Slowly waking up, later than he normally would from the long night, he halfheartedly fumbled around the bed, finding himself alone as he finally opened his eyes and saw the note on the drawer beside him.
She’ll be back when she finishes something up? Okay cool, I guess there’s a lot of stuff for me to do in the meantime anyway.
The first of which being to look at his card. He knew there were going to be changes and he wanted to know exactly what he was dealing with, so after reaching to the floor to pull it from his pants, he let his eyes run over it, then again, and again after, not quite able to process everything he was seeing.
Just what the hell did I do?
Name: Ben Heph
Race: Human
Titles: Apostle of Myriad, The Forgotten One, Miracle Maker, Skill learner, Enemy of Eneth, Trial Defier, Trial Breaker, Godslayer, Monster, Madman, God killer, Threat, The mad apostle, Destined holder of Connect, God of Destruction
Jobs: Profane enchanter (lv 99)
Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman, Priest, Enchanter, Mind user, Magic item maker, Magic weapon maker, High enchanter, Fractured mind user, Tree tamer, High craftsman, Apprentice mage, True mage, Tank, Heretic, Adventurer, Divine heretic, Kin, Master craftsman, Master enchanter, Scholar, Connected enchanter, Infernal craftsman, Marksman, Destruction mage, Material mage, High material mage
Attributes:
* Vitality: 949
* Vitality recovery rate: 25/hr
* Mana: 844
* Mana recovery rate: 60/min
* Strength: 785
* Agility: 258
* Stamina: 2108
* Intelligence: 3369
Affinities:
* Light: 3
* Life: 2
* Fire: 4
* Water: 3
* Air: 4
* Earth: 2
* Death: 3
* Dark: 1
* Space: 4
* Time: 5
Resistances:
* Light: 68
* Life: 72
* Fire: 75
* Water: 69
* Air: 66
* Earth: 81
* Death: 78
* Dark: 85
* Space: 63
* Time: 61
Blessed skills:
* Unending crafting lv3*
* Divine enchanting lv3*
* Unnatural mind lv1*
Passive skills:
* King of sacrilege lv9*
* Bind
* Integrated demonic body lv6
* Defense enhancement lv6
* Absorption resistance lv6
* Plant knowledge lv7
* All affinity resistance enhancement lv4
* Biology knowledge lv4
* Trap knowledge lv4
* Physics knowledge lv5
Active skills:
* Stealth lv1
* Deep connection lv1*
* Cycling lv1
* Marksmanship lv3
* Material manipulation lv2*
* Swimming lv1
* Dance lv0
* Rapid thought speed lv2
Blessings:
* Myriad’s Blessing
* Anailia’s Blessing
* Helori’s Blessing
* Galwax’s Blessing
* Elvat’s mana regeneration Blessing
* Eneth’s Blessing
* Earth Pantheon’s Blessing
Trials:
* Trial of Anailia and Tolona
* Trial of the Dead God
* Earth tower
“Jesus, okay, where do I even start looking at this? Two new titles, basically finished six jobs and need to change to a new one, a slightly offensive name for how focus awakened and not only connect, but my magics awakened too? I mean, I guess that tracks if I was freaking materializing things, but still. Plus I think my intelligence rose a bit over a thousand points more than it should have with each awakening bonus, but I’ve seen a bump each time my minds split too so I guess it’s just attached to the massive change in my head.”
There was more too. Aside from the fact that none of his awakened skills were at the zeroth level like they should have been, he also leveled up almost all of his defensive skills along with marksmanship and unending crafting, as well as gained a new one on top of it in the form of rapid thought speed, which also wasn’t at the zeroth level like it should have been, not to mention that it didn’t match either of the two thought speed skills he was already aware of, thought speed enhancement and thought speed acceleration, with the latter being locked away from him by virtue of being time affinitied.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Okay, Myriad, are you around? I have a lot I want to talk about here.”
“Very astute of you.”
“Really not liking how badly you wanted to see me have sex.”
“I was hoping you’d go over everything I did in the battle after blacking out. There’s so many changes to my status and I want to understand what caused them since a bunch is still just blank for me.”
<...If you want I can show you, but are you sure you’ll be okay with this?>
“Even better and don’t worry. I’m not going to break down so I’m coming up.”
With that he closed his eyes, forcing his mind to his god’s realm where Myriad was waiting, and after only a few words were exchanged his god did as he said, creating a top-down view of the fight that occurred as Ben watched it all, muttering as he did.
“So I guess firing off stones like that must have counted towards my marksmanship skill, explaining why I raised it and took the job, and from the look of it, I must have tried enchanting too. Damn it, my backups of those rings are in Stonewall. Breaking everything down like that, was I trying to forcefully level my destruction before trying to awaken material user? Not to mention that from the look of it, the skill absorbed my material knowledge too, I wonder if that leveled up before I made antimatter? Wait, and was that ice? I guess it is technically a material so that kind of makes sense, but what’s all of that after? Bone, maybe some wood too? Probably not properly either since I have no clue how this universe's version of DNA works, but I must have tried to mimic it with the information I did know to force the level up farther…”
He couldn’t help but flop back once he’d seen everything, once again seeing the madness of just what he’d done when his conscious mind hadn’t been in charge.
