CH942

Walking up the last flight of stares, Ben found Verbum exactly where he expected, his face buried in a book too deep for him to notice the other’s approach until he joined him at the table, the record holder giving a pronounced sigh.

“What do you want, Ben?”

“How did you know it was me without looking?”

“One, not many people have access to this floor which makes it a great area to get some nice, private work done and two, anyone else who could come up here would take a different table,” Verbum told him, finally taking his eyes off his book to look at his companion and was left giving a shrill scream for what he saw, right until Ben materialized a gag around his mouth and ropes to bind his limbs to keep him from throwing himself down the staircase in a panic.

“Okay, just try to relax. Everything is fine, buddy.”

Still, he tried to scream through his gag, impressing Ben for the fact that he managed to keep conscious despite his obvious fear, with the first bit of the outburst being enough to drive the closest guards up the stairs to check on them, finding Verbum trapped while Ben sat across from him, trying his best to seem innocent.

“So, I know this looks bad, but Verbum’s just having an episode. I’ll release him when he calms down.”

The two briefly met eyes before one shrugged, the entire library having seen that third-tier’s reactions before and by that point was well familiar with the one with him, Ben’s reputation being one that would last for a while to come.

“Alright, let us know if you need a hand with him; we know he can get feisty when he’s like this.”

“Appreciate it.”

Comfortably resolved in a way that left a look of betrayal in the other summoned’s eyes, Ben watched him struggle for only a bit longer until giving up, flopping face down on the desk in defeat for Ben to release.

“Feeling better?”

“Words can’t properly express how you make me feel.”

“Very romantic of you.”

“So you’re a third tier now? For four fucking horrific things? And at the third level for one of them?”

“I personally wouldn’t describe eldritch mind as horrific, but otherwise, that about sums it up, yes.”

“That’s… wait, did you make me pass out at that job thing so I couldn’t see this?”

“Verbum, that is kind of a hurtful accusation. If I’d done that, then why would I be revealing myself to you now?”

“... Okay, then what do you want?”

“Just a few little checks as to what some of the stuff in my status does. Nothing too deep, we look and then I’ll get out of your hair, easy peasy.”

Narrowing his eyes, Verbum stared at Ben for a moment before giving in. “Fine, which bits?”

“Multiversal inclination, a few of the bonuses different jobs got me, and my blessing, child of chaos.”

“Wasn’t that last one called something else before?”

“Hence why I want it checked out.”

Another look, far more judgemental than the last that ended up followed by a deep sigh.

“Fine, give me a bit and let's go through it because I have plenty of work still to do.”

“You’re the best, Verbum. I’ll make sure to leave you an offering of food once we’re done.”

“Next time, lead with that. They have me so busy searching the system for information, I haven’t eaten since I got here.”

---

“Don’t look so happy,” Myriad told him when he showed up that night, his god and Helori both collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. “You deserve to be good and miserable for once.”

“I’m miserable plenty of times, let me enjoy the good news when I get it. So, who wants to hear some of the answers about a few of the more mysterious bits on my status?”

“Fine,” Helori groaned, coming off just as beaten as the cube beside her. “Say it so we can start airing our grievances.”

“Alright, I can see we’ve got a tough crowd here today, but whatever. Outsider bonuses apply to skills that are unnatural to this universe which likely just means my rule bending which is kind of lame seeing as how I’ve only found a single use for it that would blow me up too if I’m not careful, but it seems to contribute to skills I use in ways that seem unnatural to the universe too which is at least giving benefits to my actualization and maybe a few others, it’s hard to tell. Multiversal bonuses and my multiversal inclination are both more interesting and more straightforward. They give me bonuses to skills from outside of my home reality.”

“Doesn’t sound particularly useful either,” Myriad grumbled, widening the grin on Ben’s face.

“Which would be fair until you consider that, despite the fact I currently live here, this isn’t my home reality. I’m getting bonuses to all of the skills that would be impossible to get on Earth and while there’s a few I’m questioning considering that connect in theory seems like it should be usable to some extent in any universe where life is possible, given it basically just requires a soul, my magic and plenty of other options are going to be benefiting from it.”

“Unless you’re going to try to awaken them, there’s nowhere else for your magics to grow,” Helori pointed out, getting an exasperated look from Ben.

“Wow, you guys really are being haters tonight. Considering that if the world doesn’t end and I don’t die a tragic death, I’ll be trying to awaken them in the future, this is absolutely a good thing. It doesn’t have to be immediately useful to be handy. Finally, we’ve got the changed blessing, child of chaos. Does anyone else have any more sharp words before we start?”

“I’ll wait to hear what you have to say and then decide,” Myriad told him.

“Fine. So, child of chaos, while we’d been looking at it as a change from witness of chaos, it would be more accurate to describe it as an endpoint. Witness of chaos was slowly adapting me to the chaos, and taking outsider finished it. Supposedly, I can now survive between universes without dying or being horribly mutated, even if I have what I would consider to be some significant concerns about it, such as how I’d do a little thing called breathing out there.”

“... What am I even supposed to say to that, Ben?”

“I personally went with ‘cool’ when I found out. I guess the nature of my soul has changed to protect me from it.”

“So I guess we can officially stop pretending you’re mortal then. Great.”

“Excuse me, I’m still very killable. Considering that I was able to save the world from one, outsiders are too.”

“But you are an outsider now,” Helori pointed out. 

“Maybe in a purely technical sense if you consider an outsider to be anything that can survive the chaos, otherwise I’m pretty damn inside. Look, on the one hand, sure this might be a significant change, but on the other, since I’m not really in a position to do anything with this information, it’s actually just a fun fact. A neat little tidbit about your favourite human.”

“Fine,” Myriad told him as he rolled over before getting back up to hover in the air. “In the end, this new nonsense is less important than your last nonsense.”

“Wait, you were lying on your side that entire time?”

“Yes.”

“Man, I really do need to draw a smiley face on you or something.”

“Not the point right now. We had our conversation about you. It went okay, but it’s also not quite over.”

“Oh god, okay, what’s next then? How much more threatening do I have to do?”

“None. Instead, be on your best behaviour while I bring a few others to come by and talk to you and hopefully, you’ll manage to convince them that your destiny as the god of sacrilege, evil, and destruction isn’t going to be a poison for the universe as a whole.”