Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

Despite the notification, no smile was brought to Ben’s face. He’d been keeping track well enough to know that he’d be finishing things that day, getting it was expected. No, the issue was that, despite it having been three days since he or Jake had last slept, there was still no notification in the other’s head, with Jake still needing his level.

He saw Yuzu perk up at the notification though, with it being the first time she’d completed a job since she’d arrived on the planet, the signal for it having been both as unexpected as it was exciting and he took off his job crystal to toss it to her.

“Well, does it look like you got any advanced variants?” He asked as she went over her options, with her shaking her head after a moment.

“Doesn’t look like it so I guess I only have first-tier options but… what should I take then?”

“I can offer some suggestions if you don’t mind me taking a peek?”

“A peek?

He tapped the side of his head and she got the point as he connected to her, looking in her mind to find all of the options she had, with her options being slimmer than he expected, not that that was the biggest surprise. She’d been focusing on her magic since she’d arrived, there had been no need to grow her list of skills when her main one was so valuable to the planet.

Still, there was one it made more sense to take than anything else as he brought up to him what seemed the obvious choice.

“Why not just take apprentice mage and see what other options that lands you? You should be able to finish it with a single soul spell and from there you’ll probably be able to get to the master path basically just as fast… if you’ll get a master path? Hmm, not actually sure.”

The fact that she’d come to the planet with the skill instead of growing it herself could have easily affected some of her options and some of the other things he understood about jobs could just as easily affect what sort of second-tier jobs she might get as well. As far as he understood it, if he ever took high destruction mage, he wouldn’t be getting master destruction mage because the magic had merged into material user when it had awakened. Likewise, if Thera ever took any of her tier one non-affinitied magic jobs, she wouldn’t be getting master branches for them because they’d joined together into a unified whole that had received its own job options.

With how unique Yuzu’s situation was, there was really only one way to find out and it seemed she at least was happy to give it a go, giving voice to the job and taking it before casting a single spell to finish it, immediately checking her new options.

With her numbers ballooned after that single one, gaining her not only the expected true mage and giving her access to both life and death mage as well but also specialized options he’d only seen on the demidemons until then, with access to both mage jobs again, only marked as being specialized for souls.

He could feel the excitement in her mind at it all from there, having just learned the joy of finishing a job and letting her keep at it as she worked through her new ones while he focused back on Jake, like the man was a problem he needed to solve.

He had to be close to getting his level, with all Ben had put him through, to think otherwise was practically impossible which only left getting him there.

“Alright, bad news Jake but I’m officially impatient enough that we’re going to do our best to force your level in the next hour while the gods finish setting up my next job groups.”

“My guy, I don’t think I’ll be able to survive any more than this.”

His mind split into sixteen, the pain and strain that should have come from that only being suppressed by a combination of light, life, and dark enchantments, with most of them being forced to move at ten times the speed of the real world, the burden placed on him to get him to finish had slowly been growing as the days passed, exhausting the other in the name of progress that just wasn’t coming and leaving him to wonder just how worse it could get, even as Ben shook his head.

“Relax, you’ve got plenty of experience at this point, all that’s left is trying to pay it off so for now, we’re going to try and repeat the last time I got you a level.”

He merged parts of his mind into the other as he said it, filling those sections with the knowledge Jake would need to begin materializing as the man spent his mana, creating a seed.

It was what Ben had made him create the last time but unlike then, it didn’t earn him a new level, not that that should have been a surprise. It may have been enough once but he needed a new push, a greater challenge if they were going to attempt to cross that threshold again in the same manner and with that goal in mind, Ben changed to providing all of the necessary information about far more challenging substances, forcing the creation of both the plant and animals cells Ben knew structurally and feeling it work only after going beyond them, creating a configuration that utilized both structures at the same time.

It made something wholly unappetizing by the end but it got its result, leaving Jake to sink to the ground and look up at him in clear betrayal once his level finally came.

“You mean we could have just done that this entire time?”

“No, materializing may be good for experience but you can’t just depend on it to get you your levels all of the time. If I tried it right at the beginning and it didn’t work then I would have been stuck doing nothing but teaching you and forcing you to materialize constantly from there, better to pull that card after you’d gotten a more solid foundation.”

“Ugh…”

It had been nothing but days of suffering but what mattered was it was done, freeing Jake at last and letting Ben focus on what would come next, with one task more immediate than the others. Ṛ₳ɴO͍ΒƐꞩ

Hmm, but first…

Materializing with his own power, he created a new job crystal and handed it to Yuzu, taking his own back. In that short time, she’d worked through all of her lower mage jobs, leaving only the high ones to go through left before finding out what in the way of second-tier options she’d get but he couldn’t leave her with his crystal forever and she seemed grateful enough to get her own.

“Thanks, I think I see why you enjoy rushing through these so much.”

