He was taken to the back where he’d been expecting to find maybe ten or twenty people, just a few parties who’d challenged the tower and lived to tell the tale, but he’d been too pessimistic in his estimate, instead finding over fifty in the back room where he’d been lead, all of them waiting thanks to the reward he’d been willing to put up to draw them in.

His request had been simple, offering a small fortune just to talk with anyone who’d gotten to at least the second floor, with anyone who’d completed the top getting triple. It was a draw none could deny, even if it felt a little strange to all of them.

Anyone who took on the tower knew they wouldn’t be able to talk about it, the covenant on then suppressing information from getting out, but then, most people didn’t worry about their memories being read. They all thought they were there to give little bits of general advice that could get through, maybe say the levels they’d been at when they attempted it and how far they’d gotten, as well as party size and composition. None of them had been expecting the person who’d hired them to just take a quick walk around the room, reaching into their minds to take what he needed before holding out his card to offer payment.

“Alright, thank you all for swinging by, you’ve each been a big help. Except you five at the back,” He yelled out, pointing at one group in particular. “Don’t think I don’t know you came here thinking you could lie your way into getting the reward without ever setting foot in the tower. Scram before I complain to the guild.”

It wasn’t surprising that anyone might try and cheat given the money that was on the line but they hadn’t expected to be called out immediately when everyone there should have been kept from revealing anything that would keep their lack of knowledge from giving them away.

Ben’s frosty look did the trick though, freaking out one of them enough that they did what he said, with the rest following suit shortly after, not having it in them to defend themselves when one of them had already folded.

Of course, Ben was still going to tell the guild about them. Going through their minds had given him their names, ranks, addresses and more. It didn’t matter how rich he was, he wasn’t going to look fondly on someone trying to steal from him.

Everyone else just watched in confusion at the quick exchange, none of them knowing what had happened or how he’d known that, with many of them concluding that it didn’t really matter. They were each getting paid for something that had ended up taking a lot less time than they’d expected, if he was willing to part with his money like that then it was enough for them.

<So this was your idea.> Myriad sighed in his head. <At this point I’m not even mad, just disappointed. I’ve said it before, but you do understand that the point of a trial is to be challenged, right? To overcome something big enough to be worthy of rewarding?>

Excuse you, I’ve been thoroughly challenged each time I’ve done one of these stupid things. I don’t think I’ve been through one where I haven’t almost died by the end of it. They freaking suck.

<And yet you’re going in again?>

It’s the best option I can think of for helping Thera. And you know what? Besides that, I want a win.

<What do you mean you want a win? You’ve beaten every trial you’ve done. Infinite hells, you’ve beaten one the rest of the world viewed as impossible. How could you possibly get more of a win than that?>

Winning is more than just coming out the other end with whatever rewards you guys are giving away. He shot back. I want a good, clean victory. Something where I’ll come out the other side without taking a beating on the way to it. I want one of my plans to go off without a hitch to grab me a perfect victory.

And the request he’d put in had been a big step in getting that. Of everyone he’d just read the memories of, twelve groups had reached the second or third floor before quitting while two had gotten to the top. Add in what he’d seen in Jake’s memories of it back when he was trying to cheat for the life tower and he had a broad idea of the many floors it could contain; if he was lucky, all of them even. He doubted the gods would have gone to the effort of making sure that there were just as many options for the second half of the tower as there were for the first when so few would be making it to the end. He wanted to believe that the three different options he’d seen could be all he’d need.

Of course, I have a few more ideas that I could put to work too, but we’ll worry about that later. For now, Myriad, what are the odds you could score me a quick meeting with Anailia?

<She’s likely busy, but I’m sure if you wait a bit then I could get her to squeeze you in.>

Sounds good. In that case, I’ll finish some other stuff up and just tell me when she’s free.

With the bit of extra time, he went to find the mages guild, handing over the letter Killi had given him when he did and answered a few more questions on top of it to gain a new mark on his card.

It seemed that it almost met in the middle of both the adventurers and crafting guilds. While the first had seven ranks to it that its members could fall into and the second had none, with all of them being mostly equal in terms of available resources, the mages guild divided people into one of three different categories. Holders of first-tier, second-tier, and third-tier magics, meaning he’d been registered as a second-tier mage.

It sounded like there were a few benefits to it, but nothing he particularly cared about. Any part of him that was magic-related was there because it was a part of his identity as a craftsman and given that the library at the magic tower had a completely different system that he was already at the top of, he didn’t really need anything they could provide short of their ability to publish anything he wanted to put out. It was a nice benefit to earn a bit more money, but nothing he expected to put too much use after all of the magic books he was going to give Killi were put out.

