CH225

As Ben woke up he felt his head pounding as he tried to take stock of just what had happened. The last thing he remembered was selecting a new job and notifications flooding his thoughts, followed by the feeling of his skull splitting, but now all that was left was a lesser pain as all of his minds filled his head.

Wait, one, two, three… ten? Why the fuck do I have ten minds? Myriad, you around? What happened? Given how complex mind seemed to work he was sure he would have only gained a single mind from it with that level up, bringing him to five. Finding his head so crowded was a shocking experience.

<Hmm, I wasn’t expecting things to go quite like this when it actually happened. I guess your brain couldn’t immediately handle the change.>

What changed? Dude, give me some answers here.

<You didn’t just level up complex mind, remember? The effect of that skill is to add two new strands of thought each time you level it up, while parallel thought strengthens those that are already there. What happened was you reached a point where those that were strengthened were able to rearrange themselves. Instead of needing three or four now to make up a mind, you only need two. I’d be willing to bet your intelligence attribute got a pretty big jump as a result too.>

Ugh, I guess that explains how I felt when it happened. Wait-

He all but screamed in his head as his eyes shot open. He was in the middle of a battle, he didn’t have time to be knocked out. At least that was what he thought, but as soon as he rushed to get up he found he was laying on the beach among the injured, the corpses of leviathans spread around and saturating the ground with blood.

<Luckily for you, you managed to sleep through the rest.> Myriad said cheerfully, making him want to fall to the ground in despair.

There goes the thought of speeding through a couple jobs. He thought sadly as Thera rushed past the other patients to him, grabbing him in her arms.

“Thank the gods you’re up! You just collapsed out of nowhere and nothing I or any of the other healers did helped.”

He held her back, patting her head as she calmed down. “Sorry, I leveled up a skill and it looked like I’m still recovering from it.”

“What? Ben leveling up can’t hurt you, how could it leave you unconscious for hours?”

“Ha, I guess my brain just couldn’t keep up with the changes,” He told her as he explained just what happened, leaving her to pull away and stare at him through her hood.

“I’m willing to bet no other person on this planet has dealt with something like that,” She said with a sigh. “Honestly, your status is ridiculous.”

“Maybe, but it keeps things exciting, right?”

“I guess we’ll see how exciting it feels if you get to the point where your thoughts split like that again. If it happened at the third level of parallel thought then maybe it will again at the eighth?”

“Uh, we’re not going to think on that too hard right now,” He said as he tried to suppress his headache. “Instead, catch me up on what I missed,” It was clear that once her worry for him was gone she was leaking excitement, and he doubted that it had anything to do with their victory.

“What, do you mean the fact that we all managed to survive, or me leveling up my telekinesis, earth and life magic, and completing my job?” She said smugly, not trying to hide just how happy it left her, an excitement Ben shared.

“What, that’s awesome! Did you take a new job yet?”

“Yep, since you were out and there were people to treat I borrowed your crystal. You’re looking at a brand new life mage. Now when you decide to do something insane like throwing yourself from a leviathan I might just have an easier job keeping you alive if you hit the ground without an air mage breaking your fall.”

“Hey, I was just a bit desperate at that point. Figured it would be safer than clinging to it once it started fighting the other leviathan. Speak of, I see that went well.”

“With the rest of us giving support, the one you got under your enchantment attacked the rest of them. It looks like the ones I tried suppressing managed to barely survive and made their way to land but it went for them too. Once it was taken down the rest of the adventurers went off to party but I and the other healers have been keeping busy here,” She explained. Even if everyone around looked worse for wear, they were alive which was more than enough all things considered and getting better by the second as the healers did what they could to treat them. After catching Ben up on what happened Thera went back to do what she could while he went back to laying down, waiting for his headache to subside and enjoying the feel of the last bit of sun beating down on him.

It took another hour, but eventually everyone’s injuries were manageable enough that many of the healers were freed from their tasks, with most of them going out to celebrate with the rest.

As for Ben and Thera, they started heading back to the building Falk rented. Both were left exhausted by the events of the day and cared more about getting some rest than celebrating, feeling especially eager to be getting back to Stonewall now that all was said and done. It was only as a voice called out to them as they walked the nearly vacant streets, only a few adventurers and citizens who hadn’t left filling them, that they were both left holding in exhausted groans.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Hello again,” Thera told the demigod Ather as he came to bother them as politely as she could. “What do you want?”

“You,” He told her, making her step back on reflex from how creepy the encounter felt. “Someone as powerful as you is wasted on whatever town you’re in. Work for me and you’ll actually be part of something important.”

Rather than try to politely decline yet again she opted for a different strategy, putting it off long enough that they could leave town. “I’m sorry, but we have someone waiting for us, if you want to discuss it again later then you can contact the guild master Ceselee and we can meet before I leave. Come on Ben,” She said, grabbing his arm and making the mistake of turning around, letting the demigod out of her sight.