“Huh, looks like that worked, and as a healthy plus it looks like I didn’t accidentally destroy any of your minds doing it either! Man, I really am so great at using mind skills and now we have so much time for lessons too!”

In an empty space there stood four of them, or at least it looked like it, with Nati, Xilly, and Zallith all there and confused about what had happened, with the answer being a small experiment.

Connect was a two-way skill, letting the target into his mind the same way he could enter theirs, with the only reason everyone he connected to wasn’t assaulted by the full force of what he was due entirely to the fact that he was able to perfectly hide away his thoughts. Sure, he’d expose a bit of what he was when he needed to in order to convey information or speak without being overheard, but what he’d done was something entirely different.

He’d pulled them all into his head in a way he’d never tried before for the slight risk that could have potentially come with exposing anyone to his full mind. He still wasn’t doing that either, instead in essence pulling them into his imagination so fully that in the real world it looked like they’d entered a daze, powered in part by his mental symbiosis as well.

They wouldn’t be able to tell, but their minds were moving as fast as his could and in an area he was building with his thoughts, which created all sorts of potential. Potential he was more than prepared to exploit for his tests as three new Bens appeared, one for each of them and making them shrink back in fear.

“What’s happening?” Nati asked, having no way to understand where she was or how he’d managed to duplicate himself. Just looking around, it almost felt like she’d been taken to her grandfather’s realm, only lacking any sort of divinity to go with it.

“Don’t worry about that,” All Bens spoke in one voice. “Nati, Xilly, just take my hand and practice your connect.”

“Um, and me?” Zallith asked, wondering why he’d been brought as well.

“Ah, I’m going to be connecting to you directly for a bit so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

While the two girls normally would have had to have touched Ben to connect with him, the fact that he already had his own up between them had bypassed that need, letting them bring up their skills to interact with the carefully designed minds in each of the ones in front of them, leaving them with a repulsive feeling as they struggled against the alienness of what he was, with that only growing as the minds twisted and warped in their shape, Ben making them feel it all.

It was a sickening experience for them, something Ben was able to pick up on through the connection as he gave them all judgemental looks.

“You guys are going to be hurting my feelings if you keep thinking these sorts of things about another person's mental structure. Seriously, this isn’t that bad.”

“I think he’s insane,” Xilly muttered, sounding well and truly afraid and leaving Nati no choice but to agree. They may have been low in level, but during all of their practice with connect they’d never felt a mind remotely approaching that. How could he be anything but insane?

“Wow, rude. Keep the negativity to yourself and work on splitting your focus because we’re doing lessons while we’re here.”

Since the two he needed to teach were wearing his circlets still they had the spare minds for it and under the speed he was thinking they basically had all of the time in the world, so he willed a whiteboard into the mental space and began jotting down notes.

“Now, we’re going to be having a lot of time together. Like, an absolute ton so why don’t we raise the scope that you’ll all be learning at? The better you are at your work, the slightly better the odds become for the world. Let’s see, I think I’ll first aim to leave you all as masters of ritual magic, or at least the theory, before moving on to more individually focused lessons. There’s plenty of ways that you’ll be able to apply your magic Xilly so I’ll teach you all I can on that. Nati, we’ll work on improving anything you need to understand for materialization. Zallith, you’ll continue to be my little brain buddy so I can see if I can squeeze a level of anything out of myself. Now let’s do our best team and make Nare proud!”

None felt the enthusiasm he showed but with nowhere to escape, all they could do was deal with it.

<DEEP CONNECTION LEVEL INCREASED>

“Oh, no way. That was not the skill I’d been expecting to raise. Absolutely taking that though.”Stolen novel; please report.

Of any option, he’d thought he might manage to awaken mental symbiosis. It had been at the ninth level for a while and combining the fact that he was not only putting it to a lot of use with his students but that he also had his awakener title, it was the one he’d been expecting to get a little more out of, even if he wasn’t exactly sure what sort of push it might need or what it could grow further into.

Not that it matters, it can be handy, but another level of deep connection is worth so much more to me. I’m going to need to see if I can somehow get all of the world's awakened skill holders again.

It had been a few levels since he’d made rings from them all and while many of them had been at only the zeroth and first levels in the skills they possessed, there had been more than a few who had raised what they had to greater heights, even if he hadn’t seen any that would rank them as contenders. Still, by getting their skills on rings, it would let him do even more, meaning the next time he had to do anything for the gods, that was what he was going to be asking for.

