Eventually, they heard a knock on their door as their meal arrived, though in a way neither of them would have anticipated. Plates were stacked on the wide flat back of a six-legged creature that walked in as soon as they opened the door for it, making it perfectly clear that they were supposed to treat it as a table to be used.

“Okay, even for me this is a bit messed up,” Ben muttered as he stood by it to begin eating, Thera seeming much more hesitant. “There’s no way this thing is natural, right?”

“Absolutely not. I’ve only seen a few of the things she’s made, but in the past they at least seemed practical. I can’t begin to guess what the point of this thing is.”

“Maybe another way to shock guests? Or maybe she really does just think it’s useful to have a moving table. Either way, the food isn’t bad so you should have some,” He told her as he munched away, though unable to keep himself from a single bit of curiosity as he reached down to touch the beast.

As odd as it had been to realize that he didn’t practice his connect with many animals, it wasn’t exactly unexpected either. He kept no pets and didn’t know anyone who did, and the creatures they hunted were typically dead by the time he got his hands on them. Still, it showed a very clear hole in the way he trained his skill, especially since his goal was to awaken it, so taking the opportunity in front of him he did just that, linking with the creature to see what was within, only to find nothing.

When he’d connected to the obbles, even if he didn’t feel distinct skills the way he did with people, he’d at least felt something, but that wasn’t the case here. It was like the creature was empty, nothing to grab on to. That didn’t mean connecting to it was pointless though as a far more unexpected effect came through as he found himself seeing through the creature’s eyes and experiencing its other senses.

It was just like when he’d experienced it in the trial of Anailia, maybe even to a greater degree. He hadn’t been able to think with its mind the way he had when he’d connected to the copy of himself, but in exchange he could tell instantly that for as long as the connection held, he could move the creature’s body to his whims as its eyes shot around to examine the room under his will, moving it’s feet up and down as Thera jumped back, not trusting any creature her aunt created.

“Sorry, that was me,” He admitted, breaking the connection and making it go still once again. “I just wanted to check something, but this thing is… well, it’s real weird on the inside.”

“I’m sure that would describe anything Vividus makes,” She said dryly, already feeling sick of being there and dreading the idea that they had a week to go. Still, a week was a small price to pay to learn what Ben’s skill was doing to him. “Anyway, I’m already exhausted so I’m going to turn in.”

“Sounds good, I need to talk with Myriad so I guess I will too. Want me taking the ground?”

They’d been forced to share quarters for a lot longer than either of them had planned these last few weeks and since she’d tried and failed to get a second room he didn’t want to leave her uncomfortable. However much they cared for each other, the romantic aspect of their relationship was still new and he had no interest in rushing things when he got the impression she’d rather take things slower.

Despite that she shook her head, pulling him along and resting her head on his chest as he went to rest. “I’m not making you sleep on the ground, just don’t get used to this yet. I’d never hear the end of it from aunty if she ever found out.”

“Works for me.”

With that he wrapped an arm around her and closed his eyes, forcing himself into Myriad’s realm.

“‘Sup Myriad, your favourite mortal’s here to- Oh, hey Helori,” He said in greeting, seeing his god wasn’t alone. “Hope I’m not interrupting.”

As with any time he went to his god’s realm and found her there, she was using his favourite cube as a seat, leaving him unsure of just how he should be reacting and ultimately settling on ignoring the act altogether, minus the minor curiosity of how comfortable his god was.

“I heard that, and testing it out won’t get you to the third tier of sacrilege so don’t even try.”

“Hey, I wasn’t even considering the sacrilege angle, although now that you mention it-”

“So what brings you here today Ben?” His god asked, forcibly changing the topic.

“Oh you know, this and that. Connected to a creature that the great life spirit made, pretty sure it doesn’t have a soul. Was wondering how that works.”

It was Helori who answered, doing her part to fulfill the role she’d agreed to in answering all of his questions. “It’s likely a homunculus, a form of artificial life. The way they’re made typically doesn’t result in an ensouled creature. In fact, that would be an undesirable outcome since it would make it harder to obey orders.”

“Huh, neat. How hard would it be to make one of these things?”

“For you? Impossible. You usually need an awakened life magic to have a chance, and even then it isn’t quick with lots of potential for failure. Typically only the longer-lived races bother to make them so they can use them for basic work and chores, but any shorter-lived race would be wasting too much of their time trying to get it right to make it worthwhile. Of course, there is also the option of just buying one to use, though it will still have the basic requirements of any living thing so it’s not necessarily worth the effort.”

“Seems like it would be easier to just hire a servant in that case.”

“Having one can act as a way of showing off the maker's skill in magic or the owner's wealth to be able to afford one. Besides, they have other uses too, you’re basically one yourself.”

“...Helori you can’t tell me that and let it hang, I’m going to have an existential crisis. What does that even mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like, though it’s not a big deal, you were already aware, even if you didn’t think of it in those terms. The life gods made you a new body, a vessel without a soul, just like any other homunculus. It was just a place to bring yours when you were brought to the world, it’s no big deal. At the very least, if you weren’t bothered before about having a new body constructed, you shouldn’t be bothered now.”

When she put it that way it did seem significantly less worrying. She was right after all, he was fully aware this wasn’t the body he was born with, it was just something about hearing it in the terms of being a homunculus that made it feel off-putting, but it was a minor feeling and easy to ignore.

