Chapter 1127

“Alright, are you two ready?” Ben asked after going to grab both Valaria and Tress, the new third tier having a seat at the table like any others would, while the high priestess mostly looked stressed.

“Maybe it would be better if I stayed at home,” Valaria said, trying to get out of it. “This close to the next wave, I really would just be in the way. You can look after Tress, and I’ll-”

“Valaria,” Ben cut her off. “You are a contender for two skills, going on three with your connect inclination. Actually, by the time we get there, I intend to have you as one for three because we’re practicing that one the entire way. It’s important for third tiers to bring along promising individuals, and you absolutely qualify.”

“I literally only qualify because you spend so much time training me!”

“Yeah, so? You put up with my training better than anyone; that’s a qualification in and of itself. Besides, you, me, and Tress are making up the Myriad faction during this, we can’t just have a third of our group quit.”

“Since when are there divine factions among the third tiers?”

“Since Myriad got two who were willing to go to this, along with you standing on the edge. Our god having this many powerful believers is a good look for him, right? Considering that all of the other third tiers are going to be gods one day, don’t you think it would be a good idea to help make sure they have an early good impression of him?”

That did it. For all she doubted herself, Valaria loved their god and, as the high priestess of their faith, she had no choice but to give in once it was put in those terms, letting Ben split her mind and pull parts of into his own for the practice she’d get, Tress getting the same.

Alright, this is working out pretty well, he smiled as he looked at their souls, bearing five blessed skills like everyone else in Anailia after he’d last passed through. Unnatural mental expansion and advanced connect, both raised up, so if I can awaken her in either, she’ll get a second-tier skill as a bonus. Of course, given what I went through on my own front, I have no idea how I’d awaken her connect either but, since she’s a contender, it’s not like strengthening it is a waste, even if she never manages to grow that one anymore.

He was all the more excited to see just what bonus skill she’d eventually get too, considering his own awakening had granted him the skill ‘mind break’ before it had itself merged into his soulcraft, but tried to push the thought to the side for the time as they instead made their way to the gate, leaving Ben to broach one more topic he wanted to address the two over as he went.

“Since I’m already training you both, how would you two feel about being strengthened in a different way, too?”

A question that got hesitant looks from them, given the way their training was already going, but Valaria answered, not letting any of that doubt touch her face.

“What did you have in mind?”

“Soul modification. The gods don’t want me doing a second round of it, but Valaria, considering that you’re one of Myriad’s key believers, I’d really prefer it if you did, and Tress, as a newer resident among the world, you didn’t get to benefit from it at all the first time around. Making you stronger would keep everyone safer too.”

“I’m willing then,” Tress nodded, looking Valaria’s way to see if the high priestess had any doubts.

“Mmm, I guess I can deal with a bit of pain if it means making progress.”

“With Thera here to help, hopefully it won’t be quite as many days to feel better as the first time took,” he tried to reassure, before pulling the church of Myriad from one of his rings, the coat brought along, given he’d specifically intended on talking the two into it. “In that case, I’ll just need you both to give me a moment. This won’t be long.”

Overfilling his soul, he intended to begin the new and improved process of soul creation, needing tens of millions of points of mana for it, rather than just the fractions of one he’d used on each person in the past to empower the world, and immediately felt the difference that converting soulcraft to a blessed skill had made.

Stolen novel; please report.

When testing on the demons, Ben had been able to raise their affinity and resistance values to thirty-two across the board. A level of affinity that would give anyone a superior chance at becoming an archmage, and resistances that would give them a healthy amount of protection from most magics. With the increase to his skill though, and the bit his mana had grown since, how much he could do was going to increase.

Given that every single point of affinity or resistance he added when materializing a soul increased the cost of the one before it, that meant he wasn’t suddenly going to be able to give people eighties in everything, but that didn’t matter. As things were, he could still give them fifty points in anything, and considering that nobody would want their life or light affinities raised anyway, those points could instead be distributed to the rest of them, letting him design what he viewed as the ideal soul for the two as he materialized through the ones they already held, a grimace on each face being his reward for his work.

Notification went through both of their heads as the change in values left some of their affinitied skills to immediately grow with them, the sight of it pulling Thera’s full attention as she worked to help their souls adapt to the change they’d just been put through.

“If you can already do this much, I’m not sure I want to wait to get you to do it for me too.”

“Ha, patience. I want to grow my attributes a bit more before my second time doing it for you.”

“Holding off for too long might not be a good idea either. You’ve got me doing my best to awaken my earth magic; it would be pointless to wait if I miss out on growing what you could give me with those bonuses.”

“Mmm, true,” he conceded. He wanted to raise his mana recovery more to have a greater effect on her, and he wanted to be able to add a few more points to any attribute he gave her, but at a certain point, he knew he’d be risking a loss by waiting too long. Given his own history, he knew well how hard it was to properly judge when a skill might awaken, and holding out too long was betting on the idea that Thera wouldn’t, something which he didn’t want to believe. Even if he might be able to get her better results by leaving things up to the very last moment, wasn’t it better to accept some minor loss then in the name of growing later? It was a trade-off, but he couldn’t deny that she was right. “When we get back, then. Even if Abel does end up sparring you, there shouldn’t be anything in the meeting that would awaken you right now, and as long as you’re by my side, I think that I’d be able to properly judge things and quickly modify your soul if I thought you were on the edge. Waiting the couple of days it’s going to take to get home will at least mean a couple more points to your mana regeneration.”

“Guess I’ll look forward to it then,” she said, still eyeing the other two, both having no idea of the full way they’d just grown. Valaria had only been on the receiving end of his original way of modifying souls, and Tress only had the context he’d given them while preparing them for existence. Both would likely be shocked, but they’d also each benefit tremendously, as the affinitied skills they held would both become easier to use and level as well, while also letting them gain skills from affinities they never could have before. In all of the power that soulcraft held, it was hard to say for certain which aspect was the most valuable, but given that was the only one he couldn’t risk testing on himself, it was certainly the part he was most jealous of.

And actually, since they can both now learn way more magics than they could have before, this is as good of an excuse as any to give them some more lessons each.

He’d already materialized all of the knowledge skills on them that he could in the past, as believers of Myriad and holders of connect, they could already put each affinity to work, but with the new development in their souls, he increased the training he was already putting them through, adding magic lessons to it for the parts of them that were currently residing in his mind. Whether they’d actually bother learning any new affinity was ultimately their concern, but he was at least going to give them the option.

Hmm, considering that I can change souls like this now, I really should eventually learn to materialize a general magic skill for people, he thought. If I can do that, then I could give one to anyone who goes through my new and improved soul modification, and that would let me do some other testing too. I know that it’s technically still possible to learn the skill, even if one already has an affinitied magic, it just gets harder, but is there an upper limit? Could I materialize that skill onto a soul that already had the standard ten affinities? Would it basically act as a way to give the user an easier time casting the combined affinities, or would it force a transition and bring all of the magics a person held together into it, maybe instantly raising its level in the process?

It was a question that filled his heart with curiosity and a desire to see it through, which he already knew he’d need to hold back. That was an experiment for after the war. Before it, he had too many other skills to make and such a limited time to make them, considering that he was still working on creating an enchanting inclination after a week of work and had more still to go, forcing him to file that bit of curiosity away to be re-examined in the uncertain future while, in the present, they passed through the gate, off to the city that was hosting that third-tier gathering.