“We’re really having dinner with people that were letting you bleed out?” Thera sighed as they walked over to meet up with the rest of them, wondering if she’d be able to handle the experience without feeling any temptation to kill them.
“No, we’re having dinner with Jake, Amy, and Yuzu. the other two will just happen to be there. Plus I managed to make sure it would just be those two by sending the third off on a delivery.”
Zallith would be running the sword to John, and as much as Ben would miss having his footstool around, it was for the best. They’d be eating at a public restaurant and Ben had already told his god he wouldn’t embarrass the priest in public.
“Okay, but I’m still going to have to put up with the existence of the other two.”
“Don't worry. Nati’s not so bad and I think Yuzu has successfully broken Xilly. It will be great.”
“Mmh, if you’re sure.”
She wouldn’t deny that it would be nice to see the others at least so she did her best to show a more positive mood, same as Ben, before they finally arrived where their friends were waiting.
In an instant, Yuzu was giving Thera a hug while at the same time giving Ben a slightly disapproving look.
“Ben, you can’t be being a bad influence on Thera.”
“I never am.”
“That feels a little unbelievable,” Amy muttered, thinking back to what she’d seen him doing only a bit earlier in the day but not being heard as Yuzu voiced her objections.
“Then why does she suddenly have that skill, huh?”
“Ah, that’s not his fault,” Thera said in his defense as she nodded to the other two at the table. “I came pretty close to killing them earlier and since one’s related to a god, this is just how it turned out. Honestly, it’s fine. Although I guess I am a bit more numb to it than I would have been if I didn’t have Ben in my life.”
It actually surprised her how little she cared about getting a level of sacrilege once she had it. It wasn’t something she would ever actually work to raise like Ben occasionally seemed to aim for, but her goddess wasn’t one to care about such a thing. In fact, since she’d gained it as a direct result of her anger over the mistreatment of her partner, it was far more likely that Anailia would specifically approve of her having it. If it somehow did end up causing her issues down the line, she’d just deal with it using as much brute force as she’d need to.
Her comment did get some surprised looks from the other three, all of them wishing they’d gotten a bit more context for whatever had happened between Ben and his students before dinner started while Xilly and Nati couldn’t help but look at Thera with a bit of fear, both of them remembering being basically powerless before her.
It’s not exactly shocking, is it? Still, just going to put up with it.
“It’s not like we’re the only ones with any changes to our status,” Ben said rather forcefully to shift the topic. “It looks like all of you have done pretty damn well on the towers. Since you guys are contenders now, should I take it that you’ve finished the affinitied ones at least?”
“You got it,” Jake said brightly. “Just a level away from making it big. Who knows, maybe by the next time you see us you’ll be lucky enough to say you know yet another future god.”
It wouldn’t have been shocking. The soul mages could supposedly lower the difficulty in leveling and awakening skills and Jake and Amy both knew the two the planet had. Since they now each had a skill at the ninth awakened level, there wasn’t much doubt that even more resources would be going into them both.
“Did you guys finish the other two towers then too?” Thera asked, referring to both the non-affinity tower and warriors tower. “All of the blessings you guys must have, I can’t even imagine.”
“Not yet,” Amy told them. “We’ll be doing both sometime after the second wave. The goal is for both of us to hopefully get one more level before then by ourselves for those skills so we can reap the most benefits from completing them. Of course, as to whether we’ll actually manage that…”
“You’ll be fine,” Ben told them with a wave of his hand. “You guys each have ten tower blessings, getting another level or two in the next year should be easy peasy.”
“Leveling doesn’t exactly come as easy to most people as it does to you,” Amy told him while wearing a complicated expression, thinking about how much she knew he worked from their casual friendship and was left assuming there was more she wasn’t seeing, something others at the table were curious about as well.
“How have you leveled your skills so much since you got here?” Nati hesitantly asked. “Not just your blessed ones, you had to have raised around half from level zero, right? What my grandfather said about you wouldn’t make sense if you came with other awakened skills too.”
“And what exactly did Nare say about me?” Ben asked through narrowed eyes, making her think she’d said something wrong as she rushed to explain.
“Nothing bad. He said when you arrived you would probably have been viewed as the least powerful of the summoned but now he considers you one of the most valuable and a blessing to the world.”
“Okay, Nare stays in my good books. As for how I’ve leveled everything so fast, well, I’m not sure what to tell you. I’m talented, I work hard, and I’ve gotten very very lucky on a lot of occasions, that’s all.”
“I think you’re not putting way too much faith in your luck and not nearly enough of a point on how hard you work,” Thera told him, seeming fairly amused to hear his assessment of himself.
“I mean, I won’t deny I put a lot of effort into my stuff and I strategize on how to finish jobs quickly, but that’s something anyone can do.”
“...Why don’t you show your arms to the table.”
“Okay?”
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He did as his girlfriend asked and raised his arms for them to see, rolling up his sleeves to reveal the numerous metal bands he was wearing, and more importantly, the way they seemed to constantly flicker in everyone's mana sense as he continued what he was always doing. Making and breaking enchantments multiple times a second across all of them for the practice it would give him.
“Can I stop now?”
“In a second. What else are you doing while you’re doing that?”
“I’m pretty sure nothing.”
“Whatever you’re definitely doing with your material magic,” She specified, almost rolling her eyes at how what she was sure had to be something overly complex ended up being forgettable in his eyes.
“Oh, that. Just the usual.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of rainbow mana crystal, about the size of a die but was ever so slightly growing as he materialized a bit more every time he had the spare points of mana for it, while at the same time was constantly transmuting the shape, making it flicker across animals from his current world and his last, as well as creatures of both fiction and mythology, all for the practice it would give his crafting and material manipulation, leaving the people who knew him to look on in resignation as they compared what he considered working hard against their own standard while his two students were left more stunned than anything else.
