Chapter 372

Chapter 372

They could still hear the sounds of movement behind them as stone continued to rush by, not stopping just because they’d reached the end as all of them stared at the doorway to the last and final section of the tower, each preparing to face whatever was left to come.

It was Ben who spoke first, sounding more resigned than anything to whatever the final floor held for them.

"Well, let's get this over with already,” And with that, he opened the door.

As they all stepped through they found themselves in a large room, nothing remarkable to say about it. It was circular with a tiled floor, and at its center stood a large slab of stone.

What it did have, what set it apart from the other floors, was the only other thing of note it contained. A sign, clearly telling them what they needed to do in the area they found themselves in.

It was large, easy enough to read from where they entered from, and while the main three who needed to do the trial read it in disbelief, Thera could only look to Ben.

"You really shouldn't look so smug."

"Do I?" He asked, touching his cheeks and feeling the grin stretched across his face. He couldn't help it though. If the first section was made to test their problem-solving or reaction speed, the second their combat, third their endurance and fourth their power, then the final floor was made to test their technical skill, or at least it was supposed to, as Ben once again felt his eyes skim over the sign in front of them all.

CREATE A VESSEL TO ACT AS THE AVATAR FOR AN EARTH GOD.

TIME LIMIT: TWO HOURS

“So, Jake or Thera, which one of you want to handle this?” He asked innocently as the rest stared back at him.

“Ben-” Thera began, trying to move him along to how it was inevitably going to end.

“I mean, this is the earth tower, someone with an earth affinity skill really should be handling it. I guess that means Amy can too if she wants to cut away at the stone with her sword, me and Yuzu can watch from the back while you guys figure it out.”

“Ben, we’re on a pretty tight time limit, stop joking around and get to work already.”

“Haha fine, fine. I’ll need one of you guys to alter the consistency of the stone for me though so I can actually do anything with it.”

“Already started,” She told him. “Just let me know if you need me to adjust it or do anything else.”

“Sounds good,” And this is going to be so much fun!

They muttered their thanks, Ben remaining as the only one able to look in her eyes as the others dealt with the feeling of power she gave off to varying degrees as she nodded along.

“And of course, since you’ve made it to the top it’s time to be rewarded. I don’t believe I need to tell any of you what the rewards are so let’s start with what skill you-”

“Wait!” Ben called out, cutting her off and not particularly caring. “Blessings first.”

The rest of his companions had no clue why he was saying that, the presence of the goddess before them keeping them from seeing why he would insist on things going down that way, but Helori just looked at him silently for a minute before she sighed.

“You really do have to insist on being an annoying mortal, don’t you?”

With the last of that long list of notifications he felt his mind reel as two more grew in his already very crowded head, but surprisingly to him, that was pretty much the end of it. There was maybe a slight bump to his ever-present headache, but compared to when he’d last leveled mental expansion it was nothing.

It made sense once he put some thought into it, one of the new minds he’d just gained regulated to considering such things. Complex mind was a skill that gave him two more strands of thought. It had been the most disorienting of his mind skills when he’d first gained it, but as it grew and synergized with his other two, they had a bigger and bigger effect due to the fact that they both acted on all of the strands that were already there.

It was a real snowballing effect of skills going out of control, but at the very least it didn’t seem like he’d need to worry about it for much longer. Complex mind tipping over the edge to the next level was a result of the large blessing they’d just gained, but given the fact that neither his focus nor his connect was awakening, he doubted he’d need to worry about such things for a skill he’d be intentionally neglecting.

Which means that if I end up getting the other two to the ninth level as well I basically don’t need to worry anymore so that’s a plus. As for the blessing, that didn’t exactly go how I’d hoped but hopefully either Amy or Jake got something out of it.

The reason he’d insisted on getting the blessing first was specifically because he knew the blessing was going to be large, meaning the chance of it leveling a skill or six was pretty darn good. His hope had been that it would push his connect past the barrier it had been stuck at, or failing that, that it would level the skill he was already planning on asking the second part of the reward go to so he’d have more room to work with, but in the end he just had to accept how things had turned out.

“And with that done you can all either think or say what skill you’d like to have leveled, whichever you find more comfortable,” Helori told them, pulling their minds away from the notifications going on in their heads before focusing on Ben in particular. “Well, all but you since your thoughts just got even messier.”

“Yeah yeah, in that case, I’ll take both my levels to material user.”

And another ninth-level skill, thank you very much.

With a total of four now and even more getting close, he could only hope he reached a future where the one he actually wanted was pushed over the edge. Even if the blessing hadn’t done it, it at least got him one step further to that goal.

A small part of him had been tempted to go with destruction instead since he’d just leveled that skill within the tower, meaning it didn’t have all of the practice that Ben had already put into his material user, but in the end, he couldn’t make himself look at it in such a way. As entertaining and useful as that skill was, it came nowhere close to his material magic.

“Anyway, you’ve all faced the challenge and claimed the rewards, but as with any time someone takes on a tower I’m sure you all have plenty of people waiting to confirm your safety so it’s best not to keep them waiting.”

With that she reached out, gesturing to a door behind them that hadn’t been there before as they took their cue and left, leaving the tower and back to the bright light of the sun as Ben particularly soaked it in, along with a feeling of success for how that had just gone.