《Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube》 CH1 Prologue ¡°Does anyone have an extra pen?¡± ¡°Is now really the time for this Ben?¡± His classmate asked in exhaustion. ¡°I mean if we¡¯re going to die anyway I really want to finish this drawing.¡± ¡°BEN! Don¡¯t go talking like that! You¡¯re just going to stress everyone even more. People are aware of where we are, there¡¯ll be help in no time.¡± Scolded his teacher. ¡°Okay, my bad sorry. But it would really help me with passing the time until that does happen, so does anyone have a pen I can borrow for the time being? Mines out of ink.¡± One of his classmates tossed one to him, and he gave them a friendly nod. He set himself up, holding his phone above his sketchpad with his non-dominant hand to get some light and got to work trying to distract himself from the day and his feelings of impending doom. After months of working together to save money, doing bake sales and raffles, hosting events and putting on some shows, his class had earned enough to fly down to Mexico for their senior trip. A final hurrah before graduation and moving onto college or work or whatever the future held. It was supposed to be a week-long trip with votes taken for what event they would do each day, and here they were on the second day in, where the more athletic kids had banded together to vote for some cave exploration, enjoy the natural beauty and the hike out to get there. Even if Ben was far from athletic himself he had to admit it was very pretty, something he wouldn¡¯t have minded taking the time to draw or paint later, at least until an earthquake hit and the cave''s entrance collapsed with the class and their tour guide trapped inside. Now this was a little memory that wasn¡¯t going onto a canvas. So he sat down and ignored the conversations around him, instead focusing on his work to pass the time, losing himself in the task. He was currently working on a parkscape by his neighbourhood. It was somewhere he would go out to draw on plenty of different occasions but it was only recently he realised he didn¡¯t have any drawings of the park itself, despite it being one of his favourite spots. Sure maybe it would have made more sense to start it when he got home, but when he made his realisation he was already on the plane, and he needed to kill some time anyway, so why not? Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. He wasn¡¯t sure how long he had been at it, he could never tell how much time had passed when he got into his work, when he felt a light tapping on his shoulder. Looking up he saw Steph, a girl he was friends with looking back at him. ¡°Hey we were all just talking about what we were going to be doing when we get home and graduate. What about you Ben? Going to spend your days making anything crazy?¡± ¡°Everything I make is super normal I¡¯ll have you know.¡± She didn¡¯t say anything, but the look in her eyes spoke volumes. They had taken a few art classes together, and not everything he made was ¡®super normal¡¯ as he said, or for that matter particularly easy to look at. Even the teacher of the class, a true lover of symbolism in work, was a bit taken aback once by his sculpture representing the theme he had been given of despair. Feeling the judgement under her gaze he quickly broke and answered her question. ¡°If you mean my immediate plans I¡¯ve been working on a piece of cosplay for a con I have tickets for, making chainmail is a long-ass process though. In the more distant future it will be working for a year and then maybe art school if I can get accepted.¡± ¡°Wait, go back a bit.¡± A guy named John called out. ¡°Why are you making your own chainmail? Couldn¡¯t you just buy some or make something that resembles it, or just go in a different costume? That sounds like a huge pain in the ass.¡± He gave his head a little scratch and thought about how to answer. ¡°I mean, isn¡¯t it just more satisfying to make it yourself? It just feels more rewarding, you know?¡± Everyone went back to their discussion and he went back to his work, only stopping to eat with the others and plug a portable charger into his phone. More hours passed but he eventually finished his work and looked on at what he created. Not bad, not bad. Linework is a little sloppy in places but this isn¡¯t exactly peak drawing conditions, and I really captured the feeling of a lazy summer afternoon if I do say so myself. Yep this will certainly do. Feeling pretty good about how it turned out he turned to show it off to one of his classmates, only to find that everyone else had gone to sleep, or was at least trying to. Looking at his nearly dead phone and seeing the time, he decided to take some time to pass out himself, hoping that things would seem more optimistic in the morning. CH2 Things were not better in the morning. Well that wasn¡¯t strictly true, when he woke up he thought the situation had improved in an unbelievable way until he got to learn about it. ¡°What the hell do you mean I¡¯m dead?¡± He found himself lying in a bed in a well lit room. The curtains of a window were wide open, letting in a healthy amount of natural light. The room itself was plain, with no decorations to speak of, just the bed, a chair in the corner, and the woman sitting in it. ¡°You aren¡¯t dead currently, you just died to get here.¡± She said, seeming a bit out of her own depths. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I know this must be a bit of a shock to you, but the gods brought your companion''s souls here and rebuilt your bodies for you so you may live again and help this world.¡± He looked at the woman before him, a girl maybe only a couple years older than himself, she had piercing blue eyes and was wearing long green robes, reminiscent of what a priest might wear, with brown hair mostly covered by her hat. Taking in what she said, he composed himself and responded. ¡°Yeah, so I¡¯m not going to believe that. Are my classmates around?¡± She gave a sigh before continuing on with her explanation. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll be reunited with them after I finish with my explanation. My name is Lehie, I have been assigned as your caretaker for the duration of your time here. We were informed that in the world you¡¯re from the gods take a rather hands off approach, but watch and I¡¯ll prove this isn¡¯t the world you know.¡± With some drama she threw her hand out in front of her, and from nowhere a ball of water was suspended in the air above it, then as if directed by her will it flew around the room. ¡°What do you think of that?¡± She asked with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m told you don¡¯t have magic in your world, this should be plenty of proof.¡± ¡°Cool trick, I¡¯d love to get you for my little brother''s birthday, doesn¡¯t mean it''s magic.¡± he calmly said, enjoying the little show nonetheless. Her smile cracked when she heard his calm rebuke and continued. ¡°What do you mean trick? Surely you can see this is magic. How else could I be doing this?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure but isn¡¯t that the fun of magic tricks? Knowing how they¡¯re done kind of ruins the mystery.¡± ¡°Has anyone ever told you you¡¯re too stubborn?¡± she said, putting her head in her hands. ¡°I mean frankly I would be worried about the mental health of anyone who believed what you were saying with just that.¡± He told her, taking his attention away from the now puddle of water that was the ball, and bringing it back to her, only for his attention to be captured immediately. He got out of bed and walked over to her, wanting to confirm what he was seeing for himself. Lehie saw him approach and was still trying to figure out where to go from there when he made his move. ¡°Hey what are you¡­ Where do you think you¡¯re touching!¡± Ben ignored her though, too preoccupied with his thoughts as he was gently grasping and prodded what had fallen out of her outfit, specifically a pointed ear, about 15cm in length. ¡°Doesn¡¯t look or feel like a prosthetic... it¡¯s warm and fleshy too¡­ could it just be a birth defect...¡± he muttered to himself. For her part Lehie relaxed once she realized what was going on, though not without commenting on the inappropriateness of touching an old woman''s ears like that. She had been selected as one of the otherworlders caretakers partly for her appearance, specifically how closely she resembled a human, so as to not frighten them, but it seems like the small difference that could be seen between their two species was enough to help convince him. After a little while longer of his examination and mutterings he sat back on his bed. ¡°Are you at least convinced now?¡± she asked, embarrassment plain on her face. ¡°Let''s at least say I¡¯m open to listen. So you''re an elf?¡± ¡°Based on what I¡¯ve been told you only have one intelligent species on your planet so that must be the language filter. Strictly speaking I am not what you would call an elf because I¡¯m not some creature of myth from your planet, but when the gods brought the people to this refuge they created a universal language for it, the fact that you''re able to name my species would mean that we fit the qualifications to be called that by your standards. ¡°Wait what do you mean language filter?¡± ¡°Listen to yourself. Since you woke up you¡¯ve been speaking the same language I have since I greeted you instead of your native tongue, haven''t you?¡± He thought back to all he had heard and said and was immediately shocked, all the more so for not even realising he had been using a completely foreign language this whole time instead of his english. ¡°...I feel like it would have saved us both a lot of time if you pointed out at the beginning that I¡¯ve had a brand new language downloaded into my brain.¡± ¡°Th-that¡¯s neither here nor there, what matters is you believe me now, don¡¯t you?¡± Finally giving in he told her. ¡°I don¡¯t have much choice at this point do I? So why are we here? You said something before about helping the world?¡± ¡°So you were listening, excellent! Yes as things are, the world is in danger, so the Gods summoned you all from your reality in the hopes you would be able to help in our fight!¡± ¡°So conscription, doesn¡¯t sound super cool, do we have a choice?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so negative about it.¡± She mumbled. ¡°But yes you do in fact have a choice, if you choose to leave of your own volition you can go out and enjoy the world, we will provide you with a basic education on how to survive in the world and a few months worth of funds in order to live until you can find a job out in the world. I wouldn¡¯t recommend that though.¡± ¡°And why not? And for that matter, why did you summon from a world without magic, seems like knowing how to use it would be useful.¡± ¡°Because you live in the world now. Not fighting won¡¯t keep you safe, it will keep you weak when danger comes, and the money you will receive if you leave now is nothing if you compare it to the rewards you would get for fighting with us. Wealth, status, women, power, It can all be yours If you fight! As for why we wanted to grab people from a world without magic, it has to do with the nature of the soul and how it interacts with mana, the gods believed you would all be more powerful coming from a world without it.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°This feels like a sales pitch.¡± ¡°Can you please take this seriously.¡± She begged him, looking defeated and growing tired of his attitude. ¡°Well as for whether I actually want any of those things, you do have me convinced about not wanting to be too weak and die after getting a second chance at life. So what do I do?¡± The mood in the room immediately improved as she finally felt like she made progress. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a metal plate and a knife, with Ben looking ready to jump out the window wondering what he had just gotten into. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± She said, calmly handing him both. ¡°You just need to put a drop of blood on there, so we can see the information inscribed into your soul.¡± ¡°...This is back to being really sketchy. Do you have one of these I could see?¡± She sighed and reached into her pocket, pulling out her own card and handing it over. ¡°I wonder if all the people from your world are this suspicious, or if I''m just unlucky.¡± Ben ignored her and looked at her card, reading what it had to say. If he was reading it right there were 10 types of magic, and she had particularly good affinities with water and life magic, as well as skills that looked like they would help her with work as a priest. After comparing the two cards and content that they seemed identical other than that one was blank, he handed hers back and made a small knick on his arm, smearing blood in it. The card sucked it up and letters suddenly appeared on it, revealing the information that could apparently be found in his soul. He took some time to read it over carefully and try and understand what he was seeing. Name: Ben Heph Race: Human Titles: None Jobs: None Attributes: Affinities: Resistances: Blessed skills: Passive skills: Active skills: What immediately caught his eye was the affinities and resistance levels. Compared to Lehies, whose water and life magics were in their 40¡¯s and nothing else was below 10, his were abysmal. On the other hand his resistances dwarfed hers; while she was again in a range from five to twenty, he didn¡¯t have any below sixty. The only problem was that he lacked the context to know what that meant. Other than that there was the matter of skills. If passive skills were abilities that were always in use and world speak+ was what let him understand her, then presumably active skills were skills that needed intent, like magic. But what were blessed skills? And when he had looked at her card it had life magic listed as a blessed skill and water magic as an active one, what did that mean? Seeing no point in keeping these thoughts to himself so he asked for an explanation and she was happy to share. He had been right about the active skills and passive skills, but blessed skills were apparently something special that the world itself provided anyone who was born (or in his case summoned) there, as a skill''s power increased it would eventually evolve into the advanced form of the skill, but while in some cases that evolution would also produce a second bonus skill, like if water magic evolved into high water magic it may also result in an additional skill such as water breathing, in the case of blessed skills that would always happen, and on top of that the blessed skill would be around fifty percent more powerful than its unblessed version. ¡°If that''s the case can you take a look at my stats and let me know how I compare?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± she said, finally happy that things were progressing. It was as soon as she started reading it that her expression took another negative turn. That doesn¡¯t seem good. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s good for priests to be honest, but that doesn''t mean you should keep your feelings on your sleeves all the time.¡± He joked to lighten the mood. Surprised she looked up and tried to explain herself. ¡°Wait, I wasn¡¯t- there''s nothing wrong¡­ sorry.¡± She took a breath and collected herself. ¡°To give an honest assessment your status is just unbalanced is all. While your mana recovery rate is well above average your affinities for magic are the worst I¡¯ve ever seen. Usually you would have at least one in the twenties at worst. On the other hand your resistances are all unusually high. Neither of these things are bad, they could be perfectly fine if you were a fighter of some sort, but the world grants blessed skills based on what you have the best aptitude for, yours are skills for craftsmen, and to get enchanting as a skill when you probably won''t be able to learn any magic is just unusual, although I¡¯m not too well versed in how it works myself so maybe it will have its uses. As for the attributes, yours are about average. You would expect an average hominid type around your age to be in the 100 to 150 range, so while your intelligence is above average and your stamina is shockingly good, your strength and agility are both lacking.¡± He sat and listened to what she had to say and it didn¡¯t sound great, especially that it didn¡¯t seem like he could use magic, but there was nothing he could do about it. All he could do was try and live in this world with the hand he was dealt and figure things out as he went. ¡°Okay well, it is what it is. Can you tell me about my blessed skills then?¡± ¡°Sure but I may not be too much help unfortunately. Like I said, for enchanting as far as I know it¡¯s pretty reliant on adding magic effects you possess to items, but I think you can do it for skills too. Your biggest problem right now is that you only have your blessed skills so there isn¡¯t too much you would be able to do with it at the moment. Crafting is what it sounds like, the process of making something with a physical item being the final result. This means that it covers other things like blacksmithing, alchemy, masonry, and probably some others I¡¯m not aware of. The main flaw is that it''s a jack of all trades, master of none type skill. While you will be able to use all of the abilities of various other crafting skills it will take longer to level up, and let''s say you and a blacksmith were to make the same item while at the same level. It would be expected that the blacksmith''s item would be better because they would be more specialized. Finally for focus, it''s a skill that improves your concentration when working on something, helping you to ignore distractions.¡± Ben listened to her explanation carefully and couldn¡¯t help but grimace. ¡°None of this really sounds good, I have no magic potential, a broad but weak crafting skill, the ability to pay attention, and more or less average aptitudes. All I have going for me are my resistances and I don¡¯t have much to do with them, is that about right?¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, but don¡¯t give up. Your stats are average now for someone your age but most people would be on their second or third job by now, you still have room to grow. After dinner I¡¯ll take you to the library and you can read up more on your skills before bed so you can get a better idea of what you can do with them.¡± ¡°Okay works for me then, something to read sounds like it would be nice either way.¡± ¡°Excellent, and there''s only one last thing we need to talk about.¡± ¡°Oh god what now.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to treat everything I say like bad news you know.¡± She said with a pout. ¡°Okay, sorry. What is it.¡± ¡°Tomorrow you will be meeting the representatives of various nations or Gods as they make you their offers for training under them and fighting in their specific forces. The following day you¡¯ll leave with whatever nation agrees to take you.¡± ¡°...That kind of feels like bad news.¡± ¡°It will be fine.¡± ¡°Pretty quick though considering we just got here.¡± ¡°It¡¯s literally the world at stake. Now come on, let''s get you some dinner.¡± CH3 ¡°I got something called solar flames and spear user.¡± ¡°I got earth master, air manipulator, and shield techniques.¡± ¡°I got lightning magic.¡± ¡°You only got one skill? That sucks.¡± ¡°Nah it looks like it''s a type of magic you can typically only get if you manage to evolve air, water, and light magic at the same time, so I¡¯ll be able to use all those on top of lightning spells.¡± ¡°Oh hell, that¡¯s pretty cool.¡± When Ben arrived at dinner everyone else had already gathered. It looked like he was delayed from spending so long verifying that this was another world, and they were already discussing the skills and abilities they had received. It seemed like a few were still pretty down to learn that they had died and there was no going back home, but many were at least ignoring that fact for now with the excitement of the situation. He took a seat between Steph and his pal Will and chatted with them as a priest brought him a plate to eat. ¡°How is it?¡± He asked them, looking at the unusual purple mush beside some far too yellow-looking meat. ¡°Not poison.¡± Will was quick to say. ¡°It¡¯s not bad. The taste is a little weird but who knows what it came from so I guess we¡¯ll just have to get used to these sorts of meals from now on.¡± Steph said a little sadly. Now that there was food in front of him he was feeling pretty hungry and wanted to dig in, but the looks of it still made him cautious, so he started with a small bite. Steph was right, a little weird but overall not bad. The meat was slightly spicy and the texture was unusual, but he could stomach it. The purple mush with it sort of made him think of berries mixed with mashed potatoes, but not in a bad way. It had a mellow sweetness to it. As he was working his way through his plate Will popped the question that he was dreading. The question everyone else seemed to be talking about. ¡°So what skills did you get? I ended up getting unarmed master, tough skin, and advanced enhanced strength, probably because I do some boxing.¡± ¡°And I got spacial master, time controller, and high life magic.¡± Steph chipped in. ¡°...I got crafting, enchanting, and focus.¡± ¡°That suits you to a T.¡± ¡°Those skills are super on the ball with you.¡± ¡°Thanks guys, but the priest who was talking to me didn¡¯t seem very positive about them at all, not to mention my other stats apparently suck.¡± ¡°Well how bad could it be?¡± Will asked, so Ben pulled out his card to show them both. ¡°Oof, okay that''s pretty bad.¡± ¡°Will don¡¯t be so negative, let me see...oh¡­ well your resistances are incredible at least!¡± ¡°Yeah, and that stamina is great too, mine¡¯s only four hundred.¡± ¡°Thanks for the encouragement guys, but I¡¯ve already been told I¡¯m far from great. Unneeded skills, pretty average attributes, and from what Lehie said, the worst affinities she has ever seen, I¡¯ll just have to see how tomorrow goes.¡± He then asked to see their cards, thinking that he might as well see how far he falls in comparison after all. They both looked a bit sheepish at the request but they gave him their cards to take a look at. With the exception of his stamina, they dwarfed him in all of his other attributes with values over 1000, not to mention that they also had high magic affinities.Even Will, without any blessed magic skills, could probably learn magic in a pinch if he felt like it. They also already had some passive and active skills, probably because they had higher forms of their blessed skills automatically. They were definitely the sort of people this world was hoping for when they were brought here. He gave a long sigh and was about to give them back when one thing caught his eye. ¡°All of your skills are at level 0?¡± ¡°Yeah it looks like you at least got lucky with having one level automatically in a couple of yours, from what I was told the skills go from 0 to 9, and if you meet the conditions will evolve at level 10 into a new level 0 skill.¡± Steph explained to him. ¡°Well even if I¡¯m not needed at least I can probably enjoy crafting to an extent.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so down. I was told they were looking for strong fighters, but even if your skills aren¡¯t for combat that doesn¡¯t mean you won¡¯t be of any use, don¡¯t let it get to you.¡± ¡°Yeah don¡¯t worry, my skills aren¡¯t really combat oriented either but I was told they should be useful for healing and helping supply troops, I¡¯m sure they could use someone who could do things like make tools or weapons.¡± With the motivation of his friends his mood started to improve a bit. Sure his stats weren¡¯t exactly incredible, but there must be some way to use them. He would just have to wait and see how tomorrow would go.
After dinner Lehie led him to a small library at the back of the church. It really gave him a sense of scale for the place as they made his way there. It was large. Ridiculously so. With every wall lined with statues and paintings of different figures, some humanoid, some he would be more inclined to consider monsters. ¡°What are all these?¡± ¡°Representations of the various gods.¡± ¡°What? We must have passed a few hundred.¡± ¡°Yes, and there are a few thousand total.¡± ¡°Why would one world possibly need so many gods?¡± He asked curiously, a development Lehie seemed pleased with. ¡°Good question, It all goes back to the founding of the world.¡± Lehie said, starting her story. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It seemed that this world didn¡¯t start out with thousands of gods, and hundreds of races to go with them, but it happened as a result of circumstance. The threat they had been brought to fight was an ancient one, destroying and conquering hundreds of worlds over the millennia. The gods of those worlds gathered whatever survivors they could and brought them to this far away land, to rebuild with other races whose worlds have been ravaged. In that time the gods joined forces to help strengthen all the residents of this world, and worked together to create the status system. A means for them to grow stronger and for their work to yield greater efforts, all so that when invaders came for their current home they would be ready. ¡°Wait, and that''s what we¡¯re here for? To fight against a force that had destroyed countless worlds, you guys summoned twenty something heroes?¡± ¡°Well other locations summoned other heroes from other worlds, but from what I understand reaching beyond the edge of one universe into another is a difficult task, there shouldn¡¯t be more than 200 summoned heroes from various worlds who had been brought to different communal churches throughout the land.¡± ¡°Still 200 isn¡¯t a lot, how long until these invaders come?¡± ¡°The various prophet gods are in some disagreement on the matter, but the general consensus is between three and twenty years.¡± ¡°...Well I guess I¡¯ll hope for twenty then.¡± ¡°Hope for twenty but plan for three.¡± She told him with a gentle smile. ¡°Anyway here we are. You should have no trouble understanding the written systems of this world thanks to your skill, but if you have any issues I¡¯ll be in the corner reading myself to pass the time. Now let''s find you something about your skills.¡± She took a moment to look amongst the shelves that lined the wall, looking at books and scrolls before pulling out a three to give to him. ¡°Here we go, books on skills. The first volume is common skills, with information on how to acquire them and level them up, as well as information on what you can do with them. The second is a book on the higher variants of skills, the first book should include some of the names of what different skills can evolve into, so use that to find what you''re looking for in the second book. The final one is on rare skills, ones that are either hard to get or the method to acquire it is not certain. Just remember that these books don¡¯t cover everything, I would be surprised if they have even a tenth of all known skills, but they¡¯re a start.¡± Ben thanked her and then dug into his pile, reading everything that seemed relevant at first before just trying to find whatever seemed interesting or useful. He was thankfully able to learn more about enchanting, finding out that he could attach not just his skills, but also his aptitudes and resistances to items as well. Although how powerful he could make something was dependent on his skill level. Crafting for its part listed all of the known disciplines that fell into it, as well as how learning the best way to level it up was apparently to use it in such a way that it would train multiple of its sub-abilities at once. That made sense to him, if you challenge yourself you make greater progress. Focus was the odd one out, he didn''t see it when he was flipping through the first book looking for it and didn''t find it until he made his way through the book of rare skills. Apparently it wasn¡¯t clear on what one would have to do to develop the skill itself, as plenty of professionals would spend hours of each day focusing on their work, only to never get it. On the plus side, once it was acquired it isn¡¯t too hard to level, the method seems to be just doing work that requires focus is all. With that done he made a mental note to see if the library had any books more specialized in enchanting when he had time and continued to flip through the books around him, trying to make a list of any skills he may want to try and acquire later. The biggest issue was how cool so many of them sounded until he read the conditions to acquire them. Magic was out automatically, while it was technically possible for him to get certain rare magic skills if he improved his attributes, all of them advised not even trying for affinities ones unless he had an aptitude of at least twenty in the skill he wanted to learn, otherwise it would be all but impossible to acquire. Even ignoring those though he still didn''t have the best options just based on how his attributes worked out. His high intelligence and mana regeneration made him a candidate for an okay mage, but again there was the issue of his affinities as well as low mana. His strength and agility made it clear that even if he could use combat skills he wouldn¡¯t be very good at them, and other skills he just didn¡¯t meet the requirements of completing certain tasks for. In the end he was only able to find two that he wanted to try and acquire. Dismantling was something that could be gained by stripping monsters for parts, it required some practice and training, but it shouldn¡¯t be too hard, plus it looked like different monster materials could be used as crafting items, it would certainly help him with any future work he may get. As for the other one, well it may be useful as an enchantment to put on items, but he would leave it for later. He was about to flip through the book again to try and find more when he felt two hands firmly placed on his shoulders. ¡°Ben, I¡¯m sure this is all very interesting to you and helpful for deciding how you want to study and grow, but you¡¯ve been reading without moving for five hours now. There''s one more thing we need to do then get some rest before the representatives arrive tomorrow.¡± The strength in her grip left no room for arguments and Ben briefly wondered if she had been there with him the entire time before she dragged him off, through the halls and corridor before they came to a brightly illuminated room bathed in moonlight from a skylight above, as well as the glow of a crystal within. ¡°This is the job change rooms you¡¯ll find in any church or town. Ours is a little more grand than a usual one, but the function is the same. Go place your hands on the crystal and select one of the available Jobs that show up in your mind.¡± Not feeling the need to test the safety of everything anymore he did as he was told and placed his hands on the crystal, feeling a strange warmth filling him up. He closed his eyes, excited to see whatever options would present themselves to him. AVAILABLE JOBS ...Yeah that tracks. With no other Jobs available to him he selected apprentice craftsman in his mind. ¡°What the hell was that!¡± he yelled out, surprised to suddenly have a thundering voice yelling in his mind. Lehie tried to hide a small giggle as she explained. ¡°That was the system itself explaining the benefits of your new job. Getting a job improves attributes and skills related to it, making it an invaluable resource to improving yourself. So what did you pick?¡± ¡°Apprentice craftsman.¡± Seeing a small grimace appear on her face he quickly explained. ¡°I only had the one option, does that mean I¡¯m stuck with this forever or what?¡± ¡°No no no, you can change your new job at any time, the only thing is if you don¡¯t get it up to level 99 you won¡¯t be able to take any advanced version of the job in the future, nor will you be able to keep the skill and attribute bonus after you complete it.¡± ¡°How long should it take me to complete then?¡± ¡°If you work hard on using skills related to the job it shouldn¡¯t take that long, especially since it uses your blessed skills It should only take about a year.¡± ¡°That feels like a long time to me?¡± ¡°Oh? Is your race particularly short lived?¡± ¡°I mean if I¡¯m very lucky I may manage a century.¡± ¡°Then you¡¯re fine. With that sort of lifespan you could reasonably expect to get five or six jobs in your time, they will take longer the more advanced they are.¡± Well when she put it that way a year wasn¡¯t too bad at all, he would have to just start using his skills and get crafting. Hopefully whoever ended up grabbing him would put him to work under a decent teacher. With that done for the day Lehie led him back to his room so he could get some rest before meeting the representatives of various nations. CH4 "Looks like nobody''s coming." Ben said, giving Lehie a self-deprecating smile, while she for her part only looked more and more uncomfortable as the hours passed. When she came to wake him up this morning she gave him a rundown for the day. First she took down the information from his card for each of the representatives to inspect, after which they would take an hour or so to decide who exactly to approach and what offers they would make. Everyone was to stay in their rooms with their caretakers as they heard out each offer, and afterwards they could go out and discuss where they thought they were going to go with everyone else, in the hopes that they would each choose what would be right for them instead of getting swept away by what any of the more charismatic students picked. "I''m going to be honest here, your offers probably won''t be as good as your classmates unfortunately, just try and keep your expectations in moderation." When she told him that he hadn''t been bothered by her words, it was already clear his skills weren''t as incredible as what he had heard from the rest during dinner, but he originally hadn''t cared too much. As long as he could find stable work to keep himself alive that should be enough. But here he was a few hours into the interviews, having finished a book on magic with a section on enchanting Lehie had managed to find for him earlier to help pass the first part of the day, and his prospects were looking grim. "Don''t be so negative." She told him, trying to force some cheer into her voice. "There''s just a lot of students they probably want to look at first. Someone will come." He tried to give her a more genuine smile than before and went to re-read a few passages of his book that caught his eye. As he was trying to understand a few of the trickier concepts in it he heard a knock on the door. "I told you someone would come!" She said, getting up and hurrying to the door. For his part he was ready to accept whoever it was and whatever they were offering, but his hopes were quickly dashed. Lehie pulled open the door to greet the representative that should have been behind it, but her face froze at the priest who was there instead. "All of the representatives are done with their discussions, it''s fine to come out and talk to the others about where you are considering now." "That can''t be right." She protested. "Nobody has talked to Ben yet!" Clearly not expecting this the priest was flustered, looking back and forth between Ben and Lehie, stammering out he was sorry but everyone had already made their offers. "It''s alright, don''t worry about it." Ben told them. "It''s sad, but it''s not exactly shocking is it?" "It is NOT alright!" Lehie yelled back at him, looking like she may cry from the situation. "Just wait here, I''m going to talk to the head priest." She rushed out of the room with the other priest in tow and he did as he was told, trying to get back into his book to pass the time while he waited but just couldn''t get into it. Instead he ended up laying down in his bed, staring at the ceiling. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. It''s not like this is shocking, I knew from the moment Lehie first saw my status that things weren''t looking good¡­ but not even one person? Not a single one of the dozens of representatives out there thought they would have a use for me? It was too much. Tossed into this world and apparently unwanted, it was better than being dead on Earth, but it still hurt. He thought back to Earth and home for a bit. How were his parents doing? His brother? His friends who either didn''t go on the trip or were in another class seeing other sights? It had only been a day, at most they would be considered missing now, there was a good chance nobody even knew he died. He felt himself sinking into a depressive spiral when luckily Lehie came back with someone he hadn''t met yet, who looked like what he could describe as a one-eyed lizardman. "Hello Ben, we haven''t had the pleasure of meeting yet, my name is father Yan." He said, introducing himself with an elegant bow. "Lehie has appraised me of your¡­ situation. It''s unfortunate, but we can''t compel a nation to take you, nor should we. Wouldn''t want you to suffer any unreasonable treatment as a result. We can however let you stay at the church for as long as you like, until you are ready to venture into the world yourself. Of course we will also provide you with the funds promised if you had chosen to leave instead of helping. It may not feel like much after what these few days have brought you but it should be of some help. Of course if you want to talk to your classmate''s dinner will be served soon, you can always discuss your options with them." "Thank you, I''ll try to give it some proper thought." It was nice to hear he wasn''t being tossed into the wilds immediately, but he was still feeling disparaged. The thought of seeing his classmates made him feel even more uncomfortable right now, talking to everyone who apparently had worth that he couldn''t offer, but he needed to at least tell his friends what was going on, and for that matter find out what they would be doing themselves. Working up his willpower he got out of bed and left to get some food.
"What do you mean you didn''t get an offer!" Steph yelled as soon as he explained what happened to her and Will. He was glad she cared enough to be outraged and all, but now all of his classmates were looking at him with faces of shock, confusion, and pity as they started to mutter amongst themselves. "Wait, he didn''t get an offer?" "I thought I heard him say his skills weren''t great yesterday, but just how bad are they?" "Isn''t that too sad." "Feel like he maybe didn''t want to have everyone aware of that Steph." Will reprimanded her. "So what will you do?" "He''ll come with me! I got plenty of the representatives offering to accommodate me however they could, getting you to come shouldn''t be that hard." She told them, trying to ignore the looks she caused to sprout up everywhere. "Thanks but I''m going to pass on that, I think being baggage will actually be worse than sticking out here on my own. Besides the church offered to let me stay here until I figure out what I want to do, and they''ll even provide me with some money when I do, it won''t be so bad." "But you''ll be alone!" "Well then you guys will just have to visit me when you get some breaks." Steph still didn''t seem happy about any of that, and Will was at a loss as to what to do as well. Eventually they just had to accept his choice, even if they didn''t like it at all. Things had quieted down around the table as they were talking, people couldn''t help but be curious about his situation, but eventually it all picked up again as he focused on his meal. They all talked about their offers and what each representative would provide or where they would be going, some of them having abilities so impressive or important that nations actually decided to share them, just to ensure they would get the best training they could. He only got snippets of conversation as he tried to focus on his food, but it was enough to make him want to crawl into bed again and just hide from the world for a while. CH5 The next day he woke up to see everyone off. It felt far too quick to him, they only got their offers yesterday. But it was literally the world at stake, every second wasted deciding was time spent that could be used for training and improving their skills. Not to mention that there was nothing really holding them back. They came to this place without any possessions, all they had right now was each other. His friends told him where they would be training and made him promise that if things got too bad he would come to them, and a few others he was acquainted with put out the offer as well, just in case he needed it. Everyone shared a teary heartfelt goodbye, promising to visit when they could, and went off their separate ways. Ben for his part went back to bed. He laid there for two days, ignoring Lehie as she came to check on him and just getting up to eat the meals she left him. On the third day when he woke up there was only one thought on his mind. God this is boring. Even if he was still depressed he couldn''t wallow in it any longer, he needed something to occupy his mind. Looking out the window he could see the sun had just barely risen, so he decided to find Lehie to plan out what to do for now. When he left he immediately realised he was faced with a problem already, she always came to him, he never found her. This changed his first task to finding someone else that could help and after searching around fruitlessly for a few minutes he came across a passing priest, who was thankfully able to give him directions to her room. After a little walk he was able to give a knock on her door. "Coming!" She yelled, throwing it open a few seconds later. "Ben! You''re finally up! Are you in better spirits now?" She asked, grabbing his arm and giving it a friendly squeeze. "At least better enough to figure out what to do now." He told her, doing his best to focus on her face instead of the fact that she was wearing some rather cute frilly pajamas instead of her usual robes. "Well me and Father Yan have been working on that while you pulled yourself together. He should already be in his office, let''s go discuss it together and see what he thinks." She was already dragging him off before he could reply. "Sure but maybe you should change first." Stopping in her tracks she took a quick look down at herself, gave a small squeak, and ran back to her room. My caretaker¡¯s a bit of an airhead, huh.
A few minutes after that minor detour they were in Father Yan''s office, discussing where to go from here "Unfortunately we don''t have many ways we could truly help you develop your blessed skills, so the best course of action would be to find a suitable teacher when you feel ready to venture into the world. Of course there is also the option of staying here permanently, joining as a monk or priest of the church and offering your faith to help strengthen the gods." "Thanks for the offer Yan, but I don''t really feel like I have much faith to give. What do you think I should do while I''m here?" "If that''s the case then the plan we had discussed would involve using this time to learn. Lehie is already working on preparing you lessons about the world, but other than that I was told you had already reviewed some books on skills, if there were any you wanted to try acquiring we would be more than happy to accommodate you in any way you can." This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. "In that case there''s actually two I saw that sounded worth getting if you guys can help, I was looking at dismantling and stealth." Yan stroked his chin in thought. "I understand the use of dismantling for your blessed skills, but why stealth?" "On paper, because it would be something I could hopefully use for enchanting since magic isn''t an option. In practice it just sounds really cool." It briefly looked like Yan was unhinging his jaw as a clicking sound came from his throat. Ben was unsure what was happening for a minute before understanding that he was laughing. "Yes wonderful! There really is no better reason to learn something than an interest in the subject. We have both hunters and butchers among our priests so it should be easy enough to find you a teacher for both skills, I''ll get on it right away. In the meantime Lehie can begin her lessons for you in the library." Feeling the conversation was done Ben got up to go, but Yan stopped him. "One last thing, how are you at waking up in the mornings?" "Not terrible I guess. Why?" "I was thinking of having you help out with preparing meals throughout the day if you would be interested." "Yeah I guess I should do something to earn my keep, I can help." But Yan shook his head at Ben''s response. "This isn''t about earning your keep Ben. I looked into your crafting skill a bit the other day myself, cooking should fall under it as a skill that produces an item or product, so it should be able to provide a bit of experience to leveling it up. It would also just be good practice to learn how to use ingredients you aren''t familiar with here." They really had put thought into how to make his time with them as useful as possible, Ben couldn''t help but be a little touched they were doing so much. He thanked them both as sincerely as he could before going off with Lehie to begin his lessons.
The month that followed dragged on at first. Ben tried his best to throw himself into his lessons, using focus to its full potential so as to try and keep him from any negative feelings, and in doing so lead him to his biggest breakthrough in accepting his new environment. In the middle of one particularly boring lesson with Lehie, where he was learning about the different kingdoms and city-states in the world and how they would interact, he had been doing everything in his power to keep paying attention, despite just how dry and dull it all was. It was when he was sure he was going to fall asleep from the boringness of it all that he heard it. Suddenly the world was clear again, his energy restored. He felt at that moment that he could sit down and listen to an explanation on the trade relationship between the Scylla and Wolren for hours. Lehie could tell something had changed just by looking at him and asked what happened. "My focus skill just leveled up! It''s incredible everything seems so bright and I feel like I could study all day!" As he spoke he saw her smile take on a scary edge. "Oh that''s wonderful. Say you know skills improve by repeatedly using them and pushing them to their max potential, don''t you? You aren''t telling me that my lessons are so boring that you leveled up, are you? Not with all the time I put into putting these together for you." Oh crap, I''m in danger. "No of course not!" He told her, trying to think on his feet. "I was devoting my full attention to what you were teaching, trying to do my best to learn, that must have caused it." "Really! That''s wonderful!" She beamed. Safe. He thought, mentally pumping his fist. "In that case I''ll prepare a test for you tomorrow, we really should see how well you''re taking this all in." ¡­ Crap.
The next few months he continued his new routine with significantly more enthusiasm, cooking meals with the priests, having lessons with Lehie, trying and eventually succeeding in getting the 0th level in the two skills he desired, and time spent in both the library and working on his art for some fun. Someone from his old world once said time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time, and the statement should apply to his last four months, but he needed to move on. Having a solid basis for his knowledge on the world now he wanted to use the skills the world saw fit to give him and see what they could be good for. CH6 ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re ready to leave?¡± Lehie asked for the seventh time, worry etched into her face. ¡°The world isn¡¯t the safest you know, there''s danger around every corner, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to stay a little longer.¡± ¡°If I stay any longer I may never leave.¡± He said, giving her a smile. ¡°I will always be grateful for everything you''ve both done for me.¡± ¡°Just remember you can come back any time Ben, you''re always welcome here. Now before you head off give me your card.¡± Father Yan told him, taking it and tapping his own against it. ¡°There we go, as promised the money you were offered. I spoke to the other churches and they agreed you should be allowed a bit extra given your circumstances, so as long as you''re careful with it you should be able to survive on that alone for at least six months.¡± Ben didn¡¯t know what to say, they had done so much for him already, as long as he could find work he would have no problems surviving in the world thanks to all the help he had received. As he was struggling to find the words Lehie pulled him into a hug and Yan gave him a powerful handshake. ¡°Best of luck to you Ben, may our paths cross again.¡± ¡°Make sure you write to us every now and then so we know how you¡¯re doing, and make sure to stay safe. It would be a waste for you to die after all the time I spent on teaching you.¡± ¡°Will do, thanks for everything.¡± With goodbyes said and done it was finally time to depart. The sun was setting and the nearest town was about a week''s walk away, but Yan had been kind enough to arrange a ride for him with one of the merchants that would come up to deliver supplies every couple weeks. No matter how comfortable he had gotten in the last few months he still hadn¡¯t left the church, and there were plenty of dangerous beasts that could be found in the wood between it and the city, walking by himself was out of the question. He spent some time talking to the merchant, some sort of bird person by the name of Ty, who was happy to talk at length about his passion for the footwear the various races of the world would use, before he decided to curl up in the back and get some sleep.
¡°Ben, Beennn¡­¡± He thought he heard someone calling out to him, but he did his best to ignore it, he was too comfortable to want to open his eyes. ¡°Wake uuuupp¡­¡± It continued on in a sing song-voice, trying to get his attention still. This carried on for some long agonising minutes while he was just trying to rest, and it started to take on a more desperate sounding edge, before stopping all together. Finally. He thought to himself, drifting back deeper into sleep. ¡°WAKE UP KID!¡± Came a scream from beside his ear. ¡°GAH WHAT?¡± He yelled back bolting upright, only to find he had no idea where he was. Last he remembered he had been sleeping in a carriage, waiting to get to the town but now he was in an endless greyish blue void. He was standing on something, but there was no visible ground beneath him, no distinct boundary on the horizon to separate earth and sky. Not seeing anyone he turned around, trying to find the voice that was calling out to him, only to be caught completely off guard by finding a silver cube, maybe the size of a car, floating ominously above him. ¡°Well that''s not concerning at all.¡± he muttered to himself, before calling out. ¡°Hello! Is there anyone out here?¡± ¡°Ah Ben, finally awake are you? I have to say it''s pretty surprising to see someone so determined to stay asleep inside of their own dream.¡± The voice called out to him. He looked around but still didn''t see anyone. ¡°Hey do you think you could show yourself, then we can talk?¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯m right here above you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re in the cube?¡± He asked, looking back up at it. ¡°I am the cube.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Of fucking course you are.¡± He muttered under his breath, still not used to the bizarreness of this world. ¡°In that case who are you? And where am I?¡± ¡°Straight to the point huh, well the name''s Myriad, and I brought you here¡­¡± He stopped for dramatic effect and the sounds of a drum roll filled the space. ¡°...To offer you the position as my believer!¡± He yelled, the entire backdrop behind him exploding into fireworks. ¡°I decline.¡± The fireworks and drums immediately cut off, creating a sudden and uncomfortable silence. ¡°Wait! Don''t decide so soon on your own, at least hear me out.¡± ¡°I mean from what I heard in the church about divine realms and the fact that you''re asking for me to be your believer, you must be some sort of god right? Showing up in my dream and asking me to be your believer is just too sketchy.¡± Ben knew this world was filled to the brim with gods, some would say too many, but from what he learned in the church they weren¡¯t allowed to try to talk you into being their followers, that was up to their oracles, priests, and apostles. ¡°Wait, you have that a little bit wrong. We aren¡¯t allowed to actively try and steal the believers of other gods, but you have no faith, contacting you is fair game.¡± So this thing can read my mind, great. He wasn¡¯t wrong though, Ben didn¡¯t worship any gods in this world. Both Lehie and Yan tried to talk him into finding one who suited him, you didn¡¯t need to be one of the races that came to this world with a particular god, and they were known to occasionally bless their believers with skills and knowledge, but Ben just lacked interest. It¡¯s not that he didn¡¯t see the value in it, and he had plenty of options recommended to him that may be a good fit, but it felt like the gods just tossed him into the world without any thought. He only survived through the kindness of people. That wasn¡¯t even to mention how suspicious it was that a god would want him as a worshipper of all people. ¡°Okay I can¡¯t help the mind reading though, it''s not really something a god can turn off, but I have all sorts of handy advice for you, I¡¯m super helpful!¡± ¡°And coming on really strong, why does such a shady god want little old me so bad then? It can¡¯t just be the fact that you''re allowed to try and recruit me.¡± ¡°Damn it kid has anyone ever told you you¡¯re merciless? Alright I don¡¯t have any worshippers so I¡¯m slowly losing power, even just one worshipper would be able to make a big difference for me compared to where I¡¯m currently at.¡± That actually captured Ben''s interest. ¡°Why don¡¯t you have any worshippers? Did your original race turn against you or something?¡± ¡°No, they¡¯re all just dead.¡± ¡°...So how do I get out of here? Do I just have to make myself wake up or something?¡± ¡°Wait wait wait! Hear me out!¡± ¡°I mean, back at the church I was warned that there were gods here that ran off and left all their people to die, didn¡¯t think I would get to meet one though. Maybe if I just think awake thoughts¡­¡± ¡°That''s not what happened! My connection to my race was just a bit unique among the gods is all, when they would die they¡¯d become a part of me, and they knew it. Rather than just escape with a few and leave the rest, and letting the invaders take our world, they opted for a slightly different strategy.¡± ¡°Oh, what did they do?¡± He asked, his interest caught again despite himself. ¡°They elected to destroy the world and have all of their souls merge with me. My race may be dead, but at the same time you are also talking to the sum total of them.¡± If what it said was true that was definitely unique as far as gods went. He may not have known a ton about them, but he did get some education on the topic, and he had never heard anything like that before. Leaving aside the mentality of any people and god that could decide to use a scorched earth strategy with their entire planet, he decided it would at least be interesting to hear what it had to say. ¡°Okay then, and what are you offering in exchange for my worship?¡± ¡°Love and affection.¡± Ben turned around and started to walk away, surely there would be an exit somewhere for him. ¡°That was a joke! A joke! Right now I can only give you information, but after I¡¯ve been worshipped for a while I should be able to grant you a skill, just give me a chance!¡± The offer of a skill was hard to pass up, no matter how long you would worship a god it wasn¡¯t guaranteed you would get one in your life unless you got their attention, either through actions or devotion. Of course since he was already at the center of this particular god''s attention that didn¡¯t seem to be a problem. ¡°And what information can I get from you to make this worth my while?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to sound so hard done by. I¡¯m not asking for too much, a prayer or two a day, tell people how great I am so they want to worshi- WAIT STOP TRYING TO LEAVE I¡¯LL GET TO THE POINT! By the time you wake up you¡¯ll have arrived at the town of Stonewall at around a few hours after sunrise. You''re looking for a master to teach you how to use your crafting and enchantment right? There¡¯s maybe eight or nine places you could train under for only focusing on one of your skills, and four if you want to focus on both. Of those four you want to go to Falk''s shop and convince him to take you on as an apprentice, It will be worth your while I swear.¡± ¡°Why him?¡± ¡°Because he¡¯s the best you''re going to find without a few weeks or maybe even months of travels.¡± Ben thought he heard Myriad click his tongue, but did he even have a tongue? Before he continued. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re out of time, If you agree with my advice once you see him make sure to throw me a prayer, we can talk again then.¡± As he said those final words the world faded away, and Ben woke up to sunlight falling onto his face. CH7 After passing through the stone gate of the town and saying his goodbyes to the merchant, the first thing Ben did was not find Falk, but instead look into the other thirteenish places that he might apprentice under. Just because Falk came recommended by a god didn''t mean that he wouldn¡¯t decide for himself at the end of the day. First things being first he spent a few hours walking around the town, trying to get acquainted with the area, while also stopping at an inn to book himself a week so he would have somewhere to sleep while deciding on whether or not to stay in this town. Making a list of any potential places he might look into as he went, he checked out two smiths, an apothecary, three restaurants, and what looked like an art studio, but found them all lacking. It hadn¡¯t even seemed worth his time to ask the owners if they would take any students or staff at the moment, it all just looked boring. Even worse though was he only found those seven locations, he had no clue what the rest were that the god mentioned, nor had he found Falks. He figured that he should at least check that one out, he would just have to ask around for directions. Since he realised he didn¡¯t actually know what Falk''s shop did other than that it could be a place to train both of his skills he barely knew what to ask for help with, but acting under the assumption that someone who could use both of those skills would be either an apothecary or a smith, he started asking the various warriors and adventurers around for directs. It wasn¡¯t long before he was able to find out the way.
¡°Take your item and don¡¯t you dare come back!¡± This was the first thing Ben heard as he approached the shop, followed quickly by a man being thrown out of the shop and rolling down the street. Okay well that''s probably good enough, sorry Myriad but I¡¯m not in the mood to be killed twice this year. That display was already enough to give him serious second thoughts about going in. Still nothing else looked promising at the moment so he gathered his resolve; hopefully as long as he was polite he could get out with only minor injuries. He took a deep breath, gathered his will, and walked inside. You¡¯d think the first thing he would notice would be the shop''s wares, but no, the first thing that caught his eye was the shopkeeper himself. At eight feet tall, covered in white fur and rippling muscles, and having a surprisingly impressive topknot on his head, there was only one word that came to mind for him. Yeti. During his walk around the city he had gotten to see all sorts of different races than at the church, some falling farther outside of his frame of reference then this man did, but that didn''t change how impressive it was to see a creature that would be considered a thing of legend back on Earth. A tiny voice in the back of his mind said that Lehie would also qualify for that distinction, but he just couldn¡¯t make himself think of her as something so impressive. ¡°You need something brat?¡± The creature, presumably Falk, asked him. ¡°Just wanted to take a look around, maybe see for myself what''s available.¡± ¡°Suit yourself.¡± He said and went back to work at a forge in the back of his shop. Ben for his part took some time to look around. It looked like he was a blacksmith, and a busy one at that. There may not have been any other customers in the store at the moment but the walls were covered with items of various styles and designs, lining the walls and filling crates on the floor. Every single item he saw was immediately catching his attention, maybe it was a function of his crafting skill, but he could tell right away that everything he was seeing stood above the other shops by a mile. When he considered that it actually seemed strange that he wasn¡¯t constantly sold out, but maybe his rough attitude had been keeping some more faint-hearted customers away. Aside from just being higher quality though there was something else that he couldn¡¯t put his finger on about a few of the items, something that made them stand out compared to the others. He stared so hard it felt like he was trying to see through them, searching for what secrets they kept, but in the end there was only one way to really know. ¡°Hey you¡¯re Falk right?¡± ¡°What¡¯s it to you brat?¡± ¡°I was just recommended this store and I was just curious if I¡¯m talking to the owner or one of his apprentices.¡± ¡°Alright I am Falk, now what do you want?¡± Ben pointed out four items that had caught his eye in particular. ¡°Something about these ones seem different from the rest to me, I was just wondering if it was in my head or if they¡¯re unique in some way?¡± While Falk seemed indifferent, if not a little rude, at first, he suddenly switched to openly hostile. ¡°You got an appraisal skill or something brat?¡± stepping forward and baring his teeth at him. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Looks like my chances of escaping with only minor injuries have just dropped significantly. Still if he had gotten on his bad side from a misunderstanding of his skills then maybe telling the truth would help. ¡°No appraisal skill on me, it''s probably because I have crafting and enchantment I would guess.¡± He seemed to relax a bit at that, but was still on guard. ¡°In that case what do you want with a back alley store like this?¡± This is it, now or never. ¡°I was told if I wanted to become a good craftsman I would need a teacher, and you were recommended to me.¡± ¡°If you can tell just by looking at them that there''s something different about those four then you should be a decently high level, why would you need a teacher at this point?¡± ¡°I¡¯m only level one in both crafting and enchanting though?¡± ¡°Brat do you think you¡¯ll have any luck with such a bad lie? There''s no way you can tell that with just level one, not to mention having crafting instead of something like blacksmithing.¡± ¡°It''s true though.¡± Ben told him, showing him his status card. ¡°...Crafting and enchanting as blessed skills huh? I guess that might do it. But what''s with these magics and resistances?¡± he quietly spoke to himself while looking at his card before looking back up at him. ¡°And why would you show me such a pathetic status when you''re asking to become somebody''s apprentice Brat? It usually isn''t recommended someone become an enchanter without a blessed magic skill to use for items, and from the looks of it I doubt you would be able to use magic to begin with.¡± ¡°I have been told that it''s probably not possible for me to use magic, but consider me showing this a point of my sincerity. I wouldn¡¯t hide anything from the person I would have as my teacher!¡± He knew after looking around that Myriad had been right, this was definitely the store that Ben had to be working at if he wanted the best results he could get. All that was left was convincing his would-be teacher. ¡°Find somewhere else, I don¡¯t take apprentices, and even if I did, you¡¯d never make it as one.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t decide that before you give me a chance, I swear I¡¯ll live up to whatever standards you set if you give me a shot.¡± ¡°Brat you don¡¯t even know what you¡¯re getting yourself into. Aside from just making things, craftsmen need to be able to gather their own materials when they start if they aren¡¯t working for a kingdom or have some sort of patron. Gods know I couldn¡¯t supply you with everything you¡¯d need while you start your training. That means hunting for it yourself. Look at you, your stats are average at best with no magic or combat. Give up.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t.¡± He said, staring him in the eye and standing his ground. ¡°All I¡¯m asking for is one opportunity to prove myself. Just one.¡± Falk matched his stare before sighing and massaging his brow. ¡°Tell you what kid, go get yourself killed hunting an Amarok wolf. If you can do it by yourself without hiring any adventurers then I¡¯ll take you on, but if you can¡¯t even manage that then give up.¡± Ben broke into a smile and quickly grabbed Falk''s hand, giving it a shake. ¡°Works for me Falk. Just wait, in a few days you¡¯re going to have the best student you could hope for.¡± With that he ran off, eager to figure out what he would need to do to get it done. ¡°Dumb brat doesn''t even know what what an Amarok is. Well if he has any brains he¡¯ll quit when he finds out.¡±
After running off Ben went to find something to eat before returning to his inn to turn in for the night. Deciding that Myriad had indeed proven to have some worth he gave a quick prayer of gratitude before drifting off to sleep. ¡°I know I was the one to recommend Falk and said to convince him, but please give up here.¡± Before he knew it he was in the god''s realm again staring at a much smaller Myriad, maybe around the size of a small TV, as he tried to change Ben''s mind. ¡°So can you just appear whenever you want? Seems pretty handy.¡± Ben said, ignoring the god''s plea. ¡°Ben he gave you a task you could never reasonably be expected to accomplish.¡± ¡°Well yeah, obviously.¡± ¡°Wait you knew? Then why did you agree?¡± ¡°He clearly didn¡¯t want to take me in, and if I kept pushing I probably would have gotten something even harder assigned, if he didn¡¯t just kick me out of the store. Honestly I was lucky he offered a task at all.¡± ¡°But it doesn¡¯t matter if you die!¡± ¡°If I really think I¡¯ll die then I won¡¯t do it, but that''s not what matters. What matters is if Falk is a man of his word.¡± Myriad let out a long sigh. Did he even have anything like lungs? Before he continued. ¡°He should be. You saw that little altercation at his store before you walked in right? He still gave that man his item before kicking him out. He¡¯s rough but he should be a man of character.¡± ¡°Wait, were you watching me all day?¡± ¡°Yeah I got to see you spend hours checking out all the places I already told you weren¡¯t worth your time.¡± Ben gave him an uncaring shrug. ¡°Trust but verify. Well not much trust yet but if you keep up the good work we¡¯ll get there. Actually where were the other places you said weren¡¯t worth my time, I only found seven?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to waste time checking those out too are you?¡± ¡°If things don¡¯t work out with Falk I may as well.¡± Another long sigh. ¡°A few others were enchanters that work independently of other stores so you could bring items from a regular smith to them in order to enchant. Then the adventures guild has someone you could work under for conducting minor repairs on either armor and weapons, although that wouldn¡¯t give you too much experience as a craftsman. There''s also a private stonemason in town that would probably be more useful than those folks at the adventurers guild. He has a high skill level too, but he¡¯s too specialized. You may be able to grow to level four in crafting under him, but after that you would just need to find a new teacher again or do some serious self study.¡± ¡°Well maybe he would be worth looking into later then. For now what do you know about Amarok wolves?¡± ¡°I can tell you they''re notorious newbie adventurer killers. If you go to the guild you could probably find more out, but they¡¯ll definitely try to stop you.¡± ¡°Well just let me figure that out.¡± CH8 ¡°While it¡¯s a guild policy to accept anyone who has the will, I personally can¡¯t in good conscience let you join without trying to talk you out of it.¡± The guild receptionist told him with a look he wanted to call pitying, though it was hard as they didn¡¯t strictly have anything that could be described as a face. After his talk with Myriad, Ben woke up feeling well-rested and ready to take on the day. He sent up a quick prayer of thanks and then headed straight to the guild. He needed to register to get the information he wanted, but it was going about as well as he expected it would when it came time to show his skills. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as you can see I¡¯m just a prospective craftsman in town trying to find a teacher. I just figured that while I was doing that I could do some gathering quests to make some money, and take a look at the guild archive to see what materials are in the area that I could collect or buy.¡± He confidently mixed truths with lies. The archive was definitely his main goal when coming here, but he would be taking a more active role in gathering what he needed. ¡°Well if that''s all then I suppose it should be fine. With the skills you possess I can only make you a rank 7 adventurer anyway so you can¡¯t accept any harder quests, just don¡¯t venture too far into the woods, you never know what''s going to be out there.¡± She took his card and added a new mark to it, symbolizing his adventure rank, and let him go on his way. The first thing he did was head to the archive. He had been told it should have all of the information he would need on monsters that could be found in the area, so he grabbed any books that looked like they could be relevant and sat down to get reading.
It was pretty interesting to learn more about the creatures that inhabit the world. There were beautiful rainbow colours pterodactyl-like creatures that would soar through the skies, a subterranean kingdom of mole people that would take in the few other sentient underground races to accept as family, fairies that were each attuned to a specific element of magic, having subtle effects on any land they stayed in for too long. It really was a land of beauty and wonder if he was open to seeing it. On the other end of the spectrum was the Amarok wolf, a real bastard of a beast. It was a large black wolf, about two to three meters in length, that was particularly known for preying on anyone foolish enough to be hunting alone at night. It would take its time toying with its prey, making it think it had a chance to escape before finally finishing it off. If its prey wasn¡¯t alone it would still hunt its targets if it thought it was more powerful, though it probably just wouldn''t enjoy it as much. The wolf couldn¡¯t use any magic itself though, so it was considered barely acceptable for a group of five rank 6 adventurers to hunt it, or one or two rank 5. Well, that seems like it¡¯s only the case if you¡¯re going to do something dumb like try and play fair. ¡°...So I can hear you when I¡¯m awake too huh?¡± ¡°Well whatever. We clearly see this pretty differently, I would say I feel pretty confident after all that I¡¯ve read." ¡°Watch and see.¡±
The next week had been long, really really long. He had to buy and gather his materials, turn them into something usable, and then trick the various guild members into telling him where this creature was likely to be found under the guise of hoping to avoid any danger as a solo gatherer. But it would soon be worth it. Night was falling and camp was set up under a tree, while a figure sat by an open fire. There was the meat of a small animal being cooked above it, while a few more that had been skinned were hung up to bleed, with the smell filling the area. The wind moved to carry it through all corners of the forest, hopefully attracting what he needed it to. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. But Ben just ignored Myriad, staying silent and focusing on his task. The only thing he wanted to hear was if it was approaching. Instead he focused on enjoying the feeling of the night, the atmosphere of a camping trip filling him with pleasant memories of past family outings. He was bundled up in a warm blanket, looking up at the stars when he wasn¡¯t observing the area around him, wondering if any of them were home. Myriad said, interrupting his thoughts. It¡¯s been mentioned, but I still don¡¯t really understand the point of going through all that, sounds like a lot of work. So that was the reason? Wait, does that mean that of all the people summoned, I was the only one who could have been scouted but wasn¡¯t? <...> The silence spoke volumes and Ben did his best not to fall down another depressive spiral. He already knew he was the most worthless among the twenty he came with, what was another 180 on top of that? He couldn¡¯t let it keep getting to him and had to just do his best from here on out. As a god, Myriad was privy to the thoughts of mortals. He knew that as Ben was thanking him for the support that he hadn¡¯t really believed it, but for now there was nothing he could do to help him. Ben would have to find his self-worth himself, maybe if he succeeded here it would help with that. Of course a larger part of his mind expected Ben to die and that he would be back to where he started, believerless, but there wasn¡¯t much point in telling him that. He knew the boy had made up his mind, and that nothing he could say would change that. Ben tensed up. It all came down to this. He was pretty sure he would be able to avoid getting killed so Lehie wouldn¡¯t get too mad about all of the time she spent trying to teach him going down the drain, but they would find out soon. The creature for its part spotted the figure by the fire, dressed in an unreasonably red outfit, and loudly approached, trying its best to get his attention. It wanted him to know it was there, to feel afraid, but he wouldn¡¯t give in. When there was no reaction It seemed angry, personally offended that a scrawny thing so far beneath it would have the gall to ignore its majestic presence. Three meters long and covered in thick black fur, it was definitely an incredible sight, but what Ben really saw were materials to be collected. He might not be able to do anything with the meat, but from what he had read the claws, bones, and fur were all good as crafting materials. He couldn¡¯t wait to get his hands on them. For its part, the pile of materials decided it couldn¡¯t wait to get its claws into him either. It had had enough of being ignored, and jumped towards its future victim, ready to rip off a limb or two to teach it some fear before digging into its flesh. At least that was the plan, but the moment he landed on it after clearing the fire the ground gave away, and long wooden stakes pierced its majestic body. It thrashed about in pain, but as Ben watched it from the tree above, he dropped two large rocks down on it. His aim was true, and its skull shattered under the weight of the falling stones. I told you didn¡¯t I, these things are probably plenty tough when dealt with head on, but they¡¯re used to going after solo hunters that aren¡¯t expecting them, they aren¡¯t actually smart enough to spot a trap. Myriad actually found that to be a bit unfair to the beast, Ben had just used his skills and resources to his fullest advantage. When he started his plan he only bought a handful of items. A shovel for digging a large pit, taking up nearly eight hours to make it big and deep enough to serve the purpose Ben had in mind, as well as a knife to carve spikes from branches he had found gathered around the forest. That alone wouldn¡¯t have been enough, but he also got a large but thin tarp, a blanket, and a bright red cloth to aid in his scheme, not to mention the application of his skills. When he was still at the church he tried playing around with enchanting a bit, just to see how it would go, and once he had gotten dismantling one of the first things he did was apply it to a knife at the church. Once he did it had a small but noticeable improvement in its ability to cut through objects. Learning from this he spent some time applying it to all of the wooden spikes he had carved, hoping that plus the creature''s weight would help them easily pierce its flesh. From there he did his best to apply stealth to his blanket and his tarp, to help hide himself and cover the spikes so that it wouldn''t be able to see them, hopefully thinking it was just solid ground. To both sell that illusion and distract the creature from seeing it he sprinkled it with dirt to make it blend in more and set up some garbage to look like a person, wrapping it in a bright red cloth to capture its attention and make it not inspect the area too hard. When all was said and done the plan had worked out excellently. All that was left to do was get that apprenticeship. CH9 Falk had just finished giving a new staff to his favourite customer and was back at the forge to start making a few pans for a neighbour, when he spared a thought to his encounter with the boy from a week prior. He had selected a target for him that, while not so ridiculously challenging as to make his intent obvious, should have been enough to scare the brat away and seek work with someone else. He wouldn¡¯t make a good teacher, and he couldn¡¯t figure out why the boy had selected him to begin with. He didn¡¯t seem like he''d tried the other stores around and been rejected, but he couldn¡¯t know just what skills Falk possessed, he always kept those close to his chest, there was no reason to seek him out. Still though, a human¡­ Shouldn¡¯t one of the bigger nations be out training him? Why was he searching for a teacher by himself? Like all the other city residents Falk was aware of the hero summoning that had taken place around their world, and with the humans having been summoned so close to his home city of course he had heard of them, a few even passed through this city to get to the nearest gate to travel to their new training grounds. Still the boy would best give up and find somewhere else that was equipped to take on students, and Falk was best to focus on his own work for now, gods knowing he had plenty of other things to worry about than the state of one brat. As he decided to put these unnecessary thoughts behind him he heard the door of his shop open. When he turned to see what this prospective customer was looking for he was instead greeted by Ben, as if his previous thoughts had summoned him. ¡°Damn it Brat I told you, I¡¯m not taking you if you can¡¯t hunt an Amarok, now get lost.¡± He dismissed him, getting back to his own work. Ben ignored him, walking right up to Falk and handed a bundle over to him. ¡°That''s why I¡¯m here, one Amarok pelt, freshish and ready to be tanned.¡± Falk took a moment to look at what he had been handed and then took a closer look at the boy. It was clearly an Amarok pelt, he had hunted a few in his own time, wouldn''t mistake one; and the boy for his part was an absolute mess now that he stopped to look, covered in dirt and blood. But he still couldn¡¯t believe the kid had actually managed it. ¡°Sure it''s an Amarok, I¡¯ll give you that. The condition of its pretty trash though, way too many punctures. Not to mention that I told you to get it yourself, no adventurers.¡± ¡°The condition it¡¯s in wasn¡¯t a part of the deal, and I did get it myself.¡± ¡°Cut the crap kid, there''s no way you managed to stab the beast this many times and walk back here yourself. Hell if you were in stabbing range a monster like this could sink its teeth into you no problem.¡± Ben was a little offended that all of his hard work was being dismissed just like that, so he stopped Falk and explained in every little detail how he had managed it, from research to crafting and set up to finally tricking the beast. The plan had taken him a week to pull off, it wasn¡¯t something he was willing to just have denied for the sake of the shopkeeper''s convenience. ¡°...So after it was dead I just hung out in the tree for the rest of the night to avoid getting murdered by anything else walking the woods, and when morning came I took some time to skin it, bury its bones to grab later, as well as take down the spikes and fill in the hole. Then I came back here.¡± At a certain point Falk put his head into his hands. What the boy was saying was possible. Usually when an adventurer goes out, the point is to work on improving their skills as much as it is for completing their quests or collecting raw materials from animals, so traps aren¡¯t in common use. But it could work, he couldn¡¯t deny it. ¡°So then.¡± Ben started, interrupting his thoughts. ¡°Are you going to keep your end of the deal?¡± ¡°My end?¡± ¡°You said if I could kill one you¡¯d take me on. I killed one, so when should I start?¡± Falk let out a long unhappy sigh. ¡°Damnable brat, I wouldn¡¯t make a good teacher, if you want to learn you should find somewhere else.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be the judge of that. Now when do I start.¡± If this ever comes up again I¡¯m telling the next would-be student to hunt a bloody demon. ¡°Fine, you start tomorrow. The shop opens at the crack of dawn. Don¡¯t be late.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°You won¡¯t regret this Mr. Falk! I¡¯ll see you bright and early!¡± Ben told him with a smile before running off. ¡°Yeah yeah. And take a bath before you get here! Tracking blood and dirt through my bloody shop.¡± He mumbled, pulling out a broom as tidying up a bit.
¡°Sooooooooooo?¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, you showed your usefulness. I¡¯ll accept you as my god and toss you some prayers.¡± As soon as Ben went to sleep at night he found himself again in Myriads divine realm, with him somehow managing to look antsy despite lacking a face or limbs or any other feature one could use to convey emotion. Knowing what he wanted Ben gave in immediately, he had to admit that having a god around had its uses. As soon as Ben said the words Myriad''s body started to glow a divine light. Like a cubic disco ball. Ben quietly thought to himself. Even though Myriad could hear that thought he wasn¡¯t going to let it get him down. This was the first believer he had had in a millennia, just being properly acknowledged by a mortal felt incredible. ¡°Sorry to interrupt your little light show, but what now?¡± ¡°Well as my believer I can grant you my blessing for starters. Though it will be weak now it should get stronger if I grow in power a bit. I can also grant you a quest.¡± ¡°No gift skill?¡± ¡°I need you to pray to me consistently for a bit longer if I¡¯m going to do that, a skill takes a lot of energy, and with the amount of strength I have now it will have to be incredibly close to my properties as a god and the properties of my race.¡± ¡°Okay sounds neat, what sort will it be?¡± ¡°There''s a couple options, but not to worry I¡¯ll make something that will suit you to the best of my abilities.¡± ¡°Alright I¡¯ll leave it in your hands, and what do you mean by a quest?¡± ¡°Hmm the church must have not bothered explaining it since they didn¡¯t think it would be relevant to you, but gods can issue quests to the people. The more powerful the god, the more powerful the quest reward. I can¡¯t currently do anything too grand, but the good news about being my number one believer is I should be able to issue them to you more often than an average person could hope to get them.¡± ¡°Oh cool, then what''s the reward?¡± Myriad let out a small groan. ¡°Think you could hide your greed for a minute and ask what the quest is first? I¡¯ll be having you grow my faith. If you get me five new believers I will raise your job level by six.¡± That sounded like an okay reward for now, after his months here he hadn¡¯t done too much crafting, just some cooking, dismantling, and other experimenting at the church had only raised him to level 14, he was hoping he would get some more interesting options for whatever came next. There was only one small issue. ¡°There¡¯s no way I¡¯m going to be able to find you five other believers.¡± He said bluntly. ¡°Wait don¡¯t be so pessimistic, it¡¯s not impossible!¡± ¡°An unknown god with little power and not much that can be immediately offered, sounds pretty impossible to me.¡± ¡°Urk¡­¡± ¡°Not to mention why would anyone switch their faith from presumably a powerful god to a weak one? Maybe if one of the world''s deities is outed as being evil we could scoop up some of their followers, but right now it just seems impossible.¡± ¡°Well if you accomplish something impressive, it may tempt some people towards me as a result.¡± ¡°Me, the apprentice craftsman with level one skills at most, accomplish anything impressive? Come on Myriad you need to have some realism here.¡± With the cruel reality of Ben''s words, Myriad fell to the ground defeated, all the joy and energy he had been feeling from getting a believer vanished. ¡°Hey now, no need to be so sad, the decks just stacked against you. Need power to get power, need followers to get followers. It¡¯s rough but let''s do our best.¡± Myriad looked up, a bit of hope returning. ¡°So you¡¯ll take the quest?¡± ¡°...is there literally any other option?¡± ¡°This is the easiest one I can currently give you.¡± ¡°Is there a time limit? Any penalty for failing?¡± ¡°Nope, no limit or penalties. The only drawback is I can¡¯t give you another one until you complete this one.¡± ¡°Alright, might as well give it a try.¡± He rose again, rainbows flowing out of his silvery form. ¡°I know you¡¯ll figure something out Ben, I believe in you. Now time to wake up, you wouldn¡¯t want to be late.¡± With that Ben felt himself coming to consciousness, but before he even opened his eyes he felt the world screaming in his head I''m sorry, what of Myriad? CH10 Falk arrived at his shop, silently hoping the boy would sleep in or not show up so he would have an excuse to dismiss him, but no such luck. The brat managed to show up before even he did and was sitting outside the shop, laying against the door. All he could do was groan a bit, forced to accept what he agreed to. "Alright get up, first things first give the shop a sweep and we''ll figure out where to go from there." Ben immediately got to it, cleaning up the shop with enthusiasm while Falk had no choice but to use the few minutes he had to focus on something he had been wracking his brain about all night, just how to train the brat. Unfortunately for him, Ben was thorough but quick, too quick. The shop looked fine to open and he was standing in front of Falk, looking up at him expectantly. "Huuuh, alright kid, first I guess you should make me something. We''ll see where we should go from there." He brought him to a room in the back that looked like a combination of supply closet and work area. Buckets and drawers of materials were piled around, with a desk and tools hung around it, and a small shelf of books nearby. Ben''s first thought seeing all of it was basically that it looked like fun. It was definitely somewhere he could sink a lot of hours if he was given the chance. He just had one minor problem. "What am I supposed to make?" "Whatever you can for now, I just want to watch your process and see where you could improve at first. Help me pull the desk out front unless you''re going to want to use the forge, then grab the supplies you''ll need. To be clear, I''m only letting you grab from my stock today, in the future you''ll have to supply yourself." Ben did his best to help move the desk the Yeti worked at into the front of the shop, before going back and looking around. There were metals and materials of all sorts. He saw the bones and teeth and skins of a variety of creatures, the woods from all kinds of trees and materials that were clearly organic in nature but that he had no clue as to what they could be. There was also an unusual amount of stone, of various types, all organised in a back corner. He wondered about the room for a minute, taking it all in, making a mental list of what to explore in the future, while he tried to figure out what he was going to make. The options before him seemed limited. He originally considered himself something of an artist, dabbling in a variety of arts, but he didn''t think that would work. He could stitch together furs to make a cloak or jacket but that didn''t feel right either. It wasn''t until he came across some metal wire that he remembered an unfinished project he would never get the chance to complete, giving him a good idea of what to do. Taking the supplies and tools he would need to the front workshop he sat down at the desk and got to work as his teacher stood above him, watching as he went. It only took two minutes for him to stop Ben from his work. "What are you doing?" "I was going to make chainmail, I thought I would add stealth to it while I went to at least give it a bit more benefit." "Yes I can see that, I more meant why are you doing it so wrong?" Falk seemed genuinely confused which kept Ben from being too annoyed. He came here to learn and that''s what he would do. "What exactly am I doing wrong here?" "God''s where do I even begin, you''re going to make all that wire unusable if you keep this up, and it doesn''t even seem like you''re crafting." "Falk I''m going to need you to give me a bit more than that." Realising he hadn''t properly explained himself, Falk took a second to put his thoughts together and started again. "You look like you''re trying to enchant every single individual wire. That can be possible at a higher level but right now you can''t do that for something so small, the enchantment won''t take and you''ll render the material unusable." He picked up the wire Ben had been using and ground it between his fingers. It seemed to have lost all of its malleability, causing it to break into shards and dust. "What you have to do is slowly add the enchantment to the entire thing as you go, spreading the enchantment across the entire item. Aside from that, do you not know how to use your crafting?" The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He clearly did not with what was being asked, but he had to confirm anyway. "Is it not just a way to have a better idea of how to put stuff together while also making you better at the process?" "Well you''re not wrong, but it''s also like most other skills, you have to burn up a little Mana to get its full effects. Since you can enchant you should know how to do that, yeah?" He did, it had taken a fair amount of trial and error at the church, as well as a lot of questions to the priests to figure it out, but when he got it was incredible. "Alright so just use Mana with the skill and try again." He got back to work, doing as he was told and immediately felt a difference. He could feel it flowing out of him into the wires, making them slightly more easy to work with, bending as he wanted them to and holding their shape a bit better. This wasn''t even considering the improvements to his body. He could feel his movements improving, making less mistakes that needed to be corrected. He couldn''t help but think of how long carving all of the spikes had taken before and how much time he could have saved, but no point worrying about that now. With his teacher''s advice he immediately lost himself in the task, devoting all of his attention to the project before him.
He wasn''t sure how much time passed, but before he knew it he was holding onto a full set of mail, enchanted with stealth as well. He couldn''t help but think how incredible skills were. While he had been chipping away at the piece he had been making at home, getting a few hours a day done here or there, he now has a finished product in one go. Sighing in contentment he stretched and looked to see Falk snoozing at his chair. He figured it probably wasn''t good for the man to be sleeping on the job, so decided to have some fun. "Hey Falk, what do you think!" He yelled, waking the man up. He shot up from his seat with a start. "Damn it boy! Do you have any idea what time it is?" "No?" "I decided to sleep at midnight!" He threw open the door dramatically, making it clear that the sun had fallen and moonlight streamed in through the door. "You must have been working at that for almost twenty hours!" "Ah, haha¡­" maybe yelling to wake him up hadn''t been the best idea. Ben knew he was prone to getting lost in a task, his family used to have to tell him lights out whenever he got into a project, but he didn''t think he''d ever gone this long before. "Sorry about that, using crafting ended up being more entertaining than I thought." "I''d say you got more use out of your focus skill than anything." He grumbled, waving his hand for Ben to hand over his item. "Come on now, let''s see how it went so I can go back to sleep." Falk stared at it for a few minutes, slowly losing the tired expression in his eyes. ¡°Looks like you managed to make a lower common item, not bad for your first attempt considering you didn''t even know how to properly craft when you started.¡± Items could be divided into six levels of rarity. There was common, uncommon, rare, ultra-rare, legendary, and mythic. On top of this, each level was further subdivided into lower, middle, and upper to show just how well it would compare to items in its own category. ¡°How can you be sure, shouldn¡¯t an enchanted item be a bit better than that?¡± The disappointment was clear in his voice. Even if the time flew by for him, all of that to make something of only lower common quality was pretty disappointing. ¡°When you reach the ninth level of your skill you¡¯ll be able to see the quality of the item without issue. Since I have blacksmithing I can see this no problem, but since you have crafting you¡¯ll be able to see the quality of basically any manufactured item. That''s basically the biggest benefit of your particular skill. As for its quality I would say don¡¯t worry about it. I was fully expecting you to make a failed product, the fact that it turned out this good at all is promising.¡± While he may have been playing it down a bit Falk was actually fairly impressed. One of the biggest issues in any crafting skill was how often items failed at the beginning few levels of a skill. Often students would misjudge how much magic to use in their enchantments or rush too much to get an item complete, not to mention the basic difficulty associated with getting acquainted with a skills use. If the boy could continue making items of this quality he should be able to make enough to live on while he worked here. ¡°Anyway.¡± He continued. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it too much. Almost all items are of common quality because that''s going to be reasonably priced enough for an average person to buy. While any good craftsman should be able to make uncommon and the occasional rare item, there aren''t many who can consistently make rare ones, and someone who can make ultra-rare ones regularly only shows up once or twice every few hundred years.¡± This raised Ben''s confidence a little but left him with another question. ¡°What about craftsmen who make Legendary or mythic items?¡± ¡°Ha boy, you¡¯re a few centuries away from that if it''s your goal. While anyone who can consistently make ultra-rare items may manage to spit out one or two legendary items in their lifetime, someone who can make them consistently only shows up once or twice a millennium. As for mythic, well I¡¯ve never heard of any mortal making them. From what I know the few that exist were gifted from the gods.¡± ¡°Well if I¡¯m going to have any goals they may as well be big goals.¡± Falk gave him a large, toothy, scarier than intended grin. ¡°You say some good stuff brat. With how late it is there¡¯s no point in you going home, there''s a blanket and pillow in the storage room. Sleep there and I¡¯ll wake you for work in the morning.¡± CH11 The next day Falk woke Ben up and they went over their training plan before opening the store. ¡°Alright brat, here''s how things are going to work. You clearly don¡¯t have any experience at a forge and I doubt you have any practice at alchemy either. Each day get here an hour before the store opens and I¡¯ll give you a bit of a rundown on how to use the forge and how to brew potions. Since I doubt you¡¯ll be able to find a way to gather all the metals and alchemic components you¡¯ll need by yourself I¡¯ll sell them to you at cost for now, and If I judge the quality of your products to be good enough you can sell them in the shop, though since they''re being sold in my business and I¡¯m taking my time to teach you I¡¯ll be taking a reasonable cut. Any questions?¡± ¡°Sounds good to me, but why alchemy? I didn¡¯t think I saw any potions in here before?¡± ¡°Probably because you didn¡¯t come in here to buy anything. I keep a few by the front desk at the register. Besides that you gotta learn at least a little alchemy if you want to use any monster parts in your weapons and armor. Which also means you can¡¯t skip out on hunting, once you have potion-making down and start applying alchemy to your blacksmithing I expect you to go gather monster parts yourself.¡± ¡°Wait but I still don¡¯t get why it¡¯s used with blacksmithing?¡± "Damn it all you really don''t know anything do you? If you want to keep some of the monster''s effects, be it affinities, resistances, or if you''re particularly lucky a monster''s properties that can enhance a given enchantment you need alchemy to preserve them. Potion making preserves and concentrates a plant''s healing effects, it''s the same idea. It can also make sure your products can hold their enchantments longer. Take the wooden spikes you were telling me about. If you had enchanted them a day before using them without putting any more mana into it then they were probably only half as effective. With the right materials the mana loss could be significantly slower, some materials could even manage to hold mana without any loss or slowly absorb mana from the environment. How effective you use your skills will determine how good the final product is. And¡­" he paused, giving a wicked grin. "How much you can sell them for." ¡°Alright! What are we starting with then?¡± Flak pulled out his card and directed it at Ben. ¡°We''re starting with you paying for a week''s worth of supplies. After that I¡¯ll get you working on the backup forge in the back.¡± Ben tapped his own card against Falks, transferring the money over to him and then went out to a back room and got to work. He was first shown how to start the forge and from there Falk gave him a basic explanation of what he would be doing. ¡°For today I¡¯ll loan you some tools, but you¡¯re going to be using them to make your own, so make sure you do your best so you can use them for a long time. Since these will be for your own use you won¡¯t be able to sell them, but it''s an important step in learning to really appreciate the materials you work with. Now quiz time, what is the most important tool for a blacksmith?¡± ¡°Would it be a hammer?¡± That seemed to be what he would always see them wielding in shows and movies, so it felt like a safe bet. ¡°That''s what most people would guess, but no. What''s most important, and what you¡¯ll be making first, is a set of tongs.¡± ¡°Why tongs?¡± They certainly didn¡¯t seem super important compared to what you would use to shape your items. ¡°Do you want to be grabbing some red hot metal with your bare hand''s brat? Sure shaping your metal is important, but if you can¡¯t move it the way you need to efficiently the metal will cool and you¡¯ll lose too much time having to constantly reheat it. Now watch how I do it and repeat as I do afterwards.¡± Falk immediately got to work as Ben watched on, entranced by the work of the smith. In a process of grabbing two long metal rods, heating and shaping them, punching a pin into them, and cutting them to the proper size, Falk had a pair of tongs done in no more than fifteen minutes. ¡°There we go, I tried to keep it slower for you but you should have the idea of how to make these.¡± ¡°You call that slow? Even if they¡¯re just tongs I can¡¯t believe you made them so quick!¡± ¡°It¡¯s what happens when you get smithing to a high enough level, the metal works the way you need it to. You¡¯ll be a fair bit longer but if you need anything come grab me from the shop, I¡¯ll be working up front and watching the counter.¡± He started to walk away before stopping with one last thought. ¡°Also don¡¯t try and apply any enchantments to your items while you''re making them. Since your crafting level is low, focus on improving that and if you want you can work on enchanting after you''re done for the day.¡± The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Ben gave him a nod and went over to the forge to get to work. He grabbed his first metal bar and heated it up until it glowed a nice red colour. Once it looked ready he took it over to the anvil, and using one of the smaller hammers Falk had available, started shaping it in a way to make his tongs. With each strike he paid attention to how much the metal warped, how the shape changed to meet the image he had in his mind of what his tongs should look like. It didn¡¯t have to be perfect but he wanted it to at least look decent if he was going to be using them from now on. Once the first was done he grabbed a second bar and shaped it to match, at least as best he could. There was a little unevenness at the front of it that took longer to correct than he would like to admit, but given it was his first time at the forge he was willing to cut himself some slack. Once both sides of the tongs were ready he grabbed a punch and a pin to act as a pivot and started to set it. He took a second to collect himself and focus. He needed to make sure that when he punched both halves of his soon-to-be tool he got it in the same spot, it would do no good to have them lopsided, and went to it. It wasn¡¯t actually too hard, but given that if he messed up he would have to buy more metal from Falk he really didn¡¯t want to have to put any more strain on his wallet. With both holes punched he placed and secured his pin, then hammered a wedge into the ends until they were the proper length for him to use. With that done he went in to show Falk. ¡°...and here¡¯s the staff, hopefully this one lasts a bit longer than the last one. I¡¯ll see you in a few days then.¡± It looked like he was just finishing with a customer. As he waved them off Ben went up and showed him his end product. ¡°Not bad. I was expecting you to mess up the first time but I guess this wasn¡¯t too hard. With this done we can start on the next step then, making you a hammer. Come and watch carefully, I¡¯m only showing you this once.¡± He was brought over to the forge in the front and watched Falk skillfully take a lump of metal and shape it into a tool, with the front end being flat and the back end being a wedge. He punched a hole into the center and fitted it with a wooden handle, and it was all done even faster than his tongs from before. Once again Ben couldn¡¯t help but be impressed by the quick and precise work Falk managed, and he was excited to try it for himself. He ran back to the small work area he had been given and got to it, taking a bar of iron and tossed it in the forge. Using his newly made tongs he grabbed it from the forge and started striking it, feeling each blow changing its shape, the rhythmic clanging filling his mind. Again he was slower than his teacher, but he didn''t mind. Now that he was making things himself, finally putting his crafting to use, he could see it was about the journey, not the destination. He finished forging the hammer''s head and secured it to a strong wooden bar to use as the handle, then took it to Falk to get his seal of approval. "Feels like it may be a bit small, but it will do for now. I guess you''re a bit small yourself anyway." "I''m plenty tall for my race, you''re just huge." ¡°Brat I¡¯m the runt of my family, your race is just too small.¡± Well that was a terrifying thought, but with his teachers'' approval for his tools Ben was given the task of making J hooks for the rest of the day to work on some of the different techniques he had learned so far.
¡°If I remember right your strength was only at 90 right? You also have focus?¡± Falk had come to check on Ben as the day was ending and prepared to send him home when he saw the small mountain of J hooks beside him. ¡°That''s right, why?¡± ¡°No reason. Anyway I¡¯ve got a few books for you to borrow, just some on alchemy and enchanting. I¡¯m giving you tomorrow off so stay home and read them.¡± ¡°Sure sounds good, see you in a couple then.¡± ¡°Good luck.¡± Ben wasn¡¯t really sure what he meant by that but he grabbed the books and left the shop. Since it had been a long one he decided to turn in early and get to reading the next day.
As he slowly woke up he realised why Falk asked him those questions yesterday. Oh god, everything hurts. Not you Myriad. Wait actually can you do anything about this? I don¡¯t think I can move my arms. Actually pretty sure I can¡¯t move anything. Uhg. The books he needed to read were left on the other side of the room. It was going to be a long day. CH12 The next couple months were busy. Ben''s lessons were mostly split between blacksmithing and alchemy, with a bit of enchantment added here and there, while his free time was divided between reading from Falk''s books, practicing some of the hobbies he already had like drawing and sculpting, as well as occasionally hunting and dismantling some beasts in a nearby woods to use for his training or to sell to Falk for the materials. As he was working at his forge, finishing up a staff enhanced with blood elk bone, a notification sprang up. His mind was suddenly clearer and his thoughts felt sharper, he looked at the staff he had just finished and could suddenly tell where he had gone wrong and how it could be improved upon, but that didn¡¯t matter right now. It was his first level up since he was at the church and he couldn¡¯t contain his excitement. He ran out to tell the only acquaintance he had in the town about his good news. ¡°Hey Falk! Guess wha-¡± He stopped short when he saw his teacher was busy interacting with one of the regulars. ¡°Sorry I¡¯ll come back in a bit.¡± ¡°Hold up Brat I was just going to grab you. You¡¯ve seen Thera before, havencha?¡± Ben looked at the customer. It was hard to make out any details about them, they were a little shorter than himself and wearing a hooded robe and gave off a bit of an unapproachable vibe but they were definitely a frequent shopper here. The only distinguishing feature he could really see was a paper white hand grasping a new staff, which they would come in almost weekly to get. ¡°We¡¯ve never been properly introduced before, but I know they¡¯re your favourite customer. Nice to meet you, I¡¯m Ben.¡± Ben had never paid them much mind beyond wondering how they afforded to replace their equipment so much. He offered them his hand but not even giving it a second look they turned away from him and back to Falk. ¡°What''s this about uncle?¡± Uncle? His favourite customer is his niece and he didn¡¯t tell his wonderful student about this? What a no-good teacher. No being right right now Myriad I¡¯m being upset she ignored my super friendly greeting. ¡°What this is about is that I¡¯ve gotten a job I can¡¯t turn down so I won¡¯t be able to make you any staves for a while. For the next couple months I¡¯ll be leaving it to my apprentice.¡± ¡°What? Okay sure, I guess making a staff a week won¡¯t hurt.¡± ¡°The staves I make can last a week.¡± He stressed. ¡°You¡¯ll be making one or two a day.¡± ¡°Jesus Christ! What do you do with them?¡± He asked Thera. He had made a few staves already and was told they should be fine to sell, how could they only last a day? ¡°That''s not my name, and I¡¯m an adventurer, equipment breaks.¡± she said with an air of dismissal. ¡°Thera has more mana and less control than a staff can handle, they shatter after a week.¡± ¡°Uncle! He doesn¡¯t need to know that.¡± ¡°He will if he¡¯s going to be adventuring with you.¡± ¡°What!¡± Both Ben and Thera yelled in tandem. ¡°Falk, I''m not an adventurer, I''m a craftsman. If I¡¯m trying to make her a good quality staff a day when am I going to have time to practice other things if I also have to adventure with her?¡± ¡°And why should I have to work with someone who even you think is a pain in the ass uncle?¡± ¡°Wait what? What terrible things are you saying about your wonderful apprentice behind my back?¡± ¡°Well first off I¡¯m usually saying it right in front of you, you''re just too absorbed in your work to notice. As for why you should do it Ben, I won¡¯t be charging you for any supplies you take to make her staves. She gets them for free but I¡¯ll still give you the regular pay you would be getting for her work so it¡¯s a good deal for you. As for you young lady, I know you haven¡¯t been partying with anyone recently and you know that isn¡¯t part of the deal. Party with my apprentice and I won¡¯t be telling your parents.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°...Fine.¡± She unhappily agreed. ¡°Not fine. Falk I¡¯m all well and good for making the staves but like I said I¡¯m no adventurer, you know I don¡¯t have a single useful skill. Why should I put myself at risk?¡± ¡°Boy don¡¯t act like I don¡¯t know that you hunt something once or twice a week, I¡¯m the bastard you¡¯ve been selling your catches to.¡± ¡°Sure trapping things is fine but hunting with a proper adventurer is completely different. I won''t be able to keep up.¡± Myriad asked If this girl has so much raw power that she keeps blowing up staves then yeah I should be fine. I just want to see how much more I can get from my dear teacher. Falk for his part seemed to have caught on quick to what Ben was doing. ¡°Alright what do you want Brat?¡± No point beating around the bush then. ¡°Two things. Use of the workshop when you¡¯re done for the day so I can stay late and practice, as well as the rights to use whatever scraps are left from making her staves.¡± ¡°The workshop I can do, but how do I know you aren¡¯t going to use a small piece of something and take the rest of it as scrap?¡± ¡°Alright let''s define it then. Any leftovers the size of my fist or smaller are mine for the taking, and I won¡¯t use materials specifically to get the leftovers. Sounds good?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll agree if it¡¯s items we have in steady supply, I can¡¯t very well be giving away any of the rarer materials willy nilly.¡± ¡°Deal.¡± ¡°Alright I can¡¯t imagine what you''re going to use some small scraps for, but don¡¯t make too much of a mess with them. And since I¡¯m leaving her safety in your hands make sure you improve your skills.¡± ¡°That''s what I originally came in here to tell you actually! My crafting leveled up!¡± Now that he thought about it, he leveled up while making a staff, and he¡¯d been made to make quite a lot recently. Falk must have been planning this for a while. ¡°While on the topic.¡± His new partner interrupted. ¡°What skills do you have? Anything that will be useful while hunting?¡± ¡°Nothing too flashy, just got low levels in crafting, enchanting, focus, stealth, and dismantling.¡± ¡°...You really don¡¯t have much at all. Uncle how exactly am I supposed to party with him?¡± ¡°He¡¯s clever, you¡¯ll be fine. Why not let him know your skills and you can meet here tomorrow to start taking a few quests.¡± She turned back to Ben and although he couldn¡¯t grasp any expressions because of her cloaked figure he got the distinct feeling she was unhappy. ¡°All you need to know is I have earth magic, nothing else is relevant. I¡¯ll be here an hour after sunrise. Don''t be late.¡± With all said and done she quickly left the shop, not having anything left to discuss. Ben turned to Falk, looking at him expectantly. ¡°What?¡± ¡°You never told me your favourite customer was your niece. Or that you had a niece in town for that matter.¡± ¡°Well first that''s because it''s none of your business, but she calls me that because I¡¯m a long-time family friend. Me and her parents go way back.¡± ¡°Okay then, and will you still be around or is this job going to be taking you away? I¡¯m hoping you¡¯ll still be able to give my work a look over, even if you don¡¯t have time to instruct me.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be around most of the time, may have to disappear for a few weeks towards the end of the project but you should be pretty competent in your skills by then. For now show me what you¡¯ve made.¡± At his instruction Ben ran back to his forge to grab the staff he had just finished and brought it back to Falk for an evaluation. He looked it over for a minute before giving his opinion. ¡°Turned out pretty well. It''s upper common.¡± Ben threw his hands in the air and gave a cheer. Ever since he had learned how to incorporate alchemy into his blacksmithing his works had gone from being consistently lower common with the occasional middle if he was extra lucky to getting mostly middle common with the occasion upper, and every upper was worth celebrating since it meant they could sell for a higher price. ¡°Don¡¯t be too happy brat. There are a lot of areas you could still improve on, and the jump from upper common to lower uncommon is still a big one.¡± ¡°Yeah I know, but I can already see how I can improve the next time. I didn¡¯t mix in the bone paste thoroughly enough for one, so there''s probably some inconsistency in the rod, and I shouldn''t have heated it as much either when I was forging it. That must have damaged the structure of the material in some small ways.¡± ¡°Well it''s at least good that your eyes have improved some with your level at least, now go home and sleep, this should be good enough for her to use tomorrow.¡± With a wag of his finger Ben told him off. ¡°Nope, I¡¯ll be here for a bit later.¡± ¡°And what exactly do you mean by that?¡± ¡°Did you already forget? I get use of the workshop when we close for the day.¡± ¡°You meant immediately?¡± ¡°No time like the present. Besides, I want to see how having level two in crafting changes things¡± Falk let out a long sigh and walked to the counter before coming back, throwing a key at Ben. ¡°Here, don¡¯t lose it and lock up when you¡¯re done.¡± With that Falk walked off and Ben went to the storage room, looking at everything there that he previously couldn¡¯t touch. ¡°Oh yeah, this is going to be fun.¡± CH13- Theras perspective Thera woke up unhappy. Frankly she had been angry since the previous night, having been forced into partying with some random man just because she didn¡¯t have anyone else to adventure with at the moment. No matter how much gratitude she had for her uncle or how much she respected his opinion she would still much rather be going out by herself until she found a real adventurer she could work with. Still she would need staves, and if this was how she was going to get them then so be it. She would just treat it as if she were adventuring alone and hope whatever his name was could manage himself. She ate a quick breakfast with her aunt as the sun was rising and walked over to Falk''s shop, prepared to meet with her temporary companion, but saw nobody waiting outside so she went in. Her uncle was sweeping and dusting the place, as he always did to try and keep it presentable. ¡°Good morning Uncle, where¡¯s this boy I¡¯m stuck with?¡± She couldn¡¯t keep the annoyance from her voice. ¡°Mornin¡¯ Thera, he¡¯s just behind the counter. Wake him up and you can be on your way.¡± ¡°What?¡± She wasn¡¯t immediately sure what he meant by that but walked around the counter to see him asleep on the floor, one light blanket over him and another rolled under his head. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious.¡± ¡°Nearly stepped on him myself when I got in, but it looked like he had had a long night. Figured I¡¯d let the brat relax a bit before you got here.¡± She gave a loud sigh, even more unimpressed than she had been previously, and grabbed the staff Falk had given her yesterday. It was a bit longer than her arm, and nice and solid. Seeing as how it would be the last one she got from Falk for a while it seemed a waste, but she used it to poke at the boy''s face until he woke up. ¡°Uhhg. was that really necessary.¡± He asked, massaging his jaw. ¡°I told you we were leaving an hour after sunrise, it¡¯s not my fault you weren¡¯t up for it. Grab what you need and let''s go already.¡± ¡°Sure, sure give me a minute.¡± he walked into the back rooms to splash some water on his face and grabbed three staves and a bag. ¡°So what''s the plan for the day?¡± She eyed them, unable to help but be a little curious about how they turned out, before answering. ¡°We¡¯re going to the adventurers guild, now come on and hurry up.¡± She hurried over to the adventurers guild with him and went over to the front desk where they were greeted by an employee, the faceless hominid Onk. ¡°Morning Thera, oh and you''re with Ben! I didn¡¯t know you two knew each other.¡± Right, his name¡¯s Ben, I guess I should at least try and remember that. Wait how does he know Onk? ¡°I thought you said you weren''t an adventurer?¡± ¡°Well I¡¯ve joined the guild but I¡¯m not really.¡± He responded, shifting around awkwardly. Onk stepped in to explain on his behalf. ¡°Oh he just joined to use our books to learn about the resources in the area. A little unusual but there''s no rules against it.¡± Didn¡¯t uncle say something about buying materials he hunted? Maybe I¡¯m just remembering wrong. ¡°Well unfortunately I¡¯m forced to party with him for a while. Can you find something you think we could handle?¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Hmm, Ben I have to say I don¡¯t think this is a good idea. Have you developed any combat skills in the past few months?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t but this is the will of my teacher. For the next little while I¡¯ll be in charge of making her equipment so do you think you could give us an easy quest for now so we could see how what I already made her works out?¡± ¡°Well if it can¡¯t be avoided then I guess that''s that. Thera I know you usually try one rank 6 quest a day, but for now I would recommend you accept rank 7 hunting quest. Right now I would say to try and find some scrells. There isn¡¯t a minimum quantity, we pay by the kill, and there''s no time limit for it so just hunt what you can while you get used to working with Ben okay?¡± She had already been unhappy, and now she had to take quests below her level. ¡°Fine. what do they look like and where have they been spotted.¡± Surprising her though, Ben spoke up to answer. ¡°They¡¯re typically in the western part of the forest, about a forty-minute walk up along the river.¡± ¡°How do you know that?¡± ¡°All the monsters in the area are written in the archives.¡± ¡°He¡¯s quite the voracious reader.¡± Onk chimed in. ¡°Fine then, we¡¯ll take it. Come on let''s go.¡±
They walked in silence as they left the town, Ben leading the way. They didn''t talk for most of the trip and Thera would have been happy to keep it like that if her curiosity didn''t get the best of her. "What are you doing?" Ever since they left the town Ben had been picking up handfuls of rocks and twigs, stared at one for a while, then dropped it and moved on to the next, all seemingly for no reason. "Oh this? Falk told me there was no real point in training my enchanting with him until I raised it another level or two since my skill was still too low to do anything more than just apply skill effects or use basic enchanting spells on it, so when I get the chance I practice applying them until the enchantments break and damage the material." At that he gestured to the stone in his hand and gave it a small squeeze, causing it to crumble to dust. "I only learned that enchanting actually has spells associated with it a little while ago beyond just applying skills you already have. Unfortunately, they end up being weaker than any equivalent skill that could be applied but beggars can''t be choosers." "But why sticks and stones? Surely better quality material could hold more enchantments." "Do you have any idea how expensive that would be? I''m already barely making enough to cover my living costs, gotta pinch every penny I can.¡± ¡°Is that why you wanted any scraps you could get from my uncle?¡± ¡°Well that''s one reason for sure, but really it''s just for any general practice. Getting free leftovers is going to net me plenty of materials I normally couldn¡¯t afford, even if the quantities are small. It should be all sorts of fun seeing what I could do with them.¡± There was a smile plastered on his face as Thera watched him ramble on about various things he wanted to try, and she started to just tune him out. He seemed passionate at least and she couldn¡¯t help but be a bit envious of having blessed skills that he actually enjoyed. Her thoughts darkened as she thought about her own. Having earth magic wasn¡¯t so bad, even if her level with it was low, but as for the other one¡­ ¡°But don¡¯t let me ramble on by myself, tell me a bit about yourself Thera.¡± Ben asked, pulling her away from her thoughts. Still her life was private. Not something she would just share. ¡°There''s nothing to tell. I left my family a year ago to see a bit of the world and improve my magic, that''s all.¡± ¡°Do anything for fun?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°God I hope that''s not true, it''s good to have some excitement in life.¡± ¡°I question how exciting a craftsman''s life could be.¡± His smile cracked and for a second Ben wore a truly sad expression before bouncing back. ¡°Oh you may be surprised. Never know when something unexpected may happen.¡± She wanted to ask what he meant and was a little worried she offended him before but chose to say nothing. It was never a good idea to get too close to anyone she partied with. They walked in silence for a while longer before Ben stopped. ¡°Alright, this should be the general area we need to start looking.¡± CH14 Once they arrived at their destination Ben set out what he was thinking. ¡°The staff you currently have is the last one Falk gave you right? You should probably save it for emergencies. For now do you mind trying the ones I made and tell me how they feel?¡± She looked at her staff hesitantly before stringing it over her back and grabbing the one Ben was offering and gave it a look over. "The design is pretty plain and it feels rough, are you sure it will hold up?" "No clue, but that''s the one I finished before my level went up, the two I made after should be better." She raised the staff in front of her and concentrated, forcing mana through it to bring together her spell. Ben watched in anticipation, anxious to see whatever she would bring forth. He had seen a few smaller acts of magic in his months here, but it looked like she was preparing something big. All at once the ground shook as chunks of earth were pulled from it and coalesced into a rough ball in front of her, about two meters in diameter. With a swing of her staff the ball flew¡­ for a couple meters, before falling to the ground and collapsing back into loose dirt. It was a little disappointing but when he turned back to her the problem became obvious. Towards the end of the spell the staff had shattered into slivers of metal. "Useless." Her frank evaluation hurt a little, but there was no mistake his work didn''t live up to the task. "So the first one didn''t work out, we still have two more." He told her with forced cheer. "Maybe you could use a smaller spell this time? We shouldn''t need something like that for hunting scrells. "I can''t," she muttered under her breath. "Sorry what?" He hoped he misheard her, but that dream was dashed. "That''s as small of a spell as I can do okay! Have a problem with that?" she yelled at him angrily. He couldn''t even notice how defensive she was with how much was going through his head. That''s as small as she can make it? Is that what they meant when they were talking about how much mana she has? Hey Myriad are you around? What am I supposed to do about this? "Mind showing me what you can do without a staff so I have a reference." He asked, hoping Myriad was wrong. To his relief she started gathering her power without argument, though she looked unhappy about it, and started to use her magic. Loose dirt tens of meters around them rose into the air. Then promptly fell to the ground again. "...Was that it?" "Got a problem with that?" "Nope, just thinking is all." Do you think either of the other staves will work? The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Not reassuring. "Okay I have to ask, how many shots would you say you get off with Falk''s staves before they break?" ¡°...I don¡¯t see any relevance to the question.¡± She¡¯s trying to avoid answering. Myriad was trying to be optimistic but Ben heard the edge of worry in his voice. ¡°My first staff didn¡¯t even really let you finish a spell. If my teacher thinks I should be able to make you something that would last a day or two I need to know what the expected number of shots should be.¡± She looked away, clearly not wanting to have this conversation. Ben did his best to contain a long sigh and continued. ¡°Look Thera, I¡¯m going to be doing my absolute best to make you the best product I can. They may not meet the standard you¡¯re used to, but I want to at least know how much I need to improve if I¡¯m going to meet my teacher''s expectations. To do that I need you to work with me, I won¡¯t judge.¡± ¡°...Fine, but keep it to yourself. About fourteen or twenty.¡± I¡¯m keeping my face straight right? Doesn''t look like I¡¯m about to scream or anything? ¡°Let''s say twenty then. Are you going out to hunt seven days a week?¡± ¡°Six. I take one day off to relax.¡± ¡°Okay so then let''s say I need to get my staves to a quality where they can last about three shots a day. Does Falk know you only get about twenty uses out of each staff?¡± Again she just fidgeted about and tried to avoid the question, which was all the answer Ben needed. ¡°Got it. Alright we¡¯re having a change of plans, try out the last two staves then we¡¯re heading back. I¡¯m going to need to experiment a little to make something that will work better.¡± ¡°But we haven¡¯t even hunted anything yet!¡± ¡°Are you that short on money?¡± ¡°Money isn¡¯t the issue. We¡¯ll never get our adventurer rank up if we don¡¯t hunt consistently.¡± It looked like her greed leaned more towards prestige than wealth, and Ben was going to have none of it. ¡°If the staves I¡¯ve already made can¡¯t hold up through one spell then you aren¡¯t going to be able to hunt anything anyway. Just let me watch you fire your spells and I¡¯ll hopefully have something a bit more usable in the next week.¡± She couldn¡¯t argue the fact that they probably wouldn¡¯t have any success anyway, but she was still far from happy about the turn of events. Still, she did as she was asked and grabbed the next staff, a wooden one wrapped in a metal wire treated with hontar blood, and prepared the same spell as before. She began using her magic and again had a large ball of earth floating in front of them before sending it flying, this time getting about ten or fifteen meters before crashing to the ground, the staff shattering in her hand. ¡°Well that was an improvement at least, does wood act as a better conductor of earth magic, or could the strengthening properties of the hontar blood have kept it together for longer? Either way, try the final one then let''s get out of here.¡± She dropped the remaining fragments of the last staff and grabbed the final one, Ben''s personal favourite. This was another metal one, but it had a soft blue glow to it from a reaction between the copper it was made with and some nightmare bone. ¡°Why does it look like this?¡± She asked, hesitant to use the mysterious item in her hands. ¡°Since I was allowed to use anything I tried experimenting with some of the more unusual materials in the shop. I gotta say, I¡¯m real happy with how it turned out.¡± ¡°It looks a little evil.¡± Hands grasping at his heart he tried to put aside her words. ¡°That''s probably the best staff I¡¯ve made to date. If we take the materials I used into account then I would say it''s more valuable than any staff an average rank six would be using. Well, I guess you¡¯re used to using exceptional staves but I¡¯m still really, really- OW FUCK.¡± CH15 He fell to the ground in immense pain, initially not sure what had happened, though looking down at his leg the cause became clear to see. About the size of a cat with three eyes and a mouth that took up most of its face, a screll had sunk its razor-like teeth into the flesh of his calf. Though the target of their quest had come to them, it wasn¡¯t anything to be happy about. The reason such a creature was asked to be hunted was because they were entering a dry season which also happened to be their breeding season, and scrells were known for possessing a weak fire magic. Usually not enough to do anything, but in a time of year when there was little rain the chances of a forest fire spiked drastically. It made keeping their population low a priority around this time. That may make them sound incredibly dangerous, but in reality they would usually pose no more threat than the cats they resemble. That''s only if they don¡¯t get their teeth into you of course. Ben for his part, lacking in luck, had the small beast latched onto him, its teeth heating up to cook the flesh they were digging into. He reached down to try and pull the creature away but the moment he grabbed at it, it ended up securing four sets of claws into him as well. Latching on in such a way that he wouldn¡¯t be able to get it off without taking some large chunks of flesh as well. Thera personally was less worried about keeping his skin where it belonged. Using the last staff he had provided she swung back with it, batting the creature in the skull and with a sickening crunch sent it flying along with about a couple golf ball''s worth of meat from his leg. Blood pouring from his calf, Ben took some deep breaths, trying to calm himself down and get his pain under control. The moment this stopped being about hunting and became focused on seeing the staves performance he should have tried to move to a safer area, he just hadn¡¯t been thinking. It could have been worse but now that he got his blood all over the place they needed to get out of there and back to town. ¡°Thanks for the save. Mind giving me a hand back?¡± He asked, trying to keep the pain from leaking into his voice as he reached up a hand towards her. Thera barely even looked at him, instead handing over her staff. ¡°Use this as a crutch and let''s head back to town to get you treated.¡± He took it and forced himself up. The staff was barely long enough to act as a cane but he could tell from her attitude it would have to do.
The walk back was longer than the walk there. To Thera''s credit she didn''t leave him behind and she kept checking on him as they went, she just didn''t support him at all as he stumbled along, heavily relying on the staff as he lost blood till they made it to the front gate. "Gods below, you aren''t looking too good boy, are you both okay?" A gatekeeper was quick to ask when seeing Ben''s state. "Nothing that a healer can''t fix." He was quick to reply. "Except I¡¯m not sure I can''t really afford a healer can I? Hey Thera mind using the last staff to dig a hole in the ground? I''ll crawl in and you can bury me, we''ll save everyone some hassle." Even if he was kidding she was not impressed. "You aren''t going to die. Wait with the guard and I''ll get some help" She said before running off. "I was serious about not being able to afford a healer!" He yelled after her before collapsing to the ground. When they left the forest he quickly wrapped his leg in a strip of shirt to try and keep the bleeding down but he still experienced a steady amount of blood loss on the walk back. Now that he was at least back at the town he took off his make do bandage to inspect the damage. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. On the more positive side the biggest wound wasn''t bleeding quite as badly as he thought it would. On the negative side it''s because the muscle was slightly cooked, and every movement of his leg sent pain through it. Just walking back had been torture. As he laid against the gate trying to ignore his body he heard the sound of feet slapping against stone and turned to see Falk running towards him with Thera trailing behind. "Brat what the hell happened to you?" The giant of a man yelled. "Just a bit of carelessness biting me in the butt is all. Well biting me in the leg actually. I''ll be more careful next time." He joked as a wave of dizziness assaulted him. "Fine, we''ll talk about it later. Let''s just get you to a clinic." "I wasn''t joking when I said I don¡¯t know if I can afford one before." "We both know the owner, the cost won''t be too bad." Thera said, staring at the bloody mess that was his leg. "Can you stand?" "Give me a minute." He tried to get up but immediately stumbled and would have fallen if Falk hadn''t been there to steady him. When his teacher saw that Ben would be struggling for the entire way he scooped him up in his arms. "Falk you old gentleman, I bet the ladies love this." "Boy don''t make me drop you." "Please no, keep carrying me in your big strong arms." He joked, feeling the blood loss catch up to him as his consciousness drifted away.
"I really shouldn''t make it a habit to wake up in strange rooms," He said to himself as he regained consciousness. He wasn''t expecting a response but a voice spoke up from beside him. "Oh you''re finally awake! Won''t Thera be thrilled." Turning to look at the speaker, Ben would have mistaken her for being human. She was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her thirties with pale skin and long black hair. The only things that set her apart from his own race were cat-like pupils and a long, thin, leathery black tail coming up from her waist and holding a cup to her mouth. Still groggy he had to ask. "Where am I? What happened?" "You ended up losing a lot of blood on the way back and passed out. I''m one of the town''s healers, Sonya. My niece and Falk ran you to me. I have to say healing you was a pain, took most of the day. Falk warned me your life resistance was way too high but I haven''t had to put in this much effort since I first started training in healing magic." His leg was feeling noticeably better and when he sat up he could see the skin was smooth and healed. He could also see he was no longer wearing pants so he grabbed a blanket to tastefully cover himself. "Thank you, I really really appreciate the help. Awkward side note though, I already mentioned to Falk and Thera I don¡¯t know if I can afford the treatment," It wasn''t strictly true, he had money saved for living expenses and since he found employment with Falk right after leaving the church he hadn''t spent too much of the money they had given him, but it was still slowly decreasing. He didn¡¯t know how expensive it could be since he never looked into it too deeply, but paying for a healer could end up putting a far bigger dent in his savings than he would like. "You don''t have to worry about it, Falk said he would cover the costs and I''m an old friend of his anyway, I wouldn''t charge his first apprentice too much." "What a softy," His teacher was already being far more accommodating than he led on at first, and now this? He would have to give the man some proper gratitude. "He really is, just don''t say it to his face. And don''t mention that I said he''s covering your costs, he didn''t want you knowing." "Man, for how gruff he acts, he''s too nice of a guy." "He''s an absolute sweetheart,¡± She agreed happily as she smiled down at him. ¡°Now you should be good to go, you were asleep for most of the day. Just let me grab Thera for you." "Wait you don''t have to-" But she was already gone. CH16 He took the moment of privacy to slip on his clothes that had been moved to his bedside before Thera walked in. "Oh hey," He said, awkwardly buttoning his pants. Before he could think of whatever he should say she was bowing at him. "I''m sorry. If I had told you about my magic earlier then you wouldn''t have been hurt the forest." "What? Don''t worry about it. I should have asked more questions before we left, and it''s my fault for not paying attention. I''m usually a bit more careful, I swear." They stood in silence for a moment longer, both feeling awkward and not knowing what to say before Thera spoke up. "Should we go report the kill to the guild? It may have only been one but I guess it will be the last we can do until you make me a new staff." "Sure, sounds good." As they were leaving Ben realized he hadn¡¯t been brought to a clinic, but to their actual home, and then wandered into the guild. Onk was still at the counter and gave them both a friendly greeting when they went in. "Back already? How did the hunt go?" "Not ideal," Thera told them, neglecting to mention the specific events of their hunt. "We only got one," A small problem came to Ben''s mind. "Wait, we didn''t bring the body. How are we supposed to prove we killed one?" "I guess this is your first quest Ben, you don¡¯t need to bother bringing any remains unless there is a specific request for them. Now here, both of you give me your cards. Whenever you hunt something after you''ve joined the guild can inspect them for what you''ve hunted and how much you contributed. Thera it looks like you got 70 percent of the kill." Ben came to a realization as they were giving their explanation and he wasn''t sure he wanted to deal with the outcome of it. "Hey you can give mine back. I don''t really care about raising my rank at all." "Nonsense, it''s important to do this to ensure everyone gets proper credit for their work. Now¡­ this can''t be right," Onk muttered as Thera looked between them both, a little confused by Ben''s sudden awkwardness and Onks change in demeanor. "Ben, you have a lot of unreported kills," If they had a face Ben was sure Onk would be staring a hole through him. "I thought you said you were just going out to gather supplies." "I mean technically monsters are supplies." He told them with his most innocent look. "There''s a few dozen on here¡­ and your first kill was an Amarok! I thought you didn''t have any combat skills?" "I don''t, I just made some traps is all. Blame my teacher, he was insistent that I hunt one if he was going to take me on." "Wait, how much did he contribute to hunting an Amarok?" Thera cut in. "100 percent. He managed it without help." He couldn''t tell why, but he could hear a lot of unhappiness in their voice. "Um, is that a problem?" "It''s not exactly a problem per se. It''s just, it may cause you some issues later is all." "Wait, why?" "You''ve successfully hunted enough powerful monsters to be moved up a rank. Ordinarily, this would be a matter of congratulations but ranking up also comes with its own added responsibilities. Namely that you''ll now have to participate in any emergency quests. There aren''t many that have happened that would take rank sixes, normally that''s reserved for rank fives at the lowest, but it can happen. This regularly wouldn¡¯t be a big deal, any emergency request can be dangerous but the only time lower ranks are included is if it''s something they should be able to manage or if it¡¯s expected everyone would die either way. The issue is that without any combat skills even the safer ones could leave you at risk. You could always revoke your rights as an adventurer, but then you would no longer get access to the archives.¡± ¡°Ah well, I¡¯ll keep being an adventurer for now, that''s not too bad after all. Aren¡¯t we expecting the world to be invaded in a few years? Seems a bit silly to worry about any other emergencies in the meantime.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure if that''s a positive or extremely negative way of looking at things,¡± They said while handing back his card. ¡°It just is what it is,¡± He told them, glancing at his card and about to put it away before having to do a double-take. ¡°Hey I think you made a mistake, you added a lot of money to my account.¡± ¡°No mistake. An Amarok is considered a rank five monster and you¡¯ve killed a few rank six as well. Even without the money you would have received if there had been requests for them it still gets you a reasonable amount of income.¡± It looked like a couple months of casual hunting was enough to let him live for about a week even if there weren''t requests, so long as what he hunted was judged to be a great enough threat to public safety. It wasn''t enough to live off of or make Ben want to start hunting full time, but now that he knew, it would be a good way to make a little extra pocket money. Especially considering he would have to hunt for materials anyway. ¡°Cool okay then, hey Thera wanna grab a bite before going back to Falk''s?¡± Jerking her head when she heard her name, her mind had clearly been wondering. ¡°Why would we? And why are we going to uncle''s shop?¡± ¡°Um, we¡¯re working together now, it doesn¡¯t hurt to get better acquainted. We have to go back to the shop anyway if I¡¯m going to start on your new staff.¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°You¡¯re starting already? We only just got you treated.¡± He gave a shrug. ¡°Yeah but I''m fine now, may as well work. So food?¡± ¡°Not interested. Let''s hurry back then.¡± ¡°Your loss.¡± They left the guild and on the way Ben stopped to grab some skewers from a cart. He still tried to offer one to Thera but she recoiled from him as he got too close with it. Damn was it something I said? He was a little hurt but he was only a temporary partner after all. Maybe she just didn¡¯t want to bother getting close to someone she wouldn¡¯t be working with for long. When they went into the shop they were immediately greeted by an angry Falk. ¡°Damn it brat! How did you get yourself injured on your first hunt with my niece? And from a screll no less? You¡¯ve never brought me any materials from a monster that weak before, but one managed to take you out?¡± ¡°Sorry Falk, I got distracted trying to figure out how to make some better items, the ones I currently made just couldn¡¯t stand up to Theras power.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t give me that. I¡¯ve seen what you¡¯ve made boy, they wouldn¡¯t break on her first couple spells.¡± ¡°It¡¯s my fault,¡± Thera spoke up. ¡°I haven¡¯t been strictly truthful with you uncle. While your staves last me a week or two it''s because I only use them a couple times a day.¡± He pinched the bridge of his nose. ¡°Only that many? Why didn¡¯t you¡­ No never mind. If I had known I would have made you sturdier ones.¡± ¡°You can do that?¡± She asked, surprised. ¡°Of course, who do you think I am? I¡¯ve given you some weaker ones to help you practice regulating your power. Still if that''s the case then Ben won¡¯t be able to make anything worthwhile, but I¡¯m still too busy. What to do?¡± ¡°Boss, if it''s all the same to you I want to keep trying.¡± They both seemed surprised for a moment but Falk was quick to recover. ¡°Why would you want to do that boy? Interested in seeing all of your hard work blow up each day.¡± ¡°It just seems like good practice is all. I don¡¯t want to quit just because something is a bit challenging.¡± Falk put on a thoughtful look for a second before giving an answer. ¡°Alright then, suit yourself. Saves me the trouble of finding someone else at least.¡± With that done Ben spent the rest of his day at the forge, experimenting with materials to try and make something that would work.
¡°Can you try a little harder to not get yourself killed? Dying to one of the weaker rank seven monsters would just be embarrassing.¡± ¡°Hey Myriad, show a bit more enthusiasm that your favourite worshipper is in good health would you.¡± ¡°I would be happier if you didn''t nearly die in such a dumb way.¡± ¡°Cut me some slack, that was pretty dangerous for a rank 7 animal wasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Most animals on the planet are dangerous, they¡¯re either the ones that lived here when the lands were primitive and savage before environmental changes could make a softer world or they came with the refugees, usually as a result of some god just scooping up a pile of land and bringing it here. Weren¡¯t you warned that leaving the protection of a town carries some dangers?¡± ¡°I guess. So I got my butt kicked by some weakling then.¡± ¡°Only comparatively. When weighed against anything from Earth it could be considered pretty dangerous at least, but that''s not why I brought you here. Given recent events I¡¯ve decided to speed things along. It¡¯s ready.¡± ¡°Really!¡± Ben felt his eyes light up and his face pull into an excited grin. He had been waiting for this for a while and it was finally happening. ¡°Yep, technically it¡¯s unfinished but hopefully that works in our favour. Plus you spent a lot of time praying for the pain to go away when your leg got mangled so as your patron god I¡¯m in pretty good form at the moment. Now come place your hand on me.¡± He didn¡¯t really need to be reminded of what happened earlier anymore but he did what he was told and placed his hand on top of Myriad''s cool metallic form when a voice rang out in his mind. After months of waiting, worshipping Myriad had finally paid off and he got a gift skill from his god. It only left a question. ¡°What does it actually do?¡± The name didn¡¯t really give many hints and he wanted to test it out as fast as possible. ¡°It lets you connect to other living things by touching them. At low levels you will probably only be able to access feelings instead of any thoughts, but practice it and you¡¯ll get there.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°What? Got something to say?¡± ¡°No no, this is cool and all, it''s just a little...underwhelming I guess? Why would you leave a skill like this unfinished anyway?¡± ¡°Underwhelming? Here I am slaving over some hot magic and soul bits for months to put this together and you''re underwhelmed? You¡¯re literally the first creature in this world to have this skill, couldn¡¯t you be a bit more excited about it?¡± He could feel the indignation coming off of his god in waves for a moment before he seemed to calm down and answer his question. ¡°Anyway, if I overdevelop it the skill will be more¡­ fixed in the way it grows with time. Leaving it a little unfinished gives the world itself some room to make it more flexible. I¡¯m hoping that will let you do some things my kind weren¡¯t able to.¡± ¡°Oh? Like what?¡± ¡°Well, after your recent encounter if it could develop so it could be used without having to make physical contact that would be ideal. It wasn¡¯t a function of my own race but you would be able to use it as a sort of danger sense in that case and hopefully not die until you secure me some believers. Still, now it''s out of my hands so we¡¯ll just have to wait and see if such a convenient development occurs. Even still in its base form it¡¯s a skill I put a lot of work into making so none of this being underwhelmed nonsense,¡± He finished with a huff. ¡°Okay okay you¡¯re right. Sorry. Come here and let me test it out then.¡± Ben reached out his hand and approached his god, but Myriad flew back like a bullet. ¡°Hey, be careful with that thing! It may be okay to use it on a mortal or anything weaker than you, but at your current level you won¡¯t be able to control what gets in, using it on a god is likely to make your head explode.¡± ¡°...Noted.¡± He withdrew his hand, more than a little uncomfortable at how close he had come to another early death. "Still seems like a bit of an odd skill, how''s it related to your race then?" "It''s not that odd, we would just directly transfer information from our sub-brains by linking tentacles, it''s pretty efficient. I don''t know why more races don''t do it." "..." ¡°Anyway just make sure to practice it. I may have created the skill itself, but how it grows and changes is in the hands of you and the world.¡± He decided to put the information about his god''s race on hold for now. ¡°Alright will do, I guess I am a little curious about using a skill nobody has ever used before.¡± ¡°Excellent, now go have fun. It looks like you¡¯re about to wake up.¡± CH17 Once again the hard end of a staff was shoved into Ben''s delicate jaw. ¡°If you keep waking me like this I¡¯m going to bruise,¡± He told Thera as he cracked open his eyes. ¡°Then find somewhere better to sleep than the shop floor. Uncle, are you really okay letting him do this?¡± Falk gave a shrug. ¡°The boy cleans up well enough before he goes to sleep that I don¡¯t have to do much in the morning so it''s fine. How many staves did you manage to make then?¡± ¡°Just four, but I feel pretty good about the last two.¡± ¡°Alright, you two avoid the deep woods while you''re testing them, don¡¯t want a repeat of yesterday.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be careful uncle.¡± ¡°Actually before we leave I got a new skill I want to test out if you guys would give me a hand.¡± That caught both of their attentions. While getting new skills was common enough it was still an exciting event. ¡°Now how did you manage to get a new skill working away all night? It¡¯s not something like sleep resistance is it?¡± ¡°No, it was a gift skill from my god.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to be the pious type,¡± Thera chimed in. ¡°I¡¯m definitely not, I just give a prayer or two a day to keep on his good side,¡± Also admittedly a few while he was limping and bleeding, but he wasn¡¯t in the mood to bring that up again. ¡°Well then he must be fond of you brat, what''s the skill?¡± ¡°It¡¯s called connect. If I can take one of your hands it should let me link up with you and feel your emotions.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pass,¡± Thera had seemed interested up until she learned how it was used, but Falk for his part held out his hand. ¡°Alright brat let''s give it a go. Always exciting to see a skill I haven¡¯t heard of before.¡± Ben grabbed his teacher''s large hand and ran mana through his body, activating the skill. Immediately he was hit with two feelings, excitement and nervousness, and instantly knew they were coming from his teacher. They came at him so hard that it was a little overwhelming and apparently Falk felt the same way, breaking off the connection and taking a step back. ¡°Damn it lad you didn¡¯t mention it was a two-way connection. Go eat something from the back if you''re that hungry.¡± ¡°Oh sweet thanks,¡± Ben ran and grabbed a quick bar of jerky to chew on before coming back. ¡°So I was never told you would be able to feel my emotions too, or that hunger would count as an emotion, but still that was a neater experience than I thought it would be. I can¡¯t really see much use for it at the moment but I¡¯ll train it up a bit to see how it grows.¡± ¡°It would be rude to neglect a skill your god saw fit to give you, just so long as you don¡¯t ignore your work here, do what you want. Though I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be helping you with that a second time. Felt too weird.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Fair enough, how should I train it then?¡± ¡°Worry about that later.¡± Thera cut in. ¡°Let¡¯s go try these staves already.¡± Surprised but happy with her enthusiasm to try out his new works, they quickly went off to a field just outside of town that other adventurers and mages would go to train. ¡°Couldn¡¯t we go somewhere with a bit more privacy?¡± She asked him. ¡°Why? This is a designated training ground for this type of thing.¡± ¡°It''s just a bit embarrassing to have everyone see me fail at casting spells is all. Not to mention I know a few of the adventurers here¡­¡± ¡°Well if you aren¡¯t comfortable I guess we could venture a bit deeper into the woods, there are a lot of bugs in this area anyway.¡± He told her, slapping something off the side of his neck. She thought back to the events of the previous day and knew she had to make the responsible choice. ¡°No, I told Falk we wouldn¡¯t go into the woods. Let''s just get this over with and leave.¡± ¡°Alright, in that case let''s try the one you didn''t end up using yesterday and then move on to the next two.¡± She did as she was told, starting with the first staff and trying to make her earth bullets. For all three she was able to get it off the ground, and the first two even let her throw them a couple meters, while the last one shattered with the ball of dirt floating in front of her. ¡°Okay then, that went about as well as expected,¡± He said while Thera wiped away some dirt that blew all over her cloak and hood. ¡°Now for the next two. I have a lot of confidence at least one of these will work out.¡± She looked at the remaining two staves a bit dubiously. Unlike the others that looked mostly like traditional staves, if not a bit rough. These two were monsters. Just thick rods that would take at least two hands to wield with no way of being useful in an actual fight. ¡°Aren¡¯t these a bit too big?¡± ¡°They¡¯re just prototypes, as long as they work I should be able to scale the size down a bit. Come on try the first one.¡± Still hesitating and with a bit more effort than she was used to for lifting a staff, Thera lifted the first one and prepared her spell. She felt her mana pass through it and started lifting up the earth. It was going surprisingly well at first and she was starting to feel confident, but as she lifted her staff above her head, preparing to swing it with her magic, it exploded, far more violently than any staff had before, as slivers of metal and dust flew all around her. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Ben yelled, reaching out to her, but she jerked away from his hand. ¡°I¡¯m fine, that was just a little unexpected. What happened?¡± ¡°I was testing out a couple different ideas for the staves was all. The one you just used was made by layering different materials enchanted with varying levels of earth resistance. I put lower resistance in the center with a higher resistance on the outside so that must have caused a build-up of pressure while magic was passing through it. If you¡¯re okay let''s try the second one then.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not going to blow up too is it?¡± She asked, eyeing the rod suspiciously. ¡°For this one I did the opposite, giving it a resistant core that has progressively less resistance the closer to the outside it is, so probably not. Of course, I didn¡¯t expect the first one to blow up either so who¡¯s to say?¡± She was far from confident after hearing his answer but she would never get a working staff if she didn¡¯t try them. She once again picked it up and started to pass her magic through it. It felt harder than before, like more of her mana was being lost compared to when she would usually use the spell, and she thought her ball of earth was slightly smaller than usual as well. Still she managed to get her earth bullet prepared in front of her. She gave her rod a swing, and it was looking good, being thrown farther than any of her previous attempts, a good twenty meters, before it fell apart. She took a look at the staff in her hand. It was still intact, but only barely. Large cracks had formed throughout its surface, going down nearly to its core. But it hadn¡¯t shattered. Just to try she ran more mana through it to see if she could manage another spell, but that was more than it could handle and it fell apart in her hands. CH18 ¡°So I¡¯m on the right track then. I should be able to make it smaller no problem, but how will I get it sturdier? Is it just a question of what materials I use?¡± He looked up from his mutterings and turned to Thera. ¡°How did it feel to use? Was there any issues?¡± ¡°Nothing major, I was able to use that spell about as well as I can with Falk¡¯s staff.¡± ¡°That''s good, but you could only do it once. I would like you to at least get four uses out of it before it breaks to put me on par with what Falk thought I could do. I¡¯ll have to experiment with some of the materials in the shop, maybe try something that has natural earth resistance? Or should I try to make a better composite material?¡± ¡°Um, so you think you¡¯ll be able to make something stronger then?¡± ¡°Without a doubt, it¡¯s more of a question of how long it will take. For now let''s head back to the shop.¡± As they wandered back into town Ben decided it was time to ask a question that had been on his mind for a while now. ¡°So just to be clear, do you not like being touched in general or is it something about me in particular that bothers you?¡± ¡°What? Where did that come from?¡± ¡°I mean it¡¯s pretty obvious. Any time I¡¯ve come close you¡¯ve backed off immediately. It¡¯s not a problem or anything. I''ll totally respect your boundaries, I just want to know if it¡¯s because of me in particular.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not you, I just¡­ I¡¯m not one for physical contact. If you¡¯ll respect that then it¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°Alright cool,¡± A small load felt like it had been lifted from Ben''s mind. Everyone has their preferences, he was just happy to know it wasn¡¯t anything against him as a person. ¡°In that case, want to grab a bite?¡± ¡°I say I don¡¯t have a problem with you and your first thought is to make a move on me?¡± She responded, going on guard immediately. He raised his hands in defense of himself. ¡°Woah now, nobody¡¯s making a move on anybody, least of all my teacher''s niece. I just thought it would be nice to try and get along since we¡¯ll be working together for a while. I don¡¯t really know anyone in town aside from Falk.¡± She let out a long sigh at his response, it would be easier to reject him if he was trying to flirt instead of just wanting to make a friend. ¡°Look, you seem like a nice enough person but I¡¯m not looking to make any friends. All that does is complicate things.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± He responded with a smile, though inside he was more than a little crestfallen. He really didn¡¯t have much of an idea on how to meet people and currently his only social interaction was with Falk and Myriad. It would just be nice to have some more company outside of my head. Still, he was hungry anyway so he stopped at a food cart for a bowl of¡­ well it was something and the taste wasn¡¯t bad so it probably didn¡¯t matter, before scarfing it down and making it back to the shop. They greeted Falk and Ben went back to the storage room to grab some new materials. At this point he had a pretty good idea of the properties of what was around so he grabbed a few that seemed like they could be useful and got experimenting. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Thera had followed Ben back to the shop without much thought, but now that she was there she honestly wasn¡¯t sure why she had come. She had just finished telling him she wasn¡¯t interested in making friends and now here she was wasting her day hanging out with him. Well, it couldn¡¯t strictly be called hanging out. ¡°Does he always get so absorbed in his work, uncle?¡± The moment he grabbed everything he wanted from the storage room it was like nobody else was there. ¡°Why do you think he keeps falling asleep in the shop? Before I gave him a key I would always have to pull him from his work by nightfall or he wouldn¡¯t notice the time himself.¡± ¡°Seems like he needs a hobby.¡± ¡°He has his own problems just like you Thera, be nice to the boy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the one always calling him a brat,¡± She said, giving her uncle what he suspected would be a pointed look if her face wasn¡¯t covered. ¡°Bah, I do it with affection. He¡¯ll start to grow on you. So are you going to head back and help Sonya at the clinic or stick around for a bit?¡± ¡°There''s not really any reason to stay, I just thought I would say hi.¡± ¡°Well why not watch the boy work for a bit? You might enjoy it.¡± ¡°Why would I do that?¡± ¡°Let''s say it''s to teach you to appreciate the amount of work that goes into one of your staves. Besides I remember when you were a kid you¡¯d always fall asleep after watching me work for hours.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a child anymore,¡± She replied reflexively, before giving it a little more thought. ¡°But I guess it couldn¡¯t hurt to stay for a little at least.¡± Falk gave her a smile which she ignored and went to sit a little way from Ben. He really didn¡¯t notice she was there and she had to remember he had the focus skill, though she personally wasn¡¯t sure of its effects it seemed clear enough, and she had to wonder if he could tune out the world like that because he had the skill or if he had the skill because he was so naturally good at it. Whatever it was he was completely absorbed in his work, which at the moment entailed grinding a variety of horns and bones in a mortar and pestle into a fine powder. She remembered watching Falk do the same when she was younger and thought he had been able to do it a lot quicker, but then again her uncle¡¯s levels were probably a lot higher than Ben''s at the time, she shouldn¡¯t compare. He was thorough in his work though, not taking his eyes off each material until it reached his standards, before putting the finished powder into a bowl off to the side and starting on the next one. Once all of that was done he went to the forge and pulled out some metal bars he must have put into it before she had come over and started pounding it out into a flatter sheet, and sprinkled some of the powdered bone or claw onto it before folding it in on itself, pounding it down again, and adding more. The process repeated for six or seven more times, reheating as necessary before he was apparently satisfied with that particular sheet. It was left just outside the forge, but close enough that it would keep some of its heat. From there he repeated the processes again and again with different powders and different metals. Thera would be embarrassed to admit that Falk had been right, this really was reminding her of when she would watch him work as a child. Seeing Ben''s focus on his task helped the time flow by easily, it was at least more entertaining than helping clean for her aunt. Once all the metals were apparently done, at least in his eyes, he started to cut a few smaller strips from two of them while leaving the other three in their original state, and started to wrap one around the other, and then the next on top of it and so on, until he had something a bit more thick and stout than the staves he had given her to use earlier that day. When she saw what he¡¯d made she thought it was about done, that it would still be a while before he could get it any smaller and she would just have to get used to using a bulkier tool for a while, but he continued to process it. It was put back into the forge and once heated was hammered and rolled out, stretching the material in length. Once he had it a little longer than twice the length she would normally use, he hammered a wedge into the middle of it, breaking it in two before taking some time to round the ends off both into a nicer shape. With that done he took a second to appraise his work, before stopping and yelling. ¡°Ah god damn it!¡± CH19 And I would prefer if I hadn¡¯t just wasted a bunch of time. ¡°What''s wrong?¡± Thera asked him, and Falk came to the back as well after hearing him yell. ¡°Oh hey, I didn¡¯t realize you were still here. Nothing wrong, in fact it''s the opposite of wrong, it¡¯s good news. Just would have rather gotten it before starting on the new staves. My enchanting went up.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that great though?¡± She was a little vexed at his apparent unhappiness. In the few days she¡¯d known him his level went up for two separate skills, if only she could be so lucky. ¡°It is! It¡¯s fantastic. I just wish it happened before I started this is all.¡± ¡°Ha boy I get you. There isn¡¯t a craftsman alive who doesn¡¯t know the pain of working hard on something only to suddenly become able to do a better job at it after the fact,¡± Falk told him surprisingly sympathetically. ¡°Unfortunately it comes with leveling. Your greatest gains in improvement always come after your best work. Speaking of, may I?¡± Gesturing at the two staves at the forge, he clearly wanted a look and Ben was happy to comply. It never hurt to have his teacher''s opinion. As he gave one a quick appraisal Falk couldn¡¯t help but let out a low satisfied whistle. ¡°I gotta say boy, even if you¡¯re still learning a lot of the craft, you''re probably the only one who could make a staff like this at your level. It¡¯s a clever idea, though definitely unusable to anyone but Thera.¡± ¡°Wait, why?¡± Thera wanted to know. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong it looks fine and all, but what has you so impressed?¡± ¡°Ben, did you tell her at all how you enchanted the staff?¡± ¡°I mentioned it a bit when she tried out the prototype earlier today, though that one was bulkier and only used three layers.¡± ¡°Can you guys just tell me what you''re talking about?¡± She asked in some exasperation. Ben took the lead. ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything too crazy, I was just able to create a five layer gradient of earth resistance enchantments. I¡¯m pretty sure anyone could do it.¡± ¡°But there¡¯s only a handful of people who could do it like you boy,¡± He saw that Thera continued to not understand, so he went on to explain. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how much of his skills he¡¯s mentioned, but if he doesn¡¯t mind,¡± Ben gave him a quick okay. ¡°Alright, so one of the boys'' blessed skills is enchanting. Now regularly enchanting can only apply about 10% of any affinity or resistance for every level you have in it, but since his is blessed that means he can get 15%, or 30% total since he was level one. Now ordinarily that still wouldn¡¯t be a ton but the boy has some really good earth resistance. Just the core of the staff alone has a resistance of 24.¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Wait, that''s almost as good as my actual earth resistance?¡± ¡°Well with the level up he could make something even greater, around 36 I believe.¡± ¡°That¡¯s insane!¡± Falk had been right, she really needed to try and appreciate the work that went into one of the staves she could only get a few uses out of. Gods know she wouldn¡¯t have guessed it would take a resistance level that high just to make a staff she could use once. Ben for his part had something else on his mind. ¡°Come on now Falk, you know what I want to know.¡± His teacher let out a long sigh. ¡°Now boy, this here is really good work. You shouldn¡¯t let an appraisal get to you.¡± ¡°Aannd that means it¡¯s bad.¡± ¡°Huuh¡­ middle common.¡± ¡°Middle common! Not even upper? I don¡¯t want to say I thought it would make it into uncommon, but this is some of my best work!¡± ¡°Uncle, that does seem a bit low. What¡¯s the issue with it? Will it not work?¡± ¡°No it will work fine. Like I said, it¡¯s good work. The issue is that it¡¯s a specialized tool. Wait, I¡¯m not explaining this well, specialized tools don¡¯t get lower ratings, it¡¯s just a matter of how this particular one was specialized.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Ben asked, curious on where to improve. ¡°Let me show you, I have a bit of earth magic myself so let''s use a simple spell.¡± Falk held the staff in front of him and prepared his magic, forcing mana through the rod¡­ only for nothing to happen. ¡°Um, Falk? Are you going to show us?¡± ¡°Brat I am. To any ordinary earth mage this is literally worse than a stick. The small amount of mana I was able to channel through it couldn¡¯t even pull together a few grains of dust, let alone an actual ball of earth. It¡¯s a staff only Thera could use. Since it¡¯s basically useless unless someone has enough raw power to deal with it you¡¯re lucky to get mid common.¡± ¡°Man, that''s way too disappointing.¡± ¡°And that''s why I said not to worry about it. You¡¯re too caught up in some arbitrary evaluation. What really matters is if the item you¡¯ve made does the job the client needs.¡± ¡°Your right, your right.¡± Ben conceded before turning to Thera. ¡°Hey I¡¯m going to try and spend the rest of the day making some more staves with my new enchantment so hopefully we can have better luck tomorrow. Meet up just after sunrise as usual?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Okay sounds good, I¡¯ll see you then. Also Falk thanks for the advice I¡¯ll try not to let the ratings get to me.¡± ¡°Of course brat. If I¡¯m still here when you finish the next one come and grab me, I wouldn¡¯t mind giving it a look.¡± ¡°Sounds good,¡± With that he turned away from them both and got back to it. The next ones would be quicker at least since he still had some material prepped from his last batch. It was time to get to work. CH20 ¡°... What is this?¡± Thera asked as soon as she entered the shop in the morning. Ben was already awake this time, just putting the finishing touches on what looked like the sort of backpack one would usually use to carry wooden logs. It was basically just two metal bars in an ¡®L¡¯ shape attached together with a few leather straps to wear it, and it was filled with maybe a dozen staves. She turned to Falk for an explanation but he was in the corner staring on with a look of confusion and concern himself, not believing what he was seeing. ¡°What¡¯s the matter Thera?¡± Ben asked in his own confusion. ¡°How did you make all of these in one night? And you had time to make a carrier too?¡± ¡°Ha yeah I accidentally forgot to sleep, I¡¯ll just have to do it when we¡¯re done today. Anyway, making them all wasn¡¯t too hard. You saw yesterday right? The technique I was using let me stretch out the metals to make two when it was five layers, but when I tried to make a seven-layer one after leveling up it became three, and then I felt like I could push myself a bit more after that so I tried for nine layers as well and was also able to split it into three. I think I could still get a few more layers of resistance if I try but I¡¯m pretty sure after this I would need to raise my enchanting again to make it worthwhile, like sure it would make a smoother gradient but there isn¡¯t much difference if it starts at the same level you know? So instead I made another nine-layer one with different materials.¡± He was smiling the entire time he was talking, not giving the impression he hadn¡¯t gotten any sleep at all, but Thera didn¡¯t know how to react. In less than twenty-four hours he had made eleven staves, certainly it wouldn¡¯t be a big deal for someone like Falk, but he had only managed three or four the first two days he¡¯d started this. ¡°Boy, are you sure you¡¯re good to go out? It wouldn¡¯t do you any good to pass out.¡± Falk asked, a little worried. ¡°Nah I¡¯m all good, I¡¯ve pulled plenty of all-nighters before and we¡¯re just going to the training grounds. When we¡¯re done I¡¯ll get some sleep. Plus if we can get three shots out of any of them then not only can we go hunting tomorrow but I can devote only a day or two a week to making them and have plenty of time for other things. It¡¯s a win-win.¡± ¡°Huh, alright just don¡¯t go getting yourself killed then. Thera sorry but if he starts seeming a bit tired come back early alright.¡± ¡°Will do uncle, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be off then. I¡¯ll take a nap here when we¡¯re done and then get back to work,¡± Ben said while leaving the shop. They could both hear Falk yelling after him. ¡°Just go home!¡±
¡°Has your enchanting gotten that much better? You¡¯ve been staring at that rock forever.¡± The moment they got out of town, but before they reached the training grounds, Ben picked up a rock about twice the size of his fist to start his regular enchanting practice, but he had been fiddling with it the entire time without stopping to pick up a new one. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Oh yeah definitely. I¡¯m not actually just adding enchantments until it breaks this time, since my level went up I have a lot more options available.¡± ¡°So what are you doing then?¡± ¡°Since my level went up instead of just applying my enchantment evenly across the entire thing I can focus it into specific sections now. From what I read this usually actually works worse in a lot of cases because it can result in instability and weakness in poor quality materials or just erases the enchantment from better quality ones, but it lets me do things like this,¡± Saying this he held up his rock, and instead of breaking the entire thing he only scraped away a bit of the material with his fingers. ¡°So you don¡¯t break the entire thing now? Is that all?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t break the entire thing and now the rest of the material keeps its structure.¡± He rapped his knuckles against the rest of it before continuing. ¡°And now I can use my crafting at the same time to make the material a bit easier to manipulate so those sections will break faster.¡± ¡°Okay that''s neat and all. But why?¡± ¡°Well it was mostly just curiosity to see if I could, but since it looks like I can I figured this would be a good way to train both skills at once. Plus I feel like sculpting something and this is an easy and cheap way to go about it.¡± Ben was glad she started a bit of conversation, it seemed like the secret to getting her to talk was to spark her curiosity a bit so maybe he could finish sculpting something interesting by the time they were heading back, when she asked him another question. ¡°Why do you practice so much? ¡°What do you mean? I think I¡¯m doing this a pretty normal amount?¡± ¡°You¡¯re missing sleep and seem to use any spare moment to practice some more, if this is what''s normal for you then I don¡¯t think many others do quite this much.¡± ¡°Well, I mean, it¡¯s fun? Like aside from reading there really isn''t much else to do, and leveling up just feels fulfilling I guess? Don¡¯t you like practicing magic?¡± ¡°...I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Really? Then why do you do this? There has to be easier things you could do if you don¡¯t enjoy it.¡± ¡°The worlds going to be at war in a couple years. Growing up my father would often talk about the death of his world and I just don¡¯t want the same thing to happen here without fighting.¡± ¡°I guess that makes sense, we¡¯re all in this together,¡± Even if the average person was still reasonably comfortable and enjoying their day-to-day life, the fact that could all come tumbling down in a little less than three years hung in the backs of most people''s minds. It made sense to try and prepare a bit while you still could. Though something she said bothered him a little. ¡°Wait though, your father remembers his world ending? I thought the last group of refugees was a few hundred years ago.¡± Thera was instantly beating herself up. Somehow she got caught up in the flow of things and started talking about her family without meaning to and ended up saying something without thinking. ¡°Well there are plenty of long-lived races around,¡± She responded, desperately trying to brush off her careless remark. Ben was able to see she wanted to drop the topic so he let it go. ¡°Fair enough.¡± He told her. ¡°I actually have an elf friend. She won¡¯t tell me her age though, she¡¯d usually just say ¡®you shouldn¡¯t tease an old woman¡¯ when I would try to probe her.¡± ¡°Why, what would you do?¡± ¡°Usually tease her.¡± She wasn¡¯t really sure what she was expecting but let out a groan anyway. ¡°Alright enough of that. It looks like we¡¯re here.¡± CH21 ¡°Alright let¡¯s see how this goes,¡± He was feeling enthusiastic, with how promising the three-layered enchantment was, surely one of these would work and he was quick to hand over one of each staff he made. ¡°Hey I was thinking this for a while, but did we really need to bring all of them? Plenty are just duplicates of themselves aren¡¯t they?¡± Thera asked as she looked on at the pile he still had in hand. ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt. They¡¯re here just in case I want to see you use one again or try something different.¡± ¡°Alright then let''s get this over with,¡± She was still uncomfortable to be in an area with a few other people around practicing in the morning and was a little jealous of how calm Ben seemed about it, still working on shaping his stone while seemingly having his full attention on her. The five-layer and seven-layer staves worked a bit better than the three-layered one but were still ultimately disappointing, after a successful first shot they tried for a second and the five-layer was able to at least create a ball of earth while the seven-layer one being able to throw it a few meters, but not enough to really consider it a second shot. All that was left were the two different nine layers. Thera started to activate her magic, letting it flow through her into her staff and felt the same unfamiliar resistance she had experienced with all of his latest works, before firing her first earth bullet. As was expected the spell shot fine, at least Ben had gotten the hang of making staves she could get a single-use out of, what came next was what would matter. The staff itself still appeared fine, no visible cracks or damage was present, and she felt Ben''s eyes glued to her, watching her every movement as she prepared to try a second spell. She concentrated, taking more care than she normally would to try and get it to work, and with a swing of her arm fired it. As Ben watched he saw it was almost perfect. Almost. It fell a little short of the last one still but it was close enough that it could be called a success. But despite it all he wasn¡¯t happy. ¡°What''s wrong?¡± Thera asked when she saw the unhappy look plastered on his face. ¡°I thought that last one went pretty well.¡± It was at least far better than most times she tried a staff that wasn¡¯t made by her uncle but instead a random shop. ¡°No this is great, it¡¯s a real improvement and all, I was just hoping that three times the layers would work out to three times the spells, but of course that wouldn¡¯t be the case. All I did was create a smoother gradient for your magic to work through. Maybe I could make it work by making a bigger staff but at that point it wouldn¡¯t be usable. So in that case should I go back to the drawing board? But then who knows how long it will be before I can make something that can handle three shots.¡± She was beginning to pick up on the fact that he would talk a lot when trying to work out a problem. ¡°But isn¡¯t this okay? If you¡¯re making three staves at a time like this, that''s basically the same as firing six spells.¡± ¡°Yeah but the waste is actually insane. Honestly speaking I have no clue how Falk can afford this. The material costs can¡¯t be insignificant.¡± ¡°Oh didn¡¯t you know? Uncle has a few patents to his name as well as a few wealthy clients, he¡¯s not rich but at the same time money isn¡¯t really going to be an issue for him.¡± ¡°Wait really?¡± Ben asked in surprise. ¡°Well I guess that''s fine if my failures aren''t going to leave him in the poor house. Is that what he¡¯s working on now then?¡± Ben hadn¡¯t bothered to ask Falk about what would be keeping him so busy for the next few months, but a big order from a wealthy client would make sense. Thera only shrugged though. ¡°Probably? He takes his confidentiality pretty seriously so he won¡¯t talk about it though. So with this do you feel ready to try another hunt tomorrow?¡± Ben gave it some thought. It was true that they should be fine if they had three of the nine-layer staves but they should still be cautious, plus after seeing her use her magic these last few days he wasn¡¯t actually sure Thera could really use her spells in combat. He knew she had been adventuring before but he wasn¡¯t sure about how well it went for her. Still, if he wanted to know he had better at least ask. ¡°Hey, when you were hunting solo how often would you fail a quest?¡± ¡°Guh, where did that come from?¡± ¡°I was just thinking about hunting. With me there you¡¯ll still be basically hunting by yourself since I can¡¯t fulfil any roles like fighter or tank and it seems like your magic takes at least a few seconds to activate.¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. She fidgeted about uncomfortably before answering. ¡°I guess I would get about one or two successful quests a week.¡± At this point it was about what Ben had been expecting so the comment didn¡¯t really faze him. Actually, he had an idea for just what they could do about it. ¡°Alright if you¡¯re willing to try something a little different I think we can make hunting work.¡± She was about to ask what he was talking about when a group of three called out to them. ¡°Hey man if you don¡¯t want to get yourself killed you should find a real adventurer to party with.¡± Ben turned to look at who was talking and saw the speaker seemed to be a four-armed warrior, carrying two shields in his upper hands and two spears in his lower ones. Following behind him were a horned woman with forest green skin that looked like she was carrying some tools for a healer and a woman with the lower half of a snake that seemed to be Naga whose role wasn¡¯t readily apparent. He was about to ask what they wanted when Thera spoke up. ¡°Mind your own business and leave us alone Skoe.¡± The man, apparently Skoe, turned to her. ¡°Thera since it doesn¡¯t look like anyone else warned him someone needs to step in. You have no skill as an adventurer, you''re just going to get this poor guy killed.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t gotten any teams I¡¯ve been with injured yet so just back off.¡± ¡°Pff, that¡¯s just luck. When you were with us we couldn¡¯t rely on you for any support. Your magic is basically useless, not to mention your curse-¡± ¡°SHUT UP!¡± she screamed, cutting him off. ¡°I¡¯m just trying to practice here so mind your own business and leave me alone!¡± ¡°Thera it¡¯s nothing personal,¡± The horned green girl cut in. ¡°You just need to find a job more suited to you. Adventuring isn¡¯t for everyone.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± said the Naga. ¡°It¡¯s for your own safety too, we already heard about your new partner getting injured and having to walk himself back to the gate. How are you going to feel if he dies because of you?¡± Thera was shaking with emotion at this point and didn¡¯t know what to say which is when Ben stepped between them and cut in. ¡°Hold on, I got injured because of my own carelessness. If Thera hadn¡¯t stepped in to help it could have been a lot worse. Besides that, I¡¯m enjoying working with her and don¡¯t plan on stopping any time soon. Now if you¡¯ll excuse us.¡± He quickly grabbed his things and gestured for Thera to come with him. As they walked away he heard one of them say. ¡°Looks like the guy¡¯s already cursed.¡±
They walked in silence for a minute until they were far enough away from the training grounds before Ben turned to her. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Even if they weren¡¯t close and she didn¡¯t want to be anything more than a temporary team he didn¡¯t want to think about her being bullied by other adventurers. He really did believe she was a nice enough girl, if not a bit distant with people. She was still trembling a little in anger but she was doing her best to pull herself together. ¡°I¡¯m alright¡­ Thank you.¡± ¡°Hm? I didn¡¯t do anything, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°I mean for sticking up for me. I appreciate it.¡± ¡°Oh, well I mean we¡¯re a team right now, it¡¯s the least I can do,¡± He told her with a smile. They walked in silence for a bit longer before she spoke up again. ¡°Are you not going to ask about it?¡± ¡°Um, what?¡± He was genuinely confused. ¡°Being cursed by me. There¡¯s those sorts of rumors going around.¡± ¡°What''s that? I don¡¯t care about any rumors. We may not know each other well but I trust Falk and he wouldn¡¯t have asked me to work with you if he didn¡¯t think I could manage.¡± ¡°But if we¡¯re working together for a while it may negatively affect people''s opinion of you. At the very least it¡¯s well known with the adventurers in town.¡± ¡°Bah, what do I care if some adventurers think I¡¯m being cursed, the whole world already decided I¡¯m useless so this much is nothing.¡± She was about to ask him what he meant by that but he spoke up again before she could get any words in. ¡°Anyway, I have an idea for how we¡¯re going to get some hunting done tomorrow, I¡¯ll just need to gather a couple supplies and check the guild archives quickly. Meet up tomorrow morning?¡± ¡°Alright sure.¡± ¡°Cool see you then,¡± He turned around and was about to run off when he remembered one last thing and turned back to her. ¡°Here catch.¡± She grabbed what he tossed to her and almost fumbled it before she was able to give it a proper look. When she did she saw the stone carving he had been working on, of a small cloaked figure holding a staff above her head. ¡°Hope you don¡¯t mind, I accidentally ended up using you as a reference while you were practicing. If you don¡¯t want it feel free to throw it out. See you tomorrow then,¡± With his business done he ran off. CH22 Since there were still staves from yesterday Ben hadn¡¯t bothered to make any new ones that night so after he gathered the supplies they would need he actually got some sleep in his home before meeting up with Thera the next day. When they met up at the shop Falk ended up asking them about how yesterday went and Thera instantly got quiet, becoming more apparent it was a tell for when she wasn¡¯t interested in talking about something. Presumably she wanted to keep their little encounter a secret from Falk so Ben stepped in. ¡°It went okay. The new staff didn¡¯t work as well as I had hoped but we were able to get two shots off at least so we¡¯re going hunting today.¡± Falk gave Thera a quick glance but decided not to broach the subject either and instead focus on their hunt. ¡°You sure you¡¯re ready boy? Two shots isn¡¯t a lot. You could always take another week to try and make a better staff. Heck, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll improve their use when you get a bit more comfortable with how you manufacture them.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re right but that still won¡¯t be enough to get us to three shots. Don¡¯t worry though we¡¯ll be hunting these my way.¡± ¡°Well if it¡¯s your way it should be fine, but will Thera get any practice with her magic?¡± ¡°Not to worry, I have a simple strategy that''s going to rely pretty much entirely on her magic, with just a little help from me.¡± He told them, grabbing the staves, a small sack, and a shovel. ¡°Um, what exactly is your way?¡± Ben was going to explain but Falk cut him off. ¡°The boy¡¯s just going to play to his strengths, try and learn what you can.¡± ¡°You¡¯re really overselling me here Falk but it¡¯s going to be a pretty simple plan. It will be maybe an hour of set up tops when we get there so let''s go.¡±
¡°This doesn¡¯t really feel like adventuring,¡± Thera said while on top of a tree branch. ¡°If it gets the job done that''s all that matters. Now don¡¯t be too loud, don¡¯t want to scare anything off.¡± Ben explained the strategy to her on the way there, while also giving her a rundown on how he would usually hunt in general. The plan was focused on the only way he could hunt any creatures, trapping them. As soon as they got there Ben asked her to use her magic to pull a ball of earth from the ground, making a hole about six feet deep and wide, then carefully placing the dirt in a pile beside it. It took more work to pull a mass of earth to make a hole than it did to gather loose earth into a bullet, but it was still within the abilities of both Thera and the current staff. From there it was his turn to get to work. Just having a deep hole wasn¡¯t enough, it wasn¡¯t like the scrells would just throw themselves inside it for no reason, so he had to dig out one of the sides, making a small ramp in for any curious creatures. That''s what ended up taking the greatest bulk of the time. In hindsight he should have brought another shovel to get Thera to help with the digging since her earth magic wasn¡¯t precise enough to make a ramp, but what¡¯s done was done, no point focusing on it. Once his digging was finished and he found himself a fair amount more tired he started a small fire with a magic lighter he bought and began roasting some flail bird he got from a local butcher at the bottom of the pit. If the archive records on them were right then this should be a scrells favourite prey, and the smell of it cooking should attract any others that were in the area to come try and grab some. It ended up being pretty similar to his amarok hunt but ultimately an animal was an animal, food would always be a driving force. Not to mention that they had a good chance of grabbing a bigger number of scrells this way. Once set up was done they both climbed some nearby trees and sat on their own branches. All that was left to do was wait. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Thera seemed impatient, this certainly wasn¡¯t how she was used to hunting, but Ben was happy to use this time to relax. He had brought a few good-sized stones up with him and was doing some sculpting by carefully breaking away parts of them using his enchantment and crafting. The end result was far rougher than if he had the proper tools, but it was a good way to pass the time and train his skills. The only real downside to being stuck in a tree in the woods was the bugs. He would be coming home with a few bites for sure. Or would he? An idea flashed through his mind and seeing a bug land on him he immediately tried it out. Keeping himself steady with one hand on the branch he activated his connect skill, hoping that he would drive it off with the sudden exposure to his mind, but something else happened entirely. He felt a sudden sense of calm and a brief flicker of hunger coming from the bug before the hunger disappeared. The bug hadn¡¯t flown off though, it had died. Ben was initially surprised but thought back to what Myriad said when he got the skill and tried to use it on him. Maybe in the same way that he was weaker than a god, an insect was weak enough that it couldn¡¯t properly handle his feelings, killing it? If that was the case then he would at least be able to get a bit of practice from using it on bugs, but would that really be enough to improve his skill level? It was at least better than nothing. He lifted his hand to swat away the tiny corpse when the sense of calm he was feeling vanished as well, causing him to pause again. He hadn¡¯t noticed it wasn¡¯t his own emotion he was feeling, but the sudden loss made it clear it came from the connection breaking, much in the same way it felt when Falk pulled away after he first tested the skill. The only problem was he didn¡¯t know what he had connected to. He looked around and felt his body, wondering if perhaps a bigger bug had landed on him but taken longer to die or fly away, but if that was the case wouldn¡¯t he have felt some sort of distress from it? He was at a loss until it occurred to him. He had been touching the tree. He had to test it out again. Placing his hand on its trunk he once again activated his connection and experienced a feeling of calm wash over him. As that happened his excitement spiked and after a minute he felt the tree gently respond to it. It was slow but it felt as if its mood was picking up from neutral to something else he couldn¡¯t quite identify. The discovery left him elated. This was it. This was how he could train his connect skill without needing another person to help him. Thinking about it he could always get a pet as well, but a plant would be so much less effort, not to mention the lack of guilt of using the skill in case it has any negative effects on it. He still wasn¡¯t sure it would have any real practical use, but it would be a shame not to level it a bit and see, at the very least it seemed to make a decent bug killer. He proceeded to spend the next half hour using his skill to get acquainted with the tree. It wasn¡¯t really a conversation, just an exchange of feelings, but it was still interesting to probe at it with his emotions and see how it would respond. He tried to send thoughts to it directly, but at least at the moment that seemed impossible. In that time he got the impression that even though the tree was alive and able to experience some external stimulus, its feelings and range of emotions were significantly more limited than he would expect an animal to be, but there was still so much to figure out. It was as he was experimenting that Thera whispered at him to grab his attention. ¡°Hey, they¡¯re here,¡± A small group of scrells were approaching the cooking meat. They were cautious at first, but once they saw it was unattended they raced towards it, with a few of the more cautious ones that were hiding farther back running to catch up. Soon enough there were around a dozen in the hole, each fighting the others for some of the scraps. It was time to finish it. ¡°Alright, Thera you got this.¡± She gave him a nod and grabbed her staff, carefully activating her magic and directing it at the pile of earth, trying to make it do just one thing, shift back into the hole. It was a task she normally wouldn¡¯t have bothered with, but it was also significantly easier on her than trying to make a proper earth bullet. The dirt quickly slid across the ground, filling the hole with all of the scrells in it. For good measure she used a bit more mana to press down into the earth, making sure nothing would crawl out and resulting in her staff breaking into fragments. ¡°That was¡­ easier than I expected,¡± She said when she was done and had dusted off her hands. ¡°But can my magic actually get better like this?¡± ¡°Easy is good, why work your butt off for one kill when you can score a bunch. As for your magic, who knows. But from my perspective this doesn¡¯t seem much different from when you shoot an earth bullet, it''s all just moving earth around, the only thing that''s changed is the intent. Anyway, let''s give it another fifteen or twenty minutes for the smell to disappear, then can you dig out the hole again?¡± ¡°Sure, are we hunting more?¡± ¡°No I didn¡¯t bring enough meat for that, this was really more of a proof of concept. My goal is all those buried materials we got,¡± Twenty screll corpses. Even if they were small, with the amount he had he would be able to make plenty of weapons boosted with their fire affinity from the bones and at least some fire resistant pouches from the skins. Plus now that he had a way to quickly make Thera a few adequate staves he would have a lot more time for his own training. Things were looking bright. CH23 After he piled up the corpses in his bag they quickly walked out of the forest to a clearing near the town, where Ben stopped to dismantle them. He separated the bones to dry out later and the skin to tan, leaving him with a pile of organs and meat that he unfortunately had nothing to do with. From what he understood they weren¡¯t great to eat but throwing it away also seemed like a waste. He decided to bury it for this time at least and try to find something to do with any extra meat later in the future, rather than continue to let it go to waste like that. Once that was done they quickly walked over to the adventurers guild to report their kills. Onk seemed to have the day off so it was reported to another employee, with the grand result being Thera getting ninety percent of the kill leaving Ben with ten, though since they were acting as a team they got to decide how to split the rewards themselves. ¡°Why did he only get ten percent of the kill?¡± She questioned the employee. ¡°He made the plan that got us all of them?¡± ¡°I mean even when I get right down to it aside from what was really a simple strategy all I did was dig a little, you ended up doing most of the work,¡± It wasn¡¯t like he even cared about raising his rank at all, it sounded like while it could provide some more opportunity it would also add some responsibility, which he wasn¡¯t really into the idea of. ¡°Well we¡¯ll still split the reward in half,¡± She instructed the guild worker. ¡°You sure? I really didn¡¯t do too much.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, you need money more than me anyway, and I wouldn¡¯t want people saying I¡¯m greedy on top of everything else anyway.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m not going to fight you on that then,¡± With their work done they left the guild Ben asked her for a bit of help before parting ways for the day. ¡°Hey by any chance do you know if there''s a place I can buy plants around here?¡± ¡°I think the general store near the clinic sells some, I guess it¡¯s not out of my way so I can show you. Why though?¡± He went on to explain the little discovery that he made while they were in the forest and figured that buying a plant for his home would give him a convenient way to practice. ¡°So you can pick up emotions from plants? That seems a little odd. Do you think your god would approve of you training your skill like this though? It sounds like it should be used on living things.¡± ¡°Plants are alive even if they don¡¯t do much, and it may have been given to me but it¡¯s my skill now, if he doesn¡¯t like it he can deal.¡± The attitude surprised her a little, most people who would be lucky enough to get a gift skill would care a little more on their god''s opinion, but it wasn¡¯t her place to say. Besides, there were plenty of gods who liked the strong-willed as well. So they chatted a bit until they got to the store and parted ways.
