Chapter 1066 |
<DESTRUCTION AUTHORITY LEVEL INCREASED>
<DEEP MATERIAL SENSE LEVEL INCREASED>
<FLAVOUR ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>
<ETERNAL SOUL PROTECTION LEVEL INCREASED>
<EVIL AUTHORITY LEVEL INCREASED>
<MULTIVERSAL AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>
<AGILITY ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>
<EVIL GOD OF SACRILEGE LEVEL INCREASED>
<STAMINA ENHANCEMENT HAS AWAKENED TO UNNATURAL STAMINA ENHANCEMENT>
<Ben, we are making such genuinely good strides up here with the other gods accepting your usefulness above the potential terrors you might be able to inflict on the world. Do you seriously need to keep raising those skills?>
The world hasn’t suddenly stopped ending just because some gods have finally admitted I’m handy to have around, and the practice hasn’t gotten any less useful. Do you have any idea how many of my skills my authorities act on? Considering that I have limited job options left, with only my newest having the potential to be anything genuinely good, growing my authorities might actually be as big of a priority as growing my sacrilege.
<I just don’t know what I’m going to do if you get them to the ninth level and suddenly we’ll all be up here discussing the prospect of what might happen if you become the first creature in existence to somehow unlock a fourth-tier skill.>
Ugh, what you do is tell them to put it off until after the invasion, because even for me, getting something like that in a couple of months is going to be impossible, he complained, with the prospect of achieving such a thing almost certainly the exact level of power he could use to stand against Oaun and genuinely have a chance, rather than just fractions of one. The timeframe is too narrow. Unless I somehow get another couple levels of eldritch mind in the next couple days, I’ve reached my limits at cheating time. Based on what I’ve done so far and how I’ve grown, I’d estimate that it would take me at least a decade of real time to get enough experience to get into the fourth tier, maybe even up to an entire century.
<... Ben, that’s a range of time you can absolutely live through. Don’t tell me that. What the actual hell am I supposed to say to anyone if you somehow surpass the concept of godhood in a decade?>
Relax, both were assuming ideal conditions. The forbidden gods get less effective to practice with the longer I have them, and while I am getting better at getting as much use out of them as possible before I need to change them out; the spiritual scars I leave begin to build up too much. Of course, now that I have more power over souls, I’m going to eventually have to test if I can cut that scaring away to give a bigger reset on them to start practicing again, but… well, if that doesn’t work then the only way I could get enough practice to have any hope of passing that particular barrier would be if I somehow managed to get a constant stream of evil gods to use, it’s just not happening.
<Don’t just casually slip into the middle there that you might be able to fix the thing holding you back from it.>
Even cutting the scarring away still probably wouldn’t be enough, and it would still mean waiting a decade at the earliest. I’d need more variety. Besides, as things are, I’ll still probably be brutally murdered before that can happen.
<To immediately ascend to become the most powerful god in the universe.>
No, to ascend to become the most skilled god, after which I will almost certainly be murdered a second time by the actually most powerful god, although that does raise a fair point.
Instantly, Ben switched the target of his mana, no longer materializing souls into the Myriad construct hidden within his bracelet but instead directed his power to materialize more soul tiles, now able to significantly increase the density of souls each one was filled with while making them all give him faith to prepare for his eventual ascension. After all, if he did die, only to be boosted to instant godhood, it would be nice to have enough faith to put up at least a bit of a fight before inevitably being murdered once more.
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And with his direction changed, he quickly went with it, making more soul tiles for all of the gods he liked while at the same time, changing out the souls he had trapped within the church of Myriad, both increasing the number of them and the power they held for him to access as he overfilled his own with the mana he’d take from them, all of it chores and tasks that he needed to do to help him in the long run.
<Oh, gosh.> Myriad said, directly able to feel the difference in the number of souls now giving him faith, no matter how simple they may have been. <What do you say you stop wasting all of those on my copy and focus on making more soul tiles?>
I still have the lingering hope that enough souls will make them start to merge, but… fine, Ben gave in, leaving the band on his arm for the time. Even with billions upon billions made and stored within the magical construct his god shared roots with, he was seeing no signs of crossing a threshold for it to become mythic, and while he did have ideas on how he might get it there when normal souls weren’t working, they weren’t things he either could or was willing to do. Better to spend his mana a bit more productively, with new tiles piling up around him.
