After a meal of Ben enjoying as his teacher did his best to hide his newfound awkwardness and largely failing, he and Thera said their goodbyes to Falk before running off, letting him and Sonya have a moment of privacy as they instead made their way to the adventurers guild, trying to find someone they knew would be there as Ben immediately locked eyes on his target.

“Ben, Thera, hi!” Sachel yelled as she saw them, waving them down to her sitting party.

Of the two with her, Ralia gave a friendly nod as Skoe did his best to keep from looking uncomfortable, the four-armed man's history with Thera clear in his mind and all the more troubling for how powerful she’d become.

For her part, Thera was content to ignore him, sharing a greeting with the other two as Ben looked at them all, putting on his most winning smile as he did.

“Nice seeing all of you,” He told them, trying to seem open and kind and not at all nefarious.

That hurts so much to hear. I’m such a sweet and guiltless little guy.

Semantics.

“So what brings you guys here?” Ralia asked. “It’s a bit late to be taking a quest, isn’t it?”

Unlike others, neither he nor Thera would just hang out at the guild to socialize. Ben preferred to focus on his work and Thera’s personal history with many of the adventurers kept that sort of thing from being a fun prospect for her.

“We actually came to find you,” He told them. “I have something I need a bit of help with, and I’m willing to pay well for just a bit of time.”

Man, they are straight-up breaking my heart.

He didn’t need his god to say it, he could see it easily enough in their faces. It was only Sachel who looked at him with curiosity alone, none of the open fear the other two displayed.

This is why she’s my favourite, gonna have to do something nice for her. The other two are looking at me like I’m a monster ready to strike.

“What can we do for you?” Sachel asked, already happy to help. Ben had done plenty for her and helped her party in general by giving them some of his strengthening potions, even if he sometimes seemed to have an agenda, she at least had no qualms about doing what she could for him.

“I want to test the potential of one of my skills, and I was hoping to borrow Skoe’s brain to do it.”

“Why me!”

Because I like you least.

“Because it admittedly might hurt a bit but since you’re a warrior I trust you to be able to handle it,” He told him. “I need someone tough, just in case something goes wrong.”

“I guarantee both of them are plenty tough,” he argued, looking to his companions in the hopes that one of them might volunteer instead.

“I mean, as a mage I’m a pretty backline fighter,” Sachel told him. “You guys take great care of me so I’m basically never hurt.”

“And you’re definitely better at handling pain than I am Skoe,” Ralia told him, not actually believing it but not wanting to get dragged into whatever Ben had in mind. “I think you’re perfect to help.”

He could still see an intense desire to not do it in the man's eyes but Ben spoke calmly, trying to reassure him.

“Listen, it’s not like I’m going to force you into this if you don’t want to. You help me and I’ll pay you more than you’d make in a month for a couple hours of your time so it will be worth your while, but if not then that’s that.”

“...What is it I’d be doing?”

Got him.

“I just need to practice linking up to your mind. I basically want to attempt to try and loan you some of my knowledge and thinking power by forcing some of my mind skills on you.”

“And are you sure that’s, you know, safe?”

“Skoe, regardless of however I feel about you, I wouldn’t ask if I really thought there’d be any danger,” Ben told him. “Like any time in life when you’re trying something new then sure, there’s a bit of risk from the unknown, but I wouldn’t do this if I thought it would hurt you.”

Ben held out his hand as the other looked at it, thinking it over. Even if Ben had been an absolute slave driver during their time together, he’d never asked anything he wouldn’t do himself and even if he could seem almost mad in the pursuit of his goals, it wasn’t like he was a bad guy. Plus it was a chance to make a lot of money all at once, what was there to lose?

“Alright, fine,” He said, taking the outstretched hand. “I’ll do it.”

“Great, and I just want you to know that if by some chance things do go wrong and I destroy your brain by mistake, I’ll put my fortune towards finding someone who can put it back together or else make sure your next of kin never have to work again if things go really bad.”

“Wait, what-”

That was all he was able to get out in his panic before Ben opened up a connection with him, exposing the other to just a bit of his mind.

A bit was actually putting it mildly. He kept all but five hidden away, safe from causing any unwanted damage or strain, even if Skoe was still left squirming as he felt them touch his own.

