Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

He felt himself growing a bit faster with each step as his potion coursed through him, still improving his attributes while he went and continuing on until he stood outside of the library for his next target, taking a calming breath and letting himself in.

Just as empty as his last visit, there were still workers on staff for the few mages around to take advantage of the place, letting him hope at least that the one he’d be looking for would be there as well, with him heading to Killi’s office to try and find her, getting an answer as he knocked.

“Come in.”

The knowledge holder was sitting at her desk, the office covered in paper and work to be handled given the role she was playing in strategizing, with the woman looking exhausted for all she’d been doing, even as she glanced his way.

“Ah, Ben, what brings you here today?”

“Sorry, I see you’re busy so I’ll keep it brief. I know it's a lot to ask but I was hoping I’d be able to put a sign up somewhere to help me find someone with the mind user job, maybe even get the librarians to mention it to any patrons they end up helping if possible?”

“And can I ask why?”

“Long story short, I’m going to try and take advantage of them to help me get through my current job faster by forming a party with them through an adventurer and that’s one of the keys I need to do it.”

“I see, and does it have to be a mind user? Would a mind master work?”

“I’d take either so long as they have a job level below ninety-four, that’s really the only qualification for me.”

“In that case, take Verbum.”

“Huh? Is he not under some third-tier job? Or has he just not unlocked it yet?”

“No, one of the more interesting discoveries that came with summoning people at that tier was that apparently one gets the job even if they don’t pass through the lower branches first, but when he arrived, after talking we decided he wouldn’t go through that one to begin with. Given his skill has no level and some details he was able to find out about that particular job, we decided it would be best for him to go through something broader to help give him an easier time of gaining related skills too.”

“Huh, neat. In that case, I’ll definitely take him. I’ll swing by again tomorrow. Thank’s Killi, you’re the best!”

With how smoothly that had gone, he couldn’t help but feel positive as he left, even if he'd found someone with a harder job than he’d been expecting.

But what does that matter? Compared to mine, whatever experience his needs is going to be nothing. Now to just track down the last one I need. Hope she won’t be too hard to find.

“Vasta!” Ben called out after his hours of searching for her, finding the non-affinitied mage patrolling outside of Allfaith for any demons who might have stuck around after getting through their own invasion point.

“Hmm? Ben, what are you doing out here?”

“Looking for you! What’s your current job?”

“What? Why?”

“Because if it’s a general non-affinitied job then we can help each other a bit. I’m looking for someone to pull into my party-”

“I’ll do it.”

“What? Okay, thanks but where’s this enthusiasm coming from?”

“I’ve heard from the three about what you recently pulled with them and I’m too greedy to not try and snag some benefits for myself. The current one I’m under is great non-affinity mage and I seem to get experience from all applications of the magic, does that work?”

“It absolutely does but I should mention this isn’t going to be a speedrun like I did with the others. Hopefully, this will get you experience a bit faster than you otherwise would be but I honestly won’t know until we do it.”

“Then that’s still fine. You’re a bright enough boy, I’m sure you’ll work something out if we bind our pools together.”

“Well, I’m hopeful at least so if you’re sure I will happily take you. In that case, do you mind meeting up with me at the magic towers’ library tomorrow?”

“I can do that.”

“Fantastic, I appreciate the help!”

With all of the key components of his party found, even with a hiccup along the way, he was in a perfect place to try and beat the job system once more, only needing morning to come to see if he’d be able to pull it off.

“You look obnoxiously cheerful,” Myriad sighed. “I’m already worried about the future.”

“The future where I stand atop the world as a god-king with unlimited power?”

“No, the more immediate future where you let all of the bonuses you're going to get after finishing all of your jobs completely go to your head, which it looks like I’m getting to enjoy a taste for early on.”

“Oh, come on Myriad, I deserve to let this go to my head at least a little bit. Combining the idea that I might have every single job done with the amount my attributes are going to grow throughout the night, I might actually unlock the king jobs for every attribute to my name by the time the next wave rolls around!”

“Not your agility unless you take up running.”

“We’re ignoring that one, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I feel like my odds of surviving everything have just gone up by an entire percentage point!”

“What did you think your chances were before this?”

“Assuming I awaken the two skills I want? Between zero and one so that extra one on top of it is going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting. Hell, it’s definitely going to boost my chances of breaking through the third-tier barrier so look forward to that. Oh man, everything is actually going kind of right for once, how can life feel so good?”

“Pelenia was right, you really are manic right now.”

“Can you blame me? Considering that I’m basically guaranteed to die at the end of the year, every bit of good news I get is like finding an oasis in a desert and I’m here to drink it all up.”

“Ah, so this is all your way of deflecting then, gotcha.”

“Hey now, the joy is genuine. If I’d thought of this a couple years ago then it would be all the more so. There’s definitely other jobs I could have finished sooner in the past by snagging myself a mind user or two. It is absolutely brutal hearing how uncommon that option is. I want to write a letter of complaint.”

“Well, given your soul production, it’s not like you’re going to need one for anything else,” Myriad reasoned. “Unless you have another third-tier one in there that will take you a bit longer, it seems like anything else you have will be able to be knocked down by just finding an apprentice mage or a true mage. Maybe even the experience adventurer gets from magic could be enough.”

“Mmh, true, that’s worth remembering. I still have my hope that at least one more of my weirder ones will end up being a third-tier option but for now I’ll take what I can get and if comes down to it I’ll track down a mind user somehow or other to help speed things along but that's a future worry, still gotta get through this one first.”

He was already strategizing on how to make that happen too. He would be able to make far more souls than he had before since he’d awakened soul production but to keep his promise to himself he’d only be pushing it beyond his natural limits while working in the shop since that was when he’d have his jacket.

Just thinking about it made him want to immediately break that promise too. If he kept the jacket with him and just constantly pulled in mana at all times then he’d finish it even faster but that would only tempt him further to keep it on him at all times. The point of leaving it behind was to keep him from using it as a crutch, he couldn’t just keep making compromises for his convenience, it would defeat the entire point.

Plus that would still kill my natural growth rates, I’ll be able to make up for the times I use it if I level soul expansion a couple more times but eventually that will stop too unless I can figure out how to awaken that skill without tearing my poor, poor soul apart. No, as much as I want to, I'm sticking to the way I’ve already planned. I’ll just need to make the most of the time I do use it.

Besides, with all of the ways I’ve grown since using it to make my jacket and escape, I’m going to be making way more souls in comparison to what I was doing while trapped. I’ll see tomorrow how much my mana has grown with the god potion which will let me materialize more at once and even before then I was making over thirty times more than I was before thanks to my recent level to it…

Man, Amy might be right, there’s probably a few theological implications I’ve been ignoring to this. Oh well, as long as there isn’t some god of the multiverse watching and judging me it’s probably fine.

His mind briefly flashed to one of his more recent titles of transgressor and even though he was sure it hadn’t come from Oaun, he told himself that it was most certainly a system granted one, nothing from an even higher being that wasn’t fond of his actions.