Chapter 358

Ben couldn’t help but flop around as he was shaken in Yuzu’s powerful grasp, the attributes of a person who came to the world with a tier three skill even greater than anything his classmates had been lucky enough to arrive with as he ignored both her shock and the confused reactions of those who came with her in favour of asking a question.“Good seeing you too Yuzu, so you can just talk to me now, huh?”

The tool he’d made her to let her project her thoughts was nowhere to be seen, but she’d still been comfortable enough yelling at him that it didn’t seem to be an issue, but it had been such a short time since he’d made it that it was a little disappointing if it already wasn’t going to see any use anymore.

“I got married and that’s not what’s important! How did all of this happen?” She asked as she gestured up and down him. “It’s only been a few months!”

“A productive few months! Also, it’s rude to comment on someone's soul like this, give me a break.”

“Um, could we maybe get context?” Amy asked as she and the others caught up, with Thera having already figured out what had provoked such a reaction.

“I’d tell you now, but I’d rather not risk getting attacked in the street again,” Ben said, casting a small look to Uliel as she brushed it off.

“Don’t hold a grudge, I apologized, didn’t I?”

“To be clear, no you actually didn’t.”

“But moving on Ben, your outfit just keeps getting wilder and wilder,” Jake told him, changing the subject as he looked him up and down.

It wasn’t an unreasonable statement. When they’d last seen him he did have his jacket, the first church of Myriad, as well as fingers covered in rings, but to that he’d added the glove he’d made while stuck in the dead god’s trial as a medium to help guide his mana, along with arms covered in bracelets, both the moribusial and deathstone ones to train his attributes, but also the three mythril bands with mana batteries shoved into them as a way to constantly train his enchanting.

“Hey, I’ll have you know that all of this is super useful for my long-term goal of not dying. Hell, if you’re willing to have your attributes drained I can make you a moribusial and deathstone band or ring depending on what you can handle, they’re basically cheat codes for passive growth if you can deal with a bit of discomfort.”

“Hard pass,” Amy told him, answering for Jake before he could agree to something that she was sure would lead to a future where he died in the dumbest way possible. “But how do coloured contacts keep you from dying then?”

“Coloured contacts?” He asked back, taking a moment to figure out what she was even talking about. “Oh, right. This is just my eyes, long story short one of the skills changed the colour so I’ve got these lovely violets now.”

He’d grown so used to the change he didn’t even think about it most of the time, though it did admittedly still catch his attention whenever he saw his reflection, but hearing that, Jake was enthralled.

“Wait, there’s a skill to change your eye colour? Aww man that’s so freaking cool! I mean, it would be even cooler looking if it was just one, but still, I like it, it has impact. How do I pull it off?”

“Another explanation that would get me attacked in the street.”

“Well, we booked a private room for dinner so let’s go already,” Yuzu told them all, rushing them along out of a desire to get any sort of answer on just how his status had changed so drastically.

Once they were seated around a table, plates of food brought before them away from the prying eyes of other guests, everyone but Thera was looking at him curiously as they started eating. They all knew it had to be something big to get such a reaction from the young soul mage and it was hard to deny their curiosity on the topic as Ben decided to open up with a bombshell.

“So I’m a contender now.”

A fork fell from Vasta’s hand as Uliel sat with her jaw hanging open, unable to believe what he’d just said as the other three with them sat there confused.

“Yuzu, is that true?” Uliel asked, unable to take her eyes off of Ben.

“Um, I’m not sure, what’s a contender?”

“Uh, oh right, I guess the term isn’t used too widely outside of certain spheres and you haven’t been brought to any of the meetings yet,” Uliel said, still thrown off by the abruptness of the statement but explaining for the others. “A contender is a person who holds a second-tier skill at the ninth level.”

“Oh, yeah that’s true,” The soul mage confirmed with a nod, Amy and Jake both dealing with their shock off to the side while Vasta picked up on something else.

“Wait Yuzu, does the fact that you couldn’t get that through context mean there’s even more?”

At that she stayed silent, looking at Ben as she remembered how clear it had been made in the past that she shouldn’t reveal his status without his consent as he sighed.

“Listen, I don’t mind telling you all, but that means being cool about a lot of things that might make anyone a little more prone to violence attacking me so hear out the full story first and do me a favour and don’t pass it along.”

