They could still hear the sounds of movement behind them as stone continued to rush by, not stopping just because they’d reached the end as all of them stared at the doorway to the last and final section of the tower, each preparing to face whatever was left to come.

It was Ben who spoke first, sounding more resigned than anything to whatever the final floor held for them.

"Well, let's get this over with already,” And with that, he opened the door.

As they all stepped through they found themselves in a large room, nothing remarkable to say about it. It was circular with a tiled floor, and at its center stood a large slab of stone.

What it did have, what set it apart from the other floors, was the only other thing of note it contained. A sign, clearly telling them what they needed to do in the area they found themselves in.

It was large, easy enough to read from where they entered from, and while the main three who needed to do the trial read it in disbelief, Thera could only look to Ben.

"You really shouldn't look so smug."

"Do I?" He asked, touching his cheeks and feeling the grin stretched across his face. He couldn't help it though. If the first section was made to test their problem-solving or reaction speed, the second their combat, third their endurance and fourth their power, then the final floor was made to test their technical skill, or at least it was supposed to, as Ben once again felt his eyes skim over the sign in front of them all.

CREATE A VESSEL TO ACT AS THE AVATAR FOR AN EARTH GOD.

TIME LIMIT: TWO HOURS

“So, Jake or Thera, which one of you want to handle this?” He asked innocently as the rest stared back at him.

“Ben-” Thera began, trying to move him along to how it was inevitably going to end.

“I mean, this is the earth tower, someone with an earth affinity skill really should be handling it. I guess that means Amy can too if she wants to cut away at the stone with her sword, me and Yuzu can watch from the back while you guys figure it out.”

“Ben, we’re on a pretty tight time limit, stop joking around and get to work already.”

“Haha fine, fine. I’ll need one of you guys to alter the consistency of the stone for me though so I can actually do anything with it.”

“Already started,” She told him. “Just let me know if you need me to adjust it or do anything else.”

“Sounds good,” And this is going to be so much fun!

“And no making a statue of Eneth to annoy him,” She said as an afterthought before he got to work. “I don’t need a god wanting you any more dead than they already do.”

…This is going to be slightly less fun, but fine, Helori it is.

With Thera altering the consistency of the stone to be more like a firm clay, Ben got started digging his fingers into it. It was obvious how the gods intended that floor to be completed, they wanted the earth mages in the party to be able to work the stone with a level of skill and detail to match the look of any god or goddess they worshiped to a great enough degree that it could act as a medium through which they could interact with the world, and while that might be a challenge for any person who found themselves tossed into a situation like that without the training, what it became for him was a stage to show off just how skilled he’d grown to be as every level of focus he had went into the challenge before him.

He’d seen Helori often enough that he needed no time to figure out the design he wanted to go for, one was already clear in his thoughts as he scooped away the softened stone, starting from the top as he focused on her head and face first. A part of him wanted to convey the excitability she could show when something caught her interest, but it wouldn’t suit the rest of the statue he had in mind so he needed to go for a calmer, more respectable look he knew she would wear, even if it wasn’t the one that first came to mind thinking about her.

Starting with her head also meant finishing up the one thing he would have wanted to put extra effort into if he could have, her horns. Constantly swirling with a rainbow of light and mana, there was no way to replicate the look with the material on hand, so he satisfied himself with just having the shape correct as he moved on to styling her hair, asking Thera to let the parts he was done with return to a more rigid stone and not hearing if she responded as he was engrossed in his work.

From there he went further down, his hands moving in a flash as each finger did exactly as it needed to, pulling away what wasn’t necessary and shaping what was, revealing the form of the goddess beneath the stone as he finished up with her torso and arms, elegantly crossed on her lap as he moved on to both her seat, as well as her legs dangling off of it, using his fingernails to create each of the finer details since he lacked the tools while carefully smoothing over other areas, trying to convey the gentle look of her skin that the statue of a goddess deserved.

It was only as it was done that he walked it over, doing a circle around it in a final inspection, asking Thera to soften different areas for him to touch up or to add some finer details before he was truly satisfied, turning to his friends with the intention to ask what they thought, only for him to see what had been hidden away by his tunnel vision.

Most of the ground around them was simply gone, the tiles on the outer rim of the room falling away into an infinite void, leaving only a few meters of space for them to stand at the center as they each walked the careful balance of not getting too close to the edge, while at the same time not getting close enough to the safety of the center to get in his way, having given him all the space he could need to complete a masterpiece in no time at all.

The fact that the ground hadn’t fallen from beneath their feet seemed a good enough sign that he hadn’t used up his time limit, but seeing that the trial hadn’t ended there yet he had no clue what to do, so failing anything else he focused back on the statue and clasped his hands in prayer.

