C788

<CONDEMNATION LEVEL INCREASED>

“Alright, you guys are officially adequate enough that we can move on to the next stage of enchanting,” Ben told the two as their lessons progressed the following day. “You can place your spells as well as anyone and now you can both kind of sort of use the three systems I’ve shown you, now you just need to combine them.”

“Why does it sound like he doesn’t really think we learned it,” Jake asked, leaning over to Thera to whisper the question in a way still very much intended for Ben to hear and left him to sigh.

“Look, you guys really are doing fine but even with me boosting your learning rates, I’m trying to convey skills and techniques that took me years to learn and master in a way that will get you just good enough to move on to the next step, doing my best to manage both my desire to get this done as fast as possible with the fact that even if neither of your intend to ever use what I’m teaching you here, I don’t want to be leaving you guys with a shaky foundation either since everything else I’m going to teach is built on the fundamentals of those three systems. You’re both doing fine, this just isn’t the way I’d ideally train anyone.”

The combination of their skills with how he could make them both learn meant that they were doing well but if he had all of the time in the world then he wouldn’t have moved them on for another week at least. All of it was a balancing act but with the timeframe he wanted to finish within, it wasn’t going to be easy.

But it’s fine, I’ll make it work.

Complaining wasn’t going to make things move any faster so he began outlining how to combine any two of the systems, getting them to try doing a couple enchantments before moving on to the main goal of enchanting with all three at once and immediately getting to see them fail.

“...Alright, looks like Jake is getting a couple more minds added to his circlet and Thera can no longer escape wearing one.”

Both groaned but he had them on them before either could do anything else, feeling their minds split to ease the burden that was working with his complex system.

He did feel just a bit of sympathy for them both. Ben was well aware that the way he’d enchant was only so easy for him because of the way he’d think, with even his own teacher only able to pull it off to any extent thanks to the decades of experience he had using the standard weave method. As it was, he was tossing them both off the deep end and doing his best to compensate for that by gauging all of the minds in their heads to ingrain the necessary corrections wherever he needed to as a means of speeding them into any sort of competency.

And despite how rough it all seemed, he could tell it was working. Slowly to the tune of hours, improvements were made and efforts rewarded as their skills in that regard slowly grew. Not perfected, far from it, but enough that he was comfortable saying that they’d be able to move on to the next stage the following day, even as Jake complained.

“Why is this all so boring!”

“Excuse you, this is literally what I do for a living here.”

“And it’s boring! Can’t we do something cooler for a bit? Teach us to make swords or something, that would be neat.”

“That also wouldn’t be training your magic. Jake, you’re never going to get anywhere if you don’t focus. You have ten tower blessings and more importantly, you have your wife helping you. Getting your fourth level of non-affinitied magic should be easy if you just put in a little effort.”

“We have very different definitions of ‘a little effort’!”

“My point still stands.”

“Ugh, but doing the same thing constantly is just so boring! Can’t we at least take a little break for something else? I’m sure there’s some other applications of the magic you could help us with, right?”

Was there? The request actually forced Ben to think about it for a moment as he considered the options. He didn’t think there was any point when it came to using their magics in the same way as he would use his material manipulation, by all accounts, it was a straightforward skill, no matter how rare, and the two could already use those aspects of their own power fine.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, soul source was as different as things could get. Another of his more esoteric powers that was qualified as a magic, if he could get either of the two to use it themselves then he was sure they’d both get their levels but there was a key issue with that. Neither of them would be able to materialize a soul by themselves, meaning it might only be possible if he lent them some mental power by blending into their minds but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he had higher ambitions for trying to get any non-affinitied mage to use that skill.

Creating his first soul had unlocked him a tier three job, a positively insane accomplishment for anyone to pull off which meant helping the two of them do it would surely be enough to gain their levels and maybe even unlock the same jobs for themselves, but there was a deeper implication hidden in it. If creating a soul was an accomplishment worthy of gaining a job at that tier then there was a very real chance that doing it with a proper non-affinitied magic might be all it would take to force that branch into the third tier as well.

It was actually something he’d wanted to test, having to hold off for the simple reason that until they completed the tower, nobody would be at the level where it would be worth the attempt. Vasta was only one short of being a contender for her skill but when she got there he fully intended to see if he’d be able to push her further beyond, the same as he’d done to awaken so many who held physical magics at the second tier, but to waste the sort of potential that might awaken a skill to the third on just a level instead felt nothing more than wasteful.

Which meant that only left the alternative of trying to teach magics he didn’t hold. It wasn’t exactly impossible, he had spent the first day filling Jake’s mind with information on different magics at least, but it wouldn’t be easy either. He had neither the practice nor the skill to convey the hands-on learning on those topics that Jake and Thera would need, leaving both better suited to going to Vasta for advice on the topic.

Unless of course there’s a magic that neither of them nor Vasta have any experience with that I could try my best to teach based on what I know, and I am aware at least of a few rare non-affinitied options that even a mage at Vasta’s level might not be familiar with, but what would make a good choice to try and add to the curriculum here, except…

Except for a particular magic he actually wanted to possess one day himself. A magic so rare he’d only met a single holder of it in his time on the world despite how constantly he checked the skills of the people around him and the only other entirely crafting-type magic he was aware of and with a grin coming to his face, his minds raced to figure out just how he might get the two to learn it.

<CONDEMNATION LEVEL INCREASED>