Levels coming to Delair for both material user as well as destruction by the time the day ended, while Thera and Mora walked her home, Ben instead turned to one of his many gates, a long-awaited conclusion finally within his reach. Everything set up for me? Any other folks around who might catch a look at my soul? Soft maybe, I’ll be getting you to be on lookout for me. This really is too soon for the gods to catch how I’ve changed. I need another couple of days at least. Gonna make one last attempt to score some extra benefits when I get to soul modifying soon, which I’m sure plenty of jerks might try to get in the way of despite how good it would be for the planet. I don’t want the extra scrutiny before that. With nothing else to do, he started making his way through the magic towers’ guild and down the streets, heading to the coast where a crowd was already surely gathered. Yet, not quite in the area everyone else was meeting. He could see them there, all slightly off in the distance as he made his way to the water’s edge but simply joining them all there would create too much leeway for Verbum to spot him beyond his range to do anything about it, forcing him to get creative as he slipped his shoes and a few of his other goods into his rings before diving into the ocean’s depths, swimming beneath the water’s surface from there and getting to see the crowd down below. With the aquatic half of the planet also getting to enjoy his services, it seemed what he was going to do had drawn plenty in on that front as well, all of them gathered around the dock in preparation with the parties he would be joining among them looking forward to receiving the benefits he could give, the focus of the aquatic races firmly on the surface above and barely acknowledging as he swam through them, boosting his speed with his magic and creating new pockets of air for himself to breathe as he went until he was finally close enough to connect to Verbum and, having received no warnings from Myriad to dissuade him, forced the man to fall asleep in a way that would akin to any of his fainting fits at the same time Ben shot himself out of the water and into the air above, making a spectacle of himself as he yelled out. “Welcome, one and all, to the last great awakening event of the Church of Myriad! Many of you know the drill by now so sit tight as I get to you all, and other than that, someone look after Verbum because it looks like my grand entrance was a bit too much for the guy!” And take my heartfelt apology for doing that to you, Verbum. I’ll make it up to you in the future. There was already a few going to look after the other summoned before he said anything and a few other disappointed looks beyond that for the childish display but he’d take whatever opinions anyone else wanted to give if it meant he wasn’t going to be caught for the things going on within his soul and he landed by the guildmaster Toner’s side, ready to be guided through the biggest crowd yet. And hope there’s no more surprise results akin to what happened with Abel. Seeing as how that seemed like an outlier, I should be able to finish everyone but if I can’t, I’m going to be plenty disappointed myself. With the rest of the third tiers waiting to benefit from his power all already gathered, he searched their minds and souls for everything he could find to try and transmit all of the relevant skill information he held for whatever extra benefits it might give them, as well as ensure the rest there got it too as he was invited to the first party, touching his crystal and looking at his options once he’d joined. Twenty-nine options left, with the majority of them about to be cleared away like they were nothing. It barely mattered which ones he would pick first amidst all of the groups he was going to be able to go through that day, for no reason in particular he decided to get his king jobs finished first, beginning with the highest of that option sitting in his list. Give me king of mana. Nice and easy. He grinned; the volume of souls he could now make even without his jacket, thanks to how high his mana volume had already gotten to, made finishing that particular job simple. Next then, let’s go with king of stamina. Another satisfying result that he was already looking forward to taking advantage of, he moved to his next party, a prior discussion meaning that he wouldn’t need to immediately help a party holding a third tier. After all, he’d helped Foast finish the option he’d held without taking any other ones before it, the timing and situation demanding as much yet was still something that needed to be made up, leaving him to enjoy his final king job. And there’s my king jobs complete for now. Oh, it’s already going to my head, I’m just compartmentalizing it away to a secret back corner of my mind. With that done though, I think I’ll take my last option that sits in a similar vein. Let’s find out what intelligence embodiment is going to do for me. And now I’m officially a contender for an attribute enhancement. Wonder just how good it would turn out for me if I managed to get it to the third tier? Ugh, yeah, I know. I really do need to see if I can figure out a way to get another fourth-tier job. World killer was so good and I now have all of these fun and exciting ways of powering through any option I get, I could do to take on a few more. What are some equivalents of killing multiple planets, power-wise? You