CH907 - Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

Staring in the sky above at the meat construct he’d made while it contracted and pulsed, Ben wondered briefly if it was time for a change once more as a notification rang out in his head.

REALM ACCESS LEVEL INCREASED

“Yep, that seals it. Time to remodel my realm.”

While flesh was the current theme, with towering structures of muscle and bone twitching everywhere he looked, with the new level expanding his area of control he’d decided it was a good enough time to change it as any, destroying all that existed within his plane to begin anew in the now empty space.

With remodelling happening thousands of times each day as Ben built up and modified all he wanted to before getting bored and starting fresh, every part of himself that existed within his realm moving at their highest speeds for what practice it would bring as new structures went up, actualizing the next atom by atom a spires began to form, his new motif being to build it all in such a way that while it would fill the space around him, it would in essence be composed of one giant molecule, creating a challenge that would fill a few perspective decades, even as different parts of himself were left wondering at what progress it would give him.

There was a chance what he was doing might qualify as crafting experience but while awakening that particular skill to its third tier could have affected how he wanted to raise connect, it was a different bit of experience he was truly curious about. For all of the perceived millennia he’d been actualizing in his realm, it hadn’t been enough to bring that skill to the level of godhood.

And while not exactly a goal, there was a fair share of disappointment in that fact. He’d put what he would best describe as an unnatural amount of time into it, at least by mortal standards, given that no one else could spend tens of thousands of years on such a project. It had to be chipping away at that skills wall yet not enough to cross it, leaving him to sigh.

“Maybe there’s some skills that can’t grow to the third tier?” He wondered. “What would a third-tier actualization even look like? I’m comfortable saying I can already do it at least as well as any god, so what would it mean to surpass the gods in their innate abilities? The only thing I can imagine it might lead to is my constructs becoming permanent in the mortal realm but if that’s going to be the case, there might be a different skill I should be working on becoming a contender for to see if I can get the two to merge together.”

It was the best idea he had at least and led to a different area of practice, away from his realm as the part of himself focused on the mortal plane would need to take over while he and Abel walked Delair home after finishing early for the day.

While they talked though, passing the time as they went through the streets, Ben began working on a different skill, keeping it confined to within his palm to avoid drawing any more eyes than usual as more actualization began to take place, shapes shifting at a speed that would have left it an indecipherable blur to any onlooker as notifications began going off in his thoughts.

MORTAL REALM ACTUALIZATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED

A skill he already knew he’d be quick to level, the only reason he hadn’t gotten it to at least the ninth was because he’d chosen to focus on his commissions so soon after having gained it but with both done there was no reason not to devote himself in full, his thought speed ensuring that a host of notifications were his reward.

MORTAL REALM ACTUALIZATION ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED

Alright, maybe I should have just made the time to do this earlier.

Only a few seconds of real time was all he’d needed to get it to its ninth level, only needing to awaken it from there but taking more work to do that with no notification telling him he’d succeeded even as they made it to Sachel’s door minutes later, letting themselves in for his student to get home.

“Alright, see you tomorrow, bright and early Delair and we’ll work extra hard to make up for ending early today, okay?”

“Okay, see you guys tomorrow!”

With them on their way, heading back to the shop, the two chatted as they went while a different part of Ben was left with a different problem, staring down at the broken mass within his mindscape.

Letting out a low whimper, he stared down at the thing that had once been a god. Quox, who in his greed had made a choice that might have doomed that and every other world, was in essence destroyed, with little remaining of the once proud god.

But that was inescapable. No matter how long he’d resisted at first, how long he’d begged after resistance was found futile and how long he’d retreated into madness for what small protection it might have given, the god had dealt with his torment for what would feel to him like nearly a hundred thousand years. No matter how powerful a being it might have once been, there was only so much a mind could take before it would collapse, even if it created a problem for him as he stared at it.

“At this point, does it still count towards any of my skills?” He thought aloud. “Is it evil to pound at meat that’s already been ground? Is it destructive to hit at something that’s already been reduced to dust? Is there any experience to be gained as an evil god if the thing I’m getting it from doesn’t even remember its own past divinity anymore?”

He didn’t know and had no way to know for sure but he doubted that it was helping his experience acquisition. The thing before him that had once been a deity had given that universes most ravenous monsters access to the system and he felt no pity for the state he’d left it in but if he’d broken it so thoroughly that there was nothing else for him to gain then that too was an issue that would get in the way of his future growth.

“So what do I do? Trade him out for a different god crystal? It might work but it would also draw some eyes I’m not ready to get quite yet. I’ve got the prophet demon’s soul too but it didn’t get to ascend so there’s no way to tell if that would work, I’d rather not test that quite yet and risk ruining a rare sample. The outsider… No, even with the current state of my mind, I don’t want to risk connecting to it. I can already imagine having the mind of something that exists in more than three spatial dimensions being bad for me if it wouldn’t just kill me outright.”

“...But now that I think about it, that might be a decent push to awaken deep connection… No. No, not doing that unless I’m really, really running out of choices. It’s not like there’s no other options, I just need to… Doesn’t matter, I’ll work through what I can and if nothing else works then I’ll consider it. Definitely not before I’ve finished all of my other jobs. At least eldritch mind user because god, I really don’t want that killing me. Okay, where does that leave me?”

It felt like it left him exactly where he’d started, with the remains of a tortured god before him but it wasn’t like there were no options he could do with it. He even had other experiences and skills that might have helped. If what remained of Quox was too damaged by what he’d been through, Ben only needed to remove the damage, wiping the slate clean to start fresh once more.

And if it helped the prisoners…

Reaching deeper into the connection he had up between then, Ben looked at the memories stored in the other’s soul, no longer a functional mind there to hold them but still giving him something to work off of as he began trying to cut away his time there, feeling a resistance incomparable to any mortal mind as perceived minutes passed to break down some of the experiences of the god he’d held, feeling a shocking amount of strain even when he empowered the skill with his sacrilege and only managed to destroy the last half of a day.

MIND BREAK LEVEL INCREASED

“Interesting,” He muttered. “This looks like it’ll take a while if I’m going to try and start from where I left him but on the plus side, not only does it look like this is going to be some really good training for mind break, it might end up being decent training for my sacrilege too.”

Erasing the memories of a god to hopefully draw even more benefits for torturing it again, a part of him knew that whatever the reason behind it, he couldn’t deny he was living up to the name of evil god and did his best to ignore the brief voice in the back of his head asking him what he’d do if someone with the power to do so ever came to judge him for it, some omnipotent god of the multiverse only waiting for him to die to condemn him for his actions.

…Well, if any sort of higher power like that really does exist then I think I’ve got some even harsher words about letting the demons as a whole exist. Who knows, maybe I’d even get to argue my case a bit before I’d be left damned to hell.