It was only a week later, after continuing his regular work while training Valaria on the side that he had her at the ninth level and was excited to see if she’d be able to pass the boundary that day, even if that meant dragging her along for a different task and he pulled her through the gate to Allfaith to meet a few very important people, some of them for the second time.
The goal was to awaken her, but obviously that meant they’d want to get the most out of the experience, thus meaning they were going to see the two soul mages, with the priestess doing her best to hide just how nervous the experience left her. But as she was doing that, Ben was also helping two others at the water's edge, the two awakened enchanters of the sea, connecting with them as well to let them feel as he used the enchanting modifier and guiding them as they went, all to properly pass on the technique.
Like with the last time he’d taught anyone it, connecting with them made it reasonably quick work as he felt the two get it only an hour into their practice, letting them get back to their personal tasks soon after. As much as he would have enjoyed having more of a chance to talk to them, they too were busy with filling their own orders and now that they had a tool that could improve their enchantments so much, they needed to put it into practice to do what they could for their own part of the world, in the end just leaving the four of them.
Both Yuzu and Elvat would reapply their spell to Valaria any time they felt it weaken while they focused on their own work, leaving Ben to do his best to help the priestess, even if it was taking longer than he’d expected.
A part of that was his own fault though. Even if he was exposing greater and greater bits of his mind to her, he was being mindful of her state and safety, not forcing her skill to confront anything too massive from him for fear of what it might do.
Ben still hadn’t put the strength of his full mind against another mortal’s, he didn’t know what would happen if he were to try. There was a chance it would kill them, the way a normal mind would kill a bug from the difference in power, but it was getting to the point where if he wanted to get results, he was going to have to. Not just for the sake of finishing up, but out of consideration for Valaria as well. Despite how hard he was trying to keep it to himself, his headache was leaking through the connection.
Feeling the pain of a more powerful mind was a deeply unpleasant experience that she was insisting on putting up with. Ben had already done so much to help her raise her skills and now he’d even requested help from the soul mages to make sure that she’d get the most out of her awakening, should she achieve it. To not be willing to put up with whatever level of unpleasantness there was to face would be nothing but ungrateful as far as she was concerned, especially when said unpleasantness was a pain he was suppressing in his attempt to help her.
It was a feeling he respected but didn’t want to be forcing on her though. There was no reason to force things when she’d already learned so quickly. Even ignoring the different starting levels, she had taken a lot less time to raise everything compared to when he’d trained Nati and Xilly, he didn’t see a reason to push so hard beyond her own desires.
But those desires are what’s important in the end I suppose. He sighed to himself before speaking up.
“Okay Valaria, I’m going to do something. It’s probably going to hurt but it should get you over the edge, are you okay with that?”
“Absolutely.”
“Alright. Yuzu, sorry but can you take a small break right now? I’m hoping you can start preemptively healing her because I’m about to place a lot of strain on her brain.”
“Ben, I’m sure it’s easy for you to forget this but other people tend to need their brains,” The young soul mage sighed. “Doing things that might damage them is a big no-no.”
“It’s not going to be that much strain, I figure it’s just better safe than sorry. Anyway, I’m doing it in three so both of you prepare. One, Two, Three.”
At that he altered the mind that she was connecting with to a far greater extent than at any other point in her practice with him, letting her catch a small glimpse of what he really was. All at once, she was exposed to the full force of five hundred of his minds, their unnatural nature touching her thoughts and leaving notifications to ring out in both her head and his own.
Well, that’s a lot to unpack.
He’d successfully helped awaken her skill, but it had come with surprises of its own. He’d honestly only expected her to get the high version of the skill, but for reasons he couldn’t guess at, she got a unique one in the form of advanced connection. Not only that though, it had come with a bonus skill, a thing that seemed constantly out of Ben’s grasp despite how many he managed to awaken, with the one she’d just acquired being a skill he was familiar with.
Mental expansion, a skill Ben himself possessed before it merged into unnatural mind that expanded the scope of one's thoughts, and only a second after she’d gained it did it rise up to its first level as well.
And her bonus skill then?
Interesting, but more importantly, it wouldn't be an ordeal for them! If you were listening, you should have noticed the system just called me a great teacher! And you know what? It’s absolutely right!
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Eh, least I could do. And now I’m officially guiltless for tricking her into becoming a high priestess.
Hush hush hush now, the believers are talking.
“How do you feel?” Ben asked her, seeing that more than anything else she was stunned, even as she suffered under a sudden and intense migraine that Yuzu was rushing to treat.
Ben opted to ignore just how worried the soul mage looked as she did it, trusting she’d have it well in hand and instead focused on the priestess as she began to speak.
“Um, sore. And strong, really really strong. And different. It feels like something happened in my head.”
“That would have been Ben nearly destroying part of your brain,” Yuzu chimed in as Valaria shook her head.
“Not just that, it feels like a difference in my thoughts I guess?”
“That would be the mental expansion you just got,” Ben explained. “It lets you think in a broader way, to put it simply. Don’t worry, it’s helpful and you’ll be feeling used to it in a day or two.”