Oh really? I was a little curious if you would say I was using it wrong like this. Good then, hopefully I can find some more I can use it for. In the meantime any thoughts on what sort of plant I should buy? The shop he was at did have a small garden section, with seeds and a few nicer potted plants that were a little more exotic than what grew normally in the area. Pass. I want something I can practice with immediately so it has to be something already mature, preferably that will live a while too. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. The one Myriad was talking about was a potted tree about three feet tall with lovely purple leaves and looking like the berries were about to develop. It looked nice enough and he had a window in the place he was renting so it seemed like it would be as good of a choice as any. With his decision made he paid the shopkeeper, grabbed the plant, and went on his way.
Myriad suddenly said as they were chatting while he walked back to his home. He suppressed his first instinct to look around him and continued on his way, though changing course so he wouldn¡¯t end up at his home. What do you mean I¡¯m being followed? Am I about to be mugged? He wasn¡¯t on the main street but he was close by, and it seemed like it would be a pretty bold thing to do in the middle of the day. Are we sure this isn¡¯t just Thera? He still had no clue what she looked like without it. Why? Jesus Myriad could you lead with that next time? The urge to look around or just run became even greater, but he was still trying to appear casual. What should I do then? Great. The day had started off so good and now he had to avoid getting stabbed. He walked a bit down the street before taking a turn that would get him towards the main road where there would be more foot traffic, hopefully enough to deter his pursuer, when Myriad spoke up again. He could hear the sound of footsteps slapping against the road behind him but he didn¡¯t waste the second it would take to turn around, he immediately followed his god''s orders and ran like his life depended on it. His agility attribute was low but he pushed it for all it was worth, and felt his heart hammering in his chest, the pounding in his ears making it so he couldn¡¯t hear any noise around him. He was entirely dependent on any warning Myriad could give him. It was only a few minutes of effort, but his sprint got him to the main street. Why? He thought as he panted for air, drawing looks from the people around him. I¡¯m literally just carrying a plant and some staves. He was still carrying the ones he made for Thera, since she always had the one Falk made in case of emergency there was no point in lugging around a bunch of inferior products after all. Alright, don¡¯t carry a bunch of valuables. Noted. With that bit of excitement out of the way he found the nearest town guard and gave them a statement, including the description he got from Myriad. They were frank that there wasn¡¯t much they could do but they would keep their eyes out for any similar cases and then offered to escort him to wherever he needed to be, so he got them to walk him back to Falk¡¯s shop. Once he got there he explained what just happened to his teacher. ¡°Well it''s good you''re alright boy, but maybe you should learn some offensive skills. It isn¡¯t great that you could be attacked in the middle of the day and have no way to protect yourself, especially if you¡¯re going to be doing some hunting anyway,¡± He told his student with some worry. ¡°It was just some bad luck, I guess I look like an easy mark. Besides, you know I¡¯m not suited to combat skills.¡± ¡°Mmm, true enough. Well just make sure the shop¡¯s locked while you''re practicing at night, would hate to find your corpse when I open in the morning.¡± ¡°And I¡¯d hate to be a corpse. Don¡¯t worry Falk I always lock up, besides what are the chances of this happening again?¡± CH24 Thankfully over the next month there were no repeats of the same event. Ben continued to split his time between practicing his skills and hunting with Thera, and after dismantling enough corpses he even raised that skills level up to one, making him slightly more efficient. He was still practicing making different equipment at the shop and working on his general techniques and would still spend a bit of time trying to figure out how to improve the quality of Thera''s staves, but aside from some small improvements here and there he still couldn¡¯t make it to the coveted three spells. He was determined not to give up, but that didn''t mean he could neglect learning other things, some of which led into their hunting activities. ¡°Alright, Thera take the shot.¡± ¡°This still feels wrong, can¡¯t we hunt like regular people sometimes?¡± ¡°I would rather not get killed trying to fight fair with a monster. You¡¯re the one who was worried about if you could improve your magic just using pit traps so I spent weeks experimenting and testing to make this, we can debate the ethics of it after you fire your spell.¡± She let out a sigh knowing there was not going to be any arguing with him. For the last couple weeks he had been experimenting and testing what he was calling a bear trap just so she would be able to practice her offensive spells, and now they had a blood elk caught in it, one of its legs trapped in the tools metal jaws as it desperately tried to pull itself free, a small aura of darkness wrapping around its form as it tried to hide from any other predators. Namely them. She knew the creature could and would kill them if it had the chance so she put her hesitation aside and raised her staff, aimed her spell, and left a mangled mess where the body landed. ¡°Well, looks like I¡¯m not getting any materials from that,¡± Ben said, looking at the crushed pile of meat and bone, a leg still caught in the trap. ¡°Sorry,¡± She knew he used what they caught as materials, wasting something that big just so she could practice her magic was admittedly a bit selfish of her, though Ben didn¡¯t actually mind. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, the sooner we raise your level the sooner you can have better control of your magic, I¡¯ve still got a ton of other materials to use,¡± He especially had more screll bones than he knew what to do with from their first few hunts together, as well as plenty of materials from some harder creatures. Once Thera got used to his way of doing things it wasn¡¯t long before they started taking on rank-six creatures. They didn¡¯t always succeed, sometimes they would escape whatever trap they set up or notice them and run away, but when that did happen Thera got the chance to try and get it with one of her spells, so it still served as practice at least. ¡°So do you have anything going on for the rest of the day?¡± He asked her. ¡°Just helping a bit at the clinic.¡± ¡°Cool, in that case want to stop by the shop a bit beforehand? I was hoping to get your opinion on a few products I¡¯ve made recently.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t my uncle help you?¡± ¡°I already heard his take, I just wanted to get a second opinion before I try and sell some stuff at the market.¡± ¡°Alright then, sure,¡± She decided after a moment''s hesitation. ¡°If it won¡¯t take too long I don¡¯t mind.¡±
¡°So what sort of weapon did you make then?¡± She asked as they got to the shop. ¡°Not a weapon, just some toys.¡± ¡°Why would you make toys?¡± She asked in confusion. ¡°This is a weapons shop.¡± Falk overheard their conversation and chimed in. ¡°It¡¯s good to try some different sorts of things when you''re starting out Thera, just cause I mostly make weapons doesn¡¯t mean the boy will when he starts on his own. ¡®Sides that, I make other things too, Sonya just got a new pan not too long ago.¡± ¡°Okay uncle but I still don¡¯t see the point. If he¡¯s selling at the market wouldn¡¯t it be better to make weapons like usual? Surely the price would be better than anything he could get on toys.¡± ¡°The point,¡± Ben started. ¡°Is just to try making something different is all. Besides, if someone wanted to buy a weapon they could come here literally any time, for the most part the things I¡¯ve made are pretty simple and easy so if anyone wants to come order one it wouldn¡¯t be much of a strain on us. Give me a second, I''ll grab them.¡± He ran to the back and pulled out a box of things, placing them on the table one by one to show off. He had made six types of items, three of which she recognised. ¡°I¡¯m familiar with the kite, spinning top, and lute, but what are the other three?¡± The remaining items looked like a plate made from wood and leather, a flattened ball with a slit running through it, and a strange cross with a ball attached with a string. ¡°A lute huh? I¡¯d probably call it a children''s guitar, or maybe ukulele, but I guess lute works. Anyway, as for the other three, there''s a frisbee, a yoyo, and a kendama.¡± ¡°I want you to realize that doesn''t actually tell me anything.¡± ¡°Sorry sorry, let''s start with the frisbee. Do you have a minute, Falk?¡± ¡°I can spare a couple lad, need a hand demonstrating?¡± ¡°Yep, catch,¡± He said, throwing it towards his teacher who gracefully caught it from the air before throwing it back to Ben. ¡°So you just play catch with it? Like a ball?¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Well yeah, I guess if you put it that way that''s all there is to it. It was a good way to use up the leftover screll leathers since it¡¯s just a light wooden frame wrapped up to be easier on the hands, but do you think it¡¯s too simple?¡± ¡°No it seems fine, it does look graceful flying through the air like that so I think it will sell if it¡¯s cheap. What about the other two?¡± ¡°Alright let''s go with the kendama next, so this is sort of a catching balancing toy I guess. The point is to hold the base and try to land the ball on one of the sides or the spike at top,¡± He tried a couple times to demonstrate but failed to successfully land any of them. ¡°If you can¡¯t even do it to demonstrate how can you expect anyone to want to buy it?¡± She asked while watching his failed attempts. ¡°Told you!¡± Falk yelled as he worked. ¡°Okay, okay, you guys are right. Glad I only made a couple of them instead of wasting a ton of time. In that case the last is the yoyo.¡± ¡°Can you at least use this one?¡± ¡°I¡¯m actually pretty good with this one, an old friend taught me how years ago,¡± His smile took on a sad note for a moment before he went back to a more animated expression and he pulled out a bit of string that was hidden in the slit running along its circumference. He put the loop around his middle finger and threw it down, only for it to smoothly return, traveling back up the string and into his hand, after doing that a couple times he changed to throwing it forwards, then spun it in a loop around his hand as well. It actually ended up being a bit fun to watch. ¡°Alright that one actually has some pretty good potential I think, but is it hard to use?¡± She asked after seeing his display. ¡°It takes some practice to get it right but it¡¯s not that hard, want to give it a try?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Cool, so all you''re doing at first is repeating what I did. Slip it around your middle finger, raise your arm up like you¡¯re flexing, and bring it down. While it''s at the bottom just gently jerk your hand up and it should return to you.¡± She did as she was told and brought it down before jerking her hand, only for it to just sit sadly at the bottom of the string. ¡°That''s alright, like I said it takes a little practice, just wind it back up and try again.¡± She tried two more times and started feeling discouraged, wondering how much practice it would take, but on her fourth try she had her success. ¡°I did it!¡± She rejoiced at her success, only to immediately be embarrassed at the enthusiasm she showed, if her face wasn¡¯t covered by her cloak she would be clearly blushing for them to see. Luckily Ben didn¡¯t seem to mind the outburst and was happy to cheer her on. ¡°Great work! It took me a lot longer to get it right when I was first learning. See Falk it doesn¡¯t take forever to master,¡± He called out to his teacher. ¡°Bah! Thera¡¯s just talented, you can¡¯t hold the average man to her standard.¡± ¡°Ignore him, he¡¯s just sore that he couldn''t get the hang of it after twenty minutes of trying. Want to try throwing it forward?¡± She was already playing with it some more so why not try her on something a little more advanced. ¡°Sure, I guess I can see the appeal of this,¡± She was having a fair bit of fun actually, it had been a long time since she had just stopped to play around and it was a good change of pace from the usual training, hunting, and helping her aunt. Ben explained what to do and she started trying again, getting lost in the task before succeeding in a few minutes. She repeated that throw and the new one a few times, making sure she got the proper feel for it before stopping to return it to him. ¡°You can keep that one if you want, I have a bunch,¡± He had made plenty since they were easy enough and the material cost was low, even selling them cheap he could make a reasonable amount from the base cost so he didn¡¯t mind giving one away, though Thera seemed to hesitate. ¡°Um, I don¡¯t know...¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine Thera, he isn¡¯t thinking anything.¡± Falk yelled out. ¡°Well if you¡¯re sure then I¡¯ll accept, thank you.¡± ¡°No worries, so are you good to push hunting back to the afternoon tomorrow? I don¡¯t know how long it will take to sell this all but if it takes too long I¡¯ll just pack up.¡± ¡°Sure that''s no problem. Your toys seem good, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll sell well.¡± ¡°Well thanks, I¡¯m going to go back to making more then. I¡¯ll see you tomorrow.¡± ¡°Have a good night.¡± Ben walked to the back of the shop where his work area was set up and Thera was about to leave when Falk called out to her. ¡°Before you go Thera mind giving me a moment?¡± ¡°Sure, what can I do for you uncle?¡± ¡°I just wanted to ask, has the boy seemed okay to you recently?¡± ¡°No stranger than usual I think, why?¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s been sleeping less, and I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ve noticed but his smile¡¯s been slipping more than usual, like he¡¯s struggling with something.¡± ¡°How could he be sleeping less, doesn¡¯t he already spend most of each night practicing here? I guess I have noticed he tends to hide his negative feelings a bit though,¡± It would happen a lot when he started talking about people he knew, like whatever friend taught him to yoyo, but she didn¡¯t think too much on it. Sometimes people would have falling outs, she didn¡¯t feel like prying. ¡°Well, I¡¯m a little worried anyway. By the end of the week I¡¯ll have to leave the city for a little while to see a client. Do you think you could keep an eye on him while I¡¯m gone? Maybe go with him to the market tomorrow and try and ask him about whatever''s on his mind?¡± ¡°Uncle, you know I don¡¯t like getting too close to people.¡± ¡°Really? It seems like you two are getting along well though. He even gave you one of those yo things.¡± ¡°On that topic are you sure he¡¯s okay uncle? This isn¡¯t the first time he¡¯s given me something either.¡± ¡°What? What else has he given you?¡± ¡°A little statue he made while he was training his enchanting and crafting.¡± ¡°Oh those, the ones he makes from random stones he picks up? That''s fine then he leaves them everywhere. It¡¯s actually a pretty clever way to practice, I don¡¯t think I know anyone who uses the destructive properties of enchantment like that. Actually I should tell him to take a bunch to try and sell too, they¡¯re starting to pile up in the back a bit. But I got off-topic, he¡¯s fine you don¡¯t have anything to worry about. Maybe if you spoke to him openly he could ease your mind.¡± ¡°Mhh,¡± She was not at all fond of that idea. ¡°Well either way, you¡¯ve got your cloak and like I¡¯ve said before his resistances are high, trust me you¡¯ll both be fine. So would you do this as a favour for me?¡± ¡°Alright then uncle, I guess I can do it for you.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a good girl, now tell your aunt I said hello. He¡¯ll be setting up in the morning so come early okay.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be here tomorrow.¡± CH25- Theras Perspective After waking up Thera wiped herself down with a warmed bucket of water before getting dressed, donning her cloak, and preparing to start her day. Having made her promise with Falk she headed over to the shop and prepared to spend the morning with Ben at the market as he tried to sell his wares. Honestly, she was a little excited for it. It wasn¡¯t often that she would actually go to those sorts of things since there tended to be more people around than she could deal with, but the few times she had been to one in her homeland she had fun seeing all that was available. Of course, as a local market it would be smaller, with people selling their foods and handicrafts and whatnot, but it would still be a new experience. She also didn¡¯t want to admit it, but she was beginning to enjoy the company that Ben provided. Having worked together for a month now, it was the longest she had ever lasted in a party, usually once other members saw how she struggled with her magic or heard the rumors about her they would be quick to drop her, leaving her to adventure alone even if that was more dangerous. But Ben had stuck it out. Sure he had an agreement with her uncle, but for the most part he seemed to be enjoying himself, and it was nice to have the company. She was still a little worried that he was being affected by her presence, even if it was nice, just receiving two small gifts was enough to put her on edge. But if Falk insisted he was fine then she would believe him for now. But Uncle should be done with his project in another month or two, so I guess he¡¯ll go back to being the one to make me staves. I guess that means we¡¯ll stop working together. Although he also said I need to adventure with his apprentice until I can find a new party to join. Gods know I¡¯m not going to have any luck with that in this town. So maybe they would be working together for a while longer still. As these thoughts floated around her head she entered the shop and found Ben, sweeping the floor with a dead look in his eyes. ¡°Um, Ben? Are you okay?¡± She didn¡¯t know why she asked, he clearly wasn¡¯t at the moment, but she was caught off guard and didn¡¯t know what else to lead with. Hearing her voice he jumped up and threw on a smile, as if he were going to greet a customer instead of talking with someone he¡¯d been working with for a while. ¡°Thera! Good morning! Sorry I was lost in thought and wasn¡¯t expecting you here so early, didn¡¯t we have plans to meet up after noon?¡± ¡°Uncle Falk asked me to come help out with your table at the market so I came early. Are you alright?¡± ¡°Oh yeah I¡¯m good, I just didn¡¯t really sleep last night so I ended up getting too focused on my cleaning, but I would love to have the help. I actually just finished loading a cart if you want to come set up with me, I was told there would be plenty of chairs there so I don¡¯t think we need to grab any.¡± ¡°Alright sure,¡± It looked like her uncle was on to something, but she was no good with these sorts of things, she would just have to try and find a way to broach the subject as the day went on. With him already packed and ready to go they headed out to the town square where the event was being held and found the table he had been assigned and started piling his items on top of it. About a dozen yoyos, thirty or forty frisbees, three small lutes and a bucket of tops were placed on top of the table, with the kites being stored underneath to save on space. Once that was done he started piling up the sculptures he had been making in his spare time, there must have been around fifty of them, all around the size of a hand, with the details more well defined than what he had given her after his first attempt. ¡°You¡¯ve gotten better at this,¡± She expressed after picking one up and giving it a look. ¡°Though I¡¯m not sure what this is supposed to be.¡± ¡°Thanks but my actual technique has only improved a little, I¡¯ve just cleaned up the ones you see with a file and a small chisel to get some of the details right. As for that¡­¡± His expression slipped again. ¡°It¡¯s an elephant, I guess there aren¡¯t any around here.¡± She looked at the little sculpture to examine it. While there were similarities to other creatures it definitely didn¡¯t look like anything she was familiar with, having a round body, thick legs, large thin ears, and one of the most unusual noses she¡¯d ever seen. ¡°How big are these supposed to be? Is it like a pet?¡± ¡°Ha oh man I can only say probably not, I¡¯m sure there''s probably some eccentric out there that would keep them but they''re way bigger than I am, I can¡¯t imagine how hard it would be to look after one.¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°Are all of these creatures from your homeland?¡± While plenty resembled animals she was familiar with, there were also a few that were foreign to her. ¡°Some are, some are just from stories.¡± She saw the sad look come to his eye again and decided not to put it off any longer. ¡°Ben what¡¯s wrong?¡± Now that her uncle made her notice it was more and more obvious something was going on with him, and before she knew it the words had slipped out. ¡°Hmm, nothings wrong though?¡± He told her, giving a confused look. ¡°Don¡¯t lie, both me and my uncle can see something¡¯s been bothering you.¡± He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. ¡°Am I really that obvious? It¡¯s nothing really, I¡¯m just a bit homesick. I realised the other day that my little brother''s birthday must have passed by a couple weeks ago and I didn¡¯t even notice. Then it just got me thinking about how my family¡¯s been is all.¡± Homesickness. It was something she thought she could understand. Even if she came to a town where her aunt and uncle were she would still miss her parents from time to time. ¡°If that''s what it is then can¡¯t you go see them? I don¡¯t mind if we can¡¯t hunt for a few weeks and I¡¯m sure Uncle Falk would let you take the time off if you asked. It¡¯s not like you¡¯ll be running the shop while he¡¯s gone so now would be the perfect time for a visit.¡± He looked about awkwardly for a few moments and tried to figure out what to say before answering. ¡°That''s not really in the cards for me. I¡¯m not really keeping it a secret or anything, Falk should know since I¡¯ve shown him my card, but I guess we haven¡¯t actually talked about our races.¡± Her blood ran cold and she tensed up. Why did that have to come up? Was his problem a racial one? She had heard some peoples would send their young on journeys of growth and self-discovery, but was that what was going on with him? And now that he was bringing it up did that mean he was going to ask about her too? As if he was reading her mind he let out a small chuckle. ¡° Wow, how thin is that cloak? I could actually see your shoulders tense beneath it. Anyway, relax. I kind of figured since you never take that thing off that you have your own circumstances you don''t want to talk about and I won¡¯t ask.¡± She felt herself relax even as she flushed from embarrassment. Was she really that obvious? ¡°Thank you. So why does your race keep you from seeing your family then?¡± ¡°Have you heard of humans?¡± With hundreds of races in the world, it was easy to never learn about or encounter members of certain ones, let alone the endless potential mixed-breed groups. The world was large after all and not all of them would form mixed towns like the one they currently lived in, but the name sounded familiar. Weren¡¯t people talking about that one a lot a few months ago? But why¡­ Oh. She remembered why she had heard of them, when they first appeared in the world almost a year ago they were all anyone in the town was talking about. Thera hadn¡¯t really cared herself but there was a lot of excitement when some passed through to get to one of the nearby gates. Souls of the recently deceased summoned from their world in the hopes they could help save this one. She didn¡¯t know what to say to that, of all the possibilities that had crossed her mind, this wasn¡¯t even something she had considered. Why would he be in this town? Shouldn¡¯t one of the nations have taken him in? Didn¡¯t her homeland take one or two in? If he went through all that, why was he alone here? No wonder he missed his family. She immediately wanted to reach out to him. To try and support him if she could, but she didn¡¯t know what to do, what to say. ¡°So you¡¯re¡­¡± She didn¡¯t know what she was going to say, she couldn¡¯t find the right word, but Ben ended up picking one for her. ¡°Dead. At least as far as my friends and family are concerned. Hell, I guess as far as my world is concerned too.¡± What did one even say to that? ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Was all that ended up coming out. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± He told her, using a smile to hide how he was feeling. Did he always do that? ¡°I like this world. I¡¯ve gotten to do and see all sorts of things I never would have experienced in my own. Seeing magic and using skills has been incredible. It can just be a little lonely from time to time.¡± Of course you¡¯d be lonely. I can¡¯t imagine¡­ and I¡¯ve just pushed away any attempts he¡¯s made to be friends. Would it really be so bad? Falk says I don¡¯t need to worry about anything happening with him and I know he¡¯s a nice guy. Can¡¯t I open up a bit myself? On an impulse she was about to speak up about her own life, to try and reveal why she tried to keep a safe distance, but he spoke up before she could and her resolve passed. ¡°Anyway, that''s a little bit about me, it looks like things are starting to pick up here, think we should play with the tops or yoyos at all to try and catch some people''s attention? ¡°...Sure. I have some experience with string instruments too so I could try playing if you¡¯d like?¡± ¡°That would be great! I actually still haven¡¯t heard much music in this world so I¡¯d love to hear you play, not enough bards come through the town,¡± His happiness seemed so much more genuine at the thought compared to when he was talking before. She picked up one of the lutes and started plucking out a tune from her home as she lost herself in her own thoughts. Her life was always something she tried to keep private but her uncle told her to try opening up and she trusted him, she would at least think about it. CH26 The morning passed by slowly, there were plenty of people who came around to browse but they didn¡¯t get many buyers, it was clear their little shop was probably doing the worst, but they still got a few sales and were able to attract some kids with pocket money once they say them playing with the toys they made. It annoyed Ben that his statues weren¡¯t selling too well considering the price was pretty low but not many of the adults were giving his area a look, with parents occasionally coming to pull the children away. He had talked Thera into a small game of frisbee, although given that the table was about six feet long they didn¡¯t have much real throwing distance to work with. Still it managed to pass the time and distract him from the conversation they had in the morning. He hadn¡¯t planned to share his story but it had felt good to get his feelings off his chest. Taking time to talk about your problems certainly helped but now he had a new one. Thera had seemed uncomfortable since the conversation. He wasn¡¯t sure what to do about it and he didn¡¯t mean to create a bad atmosphere so he was at a loss. ¡°I think I should go,¡± She suddenly spoke up after passing the frisbee back to him. ¡°Oh sure, sorry if my tale made you feel uncomfortable,¡± He said, a little down that she was leaving already. ¡°Wait it isn¡¯t that!¡± She yelled in a hurry to explain herself. ¡°I think a lot of people aren¡¯t shopping here because I¡¯m around. You¡¯ll probably have better luck if I go home.¡± ¡°Oh is that all? Then don¡¯t worry about it. Plenty of kids are buying the tops and yoyos, it may be disappointing that not many people are buying the statues but I wasn¡¯t originally planning on selling them anyway so it¡¯s not a big deal.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Well if you want to leave I won¡¯t stop you, but you shouldn¡¯t let others not liking you keep you from living your life, you know? For what it¡¯s worth I''m enjoying your company.¡± It was an embarrassing thing to say, she didn¡¯t know how he could manage it with a straight face, but she felt herself smile under her hood. ¡°Alright I¡¯ll stick around. So what will you do with all the leftovers when the day is over?¡± ¡°Probably store them in the shop. As long as people ask where our buyers got their toys from they will hopefully direct them to me, it would be a nice way to get a little side money. Falk knows some merchants too so maybe some of them would buy up my stock.¡± ¡°That''s a good idea, uncle has some good connections.¡± They continued to talk like that for a while, just passing the hours with idle chit chat and the occasional sale, when they were eventually interrupted by an unruly customer. ¡°Oh not now,¡± Thera muttered under her breath and it didn¡¯t take long to see why. ¡°So you¡¯re still working together? This must be some sort of record for you Thera,¡± Skoe said as he walked up to their table. ¡°But you should still leave the guy alone before anything bad happens.¡± ¡°Skoe we¡¯re just trying to enjoy the market, if you¡¯re not going to buy something then buzz off,¡± She told him with an exasperated sigh. He was alone for now at least, the two women he was with when they first ran into him a month ago were nowhere to be seen, but Ben wasn¡¯t in the mood to deal with this. Still, he would be civil as long as he was a customer. ¡°Pardon me sir, but are you interested in anything we¡¯re selling? If so I would be happy to help you out,¡± He said with his best customer service smile. ¡°Look guy, I asked around, your name¡¯s Ben, right? Why not come with me for a bit. Let''s have a talk.¡± ¡°Thanks but I have to mind my table and all, is there anything I can do for you?¡± He saw a vein start to bulge on the four-armed man''s forehead as he tried to politely brush him off. ¡°Look man, I¡¯m just trying to help you here. Thera¡¯s got her claws in you and if you don¡¯t get out soon you¡¯re going to end up like Roan.¡± ¡°I warned that asshole off multiple times, whatever happened to him is his own problem,¡± Thera almost shouted, full of indignation. ¡°He may not have been a good guy but you sent him off his fucking rocker. The same thing¡¯s going to happen to this one if you stick around." Ben placed his hands on the tabletop And took a deep breath. It looked like things weren¡¯t going to end as peacefully as he would have liked, so he may as well get a rise out of him. ¡°Listen man you¡¯re either a customer or a nuisance, if you''re a customer buy something and if you''re a nuisance then get lost, you''re blocking potential buyers,¡± He tried to sound as rude and dismissive as he could to really get the point home and he got exactly what he was looking for. ¡°Listen you-¡± He started to say as he threw all four of his hands onto their table, before everything came tumbling down. The front legs of it broke and all of the toys and statues he had made fell to the ground, most of them breaking in the process. Thera was outraged to see all of Ben''s work be damaged and destroyed like that while Skoe stood there stunned. She was about to start tearing into him but Ben yelled out first. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°Hey, are there any Guards around? We¡¯re having a bit of an issue!¡± Ben yelled knowing full well there was at least one stationed nearby just in case any problems like this occurred, but it seemed there were also a few off duty who broke off from their families to see what the commotion was. The one on duty looked at the mess of broken stone scattered around before turning to Ben. ¡°Alright what exactly happened here?¡± Ben pointed an accusatory finger towards the man and told his tale. ¡°This guy came up and started harassing me and my coworker before breaking my table. Look at this mess, how am I supposed to sell any of this now?¡± He tried to put on the saddest look he could while he stared down at the destruction of all his hard work. It wasn¡¯t hard, he was genuinely a bit angry at the moment. What matters is if it would pay off. The guard for his part was professional about the matter and listened to Skoe¡¯s side as well. ¡°And do you have anything to say about what happened?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to break his crap, I just wanted to get him to stop working with the girl.¡± ¡°And why did that lead you to breaking the table?¡± ¡°Guh, I didn¡¯t mean to. I must have put in a bit more strength than I thought.¡± ¡°Huuh, alright you both separate but wait nearby, I¡¯m going to talk with the other tables in the area and then we¡¯ll sort this mess out.¡± He left to talk to the people in the surrounding area. Thera was simmering with rage and it looked like the girls Skoe was with the first time they met ended up finding him. ¡°Skoe what sort of mess did you get yourself into?¡± ¡°We told you to just leave them alone today, didn¡¯t we?¡± ¡°I just wanted to talk to the guy was all, I didn¡¯t mean for anything to happen,¡± He said awkwardly. While they had their talk the guard came back and pulled them together. ¡°Alright after talking to the other tables it sounds like you came to cause problems. I don¡¯t care if it was an accident or not, ultimately you destroyed all of their merchandise, so I¡¯ll give you the option of either paying it off or performing however much community service it would take to cover the costs.¡± ¡°Uhg, I¡¯ll pay. How much is it?¡± The statues were probably the second most expensive items on the table that broke, next to the children¡¯s guitars, and it looked like the kites were damaged too. At least the yoyos and tops were fine but it wasn¡¯t going to be cheap to pay off. He had been selling the statues at the equivalent of $20 apiece, with 48 of them smashed as well as the other things, he was looking at a bit more than the average weekly pay of a rank five adventurer. ¡°Is it really that much?¡± Skoe asked when he heard the price. ¡°Looking at the guy''s work I would say you''re actually getting a good deal,¡± The guard said as he picked up one of the less damaged pieces. ¡°There''s some nice craftsmanship here.¡± ¡°Well thank you,¡± Ben said, not having expected the compliment. ¡°If you¡¯re ever interested, come by to Falk¡¯s shop, I always have a few on hand.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. So do you have the money?¡± Skoe turned to look at his companions for a moment. ¡°Think you could help me out a bit?¡± He asked the girls. They looked far from impressed but they pulled out their cards nonetheless. ¡°You¡¯re paying us back after our next few hunts.¡± ¡°You really need to have some sort of savings in place. Don¡¯t just waste it all on new gear and booze.¡± He stood there and took the verbal lashing from his companions as they all tapped their cards against Ben''s until the necessary funds were added. With that done Skoe and his team turned to go before the guard stopped them. ¡°Not so fast. You covered the price of his items, but you still have to deal with breaking the table. That''s town property and all. You have the same option of course, pay it off or work it off, either way we need to talk to the event organiser.¡± He looked even more defeated when he looked to his friends. ¡°A little help girls?¡± Instead they completely ignored him. ¡°What do you say we try the stall over there next? I hear they have good crombus buns.¡± ¡°Sure. After let''s check out the busker before his show''s done, I¡¯ve heard a lot of good things about his juggling act,¡± And with that they left hand in hand as their companion was dragged off to settle his debts. ¡°Alright, that was a lot funnier than I thought it would be,¡± Ben laughed as he turned to Thera, who was still filled with anger. ¡°How can you be so calm, he just broke all of your work.¡± "Don¡¯t worry about it. Anyway, now that everything¡¯s sold, want to wander around for a bit?¡± She tried to suppress her anger. She had been looking forward to seeing the market and she was just thinking that she should try harder to get along with Ben. If he had no problem with what happened then she should try to move past it.
They spent a couple hours looking around the different tables that were set up and ultimately had a lot of fun. Thera hadn¡¯t been to an event like that in ages and Ben was seeing a lot of new food and art for the first time. When noon rolled around they took their cart back to Falk¡¯s shop and Ben grabbed what they would need for their hunt when Thera spoke up. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay with what happened? I still feel like if all of my hard work was destroyed like that I would be pissed.¡± Ben took a moment to think before speaking. ¡°Well since we aren¡¯t at the market it should be fine to tell you, but don¡¯t go spreading it around. I wanted it to happen.¡± ¡°What?¡± She asked in confusion. ¡°I piled up a bunch of enchantments on the part of the table legs near him. It was my first time doing it on an area I wasn¡¯t directly touching so the mana cost was drastically higher and it was a lot harder to pile them up in the right areas but it worked out pretty well if I do say so myself.¡± ¡°Wait, why though?¡± She didn¡¯t understand how he could let the things he had worked so hard on break so casually. He held up three fingers and started counting them off. ¡°Well he was being a dick to you, he was being a dick to me, and it seemed like a good way to make some money. Plus now he¡¯ll probably think twice before giving us trouble again.¡± She couldn¡¯t help it, Thera immediately burst into laughter to think that he did all that just to screw over Skoe. It was the first time Ben heard it. CH27 Their afternoon hunt following the market hadn¡¯t gone exceptionally well. They were still using the bear traps but trying to get a creature to walk into one took a lot more luck than the previous pit trap strategy, and Ben was still trying to figure out the best way to make different animals fall for them. The problem with using bait was that if he put it on the trap they might get suspicious and walk away, or just grab it without putting enough pressure on it to set it off. Just putting it nearby was no good either because any monster was more likely to walk around it than over it, but he was confident that after a few more hunts he would figure something out. For the time being though they took a little walk along the river, trying to figure out where might make a good hunting grounds in the future. At least that''s what they both pretended they were doing. Thera had spent most of their time in the woods debating whether or not she should try lowering some of her emotional walls and let Ben know more about her and why she didn¡¯t generally try getting close to people. If he knew and could still accept her then maybe they really could be friends, gods know it had been a long time since she¡¯d had one. Ben for his part knew there was something on her mind at the moment, she had been distracted for most of their hunt and figured it would be good to let her sort out whatever she had been thinking on. He was more than happy to use the time to carve a few new statues while they walked. He was already pretty familiar with the area and had a good idea of where some of the smaller creatures could be found if one looked hard enough, but it never hurt to try and find some more. With how wild and unstable the world''s ecosystem was there was always the chance of some new monster immigrating to the area, and as long as it wasn¡¯t so dangerous as to kill any poor person to come across it then there was a small reward for reporting it, but in his case he was more interested in the materials he could get by hunting it. He hadn¡¯t been able to use anything really rare yet and even though Falk kept some interesting stuff at the shop he could use, Ben was pretty sure he kept a supply of some really exotic materials somewhere that he wouldn¡¯t be tempted to put towards a staff that wouldn¡¯t last more than a day. He was happy to pass the time musing about what he would make when he got a little more money. His crafting skill was still low but he had a lot of future plans growing in his head as his skills increased. He fantasized about a small and unrealistic list of things he wanted to see if he could make if he could get past his magic limitation, an actual moving picture, a golem, maybe figure out some modern weaponry for self defence, a hot air balloon, and so on, when Myriad interrupted his thoughts in a panic. He didn¡¯t waste any time. ¡°Thera my god just contacted me and said we need to run, follow me!¡± He didn¡¯t know what was going on but he wasn¡¯t going to doubt the urgency in Myriad¡¯s voice. He thought she would say something but he started running and she immediately took off after him. A message from a god wasn¡¯t something you just ignored. What¡¯s going on Myriad? He thought in a panic. Wait, do you always watch me? How much privacy do I actually have? Myriad screamed in his brain before regaining some control of himself. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Will that work? Wait, are they even after me? Thera¡¯s here too. Well if they¡¯re after me we could separate and Thera could try to run for help. Fuck, how close are we to the nearest party? You don¡¯t sound too confident. Ben desperately wished they had one of his bear traps on him. They always left them hidden under one of the trees near where they hunted because it was a pain to bring them out every time but he would feel so much safer if he could place it. Of course, he also wouldn¡¯t be able to run with it and a creature that was so sight-focused would probably be able to avoid it, but he was running for his life he didn¡¯t need to be rational. As he desperately tried to figure out what to do he made a decision. Gasping for breath as he said it he looked at Thera running beside him. ¡°Thera send a quick prayer up to Myriad please.¡± She heard the urgency in his voice and did as she was told but once done immediately asked him why. That''s not what I¡¯m doing. Giving an explanation to Thera and assuming Myriad would hear what he was thinking as well he explained. ¡°A god needs to be acknowledged to be allowed to talk in your head. If anything happens to me Myriad will guide you to help. For now Myriad could you fill her in on what¡¯s going on?¡± <...Alright fine.> His god seemed to have hesitated for a moment before giving in, but Ben didn¡¯t have time to ponder why. From the way she almost missed a step he assumed that she heard it too. This was probably her first time talking to a god, given that from what he knew they usually weren¡¯t as chatty as Myriad tended to be, but he explained what was happening and let Ben listen as he repeated the explanation for her sake. When he got to the bit about it being a tamer after them Thera muttered between breaths. ¡°Oh gods it¡¯s him.¡± Ben couldn¡¯t let the remark pass. ¡°You know who this is? Is this guy after you?¡± A quick nod of confirmation before she added. ¡°Though he¡¯s probably going to try to kill you too.¡± Not the time Myriad. It didn¡¯t seem like he had bothered to share his complaint with Thera as well given her lack of reaction. CH28 As they ran through the woods the species of tree had begun to change to one that seemed a lot more comfortable growing closer together than in the surrounding area, but Ben had low hopes that it would help. It could be a large area but surely anyone looking for them would find them soon, all he could do was try and find a place to hide, squeezing between trunks and trying to avoid some of the lower branches. This slowed down their progress significantly, but if they weren¡¯t going to be able to find anyone else what choice did they have? As they moved deeper in they found an area where the ground between the trunks was covered by waist-high shrubs growing around them. They could either walk through them and keep going or try to hide in them. ¡°What do you think?¡± He quietly asked her. ¡°We could try and lay low here or pass through. Maybe we could climb up a tree if we can find any sturdy enough, the branches on these ones look too thin though,¡± He was cursing himself for not thinking about it earlier but it was too late now. Besides, that would have definitely left them trapped in one place. He didn¡¯t have much hope of Thera''s magic saving them, by the time their pursuers got within range they would probably get to them before she could activate her spell. ¡°Let¡¯s hide for now. Maybe we¡¯ll get lucky.¡± He really doubted it but without many other options they walked down into the bushes and sunk down next to each other. Myriad said with a voice still filled with dread. ¡°Thera,¡± Ben whispered as low as he could to get her attention. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you have against physical contact but please try to ignore and take my hand. I have stealth, even though it¡¯s low, if I apply it to us it should help at least a little.¡± For a second he thought she would go for it, but she gave her head a regretful shake. With a voice filled with pain she spoke back. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡­ I just can¡¯t.¡± No matter how wrong it would feel Ben was one hundred percent sure Myriad was right. Even if he didn¡¯t remember his first death, one was enough. Besides, all he would be doing was breaking whatever small amount of trust he had managed to build, and he honestly had no clue how much of it he had even gotten from her. But that was the problem. No matter how small it was, he had spent over a month working hard to gain that little bit of trust. He didn¡¯t want to destroy it now, especially when it probably wouldn¡¯t be enough to save them anyway, so he gave another option. ¡°Okay, then what about letting me enchant your cloak? I¡¯ll activate my stealth and when I¡¯m done you should be able to activate it, okay?¡± ¡°That won¡¯t work,¡± She told him with a voice filled with sorrow. ¡°I can¡¯t regulate my mana well enough for most enchanted tools, I basically just break the enchantment.¡± ¡°Alright then I¡¯ll apply it and activate it for you, I¡¯ll just have to touch your cloak, I won¡¯t touch you, alright?¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°...Okay do it,¡± She laid her arm out on the ground beside him and he grabbed her loose sleeve, about to start when he felt something. An enchantment already laid on it. Why would this be here if she can¡¯t even use it? He thought to himself, before ultimately brushing it away. From what he could tell it was a weak one, he couldn¡¯t even guess what it could be for, so he decided to ignore it for now. Instead he focused on the task at hand and started. He activated his stealth and felt his mana move through him as he started to try and lay it over the cloak. He was trying to be as fast as he could, every second counted here, so he stretched his energy to try and place the entire enchantment at once. It was then he felt a problem. Something he was deeply familiar with from all of his times using his skill to carve statues. He felt the enchantment break, along with the material it was being attached to. Long strips tore into the cloak and he heard Thera gasp as he panicked himself. No! Why now! I haven¡¯t accidentally broke an enchantment since I first started using this stupid skill! He was torn somewhere between screaming, crying, and needing to apologise to Thera when Myriad''s panicked voice tore into his mind. The sound of stomping feet and breaking branches suddenly filled the forest and Ben didn¡¯t have time to ask how it was attracted. He looked at Thera and saw her panicking, the white skin of her arms peaking through some of the tears in her damaged cloak. He took a breath and prepared himself. ¡°Thera run. I¡¯m going to try something so have Myriad direct you to help.¡± She looked over to him, face still obscured despite the panic in her voice. ¡°What, no! You¡¯ll die!¡± There was no time to argue about it. He stood up and faced whatever approached. Time would tell how this would turn out and he began to truly lose himself in his feelings. He panicked. He didn¡¯t want to die. He knew there wasn''t going to be a third chance at life and he was afraid. He never saw the few friends he had in the world. He didn¡¯t want to go through the pain of something trying to eat him, the first time had been bad enough. He didn¡¯t want Thera to die. This stupid thing found her immediately after he broke her cloak, there was no way the two events weren¡¯t connected. He didn¡¯t want to die without making an impact. He needed to show all the assholes who decided he didn¡¯t have any worth that they made a mistake. Idon¡¯twanttodieIdon¡¯twanttodieIdon¡¯twanttodie! A creature broke through the woods, unlike anything he had seen yet in the world. As big as a horse and with hideous rubbery grey skin. It ran towards him on six pointed legs and stared at him with dozens of horrifying mismatched eyes, none of which looked like they belonged to the same creature, before it opened up a jaw as wide as his head and lunged at him. Ben was scared to death, he had worked himself into a panic and was reaching an arm out at it as if that could stop it, but the monster chose to ignore it entirely, instead gouging its teeth into his unguarded torso. In the back of his mind he thought he heard Thera scream. None of it mattered to Ben though. The moment the beast pierced his flesh, he connected to it. All of the panic, the fear, the regret, the pain. Everything got transferred over to the alseer, and the monster clearly wasn¡¯t prepared for it. Almost immediately it let go and began to run in the opposite direction, as if its life depended on it, at least it certainly thought it did. He briefly thought he heard another voice in the distance yelling at it, but Myriad was also screaming in his head and Thera was above him. Apparently he was on the ground. Had he fallen when the creature tackled him or after? Holding his thoughts was getting hard. He was pretty sure Thera was saying something, screaming it really, but he couldn¡¯t make out the words. As he gazed up at her above him and thought he could just barely make out some of her features before everything slowly faded to black. CH29 Ben felt himself begin to come to consciousness. The pain was still there, but he decided to take that as a good thing. Pain meant he was still alive after all, and it had at least gotten weaker than when the alseer decided to try and make a meal of him, but he still didn¡¯t want to move much at the moment. He felt the softness of a bed beneath him and opened his eyes a crack to look up at the ceiling. Something seemed familiar about it but he was still in a daze, it was hard to say for sure. He turned his head to the side to try to see where he was, when he found himself in a room with an albino gorilla quietly reading a book in a chair beside him. No, not a gorilla, a yeti. ¡°Falk?¡± He quietly croaked out. His throat felt dry and it was hard to talk. How long had he been out? His teacher''s head jerked up when he heard his name and looked at Ben, before running to the door and yelling, ¡°Sonya! Thera! He¡¯s awake!¡± and rushing back to his bedside. Ben could hear the sounds of footsteps hurrying down the halls before Sonya burst into the room. He thought it was strange, he was sure he had heard the sound of more than just one person, and apparently she had thought the same. When she found she had come in alone she marched back to the door, reached out, and dragged someone inside. It took a moment for Ben''s mind to work out what and who he was seeing. At first he thought he was seeing a statue of a member of Sonya''s race. Skin that looked like it was made from genuine marble and solid gold eyes lacking whites or pupils, with hair running just below her shoulders to match, and a thin tail wrapped around their waist like a belt. He wasn¡¯t originally able to put together what he was seeing, why would a statue be moving, or wearing fabric clothes for that matter? It took embarrassingly long for it to click for him before he looked into her eyes and spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you¡¯re safe. Sorry about the cloak.¡± She noticeably grimaced and ignored his apology, instead turning to the other two. ¡°I told you he would be under my effects, I¡¯ll go hide on the other side of the house for now.¡± ¡°Thera it¡¯s perfectly natural for him to be concerned about you after what happened. Just wait here while we talk. Ben, honey? Do you know where you are?¡± Sonya asked, kneeling down to look into his eyes. ¡°Pretty sure this is your house right? I was brought here after my screll incident. Do you have any water?¡± He felt his throat rubbing against itself during that whole sentence. She grabbed a glass and filled it from a pitcher that was sitting just outside of his field of view. ¡°Alright, you seem coherent enough. Can you tell us what happened?¡± She gently questioned as he sipped on his drink. He went over the details he remembered in his mind before he started to talk. He explained how his god told them they were being followed while they walked by the river, how they had run through the woods, trying to get to some nearby adventurers but couldn¡¯t make it in time so they had to try to hide. After that trying to enchant Thera''s cloak but messing up somehow and destroying it, and the monster, the alseer seeming to know where Thera was as soon as it happened and charging at them. Finally, he spoke about his desperate attempt to scare it off by working himself into a panic before connecting with the beast. ¡°And after that I blacked out, but I¡¯m alive which is pretty cool,¡± He said, trying to give a confident smile, though it probably turned out more like a grimace from his general discomfort. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Thera spoke up to the other two. ¡°See! He knew it was going for me but he still stepped in and almost got himself killed. He¡¯s obviously being influenced by me. I need to go.¡± ¡°Thera the boy isn¡¯t being influenced by anything,¡± Falk told her. ¡°Can you just talk to him?¡± ¡°Excuse me,¡± He spoke up. "What am I supposedly being influenced by?¡± Thera shifted about uncomfortably while everyone looked at her, Falk and Sonya clearly not going to give the explanation for her. Finally she seemed to gather her resolve and spoke up. ¡°Ben, I''m a halfbreed. Specifically half earth spirit and half succubus. My large mana and earth magic comes from my spirit heritage, but as for my succubus heritage¡­ It gave me charm magic, and because of my large mana pool it¡¯s significantly more effective than what a pure-blooded succubus would have. Without a resistance of at least 30 to it you¡¯ll be taken in by its passive effects just by being around me, 40 if there¡¯s any physical contact. Usually this magic would just make people like you more and want to be around you, maybe be more open to answering your requests too, but since I have so much mana, those effects can also leave people mentally unbalanced and lead to an unhealthy obsession with me.¡± Ben had a lot of questions now that she was finally being open with him, but he decided to put most of them to the side and focus on the matter at hand. ¡°Wait I don¡¯t think I¡¯m obsessed with you, but charm magic wasn¡¯t even an option on my card? Is that some sort of unique magic or something?¡± Sonya explained to him. ¡°It¡¯s a specialized form of magic, specifically dark magic.¡± He was still not as clear-headed as he would have liked to be but he thought he saw where this was going. ¡°Wait so my darkness resistance would apply, right?¡± He saw nods from the two women before he turned to Falk and asked in a bit of an accusing tone. ¡°And why didn¡¯t you explain anything to your niece?¡± He gave a bit of a shrug before telling him. ¡°Etiquette. Unlike a certain human that barged into my shop one day, most people don¡¯t openly share the entire details of their status with another, that''s some very personal stuff after all and in the wrong hands could reveal things you might not want others to know. If someone decides to share their status with you, you keep it to yourself.¡± Ben sighed. He was pretty sure he had been told the same thing at the church, but he hadn¡¯t really cared. ¡°Alright well can someone tell me where my card is? We can sort this out right now,¡± It seemed that he had been stripped down at some point and was only tastefully covered by a blanket. Even if one of the people around was the healer treating him he wasn¡¯t going to go and bare-all at the moment. Sonya went to a desk by the side of the room before taking it and handing it to him. He gave her his thanks before revealing the information on it and handing it to Thera. She scanned it for only a second before reacting to something completely different to what he had been expecting. ¡°You''re an apostle?¡± She basically yelled at him. ¡°What?¡± Both Falk and Sonya yelled as well before looking over Thera¡¯s shoulder at his card. So much for good etiquette. ¡°Boy when in the infinite hells did you become an apostle to a god?¡± ¡°I became Myriads'' apostle right after you accepted me as an apprentice, what''s the big deal?¡± ¡°Ben discovering someone''s apostle is about as surprising as learning someone you know is actually royalty. There''s only a few thousand of them.¡± Sonya explained. ¡°Okay I see what you''re saying, but by that logic shouldn¡¯t the fact I¡¯m one of the two hundred people that were summoned last year be more surprising?¡± ¡°You¡¯re what?¡± Sonya yelled again, though this time it was only her at least so he tried to put the matter to the side. ¡°Okay why don¡¯t we talk about how strange and unlikely I am later and get back to the matter at hand. Thera if you want to look at the rest later you can but for now just go to my resistances.¡± She was still looking at him funny but did as she was asked and scrolled down to look at his resistances. As soon as she saw them she let out a small gasp. ¡°There''s no way,¡± She muttered. ¡°How could one person have resistances this high for every affinity?¡± She looked up at him and stared him in the eyes. ¡°Is your darkness resistance really 85?¡± CH30 ¡°Why not test it out for yourself? Is it okay to assume the main reason you don''t like touching people is because of your charm magic?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Well then let''s see if it has any effect,¡± He held his hand out towards her and waited to see what she would do. She stared at it for a moment before slowly and hesitantly reaching out to him, and gently taking his hand. Even though Falk and Sanya believed it would be fine they still waited with bated breath. ¡°Feeling fine so far,¡± He told them. ¡°Charm wouldn¡¯t be very effective if a person realised they were charmed,¡± She replied with a shake of her head and a thoughtful look on her face.¡± I would need you to do something you wouldn¡¯t normally do.¡± She thought on it for a moment, still holding Ben''s hand, before giving him an instruction. ¡°Punch uncle.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Falk yelled at this, but they both ignored him. Ben looked down at their hands briefly before answering. ¡°Thera you can¡¯t ask something so tempting after I find out he¡¯s let a misunderstanding stand between us for over a month, I¡¯m going to want to do it,¡± Still he contained himself to prove that there were no passive effects taking hold over him, though Falk still wasn¡¯t happy with the response. ¡°Now what did I do?¡± Even Sonya had to chime in. ¡°You could have at least mentioned to your apprentice that he might want to show Thera his card. He certainly doesn¡¯t seem to have any privacy concerns.¡± ¡°Is it so wrong that I wanted Thera to try and open up a bit herself?¡± He said in a huff. ¡°The girl needs to learn to put some trust in others.¡± ¡°Well maybe you¡¯re right,¡± Sonya said after some thought. ¡°And what¡¯s done is done. Hopefully now that they¡¯re more aware of each other''s circumstances they¡¯ll grow even closer.¡± She smiled and gave them a look as she spoke, well not so much them but the fact that they were still holding hands at the time. When Thera noticed her cheeks flushed a light gold, making Ben wonder if that was the color of her blood as well, before she let go and took a couple of steps back. ¡°Well,¡± She started, not making eye contact after being embarrassed by her aunt. ¡°I guess you really aren¡¯t under my influence, so that¡¯s good at least.¡± ¡°Yeah, so when I¡¯m in better shape we can go hunting again without worry,¡± Plus maybe now she wouldn¡¯t be so hesitant around him which he considered a win. But as he brought up hunting again the atmosphere darkened and everyone grew quiet. ¡°Um, guys? What¡¯s going on? Don¡¯t tell me I¡¯m going to be bedridden for a while now?¡± He was still sore but he thought he could move if he had to. ¡°Well, quite a few of your bones were broken and you experienced some organ damage, not to mention suffered some deep cuts where you were bitten, but most of the serious damage has been treated. You were out for a few days and I had to call in all of the town''s healers to look after you almost around the clock in that time, but you¡¯re out of danger now. After a few more days of treatment you should be completely fine,¡± Sonya explained. ¡°Oh boy that sounds expensive,¡± He winced. ¡°Well it probably would be, but I¡¯m friends with all of the town''s healers since we work together at the clinic, and I would never think of charging someone who almost died to save Thera¡¯s life. The issue is¡­¡± She trailed off, not sure what to say, before Thera took over. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°The issue is me,¡± She said bluntly. ¡°I¡¯m currently under house arrest.¡± ¡°What! Why?¡± ¡°Using any sort of mind-altering magic on civilians or not properly containing a magic''s passive effects tends to be illegal. Currently I¡¯ve done both,¡± She looked away and wouldn¡¯t meet his eyes as she explained it. ¡°What? But we already established that your magic doesn¡¯t affect me! What¡¯s the issue?" ¡°Boy it isn¡¯t about the effect she has on you, but what she had on others. It isn¡¯t as bad as she made it sound, things are just a little complicated at the moment is all,¡± His teacher went on to explain what happened after he had blacked out that day. The tamer that set the alseer on them had run off with the beast as it tried to escape, evidently worried about what could have been done to repel something that dangerous, but there was still the issue that Ben was laying on the ground dying. In an act of desperation, Thera dragged his body to the nearest party of adventurers that Myriad directed her to, and without having her cloak she charmed them. Given how easy it was the party of four they encountered probably would have helped anyway, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that not only did she expose them to her passive effects, but willingly took advantage of it too, making a mage with access to some light magic drain almost all of their mana to keep him alive, while the other three members carefully picked him up and ran him back to the town and through the gates, all the way to Sonya''s home. Thera passed many people in the streets as they ran there, and even though she didn¡¯t do anything intentionally to influence them, many of them were drawn to her, some even trying to follow them along. After such a brief exposure their minds cleared fairly quickly, and thankfully the party she manipulated were more understanding and even after no longer being under her effects were willing to let the matter go since it was to save a life, but the damage had been done. The guards had come and were prepared to arrest Thera on the spot, if it weren¡¯t for the sight of Ben bleeding out and Sonya desperately trying to treat him as she sent for more healers they probably would have, but they were able to see there was something more going on than just a person with a passive magic running wild and waited until Ben was out of immediate danger to get the whole story. Once everything was cleared up and all of the victim¡¯s minds were no longer distorted by the charm effect, it was decided that Thera would not be held liable for what happened seeing as she was attacked and trying to save a life, but that she would either be kept at home or was to return to the succubus nation of Anailia until a time that she could get a new means to block her magic. Ben laid back down and stared up at the ceiling. ¡°So then this is my fault.¡± Thera, who looked like she was trying to control her emotion up to that point, turned to him in surprise. ¡°What? Why would you think that?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the one who broke your cloak. It¡¯s what you used to block your charm right? I knew I could feel some sort of enchantment on it but I thought I could still apply my own and it would be fine. I have no clue what went wrong. Was I rushing too much with the enchantment? I could barely feel the magic in it so I didn''t think I would have to be too careful, but it looks like I messed everything up.¡± ¡°You can feel the mana in an enchantment?¡± Sonya asked, surprised. ¡°Well yeah, I¡¯d need to do that to be able to apply them carefully right?¡± ¡°Sonya¡¯s just surprised cause mana sense is usually developed at higher levels of a magic skill than what you have, but that doesn¡¯t matter right now. Don¡¯t beat yourself up about the cloak boy, you didn¡¯t do anything wrong. It all comes down to the ways it¡¯s made,¡± Falk explained. ¡°There aren¡¯t many ways to disrupt a passive magic effect, they all end up being either too hard or too expensive to make. In the case of Thera¡¯s cloak it¡¯s a bit of both. The technique I used basically involved piling up fragments of skills instead of using the whole thing. Can¡¯t really tell you why it works, as far as I know the person who discovered it did so by accident, but once you manage to pile up enough it can disrupt passive magics like charm and fear. The issue is that even though it won¡¯t feel like it, the item that¡¯s treated this way is absolutely saturated with enchantments. Adding anything else will break it immediately.¡± ¡°So it is my fault,¡± He sighed. ¡°No I should have realised, I just wasn¡¯t thinking,¡± Thera jumped in, trying to take the blame herself. ¡°Both of you, enough,¡± Falk firmly said. ¡° Mistakes happen in the heat of the moment and you were being attacked. Stop beating yourselves up.¡± ¡°Right! What happened to the guy who was attacking us anyway? You said he was after you Thera?¡± She seemed to want to retreat away even further but still explained what happened. ¡°That would probably be Roan, an adventurer that''s been exposed to my charm magic.¡± CH31 Thera went on to explain her connection to the man who attacked them. ¡°When I first came to this town to try to grow my skills by adventuring, things weren¡¯t as bad as they are now. My magic was a drawback but I was able to occasionally form some temporary parties and work on my skills a little bit, but that all changed when Roan got his eye on me. Most of the other adventurers thought he was a piece of shit and he worked solo if you didn¡¯t count the few creatures he had tamed. He also came from a distant nation but his people are perverts who thought that having multiple wives was some sort of status symbol so he was always making a move on the few female adventurers around which included me. It was something I could brush off though until one day he grabbed my hand when I wasn¡¯t paying attention,¡± She took a small moment to collect herself here, having gotten a bit worked up in her explanation, before continuing. ¡°From there I did everything right. I told him he couldn¡¯t make contact with me because I have a passive magic, I explained what happened to the guild so they could be aware in case he started acting strange and they told him off, but he didn¡¯t take it seriously and thought I was just trying to brush him off so he kept trying to get my attention that way. Guild employees would see but a lot of them either never encountered someone with charm before or didn¡¯t appreciate how dangerous it could be to a mind so they would just tell him off. They didn¡¯t really start taking the fact that it could be having an effect on his mind seriously until he started brawls with other people and loudly proclaiming it was to win my heart that they believed he was becoming unbalanced and he disappeared after being kicked out of the guild for repeatedly disturbing the other adventures. Of course, at this point the adventurers all think my magic is a curse I¡¯ve placed on him and that they¡¯re at risk too so they steer clear.¡± ¡°That fuck!¡± Falk spat. ¡°I should have cracked the bastard''s skull last time he came to the shop instead of just throwing him out.¡± Ben was in complete agreement. Causing Thera to be ostracized was too much when the guy went mad from his own stupidity and an inability to acknowledge a basic warning. ¡°What''s done is done. I just don¡¯t get how he could have tamed an alseer, that''s a pretty powerful monster and he was only an okay tamer,¡± she said thoughtfully. Falk groaned and threw his head in his hands when he heard this. ¡°I have an idea on how it happened. Before I knew what was happening with you he requested I make him a staff that could hold the highest level of enchantment that I could. He must have found an enchanter with a high level of the taming skill and gotten them to apply it. It would explain where he¡¯d vanished to these last few months. I thought he went to his homeland but the bastard must have gone to find an enchanter and the alseer.¡± ¡°Everyone relax,¡± Sonya told them as she felt tensions rise again. ¡°We¡¯ve already made the guards aware that it was Roan who probably attacked you so he won¡¯t get into the town without being questioned. He was already known for his bad personality anyway so there isn¡¯t much to worry about. The bigger issue is Theras cloak. Falk, I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯ll be able to make another one before you leave, will you?¡± He gave her a shake of his head. ¡°Not only are they hard to make but I would need to get the right fabric as well, otherwise Thera wouldn¡¯t be able to see when it covers her face. I could at least start a temporary one with a worse quality material I have on hand, just in case of an emergency, but I don¡¯t think I could get it done before I leave for my client,¡± He stopped regretfully before changing to a more thoughtful look. ¡°Of course, it¡¯s not like there¡¯s no one else who could do it. Maybe someone who¡¯s going to be bedridden for a few days and even when he¡¯s better won¡¯t have much else to do since the shop will be closed and his adventuring partner will be occupied.¡± ¡°Of course I¡¯ll make it. Show me how and I¡¯ll start immediately,¡± Ben still felt responsible. If he could at least help a little then he would do it happily. His teacher gave him a smile. ¡°Good lad. I¡¯ll run to grab some materials then give you a quick lesson.¡± ¡°And I need to go back to the clinic now that you¡¯re awake,¡± Sonya said. ¡°When I get back tonight I¡¯ll work on treating your injuries some more, but you¡¯ll be with us for a couple more days.¡± ¡°Hey Sonya I¡¯m sorry to make this request after you¡¯ve been working so much to heal me but if I give you my address could you stop by and give Fredrick some water, or maybe bring him here if it''s not too much trouble,¡± Ben asked as she was walking off. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Oh gods you have a pet! The poor thing¡¯s going to be terribly dehydrated! I''ll go right away!" ¡°Uh no, wait,¡± He said awkwardly. ¡°Fredrick is my houseplant,¡± In that moment he felt like could have heard a pin drop from the sudden silence that filled the room and the panic that had filled Sonya when she thought his pet was probably dying evaporated from her body. Thera was the first to break the silence. ¡°You named your plant?¡± ¡°Yes and cut me some slack, I don¡¯t have any other way to train my connect skill and it¡¯s not like I live with anyone else. Giving it a name made it easier to talk to.¡± ¡°You talk to it as well?¡± Falk asked. ¡°It responds a bit stronger to me if I communicate with it while connected please give me a break.¡± The other three gave each other a look and mercifully decided to let the matter drop. Ben regretted bringing it up at all but it would need to be watered and it was his plant damn it, he had some emotional investment in the thing. With that done Falk left to grab the materials he would need along with a pile of books Ben could read while he was gone and Sonya left for the clinic after promising to grab Fredrick when she was done, eventually leaving him and Thera alone in the room. At a certain point after Falk had stood up she had taken the chair in the room and sat in silence. Ben thought she might be wanting to talk about something else so he waited for a few minutes before deciding to just broach the topic himself. ¡°Something else on your mind Thera?¡± She fidgeted for a moment, trying to find the words she wanted to say, before speaking up. ¡°After you¡¯re better I¡¯ll talk to uncle. He shouldn¡¯t make you adventure with me anymore with all this going on.¡± She was frowning and wouldn¡¯t meet his gaze, but Ben had a pretty good idea of what was going on through her head at the moment. ¡°I see,¡± He started. ¡°Do you not like working with me?¡± He didn¡¯t really believe it was the reason and she confirmed it a second later with the shake of her head. ¡°That''s not it, but Roan¡¯s a violent guy and if he gets into the town you would be putting yourself in danger for no reason by being around me, not to mention that ever since these curse rumors started to go around uncle''s lost some business since it''s pretty obvious to people how often I¡¯m there. If you plan on starting your own shop one day, working with me could be a disadvantage to you.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll first of all I would never open a shop in this town, that would feel way too ungrateful to Falk for teaching me. Plus I don¡¯t care what other adventurers think, you¡¯re the only one I really know in that crowd. As for Roan, well I feel like you¡¯re in more danger than I am, I don¡¯t want you to encounter this guy by yourself after all. But more importantly¡­¡± He paused to gather his courage for a minute, he was about to say something embarrassing and really hoped he wouldn¡¯t look as stupid as he felt saying it. ¡°I¡¯m still hoping we can become friends.¡± ¡°What?¡± she asked, shocked by the unexpected proclamation. His ears were already burning but he wanted to explain himself. ¡°Ah see, it¡¯s just, like I said before I don¡¯t really know many people in the world and I think you¡¯re nice, plus I feel like we already get along and now you know I¡¯m not going to be affected by your magic so I would still like to adventure with you if you still want to work with me,¡± He trailed off, his face burning and not even looking at her. After some silence he was worried that she had run out of the room in disgust and worked up the courage to see her reaction, but she had hid it from him by burying her face in the covers of the bed he was laying in while he made his spiel. ¡°Um, Thera?¡± He asked uncomfortably. He honestly felt maybe her running out would have been better than the silence that had fallen. At least that would be an answer. ¡°Okay,¡± Came a muffled voice from his sheets. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Yes I want to be friends with you too. Gods, how can you comfortably say something so embarrassing,¡± She sounded like she was dying from being so upfront about her feelings. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t describe how I felt as comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, I just don¡¯t know how one¡¯s even supposed to make friends with people okay? Is it just like you spend enough time with someone and slowly get to know each other only to eventually realize you¡¯ve both become friends?¡± She was quiet but still didn¡¯t take her head out of the blankets when she spoke again. ¡°Well, I guess from that definition we¡¯re already friends then.¡± CH32 It was maybe fifteen minutes later that Falk came running back into the room with a crate full of supplies and books, only to see that Ben was still blushing and Thera still had her face buried in the bed. ¡°Am I maybe interrupting something?¡± He asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Nothing uncle,¡± Thera said as she jerked upwards, her face flushed gold. ¡°We were just chatting while we waited, now come on, let''s get started,¡± He would have been willing to go up against the alseer again to dispel the current atmosphere, and thankfully Falk was merciful and let the matter drop. ¡°Alright boy get ready for one of the most grueling tasks I¡¯ve gotten for you yet, here''s some cloth and just do what I say to make a fanet¡¯ail cloak.¡± Ben was handed a square piece of cloth, about a foot by a foot in size, and immediately had questions. ¡°Isn¡¯t this a bit small? And what does that name even mean?¡± ¡°The fella who invented it just named it after himself as creatives tend to do and that''s just for your practice while I¡¯m still here. Make no mistake brat, that small piece will take you almost a day to enchant if you''re efficient. Prove to me you can manage it and I¡¯ll prep a full cloak for you to work on while I¡¯m gone.¡± He looked at the small piece of fabric in front of him. If this would be a full day then how long would it be to make the full thing? It was a daunting question but it would be a good challenge, not to mention good experience for his enchanting. At the stage he was at he wasn¡¯t using too many techniques more advanced than just layering them up. ¡°So what do I do?¡± ¡°As I said before, you''re just using fragments of skills. Not a single enchantment you add should actually be able to display its effects, it should feel more like making a sculpture from one grain of sand at a time, and much like sculpting with sand if you¡¯re not careful the entire enchantment will collapse. This won¡¯t break your material thankfully but it could still signify a significant loss of time, especially if you mess up toward the end. Now what you¡¯re going to do is only use your skills for this, don¡¯t enchant attributes or affinities. If I remember right you only have seven which is going to make it harder than what most people who have to make one of these will deal with but it should be manageable. You¡¯re just going to pile up a fragment of skill at a time until the entire thing is saturated, but you have to make sure none of the fragments are touching fragments of the same skill or it will collapse. Do you understand?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± He was a little overwhelmed by the sudden stream of information but also sure he would manage. ¡°Good. I¡¯ll be in town for a couple more days so I¡¯ll stop by to see how you¡¯re doing and if you need any advice. Last thing, unlike the way you currently do your enchanting, where you have to finish the enchantment all at once, this way you can at least take breaks from it thankfully since it¡¯s building it up from many parts, so you won''t need to stay awake for a week. Now good luck and check some of the books if you need to.¡± With that done Falk went back to his shop to finish up some of the work he was going to show his client and bid both Ben and Thera a good day. After he left Ben immediately started to focus on how he was going to approach the task while Thera went to prepare lunch. He thought she would be gone for a while but only a few minutes later she came back with a small plate of diced vegetables for the both of them. He happily took the plate and began eating but had to ask. ¡°Are you a vegetarian by any chance?¡± She looked down sadly at the plate of food in front of her as she picked through it herself, letting out a regretful sigh. ¡°No, it''s just that this is all I can manage." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. "What do you mean?" "I can¡¯t cook alright.¡± He hadn¡¯t been expecting that and immediately burst out laughing. ¡°It¡¯s not funny,¡± She said in a huff. ¡°You try learning to cook something when your mana will strip the enchantments from the stove.¡± He tried to contain his residual giggles. Admittedly breaking any enchanted tool you try to use was a pretty good excuse for not knowing how to cook. ¡°Sorry, sorry, my bad. Do you mind if I use your kitchen? I should be able to whip us something up.¡± Her eyes seemed to light up. ¡°You can cook?¡± ¡°What¡¯s there to be so surprised about? I have crafting, it comes with the package.¡± ¡°But you¡¯re always eating at food stalls.¡± ¡°I just like trying different things is all." ¡°Then that would be great!¡± She told him before calming down. ¡°Wait, no. Uncle Falk just said it¡¯s going to take you a day to work on this, and you¡¯re still recovering. I shouldn¡¯t waste your time.¡± ¡°I feel good enough to move and if it''s already going to take a day then what''s another hour? Come on, show me your kitchen.¡± ¡°Alright let''s go,¡± She stood and waited for him to get up but he didn¡¯t move. He cleared his throat and awkwardly told her. ¡°Um Thera, could you wait outside the room? I need to get dressed still.¡± With the problem revealed to her she quickly ran outside to wait, another blush spread across her face. Ben idly wondered if she was always blushing under her hood, or if it was just going to be today as she got used to him.
After getting up and dressed Ben came to an important conclusion. When Sonya told him that he was out of danger but would still need a few more days to heal, what that meant was that his organs were probably better, but his ribs were still very much broken, and as soon as he started moving around he could feel the pain from them. Still it was bearable and even if he could be satisfied with a plate of vegetables, he wanted something a bit more substantial after being out for a couple days. He made his way out of the room and was shown the way to the kitchen by Thera, before he started rummaging around their cold box for ingredients, making sure to supply it with some mana after he was done so it would keep its power. He diced up some meat and started cooking it on the stove. It was here he had to take some care. With his low fire-based affinity even using a fire enchantment could have a high mana cost, so he had to just try and keep an eye on it to make sure he would stay conscious. It seemed that since Sonya was the one who did the cooking and presumably had plenty of mana as a life mage she didn¡¯t feel the need to spring for a stove with a fire affinity tied to the enchantment to lower the mana cost and he was feeling it. While he was at the church still Lehie had warned him about plenty of fools who had accidentally run out of mana while cooking and managed to burn their houses down or get themselves killed, and Ben was in no hurry to join their ranks. He would have to cook it a little longer than he would have liked to but it worked out for his mana recovery, he just needed to have patience. Supposedly he could also use his crafting to run mana through the ingredients to make them cook faster the same way he could work with other materials faster by doing the same thing, but he hadn¡¯t gotten the hang of that yet, probably because he was so focused on not using up all of his mana while he cooked. Once the meat was almost at the level of doneness he wanted he added the veggies that Thera had cut up to soften them up a bit, while adding just a bit of water to the pan as well as some spices. He would have liked to make a thicker sauce for it but he wasn¡¯t familiar with some of the ingredients they had and they lacked others he usually used, so he couldn¡¯t get too creative. But still it was done. Thera pulled out a couple of bowls and they dug into the stirfry Ben had put together. ¡°It¡¯s good,¡± She told him as she wolfed it down. ¡°If we don¡¯t have leftovers I¡¯m usually just stuck eating chopped vegetables when my aunt''s working late.¡± ¡°Well thanks, while I¡¯m here I can help out with cooking at least. Maybe we can get Sonya or Falk to grab some of the ingredients I¡¯m more used to or show me how to use the ones here, then I can really get creative.¡± ¡°Sounds good to me,¡± She told him as she continued eating. Ben smiled. It felt good to share a meal with someone. CH33 After eating and cleaning up Ben went back to the room he had been given and started to figure out how he was going to try and approach this. Up to this point he had never tried applying anything less than the totality of a skill, and he figured that would give him the most trouble, so he carefully attempted that first. He started to use his enchanting and decided he would try focusing on using a fragment of dismantling first and got to work, trying to feel the way the skill was being laid down as he went. Aside from his usual method or any of the ways he had read about but had only dabbled with, this actually took more concentration. Even if he stopped placing the enchantment almost immediately it would create a small area that properly had a significantly weakened version of the skill, much in the same way he would do when he was piling up enchantments to break a material for his statues. He just had to get smaller. The cloth now had five small sections enchanted with dismantling, a skill all but useless to have on a piece of fabric, before he finally got it right, creating a grain of skill that couldn¡¯t possibly affect anything else in a meaningful way. With that success under his belt he was ready to start for real, but his practice created another problem he had to deal with first. Having practiced on the same fabric he was meant to enchant, Ben now had five sections he would have to remove the enchantment from, an application of his skill he understood in theory but had never tried before. After all the basic means he used to enchant tools with his resistances wasn¡¯t complex enough to require correcting as he went, and when he would make statues the point was for the enchantments to damage the material to get the end product. Freaking great. He thought to himself, and got to work, doing his best to remember how the technique was done and finding it coming back to his mind easier than expected. It essentially came down to activating his enchanting and using raw mana with it to pry it off. It was a tedious task and the mana cost was higher than it would be to apply a skill or resistance instead, but his teacher only gave him the one sheet so there was no wasting it. He didn¡¯t really think Falk would have any problem with giving him another, but it was a pride thing now. He wanted to get it done with the materials at hand. So he started his slow march towards completing his task. In the early stages he tried to fail a few times, just to see what would happen. He applied the same skill fragments beside each other, curious as to what would happen, and it caused them to combine into a bigger one, destabilizing the fragments around them and erasing the enchantment. It was a curious result. When he layered resistances in the past it had never happened before, making Ben assume that the skills may be uninclined to exist in a partial state, but once whole would destabilise the rest. It would be worth looking into more in the future, but for now he was content to know what would happen should he mess up, and began focusing on the task in earnest. Even with his focus and a generally patient attitude when it came to working on a task he had to admit this was a bit too monotonous, but his teacher did say he would be able to take a break while he worked. He would aim for about an eighth done and then stop to have a little rest.
So maybe he went a little longer than the eighth he intended once he got into his groove, having gotten about a fourth complete, but he really needed a break now. He had originally been counting the number of skill fragments it would take to make, but he gave up around three hundred after he lost count. It was times like this he desperately wished he had access to some sort of portable music player. Supposedly there were some magical music makers, but they were rare and expensive, not something he could manage. He felt he had a vague understanding of how record players worked, maybe once he got some time he could devote some trial and error to figuring one out, but that would be once he had a stable income, long after he was done making this cloak. On the other hand he knew Thera played at least one instrument. Perhaps he could convince her to practice while he worked. He''d at least broach the topic later. As he took some time to lounge before getting back to work, his mind turned to someone who had been mysteriously silent since his awakening. The one he would have thought to be the most invested, his god. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Hey Myriad, you around? I didn''t die so what¡¯s going on? Silence. Ben let out a sigh, he knew Myriad had other things he would do in his free time, though he really wasn''t sure what they were, and he had been a big help to Ben. He probably wouldn''t have survived without the warning or his gift skill, so he should really do something to show his appreciation. It wasn''t like he had started his quest yet, maybe he should start with getting him a new believer. After all, now that Thera had spoken to a god and he had tried to save her life she would probably be receptive. Maybe he should go ask her... Came a shout to his mind, startling Ben. Oh hey Myriad, I was wondering where you went. Go back a bit. Who are you talking about and what are you being punished for? Wait, why was it against any rules? She acknowledged you right? What? We were literally being attacked! Where the hell was her god during all this then? Okay if you say so, but I''m still not into it. So what''s your punishment? So back to having no one in their right mind to ask then? Gotcha. You''re right, sorry. Not sure how much you''ve been watching but things have been a little stressful. Can''t you just see it in my mind or memories? Ben decided to file that away as something that could be useful later before getting back to the main matter and told his god about the events of the last few days while he was unconscious and what happened after he woke up. Ben felt himself blush again as he remembered the embarrassingly honest exchange he had with Thera. Not really the main point here. Can you find this Roan guy? Okay, thanks Myriad. I¡¯ll try and figure something out. The connect skill did just save my life so maybe there¡¯s an angle we can work there. Of course that was a pretty specific situation and I still almost died. Pretty sure most people would prefer a skill that could save them before they had something sink their teeth into them, but I¡¯ll see what I can do. CH34 More hours passed and Ben made some significant progress when he noticed it was getting late and decided to go see Thera. He walked around her home to see where she could be before finding her in what seemed to be her bedroom, laying down with a book, so he gave a knock to get her attention. ¡°Hey Thera, any idea when Sonya will be home? I thought I¡¯d throw together dinner as a thanks for patching me up.¡± ¡°That would be great,¡± She said and put her book down. ¡°She¡¯s usually home in about an hour, do you want a hand?¡± ¡°Sure sounds good, thanks.¡± With that, they made their way to the kitchen and Ben started to dig around looking at the ingredients before deciding on making a raninal soup and some stuffed chreb, both dishes he learned while cooking at the church. He got Thera to cut all the vegetables they would need while he focused on assembling the ingredients and cooking. As they prepped the meal they chatted about the day, Thera talking about the book she was enjoying and Ben discussing his progress on his practice and how he was understanding why the cloaks were hard to come by, it was hard to imagine too many enchanters wanting to make these regularly. Eventually, they moved on to talking about other things while they worked on the food and let the time pass until Sonya got back. When she walked into the kitchen she was surprised to see them both at the stove, Ben powering it and working on a pan while Thera stirred a soup, and gave them a greeting. ¡°You know, usually patients are meant to rest and recover, but it does smell great in here.¡± ¡°Oh hey Sonya, you could say I¡¯m recovering from practicing my enchanting technique all day, it¡¯s super monotonous. Besides, I wanted to thank you for looking after me these past few days.¡± ¡°And you even got Thera to help,¡± She said with a smile. ¡°Hey I help you sometimes,¡± She spoke back defensively. ¡°She was a great help, I¡¯m sure if we can ever find a stove that can handle her she¡¯ll be a great cook. Anyway, it should be about ready so let''s eat.¡± They set the table and all sat down before digging in. Ben asked about Sonya¡¯s day at the clinic and she asked what they had gotten up to before broaching another topic. ¡°So Ben, how exactly did you become an apostle?¡± Sonya tried to bring it up naturally, though the curiosity had been at her all day. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve never met one before,¡± Thera added. ¡°It¡¯s nothing too exciting guys, I¡¯m pretty sure I got the role by default.¡± ¡°How could you possibly get such an important position with your god by default?¡± Thera asked. ¡°I¡¯m the guy''s only believer, so there were no other applicants for the job I guess. As soon as I accepted Myriad as my god it showed up as my title.¡± Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Wait, you''re his only believer?¡± Sonya questioned. ¡°Ben, don''t tell me you¡¯re involved with a forbidden god?¡± ¡°As long as he¡¯s telling me the truth then he shouldn¡¯t be,¡± Ben went on to explain what his god told him when they first met, how he was the accumulation of his race''s souls and how his race destroyed their planet rather than let the invaders get it. Thera and Sonya sat and listened with an intense focus until he finished explaining his god''s backstory. ¡°Your god sounds insane,¡± Thera remarked. ¡°Are you sure you want to worship a god composed of a group that would blow up a planet?¡± Sonya asked. ¡°I wasn¡¯t super into the idea at first but he¡¯s a pretty good guy. Chatty too, I get the impression he may have been lonely without any believers.¡± ¡°If you say so," Sonya said a bit dubiously. ¡°Though I still think I¡¯ll check with the church to make sure he¡¯s telling you the truth. But on a different topic, this meal was delightful Ben, thank you very much.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no problem, I¡¯m happy to cook while I¡¯m here if it can help out at all.¡± ¡°And that brings up the next thing I was hoping to talk about. It should only take a couple more days to get you in top shape, but by then Falk will be gone and I¡¯ll be busy in the clinic during the days so I¡¯m a bit worried about Thera being alone while Roan is still on the loose.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be fine Aunty.¡± ¡°Maybe you will be, but I¡¯m still worried. Ben since you¡¯re going to have to take a while to make the cloak anyway do you think you could work on it here? You¡¯re welcome to help yourself to whatever''s in the house of course but I¡¯ll feel a lot more comfortable having someone else around.¡± ¡°Sure, If you guys don¡¯t mind having me around I¡¯m happy to stay here for a while, with the shop closed there won¡¯t be a ton for me to do other than work on the cloak anyway.¡± ¡°Excellent! Thank you so much.¡± She said with a glowing smile. ¡°And if it''s alright I have another bit of a selfish request to ask you as well if that''s okay?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s hear it.¡± ¡°I picked up your plant and it¡¯s just at the front door, you can bring it to the room later, but while I was grabbing it I couldn¡¯t help notice all the paintings and drawings in your room. Would you happen to be an artist?¡± ¡°I guess I¡¯m something of an amateur one, yeah.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t sell yourself short, I thought the portrait you have in your room was fantastic.¡± ¡°Ah well thanks,¡± He told her with an awkwardness that she didn¡¯t pick up, though Thera did. ¡°It¡¯s of my family.¡± ¡°I thought it looked great! Is there any chance I could hire you to do a couple of paintings for me?¡± ¡°Sure, after all you¡¯ve done for me I¡¯ll do them for free as long as there isn¡¯t a time limit. What were you wanting me to paint?¡± ¡°I was hoping to get a couple portraits together with Thera if possible.¡± ¡°What, why?¡± Thera asked with a bit of discomfort on her face. ¡°I¡¯m not super into the idea of being stared at for hours to have a painting made.¡± ¡°Because it would make me and your parents happy,¡± She told her before turning back to Ben. ¡°Growing up we could never commission any family portraits because we couldn¡¯t find an artist who could handle her constitution, so her parents would absolutely love it.¡± ¡°Well sure I¡¯ll be happy to. If there¡¯s no rush, could I put it together after I get the cloak done?¡± ¡°That will be great for us, won¡¯t it Thera.¡± Thera for her part could see she wouldn¡¯t be allowed to get out of it and let out a long sigh. ¡°Alright sure.¡± CH35 Once dinner was done and they¡¯d cleaned up, Ben went back to bed to work on the cloth while Sonya sat nearby applying more life magic to his wounds. Ben was interested in watching at first since the last two times he had needed treatment he had been unconscious, but it wasn¡¯t anywhere near as visual as Thera¡¯s earth magic, with only a small amount of light being produced by the spell, so instead he devoted his attention back to his enchantment, pushing the limits of his focus as well in the hopes he would get it done by tomorrow. Eventually as he was working Sonya left, though that fact was only barely acknowledged in the back of his mind, and the hours passed as he concentrated on his enchanting before stopping to get some sleep for the night. When morning came and he woke up he got back to it immediately and was able to finish it in a little over an hour before he decided to get up and grab something for breakfast. After having more healing applied to him he was feeling a lot better, though still not in top shape, and was feeling ready to face the day. He knew Falk should be by at some point to check on his progress and hopefully have a cloak ready for him to work on, and in the meantime he leafed through one of the books his teacher had brought while he ate. It was a book on enchanting, one he had already read, but at the time he had thought a lot of the techniques would still be outside of his reach, now though he wasn¡¯t so sure. He was fairly confident that he would be able to twist and weave his enchantments if he tried, unfortunately there just wasn¡¯t much reason to. A skilled enough enchanter could do some interesting things, from lowering the mana cost of an applied spell to combining different skills to get certain desired effects different than what an individual skill could be capable of. But given that he had no magic and only a few skills, none of which he could see any reason to use together, such a technique was currently meaningless to him. His greatest drawback was not having grown up in the world. While an average person may have developed around twelve or fifteen different skills by his age, even if most were a low level, just by living their life and having gone through a couple jobs by this point, he still only had a handful due to his recent appearance here. For his classmates it wouldn¡¯t have mattered, they all had powerful skills that weren¡¯t affected by their lack of others, but for his enchanting it was brutal. With the few he had he couldn¡¯t do anything complex with them, and the worst part was that he couldn¡¯t even get the most out of enchanting being a blessed skill. Normally for every level of enchantment you could apply an equal level of a skill, but he should be able to get 50 percent more than that. At his current level of two, he should be able to apply level three skills, but enchanting was already one of his most powerful ones, meaning he couldn¡¯t even use it to its full potential. If he wanted to get more out of it that really only left two options. Either he could try and get more skills, or he could try and power-level up one he already had. Both options had their pros and cons. While getting more skills would be useful, they would all be stuck at level 0 for a while at least, and while power-leveling a skill would have its benefits there was no telling how long it could take. Not to mention the only skill he currently had that could be worth focusing on would be stealth, and as useful as he thought it would be to get it to a higher level, especially after their run-in with the alseer, he didn¡¯t want to neglect his enchanting or crafting to get it up. He sighed and slouched back into his seat. He would at least try and find a copy of the book of skills and acquisition conditions from a merchant. He assumed it would be on the expensive side, but it would be immensely helpful to have the reference around, and now that he had been using his blessed skills for a while he had a much better idea of what would be useful to him and what wouldn¡¯t. It was while he was dwelling on this he heard a knock at the door, and with Sonya already up and at the clinic and Thera in no position to answer it without a cloak he went to check it himself. Opening it up he was greeted by his teacher and they quickly went back inside. ¡°Everyone else busy lad? Not sure a patient should be the one getting the door.¡± ¡°Sonya¡¯s at the clinic already and Thera¡¯s still in her room, anyway I completed the piece you gave me if you want to give it a look.¡± ¡°Perfect, then I¡¯ll give it a look over and show you the final step.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Final step?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll get to that when I see it, come on now.¡± At his teacher¡¯s prompting he hurried to grab it before going back to meet him in the living room and have his work reviewed. ¡°Looks like you¡¯ve got the technique down well enough, all that''s left to do is seal it with an enchanting spell.¡± Finally something a little more exciting. He currently knew four spells linked to enchantment: harden, soften, strengthen, and weaken, and had practiced them all a bit from time to time, occasionally using them in his work too. Still more of the more interesting spells had the same issue that he had been just thinking on, they worked best when used on enchanted skills than on their own. ¡°Sounds good to me, what''s the spell?¡± ¡°Conjoin. Have you read up on it yet?¡± ¡°Of course I have,¡± He¡¯d read all of the books his teacher had made available to him by this point. He was actually hoping he could be provided with some new ones before he left. ¡°Alright good, so you¡¯ll just use your mana through enchanting to attach the fragments together, almost like gently laying a sealant over your work, understand?¡± ¡°Yeah I got this.¡± Ben did as he was told and started to form the spell, altering the mana inside of himself to give it the necessary properties. He was feeling impatient, which was why he hadn¡¯t bothered attempting it on something else first, but he was also careful enough to take his time with it and felt he had a solid understanding of the theory. It took a few minutes, but when all was done he had a completed fanet¡¯ail cloak. Well fanet¡¯ail scrap, perhaps he could sell the current piece to a rat as a cloak if need be, but as it was Thera wouldn¡¯t make any use out of it. He handed it to his teacher who gave it a look over on his behalf. ¡°Hmm¡­ Yep, looks like you managed fine. This should work perfectly.¡± ¡°Oh thank god,¡± The thought of having messed up at the end would have been pretty unbearable, so having the success under his belt was exactly what he needed. Though Falk was quick to throw some cold water on his relief. ¡°Don¡¯t be too happy yet boy, you¡¯re still far from free,¡± His teacher reached into a bag and pulled out a long and heavy green cloak. When one compared it to what he¡¯d already made he felt his enthusiasm plummet. ¡°Oh man this really is going to take a while, huh?¡± ¡°Damn straight. And this one¡¯s only going to be a temporary one for her too, I¡¯m probably going to be the sucker to make her main one after this so don¡¯t worry and just do your best.¡± ¡°Sounds good,¡± His teacher seemed done with their business but Ben wanted to ask for his opinion on a couple things before heading out. ¡°Hey Falk, are there any skills you think I should be learning?¡± ¡°Hmm? Well since you¡¯re adventuring you could start using a hammer as a weapon to try and get the hammer wielder skill, it will also help you out at the forge after all. But why?¡± It wasn¡¯t what he was looking for, but still an interesting piece of information that Ben filed away to consider later. He would at least need to grow his strength a bit more before considering that. ¡°I¡¯m more thinking about things I can use for my enchanting. The number of skills I have is pretty limited and none are great for it. Plus I¡¯m a little worried that I¡¯m not using my enchanting to its full potential.¡± ¡°Hmm, I see what you''re saying, but on the spot not much comes to mind. Magics are the biggest ones, but that¡¯s not really in the cards for you unless you learn a non-affinity magic, and those can be tough. Still I¡¯ll think on it and try to have an answer by the time I¡¯m back.¡± ¡°Wait, that sounds great and all but what do you mean by non-affinity magics, aren''t those just powerful evolved skills?¡± He had read about them a bit in some of the books on magic at the church, but it had sounded to him like it was when a skill turned until a significantly more powerful version of itself with an increased mana cost to go along with it, such as stealth turning into invisibility. ¡°Ah no, there¡¯s a few others too, heck you¡¯re enchanting technically counts as one of them, though probably the least mana costly one I can think of. The issue with that though is most people don¡¯t bother with them at all, and those that do have already gotten a decent skill level in one of their stronger affinities to build up their mana and have a better idea on how to use it. Not to say you couldn¡¯t learn one someday, but you''re gonna want your mana level a lot higher than it currently is if you do.¡± Ben sighed and felt dumb for getting his hopes up. There still wouldn¡¯t be any magic for him in his immediate future it looked like, though it would be worth looking into more non-affinity skills in the meantime. Just because it wasn¡¯t realistic at the moment didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t worth aiming for after all. ¡°Don¡¯t let it get you down boy, you just have to work to your strengths. You got resistance levels most people would only dream of in every affinity, if you were to specialise in enchanting armour and shields you¡¯d probably make a decent living.¡± ¡°That¡­ is a fantastic point. Definitely something I could fall back on if I can¡¯t manage anything else, but the heart wants what it wants, and I want to make something exciting. Maybe I¡¯ll manage something eventually.¡± CH36 They chatted for a while longer and Thera came out of her room after hearing Falk''s voice to greet him before he went off, letting them know he would be leaving tomorrow evening as he did. Ben prepared some brunch for them and then chose to sit in the living room and work on the cloak rather than be cooped up in the room he was using. When she saw this Thera decided to grab her book and join him while he worked, and it was like this the hours passed. His speed was a bit faster than it had been yesterday, with him feeling more confident with his technique than when he first attempted this, but progress was still slow, especially with how much more material he now had to work with. Still he focused heavily on the task, not letting any distraction get in his way until he noticed he was starting to get hungry and stopped to see the time. Deciding it was as good a time as any to start dinner he grabbed Thera again to help and they chatted while they prepared the food, Thera again discussing her book, a bit of historical fiction involving a political tension between two races, and the forbidden romance that sprang between the prince of one nation and the princess of the other. Ben made an offhand comment on how the star-crossed lovers trope seemed to be one that transcended universes, making Thera quick to ask about the fiction of his own world and what he enjoyed reading. As they spoke Ben found himself surprised to learn that while they lacked science fiction, they actually still had a form of fantasy stories, usually involving a person awakening to a previously non-existent affinity of magic and fighting off imaginary beasts that would exist in the myths of whatever race ended up writing it. ¡°How can anyone be sure these creatures only exist in myth?¡± Ben joked. ¡°This planet¡¯s such a hodgepodge I feel like you could find anything on it if you looked hard enough.¡± Even if he meant it as just a casual bit of fun, Thera took the question seriously. ¡°That¡¯s actually a good question. It¡¯s not like the gods brought over entire ecosystems with them, but so many things ended up coming along and running off that it¡¯s hard to say what¡¯s living in the untamed lands. That¡¯s not even considering the fact that some of these creatures could actually exist in their race''s original homeworld. There¡¯s a story from I think about 100 years ago where a writer from some race created an incredibly popular play that used a legendary beast, and their god stepped in to mention that they got the way it looked completely wrong, shocking everyone to learn that it had actually existed in their mother-world. Who knows how many other legends are like that too?¡± "Okay that would be pretty crazy," He couldn''t imagine how he would feel if someone could prove to him that not only had dragons existed on Earth, but nobody managed to nail the look. It must have been a surreal experience for that race at the time. After that Ben started to talk about different stories he had read and remembered well, then tried to explain video to her, a medium he felt this world was sorely lacking, when they finished preparing food and Ben felt a notification going off in his head. "Wow hell, really? Cooking a meal gave me the last bit of experience I needed?" "What are you talking about?" Thera asked, confused by his sudden outburst. "Looks like I finally completed my current job." He casually told her. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "That''s great! Why aren''t you more excited?" "It is exciting and all, I''m just keeping my expectations in check for now. When I first got this one it was the only option available, who knows if anything will show up when I check this time." "You were an Apprentice Craftsman right? You should at least have the Craftsman job now that you''ve finished the apprentice branch." "Fair enough, any idea where I can change it?" "There should be a room for it in the back of the guild, if you go and ask one of the members they''ll show it to you." Ben almost wanted to go check it out immediately, but he had told Sonya he would keep an eye out for Thera in the meantime, so it could wait until she was home. He enjoyed his meal with her before going back to work on the cloak, all the while hoping in the back of his mind that he would have at least a few more options available.
When Sonya came back in the evening Ben explained he wanted to go off to change his job but she insisted on applying more healing magic to him first before he left. He was almost better but she was adamant it wouldn¡¯t do for him to strain himself on the walk so he gave in before heading over. It was his first time outside in days and the fresh air felt nice. The sun was just starting to go down but he enjoyed the last rays of light as he made his way over to the guild. Walking into the building he felt the eyes of plenty of the adventurers fall on him as they enjoyed drinks at their tables. He chose to ignore them when he was immediately called out to by one of the employees. ¡°Ben! I¡¯m glad to see you okay,¡± Yelled Onk, leaving the desk and running up to him. ¡°I heard what happened, is it alright for you to be up yet?¡± ¡°Hey Onk, yeah I¡¯m good. Sonya has been working on me for a while so I¡¯m just a little sore is all.¡± ¡°Well that''s good,¡± They said before lowering their voice. ¡°And do you know how Thera¡¯s doing? With everything that happened to you and the rumors going around she¡¯s been arrested¡­¡± ¡°She hasn¡¯t been arrested,¡± He was quick to say. ¡°She¡¯s just not leaving her home right now is all.¡± He didn¡¯t feel it was his place to explain that she was basically under house arrest, especially since it seemed she could leave once he finished her cloak. ¡°That''s probably for the best until things die down a bit, but I¡¯m glad to hear you¡¯re both okay. After the commotion you both caused coming back to town and the fact that neither of you have come to the guild in about a week we were starting to get worried.¡± ¡°Sorry but we¡¯re both alright, it¡¯ll probably just be a couple more weeks until we start doing any requests again. Anyway, I actually came here because I heard you had a job change room somewhere?¡± ¡°Oh yes, it¡¯s not very grand but we do have a crystal in the back. Come along and I¡¯ll show you.¡± He followed Onk to a back room, far more shabby than the one at the church where he acquired his first job, and walked up to the crystal, placing his hand on top of it. He hadn¡¯t been expecting more than just the craftsman job, but he found himself both pleasantly surprised, as well as a bit confused. AVAILABLE JOBS
  • Craftsman
  • Enchanter
  • Trap User
  • Tree Tamer
I get Craftsman and Enchanter, even Trap User makes sense considering how I¡¯ve hunted for the past few months, but what the heck is a Tree Tamer? This deserved some proper consideration so he removed his hand from the crystal and turned back to Onk. ¡°Hey I don¡¯t suppose you know what the job Tree Tamer¡¯s for, do you?¡± They tilted their head in thought for a moment before giving an answer. ¡°I was under the impression that it was a dryad''s racially linked job. Unfortunately I don¡¯t know too much about it, but I know someone who might. Here follow me.¡± Onk led him back out to the main room and pulled him through the tables of adventurers until he saw who he was going to and felt his stomach drop. He let out a small groan. Of course it has to be them. At the table in front of him enjoying their drinks was Skoe and his two companions. CH37 They hadn¡¯t noticed them approaching until Onk called out to them. ¡°Pardon me Sachel, would you mind giving us a moment of your time?¡± They turned to them and the horned green girl, presumably Sachel, eyed Ben with some suspicion before answering. ¡°Hey Onk, sure what do you need?¡± ¡°Ben here is changing his job, but he got a bit of a unique option, we were hoping you may know something about it.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m not sure why you think I would know anything, but sure let¡¯s hear it.¡± ¡°Wait!¡± Skoe cut in. ¡°If he wants to know, he should hear us out first.¡± ¡°Skoe¡­¡± The snake-like Naga beside him started in a warning voice. ¡°Ralia he¡¯s brushed us off every time we¡¯ve tried to talk to him, if he wants our help I¡¯m not backing down now.¡± ¡°Really I¡¯m only looking for Sachel¡¯s help, but sure I¡¯ll hear you out,¡± Ben said casually. The three of them seemed completely thrown off guard by his sudden willingness to talk considering how he¡¯d ignored them up until that point, but by now he had a pretty good idea of what they were going to say anyway. Skoe was quick to recover. ¡°Well maybe you¡¯re not a complete lost cause after all. Look Thera¡¯s got some crazy magic that will mess with your mind. She used it to drive one of the adventures insane. Hell she just did it to the whole town a week ago. If you stick around her for too long you¡¯re only putting yourself in danger.¡± ¡°Skoe!¡± Onk yelled at him. ¡°You know damn well things are more complicated than that. Thera¡¯s a nice young girl, I won¡¯t put up with you trying to scare off her partner, understood?¡± ¡°But Onk,¡± Sachel spoke up. ¡°Even if Skoe oversimplified things too much, he¡¯s not wrong. Her passive magic drove Roan insane, and it took hours for people to shake their side effects after she ran through the town. He needs to at least be aware about it.¡± ¡°We all know that Roan was an unbalanced individual to begin with,¡± Onk argued. ¡°Not to mention that Thera warned both him and the guild. She should not be held responsible for our failings.¡± ¡°Plus,¡± Ben spoke up. ¡°The only reason she had run through the town like that was to save my life. Anyway I¡¯m already aware of all this. Is there anything else, cause if not I want to move on to my own problem.¡± ¡°Wait, you know? And you¡¯re still working with her? Just how deep has she gotten her claws into you?¡± Skoe asked. ¡°Onk come on, does he seem like he¡¯s reacting like someone who knows they¡¯re hanging around someone so dangerous?¡± Ben let out a long sigh and pulled out his card, for once taking care to hide all the information on it except his resistances. No need to make everyone aware of his status as an apostle. ¡°Skoe a toddler with a knife could be dangerous, it¡¯s not going to worry me too much. Anyway I can resist basically any passive magic from what I understand,¡± He wasn¡¯t strictly sure if that was true of course, but given the amount of mana Thera had access to it still only resulted in needing a resistance of 40, he was comfortable making that assertion for now. He tossed over his card and let the three of them take a look, pretty much ignoring all of their mumblings about his resistances as they looked it over. ¡°So it¡¯s all good and we can move on, right?¡± ¡°No. this is impressive and all, I¡¯m sure you¡¯d make a great tank with these resistances, but that doesn¡¯t mean you aren¡¯t affected by her,¡± He continued on stubbornly. Ben had to wonder if all of this was worth it for info on a job he doubted he would be taking anyway, but Ralia came to his defence. ¡°No Skoe, it does. Resistances don¡¯t count the same way for passive magics as they do for a regular spell. Instead of every ten points of resistance weakening a spell''s effects by about five percent, a passive magic can actually be measured to determine at what resistance level it wouldn¡¯t have any effects at. With the exception of some of the mana-based lifeforms around I¡¯ve never heard of anything needing a resistance higher than in the twenties.¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Skoe fell silent once this was explained to him and Ben found that was actually quite interesting to learn as well, enough so that he no longer considered the entire conversation a complete waste of time. Considering that Thera¡¯s father was one of those mana-based life forms it probably contributed to her higher power as well, and solidified his theory that he was immune to most, if not all passive magics. ¡°Alright, well now that that¡¯s out of the way, Sachel can you tell us anything about the Tree Tamer job? It¡¯s usually a dryad linked one, right?¡± Onk asked, bringing them back around to the original purpose of coming to their table. Hearing Onk''s question though, she bolted up and grabbed Ben¡¯s hands. ¡°You can become a Tree Tamer? So you awakened your skills into plant magic!¡± ¡°Um, no,¡± He said, unsure of how to react to the girl''s immediate change in demeanor. ¡°So you were able to get low plant magic then? I¡¯m so jealous, it¡¯s so hard to awaken if your race doesn¡¯t have a proper affinity for it.¡± ¡°Wait, no. I don¡¯t have any sort of plant magic. For that matter, what is plant magic?¡± She let go of his hands and looked at him funny. ¡°You must have something, how could you have tamed a plant without being able to properly understand it?¡± When she asked that, Ben had an idea on what he¡¯d done, but he had to verify. ¡°Is plant magic something that lets you talk to plants?¡± ¡°Among other things, but that''s the aspect you need to use to unlock the Tree tamer job,¡± She told him with a distant look in her eye. ¡°Plant magic is something that will awaken when you evolve life, water, and earth magic together. Of course there¡¯s also a small chance you can awaken low plant magic from training in those three attributes, and pure-blooded dryads have access to it from birth,¡± She suddenly focused back in on him again and got into his face. ¡°So how did you manage to unlock the job without it?¡± Ralia stood up and gently pulled her back a bit. ¡°Sorry about her,¡± She said. ¡°Her dream is to awaken to plant magic one day so she¡¯s just a little excited now.¡± ¡°Ralia you don¡¯t need to tell him that, I¡¯m just curious is all. So how did you manage it?¡± She asked again in a much calmer way. He didn¡¯t see too much harm in explaining. Actually what he saw was an opportunity. ¡°I used a skill called connect, it lets me link up to other living things and feel what they¡¯re feeling. I''ve been training it by holding conversations of sorts with my houseplant.¡± Her eyes lit up in excitement. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you could tell me how you got it, could you? If I want to awaken my skills then being able to talk to plants already seems like a good way to do it.¡± ¡°Couse, I have no problem letting you know, but you may not want to do it. I got it as a gift skill from my god.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± She deflated a little. ¡°So I¡¯d have to convert, and even then I wouldn¡¯t be guaranteed to get it.¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s not strictly true,¡± He told her, preparing a small lie. ¡°You would have to convert, yes. But my god Myriad is one with only a few followers and values every one he gets. When I converted his apostle assured me that as long as his followers would make sure to pray to him every day, they would eventually get a gift skill. It only took me a couple months.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Her eyes lit up, though she looked conflicted. ¡°But changing my faith just for a skill¡­ But if I really could get it in just a few months of prayer¡­ I don¡¯t even know anything about this god¡­ Ah I¡¯ll think about it!¡± She yelled. ¡°Would you mind if I ask you any questions I have about him later?¡± ¡°Sure I don¡¯t mind,¡± You see that Myriad? Look at me being a proper apostle. But his smug thought was met with silence. Of course the time I actually do this is a time he¡¯s not watching. "But anyway, back to Tree Tamer, could you tell me any more about the job?" "Oh sure of course. It''s pretty much just a job that helps you understand plants. You''ll grow a greater feeling for how to take care of them, as well as how to understand their needs. It usually helps you increase your plant magic if you get it, but since you don''t have it I would think it would provide bonuses to your connect skill. Usually it''s something dryad''s that want to care for their home forests acquire, but I think farmers get it too if they can to help produce better crops." "That was actually super informative, thanks, and if you have any questions about Myriad just let me know, I''ll be happy to help you out," With everything he needed done Ben left with Onk, back to think on what he should pick. CH38 He started to walk back to the job change room and reviewed his options. Trap User could be fun, and he did hunt a lot, but if it just made him more successful at hunting he didn''t care too much. As much as he enjoyed adventuring with Thera at the moment and gathering his own materials, he wasn''t sure he wanted to spend who knows how long leveling it up, not to mention that without combat skills it could still take an even longer time to complete. Tree tamer was another interesting one if what Sachel had said was correct, but maybe one he would leave for later in the future in case the main two he was interested in were dead ends after he completed them. Yes, the only options he was going to take seriously were Craftsman and Enchanter. Both had their positives and negatives as far as he could see. For Craftsman, he may be able to figure out a way to make better staves for Thera beyond just making them resist her magic more. The prospect of being able to make more complex things in general was appealing to him as well so he was sorely tempted by it. On the other hand it was an advanced version of the apprentice job he just had so it would probably take longer to level up. Enchanter seemed like it could help him in the immediate future. He might be able to finish Thera''s cloak quicker with the benefits it would give him and maybe he''d be able to level up his skill faster so he would be able to make a staff that could resist her magic more strongly. The issue was how useful it would be for anything else. Sure, he could just keep applying heavy resistances onto items to sell as his teacher suggested, but it wouldn¡¯t be good for much else. With no magic and no high-level skills he just couldn¡¯t feel too much point in it. After minutes of agonising over it and flip-flopping, he returned to the room and placed his hand back on the crystal, knowing his decision was made. Name: Ben Heph Race: Human Titles: Apostle of Myriad Jobs: Craftsman (lv 0) Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman Attributes
  • Vitality: 160
  • Vitality recovery rate: 1/hr
  • Mana: 84
  • Mana recovery rate: 5/min
  • Strength: 123
  • Agility: 84
  • Stamina: 576
  • Intelligence: 192
Affinities:
  • Light: 3
  • Life: 2
  • Fire: 4
  • Water: 3
  • Air: 4
  • Earth: 2
  • Death: 3
  • Dark: 1
  • Space: 4Time: 5 This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Resistances:
  • Light: 68
  • Life: 72
  • Fire: 75
  • Water: 69
  • Air: 66
  • Earth: 8
  • Death: 78
  • Dark: 85
  • Space: 63
  • Time: 61
Blessed skills:
  • Crafting lv2
  • Enchanting lv2
  • Focus lv1
Passive skills:
  • World speak+
Active skills:
  • Dismantling lv1
  • Stealth lv0
  • Connect lv1
Blessings
  • Myriads Blessing
The world spoke out to him, and it was remembering what it had said when he first picked the apprentice job that helped finalize his decision. It had said the same thing now, all crafting related skills would receive a growth bonus, so presumably it was any skill that would result in a final product or be used with crafting. In that case wouldn¡¯t enchanting count as a crafting related skill? Sure it wasn¡¯t a part of his craftsman skill already, but he couldn¡¯t help but think it was related enough that it might apply. Aside from that he had been able to level it up just as much as his crafting skill while he was an apprentice craftsman, so even if this was just a theory he felt it was worth taking the job anyway. With that finally done he went back to the house for the night.
When he got back both Thera and Sonya were curious about what he had ended up choosing, so he told them he was now a Craftsman and explained the other options he had available. They were especially curious about his potential to be a Tree Tamer, given that ordinarily one would need an uncommon magic variant to use it, but eventually the conversation died down and he went back to working on the cloak before turning in for the night. ¡°Oh Ben, it''s wonderful!¡± Yelled a floating cube that appeared in front of him shortly after he had gone to sleep. ¡°I received a prayer! It was just a greeting, but other than you and Thera I don¡¯t know how long it¡¯s been.¡± ¡°Sachel prayed to you already huh? Well that''s good, look at me being a proper apostle and everything.¡± ¡°Yes she mentioned she had heard about me from you, I was busy with another god so I didn¡¯t see, but tell me everything!¡± Once again Ben recounted the events of the day, talking about his job change and the options available for Myriad''s benefit. ¡°So I was thinking we could advertise the fact that your gift skill may help lead to awakening to plant magic. That is of course if you think it¡¯s possible, I¡¯m not going to go around lying for you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible but it¡¯s not a guarantee. From what I know the more you come to understand the combined magic you¡¯re attempting to gain the more you increase your chances of getting it. Having access to an ability and job that is closely tied to it could only improve your chances so it wouldn¡¯t be lying, but it would probably be best to be upfront about the fact that it¡¯s not a sure thing. I wouldn¡¯t want any of my future believers to turn spiteful on me after all. Of course the chances of awakening a skill are slim enough as it is that it probably wouldn¡¯t be a huge concern anyway.¡± ¡°Okay cool. Now I just need to figure out how to find people who want that magic, who knows how I¡¯ll manage that? Oh well, I¡¯ll figure that out after I get this cloak done. When I do you won¡¯t take too long to give any new believers the skill, will you? I told Sachel I got it in a couple months, I¡¯d feel like a dick if I got it that fast since I¡¯m your apostle and it will actually end up taking years or something.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about that. It¡¯s a bit hard to put in mortal terms, but I essentially have the blueprint for the skill now, unlike when I was preparing it for you I had to make it from scratch. A couple months should be a reasonable time-frame so long as they pray regularly. Of course I¡¯ll end up pretty busy for a while if we get a whole lot of believers trying to get the skill all at once.¡± ¡°Well I doubt we¡¯ll have to worry about that problem.¡± ¡°A god can dream.¡± CH39 The next week was a dull blur for Ben. Falk left and Sonya finished his treatment, and Ben spent most of every day he had working on the cloak and preparing meals with Thera. While doing both things he was constantly looking at his card, waiting to catch his level going up to see if there was only any growth while he cooked, or if he would improve his job by working on enchantment as well. It didn¡¯t take long to confirm his suspicions and convince himself that the Craftsman job considered enchanting a crafting skill. Other than that passing the time wasn''t too bad, eventually Thera found herself bored of her books as well and started to come and chat with him while he worked, but it was still tedious. The days were blending together, and since he wasn''t leaving the house he had all but lost his sense of time. Surely there had to be a better way than this? His teacher had mentioned there were others, but he hadn''t told Ben about them at all. Of course if there was a better option available he was sure that Falk would have done that instead of spending over a week making one of these stupid cloaks. "Um, Ben," Thera spoke up as these thoughts ran through his head. "Everything okay? You''re grimacing pretty hard." He took a break and felt his cheeks, he hadn''t realized how tensed up he had been. This must have been getting to him more than he thought. "I''m fine, sorry. Just understanding why these things aren''t more common. There''s no way an average person could afford the amount of time and effort that goes into one of them after all. Any enchanter that would want to make one of these would probably make a lot more money just producing a bunch of smaller simpler things." "I''m sorry to put you through all this work." "Don''t apologize, it''s my fault I broke yours anyway. I''m just going to have to do something a lot more fun after this is done to blow off some steam." "Oh yeah? What are you going to do then?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. He thought about it for a moment before his stomach gurgles, alerting him it was time to cook something, but also giving him his answer. "Let''s go to every restaurant and food stall in town." "I have to come too?" She asked with a hint of surprise. "Of course, you''ll have your cloak then so let''s eat till we puke." A small laugh escaped her while she considered his suggestion. "Okay sure, I¡¯m getting pretty bored being cramped up in here myself, but need I remind you I won''t be able to see through the hood of this one?" He gave a little shrug. "Then I''ll guide you. Anyway, speaking of food, I''m getting pretty hungry. Let''s cook something up. What are you feeling? "How about the salad you made the other day?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. "The cetail one? Sure we should still have the ingredients for it."
"Of course it happened now," He said with a sigh. "What''s wrong?" Thera asked, looking up from a game she was playing with Sonya. "Nothing, just thinking out loud. Anyway it''s done." Hearing his words they put their game on hold to rush over and give it a look. ¡°The appearance isn¡¯t going to change from how it''s looked the last two weeks guys,¡± It was a nice forest green, and all-in-all a good quality cloak, but the appearance hadn¡¯t changed much at all. He wasn¡¯t sure how good their mana sense was, but he could only barely tell the particular technique he had used because he knew what to look for, to an average person with any mana sense it would probably appear as if he had just laid a random skill on top of it without having any clue the amount of work it took. Still, its appearance didn¡¯t dissuade Sonya at all. "That''s wonderful Ben! Let''s see, it''s a little late but it should be okay if I grab a couple of the guards to verify it works. Wait here and I¡¯ll be right back," Sonya told him with cheer before running off. As they waited Ben took her place in the game and kept playing against Thera. It was called lowmage and vaguely reminded him of chess. Each team had a piece that represented a different magic affinity that would move a certain way or be able to perform an action, as well as ten non-mage pieces that could only move. By the time Sonya came back he was fairly confident he had left her in a terrible position to continue the game, and Thera threw on the cloak while the guards waited to be let in. ¡°Alright Dewbal, go in and let''s see how it goes,¡± Said one guard to the other, forcing him inside while he waited a few meters away. ¡°What are they doing?¡± Ben whispered to Sonya, unsure of how they were testing the cloak. ¡°Basically a guard with a high resistance waits to the side in case anything goes wrong while a guard with a low one approaches Thera. If she can noticeably affect his will at all the idea is the first guard can run and alert the others of the problem if it seems that they¡¯ll try something they shouldn¡¯t,¡± She lowered her voice even more before continuing. ¡°Of course, if the cloak doesn¡¯t work there''s no way either of them would be safe from her magic, but it should be fine.¡± ¡°Cool, no pressure,¡± Now Ben was getting nervous, it would be a nightmare if he did something wrong while making it and it didn¡¯t end up working. While they spoke the guards told Thera to give an instruction and she did. ¡°Jump five times.¡± It sounded a little silly, but it was as good an option as any, and Ben waited with bated breath as worry started to seep deeper into him, but the guard stood motionless. They continued on with a few more questions and attempts for certainty, but with each failed attempt Ben was feeling more and more sure of the quality of his work. It was doing its job, no doubt about it. ¡°Alright, everything seems in order.¡± Said the first guard. ¡°As long as you make sure to wear it properly there¡¯s no problem with you going outside. I¡¯ll make sure the rest of the guards are aware of the results.¡± ¡°Thank you both so much for coming on short notice,¡± Sonya told them happily. ¡°It¡¯s no problem ma¡¯am, now if you¡¯ll excuse us we¡¯ll be heading out. You folks have an excellent night.¡± When they left Ben turned to Thera with a big grin on his face. ¡°So, eating till we puke?¡± CH40 ¡°I¡¯m having second thoughts,¡± Thera said in the morning as they were preparing to head out. ¡°I¡¯m not going to be able to see anything, this is going to be such a pain. Why don¡¯t we wait until uncle gets back and makes me one I can see through?¡± ¡°Thera, that could be a couple weeks. Besides, it will actually break my heart if the cloak I spent two weeks on never sees any use, forever waiting in a closet for an emergency that will never come. We have to go out at least once.¡± ¡°Okay fine, just don¡¯t let me fall or bump into anyone. Let¡¯s just grab our food and come back here.¡± ¡°Sure sounds good to me.¡± They linked arms and started to make their way through the town, Ben making sure to keep a slow but comfortable pace for Thera to keep up with, and went on their way. They hit each stall they walked by, trying to take a loop that would bring them across all the ones he knew of to the biggest restaurant in the town, before making their way back to the house. Unfortunately things typically went better in his head than in practice. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± Thera asked him after the first few stops. She had felt his arm slowly tense up throughout the stroll, but with her vision obstructed had no way to see what was going on. ¡°No, everything¡¯s good,¡± He lied. On the first few stops he noticed they were getting some strange looks, but he didn¡¯t think much of it. Now though some of the people were looking a lot more angry and he had to remember that even if she was covered up, she was probably easily identifiable to the majority of people living in the town as the person always in a cloak with various scary rumors surrounding her. Given that some of these people may have even been taken in by her magic those few weeks ago he had to wonder if she would actually be able to work in the town again once Falk was back and Roan was caught so he decided to cut their walk short. ¡°Hey I think we actually have enough food that we¡¯re going to be sick by now, five stalls is more than I thought.¡± ¡°Oh I was kind of looking forward to the takeout from the restaurant, their food¡¯s really good.¡± ¡°Oh yeah? Why don¡¯t we go when you get your new cloak then? You¡¯ll probably like it a lot more if you aren¡¯t stuffed while eating.¡± ¡°Well that''s true. Okay sounds good, but I¡¯ll be holding you to it.¡± ¡°Hey now I won¡¯t bail, I haven¡¯t tried any of their stuff yet myself,¡± He tried to keep their conversation going while picking up the pace a bit, and made it back home.
¡°So are you going to tell me what happened?¡± She asked as they were sitting down and eating, sampling a bit of everything. She was more perceptive than he¡¯d hoped, but he still tried to brush it off. ¡°I have no clue what you¡¯re talking about." She silently stared into his eyes, waiting for a real response, and he let out a groan. ¡°Okay, I just wasn¡¯t getting the impression that people wanted us around was all.¡± ¡°You mean people didn¡¯t want me around,¡± She responded, putting her food down and turning away. ¡°Things will calm down soon Thera, try not to stress out.¡± ¡°Will they? I¡¯m sure everyone who wasn¡¯t already scared of me is now. And now I¡¯m going to be stuck here alone until Falk gets back and sorts out my cloak. Hell, even when he¡¯s back people still won¡¯t want me in this town, but aside from Anailia this is the only place I have any close family. Even in Anailia I¡¯ll still be by myself.¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°What about any friends in your homeland?¡± ¡°My charm is so strong it beats the darkness resistance of the majority of succubi. I¡¯m just lucky Aunty Sonya''s levels of resistance are high enough that she isn¡¯t affected and Uncle Falk got a high-quality resistance amulet made.¡± ¡°A resistance amulet?¡± He asked despite himself, only to immediately tell himself off. Clearly the time to ask that Ben, you big dumb idiot. Thankfully she didn¡¯t seem bothered by it. ¡°It basically just covers you in a layer of whatever the resistance level is on the amulet, it¡¯s usually hidden behind his fur. Still it¡¯s not like everyone can have one of those things,¡± She teared up a little and hid her face in her arms on the table. ¡°I never asked for any of this, you know. It¡¯s not like I want to have this effect on people.¡± ¡°I know,¡± Without any thought he slid his chair over and gave her head a gentle pat, the same way he used to do to calm down his little brother when he got upset. ¡°I just want to be normal,¡± She said in a much smaller voice. He didn¡¯t know what he could say to help the sad girl at his side, so he tried to reassure her the only way he could. ¡°Well either way you won¡¯t be alone here until Falk gets back, I¡¯m still around right?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you agree to only stay here until you finished the cloak?¡± She asked, peeking up at him. ¡°I¡¯m sure Sonya won¡¯t mind me staying another week or whenever it is Falk gets back. Besides, I still have to paint those pictures I promised her; and anyway people are quick to forget, I¡¯m sure in another week or two things will calm down.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see,¡± Still even if she didn¡¯t seem confident about it she rubbed her eyes and sat up. ¡°I have confidence. Now come on, let''s finish up here and do something, I still have to redeem myself in lowmage.¡± She gave a small laugh. ¡°I don¡¯t think you could possibly manage that, but I¡¯d like to see you try.¡±
¡°That''s four wins and zero losses for me,¡± She said, adding another tally to a sheet of paper. ¡°Thera please, I¡¯m asking you to have a little mercy on me and hold back a bit.¡± ¡°No can do, you¡¯ll never get better that way.¡± ¡°This is also only my tenth time playing ever. I need to work on getting my strategy down is all.¡± ¡°Well then work away, until a merchant passes through with some new books there isn¡¯t much else to do currently.¡± ¡°Alright fine, just you wait until I make a chessboard or something, you¡¯ll be begging for mercy,¡± He was terrible at chess too, but hopefully she would be worse. His proclamation only made her eyes light up though. ¡°Is that a game from your world?¡± ¡°Yeah, it was a pretty popular one too. Honestly not my first pick for games I would make though, I just said that one because it¡¯s hard.¡± ¡°Alright, you should definitely make some then.¡± ¡°Will do, but if you want to do something different aren¡¯t there other games from this world we could play? Surely with all the different races around there has to be a good variety.¡± ¡°There is, but boards and pieces and whatever else you need have to be made, and if the craftsman you get doesn¡¯t understand the rules they may make it wrong if you commission it. Sometimes merchants bring some to town, but this place pretty much exists because it¡¯s on the way to a gate, board games aren¡¯t a priority when every town is going to have access to at least a couple ones around.¡± ¡°So chances of me getting rich off selling Earth games?¡± ¡°Slim, but I¡¯m sure any you try to sell at the next market will do well if you make some.¡± ¡°Cool I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡± As they were talking a knock came from the door, and Ben went to check it while Thera went to throw on her cloak. When he opened the door there were two guards present. ¡°Hello there, would miss Thera be home at the moment?¡± Oh god what now? ¡°And if she is?¡± He asked, a bit more defensively than he meant to. The second guard spoke up. ¡°You don¡¯t need to be so worried, there''s just a problem we were hoping we could get her help with, it¡¯s rather important unfortunately.¡± Thera had heard what they were saying as she donned her cloak and slid up behind Ben. ¡°What could I possibly help you with?¡± She asked in genuine confusion. ¡°We need you to come to the guards room. Roan¡¯s been caught.¡± CH41 ¡°I don¡¯t like this Thera, we should head back. At least talk to Sonya before we go in there,¡± Ben told her with apprehension filling his voice as they stood outside the guards room. She responded with a shake of her head. ¡°Ben, if what he¡¯s saying is right then I need to do this. I can¡¯t risk people dying just to avoid dealing with the guy. Besides, the guards will be in the room.¡± ¡°Well I will be too,¡± For all the good it will do. Hey Myriad, what¡¯s the word? Fuck. As the guards walked them to where Roan was being kept they explained the situation. The man had simply walked up to the gate and demanded to be allowed to go through so he could see Thera. The guards were aware of him of course and not going to answer to the demands of a dangerous madman, so they had brought him in for questioning. He was happy to talk, even owning up to attacking them in the woods and running away once he failed, only to come back for his main plan, the one that would win the heart of the woman he thought he loved. They entered the main room and found Roan standing, chains around his arms and legs binding him to the floor. It was Ben''s first chance to see the man and he was taken aback. Roan was a hominid type, having a generally humanoid appearance, but his eyes were clearly compound, and his bare arms had a thick chitin shell on the top, with a softer flesh on the underside. What really unnerved him was how the moment Thera stepped into the room his eyes were immediately pulled to her, as if Ben and the guards didn¡¯t exist. In the back of Ben''s mind he idly wondered how he was even sure it was her, given that she was wearing a new cloak and her magic couldn¡¯t be leaking through, but the thought passed when the sound of his deep, almost hungry breathing caught his ears. They stopped far outside of the man''s reach but Ben continued to hold Thera¡¯s hand as he had been guiding her, partly to support her and partly to make sure she didn¡¯t get too close. He couldn¡¯t help but not want her anywhere near the guy, and judging from how tense she felt he thought she was feeling the same. ¡°Oh Thera, it¡¯s been too long,¡± He told her, seeming to be carving her image into his mind as he did. ¡°Hello Roan. I was told if I came to see you, you''ll put a stop to all this,¡± she quietly responded. He licked his lips and Ben found himself immensely grateful that she couldn¡¯t currently see through her cloak''s hood. ¡°Of course, once I save the town you¡¯ll be mine. I¡¯ll be sure to give you the top position among my wives, you deserve no less after all.¡± ¡°Roan, how could you think leading a pack of monsters here could possibly win me over?¡± She asked, slightly incredulously ¡°No my heart! You have it all wrong, I lead them here to send away! Freeing the town of danger. A man who could do such a thing is quite powerful, is he not? Truly he would be fit for a woman such as you,¡± He jerked forward and strained against his chains, desperately trying to reach her, but only causing her to take a step back behind Ben, and Roan''s eyes moved to him. ¡°Just wait Thera, I¡¯ll show you I¡¯m more fit to be by you¡¯re side than some filthy fucking artisan.¡± ¡°You know who I am?¡± He asked in some surprise. Sure he had been attacked by the guy, but as far as he could tell they never even got close enough to see each other. ¡°How could I not know the man who has the nerve to be with my woman?¡± He snarled. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t run that day you could have bled out comfortably you know, fighting a man in a warrior''s death. Instead I needed to sick my pet on you. How did you even see me coming those times?¡± ¡°I have friends in high places,¡± He said as an offhand comment, before he fully processed what Roan had said. ¡°Wait, those times? When else have you attacked me except with the alseer¡­ wait,¡± There had only been one other time he¡¯d been attacked, in what he had thought had been a random mugging attempt. Apparently it wasn¡¯t a mugging or very random at all. ¡°That was you?¡± ¡°So you didn¡¯t even know? Surprising. Though not as much as my surprise when I came back and saw you with her. Oh I¡¯m sorry my heart! I know you said to leave but I had to come back and see you! To gain the strength for what I needed to do! But imagine my surprise to see this man walking with you down the street. I couldn¡¯t just let it stand!¡± ¡°Ben, what''s he talking about?¡± She asked him, grabbing his hand even tighter. ¡°Remember when I thought I was almost mugged a month or two ago? I think he saw when you took me to go and get a plant that day.¡± ¡°Oh I saw you, it gave me the resolve I needed. You¡¯re a desirable woman Thera, I needed to make sure you realized you¡¯re already mine before another man tried to get you.¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Then why did you attack her?¡± Ben asked with anger rising in his voice. ¡°Your stupid alseer could have killed her!¡± ¡°IT WAS GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU INSOLENT BASTARD! My precious pet would never possibly harm Thera.¡± From the way it charged that day Ben couldn''t say he believed that. From what Thera had told him he wasn¡¯t a great tamer. But then again the situation they were currently in made him question how much better he was with a staff enchanted with high-level taming. It was hard to imagine a bad tamer could pull this off. He was about to retort, but Thera quietly stopped him. ¡°Ben, we just need to get him to send off his monsters. After that this is over,¡± She let go of his hand and took a step forward, letting Roan see her put distance between her and Ben. ¡°Alright, so I just need to watch you send away your beasts so you can prove yourself to me, and that''s the end of it.¡± ¡°And then you¡¯ll finally be mine.¡± Thera said nothing to this, instead turning to one of the guards. ¡°I agree to accompany you for this. Take him to the south gate and let''s get it over with.¡± One guard left to call more into the room, removing the chains binding him to the floor while adding more to ensure he couldn¡¯t move freely, and walked him out, with Thera and Ben following a little ways behind to ensure he couldn¡¯t see Ben leading her by the hand. It wasn¡¯t too late in the day, there were still people up and around to see a group of guards moving to the south wall, pulling along a man raving like a lunatic. ¡°OH THERA! I don¡¯t even need another woman once I have you if that''s what it will take to make you happy! I¡¯ll go through any shame, nothing is too great!¡± On and on he went as more eyes were drawn to them all, and Thera shrank down even closer to Ben. Even without being able to see the stares of everyone around, hearing his screams and declarations were enough to make anyone uncomfortable, but she suffered through it in silence, just wanting to get this over with so she could go back home. As they finally approached the gate, a number of the town''s adventurers were already there, waiting and glaring at them. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Ben asked the nearest guard. ¡°With as many monsters as he said he¡¯s lured here, we need to play it safe in case he decides to attack the town after all. All of the available adventurers have been summoned here while we were bringing him over.¡± When Roan saw the crowd of his former peers, he stopped his ravings and his face changed to one of rapture. ¡°Yes! This is the way it should be! Truly great heroic deeds and heartfelt proposals both need audiences! Thera, after the town is saved everyone here really will know you¡¯re mine! No other fool will dare try something against the wife of the hero of Stonewall!¡± Many of the nearby adventurers could hear Roan¡¯s deranged shouts and were making disgusted, angry faces. Most at him, but still a few found their way towards Thera, no doubt thinking she made him like this. For her part she tried to remain calm as she spoke. ¡°Alright Roan, send away the monsters and save the town for me then.¡± ¡°Of course my heart! Bear witness to me!¡± He took his staff from one of the guards and approached the southern gate, with Thera, Ben, and plenty of the guards following behind him. As Ben stared out into the field towards the forest he didn¡¯t see any monsters, but Roan was quick to change that. ¡°Come out my pets!¡± He screamed into the night, as five swords wielded by a variety of guards were quickly pulled on him. ¡°What the hell do you think you¡¯re doing!¡± The leading one screamed. ¡°Ah my poor fool. Can it really be said I saved the town from danger if no one can even see the danger? As soon as they come out I¡¯ll send them away, not to worry.¡± Though as his pets started to pour out, worry they did. Myriad had been right, there were at least thirty different monsters, all of them different species and many of which Ben had never seen before, while most of them looked half-starved. There was no way to easily keep a herd that big fed by one person after all. What, why? But before he could get an answer Roan continued on with his performance. ¡°Oh monsters! Leave this land in peace, never to bother it again!¡± He yelled out, as if he hadn¡¯t just called them all his pets only moments before. That''s where the biggest issue began. Perhaps only two of the entire group left, the rest stayed, staring at the town. Roan clearly wasn¡¯t expecting this and grew agitated, yelling out once more. ¡°I said leave! Go off, you stupid animals!¡± But no matter how he yelled, they weren¡¯t obeying. In fact they started to take steps closer, walking towards the gate. The guards pulled Roan inside and started screaming orders, securing the man and starting to close the gate. In his head Ben heard his god sigh. What¡¯s going on, why didn¡¯t that work? Then what the hell do we do. How many of them will die if we wait and do that? <...> Okay, screw that. I think I have an idea. CH42 As some of the guards pulled a screaming Roan off to a cell somewhere, the rest gathered with the adventurers to form a plan, leaving Thera and Ben alone. ¡°This is all my fault,¡± She said. ¡°I drove that asshole insane and now people are going to die.¡± He didn''t know what he could possibly say, so he didn¡¯t even try to raise her spirits, instead asking more important questions. ¡°Thera, are you alright with facing a bit of danger to try and help save the town?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing I can do. Maybe if my magic was better, but I¡¯m a level one earth mage Ben. I can¡¯t save anyone.¡± ¡°That''s not what I asked. Are you willing to try?¡± After a moment of silence she gave him a nod. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And will you trust me?¡± A longer silence. ¡°Yes, I trust you Ben.¡± He smiled. ¡°Alright, come with me,¡± He took her hand and led her over to where the group of adventurers and guards were arguing over what to do. ¡°Let¡¯s just wait them out.¡± ¡°For how long? They wouldn¡¯t obey their tamer, why would they just leave?¡± ¡°If we attack now we may be able to catch some by surprise.¡± ¡°Sure, some. But how many of us will die after? And what if they make it through the gate?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know how long we have until they attack,¡± Said a woman who appeared to have the most authority among the adventurers. ¡°If anyone has any options, say them now. Otherwise we try to attack while we still have the light.¡± ¡°I have an option,¡± Ben called out from the back of the group. The woman eyed him for a moment, as well as casting a more complicated look at Thera next to him. ¡°And who might you be?¡± ¡°Ben, sixth rank adventurer. Let me and Thera go around one of the other gates and try to draw as many as we can towards us. We¡¯ll bury as many as we can with Earthwave, while we¡¯re doing that any mages and archers can fire from the walls at the stragglers.¡± ¡°An interesting idea, but can you do it?¡± She asked. ¡°The young woman is known to have poor control over her magic, unless you¡¯re also a competent earth mage?¡± ¡°Nope, just a humble Craftsman. But unless you have any other viable options better than just attacking you have nothing to lose from letting us try.¡± The woman let out a sigh and rubbed her head. ¡°Does anyone have a better idea than letting these two idiots get themselves killed?¡± ¡°Let them die!¡± Yelled one of the adventurers. ¡°It¡¯s the girl¡¯s fault we¡¯re in this mess anyway.¡± The moment the words left his lips the man was on the ground, a large rock having struck his chest and knocking him over. Ben had been looking at the woman the entire time, but was barely able to see her throw it. ¡°Listen up and listen well. The guild has already admitted responsibility for what happened with Roan. It¡¯s our fault for not taking the passive magic effects Thera warned us about seriously. As guildmaster of this branch if you have a problem with that decision you have a problem with me. Do I make myself clear?¡± A variety of yesses, yes ma¡¯ams, and other confirmation of her statement echoed from the surrounding adventurers. ¡°Good. Now as I was saying, does anyone else have a better option?¡± Silence fell amongst the crowd and the guildmaster let out a sigh. ¡°That''s what I thought. Alright then try your plan. When it fails, hightail it back to the gate, hopefully you won''t die in the process.¡± ¡°Not to worry ma¡¯am, we got this.¡± If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
¡°Ben, what in the infinite hells did you mean we¡¯ve got this?¡± Thera yelled as they made their way through the western gate and headed south where the monsters were prowling. ¡°There¡¯s no way we can do this.¡± ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you speak up?¡± ¡°You were talking with the guildmaster! I couldn¡¯t just say anything in a situation like that.¡± ¡°Well it doesn''t matter. Thera I asked you to trust me. Can you still do it?¡± ¡°I will, I just really hope we both don¡¯t end up dead for it. Especially since earthwave is a high-level spell. You know there¡¯s no possible way I can cast it right?¡± Ben shook his head. ¡°Wrong. The only reason Earthwave is a high-level spell is because of its mana cost, an issue you don¡¯t personally have.¡± ¡°How can you possibly know that?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve read up a bit on the ten basic magics at least.¡± ¡°Okay but regular earth bullets break my staves, there¡¯s no way it can survive an earthwave.¡± ¡°They break the staves I can make. The last one Falk gave you hasn¡¯t suffered any wear and tear yet, and as much as I hate to admit it, it¡¯s the only reason this is an option. You should be able to manage, I¡¯ll just need to help. You focus on preparing the spell, I¡¯ll focus on making sure the staff won¡¯t break. There¡¯s just one more thing.¡± ¡°Oh gods, what else could there be?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to connect with you.¡± She could only sigh. ¡°Fine, compared to everything else it¡¯s not like that matters much.¡± ¡°Well we¡¯ll see,¡± He said awkwardly. "This will be my first time using the skill on a person since it leveled up, so it may feel a little weird.¡± ¡°If it will keep us alive I¡¯ll deal with it,¡± They got within view of the monsters, but it didn¡¯t look like they had been noticed yet. Many of them had gotten fairly close to the main gate though. ¡°Should here be good, do you think?¡± ¡°Yeah, I think it will be good. Let''s get ready and once you¡¯re about to start the spell, pull off your hood to attract them, okay?¡± ¡°Alright let''s do this. Gods this is crazy.¡± She held her staff forwards and Ben wrapped one hand around the staff and the other around Theras hand. He took a deep breath and connected. The feeling was intense. Like he was about to be blown away. The moment he connected to her he felt a more extreme pressure than he had ever felt in his life, Like he was trying to push off a car that was driving into him, and he realised he was feeling the force of her mana. He couldn¡¯t let it distract him though, and he pushed his focus skill to the limits to keep his attention on everything. Thera¡¯s mana, which was nearly overwhelming, her emotional state, which was horribly scared from the situation she found herself in, as well as just enough trust in him to go through with his crazy plan, and something else, moving out of her and into her staff. Her earth magic skill. Ben felt it pass through the staff he was holding, more aware of the enchantments Falk had laid on it than he had ever been before, and knew that if he tried to lay a single strengthening spell on it that it would probably break, that was how many enchantments he¡¯d forced into it to help make it manageable for her magic, so instead he didn¡¯t use his enchanting. He used his crafting, Passing mana through it at the same time as Thera, and doing the opposite of what he would usually do as he forged something. Instead of making it easier to work with using his mana, he made it harder, selectively strengthening areas he felt becoming more fragile as Thera prepared her own spell, and draining his mana in a way that his low-intensity skills normally never would. She tore off her hood and all the monsters turned at once, and as if they were a singular herd moved to run towards them, hunger in their eyes. They were far enough away that it would be a minute before the fastest one got to them, and they passively watched as the seconds ticked by, Ben remaining calm and focusing on the task at hand, ensuring that the staff would hold for the spell, but felt her panic begin to spike from the approaching hoard. ¡°Thera,¡± He told her with as much confidence as he could convey. ¡°You can do this.¡± Her panic dropped slowly and the burden on him to hold the staff together eased up as she got a bit more control of her magic. When the nearest of them was a short fifteen feet away she finished activating her spell, the earth rose up. Tens of meters of earth around them lifted from the ground and started to roll into itself like a wave, dragging each beast it caught in an ocean of dirt with it, and it didn''t stop. The waves continued, flying out and devastating the land around them, altering the landscape and even reaching the town walls, tearing chunks out of it as it went. As dust filled the air and a scene of chaos and destruction appeared before them, the last staff she had gotten from Falk shattered in their hands, and no monsters could be seen amongst the carnage. ¡°Oh gods Ben! My earth magic level just increased, and we¡¯re alive, and we did it!¡± She had him in a hug before he knew it, completely catching him off guard, but he hugged her back weakly. ¡°That¡¯s fantastic news Thera,¡± He said, only barely getting the words out before falling into her and losing consciousness. CH43 Ben cracked open his eyes to find himself in a familiar bed. He turned to the woman sitting in a chair to his side and spoke up. ¡°We really should stop meeting like this.¡± ¡°I agree completely,¡± Sonya told him. ¡°If only a certain patient would stop getting so injured all of the time.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s wrong with me this time?¡± He actually felt fine now that he was awake, and figured she had already done whatever treatment he needed, but he got an unexpected answer. ¡°Nothing was really wrong, you were just suffering from mana exhaustion. We just needed to wait for your mana levels to fill up and eventually wake up.¡± ¡°Wait, how could I possibly be mana exhausted?¡± ¡°I would personally like to know the same thing. I¡¯ve heard it was possible to happen to people with no magic skills if they happened to use multiple other skills at the same time, but I¡¯ve never actually seen a case in person. Of course from what Thera told me and I¡¯ve heard from everyone showing up, it shouldn¡¯t be too surprising,¡± She gave him a stern look for a minute before softening up. ¡°You don¡¯t know how badly I want to be mad at you right now. You put yourself and my niece in extreme danger with that stunt. You both could have been killed.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t know what I was thinking,¡± He didn¡¯t personally consider himself to be someone who would rush into danger, he felt like he¡¯d been swept up in the moment, not wanting anyone in his new home to have to die. Sonya let out a long sigh. ¡°You know, I was expecting you to fight me a little, not just immediately give up like that. With everything else how am I supposed to stay mad?¡± ¡°Everything else?¡± ¡°After the guildmaster identified you as being mana exhausted she carried you back to the house with Thera in tow before she had someone run to get me. Since you¡¯ve been asleep a lot of the adventurers who had seen you both fight came to convey their respects, as well as apologise to Thera about how they¡¯ve treated her. It wasn¡¯t everyone of course, many people get stuck in their ways and opinions, but it looks like she has more people on her side now than when Roan started this whole situation to begin with.¡± ¡°That''s fantastic!¡± He cheered before regaining his calm. ¡°And what about Roan? Last I saw he was being dragged away?¡± ¡°That, I¡¯m not sure. They¡¯re going to send him off to try and get some mental help with a light mage but it¡¯s hard to say how much of this was an effect of Theras magic and how much was just him. Even if he loses all of the lingering effects her magic had on him he may just be a naturally unbalanced individual. The proper authorities will be keeping an eye on him for a while. Anyway don¡¯t worry too much on that, someone¡¯s been rather worried about you for a while now,¡± Sonya turned to the door and pulled Ben''s attention to it as well, making him see a pair of golden eyes peeking through the side. ¡°I need to go prepare dinner. Why don¡¯t you two chat till it¡¯s ready.¡± As she left she ushered Thera in, and it ended with the two of them alone. Thankfully Ben hadn¡¯t needed to be undressed this time, so he still had the dignity that came with wearing pants when he sat up. ¡°How are you feeling?¡± She asked him. ¡°Well rested. Sonya mentioned things have been going well since I¡¯ve been out.¡± Her cheeks flushed a bit before Ben''s eyes. ¡°Well a lot of them were on top of the wall watching. Apparently they started throwing spells when all the monsters got too close but I didn¡¯t notice since it was taking my all just to use that spell, but everyone who saw it was impressed and I guess it made some people re-evaluate me a bit.¡± ¡°That''s great!¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m pretty sure plenty of people still consider me the cause of all this, but I should at least be able to go outside again,¡± She looked uncomfortable for a minute before speaking up again. ¡°Ben I know you don¡¯t think this is my fault¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s not,¡± He asserted as confidently as he could. ¡°I know you think that,¡± She said with a small smile. ¡°I could feel your confidence in me when we connected. You didn¡¯t doubt I could succeed,¡± Her smile quickly vanished. ¡°Which makes it worse that this really was because of me.¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Thera-¡± ¡°Ben, let me talk please. I want to explain myself to you,¡± She took a deep breath. ¡°After Roan was kicked out of the guild, I intentionally used my charm on him.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± He didn¡¯t see the issue. ¡°Is that really all you have to say?¡± ¡°I mean I¡¯m sure you had a reason right?¡± ¡°Well after he was kicked out of the guild he approached me on an empty street. I was scared and I took off my hood, then specifically used my charm while yelling for him to go away. He immediately ran for his life. It had been so long since I¡¯d seen him I was wondering if he never stopped, that maybe he died running, but it looks like all it did was push him completely over the edge.¡± ¡°Oh that''s pretty neat, I knew dark magic had a lot of mental aspects to it but does charm include mind control?¡± He asked with more curiosity than anything else, which bothered Thera in itself but she still gave him a negative. ¡°Not exactly mind control but it will depend a lot on the target''s resistance and personal willpower. Roan¡¯s dark resistance seemed pretty terrible and he was already mentally weak from being exposed to my magic repeatedly. I did this.¡± ¡°Really? It sounds to me like a dangerous man approached you while you were alone and you defended yourself. I personally don¡¯t see any problem with that.¡± She looked away from him while he spoke. ¡°Sometimes I wonder if you aren¡¯t really under my magic''s effect you know, why else would you keep defending me?¡± ¡°Because you¡¯re my friend,¡± He told her with all the seriousness he could muster. ¡°I don¡¯t know what friendship means to you, but to me it means I¡¯m in your corner and I¡¯ll have your back. If you do something I really think is wrong I¡¯ll tell you, hell I¡¯ll give you a real earful if you need it, but otherwise I¡¯m on your side.¡± As he spoke she started to blush again, but she turned back to him, not quite sure what to say. How was this boy so comfortable being upfront about his feelings so often anyway? ¡°Well, thanks. I guess I¡¯ve never really had a friend who cared before.¡± ¡°No problem. Now before we get up, mind if I try something?¡± ¡°I guess not, what?¡± ¡°I want to try connecting again.¡± She seemed to hesitate a little but decided to give in and reached out her hand. ¡°Okay, but I don¡¯t know how you can be so comfortable with this, I feel so exposed.¡± He could only shrug. ¡°I¡¯ve done it a lot I guess.¡± ¡°With a houseplant.¡± ¡°A very nice houseplant. Now anyway let''s just try this quick,¡± He grabbed her hand and connected, using his focus to its new and improved full potential while also enjoying the growth of the connect skill. When they were connected before a couple potential ideas had occurred to him, and as excited as he was to test the first two, the third one was the most immediately important. He could instantly feel the extent of her mana again, but it wasn¡¯t as violent as it was before, his skill leveling up seemed to make it easier to bear. He also thought he could hear a small muttering coming from her and realized it must be the main purpose of the skill starting to show itself. Well what should have been the main. As interesting as mind-reading could be, it wasn¡¯t super useful to him at the moment, even less so if the other party could hear his thoughts as well, so he pushed it to the side for the time being, another thing to look into later. No, instead what he did was activate his enchantment. He didn¡¯t have anything he could apply it to, but Thera was wearing a plain shirt instead of her cloak at the time so he just started to apply it to that, first trying to lay the entire enchantment down as he regularly did, but finding it wouldn¡¯t work, the size needed to be too big which made the enchantment flimsy, so instead he stretched it out, forming a string with it as he went. And it was working. He felt it behaving as he wanted it to, felt the mana bending to his will, before his eyes widened and he pulled his hand away, leaving the enchantment unfinished and connection broken. ¡°Hmm? What''s wrong? You seemed so interested in whatever you were doing?¡± She asked in surprise after having the connection cut off so abruptly. ¡°Um Thera, this is a little awkward to say, but I need you to change shirts and bring this one back here.¡± She put her arms over herself and gave him the sternest, least impressed look he¡¯d yet seen from her. ¡°And why exactly is that?¡± ¡°I need a little time before I explain exactly why, but I was applying an enchantment to it. The thing is the enchantment ended up being huge, and your shirt definitely isn¡¯t a material that can handle it, so I¡¯ll need to remove it before it breaks.¡± She quickly looked down at herself before letting out a sigh of relief. ¡°Well at least you stopped before anything unfortunate happened. But I like this shirt. Since you went and used your skills on it without even asking you better make sure it¡¯s fine when you take it off.¡± ¡°Yeah, sorry Thera, my bad.¡± ¡°Well as long as you understand. Anyway, I¡¯ll go change. You can worry about taking off the enchantment after we eat. Come on and get ready,¡± She told him with a smile, brushing away the minor unhappiness she just felt, and he smiled back. ¡°Good food and company sound great right about now.¡± CH44- Side Story 1- Bens time at the church, Part 1 Ben sat down in the library, waiting for Lehie to show up for their day of lessons. It had been a week since they started and Ben found himself positively shocked at how boring it could be to learn about a new world. Lehie was trying to teach him what she thought would be the most useful for him, and aside from basic common knowledge that meant focusing on the things he would need to know if he intended to pursue a career as a craftsman and enchanter. A part of him considered looking into a different job path than either of those, but he had to be honest with himself that without access to magic, this was the only path he could see himself wanting, even if it meant no one else in the world would need him. His friends had been right, these skills suited him to a T. Besides, it was also a bit too negative to say that no one else would need him. As long as he found a teacher in one of the nearby towns or villages he could train up his skills a bit and hopefully find a small, quiet place that could use someone with his talents. He would never make it rich that way, and it wouldn¡¯t be glamorous, but Ben could see a peaceful life of quietly improving himself to have plenty of personal merits. Well, at least for as long as the world wasn¡¯t conquered, and given the track record of every race and god stuck here Ben wasn¡¯t feeling too great about those odds. It was horrifying to think that hundreds of worlds had already been taken over, so he simply didn¡¯t, instead getting up to browse some of the different titles around. Exploring the library had quickly become one of Ben¡¯s favourite things to do. With a little over 2000 books in it about a third were dedicated to the various gods. Lehie had told him on an earlier day that they mainly had books focusing on the smaller gods, who may be harder to find information on than any of the more famous ones in the world, and with some of them not getting their own dedicated books at all, but instead being lumped together with the pantheons they originally ruled with. After that there were histories of the various races from before they were brought here, or at least what was remembered. Many came as a last resort, not having time to gather culturally relevant information, or in many cases not even having been in a civilization where the written word had been invented yet. In both cases that meant that scholars of groups that were already established on the world would come to record whatever they could remember of their own beliefs and practices. This in itself led to a rather distorted view of their own personal histories. In some cases there had been warring between their own species when they were invaded, and through luck only members of one side would be saved, often leading to records that would state the savagery of their opponents as well as their conquerors. In other cases information technology hadn¡¯t developed to the point on a given world that anything a person heard without seeing with their own eyes could truly be considered trustworthy. Even worse than that though were the cases where only an isolated group were saved, such as residents on a small island who weren¡¯t even aware their world was being conquered, right up until their god descended and carried them away since it was unfortunately the safest choice to guarantee some survivors. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Of course with the gods around they could clear up some of this information, but Lehie had quickly informed him that the gods weren¡¯t all-knowing either, and many of them had originally kept a much looser eye on their worlds, coming to guide occasionally and responding to large enough prayers, but ultimately letting their peoples develop at their own pace. There had never been any urgency before after all, so the information they could provide tended to be lacking. The last few books available to read were just an assorted selection of topics, the priests weren¡¯t expected to dedicate every waking moment to worship and guiding believers, though some did, the rest of them used their leisure time for casual reading and other hobbies. These were the ones Ben tended to lean towards the most. Sure they may seem a little plain when compared to learning of gods and lost worlds, but he didn¡¯t exactly have the best opinion of the gods for dropping him here to be completely unwanted. Hell, if the world was really going to end in three years all they had done was sentence him to a second death, only a little farther off and- Stop thinking about it. He wasn¡¯t going to fall down a depressive spiral. He was lucky to have a bit more time at all, and there was no guarantee they would lose, he was just being negative. He pulled a book at random from a shelf and half-heartedly flipped through it as he waited for Lehie to arrive, which only ended up being another couple minutes. ¡°Good morning Ben, I see you¡¯re making good use of your time before your lesson, what are you reading?¡± ¡°Morning Lehie, I guess I¡¯m learning about a god named Slareth.¡± Her eyes lit up when he said that. ¡°Oh, a forest god if I remember correctly. Are you perhaps considering-¡± ¡°I¡¯m not taking a god,¡± He said curtly. It was a conversation he¡¯d had with her before. ¡°I¡¯m just saying he may not be a bad choice. Slareth is a smaller god, you have a much better chance of getting a gift skill from him after all, and as a god who represents forests it would probably benefit you if you were to work with wood or stone.¡± ¡°If I find a god that really speaks to me I¡¯ll make sure to consider it, but I was just reading this to pass the time. So what¡¯s the lesson for today?¡± He not so subtly changed the subject, but Lehie let it go. It wouldn¡¯t do to force the matter on him, and it was doubtful if he could offer true faith to a god he was coerced into. ¡°Depending on how you do today it may actually be a shorter lesson. I¡¯m going to try and teach you how to use your mana.¡± CH45 - Side Story 1- Bens time at the church, Part 2 ¡°Wait, is there even any point? You already said I can¡¯t use magic right?¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s still true, but there¡¯s more you can do with your mana than just magic. Magic just happens to be highly mana intense, however all of your skills are going to use at least a little to properly power them, not to mention if you want to use any magic tools,¡± she patiently explained to him. ¡°Okay sounds cool,¡± It was already infinitely better than hearing about trade agreements and what nations and cities provided what resources. ¡°How do I do it then?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll try the more peaceful method first, if you can''t get a feel for it in an hour we¡¯ll try and shock your mana.¡± ¡°Not really sure I like the sound of that. What''s the peaceful method?¡± ¡°Meditation. Lay down and try to focus on the energies inside of you.¡± ¡°Lay down here? The library floor?¡± ¡°It should be quiet enough that you¡¯ll be free of any distractions, go ahead.¡± Well whatever. The explanation sounded like hippy nonsense to Ben, but he would give it a try. Besides he couldn¡¯t really call it nonsense when he¡¯d already been shown that magic was real. He laid on the ground, closed his eyes, and tried to feel some mysterious energy inside of him.
