“-So now, anyway, I’m doing my best in my realm to actualize significantly more complex terraforming seeds with a level of detail that would let me awaken abomination production, and I think I might be close, but-”

Ben cut himself off, talking with Myriad and Helori during the night as his god was forced to listen with ever-growing horror at what his apostle had been doing in the privacy of his realm to try and awaken the skill he’d just gained, the sudden pause only increasing his worry.

“Oh, empty skies, Ben. Don’t tell me you just succeeded.”

“Not in that,” he grinned. “I can’t believe it, I think I’ve actually done it!”

“Dare we ask?” Helori said, having her own little worries that were beginning to trump the interest in each topic he’d bring along.

“I think I successfully shaped a skill out of a piece of my soul. I just made connect!”

In the realm, four gods watched a mortal woman there while three others waited off to the side.

As much as Ben had wanted to immediately test his success, it had been late, and he’d needed a test subject, and with Mora in his care that day once morning had come, that meant waiting at his student’s door to get one, talking to both the girl and her mother before all of them were brought to the higher realm.

With Fontesh having been the perfect candidate, all things considered. Ben liked her; he’d even have gone so far as to call her a friend, but while he would happily help her plenty, he wasn’t in love with her, and he wasn’t raising her. While there’d be no harm to her if he failed, when he didn’t yet know for certain if he’d created a copy of connect perfectly, he wasn’t going to risk giving Thera a failed product, even if she had no interest in that skill, and he wasn’t going to give Delair a flawed copy when he specifically intended to train her in its use. Her mother, though? Someone who had no need for the skill, in the event she got a degraded version of it, while also not being someone he would regret giving it to if it succeeded? She was perfect, and willing enough to agree when he explained it after all he’d done for her up to then, at least until they actually got there.

Ben blocked the divinity filling the realm with his sacrilege, letting the kids enjoy the experience. Delair had only been to a god’s realm once and seemed taken with the experience, while Mora seemed curious both about the deities themselves and the way he was existing in two realms at once like Ben would, his existence as the soul spirit no doubt making that possible.

Fontesh, though? Even if she wasn’t feeling any divinity thanks to him, she was still standing before four gods and that lent a different sort of pressure as both Jagal and Helori moved to plunge their arms into her chest, Myriad and Nare both watching from the side while it happened.

“Just relax now,” Jagal comforted her. “You’re in perfectly good hands.”

“And perfectly good hands are in her too,” Delair joked, the lack of divinity making her feel far more casual than when she’d last met her goddess and got a few different eyes on Ben as a result.

“Far be it from me to comment on how you’re raising one of my believers-” Jagal started.

“Please don’t call it raising. Her mother is literally right there.”

“... But perhaps it would be best if you didn’t instill your own lack of reverence in her, if only out of consideration for the future,” she went on, completely ignoring his complaint. “She’s currently the apprentice of the greatest craftsman in this world’s history; her future is bright enough that the idea that she’ll end up interacting with other gods herself further down the line is far from improbable. It would be for the best if she weren’t quite as inclined towards making enemies as you.”

“Alright, well don’t worry, I’m sure you can tell she can only act like that because she doesn’t feel any divinity right now,” Ben said in his defense. “But… well, if she does end up having to deal with any gods, it would be for the best if she was prepared to argue for her rates. Hmm, maybe something to work on.”

Seeing the recommendation had ultimately yielded the opposite effect, Jagal and Helori’s eyes briefly met before the latter shook her head, conveying what a lost cause it already was and that they should move on, letting Ben begin the attempt.

He’d been grasping the skill tight with his soul ever since he made it, but with everyone ready, he reached over and placed it, hearing the notification in Fontesh’s head that she’d acquired connect and left only the matter of ensuring that it was perfect in every way, not taking long for confirmation to come through.

“You did it,” Helori told him, while Jagal nodded in agreement. “It’s perfect.”

An evaluation that made him want to jump. That cinched it; he could now create skills. Sure, it had taken over a week, even while having the blueprint for it, but he’d had to adapt the way a god would create a skill to the way he’d be able to, only able to use that initial design roughly while translating it to his own power, with more coming along with his success.

In all the time he’d spent working on it, he’d made a halfhearted effort occasionally to break apart one of his materialized souls instead of working with his own essence. He hadn’t seen why such a thing shouldn’t have worked after all, yet each time it had felt pointless. Now though? With his design in mind, he could not only create that skill by breaking apart materialized souls, he found his understanding had become deep enough that he could materialize the skill himself, even if the mana cost seemed to spike in comparison to what he’d spend when making a soul.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

But, when materializing a soul cost him fractions of a point of mana, a spike in cost was still nothing. He could now make endless copies of connect if he so desired, and with that finding, immediately attached a new copy to Delair, seeing her light up for the notification too.

“Alright, well, thanks everyone, you can send the rest down for now,” Ben told them. “With that sorted, I need to begin training Delair on how to use the skill with her enchanting.”

He’d first need to get her to the level where she could use the skill to enchant with at all, but given the way he could teach it in particular, that would be quick, the bigger issue being how much he wanted to balance her using the mental aspects of the skill with the crafting aspects.

