CH542

I can’t think of what to make. Why can’t I think of anything to make?

Ben felt like banging his head against a wall as he kept drawing a blank. He was still in the process of making things, pumping out weapons for the war to be spread across the world, but he was supposed to have finished his quota for the day, letting him focus on creating whatever he desired in an effort to help grow his skills. That was the time he was meant to be pushing towards making legendary items, but in that moment, nothing was coming to him.

It was hard to not be uninspired though. Every single day he’d been making the same general things again and again. Even if he was putting his all to it, it was boring. He needed something new and different to jog his spirit.

But what? I should be making weapons, that’s the obvious thing to go for since every legendary one I pump out will end up in the hands of someone who can put it to use, but I’m just not feeling like making more swords or spears or any of the hundreds of other things I’ve been putting together.

So what then? Maybe just something from Earth so I can get a bit of easier job experience? I could bring forth the world's first legendary toaster. Or maybe a microwave, it's so hard to appreciate those sorts of things till they’re gone. But even if I make anything like that, it’s only useful for me. Maybe a new gun then? I’m sure if I make something powerful enough an archer could manage with some practice. I could make some big, huge, powerful thing…

A big, huge, powerful gun that could be used with minimal training. Okay, decision made, I’m building a cannon.

The listlessness he’d felt in his indecision disappeared as a new burst of energy came to him with the idea as he began trying to figure out the design and how he’d put it together, where he’d do it and how he wanted it to go.

He could probably create something that would be akin to his gun rather easily, a weapon that would shoot out projectiles under the power of magic and mana, but he had a different direction he wanted to go as his minds moved to make it happen. After all, he didn’t imagine any simple projectiles would be enough to get it to legendary, it needed to be something more.

It was only when he was finished with the projects he was creating through his homunculi and had a design firm in his mind that he got to work.

Creating the body of the weapon was in itself rather simple, at least structurally. The problem it faced as he worked to construct it was that he intended it to release a huge amount of power when fired, at a level that would destroy it if not built well.

As he worked on making it, heating vast swaths of metal and preparing the enhances that would go into it, he kept the vision of the final product in his thoughts by the time it came to give it shape, the inner tube having numerous thin channels within it to create even more surface area for the enchantments it would contain, letting his main body get to work from there.

He felt the sheer density of the mana being placed upon it as he pushed himself, ignoring the headache he felt forming as his full focus was directed to the project to further refine his abilities, only stopping the second it was done. A cannon that fired out not projectiles, but instead an unending beam of energy, at least so long as mana kept being pumped through it, with rainbow mana crystals already embedded into it to help with providing power.

It was a masterpiece that had successfully broken into being a legendary item, with one single, small problem. He had no clue how he was supposed to test it.

It was in essence a laser cannon, or at least would be like it once fired, but if he was right then once a shot went off then it wasn’t going to stop for quite a while, even after passing through a few different targets. Knowing that, he couldn’t just shoot it in the woods, even if the odds of hitting something he shouldn’t were going to be slim.

So that only leaves me… Yeah, that will be fine.

He wheeled it out of the shop and pointed it in the only direction he knew would be safe; up. It wasn’t like the spell being shot would fall down after a while, leaving that as the safest option, even if it wouldn’t let him see its penetrating power then and there.

Still, it would be enough and without wasting another second he aimed it to the sky and poured his mana into it, watching a thick beam blast out of it, tearing through the clouds above as it kept going.

“Yeah, that’ll do.”

He stopped feeding it his mana before pulling it back into the shop, ignoring the looks of any passing townsfolk as he felt satisfied with a job well done.

“Hey Myriad, you around? I’ve got a fancy new tool that could use a good home.”

<Hmm? Sure, I can look but don’t you have somewhere to be?>

“I have time.”

<No, you actually don’t.>

Oh, might have gotten a little too distracted. Oops.

“Tell them I’ll be right there.”

He had only one other thing on his agenda for the day and with his god pointing out that he was in fact late, Ben rushed through the gate to Thera’s family home, giving friendly hellos to the staff as he ran past them before getting to the lawn outside where over sixty people were waiting.

More than I was expecting.

<I explained it would be a good experience so try to keep them from suffering too much, please.>

Hey, they know what they signed up for.

With just what that was being connect training, same as he’d given to Nati and Xilly. Ben had brought up the prospect of doing it with Myriad back when that had been happening, and it was finally time to put it into practice, with a larger group there than he’d honestly expected.

Still, guess I better make sure to squeeze a level or two out of them. Hmm, maybe I should have dragged Sachel along too. Since her connect merged into her plant magic, there’s a chance that this sort of thing might help her with leveling that as well. Maybe something to force her through in the future.

It was a thought to worry about later. In the moment, he focused on walking over, approaching a woman who was bowing to him, with the other believers looking at her and following suit.

“Honoured apostle,” Valaria said, looking dignified right up until Ben flicked her head.

