How many times do I have to tell you, not happening.

Ben could only groan. When he’d made the mistake of admitting to both his god and himself that he was interested in Thera those few months prior it had been in a moment of weakness when he was unsure about what to do about it and because of that Myriad hadn’t shut up since.

Look, maybe she does like me, I’ll admit that’s kind of the impression I get when I practice connecting with her anyway, but that’s meaningless if she doesn’t want to get romantically involved with anyone regardless. Now are we going to keep talking about this or can I focus on the church?

It was finally complete in all of its glory. Two stories with two basements as well, he had a lot of space to fill up for his own uses, but the main area left for visitors of all sorts was what he was currently dedicated to, filling the walls with small metal plates.

It had been his idea and he thought it was quite the good one, filling the walls with tiles, each of which had a skill enchanted to it with its name and level written down. It created an environment where Myriad’s believers would want to come to make copies of them and was a place where the effects of connect could be fully felt. With that goal clear the day had been spent copying the effects of his numerous skill rings, but despite that, his god wasn’t budging.

Make it a quest and I’ll think about it.

I’m sure Sachel can handle that, for now let me just finish up in peace.

With only a little more nagging from his god he was able to finish up with the enchantments before moving on to the next part of setting up the church, the private areas. He fully intended to use almost all of the extra space for his own purposes, and given the hundreds of books he now had, he needed to put together shelves before arranging everything.

As far as things went it was a surprisingly quick task. He already had his wood cut and ready, it just came down to assembly, only taking a bit over an hour to do. From there he arranged the shelves before looking them all over in the end.

Yep, it’s perfect. What do you think Myriad?

Yeah, but now I can start moving things I don’t need in here as well. Trust me, it’ll fill up before you know it.

Hey now, I did it because it was convenient. If you were against it I would have just made the entire place smaller.

Hey, no patiently waiting for my inevitable demise.

Once done with the church, happy to finally have it in the state he wanted, he went home for the day, walking into the smell of food filling the room as he went to the kitchen and finding Thera standing over a pan, hair tied back as she focused on her cooking, only looking away from it to greet him with a smile.

“Hey, how was the day?” She asked him warmly, piercing his heart as he tried to keep anything from showing on his face. Since she’d gained the zeroth level of cooking, walking into a domestic scene like that had become all the more common, though he still tended to do most of it himself, and each time it made him flash back to the first meal she’d tried making for him.

“Uh, yeah, it went well. I’m all done with it for now. How about you? Just practiced spirit empowering?”

It hadn’t taken long for her to learn just what the skill was good for. Unlike great spirits, regular spirits took much longer to regain any mana spent, at a speed comparable to mortals. Thera’s skill she’d gained after taking the spirit mage job let her bypass that by sharing her mana with them, though there was some loss along the way, so she’d taken to devoting a bit of practice to it when she was able to find any spirits passing through who were willing to help.

“No spirits in town today so no, just helped at the clinic and did a bit of my earth magic. Anyway, since you’re here before it's ready, what do you think? Anything I can do to improve it?”

He poked his head over her shoulder to see what she was making and found a dish native to Anailia, diced meat in a thick purple sauce that he took a spoonful of to taste.

“It’s good, maybe take it off the heat for a bit and add some ground inis to season it, like half a spoonful, but you’re really getting the hang of this. You probably don’t need me to cook for you at all anymore,” He joked as he smiled while she gave him a gentle nudge with her elbow.

“I’d much rather eat your cooking than do it myself so don’t go quitting on me yet. I’d miss your food,” She told him with a small laugh before realising she might have said something embarrassing and a gentle golden blush touched her face, all but captivating him.

Why are you the one dreaming about it?

And for the millionth time, not going to. Now ease up before I tear down the church, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten any sacrilege levels after all.

… Look, this is something I need to figure out myself, do you think you could just let it be while I work on it?

With that bit of peace returned to him he focused back on Thera, content to spend the time chatting and cooking together.