You’re a bastard. Ben thought to the heavens above. You’re such a huge bastard that I’m finding every copy of your holy text that’s ever been written and using my magic to stealth-edit it to call you Myriad the bastard every time you’re mentioned by name in it.
<Consider this payback for all you put me through.>
Gods shouldn’t be so spiteful.
<You bring out the worst in me. Still, it will be fine.>
How’s it going to be fine when you literally waited until right now to tell me that I’m supposed to be leading these people!
When it came to experience, he was sure everyone there would have had more than him, when it came to authority he had them beat. He was a third tier, a person destined for godhood, how could there be any greater authority than that? He doubted he’d get many arguments, but the statement still stopped him in his tracks.
<Don’t worry so much, you wouldn’t have been sent if you couldn’t handle it.>
How did this pass! Enough up there hate me, why would anyone want me leading?
<Because like it or not, you’re both a third tier as well as impressively powerful for numerous skills beyond that one. Considering how many second tiers are in the group, you have the strength and willingness to keep everyone else in their place and given the fact that you’re brilliant and that you don’t seem to hold any contempt for Foast, you can be trusted to carry out this particular quest to the best of your abilities.>
Wow, I can’t believe I need to somehow make sure I earn even less trust from the gods in the future. I thought I was already comfortably near the bottom, but I guess there’s always a place lower.
<If you don’t think you can do it, then just lean back on the skills and talents you’ve developed leading my people as their apostle.> Myriad said innocently, knowing better than anyone how little effort Ben put to that particular front and left him to groan.
Is there going to be literally any help for me?
<A priest named Peac will be able to help guide you along the way to where Foast would have gone, so find him or just do what I know you’re going to anyway and steal the information from his mind.>
“Ah, my goddess Velmet had kept a small watch on him, but we only know he went missing somewhere after the fourth location he’d gone to look at. So he could be anywhere from his journey to the fifth or sixth.”
“Okay, that’s not bad,” he nodded, acting like he hadn’t already stolen that information from the other’s thoughts. “Which means the only issue is getting out there, but I see we were given a space mage, so it should be fine.”
Not Steph or Pato though. Bit of a shame that I’m not seeing anyone I actively know, just people I’ve copied skills onto rings before but whatever.
It saved him the trouble of being recognized and was a good group to take advantage of how he could share knowledge so he didn’t exactly mind, even if he couldn’t help but think having a few people already on his side would ease any difficulty of keeping control over that crowd.
Nothing I can do about that though, so for now, better to properly get started and hopefully I can impress enough for whatever respect I can pull.
Knowing he could put it off no longer, he raised the ground beneath him to make a platform, drawing their collective attention and speaking up as eyes came to him.
“All of you, my name is Ben, also known as the eldritch mind holder and I will be leading this search,” he said, using the title Foast had suggested to try and imply his position as a third tier without outright saying it. “Should any issues arise during it that you can’t handle yourself, then you come to me. I expect all of you have been informed, but our specific goal is to find the third-tier Foast, who’s gone missing during his own expedition. Our goal is not to complete what he set out for. Having said that, it’s safe to assume that anything powerful enough to restrain him and keep him from contacting any god is going to be a danger even to a crowd like this. At worst, it might even be an invader at the third tier themself, so be prepared. If it comes down to a battle, then so be it, but if we can escape with the shifter, then we’ll do it and allow the gods to determine how best to handle whatever it was that had him. Now, are there any questions?”
He got a few looks, but no one spoke up, leaving him to nod as he went on.
“Good, in that case, let’s quickly arrange things. I understand you have your specific parties, but there’s four trackers here and they in particular need to be protected, so Eetle and Xov, you’re with Tuun. Wosh, with Hontor and Stolas. Mosana, you’re with-”
He went on as he said it, pointedly looking at every person as he said their name and assigned them a group based on their skill distributions as well as current parties, trying to keep people together the best he could while also doing his best to make it look like he’d memorized who each person was beforehand and succeeding on the front at least, their thoughts telling him that more than a few were surprised to be recognized so easily by the time he got to the end.
“Finally, our space mage, Quin. For you, I have a slightly different question. You’ve been given our destination?”
“I have, yes.”
“How long do you think it would take to arrive under your power?”
“Depending on how long everyone takes to move through each of my portals, it could be a few hours,” she told him. “They aren’t cheap to sustain.”
She was wearing neither a mana nor buff bracelet on her wrist like a few others in the party did, leaving him to nod as he pulled some out for the ten he saw missing them before handing them out.
“Wear these, all of you. If you don’t know what they are, well, the others here who already have them can give you the finer details but what you mainly need to know is that they can replenish your mana at a constant rate, even if you should avoid using them in day-to-day life. Now, with this, how long do you think you can get it down to?”
He felt her think, evaluating what she could do with the aid of a tool she’d only heard of but never gotten to try herself before looking up at the end with confidence in her eyes.
“I’m comfortable saying this should bring it down to around half an hour. I don’t want to assume more without trying it first.”
“Well, you’re about to get plenty of practice, so if everyone is ready, let’s get on our way.”
Getting there was just the first leg of their journey after all. Once out, they wouldn’t be able to use their space mage to shorten things, being instead forced to retrace Foast’s steps and hopefully find wherever his journey had gone wrong.