“That’s impossible,” Ralia said firmly.

“And ethically dubious,” Thera pointed out, far more concerned that he’d actually do it while Sachel came in with a question.

“You don’t have an awakened life or death magic, do you?”

“God I wish. No, and it’s not something I would be able to do anytime soon, I’d need to probably level up my enchanting and connect at least a couple more times to make it work without having any help, maybe even have to awaken them, but it should be possible.”

“Ben, when you were teaching me the various ways the skill was used you mentioned the way enchanters like you can use it, but even if both of your skills awaken I don’t think it would be good enough to access a third-tier skill the way you can other ones,” Sachel told him, not wanting to squash his hopes but also feeling that nothing good would come from keeping the truth from him

“You're absolutely right, but there are other ways to interact with a soul than just soul magic, right?”

“Wrong,” Ralia was quick to assert, but Sachel’s eyes began to widen in understanding.

“You don’t mean-”

“I do,” It was clear that she had heard about it, but for the sake of the other two with them who were both looking quite curious he explained. “My god Myriad is kind of artificial in nature. It’s kind of a long story, but millions of his people got together to make him, and this was in a world where the system didn’t exist. From what I understand, they could use all forms of magic, but only to the point that they would be considered to be at the zeroth or first level, meaning they constructed him to be able to hold the totality of their species souls using incredibly low-level magic, no third-tier soul stuff involved.”

“There are so many issues with what you’ve just said. Your god's race created him?” She asked while sounding shaken, before switching back to her main concern. “But wait, even if that’s true, that doesn’t mean you’d be able to, even if you had access to awakened magics! The effects of millions of people working together can’t just be replicated like that!”

“True, but I have two different things going for me,” He said with a raise of his fingers. “First, I’ve already spent months pouring over his blueprints for fun, but second and more importantly, I wouldn’t need to make anything nearly as complicated as something with seemingly unlimited soul storage space, I would just need to make it to be able to hold a single soul,” And he was already thinking on just how he would go about it. He’d need a better understanding of the blueprints for sure, as well as magic as a whole to get the modifications right, but he could already feel potential forms the enchantment might take being experimented with in his head.

Ralia looked to Thera as if to ask if he was serious, and he got the impression she looked at the other girl with sympathy.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he manages it.”

“If you do, won’t that become a major artifact for our faith!” Sachel asked excitedly.

“Oh gods, this is so fucked up,” The naga woman spoke with her head in her hands. “I thought the true shifter was bad enough, I can’t imagine how the nagual would react if you actually succeed in making something like that.”

“True shifter?”

“You really don’t know anything about the current tier-three skill users to exist, do you? The True shifter is both the pride and embarrassment of my father’s people; a nagual that managed to awaken their beast form skill twice and gained the ability to absorb the souls of any creature he kills to turn into.”

“Um, that sounds cool as hell, why would he be an embarrassment?”

Ralia seemed to regret letting it slip since it meant she was being questioned about them, but Thera seemed to know and took over the explanation. “Well, skills tend to undergo massive changes when they awaken, and sometimes that can result in certain quirks,” She explained, seeming a bit awkward about it herself. “One of the quirks of his skill is that on top of being able to absorb the souls of the creatures he kills, when he has a child, they’ll be born with a second soul like any nagual mixed breed would be, but from any one of the numerous souls he has available.”

Oh man, I think I see where this is going. “So how many children are we talking?”

“Originally, my father’s people would have any one of the five original forms, with which one they received being random based on what soul each parent had,” Ralia explained, drawing a long, disappointed breath. “Since the true shift awakened his skill fifty years ago, that number has gone from five shifter types to a bit less than a thousand. Of course, if they don’t end up having children then their lines will be dead ends, but the fact he’s still trying this at all is considered a major embarrassment, and it would be shocking if a few hundred didn’t form lasting bloodlines, especially since he keeps having more.”

Holy crap, almost twenty a year? And that would be if there weren’t any repeats, definitely a bit worse than I’d thought. He got what she was saying about the true shifter at least, but whatever her people thought on the potential of him making an item that would let someone use the beast form skill was none of his concern. It wasn’t even guaranteed he’d ever get to the point where it would be possible, but if he could he would, just to try.

I could always just try and find a demon to test it on, surely there’d be no issue with that, right?

Though now feeling off for completely different reasons, Ralia recovered enough from the cold by this point to try drawing out more frost bats. Their break was over, and their hunt went on.

Ben watched them hunt for a few more hours before they all headed back. The purpose of the night was to try and understand what they were facing, and after watching them go at it he couldn’t help but worry he’d overestimated just how long it would take to clear them out. After the first batch they’d managed to eliminate another twenty of the pests, but while the woods were big, they could only support so many of the creatures at a time.

At worst he might have to try to remain in the village a week or so longer than the others, but that wasn’t a huge deal. Fontesh seemed reasonable, and with how much time he’d just dedicated to preparing everything he’d need he wouldn't just let it go to waste.

