Temple gifts

With the new Quests out of the way, John turned to the rewards from his previous endeavours. Setting the key on the table next to Malal’s idol, he leaned back in his seat. “So, with a plan for what I’m doing next… sort of, I guess the next order of business is looking at everything I got from building the shrine. There’s this key - it lets me access that temple we talked about, which reminds me - why do I only have a statue of Gaia in there? Shouldn’t there be one of you too?”

Malal frowned. “There should… but the reward ya got there was from the boss. I guess she figured ya need to earn statues from everyone else. Gimmie a bit, I’ll see if I can figure out what the sitch is in that regard. In the meantime, why don’t ya go over the rest of the haul?”

John nodded, bringing up his Status. “First of all, I got five more points to put towards my Stats. I… Well, I don’t really know where to go with that. I could round up a few things - my Endurance is still super low, as is my Charisma, or I could pile it all into Wisdom and boost my mana regeneration further. Any thoughts, Mal?”

The tiny figure tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Now, that there is a tricky proposition, kid. Usually, I’d say to lean in to what ya got given that it’s workin’, but with this whole temple thing ya got going on now, I dunno. You’re due a level up soon, ain’t ya? And ya got what, five points last time? So I figure, this Quest just gave ya a free level-up’s worth of points. Look at it like that is my advice, what’d ya do if you’d just levelled up?”

Groaning at the lack of helpful advice, John grabbed a scrap of paper and jotted down a few options. Having the choices in front of him (boosting his pitiful Charisma, tidying up his physical skills or boosting his already strong Wisdom or Intellect) didn’t really help much in deciding where to spend the points he’d earned. “Really, it comes down to boosting what I’m good at, planning for the future, or smoothing over my weaknesses,” he muttered to himself, then tapped the paper with the end of his pencil. “There’s one option that works for two out of those three. With the other Quests I’ve got, and the temple to grow… I need to be able to talk to people without my Charisma actively pushing them away.”

Malal said nothing as John tapped his Status, allocating the first three of his points to Charisma before hesitating. “Actually…” John pulled a face, his finger hovering over the interface instead of adding the remaining two. “If I double my Charisma, that’s going to get a lot of attention I probably don’t want, right? Suddenly becoming that much more charismatic overnight? Five to eight is enough to make headway… Instead, I could top up my other Stats a little just in case I get in any more scrapes.” Nodding to himself, he moved his finger and reallocated the final points to Strength and Endurance before he could second guess himself any further.

Sitting back, he smiled to himself and was pretty sure that he could feel his muscles firming slightly under his top. “That’s looking a lot more rounded. Should be a roughly twelve percent damage boost when I hit things too, assuming Strength scales that way. And as for the Endurance,” he glanced at his HP and the smile broadened. “Fifty-two health. That’s a real bump, over a tenth higher than what I had before. Yea, that was a wiser move than just dumping everything into being a bit more charismatic.”

The god nodded up at him. “Ya got those brains working there, kid. Takin’ a hit and dishing one out’s never a bad thing to be able to do, if ya don’t mess up ya talent to get there, ya feel me? Anyway, that’s the numbers game done. What else did ya score?”

John paused, the way Mal had phrased the question reminding him of the still unopened messages from Matilda. Gesturing to the god to give him a minute, he pulled his phone out of his Inventory and opened his texts… and felt his skin slowly turn a shade of red, blushing furiously. Mal glanced from the phone to John, unable to see the screen from where he was leaning back on the keyboard, but put two and two together and grinned anyway. “I’m guessin’ ya dame cleans up nice? Well, that’s great and all, but ya got a literal deity here askin ya to kindly finish up ya business with ya gal so we can get back to sorting through the stash.”

Typing a frantic apology for not replying sooner and an explanation that he’d only just gotten someplace private, along with a promise to tell her all about it in person as soon as they could get some alone time, followed by a comment on just how appreciative he was of the images of his girlfriend, especially the last one… John set his phone down reluctantly and turned back to Malal. “Alright, Mal. Well, there’s only one other thing really - a ‘god specific reward’. Which, I’m guessing since I made the shrine to Gaia means it’s a reward from her…”

He pulled it from his inventory and paused. In his menus it’d appeared as just a glittering gold box, but the instant it emerged the box folded open and vanished; in its place sat a small stack of books. Picking the top one up, John read the title aloud while he wondered when Gaia had decided to start giving him loot boxes. “The Lady’s Word?”

Malal stiffened at John’s words, the chaplain figurine rising from his relaxed pose and stomping over to inspect the stack. “That’s a collection of writings around Gaia,” he said softly. “I guess it’d be useful for ya in writing sermons and stuff? Oh, and look, ya got a book on clerical invocation - ‘Invoking the Divine’, figure that’ll let ya learn new skills maybe, tho how the boss intends it to integrate with everythin’ ya got going on is anyone’s guess. Huh. Not sure on these last two books tho - ‘Tacticus’s notes on the use of Magi in combat’? That’s a doorstop for ya, unless ya plan on fighting a war. And as for ‘A Knight’s Vow’ - kid, ya ain’t plannin’ on remaking Camelot, so I don’t see any point in her givin’ ya that one. Unless…” the god trailed off, a thoughtful look crossing his face.

Twenty-five Intellect and eighteen Wisdom helped John put the answer together before the idol could speak again. “Unless the rewards aren’t all intended for me, like the gift I got for Matilda. I’m a cleric, right? Part of that is supporting my flock. These are books for people I’ll meet in the future - but it’s up to me to decide who the right person to give them to is.”
As soon as he’d said it, a fanfare went off in his head, combined with the rare appearance of
the achievement popup.

John frowned, pulling one of the cards from his inventory. It looked… exactly like the monopoly one, until he read the text closer. “M…mal…” he said, setting the card down carefully on the table and backing away slightly as if it’d bite him. “Does this say… what I think it says?”

The god stomped over, read the text - and fell backwards with a start. “Kid… you keep a really good hold on those cards. That’s… that’s not something the boss just dishes out lightly.”

In front of them both, the text was clear - and unambiguous.

For a moment, John just sat there, his brain whirring at speed, before he tucked the card back into his Inventory with extreme care. “That’s… broken, but maybe not as broken as it appears, Mal? It’s a one time deal. Anyone I introduce to the Abyss would still be bound by the usual restrictions you told me about. It’d just… let me show two people without me personally suffering any issues. It’s still a risk that’s going to almost never be worth taking.”

The god sagged back onto his spacebar. “Yea… Yea, you’re right, kid. But still… ya hang onto those hail-mary tickets, and don’ let any wiseguys know ya have them, ya hear me? Those things are dangerously powerful for someone like you to be runnin’ around with right now; there’s a lotta mooks that’d not think twice about icing ya for somethin’ like that, even usually decent folk.”