Fierce Negotiations With a God

A faint, translucent panel appeared between the god and Sei.

Displayed on it were various blessings—Gifts—though many of them were grayed out.

"This is a list of blessings available based on your soul's strength, but as I mentioned before, there's nothing that directly enhances combat ability. Go on, choose."

Even if told to choose, there were too many to make sense of.

Still, Sei was a boy living in modern Japan. He knew what kind of blessings were useful from games and light novels.

"Is there something that lets me know an opponent's strength?"

"Identification types, you mean. There are several."

The display changed, and several blessings lined up.

Identify. Ability Identify. Item Identify. Monster Identify. Skill Identify. Omni-Identify. Discernment. And so on.

"What's the difference between these?"

"Hmm, Ability Identify appraises the abilities of living creatures, while Item Identify appraises the properties of objects. Identify combines both. However, Identify can be fooled by disguises and concealment. Discernment or Omni-Identify don't have that problem. With Omni-Identify, you can reveal the abilities of anything except gods."

"Then I'll take this one first."

When he selected Omni-Identify, the blessings that had been lit up turned gray. There must be a limit to what he could select.

"Next, is there an Item Box?"

"A treasury, is it? There are various grades of performance for those."

Treasury. Infinite Storage. Spacetime Storage.

"Um, is there an Item Box that works like folders on a computer?"

"Hmm, then I'll set up Infinite Storage to work like folders. By the way, time inside is nearly stopped, so living things can't really survive in there."

"Nearly?"

"Even in a corpse, there are living cells, right? Things at that level can be stored."

Now many more blessings had grayed out. Even so, there were still countless options remaining.

"Is there something like Plunder? Where you steal an opponent's skills and make them your own—it's a classic in stories."

"There is not. Skills are fundamentally the result of training or meeting certain conditions; they don't exist simply to be used. Besides, I told you that anything directly related to combat ability is off-limits."

Apparently there was something called Seal that could temporarily prevent an opponent from using their skills, but the conditions for using it were strict.

And in the first place, that too would be advantageous in battle.

"Then what about teleportation?"

"Not possible. You don't have enough points. You could acquire short-range teleportation, but that's directly tied to combat ability."

So sneaking behind someone to assassinate them with teleportation—that kind of trick wasn't allowed.

From there, the discussion continued back and forth with "what about this" and "how about that."

Sei was staking his life on this, and the god was taking it seriously. They spent several hours selecting blessings.

There were unassuming blessings like Stealthy Steps, but they didn't appeal to Sei. What really hurt was not being able to obtain any blessings directly tied to combat ability.

"Umm… then what about a Map?"

"A map? Well, you do have enough points for that, but…"

"I'd like you to add a small function to this map."

The god made a reluctant face at Sei's proposal, but it wasn't impossible.

"However… the points…"

"Please make it work with your divine power."

When Sei prostrated himself in worship, his faith flowed into the god.

"Hmm, with this, I might be able to manage somehow…"

The god separated a tiny portion of divine power and added it to Sei's soul.

Indeed, it worked well.

What Sei had requested was an improvement to the Map and a connection to Omni-Identify.

In other words, the ability to identify people and objects detected by the map.

This was actually something that could be replicated with extremely high-level magic, but neither Sei nor even the god knew that.

After all, no such magic existed on Earth.

"Now then, there are no points left for blessings, but what to do with these remaining fractions?"

These leftover points could be used to boost physical or mental abilities, but any enhancement would be directly tied to combat power.

"Oh, come to think of it."

Something suddenly occurred to Sei. In light novels, this was usually handled from the start, but it was also the most important thing.

"Will I be able to understand the language of that world?"

At that question, the god froze.

"I forgot…"

According to the god, the official languages over there were the Continental Common Language, English, and Japanese.

The reason English and Japanese existed was apparently because another Earth had made contact in the past.

The translation function for the Continental Common Language didn't require many points, so he was able to acquire it with the remaining points.

"The Continental Common Language should work in most places, but it might not be understood in demi-human settlements like those of dwarves and elves, or in demon territories, so be careful."

"Yes, I understand."

Then the god handed him a plain-looking white stone.

"This is a Return Stone. By pressing it to your forehead and wishing to return, you can come back to Earth."

In the end, if Sei pressed it to his own forehead and thought about returning, he could come back too.

"Well then, shall I send you off?"