¡°Well that was a bust,¡± He said as he opened his eyes. ¡°It was a bit of a long shot anyway, that strategy works better for races that have an innate magic. Of course it was supposedly a common way for different races to try to learn their magics before they came to this world, when full-fledged mages were more rare, but here with the system in place magic is a lot more viable to learn if you have the proper affinity, and there are mages around who can awaken your mana for you.¡± ¡°That sounds so much easier, why didn¡¯t we lead with that?¡± ¡°It can feel a bit unpleasant. You have to use one of the magics that can be applied directly to the body. Either light, life, death, dark, or time. Luckily for you I have life magic, it and light are the most pleasant to go through. In desperation you could probably awaken it with one of the affinities I didn¡¯t mention, but that would actually be even more unpleasant than having death magic cast on you.¡± ¡°Why¡¯s that? From everything I read, death magic sounds pretty unpleasant to experience.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s take my water magic as an example, it would be a little hard to use since it¡¯s bound to you, but high-level mages can move the liquids in your body. I don¡¯t think I need to mention just how watery that can be.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Ben¡¯s first thought was having his blood messed with, but why stop there? Wasn¡¯t there also brain and spinal cord fluids in him as well? He had a small shudder. ¡°Sounds pretty dangerous.¡± ¡°It would be, but it¡¯s also not that easy to use your magic like that unless you try to specialize in it, which is why even death magic is considered an acceptable way to awaken it, though admittedly it¡¯s the last choice for most. On that happy note let¡¯s get started. Sit on a stool with your back to me.¡± He did as he was told and took a seat. She pulled up a stool behind him, sat down, and pulled off his shirt, before placing her hands on his back. ¡°Um, Lehie? Is it okay to do this in the library? I feel like it¡¯s not a great look if someone walks in.¡± ¡°Ben, I may not look like it from your perspective but I¡¯m one of the oldest members of this church, I¡¯d say it¡¯s more of an issue with how the rest of you hominid types age, you decay so quickly,¡± She said, completely brushing off the idea that there could be an issue with his state of undress in a church library. ¡°Hominid types?¡± He asked out of curiosity. ¡°Oh, that''s just how similar builds are lumped together, Races that look like you or me, although father Yan would qualify too. There¡¯s not much of a strict definition, it''s mostly a case of you¡¯ll know it when you see it. Anyway, are you feeling it?¡± ¡°Feeling what?¡± She sighed. ¡°I swear, why did you need to have such high life resistance, it¡¯s really going to cause any healer you meet some trouble. Alright, I just need to up my mana flow, let me know when you start to feel something.¡± Ben continued to sit in silence, not perceiving anything with certainty no matter how much he tried, until Lehie grew impatient. ¡°Okay you¡¯re going to feel this one. Sorry in advance.¡± ¡°Wait wha-AAH!¡± His body fell from the chair and collapsed to the ground, everything had pins and needles and he had to talk between gasps of breath. ¡°What¡­ Was... That?¡± Lehie herself seemed exhausted, as she was unsteady on her chair and slid down next to him, also out of breath. ¡°Sorry¡­ I had to¡­ Supercharge you with mana¡­ Used up most...of my reserves... Can you feel it?¡± He concentrated and thought he understood what he was looking for, the tingling throughout his limbs was her mana, he just needed to keep the feeling as it dissipated to get a better understanding of what his own might feel like. He focused, not wanting to miss a thing, as the door opened. Another of the priests came in, one Ben wasn¡¯t familiar with, and after seeing them both panting on the floor and Ben without his shirt on closed the door and left without a word. Oh I am definitely going to be hearing something about this, aren¡¯t I?
¡°Now Lehie, while I am aware of your actual age you do know that not every priest is, correct?¡± ¡°Yes Father Yan,¡± She said, an awkward blush covering her face and reaching the tips of her long ears. ¡°And Ben, did you not think to mention that finding a more appropriate place may be in order?¡± ¡°I actually did.¡± Yan let out a long sigh. ¡°I see. It seems young Ben isn¡¯t the one who needs lessons on the common sense of the world. Ben, for now retire to your room for the day. I¡¯m going to need to have a long talk with your caretaker.¡± Lehie shot him a pleading look which he pretended not to see. ¡°Of course, sounds good. You both have an excellent day,¡± And with that he walked off, picked up a book, and enjoyed the rest of his day. CH46- Falks Perspective After a couple weeks of talking to his client, having the item inspected and requests for improvements to be made, not to mention being given a variety of materials he¡¯d deemed necessary to ensure it would succeed, Falk was finally on his way home. He left Craftsman Tower through the gate, coming out at the nearest city to Stonewall, and thought he would spend a little time shopping around before he found a cart he could take back home. After looking at some shops he stopped in a cafe, got himself a drink and a snack, and made some small talk with the owner. ¡°So you heading out or coming back?¡± Inquired a friendly mass of limbs of a species Falk wasn¡¯t able to place a name to. ¡°Coming back, I have a client I had to see, but gods am I happy to be on my way home. I¡¯ll tell you, some people are impossible to work with, no matter how well they pay.¡± ¡°Ah, don¡¯t I know it. We get all sorts of interesting folks coming through. So are you from the city?¡± ¡°Nah, I¡¯m out in Stonewall, the hustle and bustle of the city ain¡¯t really for me,¡± As Falk spoke a few of the shop owner''s limbs started twisting and shaking. Falk was no master of body language, especially when it came to other races, but he was fairly sure something was wrong. ¡°Hey you okay? Don¡¯t need me to run and find a healer, do you?¡± It was better to be safe and ask when you weren¡¯t sure about these things. ¡°No no, I¡¯m fine. So you only just got back today?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°So you haven¡¯t heard what happened then?¡± He felt a lump form in the pit of his stomach. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Seeing that Falk didn¡¯t know anything, the owner explained what he¡¯d heard had happened in the town about a week ago. Supposedly a tamer went insane and attacked the place, bringing dozens of monsters to destroy it in a fit of madness. They hadn¡¯t heard anything about a number of casualties but in events like that there was an expectation that there would be some dead when he got back. The more he heard the more he panicked. It must have been that bastard Roan, but what happened to Thera, Sonya, the boy? He couldn¡¯t take his sweet time anymore and thanked the owner for letting him know before finding the fastest cart he could and paying a premium to get back to his home.
Usually it was a five-day trip to the town for a more reasonable fare, but after waving some money around Falk got back in three by the evening. He was let off by a gate far closer to his shop than Sonya''s home so he stopped there first, throwing open the door and calling out. It looked like Ben had grabbed some materials at some point but that could have been weeks ago, who knew where he could be now. Damn it all! I should have at least learned his address in case anything ever came up. Alright, don¡¯t panic. Thera or Sonya should know where he is. He tried his best to suppress the thought that that would only be if they were okay themselves. He ran to their home and banged on the door, only waiting a few seconds for Sonya to open it. ¡°Falk, you''re finally back! It¡¯s-¡± Before she could get the words out he had her wrapped in a powerful hug, though being mindful to not injure her with his strength. ¡°Sonya, I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re alright! Is Thera okay? Is Ben?¡± ¡°Huh, what, yes of course. They¡¯re just in the living room,¡± Falk rushed past her, not noticing the tips of his old friend''s ears flushing as he did. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He burst into the living room and felt his whole body begin to relax upon finding Thera sitting down with a book, and Ben laying face first on the ground, seemingly mumbling to himself. ¡°No, there''s no way to make the enchantment smaller¡­ I already took some of the most appropriate materials in the shop...of course I tried that, who do you think I am...maybe need to wait for a level up¡­¡± As the boy continued to mutter, Thera looked up from her book and realising her uncle had returned got up to see him. ¡°Uncle, welcome back! Your trip was a pretty long one this time,¡± As she walked by Ben she gave him a small kick to try and get his attention. ¡°Ben, stop talking to your god, your teacher¡¯s back.¡± If that''s what he¡¯s doing I think it¡¯s okay to put a god above me. He thought, a mild worry of some divine retribution crossing his mind before he pushed it to the side. ¡°I¡¯m just glad to see you¡¯re all okay. I heard the town was attacked and rushed back as quick as I could.¡± ¡°Oh hey Falk,¡± Ben said as he ended his conversation with his god and lifted his face from the floor. ¡°Good to see you. Sorry to worry you but everything¡¯s fine.¡± Sonya came into the room and he turned to her, not wanting to make either of the young folk too uncomfortable with what he was going to ask. ¡°And what about casualties? I haven¡¯t seen it myself yet but I heard the southern wall was destroyed,¡± He¡¯d verified the safety of the people he was most worried for, but he had other friends and acquaintances around as well. It would be best if Sonya could tell him who had died so he wouldn¡¯t have to go house to house checking in on people. Instead she shocked him. ¡°Nobody¡¯s dead and the south wall wasn¡¯t destroyed, it just saw a bit of damage when these two took on a herd of monsters.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I think I misheard,¡± She couldn¡¯t be talking about the boy and his niece, but she just gave him a smile. ¡°Why don¡¯t we all have a seat and some drinks to catch Falk up on what''s happened.¡±
As they sat around and caught him up he became more and more shocked as the conversation went on. Roan was caught after almost destroying the town, and after a decision from his apprentice, he wasn¡¯t sure if he should call it bold or insane, the town was saved and nobody died. That wasn¡¯t even considering the fact that his plan had raised Thera¡¯s standing in the town considerably. Sure some people thought worse of her, but pretty much any adventurer who had seen her use earthwave had been talking about her powerful attack, Ben was basically forgotten about when people talked about the events of the day. And now here he was, only half listening to them talk about it as he scribbled and made notes in a notebook. ¡°Boy, what has you so occupied that you can¡¯t brag a little more about saving the town?¡± Thera rolled her eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t mind him uncle. After he woke up he¡¯s been obsessed with some secret project he¡¯s thought of. He keeps pulling me in to help and he won¡¯t even tell me what it is! Plus all of his notes are coded.¡± ¡°They aren¡¯t coded, these are just characters from my homeworld is all, keeps nosey people from seeing my work before it¡¯s done,¡± He gave both women a pointed look and they didn¡¯t meet his eyes. ¡°Anyway I promise I¡¯ll tell you both if it works, but I¡¯m worried more and more it will be impossible.¡± ¡°Then why have you been spending almost every waking moment on it?¡± She asked him. ¡°He put his notes on hold and looked her dead in the eyes. ¡°Because if it works the results could be life-changing. Anyway Falk are you heading out soon? Mind if I walk with you, toss some ideas around?¡± ¡°Sure, you got me curious boy so why not. I only rushed here anyway to make sure you were all safe so I wouldn¡¯t mind turning in soon.¡± ¡°Excellent, then let¡¯s head out. Thera, Sonya, I¡¯ll be back in a bit.¡± ¡°Alright, be careful out there,¡± Sonya said as she waved them off, and Thera gave a much briefer goodbye, clearly unhappy that Ben was keeping this a secret from her. Hearing the exchange brought a different question to Falk''s mind though. Is the boy just living with them now? ¡°Aren¡¯t you all better by now? Are you still staying with them?¡± Falk asked, deciding not to hide his curiosity. ¡°Oh yeah, Sonya was still worried about Thera so she asked me to stay around and Thera¡¯s still spending a lot of time inside. After all the cloak I made doesn¡¯t let any light through so I need to lead her around if she wants to go out at all. I¡¯m just making sure she has some company.¡± Falk smiled at his apprentice. ¡°Good lad. Now why don¡¯t you tell me what you¡¯re working on that''s keeping you so busy? The sooner you get it done the sooner Thera will be a bit happier with you I imagine.¡± ¡°Right! I think I may have figured out an easier way to restrain Thera¡¯s charm magic,¡± He said casually, dropping a surprise on par with hearing the town had been attacked. CH47 Falk stopped in his tracks. ¡°Boy, I¡¯ve said before that there''s only a handful of ways to deal with passive magics, but that''s not from lack of trying. Over a dozen races have some sort of passive effects they need to deal with if they want to interact with the larger world, and you¡¯re saying you figured out a method in the few weeks I was gone?¡± ¡°I maybe figured out a method,¡± Ben clarified. ¡°Unfortunately, it¡¯s proven impossible to test given the size of the enchantment I would need to make breaks literally every single material I¡¯ve tried it on,¡± And try he did. Ben was more than a little worried about what his teacher would say when he saw some of the supplies he took and ultimately broke, but it was still less than he would have used to make Thera''s staves in that time, so hopefully he would get a pass. Falk for his part was at a loss, no wonder he wasn¡¯t telling the other two about this. No need to raise their hopes about something that was probably impossible. Still, if on the off chance it would work he would do everything he could to help. ¡°Alright boy, tell me how you¡¯re planning on doing it. My enchantment¡¯s still going to be better than yours, I should be able to bind it to a weaker material,¡± But Ben only shook his head. ¡°It won¡¯t work, to do what I¡¯m thinking you¡¯d need to be able to feel Thera''s ambient mana. Maybe there¡¯s other skills that would make it possible, but I only know for sure that I can do it with connect. If I can¡¯t make the enchantment smaller then I¡¯ll have to wait until my skill levels increase, not to mention that since it¡¯s an enchantment Thera would have to be able to power it, which means making it robust enough that it could withstand her power, which mean making the enchantment even bigger. If I had thought of this earlier I would have changed my job to Enchanter instead of Craftsman, maybe that would have helped,¡± He spoke while staring up at the sky, filled with exasperation. His teacher''s thoughts were in turmoil. He knew Ben was the only holder of this skill at the moment and there was plenty of precedent for new skills being able to change the world. Wouldn¡¯t it be worth taking a little risk to see? At worst he could probably get Thera''s parents to replace anything they used. They got to Falk''s residence and Ben was about to turn away for the night, but his teacher stopped him. ¡°Hold on a moment. What sort of item were you looking at using to hold the enchantment?¡± ¡°I figured an arm brace would be good. While making something like a shirt may work a little better, any material I could conceivable make it out of would be far too rigid and uncomfortable for practical everyday use.¡± ¡°A decent choice, hold on for a minute. I¡¯ll be right back,¡± His teacher walked into his home for a few minutes before coming back and handing Ben a small lump of metal and a stone. ¡°What is this? Silver and quartz?¡± He asked. ¡°Try mythril and a white mana crystal.¡± Ben almost dropped the items when his teacher told him that. ¡°Jesus Falk! I knew you were holding out on me but I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d have magic materials just laying around your house!¡± From what he knew, there were nine magic materials that existed, seven metals and two crystals, and even if the ones currently in his hands were two of the most common of the nine Falk had handed them over like it was nothing. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°When you have things like this it¡¯s better to keep them away from prying eyes. Even if those aren¡¯t too rare comparatively at least and the costs have been going down over the last few decades I¡¯m still not going to just let anyone see them. Especially not an apprentice who may be tempted to use them for a staff that¡¯s destined to explode.¡± ¡°Well you don¡¯t have to worry about that, I don¡¯t actually think I¡¯m comfortable using these at all. These would be the most valuable materials I¡¯ve ever worked with.¡± ¡°You have nothing to worry about, the crystal¡¯s already properly set so you don¡¯t need to do much with it, just attach it to whatever you make with the mythril along the rim.¡± Ben took a closer look and saw that there was in fact a channel of mythril carved along the inside of the stone but he still couldn¡¯t help but worry. ¡°God, I don¡¯t know Falk, do you think you could put the armband together? I only need to apply the enchantment after all.¡± His teacher put a large hand on his shoulder and tried to ease his mind. ¡°Boy listen up, if you intend to be a great craftsman then you¡¯ll have to get used to handling materials like this eventually, I may be starting you a bit earlier than most but I have the utmost faith in your abilities. Besides that I basically got no sleep on the entire trip back so I¡¯m turning in. Just do your best.¡± Ben was still staring at the items in his hands but he had to admit, even if he was nervous he wanted to give it a go. ¡°Alright Falk, in that case I¡¯ll go for it. Stop by Sonya''s in the morning and we¡¯ll see how it goes.¡± ¡°Wait, I didn¡¯t mean you have to work at it immediately,¡± His teacher said. ¡°No time like the present. Anyway, have a good night.¡± ¡°Alright boy I¡¯ll be by in the morning. You better wow me.¡±
Ben went into the shop and started up the forge for the first time in weeks, having spent a lot of time either working on the cloak, hanging with Thera, or after the events with Roan refining his idea, trying to force a chance of success into it through sheer power of will. Now it felt good to be back, and his excitement was palpable. A few books on different materials were kept on one of the nearby shelves as a reference, but Ben didn¡¯t need to check on what to do, he¡¯d already read them over multiple times. Mythril was a softer metal, better as a core in many of the items it was used in, if not just made into an alloy, but it had the excellent property of being able to absorb surrounding mana to activate and sustain any enchantments that were placed on it, or as a means to help the wearer of anything mythril regenerate their magic slightly faster. It was prized by adventurers for that particular property, but with a war coming, possibly as soon as two years off by this point, many nations were buying up all they could to use for their armies, making it harder for a common person to get a hold of it unless you could get in contact with a supplier. Ben had an inkling of how Falk managed it, but it wasn¡¯t immediately important. To do what he wanted he would need a bit more material than what he had, so first he worked to make an alloy with it and copper, a metal that wouldn¡¯t dampen the mythril''s absorptive effects. He heated up the forge before turning it off, the magics used to power it could affect the metal as it was being shaped, and once he was sure all of the mana dispersed, he put both metals inside to heat up as much as they could before he took it out and started to combine them, hammering and folding together repeatedly and reheating as necessary, having to repeat the process of turning the forge on, letting the mana dissipate, heating, and holding repeatedly until he was confident the materials were properly blended. After that it became a matter of shaping his new composite metal, meaning repeating the same process again and again as he worked on it until it had the shape he wanted, that of a thin wire, about a quarter centimeter in diameter. With his work at the forge done he coiled up the wire and made his way back to the house to continue the process there. CH48 When he opened the door and went to the living room he found Sonya and Thera playing a game of lowmage when he greeted them. ¡°Done your secret meeting with uncle?¡± Thera asked, some jealousy plain in her voice. Ben felt pretty bad about it, he knew she was bothered by the fact he refused to share what he¡¯d been working on which led him to making a snap decision. ¡°Yep, I¡¯m hoping to work on it throughout the night so if it goes well it will be done tomorrow. If it doesn¡¯t then either I¡¯m wrong and it¡¯s impossible or my skills aren¡¯t good enough yet, either way I¡¯ll at least let you know what I was trying.¡± ¡°Really!¡± Her eyes lit up and she let out a bit more excitement than she probably meant to. ¡°Then why not just tell us now though?¡± He gave a little shake of his head. ¡°I feel like that would only get my own hopes up, if this fails then I can accept it and move on.¡± ¡°Alright, fine. So when will it be done?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll probably have to work through the night. Speaking of, I''ll need to borrow your arm.¡± ¡°Okay, which one?¡± ¡°Your choice,¡± He replied, and she held out her left for him. ¡°And is this going to take long?¡± ¡°Oh absolutely,¡± And with that he got to work. He was going to make her an arm-brace with a technique known as wire-wrapping, which involved cutting lengths of the wire and through a process of wrapping, tying, bending, and braiding, produced an intricate piece that would hold itself together. The main thing was shaping it in a way that would both hold comfortably to her arm, as well as being something she could slide on and off with enough ease should the need arise. Of course aside from that, it was going to be something she would have to wear all of the time. It would also have to be aesthetic, so he did his best to find a good balance between form and function. He took all the measurements he needed to as he went, used some wire cutters he brought from the shop, and let his artistic vision take over, moving every wire as he thought would be the most aesthetically pleasing, losing himself in the act of assembly. He hadn¡¯t paid much mind to the time itself and before he knew it, it was time to add the mana crystal. He had left a spot open in the top center, where the wires would be able to wrap around the mythril inlay to anchor it in place, and finally. he was done. A part of him actually wished it had taken a bit longer, it was a more enjoyable artform than he had expected, but he could always dabble with it more in the future, and it seemed that Thera was getting tired, she¡¯d stopped supporting her arm long ago, instead just resting it on him as he worked. When he let go she turned to him. ¡°Are you finally done?¡± ¡°Well at least the first part, I''ll have to harden the metal later so it holds its shape but I should be able to enchant it first. So what do you think?¡± She stretched her arm out in front of her to give herself and Sonya a look. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful,¡± She admitted. ¡°Though I¡¯d still really like to know what it¡¯s for.¡± Sonya could only gasp at first though. ¡°Ben is that what I think it is?¡± ¡°That depends,¡± He said with a cheeky grin. ¡°Are you talking about the mana crystal in the center, or the mythril wire?¡± They both put on a stunned look when he said that. ¡°Well I just meant the crystal, but you used mythril as well? There¡¯s so much, what could you possibly be using this for?¡± ¡°Well it''s a fifty percent mithril alloy, so it¡¯s not quite as much as it looks, but if I can¡¯t make my enchantment work on this then it¡¯s going to be impossible.¡± ¡°Ben, what could you possibly be trying to enchant on this? I¡¯m pretty sure fractions of the quantity you used are added to most weapons or armors to enhance their magical effects.¡± ¡°Again, I¡¯ll tell you in the morning. Anyway now all that''s left to do is enchant it.¡± ¡°Is it going to take long?¡± Thera asked. ¡°I would really like to get to bed soon.¡± ¡°It¡­ will probably be a while, but I think you can sleep while I do it.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°You don¡¯t need to connect to me for it? Then what were you doing on all of your previous attempts?¡± ¡°No I¡¯ll definitely need to be connected, but I¡¯m pretty sure you can be asleep for it, it shouldn¡¯t cause any issue.¡± ¡°Wait now, hold on,¡± she spoke with surprise. ¡°That means you¡¯d be in my room watching me sleep for how long?¡± ¡°Honestly probably a while, but it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be watching you sleep or anything. I¡¯ll be focusing on my enchantment.¡± Thera looked back and forth between Ben and Sonya, Ben showing a serious face, and Sonya trying not to giggle too hard from the exchange. ¡°Ah Thera, you¡¯re mother and I always wondered what sort of man you¡¯d first spend the night with.¡± ¡°Please wonder something else!¡± She responded with a shout before turning back to Ben. ¡°Okay, fine. Just don¡¯t do anything weird. Or stare at me too much. Or break any of my clothing with your enchantments. Or do anything other than work on your project. Also my door¡¯s staying open.¡± ¡°Yes ma¡¯am, no worries. I am a picture of responsibility,¡± Thera gave him a doubtful look but didn¡¯t argue, instead getting up. ¡°Fine, I¡¯m going to change, I guess come in whenever you want to start,¡± He got up to follow her but she yelled back. ¡°I meant after I¡¯m done changing!¡± ¡°My bad,¡± So he sat back down with Sonya, who was still stifling her giggles. ¡°I have to say Ben, Thera¡¯s been a lot more expressive with you around.¡± ¡°Um, is that a good thing?¡± He wasn¡¯t really sure where this was going. ¡°It is,¡± She quickly affirmed. ¡°Because of her constitution, even other succubi children often didn¡¯t have the necessary resistances to stay around her, so it warms my heart to see her have a proper friend, even luckier that it happens to be a nice man around her own age,¡± Her smile seemed to be carrying certain implications behind it, which Ben elected to ignore. ¡°And I¡¯m happy to have made a friend my age in this world as well. The first few months in this town my only conversation partners were Falk and Myriad, so it¡¯s nice to have her company.¡± ¡°It¡¯s still downright strange that you could consider a god a casual conversation partner, but I guess if you¡¯ll put her on the same level then you¡¯re at least valuing her properly,¡± She mused. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m sure she¡¯s all sorted. You should go in while she¡¯s awake, it wouldn¡¯t be a good look to sneak in while she¡¯s sleeping.¡± ¡°Right,¡± He thankfully wasn¡¯t that dense. ¡°Well I¡¯ll see you in the morning then Sonya,¡± With goodnights exchanged he grabbed a stool and headed over to Thera¡¯s room. The door was open so he let himself in. Thera was laying in bed, her blanket covering most of her face, so only her eyes were peaking out, with a bit of a flush barely visible beneath them. She left her arm with the brace out over her sheets and now Ben had to admit to himself that yeah, this was definitely a weird situation to be in. Still he tried to calm his thoughts, focusing on the task at hand, trying to steady his mind so it wouldn¡¯t disturb her rest. He put the stool down beside her and took her hand in his own, while placing his other one on the brace. ¡°Alright, just try and relax Thera, I¡¯ll try and make sure my thoughts and emotions don¡¯t distract you while you sleep.¡± ¡°I¡¯m perfectly relaxed. You just make sure you don''t do anything weird.¡± ¡°Promise,¡± And with that he connected. He could immediately tell that Thera was suffering through a range of emotions at the moment. Awkwardness, shyness, general embarrassment, and other emotional discomfort. He guessed it made sense, just because they were friends didn¡¯t mean that she would be comfortable with a man sitting by her bedside throughout the night so he tried to be as relaxed as possible to hopefully help her calm down, then got to work. The first thing he did was secure his enchantment to the armband, then he began to pull and stretch it out. He was trying to apply two different techniques he was aware of, braiding his enchantments, to make it sturdier and ultimately easier to make than trying to form a giant layer all at once, as well as another he¡¯d only learned the practical use for recently, which caused the enchantment to cling to a person, much in the way Falk protected himself from Thera''s magic with a powerful dark resistance necklace. Ben however wouldn¡¯t be making it cling to her body though, he would be attaching it to her mana itself. Ideally the high level of resistance would act as a sort of filter for her mana, stripping it of the affinity that was mixed in, but he¡¯d first need to overcome the greatest obstacle, the near-overwhelming size of Thera''s mana. It was so large that he had to be careful with his own mana as he worked, making sure to work at a slow enough pace that his mana recovery could keep up. With that, a night full of patient working began. With great care he wrapped his mana around her own, making the thinnest strand of enchantment he thought he could get away with, and after who could say how long started to thread it through itself. One of the biggest hurdles to the entire endeavour was figuring out how exactly he was going to braid it. He¡¯d thought of a couple interesting solutions, but had to dismiss them out of hand, just from the size of her mana alone. After weeks of deliberation and discussing options with Myriad, they had chosen to settle on something that would resemble a monkey''s fist knot. He¡¯d made a couple for fun when he was younger and practiced with string to be sure he still knew the proper technique for it, it just so happened that the scale was on a whole other level. As the hours ticked by he soldiered on, correcting any minor mistake he made along the way with a level of patience he could only muster when using his focus skill, and eventually he finished, now all that mattered was if it would work. CH49 ¡°Finally,¡± He quietly sighed and prepared to slink off for the night. He most certainly wasn¡¯t expecting a reply to his casual thought, but one came anyway. ¡°That''s what I want to say,¡± Thera spoke, laying down still but eyes clearly open. ¡°Oh sorry Thera, did I keep you up?¡± ¡°No, I went to sleep fine eventually. I¡¯ve been awake for over an hour. It¡¯s morning Ben.¡± He looked to her window and found that though the curtains were closed, there was indeed light leaking through them, gently filling the room. ¡°Wow, that took a lot longer than I thought it would,¡± He said offhandedly. ¡°I¡¯ll say. At least you were lost in your own little world. I was stuck doing nothing the entire time, dealing with those two peering in on occasion and laughing.¡± She sat up and Ben did his best to not pay too close attention to the pajamas she wore, something resembling a cotton nightgown, as she gestured to the doorway with her head. He turned to look and found both Falk and Sanya grinning. ¡°So how did that go lad?¡± His teacher asked him. ¡°I applied the enchantment. All that''s left to do is see if it works. Should we be asking a guard again?¡± ¡°No need, I whipped something up quick before coming here, I¡¯ll just need you to apply the enchantments,¡± He pulled out a stick with ten different pegs in it. When Sonya saw it her eyes widened and she spoke out. ¡° Wait Falk, isn¡¯t that-¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t we let the boy save the reveal. Gotta see if it works first anyway,¡± His teacher interrupted her. ¡°Now boy, let''s leave the house for a minute and I¡¯ll tell you how to finish this, okay?¡± ¡°Sure, can do,¡± He said, not really understanding the point but obeying his teacher anyway. They went outside and walked for a minute away from the house when Falk handed the stick to him. ¡°So what is this anyway?¡± Ben asked. ¡°A simple way to measure passive magics, the only issue is you need someone with high enough resistances to set it up. Now link your dark resistance with the bind spell, and attach each peg to the base, increasing each time. Start at four and end at forty.¡± Ben followed his instructions and did as he was told, quickly applying the enchantments and then started to head back to the house and Theras room. One by one the pegs began to fall as they got closer, making him realise how it worked while at the same time crushing his spirit. Falk however was staring at it intensely as they moved back to the waiting Thera and Sonya, eventually making it back to the room. ¡°Sorry to have wasted your night Thera, it looks like this was a bust,¡± He told them, filled with disappointment. She was going to ask what it was supposed to do anyway since she still wasn¡¯t in the loop, when his teacher stopped him. ¡°Not so fast boy. Hand Thera that and let''s see what happens.¡± There was no harm so he did as he was told and walked across the room to hand it to her. Of the remaining four standing pegs, one fell as he got closer, leaving only three remaining upright as Thera took the device. As she grabbed onto it two more fell, leaving only one remaining ¡°See, waste of time,¡± Ben''s thoughts turned to how good it would feel to waste some money on a street stall for some food right now when Falk grabbed him to get his attention. ¡°Boy, this is important. Did you only make the last peg reach 40?¡± ¡°Yeah, of course, I wouldn¡¯t mess up on the only practical thing I can enchant,¡± Given that his max darkness resistance was 85, and taking into account that he¡¯d leveled up, he could now enchant up to 51. His teacher''s eyes light up hearing that. ¡°Then you did it. Infinite hells boy you created a new way to block out passive magics.¡± ¡°What!¡± Thera yelled, looking down at her arm. ¡°Falk, don¡¯t raise her hopes like that. Thera I¡¯m sorry, that was my goal but it was a failure. It¡¯s nothing to be excited about.¡± ¡°Nothing to be excited about yet,¡± His teacher clarified. ¡°Boy, anything she touches needs just over 40 resistance. If the last peg isn¡¯t coming down that means you¡¯ve successfully blocked some of her magic. All that''s left to do is experiment. First we should remove the enchantments on that to do both the full range between the 26 and 30 pegs, as well as between the 36 and the 40 pegs. After that do you think you could make another?¡± ¡°I mean sure, my enchanting went up after doing the first one so hopefully I could make it a little more powerful if it really did work, though it will take hours,¡± Hearing his teacher''s enthusiasm brought back some of his own hope, maybe his little project wasn¡¯t as much of a write-off as he initially thought. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°You told me you were wrapping it around the person''s mana, right? In that case I would say to do it on someone with significantly less to save time,¡± At that he turned to Sanya. ¡°Wait, you have charm as well? But I¡¯ve seen you walk around town without a cloak?¡± She gave him a brief explanation. ¡°When you get to level six in charm magic it¡¯s possible to suppress its effects. Unfortunately, until that point its effects only become worse so it wasn¡¯t an option for Thera. I¡¯ve spent a few decades myself to get to that point. I actually don¡¯t suppress it if I¡¯m at home though, you just can¡¯t tell.¡± So they had someone else to test on, perfect. ¡°Alright, if I¡¯m going to do this I¡¯ll need a medium to bind it to. Falk can you run and whip up an armband in the shop? If her mana is significantly smaller than Thera''s I doubt I¡¯ll need more mythril, in the meantime I¡¯ll redo the resistances.¡± ¡°Can do boy, I¡¯ll be right back,¡± With that his teacher ran off and Ben started to remove the enchantments on the tool, while Thera was busy examining the brace around her arm. ¡°So this was your secret project the entire time?¡± Sonya asked as she walked up to him. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you just say this was what you were working on?¡± ¡°I just didn¡¯t want to raise anyone''s expectations or hopes on something that probably wouldn¡¯t work. Hell as far as I¡¯m concerned it basically didn¡¯t work. I thought that applying an equal level of resistance would counteract the magic since that''s how it seems to work for living things, but it looks like I barely got a fraction of that,¡± He wanted to wallow in self-pity over his perceived failure, but that wouldn¡¯t make things any better. ¡°Okay give me a minute I need to reapply the enchantments outside so they don¡¯t just break immediately.¡± He walked out, then came back after the tool was properly set up, and watched for any falling pegs as he went back. Just one. Just a single peg fell, meaning he brought her effects down to 27 at a distance. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was something, especially if he could improve it some more. His excitement started to rise again despite himself and he handed the device to Thera. Again only one fell. For both the effect at a distance and her effect on contact he had been able to lower both by three. It wasn¡¯t what he¡¯d hoped for when he first started to set this up, but it showed his idea wasn¡¯t completely without merit. As he ran through possibilities where he could try to improve the design in his mind Falk came back with a variety of braces, ranging from the same size as Thera''s to just a couple inches long. ¡°Alright boy, think you could apply the same enchantment to all of these for Sonya to try?¡± ¡°Wait Falk,¡± She interrupted. ¡°Won¡¯t this take days? Besides, I need to be leaving for the clinic in a couple hours.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t take that long and it doesn''t have to be all of them at once,¡± Ben explained. ¡°The reason it took so long with Thera was due to the size of her magic. I don¡¯t know how much you have, but as long as it isn¡¯t on a similar scale it should be quicker. Here, let¡¯s grab a seat in the kitchen. If it takes too long we can just stop and you can head out.¡± They all moved to the kitchen, everyone excited to see what the result would be, and Ben got to work. He connected with Sonya for the first time, feeling excitement coming off of her in waves but he ignored that and instead focused on making the enchantment, first attempting it on the biggest brace that Falk brought. Even if the time was flying by as he worked, Ben could tell there was no comparing how long it had taken to make Thera''s to Sonya''s, her magic was just that much smaller and more manageable. Before he knew it he had her mana wrapped with his enchantment and he was done. He broke off the connection and looked at the faces around him, all looking on with surprise. ¡°What¡¯s with the looks?¡± It was his teacher who took it upon himself to answer. ¡°Ben, that couldn¡¯t have taken more than thirty minutes.¡± ¡°Yeah that tracks,¡± He responded nonchalantly. ¡°Sonya has significantly less mana leaking from her than Thera after all.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯re thinking of the implications right now, but fine. Thera go put on your cloak so Ben can set up the passometer, would you? And Ben just set it up from 10 to 14 and 20 to 24, would you?¡± They both did as they were instructed, though Thera was disappointed that she wouldn¡¯t be able to see the results for herself, and Ben set up the device. ¡°Sonya, could you release your charm? Let''s see if there''s any difference.¡± ¡°Um Falk, I had stopped using it when Ben started on his enchantment, I didn¡¯t know if it would interfere at all,¡± She told him, looking at the passometer in Ben¡¯s hand. ¡°That was probably a good call actually but¡­¡± He was eyeing the tool himself, not a single peg had fallen. ¡°Ben, hand it to her.¡± Sonya grabbed onto it, and they all stared in silence. All except Thera that is. ¡°Can someone tell me what¡¯s happening? I still can¡¯t see anything.¡± ¡°None of the pegs have fallen. Not even in the 10 to 14 range,¡± Falk answered, looking to Ben. ¡°Boy, Sonya''s charm is in the upper-middle range of what succubi have, and you¡¯ve completely blocked it.¡± ¡°Okay, that¡¯s cool and all, but why won¡¯t it work for Thera then?¡± That was the main reason he¡¯d tried to make it after all, he wanted it to work out as well, though hearing this only made Falk sigh. ¡°The sheer scale of her mana probably causes it to leak through the enchantment. Boy I get you haven¡¯t met your goal, but you really need to look at the broader implications of this. I told you before that tools that block passive magics are either expensive or take too long to make right? Yours just solved both issues.¡± ¡°Alright but mine has a completely different issue. I¡¯m currently the only one with the connect skill, we would need others to get it as well as enchanting for it to have a real impact.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that for now, there''s a lot of other things we¡¯ll need to do first before we even begin to worry about that. Let¡¯s see, first you said your enchanting level went up, right? You have to remove the enchantment you put on Thera''s brace and try to re-apply it. After that I¡¯m going to have to get in touch with some people and set up some meetings, but if we¡¯re going to try that I¡¯ll have to finish Thera¡¯s new cloak, I should be able to get that done in around five days. Of course we¡¯ll need to see if you could apply the same level of enchantment to some of the smaller braces and bracelets as well¡­ am I forgetting anything?¡± ¡°Um Falk? What are you all talking about?¡± Ben asked, unsure what to do about all of his teacher¡¯s mutterings. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it boy. For now just focus on removing Thera¡¯s enchantment and starting a new one, the best you can too. We need to see how leveling up impacted your ability to make hers.¡± ¡°Okay sounds good, but there¡¯s one important thing I have to do first.¡± ¡°What could you possibly need to do that would trump this?¡± ¡°Sleep. I¡¯ve been awake for almost a whole day, staying up for another ten or twelve hours to do that enchantment again is way too much.¡± CH50 When he woke up Ben was almost immediately put back to work. He tested to see the limits of how small of a brace he could make to hold the enchantment, finding that one about half the length of Sonya''s forearm would work, though that would probably vary depending on the material used to make it. Once that was done he removed the enchantment he¡¯d made for Thera, then spent another night remaking it while she slept, much to her discomfort. After that it seemed with his level up they were able to lower her passive magic effects to 24 at a distance and 34 on contact, both far better than nothing, but still outside the range a majority of people could resist. Still, it showed that as long as he continued to level up he could potentially keep getting her magic effects lower, until a point that it would be more manageable, it would just take time and patience. After all of that was done he thought he could finally get some rest for the day and went back to sleep, only for Falk to shake him awake around noon. ¡°AHH! Falk, not so close!¡± Seeing what looked like a large gorilla right in front of him as he opened his eyes wasn¡¯t the nicest way for anyone to wake up, but the adrenaline flowing through him meant he wasn¡¯t getting back to sleep. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°I got us an emergency appointment set up,¡± His teacher said without elaboration. ¡°Get dressed and come with me.¡± He didn¡¯t fight his teacher on it and got himself sorted, but when they left the house and said goodbye to Thera he wanted a couple answers. ¡°So what¡¯s so important that you couldn¡¯t let me sleep?¡± ¡°Boy, you really need to think about the magnitude of your discovery here. We¡¯re going to send an official patent with the craftsmen''s guild.¡± ¡°We have one of those in town?¡± He was sure he had a pretty good idea of what was around at this point and he felt like he would have noticed something so relevant to his occupation. ¡°Not a dedicated one, it¡¯s at the adventurers guild. In smaller towns there''s usually just one building for the four main guilds, and since smaller towns are likely on the fringes with a lot of adventurers and only a few craftsmen, merchant, or mages that would need guild services, that means they typically end up as adventurers guilds first and foremost. Of course now we¡¯ll be getting you registered as an official craftsman, but that¡¯s not the main point of the visit.¡± Before Ben could ask more about the main point though they had arrived and were welcomed by his favourite guild employee. ¡°Good afternoon Ben. Oh and Falk''s with you, it¡¯s been a while,¡± Onk said with cheer to them, a greeting his teacher returned. ¡°Afternoon Onk, is Ceselee available? I set up an appointment the other day.¡± ¡°Absolutely, she¡¯s just upstairs, go on ahead.¡± Falk dragged Ben along, not giving him any time to ask any of the questions floating through his mind, bringing him upstairs and walking into a room to find someone Ben recognised behind a desk. The guild master. ¡°You could at least knock,¡± She said, looking up from some papers to see who had barged in. ¡°Bah, you knew I was coming, it¡¯s fine. Sides, this is important.¡± ¡°It better be if you''re making me act in an official capacity for the craftsmen''s guild. When you insisted on this meeting I had to review a ton of procedural documents on how I¡¯m actually supposed to fill the role.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not filling me with a bunch of confidence here Ceselee,¡± His teacher told her, but she waved off his concerns. ¡°It¡¯s fine, but there¡¯s only about a dozen registered members in the town, they¡¯ve never needed to use the guild for more than ordering supplies and books through. Hell, you know I got the job for my qualifications as an adventurer.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be able to help me out. I hear you met my apprentice.¡± Ben gave a friendly nod, not sure what he was supposed to be doing at the moment as Ceselee gave him an appraising look. ¡°Indeed, the boy that faced a horde of monsters, and has apparently been hunting solo since he joined the guild.¡± ¡°It was more Thera going against all the monsters, I was just support.¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Support is important, unless you can honestly tell me she could have faced all of those beasts without you there.¡± He stayed silent. He knew that if he wasn¡¯t around and Thera tried to do what they had accomplished alone her staff probably would have broken, but he didn¡¯t want to talk up his own involvement in the event. He really felt he had only provided some help. The guild master looked at him a little longer, before turning back to Falk. ¡°So what was so important you set up an emergency meeting Falk? If it was any of the other craftsmen in town I wouldn¡¯t have cleared my schedule.¡± ¡°We need to get my apprentice registered. He¡¯s discovered something big and I want to get the patent for it in his name as soon as possible.¡± ¡°A patent?¡± she asked with a raise of an eyebrow. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, it¡¯s impressive that a young guy like him could manage it, but why would that be so important?¡± ¡°He¡¯s found a cheap and easy way to inhibit passive magics.¡± She took a second to process what was said, but when she did her eyes widened. ¡°Oh fuck. This is going to be a lot of paperwork for me, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Falk confirmed. ¡°Have a pen ready. Boy, outline to her exactly how you went about this, don¡¯t spare any detail, no matter how insignificant.¡± Ben did as his teacher asked, explaining his entire process in as much detail as he could, including his levels in each skill he used at the time to make it possible, as well as the fact that one of the skills needed to be granted by a particular god. Once that was done Ceselee addressed another matter. ¡°Alright I¡¯ll have this sent off as fast as possible, give me your card for now and I¡¯ll register you as a member of the craftsmen¡¯s guild. There are some fee¡¯s but they¡¯re small and will be removed automatically so it isn¡¯t much to worry about as long as you have a steady stream of income, but we can worry about that later. For now what¡¯s most important is if you want to register your name on the public documents as the creator of the technique, or if you want to remain anonymous.¡± ¡°Well what difference does it make?¡± ¡°The biggest difference is just the sheer fame. If the world is aware you¡¯ve made this then a lot of countries are going to try and recruit you. Of course this has positives and negatives in itself. If a country recruits you then on the plus side they¡¯ll start to offer you things like supplies, a fully funded shop, maybe even staff to work under, not to mention a large and stable source of pay. On the negative though, anything you create that you¡¯d want to patent, they would get a large cut of all the profits for funding your work, as well you would most likely have to prioritise their work over any other. On the other hand though, if you were to stay anonymous, your life wouldn''t change in any noticeable way, except of course for any money you would make through your patents, which would be deposited in your card automatically by the guild.¡± ¡°And how exactly do I make money from any of this anyway?¡± ¡°Anytime a craftsman wants to make what you¡¯ve patented to sell, they¡¯d have to give 10% of their profit from the sale to you. This leaves the sell price of the item itself up to the individual craftsmen of course, but nobody wants to earn less money, you can be reasonably sure you¡¯ll be getting a good deal. There is of course the potential for people to simply give away items they¡¯ve made, but as long as they aren¡¯t profiting that is completely legal. As well, if a kingdom or nation were to have any commissioned from their personal craftsmen then they would still have to pay a set amount towards you for the designs.¡± ¡°This seems a lot more complicated than I expected.¡± ¡°The gods who rule over crafting are very strict on the idea that people should be properly compensated for their works, as such the head branch of the guild is quick to shut down anyone breaking the rules and profiting off of others'' inventions and discoveries. Of course This protection only lasts for 100 years, so depending on your race''s lifespan it may not seem like enough, but it¡¯s important to eventually let other craftsmen get their hands on them without having to worry about losses.¡± ¡°Okay cool, and if I choose to remain anonymous can I change that at any time?¡± ¡°Maybe not any time, you¡¯d have to set up a meeting with a proper branch head, but it¡¯s not too difficult of a process.¡± ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll remain anonymous for now,¡± As much as he wanted to show himself off to the various countries of the world and have them wither with regret over not taking him when they had the chance, if they started to show up now to offer him deals it would honestly just sound like a pain in the ass. Not something he currently wanted, though maybe a bit farther in the future when he had a better idea of what to do in the world. ¡°A decent choice for now, of course if you¡¯re going to start selling them then people will be able to figure out who the person making them is pretty quickly if they want to.¡± ¡°No need to worry about that,¡± His teacher interrupted. ¡°I¡¯ve got a solution for him so it should be fine.¡± ¡°Alright if you say so,¡± She said a bit dubiously. ¡°In the meantime it would be best to research all of the limits you can figure out to the enchantment and file a detailed report. As promising as this looks, the findings are still pretty initial, and it doesn¡¯t sound like this skill comes from a very popular god, until any researchers figure out how to properly awaken it without converting, the number of people who will be able to make use of it will be pretty small.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see. Anyway thanks for your time Ceselee, as I¡¯m sure you can imagine we still have a lot to do so we¡¯ll be heading out,¡± With that they left the guild and Falk turned to Ben. ¡°Boy pack a bag and do whatever you need to get done in the next couple days. I¡¯m gonna have to send you off for a while.¡± ¡°What, why?¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to Anailia.¡± CH51 The next few days passed in a blur. Ben focused on figuring out what else he should test for his enchantment, as well as taking Falk''s recommendations as his teacher rushed to finish a proper cloak for Thera. Apparently he was being sent off to her homeland and since she had no real responsibilities as an adventurer she was able to pack up and leave without worry, having been asked to go with him by Falk to look after him in the foreign nation. Not that she had any problem with it, after being cooped up for so long it felt nice to be able to leave on a trip and get the chance to visit her parents. Ben didn¡¯t know how long he would be gone, though Falk said to expect it to take a month or two, so he left the place he was renting and asked Sonya to store his few possessions while he was away to save some money. All that was left were goodbyes before heading off. ¡°It¡¯s going to be alright, sure I may be gone for a couple of months but you have nothing to worry about,¡± Ben spoke calmly, though he couldn¡¯t hide the sadness in his voice. ¡°...¡± ¡°Hey now, I¡¯m going to miss you too, but you know you can¡¯t come with me. It would be too difficult. Sonya¡¯s here for you at least. I know you two don¡¯t really talk, but she¡¯ll take good care of you.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°I promise I¡¯ll spend all sorts of time with you when I¡¯m back so try not to be too lonely, okay buddy?¡± ¡°Ben stop talking to your plant and let¡¯s go already,¡± Thera said to him as she watched his overly dramatic exchange with his houseplant Fredrick. ¡°I¡¯m just trying to calm him down. He¡¯s already feeling lonely. Has been ever since I told him I was leaving.¡± Thera let out a long sigh. With Ben having lived with her for a few weeks at this point she was used to the sight of the young man talking with it to practice his connect skill, but it still didn¡¯t paint a very emotional picture. Thankfully as he prepared for another extended goodbye with it Sonya stepped in. ¡°I promise I¡¯ll take good care of Fredrick for you Ben. Now in the meantime do you have everything? One of you packed the painting right?¡± ¡°I have it,¡± Thera said. In the time they had waited for Falk to return, Ben lived up to his promise to paint a couple portraits of them together, and one was being sent off as a gift to her parents. ¡°Alright, excellent. Your mother''s going to be so jealous that your first painting was with me, I can¡¯t imagine how many she¡¯ll try to commission from Ben.¡± Thera slipped her head into her hands. ¡°I don¡¯t want to think about it.¡± ¡°Both of you be good,¡± Falk spoke up. ¡°Thera, send my regards to your folks, and boy don¡¯t let her parents rope you into anything crazy. Remember what I told you.¡± ¡°How will I know if it¡¯s crazy or not?¡± He wasn¡¯t exactly super familiar with succubus customs. His teacher gave it a moment''s thought before giving up. ¡°Good point. Thera don¡¯t let him be roped into anything crazy.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll try my best.¡± With their goodbyes done they headed to a wagon on its way out to Vanasil, the closest city to Stonewall with a gate.
Sonya turned to Falk as they watched the wagon go off, with her niece and Ben inside. ¡°So he never ended up asking? Colour me shocked.¡± ¡°Ha, the boy was probably too busy to give it any thought. It¡¯s a shame though, I can¡¯t wait to see what his reaction will be when he comes back and asks.¡± She looked down at the armband she was currently wearing with appreciation. ¡°Still, a plain copper armband should be lower common right? Could an enchantment really bring it up to lower uncommon?¡± ¡°Absolutely for a good enough one, but that¡¯s nothing,¡± Falk said while he received a questioning look. ¡°Mythril already puts items into the lower uncommon range, so for Thera¡¯s it would make sense if her band was there too, but spending ten straight hours making the enchantment was enough to get it squarely in the upper uncommon range.¡± Falk grinned at Sonya''s visible shock. He always thought taking an apprentice would be boring, but it looked like there was a lot more excitement to it than he would have guessed.
¡°Wow, there¡¯s a lot more than I expected!¡± Ben said when they arrived in the city. It had been a long ride, taking almost a week to get there, but it had been peaceful and now that he was inside the city he had a sudden and intense desire to explore. ¡°It¡¯s a typical gate city, nothing to be too excited about,¡± Thera responded with mild indifference. ¡°Well the only places I¡¯ve been to are a communal church and Stonewall, I would say this is pretty fantastic. It¡¯s not like there''s a rush, let¡¯s take a look around.¡± He immediately pulled Thera along as he started to wander around. There was a much greater selection of races around than at the town he was currently calling home, which meant more varieties in architecture and more foods to try, not to mention the constant crowd that filled the streets as people went to travel to or from distant lands. He was grabbing a snack from a street vendor before he knew it and started poking his head into various shops around, especially any that catered to his interests as Thera was dragged by his whims. ¡°That¡¯s the fourth smith you dragged me to. Is this really necessary?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just curious on how Falk''s stuff stacks up. I know he¡¯s the best in Stonewall, but I didn¡¯t think he would still be so much better than anyone in a city like this too,¡± He said quietly to try and avoid offending the shopkeeper. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°I know uncle is excellent at what he does but is there really that much of a difference?¡± She asked curiously as she cast her eyes around the store they were currently in. It all looked the same to her. ¡°Absolutely. Take a careful look at some of the blades, you can make out some minor imperfections that I¡¯ve never seen on any of his works. Honestly I always thought Falk undercharged for his stuff but I was never positive until now. God I need to get to level nine crafting so I can actually see his items'' rankings.¡± ¡°You do know that most people never get past level five in a given skill right? It could take the rest of your life to make it that far.¡± Ben could only shrug. ¡°Skills improve as long as you constantly push your limits right? I just need to keep going at it and I¡¯ll get there.¡± ¡°You¡¯re definitely going to burn yourself out,¡± Though when she thought back on the single-minded determination and focus he got when working on a project he was passionate about she had to admit to herself that maybe it wasn''t so impossible. Heck, if he could keep his pace he might even make it to the third tier by the very end of his life. Plus with the benefits of a god''s blessing he was probably more likely to reach his goal than an average person. As she took a second to think on how he devoted himself to his work to the point of blindness to everything else he grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the store, and into the next one to capture his attention. ¡°Oh look, an enchanters shop, I gotta see this.¡± They entered the shop as Ben pulled Thera along and immediately started to look at the various items and tools around, trying to work out what they could do and if he would need to buy any to play with. There wasn¡¯t a huge need to get anything now of course, Anailia would presumably have its own fair share of shops to explore while he was there, but he wouldn¡¯t want to miss anything fun, when the shopkeeper approached. ¡°Are you looking for anything in particular?¡± Enquired a black-shelled biped, not what he would classify as a hominid type like him or Thera, but he didn¡¯t have a proper reference to compare them to. ¡°Just hoping you could point us to something fun.¡± The shopkeeper looked at his smiling face and the cloaked Thera before making his suggestion. ¡°Well I do have some anti-life magic rings in the back I sure you both could-¡± ¡°Nope. No no thank you, we''re good. Come on Ben,¡± Thera said, interrupting the shopkeeper and dragging him out the door. ¡°Hey what¡¯s the matter Thera? I was curious about what he had.¡± Thera took a deep breath and reminded herself that Ben was still reasonably new to the world so he wasn¡¯t going to be aware of every item most people would consider common. ¡°Ben, I¡¯m fine to help you train your skill on occasion and while I don¡¯t mind it too much if you drag me around somewhere, you have to keep in mind how that may look to others at times.¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean? And what does that have to do with-¡± ¡°He was offering us birth control,¡± She said, cutting him off to get this embarrassing conversation done as soon as possible. ¡°They¡¯re enchanted with a life magic curse to prevent¡­ well you get the idea,¡± She was extremely glad to have the hood at the moment to hide her expression. This was not a conversation she was expecting to have to have today, but at least Ben for his part seemed equally embarrassed, a red flush rising to his cheeks. ¡°Ah, my bad, sorry,¡± He told her and let go of her hand. ¡°It¡¯s fine, that shouldn¡¯t have been the first thing to come to the shopkeeper''s mind either, but some races are just a little less concerned about these things. Anyway, do you think we can move on to the gate now?¡± ¡°Sure let''s go.¡±
A giant metallic arch, about twenty meters across, stood planted in the ground as groups of people slowly trickled in and out of it to get to their destination. Ben could only stare in wonder. How had it been constructed? How long did it take to enchant a beast like that with the proper spells? He would love to get the chance to look at the designs for it and would have to ask Falk if the blueprints were publicly available or if they were some closely guarded secret, if it were possible then he was getting his hands on them. ¡°Okay enough gawking, let''s go through already,¡± Thera said as she dragged him past the arch to what lay beyond. Ben was hit with a strange sense of familiarity for a moment before he could figure out why. Aside from numerous people walking around and a ring of what must have been over a hundred gates all leading to different locations, they were in an empty blue-grey void, with no distinction between where the ground ended and the sky began. It looked just like the divine realm of his god. ¡°What is this place?¡± He asked aloud in wonder, not really expecting an answer but getting one anyway. ¡°Unnerving, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯m told the gods made this area for all the gates to link to instead of having one central location on the planet to keep any one group from being able to take control of the gates center point. Try not to think too much about it, it will only freak you out.¡± He felt like mentioning that he spent a couple nights of the week in a place just like this with his god would have only raised more questions, so instead he let Thera lead them to their destination. ¡°Let¡¯s see, I think it¡¯s on the right,¡± She muttered before dragging him along. As they walked Ben took the time to look at the gates they passed, seeing the top of each one was labeled with the name of whatever country or city was beyond it, as well as being able to peek through to whatever was on the other side. He caught glimpses of strange architectures, species he didn¡¯t have names for, and landscapes he¡¯d never have imagined considering how his current home appeared. He wanted to keep stepping out into different areas and look at what was around, but they were already on their way to one new city, he¡¯d just have to find another time to explore. Of course that didn¡¯t stop him from peppering Thera with questions as they went. ¡°Hey why are there guards outside of some of the gates?¡± ¡°A few different reasons, some nations don¡¯t want just anyone coming in or out, or there¡¯s places like the warfields and the untamed lands where you don¡¯t want someone walking in by mistake. Why, which did we pass¡­ Oh,¡± She turned her head back to look at the last guarded gate and saw exactly what it was. ¡°The life valley huh? That''s there to make sure nothing gets out.¡± ¡°What''s wrong with the life valley?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a place where creatures with a high life affinity make their homes, including some with life affinity passive effects.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that a good thing? I would love to be able to just walk into a land and start healing from injuries.¡± ¡°Yeah that sounds good in theory, until you consider that the high concentration of life affinity mana makes everything grow out of control. How would you like to spend a day there and have mold spores instantly blossom across your flesh, or whatever bacteria is present in you start to rapidly multiply and start consuming your body for resources while your body is healing itself at an accelerated rate to make up for it, so you have to either boost your food intake or waste away. Not to mention the way that anything that survives while constantly bathed in the life attribute tends to adapt to changes rapidly and in strange ways. If it wasn¡¯t for the death mountains surrounding it there would probably be quite the issue if any of the monsters of the land got out.¡± Ben felt a small shutter come over him. ¡°Well that was some horrifying mental images, thanks for that.¡± ¡°I just want you to be aware of how dangerous some of these gates can be. You already look prepared to jump through a few.¡± He gave her a cheeky grin and they continued on, moving by gates and eventually finding themselves in front of the one they were looking for. They took a step and were in Thera''s homeland, Anailia. CH52 Ben wasn''t sure what he expected from the home-nation of the succubi, but it wasn''t this. Giant trees with crimson leaves that would put the redwoods of Earth to shame filled the city, and buildings like skyscrapers scattered around them. Metal poles jutted up around the earth, and it took Ben a minute to figure out what they were for, but the city was far enough away from Vanasil that it was later in the day and night was falling. He could see a light gathering on the top of each pole and it clicked. Street lamps. This nation actually had street lighting set up. That fact alone left him more excited than the metropolis before him, and he couldn''t wait to see what the city had to offer. While he was at the church he had learned a bit about Anailia, the land was rich in magical metals and as a result self-powering enchanted items were common. So common that apparently the metal could be used to keep lights running when it got dark instead of people just lighting a torch if the need arose. Until this point Ben had been under the assumption that the world was an odd mix of medieval and what he would consider more modern technology, but he would need to re-evaluate that thought. Sure Stonewall wasn¡¯t super advanced, but enchanted items were common enough and replicated many of the creature comforts he was used to in his homeworld, and now he would get to see just what a magical society could accomplish if it had the resources for it. "Wow, this is incredible," He said honestly, though Thera seemed uncomfortable. "Yeah, it''s been a while since I''ve been home," She shifted about awkwardly for a moment before walking off. "Anyway, it''s getting late. Let''s meet my parents and if you want, we can explore a bit tomorrow." "Sounds good, I''m going to be jet-lagged for a few days from the looks of it." "You''re going to be what?" Thera asked, confused. "It means tired. Don''t worry about it." They walked on in silence, Ben looking back and forth at all of the new sights around while Thera shuffled on, lost in thought for a while but knowing she needed to get what she needed to say out before they got to their location. Unfortunately she put it off for far too long and they were now standing in front of a large, gated building, constructed around one of the giant trees. "Um Ben, before we head inside there''s something I should probably mention," She said while fidgeting about, not meeting his eyes. Curiously and anticipation filled his face. "Hm, sure what''s up?" He asked, trying to sound casual, but the excitement of the day was making it hard. "It''s about my parents-" She started, before a voice cut her off. "Lady Thera!¡± A succubus guard who was standing by the building called out to them. ¡°We''ve been expecting you, please right this way." Having been spotted before she could get a word out, she couldn¡¯t help but deflate. "Oh I really should have mentioned this earlier. Just try to relax." "Don''t worry, everything will be great," Ben told her with a level of confidence she envied. "I really doubt that but come on." The two of them followed the guard through the building, passing numerous rooms and hallways as they went, before entering two large, ornate doors and finding an expansive, well-decorated room within, and a single woman sitting on a throne at the other end. "Approach," She said in a firm voice, and as they got closer Ben couldn''t help but see her resemblance to Sonya, while Thera muttered under her breath. "Gods she''s really doing this." "Greetings Thera, you seem well," The woman said with an air of dignity and command, which Thera greeted with a neutral, though slightly exasperated tone. "Hello mother, as do you." The woman turned to Ben and spoke up "Greetings Ben. May the spirit of Anailia ever guide you." Thera quickly turned to Ben to try and whisper at him. "I''m sorry I didn''t think she would do this, just repeat after me-'''' But instead of listening to her he took two steps forward, got on one knee, and placed one fist on the ground and the other over his heart before speaking up. "Greeting to Pelenia, queen of the succubi. May Anailia''s warmth fill you and her love protect you, I am humbled to be in your presence." If Thera''s face was visible everyone would have seen her mouth hanging open in shock. Queen Pelenia for her part maintained her dignified air for another moment before slouching down and pouting. "That''s no fun," she said. "Sonya said you didn''t know. Don''t tell me Thera worked up the will to tell you before you got here?" "Not really happy that you tried to pull this, or that you were betting against me for that matter mother, but I didn''t. Ben, how did you know to do that, hell how long have you known about all this?" She said, gesturing around her. He could only shrug and smile. "If by all this you mean that your mom''s the queen, I''ve known since before everything went down with Roan. I did tell you before that I received some lessons at the church about general world info and what they thought it would be good for a craftsman to know, right? You don''t think they would fail to mention the fact that the price of magical metals has been plummeting for the last couple decades since the current queen was married to a great earth spirit. After you told me about your parents it wasn''t hard to put two and two together. I was waiting for you to bring it up yourself, but since you never did I asked Falk on how to make a good impression." He was feeling pretty pleased with himself, but he was rewarded with a firm punch to the arm. "You ass. Do you know how worried I was about telling you?" "Relax, I''m not going to treat you any different because you''re a princess." "I''m not a princess! We''re an elected matriarchy, just because my mom has the role doesn''t mean I''m taking over," She hit his arm again for good measure while he laughed. "Okay, okay, I''m sorry." He was happy to keep their little back and forth going on longer, but some laughter began to leak out from the throne so he turned to give the royal some proper attention. "Ah, I have to say it''s nice to see you aren''t as stiff as your teacher can be. Enough of the formalities, it''s nice to finally meet you Ben, I hear you''ve been treating my daughter well." "Oh he treats me very well," He felt bare arms wrap themselves around to his front and scratch at his chest while Thera''s head placed itself on his shoulders in a display he''d never expected from her. He felt blood rush to his face and didn''t know how to react to the unexpected development. "Thera what are you doing-" As he tried to ask he was cut off by a staff smashing into her head and knocked her to the ground. "That''s not me!" A still very cloaked Thera yelled angrily. "Dad, what have I said about taking my form?" The imposter gave a small ''tee hee'' before their shape changed to that of an impressive man, seven feet in height with marble skin like Thera''s, thick golden hair and a beard to go with it, wearing a matching outfit with the queen, a dark green toga. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Ben was able to be impressed with the transformation once his pulse slowed a bit from the shock, but Thera seemed emotionally drained by this point. "Ben, let''s just go back to Stonewall already, uncle Falk definitely has other contacts you can work with." "Oh come on sweetheart, don''t be like that, your mom and I were just having some fun with your new friend," Thera''s father said with a powerful laugh, though still rubbing his head. "And there''s still so much to talk about," Pelenia said, pulling out a couple of letters. "Falk and Sonya have mentioned most of it I believe, but I''d like to hear the details from your own mouths for now. Thera, enough with the cloak let me see my dear daughter''s face, we paid a fortune to ensure everyone working here could have an amulet, it would be ridiculous not to put them to use. Sweetheart, would you be so kind?" With a smile and a nod her father raised his hand slightly in the air, and from the ground emerged four stone chairs and a small table to go with it. Penelia and her husband both moved to take seats so Ben and Thera did the same, though Thera still seemed reluctant, and together they gave her parents a rundown on the past couple months. Their story wasn''t long, but by the end of it her father looked like he was going to fly off in a rage while his wife put a calming hand on his arm. "Honey, why is this my first time hearing about this? No that doesn''t matter right now, if you don''t mind it looks like I have some business to attend to, it shouldn''t be too hard to find where this man is located and deal with him," His voice was low but firm and there was a small violent glint in his eyes as he spoke, but his wife was having none of it "This is exactly why it''s your first time hearing this. They¡¯ve already dealt with it by this point and I didn''t want you doing anything rash." "What are you talking about? I''m always perfectly reasonable. Now if you''ll excuse me it sounds like he¡¯s a zandalian, which means he must be from Flanlal, I''m just going to drop a small meteor nearby as a warning." "Abrus, with the invasion a few years away I can''t have you starting a side war now, assuming we survive that you can do what you want after,¡± The queen said to reason with him. Ben felt a small shiver going down his spine from the conversation when Thera leaned over to him and whispered into his ear. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much, mom just said that so dad would take some time to cool down. He can be a little impulsive when he¡¯s mad.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t make him mad, I hear you loud and clear.¡± ¡°Anyway,¡± Pelenia continued, ¡°As displeased as I am personally about everything that occurred, that''s not why you¡¯re here. Falk tells me you¡¯ve come up with a way to block passive magics and asked me if I would provide assistance to you. There are plenty of charlatans around who have used the same line to try and gather wealth and resources from me, but given the fact that it¡¯s my old friend saying it I¡¯m sure there''s something more to it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure how much Falk explained in his letter. There¡¯s been some success and some failure. I was able to restrain Sonya¡¯s magic without issue, but unfortunately I only slightly reduced the power of Thera''s. I was told you might be able to help gather more subjects to test it on?¡± The queen gave a small nod. ¡°We¡¯ve set up a number of appointments for you tomorrow. Starting in the morning you¡¯ll have a variety of succubi and incubi, as well as diplomats with different passive effects from various embassies in the city coming by to be fitted with one of your enchantments.¡± ¡°Okay, wow this is happening a bit faster than I expected,¡± He couldn¡¯t keep the surprise from his face or voice. Thera''s mother gave him an alluring smile. ¡°Assuming this works as well as I¡¯ve been led to believe, then as queen I have no choice but to support your work for the sake of my people. We have plenty of braces and armbands already made up for you so you¡¯ll just need to set up the enchantment, correct?¡± ¡°That''s right.¡± ¡°Excellent. In that case I¡¯ll have someone wake you in the morning. Expect to be occupied for the entire day. After we see the results of course we¡¯ll figure out where to go from there. In the meantime let''s have dinner brought in. Abrus be a dear and make the table a little bigger for when the other two come in and let¡¯s move on to a more interesting topic of conversation. How long have you two been dating?¡± Ben felt himself choke while Thera faced her mom''s smile with an unimpressed look. ¡°He¡¯s just a friend, mother. Don¡¯t make things weird.¡± ¡°What a boring answer, but fine for now. In that case, has anything developed between Falk and Sonya yet?¡± ¡°Also no.¡± Penelia gave a long exaggerated sigh. ¡°Master and apprentice both have such beautiful women in their lives and neither do anything about it. Ben I take back what I said about you not being as stiff as Falk, ask out my daughter immediately, I want grandchildren.¡± ¡°Infinite hells mom, are you trying to make things as weird as you can?¡± Thera asked with her head in her hands. ¡°Oh? Is the issue you don¡¯t like him? He seems to be a nice young man. Maybe a little plain-faced but he has some nice muscles at least,¡± The way Penelia looked him up and down, as if appraising a piece of meat put him a little on edge, and he was getting the distinct impression that he wasn¡¯t going to have much luck dealing with either of Thera''s parents antics. ¡°That¡¯s not, I mean he¡¯s... look we¡¯re just friends. You know why I¡¯m not looking for any romance,¡± She said in a huff, already tired of being home. He could feel Thera getting more and more frustrated and decided to try to help her out, Partially because he didn¡¯t know what to do in this conversation himself. ¡°Excuse me, don¡¯t mind me bluntly changing the topic and all, but is something going on between Falk and Sonya?¡± ¡°Oh you didn¡¯t know,¡± Penelia almost screamed in delight. ¡°Falk saved my sister''s life years ago and she¡¯s been smitten with him ever since. It¡¯s a shame he¡¯s so focused on work and can¡¯t even notice the beautiful woman by his side. Maybe I¡¯ll visit in a year or so and finally beat some sense into him.¡± ¡°Is Falk even aware of her feelings?¡± Ben had to ask. ¡°I know he considers her a good friend but I¡¯ve never really gotten the vibe from him.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think uncle¡¯s ever been one for that sort of thing,¡± Thera answered. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen him with any partners around at least, though plenty of people aren¡¯t interested in other races if the resemblance between species is weak, and well, you know how his people look.¡± Yeah, if the women of Falk¡¯s race look as gorilla-like as himself, Sonya probably has quite the hurdle to face. He quietly thought to himself. He had been taking it for granted since he currently made his home in a nation founded by mixed-breeds, but the majority of people tended to reproduce within their own species. ¡°He¡¯s been single for as long as I¡¯ve known him as well,¡± Abrus interjected. ¡°Of course I¡¯m not one to judge. Romance wasn¡¯t even a part of my culture until I met my sweet Penelia.¡± ¡°Oh Abrus you gentleman, you picked it up quite well,¡± His wife told him, staring into his eyes as they got lost in their own little world. ¡°You know, every time I come home I¡¯m reminded of how nice it is to no longer live here,¡± Thera said when seeing their display. ¡°I think it¡¯s nice you have parents who still love each other after years of being together. It¡¯s sweet.¡± ¡°Maybe, but it would be sweeter if they toned it down a little when other people are around. Sorry about all this.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t sweat it. I¡¯m a little shocked to see your personalities are so different though.¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t that different,¡± Penelia said once she was done flirting with her husband. ¡°It¡¯s just that she takes after Sonya a bit more. You and my sister are both so reserved all the time. That¡¯s why Falk hasn¡¯t noticed her yet. You need to be careful not to follow in her footsteps and take what you want in life.¡± ¡°Well I have plenty of time to figure out what it is I want so there''s no rush,¡± Thera said dismissively, trying to keep the topic from returning to her own love life. ¡°You may be surprised,¡± It seemed like the queen wanted to say more but a knock came from the door. ¡°Oh that must be the other two. Please come in.¡± ¡°What other two?¡± Ben asked Thera, but she only shrugged. The doors opened and two figures walked in. One he recognised immediately as his former classmate Karly, but he couldn¡¯t help but ignore her as he stared at the other person to walk in. ¡°You¡¯re fucking kidding me,¡± He unintentionally spoke aloud. ¡°Yeah I reacted pretty similarly too. Nice to see you Ben,¡± Karly said when she came in. Unsure of what was going on Thera turned to him. ¡°What¡¯s the matter Ben? Is everything okay?¡± She seemed mildly concerned, but he needed a second to put his thoughts in order and process what he was seeing. He¡¯d seen plenty of different races in this world, some that seemed familiar to various myths and some that seemed completely foreign to him, but he never expected this. Standing at maybe four and a half feet tall, with a small body and large head, with giant black eyes but a tiny nose and mouth, and its most distinctive feature of all, completely grey flesh, the alien, what conspiracy blogs across the Earth would call a grey, stood before him. CH53 ¡°What are you staring at low-worlder?¡± Was the first thing to come out of the creature''s mouth, making Ben realise he¡¯d been a bit rude. ¡°Sorry about that, your appearance caught me a little off guard was all.¡± ¡°You ain¡¯t too pretty yourself,¡± It said while looking Ben up and down. ¡°Globolgork, stop being a dick. You know exactly why he¡¯s staring, maybe if your people didn¡¯t suck so much he wouldn¡¯t have reacted like that,¡± Karly told the grey, apparently Globolgork, off. ¡°Um, these are both of our nation¡¯s summoned heroes, I assume mother?¡± Thera asked. ¡°What exactly did his people do?¡± ¡°Wait, he was summoned as well? So does that mean¡­¡± Ben trailed off, but Karly knew exactly what he was asking. ¡°Well it¡¯s a little more complicated, but basically yes. He¡¯s actually one of the aliens people would see on Earth, instead of the language system making appropriate connections between a race and a preexisting concept like the succubi,¡± His former classmate explained to him. Ben rested his arms on the table and placed his head in his hands. ¡°I really, really hate this world sometimes,¡± He could only be grateful that he wouldn¡¯t have to suffer through all the crazies who thought they¡¯d been abducted feeling like they were right. God, for all I know they really were right. ¡°Ben, come on, what''s wrong?¡± Thera asked again, looking for an answer from someone. ¡°Remember we once spoke about a race who discovered that one of the creatures from their legends actually existed? I¡¯m currently going through that.¡± She still seemed confused, so Karly took over the explanation. ¡°You¡¯re Thera right? I¡¯m his old classmate. Anyway, He¡¯s probably just a little uncomfortable about the fact that this assholes people occasionally stop by Earth to play pranks on rednecks and military pilots instead of actually making contact. At least that''s what bothered me when I found out,¡± Karly explained, shooting the little alien beside her dirty looks. As an answer it gave a very human-like shrug. ¡°What¡¯s the point in making contact with a bunch of low-worlders? Not like you lot have anything to offer but entertainment.¡± Instead of giving a response, she kicked out his knee and walked over to the table as the small alien fell to the ground. ¡°Pelenia, Abrus, thanks for having us for dinner.¡± Thera¡¯s parents didn¡¯t seem to pay any attention to the little alien on the floor and immediately started to talk with Karly about how the day¡¯s been while Thera and Ben could only watch the exchange. ¡°So his race exists in your world then?¡± Thera asked Ben. ¡°I guess? I mean, not my world, but looks like we share a universe.¡± ¡°Still wrong!¡± Globolgork yelled as he pulled himself up. ¡°My people exist in a much higher plane of reality. We aren¡¯t stuck in some pathetic lower level of existence.¡± Thera turned to Ben. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s insulting you,¡± But Ben couldn¡¯t give much of a response, this was a lot to process. ¡°Oh well, he¡¯s stuck in this universe too¡­ Wait,¡± He turned to the alien he decided should be referred to as Glob for the sake of convenience. ¡°Does that mean your race can travel across universes? Could you bring us home?¡± The room fell silent when he asked it but he had to know. Unfortunately he got the answer he was expecting. ¡°Every one of you asked the same thing. No, do you think I¡¯d still be on this doomed garbage planet if that was an option? Our bodies were remade from the materials of this universe,¡± The small alien said dismissively. ¡°Even if the language system makes connections to materials from your universe when naming it, the finer properties like boiling point, melting point, atomic mass, and a bunch of other things are going to be slightly different. Not to mention my people don¡¯t travel across universes. We manipulate energies to create illusions to make people see us while peering into other realities ourselves.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Of course there was no going home. If there was, why would Glob still be here if he could get out? He felt a hand squeeze his under the table and looked to Thera and gave her a small smile, before turning back to Glob. ¡°So why do your people do that anyway then? If not establish contact then what¡¯s the point?¡± Glob gave him a look as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. ¡°It¡¯s fun to fuck with low-worlders, obviously.¡± Ben looked at him incredulously before turning to Karly, who could only give a shake of her head. ¡°I wanted to be sure this prick wasn¡¯t just messing with me so I asked for this to be confirmed with some of the others he was summoned with. Unfortunately it looks like the answer to why we haven¡¯t heard from other intelligent life is because it sucks.¡± ¡°Cool cool cool. Don¡¯t mind me, just going to use my favourite strategy to avoid an existential crisis,¡± Namely doing his best to not think too hard about it. ¡°Karly, how have you been? How¡¯s working with the succubus kingdom?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not too bad. Being teamed up with this guy sucks but it¡¯s pretty exciting in its own way and the money¡¯s good. Training every day can be exhausting but it¡¯s nice to keep busy. Other than that not much I can say. How about you? What have you been up to since¡­ Well¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been working as an apprentice craftsman,¡± He said, trying to move past the awkward conversation of him being left behind as fast as possible. ¡°I do a bit of adventuring on the side too with Thera, the last few months actually ended up being pretty fun minus a few hiccups.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll bet. So you find yourself a job and end up friends with a princess, not too shabby,¡± She said with a grin that he returned. ¡°I¡¯ll say, maybe the universe felt it owed me a little luck or something,¡± When he thought about it the few connections he had in the world were apparently a bit more powerful than he had initially thought. Thera and Sonya being related to royalty, even if they technically weren¡¯t royal themselves, was pretty cool. It also meant his teacher probably had some interesting things going on in his past to be close enough to an earth spirit and queen that their daughter thinks of him as an uncle. He was definitely going to have to probe him for information at some point. ¡°So you¡¯re one of the folks that decided not to take a kingdom''s offer?¡± Glob asked curiously. ¡°Thought you could make it on your own huh?¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°No, no nation made me any offers,¡± Ben awkwardly explained, causing Glob to immediately break into laughter. ¡°Wait, you''re the forgotten one? Ha oh man, it sucks to be you!¡± Karly went to punch him, but a small forcefield seemed to materialize in front of her fist before it could reach his face. Though the queen''s death-glare couldn¡¯t be stopped. ¡°Globolgork enough. Ben is currently a guest, and if what he¡¯s created works he¡¯ll have done a far greater service to the people of this world than you could have a chance to until the invasion starts. Mind your manners.¡± ¡°What did you make?¡± Karly asked out of curiosity. ¡°Does the system let you cause psychic damage with your paintings now?¡± ¡°It¡¯s private but no. Why is that the first thing your mind goes to?¡± Ben asked her. ¡°Because I¡¯ve seen some of your art in school.¡± A guy tries to properly convey the theme he¡¯s given one time and nobody lets it go. He happened to like making regular paintings too, but heaven forbid anyone in his class ever brought those up. ¡°Actually, speaking of paintings,¡± Thera interjected and dug through her bag, pulling out the painting they brought as a gift and handing it over to her parents. ¡°Sonya got Ben to paint this, she wanted us to bring it to you.¡± The picture was of Thera and Sonya seated in their living room, looking like they were in the middle of a conversation, and Ben was pretty proud of how it turned out. He hadn¡¯t had access to a large range of colours, but he¡¯d made perfect use of what he did have available, and clearly Thera''s mom thought so as well as small tears began forming in her eyes as soon as she saw the painting. ¡°Thera this is absolutely wonderful! And Ben, you¡¯re the one who painted this? It''s gorgeous. Oh I¡¯m going to need you to do some paintings for me, I¡¯ll make sure you''re fairly compensated of course!¡± ¡°Yeah sure, that''s no problem,¡± He told them, but a question arose in his mind. ¡°But couldn¡¯t you have gotten an artist to just wear a darkness resistance amulet? It seems like you have plenty around.¡± ¡°Perhaps now I could,¡± The queen said after giving it a moment''s thought. ¡°But as Thera grew up there simply wasn¡¯t an enchanter we could find with the skill level or darkness resistance to make one. We¡¯ve spent a considerable amount of our own funds raising up an enchanter who came close to the necessary resistance once Thera was born, but even now those amulets can only get to a resistance of 24 so we have to ensure anyone working around her will still have a particularly strong will. It¡¯s good enough that any effects she has will be manageable for those around her at least, but still not perfect.¡± This explanation only left Ben more confused though. ¡°Wait, that doesn¡¯t make sense. How could you only find an enchanter that could get up to 24 for its resistance? And what about Falk¡¯s amulet? Hasn¡¯t he used it to interact with Thera since she was a kid?¡± ¡°From what my sister has told me I¡¯m aware your resistance levels make you quite the outlier, but the vast majority of people only have resistances up to 15, people like myself and Sonya who have even one resistance in the 40s are very unusual, and that¡¯s in one our race as a whole is considered to have in higher than average levels. Having found an enchanter who has a darkness resistance of 30 was quite the blessing for us, and we still had to spend almost two decades to get him to level 7 in enchanting. As for Falk, the sorts of materials and technique he put into making his own amulet aren¡¯t something we could hope to replicate on a large or even small scale unfortunately. It was something he spent over a year making once Thera was born and he learned about her situation.¡± That was more than he was expecting to be sure. Getting Falk to explain how he had made his amulet was added to the ever-growing list of things he needed to bother his teacher about, but he also couldn¡¯t help but be a little shocked to hear how hard it was to find an enchanter that could add high resistances. Falk did once tell him he could make a living by enchanting with his resistances, maybe he should make some simple amulets of every attribute in his spare time to make some money while he continued his training. With his agreement to make a few paintings secured they continued to chat on for a while until food was served, meals similar to what Sonya had made a few times while he had stayed with her, but significantly fancier. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder if they had a fully staffed kitchen in the back working throughout the day, but if the nation was as well off as he¡¯d been led to believe it shouldn¡¯t surprise him. Thinking about how wealthy the land was brought a question to his mind he had to ask. ¡°Hey Abrus, I¡¯ve been wondering, how do you find so much mythril? Can you like, summon it from other places or what?¡± ¡°Well I probably could summon it if I needed to, but that would be theft from whoever owned it or from whatever nation I rip it from the grounds of. Since I¡¯m not allowed to start wars willy nilly I just do this,¡± He held out his hand and Ben could see and feel the energies of the room changing and condensing around it, until suddenly it was gone, replaced with a small sphere of what Ben was sure was Mythril. The Earth spirit gently tossed it to him and Ben carefully examined it. ¡°Here, keep it as payment for your future paintings.¡± ¡°Was that¡­¡± He began, and Thera answered his question. ¡°Materialization. Dad''s way of making the nation prosper.¡± Materialization, directly changing mana into something else. It was considered the highest form of earth and water magic, and the mana cost was astronomical. Even if a person had the necessary skill level to pull it off, they frequently wouldn¡¯t have enough mana to truly make it worthwhile to use, perhaps managing to produce some pebbles, or a mouth full of water. ¡°Wait, you''re just making it out of nothing? That¡¯s insane. So you could make infinite magic materials with your level of power then?¡± Ben knew spirits had access to some ridiculous mana pools and mana regeneration, so he couldn¡¯t help but view the person in front of him as an infinite material dispenser briefly before he was shot down. ¡°No, that would most certainly kill me,¡± Abrus casually said. Thera went on to explain for her father. ¡°When mana-based lifeforms like my father used magic they¡¯re using their actual bodies to cast their spells. Use too much magic and they¡¯ll cease to exist.¡± Ben was interested for about a second until he found himself gripped with panic. ¡°Wait does that mean when I got you to use an earthwave I almost killed you?¡± He felt his heart pounding and it must have shown on his face since she placed a calming hand on his arm before answering. ¡°No, you don¡¯t have to worry. While I have a high mana level because of my heritage I¡¯m carbon-based like you. Well presumably carbon-based, the point is I have a true physical body that isn¡¯t made of mana, the form you see my dad with is just a construct he chooses to use. Ordinarily he would be nothing more than a mass of earth mana.¡± He felt himself sigh in relief. He knew he had put them both in danger when they faced Roan''s monster group, but he thought he had understood it. If she could have died from casting her spell he wasn¡¯t sure what he would do. ¡°So does that mean you can¡¯t shapeshift like your dad?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± She said, sounding almost offended by the idea. ¡°This is just me.¡± After watching Ben panic for a bit and quietly laughing to herself the queen spoke up. ¡°Alright, this is as good a time to end dinner as any. Thera take Ben to the spare room in your hallway, Abrus will pick him up in the morning to lead him to the volunteers. Karly and Glob, it¡¯s almost time for your appointments, you don¡¯t want to be late.¡± ¡°Off to do something fun?¡± Ben asked his old classmate. ¡°I was hoping to chat a bit more, I haven¡¯t seen another human in almost a year.¡± ¡°Yeah sorry, we¡¯ll have to meet up while you¡¯re here, I just have to go to, er, well¡­¡± ¡°Therapy,¡± Glob stated. ¡°Being trapped in a world with a bunch of low-worlders would drive anyone insane.¡± She couldn¡¯t help but roll her eyes at the small alien. ¡°Okay, yes therapy. But not for Globs stupid racists reasons. A lot of otherworlders need a bit of help adjusting, okay?¡± She looked at Ben, almost daring him to say something about it, but he had other thoughts on his mind, and a quick flickering of emotions across his face that only Thera noticed. ¡°No worries I get it, this is all still pretty crazy. Let''s meet sometime later.¡± Karly became a bit less defensive and gave him a parting smile. ¡°Sounds good. Later then.¡± With everything sorted for the day they all parted. Thera led Ben to his room as he was lost in his thoughts. CH54 "...And this is your room, I''ll be just down the hall if you need anything but for now I''ll show you around," Thera said after bringing him where he would be staying. The room he entered was far larger than it needed to be, but when he considered the size of the building they were in that was supposedly for her family and the occasional political event he shouldn''t have been too taken aback. They''d had to go up a couple flights of stairs and the room was more the size of a small apartment, but the bed looked incredibly comfy so he wasn''t going to complain. That and large windows that looked out into the city, he was sure it would be a comfortable stay, at least once he got his mind in order. He kicked off his shoes and walked over to the bed, then immediately flopped into it. "Thanks for showing me Thera, I''ll see you tomorrow." He laid there, preparing to sink into his thoughts, but he didn''t hear the sound of footsteps leaving and raised his head to see her still standing there. "Something on your mind?" He asked, ignoring the siren song of the bed. "That''s what I want to know. Are you doing okay?" "Of course, why wouldn''t I be?" She didn''t say a word, just quietly stared at him and waited. He could see she wasn''t planning on giving up, so he did. "Fine, I''m... I don''t know, jealous I guess? Self-pitying maybe? Just generally unhappy to learn that on top of everything else all the other summoned are getting, they''re getting access to some actual mental help while I''m stuck sorting myself out. It''s dumb and petty and I''ll get over it," It wasn¡¯t something he liked saying out loud. It made him feel silly and small, but those were the feelings he was currently trying to deal with. Meeting Karly again just brought to mind how much better off everyone from his class was than him. It wasn¡¯t how he wanted to feel, but he couldn¡¯t escape it either. Thera looked like she didn¡¯t know what to say. Asking what was wrong was easy enough, but actually helping was a whole other issue, though she wanted to try anyway. ¡°Is that something you want? To work as a countries summoned hero I mean? I know you¡¯re hiding that you¡¯re the one who made these braces, but if you reveal yourself as the creator to the world I''m sure a lot of nations that ignored you before will be fighting over who would get you. Heck, my mom would probably be the first to make you an offer. I wouldn''t be surprised if she does anyway.¡± It hurt to say, Thera didn¡¯t really want Ben leaving Stonewall when he was her only friend and adventuring companion there, but if it would make him happier, not to mention help him deal with living in this world, how could she stop him? Much to her relief though he shook his head. ¡°No. Honestly if this had come up in my first couple months I¡¯d been here maybe I would have, but I have a life now. I like learning from Falk and working with you. I like Stonewall too, it¡¯s a nice place to live. All of which makes how I¡¯m feeling even dumber. You don¡¯t need to worry about me Thera, I¡¯ll feel better once I get some sleep.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Alright, If you¡¯re sure¡­¡± ¡°I am,¡± He said, giving her his most confident smile. ¡°Anyway come grab me and show me around town a bit tomorrow okay? I need to see as much as I can while I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll find you when you¡¯re done, goodnight Ben.¡± ¡°Night Thera.¡± As she walked out of his room and closed his door, Ben continued to lay down, staring at the ceiling and trying to push away his thoughts for the night.
As he opened his eyes and found himself in Myriad''s divine realm, he couldn¡¯t help but notice his god looking slightly more radiant than usual. ¡°What¡¯s up Myriad? You¡¯re looking¡­ Brighter I guess?¡± ¡°Ho ho, some good fortune has finally come my way Ben! Sachel has finally accepted me as her god! Not to mention that she¡¯s been giving me some prayers here and there ever since you told her about me, now I finally have a second believer!¡± Ever since he¡¯d first told her about his god, Ben had met up with her a couple more times to talk him up and sing his praise, and it looked like it had just paid off. It was genuinely exciting stuff, though his first instinct was to point out that only two believers still probably put him at the least amount of any other god, barring forbidden ones of course, but he resisted to not ruin Myriad''s mood. Though just by having the thought go through his head his god was able to hear it and noticeably shrank. Oops. Trying to quickly rebuild some of the positivity that was just lost, Ben cheered him on. ¡°That''s fantastic! Man who would have guessed you would get another this soon?¡± Ben certainly thought it would never actually happen, so this was quite the win. Myriad seemed to shake in exasperation, showing more emotion than what Ben would have expected from a sentient floating cube at least. ¡°You could stand to put a bit more effort in, you know. Now you only need to find me four more believers.¡± It took a minute for Ben to figure out what his god was talking about. ¡°Right, the quest! Yeah I guess I just need a few more, huh?¡± ¡°You forgot about it,¡± Myriad said, deadpan and staring into him. No point in trying to hide it from someone who can hear your thoughts. ¡°It just slipped my mind is all. Can you blame me? I thought it was impossible.¡± ¡°You could at least be a little more invested. I¡¯ll be raising your job level by six if you can do this for me.¡± ¡°That honestly doesn''t feel like much for the amount of effort it will take.¡± ¡°That''s more than a level per person! Plus you¡¯re already pretty high into your craftsman job, if you can get this done before you complete it you could be saving a bunch of time!¡± ¡°Well that''s true. I should probably expect it for the one following this at the earliest though, I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ll be done this one in a couple months.¡± ¡°That''s a whole other issue. Aren¡¯t you feeling burnt out at all?¡± ¡°Hmm? No, why?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been working too hard. Your level will rise with the amount of effort you put in but yours has been going up surprisingly fast.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what to tell you Myriad, I¡¯m having fun. Why wouldn¡¯t I work hard on something I enjoy?¡± His god let out a long sigh. ¡°Easy to say, but not something many can truly put into practice. Okay if you say it¡¯s nothing then it''s fine. In that case what about your more emotional issues?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing, just a little jealousy like I told Thera. I¡¯ll deal with it.¡± If Myriad had a body he¡¯d be rubbing his head. The event of Ben''s summoning nearly a year ago still weighed on the boy, but he didn¡¯t know how he could help. He had no experience leading hominid types, let alone humans. He didn¡¯t want his apostle to work himself to death to avoid confronting his feelings, but as far as he could see the boy genuinely loved what he did, instead of just using it as a coping mechanism. So he put the matter on hold. ¡°Fine. Just remember you can come to me for advice. Part of my role is guiding my followers after all.¡± CH55- Theras Perspective When she¡¯d woken up for the day the sun had already risen; from the looks of it, it had been for a few hours. She had been feeling emotionally drained by the time she got to her room in the night so she had promptly fallen asleep. Now that she was up though she took some time to put her small amount of luggage away and pulled out some clothing she hadn¡¯t worn in the time since she¡¯d left home. Once that was done she turned to the bookshelf in her room. When she left her homeland she had taken only a few of her favourites, but by this time she had re-read them enough that she needed a change, and grabbed one off the shelf to dip into for a while. It was the legend of a lone Scilia hero, and how they fought off a small army of invaders on their homeworld, giving as much time as possible for people to escape. Like any story about the fall of a world, this one didn¡¯t have a happy ending. The world was still lost, but thanks to that one legendary figure''s actions, scores of people had been saved. She was just about to open it for a read when she heard a knock on the door, so she left it at her bedside and went to answer. It was one of the house servants, asking her to come down to enjoy a late brunch with her mother. Since everyone should have an amulet on she hadn¡¯t bothered to wear her cloak, but when she saw the look in their eyes she immediately went back to grab it before letting herself be led down to the dining room. The armbrace Ben made her should have put her comfortably in the safe range for the amulets, where even weaker-willed people would be safe, but that wouldn¡¯t change the fear people felt. It was one thing to know a tool would keep you safe, but another to really put your trust in it. At least when she wore her cloak it put something more visible between them. It made it easier for people if they couldn''t actually see her. They made their way down to the dining room and found her mother already seated, with plates of food spread out in front of her and waiting. Pelenia gave her a silent look, no doubt wondering why she was still wearing her cloak inside, before dismissing the servant, but immediately cut to the heart of the matter once they were gone. ¡°What did she do?¡± ¡°Nothing, they just looked like they would feel more comfortable if I wore this, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Can we not make a big deal of this for once. She silently begged, but it never worked out that conveniently. ¡°Hm. I¡¯ll relieve them of their duties here immediately then.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to fire her, you know, just give her some leave while I¡¯m here,¡± She had seen plenty of staff let go over the years for not being able to tolerate her magic, and the guilt was there each time. Her mother had a different view of things though. ¡°If the staff aren¡¯t fit to serve my daughter then they aren¡¯t fit to work for me. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll set her up with a decent job elsewhere, but I can¡¯t have someone here who isn¡¯t comfortable doing the work.¡± Thera held in a sigh. She always hated dealing with the staff her mother hired. If they weren¡¯t falling to the effects of her magic then they looked at her with discomfort in their eyes, always afraid that either their amulets or her cloak would fail and that they would unexpectedly find themselves in a new line of work. Sure, there were some decent ones here she could interact with normally, but people had lives and would move on to other things if the need arose, finding out how any new hires would react was always tough. Her mother, used to seeing where her train of thoughts was leading, brushed off the current topic of conversation in favour of a new one. ¡°So Thera, are you enjoying living out in Stonewall, barring all of the ugliness of the last month of course?¡± She thought that there was a lot more ugliness than just the last month when it all came to a head, but if she ignored that the answer was obvious to her. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve been having a lot of fun recently,¡± A bright smile painting her face despite herself. And why wouldn¡¯t she be? Her hunts had been going more successful, she finally leveled up her earth magic, and soon she would be able to change her job from apprentice mage which she¡¯d been stuck on for a while. Not to mention that she had been eating decent meals when Sanya was working late at the clinic, she was winning a lot of lowmage, and she had someone to talk to on a regular basis. Of course her mother could see right though where her line of thought was going. ¡°It looks like your new friend has been good for you,¡± She said with a teasing smile, though Thera could only groan as she thought back to the way her parents had acted the night before. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Forget about it mom. Why did you have to be like that? It was mortifying.¡± ¡°I just wanted to see what the first young man my daughter¡¯s grown close to was like, what''s wrong with that?¡± ¡°Okay but did you have to say all that stuff about dating and grandchildren? Were you trying to traumatize me, or did you just want to make sure I never bring a guest again?¡± ¡°He¡¯s not really your guest, he¡¯s here on Falk''s request,¡± Still she was willing to relent a bit. ¡°Though I admit I may have gone a bit overboard, I just wanted to get a feel for the boy my daughter may be spending her life with.¡± ¡°Gods, you call that relenting? Why are you insisting that that¡¯s going to happen? I¡¯m just happy having someone who isn¡¯t going to go insane around me. That isn¡¯t even to mention the issues of our lifespans. Ben will maybe live another 80 years tops, and I, well who knows how long I will,¡± It felt like her mother always knew what to say to get a rise out of her, whether the queen intended to or not, and it made her miss staying with her aunt all the more. At least Sonya was never this outrageous. Romance between races would always have to take into account lifespan. While a mixbreed could typically estimate their lifespan by averaging that of their parent races, spirits didn¡¯t have a limited lifespan, instead only dying if they were killed or their mana was used up too rapidly. Thera, being a cross between that and a succubus, which could expect roughly two hundred years of life, wouldn¡¯t be able to know how long her lifespan would be until she had reached its end. A small chuckle came from behind her and a voice spoke up. ¡°It seems a tad silly to worry about a difference in lifespans with the fate of the world in the balance in the next few years, but why don¡¯t we put this on hold for now, hmm Pelenia?¡± Thera turned and found what looked like a cloud of darkness, shaped in the form of a succubus standing behind her, and she broke into a grin. ¡°Aunty Funa! I didn¡¯t realise you were here!¡± Funa opened her shadowy arms and invited Thera in for a hug. ¡°Your mother asked me to handle Karly¡¯s training and I couldn¡¯t refuse. It¡¯s wonderful to see you child.¡± Funa¡¯s establishment as Thera''s aunt was a lot like Falk''s relationship as her uncle. There was no blood between them, it was more to do with her relationship with her parents. Namely that she was the great darkness spirit, someone who had known her father since before the loss of their world, and essentially a living avatar of dark magic. ¡°Well, we¡¯ll at least put the conversation on hold for now,¡± Pelenia relented. ¡°Now come have a seat so we can enjoy breakfast.¡± They all sat down to chat and catch each other up on life, Thera once again talking about the events of the last few months while Funa discussed how Karly¡¯s training had been progressing, she was essentially her first apprentice and she was quite proud of the work her student was putting in. ¡°Of course the offer to help train you is always open as well you know,¡± Funa said, not for the first time, but Thera politely declined. Perhaps one day she would want to take the time to train up her charm magic to get it to a level where she could control it, but for now it would only make her life more difficult if its power increased before it could get to that point. She was lucky her aunt was nowhere near as pushy as her mother and was willing to gracefully drop the topic without a fight. They continued on for a while longer before everyone finished eating and Pelenia decided she wanted to move on to her next task of the day. ¡°Thera, I¡¯m going to check on how things are going for your friend, would you care to join me? You¡¯re of course welcome to join as well Funa.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to pass this time,¡± Funa told them. ¡°I¡¯ll need to meet with Karly soon for her lessons.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll join you, I told Ben I would show him around the town for a bit when he was done today so it would be good to see how far off he is.¡± Her mother could only laugh. ¡°Well I think that will have to be moved to tomorrow sorry, I scheduled enough appointments for the boy that he probably won¡¯t finish them until late into the night If he doesn¡¯t need to stop to rest. I just thought I would challenge him a little.¡± She was about to tell her mom off but the way Ben treated his work passed through her mind, and she decided that it would probably be fine. ¡°Alright, well let''s go.¡± Her lack of reaction left Pelenia confused for a moment before she brushed it off and they walked out to where Ben was working. A small guest building had been constructed around back, she suspected by her father, and it was apparently where Ben was working to enchant all of the braces. As they neared it though her mother seemed to be confused. ¡°Did they wander off while they wait? Maybe just taking a break?¡± Pelenia muttered to herself. ¡°Something wrong mom?¡± ¡°Oh no just thinking out loud. Come on, let''s see how things are going.¡± They stepped into the room to find Ben and her father alone in the room and on the ground talking, with a long tube of metal between them. CH56 ¡°Myriad, do you seriously not have any idea what it might be?¡± ¡°How do you destroy an entire planet without any technology?¡± Ben let out a sigh. ¡°He says he doesn¡¯t know Abrus, are you sure you¡¯ve never heard of it?¡± ¡°I could easily have encountered it in my life, just not by that name, or it could be as Globolgork said yesterday about names being translated to match equivalents. Perhaps there simply isn¡¯t something similar enough that it would be called that name, or maybe its makeup is different enough that even if it does the same thing it wouldn¡¯t be recognised as such.¡± ¡°God what a pain,¡± Ben said dejectedly. ¡°Looks like that¡¯s one dream down the drain, and today was going so well too,¡± As he sat down and stared at the tube in front of him someone took a seat to his side. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Thera asked as she looked at what he and her father were staring at. ¡°Oh hey, since we finished up with all the braces I thought I would try and get your dad to help me with something since he was here watching anyway, but it looks like it was a bust.¡± ¡°You already finished?¡± Penelias surprised voice came from behind him before moving to her husband''s side. ¡°I had 40 people waiting for you, from what Sonya said I thought it would take you a couple days.¡± It seemed she wasn¡¯t even going to try and hide that she had given him an unreasonable amount of work, but it didn¡¯t much matter to Ben. ¡°They all had significantly less mana than Sonya so it wasn¡¯t too hard, plus my skill leveled up from being in contact with all of those different minds so it got a little faster too,¡± He had the chance to interact with 25 succubi and incubi, as well as around 15 members of a variety of other races with passive magics in the city. It really showed him the importance of practicing in a variety of ways instead of just interacting with the same people over and over again. ¡°You got a level up? Lucky,¡± Thera said with a small hint of envy. He knew she struggled getting her own skills up, at least when it came to her magics, but he wasn¡¯t going to be keeping any secrets when it came to his skills around her if they were going to be working together, who knew what could be necessary to save their lives when they were hunting one day, which was why he also included his other bit of good news. ¡°Actually I also got a new skill called hidden mind. It looks like trying to keep my thoughts and feelings from leaking into 40 people paid off,¡± The name seemed self-explanatory enough, it was a skill that hid his mind from others. He had just been trying to keep any of his lingering feelings from bothering anyone he dealt with today, but it looked like it worked out for him. Not that he was sure how many skills had mind-reading aspects to them like his own, but it didn¡¯t hurt to have at least. ¡°So now when you practice you¡¯ll be able to hear my thoughts but I won¡¯t be able to hear yours? That¡¯s not fair,¡± She told him with a pout. ¡°It¡¯s not that different yet, here,¡± He grabbed her hand and connected with her. Since his level went up again it no longer felt like mutterings from her, instead right away he could tell she was embarrassed about having her hand held in front of her parents after the scene they made yesterday, and he let go. ¡°How was that from your perspective?¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. She gave him a complicated look for a moment before answering. ¡°Your thoughts were definitely more clear than before you leveled up, but it still mostly felt mumbled. I could, however, pick up on the fact that you had a pretty good idea what I was thinking.¡± He tried to laugh it off. ¡°Ha well, it is part of the package after all. I¡¯m sure with some practice you could get the skill as well. Besides, since my connect leveled up we should redo your brace later to see how much it affects it. At least since I got this it should make it a bit easier for you to sleep.¡± ¡°Hmm fine. So what were you talking to Myriad about then?¡± ¡°Myriad?¡± Pelenia asked, looking around. She had certainly heard Ben say the name, but there was nobody else there. It was Abrus who answered for her. ¡°It seems our girl¡¯s found herself an apostle.¡± ¡°For a ridiculously minor god,¡± Ben clarified. You know it¡¯s true and I don¡¯t want them to think I¡¯m trying to tempt away their daughter with a powerful god. <...Fine.> Penelia gave him an appraising look for a moment before continuing. ¡°Alright then, so what was the combined knowledge of an otherworld, a great spirit, and a god hoping to achieve?¡± It was here Ben deflated, losing all the energy he had from talking about his other successes of the day. ¡°Trying to figure out what saltpeter is.¡± ¡°Um, can you elaborate please?¡± She wasn¡¯t sure what she was expecting, but trying to figure out what sounded like a spice could be was not it. ¡°I was trying to make a weapon from my world,¡± He elaborated. ¡°Something called a gun. I figured I would try and construct one in the simplest form I could think of and basically just make a metal tube, some ball bearings, and an explosive powder. The issue is the powder. From what I remember it was historically made of sulphur, I think charcoal, and saltpeter. The big issue is that none of us know what saltpeter is, or even if it exists in this universe at all.¡± ¡°And you decided to make a weapon in my backyard?¡± The queen asked with a raised eyebrow. She didn¡¯t seem mad, just curious about what led to this turn of events. Ben only shrugged. ¡°I wasn¡¯t exactly keeping it a secret since I was getting your husband''s help. I just figured while I had an earth spirit available who was willing to lend some aid I would see how hard it could be, I wasn¡¯t expecting this to be the roadblock I would come across, I figured I would just be spending a few months trying to figure out what ratios I needed to make it work.¡± ¡°But why make this at all?¡± Thera asked him. ¡°There are plenty of weapons you could already make, right? Or you could just buy something, like a sword or a bow.¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying to cut out as much of the learning curve I can. As far as I can tell both of those things need practice, not to mention I think my strength and agility attributes are a bit low, or at least low enough that I don¡¯t want to bet my life on them. I¡¯m sure guns have some learning curve, but they seem lighter and more straightforward, plus when they were introduced in my world swords seemed to be tossed to the wayside. Of course since my world doesn¡¯t have magic or skills I guess it¡¯s a bit hard to compare.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re giving up?¡± Thera asked him. ¡°Not sure what else I can do. I don¡¯t have much interest in being a fighter anyway, I just figured it would be good for a bit of extra protection in case things ever look bad while we¡¯re out.¡± ¡°Not so fast,¡± Pelenia spoke up. ¡°Thera dear, you said you were planning on showing Ben around the city, yes? Since he¡¯s done so early why not take him out now and visit the crafting guild after. It¡¯s a real branch unlike what you¡¯d have in Stonewall, which means there''s going to be a proper guild library. You may be able to find some info there.¡± ¡°Really, that''s great!¡± Ben almost cheered, life returning to his face. He grabbed Thera''s hand and started to drag her along. ¡°Let¡¯s go right away, we have hours of sunlight left after all.¡± ¡°Fine fine, no need to pull. I guess we¡¯ll be back for dinner later mom.¡± ¡°Of course, you both have fun now,¡± She watched them go off with a smile, the whole time the gears in her mind turned as plans were formed and changed. CH57 ¡°Ben I know you¡¯re excited but can we take a bit of a break?¡± Thera couldn¡¯t help but ask. They had decided to look around the city for a couple hours before getting to the guild, but Ben had been rushing around like he wouldn¡¯t get the chance to see the city again once they were done. He had to go into any shop that caught his interest and got more food than he would ever possibly need from any cart that smelled tempting enough to him. It was getting ridiculous. ¡°We can go out again tomorrow so let''s take things a little slower for a bit.¡± ¡°My bad, sorry. It¡¯s just all so exciting, you know?¡± And why wouldn¡¯t it be? Anailia was basically a fully modern city, skyscrapers and all, situated within a giant forest. It wasn¡¯t like anything he¡¯d ever seen before. The people dressed in brightly coloured togas, going about their daily lives, and there was street art to pass, and monuments to see. He couldn¡¯t help but go full tourist from it all. Still, he eased up for Thera. ¡°Thank you. Come on, let¡¯s take a seat for a bit and eat some of your pile of food while it¡¯s fresh. I know a good place to sit ahead.¡± She led him for about five minutes before they arrived at a small stone fence, at just the right height to act as a seat at the edge of the city. He was sure the view beyond was beautiful, but it was the fence that took his breath away. ¡°Holy crap. Thera what the hell is this?¡± He had run ahead and was peering down at it, running his hand along the stone. To an ordinary person it probably looked like plain rock, well put together but nothing special. To Ben though it looked divine. His mana sense had improved with his level, and while that would normally mean being able to feel the way mana was woven through something he was touching still, whatever enchantment was on the wall made it positively glow to him. He could see the enchantments contained within what he thought was ordinary stone, but with a complexity and density that he was sure it should have shattered long before it reached its current state. Delicate weaves of mana he didn¡¯t know if he would ever be able to pull off himself were strung together as if in a tapestry, and he knew there was significantly more he couldn¡¯t make out, his sight was still too weak. He couldn¡¯t help but curse himself for not having a higher level of enchanting to properly examine what was before him and swore that he would come back here again. There were things he could learn in this wall. ¡°I¡¯m honestly a little jealous your sense is so good at your enchanting level, I¡¯d love to know what the magic of a god looked like with my own two eyes,¡± She said, dropping a bombshell on him. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, a god?¡± She nodded. ¡°Mhm, This is the entrance to the trial of Anailia and Tolona. When the succubi homeworld was conquered, survivors were taken into the trial for safety as Anailia used all of her strength to escape. This fence is the boundary to keep people out that aren¡¯t facing the challenge.¡± ¡°Wow,¡± Ben let out, wonder overtaking him for a moment before he needed to ask a question. ¡°But isn¡¯t this a little short to be keeping people out?¡± In response she grabbed his hand and tried to pass it over the far edge of the fence, only to have something stop it. ¡°I don¡¯t know all of the magics within it, but one of them acts as a boundary. It doesn¡¯t hurt so it¡¯s fine to sit and lean against, but you won¡¯t be getting through.¡± ¡°Awe, but I wanted to see what the enchantments looked like on the other side.¡± ¡°The only way to do that would be to take the trail, and I personally wouldn¡¯t recommend it. A lot of people die facing trials unprepared,¡± She warned, removing the thought of trying to sneak in from his mind. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Noted. That¡¯s alright, I could probably spend weeks looking at a small portion of it. How big is the place anyway?¡± When he looked down the length of the fence he could tell that it was large, it looked like it had a slight curve in it but it went on for a while. ¡°From the outside it¡¯s a circle about two kilometers across, inside though I¡¯ve heard it¡¯s bigger. Not sure if that¡¯s true though, it can be a bit hard to learn anything about what it¡¯s actually like in there. The entire nation was built around it once it was brought to this world though.¡± Ben felt like he had a million more questions but the food was calling to him so he put it on hold. They took a seat and leaned against the invisible barrier that kept them from the trial and chatted for a while as they ate, Ben talking about what he was enjoying and recipes he wanted to learn, while Thera carefully slid food under her hood to keep it from getting dirty and adding her own opinions on what he should learn. They carried on like that for a while before he asked a question in idle curiosity. ¡°Hey Thera, what¡¯s your mana sense like anyway?¡± Mana sense wasn¡¯t an independent skill as far as he understood it, but instead allowed people to see or feel magics related to their particular magic skills. Since Ben''s only magic skill was enchanting it allowed him to see the magic that went into enchantments, and he was surprisingly good at it it seemed, but he had no clue what Thera¡¯s was like. Could she see other earth mages prepare their spells or maybe feel the charm leaking from other succubi? Maybe she could see her own mana but it would block out anyone else''s so she wouldn¡¯t see their effects. The actual answer ended up being completely unexpected. ¡°My magics are both too low to really see anything about them currently, I can see spirits though.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t everyone?¡± He asked. ¡°I thought I could see your father well enough yesterday.¡± She thought for a moment before answering. ¡°Ben, what do you know about spirits?¡± ¡°Not too much,¡± He admitted. ¡°There are spirits for every element of mana right? And they¡¯re all incredibly powerful. Seeing your dad materialize mana was awesome.¡± ¡°Well you¡¯re sort of correct. My dad isn¡¯t a spirit, he¡¯s a great spirit. When the last great earth spirit died on his homeworld, a bunch of regular spirits you can¡¯t normally see merged to form a higher being. These regular spirits are¡­ not really everywhere. Dad says in his original world the planet was dense with them, but not many were saved. Since their lifespan is infinite they don¡¯t really reproduce much but I¡¯ll typically see one or two floating around a day.¡± ¡°Okay that''s actually really cool, I can¡¯t believe there''s an entire race hidden on the planet. So what are spirits like? Can you talk to them?¡± Ben''s eyes were shining with curiosity so Thera was happy enough to tell him a bit, as long as the topic didn¡¯t focus on the other great spirits. While she got along with a couple of them like her father and aunt, some of them were a bit harder to deal with. ¡°It¡¯s a bit hard to interact with them cause the way they think is pretty different from most hominid types, or really most other races in general, since they don¡¯t strictly have brains, but water, earth, air, and fire spirits all like talking about their own elements and anything they find interesting going on with them, while light and dark, and life and death spirits tend to be a bit more interesting, talking about different events or trends they see, though they can be a little hard to understand, occasionally trying to discuss topics I don¡¯t think actually have proper ways to define as far as our language goes. They¡¯re all nice enough, but not really people I can interact with regularly, you know?¡± ¡°And what about space and time spirits then?¡± He asked, eager to learn more. ¡°They must have something interesting to say when they interact with those elements.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know, there aren¡¯t any,¡± She said with a shrug, but seeing the question on his lips he immediately elaborated. ¡°Long before the world was taken over, all the space spirits decided to leave to explore the universe, and all the time spirits went to see the end of it.¡± ¡°And they never came back?¡± ¡°The time spirits couldn¡¯t. There''s a world of difference between going forward or stopping time to travelling back it. As for the space spirits, nobody knows. Dad says it¡¯s one of the greatest mysteries the great spirits talk about,¡± As the words left her mouth she cursed herself, she had sent it up perfectly for Ben to ask something she didn¡¯t feel much like talking about, so she quickly moved them along. ¡°Anyway, why don¡¯t we finish up here and get to the guild. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m not going to see you for a week after you see it.¡± ¡°Come on, I¡¯m not that bad.¡± CH58 ¡°Pretty sure you¡¯re never seeing me again. Goodbye Thera, this is my home now.¡± ¡°We close in about five hours,¡± A friendly staff member said as they walked by. ¡°You close? Stonewalls guild never closes,¡± He asked, crestfallen. ¡°That¡¯s mostly an adventurers guild,¡± Thera told him. ¡°They¡¯re always open in case of emergencies.¡± ¡°Ah, so lame,¡± In front of him were rows and rows of books on various topics, with all of the ones before him being in the public domain. There were shelves of the more popular patented ideas as well, but he wasn¡¯t looking to spend money to use someone else''s ideas in the things he would make and sell, so it was better at the moment to not even touch them and risk using one by mistake. He asked for one of the guild staff to point him towards books on different materials and their properties, and he came away with five large volumes to flip through. ¡°You aren¡¯t finishing all of those before they close,¡± Thera told him. ¡°Not even going to try to. I¡¯m just going to flip through them to see if anything pops out. If this is going to be too boring you can head back Thera, I¡¯ll probably be here until I¡¯m kicked out.¡± She shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ll stay, my parents are being a bit too comfortable acting like themselves around me at the moment. If I give them some space they may calm down a little.¡± ¡°Suit yourself.¡± Ben cracked open the first book while Thera looked for something that she could read to pass the time, though Ben doubted how much luck she would have. She seemed to lean towards history and fiction, not technical manuals. Of course he never would have sat down to read anything like this himself if he wasn¡¯t tossed into this world, now that it was his job it became significantly more interesting. As he spent hours skimming through hundreds of pages he learned about numerous materials he would be interested in working with one day for their unique and interesting properties, but none matched what he was looking for. Sure there were plenty that seemed to be explosive in the right conditions, but Ben wasn¡¯t even sure if saltpeter was an explosive chemical, or if it was something mined or organic for that matter, all he had was a name to go off of and for all he knew it was the process of combining it with charcoal and sulphur that made it work. Once he closed the last volume he gave up. He wouldn¡¯t be bringing guns to this world, at least not right now. Maybe he would see if Pelenia would help him send some letters to the various classmates he didn¡¯t know how to contact to see if they could help him out at all, but for the moment he would just have to do his best not to let any other creatures sink their teeth into him. He put his books away, a bit dejected, before wandering through the isles for the last hour. There were a lot of titles he found interesting that he decided he would be coming back to read later, and occasionally he found something that sounded intriguing enough that he needed to open it and give it a flip through, but he didn¡¯t have the time to throw himself into his reading the way he wanted to. He kept a mental list of things to read later and went to find Thera. She had been seated beside him, reading through a book despite what he had expected, and he got her attention. ¡°What did you find?¡± She looked up and saw that they were about to start closing up, so she returned it to its shelf. ¡°It¡¯s ¡®The use of earth magic spells in enchanting¡¯. It was interesting but nothing that could really help me improve.¡± ¡°That¡¯s too bad.¡± ¡°Well dad¡¯s going to want to try practicing with me soon anyway so we¡¯ll see how it goes. I wish I packed more than one staff.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t we get you a new one in town to use?¡± She shrugged. ¡°I can, but aside from Falk¡¯s, yours are probably the best that wouldn¡¯t be disgustingly expensive.¡± Considering how long they last, that''s pretty sad. He thought, but he decided to keep that to himself and take it as a compliment. ¡°Well thanks, my enchanting went up since I made your last one too so hopefully the next one I¡¯ll make will be even better.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll look forward to it,¡± Even though her face was covered, he felt like she was smiling.
They joined her parents for dinner, though this time Karly and Glob were unavailable, and spoke about the plans for the immediate future. ¡°Since Ben seems to be a faster enchanter than I expected, I don¡¯t have anything set up for you tomorrow and I was planning on giving you the following day to rest, so use the next two for whatever you¡¯d like,¡± Pelenia told them. ¡°I¡¯m receiving reports from the various embassies though that their independent testing is showing the braces you¡¯ve made today are working as advertised, and they want to start commissioning more from you immediately.¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Wow, okay sure, but I haven¡¯t really worked out a price for them, I don¡¯t know what would be fair.¡± ¡°Not to worry, Falk recommended a price I feel is more than fair, perhaps a little too reasonable even, but I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll have any issue with it. Speaking of, I need to transfer you the money for the ones you¡¯ve already made today,¡± With that the queen got up and walked over to Ben, tapping her card against his own. He looked at the amount transferred and felt his eyes bulge, quickly doing some mental math. ¡°This seems a bit high,¡± He said, in his heart feeling reluctant to part with the money he was just given. ¡°At this price each one is enough to live off of for like a week.¡± He prepared to return most of the money to Penelia, but she flat-out refused him. ¡°There¡¯s no issue, I¡¯ve already deducted the cost of materials and labour for making the braces themselves. It works as advertised and it''s significantly less cumbersome than a cloak, which can go for at least three times what we¡¯re looking at selling yours for, mind you. Not to mention you¡¯re currently the only person who can make them. Given the ease of production as soon as more people get the skill to make them the price will start going down, but for now this could still be considered low. Should your identity as the inventor ever be revealed though it should earn you quite a lot of goodwill with the various nations buying them,¡± What she didn¡¯t say was that it was likely many of the nations had already started to investigate him. Since he elected to keep his identity a secret with the guild, if any nation tried to actively pursue him they would likely come into conflict, but it wouldn¡¯t stop them from using this time to create the best sales pitch they could if he ever wanted to go public. Ben felt dizzy. For an afternoon''s work he had almost made enough to live for a year, if he included what he had left from the church and earned with Falk he was past that. With the queen talking about setting up more appointments he was uncomfortable in ways he couldn¡¯t properly explain. ¡°Um, what should I even do with all this money?¡± He asked, a little unsure of himself, but Penelia seemed happy to help him out and put things in perspective. ¡°Ben it may seem like a lot of money now, and to an extent it certainly is a lot to get all at once, but there are plenty of purchases that could use it up just as fast. You could spend it all on a large payment for a house, or some rare items, or order materials you wouldn¡¯t be able to acquire without that sort of capital. It¡¯s a lot of money, but it could easily be gone in a flash so either use it up quickly to get it out of the way, or use it wisely, besides, it¡¯s not like you¡¯ll be able to sell them once you leave here if you plan on keeping your identity a secret.¡± He didn¡¯t understand what she meant by that at first before realizing she was right. If he was the only one who could make them then fitting the enchantment to each person would pretty obviously show who he was. Now that he was thinking about it, that was a huge issue in itself but Pelenia at least helped ease his concerns over his newly acquired wealth. Yes it was a lot of money to get at once, but it was nothing compared to the millionaires and billionaires of earth, who would make that much in a day or a week or a month, and surely there would be plenty of wealthy individuals in this world making far more than that. Considering he was with the queen of a nation and a spirit that could make rare magic metals essentially from nothing he suspected he was seated with two at the very moment. ¡°Okay you¡¯re right, I may have gotten a bit overwhelmed. I¡¯ll buy a couple things I was too poor for before and just save the rest for now until I have something worth doing with it.¡± ¡°Good boy, and of course if you want the money to keep coming in there¡¯s always an option,¡± The queen told him with a smile. ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°Work for my kingdom,¡± She said, immediately shocking the boy and leaving him speechless. An issue his friend did not have. ¡°Mother!¡± Thera yelled. ¡°Even if you know he¡¯s the one making them, the guild isn¡¯t going to like you trying to take someone who wants their anonymity.¡± The queen only shrugged. ¡°While it¡¯s true that plays a part in it, there are plenty of other reasons to want the boy now that I¡¯ve gotten my eye on him. An enchanter with that sort of speed is rare, and with an invasion coming someone who can add such incredibly high resistances to any armour would be a godsend. Frankly I should probably fire the diplomat who let such a promising young man slip through my fingers, though it looks like any nations going to your region made the mistake of looking at combat strength alone.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t just fire people on your whims! And that doesn¡¯t matter anyway, Ben likes his current life, right Ben?¡± Thera turned to him and he nodded his head. ¡°She¡¯s right, thank you for the offer but I¡¯ll have to decline, I still have a lot I want to learn from Falk anyway.¡± ¡°Quite alright,¡± She said happily. ¡°Just remember the offers on the table if you change your mind in the future.¡± The queen dropped the matter easily enough and soon they slipped back into casual conversation again, with mostly Thera catching up on what¡¯s been happening in Anailia while she was away, when she asked a favour of her mom. ¡°My hair¡¯s starting to get a little long, would you mind cutting it for me?¡± "If you ever need a haircut in Stonewall I probably could help you out, Thera,¡± He cut in. ¡°I don''t know if it would be directly tied to my crafting but I''m sure some of the skills would cross over enough that I could manage." She started fiddling with a strand that was just a bit past her shoulders. "I''m just used to having mom do it so I didn''t consider it, but next time I¡¯ll try and get you to do it if you don¡¯t mind. It''s a good way to make some extra money out there anyway." "What? Why? How?" He couldn¡¯t see a connection between getting a haircut and earning money, no matter how much he thought about it. She thought for a minute before explaining. "I guess it shouldn''t be a big deal if I tell you but do me a favour and keep it to yourself. My hair doesn''t just look golden, it is gold." Ben felt the gears of his mind start to shift and turn. "What? But then¡­ Thera could I see one of your hairs real quick?" He asked with such earnestness that she plucked one without a fight. He felt it in his fingers and examined it. He hadn''t worked with gold before but he had felt hair. This had the right texture and feel to it when he moved it around in his hand, even after having been removed from her head it didn''t immediately change to having more gold-like properties. It gave him an idea. He went up to her, grabbed her shoulders, and looked deep into her eyes, surprising her with his sudden boldness. He had to do it though, he needed to sincerely convey himself to her. "Thera," he spoke with a passion-filled voice that left everyone in the room wondering what he would say. "Let me use your body." CH59 Ben''s hands were wrenched away from her, secured with metal shackles behind his back, and an earthen spike pressing against his jugular. "Oh my," Her mother giggled. "Aren''t you a bold boy?" "Honey for our daughter''s safety, I think it would be best to dispose of him quickly. We''ll apologize to Falk and send him a replacement apprentice," Said her father, the one currently binding his hands and threatening his life. Thera had her face hidden in her hands to hide her blush from Ben''s statement before talking to her parents. "Both of you calm down, I''m sure Ben meant something else than what it sounded like." Ben for his part was a little distracted by the spike pressed against his throat but still spoke to defend himself. "Absolutely, sorry I meant I want to use her body for crafting materials." Four more spikes pressed into his throat. "Alright honey enough of that," Her mom said, trying to quell her husband''s sudden anger. "Ben, as a reasonably new resident in this world I''m not sure if you''re aware, but making materials out of sapient races is an extreme criminal offense pretty much everywhere. In the past there were a few races that were almost wiped out in order to use their parts. Now bearing that in mind, what do you want to do with my daughter?" The spikes were moved about a foot away, but they didn''t disappear. Still it was enough for him to breathe. "I didn''t know, sorry. I probably could have explained better, I''m just feeling pretty damn inspired at the moment. I was just thinking that despite being made of gold, the properties of it have changed to more resemble hair since it was part of her body, but it''s still metal. Her mana moves around inside her naturally all the time without causing harm, so I was thinking we could use however much hair she cuts off to make the core of a staff. If her mana can move through it the same way it can for the rest of her body then maybe a staff made with it wouldn''t explode if she ran her mana through it. Still I didn''t know what you just told me so I can see it''s probably not a good idea. Sorry." He tried to sound heartfelt but after his explanation Thera had made up her mind as well. "Let''s do it." ¡°Are you sure? It¡¯s not something I think I could pull off immediately, I¡¯m hoping to get my crafting level up maybe two more first. The main thing is if you¡¯d be willing to grow your hair out longer so we¡¯d have more to work with when the time comes.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll put getting a haircut on hold then,¡± She said without hesitation. ¡°If it could get me a better staff then it will be worth the wait.¡± ¡°Great, now that that¡¯s done do you mind releasing me?¡± He asked Abrus, who still had him chained and bound. With a wave of his hand the great spirit freed him, the chains and spikes remerging with the floor they were originally a part of. ¡°Sorry about that,¡± Abrus told him. ¡°In my time I¡¯ve seen plenty of species and mixed-breeds hunted for their parts, I¡¯ve always been worried someone may see Thera as some particularly rare magical ingredients.¡± ¡°Fair enough, sorry I wasn¡¯t more clear to begin with,¡± He could certainly understand why that would be a worry. ¡°Has that sort of thing happened to any other half spirits before?¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°You didn¡¯t tell him then?¡± Penelia asked Thera with a raised eyebrow, but Thera only shrugged. ¡°There was never any real reason to bring it up,¡± She said in a tone making it clear it wasn¡¯t really a topic she wanted to spend too much time on, before turning to Ben. ¡°I¡¯m the first half spirit, so nothing like that has happened before, but growing up there was some worry that someone may try something since spirits are so potently magical.¡± ¡°Oh neat,¡± From her general demeanor as she spoke he decided to leave well enough alone and wasn¡¯t really sure where to bring the conversation, but thankfully her mother seemed to be feeling merciful, calling for desert and then brought an end to the night.
He awoke early the next day and immediately ran off to the guild. Thera was still asleep when he left but she would doubtlessly know where to find him when she woke up, and if she wanted to join him she would. There was just a small problem. It was still closed when he got there. Without much to do until he was let in he wandered around, looking at the few shops that were open, hoping something would catch his eye. He had money to spare now and it wouldn¡¯t hurt to pick up a couple things while he was out, and in a world filled with magical tools, there were a lot of tempting options.
Myriad said while Ben worked. What? The spatial bag? Sure it¡¯s not the largest one I could have gotten for that price, but my mana is too low to keep it charged so springing a bit more for one that uses some mythril was a good investment, even if it was pricey. As Ben had wandered around, looking for anything that caught his eye, he managed to find a reasonably priced spatial bag and knew that he had to have it. It screamed fantasy to him more than anything else he¡¯d seen, plus they were convenient. It was the size of a regular backpack but could fit about a cubic meter of space. They wouldn¡¯t have any issue taking their luggage home with it and they would be able to carry far more staves to test in the future. Myriad could see the logic in it, even if he found it a bit extravagant. The issue was more why Ben was sitting outside the guild sewing as he waited for it to open. Making the braces involves weaving mana, and it looked like the boundary to Anailia''s trial had some seriously complexly woven enchantments. I figured if I am going to be doing more of that in the future I could practice with an actual needle and thread. I have a little experience with it anyway, but it never hurts to get more. While he was out he found a lovely little shop selling cloth, needles and thread, as well as some beginner and intermediate books on sewing. With all that available of course he was going to give it a try. I do a lot of cooking anyway, it will come in handy. He had just finished putting together a big, floppy chef''s hat, as well as making a nice apron. I¡¯ll have you know that ¡®Kiss the Cook¡¯ aprons are a proud part of my culture. Besides, only humans will be able to read it, if I¡¯m ever able to meet up with Steph or Will again I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll get a kick out of it. Ben''s father would always wake up early on weekends to make breakfast for his family, and the apron was part of his signature look. He had fond memories of that sort of thing and it reminded him of home in a nice little way. Myriad was at least able to pick up on this, even if he wasn¡¯t in agreement with his apostles'' fashion choices. CH60 At the end of his second week in the nation, Ben just finished reading and re-reading a passage he found in the guild archives after a long morning of enchanting and found himself running back to Thera''s home at full speed. He had just been skimming through any book that caught his interest, making notes on what to read more carefully later and what pages had information that he found to be more useful or worth researching further when he came across a concept he had never heard of before. It was just a short chapter in a dusty tomb that looked like it hadn¡¯t been touched in years, but it was more exciting than anything else he¡¯d learned at that point and he wanted to immediately grab his friend to test it out. When he got back he ran into a servant and stopped them to see where he could find her, before being directed to the yard on the other side of the house where he was working to enchant the braces. Racing without a care he left the building, turned a corner, and was almost immediately flattened by a flying rock. The only thing saving him was a nearly invisible forcefield springing up in front of him. ¡°Gotta be more aware of your surroundings sweetheart!¡± Abrus yelled out. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t want to hurt your friend.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good training for me at least,¡± Glob said. ¡°Maybe he should stick around to help as target practice.¡± It wasn¡¯t clear if she heard her father or Globolgork, she was already rushing towards him at full speed. ¡°Ben I¡¯m so sorry, are you alright?¡± Thankfully he was fine. It seemed in the time he was in the guild reading, Thera had been practicing her magic with her father and Glob as Karly and a person he had come to learn was Glob¡¯s barrier magic instructor sat to the side. Thera was taking this opportunity to get as much practice in as she could. Her parents had a number of craftsmen producing about a dozen staves a day, basically giving Thera free reign to break as many as she needed to, and it appeared in that practice Ben was almost a casualty. Lucky for him Glob was there and aware of their surroundings. Despite coming off as an ass he did properly block Thera''s spell before it could reach him. He couldn¡¯t help but feel a little jealous that she was using the work of other craftsmen, worse still that she was able to get about four or five shots from each staff. He knew her earth magic had gone up since she last used one of his, which meant her control had gone up too and his own products would probably last longer, but until he saw it with his own eyes he would feel a competitive flame flickering within him. Not only that, but with his crafting and enchanting having gone up as well he was sure he would be able to make something much better, especially once he started on implementing the new enchanting trick he¡¯d just read they may not even need to make another for weeks as long as they were careful. ¡°I¡¯m fine, but that¡¯s not important. Give me your staff.¡± She could feel the excitement coming off of him and she handed it over without any resistance. ¡°I¡¯ve already used that one three times, are you sure you don¡¯t want a newer one?¡± ¡°No, this is actually perfect. Think you only have one or two shots left in it?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been getting four shots from the staves made by this smith, so it should only be one left.¡± Perfect. He grabbed on and ran his mana through it, feeling where microfractures had formed throughout the rod, weakening it in a very real way. He spent a few moments applying his enchantment before handing it back. ¡°Alright, mind shooting it until it breaks?¡± She looked at it and shrugged before firing an earth bullet. When the staff was still whole in her hand she looked at it in surprise but fired a second shot. Still unbroken and she went for a third, only for it to shatter in her hand. ¡°How did you do that?¡± She asked in excitement. ¡°Sacrificial enchantments. I found out about them in the guild. They¡¯re set up to take some of the brute of any mana passing through them and break. It wasn¡¯t as effective as I hoped, but still getting one extra shot is fantastic, especially if I¡¯m around to set it up again each time. We could seriously get a lot more lifespan out of your staves!¡± ¡°Interesting,¡± Abrus said after watching the display. ¡°Why have we never heard of these before?¡± Ben had wondered the same thing at first, but after thinking it over on the way there he thought he could understand why. ¡°I would think it¡¯s probably because they aren¡¯t thought of as very useful. There aren¡¯t many cases where enough mana could accumulate to destroy an item or enchantment unless it¡¯s intentional, and you would need to have an enchanter on standby to fix it each time. Usually there are just better ways you could make things instead, so this technique went unnoticed and expired into the public domain, just waiting for me to get my hands on it. You guys go back to practicing, I¡¯ll take some time to apply this to the rest of the staves you have available.¡± He sat down and watched them practice as he worked. They only had six staves left so it should have been a quick process but he wanted to examine them as he went. Ben had originally wondered why they simply didn''t have some higher quality staves made, but it looked like it came down to the fact that it wouldn¡¯t look good for the leaders of a nation to monopolize their countries high-quality items given that they would just take a bit longer to be destroyed, nor would it be good to deplete the nation''s stock of rare materials that went into making high-quality goods. By buying large amounts of lower quality staves they were able to make sure less valuable materials were used, as well as ensuring a steady source of work for the people making them, at least as long as Thera was in town to use them up. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. What resulted were staves of an adequate quality, but even if they weren¡¯t as good as his teachers that didn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t anything he could get from them. Each one was a work of art in its own way, being forged by smiths or woodworkers into something ornate and fit for the daughter of a queen. It was only a shame that all the hard work to make something so beautiful was immediately destroyed after a few uses. In that regard at least he was sure he had the right idea. If Thera wanted an artistic staff he could make her one once she had good enough control of her magic. Once that was done he watched Thera and Glob sparing, with Thera on the offense and Glob acting completely defensively. As Thera threw Earth bullets at him it was clear that Glob had the advantage in skill and technique, presumably from being summoned with a higher form of a skill, Thera was still able to put up a fight from the raw power she displayed. The only thing that held the fight back from being impressive was how she needed to run back to him each time to trade out staves or get a new enchantment placed on it. Still it helped their small battle stretch on for far longer than it otherwise could have. The next time she came to him though Ben asked her a question. ¡°Why are you still only using Earth bullet?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not ideal but in a fight I want to be able to use as many spells as I can. I tried using earthen spear and manipulating my bullets course but in both cases I was only able to fire two shots because of the increased mana expenditure. My earth bullet is plenty powerful so as long as I can be comfortable firing them off and watch my aim it should be safer.¡± ¡°Okay but this is practice, not a real fight, and it¡¯s not like you''re alone. Come on, let¡¯s try something.¡± He got up and grabbed her hand, connecting with her. ¡°Use whatever spells you want, I¡¯ll try and keep your staff functional as long as possible and we¡¯ll see how it goes.¡± He didn¡¯t hide his mind from her so she could tell exactly what he wanted to do through the connection. With a small look and a nod she started her spell. Ben could see Abrus perking up off to the side, he had heard how things went the last time he tried to lift some of the burden from her staff, but Glob had no idea and was acting cocky. ¡°You''re going to fight me with a craftsman clinging to you? Low-worlders really are a bunch of weirdos.¡± She ignored his taunts and provocations though and cast her spell. Ben felt the mana pass through the staff and worked to strengthen any weakened areas of it, while at the same time applying and reapplying sacrificial enchantments as they broke. He was slower than he wanted to be but knew it was still his first day using them. He would improve. Glob quieted down when he saw Thera use a different attack for the first time that day. two dense earthen spears, each as long as a person, were pulled to the ground and fired at him. He immediately threw up a barrier but only one crashed into it, destroying the spear in the process, the other one changed directions in the air and started to circle him at a distance, ready to try and impale him at a moment''s notice should he let his guard down, but he never did. He switched from creating the barriers as needed to having a round one completely surrounding him. It was probably significantly more mana intense, but he had seen the way Thera''s spells destroyed her staves and was willing to try and outlast her. Thera wasn¡¯t willing to wait and went on the attack, all at once hammering one spot on his barrier with the last spear with as much force as she could muster. It almost looked like it would break through, but they didn¡¯t have the luck. ¡°Ha, suck on that!¡± Glob yelled at them, confident in his victory, before the earth shook and brought him to the ground. Thera¡¯s staff turned to dust in her hand, Ben¡¯s crafting and enchanting not able to keep up with whatever spell she was about to attempt. ¡°What was that last one?¡± He had to know. ¡°I just tried to swallow him into the earth,¡± She casually told him. ¡°I thought given how it turned out when we did an earthwave it would work out.¡± Scary. Being buried alive seemed like a bit much for a sparring match, but he kept that to himself, instead focusing on the technical aspect of why it failed. ¡°We could only pull off an earthwave that time because we had one of Falk''s unused staves. Honestly with how much damage this staff had already received, I think it held up great.¡± ¡°It was great,¡± She said while beaming. ¡°We should fight like this more often, think of how well our hunts would go.¡± ¡°Nope, this should stay our trump card in case of emergencies. If I¡¯m always easing the burden on your staves there will be no reason to work on your control. Plus then I¡¯d have to always be with you, you don¡¯t want to be dependent on me, do you?¡± She deflated at his argument. ¡°Huuh, no. It¡¯s just so much easier this way.¡± ¡°Anything worth doing is worth working for sweetheart,¡± Abrus said as he walked up to them. ¡°Though that was rather impressive.¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to take that ¡®work hard¡¯ attitude of yours seriously dad when you can use earth magic as easily as breathing.¡± ¡°Hey now, I work hard on other stuff. I am currently trying to learn non-attribute magic from Globolgorks teacher.¡± ¡°Currently is a bit of an understatement,¡± The incubus in charge of Globs training said. ¡°A long decade of practice with no payoff isn¡¯t a short period of time for most mortal races.¡± ¡°A decade! Even if non-attribute magics are hard to get, shouldn¡¯t it still be pretty easy with the amount of mana you have?¡± Ben asked. ¡°Maybe for other races, but I¡¯m so tightly bound to my element that I¡¯m not even sure it¡¯s possible to use spells without it. Still, it''s fun to try,¡± Abrus said with cheer. ¡°You never know what skill could pay off in a unique way.¡± ¡°Ignoring that though,¡± Said Karly after watching the battle herself. ¡°How did you help her do that? Did you learn a buff skill or something?¡± She hadn¡¯t been participating in the training herself this time because her magics wouldn¡¯t help the other two with the sort of practice they needed, but she''d watched long enough that she was sure Thera couldn¡¯t pull something like that off alone. ¡°Using a few of my skills in tandem lets me feel Thera''s mana pass through the staff so I can strengthen any weakening sections of it, and I was trying to rebuild the enchantments as fast as they were being destroyed. I¡¯m sure we could do better once I get a bit more practice with the technique, but it¡¯s already shown it could work, which is all I wanted from today.¡± ¡°I would say that¡¯s enough for now anyway,¡± Abrus chimed in. ¡°You¡¯ve all had plenty of practice, let''s stop for a meal.¡± Everyone else seemed ready to go but Ben stopped them. ¡°Before that, Thera could I have a hand? There¡¯s a couple things I want to test.¡± CH61 Ever since Roan''s attack on Stonewall there were things he¡¯d wanted to test, there just never seemed to be the time, but after connecting with Thera again as she used her magic he decided not to put it off any longer. No matter how low the chance of success he wouldn¡¯t be satisfied unless he tried. He grabbed her by the hand and started to connect with her, trying to feel more than just her mind or her mana, but something deeper. He wanted to connect to her skills. When they were fighting Roan before and Glob just now he felt her power as she used it, and it let him know what to look for. His brow creased in concentration as he tried to force his mind to plunge even further, before he came across what he was looking for and latched onto it with all he had. There was no resistance and his confidence soared. This was it, this was what he¡¯d been dreaming of since coming to the world. And if he could feel it he was sure he could use it. He stretched his arm out in front of him, willing his mana to bend to his desire and form an earth bullet in front of him. But nothing happened. He let out a sigh and felt himself shrink. Of course it wouldn¡¯t work. That would have been way too convenient if he could overcome his inability to use magic by connecting with someone. Everyone else looked on, unsure of what should be happening. Only Thera understood what he had attempted by hearing his thoughts through the connection, and could feel the disappointment rolling off of him. ¡°Try not to let it get to you.¡± She told him. ¡°You don¡¯t need magic to be a fantastic craftsman.¡± ¡°I know, but it sure helps.¡± He wasn¡¯t even sure if there was any point in testing his other two ideas, but for the sake of trying everything he carried on with lower spirits. ¡°Hey Abrus, mind making me a copper armband? Something that could cover my forearm?¡± ¡°A simple enough request.¡± With a small wave of his hand the earth spirit materialized the copper around his arm. It wasn¡¯t pretty, with no real thought being put into its look, but it would work well enough for his purposes. He still had his hold on her earth magic, and with little hope tried to enchant with it. The very world felt like it changed when he felt it start to work. He didn¡¯t have much knowledge on how to enchant with spells, since he didn¡¯t think it was something he would ever do, he had felt like there was no real point in taking the time to learn, and now that felt like an overwhelming mistake. Rather than try and shape the mana to produce a specific spell effect, he had no choice but to lay the entire skill onto the armband. To everyone but him and Thera it looked like he¡¯d worked up a sweat after staring intensely at the armband for around 15 minutes. But Thera, who could feel his concentration and excitement looked at him in astonishment. He ignored his level up, it was only a distraction from seeing if he¡¯d succeeded, and let go of her hand while raising his own. ¡°Now to see if it actually works.¡± He poured his mana through the tool, and small clumps of earth raised around him and began to take the shape of a ball when a wave of lightheadedness assaulted him and broke his concentration, causing it to all fall back to the ground. Karly was the first one to react. ¡°Wait what the hell was that? Didn¡¯t you get stuck with the shit end of the stick because you couldn¡¯t use magic?¡± ¡°I think it was mostly about my blessed skills but that sure didn¡¯t help much.¡± He told her as he tried to work past a massive headache that had formed. ¡°Either way I didn¡¯t really do any magic myself, I made an enchantment with Thera¡¯s magic and tried to activate the enchantment. Of course since I still have no compatibility with earth magic I think I used way too much mana. Fuck this hurts.¡± His head was pounding and he pulled out his card to look at how much he had left. A measly four. With his mana recovery rate currently being 6 per minute he would be better soon enough, but if he just used almost all of it without being able to make a single earth bullet that wouldn¡¯t be a great option for him in the future. Of course if his last test worked out then it wouldn¡¯t be a problem. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He connected with Thera again, this time not looking for a skill, but something he¡¯d grown much more used to working with in the past few weeks. Mana. He knew he could feel it and work enchantments around it, but what he was attempting now was different. He wanted to take it for himself. He reached for it mentally, but it was like water slipping through his fingers. As much as he wanted to use some to use for his spell or replenish his reserves, it just wasn¡¯t in the cards for him. ¡°Shame.¡± He muttered under his breath. Still, the fact that even one of his ideas had worked for him opened up countless possibilities. Possibilities he intended to make full use of.
Pelenia was waiting at the table as everyone streamed in, seemingly exhausted. ¡°Did you all train too hard today?¡± She asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know the last time I''ve seen you all so tired.¡± All except Ben that was. He seemed positively giddy. ¡°Ben ended up requesting their help to figure out the limits of his skill.¡± Abrus answered. ¡°He was¡­ rather thorough in his experimentation.¡± They gave the queen a rundown of the day, explaining how training had gone and Ben''s experiments with his skill. After figuring out he could enchant with other people''s skills everyone was surprised and happy for him until they realised he intended to discover the skills limits there and then. He got everyone present to divulge whatever skills they were willing to and went to each of them, trying to apply different effects to the brace and worked to figure out what he could manage. ¡°... So it looks like I can use up to level 3 skills at the moment, which is a bit weird if you think about it because my enchanting should let me use up to level 5, but maybe it¡¯s being limited by my connect level? Or maybe there''s a more complex interaction going on than I can tell. On the plus side, it looks like I could still get the first three levels of the barrier magic skill from Globs teacher even though he¡¯d awoken it to level 1 of advanced barrier mastery, but I couldn¡¯t even touch any of Glob or Karly¡¯s blessed skills. It¡¯s like since they came to this world with evolved ones it didn¡¯t have a base for me to grab onto, which is honestly a bit of a shame cause I would love to meet up with some old classmates and try and use their more powerful and rare skills, but then I just have to evolve my skills myself and I should be able to. I was able to use the skills they¡¯d developed since coming to the world, so it feels like the blessed ones just don¡¯t have a foundation I can take advantage of. After all, since I could enchant with Thera¡¯s blessed earth magic I shouldn¡¯t have that issue with anyone who¡¯s built up their skills over time.¡± Everyone seemed exhausted, having heard him ramble on as he pulled them all into his experimenting, but the queen''s eyes were shining. ¡°Sounds like you¡¯ve had the most productive day of all then, so what''s next?¡± ¡°Think you could get me more people to make resistance braces for? The sooner I get either my enchanting or connect up, the sooner I can see how it will affect things.¡±
After dinner and sleeping, Ben awoke in myriads divine realm with a smile still plastered on his face. ¡°Myriad, buddy! I didn¡¯t hear from you today. Please tell me you caught sight of the news.¡± ¡°I did, things are looking good I think.¡± His god didn¡¯t sound like he was giving Ben his full attention as he spoke, a fact Ben was quick to pick up on. ¡°What¡¯s up? You seem distracted, I figured you¡¯d be doing your glowing disco ball of excitement routine you do when something good happens.¡± ¡°This is excellent news, something about it just seems off is all, it¡¯s eating at my mind a little.¡± "What could be off? The amount I can enchant basically became unlimited! This is a huge selling point! I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll be able to snag some enchanters with this for sure!" "It is, it''s great. It¡¯s just...." "Just what?" "There are already a group of skills very similar to it, lender, learner, teacher, and borrower. I won''t bore you with the details but the short of it is that they all allow for sharing skills to an extent too, without the restriction of it only being able to be used for enchanting. While I can see how my own characteristics could lead to this, I just find it odd that it''s growing with the restrictions it is. The influence of you and the world should be causing it to grow in more interesting ways." ¡°What do you mean restrictions? Sure not being able to use the skill when connected isn¡¯t great, but it also has the whole mindreading aspect as a benefit.¡± ¡°True, but you had to work much longer to use it as well right? Your normal enchanting speed is significantly faster. Not to mention I don¡¯t think there are many with blessed enchanting. I would bet that any enchanter without the blessed version of the skill would struggle much more. All of this makes it significantly weaker than the other skills I mentioned, which just seems unusual. As it stands it¡¯s only grown into a weaker borrower and mindreading.¡± "So what do you think is happening then?" "I think you should try and get another level or two out of it and we''ll see from there." CH62 Another week passed without any major changes. Ben was still making resistance braces each morning and going to the craftsmen''s guild to read in the afternoons, though his book selection now included how to enchant with magic as well, while Thera trained with her father, Glob, and Karly. Really there was only one noticeable difference. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re wearing that.¡± Karly said as Ben brought out a meal for everyone. ¡°What are you talking about? I¡¯ve been wearing it all week?¡± Ben told her, loving her reaction to his chef hat/kiss the cook apron combo. ¡°It is a little odd Ben,¡± Thera told him with a questioning voice. ¡°What¡¯s it say anyway? That¡¯s your world¡¯s writing right?¡± ¡°It is but don¡¯t worry about it. Think of this as the customary cooking garb of my planet.¡± Karly rolled her eyes but didn¡¯t bother correcting him since she would rather eat what was being served. The day after Ben discovered that he could enchant with other people''s skills he grew concerned he wasn¡¯t doing anything to train his crafting skill at the moment. Given that his current job was craftsmen it didn¡¯t feel right to neglect it like that, especially when he was progressing so quickly through it. With everything he¡¯d done, from learning to keep staves from breaking by using his crafting, to creating the braces, to learning he could enchant with other people''s skills, he had flown through it far faster than he had expected, with only a few months putting him at level 80. It seemed the system rewarded discovery, or maybe it was just that what he had been discovering was rather complex. He did see a pretty massive jump in his level each time he spent an entire night to improve on Theras armband. Nonetheless he wanted to make something that was a little more tangible, and when he discussed his concerns with the queen she suggested working under the castle cook while he was here. Apparently Thera had spoken about their time cooking together and the cook had level 7 in the skill, making them an excellent resource to take advantage of while he had the chance. Not to mention it meant he could learn some more succubus recipes. He would normally take off his cooking gear while still in the kitchen, but the maid who would usually serve was off ill for the day, so he decided to bring it out while it was fresh before sitting down to eat himself. They filled the meal with the usual small talk, each of them discussing their plans for the day, though there was never much different. At least there usually wasn¡¯t, though it seemed the queen felt it was time to change that. ¡°Thera, your training seems to have stalled.¡± She said offhand, and the mood of the room immediately dropped as Thera became more distant. ¡°My level improved not too long ago you know mother. You can¡¯t expect me to raise it again so soon.¡± ¡°You possess basically unlimited mana. If you could improve your control some more there''s no reason you couldn''t already have awoken your skills to the second tier. Maybe it''s time to admit you don¡¯t have the skill to be a mage.¡± She ground her teeth and did all she could to keep the anger and frustration from her voice. ¡°I fail to see what that has to do with anything. I¡¯m working at it on my own, whether I succeed or fail is nobody''s concern but mine.¡± Pelenia let out a small huff. ¡°Hardly. You have Falk and Ben making you staves constantly, and taking Ben out hunting with you when his time could be better spent on training his own skills is a waste.¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± Ben interjected. ¡°Falks insisted that I get used to gathering my own supplies to save money. He says being able to procure your own materials is imperative to any beginning craftsman.¡± ¡°That may be true for most,¡± The queen rebuked. ¡°But then most beginners wouldn¡¯t have such a profitable patent to their name. Look at how much you¡¯ve made and tell me your time wouldn¡¯t be better spent buying materials and refining your skills?¡± He had no response for that. Ben had already been unsure of how to handle his newfound wealth after the first day of work, as the days passed and he made more bands he¡¯d accumulated more money than he knew what to do with. Investing that money into himself and his training wasn¡¯t a bad idea at all. ¡°Don¡¯t try and talk Ben into quitting working with me, besides, Falk¡¯s fine with making me staves so what''s the issue?¡± ¡°True, he is and likely will continue to be, but that doesn''t change the fact that it¡¯s a drain on his resources. A drain we¡¯ve been helping curb.¡± ¡°What?¡± She asked in shock. ¡°Thera please, do you really think we¡¯d let our friend put so much time and effort into supplying you without properly compensating him? Of course, since there¡¯s barely been any progress over the past of couple years we¡¯re going to have to ask him to stop. It¡¯s been a waste of his time.¡± Thera couldn¡¯t look her mother in the eye while everyone else was sitting awkwardly trapped in their family squabble. She got up and was about to leave the table when her mother threw her a lifeline. ¡°Of course, if you could prove that you¡¯ve improved enough to make it worth everyone''s time and effort, I have no issue with you continuing on as you are.¡± She let out an angry, defeated sigh before facing her mother. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple really.¡± The queen said with a smile. ¡°I want you to conquer the trial of Anailia.¡± It looked like her father was going to say something to that, but Pelenia raised a hand to silence him, though Thera had her own objections. ¡°Why in the infinite hells would I do that? People die in there every year, are you trying to get me killed?¡± ¡°People also die adventuring constantly and you end up without a weapon far too often as you do that. The risk feels rather comparable I would say.¡± ¡°Okay, but I¡¯m also not close enough with any other succubi or incubi to fulfill the conditions, and you know it can¡¯t be done alone. Are you just giving me an impossible task to do?¡± ¡°The conditions say nothing of race. Any species can participate in any trial, though some are going to be significantly less equipped to succeed than others. Given that I¡¯m sure there''s at least one person in this room you could partner with.¡± She said, throwing a look Bens way. ¡°You literally just gave me trouble for having him hunt with me!¡± ¡°Yes, and if you¡¯d developed any bonds with other adventurers I¡¯d say to party with one of them, but as it stands your options are limited. Of course I don¡¯t expect him to do it for free. He already seems to have no problem with his level of wealth, so I have an alternative suggestion for our young apostle. I¡¯ll get you ten converts if you¡¯re willing to help my daughter.¡± No worries Myriad I got this. ¡°Sounds like a deal to me.¡± He told her enthusiastically, trying to ignore the awkward atmosphere that filled the room. <...Not what I was going to say.> What? Myriad had been on him to find new followers for months now, and here he was just straight up being offered ten of them on a silver platter. He wanted to ask about the change of heart but it wasn¡¯t immediately important. He would have agreed to help Thera out anyway, this was just a bonus. Thera didn¡¯t seem pleased to see how everything went herself, but it looked like she¡¯d given in. ¡°Fine. If that¡¯s how it¡¯s going to be it looks like we¡¯ll do it. When do you want us to start then?¡± ¡°How about a week from now? I¡¯ll put Ben''s work on hold for the time being so you both can focus on your upcoming trial. Now that that''s sorted, let''s finish eating.¡± The queen resumed her meal but Thera got up and started walking away. ¡°I¡¯m not hungry.¡± She left the room and Ben was about to follow her when Karly spoke up and caught his attention. ¡°Completing the trial is the qualification right? We¡¯ll do it too.¡± ¡°What do you mean we?¡± Glob said indignantly. ¡°I¡¯m not dying for your political ambitions.¡± ¡°I personally don¡¯t think you and Glob are close enough for it to be a good choice, however as our country''s heroes I won¡¯t stop you.¡± Pelenia said, completely ignoring Glob''s objections. ¡°Um, sorry but what do you mean by qualification?¡± Ben asked. He wanted to check on Thera, but he didn¡¯t want to pass on information for whatever dangerous trial he had just agreed to. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Pelenia explained for him. ¡°You¡¯ve been told we¡¯re an elected monarchy, correct? The condition to become a candidate is to complete Anailias'' trial. Everyone who does has the right to lead our people.¡± Interesting, but not immediately important. He decided he could get any other information from Thera and went to follow here.
