“You know, I’ve never wanted to push the issue, but I’m just saying if you and her were to produce children I’d be able to get a couple believers that could potentially live a thousand years. Just something to think about if you feel like doing more to secure the stability of my faith.”

“Really, that’s the first thing you bring up? I just got here,” Ben told his god, already not feeling the conversation. Being a bit tempted by a friend he was close to was normal enough as far as humans went, but actually making a pass wasn’t happening.

Myriad seemed to be mostly joking anyway, not that he would have minded such a thing, but switched conversations easily enough. “In that case, would you rather discuss your ambitions of trapping a soul to be used for eternity?”

“Absolutely! Do you think it’s actually possible?” He asked with enthusiasm, not picking up the dread in his god's voice.

“The problem is that it’s all too possible! The moment I heard you float the idea and could see how instantly captivated with it you’d become I had to immediately rush to Anailia to discreetly ask about the implications of such a thing! You do get that sounds evil, right?”

“I mean, I guess? I already hunt animals for parts though, that’s just one more part to use.”

“...It’s an excellent thing that the forbidden gods didn’t have the option to try and take you as a believer.”

“Hey, all of you gods agreed to collect two hundred souls specifically to force into your war, I don’t think there’s much moral high ground here.”

“Honestly, fair enough,” The cube relented after a moment's thought.

“So then what did Anailia say about it?”

“That you’re lucky you’ve already made a good impression on her if you’re going to try something like that. She can’t guarantee what the other gods would say, but it should be alright so long as you don’t publish however you accomplish it and you don’t try it on any of the sapient races. She was extra clear on that last bit and so am I; if you even try to trap the soul of a single person on this would, you’ll be executed immediately and condemned to the infinite hells, regardless of the rules about how mortal punishment is handled.”

“No worries on that front, even I can tell that would be unethical. Just to be clear though, where do demons fall as far as experimental materials go?”

“Pfff, you won’t find a single god in the world that cares what you do with them. In fact, I’m fairly sure many gods would actively approve of you doing something like that, so if you insist on trying it out once you’re skilled enough be sure that’s what you go for.”

“Will do. On a similar note, I’ve got a small favour to ask you.”

“I’m not the best choice to teach you magic,” Myriad said, seeing the question in Ben’s thoughts. “I’ve told you, the way my race used it is far different from the current standard.”

“Sure, but I’m also going to be modeling my enchantment off of your designs. I’ll be reading up on different spells that are currently used anyway, and I have Sonya and Falk to bother about it too, but it doesn’t hurt to have a different perspective on things.”

Myriad thought quietly for a moment. It was true that it would do no harm to teach him, and a part of him did regret the fact that his race's means of using magic was essentially a lost art in the current day. Even if it would only be revitalized as enchanting techniques instead of the true ritual magic he specialized in, it was nice to think the knowledge he had could be used.

“Alright, there’s no harm so I’ll teach you when you’re done in the village. It does make it a bit more of a shame you don’t have the talent for magic yourself, with the way you’ve sprouted extra minds you could have potentially acted as a ritual mage without needing to rely on the help of others.”

“No need to remind me,” He said dryly before changing the subject. “Anyway, about the village, do you have any ideas for how I can earn a bit more faith for you?”

“I honestly think that so long as you keep doing what you’re doing it will go fine. Why, are you feeling rushed?”

“A bit,” He admitted. “There can only be so many bats living in the woods, I doubt I’ll be able to finish everything I want to before the rest of them are done with their hunt so a quicker way of winning people over would be handy.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ll have time. They’d have to not only get the ones currently there, but also the surrounding area after all, which won’t necessarily be as easy as drawing the ones in a known space like their sacred woods.”

“Mmh, true I guess.”

“Well, I’ll look into something and let you know if it would be an option so be a little patient,” Myriad could tell that Ben still wanted some alternatives he could fall back on, and since it would be helping himself earn a bit more faith in the end it would be worth the effort.