From there, Ben explained what he’d gone through in the deep woods, how his skills had grown and changed, along with the jobs he’d finished and the titles he’d acquired, with only Jake bleeding enthusiasm as the rest were too stunned to speak.

“Ah man, so you’re the reason we got those potions before! My guy, you’re the best. I’ve been bursting with power ever since, it was like the power up from arriving all over again.”

He flexed to add to the point, but it reminded Ben of something as he reached into his bag, pulling out bottles for each of them.

“Right, on a similar note of things that can help you that none of you are allowed to talk about, here, I have one each.”

He handed them over as again everyone but Jake viewed the bottles suspiciously considering everything they’d heard, while he alone was content to open it up and start drinking.

“Oh that’s real nice, what is it?”

“Think of it like the god potions you’d already had, just to a far weaker scale. It’s a permanent enhancement potion, but it will only bump your stats by three each.”

In the time since he’d first made it, he’d determined through a bit of experimentation that a person could consume about one a month to see its effect, with any other one consumed in the first two weeks after doing nothing. While not the most incredible result in the world, it still worked out to around thirty free points to every attribute a year, meaning consuming them was a must.

Hearing that, along with some small assurances from Thera that it seemed safe so far, both Amy and Yuzu began to drink, with only the two older mages still showing their doubt.

“That’s impossible,” The archmage said as Vasta was quick to agree.

“It’s not like something like this hasn’t been searched for Ben, the only way to easily grow stats with a potion is if the ingredients are divine, and that’s something that was more legend than anything else till recently.”

“Well, remember you’re talking to a cute little apostle here, I’ve already had the effects confirmed with the gods. Hell, it will probably only be another couple weeks till large-scale distribution starts so you’ll definitely be hearing about it then, but for now, you can verify by comparing your current stats against whatever you’re going to wake up with tomorrow.”

Still doubtful but not seeing a reason to refuse, both drank what was provided as Ben moved on to a different topic on his mind.

“And just out of curiosity on my part since we’re all nice and gathered, wouldn’t it be better to have the five of you taking the trial instead of switching out your teachers for us?”

He knew that each tower trial had a maximum party size of five, that being a hard limit to ensure a certain level of difficulty, but seeing how there were five people in front of him he didn’t see why they were joining at all, with Amy being the one to answer.

“We’ve actually done the life trial already with them, but they have already done a couple themselves before we arrived on world so we needed someone else to do this one with us.”

“And since we’re talking earth magic, your guys’ names popped up,” Jake finished. “Just wait, me and Amy are going to be a couple contenders too before you know it, Ben.”

He hadn’t given much thought as to why they would be doing the trials beyond the blessings they could receive, but since they both had a skill each that matched every affinity of magic, by doing nine trials they could get to the ninth level for both of them if they succeeded and made it to the top of each tower, bypassing the need to put in who knew how many years of constant training it would take to manage the same thing.

“But is that really the best way to do it?” He couldn’t help but question. “Like, I get that you guys want to get strong fast for what’s coming, but these are your core skills, right? If you just go from one trial to the next won’t you lack a bit in the actual experience of using them?”

Gaining a couple levels was one thing, but they were talking about gaining nine to both their archmagic and all affinity augmentation skills. That seemed like the sort of jump that might mean needing time to get used to their skills again, though admittedly not to the extent of when they’d first arrived on the world, but Amy dismissed his concern.

“We’re dividing things up so we’re not doing them back to back like that. We did the life tower a month ago and this one now, with all of our time between going to training. It’s not exactly ideal, but then nothing we’re going to be facing soon is either and we’ll be done most of them by the second wave.”

Jake could see the question in his eyes, Ben wondering why they’d only be done most of them if they were planning on doing one a month and answered. “We’re leaving two towers as long as we can. You’re going to be seeing us mostly use our non-affinity skills during this because we want to get a level or two to them before we take on that trial since it’s the only one that we won’t be able to level up the other way, and the same thing goes for warrior’s tower since we’ll be hitting it at the end for Amy’s combat skill.”

“So was that why you rushed through the wedding?” Thera asked, curious about how that worked out as Yuzu nodded while Jake laid down against the table.

“It was so much fun!” Yuzu said with cheer. “Sorry, I know a lot of cultures on this world do public things when people join lives but mine don't, which is why there were no invites, but I’m so happy to have it out of the way, I’m never going to forget it!”

“Me neither,” Jake muttered, looking traumatized in ways neither Ben nor Thera knew how to interpret as Amy spoke up.

“We had to do it fast for them because it would have been too difficult to deal with Yuzu not talking with the war coming, but I think I might do the same sort when it’s time too.”

“Oh you absolutely should Amy,” Yuzu gushed. “There’s nothing more exhilarating than to see someone put their life on the line in the name of their love!”

“I’m sorry, what?” Ben asked, looking at Jake who’d only sunk into himself more and more as Amy brought up the prospect of wanting the same style of wedding.

“Yuzu’s culture is violent and insane and I’d never get married again if Amy wouldn’t make sure to put me in the ground. These are scary women Ben, if I ever need help you’ll do me a solid, right?”

He looked to the man before him, originally just an acquaintance on his home world but now to the point where he’d be comfortable calling him a friend and saw the look of hope in his eyes at the thought that Ben would be in his corner, while at the same time, Ben remembered that he’d entirely gotten himself into that mess by agreeing to the proposal of a complete stranger.

“Jake,” He began solemnly. “I promise I’ll make you the best tombstone anyone has ever seen.”

Since they’d had dinner early, that left plenty of hours left in the evening before they all needed to turn in to be ready for what they were facing the next day, and it seemed Jake had somewhere in town he wanted to show them, all but vibrating with excitement once he got his energy back while Amy could only look at him in disappointment as they made their way through the streets, taking roads that neither Ben nor Thera had been down in their time there to get to a small building that was just a little out of the way from the main road with lights and signs of all sorts up to draw people in.

The mystery of it couldn’t help but prick at Ben’s curiosity as Jake kept quiet on what they were going to see as he dramatically threw open the door, the building packed as Ben and Thera stared in blankly.

“Well?” Jake said, staring at him smugly. “Bet you never expected something like this to be on the world.”

“Uh, yeah, you’re right man, I never would have guessed,” Ben said halfheartedly, not sure how serious the other guy was being.

“I get it, I get it, you’re shocked. I was too. I’ll pay the entry fee so just take it all in and explain things to Thera when you’re ready ‘cause I’m killing the rest of the night here.”

With that he ran off, Yuzu and Uliel going with him as Vasta and Amy hung back, Ben looking the latter in the eyes while she seemed to be struggling with a headache of her own.

“Sooo…” He began, stopping as she held up a hand.

“I know, I know.”

“I mean, I didn’t even end up changing the name. It even has the english word video in it and everything.”

“Listen, every day I try and tell myself I’m not in love with an idiot and every day he proves me wrong so can we not focus on this too much?”

“But you didn’t tell him this was me? Like, I don’t own this place and someone definitely made everything off of my designs, but this was obviously me, right?”

“Look, he got real excited about showing you both when we found the place that I missed my timing to point out the obvious,” She explained, with Thera looking at her with pity and Vasta picking up what was going on through context.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, this actually is exciting to see. I never expected anyone to take all of the designs I made for video games and put together an arcade.”

It looked like going to the trouble of designing and simplifying the enchantments as much as possible had paid off big as each wall was filled with crystal screens, bigger than he’d need to make to hold the enchantments but to the point that it was probably helping the playing experience as children and adults alike were enjoying themselves on what he’d been so carefully designing in the bits of his free time he had, with even an area at the side where whole enchanted slabs could be bought to bring the experience home. Seeing people using the bikes he’d designed in the city had been exciting enough, this would have been on a whole other level if he wasn’t stuck wondering how Jake hadn’t managed to figure out just who was responsible for introducing that style of game to the world when there was only one enchanter among the human otherworlders that could have made it possible.

Still, he could see Amy was struggling with how oblivious Jake was so he decided to cut her some slack. “I mean, since we’re here do me a favour and tell me if there’s anything you think needs improving or any classic game that’s missing. In the meantime, I guess I’m going to be seeing how well whoever enchanted all of these managed with my designs. Should be a fun way to kill some time.”

All thoughts of the coming trial gone from his head, Ben went in to find Jake, wanting to see just how much entertainment the other human would be getting without knowing Ben had made it possible.