“Remember what we told you, Rafe, dear.”

  “Yeah. Get the storage skill from good old Granderel. Then get the oldest and weakest looking one from the phoenix?”

  “Yeah, listen to us on that point. You'll never guess its function and you might even disparage it normally.”

  “Okay…” he said. “Then get the bloody eye of the bloody enchantress. I'd feel bad doing it though, she already lost that eye once.”

  “Oh, come off it boy,” one of them said.

  “We need this. We need to get her back somehow.”

  “Besides, it's not even her eye. She is a spirit remnant like us. It is a valid reward,” the first one said with a smirk, making a good point.

  “It is a phoenix eye you know. It grows back,” the second one added.

  “Yeah, I guess I get your points. Are you sure though? I mean if I'd been left to choose my rewards without your input, I'd probably have chosen differently.”

  “Don't worry kid, we aren't going to incur the wrath of the void.”

  Rafe turned to leave, hesitated. He looked back at them for a few moments.

  “Will I get to see you guys again?”

  “Just make it to our level,” one answered.

  “Or just make a deal with the enchantress. I'm sure she can find a way to circumvent her own rules.”

  “Right.” He turned once more.

  “Don't forget what we told you about her little tower though. The last floor. White.”

  He didn't turn back around, merely lifting his hand to wave.

  ****

  “Do you think we did the right thing?”

  “I'm sure the treasures we advised him to choose are the best. That should be enough,” Xamanthia spoke to herself.

  “Yeah, but what if that bitch wanted us to do exactly this? What if we were helping her agenda along without even realizing it?”

  They both turned to look in the direction the boy had disappeared, their shadow-hooded faces frowning. Then they shrugged.

  “I would have done it even if that bitch benefits somehow.”

  “Yeah, the kid is worth it.”

  “That said, what could that witch be up to?”

  They both looked in the direction the boy had gone, shrugged again, and went to disturb Noid in his atrium. And Liam was there too, all three - or four - eagerly waiting for the last meeting to start.

  ****

  Rafe spent about two weeks with the shadow monarch and her twin. He learnt only a few basics on how to disguise his status, but that would have to be enough to deal with anyone on Earth and any neighbouring planets he could go to. Or so they said to him. Of course, he had to continue practicing to get better and to do that, he would need a certain skill. They hoped he could find it in the tower somehow.

  The third Skyholm was not a human, only one of two such beings in the pantheon. He was humanoid though, and very tall.

  He loomed over Rafe, an angel with wings made of stars and planets and cold space. His hair was dark, his eyes had no whites, and his folded arms were rounded like watermelons.

  “I like your wings.”

  The being smirked. It looked kind of thuggish to be an angel in Rafe's opinion. Liam was the one who should have been an angel, or angel-like.

  “And your arms. How do you get them so toned?”

  “I could teach you. Is that the gift you want?”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “To learn to work out from someone who could give Arnold Schwarzenegger the run… That is tempting.”

  He was not even lying. He was tempted, looking at his very teenage muscles. He'd spent years working in the trial, all for nothing.

  “But I have to decline.”

  “A pity. Not to worry though. Stats do alter your physique with time.”

  Rafe imagined himself looking like some Greek deity some centuries from now. Maybe it was a possibility. But with the scar and all, that was a little…he winced as his dreams came crashing down. Enith and Noid were nowhere near ugly, but they weren't the pictures of perfection Noid thought of when he imagined god. Liam and Grenderel though. Now they were absolute knockouts.

  “Really? Do you reckon I could become as tall as you? Get wings even?”

  The giant, his hands still folded over his truck-like chest, blinked down at Rafe's question.

  “Not many people would choose to change their forms so completely, but as a god, you can alter your appearance.”

  “Why would anyone not want to look like you? You're the true picture of what a god should look like.”

  The god nodded, finally letting his expression change from his resting thug face to a more sagely older brother type.

  “We found a good one this time. And you have a nascent spatial affinity too. I have treasures here that I collected from my time traveling the multiverse. What is it you—”

  “A storage skill scroll, please.”

  “Hmm? Awfully decisive. She put you up to this, didn't she?”