"I'm counting on you," the god said as he spread his arms, and the starry sky began to change.

There was a planet beneath his feet. A blue world similar to Earth.

Five goddesses surrounded Sei, who found himself sitting there despite himself.

… No, were they really goddesses?

A silver-haired goddess and an aqua-haired goddess draped in white cloth, each holding a staff. Their beauty and the dignity they exuded without doing anything made it clear these two were divine.

Standing directly behind him was a golden-haired girl. With golden armor and a golden greatsword on her back, she could easily be taken for a war goddess.

But the red-haired goddess…

A girl in short clothing, her face grimy, her legs and shoulders exposed. On Earth, she'd look like a street urchin from the slums.

And the most extreme of all—the last one. No, the last pillar.

She was wearing coveralls.

The sleeves were tied at the waist, and her exposed upper body showed a tank top with the sleeves pulled down. She held a hammer in her hand.

What on earth was this?

"Um…"

As Sei tried to ask a question, he received a goddess's sigh.

"This one is weak."

The silver-haired goddess's words were somewhat of a shock.

"It can't be helped. If we give him the same power as the heroes, it would defeat the entire purpose."

After the aqua-haired goddess spoke, the silver-haired goddess sighed once more.

"Well, if we lend him our power, he should manage somehow."

When the red-haired girl said this, the golden-haired girl nodded.

"He lacks talent, but he has potential."

The black-haired goddess spoke, and the goddesses' course of action seemed to be decided.

"We'll need to grant him considerable power."

The aqua-haired goddess said this and fell into thought.

"No, first we must prioritize keeping him alive. If we forcibly send back thirty-six people, our power will be considerably depleted. We need him to work as hard as possible, saving as many as he can."

The silver-haired goddess spoke, and the other goddesses nodded.

"Even so… even if blessings directly tied to combat ability are forbidden…"

The silver-haired goddess still seemed unsatisfied.

"Omni-Identify… isn't this just an inferior version of Divine Eye or Dragon Eye? What is he supposed to do with this? The Divine Illumination Discernment spell can completely substitute for it."

"No, that view is mistaken."

The black-haired goddess defended him.

"Normal humans don't have Divine Eyes or Dragon Eyes. Even if one tried to obtain them through principle magic, who knows how many decades it would take. Comparing him to gods or dragons is absurd. Besides, Divine Illumination Discernment is magic, so it requires magic power and has a time lag."

It seemed the black-haired goddess, despite having the most plain appearance, was the most sensible among them.

"Infinite Storage can also be acquired if one learns spacetime magic, though."

The aqua-haired goddess seemed to have complaints about that too.

"That's why I keep saying don't compare him to us. How many years do you think it would take a human without blessings to master spacetime magic and reach the level of spacetime storage? Besides, this is Infinite Storage. With no upper limit affected by magic power, it's more useful than spacetime storage."

The aqua-haired goddess nodded in understanding.

"And the Map. A map, huh? What's the deal with that?"

When the red-haired girl spoke, even the black-haired goddess fell silent.

The goddesses tilted their heads. This reaction hadn't occurred with the first two blessings.

"By itself it's just a map, but when combined with magic or Omni-Identify, it becomes useful in combat… or rather, it enables surprise attacks."

When the black-haired goddess spoke, the other goddesses showed interest.

"By identifying people on the map, you can know their abilities beforehand, and you won't be suddenly ambushed by monsters. Plus, if combined with magic like homing arrows, you can attack from outside the enemy's line of sight."

The blessing Sei had squeezed out at the very end after much deliberation turned out to be the most highly evaluated by the goddesses.

"I see. Looking at it comprehensively, these are rather good choices. Clever."

The black-haired goddess rubbed Sei's head with somewhat rough hands.

"If Reiana says so, then it must be true. We have almost no experience fighting humans."

From the aqua-haired goddess's words, Sei became certain that this black-haired goddess was the closest to humanity among them.

"Even so, his combat power is far too low to fight the heroes. On top of that, the evil gods have also resurrected."

The silver-haired goddess sighed. This goddess sure sighed a lot.

"It can't be helped. We'll just have to grant him our divine protection."

Sei gazed at the dependable black-haired goddess with eyes that were practically worshipful.

"Then, shall we bestow our blessings upon him?"

The aqua-haired goddess declared, and the goddesses nodded.