CH314

Okay, this is incredible but I can study it more later. Gotta work on the next thing first.

Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his knife he’d used when killing the forbidden gods, stripping it of its enchantments before going through his packed rings. He had so many by that point that soon enough he would have to rethink how he organized them, though that would be a later issue. For the time being he grabbed the main two he’d need. The beast form one he’d copied from Ralia, as well as the one new one he’d made while in the village, minor soul magic.

While his knowledge on it was more geared to how it acted as a third-tier skill since he’d had no clue it could exist in the first before they’d come to the woods, he had a good enough idea from that as well as talking with the villagers who had it on what sorts of spells could be used with it, and since it was available to him he was going to happily use it, incorporating the magic into the design he’d been planning for so long to make use of the beast form skill.

Taking those two rings, as well as the life and death ones that constantly had a place on his fingers, he blended the enchantments for all of them, altering the ratios of what went into it each time he did as he made his rings of it, laying them down to interlock and braid around each other, putting his unique system of enchantments to work until he had the item exactly as he wanted it. He’d still need to test it to see if there needed any adjustments, but that was coming as he pulled out his used-up soul crystals.

Let’s see, I probably shouldn’t use the one that has a bunch of souls in it, not sure how that would turn out. As for the ones I used when killing the forbidden gods… Hey Myriad, what’s the odds I trapped the souls of those gods in these?

He was almost certain he had, his sacrilege was telling him as much when he looked at it, with the soul crystals he’d used on them seeming starkly different from the others, but it never hurt to confirm.

<Unfortunately, reasonably good. We use our souls in different ways than mortals, but the size is mostly the same. When you consider the fact that by killing the host they’d usually be forced to pass on like any other living thing would and your ridiculous enchantment stops that from happening, it wouldn’t shock me if they’re trapped in there.>

Interesting, interesting, and just hypothetically, between you and me, nobody else has to know, what do you think might happen if I try and use the soul of a god with the beast form skill?

<Don’t.> His god told him bluntly, sounding exceptionally tired as he did. <Unlike a mortal where there’s no guarantee if their soul will have the mind attached, in a god’s it’s certain. Giving them a path to your body they could try to exploit is all but begging to end up possessed.>

Don’t let evil gods into my body, gotcha. In that case, is there anything I can actually do with these or are they just fancy decorations at this point? If the body of a god is as useful as you made it sound then the soul has to be good for something, right?

<How would I know? I’ve never heard of a mortal catching a god’s soul to use before.>

Well, aside from this what can I use souls in general for? I’m sure there’s some applications that would translate extra well to the soul of a god.

He’d spent so long on the topic for his few goals, until then he hadn’t even noticed how narrow his focus had been, but now with souls in hand he wanted to know just what applications they could be put towards. Applications his god had no interest in sharing.

<Or here’s an idea, stop trying to learn things that would make the other gods have a worse impression of you!>

Come on, give me something, I won’t tell on you.

<I don’t even know any option that could be acceptable. Even back when the nagual first got the ability to take on the forms of different beasts, the way it was done could barely be considered acceptable. Any other thing you could do with them is typically the sort of thing ethical people avoid.>

Very lame, but it does give me an idea. If I could hypothetically find a way to permanently bind them to the souls of people, could the same sort of change the nagual went through take place? Basically making a semi-divine race as a whole? It seems like having a god descended on you lowers your fertility, but what if that god was actually a part of you? Do demigods have less children as well?

<I really don’t like this line of thought.>

That’s weird, I didn’t hear an actual answer to my question.

<You’re the worst. No, they have no issues having young. Second-generation demigods are basically mortals that tend to just have an easier time growing and higher attributes overall, with the effect weakening the further down the line you go. Of course, I’d say you have pretty consistently shown a faster growth rate than anyone with a divine heritage so it’s important to note that it’s not everything.>

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Okay, but you keep going on about how out of the norm I am for that so it could be handy if applied. I wouldn’t exactly want to test it on myself but it’s an idea to look into, especially for the long-term potential. If I can find a way to bind a god’s soul to someone so they have control and they’re able to keep passing down the trait like the nagual, then we’d have the potential for a very interesting future for the world.

<I would like to point out just how ethically questionable all of that sounds. When their soul mage did it, it was to save the world. You’re talking about doing something like that because you’re curious.>

Hey, this could be used to save the world too if it’s done quickly enough. Besides though, I’m not sure if I even could do anything like this. I don’t think it would actually be possible to do it with an enchantment, which means I’d need to figure it out as a spell and then get one of the soul mages to do it instead. Or maybe it could be managed as a ritual? That might actually be easier…

<Hey, I just want to remind you how busy you are trying to learn about the summoning spell and how much of your time that’s already taking.> Myriad was quick to point out in an effort to distract Ben as he started thinking about just how exactly a ritual like that would be pulled off.

Yeah yeah, it’s just an idea anyway, not a serious thing to look into. Yet. If you won’t tell me any ways I can use the souls I worked so hard to figure out how to store then what about telling me how the bodies of the demons they were wearing are used? Just what’s so handy about the flesh of a god?