With Thera leaving to give a bit of help at the hospital for what ti remained in the day, Ben turned to Delair and Mora once he needed to leave himself, grabbing both their attention away from their cleaning.
“Alright, I’m going to need to step out for a bit so Delair, head on ho for the day. Mora, you okay to walk her back and I’ll co pick you up later?”
“I will.”
“Thanks kiddo, hopefully I won’t be too long but both of you keep safe on your way.”
“We will,” Delair called back, already tugging Mora along in excitent and curiosity at how the rest of her village was going to react to the boy’s sudden change, letting a small smile creep onto Ben’s face despite the stress of the day as he was left alone, the only thing left to do being to pass through the gate to all who waited beyond.
With the guild on the other side being even busier than usual, not that that was the most shocking considering he was helping twice the number of people finish their jobs and many of the parties he’d be working with would only be with him for whatever remaining levels they had before he’d need to move onto the next to help. It wasn’t like every mber of every party would show up when only the one with the adventurer’s job was needed but while he could see a few individuals there without whoever they were linked to, plenty more seed to want to be present, either for the conveniently available job crystal the guild held or else to see him personally, the one going around and seeming to be blessing the world with experience.
Well, whatever anyone else wants to do is their business. More important is that it looks like both third tiers decided to co in person this ti.
One of whom looked far different than the last ti Ben had seen him. On his previous encounter with the true shifter, the third tier had been purely aquatic, having both fins and gills but that was no longer so. While he was displaying so more aggressive traits, sharp claws and fangs along with a thick, protective layer of skin and muscle, as if he was trying to be prepared for a fight then and there, his appearance was entirely adapted to the surface, looking right at ho.
And as for the other…
She hadn’t appeared to have noticed him yet, too locked on to the person whose party it seed she’d joined, being oblivious to how badly they looked like they’d wanted to leave her intense yet eyeless gaze, was Abel, the arrangent of all the parties telling him she would be the last he’d be helping.
Which does leave the question of why her next? There’s a few other native third tiers who should have way better odds of either getting an advanced third-tier job or maybe even a level but I guess it could be as simple as they weren’t planning on trying to do anything back to back like this and she happened to be free. Eh, whatever, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just get to work.
With his first group waiting he went over and joined it, accepting the invitation of the party leader at the sa ti he touched his job crystal, the first ti he’d let himself since finishing his last to avoid temptation and letting him see all of the new options as they flooded his mind.
AVAILABLE JOBS
Trap userCraftsman- alchemy pathCraftsman- artistic pathCraftsman- blacksmith pathCraftsman- cooking pathCraftsman- stonecrafts pathCraftsman- sewing pathMathematicianHigh marksmanHigh destruction mageBeginner puppeteerOutsider AssassinCyclerBeginner dancerEntréeSoul creatorGod defiling gardenerMaster actualizerBody masterMaster tankEldritch mind userKing of manaKing of staminaMind breakerPrimordial hereticIntelligence embodintKing of vitalityTherapist
Just when I was starting to make a dent in it they give ten more. He thought to himself, feeling a grin stretch across his face as he did for all of the new ones he’d gained.
A few of which he’d either known or suspected he’d gain access to. The three new king jobs were no shock given how straightforward the rules of unlocking them were and both body master and master tank had each been heavily suspected for the awakenings he’d claid at the end of craftsmans’ tower.
Intelligence embodint had been suspected too based on Thera’s jobs but less certain, Ben hadn’t known for sure how high the threshold for it was going to be but given king and queen jobs required ten thousand points of an attribute, he was willing to guess one hundred thousand was one of the more likely answers, leaving only four others to look over.
He’d of course known that he’d be gaining jobs for his third-tier skills, with eldritch mind user and primordial heretic standing out instantly for all of the curiosity each held. Given the long line of sacrilege jobs he’d taken to that point, he had no doubt that the bonuses it would give would be incredible, even if he could assu little in the way of any potential levels and skills but as for the other, it itself presented a rather unfortunate problem. He didn’t believe he’d be able to speed through it, at least not to the scale he would for others.
