CH678

“Man, work really never ends, does it?”

“If you want it to, you really need to stop making such crazy things,” Thera told him. “At least it will be some good practice for me too.”

It seemed that arrangements had been quick for one of his inventions, with plans to have more of the tool he’d made for his teacher produced and given to the awakened warriors of the world set up so soon after their first production and leading them through one of the gates to the untamed lands for all of the free biomass around to take advantage of.

Meat was more efficient but it was also a commodity in war times, something not so easy to waste when there was a world to feed, leading to that boost in difficulty for Thera while they went to meet the gathered crowd.

Across the planet and largely due to the summoning that had brought Ben to the world there were hundreds with awakened combat skills who could grow more powerful when not limited by having only a singular body, with him getting to see plenty of humans in the gathered group as well, thought only caring about a few as he made a beeline to the ones he’d see the most.

“Well well mister Benjamin, we meet again,” Jake laughed amidst the crowd. “What zany thing have you done in the last couple days to get a gathering like this?”

“Just came up with a handy tool to help people escape the limits of a single body. More important though, why are you all here? Don’t you have a lot more to be doing?”

He only needed to help both Amy and Will given the skills they had but not only was he seeing Jake, Steph, and Yuzu, but also the two older mages who acted as both teachers and guardians, Uliel and Vasta.

“Got a heads up from a knowledge god saying we should come grab lessons from you,” His friend shrugged. “Did you not hear about it?”

“No. Myriad?”

He was already being generous by only asking to get a glimpse of the world’s mythic items for that bit of work but getting extra dumped on him was an annoyance, even if it was for people he cared about.

<Sorry, that’s my fault.> His god said, sounding exhausted. <I meant to tell you but I got swamped with other things. Given the goal is to try and make Jake, Vasta and Uliel awaken, increasing their knowledge would only help and given they’re your friends we didn’t think you would mind too much and gaining more knowledge on a topic can only help and while Yuzu knows basic life and death spells her focus has been on soul ones so it would be good to help brush her up on the others too. Given that you’re the only mortal to have ever read the totality of the main library branch and the frankly horrifying way you can teach people, it’s not like there was a better option.>

Offended but okay. Steph too?

<Ask her, I’m pretty sure she came to see you since she mainly fights with Will anyway.>

Okay, sounds good.

“Just let it be known that if I traumatize any of you I plan on taking no responsibility.”

“Awe, come on man, how bad can it be? I’ve already put up with years of lessons by now. I’m a veteran at learning, through and through.”

It looked like Jake’s teachers had some strong comments on that idea but kept them to themselves while Ben looked around.

“Okay, I was told I’m helping the lot of you brush up on your magic lessons so take a seat and let’s get started. Steph, you want some free theory classes from the most well-read guy on the planet?”

“What was that about traumatizing us?”

“Basically not going to happen. Tell me when you’re done and I’ll let you out.”

“Mmh, giving a cautious okay.”

“Alright squad, get ready to be educated then.”

He created a mental space for them and pulled the group into his mind, using the effects of hive mind to improve the quality of their learning before going to look at the rest of them, finding Thera’s eyes looking at him questioningly.

“Yes?”

“Benjamin?”

“Ah, that. On Earth, Ben is typically the short form of that name but my parents’ philosophy was just to name me what they intended to call me. It’s why my brother was named Mark instead of Marcus too.”

He watched her mouth the name a couple times to herself before ultimately shaking her head while Amy held back a chuckle, trying to focus on what they were there for.

“So should we get started then? Plenty of people to get through from the looks of it.”

“Ah, we’ll give it two minutes, we have our first dropout.”

Among the dazed sitting on the ground, Jake gasped, freed from Ben’s mind after finally tapping out and looking all the worst for it.

“You were right, that was traumatizing. How long was I in your head?”

“Barely even the equivalent of a full day, you’re fine.”

“A day straight of learning? No wonder I have a headache. Ugh, how do you know so much?”

“Mind skills are fun and taking advantage of the library for all it was worth was satisfying. I still need to finish the surrounding buildings too but one day I’ll master them all.”

And then I’ll just need to get the basement somehow but that’s a future problem.

A distant one from all accounts. It seemed the gods really didn’t want him getting free reign in there meaning that was yet another problem to somehow overcome in the future but for the time he had other things to focus on, with the second person tapping out of his thoughts.

“Okay, I’ve learned enough so let’s never do that again,” Steph said the moment she was freed. “What sort of maniac even created a spell like ossification?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Ah, that one’s a Ben original,” He happily admitted. “Thera won’t try it though, she says it feels too unethical.”

“At least petrification is reversible if I mess up on it,” His girlfriend told him. “Converting a person’s entire body to bone without a way of undoing it is messed up no matter how you cut it.”

“Okay, we’ll agree to disagree. For now though, it looks like we have our third one coming out.”

Uliel opened her eyes, looking a lot more calm compared to the other two until she turned her head to see who was left.

“Damn it, not only did I not last as long as Vasta but I couldn’t even hold out as much as Yuzu? Now that’s embarrassing.”

“Third’s a respectable place, you did a lot better than Jake at least.”

“How much better?”

“She doesn’t need to know that!”

“Seven times.”

Both his attempts to silence Ben and his poor holdout got Jake a glare, with his teacher speaking up.

“You get an hour break and then you’re doing that again. You should be able to feel what a good resource that is with all of the new spell information in your head, you aren’t letting it go to waste.”

“This is tyranny!”

“And something you can argue with your other teacher because she’s coming out next. Enjoy.”