The back and forth with his god still going through one part of his head, another was focused down below as he made his way to his last destination, to give his third blessing of that day, with the fact that he would be doing three instead of his usual four meaning that there was room for him to do more tests.

Rainbow mana crystal pulled from one of his rings, Ben quickly gave it shape before next filling it with a soul, the soul crystal complete and ready to be used as he stared at it, beginning to slice off a piece of his essence to attach to what he’d just trapped.

It was something he’d done while getting Verbum’s help too, but even then, the implications hadn’t been lost on him. Ben was a busy person. He had a family to look after, a student to raise, apostle duties to avoid, and endless things to make. Yet, despite that, he’d managed to gain one of the more valuable abilities in the world now that he was capable of blessing people, leaving only the question of whether the blessings he could give could be stored.

Ordinarily, the answer to that would be a no. The only reason that he’d been able to slice a skill off the demon’s soul originally was because he’d had it using its own soul magic against its best interest, along with having Yuzu’s help, and his own, previously more limited ability to touch and interact with souls working together all at once. Now though, that he was able to cut and tear through a soul as needed, there was the likely chance that he could technically steal away blessings that way too.

Something Ben felt himself being just as against, having valued it and other such growth factors too much to want to rip them away from others, and yet, that didn’t exactly apply to an artificial soul, did it? No lived experience, nothing to truly experience the loss of such things, it was in essence just a storage vessel; the blessing added just so it could be cut away again later, and feeling where it had merged on with his skill, Ben felt certain it would work.

A fact that would save him no end of time. While Thera and Mora weren’t exactly thrilled about the way he was using his soul, they couldn’t deny his reasons for doing it, and either one of them would heal him in the end. It was the only reason he’d been able to keep going out each day as he had been to bless the people he cared about, but with so many done, he could start to slow down and explore other avenues. Instead of using the maximum number of blessings each day, he could instead create just one or two and attach them to his simple souls, only to retrieve them later when he was able to meet up with another friend whom he had yet to reach.

And if it does work, that really does mean I should give my couple of practice ones away, but who would I want to give a sub-par blessing to? And besides that-

<EVIL GOD OF SACRILEGE LEVEL INCREASED>

Nevermind, everything else can wait because whoo!

<No, not whoo.> Myriad told him, their casual conversation completely disrupted by the notification. <This took so much less time than your last level. Genuinely, how?>

My last level of it happened before I got my two new eldritch mind levels; the boost to my thought speed means that I can gather experience for it even faster. Although, I should change this god out pretty soon. I’ve extracted a lot more use from it than the others; I need a newer model.

<You’re horrific.> 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

And also reaching my destination, so put a pin in that for now and you can complain about it later.

He could already tell Myriad had more grumbling in him but chose to ignore it, a factory in his sights that he let himself through, seeing a few people try to approach him about why he was there who lost their chance before they could say a word, with his teacher in sight.

“Falk!” Ben yelled out, getting his teacher’s attention. “Don’t leave your favourite student waiting when I’ve come all this way to visit you.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Don’t call it ‘all this way’ when you’ve got a shortcut here,” his teacher told him, Falk’s face scrunching as he saw everything going on in Ben’s status but didn’t comment on it when there were so many other ears around. “So, what’s got you here, boy?”

“I’ve missed your handsome face.”

“If you’re not bein’ serious, I’ve got things to do.”

“Yeah, yeah, which is exactly why I’ve missed your handsome face. I never see you anymore. You’re missing out on your grand-apprentice growing up. She just got access to the top floor of the library, but how am I supposed to brag about what a good job I’m doing training her if I barely see you?”

“I’m makin’ the time I can, but you do know I’m tryin’ to do my part for the planet, right? Still, top floor, huh? Congratulate her for me, then.”

“Yeah, will do,” Ben grinned, done with teasing the man. “For now, though, take a bit of a break, would you? I actually have things I want to talk about.”

“Aye, I suppose I could take ten.”

“Who knows, maybe you’ll enjoy the conversation enough that you’ll want twenty instead.”

His teacher grinned before calling out that he’d be stepping out for a bit, letting the two of them walk the streets as Falk started.

“So, looks like you’ve been keepin’ busy.”

“Ha, you don’t know the half of it. You really should try to make the time to come back to town for a bit. Thera’s progress is gonna shock you too.”

“Mmh, there’s too many reasons to go back to Stonewall and too much work holdin’ me back,” Falk sighed. “I’m just grateful that Sonya’s puttin’ up with it. If this war ever ends, then I’m retiring.”

“Ha, I don’t see it.”

“Retiring to do some casual work in my store,” he clarified. “I leave it for much longer and I really will have you stealin’ it out from under me.”

“I’ve been taking great care of the place, don’t worry. As for the progress I’ve made though, well, that relates to why I’m here, so let’s start with that first.”

Holding his soul crystal, Falk watched Ben’s soul move, slicing through the blessing on it and transferring it to the yeti’s own, leaving a notification going off in his head and a grin on his student’s face.

“Success! Looks like that means I really can store blessings for later. That should come in handy.”

“And also explains why your soul’s been looking mangled since you got here,” Falk told him, nonetheless grateful for what he received. “Let’s find a place to sit then, and I’ll try to patch that mess up.”

“Don’t worry about it, I always get it fixed at home,” Ben told him, not wanting to break Thera’s news about her awakening for her and letting his teacher assume it was Mora who’d do it. “Letting it heal naturally is good for some of my other skills too. Instead, there’s something else I want to pick your brain on.”

“Alright, let’s hear it then.”

“Looking at me from the perspective of the soulsmith, do you have any ideas about how I might awaken my enchanting?”

“Infinite hells, boy. All of that goin’ on and you still want more?”

“How could I not when the next wave is right around the corner? This entire time, I was hoping to get connect awakened so it would take my enchanting in, but not even that could work out, so now if I want to get the full benefits of pairing those skills, I need to awaken it too.”

“So you’d be able to use third-tier skills, I see,” Falk muttered. “But as for awakenin’ it… boy, I spent most of my life stuck at the edge of the third tier, and you’re the one who helped me pass it. Add in all the nonsense I’m seein’ in your soul, I’d think that you’ve got a helluva better chance of figuring it out than I do.”

“I have some ideas,” Ben admitted with a shrug. “But I still care about your input. If you have any ideas, then I’m all ears.”

Falk was silent for a moment before shaking his head. “As fast as you work and as clever as you are, you’re still trying to do it without a lifetime of experience to back it.”

“Yeah, that’s the main problem.”

“And you can’t get a lifetime of experience in a couple months, meaning the only way to break that barrier is to do something big enough to justify it. I’d personally say something so big that everyone else might write it off as impossible.”

“Making a mythic item has crossed my mind. I do have a couple of ideas; I just need the time to put them into action.”

“Making a mythic item would probably do it, but who says that’s the only impossible thing you could do?”

“You’ve got something in mind then?”

“Nope, nothing,” his teacher admitted. “But at this point, you’re cleverer than me by a mile. I might not be able to give you a solution, but I can at least tell you to keep your options open. After all, there's more things out of mortal limits than just mythic items. Maybe just making something important enough that no one else has thought of before could do it, or maybe something so alien that people with normal minds won’t be able to make sense of it. Just don’t limit yourself, and who knows? Maybe you’ll pull it off.”