It was a while before Thera could sleep, the many events of the day playing havoc with her thoughts but eventually her exhaustion won in the end, letting Ben send a part of himself up to his god’s realm with three deities staring him down once he arrived.

“What took you so long?” Myriad asked him, the stress in the god’s voice sounding like it was going to reach a breaking point.

“Oh, well, Thera was having trouble getting to sleep so I was trying to help her relax. We had a weird day, discovered about a dozen dryads might be trying to have children with Bloom. At least, I can’t imagine why they’d ask him to replace his body if that wasn’t what they were aiming for, not that that was actually necessary. If Abrus could impregnate Pelenia with one made entirely of stone and Lux could have a child without really constructing a body at all, then-”

“Focus, Ben. Besides, you could have come up here earlier if you wanted; I know you don’t need to be asleep for it anymore.”

“Okay, well one, I’m pretty sure I don’t need to sleep in general anymore, and two, a certain someone specifically told me not to spend all of my time in their realm so I haven’t been coming up until I’m done my things in the mortal realm, which spending time with my girlfriend absolutely qualifies as.”

“Helori, he’s going to give me an aneurysm.”

“Huh, that’s an interesting thought. Could your race get aneurysms in all of your sub-brains?”

“Not the time, Ben!”

“And as amusing as this back and forth has been,” Helori cut in. “What exactly have you done that has Myriad like this?”

“The little bastard awakened his evil and destruction affinities!” Myriad yelled before Ben could answer. “He’s just trying to create situations where people will argue that killing him is for the good of the world! He says he cares about his life and then goes out of his way to grow skills that are destined to cause me problems!”

“Okay, in my defense, I did it for the world as much as I did it for myself,” Ben explained. “I don’t really care about the skills, I wanted the attribute bonuses since I’m modifying souls in a day. Ah, but the fact that both should be doing some heavy lifting to help me level my sacrilege is also a big bonus too.”

“UGH!”

At the same time Myriad let out a pained scream, Helori was shoving her hands into his chest, leaving only Nare among them clear-headed enough to talk to, the god frowning at what he’d heard but nothing more.

“Well, as shocking as this is, I suppose it’s not actually that shocking, at least comparatively. As frankly disturbing as it is to hear that you reached the third tier for two more skills, and ones you don’t care about at that, considering what you’ve been doing to Quox to earn then, it’s somehow more of a surprise that you didn’t get them sooner.”

“It was actually Haro I used, I traded my forbidden god out for a different model which we’re going to have to talk about later because I’m sure it’s going to be noticed but as for my awakenings, I’m actually half convinced that inclinations don’t naturally want to reach the third tier. Look at me, I had tortured Quox’s soul for, from his perspective, hundreds of thousands of years by this point. I’ve turned him to nothing and then fixed him, again and again and again and yet it still wasn’t enough until I added a bit of variety to the mix by changing to another god. Hell, that’s not even the only one I should be awakening at this point. Making souls applies to my soul affinity and at this point I’ve made billions, the fact that I haven't managed to push it beyond its limit either is kind of a testament to the ridiculousness that is getting those particular skills to the third tier even compared against the regular difficulty, all the more so when you factor in every other bonus I have going to the two.”

“That would explain why we’ve never managed to create an inclination god in the past,” Helori said, sounding largely distracted as she spoke. “We did try to get some variety to see if certain third tier skills could be more beneficial than others for when the invasion came so we could try to produce more of that type but unfortunately, given the nature of producing a third tier, success and failure were both pretty random and we did not get very far in a lot of different areas.”

“And then, what came with them?” Nare wanted to ask, thinking of the bonus skills, but getting a different answer first.

“Well, I got a new title called record breaker, which I’m assuming has to do with me being the first mortal to get more than two third-tier skills.”

“If that was the case, then the first mortal to get two third-tier skills would have claimed that title for themself too, which didn’t happen. I’d assume that you getting it then was more of a coincidence, one new record on top of the ones you already hold. Most titles, most jobs, most awakened skills-”

“Awe, Nare, you’re gonna make me blush.”

