In the morning, Ben found the spatial bag he’d brought to the wave beside him, with Thera having grabbed it from the hospital she’d been working at after it had been left there upon his kidnapping, sending a small jolt of fear through him as he rushed through is, pushing aside food and potions he’d prepared for the month to find what he’d been worried about.

Still there. He sighed in relief as he moved the archive to his ring instead. It had been something he’d brought along to give himself a bit more mental leeway if he’d needed it thanks to the powerful time effect placed on it but if it had ended up missing at his return then he would have forever been the idiot who’d lost a mythic item, not a title he wanted to earn for himself.

He hadn’t even thought about it until seeing the bag but now that it was in his hands he was already breathing just a little easier, letting him move on to the first part of the day.

You free for a moment, Myriad?

<After you just took up my entire night?>

Oh, so you are then, perfect. This will be quick anyway, I just want to finally get an answer to this.

He pulled out the strange cube he’d found in his cell as he thought it, wanting to finally know what it was for, only to suddenly become very aware of something he hadn’t been able to notice during all of his time sharing a room with it.

This thing has divinity in it?

With all of the power that Oaun had been flooding the world with, Ben hadn’t been able to feel the few drops of the stuff within that one item at the time but now it seemed so obvious, with his god having his own surprise.

<So that’s what they took, hmm? But how? No, it was built to survive essentially anything, I suppose the idea that it withstood the destruction of my planet isn’t unreasonable but that they managed to find it…>

With it being?

<A prototype. Specifically, my prototype. What you're looking at is the earliest design for the tool that would eventually become the god Myriad.>

Wait, seriously?

<Mhm, though it’s an early, early design. You know I was originally made to act as an artificial afterlife for my people to hold their souls but that there is a little different, with its purpose being solely to hold memories. Really, I never expected to ever see it again, it feels a little strange to look at after all of this time.>

Huh, neat, so does it actually have any stored? How do I access them?

<Unfortunately, you don’t. Like I said, it was a prototype, it broke far too soon to be of any real use so there’s nothing to be gotten from it. It’s interesting though, certainly worth putting in one of my churches to display.>

Seems like kind of a waste. If it doesn’t work can you at least do anything with the bit of divinity still inside of it?

<I wonder? While I remember being the god who did it, I’m no longer that god after merging with the other divinity of my world along with all of my people. Technically, it’s not really even strictly my power anymore but if that was enough for the demons to find the connection through you and me then it can’t be too different… Hmm, I should be able to do that much and there’s really no reason to let it go to waste. As interesting as it is as a curiosity of my past, this at least isn’t something I’m sentimental about. Ben, if you were to choose an attribute to grow, which one would you want?>This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Mana regeneration, every time.

<Alright, one second.>

The power he felt within that cube moved with those words, leaving the ancient prototype to instead move to Ben, settling inside of him without his sacrilege reacting, with Myriad’s line of questioning making it obvious what had happened.

You sure you’re okay with that buddy?

<Mmh, given the state of the world it’s no good for me to be worried about a bit of power I haven’t thought about in millennia. You should have an extra five points to your mana recovery rate now so you’ll be at least a little faster at it, even if it’s only going to be by a few seconds thanks to your current values.>

Seconds add up. Thanks man, I appreciate it.

<It’s fine since it will hopefully help keep you alive slightly longer. Now that that’s done though I really do need to go back to work. Since you’re planning on seeing the soul mages today, do me a favour and place that in my church at Allfaith, would you?>

Yeah, will do.

Dragging Thera along once she woke up, Ben went to fulfill that small request from his god, going to the church where the dead god’s trial once stood and spending plenty of his mana to make a proper display for the prototype before going off to try and meet their friends, passing far too empty streets as they did.

The second wave may have ended but the danger wasn’t gone and that was reflected in the deserted roads around, with people having largely evacuated what had been one of the busiest cities on the planet for others that were farther from an invasion point.

There were of course some people still around. As the planet’s central hub for religious faith, plenty were coming to pray, feeling it was more important than ever to give faith, but the streets weren’t bustling with activity the way they had been in the past and every now and then there were signs of destruction where demonic attacks had broken through before waiting soldiers or adventurers could come deal with it, the rubble left where it was with so many more urgent matters to take care of in comparison.

“Do you really need me today, Ben?” Thera asked him as she looked around, the sight of it all twisting her with guilt that she wasn’t instead going to the hospital. “It’s not that I don’t want to see them or spend time with you, but…”

“If they remembered a little agreement we made then it will be worth it to have you there but if not you can head on back, I just want to grab all of the benefits for us I can.”

If things worked out then there’d be plenty to enjoy, but when they arrived at their friends’ home, the one standing guard gave them the news that they weren’t in at the moment, meaning another trip through the city to get to the soul mage Elvat’s residence instead, facing different streets in similar levels of disarray, even if they were slightly busier. They were walking along main roads from there, not only letting them see a few people who were out and about to pray, along with some helping to clean up some of the damage that the bits of fighting that had made its way out there had caused, but also handfuls of people patrolling the area in the event any demons made their way into city limits.

With so few people around compared to how full the streets had always ended up in the past though, it made it far easier to spot some familiar faces, with Ben’s eyes locking onto the three as they came out of a side alley, turning to go to Elvat’s residence too from the looks of it.

“Amy, Jake, Yuzu!” Ben called out. “Wait up!”

His cry got their attention, pulling their weary eyes to him and letting two of them light up in a bit of happiness at getting to see their friends after a month of constant combat and fighting, with only Yuzu looking different.

It was something he was used to that usually led her to violently shaking him but this time was different. Not only was she taking in the changes in his status but also something only he and she could see, the souls he was constantly creating, flashing in and out of existence to give him the last bits of experience he was going to need to finally finish his job that day.

All of it left her not knowing what to focus on first, with that only being settled as her eyes landed on his current job.

“How are you a- Mmph!”

Before she could finish, Ben materialized from afar, spending far too much mana for the act of doing it at a distance but ended with the girl's mouth gagged, keeping her from shouting out his job to the world.

“Lovely to see you too Yuzu, how about we don’t scream out things that are going to get way too many eyes on me while we head over to your teacher’s place? We’ve got plenty to talk about after all.”