Falk had just finished giving a new staff to his favourite customer and was back at the forge to start making a few pans for a neighbour, when he spared a thought to his encounter with the boy from a week prior.
He had selected a target for him that, while not so ridiculously challenging as to make his intent obvious, should have been enough to scare the brat away and seek work with someone else. He wouldn’t make a good teacher, and he couldn’t figure out why the boy had selected him to begin with. He didn’t seem like he'd tried the other stores around and been rejected, but he couldn’t know just what skills Falk possessed, he always kept those close to his chest, there was no reason to seek him out.
Still though, a human… Shouldn’t one of the bigger nations be out training him? Why was he searching for a teacher by himself?
Like all the other city residents Falk was aware of the hero summoning that had taken place around their world, and with the humans having been summoned so close to his home city of course he had heard of them, a few even passed through this city to get to the nearest gate to travel to their new training grounds.
Still the boy would best give up and find somewhere else that was equipped to take on students, and Falk was best to focus on his own work for now, gods knowing he had plenty of other things to worry about than the state of one brat.
As he decided to put these unnecessary thoughts behind him he heard the door of his shop open. When he turned to see what this prospective customer was looking for he was instead greeted by Ben, as if his previous thoughts had summoned him.
“Damn it Brat I told you, I’m not taking you if you can’t hunt an Amarok, now get lost.” He dismissed him, getting back to his own work.
Ben ignored him, walking right up to Falk and handed a bundle over to him. “That's why I’m here, one Amarok pelt, freshish and ready to be tanned.”
Falk took a moment to look at what he had been handed and then took a closer look at the boy. It was clearly an Amarok pelt, he had hunted a few in his own time, wouldn't mistake one; and the boy for his part was an absolute mess now that he stopped to look, covered in dirt and blood. But he still couldn’t believe the kid had actually managed it.
“Sure it's an Amarok, I’ll give you that. The condition of its pretty trash though, way too many punctures. Not to mention that I told you to get it yourself, no adventurers.”
“The condition it’s in wasn’t a part of the deal, and I did get it myself.”
“Cut the crap kid, there's no way you managed to stab the beast this many times and walk back here yourself. Hell if you were in stabbing range a monster like this could sink its teeth into you no problem.”
Ben was a little offended that all of his hard work was being dismissed just like that, so he stopped Falk and explained in every little detail how he had managed it, from research to crafting and set up to finally tricking the beast. The plan had taken him a week to pull off, it wasn’t something he was willing to just have denied for the sake of the shopkeeper's convenience.
“...So after it was dead I just hung out in the tree for the rest of the night to avoid getting murdered by anything else walking the woods, and when morning came I took some time to skin it, bury its bones to grab later, as well as take down the spikes and fill in the hole. Then I came back here.”
At a certain point Falk put his head into his hands. What the boy was saying was possible. Usually when an adventurer goes out, the point is to work on improving their skills as much as it is for completing their quests or collecting raw materials from animals, so traps aren’t in common use. But it could work, he couldn’t deny it.
“So then.” Ben started, interrupting his thoughts. “Are you going to keep your end of the deal?”
“My end?”
“You said if I could kill one you’d take me on. I killed one, so when should I start?”
Falk let out a long unhappy sigh. “Damnable brat, I wouldn’t make a good teacher, if you want to learn you should find somewhere else.”
“I’ll be the judge of that. Now when do I start.”
If this ever comes up again I’m telling the next would-be student to hunt a bloody demon. “Fine, you start tomorrow. The shop opens at the crack of dawn. Don’t be late.”
“You won’t regret this Mr. Falk! I’ll see you bright and early!” Ben told him with a smile before running off.
“Yeah yeah. And take a bath before you get here! Tracking blood and dirt through my bloody shop.” He mumbled, pulling out a broom as tidying up a bit.
“Sooooooooooo?”
“Yeah yeah, you showed your usefulness. I’ll accept you as my god and toss you some prayers.”
As soon as Ben went to sleep at night he found himself again in Myriads divine realm, with him somehow managing to look antsy despite lacking a face or limbs or any other feature one could use to convey emotion. Knowing what he wanted Ben gave in immediately, he had to admit that having a god around had its uses.
As soon as Ben said the words Myriad's body started to glow a divine light. Like a cubic disco ball. Ben quietly thought to himself.
Even though Myriad could hear that thought he wasn’t going to let it get him down. This was the first believer he had had in a millennia, just being properly acknowledged by a mortal felt incredible.
“Sorry to interrupt your little light show, but what now?”
“Well as my believer I can grant you my blessing for starters. Though it will be weak now it should get stronger if I grow in power a bit. I can also grant you a quest.”
“No gift skill?”
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“I need you to pray to me consistently for a bit longer if I’m going to do that, a skill takes a lot of energy, and with the amount of strength I have now it will have to be incredibly close to my properties as a god and the properties of my race.”
“Okay sounds neat, what sort will it be?”
“There's a couple options, but not to worry I’ll make something that will suit you to the best of my abilities.”
“Alright I’ll leave it in your hands, and what do you mean by a quest?”
“Hmm the church must have not bothered explaining it since they didn’t think it would be relevant to you, but gods can issue quests to the people. The more powerful the god, the more powerful the quest reward. I can’t currently do anything too grand, but the good news about being my number one believer is I should be able to issue them to you more often than an average person could hope to get them.”
“Oh cool, then what's the reward?”
Myriad let out a small groan. “Think you could hide your greed for a minute and ask what the quest is first? I’ll be having you grow my faith. If you get me five new believers I will raise your job level by six.”
That sounded like an okay reward for now, after his months here he hadn’t done too much crafting, just some cooking, dismantling, and other experimenting at the church had only raised him to level 14, he was hoping he would get some more interesting options for whatever came next. There was only one small issue.
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to find you five other believers.” He said bluntly.
“Wait don’t be so pessimistic, it’s not impossible!”
“An unknown god with little power and not much that can be immediately offered, sounds pretty impossible to me.”
“Urk…”
“Not to mention why would anyone switch their faith from presumably a powerful god to a weak one? Maybe if one of the world's deities is outed as being evil we could scoop up some of their followers, but right now it just seems impossible.”
“Well if you accomplish something impressive, it may tempt some people towards me as a result.”
“Me, the apprentice craftsman with level one skills at most, accomplish anything impressive? Come on Myriad you need to have some realism here.”
With the cruel reality of Ben's words, Myriad fell to the ground defeated, all the joy and energy he had been feeling from getting a believer vanished.
“Hey now, no need to be so sad, the decks just stacked against you. Need power to get power, need followers to get followers. It’s rough but let's do our best.”
Myriad looked up, a bit of hope returning. “So you’ll take the quest?”
“...is there literally any other option?”
“This is the easiest one I can currently give you.”
“Is there a time limit? Any penalty for failing?”
“Nope, no limit or penalties. The only drawback is I can’t give you another one until you complete this one.”
“Alright, might as well give it a try.”
He rose again, rainbows flowing out of his silvery form. “I know you’ll figure something out Ben, I believe in you. Now time to wake up, you wouldn’t want to be late.”
With that Ben felt himself coming to consciousness, but before he even opened his eyes he felt the world screaming in his head
<ACQUIRED MYRIADS BLESSING>
<RECEIVED THE QUEST- RELIGIOUS GROWTH>
<ACQUIRED TITLE- APOSTLE OF MYRIAD>
I'm sorry, what of Myriad?