CH165

<5864 to the power of 3?>

201,642,412,544. Why are you making these so freaking hard?

<Correct and because it will give you the biggest payoff the fastest if you have to push yourself. Now what’s 39640 divided by 88 times 179?>

Um, it should be 80631.3636 and so on and so forth forever.

<CALCULATE LEVEL INCREASED>

<Well, I guess I don’t need to tell you that you got that one right, now can we take a break? I know you’re worried, but math and meditating isn’t going to help.>

I’m not worried, I’m training my mind skills since I have nothing else to do until they all get back. He’d finished the statue of Jagal to the villagers’ joy and done all the repairs to the elder’s house that he could do, leaving nothing else to work on in the village, so why not train his skills while he waited for them to get back? It wasn’t like he was doing it to distract himself from any concern over how late they all were with a full day almost having passed and the sun about to set.

<Sure, whatever you say, but whatever it is you’re doing, you can’t speedrun getting meditation by meditating with some minds but not others! That’s not how meditation works!>

<ACQUIRED SKILL MEDITATION LEVEL 0>

“…”

<Oh stay quiet, I can feel the smugness of your thoughts. I stand by the fact that it shouldn’t have worked.>

Whatever, just give me some more numbers while I wait.

<Put a pin in that, they’re back.> Myriad told him, sounding relieved to be free from hours of math questions as Ben let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding, rushing over to greet them. They all looked tired and more than a little worse for wear, but they were alive.

“How’d it go?” He asked, hoping for the best given how they looked and getting a positive reaction despite everything.

“We’re pretty sure it’s over. Just need to check tomorrow to be sure. Also, is the job crystal you made still in the house?” Sachel asked, seeming to have the most energy of all of them.

“It is. Hentath knows it’s here so the village can figure out what to do with it later.”

“Sweet, wish me luck!” She told them as she rushed up to get her hands on it. All of them followed but Skoe, who seemed the most dead on his feet and immediately went to the shed to rest.

Fontesh was playing with Delair in the kitchen but they put whatever they had been up to on hold as Sachel came in and placed her hands on the crystal, a smile forming on her lips as she did and signifying that the option she’d been hoping for was there.

It took no time at all for the smile to turn into a loud cheer from her as she quickly shared the good news.

“Tree tamer just gave me a level to my connect and the skill ‘spell unification’!” She happily cheered, and he couldn’t help but congratulate her. Spell unification was a skill he’d looked into a bit after getting access to it from Zandale, and if connect gave her a better chance of awakening her skills into plant magic, then spell unification all but guaranteed it. It was a skill that specifically made it easier for the user to create combined spells so long as they had the correct affinities, meaning that she could start practicing plant spells in earnest. While it would have been possible before, the difficulty and mana cost would be too high to make it practical, but that limit was now significantly reduced so long as she practiced and worked to raise the skill level.

Fontesh was the most emotional hearing the news, wrapping her cousin up in a tight hug. Having grown up together in the same village, she knew just how much this meant to Sachel and couldn’t help but be overjoyed for her. To finally be able to use plant magic to any real extent was thrilling, and they would have celebrated in earnest if not for their desperate need for rest.

“Well Hentath?” Ben said, tapping his foot as they waited.

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“Ben we really don’t have to-”

“Nope, you did your part now she does hers. No getting out of it.”

Sachel was embarrassed and tried to talk Ben out of making a big deal of it, but he’d insisted. Hentath had agreed to apologize to her, and he fully expected it to happen.

“Ah, you really are a pain,” The elder muttered before giving in, attitude becoming far more awkward as she did so. “As for what I said before… it may have been a bit much. This is your home and you’re welcome here.”

“Still felt a little weak.”

“Thank you grandmother,” She said, trying to talk over him. “If the village ever has any problems, please let me know. I’ll always come to help.”