CH1131

While the rest of the room dealt with their shock and the awakening that had taken place before their eyes, Ben simply took in the changes it had brought in the priestess, both great and small.

Awakening her had long been a goal, and with her a contender in multiple skills, it had been as good enough time as any to try to complete it, especially for the chance it had led to. Ben had already thought that, in his own soul, awakening with more blessed skills than was meant to be possible would modify the soul to more easily accommodate that, and it seemed that on that front, he’d been correct. Among everything else, Valaria had gained the skill ‘blessed soul expansion’.

A result that would be useful for some of Ben’s later work, given he wanted Thera to be able to hold more blessed skills if possible, as well as his student or various other friends awakening in the future, it was a good distraction to see from the main result that left him wanting to complain to either his soul or the wider universe in jealousy. While he’d been expecting to awaken her mental expansion, and had even succeeded in that, unlike with his own mental awakening, hers had brought in connect as well.

After every failure I had trying to get connect to awaken, the fact that she managed it so easily… I swear, if some multiversal god of souls ever shows up, I’m going to curse at them endlessly for the one I ended up with.

Jealousy was only a part of his thoughts, though. The larger part of himself acknowledged what a good thing it was and took in the new skill as a whole.

Infinite charming mind, a power that had taken in not only her mental expansion and her connect, but also her innate charm, along with a few other skills too. Ben felt the changes in her thought structure imprint in his own head when he connected to her, but there was surely so much more to it than just that either. Given the specific powers it had grown from, the skill would need to be explored, but they’d get their chance for that soon. He couldn’t help but continue to eye her as, with those changes, there was one more that had come with them.

Acquiring blessed soul expansion hadn’t been her bonus skill, but instead a result brought forth from the change in her soul, and given the skills that were awakened had all been blessed, the bonus skill she’d gained, unnatural thought speed enhancement, had been guaranteed to be second tier as well.

And now I’m going to be left wondering if her gaining that was directly because of me as well, or if it’s a coincidence… and who am I kidding? A coincidence that she got the exact skill and variant that I did? Ugh, I guess I’ll have to observe the few more mind skills I help awaken in the future, but if everyone keeps getting the same mind skills I have, that’s going to be pretty disappointing. I want some variety, and I want something interesting to steal for my rings. Whatever, since it’s second-tier, and given her awakening just freed up two spaces for blessed skills, it might be worthwhile to raise that one up, but we can discuss which new ones she wants later. For now, other priorities.

Clapping as he stood, Ben materialized a new chair at the table to sit beside Tress, Valaria looking as stunned as anyone while Ben reached out to shake her hand.

“Congrats, Valaria, you’ve been working hard. Me and Myriad couldn’t be more pleased. And Thera, do you mind casting some healing spells on her? I’m sure you can tell, but awakening left her a little strained.”

“Oh, yeah,” Thera nodded, beginning to do exactly as asked after getting past her shock.

“Great. And Valaria, how are you feeling now?”

“Um, different.”

“Ha, I’m sure. Mind awakenings can take a bit of getting used to, but… well, yours was different enough from mine that it looks like you aren’t having any major problems with it.”

Ben’s own mental awakening had driven him mad from the scale of it, taking perceived months in his head to get used to it, but luckily for Valaria, her own was far weaker. He had no doubt that the skill she’d grown would be exceptional, but the mental component of it had been so much less powerful than his own that, when she’d awakened, the change in her mind hadn’t made it unrecognizable. The scale of what it had been against what it had turned into may have been incomparable, Ben could tell the breadth at which she could consider something meant that she would be able to become the second best user of his enchanting system on the planet, provided she could awaken her enchanting as well, but it was still recognizably her.

“Wait, Ben,” Killi cut in, the first of the group to get their thoughts together enough to know what she wanted to say. “Did you just help her reach the third tier?”

“Yeah, but don’t get too excited. I’d thought I’d be able to awaken her connect, but it seems like I managed to awaken one of her mind skills instead,” he said, maintaining the lie he’d been going to with Valaria that awakening connect had been the main goal, and felt fairly less guilty about it given that, even if her unnatural mental expansion had been the primary awakening, it had taken in her ninth leveled advanced connection as well, making it as if it had been the one to awaken. “Given how it turned out, it seems like I’ll be able to awaken certain other mind skills to the third tier, provided the holder can deal with my training, but anything other than that is going to be a mixed bag.”