“And anything else then, Ben?”

“Just the skills. Two new touch ones which, I’m going to be honest, feels pretty lame.”

“I’m sorry, what do you mean, touch skills?”

“You know, like artisan’s touch, only in this case, destructive and evil touch.”

“What?” the god asked in confusion. “But that’s not a skill category. Only artisan’s touch existed before, and that’s something gods would make to give out to worthy believers or as trial rewards.”

“Well, it’s not like I got that one from the gods myself, and if it wasn’t a category before, then it is now. A very lame category, given that as the holder of both evil and destruction authority, the fact that my bonus skills for these awakenings do the same thing as those original skills but weaker is more than a little disappointing. And they're both first tier too! Seriously, I know I was only supposed to have, like, a ten percent chance of getting second tier skills for third tier awakenings, but I really feel like awakening an inclination should boost those odds a bit, you know?”

“To be fair, it could be boosting the odds and you still just didn’t get them.”

“... Okay, yeah, that’s possible, but the thought’s going to bum me out.”

“Ugh, so did you learn anything about those two stupid authorities then?” Myriad asked once he managed to pull himself together, getting a confident nod for the question.

“Lots. One, I can detect evil and destructive skills in people now with varying levels of precision based on if they’re used for either evil or destruction, the holder views them as being evil or destructive, or society around me views them as evil or destructive. I’m not sure if my own view comes into play, I don’t really view any skills as evil and I wouldn’t really say many of them are inherently destructive either, baring destruction which I’ll look at Delair as an example later to see if I’m getting anything from it. Beyond that, I seem to be able to let people access the lowered leveling thresholds that an inclination provides, and since it’s at the third tier, the amount it reduces is rather significant by now.”

“It’s almost like you’ve begun to specialize into helping others grow at this point,” Nare muttered, comparing what he had just been told to how Ben would help teach, awaken people, and rush others through jobs.

“It would be interesting if that were the case. The testing I was able to do on this front was limited but there doesn’t seem to be a mana cost with doing it and the effect seems to be boosted when I connect to someone, though I need to study it more, as well as conduct some research on the range for when I’m not connected as well as the effect duration. As for parts of it that help me though, I’ve made one significant discovery.”

“I don’t like this little dramatic pause,” his god muttered, nothing he was hearing from his apostle a comfort.

“That’s because you’re a worrywart, Myriad. Anyway, it seems like I can now judge which evil and destructive acts give me the most skill experience for any given ability I have.”

“That was absolutely worth being a worrywart about.”

“And as interesting as that is, that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be a focus though,” Nare put out in the hopes of dampening any of Ben’s most violent fantasies. “As powerful of a boost as a third tier inclination is sure to give a skill, there’s sure to be many cases where using them in such a way would still be less effective than using them in more reasonable manners.”

“And, while I don’t actually buy that argument even for a second, relax. I’m not going to become any worse just because of this option now. Unless it helps me raise connect to the third tier.”

“Thanks for the asterisk,” Myriad grumbled.

“What it does,” Ben went on. “Is show me how to improve in a specific area I’ve been struggling in. For using the forbidden gods as training materials, I was just fumbling around blind before. Now though? Now I can tell exactly what I can do to them for the best effect.”

“Psychopath.”

ACQUIRED TITLE- PSYCHOPATH

“Myriad, you goddamn bastard-”

“Put a pin in that,” Helori cut him off before he could show off just how colourful his vocabulary could get. “There’s something else we need to discuss here.”

“Something beyond swearing at my god for giving a new title?”

“Yeah, because this is… unexpected.”

“Unexpected how? What did you find while you were fiddling around in there?”

“You said there's no mana cost for applying this ability to others? Well, I think I’ve found the reason.”

“Okay, I’ll bite. Why?”

“You're giving off divinity.”