“Okay, interesting to know I guess, going to do my best to not think too hard on that and move on. Myriad, how do I awaken connect?”

“Same way you awaken any skill, by pushing it beyond its limits. Just keep working at and if it’s meant to be it’s meant to be.”

“I was kind of hoping for some more solid suggestions than that. I’m already starting to make it to middle ultra rare with my stuff occasionally, think of what I could do if I had more awakened skills to work with!”

“Ben, you’re the first person in the world to even get this skill. How am I supposed to offer you suggestions when nobody’s awakened it before?”

“That… is an excellent point. Damn. it just feels like I should have it by now, you know? The fact that it didn’t merge with either crafting or enchanting when they awakened is a huge disappointment.”

“That one is likely to give you some trouble,” Helori told him as she thought it over. “When a skill awakens, it will typically merge with other skills to lower the boundary. Even if it’s in a small way, your skill interacts with souls, meaning that the easiest way for it to awaken would be if you had life or death magic to merge it with. Actually, dark would work too since it has mind aspects to it, the fact that you can’t gain any of those is likely what’s holding you back. It’s the same issue for Zandale, he’s been on the edge of awakening his skills for years, but he has no affinity for the two magics that might help tie all of his skills together and push him over the edge.”

“So if I want to make it easier then I need either another soul or mind skill that it could work with? But where would I… Wait! Zandale has empathy! Myriad, what are the odds you could set me up with a meeting with him sometime soon? Whatever his price, I’ll pay it!”

It was a non-affinitied mind magic, his only option, but immediately he felt like it would do the job. He was sure if he got that and put a couple months towards raising it a couple levels it would be exactly what he needed to make it work, but unfortunately for that idea, his god shot it down immediately.

“Zandale and his apprentices are basically booked full for the next few years. With the invasion months away, everyone wants to help ensure their best warriors get whatever edge they can.”

“Ugh, don’t tell me that means that if I want to get it I need to train for it myself?”

“That’s exactly what it means. Sorry Ben, if you want I can still book you an appointment with him, but the world might have ended by then.”

“Huh, well book it if you can then. I’d rather have it and need to pay for a random skill than need it and not have it around. I was floating around the idea of helping him get the bestowal skill so I could take it for myself after, so if I don’t need empathy then that’s still on the table. For now, should I even try to get empathy just by practicing? Non-affinity magics are so hard to get I might actually manage to awaken connect before I could get it, but on the other hand, it’s not like it would be a huge loss to use a mind or two to focus on getting it in the back of my head constantly. Of course, on the other other hand, it would still cost me mana to practice it which could definitely be put to better use towards trying to raise my material user skill and there’s really no time I could try to gain empathy that I couldn’t be training that instead.”

It was a tough choice, but in the end he decided to mentally mark it down as not a priority. As much as he wanted to do whatever he could to awaken his connect, it wouldn’t be worth it to try and gain the skill in favour of ignoring his other valuable ones. If he ever found himself with time to put towards it he would, but otherwise he’d do the best he could to keep pushing the limits of his skill as it was to try and break through. It wasn’t like he didn’t have other ideas he could use in the end, so once they were all used up he would reexamine the prospect of training to get empathy then.

“Was that all you needed?” Helori asked him. “I was in the middle of something with your god after all.”

“Why Helori, is that any way to talk to your favourite student?” Ben asked, grabbing his chest and feigning hurt.

“You aren’t my student.”

“I mean, you agreed to answer all of my questions for me so I kind of am actually, but whatever, I’ll wear you down on that eventually. Just one more thing before I stick to the summoning spell. How would I go about decoding a dead language?”

He’d thought long and hard on whether it would be worth his time to try to figure out how to decipher the thoughts in the books he’d gone through, and in the end decided it would be worth it, if only because of the time dilation aspect of the artifact. He was pretty sure that when he used it time seemed to move around one hundred times faster compared to the real world, and while that had plenty of benefits for making and refining ideas in general, it also meant that there was no loss for trying to actually learn the language of Galwax’s race as a whole.

It wouldn’t be an easy task, Ben only knew english and world speak, with the second being downloaded into his brain by the system, but there was no way around it if he wanted to exploit all that the artifact had to offer.

He could tell from the look in her eyes that Helori was instantly more interested in the conversation, exactly the response he was hoping for. As a goddess of knowledge, how could she resist trying to learn about the mysteries of a dead world? As much as Ben hated Galwax, even he couldn’t deny his own curiosity on the matter.

“The study of language is basically non-existent on the world because the system gives everyone world speak, so learning others is something of a lost art. I believe there’s a god of poetry who should have a decent idea of language as a whole, but if we were to set up a meeting we should start you with a better foundation than the one you currently have. You should learn a few new ones to figure out what you can and we’ll go from there.”

“Uh, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but there’s only one language on the planet, how should I learn more?”

“What, do you think your god and I forgot the languages of our homeworld just because they aren’t spoken anymore? While I can’t speak for Myriad, I know thousands. We’ll both pick out some diverse ones for you and get you started. I might be able to get some different gods to teach you some of their own later too. There’s plenty up here who lament the loss of their people’s tongues, even if it was for the purpose of unifying the world as a whole.”

After a quick discussion between the two gods where Myriad was kept from giving any argument to Helori in the face of her interest, they both selected one and began teaching him at the same time, taking advantage of his many minds as he focused and listened to them while at the same time continuing his examination of the summoning spell, hoping that something there would finally click as he pressed himself to learn.