CH1137

“Alright, let's wrap this up the best we can then,” Killi said as they began the new day. “Ben, before any of us consider how we might work with you with our skills, do you have an insight in how we all might be able to work together?”

“Oh yeah, loads,” he nodded. “Um, where to begin? First off, some of you have already experienced it firsthand, and others haven’t, so for those of you I haven’t gotten to yet, I’m the one modifying souls to give everyone more blessed skills. Think about the skills you have and which you’d like to be turned into blessed ones, and I’ll convert them for you later.”

A murmur went around mostly the aquatic side, given that, without the gods having arranged things yet, it was harder for him to make time to do that for that part of the planet and as a result, less there had received that bit of his work. There were a few on the terrestrial half who hadn’t either, though, and all of them thought about what skills they had that would be most worth empowering.

That was something they could all consider throughout the meeting, though. When it came to souls, what he could do didn’t end there as he went on.

“Other than that, I’m the one who’s been modifying souls across the planet, and I can see that all of you have benefited from my work before, but by becoming a third-tier in soulcraft, that ability has grown. As things are, one time only, I can increase all of your affinities and resistances.”

“Is there a catch?” Killi asked, hearing something that sounded too good to be true and was prepared for some substantial drawbacks, seeing Ben shrug at the question.

“Sure, kind of. Like I’d already said, I can only do it once for anyone whose souls I’ve already modified, and it’s going to hurt a bit too. Not to the point that it’s going to be debilitating, probably just a bit worse than the last time, and since we have three soul mages here, we should be able to get you all into decent shape by the time the meeting ends today. Other than that, I’d say the biggest drawback is that, unlike with my last soul modification, this isn’t something I can do on a mass-scale. It takes too much out of me, so I’m not doing this worldwide. Hell, I’m not even doing this for all of my god’s believers or as a way of getting him more. It would simply be too much effort.”

Hearing that from someone who’d already gone across the world twice to modify souls was a good enough indication of just how much more effort it would be that, even without knowing just how big the difference was, showed the value of the offer they were getting. While Ben had the option of doing the same for whoever he wanted to in the future, as things were, they’d all be a part of a rather limited group.

“And how much can you grow our values by, then?” the divine chef asked from the waters. “Is the difference so substantial as to be worth all of that effort?”

“I’d personally say so, yeah. As things are, I can give everyone here fifty in all of their affinities and resistances, though I’d personally recommend not having it done for your light or life resistance, given how hard that can make healing you, which would mean that we’re actually looking at around fifty-five to fifty-six for all of your other values. Ah, but I should mention that this isn’t growing what you have, it’s replacing it, so for anyone in the room who already has a high value in anything, it might make more sense to split what I can give among the rest you have instead.”

“From what I’m hearing then, you have a fair degree of freedom over how you distribute these points, correct?” Killi asked him. “In that case, rather than an even split, what about focusing on a few dedicated ones? Could you give a person one hundred across all of their affinities? Give five of them two hundred? One of them one thousand?”

… Fuck. Looks like I owe Valaria an apology.

When it had come to his discovery, he’d focused entirely on the way he would have wanted to use it, had he been in someone else’s position, viewing the high resistances as a good path to safety, while the high affinities meant he’d be able to gain all of the skills the limits of his soul had been keeping him from. Killi was correct though, there was no reason things had to be that, which meant he needed to do a few quick tests to confirm, leaving him to heave a sigh as he pulled the church of Myriad from his ring, along with some rainbow mana crystal to hold the souls he would create.

“Just a minute, let me run a couple quick tests.”

Realistically, he knew there had to be limits he wasn’t seeing as soon as the question had been asked. Every ten points to an affinity meant a five percent decrease in a spell's mana cost, and those same ten points to a resistance meant that a spell’s effects would be weakened by just as much when used on a target. The fact that Thera had one hundred and three points in her earth affinity meant that surpassing triple digits was possible, and with his new soul sight, he knew that all of the original spirits hit ninety-nine and the great ones hit one hundred and ten. At the same time, logically, there still had to be an upper limit. If there wasn’t, then that meant a person could have affinities of two hundred, meaning they wouldn’t require mana to cast their spells. While he could accept the idea of resistances being able to reach a point that would grant complete immunity to spells, if a spell had no mana cost to cast, then that really was the same as having infinite power. In such a case, that meant if he focused on reaching that point in something like earth magic himself, he’d be able to materialize an entire galaxy with no effort.

And as exciting as that would have been, and as much as he would have loved for that to have worked, for the simple fact that such a thing would have made ending the war trivial with all he’d be able to do in that case, he was sure it wouldn’t. Reality wasn’t going to be so convenient for him as to make the mana cost of any affinitied spell meaningless, meaning he had no choice but to find the true limit as he began materializing, overfilling his soul and using the full extent that it could hold to devote to producing something with the highest water affinity he could and instantly found his cut-off.

As soon as he hit ninety-nine points, the cost went up by so much that, even with the power he was pulling in and the millions of points that went into it, he could only reach one hundred and one. A level of mana he could have used to bring all other affinities to ninety-nine points as well, instead spent on just two more, leaving him disgusted with just how much such a thing took.

