Man, I hate the gods of this world so fucking much.

<Might I point out you’re talking to one of them?>

No, I’m having an idle thought that you walked in on, and besides, you know I’m not talking about you. Mostly at least. Just not exactly pleased about how my payment worked out this time.

<Why? Five hundred points to your attributes is nothing to turn your nose up at. In exchange for the work you’ll be doing modifying peoples’ souls, I’d say it seems pretty reasonable.>

Except at the rate I’ll be able to raise people’s attributes I’d be able to cover that in a single one if you combine all of the points any person is going to get from me, but that’s not the point. I got five hundred points to my attributes, why were three hundred of those put in my agility!

<Because it’s the one you’re most lacking in, obviously. Just because it’s not one you care about doesn’t mean it isn’t one other people don’t as well and being able to run away is a pretty valuable skill. Besides, you have to admit it feels good.>

I admit nothing. At least the other two hundred were better spent.

With one hundred each going to both of his regeneration rates, two values he actually cared about. With that, his mana regeneration was standing at just above ten minutes to refill from empty and his vitality had more than doubled, meaning it was time to remake his deathstone band for training that particular attribute while he continued to grumble.

It’s not like I don’t get it but come on, all of those points to that one stupid attribute is just so wasteful. It would have been infinitely better to split that five hundred between the two regen rates and be done with it.

<Agree to disagree. You aren’t the only person with an uneven stat coverage, it’s more common than not but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be evened out a little bit when it’s going to be affecting others. Empty skies, we’re already guaranteed to see some sort of effect considering that even if you don’t reach the third tier in the next month, everyone whose soul you modify is going to feel their intelligence increase by one and a half thousand.>

My greatest gift to the world.

He grinned. It’ll be a planet of geniuses by the time I’m done.

<I can only imagine this is going to lead to a rapid increase in mind skills throughout the population.>

Which means more mind users for me to take advantage of too. You’re right Myriad, this really did work out pretty well.

<Yeah yeah, just keep focusing on what you can get out of it.> Myriad sighed. <At the rate you’re going, you’ll be done with the third tiers soon enough.>

Eh, soon enough doesn’t exactly feel like soon enough. I’ll have still lost one or two months on raising them.

<Not if you keep raising your soul source even higher.>

Ha, you got me there. Fingers crossed for another level or two soon. Still, seven left to go through after this so long as nobody else gets an advanced variant. I really thought I’d be getting more job options as I went through all of this but as things stand I really am going to run out of all of my choices if I don’t get some more. It’s gonna feel weird to be left with an empty list.

<You can’t expect new options to show up endlessly, especially with how you’re going through them. Maybe if you awaken a couple of the skills you’ve had stuck at the ninth level you’ll unlock something and if you complete your insane goal then you definitely will.>

Mmh, true. I’ll worry a bit more when I get closer to the end I guess, still a few others to get through before I need to start thinking about how to flesh out my list.

“Um, Ben,” Delair spoke up, pulling him from his thoughts as she swirled a beaker in her hand, looking disappointed. “I think I messed this one up.”

Alchemy was the task for the day, trying to get the girl plenty of experience on that front as well with both successes and failures going hand in hand as she learned, Ben reaching out to take what she’d made and looked it over.

“Mmh, looks like it, kiddo but don’t worry, these things happen. What matters in these cases is if it’s still a usable potion that’s just going to be of a worse quality or if it’s going to be completely ineffective, but… Well, based on the colouration you ended up with and the smell I’m not actually positive so I’m going to do something you are not allowed to repeat, understood?”

“Okay, what?”

Instead of answering, he tipped it back and swirled it around in his mouth before swallowing, nodding when he was done. “Oh boy, yeah, we need to go over how you made that because this is definitely poison.”

“What? Spit it out then!”

“Ha, it’s okay, you don’t need to worry about me,” He reassured. “I’ve got a fair bit of innate poison resistance, my mouth barely tingles. You on the other hand should absolutely not do any taste testing on anything you’re unsure of, understood?”

“I think this is one time you didn’t need to bother telling me that.”

“Better safe than sorry. Now, let’s see where you went wrong and try to figure out how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

It had been a while since he’d had to troubleshoot anything he’d made but doing it for Delair was fun in its own way, with Ben finding the answer quickly enough but wanting her to investigate it herself without being given the solution, the girl’s eyes crinkling in concentration as she looked over her process and materials before pulling out a single leaf.