Eventually, when he and his god were done he woke up to start the day's work but found himself unexpectedly trapped.

Um, Myriad? Just how should I get out of this?

<Why bother? Just wait it out and enjoy.>

Not helpful. 

It seemed like during the night Thera had started using him as a pillow and was holding onto him tighter than he could easily escape without waking her. Since the sun had only just started to rise he didn’t want to ruin her rest, but he was burning daylight, so slowly and carefully he pulled himself from her grip before making his way outside to start splitting the logs he’d dried the other day, cutting them into the shapes he’d need to replace the rotten boards of the fence.

Once that was done he gave each a light coat of oil before finally removing the rotten ones and replacing them with what he’d so painstakingly made, before giving the older posts he didn’t need to replace a coat as well.

Once he was done he looked at his work and smiled, taking a moment to forget about just how much more he had to do.

If I don’t look at the house behind me I have nothing to be stressed about.

<Why not prepare more boards in the meantime for when you get to the rest of the village's fences?>

An excellent idea! I’m going to need the others to prepare more trees for me anyway by the looks of it, six definitely wasn’t enough to do everything.

His next task decided he went back to cutting the logs into the lengths he would need before splitting them into boards, once again cursing out the fact that he was forced to live in the stone age like this and desperately missing the shop.

Am I at least getting experience to my crafting skill for going through all of this?

<You’re crafting, of course it’s getting experience.>

Okay, but like, good experience. The kind that will help me level up the skill faster, not a trickle in an ocean.

<I can’t be positive, but I don’t think it would be terrible at least. The skill grows as you push yourself and create great things. I’m not sure about the second part, but you’re definitely pushing yourself, I’m just glad you have a companion to force you to sleep at night. It would be rather inconvenient if you worked yourself to death.>

“Ben, would you have some time,” Fontesh asked, having no idea she’d interrupted his talk with his god. Not that he particularly cared, but if people ever found out they seemed to get nervous.

“Of course, what can I do for you?”

“Well since everyone else is still asleep I thought we’d put off breakfast, and a few more of the villagers asked if I’d take you to their homes to work on some of their enchantments.”

“Of course! Let’s head out immediately then.”

It seemed word spread fast in a small community like this, especially when it came to someone like him. As an outsider in a tight-knit and closed-off town like this, people would naturally be talking, and even more so when they heard what he was doing. He didn’t want to brag, but the enchantments he’d seen the villagers using were rather clumsily put together. It was almost certain they’d come from someone with only level three or four in the skill. At level five currently and having it as his blessed skill anyone could immediately feel the difference in mana cost when they tried his tools out, even without the benefit of having a magic affinity tied to it to reduce the cost further. It would only be a matter of time before one by one they all came to ask for his help.

ProbablyATurnip

Alright everyone pull out the party hats cause with this chapter I should be officially past 1000 pages on both scribblehub and royalroad! Since both sites calculate it differently I had to wait to celebrate but here we are and it feels great!

It's honestly a little hard to believe that I've written so much these past fifteen months, that's basically three whole books right there, but it's been a fun hobby to get into and I'm enjoying every second of it. something like ninety percent of all of my waking thoughts now feel like they go to thinking about what I want to happen in this, where I want to go, what needs to happen to get there and what ideas need to be cut or rearranged for the sake of time and progress and it's always fun to try and work out.

Of course, I still have a buttload of room to grow and I'm definitely going to keep stumbling along the way as I write, but I hope you all continue to enjoy as I do my best to make something entertaining. Unfortunately I still absolutely suck at estimating how long anything I write will end up, but I'm sure there's going to be well over another thousand pages to go before I get to the end (and then maybe an afterstory to tie up any loose ends and also because I just like that sort of thing).

Anyway, this ended up feeling more like the sort of thing I would normally type up at the end of an arc, not in the middle of one, so I'll leave it at that. As always, this has been Turnip and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!