Chapter 195

“Uhg, why is everything so terrible,” Ben whined during breakfast, face down on the table. After a full week since his first crushing defeat he’d tried again each day, working on new tools and weapons he thought might give him an edge but completely losing in the process.Abrus seemed amused by the fact he wanted to keep trying against him at his full strength and was happy to oblige, giving commentary on the few items he’d managed to get off that continued to be all but powerless against the spirit as they were easily avoided.

The only reason it happened before breakfast on this day was due to the fact that Ben expected to be extremely busy and wouldn’t be able to make time otherwise, but had still wanted to give his attempt and manage even the smallest of things before the spirit placed a single finger against his head.

Thera, sitting beside him, gave him a reassuring pat on his back. “Come on, it will be okay. It’s not like you didn’t know you wouldn’t be winning, right?”

“I mean, yeah but I thought I’d have a little bit of progress by now to make the defeats slightly less humiliating.”

“For what it’s worth I think you’re doing well,” The great spirit told him. “Most people aren’t willing to go against the full force of my skill again and again, you’ve got good tenacity.”

“And I’m rather pleased that you’re managing to keep my husband entertained,” Pelenia added. “Since the generals ever so politely asked if our army could stop having to try fighting against him all those years ago he hasn’t gotten to have this much fun in a while, so if you’d keep it up I’d appreciate it.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on quitting,” He told them, no matter how defeats he ended with. “It is good practice to see my items in action, at least for the few I managed to activate, and I think I’ve been able to make some progress for how I build my enchantments at least.”

“Well tell you what, if you manage to land a hit before you leave I’ll give you a reward so don’t go giving up on me yet.” The spirit told him with a laugh. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Deal!” Ben quickly agreed, eyes lighting up as he did. Even if he wasn’t going to win, it was a good extra bit of motivation for him.

They continued the meal, chatting about their plans for the day and discussing how their stay had been so far. Thera seemed to be making good progress with both her earth and life magic while Ben was doing his best to deal with the advances and subtle bribes that came with each person he made a brace for when the door quietly opened and one of the queen's aides ran in to whisper something in her ear.

Pelenia made a brief unhappy face before sending them on their way.

“Everything alright?” Thera asked her mother. In the past, if their meals were ever interrupted it tended to mean an emergency, but Pelenia waved away her daughter's worries.

“It seems security found an elf attempting to keep our home under observation from a distance. It’s nothing major since he was caught easily enough, though a little annoying we have to depend on Alfheimr to properly inform us of just what he was doing, but diplomacy is diplomacy.”

“Wait, why are you sending him back to Alfheimr?” Ben asked. He was already aware it was the home nation of the elves as a result of reading up on the race as a whole in his attempts to try and figure out Lehie’s age, but he would have assumed he would be sent away after whatever information they’d wanted was obtained.

“Extradition treaties. Since succubi have a decent chance of finding trouble in other nations if their charm isn’t properly suppressed, we have arrangements with many others for the safe exchange of prisoners in the event of any wrongdoing, with the trust that it will be handled appropriately. It’s not satisfying but it keeps things civil and safe for our people.”

“But how can you be sure that’s his nation? He could easily be from elsewhere.”

“True, but as a rule of Alfheimr all elves automatically receive citizenship. If he originally lived elsewhere then he’ll probably be allowed to return so long as whatever reason he was observing our home wasn’t anything too distasteful.”

The politics of the whole situation seemed like a pain and he was happy it was nothing he needed to worry about as he finished up and moved on to his main task of the day, heading down to his workshop, where just outside around thirty people were waiting. It wasn’t another group there to get braces and attempt to win him over though, it was his god’s other believers.

He asked his god and getting no answer.

As he got closer, one by one each waiting believer shifted their attention towards him as he gave a friendly wave and put on his most winning smile. Myriad had told them what he looked like so he’d be easily identified and they knew who he was, there was just a single thing he found strange.

He thought he picked up a guilty tone from the voice of his god, but as curious as it left him he pushed it aside for later. He had to focus on the task at hand, being an official apostle.

He gave as his final thought before speaking up to the crowd. “Hello everyone, I’m the apostle of our god Myriad, but you can just call me Ben. I’m also the creator of the resistance braces as I’m sure you all know, and seeing as how the reason all of you converted was because of that fact I’d be happy to discuss that with you, but I’ve also had a long, long week dealing with your various nations trying to ever-so-subtly convince me to move to their lands, so first I’m going to make one thing clear. If any of you do the same, you can leave immediately, understood?”

His god asked as the other believers' eyes widened and quickly nodded their heads.

“Alright, with that out of the way let’s get to the main event. I hope you’ll all bear with me, this is my first time acting in such an official capacity as an apostle. Now, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the details of Myriad’s first church, right?”

Confused looks went around as one succubus spoke up. “We were just told the church would be coming to Anailia, I think I can speak for everyone when I say we didn’t really understand what that meant, but we’re here to give our faith.”