<You’ve gotten good at this.>
Yeah? Then consider spending a bit of this faith on me from time to time. Come on, don’t you want to make and give me a new skill, just for funsies?
<Not particularly. Besides, aren’t you still trying to make one yourself?>
Ugh, yeah, but progress is slow, and that’s on one I have a blueprint for. I’m going to need to steal a few more plans from different god minds before I’m going to be at a place where I can start thinking about making any from scratch. When I get to that particular point though, watch out, because I’m gonna go mad with power.
<Trust me, if you reach a stage where you can create your own skills, I’m going to do everything in my power not to look.>
The continued bantering back and forth for a bit in his head while he and Mora sculpted together, but as time went by and Delair was late again, Ben couldn’t help but feel a premonition come to him about just how he’d be spending the day, with it only confirmed as he stretched out his soul to focus on the world around him, seeing everyone within his range as the door opened.
“Um, hey Ben. Oh, and hi Mora,” Delair greeted when she got there, sounding sheepish. “So, I know I just asked you for a favour yesterday, but-”
“I already saw, it’s fine,” Ben told her, already beginning to pack up. “Mora, it looks like we’re going to have to pass on any work in here today; it seems like some others want our attention.”
This time, not just the children, but adult dryads, demis, and even sirens were gathered, both there and in the town’s training grounds, hoping they’d be able to receive the same sort of help he’d given their young the day prior, with Ben completely unable to refuse.
“Alright, good work, everyone!” Ben said at the end, with all of them out of breath and sweating by the time they were finished.
Unlike their children, who Ben had been willing to teach for the comfort it would provide them, when it came to the adults, he expected actual results, meaning all of them had to push themselves while he and Mora watched from the side, both of them comfortably lounging on chairs while giving what invisible benefits they could.
Each group there had strengths and weaknesses, with the demis already having decent levels in their combat skills, the dryads having high mana given how much they’d train their magics, and half of the sirens having awakened skills to protect their charges, but each group got results too. They had asked to use his time after all, which meant they needed to use it to the best of their abilities, Ben making sure that each skill he taught reached the first level in them as they went, sparring against each other rather than puppets to make the dryads in particular more used to combat, with most of them needing to lay down by the end.
That didn’t matter though, it was done. Even if they never used any of their skills or magics he’d taught again, they would all have them in the event they needed them, and as they wrapped up, rather than just the practice weapons he’d given them each to use, Ben materialized new ones for them that felt perfect in their hands.
All of them could tell their gifts were good, but none more so than the siren guards, those three unable to gauge the heights of the quality they received but knew it was better than anything they’d previously used, being items kept by their nation and given out specifically to protect their young demigod.
Even Delair was exhausted by the end, having joined in of her own will, expecting more of the same she’d gone through yesterday, only to find out how much worse it could get as she laid on the ground, waving helplessly to Mora when she was finished.
“Mora, I can’t walk, carry me,” she groaned, knowing the boy had no reason to participate when he both couldn’t gain skills and would have shown a level of attributes so high above everyone else that it would have made him impossible to practice with, the young soul spirit shaking his head even as he went over to give in.
“Didn’t you already say you did this yesterday?”
“Ben was a lot nicer about it yesterday.”
“Ha, sorry kiddo, but I went fairly easy yesterday for all of your friends’ sakes,” Ben told her. “You wanted to work with adults, so you got the adult treatment.”
“If this is adult treatment, then I never want to grow up.”
“An excellent decision; growing up is overrated. For now, though, Mora, do you think you could get Delair home safely with the rest of them, and me or Thera can come by to pick you up in a bit?”
“I can, but it doesn’t look like she’s going to be up for much,” he said, looking down at the girl dramatically hanging limp in his arms. “Will you be awhile?”
“Maybe an hour, I just need to go check on some results I haven’t looked at in a bit.”
“Take your time,” Delair told him. “Mora, you can just drop me on the floor when we get home. I might be able to move enough for checkers.”
“I feel like I’m just going to have to look after you the whole time.”
“Only mostly, until mom gets home.”
Giving a small laugh at the back and forth, Ben pulled some cookies from one of his rings before handing them to the two to give them something to enjoy while they played before waving goodbye and going on his way. He had a goal for his next awakening attempt, but before he was going to try, he needed to stop in at Nare’s lands to see what would be waiting for him.