“Honoured priestess, what have I said before about being relaxed about these types of things? Do you suddenly care about receiving respect from everyone with your new role?”

“Uh, no, I suppose it's a little uncomfortable,” She admitted, having had to deal with plenty of it after becoming the high priestess of Myriad.

“Exactly, so none of you stress. Let’s see, I feel like I see a couple new faces in the crowd which is a nice surprise so for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Ben, apostle and good buddy of our favourite cube in the sky. The fact that you’re all here means you’re interested in gaining more experience with connect. I’ll be doing my best to get another level or two out of all of you today but it's going to be intense. If at any point you want to quit, just do it, there’s no shame and I’ll be doing this again in the future anyway. Now, with that all out of the way, everyone gather ‘round me as close as you can and let’s get started.”

At the fourth level of deep connection, that meant he could now reach out with the skill for roughly five meters in all directions and he did just that, bringing all of the minds around him into his own before constructing mental versions of himself to practice on, each of them getting individually made minds that suited each person's skill level.

From there, the training went on as it had for his last two students, with one notable exception. Each time someone decided they had enough, he simply let them go.

Being told they’d feel like days were passing was one thing, but actually experiencing it was something else entirely. It was draining after the first few hours, everyone lucky enough to get their level in that time stopped as soon as they did, while a few others who weren’t having much luck eventually quit without it, at least having the new bit of experience under their belts for their continued practice in the future.

By the time it felt as though two days had passed, there was only one left. Far less than he’d hoped, but more than two-thirds had gotten a level so he considered the experience a win for the faith overall, all that left was to see how long the last person, Valaria, would hold on for.

She’d already gotten one level so all she could do was keep aiming for another and with no reason not to let her, Ben kept restructuring the shape of the mind she was interacting with, trying to make it both strange and powerful for her practice.

Thanks to the unique resource he was, it only took what felt like another week for her to get that next level too, bringing her up to six, all while still showing no signs of stopping.

“Valaria, I’ll keep going if you really want to but there’s no reason to push yourself so hard,” Ben told her gently. “As much as I appreciate you trying to hide it, I can tell you aren’t having a great time right now.”

“I’m fine, I can keep going.”

He knew that wasn’t true. Her mind was open to him, he could see exactly what was driving her so much and the part he’d played in getting her there.

“You shouldn’t burn yourself out for this. You don’t need to try and catch up to anyone.”

Her expression flashed for a second, trying to hide the frown that wanted to form from him hitting the nail on the head. Among the pillars of Myriad’s faith, she was now the only one without an awakened skill, and more importantly, the only one who hadn’t awakened connect in some way.

“Not that that’s really a proper way to think about it,” Ben told her. “Sure, Sachel technically awakened connect, but it was only at the third level when it merged into her plant magic while it was awakening. You got the skill after her and got to the fourth level back when she was still at the second. You’re tremendously talented with it, you don’t need to force yourself, nor do you need to worry about awakening it. Myriad doesn’t care about that and neither do I.”

“But I do. I’m helping represent our faith now, I want to be someone the others can look at with pride.”

“You already are. Hell, way more than I am. Even before you took the role, you were doing a better job at that than me.”

“What? Do you really believe that?” She asked, unable to hide her confusion as she felt his thoughts through the connection and saw he did. “Ben, you’re the pride of our faith.”

“Uh, I appreciate it, but that’s a pretty damn big exaggeration.”

“You’re responsible for nearly every believer Myriad has, plus all of us that came under him to make braces know that you’ve basically changed the fate of our races by inventing them, and that's only the start. There’s that song about you that’s raising Myriad’s fame as well and you have what? Three awakened skills?” She asked, a large part of her thinking it was actually more given the way he’d pulled her into his head and sped up the flow of time. “All of them deeply respect you. The few new enchanters you saw today converted specifically because of you.”

Oh, this is a lot to unpack at once. Okay, when in doubt, ignore it and move on with my life.

“Okay, but none of that matters. Whatever achievements I have, I’m not a great apostle. You’re actually connecting to the believers as people, that’s worth way more. You don’t need to try and live up to your idea of me.”

“Maybe, but I want to try.”

He could only sigh as he broke off the connection, speaking to her once again in the real world.

“Fine, but we’re not getting all of that done today. You need a break and I’ve had my fill of torturing people with connect. If you’re really that determined I’ll come back and practice with you for a couple hours of real time each day until we get you awakened.”

At least that final bit shouldn’t be too hard. Comparatively at least.

He once again felt a sense of deep gratitude for his awakener title as he left for the day, not at all displeased with how things had turned out. Even if plenty of the believers hadn’t been super enthusiastic about things, the one that mattered most for the faith was showing a good level of drive. Add in that she wanted to keep going with it, unlike his previous students who had been forced into it all under the command of their god and he couldn’t help but feel like it was going to be a worthwhile experience.