He let out a long sigh. “Alright, in that case, you, would you mind coming up here?” He spoke to the succubus, a woman maybe a couple years older than he was, with long dark hair and a nervous expression. She did as she was asked, though looking hesitant the entire time as he took off his coat and handed it to her. “Due to some unique circumstances,”

“The church of Myriad is this very nice coat. With the defensive enchantments on it, not to mention the built-in temperature control and the fact that it will only become stronger as it receives more faith, I’d say you’d struggle to find a better coat in the world than this.”

“Anyway, as odd as it may seem, this is our church. Myriad can gather more faith than usual if you pray to it or while wearing it, so please, go ahead. Let’s see, I’d say maybe each person should spend ten minutes in the coat while the others pray before switching out, and while that’s happening…”

The eyes he was seeing from the other believers told him they couldn’t believe what they were seeing and he gave them a small wave, telling them to get started as he pulled out the holy book he’d written for Myriad, reading some of the more interesting passages from it as they began to pray while at the same time taking out a knife to add and break enchantments on it for the job experience.

It took hours but finally, everyone finished praying. Ben had long since gone from sitting on the ground to just laying down as he read out from the text while all of the believers seemed to be pushed to their limits and were visibly relieved for things to be finished. No matter how much faith a person had, praying for hours on end was a bit much for all but the most devoted, the sort of people that definitely wouldn’t change their faith simply if their country asked. That wasn’t even considering the discomfort of being in the coat. Sure, physically it was fantastic, being able to warm or cool a person to perfection thanks to the contained enchantments, but having so many eyes quietly staring at you as they prayed was an experience he wasn’t looking to repeat and a big reason he decided to pass the coat around instead of wearing it himself.

“Alright everyone, good meet up,” He told them as he took it back. “Keep up the good work believing in Myriad and see you if I ever do this again.”

He gave them a small wave and turned to go on his way when he was called out to by the same succubus as before.

“Excuse me, I know this might be impudent to ask, but I think we were all hoping we could get a bit of guidance from you?”

He turned back to see everyone looking at him expectantly, with a few giving the succubus a thankful look as well.

His god’s response made him look at her in a new light. This was no longer just another believer, but a potential future coworker he might be able to pass some of his work off onto.

“Ask away, I don’t really have anything else going on so if you all have any questions I can stay to help out.”

She seemed relieved that he was willing and cut straight to the matter. “In that case, at least for the succubi among us, we were hoping to receive guidance on how to improve our connect skill, as well as maybe have you look at some of the braces we’ve made to see if you can offer any advice on how to improve them?”

“Sure, I guess that’s no problem. Is that the same for the rest of you?”

Getting another round of nods it seemed that this would be a bit more interesting to him than the previous work, and put his best effort in.

“Alright it will be easiest if I take you all one by one, so you’re free to listen to the advice I give each of you but you all need to be patient. Now you, Valaria right? Give me your hand and I’ll let you experience what a higher level of connect is like.”

She seemed surprised he knew her name but did as she was told, taking his hand and revealing the resistance band on her arm in the process. He felt pleasantly surprised as he looked at it, but focused on the connection, feeling her mind and leaving her exposed to the full force of his own.

It only lasted a second before she pulled away, looking sick as she did.

“Something wrong?”

“Um, no, sorry. Myriad did warn me, but experiencing it in person was a whole other matter.”

“What do you mean he warned you?” Ben asked, casting a look to the other believers that grew a worried look as they saw Valaria’s immediate reaction.

She stayed silent, acting like she was caught admitting something she shouldn’t have and leading Ben to call up to the heavens for all to hear.

“Hey Myriad, what the hell man!”

As with any time he swore at his god it brought a range of shocked reactions but he didn’t particularly care, not when it seemed like he was being badmouthed behind his back.

He could only let out a sigh. “Alright everyone, look. I have a few skills that make my mind a little different from what you’re used to but that’s it. Normally I’d hide the extras from you, but you need to remember that connect is a mind skill before it’s an enchanting one, experiencing a variety of different minds will only help it grow so take the experience of trying out mine and try and get something from it. That is, if you want the practice of course.”

He held out his hand again, leaving it for Valaria to take if she so wished, which she did after a few seconds of hesitation. Activating the connection again went smoother this time at least, she didn’t pull away but he could clearly feel the discomfort.

While that was happening he went over what he could see from her brace. “I assume you enchanted this yourself?”

“Um, yes that’s right.”

“It’s good work, you could stand to make the enchantments themselves a little tighter, but that might just come down to practice. More importantly, I see you’ve pulled aspects of other skills into it to enhance its effects. Did you just happen to have the skills or were you able to enchant with other enchantments?”

“The second, I gained the ability at the second level.”

“Fantastic,” He told her before addressing the rest. “Thanks to queen Pelenia we’ve found another type of skill with an even greater ability to enhance the effects of the enchantment than the one I wrote to you all about. Dark resistance enhancement, at least for those of you who have a dark affinitied passive magic. For the others, you should try to get your nations to look for a resistance enhancement that would match the affinity of your magic to try and block it. Of course, if you can manage with just the other skills then that’s fine, but it could be a good way to help make up for anything that might be lacking while your skills still need to level up. Anyway Valaria, do you think you got enough out of that?”

