CH859

“Alright, so how’s my body doing down there right now?” Ben asked his god, the cube’s exasperation coming off of him in waves.

“I’d say you’re ninety percent healed which, to be clear, means you’re still a complete mess.”

“Eh, ninety percent rounds up, I should finally be good enough.”

“To go down and face the music for nearly killing yourself in front of so many people who love you?” Helori asked him, easily imagining there being some choice words from the group below while he just gave her a look.

“What? No, obviously not. Each time my mind’s grown stronger I’ve been able to connect to higher beings more safely, I need to make sure that holds true for the third tier while I’m still surrounded by healers. Helori, come over here and give me your hand. Nare, you’re next.”

The realm fell silent, none of them believing what they were hearing, even if for Myriad in particular the reason was different.

“Ben, I’ve already experienced the new power of your mind, you’ll be fine.”

“Eh, trust but verify. I’m sure I’ll be fine too but if I ever need to connect to another god for any reason, I want to be sure that there isn’t some aspect to them besides their mental power that might harm me.”

“If there was then your sacrilege would almost certainly cover it too.”

“And yet, none of that reassurance is as important as taking the time to actually verify so if you would?” He said, waving his hand in Helori’s direction. “After you and Nare then I’ll probably try the both of you at the same time too and if that doesn’t hurt either then we’ll throw Myriad into the mix to be sure. Just a small, quick round of testing with you all and then I’ll go down to face whatever music’s waiting for me.”

“...If this hurts you again I’m taking no responsibility,” The goddess gave in, accepting his hand and watching Ben grin.

“Wouldn’t expect you to. Now, without further ado…”

He formed the connection between them, feeling aspects of her divine mind imprint on his own, just as Myriad’s had before her but otherwise being left unchanged for it, even as what else came with the connection left him staring into her in a way that made Helori shift under his gaze.

“What?”

“I’m seeing system information on you.”

Something he hadn’t remotely expected, something he hadn’t noticed in his own god at the time with the trauma that first connection had left on the whole of his existence, but he could see two qualities listed within her, clear as any of the skills he could see listed in a mortal, with her natures as both a mind and magic goddess laid bare before him and leaving Nare to speak up.

“A side effect,” The god sighed. “And a useless one at that. The system has a species-wide intelligence limit to the souls it binds with and while it wasn’t expected when I first started making it, deities count. There was some excitement for it at first of course but the truth is inescapable. We’re powerful but not beings capable of growth, the limits of our divinities dictated by the faith we receive. It has led to us being marginally better at using that faith but unfortunately, it seems that’s all.”

“Huh, so you’re kind of similar to mana-based life on that front then, interesting,” Ben muttered. “But also boring, especially considering the fact that Helori’s thoughts are showing me you’re telling the truth.”

“Don’t read my mind,” She said, ripping her hand away and getting an empty stare for the comment.

“Do you not read every mortal mind you encounter? This feels like a double standard.”

“The difference is that it’s a part of any god’s nature that can’t just be turned off, not an intentional breach of privacy.”

“Okay, fine, fine, I’ll keep that in mind. And so how am I looking down there? It doesn’t feel like I’m suddenly dying again but if my body was just killed and I ascended without noticing, break it to me gently.”

“You’re fine, no side effects of any sort,” Myriad told him, clearly relieved.

“Sweet, in that case, let’s skip a step here. Helori and Nare, I’ll jump to doing the both of you at the same time so if you don’t mind?”

He didn’t bother giving either a chance to come closer, that time stretching out his soul around him to capture them within his range, feeling Nare’s thought structure imprint that time while he examined what was in their heads and finding to his displeasure that they’d both been able to tell what he’d been doing, his soul unhidden from their watch.

Which means I can’t connect to large groups of gods in secret, at least not currently. Lame.

He was certain he’d be able to get away with it if he connected to them through touch but without some experimenting, that was all he’d be managing, meaning he wouldn’t be able to poke around any minds the next time a group came to put him in his place and leaving him to sigh as he expanded the range a bit more, bringing Myriad into it too.

“And I still feel fine. Anything down below?”

“Nothing,” His god told him. “And having personally felt your new mind I can confidently say that you’ll keep being the winner in terms of mental power. I’ll politely ask you to not unsheath it in its entirety around friendly company.”

“Yeah, you got it but for now, unless anyone else has any good excuses I can use to delay things a bit, I need to go down and see reactions. It’ll be fine, right?”

“They just watched you turn into a god and only one among them has the eyes to see that you did it for two separate skills,” Helori laughed. “I don’t think it’s possible to escape a big reaction.”

“Yeah, I was more talking about nearly dying around all of them. Myriad’s already mentioned that there’s a lot of blood and not even an hour ago I was being chewed out about the last time I nearly died.”

“Ah, that. Well, just remember that no matter how anyone acts, you deserve it.”

“Oh joy, thanks,” He sighed, already having his expectations for it all and only hoping that maybe, just maybe, if reaching the third tier didn’t prove to be enough of a distraction to save himself from an earful then revealing that he’d pulled it off twice would get him a bit more of a break.