Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“Hmm, you know, it’s kind of a waste to leave Jake’s body there doing nothing. Alright, I’m feeling generous. Is there any attribute you guys think he needs to train more?”

“Agility,” Amy told him without needing to think. “He’s terrible at it since he just teleports everywhere. Why, don’t tell me you have some easy way to raise attributes now too?”

“Well, technically yes, but modifying souls is still in the testing phase. Nearing its end though so I might be able to start it on a larger scale soon-”

“I’m sorry, modifying what?” Yuzu asked, broken from her conflict over the spell she’d been given by the new ridiculous thing Ben was saying in front of her.

“Souls, it’s a whole thing but not what I’m doing. Jake should be under plenty of bonuses thanks to his buffs, I’m just going to keep this from being a complete waste of a day.”

He was already casting with Jake’s mana to make a growing pile of void and deathstone and teaching in a way that was sure to give more than a few points of intelligence but training agility would need something else, with Ben spending some of his infinite mana to materialize what was in essence a treadmill.

It was powered through the enchantments and magic materials that made up its structure but it would do what it needed to and given he was already inhabiting Jake’s body, he was just going to need to do something Ben personally hated. Running.

It was made all of the worse for knowing that it would be Jake who got the benefits from that bit of exertion but having Jake’s body work for those hours he was learning meant there was no time being wasted for the man, something Ben knew he himself would have appreciated, even if Amy and Yuzu seemed less sure.

“Ben, is Jake going to be okay after any of this?” Amy asked him, feeling less and less sure her lover’s mind and body were going to hold up as the day went on.

“Of course, don’t worry. The circlet’s not just for show, it’s constantly acting to help stabilize his mind and keep him focused so he won’t go insane and it’s not like running is going to kill him. I’ll even make sure to keep him properly fed and hydrated. After all, I still need him in a good condition for the hands-on lessons tomorrow.”

“Okay, but like, you are able to see how this might look concerning, right?”

“Listen, I was told to teach him to the best of my abilities but we’re kind of on a time crunch, right? The sooner he gets his level, the sooner we can all go to the towers for another one. I wouldn’t put him through anything I’m not willing to do. Hell, as the guy teaching him and currently doing the running for him, I’m pretty sure I technically have it worse. He’ll probably have some muscle pain by the end of the day but right now, I’m the body doing the running.”

“...You know, has any other human mentioned that your skillset has gotten kind of scary since coming here? You were originally the most normal of us.”

“And if you’ll remember, being the most normal got me forgotten about by the entire planet. Besides, my skills aren’t scary, they’re useful.”

“I’d like to disagree,” Yuzu spoke, as the one currently looking at his soul and all of the skills it contained while trying to keep it from tearing itself apart. “Evil affinity, destruction affinity, and ill intent all sound scary. Plus, you only got the first two at the end of the second wave. How are they both already mid-leveled awakened skills?”

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“They’re both getting good job bonuses, it’s fine, don’t sweat the small stuff.”

“You have a lot of other skills I’ve never heard of outside of you too.”

“That counts as small stuff, which it sounds like you’re still sweating for some reason.”

“You also have a blessing as weird as Abel’s. How did you even get something called witness of chaos?”

“Yuzu, I don’t bring it up much but it’s a little impolite to comment on another person’s soul. Look at me, I can see everyone’s skills but I keep what I see to myself.”

“Have you ever seen anyone with half of the weird stuff you have then?” Amy asked.

“I would say Abel qualifies and more importantly, we’re moving on. Amy, rather than sitting here and judging my very cool, very normal skills, tell me how the homunculi we got you are working out.”

Like Falk and almost every other awakened warrior on the planet, Amy had received a few homunculi to act as additional bodies to fight and train through and by all accounts, it seemed it had helped pay off. Ben could see she’d leveled her combat skill, a fact he very politely didn’t mention out loud despite all of the comments on his soul, but with her there it made sense to check if there were any needed fixes.

“Oh, them. They took a bit of getting used to, I really don’t know how you handle having so many minds and bodies so naturally.”

She looked in the background as she said it where his homunculi were hard at work, with one focusing on guiding Delair as well.

“Excuse me, I’m trying to subtly shift comments away from me and how I live if you didn’t notice. We’re focusing on you so other than that, no issues?”

She paused for a moment, thinking it over before giving a real answer.

“Honestly, they’re fine, it’s weapons that are giving me a problem again,” She admitted. “What you made me before is still great but if I can use more things at once and can’t run mana through them then I’m back to trying to figure out the best thing to do with the extra set of hands.”

“Hmm, that reminds me, while you’re here I really should upgrade your main weapon,” He muttered. Making it had been enough to awaken his crafting skill in the past but he was leagues better now than when he’d first created it, it wouldn’t be hard to design a better equivalent that would be somewhere in the legendary ranking. “As for other weapons though… Let me think on it, I’ll come up with some ideas and get the prototypes made with my free hands tomorrow.”

“Wait, you don’t have to-”

“Amy, you’re my pal. I’m not leaving you with anything I’d consider subpar equipment when I know I can make you something better. Hell, I’d outfit you too Yuzu if it didn’t seem like you weren’t already getting the best of the best.”

The bits of equipment she had bore his teacher’s touches and the highest quality a mortal could achieve. He might have been able to be more flexible in his enchanting thanks to deep connection but he still wasn’t quite at that same level of skill, no matter how close he may have grown.

A fact that continued to irk him but he would get there, soon so long as he didn’t suffer some tragic death in the non-affinitied tower. Falk had even said he expected Ben would be comparable, if not better, at enchanting than him once he reached the ninth level of his skill. Merging it into deep connection and awakening it a second time then? He couldn’t dream of just how good his creations would end up being.

Get through this first, take on the tower, take on the next tower and then hopefully awaken the skill. Just one thing at a time, I can make this work.

He was constantly putting in the effort, the only thing left was to wait on the payoff. He could only pray it would all actually work out.