Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube-CH1025

<You’re going to kill yourself.>

No being a negative Nancy up there. It will probably be fine.

<It won’t. You->

Are running out of options to awaken connect, Ben thought back with finality, trying to put an end to the conversation they’d been having ever since he’d told Myriad exactly how he’d been planning on attempting to awaken connect next. I’m running out of time, man, and the longer this doesn’t awaken, the more I’m beginning to suspect that this might be like an inclination. A skill completely uninclined to grow to its third tier.

<You know it’s too soon to be giving a judgement like that. Connect isn’t a skill you’ve been working on for millennia; there’s no reason to think this isn’t simply a normal threshold that needs to be surpassed.>

Then I don’t have time for a normal threshold. Myriad, I almost died. Hell, the only reason we can say I didn’t die is because I’m still down here instead of up there with you. I need more power. And besides, even if I get the awakening I want, I still need to become proficient in however it awakens in the time we have left.

<Pfff, with how you think, that sort of proficiency would take you seconds to get. This is impatience, pure and simple, and after we all just came so close to losing you, here you are ready to do it again. Thera’s going to be traumatized, not to mention the kids. Besides, your partner’s now a soul mage of all things. If you’re not growing fast enough then ask her to help. She->

<DESTRUCTION AUTHORITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<FLAVOUR ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<STRENGTH ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<FRACTURE RESISTANCE LEVEL INCREASED>

<FLESH REGENERATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<EVIL AUTHORITY LEVEL INCREASED>

<UNNATURAL MORTAL REALM ACTUALIZATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<ALIEN SENSE LEVEL INCREASED>

<MULTIVERSAL INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

<EVIL GOD OF SACRILEGE LEVEL INCREASED>

<... Is clearly already having a bit of an effect.> The cube told him as those levels came a few days earlier than he’d originally expected, now that Ben was enjoying the benefits of a soul mage anytime he was near her. He still didn’t know if Mora had been doing anything for him either, he had no intention of asking, but now, she was the more powerful than their young soul spirit; or at least she would be once she got a bit more practice, and that fact was being felt.

A real chain reaction with my authorities this time too, he noted. Could have done without the level to flavour enhancement though.

<It’s like the world’s smallest bit of cosmic punishment for all of the other stuff you do and get away with.> 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

I don’t deserve a skill that’s going to make things want to eat me more! If I ever awaken it then I’m not sure if Abel will be able to hold herself back the next time I see her!

<If you should only live so long.> His god sighed. <Fine, whatever. I haven’t had the power to stop you before; I don’t see why I should think I’d suddenly get it now. I suppose I can only count myself as lucky to know that you’ve already gotten a will hidden away here.>

That’s the spirit, Ben grinned, putting on a confident front that his god couldn’t pierce. Deep down, he knew Myriad was right, that what he had planned was both dangerous and insane on a scale that he’d rarely touched on before, but with such limited options, that meant he had to try, and more than that, he had to believe. The foundation he had wasn’t built on sand; it wouldn’t crumble so easily.

Still able to feel his god watching, even if the cube had fallen silent, it let him focus back on his various tasks, some of his hands working metal while others carved wood, while at the same time looking after the two training under him and keeping that up until the shop door opened, Thera coming in.

“Hey, I’m not too early, am I?” She asked, seeing everyone still at work, with no cleaning up done for the day yet. “I wasn’t really keeping track of the time while I was practicing.”

“No, I was just about to call it. Okay, you two, tools down and let’s clean up. When we’re done, Mora, sorry, but could you play with Delair at her place for a little bit? Me and Thera might just need to do something for an hour and then we’ll come pick you up.”

“Okay,” he nodded, with Delair jumping in response.

“Ooh, if you guys are coming to pick him up, then you should stay for dinner.”

“Ha, are you cooking then?”

“I mean, you are a better cook than me…”

“How sly,” Ben teased, grinning at his student’s blatancy. “Talk to your mom before we get there. If she’s fine with it, then you and I can cook together. Think of it as a little extra lesson.”

“Sure, sounds fun!” she agreed, knowing that even if she was helping, that meant that she and her mom would get to enjoy an exceptional meal. “In that case, I’ll take good care of Mora until you’re back. We won’t break anything at all, promise.”

“Somehow that wasn’t reassuring."

“I won’t let her drag me into anything that will give Fontesh a headache,” Mora told them, Ben ruffling the boy’s hair when he did.

“That was reassuring. Okay, you two get out of here then. I’ll finish up and we’ll see you in a bit.”

Getting nods, Ben and Thera got to watch as Delair grabbed Mora’s hand and dragged him through the streets back to her new home, Ben’s magic tidying the shop up in the background while he tried to prepare for what was to come next while Thera looked at him.

“Okay, so what exactly did you need to borrow me for, so secretively and everything?”

“Alright, so I’m going to tell you something and please don’t be mad.”

“... Ben, I just leveled my stress resistance earlier, don’t do anything that’s going to get me another one so soon.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, I can’t promise that. When I awakened my mind and my sacrilege, I promised you that if I was ever going to try anything dangerous again that I would tell you and this is me, doing exactly that.”

“...”

“Thera?”

“Give me a minute, I’m deciding if I should slap you.”

“If that will make you less mad then please, do.”

“... Ugh, no, you’re doing exactly what I asked you for, it’s fine,” she said, not sounding remotely fine about it. “Even though it’s only been a few days since I thought I saw you die and you’re apparently deciding to do something dangerous all over again, it’s fine.”

“For what little it’s worth, I’m only doing this because of what happened then,” Ben tried to explain. “I’m still weak enough that things like that can happen-”

“You’re probably the most powerful person on the planet.”

“Most skilled, sure. Not most powerful. If a contender of all things can come close to taking me out, then I need to keep growing, and… we all know how things are going to end, one way or another unless we get a miracle. I’m just trying to find one.”

“... Fine, so what do you need me to do?”

“Nothing too crazy. If it seems like I’m dying, keep me alive… ah, and cut my hand off, that’s going to be important too.”

“The fact this isn’t even the first time you’ve told me to cut your hand off if something goes wrong… okay, yes, I can do that, but it’s not going to come down to that. You just told Mora and Delair we’re seeing them in an hour. If you were lying, I really will hit you.”

“Then I guess I better be okay,” he grinned before taking a seat on the floor below. “In that case, nothing to it but to do it.”

“Wait, Ben, don’t be coy. What are you doing?”

“If everything goes well, awakening connect.”

With those final words and a confident grin, Ben pulled a crystal from one of his many rings before connecting to the imprisoned soul of the outsider it contained, the most alien mind in all of known space touching his own and shattering what it found, leaving not but fragments in its wake.

<ELDRITCH MIND LEVEL INCREASED>

<ALIEN SENSE LEVEL INCREASED>

<ALIEN SENSE LEVEL INCREASED>

<ALIEN SENSE LEVEL INCREASED>

<MULTIVERSAL INCLINATION HAS AWAKENED TO MULTIVERSAL AFFINITY>

<ACQUIRED TITLE- DESTINED HOLDER OF MULTIVERSAL INCLINATION>