Chapter 1068

Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“Alright, you both be good for Fontesh now,” Ben said as he and Thera dropped Mora and Dewdrop off, with Delair already back in top form after the day prior to immediate pull both the boy and the outsider into her plots and machinations.

Ben managed to hear the words ‘big’ and ‘fire’ before he left, but tried to keep them from his head. That was officially her mother’s problem, and he trusted Mora at least to keep his little student from hurting herself, so with that done the two of them went on, making their way to the shop and the gates it held.

“Can’t believe I’ve been pulled into helping you with this again,” Thera said, holding his arm as they went through town. “How does you being useful create work for me too?”

“Ha, I was always going to need a soul mage for round two anyway; this is going to be good practice for you.”

The act of modifying a soul was still something that caused strain on the target, having Thera there to help increase their healing rates and mitigate what they’d go through from it would help them and make good practice for her, even if how many she would be able to reach would be limited. The distance Ben could now stretch out his soul to work would put many people beyond her range, but unfortunately for them, they’d just have to deal with a few more days of discomfort than anyone Thera could cast on.

Leaving just one thing, Ben thought to the heavens as he arrived at the shop. Don’t think I’m starting without getting paid.

<Yeah, I know what you’re like. Give Nare just a minute here.>

<ACQUIRED SKILL CRAFTING INCLINATION LEVEL 0>

“It’s beautiful. Send my compliments to the chefs,” Ben grinned, enjoying the feeling of having a new skill bound to his soul. “How long do you think ‘till I’m a contender for it?”

“Do you think making a mythic item would be enough to push it to the third tier as well?”

<I don’t want to know how smug you’d get if you somehow managed to awaken to two different types of crafting divinity.>

“Oh, I’d literally never shut up about it.”

“And that's great and all,” Thera cut into the half of the conversation she could hear. “But unless you guys are talking about something important, should we start going to get this over with?”

“Yeah, I’m all set,” Ben nodded and, with them both as ready as they could be, they took a step through the gate, arriving at the magic towers.

Giving a brief nod to the guildmaster there, the man having grown used to how often Ben and Thera would pass through his office by that point, the two of them walked through the building, into the streets beyond and found a crowd already filling the streets and waiting, even if it was nowhere near as dense as his first time doing such things. In the past, when the range of his connect had been so much smaller, it had made sense to pack people as densely as possible into what cities they could for him to help, but now that he could reach out in two kilometers in all directions with his soul, there was a lot more leeway for him to work with. The two of them would be passing through every gate the world had over the course of the next day or two, with people from surrounding towns and villages having made the trip to those larger gathering points, and thanks to that, there was no need to make each location so tight and uncomfortable.

Even if things are going to become uncomfortable for another reason, Ben sighed. Myriad, is everyone else ready for whatever I find during this?

<There’s town guards stationed at most street corners and blocks, with adventurers, templars, and other soldiers being included as well to help raise the numbers, just in case worse comes to worse with however many you find. Just going to hope that you don’t come across too much. We don’t need the planet’s prisons filled when we have so much else to worry about right now.>

Welp, I’m sure you guys will work it out, Ben shrugged, already ready for the worst. A few dozen criminals across Anailia who’d committed crimes big enough that even he felt the need to do something about them was one thing, but with the scale he was about to interact with the world at, it became pretty obvious that thousands more were going to be found.

Stolen story; please report.

With everything ready for him though, Ben materialized two comfortable seats, giving him and Thera both something to relax in while they worked before lifting them both up to begin, reaching out his soul to connect to everyone he could as he flew around, modifying the souls of those he hadn’t previously touched while linking absolutely everyone to his experience pool for just how much of it he’d be creating once that task was done.