When he got to her room and knocked on the door he didn¡¯t hear a response, but not one to let something like that deter him he let himself in to find her face down in bed. ¡°... Want to talk about it?¡± He asked. There wasn¡¯t much need to try and figure out what was wrong since he was there for the whole uncomfortable exchange, and he took a seat beside her before he got an answer. She pulled her head out from a pillow and looked at him, asking something that took him by surprise. ¡°Would you have agreed to help if mom didn¡¯t offer you a reward?¡± ¡°What? Yeah of course. I wasn¡¯t going to turn it down since it was offered but I wouldn¡¯t want you to go alone on some dangerous trial anyway.¡± ¡°Okay good.¡± She seemed to lose some of the tension within her as she got his answer and went back into her pillow. He sat with her in silence for a bit, expecting something more, but when she didn¡¯t volunteer to speak he questioned her instead. ¡°So want to tell me a bit more about what this trial involves? And what were the conditions that we needed?¡± He wasn¡¯t sure if he was going to get an answer from her, but after a moment she sat up beside him. ¡°All I really know about it is that two people need to work together to take the trial and that the goal is to make it to the heart of it and collect a flower. The condition is for the two taking it to be fairly close, but if you ask me it''s silly that even needs to be said. What idiots would do a dangerous trial from a god if they don''t even like each other?¡± Apparently Karly and Glob. He felt a moment¡¯s worry that his classmate and one of the few humans on this world were going to get herself killed, but he needed to be worrying about himself instead. He was sure they could handle themselves. ¡°That''s a bit vague isn¡¯t it? Like what are we going to have to do in there? Surely if people die facing it we aren¡¯t just walking through the woods?¡± Thera could only shrug. ¡°When you willingly enter the trial you form a covenant with Anailia that keeps you from speaking of the details. It wouldn¡¯t be much of a challenge if you knew what you were facing and could plan ahead.¡± ¡°Fair enough.¡± So they wouldn¡¯t know that they were walking into. Admittedly the thought made Ben a little nervous. He would have liked to have spent the next week collecting as much information as he could, but now it looked like he¡¯d have to just try and prepare for everything to one degree or another. Not ideal by any stretch, but maybe he could work on some new traps. Now that the amount of skills he had access to had just drastically increased he had a few ideas he wanted to put to the test. As he was fantasizing about what he would try to put together in the next few days he felt Theras eyes looking at him from the side. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± He knew the morning had gotten to her and she wasn¡¯t in the best state at the moment, and now that they¡¯d agreed to such a potentially dangerous task he wanted to help ease her mind before they went off. Still she managed to catch him off guard. ¡°Are you going to quit hunting after this?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just that mom¡¯s right about you not needing to anymore. You have money and access to resources now.¡± Ben wasn¡¯t so socially inept that he couldn¡¯t see what her concern was. Thera had been alienated and had to hunt alone back in Stonewall, and he was probably her longest companion at this point. What her mom had said did bear some considering, he certainly didn¡¯t need to anymore, but when it came down to it he enjoyed it as a way to spend time with his friend outside of work. ¡°I have fun hunting with you so don¡¯t worry about it. As long as we keep going for things that won¡¯t immediately get me killed or until you get to a point that you need to find more powerful party members than me I¡¯m happy to stay with you.¡± ¡°Okay good.¡± She averted her gaze but wore a smile on her face.
Since he had been given the rest of the week off Ben spent the day doing something he should have made time for the previous week, remaking the enchantment on Theras armband. He needed to learn how the increase of his connect skill would affect the amount of resistance it could produce, but that was an issue for later. Once he had finished it he promptly fell to sleep and found himself in Myriad''s divine realm, with his god already waiting. Myriad looked¡­ he wasn¡¯t sure how to put it. Brighter maybe? But not like when he was glowing with excitement. It was more like his presence had become more defined. He was a little harder to look at, but Ben didn¡¯t let it bother him. ¡°So what¡¯s up Myriad? I thought you would be ecstatic to have worshippers offered to you on a silver platter.¡± ¡°Ben you just agreed to an incredibly dangerous task for something Pelenia would have done anyway.¡± ¡°Um, explain please?¡± His god sighed. ¡°Ben, you''ve spent the last couple weeks proving the value of your invention, especially just how valuable it could be to any race that has passive magics, or any that want to profit off of them. Given that, it was already in their best interest to have a few enchanters convert to me. With the total succubus population in the millions offering only ten people to convert is probably just what she immediately had on hand who were willing. You got ripped off.¡± When he thought about what Myriad was saying he couldn¡¯t disagree with any of it. ¡°Fuck. Okay yeah I messed that up, but I would have agreed without any sort of bribe so it is what it is.¡± ¡°That¡¯s another thing. People die all the time doing trials and you¡¯re still my apostle. If anything happens to you I¡¯ll need to find another one. Couldn¡¯t you make your safety a bit more of a priority?¡± ¡°Wait, that''s a good point. You¡¯re a god, tell me about whatever we¡¯ll have to face during this.¡± He thought he''d found a clever workaround to the lack of information, but he was quickly shot down. ¡°No can do. If every god helped their believers beat a trial just to get their rewards it would be anarchy and defeat the entire point of it. You need to complete this through your own effort.¡± ¡°Damn. So no advice at all?¡± ¡°Nothing you couldn¡¯t learn from anyone else in Anailia. Pack some camping supplies and food cause you¡¯ll be in there for a while.¡± "Great¡­" An unspecified but long period of time. Should he be preparing for days or months? He''d have to ask the queen for a list of entrance and exit dates for anyone who succeeded, surely there must be a list of that somewhere. From there he''d need to pick up camping gear and buy some food that could last well. He felt a headache forming with everything he''d need to do but at least his new spacial bag would get a good workout. Myriad could feel his thoughts piling up and decided to at least give him some positive news. "On the plus side, it looks like the queen already got those converts for me." "Oh that''s great, good for you Myriad," Ben said offhand, clearly not getting the implication. "And good for you. It was your achievement that made this possible. You''ve completed the quest." This succeeded in grabbing Ben''s attention. "What? Really? I mean that''s awesome but I didn''t do anything?" "Getting me believers doesn''t necessarily mean trying to convert people on an individual basis. Anyone that follows me because of your achievements qualifies as well, and with the number of embassies you''ve made braces for seeing your work too I can expect my number of believers to steadily grow as they encourage some of their own enchanters to take me on. You''ve done excellent work Ben. You''ve earned your new job levels." Hearing this he was ecstatic. His supposedly impossible goal had only taken a little over a year, and he got a nice bump in job levels towards the end of his current one when the levels would be hardest to get. Unfortunately it still wasn''t enough for him to realistically get a new job before he was to face the trial, but it would be soon. Things only got more exciting as Myriad continued. "This means you''re available for a new quest as well." "Sweet, what have you got for me?" "Unfortunately you still only have one option, but if you keep up the good work that will soon change. I need a place of worship. The first church of Myriad on this world where my believers can make a pilgrimage to express their faith." "That surprisingly doesn''t seem too bad. What''s included in making it then?" "Pretty much what you''d expect. It needs to be a place people can enter and give their faith with a figure of me either inside of the building or outside of it. It doesn''t have to be too extravagant at first, you can always expand and upgrade it later. Since it looks like you went to sleep with a cup of water beside you, pour it into a water skin when you wake up, I''ve filled it with some of my divine essence. Once you have my church built, splash it with that water to mark it as my land." "Weird but okay. Does that actually do anything or is it symbolic?" "It makes it so that as my believers give me faith the building itself will be strengthened so that in times of emergency they can go there for protection. Of course I understand this can take a lot of time and money to make, which would normally be collected from my believers, but seeing as how you currently have more wealth than you know how to spend, maybe you could finance it yourself. Just to get it completed as quickly as possible so we can get you your next quest of course." Ben ignored Myriad''s naked greed and immediately activated his skill hidden mind. He didn''t know how well it would work against a god but he felt an idea form in the back of his thoughts and he wanted to do his best not to think about it while his god was right here in front of him. "Absolutely I''ll start as soon as I wake up. In fact, can you wake me up immediately?" Myriad could tell Ben was trying to keep something from him but he couldn''t tell what. It wasn''t due to the effects of hidden mind though. Perhaps if he significantly increased his level he could, but as it stood the idea hadn''t fully crystallized in his mind. If Ben wasn''t sure what he was thinking then how could Myriad be? Still he could feel his apostles'' intense excitement and decided that whatever it was was fine. His believers were allowed their secrets after all, especially if they were doing something for his sake. "Well hold on there for a moment Ben, I''m glad to see you so ready to fulfill your role, but at least let me tell you your reward. When you complete this I''ll be able to give you another 8 levels of job growth. Hopefully by the time you finish this I''ll be able to offer you a quest with a more interesting reward, but if it''s not the following one it''s the next one." "No no, raising my job level is great so don''t worry about it. Now if you wouldn''t mind waking me up?" "It''s still going to basically be nighttime, but if you''re sure then fine. Keep up the good work Ben." As he felt himself slowly come back to consciousness a barrage of notifications went off in his head. CH63 Ben paid no mind to his new skill, he had far too much to do with the six days he had until the trial started, he could figure out what it meant later. He sprung from bed and found the nearest servant he could. There was always some awake to attend to the queen and her guests, and Ben was about to give them an unreasonable amount of work. After making a list of everything he had requested they gave him an odd look but went to prepare as much as they could in the meantime, while they would send out people in the morning to collect the rest. Ben already assured them that the money for it would be no issue and gave them an advanced payment to cover as much as they could with the promise that if it went over he would of course pay more. Ordinarily, if any of the staff were to do shopping or make any special orders for the guests they would determine a rough estimate of the price first, however as this was the apprentice of Pelenia and Abrus most trusted friend, in addition to being friends with their daughter they extended enough trust to start the ordering process. Once that was done he went back to his room and started on his blueprints. On top of anything he wanted to make for the trial he now needed to get a church done. It was going to be a busy few days.
"He wants what?" Pelenia asked in amusement. As soon as she woke up she was given a report on Ben''s requests. It wasn''t unexpected that he would start some preparation, given that he was facing a dangerous trial some of the things even made a fair amount of sense. A tent and a couple of sleeping rolls for them both as well as enough non-perishable food for the average person who took the trial were both very reasonable requests. But then he asked for specially enchanted threads, the leather of a vangoth, a spinning wheel, and some jeweler tools of all things, amongst others. She had expected him to experiment with the newfound use of his skill when preparing, but she couldn''t begin to guess just what he would make. "I''m still not sure about this." Her husband said. "Thera could die. It''s not worth the risk." "Anailia has one of the kindest trials. If things go wrong they can run away, much better than any that traps you within. Besides, have some faith in your daughter." "If you have faith in her then why bully her into taking it?" "She wouldn''t have done it otherwise and I have my own goals that need to be accomplished. Now stop worrying and go see what he wanted from you anyway."
"Hey Abrus, thanks for coming." When the great earth spirit found Ben in the back house, he hadn''t expected to see an exhausted looking familiar face. "It''s no problem. But what are you doing with Ferela?" At some point it looked like Ben had found Glob¡¯s barrier magic teacher and had put him through the wringer, but the old incubus was accepting of it at least. "The boy just needed to make use of my barrier magic as well as was looking for someone with charm above the zeroth level. Since I have it at the second he''s been making use of me." Abrus decided not to ask for how long. A series of contraptions were set up around him; it looked like he''d taken the time to put them together and enchanted them all with Ferelas help so it could have been a while. "Anyway, what can I do for you?" At this Ben pulled out a ball of metal. The mythril he''d been given on the first day he came. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. "Would you mind turning about 60 percent of this into a thin thread for me? The last 40 can stay as just a chunk of metal, I''ll work on it myself later." It was a simple enough request, and he was starting to put together a picture of what the boy had in mind. He simply couldn''t understand why Ben would spend the last couple of days before he faced a trail making something like it. Still he did as he was asked and ran his mana through the sphere, stretching it out into as thin a thread as he could. With that done he wound it up and gave it back to the boy, received his thanks, and went on his way. Despite himself, he was curious as to what Ben would do with some magic cloth.
Evening had come and gone, and Thera hadn''t seen anything of Ben. He''d missed all of the meals and he hadn''t been at the craftsmen''s guild when she went for a walk to check. It was only before dinner she bothered to ask anyone where he was that she found out he was in the workshop in the back, so rather than share an awkward meal with her family she went to see what he''d spent the day doing. He was sitting at a desk peering through a magnifying glass at whatever he was working on. She was sure he hadn''t noticed her coming in, he was too focused on his work, and decided to have some fun with him since he disappeared for the entire day without a word. As quietly as she could she crept up behind him and brought her face right to his ear. "Boo!" It got the desired effect and he jumped up, flinging something across the room in the process. He took a second to catch his breath and calm his heart before turning to look at her. "Was that really necessary?" She shrugged. "You disappeared for the entire day without a word. Seeing as how we may die in a week I thought you might want to plan something out." After she pointed that out he looked a little sheepish. "Okay yeah, my bad. Well, help me find the little piece of mythril I just launched across the room and then we''ll talk about it." She instantly felt terrible about her little prank. Even if her parents could supply it, mythril wasn''t something you let yourself just casually lose, so she got on the floor and started searching with him. Ben moved a light around, trying to see the glitter of the metal, and after a few minutes they managed to find it. "Thank god, hand-making all of these is honestly such a pain in the ass, I''m glad I didn''t need to do this one over." "What are you even making?" To Thera, it looked like nothing more than an oddly shaped piece of metal no bigger than a small seed, but it looked like there were well over a hundred on the desk and she couldn''t begin to imagine what they were for. "It''s called a zipper. I haven''t seen any clothing with them around so I''d bet they aren''t used in this world but when it''s done it will basically act the same way as buttons do to keep clothes closed." She blinked as she processed what she was just told. "You''re telling me you''re using mythril, one of the rarest metals on the planet, to make some buttons." "Basically but hear me out, I''m enchanting an outfit and I don''t want to have to supply the mana to it myself." She let out a sigh. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. So what enchantments are you using then?" "I''ll, um, tell you later when it''s done." He could already feel the disapproval he would get when she found out what he was doing and felt the need to immediately change the topic before she got anything out of him. "So for the trial, I asked around and it sounds like people typically complete it between a week or two, so I''ve already gotten one of the staff to buy us two weeks of nonperishable food. I''ve also gotten us some sleeping rolls and a tent, and I''ve prepared a couple new tools already. I''ll test them out with you later if you''d like. Hopefully I''ll be able to make a few more things before we head in but we''ll see. I''ll also see if I can borrow a forge somewhere so I can make you a new staff to use. Anything else you think we should worry about?" "Um no, you seem to have things well enough in hand." Thera hadn''t given the fact they would need to eat and sleep any consideration, she had been so focused on just being strong enough to survive, so Ben having already planned for that may have actually been lifesaving. "But why not just use one of the staves I''ve already got prepared? Sounds like you have a lot you want to get done over the next week." "Two main reasons. First, I could only get two extra shots on your other staves when I added sacrificial enchantments to them, I''m pretty sure I''ll be able to get more out of it if I build the staff myself so I can design it in a way to hold more." "Okay? And the other one?" "When we beat this I don''t want some other craftsman getting the glory for being the one to make the princess¡¯s weapon." He told her teasingly, with a roll of her eyes being his reward. "Still not a princess." CH64 Four days until they were to start the trail, and Ben was leaving the workshop to get a few hours of sleep. It looked like the queen had pulled some strings for him to get the enchanted threads significantly faster than he had expected. Instead of having to wait until the last minute to get them and potentially not having any time to put them to use he was already in the process of spinning them on the wheel with his mythril wire. From there he''d just have to weave them together and stitch it into the leather as a lining and he''d be done. If there was one small hangup it would be how much the threads had cost. Needing two different types of threads with two different types of enchantments was always going to be pricey, he knew that. He just hadn''t guessed how much. Even though the spells he was having placed on them were comparatively simple, the skill level needed to enchant on something so small and delicate without destroying it was high, and it left the price almost quadruple what he had expected to pay. It had hurt more than he had expected, but his finances were still in great shape, it was just the knowledge of spending so much that was a bit hard to swallow. He made his way through the overly large building and down the various corridors he''d grown used to, expecting all but a few of the servants to be asleep, when he heard a voice and saw a light coming from under the door of one of the rooms. Globs room to be specific. Ben had mixed feelings about the grey. On one hand, he was definitely an asshole and seemingly a little prejudiced against anyone from outside his reality. On the other hand, he was just as trapped on this world as he was and he had at least kept him from accidentally being crushed by one of Theras boulder-sized earth bullets. Whether he liked the guy or not though, Ben had some questions about barrier magic, and since he seemed to be awake was more than happy to take advantage of that fact. Without knocking he threw open the door and found not one, but two of the small grey''s standing inside. As Ben got through his moment of confusion one turned to the other. "Did you seriously forget to lock the door?" Said the first. "Excuse me for being trapped on a planet without rudimentary privacy systems." The second, presumably Glob, responded. "Anyway you. Out with me now." He marched Ben out of his room and closed the door behind him. "Did you need something? I''m a little occupied at the moment." "Oh, I just wanted to ask about barrier magic. Do you think it would work better if I was to craft a shield using a solid barrier or interlocking scales?" Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. "A solid barrier will be easier to get through but will be less mana intense while a scaled one will be stronger but harder to maintain due to the mana cost and keeping a stable mental image. Now do you mind? I''m busy." The fact that he gave Ben such a clear answer right off the bat just made it extra apparent how much he wanted Ben on his way, but that just made him curious. "So who''s your friend? I thought you were the only grey in Anailia." The little alien let out a small groan before giving Ben an answer. "Look, it''s just a friend I was summoned with. In case you haven''t noticed, there aren''t many creatures that look like me on this world so every now and then one of us will sneak off for a visit. I''d appreciate it if you wouldn''t mention it." Dealing with loneliness was something Ben had been struggling with himself since he arrived on the planet, but he hadn''t given much thought to how the other summoned were handling it. Sure he was the one nobody wanted, but everyone he knew was almost immediately split up in the name of training. Honestly it was something he should have tried to show more consideration about. "Okay my bad, have fun with your friend." With that he walked off, his thoughts filled with his own friends. Maybe when this was done he''d try to make some time to visit them.
"We''ll see," Ben said as he continued putting the finishing touches on his work. With only one day left before he was to enter the trial he was cutting it close, but the day was still early and he was almost done. Not only that but the end result had turned out far better than he expected. Myriad let out a sigh. He had let his apostle have his privacy while he''d spent the last week getting acquainted with his new believers, and it looked like that led the boy to wasting his time and money. It seemed Ben had schemed to try something ridiculous with his holy water, applying it to a jacket. He would admit it looked nice, and he could understand the desire to have a coat that''s defense would raise with his belief, but it would just be a jacket in the end. Ben however was sure of himself. He got the garment stitched together, giving it a thorough look over before he put on the finishing touch. He wanted it to be perfect after all. Satisfied there wasn''t a stitch out of place he reached down and grabbed the water skin beside him. The one he''d filled with Myriads holy water only a week before, and as he had been told, soaked it. He thought he heard his god scream, but it was hard to be sure with all of the notifications going off in his head CH65 Myriad screamed in despair while Ben had his own concerns. "I maxed out my job before getting the quest reward? So those levels are going to go to the easiest bit of experience for me to get on the next one? That''s so lame." "I mean it fit the qualifications you gave me, why wouldn''t it have worked?" Myriad tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing but kept falling short. The quest shouldn''t have been completed, it wasn''t possible, but he could feel energy flow from him to Ben to raise his level, and he could sense his divinity from the coat. He ordered his believer as calmly as he could manage given the circumstances. Ben, from the perspective of his god at least, was annoyingly happy to discuss the finer details of his work. "Okay, so my thought process was like this. You want your church to be comfortable on top of safe, right?" "Right! So I figured some temperature control would be the way to go, and if it was just a bit on the smaller side it would be less mana intense. But then I thought about how small I could make it, and at what point it would be conceivable to power it with the mythril I have on hand to keep the price down, and then it occurred to me. All it needed was to be something someone would enter with your figure on the outside, then couldn''t I make it a jacket? Once I figured that out all I had to do was have some threads enchanted with fire and water spells to control the temp and blend them with a thin mythril wire to power them, then use that to make the jacket lining. I also made the zipper from mythril too, just to be sure the enchantment would get enough power, though honestly I''m pretty sure I overdid it a bit. After that, it just came down to getting a nice strong leather to go with it to complement any boost to defense it gets and put the entire thing together." "No of course not, I couldn''t just hide away your representation, and I also wasn¡¯t just going to bedazzle you on. That would be rude and eat at my artistic pride. Well mostly it would make the coat look like crap, so I just went subtle with it. Look." Ben threw on the jacket and zipped it up, revealing that the zipper itself was shaped like a cube. "Yeah, looks good doesn''t it, I figured it matched your sheen." Myriad wanted to cry. "What does using mythril have to do with anything?" "Great, mystery solved. Now mind if I ask a question?" After all of this he really wasn''t in the mood, but he couldn''t just brush off his apostle either. "What does the sacrilege skill do?" "Um, is it bad?" "Oh damn." The infinite hells. During his time at the church the topic had come up despite his lack of interest and from what he could remember it was some sort of fractured plane of reality the gods would send the souls of the particularly wicked. It was a scary thought, being trapped there for all of eternity when he died. The only problem was that it was scary in a hypothetical sense, he couldn''t actually work up any will to care. "Well I mean before I got here I was somewhere between an agnostic and an atheist. Being told I''m going to hell just doesn''t have a huge impact on me since I didn''t even know it was real until I started living in this world." He could actually hear his god deflate as he spoke. "That doesn''t seem super godly." Touch¨¦. He wasn''t going to try and argue that. Even if he really believed it qualified there was no denying that he knew it wasn''t what Myriad had in mind. "So what does it do then?" What Myriad tried to skirt around was the fact that it might make it easier for Ben to twist his quests in the future, even without having proper faith that he was in the right. He was sure that if he knew that Ben would immediately start trying to test the limits of his skill. Thankfully his apostle seemed to accept the answer he was given and moved on. "Okay, so there''s no real problem with having the skill either, right?" Myriad was quiet for a moment, contemplating his answer. "Two actually." <... You''re going to get a third if you keep trying to kill me with these surprises. How am I supposed to have my believers make a pilgrimage now? When the other gods find out about this I''m going to be humiliated.> "Okay look I''m sorry, but can I just ask one more thing." "Does the length they travel matter at all?" "And do they have to be inside it while they pray?" "So would it work if I go on a trip to greet your followers? I would assume that every faith has a large number of people who just don''t bother making long journeys, but if I''m in the same city as them then a lot more would show up right? Plus I can offer you prayers while I wear it if it will make it more powerful." There was a long stretch of silence as Myriad thought over what Ben had said. His voice was filled with cautious optimism.
"Ben, do you hate your god?" Thera asked once he''d explained exactly what he had done and how the coat worked. Even though he''d just been told by Myriad that he should keep his new skill to himself he figured telling her would be fine. In any case it seemed like Myriad shared her sentiment. He spoke in Ben''s mind, which he pretended not to hear. "Me and Myriad get on great, this was just some creative differences after all. So anyway I wanted to ask if you could take me to the nearest job change room, it looks like I managed to complete my current one just in time." "You''ve only had this one for a few months! That''s ridiculous." "I finished two quests in a week, it shouldn''t be too surprising." He elected not to mention that somehow completing the coat gave him enough experience that his current quest reward was just waiting to go into his next job. Thera was still giving him a look, but she walked out with him. "There should be one in the craftsmen''s guild so let''s just go there, I want to hear what weird options you''re going to have anyway." Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. "I only had one or two unusual jobs last time, that''s all. What are the chances of getting more?" She gave him another look but eventually just sighed and spoke about how her training had been going while they walked there. Once they arrived and were pointed towards the job change room he placed his hands on the crystal and let the options fill his mind. AVAILABLE JOBS
  • Enchanter
  • Trap user
  • Tree tamer
  • Craftsman- alchemy path
  • Craftsman- artistic path
  • Craftsman- blacksmith path
  • Craftsman- cooking path
  • Craftsman- stonecraft path
  • Craftsman- sewing path
  • Priest
  • Heretic
So maybe a couple more weird ones then. He knew about all of the different craftsman paths from looking into how the craftsman job grew. Each was just an advanced version of his previous job that would allow his crafting skill to level up with greater ease for the specific path, as well as provide more job experience from those activities. It was the other two new ones that left him stumped. Thankfully it was only him and Thera in the room, so he asked his god aloud. "Hey Myriad, have you ever heard of the priest or heretic jobs?" "I knew you''d be getting some weird ones," Thera muttered, which Ben chose to gloss over as he heard Myriad''s panicked voice in his head. "Okay okay fine, but at least tell me about it please." It sounded interesting, but not particularly useful. He didn''t see himself going against enough gods to really make it worth his while after all. "In that case what about the priest skill?" Myriad told him while letting out a long sigh of relief. "You were able to find out what it does?" He''d asked Myriad about his new skill a few days ago, and while his god wasn''t sure of its effect at the time he¡¯d told him he''d ask around. An interesting skill he guessed. Ben had never felt that he had any issue interacting with Myriad, but at the same time when they met it was safe to say he was probably the world''s weakest god. If getting him more followers would make it harder for him to interact with him, then Ben was happy to get the skill. Even if he stressed his god out he still enjoyed his company. As for the job itself though, it actually sounded useful enough that he wanted to take a moment to think it over. Originally he had planned on taking enchanter, but with the priest job available it seemed like it would be a good way to raise his connect level. If only he had gotten something like craftsman enchanting path, but that didn''t seem to be an option. While enchanting seemed to be classified as a crafting type skill by the job system it wasn''t part of the crafting skill itself. It came down to what he thought would be more immediately useful, enchanting or connecting. Both skills seemed important for enchanting with other people''s skills, and both were necessary for improving Theras armband. Enchanting would be important if he wanted to help make better staves for Thera, connect would help with the goal his god gave of raising its level so he could see whatever future potential the skill has. He filled Thera in on what Myriad explained for both jobs and asked for both of their opinions. Thera looked thoughtful before giving her opinion. "The priest one sounds good, but have you been given your next quest yet? Maybe you should wait until you know what it will be before you commit?" "An excellent point. Myriad what do you have for me anyway?" "And the bad news?" Ben thought it over. As nice as 20 job levels could be, growing his faith again was out of the question. He wasn¡¯t sure how many new believers Myriad would be acquiring, but he didn''t want to be stuck after getting 40 or something and never being able to complete the quest. As for the first option, the reward didn''t seem that bad at least. It was comparable enough to what he¡¯d already gotten, plus the job levels would help him get out of the job a little faster if he took priest and it didn''t suit him. There were some clear issues, but he did have a question about it. "What counts as an achievement? Could I complete Anailias'' trial in your name?" "So if we successfully complete it I''ll be able to get five levels of job experience. That doesn''t sound so bad for something I need to do anyway. Plus if completing it gets me even more job experience then it will pay off. That sounds like a pretty good deal." At worst he would be stuck in it for a couple of years, but as long as he kept selecting quests he thought he had a chance of completing then he should be able to get through it, and his previous jobs had already increased his ability to improve his crafting and enchanting, having bonuses go towards his connect would be a lot of help. "Alright, in that case I''ll complete an achievement for you." With his new quest selected he placed his hands back on the job crystal. It wasn''t what he had been expecting when he came to the job room, but he''d made his choice. Name: Ben Heph Race: Human Titles: Apostle of Myriad Jobs: Priest (lv 8) Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman Attributes
  • Vitality: 162
  • Vitality recovery rate: 1/hr
  • Mana: 86
  • Mana recovery rate: 6/min
  • Strength: 140
  • Agility: 84
  • Stamina: 603
  • Intelligence: 211
Affinities:
  • Light: 3
  • Life: 2
  • Fire: 4
  • Water: 3
  • Air: 4
  • Earth: 2
  • Death: 3
  • Dark: 1
  • Space: 4
  • Time: 5
Resistances:
  • Light: 68
  • Life: 72
  • Fire: 75
  • Water: 69
  • Air: 66
  • Earth: 81
  • Death: 78
  • Dark: 85
  • Space: 63
  • Time: 61
Blessed skills:
  • Crafting lv5
  • Enchanting lv3
  • Focus lv3
Passive skills:
  • World speak+
  • Tolerance lv0
  • Sacrilege lv1
Active skills:
  • Dismantling lv1
  • Stealth lv0
  • Connect lv3
  • Hidden mind lv0
Blessings
  • Myriads Blessing
Ben felt a slight grimace when he heard what attributes would be enhanced. Intelligence was at least good for his crafting as well, but mana recovery wasn''t too useful for him since he wasn''t a mage. There was a good chance he''d be using more enchanted tools now that he had a way to make them himself so a faster recovery could be helpful, but his mana pool itself was so dreadfully low he would have much preferred to get some bonuses to that instead. As for vitality recovery, well that was a whole other issue to him. When Ben first got to asking about it he had assumed that it had been as simple as it looked. He would lose a point of vitality and get it back in an hour. Unfortunately it seems significantly more complex than that and he wasn''t entirely clear on the rules. It looked like that was his recovery rate if he was in basically perfect health, but the more severe an injury he had the more his recovery rate would be dampened. A bruise could heal in the span of an hour, but some of the more serious injuries he''d had, like anytime something tried to eat him, could be severe enough that it may as well be nonexistent. He knew it did something and it was better than nothing, but he''d also spent more than enough time being treated by Sonya to know not to depend on it. Still he would just have to try and get through it the best he could. It wasn''t like any of his job options would be immediately helpful with the trial anyway. He zipped up his coat and offered a prayer to Myriad to thank him for his advice before heading back with Thera. They were entering the trail the next morning and with the amount he''d spent preparing in the last couple days he had just wanted to relax. CH66 He stood outside of a large gate, poles with snake-like statues coiled around them guarding the entrance to the trial he and Thera were about to face. He was a little worried, he definitely could have tried to prepare more for what he was about to face, but he got tunnel vision at the thought of completing his previous job quicker. At least if things went wrong he¡¯d get some experience from all the praying he¡¯d do. Still he didn¡¯t regret it; well, for the most part. If there was one thing he regretted it was Theras staves. He had completed two new ones for her right before he''d gotten his two level-ups to his crafting, and as with every level up he could immediately see where he could have improved. The fact that she was walking in there with such inferior products ate at him, even if it would have meant working through the day again without any rest. His god interjected, worry filling his voice. If it looks bad we''ll run, don''t stress too much Myriad. You''ll rust or something. I''m plenty concerned, it''s just hard to fear some hypothetical mystery danger. Besides, how could I be afraid of something so beautiful? He was having his heart stolen by the trial, if he wasn''t aware of his resistance to dark magics he would bet he''d been charmed from looking at the enchantments that filled the wall and gate that created the trial¡¯s boundary. Myriad lamented. Really? When he gave it some thought it made sense, mythic grade items were like the trials, in that they were both created by the gods. The fact that they were able to make anything so incredible was enough to boggle his mind. Wait, what do you mean? Why wouldn''t it be able to exist in our realm? Seriously? Does that mean if a mortal made anything powerful enough it would end up with the gods? Myriad you can''t just say that and not expect me to want more, come on let''s hear the story. Survival was always in the plans, don''t you worry. I''ll be holding you to this. ...What? He couldn''t see his god, but Ben got the distinct impression Myriad was shrugging, or at least the cubic equivalent of it. I feel like I just heard something I wasn''t supposed to know. So what do the gods have our odds at? So bad then, gotcha. He tried to ignore the ominous feeling that came with knowing that various gods thought they didn''t have a chance and turned to Thera. "You all ready?" "As I can be. Really wish I knew what we were going to face though." She faced the gate, her cloak covering her face making it impossible to tell what expression she wore, but her tone of voice made her sound ready for whatever they may face. "Same but we''ve prepared all we can, let''s just do our best." "A positive attitude." Pelenia cut in. "Just remember to run if you need to, there''s no shame in it." "We''re going to beat this mom don''t you worry," Thera said defiantly. "Then I''m going to get Ben and Falk to make even more staves for me. I''m sure you won''t mind covering the costs since this will show it''s worth the time, right?" "Of course that will be fine, so you¡¯re both prepared?¡± ¡°As we can be,¡± Ben had bought a variety of supplies on top of having his coat done and two other tools, A gauntlet enchanted with barrier magic as well as what he was lovingly calling charm bombs. He would have liked to get more items made up but he was happy with what he had managed, though in hindsight it would have been smarter to just buy some weapons and tools instead. ¡°Good, then if you''re ready go on in." Two guards pulled open the gate and they looked at the forest within. "Aren''t we going to wait for Karly and Glob?" Ben asked. If they were all taking the trial he wouldn''t mind taking advantage of strength in numbers for at least a little bit, but he was shot down. "There are six different gates for the trial, they''re starting at the next couple over. While up to six pairs could take it at once they can''t enter from the same gate." So no strength in numbers. Great. Still waiting around wouldn''t do them any good. They looked to one another, and with a nod walked into the trial. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
This is already a nightmare. Ben thought to himself, though he was being overly dramatic. They hadn''t faced any life or death challenges yet, nor difficult puzzles to face. The issue was they couldn''t go even a few minutes without one of them falling to the ground. When they first entered they were both drawn to the view immediately. An ancient forest that came from a lost world made quite the sight, and they were both carving it into their eyes while trying to remain vigilant for any threats within. Ben was getting lost in the sights as he fell onto his face, and after getting back up Thera immediately did the same. At first it was a little embarrassing, thinking their nerves had distracted them, but after almost 30 minutes of it they understood something else was going on, they just couldn''t tell what. Even Ben''s focus couldn''t keep him from spotting whatever he would fall over laying on the forest floor, be it a branch or stone or small hole in the ground, all they knew was that it was getting to them. Still it was only an annoyance until the next time Ben lost his footing, and a pit opened in the ground where he was falling towards, a couple of meters across, with seemingly no bottom for him to hit. His saving grace was Thera beside him. Faster than he could react she threw her arm toward him as he fell and yanked back, bringing them both tumbling just outside its edge. "Holy crap, thanks for the save." His heart was beating at a mile a minute and he was content to lay down and collect himself from the near-death experience, thinking that maybe he was a little too quick to accept a life and death trail from a god. "No problem. Looks like it''s finally getting serious." Thera said, sounding relieved. The entire time she''d been waiting for something to happen, the fact that it did was a load off her mind. "I don''t know, I think I''d be happier if the entire thing was just a test of our mental endurance and seeing how long we could deal with being annoyed. You think the hole has a bottom or would we just fall until we starve to death?" She peered down before grabbing a stone and tossing it in, waiting to hear a noise that didn''t come. "Well maybe it''s deep enough that we could figure something out before we hit the bottom?" She offered, though Ben wasn''t fond of the prospect. They continued on, though at a slower, more careful pace, but it didn''t help. Thera was the next one to lose her footing, but Ben wasn''t quick enough to grab her. As she fell toward the gap she managed to kick off the pit''s edge with her foot and grab onto the other side, holding on with all her strength while Ben rushed over to pull her up. "I could not be more grateful that you don''t weigh as much as the marble skin and golden blood would imply," He joked as he tried to catch his breath. "Do you think maybe all the tripping at first was a warning? Like if you can''t deal with this just turn around before you fall to your death?" "Maybe," Thera told him while calming herself down. "I''ve heard before that Anailia has one of the kinder trials. I always just thought that was because you were allowed to leave it if things got too rough instead of having to either succeed or die, but maybe a warning like that could count as kind?" "So what do you want to do?" She bit her lip in thought. "Well we''ve both almost fallen to our deaths, but at the same time if it stays like this for a while I think we''ll be able to manage. I''m fairly confident that I can keep you from falling and as long as it''s just more pitfalls I should be able to leap across as long as I''m ready for it." "Sure unless the gap gets wider, or the trial changes. There''s no way it''s just avoiding pitfalls until we get the flower, right?" She looked away from him. "No, I can''t imagine any trial that would be that straightforward. If you want to turn back we can, it''s not right to ask you to risk your life just so I can keep training to be a mage." He let out a sigh. "That''s not what I meant. As long as you want to keep up on this I''m here for you. I''m just worried. Anything you can think of that could help with this?" "No. You?" "No. I guess it''s just being careful then. Please don''t let me plummet to my dramatic death." He tried to say playfully but was pretty sure he failed. Still Thera seemed sincere in her response. "Don''t worry, I''ll protect you."
The rest of the day was spent dodging pits in the ground. Well, Thera dodged them, Ben was basically entirely dependent on her pushing and pulling him out of the way. "I genuinely feel like I''m seeing a different side of you." He said admiringly when they stopped to make camp. "Where did that come from? I don''t know how many times we''ve come close to dying today." "Over 20, but your reaction speed is great! How did you get so good at avoiding stuff?" "Well you know, when I was hunting alone, having a quick reaction time was important if I wanted to escape if my staff broke." She told him with a small chuckle. "Also, don''t laugh, but I used to be a dancer. It helped with my speed and reflexes." "Wait really? That''s super cool, why have I never seen you dance?" "I''m not just going to dance for you, that would be super embarrassing. It was from before I decided I wanted to be a mage anyway. My parents wanted me to pursue something that would help me fit in more with high society so I got the job and a few levels in the skill, but when I got older I decided that as fun as it was, it wasn''t going to be my career." "Why not? I mean if you like it then I''d think that would be great?" She shrugged. "I blame my spirit heritage. You know how I told you that spirits mostly just talk about their affinity? Well as boring as it can be I feel that. Earth magic is in my blood. Even if I''m terrible at it I could never be really content if I''m not using it. That''s why I need to finish this trial." As she finished she got a hard look in her eye and Ben took her hand. "We''ll do our best. Now you get some sleep, I''ll keep first watch." Even if they hadn''t encountered any living thing there they still didn''t want to risk something attacking in the night. "You sure? I don''t mind going first if you need rest?" "You''re the one who''s spent all day jumping around keeping both of us alive, besides I want to spend some time talking to this guy," Ben said, tapping the trunk of one of the giant trees they decided to set up camp against. "You and your plants." She laughed with a shake of her head. "Okay thanks. Wake me in a few hours then." As he got comfortable against its trunk he found the dark of the night to be peaceful in its own way as a soft breeze passed through the forest and rattled branches as it went. As he listened to the sounds of the woods he quietly spoke under his breath so as to not disturb Thera. "Myriad, are you there?" But he got no answer. Even though he''d been warned ahead of time that his god wouldn''t be able to contact him, Ben had grown used to his constant presence. For Myriad to not be around to chat with just felt wrong. Still there was nothing to be done for it, so instead Ben decided to pass the time training his connect skill like he''d told Thera he would. He placed his hands on the roots of the tree towering above him, and when his mind touched its own he felt as though he had awakened a sleeping giant. Its mind felt old beyond compare. Ben was pretty positive some trees on earth would get to a couple thousand years if they were lucky, and he was willing to bet the one he was currently connected with would beat out any that could be found on his homeworld. As his connect skill had grown it had become far easier for him to pick up on the emotions of plants. He wasn''t sure if they could be described as having a true mind, but a conversation was certainly occurring between him and it. He was doing the equivalent of small talk at first, introducing himself and making pleasantries, before getting to the heart of the matter, trying to get clues as to what lay ahead in the trial. Unfortunately the tree lived on a different scale of time to him, with thousands of days blending into each other. Any other creatures would pass by in the blink of an eye, few having leaned against its trunk as Ben currently was, and without any way of telling if they were trial takers or monsters that lived within the forest. Without a sense of sight it got its information about the wider world through the detection of tremors in the ground and the sharing of pheromones between the various plants that made up the forest. With that lead lost, Ben was content to spend the night chatting, creating one of the most interesting nights in the unmoving giant''s life. CH67 "Ben for the love of your god can you try and watch where you''re going!" "I can''t help that yours was some sort of sadistic ass when they made this place!" He wasn''t sure if it was spending the night in the woods or the stress of the previous day catching up to them, but when morning came they were both in terrible moods. Moods which only got worse as the day went on and they continued to face the risk of plummeting to their deaths. Worse was how little progress they''d made since entering the trial. If they didn''t need to keep themselves from falling to their deaths every five or ten minutes they would have gotten significantly farther, but then again it was part of the trial, he wouldn''t be surprised if that was just meant to wear them down mentally, and if that was the case it was succeeding. With every near-death experience they started to bicker more and more. In the back of his mind Ben couldn''t help but find it a bit out of character, they''d never really fought before, but his worsening mood pushed it away. Finally, as if to grant them some peace, that branch of the trial seemed to end. A good twenty minutes had passed without them falling over whatever littered the ground, and the earth was content to stay in place instead of giving way to unending pits, but neither of them could enjoy it. They were both too annoyed with each other, Thera for his inability to keep himself safe, and Ben for her attitude, that neither of them were in the mood to speak. Why''s she got to be like this? I''m in the stupid life and death scenario to help her! And I''m just a freaking craftsman! Well, priest but that''s not the point. Why''s she being so- "What was that?" He asked all of a sudden, leaving his thoughts and breaking the silence. "What was what?" She said while looking around. "Something just ran through the trees." She immediately went on guard and raised her staff, but neither of them saw any movement. "It must have just been the wind." She told him dismissively. "Come on, I want to enjoy this peaceful area while it lasts." "I''m sure I saw something." He immediately felt defensive. He knew there was something out there. "Well if you see it again let me know but otherwise let''s just go already." Her harsh tone didn¡¯t help anyone''s mood, but with nothing coming out at them there was no point in arguing. They resumed walking for another 10 minutes of peace before Ben saw it again. "There! In front of us!¡± He pointed as something ran by, just through the trees ahead, but he was still alone in his sighting. "Ben, I was looking that way the entire time! If you needed more rest you should have said so before we got started." Anger filled his voice when he heard her response. "This isn''t a me being tired thing! This is a me not wanting to get eaten thing! How did you not see that?" "Cause there was nothing there!" She yelled back before trying to calm down. "Look, do you see anything now?" "No." He begrudgingly acknowledged. "Then come on, let''s get going already." He could tell from her tone she wasn¡¯t going to listen until she saw something too, so he gave up for now. "Fine." He wasn''t happy that she wasn''t taking him seriously, especially with their lives on the line, but all he could do was keep vigilant. As they continued on for the next four hours he thought he kept catching more glimpses of a figure or multiple figures passing through the trees in the distance, but each time he was alone in his sightings. Thera only grew more annoyed as the time went on and eventually stopped. "That''s it. Take a nap and clear your head. I can''t put up with this until nightfall." "I''m telling you somethings out there!" "Well it''s only bothering you. Now just lay down for a bit and I''ll keep watch." She pushed him down and despite his annoyance, he gave in. He admittedly hadn''t slept as well as he would have liked to anyway the night before so he closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
He wasn''t sure how long he had been out. With the sky covered by trees he couldn''t use the sun to judge, but he felt significantly more rested, though as he sat up though his heart froze. Sitting maybe 30 feet away was some sort of humanoid creature, and when he locked eyes with it, it began to get up, as if it had been waiting for him to awaken. Standing at around nine feet tall, he would have mistaken it for a person at a distance. But its long arms dragged across the ground as it stood upright, with two empty holes where its eyes should have been. "Holy shit Thera I''m pretty sure you should be shooting that!" He said in a panic. "Oh you''re up? Wait, what are you talking about?" "Giant monster walking towards us and my intense desire to not die mostly, now if you would please." She looked to where he was pointing and her expression changed from one of annoyance to concern. "Ben there''s nothing there. Is the trial making you see things?" As she said this the creature''s mouth curled up into a cruel grin, like it was enjoying his fear and her dismissal as it approached them. Not wanting either of them to die, Ben grabbed her hand and forced her to run with him like their lives depended on it. As far as he was concerned they did. "What the hell are you doing?" She yelled. "Look I don''t know if I''m seeing things but I don''t want to take the risk! Now please come on!¡± As they ran he spotted more creatures coming out of the woods, all with the same hollowed eyes and taunting smiles, and all of them simply walked towards them, though with their height he wasn''t getting as much distance as he would have liked. 6 of them. He didn''t like their odds but he had an idea at least. Stolen novel; please report. "Thera I''ll cover the burden on your staff if you can open a pit in the earth about 20 feet back?" "You said we should only do this in an emergency!" "I''d call this an emergency!" "Ben there''s nothing there!" She yelled and stopped in her tracks. "If the stress is too much for you let''s just leave, I don''t want you getting me killed." She wrenched his hand from her grip and turned around and started walking back the way they came, in the direction of the creatures. Their grins widened as they quickly closed the gap between them, the closest raising its massive clawed hand, trying to tear into Thera¡¯s face. Skin tore and blood flew, but Thera was spared injury. Ben had rushed in front of her, throwing his arm and by extension his gauntlet between them, only for the creature''s claws to slice cleanly through the barrier it produced, the gauntlet itself, and the jacket he¡¯d made for Myriad. DamnfuckdamnitshitOWOWOW this hurts! There was no time to focus on the pain though, he grabbed Thera¡¯s hand and with a renewed effort ran for their lives. ¡°What happened?¡± Thera yelled at him. From her perspective it seemed as though he had rushed in front of her, only for his arm to erupt into a bloody mess. ¡°There¡¯s a fucking monster there! That¡¯s what happened!¡± He turned to look back at the creatures tailing them. They were gaining some distance, but not as much as he would have liked, and he knew he at least wouldn''t be able to keep the pace up for much longer. With the almost lazy attitude they seemed to have while chasing them he didn¡¯t think there was much chance of tiring them out, so that meant they needed to act. ¡°There''s nowhere to hide and we aren''t escaping these things. I need you to fight.¡± ¡°How am I supposed to fight something I can''t even see!¡± ¡°Well I can, so just trust me here!¡± He came to a dead stop and spun them around. Thera grasped her staff and looked about blindly. He grabbed onto her and her staff and connected to her suddenly being filled with her emotions. There was guilt over what happened, but there was also still so much anger. Normally if he felt someone''s mood like this he would try to make sure he was as calm as possible to try and relax them, but that just wasn''t an option for him at the moment, his own mind was in turmoil. He briefly wondered why that was but he didn''t have the time to focus on it, their feelings were building on each other as Ben aimed her staff and Thera tried to pull together enough matter for an earth bullet, but having even less control than usual the forest itself began to rip itself apart as her magic ran wild. The creatures were thrown to the ground by the chaos and Ben did everything he could to try and hold the staff together, strengthening every inch of it as the raw mana wanted to tear it apart and trying to keep rebuilding the sacrificial enchants as fast as they would break. The creatures were on the ground in front of them and that''s where Ben directed her aim, even knowing it wouldn¡¯t go well for them either, and Thera fired her shot. The spell was massive, at least four times greater than when she worked to manage it, and when it hit the ground where the creatures fell it felt like the entire world shook, and the impact threw both of them back. Ben did his best to fight past a body full of pain and a raging headache from using too much mana as he got up and looked around. He wouldn¡¯t need to worry about anything sneaking up on them for a while at least. Thera¡¯s magic had pulled down all of the more regularly sized trees around them, leaving only the true giants standing in place. He got up and searched the area, not seeing any sign of the creatures they encountered, not so much as a corpse. He was sure they had been hit. Perhaps they had been buried, or maybe they disappeared when their part of the trial was done. Either way he looked to Thera as she was pulling herself up and tried to not let his anger get to him. If she had just listened to him from the beginning things would have gone so much smoother. Seeing her appear fine he didn¡¯t say a word, instead opting to lay against the trunks of one of the giant trees and dig through his bag. Stupid. He thought to himself. He¡¯d been so focused on his tools that he¡¯d neglected one of the most important supplies he should have brought. Bandages and healing potions. What sort of narrow-mindedness kept a person from realizing they could be hurt, he thought as he chastised himself. What he did have was a magic tool that would gather water from the air to drink. He didn¡¯t have mana to activate it at the moment, but it was thankfully full. He poured it over his arm while looking over his injury. It wasn''t very deep luckily, the gauntlet and coat both managed to at least reduce the damage the creature''s claws could do, but it still hurt. If he¡¯d bothered to learn more alchemy beyond what he would need to incorporate monster parts into his tools and weapons then maybe he could have thrown something together in the forest, but he¡¯d been neglecting that area of study, only making some potions here and there to help keep the store¡¯s stocks up. Once the wound was clean he tore up a spare shirt and wrapped it around his cuts before laying against the trunk of the tree, connecting with it to try and distract himself from the pain. Touching the tree''s mind had an instant calming effect on him. With the giant in a perpetual state of relaxation itself, it was easier to push aside some of the negativity he¡¯d been filled with since he woke up. He spent time with it, sending thoughts and feelings back and forth to get acquainted when he felt an emotion he had to take as a question. Why? He wasn''t sure what it meant at first, but he wasn¡¯t using hidden mind at all. His thoughts and feelings were laid bare to it, and it wanted to know where all of the anger was coming from. Of course I¡¯m angry! We almost died! Plus Thera¡¯s been moody all day long. I¡¯m just feeding off of her bad attitude. In the back of his mind though something felt wrong. He hadn¡¯t really been himself since he woke up either, had he? At least he didn¡¯t think he usually would act like this. Why? The tree probed further, wanting to understand more, and making Ben think deeper. He couldn¡¯t remember the last time he felt like this. He hadn¡¯t been mad at Thera when she was being so cold to him when they first met, and when he was attacked by a screll on their first hunt together at most he was probably annoyed that she didn¡¯t help him back. They had even put their lives on the line and trust in each other to face Roans monsters. The tree was right, why was he being like this? He felt his eyes widen as a thought occurred to him and he renewed his effort of focusing on the tree, trying to force its calmness into himself while calling out to Thera. ¡°Hey, I need you over here now!¡± The urgency in his voice brought her rushing over as she still struggled with her own feelings. Guilt at Ben getting hurt but with anger still lingering in her mind. Now just as much of it was directed at herself as it had been to him though. Why had she been so unwilling to believe him? This was the trial of her god, invisible monsters shouldn¡¯t have been outside the realm of possibilities, why couldn¡¯t she give him the faith she had before? As she tried to deal with that he grabbed her hand and connected to her, making her feel his more calmed state, as well as that of the tree he was still linked with. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± She didn¡¯t understand what he was aiming for, but he just told her to wait for a bit and try to let the sense of ease and relaxation envelop her. She wanted to argue, but it felt so peaceful. Stress and anger had been with her throughout the day, the thought of taking some time to calm down was a temptation she couldn¡¯t resist when presented to her, and she quietly sat down beside Ben, trying to let her emotions melt away. When Ben felt her relax to a more reasonable level he spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯ve been in a pissy mood all day and let myself take it out on you and that¡¯s not cool.¡± The sudden apology caught her off guard but helped calm her even more, but at the same time raised her guilt to all-new levels. ¡°No I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ve been rude all morning and I didn¡¯t believe you and now you¡¯re hurt because of me. I don¡¯t know why I¡¯ve been like this.¡± She didn¡¯t look at him but rested her head on his shoulder. Ben could feel her complicated emotions through their connection and put an arm around her before saying his theory on the matter. ¡°I think we¡¯ve been under some sort of mental effect.¡± The idea surprised Thera enough that she turned to look up at him through her cloak. ¡°But that would be dark magic, at your resistance of 80 and mine of 40 you would feel it significantly less than me, if at all.¡± ¡°Sure if this was from a mortal that would make sense, but can you be sure a god''s magic would work like that? Or whose to say this isn''t some non attribute spell? The entire day today has felt unnatural and out of character, and yesterday with the constant tripping it feels like I was being distracted by the world around me.¡± She thought what he said over and couldn¡¯t find any flaw with his reasoning, it just left a problem. ¡°So what do we do then? If there is some magic messing with our minds I don¡¯t know how to deal with it.¡± ¡°We do what we''re doing now.¡± He told her. ¡°Every ten or fifteen minutes let¡¯s just stop and use one of the trees to relax ourselves, it seems to work well enough.¡± ¡°Seems like that will slow us down a lot, our pace already isn¡¯t great.¡± She said a bit dubiously, but Ben only shrugged. ¡°Better than being dead though, right?¡± CH68 With their mental states being stabilized by using the tree as an emotional crutch, Ben and Thera stopped to take stock of their situation. Thera¡¯s staff broke, her previously erratic emotional situation left her with too little control of her magic, and Ben hadn¡¯t been in a proper state of mind to properly reduce the load on it, leaving her with one remaining staff. As for Ben, his injury wasn¡¯t so great that they couldn¡¯t continue. He¡¯d need to get it treated as soon as they got out, but as long as he kept it clean and didn¡¯t let it get too bad he could have a healer treat it later; at the queen¡¯s expense of course. As for his tools, well he still had fifteen charm bombs in his bag, the issue was his coat and gauntlet. The coat wouldn¡¯t be able to be repaired until they left, but with only the sleeve damaged it actually wasn¡¯t that big of a deal. Sure that arm would have less defensive capabilities, but looking at how things turned out, whatever defenses it was providing as a church weren¡¯t great enough to protect against the trial. On the more positive side, its temperature control worked fine, leaving him cool and refreshed despite it all. Then there was his gauntlet. With thick gashes cut through the metal, it didn¡¯t look great, but it wasn¡¯t unsalvageable. He wouldn¡¯t be able to repair the metal itself without the proper tools, but the damage to the enchantments could be fixed, even without access to someone with barrier magic. He hadn¡¯t had too much of a chance to do it himself, but he understood the theory of it at least, he just needed to use his mana to reconnect any sections of the enchantment or fill any holes that could be found within it. This could be a little tricky if he were to try it on a random item brought into the shop, but he was working on an enchantment he¡¯d made himself. He knew exactly how everything was supposed to fit together. He didn¡¯t need to rebuild enough of it that it would affect its overall performance, but there was a different issue. When he had made the tool he¡¯d tested it out rather extensively, and quickly realized that his level of mana alone wouldn¡¯t be enough to make it last for more than a few seconds. He needed to compensate for that, which meant making the gauntlet from a mythril alloy. Aside from the financial hit, he hadn¡¯t realised just how much of a fortune of mythril he¡¯d wasted on his coat and desperately wished he¡¯d saved a thimbles worth, it also meant that by having gashes torn into it he would have to supply more mana and it wouldn¡¯t be able to make it last as long. Originally it would have lasted for a couple minutes, but now he couldn¡¯t be sure. Of course, it¡¯s not like it was actually super helpful on its first official use anyway. He thought to himself with more mirth than expected. He couldn¡¯t help but feel a little amused by how spectacularly it failed. Sure it was during the trial of a god, he should have expected it to be tough, but when he tested it out before it had been able to take some serious damage. Oh well. He maintained the connection with the tree and Thera while he worked. He wasn¡¯t sure how soon whatever effects or spell of the trial would come back to him once he disconnected, and he wasn¡¯t about to let that ruin his work. Unfortunately, it was also going to be a slow process. Neither of them knew if any more of those creatures would show up, and if Ben was still the only one who would be able to see them then that meant he needed to be on watch on top of anything else. It was a bit more multitasking than he would have liked, but in the spirit of trying to make sure they both stayed alive he dealt with it. As he split his focus between trying to spot any incoming monsters and trying to repair his enchantments he felt something scratching at his mind. Something seems¡­ off. He thought to himself. It was nothing in the environment bothering him, nor did he think it had anything to do with the trial. The source of his confusion came from his own enchantments. He wasn¡¯t sure how to put it, but they seemed more tangible in a way, as if his mana sense had improved. Perhaps it was a sign his enchantment would level up soon, at least he could hope. The other option he could think of was that it was simply how it felt to repair an enchantment, but he couldn¡¯t be sure. He filed it away in his mind to look into more later though, there were more pressing issues at the moment. He finished up without any major incidents. Either they were getting a reprieve from the monsters or that section of the trial was complete, it was hard to say without venturing further, but with night being close they decided to make camp where they sat instead. Unfortunately, the prospect of camping created a problem. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°So if I¡¯m the only one who can see these things should I just not sleep tonight?¡± He didn¡¯t want to rely on the creatures waiting for him to wake up again. The act seemed to be one of intentional cruelty, but since they¡¯d shown they could defeat them he doubted he¡¯d get a repeat of it. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. If the trial is making it so only one person knows what¡¯s going on then I don¡¯t know how we''re going to last the night.¡± Ben looked to the sky in thought for a bit. ¡°Well I did already get some extra sleep and I¡¯m used to staying up pretty late anyway. Maybe I could just stay up for the rest of the night and continue on in the morning?¡± ¡°And risk you getting killed from making a mistake in exhaustion? I don¡¯t think so. Do you think you could at least get an hour nap in?¡± ¡°Then the risk is both of us dying instead of just me. Fuck I have no clue what to do about this.¡± Ben wanted to pull out his hair in agitation. With no way of knowing if any more of those things were out there he didn¡¯t know what they should do, and the wrong choice was liable to get someone killed. Not for the first time he asked himself why he agreed to this so easily, he definitely should have tried to get some sort of personal gain out of it instead of just accepting followers for Myriad. ¡°Well, I suppose I can think of one more option.¡± Thera hesitantly said. ¡°But it may be the worst one.¡± ¡°I¡¯m listening.¡± ¡°We keep going through the night.¡± ¡°Walk through a dense woods in the night when it¡¯s too dark to see anything? Not sure I¡¯m crazy about the idea.¡± ¡°The pits stopped shortly after we started feeling angry with each other. If we assume that one section of the trial ends where the next begins then if it''s something that won¡¯t actively hunt us we¡¯ll be safe.¡± ¡°Kind of a big assumption,¡± Ben told her, expressing his concern. ¡°You can¡¯t really judge a pattern from just two bits of info. What if even more creatures are ahead? Maybe something more dangerous?¡± Thera shook her head, giving it some thought. ¡°There are trials from war gods and the like that are probably mostly combat-focused, but Anailia isn¡¯t like that. She¡¯s a goddess who represents caring and companionship. It¡¯s why the condition is to take the trial with the person you''re most close to.¡± ¡°I¡¯m who you''re most close with?¡± He said, perking up and looking at her beside him. He remembered asking about the condition for taking the trial before, but he was fairly sure at the time she had just said they needed to be fairly close. She awkwardly looked away from him, embarrassed to let that slip. ¡°Well it¡¯s not typically supposed to be family from what I understand and I don¡¯t exactly have many friends so there''s no real difference for me. Anyway,¡± She rushed to change the subject. ¡°You may remember when I first showed you this I called it the trial of Anailia and Tolona. Most people don¡¯t mention him since he died fighting for the homeworld before any living succubus arrived on this planet, but the point is that neither of them were gods of combat. Anyone can take the trial as long as they have someone they can work together with. I don¡¯t think we need to expect too much fighting here.¡± ¡°Okay. if you¡¯re sure then let¡¯s keep going for now at least.¡± He didn¡¯t like it, but then again he didn¡¯t like any of the options they thought of. There was still enough light to see by at least, and even though they hadn¡¯t used it yet he had a lighter in his bag, worst to worst he¡¯d make a simple torch for the walk. They quickly ate some food and had some water before carrying on, making their way through the woods as it steadily got darker. They stopped every little bit to connect to one of the trees to try and keep themselves more stable, but as they progressed it felt like they were able to keep a healthy attitude through their own efforts and stopped less frequently to try and make it to the next section of the trial quicker. In all that time they didn¡¯t see any other creature, but they faced another problem, exhaustion. A wave of sleepiness slowly overtook them both, and through mutual agreement sat down to rest. Thera leaned her head against his shoulder and seemed to nod off immediately. So much for walking to the next part of the trial. I guess she has been up a fair bit longer than me. He thought to himself. Maybe he would rest his own eyes for a moment, what would be the harm¡­ NO! He shouldn¡¯t be as overwhelmingly tired as he was, it had to be another part of the trial. He tried to force himself up, to shake Thera awake, but the weariness had sunk deep into his bones, there was no escaping it despite how much he wanted to. As his mind screamed out, his eyes closed. CH69- Theras perspective As she laid against the tree, feeling the hot light of the sun pass through her robe and warm her skin, she initially didn''t want to get up, everything was just too comfortable. She was sure Ben could stay on watch a little longer while she enjoyed her rest, but something felt wrong with that thought, and her eyes flew open. She wasn''t supposed to be resting. She was supposed to have gone on to the next branch of the trial, why had she been asleep? She looked around for Ben, praying nothing had happened to him through the night before locking eyes with him. Well, one of him. She thought she was seeing double for a minute, maybe she was even still asleep, but for whatever reason there were two identical Bens holding hands in front of her. She grabbed her staff at her side, unsure of what to do, when they spoke to her in one voice. "Oh good, you''re both finally awake." The way they spoke in unison took Thera by surprise, and she felt a shiver go down her spine. Creepy. She had no clue what to make of this development and had no idea what to do. Was one the real Ben or were they both fakes? Should she attack? Run? Her mind was moving so fast that she didn''t immediately process what they''d said. Wait... "What do you mean both?" Two voices spoke out at the same time, causing Thera to jump back. The other person reacted the same way and Thera got a good look at them. It made her stomach drop. A long hooded cloak and a staff in hand, it was like she was looking in a mirror. She was facing what looked like a perfect copy of herself. She wasn''t sure what she should do but nothing didn''t seem like an option. What if it attacked while she was in her state of confusion? She didn''t want it to get the drop on her and raised her staff to prepare her spell while her duplicate did the same. Each of them began pulling earth from the ground to use their magic when both Bens came between them. "I get you''re both surprised but maybe killing each other can wait until we''ve talked things out?" They said, still holding hands and continuing to speak at the same time ¡°What are we supposed to do then?¡± Her duplicate asked. ¡°This seems like the sort of thing where we defeat the fake and continue on.¡± ¡°Watch who you¡¯re calling a fake. And why are you both so comfortable together already Ben, doesn¡¯t this freak you out?¡± ¡°Well first, when you were talking about the trial last night I think you were right. This section at least doesn¡¯t necessarily have anything to do with combat. The point is likely to figure out who the original is through our shared history.¡± ¡°So I just need to figure out which one is my Ben then?¡± She said thoughtfully. Would it just be a day of questioning then? But how long would that take, and what to ask. She tried to think of a question that could cut to the heart of the matter but the Bens shot her down as she and her own duplicate struggled. ¡°That¡¯s not going to work. We aren¡¯t close enough.¡± She froze when she heard that, not knowing how to react and feeling a small panic come over her. Oh my gosh was I the only one that thought we were close now? But he¡¯s the one who said he wanted to be friends and he agreed to do this trial and I guess I really didn¡¯t tell him that this trial was supposed to be taken with the person you''re most close with and I let it slip. Is that why he¡¯s telling me this cause it¡¯s terrible timing and- The Bens stepped forward, one grabbing her hand and the other taking her copies. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean it like that. Seems thinking with two brains isn¡¯t enough to keep me from saying something dumb. You¡¯re one of the people I¡¯m closest to on the planet, but that¡¯s the issue. I¡¯ve only had a bit over a year to form relationships here. Even though you¡¯re important to me, we don''t have a long history.¡± The one looking at her looked to the other Ben. ¡°We¡¯ve spent the entire time you were both asleep talking, and from what we can tell there''s almost zero divergence in the knowledge we both have since we came to this world. The farther back we go though the easier it is to spot. The issue is that you don¡¯t have the proper context to know which is which. Hell in some cases you wouldn¡¯t even know the questions, it¡¯s not like I¡¯d expect you to know the name of my favourite movie or the street I grew up on.¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. She swallowed her embarrassment. Sometimes it seemed like he saw right through her, even without using his skill. ¡°So what? We just lose the trial now? Nothing we can do?¡± ¡°No.¡± They shook their heads. ¡°If it comes to it we have a way to sort it out, but when we were talking we asked a question. Is there any reason not to simply work together?¡± ¡°Obviously,¡± Her copy said, shocked at the suggestion. ¡°What if they attack us? What if they¡¯re evil? If you have a way to figure out who¡¯s real and who isn¡¯t you should just do it now.¡± Something about hearing that from someone who both looked and sounded just like her annoyed her to no end, but the same thought had passed through her own head, she had just been slower in asking. ¡°That won¡¯t happen.¡± They told them with more confidence than Thera herself could feel. ¡°Everyone here truly believes they¡¯re the copy. We already checked both of your minds while you were asleep, and we checked each other immediately.¡± ¡°Which seems pretty dumb to do.¡± Her duplicate said. ¡°What if you were attacked and killed while I was asleep?¡± ¡°And are you still connected? Plus why have you been talking like that? It¡¯s creepy.¡± ¡°Ah, well for the first I guess curiosity got the better of me,¡± He said sheepishly. ¡°We spoke a little and he seemed safe enough.¡± Both she and her duplicate put their head in their hands for a moment and accidentally said in tandem themselves, ¡°Ben people die doing these things, don¡¯t just hold hands with something that may be trying to kill you.¡± They quickly glared at each other, not willing to extend the same trust Ben seemed to be giving so easily. ¡°And second,¡± They raised their voice to get the attention of both Theras off each other. ¡°We have the same skillset, so connecting created a more interesting result than either of us anticipated.¡± ¡°What do you mean? What did it do?¡± ¡°It connected us more deeply than I¡¯ve ever been able to before. It¡¯s more like we¡¯ve become one mind that happens to have two bodies. It¡¯s honestly incredible, I can see with two sets of eyes, hear with two sets of ears.¡± ¡°Think with two brains.¡± She muttered. Remembering what they said earlier. ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°Okay that sounds a little interesting,¡± Her duplicate conceded. ¡°But do you need to keep it up?¡± ¡°I just want to enjoy it while I can.¡± They responded with a casual shrug. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever be able to do something like this again, it¡¯s proving to be an interesting training experience for me.¡± ¡°Just practice with one of your god''s new believers, something about this gives some real crazy person vibes.¡± They were too perfectly in sync. Not just talking at the same time, they were blinking at the same time, and their movements were perfectly aligned, creating an unnatural level of fluidness in their actions. She got that he wanted to experiment with his skill, but she would much rather he explored this aspect in a way she didn¡¯t have to see. Unfortunately he shot her down. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever be able to use my skill like this again. Even if I connect to someone else with the skill, their minds are too different. Here, with only some small variances we are essentially the same person. Our minds are blending in a way I don¡¯t think it would be possible to do with someone else unless we were both at an incredibly high level of the skill. Maybe not even unless we awakened it.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s why you don¡¯t want to tell us how to tell who the originals are? So you can practice longer?¡± She understood he was big on improving himself, but at the same time if he knew who the real ones were he should just say so they could move on. ¡°I¡¯d be lying if I said it wasn¡¯t a big part of it, but also if there¡¯s four of us we may have some easier times with whatever¡¯s ahead.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s to say they¡¯ll even be able to make it to the next section?¡± Her copy asked them. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like any more monsters followed us from the last one.¡± ¡°Maybe we killed them all. Anyway who¡¯s to say they won¡¯t be able to? We may as well try and see how it goes.¡± Both Theras looked at one another and felt defeated. It was clear to see neither Ben would budge on the matter so what could they do? Infighting would only be more dangerous. ¡°Fine.¡± They said together, before her duplicate turned away and let Thera continue. Even if they weren¡¯t connected the way Ben was it seemed like having the same memories led to the same thought process. ¡°So what should we do?¡± ¡°We were thinking that if this was the start of the new trial then things are probably pretty safe here for now. Why don¡¯t we take the day to recover a bit and then we can start moving on?¡± Her copy was quick to say what was on both of their minds. ¡°You just want to have more time for your experiments. Plus you¡¯re injured, we shouldn¡¯t waste time.¡± ¡°This is one of the mildest injuries I¡¯ve gotten since coming to this world, I¡¯ll be fine. Besides, a bit of rest would do us all well.¡± Thera didn¡¯t like it. Being stuck with what was basically a perfect replica was an unsettling experience, but then again a bit more rest would feel pretty nice. ¡°Fine, but if they kill us in our sleep later I¡¯m going to be pissed.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll keep taking turns to sleep like before. If we watch with our copies then we can keep an eye on them too, sound good?¡± All she could do was sigh. At least the stakes seemed a bit less life and death. CH70- Theras Perspective ¡°Oh what the hell!¡± Both Bens yelled while looking up at the sky. ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± ¡°What happened?¡± She asked, curious. The last few hours had left her bored out of her mind, and she got the impression her copy felt the same. She hadn¡¯t bothered to pack anything to keep herself entertained for the trial because why would she? Downtime was the last thing she had expected. She would practice her magic if she could, but she didn¡¯t want to put any more stress on her staff than she had to since she was down to one. She didn¡¯t know what might be ahead, but she didn¡¯t want to be without a weapon. That meant that as the hours passed while the Bens practiced connecting, all she did was lay down and admire the scenery. At least until whatever just pulled them from their training. ¡°I got a new title.¡± They said in unison, wearing an annoyed expression on their faces. ¡°What¡¯s so bad about that?¡± Her copy asked, and she had to agree with the sentiment. Getting titles while doing a trial wasn¡¯t uncommon, it was well known that the gods watched mortals as they struggled through them and if enough of them spoke about a participant they would inevitably get one. Not to mention that like any other part of a person''s status, it was designed to help them grow. A title''s effects were more vague than a skill¡¯s or job¡¯s, but they could help raise the levels of skills and attributes related to it, as well as provide access to uncommon or rare jobs that one may not normally get. She herself had gotten a title at her birth. As the first child of a great spirit in the world, she got the ever so uninspired one of ¡®Spirit Child¡¯. Presumably, the gods had taken an interest as she was the first of her kind from a race nobody thought could actually breed with regular mortals, and even if it felt more like a descriptor than anything she was grateful for it and hoped to see what benefits it would provide one day as she grew her magical abilities. The idea that Ben wouldn¡¯t be happy to get something like that was surprising, at least until she found out what it was. ¡°The Forgotten One,¡± They said, and Thera immediately understood why he was unhappy with it. He¡¯d told her how he ended up alone in the world, no nation having taken him in, nobody even making an offer. How he¡¯d been forgotten by the world he was brought here to help save. They couldn¡¯t know the context in which it was used, but that didn¡¯t change that it must have brought up some negative memories in a time when they needed to be at their best. ¡°Ben¡­¡± She and her duplicate both started before trailing off, each of them for the first time that day hoping the other would have something to say, but neither could think of anything. Even if the title gave some benefits, that didn¡¯t guarantee it would be something the recipient would want to be known by. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I¡¯m just being grumpy. Mind if I get one of you to give me a hand with my practice?¡± The Bens seemed to be trying to take their minds off it and with how bored they were they both jumped at the chance, just as something different to do other than sit around, and since they were both so eager it was decided they both would, one following the other. When Thera went first and she was connected to them she immediately noticed something different. ¡°Did your hidden mind level increase?¡± She asked. When he first got it, it had felt like his mind had become more closed off to her when he used it, but now it was like she couldn¡¯t feel his mind at all. ¡°No, we were just seeing if our minds would be separated from each other if we tried to block you out or if we could be more selective, which looks like it works. To have the ability stack with itself is quite the bonus discovery though. I wonder how many levels in the skill I¡¯ll need for you to not hear anything normally?¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m personally not a fan. I¡¯d rather hear what¡¯s going on in your head as well if you¡¯re going to peer into mine.¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. They thought for a moment. ¡°Honestly that''s not a bad idea. How does our mind seem to you when we¡¯re like this?¡± Suddenly she got the full brute of his mind, and it was nothing like it normally was. If regularly it was like two people talking through a window, with his mind linked to his duplicate it felt more like she was being stared down on from above, being examined. She could still see them too, but the change in perspective was unsettling in ways she found difficult to describe and pulled away from their hands. ¡°Everything okay?¡± They asked in concern, having felt her discomfort, and she tried to ignore how much she wanted to know which one was actually her Ben after dealing with the alienness of their combined mind. ¡°I¡¯m fine, your mind just felt too different from usual. Honestly not a fan.¡± ¡°Ah sorry, we¡¯ll keep hidden mind up for the other Thera if you don¡¯t want to keep going.¡± ¡°Yeah, I think that was enough for the day.¡± Even though she¡¯d been eager for a change that had been a little too much, so instead she watched from the side as they tested more things on her copy. The other seemed to be having an easier go of it, the Bens presumably keeping their minds hidden away, and a thought drifted into her mind she¡¯d tried to avoid confronting. What if she¡¯s the real one? If Ben said they all believed they were real then she believed him, but that just left her more worried. If the copies at least knew they were fakes then she could be confident in her own existence, but as it was she had no way to be sure. Not to mention if she was fake then what would happen to her after they completed the trial? Would she cease to exist? Disappearing as if she¡¯d never been there to begin with? Really what other option was there? She never paid too much attention when someone completed it or quit early, but she was sure she would have heard of challengers suddenly having a new twin. On the other hand, maybe nobody had decided to work with their duplicate like this before. Maybe enough people went right to violence or successfully figured out their teammate but that didn¡¯t matter. Once again she found herself wishing Ben would explain how to figure out who the real one was. If he really had a way like he said then it could ease her mind considerably. Or make things significantly worse. She sighed and let herself fall back into the grass and dirt. What would she do with that information if she got it? Or her counterpart for that matter? If one of them was a copy of the other then one might react very badly if the reveal didn¡¯t make the other party just vanish into thin air, probably why he wasn¡¯t just telling them, either option would interfere with his training. As her thoughts wandered, her copy eventually pulled away from the other two. ¡°Finally done?¡± She asked them. ¡°Can we start moving on?¡± ¡°We only finished everything we could think to practice with another person, there¡¯s still more we want to do amongst ourselves.¡± ¡°Okay, but what are we supposed to do?¡± Her duplicate asked, sounding exhausted from whatever she had been put through by them. ¡°It¡¯s been hours already.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be good to move on in the morning. In the meantime why don¡¯t you guys see what you can do with your magic?¡± ¡°And risk destroying our staves?¡± ¡°You can use a bit of magic without them, why not see what you can do together?¡± The two Theras looked at one another. It was an interesting idea at least. She knew other mages would work together to achieve things that one alone wouldn¡¯t be able to, the option had just never been available to her. The combination of intense power and lack of control made it impractical to train with someone else in that way, so she never had. The only issue would be working with her. ¡°Well, it would pass the time.¡± Her duplicate said hesitantly. ¡°Would you¡­ want to try?¡± Up to this point they hadn¡¯t really spoken to one another, it was more them talking to the Bens at the same time, but if her copy was going to open up a dialog then she would at least give it a go. If she was still feeling the effects of the last part of the trial she didn¡¯t think she would be able to react so calmly to the situation, but thankfully the anger seemed to be gone. ¡°Alright let¡¯s give it a go.¡± CH71- Theras Perspective Both Thera and her copy found themselves laying on the ground after a few hours of work, sweat pouring down their faces. It had started out simple enough, they both wanted to see how much earth they could raise without a staff. Before her level up a while ago she could suspend earth about twenty meters around her in the air until she lost her grip on it and it fell back down, and even then there wasn¡¯t really anything she could do with it so it didn¡¯t act as real practice. Still, she hadn¡¯t tried it since and giving it a go was happy to see she had improved, pulling only about 10 meters around her. She couldn¡¯t use it to form a spell, but she could make it hang in the air longer than previously and even move it around to an extent, though not very much. When they both worked together though they were able to do things she could never do alone, at least not without a staff to help focus her mana. While one of them raised the earth the other focused on shaping it, bringing it together into a ball. It was still huge, bigger than even her typical earth bullet, but by combining their wills from there they were both able to launch it almost as far as a regular one, and with no worries of needing to replace any staves they were able to fire for as long as their energy would carry them. It wasn¡¯t their mana that gave out though, but their stamina and mental energy. They simply weren¡¯t used to how mentally taxing putting together and firing dozens of spells could be, and they needed to rest. The Bens were to the side, continuing on their own, and Thera was struck by the uncomfortable realisation that she should try talking to her copy. They had just spent a couple of hours training together, but any time they spoke had been centered around that, but now that they were having a break to recuperate what would they even say? If they really did possess almost the exact same personal history then what would she want to say to herself? ¡°Do you think this is the right choice?¡± Is what ended up slipping out, and her copy, thinking along the same lines, didn''t need to ask what she meant by it. ¡°Of course. We want to be mages, we need to do the trial since mom decided to be a huge pain about it. What else could we do?¡± ¡°Maybe we could have found a job to pay Falk for his work? Honestly, we should have been doing something this whole time instead of just leaching off his kindness.¡± The idea seemed to take her duplicate by surprise. ¡°I guess we could have tried, but who would hire us for casual work? We can¡¯t exactly interact well with customers if they¡¯re afraid to get close to us. We can¡¯t cook so that cuts out restaurants and we working in Anailia would be a no-go with everyone knowing who our parents are.¡± ¡°We could clean maybe. We do it for the clinic every now and then to help Sonya anyway.¡± ¡°True, but then the issue is the pay. We¡¯d never make enough to cover the rate we currently go through staves, which means our progress slows even more. I¡¯d much rather get better as quick as I can to improve my magic before the world ends.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± She said with a sigh. ¡°But we¡¯ll have to if we fail the trial.¡± ¡°Maybe not,¡± Her copy replied with some thought. ¡°Not like we couldn¡¯t make an arrangement with another country. Show the amount of raw mana on our card and I¡¯m sure plenty of places would be willing to take the risk of training us in exchange for our service.¡± ¡°Okay but how long could that service be? I¡¯d rather not spend a hundred years working at the whims of a random kingdom, not to mention how pissed mom would be if we pulled something like that. Plus the political ramifications of working for another country, I think that really needs to be our last option.¡± ¡°Also true.¡± Her copy assented. ¡°Still it wouldn¡¯t hurt to look into a bit if things don¡¯t go our way here. I don¡¯t know about you, but I don¡¯t want to have to give up my passion just because it would be inconvenient for the country if we officially start working for another.¡± The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I guess worst to worst if we could find a good offer we could just threaten mom about taking it and see if she feels more agreeable,¡± She said, a wicked smile forming on her face. ¡°Ha, it would be fun to cause her some stress for once.¡± Her copy agreed, thinking back to how much of a pain her mother had been when she first met Ben, not to mention all the times while growing up. After having a nice chance to relax and breaking the ice with their chat they went back to practising. Neither Ben seemed like they would stop anytime soon and they wouldn¡¯t waste the opportunity either.
After many more hours of practice and a night of sleeping in shifts they finally resumed the trial, walking deeper into the forest in the hopes that they would soon see its end. Both Bens took the lead, still hand in hand, unwilling to give up the chance to practice, but also because it let them see out of each other''s eyes, creating a larger range of vision than would normally be possible. Both Theras hung to the back, staves ready in case anything came up, but at least for the time everything seemed calm. It really did seem like a relaxing walk through the woods at the moment, but after some thought it made sense. If the point of this section was all about the duplicates then they had already seen what it had to offer, they just elected to do nothing about it. It had seemed to take about a day of walking to get from the start of one section to the end of another if the first two were any indication, and with nothing else popping up perhaps this expanse was meant to be a little break from any stress assuming they completed it early. Or maybe it¡¯s so we could run in the event a fight happened and didn¡¯t go well. She quietly thought. No point dwelling on that though, they had chosen peace with their copies so that wasn¡¯t a concern, at least for now. Maybe things would change if the next section of the trial never appeared and Ben was forced to reveal how to figure out who the originals were. She personally didn¡¯t know how she would react., but she couldn¡¯t imagine herself just sitting down and accepting it. Would she try and progress further in or try and turn back? Really just do anything to determine the truth of it if it wasn¡¯t self-evident in some way. Still no point in worrying, they would get there when they get there. On the opposite side, they would face a different issue if Ben¡¯s proposed strategy of everyone working together were to be possible. Food. They had only packed so much and While sharing a couple meals with their duplicates wasn¡¯t too bad for their supplies, doing it for too long could leave them feeling pretty tight by the end of it. After a few more hours of walking everyone began feeling antsy. The nervousness that came with nothing happening made them want to find the next section even quicker, but there was no hurrying the trial. All they could do was keep going. Thera was going to turn to her copy, just to discuss anything to pass the time, when she felt her head pound. It felt like a mind had slammed into her own, as if Ben had tried connecting with her by giving her a headbutt and somehow forced a sense of Deja Vu on her. She couldn¡¯t immediately process the notification through the pain, putting her head in her hands and gripping her temples. Ah, what? Why did it increase? She would normally rejoice, but at the moment she was too confused and filled with pain to be happy. If it was going to level up then why hadn¡¯t it during practice with her copy earlier? Speaking of, did anyone else feel it or was it just her being targeted by whatever the trial threw at them? When she found the energy to look up both her and Ben''s duplicate were gone, and Ben was on the ground. ¡°Ben!¡± She rushed to his side and looked him over. Whatever happened hit him significantly worse than her. He was unconscious and blood was leaking from his nose and eyes. She had a bit of medical knowledge from reading some of Sonya''s books as well as a skill, but she didn¡¯t know what she could do about this beyond some basic measure. She made sure he laid comfortably on his back and raised his legs to aid blood flow to his brain while loosening his clothes to try and make sure they didn¡¯t constrict his breathing. As for the bleeding, she couldn¡¯t be sure but thought it might be strain. Still she wasn¡¯t a healer of any sort and didn¡¯t know what else to do. For maybe the first time she cursed the fact she didn¡¯t have access to any healing magics. In Stonewall she never worried too much about it, as long as they could make it back to the town they¡¯d be fine, but even if she tried to carry him back now it would take days. With no other option she took his hand, sat down beside him, and waited to see if his condition improved. CH72 Ben''s head screamed at him as he came back to consciousness. God what now? He knew he shouldn¡¯t have been passed out for any reason and worried about whatever he would wake up to this time. If he hadn¡¯t gotten lucky with the last bit of the trial it could have been bad. He cracked open his eyes, fighting past the feeling they¡¯d been glued shut, and looked up at Thera sitting beside him. ¡°Uhg. What happened this time?¡± Even with his mind connected to his copy he was still at a loss, and somehow it felt different from before. His mind still felt expanded, capable of focusing on more things than normal, but to a lesser extent. Maybe he was still asleep? He went to shake his duplicate awake but realised he wasn¡¯t holding anyone and he wasn¡¯t connected. That couldn¡¯t be right though, if that was the case then what was happening with his mind? She moved with a start and must not have been looking at him. He much preferred when he could see her face but keeping her cloaked was the safe move when they didn¡¯t know if anything would be attracted to them out here. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I got a headache and for some reason leveled up in earth magic and you passed out. Try not to move until you feel up to it.¡± There was worry in her voice and he decided to take her advice. At least until the pounding in his brain went down. Thinking back he felt like he had heard the start of a system notification when his head exploded with pain. He swore if he got another title like ¡®injured one¡¯ or something then he would be doing something drastic to raise his sacrilege level one way or another. Even if he liked Myriad he wasn¡¯t exactly over the other gods just leaving him in this world and forgetting about him. Maybe not the best train of thought considering he was currently a priest but he wasn¡¯t likely to change his personality for the job. As he reached for his card to see whatever the system had in store for him he tried to learn more. ¡°And what about the other two?¡± ¡°Gone. I guess we¡¯re in the next section and they weren¡¯t allowed to join us. Speaking of, can I finally know how you would have told us apart?¡± Damn, there goes an extra set of hands. He thought to himself before answering her. ¡°Both of our copies got their mana from the trial itself, I could feel it flowing into them from the ground when I connected to you both as well as my own copy. I guess there weren¡¯t originally any members of your race that could do that, or at least not well enough to tell. Your god¡¯s really going to need to update this section now that mine has a dozen some-odd believers in the nation.¡± ¡°Wish you just told me.¡± ¡°I worried that if I said it aloud they would disappear. Maybe a silly concern considering any gods watching have probably been reading our minds this whole time but figured why waste a resource.¡± He could tell she wasn''t satisfied with that answer so he sighed and gave a longer explanation. ¡°When I linked with my copy he was as quick to realise he was the duplicate as I was. He took it surprisingly well all things considering and was the one to suggest we should work together if it was possible. He just didn¡¯t want you both knowing who was who if we could get away with it.¡± ¡°Why not, it¡¯s not like we could do anything about it and it would have calmed me down to know at least.¡± ¡°Sure, it would have calmed you to know you were the original, but what about your duplicate?¡± He shot back. ¡°Even if she handled it well we just felt it would be cruel to let her know that and have her deal with the uncertainty of what would happen to her once the trial was done.¡± She fell silent at that and Ben knew he couldn''t leave it there. ¡°But I¡¯m sorry I kept it from you. I know it was stressing you out and I probably should have focused on my Theras feelings instead of something produced by the trial.¡± ¡°Your Thera?¡± She said jokingly, a bit more cheer coming from her. ¡°You know what I mean.¡± She let out a long sigh. ¡°Well, I get where you¡¯re coming from at least. If she really did think she was me then it would have been hard on her to know. I was worried enough that it might be me after all.¡± Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. She seemed more at ease with it so he finally looked at his card, trying to see what might have changed and finding more than he¡¯d expected. A level up in both focus and connect, as well as a new passive skill called complex mind. Most shockingly of all though was his intelligence had risen by 50 percent, bringing the total up to 316. ¡­Well at least it¡¯s not a dumb new title. He tried to joke with himself before giving it all some serious thought. So I would assume the reason it still feels like I¡¯m connected to my copy is because of my new skill, which is cool and all but why did I get it and the level-ups? Not to mention the massive intelligence boost. Thera said she got a level up in her earth magic, what if¡­ ¡°He Thera, anything else happen when you got the level up? Anything weird?¡± He asked, eager to see if his theory was correct. She could see the seriousness in his eyes and gave it careful thought before answering. ¡°It kind of felt like connecting with you I guess, but much more violent maybe? It gave me a serious feeling of Deja Vu though so I guess it rattled my mind pretty bad.¡± ¡°Deja Vu?¡± He asked, feeling excited as he thought he was on the right track. ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t know how to describe it, it just kind of messed with how my thoughts lined up. Sorry that¡¯s not super helpful.¡± ¡°No, that''s fantastic!¡± He said as she sat there confused, waiting for the explanation he was eager to give. ¡°I think we must have combined with our copies and gotten a bit of a boost from it! Since you were working on your earth magic maybe the experience you had lined up between the two of you let you pass on to the next level, and I¡¯d been grinding focus and connect with it so I leveled up!¡± ¡°Okay but why did it knock you out? Not sure if you noticed but you have blood on your face that came from your eyes and nose when it happened.¡± He rubbed his face and felt some dried blood flake off. Guess that explains why my eyes felt glued shut. He casually thought to himself before explaining. ¡°I think that was because I was connected to my copy while it happened. The trial tried to smash our minds together when they had basically almost merged after two days of being connected.¡± ¡°That sounds kind of dangerous,¡± She told him with a worried look. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay?¡± He took stock of himself before answering. ¡°The headache is fading, though a bit slowly for my liking. I¡¯m not sure if it happened as a side effect of my mind being forced together like that or as a way to stop it from being damaged, but it looks like I got a new passive skill that keeps me in a similar state to when I was connected with my duplicate.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s¡­ good.¡± She said hesitantly, and Ben remembered she hadn¡¯t exactly enjoyed the feeling of his mind like that when he had tried practicing with her the previous day. ¡°Should we test it out?¡± He asked, holding his hand out to her and she took it without any complaint. He was a little worried that she wouldn¡¯t be able to deal with it. Aside from his houseplant Fredrick, she was the one he worked on the skill the most with, not having her help would be a serious blow to his training he would need to overcome. He tried not to let that show in his thoughts though, which was hard without activating hidden mind. He needed her to feel his thoughts in their new natural state without thinking anything that might compel his friend into doing something she wouldn¡¯t want to do. ¡°It seems fine,¡± She said thoughtfully. ¡°It didn¡¯t have that weird peering down feeling it had before at least. If I had to describe it I¡¯d say your mind somehow felt broader? Or maybe bigger would be better? It just felt like there was more of it.¡± A bit vague as far as changes to his mind went but as the person who underwent said change he had to agree. Still, he could get Myriad to look at him later when he was out of the trial, for now all that mattered was knowing that Thera wouldn¡¯t be bothered by it thankfully. That left one important matter to deal with. ¡°So do we keep going then?¡± He asked her, but she shook her head. ¡°That¡¯s up to you. Your arm and head are injured, if you don¡¯t think you can go on then we¡¯ll turn around.¡± She looked at him and waited for an answer. He was sure she wouldn¡¯t judge him if he wanted to turn back, the fact she got a level-up was probably a huge boost to her willingness to give in if she needed to, as well as his potential injuries, but he shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m good, the headache¡¯s fading and the arm isn¡¯t that bad.¡± ¡°You also bleed out of your nose and eyes.¡± ¡°But I¡¯m not currently.¡± He said with a shrug. ¡°Neither are giving me any pain so I¡¯d think it was just strain from whatever the trial did to me. I can keep going.¡± She stared at him a little longer, evaluating him, not wanting to put him in more danger than she already had getting him to help her, before ultimately accepting it. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go.¡± CH73 As they walked Ben tried to gauge the changes the skill had made to his mind, or maybe it would be correct to say the changes to his mind that resulted in the skill. He wasn¡¯t really sure and at the current time the distinction didn¡¯t matter. Right off the bat, his focus seemed significantly better compared to what it was before, but he couldn¡¯t be sure how much of that came from his level up in its particular skill and his intelligence increase. He was fairly confident the new skill was contributing though. Other than that the most obvious change was he seemed to be able to think about more at once. He was fairly sure he had read once that a person is typically capable of keeping three or four thoughts going at the same time, unless he was mistaken he was managing about six casual ones, but when he focused he could manage two dedicated streams of consciousness, one to pay attention to the trial around him and the other to keep up with what he was doing, examining the changes to his own mind. The second, slightly less noticeable change, was that he seemed more aware of the environment around him. Instead of being confined to taking a narrow or a broad view of things, he thought he was managing both to an extent. If he had to describe it he would compare it to looking at a painting. Instead of alternating between taking it in as a whole versus admiring the brushstrokes, it was like it had improved his ability to see both, even when he only intended to do one. It was far from perfect, but presumably as he leveled it the ability would improve. That just left two questions. How to level the ability, and should he? If he had to make an assumption, the act of leveling the skill would probably be accomplished by pushing his mind and trying to make it think multiple things at once on a frequent basis. At least that''s what he would assume he would need to do to improve a skill that seemed to increase the number of thoughts a person could carry, but he would see if his god could shed any light on the matter once he was out of the trial. As for the second question, well that felt a bit more complicated. No other skill had altered him to such an extreme level before. Sure his crafting seemed to give him some innate knowledge on how to improve, but that felt more like a buildup of the things he¡¯d already learned solidifying themselves in his mind. World speak+ was probably the closest to truly mind-altering. It did download an entire language into his head, essentially creating a new framework to view the world through. But it didn¡¯t delete the previous one either, it just added to his existing knowledge. This was different. A skill had just changed the way he would forever perceive the world in a noticeable way, and would continue to alter his mind more and more if he chose to level it up. A part of it felt horrifying. When he had been under the impression that he would go back to how he normally was when he left the trial he wanted to get as much of the experience as he could while he could. But now that this was his normal state of mind he didn¡¯t know how to react. But on the other hand, the one he knew he would ultimately listen to, he was aware of how useful the skill would be, especially if he leveled it up more. Multiple lines of thought inspecting his work, catching mistakes, and being able to develop new ideas. It was tantalizing, the growth this skill might help him achieve. Irresistible really, and when he thought about trying to utilize it with his new application of connect and enchantment, his mouth watered. Being able to enchant with other people''s skills was incredible enough to him, but if he was able to dedicate what was essentially two full minds to the task on top of his increased intelligence attribute, well he was willing to bet he would be able to bring the time it took to do it down significantly. Thera nudged him while they walked and managed to come across as curious, even with her face hidden, so he told her what was occupying his thoughts, while at the same time rolling ideas around his head. After explaining his worries she shared her opinions on the matter. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°I see where you¡¯re coming from, I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ve ever heard of a skill altering a person''s mind quite like that before. But at the same time I¡¯ve never paid much attention to mind skills. I know meditation and that¡¯s really it. Of course with the vast number that exist and the system itself creating new ones when it feels justified or whatever criteria it needs happen there could be plenty that are just on the rare side of things.¡± He let out a sigh. Another thing he wanted to look into given the chance. It probably wouldn¡¯t be good to get too many skills that had such a drastic change on a person. Even if the system couldn¡¯t do anything that would directly harm the people it acted on, he didn¡¯t want to learn firsthand just how drastically it was capable of changing them. ¡°So when you said you know meditation did you mean you¡¯re aware of it, or¡­¡± He let the obvious question hang. At this point he still wasn¡¯t aware of any of her skills aside from her charm and earth magic. He didn¡¯t want to pry, and he was pretty sure she didn¡¯t really care about any of her other ones anyway, but he couldn¡¯t help but be a little curious about it. ¡°I have it.¡± She told him, not seeming to mind at all. ¡°When I was younger I thought getting a skill that would help with my mental focus would improve my magics control, but it didn¡¯t make any noticeable difference, even after raising its level a couple times. It did improve my dancing though so I guess that was a positive while I would do it.¡± ¡°I honestly can¡¯t imagine how the two would be connected.¡± When he thought of meditating, his mind went to old wise monks, not dancing young women, but Thera was quick to correct him on his assumption. ¡°The ability to keep your head clear while performing can be super useful. You stop worrying about the people watching you or overthinking what you need to do and instead just act. At least I found it useful.¡± Interesting, it sounds similar to my focus in that regard. I wonder how well the skills would stack? Maybe I should take some time to try and get it. Wait, so¡­ ¡°You performed on stage?¡± He asked, completing his thought aloud. ¡°Is that really so surprising? I did tell you I had trained to be a dancer.¡± ¡°I guess I just never put two and two together. What was that like? Must have been cool.¡± She thought for a moment before answering. ¡°Nerve-wracking? Isolating too I guess.¡± She could see the question forming in his eyes so she explained before he needed to ask. ¡°Even with my cloak on, the first few rows of seats would always be empty with the exception of my family and any servants my mother convinced to go. Any succubi was typically torn between the desire to rub elbows with my family and the fear that I might inflict them with my charm as easily as they could to any other race.¡± ¡°What? But your cloak works fine, that¡¯s ridiculous.¡± ¡°But not surprising,¡± She responded. ¡°A lot of people are typically afraid of races with passive magics, and apparently when I was born the vast majority of succubi around me were immediately taken in. Word got around. Of course it is pretty hypocritical that so many of them also want to be able to visit other nations without having to deal with one of these things.¡± She said with a humph. The conversation forced Ben to remember that even though he¡¯d been teasing her for being something of a princess, his friend''s life had been by no means easy, and he promised himself he would renew his efforts to improve his skills so he could make a better enchantment for her brace. He would get it down to a level where she wouldn¡¯t need to wear a cloak everywhere she went, no matter how long he needed to grind his enchanting and connect skills. It also meant that no matter what tantalizing options might be available next time, he would be selecting enchanter as his next job, though who knew how long that would take. As he considered all of this, a far-off sound seemed to drift to his ear. ¡°Help!¡± CH74 Ben stopped in his tracks. ¡°Did you hear that?¡± ¡°I think so.¡± She said, easing his mind. At the very least it wasn¡¯t another case of only him noticing something. ¡°What are we supposed to do about this though?¡± ¡°I mean, I¡¯d think we go check it out? Sounds like it¡¯s the way we¡¯re going anyway.¡± They hadn¡¯t stopped moving when they heard the cry for help so they were slowly getting closer anyway. ¡°Yeah we¡¯ll check it out, I more meant someone¡¯s yelling for help. Do we run and hurry or not? I don¡¯t exactly know what¡¯s happening so getting there quickly might be important, but on the other hand, maybe that¡¯s a trap to distract us and so we''ll fall into a pit and die.¡± He thought for a moment. ¡°I mean I really hope your god¡¯s a bit more creative than to do death pits twice, but you¡¯re right, what do you want to do?¡± As they spoke their speed had increased slightly and the yelling had continued. Something about it had nagged at Ben, making him want to rush to it more than he thought he would considering it was part of the trial. He reached to connect to a tree to see if that shook the feeling but it didn''t help, either the feeling was actually coming from himself or the trial had compensated for his ability, he didn¡¯t know how adaptable it was. Still, he was able to ignore it for now and waited for Thera to decide. The trial was more important for her than it was for him after all. She hesitated for a minute before making her choice. ¡°I don¡¯t want to learn that this part is about protecting someone only to find out we failed before we even make it to them. Come on, let''s hurry.¡± It was good enough for him, although he did make use of his now expanded mind as they ran to try and watch out for anything that may show up on the path, not that he was sure it would help, all the while listening to the calls growing closer. It was a higher voice, but distinctly male. Presumably young. Something about it gnawed at his mind, he was growing more and more sure he knew the voice, he just couldn¡¯t place it. They went with as much haste as they could muster, Ben letting the feeling take over and running as hard as any time his life depended on it, lungs aching and legs pounding. Somehow he was even pulling ahead of Thera, something she would have been more concerned about if she took the time to notice. She may have been shorter than him, but her agility stat was much higher; it should have given her an edge in overtaking him. Perhaps if she had paid more attention she would have noticed she was under the effect of a minor debuff, and that Ben was slightly buffed, not enough to be too noticeable, especially when one was rushing, but enough to make the difference and slowly split them up as he pulled ahead. If Ben was less distracted he may have slowed down himself to help them stick together, but the nagging feeling in his mind was slowly turning to one of familiarity. He recognized the voice, he just couldn''t place how. It definitely wasn''t Karly or Glob, that was for sure, but why would anyone else be in the woods of the trial? When he came to a clearing in the woods he saw the figure of a child, clawing at the ground as a vine that had wrapped around them seemed to pull them into a waiting pit. Really? We''re doing death pits twice? He thought to himself before he was going to run towards them to help when he heard a dull thud from behind him and Thera scream. He looked back and whatever had snared the child had gotten her too, a long thick vine had coiled around her and started to pull her to her own endless hole in the ground. He didn''t understand what this part of the trial was meant to accomplish, but the choice was easy for him, he wasn''t going to hesitate to save Thera. At least he wasn''t until the kid called his name. "Ben? Ben help me! Please I''m scared what''s happening?" This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. He felt his blood run cold and turned to look again, seeing a face raised from the ground to scream and cry for him while tiny hands desperately clawed at the earth, trying to get a handhold to keep them from being pulled farther, but without any luck. He knew that face. He knew the voice too and had to ask himself how he could have not been able to recognize it before. Both belonged to someone he knew couldn¡¯t be in this world, someone he wanted to see again so desperately at times it hurt to think about. His little brother Mark. It was enough to make him hesitate as his newly augmented mind went into overdrive. For just a moment he believed it, but he knew it couldn''t actually be his brother. He didn''t know if any of these trials would be able to kidnap someone outside of them, but in the case of his younger brother it wouldn''t be reaching across the planet but a universe. His body would have to be remade from the ground up the same as his own was in order to be able to exist in the world at all, a task that was supposedly incredibly difficult even for the gods. There was no way it had been done for a single god¡¯s trial. Ben knew with every fiber of his being it wasn''t his brother, but that didn''t stop his mind from asking what if? He stood there for precious moments as Thera yelled for his help and his brother screamed and cried, begging for Ben to save him. He felt sick to his stomach as he turned around and ran to Thera, ignoring the cries coming from behind him. In the time he''d wasted she''d gotten to the edge of the pit, unable to escape the vine that snared her. Only by virtue of the strength he''d managed to grow since working at a forge was he able to fight against it, pulling with all of his might against the force of the thing, trying to close his mind off from the screams behind him. With every inch he was able to pull her back it ate at his heart more, having to push out such a familiar voice that desperately needed his help so he could focus on saving his friend, until finally, thankfully, the vine seemed to give up. Thera was free, and the forest was silent again. He looked back, now that she was out of danger, and there was nothing behind him. That pit was gone, and so was his Mark. With that bit of peril seemingly done, he walked over to the nearest tree he could find, fell to his knees, and started vomiting against it. Once he¡¯d emptied his stomach of everything it contained he realised that Thera had come up behind him at some point and was rubbing his back. He didn''t know what to say, so instead of anything he flopped down into the dirt and breathed, trying to clear his head. Hey Myriad, you wouldn''t happen to have a trial in this world, would you? He asked, forgetting for a moment that his god wouldn''t be able to answer him, and finished his thought aloud. "Cause if you have any fucked up shit like that in it then we''re going to have issues." Thera was sitting beside him keeping watch and seemed to take his sudden statement as a sign to speak to him. "Do you want to talk about it?" She moved beside him and gently ran her fingers through his hair while he laid on the ground, waiting for him to open up. He didn¡¯t want to talk. He was too filled with anger, with sadness and guilt and so much more. Even if he knew it wasn¡¯t real, watching the family he felt he¡¯d abandoned on Earth by dying calling for help had been too much. But he owed her an explanation as to why he hesitated to save her, so he rolled over to face her, though still not getting up. "That was my little brother. I mean it couldn''t have been my actual brother, I know that. There''s no way the gods exerted the sort of effort it would take to bring him here just for a trial where he would be killed off in front of me, but that felt just a little too real. Sorry I hesitated back there." "Don''t be, I knew there must have been a reason. Just take it easy, we''ll rest here for a while." She hadn¡¯t gotten a good look at the boy when she had been dragged to the ground, and at the time her mind had been more focused on thoughts of escaping the vine that snared her, but after it had been obvious it must have been someone close to Ben. She just hadn¡¯t expected the trial to show him the family he knew he would never see again. He gave a silent nod in agreement, he needed a few minutes at least, preferably more. At the very least it didn''t seem like they would encounter more like that considering how the last bit of the trial had gone down. Finish the thing it wanted you to do and then move on to the next bit; he just didn''t get the point of it all. Maybe it would have made more sense to him if he''d spent some time looking into Anailia herself given that it was her trial and all, but with everything else it slipped his mind. If he was ever going to do something ridiculous like agree to one of these trials again he wouldn''t make the same mistake. Though it wasn¡¯t exactly too late. There was still more of the trial and he had a worshipper there with him, ¡°He Thera, tell me a bit about your god.¡± CH75 ¡°Why are you asking about that now?¡± She asked, curious and a bit worried about how it related to what they just went through. ¡°Because I was an idiot who tried to prepare tools without trying to understand the gods who made the trial. I should have tried to get in their heads more when figuring out what to do and how to prepare and now I want to correct that if it¡¯s not too late.¡± His biggest mistake had been assuming the trial would be combat-focused. In his mind it just seemed obvious, the gods wanted strong believers to try and fight off the coming invasion. What he hadn¡¯t accounted for was that many of these trials originally hailed from each god''s homeworld. Just because they currently needed strong believers didn¡¯t mean that was always what they wanted to see from them, and he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the gods couldn¡¯t alter their trials once they were made given what Myriad told him. If it was hard for gods to make something that could exist in the mortal realm then presumably changing it could have some drastic results, not to mention how long it could take to make or alter one to begin with. As all of those variables ran through his head Thera started telling him about her god. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how much I can really share, I do worship Anailia but I haven¡¯t delved too much into her history and stories, I really just know the common ones. She¡¯s the mother goddess of the succubi and rules over love and seduction, the second aspect being why all succubi and incubi have access to charm magic from birth.¡± ¡°I guess that makes sense for a love goddess, gotta win hearts somehow.¡± ¡°Well when I say love it isn¡¯t just about romantic attraction, it''s about all sorts, like familial love and friendship too.¡± She went on to spend the next hour telling the stories that she knew. Raising the first succubi and growing their civilization, teaching them how to use their charm, as well as how to use it responsibly, how to live well, and many more, ending on the death of their world, where Alailia¡¯s husband sacrificed himself to let their people escape. He felt a picture begin to form in his mind of the trial but wanted to know more. ¡°And what about her husband then? Tolona right?¡± She shook her head as he asked. ¡°He¡¯s been dead for a long time now, I know plenty of succubi still learn about him but I¡¯m only really familiar with him to the extent he¡¯s part of Anailias stories.¡± She paused and thought for a minute. ¡°Well, other than the fact that he represented unity and strength.¡± ¡°Wait, are succubi particularly strong? No offence or anything but you and Sonya are pretty much what I would expect strength-wise from my own race.¡± Again she shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m told it was more about emotional strength. Being a pillar that could support themselves and the people around them.¡± ¡°Okay, so if we focus on what your gods represent and how it¡¯s related to the trail so far, I guess the last one has to do with the condition for the trial itself, I needed to be in a position where I would choose you over someone else important in my life. The one before it tested our knowledge of each other, though we kind of worked around that aspect. Before that maybe it was testing our ability to work together and trust each other while angry maybe? As for the first one, if I had to guess it would be teamwork or problem solving, but come on, if that¡¯s what it was supposed to be, surely they could have figured out something better than pits in the ground¡­¡± He trailed off as he muttered to himself, trying to work out how everything they had gone through might relate to the properties of the gods that built the trial. Some of the connections he made felt a bit weak to him, but he couldn¡¯t figure out anything else it might be. That just left a problem. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really give us any clues about what might be next or how much more we¡¯d have to go through.¡± He sighed. It had already been five days, and he had no way of knowing if they were being fast or slow about it. He knew it took between one or two weeks to finish the trial based on past results, but that didn¡¯t really help him. If he assumed that in the past people had done roughly one section a day like they were doing and made it out in seven then they were almost done. Alternatively if the ones who made it out in a week somehow managed to finish two a day then they still had over a week to go, which wasn¡¯t a fun prospect, especially since he currently wasn¡¯t in a good emotional state to keep going immediately. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. It was getting pretty late anyway so they decided to make camp for the night as Ben tried to get his thoughts under control.
As they sat down and ate, Thera spoke up, breaking his silence. ¡°Can I ask about your family?¡± He wasn¡¯t expecting it and he was a little taken by surprise. ¡°Sure, but why?¡± ¡°I know they¡¯re important to you, I guess I just want to know.¡± She told him with a little shrug. She¡¯d never asked before, she could see in his eyes any time they or his homeworld were brought up that the wound was still raw, and she wasn¡¯t sure if talking about it would help him currently or not, but she wanted to try. Not only that, but the trial had been showing her how much more there was to discover about her sole friend, it made her want to learn more. It didn¡¯t seem like he was any more upset by the question than the trial had already made him. ¡°Sure, what do you want to know?¡± ¡°Anything I guess. What were they like?¡± He laid his head back and thought for a bit. What do you say to describe some of the most meaningful people in your life? ¡°My brother Mark, the one we just¡­ Well anyway, he¡¯s a ball of energy. My parents had him when I was nine, I think because they were sick of me asking for a sibling.¡± He told her, letting a little chuckle out. ¡°Even with a pretty big age difference we would still play together a lot, different games and he¡¯d watch me draw. He didn¡¯t like to do it himself though, he¡¯s much more sporty than me. I spent a lot of time with the parents cheering him on during whatever sport he¡¯d signed up for in a given year, he always put in his best effort.¡± ¡°Sounds like he kept you busy.¡± She said with a small smile beneath her hood. ¡°Ha! You have no idea. He always wanted some attention and as long as I wasn¡¯t too busy with school and my own hobbies I didn¡¯t mind. Wish I gave him more time now.¡± He felt regret washing over him but tried to push it back and move on. ¡°As for my parents, well they were disgustingly in love. I kind of saw a bit of how they would act in your parents to be honest, and they always insisted we¡¯d all do something as a family at least once a week, so there were a lot of family games nights after school and when they were done work.¡± ¡°Were you any good at those?¡± She asked him with a light joking tone. She had a guess. ¡°Absolutely not,¡± He laughed. ¡°Literally years of playing under my belt and I only won a handful of times. It was downright embarrassing. You would think parents would let their kid win every now and then but they were ruthless. Not really sure what else to say. Mom was the main cook of the house except for weekends when dad took over. Since that was when everyone was free he¡¯d always try and make a big deal of it and go all out. I really would like to try and replicate a few of the recipes if I can.¡± He thought back to all the meals his parents would make and how the flavours would blend together. ¡°I¡¯ll try making you some if I can, god knows I¡¯ll have to get creative with ingredients though. How does this world have so many races that look similar to humans, and a bunch of monsters that look like powerful versions of creatures from my world, but I haven¡¯t seen a single apple? It¡¯s nuts I tell you!¡± ¡°Well if you do I¡¯d like that. You¡¯ve already gotten me to expand my palate with everything you¡¯re always trying anyway.¡± ¡°Ha, what am I supposed to do, not try everything I see? And sharing keeps me from packing on pounds eating it all myself.¡± He felt himself ease up, like some of the anger and lifted off of him. ¡°Thanks Thera.¡± ¡°Hmm? For what?¡± He shrugged. ¡°Talking. Anyway, mind if I sleep first? I''m feeling pretty worn out, and whatever happened when I merged with my copy is still leaving me with a bit of a headache.¡± ¡°Of course, go ahead and I¡¯ll wake you in a bit.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± As he got himself sorted for the night Thera made herself comfortable. As much of a pain as her parents could be she never doubted they were loving, she couldn¡¯t imagine what it would be like if she was never able to see them again. She had never needed to learn how to emotionally support others, with all the people she would normally interact with before meeting Ben having decades on her, but it was something she would try and improve on. Now that she had someone she could call a friend she wanted to be there to support him as much as he¡¯d been trying to support her. CH76 Morning came and with it more walking. Both of them had the gist of it now at least. Walk for a bit and eventually encounter the next part of the trial. ¡°But why can¡¯t it all just be back to back, or at least a bit closer together?¡± Ben complained, growing tired of how monotonous it was starting to feel. ¡°It¡¯s probably to give us a bit of a break between parts as well as places to rest. Besides, would you really want to go through each of those things one after the other until we reach the end?¡± He groaned. ¡°No you¡¯re right, that would suck, I just want to get this over with.¡± Perhaps he¡¯d grown a bit too casual with what they had been going through. Now that his mind had expanded he just couldn¡¯t force his every thought to focus entirely on their surroundings, it was too dull. At the same time he couldn¡¯t exactly take his eyes off of it, sure Thera was staying vigilant too but it wasn¡¯t like he could leave it all to her, it wouldn¡¯t be fair. As a compromise to himself, he picked up a stone and did the same thing he always did on their hunts. Utilizing the more destructive properties of enchanting he started to carve into it, breaking off chunks to shape it to his desires. It went a bit worse than usual as he wasn¡¯t taking his eyes off the forest, instead relying on his sense of touch and a mental image of what he wanted it to look like to make different things that he ultimately just dropped in the woods once he was done. No point carrying them out with him when he could just make better ones later. Still, it helped the time go by, and like that an entire day was gone, with no sign of the next section in sight. As night began to fall and they set up camp again, Thera was feeling worried. ¡°Do you think we did something wrong?¡± The thought had drifted through his head too as the hours progressed. Spending the entire day walking, no sign that they had found their next challenge had put them both on edge, but Ben decided to try and stay positive about it. ¡°Maybe we¡¯re just nearing the end of it. If we don¡¯t see anything for I¡¯d say two more days I¡¯d say we start worrying then.¡± ¡°That''s a fair bit of time we could be wasting,¡± She pointed out, but Ben could only shrug. ¡°What else can we do? As far as we know the next part of the trial could be about being patient and not giving up. That would sort of go along with emotional strength, right?¡± ¡°I guess,¡± She said, but she felt doubtful. Still with nothing else to do they decided to wait to see what tomorrow held. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
When Ben woke up for his watch he did what he always did as Thera slept, worked on his connect with the plant life around. Namely the giant trees that littered the area. They were always interesting to interact with, although none had proven helpful for actually figuring out what to do next it continued to be a fun experience. As the light from the rising sun began to poke through the treetops Ben looked to Thera to see if she was waking up, and seeing her muttering in her sleep decided to leave her to it a little longer. He personally thought they must have been close to the next bit of the trial anyway, why not take a little more time to rest while they could. He let her go on for a couple more hours, using that time to continue on his training before he decided it was time to wake her up. ¡°Alright, up and at¡¯em Thera, we¡¯re burning daylight.¡± He walked up beside her and gave her a small shake, trying to get her up, but to no avail. She just kept laying down, muttering away as a pit began to form in his stomach. ¡°Come on Thera enough of that, I need you to get up.¡± He kept trying, but nothing he did or said stirred her from her rest and Ben cursed. Whatever was going on must have been part of the next section of the trial, but what was he supposed to do about it? If he couldn¡¯t wake her up by himself then how were they supposed to work through this? His mind briefly went to how sleeping princesses were typically awoken in the fairytales of his own world before shaking the idea out of his head. I¡¯m pretty sure I can figure out some less creepy options before I resort to that. As long as she didn¡¯t sleep too long it would be fine, but he needed to sort it out without letting days pass. He wasn¡¯t sure how her race''s food and water requirements compared to his own, but he didn¡¯t want her to starve to death as he tried to figure this out. With nothing else to go on he leaned in close to her, trying to make out what she was saying. Over the last few days of keeping watch and all the times he¡¯d modified her bracelet, he was fairly sure she didn¡¯t regularly talk in her sleep, though he wasn¡¯t certain. Still, he had nothing else to go on. ¡°I¡¯m sorry auntie Vivi, I¡¯ll try harder.¡± A name he didn¡¯t know. He kept listening to try and figure out what was being said, but it was like he was only getting one side of the conversation. Worse, with someone Thera apparently considered an aunt that he had never heard of. With that being the case it seemed like this trial might rely on how well they knew each other again, and there was no way to cheat it this time. Well, almost no way. He had one advantage at least, the ability to peek into her mind and hear her thoughts. Maybe that would be enough to pick up the context he would need. At least he could hope. If he couldn¡¯t figure out what he needed from that then he¡¯d have to try his best to keep her alive while carrying her out and hope she woke up after leaving the trial, a prospect he wasn¡¯t excited to test out. Moving her so she was at his side so he could better hear what she was muttering, he grabbed her hands and connected to her. CH77- Theras Perspective ¡°I¡¯m sorry aunt Vivi. I¡¯ll try harder.¡± Thera said, hanging onto the inside of sleeves for a cloak far too big for her. Usually, she was unhappy to have been given something so large just so she would be able to grow into it, but at the present she was grateful, it helped hide the tears that had begun forming in her eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t be sorry, just do better. We need all the warriors we can get, you need to improve.¡± Her aunt Vividus, the great life spirit, spoke down to her with a voice filled with disappointment. ¡°The fact you haven¡¯t gained a single level in the years since I¡¯ve seen you just goes to show you haven¡¯t tried hard enough.¡± She wanted to argue, hours out of every day she was out there, trying her hardest to use her earth magic, but that wouldn¡¯t matter to her aunt, only results did. Instead, she stayed silent and took it until she was told to try again. She did as she¡¯d been instructed a thousand times. She felt the mana within her and moved it to her will. That alone felt difficult. Her mana felt too thick to be moved, it was like fighting against an ocean of sludge, and when she tried to explain it to any of the teachers her mom had gotten her none of them understood, they all thought it was in her head or that she was making it up as an excuse for her failings. She hated all of them for it. For not even trying to understand what she was fighting against just to try and make her magic work, but she could never say it. Even if she hated them she needed help if she was ever going to succeed. Once she finally got her magic moving she went on to the next step, forcing it out of her to act on the world around her, and here, as always, she failed. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she pushed, she couldn¡¯t make it leave her body, and nobody could tell her how she was failing. Well that wasn¡¯t entirely true. Every single teacher she¡¯d been with had some sort of idea or theory where she was going wrong, but the ones with ideas never suggested anything that worked, and she downright despised the ones that would say they had theories. Any that had a theory was likely to view her as a failed experiment that needed to be studied so that future ones could be a success. Just like- ¡°Are you even trying?¡± Vividus asked in exasperation. ¡°You¡¯re barely moving your mana, and it¡¯s not like there''s anything holding it back, gods know your charm doesn¡¯t have any issues leaking out.¡± She didn¡¯t need to hear that again, Vivdus was right, only gods could know how long she had spent praying to Anailia or any other that might be listening to reverse her situation. Let her charm be locked within her, trapped forever, and the earth magic to come out unending. Her life would be infinitely better. Unfortunately the gods or fate or whatever decided these things felt horribly unkind. Thera jumped with a start and looked around. She was sure she just heard someone, but it was just her and her aunt in the training yard. ¡°Did you hear that?¡± She asked Vividus. ¡°What child?¡± She said, looking annoyed. Well as annoyed as a void of white could look. Deciphering some of the great spirits'' emotions was never easy, but Thera felt she had more than enough practice with their negative ones to get it right. Of course, she couldn¡¯t say what she had actually just heard. Her mother wouldn¡¯t like her using that kind of language, and she certainly knew who it was being addressed to. Telling the person in question wouldn¡¯t do her any favours, so instead she muttered that she must have misheard. Her aunt said something about making things up and avoiding training, and she got back to practice before things could get too bad. After another hour of it her mother came out to get her. ¡°How did that all go?¡± Pelenia asked with a forced smile, caring for Vividus only slightly more than her daughter did. ¡°Terrible. It¡¯s shocking that Abrus¡¯s child could have such a poor understanding of her element. For the life of me, I wouldn¡¯t believe such a thing could be possible if I wasn¡¯t forced to witness it.¡± The voice again. She looked around but she was still the only one who noticed it. ¡°Nobody is forcing you to see anything.¡± The queen said, letting the smile fall from her face. ¡°You wanted to see if you could try from an angle that others missed, but it seems like she¡¯s just going over the same things as always.¡± ¡°Hmmph. She needs more practice if she can¡¯t do it. Honestly, her other lessons are a distraction from getting her to actually accomplish this. At the very least she should come back after and continue.¡± ¡°Viv, she¡¯s six. I know you don¡¯t have any idea about raising children but it will be late after that, she¡¯ll need to sleep.¡± Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Pff, you mortals. How do you all get away with wasting a third of the day like that every day? It isn¡¯t even a sure thing she truly needs it. Let her go a week without so we can see how strong her heritage really is.¡± ¡°Absolutely not.¡± She picked Thera up and started walking away. ¡°You can practice with her more tomorrow if she¡¯s up to it, for now she has dance lessons.¡±
Her dance lessons went as well as they ever did. She was training in dances that could be done alone for the same reason no other students were around. She couldn¡¯t be trusted to get too close to any of them. Her instructor already had to be replaced once after an incident where her cloak came loose, exposing them to her charm and refusing to be near her when they returned to their right mind. The new one was good at their job at least and had been professional enough, though still kept a safe distance when giving their lessons, but despite all that it was still one of Thera¡¯s favourite parts of the day. Dancing was something she was actually good at unlike her magics, and she was already at level 1 even without putting in the same amount of effort she had for her magic. If there was one thing she didn¡¯t know how to deal with though, it was the mysterious voice showing up again, only this time instead of scolding the people around them, they were doing something only her parents, as well as auntie Sonya and uncle Falk ever seemed to do. It was cheering her on. On and on it went, occasionally cutting in and out, but the entire time encouraging. She tried her best to ignore it but could feel a blush forming under her cloak. She wasn¡¯t used to that much positive attention, even if it was just a voice in her head, but it made her happy. Quiet enough that her instructor wouldn¡¯t say anything, she muttered and hoped the voice would hear. ¡°I¡¯ll dance more tomorrow if you¡¯ll watch.¡± It cut out again, as it seemed to every time it tried to ask her something. At this point she¡¯d grown used to it. She¡¯d heard before that other kids would make imaginary friends, maybe she had? Something about the whole thing seemed a bit different from what she had expected, but she didn¡¯t question it much. It was nice, it left her feeling less lonely. After her lesson she was tired out and her mom went to bring her up to her room, as she always did at the end of her day, though tonight she seemed different. ¡°Do you enjoy dancing Thera?¡± Her mom asked, already full well knowing the answer. ¡°Mhm, it¡¯s lots of fun!¡± ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± Pelenia said with a smile. ¡°So there¡¯s something I want you to think about, okay? You know pretty soon it will be time for you to think about selecting your job, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yeah, I can¡¯t wait!¡± It would vary by nation and race, but for succubi it was typical for them to select their first job around age seven after having a chance to gain A few skills and begin to figure out what sort of direction they want to go in life. While there was no harm in starting earlier since the jobs could be changed if need be, many people felt that not completing them would be a waste as they would lose the bonuses that would come with it if the job wasn¡¯t properly finished. Not to mention the fact that deciding what skills and attributes to work on enhancing was still a pretty big choice, one they didn¡¯t want children making without at least having an understanding of what that choice meant. For Thera though it meant being able to become an apprentice mage, and finally being able to get bonuses to her earth magic. Unfortunately, her charm would receive bonuses too, but she never actively tried to raise its level so it shouldn''t be any problem for her as long as she kept on doing what she was doing. Pelenia though had other ideas. ¡°I know you have your heart set on becoming an apprentice mage for your first one, but what would you think of being a beginner dancer instead? Your skill level should allow it and then you could have a lot of fun all the time.¡± She felt herself freeze. Why would she do that? Her mom knew she wanted to be an apprentice mage since she¡¯d learned about it. She¡¯d even begged her to let her take the job early numerous times, though it never worked out for her, why would she give up her dream? Still, she wasn¡¯t great at arguing against whatever her mother wanted. ¡°But why? I¡¯ve worked so hard on my magic this entire time.¡± ¡°I know hun, but you aren''t happy with it, are you? If you become a dancer then you¡¯ll be able to perform for audiences and have them cheer you on. Besides look at how well you¡¯ve been doing with your dancing, getting the job would help you do even better.¡± She didn¡¯t like it. She¡¯d worked so hard all this time to become a mage, she didn¡¯t want to throw it away, but she couldn¡¯t deny what her mom said. It didn¡¯t make her happy. How could it? Failure after failure for years was eating at her, and her magic showed no sign of improving. The thought of other people cheering her on did sound nice, especially after seeing what that was like today. Maybe she would be able to make some friends finally if people liked her dancing enough. Maybe other kids would want to play with her, or she could get the chance to practice with other people for a change. She had always wanted to do her people''s traditional dance, but it wasn¡¯t something that could be done alone. The voice was right. Even if she didn¡¯t enjoy her constant failures, she wanted to succeed. She was sure that one day when she did it would all be worth it, but who knew how long it would take that day to come. Her mom could see her hesitating and leaned down to give her a kiss on her head. ¡°You don¡¯t need to choose immediately hun, there''s still a while until you need to decide, just promise me you¡¯ll think about it, okay?¡± She gave a small nod. ¡°I promise mom.¡± CH78- Theras Perspective Think about it she did. For hours into the night the problem swirled around in her head as she was unsure about what to do. She wanted to follow her dream, to become a great mage and fulfill the aspects of her spirit heritage that called out to her, but when she thought about her mom she could tell how happy it would make her if she became a dancer instead. Maybe it wasn¡¯t that her mom wanted her to be a dancer, so much as she wanted her to just be anything other than a mage. Rather than spend who knew how many years trying to raise her levels and potentially be unable to advance to a higher tier mage job in that entire time. She tried to get the voice''s opinion on it, exploring the option of having someone to bounce ideas off of for the first time, but it was firm in its opinion. ¡°I can¡¯t just do that though, mom¡¯s always working so hard. I need to at least think about what she wants.¡± ¡°But what if I can never improve my magic or level up the job when I get it,¡± She accidentally said too loudly before quieting down. ¡°Maybe it¡¯ll just be a waste of my time, enough of my teachers thought it was after all.¡± She was starting to feel annoyed that the voice kept pushing her to be selfish. Didn¡¯t it know she was trying to be responsible and make the best decision for everyone? ¡°Why do you want me to choose it so bad then? I need to actually think about it like I promised mom.¡± That managed to surprise her. She wasn¡¯t used to hearing anyone outside of her immediate family say anything like that, and rather than react decided she should go down for a glass of water in the kitchen. Normally she would throw her cloak on before she left, but she hadn¡¯t actually taken it off for the day yet. The voice may have been sure he would be fine, but she knew from experience not to be so quick to trust that. Enough accidents over the years had taught her to be as careful as she could about those sorts of things, even if it was her new imaginary friend. It was quite late into the night, the enchanted lights dimmed to be easy on the eyes of anyone venturing outside, as she made her way down to the kitchen. She thought everyone would be asleep, but when she poked her head in she found the last people she wanted to see, and turned around without a word. She would have just left too if she hadn¡¯t heard what they were saying, not realizing she was there to hear it. ¡°Abrus¡¯s offspring has made no progress since we¡¯ve last been here,¡± Vividus told the other three great spirits who were currently at Thera¡¯s home, all of whom she avoided the best she could. The death spirit Nox, the fire spirit Incedis, and the air spirit Genon all listened to Vividus report the events of Theras training while maintaining hominid type forms. They leaned toward succubi and incubi builds, as that was the race they tended to interact with most due to Abrus¡¯s relationship with them through her mother. Incedis took the form of a strong incubus with a body made of flames, while Genon appeared as a succubus made of mist and air currents. Nox was the only exception among them, utilizing the properties of his attribute to the extreme by wearing the body of a deceased incubus. ¡°While I¡¯ll continue to push her as far as I can while we¡¯re here, it¡¯s pretty clear she has no potential. She won¡¯t be any use to keeping this world safe before the invasion hits. Luckily Abrus¡¯s little experiment has made one thing clear.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t call her that while we¡¯re here,¡± Genon said. ¡°I¡¯d rather not have Abrus try to pull me to the center of the world.¡± ¡°Fine. As I was saying, Abrus has shown it is possible to produce powerful beings with the mortals of this world, with power akin to their demigods. If we are able to do the same thing but with actual success then we could have many powerful warriors available to us who won¡¯t be hampered by the current child¡¯s limitations.¡± Incedis let out a powerful laugh. ¡°Finally, we can¡¯t afford to see how things will turn out with her any longer. The time until the invasion is far too short if the gods are to be believed, we need to take some risks if we want any rewards.¡± ¡°I suppose that''s why you didn¡¯t invite Salinoth, Lux, or Funa? They¡¯ve been pretty opposed to the idea since you first suggested it all those years ago.¡± Genon asked. ¡°I only backed down then because the invasion date was suspected to be much farther back,¡± The great life spirit said unhappily. ¡°I don¡¯t have the time I thought to get them on our side. We¡¯ll have to make do with what we have. The only question is will you try it?¡± They both gave their agreement and Vividus was visibly pleased. ¡°Good, so what will you both do? Nox and I intend to see if the system placed on us will allow us to produce a soul spirit, I¡¯m sure if you were able to succeed in producing offspring together a spirit capable of explosion magic could be of incredible help in the coming battle.¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. The fire and air spirits looked at each other before shaking their heads. ¡°Honestly, hoping we¡¯ll be able to breed together seems like it would have a low enough chance that it¡¯s not worth the risk of all four of us attempting it,¡± Incedis said. ¡°If the great life spirit can¡¯t make it work then there''s no way we¡¯ll be able to. I have a different idea in mind. Fairies have the benefits of being mana based like us while reproducing sexually and the added advantage of not dying if they use all of their mana, if I can produce offspring with a fire attribute one then the possibility of one being born in the second or even third tier of their skill is almost guaranteed.¡± ¡°An excellent idea,¡± Vividus spoke, thinking the reasoning over. ¡°It¡¯s true that if Abrus had bred with a race with a proper affinity for earth magic they might not have been such a disappointment. What about you Genon, will you be doing the same?¡± Again the great air spirit shook her head. ¡°I have a different idea in mind. I will be attempting it with a Fulgur if I can find a suitable one.¡± At this Nox spoke up for the first time since Thera had started listening in to the spirits meeting. ¡°I must confess, I don¡¯t frequently leave the death mountains so I¡¯m not as knowledgeable on the various races of the world as I perhaps should be. What made you pick that one in particular?¡± ¡°They''re natural lightning users, so they all have a high affinity to air, water, and light. Even if the one I produce isn¡¯t born with lightning magic like I hope, I feel the potential of it being able to actually use air magic is great enough that it¡¯s worth the attempt. Not to mention that if it doesn¡¯t end up being born with lightning magic then it would likely still have high affinities in the other two magics. Just because Thera isn¡¯t likely to be able to take advantage of her affinities outside of earth and dark doesn¡¯t mean others won¡¯t if the conditions are right.¡± Vivi was smiling. ¡°I like it, assuming it works out then even if it doesn¡¯t get access to lightning magic as long as it could learn the other two it could make up for the fact that neither Salinoth or Lux are participating. Now perhaps if it works we could try finding a race that¡¯s compatible with one of our affinities as well as space and time too, gods know how helpful that could have been to have around before our planet''s fall.¡± At that they started reminiscing about the death of their world, but Thera no longer cared, she¡¯d heard more than enough. Quietly as she could, trying to not let them know she had been there, she ran back to her room.
They¡¯re right, I am a failure. I should just give up trying and do what mom says. Maybe then I could at least be happy. Hearing the great spirits hurt her deeply. She always knew they didn¡¯t have a high opinion of her, and while she never liked them herself she still thought of them as family. She wanted to be acknowledged for her efforts one day, but it looked like that would never happen. Instead they would devote their efforts to trying to make better versions of her. Versions that could use magic without any effort, or were actually born with awakened skills, unlike her who had to start at level zero like everyone else. Why even keep trying. The voice had been talking to her the entire time. Trying to reassure her, saying it believed in her and was there for her, but she didn¡¯t care. What did it matter when nobody else did? Eventually it grew silent as she cried and she wore herself out, but she still couldn¡¯t sleep, not with all those thoughts swirling around in her head, and as the hours wore on it decided to try again. It spoke with so much gentleness, but she was feeling too lost. ¡°...Don¡¯t wanna.¡± When she didn¡¯t say anything it seemed to take it as a sign to keep going. She felt tears coming back to her eyes but she tried to hold them off, she couldn¡¯t speak so she just nodded. She stayed silent, not trusting herself to speak. She wanted to say it. If she gave it all up here then maybe her life would start going better. She wouldn¡¯t be the disappointment who couldn¡¯t take advantage of her immense power, she could just have fun dancing all day, maybe even make some real friends as well. But as she tried to get the words out tears came instead. ¡°I want to be a mage.¡± She whispered. ¡°But what am I supposed to do?¡±
Thera walked to her parent¡¯s room and opened the door. Her father never slept but liked to stay the night with her mom anyway, so when she went in he was awake to greet her. ¡°Everything okay sweetheart?¡± He asked with concern. ¡°Did you have a bad dream?¡± She shook her head and tried to be brave. She wasn¡¯t feeling confident about it but the voice was there to encourage her at least, and she walked up to the bed to shake her mom awake. After a few moments her mother cracked open her eyes. ¡°Thera honey? Are you okay?¡± ¡°Mhm.¡± She was hanging onto her cloak''s sleeves. She knew her voice was going to be unsteady when she spoke and hated it, but wanted to get the words out as fast as possible. ¡°Mom, I want to be a mage. I¡¯m sorry but I can¡¯t be a dancer. I need to do this for me.¡± She braced herself for whatever her mom would say, but she just scooped her up in a hug and brought her into bed. ¡°Alright, if that¡¯s what you think is best for you then that''s what you¡¯ll do. Now let''s get a bit more sleep, it¡¯s still too early.¡± She couldn¡¯t believe it. She had expected a fight, or at least for her mom to try and talk her out of it. That had been too easy. At the same time it lifted a weight from her though, as she was finally able to get to sleep. CH79 As Thera finally came to consciousness, night had just fallen. "Thank god you''re finally awake," Ben said, filled with relief. "If you didn''t get up soon I don''t know what I would have done." She was still groggy but now that she remembered where she was and what they were in the middle of she understood she''d just gone through part of the trial. "Thanks for being there for me." She said, giving his hands a squeeze and leaning back into his chest. It seemed like he was about to say something when she realised something was off and felt her face heat up. "But why are we sitting like this?" He was laying against a tree, with her against him, wrapped in his arms while he held her hands, and she had no idea what she was supposed to make of it if it wasn''t her god messing with her through another part of the trial. Ben answered with a level of casualness that made her believe it was just him being him. "Oh yeah, sorry about that. When you were laying down before it was a bit hard on my back to crouch down while connected to you and trying to listen to you mutter at the same time. I just rearranged things after it seemed like it might take a while so I wouldn¡¯t be hunched over you for hours." "Couldn''t you hear my thoughts while we were connected?" "Well yeah, but it seemed like you couldn''t hear mine. I had to actually speak to you so I wanted to be sure you could hear me. It cut out every attempt I made to ask you to wake up though." He really didn''t seem to think anything of it and she was too emotionally exhausted to make a big deal about it, instead choosing to stay there for a bit. It was at least a bit more comfortable than the forest floor. "So¡­ Want to talk about any of that?" He asked after some silence. "How much of it did you hear?" "Basically everything from when I called your aunt a bitch." Thera couldn''t help but laugh remembering it. Regressing to such a younger state had made it hard to enjoy the comment at the time, but looking at it now she couldn''t agree more. "Well, things didn''t exactly go the way they did in my dream. I did what I thought mom wanted after I heard the other great spirits talking and spent years as a dancer. I still practiced my magic in secret during the nights though and after another decade of trying I succeeded and got level one in the skill. Almost destroyed the house when I did it too, thankfully dad was there to keep it together. It was only after that and when I completed my dancer job did I decide I needed to finally listen to my heart and take apprentice mage. I guess now I can''t help but wonder what things would have been like if I had a friend back then, but oh well, I''m doing good now after all, and you better keep your promise to support me." "Of course," He told her in a voice filled with cheer. "And you better keep your promise to show me your dancing later." The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "What? When did I promise that?" "In your dream. You said you''d show me tomorrow, but I''ll let you off the hook until we finish the trial." "There''s no way that counts. I wasn''t in my right mind, you can''t hold me to that." "Ha but you seemed so happy when I complimented you on it, and I want to see how much better you''ve gotten since then." He teased. "Hmph, I''m not that much better. My heart really wasn''t in it after I gave up on being a mage so my leveling slowed down, I only got to four." "Cool, I can''t wait to see how much of a difference those levels make then." He told her, not giving in. "Has anyone ever told you you''re impossible?" "You and Falk all the time, Myriad too. Not sure why, I''m such a sweetheart and all." She laughed and they fell into a comfortable silence for a bit as she felt herself wanting to open up more. "They never ended up succeeding you know." "Hmm?" "The other great spirits. They never managed to have any children." "Oh yeah, I figured as much when you told me you were the only one before." "Yeah, I just can''t help but wonder what things would be like if they did, you know? Would they have been born like me, without any control of their power, or would they be everything they hoped for, leaving me as the only one that would have these struggles? Even if they didn''t work out none of them would be so dumb as to try it with a race that has a passive magic." "You know, there''s an expression from my homeworld I''m absolutely terrible at listening to but fond of nonetheless. Comparison is the thief of joy. I know it can be hard not to compare yourself to the people around you, god knows I shouldn''t be the one trying to give this advice, but at the very least don''t compare yourself to hypothetical people who don''t even exist." "Ha you''re right, you really need to be working on that yourself." "Yeah yeah I know, but that doesn''t mean I''m wrong." "No you''re absolutely right on that, it''s something I need to try a bit harder on anyway. Just make sure you do too." "I¡¯ll do my best at least. Anyway, this is nice and all but I''ve been awake for like an entire day now, mind if I get some sleep?" "Of course." She said, quickly moving off of him. "I''ll keep watch for the rest of the night. Thanks again Ben." He waved it off and laid down. The day had been mentally draining, trying to figure out how to get her to wake up when any pleas on the subject didn''t seem to make it through. He was just glad he was able to help. He sent a prayer up to Myriad and let himself drift off to sleep.
