CH698

Going through his workshop in Anailia to grab all of his clones first, Ben walked them all through the city to the gate, ignoring any looks he got along the way as the group of them made their way to the library, keeping an eye on one unpleasant fact.

Partway through walking the streets of the magic towers, he’d begun being followed. It was only about three of them but he was only able to tell while looking through the eyes of others, the ones on his tail too far away to be within range of deep connection to see what they wanted.

But is that because they know I’m a mind reader or are they just trying to avoid being noticed? Okay, play it cool and I’ll see what they do when I get there.

So far they hadn’t made any moves but considering that it had only been a few days prior that he’d last been attacked he couldn’t help but be on edge, only holding back from confronting them then and there out of pure curiosity.

After all, they couldn’t have been waiting for him, the times he’d go to the library were too few and far between and not even he’d known that he’d be making his way there when the day started.

Nor could he have looked like an easy target. With fourteen homunculi to his name, he didn’t look like a single person but instead a group that just happened to wear the same face, not someone others would so casually aim to mug.

He just kept waiting for whatever was going to happen but by the time he’d made his way to the library and passed through its main doors, they’d stopped, either losing their nerve once he’d gone in or else standing outside to wait for him to finish, which would admittedly be quick.

Unlike so many others who’d spend hours reading there, Ben only needed to look around to find whatever new books it held, only stopping for a moment to admire his own contributions to the place.

Off to the side was the display donated by the church of Myriad, holding both his circlets for general use as well as copies of his magic books, with plenty around the building using the first while others were pulled into the latter’s effects while they read, showing that his contributions were being well used.

He could even see his mana bracelets around the arms of a few readers despite how recently they’d begun being distributed, with the tool being successfully spread out into the world for all to benefit from and couldn’t help but feel just a bit of pride. No matter how little it felt like many of the gods of the world were willing to value his work, he’d been making a difference in both the knowledge and power of the people and that meant more would get to live for his efforts.

Wonder how much faith Myriad’s been pulling in from all of my work anyway? I’ll have to ask him sometime.

For the moment though he instead focused on his learning, the staff and many of the other patrons long used to seeing him by that point, even if he was barely reading in comparison to how he’d usually do it. As he went around he found less than a dozen books in the main building that he hadn’t touched before, leaving him to only go to see what the surrounding buildings held.

But not before passing a window, looking outside to see that the three he’d left had grown to over twenty as a crowd stood in wait, only making him wonder just what they were there for more, along with how to deal with them. They hadn’t done anything to him yet so he couldn’t exactly go out guns blazing but he was prepared for the worst.

A part of him briefly considered asking one of the library’s guards to walk out with him, just so he’d have a witness if things went poorly, before thinking better of it. If they wanted to cause problems then he’d simply rip their mana from them and leave them in a state of mana exhaustion to make them both harmless and someone else’s problem and he walked out to finally get his answers, feeling as they turned to him one by one once he came out, their conversation stopped with his presence.

Ben stopped too, silently looking back at them and waiting for one to either say something or for them to scatter as he reached out with connect to read their minds, dropping his guard as he both got his answer and one of them finally spoke.

“Excuse me,” The closest said. “Sorry to bother you but we were hoping to get a bit of your time.”

“Sure, I don’t mind,” Ben gave in easily enough, no longer concerned and letting them talk as if he hadn’t just fiddled through their thoughts. “What can I do for you all?”

“Ah, so to be clear, you’re the apostle of Myriad? The one who wrote those books and has read through the entirety of the library?”

“Just the main building but yeah, other than that you’ve got it.”

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“Ah, wonderful! I’m sorry if this is a bit much but we were wondering if it would be possible to get some of your time then, we were hoping we might get the chance to pick your brain over some of our areas of research.”

It seemed without paying too much attention to it, Ben had developed a reputation among the magic towers as something of a genius. Plenty had seen the way he’d read and plenty had tested him to see if he was really processing that information or just trying to look impressive, consistently finding it was the first. With that fact tied into all he’d donated to help the scholars and mages of the library as a whole and it looked like more than a few had been waiting for the chance to pick his brain, with a couple finally having seen him and spread the word the best they could, ending up with the present crowd for him to respond to.

It wasn’t like he was against the idea either, he had no issue talking with others and helping them the best he could, but with all of them there he couldn’t help but see an opportunity that he didn’t want to pass up on.