Of course, it’s going to be a lot. Let’s see, While it makes sense for me to put out the volume for soul magic, there really haven’t been enough people who’ve reached the third tier in the other branches for me to make volumes for them instead of letting people read the earlier records with it, meaning for affinitied magics there’s going to be twenty-one books total, but I’ll cover the common non-affinity ones too to make maybe a couple dozen more beyond that.

…Ah, what the hell, why not? I’ll also write up books for both material user and destruction since it wouldn’t hurt any future holders of the skills if there was a bit more literature on it and I’ll put one together going over everything I know about material manipulation too, just in case anyone ever gets it or an equivalent skill again. I mean, I might need to update it in the future if I ever figure out more uses for it but just to be safe it wouldn’t hurt to make more now. Maybe some for enchanting too? I’ve already made some for the craftsman's guild but I don’t actually know if the mages guild was made aware of them. Maybe something to talk to Killi about. Oh, and since I’m so far along I should make one for mana modifiers. The more info on them that’s out there, the better chance for others to possibly make their own discoveries that could help me with this.

Is there anything else? I’m already making over fifty books at this point, this is going to take a while. Actually, Verbum is at the third tier, he should have more mana than he knows what to do with. I’ll just steal some of his to make this work.

He planned to do exactly that as he got back to the library, right until his god spoke into his thoughts.

<Alright, she’ll be free in a minute.>

Oh cool, in that case, give me a second.

He went to the nearest table and placed his head against it before forcing his mind up to his god’s realm, ready and excited to meet the goddess he was hoping might ease things for him a little.

“You know, she could have spoken to you while you were down there,” Myriad pointed out, with Ben shrugging in return.

“I want to see her reactions in person. Plus if I’m up here I feel like it's easier to look a little more pitiful.”

“Manipulative.”

“Whatever gets the job done.”

Their back and forth was cut short with the arrival of a giant snake, Anailia appearing and making her presence known while giving Ben a surprisingly gentle smile coming from her reptilian lips.

“Well well, I wasn’t expecting the call, little child of Myriad. Just what might you need?”

“Thanks for coming, Anailia. Okay, so have you heard about what’s going on with Thera?”

This was her god after all, it wouldn’t have been shocking for her to be aware of what was happening, but the worried, questioning look he got when he asked told him all he needed to know so he filled her in, seeing sorrow touch her eyes and her jaw lightly clench.

“That’s truly regrettable. How is she managing?”

“She’s doing her best but it’s pretty obviously bothering her, hence why I’m talking to you. Before I aim for my more crazy solution, what are the odds that this is something you can solve?”

The fact that she’d once offered Thera a quest that could have let her awaken a skill left him feeling hopeful, but he could see how deep she was thinking before she answered and didn’t take it for a good sign.

“Ben, I am one of the more powerful gods in the world and the amount of faith I have is by no means small, but with the timing being what it is I can’t justify the amount I would have to spend,” She said, sounding regretful as she did. “With how the first wave ended, we’re all in excellent shape. I can’t risk the advantage it gives us by using up my reserves like that.”

“Huuh, yeah, that’s about what I expected.”

“However, assuming we are the victors in the struggle for this world then I will help as soon as I have the faith to,” She promised him. As the mother goddess of the succubi, how could she not? As much as it pained her to neglect the suffering of one of her children, she couldn’t risk them all to help, but that didn’t mean she never would. If they came out on top then she had every intention of doing what she said, a feeling Ben was able to pick up on.

“Thanks, but if you can’t help now then I’m not going to make her wait a couple years. Instead, I’ve got another question. If she gets to the top of the dark tower, can you make sure her charm merges into her dark magic if she awakens it?”

The fact that they didn’t know if it would combine properly if she just awakened it through effort meant that even if they got to the top there was a chance they would still fail their true goal in the end. Ben wanted to reduce those odds, making the very idea of failure laughable, and this time he got the response he wanted.

“If you manage that then I can guarantee you that we can cause the awakening you desire, but I’d advise you to take a bit more time to consider it. I understand this might be hard on her given the life she’s led, but it’s not worth dying for when you already have my promise that I’ll solve this if you just wait a few years. You’ve had your luck with trials but most mortals only do one of the towers for a reason, they can go very wrong. Your own experiences should tell you as much.”

“Well, you’re not wrong but I wouldn’t worry too much,” He told her confidently. “I fully intend on cheating my way through.”

“He’s already investigated what most of the floor options entail,” Myriad sighed, getting a surprised look from Anailia and a cocky one from Ben, with the apostle speaking up at that.

“If you think that’s all I’ve got then you couldn’t be more wrong,” He grinned. “I’ve got a cheat so good there’s going to be gods wanting to toss me into hell all over again. An idea so fantastic that spending all of that money investigating the other floors might actually end up being meaningless. I just need to make sure she’ll actually agree to help first.”