He rested until the sun rose before they were ready to continue on. Anticipating another long day of walking before they came across whatever they would need to get through next they marched on, eager to get it done and over with. Both of them were getting sick of everything they were having to face for the trial, and the sooner it was done the sooner they would be free, they just dreaded how long it would take. Their spirits changed though when they entered a clearing, and from far away thought they could spot a flower growing in front of a statue of a sleeping snake and six giant stone warriors around it. CH80 Ben immediately pulled Thera back into the woods before she could do anything. "What are you doing?" She asked as he tugged her away. "Look at that, we''re almost done." "Thera that is 100% what people on earth would call a boss battle. I''d bet money we''re going to have to fight those six statues and the giant snake. It seems so on the nose I''m surprised we aren''t getting background music right now." He could tell from far away that the statues were wrapped up in powerful enchantments, the same kind that filled the wall surrounding the trial. As much as he wanted to take a closer look and see how they compared to the ones on the outside, he also didn¡¯t want to die. Thera looked at him as he rambled on. "Okay, I understood about half of that. I can see why you think we''d need to fight the statues, but at the very least I don''t think we¡¯ll need to fight the one of Anailia, it wouldn¡¯t make sense for believers to have to fight their god.¡± ¡°Okay that tracks. Which one is Anailia then?¡± Ben hadn¡¯t gotten a physical description of Theras god, and from here he doubted he¡¯d be able to make out which was which anyway, at least until she told him what one it was. To him they all looked expressionless, their most noticeable aspects being how they were at least twice his height, and the giant swords they had on their backs. ¡°That''s easy, she¡¯s the one in the middle. Maybe the rest are meant to be her guards or something?¡± ¡°That would make sense I guess¡­ wait. The one in the middle?¡± ¡°Yeah that''s Anailia.¡± "You worship a giant snake?" "You worship a cube." "Touch¨¦. I just kind of figured she would resemble her race.¡± ¡°Why?¡± She asked him, and as he thought about it he realised he didn''t have a good answer. ¡°I guess I just assumed because most of the gods I can think of from my world had human forms or were at least portrayed as human.¡± ¡°Just how many gods does your world have?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a bit of a loaded question. Let¡¯s get back to it after we deal with this. What do you think we should do?¡± ¡±Well I don¡¯t exactly think we can just attack immediately. If they are just statues then I don¡¯t really want to desecrate the area when we¡¯re this close to being done. No offence but I''m not looking to get a level of sacrilege.¡± ¡°None taken, you''ve got a point. Maybe I''m just being a bit paranoid. Still, we should at least be at the ready. Worst to worst we can try and grab the flower then book it out of there. I¡¯ll take my wins however I can get them.¡± ¡°Works for me, I¡¯ll at least try and be ready to prepare a spell as fast as I can if you can help take some of the load off of my staff. Even with my earth magic level improving I don¡¯t want to risk being without one if we have to fight.¡± ¡°Sounds good to me.¡± He took her hand and connected to her while hanging onto her staff, ready at any moment to start strengthening it as needed and repairing the sacrificial enchantments on it. With the benefit of an extra mind in his head, he suspected he would be able to make them significantly easier and faster. With nothing else they could think to do without the risk of earning the god¡¯s wrath should they be wrong they started walking out. The clearing was large and they were far enough away that it would take a couple minutes to get there, but when they were about halfway all of the statues except Anailias turned their heads towards them. ¡°Creepy and not a good sign,¡± Ben muttered to Thera. ¡°They haven¡¯t moved yet though. They¡¯re just watching us.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just saying that if we had boss music playing in the background this would be the part where it starts singing in Latin or something.¡± ¡°I still have no idea what any of that means.¡± ¡°Just that I¡¯m feeling more and more like we¡¯re going to be attacked.¡± ¡°Only one other part of the trial had anything that tried to fight us. It might be fine.¡± ¡°Mm.¡± They ventured closer and each statue seemed to make a decision. As one, they all reached to their backs and pulled out their weapons before taking steps towards them. "Unless you think they''ll let us run away I''m pretty sure we have to start fighting now." Thera didn''t give an answer, instead she responded by pulling together a spell, ripping a spear of stone from the earth and launching it at the head of the closest one. It looked good and she was feeling confident, with her earth magic better than it had ever been and Ben to maintain her equipment she thought that taking out six statues would be simple, but in one smooth motion it took its sword and slashed the spear in half, neither of which made any contact with the statue itself. "Okay, that was the opposite of good." "Don''t need the commentary Ben," She told him while preparing something much, much bigger. With her level up in earth magic she was in top form, and with the growth Ben had gone through she was confident he would be able to keep up long enough to make it work. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. She pulled four earthen spears from the ground this time, each as long as she was tall, and threw them at the closest statue, altering their trajectory through the air as they went, trying to avoid the sword that wanted to deflect them and forcing as much speed into them as possible. It almost wasn''t good enough. With a level of dexterity he felt stone shouldn''t have, he watched the statue swipe away three of the four spears, only for the last one to take it out at the chest, leaving a large crater in it and knocking it to the ground. They felt a moment of joy. Only five more to go, though they were getting dangerously close. But then the sixth got up again. "Damn it," Ben muttered. "Maybe you need to aim for the head? Or worse, try and take out the limbs?" Thera renewed her concentration, pulling four more spears from the ground and took aim at the first statue again, aiming at its arms and a leg, with the last one going straight for its head. Two shots made it through this time, the first taking out the arm not wielding the sword, tearing it from the rest of its body, and the second destroying the head, seemingly not affecting the statue in any way as it still marched towards them. It didn''t look particularly fast. None of them did. But at that size the length of their strides alone gave them the speed they would need to catch them, they needed to spring away before they got within range of one of the swords. Ben didn''t doubt that a single strike had the power to kill them if it got through, something he very much wanted to avoid. "Think you can manage to hold my staff together if I go a bit bigger?" She asked him as the stone warriors marched closer with a speed that made their running seem pointless. "Don''t think we have a choice." He was managing pretty well at the moment at least, but he didn''t know how much of her magic he could compensate for without her using the spell. When she did though, things got rough. He didn''t know what she was attempting, but it was forcing a lot of mana through her staff, to an extent that that felt reminiscent of their battle in stonewall. The only problem was that the staff they were currently using was nowhere close to Falk''s quality. The only way it was staying together was if he put everything he had into applying sacrificial enchantments to it, directing his mana through the staff to strengthen any weakening areas with an almost surgical precision. The worst part was that despite all of his improvements since their battle with Roan, increasing his crafting level and focus, learning new tricks with enchanting, and somehow managing to get a whole other mind to work with, he could tell it wasn''t enough. At best he could slow down and manage the damage that occurred, he couldn''t stop it from happening. Still he held out, and after what felt like an eternity as he strained his mind and skills, Thera fired her spell. If Ben had to describe what he witnessed, he would compare it to three chainsaws rising from the earth under the feet of the closest three statues. There was no reacting to it, no stopping it. Just three sheets of earth tearing their way from the ground to extract untold damage to anything they came across. In mere seconds the number they had to face was cut in half, as each of the three was cleanly split in two and fell to the ground into unmoving piles. "I''m surprised you didn''t go for an earthwave," Ben got out between gasps of breath. Thanks to his own improvements he didn''t run out of his mana stores trying to keep her staff together, but he was sure he was closer than he''d like. He''d have to use at least a few minutes to recover before trying something like that again, or else risk passing out. Thera was able to grasp that through the connection and all but dragged him to run, putting as much distance as she could between them and the remaining three as they had to walk around their fallen comrades. "I didn''t want to risk doing an attack that might damage the flower when we''ve come this far, and they''re statues. It''s not like they''ll die so I didn''t want to take the chance of them digging themselves out." "Makes sense." He hadn''t even considered what would happen if they destroyed the flower, what a nightmare it would have been to get this far only to disqualify themselves. "What do you think we should do now? There''s no way your staff will be able to handle something that big again. I should be able to keep it functioning so long as you use something significantly smaller though." "Do you still have your charm bombs?" She asked, and Ben grimaced. He had designed them with a very particular use in mind, one that made perfect sense to him when he had expected this to be some sort of combat trial. With the way it had all gone though they''d never even had a chance. "All 15. If you''re going to tell me you have some use for them it might actually make my day." "As long as you''ve kept them powered I will." "Who do you think I am? Of course they''re powered." Since they were disposable by their nature he didn''t do anything as insane as use mythril in them, but he wanted to err on the side of caution and used some higher-end materials that would hold mana longer for the sake of the trial. Considering that he made sure to top them up each night while he was on watch to account for any ambient mana loss. Any that had faded away in the time they¡¯d been walking had been properly accounted for in his planning at least, they would still be in working order. He pulled one from his bag and handed it to Thera, who proceeded to throw it with far more accuracy than he could have managed under the foot of the closest statue, where it was immediately set off. When he first tried to create his charm bombs, he had a particular idea in mind. While charm magic would attract people, it seemed to have slightly different effects on animals, at least depending on the species. Much like how the alseer ran to attack her the moment it was ensnared by her mana before, any creature that didn''t have an emotional capacity to be charmed in a romantic sense would have another sense stimulated. Hunger. The principle behind its design was that a creature, once feeling the effects of the magic, would bite down on it, activating the barrier magic within and causing a spherical barrier about a meter across to rapidly expand over the course of a second, and presumably doing heavy damage to the creature, if not killing it outright. As for anything that was capable of the level of sentience that would cause a more normal emotional response in a creature, well he just hoped it would respond to it by giving it a small love nibble. Of course, exploding a monster''s head was the ideal outcome, but he knew it wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, there were plenty of ways it could go wrong. Despite that, Thera showed that they could still have their uses in less than ideal situations when the statue placed its weight on it, activating the magic in it and throwing it off balance, causing it to fall to the ground. Rather than attack it while it was down and risk being taken down by the two statues that were still standing, she opted for a different option. Running towards the flower with all of her speed, and dragging Ben with her along the way. If she could get it she was confident she could book it out of the trial. Ben would probably want to die of exhaustion after but it would be better than sticking around to fight when her staff was so close to breaking, she knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to take out another three of them. Unfortunately, it seemed that was something the stone warriors were desperate to prevent at any cost. For the first time since the fight with them started they ran. At least the two of them that were standing, and blocked their way to the flower, with the closest of the two swinging its sword at deadly speeds. There was almost no time to react. Almost. As Ben saw death coming for him and Thera he managed to get his gauntlet up and activate the enchantment just in the last moment, but the force of the blow sent them both flying back and onto the ground. Ben tried to push himself up before the statues could come for them and had to hold back a scream of pain. The arm he had the brace on, which had already been sliced open by the previous fights'' claws, was now undeniably broken. Either his lack of mana prevented him from putting in enough power to reduce the force of the blow, or the statues were far more powerful than they looked. Either way it didn¡¯t matter, he felt like he was running on fumes and the stone warriors were looking at them on the ground and resumed their confident walk towards them. CH81 He looked around him, trying to take stock of the situation the best he could with the seconds he had. Thera had managed to pull herself to her feet at least, but with the third statue up and joining up with the other two he didn¡¯t know what he could do. He did however have an idea. More of a desperate gamble really. When the statue had flung them away they ended up right by one half of one of the bisected statues, and Ben could still see the enchantments within it. There wasn¡¯t much he could do with them, he didn¡¯t even understand what they did, but he could try to remove some of the ones that were present. With so many of them so densely packed together he might be able to selectively erase some to create a new result. He looked at Thera, hoping he would see something from her that would show she had a plan, any alternative to the ridiculous idea he had pulled together, but she seemed just as lost as he did. Not knowing what else to do he threw seven of the charm bombs around them to try and discourage the statues from carelessly walking to them and rushed over to the one on the ground, bringing Thera with him. It was going to be delicate work, and there wasn¡¯t any point in trying to preserve the items he had, so he also ripped off his barrier gauntlet, ignoring all the pain it caused him, and put it on Thera. ¡°I¡¯ll destroy the enchantment as soon as I use this.¡± She told him, but they didn¡¯t have any other choice. ¡°Unless you have any ideas we¡¯ll need to make it work. Okay I need one hand to work on the statue''s enchantments and another to try and work on sacrificial enchantments for the gauntlet, but how am I supposed to connect with you while my hands are full?¡± He muttered to himself before ripping down her hood and pressing his cheek against hers. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°I need to connect to you to see how I¡¯ll need to maintain the enchantment and gauntlet as a whole while also seeing if I can do anything with the broken statue. Not going to be surprised if my eyes start bleeding again so you''re in charge of watching our backs unless you have any other ideas?¡± ¡°In that case try and keep my staff together first, I¡¯ll see about raising a wall around us.¡± Any extra barrier was an idea he could get behind and a rough circle of stone rose around them just before the remaining statue got within reach. The earthen barrier would last for no more than a minute, but it was a minute he could spend entirely focused on trying to unravel the enchantments placed upon the statue. He tried to keep it out of his mind that the staff would be good for no more than a single earth bullet, and that was with him holding it together for her. He did his best to ignore the sound of the statues slashing the walls with their swords as he devoted himself to looking at the enchantments, trying to use every bit of wisdom he¡¯d gleaned from all the time he¡¯d spent staring at the wall that divided the trial from the rest of the city. His immediate concern was that when he destroyed a single weave of the enchantment the entire thing would unravel, falling apart and leaving him with nothing but stone, but the magic of a god was not so weak. Unfortunately, his problem was one on the opposite side of the spectrum. He could barely damage the enchantments. Since the act of removing it took mana he wasn¡¯t exactly in top form for it, but he doubted that even if he was fully stocked would he be able to alter anything in a meaningful way with the time he had. He could feel mana leaking from the sections where the enchantments had been successfully damaged when Thera ripped them in half, and desperately wished he could use it to refill his own reserve, but such a thing wasn¡¯t possible, at least not for him. He swore to himself that if he lived he would try to raise that particular attribute''s levels, the fact that whether he lived or died was coming down to the fact that he¡¯d pushed his non-magic skills so hard that he was almost out of mana for a second time since coming to this world was ridiculous. As he tried to sort something, anything out he heard the wall of stone circling them come down with a crash. Reaching back with his non-broken arm, he grabbed onto the gauntlet while still seeing if there was anything he could do with the remains of the statue, and resuming his connection to Thera to see how to implement his crafting and enchanting to it. With the abuse it felt like he was putting his brain through, it wasn¡¯t surprising he got the level up, but it didn¡¯t provide him with a new stream of consciousness. What it did was provide him with some mental wiggle room, just enough to notice a feeling he¡¯d experienced earlier in the trial, one that had come to him again now, the feeling of just how tangible his enchantments felt. It almost seemed like he could reach out and touch them, and on a whim he pushed his mind out to them, not just to guide them with his mana but with everything he had, including his connect. In that instance everything clicked together. The feeling of tangibility was fulfilled as his mind seemed to link with the very enchantment itself and he¡¯d found the potential that Myriad had been alluding to for his skills growth. With no time to spare and no elegance in his work he tried to take the barrier magic applied to the gauntlet and attach it to the statue, to the loose strands of its own enchantment where mana was leaking out of it, available to power it, and shaped it as he could. Whether they lived or died came down to this, and as he bound his enchantments to those of a god he felt his mana finally tap out, and with it his consciousness as the spell came together. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that mana exhaustion had led him to sleeping on the cold hard ground and the broken arm he was nursing, Ben probably would have felt pretty well-rested. The fact that he woke up at all went to show that his desperate plan had worked, and as he cracked open his eyes he could see a barrier made of magic covering both him and Thera, as well as a small amount of the surrounding area, coming from the statues'' remains. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that actually worked.¡± Thera had been staring outside the barrier, presumably to keep an eye on the remaining three statues standing just beyond it, watching them, but she turned to Ben when she heard him speak. ¡°Thank the gods you¡¯re awake, I was getting worried. Whatever you did kept us alive, they tried taking some swings at the barrier before but seem to have given up. Just wish they would leave.¡± ¡°Well the barrier will last till I take it down I think so we¡¯re safe for a while. We just need to figure out what to do from here.¡± ¡°First maybe you could explain how you did this? It looks like we have the time and I¡¯d personally like to know if you could do it again if need be.¡± Despite it all a grin stretched across his face. ¡°I finally figured out how my skill was growing. Myriad kept saying that how it developed would depend on both me and the world, and it looks like that caused it to grow in a way where I could connect to enchantments themselves.¡± If it weren¡¯t for the life and death situation he found himself in he¡¯d be salivating. If he could copy enchantments themselves then he was in a similar boat to when he figured out he could do it from people, but the convenience of it had just skyrocketed. He wouldn¡¯t need to do something as inconvenient as find people with the skills he would need each time he wanted to make something if he just commissioned enchanters to make him items that already had their skills on it. Sure he still couldn¡¯t use magic himself and he wouldn¡¯t be able to directly use the skills, instead having to make tools to use them through, but it felt like his greatest bottleneck had just been overcome. As he was lost in his thoughts Thera snapped him out of it, encouraging him to continue his explanation. ¡°Sorry, anyway I took a gamble and attached a few barriers to the broken enchantments in the statue to power them, and shaped them into a dome. If we hadn¡¯t had a power source we would have been screwed.¡± He told her with a laugh. ¡°I don¡¯t really see the humour in the situations, but at least we¡¯re safe for a while. What should we do now though?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve got a fair bit of food still and as long as our canteen doesn¡¯t break it will keep filling up so we could survive here for a while, though I want to get out of here sooner if possible. Not to be delicate about it but my arm really hurts.¡± Thera could tell just by looking at it he wasn¡¯t in great shape. At the very least she hadn¡¯t seen his bones bend like that in the time she¡¯d known him, she was fairly certain it wasn¡¯t supposed to. ¡°Broken?¡± ¡°Definitely.¡± She winced under her hood. She probably would be able to set it if they had some sticks and cloth available, but while she had the knowledge to deal with it, lacking supplies there wasn¡¯t much she could do. ¡°I¡¯ll manage,¡± He told her with all the confidence he could muster. ¡°Our main concern is how to get out of here. I doubt they¡¯re going to let us leave any time soon.¡± ¡°My staff has maybe a single earth bullet left in it even if you help with it, I don¡¯t know how we''re supposed to fight them.¡± Ben wasn¡¯t too confident himself. When he took stock of the situation they currently had his damaged cloak that happened to have water and fire spells attached to it, his barrier gauntlet, seven remaining charm bombs, a canteen enchanted with some water magic, a spacial bag, a few days worth of food, sleeping bags, and a staff on the verge of breaking. He thought there might be something he could manage if he could pull together an enchantment from the ones he had available to him, but he wasn¡¯t sure what, and he still lacked experience enchanting with actual magic instead of just his skills and resistances. How much blind experimenting would it take to pull something useful together? He just had his miracle discovery, he doubted he¡¯d get another one. As he looked around, trying to think of something, anything he could do, another option appeared to him though. There was one more thing he had available, the left half of the statue that was currently keeping them alive. He walked over to it, preparing to try and connect to the enchantments attached to it but hesitated. When he first got his skill Myriad had told him that trying to connect with a god would make his head explode. He wasn''t sure if his god was being literal at the time but didn¡¯t doubt he would die. The question was, would the enchantments of a god do the same thing? There was no mind attached to it for him to feel, but then maybe the amount of mana and complexity within it would be enough to cause some serious side effects. The first time he¡¯d connected to Thera as well he felt like he was going to be blown away by her raw mana. It had gotten easier to deal with as time went on but would the same hold true for something powered by a god''s magic? In the end it didn¡¯t matter, they were stuck there unless something changed and trying to access the enchantments placed on the statue might be a way out if he could figure any of them out. With a deep breath and a prayer to his god he reached out his good hand to the statue and tried to connect to it. A second passed and not a single thing happened. Ben wasn¡¯t dead, something he considered a pretty big plus, but he couldn¡¯t connect with the statue''s enchantments at all. He couldn¡¯t understand it. He could feel the enchantments on it the same way he could feel the ones on his brace, but it was like there wasn¡¯t anything to grab onto. Whatever made a god''s magic work, it was completely inaccessible to him. ¡°Well, there goes that idea.¡± He muttered to himself. Then what could he do? Maybe he could link a fire or water spell up to it but he wasn¡¯t sure how well that would work against the statues, and structuring the spell in a way that would be both viable and safe for them to be around would be a challenge of its own. At this distance he was pretty sure anything he did with fire magic would be more than enough to cook them to death if he made something that could destroy them. That didn¡¯t even touch on trying to do anything with the spacial magic enchantment on his bag, how did one even manipulate space? Did that affinity even have any spells that could act as physical attacks? When he thought about it there really was only one option he could think of, the option that had the most success so far. Earth magic, and letting Thera decide and fire the spell. He had read up on magic when he came to this world, his curiosity wouldn¡¯t let him ignore it, but he hadn¡¯t dug deep enough to have the proper understanding he would need to do anything great with it. Thera had been studying earth magic for years. Sure her control was lacking, but as long as he helped her with that it would be manageable, they just needed a staff for her to channel her mana through. He looked back to the statue and felt an idea. He didn¡¯t love it as an option, it was definitely going to mean at least a day or two of grueling work for him if it was even possible, but he would manage it. CH82 Thera sat to the side and watched Ben work. For a day and a half, only stopping to eat and forgoing sleep he had been fiddling with the arm of the statue, driving himself to the brink of mana exhaustion and only stopping long enough to recover it before going back to work. He had explained his idea to her when he had it, if he could remove the enchantments on the statue¡¯s arm he could apply his own, and Thera could attempt to use it as a makeshift staff. The issue was that the enchantments in no way wanted to come off the statue. He would deplete his mana reserves in the span of a minute or two, then have to wait for around ten for it to come back. She had offered to try doing it herself, well aware that one of the only things her magic was good for was stripping enchantments from magic tools despite how much she may not want the particular talent. It probably wouldn¡¯t even be that hard for her, but with her vast and uncontrolled power there was a concern that doing so might accidentally remove the enchants from the entire statue, which happened to be the only thing keeping them both alive at the moment. If that happened there would be no fixing it, the statues were right outside, waiting for them to get out and be destroyed. That meant they needed to use Ben''s more delicate touch, she just wished he would rest properly at least. ¡°I¡¯ll take a nap when all of the enchantments are off. I wonder if all divine enchantments are this stubborn or if your god¡¯s just a perfectionist?¡± Even after leveling up his enchantment he still struggled to remove them, the progress was painfully slow. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you do the same?¡± ¡°God yes, in a heartbeat.¡± He could only imagine some of the things he would be able to do if he could bind his enchantments to a material that powerfully. He could only sigh as he took in what knowledge he could. Unravelling the ones Anailia made had at least given him a chance to examine them in a way that merely looking couldn¡¯t match. That combined with the various improvements to his status during the trial would make doing the entire thing worth it in the end. Well mostly. He thought to himself, a bit of anger over seeing his brother like that slipping back into him. Not to mention that all of it would be meaningless if the growth and knowledge he gained was lost if he died there. He shook the thought from his head and put his focus on the task at hand. He would be completing this as efficiently as possible, and then getting out of there. Falk¡¯s forge was calling to him and he wouldn¡¯t let a few dumb statues get in the way.
¡°Damn it, this is a bit inconvenient.¡± He muttered as he worked, but in the close confines they were currently in Thera couldn''t help but hear him. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°A minor problem it looks like we¡¯ll have to work around. I can¡¯t break off the arm.¡± After far too many hours of work, he¡¯d managed to strip the enchantments from the statue''s arm and taken a well-deserved nap, but when he woke up another problem appeared. One he couldn¡¯t think of a solution for. His goal had been to turn the arm into a reasonable makeshift staff the best he could, which meant breaking it off from the rest of it for Thera to wield. Lacking any tools to make that happen he used a technique he was quite well-practiced at by this point, using the destructive properties of enchantment to weaken the material at the shoulder and break it off. The problem was that whatever sort of stone it was, it was capable of holding the magic of a god. Even if he considered the fact that there were some truly masterful techniques used to make it possible, almost all of which he could barely comprehend, that didn¡¯t change the fact that the material seemed purposely chosen to stand up to it. No matter how many enchantments he added to it the enchantments themselves would collapse under their own magical weight before the stone would experience any harm. Even trying to use his crafting to weaken the material or find any microfractures that could exist within it didn¡¯t yield any results. That left only one option. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to use it while it¡¯s still attached to the statue.¡± ¡°What? That¡¯s ridiculous, will that even work?¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t any inherent reason it couldn¡¯t, it¡¯s not like a staff actually has to be swung around when using magic, it¡¯s just a channel to direct mana. The bigger issue is that if we leave it attached with all of your mana, some of it might flow backwards into the statue itself. I¡¯m not sure if it would be enough to break the enchantments your god has on it, but it will definitely be able to destroy the barrier magic I attached to it.¡± ¡°So if I start a spell the barrier comes down?¡± Her voice was filled with worry. ¡°Ben if I try to do the same thing I did to the first three I need at least a minute and they¡¯re right out there, we won¡¯t have enough time.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do my best to deal with it, I¡¯m just going to have to do something we¡¯re absolutely never telling Falk about.¡± ¡°What?¡± She couldn¡¯t imagine Ben keeping something from her uncle for any reason, he was way too open about pretty much everything. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to enchant it in a way that will take some of the burden off you.¡± Falk had always been clear with him that he shouldn''t make items in a way that could affect the development of a person''s skills, but that was the only thing he could currently think of to bring down the time for a spell''s activation. She let out a breath, having expected much worse. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure in this case he¡¯ll understand you know.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°It eats at my pride! By doing this I¡¯m pretty much admitting that I can¡¯t make you something proper to use, it¡¯s so embarrassing.¡± ¡°You¡¯re my uncle''s student. When we get out of here, explain to him properly so he can guide you for next time.¡± She told him sternly, not able to believe they had to have this talk while her goddess¡¯s murder statues were standing outside. She doubted her uncle''s resistance to letting her use tools that would delay her ability to level up her skill would apply in a situation where she was about to die. ¡°Ah, I know you¡¯re right. I just wish I could think of a better way, I don¡¯t want to get used to doing this in emergencies.¡± He moped. ¡°Okay, come and give me a hand.¡± ¡°Hmm? What can I do?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to use your earth magic to essentially carve channels for your spell to run through on top of my usual layering of resistances.¡± Doing so would act as a guide for her mana, but even though the earth magic enchantment would come from Thera herself and would be low level, it would still ease the burden of her properly using her magic herself. Falk was incredibly against making tools that would do that, even for regular clients, and would reject any special orders that requested it. He would do his best to make tools that matched people''s needs without doing it in a way that would reduce their chance of leveling up themselves, and Ben was inclined to agree with the mentality. The fact that he needed to do it now made him feel like he wasn¡¯t just failing his teacher, but himself. Still, it would be better to do it and live than not and die. Given the fact that he wouldn¡¯t be forging the staff itself while adding enchantments to it, but instead taking a solid piece of stone and adding them on, he would need to take every advantage he could get. He used his usual technique of layering his resistances, now able to create a gradient of them with a maximum of 60. As he put them together he created a delicate weave of earth magic, creating channels to run along and through the resistance, guiding it so the mana would want to flow out of the end of the statue''s fingertips. At the base of the shoulder, the area he wanted to separate it from to keep the gods magic and his own hastily made barrier intact, he got to work trying to separate it magically since he couldn¡¯t do it physically. He loaded the shoulder with earth magic channels, but directed them each outward, hopefully causing any excess mana to escape out the sides of the arm without gaining any form. Finally, to every enchantment he could manage he attached as many sacrificial enchantments as would fit. If he had been able to make the staff himself, creating a tool specifically designed to hold the enchantments he was placing it might have been his greatest work, at least next to Myriad''s jacket. Unfortunately however all of his enchantments were not placed on a proper staff, and no matter how good the statue¡¯s material was it wouldn¡¯t make up for that fact. All he could do was hope it would hold together as Thera used her spell. ¡°I¡¯m worried.¡± She told him as he finished. ¡°Don¡¯t be, you¡¯ve got this.¡± ¡°Or I¡¯ll tear down the barrier before my spell¡¯s done and get us both killed.¡± ¡°Have some faith.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you sound like a proper priest.¡± ¡°I have faith in you.¡± He said, brushing off her joke. ¡°You¡¯ve got this.¡± She looked into his eyes and didn¡¯t doubt he meant it, but she didn¡¯t have that much confidence in herself. Unfortunately, the alternative seemed to be spending a couple of days waiting for their food to run out, so she stopped complaining and gathered her resolve. She picked up the statue''s arm while Ben helped carry it so he could continue to rebuild the enchantments as she prepared her spell, focused, and let the magic flow out of her. When she had been a child, trying desperately to get just a trickle of mana out of her to make her earth magic work, she never would have guessed that her next challenge would be holding it back. Once it started it wanted to come out in a torrent, a powerful, unending blast that she had to fight against with the entire strength of her will, and it was a battle she always lost. No matter how much her control had improved with each level up, she still couldn¡¯t hold herself back, not to a truly meaningful extent at least, and every time she was disappointed. It felt like she wasn¡¯t really growing and improving, even if she could see she was able to fire off more spells and construct them to be more complex, it was meaningless compared to what she wanted to achieve one day when she grew to a point where her power would truly be under her control. Through the connection he had made to her, she could feel Ben pushing every bit of himself to keep the statue''s arm together, and preserve the enchantments that were keeping the barrier up. She couldn¡¯t make him keep up that amount of strain for long and she tried to speed up shaping the spell in her mind. Collapsing and condensing the earth and dirt, creating three thin yet super dense discs. She cut teeth into the edges of each one with her mana, and finally put as much of her power as she could into giving them spin. She felt Ben¡¯s work begin to break faster than he could repair it and knew he made the choice to sacrifice the barrier by letting her mana flow back into it rather than risk disrupting her spell. There wasn¡¯t much risk for them though and he knew it, her spell was complete. The barrier separating them from the statues fell, and all three took a single step forward before the earth tore beneath them as blades of destruction flew up, cleanly slicing each of them in half, and they watched as the threat that had been looming over them crashed to the ground. As Thera watched them fall to the ground, their victory secured, she heard a notification go off in her head, and it set her heart aflutter. All of the work, all of the effort, it had just paid off for her in a big way. She excitedly turned to tell Ben, but by this point he was spent and was in the middle of collapsing to the ground, doing his best to make sure he broke his fall with his uninjured arm as he sighed in relief. ¡°I knew you could do it.¡± He told her with a smile. ¡°It was closer than I would have liked and you¡¯re almost mana exhausted.¡± Still, she couldn¡¯t hide the happiness in her voice. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, a wins a win.¡± He reached his hand out to her. ¡°Help me up, will you? I just needed to catch my breath, I¡¯m fine now so let''s get that flower.¡± She took his hand and pulled him to his feet, and together they walked up to Anailias statue. Thera bent her head and clasped her hands, giving a quick prayer, before bending down and grabbing the flower''s stem, plucking it from the earth. She took a moment to admire it. It was bigger than she thought it would be, its stem almost as long as her forearm and five large silver and black petals covered its head. Their sheen was beautiful, but not worth nearly dying over. She assumed the main reward of the trial would come once they exited, and she wasn¡¯t keen on the prospect of walking back. It was unpleasant enough getting there, and even if they wouldn¡¯t have to deal with the trials again, a prospect she wasn¡¯t willing to bet her life on, it would still be multiple days to get out. As she worried about that and turned to leave Ben grabbed her and started to pull with all of the force he could muster. She didn¡¯t know what he was doing until she looked up, and saw the statue of Anailia start to stir. CH83 Even as he pulled her away he knew he was spent. A broken arm with gashes running through it, over a day of bringing himself to the point of mana exhaustion again and again, and trying his hardest to keep the staff whole long enough for Thera to get off her spell, he had nothing left to give. He wouldn¡¯t be able to get back to the statue he¡¯d enchanted before the one of Anailia got to them, and even if they could he didn¡¯t have enough energy to keep Thera¡¯s magic from destroying the remaining enchantment. There was only one thing he could do. ¡°Run Thera! I have an idea but you have to get out of here now!¡± It was a lie of course, there was nothing he could still do after everything else. He¡¯d done his best and come up close but still fallen short in the end. At the very least he could buy Thera time to escape if she believed him. She had the flower so her mother shouldn¡¯t have any issue with her continuing on trying to be a mage, and with a level up in her magic to go along with it she would be fine. Myriad might be sad, at least Ben thought his god better be sad, but he had a few other believers now, he was sure at least one of them would make a better apostle than he had. Maybe Sachel. Even if she doesn¡¯t know it she is the second believer he got since coming to the world, and it seems like she¡¯ll be able to be a lot more pious than I ever could. Still, he wasn¡¯t completely giving up without a fight and quickly bent down, picking up a couple of fist-sized stones. He¡¯d at least distract it so Thera could get away. He reared back and in an almost instinctual way felt like he knew where he needed to aim, launching it, and to his shock seeing a couple small flakes of powder falling down from the statue. He didn¡¯t have time to question it though, Thera was on him immediately. ¡°Ben what are you doing! Can¡¯t you feel that!¡± She hadn¡¯t run and now was screaming at him while he tried to protect her, was she under a mind effect or was something else at play? The question was answered by the statue itself. ¡°Any divinity you would feel leaking from my avatar is likely being blocked by your tolerance, but there''s no need for that child of Myriad. I am Anailia, here to congratulate you and let you know the trial is complete.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Thera could see he understood and let him go, preparing to prostrate herself before her god when she heard another thunk as stone hit stone. ¡°BEN!¡± Thera screamed. ¡°Just expressing my displeasure, I¡¯ll be good.¡± He told her, not sounding at all guilty for attacking a god. Anailia for her part let out a chuckle as a few more grains of stone flaked from her form. ¡°I must say, for my first time interacting with a sacrilege holder, this is a surprising experience. To think the skill would let you know exactly where to hit to cause damage to my avatar, no matter how minor it may be. I suppose I should consider myself lucky you weren¡¯t left with any real weapons.¡± She stopped for a moment, tilting her head as if listening to someone else before her stone, reptilian mouth stretched out into a smile. ¡°Myriad is begging you to be on your best behaviour for once.¡± ¡°Sorry Myriad,¡± He said aloud, but his mind was elsewhere. Is that really part of the sacrilege skill? Oh man, that makes it so much cooler. The temptation to level it up had just significantly grown in him, but he did his best to suppress it. As cool as that sort of skill might be for some sort of hero, going against evil gods and fighting for the freedom of common people everywhere, he was no hero, and the gods of this world weren¡¯t evil, even if he wasn¡¯t fond of all the choices they seemed to make. ¡°Rise daughter of Abrus, there is no need for such deference.¡± Ben hadn¡¯t even noticed that Thera had gotten on the ground to bow in respect, but she pulled herself up at her god¡¯s request. ¡°You have both shown you¡¯re capable of exhibiting the values Tolona and I envisioned when making this trial, and as such get to reap the rewards such an achievement could provide.¡± ¡°Hm? We get rewards for this?¡± Ben asked innocently, but both Thera and Anailia turned to him, Thera with a face full of shock, and Anailia not managing to contain her own surprise. ¡°You didn¡¯t know there was any reward for it and still chose to risk your own life anyway?¡± The god questioned him, bringing her large reptilian face close to his own. Ben did his best not to step back. ¡°I mean I guess I remember Myriad saying something about it offhand, but I didn¡¯t give it much mind at the time. I was mostly under the impression that the reward was that Thera could keep doing her magic with her family''s support. I wasn¡¯t really expecting anything else.¡± ¡°I guess it was a little weird you didn¡¯t try asking about them at all, but who doesn¡¯t know you get rewarded for completing a god¡¯s trial? That''s pretty much the main point of a trial.¡± Thera asked him, still shocked he¡¯d done all of that without realising he¡¯d get anything more out of it than helping her. He only shrugged. ¡°If nobody at the church thought it was important enough to teach me I didn¡¯t learn it. Can¡¯t say I blame them, what sort of craftsman does this?¡± ¡°There are in fact trials created by crafting gods as well, but that''s neither here nor there,¡± She told him, wearing a far gentler smile than she did before. ¡°To go through unknown danger, not because you want to be rewarded, but because you must in order to help the one you care for exemplifies what my late husband and I wished to see. By doing the trial, even without worshipping me specifically, significantly more faith is generated than through typical prayers for a god. This lets us give you two gifts even if you don¡¯t worship me. A skill, and my blessing.¡± Thera couldn¡¯t speak. She knew that was the standard reward for most trials, but she still never expected to receive something like it. Not only that, but to be in the presence of her god left her shaken, she couldn¡¯t react. Ben though needed information. As great as it all sounded he thought there might be a problem. ¡°Um, that sounds great and all, but I¡¯m Myriad''s apostle. Am I actually allowed another god''s blessing?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Anailia told him, not understanding the issue. ¡°A blessing aids the one to gain it in the growth of all things and can open the door to options that may otherwise not exist. What god wouldn¡¯t want their believers to have access to that, most of all an apostle, the one who is most important to their faith in the mortal world?¡± God, I really should try and be a decent apostle sometimes. He thought to himself after hearing all of that. ¡°In that case I¡¯ll gratefully accept.¡± Something about her demeanor eased some of the anger he had grown as the trial went on. He believed he understood the points of most of what they went through, even though he harbored a serious resentment to some of it. That line of thought did lead him to one more question though. ¡°Okay, I get the importance of challenging us to see if we could meet your ideals or whatever the point of all this was, but whose bright idea was it to give me that title?¡± The issue stopped being as big to him in comparison to having to see his brother in the state he did, but he at least understood it was part of the trial. The title was just an insult to injury. At his question, Anailias avatar noticeably grimaced. ¡°For that, I must apologise,¡± She told him, bowing her head. ¡°I promise there was no negative intent behind it, but some of the gods that were watching simply asked a question about you after seeing some of your choices, and it was enough for the system to notice and solidify it in a title.¡± ¡°What question?¡± ¡°How is he the forgotten one? They were impressed with your attempt to make use of your duplicates, as well as take the time to train with them even, but the moment the words left enough lips the title was granted. If it helps, for a god to interfere with someone taking another god''s trial, and in such a way that could harm them, is a gross violation of the rules. Providing a title that may upset the participant to a great enough extent falls within mental harm. Myriad has been compensated for their thoughtless acts, and when you are out of here he will pass on reparations to you. Now unless there''s anything else, shall I distribute the rewards?¡± Ben gave a nod, a little shocked to hear that there were actual consequences for the gods who gave him the title, but at least was happy to hear it didn¡¯t come from a more negative place. There were worse things than learning some gods were intrigued enough by him to question why he¡¯d been forgotten by the mortals they ruled over. Anailia bent her head down to Thera and placed a kiss on her brow. Rather than be excited though, Theras mood raised for a second before coming crashing down. ¡°Ah, oh.¡± Her spirits only seemed to lift for a moment before they came crashing down. ¡°I am sorry child, you must have been far closer than I had suspected for one who never attempts to use it.¡± Anailia shook her head sadly. ¡°Wait what happened?¡± He asked, walking to Thera¡¯s side and taking her hand. She didn¡¯t speak at that moment, but Anailia did for her. ¡°It seems that she was close enough to raising her charm that the application of my blessing pushed the skill over to the next level.¡± ¡°What? Didn¡¯t you just tell me that gods aren¡¯t supposed to do things that would cause mental harm? What the hell is that then?¡± The power of charm would increase with her level up, which meant the brace he¡¯d made would be less effective. It still wasn¡¯t at the point where she could go out wearing it alone, but the fact that the potential for that pushed it back even farther infuriated him. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Anailia just shook her head. ¡°Unfortunately it seems it was going to happen on its own soon enough. I would guess the span would be in terms of months or weeks. That much power simply wants to grow, whether used with intent or not.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine Ben,¡± She spoke in a voice that showed just how not fine she was. ¡°I¡¯ve always known that a succubi¡¯s charm might raise on its own even without being trained at all, I just thought that if it was going to happen to me it would have happened by now.¡± He could hear the misery in her voice no matter how much she wanted to suppress it and he ground his teeth. Making a decision he pulled her so she was facing him and pulled back her hood to look in her eyes. ¡°Ben, what are you doing? Especially now I can¡¯t-¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± He cut her off, trying not to let the small tears he saw forming in the corners of her eyes get to him. ¡°Thera I promise you, no matter how long it takes I will figure out a way to suppress your magic. Please be patient and believe in me, I won¡¯t let you down.¡± Faced with his sincerity she couldn¡¯t help it, a small smile escaped her and she wiped her eyes. She did believe in him after all. ¡°Okay, I know you will.¡± ¡°Wonderful, just wonderful,¡± Anailia said, wiping her own eyes with her tail and killing the moment. ¡°That''s exactly the sort of sincerity I want to see from one who¡¯s completed my trial. Hopefully this will be able to help you achieve your goal.¡± She bent down towards him, and the same as she did for Thera placed a kiss on his brow. Not only did the notifications go off in his head, but he felt his arm straighten and the pain in it disappear. His injury was healed, and he wanted to thank her for fixing it on top of the gifts she¡¯d given him, but he was distracted. Something seemed wrong, and to be on the safe side he checked his card. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have a level?¡± He asked aloud after getting confirmation that he had heard the announcement right. ¡°Indeed, though rare, it¡¯s within the same class of skills as world speak+. It¡¯s already in its maximum form, with no further growth intended. There have been cases where such a skill has been able to evolve to a higher form, but that¡¯s usually as a result of meeting the conditions to merge with a more standard skill to create something more than the sum of its parts.¡± ¡°Okay cool, you have me interested, but what does it do?¡± The name didn¡¯t give much away and it was a passive skill, he couldn¡¯t imagine how to passively bind something. ¡°Ah, as for that it¡¯s quite simple, The skill merely joins your souls to a small extent.¡± ¡°Um, what?¡± That sounded pretty big to Ben, even Thera seemed concerned and whipped her head to look directly at her god. Unperturbed, Anailia continued on with her explanation. ¡°It is a small thing, but the skill will always let you find each other, no matter where in the world you are or how far apart you might be. Of course, I understand that people can wish for privacy at times, despite it being categorized as a passive skill it is in fact possible to disable it if you so wish.¡± While he wasn¡¯t initially aware of its effects as a result of Thera being right beside him, it became more obvious when he felt her turn the skill off and on a few times, hesitating before deciding to leave it on. He left his on as well, he didn¡¯t particularly mind her being able to find him if she needed him, and it seemed like it could be handy for while they were hunting in the event they found themselves separated. ¡°Alright, thank you Anailia, I¡¯ll be sure to use it well.¡± He told the goddess before him, giving her a small bow. ¡°I¡¯m sure you will, child of Myriad. Now, daughter of¡­ No, Thera,¡± She stopped herself, making sure to properly address Thera by name. ¡°While I can¡¯t suppress your charm at all, I can offer you a piece of knowledge you might find helpful, as well as an extra motivation to achieve it.¡± She looked up at her god and kept a respectful tone. ¡°I¡¯ll happily listen to whatever wisdom you¡¯d offer me.¡± ¡°Excellent. The issue you have with your earth magic is admittedly quite rare. For one to have so much mana without any of the control it needs to utilize properly is something I¡¯ve witnessed but a handful of times in this world or my last, but there is something that can help with it.¡± ¡°Really!¡± Her eyes began to shine with genuine excitement at the very prospect. ¡°Indeed, in fact your charm level increasing will contribute to it. Any improvement to one magic increases your overall ability to improve and control other magics. In the cases of most mortals the effects would be minor, essentially unnoticeable, but for one with the struggles you have every little bit should improve it and the effect will be much greater.¡± Thera deflated. ¡°Are you saying I should improve my charm to help improve my earth magic?¡± Much to her surprise though her god disagreed. ¡°No, I¡¯m aware the skill is more a curse to you than a gift, however there are many other magics in the world. The benefits you have to being born between a spirit and a mortal means you¡¯ll have access to significantly greater power without being confined to a single element. For example, your succubus heritage should give you an impressive compatibility with dark magic as a whole, not just charm. Perhaps take advantage of the great spirit staying in your family home in the meantime to see what you can learn. Once you start getting more control over your magic, the speed you¡¯re able to raise its level and that of any other magic you learn should only become faster and faster as you practice thanks to the quantity of mana you possess.¡± Thera realised she hadn¡¯t taken a single breath as her god spoke and she¡¯d unconsciously clenched her fists in excitement. She could do it. She could become a proper mage. It wasn¡¯t clear on how much learning new magics would let her improve her skills as a whole, but if it was something her god suggested then she would do it. As it felt like her heart would beat out her chest and her blood pounded through her from her excitement she bowed deeply. ¡°Thank you for the advice, I¡¯ll begin as soon as I¡¯m out of the trial.¡± ¡°Excellent,¡± Anailia said with a smile. ¡°And as for the motivation I mentioned, I offer you this quest. Thera Oress, gain four levels of magic. Should you succeed in this, I will reward you by raising any skill below the fifth level by one.¡± Thera didn¡¯t know what to say. A quest from her god, and one seemingly with no purpose beyond helping her own growth. It was more than she could ever have imagined when she first agreed to take the trial. Ben for his part seemed just as happy as she was, a smile covering his face even as he joked. ¡°So that¡¯s the sort of quest and reward a powerful god can offer huh? Maybe I should convert?¡± Anailia only chucked. ¡°As you succeed in growing Myriad¡¯s faith among mortals you¡¯ll eventually get the chance for quests and rewards such as this, I wouldn¡¯t be quite so quick to abandon your god.¡± ¡°Just a joke, I¡¯ve tied my lot to Myriad, I won¡¯t just abandon him.¡± ¡°Good. Thera, I expect great things from you, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll make me proud. You won¡¯t have to worry about encountering any of the trials as you leave and you¡¯ll find it much quicker to get out. I can¡¯t completely erase the spacial magic that expands this place, but it will weaken for you at least. I hope we may get the chance to speak again.¡± With that her statue laid back down to the ground and the emotion left its face. They were dismissed, and finally free to go.
¡°So what was your plan anyway?¡± Thera asked as they started walking back. ¡°Hm? What do you mean?¡± She had been silent when they left Anailia, and Ben had assumed she was thinking about how she would complete her quest, but it seemed Thera had something else in mind first. ¡°You said you had a plan to take on Anailia¡¯s avatar, I¡¯m just wondering what you were going to do.¡± ¡°Oh, that.¡± He said awkwardly, unsure how honest he should be about it before deciding he didn¡¯t like lying to people he cared for. ¡°The plan was kind of just making sure you escaped.¡± She stopped in her tracks the moment the words left his mouth. ¡°What.¡± It wasn¡¯t a question she was asking, but a statement, and one filled with anger. He knew he was in trouble with her and rushed to explain. ¡°I was spent and we had no way to attack the thing, I figured I was pretty much guaranteed to die anyway so you might as well try and escape while I held it off as long as I could¡­¡± He saw the anger building in her eyes with every world and ended up trailing off, not knowing what would be safe to say. She took two steps towards him and he was sure she was going to take a swing at him, but instead pulled him in a tight embrace. ¡°Please don¡¯t ever try and get yourself killed for me.¡± Her grip on him was tight and he didn¡¯t know what to do, nor if that was a promise he could keep. ¡°Thera I can¡¯t just do nothing if I think I can help you. There¡¯d be no point in both of us dying like that.¡± She pulled herself away and grabbed his face, bringing it close to her own so she could stare him directly in the eyes. ¡°Do you think I¡¯d be able to keep being a mage if my selfishness got you killed? We¡¯re a team, aren¡¯t we? If we need to figure something out we¡¯ll do it together, or if we run we¡¯ll run together. Please don¡¯t ask me to leave you to die.¡± As she spoke the anger left her voice, replaced by a far deeper sadness, reminding Ben of the lonely little girl he saw during her trial. He grabbed the hands that clasped his cheeks and looked back at her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. You¡¯re right, we¡¯re a team, I won¡¯t go dying on you anytime soon.¡± She took a step back and pulled up her hood, looking away from him. ¡°You better not. Honestly, what is it about life and death situations that has you throwing yourself into danger like that? Save that sort of thing for people with the skills to handle it.¡± ¡°Ha well, people on Earth tend to think that when facing danger we¡¯re inclined to either fleeing or fighting. Not sure how true that actually is but I guess I¡¯m the latter.¡± ¡°Well, start choosing to flee. Seriously¡­¡± She put her head in her hand, finding it difficult to deal with her emotions. Her anger wasn¡¯t at him, not truly. She just couldn¡¯t stand the thought of making that choice, and that she was weak enough without a staff that he felt like he had to make it. Without connecting with her, he couldn¡¯t be sure about the extent of her emotions, but he got the impression she had calmed down at least and resolved to try and make it up to her later. He really didn¡¯t want her mad at him for long. He was going to try and talk her into continuing on back when something caught his eye behind him. The figure of a small grey, staring at him for a moment before running back through the trees. It only took Ben a moment to grab Thera¡¯s hand and start running after it, his mind flying through possibilities. ¡°What, Ben? What¡¯s wrong? The exit¡¯s the other way!¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure there¡¯s an emergency this way, If I¡¯m wrong we¡¯ll just head back.¡± He already knew there was some spacial effect on the trial, and he was all but certain one of them was meant to keep participants from meeting up. If not, why even keep them from going through the same section, and why not have more people go at once to take on the final challenge together. But if that really was the case, why had he seen him, and why didn¡¯t he say anything? A possibility ran through his mind and he couldn¡¯t leave it be. He pushed himself to run as fast as he could, needing to know if his hunch was correct. It took longer than he expected, and he was only able to catch glimpses of the small alien as he went, but eventually they arrived at the location he was seemingly being led to. On the ground before him was Karly, trapped in a deep slumber, with glob nowhere around. Ben had a sickening feeling in his stomach as he figured out what must have happened, what was happening still, as he and Thera rushed to her. He gave her a quick check over. Alive but definitely asleep, seemingly for at least a couple days as she was trapped in the fifth section of the trial. He picked her up and pulled her onto his back. ¡°We have to get her out of here soon. Hopefully she¡¯ll wake up when we exit but even if she doesn¡¯t there will be healers around to keep her alive while we figure something out.¡± ¡°But what about Glob?¡± She asked. ¡°He must be somewhere nearby.¡± Out of Theras sight, just behind her as she looked at Ben, the small grey emerged again, gesturing with a thin arm to follow along. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure we¡¯ll find him soon.¡± CH84 Karlys perspective This fucking sucks. She thought to herself as she curled up in her bed, having just finished her lessons with a creature named Funa, the great dark spirit. It had actually gone pretty well, and learning to use her magic had been a welcome distraction, but now here she was, alone with her thoughts again. Who¡¯s incredible idea was it to split us all up after the second day? How am I supposed to deal with all of this by myself? The queen and her husband had been genuinely kind, letting her make a home with them and providing some stability to her life, and her teacher was more than accommodating, but when the day was done and she was left to her own thoughts she couldn¡¯t help spiral. How was she supposed to help fight some world-threatening invaders? She had been planning her move for university only a couple weeks before, all prepared to finish high school and start her new life, enjoying a final trip with everyone she spent the last four years with, and now here she was. Dead. A part of her would wonder if this was all a dream, while another questioned if it was hell. Sure it seemed kind enough for now, but maybe it was all leading up to whatever monsters would be coming to destroy everything, and taking her false sense of security with them when they did. No one seemed to know what the invaders did to anyone that didn¡¯t escape their world, but given the savagery she¡¯d heard from different accounts as she was being taught it was undoubtedly bad. Even if all of this was real, wasn¡¯t the thought of being brought back to life specifically to go off and die again just too cruel? What sort of gods thought this was a good idea, and where did they get off deciding this on their own without even asking any of them first? A small part of her knew that even if they did ask she would have chosen to go, it was better than being dead after all, but being given the illusion of choice could have made all the difference to her. ¡°What? Who said that? Who¡¯s there?¡± She pulled her head from her bed and looked around, trying to find the speaker. The voice said with a sigh. ¡°Wait, are you in my head? Is this Glob? If it is stay out of my brain you slimy little jerk or I¡¯ll beat the crap out of you!¡± The only skill she knew her fellow otherworlder had was barrier magic, but it was undoubtable he had one or two more. The thought seemed to cut off, and for a few moments Karly was left in silence. She was still suspicious, not willing to give the mystery voice in her head any trust. ¡°In that case who are you then?¡± It cut off again, longer this time, and when it came back seemed filled with annoyance. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°You expect me to believe you¡¯re my fairy godmother? And who else are you talking to? Is someone else there?¡± It said, not convincingly, but more like it had come to resign itself to the role. She couldn¡¯t exactly deny that, given everything else she¡¯d learned in her time there so far, with things only continuing to get weirder. ¡°Fine, whatever. Who else are you talking to then?¡± Did it look into my memories to make that comparison? The world didn¡¯t have anything as convenient as phones or computers in it. To keep in touch with friends she¡¯d needed to start sending off letters, and even though hers were given priority treatment she still hadn¡¯t gotten to hear back from anyone yet. ¡°No offense, but I don¡¯t want some random creep in my head.¡± Karly wouldn¡¯t bite, opting to ignore the voice and sit in silence instead. ¡°You don¡¯t score any points for being able to see the obvious.¡± ¡°How the hell am I supposed to do that?¡± She all but yelled. ¡°I¡¯m dead! And I¡¯m stuck in this world just waiting to die again! How am I supposed to make things better?¡± The voice grew softer after her outburst, kinder. ¡°I swear if you¡¯re telling me to befriend Glob-¡± ¡°Oh my god are you really suggesting a playdate?¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll think about it. At the very least I like the idea of traveling a bit to see some of the friends I already have.¡± Karly did feel a bit better. Talking about her problems and working on a plan to try and make things better was nicer than spending the night sulking anyway. ¡°What? Spaghetti I guess. Why?¡± With what felt like an ominous goodbye, the voice was gone. CH85 Theras Perspective She pushed open the gates and got her first view of her home city in a week. It would be an emotional moment if Ben hadn¡¯t left the other two challengers by her side while he did his own thing. The two were still unconscious, with Glob looking beaten half to death. The two succubi who stood guard at the gates looked at them in surprise, quickly running off to get help, while unexpectedly her mother was there, waiting to greet her. ¡°How did you know I would be out?¡± Thera asked her, surprised to get to see her mother so soon. ¡°I asked Anailias apostle if it would be possible to inform me when you were coming out, and thankfully our god is agreeable. It would have been nice to get some warning about the other two though.¡± Pelenia bent down and placed a hand on both Karly and Glob, activating her life magic to do what she could while they waited for help to arrive. Much like Sonya, she had an affinity for the magic but hadn¡¯t taken the time to raise its level beyond what she had expected to need in the past, unlike her sister who decided to use it in her career. ¡°Ben¡¯s pretty sure they decided to fight each other when their duplicates showed up, Glob got his butt kicked and then there was nobody to try and wake Karly up when Glob¡¯s copy disappeared.¡± ¡°A reasonable conclusion, and what about Ben?¡± The queen broached. ¡°I was informed you both successfully made it through, but he doesn¡¯t seem to be around.¡± Pelenia also wanted to ask how they even managed to come across Glob and Karly. The trial was set up in a way that any groups should always be guided away from one another, the fact they had met at all shouldn''t have occurred. It wasn¡¯t immediately important though and Pelenia could get the details later, the covenant between god and trial taker not preventing any two who had already taken the trial from discussing it. As for Ben, Thera was more exasperated than anything. ¡°He said he wanted to take the chance to look at the enchantments placed on the inside of the wall while he could so he¡¯ll be out in a day when he¡¯s gotten everything he can out of them.¡± The queen couldn¡¯t help it, in all of her years she¡¯d never heard of a trial taker doing such a thing and she burst into laughter. ¡°You really have found yourself an interesting friend.¡± ¡°He¡¯s a character. Anyway mother, I completed the trial and even leveled up my earth magic and completed the apprentice mage job. I assume you have no issue with supporting me while I continue to try and improve my magic?¡± ¡°Nope, you passed with flying colours.¡± ¡°So what was even the point of all this?¡± After being stuck in her dream, remembering her childhood, Thera was left thinking about her mom. She was a pain. She was always doing something annoying when she wanted to have her fun, and could be overly serious about various things, and would try and get people to make the choices she thought was right, but even for that last one, getting Thera to take a trial seemed pretty extreme. Surprising her though, her mother gave her what seemed to be an honest answer. ¡°Well my main goal was for you to get the mid-trial reward, I put your odds at having to escape after that at around 50/50, but if you want to insist on continuing to be a mage I wanted you to have whatever little advantage you could.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Pelenia just smiled. ¡°Anailias trial is kind. Even if you don¡¯t complete it, if you get past your duplicates without killing them you¡¯ll get a boost. A strengthening of your soul or something like that, either way it has the potential to bring up some of your skill levels or bring you closer to leveling them up in the future. I thought if you at least got that you¡¯d be able to come closer to your dream.¡± This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Okay, but then why not just tell me? I want you to know I did almost die a few times there.¡± ¡°And yet you¡¯ve come back much stronger, and with a blessing to boot. Anyway, I couldn¡¯t tell you due to the covenant, and I wasn¡¯t sure you¡¯d actually do it if I just asked you to. Bullying you a little seemed like the best choice; and besides,¡± She started, losing her more serious tone and taking on a smug smile. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it a good opportunity to get closer to your friend?¡± Thera looked to her mother silently for a moment, before sighing and turning away. ¡°I¡¯m going to change my job, I¡¯ll see you later at home.¡± ¡°Hey now, I¡¯m just having my fun. If you¡¯re going to go, why not leave the flower then and I¡¯ll have it placed in your room once someone comes to look after these two for me?¡± Still not able to handle her mother, Thera handed off the flower and started walking off to one of the city''s job change rooms.
She elected to go to the main church of Anailia to do it. The walk was a bit far compared to just going to the craftsman guild or the merchants guild, but given all of the benefits she had just received from her god, including advice on how to finally improve her magic after so many years, it just felt right to go to a place she could give thanks again as she did it. Walking up to the crystal, she placed her hands on it, and let the options fill her mind. AVAILABLE JOBS
  • Queen of mana
  • Musician
  • Professional Dancer
  • Bard
  • Earth mage
  • Darkness mage -charm specialized
As always the queen of mana job tempted her on name alone, but from looking into it, it seemed it wouldn¡¯t actually improve her magic, instead sharply raising the speed she could improve her mana attribute and recovery, which was definitely one of the last things she wanted. She already had enough trouble controlling her mana, she didn¡¯t want to raise its quantity even higher without mastering her magic control. While she had some small interest in the more musically inclined jobs, she knew she wouldn¡¯t be taking them again unless she somehow found herself with no other magic option aside from the darkness one. As far as she was concerned, charm was never being advanced, at least not willingly. If it had taken twenty years of her life for it to go up one level on its own then she should have plenty more time before it would again. Really there was only one job there she would take and without hesitation selected it. Name: Thera Oress Race: Succubus/Spirit Hybrid Titles: Spirit Child Jobs: Earth mage (lv0) Previous Jobs: Beginner Dancer, Dancer, Apprentice mage Attributes:
  • Vitality: 1001
  • Vitality recovery rate: 10/hr
  • Mana: 255,624
  • Mana recovery rate: 30/min
  • Strength: 101
  • Agility: 314
  • Stamina: 254
  • Intelligence: 228
Affinities:
  • Light: 4
  • Life: 22
  • Fire: 11
  • Water: 14
  • Air: 12
  • Earth: 103
  • Death: 3
  • Dark: 43
  • Space: 2
  • Time: 1
Resistances:
  • Light: 5
  • Life: 9
  • Fire: 11
  • Water: 16
  • Air: 12
  • Earth: 35
  • Death: 13
  • Dark: 42
  • Space: 7
  • Time: 8
Blessed skills:
  • Earth magic lv3
  • Charm magic lv1
Passive skills:
  • World speak+
  • Coordination lv3
  • Medical knowledge lv0
  • Bind
Active skills:
  • Calculate lv1
  • Dance lv4
  • String instrument lv3
  • Woodwind instrument lv2
  • Cleaning lv1
  • Staff user lv0
  • Meditation lv2
  • Speed reading lv2
Blessings
  • Anailias Blessing
Trials
  • Trial of Anailia and Tolona
Thera looked at her status and couldn¡¯t help but smile. Things were looking up. CH86 Theras Perspective ¡°Mom, I''ve been out for a day. Why did you plan this so soon? Hell, how did you plan this so soon?¡± ¡°As soon as I was told you completed it I had arrangements made immediately. Never underestimate what money and power can accomplish.¡± Thera wanted to crawl in a hole and die. When she woke up in the morning she had been informed that in a ridiculously quick fashion her mother had arranged a ball to celebrate her completion of the trial, apparently wasting disgusting amounts of wealth and likely abusing her political influence to get it set up for the next day. She couldn¡¯t help but groan. She always hated these social events and it sounded like she¡¯d be stuck in this one for the rest of the day. She hadn¡¯t even been able to see Ben yet and tell him the good news about becoming an earth mage. Still it was just one day, and it looked like it would make her mother happy. ¡°Fine, let me grab my cloak and I¡¯ll be right down there.¡± ¡°No need for that, our enchanter has produced well over a hundred resistance amulets at his current level for our use, and with your brace we should be fine.¡± ¡°My charm increased in the trial.¡± She muttered, not looking at her mother. It was still something she wanted to avoid thinking about and she hated admitting it. Penelia put a caring hand on her daughter''s cheek. ¡°It¡¯s only a five percent increase love, that¡¯s not much at all.¡± ¡°Enough that a resistance amulet won¡¯t be able to handle whatever the arm brace can¡¯t cover though.¡± ¡°Everyone attending should be high enough in their respective governments that if they don¡¯t have the willpower to handle whatever little bit of your charm leaks out then they really shouldn¡¯t be in their posts. It will be fine, and I have some guards to keep an eye on things anyway.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­¡± ¡°Tell you what, I¡¯ll hang on to your cloak just in case, but I¡¯d love to see the expression on my beautiful daughter''s face while she¡¯s dressed nicely.¡± At that her mother stepped out quickly, coming back with a bright white toga. It did look light and lovely, the sort of traditional clothing she didn¡¯t have much reason to wear outside of Anailia, but enjoyed the few times she did. And as long as my cloak is nearby and everyone around knows the potential risks it wouldn¡¯t really be that bad, would it? ¡°Okay, maybe just this once won¡¯t be so bad if everyone knows the risks.¡± She didn¡¯t have many opportunities to dress up, she wanted to enjoy them when she could. ¡°Excellent,¡± Her mother beamed. ¡°Throw that on and we¡¯ll head down to the ballroom right away, can¡¯t leave everyone waiting.¡± She quickly dressed herself before following her mother down and entering the ballroom. In an already extravagant home, she always thought it was needless. There was no reason her parents couldn¡¯t host their government events at an outside venue, and given Thera¡¯s disdain for them when she was younger they often did. Nothing good came from prying eyes sneaking out to see the rest of the house where they might accidentally wander into her. Having said that though, now that she wasn¡¯t hiding herself away in her cloak it was surprisingly nice to see it so full of life. A band playing in the background and tables full of food, guests from various allied races standing around and mingling, and in the center of it all- What? ¡°Mother, what exactly did you do?¡± ¡°Ah now, there''s the face I wanted to see.¡± her mother giggled while seeing her daughter''s hands covering her face, not quite managing to hide the golden glow of a blush spreading through her cheeks. ¡°Better go over there, he¡¯s been standing alone for quite a while waiting for you to get ready.¡± In the center of everyone was Ben, dressed in a dark green toga and a purple belt wrapping his waist, holding the flower they¡¯d plucked from the trial, and generally having no idea about the significance of anything he was doing. Her mother had definitely tricked him into it, or just as likely gotten one of the maids to do it. As she got closer his face lit up, and looking like he forgot something for a moment held the flower out to her, which she hesitantly took, not able to meet his eyes from the moment he lifted it towards her. Even knowing she was being set up she couldn¡¯t hide her embarrassment. Why did she have to do this in front of so many people? What am I saying of course she did it so I¡¯d have to accept, gods I can feel myself blushing so hard I¡¯m probably twinkling in the light this is so embarrassing. She pulled her eyes from the ground to peek up at him and noticed he looked confused. It seemed like he was about to ask her something when her mother spoke up. ¡°Hello everyone, welcome to this wonderful occasion! We¡¯re all here to celebrate a completion of the trial. My daughter, proving herself to me and earning my support as she chooses her own path, and Ben, dedicating his work through it with her to his god Myriad, and the first man to have a complete resistance to Thera¡¯s charm. I hope you¡¯ll all join hands in celebrating with me, as well as looking forward to what their future holds!¡± She noticed Ben tilt his head during her mother¡¯s little speech as cheers went up, and assumed he was getting the notification that he¡¯d successfully completed an achievement in his god''s name, before looking back to her and smiling, seeming to have no idea what he was supposed to do from here. She leaned up to whisper in his ear to grab them a table in the back, and once he walked off turned to her mother, trying to make her smile look as real as possible for any watching guests while keeping her voice low to hide her anger from everyone around. ¡°Mother, care to explain what in the infinite hells that was about.¡± Irritatingly, her mother just laughed her anger off, placing a gentle hand on her head and saying in a voice that sounded so genuine she had no choice but to believe her, ¡°You know Thera, one of my greatest fears is one day you¡¯ll wake up and realise you¡¯re alone, this is just some insurance against that.¡± How was she even supposed to respond to that? She just shook her head and walked to the table Ben found for them. The moment she sat down, other guests sprinkled around nearby found an excuse to find different seats or to get up. Normally it would have bothered her a bit, seeing as how blatantly obvious their aversion to her was, but she was grateful to have the peace for once. As she was trying to think about how to explain exactly what happened to Ben, he placed a hand on her forehead. ¡°You okay Thera? You¡¯re looking pretty flushed. Is the crowd too much for you?¡± She gently pulled away from his touch, feeling her face heat up even more, and coughed to clear her throat, trying to pull herself together. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± She started awkwardly, having no idea how to tell him what just happened and still unable to meet his eyes. ¡°It looks like mom just decided to pull a bit of a prank on you is all.¡± ¡°Um, okay, what did she do? Is it the outfit? I¡¯m definitely the only one in the room in these colours.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s a part of it¡­¡± Gods I need to just get this out of the way quickly. ¡°So you just proposed, and I accepted.¡± For a solid minute, it looked like his brain stopped working. He just stared at her, processing what she said. ¡°Um, explain please?¡± She sighed, still avoiding his eyes the best he could. ¡°The colours you''re wearing represent Anailia and Tolona, for a succubi or incubi to wear them outside of a marriage ceremony would indicate they are serious about their pursuit or love of an individual. As for handing me the flower, well long ago a couple took the trial together, and upon completing it the incubi handed it to his partner, symbolizing that their love ran deep enough that even Anailia would approve, and they wed shortly after. Since then it¡¯s been a custom for pairs that were romantically involved who took the trial together to propose their marriage with the flower after completing it by having one hand it to the other, expressing their love.¡± Old traditions, old stories, both things she never in her wildest dreams thought Ben would need to be warned about. She wasn¡¯t sure how much her uncle educated him on succubi culture, but even he surely didn¡¯t expect to need to warn him about something like this. ¡°Was that why your mom said that bit about me not being affected by your charm? It did feel a bit out of place.¡± She could only nod. ¡°Since before my people arrived on this world, there was always a bit of a taboo about taking advantage of someone who was charmed romantically. Even more so since arriving here and finding so many races who didn¡¯t have resistances that could deal with it. Love is sacred, you shouldn''t manipulate someone into it.¡± Ben nodded. ¡°Okay, that tracks, she wanted everyone to know I wasn¡¯t taken in by your charm. One question though, very minor, not really a big deal, just a little curious. Why did you say yes?¡± Thera groaned and threw her face into her arms on the table. ¡°Cultural differences. Like I said, love is sacred. If you were to so boldly make a proposal like that to join our lives together, only for me to decline you, it would indicate extremely poor judgment on your part. It isn¡¯t an exaggeration to say you¡¯d never be able to do business in this nation, possibly with a few of our allied nations either. That¡¯s how badly rejecting you would make a fool of you. Mom knows that, and she knew I¡¯d know that so that¡¯s probably why she set things up this way.¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it He let out a low whistle. ¡°Is it really that bad? That sounds a bit on the extreme end, no offence.¡± ¡°If it was a different pair in a different venue it probably wouldn¡¯t be so bad. Plenty of people propose in private to be careful, though it¡¯s seen as lacking in conviction for your love so any that do will have a public one later to make it seem more real. As for anyone who gets rejected in public, they¡¯d probably just move. As long as they didn¡¯t run into anyone aware of their rejection they could start a new life, without worrying too much about lasting consequences. You however just very publicly proposed to the queen''s daughter. The entire country¡¯s going to know in a few days.¡± She didn¡¯t know what she was expecting from him, but it wasn¡¯t a powerful laughter out of nowhere, and she lifted her head just enough to look at him. ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± ¡°I mean, your mom got us good. I¡¯d say it¡¯s a little funny.¡± ¡°Sure, until you want to actually marry someone and find that no succubi will purchase your work or request your services for leaving the queen''s daughter.¡± ¡°There are lots of races in the world,¡± He told her with a shrug. ¡°I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll manage. Besides, I¡¯m not exactly looking for anyone at the moment.¡± She didn¡¯t know how he could be so indifferent about such a thing and put her head back down, before feeling a hand on hers. ¡°Thank you though.¡± He told her. ¡°You accepted for my sake right? I appreciate it.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡± ¡°Cool, I¡¯m going to grab a plate or two of food, want one?¡± ¡°Sure, get me whatever looks good.¡± ¡°Will do.¡± He got up to wander the tables, piling plates high with far more than a person should be grabbing on their first walk around, making small mountains of it. Thera watched him for a bit before turning to look around the venue and realised just how many eyes had been on her when she accidentally met them, leaving her even more embarrassed. She was used to people avoiding her gaze as if locking eyes on her by mistake could somehow make her charm more powerful, but now that the opposite was happening it was even worse. Knowing that everyone was probably curious about her engagement and the man who would be willing to marry someone like her, hell a man who was capable of it without breaking any taboos. She tried to ignore it by instead focusing on the rising music and the guests who had started dancing. ¡°That¡¯s pretty nice,¡± Ben said as he sat back down with far too much for them to eat. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a dance like that. Of course, none of my race have tails, so we really can¡¯t dance like that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a traditional dance from the homeworld from what I understand, it¡¯s been done for hundreds of years.¡± ¡°Do you want to join them?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not exactly something I can manage. Even with their amulets and my brace, my charm on contact is still way too high, not to mention that I can really only dance with you because as far as everyone in this room¡¯s concerned we just got engaged. They¡¯ll play other songs to dance to soon that aren¡¯t for this one so that guests from other nations can participate however they see fit, this is just to show our culture to them.¡± ¡°But you would like to do this one.¡± He pressed on, seeing it in her eyes. ¡°Well, I was a dancer after all. I was only ever able to do routines that could be managed alone which really hindered my potential to develop my skill, but I did enjoy it and would like to someday if I could, but we can try dancing when they change songs.¡± She knew he didn¡¯t have the skill, but having a dance partner for the first time was a more exciting prospect than she thought it would be. Aside from learning solo routines, she had at least learned the technique for different dances that needed a partner, she¡¯d just never put them to practice. He thought for a minute before giving a nod. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be back in a second then.¡± ¡°Wait, for what?¡± But he was already gone, running towards an incubus she recognised as globs teacher and dragged him by the hand towards her parents, who were in the middle of making conversation with some exhaurire diplomats she was fairly sure Ben had made braces for. When they saw him approach they politely spoke for a moment before walking away though, presumably to give him a moment to talk to his future inlaws. She wasn¡¯t sure what he said, but she saw her mother run towards the band as her father seemed to do¡­something. I¡¯m seeing things wrong. There¡¯s no way dad just used his magic to materialize Ben another belt. After whatever it was her father did he grabbed Furela¡¯s hand, as well as whatever it was that now clung to his waist, before walking back, keeping an eye on the dancers the entire time. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll give. What is that?¡± She asked, seeing a carefully twined-together length of what looked like a metallic rope, the weave of it making it seem more flexible than a typical length of chain should be. ¡°Mythril tail. Come on, let¡¯s dance.¡± ¡°Wait I¡¯m sorry, what do you mean a mythril tail?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the only one you can dance with and you seemed to want to do this one, so come on, your mom¡¯s having them play the song again. Also fair warning, I¡¯m not sure how long I¡¯ll be able to go for. I had to do a pretty quick and sloppy job getting these enchantments on rather than figure out the best way to apply them, and creating small barriers throughout the tail to move with my mind is going to be pretty draining, even with the mythril taking most of the burden to power it.¡± Without waiting for her answer he took her hand and led her to the dance floor, held onto her wrists as the other dancers were, before running mana through his artificial tail to intertwine it with her own. ¡°You¡¯ve never seen this dance before and definitely don¡¯t have the skill, how exactly do you plan on making this work?¡± ¡°Oh I¡¯m going to be terrible, but don¡¯t underestimate a guy who grew an extra mind,¡± He told her with cheer. ¡°I was using both to see if I could quickly memorise the steps, and now one¡¯s going to be focused on making my feet move right while the other¡¯s managing the tail. Come on, let¡¯s give it a go.¡± He started dancing, leading her to follow his steps. From a professional standpoint, she confidently judged him as terrible. His movements were jerky and awkward, and it seemed like he was having trouble controlling how his limbs moved. The tail she tried to be more generous about, seeing as how it was his first time attempting to use one, but if she was watching from the side she would have pegged him as being at the zeroth level in the skill tops. With herself sitting at level four it was nothing to write home about. And yet despite all that, it was perhaps some of the most fun she¡¯d ever had dancing. She did her best to compensate for his clumsy moves, trying to make him appear a bit more graceful than she could tell he was and worked to bring the best out of the dance she could. Her heart was beating in excitement as she did what she¡¯d always wanted to try as a dancer, having a partner. ¡°How am I doing?¡± ¡°Terrible,¡± She laughed. ¡°Do people in your world even dance?¡± ¡°I mean, professionals would definitely have some complex dance routines, but the most I¡¯d ever do was whatever my high school set up. If the right song comes on I¡¯ll show you how.¡± ¡°Ha sure, sounds like fun.¡± They continued on for a little while longer before Ben began running low enough on mana that he had to sit down. ¡°Oof, may have pushed a little longer than I should¡¯ve. That was entertaining though.¡± ¡°It was,¡± She agreed, still feeling a smile on her face and briefly forgetting about the craziness that led up to it. She saw her mother and father in the back, looking pretty emotional and ignored them in favour of eating some of the food Ben grabbed earlier. At least until a slower song came on that seemed to match his tastes. He grabbed her hand again, leading her back to the dance floor, and instructed her on what to do. ¡°Just put your hands on my shoulders.¡± She did as he asked. ¡°Okay, now what- ah! Where do you think you¡¯re touching?¡± ¡°Your hands on my shoulders, mine on your hips. At least that¡¯s how I was taught. If you¡¯re uncomfortable we can stop.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s fine, it was just a little unexpected.¡± She was aware of dances with this sort of arrangement at least, she just never expected to participate in anything like that, and finding herself pressed so close to him made her remember her mothers comment about him having nice muscles when they first arrived, he certainly seemed sturdier than he looked. Shaking her head, not wanting any weird thought to invade, she looked up at him. ¡°So what do we do now?¡± ¡°We just move to the music.¡± He told her, gently swaying back and forth. ¡°Wait, that¡¯s it, you call this dancing? There¡¯s no technique. Not to mention how close we are¡­¡± ¡°Dancing should be accessible to anyone, even if they¡¯re lacking formal training. This is how we do it when you don¡¯t know how. Besides that, it¡¯s fun. It¡¯s nice being close to people. Once I get your charm under control you¡¯ll be able to dance as much as you want with people who actually know what they¡¯re doing.¡± ¡°Not likely. I¡¯m not going back to doing it professionally, and it would still be hard to find a dance partner when people think we¡¯re engaged.¡± ¡°Well I mean we¡¯ll have to set the record straight someday. Ignoring my prospects, I¡¯m sure you¡¯d want to find someone eventually too.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t exactly in the cards for me.¡± ¡°Why not? You¡¯re a beautiful girl, I get you can¡¯t be romantically involved with anyone you¡¯ve charmed for cultural, and well I guess ethical reasons, but if you get it under control you should be able to find someone nice if you want?¡± She pushed aside being called beautiful for the moment and instead thought about how to answer him. It was an issue she had complicated feelings about but knew it would come up one day, one way or another. Why not now? ¡°It¡¯s another racial issue for me. Do you know how a mixed breed can typically figure out their life expectancy?¡± ¡°Honestly haven''t thought about it.¡± ¡°Average the lifespan of the parent races, plus or minus ten percent typically. Spirits don¡¯t have fixed lifespans, what does that tell you?¡± He scrunched his eyebrows for a second in thought before opening them wide. ¡°Wait, are you saying you¡¯re immortal?¡± ¡°Probably not,¡± She admitted. ¡°Part of their longevity seems to be connected to having a body made out of mana since the main way a spirit will die is by using theirs up. Still, it¡¯s undeniable that I¡¯m going to live for a long time. I haven¡¯t seemed to age at all since my growth period ended a few years ago, at least that''s what my family seems to think. If I end up living for a few thousand years, I¡¯ll outlive almost every race I¡¯m aware of. Not much point in getting romantically involved with anyone I can expect to die so much sooner.¡± ¡°Seems like a depressing way of looking at things.¡± ¡°This at least is something I realized I needed to accept years ago, as soon as I figured out just what it meant to be half spirit.¡± Without thinking she raised a hand to his face, gently holding it and muttered. ¡°I guess I¡¯m going to outlive you too.¡± They fell in silence after that, until Ben grabbed her hand, and without warming pulled it over her head, spinning her in a circle before continuing to dance. ¡°What was that for?¡± ¡°It¡¯s very important to occasionally spin your partner out of the blue when dancing like this. Trust me, I¡¯m all about mediocre human dancing. Anyway, that just means the time we have together needs to be as exciting as possible.¡± ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± ¡°So you remember me of course.¡± He told her with a grin, emotions she couldn¡¯t quite place filling his eyes as he spoke. ¡°You know, in a thousand years there probably won¡¯t be a single human on this world.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°There¡¯s only twenty of us here. Plenty are going to have kids with other races. Sure some of them will probably marry each other and have children, but those children are going to want partners too, and a starting population of twenty doesn¡¯t make a good gene pool by any stretch. I¡¯m sure that in 1000 years from now by the latest we¡¯ll be all but forgotten about. A note in a history book as one of the races brought to try and protect the world. I guess I just think the idea of someone being around to remember us is nice.¡± The prospect of one day being the only one who would remember various races was a lonely one, even if she lived for such a span of time. If the world survived the immediate threat what other events would she see in her life? What might she forget? At the very least she felt confident of one thing in the moment. ¡°I don¡¯t know how I¡¯ll ever forget a weirdo like you.¡± She leaned into his chest and pushed away thoughts of a distant future, trying to enjoy the present. CH87 Theras Perspective ¡°Funa, I¡¯m hoping that you¡¯d be willing to give me some guidance for the next week I¡¯m still in the nation.¡± Thera¡¯s aunt seemed to light up, at least as much as a shadow woman could. When her niece had walked up to her, she¡¯d never expected to receive this request. Finally, she was ready to fulfill the offer she¡¯d been putting out for years. ¡°You¡¯re ready to let me help you raise your charm?¡± She said in excitement. It was something she wanted to help Thera with since she¡¯d come to learn of the issue, getting her to level 6 to grant her the means of suppressing its abilities. Sadly Thera quickly dashed her hopes. ¡°No, I want to learn dark magic.¡± She went on to explain the advice she¡¯d gotten from Anailia during the end of her trial. While initially disappointed, Funa¡¯s interest grew as her niece spoke. She¡¯d never heard of anything like that herself, but at the same time before Abrus fell in love with Pelenia she hadn¡¯t interacted enough with the various races in the world to encounter such things. ¡°It¡¯s an interesting idea, and I have no issue guiding you as I can, there''s just two points I want to advise you on first. To begin with, there is the chance that developing and raising darkness magic could cause your charm to increase too, they are pretty tightly linked after all. The second is that I won¡¯t be able to get you to the point where you have the skill in the next week. I can try and instill as much knowledge and technique in you as I can, but when you go you¡¯ll have to put it into practice yourself to the best of your abilities. Of course, I¡¯ll try to visit Stonewall every now and then, but I¡¯ve already promised your mother to make training Karly my priority.¡± Thera nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t have any illusions about this being easy, you know how long it took me to level earth magic after all. As for my charm¡­ Well, I¡¯m hoping that as long as I only get up to level one or two in dark magic it won¡¯t speed up my next level of charm too much. I only just got another during the trial, if it speeds me up by a couple of years then hopefully I¡¯ll have a solution by then.¡± She decided to put her faith in Ben figuring it out like he promised he would. So long as he could come up with a solution in the next twenty years then it probably wouldn¡¯t be an issue, and remembering the look in his eyes she knew he didn¡¯t intend for it to take so long. Thinking on how seriously he promised her, as well as the situation her mom had caused with the stunt she had pulled the previous night left Thera feeling complicated, and she was a little glad he was too busy to join her for her talk with her aunt. Hopefully, things would feel more normal to her by dinner. ¡°Alright then,¡± Funa said, pulling her from her thoughts. ¡°If that''s the case then let¡¯s get started. First things first, we¡¯ll need to work on your dark mana.¡± ¡°What do you mean? I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m able to use dark mana fine. That¡¯s kind of my main problem.¡± ¡°The dark mana you have is automatically being wrapped in charm, causing it to radiate out of you. If you could see the mana as clear as I do you¡¯d look like a star. First things first you¡¯ll need to get a hold of your mana either before it gets its charm or remove it after. Neither option is better than the other and once you get the hang of it you¡¯ll be doing both soon enough.¡± ¡°Okay, sounds good.¡± Thera sat down and tried to do both options, neither feeling like it was working but knowing she would need practice to get it. As she did her best her aunt continued talking. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Whether you get it or not you¡¯ll also need to think about what sort of darkness spell you want to form. While I think you¡¯ll probably be exceptionally suited to fear since it¡¯s the same sort of mental manipulation spell as charm I would personally advise you against it, at least until you have a level or two on you. It would be too easy for you to think you had it and try to put mana into it, only for you to accidentally be training your charm instead. As another option, I¡¯ll have you try shadow fog.¡± With her words, darkness seemed to roll off of the great spirit, as if it really was a fog instead of an illusion that sapped the light around her. ¡°Your issue then,¡± She continued. ¡°Is making sure it has the proper shape to activate the spell.¡± Funa¡¯s lessons continued on as Thera tried to absorb as much information as she could. Having a great spirit as a teacher was a boon few could hope for, she wouldn¡¯t let anything go to waste.
The day had stretched on from morning till dinner, and by the time she was done her training she couldn¡¯t wait to eat. She knew she was nowhere close to her goal, but that was okay. It was never going to be easy. As long as she didn¡¯t let it interfere with her earth magic practice then she was happy to give it her full effort. When she walked to the dining room she was surprised to find Glob and Karly already there and already fighting. ¡°I still can¡¯t believe you tried to kill me!¡± Glob yelled. ¡°Well maybe stop being the sort of person people would want to kill. Honest to god your duplicate was much more bearable.¡± ¡°Now both of you, I did warn you weren¡¯t ready for the trail but what¡¯s done is done." Her mother reasoned with them. "Why not put any unpleasantness behind you and look towards the future.¡± Kary looked embarrassed while Glob continued to fume. ¡°You¡¯re right Pelenia, I shouldn¡¯t have rushed into it. I¡¯ll try not to let it affect my work with him from here out.¡± ¡°Easy for you to say you bitch! You¡¯re not the one who was beaten half to death!¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you be a little embarrassed at how easily you were beaten by something that was supposed to be your perfect copy?¡± ¡°No! You both got the jump on me, how was I supposed to beat that?¡± ¡°By being better,¡± Karly said dismissively, and Thera thought Glob''s head was about to explode from the comment. Thankfully Ben walked in, silly hat and all, and diffused the tension by bringing out dinner. ¡°Now now, no fighting. I made a very special meal tonight, a little piece of my homeworld so you all better get along and enjoy it.¡± Oh right, Ben did say he wanted to make some foods from his homeworld for me to try- ¡°Wait, you made spaghetti!¡± Karly yelled, once her plate was handed to her. ¡°I mean, I did say I¡¯d do something about it, didn¡¯t I?¡± Karly looked mortified, her face was flushed red. ¡°I thought that was just a part of my dream! Forget everything you saw and heard.¡± ¡°Come on, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t feel the same things. Now eat up, I spent all day figuring out how to make a pasta and red sauce. Pasta was easy enough, it¡¯s actually known in the world and there''s plenty of plants that resemble grains and plenty of animals that lay eggs to make it with, but not a single thing resembling a tomato on the planet. You wouldn¡¯t believe how complicated it had to be to get the look and taste right. If you ever want it again the head chef has the recipe so just ask.¡± Karly had a bite and had to take a moment to collect herself after her outburst. ¡°It¡¯s great. Thanks Ben.¡± With a firm pat on the shoulder and a smile when he saw how happy it left the other human he took his seat and started eating. Thera felt a small stab of jealousy seeing Ben interact with his own kind and noticed her mother looking at her, grin plastered on her face. What? She mouthed, not in the mood for any more antics from her. Oh, nothing. She mouthed back, smile never leaving her lips. CH88 After dinner Karly and Glob went up first, Karly to hide some of the emotions welling up from getting a taste of home after so long, and Glob just needing to recover more from the vicious beatdown he received. Ben and Thera quickly followed, heading to their own rooms, but Ben faced a problem. Thera had seemed a bit out of sorts since the meal started. ¡°Everything okay Thera? Did your training go well?¡± ¡°Yeah it was fine. No progress yet but that¡¯s not shocking.¡± ¡°Okay, how did you like the meal?¡± ¡°It was alright I guess.¡± ¡°Just alright? Too bad, I¡¯ll have to try a bit harder to impress you next time.¡± That at least got a little smile from her. ¡°Maybe it just wasn¡¯t to my taste. Mind if I ask you something?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°When you said you and Karly felt the same things over dinner, what were you talking about?¡± ¡°Oh that? Just that we both miss our homes and feel kind of screwed over to have been brought back to life just to fight and die. You know, the light and fun stuff I¡¯m sure plenty of other summoned are dealing with.¡± ¡°Oh is that it,¡± She seemed strangely relieved and he ventured to make a joke. ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about losing your husband to another woman, I¡¯ve only got my eyes on you princess.¡± He said it with a laugh, hoping to show he was just teasing, but when he looked over to her her face was flushed and she wouldn''t look at him. ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid, and enough with the princess nonsense. I need to get some sleep so I¡¯ll see you in the morning.¡± ¡°Sounds good, sleep well.¡± Maybe that was a little too much? She seemed pretty uncomfortable from that and he felt bad, he just meant to have some fun. She was probably feeling a bit conscious of the issue of their engagement, at least Ben knew he was. Joking about it was going to be one of the ways he processed it, but he needed to make sure he didn¡¯t do it too much to bother Thera, or at the very least gauge her reaction. Next time there would be no princess comment at least, maybe doing both was a bit over the top. With Thera asleep though it was time to take on a whole other issue and he ignored the door to his room, looping around to get back to Globs and knocking on his door. ¡°I¡¯m asleep! No low-worlders allowed!¡± ¡°Open the door Glob or I¡¯m coming in anyway.¡± ¡°Good luck! It¡¯s actually locked this time.¡± ¡°Oh no, a flimsy deadbolt, whatever will I do?¡± Ben reached into his pocket and prepared two small tools he¡¯d grabbed in advance in case the grey decided to be difficult. A wedge and a pocket hammer. He might not know how to pick a lock, but there were plenty of ways to beat one, and he slid the wedge to the same height the bolt in his room between the door and its frame and gave it a quick and powerful blow with his hammer, breaking the bolt and letting himself in before anyone could peek out to see what had happened. The moment the door was closed though, Glob had him trapped, A barrier completely encasing him like a mime in a box. ¡°Alright, looks like you got in. Now what do you want?¡± ¡°I¡¯m assuming you haven¡¯t spoken to your little grey friend since you woke up?¡± ¡°What? No, are you an idiot? Nevermind, of course you are. I told you they sometimes sneak out to hang out, it¡¯s not like they''re constantly around.¡± ¡°Come on Globolgork buddy, I¡¯m not falling for that again. Giving it some thought, the idea that a summoned hero could sneak off to another country for a few days without causing some sort of panic is ridiculous, I bet there¡¯d probably be concerns about countries stealing each other''s heroes too. Besides, you know I got you out of the trial right? How did you think that happened?¡± ¡°Who cares? I¡¯m alive and don¡¯t get me wrong, I even appreciate it, but get the hell out.¡± ¡°I was led Glob." He told him, ignoring his fellow otherworlder. "By another grey.¡± ¡°I have no clue what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Ben wasn¡¯t sure what a grey¡¯s body language was meant to convey, but worldspeak+ must have had an effect on tone because he was sure if the little alien could he¡¯d be sweating. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Then let me spell it out for you. I know you¡¯re still in contact with your world.¡± As the words left his mouth another grey appeared. ¡°That¡¯s enough Globolgork, we were hoping to get the chance to talk to you about what happened before anything came of it, but it looks like there¡¯s no such luck. So human,¡± It said as it turned to address Ben. ¡°What matters is what you plan to do with this information.¡± ¡°Nothing much, you guys have a means to get information this world presumably can¡¯t access, and as far as I can see you aren¡¯t bothering to share any of it. I¡¯m just hoping you¡¯d be willing to start helping out the world a bit.¡± The alien stared silently at him for a moment, examining him before asking his question. ¡°Why? After stumbling upon us before we did the bare amount of looking into you. You were completely forgotten by the people and gods of this world. Why do you want to help them?¡± ¡°Well plenty of people also gave me their assistance too, not to mention as one of the suckers who has to live here now I¡¯m rather invested in ensuring the planet survives.¡± ¡°Understandable I suppose, but that''s still no reason to help you.¡± Ben had expected resistance since he¡¯d planned the encounter, but he¡¯d come prepared with a few ideas in mind of what to do about it. ¡°I could tell people about you. I¡¯m pretty sure if we all survive this people would be pretty up in arms at the idea that you all just stood off on the sidelines and ate popcorn while people died. Maybe enough to act.¡± ¡°What would that matter? There¡¯s nothing any of you could do about it anyway.¡± The mystery grey said, filled with indifference. ¡°Maybe not us, but the gods could for sure. They¡¯ve already shown they can grab souls from across realities, I doubt I need to explain any of the horrific implications of this." ¡°And what makes you think we aren¡¯t more powerful. The gods and rulers of our reality in our own right that could fight back?¡± ¡°Call it a hunch. For some reason, you all seem to be invested in the greys that came here enough to keep in touch. At this point I don¡¯t know why you aren¡¯t doing more already. Besides, if you had the sort of power to do more than peek into other worlds, it seems like the sort of thing you¡¯d have already done.¡± Ben couldn¡¯t understand why, but the grey seemed faintly amused by his argument. Did I get something wrong? It couldn¡¯t matter. He had to put on a strong front here. ¡°Your argument isn¡¯t built on the most stable of foundations, but very well, final question. What makes you think I can¡¯t just have Glob kill you? Either hide the body from there or claim he was scared when you broke in and it was an accident from self-defense?¡± A threat, the main thing he was waiting for. Something that could show these aliens weren¡¯t necessarily benevolent or peaceful. ¡°Let me answer you with my own question. You¡¯re familiar with the function of the cards we all got when we came to the world right? Maybe also with different figures with any degree of power in this world?¡± Ben asked him, pulling his own card out and hiding all but a single detail on it. ¡°I am.¡± At his response Ben¡¯s smile broke through and he slapped his card against Glob''s barrier for the other alien to see. ¡°I¡¯m the apostle of Myriad, and my god¡¯s been watching the entire time.¡± For the first time in their conversation, Be felt the new grey was genuinely surprised, but still managed to quickly make up its mind. ¡°Fine then, but I have one condition human. One day I may ask for your help. When the time comes I want you to hear out my request.¡± ¡°Wait that¡¯s all, just hear you out?" This had gone far easier than expected, he still had other ways he wanted to argue and other threats to make. It was actually a little disappointing. ¡°That is all.¡± He gave it a little thought, before breaking into a smile. ¡°Sure, but since I¡¯m already blackmailing you, how about I take just a little bit for myself?¡± ¡°You know, it¡¯s a poor negotiator who tries adding extra conditions when a deal¡¯s done.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll just call it the ¡®Threatening to kill me tax¡¯. It''s really nothing much, just come visit me once a month to answer some questions for me.¡± ¡°Surprisingly reasonable and not too much additional work compared to making the world aware of us and giving our aid, but why?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a craftsman. You know how many things I want to try and make that I have incomplete knowledge on? I just want someone who can try to fill in the gaps so I can have some fun.¡± The small alien almost seemed taken aback by the selfishness of the request, but quickly recovered. ¡°Very well human, my name is Quilith. I can¡¯t promise things will work the same between realities, but if you prepare a list of questions for me each month I¡¯ll have the answers for you by the next if possible.¡± ¡°Sounds good Quilith, I look forward to working with you.¡±
¡°Why didn¡¯t you refuse him?¡± Glob asked once Ben had left the room. ¡°Wasn¡¯t the plan for us to keep a lower profile for longer? Get a better idea of the situation?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Quilith said. ¡°Two more of our attempts failed, with a few others showing poor results so far. The final solution is looking more and more likely, we don¡¯t have the time to gauge the races of this world if we¡¯re going to survive.¡± ¡°And you think he could help?¡± ¡°Of all the summoned and native persons of interest we¡¯ve been monitoring, he¡¯s one we believe has potential. Low potential mind you, it will all depend on if he can keep his growth rate constant, but for now at least it wouldn¡¯t do us any harm to have a person who¡¯s soft in heart enough to try and help this world''s chances to feel he owes us for our help. Besides, with the way everything¡¯s going, the sooner we accept it as a race and try to assist in this world''s survival, the better our own chances will be. The real issue is that whoever was in charge of monitoring him seemed to ignore everything but the skills he¡¯d developed as well as the speed he¡¯d been growing them. Things could be inconvenient if the gods decided from our conversation that we¡¯re a threat to them.¡± He felt pain pulse through his central nerve bundle. If the gods of this reality decided they were a threat, that could throw their whole future in jeopardy. Not to mention that he¡¯d need to alert the others that it was time to finally present themselves to this world, and make contact with the leader of this nation in particular. He could only hope he would be well compensated for all the work that was about to begin. CH89 ¡°-and that¡¯s what they said once you left,¡± Myriad told Ben, explaining how the conversation between the greys continued once he¡¯d left the room. ¡°It could have been for show. Just putting on an act while they thought you were watching.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I couldn¡¯t read Quiliths thoughts since his actual brain or whatever he has that acts as one resides in another universe at the moment, but in the case of Glob he seemed to be in genuine distress when he was told more attempts failed, though he didn¡¯t think in clear terms on just what those plans were.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter I guess, sounds like they¡¯re only going to want my help if they can¡¯t get someone better, that¡¯s basically a guarantee it won¡¯t be my problem.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°What?¡± The silence Myriad was giving Ben spoke volumes, he just wasn¡¯t sure he knew what it was meant to be saying. ¡°Nothing, I just don¡¯t think you should sell yourself short. You just managed to blackmail an entire race into helping us, and they aren¡¯t wrong about your growth speed.¡± Ben for his part was having none of it. ¡°I¡¯m glad you think so well of me, but you heard their conversation Myriad, it sounds like they were going to have to end up helping eventually, all I did was give them a little push and score a benefit for myself,¡± And he was already thinking about how to use that. On the one hand, he still wanted to figure out some sort of weapon to keep himself safe, but on the other, he really wanted to increase his quality of life in the world, first and foremost he wanted a shower. Wiping himself down with a warm bucket of water just didn¡¯t do it for him. Well, he wasn¡¯t actually given a limit on what he could ask, he fully intended on taking complete advantage of the little grey. Shaking himself from his fantasies he got back on track. ¡°As for my growth, I¡¯m not even at the point that all of my classmates arrived in the world at. I¡¯m just shrinking the distance a little.¡± ¡°I think being summoned amongst a group of people with nothing but awakened skills has left you incapable of appreciating just how hard they are to get, but whatever. You¡¯re on the right track for growing even stronger after completing the quest and getting your compensation from the other gods, you¡¯ll be done with your current job before you know it.¡± ¡°Uhg, don¡¯t remind me. When I was told I¡¯d be compensated I thought that I might be getting a gift skill, maybe a blessing. Not just an extra five measly job levels.¡± ¡°Every job you complete represents a permanent boost to your strength and potential, I wouldn¡¯t be so down about it. What¡¯s your current level anyway?¡± ¡°Nineteen.¡± Eight from making the coat, five for the achievement, five for compensation, with one leftover he got in the middle of the trial, presumably from his actions causing a few more nations to compel some of their enchanters to convert. ¡°Even if it¡¯s the easiest bit you¡¯re basically a fifth of the way there after a week. Speaking of, ready to hear about your new quest options? ¡°Absolutely. Hit me.¡± ¡°Unfortunately still nothing crazy exciting. Once again I can give you the option of completing an achievement in my name for five job levels, growing my faith to an additional hundred believers for twenty job levels, or¡­ well that¡¯s it unfortunately,¡± Ben actually had one more option, establish a holy land, that would reward him enough that he could complete a job in a single go with the reward he would get, but after his stunt with the coat Myriad wasn¡¯t willing to leave this task to Ben, no matter how fond of his apostle he was. Especially now that the boy had sacrilege, and had apparently managed to level it up by knowingly attacking an avatar of Anailia, he shuddered to think what he might do with such a request. Better to ignore it and give it to a more reasonable apostle once Ben passed on in the future. ¡°The exact same two again? Man I gotta say, that''s pretty lame.¡± ¡°If I¡¯m not mistaken for the ones following this I should be able to give you one that would reward you with a skill level in one of your low-level skills, but you need to complete one of those two first.¡± ¡°Okay, give me some time to think about it. Getting you 100 followers still seems ridiculous, but I can¡¯t imagine how I¡¯m going to complete another achievement. Maybe if something conveniently falls into my lap like the trial again I¡¯ll take that one.¡± ¡°No rush, on a final note, I have a small request for you.¡± ¡°Hm? Sure, what can I do?¡± ¡°Let me inspect your soul.¡± Ben instinctively took a step back. ¡°Oof, let the god that munches down on his believer¡¯s souls get a close look at mine? I like you Myriad, I even count you among my friends in this world, but that sounds a little sketch.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t eat my believers'' souls! When you die you¡¯ll have the option of merging with me rather than phasing to a different plane. Of course, I¡¯m hopeful you¡¯ll choose that option, as the first being outside of my race I¡¯m sure it would be quite an honor for you and an interesting experience for myself, but worry about that when you¡¯re dead. No, I''m just concerned about the state of your soul, especially as it relates to some of the skills you¡¯ve been developing recently.¡± ¡°Wait, does this have to do with complex mind?¡± As soon as he left the trial and spoke to his god, he asked if Myriad would be able to find some information on the skill, and it looked like it was paying off. ¡°Partially. You gained three rather rare skills in short order between getting hidden mind, tolerance, and complex mind. The newest one is especially worrying as from what I¡¯ve seen, almost no other hominid types get that skill, instead getting ones like parallel thought or split thought.¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Is that bad?¡± ¡°No skill acquisition is truly bad, not even sacrilege as much as I hate to admit that. Just odd is all, and worth looking into to be sure it¡¯s not related to any problems.¡± What Myriad didn¡¯t tell Ben was the types of people who typically received those skills. Hidden mind was gained by mostly paranoids, fearing their thoughts being invaded. Complex mind seemed to only appear in hominid types when they¡¯d reached a breaking point causing their minds to split as opposed to through training, and even then it was considerably rare, and tolerance was gained when an apostle was so obsessed with their god they were willing to fight past the presence of their divinity just to gaze upon them longer. None of them were bad or harmful in any way. Unlike sacrilege, Ben wouldn¡¯t need to be concerned about people finding out he had those skills, many would even find them desirable. As well, Ben didn¡¯t display any characteristics that would make him worry he possessed the traits one normally would to gain those skills. There were perfectly reasonable explanations for why he had each of them, but nonetheless Myriad worried. This was about his apostle¡¯s health and well-being, he didn¡¯t want to lose him so soon. ¡°Okay fine, I trust you so take a look, however you do that.¡± ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry, it will be quick and easy.¡± Before Ben¡¯s eyes, he saw Myriad begin to open at the seams and his mind refused to process what was inside. His brain didn¡¯t shut down, not really, but as Myriad unfolded it continued to simply blank out what it was seeing before him, even as Myriad came closer, enveloping him
¡°God damn Myriad, I sure hope that was nothing because you just raised my tolerance doing that!¡± Not to mention left me with a pounding headache. What the hell did you do? When Myriad enveloped him it was like he stopped being able to process information altogether, not an experience he was keen to repeat, even if it looked like doing so could train his tolerance. ¡°Not much and don¡¯t worry. It looks like my concerns are unfounded, it¡¯s likely you just have a good compatibility with mind-type skills. Shouldn¡¯t be surprising since one of your blessed ones is focus, but it was still worth a check.¡± ¡°So I¡¯m good to keep leveling them up?¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t be a problem. At this point, my only concerns are what you have planned with the queen. Are you really going to take advantage of the situation like that?¡± ¡°Hey now, she¡¯s the one that tricked me into getting engaged, I¡¯m just trying to work things to my benefit a bit. I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t be too crazy.¡± ¡°You know, some might think she was trying to help you by creating a situation where you couldn¡¯t be approached by other nations." ¡°Maybe,¡± Ben conceded. ¡°Or maybe she wanted to tie me closer to her people since I¡¯m currently the best one at making the resistance braces. Either way Myriad, I won¡¯t go too crazy. Just want to take any advantage I can get."
The next day over breakfast Pelenia looked exhausted, with Abrus seeming surprisingly lethargic himself, and Ben could understand why. It seemed that the greys had stayed true to their agreement, and shortly after he left them, Glob had gone to Pelenia¡¯s room and set up an immediate meeting. Discovering that there was an entire planet in another universe willing to provide aid in the form of knowledge and attempts to gain information on the invaders was far more than she¡¯d expected to deal with in the middle of the night, and as a result she¡¯d been swamped with emergency meetings without rest. Really she would still be trying to do her best to sort out the information they were being given, as well as finding the best people to act as liaisons in her nation to interact with their new allies, but with her daughter set to leave in a few days she wanted to at least make sure to get her meals with her. Ben, having a good idea of most of this information, simply did not care at the moment. ¡°So Mom, I was hoping we could talk about my engagement to Thera,¡± He said, and causing Pelenia no small amount of surprise by being addressed as such, though she tried to hide it. ¡°Oh? I sure hope you aren¡¯t feeling any displeasure about this turn of event¡¯s Ben. You did such a lovely gesture to my daughter. No breaking her heart.¡± ¡°Mother, please,¡± Thera begged. ¡°Can you just put an end to this? I doubt many citizens in the nation would be surprised to know you set that up as a joke.¡± ¡°No can do. Unless you find another nice man I¡¯d prefer you have this option kicking around. Besides, you don¡¯t seem too resistant Thera. What do you say? I could have a ceremony set up before you¡¯d leave the country and when you get back to Stonewall you could work on giving me my first grandchild. I¡¯m personally hoping your first is a boy, but a granddaughter would be great too when I think of how cute you were as a baby.¡± ¡°And I¡¯m personally hoping to have some peace for my last little bit home, but I guess that''s not going to happen either,¡± Thera sighed. ¡°Anyway,¡± Ben spoke up, trying to get the conversation on track. ¡°I don¡¯t have any problem being engaged to your daughter, she¡¯s a wonderful girl and it¡¯s not like I¡¯m involved with anyone else.¡± The queen smiled in genuine joy hearing that while Thera tried to ignore the blood rushing to her face. Even though she knew what Ben was up to it didn¡¯t make it any less embarrassing to hear. ¡°Well isn¡¯t that wonderful! Maybe we really should do the ceremony after all.¡± ¡°I think it would be best to wait a bit,¡± he told her, looking at Thera laying face down on the table trying to ignore them. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how if Thera would be able to handle it if that talk continued, and we still haven¡¯t known each other long. The trial really went to show how much more we have to learn before we should actually tie the knot.¡± ¡°Oh fair enough, boring choice though. Sometimes it¡¯s better to let the passion take you in the heat of the moment. But very well, if you don¡¯t want to try and break it off or wed immediately, then what did you want to talk about?¡± ¡°Simple really, just a custom from my world I was hoping you¡¯d fulfill, just to really make me feel part of the family.¡± The queen hesitated. On one hand, she¡¯d just demonstrated the folly that comes with participating in unknown customs without considering the consequences, but on the other, she very publicly approved of the boy as well. She couldn''t exactly turn him down, especially when she was genuinely hoping to have him as a son in law. ¡°May I perhaps hear the custom first?¡± ¡°Of course, it¡¯s nothing too crazy. Just having the parents of the bride provide a dowry to help the couple start their lives together.¡± It wasn¡¯t even strictly a lie. Sure it wasn¡¯t really a practice in his part of the world, but plenty of parents would help their children with such things. Pelenia sighed. She could see a mile away where this was going, the only question was how much was he hoping to get. ¡°And what, may I ask, would be an appropriate one?¡± ¡°Oh it doesn¡¯t have to be anything too crazy,¡± He told her, nothing but smiles. ¡°Just give whatever you think Thera is worth of course.¡± CH90 In the end, Pelenia agreed but said she would need some time to decide what would be appropriate. Once that was settled she would have it sent to Sonya''s home to collect. Once that business was complete Ben spent the last of his time updating the enchantments on Theras brace, while continuing to make more for any people of status who needed access to some. It seemed that many of the embassies he¡¯d already produced some for had learned he would be leaving soon, and due to the terms of his patent wouldn¡¯t be called upon to make more as he was expecting to remain anonymous, even though he¡¯d done a poor job in keeping his identity to himself. Still, now that the queen of the nation had essentially claimed him as her own, they wouldn¡¯t be able to get more made themselves unless they were able to negotiate through her to make time, or else raise up their own enchanters enough to do the same. Since neither was guaranteed to happen very quickly, that meant that anyone in enough authority in one of Anailias allied nations wanted to get one made while they could, for the convenience of not needing a cloak every time they had to travel or work in a different country. Ben was happy to accommodate. Even though it kept him busy for the remainder of his time in the country he¡¯d managed to grow past his concern for how much he was making through his work, and as a result of his level up in enchanting was able to get the braces completed even faster. While all of this was going on, Thera was still trying to squeeze in as much training with Funa as she could. Though the dark spirit had been right that she wouldn¡¯t be able to achieve much in that time, what mattered was that she learned the information to put to use and continue her training when she returned to stonewall. With what little time they had between both their tasks, Ben made time to paint the family portraits he¡¯d been asked to when they first arrived, a greater task than he¡¯d expected when he¡¯d seen just how big Pelenia wanted them, as well as explored the city with Thera, taking advantage of the size of the city and his newfound wealth to pick up numerous books on the various disciplines he was practicing as well as anything else that caught his interest. Once they¡¯d accomplished as much as they¡¯d hoped to, it was finally time to say goodbye. Ben looked to Pelenia and Abrus. ¡°Welp, mom, dad, thanks for having us. Gotta say it¡¯s been interesting at least.¡± Oh come here you,¡± The queen said, pulling him into a hug with her and her husband. ¡°Make sure you look after Thera, I know she can be a handful but she¡¯s a real softy on the inside.¡± ¡°Okay enough of the tearful goodbye,¡± Thera said, grabbing Ben and dragging him away from her parents. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you insisting on calling them mom and dad would have this sort of effect on them, I would have stopped you if I¡¯d seen this coming.¡± ¡°Hey now, my lovely bride-to-be, I just want to get along with the inlaws.¡± Thera just sighed and shook her head. Over the past week she¡¯d gotten pretty used to those sorts of comments from him, but she really hoped he¡¯d stop having so much fun with it soon. She still felt weird about the whole thing and she¡¯d have to make her mother announce it was a joke on her part one day anyway. Though that might be harder with the whole dowry thing. She was sure her mom wouldn¡¯t go too crazy, but she could never be sure with her. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Anyway, it was nice to see you both despite everything. If I ever come home again please act a bit more reasonably in the future, okay?¡± ¡°Now Thera, it¡¯s good to joke around a bit, keeps life entertaining.¡± Her father said with a laugh. ¡°Life is short after all.¡± ¡°Says the man whose long forgot how long he¡¯s existed for.¡± She sighed, knowing her parents would never change. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll write to you about whatever happens, okay? Let me know about any craziness that occurs in the nation while I¡¯m gone.¡± ¡°Ha well, maybe keep an eye out on the news for the next little while. You¡¯re going to hear a pretty big announcement soon. Nothing to worry about, it¡¯s actually very good news, I just can¡¯t exactly talk about it yet.¡± Her mother told her, trying to come off as cool and mysterious. ¡°Okay?¡± She responded, curious but aware that her mother had an obligation to keep some information to herself as the queen of the nation, even when it was clear she wanted to be asked. Ben was pretty much certain it had to do with the alliance with the greys, of which he had yet to tell Thera of his involvement in. He wasn¡¯t sure if Quilith had told the queen about the part he¡¯d played, but she didn¡¯t seem aware of it at least. Well, not my problem. He thought to himself, happy to ignore whatever politics were going on in the background of the world. ¡°So you¡¯re really heading out to Karly?¡± He asked her, seeing her and Funa packed and ready to go on their own trip. ¡°Well you were right before, there¡¯s really no reason I couldn¡¯t take the time to visit some of our classmates after all of this time. It would be good to see them before preparations for the invasion really kick into gear,¡± His former classmate seemed more cheerful now that she was taking the time to see the people she cared about, and Ben wished her the best. ¡°Well make sure you give them my regards. Let them know if they ever get the time they should stop in at Falk''s shop in Stonewall, I¡¯m sure I wouldn¡¯t be able to make anything as good as what a nation could prepare, but I¡¯d be sure to give them some hospitality.¡± ¡°Will do, maybe I¡¯ll even visit myself.¡±
After walking through the gate, they didn¡¯t spend as much time searching around, both feeling ready to return home to Stonewall. In that spirit, they got on the first cart they could rent and made their way home. ¡°So you okay Thera? Gonna miss your family?¡± ¡°The opposite. After all of that, I¡¯m going to be looking forward to having some time away from them again,¡± She hesitated a moment before continuing. ¡°Though it was nice seeing them while we were there. At least when they weren¡¯t acting too crazy and getting us wrapped up in whatever dumb plans they made.¡± ¡°Ha, well you know what they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Still, it looked like dad was having a tough time saying goodbye.¡± ¡°Do you really have to call them that even when they aren¡¯t around?¡± It wasn¡¯t a custom of her nation for a husband to accept the bride''s family as his parents. Accept them as family of course, but one would normally never hear them being addressed as casually as Ben was. Not to mention it just felt weird. ¡°Ha, okay I guess I can stop for now. Your mom seemed happy with it though.¡± ¡°She was probably taking it as a positive sign that you would actually marry into the family with the way you¡¯d been treating them for the last week.¡± ¡°Hey now, she¡¯s the one who put me in the position, I¡¯m just playing my part. Not to mention it sounds like she¡¯ll send the dowry to Sonya''s once she figures out something good, gotta make sure she gets her money''s worth of the son in law experience.¡± He laughed it off as Thera rolled her eyes under her hood. Seeing her parents really was too much, it would be good to be home. CH91 Side Story 3- a lesson on invaders Lehie paced around while Ben sat down, waiting for his lesson for the day. He''d been there for a couple of weeks at this point and his caretaker had informed him the day before just how important this one was to know, but she hadn''t actually gone so far as to tell him what it would be on. "Lehie, what''s with all the suspense? You''re making me nervous here." "Ah, sorry. It''s just a complicated topic, I want to convey its importance to you properly. Still, I shouldn''t put it off any longer, today I''m going to tell you what we know about the invaders." The invaders, the entire reason his classmates'' souls had been summoned for a second chance at life after they died. So far Ben''s knowledge of them consisted of the fact that they''d conquered hundreds of worlds, and the survivors who had managed to escape all came together to form a united front together here, but beyond that he didn''t know anything. "Pass." "What do you mean pass? You can''t just pass on learning this!" "The only real benefit to being completely forgotten about is I won''t need to fight on the front lines. What am I going to do with this info?" "It''s not like I''ll be revealing some deep secrets to you or anything! This is stuff everyone knows. When you make your own way in the world it would be strange if you didn''t, especially once the invasion starts." He could see the logic to that, even if it felt like letting himself get sucked in deeper to the world''s events and coming war. "Okay fair enough I guess, but if everyone knows what''s stressing you out so much about it?" "These sorts of things need to be conveyed properly. Anyway, despite all the build-up, there''s unfortunately little to say. The attack was structured the same across each world it happened on. When it began on each planet it started with 333 beams of light marking various places in the world where the invasion would take place. From there, after some time gates would open at each point and the attacks would start coming through in waves. Each time it¡¯s the same. The first has nothing but wild beasts pouring through. Demons as some have taken to calling them. They seem nearly mindless in ways but they''re brutal, savage, and powerful. They alone are responsible for taking out most worlds." "Wait, how bad are they that you have packs of animals taking over worlds?" "Unfortunately their power isn''t the biggest issue, it''s their numbers. Each gate can pour out millions of them. It simply isn''t manageable for many races, especially considering that they''ll scatter about once they get out to continue to cause untold death and destruction. The fact that some managed to hitch rides to this world with the various gods who were simply trying to save as many of their people as they could is already a horrific issue to deal with, but at least provides the opportunity for firsthand training." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. So there''s already some of those monsters on this world? Great. He thought dryly as he listened and waited for Lehie to continue. "As for the second wave, that''s when their main force comes, at least what we think the main force is. Either way, it''s the one composed of their sapients, an almost undying group that seems intent on causing as much death and destruction as they can. From the accounts we have recorded and the words of our gods it seems that they won''t spare anyone or anything, instead paving a trail of chaos across the world." "Scary and all, but what do you mean by undying?" While it was interesting at least, Ben found himself having trouble connecting to what he was being told. Despite that, he ended up curious enough to want to learn more, in the same sense one would want to learn a game or books lore as opposed to the history of a world. Lehie luckily was happy to teach, regardless of the form his curiosity took. "We''ve seen examples of them using enough magic to know that their race as a whole is able to learn every type, but it seems that in particular, they will always have access to either life or death magic. As a result, they will heal their wounds at terrifying rates, or make it so they won''t succumb to their injuries until one of their life mages heals them. It leads to them seeming almost unkillable unless their bodies are thoroughly destroyed. Finally there''s the third wave, just as bad as the second, but they seem to include their best of the best. At least we hope that''s what they are." She finished in a smaller voice. "And after that?" Lehie only shook her head. "No world''s made it that far. Hopefully nothing. From what we¡¯ve seen it seems like their race is strangely fixated on the number three as a whole, with the 333 gates, and what we suspect of being 333 days on their homeworld taking place between each attack, but it''s hard to say. Maybe they¡¯re ready to attack us 333 times too for all we know and we¡¯ve just never had a chance to find it out, or maybe they¡¯ll never stop attacking." Three waves of attacks were enough to bring down worlds. Horrifying in so many ways, but Ben still felt an emotional distance from it all. Maybe it was because he didn''t grow up worrying about this, maybe it was due to the short time he''d found himself on the world. Whatever it was, after hearing all of that he at least had the common sense to hope it would be closer to the twenty years instead of the three. ¡°So the plan is just what? Keep fighting and hope for the best? Pray that we can survive three waves and that they¡¯ll just stop once the third is done? That kind of feels disgustingly optimistic.¡± ¡°This world is more advanced as a whole than the majority of the worlds that had fallen, and thanks to the system in place the strength of an average individual is far greater than in the past as well, but I can¡¯t say I know anything about the plans being formed. All I know is that essentially every nation in this world has spent hundreds of years trying to come up with countermeasures. If any world was going to succeed, it would be this one.¡± CH92 character summaries Ben Heph Our titular chaotic craftsman, or at least he''s beginning to grow into the role. While his beginnings in the world were a rocky start, being unneeded and forgotten about by the nations that took in his classmates, he''s managed to start making a home for himself and work he enjoys. Through the constant training of his skills and a little luck, some of his abilities have increased at a startling rate, but because he compares himself to his classmates who all managed to arrive in the world with their abilities in an already awakened state he doesn''t view his own progress as very impressive. While thinking about his life on earth and his family is still painful for him, he''s trying to move past it the best he can, having made friends in the world to spend his time with. Though he''s only been on the world for about a year, it ended up being far more hectic than he ever would have hoped for, almost dying on multiple occasions, and having to both fight to save his new town as well as take the trial of a god in short order. If he were to give any thought to how crazy his time had been so far, he would likely tell himself that his classmates probably had it worse, having to train to protect the world from a coming threat and all, but how accurate is that actually? Ceselee Ceselee is the current head of the stonewall adventurers guild, as well as the other three guilds it will act as in a limited capacity. She harbored guilt about how the situation with Roan worked out, knowing it was her own guild¡¯s failings that let things get out of hand, and that it was ultimately Thera that paid the price for it. She''s long acquainted with Falk, ever since he made his shop in stonewall, as he would occasionally take quests for monsters he wanted the materials from. She also occasionally purchases from his shop Falk An 8 foot tall snow-white yeti with a top knot. The only skills Ben is currently aware he has are blacksmithing, alchemy, enchanting, and earth magic, though there are undoubtedly more, he just keeps them close to the chest. While he had no interest initially in taking a student, he was forced into it by misjudging Ben and giving a task that was within the realm he could accomplish. Despite his misgivings, he''s grown to find training Ben to be an interesting experience, getting to see how the boy solves problems and watching him develop being more satisfying than he initially expected Father Yan The head priest of the communal church Ben was summoned to with an appearance best described as a lizard man cyclops A kind spirited older man, when he learns that Ben is left behind doesn''t hesitate to do his best to help him, though he''s more than willing to be strict on the priests that work under him to keep them in line Fredrick A potted tree about three feet tall and with lovely purple leaves. It will produce berries every few months and Ben uses it to train his connect skill. Since this act has given him access to the tree tamer job, he''s fairly sure he managed to tame it, though he doesn''t understand what that means since it''s a plant John A named classmate of Ben, being mentioned all the way back in chapter one and having no impact on the story since. Sorry John Lehie The priest put in charge of Ben when he''s first summoned and one of the oldest members of the communal church she''s part of, though she doesn''t look it. While at first, she finds Ben''s constant skepticism annoying, she''s distraught when nobody takes him in and dedicates herself wholeheartedly to teaching him everything she can to help him make his home in the world. Though well educated and having years of experience behind her, she can occasionally display traits that make her seem much younger than she is. Combine that with her youthful looks and it can occasionally causes problems for the church Myriad The titular cube that Ben worships. A god of a long dead race, Myriads people decided to destroy their world when they were invaded, rather than let it fall into enemy hands. Myriad has the unique characteristic among the gods of absorbing the souls of his believers and incorporating them into himself. Taking advantage of the fact that Ben was forgotten to get him as his first believer in centuries, he does his best to support his apostle as a god, even if he isn''t always happy with the choices Ben makes. Still, since his number of believers has increased to over a dozen in a short amount of time thanks to Ben''s work and discoveries, he won''t complain too much. Not much is known currently about his original race, other than that members could mentally connect to each other by linking sub-brains in their tentacles, but Ben is likely to learn more as he grows closer to his god. Onk A faceless hominid type working as a guild employee in Stonewall, they''re well acquainted with all of the adventurers in town and have a good reputation. They feel guilty about the situation Thera found herself in due to guild negligence, and as a result always tries to give her the best service they can while telling off anyone she hears spreading rumors Sachel A member of Skoes party, she fills the role of a healer with her life magic, but at the same time also works on her water and earth magic in the hope that one day she''ll be able to awaken her skills to plant magic. With that goal in mind, she converts to Myriad shortly after talking to Ben about it to try and get the connect skill, and hopefully get the chance to get the tree tamer job to improve her odds. She is a mixed breed of dryad descent. Steph Having become friends with Ben during some art classes back on earth, she finds herself worrying about how he''s managing alone while she still struggles to adapt to the situation herself. Her training is progressing smoothly, partly in thanks to forcing an agreement between two nations when they were selecting to let her train together with her friend so she wouldn''t need to face an entirely new world alone. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Sonya Sonya is a succubus. Aunt to Thera, sister to Pelenia and friend of Falk''s, though she''d like to be more one day. She trained hard for years, not just to raise her life magic to make her a competent healer, but also getting her charm to level 6 so she would be able to properly suppress it She acts as one of the healers in Stonewall and is well respected in the community for her dedication to her work. Skoe A four-armed warrior whose fighting style involves using both a pair of swords and shields, he harbors a strong protectiveness towards other adventurers. Though he knows the line of work carries risks, he doesn''t want anyone he''s acquainted with to die needlessly. It''s this attitude that led him try to get Thera to give up adventuring, as well as protect Ben from her. Ralia A naga woman who is in a party with Skoe and Sachel. Not much else is known about her at the present, though that will change as the story progresses Roan A hominid type with insect-like characteristics, he''s best described as a tamer and an asshole. After constantly ignoring Theras warnings and getting himself exposed to her passive magic, it eventually leaves him completely insane to the point he thought it would be a good idea to try to stop an attack on the town he very openly caused to try and win her heart. Thera Oress A mixed breed of both succubi and earth spirit heritage, Thera is the first of her kind and suffers the consequences of learning exactly what that fact means. While her spirit heritage gives her so much mana she can''t control the earth magic she''s born with in a meaningful way, the charm magic from her succubi heritage has the opposite problem, running out of control to the point that an average person to come in contact with her risks losing their mind should exposure be long enough. As a result she''s used to avoiding people, doing her best to not get too close to anyone but her family until she meets Ben, and after a bit over a month of working together learns he has the qualities to completely ignore her passive magic. Because of this, and his genuine desire for friendship, she''s forced to learn how to interact with someone as a friend for the first time, without needing to worry about keeping a safe distance Though Roan''s obsession with her proved to be a danger to the town she''d started to make her home, she was able to overcome him with Ben''s help and grow stronger for it. Shortly after, she returns to her homeland with Ben so her mother, queen of the succubi, can provide him with assistance for something that could help all their race, as well as her in particular, a way to block passive magics. Through a series of events, she''s forced to take the trial of her god and comes out victorious. Later during a celebration of that event, her mother manipulates things, putting her in a situation where she has to engage her new friend and filling her with complicated emotions as a result. Will Ben''s classmate and friend. Coming to this world with skills like unarmed master, enhanced strength, and tough skin, he''s appeared with the traits to be an impressive fighter. He''s one of the summoned that are most accepting of learning they died on earth and getting a second chance as a fighter in another world, and he''s excited to see just how his new abilities can be used Abrus The great earth spirit. After surviving the loss of his world with the other great spirits and all the regular spirits they could save, he settled on the new world for thousands of years before meeting and eventually falling in love with Pelenia As a result of the system put on him and all of the other spirits when they joined the world, he unknowingly gained an ability all other races had to one extent or another. Sexual reproduction. While far different from a spirits normal means of reproduction (where groups of them would divide off pieces of their living mana, forging it into a new spirit) it seems to be a side effect of one of the aspects designed into the system itself, the ability to produce offspring across the various races, despite potential physiological, biological, or chemical differences that would normally prevent such a thing. With both a playful yet protective personality, he''s discovered aspects of himself he did not realize he was capable of, such as romantic love and parental affection, the later he learns with the birth of his daughter, the first half spirit, Thera. Anailia Goddess of the succubi. A goddess of love and seduction. Her husband was Tolona, a god of unity and strength (specifically emotional strength) who died fighting off invaders to help his people escape. One of the few gods who managed to save a large population of their race, the succubi number in the low millions as a result of the structure of her trial being convenient for taking in a large number of residents and supporting their population. As a result of this, no matter how much help she has for these tasks she cannot always be aware of the events facing her people unless she is informed by her apostle or they are of great urgency. Much like all larger gods, it is also impractical for her to attempt to bestow all of her believers with blessings and gift skills as a result of the attention it would require to determine the believer¡¯s character. Instead, she opts to use her trial and watches for any figures who demonstrate the best ability to use her gifts. Funa The great spirit of darkness who escaped her world along with Abrus and the others. While at this time she has no desire to try to produce a child with one of the other races that inhabit the world, she has a great fondness for Thera, loving her as her niece and seeing in her the potential future for spirits as a whole. She''s long wanted to help her niece attempt to raise her charm to a level where it would be manageable. As a being with no definite lifespan as well as knowing Thera is in for a long one herself, she''s sure it will be a path that is taken eventually, and sees no harm in getting it out of the way as soon as possible, but will respect Theras wishes on the matter. After heroes were summoned from other worlds to raise their number of tier two magic and combat skill users, she is asked by Pelenia to help train Karly, a tier two skill user with dark empress magic, and agrees for the friendship between them and her long history with Abrus Furela An incubus with an awakened barrier magic skill. As it is rare to have an awakened non-affinited magic skill, him handling Globs training was without doubt from the time the grey''s skills were discovered Globolgork A creature that would be known as a grey on earth, he''s one of a separate group of summoned heroes who came with the skill barrier mastery. He came from a race that through their technological advances is able to peer into other universes, as well as project themselves into them, seemingly as a way of pranking the residents of other worlds, but how true that is remains to be seen. As a result, after being summoned he maintains a relationship with his homeworld, reporting on the events that take place regularly and giving his own interpretations of what he sees. Pelenia The queen of the succubi and Theras mother. She gained her role as queen after quickly conquering the trial with Abrus, much to her god¡¯s amusement. With a personality that can range from playful to scheming, she''s more than happy to try and manipulate events as she sees fit, though she does have the best of intentions while doing it, regardless of what others may think. Has a not insignificant interest in tying Ben to her nation, as well as forcing him to make her daughter happy. Karly Ben''s former classmate. Has an advanced form of dark magic, dark empress magic. When she first joined the nation of Anailia she went through many of the same emotional struggles that Ben did but has been receiving mental support, as well as creating her own through her goal of completing the trial to become a candidate for the throne. Though she ultimately failed, she doesn''t mind too much, having gotten the chance to talk with Ben and deciding to take a trip to see some of the friends she''s missed instead. Mark Ben''s younger brother and a sporty kid who loves attention. He would spend great deals of time with Ben while he was still alive on earth Vividus Great life spirit. Vivi for short. Not much is known about her currently other than the fact that she''s the one who came up with the plan to create more powerful half spirits and attempting to create something called a soul spirit with the great death spirit Nox. She does not get along well with Thera. Nox Great death spirit. Lives in the death mountains and attempting to create a soul spirit with Vividus. Does not get along with Thera. Incedis Great fire spirit. Attempting to produce a half spirit with a fire affinity fairy. Does not get along with Thera. Genon Great air spirit. Attempting to create a half spirit with a member of the Fulgur race in the hopes of taking advantage of their natural lightning magic. Does not get along with Thera. Quilith An alien that still lives in an alternate universe who watches over Glob. Ben convinced him to supply him with the information he wants once a month. CH93 As they made their way back to stonewall by carriage and only a few hours from home after long days of travel, Ben eventually nodded off, finding himself in Myriad''s realm. "What''s up Myriad?" He asked, it being the first time in a few days he''d seen his god. "Manage to find a better quest for me?" "You''ve got what you''ve got, I''ll have more when you complete the next one." "Uhg, but the options are lame. Why do I even have completing an achievement in your name again?" "That''s going to be a permanent option from now on, anything that spreads my name and makes me look good is worth rewarding after all." "Fine. In that case, was there something up or were you just looking to hang for the last legs of my trip home?" The benefit of Myriad visiting him while he slept was that he got to squeeze a bit more time out of the day at least. He couldn''t really do anything with it but at least his mind got to be active. "Nothing too much, I was just hoping when you get back you''ll make some time to visit Sachel. I was able to give her my gift skill a few days ago, I''m sure she''ll be happy to receive some guidance on it from someone who''s already managed to level it up a fair bit." "Okay sure, but in exchange it''s time for you to fulfill a promise." Myriad could instantly tell what Ben wanted, it was positively leaking from his mind. A race once created an item that had managed to ascend to the realm of gods, and Ben had been surprisingly patient getting the story from him. "Yes yes, you want the story of the race that got an item beyond mythic, and just what they made, right?" "Yes please, your shininess." Myriad didn''t need the buttering up, but it was a nice change of pace compared to Ben''s regular attitude. He could only imagine how his follower would react to the reveal. "Well, the answer to both is you''re looking at it and you''re looking at it." The cube said smugly, pride rolling off of him, "Wait you mean¡­" "That''s right! Mine was the proud race that pierced into the realm of gods! What do you think? Impressed at all?" It was what Myriad was expecting at least, but instead he just felt pity coming from his apostle. "Sure they did buddy," Ben said kindly. "I bet your race was great in their heyday." "They really were! Is it that hard to believe?" "Well before didn''t you say your race didn''t even produce technology? Seems like that would be kind of important." "They didn''t produce it the same way others did! My race were masters of ritual magic. We may not have had stoves or swords, but we produced a variety of things through magic you couldn''t dream of!" "Okay fine if you say so. So what did they make then that''s so impressive?" "Me." You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. "Come again?" "The body you see before you was originally a shell of sorts, meant to host the souls of the deceased in an artificial paradise. It took the collective brainpower and technique of millions of my kind to make it possible, and pulled from all branches of magic to boot!" "Wait, so are their blueprints for you?" Ben asked, starting to salivate and staring at Myriad like he was a fine meal, or worse, something to be dissected. "I mean, not really, but since the knowledge exists I''m the minds of the people who made me I could probably make some¡­" As Myriad spoke Ben held his hand out, clearly indicating his desire, and Myriad broke down, trying to arrange the information on his own construction in such a way that it would be possible for the brain structure of a hominid type to understand it and ended up with a large book, as thick as Ben''s head. Ben immediately grabbed it and began to pour through it, still asking questions as he read. "So how does something that sounds like a magic matrioshka brain eventually become a god?" "Originally, it probably would have been considered an upper legendary or lower mythic item, but it, or should I say I, got two boosts that helped my development to godhood. As time went on the souls residing in me began to merge into one being due to the inherent properties of my race, and seeing this the original gods of my world decided to join with it too. This act pushed my being past something that could exist in the physical universe, while at the same time granting me divinity, and cementing my godhood." It sounded to Ben like his gods'' race had managed to make a mythic item, and their original gods had been the ones to actually push it past that, but making a mythic grade item was impressive enough. He felt a little bad for Myriad because now that he was aware of this he was going to be summoned consistently until he finished reading the blueprints and make sure his questions were answered whether his god liked it or not. "So what''s ritual magic anyway?" Ben asked as he tried to decipher some of the initial concepts that the entire structure seemed to be based on. "You''re the only person I''ve heard mention it on the planet." "It was more important to the various races across the Galaxy before they were all forced here and had the system put in place. It was basically a means of making more powerful and complex spells by having multiple mages construct them together. With the system though, individuals can gain immense strength through their own efforts and learn to manage more complex spells, so it''s fallen out of fashion." "Fair enough, if you can accomplish the same thing on your own then that''s probably better anyway." "Well I wouldn''t say you could exactly accomplish the same thing on your own, and there¡¯s no reason rituals can''t be used in tandem with the system, it just adds a layer of difficulty. Sure mages now can definitely use their skills easier and better than a typical group practicing ritual magic, where they may have had to shaped spells with something like three to twenty people, but my race were experts of the craft. You could go so far as to say it was our specialty." "What made you guys so good at it then?" "A couple things. If we were to talk in terms of levels, a standard member of my race would typically have the zeroth or first in about five different affinities of magic by adulthood, with many having all of them. Second, compared to other races who would have to carefully plan things out and practice their rituals, we were able to link our minds unendingly as long as we connected our sub brains. Our rituals would involve hundreds to thousands of people working together to achieve our common goal.¡± "No offense Myriad, but if your people were so great why did you have to destroy your planet instead of just fighting off the invaders?" "Well first of all, most other races couldn''t blow up their planet even if they wanted to, that''s the biggest ritual my people ever managed. Secondly, that''s how much of a threat they are. They can throw unending waves at a world and sacrifice untold numbers to claim it. No matter what we or any other world would try, eventually we''d just run out of people. Taking as many of them out with us as we could was the optimal outcome." "And you gods don''t know any race that''s defeated them?" "We know of races who haven''t been attacked. Those living in gas giants, some that live in the hearts of stars, and the few that make their homes in the void between them, but none of us are aware of any terrestrial worlds that have held them off. If there are any, their planet would be deep in invader territory by this point, potentially still having to fight." Then how exactly are we supposed to win? Ben found himself thinking. His god declined to answer despite Ben knowing full well he heard it, and he tried to put the matter to the side himself, instead focusing on the blueprints Myriad gave him to read and looking forward to arriving home. CH94 Falk鈥檚 Perspective It had been about a month and a half since Ben and Thera had gone off to Anailia, and both Falk and Sonya were feeling their absence. Sonya was finding her empty house a bit too lonely without Thera there to see each day, and while Falk was more productive with his work without Ben around, not needing to spend time teaching the boy and answering his questions, he found himself strangely missing the chance to watch the fledgling craftsman grow, as well as seeing how the boy would solve the problems he faced. Since they both found themselves in need of some company, Falk had been coming over to enjoy some late dinners with Sonya at her suggestion. Before his workload increased from his client¡¯s orders he¡¯d typically join her and Thera for a meal or two a week anyway, they¡¯d just bumped it up while the other two were away. He was grateful too. He had gained the cooking skill long ago, as most who would prepare their own meals tended to do, but he never put much work into it, leaving it permanently at a low level of one. Sonya on the other hand had a respectable four as a result of constantly trying to make nice meals for herself and Thera, not to mention the years she¡¯d spent cooking for the party back in their old adventuring days, and Falk could definitely taste the difference the skill made. No matter how many times he ate it, it tasted nostalgic to him, bringing back memories of when he had finished his training as both a smith and an alchemist, still going out into the wilds to collect new materials for his crafts. ¡°I hope you¡¯re enjoying it,¡± Sonya said, pulling him from his thoughts. ¡°Everything you cook¡¯s always excellent you know, getting a free meal is a treat.¡± Her face lit up with a gentle smile as it so often did when she was complimented, and Falk couldn''t help but feel a bit scraggly in comparison. Sonya would at least make the effort to change into something nice for their dinners, while Falk typically just came from the shop, wearing the same things he¡¯d spent the day forging in. Maybe for the next one he would at least go to the trouble of running a comb through his fur to look a little more presentable. ¡°You know if you like my cooking so much you could always eat it more-¡± ¡°We¡¯re back!¡± Thera called out as she opened the door, interrupting whatever Sonya was going to say. Falk wasn¡¯t positive on what sort of face she was making, even after all of these years together he wasn¡¯t a master of the subtleties of a succubus''s facial expressions, but it quickly turned into a smile as she got up to greet them, to which Falk joined her. ¡°It¡¯s good to have you back Thera, the house has been too empty without you,¡± Sonya spoke as she pulled her niece into a hug. ¡°And Ben, aren¡¯t you looking sharp, is that new?¡± ¡°What, this old thing?¡± Ben asked, gesturing to the coat he was wearing that Falk couldn¡¯t tear his eyes from. ¡°I made it while we were there, it¡¯s kind of a funny story-¡± ¡°Well, sit down and tell it immediately boy,¡± He said, grabbing Ben and pulling him to a chair to explain himself. There was no way he could have made it, it wouldn¡¯t make sense with what he was seeing, but he¡¯d be downright excited to be proven wrong. He turned back to look at the coat his student was wearing again and couldn¡¯t help but grin at what his various higher-level skills were showing him First Church or Myriad This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
  • Fire affinity warming enchantment, 9th level
  • Water affinity cooling enchantment, 9th level
  • Myriad''s essence?
  • Item Grade- Lower ultra-rare
After Ben and Thera caught Sonya and Falk up on what had occurred while they were gone, both of them could only stare on in disbelief. Sonya looked like she¡¯d gotten a migraine after the conversation, while Falk nursed his head in his hands. ¡°Well first things first, Looks like I should apologize for sending you both out there. I know she can be a handful, but I never expected things to get this bad.¡± ¡°Pelenia, what in Anailias name are you doing to your daughter?¡± Sonya muttered to herself. ¡°Seems she¡¯s let herself grow too unrestrained without me there¡­¡± ¡°So anyway, what about the coat caught your fancy Falk?¡± Ben asked, changing the subject. ¡°Tell me it¡¯s upper uncommon, give me the news of my dreams.¡± The boy was looking at him with unrestrained expectations. He knew he¡¯d made a quality item and couldn¡¯t wait to get his teacher''s appraisal. Falk could only sigh. ¡°Boy that,¡± he said while gesturing to Theras armband. ¡°Was upper uncommon. Your coat is lower ultra-rare.¡± He could see the boy''s jaw instantly drop and he couldn¡¯t blame him. ¡°Ultra-rare?¡± He asked hesitantly. ¡°Wasn¡¯t that the sort of thing I wouldn¡¯t be expected to manage unless I could make rare items consistently.¡± ¡°Best I can bet is you must have forced it using your god''s essence. The quality of materials is gonna play a part on the outcome after all and you managed to make use of what could well be described as one of the rarest and most fickle materials to work to your will. Probably also why you got a couple levels in crafting. Making an ultra-rare item at your level is so far above what''s expected for you the system probably had no choice but to compensate. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you were close to leveling up again after that.¡± ¡°Come on Falk, you must be exaggerating a little there.¡± ¡°Boy if you managed to make that while at level nine your skill would have immediately awoken, and if you had just started your crafting job you would have gotten enough experience to complete it instantly.¡± His teacher told him dead serious. ¡°For someone with the crafting skill like you, it wouldn¡¯t be expected to even have the potential to make an item that good until you¡¯d already awoken it, and likely not until you had completed two of your crafting path jobs and gained access to at least high craftsman.¡± That¡¯s not even getting to what the boy figured out for his connect skill. Shame it sounds like he didn¡¯t get any rest, now that he¡¯s back I¡¯m working him to the bone. Falk thought to himself with a toothy grin before turning his attention back to Thera. ¡°So did you have any luck getting dark magic then?¡± He asked his niece, but she just shook her head. ¡°You know how long it took me to get a single level in earth magic, I doubt it will be any time soon.¡± ¡°True, but back then you couldn¡¯t move your mana at all. I¡¯d say you¡¯re in a much better place to succeed at the moment.¡± ¡°Well, I can hope at least. Speaking of though, I know you¡¯ve been giving me Ben in the mornings, but do you think I could just take him for the weekend instead?¡± ¡°Hmm? Divorcing me already?¡± He asked jokingly, though not understanding why she didn¡¯t want to hunt with him each day anymore. ¡°You¡¯re looking to get hit. I just thought It would be better to give you more time to work on your own skills instead of monopolizing so much of your time. With my earth magic at three right now I¡¯m at a better place than I ever could have hoped for, so I was thinking I could use five days a week to try and work on acquiring other magics. Plus if we go for hunts two days back to back we could go farther into the woods and camp out instead of these smaller excursions and hopefully get better creatures. I think it would be a win-win all around.¡± ¡°As long as you aren¡¯t hunting on your own I don¡¯t mind. Probably good to give the boy some more hands-on training right now as well, ¡®specially considering that his enchanting is a high enough level I could start training him on some more complex techniques.¡± His student had come back so much more interesting after all, it would be a shame not to put him to the test. CH95 ¡°So I hate to ask this, but mind if I crash here tonight?¡± Ben said, turning to Sonya. ¡°Since I gave up the room I was renting I need to find a place to stay, but your place is a fair bit comfier than the floor in Falk''s shop in the meantime.¡± ¡°Or instead of treating my shop like an option you could get a room from an inn.¡± His teacher grumbled. ¡°It¡¯s no issue,¡± Sonya told him. ¡°I was actually going to see if you''d perhaps be interested in renting the spare room. It¡¯s been quite nice coming home to cooked meals, and I¡¯m sure Thera would enjoy having more food options than whatever raw vegetables and leftovers are around when I can''t make anything.¡± ¡°You sure? I wouldn¡¯t want to impose.¡± He was quite tempted by the idea. Their home was closer to the shop compared to where he was previously staying, and he was already storing his stuff there while he was gone. Aside from that, it would make adventuring with Thera more convenient if they could just have breakfast or dinner and go. ¡°Having you here for a month already went rather well I think, and it¡¯s nice having the house so lively. Of course, this is all if Thera doesn¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Hmm? Will you give up on the marriage jokes if I say yes?¡± She asked, thinking she¡¯d found a way to regain some peace. Unfortunately Ben immediately shot her down. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I can only stop when I stop finding it funny. I¡¯ll sleep in the shop tonight.¡± ¡°Gods, no sleep here instead of the floor,¡± She immediately gave in, not wanting her friend who she just went through a god''s trial with stuck sleeping on the ground, no matter how much he insisted on annoying her. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re enjoying it that much that you¡¯d turn down having a place to sleep.¡± ¡°What can I say, it¡¯s how I am. Can¡¯t help wanting to talk about my beautiful fianc¨¦e and all,¡± he told her with a joking smile. Thera could only sigh. ¡°Anyway aunty Sonya, think I could ask a favour from you too?¡± ¡°Hmm? Of course Thera, what can I do for you?¡± Her niece typically didn¡¯t ask much of her, she couldn¡¯t help but be a little surprised. ¡°Well since Anailia said that my levels in all my magics will improve my magic control as a whole, and it sounds like it would contribute to my quest to gain levels, I was hoping you could take some time to teach me some life magic.¡± Sonya wore a complicated expression when her niece asked that. ¡°Thera, I¡¯m not so sure that¡¯s a good idea.¡± ¡°But I have the affinity at 22, I should be able to learn the skill even if it will be harder than getting dark magic.¡± All the women in her family had a decent compatibility with the skill, while she¡¯d never considered it herself before the trial she knew it could be useful. ¡°It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t think you could learn it if you want, it¡¯s just that if you don¡¯t raise your control more it will be akin to someone going into the life valley, especially starting out. The effects could be rather severe.¡± ¡°Oh that. Don¡¯t worry, I have a solution that will probably work pretty well.¡± ¡°You do?¡± Sonya asked, not sure what she meant until she pointed at Ben. ¡°Wait, you¡¯re going to use me as a practice dummy for potentially dangerous life magic? Didn''t you say something about the life valley causing mould to grow on people while bacteria eat them alive?¡± ¡°You have a ridiculous life resistance, you¡¯ll probably be fine. Besides,¡± She started as a playful smile formed on her face. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to help your beautiful fianc¨¦e?¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Falk immediately burst into laughter as his niece got her little revenge, and Ben gave in. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll help until you get the skill at least. The first time you succeed probably won¡¯t be too rough on me, right?¡± He asked, turning to Sonya who wouldn¡¯t meet his eyes. Gonna take that as it might hurt a little. It will probably be fine. He tried to convince himself, hoping he didn¡¯t agree to something that would get him confined to bed to heal again. ¡°Well as long as my disciple can still work I don¡¯t mind too much what you do to the boy, but I should probably head out. Meet me at the shop bright and early tomorrow and we¡¯ll see just how you¡¯ve improved.¡± ¡°Sorry Falk, you mind if I start up again the day after? Myriad asked me to check up on his other believer in town so I wanted to do that tomorrow.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s a task for your god then I don¡¯t mind. Didn¡¯t realize you had another believer here.¡± ¡°I converted her with my honeyed words. Not to brag, but I occasionally try to do what my god wants.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think there''s a single person on this world that would consider an apostle who only occasionally works towards their god''s interests as bragging, but as long as none of the divine retribution you¡¯re getting one day rubs off on me then that''s all that matters.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m pretty sure Myriad doesn¡¯t have enough believers to pull anything like that off.¡± ¡°Anailia does and you still chipped her avatar,¡± Thera muttered, which Ben was happy to ignore. That was really just a difference of opinions after all. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ll see you in a couple days.¡±
Once Falk left, Thera got up to start getting ready for bed herself while Ben stayed up to unpack his spacial bag and chat with Sonya for a while. After tossing the small bit of luggage both he and Thera brought into it, he¡¯d filled the rest of the space with books and tools, the most important clearly being his kiss the cook apron. Besides that though he made sure to get plenty of books on topics he wasn¡¯t sure he could learn much about from Falk, like sewing, cooking, and stoneworking, on top of as many ones on enchantments as he could comfortably buy from the craftsman''s guild. If he was going to figure out a way to make a brace that could perfectly contain Thera¡¯s passive magic then the secret was going to be in mastering enchanting, he was sure of it. It was as he was flipping through one of the enchanting books he was more hopeful about that Sonya spoke up. ¡°I just want to say I am so, so sorry about my sister,¡± She said with as much sincerity as she could muster. ¡°I know she can be a handful but I never would have imagined her forcing the trial or an engagement onto you.¡± He continued to try to make his way through one of the more complicated passages with one mind, focusing the other on the conversation. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, honestly with the amount I gained from the trial I can¡¯t exactly complain, and it¡¯s not like I¡¯m involved with anyone at the moment or even looking to be. Being engaged for a while won¡¯t be so bad.¡± ¡°Well having said that, do you think you could ease up on Thera a bit? A man shouldn¡¯t joke when calling a woman beautiful after all.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯m joking about her being beautiful,¡± He told her while he pulled ideas through his head. ¡°But yeah, I guess it¡¯s been a week already, I¡¯ll ease up unless it¡¯s ever particularly funny.¡± Since he had his nose buried in his book, he didn¡¯t notice Sonya perking up to his response, nor was he aware of Thera briefly stopping to listen as she went to wash up before she slept. Sonya though was in a perfect position to take note of her niece''s pause and shimmering face. ¡°So does that mean you don¡¯t have any issue with romance outside of your race?¡± She asked, probing and instantly having more fun with her sister''s decision. ¡°I guess that sort of thing depends. I can¡¯t say I¡¯d be attracted to all hominid types, let alone all races. The head of the church I was summoned to, father Yan, was some sort of one-eyed lizard man¡­¡± He pulled his head away from his book as he thought for a minute. ¡°Actually I never learned his race, did I? Either way that''s a bit out of my strike zone.¡± ¡°But Thera would be in it?¡± Sonya asked, pushing forward with her curiosity. ¡°Like I said, Thera¡¯s pretty but at the same time I¡¯m not looking for anything and she¡¯s mentioned that she isn¡¯t either. Besides, it¡¯s not like I have romantic interest and I¡¯m not throwing away one of the few friendships I have in this world because she happens to be a single girl.¡± ¡°Well, ¡° Sonya said, finding herself immediately more entertained by her sister''s meddling, ¡°Not exactly single anymore, is she?¡± CH96 Ben pulled open the door before Sachel even had a chance to knock. ¡°How did you know I was there?¡± She asked, more than a little surprised. She¡¯d been excited for him to get back ever since she got the skill and had been told by Myriad that he would give her some pointers, but given her friendship with Skoe and his strained relationship with Thera she had been feeling hesitant to knock on her door. ¡°Myriad told me,¡± He said, having been woken by his god while he was in the middle of reading through the blueprints in Myriad''s divine realm. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s either go to your place or walk to the forest.¡± ¡°Not here?¡± ¡°Thera doesn¡¯t like wearing her cloak at home and I¡¯m not going to force her to for company.¡± Not to mention the fact that your party seems to have a history with her. Ben wasn¡¯t hiding the fact that Sachel was his god''s new believer from her, nor that he was going to help her a bit with the skill, but that didn¡¯t mean he was going to force them into close quarters together. As far as he was concerned it was their party who needed to make a peace offering. Having said that, Ben didn¡¯t have any issue with Sachel outside of that. The few times she¡¯d spoken to her about Myriad while she was considering converting she seemed pleasant enough, if not a little overeager at times. ¡°Okay then, let¡¯s head to the woods, Ralia¡¯s still sleeping and I¡¯d rather not wake her.¡± It was still rather early in the morning. While Ben would usually be up soon anyway it was handy having his god there to help with that, and he knew Myriad wanted this to go well. If Sachel could use the skill to get the tree tamer job, and from there gain plant magic, she could be a valuable source of advertising, even if it looked like he would be able to appeal to a more crafting-focused crowd now that his skill had grown. They walked to the edge of the woods, chatting along the way. Ben was interested in what had gone on in town for the last month and a half, to which the answer was a resounding ¡®not much¡¯, and Sachel was curious about what he¡¯d been up to since he¡¯d left, which Ben tried to keep vague. Between developing a valuable patent, taking Anailia¡¯s trial, and kind of being engaged now, he wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to deal with the fallout of any of that being made public. When they got to the woods though they began the lesson. ¡°Alright Sachel, since you¡¯re an adventurer I¡¯m going to tell you here and now the most valuable use of the skill, one you¡¯ll be using every time you walk into the forest.¡± His sudden seriousness caught her and she looked at him with bated breath, excited to learn the applications to her new ability. ¡°If you keep the skill active, it will almost immediately kill any bugs that land on you to try and get a bite.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± She asked, disappointed he already wasn¡¯t taking it as seriously as she¡¯d hoped. ¡°Hey don¡¯t knock it, that was probably the first way I used the skill. Of course, I didn¡¯t have anyone to practice with at the time but doing that is what led me to discovering it can link to plants. Have you given it a try yet?¡± ¡°I have.¡± She nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve tested it with Ralia a few times, though it tends to feel a little¡­ off I guess? I¡¯ve also tried on our house plants but I feel like I can¡¯t pick up much from them.¡± ¡°Plants definitely take patience when you connect to them, the communication is slow and even when the skill levels up, you¡¯ll never be able to detect anything like regular thoughts, it¡¯s more you¡¯ll be able to interpret their feelings better and be able to pick up on the subtleties of their emotions. At least that¡¯s how it is for me. Since you¡¯re still level zero, why not try to connect with me first?¡± He held out his hand to her and she took it, activating her skill. Ben was reminded of what it was like when he¡¯d first gained it, all he could feel from her at the moment was a mixture of nervousness and excitement, not a single thought broke through. He was keeping his mind pretty steady at the moment, there wasn¡¯t much to provoke an emotional response from him after all, but after a couple minutes of feeling Sachel probe around his head he activated hidden mind, just to see what would happen. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°Wait, what did you just do? Was my skill canceled?¡± ¡°No, I just have a skill called hidden mind,¡± He said with a small chuckle. ¡°I spent enough time with enough different people and races trying to keep my thoughts leaking out that it developed. Did it cut off everything entirely?¡± ¡°It was like I wasn¡¯t even connected to you.¡± Interesting. His hidden mind skill was currently at the same level as her connect. He hadn¡¯t expected it would be able to cut off her skill entirely without it being a higher level. Perhaps it was a result of it interacting with one of his other skills that gave it a boost? None existed in a vacuum after all, just look at the interaction between connect and enchanting. If that was the case he¡¯d put his bets on either focus or complex mind being the culprit, but he supposed there wasn¡¯t really a way to know without doing some rigorous testing for something that was no more than an idle curiosity to him. ¡°Okay, well I have a good idea of what your skill is like at least. For reference, let me connect with you so you can see how it feels at higher levels.¡± He connected to her himself now and heard the thoughts flowing through her head for a moment before she pulled away. ¡°Why is your mind like that?¡± She asked, clearly flustered. ¡°Rude.¡± ¡°That was worse than connecting with Ralia! At least her emotions only felt a little weird, but it felt like there were two people in your head!¡± ¡°Just a side effect of one of my other skills, I wouldn¡¯t worry about it.¡± He told her. ¡°How many other weird skills do you have?¡± ¡°Still rude, but¡­¡± He thought about his current skills and three more came to mind before answering. ¡°No others that should be noticeable while we¡¯re practicing at least.¡± I guess from what Myriad said both tolerance and sacrilege are a bit weird, probably bind too, but only complex mind seems likely to bother her. Still, I wonder what about her friend feels weird to her. I didn¡¯t get that sort of reaction when she connected to me herself. He couldn¡¯t help but feel a little curious and decided he wanted to check for himself if the option ever came up, but for now he still wanted her to get a feeling for what the skill was like at higher levels, so he attempted something a little different. He took her hand, preparing to connect again, but first activated hidden mind, trying to use it on just one stream of thought as opposed to trying to cover up everything, and it seemed like that did the trick. Better? He thought to her, and she gave an affirmative response. He spent a couple minutes trying to let her take in the sensation without looking too closely at her thoughts since she still didn¡¯t have practice keeping her mind under control before leading in with another thing he¡¯d wanted to test ever since he¡¯d completed the trial. If you¡¯re comfortable with this, try connecting as well. She did as she was asked and unfortunately they got the result Ben expected. The connection seemed to be strengthened a bit, but it was nowhere near the extent he had experienced during the trial. In no way was he experiencing the world through her senses, nor were they sharing their brainpower, and he couldn''t help to be a little disappointed. Even if he was still feeling a similar effect thanks to complex mind, if he had been able to stack a third mind on top he thought he might be able to do some interesting things with it. Still, every result has value, and Ben didn¡¯t slouch on trying to understand how much more he could get from her once their skills were active at the same time. The only noticeable change was that her thoughts seemed a bit more clear, but he would want to try again once she leveled up more. There was always a chance that the result he was looking for could be achieved once they were closer to each other in level after all. He let it go on for a few more minutes but could tell Sachel was beginning to grow impatient, and he broke the connection. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s start on what you¡¯re really after then.¡± He told her, and her eyes lit up. ¡°Awesome, which one should we do it on?¡± She asked, looking around the forest and trying to decide what tree she wanted to get to know. ¡°Just pick one at random, it won¡¯t make a difference. Now there''s no change from connecting to me. I¡¯ll connect to it too and I¡¯ll judge how well you¡¯re interpreting its feelings if that sounds good? I¡¯m not really sure what else I can do to help.¡± ¡°That would be perfect, thanks.¡± She walked up to the closest one and connected to it, Ben reaching his hand out to do the same. Surprisingly, Ben could feel her mind through the connection with the tree and rapidly covered one of his own so as not to disrupt her. It made sense, he guessed. The two of them were connected to the same thing, and if it was a two-way connection then wasn¡¯t this just a longer path being formed? At least that¡¯s how he interpreted it. Still, it was interesting and had the positive effect of strengthening Sachel¡¯s skill as she tried to use it on the tree, making it easier for her to pick up on some of the subtleties she might have otherwise missed. Like that they let the hours pass as they trained. CH97 When Ben got home later in the day he found Thera sitting in the living room looking like she was meditating, presumably working on gaining either dark or life magic, while Sonya cooked in the kitchen. As he came in Thera opened an eye to look at him. ¡°How did training Sachel go?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll get the hang of it in no time. I¡¯ll probably meet up with her again to work on it in the future. How about you, any luck?¡± She let herself sprawl out when he asked, clearly feeling tired after a day of training. ¡°No luck yet. I still can¡¯t remove charm from any of my dark mana, and when I got Sonya to try to run some of her life mana through me I couldn¡¯t even feel it to know what to look for in myself.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s a way to learn to feel life mana too? I thought it was just a means to feel mana in general.¡± ¡°If you can already feel mana and have a compatibility with the affinity you should be able to feel some of the minor differences within the mana itself, but it¡¯s a lot harder, especially if you have as much as me and any that goes through me is basically negligible as a result. I may just need to try and figure it out without the reference.¡± ¡°Well good luck, if there¡¯s anything I can do let me know.¡± ¡°Will do. Also, it looks like you have a package.¡± She told him, gesturing to the side table where a container about as big as a shoebox sat. There was only one thing he was expecting and he felt a grin tear across his face. ¡°Is it what I think it is?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t say, but it¡¯s probably from mom. Open it up and let¡¯s find out,¡± Thera herself couldn¡¯t help but be a bit curious. Ben had told them it was a custom to send what they thought their daughter was worth after all. After everything they dealt with she couldn¡¯t help but hope they paid a fair bit to make up for all the stress they caused. Ben tore open the box and looked inside, finding a note and a bag within. Despite his excitement, he couldn¡¯t escape his upbringing and had to read the letter first. Even if Pelenia and Abrus weren¡¯t around, digging into the bag first would feel rude. Trying to contain himself he picked it up and read what was written. Dear Ben, You really put me in a pickle with this custom of yours, how am I supposed to decide what my daughter is worth and ship it to you conveniently? After a lot of discussion between my husband and I, we ultimately settled on the contents of the spacial bag you¡¯ve received, as well as letting you know that should you both need any money for building a life together you just have to ask. I look forward to hearing where your creativity leads you. Love, Pelenia P.S. Abrus wanted me to caution you against breaking our daughter''s heart after receiving all of this. He did his best to push away the threat from his mind in favour of getting to the meat of it. His curiosity was piqued after all, and his attention immediately turned to the bag, opening it up and pulling out 9 further boxes, each about as big as the original package they received. They were all fairly heavy and cumbersome, and he was curious about just what they were filled with as he pulled them all out until he saw a certain word on the top of the last box he grabbed, the only one to be labeled. Deathstone. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. No way, it can¡¯t be. He thought to himself as he felt his eyes light up and his grin grow even wider as Thera watched him from the side with suspicion. ¡°What¡¯s got you so excited?¡± She asked, and Ben started tearing open packages to confirm, only leaving the one marked deathstone unopened. With each box he looked into his anticipation only grew as his suspicion was confirmed. ¡°Your parents gave us samples of every magic material.¡± Mythril, orichalcum, moribusial, vergatios, pondus, sindian, deathstone, white mana crystals, and rainbow mana crystals. There were nine magic materials that could be mined from the earth, each incredibly rare in its own right, and now he had access to all of them. He couldn¡¯t begin to imagine just how he would put them to use or if he would save them for special occasions, but with the quantity he had, he could afford to be a little wasteful if he wanted as he tried to figure out just what to do with them all. ¡°What? All of them?¡± Thera asked in surprise, pulling him from his thoughts ¡°Looks like it, gotta say even if your dad can make all of these I¡¯m a fan of their shipping choice, I have plenty of money after making all the bands but materials like this would still be hard to get my hands on.¡± ¡°Dad can¡¯t actually make all of them,¡± Thera told him, seeming a little shocked. ¡°Unlike the others, deathstone is tied to the death affinity and vergatios to the light, dad can¡¯t materialize them. I can¡¯t imagine how much they would have paid to get them, or why they would think it would be a good idea to just give them away like that¡­¡± She said, trailing off as she looked at the unreasonable quantity of wealth concentrated in her living room. ¡°Ben when you had the whole dowry idea I didn¡¯t think they would go overboard like this. How am I even supposed to react?¡± ¡°I¡¯d say don¡¯t think too much on it. I won¡¯t touch most of the stuff till my level is high enough anyway but god do I want to start making plans.¡± His fantasies were already running wild on what he could do with them. Each magic material had its own unique properties and he couldn¡¯t wait to explore what he had only been able to read about in books until now. He¡¯d already gotten to play with mythril and white mana crystals, but the others would be irresistible too. Rainbow mana crystals have a higher mana storage capacity than the white ones, though it was also far harder to release it, meaning if you could put them to use you could increase the power or length a tool could be used considerably. Pondus and sindian would grow heavier and lighter respectively as more mana ran through them, leading to various applications for weapon and tool use mostly, while moribusial was able to suck mana in a single direction when properly treated, giving it the popular use of a magic cable to direct mana. The two Thera had mentioned her father wasn¡¯t able to produce had even stranger effects. Deathstone would directly absorb the vitality of anyone who touched it, meaning it had to be handled with care and likely wouldn¡¯t be unboxed any time soon. Vergatios on the other hand seemed to be used to absorb curses and other more metaphysical ailments leaving the areas it was in purified. That one he¡¯d already looked into to see if it could be a potential solution to Thera¡¯s charm, but it seemed that was something her parents had explored themselves long ago and finding it couldn¡¯t offer any results in suppressing her magic. The final one he was happy to get, though it was a little disappointing in the end. Orichalcum was almost completely immune to physical damage, though that meant it could only be forged and shaped through magical means, an option Ben just didn¡¯t have. It was a shame, armour made from it was of a whole other quality, but it didn¡¯t look like it would be something he could work himself unless he could come up with a way to get around his lack of magic. Maybe one day. He sighed to himself. It wasn¡¯t like he couldn¡¯t potentially have a magic tool made to work it so he could handle it himself rather than passing it off to Falk. He¡¯d have to ask his teacher in the future if he had any suggestions. CH98 The morning came and Ben went to the shop for the first time in what felt like ages. He threw open the doors and breathed it all in. ¡°Oh man, it¡¯s good to be back!¡± ¡°You¡¯re being dramatic,¡± Thera said beside him. Apparently, Falk stopped by the house yesterday and asked her to join for the first day at least for some training his teacher had in mind for him. ¡°Not even a little! Do you have any idea of how many things I want to make now that my levels gone up so much? God I wish I could take multiple jobs at once, leveling priest so I can improve my connect is fine and all, but I want more bonuses to my enchanting too,¡± The issue was that he needed both to improve to see how well they would work together as he leveled them up, he couldn¡¯t just pick one or the other. On the more positive side, it seemed that his enchanting was getting bonuses from his prior crafting skills, but he wanted more and would need to try and speed through the priest job to get them. At least his past achievements were helping him gain experience. It seemed he got some each time someone converted as a result of his actions, and it looked like praying while wearing the church gave even more experience than just praying regularly since he was essentially acting as the head priest of the church, but it would still be at least a year if he couldn¡¯t think of a few other ways to increase his job level faster. There was always the option of completing another quest, but his two choices still weren¡¯t great. Myriad had already said he wasn¡¯t getting too many more converts so the idea of getting him 100 was unlikely, and he couldn¡¯t think of what sort of achievement he could reasonably complete, but he¡¯d get his god to give him some examples later that he could look into. Still, it was an issue for later. For the time being, he wanted to get back into the groove of things at the forge. ¡°So what do you have for me Falk! Any orders you think I can handle?¡± ¡°For now the both of you take a seat, we¡¯ll be working on some different skills of yours today.¡± Hearing this Ben couldn¡¯t help but deflate a little. There went his enthusiasm to get back at the forge. Still, Falk was his teacher and he would trust his judgement, so he quickly grabbed a seat in the front of the shop with Thera. His teacher walked over to them and handed Ben fifteen metal blocks, each about the size of his fist. ¡°Alright boy, you need to start looking at how that connect skill of yours acts with your enchanting a bit more deeply. For now, try to enchant with all of Thera¡¯s skills and I¡¯ll look at the results after.¡± ¡°Um, sure, but I only know five of them and I can¡¯t really tell what skill it is unless I feel them actively using it.¡± ¡°Ah, I thought maybe you¡¯d opened up enough to show him your card.¡± His teacher said, turning to Thera. ¡°Guess it¡¯s no matter, I can always see if Sonya¡¯s willing to share with you later.¡± ¡°Is showing me yours not an option?¡± Ben asked him, but Falk only laughed. ¡°I like to keep my skills close to the chest, and I can¡¯t see any future where you knowin¡¯ what I got doesn¡¯t make you even more of a pain in the ass. Guess we''ll just have to do something else and I¡¯ll get you to practice at home if Sonya¡¯s up for it.¡± ¡°Wait, I don¡¯t really mind,¡± Thera cut in, to Ben''s surprise. ¡°You sure? I kind of got the impression you didn¡¯t have any interest in sharing it.¡± ¡°Maybe when I first met you, but as long as we¡¯re adventuring together it couldn¡¯t hurt. Besides, with how you tell me every little change to your status I can¡¯t exactly keep mine secret considering you already know all of the interesting bits of it.¡± Without any fuss she pulled out her card and handed it to Ben, letting him go over it. There were a few things he was curious about, her title as spirit child and whatever effects it might have on her as a whole, the fact that her earth affinity went above 100, something he didn¡¯t realise was possible, as well as one last thing. ¡°You have a knowledge skill?¡± Ben asked, surprised. He couldn¡¯t help it, they were a class of skill that was supposed to be rather hard to get, dependent on the skill holder having enough understanding of a topic while it all somehow clicked into place in not just their head but also their soul. The chances of getting them through practice were supposed to be rather slim, instead usually being unlocked with a job change, but Ben didn¡¯t see anything that could be related to it on her card. Some people could spend their whole lives dedicated to learning, but still not have the luck to gain it, but if they did the results could be invaluable. To be able to effortlessly use and remember the knowledge attached to the skill, as well as how easy it could be to level up once it was acquired made it quite valuable to have indeed. Thera for her part seemed indifferent to it though. ¡°I used to occasionally read some of the medical books Sonya keeps around the house when I was bored and happened to acquire it. It doesn¡¯t exactly do anything for me given that if I ever touch someone the results could end up worse than if I did nothing.¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. When she was done she could see Ben giving her a funny look through her hood and he raised two fingers. ¡°Well first,¡± He told her, bring one down. ¡°Since you can touch me and we hunt together, I would be pretty into the idea of one of us knowing how to patch us up in an emergency, especially if we''re going to go further out to do some overnight hunts. Second,¡± He said, bringing the other finger down while still looking at her funny. ¡°It¡¯s medical knowledge.¡± ¡°And?¡± She asked, not seeing where he was going with this. ¡°You¡¯re trying to learn life magic.¡± Thera immediately understood what he was trying to say and was grateful to have her face hidden. She was trying to learn a branch of magic almost completely dedicated to healing, at least at its lower levels. Of course having a knowledge skill related to it would be helpful. She had always considered it such a waste to have managed to unlock it that she never even gave it any thought, it was more like a cruel joke to have considering she was just as likely to hurt someone if she put it to use that she hadn¡¯t even considered how handy it would be towards her current goal. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s ignore the fact that I¡¯m an idiot and focus on your own training.¡± She said, all the while thinking that on top of any training and advice she got from her aunt, she would now also have to get her hands on any books on life magic and first aid she could manage, as well as reread some of the ones that were at the house. ¡°Right,¡± Falk told them. ¡°For now I want to test a couple things. Can you enchant with a skill that the original skill holder isn¡¯t actively using, can you enchant with all types of skills, can you control what level of the skill you use, and what is the maximum level you can enchant with? No time like the present so get to it.¡± Ben already knew from past experience that he could enchant to approximately the third level of a skill, but given how his connect and enchanting had leveled up, as well as having Falk here to look things over it was worth trying again, as well as taking the time to try out his teacher¡¯s other ideas. He took Thera¡¯s hand and connected with her and tried to focus on ignoring her thoughts and emotions, directing his attention to everything else he could feel. He already had practice with using another person''s skills like this back in Anailia, and he knew for sure he could at least feel charm, as well as a person''s active skills when they consciously brought them forth, but it was clear now he didn¡¯t dig deep enough. Now that he knew just what Thera had available he started with trying to find her passive skills, assuming that since they were always active they would be easier to find, and he felt charm shining like a beacon, wanting to fill the entire room but only being disrupted by her cloak. He enchanted that first to get it out of the way as the most obvious one, and then put the block to the side, focusing on the next. The one to make the most sense after that would be bind. Since it was a skill that seemed to forge a permanent link between the two, he was able to feel her copy of the skill with his own. While there didn¡¯t seem to be much point in enchanting with the skill when he already had access to it, it would still be good to know if he could, and he was able to manage it without issue when he tried. It was from here that Ben began to have issues. Thera had three more passive skills he needed to try to enchant with; world speak+, coordination, and medical knowledge. Each skill was simple enough and at a low enough level he was sure he¡¯d be able to do something with them, but there was no way to distinguish them from each other, even though he was sure he could detect the three of them. He was pretty sure he could feel world speak+ at least, as a skill that all people in the world seemed to have, but that was just because he was comparing it to what he felt within himself, and even then he wasn¡¯t sure. He enchanted with all of them anyway, but the fact he wouldn¡¯t be able to tell which was which was a bother to him. It got even worse when it was time to try enchanting with her active skills. When he¡¯d tried to use other people''s skills initially, he¡¯d had them activate the ones they were willing to share with him, but it looked like he couldn¡¯t feel them at all if that wasn¡¯t the case. At least at first. He got Thera to put some energy into her earth magic, not with the intent to do anything with it, just enough for him to grab onto, and after enchanting another block with it followed it back down, trying to find the rest of her skills. He managed to succeed, but the entire process was draining and he was left with the same issues with her passive skills, but on a much larger scale. Thera had nine active skills, and of them he could only pick out her earth magic by virtue of it being the one he used to find the rest. From there he had to try and enchant the others without being able to differentiate between any of the skills he was using, just trying to mentally keep track of each one he¡¯d already done, a task harder than it sounded given how indistinct everything felt. He put the full power of his focus and complex mind to work, but pitied any of Myriad''s future believers who tried to do this without the benefits of either his extra skills or the knowledge of just what they were trying to enchant with. Of course, it seemed unlikely anyone would attempt that anyway. Given that the people of the world seemed to view one''s status as something to keep close to the chest, he could only think that using one''s skills without the other party''s consent could only end poorly. Still he was done that bit at least and called Falk over to look at his work. ¡°What do you think?¡± His teacher wrote a note on each cube and turned to Thera. ¡°How do my notes compare to your status?¡± Thera was looking each over and Ben was able to see each one was marked with a name and level, except for bind and world speak+ of course, and from what Ben could see it all seemed to match what was on Thera¡¯s status. ¡°He got everything perfectly,¡± She told her uncle. ¡°Interesting, but from the looks of it your highest skill matches up to the levels of the two he¡¯s using. We¡¯d need to see how he can handle a skill at a higher level to see its effects,¡± His teacher thought for a moment before holding out his hand and giving Ben another cube. ¡°Here, I got level six death magic, give it a go and let''s see what you can do.¡± It was always interesting for Ben to learn a bit more about the skills his teacher possessed, but for now he filed away what he just learned and focused on the task at hand. Falk was running a bit of mana through the skill for him to make things easier and he repeated what he¡¯d done with Thera, grabbing onto the skill and placing it onto the block. Once he was done his teacher took it and looked it over. ¡°Looks like you only got to the fourth level with this too, meaning it¡¯s probably your cap for the time being. Of course, if you level up one skill or the other again you should try to figure out how that changes things, but this will do for now. It¡¯s a shame you won¡¯t be able to test this on more skills to see if there''s any variance, a total of fifteen mostly common ones isn¡¯t too much to know if there aren¡¯t any other rules for it, but it¡¯s good enough for now. Anyway, let''s move you onto the next step.¡± His teacher walked away to grab even more metal cubes and Ben couldn¡¯t help but wonder just how many he¡¯d made in anticipation of all this. He got up to stretch, it was going to be a busy day. CH99 The next step involved looking at each of the enchantments he¡¯d already placed and copying them all onto new cubes to the best of his abilities. Even though it felt tiring in its own way, it wasn¡¯t as bad as trying to find the skills within a person, and he was able to get it done rather quickly. Falk looked over his work before recording the results onto each cube again. Most of them were the same with the exception of three cubes, the one with level four dance, level four earth magic, and level four death magic, all of which dropped down to level three. ¡°So I can only enchant with skills up to a level below what I currently can?¡± He wondered aloud. ¡°A bit hard to say for sure given what we currently know and only have three skills for you to test at that level, but it¡¯s not a bad assumption. Now the question is how will it change as you level it up? Will you be able to get more out of it as your ability increases until you can enchant with items as well as you could with a person, or might the distance increase as you improve?¡± ¡°I¡¯d just be happy if they could stay the same. Being able to enchant with anything just one level below by skills isn¡¯t exactly a handicap.¡± ¡°True, but it¡¯s still good to figure out if you can, never know when that information might come in handy. Doesn¡¯t matter right now. Thera I think that¡¯s all we needed from you if you wanted to go and focus on your own training for the time being. I¡¯m going to be keeping the boy pretty busy today so don¡¯t worry too much about him.¡± ¡°Sounds good, in that case, I¡¯ll be at home if you need me.¡± She had plenty of books to try and go through to raise her medical knowledge level now that she realised it could help with her acquiring life magic. At a total of three skills she wanted to try and train up or acquire she would be busy for a while. As she left Falk turned back to Ben. ¡°Alright boy, looks like it¡¯s finally time to really begin on your enchanting training.¡± ¡°Absolutely, what are you thinking first?¡± Ben was pulsing with excitement. Up until now his teacher had mostly ignored his enchanting in favour of focusing on developing his crafting, but now that his level had gone up enough to create more complex things with the skill, as well as having so much more he could potentially enchant with, how could he resist the prospect of finally being on the path to crafting powerful magic items? His teacher seemed to sense his enthusiasm and tried to ease him down. ¡°Alright relax, what I¡¯m having you focus on today isn¡¯t exciting by any stretch, but it¡¯s fundamental to making powerful mana efficient tools to use. You¡¯ll need to learn this if you want to make whatever dreams are buzzing around your head a reality, and mastering it can make all the world of difference to your work. Especially for you since you won¡¯t be able to lower any mana costs with your affinities,¡± Falk could tell the boy was at the edge of his seat despite his warnings, but oh well, maybe it was good for him to have so much enthusiasm in his work. ¡°What I¡¯ll be having you do is partial enchantments,¡± The yeti went on. ¡°The idea is like this. Up until now, you¡¯ve taken the totality of a skill to make your enchantments. There''s nothing wrong with that and it will get the job done, but it wastes a lot of mana in the process. Instead what you need to learn to do is enchant with a single property of a skill to make it smaller and easier to work with. In the case of any of the magic skills, you¡¯ll have lots of options to work with, it just comes down to placing a single spell into an item. For regular skills it becomes a bit more complicated. You¡¯ll need to be able to understand some of the separate properties that make up your skills to use them that efficiently. An example for you would be how your dismantling skill makes it slightly easier to cut and pierce things when it¡¯s used.¡± Ben didn¡¯t understand why his teacher thought this wouldn¡¯t be exciting, he was completely absorbed by what he was being taught. Maybe it was the couple of life and death situations he¡¯d been in recently, but the prospect of being able to lower an item''s mana cost seemed incredibly appealing at the moment, and he knew he was going to have to master this ability. ¡°Sold. This sounds great, how do you want me to start?¡± Falk gave it some thought before deciding how he wanted his student to approach it. ¡°It¡¯s a little unorthodox, seeing as how I''ll be having you train your connect as well, but I¡¯ll grab you some swords. Use the death magic enchantment and try to apply the drain spell to the edges of the blades. When people start to learn this technique they typically start with magic because the idea of not using the entire thing is a bit more intuitive than just using a piece of a skill.¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Um, maybe for others, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to use a spell I¡¯ve never heard of before like that.¡± ¡°Boy even if you don¡¯t have any yourself you know a magic is all about the mental image you have formed of it, if you didn¡¯t you wouldn¡¯t have been able to almost fire an earth bullet in Anailia. Drain is a spell that saps a target''s life force, their vitality if you like. When you connect to the skill, focus on finding that aspect of it and attach it to the edge of the blade. I¡¯ll be by every now and then to check how it¡¯s going, or if you have any questions just ask.¡± With that Falk left to do his own work, leaving Ben with to focus on his task. The question was how he was going to go about it? He¡¯d never attempted something like this before so first he wanted to try putting together the spell, but it came with the issue that there was only one thing present to test it on, himself. With a sigh and the knowledge he wouldn¡¯t be able to get out of it if he was going to succeed, he grabbed onto the cube and activated the enchantment, feeling his mana pouring out of him as a result of not having any compatibility with the affinity, and tried shaping the spell in his head. The point was to lower a person''s vitality, so he took out his card to check any changes, closed his eyes, and concentrated. He felt some sort of spell begin to form at least and tried to inflict it on himself immediately only to wind up breathless. He looked down at his card and saw his mana was almost completely out, but there was no change to his vitality. He sighed and thought about how to approach it while he let his mana regenerate. Part of the issue was the item the enchantment was attached to for sure. While he didn¡¯t seem to have any issues enchanting with a skill placed on a random hunk of metal, that didn¡¯t mean it was a useful item to have it on if a person wanted to use the skill at all. It was like trying to make use of swordsmanship if it was placed on the same item, even if it was placed on something that technically had an edge that didn¡¯t mean it would make sense to use it as a sword. Well, I might be a little better off than that. He thought. He could at least use the skill, it would just make more sense to have it on an item that could handle more mana being passed through it, maybe like a staff. Still, he knew even that wasn¡¯t the heart of the problem, it all came down to skill. He simply didn¡¯t have the experience working with magic like that. Sure he didn¡¯t have much issue with firing an earth bullet or the few barriers he made use of before, but they felt a bit more intuitive to him, he could at least visualize what he wanted to achieve when he tried putting those spells together. Still, there was nothing else to do but try, so he sat down and prepared himself for a long day of work.
