Chapter 420

In the guild, Thera alone was looking good as the only person who hadn’t taken Ben’s offer. Everyone else couldn’t hide their mildly nauseous looks as he built up their minds with his own, while he had sweat dripping down his brow from trying to maintain it.

Taking apart a single one of his minds was one thing, with all of the ones in his head it was barely even noticeable, but doing one for each person was something different, and then moving on to two, and then three after where he reached his limits. As everyone else was experiencing a boost to their thinking power incomparable to anything they’d had in the past, while he was doing it he was losing a not insignificant amount of what he had.

‘Course, not insignificant for me and not insignificant for anyone else are two very different things. One of the many hundreds of spare minds he still had couldn’t help but think. Even if it still does feel a little weird.

Still, he pushed himself, wanting every level he could get in the short amount of time he had as he pushed himself to break down another mind, weaving it into the growing thoughts of others until a notification went off in his head.

And I’m all the way up to level two already. Life is good.

Expecting that that would be as high as he’d be able to get without far too many more hours of practice, he slowly removed the strands of his mind from the people standing around him, each one putting on a look of relief despite the loss in thinking power. The average person just didn’t seem to enjoy changes to the fundamental ways they would experience the world.

But that’s their loss.

Something about that feels like an insult, but I’m not quite sure what.

With his levels gained and attempt done though, he spent the next few minutes going around and tapping cards, transferring the funds he promised to all of those who helped him practice as everyone looked just a little relieved it was done, even if the money made it plenty worth it.

Ending with transferring funds to Skoe, Sachel, and Ralia, the last two giving in to help after seeing that their teammate was basically fine, Ben then focused on Thera, holding out his hand.

“Well, ready to give it a try?”

“Mmh, just not in here, I don’t want to draw any attention to this.”

She seemed like she still needed to psych herself up for letting Ben use his new skill on her too, so he gave her a moment as he felt curious eyes on him from the other party.

“So just what was the point of all of this?” Ralia asked him, wanting to know where such a strange skill could possibly be leading.

“Just a little experiment to see if I can help Thera with a spell by doing this, getting a skill out of it was just a bonus for me.”

Sachel’s eyes lit up hearing that. “Can we watch to see if it works?”

He personally didn’t care, but it was Thera’s choice as all eyes fell on her while she sighed. “If it works just don’t go talking about it, okay?”

They got a round of nods before they all eventually went out, finding themselves in far darker streets than when they’d gone in as Ben took her hand, not needing to but still being used to the feeling of it as he connected to her and put his new skill to use.

He tried to force three of his minds to contain the harder things to understand about iron as he took them apart, wrapping each bit through Thera’s to increase the power of her thoughts as she dealt with it better than most, having had the benefit of all of her practice with the circlets Ben had made in the past few weeks while her mind was being filled with knowledge on the metal, both what she personally had, along with what she was getting from Ben.

It wasn’t exactly a good feeling, but it was a useful one as information clicked in a way it never had before, everything falling into place as she let her mana flow through her, letting it take shape as in a snap it changed from raw power to solid matter, a boulder of it appearing on the ground before them.

Without her having to say it, Ben could hear the notification going off in Thera’s mind, a new level of her spiritual earth magic to her name as the three with him watched in shock.

“So that’s the power of an awakened skill holder, huh?” Ralia muttered while Sachel had her own thoughts.

“I’m so jealous.”

It was an understandable feeling, that was a level of power normal people just couldn’t achieve. It needed the ultimate combination of strength, power, and knowledge, all put together to force mana to match one’s will.

It’s hard enough that even with me giving a bit of brain power it got Thera a level too. Sorry Sachel, but… Wait.

With the way ideas were exploding across his mind, trying to connect with each other and expand based on information he had, it wasn’t surprising he just got a level to his new skill, but he didn’t care. He needed to get home and talk to his god.

“Well, it’s late so we need to head out. Hope the show was interesting, thanks for your help, I’ll see you all tomorrow,” He told them, taking Thera’s hand in a rush to get home and in bed as the three of them were left standing at the guild with the hunk of metal, still stunned by what they’d seen, even if they slowly managed to free their minds from that enough to wonder why they’d be seeing him again so soon.

“Myriad, whatever you’re doing, stop, and- oh, hey Helori. Glad you’re here too actually. I have an idea. A crazy idea. One I need you both to tell me if it would even be possible.”

Neither god could figure out what it was from his thoughts, every mind in his head seeming to want to move in a million different directions at once with the feeling that they might even tear themselves apart if he didn’t get them under control, but Ben didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, this wasn’t an idea that deserved only a single level of lesser inspiration, this was something that should have catapulted him to the far end of awakening it.

