Chapter 1076 |
In the magic towers’ adventurer guild, Ben happily hummed while everyone else in the building tried not to stare as he did, his reputation in that space different enough from what he’d developed in their library to get a far more cautious reaction to his presence.
In the library, he was an almost mythical figure, an avatar of learning who could help solve any sort of problem in one’s research or act as a teacher in any subject. In the guild, though, while he was someone who was easily recognized as an individual with the power to finish a party’s jobs in an instant, he was also far more easily seen as an avatar of chaos. Someone who swooped in to finish jobs for everyone, sure, but also someone who had gotten the total head of the adventurer’s guild fired and had led the core believers of numerous gods through the streets in chains. There was no way for anyone to tell if his positive mood was going to be good or ill for anyone else there, leaving Thera to lightly pinch his arm while they waited for their adventurer to arrive.
“Ben, you’re making people nervous.”
“I’m in a good mood; there’s nothing to be nervous about,” he said, loudly enough for all of the eavesdroppers to hear.
“And are you going to tell me why yet?”
“Nope, you’ll see when this is done,” he laughed while she sighed.
“Yeah, and that’s making me nervous too.”
“Don’t be. This is going to be great, and I genuinely should have thought about this sooner.”
She looked like she was going to say more but lost her chance as the adventurer whose party they were meant to be joining ran in, a few minutes late and left looking terrified for that fact but was waved off by Ben, letting them know they could calm down.
“Sorry. Thank you,” he said with a small bow, inviting Thera into his party and letting her take mana goddess as a result, getting expected, yet still incredible benefits for it.
Much like queen of mana and mana embodiment, mana goddess was a job that was focused entirely on increasing one’s pool, but unlike the other two that gave massive bonuses, the ones she got that time were divine and given how fast her mana pool already grew, that was going to make for a significant change.
Does make me wonder, that job line seems to appear after multiples of ten. Ten million mana and it seems like she’ll get a new one if the trend follows, but since her first two were only massive bonuses, I might wanna assume that she’d get divine bonuses for that one too. But, what about if she reaches one hundred million mana, or even a billion? At her growth rate and potential lifespan, both should be possible, so what kind of bonuses come next? What comes after the divine?
It was a question that piqued his curiosity at least, but he pushed it to the side for the time. That was an interest to keep track of in the far future. At the moment, he had a different concern.
AVAILABLE JOBS
- Craftsman: alchemy path
- Craftsman: artistic path
- Craftsman: blacksmith path
- Craftsman: cooking path
- Craftsman: stonecrafts path
- Mathematician
- Beginner puppeteer
- Entrée
- Dancer
<Well well, it looks like it’s finally come down to this.> Myriad whispered in his ear. <If you’re going to rebuild Inux, you can’t take any of your path jobs. It would completely mess up how carefully you’ve been measuring out the experience you’ve been creating for people, especially if things work and you awaken anything. Mathematician’s out too, with the way you think, the experience you’d create for that would still be too much, and don’t get me started on beginner puppeteer. The skill that got you that job became part of a third-tier one, meaning that it's finally time. You have to take entrée.>
Well, for one, screw you, and two, no. In case you were ignoring it, I have a perfectly good option sitting just below it. Hell, even if Thera feels like dancing before I’m done, my skill on that front is low enough that even a few levels wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket for our current global experience pool.
<Oh, don’t be boring. Come on, aren’t you curious?>
No! Why are you so curious about it?
<Mostly because of how badly you don’t want to take it.>
Well, screw that, because I’m taking dancer.
<ACQUIRED JOB- DANCER LV0>
<BONUSES GRANTED TO IMPROVING VITALITY, AGILITY, AND STAMINA>
<DANCING SKILLS WILL RECEIVE A GROWTH BONUS>
<How incredibly dull of you.>
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
If dull means not increasing the odds of anything wanting to eat me, then I’ll choose it any day of the week.
With that done, though, Ben began materializing souls, once more using the other people in the guild as a way to calibrate how fast he should be making them before finishing. With his soul sight, he could already tell that people the world over had benefited greatly from his last job, and now they’d get to do so once more.
“Alright,” Thera told him. “With that out of the way, where to now? I’m trying to brace myself for whatever surprise is in store.”
“We’re going to have to pass through your old home,” Ben grinned. “But trust me, this is going to be worth it.”
“Why do I feel such a worrying premonition?” Thera muttered as they reached their destination, the fields of Anailia, where the ingredients for the divine potions were being grown.
“Probably just some lingering concern about how you’d feel running into your uncle and a group of pregnant dryads.”
“You know, that wasn’t actually the concern, but thank you for adding that worry to my head.”
“From the other times I’ve popped in, I’m pretty sure that’s just a matter of time, so you might as well get used to it now before it actually happens. For now, though, looks like your aunt is already here.”