A mind user had been a vital part of every party he’d been a part of for the experience his thought structure could create based on that job’s requirents but the one he’d unlocked had to be specialized for his mind, making it far harder to cheat in the end if it were one he was going to take.
Of course, hard but not significantly. Before, I’d been avoiding the job soul creator because making souls had been my main experience producer for doing this and with that job specialized for it, it wasn’t going to get much either but now, I could use a mind user to finish it almost instantly for the bonuses and hopefully levels it would give to soul source and any growth to that would make finishing however hard eldritch mind is going to be so much easier. Plus, with all of the mana I now have I was already going to be way, way faster at it anyway and even if that didn’t work for so reason, well, I’ve still got my heretic strat. There’s a lot of ways to make it work, just maybe not this ti.
While it did seem like it would give him so connect bonuses too since it was thoroughly a mind job, it wasn’t going to be the priority for that day, being left to wait for perhaps the next.
And seeing the last two… I’m going to bet they’re related.
Mind breaker was obvious, drawn for the bonus skill awakening his mind had left him and therapist was almost certainly tied to his use of it. While the results hadn’t been as good as he’d wanted, he had been directly using the skill to try and help his fellow prisoners break free of the damage their long confinent had inflicted upon them, making for a tempting option for the future should he ever want to try and improve the results he’d already gotten.
But with the options I’ve currently got… Oh, what the heck, I’d been planning on taking master actualizer in this run anyway, I might as well clear out all of my master jobs in general. Give body master.
Alright, slowly but surely becoming harder to kill, big fan of that so let’s see what’s next.
He worked his way through parties from there, helping them finish one by one while he gained his own experience before finishing his job and arriving at the midpoint of that run where the true shifter Foast gave him a tired look that slowly gained so energy as it turned into a grin.
“The soulsmith’s boy, right? So you’re the one doing all of this?”
“Yeah, I’ve always had a talent for gaining experience.”
“Ha, if you’re really going to finish the job I’ve been stuck on for decades in a day then calling it a simple talent isn’t going to cut it. If Rook ever reappears, I wonder if he’ll at least feel a bit embarrassed about causing a scene over you before?”
“Doesn’t matter, the deal with the gods for my work is that he doesn’t get my services.”
“Ha, another reason for him to regret then, I can’t imagine how long he’s been stuck on his job but it might asure in the centuries. That ass has always been a lazy one, at least as long as I’ve known him.”
“Well, who knows, maybe being away from everything for a while will be good for him,” Ben shrugged, his thoughts briefly turning to the immortal he’d trapped in an item and dropped to the bottom of the ocean before deciding that he ultimately didn’t care. “For now though, let’s see if I really can get you done as fast as I’m hoping, I can already feel Abel’s eyes burrowing into while she waits for her turn.”
“It looks more like she wants a bite of you than she cares about finishing her job.”
“...Yeah, yeah I can see that.”
Hungry or not though, she’d have to wait. Ben had his own thoughts on what he was seeing from the shifter, that third tier having grown considerably since Ben had last seen him but while he was curious, it didn’t really matter in the face of what was coming next. This was the big test for him, one he’d thought of shortly after his awakenings and only needed to be confird, with all of the tools he’d need for it in hand. All that was to see if he’d really generate as much experience as he was expecting and with that he made his choice, speaking it out clearly within the confines of his mind where no nosy god could overhear.
Give primordial heretic.
The parts of Ben still within his realm all got to see as it expanded before their eyes, giving them more space to build and work with as they practiced their actualizing but that wasn’t the notification that mattered to him in any way.
No, what mattered was that he’d in essence managed to prove what he’d been saying to the gods. Ti was relative and the way he could think ant that he’d be able to keep growing his sacrilege even further.
He was still connected to Quox, the god’s soul still pressed against Ben’s flesh on the band he wore and he’d still been using him for all he was worth, trying to claim as much experience from the deity as he could while the god who’d helped doom the world could only suffer through it. Sotis trying to fight back but usually screaming, either about the unjustness of the acts against him or even for rcy, trying to convince Ben he was worthy of it but all of that was only if he could articulate words at all in the midst of what he was being put through, a being that was once so high now powerless in the hands of the evil god who held him.
