CH1145

“So? How did things go with Valaria and Anailia last night?”

“Mmm, let’s just say Anailia wasn’t afraid to get emotional about just how much one of her daughters had grown,” Myriad told him. “Things did not end quickly. And you? Haven’t caused too much trouble, I hope?”

“Worked on my skills, Delair talked me into modifying her soul, and I ended up doing her mom’s and Thera’s too. Then it was just making sure my student took some time to get used to being the most powerful… second most powerful kid in the world, I guess, considering what Mora can pull off. Also continued to test the limits of just who I can and can’t teach a general magic skill after I boost their affinities. Looks like I can still do it for anyone with combined affinities, now I just need to find someone with a combined affinity and a normal one to really hone in on my limits there.”

“I see, so on top of giving Delair thousands of points of growth, you’ve also given her all of the magic in the world, and at an affinity that would drive all of the other mages on the planet mad with jealousy. You really are spoiling your daughter there.”

“Not my daughter, and I haven’t actually taught her a general magic skill yet. She’s going to try to awaken a skill first by herself and then I’m going to help her with everything I can, but in that case I want to awaken her plant magic before I get her that skill too, just because I don’t want to find them merging in a weird way with her awakening.”

“Mmh, well, you’re her teacher, I suppose. In that case, do you know what she’s going to try to awaken?”

“She hasn’t come out and said it, but I have a good guess. She wanted her soul modified, and I’m sure it’s because she wanted more mana since she knows it’s possible to awaken a magic from the eighth level through materialization so long as she has enough. I’m pretty certain she’s going to try to do it for material user.”

“And you think she’ll manage?”

“I haven’t given her the best education on how matter works in the entire world for nothing. It might take a couple of attempts, but I’m sure she’ll get it.”

“Empty skies, at this rate, she’s going to become a third-tier when she’s younger than you.”

“Ha, well, we’ll see,” he grinned. “If I’m around when she reaches that point, I’ll give her some help, but I don’t think I’m going to forcefully awaken her to it like I did for Valaria either. At least not for the first few years she’s a contender. If she doesn’t get anything to the third tier by herself by then, then maybe I’ll reconsider.”

“As if managing such a thing after becoming a contender wouldn’t be a miracle in and of itself to the majority of the world. I really am going to have to mention to Jagal that she should start interacting with your student more now, given just how far she’ll manage to go in the next few years.”

“What can I say? I didn’t train her for nothing; she’s got the potential to go far. Besides, she’s out of jobs right now, so awakening a few skills will be a good way to get her some more.”

Like many other people, Ben’s global experience production had managed to clear out her list, and while she’d immediately been able to take queen of intelligence after Ben had modified her soul, it would be good for her to get a real range of second-tier options, rather than just that one that focused on raising her intelligence and nothing else.

Especially some higher mage jobs, since that will help her grow as an enchanter too. Depending on how things go, that awakening might be just around the corner for her.

As fun as it was to plan his student’s growth though, there were other things he and his god needed to do. He’d given Myriad a day, but he’d been patient enough, so, without a word, Ben reached out with his soul and sped up his god’s mind for what was to come.

“Can I help you?” Myriad asked at the sudden connection, while Ben just looked impatient.

“Yeah, we can get started on our deal. I want that connect inclination, Myriad, and we’re not going to rest until it’s done.”

“We can rest a little.”

“Nope.”

“You literally got connect to the third tier. You don’t actually need this. How could you be feeling impatient?”

“Because I don’t want to stop at having it at the third tier for one, and for two, there are benefits I’ll be able to get from awakening it. It’ll help grow my blessed soul expansion faster, meaning I’ll be able to have more I can benefit from, and I’ll be able to get a bonus skill from it, in case you didn’t notice just how handy that was with my last few awakenings, and god, I really am so bummed that I missed out on getting one for my mythril blood too.”

“Is this really going to be how you spend forever when the war ends? Just making new skills and getting new bonus skills from them when they awaken?”

“If I live, then hell yeah it is. This is my path to infinite skills. I can make anything I want, and then I can get bonus skills to keep surprising me in case the system decides to toss me anything that I couldn’t think of myself, and then I can awaken those too for even more. Hell, just you wait, because when I get more third-tier skills in the future, I’m going to be making sure they’re all blessed so I can get some second-tier skills from it too. I’m a little limited currently, but when killing the strongest god in reality isn’t the concern, I’m going to have to start keeping everything I’m a contender for blessed as well, just to be on the safe side. If my material manipulation manages to awaken right now without taking in my crafting or enchanting and, as a result, I don’t get a second-tier skill with it, I’m going to go insane.”

“You’re already insane,” Myriad sighed. “And too good at getting your awakenings at this point. If you really do live for another few hundred years and the pace you’ve been growing at keeps up, then the system is going to have to resort to helping you develop some truly ridiculous or niche abilities eventually. Dare I even ask if there’s anything else you’re going to work on besides your endless inclinations?”

“I mean, in the future, I’m pretty sure I won’t have any trouble learn any magic, especially after I modify my soul for that too, so I’ll have a lot of options coming my way in that regard eventually, and things like weapon skills will probably be pretty easy to awaken too, so I can count on a lot of bonus skills for all of that, but if you mean presently… there’s not much I could awaken in my status currently. I really should try to get aim and marksmanship done, I’ve got a couple ideas for how to pull that off and they both fall under my authorities, and I have a few other passive skills at the first tier too, but as it stands, the matter is either awaken some skills to the third tier, or get other skills I’ll be able to push to the second, and in the spirit of that, enough chatting and let’s get to work. I don’t want to spend weeks waiting on this skill.”

“Mmh, I can already see I shouldn’t have been so quick to strike a deal with a slave driver like you.”

“And I shouldn’t have struck a deal that made me more likely to be eaten, yet here we are. Just think of it as a race to see who finishes first. You making connect inclination with my help, me making enchanting inclination, or the dark horse in the form of the non-affinitied gods making me my new magic inclination.”

“In that case, I think the rest of you had an unfair head start,” Myriad grumbled, even if he gave in and got to work, just like Ben had wanted. A deal was a deal, after all, and it would ultimately be useful for some of his believers other than Ben as well, so with that goal in mind they spent the rest of the evening hard at work, all for the purpose of creating a new skill.