After an hour of watching his apprentice struggle and fail, Falk stepped in. ¡°Alright boy, what part¡¯s giving you issues?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t even make the drain spell,¡± Ben said with a sigh. ¡°I didn¡¯t think the first hurdle I would need to get through would be getting used to making magic enchantments.¡± Up until this point he''d only been using ones he¡¯d made himself and properly understood, as well as some that had been made by other people with the intent of being user-friendly. Now that he was trying with a magic that didn¡¯t make intuitive sense to him he was struggling. ¡°Alright, well I got two things that might help a bit. First, take this.¡± His teacher told him, handing Ben a ring. ¡°Um, okay? But what¡¯s it for?¡± ¡°Watching you try to do this while holding a block of metal is ridiculous, a ring should feel a bit easier to use. I put my full skill onto it so it should keep you busy for a while.¡± Ben inspected it, surprised. To put six levels of magic on something as small as a ring couldn¡¯t be easy. He already knew that his teacher had to be level nine in his enchanting at least given that he could tell what skills and levels he¡¯d enchanted with, but it didn¡¯t make it any less impressive. ¡°Second,¡± Falk went on. ¡°Stop aiming the spell at yourself. Try it on me.¡± Ben was surprised but slipped on the ring. ¡°You sure?¡± ¡°It¡¯s an easy enough spell that I think you may just be feeling a resistance to using it on yourself, which is fair enough to be honest. You shouldn¡¯t be able to do anything that could hurt me though so just give it a go.¡± Well who am I to argue? He thought to himself, stretching out his hand and doing his best to activate the spell. Once again he felt his mana decrease drastically, but it felt different this time and judging from a small wince that came from his teacher he was sure he¡¯d finally had his success. ¡°Alright,¡± Falk said. ¡°If you can remember that feeling then get started enchanting with it.¡± CH100 Thanks to his teacher''s help Ben was at least sure he¡¯d be able to understand the spell he was placing, now all it came down to was actually enchanting with it. He grabbed the first sword and sat down, inspecting it as he got prepared. It was one of Falk¡¯s works rather than his own, and like everything his teacher made it was perfect as far as Ben could tell. The sword was of a simple design, not meant to be beautiful in any way, instead made to focus on its main task, killing. Ben couldn¡¯t help but think that whatever clumsy enchantment he would end up making could only make the sword worse, at least considering the fact that if he chose to, Falk could just apply it himself, and significantly more skillfully than he could, but he pushed the thought away as he focused on the edge of the blade he would be constructing the enchantment upon. Thanks to the ring Falk made him, he was able to use both hands to construct the enchantment, as well as taking advantage of his second mind to speed up its construction. Enchanting with a magic ate up his mana at a far faster rate than it would otherwise, but it was still nowhere near as bad as trying to properly activate a spell was for him. When he thought he was done he moved onto the next one, then the next one, and by the time he was finished he had ten enchanted swords sitting beside him and noticed his teacher there, inspecting his work. ¡°There¡¯s plenty of room for improvement,¡± Falk started, bringing Ben''s feelings crashing down before lifting him back up again. ¡°But considering you managed it in your first attempt and each enchantment seems better than the last I would call it a success. I¡¯ll have to tidy up the enchantments on the first five myself, but we should be able to sell the second five as is. Excellent work boy.¡± Ben found himself smiling and let himself lean back against the wall as he let his mana regenerate. ¡°Thanks Falk, so what were you thinking now?¡± His teacher hesitated, a sign Ben had grown pretty sure to mean he hadn¡¯t thought that far ahead for his training when he looked back to the swords Ben just finished enchanting. ¡°Change of plans boy. Remove all of the enchantments from these and do them again, after that but repeat with the earth affinity spell ¡®harden¡¯, and then do it again but instead of a spell take the sharpening effect of dismantling and add it.¡± Even though his teacher clearly just decided it on the spot Ben didn¡¯t argue. Since he just learned the technique he wanted all the practice he could get.
As hours of the day passed, Falk''s challenges grew more and more demanding. Soon he was being made to enchant multiple effects at once, intertwining the enchantments and trying to push the mana consumption to its lower limit, at least for what he was capable of. His teacher provided him with advice here and there but for the most part just let Ben work, silently watching from the side as enchantments were constructed and destroyed again and again. In a lot of ways making a complex enchantment gave Ben the same feeling as when he would make a drawing or painting, while there was wiggle room for how he arranged things as he went, each step built upon the last, meaning that if the previous work wasn¡¯t accounted for then the finished product could be a mess. While corrections could always be made after the fact, he would much rather get things right the first time, and with that mindset put all of his focus into his work. Just as he was about to remove all of the enchantments he¡¯d made and start again he felt Falk shake his shoulder to get his attention. ¡°Alright boy, I think that¡¯s enough for the day.¡± ¡°Hmm? You sure? I think I could do a fair bit more.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°It¡¯s late and you just got back to town, no reason to work until the early hours of the morning. Besides, I can already say with confidence your work is good. Shockingly so really, Far above what I would expect of your current skills level, regardless of being blessed,¡± The boy''s work had always been good as far as Falk was concerned, but seeing his current work was like seeing a massive jump in overall quality, at least for his enchantments. Ben though, while happy with the complement, seemed unsatisfied with his work overall. ¡°It¡¯s probably a bit better now that on top of focus I can use a second mind to exam and correct my work as I go, but I can still see so many areas I can improve on. The mana cost reduction still isn¡¯t low enough to make up for the fact that I don¡¯t have high affinities to bind to the spells, and no matter what I try I can''t seem to bind the enchantments together more tightly than they currently are.¡± ¡°Well for now don¡¯t worry too much about the mana cost reduction, you¡¯ll get there with time. I¡¯m not going to say you¡¯ll ever be able to get it down to what an enchanter with a high affinity for a magic could do, but with some practice you¡¯ll be able to smash anything made with an average affinity out of the water. As for your enchantments, what makes you think they aren¡¯t bound well enough?¡± Even though his student was at level four of enchanting, by virtue of it being his blessed skill it was more comparable to between a level six or seven enchanter, and even by those standards the boy had them beat thanks to his other skills improving the overall quality. He couldn¡¯t imagine why the boy thought it wasn¡¯t good enough. ¡°Well, when I compare them to the enchantments on Anailias trial-¡± ¡°Let me stop you there,¡± Falk said, cutting him off. ¡°Boy are you really unsatisfied that you can¡¯t match the magic of a god?¡± He asked in disbelief. ¡°I mean, when you put it like that it sounds dumb.¡± ¡°Look, it¡¯s good to have ambitions, and you have the makings of a master enchanter if you can keep putting in the work, so I don¡¯t want you being discouraged by dumb things like that. Those enchantments are so perfect because they were made by a god, I¡¯m not going to say mortals can¡¯t make anything approaching it, but that should be something you aspire to, not something that brings you down, understand?¡± ¡°I know you¡¯re right Falk, I just can¡¯t help but be impatient. Seeing the flaws in my work and not having the skills to improve them is aggravating.¡± ¡°Ha, boy that¡¯s the curse of having a good eye for things. As your work improves so does your ability to see where you went wrong. As long as you keep working to get it better you¡¯ll overcome your current failings only to find some whole new ones,¡± His teacher told him with a grin. ¡°Now I got two things for you before you go. First, since you¡¯ve found yourself in a fair amount of wealth at the moment, transfer some over and I¡¯ll buy you some supplies.¡± ¡°Sure, what fun things did you have in mind?¡± ¡°A surprise. It will take a few weeks but it will be worth the wait, promise.¡± His curiosity was taken but he managed to resist pestering Falk too much, instead transferring over a level of wealth that would have made his eyes bulge only a month or two before. ¡°As for the second, here,¡± His teacher told him, handing him over a handful of plain metal rings. Ben looked at it carefully. Unlike the death affinity ring he was given when he started, and the earth affinity one his teacher made for him when he began trying to apply harden to the swords, these ones didn¡¯t seem to have any enchantments on them at all. ¡°Thanks, but what are they for?¡± ¡°Same thing you¡¯re using the other two for, these are just blanks you could put other skills onto if you find anyone with any. I¡¯d recommend snagging Sonya''s level six charm when you get back but otherwise if you know anyone with any interesting ones put it on one of those too. Seems like you¡¯ll find it a lot easier to enchant with multiple skills like that if you aren¡¯t constantly having to change out which blocks you grab.¡± He looked at them carefully, each a thin ring of metal that comfortably fit on his fingers. Falk must have eyeballed the size but he got them perfect. ¡°Thanks Falk, but do you really think I¡¯ll be able to enchant on something this small without breaking it? I¡¯m not sure my skill level¡¯s there yet.¡± ¡°If you could make a monstrous enchantment like the one you made for Thera¡¯s brace without breaking at a lower level then you¡¯ll manage this just fine, even if you take a while longer than you would otherwise. Just take your time on it if you aren¡¯t sure, no need to rush.¡± He thought for a moment while looking at his hands, wondering just how many he would be able to wear at once after he found a few more people willing to share their skills with him. He couldn¡¯t help it as a smile spread across his face. CH101 When Ben got back he noticed Thera in the living room, completely absorbed in her studying. Rather than bother her while she was in the middle of it he instead opted to get dinner started since Sonya wasn¡¯t home yet. He looked around the kitchen for whatever ingredients were on hand and decided to try and get creative with it for a change instead of going off a recipe he knew. As with every time his crafting improved he¡¯d gained an almost instinctual understanding of how to use the different materials and ingredients he was already familiar with and thought it might be fun to see just how far that would go. He grabbed a variety of vegetables he thought would go well together, as well as some of the spices he liked and diced them all up into fine pieces before breaking them down further into a fine puree. Once that was done he grabbed a few pieces of meat to start marinating, while trying to figure out a sauce to go with it once he was done, ultimately deciding that a spicy cream sauce was the way to go. Well, sort of a cream sauce at least. Ben wasn¡¯t sure it really qualified when the liquid in question wasn¡¯t farmed from anything that would qualify as a mammal, but in the end it didn¡¯t matter as long as it tasted good. While that was cooking down he worked on speeding up the marinating process, having finally gotten the hang of reducing the cooking time for ingredients the same way he could reduce the crafting time of materials by running mana through them in the correct way, something he¡¯d only begun to manage after he had gained complex mind to look after it. By the time the sauce was done so was the marinating process, and he cooked and diced the meat soon after. Finally he ended with the veggie puree, adding an egg to it as a binder from some sort of large amphibian-like species, and taking out scoops to fry like a pancake in hot oil. When he was done, the house was filled with the smell of his cooking and he turned around to get Thera to feed as well as see if Sonya was home, only to find them chatting at the table already. ¡°Oh hey, didn¡¯t notice you guys.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you get way too invested in your work,¡± Thera told him while eyeing the food with hunger. ¡°I only just got in,¡± Sonya said, smiling. ¡°It smells great though, what did you make?¡± ¡°I just felt like getting a little creative with it so it¡¯s not really anything,¡± Given the ingredients he used he wouldn¡¯t really be able to compare it to other things from his homeworld, but he was positive it would taste good at least, and they seemed to agree once they dug in. ¡°I have to say, it really is a treat having someone with a high crafting skill around to cook,¡± Sonya told him between bites. ¡°Thanks, but it¡¯s not like a meal from someone with a pure cooking skill,¡± Ben said, thinking back to the meals in Anailia and how, as much as he enjoyed the jack of all trades master of none role his skill seemed to give him, some things were better when there was a specialist around. Sonya though seemed to disagree. ¡°Maybe that would be true if we¡¯re comparing it to someone with blessed cooking, but people with that are exceedingly rare. You¡¯re blessed crafting could blow away an average cook.¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Ha, well thanks, I¡¯ll try to make sure I''m back at a decent enough hour to do my fair share,¡± It was good for his practice too, he couldn¡¯t expect to raise his crafting if he only focused on smithing and alchemy. With that thought in mind, he looked at the two women in front of him. He¡¯d also bought plenty of sewing supplies while in Anailia, maybe if he picked up some fabric he could make them some shirts or something to practice that aspect of his crafting skill. Assuming his teacher was right he should be close to getting the next level already, he shouldn¡¯t neglect it. While he let himself get lost in thought, Thera and Sonya began talking about her magic practice. ¡°So how is it looking for you so far?¡± ¡°Uhg, it''s too early to say it¡¯s going bad but I still don¡¯t have a feel for life mana. On the plus side I got to enjoy something exceedingly obvious being pointed out to me that might help so maybe after I get some more reading done I¡¯ll be able to have a better understanding of it, or at least an easier time leveling it up than I would otherwise.¡± Sonya seemed to hesitate for a moment before letting herself make a suggestion. ¡°You know, if you are struggling to feel life mana at all you could try talking to Vividus. She would be able to fill you with far more life mana than I ever could.¡± Thera grimaced at the suggestion but understood where her aunt was coming from. ¡°Maybe if I can¡¯t get the zeroth level after a year or two,¡± She told her unhappily. ¡°I¡¯d rather not have to deal with her if I can help it.¡± ¡°Of course, and there¡¯s no reason to do it at all if you don¡¯t want to, it¡¯s just the best suggestion I can think of.¡± ¡°Um, this might be a dumb question, but couldn¡¯t a regular life spirit help?¡± Ben asked, prompting a thoughtful look from Thera. It was true that regular life spirits would possess more mana than Sonya by a significant amount, they just tended not to use it since casting their spells would weaken them as they waited to regenerate it, and nothing would really interact with them anyway so they had no reason to. Having said that, if she got a few of them to do it there shouldn''t be any real risk, it all just came down to finding one to ask. ¡°That might be worth trying,¡± She said thoughtfully. ¡°I¡¯d have to find a spirit and ask if it could contact any life spirits it knows and send them my way, but that shouldn¡¯t be too hard, I¡¯ll just have to see if I can find one outside of town.¡± ¡°Do none hang out in the area?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see some occasionally but even if things have improved for me a bit I don¡¯t want to be caught seemingly talking to myself by anyone. The only time I know of that people can see spirits other than me is when their skill level in a given magic is high enough, and I don¡¯t think anyone in the town meets that qualification.¡± As she thought about that, Thera asked how his own training had been going, and Ben gave them both the rundown of the day, as well as getting Sonya''s help to apply some of her charm to one of the rings. Once the meal was done Ben retired to his room for the night and sat a desk within it, placing the box of mythril on top of it, as well as grabbing a pen and paper. He placed his ringed hand on top of the mythril and using one of his minds worked on creating and destroying a variety of enchantments that would be useless to have on a mythril block. With his other mind though he did something he¡¯d been thinking about since they left Anailia, writing a letter to his friends Will and Steph. They kept in touch through mail like this since he arrived in the world. From his modern perspective it was horribly slow and inefficient, but there were no other options, at least for an average person like him. He thought about what he wanted to say and how best to say it, before just giving in and writing what he felt as he put pen to paper. He wanted to visit his friends. Not immediately, he¡¯d only just gotten back to Stonewall and needed to work on his skills, but in two or three months if they could make time with their own training to see him it would be nice. Talking to Karly about her own anxieties had made him realise he needed to actually make time for some of the people he cared about in the world. CH102 Theras Perspective Oh thank the gods, finally. In the days that followed their talk, Thera had gone off to search for any spirits and was finding herself growing exhausted. Usually, she would come across one or two a day as they would float around, but it was only now after days of searching she¡¯d managed to come across an air spirit just at the edge of the forest, mercifully far from anyone who might catch her talking to herself. ¡°Hello there,¡± She started, unsure how to lead the conversation now that the opportunity was finally here. ¡°Do you think I could take some of your time?¡± It was quiet for a moment, and even though it appeared as a dense ball of mana to her, lacking any distinguishing features, she got the impression it was appraising her. ¡°I suppose I could stop my journey along the air currents earthkin, what may I do for you?¡± Thera was instantly taken aback. Normally when spirits would communicate they would do so through mana, but that wasn¡¯t what was happening here, the spirit she had encountered was talking normally, in a way anyone could hear. ¡°Is that¡­ a sound spell?¡± ¡°I was lucky to see one of the non-spirits perform it and found it interesting. To communicate through the vibrations in the air, what a novel idea? Of course, if you prefer I can talk normally.¡± ¡°No this is fine, I was just surprised. I was hoping you might be able to give me some help and direct some life spirits my way if you can?¡± ¡°If I see any wherever the wind takes me there¡¯s no issue, but how would any find you? You seem to lack presence as the other non-spirits do.¡± Thera turned back and pointed towards the town. ¡°I can usually be found in the town over there if you can direct them that way.¡± ¡°Just that one little spot in this large world? How suffocating.¡± She knew the spirit didn¡¯t mean anything by it and tried to let the attitude slide, they both experienced the world in such different ways that some aspects needed to be excused, especially when one was a creature that rode the air, never to be tied down. ¡°Maybe, but it¡¯s home.¡± ¡°Alright earthkin, I will spread the message to those I see. Give my regards to the great one.¡± ¡°I will let my father know,¡± She said, before thanking the spirit and letting it go on its way. Air spirits were nice in that they typically didn¡¯t like to chat for too long. An earth spirit on the other hand was more than content to stay in one place and talk her ear off and likely would have taken ages to fulfill her request. With that done she made her way back to town and decided to stop in at her uncle''s shop for a bit while she was out. After spending the last few days searching for any stray spirit on top of continuing her studies and magic practice while at home she needed the break seeing Falk and Ben could provide, even if her friend was busy practicing one of his skills with a single-minded dedication. When she got there, Falk was sitting in the front looking emotionally exhausted while Ben was nowhere in sight. ¡°Everything okay uncle?¡± She asked him with concern. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°Ah Thera, yeah everything¡¯s fine, the boy¡¯s doing some apostle stuff in the back and it was a little too strange for my taste.¡± ¡°What?¡± Instead of answering Falk instead held out a hand pointing her to the back room and without a need for further prompting she went to take a look. When she turned the corner she was left not knowing how to react when she found Sachel, Ralia, and Skoe all kneeling in front of Ben, seemingly in prayer, while Ben stared off into the distance giving a half-hearted one himself. They briefly made eye contact before she gave a quick sorry and left to walk back to spend time with her uncle while he finished whatever it was they were doing, at least she tried to. ¡°Wait Thera stop!¡± He called out to her and she could only sigh. I guess I won¡¯t abandon him to whatever the hell this is. ¡°So what¡¯s going on Ben, this looks¡­ Interesting.¡± ¡°Oh you know, just my god being a bastard,¡± He said with false cheer, but his comment immediately caused the three praying towards him to whip their heads up and open their eyes wide in shock. He ignored the reaction though and went on. ¡°It looks like Myriad decided to out me as his apostle.¡± ¡°Okay, but then all this is¡­?¡± It was Sachel who answered the question she left hanging. ¡°I was given a quest by him,¡± She said, beaming. ¡°So I wanted to make sure to pray before we went off to do it.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re all praying to Ben because?¡± ¡°Since Skoe and I are helping her we all came to pray at her god''s¡­ church,¡± Ralia told her, seeming conflicted about the whole thing herself. ¡°When we found out it was in town we weren¡¯t exactly expecting this, but it never hurts to have a god smiling down on us. Of course, the details were left unmentioned.¡± ¡°And it looks like having a believer as well as non-believers pray to Myriads representation/zipper acts as decent job experience,¡± Ben told her, full of exasperation. ¡°By having them do this for a while as I¡¯m wearing it, it looks like it counts me as acting as the head of the church so I need to take advantage as long as they¡¯re around and willing.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re all fine with this?¡± She asked, addressing the group specifically for the first time. While she could see hesitation from the other two, Satchel had none. ¡°Of course!¡± She said proudly, eyes shining. ¡°To find out I¡¯ve been receiving guidance from the apostle of my god this whole time, what¡¯s a few hours of prayer if it means giving thanks to Myriad for giving me the chance to complete a quest?¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s reasonable and-¡± She stopped as something Sachel said caught her attention. ¡°Wait a minute, hours?¡± ¡°Two so far,¡± Ben said with exhaustion. ¡°But since I¡¯m technically acting as head priest of the first church of Myriad I¡¯ve managed to gain two whole job levels so I¡¯m dealing with it, the sooner I complete this one the better.¡± ¡°Well good luck with that,¡± She told him and took her leave to go back to talking to Falk. Her uncle had been right, that whole situation had been too weird, not to mention her complicated relationship with the group in question. Satchel and Ralia seemed content to try and act casual around her, but Skoe had been the biggest pain to her of all since she had her problems with Roan. It would be nice if he were to say something about it, maybe even an apology? She shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts. It doesn¡¯t matter what that asshole thinks or does now anyway, my standing in the town has improved enough that people seem content to just leave me alone, and Ben can always back me up if anything happens. Seems like he could at least get Sachel to keep him in line for me, it¡¯s kind of freaky how she wound up so devote all of a sudden. Not that she couldn¡¯t understand a bit. Meeting Anailia had been a deeply moving experience, even if there was some chaos during it. Really, maybe the issue was more Ben being completely indifferent to having near-daily interactions with such a being, she couldn¡¯t imagine many other apostles so casually referring to their god as a bastard, no matter how close some of them might be. The distance between god and mortal should be too big for that sort of behaviour for all but those who might bridge the gap. She sighed and tried to ignore it. She¡¯d long grown used to Ben''s attitude toward Myriad, maybe it was a good thing for his god to have someone like Sachel to balance him out. CH103 ¡°Are you sure about this Myriad? Honestly, she seems like she¡¯s gotten way too into you way too fast, I¡¯m more than a little worried here.¡± ¡°It might shock you given your own attitude, but most people in the world would react this way upon not only receiving a blessing and a gift skill, but also a quest and personal guidance from an apostle. I don¡¯t currently know any other gods doing so much for their believers.¡± ¡°I mean sure, but it¡¯s all coming from a pretty self-serving place, isn''t it?¡± Ben said, chastising his god. ¡°You¡¯re giving your blessing and gift skills to all of your believers as soon as you can to make yourself more appealing to anyone who might think of converting, and you got me to train her a bit cause we live in the same town and she¡¯s the first person other than me to get connect. Not to mention your goal for giving her a quest¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t think she¡¯ll go for it?¡± ¡°No, I think she would have even if you didn¡¯t offer her a quest but I guess it¡¯s probably good to have her work towards earning you some more recognition before you offer her the role of your oracle or head priestess. Doesn¡¯t hurt to see if she¡¯s more suited to one over the other anyway while she does it.¡± The main mortal representatives of any god would fall into one of three categories. The oracle was in charge of sharing the message of their god, spreading the word of their teachings and faith, getting the information from the source directly. The head priest, or in this case priestess on the other hand was more responsible for a leadership role, taking charge of any of the priests beneath them as well as as the common believers to help them grow as a whole. Finally there was Ben''s role, the one he¡¯d found himself in by virtue of there being no other takers, the apostle. In principle he should be acting to take on both positions, both spreading the word of his god as well as acting as a leader for Myriads followers, but both of them knew that wasn¡¯t something he was going to take too seriously, hence the need for someone more responsible. ¡°Anyway, I vote that if you¡¯re giving her a role it should be Oracle,¡± Ben told Myriad, and continued to explain his reasoning despite the fact his god had undoubtedly heard what was going through his head already. ¡°As it stands the majority of your believers are enchanters and follow you for the benefit your skill provides them to make the resistance braces. Since Sachel is currently the only non-enchanter, I don¡¯t think she should be taking on a leadership role, at least not at the moment.¡± ¡°A surprisingly reasonable argument, but on the other hand, if we go on with the initial idea from when you first recruited her of trying to gain more followers from those who want to awaken their skills to plant magic, it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea for a priestess with the same goals to try the recruiting. In the end, we also have the option of letting her choose.¡± Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Vetoed,¡± Ben told his god, making an X with his arms. ¡°I told her you¡¯re a small god, but it¡¯s not like I let her know she was going to be your second believer, or that your current number of followers amounts to what, twenty? I wouldn¡¯t want the risk of her learning that you don¡¯t have an oracle or a priest scare her off. We should make it sound like the spot opened up and you thought she would be good for it so we need to take some time to figure out what might be the best fit for her.¡± ¡°Well, we have some time at least, her quest was to complete an achievement in my name and it sounds like what she¡¯s thinking of trying might take a while.¡± ¡°Really, she picked the achievement one?¡± ¡°She didn¡¯t get to pick anything. She¡¯s currently just a regular believer after all, I gave her the one option I could give to any of them.¡± Ben nodded, happy with the information. It was good to know other believers weren¡¯t out getting better options than him after all. ¡°That''s something else I¡¯ve wanted to ask you too, what exactly qualifies as an achievement for you?¡± Myriad was quiet in thought for a moment before answering. ¡°It can be many things. It can involve overcoming an obstacle impressive enough to earn you renown such as slaying a powerful monster or completing a trial like you just did, you could also do something to help my believers as a whole, or any act that could earn you great admiration and direct it to me, in your case maybe if you created another ultra-rare item and then bestow it upon a warrior who worships me, not that there currently are any. Giving a weapon like that to one of the warriors who¡¯s going to fight for the world could also work.¡± All good to know but Ben''s focus stuck to the second option. ¡°Wait Myriad, to be sure you¡¯re still only at around twenty followers?¡± ¡°Twenty-two at the moment. I¡¯ve received prayers from others who seem to be considering converting at the wishes of their nations but are unsure,¡± As Myriad answered he heard the thought going through Ben¡¯s head and the simple but effective plan he was forming. ¡°That would work,¡± His god said aloud. Ben¡¯s smile grew. It was so simple really, it would be a couple weeks before any of the new believers got their gift skills, and all of the believers but Sachel currently were enchanters who thought the only use of the skill they would be using was to create resistance braces. If he revealed to them that the skill could be used with enchanting to make use of any skills, wouldn¡¯t he be helping Myriads believers as a whole to gain new knowledge that could improve their work and their lives as a result? Not to mention that if he sent the information to anyone who was on the fence as well, he was sure he¡¯d be able to snag a few more as converts. ¡°Myriad, wake me up and get me the mailing info for all of your current and potential believers, I accept this quest.¡± He was going to be spending hours writing and rewriting thirty to forty letters, trying to give detailed information on how to properly use the skill and all of the information on it he currently had, but it didn''t matter. In a few short weeks he would be gaining at least five levels of job experience, maybe a bit more if he got enough people to convert with this knowledge, and through that being one step closer to completing the job and on his way to taking enchanter. CH104 Ben had just come back from taking all of his letters to be delivered and started preparing breakfast when Thera got up for the day. They had a long one ahead of them now that it was the weekend and they were going on their first multi-day hunt together, so he made a big meal for them to tide them over for the bigger part of it. After eating they made their way to the guild for the first time in weeks to see whatever quests might be available to them. As Ben opened the doors and walked in there was a change immediately. Everyone seemed to be talking up a storm, excitement clear in their voices but one by one, adventurers present started noticing them and started quieting down, many with complicated expressions on their faces. How were they feeling at the moment? While plenty had come to apologize to Thera after the incident with Roan, that didn¡¯t erase their previous treatment of her, and some were sure to still consider her at fault. He was immediately prepared for a fight and felt Thera tense up beside him as well, half expecting the worst, but the tension broke in an instant as a familiar face, or lack thereof, called out to them. ¡°Thera, Ben, it¡¯s been so long!¡± Onk yelled out from across the counter to them. ¡°Has everything been alright?¡± ¡°Hey Onk, it¡¯s good to see you too,¡± Ben told them, happy to feel the eyes around them go back to their own business. ¡°Ben just had to take a trip for his job and I went to help him,¡± Thera explained lightly, trying to leave the more interesting details to the side. ¡°We were looking to take a quest but is everything okay here? Seemed like things were pretty crazy when we came in.¡± ¡°Oh my, you haven¡¯t heard yet? I guess news just broke so it shouldn¡¯t be too surprising, but it looks like one of the groups of summoned individuals from a year ago came from a world far advanced of anything we can imagine, and they¡¯ve made contact to help us! It sounds like they¡¯re going to try to work to track the invaders'' homeworld for us and see if any of their technology might work here!¡± Even without a face Ben could detect the excitement coming for their favourite guild employee, but Ben tried to look as surprised as that bit of information should have made him if he wasn¡¯t directly involved with it happening, even going so far as to activate hidden mind in the hope it would keep some of his true emotions from showing. ¡°What, that¡¯s unbelievable,¡± He said, not feeling like he sounded as surprised by the news as he should and jealous of the fact that Thera had the benefit of her face being covered. Even though the alien that led them to Karly and Glob on the trial seemed to try to keep itself out of her sight, once Ben confirmed everything and had agreed to help the world, as well as himself, he gave her a rundown on what happened and got to see her shock first hand. Luckily for him though Onk didn¡¯t seem to notice any issues and went on. ¡°It¡¯s like a miracle, isn¡¯t it? An entire world, powerful and ready to help us as much as they can, we actually have allies for what¡¯s to come!¡± Ah, that makes sense. When he thought about it like that, it sounded like before the invasions, separate worlds didn¡¯t have much or any contact with each other except in rare cases. This was probably one of the few times a world wasn¡¯t facing the threat alone. Even if they couldn¡¯t provide soldiers, the knowledge that could be gained from reconnaissance would be invaluable, not to mention the potential for technological development. Maybe this really was something to get emotional about. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Thera though seemed to find the entire topic uncomfortable given her knowledge on how it came to pass and was more than happy to get them back on track. ¡°That¡¯s really exciting and all, but we were looking for a quest to take, we were planning on going into the deeper woods so we don¡¯t have any problem with something that would be two days if we include travel time.¡± ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ll see what I can do, but would you mind if I see your cards first? Neither of you updated them since the town was attacked. Rewards need to be distributed and contributions determined.¡± Obediently they both handed over their cards, and as something she was checking them something changed in her demeanor. Ben wasn¡¯t sure what until she leaned in close and spoke in a low voice. ¡°You¡¯ve both completed a trial?¡± He was caught off guard. It wasn¡¯t a big deal for people to know, but he hadn¡¯t been spreading it around since it sounded like a pain. The fact that it was apparently viewable to the guild the same way their kills and contributions were wasn¡¯t something he¡¯d been expecting. ¡°We did the one in my homeland,¡± Thera calmly answered, seeming to have expected this. ¡°I see, well with that being the case combined with your previous accomplishments in protecting the town I¡¯m happy to tell you both you¡¯ve made it to rank five.¡± Even with her face covered Ben could tell Thera was overjoyed. When they first started to work together she seemed to want to gain achievement to raise their ranks, now they had. Ben on the other hand cared significantly less. Even if they couldn¡¯t take quests for the higher ranks they could still hunt whatever they felt like, and all this meant was an increase in responsibility should an emergency occur. Still, if it made Thera happy he¡¯d take it as a good thing, at worst he could just quit the guild if she ever found a real party to work with, he would just have to make sure he got everything from their archives he could before that happened. ¡°In that case do you have any rank five quests we could take?¡± His friend asked, excitement filling her voice. ¡°Hmm, there''s a couple options, but if you¡¯re looking to go to the deeper woods there''s one we need to get done, though the reward is smaller than a typical rank five quest. We need someone to collect some specific plants for us. Since it¡¯s in a more dangerous section of the woods we can¡¯t ask any lower ranks to do it, but it would be a big help to the guild and we¡¯ll do our best to find you better quests in the future for doing us this favour.¡± Ben looked to Thera, waiting for her to answer. After all, he didn¡¯t care one way or another what they ended up taking, and it wasn¡¯t like they couldn¡¯t fight any beasts they found as they went. ¡°We''ll do it,¡± She said confidently, her willingness to take a non-combat related quest stemming from her current happiness at her rank increase as well as the promise of better quests in the future. ¡°Could we get a description of the plant and how many would you want?¡± ¡°Give me a moment,¡± The guild member told them before walking to the back and grabbing a book, flipping open to a page with what appeared to be a small shrub. ¡°This is the one you¡¯ll be looking for, you only need to collect the smaller branches from it, but of that take as many as you can. I can loan you the book while you go to help find it, but if it¡¯s lost or damaged there will be a fee taken from your reward or future rewards should you fail the quest. Is that acceptable?¡± ¡°Absolutely,¡± Ben told them as he grabbed the book. ¡°Does this have information on all of the medical plants in the area?¡± ¡°Medical and poisonous plants, yes.¡± It was perfect and Ben immediately started flipping through the pages seeing what other plants were in the area. He remembered cursing himself on the trial for not taking the time to prepare any potions or medicines, as well as not working on his alchemy beyond what he needed to prepare weapons. If he was already going to go out then there was no harm in taking the time to gather any useful plants for himself as well, and now that they had two spacial bags sent to them thanks to Pelenia¡¯s gift they could potentially make quite the harvest. CH105 After spending the better part of the day walking out they were finally in the general area they could expect to find some of the plants. They¡¯d lost plenty of time to Ben having to stop and gather others from the book he thought he could put to use, as well as letting Thera practice some of her magic on passing creatures, but aside from that they¡¯d managed to keep a reasonable pace and were in the middle of setting up a camp while there was still light leaking from between the trees. ¡°So is any of that actually interesting?¡± Thera asked Ben as she peered over his shoulder while he pulled over a dozen different plants from the two spacial bags and got to the business of grouping the similar species together for convenience later. ¡°Of course it¡¯s all interesting!¡± He told her, shocked that it could be considered anything but that and started pointing out a variety of them. ¡°Aside from all the branches the guild wanted that can be used to refresh mana and stamina, these leaves here can be boiled down to clean and treat wounds, and this flower can be processed with a few of these roots to give a minor boost to mana recovery for a short time, not to mention that every part of this one has different minor medical benefits, but if you don¡¯t separate them and process each one correctly all the effects are lost.¡± ¡°Okay, okay, your plants are very neat,¡± She said to appease him. ¡°What about those ones over there?¡± She asked while pointing to a separate pile from the one he was currently sorting through. ¡°Oh those? Some have uses when applying alchemy to my blacksmithing, the rest are poisons.¡± She was about to pick one up to get a better look but stopped herself when Ben said that. ¡°Why do you need poisons? We¡¯ll be in so much trouble if any get mixed in with what we¡¯re supposed to be handing over.¡± ¡°Which is why I¡¯m separating them out now ahead of time. Besides, it''s for my crafting skill. The more branches of it I pursue and try to improve the more experience I¡¯ll get compared to just focusing on one aspect of it like sticking to blacksmithing. I¡¯ve pretty much ignored its alchemy aspects outside of its use in my smithing too, but if I take some time to learn to refine different potions and poisons it should be good for my skill overall.¡± ¡°Still seems kind of risky to try and make casually though, what if something happens?¡± ¡°I work with fire and molten metals on the regular, this is fine. Besides, they¡¯re identified as poison because the plant itself is toxic to eat or they¡¯ll harm you if they aren¡¯t used in the proper way,¡± He tried to think of the best way to explain it. ¡°Let¡¯s see, does Sonya have any books on treating anyone afflicted with an animal venom?¡± Thera gave a negative so he tried to explain the best he could. ¡°Okay, imagine something bites you and it causes your blood to thicken. This,¡± He said, grabbing one of the plants from the pile. ¡°Can act as an anti-clotting agent once it¡¯s processed. If you get someone to consume it fast enough after being bitten then it might be able to slow down the effects of the poison for them to get to a light mage to detoxify their blood. Of course, this will have to be removed too, otherwise they¡¯d stand the risk of bleeding out, but it all comes down to how it¡¯s used. You should get Falk to loan you some of his books on alchemy, I¡¯m sure it would help with your knowledge skill.¡± She seemed interested once he started explaining how poisons could be used as medicine depending on the context, so he continued to explain different uses for each one as he sorted them to pass the time, at least until the notification went off in his head. All at once he just stopped talking and rested his head in his hand, trying to process what he¡¯d just heard. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Myriad, what the hell is this?¡± He muttered to himself, but loud enough for Thera to hear. ¡°What weird things happened to your status now?¡± She asked, immediately seeing to the heart of the matter. ¡°What makes you think it¡¯s something weird with my status, or for that matter that it¡¯s weird?¡± He couldn¡¯t be sure, but he got the distinct impression she was rolling her eyes under her hood. ¡°Please, when something makes you react out of the blue like that it¡¯s almost always about your status, and you have the weirdest one I¡¯ve ever heard of. How is it you have a bunch of strange and rare skills, but none of the common ones?¡± ¡°What makes a skill common? I can¡¯t use magic so you know that¡¯s out.¡± ¡°Yeah but look at mine, I have calculate, coordination, and cleaning; three skills the majority of people acquire. Aside from the implication you¡¯re a mess since you don¡¯t have cleaning, how do you keep track of how much mana you use without calculate?¡± ¡°Is that what it¡¯s for?¡± ¡°Later. First, what did you get? Maybe something like poison knowledge? That would make sense given what you were doing unless it¡¯s some other poison skill.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a skill,¡± He said while sighing. ¡°It¡¯s a title.¡± He let that hang in the air but Thera didn¡¯t say anything, just waited while staring at him silently. ¡°Haa, it¡¯s miracle maker.¡± ¡°I mean, that makes sense.¡± She told him, surprisingly unfazed by it. ¡°You heard Onk right? The world just found out we have some powerful allies now, kind of reasonable you¡¯d get the title considering the part you played.¡± ¡°The part I played was light blackmail on a race that was going to give in and do this eventually. Hey Myriad, come on and speak up, which god gave me this stupid title?¡± It took a few minutes, but Ben¡¯s god finally answered him. ¡°What do you mean it was the world?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a real fancy way of saying that things might get complicated if anyone finds out about this, but okay, do you have any idea what effects it has?¡± He immediately hid the title from his status as he tried to work out what benefits it might include. It was more than a little annoying how vague and undefined they tended to be, but he had to admit that the new one sounded like it would have some decent benefits. Unfortunately Myriad wasn¡¯t any help. ¡°Uhg, why is the system so vague? Couldn¡¯t everything have come with a description so people could actually know how everything worked immediately?¡± His god told him, sounding unusually sharp with his response. Ben was initially shocked by his god¡¯s outburst but understood he¡¯d offended him. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Myriad, I didn¡¯t mean anything by it, I just don¡¯t like it when I don¡¯t understand something, especially when it relates to changes to me.¡± The sincerity of his god was touching and caused him to clasp his hands in prayer. ¡°Thank you Myriad, when I need help I¡¯ll be sure to ask.¡± CH106 After Ben finished talking to his god and letting Thera know about the exchange, he got a bit more information on the calculate skill. When Thera had said it was used to keep track of one''s mana he thought he had initially misunderstood it when he¡¯d first read about it in one of the church books, but it seemed like he had it right the first time. It was simply a skill that improved a person''s ability to do mental math quickly. Most people had it at one or two levels so they could keep track of how much mana they were using in battle or daily life by comparing a known quantity it took to power a spell against their mana pool and regeneration rate. Given his own rather short supply of mana and the fact that he kept running out despite a lack of magic skills to take it up, he figured it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea to try gaining the skill himself, especially since it came down to doing mental math until it was unlocked. He tried exactly that during his watch in the night, only stopping when it was Thera¡¯s turn to take over while he got some rest and studied Myriad''s blueprints in his divine realm. When the sun rose and he got up they got to the main task of the day. Having already collected some of the branches yesterday they kept their eyes out for more, but it wasn¡¯t the main goal of the day. They wanted the chance to hunt. In Thera¡¯s case she wanted to attempt to work on her earth magic, and in Bens he had new tools to test, having spent his spare time during the last week seeing what he could do with his improved skills. Ben set up his tools and traps throughout the area before going with his main strategy for hunting, climbing the tallest tree he could find for safety. Once both himself and Thera were up there they attempted something riskier than they normally would, only doing it because they felt confident in their current level of growth. They had Thera take off her cloak to see if it would draw anything in. It was something they had spent long hours discussing throughout the days leading up to their first hunt since they came back. It wasn¡¯t like the woods were dense with monsters after all. It was significantly more dangerous the further one went, but it was also more than possible to not find anything while out there. They¡¯d been working around this by trying to lure creatures with the smell of cooking meat to begin with, but that took a fair bit of time and patience, they wanted to get quicker results. Of course, that didn¡¯t mean they were going to throw away their safety completely. The range of Thera charm would be affected by a few different things, from how much was between her and her target, as well as the target''s darkness resistance, but as long as creatures wandered to the edge of it they were confident they would slowly be drawn in, unable to resist its effects. The main thing then became being vigilant. As long as they got her cloaked again when monsters came within sight, hopefully they would go towards one of the traps Ben had set up that were enchanted with the higher level of charm Ben got from using Sonyas, even if the mana would be significantly weaker since he had to pour his own into power it compared to what naturally radiated from Thera. It took twenty minutes of waiting, but eventually Thera spotted movement rushing towards them and quickly threw her cloak back on hoping they would keep coming, and even without the constant stimulus of her magic their curiosity and hunger remained and two creatures came through the woods. Ben was pretty sure they were cultrofels, large panther-like creatures that were covered in sharp, porcupine-like quills. Still feeling the lingering effects of the charm they started wandering the area, and each of them started moving towards different traps Ben had set up. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The first of the beast walked towards a common pit trap, the kind he¡¯d used in his hunts dozens of times by this point, but now the spikes were enchanted with both charm and drain, hopefully to get the monster more willing to throw itself upon it without needing to go to the trouble of hiding them in some way. Unfortunately, there was no luck on that count. While it did walk up to the pit it didn¡¯t throw itself in it, the draw of the charm apparently not enough to overcome its survival instinct. As for the second one, it made its way towards one of the charm bombs Ben had made and left around. He had produced these ones to be simpler than the ones he¡¯d made for the trial, not worrying about using overly expensive materials for it as he did, but he was confident they would work as long as a creature bit into one. Unfortunately, things didn¡¯t work out quite so conveniently. What it reached the first charm bomb, the cultrofels immediate reaction was to step on it. He was sure it received a huge shock from suddenly being thrown to the side by the barrier bubble that appeared for a few seconds, but that was all it came down to. It got up again immediately and focused on checking out the other charmed items around. Watching all of this, Ben couldn¡¯t help but be disappointed. He had prepared three types of traps and the first two were already failures. It all came down to the last one. As luck would have it, he had two of them set up and they were both approaching them. He had belief in these and was sure he would get them both in one go, but when the first of the creatures encountered his new and improved bear trap and felt thick metal teeth breaking through its needles and piercing its flesh, its scream pulled the other one towards it, leaving the other trap unused. Thera, seeing that it might interfere with his ability to view how successful the first trap was, pulled together an earth bullet, and with careful aim all but destroyed the free creature as the other one continued to struggle. It was no use though, before their eyes it continued to grow weaker and weaker, until all the life had left it, the drain spell on the trap sapping it of everything it had. Having watched it all, Ben could only feel unimpressed by his work. He¡¯d had far too much confidence in his charm bombs, and unless he made dozens of them and carried them around, his bear traps would only be able to capture one or two creatures at a time as long as the animal¡¯s cries didn¡¯t scare off anything else with it. As for his improved spike trap, he didn¡¯t initially have too much hope for its success from the beginning, but seeing the animal approach it had given Ben an idea. If he could construct a trap door with it, something that could cover it to make it less suspicious while being able to reset itself once something fell through, wouldn¡¯t that be significantly better? The problem then was creating some sort of trap floor he could carry around with him, but he was sure he¡¯d be able to figure something out if he put his mind to it, and there was plenty of time for that. With both animals dead, Thera took off her cloak again to try and attract more for her own magic practice. They still had hours until they had to go back, all they needed to do was wait.
In the three hours they¡¯d been there they¡¯d been able to assemble quite the pile of corpses. A little over a dozen animals had come to be slaughtered, with Thera taking out the majority with her magic, but a few had actually fallen for some of the charm bombs scattered around, and one running towards them so quickly that when it happened to be in front of the pit trap it fell in immediately. Still, as Ben dismantled the corpses he was less than satisfied with the results of his own work and tried to push that aside for the moment while he tried to figure out the pieces of each creature to keep for his personal use, taking them apart one by one. The cultrofels quills were a given, Ben already thinking of what fun things he might be able to make with them, but it got harder as he started on the other creatures. Even with the spacial bags, he didn¡¯t have nearly enough room for everything and instead had to be more choosy, only taking the densest bones and toughest of the skins for use. When he was done they would try and find a few more of the branches the guild wanted before heading home. CH107 As the weeks passed Ben fell comfortably into his new routine. From working on his enchanting and connect throughout the week, as well as taking more time to improve his alchemy and some of the tools he¡¯d been designing for his hunts on the weekends, he¡¯d made sure every minute of his time was filled. It had only taken him a few days to get the zeroth level of calculate since he¡¯d been practicing, having plenty of knowledge of math after taking it for years in school and being able to spend all day solving problems thanks to his extra mind made it rather easy, and he was lightly working on getting the next level for it too. Though it was dull work, it helped keep his thoughts busy most of the time as he did other tasks that were less thought intensive. Most exciting of all though, tonight should be the night. As long as the grey, Quilith, kept his word he should be able to expect a visit sometime later to start submitting some of the questions he¡¯d thought to ask, and Ben had many. One of the worst things about coming to a new world was not having access to the internet at all times, it was hard to realize just how much he¡¯d taken for granted being able to use the total of human knowledge at any given time. Of course, it was always possible he wouldn¡¯t show. Their race as a whole had pretty much instantly gained the world''s goodwill the moment they revealed themselves, his little threats that started it all would have pretty much no effect on public opinion, even with his god on his side. If that did end up happening it wasn¡¯t the biggest deal, his biggest concern of trying to help the planet he was stuck on had been fulfilled. Worst to worst he could travel to one of the bigger craftsman guilds to see if they had any info, though in a few cases he seriously doubted it. Failing that it all came down to trial and error. ¡°What are you making?¡± Thera asked as she peered over his shoulder, pulling him from his thoughts and back to his work at hand. ¡°Lifeblood potion, or at least something like it. I had to make a substitution for one ingredient but Falk thinks it will be fine so I¡¯m not concerned.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that the one that will corrode your blood if you make it wrong?¡± She asked with concern, having taken his suggestion to read through Falk¡¯s alchemy books as well and getting to the first level in her knowledge skill. ¡°Yeah but as long as I make it right it will replace any lost vitality and can start stitching together flesh at a significantly enhanced rate. Considering how often things try to bite chunks out of me I want one on hand just in case.¡± He was happy that even without acquiring life magic yet, Thera had started to gain more knowledge on how to treat wounds, but he wanted all assurance he could get in case of emergency. ¡°I¡¯m mostly just concerned you¡¯re already making modifications to a dangerous potion that you haven¡¯t even made the correct way before.¡± ¡°Falk¡¯s watching, it¡¯ll probably be fine.¡± Thera made a clear and pointed look to the other end of the shop where Falk was busy with his own work, very much not watching Ben make it. ¡°Well, he¡¯ll give it a look later.¡± ¡°Maybe he¡¯s hoping to get out of any more training for any future apprentices.¡± She told him with a laugh. ¡°Haha,¡± He responded dryly. ¡°Weren¡¯t you supposed to be studying or practicing magic or something?¡± At that she sat down and flopped against him. ¡°We don¡¯t all have your endless stamina. I needed a day off to do nothing. Gods, I can only wonder how you don¡¯t have a permanent migraine from trying to keep your brain busy every day.¡± ¡°And night,¡± He said. ¡°Don¡¯t forget I hang out in Myriad''s realm to do some reading.¡± ¡°You¡¯re actually insane.¡± ¡°I just like being busy, and ever since I got complex mind it''s been harder to keep my brain occupied. It can be surprisingly hard to find ways to keep two separate minds engaged.¡± Even if it was a little boring, it actually made it pretty nice to have calculation now that he could practice it in his downtime, or at least as something to do with his other mind when he only needed one like in conversation, though if he ever got more as it leveled he¡¯d have to think of other things he could do with it. Still, that was a problem for another time. No matter how busy he kept his thoughts he didn¡¯t really feel like he was pushing it to the extent he would get another level out of it, at least not soon. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. He had thought of a couple ways to change that beyond what already seemed to work, putting himself in so much danger he needed to push beyond his limits to live, but it might be a while before he got the chance to try it out. Probably for the best if I¡¯m already struggling to keep myself entertained this way. He thought with some mirth. What stopped him from learning calculation before was how boring it had sounded, and now he was training it for lack of anything better to do. Sure he could try and think of new ideas for things to make, but in that regard he was limited by only having one body. He couldn¡¯t make everything, and he could only improve things in a significant way once he had seen how they worked after his first attempt. An example being the potion he¡¯d just finished. When he noticed that it was possible to get all but one of the ingredients for it from the area, he¡¯d immediately started considering alternatives in his spare time and thought he¡¯d figured one out based on the plants similar characteristics and properties, but he couldn¡¯t be sure it would actually work or where he could improve until he tried it out. At least his teacher seemed to agree with his reasoning, but they wouldn¡¯t know for sure until it was tested. He walked it over to Falk with Thera in tow and grabbed his teacher''s attention before handing it over. Falk looked in the glass and swirled it as he spoke aloud. ¡°Colour looks good at least, and the thickness is about right. From what I can tell nothing distasteful¡¯s been produced, all it comes down to is what you can¡¯t see, its actual medical effect. I¡¯m fairly sure it will be safe, but it¡¯ll need to be tested out. Feeling brave boy?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t see anything wrong with it I should stand by my work, shouldn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Good answer,¡± His teacher said with a grin as he handed Ben a knife. ¡°In that case make a nick and try it out.¡± ¡°Wait uncle that seems crazy he can¡¯t just-¡± Thera had tried to argue the idea off but stopped as Ben dragged the knife across his arm, creating a small cut, and immediately poured a few drops of his potion onto it. ¡°BEN! Are you crazy?¡± She yelled at him. ¡°I¡¯ll probably be fine,¡± He told her, trying to calm her down. ¡°The whole blood corrosion is only really a problem if it¡¯s consumed orally or if you¡¯re somewhere you can¡¯t get treated by a healer. If I feel anything wrong I¡¯ll wipe it off and go see Sonya.¡± ¡°Why do I even care?¡± She said aloud, mostly asking herself, though Ben answered anyway. ¡°Because you¡¯re a wonderful fianc¨¦e,¡± He told her, trying to be funny. ¡°But it feels fine so far, I¡¯m pretty sure things are supposed to start burning immediately if something¡¯s wrong. It does kind of itch though.¡± ¡°That still sounds bad. Couldn¡¯t you have done this at the clinic to be safe?¡± Ben didn''t have an answer for that and looked to his teacher for help, who was making a distinct effort not to look at his niece. It was clear that Thera was exasperated. ¡°Can you please at least go to the clinic next time you want to test something like that? I¡¯d rather not watch you poison yourself.¡± ¡°Ha, will do,¡± He said awkwardly, completely seeing her point. ¡°But the good news is the itching seems fine, it looks like a result of my body just rapidly healing.¡± It was slow, but Ben could clearly see a scab starting to form over his cut and couldn¡¯t help but marvel that he¡¯d made something that pharmaceutical companies from his world would salivate at. It may have been a fairly complicated potion to make with plenty of room for error, but the fact that not only could it do that, but he was capable of making it left Ben overjoyed. The presence of mana in the world having not just an effect on its residents but the properties of all life, and meant that with enough training anyone could throw a potion like it together. He wished he could just stick to potions given how effective they could be and his resistance to healing magics, but they did tend to have their side effects one couldn¡¯t avoid, and too much of them at one time would typically be disastrous. Still, now that he could make them he was going to keep a few around for his hunts from now on, on top of a basic first aid kit he made sure to buy after having carelessly forgotten one on the trial. ¡°It looks good,¡± Falk told his apprentice as he watched the wound close on Ben''s arm. ¡°It looks like it¡¯s a bit slower than it would be if it was made correctly but that doesn¡¯t matter much as long as it doesn¡¯t affect the overall performance. I¡¯ll have Ceselee send out a letter to one of the main guild branches later to see if this is already a known substitute and they can start their own testing to see what races it¡¯s compatible with or poisonous to. Since it¡¯s just a modification to a recipe anyone can use there¡¯s no patent, but a small reward is offered for discovering new ways to make common medicines so you might get some luck.¡± ¡°Oh sweet!¡± ¡°What happened to you being stressed getting all that money for your braces that has you already wanting more?¡± Thera asked when she saw his excitement. ¡°Hey now, it was just crazy getting all of that at once. Trust me, if I¡¯m paid appropriately for my work then I¡¯m happy.¡± It wasn¡¯t like he would be getting anything close to what he¡¯d made while he was making the braces anyway, and even though that money would last him for many years if he didn¡¯t buy anything too crazy for it, there was never any harm in getting a little more. As he, Falk, and Thera stopped to chat before he moved on to his next task he heard the shop door open behind his back, and a familiar voice call out. ¡°¡®Scuse me, Looking for Ben if he¡¯s here?¡± CH108 Ben turned around and locked eyes with the young man who walked into the shop as he charged at Ben before he could say anything, knocking him to the ground. Before either of them could move though Falk had ripped the man off of him and had a knife that had been hanging on the wall only moments before pressed against his tackler''s throat. ¡°Now I ain¡¯t sure what issue you have with my apprentice,¡± His teacher growled. ¡°But you better think long and hard before you try anything in my shop.¡± ¡°Wait Falk!¡± Ben yelled. ¡°He¡¯s a friend, it¡¯s all good.¡± At that his teacher let go of someone he hadn¡¯t expected to see so soon, his old friend and former classmate Will, who for his part seemed to be doing his best to hide just how frightened he¡¯d been about almost being killed. Before he could speak though someone else called out to him, and he saw his other friend Steph who ran up and hugged him, thankfully in a far gentler manner than Will had. ¡°It¡¯s so good to see you!¡± ¡°It¡¯s good to see you both too,¡± He said as he hugged her back. ¡°But what¡¯s going on? I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you guys here?¡± Surprised would be putting it mildly. He wished he could have gotten some sort of heads up about their arrival, he would have tried to actually plan something for them. ¡°How could we not see you after what we heard, right Will?¡± She asked, turning to him for the first time since she walked in and having missed his encounter with Falk. ¡°Wait, is everything alright?¡± ¡°Oh yeah,¡± He told her, trying to laugh it off. ¡°Just regretting running ahead I think.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather you both stay in the range of my senses,¡± A third voice said, and when Ben looked to see who it was found another of the world''s stranger inhabitants. Trailing behind the other two at a far more leisurely pace, a giant floating worm entered the shop. It was about two meters in length and as thick as a fist, but Ben kept the presence of mind not to stare after his first meeting with Glob, instead just giving a friendly hello. The worm-like person didn¡¯t say anything in response but gave what Ben interpreted as a polite nod before fixing its full attention on Falk. Since they didn¡¯t go to the trouble of introducing themself, Steph did it for them. ¡°Ben, this is my space and time magic teacher Wedrow. You could say he¡¯s the chaperone of our visit.¡± ¡°Mmh, perhaps you both dragging us on this detour wasn¡¯t so bad after all,¡± Wedrow said before turning to address Falk in particular. ¡°Would you happen to be-¡± ¡°I am, but I¡¯d appreciate it if you didn¡¯t go spreading that around so willy-nilly.¡± ¡°Understood. We mostly came to verify your apprentice''s sanity, but after, if you¡¯d be willing I¡¯d like to commission some items for these two if you¡¯d have time?¡± Falk gave a nod of agreement. If these were not only friends of his apprentice but also summoned heroes brought to help protect the world then he could make the time. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Ben though had something different in mind. ¡°What do you mean you guys came to check my sanity? Don¡¯t get me wrong, it¡¯s great getting to see you both, but I¡¯m perfectly sane, isn¡¯t that right guys?¡± He asked, expecting backup from Falk and Thera but getting nothing but betrayal. ¡°Boy, didn¡¯t you somehow grow a whole other mind only a few weeks ago?¡± ¡°And I¡¯ve watched you try and sacrifice your life twice now in only a few months, not to mention every other way you¡¯ve thrown yourself headfirst into danger.¡± ¡°Alright, I can see I don¡¯t have any allies here,¡± He said defeated. ¡°So why was my sanity such a concern that you guys came all the way out here?¡± ¡°Ben,¡± Steph tried to say gently. ¡°We heard you¡¯re getting married to the daughter of the current succubus queen.¡± ¡°Yeah, and she¡¯s supposed to have some crazy mind enslaving magic compared to regular succubi. It sounds nuts-¡± ¡°Guys,¡± Ben immediately cut in to stop them before they could say anything that would make things any more awkward than they¡¯d just become. He moved beside Thera and put a comforting arm around her shoulders even as he felt her wanting to shrink away. ¡°This would be Thera, my fianc¨¦e and also the niece of my teacher, why don¡¯t sit down and talk a bit since I get the impression you didn¡¯t receive my letter.¡± Will noticed Falk giving him a death glare and moved closer to Steph was blushing in embarrassment from accidentally badmouthing someone to their face like that. Thera still seemed like she¡¯d take the first opportunity to walk out she could and all in all this wasn¡¯t how he imagined the touching reunion with his friends would go. He let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. ¡°Okay, everyone relax for a bit. Since it sounds like you haven¡¯t heard, here''s what¡¯s gone down the last few months.¡± He explained what had happened while he was in Anailia, only leaving out a few details such as his creation of the resistance braces and the exact details of the trial, which he couldn¡¯t explain if he wanted to, and mostly focused on how Pelenia tricked his into publicly proposing in a way that Thera felt compelled to accept. ¡°-and I know I didn¡¯t outright ever say the species of the friend I made but I definitely mentioned my resistance to charm, really feel like you should have put two and two together.¡± ¡°We weren''t sure if we could believe that or not after we heard who specifically you were marrying,¡± Steph said awkwardly before she turned to Thera. ¡°I¡¯m so so sorry about this, we should have tried talking to Ben without making any assumptions.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Thera told her awkwardly, still seeming like she wanted to leave but trying to be polite for Ben''s sake, as well as having more than a little curiosity about them herself. ¡°So how did you find out I was engaged if you didn¡¯t get my mail yet anyway?¡± ¡°Ben, even with a ridiculous amount of races and nations in the world that sort of news is still going to travel,¡± Will told him. ¡°It wasn¡¯t outright confirmed you were a human, but the rumor was going around and your name was attached to it. I¡¯d bet most of our old classmates are aware.¡± ¡°Ha, do you think I should expect any more guests any time soon?¡± ¡°Not unless you told anyone but us where to find you. If anyone else was curious enough to check they¡¯d probably head to Anailia.¡± He breathed a small sigh of relief. He wouldn¡¯t particularly mind seeing his old classmates if they came to visit, but he sure didn¡¯t want to have to repeat this awkward exchange again if he had to. ¡°Alright, well with that cleared up, how long are you guys going to be here? It¡¯s not a huge town but let me show you some sights or something.¡± ¡°Unfortunately we just stopped in for the night to check on you, though we did want to ask you if you¡¯d be interested in joining us for a small trip. It would only take about a week if you¡¯d be able to miss that much of your training here?¡± Steph asked, directing the question at Falk who seemed to give his consent for her to continue. ¡°I mean, I only just got back a few weeks ago, I¡¯m not sure I should just be running out again so quickly. What were you going to be doing for a week anyway?¡± This time Will answered, a large grin plastered on his face. ¡°We¡¯re going demon hunting.¡± CH109 Ben laid in bed, exhausted from the events of the day. As great as it was to see his friends after so long they definitely made a stressful appearance, and that wasn¡¯t even considering their request. But really, now I¡¯m going demon hunting with them? That sounds exhausting. His last couple months had felt like constant danger and near-death experiences, and now his friends had come along and wanted him to face more, even worse given it seemed he wouldn¡¯t have a choice. As soon as Will said the words, Falk took over the decision making for him and essentially forced Ben into it. ¡°Demons make great materials no matter how dangerous they might be, and I told you when you started I expect you to hunt your own materials. Sometimes that means pushing yourself,¡± His teacher had told him as he¡¯d been forced into it, while at the same time making a deal with Wedrow. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a good deal on whatever you need for those two on two conditions. I want the boy to be working on getting a couple of skills anyway, and my niece could use some experience with a demon hunt too. What do you say?¡± The flying worm agreed surprisingly easily and with that, the deal was done. And now I need to work on getting those two skills too. It felt like ages ago now, but when he¡¯d been making a temporary cloak for Thera he¡¯d asked Falk before he left about skills he should try and get, and it seemed like despite the advances he¡¯d made since then, especially considering what he¡¯d discovered about his connect and enchanting, his teacher had focused in on two that could be good for his crafting, meaning that while Thera, Will, and Steph hunted demons, Ben would be off to the side killing this world''s equivalent of rats and squirrels to try and get the knife wielder and hammer wielder skills. He understood where his teacher had been coming from at least. While crafting and all other production-related skills came with tool proficiency as part of its package, that didn¡¯t mean he shouldn¡¯t try to increase it more. The issue was how he¡¯d have to go about it. Hammer and knife wielder were both combat skills, meaning he could only gain them by fighting with those weapons. Once acquired they could level up through regular use of the weapon for other tasks, though much slower, and the added proficiency with the weapons would increase his ability to use them as tools for other things like blacksmithing and woodcarving. The main issue was just that he didn¡¯t have any interest in the act of acquiring them. He knew they would be useful and that they made sense to get, but up until now his preferred method to hunt had been from a distance, and if he was being honest with himself he didn¡¯t remotely care about the combat aspects of them. Perhaps it would be a different story if he¡¯d come to this world with awoken and blessed versions of the skills, but that just came down to him wanting the strength without the effort. If he had to choose between going out and hunting to raise those skill levels or hunting to test some tools he¡¯d crafted, he¡¯d take testing any day of the week. Well it¡¯s to help me improve my crafting overall, so as long as I get the skills before the week is done it won¡¯t be too bad, at least level zero skills aren¡¯t too challenging. If he couldn¡¯t get them in that time he¡¯d just have to try and construct some traps that would be able to capture some monsters without finishing them off so he could quickly do it himself. ¡°As fun as it is waiting for you to notice you¡¯re not alone, things have been pretty busy since our little announcement, so if you don¡¯t mind let¡¯s get this going.¡± A familiar voice came from beside him, Ben seeing Quilith when he looked. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure you¡¯d show.¡± ¡°A deal is a deal. Besides, this is the easy part.¡± ¡°True.¡± As per what they had decided when they first met, Ben would only be asking questions right now, the alien wouldn¡¯t come back until the next month with answers for him and to take new questions. It felt long in some ways, but it also created more than enough time to think over exactly what he wanted to learn, as well as plenty of time for the grey to gather the information he needed without impeding its own work too much. ¡°In that case, there¡¯s three things I want to learn more about. Modern weapon technology, how something like a walkie-talkie is made, and how showers work.¡± The grey was unfazed for the first two, but the last one provoked a look. ¡°One of those was not like the others.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a fan of only being able to wash with a bucket of water or a bath if I¡¯m lucky,¡± He said with a shrug. ¡°Plus, showering just feels good. I guess we can change the request to plumbing in general with an emphasis on showers.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Very well, that one shouldn¡¯t be an issue, but may I make you a recommendation for the other two?¡± ¡°Sure, let¡¯s hear it.¡± ¡°Rather than get the information we know about both in the next month, wait until the various nations of this world finish conducting their own research and then we can provide it to you.¡± Ben thought for a moment. Of course, those two topics would be some of the first that the world wanted to learn too. As far as he knew, fast long distances messages could only be created by exceptionally skilled space and air mages, with both options having drawbacks that made them impractical to all but the wealthy and powerful. As for weapons, based on what he knew a powerful enough mage could cause as much damage as many of the more common ones available on earth, some potentially reaching the strength of military-grade weapons, so he hadn¡¯t initially considered they would be looking to get them, but it made sense. After all, wouldn¡¯t the common person benefit from having something that was easy to use with a low skill level in the event the fighting made it to any residential areas? That wasn¡¯t to mention nukes or whatever weird sci-fi weapons these aliens might have at their disposal, of course the governments of the world would want access. ¡°Alright, sounds good to me,¡± He decided. ¡°How long do you think it will take to work some of that stuff out?¡± ¡°It¡¯s going to depend on multiple factors. We¡¯re currently trying to compare the physics of this reality to any of the others we¡¯re aware of, but unfortunately ones like this with rules that allow the sentients within to have so much power in reshaping it as they see fit tend to be messy. On top of that, we can¡¯t conduct the tests ourselves, instead needing to get each nation or kingdom to follow our directions. It could be a few months at best, maybe longer.¡± ¡°Well hopefully I have years so I guess it¡¯s not the biggest deal. Though speaking of, any news on the invaders?¡± At this, the greys facial expression shifted in a way Ben interpreted as displeasure. ¡°We¡¯ve checked the homeworlds of each of this planet''s inhabitants and suffice to say the situation isn¡¯t ideal. Frankly you¡¯re all going to lose, though you probably shouldn¡¯t spread that around.¡± Ben felt a knot forming in the pit of his stomach. ¡°That bad?¡± ¡°Whatever you¡¯re thinking, it¡¯s worse. These creatures not only have taken over hundreds of worlds, in the hundreds and thousands of years since each has been conquered they¡¯ve managed to fill them up. Our scientists are trying to model what their reproduction rate is like as we observe them, but should you all manage to survive the first three waves we see no reason for them to stop. Frankly if they didn¡¯t insist on doing things in such a way they could take off and kill off its inhabitants in a few hours at most, and if you managed to free a single world from them they could likely have it filled up again in just a few years.¡± ¡°Delightful,¡± He said, wishing he hadn¡¯t asked. Surprisingly though, Quilith seemed to try and lift his spirit. ¡°We¡¯re working on it,¡± The alien told him confidently. ¡°All of their worlds are connected through gates, the same sort you lot use to travel country to country, but on a much larger scale. Our scientists are working on figuring out ways to disrupt gate travel so we can keep them completely off world. It¡¯s the only hope we can think of at the moment, but it¡¯s something.¡±
¡°So what¡¯s your take on all of that?¡± Ben asked when he awoke in his god¡¯s realm shortly after Quilith left. ¡°Not ideal but not shocking either. We¡¯d believed that the invasions were for colonization purposes, and their quick reproduction rate is something we¡¯re at least familiar with thanks to all of the demons that have made it onto this world and still exist despite frequent hunts for them. It only takes a few to fall between the cracks and before you know it you¡¯ve got a new batch of demons fresh and ready to go.¡± ¡°Great, anything else I should know about them before I get dragged off to face them tomorrow?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t sound so pessimistic, it seems like your friends are going to manage all of the fighting and it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea for you to get to see what¡¯s to come, even if it¡¯s on a small scale.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t be too bad. It¡¯s just a bit quick, I want to focus on developing my skills and getting job levels if I can.¡± ¡°Well work on your connect more since raising it should give you some job experience. It just so happened I had a surprise for you coming this week that should be able to help, but I guess you won¡¯t be able to enjoy it until you¡¯re back.¡± ¡°Wait what?¡± Ben asked, completely taken off guard. ¡°I¡¯ll look forward to it then, but why?¡± Even he had to admit he wasn¡¯t a great apostle. With everything his god had already given him he couldn¡¯t ask for more, at least not without putting in some work for it. Myriad felt some small joy hearing the feeling cross Ben''s mind but gave a brief explanation to provide context. ¡°No need to feel too grateful about this, it will help the apostle of another god as well, you¡¯ll just be able to get plenty of benefit out of it too. I¡¯ll leave the details for when you¡¯re back.¡± ¡°Or you could tell me now?¡± ¡°Surprises can be fun,¡± The god said, brushing him off. ¡°And more motivation for you to make it back safely.¡± CH110 Ben was sitting out at the front of Falk''s shop, waiting for everyone else to arrive. They had agreed to meet up there early in the morning before heading off, but he still got there hours before anyone else would to try and get a few things done while he could. He¡¯d already packed everything he thought he would need just the night before, many of which were the same things he¡¯d packed for the trial. He had his jacket, his barrier gauntlet, sleeping rolls for both himself and Thera, as well as a couple staves packed away for her. The main difference was the presence of a first aid kit, as well as a proper tent to sleep in. Though his friend Steph had an advanced form of life magic he wasn¡¯t going to take any chances with his safety again, even if it might seem like overkill. Finally, on top of a hammer and a knife, Ben made sure to bring a charm enchanted bear trap he¡¯d made in the early hours of the morning. Usually, he¡¯d make them so that it would require a sufficient weight to set them off, but he¡¯d lowered that threshold considerably with these ones as well as reducing its crushing force. It wasn¡¯t for use against any demons they might encounter though, as Will and Steph were going out to get experience for fighting them in the future he couldn¡¯t go lowering the challenge for them by capturing it, they needed the full experience. No, the trap was for his own training. He didn¡¯t want to go to the effort of fighting whatever small animal he needed to in a fair situation, he wasn¡¯t a warrior and that seemed like a fast way to getting himself injured. He would get the hammer and knife wielder skills as safely as he could to improve his crafting and then be done with them. As he was inspecting the hammer and knife he would be using for weapons in front of the shop, Thera was the first to show up. ¡°Did you get everything you needed done?¡± She asked him as she arrived. ¡°Yeah, it was all pretty quick. How about you, feeling ready for the day?¡± ¡°Mmh, for all I¡¯ve heard about demons this will be my first time seeing one. Honestly, I¡¯m a little worried about how things will go,¡± She said, seeming a bit off. ¡°It doesn¡¯t sound like there will be many, and even if you, Will, and Steph struggle then there¡¯s still Wedrow so it¡¯ll probably be fine, unless there¡¯s something else you¡¯re worried about?¡± He asked, having a decent idea of what was actually bothering her. Demons after all were just another monster to hunt, at least while they existed in such low numbers on the world. Interpersonal relations were a whole other matter. ¡°I guess I¡¯m just worried about how the week will go is all,¡± She told him. ¡°You¡¯re the only one I¡¯ve had any luck hunting with. I understand why uncle wants me to have this opportunity, I just think it¡¯s going to be awkward.¡± ¡°It might,¡± He conceded. ¡°Sorry my friends didn¡¯t make the best impression, I¡¯ll try and keep things positive while we¡¯re out there.¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright, it¡¯s not like I don¡¯t understand why they were worried about you. Besides, I''ve dealt with this plenty in the past. I can handle a bad week if it happens, and I don¡¯t want to get in the way of friends you haven''t seen in so long.¡± He reached out and took her hand. ¡°Well don¡¯t forget you¡¯re my friend too. I don¡¯t think there¡¯ll be any problems since I explained things to them but if there is I¡¯ll set them straight, don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°We interrupting something?¡± Will yelled out to him as he, Steph, and Wedrow arrived at the shop. ¡°Just chatting while we wait,¡± He called back, dropping Theras hand as he did. Despite the fact that the worm-like Wedrow didn¡¯t seem to have eyes, he appeared to be looking at them all appraisingly. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°All of you just remember this is a training exercise to prepare for the coming war. I don¡¯t intend to put up with whatever mating behaviour your species participates in.¡± ¡°I already told you our engagement is a sham, you don¡¯t need to worry about anything like that,¡± Ben told the giant worm, who still seemed to give off a lack of faith as he floated in front of him. ¡°Anyway, since you¡¯re Steph''s spacial magic teacher are you going to whisk us away to our destination, or should I expect something a bit less magical?¡± ¡°You¡¯re partially correct,¡± Wedrow told them. ¡°My young apprentice will be taking the lead for now to get practice with her magic, when she tires out I¡¯ll take over. Now if you¡¯re all ready?¡± ¡°Actually there¡¯s one thing I have for you all first,¡± Ben told them, holding off their departure to give them each an amulet, or at least trying to. When he got to Wedrow he was a bit unsure what to do as the worm didn¡¯t have hands of his own, but he also didn¡¯t want to just put it on him without permission. Seeing Ben hesitate though he took the matter into his own proverbial hands, and before Ben could react used his magic to teleport it around his neck. The act caught him off guard, but as everyone else seemed to be looking at their own curiously he explained just what they¡¯d received. ¡°They¡¯re resistance amulets that should cover the death and darkness affinities. I¡¯ve heard that demons tend to have the death attribute so hopefully this will provide some protection, and the dark resistance is so you guys will be fine if Thera uses a trick we¡¯ve been doing for our hunts.¡± This way they would all be a little safer from any potential demon attacks while at the same time hopefully being less wary of Theras charm too. Luckily for him making a resistance amulet was easier than one of his resistance braces, and they could be made with a one size fits all approach as opposed to the braces that seemed to lose effectiveness if someone other than the person they were made for wore it. The biggest difficulty was putting two resistances on the same one, but he was still able to manage. While Thera didn¡¯t really need the dark resistance given how high her own was he had just made hers the same as everyone else for the time being. If she wanted a different resistance placed on it he could always remove the current enchantment and replace it later. Though everyone else seemed grateful as they inspected their gifts, Wedrow came off as indifferent to it. ¡°Hm, I thank you I suppose, but wasting your time on something like this wasn¡¯t needed.¡± ¡°Ah, sorry. Did you already have high resistances to those affinities?¡± ¡°No, but there¡¯s no point in wasting the effort to make something that would provide such a minor difference in battle, if you¡¯re a craftsman wouldn¡¯t it be better to make armours instead?¡± ¡°I mean I wouldn¡¯t say that. Sure armour is probably better overall, but don¡¯t knock my amulets. Weakening a spell''s effects by about thirty percent for dark and death magic is nothing to turn your nose up at.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, by how much?¡± The worm asked, completely taken aback by the numbers told. ¡°Roughly thirty percent for each. Dark is slightly higher than death, but you shouldn¡¯t notice a difference.¡± ¡°In that case I must apologize,¡± Wedrow said while bowing his head. ¡°I did not realise you had an awakened enchanting skill.¡± He had been informed that the boy in front of him came to the world with skills only at the first tier, but he was sure that must have been a mistake when he heard the details of the amulets, at least until Ben corrected him. ¡°Oh no, I¡¯m just level four in enchanting,¡± He said, waving him off and trying to ignore any bubbling feelings about his own inferior skills. ¡°Since it¡¯s blessed though I can enchant with fifteen percent of my resistance for every level, lets me get it pretty high.¡± ¡°Wait, you¡¯re already at leave four?¡± Steph yelled. ¡°Didn¡¯t you only get level one when you got here?¡± ¡°No need to remind me.¡± ¡°I think what she¡¯s saying,¡± Will cut in. ¡°Is that it¡¯s incredible for you to have gotten three levels in just the year we¡¯ve been here. Neither of us have been able to raise our blessed skills at all.¡± ¡°Maybe, but yours are already awakened, of course it would be harder for you,¡± Ben countered. ¡°If you guys gained levels as easily as someone at the beginning of their skill I would be yelling out at the injustice of the world.¡± While they talked Wedrow ignored them to focus on his own thoughts. Along with the rumour Steph and Will had heard about Ben''s engagement, there was also another one coming from Anailia. Supposedly a genius enchanter of an unknown race had discovered a new way of suppressing passive magics. When he¡¯d seen who the boy''s teacher was he¡¯d assumed it had been him, but now Wedrow would have to begin to adjust that evaluation. CH111 With gifts given, their travels began. Steph stretched out a hand, and with an effort of mana and will tore a hole through space which they all quickly walked through. No sooner than the last person stepped across its boundary was it closed and another opened, followed by another, and another. It was like she was making miniature versions of the gates that constantly ran to allow travel between countries, and Ben couldn¡¯t help but marvel at her magic as she went. To completely erase the distance between two places was something he would never achieve through his own power like that. Sure, he might be able to create a tool with similar properties if he worked hard enough and could get access to the magic, but it would never truly be his, something he could work on and grow through his own efforts. When that train of thought came to him he did his best to abandon it. There was nothing he could do about his incompatibility with magic, no use being jealous of the people he cared about, so instead he tried to turn his attention to the scenery as they passed it. The very first gate brought them out of town, and with each one that followed they got deeper and deeper into the woods, though at the tenth Steph had to stop. ¡°That was incredible!¡± He could help but tell her. ¡°How have you gotten so cool since I last saw you?¡± ¡°Thanks, but it¡¯s not that good.¡± ¡°It¡¯s really not,¡± Her teacher agreed, sounding disappointed. ¡°The range you sense ahead is still far too weak. Each jump brought us what, a few hundred meters?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry Wedrow,¡± she said, giving her teacher a bow. ¡°If you take over I¡¯ll start practicing my spacial perception more as we go.¡± The worm gave her a silent look for a moment before turning away and opening a gate himself, and when stepping through Ben immediately felt a difference. He wasn¡¯t sure how far they¡¯d gone, but the woods felt so much deeper compared to every single jump from Steph that the gap between student and teacher became immediately apparent. ¡°How much farther did we get with that one?¡± He couldn¡¯t help asking, curiosity getting the better of him. Luckily for him the worm seemed willing to answer. ¡°Without being aware of my destination ahead of time I can manage a jump of about ten kilometers. I¡¯ll take us through another twenty gates and from there we''ll take a break to rest and regain our mana.¡± Over two hundred kilometers of travel in a span of less than an hour. It was shocking to put it mildly, the kind of power those with awakened skills could access, and Ben briefly wondered if any were worshiped as gods for their strength before dismissing the thought. In a world with real gods, I doubt they¡¯d be too happy about a mortal taking any valuable faith. They continued on from gate to gate as they were produced, watching as the woods between each grew darker and denser until they finally had to stop for Wedrow to regain his mana. Steph seemed at the end of hers as well, having continued to practice her spacial perception even after exhausting herself while opening the first round of gates, so the moment Wedrow stopped she let herself collapse to the ground with Will quickly running to her side. ¡°Will, she¡¯ll be fine. Leave her and ensure our immediate area is safe.¡± He took a look between Steph and her teacher before doing as he was told and quickly running off to explore the surrounding woods. It was times like these Ben''s lack of combat and magic skills actually proved to be an asset. With no expectations of him he went to take a seat beside Steph, and seeing Thera unsure of what to do gestured for her to come down beside him. ¡°That really was incredible Steph, I can¡¯t believe you¡¯ve gotten so good with your magic in the past year.¡± Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Not too incredible. Me and Will have spent basically that whole time getting acquainted with how to use all of the abilities that anyone who worked their way to our level would already have mastered. Plus, even if I can use all the spells, I still haven¡¯t mastered them.¡± ¡°Ha, practice is something you can¡¯t escape,¡± He teased. ¡°Speaking of, since we¡¯re having a break, mind if I do a little myself?¡± He held out a hand to her and she took it, aware of the skill he¡¯d gained in some of his past letters and more than a little curious about just what it was like. When the connection was made she was immediately aware of two things. How controlled Ben kept his thoughts, at least when he was connected with someone, and how little control she had of her own. Maybe it was the knowledge that she didn¡¯t want her every little secret to come to mind that made things she¡¯d much rather keep to herself cross her thoughts in rapid succession, and the knowledge that she¡¯d need to suppress them only made it worse. Ben saw enough that he had a variety of questions he wanted to ask not only her, but Will especially, but decided to respect their privacy until they felt ready to tell him and instead focused on something he could tell she wanted to talk about. So you¡¯re worried about how Thera feels about what you said yesterday? He thought to her with enough force to strip away her growing panic and making her concentrate on the conversation at hand. Ah, yes. I just feel really really bad about it. We just came here with all of these worries and said all that right in front of her and now that I know you weren¡¯t forced into it I don¡¯t want to be mean to your fianc¨¦e. Well, I¡¯m flattered that you think I¡¯m such a catch that a princess would resort to charming me to have me, but don¡¯t worry too much. Thera feels awkward, but if you put in some effort I¡¯m sure you could get along. Oh, but don¡¯t mention the princess thing, she doesn¡¯t like that. Or the fianc¨¦e thing, she¡¯s pretty uncomfortable with that too. Can¡¯t you help a bit more than that? She thought at him while staring at him with big embarrassed eyes. Ben could only sigh and turned to Thera beside him. ¡°Mind helping me with my practice too? I haven¡¯t tried to connect to two people at once yet, it might be a good experience for me.¡± She seemed more hesitant than usual before taking his hand, but when she did he immediately tried to use hidden mind to separate them from each other while leaving one of his own minds with each of them. He wanted to use this as a chance to talk to Thera in private first to see where her head was at before he tried smoothing things over, especially when the first things he felt from her were discomfort and jealousy. Discomfort he understood. She was going to have to interact with people for the next week that she was already sure had a bad impression of her, but the jealousy was a bit harder to pin down. Maybe she was worried about him having other friends around now, but he couldn¡¯t be sure, so instead he went to the direct approach. Want to talk about it? ¡­You know, I hate that you can tell my mood so easily when we do this when I can feel less and less from you each time. Benefits of practicing your mental control. He thought, a smile forming on his face. But I¡¯m fine, it¡¯s you I¡¯m worried about, talk to me. There''s nothing more to say, I already told you I was going to feel awkward with this but I¡¯ll deal with it for the week. That¡¯s the discomfort, but I¡¯m also picking up hints of jealousy. The moment he expressed the thought her mind turned flush with embarrassment. You don¡¯t have to worry about losing me to them if that''s what''s it is. And from embarrassment quickly to exasperation. That¡¯s not it so don¡¯t worry. I will¡­ try to figure out how to get your friends to have a better opinion of me. I¡¯m glad to hear it. You know, Steph wants the same thing as well, I think the best thing for both of you would be an open and honest exchange of feelings. As the thought passed through his mind his grip tightened on each girls hand so they couldn¡¯t attempt to escape from his next move, and he immediately changed the way hidden mind was set up, dropping the barrier he¡¯d put up between the two of them and instead separating his own minds from theirs, leaving them alone to interact as he watched over their thoughts. CH112 ¡°Um, what exactly happened here?¡± Will asked when he returned and found Steph using her healing magic on Ben while Thera and Wedrow watched from the side. ¡°Oh, just seems like some people aren¡¯t big fans on how I solve conflict,¡± He told his friend with a chuckle as he rubbed his bruised head. They had only been left connected through him for a few minutes before Steph seemed to get overwhelmed by not being able to properly control all of the thoughts and feelings leaking out of her mind and gave him a solid whack to the head to escape. Considering just how much more powerful than him she was when she came to this world it was far from a light blow and left Ben seeing stars, but at least her honest emotions had been transmitted to Thera, who seemed to have reacted in a way he never would have expected. She was feeling shy. ¡°Ignore it, he¡¯s just being punished for his choices. More importantly, did you find anything in the immediate area?¡± Wedrow asked. ¡°Nothing worth worrying about. A few smaller creatures I couldn¡¯t identify but as long as they weren¡¯t poisonous I don¡¯t think there¡¯ll be any issues.¡± ¡°Mmh, if that¡¯s the case then it¡¯s the perfect time to start fulfilling my agreement with the smith. Will, take your friend nearby and start letting him practice his weapon skills while we let our mana recharge. I assume you can keep him safe in the event anything goes wrong?¡± ¡°Of course, you can count on me. Come over this way Ben, there are plenty of creatures around that should be alright for a beginner.¡± With a sigh he got up and followed his friend, resolving himself to spend a long week working on getting the few skills he would need to give his crafting some extra oomph. They didn¡¯t go very far, maybe five minutes of walking at most, before Will stopped them. ¡°Alright, you¡¯ll find a bunch of small creatures ahead in the bushes, around ten of them. How do you want to handle it?¡± Ben appraised his friend for a minute before pulling out his small bear trap and pouring his mana into it to power the charm it had been enchanted with before quietly backing off and waiting. ¡°Hopefully something will come out and activate the trap, but how do you know there was anything there?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not the only one who learned some skills. I learned tracking and life sense since I started my training, using them together makes hunting a breeze.¡± ¡°Ah, jealous,¡± Ben could potentially learn tracking, but life sense was a skill that relied on having a decent life affinity, meaning it wasn¡¯t in the cards for him. Of course, that didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t take a copy of it to enchant with later. ¡°Did you learn any other cool skills since I¡¯ve seen you last?¡± ¡°Wait and see,¡± Was what he got back with a wink. ¡°Even if I haven¡¯t leveled anything I¡¯ve learned as much as you have, I''ve picked up a trick or two. Anyway, it looks like your trap¡¯s about to catch its first victim.¡± He couldn¡¯t help but be curious about how his friend had grown in the time since he¡¯d seen him but put the conversation on hold for now in favour of waiting for a creature that had left the bushes to explore the device as it was lured over. Thankfully they didn¡¯t have to wait long, and in only a few minutes he was able to identify a familiar foe. A screll, its three beady eyes and razor-like teeth catching the faint light that made its way between the trees and left them sparkling as it approached the trap. Of all the animals Ben could hunt for his skill, he was happy to get this one. He¡¯d harboured a bit of a personal grudge against them since one bit a chunk out of his leg a few months back, even if he and Thera had ended up hunting dozens of them since, he didn¡¯t think he¡¯d be feeling too bad about it. With a quick snap the trap closed around it after it got a little too close, and with that Ben came out of hiding with Will in tow. He¡¯d used his dismantling enough times on the creatures to feel confident when taking them apart that he knew exactly where to cut for the best results and to give the creature a quick death. It saw them approach, and despite managing to get two legs caught in it the trap thrashed around as it tried to escape, not wanting the two of them any closer. Seeing it was enough to make Ben feel more than a little unpleasant despite himself. He had always kept a distance from the things he¡¯d hunted, either through his traps or Theras magic. Now that he was right in front of it he couldn¡¯t escape the fact that he¡¯d be killing it with his own two hands. But that was the reality of the world he now lived in, and not letting himself hesitate any longer pulled the knife across the creature''s throat in one swift movement. Only a few moments after, the life left it. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Ben looked down on it and evaluated how he¡¯d done it. Even if he made its suffering reasonably short it still must have been in pain for longer than it needed to, a fact that didn''t sit well with him. God, look at me getting sentimental. It¡¯s not like my pit traps wouldn¡¯t be a million times worse and I use them all the time. He thought to himself, annoyed he was feeling this way just by reducing the distance between him and his kill. Still, I¡¯ll try going under the jaw next time so it will be quicker. All that¡¯s left is to drain the blood and pack it away to dismantle later. Since their meat wasn¡¯t good to eat this step wasn''t as important, but he didn¡¯t want to fill his bag with blood if he could help it so with that in mind he found a couple strong vines to tie around the body and hung it from a tree. ¡°You were good at that,¡± Will complimented as he worked. ¡°Sure you don¡¯t already have a knife skill?¡± ¡°I have dismantling which gives me a pretty good idea on how to take an animal apart so that helped, and my crafting gives me a certain level of knife proficiency. Hopefully, both facts will work in my favour." ¡°It couldn''t hurt, but on a different note are you planning on using your trap each time? It seems like some of the other scrells around heard that one panic and are hesitating to come out, especially with us here.¡± ¡°Do you have a better idea in mind?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± His friend said with a grin, before he walked out into the bushes, reached down, and pulled another out. Ben watched it struggle while calling out a warning to his friend. ¡°You don¡¯t want to be on the receiving end of those teeth, trust me it sucks.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve already forgotten the skills I came here with man,¡± He yelled back as a screll tried to chew on his arm. Tried being the operative word. No matter what the creature attempted, it couldn¡¯t make its way through Will''s flesh, making Ben remember one of the skills his friend had told him about when they first came to the world; tough skin. Seeing that his friend was fine, Ben walked over and stabbed under the creature''s jaw to get to its brain, killing it instantly. ¡°So what do you think?¡± Will asked. ¡°You deal with the bodies however you need to and I¡¯ll go grab us the next one?¡± ¡°Sure, sounds good to me.¡± He took the corpse and started preparing to let gravity do the work of bleeding it while Will went for another one. It felt like it was going to be a messy day.
¡°Oh thank god.¡± ¡°You got it?¡± Will asked after hearing his friend''s outburst. ¡°Yeah. I guess it ended up being quicker than I thought but I really would rather avoid hours of throat-slitting and stabbing again in the future. That felt like the sort of thing that would get a guy a few years of court-ordered therapy on Earth.¡± "Probably, but gotta accept the world we''re in." It had probably only been two or three hours, but in that time Will caught a variety of small monsters for Ben, who then used the knowledge that came from dismantling to kill them in the most efficient way possible. He could only hunt like that because Will was there to capture them and hold them down, but it had paid off and now he only needed to worry about getting the hammer wielder skill. On the other hand, they now had the issue of having almost a hundred animal corpses to deal with. Ben had been proactive and started the process of draining them all as Will found them, but there was far more than he could fit into his spacial bags. He was going to have to choose what to keep of it all. ¡°What a waste,¡± He said aloud as he looked at the pile of death he was responsible for. ¡°Feeling bad about all of that?¡± ¡°Maybe a little, but mostly about the fact that I won¡¯t be able to take it all back with me. If I¡¯m going to kill all that, I should at least put it to use.¡± ¡°Then get Steph or Wedrow to help you,¡± Will told him, and seeing Ben''s confusion went on to explain. ¡°They each have spacial magic so instead of using a spacial bag like yours, they can create their own storage spaces around them. Why did you think we didn¡¯t have any supplies on us?¡± Ben hadn¡¯t actually given the matter any thought but it made sense, if the spell on his bag was a space affinity one then of course anyone with an awakened space magic would be able to do that much. ¡°Oh sweet, in that case give me a hand carrying them back,¡± Now that he knew he would need help to deal with all of them after all, and immediately started loading his own arms while watching as Will did the same. There was a clear difference in what they could each carry. Even with the strength he¡¯d gained working at the forge, he still fell short of the strength his friends came with to the planet. ¡°God I wish I could work on improving my stats a bit more,¡± He lamented. ¡°The bonuses I got for my last job are pretty weak,¡± At the very least they weren¡¯t in areas Ben cared too much on improving. The intelligence bonus was nice, but he got that from his other jobs too, and even if he was supposedly getting bonuses for his vitality recovery and mana recovery he wasn¡¯t seeing much growth there at all. ¡°Well maybe you¡¯ll make some progress towards it after all this,¡± Will said, trying to cheer him up. ¡°Not likely, I don¡¯t have any combat job options. Currently, I¡¯m just your friendly local priest.¡± ¡°Well yeah, all this isn¡¯t going to do anything for you, be we are hunting demons.¡± ¡°Um, so?¡± He asked, not understanding what his friend was getting at as Will''s eyes widened in comprehension. ¡°Ben, you do know killing demons gives experience to all jobs, right?¡± CH113 ¡°Wait what? Explain,¡± There were still too many gaps in his knowledge of the world and this was clearly one that needed to be filled as fast as possible. ¡°It¡¯s just how the system is set up,¡± Will told him, trying to calm down his friend while leading them both back to camp. ¡°Think about it, when the gods made it they wanted a system to help the people in it grow, but the main point was so they could survive the future invasion. When the war comes if all the soldiers and other combatants are wiped out then everyday people will be forced to fight, but if a person is halfway through their job it would be a nightmare to have to give up the bonuses on it by changing it so instead all of them can get experience killing invaders and demons. That way everyone can move on to their new jobs worry-free. Well, minus the fact that they¡¯re all probably going to die if things get that bad anyway.¡± Wait, but that means¡­ Damn it I should have brought all of my traps! He was cursing himself for coming unprepared, but there was nothing he could do. Either that piece of information had been kept from him or everyone assumed he would just know, either way he just needed to figure out what to do for it now. All he had was some magic rings, his barrier gauntlet, a trap for small and weak animals, and now about a hundred corpses. Even if he wanted to try and score some of that experience for himself, his options were limited. Well, I¡¯ll see if there¡¯s anything I can come up with anyway, but this really is training for Will and Steph. I probably shouldn¡¯t go stealing any of their kills when they¡¯ll actually be fighting on the front lines. With a regret-filled sigh, he got back to where the others were waiting. ¡°You guys mind storing these for Ben?¡± Will asked Steph and Wedrow. ¡°We got a lot and he doesn¡¯t want them to go to waste.¡± ¡°Since Steph still isn¡¯t comfortable enough with her time magic to delay rot I¡¯ll look after them,¡± Wedrow told them, surprisingly agreeably. ¡°There¡¯s nothing worse than discovering your storage is filled with spoiled goods, especially if your race is particularly susceptible to strong odors.¡± ¡°Cool, in that case I¡¯ll start running them back here. Ben, you can wait here and get some rest with everyone.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to make you carry all of that alone.¡± ¡°It will only be a couple trips. Besides, you should fiddle around with how the new skill feels now that you got it.¡± He wanted to argue but ultimately just shrugged. ¡°Well if you¡¯re up for doing all the work I guess I won¡¯t fight you. Thanks though.¡± With a smile and a nod, his friend ran off far faster than Ben could ever manage as the corpses he left disappeared, taken into Wedrows storage. That left Ben with nothing to do but see if the knife wielder skill made any noticeable improvements to his crafting. He found a thick fallen branch and began carving into it, using his crafting to make the material easier to work and the same knife he¡¯d been hunting with to shape it into his desired form, in this case a raccoon. It only took a few moments to feel a small but not insignificant improvement to his ability to use the tool. It was like it moved more naturally in his hand, almost becoming an extension of himself in some ways, and he immediately understood why his teacher wanted him to get it. If he could already feel a difference for his woodworking as a whole just by getting one level zero skill, then how much better would he be at the forge once he got hammer wielder? Both his fantasies for the future as well as his carving ended up being interrupted though by a face coming beside his own to look at what he was doing. ¡°You¡¯re not going to be able to see much of a difference from my usual work if that¡¯s what you''re curious about, but it¡¯s definitely there,¡± He told Thera. ¡°I guess I don¡¯t have much of an eye for that sort of thing. Does it feel any different?¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Enough to make some impact, and every little bit helps. Any luck with your own training?¡± At that she slumped against him. ¡°No. I even tried to ask your friend if she had any advice on it since she has an awakened version of the skill, but she wasn¡¯t able to help.¡± ¡°Well Steph did come to the world with it, I doubt she would know where to start to actually acquire the skill.¡± ¡°That¡¯s pretty much what she said,¡± She sighed. ¡°And I can¡¯t believe you got your skill while I¡¯m out here struggling. Where¡¯s some sympathy?¡± ¡°Ha, you¡¯ll get it eventually, don¡¯t worry. Besides, I think there''s a world of difference between learning a combat skill for a tool I already know how to use compared to learning how to feel a whole new type of mana.¡± ¡°Yeah, but it still sucks being stuck trying to feel the mana without knowing what it¡¯s like. If the spirits don¡¯t come through for me I don¡¯t know how I¡¯ll¡­ Wait,¡± An idea popped into her head and she grabbed Ben¡¯s arm and started pulling her toward Steph, much to his surprise. ¡°Hey hey hey, basic knife safety means not pulling someone in the middle of carving. What if I cut myself?¡± ¡°That might be pretty convenient actually.¡± ¡°What?¡± She ignored his protests and instead addressed Steph. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to ask you this, but would you be willing to let Ben connect us again?¡± Steph for her part was caught off guard, focusing on relaxing and replenishing her mana after all the spells she¡¯d used earlier. She certainly wasn¡¯t expecting a request like that. ¡°Um, I¡¯m not too sure about that,¡± She said apologetically. ¡°I don¡¯t really like the feeling of completely baring myself like that.¡± ¡°Oh, alright,¡± Thera said, sounding crestfallen. ¡°I guess that was a bit much to ask.¡± ¡°Thera, why don¡¯t you explain why you want to before giving up so fast,¡± Ben told his friend, curious about what her goal was himself. ¡°I was just thinking that if I could feel her use her life magic while connected to you then it might help me feel the life mana within myself, but I can just wait to see if the spirits can help me out whenever they get to Stonewall. After all, you didn¡¯t exactly make that a fun experience for anyone,¡± She told him, a hint of accusation in her voice. ¡°Hey now, I think things are less awkward between you both now since you were willing to ask so I¡¯m calling it a win. Anyway Steph, what do you think?¡± A look of uncertainty filled her eyes, but it seemed like her desire to make up for how she¡¯d first treated Thera won out. ¡°Okay I¡¯ll do it, but I need an injury to treat.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t be a problem,¡± Thera told her before she turned to Ben with a look of silent expectations. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I mean, you¡¯re the one that insists on calling me your beautiful fianc¨¦e. Just think of this as your husbandly duties.¡± ¡°If you think bleeding for you is a husbandly duty then I want a divorce!¡± ¡°Should have thought of that before scamming all those magic materials from my parents, now come on and stop being a baby, I¡¯ll make it up to you later.¡± ¡°Uhg, fine.¡± He wiped down his knife, making sure to clean it well after the day it had seen before making a long cut along his forearm and connecting with them both. Considering some of the injuries he¡¯d gotten since he first arrived in the world it wasn¡¯t too bad, and his knife was sharp so the cut was clean, but it was still a bit unpleasant. Steph was able to pick up on his feelings just before he put up hidden mind and started healing him immediately. Her healing was faster than Sonya¡¯s at least, but based on the speed his wound closed he got the impression Steph still wasn¡¯t as competent with the skill as she could be. Awoken skills were supposed to be on a whole other level after all, He didn¡¯t think his resistance to the magic should be slowing her spell down this much. Still, after just a minute it was done and Ben was healed, though Thera still didn¡¯t seem satisfied. ¡°That was pretty quick, do you think we could do it again?¡± ¡°Not super into the idea of dying of blood loss out here,¡± He told her, trying to dissuade her from the idea. Unfortunately, Steph came to her aid. ¡°I can speed up the regeneration of your blood so you¡¯ll be fine. The connection isn¡¯t too bad if I have something to focus on so I don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Traitor.¡± ¡°Please Ben,¡± Thera said, trying to appeal to him. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll get the chance to be able to try this with someone with an awakened skill again, and there¡¯s no guarantee trying it with the life spirits will actually work.¡± He looked at her for a moment before giving in. ¡°Oh fine, I guess it will be nice if you have the skill in case of an emergency so it¡¯s not a bad price to pay, but you owe me one,¡± And I¡¯m definitely going to collect. Maybe I¡¯ll practice connecting with her for a solid day, the only one I can get to do it for that long is Fredrick or some other plant. As he thought on that and other possibilities he made a longer, deeper cut into his arm, hoping this would be the end of it, otherwise it could be a very long week indeed. CH114 ¡°Is this what it¡¯s going to be like every time I leave for a bit?¡± Will asked after he finished delivering all of Ben''s kills to Wedrow, only to find he was being healed again and his arm was covered in blood. ¡°Never get engaged Will. Sure things may seem nice at first, but before you know it they¡¯re asking you to bleed just so they can test their skills on you. The whole thing is a scam.¡± ¡°Pretty sure that¡¯s just you buddy.¡± ¡°And we agreed to finish when he came back anyway,¡± Thera said in her defense before turning to Steph and giving her a small nod of gratitude. ¡°I think I was able to get a fair bit from that, thank you.¡± ¡°No problem, I¡¯m going to focus on regaining my mana a bit more, but if you need anything else just let me know.¡± At that, Thera and Steph both left to sit by themselves, Steph to relax and Thera to practice and reflect on what she¡¯d just felt from the connection. Ben was planning on going back to his carving but Will was still standing above him, looking like he wanted to ask something. ¡°What¡¯s up man?¡± ¡°I was just curious about that mind skill of yours, wanted to see if you¡¯d use it on me.¡± ¡°Connect?¡± He asked, getting a nod in response. ¡°Sure, but any particular reason?¡± ¡°Just curious.¡± He didn¡¯t know why, but something about Will''s attitude made it so he couldn¡¯t completely believe that, but there was also no harm. Any chance to practice one of his main skills was valuable after all and he didn¡¯t intend to pass it up. He held out his hand and when Will took it he connected. Surprisingly, Will''s mind seemed unusually disciplined, even more so than Thera¡¯s, who at this point had plenty of experience trying to keep her thoughts under control. There were a few thoughts and feelings leaking from his friend, but he wasn¡¯t letting everything out like Steph. However, he was unintentionally letting Ben be completely aware of the main thing he wanted to talk about. Hey Ben, so I was hoping to have the chance to talk to you about this earlier, but seeing as how you already¡­ Wait. He stopped his train of thought for a minute and looked around to confirm something. Sorry, before that, do you pay attention to where Thera is at all times? Oh, you could feel that huh? It¡¯s the effect of a skill, I¡¯m aware in the back of my mind but it¡¯s not something I really notice unless I think about it, kind of like breathing. Sounds handy, don¡¯t suppose you could teach me how to get it? It was when Will asked that he felt part of his mind go blank, an effect of the covenant he¡¯d made entering the trial. Even mind to mind he wouldn¡¯t be allowed to reveal information about the trial he took, not even its rewards. At the same time, he didn¡¯t want to just not answer. This was his friend and it was obvious how he would use it if he could get it, the thoughts of the skills potential for keeping Steph safe were leaking from his mind. If he could keep the people he cared about safer by revealing a little, at least enough to be a hint, then he would do it. As the moment stretched on in silence as Ben''s every attempt to reveal it was blocked, Will spoke up. If it¡¯s something private just forget I asked. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. No, it¡¯s not that, just give me a minute or two. It would be good if I could tell you anything anyway. Will could hear the determination in Ben''s thoughts but couldn¡¯t understand the struggle his friend seemed to be going through, but resolved to patiently wait for his answer. At this point, Ben had activated hidden mind around one of his minds, so that one could think clearly on how to give Will a hint as the other was disrupted each time. The fact he was failing bothered him deeply. He understood he would be kept from talking about things like this when he left the trial, but to be kept from even thinking seemed like a much greater violation of personal freedoms, especially considering that he wasn¡¯t trying to convey anything on the trial itself, just the reward it gave. Everything I try and tell him is blocked out, what else am I supposed to do? He thought to himself in a blocked-off corner of his mind. I refuse to accept a god dictating what I can and can¡¯t think in my own head, I just need to be indirect maybe? Or vague or broad? There¡¯s got to be an option. More minutes ticked by as they sat in silence until finally, Ben found a single thought that made it through. Retrace my steps. ¡­Oops. Well what Myriad doesn¡¯t know won¡¯t hurt him He pushed the level-up aside as he heard Will¡¯s thoughts on what he had been able to tell him. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was enough to make his friend curious that he had to work so hard for so long just to give him such a small amount of information. He let Will reflect on what he¡¯d been told a bit already before getting him back to the topic he originally wanted to discuss. So anyway, you wanted to tell me you started dating Steph? His friend''s mind briefly froze as a variety of thoughts passed through his head, but he was able to quickly calm them. Did I really give that away as soon as you started reading my mind? You weren¡¯t as bad as Steph who spilled that and more as soon as I connected to her. So what¡¯s the deal, why are you guys keeping it hush hush? We weren¡¯t exactly keeping it secret. Will thought as he shifted about awkwardly. I just wanted to be the one to tell you and to talk about it is all. Ben didn¡¯t say anything, but he let a silent question hang between them in the feelings he was conveying. Look, it¡¯s a bit awkward to talk about, but there¡¯s only about twenty humans on the world. I was just a little worried about how you¡¯d feel about there being one less available, you know? Ben stared at his friend for a minute before sighing and speaking aloud. ¡°You¡¯re an idiot.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Sorry, slipped out. But listen, I can¡¯t even begin to express how little that matters. But we aren¡¯t the only ones who have gotten together you know, aren¡¯t you even a little worried about winding up alone? He could feel that Will''s concern came from a place of genuine care, so he did his best to not let any of his exasperation at the conversation leak out. Listen, I get where you¡¯re coming from but I¡¯m so not concerned. I¡¯m not really looking to make romance a priority when we might all be dead in two years, and even if every human on the planet pairs up other than me, I don¡¯t personally have any issues dating outside of my species. Wait, so does that mean you and Thera are really- Still no. He thought, cutting his friend off. It just means that enough races on this world are basically human anyway so if I ever get the urge to date I won¡¯t be left with sea slugs or something. Anyway, is that why you didn¡¯t just tell me immediately? No. Well, maybe a little. Will, you¡¯re both my friends, of course I¡¯m happy for you. Well, mostly happy for Steph. What? Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. This entire conversation wasn¡¯t one he¡¯d been expecting to have, and the fact that his friend was still oblivious to this when they were now dating was a pain. Dude, she¡¯s had a thing for you since we started high school. You¡¯re just dumb. ¡­What? Huh, ask her about it later. Since I have you now you can help me practice my connect until we leave. CH115 The rest of the day went on smoothly enough. Steph and Wedrow took turns opening gates for them to go through and each time they had to stop Will took him out to try and get the hammer wielder skill, though without the same luck he seemed to have for knife wielder. It was by the time the day was done that they made it to their destination, or at least the general vicinity of their destination. They were deep in the untamed lands, a wooded area that had yet to be colonized by the various races of this world, even after all of the time they¡¯d been on it. There were a few reasons for that. From what he could infer from the information he had, Ben was pretty certain that this world and all others that the various races had fled from were much larger than Earth. He wasn¡¯t sure just how much, but that could be a question for Quilith when he saw him next. Other than that, the races around were typically more focused on strengthening themselves than expanding, with complex international policies devoted to the topic, as well as the fact that not all races lived on land. Plenty made their homes in the ocean and more than a few made their homes deep within the world itself, meaning that space wasn¡¯t used the same way that it would be on his homeworld. All of this combined to make a world that could seem oddly empty once one left the more populated regions, which also made it easy for some demons to slip through the cracks, and made it hard for them to be eradicated from the world. As a result, higher-level adventurers would be paid to explore the lands to take care of any potentially dangerous creature that might inhabit it, and many of the world''s nations would send their armies off for experience as well. It was with all of this in mind that Wedrow sat them all down to talk after setting up camp for the day. ¡°Starting tomorrow we¡¯ll be beginning to search for any of the demons that have been spotted in the vicinity. Our sources think there may be roughly five of them but don¡¯t let your guard down on that account, countless worlds haven¡¯t been lost for them to be taken lightly. Now I wouldn¡¯t expect the otherworlders to know this, but Thera, are you aware of the change that began a few hundred years ago?¡± ¡°Are you talking about the sorrow?¡± She told him, not having expected to be quizzed. ¡°Correct,¡± He said with a nod of approval. ¡°For the rest of you, we aren¡¯t sure how it happened, but a few hundred years in the past all demons underwent a change, causing some sort of deep mind effect in anyone that attacks them. Put simply, there¡¯s a likely chance that after you kill a demon, you¡¯ll feel terrible for the act, while some might not even be able to attack them at all. Not all people are affected, but it seems the majority of them are, and it¡¯s at that time that any surrounding ones will take advantage of that moment of weakness to strike. If you are the sort to be affected it has been shown you can get through it with practice, but until that point you¡¯re a threat to not only yourself but the people around you, hence why you need experience fighting them.¡± Hmm, if it¡¯s a passive magic I¡¯ll probably be fine, but if it¡¯s a direct spell or skill I¡¯m not sure how I¡¯ll react. I guess as long as I can keep my wits about me it will be okay, and with all these powerhouses around me it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll need to do anything anyway. His role was hunting any weak creatures around to work on getting hammer wielder while everyone else actually practiced on demons and whatever other tough monsters were unfortunate enough to wander by, he could leave the real fighting to his friends. As much as it would suck to miss out on what sounded like free job experience, he wouldn¡¯t be any use without any tools to use. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°In the meantime,¡± The worm went on. ¡°We¡¯ll divide up the watch in case anything happens, men will take first, women second.¡± ¡°Um, if it¡¯s all the same couldn¡¯t I just take my watch with Thera?¡± While he personally didn¡¯t care how it was split up he knew she and Steph would still probably be feeling too awkward for it and tried to spare them, but Wedrow was having none of it. ¡°It¡¯s not. At least for the other three, they¡¯ll all need experience with occasionally working with people they aren¡¯t used to once the war breaks out, not to mention the fact that I know how the tents are split, and I already said I won¡¯t be accepting any mating behaviour.¡± ¡°Come on, do you really think anyone will feel frisky during a hunt in the woods?¡± Instead of answering, the worm simply gave Will and Steph a pointed look they wouldn¡¯t return, and Ben¡¯s head fell into his hands as he understood. You¡¯ve got to be kidding me.
With that decided the girls went to get some sleep while Ben and Will kept watch on the camp, at least that was how it was supposed to be. Since Myriad was around and Will had life sense he was able to pass the time talking to them both while he focused on training his enchanting. It had been a while since he¡¯d played with the skill¡¯s more destructive properties and it just so happened there was a boulder near the camp. It was bigger than anything he¡¯d tried to carve into with his skill before, but he also had more control than the last time he¡¯d practiced with it and began slowly chipping away at the stone, making the material easier to work with his crafting while at the same time piling enchantments onto certain regions to cause parts of it to break down. At this point he barely had to think to do it, just pile up enchantments, wipe away the dust, and repeat again and again and again. It was basically just magic sculpting and it was peaceful. From what Will and his god were telling him there wasn''t anything around to be worried about as far as they could see, and he¡¯d be no good in a fight anyway so he took the time to relax. It was as he was finishing up he felt a head hovering over his shoulder. ¡°So what¡¯s this one?¡± Thera asked as she looked at his work. From what she could see it was his biggest sculpture by far, at almost the same height he was sitting down, and appeared to be some sort of bulky animal with its head hanging down. ¡°Sad panda. It¡¯s an animal from my world.¡± ¡°Why would you make it sad,¡± Steph asked from behind him, apparently up as well. ¡°Pandas are so cute, they should be allowed some joy.¡± ¡°It just felt right,'''' He said with a shrug. ¡°Anyway, I take it, it''s time to switch shifts?¡± ¡°Unfortunately,¡± Steph said, sounding defeated. ¡°There¡¯s never enough time for sleep on these smaller excursions, it¡¯s so much nicer when we¡¯re part of a big enough group that we only need to do this every couple days.¡± ¡°Well it¡¯s only a week,¡± Will told her with cheer. ¡°And now for some well-deserved rest, come on Ben.¡± Ben bid the girls a good night, leaving them to awkwardly figure out how to interact for the next five or six hours as he got himself set up in bed. As far as day one went it was peaceful enough. He got one of two skills and was able to spend the time reconnecting with his friends while at least beginning to help smooth things over between them and Thera. If they could all grow a bit stronger then that was for the best, and if he managed to get the hammer wielder skill fairly quickly as well, he¡¯d have more than enough time to do his own thing and focus on his skills, maybe even collect some uncommon or rare plants for his alchemy. As he drifted off to sleep he thought to himself, Maybe this won¡¯t be too bad. CH116 ¡°Why am I so bad at this?¡± Ben yelled out after hammering his twentieth monster that day. They¡¯d been hunting for demons for the last two days now without luck, and while everyone else would be busy fighting stronger creatures that Thera would draw to them by removing her cloak and resistance band, Ben was put in charge of handling the smaller beasts, making sure to call out for help if things got too bad, and he was hating every minute of it. Aside from how unpleasant it felt when bones broke under each of his blows, the attacks left everything he killed practically unusable for materials, meaning not only could he not make use of the parts later, but he also couldn¡¯t get any practice for his dismantling with the condition he left them in. Since he¡¯d just finished taking apart everything he¡¯d gotten with his knife training, that meant he would only be able to practice with whatever the others killed. ¡°It¡¯s not good to be in such a rush,¡± Wedrow told him as he observed everyone fight from the side. ¡°The zeroth level can sometimes take weeks or months to learn, instead be grateful you got the first one so fast.¡± ¡°I get what you¡¯re saying, but the sooner I get it the sooner I can relax and focus on training the skills I really care about, I think it should be pretty clear I¡¯m not a fighter.¡± He¡¯d already had to have Steph heal him a couple of times today when something got too close or he got careless. It was nothing major, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to survive the things the others had been fighting, especially the current one. Calling it a dragon would be too generous, but it was some sort of lizard monster. About the size of a lion with six legs and dark green scales, it seemed to be able to use air magic, whipping the winds around its attackers and battering them with dust and debris, trying to push off both them and their attacks, though to no avail. Against it, Will, Steph, and Thera stood strong. As mages, Steph and Thera stood to the back to avoid being swept up by the gale and fought with a strategy they¡¯d worked out after the first day of fighting, with Steph opening gates between Theras attacks and the beast to reduce its ability to react to the small boulders flying towards it, while Will would run in between spells to attack head-on, and was doing surprisingly good as well. With his combination of tough skin, enhanced strength, and unarmed master as his blessed skills he was well equipped to fight head to head against the beast, but he had two other things going for him as well. The first was that while Steph was setting up gates for Theras magic, she was also using time magic on Will to speed him up, making him move faster and react quicker. The second was all him though, something he¡¯d apparently learned while he was training. Sometime in the last year, he¡¯d managed to learn an augmentation skill. Augmentation skills were fairly common among people with warrior or combat builds, but Ben had never actually seen one in person before, and it was another class of skill he¡¯d never be able to get himself. The reason for that was simple, much like magic skills, they were dependent on the affinities a person already possessed, meaning there was no way he could learn any with the low ones he was stuck with. It would wrap a person''s body or weapons in the mana as a way to inflict extra damage compared to what the attacks would normally be able to achieve, and at a significantly lower mana cost than if one was to compare it against a mage trying to achieve the same result, making it far more suited to warriors that would typically have a lower mana capacity. Of course, given how high all of Will''s attributes were when he got to the world, he could have just learned a magic instead and been able to use it in a complete form, but Ben felt this style suited his friend more. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. As for the specific one Will learned, it looked like he¡¯d gone with something even more surprising than just having the skill be tied to one specific affinity. Each augmentation skill had the same properties of the affinities they would be tied to, so supposedly fire, earth, and death ended up being the most popular choices when it came to fighting, but Will had managed something significantly more rare and managed to get a lightning augmentation. Just as there were magic skills that required decent affinities for multiple types of magic and could rarely be achieved without awakening the skills, the same held true for augmentations, possible to an even greater degree. While it would be possible for a mage that had water, air, and light magic to weave together lightning spells at an increased difficulty and mana cost, a person couldn¡¯t just use water, air, and light augmentations to produce a lightning one, meaning that Will had to train in those three augmentations at the same time, as well as got exceptionally lucky to actually get the combined skill, and from the looks of it, it was worth it. Between each of the girls'' spells, Will would rush in and deliver a barge of electrified punches, jolts of energy running up his arm as he did before jumping away as it tried to attack him and creating another opening for the next earth bullet. Thera was sticking with that spell for now since the sacrificial enchantments on her staff could handle it, as well as the fact that even though it was still unreasonably large, she was able to make it smaller now than before her magics leveled up, and as a result could fire more off without putting more strain on the staff and enchantments on it, meaning she wouldn¡¯t destroy it during the remaining few days they were out here. The creature was surviving her attacks easier than most had in the past, but they were deep in the wild instead of towards towns, and since there wasn¡¯t a large amount of hunters and adventurers out to train and cull dangerous creatures, the apex predators around were able to get the time to grow stronger and more deadly. Even combining her magic with Steph¡¯s, the creature was able to react and attempt to dodge or lower the severity of the blow with a blast of air between the attack. While those attempts had few successes, it did keep them from landing a critical blow, instead just wearing down the beast''s defenses. Still it was enough. Scales cracked and a body that was battered and broken, once Will pulled away after his final round of punches Thera fired one more spell and brought the creature down. Once its death was confirmed Ben quickly reapplied the enchantments to Thera¡¯s staff and checked its condition before he got to dismantling it as the rest tried to lure in more monsters to train against. As he was taking it apart he couldn¡¯t help but think that Thera looked like she was enjoying herself. This was how she¡¯d always wanted to hunt after all, head-on against powerful creatures, pushing herself and her magic to its potential, and with Will and Steph she could. Even if Ben finished this trip with the knife and hammer wielder skills, he wouldn¡¯t be a fighter, he simply didn¡¯t have the drive. What that meant then was that she needed to find a real party to adventure with, a thought that left him feeling more complicated than he¡¯d expected. Their hunting together was always supposed to be just until she found a new party, but he¡¯d had fun doing it with her. Getting to test out his tool was exciting, and constantly trying to figure out how to improve her staves gave him a good challenge. Not to mention he just liked her company. Back when he¡¯d go out hunting alone to gather supplies for his crafting it was a boring affair aside from when he¡¯d actually get his catch, now he had someone he could talk to, to pass the time, and through that had grown their friendship. It wasn¡¯t like they would lose that if they stopped hunting together, especially not while they lived under the same roof, but it was a change he wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d like. Still, I should probably talk to her about it at some point. Enough people in Stonewall seem open enough with her now that she could probably find a real party and grow her skills with them. CH117 They finished their hunt for the day and Wedrow put away everything Ben had dismantled into his storage while he threw together a meal for everyone. He¡¯d been absolutely crushed on the first day when he¡¯d discovered he¡¯d made the terrible mistake of forgetting his ¡®kiss the cook¡¯ apron and chef''s hat but moved on the best he could since he was the only cook of the group. Thankfully Wedrow and Steph had packed away some pans and ingredients, and with all of the meat they¡¯d gathered they were able to enjoy a simple but tasty meal. It was after this when everyone had about an hour before the girls would rest that they all would sit and talk or work on their skills that Ben was able to get a moment alone with Thera. ¡°Hey, how was the hunting today?¡± He asked casually, trying not to display any of his concerns on his face. It seemed to work, and she responded with a voice filled with enthusiasm. ¡°Fantastic! The first day was a little rocky but now I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever worked so well as part of a team before,¡± Even if she still wasn¡¯t sure how to interact with his friends, she¡¯d found them to be more than accommodating of her, making a strategy that would compensate for her own lack of abilities and accepting her suggestion to let her use her charm to lure out monsters since they were all equipped to deal with it. Outside of working with Ben, she doubted she¡¯d ever had a better experience than this during her time moving from party to party at the guild. Back when she first started she never would have imagined such a thing could feel so satisfying. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear it, do you think that¡¯s something you¡¯d want to do more often?¡± ¡°I mean, yeah if your friends come by again I¡¯d love to fight with them more. Doesn¡¯t sound like it will be very often though, Steph said her schedule is pretty busy and they only forced the issue because of¡­ Well, you know.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re talking more with Steph?¡± He asked with a smile, happy to see Thera getting along with someone else. ¡°Well, we are on watch together and she seems to want to chat. I just don¡¯t want to be rude,¡± She told him awkwardly, though continued in a quieter voice. ¡°She does seem nice though.¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad, but I was really more talking about when we¡¯re back in Stonewall.¡± ¡°Hmm? Sure, I guess if we could find a party member or two we could give it a try. Of course, I¡¯m not a fan of most of them and the ones that are left would need to be okay partying with us despite my rumors and the fact that you¡¯re not really a fighter,¡± It sounded like she was teasing him on the last part, but she¡¯d just cut to the heart of the matter. ¡°That''s actually kind of the point. Your earth magic¡¯s gone up and I know you want to hunt in a bit more of a proper way than how I do it, do you think you¡¯d rather find a real party? At your current skill level I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t have any issues.¡± He didn¡¯t expect his gut to twist so much just by bringing it up, but she was going to have to find a real group to adventure with eventually anyway, it would be better to do it now that she had the skill than to put it off for much longer. Unfortunately, her reaction showed she hated hearing it as much as he hated saying it. ¡°What? Are you not happy having me to hunt with?¡± The mood had shifted and her voice wound up tinged with both anger and sadness so he rushed to explain himself. ¡°It¡¯s not that, I just can¡¯t do anything like Steph or Will can. I can¡¯t fight and I can¡¯t help you fight, all I can do is manage your equipment and make traps. I know we still work well together now, but as your magic keeps improving I won¡¯t be able to keep up. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to start finding a team you could work with sooner than later?¡± ¡°If I get better then you¡¯ll just have to too,¡± She fumed. ¡°Besides, I wouldn¡¯t be able to tolerate anyone in town by myself so if you don¡¯t like it just deal with me until I can prove to my uncle that I can hunt by myself. Now if that¡¯s all I need to get some sleep.¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. With that she stormed off, leaving Ben to himself. ¡°Well, that could have gone better.¡±
After his watch with Will came to an end Ben tried to talk to Thera a bit, but she wasn¡¯t in the mood and he got the impression she hadn¡¯t actually gotten any rest. Guilt and a desire to fix things held off his own sleep for a while, but eventually he succumbed and found himself in Myriad''s realm. ¡°What¡¯s up Myriad, managed to see any demons around for us?¡± He asked his god while sounding clearly depressed. ¡°None yet, but is that really what you want to talk about?¡± ¡°Of course it is, I didn¡¯t ask for nothing,¡± It was after the first night that Ben asked his god if he could keep an eye out for them, which Myriad agreed to. Killing demons was an important role after all, with the invasion soon they couldn¡¯t worry about the enemy forces already on the world. ¡°Well I¡¯ll let you know if I do, but for now why not talk to me about what happened earlier, I am meant to help guide you and share wisdom after all.¡± Ben sighed. ¡°I just don¡¯t want her to be mad at me. You think she needs to find a real party too, right?¡± ¡°Is that what you want?¡± ¡°What does that matter?¡± ¡°Well since Thera pretty clearly doesn¡¯t want to then I think the only reason would be if that¡¯s what you want.¡± ¡°Alright, no I don¡¯t, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that she would be able to get more combat experience in a real party than with me. She can definitely take on stronger beasts than I can and if she''s stuck hunting the way I do I¡¯ll just be holding her back.¡± ¡°Alright, but so what?¡± ¡°What do you mean so what? I don¡¯t want to be holding her back and she wants to rise up the ranks as an adventurer, the solution seems obvious.¡± ¡°Ben, people''s priorities can change. She wanted to earn approval by having a high rank, now maybe approval isn¡¯t as important as having a friend to be with. Besides, wasn¡¯t it at the end of the trial you both had that touching moment about being a team? That meant a lot to her.¡± Ben fell silent as he thought about what his god said. They had said they were a team, that they would solve their problems together and fight together if they needed to. Of course he meant it, but did that mean Thera would rather work with him, stuck fighting smaller and weaker monsters than what it looked like she could currently handle? He didn¡¯t want to stop working with her either, so if that was the case what was the issue? ¡°Huh, damn it,¡± He muttered quietly. ¡°I get what you¡¯re saying, I really messed up. What do you think I should do?¡± ¡°Well, when a member of my race wanted to apologize we would tear out our venom sacks to symbolize vulnerability.¡± ¡°An option that doesn¡¯t leave me maimed please?¡± ¡°They would grow back.¡± ¡°Not many of my parts do.¡± ¡°Picky but fine, just go and be sincere about it. Nothing good will come from not just saying what you mean.¡± He looked up to his god and gave a brief prayer of thanks. ¡°You¡¯re right, I won¡¯t be a baby about it and apologize when I wake up, thanks Myriad.¡± ¡°Of course, it¡¯s what I¡¯m here for. Although if you did want to show some gratitude you could go out and get me some believers.¡± His god said suggestively, pulling a laugh from Ben. ¡°Well, we¡¯ll see. No word on if I completed the quest yet?¡± ¡°As things stand, I¡¯d say you¡¯ll have it completed in a day or two. Some people''s faith has grown stronger and others have taken the plunge to converting, there''s only a couple who haven¡¯t received your letters yet but it should push you over the edge when they do.¡± ¡°Sweet, and then I can finally get something a bit better than job levels, right?¡± ¡°Different doesn¡¯t mean better, but yes I¡¯m sure some of your next rewards will be to your liking, that is, if you are able to complete them.¡± ¡°That is always the catch, isn¡¯t it? Still, I haven¡¯t done too bad so far, I¡¯m sure I can make whatever it is work out.¡± ¡°Without completely twisting my intent like with the church, right?¡± As Ben looked away Myriad felt his worries only increase, only made worse as events began to change around Ben''s sleeping body. ¡°Infinite hells! Wake up and run!¡± His god yelled at him, and before Ben could ask what was going on he was up and conscious, hearing the pandemonium erupt around him. CH118 Theras perspective Ah, why did I have to act like that? It¡¯s not like he was trying to get rid of me, he just thinks I need someone better to hunt with, which maybe isn¡¯t wrong, but¡­ Auhg. ¡°Um, Thera, is everything okay?¡± Steph asked her while they kept watch together. The first two nights they¡¯d been able to make a small amount of chitchat at least, but on this one she was completely silent and absorbed in her thoughts. Thera¡¯s first instinct was to just lie and say everything was fine, but she didn¡¯t end up getting a wink of sleep after how she¡¯d been feeling and she did want to talk about it. Since Sonya wasn¡¯t around and the person she¡¯d normally talk to about her issues was the one she was fighting with, maybe it wouldn¡¯t hurt to open up to her just a little. ¡°I had a fight with Ben,¡± She admitted, feeling awkward as she did. ¡°Oh no, what happened?¡± ¡°It¡¯s dumb, he tried to talk to me about finding a real party to hunt with and I reacted badly.¡± ¡°He is a craftsman,¡± Steph said, trying to be careful with her words. ¡°Mind telling me how you both ended up hunting together to begin with?¡± She¡¯d gotten the abridged version of the story in Ben¡¯s letters but was curious about the finer details that she¡¯d previously missed. Thera was agreeable at least and began awkwardly recounting the tale of how they started working together, both of them being forced into it from by her uncle, his annoying way of trying to form a friendship while she just wanted to keep her distance, what they both went through dealing first with Roan, then everything her mother set up in Anailia. When she looked back on it, she couldn¡¯t help but think that despite all the insanity they¡¯d been through, it had been a fun year, maybe one of the most enjoyable she¡¯d had. Even when considering that she¡¯d faced death from both a madman and a god''s trial, it was still better than the monotony that life previously held for her. Reminiscing like that brought a faint smile to her lips, hidden by her hood, but Steph seemed to take away something different from Thera¡¯s story. ¡°That idiot,¡± She fumed, keeping herself from yelling it out for the sake of those sleeping. ¡°In not a single letter did he tell us how many times he¡¯s apparently almost died.¡± ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sure he probably just didn¡¯t want to worry you,¡± Thera was quick to say, realizing that she might have revealed more than she should have. ¡°Mmh, I¡¯ll be talking to him about that later. But anyway, aren¡¯t you just worried about losing him?¡± ¡°...¡± Her silence spoke volumes, making Steph want to dig deeper. She wanted the chance to grow closer with Thera after all, not to mention satisfying her own curiosity. ¡°So about the whole marriage thing-¡± ¡°What''s that have to do with anything?¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Just humor me,¡± Steph told her. ¡°Let''s say you can¡¯t cancel the engagement, your mom sounds crafty, maybe she¡¯ll be able to force the issue. How do you think you¡¯d feel if you had to marry Ben?¡± Thera thought for a moment. She hadn¡¯t even considered the prospect that her mother might try to force things more than she already had, but it was more possible than she¡¯d like to admit. As for how she would feel¡­ ¡°Sad. I think it would make me sad.¡± It wasn¡¯t the answer Steph had expected, nor remotely close to what she¡¯d hoped for. She was aware of the same issue that Will had spoken of to Ben. With the number of humans on the planet and the fact that they could expect some to die in the war if it came sooner than later, Ben might end up alone on top of being the only one without any sort of backing. She had hoped that the care Thera seemed to have for him might lean toward the romantic end so that he wouldn¡¯t have to go through that and could potentially get some of the benefits he¡¯d been denied due to the skills he¡¯d arrived with, but maybe that wasn¡¯t to be. Still, she wanted to probe further, especially after an answer like that. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a bit extreme? I know he can be a bit obsessive when he starts a task, and pretty willing to ignore a personal bubble, but I¡¯m sure you must see what a nice guy he is?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not about that,¡± She said with a shake of her head. ¡°He¡¯s already aware of this, but as a halfbreed I can expect an unusually long life. I¡¯ve never wanted to get married because the idea of watching someone I care about slowly die like that sounds terrible.¡± Steph was momentarily silenced. She hadn¡¯t expected such a depressing reason and it took a bit to know what to say. ¡°In that case, what about if Ben marries someone else, are you going to be alright with that?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I be?¡± She asked in confusion. ¡°There are plenty of times when people enter a relationship with someone else that they have less time for other people they care about. It¡¯s not something anyone ever really means to happen, but it can happen.¡± Thera froze. She didn¡¯t have any real friends growing up and had dismissed the idea of romance when she was old enough to understand what that would mean for her, so she didn¡¯t have any experience losing a friend she cared about to it. ¡°Did that happen for you and Will?¡± She suddenly asked, wanting more information and making Steph blush in the process. ¡°Ah, um, what do you mean?¡± ¡°Oh sorry, I guess I assumed from what I saw when Ben connected us. Do humans normally do that sort of thing with people they¡¯re just friends with?¡± It seemed like something that would normally be extremely private for a lot of races and had left her blushing under her hood for a while after it happened. If humans just act like that together with anyone they care about then does that mean Ben would want to and only hasn¡¯t out of respect for cultural differences? So would he want some time alone with Steph to¡­ Just the thought left her flushed all over again, but Steph was at least quick to correct her. ¡°No!¡± She yelled a bit louder than intended. ¡°Ahem, I mean, yeah me and Will are together, we don¡¯t just do that sort of thing with anyone so don¡¯t think anything weird. As for us, well most of the people we care about are on a whole other world. I send letters to a couple other classmates and so does Will, but it¡¯s not really the same.¡± ¡®Oh good,¡± Thera said, strangely relieved to hear it. Wait, relieved? Why should I feel so- ¡°Back to the matter at hand, I just think you should clear things up by telling him how you feel. If you want to keep hunting with him tell him that and tell him why.¡± ¡°Mmh, I know you¡¯re right, but I made a scene about it and it¡¯s going to be so awkward¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure it will be fine, I bet Ben is just as anxious,¡± Steph told her confidently. ¡°Besides, nothing will get better if neither of you say anything.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll talk to him in the morning¡­ Thanks.¡± Steph smiled as Thera sat with her thoughts and both were content to enjoy their peace for the rest of the night, right up until the ground around them exploded. CH119 As Ben got up a sight of chaos greeted him. At first, he thought a horde of different monsters had come to attack them, they were all so varied in shape and size, it was like the attack on stonewall all over again, but as he looked closer he found they all had distinct similarities. Despite differences in body structure big enough that they could be mistaken for different species, they all had dark red scales and soulless violet eyes, marking them all as members of one race. Demons. From what he¡¯d learned, one of the most dangerous aspects of the creatures was their adaptability, their forms drastically changing within single generations to fit their environments, making them well suited to conquer various worlds, and incredibly dangerous to have on the planet, and now their little hunting group had become their prey. Even worse, there wasn¡¯t the trifling five they¡¯d been told to expect, but thirty of them at least, and some making a beeline to him as soon as they saw him. He didn¡¯t know what to do, what he could do. He wasn¡¯t a fighter and he didn¡¯t sleep with the barrier gauntlet on, how was he supposed to run? One that was built like a bull lunged at him and he felt death in front of him again. He reached his arm out, prepared to lose it so he could connect with the creature to try and scare it off like he¡¯d done in the past, but before he could Will appeared and lunged at it, knocking it away briefly and giving him enough time to grab Ben in his arms and run with all of his might away from the camp. ¡°WILL WHAT ARE YOU DOING?¡± Ben yelled as he was being manhandled. ¡°WE CAN¡¯T LEAVE EVERYONE ELSE!¡± ¡°STOP MOVING SO MUCH! IT¡¯S ALREADY TOO LATE!¡± His friend yelled back, pain lacing his voice. ¡°I already saw their bodies being dragged into pits when I got up, if even Wedrow was killed then there¡¯s nothing I can do but get out of here.¡± Killed? No, they- But Thera, Steph, they can¡¯t be¡­ He felt sick with horror. For his friends to be gone in the blink of an eye while he slept, how could that happen? How was he supposed to tell everyone? Two of the few people he cared about in the world were gone just like that and his horror turned to rage as he screamed in his mind. MYRIAD! HOW THE FUCK DID THIS HAPPEN! He knew his god was watching considering everything that happened and he wanted answers. This couldn¡¯t have happened. Myriad had been watching the entire time, even if he wasn¡¯t omniscient or omnipresent, how could they have been snuck up on like that? When his god did speak up, it was with a voice filled with remorse. There has to be something we can do, they can¡¯t just be gone! He gritted his teeth and tried to keep silent, not trusting himself to speak at the moment. His friends would be dead or dying, and there was nothing he could do about it. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Once they finally felt they were a safe distance away and Myriad said they were no longer being chased they sat in silence. Will had spent almost half the day running and they needed to figure out what to do from there, but neither of them had the energy to talk. Instead, Will threw together a fire, and Ben let himself fall into despair. With his friends gone he felt all the energy seep out of him in a way he couldn¡¯t stop. It was worse than when he¡¯d taken a few days after he¡¯d been left behind at the church, what was he supposed to do now? That didn¡¯t even mention how pressing things looked for his own survival. He and Will were trapped hundreds of kilometers into the untamed lands, and without a space mage around there wasn¡¯t any way out other than walking, a task that would take ages to accomplish. His god said tenderly. Weeks to stew on his failure to keep the people he cared about safe, a nice prelude to the lifetime of regret that was sure to follow. He had to at least try to recover Thera¡¯s body for her family, though there would probably only be bones left. Maybe her father would kill him for failing his daughter like that, with the way he felt he wouldn¡¯t mind, and he wanted her to properly be laid to rest anyway. He felt his eyes move towards where he thought she would be and then widen as a sliver of hope filled him. Myriad, if Thera was dead would Bind still work? There was a chance that he really was just being pointed to her body, but he wanted to believe, and his god didn¡¯t disappoint. Myriad said, hope returning to his own voice. Ben''s heart was pounding at the thought. If she did escape from the demons then maybe the others did with her. They could all be alive, maybe even looking for them! Since their group had the space mages they would be able to make plenty of distance from the demons after all, they might even be in a better situation than he and Will. ¡°Myriad, I don¡¯t care how you do it, contact Anailia and see if she can find and contact Thera since she¡¯s her believer.¡± ¡°If she doesn¡¯t make the time for you tell her I fucking swear I¡¯ll devote whatever little of my life remains to stealing as many of her believers from her as I can,¡± He almost yelled before turning to Will who turned to watch him seemingly talk to himself. ¡°Will, I have some good news, they might all be okay!¡± ¡°What? How can you be sure?¡± He sounded suspicious but Ben saw some light return to his friend¡¯s eyes with that bit of hope. ¡°One of my skills links my soul to Theras, supposedly it would stop working if she died, so I can at least say she¡¯s alright, and if she escaped then Steph and Wedrow might be as well!¡± Will took a deep breath and covered his eyes, trying to hold back tears. ¡°Oh thank god.¡± ¡°I asked my god to contact Thera¡¯s to get in touch with her, hopefully we can all reunite soon.¡± Even with the good news, the nervousness didn¡¯t leave them as they waited for answers. Minutes passed and turned into an hour, and as Ben was beginning to seriously consider how to make good on his threat, Myriad came back. His god told him hesitantly. Then the bad news? He asked, feeling his stomach drop before he even got an answer. CH120 ¡°Wait what? Do demons take prisoners?¡± He asked in shock. ¡°Then we have to save them!¡± He yelled, getting a look from Will as he did and quickly explaining what he¡¯d learned. ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean we can just do nothing! I¡¯ll follow my skill and we¡¯ll figure something out on the way so warn us if you see anything ahead. If they die before we can get there then we¡¯ll leave. Will, come on, we need to get going.¡± They started running but it was apparent that Ben couldn¡¯t keep up with Will¡¯s speed so again his friend carried him as Ben passed on the information he¡¯d gotten from his god. It looked like there was forty of them in a deep cave system and they were being left alone, save for small, snake like creatures the demons had feeding off them, with Thera getting the worst of it, five being attached to her unlike the others who got one each, and hers were being changed out frequently. But why is she getting the worst of it? He thought to his god. Are they trying to poison or kill her in particular? Damn it, and there¡¯s nothing you can do? If you¡¯re already going to be outnumbered when the war really starts it¡¯s not like you need to bring an army right? What, why? What does that even mean? Myriad was silent for a moment in thought. If you¡¯re saying I can¡¯t tell Will when it''s something he might need to know to stay alive then I can always find another god. Ben told his god threateningly. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Cool, while you¡¯re doing that tell them their rules are bullshit and likely to get someone killed. Myriad didn¡¯t answer and was silent for a few minutes before coming back to him. Fine, what is it that¡¯s such a big deal you couldn¡¯t just tell us? <...There¡¯s an invader among them, with more likely to be born as time goes on.> Wait what? How is that possible? And what does that have to do with their development? Wait, are you saying when the war starts they send their youngest and weakest through and they¡¯ve still managed to take down worlds. <...> Fucking hell. No wonder they didn¡¯t spread this around, that would be pretty demoralizing to anyone who learned just what they were fighting. Any advice? And Steph and Wedrow? <...> That¡¯s what I thought. I¡¯m not just doing nothing Myriad, so you and those other gods can put your heads together and see if you can think of anything for now while I try and work out what I can. With that his god left to figure out what he could with the other gods, while Ben reflected on what he could achieve after filling Will in. The fact that he was no fighter was showing its ugly head again. He¡¯d only gotten knife wielding and at the zeroth level there wasn¡¯t much use in it, not to mention his only knife was still at camp, which meant that if he was going to fight it would be as a craftsman. The only question was how. If they did go back to the camp there was a chance they might be able to grab some supplies, but there was always the chance there were demons still there, especially if they were being led by an invader. There was also the question of how dangerous that one would be. Given that it had presumably grown up in the wilds of this world as opposed to whichever one they¡¯d normally come from, it couldn¡¯t be that smart. He didn¡¯t care what weird rules this universe played by, unless knowledge was passed on, you could only know the things you¡¯d learned for yourself. If that was the case, then what did Ben know? He didn¡¯t have a way to put his smithing knowledge to use out in the middle of the woods, and as for enchanting, he might be able to pull something off with his magic rings and if he learned the skills Will possessed, but he wasn¡¯t sure he could make a weapon out of that. Knowledge from Earth? It hadn¡¯t proved itself to be exceptionally helpful in his life yet. He just hadn¡¯t learned anything in his old world that would be useful to his new reality, with the exception of a couple of things that might make him some wealth if he was to replicate them on this world. If Thera was here he was sure she could cause some chaos with her magic, even out here he could probably create a makeshift staff or two that could handle a single spell, but she was one of the ones he needed to save. Maybe he could work out a plan through the gods once he got to her, but he needed to get through all of those demons first. So what did he have? Was there anything he was good at that he could put to use, maybe to cull their numbers a bit? Actually, He thought, inspiration striking him. Maybe my usual way would work here? CH121 Thera鈥檚 Perspective When chaos exploded around her during her watch, she and Steph were dragged into the ground before she could even react and in that moment she was sure she would die to the very element she¡¯d been working so hard to tame. She did the best she could to keep the dirt from sliding down her throat when she felt something latch onto her wrist and her mana pour into it in an unending torrent like a path had been created for it to move out into, and whatever created it quickly felt the backlash of the act as it exploded like so many staves she¡¯d passed her mana through had before. In the back of her mind where she wasn¡¯t concerned about dirt filling her mouth and lungs, she noticed a thick wetness where it happened, and she didn¡¯t think whatever felt the effects of her power was a simple tool, but she still didn¡¯t know what was going on and why whatever it was that had her dragged her off into the earth. Hours passed and whatever the creature was had placed a limb over her face to keep the dirt out, but it was still a struggle. The panic had subsided with time though and she was able to think clearer, at least enough to wonder why whatever this thing was had kept her alive, and how her companions were. Had they all been taken too? Had they escaped and were looking for her? Would she ever stop being pulled through the ground, mercilessly beaten by any roots and stones that were down there? Most of those questions were answered when she was finally pulled to the surface to find Steph and Wedrow were there as well, though her blood went cold when she thought about what that might mean for Ben, and it only got worse as their captors were revealed to be the worst possible option that could exist in the wilds. Demons, and dozens of them. It seemed they had been the real prey all along, as their targets had captured them for reasons she couldn¡¯t begin to imagine. It simply didn¡¯t happen. Demons killed people, they had no reason to take prisoners. Why would they? They were mindless killing machines. At least that was what she thought until one spoke. ¡°Three of them hmm? It¡¯s not enough to strengthen these lot for what I need, but it¡¯s a start, especially you,¡± Spoke one with a mostly hominid shape, with sharp claws that looked equipped for both digging and fighting, and the thick red scales and violet eyes that were characteristic of their race. It turned to look at Thera, specifically her wrist. ¡°How so much can exist in a single body is something I can¡¯t believe, but it looks like one mana viper won¡¯t be enough.¡± Without another word, the talking demon pointed to the surrounding ones, and two of them responded, bringing over some sort of snake-like creatures that as soon as they were released slithered over and latched themselves onto her. She couldn¡¯t help it, as soon as she felt the jaws of the five monsters pierce her flesh she screamed. The pain wasn¡¯t immense, but the situation was terrifying. For all she knew she was being poisoned by the things with no hope of escape. She could potentially bring the cave down on them with her magic as a final act of resistance, but it would kill her and the other two as well. That is if they were even still alive. She saw a mana viper wrapped around each of them, and if they were poisonous then they could already be dead. If that was the case and she felt herself fading then she¡¯d have to at least try to take as many demons as she could with her, no matter the cost. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
As hours passed the snakes that had wrapped around her were frequently changed out by the same demon that had captured her, and Thera could see it was coming under the effects of her charm. Thankfully it hadn¡¯t become violent as a result, but it was curled up by her feet, and each time another came near her it screeched and scared it off. She was sure if she should be thankful or not. It didn¡¯t seem to be intelligent like the other one was, none of them did, so she couldn¡¯t try to take advantage of it by directing it to attack the others for her, but she still didn¡¯t have any options. She was trapped, and the other two weren¡¯t waking up. The only positive was that the talking one hadn¡¯t come back. That one creature horrified her more than any other by virtue of its existence. If a monster that was already known to be as dangerous as a demon had intelligence as well, how much worse could it become? The only greater concern she had was whatever happened to Ben. If he wasn¡¯t here then she didn¡¯t think he¡¯d had any way to escape, but if that was the case there was only one thing that could have happened. An option she couldn¡¯t let herself accept no matter what. He can¡¯t be dead. There must have been some way for him to make it out of that. There has to be. But how? A smaller part of her asked. He can¡¯t fight with just a zeroth level skill, and he can¡¯t have run from a group this big when his agility was so terrible. He couldn¡¯t have escaped. But the logic didn¡¯t matter. Even if there was no other option, she refused to let herself believe her only friend had died. As her thoughts circled on the matter, an experience that she¡¯d only felt once before occurred. A voice spoke within her head. Is that¡­ Anailia? Her god said with a small laugh. Anailia, I apologize if the situation has me less polite than I should be when having the chance to talk to you, but is there anything you can do? As relieved as she was to hear that Ben was alive, the fact that the other two remained unconscious for the entire time she¡¯d been able to see them was a concern in itself, not to mention that no matter how she wracked her brain, she couldn¡¯t figure out a way to escape. Her god was silent for a moment before making a request. Thera told her everything she knew, from the talking demon to the strange snakes that it called mana vipers they kept latching onto her. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was enough to make her god sound concerned. And are my parents aware? She told her regretfully. Thera grit her teeth. Her father would regularly go out into the world to talk with the spirits he ruled over, but it just had to happen at the worst possible time. When Anailia got in contact with her, he¡¯d been her greatest hope for escape. He was usually only gone for two weeks at most, but who knew if she¡¯d still be alive by the time she got back. Anailia told her calmly. Wait, you mean¡­ CH122 They got back to the camp and collected what they could, giving Ben more options to work with and he started trying to think them through. He essentially had access to earth, death, and charm magic through his rings and barrier magic through his retrieved gauntlet. He was cursing himself for not grabbing space and time from Wedrow when he could have, but there was nothing he could do about that now. Unfortunately, Will didn¡¯t have any magic himself, but that didn¡¯t mean other skills couldn¡¯t be put to use, it just came down to how he did it, and he immediately got preparations started to make use of death magic in particular. The first thing he did was have Will search for a number of plants in the area he¡¯d shown him examples of, and then got to work on a few large rocks, breaking them down with his enchanting to make a mortar and pestle, as well as a large jar and something that could act as a bottle once he was done, with a hunk of wood to act as a bottle stopper. It was quicker than he would normally be, but given that he wasn¡¯t trying to make a statue out of the stones he didn''t need to worry about the look of the end product, instead focusing on how fast he could make them fit his needs, and was able to complete it within an hour. By the time he was done, Will had come back, arms loaded with plants as he panted for breath. Ben knew his friend must have run around as hard as he could without a break, but he couldn¡¯t rest yet, nor would he want to when there was still work to do, and sent him off to fill the jar he¡¯d made with water from any source he could find while Ben got to work on what he was wanted to make. Lifeblood potion, more specifically a failed one. The potion itself was surprisingly simple to put together. Five different plants went into it, each in a fixed ratio. So long as the ratio was correct it would work like a charm, and even if the ratio was a little off then it would just significantly weaken its effect. What gave the potion its well known and lethal side effect should it be made wrong was confusing its rarest ingredient with an abundantly common look-alike, which he now had in spades. With ingredients gathered he started stripping the parts of the plants he would need and grinding each up into a fine paste, mixing them and blending as he went to get the smoothest consistency he could. Once Will came back he started stirring them with a stick as his friend tried to start a fire with his lighting augmentation and some dried leaves and he got to work reducing the mixture over the heat, taking care not to burn it but letting it go further than if he were trying to make the potion properly to make it thicker. Once it was done he put it to the side while he focused on its container. One of the more interesting things he¡¯d learned about when making healing potions was that if they were immersed in light or life mana their effects could increase by a moderate or even significant amount depending on the potion, and he was willing to bet the same would be true of poisons as well, all he needed was a way to do it. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Utilizing his death magic ring, he placed the magic in the container so the mana would be directed inward, before giving it to Will to channel his mana through. While almost all materials could hold mana to one degree or another, he had made the jar with common stone, it would begin leaking unstructured mana in minutes. With those preparations completed the next move would be to get as close to the demon''s cave as they could without being spotted, he just had to hope they weren¡¯t already aware of them and burrowed under the earth, ready to strike.
