CH859

“Alright, so how’s my body doing down there right now?” Ben asked his god, the cube’s exasperation coming off of him in waves.

“I’d say you’re ninety percent healed which, to be clear, means you’re still a complete mess.”

“Eh, ninety percent rounds up, I should finally be good enough.”

“To go down and face the music for nearly killing yourself in front of so many people who love you?” Helori asked him, easily imagining there being some choice words from the group below while he just gave her a look.

“What? No, obviously not. Each time my mind’s grown stronger I’ve been able to connect to higher beings more safely, I need to make sure that holds true for the third tier while I’m still surrounded by healers. Helori, come over here and give me your hand. Nare, you’re next.”

The realm fell silent, none of them believing what they were hearing, even if for Myriad in particular the reason was different.

“Ben, I’ve already experienced the new power of your mind, you’ll be fine.”

“Eh, trust but verify. I’m sure I’ll be fine too but if I ever need to connect to another god for any reason, I want to be sure that there isn’t some aspect to them besides their mental power that might harm me.”

“If there was then your sacrilege would almost certainly cover it too.”

“And yet, none of that reassurance is as important as taking the time to actually verify so if you would?” He said, waving his hand in Helori’s direction. “After you and Nare then I’ll probably try the both of you at the same time too and if that doesn’t hurt either then we’ll throw Myriad into the mix to be sure. Just a small, quick round of testing with you all and then I’ll go down to face whatever music’s waiting for me.”

“…If this hurts you again I’m taking no responsibility,” The goddess gave in, accepting his hand and watching Ben grin.

“Wouldn’t expect you to. Now, without further ado…”

He formed the connection between them, feeling aspects of her divine mind imprint on his own, just as Myriad’s had before her but otherwise being left unchanged for it, even as what else came with the connection left him staring into her in a way that made Helori shift under his gaze.

“What?”

“I’m seeing system information on you.”

Something he hadn’t remotely expected, something he hadn’t noticed in his own god at the time with the trauma that first connection had left on the whole of his existence, but he could see two qualities listed within her, clear as any of the skills he could see listed in a mortal, with her natures as both a mind and magic goddess laid bare before him and leaving Nare to speak up.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“A side effect,” The god sighed. “And a useless one at that. The system has a species-wide intelligence limit to the souls it binds with and while it wasn’t expected when I first started making it, deities count. There was some excitement for it at first of course but the truth is inescapable. We’re powerful but not beings capable of growth, the limits of our divinities dictated by the faith we receive. It has led to us being marginally better at using that faith but unfortunately, it seems that’s all.”