Of course, given the benefit he’d snagged for himself with her awakening, that might not have been true. His original title, awakener, had the effect of reducing his difficulty in raising his own and other people’s skills to the second tier, and while he hadn’t had the chance to verify it yet, it seemed tremendously likely that when it had grown to great awakener, the effect had expanded to third-tier skills as well. If that were the case, then an improvement to his chances of getting another third-tier skill before the next wave would be a blessing, and any chance to awaken others to the third tier would need to be explored as well. He’d thought that awakening mind skills in others would be his limit, but with that extra bonus, there was hope that he might be able to do at least a little more.

“I see,” Killi nodded, already looking exhausted. “In that case, there’s yet another reason to take a small recess to digest things. Let’s say half an hour, and in that time, perhaps you could help Valaria try to understand the limits of her new skill?”

“Yeah, you got it. In that case, we’ll be right back. Valaria, you’re with me, so let’s see just how this turned out for you.”

Going into the city to give the other third tiers a small break, Ben led Valaria through a series of tests. Considering that he had awakened both mental expansion and connect, albeit in ways different from her, he at least had some ideas on what to look for as they began, recording results as they did.

The skills her new power had built on may have been weaker than his own, but that didn’t mean what they’d grown into would be any less impressive for any who heard of them. He’d already been able to measure the scale of her mind by reading her thoughts and was able to offer some guidance in that regard, while connect’s growth was along the lines he’d expected to see.

She couldn’t take over anyone like he could; she’d never gained mental symbiosis as a skill, but she could stretch out her soul almost a kilometer in all directions and could both read all of the minds and memories in her range. Having acquired hidden mind during her work making braces for all of the people of Anailia, he didn’t need to worry about her accidentally killing anyone, but the strength of her thoughts would likely be able to end some and significantly harm many others should she so wish. The scale she now thought at was simply beyond most mortal minds.

And then there’s the charm aspect of it.

The part they had to be the most cautious with testing by far, it had led to Ben actualizing to hide them away from the rest of the towns view before pulling out a few of the demons he was still testing on to let her experiment with that aspect of her skill, finding it had changed too. At that level, she was always going to be able to control her charm, but she could now use it to immediately charm anyone within the range of her soul, seemingly without limit. Whether it was selecting one or two individuals to bring under her thrall, or else pulling in everyone within her range, she now held that power, and it left Ben’s face to twist as he thought about it.

She doesn’t use her charm in any particularly harmful way; this bit of growth is weird for her to get. Could it literally just come down to her innate nature as a succubus? Her people are innate charm users, so when she got an awakening that could compliment that power, it affected the overall growth of the skill and potentially just made her one of the most powerful charm users on the planet?

While Valaria had originally only just recently reached the level needed to be able to suppress her charm, her work as the high priestess of her god demanded such effort, she had never pushed it to the second tier, but that no longer mattered. Even if the level it had become a third-tier skill at would affect the amount of power that aspect would display, there was no denying that by merging into a skill at that tier, the overall strength of the charm was going to explode. While Thera’s own was going to still be far more powerful, owing to the fact that it had merged into her dark magic, a power that could naturally cast charm as a basic spell rather than a passive effect, tied in with both her mana pool and her high level, it was reasonable to assume that Valaria might now stand as the second in the world when it came to that particular power.

With all of that making him think about ways he might want to put her to work in the future, either by making new items or else hiring her to manage a new research facility so long as he could convince her, but he’d have plenty of time to consider the pitch he wanted to make her later. With a good degree of testing done and a far better understanding of her new skill, Ben waved her along.

“Alright, that should be good enough for now, so come on, let’s get back to it, since I don’t get the impression that many of the others actually left. The sooner we finish these talks, the sooner we all get to go home.”

“Ah, sure, but…” she trailed off, gathering her thoughts before dipping her head into a deep bow. “Thank you so much. After all of the help you’ve given me over the years, and now this? I don’t know what I could ever do-”

Her spiel cut off as Ben flicked her head with just enough force to leave her rubbing it, making her see his broad grin as she looked up.

“Valaria, relax. I helped you because I wanted to, so don’t make a bigger deal out of it than you need to. Just keep doing your best for Myriad, give me some help if I ever ask, and don’t hold it against me any time I drop some extra work on you. Deal?”

Her thoughts flashed to the newest resident of her home, who he’d dropped on her just a few days prior, but in the end, shook her head and laughed. If that was the price she’d paid for godhood, then so be it; it was perfectly manageable.

“Yeah, deal.”