CH876

“Delair, hammer down, looks like we’re changing things up for a moment,” Ben said while she’d only just started to register the notification. “Sit down for just a bit.”

Was the level a fluke coincidence or something repeatable? He knew he had to check and grinning brightly she did as he said as he repeated what he’d done before, giving her a higher quality of information on enchanting next, feeling the knowledge become a part of her without any notification to go with it.

Okay, so maybe that didn’t work but then again…

He materialized and tossed her a small pendant, the young dryad catching it out of the air.

“Enchant on that to the best of your ability. Something that would be useful on a pendant but otherwise it’s up to you.”

“Okay.”

She focused on it as she began her work, applying her affinities to it the same way he’d apply his resistances to give the wearer an easier time with plant spells specifically and was rewarded for it once more, her enchanting reaching the third level when she did.

If she’d been beaming after the first then the next had left her almost ready to explode in excitement and seemed to verify that he was now able to transmit information to a level of detail that he could have a reasonable chance of causing a level beyond the few one-off times he’d managed to help people gain some in the past, if not an outright certainty of it, but he wasn’t yet done. He’d just helped her level two skills he was excellent at, could he do the same for one he wasn’t?

Instantly he was materializing a seed, some water, dirt, and a pot to hold it all before carefully handing it over. He could feel Mora’s new eyes on him with interest, able to see what was happening and switching between him and Delair while Thera was able to pick up that something at least was happening but not seeing the finer details of it while Ben next moved to try and reinforce her knowledge of plant magic, not having any of his own experience to draw from but instead pulling it from the memories of other, more powerful dryads he’d been connected to in the past and tried to apply it in such a way that he knew would suit her, hearing as she not only got her fourth level to it but completed her job as well, leaving her unable to even partially contain herself any longer and jumping for joy, Ben’s actions all but unseen as he buried his face in his hands and muttered under his breath.

“Oh god, this is going to create so much more work for me.”

“Is it weird I want to cry?” He asked as he laid there on the shop floor, even more testing done. “Like, not to sound insane but with the way I currently think, the majority of my mind is actually pretty emotionless now. It would have to be for me to stay sane, meaning that the part of myself that I express to the world is what gets my feelings since that part typically keeps speeds comparable with baseline reality but now here I am, the whole of myself in despair. Isn’t that just a little strange?”

“Ben, every time you talk about the state of your mind it sounds strange,” Thera said, doing her part to comfort him despite the comment as she sat beside him, rubbing his head. “But there there, it’s going to be okay.”

“It’s never going to be okay again. The gods are going to try to keep me as busy as the soul mages.”

“You are technically a soul mage, you do remember that, right?”

“Yeah, in the way someone with a doctorate in the history of cheese making is a doctor, everyone knows it doesn’t really count! Ugh, I’m literally only one guy!”

After Delair had taken her new job, going for craftsman, further experiments had shown that, so long as he had the experiences of at least a few awakened skill holders of a given ability within his mind, he could almost instantly give a level to a tier one active skill and almost certainly lower their leveling thresholds as a result, at least for the next few that would be coming after.

While Delair’s status was still somewhat short, he’d been able to help her level a couple of her other skills thanks to it and Thera had gained levels for every tier one active skill she had except for her mana examination and her spirit comprehension, with the first already being at its ninth level and only needing to awaken and the second being one she was the first to hold, Ben having no experience there he could give her even across all of the minds he’d invaded which implied one overwhelming, undeniable fact. The gods were going to want him to keep doing it.

He could already see it, all of them up there demanding his work for the mere pennies they’d try to provide and then acting offended that he’d want more, even as they asked him for days or even weeks of his time, with the worst part being that he couldn’t justify keeping it to himself either. This was a power worthy of the third tier, one that would be useful for the world as a whole too, but more than any of that, it was going to be a pain in the ass.

It also meant that his own skills would likely grow even faster as well, which was of a small consolation. He’d even raised his dance level while testing Thera’s own, but there were more implications that couldn’t be ignored either. If he was going to be able to help others raise their skills that way, he’d likely be able to help them gain them too.

It was something he hadn’t tested yet, that would come after the small breakdown he was letting himself enjoy, but he was already thinking about if and how he’d apply it to himself, with the worst part of all being that he didn’t think he saw anywhere he’d want to. If he could more easily gain more passive skills then he would have taken it in a heartbeat but active skills? Sure, in theory, he had linked his mind to awakened fighters of all sorts and mages as well. He could almost certainly now learn any combat skill and at least some of the non-affinitied magics with minimal practice but the issue was that doing so would only split his focus, and in a significant way.

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