“You’re doing that all the time?” Nati asked him, not really believing it.
“No, of course not,” Ben denied, leaving her relieved by the answer.
“Yeah, that would obviously be ridiculous.”
“Only when I’m awake and aren’t doing something better for training my skills.”
“Sure, only when you’re… You really do this every waking hour?”
“Hey, it keeps my thoughts occupied,” He said in his defense. “Which is not exactly the easiest thing in the world. Besides, if I want to improve I have to practice, it’s as simple as that.”
“Ah, but I can think of one other way you can improve, Ben,” Jake told him. “Challenge craftsman’s tower and while you’re at it carry the rest of us through. I want that complete set of tower blessings.”
“Pass. I’m not desperate enough. The only time I considered it was when I was struggling to push connect over the edge. Now that I’ve done it, there’s no point.”
“The point would be to get you that blessing,” Jake tempted. “Come on man, you know it’s good. Don’t you love hearing all of the levels that come with it? Plus the way your attributes grow after?”
Ben couldn’t deny it, he did love that bit. He loved it a lot in fact, but who wouldn’t? Feeling that instant hit of growth that came with a powerful enough blessing was always going to be incredible, but as good as it was, there was one key reason it wasn’t worth going to the tower, at least not then.
“I don’t feel like I’m anywhere close to hitting a wall yet,” Ben said with a shrug. “For the three skills I have that I could put a free level towards, I think I can still grow them all under my own efforts. Maybe once I’m at a place where it doesn’t feel like I’ll be able to manage any of them anymore or else it seems like it will take too long then I’ll give in, but as it stands that would probably be a few years away.”
“Boo. In that case, if you ever do go for it, make sure you grab us. I really want that complete set.”
Mmh, maybe I’ll give in after they do the other two towers if they don’t manage to get to the third tier by then.
Ben could easily see the value that either of the two becoming gods would add to the war efforts, with Jake having the sort of magic that meant he’d be able to cast any tier three spell for any affinity, and likely non-affinity too since Ben didn’t have much doubt the magics would merge into each other at that point, while Amy would be left as some sort of god of augmentations or combat depending on what happened with her skills. Realistically, if letting them tag along while he took on a tower could get them there then it would be more than worth it, but it would be something he’d think on later. After all, there were some easier ways he could think of to help them get a quick bit of extra power.
“It’s not a tower, but if you guys sign up with the adventurers guild then I can offer you one or two pretty quick paths to power,” Ben mused, getting an instantaneous response.
“Already done, what’s the trick?”
“You guys are already signed up to be adventurers? Why?”
“As soon as this idiot heard about the place, do you think he was able to stop himself?” Amy asked Ben, looking tired as she remembered being dragged along. “We’re basically members in name only though, even if we are rank one.”
“But you still have the job show up as an option for you, right?”
“We do.”
“Good, in that case, next time one of you guys finishes whatever you’re currently on, make sure you take the adventurer’s job and send a message to Thera’s mom that you took it. The moment I’m able to, I'll come and cheat you to the sort of job levels you can’t even imagine, even if it might take a month or so depending on where I’m at with my own job at the time.”
He was getting curious looks for how exactly he’d do that, with only Thera already knowing as she remembered the way he’d pulled things only a few weeks before. Ben had plenty of mind options now after having finished mind master and more than a couple were sure to still be quick for him. He could easily push Jake, Amy, and Thera through a few more jobs, maybe even Yuzu depending on the one she was on and how far along it she was.
So good thing I didn’t just rush through those mind options. Knew keeping them would come in handy.
Jake was visibly excited at the prospect too.
“You know, we could just change now-”
“Absolutely not,” Amy told him, acting as the voice of reason and responsibility. “I’m over halfway through mine and you’re almost two-thirds for yours. You aren’t throwing away all of the experience you’ve gotten by changing your job part way through.”
“That really would defeat the point,” Ben agreed. “Just work hard and do your best. Whenever you finish up I’ll still be around.”
He couldn’t imagine it taking that long for them to finish so as long as they got it done before he was going to end up taking master of all, it would be fine. Better than fine even since it meant he’d be squeezing a bit of free strength into his friends.
Let’s see, given how many people can be in a party, maybe it would be better to leave Yuzu out so we could get both Will and Steph in too. Sorry Yuzu, since you’re already at the third tier you don’t really need that little extra, do you?
Excuse you, I’m not bending or manipulating anything. I am using it fully as intended, to get as much growth for myself as possible. That’s literally what it’s there for.
Which is good for the world as a whole. Hell, I’m practically doing a service by doing this! I deserve a reward, like a medal or a trophy or a big wad of cash.
Admittedly, that’s pretty good too.
His back and forth with Myriad was broken by a flick to his nose, with Thera giving him an amused look.
“You know, with everything going on in your head it really shouldn’t be so obvious when you’re talking to someone else,” She chuckled. “Gonna let the rest of us in on what’s going on?”
“Ah, Myriad just had some comments about how incredibly fantastic I am at finishing up jobs. He says I’m a prodigy, deserving of rewards and trophies and titles that aren’t going to freak anyone out when they see them.”
“Okay, maybe you didn’t say that, but I’m pretty sure I picked it up through subtext,” Ben laughed before focusing back on the table for the night. Since he had his friends there, they really were the ones who deserved his full attention when compared against the god he spent every night with so he tried to make sure he gave it to them, all of the while ignoring the strange look he was getting from one at the table from that small exchange.