CH1148

With Thera gone for the day and with plenty still to do himself, the first thing Ben did was stop at his warehouse in Anailia, having more than a few things he needed to gather.

Before he’d left to see the other third tiers, he’d set all of the materializers he needed to continually produce, focusing entirely on the magic materials he required and left entire crates of them full to be slipped away into his rings, leaving him to nod in satisfaction as he did. So long as the other people he needed help from were free, that would have been plenty, and he left for the wider city from there, going just far enough to get Tress in his range.

The moment he felt the other third tier, Ben pulled more voidstone from his rings, enchanting on it quickly across over a thousand small pieces. He needed the same time effect tied to them that he had making Rook’s imprisonment hell, but aside from the limiting factor that was having Tress close enough to touch with his soul, it was otherwise simple and, once done, let him return to the shop to go through a different one of his gates, ending up in Pelenia’s home instead.

To save himself the trouble of potentially being dragged into Bloom’s love life once more though, as soon as Ben passed through, he immediately reached out with his soul, finding that the two great spirits he needed were both out at the moment in a result that left him to groan, before he searched all of the other minds in the area to find when they’d get back.

Should be a few hours from what Pelenia and Lux are thinking then. Okay, I can deal with that since I had some work I needed to do first, anyway. Looks like we’re seeing how far I can get in the untamed lands.

Deep in the woods, a demon screamed under the weight of its superior, one it had challenged for the position at the top of their horde, leaving it defeated while the one it had attacked mocked.

“Beg,” the victor laughed, stomping on the other’s head with a sickening crack. “Beg and keep begging until-”

“I find you,” Ben said, dropping from the sky in the middle of those monsters' internal conflict, surprising them all enough that none immediately reacted. “And wow, what a haul. I needed some intelligent ones, but for half of you to be sapient-”

Seeing prey, the surrounding demons shook off their surprise to either rush him or begin to cast their spells, all of them wanting the meal he represented, none of them aware that they’d lost the second he found them. The more animalistic ones he killed immediately, materializing spears of a dozen different substances to shoot through their brains, while the others were brought under his thrall, keeping them controlled while he went on.

“What a good first find. I’ll be able to get a lot of use out of all of you for future experiments, but… hmm. I’m keeping the intelligent ones in prisons that will speed up the flow of time, but it’s not like I have no use for the dumb ones too. The next ones I find, I guess I should collect a few of those and toss them in something that’ll freeze time in case I find a use for them later, but first…”

One more spear was materialized, killing the demon that had just lost the fight it was in. If he was going to use them for his experiment, he didn’t need something that already looked injured enough that it might die before he could run his tests on it and with that done, he modified a few of their souls to prepare for future tests before directing all of them into his new prisons to be experimented on later.

All of them had been given more room than Rook at least, meaning that the time effect on them had to be lowered to compensate, making it only twenty times faster than what the real world would experience, but all of them had been equipped with materializers too, one for food and one for water. He specifically collected the intelligent ones so that nothing dumb enough would destroy the only things provided to keep them alive in there, but with that group sorted, he went on, looking for more.

Flying just above the treetops, his soul stretched out as far as it could go, Ben stopped and collected what demons he could find, seeing it as nothing more than gathering resources for future work. There were always going to be tests to run that would require living subjects, but as the total number of them across the world continued to dwindle, it didn’t hurt to stock up.

But while that was his main task while he waited, it wasn’t his only one. In the heavens above, he harassed his god, forcing the cube to keep working on the new skill for him, while in the mortal realm, he continued his own tests, finally getting the progress he’d been waiting for.

<ACQUIRED SKILL ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL 0>

Holy shit, finally some success! And all it took was nearly nine freaking days. At least I beat you and the other gods.

<Excuse you. You had a significant head start over me, and I’m almost done.>

You’re almost done because I’ve been helping you. Without me pumping up the speed you think at, you’d be way behind. Actually, considering that, you should let the non-affinitied gods know that if they don’t finish the one they owe me soon either, then I’ll be coming to speed them along as well. I’m not feeling so patient to wait too many more days.

<I’ll let them know.> Myriad told him, immediately imagining a horrible future where Ben decided that he didn’t need to create all of the skills he wanted himself and could instead enslave the gods to do it for him. <But you’re not going to make a habit of this, are you?>

Are you asking if I’m going to turn the gods into skill factories like you’re thinking about? He grinned up to the heavens. Don’t worry about it. I probably won’t resort to that.

<Do you think you could say that with some certainty instead?>

No, now give me a second.

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING INCINATION HAS RISEN TO A BLESSED SKILL>

<ENCHANTING INCLINATION HAS AWAKENED TO ENCHANTING AFFINITY>

<ACQUIRED SKILL ENCHANTER’S TOUCH>

<BLESSED SOUL EXPANSION LEVEL INCREASED>

Everything within the range of his soul was enchanted on; the rocks filling that section of the untamed lands each left bearing the touch of his magic to claim his awakening, but despite the success, Ben still frowned by the time it was done.

I’m picking up a worrying trend here.

<More worrying than the way you can raise your talent in anything through brute force?>

Yes, because that’s not worrying, it’s fantastic. No, every single time I’ve gained a bonus skill from awakening an inclination at the second or third tier, it’s given me a touch skill as a result. Not gonna act like I don’t want them, but I was really expecting at least a bit of variety when I figured out how to always gain a bonus skill from my awakenings! How is it that awakening inclinations is only giving me a single class of skills?

