“Apologies, he’s already gone home for the day,” the guild employee told Ben and Thera upon their arrival at the final guild they needed to go to. “Let’s see, I can give you the directions for your hotel, but as for restaurants, any that we would have sent you to would be closed at this hour as well, I’m sorry to say.”

  “It’s fine, we were expecting as much when we got here,” Thera told them, with their last job ending in the evening and the time change that had come from stepping through that gate bringing them deep into the night of their last city. They had been expecting as much when they got there but making the guild aware that they were there would at least let them prepare for their return in the morning and getting their directions they headed off, only stopping as they passed an open stall along the road.

  “Are you really just going to think with your stomach this entire trip?” Thera asked as he bought two of each skewer being sold, even if she didn’t reject the ones he handed to her. “The guild isn’t going to comp these like the rest we’ve gotten.”

  “Sure, but it was a long day, and I at least need a snack. Plus, that guy had a sixth-level cooking, this is definitely going to be good.”

  Proven enough as he took his first bite, the meat exploding with the flavour of its marinade that Ben picked apart in his mind, considering what he might change but overall liking it enough that he made a note to try making it himself one day when he had the time, with Thera unable to deny the same.

  “Alright, yeah, it’s tasty, but you still keep buying way more than we need. Just how much food are you planning on keeping in your rings?”

  “Ha, it’ll give me something to feed Delair for lunch. And Mora too when he’s with me instead of you. Plus, since it’s one of the things I need to teach her about, getting my little student to try meals with all sorts of flavour profiles from around the world could be considered a valuable learning experience.”

  “You aren’t going to trick me into thinking this isn’t entirely just because you feel like it.”

  “It can be for more than one thing,” he said innocently. “Besides, admit it, you’re enjoying it too. Eating is one of the best parts of travelling, after all.”

  “Mostly enjoying it,” she admitted. “Even if I’m pretty sure that subterranean cuisine isn’t for me.”

  “Hey, we’ve only been to one city like that. We’ve gotta go to at least one other before you can really decide.”

  “Then we’ll say that’s a task for the distant, distant future. For now, come on. At least one of us actually has to sleep at night.”

  “Hey all, what new disasters await today?” Ben asked as he got to his god’s realm, seeing Myriad and Helori there while his real body spent some time on his magics down below.

  “Not every day is a disaster, Ben,” Myriad told him. “In fact, I’d go so far as to say that today was pretty good for the most part.”

  “Oh? Do tell.”

  “Another one of the demon contenders was successfully dispatched after a lengthy hunt,” Helori explained, sharing the cube’s good mood for the news. “Some third tiers were on it too, so there were no deaths in their battle against it either. It doesn’t make up for however many it already took, but overall, that makes this a fairly positive day.”

  “Okay, cool. Was it that one you told me got away before? The space one?”

  “No, we’re still trying to hunt that one down without much luck, unfortunately. This one was on the aquatic side of the planet, though no less challenging to deal with. It seemed to have been a contender for both its clairvoyance and what we assume was something like bite enhancement.”

  “Wait, seriously? What would that even look like?” Ben wondered, already in both god’s heads to see, given his own possession of that particular skill, even if it was one he was sure he was never going to awaken himself.

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  “It looked like carnage,” Myriad sighed. “Part of what helped us track it was the fact that it left bite marks through things we never expected to see. Tridents and shields and infrastructure and, combined with its innate soul magic, we witnessed more than a bit of the damage it was doing to its victims. Regnal had a bite taken out of him, and even if he won in the end, the amount of damage to his soul would have left him incapacitated for months normally. He’s with Elvat now, likely will be for at least a week. Still, it’s dead and we didn’t lose any significant amount of our force; that’s what matters most.”

  “Alright, good. Still, an awakened clairvoyance too, that must have been handy,” Ben mused, imagining what that particular magic must have looked like when one was a contender for it. Just how many miles around could a person take in at once with something like that?

  Combined with the state of my mind, it could be incredible too, but I don’t have the time to try and learn a magic and reach the tail end of it, no matter how cool it could be. Chalking that up as one more thing to learn if I survive this war though.

  “You already don’t allow the people around you any privacy,” Myriad pointed out, seeing right where his mind was going. “I don’t think becoming a god of clairvoyance needs to be added on too.”

  “Excuse you, you’re literally the guy who made me a mind reader. I’m not taking any of that from you. Besides, I mostly let the people I know have their privacy; it’s just strangers I don’t care about.”

  “That’s not really better.”

  “Ignoring that. Instead, let’s look at the other aspect. So that demon could have hypothetically become a god of biting, huh? Gotta admit, that at least sounds interesting. Probably not anything like that on this world currently, is there?”

  “No, but we could say the same about three quarters of what you have going on.”

  “Doesn’t make it any less interesting. I wonder what that would have looked like. And how much damage that could have done to the rest of you if it reached that level and then got up here?”

  “We do have a variety of war and weapon gods,” Helori pointed out. “Something like a god of biting being born wouldn’t be ideal, obviously, but compared to so much else, I personally wouldn’t think it would be too devastating for us. Clairvoyance would have been a far bigger issue. I can’t imagine what a mortal reaching that tier would look like.”

  “Mmh, hearing that just makes me want that skill more. Okay, doesn’t matter. What does is the fact that I am almost done with this stupid quest. On the last stop and then I can go home and do some real work.”

  “Come on, this surely isn’t so bad,” Myriad told him.

  “It’s not bad, just boring. The problems haven’t even been particularly interesting either; it’s all just too straightforward.”

  “Your last two stops were only straightforward because of the amount of skill you currently have,” Helori pointed out. “Which is a point towards the value of getting you to do tasks like these.”

  “Yeah, yeah, and I get it; it’s helping people. I’m not against that, no matter how much it might feel like the guild is intentionally ripping me off. Just because I get it though, doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy it. If it comes up again then I’ll do it, but we need to at least be sent complete profiles of what each place needs so I’m not wasting my time collecting info first. If I had that then I’m pretty confident that all of this could have been finished on day two instead of going onto day four like this.”

  “I’ll have word sent to properly report what’s needed for construction quests in the future then,” Myriad told him. “Admittedly, you have reached a point where your time can be considered more valuable than anyone who’d be doing that write-up, even if you don't properly treat it like it is.”

  “Excuse you, I know my time is valuable; that’s why I basically account for every minute of it.”

  “Sure, but then you do things like take on an apprentice to train during the end of the world.”

  “Hey, if you didn’t want that, then you should have told Sachel not to bring her when they came to me.”

  “Sachel’s a dear believer, I could never.”

  “Picking up a bit of subtext there that makes me want to earn another sacrilege level.”

  “And it’s little threats like that which keep you from being popular up here.”

  “If the other gods stop deserving threats, then I’ll stop giving them. It’s really not that hard.”

  “I’m sure,” his god said dryly. “On that note, any luck on that front yet?”

  “No, still just chipping away,” Ben sighed. “It’ll probably be another week or two till my next levels. Absolutely sucks.”

  “You’ve reached a point where, even if some other gods aren’t going to want to admit it, if you died today and got an average amount of faith, you'd be the most powerful god in existence,” Helori pointed out. “I can’t imagine how you think only a week or two to even more power could possibly suck.”

  “Because it’s taking longer each time, and I’m running out of forbidden gods to swap to. As things stand, there’s a chance I won’t get to my ninth levels for those three skills before the third wave comes, and honestly, I’m emotionally depending on them if I’m going to be throwing myself into almost certain doom.”

  “... You know Ben,” Myriad started. “There is such a thing as being over-prepared.”

  “Not in my books.”