Considering how much I can overfill my soul is directly related to my mana pool and looking at my current rate of growth in that area, in the nine years it would take me to hit a million mana and the amount I’d be able to force into myself then… maybe I’d be able to hit a high of one hundred ten? I guess it will be interesting to see how things compare with the way I’m growing my resistances, but these costs are ridiculous.

To be safe, he did the same test by creating a soul focused on space resistance and found the results to be the same, making him comfortable sharing his findings with the rest of them there.

“For all intents and purposes, consider ninety-nine the upper limit. It looks like the cost goes up at that point to an extent that makes anything more than that legitimately wasteful to choose, unless you just want the bragging rights of being able to say that you have an affinity at one hundred. Knowing this, you can all decide how you want to arrange things yourselves, but I might offer some opinions based on what you pick.”

Another thing for the crowd to think about, but Ben wasn’t done.

“Also, Foast, you get a different option than anyone else.”

“Well, don’t I feel special,” the shifter joked. “In that case, what?”

“You can absorb the souls of the things you kill to replace their best affinity or resistance with your own. I can make some bodies and then imbue them with souls. We should at least test to see if that would let me grant you higher values than I can give anyone else.”

“Circle back to the part where you can make bodies?”

“Ah, I’ll make the best ones I can, in case you take on their properties too, but I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Ben shrugged, failing to explain in a way that could satisfy anyone there, other than Thera who rolled her eyes at his casualness over the horrors he could create, and Yuzu who’d been forced to fight them and had no desire to repeat the experience. “While souls mark their experiences, being in a vessel for a few minutes probably isn’t going to be enough for your skill, right? Anyway, besides that is something for mainly Verbum and Abel to consider, though the rest of you can think about it too; I just wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“Ooh, what?” Abel asked in interest while Verbum shrunk back into his seat, already worried about whatever Ben had in mind for him.

“Neither of you have magics, so however you want your attributes modified, at least make sure you get thirty in all of your affinities. Do that, and I’ll be able to help you get a general magic skill.”

“What?” Elvat yelled, the most shocked there to hear he could help with such an option, even as others around them reacted as well. Being born with a general magic skill was, in essence, one of the greatest blessings one could receive, but just having the aptitude didn’t mean one would be able to manage it. It required a balance in training the magical arts that most couldn’t manage, leaving them with multiple individual affinities instead, making that power exceptionally rare.

“I’m not going to give any guarantees, but I’ve helped a kid do it before. For any of you with only a single magic skill, I can probably help you manage it too, but you all know how it is. The more magics you have, the lower the odds of getting it. If any of you want, I’ll try to help, but keep your expectations in check.”

Such a thing would be a handy tool for any of them, and Ben had the power to give them a wealth of magical knowledge as well, but that was the reality of it. All that left was for them to decide while he went on, continuing to discuss ways that he might be able to help.

“Other than that, for Killi in particular, I could save you time by reading your documents and fitting all of the information into your mind. Verbum, I could help by reading the system information he’s investigating, and the divine chef, I could hypothetically assist with some prep-work, given that, even if it’s not awakened, I’m also a contender for crafting. The main caveat to that last one would be my need to do it on dry land, and with all of those suggestions would be the issue of availability. Like everyone here, I’m a busy person. I can come out occasionally to help, but I can’t be at anyone’s beck and call.”

“No one would expect that, but I at least would be grateful,” Killi said, knowing firsthand just how fast Ben could read and process information and just how much time that would save her. “And Verbum will accept too.”

“Can I not speak for myself?” The record holder yelled, his guardian giving him a side-eye.

“Not if it means I have to risk you saying no.”

“And as for myself, I would consider it after seeing a dish you’ve prepared,” the chef told him, looking surprised when multiple options appeared out of thin air as he pulled them from his rings.

“I’ve got a few you can choose from, but not many that are going to hold up underwater. You alright looking at them from this side?”

“I can handle dry land for a while,” she nodded, before slipping through the watery wall to walk across the floor, her octopus-like body looking less comfortable than she had been in the water a moment prior but put up with it as Ben brought the meals to her side, tentacles riffling through them to judge the skill at which they’d been prepared before finally tasting and giving her verdict.

“Acceptable,” she nodded before turning back. “Depending on how fast you can work, we can make arrangements one day for you to prepare ingredients for me.”

“We can figure out how to do it now. You tasted how fresh everything I just pulled out was; my rings have a time effect on them. Have as many ingredients as you want sent my way and tell me what sort of prep work you want done on them and I’ll send them back to you in a spatial item.”

“Very well, in that case, we can work out the finer details later,” she told him. It was a convenient arrangement for her that meant she could focus on the cooking itself instead of just everything she’d need to do leading up to it, but with that and every other point Ben had discussed, they still weren’t done. Even if he had ideas about just what he could do, the rest of them had their own as well and, despite all they’d already gone over, there was still plenty more to discuss.