  “What are you talking about?” Rafe asked, maintaining a calm demeanor.

  “Most of her exploits are because of that skill. She built a universe all her own. Of course, it's her.”

  Rafe kept his poker face on. “I don't know what you're talking about. I spent decades adventuring in a pre-system world. It sucked. Hard. A storage skill is just an essential for an adventuring team. Same as healing potions.”

  “You don't have a team,” the giant pointed out rather helpfully.

  “I will someday,” Rafe said, moving to the defensive.

  “Will you? After what happened with the last one?”

  Rafe knew what the man was talking about. He didn't want to think about Aeon right now but… If that world still existed somewhere in the multiverse, he'd think of giving it a visit maybe. Someday very far into the future.

  “I don't know. I do want to have friends though. I always liked playing basketball with the boys. It gave me a sense of…belonging.”

  “I see. Well, best have you on your way soon.”

  Rafe received the scroll and tried tucking it into a pocket. It slipped straight through the bare strings on his legs.

  “Shit! I'm still half naked!” Rafe reeled.

  He had spent two weeks with a woman, and he'd been half naked, and he'd never known it.

  He was beet red.

  “In your defense,” a grinning giant said after clearing his throat. “She does have that influence on people.”

  “She's so charming you just forget you shouldn't be half-naked in front of a girl?” he asked sarcastically.

  “Of course not. She does control attention though.”

  “Ahh.”

  Rafe bent down and picked up his scroll. He debated on where he should keep it. He decided to tie it to his bicep using his shirt string.

  “You could have picked legendary rarity armour you know. It grows too, with you.”

  Rafe almost tripped over his own feet. He was going to see two more females before his tour of the void was over, and his only fully functioning clothes were a pair of boxer briefs. He shrugged, trying to look nonchalant.

  “Armour is too heavy. I'm agility-focused.”

  He tried to keep moving, to get out of there before he questioned his life's decisions. He could hear the scoff in the god's voice.

  “What part of grows with you do you not understand? You can still—”

  Rafe covered his ears and stuck out his tongue as he tried to increase his pace.

  “That's strange,” the god said when Rafe took his hands off his ears.

  “Yeah. Why am I still here? I should have moved on.”

  “You should have,” the god said as he frowned around at the non-existent sky.

  “And why is that?”

  The angel sighed. “I suppose the trial has deemed it that my gift was not sufficient.”

  “Huh? I'm not giving it back.”

  The man scowled at him. He turned, muttering something about cheating as he scrounged through a chest that had appeared out of nowhere.

  He picked something white out of the chest and tossed it to Rafe. The void rumbled its approval.

  “Is this…”

  “No. That would have been unacceptable. That skill was one I personally modified, you know, after I got the mantle. With Liam's soul vault and Sam's shadow verse and my spatial affinity it just… It is a great skill you know.”

  He was addressing the void there by the end.

  “I don't get how the void is alive, by the way.”

  “It's not. It's the trial. Void is dead as dead can be.”

  “Okay? So, what is this?”

  “It's basic clothing. To cover up a little before you meet the ladies. It has basic repair and self-clean enchantments, and also self fits.”

  Rafe looked down at the robe. It looked like something ancient martial artists on earth wore, a cream sash included.

  “It looks amazing. How come I can't get any information out of it if it's got a rarity tag?”

  The god shrugged. “Appraisal. Another basic for an adventuring team.”

  “Uh, got you. I'll just go find a quiet corner to change…over there?”

  Rafe turned around to leave, but the god seemed to have one more thing to say.

  “Hey listen, kid, about forming a team. It might be a pipe dream for someone like you. I know you think you don't need to become a god, or that you'll do it in your own time, your way. Guess what, we all thought the same thing. Skyholm is the only pantheon I know of, guardians or lower ranked, to have lost every single one of its gods after the system came.

  “And we didn't die because we were weak. We did not choose immortality. Immortality chose us. Just thought you should hear that, especially before you meet Enith. I have a feeling whatever she wants bad enough she has gone to all these lengths isn't something you'll so easily refuse.”