And it hadn’t even been a day, not in the physical world at least. The millennia of tornt within his mind where those acts were taking place though had been taking their toll on the other in a way that still couldn’t help perplex Ben. For all he’d put the god through, it couldn’t help but feel unreasonably slow when looking at it from the ti they were existing at, leaving him with one inescapable truth.
Torturing a soul is inefficient. He thought with a sigh. I an, for , there’s really nothing that could be more efficient when only looking at the results I’ve gotten in the physical world but still, for a third-tier skill, it seems like what I’m doing is only giving a trickle and with no real way to test if certain acts I’m doing are giving more experience than others, there’s nothing I can do but keep up at it.
The level ca with another problem too, naly the fact that anyone who could see his soul, the two soul mages, Falk, Verbum, and Nati and Xilly both if they used connect on him would all be able to tell that he’d gained a third tier level in an impossible amount of ti, a fact that was sure to stick in all of their minds for long enough that, even if the gods weren’t watching when it was first noticed, would be sure to be discovered.
Except none of that even actually matters because I’m living with the great soul spirit who can do the sa and I’m sure that plenty of regular soul spirits are going to make their way into our ho too. Okay, doesn’t matter, that’s a future problem. Focus on finishing this.
He may have taken a third-tier job but he’d co prepared, not just utilizing the new shape of his mind and not just materializing souls but using the god he was connected to, every bit of pain and anguish he inflicted translating to experience to see if all of that together would be enough, getting his confirmation only a mont later.
While he himself was satisfied, happy to have gotten the result he’d expected, Foast was incomparably so, his eyes alight as he lifted Ben by the shoulders and spun around, giving a cheer as he did.
“Soulsmith’s boy, I had my doubts but you really did it,” He laughed as he set Ben down, earlier signs of exhaustion gone. “This changes everything! Oh, I haven’t felt the joy of taking a new job in ages, I can’t wait!”
“Be my guest,” Ben said, handing over his personal crystal while the shifter shook in his excitent, going over all of the options he held while Ben appraised the man once more, still not sure of the changes he was seeing.
When he’d first t the man, or at least been in the sa room as him, Ben had looked at his and everyone else’s souls and found him to be unusually skilled even by the standards of those who shared his rank, holding a few hundred of first tiers at varying levels that at the ti, he’d ignored beyond what he could put on rings, content to chalk it up to the effects of a long life but could assu that no longer. Most of them had grown, many even by multiple levels, and he had dozens more already in the few months that had passed, raising the inescapable question of how.
A question he was able to form theories on easily enough as he looked which he decided to confirm, searching the other’s mind for answers and finding them, with it all coming down to the nature of his skill.
The way he’d shapeshift was tied to what it had grown from, the beastform skill he’d originally had getting stronger and stronger, rging with not only life magic but surprisingly space as well, along with a few other skills before it had reached its current height which granted it its key ability, absorbing the souls of the things he killed, with the added side effect being that it seed to give him the skills of the beasts he’d absorbed.
Before the war, that had ant simple animals that hadn’t even been system integrated but now he was taking in demons in droves, with all of them having real work put into their growth, making their power Foast’s own as well. It seed obvious too but when Ben had simply looked before he’d missed it for one main reason. The shifter was lacking the skills that would have been the biggest giveaway.
The third tier before him didn’t hold any sort of soul magic, the defining skill of the demons, but the answer to that existed within the other’s mories as well, with certain skills he’d claim rging into others.
With his third-tier skill being, in essence, a pit for the magics that had already gone into it, as well as both death and any soul variant. Any ti he’d kill a beast that had any of those he’d get a notification telling him what skills he’d gain and how they’d rge, aning everything he killed was a direct act to beco even more powerful.
Which can’t help but make wonder what would happen if he kills a god. The question wiggling its way into Ben’s mind. Instant divinity? Maybe even the ability to gather and use faith while still mortal? Man, not only would that be insanely cool and overpowered, it might even allow for the creation or discovery of entirely new types of skills.
Really, it was an ability so powerful that it couldn’t help but raise more and more questions for him as Ben secretly took the man apart, examining the last two years of his life in the background before letting himself focus more on the world around him too beyond his curiosity, getting to watch as the shifter selected the one advanced third tier job he’d been given, with the notifications instantly having him slapping Ben’s back.