Which probably won’t be too long. I think a couple months before the next wave starts they’ll probably be having me enchant on any gate they managed to get set up in that time and then I’ll also likely have another handful of people I can help awaken… Mmh, I think I’ll take the hit on the gates and just ask them to give me everyone I could use for enchanting instead of any payment since that’s more important. I don’t want to lose out on getting them to up my mana a bit with anyone I awaken. Okay, that feels like a plan.

Comfortable with his expectations for the future, he carried on with his various tasks, both internally teaching, and externally practicing other things.

Since he had the mental leeway, while the three of them were dealing with all of the lessons in his head, he was working on his other core skills, being his enchanting, crafting, and material manipulation.

Teaching them was taking him no mana and not using it would have been a waste, so instead he was altering the consistency of a hunk of metal he’d created, molding it like clay under his hands until it had taken a shape he was pleased with before he piled on enough enchantments that it crumbled to dust, leaving him to catch each particle with his magic and re-merged them into a solid whole to be shaped into something else, creating a constant loop where each skill was cycled through.

It was proving to not only be a good way to kill time, but also a good way to practice while he was busy trying to teach his students, and he only stopped when some long-awaited notifications rang out, not in his mind but in theirs, telling him that both of them finally gained their new levels of connect, even if it created a new problem he hadn’t been anticipating, no matter how much he should have.

As he looked within himself, both girls were looking at him with a newfound horror. From their perspective, the three of them had been stuck in some mysterious area for what felt like a couple of weeks by that point, not allowed to rest as they constantly worked. How they were managing without food or sleep they couldn’t say, but as terrible as it was they had been able to tell themselves that it was almost over, that soon Ben’s time with them would be up when they got their level. What they hadn’t been prepared for upon getting it was how it started to interact with another skill of theirs. Their enchanting, letting them both see the skills Ben had bound to his soul.

While they couldn’t see his titles, jobs, or various blessings, seeing his skills was worrying enough. He’d been on the world just as long as Xilly. As far as they knew, that meant the only awakened skills he had should have been whatever blessed ones he’d come with, but they weren’t seeing that.

He didn’t have five awakened skills, the maximum that any of the summoned should have had, but eight, all above the zeroth level and high levels of many others. That was enough to be shocking but wasn’t the main issue.

What was a problem were the two that stood out the most. A ninth leveled awakened sacrilege and a skill that named him as a demon, one of the hated creatures that were in the process of destroying the world, with the worst bit of all being that as soon as they saw it, they knew that he knew they had, with Ben able to see into their minds better than they could into his.

“Okay, both of you stop feeling so panicky about this. Jeez. Nare knows about the skills so it’s nothing to worry about, but if you go and spread them around then I will be slightly less nice. Understand?”

“We won’t say anything,” Nati managed to get out, answering for them both while Xilly was lost in her worries.

“Okay, good. In that case, since you both got your levels, why don’t we take a break for now to stretch our legs a bit?”

It wasn’t really a question. Without waiting for a response he broke off the connection between them, letting them all find themselves back where they’d started, even if they felt drained in a way they never had before from the experience.

As they readjusted back to the real world, Ben got up and stretched, enjoying the feeling after having sat a while.

“Okay, what do you say we do about ten minutes for you guys to get a snack if you need it and then we’ll get back to practicing?”

“Um, I’m sorry, aren’t we done?” Nati hesitantly asked, getting a confused look for her question.

“Done? Why would we be done?”

“You were just going to stay your original remaining time, right? I think that’s passed, so-”

“Oh, no, you’ve made a pretty severe mistake. You saw I have a thought speed skill, right? You were all brought under its effects. It’s been like, an hour, tops.”

The statement changed their expressions from ones of exhaustion to horror but Ben didn’t particularly care. He’d seen excellent progress in all they’d learned in that time and it was shaping his plans for the days ahead.

I can’t exactly let them practice while in my mind, but I can turn these assholes into magic experts by the end of this. God, I really am such a good teacher. Nare made the right choice asking me to come.

With their lessons looking bright, Ben was happy to indulge himself thinking on the job well done.

<INTELLIGENCE ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>