<I’ll admit, considering that touch skills weren’t an independent class of skill before you started getting them, it is somewhat bizarre.> Myriad agreed. <But also in line with your goals. You wanted these inclinations to raise your talent in the skills you’re trying to awaken. Just consider getting a bonus touch skill as an extra little boost.>

Yeah, I know, and you’re right, obviously, but when I first figured out I could cheat my soul like this, I was imagining something a little more exciting is all, you know? Endless skills at my fingertips, but considering that all I’m looking to make and raise right now are inclinations, the fact that it looks like I might just keep getting touch skills is a bit underwhelming. I’m really going to need to awaken a different class of skill again soon to give myself a bit of variety.

<Mmh, knowing you, that won’t be too long. So then, what’s next?>

Next? Deciding what new skill I should be making blessed, because it feels like I’ve got room to spare.

Making enchanting inclination a blessed skill had been just within his tolerable limits, but with his newest level to his blessed soul expansion, he felt like he could not only keep it there, but even add another. It would mean that when he eventually got either his non-affinitied magic inclination or his connect inclination, making one blessed would be all the worse in the moments before he’d awaken it and his soul would adapt, but such was the nature of things. The more blessed skills he could hold, the better off he would be, and doing everything he could to increase that upper limit was just as much of a priority as anything else, leaving him to already look to the future as he made his choice.

<TIER TWO MODIFIER COMPATABILITY HAS RISEN TO A BLESSED SKILL>

There. Probably put that one off longer than I should have, but whatever.

A skill that increased the power of his modifiers, be they jobs, blessings, and even inclinations, but given that when it had briefly been lifted to a blessed skill before and given that its new rise to that level hadn’t come with a wave of notifications either, he couldn’t help but worry that either it was actually weaker than he’d thought or that, compared to other skills, it might not have been getting the normal boost he should have expected from it.

Which is silly, and would probably be hard to confirm even with Verbum’s help, he told himself. I’ve seen enough times now that there are always outliers with skills and how they act, but chances are just as good that there just wasn’t enough potential in my soul or any of my skills to level with it currently. When most of my skills are at their upper limits and the ones that aren’t are the ones I don’t really use, it might just be the luck of the timing of it keeping it from setting off a new chain of notifications, right? And even if it is getting less benefits from being blessed than I would have expected, if there’s literally any benefits from making it blessed then it’s probably worth it…

Mmm, I’ll just make sure to keep an eye on my attribute growth. If that looks like it’s been boosted like it should from this, then I can do some quick and dirty math to confirm the increase is around what I would from making that a blessed skill.

<And as charming as it is to hear you fret over whether your skill is going to give you as many bonuses as you expect, that wasn’t what I was talking about. What skill are you making next?>

Oh, that? Easy. Sacrilege inclination.

Since the gods had granted him the magic inclination he’d wanted and would soon be giving him a non-affinitied magic inclination as well, that meant he could skip to working directly on that, with plenty of hopes placed on such a skill’s potential. Every other inclination he had either made or claimed from the gods was going towards his goal of awakening some of his remaining skills, but sacrilege inclination was one he was sure he’d be able to push to the third tier himself. The same exploits that let him do it for both evil and destruction would still apply, and more than that, both his evil and destruction authorities would surely be working on it as well, making the skill even easier to level than it already would have been when using the gods.

<Interesting, interesting.> Myriad muttered. <But have you considered doing literally anything else instead?>

No, why would I? At this point, my relationship with the gods has been made abundantly clear, so it’s not like I even need to worry about what they think about my skills anymore-

<It would be nice if you still worried at least a little bit.>

And, Ben went on. This might be my only chance to beat my current touch curse, too.

<Dare I even ask what that’s supposed to mean?>

We just went over it. My inclinations are only giving me touch skills. That was true back before I could make them blessed skills and only got evil and destructive touch when I awakened my evil and destruction authorities to the third tier, and it’s true now that I can force bonus skills for second-tier awakenings. For sacrilege inclination, though? I can force my bonus skill for the second tier awakening, and then I can force another for the third tier. Genuinely, if I can get myself to the point where I can awaken third tier skills as easily as I can when it comes to reaching the second tier, then I’m really going to be rolling in infinite power if I can force my soul to keep giving me second tier abilities as bonuses that I can grow after.

<You know, even if you do get to live for another four hundred years before ascending, I’m not sure I’m going to want to be around for it to see just what sort of divinity you’re going to be.>

It’s going to be great, Ben grinned. Trust me, when I’m the god of everything, you’re gonna love it.

<If you become a god of everything, I’m never going to know peace again.>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<ENCHANTING AFFINITY LEVEL INCREASED>

Finishing up took longer than he’d hoped, but eventually, Ben claimed a thousand intelligent demons as he rushed across the world, and many more of the dumber ones too, packing them all away before he returned to Anailia, the two he wanted finally back there.

When he had them in his range, though, he didn’t bother going all of the way back to Pelenia’s home to meet them. Instead, he just spoke into their minds, asking them to join him and got to see a portal open up in Anailia’s streets at the request, Abrus and Ogilt stepping through it soon after.

“Something urgent then, Ben?” Abrus asked, looking at him curiously. “Just what plans could you have that could require two great spirits this time?”

Last time, while interesting, had nonetheless been simple; the two only given the job of placing a small gate into orbit for an experiment, but, with the question asked, Ben smiled brightly.

“Consider it my little attempt to undoom the planet. If I can get you two to help me for a few hours and everything works out the way I hope, then we should be able to get rid of the majority of the demons currently here before the next wave.”