“Ha, it feels good to progress, doesn’t it? But now that we’re all done that means we can move on. You guys go tell Vasta that we’re all set to go out tomorrow-”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Or you could give me just one, single day to relax before we throw ourselves at a new tower?” Jake begged, leaving Ben to pause before ultimately giving in.

“Fine, tell Vasta that we’ll go the day after tomorrow but for now I need to… Okay, new plan. Before I head off I need someone to watch Delair and Mora while I’m helping people with their jobs. Any takers?”

“I will,” Thera told him, more than happy to get the break as well now that Jake was done, freeing her from her own training while he nodded.

“Perfect. In that case, See the rest of you in a couple but for now, gotta deal with this.”

Losing Yuzu meant slowing down his soul creation again but getting that level earlier evened it out enough that he could handle the small loss, especially since without her around, he’d no longer have the motivation that came from being able to put in all of the extra work knowing his soul would be safe.

Hell, if I want my soul in top condition for the tower then I should maybe take a break tomorrow too… Mmh, maybe just go a bit easier than I usually would. I don’t need to overfill my soul at all, I can just make what my normal pool can create, that should be plenty. Okay, plan made, that leaves the only question being just what jobs I’m going to take now.

AVAILABLE JOBS

No new ones, huh? Oh well, it would be kind of nice to get this list a little more manageable. As for what to take though…

He was still thinking about it, he couldn’t help it. He was going for his more unusual jobs but he couldn’t guess what most of them would give him in the first place, leaving him to practically hope at what might be good, or at least interesting to take if he wasn’t going to go for any of his more obvious choices.

…Screw it, awakening sacrilege is a goal and there’s at least one job there that will give me bonuses to it. Who knows, maybe that will finally be the one to push me over the edge. I’m taking holy adversary.

…Whatever, good enough. It’s not like I actually expected it to be enough to awaken my sacrilege anyway.

With that tiny bit of hope crushed though he rushed through it until he got the notification telling him it was done, letting him move on to his next choice as he considered a few that sounded interesting before ultimately going for one that held his curiosity, with whatever outcome out would bring left as a mystery to him.

Title master.

Okay, that’s a new one.

No bonuses to anything but instead just strengthening the effects of something he already held, a system notification he was sure he was the first to ever hear that didn’t feel nearly as disappointing as he’d expected. Sure, it wasn’t the bonuses he loved that were constantly letting him grow even higher but it was interesting, and just as importantly, would likely still improve the growth rates of skills he cared about.

All of his enemy titles were giving him bonuses to his sacrilege along with the ones he’d gained when killing the forbidden gods and his very first title, Apostle of Myriad, should have been giving bonuses to connect as well. On top of that, he had ones like his skill learner that let him learn more uncommon skills and awakener that both helped him awaken others as well as awaken his own skills to the second tier, and those were just the most obviously useful ones. He was sure all of his destined holder titles would play their part too, with one in particular almost certainly being responsible for getting him his actualization and hive mind levels there, and he also held such interesting ones as destroyer of worlds and creator of life.

Yeah, screw it, no matter how some of them look, they’re all useful enough that strengthening their effects to any degree is a win. In that case, it just leaves what I should take for the next one.

Once it was done he joined his last group, finding a single adventurer there left waiting, with the woman’s memories telling him that the rest of her party was entirely aquatic along with the third tier she’d brought in to ensure that side of the word benefited from some of the growth he could provide as well.

Something he was expecting to do more of as well as he slowly made his way through all of the highest leveled skill holders on the terrestrial side of the planet but not an immediate concern as he focused on his last choice and what he’d be working through for at least a few more days himself before it was time to change again, taking his final option for the day.

Oh, what the hell, that one sounds like it might be something useful. I’ll take beneficiary.

…Okay, that’s a bit of a letdown.

Two jobs with no attribute bonuses was a lot more than he’d been expecting and the only level for the last one going towards raising his least desired skill felt like just an extra kick in the teeth. All he could do was tell himself that it might be giving bonuses to some of the many skills he’d either already raised or else the ones that would be hard to.

I mean, my inclinations, along with defiler of ambrosia and my modifier compatibility all probably count as growth skills, right? My enhancements too. This is definitely going to do more for me than just make me tastier, right?

It was what he told himself at least but it couldn’t help but end things on a bit of a sour note, leaving him nothing else but to go back now that he was done.

Returning to the shop, the kids were still at work while Thera watched from the side, wearing a subtle but complicated look that the other two didn’t spot as he made his way over to her, catching her eye.

“So, how did that go?”

“Mostly fine, I’ll tell you about it later but what’s going on with you right now? Something wrong?”

“Ugh, just realizing what an absolutely awful guardian I am,” She groaned as she slumped over, resting her head on Ben’s shoulder.

“Why, what’s going on?”

“We’re going to be going away for at least a day, maybe more.”

“Yeah, and?”

“And that means we need to find Mora a babysitter.”

“...Right.”