Lux was waiting for them, talking to some of the workers while she did, though it was just some succubi collecting the crops, with the dryads who tended those fields going unseen, Ben’s stretched out soul revealing that they were all gathered around Bloom on the other side of the area, though he elected not to bring that up.
Instead, he waved, bringing the great light spirit their way.
“Perfect timing,” Lux greeted, handing a crystal to him as she did. “When you asked me to pick this up, Vividus was instantly going on about how she needed it back quickly.”
“Well, tough for her because this thing is still mine, whether she or the gods like it or not,” Ben shrugged, having one of the god crystals in hand. “Is she still making that many demigods?”
“All of the armies are done, as far as I understand, but now the gods are sending anyone halfway useful her way for the surgery.”
“Mmh.”
When he’d gone around the world, he had noticed a significant uptick in people, both holding homunculus body and divine body skills, pointing clearly to her work, but the fact it wasn’t ending shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise. It was simply too useful, but considering it sounded like he was largely in the gods’ good books at the moment, it wouldn’t do to delay things so with that he got started, reaching out around him to touch the various souls he could before slicing pieces of them off, giving them shape before placing them on him and Thera, notifications going through both of their heads.
<ACQUIRED FORBIDDEN PANTHEON’S GREAT BLESSING>
<EVIL AUTHORITY LEVEL INCREASED>
<UNNATURAL MANA ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>
<DESTRUCTION AUTHORITY LEVEL INCREASED>
<PERFECT ABSORPTION RESISTANCE LEVEL INCREASED>
<MULTIVERSAL AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>
<ETERNAL SOUL PROTECTION LEVEL INCREASED>
<AGILITY ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>
Huh, interesting. So, when a pantheon blessing is made from full blessings instead of fractions of one, is it called a great blessing?
<Yes, but you constantly have me struggling with your sense of morality, you know that?>
Hmm? What could there possibly be to struggle with?
<When you first got soulcraft and realized you could use it to steal skills, it made you so sick you were vomiting in an alley.>
Embarrassing, but yes. Where’s this leading?
<You just cut pieces off of five different souls.>
Yes, and? I didn’t take anything substantial or meaningful from what they are. Their souls will heal from the damage; this was basically just using some materials for my benefit. A pretty damn good benefit too; did you hear what I just got?
<I’m trying not to think about it.> Myriad sighed. <But admittedly, the distraction I have is the knowledge that you’re willing to do anything to a soul so long as you aren’t stealing its effort which isn’t much more comfortable to me.>
Would you rather I have no lines at all?
<Ugh, I’d rather I’d realized there was something deeply wrong with you when I first took you in so I could have spent our first couple of years together trying to fix your lacking sense of morality.> Myriad complained. <Genuinely, how do you think the other gods are going to react when they discover that you were able to, in essence, steal a blessing from a deity?>
Maybe they’ll admire my gumption?
<You know for a fact that’s not how it’s going to play out.>
Well, the good news is, I’m going to be with Thera for the next few days so nobody will be reading her mind with me around. Hopefully, that will give her enough time to not think about what she saw here.
And considering the benefits she got from it, it wasn’t like there was anything to complain about, even if her head was in her hands, having seen exactly what it was he’d just done. She’d gained levels to her dark sight, dark sense, sleep resistance, intelligence enhancement, vision enhancement, and earth affinity, and with that new blessing, one that was half as powerful as what they would have gotten from taking on a tower, she was now in a significantly better position for awakening her earth magic than she’d been just a few minutes prior, without having to spend any effort on her part.
“And that,” Ben said. “Was the surprise, though it does leave one area you could practice a bit now.”
“After a surprise like that, I’m not sure if I want to do whatever practice you’re going to suggest.”
“Come on,” he told her, wiggling the god crystal in his hand. “Not often a soul mage is going to get the chance to heal the damage on a god’s soul of all things, and there’s a bunch here for you to practice on.”
“... You’re insane,” she sighed, still taking the crystal to begin healing the damage within it she could see. “Genuinely, what makes you think about stuff like this?”
“Just a bit of creativity,” he grinned. “That’s the last of it today, though, promise. When you’re done, we can go pick up Mora and I’ll get dinner started and then we can all have a nice, relaxing night in.”
“... Okay, what exactly is going on here?” Ben asked when he arrived at Fontesh’s home, seeing the older dryad sitting to the side, an awkward smile on her face while Delair and Mora started waving around signs when he and Thera arrived.
“Protesting!” Delair told him. “If you’re trying to make a mythic item, then we want to see!”
Waving banners demanding ‘apprentice rights’, Ben couldn’t help but laugh as he turned to Fontesh.
“Well, if Mora really wants to come, then that’s easy, but Fontesh, are you okay with us taking Delair away for potentially a couple of days?”
“I don’t think I’ll get any peace if I say no,” her mother sighed. “I really am sorry about this.”
“Ha, don’t be. Unlike with other work, this isn’t exactly dangerous, so there’s no harm in bringing them along. It should be a fun little trip.”
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