CH719

As they walked over, Thera’s eyes were locked on her aunt while Ben couldn’t help but take in the crowd around her, all of them appearing at first glance to be from the same species or at least hybrids that shared a similar paternal heritage, with that assumption only falling through as he looked at their souls as well, the skills they held telling a different story for the group they were no doubt sent to observe.

He had questions to ask from it all but they were put briefly on hold as they made their way to the one who seemed to have been responsible for their presence there, waiting to the side as the great spirit exchanged words with the only other person who didn’t match the rest and only stopping their talk as she took notice of them.

“Hmm? Child, what brings you here?” Vividus asked as she took note of Thera’s presence, with Thera nearly grinding her teeth in return.

“You called for me, of course I’m here. Though I probably wouldn’t have been if I’d known you were the one who sent out the request.”

“Oh, are you and your little pet the ones the guild sent? It didn’t matter to me who I got so I didn’t ask, although I suppose I do remember hearing you were working with them and you have finally made yourself useful enough to get that rank… Hmm, actually, with the mana you’re giving off I’d say you’ve finally begun to go past being just an acceptable standard,” The great spirit muttered at the end as she appraised her niece, thoughts indecipherable running through the ancient being’s head. “Just what are your magic levels currently anyway?”

“What’s it matter?”

“I am currently your employer, it isn’t too much to ask.”

A sharp breath as Thera tried to keep from swearing at her aunt then and there before she finally answered. “Spiritual life is nine, earth is seven, dark is four, and my non-affinity is two. Don’t ask about the rest of my status, that’s my business.”

Ben could see the answer had perked up the one Vividus had been talking to as well while the great spirit only smiled wider. “And from the feel of it, your mana has reached a good volume as well, if you’ve gotten better at using it on a larger scale then I’d go so far as to say you’ve actually managed to make something of yourself. Hmm, well done I suppose.”

The small congratulations managed to catch Thera off guard enough that it paused her bad mood, leaving her to sigh after a beat of silence as she looked around. “So then are these the people we’re expected to observe?”

“They are. Unfortunately, I don’t currently have the time to examine how they perform in the field myself as another one of my more floundering projects requires my attention so I do hope you’ll be able to help produce a decent report on their performance for me.”

“And what exactly is so special about them?”

“They’re constructs modeled after your little lover.”

“What?”

“Chimeras,” Ben answered before the spirit could. “But more than that. Each one of them holds either the skill partial homunculus body or integrated homunculus body. You turned people into chimeras using artificially constructed life to modify them.”

“Very good,” Vividus clapped. “And correct. Seeing the improvements to your base biology after your own modifications made for an interesting project but as decent as what you produced had ended up being, I knew I could go much, much farther. Of course, the main difficulty had been finding a way to bind a homunculi’s flesh to a person in a way that would produce the necessary skill to yield the best results but thankfully I had plenty of experimental material. It may not have made up for their crimes yet but Iberu and his like have been making excellent test subjects.”

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