The next day, and his teacher’s words were still circling Ben’s head. Making a mythic item was still likely his best bet for crossing that threshold, if not for the insane accomplishment of such a thing then instead as a result of the ridiculous blessing he’d get from the world’s various crafting gods after, but that didn’t mean there was no other way.

Falk was right. Ben could make high legendary items of all sorts, items at that particular tier that might have seemed ordinary at first glance, yet had reached that level from an unbelievable refinement in their enchantments and physical structure that any mana cost would be negligible and their form perfect beyond compare. With all of that skill, why should it be impossible for him to make a legendary item of such importance that it would still awaken him?

At least, that was what he wanted to tell himself, but doubts still crept in. No matter how much skill and power he gained, he’d still hit roadblocks; there was no escaping that fact, and he could only wonder about how many more he’d hit before he could surpass that particular limit. How much of himself was he going to have to put into it before he’d have any success? 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

And, how many other alternatives might there be that go beyond an item’s ranking entirely? He wondered. Soulcraft is no doubt both a soul and a crafting skill, as dumb as it feels to spell that out, but does the crafting I do with it apply to my unending crafting as well? Does every blessing I shape give experience to the skill I first saw when I came to this world? And if it does, then how much will any future meddling in the realm of souls yield me? Will the creations I make on that front be enough to let me pass that barrier and then pray that crafting will at least take in the skill it came with?

He didn’t know for sure, and it was unlikely he would anytime soon, at least with any level of certainty, but he did his best to shake the concern from his head. It was one more avenue he could look at, even if it later turned out to be a dead end, for the moment it was something to give him a bit more hope, and with that he waited for the rest of the household to join him to start the day, as they were all slowly pulled by the smell of breakfast.

“Good morning,” Mora told him, taking his seat, while Thera went to Ben’s side to kiss his cheek, too early for any words as he smiled at the two.

“Morning,” Ben greeted back, looking bright before turning to the living room. “And Dewdrop, breakfast is ready, so come on and join us.”

Even if the outsider wanted to be a lazy pet, putting the food on the floor felt like a little too much, so a seat had been created for it to join them at the table, even if cutlery didn’t suit its form. After a moment though, the last one present made its way in, allowing the four to eat and let Ben approach the topic he wanted to that day.

“Okay, so I'm done going out to give blessings,” he told them. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t have more to give here. Mora, Dewdrop, are you both sure you don’t want one?”

On the day he’d learned he could, after having his soul healed, both of them had declined, and admittedly, Ben could see why. Mora couldn’t grow so a blessing would be wasted on him, and Dewdrop didn’t see a need, and while he was content to take both answers at the time since there were others he could give them to, now that he’d be slowing down, he didn’t want to leave the rest of his family without those benefits.

“Is there a reason you want me to have it?” Mora asked, not understanding why it was coming up again. “You should save it for someone who could use it.”

“That doesn’t matter to me,” Ben told him honestly. “I don’t care if you can benefit from it; I don’t want to exclude you for something like that.”

“I just don’t get why that matters.”

“Because you’re part of my family and I love you,” Ben chuckled, seeing the boy smile despite himself at the plainly stated affection. “I’m giving blessings to people because I care about them; I don’t care about how much or how little they’ll benefit. If you really don’t want it, then I won’t, but you can just think of this as me showing that I care.”

“... I mean, I still don’t want you to hurt yourself,” Mora told him, even if he was happy to hear as much.

“So you’d take it if it didn’t hurt then? In that case, that’s easy.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

He had his first few attempts still, and it wasn’t like he was just going to throw them away, so with those in hand, Ben cut one off of the souls storing them before moving it to Mora and feeling the boy accept it, leaving a smile on both of their faces while the child was hearing the notification go off in his head.

