Having her vision returned to her as they got out of that floor, Thera was greeted with the sight of her aunt carrying both Karly and her mother in one comically large arm while the other held onto Ben’s hand, leading everyone out before letting them down.

“This reminds me, I really hate mind effects,” Karly sighed, remembering her own disastrous attempt at the trial of Anailia. “Maybe I should have considered that before tagging along.”

“It will be worth it when we’re done,” Pelenia laughed. “Though I do feel like I missed something interesting during all of that. Thera?”

She ignored the obvious question about what she’d gone through compared to the rest, instead taking a seat to relax while she could before they went into the next one. The first floor had taken longer than it had needed to, ending up at a couple of hours since they had been walking blind and needed to be aware of anything coming to mess up their footing again after that first incident.

It had still been fast compared to what others might go through though and hadn’t exactly been high-intensity in any way. Even hearing the voices and feeling the occasional grasping hand had turned into nothing but an annoyance by the end, something to be ignored as they made their way. At least it had been for her, but it seemed her mom and Karly were both enjoying their break from the event.

“Man, I’m sure that must have sucked for you guys,” Ben said smugly while he enjoyed the little break as well. “You know, if any of you ever want to have an easier time with these sorts of things I can recommend some excellent mind skills to you all.”

“Pass.”

“No.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Hmph, you could all at least pretend to think about it. They’re super useful!”

“Yeah, but what are the odds any of us are going to be in a situation like this again when we get out?” Karly shot back. “Plus, you’re only free from the mind effects. The moment we get a section with debuffs you’re as useless as the rest of us.”

“Not true, I’ve got my resistances and a couple skills that complement them.”

“Which has nothing to do with your mind ones.”

“Okay, fair. In that case though, what about putting in an order for any of my excellent mind circlets?” He tried. “They should help if you’re ever in a situation like that again and growing another mind or ten is super useful.”

“Nobody’s going to take you up on that Ben,” Thera said, gently patting his arm. She still used the one he’d made her on occasion for training but had a strong desire to never do it again the moment it seemed like her planet would be safe. As much as she liked raising her skills, she had no qualms with taking a slower approach when that was the alternative.

Still, the answer made him deflate. “One day. One day the world will be ready to appreciate the many-minded and all we have to offer.”

She tried to keep the doubt from her face but by all accounts failed, leaving Ben to grumble about the underappreciation of mind skills in the world while he went off to make a light meal for everyone, leaving the rest to talk.

“So Karly,” Her aunt began, going into teaching mode. “Was there anything you managed to take away from that?”

“That I still hate having my thoughts messed with?”

The comment was met with silence as Funa stared at her student, waiting for a real answer.

“I don’t know Funa,” She eventually gave in. “What should I have gotten from that?”

“That you don’t pay enough attention to your mana sense. The easiest way to tell the difference between something playing with your mind and the real deal would be to determine which contained mana.”

“Ugh, you know I’m not good at subtle stuff like that.”

“Which is why you need the practice. Given how you just did, we’ll be upping your lessons on the topic.”

Thera didn’t notice the look of depression taking over the other girl, instead falling into her own thoughts.

I never considered that.

Her mana sense had always been a bit poor as well, an extension of her terrible control, but at least for earth and life, both had grown by bounds after awakening her magics. While it wasn’t something she could currently put into practice with the skill she had, it didn’t hurt to remember that little bit of advice in the future.

Karly’s right after all, mind effects suck.

She was just about to join in as well, wanting to see if her aunt could offer her any advice for the future but was stopped by her mother coming to her side.

“Quite the first floor, huh?” She asked with a laugh, clearly having gotten a kick out of the experience despite the danger.

“I think that’s putting it mildly. We’d have been in a lot of trouble without aunty.”

“Having Funa with us is certainly cheating,” Pelenia chuckled. “I wonder if Lux will end up taking Seren through the light tower when he’s old enough after this?”

“Might as well. I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t unless she has another.”