When it came to the souls, Ben had been in a slight pickle before discussing the matter with the gods to settle it. Technically, He could now make significantly better souls than in his first run, thanks to all of the growth he’d gained since then and his newest awakening, and while more power for anyone could only be helpful for what was still to come, giving everyone who had come out then lacked a certain fairness to it. They were people who had originally ignored the chance that he and the gods had provided; why should they get to be substantially stronger than those who had properly listened when told about the benefits they’d be able to claim?

Combined with the fact that the gods were still unsure about modifying anyone’s souls a second time at all and the matter became settled. While having limits on how much he could raise anyone’s attributes by modifying their souls, he could control anything below those thresholds and given that, he made all of the new souls to match the attribute growth he had given during the previous round, making things fair in his eyes and at least limiting the destructive potential of all of the newly modified to what the previously modified had received; not going so far at to make the bit of chaos the next few days would hold manageable to the gods when people would be enjoying their new levels of power, but at least keeping it on a scale that the world had already experienced.

And while he was doing that and advertising his god, actualizing cubes in the sky and telling everyone he connected to that the work was coming from the church of Myriad, he found his first few criminals too, at least as far as major crimes went. He could and would still ignore whatever minor bits of threat and violence he saw, perhaps speaking in their heads to tell them not to do such things again or to properly make amends at most, but when it came to the truly heinous, he had to act.

In those cases, no modifications were done and instead, he shut down their minds and took over their bodies, walking them to the nearest official who’d been placed to handle such things off to them, popping into their head as well to explain just why that person had been sent over before continuing on his way, with all of his work and efforts leaving both the terrestrial and aquatic halves of that city done in a flash before they zipped to the gate network to make their way to the next one.

“Okay,” Thera sighed, unable to believe the request she was going to make. “Ben, if we’re doing this, then make me a stupid circlet. Casting on so many people is going to be impossible at these speeds if I’m thinking like a normal person.”

“There was definitely a hurtful implication in there about how I think.”

“No, because you’re not allowed to pretend you think like a normal person. That would be offensive to the rest of the planet.”

“Even more hurtful, but fine,” Ben gave in, materializing one and handed it over to both split and speed up her mind. “Since I have a bit more leeway, I should make the most of it too, I guess.”

Given the limited omnipresence he experienced with his soul outstretched, it wasn’t like he really needed to direct his eyes to anything around him and given that, he pulled out both a piece of wood and a knife from one of his rings, intending to carve it. He’d just gained a useful skill after all, crafting inclination being something that would lower his leveling thresholds in crafting skills and lower any related mana costs of it too as it grew, and since the way he’d go about training it was precisely to make things, not doing so was a waste of his time and he made his first stroke with his blade, effortlessly cutting a perfect groove in the wood that matched his exact desires and left notifications ringing in his head for it.

<CRAFTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<CRAFTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<CRAFTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<CRAFTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

“Ben, I can’t have you being so ridiculous beside me while I’m trying to work. It’s distracting,” Thera told him, seeing all of his levels that had come while she was trying to cast her soul magic through that new city.

“Er, sorry, you shouldn’t have to put up with it for long though,” Ben told her, with all of those levels telling him exactly the sort of progress he could expect with that skill. After all, he was a master craftsman, only potentially losing to his teacher when it came to the discipline. He could make legendary items with ease, and every move he put into his work was perfect beyond compare. If crafting was going to raise that inclination, then the growth he was going to get from it would be rapid.

His next cut proving as much, with two more levels coming with it, Ben reaching the ninth level by the time the simple wooden statue was done, shaped like an apple for no reason other than the fact he wanted one, leaving the parts of him existing above in his realm to actualize some and snack once he was done.

With it finished though and no need to hold on to it, Ben used his magic to change the consistency of the wood to something more akin to soft clay, letting him sculpt with it from there as he moved through a variety of shapes and forms until finally, he got the result he’d been expecting, with one more notification ringing out in his head.

<CRAFTING INCLINATION HAS AWAKENED TO CRAFTING AFFINITY>

Alright, looks like I’ll at least have a goal to keep me busy during the next little bit.