Don¡¯t distract me and just keep watch. He thought at his god, trying to calm himself down out of fear that his pounding heartbeat would give him away. Right now Will was in the middle of completing his part of the plan, which meant Ben needed to dedicate himself to his. Unfortunately, what that meant for him was constructing a massive enchantment on the stone floor that made up the mouth of the cave. It wasn¡¯t complex by any means, being made by simply laying his intended skill down as he went, but it made up for that by being huge, and as a result almost as mana intense as what he¡¯d just set up before this. Myriad said as he inspected his work. The thing in question was his barrier gauntlet, or at least it was. After copying the barrier skill onto a ring, he¡¯d removed the enchantment from the item itself to use it as a power source for the enchantment he was laying on the cave itself, all that was left to do was start everything. All of the work, the time and effort they¡¯d taken, it was all either about to pay off or fail spectacularly. Oh sweet, perfect timing. Hey Myriad, give me glory to god again. Will any of them pay off immediately if I succeed here like that one would? In that case, hurry up and give it to me, I don¡¯t have all day. Cool, you guys told her where I put the staves, right? Come on now Myriad, He thought to his god as a grin stretched across his face. Have a little faith. At that, he tossed in dozens of the caltrops he roughly made earlier into the mouth of the cave and screamed at the top of his lungs. ¡°HEY DEMONS, HOPE YOU¡¯RE READY TO BE EXTERMINATED!¡± Before he ran for his very life as sounds of movement began behind him. CH123 Were they able to hear? Are any following me? It doesn¡¯t matter if it worked, now how¡¯s everything else looking? Oh great. He knew he wasn¡¯t going to be able to get too much effect out of the lightning enchantment he¡¯d made, the skill it had been produced with was meant to concentrate the mana at a specific point to get a greater effect, to spread it through a caves entrance and power it through a tool that had been designed to acquire mana for completely different enchantment while still receiving it from his own personal supply would never have been good enough for what he was currently using it for. What about the demons? Have any gone underground yet? The gods watching the situation had been observing the demons around Thera and came to a conclusion based on their body structures. Despite how varied each one was from the other there were two things they were sure about, each of them would be suited for tunneling to one extent or another, and despite that, it still shouldn¡¯t be as efficient for them as just running, with tunneling likely to be a developed trait to help them hide from any potential threats. Now that they were going to fight, they were going for speed instead. That meant he needed speed above all else, which continued to be his weakest attribute. They set up the main part of the trap as far away as they comfortably could, preparing it under the watchful eyes of the gods who were on guard to warn them about any demons approaching, he just had to hope he¡¯d make it there before anything caught up. His small saving grace was that the cave was deep and the demons made their home towards the end of it. But they were beasts that destroyed worlds, he couldn¡¯t depend on that to be enough to let him pull off what he needed to, and the screaming of his god in his head told him it already wasn¡¯t looking good. The urge to look back was overwhelming, but he couldn¡¯t give in. Anything that slowed him down, even for a second, could be enough to get him killed. He needed his entire focus to be on running, putting one foot in front of the other, not missing a single step as he went. Falling meant death, being too slow meant death, just being unlucky meant death, and not only for him, but likely Will and the ones he wanted to save as well. The passing of time meant nothing to him. Even though it could only have been a few minutes it felt like hours, and worse, beyond the sound of his own heart beating in his ears he could hear something else. Footsteps, dozens of them pounding against the forest floor and only growing louder as the seconds ticked by. As fear started to grip his heart he saw his target. What looked like a plain dirt area in front of him, with Will waiting at the end, crouched down but ready to fight. All that mattered was if Ben would live to make it to him. Saying a quick prayer and hoping against hope that all the untested components of his trap wouldn¡¯t get him slowly and painfully killed, he crossed the dirt expanse, not slowing down for a second as he could feel the pounding of the earth behind him, he was almost there, Will was only a few feet away. His god suddenly screamed at him, but there was no time for him to react and he felt thick claws tear across his back, ripping his flesh open while at the same time pushing him and the creature that attacked him across the boundary he¡¯d needed. Will got up and threw himself at the demon that had taken him down, and in doing so stopped providing power to an enchantment Ben had created earlier. It was during his first weekend hunt with Thera he realized he couldn¡¯t get monsters to just throw themselves into a pit trap, even if it was sufficiently charmed, if the creatures could tell they would die from it. He¡¯d wracked his brain to try and figure out a solution to it, but the best he could come up with was to just cover it and reset the trap each time it went off. He probably could have created a trap door of sorts to cover it with that could reset itself each time something fell through, but that would mean lugging it into the forest. It was then he started playing around with ideas for magic solutions. Sure, given his lack of mana and Thera¡¯s inability to use magic tools without destroying them it wouldn¡¯t be possible unless he decided to waste some of the valuable magic materials he¡¯d been given by her parents, but he wasn¡¯t that desperate at the time. Now though things were different. He had Will, who had enough mana that he could make a powerful mage even without having any magic skills himself, and he had the need, so they found a space between two closeby hills, had Will dig it out to be as deep as he could in the span of a couple hours before filling it up with poisoned spikes, while Ben knocked down a few thin young trees that were long enough to act as beams to cover the whole thing and placed his barrier enchantment on top of it. Because of the size of it and the vast swath of area he needed to cover, he couldn¡¯t make the barriers as powerful as he could or else the mana cost would be too high, so instead they needed Will to pour as much of his own into the enchantments as he was able to when he saw them approaching to try and strengthen it so it wouldn¡¯t collapse as he crossed it. His friend must have already expended a great deal of it this keeping it in place while he waited so that the shin dirt layer they placed over the barrier would hide the deadly pit below it from the coming beasts, but as Ben turned around, ignoring the pain that tore through his back he knew it had all been worth it. The force of their fall and the weight of their bodies ensured the spikes did their job, and screams of pain filled the pit as the survivors felt the poison enter their bodies, rapidly rotting their blood from the inside and filling them with agony. It was a good start, but he couldn¡¯t celebrate yet. Soon some would escape, and even poisoned and injured, they could still make sure he and Will died with them if they weren¡¯t careful. Still, he was comfortable seeing that it worked and as quickly as he could rushed over to Will, who was fighting not only the demon that got its claws in him but four others that managed to escape their fall. He could see the ones that his friend were going against were sleeker than many of the others that were currently skewered in the pit, likely giving him the speed to reach him before the others and jump to safety once the barrier cut out, while at the same time providing advantages for their other activity of burrowing through the ground. His blood was still clearly on one of the things front claws as the others swarmed around, sensing his friend was the greatest immediate threat, but Will seemed to be holding his own, avoiding each swipe and getting his own punches in quicker than it could handle. Even one on five it wasn¡¯t a match no matter how dangerous a small pack of demons might be. A person with awakened skills was a whole other beast compared to an average hunter and it was obvious why the gods would work so hard just to summon two hundred people like that. With every attack avoided and given he could tell Will had victory in hand he turned back to focus on the next task, killing any survivors in the pit. Since he now knew that demons would eventually turn into invaders after they had caused enough death which meant they likely had the same life and death magics they would be known for, meaning that any that escaped might be able to heal themselves, or at the very least delay their demise. Something that couldn¡¯t be allowed when they were so close to whittling down the numbers He grabbed his hammer nearby and started running down to where each of them was trapped despite his own injury, seeing spikes piercing all the way through them in some cases and he got to work, bringing his hammer down one by one. No matter how dangerous a creature was, if you destroyed its brain, that was the end. At least demons seemed to play by that familiar rule, Ben wasn¡¯t going to count on that being true of every monster in the world, but as long as it was true of these ones that was all that mattered. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. As he went around, bringing death to each of them he didn¡¯t leave a single one unstruck. Now that he knew they were capable of higher levels of intelligence he couldn¡¯t risk that any might be faking their demise, waiting for the right time to strike. As for the ones still struggling, trying to free themselves and swiping at him with abandon he took a different approach. He pulled any spikes he could from the ground, and with his hammer carefully found wherever he could that would be close enough to the creature that he could drive it into their flesh while avoiding their teeth and claws, moving on and letting the poison do its work as he went to the next demon and the next, until all around him were dead. He breathed a heavy sigh as he looked at his work, seeing the blood and death around him and hoping it had been enough, but something about it wasn¡¯t right. Killing them all was not quick work, and Will should have been down to help finish the remaining ones so they could start their attack on the cave, and fearing the worst he ran back up to him to see the fight still going on. Something was wrong though. Will was clearly the stronger one by far. He could move faster and avoid the creature¡¯s attacks and should have been able to continue to deal blow after blow until they were all corpses at his feet, but he didn¡¯t, and it was then Ben remembered what he¡¯d been told when Wedrow first started talking to them about their demon hunt. The sorrow. An affliction of the mind that made it hard for a person to kill demons. Ben had no issue and assumed it was some sort of magic passive effect that he was immune to, but Will was clearly not. He wanted to give his friend a chance to get past it himself, but they didn¡¯t have the time for that, there were people to save, so as calmly ask he could, ignoring the pain that filled both his body and especially his back he snuck up behind the group as Will continued to fend it off and brought his hammer down, delivered the finishing blow to one while quickly bringing the swing to the next and the next, finishing off three in quick order. Unfortunately, from there the element of surprise was gone, and the two remaining beasts were on their toes, weary of him and ready to strike. His only advantage was despite the fact that Will couldn¡¯t finish them off, they were battered and beaten, weakened to the point that even he could stand a chance, and he wasn¡¯t going to let anything get in his way. Ignoring any sense of danger he had he threw himself at the first one, putting the full force of his hammer behind his swing as he took out one of their jaws, just barely missing the head that could have given him the kill. His first instinct was to jump back to a safer range to avoid a counter-attack, but instead he pushed forward and swung again, a move the demon never expected. It tried to protect itself the best it could, reaching out a claw and tearing into his bicep, but the pain wasn¡¯t enough to keep Ben''s hammer from coming down, and this time his aim was true. The demon''s skull shattered under his blow and he felt a brief moment of victory before he was forced to the ground by the remaining one, his body battered and bleeding as he tried to shake it off, but without luck. There was a moment he thought he was done for, that he¡¯d tried hard but hadn¡¯t been good enough so now he had to face his end, but seeing his friend on the ground about to be torn apart was enough for Will to get past his hesitation and whatever was keeping him from fighting at his full strength. With a lunge he tackled the beast off of Ben and went for the kill, finishing their fight. Laying down, battered and bleeding, he couldn¡¯t help but just be happy to still be alive. Getting the skill he¡¯d been working towards and his stealth level finally increasing after almost a year of use was just a nice bonus he tried to enjoy as he got up and made his way to his friend. The moment Will gathered his resolve to fight the creature and took the life from it, he immediately felt the effects of the sorrow. His eyes went wide with shock and he had to run to the side to vomit as grief filled his body. ¡°You okay man?¡± Ben asked in both concern, but also hurry. They needed to get to the others and soon, and if Will didn¡¯t think he could kill anything remaining in the cave that meant he would need to deliver the finishing blow to all of them. ¡°I¡¯m good, I just wasn¡¯t expecting things to go like that. It just felt so, so wrong.¡± ¡°Yeah, I hear passive effects are a bitch. I¡¯m sorry, I know you aren¡¯t doing well, but I need you to pull yourself together so we can save the others, think you can manage?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m good.¡± ¡°Cool, Myriad, what¡¯s the word?¡± ¡°You¡¯re a god, can¡¯t you see down there?¡± ¡°Damn it okay, and the others?¡± ¡°Wait, they should be waiting in the cave for us to come get them! If we don¡¯t know where the last one is and they spent the entire time having their mana drained, they won¡¯t be able to fight!¡± ¡°Damn it, okay. Will, come on, we¡¯ve got to move.¡± There wasn¡¯t time to let his friend feel better, not when the biggest threat of all was out there and couldn¡¯t be located while their friends were trying to get to them. If they could just meet up and give the space mages enough time to regain their mana so they could all teleport away then they would be fine, they just had to get there. With all of that in mind they moved as fast as they could despite their injuries. Well, Ben¡¯s injuries. Will had come out of the fight physically unscathed, it was mentally where he was having problems, but they couldn¡¯t let anything hold them back as they ran. Myriad was directing him to them as Anailia was guiding Thera, and before long they were within sight of one another. Ben and Will breathed a sigh of relief seeing them all alive and gave a wave, their pace slowing down as the accumulated stress left their bodies. That was their greatest mistake. The earth exploded around them before he could react and Will was thrown to the side as Ben was suspended in the air, pain filling him. He looked at what had him and found a demon, hominid in shape and bloodlust pouring from it. Ben¡¯s first instinct was to run from it, to shake himself from its grip, but as he looked down he realized with horror that he wasn¡¯t being held, he was being pierced. The creature''s claw had torn through his abdomen and out his back. He coughed up blood and knew things weren¡¯t looking good, he thought he heard screaming in the distance but couldn¡¯t be sure over the screams of the creature in the process of killing him. ¡°YOU!¡± It roared with a rage Ben had never before experienced. ¡°YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! HOW COULD SOMETHING SO PATHETIC AND WEAK HAVE THE BLOOD OF SO MANY OF MY KIND ON IT!¡± Ben knew with a level of certainty he was done for. A claw tearing through his internal organs wasn¡¯t something he could just walk away from, and he could already tell the monster that had him was leagues above anything he¡¯d seen in the world. It was like being in front of a mountain he knew he couldn¡¯t climb. So this is an invader. He thought to himself, and could only be grateful it hadn¡¯t run out with the rest of the demons when he hurled his taunt into the cave. If this creature treated him seriously from the start, then things would have gone much different. And yet, despite all of that, Ben was still feeling like antagonizing it. ¡°Says the guy related to a big pile of corpses.¡± He wished he could have thought of something more clever, but the pain was intense and he wasn¡¯t sure he had much longer. Still, it got the job done as the creature''s rage became so thick he thought he could cut it. He was sure the thing was going to finish him then and there, but instead it stared at him for a moment before turning to his friends and stretching out a hand, prepared to attack. ¡°NO!¡± Ben yelled, unwilling to let this monster go through with whatever it had planned and did the only thing he could think to do. He connected with it. All of the pain he¡¯d been feeling from the beating he¡¯d taken rushed into the creature as the creature''s overwhelming rage rushed into him and Ben felt it preparing a skill, the effects of his connection not being enough to shake a monster like this, so he did what he could to make it worse. Using both of his minds and the effects of his four levels of blessed focus, he directed every bit of himself to feeling the pain he was in, exploring his suffering in the most horrifying way he could so the invader would have to feel it too, and it was just enough. The flow of whatever skill it attempted was disrupted, and it was enough for a swift counterattack from the others while it was distracted. Ben wasn¡¯t even sure what they did. One moment he was connected to the monster, seeing the rage on its face, and the next the connection was broken almost instantly, and its head was gone. It took a moment for the creature''s body to realize that fact, but when it did it collapsed on the ground, Ben coming with it and feeling the pain of the fall. He was still stuck on its arm, but it didn¡¯t matter. Everyone was safe, and he was feeling tired. All of the stress that accumulated since Thera was taken had left him and he closed his eyes. CH124 Theras Perspective ¡°HEY DEMONS, HOPE YOU¡¯RE READY TO BE EXTERMINATED!¡± She heard being yelled into the cave from a voice she knew well. Ben? Her god said, worry filling her voice. The talking demon, who Anailia had explained was an invader, had returned by this point and was sitting amongst the other demons, and upon hearing the yell sent the majority out to hunt Ben down, leaving only five in the cave with it. Thera couldn¡¯t help but be terrified for her friend. There was only him and Will, how would he manage against all of that? How am I supposed to do that though? She was pretending to be asleep, her eyes open only a crack to watch the room, but the invader seemed to be able to sense that she still had abundant mana and was keeping a close eye on her to be safe. She wouldn¡¯t be able to fight it, let alone the other five demons in the cave. She waited patiently, hoping that an opening would come where they could escape, but the advantage she got was far smaller than she¡¯d hoped. As the time passed, the invader began seeming more and more agitated until it left the cave, but the demons remained. Still, it was the best she could hope for, the only question was what to do about it? She supposedly had a staff waiting for her outside, but she wouldn¡¯t be able to get it. That meant that if she wanted to do anything it would have to be with whatever power she could muster herself, but would she be able to control it without bringing the entire cave down? She could always wait and hope that Ben would succeed, but she couldn¡¯t be so optimistic. If he failed then she would never have a better chance than this to do anything, she couldn¡¯t let it go to waste. She looked to the ceiling of the cave above where four of the demons laid, thick stalactites hanging from it. She and the other two were far enough away that they would likely be fine, but the biggest issue was the last demon laying by her feet. Whatever amount of charm it was under had made it want to cling to her, only moving when it went to replace the mana vipers, which meant that was when it was time to strike. Luckily she didn¡¯t have to wait long. The demon walked up to her and took hold of the mana vipers biting into her arm. Their teeth were thin and small, but the experience of having so many bite into her repeatedly like that was still unpleasant and having them removed was a relief. As the demon walked over to drop off the ones that had been feeding off her where the other demons lay, she took her chance to strike. Raising her hand, she reached out with her mana towards the stalactites, trying to bring them down. She needed to be delicate. More careful than she¡¯d ever been before. If she messed up the risk of all of them dying was too great. All she wanted to do was bring down the stone spikes onto the demons below, and with an effort of will she exerted her mana. Unfortunately, her control was still lacking, and she pulled the entire ceiling above the demons down instead, thoroughly crushing them all. Um, oops. A small part of her was horrified at killing them, but she was able to recognise it as a result of the sorrow. Knowing she was feeling the final effects of a creature''s skill made it easier to deal with, but the worry about what came next had an even greater effect. <...I suggest you grab the others and get out of here as fast as you can,> Anailia advised. Will do. She thought to her god awkwardly, rushing over to Steph and Wedrow to rip the mana vipers from their flesh before struggling to carry them out. While her previous dancer job gave some bonuses to strength, it was still her lowest attribute by far, and she had to treat Wedrows long wormlike body as she would a scarf just to be able to quickly pull Steph out in her arms. Leaving the cave was exhilarating. Being trapped there amongst the greatest threat to her planet had been a terrifying experience, made worse during the walk out as rocks occasionally came loose from the ceiling, but breathing the fresh air was something she wouldn¡¯t be taking for granted again. She put the other two down as she went to look for her staff, Anailia directing her to where it was hidden while Steph and Wedrow they slowly woke up after being freed from the vipers. ¡°Ah, what happened?¡± Steph asked, recovering from the effects of constant mana exhaustion quicker than Thera expected considering how Ben usually handled it, but then again, Steph and Wedrow were proper mages. They likely had more experience dealing with it and training to react quicker after it, passing out in a fight was deadly after all, if you did end up mana exhausted then the correct move would be to get up and away as soon as possible. Wedrow was looking for answers too so Thera explained as well as she could what had happened to all of them, and what Ben and Will were in the middle of doing as a result. ¡°Then we have to help them!¡± Steph yelled after learning everything that had gone down. ¡°We can¡¯t just leave them to die!¡± Wedrow however, was less willing to rush to their side. ¡°If we don¡¯t let our mana regenerate more we¡¯ll be nothing but potential hostages, it would be safer for all of us to wait.¡± Thera was torn. She wanted to rush to Ben¡¯s side to help him, but she was the only one with any mana, if she ran off they would be defenseless. Anailia spoke in her mind, breaking her train of thought. Then that makes the choice significantly easier, doesn¡¯t it? ¡°All but one of the demons is dead. Unfortunately, it¡¯s the most dangerous one by far, but we¡¯ll be better off regrouping with the others than just staying here and hoping it doesn¡¯t catch us while we¡¯re defenseless.¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°And how could you possibly know that?¡± The worm asked curiously. ¡°My god told me,¡± A statement that could end any argument on the matter.
They rushed through the woods, but the emotional payoff was immense when they saw Ben and Will off in the distance waving to them. Thera let out a breath she didn¡¯t realize she¡¯d been holding and felt her entire body relax. They were all together again, and as soon as Wedrow and Steph had enough mana they could get home. Seeing her friend made her renew her energy as she and the others picked up their pace to meet them as her worst nightmares came true before her eyes. The ground beneath Ben erupted and Will was thrown to the side as the invader tore through the earth and impaled Ben on its arm. She thought she heard Steph scream, maybe she had herself, it was impossible to tell. Her breath caught in her throat and time felt like it slowed down. She could see the monster saying something to him but couldn¡¯t tell what and she knew the shock was impacting her actions. It wasn¡¯t until it stretched out a clawed hand towards them that she acted, raising her staff and pouring all of her rage into a single earth spear. In the back of her mind, she knew she wasn¡¯t quick enough to attack something like that, but the invader hadn¡¯t made its move. Ben was surely buying time and she couldn¡¯t let it go to waste. More mana went into that one spell than she¡¯d ever forced into such a controlled attack before and let it loose with all of the emotion she couldn¡¯t contain watching her friend slowly die. Her staff turned to dust in her hand as the speed of the spell firing created a powerful gust of wind around them. Her aim was true and the demon didn¡¯t have time to react to it, nothing could. Its head was destroyed in an instant as her spear continued to tear through the forest but she ignored everything else as she ran towards it as it crumpled to the ground, taking Ben with it. She screamed his name but got no answer. All she knew was that it was bad. She wasn¡¯t sure about how human anatomy compared to that of other races, but it was likely multiple major organs were damaged or destroyed. All but a death sentence. When she got to him she took his hand and tried not to panic. He¡¯ll be okay. He¡¯s always bouncing back from things like this, he¡¯ll be fine. She told herself as she noticed the others catching up and gathering around her. ¡°Steph, heal him,¡± She told the girl crying behind her, but not getting any answer. ¡°What are you waiting for, you¡¯re the only healer, you have to do something!¡± ¡°Thera, even if I had the mana for it, I can¡¯t regenerate entire organs,¡± Steph said, voice shaking. Something of this scale would be just below resurrection in difficulty. Perhaps she could do it if she was more practiced with her skill, or had all of her mana and days to work with, but not at a speed that could save her friend''s life. They were all silent as Thera squeezed his hand tighter, tears falling down her face. She knew Steph was right, but she wouldn¡¯t accept it, she couldn¡¯t. Ben was constantly getting seriously injured and making it through. All they needed was a single option, even a sliver of hope. A sliver Will provided. ¡°What if you didn¡¯t need to regenerate the organs?¡± Will quietly asked, reaching down to grab the spacial bag Ben had on him and pulled out the knife within. ¡°What are you thinking?¡± Thera asked desperately. ¡°A transplant. Ben needs organs, and that,¡± He said, pointing to the demon''s corpse. ¡°Has all of its own in good shape.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t just shove random organs into someone and expect it to work,¡± Steph argued. ¡°We don¡¯t even know if demons have anything comparable to human organs, and even if they do it''s basically certain they''ll be rejected. All we''d be doing is giving him a more painful and drawn-out death." "Or time for us to find another solution." He argued. "Thera''s right, we have to do something. I just need to know if it could work." "... It might." It was all Will needed. He took the knife and cut open the creature''s chest, revealing the organs within. Thera could tell immediately that its internal structure was nothing like a succubus, and judging from Steph''s reaction the same was true for humans. If they couldn''t even tell what they would need to try with then all they could do was pray for a miracle. Luckily for her, Anailia was still listening. Thera immediately did as she was told, passing on the instructions as they got to work. None of them had time to be squeamish when the amount of time Ben had might only be in the minutes. Steph got to work using her high life magic to attach the organs as quickly as she could before closing the hole in his chest, pushing past her limits and mana to save his life and falling into mana exhaustion, but not before getting what she needed to done. Will caught her as she passed out and Thera let herself breathe a small sigh of relief, thinking they were done until Anailia spoke up. "What?" She asked in panic. "What do you mean not good? Aren''t we done? Steph got everything attached, what else is there?" "DAMN IT!" She screamed, not caring about the others around. They knew she was talking to her god so they knew it couldn''t be good. How were they supposed to deal with that? Steph had used up all of the mana she''d regenerated since they''d escaped the cave, she didn''t know what her mana capacity was, but there was no way she''d be able to keep that up until they made it somewhere with a proper clinic, especially when the girl was already running on fumes. There was only one person amongst them who could. "Tell me what spells I need to use." "I''ll make it work! Just tell me what I need to do¡­ please." Anailia heard the desperation in her believer''s voice and gave in, having faith in the half spirit as Thera placed her hands over Ben and focused. She remembered how Steph had felt when using life mana before when they''d connected and tried to feel the same, to make it work through force of will alone if she had to. Nothing happened but she didn''t give up, she couldn''t. She didn''t care how hard it would be, she needed this to work. Still nothing happened. I can''t just let him die, I can''t. She felt mana pouring out of her in a torrent. The earth shook and creatures miles around started moving in her direction but she didn''t care, those weren''t the magics she needed. All she was trying to get was whatever tiny trickly of life mana existed within her so she could turn it into a stream. Rocks started pulling themselves from the ground and hanging in the air as the closest beasts in range got to them, needing to be fought off by Will to keep them all safe, but none of that was important. She would spend a thousand people''s worth of mana and permanently reshape the untamed lands if that''s what it took, and she tried even harder, feeling more and more mana escape her. Amongst all the chaos her uncontrolled mana was causing, other effects not so easily seen were taking place. The roots of grass and surrounding trees grew deeper and thicker, while at the same time mold spores began securing to the various leaves around the forest and fungi as a whole proliferated. Worms and bugs beneath the surface were strengthened by the mana they felt while nearby flowers bloomed and Ben''s breathing grew just a little easier. CH125 Side story Gods and Demons ¡°From there, you¡¯ll need to alternate between casting detoxify and low heal constantly until your space mages have enough mana to transfer you all,¡± Anailia told her believer as she watched above in her realm. ¡°When the one called Steph wakes up and regains some of her mana get her to cast the highest form of detoxify she can manage on him as well and immune enhancement everywhere but the organs that have been transferred, if those receive an extreme immune response he¡¯ll likely die immediately.¡± Thera didn¡¯t say anything and simply did as she was told, but her god wouldn¡¯t fault her for it. She had to put all of her focus into using a level zero magic she¡¯d only just acquired on someone whose resistance to it would trouble anyone but an awakened skill user. The fact that she was pushing herself so hard was something worthy of praise, which Anailia was going to ensure she would get. After all, Thera had been an uncut gem for too long, it was growing time for the world to see what she would be capable of given the proper resources. ¡°I really can¡¯t thank you enough,¡± Said the floating cube beside her. Myriad¡¯s voice was filled with worry and none of the other gods present could fault him for that. He was well known for the longest time for his unfortunate state, trapped in the same condition as the forbidden gods by virtue of his people''s sacrifice to deal a major blow against the invaders. While many gods felt discomfort around him due to his nature as a partially artificial divine being, as well as the extreme act his people committed as a final defiance over those who would lust for their world, enough others took pity on him as he made his way to this world, sharing some of their own meager faith and giving him work to ease their own burdens as an excuse to provide some of the power they¡¯d receive as payment. In the centuries he¡¯d been on the world, it was genuinely nice to see the pleasant little cube get a believer and grow his faith, if only a little, and now that his apostle who helped make all that possible was in such a state, none could blame him for his concern. ¡°Unfortunately, Ben is still far from safe. I¡¯ve heard the reports from their world that such treatment is possible, but we lack those strengths, and worse still that the organs had to come from an invader. Even if he gets back it¡¯s impossible to say how long it would take a life mage to adapt them to his body.¡± ¡°If only the life gods hadn¡¯t had to weaken themselves just to construct bodies for the otherworlders,¡± One of the gathered gods lamented. ¡°It¡¯s hard enough exerting influence on the world, even if your divinity is suited to the act. For us to only be able to watch as such a promising young mortal might lose their life¡­¡± Unlike the mortals, who had significantly more strength than any time in the past when a world was invaded thanks to the system in place, the gods were all significantly weaker. It couldn¡¯t be helped, it was a side effect of so many of them being gathered in one world with only a handful of believers devoted to each of them, their strength was nothing compared to what it once was. ¡°We can do more than watch,¡± She told them, not ready to give up on the boy that managed to pique her interest during her trial. ¡°I¡¯ve already instructed the leader of my people¡¯s nation to send healers over to Stonewall as soon as they can, while telling the one I have there already to have their clinic prepared for an emergency case. If any of you have healers that can be spared as well then it would be appreciated. They should be back there after just a few hours once the mage Wedrow has enough mana for the jump, so the faster you can act the better.¡± It was fortunate they had one of the only awakened spacial mages in the world with them, the mana cost for jumping to a place they¡¯d already been was nothing compared to going in blind to a new location. Even better though was the agreement of all gods present. There were only twenty there, and Anailia was the most powerful one by far, but they had all witnessed how hard the boy worked to save his friend and were moved to act. After all, what was the point of power if not used at times like this? Myriad''s emotions couldn¡¯t be contained as he gave his thanks to everyone present, but with everything they could do for Ben done, it was time to move on to the most important part of their meeting. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°The issue now,¡± Anailia began, taking charge of the discussion. ¡°Is determining how this happened.¡± The mood went tense as they thought about what they¡¯d seen. A horde that big didn¡¯t just happen, even if they were neglectful, especially not a horde with a fully formed invader in the mix. It had been well over a thousand years since such a thing had occurred, and the most likely explanation was that it happened the same way as the previous time. ¡°I¡¯ll say what I¡¯m sure we¡¯re all thinking,¡± One of the gods with an appearance somewhere between a sunfish and tarantula said. ¡°It has to be a case of demon worshippers, doesn¡¯t it? How else could they have grown to be such a big group, or for the invader to have learned world speak?¡± Everyone murmured amongst themselves, but they¡¯d all come to the same conclusion as well. A group that had existed in the past, with varying beliefs about demons, that they were gods, or at the very least might spare them if treated as gods. They had been wiped out after a disastrous event where they¡¯d managed to raise a group of demons in secret, even bringing two of them up to sapience in the process, but they were meant to all be destroyed along with their dangerous beliefs. Whether some had persisted in secret and had been biding their time for the day the demons would arrive, or if this was a new group that had formed, only one thing was clear. They needed to be hunted down and destroyed. A group like that couldn¡¯t be permitted to exist, especially not so close to their approaching war. Anailia could only sigh, for such a thing to happen now of all times, she couldn¡¯t imagine much worse happening for the world. ¡°For now I¡¯ll make sure to pass on the message to all of the other gods and it would be best to inform the leaders of your faith and nations. If a group of demon worshippers have been working in secret for who knows how long then there may be more hordes out there, or worse, more invaders. We¡¯ll need to all begin investigating immediately.¡± The agreement was unanimous and they all went their separate ways to begin pushing their people into motion, feeling a crushing fear within themselves that it would be their own precious mortals that would prove to be the world''s undoing.
A figure silently walked through the forest, its invisibility keeping it safe from prying eyes as it made the long trek home. There was much that needed to be said to its people, decisions that needed to be made, but that would come second. As he arrived at his home he ignored the questions of the people surrounding him, they would get their answers in time. Instead, he made his way to the center of the village and stopped before one of the many statues their ancestors had painstakingly constructed, kneeled down before it, and began to pray. A voice spoke in his head. ¡°I have my lord,¡± It spoke aloud, letting the gathered masses hear his half of the conversation at least. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to say, but before I could eradicate the wise beast and retrieve the lesser ones, they were found by a group of strange ones.¡± The voice said, keeping its tone neutral. ¡°I must apologize. Given the information I had, I wasn¡¯t sure if collecting the lesser ones like you ordered would trump our founding rule of not interacting with the strange ones so I resolved myself to wait to the side to see how events would transpire and as a result all of the lesser ones were killed. I am ready to accept any punishment you deem fit for my failings.¡± It would have been better for the ones who found the lesser ones to be killed, but the voice couldn¡¯t fault him on that. It acted on the information it had, and a resource like him couldn¡¯t be wasted just to punish it. ¡°Pardon my insolence my lord, but is that so necessary? My presence was not detected and our group has grown large, it won¡¯t be easy to move everyone, especially the young.¡± It said, a hint of anger coming to its voice for being questioned like that. The figure looked up to the statue, violet eyes shining in the few remaining hours of daylight filtering through the trees. ¡°It will be done.¡± CH126 Ben felt himself slowly waking up for the first time in what felt like ages, but he didn¡¯t open his eyes. His memory seemed blurry but his body felt good, like a massive weight had been lifted from him while at the same time he was freed from a terrible pain he couldn¡¯t quite remember. He wanted to enjoy it while he could. The bed he was in was comfortable enough, though it didn¡¯t feel like the one he had at Sonya¡¯s, and he was content to just lay there, letting his mind¡¯s wander as he did until a thought interrupted him. Wait, why do I have three now? With the revelation he¡¯d leveled up complex mind came the memories of everything that happened and he bolted upright and opened his eyes, shocking the person by his side, a fully cloaked figure who had been sitting down reading a book but threw themselves at him as soon as he was up, wrapping him in a hug. ¡°Oh thank the gods,¡± Thera said, squeezing him as if he would try to escape otherwise. ¡°You¡¯re finally up.¡± He hugged her back just as hard. The last thing he remembered was that the invader had been killed and he was sure he was going to die, but she had been safe. To see her sitting there was the greatest relief he could ask for. ¡°I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re safe,¡± He told her, feeling the tension leave his body. ¡°And the others?¡± The last he¡¯d seen, Steph and Wedrow seemed to be safely by her side, but Will had been thrown away when the invader attacked. Thankfully she quickly pushed his concerns away. ¡°All fine. They¡¯re safely home now, they wanted to stay but their nations wanted a report of events and once all of the healers showed up they couldn¡¯t delay any longer.¡± ¡°Wait, healers?¡± She nodded, not taking her head away from his chest. ¡°Apparently the gods that were watching contacted their nations to send healers to Stonewall as fast as they could. The last two weeks they¡¯d been working around the clock to keep you alive.¡± Two weeks! Damn, this really was a bad one. Looks like I finally have a reason to be grateful to at least a couple other gods in this world though. He would have to remember to ask Myriad to pass on his thanks when he got the chance but put the thought to the side as another question came up. ¡°But how am I even alive? I didn¡¯t think Steph and Wedrow would be able to do anything after having their mana sucked out like that, I was sure I was a goner.¡± ¡°Ah, well, that¡¯s a little complicated.¡± She told him, dreading the conversation she knew she was going to have to have and afraid of how he would react, but it wasn¡¯t something that could be put off. She carefully explained what happened after she killed the demon and how they came to the conclusion they¡¯d have to make use of its organs to save his life. He¡¯d just silently listened as she spoke, raising her anxiety as the story went on. What if he was angry? What if he hated her? She was ready to accept it if he did, but she stood by the choice, she didn¡¯t want him to die. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°So,¡± He began as she braced for the worst. ¡°You got two magic levels! You¡¯re halfway through your quest, that¡¯s incredible!¡± ¡°Um, are you not mad at all?¡± ¡°What are you talking about?¡± ¡°We incorporated parts of the most hated and heinous monsters in the galaxy into your body, plenty of people would rather be dead.¡± ¡°Sure but I¡¯m not one of them,¡± He told her with certainty and hugged her tighter. ¡°As far as I¡¯m concerned those were just materials to be used, and you saved my life. I don¡¯t care what bits you shove into me in the future if it means I get to live another day.¡± He was aware that some people on his homeworld might object to xenotransplants on ethical or religious grounds, but he couldn¡¯t care less. The biggest concern he had was that someone might get experience if they killed him now, but even that was regulated to a passing curiosity about how much he would provide. ¡°Oh good, I was a little worried,¡± A little was probably an understatement. He felt her body relax through her cloak as he told her it was fine and knew the thought must have been weighing on her mind. ¡°I told you the boy wouldn¡¯t have a problem,¡± A familiar yeti said as he made his way into the room. ¡°Good to see you Falk, your favourite apprentice is back in the land of the living,¡± Ben told his teacher as a smile stretched across his face. ¡°Bah, and I was so close to being free of your nonsense,¡± His teacher told him, grinning back despite himself. ¡°Hey now, you can¡¯t say that, I¡¯m a patient.¡± ¡°If I can¡¯t talk like that when you''re hurt I¡¯ll never be able to. You¡¯re always a patient for some reason or other.¡± ¡°It¡¯s part of my charm.¡± ¡°Nothing charmin¡¯ about scaring everyone half to death each time you¡¯re pulled in here looking worse than the last, and no matter how excited you are to see your wife, maybe you should leave that sort of thing for when you¡¯ve got some privacy.¡± Thera was horrified to realise she hadn¡¯t let go of him since he¡¯d woken up and he was still hugging her so she slipped from his arms and awkwardly went back to her chair, making a halfhearted comment about not being his wife as she did. His teacher gave a little chuckle at his niece''s embarrassment before he went on. ¡°How¡¯s your body feeling, anything off?¡± ¡°No, I feel incredible actually, like I was never even injured,¡± He felt around his stomach and chest, expecting to find a scar but coming up blank. ¡°I¡¯ll have to thank the healers who worked on me, seems like they did a great job.¡± The mood of the room darkened a little, but the way Falk went on made him think it was all in his head. ¡°Most of them went to head home this morning since your treatment was completed but you¡¯ll get your chance to talk to the main one later. If you¡¯re feeling up to it you can come to the shop once Sonya gives you a look over if you want. A lot of things have happened that I think you¡¯ll be excited for.¡± ¡°Hmm, sure sounds good, but what time is it? Even if I just woke up I don¡¯t want to be out too late.¡± ¡°You¡¯re fine, it¡¯s just before lunch so you have plenty of daylight to burn.¡± ¡°Wait, why aren''t you watching the shop if it¡¯s this early?¡± ¡°Cause I needed to check on my accident-prone apprentice, obviously. Now get that grin off your face and let¡¯s get you checked out.¡± ¡°Sounds good, you going to come along Thera?¡± She shook her head. ¡°I would, but now that you¡¯re up I have some work to do.¡± ¡°Oh, okay,¡± He said, more disappointment leaking from his voice than intended. ¡°Sorry but it¡¯s important, unfortunately. I¡¯ll ask aunty to pick something tasty up for us later at dinner so don¡¯t be out too late, okay?¡± ¡°And don¡¯t be so greedy for her time boy,¡± His teacher told him. ¡°She¡¯s been stuck here every day waiting for you to get yourself together.¡± ¡°Uncle, he didn¡¯t need to know that!¡± CH127 Theras Perspective She left Ben to get himself checked out while going off to do what she needed to. While she had finally been able to breathe a sigh of relief now that her friend was awake and out of danger, there was a new weight to bring her down, and it was waiting for her at home. She hesitated at the door for a minute, not wanting to go in when she could be relaxing instead after such a long few weeks. But Thera treated it like a bandage that needed to be torn off, taking a breath before she opened the door and walked in. Lounging on the couch comfortably, flipping through the pages of a book her aunt Sonya had left on the table was a void of white mana in roughly the shape of a succubus. She wished it was her aunt Lux who she had a reasonable relationship with, but the one in her home didn¡¯t radiate light around her, instead she simply existed, as if something had punched out a hole in space to find a white backdrop behind it. ¡°Hello Vividus,¡± She said, greeting her aunt, the great life spirit, with a voice filled with disdain. ¡°Hello child, I take it your pet mortal is awake?¡± She asked, indifferent to the emotions in her niece''s tone. She ground her teeth in frustration at having to deal with her. It was something she would never choose freely, even if her aunt didn¡¯t feel anything about it, as far as Thera was concerned there was nothing but bad blood between them. But as much as Thera disliked her Vividus, she couldn¡¯t be too rude. Not after getting her to save Ben¡¯s life. ¡°He is, thank you for treating him. Now if you could tell me what you want I¡¯ll send you on your way.¡± ¡°Hmm? What do you mean by that?¡± The spirit asked in genuine confusion, the first emotion Thera had seen from her since she arrived in the morning. ¡°What do you mean ¡®what do I mean?¡¯ You must have come here for a reason, I know you don¡¯t like leaving the life valley where you can run your little experiments, so what do you want?¡± ¡°Child, I am here because you called me.¡± She sounded genuinely confused, but Thera didn¡¯t believe it. ¡°Why would I call you? No offense, I¡¯m grateful you saved Ben''s life and all, but I still hate your guts,¡± The idea of calling her aunt of her own free will like that was unimaginable to her. She thought of Vividus so rarely it didn¡¯t even cross her mind that she might be able to do something for Ben. Of course, those feelings didn¡¯t stop her from asking for help when she showed up in the morning, but they weren¡¯t the types to meet up over something like familial affection. ¡°If that¡¯s the case then the air spirit misled me, I¡¯ll be on my way after I check the boy''s condition tonight.¡± She was about to pick up her book to continue it when Thera stopped her. ¡°Wait,¡± She said, head in hand. ¡°If you heard it from an air spirit I know what you¡¯re talking about, I just wasn¡¯t expecting you.¡± When she¡¯d requested the help of an air spirit to send any life spirits her way, she¡¯d never expected her aunt. In fact, the only reason it wasn¡¯t the least desirable outcome was because of the timing. Her aunt seemed to want to know the reason she¡¯d been asked to come here, and feeling awkward that she actually was the reason explained everything, albeit briefly. From learning that gaining other magics would help her improve her control as a whole to training with Funa and trying to come up with a solution to gain life magic as well, which ultimately led her to try to find a life spirit. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°But none of that matters now, I managed to get level zero life magic not long ago. Honestly, I don¡¯t know why the spirits would bother you when I asked for a regular life spirit or two to make their way to town.¡± As Thera spoke Vividus began placing her undivided attention on her. ¡°You really should try to know your place amongst the common spirits,¡± She lectured. ¡°Even if they aren¡¯t able to understand the nature of your relationship with Abrus, they can at least grasp its significance. Who amongst them would leave a matter concerning you to a regular spirit if they could avoid it?¡± ¡°I guess¡­¡± The nature of how typical spirits viewed her seemed as mysterious to her as it did to themselves, but she knew that even if they didn¡¯t understand parent-child relations as creatures that didn¡¯t have any themselves, they were capable of comprehending friendship and seemed to view her connection to her father as something similar to that, though much deeper. ¡°More importantly though, you say you actually managed to get life magic?¡± Her aunt asked, a hint of excitement tingeing her voice. ¡°What are all of your current magic levels?¡± ¡°Earth is four, charm is one, and life is at zero, why?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve made impressive progress to get earth so high so fast,¡± Vividus said in a way she¡¯d never heard from her aunt before. Her voice held approval in it. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve decided, no reason to waste a trip out here. There¡¯s a training ground nearby, correct? Let¡¯s go out there.¡± She fired off a spell that Thera couldn¡¯t understand, but she wasn¡¯t going anywhere with her, at least not without an explanation. ¡°Why, what do you want?¡± ¡°Obviously to improve your magic.¡±
¡°Alright, so what were you going to teach me?¡± They¡¯d made their way to the training grounds and gotten plenty of strange looks along the way. Not many people in the world had the opportunity to see a great spirit, and since only a handful of people in Stonewall knew of her heritage, that meant the majority of residents they passed no clue what the mysterious white void they were looking at actually was, nor why it was with the town savior/outcast/menace depending on who was asked. That was something she could ignore though. Thera was used to receiving looks when she was out, and that chance that she might get something useful from her aunt for the first time was interesting enough that she decided to give it a go. She was aware that life magic had a couple applications outside of healing, but it would be hard to find anyone outside of the great life spirit who was knowledgeable at them, let alone as proficient as Vividus was sure to be. And yet, despite being willing to swallow her pride for a chance to learn more about the magic skill she¡¯d gained, that wasn¡¯t what her aunt had in mind. ¡°If you want to learn any advanced life magic then come find me once you¡¯re at least level six and focus on the healing spells the average life mage is proficient in. As it stands you¡¯re too much of a beginner for anything interesting.¡± ¡°What? Then why did you bring me out here?¡± She asked in a huff, annoyed she¡¯d let herself get her hopes up that her aunt might be useful in training her for once. ¡°Simple really, Funa made a mistake in what she taught you, I¡¯m simply going to correct it,¡± As she spoke three dark spirits flew out of the woods and floated between her and Vividus, which she politely greeted before focusing back on her aunt. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you¡¯re telling me you have a better idea on how to train me in dark magic than the great dark spirit?¡± She asked skeptically. ¡°No, like I said, I¡¯m simply correcting a mistake. You might have access to dark magic right now if you could feel dark mana, so hold out your hand and let these ones fill you with their mana. Hopefully, three is enough.¡± She did as she was told in the small hope it would help, but it didn¡¯t stop her from arguing. ¡°I have an overwhelming amount of dark mana, since you clearly haven¡¯t been paying attention since my birth that¡¯s been my main problem.¡± ¡°True, but you aren¡¯t feeling dark mana, you¡¯re feeling charmed dark mana. The charm is applied to it before the mana leaves your soul, you¡¯d never know what it feels like to use dark mana without it. Now stop arguing and focus, using an afternoon won¡¯t be any great loss for you.¡± As much as she hated to admit it Vividus was right, an afternoon was nothing if it got her access to the magic and one step closer to completing her god¡¯s quest so she did as her aunt ask, she stopped arguing and devoted her full attention to the feeling of the mana the spirits were moving through her body. CH128 Leaving the clinic took longer than expected, as soon as Sonya found out he was up she insisted on giving him a thorough look over, despite his insistence that he felt fantastic. He understood where she was coming from at least. He¡¯d been unconscious and in bed for weeks on top of having a xenotransplant done with mystery organs in the middle of the woods. When he thought about it in those terms he became a little worried too, but once it was all done he made his way back to his favourite shop in town. ¡°Ah Falk, it¡¯s good to be back,¡± He said, enjoying the sound of metal hitting metal when he entered the store. ¡°I¡¯m never leaving my forge again, I can¡¯t go leaving it alone in the world if anything happens to me, I¡­ wait, who¡¯s at the forge?¡± Falk was in the front of the shop, but he could hear something being made in the back, but nobody else worked there, unless¡­ ¡°Did you really go and replace me when you thought I was going to die!¡± ¡°Calm down,¡± His teacher told him. ¡°If you¡¯ll remember, I didn¡¯t even want you to begin with, no reason for me to grab a replacement.¡± ¡°True, but then who¡¯s in the back?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll get to that later. First things first, remember the money I took from you a while ago for supplies?¡± ¡°I do, it was a small fortune.¡± ¡°Ha, you aren¡¯t wrong boy, but they came in and I think you¡¯ll agree it was worth it.¡± His teacher reached under his desk and pulled out a small box, something he never would have guessed cost as much as he¡¯d paid for whatever it contained, and he opened it up, finding ten rings contained within. They were all very plain, made of a simple grey metal and thin band, but each had a single word stamped on top, and the implication was enough to make Ben salivate. ¡°Are these what I think they are?¡± He asked, unable to tear his eyes from them. ¡°Depends,¡± His teacher replied, an excited grin stretched across his own face. ¡°Were you thinking they¡¯re ninth-level enchantments of each major affinity?¡± ¡°Ninth level! How did you manage to get your hands on these?¡± To place the entirety of a ninth level skill onto a single ring took a level of skill and patience that wouldn¡¯t be easy to find, not to mention that it also meant finding either blessed enchanters with their affinited magics trained to the point it was almost going to awaken, or finding a regular enchanter with their skill trained just as well. Neither was an easy feat. ¡°I¡¯ve gotten a connection or two in my time,¡± he said smugly. ¡°Truth be told I was hoping to get more, but finding any enchanters that could make rings like those with a high level of either a combined magic or a non-affinitied magic is much harder than I thought it would be, so I¡¯ll keep my eyes out but if you want anything like that then you¡¯ll have to make it yourself.¡± He slipped the rings on his fingers and admired them. ¡°This is already incredible Falk. Really, thank you.¡± ¡°Bah, don¡¯t go feeling too soft about it now, you did pay for them after all. Now aside from that, why not greet the other surprise you got,¡± His teacher told him, gesturing to the back of the shop where he could still hear metal being hammered. ¡°What, you got me something else?¡± He asked, excited about what it could be considering the quality of the rings. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to almost die more often if this is the sort of treatment I get when I wake up.¡± ¡°You¡¯re at death''s door often enough as it is, and this one isn¡¯t from me. You¡¯ll understand after a bit of talking so come on.¡± What Ben saw making a sword at the forge could best be described as a mass of tentacles. Sky blue at the base and turning to a bright red at the tips, he found it strangely beautiful in appearance, though he couldn¡¯t identify the race it belonged to, even given how distinct it was. As far as he could tell, the creature lacked eyes or anything he would consider traditional sensory organs, but it seemed entirely focused on its work until Falk called out to it. ¡°Zandale, he¡¯s here if you¡¯re ready to finish up.¡± It moved at Falk''s voice as a ripple went through it and stopped what it was doing to walk over. ¡°I greet the apostle of Myriad, as your teacher said, I am Zandale, apostle of Ooro. It is wonderful to see you alive after hearing what you¡¯ve been through.¡± It was his first time meeting another apostle and they seemed polite enough, but he lacked knowledge on the numerous gods of the world and didn¡¯t know what he represented. Still, manners never hurt. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you Zandale, anything I can do for you?¡± He wasn¡¯t sure why they would be here waiting for him, and they seemed confused by that lack of knowledge. ¡°Were you not expecting me? Your god contacted my own weeks ago about this meeting?¡± Was he expecting him? Even if he wasn¡¯t always the best apostle, he at least tried to listen when Myriad spoke, but he didn¡¯t remember anything about a guest- Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Wait, didn¡¯t he say there would be a surprise for me when I got back? Is this it? For the time being, he decided to be polite in a way that wouldn¡¯t make his god look bad if he could help it. ¡°Myriad said there might be someone here when I came back, but that was right when I left and he was going to explain more later. Not sure how much you¡¯ve heard, but I¡¯ve been out of commission for a while.¡± ¡°Of course, how thoughtless of me,¡± It rushed to apologize. ¡°In that case, why not take a seat and I¡¯ll explain the purpose of my visit.¡± They made themselves comfortable while Falk went back to the front of the shop to watch for customers. ¡°First off, I am the skill master.¡± ¡°Um, okay?¡± His confused reaction produced a sound he interpreted as a laugh from the creature, who was quick to apologize. ¡°Sorry for the outburst, I take it you haven¡¯t heard of me?¡± ¡°No, sorry.¡± ¡°It¡¯s quite alright, that¡¯s just a novel experience for me is all. How many decades has it been since that happened?¡± It wondered aloud before getting back on track. ¡°But that means my explanation must also be longer as a result. To put it simply, I¡¯ve been a follower of Ooro for many decades now, and as a knowledge god, I show my faith through learning, in my particular case I learn and develop various skills. Your god informed mine of your connect skill, and from the characteristics I¡¯ve heard it sounds like it could aid the growth and development of my most important ones, so I¡¯d like the chance to learn it from you.¡± ¡°Well I¡¯d help if I could, but you must have heard it was a gift skill. I don¡¯t know how a person could get it without following Myriad.¡± ¡°That will not be an issue,¡± It was quick to say. ¡°I possess four very special skills that allow me to learn from others as well as teach them skills as well, so whenever I get the chance to learn a new skill I typically pay with one in kind. That was the proposal your god made to mine, and when I¡¯d heard the details of your particular ability I cleared my schedule to rush to this town. I have hundreds so I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find one that suits you.¡± Hundreds of potential skills and he would be able to pick one to learn. He had to wipe his mouth, the thought had him salivating. Part of him was mildly concerned that others would be able to learn connect from Zandale instead of having to go through Myriad to get the skill, but if his god arranged it he couldn¡¯t have been too concerned. ¡°I¡¯ll absolutely do it. Just out of curiosity, if I had other skills you didn¡¯t would that mean I could learn more from you too?¡± It gave a small chuckle. ¡°Of course, but as I¡¯ve said, I have hundreds of skills. I¡¯ll lend you a book later containing the full list of them I have for you to go through to figure out which are possible for you to learn based on some of the conditions involved, but if you find you have any not on it you¡¯re free to tell me, I do love a fruitful trip after all.¡± He would keep an eye out as he read but he wouldn¡¯t get greedy, being able to learn one new skill would be great enough as it was, even if it sounded like there might be some conditions to which ones he could. ¡°Alright, sounds good. In that case, I have time to get started if you do.¡± ¡°Excellent, then if you¡¯d please grab my limb while using connect and I¡¯ll activate my skills. It¡¯s doubtful I¡¯ll be able to gain the skill on the first attempt or that you¡¯ll be able to get whichever skill you desire on the first one either, but I¡¯ll be sure to stay in town until both of us do.¡± A bit of time spent was a small price to pay and he did as he was told, grabbing onto an outstretched tentacle and connecting with Zandale. He felt a small amount of mana enter him and quickly retract as the connection was made, and the connection was suddenly strengthened in the same way it was when he¡¯d done it with Sachel. ¡°Wait, did it work already?¡± He asked in surprise, but the other apostle gave a negative. ¡°The two skills I¡¯m using right now are borrower and learner. Both let me copy a skill for a period of time while learner in particular lets me learn it, but the condition is that I use it to get used to it before the time is up. Of course, if I don¡¯t learn it before the time limit then I can just activate my skill again to continue.¡± Something about that sounded familiar and he thought about something his god had previously told him when he first learned he could enchant with other¡¯s skills. ¡°You mentioned you have four special skills right? Does the reason you want connect have to do with them having similar effects?¡± ¡°Indeed!¡± It said, the enjoyment Ben felt bubbling in its mind felt familiar compared to how alien the rest of it seemed against all of the hominid types he¡¯d used his skill on. ¡°I¡¯ve spent over a century to train the skills learner, lender, teacher, and borrower in the hopes that I¡¯d be able to get them to combine when one awakened. Hearing that another skill with similar properties now exists, I had to get it.¡± He could feel all sorts of positive emotions coming from it as it thought about the efforts it went through to train those skills and Ben understood its excitement. It wouldn¡¯t be accurate to say everyone wanted to awaken their skills, many people in the world were content to get them to a certain level and let them be rather than constantly have to push themselves to new heights, but for those that did the payoff was huge, with boosts to their base abilities incomparable to just going up a level or two. ¡°So when you do, what will it awaken into?¡± He asked, curiosity leaking from his voice. ¡°I don¡¯t know, no one has managed it before.¡± ¡°Wait, so you¡¯ve spent over a century working on something that might have no payoff?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the risk of those who aim to learn, sometimes the results don¡¯t live up to expectations. Though I¡¯m not too worried. When a skill awakens it will almost always merge with other skills if it can, to reach greater heights.¡± Interesting, I wonder if any of my skills will combine if I ever awaken them. It was a fun thought, but still a while off yet. As they spoke, both aloud and through the connection made, Ben took the role of a teacher, explaining everything he knew of his skill while Zandale eagerly listened, and allowed Ben to train with it himself given the bountiful resource he was connected with, enchanting with all of the skills he could feel coming from the tentacled creature onto some metal rods laying around in the back. He could get Falk to tell him what they were later so he could make use of them in the future if it was possible, but from the feel he could tell they were low level. It made sense to him at least. Training up hundreds of skills would be impossible, especially if they wished to focus on their important core ones. No matter how long a race lived, very few had unending lifespans, and even those ones could still die, time couldn¡¯t be wasted like that. Zandale enjoyed learning how to use the skill by feeling Ben put it to work through the connection and like that the hours passed until it was almost time to close up for the day. CH129 ¡°Ben!¡± Onk yelled out as he got into the adventurers guild and quickly ran over to him. ¡°Are you alright to be up? The rumour was going around you were barely hanging onto life.¡± ¡°I¡¯m all good,¡± he told her reassuringly. ¡°But what rumours, I don¡¯t think one injured guy is that important?¡± ¡°There were dozens of healers rushing into town to treat you, of course there would be rumours about it!¡± She yelled, before asking in a far quieter voice. ¡°Speaking of, you aren¡¯t a secret noble or something are you? Everyone in the guild has been placing bets trying to figure out why so many nations mobilized some healers to treat you.¡± ¡°Man, people are really starved for entertainment here, huh? Anyway no, I just have a fairly important friend out of town that was able to get me help when things were looking bad,¡± It was technically the truth. He counted Myriad amongst his friends, and he wasn¡¯t exactly in town. ¡°It must be a good friend to manage that.¡± ¡°An excellent one, and I¡¯m all better now so no more gambling on if I¡¯d live or die or whatever you all were doing.¡± ¡°Oh, neither the guild leader nor I would allow something like that, it¡¯s a little too barbaric. All gambling began and ended on how you were able to get treatment so if it''s nothing private I¡¯ll pass on what you told me and nobody should bother you.¡± ¡°Works for me.¡± ¡°Excellent! And with that out of the way, what can I do for you? I know it¡¯s not my place to say but I don¡¯t think you should be taking any quests when you just got out of the clinic.¡± ¡°Nothing like that. I¡¯m just here to use the job change room.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± She said, tilting her head. If she had a face he was sure there would be a confused look on it. ¡°Weren¡¯t you just here for that not too long ago?¡± ¡°What can I say, it¡¯s been an eventful few months,¡± He told her, not mentioning that he¡¯d already changed it once since then. ¡°Alright, well you know where it is. Make sure you rest up before coming back for any new requests, okay?¡± ¡°Of course Onk, I could use a break,¡± He said, waving her off as he made his way to the job change room. When he got there he placed his hand on the crystal and let the options fill his mind. AVAILABLE JOBS
  • Enchanter
  • Trap user
  • Tree tamer
  • Craftsman- alchemy path
  • Craftsman- artistic path
  • Craftsman- blacksmith path
  • Craftsman- cooking path
  • Craftsman- stonecrafts path
  • Craftsman- sewing path
  • Heretic
  • Mind user
  • Holy craftsman
  • Kin
It was exciting to see three new and potentially interesting jobs, though he was a little surprised there was nothing related to his new hammer and knife wielder skills and assumed those jobs could only be unlocked once they leveled up once or twice. As curious as he was for the other ones though, it didn¡¯t matter. He knew what he was picking and made his choice. Name: Ben Heph Race: Human Titles: Apostle of Myriad, The Forgotten One, Miracle Maker Jobs: Enchanter (lv 0) Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman, Priest Attributes:
  • Vitality: 165
  • Vitality recovery rate: 1/hr
  • Mana: 89
  • Mana recovery rate: 6/min
  • Strength: 151
  • Agility: 84
  • Stamina: 644
  • Intelligence: 326
Affinities:
  • Light: 3
  • Life: 2
  • Fire: 4
  • Water: 3
  • Air: 4
  • Earth: 2
  • Death: 3
  • Dark: 1
  • Space: 4
  • Time: 5
Resistances:
  • Light: 68
  • Life: 72
  • Fire: 75
  • Water: 69
  • Air: 66
  • Earth: 81
  • Death: 78
  • Dark: 85
  • Space: 63
  • Time: 61
Blessed skills:
  • Crafting lv5
  • Enchanting lv4
  • Focus lv4
Passive skills:
  • World speak+
  • Tolerance lv1
  • Sacrilege lv3
  • Complex mind lv2
  • Bind
  • Partial demonic body
Active skills: Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
  • Dismantling lv2
  • Stealth lv1
  • Connect lv5
  • Hidden mind lv1
  • Calculate lv0
  • Knife wielder lv0
  • Hammer wielder lv0
Blessings
  • Myriads Blessing
  • Anailias Blessing
Trials
  • Trial of Anailia and Tolona
As exciting as it was to hear that all of his skills would receive a minor bonus, from what he¡¯d read it was so insignificant that it shouldn¡¯t be a deciding factor when taking the job, but for someone who wanted it it was nice indeed. As enchanting was a magic that made use of all skills, it made sense that they should all grow some as well to properly make use of the skill, and Ben was grateful for it, eagerly looking over his card after taking it and feeling pretty good about his growth, at least until he saw something that raised some concern in him. Under his passive skills was a new one he¡¯d never heard an announcement of before, presumably because it happened while he was unconscious. Partial demonic body. The skill didn¡¯t have a level which meant he probably couldn¡¯t improve it, and as far as he was concerned that was for the best. While he didn¡¯t have an issue with demon organs being used to save his life, he didn¡¯t expect any changes to occur. He doubted its inclusion on his status simply meant he had demon organs in him now, but he¡¯d been told time and time again that nothing the system did was negative for its users, so at the very least he would assume it was fine for the time being and just leave the option hidden on his card.
As he got home from the guild the atmosphere of the house felt tense as soon as he walked in and he made his way to the kitchen where three people were sitting in an uncomfortable silence. Thera and Sonya were expected at least, even if their mood was not, but the third was a surprise that put him on guard. Thera¡¯s aunt Vividus, the great life spirit, was sitting at the table with them, much to Ben¡¯s shock, and the tense silence that filled the room made a lot more sense. ¡°It appears your pet has made it through the day,¡± She said as he arrived, and not knowing what to do he tried to crack a joke, ¡°Demoted from fianc¨¦ to pet huh, harsh.¡± Nobody laughed and he felt the awkwardness of the room increase. Tough crowd. ¡°I¡¯m just here to inspect your body and then I¡¯ll take my leave. Take off your shirt and let''s get started.¡± He looked to Sonya who gave him a nod and did as he was told, taking off his shirt and having a seat as the spirit at first placed its hands on his chest, but then began sinking its entire arms into his body. ¡°Visually nothing appears wrong and the organs themselves are functioning fine, having properly integrated with the rest of you. Has anything seemed off to you today?¡± He hesitated to bring it up for a moment, but even if Thera didn¡¯t like her, she might be able to shed some light on his new skill. ¡°My body feels fine, better than usual in fact, but I checked my card earlier and I had a new passive skill called partial demonic body.¡± ¡°Level zero or no level?¡± She asked, voice suddenly filled with interest. ¡°No level.¡± ¡°Is your race still listed as the same on your card?¡± ¡°Yes, why? Can it change?¡± She ignored his question and focused on the skill. ¡°You should be fine. Technically you¡¯re currently akin to a chimera, but you haven¡¯t changed in any meaningful way, especially if your race hasn¡¯t changed. Your new organs are superior in almost every way to a standard hominid¡¯s, but the biggest change you¡¯ll see as far as I can determine from their function is you¡¯ll heal slightly faster, have an improved immune system as a whole, and likely will become a bit more resistant to poisons.¡± So far he was hearing only positives. Any improvement to healing was especially great given how often he was injured, and even though his body was already designed to handle a certain amount of illness and food-born poisons by the gods that built it, an increase could only be worth it, though it did leave him curious. ¡°Will there really be that much difference for poison resistance? I killed a bunch of demons by poisoning them before.¡± Admittedly the spikes and hammer contributed a fair bit too, but the poison didn¡¯t do nothing. ¡°There¡¯s a world of difference between what you¡¯d get from a standard demon to one that had awakened into a true invader,¡± She told him, revealing that she was aware of the connection between the two groups. ¡°Even if they were close, it would be like comparing a ninth-level skill to a zeroth-level awakened one. The organs themselves seem to feed on a small amount of mana which is why they must be listed as a passive skill, but I doubt you¡¯ll see any other effects than what I described.¡± ¡°Alright, if you¡¯re sure then thanks for looking me over.¡± ¡°I¡¯m always happy to view an interesting specimen. Should anything unusual happen, have my niece take you to the life valley if it seems related.¡± Her task done, she quickly left the house, thanking Sonya for her hospitality and telling Thera to visit her if she trained her life magic up to level six. As soon as it was just the three of them the two women breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Finally,¡± Thera said happily. ¡°She can be a bit much,¡± Sonya agreed. ¡°So why was she even here?¡± Ben asked. ¡°Neither of you seem like a fan.¡± ¡°Remember that air spirit I asked to bring a life spirit to town? Well apparently because of my connection to my father, that meant getting the great life spirit,¡± she groaned. ¡°Though I guess it was for the best, she was the one that ultimately saved you.¡± ¡°Wait, really?¡± It made sense when he thought about it, he¡¯d just been too surprised to consider it when he saw her, and everyone in town had only mentioned healers coming, nobody said anything about a great spirit. ¡°She only arrived today,¡± Sonya explained. ¡°Which is lucky for you. We were all estimating that it would take at least two more months for your body to properly start adapting to your new organs, and that was if you lived at all. She was able to finish the process in a single day.¡± ¡°Damn, I guess I¡¯ll have to thank her next time I see her.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bother,¡± Thera told him. ¡°You heard her right? You were just a curious specimen to her. She might not have done anything at all if she didn¡¯t find it interesting.¡± Thankfully the overall mood of the house began to lift as she left and they were able to enjoy dinner in peace. Ben wasn¡¯t sure how they kept him fed and alive all that time he wasn¡¯t conscious, and he was pretty sure he didn¡¯t want to know given that aside from the presence of magic, overall medical knowledge seemed worse than his previous world. Still, the fact that it had been so long made the food all the tastier, and he enjoyed it with the conversation and company until he needed to go to bed.
As he got himself comfy, fluffing his pillow and laying back while preparing to flip through the book of skills he got from Zandale, he heard his door open and watched Thera walk in. ¡°Nightcrawling Thera? But we aren¡¯t even married yet,¡± He joked, pulling his blanket over his chest. He was expecting some sort of reaction but got nothing, instead she just sat at the edge of his bed. ¡°Something wrong?¡± ¡°I wanted to talk about it earlier, but I couldn¡¯t find the right time,¡± She started awkwardly, sounding unsure of herself as she spoke. ¡°About what you said before everything happened. I think you¡¯re right, I¡¯ll start looking for a new party to adventure with.¡± She¡¯d thought long and hard about it as he¡¯d been on the brink of death for the last two weeks and knew that if he woke up she¡¯d have to do this. He had been right after all, he was a craftsman, he shouldn¡¯t be hunting dangerous monsters like that and she shouldn¡¯t be forcing him into it, even if she didn¡¯t think she could be comfortable with another party. They would still be friends, it just meant he wouldn¡¯t be putting his life on the line. It had taken a lot of determination to tell him even though it wasn¡¯t what she wanted, so of course he had to be stubborn and contrarian. ¡°Vetoed,¡± He told her, making an x with his arms. ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯m going to keep partying with you.¡± ¡°What? This whole thing was your idea!¡± ¡°Yeah, and it was a dumb idea. I only said it cause I thought I was holding you back, and maybe I am, but I don¡¯t want to stop adventuring with you.¡± ¡°You could get hurt again, hell you might actually die next time!¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll work so that doesn¡¯t happen. Besides, you were kidnapped last time and I don¡¯t want you dying when I¡¯m not around either.¡± ¡°Has anyone ever told you you¡¯re impossible?¡± She said. It had taken a lot of determination to do this, and now here he was, just completely refusing her. The fact that she was so happy about it was irrelevant. ¡°It¡¯s part of my appeal,¡± He told her with a smile. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind taking a week off after what we just went through, but other than that you aren¡¯t getting rid of me so easily.¡± ¡°Pretty sure you just had a couple of weeks off,¡± She said, smiling back. ¡°Bah, unconscious time doesn¡¯t count, I need some real mental recuperation.¡± ¡°Alright sounds good. Anyway, I should probably leave before aunt Sonya notices and gets any weird ideas. Sleep well Ben.¡± ¡°You too Thera.¡± CH130 ¡°Ben, it''s so good to have you back!¡± Myriad yelled as he woke up in his god¡¯s realm. ¡°Good to be back, I escape death yet again.¡± ¡°Well stop walking into situations where you have to! Thera literally just gave you an out and you turned it away!¡± ¡°Hey now, do you really want to spend our first meeting in weeks complaining about something you know I won¡¯t change my mind on?¡± Myriad sighed, the sparkle he had when Ben first got there dulling with his attitude. ¡°No, I don¡¯t know what else I would expect now honestly. I haven¡¯t heard any other gods talking about what a handful their humans are, heck I haven¡¯t heard about any of the other summoned getting in as much trouble as you do!¡± ¡°Ah, that can¡¯t be right. The rest of them are out prepping to fight for the fate of the world while I¡¯m just a humble craftsman. You probably just don¡¯t hear about any of their near-death experiences because it comes with the territory of being a hero.¡± He understood Ben''s train of thought, but Myriad wasn¡¯t buying it. Still, there was no point focusing on the matter when there was so much else to discuss. ¡°Well first off, I noticed you went to the job change room, but since you didn¡¯t call for me I take it you took enchanter as expected?¡± ¡°I did, though since you brought it up I did get three new ones I wouldn¡¯t mind an explanation on. Holy craftsman, mind user, and kin.¡± ¡°Hmm, well I can tell you right away I¡¯ve never heard of kin, but the other two are simple enough. Mind user grants bonuses to all mind type skills and provides major bonuses to the intelligence attribute, of course, given the fact that you don''t seem to have any issue with raising your mind skills even without a related job, it might be less of a priority overall. On the other hand that also means that if you did take it you could likely expect an even greater increase to your various skills, so it would probably be worth it eventually. As for holy craftsman, you would have unlocked it by having taken the craftsman and priest jobs. The skills you get bonuses for would be the same as the ones for both jobs, and as a side bonus it would make it easier for you to make job change crystals." "Wait hold on, I can make those?" "Of course, where else would they come from?" "I kind of just assumed the gods made them or something." "If that was the case they''d be significantly more rare. It''s a specific type of enchanting spell that has to be bound within a spherical crystalline structure, but as long as you have the ability to make the spell, a skill to shape the crystal, and a strong connection with a god then there''s no issue with making them, though selling them is frowned upon so it''s not something you could profit off of." "Doesn''t matter, teach me how later. If it needs a special enchanting spell to make then it might give me some decent job experience." "I will when I have time. Things have gotten rather hectic up here while you''ve been unconscious." "Why, what''s been happening?" "You probably wouldn''t know this, but in the distant past there was a group that raised up demons and worshiped them as gods. Given the size of the horde you encountered, we''re worried that that''s happening again." "Sounds bad." This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. "That''s an understatement. This close to the war having enemies within could be disastrous. Imagine our efforts being sabotaged before the war even begins, or a horde of demons coming to attack our armies hours before the gates are expected to open. Even worse, in the last few weeks we''ve been searching for them we haven''t found any evidence at all." "Well, maybe you''re wrong then. Maybe it was just poor luck and the group managed to get that big by its own efforts." "Maybe, but we can''t take that chance. After all, if a group had been managing to do something like this in secret for so long, they''d have to be good at hiding, it''s just discouraging." "Hmm, so I''m hearing it would be a bad time to bring up the passive skill I got from my little demon organ transplant?" "Oh infinite hells, what is it?" "Partial demonic body." Myriad let out a long, pained sigh. "Just keep that one hidden on your card too, alright?" "Already doing it." ¡°Good. On a related note, I noticed you met with Zandale." "Yes! Honestly, I can''t thank you enough for setting up a meeting like that. Hopefully, they¡¯ll have an option that will mesh well with my current skill set.¡± ¡°Just pick whatever you think is best, but try not to get your hopes up. There are plenty of skills you won¡¯t be able to acquire even with their help because of your affinities and attributes.¡± ¡°Hey now, my attributes aren¡¯t that bad anymore.¡± ¡°Not bad but not good either. You¡¯ve mostly been raising the ones that were already above average when you got to this world. I¡¯ll admit it''s good you were able to raise up your strength since coming here, but all you did was raise it from below average to the high end of what an average person might have. Combined with your terrible affinities and you may be able to learn a quarter of the skills Zandale has available.¡± ¡°Uhg,¡± The crushing reality of his god''s words was inescapable, but he wouldn¡¯t let it get to him. A quarter of the available skills would still be dozens of options at least, maybe even over a hundred, and while the other apostle was here he could take advantage of their presence and his skill to create a library he could enchant from, heck he¡¯d already started earlier when they were training connect together. He¡¯d need Falk to identify the skills for him since he couldn¡¯t determine them by feel alone, but his arsenal of abilities to enchant wish was about to explode, a fact that made him salivate as he thought of the possibilities. ¡°Well it¡¯s good you have a decent mentality about it at least. One more thing before you wake up, you completed your quest, let''s get you another one.¡± ¡°Wait really? I was a little curious about how I finished the priest job so fast,¡± He had been under the impression he¡¯d have to get Wedrow to spread around the fact that the apostle of Myriad had helped save them and kill a horde of demons, and since he hadn¡¯t been able to do that since he was unconscious he couldn¡¯t make that request. ¡°The gods watching knew you¡¯re my apostle. Having gained their approval for your acts as my representative in the world successfully completed it. Of course, the main reason for finishing your job has to do with just how many demons you killed, but let''s get to the heart of the matter. Like previously, you could complete an achievement for five job levels or grow my faith to an additional hundred believers for twenty, but you have a couple other options now as well. If you take charge and lead my believers to achieve a great goal then I¡¯ll raise one of your skills up by one level, provided it¡¯s no more than level three already, and each of the believers will get a bonus of three job levels. Alternatively, if you succeed in an act that earns me a large amount of faith from a sufficient amount of non-believers, then I¡¯ll raise a skill level up by one, so long as it¡¯s currently level two or lower.¡± ¡°I¡¯m into the new options, but they already feel a little vague. How many believers would I need to lead for the first option, and how many people would need to give you faith for the second?¡± ¡°A minimum of three would work for the first, though there''s no maximum. Of course, the more people involved, the greater the achievement would need to be. As for the second, at minimum you¡¯d need around fifty people.¡± ¡°Hmm, well the rewards are good for the work at least, though I wish you could give me something as nice as Anailia gave Thera.¡± ¡°Anailia is one of the more powerful gods in the world by virtue of just how many of her race she was able to save. There¡¯s no way I¡¯d be able to give something on par with what she could.¡± ¡°Lame but okay. I¡¯ll think about it for now, but I¡¯ll leave it until I can find anything worthwhile, alright?¡± ¡°Sounds good, it¡¯s better you take something you can accomplish. The stronger you get, the better it is for me after all.¡± CH131 Ben woke up early and immediately read through the list of skills before heading off to Falk¡¯s shop. He was a little discouraged having gone through it. When Myriad had said he might have access to a quarter of skills it looked like he was being optimistic. Ben did the math after reading through it all, he could only take advantage of one in six. Interestingly, while it seemed like he could learn Zandale¡¯s four main skills, they and a variety of others would take upwards of half a year to gain, making it so he would only take the time to teach them if either the person looking to learn them had over ten skills for Zandale to learn, or paid an outrageous fortune to make it worth his time, on top of traveling with the apostle for all of his business. Other than that, it seemed like Zandale was suited to the light, water, air and fire affinities, and as a result had multiple skills that required decent compatibility to get. What¡¯s more, they had a few non-affinitied magics, but because of his low mana level it wasn¡¯t something he could get, no matter how much he wanted to. As always, my own magic remains out of my grasp. He thought sadly, and the other options weren¡¯t much better. There were a few mind skills he could learn since he had more than enough intelligence, but none of them stood out to him compared to the ones he already had, and he was pretty sure if he really wanted them he could gain them himself with only a little effort. As for combat skills, they frankly didn¡¯t interest him. He already got the two that could help with his crafting and he already established he didn¡¯t like to fight like that, so why would he waste an opportunity to learn them? There were other ones that seemed like they might be convenient in his day-to-day life, but really it came down to not wanting to waste this opportunity on something he could do without or could get himself. Thankfully there was one that stood out to him. A single skill that shined bright in his mind that not only could he take based on his affinities, but also desperately wanted given how the world had seemed to want to treat him so far, and as soon as Zandale got into the shop he intended to ask for it. Until then however, Ben had a different task. As he was leaving for the day yesterday, Falk mentioned to him he wanted him to come up with the items that Wedrow had requested for his friends after getting the chance to see them fight, and that if he was confident enough he could make them himself, though Falk would have to approve of them, and he jumped at the chance. Given the things he¡¯d already gone through, he could only imagine how bad things must have been for Will and Steph, and since they didn¡¯t mention anything like that in their letters he had to assume it was too hard to talk about. Stay strong guys, your favourite craftsman is here to keep you safe. His god chimed in. I mean sure, they¡¯re being properly paid for it, but they''re being trained to be a powerful fighting force. If I could just keep wandering into situations worse than what they¡¯re being set out to do, wouldn¡¯t this universe be too unjust and cruel? <...> He took his god''s silence as agreement and got to work, pulling out the items he was going to use to make a weapon for Will from his spacial bag. At first he¡¯d thought of making a pair of brass knuckles since his friend focused on hand to hand combat, but with what he was going to use for materials, the chances of Will getting himself killed from handling them wrong was too high, which meant he¡¯d have to go for a gauntlet instead. Ordinarily, he wouldn¡¯t make something like a gauntlet to be a weapon since they could be weighty and difficult to attack with, but given Will¡¯s strength stat they should work like a charm and he began planning it out. The first thing to do was make a sketch of all the smaller pieces he¡¯d need. A gauntlet would need to be made up of multiple smaller plates to allow for some finger dexterity, while not so many that it would be hard to fix if anything happened. Like many things, proper balance was key. With that done, the next task would be melting down two different metals to make sheets he could cut and work into the shapes he needed, though there was some risk on his part so he needed to take extra care. After all, he would be using two of the ones he got from Thera¡¯s parents, some of the moribusial that could suck out the mana of a creature that touched it, and the deathstone that would absorb vitality. He carefully broke off chunks to get the quantities he needed, while taking care to make sure no slivers made their way onto any nearby table or the ground. While moribusial was safe until he processed it, deathstone was immediately dangerous and couldn¡¯t be touched with his bare hands. Should a large sliver of it get stuck under a person''s skin, if they possessed a low enough vitality regeneration rate, there was a very real possibility they would slowly die, or at the very least be stuck in a state of perpetual sickness. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Once that was done he got both placed in a mold in the forge and began to blast the heat, working on the next step as he waited for them to melt down. Going into the storage room, he found an already prepared plate of steel and some premade chainmail that he intended to repurpose. Ordinarily he¡¯d use leather to make the interior of a gauntlet like that, but Will was a lightning user, he wanted the energy of his attack to properly transfer without having to have to worry about it being weakened by something non-conductive, So he got to work making links within it so it would fit his friend¡¯s hands, only using a bit of leather when he felt that the chainmail would be too inflexible. His friend''s comfort didn¡¯t need to be considered at least. Since he had the skill tough skin, the metal rubbing against it couldn''t do any harm. Once that was done he pulled out the two metals which had melted down and let the deathstone cool while he processed the moribusial to activate its mana sucking effects, holding his own hand above it as close as he could without actually touching the molten material and releasing his mana. It was all it would take to make the material align in a way that would allow its properties to shine, but he had to hold it there for a while and the heat stung his flesh. He made a mental note to ask Sonya to heal him when he got home and dealt with it until the metal cooled enough to handle, the processing being complete. That done he cut out the shapes he would need from the two magic materials, as well as the ordinary steel and got to work forge welding the safe steel to the backs of the more dangerous plates to protect his friend¡¯s hands before he got to work shaping each piece. Once that was done he was left with a thing of beauty. Two gauntlets where the hands and palms were covered in moribusial and deathstone plates, making any punch, choke, or slap exceptionally devastating for the enemy, and once he got Falk to put on the finishing touches it would be devastating. The parts that covered the arms were safe only by necessity. Will would require some part he could safely hold to pull them on and off, but it wasn¡¯t a significant sacrifice. ¡°Oh hell yeah! Level six crafting baby!¡± He cheered, thinking he was still alone. ¡°Congratulations,¡± Zandale said, fixing him of that assumption. ¡°You must have made a particularly fine work.¡± He turned to him embarrassed and found Falk there too. ¡°Ahem, sorry about that, I was a little excited.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that boy, let¡¯s see what pushed you over the edge,¡± His teacher asked him, curiosity plain on his face. Ben placed them down so Falk could have a look, but made sure to give a proper warning. ¡°Just don¡¯t grab them by the hands, it won¡¯t be a pleasant experience.¡± ¡°Aye, I can see that,¡± He said with a low whistle. ¡°These are downright savage, I approve. Also you made it to mid-rare.¡± ¡°Oh heck yes!¡± He thought he¡¯d be getting to low-rare considering the materials he¡¯d used, but getting to mid-rare was even better. It was a shame he didn¡¯t have a crafting job for it, but his skill itself would still get some good experience from it. ¡°So these were for your friend I take it? They¡¯d be good to send as is, but were you going to attach any enchantments to it?¡± ¡°I was actually hoping I could get you to do that, I was thinking you could add the strongest drain spell you could to the deathstone pieces to enhance its effects and attach it so it would draw its power from any mana the moribusial sucked out of his victims, as well as applying harden and any other spells you think would enhance the longevity of the items.¡± ¡°Hmm, well I don¡¯t mind, but you¡¯ve already done such good work, you sure you want me to finish it? Especially with your fancy new rings and everything.¡± ¡°My friend is going to be using these to protect himself, I¡¯d much rather have you handle the enchantments since you¡¯ll be able to do it so much better than me at my current level.¡± He had also been harboring the suspicion for a while now that some of Falk''s skill levels were higher than he¡¯d been told. If he was wrong it wouldn¡¯t make a difference, but if he was right the gauntlets would get a significant boost, and there was no harm in taking that chance. Falk couldn¡¯t see the thoughts in the back of Ben''s mind, but he accepted. ¡°Alright, no harm for me since I¡¯m the one who was commissioned anyway, but what about the item for the girl who was here, got anything in mind for that?¡± ¡°Yeah actually, but I¡¯ll need to do things backwards for that,¡± He said, pulling the second last material he¡¯d brought from his spacial bag. ¡°I was thinking I¡¯d do something similar to the mythril I¡¯d used for my jacket, but make a cloak instead and cover it with resistances to keep her safe. The only thing is, I can¡¯t work this myself.¡± The material in question was orichalcum, a metal with such intense physical resistance that Ben had no actual way to work the metal himself. It would have to be done by magic, and even with his rings, trying it with his level of mana would take far too long, meaning he had to leave it to someone else, as disappointing as that was. Falk gave out a low whistle. ¡° I¡¯ll have to make it an alloy with something else to give it the flexibility you¡¯re looking for, but even then, combining that level of physical resistance with your magic resistances, it¡¯s gonna be quite the final product.¡± ¡°Hey, nothing but the best for my friends.¡± CH132 They discussed the details a bit longer before Falk got to work and Ben was able to direct his focus to Zandale. ¡°Sorry about that, didn¡¯t mean to keep you waiting.¡± ¡°Not at all, as someone who only has the third level in blacksmithing, that was all incredibly impressive. But with that done, have you found a skill that has grabbed your attention?¡± When Ben had been going through the book of skills, it had Zandale¡¯s level in each too and Ben was sure his smithing had been lower but assumed it must have just not been updated recently. With so many skills to keep track of, nobody could be blamed if one or two slipped through the cracks. Besides, he had more important things to think about as a smile unconsciously formed across his face. ¡°I did, but you remember saying that if I had any other skills you didn¡¯t I¡¯d be able to learn more?¡± ¡°You have another skill?¡± ¡°Two others actually. Hidden mind and complex mind,¡± Technically he had four, but he wasn¡¯t sure an apostle would be happy to have the chance to learn sacrilege, and he was pretty sure you needed a demon organ transplant to get partial demonic body so he left those two out, no need to risk scaring Zandale off because of them. Hearing this, the tentacled creature took out his card, from where Ben couldn¡¯t say, and started scrolling through the information on it, checking to verify that he didn¡¯t have those skills. ¡°Oh my,¡± He said in astonishment. ¡°I think it¡¯s been around three years since I found someone with that many skills I didn¡¯t already possess, but it looks like coming has been very profitable indeed. In that case, have you found three skills you¡¯d like to acquire?¡± ¡°About that, there¡¯s only one I really want,¡± There were very few skills that would be of more value to hold and train personally compared to just enchanting with them as far as he was concerned, but there was a different option he hoped to explore. ¡°Would it be possible to get you to train two other people in a skill each?¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯ve done such scenarios before and have no issue with it.¡± ¡°Excellent, in that case, Falk! Did you hear all that?¡± His teacher had been near enough to know what they were talking about and Ben gave him a wide grin. Even if he didn¡¯t want to take him as a student initially, Ben felt he owed the man a great deal. He patiently taught him the best he could, helped him develop his ideas, and provided stability to his life when he was first making his own way in the world. Giving him the chance to learn a new skill was the least he could do. Falk for his part seemed initially shocked, even slightly bashful from the offer, but turned his student down. ¡°That¡¯s mighty kind of you boy, it really is, but don¡¯t worry about me. While we were waiting for you to wake up, Zandale already taught me a skill in exchange for some smithing and enchanting lessons.¡± He was a little disappointed but didn¡¯t let it get to him. There were other people in his life he cared about that he could help with this, and there would be other ways to show Falk his thanks. He gave Zandale access to the connect skill so the other apostle¡¯s time wouldn¡¯t be wasted and ran off to grab the two other people he thought would be able to take proper advantage of a gift like this, stopping by the clinic first to tell Sonya she needed to take a break to go to Falk¡¯s shop, and going back home where he knew Thera was studying dark magic in her efforts to gain it, dragging her along without explaining anything, much preferring to make it a surprise. Once everyone was gathered he explained exactly why they were there. ¡°Alright guys, christmas came early this year and you two lucky ladies get to benefit.¡± ¡°What¡¯s christmas?¡± Sonya asked, not understanding what he was saying at all, nor why she¡¯d been asked to come. ¡°A fantastic question! It¡¯s a holiday from my homeland that involves giving gifts to the people you care about, with the gift you¡¯ll be receiving is the chance to learn a new skill each from my fellow apostle, Zandale the skill master!¡± He said, directing his hands to the lovely tentacled figure in the back of the shop. ¡°Wait, you know the skill master!¡± Thera yelled out, while Sonya had a different concern. ¡°Ben, you can¡¯t waste that much money on us!¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean money?¡± Zandale answered for him. ¡°I sell my services as a skill teacher at a high price for those who don¡¯t have skills to trade. A person can¡¯t live on knowledge alone after all.¡± ¡°Fair enough, but you guys don¡¯t have to worry about that. I have three skills they don¡¯t and only one I want to learn so flip through this book and find something for yourselves.¡± Thera happily took it and started flipping through the pages after thanking him, but Sonya was more hesitant. ¡°Ben this is too generous, you really should at least take two skills for yourself, I don¡¯t need one.¡± ¡°Nonsense. There are plenty of skills I just straight up can¡¯t learn, and of the ones I can I either don¡¯t want, am confident I could learn myself at a later date, or would make better use of by being able to copy an enchantment of it than actually having the skill myself. Rather than grabbing something I don¡¯t need, I¡¯d rather give this to you as a thanks for giving me a place to stay and constantly patching me up.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still not sure¡­¡± ¡°Just give it a look aunty, I¡¯m sure there¡¯s something in here you would want,¡± Thera said, waving Sonya to her. ¡°There''s so many options, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you could find something to help you at the town clinic as well.¡± ¡°Well, I guess it won¡¯t hurt to give it a look. Thank you Ben.¡± ¡°Of course, hope you pick something good.¡± With that done, Zandale got to the main point with Ben. ¡°So what skill would you like? I¡¯ll transfer it to you right away and then we can focus on training it until you acquire it.¡± ¡°I was hoping to get defense enhancement,¡± He¡¯d thought long and hard on it and was positive it was the one he wanted, but he felt Zandales mood immediately change when he asked for that one in particular. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Are you sure? You did read the explanation on how you¡¯d need to acquire it, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I did, and luckily for me I happen to have two life affinity mages here in case things get too bad.¡± Defense enhancement was a passive skill that would increase his overall defense against damage, both physical and magic. Given some of the thorough beating he¡¯d gotten to enjoy since coming to this world, the skill stood out to him as soon as he saw it on the page, and after reading through all the other options it would be an easy choice. His magic defense was already excellent thanks to his natural resistances, but improving them would still be great since it only weakened their effects, even if it was to a significant degree. As for physical defense, seeing as how he currently had none, any improvement would be appreciated. Of course, there were drawbacks to it. He would need to keep getting injured to raise its level, a situation he wanted to avoid, no matter how common it might be, but he already had a solution. He¡¯d known for a while that eventually the quests he would get from Myriad would start letting him raise his skills up, at least a little bit, and even if they wouldn¡¯t be easy, this was the skill he intended to raise. His connect and crafting skills were already way above the limits for the quests currently offered, and for many of his other ones he was sure he¡¯d be able to raise them himself, but he didn¡¯t watch to raise this one through his own efforts. What use was a shield that got better after the beating was done? Of course, beatings were also why Zandale seemed hesitant as Ben grabbed a couple sturdy wooden bars from the back storage. The skill needed to be used to be acquired after all, and even if he¡¯d be able to get it extremely fast thanks to the help of the skill master, it was still going to hurt. He handed them over to Zandale and took hold of his tentacle, feeling the three skills the apostle wanted to acquire being copied over, while Ben had the defense enhancement skill placed within him, and wasting no time, Zandale began hitting. It sucked. A lot. He felt bruises start forming all over him with every hit and wasn¡¯t sure if it was actually working but forced it to continue, waving off Thera and Sonya when they saw what was happening. At the same time, he did his best to ignore the pain so he could practice his other skills to help Zandale acquire them, using hidden mind on himself to try and block the pain he was feeling from crossing over in the connection and instructing Zandale to try and put hidden mind up between his first mind and the second that formed from copying over complex mind, keeping one set of thoughts hidden while the other conversed with Bens own to train connect itself. Even if it just looked like Ben was receiving a one-sided beating, what was happening between them was very dense mentally, at least it was for a while before a certain blow got too painful. ¡°Ow, damn! Why did you just hit harder?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t, it looks like the copy of the skill ended, I¡¯ll reapply it.¡± ¡°Give me a second first,¡± It was good to know there was a noticeable difference at least, but his entire body ached and turned to his two friends with life magic for some help. Sonya rushed over, concern painted across her face, but Thera stopped her. ¡°Aunty, it would be better to get the skill before you help him so it doesn¡¯t go to waste.¡± ¡°Oh you found one?¡± He asked, curiosity making it through the pain. ¡°Mana examination. It¡¯s appropriate for people with the light or life attribute and can make their healing magics more effective.¡± She said, looking to Zandale who reached out and placed the skill on her before she got to work healing his battered body. It took some time, as most healing magic tended to on him, but it did seem quicker than usual overall, and after she was done she ran off back to the clinic to take full advantage of the skills presence while she could, promising to come back when the skill effect ended as long as the clinic didn¡¯t need her. With her aunt gone, Ben turned to Thera. ¡°How about you, have you managed to find one that¡¯s caught your eye?¡± ¡°I think so.¡± Unlike Ben, Thera had plenty of options she could pick from. While Zandale didn¡¯t have any earth-linked skills since they weren¡¯t suited for that affinity, there were plenty of skills for mages in general, and most importantly, there were non-affinited magics she could use to get closer to completing her quest, the only question was which she wanted. Of the many non-affinited magics, Zandale had five, likely because the rarer options were significantly harder to learn, meaning she would be choosing between enchanting, strengthening, empathy, telekinesis, and corpse song. It was a shame some of the more interesting ones she¡¯d heard of weren¡¯t available, but there were still good options within those. Right off the bat though she knew she wouldn¡¯t be taking enchanting or strengthening magic. She wanted to take something that would be useful to her so enchanting was a no-go. It was probably the most common non-affinited magic there was, with every town having one or two users of the skill, but even if Thera tried she knew that she wouldn''t have the control or patience for it, especially when she had both Ben and her uncle who were both extremely skilled in it. It would be a waste to get a skill she¡¯d never level up. As for strengthening, there was a healthy amount of fear attached to the idea of her using it. It was a skill that involved running her mana through either herself or others to increase the amount of power that they could exert. The issue was, the items she constantly ran her mana through would explode, and she didn¡¯t want to take the risk of that happening either to herself or anyone else. She supposed it could be used as a weapon to use on monsters, but in the event any were able to handle it she didn¡¯t want to imagine a creature having the sort of strength that could be created by the mana she could provide, the idea was more than a little horrifying. That just left three options, empathy, telekinesis, and corpse song. Empathy was only marginally worth considering because it was the active version of the skill instead of the passive that some races possessed, but there were still reasons to hesitate. As a skill that let the user feel the emotions of those around them, it didn¡¯t have much use to her personally, especially at lower levels. It was similar to the early levels of Ben''s connect skill in that way, though it didn¡¯t require physical contact to work, which was one of the larger reasons to hesitate. As it grew, it would potentially allow her to do things like focus in on a single target, or feel multiple targets from far away to form a mental map with, which could be exceptionally useful with their hunts, but in the beginning it would be uncontrollable, and combined with her mana that could be a nightmare. The thought of using it and immediately feeling the emotions of every resident of Stonewall was more than a bit worrying and cemented it as her last choice. Telekinesis was much better, letting her do what she already was doing with her magic, but not being limited to manipulating the earth alone. Of course it had its drawbacks, a person with earth magic and telekinesis wouldn¡¯t be able to shape things at a remotely similar level, at least for an average user, but given her lack of control, precisely shaping the earth she manipulated into different shapes was rarely her goal. The other issue was the significantly increased mana cost, but it was another moot point for her. As someone with a mana quantity above two hundred thousand, a spell''s mana consumption was ignorable to her, not something she ever bothered considering before casting her attacks. Aside from that, having both telekinesis and her earth magic presented some interesting ideas should she choose to learn it. Lastly, there was corpse song, a magic that tempted her by virtue of just how odd it was to see it as an option. It was probably one of the rarest non-affinited magics, beating out many other options that weren¡¯t available to Zandale like barrier magic, magic nullification, and scrying, with it coming to the world from only one race, as opposed to the other options that had been discovered independently on multiple worlds, and never gaining much popularity. Despite that, it was rather interesting in its own right. From what she understood, it was an ability that let the user essentially view the life and experiences of any dead body, with clarity increasing as the skill level went up. What surprised people most when they learned about it though was that it was neither death nor time affinitied, instead being powered by unflavoured mana. As an option it was interesting, and she could see how it could help in her hunting if she could read a dead beast¡¯s recent memories to find other targets, but it was most appealing as a curiosity. Still, she wouldn¡¯t get a chance like this again and needed to focus on what would be best for her, not just to complete her quest, but also in the long term as well, and it was with that mindset she made her choice. ¡°I¡¯ll learn telekinesis.¡± CH133 Ben got home, exhausted after a long day and knowing there was still more to do. He hadn¡¯t managed to gain the skill on the first day, and neither had Thera. Zandale at least had managed to get both connect and hidden mind, though they would still try to use their skills as a way to try and level up connect faster while still in town, and they had yet to acquire complex mind. Of everyone, Sonya had been the luckiest, gaining mana examination after only her second time getting Zandale¡¯s help. Ben couldn¡¯t help but be a little jealous of her after a long day of getting beaten up, but it looked like she¡¯d gone all out preparing dinner since she was home before them and the chance to dig in went a long way to ease his mood, especially knowing he was going to be up for a while. ¡°Hey Sonya, mind if I move everything out of the living room for the night? There''s something I want to try,¡± He asked as the meal ended, confusing the other two at the table. ¡°...I guess it¡¯s not an issue if you put everything back after, but what are you doing?¡± Hesitation and curiosity were plain in her voice, but he did have a good reason. ¡°I was hoping it would be cool if I put a large-scale enchantment on the room.¡± ¡°Wait, you want to enchant an entire room? Who does that?¡± Thera asked, surprised. Enchantments were something that were put on items, the idea of putting one on an entire room was ridiculous. Aside from the level of patience it would take to do, there was also the whole issue of powering it, it just wasn¡¯t reasonable to supply mana to something that size. Sonya seemed mildly worried but held enough trust in Ben that she accepted it. ¡°I suppose that would be alright, but what were you hoping to accomplish doing something like that?¡± ¡°One part is to get a couple levels on my new job. As for the other, well It¡¯s a bit of a surprise, but trust me, if it works then the payoff¡¯s going to be great.¡± The answer filled neither of the women with confidence but considering how much he¡¯d done for them today they gave him their trust as he emptied the living room of all of its furniture and got to work. The idea had come to him when he¡¯d quickly thrown together a resistance amulet for Zandale so he could touch Thera to transfer the skill over. It started as a question really, what would happen if the enchantment for it was placed on an entire room. The answer to which was nothing really. Anyone within would be safe from the passive effects from any charm leaking in from the outside, but sufficiently thick and sturdy walls were able to block it to an extent anyway. Thera¡¯s was powerful enough to create issues despite that, but Falk had apparently reinforced the outer walls of the house when she¡¯d moved in, just to be safe. Still, that meant an enchantment of that size wouldn¡¯t actually help anyone in the room if the charm user was there as well, but what if it could? The enchantments on the amulets were set up in a way that they covered the user, but what if they were made to fill a given space instead? Would it have any effect? It was worth a try at least, and he wanted to see how far he could take the idea, so he got to work. Having three minds at his disposal capable of enchanting in tandem had the potential to make the entire task significantly quicker than it otherwise would, but as per usual when he tried something big, he was limited by his low mana. At least he could finally train it a bit more efficiently thanks to having a job that gave it a bonus but it would still be a while before he made it into the lower end of what was considered average. All he could do for now was construct the enchantment slowly and let the hours pass. He let himself get lost in the work, planning the most optimal locations to lay his enchantment and weaving them to reduce the overall mana cost as much as he could to ensure he could get the most out of how he intended to power it. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. It was still more efficient than when he¡¯d created the one for Theras arm brace at least. By having two minds dedicated to enchantment construction and one focused on regulating the mana cost he was able to increase the speed by quite a bit. That didn¡¯t change that it was going to take all night to finish, but it did mean he wouldn¡¯t be late to the shop at least. He worked away patiently, in hindsight regretting that he started with the largest of rooms in the house, but eventually it was done. He looked to his card and smiled. He¡¯d thought he might get a level up to enchanting after all this, but getting focus was a nice bonus too, not to mention all of the job experience that went towards enchanting. Even better was the fact that this meant all of his blessed skills as well as connect had reached the level where most people stopped raising them up. It was hard to keep putting in unending effort after all, and each level required more than the last, but he had no intention to settle there. Especially when considering how easy his next few jobs would be for him. He was far above the skill level one would typically take enchanter at so the job experience would come faster and easier, and the same was true of the two crafting path jobs he would need to take if he wanted to unlock high crafting. There were a few others out that were available to him now or would be in the near future that he was curious about too, but he was getting ahead of himself and got back to finishing up the final bits of the task at hand. Grabbing his bag, he pulled out an item he¡¯d made ahead of time at the shop. It was about the size of a pack of playing cards and he marveled at how little he needed to power an enchantment like this. It was such a simple thing, a small block of rainbow mana crystal that was set in some processed moribusial to extract the mana contained within, as well as a small plate of it across the front to do the opposite, pulling mana into the crystal at a quicker rate to ensure it didn¡¯t run out. The entire setup may have been overkill, but he didn¡¯t want to take his chances considering how bad it could be if they trusted the enchantment and failed, and he attached it to a section of the wall he was confident no one would accidentally touch, placing the power source at the start and end of the enchantment. ¡°All done?¡± Sonya asked as she walked into the room after waking up. ¡°Yep, I¡¯d say it was quite productive.¡± ¡°So are you ready to say what you were trying to do?¡± ¡°Ah, sure I guess,¡± He said after a bit of thought. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to test it until later when Thera¡¯s up, but I wanted to see if I could neutralize her charm in a given space by inverting the enchantment on a resistance amulet. Won¡¯t know if it worked until she¡¯s up though.¡± Her eyes widened slightly upon hearing just what he¡¯d been attempting and she let out a small chuckle. ¡°This and helping her get a new magic skill, you¡¯re really going all out for her first birthday as her fianc¨¦, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Wait, her what?¡± He asked, thinking he misheard her. ¡°Hmm? Did she not tell you it was soon? For that matter do your people celebrate such things?¡± ¡°She didn¡¯t and we do, how far off is hers?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a week from today, but you don¡¯t need to worry too much, you¡¯ve done plenty.¡± ¡°Of course I need to worry, do you have anything planned for it?¡± He couldn¡¯t believe he was just hearing about it now, and with such little time to prepare. He wasn¡¯t sure how succubi celebrated such things, but he wanted to do something for her if that was the case. ¡°We don¡¯t have too much planned. I¡¯ve bought a few books to gift her and I believe Falk has something for her too, but you know how things are. This will be the first year she has a friend to spend it with too. I thought she might mention it herself, but it looks like that might have been too much to hope for,¡± Sonya said, regretting not bringing it up sooner. ¡°No, I was injured for a while so even if she wanted to she probably didn¡¯t have the chance,¡± he bemoaned, cursing the timing of everything. ¡°I¡¯ll think of something to do for her and get your advice on it later.¡± Another thing on his ever-growing list of stuff to do, but this just shot straight to the top. CH134 Theras Perspective Thera sat in the training grounds, staff outstretched as she focused on using the skill placed on her. Telekinesis felt similar enough to how she used her earth magic, to the point that she worried she was using it by mistake, especially since she had no choice but to use it with raw earth. It may have been a skill that would let her move anything through mana, but the training ground near town didn¡¯t have anything in the way or trees or water, so she had no choice but to practice with dirt as she always did. At least after a couple days of using it, she felt like she was getting the hang of the skill and had gotten to feel the difference from her typical magic of choice. This was only at the zeroth level after all, and she could feel the mana drain significantly more compared to her earth magic. Unfortunately, since the level was low her control was far worse and it took longer to pull together her spell than she¡¯d expected. All she¡¯d been doing to practice was pulling the earth from the ground to throw it, anyone watching would assume she was just practicing her earth magic, but unfortunately her options were limited when it came to ways of training the skill. If she had a normal level of magic control she¡¯d be able to practice in a smaller way, maybe making cutlery fly around her home or something similar, but for now she had to take the options she had. At the very least when it came to her earth magic she believed she was feeling the results of gaining multiple magic skills her god had mentioned to her since gaining life magic, though it was hard to be sure since her earth magic leveled up at the same time. Still, she thought she¡¯d know for sure one she could test it against the effects of having gained telekinesis, and feeling that she was almost out of time before she¡¯d need to go back to have it applied again went for a final push, throwing her lump of earth as far as she could and feeling her staff shatter in the process. No longer anything to be concerned about since her mother had promised to back her she didn¡¯t give its destruction a second thought, instead trying one last thing since the effects of the magic were still with her. Using her earth magic, she gathered dirt from across the ground into a ball. This was already an improvement over her skill in the past. Before, if she lost her staff, she could maybe raise a cloud of dirt into the air for a few moments and do nothing with it. Now though she could actually shape it into a proper sphere, even if it was still far too large and she couldn¡¯t do anything but have it hover in the air. This amount of growth though was what made her choose to learn telekinesis of all the available options, and with an effort of will used it with her earth magic to throw her oversized earth bullet as far as she could. It only traveled about fifteen meters, but it was enough. Even though it couldn¡¯t go far, the size alone made it a threat to anyone unfortunate to be in its way, and she¡¯d finally have a way to fight if her staff broke. Perfect timing! She thought to herself excitedly, a smile hidden by the hood of her cloak. With only a few minutes left before it wore off and with her staff broken, receiving the skill now was more than she could have hoped for and she rushed back to the shop where Ben and Zandale were still training to let them know. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Good news!¡± She called out as she opened the shop door. ¡°I got the skill!¡± ¡°That¡¯s great,¡± Ben said, or at least he tried to. He still hadn¡¯t gotten his own skill yet, so he was laying on the floor being hit by Zandale and it interfered with any conversation. She couldn¡¯t imagine what any customers thought walking into this, but then again the place already had a rough image from her uncle''s initial demeanor and occasional rough handling of problemed clients, so she tried not to give it too much thought and left him to it, but Ben got up and stopped her. "Hey sorry Thera, I have a bit of an awkward request and I was hoping you could help me out?" "Need me to hit you too to try and speed things up?" "Please no. I have a guy who''s going to be here soon to pick up some dark resistance amulets. Any chance you''d be willing to stick around so they could be tested out?" She couldn''t help but grimace a bit. As far as requests went it was minor. All she would need to do was stand around and show her orders didn''t affect them while wearing it. Considering that she''d just gotten a new magic skill thanks to him, not to mention his current attempt to charm-proof the entire house making it so her aunt would be able to have guests over without worry and updating the enchantment on her brace, he''d done a lot for her this week. Actually, hasn''t he done too much? When''s he have time to sleep? Thinking about it like that, how could she refuse? It would just be a little unpleasant, nothing she hadn''t had to deal with before. "Alright, sure. How long until they get here?" "Should only be a couple minutes." She resolved herself to wait as Ben continued to take a beating off to the side until the shop door opened again and a nervous-looking man walked in. He appeared to be a cross between a lizardman and an elf, his eyes darting around the room as Ben got up to greet him. ¡°Perfect timing,¡± Ben said, walking past him and locking the shop door so nobody else could accidentally walk in before handing over an amulet. ¡°Thera¡¯s here so let¡¯s get this done quick.¡± ¡°Are you sure this will work?¡± He asked, giving her a fearful look before averting his eyes. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve made plenty and never had any issues. Now stop being a rude baby about it and let¡¯s get started.¡± Thera took that as her cue to begin and took off her cloak before giving a few different orders to try and compel the man to bend to her will. With each one that failed he grew more and more relaxed until he was assured enough that she could stop and put her cloak back on. What a stupid man. She thought. If my charm had worked he wouldn¡¯t be able to be afraid of me as soon as I took off the cloak. ¡°Well, it looks like it works like you said,¡± The man awkwardly told Ben, seeming a bit calmer. ¡°It should be acceptable to take your deal.¡± Ben shoved a bag into his hands and all but forced him out of the shop once he had his agreement. ¡°In that case make sure you have everything ready. I¡¯m sure there''s plenty to prepare for everyone so best get on it.¡± Once they were alone again, Thera couldn¡¯t help but question his behaviour. ¡°Is that really how you should treat a customer? What sort of deal are you making with him anyway?¡± ¡°Oh you know, just going to supply him with some resistance amulets. Thanks for helping me make the sale, I owe you one.¡± ¡°Mmh, well considering everything else I guess it¡¯s not so bad, just don¡¯t make it a common thing.¡± CH135 Myriad said as he was waiting in the evening. ¡°I know, I wouldn¡¯t have chosen to do things that way either, but since they wouldn¡¯t just trust my work I had to do something. Hopefully, the surprise is better than any unpleasantness she had to deal with.¡± ¡°Are you kidding? If they do, I''m raising hell. With the amount I¡¯m paying I refuse to let them be anything but perfect,¡± He was already in a bad mood from a few days of beatings with no success at gaining the defense enhancement skill. He¡¯d managed to level up both hidden mind and calculate in that time which eased his pain a little bit, but being free from this particular training would be far more desirable. He knew it wouldn¡¯t be easy, especially given that some of his attribute values left the skill at just the edge of something he could attain, and he was more than willing to act out a bit as a stress relief if things were bad enough. Of course, he wouldn¡¯t so long as the people he hired did what they were paid to, he didn¡¯t want to be a jerk to them, he just wouldn¡¯t accept anyone acting in a way that would upset Thera given the roles he was hiring them for. "I''ll be more stressed if I draw it out longer than I need to. Hopefully, I''ll get it in the next day or two, just need to be patient." "Since he stopped by long enough to say he would be a couple days late I don''t see why he wouldn''t. He did seem a bit stressed himself though." Quilith had shown up on the day they were supposed to meet just long enough to tell him there was an emergency and he''d be delayed a few days, something Ben didn''t argue. From what his god had heard when listening in on them before, it sounded like he had some significant problems on his own world. With that in mind, a delay in him learning how plumbing worked wasn''t something he''d hold against the little alien, even if he wanted the distraction. Still, to keep himself from dwelling on the past few days he chatted with Myriad as he waited to distract himself, asking some questions related to parts of his god¡¯s blueprints he was struggling with understanding while he¡¯d visit Myriad¡¯s realm, as well as get updated on how the various other believers were doing, spitballing ideas between the two on how to increase the faith as a whole. As they drew blank after blank on that particular topic, Quilith finally revealed himself. ¡°My apologies about the delay,¡± He said as he arrived, looking completely indifferent to being there. ¡°It¡¯s no worries, I¡¯ve been out of commission long enough that it only really feels like a week since I¡¯ve seen you anyway.¡± ¡°Indeed, my superiors were curious about whether we¡¯d be free of doing your research for you earlier than expected given the severity of your injuries. Universes with mana equivalents can allow for more interesting potential than they first appear, especially when it comes to something like the adaptation of specialized organs to a foreign body. Seeing its success has given us much to consider.¡± ¡°You know, it¡¯s not like I didn¡¯t already think I was being watched by you guys, but between interdimensional aliens and gods staring down on me, I need a tinfoil hat or something.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be helped that this world and its summoned would receive a lot of attention,¡± The grey said with a shrug. ¡°We¡¯ve spent almost a millennia peering into other universes, and of the small fraction that allow for the existence of life, this is the first we¡¯ve seen that is able to interact with other realities to a greater extent than our own. To pull in 200 people from ten different universes is a feat we couldn¡¯t replicate with nearly a thousand years of experience on the subject.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to argue it doesn¡¯t sound impressive, but it was just our souls pulled over, I don¡¯t get the impression they¡¯re huge or unwieldy.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t underestimate the weight of a soul,¡± He warned, sounding surprisingly serious before getting to the matter at hand. ¡°Of course, we aren¡¯t here to discuss theology, no matter how relevant it may be to you personally. As I warned, our information regarding weapon and communication technology for this world is still developing, but I got you what you wanted to know as far as plumbing goes. Hope you¡¯re ready to be up for a while and take some notes, this is going to be a lot.¡± He was in fact, very ready to take notes and got to work as Quilith began reading from his own, explaining how plumbing systems were managed on earth as far as they could learn, with the reason behind not teaching Ben how greys would manage their water being that aside from their race making use of it in different ways compared to humans, their technology to do so was different enough given the how advanced they were even when compared to his own people that the replication difficulty would spike significantly, and there were a few aspects of it where minor physical laws might leave it impossible to replicate. At least on earth, they relied enough on gravity and pressure to get things done that it seemed likely it would be replicable with minor changes. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. As Ben took his notes and listened with one mind, the other two were devoted to trying to come up with solutions for the various problems presented. Since his main goal was to be able to have the occasional shower every now and then instead of having to rely on washing up with a bucket of water, the main issues that he could immediately spot were getting the water itself, applying pressure so that it would run, heating it, and dealing with wastewater. Heating and pressure he was pretty sure he¡¯d be able to manage with both fire and water enchantments, the main thing would be to design them in a way that the intensity of both could be controlled to match the user¡¯s preferences and to ensure they had an external power source so nobody would run the risk of suffering mana exhaustion and drowning in a shallow puddle. The other two were a bit harder to figure out. Since Stonewall wasn¡¯t a modern city like from his world, it wasn¡¯t like water was pumped in from anywhere. There were multiple large wells around the town could draw from if need be, and many people had a magic tool that could draw water from the air, so long as the users made sure to fill it with mana in both the morning and evening they could have a steady supply at home, but that wouldn¡¯t be enough for what he wanted. There was always the option of drilling down into the ground to access the same water as the wells, but that wasn¡¯t exactly an easy thing to manage, and it also related to the final problem. What exactly would he do with the wastewater? If he thought about who might use it, he didn¡¯t think that he, Thera, or Sonya were so dirty they might contaminate the groundwater if it was just dumped, and it was what people would do with their wash buckets anyway, but he still wanted to find a better way, especially since he wanted to make it right. After a couple hours of dedicated note-taking, Ben finished everything Quilith had to tell him. ¡°Of course, it will need some experimentation by you to work, so we¡¯re hoping you¡¯ll share the results you get as you go if you learn anything.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re already watching me, what¡¯s the point in repeating it for you?¡± ¡°Just cause we can see what you do doesn¡¯t mean we can hear what you think, make things a little easy on us, would you?¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± He told the alien with a shrug. ¡°But don¡¯t expect anything too exciting, I¡¯m already pretty sure I¡¯m going to have to cheat a lot of this by using enchantments and some magic materials to make it work, not exactly anything groundbreaking.¡± ¡°All knowledge is useful when trying to understand the principles a universe is built upon. Speaking of though, with that out of the way, did you have any questions you¡¯d want us to try and bring you answers to next month?¡± Ben gave a shake of his head, feeling regretful he hadn¡¯t been able to think of any for the second time the alien had come to meet him. ¡°Being knocked out for a couple weeks messed up my sense of time pretty bad so I forgot to think of any in time. Come next month and I¡¯ll have a few for you.¡± He expected the grey to leave it at that, but instead he offered Ben a suggestion. ¡°In that case, what about the opportunity to learn some foundational material science from us? I expect it would be handy for a craftsman to learn some of the underlying principles of the natural elements and how they might be extracted.¡± He thought about it for a moment. It seemed like a good suggestion, if not for the obvious problem. ¡°I¡¯m not against it, but none of the materials here would be the same as the ones in your universe, would they? How are you going to teach me anything?¡± ¡°Well for one, these are basic experiments we¡¯re having various nations testing to figure out so we can instruct you on the results, but also a large part of what I was thinking of teaching you was the principles on how to go about discovering the information yourself. The fact that we don¡¯t have a complete list of the physical elements that make up the world, as well as their properties and how they relate to each other is an inconvenience we want solved. If teaching you this can help us learn anything faster then it would be a bonus all around.¡± ¡°Hmm, well I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯d end up doing any basic research like that, but sure, I don¡¯t have any issue learning that sort of stuff and it sounds like it could end up being handy. I¡¯ll take your offer and see you in a month.¡± ¡°Sounds good,¡± The alien said, standing there as if waiting for something else. A fact Ben chose to ignore. ¡°Anyway, I need to get some sleep for the few hours I can. Don¡¯t stress if you have anything that makes you a little late and I¡¯ll see you in a month.¡± With that, Ben got in bed and turned his small lamp off to send the point home, making Quilith leave soon after. Maybe, but if he wants to say something he can come out and say it. I feel like if I ask I¡¯ll just get dragged into whatever problems he has. No and I¡¯m not going to. As flattering as it is that they think I might eventually have the potential to help them if my skills grow more and are dealing with my requests to sweeten the deal, I¡¯m already worried about one world''s future, I don¡¯t want to bother with a second. CH136 Theras Perspective Thera sat down in her living room, focusing intensely on the mana within herself. As annoying as it was to have dealt with her aunt a week ago, she couldn¡¯t deny that for once Vividus had been useful to her. Neither she nor Funa had considered that she¡¯d never experienced dark mana in its natural state, but now that she had, she was aware of the subtle differences between it and the charmed dark mana within her. Funa had told her that she would either need to stop her mana from being charmed before it could be or to remove it after, but given what Vividus explained, stopping it from being charmed might not even be possible currently. If the mana was being charmed within her soul, she didn¡¯t know how to interact with it at that point without doing something crazy like getting the help of the soul mage, but that was all but impossible, meaning she¡¯d have to focus on removing the charm when it left her soul. That at least meant she wouldn¡¯t be wasting her time trying both options and hoping one would work anymore, but it still wasn¡¯t an easy feat. The little help she had was that now she could feel the subtle difference from how her mana was compared to how it should be, and with as much focus as she could muster she worked on removing her charm from it. She¡¯d had her first success a few days prior, but she hadn¡¯t been able to remove enough to hope to do anything with it, and before she knew it she¡¯d lost it, feeling it disperse amongst all of the other mana flowing from her. Disappointing as it felt, nonetheless it was still major progress. Every day since then she¡¯d done a little more, gotten a little better, and today she wouldn¡¯t stop until she was able to achieve a spell. She felt her dark mana gather, little by little as she devoted herself to her task, not letting a bit of it get lost in the chaos that was her charmed mana. It was slow, tedious, and mentally exhausting. She felt sweat form on her brow as all of her mental energy was spent trying to achieve her goal but she was getting there. It was hard to tell how much time had passed, she knew she wasn¡¯t quick at this from her previous attempts, but she was able to gather more pure dark mana during any other time and she was straining to keep it in one place within herself. If she didn¡¯t succeed now she never would, so she pressed on and tried to form a spell. She went with what Funa had suggested all those months ago and devoted herself to creating darkness fog, doing her best to assign the characteristics of the spell to the mana, not letting it leave her control until every aspect of it was perfect, and when she could hold on no longer, released the spell. All at once, light vanished from the room, as if it was a moonless night that not even the brightest of fires could illuminate. If anyone had been with her they might have feared they¡¯d suddenly gone blind, their eyes failing them without reason and trapping them in an eternal darkness, but Thera could only feel elated, and all the more so for the notifications going off in her head. It would be impossible for her to suppress the smile stretched across her face hearing that. She¡¯d done it. She¡¯d completed the quest she¡¯d gained through the kindness of her god, and now it was time to claim her reward. She clasped her hands in prayer and spoke aloud. ¡°I humbly request a level to my earth magic.¡± Her eyes opened wide in shock. She knew that some of the most significant gains in job experience could come from leveling up job-specific skills, but she hadn¡¯t thought she¡¯d been close enough for this to push her over the edge, especially so quickly after gaining her last job. Then again, she hadn¡¯t checked her card in a while to see any changes that had occurred. Since her last job she had been practicing her magic during her hunts, and thanks to her level-ups in her skills and Ben making better and better staves she was able to regularly use more spells at a greater complexity than she ever had before, not to mention what was sure to be massive gains from killing the invader back then, This reward was just as much a bonus as actually completing her quest. The darkness that filled the house was beginning to clear up so she wasted no time throwing on her cloak and rushing to the guild. It was never good to wait on these things, especially when putting it off meant potentially missing out on valuable experience.
She made it through the guild without any problems, though was a little disappointed to learn Onk had the day off and couldn¡¯t chat, so she made her way to the job room, placing her hands on the crystal within and letting the options fill her mind. AVAILABLE JOBS
  • Queen of mana
  • Musician
  • Professional Dancer
  • Bard
  • Darkness mage -charm specialized
  • True mage
  • Life mage
  • Healer
  • Telekinetic mage
  • Dark mage
  • High earth mage
Seeing just how many mage jobs she had available to her left her giddy. How could she not be? Since she had already completed the apprentice path, all of her magics would be getting a bonus already which meant she could access the main mage-type jobs for each of her skills. It meant that even if she were to ever run out of options on the earth mage path, she would have other areas she could focus on magic-wise and it would still help her control as a whole. She looked over each new option and weighed them carefully. She had expected most of them to be there, though healer came as a surprise. From what she knew, it was a job that showed up after one had enough knowledge of medicine as a whole, something she did not possess but assumed it must have been an option for her as a result of having both life magic and her knowledge skill. She wouldn¡¯t be taking it this time or even next, but it was worth considering in the further future. Looking at the options, it really just came down to either high earth mage or true mage. High earth mage was straightforward enough, it was a continuation of the earth mage job path, one that would focus on providing benefits to that magic alone. It should have been the obvious choice for her, she¡¯d only wanted to work on that magic for the longest time, everything else was just to aid her in growing it. But that was the issue. Growing her other magics would make earth magic easier to use as well, which meant she had to at least consider true mage. It was a mage path that would grant bonuses to all of a person''s magic skills, in her case for better or for worse. While anyone else who practiced multiple mage skills would take it without thought, she had to consider the fact that it would provide bonuses to her charm magic as well. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. She was already getting bonuses to it from when she¡¯d taken the apprentice mage job, and as Funa had warned her, increases to her dark magic as a whole could also increase her level of charm if she kept at it. It probably meant she couldn¡¯t take dark mage either in the future if she wanted to avoid that, and right now she had probably already gained experience to the skill by gaining dark magic. Did she want to risk making it worse by getting even more bonuses to it? To take the chance to try and grow her magics as a whole or to focus in on the one she cared about most, that was the question. Still, there was no reward without some risk, so she decided to take one, just this once. Name: Thera Oress Race: Succubus/Spirit Hybrid Titles: Spirit Child Jobs: True mage (lv0) Previous Jobs: Beginner Dancer, Dancer, Apprentice mage, Earth mage Attributes:
  • Vitality: 1003
  • Vitality recovery rate: 10/hr
  • Mana: 255,639
  • Mana recovery rate: 30/min
  • Strength: 105
  • Agility: 333
  • Stamina: 264
  • Intelligence: 243
Affinities:
  • Light: 4
  • Life: 22
  • Fire: 11
  • Water: 14
  • Air: 12
  • Earth: 103
  • Death: 3
  • Dark: 43
  • Space: 2
  • Time: 1
Resistances:
  • Light: 5
  • Life: 9
  • Fire: 11
  • Water: 16
  • Air: 12
  • Earth: 35
  • Death: 13
  • Dark: 42
  • Space: 7
  • Time: 8
Blessed skills:
  • Earth magic lv5
  • Charm magic lv1
Passive skills:
  • World speak+
  • Coordination lv3
  • Medical knowledge lv1
  • Bind
Active skills:
  • Calculate lv1
  • Dance lv4
  • String instrument lv3
  • Woodwind instrument lv2
  • Cleaning lv1
  • Staff wielder lv0
  • Meditation lv2
  • Speed reading lv2
  • Life magic lv0
  • Telekinesis lv0
  • Dark magic lv0
Blessings
  • Anailias Blessing
Trials
  • Trial of Anailia and Tolona
New job selected she let herself breathe a small sigh of relief. A part of her had worried that upon taking the job her charm would level up immediately, something that had the power to instantly destroy her mood if it ever occurred. Despite any immediate negative consequences to her choice though, she was a little disappointed that no skill came with the job change. She knew that sort of thing only happened occasionally, but she couldn¡¯t help but hope one day something like magic control might fall into her lap, if only she were lucky enough for such a skill to exist, but really any new one would be nice. Still, she had gotten what she¡¯d come for and nothing disastrous had happened. With so much occurring throughout the day she figured it would be nice to treat herself by putting a pause on all of her practice to sit down with a book and relax, especially given what day it was for her.
¡°You can¡¯t be serious.¡± When she had gotten home she¡¯d thought she¡¯d get to relax for a bit until dinner while everyone was out, but Ben was home early and laying on the ground, looking like he¡¯d been beaten half to death. ¡°Hey Thera, I wasn¡¯t expecting you to be out. Mind fixing me up?¡± He asked, sounding surprisingly upbeat considering his poor condition. Every day that he¡¯d been working on getting the skill, he¡¯d asked her to heal him for her own training, with Sonya correcting whatever side effects her overwhelming mana caused after the fact. ¡°You sure you don¡¯t want to wait until Sonya gets home?¡± ¡°If I feel too off I¡¯ll just go to the clinic after, but I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be able to manage without it being too bad. You did keep me alive before without any issues, right?¡± ¡°I kept you alive long enough for Steph to heal the disaster my magic made of your body. Maybe have a little less trust in me.¡± ¡°Hey, you need someone to practice on, right? Besides, if you don¡¯t improve then I won¡¯t get the benefit next time something tries to eat me.¡± ¡°The last one didn¡¯t try to eat you,¡± She said as she placed her hands on his bruises, letting her mana flow through him as she got to work. ¡°We don¡¯t know that for sure, you stopped it first. Just think, a few more bites and I might gain something like flavour enhancement.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no such skill.¡± ¡°It will be a passive effect of course, making me more savory every time something gets a taste. If that¡¯s even possible that is. Given the way creatures want to go at me, there''s a chance I¡¯m already at peak flavour potential.¡± ¡°Yes yes, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re delicious. So what has you in such a good mood given how beat up you are?¡± He had been far less cheerful the last few days while being healed and took it as a sign of something good at least, and she was spot on. ¡°I finally got defense enhancement, my torture ends today,¡± He told her, absolutely brimming with cheer. ¡°With that all done Zandale is heading off home tomorrow and my body can finally know some peace.¡± ¡°Except for when it comes to leveling the skill.¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t thinking about that today.¡± She gave off a small chuckle before telling him everything that had happened with her as well. From gaining a skill, completing her quest, and getting a new job, her day had been almost overwhelmingly positive. ¡°Dang that¡¯s excellent. Wish my birthdays were that productive.¡± He said it kindly and was clearly happy for her, but she felt awkward when it was spoken aloud. ¡°You heard?¡± ¡°I live with your aunt and work with your uncle, of course I heard. Was it supposed to be a secret?¡± ¡°No, not really, I just never see much point in bringing it up. I can¡¯t do much for it like others can so it¡¯s just a night in,¡± She told him with a shrug. Sure, it was nice celebrating with her family, and whether she was with her mother or her aunt, there was always a good meal to go with it, but it also served as a reminder that she wasn¡¯t like others. She couldn¡¯t simply go somewhere to celebrate for fear she¡¯d charm everyone around her, so in the end she didn¡¯t give it much thought, instead trying to let the day pass while enjoying whatever her family ended up planning. ¡°Well, I¡¯m here so let me change into something nice and we''ll have some fun until Sonya and Falk arrive. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be able to keep you entertained for a couple hours at least.¡± CH137 Theras Perspective It turned out the entertainment Ben had in mind was board games, and lots of them. While their house had lowmage to play for whenever they got bored, it seemed he¡¯d decided to take the time to recreate a few from his own world and made sure to carefully explain the rules of each before cracking them open and giving them a go, the result of which being Ben''s total defeat. ¡°Hey Thera, how is this possible,¡± He asked, voice full of exhaustion. ¡°It¡¯s not like I thought you didn¡¯t have a chance at any of them, but I figured I¡¯d at least win the first rounds for sure while you were getting the hang of them. To not have a single victory, am I under some sort of curse?¡± She patted his shoulder and tried to console him. ¡°There there, you did your best and they were a lot of fun, we should play them again sometime.¡± They really were enjoyable, no worse than any of the other games the world had to offer. Both checkers and chess felt like they could be simplified versions of lowmage, but even more interesting were the cards. With so many games that could be played if you owned a set, she didn¡¯t doubt they were as common on his world as he¡¯d led her to believe. ¡°Well we can play whenever you want, they¡¯re all yours. Happy birthday Thera.¡± She wasn¡¯t sure what to say. It was the first time she¡¯d received a gift from a friend on her birthday, at least someone she could consider a genuine friend. In the past, she¡¯d received things from the children of government officials working under her mother, but she could always see the fear in their eyes and she¡¯d hated it. Receiving a gift from Ben who was smiling at her, even if he seemed wrung out from defeat after defeat was infinitely more touching and she felt a blush spread to her cheeks. Ben for his part didn¡¯t give her time to say anything. ¡°Anyway, enough time should have passed. Put on something nice and let''s go meet with Falk and Sonya.¡± ¡°Hmm? Aren¡¯t they just coming here?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a surprise. Now come on, throw on whatever you think looks good and we¡¯ll be on our way.¡± She felt genuinely confused about what they could possibly be doing but did as she was asked and went to her room, thinking they might be eating at her uncle''s home instead, as odd as that would be. Still, it would be nice to dress up for it. She had a few nicer outfits, but they were only worn occasionally while at home. If she went out there was a greater than not chance she¡¯d ruin it either by training or by hunting, so most of the time she had something old and comfortable on under her cloak. She ended up going with a light blue shirt with some nicer black pants before throwing her cloak back on and meeting Ben back in the living room. He¡¯d changed earlier, going from his worn-out shop clothes to a plain black shirt and pants, but it was a nice look and he quickly dragged her out of the house.
She hadn¡¯t realised just how dark it had gotten after she¡¯d worked on treating Ben''s bruises and playing a few hours of games, but it was clear the sun would set soon and she just hoped Sonya and Falk wouldn¡¯t have been waiting long. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The only issue was she had no clue where they were going. Her uncle¡¯s house was in the other direction and that was her only guess, with all of her questioning being fruitless, Ben just kept brushing her off. Seeing no use in that she tried to just enjoy the evening stroll through the town. Almost all of the shops were closed by this point and the streets were peaceful and quiet as dusk began to fall. They spoke about their plans for the next week and where they thought they might hunt next. Ben asked for menu suggestions while she was hoping some traveling merchants that were due to come through would have some new books available. It was nice to just walk around and chat with someone she cared about, it felt normal, and before she knew it Ben came to a stop. ¡°Alright, here we are,¡± She had stopped paying attention to where they had been going eventually but looking up found themselves in front of one of the few restaurants the town had, and the nicest one at that. ¡°If we¡¯re grabbing take out I think they close around this time,¡± She told him, thinking about how good the food was the few times her aunt brought some home for them. Ben just gave out a small laugh. ¡°Something like that, come on, let''s go in.¡± She worried about bothering anyone when they would be so close to closing but found the restaurant empty save for the staff, as well as Falk and Sonya sitting at a table within. ¡°Ben, what¡¯s going on?¡± He didn¡¯t answer, instead walking her to the table and pulling a chair for her. ¡°Here, take a seat, I¡¯ll take your cloak.¡± ¡°You know that¡¯s not happening.¡± ¡°I made sure everyone here has resistance amulets, so there¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Just relax and enjoy the restaurant experience.¡± She looked to her aunt and uncle who nodded at what Ben was saying and after a bit of hesitation did as she was asked. There was no change in the staff as she looked around so she let herself relax a bit before turning to everyone around her. ¡°Alright, what¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Celebratin¡¯ your birthday of course,¡± Her uncle answered. ¡°Okay, but why here?¡± ¡°It was Ben¡¯s idea,¡± Sonya said, turning to Ben and expecting him to go on. ¡°It¡¯s nothing crazy, you said you liked the food here before so I just figured you might like the chance to try out eating at the actual restaurant and enjoy it fresh. Anyway, We rented the place for a few hours so don¡¯t worry about it and let me know what¡¯s good on the menu.¡± ¡°Wait, renting out an entire restaurant isn¡¯t nothing!¡± She yelled, ignoring Ben¡¯s request. ¡°This is nice, it really is, but you guys shouldn¡¯t spend so much.¡± ¡°Well, Falk and I didn¡¯t actually contribute to this at all,¡± Sonya told her. ¡°Ben just panicked a bit when he found out he only had a week to figure out what to do for your birthday.¡± ¡°So you made all of those games on top of arranging all of this?¡± ¡°It really wasn¡¯t that much so don¡¯t worry about it. By the way, is anyone going to judge if I order two meals for myself? Everything here sounds great so I can¡¯t decide.¡± ¡°You know, you could just ask to try some of ours instead of stuffing yourself,¡± Her uncle told him with a sigh. ¡°Oh, I fully plan on grabbing some bites of whatever you all order too, I¡¯ll go last so my orders don¡¯t double-up at all.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe this,¡± Thera muttered to herself as she looked over the menu. It was kind and sweet and altogether too much. Even if it had to be done once the restaurant was supposed to be closed, wasn¡¯t this the sort of outing she¡¯d long stopped hoping to have for her birthday? Just a day of normalcy that anyone else could enjoy, going out and celebrating with the people she cared about. Now that she was here, what was she supposed to do? As Ben and her uncle kept talking about food, her aunt took her hand and lightly leaned in to whisper for her. ¡°Just relax and have fun, this is your day after all.¡± She took a breath. Her aunt was right, not many days like this would come, she needed to enjoy it while it was here. CH138 It had been about one and a half months since Thera¡¯s birthday and Ben was laying in bed, wide-eyed despite the time of night and struggling with a question. How to train the areas he was falling behind the most in. Ignoring agility since he had no bonuses to it, he wanted to train his mana and vitality attributes more. Both could be improved by spending either mana or life force, but any way he could think to go about it wasn¡¯t desirable. Mana didn¡¯t seem like it should be too bad given that his recovery rate was so high, but he would spend all day working on different enchantments when he wasn¡¯t focusing on his crafting and even if he put his all into powering them, he hadn''t seen much benefit. As for vitality, he¡¯d gotten to enjoy some pretty severe beatings in order to get a skill that would hopefully help him keep more of it in a fight, but it was no substitute for a bigger vitality pool as a whole. The only issue with training that was he¡¯d need to lose vitality regularly in order to improve his growth, and he wasn¡¯t big on the idea of frequent beatings to make it happen. So what could he do? Ideas swam around his head and only one stood out as being exceptionally terrible, while at the same time being the most viable if he didn¡¯t want it to take time out of his more important training, time that went towards what he would consider his core skills. Damn it, this is going to suck. He thought to himself as he quietly got up and dressed before making his way to the shop.
When he got to the shop he started heating up the forge before he removed a few materials he was going to need from his bag, namely deathstone and moribusal. Two materials that once went into a weapon that his teacher described as savage would be going into a tool he¡¯d be making to try and train himself, he was pretty sure there was some irony there but he wasn¡¯t sure if he could see it at the moment as the thought of what a crazy idea this was filled his mind. Still, he pressed on. He had a bit of processed moribusal left from making Will¡¯s gauntlet and cut a square centimeter of it, placing it on the table with his hand on top of it for a few seconds while looking at his card to determine the rate of mana loss. Even that small amount was far more than he needed as he saw the numbers drop on his card and he kept shaving it down, taking care that none of the slivers got away from him, until the value on his status didn¡¯t change. From there, things took a turn for the truly dangerous as he repeated with the deathstone. He was even more cautious with that metal than the last, knowing it would be a dumb way for someone to find his body in the morning if all of his vitality had been sucked out from mishandling it, and he was sure his god would be screaming at him if Myriad had been watching, but he tried to ignore both of those facts and instead focused on figuring out how the stones volume affected its vitality absorption rate. Once that was done and he got a piece big enough to do its job without killing him he got to work. He heated up a small strip of steel and shaped it so it would be just slightly too large to fit on his pinky finger, all the while melting down the few slivers of the other metals he¡¯d gathered. He carefully coated the inside of the ring with the particularly dangerous alloy and watched it from the side as it cooled before cleaning up his mess, taking extra care to ensure he didn¡¯t lose track of anything that might be a danger to his teacher, or worse, a customer, before he carefully picked up his creation by the safe outer rim and looked at it admiringly. You know, if I made it so this couldn¡¯t be taken off for as long as it was able to suck vitality, I¡¯m pretty sure this would qualify as a cursed tool. But this small item wasn¡¯t something he ever intended to use on anyone else. No, he¡¯d be putting it on himself, and forgetting the small bit of hesitation he was feeling slid it onto his pinky finger. He was immediately aware of its presence. Unlike the numerous other rings on his hands, this one had a notably unpleasant feeling to it, and he didn¡¯t doubt for a moment that it came from the slow draw of his internal energies. He was taking his life into his hands doing something stupid like this so he had to be sure it worked. That meant that instead of doing something productive with the next few hours, he sat down and stared at his card, wanting to be sure there wasn¡¯t a steady decay in his attributes, and like that, he watched and waited.