Still, there was more work to be done, and as they all got back he saw that Skoe had abandoned the task he’d given him at some point, presumably to sleep.

“Alright, thanks for letting me tag along but I should get back to work, the more I prepare now the easier it will be later.”

He went to restart the fire so he could keep collecting the plant tar, but Thera grabbed his arm to stop him. “Wait, I’m not letting you go two nights in a row without sleep. Aren’t you planning on working all day tomorrow too?”

“I mean, yeah but there’s a lot to do when the village has zero resources.”

She gave a sigh and understood how her uncle must have felt whenever he’d find Ben asleep in the shop in the morning if he didn’t kick him out for the night before, so she turned to the other women. “Since these things are nocturnal you’ll both help Ben fix up the village during the day, right?”

While she phrased it as a question it was clear to everyone she wasn’t asking and seeing how central she was to drawing out the frost bats they couldn’t disagree, not that they wanted to. This was Sachel’s home after all, and Ralia was none too happy about how her companion had been spoken to so poorly either.

Their cooperation secured she turned back to Ben. “Come on, if you pass out in the middle of the night nobody will find you until morning.”

A small part of him wanted to argue, but it was undeniable that he was tired and could use the rest, so he obediently let himself be dragged along to the room, taking turns to change before laying down to sleep.

The moment he laid down he felt two days worth of exhaustion hit him all at once, but couldn’t feel sleep coming for him as he closed his eyes. Being in bed with Thera, door locked to avoid the risk of anyone coming in when she wasn’t wearing her cloak and getting too close while in tight quarters was proving surprisingly harder to deal with than he’d expected.

All three of his minds were a flurry of activity, and he couldn’t help but worry this was going to be how he got another level in complex mind as he tried to relax.

Just go to sleep damn it! Am I twelve? I seriously can’t rest cause I’m sleeping next to a pretty girl? Do I have the leeway to try and add a small expansion to the house for Fontesh on top of everything else? No that’s stupid I already have so much to do. Then again, it would be pretty funny to build a new room and leave Skoe stuck in the shed. No damn it, I don’t have time, I’ll get used to this in a day or two. Or just sleep less and work more. Would it be weird if I moved to the ground? That would be like saying I feel weird about this though. Augh!

“Hey Ben, you asleep?” Thera asked quietly, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Not yet, what’s up?”

“Not much, just thought we could chat a bit. I’ve never done anything like a sleepover before but this is kind of similar, right? Or do humans not do that sort of thing?”

Talking was just an excuse to avoid the similar thoughts going through her own head, but Ben couldn’t know that and immediately started chastising himself.

Oh my god, no more weird thoughts! I’m her first friend, she’s one of the few people I care about in the world, there’s nothing weird about this! Like she said, this is basically a sleepover, we’re hanging out, then just going to sleep.

“Yeah we do. Let’s see, what are some standard sleepover activities on my planet? Movies, pizza, if you’re really young then a pillow fight, other games too I guess, but it’s really just whatever you feel like. How about young succubi?”

“Um, I’m not really sure.”

Augh, of course she wouldn’t know you idiot!

“Well, we can try something like it when we’re back home at some point if you want. Actually, a pepperoni pizza would be incredible, I really need to figure out how to make something that could come close with local ingredients. Although I could probably do other types just fine…”

He continued to mutter to himself, thinking of how he would go about it and what native ingredients might go well together when Thera began to giggle and he realized he was rambling.

“Ah, sorry for going on,” He said, “Thinking about it gave me a bit of a craving, and the fact that I have to figure out how to make it from scratch here is crazy compared to just how common it is in my world.”

“Don’t worry about it, that sounds nice so I’ll look forward to trying it. Passing on the pillow fight though, if Sonya saw me doing that at my age I’d actually die.”

“Ha, well if she’s ever out then maybe we could give it a go, shame-free. If I’m lucky I’ll have figured out how to make something like a movie by then too.”

“Hmm, you mean those moving pictures you spoke about? I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t just read a book or see a play instead.”

“Totally different experiences, trust me, you’ll understand if I ever succeed.”

Since he’d learned about the existence of magic, he had a couple standard fantasy items he wanted to own or make, with something like a moving picture being at the top of the list. He was still working on figuring out how to pull off that one, but there was an easier option he thought he’d be able to manage, though it would be insanely mana intense and result in the most challenging enchantment from an affinitied magic to date.

But maybe it would be worth it to try to attempt? It’s far from impossible, I just need plenty of time. No, maybe I should start with something simpler first? I could probably manage something like old fashion animation, just making one cell at a time.

He was about to ask Thera what sorts of stories or fairy tales she knew that were reasonably short when he noticed the sound of her breathing had slowed.

“Ah, good night Thera,” He whispered, and feeling more relaxed himself was able to drift off to sleep.