Back in the shop, laying the finishing touches on the two new materializers he’d made after discussing the topic with the gods, it was finally time to test them as Ben activated both enchantments, with each of them producing a cubic foot of material, one based off of a lost fruit of the dryad homeworld and the other modeled off the meat of a domesticated creature that had made its way to the planet with their original species, both needing to be tasted and tested as Ben prepared to do exactly that.

Starting with the fruit, he simply cut it up to be eaten between him and all of his clones, each one chewing and examining it as he tasted it with many mouths, coming to a simple conclusion.

“Not great.”

It wasn’t bad, it was something he could eat and stomach and, after an extensive talk with the gods, was sure to be largely nutritious to the majority of people on the planet, but it wasn’t good either. It was a single cell, again and again and again, lacking all of the complexity of true tissue and then degraded further as it was simplified. It was, without a doubt, a food that would be worthwhile in times of scarcity but nothing else, with that fact reinforced as he materialized it again with his own power instead of the machines, using all of the details of it he hadn’t been able to include and finding that even if it still wasn’t great, it had a bigger depth of flavour to make it worthwhile in the end.

Which means if I’m ever in an emergency at least, I’ll have something adequate to eat, meaning I just have to try the next one.

With the cube of meat being cooked over a flame before he tried it, giving him no choice but to admit that it was even worse. Without any fat to it the texture was tough and the taste was beyond lacking, a fact repeated when he materialized it himself, but in the end it was healthy and it would do.

“Let’s see, even if it’s not great, slice it thin and cover it in a sauce and it will be good enough to keep someone alive. Hmm, actually, it should be fine to eat raw too. Not much risk of bacteria from something being materialized.”

The thought made him give it a try, finding it to actually be fairly better that way. Still not good of course, but any improvement was worth taking and he immediately began his work of creating more, talking up to his god as he did.

“So Myriad, how many of these things do you think I should make? With how many souls I want to put in them and my current power level, they should be able to materialize every minute without running out of mana and hopefully if my soul expands again soon we can speed that up even more.”

“Can you ask Nare to think of something appropriate for me? And I really mean appropriate. These things should go for a lot but I am willing to accept a payment plan that stretches out across after the war ends if that’s what needs to happen.”

Ben just shrugged. “In the event I do die and the world goes on, it would be nice to at least know the people I care about would be able to divide up my wealth, including you. You know what? Give me a second.”

While he was on the topic he materialized a letter in a box, leaving it tucked away in the corner of the shop where he didn’t think Falk would fiddle with it if he came through.

“And now I officially have a will. Hope you feel loved Myriad, a third of my wealth is going to your church so you better use it well. If I die just tell Nare to tell Falk what that is, okay?”

<...I really don’t like this depressing train of thought.>

“Hey, better to have it and not need it, right? I’m still going to do everything in my power to live so don’t worry too much about it and just appreciate the fortune your church is going to be getting. You’re the biggest recipient by a mile.”

“Everyone has to go eventually man, though I’m sorry to say that I don’t plan on merging into you when the time comes, I’ll see whatever’s next for myself.”

“Ha, maybe I should then,” He teased. “That’s me cheating my way to godhood if my current attempts don’t work out.”

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Myriad went quiet from there, letting Ben carry on his work as he went, making all of the materializers he could and making sure to include an engraving saying they were brought about by the church of Myriad on every single one. No reason not to include that bit of advertising on an item that was going to be feeding the world after all and scoring his god some more faith never actually hurt either of them, especially not for something as simple as that.

And while he worked he continued to think, his newest creation bringing a simple question to his mind.

What else can I do with souls?

It was a question worth considering now that he’d found a use beyond just stealing their power and creating them for the massive quantities of experience such an act gave. He’d found something wholly unique that souls could be used for and when there was one discovery there was sure to be more in waiting, just begging to be learned as he went over all he knew.

Though unfortunately, the two most promising avenues came up empty as he went over them. Both the spells of death and soul magic were applied to the souls of people, beings who had lived their lives and had experience to reflect in it. Sure, perhaps a death mage could turn one of the souls he created into a ghost to force it to linger but without the experience of a life behind it, what would it even be good for?

Same when it came to soul magic. He was sure that some of the spells could be used on the things he made, directing them to greater levels of strength and power, but applied to something that had never held a mind and it would be pointless, forcing him to look at other options, with one more promising than the rest as he once more addressed the heavens.

“Myriad, I’m about to test something so could you keep watch and be prepared to grab some help if things go wrong?”

“I want to clarify that it will probably be fine.”

“Okay, fair point, I can step out. Still, do me a favour and watch. I prefer to have friends in high places for when things go wrong.”

“You got it.”

Slipping off his jacket and leaving his clones behind, Ben stepped outside of the shop, back to the streets of Stonewall, enjoying the smallest bit of foot traffic around him there to take advantage of in the event something went wrong as he put together his small test.

Taking a soul crystal he’d made for the materializers, he slid it into a divot he’d created in one of his bracelets before enchanting it with the desired effect; beastform.

The same skill Ralia and the true shifter held and the same skill that had once led to his own hand attacking him from the demon soul he’d let into his body, he’d never experimented with it again because of that and because of a firm demand from the gods that he never trap the soul of anything else for his experiments, but now he had a different avenue to look at it.

How would a blank soul, one that had never been touched by a vessel to hold it, react to being used? Would his body shapeshift in some unusual way like the demon’s soul had warped his arm? Perhaps since it had always been a soul and nothing more it might force him to take on some ghostly qualities. He wouldn’t say no to a way to phase through walls if he got the chance, no matter how low he actually viewed the odds of that happening, but really there was no way to know if he’d get any result or nothing at all without trying it and holding off no longer he activated the enchantment to mingle the blank soul with his own, all to see what he would get.

With the answer being nothing physical. His flesh didn’t warp or change, on that front he was still entirely human, or as entirely human as someone with the ninth level of integrated demonic body could be, but there was in fact an instant difference he could feel within himself.

Power. Neither an insignificant nor a world-changing amount, while he wore it he didn’t just feel an increase to one of his attributes but instead all of them, a rough estimate as he moved his body telling him everything had just improved by around ten percent without any obvious side effects while he kept it up.

“Okay, this is good. This is actually really, really good. Ten percent is nothing to turn your nose up at and since it’s a tool it’s easy to keep up, leaving only the question of how this is going to affect my growth rates while I wear it. Something worth testing, but first, how well does it stack?”

He was immediately trying again, adding a soul crystal to a bracelet on his other arm and activating it, this time feeling a twinge of pain in his soul as the spiritual weight of a second one was piled on, with more moving around making him aware that the increase hadn’t kept consistent, instead ending at a total of fifteen percent improvement and testing more from there.

Each time he activated another the pain he was under increased a bit and each time the performance of the additional one halved, telling him there was an increase to a decent point but nothing more, the potential getting ever closer to twenty percent more but never actually reaching it and showing him that there really wasn’t a need to wear more than three at once for a good enough effect if he was going to, taking them off in the end without issue as plans formed in his head.

“Okay, let’s see. Myriad, can you send a practice dummy my way so I can have someone to experiment on?”

“Ask Sachel to send Skoe over. Tell her she and Ralia can come along too so they can decide if they want to give them a go.”

“I’ll pay them, it’s fine. I do feel the need to point out that your church isn’t exactly doling out the living expenses for its core members.”

“And now one can be even finer if she wants the chance to earn some money, so for now, just ask her. I’ll make it worth their while.”