After a long day of working Sachel to the bone, they finally returned to Stonewall, dropping off the oracle of his faith before he split from Thera to do his next major task, going to speak to the would-be manager of the facility he had set up.

The man was waiting outside of the building, in the new, empty area of town as Ben ran over, inspecting his skills as he got close enough.

Oh cool, eighth-level enchanting and fire magic, along with a sixth-level for water.

He couldn’t immediately place his race, assuming he was a hybrid of some sort, having both four arms and eyes, along with green scales across what was an otherwise human-looking face.

“Hello there,” He said, putting on his best smile. “I’m Ben, I believe Nare sent you.”

“He did,” The man nodded. “I’m Kufno, I look forward to working for you.”

“I’m glad to hear it, so how much did your god tell you about what you’d be doing here?”

“Less than I’d like,” He admitted. “It was mentioned you wanted someone for a largely managerial role, but I was told to ask you for the finer details.”

“Alright, that works. For now, why don’t you come on in, I’ll explain a bit about the specifics of what you’ll be doing and get you acquainted with the area.”

With introductions done he opened the building's doors, showing the vast area within as he led him through.

“So obviously there’s a lot of space,” Ben went on. “I’m expecting about two dozen people to be working under you as they start arriving in the next few weeks so for the start you’ll be here to greet them and explain the finer details of what I expect done. To make things simple, you’re basically going to be testing spells to the greatest extent you can. Come on and I’ll give you a bit more detail from here.”

He led Kufno over to the storage area, where a hundred crystal cubes were already set up after nights of enchanting them.

And I still have so many freaking more to do too.

But that was a later problem. He went over to the first, showing it off.

“So as you can see, I’ve marked the areas where different spells need to be connected, as well as the others where mana needs to be run through. I’ve got a variety of rainbow mana crystals already set up to do just that so you’ll all just need to attach them after set-up each time and remember to remove them between tests too. The main thing to remember when you’re working is for you to record everything to the greatest detail you can. What spell is being attached and its affinity, the level it’s being attached at, the effect of the spell on it relative to the expected effect of such an enchantment. There’s literally no such thing as too much detail because the changes you can get are pretty extreme, for example…”

He attached rainbow mana crystals to where he needed to for his already set up cube, showing the effects as it lit up with the simple light spell applied to it. In most cases, there were only glowing spots in each marked location, with a few that didn’t seem to activate at all, but in others there were different effects. Light being absorbed instead of released, colours of it other than the plain white it should have been, and one where it was letting off some level of heat too.

“All of these different effects are coming from the same spell,” He explained. “It’s all just being changed by what the mana goes through first, which is exactly what we’re trying to understand here. I have a booklet of my notes I’ve taken on this single spell on this one cube alone, and that’s the standard I’m looking for.”

He handed it over, letting Kufno flip through it, seeing diagrams and measurements, along with any less certain observations, all of the work Ben had done for such a tiny part in his effort to learn what he could.

Once he got to the end, Kufno looked around, seeing so many more giant crystals already set up for testing.

“It’s certainly a lot.”

“And there’s going to be more,” Ben told him with a nod. “Once the rest of the enchanters come in, my hope would be to get multiple crystals completely tested each day. Don’t let how many are currently around fool you, by the time the rest are set up, there’s going to be thousands to test, with even more to run after this first round is over with.”

“Well then, it sounds like I’ll be employed for a while so I have no complaints, but if I could ask, what’s all this for? So much work, what’s the point of it?”

“What, Nare didn’t tell you?”

“Would you question a god?”

“Of course I would,” He told the man with a grin. “But alright, the point of this is simple really. The gods have a spell they’ve been using without properly understanding, I want to figure out what makes it tick, and the sooner the better. Ideally, we’ll have this first part done in less than a year, but from there who knows how long it will take? Since we have a bit of time, I’ll give you some hands-on practice before showing you to your home. You have fire and water magic, right? Let’s see what you can do with it.”

That went super well, tell Nare he made a good choice.

Ben had zero complaints about the man the god had selected to manage his facility. Kufno seemed serious yet friendly and appeared to be both detail oriented and a hard worker, exactly what Ben wanted from someone he was putting in charge of his project.

And given that in a week or two the entire team will be here, I should be getting results before I know it. Which also means I’m going to need to finish up more crystals so there’s no chance of them having nothing to do. I guess that means a few more sleepless nights ahead. Let’s see, as long as I have someone to run their mana through me I should be able to get them done at breakneck speeds at least.

Of all of the abilities he’d gained with awakening, that was the one he loved the most, even if it was one he was already seeing he needed to be careful with. It was obviously killing his mana and regen growth rates when overused, something he didn’t want to lose out on. Taking mana from others was only handy when there was someone to do it with, any time he was alone he needed to depend on his own reserves, so he needed them to keep growing too.

But even if I’m only doing this when I absolutely have to, it's already great. I guess my growth rates are going to be a little screwed until Sachel gets her level since I need to keep taking from Thera, but hopefully that’s not too much longer so it should be worth it.

She’s a trooper, she’ll be fine. I’m more worried about how long this will take. If it’s been a few years then assuming she’s been training regularly we might get her the level in a couple days of constant work, but I don’t want to find out that this is going to be a multi-month-long task. I really have other things to do.

Listen, I don’t like it either. In fact, I really freaking don’t like it, but this would solve a bunch of different problems all at once. Just gotta deal with one incredibly awkward convo with Thera and Sonya first.

His god fell silent as he got back home, enjoying the smell of whatever was cooking as he went into the kitchen, finding the two of them already there.

“Perfect timing Ben, dinner’s ready,” Sonya told him as she laid out plates, making small talk about how the day had gone first as she spoke about the clinic before moving on to asking about their own.

