CH524

“Huh, looks like that worked, and as a healthy plus it looks like I didn’t accidentally destroy any of your minds doing it either! Man, I really am so great at using mind skills and now we have so much time for lessons too!”

In an empty space there stood four of them, or at least it looked like it, with Nati, Xilly, and Zallith all there and confused about what had happened, with the answer being a small experiment.

Connect was a two-way skill, letting the target into his mind the same way he could enter theirs, with the only reason everyone he connected to wasn’t assaulted by the full force of what he was due entirely to the fact that he was able to perfectly hide away his thoughts. Sure, he’d expose a bit of what he was when he needed to in order to convey information or speak without being overheard, but what he’d done was something entirely different.

He’d pulled them all into his head in a way he’d never tried before for the slight risk that could have potentially come with exposing anyone to his full mind. He still wasn’t doing that either, instead in essence pulling them into his imagination so fully that in the real world it looked like they’d entered a daze, powered in part by his mental symbiosis as well.

They wouldn’t be able to tell, but their minds were moving as fast as his could and in an area he was building with his thoughts, which created all sorts of potential. Potential he was more than prepared to exploit for his tests as three new Bens appeared, one for each of them and making them shrink back in fear.

“What’s happening?” Nati asked, having no way to understand where she was or how he’d managed to duplicate himself. Just looking around, it almost felt like she’d been taken to her grandfather’s realm, only lacking any sort of divinity to go with it.

“Don’t worry about that,” All Bens spoke in one voice. “Nati, Xilly, just take my hand and practice your connect.”

“Um, and me?” Zallith asked, wondering why he’d been brought as well.

“Ah, I’m going to be connecting to you directly for a bit so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

While the two girls normally would have had to have touched Ben to connect with him, the fact that he already had his own up between them had bypassed that need, letting them bring up their skills to interact with the carefully designed minds in each of the ones in front of them, leaving them with a repulsive feeling as they struggled against the alienness of what he was, with that only growing as the minds twisted and warped in their shape, Ben making them feel it all.

It was a sickening experience for them, something Ben was able to pick up on through the connection as he gave them all judgemental looks.

“You guys are going to be hurting my feelings if you keep thinking these sorts of things about another person’s mental structure. Seriously, this isn’t that bad.”

“I think he’s insane,” Xilly muttered, sounding well and truly afraid and leaving Nati no choice but to agree. They may have been low in level, but during all of their practice with connect they’d never felt a mind remotely approaching that. How could he be anything but insane?

“Wow, rude. Keep the negativity to yourself and work on splitting your focus because we’re doing lessons while we’re here.”

Since the two he needed to teach were wearing his circlets still they had the spare minds for it and under the speed he was thinking they basically had all of the time in the world, so he willed a whiteboard into the mental space and began jotting down notes.

“Now, we’re going to be having a lot of time together. Like, an absolute ton so why don’t we raise the scope that you’ll all be learning at? The better you are at your work, the slightly better the odds become for the world. Let’s see, I think I’ll first aim to leave you all as masters of ritual magic, or at least the theory, before moving on to more individually focused lessons. There’s plenty of ways that you’ll be able to apply your magic Xilly so I’ll teach you all I can on that. Nati, we’ll work on improving anything you need to understand for materialization. Zallith, you’ll continue to be my little brain buddy so I can see if I can squeeze a level of anything out of myself. Now let’s do our best team and make Nare proud!”

None felt the enthusiasm he showed but with nowhere to escape, all they could do was deal with it.

<DEEP CONNECTION LEVEL INCREASED>

“Oh, no way. That was not the skill I’d been expecting to raise. Absolutely taking that though.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Of any option, he’d thought he might manage to awaken mental symbiosis. It had been at the ninth level for a while and combining the fact that he was not only putting it to a lot of use with his students but that he also had his awakener title, it was the one he’d been expecting to get a little more out of, even if he wasn’t exactly sure what sort of push it might need or what it could grow further into.

Not that it matters, it can be handy, but another level of deep connection is worth so much more to me. I’m going to need to see if I can somehow get all of the world’s awakened skill holders again.

It had been a few levels since he’d made rings from them all and while many of them had been at only the zeroth and first levels in the skills they possessed, there had been more than a few who had raised what they had to greater heights, even if he hadn’t seen any that would rank them as contenders. Still, by getting their skills on rings, it would let him do even more, meaning the next time he had to do anything for the gods, that was what he was going to be asking for.