<ACTUALIZATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<INTELLIGENCE ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

The following day, Ben and Thera left for their next destination, being a place Ben already had plans for thanks to the gods. A place they’d actually been to before, though the circumstances of their past visit made things slightly more complicated. They were going back to warriors’ tower.

It wasn't for simple sightseeing though, but instead an event being put on by the city itself. After all, as a gathering place for warriors it made sense to give them a chance to show off some of their skill and might, leading to semi-regular contests and tournaments, with one of the bigger ones about to take place that day.

“Are you not at least a little self-conscious?” Thera asked him as they looked around on their way to pick up their tickets.

“Hmm? No, why would I be?”

“It wasn’t long ago you basically just led an angry mob through these streets. You started a huge riot!”

“And that memory will always be one I'll hold dear to my heart.”

Having a mob of people hanging on to his every word as he went off to threaten a god had been exhilarating, all of the more so with the benefits of hindsight without the rage he'd been feeling at the time to taint it. There was a good chance he'd never be able to do anything like that again either, meaning he needed to treasure the once he had.

Thera for her part seemed to have viewed it in a different light despite taking part in that very mob.

“That was so not the point I was trying to make.”

“Come on, you've gotta admit you had fun.”

“I'm admitting nothing. And aren't we going the wrong way? The coliseum’s to the left.”

“Ah, since this is a big event the church of Myriad had to buy our tickets early so we're meeting up with the gophers we sent to collect them first.”

“Why do I suddenly have a very bad feeling?”

“Not sure, maybe something you ate? But anyway, it's just over there.”

“And my bad feeling’s been confirmed.”

Ben was pointing at another place in the city they'd already been. The city’s communal church where he’d led his angry mob to when he’d gone to demand justice.

He personally didn’t give it too much thought either. He had no problem with the priests serving there, going in the past had simply been the easiest way to make a threat and ensure he had the gods' attention. How they all felt about him ended up being another matter entirely.

Any priest who noticed him felt their eyes grow wide as they began pointing him out and muttering to the others, with word that the mad apostle was back spreading through the building by the time Ben was barely inside and looking around to find who he was supposed to ask for his tickets before giving up and going to the nearest priest who seemed to be doing his best to avoid eye contact at all costs.

“Hello there,” Ben said brightly, choosing to ignore the mood of the place. “I’m looking for the church’s head if you could help me out and then I’ll get out of everyone’s hair.”

“Of course, right this way,” They at least managed to say politely enough as he quickly led the way for them, knocking on a door in the back and immediately running off after a voice inside called to let them in.

It was the older priest he’d spoken with the last time he’d been there, who compared to those beneath him did a far better job of keeping whatever he may have been feeling to himself, instead showing a gentle smile.

“So we meet again.”

“That we do, but I won’t keep you. I was told there would be two tickets waiting here for the church of Myriad, I’ve come to collect.”

“Of course, just a moment.”

The old priest reached inside his desk before pulling the two out for them and handing them over, no fuss to be had as Ben gave his thanks.

“And is there anything else I might do for you, Apostle Ben?”

Well, while I’m here…If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“If you’d show me where Myriad’s statue is so I can give a quick prayer, I’d appreciate it.”

Every communal church of a big enough size would have miniature statues and figures of the different gods filling their halls to let those who came to them give their prayers, and while Ben didn’t personally care too much about such things, he was still an apostle. Since he was already in a church that was going to have a likeness of his god, he needed to show a bit of devotion as he was taken through the rows until he was finally before the one he worshiped.

Bowing his head and clasping his hands, he gave a quick prayer of thanks to his god for arranging the tickets and was about to leave from there before he noticed something that stopped him in his tracks and forced him to take a deep, calming breath as he opened his mouth, lest he rip into the priest who had led him there.

“Excuse me,” He began, far more politely than he wanted to given what he was seeing. “Why is the statue of my god of such a low quality compared to plenty of the others here?”

Given Myriad’s shape, there really was only so much that could be done to make it look impressive, but not only was his statue a simple grey stone block compared to so many others that were made of much more impressive materials to fill them with colour and make them gleam, under the eyes of an expert craftsman, When Ben looked at that statue of Myriad he could easily see that whoever had made it hadn’t even managed a perfect cube. It was ever so subtly off on one side, giving it an imperceptible tilt to anyone who didn’t have the skill to see it.

