CH853

“Alright,” Nare said when he arrived. “Before anything else, I’m going to politely ask you to stop pointing your little god-killing knife at me.”

“Excuse you, I didn’t just create this for it to instantly get misidentified. This is specifically my god-torturing knife, the fact that it will kill you eventually is really just a side effect. Now, since we’re buds I’m going to give you the chance to explain yourself before I leave and destroy the tower. Last time I had to settle for forcing one of these things into a higher layer of reality but this time I think I’ll at least test to see if creating foreign matter will help do the job at all.”

“Well, I appreciate the chance to explain things first since it was obvious from the start things were going to go poorly so let’s get the most relevant part out of the way first, shall we? This was the decision of the collective crafting gods, even if you failed we were still going to give you the tower rewards.”

“...I’m listening.”

He lowered the knife just a smidge to a slightly less threatening angle, with Nare looking somewhat more comfortable for that fact as he went on.

“It was pretty clear to myself and Myriad that you focused in on the fact that we were denying you the chance to use connect here but Ben, did nothing else strike you as odd?”

“Nope, I dived in pretty quickly into my murderous rage.”

“I’d really prefer if you weren’t so inclined to do that.”

“And I’d prefer if the gods of this world didn’t make trying to screw me over a hobby. Now out with it.”

“Fine, fine. Think about the quality we asked you to achieve.”

“Upper legendary? What about it?”

“Ben, I may have warned you in the past that the challenge for this tower is incomparable to the others thanks to the lack of danger but it still needs to be possible. Ignoring how insultingly easy you made the other floors seem, stop and think about it. Does it seem reasonable for a challenge to have people trying to reach the mortal limit of item quality?”

It was a question that sent his mind whirling with the answer instantly obvious. No, he’d been too focused on the part that seemed to specifically apply to him for him to notice but that was blatantly impossible for even a full team of awakened crafters to hope to pull off. Even if he’d personally challenged it at the eighth awakened level, not everyone would when not just anyone even had any hope of getting that high in the first place. Plenty of awakened would find their skills stalling at the zeroth or first levels and take on a tower with people in similar positions to themselves but expecting a team of zeroth level awakened to pull something like that off would be outright cruelty. A taunt to anyone who came that far, basically telling them that they never had a chance to begin with.

“Alright, I’m not sure if you think telling me that is supposed to somehow make me less angry but please, go one,” Ben said, the tip of the knife raising just a little while Nare sighed.

“Remember the first part where I told you that even if you failed we were still going to give you the reward? Consider that and put the knife down already, would you? As I’m sure you can imagine, for the actual challenge we don't care about if you use connect and for you at least, it would be easy enough to complete it that everyone up here knew you’d manage it because of the skill you’ve shown. The real challenge for this floor is to create an item on the high end of ultra-rare, something that would normally be difficult enough for anyone when they’d have to stick with only the supplies that were given by the trial or brought with them while working in a space the challengers only had three hours to build. The point of raising the difficulty for you in particular was to prove to all of us watching that you’re worthy of a far rarer reward in addition to the standard ones given for completing the tower. Something I've long been advocating for I might add but with others needing a bit more convincing, ending things like this.”

That finally got him to lower his knife, letting Nare breathe just a little easier as the promise of some additional mystery reward catching his interest enough to at least reduce his anger to mere annoyance instead. He trusted Nare, if the god said that they were going to give him the standard reward whether he’d succeed in the challenge they’d set for him or not then he’d believe it, even if he still wasn’t thrilled with how it had been done.

“Alright, you’ve got me. What reward?” Ben asked, with Nare grinning now that the mortal’s curiosity had been piqued.

“A chance,” The god told him. “In the form of the quest. Perhaps an impossible one but still one we crafting gods hope to see completed. Ben, all of us here want to witness a mortal succeed in one thing that until now has never been done. Go beyond legendary. Make a mythic item.”

Those words instantly left his heart pounding at the thought. A mythic item, something that until that point had been purely within the realm of what gods could create. As soon as the god had said it, Nare knew he had him but it didn’t stop Ben from asking questions first, not immediately accepting, even if he knew he would in the end.

“Are you allowed to do that though? Offer me a quest? From what I’ve understood, that was something that gods give their believers and I don’t worship a crafting god.”

“It's uncommon to the point that you wouldn’t be aware of it as a mortal but there are a few groups of gods that offer, shall we call them great quests? Quests that by all accounts are going to be impossible yet still have a sliver of hope to pull off. There aren’t many of them but for the rewards offered, no god will get in the way of their believers being on the receiving end of one. Of any divine group who’s given one of these to a mortal, none have yet seen success but that doesn’t stop any of us from hoping and you, showing that you can single handled create a high legendary item when not even at your full potential nor existing in the third tier yet, have shown that you’re the one worth placing our hope on in this generation.”

“And the reward? You say it’s basically impossible, I hope the payout is worth the effort.”

“Oh, I’d say so,” the god told him, his smile deepening. “You remember how strong I’ve told you a tower blessing is?”

“I do, about the strength of ten standard blessings, right?”

“Correct, all of the gods associated with the tower contribute some of their blessing to it but should you succeed in creating a mythic item, on top of the fame and titles you’ll undoubtedly get for it, the blessing you’ll get from the tower will be strengthened, growing to the point that it will be worth the full blessing of every crafting god on the planet.”

“...And how many is that?”

“Ninety-eight.”

Essentially ten tower blessings if he could pull it off. Even if it was impossible, he didn’t need to think. It was a chance that he wanted and with it right there in front of him, it was impossible to deny.