As much as it felt like cheating, Thera doubted the gods would put a stop to it after they were done with that one. After all, the great spirits still had to follow the same rules as anyone else. They could only do any given tower once, keeping the great spirits from challenging them just because they were well equipped to handle the ones within their affinity would be treated like a form of discrimination that she doubted her father and the others would stand for, and the gods would get nothing for angering beings with that much power. It was probably better for them to take the small hit to their faith than to risk finding out if someone like her father could be motivated enough to tear down a tower.

“I do wonder how things would have turned out if I’d considered this,” Her mother said in a much smaller voice. “Trying to cheat the gods… I’m not the best in my devotion but I’m enough that something like this never crossed my mind, even with your father right there. If I’d gotten him to take you through the earth tower when you were younger…”

“Don’t worry about it, mom,” Thera told her, understanding what she was getting at. When she’d been at the zeroth level of her earth magic for most of her childhood, she hadn’t actually been able to use it, the mana inside of her feeling too thick to get out, but that had changed when she’d gained her first level. If her father had taken her through the earth tower then she could have gotten to the second, plus a blessing, letting her have more than enough control to have had real success in her training after that instead of letting years be wasted. “It’s not like I ever considered anything like this either, and if I had then my life would probably be different enough that… Well, anyway, you told me before you were considering trying for another kid, right? If that happens then dad could take them then.”

What she didn’t say was that if she had been able to properly train her magic during all of those years then she’d probably have never met Ben, meaning things had worked out far better for her as far as she was concerned, not that she would tell her mother that. If she’d been able to spend an entire decade working on her magic then she didn’t have much doubt that she would have been able to get to at least the ninth level, maybe even have succeeded in awakening it to get to greater heights than she was currently at, but she doubted her life would be as good as it now was. If she’d never met Ben then he wouldn’t have had any motivation to make the resistance braces, meaning that she’d still be trapped behind her cloak, and she’d likely still be grumpy and alone. Meeting him had led to meeting others and making friends. No matter how unpleasant her issues with her charm were, she couldn’t deny that as things stood she liked her life.

“Ah, well, we’ll see what happens there I suppose,” Her mother told her, thinking about the prospects of having another child. “It’s something I’m going to need to talk more about with your father when he’s done helping your uncle. It seemed like it might be something we’d seriously try, assuming the war goes in our favour, but seeing how it seems getting to the sixth level isn’t a guarantee of any control and we’ve already used up Funa…”

Thera understood what her mother was getting at. If they did have another kid then there was no guarantee they wouldn’t have the same problems, with the solution to it kicked shut by what they were doing now. Funa wouldn’t be able to help out a second time, meaning there wouldn’t be an easy answer to helping with their charm if they had the same struggles she did. At least that was what she thought till Ben came over, plates in hand being handed out and an answer on his lips.

“If that happens then I have another solution so don’t worry about it too much,” He told them, only having caught snippets but enough to know the problem.

“What, really?” Her mom asked in surprise, with Thera feeling the same. It couldn’t have been a great solution considering they weren’t doing it instead, but any was better than nothing.

“Yeah, but the thing is, it’s the sort of thing that will probably make the gods very unhappy so I can’t say it when we’ve definitely got a bunch listening. If you do have another one or two I’ll tell you when they’re old enough for it to matter.”

Even if it wasn’t an answer, the reassurance from him brought a happy light to Pelenia’s eyes while they all enjoyed their meal before facing the next section.

It was only another hour after they’d eaten, but soon enough they were all looking at the next door, ready to go in with Funa taking the lead, opening it and walking in.

As well as the first floor had gone and as much as Ben had prepared, she did her best to stay on her toes for it. There was always a chance that something would surprise them like it had for the last section or whatever they were about to face would be more dangerous than they had prepared for, though that latter option was slim thanks to her aunt's presence. Still, it never hurt to be too cautious so she kept her guard up as they stepped through, finding a lush field beyond.

“Ah, looks like we got the third option,” Ben nodded happily, his face not matching what he had to say next. “This could be bad. Funa, if you don’t mind?”

Third option, what was that again? Thera asked herself. She remembered most of what she’d read, just not the particular order it had been written for her and with the few that had been described as containing nature elements she didn’t have much to work off of before the chance to find out was taken from her. Her aunt nodded at Ben and without another word turned to the rest of them, casting out her power and forcing them to sleep.