“I do, thank you.”

“Good, in that case, who’s next?”

Hours passed and the lessons and advice stretched well into the evening until he managed to get through everyone, giving advice and answering questions as he went until everyone was done and they were able to call it a night.

He bid farewell to the others, though they still seemed uncomfortable with him, but there was a single one he stopped as they went to leave.

“Valaria, if you don’t mind I’ll walk with you, there’s something I want to discuss.”

A look of fear passed her eyes but she did as she was asked, not having it in her to disobey the request of her apostle.

“There’s nothing to be worried about,” He told her with his best smile as he motioned for her to walk. “I’m actually really impressed with how good your enchantment was, not to mention the fact that you’re apparently the first of Myriad's new believers to get the skill to the second level. That must have taken a lot of work.”

“Oh, well thank you but I was just the first in Anailia to get the skill so I’ve had the most time to practice it is all. The nation was in a hurry to get us to develop it the best we can so we’ve been thoroughly put to work.”

“No need to sell yourself short, everyone else has had it almost as long as you but you’re still the only one to get it so high, you should be proud.”

She gave a small nod in thanks and wasn’t sure what to say. When Myriad had informed her of his apostle’s visit she hadn’t expected it to end in the one-on-one attention she was receiving and wasn’t sure how to interact with someone at the top of her faith.

“Anyway though, there’s actually something else I wanted to talk about if you’d be willing. I got the impression you might be struggling with something,” “I just wanted to see if you’d want to talk. I am the apostle of Myriad after all, it’s important that his believers feel comfortable in relying on me.”

As he had his back and forth with his god, Valaria walked in silence, debating about opening up before she gave in and explained where her issues lay.

“It’s just… I don’t regret converting to Myriad, he’s been very good to me. Too good even, giving me not just a blessing and his skill, but also a quest as well. That’s kind of the problem though, even if he says not to worry about it, my reasons for converting had nothing to do with faith, it all came down to both my country, as well as Anailia herself making the request of me. As understanding as he is, it feels like I’m taking advantage of his goodwill when I feel like I haven’t been able to completely commit. All of my family and many friends as well give their faith to Anailia, even if it helps my people, it can feel like it’s created distance between me and them, you know?”

“So to sum it up, you feel bad because Myriad’s done so much for you, and you’re feeling some distance from others in your life?”

“I guess that’s right.”

He thought for a moment before answering, trying his best to put together some advice that he thought might work for her. “You know, faith can feel like such a complex and meaningful thing, but ultimately it’s such a small part of your life. After all, when you were worshiping Anailia, how often would you actually talk about her with your friends and family?”

“Um, I’m not sure.”

“But then it’s pretty safe to say not too often right? Sure, she was something you all had in common, but in the background, not as the foundation your relationships were built upon. Your conversion is so recent it’s probably at the front of yours and their minds, making it seem like a bigger deal than it is, but honestly try to ignore it and just act like you always would with them in the past. Who you are hasn’t changed, the important thing is making sure others see that.”

He could tell from her eyes that she was listening attentively and he knew he had her, so he pushed forward to the most important part.

“As for feeling guilty about how much Myriad has done for you, well I’d say he did it of his own free will so you shouldn’t let it bother you, but I know things are never that easy, are they? I’ve heard it said that too much kindness from one party can be a weight for the other if not paid back. If you feel guilty for how much Myriad has given you, why not do something for him? It just might make you feel better for all you’ve received.”

“But what could I possibly give a god?” She asked, completely pulled in by his speech. “What does one do for someone so far above them?”

“It’s actually rather easy,” He told her gently. “Even the quest is a way for him to reward you for doing something for his sake, but if that doesn’t feel like enough then I would simply say talk about him. Maybe not to your friends and family since trying to force your new god on them would have the chance of making whatever divide you think exists into a reality, but when you’re making braces for your people, take a minute to let them know that it’s thanks to the god Myriad that such a thing is possible and suggest they give just a single prayer of thanks. Gods need faith after all, and even if it isn’t as much, they can still get it from nonbelievers.”

She put on a thoughtful look and they continued to walk until reaching her home. Before she went in she gave him a small bow. “Thank you. For taking the time to talk, that is. I’ll think on what you’ve told me.”

“Of course, it’s my job to help his believers after all so if I was able to ease your worries even a little then that’s enough for me. You have a good night now.”

He walked away, not looking back for fear that it would ruin the atmosphere of the wise and helpful apostle he’d just tried so hard to set up until he was sure he was out of sight and gave a small cheer for himself. “Freaking killed it!”

Even if it wasn’t an ideal way to spend the day it had been more productive than he’d expected and Ben couldn’t help but feel good as he neared Thera’s home. He’d finally made good on his promise to visit the other believers with the church to boost the faith Myriad would receive and even helped motivate a potential future priestess, not to mention spread the info on how to improve the braces a bit more, meaning that as soon as the others leveled up connect just once more they’d be able to help any member of their species outside of their current resistance range.

Grin plastered on his face, he made his way past a passerby to walk to the property gates, only to hear Myriad scream as he felt something pierce his neck.