I’ve done it Myriad. I’ve opened my third eye and can see the truth. Biology is chemistry, chemistry is physics, and physics is fucking awful. I hate this. Who’s terrible idea was this to begin with?

Then I’m a fool.

The worst part of trying to memorize the structure of a seed was the sheer level of detail it needed for a chance to be viable. A lump of iron was just one type of atom again and again and again. Anyone who was materializing it didn’t need to worry about its precise structure, it ultimately didn’t matter.

Even for normal materials someone wanted to materialize, this was infinitely worse. If a water mage wanted to create water or ice, they’d only need to know a ridiculously simpler structure, and it would even be possible for them to achieve it without knowing that, though much harder. For him, he couldn’t have an atom out of place.

Which means I really do need to know if this is even possible before I try to help Sachel, don’t I?

He, Thera, and Sonya were all waiting by the cart for her to arrive, but given the stakes, he needed to have some sort of assurance that he wasn’t insane for thinking such a thing. Regardless of how possible it would be for someone else to do it with his help, if he couldn’t personally manage then he’d drastically knock down the odds of success in his head.

Of course, the fact that I don’t have life magic might hold me back a bit, but this is just an arrangement of atoms. I can create atoms, therefore…

As Sonya and Thera chatted, he instead looked at his hand, concentrating with all he had as he did.

It was Thera who noticed he was doing something first, the air thickening with a bit of mana under his intense focus, but she didn’t speak up. She might not have known what he’d decided to do on such a whim, but she could see he was invested in it. Instead, she pointed her aunt to him as well, assuming that whatever happened, it might at least be interesting.

He took no notice of it. Almost a thousand minds were all intensely devoted to his singular goal as mana flowed out of him, bending to his will.

At first, he felt himself fail. Stray atoms were created but didn’t link to a greater whole, being so insignificant it was more like he’d done nothing at all, but from there he kept pushing, letting mana seep out of him as it changed from elements to compounds, compounds to genes, genes to cells, and final showed its end goal, becoming a proper seed and proving that even if he might not have been able to help someone else manage the same thing, it was possible.

With the success came the feeling of his mind reeling as it underwent another extreme change in such a short time as everything in his head suddenly became more clear, topics he’d read in the past standing out in his minds, unfaded by time as books he poured over were recalled perfectly, word for word in his head as he quickly put together what happened.

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Knowledge skills do the same sort of thing for specific types of knowledge, but given how it awakened does it mean I can do the same thing with all knowledge? That would explain why I immediately got another level of it too, but why the hell did I even awaken it to begin with?

He had no clue how the two events were connected. He understood it was plant knowledge specifically that had awakened, but he hadn’t just learned anything as far as he was concerned, at least nothing that should have been enough to push the skill over the edge like that.

His god said, almost sounding in awe.

As his god left his head, Ben couldn’t help but give a parting grumble.

If I’d known this was possible I would have tried to get Yuzu and her teacher to cast that soul spell on me.

It wasn’t like it would have made a huge difference for his attributes considering all of the skills he’d already awakened, along with his resistance, but it was still annoying that he’d just missed out on a few points of easy growth in what had been nothing more than a simple experiment to see if there really was a point in them risking their lives.

As he was mentally dealing with that though, Sonya and Thera were staring at him, not sure if they’d just seen correctly. When a person awakened a skill, their body would light up from mana pouring into them, but it would weaken each time. The last time it had been incredibly faint, but now the bonus to his attributes was less than a one percent increase overall. Neither of them could be sure they’d seen correctly.

It was Thera who asked, shaking off the feeling of how unlikely it was with the knowledge of all of the insanity her boyfriend normally pulled.

“Ben, did you really just awaken another skill?”

“Uh, accidentally, yeah.”

“How do you accidentally awaken something?” Sonya asked, feeling blown away by having seen such a thing again after having just seen it on the battlefield.

“I was just seeing if the way I’m planning on awakening Sachel even has a chance since we’re about to head out, and I guess it pushed my knowledge skills over the edge,” He told them with an awkward laugh, the fact that part of facing the trial was to help Sonya with her own insecurities on such things clear in his mind.

Feeling the weight of their shocked gazes, he instead pulled out his card, looking it over briefly to see how it had worked out for him.

Damn, I’m not sure if it was awakening the skill, leveling material knowledge, or successfully materializing a seed, but I just got an insanely huge boost to my job level too. Probably not going to bring that up though.

He was already raising that job shockingly fast given that he was able to materialize his mana for practice and it seemed he’d just gained a new way to go about it. They had hours until they’d get to the life tower after all and now that he’d gotten the feel for materializing something like that, it would only be easier to do again.

And the more practice I have at it, the better the odds are that I’ll be able to help Sachel, plus I can already feel this new skill making all of my thinking and memory significantly better. Oh man, this really is all coming together, isn’t it?

Every new success was a step closer to him achieving his goals, he would happily take all the growth he could get.

“So doesn’t that make this his seventh?” Sonya asked quietly, as Thera rubbed her head.

“Yes, because he’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“But when you compare that to how he was when he arrived, wouldn’t that mean-”

She never got to complete the thought, whatever she was going to say was lost as Sachel finally appeared, running up to the lot of them and deeply out of breath.

“Sorry I’m late,” She panted. “Ralia was having trouble saying goodbye so I got held up a bit and… is something wrong?”

She was able to pick up on the atmosphere that came from him awakening yet another skill, the feeling of shock, happiness, exasperation, and disbelief all rolled together as Ben just shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing important so let's get going already.”

The sooner they were done, the sooner that Sonya would for sure have an awakened skill, Sachel would potentially have one, and Ben would find himself busy again with the implications that helping her awaken would carry, but before any of that, he needed to deal with the trial.