Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

It was a few short jumps to their next location, the second group they were supposed to be going after close enough to the first now that they were all so far out and everyone filtered through to the new stretch of woods, with Fone already looking to the chimeras.

"Found anything yet?"

"Further west," One said, with enough of the others in agreement that they started walking, keeping on guard the entire time for anything that might come and their voices low, with Ben taking advantage of the lull to train a few of his skills the best he could.

With deep connection still being the most important one. One of the first ways he'd learned to use it was out in the woods after all, treating it as a bug killer by exposing his greater mind to creatures that just couldn't handle that contact.

His mental structure had grown in ways he never would have expected back in those distant days though and as much as he enjoyed the bit of comfort that use of skill provided, he turned his training to something of a gentler sort. As he stretched out his soul as far as it could go he took in any insect that came close enough and threaded the smallest bit of himself he could into each one without causing them harm before taking them over completely with another skill, making the bodies of hundreds of small creatures his own to use as he joked with himself.

Really putting the hive in hive mind.

It was a skill that seemed useful and was already growing quickly thanks to the powerful job he was currently under along with so many of the others he'd finished but it was still a challenging one to train to its full potential due to the ethics of it. When treating it like he had before it had awakened, to only strengthen the minds of those around him and more efficiently share information, it was fine but there were laws about so thoroughly taking over another, with its new form going beyond even the scope of dark magic in some cases.

It had its limits since unlike that magic it could only be used in the area he could reach out with using deep connection but it had strengths that made up for that in droves. It wasn't affinitied, meaning nobody like him would have a natural resistance to its effects and more importantly, it wasn't even a magic since it didn't cost mana. It was a result of linking his soul with another's which meant even something like magic nullification wouldn't be able to stop his effects and they would go on for as long as he was awake to use it.

As for how anyone could escape it, he had his theories but without testing the skill on far too many people he wasn't actually sure what might let a person break it off. Soul magic was almost certain since he'd already had the effects of connect blocked by it before and he wouldn't be surprised if a more powerful mind could overcome it, leaving only the question of if any minds more powerful than his own actually existed.

Beyond that though was a mystery that wouldn't be answered by his current test as he looked at the surroundings through hundreds of compound eyes, feeling what little they each had of minds incorporating their structure into his own for what minor changes it would bring.

And still it wasn't enough to really strain him, even as the number of bugs he was controlling went up, leaving him to increase the difficulty by adding in another skill as he actualized a few more around him, maintaining their existence to train that skill too and topping it off by continuing on with something he'd never actually given up on as more souls were materialized around him, praying for the notification he so desperately wanted.

He continued on with it all for a while too, and with how big the range of deep connection currently was he was largely staying out of the way of the group, but as the number of bugs he was managing changed from hundreds to thousands it was eventually noticed.

"Hell, a lot of pests in this area," Pato finally said, wrapping himself in a thin layer of death mana to act as a simple bug killer the same way Ben would for his connect, with Fone seeming to agree.

"Mmh, just a moment, you may all feel a brief tingle."

It seemed figuring out tricks for dealing with bugs when off in the deep woods was something common for the adventurers who spent so much time out there and their current leader discharged some static into the environment, giving them all a small shock but frying Ben's growing swarm, breaking his connection to them all and leaving their small bodies to fall to the ground, putting a pause to that bit of training.

Hmm, I guess I should minimize how many bugs I use in a crowd so it doesn't annoy people. Next time I'll keep it to only a few hundred and keep them on the outer edge of the range of my skill.

Something he was already starting, with plenty of small test subjects filling the woods that only got put further on hold as half of the chimeras froze, noticing the demons they were searching for noticing them in kind as both groups now moved to encounter one another.

The chimeras darted off once the sounds of pounding feet grew loud enough, off to meet their prey while the adventurers followed from behind to watch, seeing what looked like it was going to be a repeat of the first clash as the demons were met with an unexpected level of power as the front row were torn through before the ones who'd lagged behind the initial rush of them had a better showing, casting their magics before some of the chimeras could react, balls of fire and stone hitting them and slowing them down.

Slowing, but not stopping. The skin Vividus had worked so hard to make for the group seemed as powerful as she'd led them to believe, resisting the powerful strikes without major bits of damage from any of their foes, even as the blows began to build once the demons changed the forms of their attacks, making them sharper when they could and hitting with tooth and claw while trying to build up hits in the same spots to get through it, starting to show some success in their attempts as the swarm fought with all they had until the battle took a darker turn. The chimeras' attacks largely changed from the demons to each other as the rest of the adventurers' Ben was with didn't immediately understand what was happening until he spoke, already feeling what was going on in the few minds he was close enough to touch.

"They're currently under a dark spell that's affecting who they perceive as enemies. Fone, permission for us to step in before the guys we're supposed to be watching all kill themselves?"

"Granted. Can any of you spot the caster so we can try to put an end to this?"

Thera was already holding forth her staff as he asked, preparing a spell of her own.

"I can, one second."

It would have been easy for her to just end things there. It looked like there were only a few hundred demons to be dealt with and while they would get past the chimeras at any moment now that they were fighting each other, she had the power to solve things in any number of ways to defeat the demons and free the chimeras from their control.

But that wasn't what she did. The purpose of that outing was to see how her aunt's creations would handle real combat so all she did was use her dark sight and dark sense in tandem to find the demons casting their spells and eliminated only them, letting the chimeric groups slowly free themselves from the effects they were under as the source of mana powering the spells was cut off as eventually, they all got back to their true task of killing the demons surrounding them.

With the entire confrontation acting as a strong, negative mark in the report Ben was already forming in his mind. Dark magics were difficult to deal with, that was true, but they also had a weakness other magics simply didn't. While that form of magic could be weakened like any other affinitied magic based on the strength of the resistances a person held, the mind aspects of those branches of spells could also be resisted through willpower alone if one had the mental strength for it, something far too many of the chimeras lacked.

Ben didn't intend to hold that fact against them though, far from it. The fault lied entirely in the selection process Vividus had for choosing them. Using subjects who had lost everything may have been the easy option but they were still reeling from those same losses. Combining that fact with the emotional struggles plenty were dealing with from having their bodies so radically altered and they were all the perfect targets for any sort of mind effects.

It all tied together into a pretty significant weakness, one that could be exploited for the worst. There was always a chance that during the wave someone could come under dark effects and be forced to fight their allies but with how strong the chimeras had been made, that could be even more disastrous than it normally would be.

Taking what he'd just seen and his evaluation made, Ben already knew that his report would be filled with recommendations for a genuine screening process, even as the fighting came to an end.