CH960

<DEEP DESTRUCTIVE THOUGHT LEVEL INCREASED>

<DEEP EVIL THOUGHT LEVEL INCREASED>

“So, this is what these skills look like at their ninth level,” Ben mused before the mad god he had imprisoned, Haro screaming and doing everything he could to attack him yet failing as he always did, the destruction and evil infecting his mind trumping the damage Ben had already caused it. “And better yet, I’ve reached a point that these skills can actively make a target self-destructive. All sense of self-preservation and fear are gone, very cool, I’m sure I’ll find a place where this comes in handy one day. Also makes me wonder about deep calming. Even if the name’s a bit different, it seems to be in the same vein as those other skills so if I get it to its ninth level, will I be able to make something so calm that it wouldn’t be able to react to any damage I’d do to it? Hmm, going to have to put a bit more effort into raising it here then. Even if it’ll take a bit of a bite out of my more important training, it could be useful.”

With Haro’s current state making him an excellent target for training that very skill. In the single-minded madness Ben’s power had left him in, the god would be trapped that way unless Ben either cancelled the effects or deleted portions of his memories but having him so full of fire and murderous desire made him just as perfect of a target to try and calm down, letting him put a weaker skill against the effects of two of his stronger ones as his practice went on within the depths of his mind, the use he would extract from that deity far from over, meaning there’d be time yet to spend before replacing it with a different one.

<DEEP CALMING LEVEL INCREASED>

---

“Phew, gonna be honest here, I almost didn’t think I’d manage to reach the ninth level for my thought skills before the day turned over. That was almost embarrassing.”

“Stop trying to be cute, you’re not good at it,” Myriad told him.

“Hey, I’ll have you know I’m good at lots of things. Evil, destruction, corrupting people down the path of evil and destruction, erasing their memories so I can do it all over again if I need to, probably some other things I’m not immediately remembering right now either.”

“Yeah, I’m sure all of that would be very funny if it weren’t objectively horrific. So, instead of being like that, tell me how things went with the demidemons.”

“Oh, great, as expected. Every one of them I didn’t awaken before who came to me I either awakened now or else got to the ninth level to awaken later after they’ve recovered a bit, so keep sending them my way before I head off for this wedding. Other than that though, we have your devoted priestess to talk about.”

“I heard about her awakening. What did you put her through?”

“Nothing she didn’t want.”

“And anything to say about the fact that it was named as unnatural?”

“Just that she’s unlocked a powerful variant of the skill, how lucky for her. We’re certainly not going to read too deeply into the fact that when it comes to skills trained by interacting with my mind, they constantly get results related to me.”

“You really are going to have to add that to your list of things to study one day. It’s unusual, to say the least.”

“Alright, yeah, I know, and I was probably going to look into that a bit deeper in the future anyway, but this isn’t really what I wanted to talk to you about when it came to her.”

“Mmh, I’m concerned, but let’s hear it.”

“So, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get Valaria a third-tier mind skill. Oh, but if trying to do that awakens her connect instead then I’m throwing myself off a cliff.”

Myriad froze at the statement for a moment, not sure what to say before the words just slipped out.

“No, back up, you don’t get to come up here and say that like it’s nothing.”

“It wouldn’t be soon,” Ben clarified. “It’s pretty clear that the way I train connect with your believers also trains their minds. I’d say that leads to some pretty obvious implications on how to get her past that final barrier.”

“Okay, I officially don’t like where this is going. If you get her to the ninth level of it, you are not allowed to trick her into connecting to me.”

“Not thinking that. As powerful as her mind has gotten, it’s easy enough to tell that it’s not nearly as strong as the zeroth level of my unnatural mind, even when we ignore the difference that mine being a blessed skill would have made. Connecting to you would almost certainly fry her brain when we look at what it did to me, even with all of the other benefits I had to help. No, I’ll simply do what I have been doing, giving her more arrangements of my mind to help her grow until finally getting her to connect to an arrangement just short of a god. We’ll of course need healers on hand to make sure everything is okay but all in all I’m optimistic about the prospects of success, with the added implication that I might be able to awaken a few of your other believers to third tiers too, if they can stand that sort of practice with me. I do want to see what a third-tier complex mind and parallel thought look like too. And focus, I guess, though I have admittedly lower hopes for that one turning into anything exceptionally interesting.”

“Ugh, I have complicated feelings about the idea of all of my believers slowly turning into third tiers because of you.”

“It wouldn’t be all of them. No offense meant, but let’s be real, a lot of them don’t have the drive, even with my help. Too many are happy to quit after getting a few levels with me to ever get more than get a single second tier awakening.”

“Fine, all of the demidemons then.”

“Admittedly more possible. Sachel is actually pretty self-motivated too. If she had a mind skill I could train her under then I could definitely get her there if I just pointed out that thinking better would make her a better plant mage overall. Hmm, maybe something I should try to see if I could get her to gain, before the next wave kills me and it’s too late.”

“And you’re back to being a downer.”

“Just considering some realistic planning to make. She’s a friend and coworker, and no matter how talented she may be, this is her most realistic chance at reaching godhood. It would be a shame if I died before I could help her or any of your other believers out. It's just a thought for now anyway, the hard part would be getting her a compatible mind skill to begin with.”

“Then I suppose I’ll have to be prepared to welcome a full pantheon of believers.”

“I mean, you never know, there’s a chance most of them would just choose to merge into you rather than ascend. The demis definitely seem to like that option, but actually, do you think they’d still be given the choice or do you think godhood takes priority over merging into you?”

“With the way you’re talking, it sounds like I’m going to get to find out. Ugh, I guess keep sending me up souls if you’re ever going to do that so I can try to strengthen my existence against the incorporation of any third tier mind holders you’re going to attempt to create because I never had to consider that any might merge into me before and now it sounds like I might get enough to fundamentally alter my personality.”

“Hmm, a fair point. If we get to a place where any reach the ninth level then I’ll have a good talk with them first, saying that if they want to try and reach godhood, if they succeed they can’t be absorbed when they die, sound good?”

“I suppose it’s better than nothing. I can also give a firmer evaluation to any after it happens. You, I don’t want coming anywhere close to my mind and soul when you get up here, but you’re a special, horrifying case. There’s a chance that when I look at other third-tier mind skills it will seem more manageable.”

“Okay, in that case we’ll play it by ear. With how Valaria’s leading the charge, if I can awaken her then you can look her over and give me the results, and we can figure out the plan from there.”

“It occurs to me I’m getting far too used to how easily you seem to change the world. You’re talking about potentially having more third-tier awakenings than have occurred on this planet until this point.”

“True, but you’re missing something else too,” Ben told Myriad, rubbing his hands together in glee and instantly worrying the other. “I’m pretty well liked by the demidemons as well as your believers in general. A couple hundred new gods means a couple hundred allies on my side for any future where I’m still alive for the other gods to want to be a pain in my ass.”

“And there it is,” Myriad sighed. “The conniving attitude you’re becoming oh-so-famous for.”