CH880

To some of his greatest surprise that day, Mora was asleep when he went to pick him up, the body the boy had made needing rest that had trapped his true self in its thrall while Fontesh did her best to keep her daughter from poking and prodding at him as Ben scooped him up and carried him home, left to reflect on his thoughts as he went.

It had only taken ten minutes of soul production to get that job level but each one was harder than the last. He was going to need to keep at it constantly and really strain his soul if he wanted the maximum results for it, even as he wondered just whose job was acting as such a resource sink.

Was outsider really so extreme? He could certainly believe it would be difficult to raise and even with what he was seeing it didn’t seem like it would be remotely as hard as world killer had been but as things were it was still going to take him days to complete.

And if it’s Abel’s job then I need to be prepared for some other third tier’s job to slow me down in the future. Ugh, which means that I can’t even use this as a good way of judging how much experience my current mental structure gives me.

Actually, my mind should be generating third-tier levels of experience. Can I actually be certain that this isn’t taking the same amount as world killer right now? God, it better freaking not be when it’s not giving me the same scale of attributes.

Just the idea felt annoying but he tried to suppress it. He knew he could get through it, even if it would be longer than he’d like and more importantly, he had other things to think about.

Beyond the change to his blessing and by all accounts becoming the child of chaos, he’d gained two new skills for it and one new bonus as well. While he’d seen the multiversal bonuses that outsider had granted him before when he’d taken multiversal material mage, bonuses to outsider skills were completely new.

Especially because what’s the difference? I may still not be certain about what multiversal skills even are but aren’t outsiders a part of the multiverse or is the system counting the space between as something different? Or maybe this is an all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares type of thing? Multiversal skills cover everything and outsider skills cover the space between universes specifically? If that was the case then that would mean the one job is letting any outsider skills I have double dip which would be cool if I actually had any.

The only one that might have qualified was rule bender but considering there was only a single rule he really knew how to bend, he wasn’t holding his breath, though he did now have one more that might count for one of those bonuses purely on a technicality.

Multiversal inclination should be getting my multiversal bonuses but then we circle back to the issue that I have no clue what skills that inclination should help grow and ugh, I just want to consult Verbum but if any god up there notices that I’ve already raised evil god of sacrilege through him then it’s going to be a huge pain in the ass. If I can distract Mora after he sees it then there’s a good chance he won’t be thinking about it for weeks, Verbum I’d have no such luck. Which reminds me, I really should do some testing before Mora wakes up. Myriad Myriad Myriad?

<What what what?>

Need your attention briefly, gonna test if you can detect people around me I’m trying to block off so just let me know if it looks like anyone around me disappears.

Trying to not extend the effects to himself, Ben directed his sacrilege to Mora and also the few people walking in his direction, doing his best to cover five different ones at varying ranges and waiting only for an answer that his god was quick to give.

<Well, Mora just vanished from your arms it looked like, along with five people around you? And I need to say, I really don’t like this skill.>

Yeah? You’re gonna like it even less when we talk later then.

<Ugh.>

His god’s worries were of no matter, what did was his success. He could block the sight of the gods from not only himself but also the people he wanted, ensuring just a little privacy and with any luck, a delay in how long it would take them to notice the levels he’d gained and would continue to gain to some of his more problematic skills.

Which means I am going to have to keep this up basically any time I’m around Mora but that’s fine, it’s just extra practice.

“Alright, what happened today then?” Myriad asked him, sounding in despair. “I can tell there’s something so out with it already.”

“Before that, weren’t you guys going to try and get me some more gods I could connect to? What’s going on with that?”

“We’ll have a few coming through later and if any are late you can just pop up during the day. Now tell me already you little nightmare, what happened?”

“Did you just try to give me little nightmare as a title?”

“No, but if you’d gained it it would have been completely appropriate. Now stop avoiding the question.”

“Ugh, okay, fine. What do you guys want first? The news that’s going to make the other gods want to kill me or the news that’s gonna make them want to enslave me?”

“…I change my mind, I don’t want either.”

“Tell us the news that’s gonna bother the rest,” Helori sighed. “Considering how a few already feel about you, how bad could it be?”

“I leveled evil god of sacrilege.”

Helori froze at the statement, left blinking while Myriad let out a pained whine before the goddess went on.

“Oh, so you really did it… Alright, that’s going to be pretty bad.”

“Exceptionally bad,” Myriad groaned. “I knew you were trying to do it, you stupid, bastard of an apostle, and I even believed you would, but two days! Only two damnable days since you awakened that skill and caused such a fuss and you’ve already managed it!”

“I mean, it actually took longer than I was expecting and I’d needed my new sacrilege job to push it over the edge, but yeah. Even if it’s taking millennia in my head, it looks like I can manage this.”

“I hate you. You and all you stand for.”

“Mean thing to say to your strongest, most productive believer.”

“My most stressful, psychotic believer. Ugh, can you at least keep it hidden for a month? Just one month, that’s all I ask so that when word does get out it looks marginally less terrible than it really is?”

“Well, when Mora’s around me I’m going to be blocking him from any watching gods so as long as nobody peeks into his head when he happens to be thinking about it then we’ll be fine, but Myriad, delaying the reveal won’t make things better.”

“Of course it won’t, that’s still a level in a single fucking month but it’s better than a couple of days!”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I more meant because within a month’s time I’ll have another level too, maybe even more if I can help it.”

“…Helori, I’m done,” Myriad said, sounding on the verge of tears. “I don’t have the energy to convince the rest of the gods to not throw him into hell when he so clearly wants every one of them to try.”

“Myriad, buddy, look at it this way. No mortal’s gotten past the first level of a third-tier skill before, right?”

“I’m not about to be swayed by how oh-so-impressive it would be for you to do it, Ben.”

“Not the point. If I get to, let’s say even the third level, what are they going to be able to do to me? Like, really, there was already a suspicion that even when it was only king of sacrilege, nobody would be able to rip out my soul and condemn me and now I’m comfortable saying that’s going to be absolutely impossible. Who’s to say that if I get to the third level that anyone’s going to be able to do anything to me at all? I might already be immune to the threats of the gods but if I’m not, so long as I keep getting stronger then I sure will be.”