If I can make this work then I can solve a bunch of problems at once. I can help with Sonya’s insecurities, I can get Sachel so thoroughly in my debt I could probably talk her into killing for me if I wanted to, and I could improve the chances of keeping the world I’m on from ending in a big way. And all it will take is the medium-ish risk of me dying.

“I feel like I just heard something about getting Sachel to kill for you somewhere in there,” Myriad muttered, doing his best to parse out his apostle’s thoughts.

“You were probably just hearing things. Anyway guys, I have a few questions for you. First and most importantly, what’s the lowest level a person can materialize at?”

“Usually you’d need to be well into the middle region of your awakened skill Ben, you’re just an outlier,” His god told him.

“Okay, and that’s nice and all but that wasn’t what I was asking. What is the lowest anyone has ever gone with it?”

“To my knowledge, there’s been one case of an eighth-level earth mage managing to do it,” Helori spoke, curious about where this was going. “He chose iron like you did for Thera but he had to spend years of his life studying it to make sure he knew enough, along with practicing constantly to raise his mana before he could succeed. It really was an impressive level of single-minded dedication to a goal.”

It was a higher level than Ben had hoped to hear, but he was still willing to take it.

“And how did that pay off for him?” He asked, even if he was sure he could guess from all he knew about magic and skills.

“He awakened it. Of course he did,” She told him. “Materializing isn’t something so easy you know, there’s a reason that most people can’t and that the majority who can are midway through an awakened skill. Honestly, it’s impressive enough that you were able to do it to awaken your own magic at the ninth level. That isn’t some simple task.”

“Yeah, that’s about what I expected.”

It was a goal hard enough that it even let the person who did it bypass the ninth level, a truly shocking achievement that was worth all of the effort that must have gone into it. It was the sort of thing that deserved to force a skill to awaken, and he was already thinking of how to exploit that.

“Alright, next question, this one for Myriad. What levels are Sachel’s magics?”

“Ben, I know you know that most people consider that private information.”

“Myriad, tell me and if I can do what I’m thinking then Sachel will love you forever and if I’m wrong I won’t tell anyone. Or I’ll ask her myself later and pretend that it’s my first time hearing it. Do you really think she wouldn’t tell me if I asked?”

“Ugh, fine, you’re right she’d probably let you know anyway. It’s sixes all around.”

“Wait, that’s it?”

“Most people aren’t you, you absolute monster. Leveling skills is hard and being at the sixth level in three magics at such a young age is honestly exceptionally commendable.”

“Okay, okay, you’re right, I was just hoping she’d be at the seventh or eighth. In that case, if we were to try and push her magics to awakening, what’s the lowest level any of them could be so she would still end up with plant magic?”

“Five, same as getting non-affinitied magic,” Helori told him, thinking she could see where this was going. “But that’s not going to work Ben. Even if you get her earth magic to the eighth level and try to use your mind to help her materialize something, she’ll likely just end up with an awakened earth magic instead. If you want her to awaken to plant magic, you need to be using powerful plant spells.”

“Helori, you’re talking to your brilliant, incredible, genius student over here, you think I don’t know that? I have a slightly different idea I’m going to be putting into practice, it’s just going to take a ridiculous level of study on my part and some serious help from you guys. If she needs to use all of her magics in tandem to make it possible, then I’m going to force her to materialize something that would use her earth, water and life together. I’m going to force her to materialize a plant.”

Both gods looked at him blankly, thinking they’d misheard his assertion at first but knowing he was sure of himself from the look on his face.

Both wanted to tell him that it was obviously impossible, but the words got caught in their throats. They were talking to a mortal who had materialized antimatter with non-affinitied mana, something most gods didn’t even know could be used for such a spell. Ben had become someone that the word impossible couldn’t be said to so lightly, so instead they focused on the practical aspect of it.

“Trying to create an entire plant from raw mana is going to be an insanely expensive mana cost,” Helori told him. “Ignoring how absolutely insane the idea is, there isn’t going to be many mortals who could handle it, especially not Myriad’s oracle.”

“Oh darn, you’re right,” He said sarcastically. “If only there was someone who could share mana between people. Wouldn’t that be great?”

“Ah, so you plan on taking advantage of Thera for the mana cost and yourself for the knowledge, meaning the burden would only be for her skills,” Myriad said in understanding as he thought over the prospect. “I can’t say how it would turn out since nobody’s ever tried it before, but…”

His god trailed off, thinking about the implications of if it worked. If his apostle could pull such a thing off, what it could mean would go far beyond that of Sachel alone.

