Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“What hint?” Thera asked, all but shaking him to get an answer. “How did you know any of that? What have we seen that could be a hint in all of these grey walls and random traps?”

Everyone else was eager to find out too as Ben gave the reveal, feeling exceptionally proud of himself for figuring out what had been picking at him as they made their way through the corridors. As he’d been mapping it out in his mind the best he could, he had slowly been picking up on a connection to an already finished map of the section.

“Calling it a hint actually doesn’t do it justice. For this floor, it’s more of an answer key. The front door of the trial is a map.”

What he’d thought had been just a random design at first, and a particularly poor one at that, had actually been showing everyone who passed it the layout of the first floor of the trial. Each line represented either a pathway or a wall, with the dots along the pathway marking out the trap locations, even if that didn’t tell him what they actually were before they had to deal with them.

He couldn’t help but be proud as he explained that to everyone. Not only had he figured it out, but it also meant that he knew the way through. There were technically multiple paths, he just could plan the way that would have the least traps to deal with as they got to the exit. As he told them though, what he was met with was looks of disbelief.

“I’m sorry, I saw the door, are you saying you remember every little design on it?” Amy asked in shock. It wasn’t small by any means, and the design had been rather dense. She couldn’t imagine having memorized it for no reason.

“Ah, what can I say, I have a high intelligence attribute and when you have as many minds as I do kicking around it’s easy enough to remember the finer details.”

“And how many is that?” Yuzu wanted to know. They remembered from their meeting in Allfaith that he had around ten, but even with that many, casually remembering a complex pattern like that seemed like a lot.

“A very cool, very unpleasant thirty. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend that many, the headaches are intense, but they do have their uses too.”

He ignored the looks of surprise and horror, instead taking a seat without much worry. He was confident that the floor they were currently on had just gotten significantly easier, all it came down to was planning.

“So here’s what I’m thinking. We wait for Jake’s mana to top up and then we teleport our way through things. I’m confident we can avoid traps as long as he can use his spells fast enough and we’ll take breaks where we can to recharge. Sound good?”

He wasn’t expecting any argument and got none, all of them happy to take his suggestion as they took the time to relax just a little in the relative safety of the area they were in before moving once more.

From there, progress was swift as Ben guided them. Any trap that could be avoided was, even if that did mean some roundabout pathing, while the ones they had no choice to go through were warned of far in advance, Ben telling Jake exactly where he would need to open portals to let them slip past danger in quick succession, all of them on guard for those split seconds between safe areas as they all moved as fast as they could until finally they got to the first exit, a door before all of their eyes as Amy stepped forward and pushed, each of them walking through to the rest area between trials.

It took a moment before any of them really believed it, but when they did cheers went up. As rough as it had felt in the start, they’d got through easily by the end, the journey being safer than any of them could have hoped thanks to that single hint at the entrance for them.

It was Jake who broke the celebratory mood first, dragging Ben to the next door.

“Come on smartypants, tell me you see something helpful here too,” He said as if Ben had any other choice than to let him down.

“Unless those symbols are a hint too, I don’t think there’s anything to take away from this one man.”

The door to the next section lacked the pattern of the one on the entrance, the only thing in common being the eleven symbols on its front, with the mountain representing earth magic being the largest at the center. All it told him was that they were in the earth tower, but as he watched his friend deflate he patted his back, giving him the bit of good news he had.

“Even just getting the clue for the first floor is plenty, and it’s honestly good news for you guys I’d say,” He told them as Jake and the others perked up. “Each tower had a different design on each door, right? If this one was a clue then I’d bet money the others are too.”

Amy looked like she realized something but kept silent, likely having no choice if she’d made a connection between the door of the life tower and its first floor like Ben suspected she did, while Jake seemed a mixture of sad and determined.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” He groaned. “When we deal with whatever trial we’re diving into next, I'll spend however many days I need to trying to memorize a stupid door.”

It sounded terrible and daunting to him, the sort of exercise he’d want to avoid at all costs if it didn’t mean he’d be improving his chances of avoiding an untimely death, but Ben could only try and fail to keep from looking at him like he was an idiot.

“...Or just get an artist to draw what the doors look like for you and bring them in when you go.”

“My guy, you really are a smartypants,” Jake said happily. “There’s no way you were this bright in high school, what happened?”

“Okay, first of all, rude. Second, like I told you, I grew a bunch of extra minds and most jobs I’ve taken have given bonuses to my intelligence, it helps a lot.”

“I’ll bet, come on and give me a taste,” Jake told him, sticking out a hand to Ben. When they’d spent time together in Allfaith he’d insisted on seeing what Ben’s connect was like, as well as the structure of his mind at the time, and after seeming to have a bad time of it then, Ben had no idea why he’d want another attempt.

“I really can’t recommend that,” Thera said before anything happened. “There’s no way that’s going to feel pleasant.”

“Oh, I know this is going to suck,” Jake agreed. “But it’s not often you get to experience a mind like that, right? So come on, we’re in a safe area, it’s fine.”

Ben did his best to ignore the comments about how unpleasant it would be to interact with his mind, instead grabbing the man's hand. “Just don’t vomit, okay? If I don’t hide a bunch people always look like they’re going to barf and I have feelings too you know. But also this will be my first time letting someone experience my very very cramped head since my minds split so maybe we should also get our two lovely healers at the ready just to be safe.”

Hearing that, both Thera and Yuzu stepped forward, ready to cast whatever they had to as Ben opened the connection. Realistically, he wasn’t actually that worried. While he knew connecting to a bug had been enough to kill it since the zeroth level of his skill and connecting to a god or great spirit were supposedly enough to kill him in return, this was a connection between humans. Admittedly, it wasn’t going to be pleasant for the other man, but it wouldn’t be life-threatening, so without further ado, he activated his skill while watching Jake's face.

It took a respectable one second for him to pull away, pressing his hands into his eyes as he went to lie down, both Thera and Yuzu working on healing him immediately as Jake complained.

“Holy crap man this hurts so much. Why does this hurt so much? Why do you hurt so much? I feel like I just felt thirty headaches at once.”

“Ha, yeah, I’d say you get used to it but you really don’t,” Ben told him. “Probably for the best you didn’t get to check this last time I leveled one of my more problematic mind skills. You think having a headache with thirty minds is rough? Try a full-blown migraine.”

“Ugh.”

He continued to lie down and moan as Yuzu treated him, Thera having left it to her since as a soul mage she was going to be far more competent at it than she would as an awakened mage while Amy looked to Ben with mild worry.

“Is any of that actually okay? Like, human brains aren’t supposed to do that. Or any brains for that matter.”

“It’s probably fine,” He said with a shrug. “I’m told it’s just a few more months before my soul is able to take enough of the burden from my mind before my headache disappears, and once that happens there shouldn’t be any real problem with my mind skills as long as I don’t level them again.”

As he brought up his soul though, he couldn’t help but whip to face Yuzu, his eyes glowing with hope and expectations.

“Of course, if a lovely soul mage happened to be around to help little old me I wouldn’t say no,” He said innocently, trying to seem nice and pitiably as she just sadly shook her head.

“If I had any idea how to help with that I would have the moment I saw you,” She told him with a voice filled with apology and regret. “Honestly, there’s only a few people I think I could recognize from their soul alone and you’re one for all the worst reasons.”

“Love hearing that, thanks,” He sighed. Between Lux and whatever god Myriad had bought him some help from, it seemed that he’d used up every bit of luck he had for getting some relief, leaving him with nothing to do but wait the last bit out.

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