Instantly, Ben’s thoughts were back to soul magic, a power that he had been sure hadn’t applied to him when he’d taken those fragments in yet now couldn’t be so confident as he examined the area where that third tier power met godhood, stepping into the realm of the divine. Both gods and soul mages alike could wield them in ways no one else could, but Ben felt like he might have just joined them.

Blessings and skills, two things that the gods could give and two things the soul mages could too, with at least one instance of one on the mortal side of things able to create and grant skills to others, and both relied on the manipulation of a soul's essence.

A blessing was a piece of a god’s soul that had been cut off, while a skill was the shaping of essence towards a certain function, both things that Ben thought should be possible for him to do. Whether he could materialize the effect he desired was one thing, but even if he couldn’t, Ben could cut through souls as well, with a small nick quickly created on his own telling him that his should apply.

That little test also meant that he could safely train his eternal soul protection as well, leaving small scratches on his soul to try and level it up for all it was worth before he faced a soul god, but that barely mattered. He had a lead to follow, and he was going to explore it for all it was worth.

Immediately, he looked into the memories of the gods he’d invaded, his own being at the forefront, as he looked at exactly how they’d do it. Pulling from all of the sources he could.

With the process seeming mostly standardized, at least among the divine. Yuzu’s and Elvat’s memories showed less skill, yet at the same time, more technique to make up for it, resulting in hyper-focused blessings rather than the complete ones of a god, and with it, he couldn’t help but feel it was possible. If a third tier existence could give blessings in any form, then he should have been more than equipped to do such things himself, and, after practicing the shaping on some other souls first, after a good hour of work, it was time to try it on his own.

His soul contorted within his body, turning in on himself to act like a knife as he made the first cut, not taking anything deep or vital, only the surface layer that left him clenching his teeth. No matter how much he’d been through by that point, that was a different sort of soul pain than usual, but he relegated the pain of it to the back of his thoughts, his focus on what he needed to do.

Holding that fragment of his soul, he oh-so-carefully began to shape it in his grasp, materializing specks of essence onto it to make up for the inexperienced cut and from there, forced it onto the most convenient soul he had on hand, the forbidden god Nance still strapped to his arm, now blessed by the mortal who’d slain him and allowed Ben to look it over.

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Starting with himself, he didn’t know if it was from a difference in skill or experience, but it was clear the results of him doing such a thing had been different from both the soul mages and the gods. While a deity would seemingly feel little, it was something still unpleasant that they’d need to fix, while a soul mage would get lethargic, with Yuzu having passed out after giving him and Thera her blessings. Ben, though, only felt pain, but was otherwise fine, estimating that he could do it at least three more times before it became debilitating. Worse than a god, sure, but better than a soul mage, especially for the scale of what it would cover.

He’d need to get it properly examined to compare how it would be to a god’s standard blessing, but it was plain that it was better than a soul mage’s. He hadn’t expected it when he’d started, but either from the soul damage he’d received in the past or thanks to the amount of power his soul contained, Ben had no issue with taking more from himself than Elvat or Yuzu would, and there was more strength in his fragment as well. Even if he wasn’t yet sure of how much, he didn’t need to settle for giving a partial blessing. His would be in the realm of the divine, a new power to share with whom he would.

And, another way I can train my soul protection, he noted. More productive than just cutting at it a bit, but a longer healing rate. Let’s see, as it is, it seems like it might take a bit less than two days to go back to normal after this? Presumably, Thera and Mora are going to want to try and heal it too, so I should actually be fine by the end of each night if they’re willing to put up with the fact that I’m going to be doing this a lot. Even in the hours I don’t see them for, my soul will slowly be healing and that should contribute to growing my soul protection. Mmh, okay, that leaves me at a bit of a crossroads here.

He could do it three more times, four total in a day, and his soul would need more time to heal as a result, but there was more he wanted to practice too. He needed to see if he could start making skills, his nature practically demanded that he attempt such a thing, but if he were to do that, then he’d have to stop practicing his blessings, and when it came to learning something new, he couldn’t just stop after a single attempt. Four in all wasn’t exactly much either, but with his perfect memory, he would be able to immediately see any improvements or drawbacks between any given test, leaving only the matter of finding someone with the skill to get his results measured.

And given how Helori examines my soul by shoving her arms into my chest and Myriad has to chew me up and spit me out, that means that I’ll need an option down below for an in-depth look… okay, yeah, I’m going to stick with blessing creation today and I’ll move on to skill creation in the future if I can, so for now, that means we’re going to have to mix things up a bit.

“Sorry, Delair, small change of plans today,” he told her as he started putting his various homunculi away. “There’s something I need to check, which means that we’re going on a little field trip.”

<SOUL ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>