Ben hadn’t wanted to come out and say it, but he had a deeper reason for wanting to give a blessing to the boy. Ben was mortal and, even if destined for godhood, still had a chance of dying as soon as he reached it, depending on what the future held for him, but Mora could potentially live forever, even if that meant escaping into space and starting somewhere new somewhere else. Even if the boy lost everything, Ben wanted him to have that as the only permanent reminder that he could give that Mora was loved and left him feeling better for having done that, his attention turning to the other resident of their home.

The scrungle that he so dearly wished had chosen to accept the name ‘cat’ for his species instead, Dewdrop may have been a newer member of their family, but he could grow, and just as importantly, as long as new vessels kept being made, he could live forever. Even if worse came to worst for the planet, Mora could leave with the outsider’s soul crystal and, if that were to happen, wherever they ended up, Ben had faith that he could count on it to continue giving the boy its company. Any more strength it might want or need in the future would then be easier to claim with the benefits of a blessing, and while giving faith to Myriad meant it would get another one eventually, Ben wanted it getting as many benefits as it could before not having them became an issue.

With Dewdrop giving him a largely indifferent response, after hearing him talk to Mora, it let Ben give it one too, cut from the second soul he had storing such things so neither of the two with the sight for it would have to see him carve out a piece of himself, with getting both to accept leaving him feel satisfied by the end.

And now, I can move on to the main part of the day. I’ve had this job for a week; that’s way too long. Nice to finally get to correct that.

Two groups gathered, faces Ben recognized various contenders he’d helped finish jobs for in the past, mixed with the adventurers, mage, and mind user.

And, I’m noticing a problem here. Mage and mind user, singular?

<Even if people with mind user as an option have become more common after everything you’ve done to the demidemons and my other believers->

And the wider world too, I hope.

<Yes, we are seeing people gain more mind skills thanks to their intelligence increase, but plenty still don’t bother taking that job and since you only have two jobs you’re looking to finish, it was decided that using the bare minimum for the parties would be plenty. Let’s be real about this, even without a mind user; an apprentice mage, a true mage, or a non-affinitied mage would give you more than enough flexibility to finish any job you get by this point.>

Eh, true enough, I suppose.

Ben couldn’t deny that his little system hack of using his mind to gain experience could now easily be replaced by any job that would let him acquire experience through soul production, there really was likely to be minimal difference in the end and so long as it worked as intended, in any future use case they could skip out on finding a mind user altogether, even if Ben still held his hopes that the job might become more popular as the intelligence he’d given the world through soul modification lead to more mind skills.

Still, wouldn’t have hurt to grab Valaria or one of the demis.

<No, but considering how much you personally get out of all of this, it wouldn’t be a good look if I tried pushing for my other believers to get even more when there’s others in the world that other gods think are worthy of getting a bit of extra strength. You give my believers plenty of benefits when you go to train them; I don’t need to fight to make sure a single one of them can get one more job done.>

Eh, fair enough, I guess.

“Alright then, let’s get started,” Ben said, nodding the first adventurer Thera’s way to bring her into the party before taking him in next, yielding the expected notification going off in his head, with an expected disappointment to match.

<MAX LEVEL OF THE SOULCRAFTER JOB ACHIEVED>

While in past runs, all participants had their experience carefully balanced by the gods to make sure that Ben could end it with his and everyone else’s jobs complete once their experience pools were merged, Thera had less opportunity to gain experience for her job compared to Ben, who could do so constantly by creating souls at all hours, and as a result, had slightly less experience than him, leaving her job barely unfinished.

It was something they’d both known going into it though, and something that she’d be able to end with at the very most a few days of her own efforts, so she didn’t let it bother her, instead just happy to have had the time she would have had to spend cut down by so much more than it ever would have been, smiling at her card and all of the job levels that had come while he moved on to the next part.

The mind user used up, the second had the mage, the gods no doubt wanting to be sure that it worked just as well, with only that one in the group it was easier to take longer with, Ben touched his job crystal and found nothing new, making the choice for him obvious.

Alright, looks like it’s time to announce myself as the divine apostle of Myriad.