rectified.”

“I understand and I don’t disagree. That at least I can confirm will be done. I assume there’s more though?”

“Yes. Second and also non-negotiable, despite what you’ve already said, I want Duna’s blessing. This one is entirely me being petty.”

“…Can I ask why?”

“Because as a rule, I intend to get a blessing from any god that tries to screw me over. While I’m personally hoping it will one day act as a nice little deterrence factor, for now, it really is just to make a point and if my help really is as important as you think then a single blessing from one god shouldn’t be too much to ask.”

“…I’ll discuss that with the others but it might be a harder sell. Giving a blessing isn’t easy no matter how casual we might make it look.”

“What, do you think speeding through jobs is?”

“Is it not?”

“…If I was just going to be helping second tiers to finish their jobs then yeah, honestly it would be pretty easy. Third-tier jobs are different though. The way I finish them involves pulling massive volumes of mana into myself and aside from a pretty significant amount of pain it causes, more than once I’ve damaged my soul doing it. There is absolutely a cost to this to me that doesn’t make what you’re asking some easy thing. Plus, that’s not to mention that doing that kills my mana growth rate. There’s actually a lot of personal negatives to me doing this.”

Phixth was silent for a moment, neither having known or expected such a thing and it forced him to consider the request more before answering.

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“Alright, I can’t promise it but I’ll at least do my best to push for it as I talk to the others but I assume you have something more than just paying out your grievances?”

“Well, yeah, let’s get to the meat of this then. I currently have at least thirty-three jobs and I’ll almost certainly get some advanced options after completing a few too. Let me finish most of those and then I’ll leave, what? Fifteen options after? That should cover the twelve third-tiers as well as leave some room for if any of them got advanced options and I’ll bring whoever you want into my first few parties. Wait, actually, scratch part of that. Eleven third-tiers, I refuse to help Rook no matter what you say and I won’t be helping the believers of Duna, Eneth, or Olensia but that was probably predictable by this point.”

“Not the most surprising and as for Rook, well, It’s not like any of us know where he is at the moment. To be clear, he’s not gone forever, correct?” The god asked him with a pointed look while Ben shrugged.