CH634

“You don’t seem to rest much. Is that a trait of your species as a whole or is it just you?”

“Hey now, I’ve kind of got a lot to do here.”

“Just you then. It seems exhausting.”

“What can I say, working yourself to the point of collapse is classy. Maybe even just a little sexy. It gives me this broad, tired appeal that everyone loves.”

In the nine days since his imprisonment began, Ben hadn’t been able to sleep much, a fact picked up on by his watching neighbour. He was staying up as long as he could to work and without a higher realm to shove his mind to, when he did fall unconscious every couple of days, it was only for two or three hours till his dreams played havoc with him and ruined his rest.

“But that doesn’t even matter,” Ben went on. “If I can’t die in here then I can’t work myself to death. This is really the perfect environment, if I ever get the chance I’m going to have to see if I can recreate it to any extent myself.”

“Mmh, do as you will.”

It was clear enough that Tenth was more than content to watch whatever Ben did from the side, viewing it as a cheap amusement from someone who was probably saner than most others around them, and Ben was fine to let the other think what he wanted while he instead put his new level of balance enhancement to the test, carefully raising one hand from the ground and leaving his full body weight to be carried by the other as he continued to push up and down, feeling a satisfying level of strain with the added challenge.

While he did that, marbles passed from a bag behind him to one in front of him to check over if the things he thought he’d been feeling had been correct, finding his comfort with that particular skill growing as well, leaving him to consider how to train it from there.

He could keep the bag of marbles at the other end of his cell, forcing him to see how well he could still sense the makeup of each material at a greater range or he could instead reduce the size of each one to give him a similar effect. If neither was enough he could instead alter each marble, turning them into alloys and compounds of differing ratios to force him to try and find particular mixes instead to up the challenge.

Ah, what the heck, why not both? I have the time.

And I no longer have the time.

The ninth level of soul production had taken him longer to get than any other but that was still a relative comparison to so much else in his status, with the rapid leveling briefly making him wonder if any of his other potential jobs might secretly be ones that would give him third tier bonuses as well before focusing back on the matter at hand.

At that level of skill, he could create souls that would each contain half of his total mana volume, deeply shifting how much power he’d be able to hold, especially once he began creating more.

With that just becoming a question of how many. He’d be using them for his escape, both trying to break the cell that held him as well as fighting his way out, but at what point would they instead just weigh him down, slowing his flight through the horde and leaving him more open to be attacked?

It was a question he needed to consider but he was left once more looking out where his salvation hopefully lied, with another barrier hanging around the gates trapping the mysterious black mass he was going to place his bets on.

I can’t just make something strong enough that would let me break down the wall in front of me, I need to make enough that I’ll be able to kill my way to the front and break that next one too. Okay, screw it, I can’t risk being thrifty, I’ll make as much as I can and then work on figuring out how I’ll manage the weight after, which means first I’ll need to figure out the best way of carrying it all.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

…Mmh, screw it, that will work. Myriad will probably be fine with this, right?

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