“Myriad, give it to me straight, what are the odds my subconscious takes over again if I ever pass out and accidentally destroy the world?”
“Thankfully slim since you would have so much less power to you than you did during the battle and I’d actually be a little surprised if you’re even capable of passing out like that again as your mind currently is. I believe the strain it went through to put you in that sort of state was mostly due to being linked to a thousand different minds that were so alien compared to a standard mortal’s.”
He couldn’t help but sigh when he heard that. “Yeah, it only took hundreds of lives to push my minds and connect to awakening. Super cool.”
He’d pushed himself so hard in the past year to get connect beyond its limits, only for the experience to be so tainted when it actually happened. Just letting himself think about it made his gut twist and kept him from the sort of joy the experience should have been for him.
Just another thing to haunt me.
“Ben-”
“I’m fine, don’t worry,” He said, brushing off his god before he could go on. “Anyway, I have a few more things to ask about while I’m up here. I got a new skill, rapid thought speed, but it’s an active one for some reason?”
“I think you should be happy about that. Things could start to feel pretty strange if the world felt slower with every level of it.”
“The world already feels strange with everything in my head, but the question is more how am I supposed to use it?”
“Just mentally push yourself. Given how you gained the ability it might feel a bit weird at first, but once it clicks you’ll have it before you know it.”
“Mmh, if you say so. In that case, give me a minute.”
As he laid there he tried to feel all of his thoughts and pushed with the singular goal of trying to make them move faster, feeling it come far easier than he’d expected as he did. He still lacked the perfect control he needed for everything going on in his head, but as long as he focused he could keep his minds in line enough to examine the effects of the skill.
“Huh, that’s interesting,” He muttered. “All of the minds I apply it to are working about thirty percent faster.”
“...Forty percent, meaning I’m gaining ten percent per level, compared to thought speed enhancement which should only have been giving me five percent, so I guess this skill is twice as good then?”
“Considering it’s a rare variant it makes sense for it to be a bit better, and given the change to your mind you were never getting a normal skill as your bonus skill, was that the only one you got?”
“Unfortunately.”
“A shame, it would have been interesting to see what connect would have given.”
“Would have been cool to get something for awakening material manipulation too, but oh well. There were two other things I got though, titles. Destined holder of connect and god of destruction.”
Despite the lack of lips to do it, his god let out a low whistle.
“A title with the word god in it huh? And since it’s for destruction in particular I’d say you’ll be getting some pretty good bonuses to that magic in particular, or should I say your material manipulation now since it merged into it.”
“Okay, and that’s cool and all, but am I blaming the gods or the system itself for giving me another title that might get me attacked in the streets?”
“Probably a third group,” Myriad said lightly before explaining in the face of Ben’s confusion. “Ben, as unfortunate as it is, if every demon-occupied world is linked through their own gate network then every demon in the galaxy is a part of the system. You are responsible for destroying three of their worlds. It wouldn’t be shocking if they were assuming that there was some powerful god of destruction on this planet. Hell, that’s likely why they closed the gates so much earlier than usual. This might be the hardest they’ve ever been hit.”
“So do you think they might just call the whole thing off?” He asked, feeling positive despite everything that had led to him having the power to do such a thing, only for his god to dash his small hopes.
“No, the grey are already seeing them prepare for the next one. It seems that after cooler heads prevailed the sapient ones are operating on the assumption that whatever caused it must have expended most, if not all of their power doing it, which honestly isn’t a bad assumption. Even in any of our heydays, creating damage on that scale would be beyond us if we used everything we had, at least without the same sort of knowledge you currently possess.”
“Okay, so not quite the answer I was looking for but whatever. And what about the other one? Not going to lie, the name has me curious.”
Destined holder of connect. Ben knew that there was nothing like destiny or fate in the reality he now called his home, but hearing it in a title did give him a certain level of curiosity about just what it implied before his god gave him an answer.
“Ah, I actually only learned you’d be getting it in passing from another god after it became clear you awakened the skill. Another very rare one, destined holder titles go to people who are not only the first to get a skill but also the first to awaken it. It provides good bonuses to the skill it’s named for too so it works out well for you, I wouldn’t be shocked if it means you’re going to be getting at least another level or two of it before you hit your wall. Now that you’ve overcome the awakening barrier I doubt you’ll be as stuck as you were before.”
“Interesting, interesting, so since I’m the first person to hold cycling and integrated demonic body I’d get the title for both of those if I awaken them? Maybe marksmanship too since I doubt anyone before me made a gun.”
“...I don’t think you really need me to tell you not to awaken your demon body skill.”
“I know, I know, don’t worry. Since it only levels after I’m beaten into the ground I don’t particularly want to either. Anyway, I need to actually get up to test the rest of my new skills and pick a job but stick around so I can bother you with more questions if I have them.”
“Pfff, just ask like you always do. I’ll be working as you’re doing your thing so don’t be surprised if you don’t get an immediate answer.”
“Lame but fine.”
With that he opened his eyes, reaching out to grab his necklace to pick a new job, only stopping for the notification that rang out in his head.
Wait, I’m sorry, again?