Chapter 44- Side Story 1- Ben's time at the church, (1)

Ben sat down in the library, waiting for Lehie to show up for their day of lessons. It had been a week since they started and Ben found himself positively shocked at how boring it could be to learn about a new world. Lehie was trying to teach him what she thought would be the most useful for him, and aside from basic common knowledge that meant focusing on the things he would need to know if he intended to pursue a career as a craftsman and enchanter.

A part of him considered looking into a different job path than either of those, but he had to be honest with himself that without access to magic, this was the only path he could see himself wanting, even if it meant no one else in the world would need him. His friends had been right, these skills suited him to a T.

Besides, it was also a bit too negative to say that no one else would need him. As long as he found a teacher in one of the nearby towns or villages he could train up his skills a bit and hopefully find a small, quiet place that could use someone with his talents. He would never make it rich that way, and it wouldn’t be glamorous, but Ben could see a peaceful life of quietly improving himself to have plenty of personal merits. Well, at least for as long as the world wasn’t conquered, and given the track record of every race and god stuck here Ben wasn’t feeling too great about those odds.

It was horrifying to think that hundreds of worlds had already been taken over, so he simply didn’t, instead getting up to browse some of the different titles around.

Exploring the library had quickly become one of Ben’s favourite things to do. With a little over 2000 books in it about a third were dedicated to the various gods. Lehie had told him on an earlier day that they mainly had books focusing on the smaller gods, who may be harder to find information on than any of the more famous ones in the world, and with some of them not getting their own dedicated books at all, but instead being lumped together with the pantheons they originally ruled with.

After that there were histories of the various races from before they were brought here, or at least what was remembered. Many came as a last resort, not having time to gather culturally relevant information, or in many cases not even having been in a civilization where the written word had been invented yet. In both cases that meant that scholars of groups that were already established on the world would come to record whatever they could remember of their own beliefs and practices.

This in itself led to a rather distorted view of their own personal histories. In some cases there had been warring between their own species when they were invaded, and through luck only members of one side would be saved, often leading to records that would state the savagery of their opponents as well as their conquerors. In other cases information technology hadn’t developed to the point on a given world that anything a person heard without seeing with their own eyes could truly be considered trustworthy. Even worse than that though were the cases where only an isolated group were saved, such as residents on a small island who weren’t even aware their world was being conquered, right up until their god descended and carried them away since it was unfortunately the safest choice to guarantee some survivors.

Of course with the gods around they could clear up some of this information, but Lehie had quickly informed him that the gods weren’t all-knowing either, and many of them had originally kept a much looser eye on their worlds, coming to guide occasionally and responding to large enough prayers, but ultimately letting their peoples develop at their own pace. There had never been any urgency before after all, so the information they could provide tended to be lacking.

The last few books available to read were just an assorted selection of topics, the priests weren’t expected to dedicate every waking moment to worship and guiding believers, though some did, the rest of them used their leisure time for casual reading and other hobbies. These were the ones Ben tended to lean towards the most. Sure they may seem a little plain when compared to learning of gods and lost worlds, but he didn’t exactly have the best opinion of the gods for dropping him here to be completely unwanted. Hell, if the world was really going to end in three years all they had done was sentence him to a second death, only a little farther off and-

He wasn’t going to fall down a depressive spiral. He was lucky to have a bit more time at all, and there was no guarantee they would lose, he was just being negative.

He pulled a book at random from a shelf and half-heartedly flipped through it as he waited for Lehie to arrive, which only ended up being another couple minutes.

“Good morning Ben, I see you’re making good use of your time before your lesson, what are you reading?”

“Morning Lehie, I guess I’m learning about a god named Slareth.”

Her eyes lit up when he said that. “Oh, a forest god if I remember correctly. Are you perhaps considering-”

“I’m not taking a god,” He said curtly. It was a conversation he’d had with her before.

“I’m just saying he may not be a bad choice. Slareth is a smaller god, you have a much better chance of getting a gift skill from him after all, and as a god who represents forests it would probably benefit you if you were to work with wood or stone.”

“If I find a god that really speaks to me I’ll make sure to consider it, but I was just reading this to pass the time. So what’s the lesson for today?”

He not so subtly changed the subject, but Lehie let it go. It wouldn’t do to force the matter on him, and it was doubtful if he could offer true faith to a god he was coerced into. “Depending on how you do today it may actually be a shorter lesson. I’m going to try and teach you how to use your mana.”