Uuughh. Myriad, break the rules and talk to me damn it. I need to complain. Or at least bounce suggestions off someone.

Despite his plea though, no words were whispered in his head, no matter how badly he wanted them.

The four with him were all feeling confident. They really had every right to be confident too given what they’d faced so far, there hadn’t been a single challenge they’d struggled with yet, but Ben still couldn’t help but worry.

There’s two floors left and I have no clue if either of them are going to be what Jake went through, and in principle they should be the hardest. I mean, I guess the last two ended up being the easiest in the earth tower, but that seemed more like luck than anything. There’s no way to know if it will actually hold up for us.

He felt stressed, the weight of each of their lives hanging so heavily on his mind, even if there’d been nothing in the tower to cause any real fear yet. Thera had proven consistently that she could cover for all of them, but the fact that his initial plans had gone so wrong left him suffering from his own uncertainty.

But I can’t go and actively try and talk them into leaving when things have actually gone so well either. Augh, damn it.

“So I’m going to ask this again to be safe, but does anyone want to leave?” He tried, wanting to see if the question would bring loose any uncertainty that wasn’t at the front of their minds. “We’re on the third floor, this is the perfect place to head out if you aren’t convinced you’re prepared for the next stages. For the last two, there’s no going back after all, and they’re the ones the gods use to weed people out to get out of having to spend the faith they’ve gotten from this. If you leave now you leave with an excellent blessing which is sure to help you with your future growth.”

He thought it was a reasonable option, all things considered, but not one person took it. They didn’t so much as think it over, each of them feeling too comfortable given how it had gone so far. It wasn’t like there was no concern, but they all felt like they could overcome it together, with a lot of faith going to Thera for how pivotal she’d been so far.

He didn’t try to push the issue beyond that, no matter how complicated he was stuck feeling. He may have tempted them all with the rewards at the top, but they were all adults, and to get anyone to leave would be to take away their chances of growing stronger.

So instead he suppressed his worries as he quietly cooked a meal, alone with his thoughts as his horde of minds looked over all they’d done and what might be left to come.

Man, the whole reason this all started was because I wanted to comfortably enjoy my time with Thera and somehow that’s grown to helping her and Steph get stronger while trying to make the other two awaken, and yeah, I’ve got some other personal greed for making that happen too but this has all really really spiralled out of control. Definitely going to try and manage the whole risk versus reward thing a bit better in the future.

He could only hope that the next two stages would go just as well so he could look back on all of his present worrying as nothing more than his past fears and stresses continuing to pick at him.

Unlike so many past nightmares, the ones that woke him this time had nothing to do with the trials he’d gone through, instead being nothing but screams. Deep, primal things, the sounds of hundreds suffering, trapped and being ripped apart echoing in his head and scratching at his memory, bringing back the couple of seconds he could recall of being connected to so many spirits during the first wave before the shape of his mind had so drastically changed.

“Freaking great,” He muttered as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes before forcing himself up and looking around.

The rest of them were still asleep, using the last chance they had to get the rest they could and regain whatever mana they needed before they’d be forced through the next two floors to whatever was going to await them.

He didn’t want to take that from them by moving around, so instead he waited, using his own magic to make the same seed he’d be trying to force Sachel to again and again, feeling it get just a little easier each time as a pile built up beside him. It took a large part of his inhuman psyche to pull it off, but not all of it, and the bits that were free examined him as he was doing it, trying to refine the process all of the more, wanting to get every chance of success he could for the ridiculous goal.

So much of it is just forcing different minds to remember the exact structure of individual parts while others handle the quantities of each part, but now I have my knowledge skill and the more I can simplify it the easier it will be to pass on to Sachel as well.

There was admittedly plenty where it could go wrong, but even if it failed the first time he had a dozen different ideas on how to make it work in the end. It might take a lot more time than he’d originally wanted, but at worst he would just need to figure out all he could to raise the odds.

Well, I guess that gives me something else to think about for a bit.

He could only imagine his god reacting to such a thing when he’d only had the job for a month, but then, most people with mage jobs couldn’t materialize, and none of them were materializing anything at the level of complexity he could.

Even if it still felt strange to him, his new mind had become one of his greatest assets by far, letting him test some of the limits of the reality he was in.

AVAILABLE JOBS

Trap user Craftsman- alchemy path Craftsman- artistic path Craftsman- blacksmith path Craftsman- cooking path Craftsman- stonecrafts path Craftsman- sewing path Holy craftsman Mathematician Cursed item maker High tank Otherworldly craftsman Destructive craftsman Master adventurer Soul defiling gardener Summoned enchanter Ritual enchanter Divine enchanter Mind master High marksman High destruction mage World killer Material creator Impious creator

Hmm, so two new ones that are advanced versions of my material mage path huh? It’s not like I wasn’t expecting any, but the names seem to imply something a little unexpected.

Namely, both ended with creator instead of mage. At first glance, one might think that both were denoting the fact that he could materialize in general, that particular spell being exceptionally rare, but he had read up on enough advanced mage jobs from affinitied paths that he didn’t think it was the case, or at least not specifically.

If I take the first option at face value, then sure I’ve been materializing plenty of different stuff, but there’s only one thing I’ve created that doesn’t exist in the universe, or at least not since its dawn. If I had to put money down I’d say I was going to get those options the moment I made antimatter, not that I can prove it. Which means the second one is continuing the trend of giving me an advanced option that also helps with my sacrilege.

Impious huh? Not respecting the gods? That feels a little unfair, I respect Myriad plenty.