“Okay, this didn’t kill me but I don’t think it’s working.”

“That’s because I basically haven’t started yet, this is just me using connect. Give me a few and we’ll see if this gets good.”

Not wanting to waste time listening to his complaints, Ben put his thought speed skills to work, pushing his minds to think about what he needed to do as he probed and experimented with the ones he wasn’t keeping hidden, trying to mash them against Skoe’s in an attempt to make something stick.

Which does not seem to really be working. Of course, chances of getting it right right away were always going to be slim if this is even possible to begin with. Just gotta keep trying.

He tried to make himself feel his mind skills, wanting to experience them in a realer way than he would by just letting their effects shape how he thought, only to keep running into failure as the minutes rolled by.

Now that I think about it, every skill effect I know that can be shared with someone like I want to is an active skill. Maybe it can’t be done with passive skills? Or maybe I’m just trying a bit too hard. My mind is too big, I need to aim smaller.

Even a single one of his minds had grown to be more powerful than an average person’s by a pretty significant extent, trying to merge the entire thing into another person’s was just begging for trouble, but if there was one thing he knew from the way all of his mind skills had grown in the past, it was that a single mind was not just one thing. It was composed of different parts, small strands of consciousness, and with that knowledge he worked to pull one of his minds apart.

It felt strange to attempt, but the worst part of it was just how easy it was to achieve, something he doubted he could have possibly managed before he’d awakened so many different mind skills into a monstrous new whole. It was only after a few seconds of work that he felt a single strand that made up who he was come away, still as much a part of him as any other but now slightly less bound and he mentally reached out, wrapping it with the entirety of Skoe’s thoughts and feeling something click.

Well, that was an unexpected side effect.

He didn’t need to check if it worked, he could tell it had by reading Skoe’s mind. It had instantly gotten a small boost of power and the knowledge Ben wanted it to contain was slowly making its way through.

The more important thing was how it was affecting his test subject though, with Skoe seeming mostly fine. There was a slight bit of disorientation from the change in his mind, but it was nothing compared to what Ben would constantly go through which meant as far as he was concerned it was ignorable.

“Which means all that’s left is to push it a bit farther.”

“Wait, maybe we-”

Before he could get out another word in protest though, Ben continued on, wrapping more and more of his thoughts into Skoe’s, building up the man's mental power, even if he looked queasier and queasier with each little change.

This is getting interesting.

“Hey Skoe, I can’t help but notice you don’t have the calculate skill, but I assume you can at least do basic math, right? Like, you know how to multiply?”

“I’m not fast but yeah I can do it.”

“Cool, what’s twenty-one times eighteen?”

“Um, three hundred seventy-eight?”

“Correct. Four one five by eighty-six?”

“Thirty-five thousand six hundred and ninety.”

He looked confused as he answered it, surprised by the feeling of the numbers coming together so easily in his head as Ben asked a few more times before nodding.

“Excellent, sit tight because I’m still looking to get a couple hours out of you, I just need to do something quick.”

“Uh, sure?”

He unraveled his mind from Skoe’s as the others looked on with mild concern about what had just happened, not that Ben cared. Getting a skill that helped him with the very thing he’d set out to accomplish was already more than he’d ever hoped to achieve, but now he wanted to push farther, he wanted to level it, and to do that he’d need practice, so with that goal in place he went up to Onk as they worked to see if he could make it happen.

“Onk, I have a very important question for you. Would it be cool if I just grab everyone’s attention to try and hire them for some help for an hour or two, or would that be against some guild policy?”

“There’s no specific rules about that sort of thing so it should be fine.”

“Excellent, thanks.”

With agreement given he jumped up onto the counter, shocking Onk and instantly getting the attention of the people around him like he’d hoped as he surveyed the guild. There were about a little over a dozen people in it mingling, more if he could drag any of the staff into helping him too and he couldn’t suppress a grin. With the current state of his mind, the ability to speed up his thoughts, and his past mind jobs to help, he’d be getting at least one more level that night as he opened his mouth.

“Guild staff and adventurers of Stonewall, how would you all like to make some money?”