In their realm, the gods gathered for a meeting. It was the sort of thing that had been happening frequently since the invasion points had been marked, an unavoidable consequence of their increased workload when they were all doing their best to keep the world and the lives of their mortals from ending, but more and more often they found the topic coming back to one particular mortal who’d been leaving his mark.
“I trust no one else here has anyone in their faith aiming to end the life of apostle Ben,” Phixth said as he looked around the room, many complicated expressions to be found in the crowd.
It wasn’t because they had worshipers attempting the same outrageous goal as some of those who gave their faith to gods like Olensia or Eneth, but for a different matter. They were gods, they stood above mortals as guides and rulers, but more and more they were finding themselves having to bend to Ben’s desires, at least when any event came to bring such a thing up.
“And it might only get worse since he seems to be realizing just how valuable he’s become,” One god muttered, prompting a laugh from another in the crowd as Nare spoke up.
“Ben is still heavily undervaluing himself, you don’t need to worry about that,” He said. “It’s actually shockingly hard to make him see the full scope of his worth, though at least the fact that he’s begun to notice the depths of his accomplishments is progress.”
“And what exactly is he not aware of?” Phixth asked, already envisioning a future where he’d have to act as a mediator between Ben and the gods again sometime soon.
“Ignoring a few of his other projects and discoveries? His potential. With all of the awakened skills he has, he finally understands that he’s good, but he still doesn’t properly appreciate how good,” Nare laughed again, seeing that those who didn’t keep an eye on the boy wanted more while those who did could only shake their heads or equivalent body parts. “Since the last time it’s come up he’s gained a dozen more jobs with half of them being a master branch or farther, and that’s not even counting the blessings he’s gained or his skill levels. There’s some bets going on amongst the crafting gods keeping an eye on him, with the odds being in favour of him having either his crafting or enchanting at the ninth awakened level in the next five years assuming we win.”
“Is this true?” The stone god asked the question that many wanted to know hearing that, with the various crafters agreeing while Nare went on.
“That’s nothing. We’re placing the odds of him getting to the third tier of either skill within his lifespan at around sixty percent.”
“Sixty-”
A number of those there felt headaches growing at the thought. Those were high odds. Too high. Even when aided by a soul mage, the few contenders across the world would likely only get an estimate of forty at the very best. For a mortal to be appraised so optimistically by so many gods, it was unprecedented.
“Of course, I personally put both estimates higher. He’s an interesting one, I find myself hoping he ends up among our ranks,” Nare said, expressing a sentiment that so many disagreed with. “Who knows, maybe it won’t even be specifically as a crafting god.”
So many there thought it was in reference to Ben’s sacrilege, but Phixth had known Nare too long to believe the magma-like god could be hinting at anything so simple and instead directed his eyes to the one the boy gave his faith, with Myriad looking tired from the talk going back to his apostle.
“I can’t personally comment on his chances as a crafting god, but if we’re to look at his odds of becoming a mind one, I would place them at a minimum of eighty percent.”
“Eighty-”
An eruption went up at the words. How could it not? Mortals were meant to struggle for godhood, the fact that the crafters thought his odds were so good was already outrageous, but for his odds of becoming a mind god to be that much better?
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There were some in the crowd who didn’t believe it, but their voices were few. Whether they liked it or not, many were beginning to believe in the potential Ben possessed after the accomplishments they’d seen.
And with his mind like that… Phixth thought to himself, looking back at the shape of the mind that he and the others had been shown just a little earlier. It was actually worse that Ben wasn’t already at the third tier when one considered the structure his mind had already taken. Just what would become of it if it grew more? It spoke of a future bearing a mind god like no other, at least until Helori spoke.
“I disagree.”
“You think he won’t achieve it?” He asked, her voice relieving more than a few. It was well known she gave the mortal plenty of her time as well, and as a goddess of knowledge, if she was to argue it then it would give some peace to more than a few of the other gods there.
Unfortunately for them, it appeared that wasn’t what she was doing.
“No, I would say the odds are around ninety-five percent at the lowest. At the very least he’s certain to become a contender for his various mind skills.”
“Various… Do you mean to say he’ll get that far for more than one skill?”
“It’s practically certain, something I’m sure any of the knowledge gods who’ve seen him read would agree to. If he were to just devote a couple weeks to reading everything he could then he’d already be at the ninth level of knowledge, the only reason he hasn’t is that there’s no reason to. Beyond that, he has other mind skills that seem to be growing on their own, with every mind job giving him levels and acting in a feedback loop to raise each other up. The faster he thinks the more he can increase his number of minds, and the more minds he has to practice his thought speed skill with the faster he can level it up. It would actually be more shocking if he doesn’t become a mind god.”
The fact that all of the gods close to him seemed so sure could only be a point of stress. If it was just Myriad, it could have been chalked up to the god having too much faith in a promising believer; it happened. With others being just as confident or even more so, that meant they needed to be genuinely prepared for him to enter their ranks.
“The potential to have multiple third-tier skills, that would place him third in history, wouldn’t it?” One muttered, a god who just happened to be the first who’d accomplished such a thing, being one of the soul gods who had used all of their free time as a mortal focusing on raising themselves when not trying to raise others.
“Which is still a problem,” Another pointed out. “It’s not like his sacrilege will go away, even if he does rise up without awakening it again.”
It was an issue on many minds. There were a few differences between those born to godhood and those who achieved it, with one of the key ones being the nature of their divinities. Natural gods would find themselves with two or three, such as how Nare was a god of challenge and craft or how Helori was one of magic and knowledge, but ascended mortals were different.
When a mortal rose to godhood, they’d have their main divinity, their tier three skill which would be as powerful as any other gods, but instead of having a second, they’d have a variety of lesser divinities as well that matched the skills they’d had in life, all at varying levels of power.
The two types of godhood had their own strengths and weaknesses of course, with the first usually having slightly more power overall so long as they were working within the aspects they represented, but when it came to the mortal gods, they were typically better at acting outside of their main divinity without having to spend as much faith.
Overall, there were differences but not enough to cause issues or create any sort of class structure within their ranks, but it still meant there was a problem they’d have to face. If Ben really were to become a god of anything, be it crafting or knowledge or some other mind skill, he’d still have a divinity that had sprouted from king of sacrilege, no matter how much weaker it would be for not awakening.
If it doesn’t awaken.
Phixth couldn’t help but notice that no god the boy was close to commented on the odds of him achieving that particular skill, not that he intended to pry. While he personally didn’t enjoy the prospect, he wasn’t going to be as negative and fearful of it as some others were and he decided to call the meeting to a close before anyone could get to bringing it up.
“It sounds like all expectations don’t see him achieving the third tier soon enough for us to be concerned about these what-ifs,” He told them all. “If the world survives we can worry about how we’ll be welcoming apostle Ben to our ranks then to ensure things will be smooth in the future, and if not then it will no longer be a concern. For now, I believe we’ve finished all we needed to so it’s about time to bring this to an end. I’ll see you all again in two days.”
They each began to slowly leave at that, clearing the realm until he was eventually alone.
And I suppose I should prepare for a future where I’m forced to mediate more and more. He thought with a tired sigh, looking forward to the day he could get a break.