“Anyway, I have a few ideas that would make it easier too,” Ben told them. “I say plant, but really what I’m thinking of having her try and materialize is a seed. Helori, I know you came from a pretty normal world, how deeply do you understand the structure of any of the ones from your planet? Or from this one for that matter?”

“Why do I feel like that was a poke at my world?” Myriad grumbled as both of them ignored him.

“Not to the level you’d need,” She explained. “While uplifting one species to make into believers is one thing, not many gods would memorize the structure of any random plant in the world. This is something you’ll need to ask a nature god for help with.”

“Okay, not great but it just so happens I’ve met one of those before, any chance I could get one of you to ask Jagal if she’d know and would be willing to help? Assuming she didn’t form any bad opinions about me.”

“I don’t think she has. Helori, sorry, but could I trouble you to?”

“Sure, give me a minute.”

The goddess vanished with the request, leaving the two of them alone as Myriad looked into Ben.

“So do you really think this will work?”

“I mean, it’s a gamble but there’s other ways to raise the odds. The soul mages can supposedly help with raising skills, right? I’m sure we could get them around for the attempt too.”

“Hmm, true, and there’d be other benefits to having them around while you try.”

He could feel Ben looking at him so he went on, sating his apostle’s curiosity.

“There’s a spell that soul mages are able to use, one that doesn’t see much practice because of how hard it is to successfully plan on when a skill will awaken, but a soul mage can raise the amount attributes grow with awakening.”

“Wait, are you serious?”

“It’s only by an additional ten percent of what the normal bonus would be, but since we have two soul mages on world we could potentially get that higher. It would be worth the attempt.”

His mind couldn’t help but flash to the fact that Yuzu had been right there when he’d first awakened his crafting but shook the thought from his head. He hadn’t known his skill would awaken at the time, there was no chance he could have gotten whatever spell that was placed on him.

And now my awakening bonuses are so low there’s not much point in trying to get them again. Oh well.

As he tried to push away his regret over what could have been, Helori returned with Jagal by her side, the nature goddess looking mildly amused by whatever explanation she’d been given.

“Well Myriad, I hear your mad apostle has quite the proposal.”

“Definitely never going to get used to hearing that,” Ben grumbled before focusing on her. “But yes, I do. Jagal, is there any chance you could help me study the structure of whatever the simplest seed you’re aware of is? Doesn’t matter if it’s from this world or your last, I just need it to be as easy as possible to memorize its makeup.”

He knew that this was still going to be on the edge of what was possible for him. What he was thinking of trying to have Sachel create wasn’t some uniform group of atoms or a compound of them, but a complex structure that would have to be able to grow into something even greater, something truly alive. He wanted it to be small to limit the amount of individual cells that could be in it, but that still meant he’d need to memorize its genetic code, a task that would be maddening if not for the fact that he had his unnatural mind to aid him, along with both his plant and biology knowledge.

Jagal for her part seemed to think on it, still looking amused as she did.

“Well, while I don’t particularly mind helping, this does seem like the sort of thing that’s going to be wasting a lot of my time when the chances of a payoff seem so slim,” She told him. “So what exactly makes it worth my while?”

“Okay, that’s fair. If this works then I’ll help any of your eighth-level low-plant mages awaken the same way. Even if it’s not guaranteed to work, if it does then we’re talking about you getting a bunch of awakened believers with a skill that would help ensure the continuation of their species. Wouldn’t that be worth it?”

She seemed to think on it for only a moment before nodding and giving in. “I suppose that’s a worthy trade that would make it worth any lost time. In that case, let’s begin now.”

She held out her hand as a small dot above it appeared, slowly growing in scale until it was bigger than him as she began to speak.

“The seed of a tanth bush from my home world. A twentieth of a millimeter in size with only ninety-eight true cells within it before it starts to grow, each one with their own mechanisms as complex as what you’d expect from any plant. I might be able to alter its nature to make it slightly simpler while still being viable, but this is about as easy as it’s going to get and I still think it’s going to be outrageous for a typical mortal to try and memorize in a way that would let it be materialized. Are you sure you want to keep going? I won’t shame you if you choose to quit now.”

It was a tempting option, it already felt like it was going to be an overwhelming level of work, but Ben wasn’t going to give in. This felt like something that had potential, even if it was hard, he wanted to see it through to the end.

“I’m not your typical mortal so teach away. I’m going to make this happen.”

He couldn’t see the look of anticipation on the goddess’s face, anything irrelevant was quickly ignored as everything that he had was focused on the structure before him as his minds pushed themselves and his thought speed skills went to their limits, wanting to take in everything they could with the time they had so he could get to the more exciting part of trying to make that impossible goal a reality.

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