“Ha, and let’s just say things went as good as they could have,” He said in naked excitent, Foast’s own mind in a frenzy for what had just happened that he was trying to contain, becoming the first third-tier Ben had helped who’d gained a level to their core skill.
So finally a success, huh? Good for him.
It was doubtless that all of the demon souls he’d been absorbing and the way they’d been rging into his own had helped him but Ben didn’t doubt the shifter had deserved it, despite a few more worrying things among his mind that had been seen in Ben’s search for answers. It was plain that he was using his power to the best of his ability to protect land and sea alike, any growth to soone like that would be a benefit.
“Well, I’m glad it went well for you,” Ben said, acting as though he hadn’t just examined every mont since the waves had started of the man’s existence to satisfy his own curiosity. “I’ve gotta move on too though so if you don’t mind.”
He held out his hand for his job crystal back, the other returning it without a thought, too occupied with the success he’d gotten to spare much mind for anything else and switching to staring at his card in glee, leaving Ben to move on, joining his next party.
Which ans next is gonna be god defiling gardener.
Okay, worst one so far. Not a single level? No awakenings or new skills either? La.
Two left though, with his second last choice waiting for him. He’d planned on taking every master job and he’d ant it, leaving only one more to go.
Master actualizer.
A skill that’s going to make it easier for to actualize in the mortal realm? Gonna need to test to see if that will reduce the mana cost even more when I pair it with materialization but I will absolutely take that. And now for last.
“Hey number two,” Abel said as he walked over, finally freeing her unwilling conversation partner. “You sll like you’ve gotten a lot stronger, even compared to when you first walked in here.”
“Just a bit,” Ben told her lightly. “I’ve been keeping productive. How’ve you been though, Abel? Doing well?”
“Of course, every day’s a blast and there’s always new friends to be made too,” She laughed, slapping the adventurer she was with on the arm while Ben took note of them flinching, the girl’s spooky look and bright attitude creating an unnerving contrast for anyone not used to her. “And so I hear you’re gonna work your way through my job? Seeing as how you got that old perv done so fast, I guess there’s so truth to it.”
“Ah, well I’m not sure if it will be exactly as fast as it was for him but it’ll still be nothing in comparison to however you’re currently getting through it.”
“Sounds good, sounds good! I had more from the start I’ve wanted to take, lotta different skills to raise and things to try out so join up already.”
“Yeah yeah, can do.”
Under Abel’s prompting, the adventurer extended the invitation to their party which Ben accepted, rging their experience pools and leaving him to take his final choice of that run, with the one he was looking at feeling inescapable despite the worries he held for it.
He’d been putting off selecting outsider for a while now despite feeling confident that it would be powerful based off of both his own experience with one as well as what he’d seen when he’d probed Abel’s mories in the past. It was a job with effects he couldn’t guess at and given a few of the experiences he’d had taking mysterious jobs in the past it couldn’t help but make him worry.
Really, it was one he would have preferred to put off longer too, more than willing to make more excuses if not for one glaring fact. He’d have Abel in his party.
If it really was going to be a third-tier job then having a person who was literally part outsider giving it experience would only help. Odds may have been good that the shape of his mind and ability to create souls would be more than enough for the experience for it that he’d need but since he likely wouldn’t be able to take advantage of his latest cheat of torturing a god for centuries of experience, he was trying to be prepared for the eventuality that it could take up to a day or two to get both his and Abel’s jobs done together. Far from the longest of tis but if her presence could shorten it even a little then he’d happily take it, accepting his choice and adding a new point to his status he already hoped the gods wouldn’t notice as he thought it out, feeling all of the changes that ca with it.
Outsider.
The choice made and undeniably a third-tier job for the bonuses he’d received but he wasn’t given the leeway to process all that had co with it. With the job had co what he’d feared, a new change in himself as the nerves in his body lit up in an experience he wasn’t even sure qualified as pain and the mory of peering into the chaos filled the totality of his mind, all while his divine heart was left pounding in his chest as he fell to the ground.
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