Time had flown since the visit to his research institute, with all of his work transitioning from his crafting to studying all of the known modifiers, testing them against multiple spells of each affinity as he tried to brute-force their finer rules, feeling the problem budge under his efforts.

Each modifier would interact with a given mana in its own way, leading to different, yet predictable, results the moment it was understood, leaving Ben to fill dozens of notebooks that ended with the shop covered in pages for him to check and compare against each other. Even if all of the information existed in his head, having something in his hands he could physically take hold of just left the whole process feeling better, even if his workload only felt like it was increasing.

From what had been tested, Ben was comfortable saying they’d identified two hundred modifiers, but when he looked beyond that, letting himself examine the spell as a whole within his mind's eye, was believed the total number ballooned to over a thousand, with every component needing to be studied to learn about their base interactions first.

Which really isn’t too bad, as long as I don’t mind cutting back on other things and losing some sleep I should be able to get them done in about a week. The problem is all of the testing after that to see how they build atop one another. Each end product of one modifier is feeding into another dozens of times each at least, maybe even hundreds. The structure of the spell was complex enough without taking these into consideration but now I need to also consider an uncountable number of interactions with it?

Well, the structural aspects aren’t that bad anymore at least, but this is still going to be a ton of work. Okay, planning time. I’ll finish up looking at the base modifiers myself and deliver a report to Kufno, and from there I can have some of my people keep on studying the component sections while others begin looking at interactions between them while I look at others to split the load. Okay, that’s a plan.

As big as it all felt, he was pretty sure they were on a good track for progress. That one breakthrough may very well have wiped years off of how long it would take to decode the spell, they’d just have to keep chipping away at it, with it becoming one more thing that he’d be fiddling with constantly in the back of his massive mind.

If he didn’t always have so many projects on the go then it would have deserved a place at the forefront of his thoughts, but for the time being he had other things he cared about more and went to pursue them, stepping through his gate to make his way back to the magic towers.

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He knocked on the door of Killi’s office, a pile of books in his hands he was ready to show off when he was called in, getting a tired smile as he came.

“Ah, Ben, I wasn’t expecting you back in the area again so soon. Please, take a seat.”

“I had some things to do in the city and it just so happened I wrote some books. Was wondering if I could get your opinion on them.”

She eyed the stack he’d been carrying as he slid them over to her before she began reading through, finding three well-made volumes on life magic with one on earth.

While she wasn’t able to read to the same extent as Ben, her skill gave her plenty of aid in that regard nonetheless, letting her finish them all in a few minutes and looking impressed as she did.

“As far as foundational books go, these are excellent. Should I take it you’re looking to publish?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I suppose, I originally made these for others but they suggested it could be worth putting out.”

“They were right. This would be an excellent study guide for anyone, I’m tempted to get your third volume to the young soul mage now given how well the topic’s been condensed. Should I take it you have more for the other affinities?”

“I can,” He told her, materializing a second volume for earth to cover the awakened form as well as a first volume for fire, getting to see just a hint of surprise for his little display of power as a reward. “Any areas in particular you want a write-up on?”

“I’ll happily take any you’re able to make. I can handle having them published for you if you’d like, since I can verify the quality that should save you some time getting paid out by the mage’s guild.”

“Uh, sure. One thing though, I’m not registered with the mage’s guild.”

That got him a surprised look. “You have an awakened magic.”

“It’s just never come up,” He shrugged. “I’ve always gone through the crafting guild for my stuff other than the one report I submitted here.”

“...I see. Well, I suppose there's not much they could offer you personally, but if you stop by the local branch later it will make things a bit easier on you. Give me a minute,” She pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled a quick note, marking it with a seal before handing it over to him. “Hand this in at the front desk and you’ll have an easier time getting registered. Not that you’d be declined, but compared to the other guilds you’re a part of, they usually have a longer application process so it will save you a bit of hassle.”

“Alright, thanks. Since I’m a bit low on mana right now I’ll come back with the other books later, but before I head out there was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about if you don’t mind?”

“It’s what I’m here for. How can I help?”

He went on to explain Thera’s problem, hoping that someone who by all accounts was likely to be the world's foremost expert when it came to the topic of magics along with being one of the smartest people on the planet might have a solution that he was missing, only to receive the same advice he’d gotten from the gods with no way he could improve the odds.

It was disappointing and she could see it in his eyes, so she did offer another avenue he could take for finding anything and led him out to the main building, up to the top floor where her student was sitting, buried in a book.

“Feel free to make use of him,” She said, grabbing Verbum’s attention and making his eyes lock on Ben.

“Oh fuck Killi, what are you offering me up to do now?”

“Don’t be dramatic and just help Ben a bit. Interact with the system and bring up all information on charm.”

Seeing where this was going, Ben connected to his fellow otherworlder, watching as his vision filled with countless words for him to go through, the information already scrolling for him to read as he started to take it all in.

“Feel free to go a bit faster man, I guarantee I can keep up.”

He didn’t know what parameters could be used to narrow it down so he contented himself to read as much as he could of what was available, taking it all in out of the hope that he’d find something.

----------------------------------------

Well, that was a bust.

With the time he had, Ben had read the equivalent of hundreds of books of information on the topic, everything the system had related to charm, but that meant there was way too much.

Attached to the souls of everyone on the planet, along with a galaxy of demons beyond it, that meant it was always watching and learning, gathering information as it grew to greater heights, even if so much of it was worthless. He didn’t need to know about the subtle differences of its effects across species or its impact on a given environment, nor the thousands of other topics he’d just read up on in Verbum’s mind, he just needed to learn how to render it harmless.

Which means I’m probably really going with the only option I could think of, huh? I guess it shouldn't be a shock it's come to this.

He was willing to do whatever it would take to solve this but the more he researched, the more he felt sure that there was only one true avenue for him to go down to make it happen, and with that clear in his head he opened the door to the adventurer’s guild where he’d made his request only a week earlier and went up to the closest member of staff to show off his card.

“Hi, I’m the one who requested a meeting with anyone that could be found who’d challenged the dark tower, do you have everyone ready for me?”