And the further issue of properly ingraining that trying to use it with Mora or Dewdrop would absolutely kill her.

Technically, Dewdrop was already solved, with its crystal being enchanted to block connect in case any other believer of Myriad made the mistake of trying when Ben wasn’t around to stop them, and Mora had shown clearly that he was able to block connect if he so desired too, but still, to be safe, it wouldn’t have hurt to make the boy a necklace that could also block out his mind.

And I don’t know the odds of her meeting any gods or other great spirits either anytime soon, but better to make sure she’s aware of the risks on that front too, just to be safe.

With all of that being a concern for the mortal realm. Above, once it was just himself and the gods, there were other things to worry about.

Without a word, he was connecting to Nare, rummaging around that deity's memories and not trying to hide it, watching him flinch back in reaction to something he was far too late to stop.

“I’d prefer if you asked first,” the crafting god told him.

“Do you ask before you read mortal minds?”

“Not the point.”

“It actually kind of is, but okay, I guess you can help streamline the process. Just do me a favour and think of all the skills you know the blueprints for. In fact, if the rest of you could too, I’d appreciate it.”

“And I believe I’ll take this as my cue to leave,” Jagal said, vanishing from the realm before he could get her, leaving him to narrow his eyes.

Fine, next time I end up in a meeting with all the gods, I can be a lot more discreet without asking first.

Helori at least seemed willing enough, and as a goddess of magic and knowledge, he managed to learn the divine plans for not only all of the affinitied magic skills, but knowledge skills related to each magic too, while from Nare he took the structures of the newly created crafting inclination, artisan’s touch, which Ben had already been told was originally a skill that the crafting gods would gift their worthy believers, as well as enchanting.

“Nare, you’re slacking,” Ben told the deity. “I just got twenty blueprints from Helori, why am I only getting three from you?”

“Because I’m a god who generally prefers to help my believers grow by giving them levels if I’m going to gift anything, and artisan’s touch is an all-around excellent growth skill too. Really, the only reason I know enchanting is because, as a non-affinitied magic, it can be quite a challenge for some to learn.”

“Mmh, considering you went and created the system using souls, I was just expecting a bit more, but fine. Still better than Myriad and his one option.”

“Awful judgy for someone who’s benefited tremendously from that one option,” his god told him. “Anyway, what now?”

“Now? Now, I make a few more skills from the blueprints I got which might take a couple days of fiddling with to figure out how to adapt them to my method, followed by a need to figure out how to make skills I don’t have the blueprint for. Oh man, it’s gonna be great!”

“Well, in that regard, there’s probably a few steps you should take before you start making anything completely new,” Helori pointed out.

“Such as?”

“Assuming that even with a different method, you’re anything like a god, you’re going to be most compatible with anything that already falls within your domain, meaning the skills you’re already high-leveled in should be easier.”

“Didn’t feel that way with figuring out how to make connect.”

“That was your first attempt; I’m sure you’ll find it’s easier with crafting inclination, or artisan’s touch especially, considering you awakened it. Really, any knowledge skill you learned from me might be the best of all, given the state of your mind, but ultimately, your inclination is going to be the more important option to figure out. From there, I’d say you should try to figure out how to make a destruction inclination, given that of the two you have at the third tier, it’s the least objectionable one to share with others, and it should be somewhat easier for you to modify an inclination into a different type of inclination. Of course, I guess you could go my route too and learn to make a knowledge so you can modify it to something else, but whatever suits you.”

“And from there?”

“Make a few other skills you possess from scratch and then maybe you’ll be ready to invent a skill. Until then, though, work on building up your foundation.”

“Okay, sounds like a plan.”

He was already working on making a crafting inclination by utilizing what he’d just taken from Nare, and while it did still seem like it would take a little as he made clear errors in how he shaped his soul fragments, it was still immediately smoother thanks to his success with connect. In that moment, his only limit was his soul and the speed it would heal at, but eventually he’d succeed, and when he did, a new world would open up to him.

Really, maybe I should use a couple different blueprints before I commit to moving on to trying to make things from my status. It might help me really nail down the changes between how a god would do it and how I’d do it, but… well, we’ll see.

“And aside from that,” Myriad cut in. “Isn’t there something you’re forgetting?”

“I never forget anything; I just have something new and fun to take up my time.”

Myriad sighed, seeing Ben had simply found a new excuse to avoid the issue.

“Heaven forbid I do something as insane as try to convince you to make your next push for the third tier, but you’re clearly putting it off because you’re worried. Don’t do that, just make the attempt and see how it will go.”

“... Fine. I have to work with Delair and I need to watch Mora, but I’ll go do it after work.”

“Dare I even ask what it’s going to be this time?” Nare wondered, unable to imagine what Ben might do after everything else, while Ben for his part could only groan.

“Nothing crazy, it’s just another attempt at a mythic item. Beyond some research and basic experiments, I’ve been putting it off because my levels were always too low, but, well, that’s not exactly true anymore, is it? It’s time I finally see if I can make a new body for Inux.”