“Damn, completely empty today, huh?” Ben said as he got to the realm, not even his god there when he arrived. “Meetings then? Lame.”

Still, by his lonesome as he was, that meant he should have left. With no one to bounce ideas off of, there was no reason to stay, or at least there shouldn’t have been one, but he held himself back.

If he did leave, all that meant was that his focus would be split between his actions in the world below, his internal thoughts, and his personal realm, yet that up there was a fourth space, just waiting to be taken advantage of when there wasn’t anyone to complain to him about it. Why not enjoy it before his god came back? After all, it wasn’t like there weren't things he could use it for. His own realm was currently too crowded and chaotic as he tried to restructure it through the application of sixth-dimensional space, letting him explore the designs that could be constructed in such an altered plane. There was no reason to let that area go to waste as well.

Okay, I’ll play around just a tiny bit while everyone else is away. Maybe I can even make something fun while I’m here to surprise Myriad with.

<WHAT DID YOU DO?>

You know, it’s polite to start with a hello and some small talk. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

<I’M NOT MAKING SMALL TALK WITH YOU, YOU’VE DESTROYED MY REALM! HOW DID YOU CREATE LIVING THINGS IN HERE?>

Technically, they’re more like stimulus machines built on the principles of this world’s chemistry. They’re not ensouled, so they’re not meaningfully alive. Now, calm down a bit, would you?

<I don’t want to calm down, I want them out of here! They’re oozing!>

Only some of them; it was necessary for their ecosystem.

<If you were to tell me this entire ecosystem was an outsider that broke in here, then I would have believed you! Besides that- Oh, oh, augh, no, one of them touched me while I was yelling at you. Oh, infinite hells, I think I’m going to be sick.>

They’re being friendly; relax.

<I’m never going to relax again, get them all out of here!>

“Fine, fine,” Ben said as he popped up, wanting to comment that if Myriad hated them so much that he could have just erased them himself, but held his tongue as he emptied the realm of his constructs. “Honestly, though, you’re exaggerating. My own realm is filled with way crazier stuff.”

“Then make sure you never bring a mortal to it because what I saw alone was enough to drive one to madness! In all that’s good, why are you like this?”

“I just love having a creative outlet.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Then your outlets are horrifying, and someone should probably lobotomize you for the world’s greater good.”

“Huh, considering that a beheading almost killed me, that does make me wonder how much a lobotomy might do. Since I use my soul for all of my actual thinking, so long as any of the ways my brain regulates my body aren’t disrupted, I’d probably be fine, but you really can never know until you check. Maybe I should pull some chunks out of a clone brain to see how it feels when I’m possessing it.”

“Don’t. I don’t need anyone seeing you do that and ending up with any lasting trauma.”

“Hmm, we’ll see. Now that my range has grown so much, I really do need to talk Thera into making me a few hundred more. There’s a lot of work I could do with them at once. That’s a later thing though. First, I’m assuming you were in a meeting?”

“Ugh, yes, and I can only thank my lucky stars I wasn’t hosting it here because if anyone else saw what I’d just come back to, I’d have to deal with everyone else’s reactions to the horrors you think of too.”

“Not the point. How did it go? Am I getting a skill, or am I only helping the people I care about finish their jobs?”

“You’re getting your skill, don’t worry about that. It should be ready by the time you’ll be doing your new round of soul modification too. More important than that, it seems like overall discussions have finished. You wanted a tower blessing in exchange for giving thirty others? Well, it looks like you’re getting it.”

“Wait, seriously? Sweet! When?”

“When we gather what thirty we want being blessed by you. Should only be a day or two before we start sending people to meet you.”

“That works,” Ben nodded, his physical body already slicing off more pieces of his soul to preemptively store away with the few other blessings he’d created since he’d finished going out to give them, with thoughts on how he could speed things up too. He had Thera to help, since he was going to have to give out plenty of blessings anyway and since his soul now healed significantly faster than other mortals, he could try to do more than just four by getting her to help heal it so he could cut away what he needed again. “And as for when I’m being paid…?”

“You can expect that just before you start as well, as requested. Currently, the task is finding what group will put up with giving you a pantheon blessing.”

“I’ll look forward to the surprise then. Other than that-”

<MAX LEVEL OF THE CRAFTSMAN: SEWING PATH JOB ACHIEVED>

“Looks like I’m officially done that little job run now too. Hope your believers made sure to properly benefit from it.”

“Most had health chunks taken out of their available jobs, though that slowed once you took in the rest of Stonewall and all of Anailia. Still, anyone in my faith taking first-tier options got to finish most, if not all of them, and as for any of my believers on a second-tier job, they at the very least finished a few. I’d say it went more than well.”

“Good, and any idea for the people not in your church?”

“It led to some excitement and confusion, that’s for sure, but overall, there was growth to be gained all around. Phixth was lamenting that we already used up so many third-tier jobs when we could have had you put them to use.”

“Don’t worry, once we’re done with Thera, I’ve got a couple ideas for some workarounds. We’ll worry about that later though, because I have a couple other things to focus on today first. Namely, probing your memories.”

“Dare I ask why?” Myriad questioned, even if he didn’t stop Ben from immediately connecting to him.

“I’m trying to see if I can create skills now using soulcraft. I think I should be able to, but I want to observe the process in detail before I try. That and making a mythic item to get the crafting gods’ reward are both going to be the attempts for the day.”

“Two things normally impossible for mortals that seem frighteningly likely when you’re the one doing it,” Myriad sighed. “Dare I even ask how you plan to go about reaching that tier?”

“Oh, it should actually be pretty straightforward,” Ben grinned. “All I’m going to do is try to build a god.”