CH937

Hey, so I’ve got a small question for you. Ben thought to the heavens as he stood in the street, wanting the distraction while he waited.

<Alright, what is it this time?> Myriad asked him. <And why are you in Allfaith right now?>

Not important. So here’s the thing, Mora took a job today, just for fun but it got me thinking, what sort of jobs do gods get? You’re part of the system, and you can’t tell me none of you have ever gotten curious enough to dip down and touch a job crystal, so are there any interesting results for it?

<Oh, that. Well, you’re right enough about the other gods getting curious when they discovered they were integrated into the system, but we don’t get options when we try.>

Seriously? Not even any lame ones entirely tied to whatever the god’s domain is?

<Nope, we may have it bound to us, but it gives us nothing else, almost like it’s rejecting doing anything more than the demands of its design.>

Mmh, I guess if someone turned me into a tool, I wouldn’t be inclined to give them much help either. Still, pretty lame. Not even the ascended gods buck that trend?

<Nope.>

Hmm, equal parts interesting and disappointing. Kind of sad to hear I won’t be able to keep up with doing it when I get up there, might have to see if I can either find a workaround or else somehow bargain with the system into letting me keep getting them. Me and it both probably hold a semi-comparable hatred for the gods of the world, I’m sure we could come to an understanding.

<It’s not a conscious being deciding to hate gods.>

And yet, I’m still willing to try if it comes down to it. If I could keep taking jobs into godhood, then who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to make sure I come out ahead of the rest of you.

<You have two levels to evil god of sacrilege already, how much more ahead are you looking for?>

Just enough that all of the gods of the world couldn’t stop me if I decided I wanted to do something. You know, very normal ambitions.

<Psychopath.>

Stop trying to give me titles like that. If it sticks, I’m gonna stop putting your name on things.

<Yeah, yeah, so again, why are you trying to kill some time in Allfaith? Last time I saw you, you were running on your little machine.>

Treadmill, and… okay, so the point of that was to try and squeeze a bit more into my attributes before I get to awakening. This is a similar attempt.

<…You’re getting a soul mage for something, aren’t you?>

Ding ding ding, we have a winner! But can you guess why?

<No, and I don’t want to. Nothing good comes from you playing coy. Although I do want to mention that even if you block the other gods, someone up here is going to catch her thinking about the things going on in your status when you’re not around to block her.>

You seriously think I haven’t thought of that? I’m already working on it. In fact, there they are right now.

He could see Thera with Yuzu in the distance, letting him wave at them both as they made their way over, even if the soul mage looked mildly uncomfortable as she came.

“Hey Yuzu, you kind of look like you’re struggling there.”

“The fact that you sent Thera out to me specifically to tell me you need a hand and that I can’t use my soul sight on you while I do it tells me that there’s something going on in your soul worth seeing, of course I’m struggling. So, what is it exactly you need?”

“I’m looking for you to cast a few powerful spells on me. Hopefully, it will just be a few hours of your time, so if you wouldn’t mind coming along?”

“Fine, where are we going?”

“First stop, we need to see Thera’s mom. I need to get directions.”

The brief visit to Pelenia gave him the directions they needed as Thera flew them all out beyond the city’s limits, into the surrounding farmland where many of the succubi’s crops would be grown until eventually, the more normal plants any of them would expect to see took on a change. No longer passing through fields of vegetables and grains, they found themselves standing before an expanse of strange fruit trees, stretching out beyond what any of their eyes could see while displaying plainly magical effects.

One chilled the environment around it, to a point that Ben could feel the temperature drop from where he was standing as they got closer, while another gave off a subtle light in its leaves. Compared to those two, the third looked almost plain, with that variety only taking on a strange, chitinous look that didn’t exactly leave its fruits appealing, but none of that mattered. What did was the fact that what he was seeing was the result of three of his remaining god crystals, their effects warping the forms they were forced in.

Though it looked like a vast grove of trees, in reality there were only three, each stalk connected by a root system underground to make sure everything remained connected to the trapped gods souls, allowing the various workers walking the area to harvest what was being forcibly grown to produce more of the divine potions strengthening the world.

With one of those workers having noticed him. Not any of the succubi or incubi out harvest fruit but one with a more important role with a dryad calling out to him, a misunderstanding already there.

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“Bloom!” The woman yelled out happily, her eyes locked onto him with the name bringing three more dryadic heads popping out of the woods as all four rushed over, taking on a more confused look as they got closer and their excitement faded. “Wait, are you-”

“I’m not,” Ben was quick to correct, watching as their looks turned instead to polite disappointment. “He just modelled his form after me, which is why we share a resemblance. I’m Ben. I believe I helped you all awaken your magics.”

“Oh, hello again,” the one speaking said in a far more collected way as all of them politely lowered their heads, even if they gave off a small air of disappointment. “Apologies for the mistake, we’re still deeply grateful for the help you gave us.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve just come to look at the trees here a bit under the authority of Queen Pelenia, but I’ll stay out of everyone’s way. If our presence is interfering with anyone’s work here, just let us know and we’ll try to work it out.”

“Alright, should you need anything, then you can get any worker around to find us.”

The dryads walked back to the trees to continue their work, leaving the three of them to stand in a silence that Ben was the first to break.

“So, how long do you think till Bloom’s got a few children?”

“I think I don’t want to think about my uncle having a harem of women around him,” Thera said, putting her head in her hands. “He’s only existed for what, a month?”