Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

Deny deny deny deny.

He woke up early the next day and left while both Thera and Sonya still slept, off to do exactly what he’d thought about only the day before, going to get ingredients.

He did his best to ignore the shop as he passed through, not wanting to feel any temptation from the things it held but chose to take the mini gate to his workshop in Anailia rather than pass through Thera’s family home to get to the main gate network and went on from there to do his shopping.

With many of the original gate cities at least partially abandoned due to their proximity to invasion points, he used what little knowledge he had of the safe ones to go to a city he’d built the gate for himself, walking through to one that was enjoying a breezy afternoon on a coast.

While coastal cities made for an easier route for the terrestrial and aquatic races to meet, it also meant they were valuable regions for trade, telling him that even if he hadn’t been there before, their shops and markets would likely be filled with interesting products and ingredients to get his hands on as he started his exploration down the streets, jogging through them to see as much as he could while popping into any shops that caught his eyes.

With the rings on his fingers, he wasn’t much limited by space either as he went, finding a spice store early on and peppering the shopkeeper with questions as he asked how different ones would be used and what they would be good for before buying a few pounds of every variety that was held to play with later and going on from there.

It wasn’t long after that he found a fish market to spend some time in too, looking deeply at the options while finding out what he could from the salesmen about those strange forms of life.

Like the terrestrial side of the planet he lived on, the ecosystem of the aquatic side was a mess as well due to all of the groups that had been scooped up and brought along by their gods, accidentally or intentionally bringing along some of the life of their worlds too, carving out new niches in their new home that was kept constantly out of balance by the sheer virtue of the scale of that change.

He couldn’t imagine the scale of what had to be near-constant extinction events taking place as what native life there was ended up constantly and repeatedly devastated by the things that were brought but on the plus side, it gave him plenty of interesting options to choose from before inevitably deciding not to choose at all, instead buying bits of everything.

After all, why not? He was rich, might as well enjoy the benefits all of that money had to offer, especially if it would soon be meaningless. If he stayed and everyone died then his wealth wasn’t going to amount to much and if he left then it would be just as meaningless.

Actually, if I’m going to abandon this entire planet then I should probably look into buying everything I can while I can. I’d need to make more voidstone but it’s not like it would hurt to stock up on resources. Seeds especially, maybe some domesticated livestock too. Let’s see, is there anything else? Shouldn’t really need tools or raw materials since I can materialize both, it really does just come down to the things I can’t make myself, which is… A surprisingly slim list, isn’t it? Huh, I’ll just have to keep an eye out I guess. And then-

His thoughts were cut off by his practice. No matter how he was feeling, he still couldn’t keep himself from using connect on the people around him for whatever experience it would give as he subtly looked at the minds around him and through that practice found one he couldn’t ignore as he walked over to a small child sitting quietly in a corner.

“Hey kiddo, are you lost, need some help?” Ben asked, trying to sound kind as the small boy he spoke to looked up and nodded. “Alright, why don’t we see if we can find your parents then, okay? Let’s go somewhere a bit safer than a street for now, alright?”

Again the boy nodded and Ben took his hand and led him to a nearby shop he’d just left, explaining the situation to the owner inside and leaving them to watch the child as he went back out and ran around the area, stretching out connect until he found the frantic mind he was after.

“Hey there, I know where your kid is, he’s just this way,” He told the worried father out of the blue, getting a grateful yet confused look for the impromptu statement as he made up a lie to explain himself. “You look like him and you looked worried, it was an easy guess. Now come on.”

Without waiting he started walking back to the shop, leading the man behind him as they went inside, drawing the child’s eye away from the store owner he was playing with to his parent and running over into the man’s waiting arms where he was scooped up.

“Thank you so much,” The father said, giving a small bow to both Ben and the shop owner before looking at his son. “Say thank you now too, okay.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s no problem, happy to help.”

They exchanged a few more words before leaving, letting Ben get back to his day as new feelings began stabbing into him from that small meeting.

If he abandoned the world to its fate then he’d be abandoning people to die, billions of people, with many of them being children. It was easy to say he didn’t care when they weren’t around, out of sight out of mind, but as we walked the streets, was he really willing to leave so many to such a fate?

And if not then what did that mean? Rolling over for the gods so he could take what bits of strength for himself he could while letting them delay him for their own goals? It wasn’t like they were wrong that helping so many finish their jobs could benefit them and the world but helping the third tiers finish their jobs would delay him by weeks or months, possibly longer depending on if any of them had advanced variants to go through and he was sure that would be true of more than a few, even if he hadn’t gotten so lucky himself. ℟

So was he willing to just be nothing more than experience for others if it meant he’d still be able to snag some growth for himself? Even if slowed, it would still surely help him on the way to his goals.

“...Deny.”

His feelings were a mess so he decided to give up on thinking as best he could, instead doing a few more hours of shopping for whatever interesting things he might find before heading home for the day, continuing to put off the problems of just what he should do in the future.

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