“Did I grab the wrong one?” She asked, more to herself than him but was still given her answer as he patted her head.

“Yep, gotta be careful when going through storage. Even if it looks close to the ones you needed, that one there has an entirely different preparation method and it looks like it had a negative reaction with a few of the other ingredients on top of it. Do I need to tell your mom and grandma that our little dryad can’t tell the difference between different dried leaves?” He teased, watching as her cheeks puffed out at the provocation.

“Give me another recipe, I won’t mess up this time.”

“Ha, alright then kiddo, this time you’re trying your hand at a lifeblood potion, one of my personal favourites.”

“Why? Are they easy?”

“Nope, they’re actually a challenge for your level but they sell well and are expensive, two of any salesman’s favourite words. If you open up your own shop one day you’re going to want to keep these in stock but we can go over what to consider in sales a bit more in the future, if you’re planning on working out of your village that’s probably going to change how you’d set things up a fair bit.”

He went over the details of selling just a bit longer, an aspect she had yet to really experience with the shop perpetually closed now that its owner was off dealing with the tasks and expectations that came with reaching the third tier but otherwise went on with the day of lessons, Ben guiding where he could until it reached its end, signalled by Thera and Mora walking through one of the gates.

“Hey, you guys are back a bit sooner than expected.”

“It looks like the world managed to go a day without anyone getting hurt from either disaster or their own overwhelming stupidity,” Thera said, looking cheerful. “It was a pretty relaxed one compared to usual.”

“Ha, glad to hear it. Delair, why don’t we end things here? I can handle cleanup if you’ll walk her home, Mora?”

“I will,” The spirit nodded, getting a smile in exchange.

“Thanks kiddo, we’ll be there to pick you up in a little bit so have fun.”

Even if still withdrawn, he could see the boy was enjoying the company of someone closer to his age, at least mentally, and Delair was still enough of a bundle of energy to be happy to have another friend, with the two of them leave himself and Thera alone in the shop as he tidied up now that the day was through.

“So, all of your coworkers feeling ready for you to disappear for another couple days soon?” He joked while she sighed.

“You’d think they were going to die without me there to help out.”

“Well, people do die from overwork, you know. When you’re doing enough by yourself to be making most of the difference, they’re probably feeling the strain.”

“Ugh, it’s so messed up that I need to count taking on a tower as a break for me. You’ve warped my sense of normalcy.”

“Excuse you, this is definitely the demons fault. I couldn’t be more innocent.”

“No, I think you could be a bit more innocent.”

“Literally the most innocent guy you know. Besides, it really will be a break for you. I’m sure not expecting you or anyone else to do anything in this one. Let me carry you through the tower for a change after all the times you’ve brought me to the top.”

“Ha, when you put it that way it does sound nice,” She said, already imagining the thought of being able to sit down and relax while he covered all of the difficult bits himself. “And Fontesh knows when we’re going again?”

“Yeah, she’s good for looking after Mora but I’m hoping she won’t even have to. Not to brag but I’m pretty damn good at what I do, there’s a chance I’ll finish up on the same day.”

“That confident, are you?”

“It’s just a chance. I was told that this tower is harder than others since it lacks the whole ‘constant threat of death’ thing and for some stupid reason the gods were insistent I take on the hardest option for the floor. It’s just as likely that I won’t be able to finish it at all.”

“Mmh, well being positive, if it is as easy as you’re hoping, don’t be afraid to stretch things out just a little longer if you need to. Better to try too hard than too little, right?”

“…You just don’t want to go back to work immediately.”

“Nobody in their right mind would,” She groaned, dramatically flopping over his shoulder and putting a stop to his sweeping. “I used to have so much free time, Ben and it’s all vanished in the blink of an eye. I barely train my other magics anymore either, it’s misery.”

“Perils of a planetary emergency and newfound motherhood.”

“You know, even if I’m not as strong as you I’m not particularly weak either. Don’t be in a hurry to see how far I can throw you.”

“Ha, well-” His words were cut off as the ground beneath him rumbled and kept shaking, leaving him to raise his hands in his defense as it went on. “Alright, you win, guardianhood then. Don’t break the shop over it.”

Thera shook her head. “This isn’t me. I’ve never felt an earthquake in Stonewall.”

“Think you’re strong enough to try and stop it then?”

“Maybe, but-”

Her thought was broken by another sound coming through with screams filling the air and without another word the two were out the door, off to see just what had happened.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep