Chapter 406

He didn’t know how to react to the notification that just went off in his minds. He’d leveled that skill just minutes earlier, and in that time all he’d done was experiment with it a bit as he spoke to Myriad, raising and lowering the speed his many minds thought at.It was through that same combination of speed and minds that he had his answer though, only moments after thinking the question. Back when he’d gotten meditation for the first time, it had come to him quickly thanks to having a handful of minds at his disposal to practice the skill concurrently and leveling it hadn’t been that much work compared to the effort he put into it for that same fact. Same with calculate, hidden mind, and speed reading; all skills that he could practice multiple times at once using mostly just his thoughts, and now he had a number that dwarfed what he had before.

He felt himself smile a bit just thinking about it as he let his horde of thoughts experiment with moving at different speeds before going back to his original task, picking up his job crystal to see all of the changes to how he could grow.

AVAILABLE JOBS

Trap userCraftsman- alchemy pathCraftsman- artistic pathCraftsman- blacksmith pathCraftsman- cooking pathCraftsman- stonecrafts pathCraftsman- sewing pathHoly craftsmanMathematicianCursed item makerHigh tankOtherworldly craftsmanDestructive craftsmanMaster adventurerSoul defiling gardenerSummoned enchanterRitual enchanterDivine enchanterMind masterHigh marksmanHigh destruction mageMaster material mageWorld killer

“...Okay, fairly sure I’m not going to be killing any more worlds, so other than that one I have four new options.”

Mind master, high marksman, high destruction mage, and master material mage, all of them being advanced variants based both on the jobs he’d taken in his robotic slaughter, as well as the skills he’d leveled up.

“High marksman is just out, plain and simple. I get the logic behind why I took the first one, but I don’t need the next. The question is if I even want to take any of the new ones or not.”

He frankly had no clue what to aim for. He hadn’t given it any thought considering that he expected both infernal craftsman and profane enchanter to take longer than they had, but that meant he wasn’t sure where to go from there.

“Do I want something with a crafting focus, more specifically an enchanting focus, a magic focus, or a mind focus?” He muttered as he thought it over, having no idea how he wanted to grow.

At the very least he decided that mind master was out. He was pretty sure his promise not to take mind jobs anymore didn’t matter since the roughly thousand he had in his head wasn’t causing him pain or strain, but he didn’t see any need to take it, at least at the moment, but from there he didn’t actually know where to go or what he wanted to do.

At a loss, he looked back at his card, hoping something on it would stand out and help but came up blank.

“Okay, let’s think about this reasonably,” He told himself. “I already know that enchanting counts as a crafting skill and since material manipulation is a combination of material user, destruction, and material knowledge then every part of it should be getting bonuses from my crafting jobs too, so I’d technically be training all of them by taking a crafting job, but at the same time, crafting jobs don’t give bonuses to my mana and mana regen, both of which I want more of, so an enchanter job or master material mage would be better, but then what would I even do with either of them?”

The moment he asked that question though he felt it snap into place as he had to stop himself from taking the job he wanted then and there before he tested anything.

With that thought clear in his head, he put the crystal down and let himself focus, every mind he had thinking about one thing. Iron.

The weight, the density, the feel in his hands and the sensation of striking it while it was hot with his hammer. He thought about information on it that was less commonly known, only available to him so easily because of his lessons from Quilith. Its melting point and boiling points, its atomic structure and how that reality’s version of atoms would join together to make a greater whole. He thought about the shine and weight, even the taste from getting any slivers in his mouth. With everything he had, he thought about what iron was before grabbing hold of the mana within him and forcing it out, creating a ball of the substance in his hand as it materialized before his eyes.

All at once he felt woozy, his mana dipping shockingly low from creating a sphere of the stuff no bigger than a baseball, but despite that he couldn’t keep the grin from his lips as he held it, lifting it to his eyes and looking it over.

He’d really done it. He’d taken intangible mana and changed it into the physical matter of the universe with his knowledge and skill. He didn’t care how much it had cost him to make such a small amount, with his regeneration it would only be fourteen minutes till he could make more and see just what else he could create.

“I’m taking master material mage.”

Without Thera there to help him there wasn’t much way for him to explore how connect had grown, meaning that he’d be using the time to focus on the potential his magic now held, and after only a few minutes of waiting he immediately put it to the test, imbuing the iron sphere he’d just made with his power and watching as the shape of it changed in a second, going from a ball to a perfect replica of his head. Even the hair, which in the past had to be done by digging lines in the metal to just replicate the look, was now real strands of iron, so light and thin that if his mana wasn’t holding it all together they’d break.

“So my speed and skill at manipulating the stuff I work with has shot right up then, huh? That’s excellent, but not exactly unpredicted. Let’s see how else it’s grown.”

As he said it he raised his bust in the air through mana alone, not using the cost-saving measure he’d discovered in the past of keeping it to a small section, but letting it flood the whole thing before flying it around as fast as he could, watching it move in a blur.

He could feel his mana dropping as he did it, but slowly, at a workable pace.

With the thought so clear in his mind he needed to test it out, and without another second he got out of bed to move to the window, seeing the devastation beyond.

He felt his gut tighten as he looked at it but suppressed the feeling with all he had. He could feel bad again later, right now he was working, so he opened it up before pulling a marble's worth of metal from his statue, loading it with as much force as he could, and shot it off.

It was another drain to him but it gave the exact result he’d been hoping for. The small bullet was gone in a flash and he knew he could do a few more, meaning that he finally had a magic attack in his arsenal. Not the best one, but in a pinch it could save his life.

Potential that needed to be refined. As exciting as it was, it wasn’t the combat aspect that hung in his mind, but the act of materialization he wanted to dive into more to see all he could do, and with his mana returning to him he was going to focus on exactly that.

“So my knowledge on the material affects the mana cost, but I already knew that. What matters more is that it seems like with only a couple annoying exceptions, everything else is basically the same to materialize.”

Those annoying exceptions were the magic materials, with the volume he could make of each one minor in comparison to the other elements of the world.

While he could make an amount of mythril about the size of a large grape, the amount of moribusial and orichalcum was half of that, along with white mana crystal ending up the size of a pea and rainbow was no more than a grain of sand.

It made sense, unfortunately. His lessons from Quilith on those materials were lighter so he had less chemical properties to use while doing the spell, and the mana crystals seemed to need not just the mana to create them, but the amount they’d store as well.

Depending on how his later tests to borrow mana went, there was a chance he’d be able to stop having to buy from Abrus and Pelenia, instead using Thera’s mana to make what he needed. It was an appealing prospect and seemed like it would give excellent experience for both his job and skill, so it was something to experiment with later.

Other than that, it looked like there was a small boost in the cost if he was making compounds composed of different elements, but it was nowhere near what he’d expected it to be. It seemed as long as he knew what he was going for and could properly visualize it then that was enough to keep him from spending all of his mana.

That did however lead to a different test, extraction. Unlike before, he was now able to thoroughly combine two or more different substances and separate them again with his magic alone, his level of control overwhelming compared to where it was in the past.

It was as that notification rang out in his head that he heard the door open, Thera returning, looking exhausted from whatever she’d been off to, only for it to change to a deep blush as she saw him.

“Did you really not bother putting on pants all day?”

“Ah, got a little distracted, sorry,” He said with a laugh, rushing to get dressed before going to hug her. “So where were you off to, it’s gotten pretty late?”

“Ugh, it’s been such a long day,” She complained, resting her head against his chest. “I had to go and basically talk the great spirits into not abandoning the world and from there I saw a hospital that was stuffed with patients so I went in to help but then they asked if I’d be willing to go to a different one after and I couldn’t say no and I’m really really hoping you’ll cook dinner.”

She asked with an upturned glance, getting a laugh from him as he went to begin exactly that as he started pulling out ingredients stored in the room, with her moving beside him to help only a moment later.

“You can relax, you know,” He told her. “I’ve had a very chill day. Go take a load off.”

“This counts as relaxing. So what did you do today, ‘cause there’s a lot of stuff in the room that wasn’t here before?”

“Ah, just a bit of this,” He said, wanting to show off as he held his hand in front of her eyes, materializing a lump of silver in the shape of a small flower before handing it over.

“I cannot begin to express how insanely jealous I am,” She told him as she took it, her eyes wide from surprise. “There aren’t many mages living at any time who can materialize their mana Ben, and I’m pretty sure you’re the only living one who can do it with non-affinitied magic.”

“Ah shucks, you’re going to make me blush. Anyway, I needed to experiment with that a bunch today so that was most of my time, but I’m hoping you’ll let me test how connect changed with you after we eat?”

“Sure. I still can’t believe you got two new awakened skills.”

“Uh, three actually.”

They hadn’t talked about the changes to his status the night before, wanting to ignore the world and focus on each other for a bit, but it wasn’t something he could keep from her forever so he took out his card as he cooked and handed it over, watching her face react to each change she was seeing.

“Okay, are you sure connecting with me isn’t going to kill me?” Was the first thing she asked. “Like, all of your missing mind skills went into focus, right? Connecting with you would already give people headaches and unnatural mind sounds ominous. Do I even want to know how many minds are in your head right now?”

“Ahem, a very normal, very reasonable nine hundred and ninety-eight,” He told her awkwardly as she stared back, waiting for him to say that was a joke but getting nothing.

“You can’t be serious.”

“I unfortunately am.”

“I’ve seen what happened the last time your minds split Ben, how did that not kill you? It would be shocking if you were only in crippling pain.”

“According to Myriad and whatever gods he spoke with about it, they seem to think that I’m now thinking with my soul. My brain is now a nice little decoration that governs my bodily processes, but that’s about it.”

“Okay, is connecting with you going to kill me then, ‘cause I’m pretty sure feeling that would blow up my brain.”

“Hey now, my ninth-level hidden mind also merged into it, it will be fine. I wouldn’t ask you if I thought I’d hurt you, you know.”

“Mmh, true,” She relented, though still seemed concerned. “In that case, I guess I have till we’re done eating to prepare myself.”

“It will be great. Maybe better than great, don’t you worry.”

I’m absolutely worried.”

After their simple meal, they began, with Ben having two main things to test. How he could take mana from someone, and the distance he could now use his skill from.

He took Thera’s hand and carefully connected to her, making sure that almost all of his minds were split between either meditating or hiding everything, just to be sure that not a hint would slip through to her in a way that would be uncomfortable as he was faced with something he’d never expected to deal with. He was seeing through her eyes.

He’d gone through the same thing when he’d connected with his copy in Anailia’s trial as well as when he’d connected to a homunculus, but never with a regular person. In fact, he was experiencing all of her senses, seeing himself as she looked at him, feeling her heart beating and her face warm. He couldn’t affect any of it himself, but it was already so much more than he’d expected.

It was both interesting and unexpected, but not what he was specifically looking for, so he moved on to feeling her skills, making sure he could take from them like he thought he’d be able to as he replaced two of his four destroyed rings right off the bat, getting the first level of both her spiritual earth and life magic. He had no clue what he’d been attempting when they’d been destroyed, but that just left him needing to replace his space and barrier rings to be back to the normal set he made sure to keep with him.

It was something to decide on later. With that working out exactly as he’d so desperately hoped in all of his months trying to awaken connect, he moved on to trying to feel her mana, the same way he did any time he would make her a new brace, only this time he felt himself latch onto it instead of it slipping through his grasp like when he’d first tried so long ago and he needed to work to keep his pure elation from slipping through as he took out his card, quickly materialized a grain of rainbow mana crystal to wipe out his internal supply and tried to bring some of hers over, with it going different from how he’d expected.

He had thought that he’d be measuring how fast he could pull it to him, but the experience had been different than that. What he got was not a constant flow, but a lump sum of one hundred and sixty-nine, a total of twenty percent of his mana.

He could keep drawing more from her to replace that, but he couldn’t help but think there was something else going on. Even if he could just keep taking more, the volumes he’d been able to materialize at once during the battle didn’t feel like they made sense if that was what was happening, so he spoke up, wanting to try something else.

“Thera, can you do me a favour and try and run your mana through me like you would a staff?”

Ordinarily, that would do nothing if it wasn’t something like a healing spell acting on his body, but he was trying to discover the limits of his skill so she did as he asked, pushing through what felt like a small amount to her as he dealt with an experience he couldn’t put into words but knew was terrible. Mana was stored in the soul, how did one describe the feeling of having it so overstuffed? It was nothing he’d gone through before, at least nothing he could remember, but he wanted it out of him as fast as possible, so he once again created some rainbow mana crystal from it, this time ending with a quantity comparable to a fingernail as he pulled away.

“Okay, so that’s not super fun,” He muttered. “But on the other hand, if having seven million mana pass through me didn’t tear my soul apart then I have to assume it’s mostly harmless and the savings might make it worth it.”

“If it hurts then don’t worry about saving money,” Thera told him firmly. “You’re literally rich.”

“Ah, but if I don’t need to pay any material costs then I’ll be even richer,” He told her with a laugh. “But it looks like I can take from you without having your mana running through me so I might do that instead, even if it will take a bit longer to get that sort of volume. Okay, and if I’m out here seeing if I can take anything new, it would be really, really cool if… Nope, that failed. Darn.”

He still couldn’t enchant with the affinities of others, which he couldn’t help but see as a shame. If he could do such a thing then all of his mana costs would be able to drop considerably whenever he enchanted anything, but considering all of the other ways the skill had grown, it was a minor disappointment.

“Oh well, can’t win them all,” He muttered to himself before focusing back on Thera. “Let’s see, I suppose before I try the new distance bits of my skill I should also see if there’s any change to the mind aspects if you don’t mind?”

“Alright, since it looks like your skill isn’t killing me then go for it.”

With the first tests done, she was a lot less hesitant so he took her hand again, connecting to her but paying attention to her thoughts, not her mana or skills.

He did feel like he was picking up a bit more subtlety than usual, but that was about it. Just seeing a little beneath the surface, but not in a meaningful way, at least not till he tried to press farther and felt himself going through to the deeper layers of her mind as her recent memories flashed before her eyes and he pulled away.

“...Okay, yeah, I can see that being pretty freaking useful depending on the circumstances.”

“Oh gods, what? What did you just do?”

“Nothing bad, I swear, it just looks like I can read memories on top of minds now.”

It was something that had the potential to have a lot of uses, but none he really cared too much about. The aspects he’d already seen had applications far more relevant to his work, so he moved on to the final test as he let go of her hand but kept the connection up and walked away until it broke.

He brought up the connection again, trying to test the two other things he’d done and finding them both work. He could take her mana from a distance, even if she couldn’t move her mana through him like that, as well as enchant with her skills, leaving him hard-pressed to restrain the joy that seeing how his skill had grown was bringing him.

While his crafting, enchanting, and magic had grown in depth, connect seemed more comparable to the way sacrilege awakened, growing to have significantly more breadth.

He now had six awakened skills, all of them powerful and all of them he was happy to put to full use. He could already envision ways of combining them together, but most of them were nothing against his most important pair. Enchanting and connect, as soon as he gathered more awakened skills to make rings with, he’d be well on his way to making legendary items, maybe even pushing beyond that. There had never been an enchanter in the world who’d been able to access as many tier-two skills as he now could, and he couldn’t wait to test the potential that came with such a thing.