think blowing up a star would get me any exciting options? I’d make sure it wasn’t inhabited first. I’m not a monster. No, the assholes who keep giving me stupid titles disagree, my poor status is innocent. Yeah, I’ll take a peek first then. While he’d be sure to finish them with no difficulty so long as he took a sacrilege job, he only had a few of those left and wanted to be sure they’d be used appropriately on anything that might have been too hard for either his soul source or eldritch mind to finish alone, leaving him to search the mind of the one he’d be helping next but finding it wouldn’t require a deep dive to find the nature of their job and skill when that third-tier was the divine chef. Okay, she won’t need a sacrilege job for sure, so in that case, since there’s a mind user in this party to gain most of the experience, let’s go with soul creator. A job he’d originally been putting off for fear that the nature of it was too aligned with making souls and as a result, would eliminate the benefits of making them that he was using to cheat the job system, with the power of his mind and just as importantly, now being a contender for that unique magic as well, whatever bite it might have taken out of the total experience he would produce for that group became negligible for the rest he had, leaving the expected notification only a few minutes later. Do you think there’s going to be any fucked-up consequences if I become this universe’s god of soul production? That’s a good consequence, though. Gonna need to get some soul damage when I get home to start working on leveling it. Hey, a bit of pain now means less pain later and besides, I’ve said before I want to awaken soul resilience one day if I can, right? This is definitely the sort of skill that would merge into it, and then from there I could actually start trying to awaken my soul expansion too! I’m carefulish, it’ll be fine. Anyway, next job. Let’s say mind breaker this time. Oh neat, wasn’t expecting bonuses to my destructive skills or my mana. This was better than I’d hoped. Are you just here for the colour commentary or is there a real reason you’re sticking around? He couldn’t exactly promise nothing would happen considering how much he was going to have to go through but at the very least, he could say that so far things had seemed normal, perhaps even a little dull. While he hadn’t been expecting to gain any new skills from his embodiment or king jobs, the fact that he’d gone through six options already and only gained a single new one couldn’t help but be disheartening. Ugh, I know, but I like getting them. It’s exciting to see what I end up with each time. Mmh, I’m thinking we’ll see what total self has to offer. Yeah, in the best possible way. Oh god, I get it. Total self may have appeared after I’d taken body master but that was also long after I’d finished mind and soul master too. Mind, body, and soul, I’d bet completing the master jobs for all three unlocks that, a job that covers everything. Sweet, then on to the next third tier. Looks like our next lucky godling is going to be another one of the summoned. The zone of empowering holder? A mass buffing skill then? Mmh, I don’t think it should be anything too crazy but to be on the safe side, we’ll take a sacrilege job. Let’s see what degenerate body user has in store for me. Alright, marginally less murderable now, big fan of that and with two more jobs in the same vein, might as well keep going. Let’s take demonic body user. <...So like, did you consider the fact that taking that job might have awakened your integrated demon body skill? And even if it didn’t, it’s definitely going to make it easier to awaken in the future.> Of course, I considered it. You know what else I considered, though? How good a second-tier body job would be, and would you look at that? I was right. Now just one more to go. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but how could that even be possible? Were you not technically a machine? You talking second or third tier? That’s one of my more interesting options, how could you not want to see what it would turn into? And I’m also pretty into claiming more and more power over the domain of the gods at this point, I’d love to see what realm access would awaken to too. Don’t worry, you’re gonna love it if I get to properly ascend, we’ll have a blast up there. For now though, since I couldn’t help Rook even if I wanted to- For who could guess what reason, that means I only have three third tiers left to help with so long as none of them get an advanced option and since the ones I already helped didn’t, I’m just going to take my last sacrilege aligned job with… Regnal? The guy who murdered ten of the summoned he came with? Fair enough. Either way, I’m taking foul tank. With the level to his absorption resistance, Ben quickly redid the enchantments that were enhancing the effects of his moribusial and deathstone bands before putting them away and moving on, once more following the trend of the last one. And with that, I’m left with only one guaranteed second and third tier job with only first and a couple mystery options left, along with a whole lot of disappointment about not unlocking more as I worked my way through all of these because man, I was at least expecting a few new things to pop up during all of this. Alright, I guess I’ll take my last magic option then. Give me high destruction