Despite the feelings welling up in his chest though, it seemed that the church head had a genuine reason to provide.

“It seems our branch has never had any better statues donated by your church.”

“Donated?”

“Ah, were you not aware? While the communal branches will have statues commissioned if need be, oftentimes better quality ones will be made and donated by the churches in question.”

“...I see. In that case, would you be so kind and lead us to the statues of a few other gods?”

While not sure where Ben was going with it, the priest still nodded as he led them around to see the statues of Helori, Nare, and Anailia, the last of which Thera gave a quick prayer to as Ben took everything in.

He’d made sure to take in all of the other statues along the way, and while the ones for both Nare and Anailia were of good quality, the two of them being big and powerful gods, the one for Helori was of the same quality as the one for Myriad, with it only looking better due to her form being more complex than Myriad’s simple shape.

So that’s two for me to fix. Plus we passed Jagal too and hers are also in a pretty poor condition. Even if I’m not friends with the dryad goddess, it doesn’t hurt to have one of the gods that likes me owe me a favour. Okay, this will only take a little bit.

“Alright, would you be able to tell me how many communal churches have statues?”

“Offhand? No, I apologize.”

“It’s fine, just one second,” He said before speaking up to the sky and into his mind, looking to get some attention. “Myriad Myriad Myriad, come and answer your humble apostle!”

The priest with them immediately began praying from the knowledge that a god would be speaking to an important member of their faith so close to him, but the god in question sounded mostly distracted.

<What, what is it?>

“How many communal churches have proper statues in them?”

<Across the world? Two hundred and forty-eight. Why?>

“I’ll tell you later so don’t worry about it. For now, you can get back to whatever’s keeping you busy.”

With the information he needed acquired, all that was left was how he was going to rectify that abysmal situation as he first came up with decent designs for the two goddesses, figuring out the materials he would want each one to be made of.

Helori was both his friend and teacher so given that, he made sure to go all out, taking special care to get her colourful horns correct, swirling gems so they’d look as if they were glowing when light passed through them before materializing the first model.

Jagal was different, if only because of how hard it would be to make a statue of her given the branches sprouting from her head, each of them carrying a number of delicate fruits. It was the sort of thing that was just asking to break, but Ben bypassed that issue by sealing the whole thing in a clear crystal.

That only left the hardest god of all for the end. As great as Myriad was, he wasn’t visually impressive, so Ben used every trick he had to try and bypass that fact.

While the statue had to be small, he made sure to materialize it at the maximum dimensions it looked like it could have, ending with something a bit less than a foot by a foot in size, and while its interior was hallow with a simple steel frame to act as support, that steel was covered in a layer of mythril to give it the genuine look of his god.

It was once that was done he gave it the last touch he could to help it stand out as more than just a shiny block, enchanting the mythril surface with a small barrier, the same way he kept doing for the statues at the church of Eneth, to make it float just a little while at the same time covering the rest of it to keep any fingerprints from ruining the glossy surface.

“Okay, three done, seven hundred and forty-one to go. Thera, you don’t mind if I steal a bit of mana from you, do you? I should be able to finish this up in under half an hour so we have plenty of time. And Mister Priest guy? Sorry, I never actually got your name, but would you be so kind as to ship these out to the other communal churches? I can of course pay if need be.”

“Um, wait, please,” The priest said, suddenly doing a far worse job of hiding his expression after seeing Ben materialize statues out of thin air and suddenly having what sounded like a lot of work dumped on him. “Replacing the statues of your god is one thing, but I can’t in good consciousness let the apostle of another faith replace the statues of gods he doesn't even worship.”

“Oh, is that all? Then don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure both goddesses are aware and if you don’t hear from them then you can trash the statues, though I can one hundred percent guarantee that Helori won’t be turning these down at least. So with that out of the way, time to work.”

While piles and piles of statues were building up on the ground around them as Ben put his skill at materialization to work and the head priest called for others around them to collect them all somewhere that would be slightly more dignified than letting them rest on the floor given they were statues of the gods they worshiped, Thera alone was left to look at Ben through narrowed eyes, not stopping him but certainly thinking to herself that despite being on vacation, he’d still found a way to do some work.