“Hey Helori, come on down already ‘cause if you’re going to say this isn’t good enough I’m calling you a liar.”

He didn’t know if that did it but it was only moments later that a light filled the floor, the endless pit disappearing, letting everyone breathe just a little easier before all but Ben felt a sudden rush of divinity from the statue, while he alone felt his sacrilege spike as it lifted a hand to its cheek, making it clear that they’d done it. They’d finished each challenge the tower contained and survived to the end, with the time to claim their rewards upon them.

Instead of congratulating them though, paying respect to their hard work and fought for victory, Helori opened with a question.

“Did you really need to set up a statue like this?”

“What can I say, when I think of you, this is what I see.”

It was a scene he’d walked in on many a time by now, the goddess before him perched atop a particular cube as the two talked before he would come to invade for the night, why would he pick anything else to show for a statue?

“Mmh, well, what’s done is done,” She muttered before holding out a hand in front of her. “And this is annoyingly high quality. I think this is going to end up as the nicest statue of me on the world, it’s been a long time since I’ve had an awakened sculptor in my believers.”

“You get to keep it?”

“Waste not want not. Anyway though, as the one you made a vessel for I’m here to congratulate you all on completing the tower and making it to the highest floor. It’s a rare accomplishment, you can each stand proud for doing it.”

They muttered their thanks, Ben remaining as the only one able to look in her eyes as the others dealt with the feeling of power she gave off to varying degrees as she nodded along.

“And of course, since you’ve made it to the top it’s time to be rewarded. I don’t believe I need to tell any of you what the rewards are so let’s start with what skill you-”

“Wait!” Ben called out, cutting her off and not particularly caring. “Blessings first.”

The rest of his companions had no clue why he was saying that, the presence of the goddess before them keeping them from seeing why he would insist on things going down that way, but Helori just looked at him silently for a minute before she sighed.

“You really do have to insist on being an annoying mortal, don’t you?”

With the last of that long list of notifications he felt his mind reel as two more grew in his already very crowded head, but surprisingly to him, that was pretty much the end of it. There was maybe a slight bump to his ever-present headache, but compared to when he’d last leveled mental expansion it was nothing.

It made sense once he put some thought into it, one of the new minds he’d just gained regulated to considering such things. Complex mind was a skill that gave him two more strands of thought. It had been the most disorienting of his mind skills when he’d first gained it, but as it grew and synergized with his other two, they had a bigger and bigger effect due to the fact that they both acted on all of the strands that were already there.

It was a real snowballing effect of skills going out of control, but at the very least it didn’t seem like he’d need to worry about it for much longer. Complex mind tipping over the edge to the next level was a result of the large blessing they’d just gained, but given the fact that neither his focus nor his connect was awakening, he doubted he’d need to worry about such things for a skill he’d be intentionally neglecting.

Which means that if I end up getting the other two to the ninth level as well I basically don’t need to worry anymore so that’s a plus. As for the blessing, that didn’t exactly go how I’d hoped but hopefully either Amy or Jake got something out of it.

The reason he’d insisted on getting the blessing first was specifically because he knew the blessing was going to be large, meaning the chance of it leveling a skill or six was pretty darn good. His hope had been that it would push his connect past the barrier it had been stuck at, or failing that, that it would level the skill he was already planning on asking the second part of the reward go to so he’d have more room to work with, but in the end he just had to accept how things had turned out.

“And with that done you can all either think or say what skill you’d like to have leveled, whichever you find more comfortable,” Helori told them, pulling their minds away from the notifications going on in their heads before focusing on Ben in particular. “Well, all but you since your thoughts just got even messier.”

“Yeah yeah, in that case, I’ll take both my levels to material user.”

And another ninth-level skill, thank you very much.

With a total of four now and even more getting close, he could only hope he reached a future where the one he actually wanted was pushed over the edge. Even if the blessing hadn’t done it, it at least got him one step further to that goal.

A small part of him had been tempted to go with destruction instead since he’d just leveled that skill within the tower, meaning it didn’t have all of the practice that Ben had already put into his material user, but in the end, he couldn’t make himself look at it in such a way. As entertaining and useful as that skill was, it came nowhere close to his material magic.

“Anyway, you’ve all faced the challenge and claimed the rewards, but as with any time someone takes on a tower I’m sure you all have plenty of people waiting to confirm your safety so it’s best not to keep them waiting.”

With that she reached out, gesturing to a door behind them that hadn’t been there before as they took their cue and left, leaving the tower and back to the bright light of the sun as Ben particularly soaked it in, along with a feeling of success for how that had just gone.