Ben's head screamed at him as he came back to consciousness.

God what now? He knew he shouldn’t have been passed out for any reason and worried about whatever he would wake up to this time. If he hadn’t gotten lucky with the last bit of the trial it could have been bad. He cracked open his eyes, fighting past the feeling they’d been glued shut, and looked up at Thera sitting beside him.

“Uhg. What happened this time?” Even with his mind connected to his copy he was still at a loss, and somehow it felt different from before. His mind still felt expanded, capable of focusing on more things than normal, but to a lesser extent. Maybe he was still asleep? He went to shake his duplicate awake but realised he wasn’t holding anyone and he wasn’t connected. That couldn’t be right though, if that was the case then what was happening with his mind?

She moved with a start and must not have been looking at him. He much preferred when he could see her face but keeping her cloaked was the safe move when they didn’t know if anything would be attracted to them out here.

“I don’t know. I got a headache and for some reason leveled up in earth magic and you passed out. Try not to move until you feel up to it.” There was worry in her voice and he decided to take her advice. At least until the pounding in his brain went down.

Thinking back he felt like he had heard the start of a system notification when his head exploded with pain. He swore if he got another title like ‘injured one’ or something then he would be doing something drastic to raise his sacrilege level one way or another. Even if he liked Myriad he wasn’t exactly over the other gods just leaving him in this world and forgetting about him. Maybe not the best train of thought considering he was currently a priest but he wasn’t likely to change his personality for the job.

As he reached for his card to see whatever the system had in store for him he tried to learn more. “And what about the other two?”

“Gone. I guess we’re in the next section and they weren’t allowed to join us. Speaking of, can I finally know how you would have told us apart?”

Damn, there goes an extra set of hands. He thought to himself before answering her. “Both of our copies got their mana from the trial itself, I could feel it flowing into them from the ground when I connected to you both as well as my own copy. I guess there weren’t originally any members of your race that could do that, or at least not well enough to tell. Your god’s really going to need to update this section now that mine has a dozen some-odd believers in the nation.”

“Wish you just told me.”

“I worried that if I said it aloud they would disappear. Maybe a silly concern considering any gods watching have probably been reading our minds this whole time but figured why waste a resource.”

He could tell she wasn't satisfied with that answer so he sighed and gave a longer explanation. “When I linked with my copy he was as quick to realise he was the duplicate as I was. He took it surprisingly well all things considering and was the one to suggest we should work together if it was possible. He just didn’t want you both knowing who was who if we could get away with it.”

“Why not, it’s not like we could do anything about it and it would have calmed me down to know at least.”

“Sure, it would have calmed you to know you were the original, but what about your duplicate?” He shot back. “Even if she handled it well we just felt it would be cruel to let her know that and have her deal with the uncertainty of what would happen to her once the trial was done.”

She fell silent at that and Ben knew he couldn't leave it there.

“But I’m sorry I kept it from you. I know it was stressing you out and I probably should have focused on my Theras feelings instead of something produced by the trial.”

“Your Thera?” She said jokingly, a bit more cheer coming from her.

“You know what I mean.”

She let out a long sigh. “Well, I get where you’re coming from at least. If she really did think she was me then it would have been hard on her to know. I was worried enough that it might be me after all.”

She seemed more at ease with it so he finally looked at his card, trying to see what might have changed and finding more than he’d expected. A level up in both focus and connect, as well as a new passive skill called complex mind. Most shockingly of all though was his intelligence had risen by 50 percent, bringing the total up to 316.

…Well at least it’s not a dumb new title. He tried to joke with himself before giving it all some serious thought.

So I would assume the reason it still feels like I’m connected to my copy is because of my new skill, which is cool and all but why did I get it and the level-ups? Not to mention the massive intelligence boost. Thera said she got a level up in her earth magic, what if…

“He Thera, anything else happen when you got the level up? Anything weird?” He asked, eager to see if his theory was correct.

She could see the seriousness in his eyes and gave it careful thought before answering. “It kind of felt like connecting with you I guess, but much more violent maybe? It gave me a serious feeling of Deja Vu though so I guess it rattled my mind pretty bad.”

“Deja Vu?” He asked, feeling excited as he thought he was on the right track.

“Yeah, I don’t know how to describe it, it just kind of messed with how my thoughts lined up. Sorry that’s not super helpful.”

“No, that's fantastic!” He said as she sat there confused, waiting for the explanation he was eager to give. “I think we must have combined with our copies and gotten a bit of a boost from it! Since you were working on your earth magic maybe the experience you had lined up between the two of you let you pass on to the next level, and I’d been grinding focus and connect with it so I leveled up!”

“Okay but why did it knock you out? Not sure if you noticed but you have blood on your face that came from your eyes and nose when it happened.”

He rubbed his face and felt some dried blood flake off. Guess that explains why my eyes felt glued shut. He casually thought to himself before explaining. “I think that was because I was connected to my copy while it happened. The trial tried to smash our minds together when they had basically almost merged after two days of being connected.”

“That sounds kind of dangerous,” She told him with a worried look. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

He took stock of himself before answering. “The headache is fading, though a bit slowly for my liking. I’m not sure if it happened as a side effect of my mind being forced together like that or as a way to stop it from being damaged, but it looks like I got a new passive skill that keeps me in a similar state to when I was connected with my duplicate.”

“Oh, that’s… good.” She said hesitantly, and Ben remembered she hadn’t exactly enjoyed the feeling of his mind like that when he had tried practicing with her the previous day.

“Should we test it out?” He asked, holding his hand out to her and she took it without any complaint. He was a little worried that she wouldn’t be able to deal with it. Aside from his houseplant Fredrick, she was the one he worked on the skill the most with, not having her help would be a serious blow to his training he would need to overcome.

He tried not to let that show in his thoughts though, which was hard without activating hidden mind. He needed her to feel his thoughts in their new natural state without thinking anything that might compel his friend into doing something she wouldn’t want to do.

“It seems fine,” She said thoughtfully. “It didn’t have that weird peering down feeling it had before at least. If I had to describe it I’d say your mind somehow felt broader? Or maybe bigger would be better? It just felt like there was more of it.”

A bit vague as far as changes to his mind went but as the person who underwent said change he had to agree. Still, he could get Myriad to look at him later when he was out of the trial, for now all that mattered was knowing that Thera wouldn’t be bothered by it thankfully. That left one important matter to deal with.

“So do we keep going then?” He asked her, but she shook her head.

“That’s up to you. Your arm and head are injured, if you don’t think you can go on then we’ll turn around.” She looked at him and waited for an answer. He was sure she wouldn’t judge him if he wanted to turn back, the fact she got a level-up was probably a huge boost to her willingness to give in if she needed to, as well as his potential injuries, but he shook his head.

“I’m good, the headache’s fading and the arm isn’t that bad.”

“You also bleed out of your nose and eyes.”

“But I’m not currently.” He said with a shrug. “Neither are giving me any pain so I’d think it was just strain from whatever the trial did to me. I can keep going.”

She stared at him a little longer, evaluating him, not wanting to put him in more danger than she already had getting him to help her, before ultimately accepting it.

“Okay, let’s go.”