“I’ll do it.”

<RECEIVED THE QUEST- CREATE A MYTHIC ITEM>

“Of all the mortals I’ve had the pleasure to watch over, there's none I’ve believed in like I do you. Live a long life Ben and I’m sure you’ll make all of us proud.”

He could feel a hidden meaning in those words, Nare one of the gods of the world he’d told that he expected he might have to die if their war was ever going to end but he left it at that. Whatever time limit he was on, he’d continue to work as hard as he could and if there was any chance to use the time he had to grow then he’d take it, with thoughts and ideas instantly filling his head for how he might succeed before the god pulled him back from them once more.

“And now for your current reward. I know you prefer getting your blessing first but spare some thought about just what you want your level to go towards.”

What I want my level… Wait, the entire point of this was to get my connect to its ninth level and I just did that and crafting just got there too, what am I going to spend a free level on?

With his mind instantly pondering that his thoughts rang out with the sound of notifications, the blessing given with more growth coming with it.

<ACQUIRED CRAFTING PANTHEON’S BLESSING>

<VITALITY ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<VITALITY REGENERATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<MANA ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<MANA REGENERATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<STRENGTH ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<STAMINA ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<DEFENSE INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

“And your skill level?” Nare asked with a knowing smile. “You did ask me a certain question before about this, I assume you believed there was a chance the levels you’d wanted might come with your blessing and you’d need another choice.”

Nare was partially correct, he had let himself hope that his connect would grow with the new tower blessing and if it did along with his crafting then he’d need another option but the god was wrong in the one he thought Ben would pick.

Having it confirmed that they’d awaken an unleveled skill for him, Nare was sure that Ben would choose to raise his artisan’s touch and by all accounts, that would make for an excellent choice. It was basically an inclination that was above the ninth level but below a second-tier skill, awakening it would create a new skill that should have been the equivalent of an inclination that was between the end of the second-tier and the beginning of the third. Considering that anything else he had that would likely qualify as a crafting skill seemed to only be his esoteric actualization, his soul source, and perhaps even his soul affinity for awakened ones or his extraction enhancement and material sense for his first-tier skills, he would have said Nare was right too.

Awakening artisan’s touch would instantly make leveling and even awakening any of his crafting skills leagues easier. Not just to the second tier, it would likely help him reach the third in some of them, certainly it would be a big step in the quest he just got, with the only thing holding him back being one other skill he held, with the only question being if it even counted as a crafting one.

“Before that, Amy, do me a favour and see if you can get the level for your combat skill,” Ben said, wanting to know if his efforts to get her to treat it like a crafting skill had been enough and being rewarded for it with the notification going off in her head telling him as much, instantly bringing a grin to his face as he felt his own odds of success instant grow. It still wasn’t certain, he’d gotten her to use her skill for crafting directly while what he wanted to try to raise affected things that affected his crafting, creating a couple more degrees of separation but it didn’t matter. If he was told it wouldn’t work then he’d go with what Nare expected of him but despite everything, his status said he was a craftsman, through and through and he felt confident of that fact.

“Sorry to disappoint Nare, but we’re only going to be taking the one you’re thinking of if my actual choice fails,” He said, getting to see some curiosity slip through the god’s face as Ben named a skill Nare had never once heard him talk about. “It’s unleveled so awaken my modifier compatibility.”

An unknown skill needed to be tested with a drop of faith but it became clear instantly that it went through, with a loud ring of notifications being his reward.

<MODIFIER COMPATIBILITY HAS AWAKENED TO TIER TWO MODIFIER COMPATIBILITY>

<UNNATURAL INTELLIGENCE ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<BLOOD REGENERATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<SOUL AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<FLAVOUR ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<BALANCE ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<DEFENSE INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<VITALITY ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<VITALITY REGENERATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<INTEGRATED DIVINE BODY LEVEL INCREASED>

<MANA ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<MANA REGENERATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<STRENGTH ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<STAMINA ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<BLUDGEONING RESISTANCE LEVEL INCREASED>

<CYCLING LEVEL INCREASED>

<SWIMMING LEVEL INCREASED>

<DANCE LEVEL INCREASED>

<ESOTERIC ACTUALIZATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<SOUL SOURCE LEVEL INCREASED>

<ACQUIRED SKILL AGILITY ENHANCEMENT LEVEL 0>

<ACQUIRED SKILL FLESH REGENERATION LEVEL 0>

<ACQUIRED SKILL FRACTURE RESISTANCE LEVEL 0>

<ARTISAN’S TOUCH HAS AWAKENED TO ARTISAN’S SOUL>

<EXTRACTION ENHANCEMENT HAS AWAKENED TO UNENDING EXTRACTION ENHANCEMENT>

<MATERIAL SENSE HAS AWAKENED TO DEEP MATERIAL SENSE>

<ABSORPTION RESISTANCE HAS AWAKENED TO PERFECT ABSORPTION RESISTANCE>

<DEFENSE ENHANCEMENT HAS AWAKENED TO HIGH DIVINE DEFENSE ENHANCEMENT>

“Ben-” Nare started, the question instantly on the tip of his tongue as one of only a handful of gods who had access to his mind to hear all of the notifications that just went off in his head but was silenced by Ben placing a finger to his lips, a broad grin behind it.

“Shh, later,” He told the god. “For now, there’s some other things I need to sort out first so if everyone here is done, it’s time for us to go.”

He’d got what he’d needed and more from completing that trial, all there was left was to start figuring out how to put it all to use.