“We spent the day helping Sachel train her life magic,” Thera explained. “And I sure would be interested in finally knowing why since you’re telling her it’s to help her awaken her skills.”

Sonya looked surprised and suddenly all eyes were on him as he felt his minds push to think of a way to explain what he wanted to do that wouldn’t be immediately objected to, only to fall flat as he beat around the bush.

“Well, it’s a little complicated but the next step after getting her to the seventh level would be getting her to the eighth.”

“Yeah, that’s how that usually works,” Thera told him dryly. “But I somehow doubt you’re planning on going around with me and her for years just so she can level one magic slightly faster.”

“...That’s because I want to take a shortcut. I want to take her to challenge the life tower, and I’m hoping you two will join me.”

The table fell silent, the expected reaction really, but as much as he didn’t want to suggest it himself, he really couldn’t think of anything better for solving so many problems. Completing the tower would let her get two extra skill levels to her unawakened skills, if she put them towards her life magic then he was sure he’d be able to help her awaken her magic with what he intended, and there was more beyond that too.

Sonya had an eighth-level life magic, exceptionally good at her job by all accounts, at least as far as a typical life mage would go, and Nare had told him in the past when he’d first learned about the tower trials that they’d be able to tip someone like that over to awakening. It was the fastest way of dealing with her insecurities about not being good enough for Falk that he could think of.

And then beyond that, if I really do succeed in awakening Sachel, that has plenty of other excellent implications for how I might be able to personally do my little part for the world, as well as all I might just get out of it.

Ah, but I have ambitions beyond money for this. I’ll tell you about them later.

Thera felt her jaw clench as she processed what he’d just suggested. She’d joked about the prospect of taking on that tower after they’d finished the earth one, but she hadn’t actually had any intention of going through with it. Doing any tower trial was taking one's life into their own hands, and she still remembered seeing some of what Ben had gone through. Him laying on the ground, bleeding and broken, along with the scene of him slowly turning to stone, only surviving the ordeal because she had her experience with petrification.

Beyond that, she still wasn’t clear on how doing it was supposed to help Sachel awaken her skills given that getting to the top would only get her to the ninth level of life magic, but she was able to pick up on the other reason he had suggested it as well.

Her aunt beside her, still looking shocked by the suggestion, would get the best potential payoff if they succeeded in such a thing. She would be able to be pushed to the awakened form of her magic, and hopefully with it, give her the confidence boost she needed once Falk returned to town. All that mattered was if they’d actually be able to succeed.

When she gave it some thought, she couldn’t deny it felt possible. She herself was incredibly powerful, and while her aunt's magic may not have been awakened, her attributes were excellent because of the potions Ben had forced on her, leaving her already comparable to many awakened skill holders. Sachel wasn’t bad herself and as for Ben, she knew he was resourceful and didn’t doubt he was already planning on how to make it even easier given what they already knew from their experience in the earth tower. That did of course leave who would be their fifth, if they were even going to take one, but that was less important than the question of the toll it might take.

“Do you think you’ll be okay if we do this?” She asked him, not referring to any injuries he might incur but instead looking at the mental toll it could take.

He understood what she was asking and if he was being honest with himself he had to admit he hated even making the suggestion. While overcoming the earth tower had helped a bit with some of the lingering trauma of being trapped in Galwax’s trial, walking into another one still seemed mad. He didn’t care how often he found himself in dangerous situations, he was never going to like them.

But everything that could come from this makes it worth it.

“Who do you think I am?” He told her confidently, putting on his biggest grin. “I already have a few ideas that will make things easier on us. I’m not going to say there's no risk, but there’s plenty of benefits too. One of which is that you’re talking with the king of sacrilege himself. Watch this. Hey Sonya, the front door of the tower is a hint to whatever the first floor is going to be and on the fourth and fifth floors magics other than the one that fits the trial’s theme can’t be used. Also, you probably shouldn’t spread that around cause it’s supposed to be kept under wraps by a covenant.”

“Uh, is it okay for you to tell me that then?” She asked hesitantly, already seeing a future where Ben would be punished for sharing that.

“Well, the gods should have been able to figure out that I might not be bound by it given my skill and nobody told me not to spread it,” He told her with a shrug before looking to the sky. “Of course, if that was just an oversight and anyone is going to try and keep me from mentioning it now too late and tough luck ‘cause there’s no way I’m not bringing it up with the other two we’re going with. I have a couple other tricks too, so what do you both say? The end of the world is still on the horizon, it doesn’t hurt to have a little more power, does it?”

Bringing that up was cheap but effective. Both of them had seen the first wave firsthand, neither of them could deny the desire for any extra strength.

“Alright,” Thera told him, wanting whatever bit of extra power she could gain along with the good it would do for Sonya. “Aunty, I think you should agree to this too.”

“I really doubt I’d be of much help, Thera.”

“But I don’t,” Ben spoke firmly. “Sonya, when you’re doing something as crazy as putting your life on the line, one of the most important things you can have is trust. I’d take you over any random awakened life mage any day of the week. Come with us.”

He spoke with earnestness and sincerity, trying to forcefully get his feelings across and doing his best to keep his face from changing as he saw himself succeed.

“...Alright, I’ll go.”

It was clear in her eyes that she had her own complicated thoughts on the matter, but Ben didn’t care. With lives on the line as soon as they entered the tower, his only concern now was making sure they’d all make it out again, lest the death of anyone he loved forever weigh on him.

Which means on top of doing some late-night crystal enchanting I also need to work on tool design. This is fine, I’m a lean, mean, enchanting machine. What’s a few more days of working myself to dust?

He already had plenty of ideas, all there was really to do was refine them before putting them into action.