CH799

“No.”

“Um, no?”

“That’s right,” Thera told him. “No matter what notification went off in your head to make your eyes light up like that, you’re not allowed to look so happy when you currently don’t have a heart.”

“...Okay, but in my defense they were really good.”

“I’m sure,” She said dryly. “You can tell me all about them after you have something proper beating in your chest but for now teach Jake all of the healing spells you can in a quick break and then we’re rushing through the rest of this as fast as possible so you can do whatever crazy thing you’re planning on.”

“Alright, yeah, sounds good. Jake, your brain is with me.”

He pulled a circlet from one of his rings and tossed it to the other man, with a grimace being the reward for it.

“How much is this going to suck?”

“Honestly, a fair bit. It's not to the extent of what I taught you for non-affinitied magic but I really do know a lot on this topic as well.”

Light and life magic, along with the death spells that would intersect with the latter and some other, more esoteric death options as well, but he’d also read countless ways that different affinities could be combined with those two traditional healing types to enhance their effects. Something that Jake, as one of the world’s two archmages, was uniquely capable of taking advantage of.

Not just the expected spells that would come in the form of blessing magic but also far more complex things like managing a patient’s body temperature with fire magic or controlling their breathing with air. Water could be applied to plenty of spells as a way to keep most races from bleeding out from wounds or rebalancing biological systems in the event of illness. Then there was dark to manage pain, space to manage obstructions, time to just give any healer more room to provide treatment and so much more beyond. With the entire history of the planet directing its focus to the present day in the throws of the invasion that had doomed so many past worlds, healing arts had been deeply explored, at least to the best the planet’s technological level had allowed.

Huh, and on top of all of that, since a low form of soul magic exists as proven through the existence of the demons, that means that as a ninth-leveled archmagic holder, Jake should actually be capable of a handful of soul spells as well, shouldn’t he? Okay, that will make the cut for these lessons too. Never know when you’ll run into someone who needs their soul healed after all.

With his friend pulled into his mind for what was going to feel like days of learning ahead, that left Ben’s real body to pull items from his rings to get to work on what he viewed as just as important for everyone. A snack before they went off to the next floor, and with that frame of mind, he began some light cooking.

“Ben, you can’t be serious,” Amy told him in disbelief. “How are you thinking about food right now?”

“Who knows how long the next section is going to be, gotta get a bit in us while we can.”

“You don’t have a heart right now!”

“But I still have a stomach, what’s your point?”

“The fact that you’re so relaxed is deeply uncomfortable!”

“Ah, that. Good news for you then, I’m not. You just can’t hear all of the minds in my head being regulated to swearing revenge against the gods for that deeply unfair level design. Speaking of; Nare, we’re having a long talk about how that was even possible when I get out of here!” He yelled at the ceiling, getting no response but at the very least felt confident the god heard him. “This stupid place is supposed to be a test of skill, not luck!”

“...On the right track but I’m still not sure that’s really the right reaction,” She muttered.

“I don’t think there’s one correct reaction to that.”

“Okay, but you’re definitely proving there’s a wrong one.”

“Hurtful.”

“And just what do you plan on replacing your heart with instead of having a new one grown?” Vasta asked, adding her own thoughts and getting a few moments of silence before Ben gave any sort of answer.

“In the spirit of not overcomplicating my life until it’s too late for anyone to try to stop me, I can’t say.”

“Oh yeah, that’s so reassuring,” Amy told him with a roll of her eyes. “Why?”

“It’s complicated. I can show you when it’s happening if you want. Trust me, it will be great.”

The gods had only just gotten in his way when it came to finishing his jobs and even if he’d worked it out somewhat with them in the end, he was going to give them no room to interfere again if any of them so desired. There’d be no explaining what he had planned until it was too late to stop him, with the only priority to getting there being to finish the tower first as he was left wondering just how bad it might be.

On the one hand, objectively, he should have had an easy time with the first floor than he’d gotten. He could think faster than any attack would come and once he’d figured out the gimmick of it, getting through it had been simple. If that was the case there really was no reason to worry too deeply about anything else.

Except he also knew from past experiences that how hard any tower would be could vary wildly in quality, meaning the level of challenge wasn’t necessarily going to be consistent, and even worse than that was how the trials he’d had to face had broken for him before.

Both trapping him in an in-between place from the transition of the rest area to the actual floor itself or leaving him fully conscious in a torturous experience where he should have by all accounts been knocked out, there was always room for them to go wrong around him, with the structure of his mind being enough to confuse some of the building’s functions.

…But I can’t plan for that so I’m stuck hoping for the best. He sighed to himself, feeling that thought firmly stuck in his head as he finished cooking and handed out bowls to the rest of them. Which means I just need to be aware of it and plan for the best. If I get stuck between floors again I should be able to repeat what I did last time to get out and if a mind effect doesn’t properly activate for me… Well, maybe I can cross my fingers and hope that whatever’s going to go wrong will actually work in my favour a bit. That could happen, right?

It was a nice thought at least, no matter how unlikely it felt but after an hour passed and Jake was freed from his mind it was time to go on, with the five of them standing in front of the door to the next trial, ready to go in.