“Ah, alright,” It was only after a second that a look of realization overtook her, her eyes widening and her head taking a bow. “Thank you so much for this, I don’t know how to repay you.”
“There’s no repaying, we’re members of the same faith. Just work as hard as you can for Myriad, that’s all I want.”
The answer filled her heart with pride to hear, Valaria having no way to know that Ben directing her thanks towards working for Myriad had less to do with his love of the faith than it did his desire to have as little to do in it as possible, but it had the desired effect as she began praying then and there.
It’s fine. I was happy to help and this means she’ll work harder for you. It’s a win-win.
Not just a good person, I’m a great person! A great person who just so happens to not want to lead anyone or go out to convert people. It’s fine, you have better believers who can handle that bit.
It was only a moment later that Yuzu finished healing Valaria, looking relieved as she did.
“If you ever intend to force another awakening like that again, you better make sure to do it when I’m around.”
“Sure, will do. It might be a little while though.”
He didn’t expect anyone else to get close enough to it on their own for a while to come and nobody else seemed to want his help for it. While he had a few people come back during the days he’d been practicing with Valaria, it was never the same people twice. It had resulted in most of Myriad’s believers ending up with a new level to the skill, but not one enjoyed putting up with it.
Yuzu looked at him for a moment, wanting to feel sure he was being serious before nodding.
“Okay then, Valaria, congratulations on your awakening but I’ll need to cut things short here, I need to borrow Ben. Elvat, I’m doing the thing so I’ll be back later.”
“The thing?” Ben asked, being dismissed as he did.
“You’ll see in a minute, just come on.”
With no reason to decline after she’d just done him the favour of helping Valaria, Ben said a quick goodbye to the two before letting himself be dragged along, finding them heading in the direction of not only Jake’s home, but where Ben felt the pull of his bind, ever telling him where he could find Thera if he needed to.
“So, you don’t need a constant guard anymore?” He asked her, making small talk along the way and getting a shake of her head.
“Uliel and Vasta wanted to keep it up but I’m powerful enough that it’s a waste of resources at this point. They’re still worried but there's bigger concerns in the world than the other people on it right now and if I’m in a city I’m perfectly safe. And how have you been, mister great teacher?”
Ben gave her a wide smile at that. “It’s probably a good title, right? I’d bet money it will either make it easier for me to help others raise their skills or else stack with awakener to make it easier for me to help awaken people. I’m going to have to bother Verbum later to check for me.”
“You know-” She started in surprise, only to trail off in the end. “No, I guess it makes sense that you would have met Verbum if you’ve got access to the top of the library. Still, I’m surprised you can get him to help you. He’s a little…”
“He’s got his issues but I think he’s probably nice enough. You’ve just gotta get past the, well, everything.”
“Ha, I haven’t managed.”
They continued on, chatting and catching up with Yuzu in particular poking and prodding at the changes in his status until they finally arrived at their destination, finding Jake getting beaten up outside by Uliel while Thera kept up her practice with Vasta, with everyone only stopping once Yuzu called out to them as she ran over to take Thera’s arm.
“Break time! I need to borrow Thera.”
She left no room for argument either, instead just pulling her over to Ben as she focused on the two of them.
“Alright, so I’ve gotten a lot better at my magic,” She told them proudly.
“Uh, congrats?”
“And as you guys might remember, there was something I was going to do for you both when that happened.”
The two looked at each other, neither immediately sure of what she was talking about until one option clicked in Ben’s head. Something only soul mages could do that Elvat had already done for them both.
“Are you giving us your blessing?”
“That’s right! There’s still enough time to take advantage of it so Thera first, what do you want?”
The blessing of a soul mage wasn’t as powerful as a proper god’s, only able to be directed at one aspect of a status so the sudden decision caught her off guard, but it was only a second before she had her answer.
“I’ll take it to my mana regeneration. Thank you, Yuzu.”
“Ha, make sure you become super strong since I’m doing this, okay? And Ben?”
“Same please.”
“Yuzu, you really are the best,” Ben told her, immediately enjoying the feeling of getting the new blessing, even if it wasn’t going to have an immediate effect. Just knowing he’d gained one more felt good, with that feeling only breaking as he noticed Yuzu start to fall and he rushed out to catch her before she’d hit the ground.
Thera immediately started looking at her, trying to figure out if it was simply mana exhaustion from the spell or if something else was wrong and was only able to relax as Vasta rushed over.
“Don’t worry, that spell just takes a bit more out of her than you’d expect,” She explained, taking Yuzu from Ben. “It’s never easy for a soul mage but she probably could have used a little more practice with it before thinking she could do it twice in one day. Still, she’ll be fine.”
“Is there anything we can do to help in the meantime?” Thera asked, immediately feeling guilty that her friend had just exhausted herself for her.
“Don’t worry about it. Thera, we’ll cut your lessons here for today so go home and relax, it looks like I’ll just need to nurse this child a bit.”
Calmed by Vasta’s casual attitude about the state of the soul mage but still feeling unsure about just what happened, the two went home for the day, trying to leave the small bit of worry they felt behind.