Chapter 103

“Are you sure about this Myriad? Honestly, she seems like she’s gotten way too into you way too fast, I’m more than a little worried here.”“It might shock you given your own attitude, but most people in the world would react this way upon not only receiving a blessing and a gift skill, but also a quest and personal guidance from an apostle. I don’t currently know any other gods doing so much for their believers.”

“I mean sure, but it’s all coming from a pretty self-serving place, isn't it?” Ben said, chastising his god. “You’re giving your blessing and gift skills to all of your believers as soon as you can to make yourself more appealing to anyone who might think of converting, and you got me to train her a bit cause we live in the same town and she’s the first person other than me to get connect. Not to mention your goal for giving her a quest…”

“You don’t think she’ll go for it?”

“No, I think she would have even if you didn’t offer her a quest but I guess it’s probably good to have her work towards earning you some more recognition before you offer her the role of your oracle or head priestess. Doesn’t hurt to see if she’s more suited to one over the other anyway while she does it.”

The main mortal representatives of any god would fall into one of three categories. The oracle was in charge of sharing the message of their god, spreading the word of their teachings and faith, getting the information from the source directly. The head priest, or in this case priestess on the other hand was more responsible for a leadership role, taking charge of any of the priests beneath them as well as as the common believers to help them grow as a whole. Finally there was Ben's role, the one he’d found himself in by virtue of there being no other takers, the apostle. In principle he should be acting to take on both positions, both spreading the word of his god as well as acting as a leader for Myriads followers, but both of them knew that wasn’t something he was going to take too seriously, hence the need for someone more responsible.

“Anyway, I vote that if you’re giving her a role it should be Oracle,” Ben told Myriad, and continued to explain his reasoning despite the fact his god had undoubtedly heard what was going through his head already. “As it stands the majority of your believers are enchanters and follow you for the benefit your skill provides them to make the resistance braces. Since Sachel is currently the only non-enchanter, I don’t think she should be taking on a leadership role, at least not at the moment.”

“A surprisingly reasonable argument, but on the other hand, if we go on with the initial idea from when you first recruited her of trying to gain more followers from those who want to awaken their skills to plant magic, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for a priestess with the same goals to try the recruiting. In the end, we also have the option of letting her choose.”

“Vetoed,” Ben told his god, making an X with his arms. “I told her you’re a small god, but it’s not like I let her know she was going to be your second believer, or that your current number of followers amounts to what, twenty? I wouldn’t want the risk of her learning that you don’t have an oracle or a priest scare her off. We should make it sound like the spot opened up and you thought she would be good for it so we need to take some time to figure out what might be the best fit for her.”

“Well, we have some time at least, her quest was to complete an achievement in my name and it sounds like what she’s thinking of trying might take a while.”

“Really, she picked the achievement one?”

“She didn’t get to pick anything. She’s currently just a regular believer after all, I gave her the one option I could give to any of them.”

Ben nodded, happy with the information. It was good to know other believers weren’t out getting better options than him after all. “That's something else I’ve wanted to ask you too, what exactly qualifies as an achievement for you?”

Myriad was quiet in thought for a moment before answering. “It can be many things. It can involve overcoming an obstacle impressive enough to earn you renown such as slaying a powerful monster or completing a trial like you just did, you could also do something to help my believers as a whole, or any act that could earn you great admiration and direct it to me, in your case maybe if you created another ultra-rare item and then bestow it upon a warrior who worships me, not that there currently are any. Giving a weapon like that to one of the warriors who’s going to fight for the world could also work.”

All good to know but Ben's focus stuck to the second option. “Wait Myriad, to be sure you’re still only at around twenty followers?”

“Twenty-two at the moment. I’ve received prayers from others who seem to be considering converting at the wishes of their nations but are unsure,” As Myriad answered he heard the thought going through Ben’s head and the simple but effective plan he was forming. “That would work,” His god said aloud.

Ben’s smile grew. It was so simple really, it would be a couple weeks before any of the new believers got their gift skills, and all of the believers but Sachel currently were enchanters who thought the only use of the skill they would be using was to create resistance braces. If he revealed to them that the skill could be used with enchanting to make use of any skills, wouldn’t he be helping Myriads believers as a whole to gain new knowledge that could improve their work and their lives as a result? Not to mention that if he sent the information to anyone who was on the fence as well, he was sure he’d be able to snag a few more as converts.

“Myriad, wake me up and get me the mailing info for all of your current and potential believers, I accept this quest.”

He was going to be spending hours writing and rewriting thirty to forty letters, trying to give detailed information on how to properly use the skill and all of the information on it he currently had, but it didn't matter. In a few short weeks he would be gaining at least five levels of job experience, maybe a bit more if he got enough people to convert with this knowledge, and through that being one step closer to completing the job and on his way to taking enchanter.