CH944

Not exactly satisfied, the gods had come to hear him out on his new powers and he’d given them his honest thoughts, bringing things to some sort of resolution with them before the ones Phixth came with left, letting the stone god’s shoulders fall in that moment of privacy.

“You could have stood to be a little friendlier about all of that.”

“Wasn’t I? I thought I’d done an excellent job of minding my manners while discussing my grievances and exactly what put me in a position that would drive me to desiring power. Really, I’m not sure what more you could have wanted from me.”

“A heartfelt promise not to misuse the powers you hold?”

“I think I kind of did that by saying I won’t harm anyone who won’t harm me. I don’t care what the gods of this world think, demanding fair pay and equal treatment isn’t antagonistic treatment.”

“... Fine, well if you’ll excuse me, I must be off to gauge overall reactions and try to manage them the best I can, so please, keep me somewhat informed of the next disaster you’ll cause.”

“Sure, can do,” Ben told him, knowing in his heart it would depend on the specifics of the disaster as Phixth left, leaving only the two he’d started with still there with him. “So, how do you guys think that went?”

“I feel like you could have shared your heartfelt desire to grow in strength to kill the demons’ god instead of pointing a finger at the gods here.”

“Maybe, but let’s be real, that sounds like a convenient excuse more than anything, and not a very good one. Oh, I have nothing but good intentions as I keep making myself better at hurting and killing gods, it’s for the world, honest! No, nobody up there is buying that, at least not enough to matter. My personal, selfish, and honestly still pretty true reason though? They may not like it, but even the ones with their heads firmly up their asses should be able to believe it. When you’re threatened, it makes sense to try and defend yourself, even if that defense is just grabbing a stick to swat them off with.”

“Ugh, I suppose that’s good enough. At the very least, you weren’t overly antagonistic, which is generally about as much as I can hope for whenever you talk to others.”

“Probably also doesn’t hurt that I’m about to improve the world’s odds in a big way when morning comes. I’m assuming everything is set up?”

“Mmh, it’s going to be a busy few days for you, but you can handle it. You’ve got a variety of help at your disposal, which we can discuss later. For now, it’s time we join whatever discussions are taking place, so just remember to do your best and show off what a valuable mortal you are.”

“I show that off every single day I’m trapped here,” Ben told them, getting no reaction beyond them leaving, off to join whatever chaos there was to be had in whatever meetings would still be going on and leaving him to his lonesome, to practice his skills in the lower realm and to actualize in his personal one, all until the day would start.

<REALM ACCESS LEVEL INCREASED>

<UNNATURAL MORTAL REALM ACTUALIZATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

<MULTIVERSAL INCLINATION LEVEL INCREASED>

---

Okay, I’m ready. I can do this, he told himself, trying to hype himself up for what was sure to be a painful experience. My soul is in the best shape it can be, and I have all of these other soul skills to help it along; it’s going to be fine.

It’s what he insisted on telling himself at least, even if he was already dreading the bout of soul pain he was about to inflict on himself, with one last thing he’d need to do before he began modifying the souls of the broader world. What everyone would get would depend on his own, that holding true even if he modified his first.

And an extra ten percent for my own attributes is going to be huge when you consider that everyone will be getting five from me after so I’ve just got to grit my teeth, do it, and hope that if my soul is still sore by the time I’m done, Mora will be willing to help me out.

Knowing he couldn’t put it off much longer, Ben did the only thing he could. Looking down at himself, he selected the configuration of essence he wanted and materialized it through his soul.

<ACQUIRED SKILL EMPTY SOUL>

<SOUL REGENERATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>

Oh yeah, that stings.

It wasn’t as bad as what he’d subjected his test demons to when he’d applied two souls one after the other but it was worse than when he’d acquired false Ben, his way of modifying souls clearly lacking compared to however Myriad or Foast would absorb them but what mattered was that it would get better with time, and with the level that came with it he chose to hope it would be soon as he took out his card to admire the changes it brought.

Attributes:

• Vitality: 17473

• Vitality recovery rate: 964/hr

• Mana: 47519

• Mana recovery rate: 5480/min

• Strength: 13973

• Agility: 5330

• Stamina: 29558

• Intelligence: 261,559

Five percent of all of that to every person on the planet bothering to come out… even agility will grow for everyone by over two-fifty. Intelligence by over thirteen thousand. Wow, this feels like it’s going to have some lasting implications that I’m going to choose to ignore. Still, when I actually do the math, our doom feels a lot less impending right now.

He was sure there’d be lasting consequences to doing such a thing beyond the war, but if they all got to live to see them then that barely mattered. Depending on how many he was going to help, it was enough to actually leave him optimistic about their odds for the coming third wave, even if that bit of hope didn’t touch how he felt about whatever would come beyond it.

“So, are you feeling ready for what I can only assume is going to be days of endless work for you?” Thera asked him from the side as they made their way to the shop after dropping Mora off with Fontesh.

“Probably. You feeling ready to help me?”

“Pfff, I personally still need to sleep. You’ll get my waking hours and nothing more.”

“Ha, fine. It sounds like I’m going to have access to a swath of mages too to teleport me around to different locations and whatever other ways they can help smooth things out, so I’ll take you when I can get you.”

“Hmm, and just out of curiosity, did you get a timeframe for how long this is going to take you to finish?”

“I very foolishly did not. Planning started way before my mind awakened.”

“Okay, but you were still a genius at that point.”

“A dumber genius. Still, how bad could it be?”

He asked as they passed through his gate, getting to the starting point that was the magic tower’s adventurers guild and letting themselves through to the main hall, finding his waiting entourage of mages, with four there standing out more than any others.

Amy, Jake, and Yuzu, but also Steph, two there for their roles as space mages and one for her power as a soul mage, with Ben left wondering if Amy’s presence had a purpose behind it beyond simply hanging out, with all of them wearing various levels of dread on their face, same as anyone else.

“Okay, hey guys, you ready for me?”

“Ben, I take back all of my harsh feelings about learning from you,” Jake told him. “Because this right here is literally going to be the worst thing you’ve ever subjected me to.”

“A little dramatic?”

“Yeah? Say that after seeing this.”

Using an aspect of his non-affinitied magic, Jake projected a bird’s-eye view of the city for everyone there to see, showing crowded streets packed with people shoulder to shoulder and the dark splotch filling its connecting ocean implying the same, making clear just how many people would be there to take advantage of his power.

Oh lord, and this is just supposed to be the first city I‘m hitting too. Wow, if every place is like this, am I even going to finish this week? No, I will finish this week. Nothing to it but to do it, so let’s just figure out how exactly this is going to work.