mage. Oh, better than I’d hoped for if I’m being honest, and that means the next person is Verbum. Definitely owe him an apology sometime. Of course not. I just applied the way I’d force my body to sleep to him when I connected to him, he’s fine. Hell, he’s going to be better than fine, seeing as how he’s going to wake up from a nice little nap with his job done, and to make that easy on me, I saved this option specifically. Mortal realm actualizer. An excellent result that still left his brow furrowed and a comment on his lips that he only barely managed to keep confined within his mind. Is every skill I have that’s vaguely mind related going to get the unnatural prefix? Except it’s not like actualization got it when it awakened, come on. Ah, so I might be able to blame the current name on all of you talking behind my back, got it. At the very least it would level quickly and since he’d begun doing exactly that as soon as he’d taken the job, it had finished too under the benefits of his mind and the speeds he could think at, leaving one final third tier to take advantage of his work, with plenty of jobs still on his list to go, letting him turn to the guild master beside him. “There are groups prepared in case I had extras I could do, right? I’ve currently got seven more I can work through, are there enough to fill them up?” Technically, he had nearly twice that but he’d decided to leave his various crafting path jobs in the event he ever had anyone specific he wanted to help speed through or else if the gods wanted to make a new deal for him to help anyone else. While every bonus was sure to help, he had to admit that by that point, first-tier ones weren’t going to do much in the face of his goals when he already had so much else going to his various attributes and skills. They could be handy of course and they’d do their part in chipping away at the mountain that was his goals, but he was neither curious nor excited enough about them to make taking them then a significantly better option than saving them for a future use. “Ah, from what I understand, they only prepared two more beyond what you’d normally do. My apologies.” So four more jobs before my last third tier. “It’s fine. I’ll talk to the gods about getting those last few finished later then. In that case, show me who’s next.” Led to another group, he eyed the choices he had left, thinking them over the best he could when none of them were particularly exciting, ultimately making a choice for entirely personal reasons. What can I say? Thera likes to dance and I like trying to make her happy, so taking a job that would help me improve gets high marks from me. Plus, it has the small, added benefit of being the first job today to give me an advanced option, even if it is just the dancer job. Considering that I have only first-tier options left, I’m not expecting anything life-changing. Yeah, yeah, and I’ll take that next then. Huh, same attribute bonuses as beginner dancer, that’s kind of neat. Nothing else to it though. It’s not like that comes up often. Besides, if we’re being serious, then the bigger benefit would be anything it should be doing for my marksmanship or aim. Wouldn’t mind awakening either of those options if I could just get the chance. Well, seeing how it would change me is just a part of the thrill of awakening, right? Anyway, next job. Hmm, I’m thinking therapist. Alright, nothing crazy but a new skill, so I’ll take it. Any idea what calming does? Mmh, give me a minute first. I’ll see if I can figure it out. <...Do I want to ask what you just did?> Quox’s soul continues to make for a decent place to experiment, but relax, that was arguably the nicest I’ve treated the guy in millennia. Calming appears to do what it says, let me calm a person I’m connected to and helps stabilize their mind a bit which means, not only will I be able to give a bit more help to the prisoners I’ve still got put away, I might be able to use this to fix Quox fast between rounds of, let’s call it training. Hey now, I’m both better and worse than that because if it ever came to using a skill on someone I don’t like, I’m sure as hell not making them calm when I have so many other, funner options instead. Weird fun fact for you, as far as I can tell, no nation anywhere has written any laws about doing anything to souls since that’s normally the domain of the gods and soul mages. I could condemn any of my enemies and have a strong legal case that I've done nothing wrong, and even all of you gods would have a hard time arguing that fact when you all do the same when you want to. Relax, it was just a hypothetical. Even I view this particular skill of mine as being unethical. Who says you can’t be curious about things you think might be problematic? Besides, since I can send souls up to you instead of hell, there’s room to argue it’s not entirely bad. Well, while I can’t deny the potential allure of jobs as excitedly named as cycler and beginner puppeteer- We’re absolutely forgetting entrée. Anyway, as things are, we're going back to the top. I’m taking trap user. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⁂𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⁂𝕟𝕖𝕥 Mmh, underwhelming way to end things. Was one skill or level really too much to hope for? Well, yeah, and I guess I know what job I’m taking for him too, so let’s go see what my very absent teacher’s been up to for the last little while.