CH813

“So?” Ben asked the god before him, tapping his foot and waiting for a response while they cleared their throat.

“Ahem, it’s good to see you doing well, Ben,” Nare told him, looking as uncomfortable as he felt. “Congratulations on clearing a new tower.”

“Yeah, no thanks to you, Mister challenge and crafting god. Just out of curiosity, how much of the design did you contribute to the first floor of that one?”

“Ah, we built it so many thousands of years ago at this point, who can really say?”

“I’m sure,” Ben told him dryly. “Myriad tells me you and some of the other crafters had to fix it after our run too, did you guys at least patch up that little design flaw you built into it or are you just going to keep it there to test future participants’ luck too?”

“Ah, altering a trial that’s already been placed in the mortal realm is no easy thing but we did our best and added a ten-second delay for the attacks at the start. Since everyone should be going in to face each tower prepared from the beginning, that should give them all more than enough leeway to react if need be.”

Ben continued to look at the god through narrowed eyes before ultimately shaking his head. “God, I hate trials so fucking much.”

“Alright, but enough harassing Nare about it,” Helori cut in. “We have something a lot more significant to talk about. What are the effects of your new skill already?”

“Mythril blood?” He asked back with a grin. “Still not sure, I’ll hopefully find out when I talk to Verbum tomorrow.”

“Don’t be coy, it isn’t cute. You know what we’re curious about.”

“How did that reveal go up here anyway?”

“Not as bad as I’d thought,” Myriad sighed. “A few unhappy voices but honestly, since we don’t know what might come of it it’s hard for anyone to be mad on that front and as for the idea that it should be disrespectful to us as a basic concept… Well, it’s hard to really say that this is so much worse than how you and we are already using the souls of the forbidden gods for potion-making. As a test case though, however you’re affected by this is going to dictate both how we’ll view this in the future and if we’ll try to do the same thing again before the next wave.”

“That reminds me, what did Quox rule over?” Ben asked, referring to the one whose soul had been trapped in his greenhouse for so long. “I’d thought he was a magic god since he gave Thera a mana regeneration enhancement before I offed him but getting his heart raised my vitality enhancements along with giving me my new blood skill.”

“Growth and gain,” Helori answered. “He’d be compatible with any attribute enhancement, probably inclinations too. Honestly, he would have made for such a handy addition to the world if he wasn’t such a bastard.”

“Okay, interesting and tells me I might be able to claim a few more of both which would be neat but I’m not immediately seeing where my new blood skill comes in.”

“Who’s to say?” The goddess shrugged. “It could be anything. It could even be mostly unrelated. If we assume the name of the skill is literal and that the iron in your blood has been converted to mythril then there’s a chance it’s more related to your connection to Myriad than the heart.”

“Wait, why?”

“He’s the sum of the only known mythril-based life and the biology of his world was able to convert standard iron into that magic metal without the centuries and millennia of mana exposure to make it happen and your connection to your god is a fair bit deeper than most. You hold what? Two titles bearing his name, his blessing, an awakened version of his gift skill and the destined holder title for being the first to awaken it. Hell, given you spend basically every night with him, even if you can’t feel it you’re bathed in his divinity in a way most mortals simply aren’t and it seems like your sacrilege doesn’t deny you any potential positives that there might be to that. That alone could be plenty but when you consider the fact that mana exposure is what alters materials into their magic variety against both the amount of mythril you wear at all times along with the fact that all of the blood in your body had briefly been passing through a mythril heart and it only feels more likely.”

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“Okay, an interesting idea and I see what you’re saying but there’s one problem. The skill name can’t be literal. Once an element is converted by magic its physical and chemical properties change. The iron in my blood would stop carrying oxygen and I’d almost instantly die as a result.”