CH419

After a meal of Ben enjoying as his teacher did his best to hide his newfound awkwardness and largely failing, he and Thera said their goodbyes to Falk before running off, letting him and Sonya have a moment of privacy as they instead made their way to the adventurers guild, trying to find someone they knew would be there as Ben immediately locked eyes on his target.

“Ben, Thera, hi!” Sachel yelled as she saw them, waving them down to her sitting party.

Of the two with her, Ralia gave a friendly nod as Skoe did his best to keep from looking uncomfortable, the four-armed man’s history with Thera clear in his mind and all the more troubling for how powerful she’d become.

For her part, Thera was content to ignore him, sharing a greeting with the other two as Ben looked at them all, putting on his most winning smile as he did.

“Nice seeing all of you,” He told them, trying to seem open and kind and not at all nefarious.

<Which you’re failing at. Both Ralia and Skoe are already suspicious of you.>

That hurts so much to hear. I’m such a sweet and guiltless little guy.

<You’re literally going to try and experiment on one of them.>

Semantics.

“So what brings you guys here?” Ralia asked. “It’s a bit late to be taking a quest, isn’t it?”

Unlike others, neither he nor Thera would just hang out at the guild to socialize. Ben preferred to focus on his work and Thera’s personal history with many of the adventurers kept that sort of thing from being a fun prospect for her.

“We actually came to find you,” He told them. “I have something I need a bit of help with, and I’m willing to pay well for just a bit of time.”

<And their suspicion levels shot way up.>

Man, they are straight-up breaking my heart.

He didn’t need his god to say it, he could see it easily enough in their faces. It was only Sachel who looked at him with curiosity alone, none of the open fear the other two displayed.

This is why she’s my favourite, gonna have to do something nice for her. The other two are looking at me like I’m a monster ready to strike.

<You got that as a title for a reason.>

“What can we do for you?” Sachel asked, already happy to help. Ben had done plenty for her and helped her party in general by giving them some of his strengthening potions, even if he sometimes seemed to have an agenda, she at least had no qualms about doing what she could for him.

“I want to test the potential of one of my skills, and I was hoping to borrow Skoe’s brain to do it.”

“Why me!”

Because I like you least.

“Because it admittedly might hurt a bit but since you’re a warrior I trust you to be able to handle it,” He told him. “I need someone tough, just in case something goes wrong.”

“I guarantee both of them are plenty tough,” he argued, looking to his companions in the hopes that one of them might volunteer instead.

“I mean, as a mage I’m a pretty backline fighter,” Sachel told him. “You guys take great care of me so I’m basically never hurt.”

“And you’re definitely better at handling pain than I am Skoe,” Ralia told him, not actually believing it but not wanting to get dragged into whatever Ben had in mind. “I think you’re perfect to help.”

He could still see an intense desire to not do it in the man’s eyes but Ben spoke calmly, trying to reassure him.

“Listen, it’s not like I’m going to force you into this if you don’t want to. You help me and I’ll pay you more than you’d make in a month for a couple hours of your time so it will be worth your while, but if not then that’s that.”

“…What is it I’d be doing?”

Got him.

“I just need to practice linking up to your mind. I basically want to attempt to try and loan you some of my knowledge and thinking power by forcing some of my mind skills on you.”

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“And are you sure that’s, you know, safe?”

“Skoe, regardless of however I feel about you, I wouldn’t ask if I really thought there’d be any danger,” Ben told him. “Like any time in life when you’re trying something new then sure, there’s a bit of risk from the unknown, but I wouldn’t do this if I thought it would hurt you.”

Ben held out his hand as the other looked at it, thinking it over. Even if Ben had been an absolute slave driver during their time together, he’d never asked anything he wouldn’t do himself and even if he could seem almost mad in the pursuit of his goals, it wasn’t like he was a bad guy. Plus it was a chance to make a lot of money all at once, what was there to lose?

“Alright, fine,” He said, taking the outstretched hand. “I’ll do it.”

“Great, and I just want you to know that if by some chance things do go wrong and I destroy your brain by mistake, I’ll put my fortune towards finding someone who can put it back together or else make sure your next of kin never have to work again if things go really bad.”

“Wait, what-”