He gave no consideration to any of the others in the world as he instead switched his train of thought to just what he should take. Originally, he’d been planning on taking mind master for whatever benefit it would give his thought speed skills, hopefully awakening them, but the chances of such a thing weren’t guaranteed, leaving his eyes to drift to one of his new ones.

Impious creator. If it was like all of the other jobs that had gotten some of the sacrilegious flair, it was going to grant major bonuses to everything instead of just his mana and intelligence, and it had one other incredibly tempting feature to it as well. The ever-present chance it would help him reach the third tier of the skill.

And I have to be so freaking close, don’t I? I mean, I have all of these titles that have to be giving it bonuses, not to mention the fact that I’ve got four jobs for it already, and three of them are advanced variants! I mean, probably three, I’m going to assume divine heretic counts. Either way, I’ve gotta have a lot going to it, this might just be the little kick I need to get me over the edge so here we go. I’m taking impious creator.

Name: Ben Heph

Race: Human

Titles: Apostle of Myriad, The Forgotten One, Miracle Maker, Skill learner, Enemy of Eneth, Trial Defier, Trial Breaker, Godslayer, Monster, Madman, God killer, Threat, The mad apostle, Destined holder of Connect, God of Destruction, Creator of Life

Jobs: Impious creator (lv 0)

Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman, Priest, Enchanter, Mind user, Magic item maker, Magic weapon maker, High enchanter, Fractured mind user, Tree tamer, High craftsman, Apprentice mage, True mage, Tank, Heretic, Adventurer, Divine heretic, Kin, Master craftsman, Master enchanter, Scholar, Connected enchanter, Infernal craftsman, Marksman, Destruction mage, Material mage, High material mage, Profane enchanter, Master material mage

Attributes:

Vitality: 992 Vitality recovery rate: 26/hr Mana: 892 Mana recovery rate: 64/min Strength: 815 Agility: 264 Stamina: 2158 Intelligence: 3438

Affinities:

Light: 3 Life: 2 Fire: 4 Water: 3 Air: 4 Earth: 2 Death: 3 Dark: 1 Space: 4 Time: 5

Resistances:

Light: 68 Life: 72 Fire: 75 Water: 69 Air: 66 Earth: 81 Death: 78 Dark: 85 Space: 63 Time: 61

Blessed skills:

Unending crafting lv3* Divine enchanting lv3* Unnatural mind lv1*

Passive skills:

King of sacrilege lv9* Bind Integrated demonic body lv6 Defense enhancement lv6 Absorption resistance lv6 Knowledge lv1* All affinity resistance enhancement lv4 Lesser inspiration lv5 Fine motor control lv2

Active skills:

Stealth lv1 Deep connection lv1* Cycling lv1 Marksmanship lv3 Material manipulation lv3* Swimming lv1 Dance lv0 Rapid thought speed lv9 Thought speed enhancement lv9 Mental symbiosis lv3

Blessings:

Myriad’s Blessing Anailia’s Blessing Helori’s Blessing Galwax’s Blessing Elvat’s mana regeneration Blessing Eneth’s Blessing Earth Pantheon’s Blessing

Trials:

Trial of Anailia and Tolona Trial of the Dead God Earth tower

So not enough to help push me over that edge then. Lame but okay.

It was a slim chance from the start so he didn’t let it get to him. Instead, he went back to his magic, making more seeds for whatever bits of job experience that would give him in the free time he had.

“Okay, so here’s the rundown of what we have left assuming we get lucky,” Ben began once everyone was up and fed. “From what I know Jake went through, the fourth floor involves using a bunch of different animal parts to build chimeras to complete a series of tasks, from flying and swimming to reach targets, digging, combat, and a couple others. It’s another on a time limit and it doesn’t seem easy, but if we get it, it’s at least mostly safe assuming you guys can put together multiple chimeras.”

All eyes turned to Thera and Steph as he said it, with both of them seeming uncertain yet confident they could manage.

“I haven’t done anything like that myself, but I’ve at least read a bit on the topic,” Steph admitted.

“And I have some hands-on experience. It admittedly didn’t go great, but that was before I awakened my skill. I’m sure I can manage now.”

“Not the level of confidence I’m looking for when we might die, but okay,” Ben sighed. “As for the floor after that, it’s also simple, along with being pretty comparable to the last one we just did, only instead of having a weakening effect on you, your life force is being drained. It’s also a timed one, but unlike the last we won’t actually be shown the time limit, probably for whatever psychological effects that would cause. Of course, that doesn’t particularly matter when you have knowledge from someone who’s gone through it. It’s about a day long of constantly replacing vitality.”

“Didn’t you say before that we should only be dealing with life mana at this point?” Steph asked, clearly confused. “That sounds like a death spell.”

“At high enough levels there’s no real difference,” Sonya answered for her, wearing a thoughtful face as she looked at the two awakened life mages present. “And it’s obvious that I, Sachel and Ben aren’t going to be much help for any of that. Do you two really think you’ll be able to carry the three of us?”

Yes! That’s my wonderful Sonya, acting as a voice of reason!

His elation lasted for only a second before being crushed by the swift nods of the other two.

“Don’t worry aunty, I have more than enough mana to cover everyone. This will be fine.”

And that’s my wonderful girlfriend tying my stomach in knots with her confidence.

It was clear they felt good about it and were more than ready to go, so in the end he hung his head as he dug through his bag, pulling out the few things he had that he thought would be useful before the spatial effect on it was blocked.

He made sure each person carried a few potions on them as he stuffed his own pockets with all he could to be safe before they walked through the door, finally on the latter half of the trial and not seeing the animal parts there should have been, instead appearing amongst a horde of full fledge monsters, with even more of them running in the distance.

Well, fuck.