¡°Boy, what in the infinite hells are you doing!¡± His teacher yelled as soon as he got in and saw what Ben was staring at. ¡°Oh hey Falk, just testing a new magic tool on myself. Since it would be a bit dangerous if I didn¡¯t make it right I figured I should observe it for a little bit to be on the safe side, but my attribute decay is slightly less than my regen rates so I should be fine.¡± The yeti could only shake his head. ¡°What, you makin¡¯ torture tools now?¡± ¡°No, I just figured that since I have bonuses to my vitality and mana I should make something that would let me train them a bit. It¡¯s not like it matters how I use them, so I figured having it forcibly sucked out of me should be fine.¡± ¡°Only crazy people think like that,¡± His teacher told him, pinching the bridge of his nose as he held out his hand. ¡°Let me see if you¡¯re gonna get yourself killed wearing that.¡± He obediently handed it and his card over when Falk asked for them as he looked at both, hemming and hawing before finally returning the items. ¡°Well you won¡¯t be killing yourself with it, but I can¡¯t say it¡¯ll be fun to wear. Just what put that crazy idea in your head?¡± ¡°It actually came from my intense desire to not die,¡± He explained. ¡°Even if I have defense enhancement now, my vitality is way lower than I¡¯d like and I can¡¯t train it without using it, not to mention the fact that I¡¯ve fallen into mana exhaustion way too many times for someone who doesn¡¯t have a magic skill. It got me thinking about how I could train them and how other attributes are trained. For strength or agility, some people might use a weighted vest or something like it, I just figured this would be my equivalent.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Falk seemed like he wanted to argue, but ended up just sighing. ¡°Alright, I see what you¡¯re saying, even if it is all sorts of dumb. Just do one thing for me, only wear it while you¡¯re sleeping. It shouldn¡¯t matter if your attributes are being sucked out of you then, but it wouldn¡¯t be good to make a habit of wearing it. Imagine you wear it on a hunt and you¡¯re attacked, or you forget to take it off after some strenuous enchanting. If you ever go into mana exhaustion wearing that then who knows how long it would take you to wake up?¡± Those were all very good points his sleep-deprived mind hadn¡¯t considered so he slipped it back off and put it in his pocket. He wouldn¡¯t be having a restful sleep with it on, but he¡¯d manage. ¡°Putting aside those masochist tendencies, how''s the order looking?¡± A few days before, a customer had come in looking to have a spear and shield made to match his specific size requirements, and the job went to Ben. A majority of the time when someone wanted a new weapon or armor they would get something that had been made in advance and either take it as is or have some adjustments made to fit it to the customer¡¯s needs for a small fee on top of the item price. Custom-made items were a different beast. Since they¡¯d be put together from scratch they were more expensive from the get go, and since Ben had been given the responsibility this time he¡¯d wanted to make the best ones he could. ¡°I finished up both yesterday, I just need to add the enchantments today.¡± ¡°Hmm, well bring them out so I can have a look before you head off to your little library.¡± Ben smiled. That so-called library was his current pride and joy, not to mention helping him get his job experience at an altogether ridiculous rate, but he¡¯d get to enjoy it soon. He grabbed the items for Falk and his teacher gave them both a look over. He was silent for a few moments, staring at both shield and spear intensely before giving the good news. ¡°Congrats boy, you made it to mid-uncommon for both. You just might make your goal today.¡± ¡°Woo! Just you watch Falk, I¡¯m feeling it!¡± Mid-uncommon might seem a bit underwhelming to be so excited for, especially when he¡¯d made it to ultra-rare before, but this was different. In the past, a lot of what probably pushed his items so high was both the expensive materials they¡¯d been made of, as well as the complex enchantments placed on top of them. These were different, being made of common metals enhanced with low-rank animal bones and still waiting to be enchanted, that meant the current rank of the item was entirely due to his skill and technique in making them. It was a reflection of his true growth as a craftsman. ¡°Yeah yeah, go get it done before the end of the day, I¡¯m not waiting around to evaluate them and I want both ready for the customer for the morning.¡± Ben knew his teacher wasn¡¯t being too serious solely for the fact that it wouldn¡¯t take him an entire day to enchant them, at most it would be a few hours if he was being extra choosy on what skills to use, and he took the items to the back room where he kept his library. It wasn¡¯t filled with books like the name might suggest, instead it was a collection of organized boxes, each one split into a ten by ten grid, and each section contained a single ring, with a skill name and level written beneath it. More so than getting defense enhancement, having the chance to copy each and every one of Zandale¡¯s skills had been the biggest boon to him, to the extent that he would have been happy not getting a single skill if it meant he could access all of this, and in the time since his collection had only grown. Despite all the benefits they provided, Zandale¡¯s skills had one major drawback. They were all at most level three due to the fact that he never dedicated much time to actively training them unless a particularly good opportunity came along, like it did with Falk as everyone waited for him to be treated, and a few exceptions ended up at even lower levels than they should have. Since Ben could currently copy skills from a person to the fifth level and copy an enchantment to the fourth, that meant he wasn¡¯t able to enchant with them to his full potential, which resulted in a separate system being put in place in the shop at his request. When the works Ben made sold, he would get the profit for it, minus the material cost and the part of it that went to his teacher for both hosting them in the shop as well as taking the time to train him. The thing was, he didn¡¯t really need the money at this point. His time in Anailia had gained him far more than he¡¯d ever expected and he could be set for years if he needed to, so a system had been set up at the shop he could take advantage of. The way it worked was simple. There was a book at the front of the shop that any customer could flip through with a full list of all of the skills and their levels he currently had rings for. If anyone had a skill he was missing, or else a skill at a higher level but less than his current limit of five, they would get a fixed amount of money off their purchase. At the end of each week, Falk would add up how much customers had saved versus how much Ben had made. If Ben made more it would be rolled over to the next week, but if customers saved more then Ben would pay the difference to his teacher. There were plenty of people who wouldn¡¯t take the option, preferring to keep their skills private, but more would at least give it a look. After all, what was revealing a skill or two in the name of some savings? It only got a few takers so far, but word was getting around and the adventurers especially were curious, saving a bit of money translated to having more to buy better equipment with, a fact they all knew could be lifesaving. After taking a few days to organize them he had each box labeled and split up in a way that would make it easy to find and he was glad he took the time, it made grabbing all of the skills he wanted to use for both the spear and shield all the quicker. He tried to stick to Falk''s golden rule of not enchanting in a way that could hamper the user¡¯s personal skill growth, though that could occasionally be tough since he didn¡¯t always know the customs skills if they were determined enough to keep every one of them private. It was a safe assumption that he couldn¡¯t make use of spear wielder or shield wielder for sure, but otherwise he would be able to at least limit the potential negative effects relying on enchantments could have by using partial enchantments, only taking a very specific effect of a skill to use instead of the whole thing, meaning the weapon¡¯s user wouldn¡¯t be delayed in advancing their own abilities by much if they were to use his tools. Bearing all of that in mind he got to work, starting with the spear. While spear wielder was a no-go, he could take the piercing properties of knife, push dagger, pin, and dart wielder from it and add the sharpening property of sword, ax, and scythe wielder, while at the same time matching it with blade enhancement which had similar effects to a greater degree. While he couldn¡¯t just keep adding effects from the same one skill again and again and expect anything but a minor boost, he could take similar effects from different skills and weave them together into a cohesive whole to get significantly more power. After that, he used both earth magic, as well as the skills sturdy and weapon strengthening as a means to prevent the spear from breaking in a fight and moved on to the next item, the shield. This one was a bit more straightforward. He couldn¡¯t use shield wielder of course, but by selectively taking defensive properties from armor enhancement, defense enhancement, gauntlet wielder, sturdy, and earth magic he was confident that as long as the item had a bit of mana running through it the shield would hold up, and to finish it off he added his resistances to it, at least he tried to the best he could. He was still only able to place ninety percent of his potential resistance on it and the only reason he didn¡¯t have to lower it down a bit just to manage how much had already gone into it was because there was no real reason to add the life or light resistances. Even though both items were enchanted with mostly low-level skills, through technique and application they turned into powerful magic tools that Ben would be confident to have his name attached to as their creator but knew there was still room to improve. There were plenty of skills he didn¡¯t touch when making these solely due to the fact that he didn¡¯t understand them enough to know what properties the skill carried. As he learned more he¡¯d be able to become even more efficient with his enchanting, pushing the mana cost down to its limits while increasing the functionality. Looking down at both items he¡¯d made he couldn¡¯t help but smile, he was going to have some fun. CH139 He ran out to the front and waited for Falk to finish up with a customer before showing off his final product. His teacher took both from him and gave them a good look over, carefully inspecting the quality of his enchantment and commenting on what worked well and what areas he could probably improve on with a bit more practice, before telling Ben what he really wanted to know. ¡°Unfortunately, the spear¡¯s only upper-uncommon,¡± He said. But Ben wasn¡¯t worried. Since he didn¡¯t say they both were, that meant some good news was coming. ¡°And the shield?¡± ¡°Lower-rare. Congrats boy,¡± Falk told him with a smile. Through his own efforts, without having to rely on any fancy materials, he¡¯d managed to break into rare. It was clear he still had a ways to go, this was his first success and he knew he wouldn¡¯t be able to do it consistently, but as he improved he¡¯d be able to get there more and more, and as long as he kept increasing the number of enchantments he had access to and his understanding of those enchantments, he would only get better. The grin plastered across his face wouldn¡¯t go away, but the day was still young and there was plenty of time to work still. ¡°So since that¡¯s done, anything else on the agenda for me, or should I just focus on replacing some stock?¡± ¡°Mmh, our storage room is still a mess so for now organize it a bit more, but try to keep in mind whatever you think you might be able to use before the day is up, I¡¯ve got an order coming in soon and we¡¯ll need the space.¡± ¡°You got it.¡± He went to the back and gave it a look over, trying not to get stressed by just how much was in there as he did. It was completely stuffed, and it was his fault. Wedrow had come a few weeks back to pick up the orders he put in for Steph and Will. Unfortunately, his friends couldn¡¯t come as well, he would have loved to see how they¡¯d react to the gauntlets and cloak he¡¯d made, but they apparently had a strict training regiment they couldn¡¯t get out of for the next little while, instead having Wedrow carry some letters for them. As nice as those were to get, they weren¡¯t the only things he received from the flying worm, as he opened up his spacial storage and took out all of the various monster parts Ben had disassembled and had him take care of during their time together. With everything that happened, he¡¯d completely forgotten about it all, and the storage room had been filled up recently enough that things were pretty tight in there. When Falk saw it all they closed up for the rest of the day to do their best to organize everything, as well as treat the bones and pelts to preserve them for long-term use. The meat was even harder to deal with. To keep it all from spoiling he¡¯d had to put his new rings to use and consult with Wedrow before he headed off about space and time magic. By being able to use fifth level enchantments, he was able to double the empty volume within a space, and though he couldn¡¯t stop the time within it the way someone with an awakened time magic could, he was able to slow it down to a reasonable extent so long as the enchantment could get enough power. With all that in mind, Falk had quickly thrown together a large, insulated storage chest with a white mana crystal embedded into it, which Ben did his best to add the space and time enchantments to, as well as a water one to keep a cooling effect. Just because the time within it was slowed down, didn¡¯t mean it wouldn¡¯t all still rot in the heat after all. God that really was a busy day. He thought with a laugh. The worst part was they didn¡¯t even get any demon corpses. Since he was so close to dying, nobody wasted any time to collect them, instead focusing on getting back here as soon as they could so he could be treated. It was such a waste, but better than being dead. Reflecting back on it, wasn¡¯t that an idea for how he could make use of some of the materials in there? He wouldn¡¯t be able to waste mythril or any mana stones as a means to power the enchantments, but he could easily use some of the leathers to make spacial bags, and he could add both the enchantments for slowing time and cooling to make them even better for any adventurers that might want to take them out for the day. They¡¯d have to use some of their own mana every now and then to make sure the enchantments kept their power, but that was far from a big deal if they were just going to be out for a day. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Customers would need to be informed it might be risky to use them longer than that, given the need to sleep might let too much time pass, but if they did anyway and the bag ended up damaged by being overfilled without the benefit of the space enchantment, that just meant they¡¯d need another. Oh yeah, that¡¯s going to be perfect. He thought as he got to work pulling out the leathers to use later before getting back to the storage room. He started trying to move things around, pulling different items out every now and then if he thought they looked like they¡¯d be useful and grouping other similar ones together to find them later. A part of him wanted to waste more of his mana crystals to make even more spacial chests as a way to make it a bit more organized, but he resisted. He still had plenty left, but he doubted he¡¯d ever be able to get the sort of quantity again unless he was going to do something crazy like actually marry Thera so he could bug her parents for a wedding gift. Actually, when he thought about it maybe they¡¯d give them even more if they went through with it and tied the knot? When he considered it like that maybe he would see if he could talk her into going back for a quick little ceremony¡­ Or not. I can¡¯t see things ending well for me if her parents ever found out that¡¯s the reason we got married, and I¡¯m not positive Thera would be thrilled with the request either. Back to being thrifty with what I¡¯ve got I guess. He still had plenty of materials he hadn¡¯t even touched because he couldn¡¯t figure out a way to use them that would be justified given their rarity and expense, but there was always the future. If he went up another level or two in his crafting he¡¯d feel a lot more confident in a couple of his crazier ideas, but that could wait. ¡°Damnable gods boy, how much of that are you planning on using?¡± Falk asked when he came back to check on him and saw just how much was sitting in the hall, pulling Ben from his thoughts in the process. His pile had grown rather large, but the storage room was looking far more manageable at least and he explained some of his plans to his teacher. ¡°I figured we could get rid of a bunch of the leathers by making spacial bags, and with the way Thera¡¯s been going through staves recently it probably wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea for me to make a bunch in advance, the rest is all just to replenish some of the stuff we¡¯ve sold in the last week.¡± Since Thera had gained her mothers backing from completing the trial, as well as gaining all the magic skills she was capable of, she¡¯d been burning through staves recently by practicing her skills in the training grounds when she wasn¡¯t busy studying to use more complex spells in the future. Even with how much Ben had improved in making them it was getting hard to keep up, but Pelenia paid well so it was worth it all. ¡°Alright, but this is a few days of work at least. You still got your little project at home, don¡¯t you? Can¡¯t be staying here all night.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll leave on time, don¡¯t worry. I just figured I¡¯d get as much done as I could and leave the rest in my area for tomorrow.¡± ¡°Alright, then if you¡¯re all set I¡¯ll leave you to it.¡± Falk left to go back to his own work, leaving Ben to get started. He decided on doing the staves first. Since they would become Theras as soon as they were complete, that meant they could charge her mom immediately and wouldn¡¯t have to worry about waiting for a sale. His overall technique hadn¡¯t changed too much for producing them, nor did it need to. With Theras growth in her magic, her control had improved considerably, making it so even if he hadn''t improved himself they would still last longer than otherwise. Still, his skills had increased significantly since he¡¯d first started doing this for her and it showed. He was still making them to resist her magic, but now the staff was enchanted to resist earth, life, and dark instead of only earth as it had been previously, and the number of layers that went into it was up to twenty, creating a smoother gradient for letting out her spells. He was also keeping detailed notes on what materials worked and what didn¡¯t, referring to them every now and then to try and figure out superior ways of producing a staff. Some metals seemed to work better in general, but occasionally inferior ones would show shocking improvements should the right bones or horns or claws be added to it when everything was being produced. He was sure that sooner or later he¡¯d be able to find a perfect combination, something that would stand above all the others and elevate the sum of its parts, but there was still plenty more fiddling to do to get there. Luckily it was fast work at this point for him. He¡¯d made far more staves than anything else to keep Thera supplied, and as a sixth-level craftsman he was already quick with his work, using his mana to make his materials bend to his will faster than they would otherwise. It helped that his way of producing them could yield multiple staves at the same time by stretching out the metal as he went, and by the time the day was over Ben had thirty new staves ready for her to destroy. CH140 Eventually, Falk kicked him out for the day and Ben went back home to prep dinner for everyone, as well as work on his personal project. He was almost done with it and knew he¡¯d be up all night if it meant having it finished even a bit faster, but he needed something to eat first. He pulled out some ingredients and started preparing them when Thera got home and looked over his shoulder. ¡°Smells good, what¡¯s for dinner?¡± ¡°Just a simple stew. Since we had leftover roast from yesterday it shouldn¡¯t be too long to cook,¡± Even with the benefits of his crafting to speed up the cooking process, he didn¡¯t want to spend too much time to get the meat tender so taking advantage of some leftovers made for a good shortcut to having it done in an hour or so. ¡°What¡¯s up with you, do anything fun during the day?¡± ¡°Eh, not really. Spent most of the day working on my earth magic and telekinesis. Speaking of, I¡¯ll need a new staff.¡± ¡°Way ahead of you. Come to the shop tomorrow, I¡¯ve got thirty.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the best.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, just make sure you keep a record of what you¡¯re doing with each one so I can see what works and what doesn¡¯t.¡± She made a face at the reminder but agreed. ¡°I know, I will, but is it really that helpful?¡± ¡°I can only watch how you manage with them when we¡¯re out hunting. If I can¡¯t understand how they turn out they¡¯ll never get any better.¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you going to try making a staff with my hair at some point?¡± She asked, running her fingers through the golden strands that had made their way past her shoulders. It had been months since he first thought of the idea in Anailia, and he¡¯d even increased his crafting by a few levels since then, but he still shook his head. ¡°Unless you¡¯re looking for a buzzcut you should grow it out a little more. I¡¯m not sure if it will even work, but the more I have to use the better the chances are.¡± He did need to start trying to figure out just how he would go about it to give such a staff the best odds of success, but it was something he could work on in his free time, on top of his ever-growing list of projects and things to learn. They chatted some more while waiting for Sonya to get home and enjoyed their meal together. Once it was done though, the two women went to enjoy some card games until bed, and Ben focused on his passion project. It hadn¡¯t been easy to talk Sonya into letting him do a major renovation of her home, he¡¯d had to make a lot of promises about completion times and paying to have any damages to be repaired if anything went wrong, as well as getting Falk to come give it a look-over when he was done, but in the end she agreed, and he was able to get to work on finally having a shower. There was a lot that had to go into it and compensations he had to make for differences between what was available in his world to this one, to the point it felt like he was designing it from scratch despite the lesson he¡¯d had, but after days of work he was almost done. He¡¯d spent a lot of long nights putting together the parts he¡¯d be using, from making the tubing he¡¯d need for water to travel through to making a basic filtration system for both physical filtration utilizing rocks and charcoal, and enhancing it through enchantments of both death and light magic, the first to kill anything that might be living within the water, and the second to attach a variety of different purification spells to it as a means to control other things like off odors, as well as ensure no death mana lingered within it. This all served as a way to ensure the water could be reused multiple times without having to worry about changing it out every day, though he still probably would about once a week just to be safe. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. The pipes that led to the showerhead were also enchanted with both water and fire magic, with water used to both move the water within and create pressure, and the fire magic to heat the pipes the water was traveling through, warming it up as it went. The tricky part was creating two taps to control the strength of each, but after a couple days of fiddling he¡¯d made it work. Finally came the big part though, the one that actually made Sonya nervous about all he¡¯d been doing, knocking down a wall. He needed all of this to be in a dedicated room to avoid causing water damage to the rest of the house, and while there was always the option of making it separate from it, he wanted to be able to walk in without having to worry about actually leaving the entire building. It all came down to having a more comfortable experience overall, even if it might seem like overkill. Until then, he¡¯d been working on all of the construction from the outside and late into the night, but that was all done so it was finally time. He carefully cut away sections, adding additional support where he thought it was required, but overall it hadn¡¯t taken long at all and he put in a door. With that complete, he had to finish up the last bit of one of the outer walls and ensure the vents in the room were set up properly, but he was finally done. ¡°God, it¡¯s a thing of beauty.¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand Myriad, those of us who don¡¯t come from aquatic races need to bathe occasionally, and we can get pretty attached to how we do it.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, enough patronizing. I¡¯m testing it out so don¡¯t watch me while I bathe.¡± He¡¯d been looking forward to this for a while and dreams were about to come true. He¡¯d even gone so far as to incorporate a very small rainbow mana crystal into its design so there¡¯d be no chance of it running out of power if it was left on too long. He couldn¡¯t leave it running forever, but a few hours of constant use wouldn¡¯t be a problem. He turned it on, getting the heat to match his preferences before getting in and fiddling with the pressure, letting the time flow by once everything was perfect. Oh yeah, I¡¯m in heaven. It would be easy to dismiss this as an over-exaggeration, but when a person was used to bathing a certain way every day for years and suddenly has that taken from them, it could be hard to feel properly clean. For Ben, it felt like over a year''s worth of grime had drained away all at once, and the familiar sensation of warm water pouring over him was divine. The time melted away, and he was happy to stay in there for as long as he could, just enjoying the feeling, but all too soon a knock came on the door, interrupting him from his peace. He heaved a sigh, knowing he needed to get out soon anyway and wrapped a towel around his waist as he went to check what the knocking was about. He opened the door for Thera who stood silent for a moment. Her eyes being solid gold spheres, no pupils to show where her focus lingered it would be hard for most to tell where she was looking, but Ben had gotten used to the subtle movements of her eyelids, and combined with a small golden flush across her face, he could tell she was a bit more aware of his lack of dress than he¡¯d thought about. ¡°Ahem, maybe you should actually put something on before you open the door.¡± ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t know if it was anything important so I figured the towel was fine, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve just been hearing the sounds of water since the early morning but nothing from you so aunty asked me to check that you¡¯re alright. Seeing as you¡¯re fine I¡¯ll leave you to get dressed.¡± She cast one more look at him before walking off, leaving him with a lingering feeling of embarrassment as she did. CH141 More days passed as Ben continued his work in the shop making a variety of items, some to be sold in there, and others handed off to traveling merchants Falk knew as a way to empty out the storage room without cluttering the sales floor or workshop in the back. All the while he was trying to learn as much about the various skills he had access to enchant with as he could, from reading up as much as he was able in the few books on skills present in the adventurers guild archives to having Myriad gather information for him that he could record later. He had a goal in mind after all, and he needed every bit of information he could get to achieve it. When he got home for the day it was slightly later than usual, with both Thera and Sonya already there, dinner ready and waiting. They ate their meals as they always did before going to the living room and getting to work. He had prepared a variety of braces ahead of time and he got Sonya to wear the first one as he carefully applied the resistance enchantment to it to cover up her charm, but at only up to a resistance of twelve so that there would still be plenty leaking off of her when they measured it. That brace would serve as the baseline while he experimented with the others. To each one after he attached a variety of skills and partial skill effects to try and enhance the charm suppression of the initial magic. He was doing this with Sonya instead of Thera for a few reasons, the biggest being time. While he would still take almost a full night to apply the enchantment Thera needed, with the amount his enchanting had improved, Sonya¡¯s could be completed in around fifteen minutes, meaning he could easily complete them one after the other to measure and compare its effects. He spent hours making them all, Thera and Sonya playing board games in the background as he worked, but by the end he had a dozen different braces made, each with a different enchantment added to the original one to try and enhance it. ¡°Alright, time to test it out,¡± He muttered, getting Thera to throw on her cloak so her magic wouldn¡¯t interfere with the tests and got Sonya to wear them all one at a time, with Ben setting up the passometer to measure any variance in the charm she released again and again, recording the results each time. Kind of crazy that it took three hours of setup to make all the enchantments, but I finished testing them all in ten minutes. Myriad wasn¡¯t the only one to notice he¡¯d had some success, the other two could see the smile stretched across his face that hadn¡¯t been there the first few times he¡¯d attempted to improve the resistance enchantment with them. ¡°Don¡¯t leave us waiting, what are the results?¡± Thera asked, excited to see some potentially good news considering how any success had the chance to help her live a more normal life. ¡°Taking the magic resistance effects of armor and shield enhancement brought the enchantments suppression effects up by one, while defense enhancements magic resistance managed it by two, though since that skill was at the first level while the other two were at the zeroth it might just be an effect of the greater skill level. Either way, I¡¯m going to need to grab enchantments of all three at the highest level I can get to see how that affects things. Other than that it looks like tying in a fourth-level purification spell from light magic had no effect on increasing the resistance. As disappointing as it is I guess that was a pretty obvious result, trying to purify mana of the affinity tied to it is probably one of the first things people test when trying to come up with a solution for all of this, but it¡¯s still good to have gotten it out of the way. There¡¯s still plenty of other skills I can try to experiment with after I learn a bit more about their properties, but at least this is some progress.¡± If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Even this much meant he¡¯d need to go the guild master Ceselee to update the information in his patent so all the other enchanters that worshiped Myriad could get the chance to learn about it and hopefully make stronger resistance braces without having to level up their skills as much, but it still left him a ways off from his goal of completely managing Thera¡¯s charm, even if he was on the correct path. Given the power of her mana, there was a good chance that she wouldn¡¯t get more than a point or two of her charm suppressed, even if all three skills were put onto the enchantment, but that just meant she needed more and at a higher level. ¡°I wonder if Falk could find any enchanters with high levels in those three skills?¡± He muttered as he rolled ideas around in his mind. ¡°It probably wouldn¡¯t be too expensive, and even if it is, it would be worth it for the research.¡± He didn¡¯t want to just try and throw money around till a solution presented itself, but he needed to do something if he was going to get any results soon, especially since he was fast approaching a certain limitation that he couldn¡¯t get around. Since he had enchanting as a blessed skill, he was able to use fifteen percent of his resistances per level instead of the normal ten, but that meant at his next level-up he¡¯d finally be using the full potential of the resistances he had. Even if he leveled up more after that, he wouldn¡¯t be able to increase the strength of Thera¡¯s resistance band by changing it to have a greater level of resistance, if he couldn¡¯t find enough other ways to supplement it, any increase he could squeeze out would all come down to technique. While he might be able to make it past that in some ways if he were to awaken his skill, that was still going to be far off if ever, and he needed as many potential options as he could get to make it work. He continued to mutter about it, tossing different ideas around in his mind as Sonya placed a gentle hand on his arm. ¡°Ben, it¡¯s okay,¡± She told him soothingly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about spending your money on this, just tell me what you need and we¡¯ll get it.¡± ¡°Hmm? Thanks Sonya, but I can¡¯t ask you to buy anything when I don¡¯t know if it will go anywhere.¡± ¡°Oh, it won¡¯t be me,¡± She said with a small laugh. ¡°My sister has more than enough reasons to be invested in the results of you researching this. Give me a list and I¡¯ll send it to her, anything you discover could help my people as a whole, and Pelenia won¡¯t spare any expense if it means helping her daughter.¡± That¡­ is an excellent point. Gotta take advantage of the absurdly wealthy in my life. ¡°You¡¯re absolutely right. For now, I just need the highest level of those armor, shield, and defense enhancement that she could get on rings for me so if you could ask her for those that would be great. Let¡¯s see, I really should get around to finding a few books on skills I could reference to see if any of them stand out as having potential, so if you could order some of those too I¡¯d be grateful.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let her know, I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll have them here in no time.¡± ¡°Great, in that case, I think that¡¯s all I need from you guys tonight. Thera, if you¡¯re cool with it I¡¯ll update your enchantment tonight with what I have to see if it improves the overall effect for you.¡± ¡°So another night of you hovering over me while I sleep then?¡± She joked. Even if she wasn¡¯t crazy about it she¡¯d also long grown used to it, and it especially helped that he¡¯d gained hidden mind so his thoughts weren¡¯t too distracting. ¡°I mean, if you¡¯d prefer we could do it during the day when I¡¯m off instead of going out to hunt.¡± ¡°As fun as the thought of doing nothing all day without being able to move is, tonight works fine. Give me a bit to change.¡± CH142 The effects of altering the enchantment were minor, but that was to be expected. As a fifth-level enchanter, he¡¯d been able to get the effect of Thera¡¯s charm at a distance down to only needing a resistance of 19, while her effect on contact needed a resistance of 29. Both values were far too high for an average person to deal with, though it was still a significant improvement overall. After tying in the effects of the other skills, he¡¯d only managed to bring both down to 18 and 28 respectively, meaning that what would act as an increase of four for others, she could only get one, if that. It was entirely possible it was acting as a fraction of a percent that just happened to be enough to tip things over the edge, and he wouldn¡¯t know for sure until he got access to higher leveled versions of the skills to attempt with. Worse, when he did the math it didn¡¯t work out. Assuming that for every level those skills had they could compensate for an extra point of resistance and Thera would need at best four levels to get a point off, that meant that even if he became a ninth level enchanter with access to ninth level skills, he would only be able to bring Thera¡¯s charm down to 6 for distance and 16 on contact. A remarkable improvement to be sure, but still far from safe considering how low people¡¯s magic resistances could be, not to mention the fact that if her charm magic ever leveled up again it would only get worse. Aside from that, everything he¡¯d just considered was built upon more assumptions than he cared to think about. There was no guarantee that each level of the enhancement skills would translate to an increase in resistance, and he needed to do more testing to be sure about how the skills affected the overall power of the brace. God, why can¡¯t things just be easy? Who knows if I¡¯ll find any other skills with properties that can help. The ideal would be able to make it so it could cover up to what she would hypothetically need at charm level five so that she could train it up to level six without worries and be able to suppress it herself, but I can¡¯t even cover it at level one. Still, he¡¯d suffered on it long enough. Falk knew he was planning on working on the braces through the night and wasn¡¯t expecting him until later, so with all of his testing done he slunk to bed for a few hours of sleep.
¡°Hey Myriad, perfect timing, I don¡¯t suppose you know any other skills that might help, would you? Something that has some sort of magic resistance or mental effect suppression tied to it?¡± ¡°Hmm? Um, not off-hand, sorry. There¡¯s so many skills in the world, it can be hard to keep track. I think your current plan of getting some books on the topic is a good bet for the time being.¡± His god seemed distracted, a fact he was quick to pick up on. ¡°Something on your mind?¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Myriad was silent for just a moment, seemingly thinking before giving an answer. ¡°It looks like I¡¯ll need you to act as an apostle in an official capacity. Sachel¡¯s in prison.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± It had been a few months since his fellow believer went off with her party to try and complete the quest Myriad gave her. He hadn¡¯t heard anything from his god until then but had been under the assumption that she¡¯d had something in mind when she left and was just trying to find a solution for it, not that she¡¯d been jailed for some mysterious acts. ¡°What did she do?¡± ¡°Ahem, well it seems she¡¯d spent the first few weeks trying to find a different option for fulfilling her quest at the pleas of her teammates, but failing that she went to her home village to try and solve an issue they¡¯d been having involving their sacred forest.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still not hearing why they¡¯re in prison.¡± ¡°It seems that entry into the forest is restricted to the believers of the dryad goddess Jagal, and since she converted to me¡­¡± ¡°She broke the law, got it. Still doesn¡¯t tell me what it has to do with me.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to ask you to go to the village to try and resolve this in an official capacity as my apostle. You don¡¯t need to get her in the forest or anything, just convince them to let her go so she can find something else.¡± Ben was hesitant. Ignoring her party, he liked Sachel well enough, he just genuinely didn¡¯t think he could do anything. ¡°I don¡¯t know Myriad, this seems a bit above my paygrade. Isn¡¯t something like negotiating a prisoner release the sort of thing you want a professional to handle?¡± ¡°You think I wouldn¡¯t get someone a bit better for it if I could? None of my believers are equipped for this sort of thing, I¡¯m banking on the idea that they¡¯ll give you some leeway as an apostle.¡± He let out a long, pained sigh. ¡°Can you at least make this a quest? Give a little payoff for what sounds like it might be a lot of work.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± His god told him regretfully. ¡°You have the quest options you have, I can¡¯t create them as willy-nilly as other more powerful gods.¡± ¡°Alright, just figured I¡¯d check. Anyway I¡¯ll do it, just remember to cut me some slack in the future, okay?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Myriad told him, relief leaking from him. Despite Ben being his apostle, he couldn¡¯t compel him to act. Most gods wouldn¡¯t need to worry about something like that, their believer¡¯s faith would be all it would take to get them to move, but considering the fact that Ben¡¯s opinion of the gods was so indifferent, he¡¯d been lucky to have a strong enough relationship that he was considered a friend, there was always the chance he¡¯d be turned down. ¡°So how long of a trip am I looking at? Don¡¯t suppose it¡¯s just a town over and I can get away with getting it done overnight?¡± ¡°You¡¯re looking at about eight days of travel both ways, but if you can solve it all on day one it will be fine.¡± ¡°What are the chances of that?¡± Sixteen days of travel, not including however long he¡¯d spend trying to sort it all out. Was there a way he could build something that would act as a car in the future? He didn¡¯t care how hard it would be to construct if he could figure out some way to cut down on travel times. It was times like this he missed Earth a bit more than usual. Gate travel was only handy if you lived in a gate city, being a five days carriage ride from the nearest one was a pain in the butt and he¡¯d give anything for a car or plane. ¡°Anyway, tell me how to get there and I¡¯ll go as soon as I can.¡± CH143 Falk was understanding enough, even if he was going to take a few weeks off it gave him time to focus on some of his own tasks he couldn¡¯t complete with Ben around, and to the residents of the world it made sense for an apostle to fulfill the requests of their gods. What mattered was telling Thera. He wasn¡¯t sure how she¡¯d react given that her relationship with them all was rocky, especially Skoe, but hoped that things would be fine overall as he explained what had been asked of him. ¡°...So anyway, that¡¯s what Myriad wanted me to do, I¡¯ll be gone for a few weeks to try and deal with all that nonsense¡­ Unless you¡¯d want to join me?¡± There it was. It didn¡¯t matter if she said yes or not, he¡¯d be fine on his own. All that mattered was putting the offer out. They were a team after all, they¡¯d promised to work together to solve their problems. Even if she was sure to decline given the people involved, he wouldn¡¯t rush off without even asking, and while he was dealing with this she could focus on improving her magic or reading some medical books to improve her knowledge skill. ¡°Alright, when are we leaving?¡± She asked, leaving him dumbfounded. ¡°Today if we can. I was going to book a carriage after I asked you, but are you sure? I know you aren¡¯t exactly a fan of them and we may be stuck together for a while.¡± ¡°I think the entertainment of seeing them imprisoned for a bit will be worth it so I¡¯ll start packing. Need me to get you started while you get the carriage sorted out?¡± ¡°Uh, no I should be good,¡± He told her and walked off to get them a ride. Still, for her to come along for that of all reasons. What was that saying again? Hell hath no fury like a woman''s scorn?
He was able to get one without much issue, and they went on their way. Thera brought a few books to pass the time while Ben spent the time working on his enchanting, doing his best to get as much practice as he could while only having the magic rings he¡¯d taken to always wearing, as well as the skills that existed within him. He¡¯d gotten a fair amount of job experience in the past few weeks considering some of the oversize enchantments he¡¯d been able to make, as well as the fact that he was able to experiment using so many different skills compared to other enchanters thanks to his connect, and he didn¡¯t want to lose that momentum by treating this time as a break. Even if he didn¡¯t have all of his boxes of rings with him, he could use it as a chance to learn about enchanting with magic to an even deeper degree, although it would be more exhausting than compared to working with a skill not tied to his affinities. As nice as it would be if I could enchant with other people¡¯s affinities the way I can with their skills, that would be a bit too much to hope for considering all I already get out of connect, though maybe if I ever awaken it¡­ It was a fun thought, but he¡¯d have to put in a lot of work for training the skill, especially since it was so hard to determine what jobs gave bonuses to a given skill unless it was obvious. Sure, connect still had the bonuses associated with it from when he had worked on completing the priest path, and it was guaranteed minor ones now that he was an enchanter, but would it also be getting the main job bonus as well since the way he used the skill was so tightly linked to his enchanting? And for that matter, what about his crafting job bonuses? He was fairly certain that enchanting received them since it was counted as a crafting skill, but what about connect? Even though he used it so closely with enchanting now, he hadn¡¯t started to treat it that way until the end of his craftsman job, would that have any effect, and were the skills that qualified for a bonus dependent entirely on how he used them? Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. He¡¯d tried asking Myriad once but was essentially told it would vary by the jobs and skills involved, the only way to be sure was to check both with an awakened analysis type skill, an extreme rarity for someone to possess. He could try to look for someone who had one by throwing some money around, it would probably be better than just blindly hoping that his skills would work out the way he wanted, but it would likely cost him a small fortune as well. How much would I be willing to pay to improve my skills? I suppose that as I improve, I could potentially make better and better tools and weapons to sell that could replace any losses, but I¡¯ll hold off for now. Besides, if it were really expensive I could always let Pelenia know I¡¯ll be back in Anailia for a bit to make some braces, with how much my enchanting and connect has improved that would be easy money. By now the majority of Myriad¡¯s believers had the skill. So long as they were practicing hard then in a few short months he¡¯d have a nice passive income as well. Thinking about all that, he would have to spring for a faster carriage on the way back. No point spending extra days on the road when his time was valuable. Of course, since he had the time he could also start fiddling with ideas on alternative means of transport for the future. Hey Myriad, you around? Just wanted to spitball. What do you think of the idea of making a small but light carriage with a sail attached to it and enchanted with an air magic spell to push it along? I wouldn¡¯t need to worry about hiring a cart each time I needed to go anywhere this way. Hmm, true. Maybe I could build some bikes? They¡¯re definitely faster than a typical carriage, but the wheels might be an issue. I don¡¯t think they¡¯d work as well if I used wooden or metal ones like a carriage, but I haven¡¯t seen anything like rubber around. Maybe I could make a substitute out of leather or some other material? It might take some experimenting. Wait, hold on a minute. Are you seriously telling me that bikes haven¡¯t been invented here? He asked his god, his interest fully piqued. The gears turned in Ben''s mind as he gave that some thought. Despite how common they were, he was fairly sure bikes had only been invented a couple hundred years before he was born, making them reasonably modern compared to how simple they seemed. He was certain he would be able to create one without much problem, it just created a single question in him. Myriad, I seriously need to know how this world''s copyright law would deal with the fact that I¡¯d be introducing an invention from my world to this one. Would I own the patent as the person bringing it to this world or would it be considered public domain since I¡¯m not actually the inventor? He expected it to be the sort of question that Myriad would need to search a bit for an answer, but surprisingly he could tell him immediately. So you¡¯re saying as long as I can make one I have twenty years of riches ahead of me. If that happens then oh well, I just wanted something that could make travel a bit nicer, if I can make some money off of it then that¡¯s just a bonus. CH144 Days of travel passed but they¡¯d finally made it to their destination. After making it through the gate, the cost for the next carriage to their destination of syro village was significantly more expensive. Unlike their initial ride from Stonewall, which would stop at other villages along the way so they could expect a constant stream of passengers and end with a more reasonable price overall, the one to syro had none of that. Apparently, the small village was in the opposite direction of the gate they¡¯d come out of from the next major city, and with only a few small towns in the area the cost went up and departure times were significantly more restricted. All of this led to the place Ben saw in front of him; a rundown village filled with old, dilapidated houses and the sort of atmosphere that made him want to immediately turn back. From what he could see, there couldn¡¯t have been more than one hundred people living there and even that felt like a bit too much. Even if it would take a few days, he would have thought that more people would move to the thriving city just a little while away, or at least one of the towns in its vicinity. But then again, plenty of people found themselves attached to their homes, who was he to judge? Rather than dwell on it he wanted to do what he¡¯d come here for, freeing Sachel and getting home. With that goal in mind, they walked past the houses and fields, looking for a building around that might have someone with a position of authority in it they could talk to when Ben started to notice something strange. ¡°Hey Thera, you notice anything odd about the people here?¡± ¡°You mean like how nobody will catch our eye?¡± ¡°No, I mean sure that¡¯s odd too, but I feel like we¡¯ve only seen women out.¡± Young and old, all at varying levels of health, but there wasn¡¯t a single male to be seen unless, of course, their race just didn¡¯t have much differences between genders. Everyone was basically a standard hominid type, the main difference from himself was their dark green flesh with leaves and flowers growing out with their hair, and they were all distinctly feminine in appearance. He couldn¡¯t be sure that wasn¡¯t simply how both genders looked, but still, it felt odd. ¡°I¡¯m not certain, but I¡¯ve heard before that dryads are an entirely female race.¡± ¡°Wait, really? How does that work?¡± ¡°Ben, you can¡¯t just ask things like that,¡± She said quietly, hoping none of the villagers around heard him. ¡°Some races aren¡¯t super open about those sorts of things.¡± ¡°Does that mean you don¡¯t know?¡± ¡°Uhg, no I have a bit of an idea. Supposedly they¡¯re able to reproduce with different trees, with the children taking on some of the traits depending on the species.¡± ¡°Hmm? Wait, that just raises some more questions. Like, if they normally reproduce with trees then how could a mixed breed like Sachel exist?¡± ¡°One of the aspects of the system the gods placed on all of the races that came to the world was to help facilitate reproduction between races, it¡¯s kind of why I¡¯m able to exist.¡± ¡°Yeah, I get that but pollination is different from the more fleshy stuff most races do, and given how they¡¯re built it looks like dryads were probably able to manage that before they came to the world, so why is trees the norm for their species instead of just having two genders?¡± ¡°Ben, I¡¯m begging you to leave it at that before anyone hears and we¡¯re kicked out of town.¡± His curiosity still nagged at him, but he resolved to question Sachel on it later; he had other things to deal with for the meantime. ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll be good. Since I¡¯m not seeing anything that stands out here building-wise I¡¯m going to ask for directions, give me a minute.¡± He spotted a dryad walking by and tried to wave them down, putting on his best smile and cheeriest attitude as if he were trying to make a sale in the shop only to be quickly ignored. Okay, maybe that one was a little shy. Not letting it get to him he tried again, this time a bit more forcefully. ¡°Excuse me,¡± He said, quickly rushing up to the next person he saw and trying to keep the same friendly attitude. ¡°I was sent to talk to the leader of the village, I was hoping you might direct me?¡± This time went marginally better, at least in the sense that the woman he walked up to made eye contact before turning around and walking the opposite direction. Okay, maybe the issue is me? If they aren¡¯t used to guys then it¡¯s time to tap out. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Alright Thera, your turn to make an attempt.¡± She seemed put off but gave it a try, walking up to the nearest person and asking them. ¡°Excuse me, could you tell me-¡± Only for them to walk away before she could get another word out. Ben could only groan. He didn¡¯t think things would be such a pain just upon arrival. All he wanted was some directions, was that too much to ask? ¡°Hey Myriad, you around?¡± I could use some help.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t even get anyone to tell me where to find the person in charge. Think you could direct me?¡± His god agreed, all the while muttering about what a bad sign it was for them to be having issues as soon as they arrived, but soon enough they were led to a house that looked like any other. It looked old and broken down, with a fence around it in a serious state of disrepair, yet at the same time a lush vegetable garden all around it. As a race that naturally possessed plant magic, it seemed they had no issue keeping themselves fed, but managing everything else was a whole other story. He tried to ignore it though, that wasn¡¯t what he was there for so he went up and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer that didn¡¯t come. ¡°Uh, Myriad? Is anyone home?¡± ¡°Of course I am,¡± He sighed, bringing Thera up to speed and making a choice as to what to do next. He was here to negotiate for Sachel and basically act as a diplomat, he couldn¡¯t just be chaotic or annoying to try and force her out to talk, so what did that leave if she wouldn¡¯t answer the door? I guess I¡¯ll try patience for now. He thought to himself, taking a seat and leaning against the house. ¡°Ben, what are you doing?¡± ¡°Waiting. I won¡¯t be rude and annoying until I get an answer, I¡¯m just going to sit here and knock occasionally until someone comes out.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just saying, if they don¡¯t want to talk we could just go home, I¡¯m sure Sachel and the rest will manage,¡± Ben gave her a look and Thera waved it off. ¡°Yeah yeah, I know. At least I have some books to pass the time,¡± She said before sitting down beside him.
He was about to give the door a knock for the fourth time in as many hours when it finally opened. He looked up and put on his best smile, only to see an elderly dryad glaring down at him. ¡°In the name of all that¡¯s good, what do you want?¡± She asked in a huff, clearly annoyed they hadn¡¯t given up and left for somewhere else after waiting so long. Ben though wouldn¡¯t let that get to him. He¡¯d been too patient to allow the fact that they¡¯d been forced to wait for so long get to him. ¡°Hello there,¡± He started, voice filled with a level of cheer he just didn¡¯t feel. ¡°I was told you¡¯re in charge of the village, might I bother you for a bit of your time?¡± ¡°If I say no, will you leave?¡± ¡°No, but I¡¯ll stop knocking and just get ready to make camp out here. Maybe I¡¯ll be lucky and you''ll be in the mood to chat tomorrow,¡± To emphasize the point, he reached into his spacial bag and started pulling out a tent before her eyes, getting ready to set it up. She groaned, muttering something about ¡®damnable outsiders¡¯ before giving in and talking. ¡°Fine, what do you want and make it fast before I just kick you out myself.¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing crazy, I¡¯ve heard that an acquaintance of mine, Sachel had been imprisoned for going into your sacred forest. I¡¯m just here to see if I can negotiate her release.¡± ¡°And how exactly did you manage to hear about this?¡± She asked, her tone changing from annoyed to angry for reasons Ben couldn¡¯t understand. From here, Ben wasn¡¯t sure if telling the truth was the right choice to make. Should he be honest that he was the apostle of her god and heard it from Myriad? Given the fact that he convinced her to convert which contributed to getting her imprisoned to begin with, there was a decent chance that wouldn¡¯t go over exceptionally well. On the other hand, maybe it would lend him a level of authority he could take advantage of to help their discussions, it was hard to say. For the time being, he decided to not commit to either action, just leaving the door open to the reveal should it become necessary. ¡°I heard it from my god. Since we were already acquainted and there weren¡¯t many others he could ask, the request was made to me.¡± Her eyes widened and she seemed taken aback at first, before hiding some of her emotions. ¡°Hmph, if that¡¯s the case I guess I can see why you¡¯ve been so determined, but they¡¯ll be serving their sentence for trespassing unless you intend to pay their fine.¡± ¡°Wait, what? Just a fine? How much is it? For that matter, how long would they be imprisoned for if I don¡¯t pay?¡± ¡°It¡¯s two months imprisonment for entering the forest. As for the fine¡­¡± She pulled out her card and added the amount into it, leaving it out to read and for him to tap should he choose to. ¡°What! That¡¯s like a year of living expenses! Couldn¡¯t I just let them wait it out instead? There should only be about a month and a half left, right?¡± myriad asked desperately in his mind, causing Ben to deflate. Of course you don¡¯t want me to take the easy and cheap route out. Sachel¡¯s already pretty deeply devoted; it''s fine. He thought while sighing. ¡°Any chance I could see them before deciding?¡± With a nod and a wave of her hand, the elderly dryad brought her out around to the back of the house. Neither he nor Thera knew what to expect, but it seemed like just an empty lot. He was actually surprised there wasn¡¯t just another garden like had been out front, but found the answer before he knew it as the village head reached down and revealed a thick wooden hatch, previously hidden by grass and moss growing over top of it. She pulled out an old key, sinking it into a hole in the door, before pulling the entire thing up, revealing stairs leading into the earth. CH145 Thera and Ben looked at each other, trying to silently communicate whether or not they should walk down into the earth, but the village elder went down and without much other choice they both followed. It didn¡¯t go down far and there was a source of light, although faint, and despite the seriousness of the situation and just how uncomfortable it seemed, the moment they reached the bottom and saw Sachel, Skoe, and Ralia, Thera burst into laughter. The village head gave her a surprised look but Ben ignored it, he kind of understood where she was coming from. While Sachel and Ralia had just been sitting down on the dirt floor, looking kind of sad until they¡¯d noticed who¡¯d come, Skoe had been bound to the wall by thick and powerful plant roots, his legs, torso, and each of his four powerful arms was secured to keeping him from moving. ¡°Okay, getting to enjoy this made the four hours of waiting worth it,¡± Thera said, causing the elderly dryad to drop just enough of her negative attitude to cast Ben a questioning look. ¡°Thera has a bit of a complicated history with them,¡± He told her with a shrug as Sachel spoke up. ¡°Ben, what are you doing here?¡± A bit of light had returned to her eyes as she saw them and her voice was tinged with hope. ¡°Myriad asked me to come help you out so I made my way here, but seeing as how you could have been freed after a couple months or just paid a fine if you wanted out it seems like it was a waste of my time. Why exactly didn¡¯t you just pay?¡± He asked, wanting to get to the heart of the matter before deciding what to do. Unfortunately, it seemed the reason was entirely practical. ¡°Do you really think we all have that much money?¡± She asked, which was a fair point when he thought about it. Just because he¡¯d managed to gain an unreasonable level of wealth in a short time didn¡¯t mean everyone would have that much saved up. ¡°And as for being stuck here, do you think you¡¯d be able to deal with being stuck in a dark pit for two months? We¡¯d really appreciate the help.¡± She looked at him with pleading eyes and Ben sighed. A part of him thought this whole thing might be partially his fault for converting her, but a greater part was saying she should have known better to go into an area she wasn¡¯t allowed. Even if he was the apostle of her god, he wasn¡¯t her keeper. Still, Myriad sent him to help so as long as they were agreeable he would. ¡°Huu, okay. If you guys agree to pay me back over the course of the next two years I¡¯ll pay to get you guys out, does that sound reasonable?¡± Sachel and Ralia quickly agreed while Skoe seemed like he was trying to but couldn¡¯t from how tight the roots binding him were. Actually, isn¡¯t that kind of dangerous? I may not know what sort of vitality he has but breathing is kind of important. He cast a quick concerned look to the man, but he wasn¡¯t dead so he figured it was fine and turned to the village head. ¡°Okay I¡¯ll pay, let¡¯s get this over with.¡± She looked shocked he actually agreed to spend so much but pulled out her card and tapped it against his, receiving the funds he¡¯d transferred over while Ben couldn¡¯t help but feel he¡¯d been a little scammed with the cost. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. With that done she walked over to Skoe, placing a hand on the roots that bound him and after a few minutes, they were loose enough that he could walk out. Once that was done they all quickly left the dark, damp hole in the ground and Ben let himself be thrilled to have finished up everything so easily. They would need to find somewhere to sleep for the night, but he¡¯d done what Myriad wanted and they could get home while Sachel and her friends focused on finding some other way to complete her trial, at least that was what he¡¯d hoped. ¡°Alright, you¡¯re all free to go so be on your way and don¡¯t come back,¡± The elderly dryad spoke, and Ben was more than happy to agree. ¡°Don¡¯t have to tell us twice, come on guys let¡¯s-¡± ¡°Grandmother, please! I just want to help!¡± Sachel told the woman desperately while cutting him off. Wait, grandmother? Myriad what the hell have you dragged me into? <...> Ignored by his god, he instead got front row seats to the fight breaking out in front of him. ¡°The moment you abandoned our god you lost your place in the village. Outsiders aren¡¯t allowed in our forest so either rejoin the faith or leave.¡± ¡°Nobody here has any fighting skills! If you don¡¯t let us in then what will you do?¡± Sachel asked desperately as if begging the woman to let her help, but was only met with scorn. ¡°We¡¯ll manage alone, as we always do. If you¡¯re so determined to cling to whatever god convinced you to turn traitor then we don¡¯t need you.¡± ¡°We¡¯re all a part of the same world, we need to be able to ask for help if we need it!¡± ¡°Because that¡¯s worked so fucking well in the past, hasn¡¯t it!¡± The elderly woman screamed back, before regaining some control of herself. ¡°Dryads depend on dryads and you¡¯re already barely that. As far as I¡¯m concerned our relationship was severed the moment you abandoned Jagal.¡± There was so much venom in the old woman''s voice it was enough to stun everyone. That is, everyone but Ben, who stepped between the two and had gone deathly quiet, trying to contain his rage. ¡°Apologize.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°You went too far. Apologize for saying that.¡± He wasn¡¯t planning on backing down, but neither was she, and instead waved him off dismissively. ¡°I don¡¯t expect outsiders to understand. You got what you came here for so get lost, I have a village to look after.¡± He held his tongue for a moment, just long enough to think through what to say next without just swearing at the woman for a while. As good as that would feel, it wouldn¡¯t be constructive. ¡°We¡¯re just not allowed in your stupid forest right? There¡¯s no rule against us staying here?¡± ¡°Are you really going to stay just to be a pain in the ass?¡± ¡°No,¡± He told her with a shake of his head. ¡°Sachel will solve whatever stupid problem your forest is having without ever setting foot in it, and then after you¡¯ll apologise to her and invite her back with open arms.¡± The old woman let out an angry chuckle, more than ready to kick them all out should a chance come along. ¡°Fine, but the moment any of you walk into the forest, you''re getting locked up and I¡¯m sending off for some templars to deal with you.¡± ¡°Excellent, as the apostle of Myriad, I fully intend to hold you to that.¡± With that he turned around and marched off, not waiting to see the old woman''s reaction as he started talking to the air. ¡°Hey Myriad, give me the quest for earning a large amount of faith from non-believers, I¡¯m going to make these jerks love you.¡± CH146 They walked on in silence for a while, the three they¡¯d come to save not knowing what to make of Ben''s declaration, and Thera wanting to give him a few moments to calm down. Still, it didn¡¯t take long until they were well away from Sachel¡¯s grandmother''s home when he turned around to speak to them. ¡°Alright, first off, Thera sorry but it looks like I might be here for a while. If you need to head off I understand.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll help you out,¡± She said while placing special emphasis on the fact it was Ben she was doing this for, not the others. ¡°Thank you,¡± He told her warmly before turning to the other three. ¡°Now you lot, tell me what¡¯s going on in the forest. Since you mentioned fighting skills, I¡¯m assuming some sort of monster has made its home in there?¡± Sachel seemed troubled by everything that just happened and Skoe was still dealing with the after-effects of being secured to a wall for what seemed like the two weeks since they¡¯d been imprisoned, so Ralia was the one to give an explanation. ¡°A group of frost bats has taken up residence in the forest the dryads cultivate and are slowly killing it. We wanted to eradicate them to complete Sachel¡¯s quest, but if we can¡¯t go in there¡¯s nothing we can do.¡± ¡°She¡¯s right,¡± Sachel said sadly upon finding her voice. ¡°We should just leave, they don¡¯t want our help.¡± Ben grabbed the girl¡¯s shoulders and forced her to look him in the eyes. ¡°Sachel, I was told this is your village, you must have known the rules about the forest before you went in, but you did anyway because you wanted to help. Are you ready to give up now?¡± ¡°There¡¯s nothing I can do. They¡¯ll take it a lot more seriously if we break the rules a second time.¡± ¡°So then let¡¯s work out a plan,¡± He told her, trying to sound like the sort of confident pillar that could support the effort the task would require, until another question needed to get out of the way. ¡°But first, is there anywhere in the village we could stay if we¡¯re going to be here for a few days?¡±
They were led through the village until Sachel found the place she was looking for, bringing them to another of the rundown houses and knocking on the door. A small girl answered and looked the group up and down, Ben couldn¡¯t imagine what a young child like that saw, considering how scruffy Sachel¡¯s team was after a few weeks in an underground prison, not to mention how mysterious Thera might come across being fully cloaked, but with an indifferent attitude she just turned her head and yelled out. ¡°MOM! SACHEL¡¯S HERE WITH SOME WEIRDOS!¡± With that, the young girl ran off and her mother, looking to be in her late twenties or early thirties, though it was hard to be sure from the difference in species, came to the door. She looked at Sachel, ignoring the rest of them as she sighed and brought her into a hug. ¡°You know, you really should have stopped by to say hi before getting yourself in trouble.¡± ¡°Haha, yeah. Sorry Fontesh, we were looking for somewhere to talk and figure some stuff out, mind if we come in?¡± At that she finally gave the rest of them a lookover before turning around and walking back into her home, letting the rest of them follow her. Taking them to a kitchen she was quickly given an explanation of what happened and the fact that they were looking for somewhere to stay. ¡°Huuh, fine. I¡¯ve got a spare room, a basement, and a shed out back, you can all split them however you¡¯d like while you¡¯re here.¡± ¡°Me and Thera will take the room,¡± Ben told them, not leaving room for any arguments. They hadn¡¯t packed to be there for a long time, and while it might not have been extremely necessary from how thick each wall was, it meant he¡¯d need to place the enchantment he¡¯d previously tested at Sonya¡¯s on the room to be on the safe side and it would be significantly easier to do there than the basement since he assumed it would be the smaller of the two options. Presumably, a shed would be easier still, but that wasn¡¯t happening. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Alright then, me and Ralia can take the basement,¡± Sachel said agreeably. She wasn¡¯t about to argue when Ben had come all the way out to help her and was going to assist with her quest as well. That just left the last of them. ¡°Yeah yeah, do you at least have any spare blankets I can use?¡± Skoe asked as he saw how things were turning out, to which Fontesh promised to see what she could find. While that was going on, Ben had a quick but important conversation in his head. Hey Myriad, how much assistance can I give Sachel for it to still count as her completing the quest? So if I give her a plan to work through as long as she¡¯s the one to complete it then it¡¯s fine? I¡¯ll train my hidden mind a bit later. How does other people helping her affect things, and if I give her a plan of attack can I do any more to make things work out? Sounds good. ¡°Alright everyone, now that that¡¯s settled I¡¯ll need you all to listen to how we¡¯re doing this and I won¡¯t accept arguments. If there¡¯s anything that won¡¯t work because it will cause trouble with the village speak up but that¡¯s it. First things first, sorry Thera but can I ask you to work with this lot to try to deal with this?¡± ¡°I already said I¡¯d help you so don¡¯t worry about it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the best. In that case, I¡¯ll want to know some details about the woods, namely how big is it and how often do people go in it?¡± Fontesh was the one to answer that. ¡°Currently it¡¯s just a small grove, a bit more than two acres that¡¯s mixed into the rest of the forest. Expansion of it has stopped for now since a few villagers have been attacked, and nobody is to go near it till the problem has been resolved for everyone''s safety.¡± ¡°Wait, so this sacred forest is just a group of trees mixed into a larger, less sacred forest?¡± ¡°It¡¯s made up of trees from our homeworld,¡± The dryad explained. ¡°We can¡¯t reproduce with other trees so if anything happened to them we¡¯d have to break up the village and join other dryad communities, not to mention the loss it would be to our species as a whole. There''s already so few of us, not to mention how little plant diversity we possess¡­¡± ¡°Alright, so there¡¯s a genuine reason you all take such good care of them, noted. Either way we won¡¯t do anything that might cause them harm so you don¡¯t need to worry about that. It¡¯s actually super simple, me and Thera do it to hunt all the time. We¡¯ll just use her magic to draw out everything in the forest and attack it. Well, I say we but I have other things to do. Also, I don¡¯t know how you all usually do things, but since this is Sachel¡¯s quest she¡¯s in charge. If I find out she couldn¡¯t complete it because someone else decided to take on the leadership I¡¯m raining down hell.¡± When he said that the mood of the room became significantly more tense and he could see nervous looks forming on everyone¡¯s faces. Well, everyone but Thera, whose face was covered like always but seemed to be getting a fair amount of amusement from the discomfort of the others. Man, am I really that intimidating? Wait, does that mean that gods will curse people or something if their apostle asks? What sort of chaos can you spread if I ever need you to? Hmm, well if they feel threatened and it keeps them in line then I have one less thing to worry about. Relax, I¡¯m far too charming for that. I just won¡¯t correct them about whatever they¡¯re currently thinking. CH147 There were still a few hours of sunlight left in the day so Ben instructed Sachel and her party to collect a variety of large stones for him, not for her quest, but as a way of completing his own while he focused on preparing the room they would be staying in. It was significantly smaller than the living room he¡¯d first tried this enchantment on, to the point it felt more like a storage room that just happened to have a bed, but that meant he¡¯d be able to get it done in a couple hours while Thera focused on moving the items in it around to not disrupt his workflow. Once that was complete they had to focus on the next problem, powering it. In the future, he resolved himself to get a small piece of rainbow mana stone and carry it in his spacial bag with the first aid kit, just in case he¡¯d ever need it like he did now, but until then he¡¯d have to take a different approach with the only thing he had available to him. The first church of Myriad itself, his coat. When he¡¯d first made it all those months ago he¡¯d gone far heavier on the mythril than he¡¯d needed to just for powering the temperature control enchantments that were on it which had always been a small regret of his. It was wasteful and he could have put it to better use, especially considering how annoying it was to repair it each time something damaged it while attacking him, but for now at least he would be able to take advantage of that previous mistake. The metal was able to absorb any surrounding mana to directly power the enchantments placed on it. It couldn¡¯t hold onto the mana to the same extent a crystal could, but it also didn¡¯t need to be prepared in any specific way to extract mana from it either. As long as he connected it to the enchantment he¡¯d made on the room, he¡¯d be able to power it at least a little, giving Thera some time she could remove her cloak without having to worry about others. The enchantment would be weaker overall, but not enough to be an issue so that was a smaller concern. The fact that this enchantment worked at all was something he felt pretty proud for figuring out, though it did have its drawbacks. It didn¡¯t decrease the charm on contact at all, and it only reduced the charm at a distance depending on how much mana was put into the enchantment itself, but it was progress in his goal of understanding how to suppress passive magics. ¡°All done?¡± Thera asked as he put on the finishing touches. ¡°Yep, now for everything else to worry about.¡± Having said that, the two of them had very different immediate worries in their heads. ¡°Um, yeah. So are we splitting the bed?¡± She asked, voicing her personal concern. They¡¯d camped out enough during their hunts together that spending a night together wasn¡¯t an issue, but they¡¯d always split the time into different watches, there was no need to do that now, and while Ben had seen her sleep multiple times, that had always been while he was focused on changing the enchantment on her brace. This was a bit more close-quarters than that, with the options being a bed barely large enough for two people or one of them sleeping on the rough wooden floor. Ben, having given no thought to the matter when he requested the room, left it up to Thera. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter to me. If you¡¯re more comfortable with it I¡¯ll sleep on the ground.¡± ¡°Uhg, I won¡¯t make you do that,¡± She said after a moment''s thought. ¡°It¡¯s not like you¡¯ll try anything anyway.¡± ¡°I¡¯m the picture of manners. Anyway, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be sleeping tonight either way, so worry about that tomorrow. I decided I¡¯m going to make this town love Myriad and by god I¡¯m going to make that happen.¡± She was going to ask just what he was planning when a knock came on the door, which he quickly got up to answer. ¡°We¡¯ve got all your rocks,¡± Ralia said, handing one over while leaving the rest in the hallway. ¡°There¡¯s even more outside if you need it but hopefully this is enough.¡± ¡°This is plenty, thanks,¡± He said, giving them a nod before addressing Sachel beside her. ¡°And just so I don¡¯t do anything wrong, I¡¯m able to cut down trees as long as they aren¡¯t from your sacred forest, right? There¡¯s no issue if I go to some other patch of forest?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, I¡¯d just recommend you don¡¯t go to the woods in the north at all so you avoid making any mistakes. Anything you cut down to the east should be fine.¡± ¡°Excellent, thanks.¡± He wished them all a good night before getting to work. He would be needing some tools to use but didn¡¯t bring anything from the shop since he hadn¡¯t expected to need it, meaning he¡¯d have to get creative. Taking advantage of the destructive properties of enchantment, he worked the rocks down the same way he would to make his statues, slowly creating everything he would need for when he¡¯d begin working to win the townsfolk''s hearts and minds. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. A hammer, a chisel, a file, and a saw. All were necessary for the plans in his head, and he could always make more if need be. The biggest issue was that he didn¡¯t think they would hold up as well as their metal counterparts, but he could work around that. Making use of his earth magic ring, as well as the enchanting spells, harden and strengthen, he enhanced the items to the best of his abilities, sure in himself they wouldn¡¯t break from regular use once he was done. He still had some time left before his next task, so he got to work shaping the rest of the stone the others had already brought up for him, alternating between spinning tops and small, sturdy statues of animals from Earth and some he¡¯d seen from this world that he attached wheels to so they could be rolled around. Without the sort of entertainment he¡¯d had available in his homeworld, he was hopeful that these would prove enjoyable for the few kids in the village. He noticed Thera had fallen asleep by the time he was done and quietly cleaned up a bit before slinking out of the house, trying not to disturb anyone as he went around back and started banging on the door of the shed. It took a few minutes, but Skoe finally came out. ¡°Oh good, you¡¯re awake,¡± Ben said cheerfully, as if he weren¡¯t the reason for that. ¡°I needed someone to carry things for me so come on.¡± Instead of answering, Skoe just looked up at the moon for a few moments. ¡°You know, I couldn¡¯t have been asleep for more than a few hours.¡± ¡°And you can sleep more when we¡¯re done, now chop-chop, we¡¯re burning moonlight. The faster you help me the faster we all get to leave this village.¡± He looked like he wanted to argue at first, but the prospect of getting to leave sooner seemed to appeal to him and he obediently followed Ben out as he left the property and began walking towards the eastern woods. Seeing the other man following him, Ben was more than content to go on in silence as they made their way, but Skoe had other ideas. ¡°So um, wouldn¡¯t it have been fine to just get Thera to help you?¡± He cast a quick look back at the four-armed man, wondering if this was going anywhere as he answered. ¡°Thera takes mage jobs, she doesn¡¯t have any strength bonuses. Since you presumably have at least one or two warrior-type jobs under your belt, given the swords and shields, I¡¯m assuming you must be fairly strong at least.¡± ¡°I am, but I figured you¡¯d rather have someone else around. I don¡¯t exactly get the impression you''re my biggest fan?¡± Ah, so that¡¯s what this is about. ¡°I¡¯d actually consider myself mostly neutral to you. I don¡¯t like you because Thera doesn¡¯t like you, and as far as I can see she¡¯s justified in that, but it won¡¯t keep me from taking advantage of you as a resource if you¡¯re around.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve seen adventurers die before,¡± the man said, anger coming to his voice. ¡°It¡¯s something I¡¯d rather not repeat. Am I supposed to do nothing when I see someone driving someone else insane?¡± ¡°If by ¡®seeing someone drive someone else insane¡¯ you mean, seeing someone harass a new guild member despite being warned of the potential consequences, only to suffer from their own poor choices, then no, I don¡¯t expect you to do nothing, I would expect you to think a bit harder about the side you¡¯re taking.¡± Okay. maybe I¡¯m a little less neutral to the man than I thought. Just thinking about it was pissing him off, but he did his best to suppress it, no need to get in a fight when he still needed to use the guy. It seemed like Skoe wanted to say more, but Ben didn¡¯t care enough to push him and was content to carry on in silence into they made it to the forest''s edge, where he quickly found a suitable branch to act as a handle for the ax head and wedged it in before handing it over. He looked around and found six good trees to use for the meantime, pointing them out to be chopped down and having the branches cut off before moving on to the next one. Once the first one was complete, Ben got to work. He wanted to have the logs ready to use as quickly as possible, which meant drying it out, and since he didn¡¯t have months to wait to get that done he¡¯d have to craft an enchantment to speed it up. Going along the full length of the log, he carefully wove together one making use of fire, water, and air magics, needing to be slow to keep himself from falling mana exhausted and cursing as he went. Even though he could make use of the magics thanks to his connect, his lack of affinity with them mean that even the enchanting cost was surprisingly high and he needed to be careful, though thanks to taking the time to research a variety of magic spells after getting his rings, he at least had a good idea on how to craft enchantments with them without being instantly drained. The fire enchantment he¡¯d put on it was the core of it, heating up the wood enough that any water within would begin evaporating out, while the water enchantment tied to it was to speed up the rate of water loss and wind to gently move the air around the log itself to keep the humidity low. He was feeling pretty pleased with how it¡¯d turned out, and by the time the three more logs were prepared for him he was done with the first one. ¡°Hey, when you¡¯re done with that I¡¯ll need you to start running your mana through that log for me to power my enchantment.¡± ¡°Huh, alright, but I don¡¯t have a huge mana pool.¡± ¡°Oh, how much do you have?¡± He was a little worried, it made sense that a warrior may not need a lot when they¡¯d be focused on using weapons, but he should have known better. ¡°Only low two hundreds so I can¡¯t be too intense with it.¡± ¡°What? You''ll be fine, just regulate your output,¡± He ordered before muttering under his breath. ¡°Only low two hundreds he says as if that isn¡¯t already above what the average non-mage has. I¡¯d kill to say I only have low two hundreds.¡± Feeling he touched a nerve, Skoe went back to getting the next trees cut while Ben focused on constructing his enchantments, and like that the night passed for the men. CH148 Theras perspective Thera woke up alone, not surprised to see that Ben must have gone the entire night without rest working on whatever plan he had to complete his current quest and followed her bind skill to find him. It was early in the morning still, which meant he was in the first place she¡¯d look, even without it. He was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, and for whatever reason, the small dryad child was sitting on his shoulders and hounding him with questions. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Pancakes, it¡¯s a breakfast from my homeland.¡± ¡°Why aren¡¯t we having frattles?¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ve never had a frattle, but I¡¯ll see if your mom¡¯ll teach me later so I can make them tomorrow if you want?¡± ¡°Yes please, they¡¯re the best!¡± ¡°Ha, alright, you got it kiddo.¡± ¡°Hey mister apostle?¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Why do you look so weird?¡± ¡°I promise I look very normal for my species.¡± ¡°But you¡¯re not green and you don¡¯t have boobs!¡± ¡°Haha, what? Not everyone has boobs, you know? Or¡¯s green for that matter.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see, I¡¯m going to leave that as something you should ask your mom, okay?¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Cute. Thera wasn¡¯t used to being around small children, but it was adorable seeing the young girl so full of questions and energy, and there was a certain charm to how patiently Ben was talking to her as he worked, despite his hair being pulled and his chest kicked as she swung her legs. She watched their exchange for a little while longer until Fontesh came into the kitchen. ¡°Delair, if you¡¯re going to make him carry you then at the very least don¡¯t kick him while he¡¯s doing it.¡± ¡°Sorry mom. Why doesn¡¯t he have boobs?¡± ¡°Uuh, I¡¯ll tell you a bit after breakfast, okay hun?¡± ¡°Okay!¡± ¡°Thanks for putting up with her,¡± She told Ben, ¡°I know she can be a little energetic.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Food will be ready soon if you want to wake the others? Oh, but Skoe¡¯s only been asleep for two hours so maybe leave him to rest.¡± Fontesh agreed and went down to the basement while Delair continued to play with his hair, while Thera walked up beside him. ¡°You¡¯re good with kids.¡± ¡°It was only a couple years ago my brother was her age, I¡¯m used to it.¡± She saw the look in his eyes and cursed herself for asking, it should have been obvious given what she knew about him, but even if he¡¯d answered Ben always got a little bit sad when he¡¯d think of his family. She could see it in his eyes before he¡¯d try to push it away, and she was never good at knowing what to say when it happened. Thankfully Delair changed the topic, but the new one wasn¡¯t much better. ¡°Why are you dressed like that?¡± She was asked in a voice filled with childlike innocence and left having no idea how to answer the question. The honest explanation was a bit complicated to tell a child, but it also wasn¡¯t something she should brush off or lie about. Luckily, after a moment of silence where she struggled to figure out what to say, Ben saw what was going on and gave one himself. ¡°You see, Thera¡¯s a super pretty girl under there, so she has to hide away or else everyone would fall in love with her.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that good though?¡± ¡°It might seem like it would be, but she wants to be appreciated for her personality instead, so she has to hide away her looks.¡± The young girl was now staring at her, wide-eyed and full of wonder. ¡°Can I see?¡± ¡°Um, maybe later,¡± She said, awkwardly deferring it. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll make you a magic necklace so it won¡¯t cause any issue, you¡¯ll just have to wait a bit, okay?¡± ¡°Okay!¡± The girl seemed satisfied for the meantime and went back to kicking Ben''s chest, already forgetting what her mom had told her as Thera quietly whispered to Ben so she wouldn¡¯t hear. ¡°Was that the best you could come up with?¡± The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°It¡¯s basically the truth, I just phrased it so she¡¯d understand.¡± ¡°Well, I guess it got the idea across,¡± Still, how am I so bad with children? Ben made it look so easy. They continued to chat for a little longer until everyone but Skoe was there and Ben served the pancakes and a fruit sauce he¡¯d made, a meal she¡¯d had a few times now thanks to living with him but was a novelty for everyone else eating it, especially Delair who seemed instantly taken with the dish and as she devoured it while Ben outlined his plan for the day. ¡°So like I said before, I won¡¯t be able to give you guys much help from here. I need to find materials to make resistance amulets for everyone and other than that I need to figure out some work around the town. Speaking of, Fontesh, I couldn¡¯t help but notice the enchantment on your cold box isn¡¯t the greatest. If you¡¯re willing I could redo it so the mana cost is lower, or remake it to take just as much but have a time aspect added to slightly slow the span of time within it.¡± ¡°You could do that?¡± She asked in shock, and seeing the seriousness in his eyes was quick to agree. ¡°If you¡¯re willing then adding the time effect would be fanatic, thank you so much!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I can look over your other enchanted items as well to see if I could make any improvements if you¡¯d like. Also, I couldn¡¯t help but notice the fence around your home and the house itself is broken down in some places, please allow me to fix it for you.¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t possibly put an apostle to work like that,¡± She said in a hurry. ¡°Improving the cold box is already more than enough for giving you a room for a while.¡± ¡°Please, don¡¯t worry about that,¡± He told her as Thera watched him throw on a smile and growing wise to what he was doing. ¡°I¡¯m both a craftsman and an enchanter by trade, and as an apostle it¡¯s my duty to help people. Since I¡¯ll be here for as long as it takes Sachel to complete her quest but can¡¯t do more for her than I already have, I might as well do what I can for the village. Speaking of, I think I should be able to finish anything the house needs today, please let the others in the village know my offer. I get the impression they aren¡¯t used to outsiders, but I¡¯d like to do what I can.¡± Fontesh looked touched and Sachel¡¯s eyes were sparkling seeing the apostle of the god she worshiped wanting to help her village so badly, even Ralia seemed impressed, but Thera could immediately tell what the point of all of this was. So that¡¯s why he¡¯s being so open about being an apostle, he doesn¡¯t want all these good deeds to be attributed to Ben, but to the apostle of Myriad. She didn¡¯t doubt he was fine with doing all of this to help the village, though he was probably putting a bit more effort in than he otherwise would since he was specifically trying to make his god look good. Still, it was probably a good idea to try and get the village to warm up to them a bit regardless, even if he was being over the top about it. In the face of that offer though Fontesh couldn¡¯t help but agree. They were all aware of the state of the village, and having a competent craftsman to try and fix it up would be a blessing. All that was left was whatever she would do, an issue that was quickly resolved by Sachel. ¡°I was thinking I could show you where we¡¯ll have to be hunting if that¡¯s alright with you?¡± She asked. The half-dryad was trying to be polite, knowing full well that while she had never acted as blatantly antagonistic as Skoe, they weren¡¯t exactly on the best footing either, but she agreed easily enough. After all, she¡¯d already told Ben she¡¯d work with them, there was no reason to back out now just because she didn¡¯t like them.
¡°So this is the edge of the forest,¡± Sachel said after their hike to it. The trees she was pointing to were a far more vibrant shade of green, though there were trees from the surrounding woods mixed in as well. ¡°Damaging them is a far greater offense than just entering the woods for outsiders, so we won¡¯t be able to use your magic at all, but if you can draw the frost bats out then we can handle the rest.¡± ¡°Since I¡¯ve last worked with you I¡¯ve gained the zeroth level in both dark and life magic, as well as telekinesis if that helps with your planning, though the last one isn¡¯t much use in battle.¡± Since she was going to be working with them for at least a few days, she knew that sharing the improvements to her magic skills was for the best, even if it felt a bit too open. Sachel seemed surprised by her situation to have changed so much in the past year when she could only use earth magic at a low level, and Ralia looked at her with approval. ¡°What led you to learning so many branches of magic?¡± The naga woman asked curiously. ¡°You seemed pretty obsessed with your earth magic before.¡± ¡°That hasn¡¯t changed. I was told that people in my situation where the difference between their power and control is so great can increase their control by getting a broader range of magics, with each one increasing the wielder''s overall abilities as well. I¡¯ve been seeing decent results from it, but my affinities won¡¯t let me learn any more and I was only able to get the one non-affinited one by luck, so for now I just need to work on improving them,¡± Specifically improving life magic and telekinesis. She would use her dark magic when she needed to, but given how many she now had access to there was no need to push it while Ben was making progress improving her resistance brace. ¡°Oh cool, and that gives us a few more options for dealing with them once they leave the woods so that¡¯s great!¡± Sachel said enthusiastically. ¡°For now let¡¯s just survey the area around the woods to figure out the best way to go at it and regroup at Fotesh¡¯s after.¡± With Sachel taking the lead they walked around the area, trying to judge the best place to stage their attack while at the same time noticing a few other dryads watching them from a distance. It was obvious they were there to keep an eye on them to make sure they didn¡¯t break the rules, but if they were going to insist on staying in the area then Thera was going to have to make a note to herself to ask Ben to prepare even more resistance amulets. She couldn¡¯t very well avoid going into the forest only to break the law by attacking the minds of bystanders, even if it was unintentional. Sachel noticed them off in the distance as well and her mood noticeably fell. It wasn¡¯t hard to see why, this was her home village, presumably where she¡¯d grown up, and now because she¡¯d changed her faith she was an outsider. It was already up in the air how she¡¯d been treated here, given that it looked like she was the only halfbreed in the village, but the fact that she¡¯d come back to try and help for her quest indicated that it couldn¡¯t have been bad, despite the way she and Ben had been avoided when they arrived. Ralia picked up on her companion¡¯s mood, and while not changing the topic to a more cheerful distraction, asked something that had been on her mind. ¡°So Thera, I wanted to ask about what happened with your friend and Elder Hentath. He seemed¡­ more angry on Sachel¡¯s behalf than I would expect.¡± ¡°True, as nice as it was that he tried to help me with grandmother, it was a little surprising.¡± She made a face under her hood, having an idea as to why he was so angry, but not sure if it was her place to say. Still, it might be better to give them some clue than to let them bother Ben about it when he already had so much he wanted to do. ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a personal subject to him so don¡¯t go bothering him about it, but Ben isn¡¯t able to see his family again, no matter how much he wants to. I think he was just angry to hear yours talk to you like that.¡± The answer caught the other two women off guard and if anything the atmosphere of the group got worse. Great, can only go up from here. She thought sarcastically to herself, all the while wishing she could just work with Ben like usual to deal with this. CH149 After the girls had left to work on figuring out how they would get rid of the frost bats, Ben began his own goal, earning Myriad faith amongst the town. It started out easy enough, Fontesh showed him all of the enchanted items she possessed, which wasn¡¯t too many. The cold box for storing food, a water jug for collecting water from the air, a stove for cooking, and a few simple lights. None of the enchantments on the ones she owned were overly complicated and Ben was able to improve them all. It looked like they had all been produced with lower levels of magic than he was capable of enchanting with, so he was able to get them all working better while being more mana efficient in only a little over an hour. The problem came when he wanted to start repairs on the house and asked about a resource he was certain would be available, given that all of the houses seemed to be made out of wood. ¡°Wait, what do you mean there isn¡¯t any oil in the village?¡± He asked, shocked. ¡°We all have some around for cooking of course, but the quantities you¡¯re looking for just aren¡¯t something we can manage. Why is it so important?¡± Ben could only groan. He suddenly understood why the village was so beaten down. The entire place was rotting. The wood the houses had been made from hadn¡¯t been treated beyond just charring it. Sure, that would help to increase the lifespan, but that was no substitute for properly sealing it all. He had to wonder if that meant that the villagers had made their homes themselves without properly understanding how to do it, or if they¡¯d been ripped off when they hired someone from outside, but that didn¡¯t matter. All that meant was his workload had just drastically increased. Or did it? He was in a village full of plant mages after all, maybe they¡¯d be able to do something about it. ¡°Hey, this is a random question, but I don¡¯t suppose you could stimulate a tree to yield its sap or extract the oil from some seeds?¡± ¡°Um, it might be possible, but if it is I¡¯m not sure how. We typically use our magic to speed up the growth of a plant or to increase the yield of our crops. I could probably make a tree grow more seeds if that would help?¡± ¡°It would be great if you could do that! Considering that it sounds like your house hasn¡¯t been treated at all, I¡¯ll need a lot. Would you be free to go to the woods now?¡± ¡°Alright, since I¡¯ve already tended to my garden and the sacred forest is off-limits for the time being I¡¯ve nothing else to do during the day. I¡¯ll just be a minute to find Delair.¡± ¡°Cool, pretty sure my worker has had enough time to sleep so I¡¯ll grab him and meet you out front.¡± He made a pitstop to the room to empty out his bag before running to the back of the house to bang on the shed door. It took a few minutes, but eventually a groggy Skoe answered and looked up at the sun. ¡°I could only have been asleep for a handful of hours.¡± ¡°And I haven¡¯t slept at all, don¡¯t be a baby. I need to collect some more things from the woods so I need your help. The sooner this is done the better off Sachel will be.¡± Helping me create a favourable evaluation of you in town will probably be good for her too, now hush I¡¯m not losing my free labour. <...> The man groaned but gave in, taking only a single one of his swords and strapping it to his hip before they met up with the other two. Delair seemed to be filled with energy at the idea of the little outing and immediately tried to climb Ben. Fontesh apologised while trying to keep her daughter under control, but he just laughed it off and placed the kid on his shoulders as they went off to the woods. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
When they got there Fontesh took Delair off his hands and brought her to a nearby tree she knew they could get seeds that could be used for lantern oil if anything went wrong with their enchanted lights and started stimulating them to grow, training her daughter in the magic at the same time. Ben handed them his spacial bag so they could fill it as they went and took Skoe around, trying to find any good fatwood to extract tar from to act as a sealant, as well as for any shingling that might need to be done. He took his ax and went up to trees with dead, low-hanging branches and scraped away at the bark until he found what he was looking for and pointed it out to Skoe. ¡°Here, see how the wood here is darker? Cut away every branch like this you can find. We¡¯re going to need a bunch,¡± They needed branches rich in tree resin so they could extract it for their waterproofing, and they would need a lot. Given that there were almost thirty houses in the village, if he was going to be getting every one of them done, he¡¯d have a lot of work to do. ¡°How many is a bunch?¡± ¡°Just keep getting them until I say to stop,¡± At that his four-armed companion made a face, but he was having none of it. ¡°And no complaining allowed, this is infinitely easier than what I¡¯m going to have to do.¡± He handed over the ax and got to work on his own task, making even more tools he would need from any large enough stones he could find. Unfortunately, this time he wasn¡¯t so lucky as to be making something simple like a hammer or an ax. With only the destructive power of his enchanting, as well as the hammer and chisel he¡¯d made the previous night, he was going to have to slowly chip away at rock to make both a sealable container to produce tar, as well as an oil press. Once he found the first rock big enough for what he needed, he took a seat on it and closed his eyes, mapping out how he was going to go about it in his head. It would take a while and he¡¯d have to be careful to avoid any mistakes that would need him to start over, but it was possible. Starting with the sealed container, he used his enchanting to selectively weaken areas of the rock he was at, shaping it to be a more uniform cylinder while being careful to leave two sturdy handholds on the sides. From there, the next task was to hallow it out, turning it into a large pot the wood could be put in. This too wasn¡¯t so hard to accomplish, with the greatest difficulty being to maintain the mana running through the stone chisel he¡¯d made to keep it from breaking. While not hard to do as it didn¡¯t require a lot of care, it was still slow. By the time he was done that, the pot was almost complete. All that was left was creating small holes in the bottom for any tar to flow through, as well as creating a bowl to catch it and a lid that would be reasonably airtight. The bowl was easy enough, he just found another large stone and began shaping it the same way he¡¯d done before, taking more care to create a lip for the first container to sit on. It was the lid that would be slightly more difficult. He could simply try to create a lip at the top of the pot for a lid to sit on and cake it with mud to keep it airtight, but he was worried that wouldn''t be good enough, especially since he¡¯d never made anything like this before. Instead, he carefully cut a spiraled channel into the rim, while cutting the lid to match so both pieces would screw together. He¡¯d still cake it with mud when he was using it to be sure, but he was confident it would get the job done. With that complete, it was on to the oil press. His immediate issue was that he only had a rough idea on how to put one together, which might impact his overall yield, but there was nothing he could do for that. He¡¯d already asked Fontesh if the village had one he could use, but it seemed any time they wanted oil they simply did it by hand. He couldn¡¯t help at marvel at how vastly different the lifestyles could be in the world, from how advanced Anailia was with its abundance of magic materials, to his regular lifestyle in Stonewall, which while lacking compared to his life on Earth hadn¡¯t been so bad as a whole, to this. He was sure if the dryads weren¡¯t so cold to outsiders then their overall standard of living would improve, but there was nothing he could do to change how they lived and instead he got to work on the press. The design for this one was simple, though he¡¯d have to make it all in one piece. It came down to making a pot with a small hole in the side where any oil obtained would be squeezed out, but at the top of it there would need to be a thick bar with a threaded insert for a screw-like bar to be. The challenge was that the bar needed a handle at the top for twisting, with a base that would go into the pot, matching its diameter, meaning the entire thing would need to be made from the same piece of stone without taking anything apart. By the time he was done he felt mentally exhausted despite having three minds available to him, but his work was far from over yet. With tools complete he looked to the others with him. Fontesh and Delair had almost filled the entire cubic meter of space the spacial bag provided, and Skoe had assembled a large pile of usable sticks. All that was left was getting it all back so he could get everything started. CH150 Oh my god, I miss the shop so much. Having all the resources I need at my fingertips is a blessing that I¡¯m a fool for taking for granted. Am I? I¡¯m going to be at this for hours! When they got back while carrying the pot for collecting tar as well as the press and the spacial bag filled with seeds, Ben quickly sent Skoe back to get the rest of the sticks he¡¯d gathered while Fontesh went to ask her friends and neighbours if any of them wanted their enchanted items improved. In the meantime Ben got to work to collect the tar from what he had on hand, digging a small hole for the pot it would drain into to sit in and placing the container filled with sticks on top, caking the lid with mud before lighting a fire around it. Once that was started, all there was to do was wait until they had the finished products, the tar he was looking for and charcoal as a side product he could give to the village for use. While that was going through he set up the oil press, placing another container under it to catch any of the oil he managed to produce and filled the main chamber with some of the many seeds they¡¯d collected. He wasn¡¯t sure how much it would take to get enough oil for not only treating all the houses in the village, but also their fences and anything else they¡¯d need, but the two dryads had gone above and beyond in collecting it all. At the very least, it would be a good start. He grabbed onto the handle and began twisting, applying force and assuming it works, breaking down the seeds and extracting the oils within. Even if his strength had cracked the top end of average and the screw-like design was to reduce the amount of effort that was needed, it was still going to take ages. He worked at it for an hour squeezing out a trickle of oil, as well as more water than he hoped would be present, by the time Skoe was done running back and forth bringing all of the sticks he¡¯d gathered. ¡°Oh thank god, take over will you?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Come on, you¡¯re a warrior, you definitely have the strength to make this easy. There¡¯s plenty of other stuff I need to do as a craftsman to help the village. Think of this as earning your keep since you¡¯re staying here for free.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sleeping in a shed!¡± ¡°Yes, instead of outside. Plus you got blankets to keep you warm. If you do it for a few hours you can get back to sleep. Maybe mind the fire too so nothing goes out of control.¡± The warrior backed down before Ben did, and with a sigh took over at the press, immediately having more success than Ben had as more liquid began pouring from the tool. As Skoe got to that, Ben took the time to examine the fence and the house, figuring out just how much just how much wood it was going to take to fix both. Luckily, while the house had plenty of areas of visible rot and decay he was confident that the wood was thick enough that he could scrap it away without risking the house''s integrity and apply the sealant. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but short of rebuilding the house it was the best he was going to do to fix the place up. When he¡¯d completed his little inspection he went back to the front of the house and found Fontesh had come back with four other dryads. Stolen novel; please report. Seeing he¡¯d have some work he put on his best smile as he walked up to them. ¡°Hello there!¡± He called out cheerfully. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard from Fontesh, but I¡¯m the apostle of the god Myriad, since it seems like I¡¯ll be here for a week or two I was looking to improve the enchantments of any items you have, as well as help with any maintenance around if you need it.¡± Three of them were immediately nervous of him, but the fourth seemed prepared to engage. ¡°We¡¯ve been told. We brought our lights, but these aren¡¯t cheap, are you prepared to compensate us if you break them?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± He said confidently, not in the slightest concerned. ¡°I won¡¯t even touch them if I don¡¯t think I can improve the enchantments on them, but if I do and mess up then I¡¯ll pay to have them replaced immediately.¡± She looked to Fontesh who gave her a nod before cautiously handing over the one she carried with her. He took it, not making any sudden moves since they all seemed uncomfortable with him and gave it a lookover. From his experience he was certain it was no more than a third level light enchantment, and a clumsy one at that. It seemed like a partial enchantment had been attempted, but it was still so much bigger than it needed to be, he was positive the mana cost could be cut in half at least so he got to work unraveling the current one to replace with his own. The women stood by to watch curiously, but if they didn¡¯t have a decent mana sense that could pick up on his way of using it then it would only look like he¡¯d been staring at the tool for a few minutes before handing it back. ¡°All done.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± He was asked suspiciously, but he just indicated that she should test it for herself. The dryad looked hesitant but began pouring her mana into it to power the enchantment and her eyes widened at the glow. While it had previously been only good enough to leave a room in dim light, it was now positively radiant, and she could feel it had taken far less of her mana to power it. The other three seemed just as impressed, and with less hesitation handed their own over one after the other. He was able to get them done in quick order and finished with a smile, trying to keep showing off a friendly attitude the entire time to put them all at ease. It wasn¡¯t like he would be rude to them if he wasn¡¯t trying to make his god look good, but with how uncomfortable they seemed he might normally come off as more put off by the interaction as well. Still, he needed to tear down whatever sort of emotional barriers the people of the village had to earn some faith for his god. ¡°Since I got all that done rather quickly, would any of you like me to see if I can improve the enchantments on any of your other items?¡± He got the impression they were interested but hesitant, so he gave it one last push. ¡°Of course, I understand you might not be comfortable having a stranger come into your home. Fontesh, would you be willing to join us to put your friends'' minds at ease?¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯m sure Delair will be fine for a bit, but what about everything you have going on?¡± She asked, looking at the fire he had going and Skoe pressing oil. ¡°It will be fine, Skoe knows what to do and he¡¯ll put the fire out if anything starts looking out of hand. If I¡¯m gone for a few hours he¡¯ll manage.¡± Her concerns covered, they made their way from one house to another, each time Ben examined the enchantments available and redid them when he thought necessary, occasionally adding different effects as well if the owners approved, such as when he¡¯d added the time enchantment to Fontesh¡¯s cold box. It took a few hours and by the time he left each house he felt the residents warmed up to him a bit, but there was still a distance he couldn¡¯t escape no matter how friendly he was. Instead of just accepting it, he decided to seek some answers from the only dryad who didn¡¯t seem bothered by him or the others. ¡°So what does this village have against outsiders anyway?¡± ¡°Hmm? I would think any dryad would be cautious of outsiders, from this village or not.¡± ¡°Okay cool, but why?¡± Instead of answering she just chuckled and gave a question of her own. ¡°You¡¯re rather ignorant of history, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m ignorant about a lot of things when it comes to this world, mind making things easy and just filling me in?¡± ¡°Sure, it¡¯s probably better if you know if you¡¯re going to be here for a while. Centuries ago, my species and our forests were almost hunted to extinction to be used for parts.¡± CH151 His mind immediately flashed to when he¡¯d heard about it in Anailia. He hadn¡¯t known what races had been hunted, but things suddenly made a fair bit more sense around the village. ¡°Okay, I can see why that would give you some stranger-danger.¡± ¡°Well, there were around a dozen races that suffered from that sort of thing but we probably suffered the most for it. The world is large after all, and we mostly keep to ourselves. Even if a village of us was left alone, if our forests were destroyed then there¡¯d be no more children being born, and even if any survivors put out searches for other villages there was always the fear that death and destruction would follow them so many hid away, leaving any stray survivors to a long, lonely death.¡± ¡°Joining a different community wasn¡¯t an option? There are plenty of mixed towns and cities out there. I get it can¡¯t make up for what was lost, but wouldn¡¯t it be better than being alone?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure there are plenty who did, but for others¡­ Well, would you want to risk the chance of living among the same group that hunted your people? Not to mention that they¡¯d have to live in fear of word about their race and location getting out, even if they did find a safe community.¡± ¡°Mmh, alright I get what you¡¯re saying. But your village isn¡¯t exactly hidden, are you all okay with that?¡± She only shrugged. ¡°Once the gods became aware of what was happening they exerted their influence in a big way. From what I understand apostles were mobilized and templars were sent to rain chaos on the people responsible. Entire cities were burned to the ground if enough people were found to be involved, it left the survivors the chance to be open enough to find each other, but the history and fear still remain, not to mention the occasional rumours of dryads or members of other hunted races disappearing. Our bodies are still useful in alchemy and as materials after all, since the gods aren¡¯t all-knowing there will always be some people who are willing to take the risk to get their hands on us. It makes you cautious of outsiders.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t seem too worried letting a bunch in your house though?¡± ¡°My cousin vouches for you so you¡¯re probably fine. Besides, we deal with merchants and I¡¯ve known other non-dryads before. Sachel''s father even lived in the village for years before he passed.¡± So they¡¯re cousins huh? But aside from that, if this village already had a non-dryad living in it you¡¯d think things wouldn¡¯t be this bad. He¡¯d never given much thought to the other half of Sachel¡¯s heritage, he¡¯d always been focused on the part that might aid him in his task of finding Myriad more followers, and aside from the horns on her head, there was nothing else to indicate what paternal race was that he could see. Her dryad heritage seemed to run strong except for the fact that she wasn¡¯t born with the plant magic she desired. ¡°So are both of her parents¡­¡± ¡°Yes, when she was a child. Before she decided she wanted to be an adventurer and see some more of the world she lived with our grandmother.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°And Hentath¡¯s willing to cut her off, just for changing her faith?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to say our god is more important to us than any other race, but when my ancestors were being hunted there were two things they could believe in, other dryads and Jagal. It¡¯s something that strengthens the connection between all of us, makes us a community. I don¡¯t think grandmother was correct to act as she did, but as a change, it must be hard for her.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it being hard justifies the way she acted, but fine. Thanks for telling me at least.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the least I can do given how hard you¡¯re trying to help the village. I¡¯m sure if you keep it up the others will open up.¡± They continued walking back to Fontesh¡¯s house as Ben focused on his thoughts. If all of the discomfort he was seeing from his presence stemmed from the fact that they feared for their safety then he might have a lot of work ahead of him. He sighed knowing things could never just be easy as he went to check on Skoe. At the very least the man had been making good progress with collecting oil, even if he did seem exhausted. With a jug collected, he¡¯d just need to test to see if it would even work for what he wanted, and with that in mind he took his hammer, chisel, and ax and went to one of the trees they¡¯d prepared the previous day. He¡¯d need a brush to apply it and maybe he¡¯d be able to make something better later, but for the time being he carved out the general shape from a chunk of the dried wood, and every so carefully split the top of it, separating each of the wood fibers from the others the best he could without splitting them from the handle. With that compete he cut off another small chunk of wood and brushed it down with the oil before leaving it to sit. It was important to test that it would actually be able to both dry in a reasonable amount of time, as well as provide any benefits to waterproofing, but since it wouldn¡¯t happen instantly he went off to try and find a suitable material to make resistance amulets out of. A plain rock wouldn¡¯t be good enough to hold the enchantment unless it was unreasonably large, and at that point nobody would want to wear it around their neck. The best material he thought he¡¯d find around was a good quality animal bone. He tried to ask Fontesh, but it seemed the village didn¡¯t do much hunting, their diet consisting mostly of the plants they grew, so there weren¡¯t any old bones laying around he could conveniently make use of. He could potentially wait until they hunted a single frost bat, but that would mean he couldn¡¯t make them until at least tomorrow, and he didn¡¯t want to wait, so he went to the forest once again to see if there was anything he could scavenge. Even though there weren''t any particularly large or dangerous animals in the forest, except for the current target of extermination, there was bound to be something. Some prey that had been taken down for food, a predator that had succumbed to age or tried to bite off more than it could chew, he¡¯d just have to find enough to make use of. He looked high and low, kicking up leaves and looking for borrows, but after over an hour of searching not a single bone could be found, though an alternative did manage to present itself. A boulder of quartz, glittering in the sunlight that filtered through the forest trees. Crystal seemed to be pretty good at holding enchantments in his experience, and there was more than enough to make everyone an amulet. He hadn¡¯t brought any tools with him since it wasn¡¯t what he¡¯d been looking for, so he had to carefully chip away a large chunk through his enchanting, getting a rock the size of two fists and carrying it back to shape into a more usable form, missing all of the proper tools he had at the shop the entire time. CH152 ¡°Uh, what¡¯s going on here?¡± Thera asked as she and the other two women returned in the evening to find seemingly the entirety of the village''s young children in the yard and tugging at Ben, with Delair being the most demanding of his attention. ¡°Remember all those toys I made last night? Well, I gave them to Delair and told her to share them with her friends, and when they came to say thanks they just stuck around after.¡± With the kids came their mothers, each less than willing to let outsiders have unsupervised access to the village youth, even if Fontesh was around. More positive though was the fact that a few of them had heard about his enchanting for the others. Even if they weren''t willing to trust him, they¡¯d brought some of the more portable items they¡¯d had to be improved on, giving Ben something to do aside from just trying to entertain a bunch of kids. When Delair saw them all return, she quickly ran to Thera, proudly pointing to a new necklace she hadn¡¯t worn before. ¡°Can I see now?¡± The child asked, filled with curiosity. ¡°Um, later when there¡¯s less people around, everyone needs to wear one after all.¡± ¡°Alright, promise?¡± ¡°Sure I promise,¡± She¡¯d been hoping the young girl would have forgotten, but if she had to entertain her later for a bit it wasn¡¯t the biggest deal. ¡°Did you make any extras Ben? It seems like we¡¯re going to be watched a bit while we deal with this and I¡¯d rather not affect any bystanders.¡± ¡°I made two more to be safe and can make more if need be.¡± ¡°Hopefully that¡¯s enough. How did the rest of the day go? It doesn¡¯t look like you ended up doing any repairs to the house,¡± That wasn¡¯t to mention the mysterious stone pot he had boiling, as well as whatever machine Skoe was twisting off to the side while looking exhausted, but she chose to ignore those, even if Sachel and Ralia went to check on their teammate. Ben made a face at the question. ¡°The village had none of the things I needed, so not only did I have to make some tools, but also the tools to make tools without any of the things I¡¯m used to. I¡¯m basically living in the stone age trying to get everything I want to done, I¡¯d kill for a bit of metal to work with.¡± ¡°Then were you able to get everything you need?¡± ¡°Mostly I think. I¡¯ll be able to make enough oil and tar to treat all of the houses, but I won¡¯t be surprised if anything else comes up. I¡¯ll also be borrowing Skoe to act as my seed-grinder for¡­ well whenever I need him, but I¡¯ll talk to Sachel about that later. How about you, think you¡¯ll be able to manage with them?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll see, I haven¡¯t seen a frost bat before, but I¡¯m fairly sure that we¡¯ll be able to draw them out, I¡¯m just not sure how hunting will go. I can¡¯t use any earth magic without risking damaging the forest.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve done some hunting with them before I showed up, right? Think they¡¯ll be able to deal with them?¡± ¡°Probably? Since it sounds like they¡¯re most active during the evening and night we decided to come back to eat and see if you had the amulets ready and then head back out.¡± ¡°Cool, in that case maybe I¡¯ll come watch. It would be nice if I could make use of the bodies if there were no other plans for them.¡± They chatted some more about everything that needed to be done until Fontesh called for dinner. The various children hanging around went home with their mothers while the rest of them went in to eat. It was a simple meal made up of many of the vegetables in the garden, but since they were all varieties Ben hadn¡¯t previously tried it was a nice change. Thera couldn¡¯t relax for the meal though, the curious pair of eyes that seemed to want to bore into her soul didn¡¯t leave her as they ate, and once they were done Delair finally asked. ¡°Can I see now?¡± ¡°Alright, as long as everyone puts on their amulets I guess let¡¯s get this over with.¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Hmm? What¡¯s going on?¡± Sachel, questioned, not having been around for the younger dryad''s previous questions about Thera. ¡°She wanted to know what Thera looked like under her hood,¡± He explained as he handed out resistance amulets to each of them. ¡°I assume you all know how to channel a bit of your mana through a magic tool?¡± Everyone gave a nod as they put them on and eagerly waited to see what she looked like. Sachel¡¯s group was especially curious. Along with the more negative rumours that would go around about her in Stonewall, there was also a curiosity as well about the mysterious and dangerous girl that had an unusual passive magic. She wasn¡¯t used to having so many eyes on her, and the only time so many people she wasn¡¯t particularly close to had gotten to see what she¡¯d looked like was on her birthday with the restaurant staff who were at least being professional and not openly gawking, but since they¡¯d be getting a look anyway as she hunted it was probably better to get this over with early so without putting it off any longer she lowered her hood. She felt her cheeks warm and took comfort in the fact that only Ben would realise her face sparkling in the light meant she was embarrassed, even as she swore to herself that he¡¯d be doing something for her to ease just how much of a bother it was going to be to help Sachel¡¯s party. He was obviously getting a little kick seeing her so flustered as Delair gave voice to her own impression of Thera¡¯s reveal. ¡°Wow, you¡¯re so shiny!¡± ¡°Um, thanks?¡± ¡°And as pretty as Mr. Apostle said!¡± ¡°You¡¯re very pretty too,¡± She told the girl while pulling her hood back over her face. Just why was knowing how to talk to a child so hard? She felt that everyone¡¯s eyes were still on her so she wanted a new subject to focus on. ¡°Anyway, isn¡¯t it about time we go for the hunt?¡± It was getting late enough that it was probably a good time to start walking to the woods and except for Fontesh and Delair, both of whom needed sleep, everyone else got ready to go when Ben called over to Skoe. ¡°Actually, if you could do a few more hours of collecting oil and tar, that would be great.¡±
When they got to the sacred woods they found the dryad keeping watch and handed them a resistance amulet, explaining what they were doing and checking to be sure there weren¡¯t any others around that might be affected before Thera removed her cloak. They¡¯d brought a couple magic lanterns so they¡¯d be able to see and fight anything making their way out of the woods, but Thera had a more personal problem she¡¯d slowly been growing accustomed to during their hunts together. Her charm wasn¡¯t targeted, which meant that everything was drawn to her, even bugs. Luckily, she did have practice dealing with it. It hadn¡¯t been too bad in Stonewall, at least not at the current time of year, but by the dryad village it was a nightmare as a cloud of them made their way to her. ¡°All of you stand back a bit if you don¡¯t want to be hurt too,¡± She warned the others, shooing Ralia and Sachel back farther than Ben when they tried to stand with him. They didn¡¯t have his resistances so they needed to act with more care. Inspired by the way Ben would use his connect to act as a bug killer, she took advantage of her overwhelming mana and poor control to do something similar, letting out waves of life mana to play havoc with the small creature¡¯s bodies in a way that quickly resulted in their death, causing them to plummet to the ground after getting too close. It was incredibly easy for her to do too, instead of needing to put all of her focus into making her life spells as harmless as possible, she instead just released it without worry. It still wasn¡¯t a good idea for her to practice the magic on anyone other than Ben, but if it was being used as an attack then it was fine. One thing was strange though that bothered Ben the moment he gave it a bit of thought. ¡°Why isn¡¯t anything else coming?¡± He asked, referring to any potential other small creatures that might live in the area, flying or otherwise. It was a forest after all, and unlike the one by Stonewall that was essentially the edge of the untamed lands, where the mix of life from hundreds of worlds had gotten into and made their home, creating a constantly shifting and changing ecosystem, the woods the dryads sacred forest was in should have been fairly separate, leaving life within it marginally more stable with the exception of the occasional new species appearing like the one they were currently trying to deal with. That same species ended up being the answer to his question. ¡°For the most part, eaten I¡¯d bet,¡± Ralia answered. ¡°Frost bats are omnivores, but preferential carnivores, they likely took out the majority of other creatures in the area before moving onto the trees. It¡¯s probably caused the current insect problem as well.¡± ¡°God this planet''s ecosystem is a nightmare,¡± He muttered, too quiet for the women to hear. ¡°I mean, it managed for thousands of years of alien species being introduced, but we won¡¯t win the war just to experience total ecosystem collapse, will we?¡± ¡°Wait I wasn¡¯t being serious but now I want an answer.¡± <...> ¡°Myriad, don¡¯t you hold out on me here!¡± ¡°Um, is everything okay Ben?¡± Sachel asked, and he realized all eyes had turned to him as he got a bit louder than intended. ¡°No, but I¡¯ll probably be dead before it matters so I¡¯m going to try to not think about it too hard.¡± Not the most cheerful answer in the world, but it was clear that much like his god he wasn¡¯t going to explain more and they were all happy to drop it. CH153 Minutes after the mildly concerning exchange with his god, their target finally started to appear and Ben moved back to watch how the fight would go. He knew Sachel had life, water, and earth magic since her goal was to eventually awaken them to plant magic, which meant that she and Thera had a fair bit of overlap in skills at the moment so how they¡¯d work together wasn¡¯t clear, while Ralia¡¯s role in the party was still a mystery to him. She didn¡¯t have a weapon so perhaps she was also a mage? He would learn soon enough. Eight frost bats came out of the woods, far larger than he¡¯d expected with a wingspan of almost two meters, and both mages pulled out their staves to face them. Thera was their target after becoming victims of her charm, but she was well aware of that. Unfortunately, unlike what she¡¯d usually do, fighting them with her earth magic wasn¡¯t an option for fear of damaging not only any of the trees behind the bats but also the dense root system beneath them. Dark also failed as an option. Since using it meant actively removing the charm from her mana before she could cast a spell it would take too long, and even then the ones she knew for it were limited. The chances of shadow fog or more intuitive ones like fear being able to defeat them being unlikely. The bats were already nocturnal, and fear would only counter the draw of charm, driving them back to the forest. That left her with a single means of attack, the same one she¡¯d used to deal with the bugs that filled the forest; overwhelming life mana. She didn¡¯t just release it all around her as she¡¯d done before though, instead directing it with her staff, sending a powerful wave of it towards the monsters that were flying towards her. They visibly reacted to the assault, their momentum slowing for a moment and one briefly falling from the air before collecting itself, but it mostly served as a stun. While the biological systems that kept an organism alive within it were undoubtedly going haywire and the microbes that lived within them would be reaping the benefits of being flooded with life mana, none of the bats were killed. It was more than possible that if left long enough they would expire from the effects of Thera¡¯s mana, but when they¡¯d tested it as a form of attack in their past hunts they never let it get that far, instead using that period of disorientation to strike, something Sachel took advantage of herself. Before her appeared a floating ball of water, and if Ben didn¡¯t know better he would have assumed she¡¯d materialized it, creating it from pure mana, but there was no way she could achieve something like such a high-level spell. Instead, she had used a different, though still demanding technique, pulling water from the air itself. While it couldn¡¯t be done if the climate were too dry, in a living forest where plants were in a constant state of taking in or releasing their water it was more than possible if someone had the necessary control and skill, both of which she continued to show with her attack. That ball of water, about the size of a fist, changed its shape to match something he¡¯d seen Thera use herself at a much larger scale in the past. The water thinned out into a round flat disk, akin to the blade of a circular saw, and began to rotate at dangerously high speeds before flying through the nearest enemy, cleanly bisecting it. That wasn¡¯t the end though as she continued to demonstrate the extent of her control, immediately changing the direction of the attack to slice through the next one, and the one following that, not ending until five of the eight were dead. The three that remained had enough presence of mind to change their target after that. While they could tell that whatever Thera had done had been harmful to them, it wasn¡¯t the instant death that Sachel inflicted and they rocketed towards her, a fog forming around them as the air began to freeze and they prepared their attack. An attack that didn¡¯t get through. Ralia threw herself between them, and in a move Ben would never have expected she began to change, as her more human-like top half shifted to match the snake-like tail she possessed in place of legs, turning her into a giant snake-creature almost seven meters in length. Striking fast, she bit one out of the air with her powerful reptilian jaws before hitting the other two to the ground with her tail, finishing the fight. Ralia turned back to her normal form, shivering and wrapping around Sachel for warmth. It was clear the combination of her reptilian nature clashing with the frost bats could prove to be a challenge if there were plenty more to deal with and Thera put her cloak back on to hopefully reduce the chances of any more being drawn in while the other woman recovered. Ben though had a different priority as he ran up to Ralia, grabbing her hand as she tried to warm up. ¡°Please tell me everything about how you just did that!¡± He knew it had to be a skill of some kind, he just didn¡¯t know what one, nor why he hadn¡¯t seen anything like it in the numerous skills Zandale possessed. He immediately wanted his hands on it to see just how it could be enchanted with. Ralia seemed taken aback, but answered easily enough. ¡°It¡¯s a skill called beast form- blood snake I have because of my paternal heritage. I know it¡¯s not exactly common, but I¡¯m surprised you haven¡¯t heard of it.¡± Meaning she isn¡¯t a pure naga like I thought, interesting. ¡°There¡¯s a lot in the world I don¡¯t know about unfortunately, but that was super cool and I want to learn.¡± He had meant he wanted to learn more about it, but was misinterpreted as Ralia shook her head. ¡°Sorry, but you need to be directly related to a nagual to be able to use it, it¡¯s something we have from birth. Well, unless you can somehow talk a soul mage into helping you.¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. So it¡¯s a racially linked skill huh? Doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t be able to enchant with it if I get it from her, but it raises more questions. ¡°Why would a soul mage be able to help?¡± ¡°It has to do with how my father¡¯s race came to be. Long before they were invaded, his people faced a different threat, the existence of an evil god that suppressed the one the nagual worshiped and oppressed the people of the world. After centuries of suffering, eventually a life mage gained enough skill and power to ascend to the level of a soul mage, and using that strength gathered the souls of five of the most dangerous beasts the world had available to strengthen the five greatest warriors they could find. They succeeded in freeing their world, but as an unexpected side effect all descendants of those heroes continued to be born with two souls, the nagual soul always being able to make use of the animal soul to one extent or the other.¡± ¡°So if anyone wanted the skill, they¡¯d have to ask a soul mage to merge a specific animal soul with their own?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Neat, alright then just one more question if you¡¯ll indulge me, what¡¯s a soul mage?¡± He¡¯d heard the term thrown around a few times now but never paid it much mind, assuming it was either a specialized magic like charm, or a combined one like plant magic, but from what he¡¯d just been told it sounded more akin to an awaken magic, and judging by the shocked reaction everyone was giving him it seemed like it was the sort of thing he should have been aware of. ¡°How do you not know this!¡± Sachel yelled, shock clear on her face and tainting her voice. ¡°I did think it was a little weird you didn¡¯t have any comments about it the few times it came up, but I thought you were just being respectful,¡± Thera joined in, adding her own take on it. ¡°Look, my situation is a little complicated, can we leave it at that?¡± He didn¡¯t want to explain to the other two his status as an otherworlder and he figured Thera could easily guess that had to do with any ignorance he¡¯d show about things from time to time. They still seemed to question how someone couldn¡¯t know about something that seemed like it would be so obvious, but Thera at least started giving him the explanation he¡¯d wanted. ¡°Alright, well first Ben, are you at least aware of how magic is divided?¡± ¡°I think so? Earth, water, and air are lumped together as physical magics while light and dark are considered both energy and spiritual. There¡¯s some debate about which of the two fire falls into but I doubt that matters much for this. Other than that life and death are considered linked while space and time are thought to have a connection, though it hasn¡¯t been confirmed one way or the other.¡± He¡¯d at least read up a bit on the basic magics back at the church once he¡¯d gotten over his regret from the fact that he¡¯d never be able to use them himself, and he¡¯d put a reasonable amount of time into learning just what spells he¡¯d be able to enchant with using his rings at his current level, but he hadn¡¯t gone beyond that into what was possible with an awakened magic. Thera seemed pleased enough with his answer though so she continued with her little lesson. ¡°Very good, then we¡¯re going to focus in on life and death magic. Saying they¡¯re closely linked is actually a bit of an understatement. They¡¯re the only magics which, assuming no significant changes or skill fusions occur when they awaken, become the same magic at the third tier.¡± Suddenly him not knowing about it made a lot of sense and he had nobody to blame but himself. When Lehie was educating him back during his time at the church, she lightly touched on how skills would awaken, and that it was possible for them to do so a second time should the person have enough skill and talent, but as the only person who was summoned without a single skill at the second tier, he hadn¡¯t been in the sort of emotional place where he wanted to be reminded of just how much better everyone else was than him. Sensing that, she backed off on teaching those topics in particular, presumably thinking that it wouldn¡¯t be overly relevant in his new life anyway. Now that he looked back on it, it was a shame. The topic was interesting, even if a little disheartening, and it gave him a few questions to ask. ¡°But how does that work? Life and death mana are two different things, right? How do you get the same magic out of both of them?¡± ¡°Hmm, try and think of it like this,¡± She said as she drew a circle in the dirt with her staff, putting two dots at either end of it. ¡°Imagine one dot is life magic and the other is death, while the entire circle is the spectrum they exist on. As a person''s skill level in either grows it travels up and down the circle and more things become possible, eventually entering each other''s domain, like how I use my life mana to cause harm instead of heal. At the first awakening of either magic, the domain of what can be done continues to grow, bleeding into each other until they are essentially the same regardless of which of the two mana¡¯s is used. At that point if a second awakening happens you¡¯ll get a soul mage, a being capable of creating their own path,¡± At that she drew a line going out from the circle, escaping the limits of both life and death to become something more. Sachel cut in at the end. ¡°Aside from that, soul mages are well known because they¡¯re the only type of tier three skill user that the gods try to ensure the world always has at least one of.¡± ¡°What, why? Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m sure anyone with a tier-three magic is powerful and important, but why does the world need one at all times?¡± ¡°Like the name says, it¡¯s a magic that acts on the soul, same as the system in place on everyone, meaning that they can act to strengthen the people around them, making it easier for them to learn and level skills, as well as get massive buffs to the job experience they gain. From what I¡¯ve heard, for thousands of years they¡¯ve been working to help people gain third-tier skills to try and figure out which ones would be best to try and have people ascend to for the invasion.¡± Interesting, so it¡¯s like a magic that helps a person reach new heights even quicker. God, I wish I could try enchanting with it, but awakening both my enchanting and connect twice is probably slightly too big of a dream. Even worse, that means¡­ ¡°So there¡¯s no way for me to copy the beast form skill onto something so that other people could transform.¡± ¡°Not without attaching a soul to it,¡± Ralia confirmed. ¡°Besides, usually it¡¯s just a partial transformation unless the skill is almost awakened. Being half naga gave me an unusual compatibility with the skill. I was born with it at the fifth level, and since half of my body is already reptilian I can do it fairly easily.¡± The fact that it would only be a partial transformation didn¡¯t matter as the wheels in his head began to spin. ¡°Maybe I can,¡± He muttered while giving it some thought. ¡°What?¡± Thera asked, long used to knowing his thinking face by this point and too cautious to doubt him when he thought something was possible. The other two lacked the time with him to know what he was getting at though, so Sachel went and asked. ¡°Maybe you can what?¡± ¡°Attach a soul to an item, I might be able to.¡± CH154 ¡°That¡¯s impossible,¡± Ralia said firmly. ¡°And ethically dubious,¡± Thera pointed out, far more concerned that he¡¯d actually do it while Sachel came in with a question. ¡°You don¡¯t have an awakened life or death magic, do you?¡± ¡°God I wish. No, and it¡¯s not something I would be able to do anytime soon, I¡¯d need to probably level up my enchanting and connect at least a couple more times to make it work without having any help, maybe even have to awaken them, but it should be possible.¡± ¡°Ben, when you were teaching me the various ways the skill was used you mentioned the way enchanters like you can use it, but even if both of your skills awaken I don¡¯t think it would be good enough to access a third-tier skill the way you can other ones,¡± Sachel told him, not wanting to squash his hopes but also feeling that nothing good would come from keeping the truth from him ¡°You''re absolutely right, but there are other ways to interact with a soul than just soul magic, right?¡± ¡°Wrong,¡± Ralia was quick to assert, but Sachel¡¯s eyes began to widen in understanding. ¡°You don¡¯t mean-¡± ¡°I do,¡± It was clear that she had heard about it, but for the sake of the other two with them who were both looking quite curious he explained. ¡°My god Myriad is kind of artificial in nature. It¡¯s kind of a long story, but millions of his people got together to make him, and this was in a world where the system didn¡¯t exist. From what I understand, they could use all forms of magic, but only to the point that they would be considered to be at the zeroth or first level, meaning they constructed him to be able to hold the totality of their species souls using incredibly low-level magic, no third-tier soul stuff involved.¡± ¡°There are so many issues with what you¡¯ve just said. Your god''s race created him?¡± She asked while sounding shaken, before switching back to her main concern. ¡°But wait, even if that¡¯s true, that doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯d be able to, even if you had access to awakened magics! The effects of millions of people working together can¡¯t just be replicated like that!¡± ¡°True, but I have two different things going for me,¡± He said with a raise of his fingers. ¡°First, I¡¯ve already spent months pouring over his blueprints for fun, but second and more importantly, I wouldn¡¯t need to make anything nearly as complicated as something with seemingly unlimited soul storage space, I would just need to make it to be able to hold a single soul,¡± And he was already thinking on just how he would go about it. He¡¯d need a better understanding of the blueprints for sure, as well as magic as a whole to get the modifications right, but he could already feel potential forms the enchantment might take being experimented with in his head. Ralia looked to Thera as if to ask if he was serious, and he got the impression she looked at the other girl with sympathy. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he manages it.¡± ¡°If you do, won¡¯t that become a major artifact for our faith!¡± Sachel asked excitedly. ¡°Oh gods, this is so fucked up,¡± The naga woman spoke with her head in her hands. ¡°I thought the true shifter was bad enough, I can¡¯t imagine how the nagual would react if you actually succeed in making something like that.¡± ¡°True shifter?¡± ¡°You really don¡¯t know anything about the current tier-three skill users to exist, do you? The True shifter is both the pride and embarrassment of my father¡¯s people; a nagual that managed to awaken their beast form skill twice and gained the ability to absorb the souls of any creature he kills to turn into.¡± ¡°Um, that sounds cool as hell, why would he be an embarrassment?¡± Ralia seemed to regret letting it slip since it meant she was being questioned about them, but Thera seemed to know and took over the explanation. ¡°Well, skills tend to undergo massive changes when they awaken, and sometimes that can result in certain quirks,¡± She explained, seeming a bit awkward about it herself. ¡°One of the quirks of his skill is that on top of being able to absorb the souls of the creatures he kills, when he has a child, they¡¯ll be born with a second soul like any nagual mixed breed would be, but from any one of the numerous souls he has available.¡± Oh man, I think I see where this is going. ¡°So how many children are we talking?¡± ¡°Originally, my father¡¯s people would have any one of the five original forms, with which one they received being random based on what soul each parent had,¡± Ralia explained, drawing a long, disappointed breath. ¡°Since the true shift awakened his skill fifty years ago, that number has gone from five shifter types to a bit less than a thousand. Of course, if they don¡¯t end up having children then their lines will be dead ends, but the fact he¡¯s still trying this at all is considered a major embarrassment, and it would be shocking if a few hundred didn¡¯t form lasting bloodlines, especially since he keeps having more.¡± Holy crap, almost twenty a year? And that would be if there weren¡¯t any repeats, definitely a bit worse than I¡¯d thought. He got what she was saying about the true shifter at least, but whatever her people thought on the potential of him making an item that would let someone use the beast form skill was none of his concern. It wasn¡¯t even guaranteed he¡¯d ever get to the point where it would be possible, but if he could he would, just to try. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I could always just try and find a demon to test it on, surely there¡¯d be no issue with that, right? Though now feeling off for completely different reasons, Ralia recovered enough from the cold by this point to try drawing out more frost bats. Their break was over, and their hunt went on.
Ben watched them hunt for a few more hours before they all headed back. The purpose of the night was to try and understand what they were facing, and after watching them go at it he couldn¡¯t help but worry he¡¯d overestimated just how long it would take to clear them out. After the first batch they¡¯d managed to eliminate another twenty of the pests, but while the woods were big, they could only support so many of the creatures at a time. At worst he might have to try to remain in the village a week or so longer than the others, but that wasn¡¯t a huge deal. Fontesh seemed reasonable, and with how much time he¡¯d just dedicated to preparing everything he¡¯d need he wouldn''t just let it go to waste. Still, there was more work to be done, and as they all got back he saw that Skoe had abandoned the task he¡¯d given him at some point, presumably to sleep. ¡°Alright, thanks for letting me tag along but I should get back to work, the more I prepare now the easier it will be later.¡± He went to restart the fire so he could keep collecting the plant tar, but Thera grabbed his arm to stop him. ¡°Wait, I¡¯m not letting you go two nights in a row without sleep. Aren¡¯t you planning on working all day tomorrow too?¡± ¡°I mean, yeah but there¡¯s a lot to do when the village has zero resources.¡± She gave a sigh and understood how her uncle must have felt whenever he¡¯d find Ben asleep in the shop in the morning if he didn¡¯t kick him out for the night before, so she turned to the other women. ¡°Since these things are nocturnal you¡¯ll both help Ben fix up the village during the day, right?¡± While she phrased it as a question it was clear to everyone she wasn¡¯t asking and seeing how central she was to drawing out the frost bats they couldn¡¯t disagree, not that they wanted to. This was Sachel¡¯s home after all, and Ralia was none too happy about how her companion had been spoken to so poorly either. Their cooperation secured she turned back to Ben. ¡°Come on, if you pass out in the middle of the night nobody will find you until morning.¡± A small part of him wanted to argue, but it was undeniable that he was tired and could use the rest, so he obediently let himself be dragged along to the room, taking turns to change before laying down to sleep. The moment he laid down he felt two days worth of exhaustion hit him all at once, but couldn¡¯t feel sleep coming for him as he closed his eyes. Being in bed with Thera, door locked to avoid the risk of anyone coming in when she wasn¡¯t wearing her cloak and getting too close while in tight quarters was proving surprisingly harder to deal with than he¡¯d expected. All three of his minds were a flurry of activity, and he couldn¡¯t help but worry this was going to be how he got another level in complex mind as he tried to relax. Just go to sleep damn it! Am I twelve? I seriously can¡¯t rest cause I¡¯m sleeping next to a pretty girl? Do I have the leeway to try and add a small expansion to the house for Fontesh on top of everything else? No that¡¯s stupid I already have so much to do. Then again, it would be pretty funny to build a new room and leave Skoe stuck in the shed. No damn it, I don¡¯t have time, I¡¯ll get used to this in a day or two. Or just sleep less and work more. Would it be weird if I moved to the ground? That would be like saying I feel weird about this though. Augh! ¡°Hey Ben, you asleep?¡± Thera asked quietly, pulling him from his thoughts. ¡°Not yet, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Not much, just thought we could chat a bit. I¡¯ve never done anything like a sleepover before but this is kind of similar, right? Or do humans not do that sort of thing?¡± Talking was just an excuse to avoid the similar thoughts going through her own head, but Ben couldn¡¯t know that and immediately started chastising himself. Oh my god, no more weird thoughts! I¡¯m her first friend, she¡¯s one of the few people I care about in the world, there¡¯s nothing weird about this! Like she said, this is basically a sleepover, we¡¯re hanging out, then just going to sleep. ¡°Yeah we do. Let¡¯s see, what are some standard sleepover activities on my planet? Movies, pizza, if you¡¯re really young then a pillow fight, other games too I guess, but it¡¯s really just whatever you feel like. How about young succubi?¡± ¡°Um, I¡¯m not really sure.¡± Augh, of course she wouldn¡¯t know you idiot! ¡°Well, we can try something like it when we¡¯re back home at some point if you want. Actually, a pepperoni pizza would be incredible, I really need to figure out how to make something that could come close with local ingredients. Although I could probably do other types just fine¡­¡± He continued to mutter to himself, thinking of how he would go about it and what native ingredients might go well together when Thera began to giggle and he realized he was rambling. ¡°Ah, sorry for going on,¡± He said, ¡°Thinking about it gave me a bit of a craving, and the fact that I have to figure out how to make it from scratch here is crazy compared to just how common it is in my world.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, that sounds nice so I¡¯ll look forward to trying it. Passing on the pillow fight though, if Sonya saw me doing that at my age I¡¯d actually die.¡± ¡°Ha, well if she¡¯s ever out then maybe we could give it a go, shame-free. If I¡¯m lucky I¡¯ll have figured out how to make something like a movie by then too.¡± ¡°Hmm, you mean those moving pictures you spoke about? I still don¡¯t understand why you wouldn¡¯t just read a book or see a play instead.¡± ¡°Totally different experiences, trust me, you¡¯ll understand if I ever succeed.¡± Since he¡¯d learned about the existence of magic, he had a couple standard fantasy items he wanted to own or make, with something like a moving picture being at the top of the list. He was still working on figuring out how to pull off that one, but there was an easier option he thought he¡¯d be able to manage, though it would be insanely mana intense and result in the most challenging enchantment from an affinitied magic to date. But maybe it would be worth it to try to attempt? It¡¯s far from impossible, I just need plenty of time. No, maybe I should start with something simpler first? I could probably manage something like old fashion animation, just making one cell at a time. He was about to ask Thera what sorts of stories or fairy tales she knew that were reasonably short when he noticed the sound of her breathing had slowed. ¡°Ah, good night Thera,¡± He whispered, and feeling more relaxed himself was able to drift off to sleep. CH155 ¡°You know, I¡¯ve never wanted to push the issue, but I¡¯m just saying if you and her were to produce children I¡¯d be able to get a couple believers that could potentially live a thousand years. Just something to think about if you feel like doing more to secure the stability of my faith.¡± ¡°Really, that¡¯s the first thing you bring up? I just got here,¡± Ben told his god, already not feeling the conversation. Being a bit tempted by a friend he was close to was normal enough as far as humans went, but actually making a pass wasn¡¯t happening. Myriad seemed to be mostly joking anyway, not that he would have minded such a thing, but switched conversations easily enough. ¡°In that case, would you rather discuss your ambitions of trapping a soul to be used for eternity?¡± ¡°Absolutely! Do you think it¡¯s actually possible?¡± He asked with enthusiasm, not picking up the dread in his god''s voice. ¡°The problem is that it¡¯s all too possible! The moment I heard you float the idea and could see how instantly captivated with it you¡¯d become I had to immediately rush to Anailia to discreetly ask about the implications of such a thing! You do get that sounds evil, right?¡± ¡°I mean, I guess? I already hunt animals for parts though, that¡¯s just one more part to use.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s an excellent thing that the forbidden gods didn¡¯t have the option to try and take you as a believer.¡± ¡°Hey, all of you gods agreed to collect two hundred souls specifically to force into your war, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s much moral high ground here.¡± ¡°Honestly, fair enough,¡± The cube relented after a moment''s thought. ¡°So then what did Anailia say about it?¡± ¡°That you¡¯re lucky you¡¯ve already made a good impression on her if you¡¯re going to try something like that. She can¡¯t guarantee what the other gods would say, but it should be alright so long as you don¡¯t publish however you accomplish it and you don¡¯t try it on any of the sapient races. She was extra clear on that last bit and so am I; if you even try to trap the soul of a single person on this would, you¡¯ll be executed immediately and condemned to the infinite hells, regardless of the rules about how mortal punishment is handled.¡± ¡°No worries on that front, even I can tell that would be unethical. Just to be clear though, where do demons fall as far as experimental materials go?¡± ¡°Pfff, you won¡¯t find a single god in the world that cares what you do with them. In fact, I¡¯m fairly sure many gods would actively approve of you doing something like that, so if you insist on trying it out once you¡¯re skilled enough be sure that¡¯s what you go for.¡± ¡°Will do. On a similar note, I¡¯ve got a small favour to ask you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the best choice to teach you magic,¡± Myriad said, seeing the question in Ben¡¯s thoughts. ¡°I¡¯ve told you, the way my race used it is far different from the current standard.¡± ¡°Sure, but I¡¯m also going to be modeling my enchantment off of your designs. I¡¯ll be reading up on different spells that are currently used anyway, and I have Sonya and Falk to bother about it too, but it doesn¡¯t hurt to have a different perspective on things.¡± Myriad thought quietly for a moment. It was true that it would do no harm to teach him, and a part of him did regret the fact that his race''s means of using magic was essentially a lost art in the current day. Even if it would only be revitalized as enchanting techniques instead of the true ritual magic he specialized in, it was nice to think the knowledge he had could be used. ¡°Alright, there¡¯s no harm so I¡¯ll teach you when you¡¯re done in the village. It does make it a bit more of a shame you don¡¯t have the talent for magic yourself, with the way you¡¯ve sprouted extra minds you could have potentially acted as a ritual mage without needing to rely on the help of others.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°No need to remind me,¡± He said dryly before changing the subject. ¡°Anyway, about the village, do you have any ideas for how I can earn a bit more faith for you?¡± ¡°I honestly think that so long as you keep doing what you¡¯re doing it will go fine. Why, are you feeling rushed?¡± ¡°A bit,¡± He admitted. ¡°There can only be so many bats living in the woods, I doubt I¡¯ll be able to finish everything I want to before the rest of them are done with their hunt so a quicker way of winning people over would be handy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯ll have time. They¡¯d have to not only get the ones currently there, but also the surrounding area after all, which won¡¯t necessarily be as easy as drawing the ones in a known space like their sacred woods.¡± ¡°Mmh, true I guess.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ll look into something and let you know if it would be an option so be a little patient,¡± Myriad could tell that Ben still wanted some alternatives he could fall back on, and since it would be helping himself earn a bit more faith in the end it would be worth the effort.
Eventually, when he and his god were done he woke up to start the day''s work but found himself unexpectedly trapped. Um, Myriad? Just how should I get out of this? Not helpful. It seemed like during the night Thera had started using him as a pillow and was holding onto him tighter than he could easily escape without waking her. Since the sun had only just started to rise he didn¡¯t want to ruin her rest, but he was burning daylight, so slowly and carefully he pulled himself from her grip before making his way outside to start splitting the logs he¡¯d dried the other day, cutting them into the shapes he¡¯d need to replace the rotten boards of the fence. Once that was done he gave each a light coat of oil before finally removing the rotten ones and replacing them with what he¡¯d so painstakingly made, before giving the older posts he didn¡¯t need to replace a coat as well. Once he was done he looked at his work and smiled, taking a moment to forget about just how much more he had to do. If I don¡¯t look at the house behind me I have nothing to be stressed about. An excellent idea! I¡¯m going to need the others to prepare more trees for me anyway by the looks of it, six definitely wasn¡¯t enough to do everything. His next task decided he went back to cutting the logs into the lengths he would need before splitting them into boards, once again cursing out the fact that he was forced to live in the stone age like this and desperately missing the shop. Am I at least getting experience to my crafting skill for going through all of this? Okay, but like, good experience. The kind that will help me level up the skill faster, not a trickle in an ocean. ¡°Ben, would you have some time,¡± Fontesh asked, having no idea she¡¯d interrupted his talk with his god. Not that he particularly cared, but if people ever found out they seemed to get nervous. ¡°Of course, what can I do for you?¡± ¡°Well since everyone else is still asleep I thought we¡¯d put off breakfast, and a few more of the villagers asked if I¡¯d take you to their homes to work on some of their enchantments.¡± ¡°Of course! Let¡¯s head out immediately then.¡± It seemed word spread fast in a small community like this, especially when it came to someone like him. As an outsider in a tight-knit and closed-off town like this, people would naturally be talking, and even more so when they heard what he was doing. He didn¡¯t want to brag, but the enchantments he¡¯d seen the villagers using were rather clumsily put together. It was almost certain they¡¯d come from someone with only level three or four in the skill. At level five currently and having it as his blessed skill anyone could immediately feel the difference in mana cost when they tried his tools out, even without the benefit of having a magic affinity tied to it to reduce the cost further. It would only be a matter of time before one by one they all came to ask for his help. CH156 Theras Perspective Once again she¡¯d woken up alone. Giving it a bit of thought, unless Ben was up late into the night working on something he would typically be up before her, out to her uncle¡¯s shop with breakfast waiting on the table. It seemed like it was around noon though, so she got up and dressed before going out of the room to see what everyone else was doing. It looked like she was the last up, with the others already recruited into work. Sachel and Ralia were tending to the fire, extracting tar from the wood that had been gathered while Skoe was back at the oil press. She didn¡¯t see Ben immediately, but felt him off to her right and found him at the side of the house, dealing with the most challenging issue of replacing some of the wood it was built with, without damaging the entire structure. ¡°You look like you¡¯re having fun,¡± She said, as he was oh-so-carefully wedging a few logs into the wall to act as support for when he started his construction. ¡°Well, I wanted to put this off a bit longer, but then I inspected the house itself and decided this was a priority.¡± ¡°That bad?¡± ¡°If I¡¯d known what it was like beforehand I would have insisted we get the shed. Only a couple places are rotten through and need to be replaced, but one is a major bit of support for the entire building, I thought I was going to have a heart attack seeing it.¡± Thera winced, the thought of being buried under a collapsed building was far from an appealing prospect. ¡°So how long will it take you to fix?¡± ¡°Who do you think I am? I¡¯ll have it done in half an hour tops. Once I get the next bit after replaced, all I¡¯ll have to do for the house is cut away any of the lesser rot and coat the outside with a mixture of the tar and oil to seal the wood.¡± ¡°And the roof? I don¡¯t really want the ceiling caving in while we sleep.¡± ¡°Thankfully no issue. It uses wood shingles and they seem to replace those often enough to keep it functional. I just wish they had a proper craftsman in the village to deal with this. I know a place this small doesn¡¯t need anyone with a dedicated construction skill, but the more I see the more there is to do.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to do everything you know. No matter how good you are, a single person can¡¯t rebuild an entire village.¡± ¡°At this point I¡¯m just going to stick to improving enchantments, fixing fences, weatherproofing, and repairing anything that I think could get somebody killed. It¡¯s probably manageable.¡± Is it? She asked herself, thinking of what she¡¯d seen in the village. There were about thirty houses around and none of them were in great states, she was almost certain he¡¯d be working on every one of them if the villagers let him. At the very least he was lucky there weren¡¯t more. It seemed like the dryads still formed family units together, even if there was no relation between them, and multiple generations might live together as well. It was definitely a close community, and thankfully in this one case that worked to their advantage. ¡°Anyway, now that you¡¯re up, do you think I could trouble you to go with the others to go cut some more trees down for me? I got Skoe to do it before so he should know what to do.¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! She grimaced a bit but agreed, not doubting that if they didn¡¯t get everything he¡¯d need he¡¯d spend another night awake making and gathering resources to use, no matter how bad of an idea it was. There were still hours before they commenced their hunt after all, and she¡¯d have to get used to the most distasteful member of their group eventually if they were going to be working together for the next little bit.
When they got to the forest Skoe immediately took the stone ax Ben had made earlier and started chopping a tree before Thera stopped him. ¡°Why are you bothering with that?¡± ¡°We¡¯re here specifically to gather wood,¡± He said in an annoyed tone, not that her own had been any better. ¡°What else would I do?¡± She could only sigh at the prospect of dealing with this for days. ¡°Sachel, can¡¯t you use your water blade spell to cut them down?¡± ¡°Um, I don¡¯t think I can manage something as thick as a tree trunk. Flesh is a lot easier to cut.¡± ¡°See, now just let me deal with this.¡± ¡°Or stand back and wait a few minutes so I can get this done quickly,¡± She told them all, shooing them to the side before stretching out her hand towards a section of trees. After a couple minutes of seemingly nothing happening, the four-armed warrior was getting grumpy. ¡°Can we just get this over with and let me cut one do-¡± He couldn¡¯t finish his thought as multiple load cracks filled the air and eight trees crashed to the earth, leaving the three onlookers with mouths agape. With how much her magics had improved, her overall control had as well by a significant amount, letting her power her telekinesis with her overwhelming mana to push the trees down. The skill made a nice addition for her, though its combat potential was less than she¡¯d initially hoped. While it was showing that it could supplement some of the control she lacked when using her earth magic at the cost of increasing the time it took to cast a spell, it wasn¡¯t so easy to use it directly in combat. When she¡¯d experimented with it during her hunts, the creature could always feel the mana slowly taking shape around them and was able to easily escape, making the spell she was setting up useless since it couldn¡¯t follow its target as it was being put together. For a stationary thing like a tree though, it was perfect. She turned to the three of them, still staring at the destruction she¡¯d caused so easily and let herself feel a little smug. ¡°I¡¯ll knock a few more down to the right, you guys should probably get to work cutting off the branches on those ones.¡± Even though they still didn¡¯t seem to be able to accept the situation they got to work on their task as Thera quickly brought down seven more, taking a seat to watch them after she was done. The waiting was boring, but their stunned reactions to seeing her magic had been worth it. With all the times she¡¯d been told she should quit adventuring because she wasn¡¯t cut out for it, being able to do her job so easily and then lounge around as they rushed to keep up gave her a small vindictive thrill. She¡¯d half considered pushing down a few more, but she didn¡¯t know how many Ben would even need and she didn¡¯t want to damage the forest any more than she¡¯d have to, even if she could get some entertainment making a bit more work for the other. Eventually, they managed to finish their work, though left with a different problem. ¡°When we did this last time, he did something to dry them out,¡± Skoe told them. ¡°I doubt we could have dragged them back if he didn¡¯t. Sachel, do you think you could-¡± ¡°Nope. At my current skill level pulling the water from a plant isn¡¯t possible.¡± ¡°So should we go get him, ¡®cause otherwise these are staying here.¡± ¡°Or I¡¯ll just handle it again,¡± Thera told them. It wouldn¡¯t be quick but she¡¯d be able to get them back there as long as she got plenty of breaks in between, and with an effort of will she began just that, this time using her staff to direct her spell but slowly gathering them up and moving them until she felt her control start to slip before taking a break and starting again. It wasn¡¯t fast, but it was the best option at the moment as they made their way back. CH157 Theras Perspective She couldn¡¯t stop smiling under her hood as she got back with all of the logs. A level up to her magic was more than she¡¯d expected from their trip and she immediately felt its effects as she floated the logs back. She still needed breaks as she went, but the entire task just felt simpler, and she was looking forward to testing how that increase improved her overall magic control when she got the chance. That could come later as she was hunting though, first she placed the logs down gently in front of Fontesh¡¯s home, being gawked at by a wide-eyed Delair as she did. Ben came over after finishing whatever task he was on and gave it all a look over. ¡°This is fantastic, thanks guys. Just need to dry them out. Oh but first, your staff.¡± He held out his hand and she handed it over, watching him as he examined it before finally reapplying the sacrificial enchantments she¡¯d broken on the walk over. ¡°It looks like the structure received a bit of damage, but it shouldn¡¯t be a big deal. As long as you don¡¯t aren¡¯t doing anything like that without me there to manage the enchantments then everything will be fine.¡± ¡°Sounds good, anything else I can do to help you out in the meantime?¡± ¡°Well I need to apply some enchantments to the logs to dry them out, do you think you could work on brushing down the last wall with oil while I work on this?¡± ¡°Sure, no problem.¡± ¡°Fantastic! Delair, think you can show Thera how it¡¯s done?¡± ¡°Yeah, come on!¡± The small girl said with enthusiasm, excited to show off her work. It seemed she¡¯d been helping Ben while they were all gone and was looking forward to showing just what she¡¯d learned. ¡°You just do it like this.¡± She watched as Delair haphazardly brushed the areas she could reach before taking the other brush and dipping it in the oil, trying to take a bit more care to get everything covered. ¡°I think I got it, thanks,¡± She told the child, trying to be encouraging as Delair beamed with happiness, renewing her efforts to work on what she could reach. Since Thera was a fair bit taller, she took over getting the higher areas, leaving anything out of her reach for Ben to figure out. There had to be a ladder somewhere, but she couldn¡¯t immediately see it and focused on what was in her range as she humoured the child with her as they spoke about the day.
As the night began to fall it was time to begin their hunt, though this time Ben stayed behind while Skoe was brought in tow, adding more combat power to their group. She wasn¡¯t thrilled with the change but knew that it would help get the work done quicker, she just had to deal with him for a few hours a night as they worked to chip away at the population and hopefully keep the forest safe so Sachel could complete her quest. She could play the teammate for that long at least before she got to go back to her normal routine of hunting with Ben, and it wasn¡¯t like things had been particularly bad the previous night, there was no harm in some optimism. Without Ben there though the walk out was far more quiet and tense, the conversation breaking down to Sachel explaining how they were going to do everything for Skoe¡¯s sake until they finally made it to the edge of the sacred woods. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Is everyone ready?¡± Sachel asked, getting nods from everyone. ¡°Alright Thera, you¡¯re up.¡± She took off her cloak, letting it fall to the ground and having her staff ready in her hand, waiting for anything to fly out as the others also stood prepared for their fight, and after a few short minutes a group of frost bats, around ten in number began to pour out of the woods and make their way to her as she prepared a life spell to disorient them, at least until she spotted another preparing to attack out of the corner of her eye as the woods lit up. You can¡¯t be serious. There¡¯s no way he¡¯s that dumb. If only she could be so lucky. The light she saw was Skoe, his body covered in his fire augmentation as he prepared his swords to attack, and without a moment of hesitation on her part, she stopped her own spell to quickly wrap herself in her coat again. Neither Sachel nor Ralia had been expecting her to not go with the same plan they had yesterday, and without much choice, they started attacking the bats immediately as they closed in. Sachel threw her water spell as Ralia transformed and went on the attack, killing four of the bats themselves as Skoe threw himself into the brawl, slicing through two more bats with his swords wrapped in flames. It wasn¡¯t a bad turn of events, but without Thera drawing them in with her charm or disorienting them with her magic, the remaining four were able to shake off enough of the effect they were under to fly off into the night and back to safety. ¡°Not bad for our first round of the night, is it?¡± Skoe asked, feeling cocky about how well that went before being brought to the ground as Thera swung her staff at his leg with all of her might. It hadn¡¯t been a planned action, but she was so filled with rage she couldn¡¯t help but act. ¡°You fucking idiot! Do you just not think about your actions, or are you actually braindead?¡± ¡°Hey what the hell do you think you¡¯re-¡± ¡°No, what the hell do you think you¡¯re doing!¡± She yelled at him before reaching down to pick something up, only to immediately whip it at his face. ¡°What the hell do you think that is?¡± He was struck square in the forehead and looked like he was ready to get up and fight as he looked at the item. ¡°What, isn¡¯t this just the stupid amulet?¡± ¡°Just the amulet? Oh my god you absolute tool, let me spell it out for you. You burned off the cord for it while I didn¡¯t have my cloak on, what the fuck did you think was going to happen?¡± His anger subsided as he realized what she was saying, but didn¡¯t disappear. ¡°Alright, my bad but chill out, it was a mistake.¡± ¡°Oh yeah, because I¡¯m sure if I didn¡¯t rush to throw on my cloak as soon as I realised that you really are that stupid, you¡¯d be able to react appropriately and accept it was your fault when you fell under my magics effects,¡± She told him, voice dripping with sarcasm. ¡°Just hurry up and go back for the night ¡®cause now we can¡¯t do anything with you here.¡± He tried to get up to argue with her, but even if she wasn¡¯t strong, a blow to the knee with a metal bar did a fair amount of damage and he could barely support himself. Sachel ran over to apply her life magic as Ralia stepped in to scold her. ¡°Thera you went too far, it was a mistake but everything turned out fine, you didn¡¯t need to blow up at him.¡± ¡°Well, there¡¯s two things you need to keep in mind. A, even if I¡¯m playing nice right now I fucking hate all of you, and B, in case you¡¯ve forgotten everything that happened while I was being harassed by Roan, since I¡¯m the one with the passive magic, I¡¯m also the one that gets the blame for other peoples mistakes. Now are we continuing the hunt tonight or not?¡± Sachel briefly looked to Ralia before giving an answer. ¡°Maybe it would be best to finish for today and start fresh tomorrow night.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± She wasn¡¯t particularly in the mood to continue anyway, so as the others worked on treating him she stormed off back to the village.
When she got back she went straight to the room, feeling Ben there and finding him laying down, writing notes about something or other. ¡°Hey Thera, you¡¯re back- what¡¯s wrong?¡± Even with her cloak on he saw right through her, though it was probably easier than usual given how she felt. Stress and anger the likes of which she hadn¡¯t experienced since dealing with Roan¡¯s harassment and the subsequent isolation bubbled up, and she couldn¡¯t trust herself to talk. Not bothering to change, all she did before getting into bed was take her cloak off as she wordlessly buried her face in Ben''s chest and let herself cry. CH158 ¡°I¡¯m going to kill them.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to suggest finding an option that doesn¡¯t get you imprisoned or executed.¡± ¡°Thera was a mess when she got back Myriad, I¡¯m not exactly in the mood to be polite about it when I¡¯m already putting in so much work trying to get this village to a semi-manageable state. So what happened?¡± She¡¯d been in no mood to talk when she¡¯d returned and Ben didn¡¯t force the issue, instead trying to comfort her until she¡¯d fallen asleep and then quickly passing out for the night himself. Unfortunately Myriad didn¡¯t have an answer for him either. ¡°I had been focusing on other things since I thought Sachel had everything well in hand, but it looks like that was my mistake. Still, I would like to understand myself, shall I bring her here?¡± ¡°You can have multiple people in your realm at once?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not hard, I just usually prefer to provide one on one attention.¡± ¡°In that case sure, just set something up for me first.¡±
As Sachel came to consciousness she found herself in a place she¡¯d long grown used to, her god¡¯s realm. With how the night had gone she¡¯d expected it, though what she hadn¡¯t been expecting was the change in setup. While normally it was a rather featureless expanse, at the moment she was at the base of a large, slanted platform, at the top of which floated her god, with Ben sitting down on a dark chair, legs crossed and staring down at her, thoroughly displeased. Maybe it was bullying the girl, but he was in no mood to be friendly and he wanted the atmosphere to reflect that as he looked her in the eye and watched her nerves start to fray. ¡°So, what happened?¡± ¡°Um, how much have you heard?¡± ¡°Tell me from the beginning,¡± He ordered as he drummed his fingers on the chair arm, staring down without a hint of kindness in his voice or eyes. It only made her more worried but she did as she was asked, recounting the events of the night that ultimately ended with Thera parting ways from the others and ending up alone at home. Ben could see the panic form on her face and she wouldn¡¯t meet his eyes, leaving him to sigh and direct a thought to Myriad. Okay, maybe I went too far with the theatrics. Mind lowering everything and giving her a chair? He said in Ben¡¯s head as he did as he was asked, bringing Ben to her level and giving her a place to sit. ¡°Alright, alright, calm down I¡¯ve had my fun. Now Sachel, I want to hear your honest opinion. What do you think about what happened, both last night as well as when Thera was dealing with Roan?¡± ¡°Um, well last night, I understand why she was so unhappy, although breaking Skoe¡¯s knee still seemed to be a bit much.¡± Oof, didn¡¯t realize she broke it. Oh well, she healed him up so it doesn¡¯t matter to me. ¡°And about the time with Roan?¡± She shifted about awkwardly, still avoiding his eye as she thought about how to answer. ¡°I¡­ I know we were in the wrong. Skoe never saw much of it, but Ralia and I were well aware that he was a creep. It was hard not to feel a bit bad for the guy when it became clear he was losing his mind, but we should have tried to help Thera when he was bothering her, not just leaving things to work out like they did.¡± He cast a quick glance at Myriad, who gave him a nod, or at least the floating cube equivalent of one. Great, gotta love an idiot with charisma. ¡°Alright, so what will you do now? Unless you plan on thinking of another way to deal with the bats, you¡¯ll need Thera to draw them in for you. I guess there¡¯s also the option of giving up here to try and complete the quest somewhere else, though it¡¯s up to you.¡± ¡°Do you think you could try and smooth things over with Thera for us?¡± She was finally looking him in the eyes and absolutely begging for his help, but he turned her down immediately. ¡°No. I told you when I gave you the plan, you¡¯re in charge. If you want to make it work, you¡¯ll need to come up with a way to get her to work with you willingly. Smoothing over problems in a team is just as much the job of a leader as planning out attacks, right?¡± ¡°Aah, okay I¡¯ll do my best,¡± She didn¡¯t seem thrilled with his answer, but could tell he didn¡¯t plan on budging, and with that her time in the realm ended, leaving Ben alone with his god again. With her gone, he immediately deflated into a ball of stress. ¡°Why can¡¯t things just be easy Myriad?¡± ¡°There there, I¡¯m hopeful things will work out fine. Sachel was feeling discouraged over everything that happened, but also committed to making it work. We just have to wait and see.¡± ¡°Alright, the sooner this is sorted the sooner there¡¯s someone else to fill these sorts of roles for your faith anyway, I¡¯ll just cross my fingers and hope she actually completes the quest.¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I¡¯m feeling confident, her devotion and desire are both strong, she¡¯ll do her best. As for completing quests though, you asked about how to earn me a bit more faith, yes? I¡¯ve got a solution for you. Wait here.¡± At that Myriad disappeared for a few minutes, leaving Ben alone in an empty void until he returned with what might have been mistaken for a tree at first, if not for the divinity radiating from it and a most unusual trunk. With thin leaves, some sort of violet apple-like fruit, and smooth golden branches, it wasn¡¯t until the eyes drifted farther down that it could be seen that all of that was simply growing out of the head of a goddess, with her face and body having a more human-like form, though completely covered with the same golden bark as her upper branches. Even though it was an appearance he wouldn¡¯t have expected, it made more sense to him than seeing Anailia had, considering the race he was sure she represented. ¡°Jagal I take it?¡± ¡°Indeed apostle of Myriad, your god has made me quite the offer, I¡¯m sure we can be of help to one another.¡± He looked to his god curiously, so he went on to explain. ¡°Given the dryad¡¯s history and their delicate situation in the world, her race lacks craftsmen and artists, instead focusing almost entirely on training their plant magic to protect the health of their forests. It¡¯s understandable, and she can¡¯t just ask one to take up their valuable time mastering an artistic craft, but it means that the statues that exist of her are few and old. Gifting the village a representation of her should help improve their opinion of you and I, possibly being enough for you to complete your quest while at the same time giving her something for her people to direct their faith to. It would probably help the village as well. While plenty of dryads make their way to her head church as a pilgrimage, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if any went out of their way to see the best representation of their goddess to exist in the past few centuries.¡± ¡°And she¡¯s not mad about the whole converting Sachel away from her faith thing?¡± At this, the goddess laughed. ¡°Child, I¡¯ve had many people convert to me as well. While no god is happy to lose a believer it is the nature of faith in such a cluttered world like this, I have no grudge against you.¡± He stared at her and she met his gaze before he shrugged. ¡°Works for me. Myriad do you think you could make me something like a pen and paper so I can make a few sketches? And Jagal, if you want to take a pose for this, do whatever is comfortable, but try and keep it in the realm of what it would be possible to make,¡± He was going to be crafting with whatever large, solid block of stone he could find after all, he couldn¡¯t do anything the would create any weak bits that might lead to it falling apart. She thought for a moment before conjuring a tree stump into existence and taking a seat. ¡°How is this?¡± ¡°Looks great,¡± The goddess before him gave off an air of serenity, not something that he should be surprised about given her ties to nature, but it was easy to get sucked in and made him want to capture the feeling if he could. Myriad created the pen and paper for him as he asked, but asked a question before Ben got to work. ¡°Are those necessary? You won¡¯t be able to take them when you wake up.¡± ¡°It will help me remember it better when I do though. Besides, you¡¯ll still have them, right? I can refer to them later if need be.¡± With that he got to work, making sketches of her at various angles and trying to capture her expression the best he could. It was fun, planning out a large statue like that, something he doubted he ever would have been able to do on earth, and while he worked he took the time to get an answer to a question that had been on his mind as well. ¡°So just out of curiosity, why do dryads breed with trees? It struck me as odd that you have such a distinctly female race alone when most others seem to go for the male-female split,¡± He was aware of a few races with more than just the two sexes he was used to, and also that there were a few hermaphroditic ones as well, but that just made dryads stand out as an oddity all the more. ¡°There¡¯s no distinct reason, when I came into being on my world I could have simply uplifted one of the animals present to sapience like so many others did, but I found creating them from the trees was more satisfying to who I am. Of course, I did create both females and males at first, but after I had to destroy the men back in the height of my power it was simpler to slightly alter the remaining women to make it possible instead of creating an entirely new group of peaceful males from scratch. Perhaps I should have produced a few though, now that I¡¯m too weak to do it, it''s a shame to constantly see my people shrink unless they maintain their forests.¡± He tried to keep his thoughts in line, going back to focusing on the drawing and anything else he could think of to distract himself. That was a lot to unpack, and he wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to do it in mind-reading range. ¡°I bet,¡± He said casually, hiding his worry with a different bit of curiosity. ¡°So were the dryad¡¯s produced from fruit trees, or is your form unrelated to theirs?¡± ¡°Ha, a curious boy, it¡¯s a good trait. My form is distinct, there was no plant like it on my homeworld. After all, a god is something to be strived to, not found around every corner,¡± With that she got up to look at the various drawings he¡¯d made and comments he¡¯d written down and smiled approvingly, reaching into the branches above her and plucking a fruit before handing it to him. ¡°A reward for all you¡¯ve done for the village so far. I look forward to seeing how the statue turns out.¡± With one final smile and a nod to Myriad, she disappeared. ¡°You can relax now,¡± His god told him, seeing just how tense he was at the end of their meeting. ¡°So some gods just eradicate half of their race, huh?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit more complicated than that, but yes, back in the distant past when we were at our full power we were more free to act, though that wouldn¡¯t have been nearly as easy as she made it sound.¡± ¡°Any chance you could fill me in on why though?¡± He was incredibly curious but didn¡¯t want to risk the wrath of any god that would go through with such a thing. ¡°It¡¯s a long story that involves some forces I¡¯m not allowed to talk about with mortals, but the short answer is that a small group of men from her world created a spell to distort the minds of the rest and almost destroyed the harmony of her planet as a result.¡± ¡°What, come on, why can¡¯t you tell me whatever bit you¡¯re hiding?¡± ¡°As a rule, there is some knowledge considered too dangerous for mortals to know, lest they decide to actually use it. About one in a hundred of the races in this reality have a point in their history when they nearly destroyed their world by knowing the wrong thing, and even more succeeded. You¡¯d be shocked how many dead worlds there are in the galaxy that had nothing to do with the invaders,¡± He could tell that had just made his apostle even more curious, so he quickly changed the topic. ¡°Anyway, since she gave that to you, you should eat it already.¡± ¡°Um, is that really okay?¡± ¡°Relax, it¡¯s the fruit of a nature goddess, it isn¡¯t going to harm you. You can think of it as an incredibly minor blessing. It won¡¯t show up on your card like mine or Anailia¡¯s did, and it won¡¯t have the effect of improving your growth as a whole like ours would either. Let¡¯s see, from the look of it, I would say it will up your mana by a couple points, around five. She must have watched the way you do things a bit after I asked and noticed you struggling. Think of it as a payment for helping her people.¡± ¡°Oh sweet, in that case don¡¯t mind if I do,¡± He took a bite and felt a small amount of energy fill him, like he was being invigorated by the fruit. The taste was oddly familiar, like a memory of some of the best ones he¡¯d ever experienced in his homeworld, he would have loved to get another to snack on. ¡°No thinking about how tasty gods are. Nothing good will come from it.¡± He stopped for a moment, waiting before replying. ¡°No notification about a new sacrilege level so it¡¯s fine. Are there any other nature gods willing to let me have a bite?¡± ¡°I swear, the fact it didn¡¯t level up for you isn¡¯t from lack of trying.¡± CH159 When he awoke he didn¡¯t immediately get up. Thera was using him as a pillow again, and since he didn¡¯t know how she¡¯d be feeling he wanted to be there for her in the morning if she needed to talk, so he wordlessly rubbed her head while staring up at the ceiling. His mood was better at least after having talked it over with both Sachel and Myriad, what mattered though was how she felt. Now that he¡¯d accepted a gift from Jagal, he felt obligated to see through her statue, but he wouldn¡¯t force Thera to stay if she wasn¡¯t comfortable. If she wanted to leave and Sachel couldn¡¯t change her mind, then so be it. It only ended up taking an hour, but eventually she slowly came to consciousness. With the way they were situated, as soon as she opened her eyes she was staring directly into Bens. ¡°Morning,¡± He said, trying to sound cheerful for her. ¡°Are you feeling a bit better?¡± She jumped with a start, not expecting to find herself in the same position as when they went to sleep and broke into an embarrassed blush. ¡°Sorry about that. I, um, must have forgotten to move before I went to sleep.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± He told her, neglecting to mention that it was how he¡¯d found her the first morning there as well. ¡°Are you maybe ready to talk about what happened?¡± ¡°They just managed to piss me off more than I expected. I feel better after getting a bit of rest.¡± He stared at her, waiting for more, but it seemed that was all she had to say on the matter. ¡°You know, if working with them is too much there¡¯s no shame in going home. I don¡¯t want you making yourself miserable for my sake.¡± ¡°Really, I¡¯m fine. Things may be a bit more awkward while we deal with this, I¡¯m pretty certain I broke Skoe¡¯s knee, but I can¡¯t just run away from working with people I don¡¯t like. Thanks for worrying though.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± He told her, giving her hand a squeeze before getting up for the day. There was still a mountain of stuff to do and not nearly enough time to do it. They left their room as he was still trying to plan things out, only to find both Sachel and Ralia prostrated at their door, as Delair watched from the side, quietly trying to understand what was going on. It wasn¡¯t just her though, despite being cloaked, he got the distinct impression that Thera was put off by the display and wanted to return to their room immediately, the only thing that stopped her was Sachel speaking up before she could. ¡°Thera, we owe you an apology. We¡¯d seen Roan¡¯s harassment just as much as any other woman in the guild, we should have taken your side at the time. I know this isn¡¯t enough, but I want to work to make up for it in the future.¡± ¡°Likewise. While I still think hobbling Skoe was a bit much, I didn¡¯t consider how it must have felt for him to mess up like that after everything you¡¯ve dealt with,¡± Ralia said as well. Thera stared down at them, not sure what to do as she sighed. ¡°Very heartwarming. I¡¯m sure it would be even more so if you didn¡¯t actively need my help.¡± ¡°We do need your help, but I¡¯m apologizing because it¡¯s the right thing to do and we¡¯ve put it off too long. As much as I hope you¡¯ll keep working with us, I understand if you don¡¯t want to, but we needed to say this eventually to try and make a better relationship with you, right?¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°We spent the last while trying to figure out the best way to go about it and figured this was the best way to show our sincerity.¡± ¡°Gods, enough get up,¡± Thera told them, not able to handle it anymore. ¡°I already told Ben I¡¯m going to stay and help so let¡¯s just focus on getting this done as fast as possible.¡± The two women knew they weren¡¯t forgiven, but it was a start and they thanked her before going down for breakfast. Thera didn¡¯t know how to deal with all of that, but already seemed worn out despite the day just starting as Ben chuckled to the side. Looks like Sachel came to a decent choice.
¡°Can I offer you a drink mister apostle?¡± A dryad offered as he worked on replacing her fence, after finishing up her house earlier in the day. ¡°That would be great, thanks!¡± he told her cheerfully as he took a cup of fruit juice from plants she¡¯d presumably grown herself as Delair called over as she painted. ¡°One for me too please!¡± ¡°Yes yes little flower, I have one for you too.¡± They both took a break to enjoy the drink as the sun beat down on them. After the last couple days of working on enchantments for the village and seeing him repair Fontesh¡¯s home, many of the dryads around were beginning to grow more open to him. At the very least, they were letting him help and being a bit friendlier than when he first arrived, but he suspected a part of it stemmed from having the sociable ball of energy that was Delair there to help him break the ice. She seemed to joyfully take the role of his little helper as he worked, more than happy to do the odd jobs that were safe for a child, and she¡¯d been getting the hang of it rather well herself. It was sweet and it made the time go by faster to have the company, not to mention the work as well. Adding to the fact that Sachel seemed to have requested that Skoe stick to helping him out to keep the hunts calm for Thera, he now had someone on permanent oil and tar duty and expected that he¡¯d be able to finish much faster than he thought. After he completed his work at that house he was more than prepared to immediately move onto the next, but he could see a cart coming in the distance and Delair cheered with excitement. ¡°Miss merchant is here!¡± Tugging his arm and dragging him with her. For a village not too fond of outsiders, they still needed resources and a trusted merchant seemed welcome enough, with the whole of the village making its way out to see what she¡¯d brought. Delair rushed to the front with a few of the other more excited children as Ben stood to the back, letting the others complete any shopping or trade they had first. As much as he wanted to see if there was anything useful for him, he was still in the middle of developing his relationship with the lot of them, he didn¡¯t want to jeopardize the little he¡¯d built up by buying something someone else wanted so he patiently waited as one by one, everyone bought what they needed and eventually left, giving him the chance to walk up and see what was left for himself. The moment he walked to the back of the cart to see what was available his heart pounded with excitement. He locked his eyes on an item he wanted so desperately he thought tears of joy were about to stream down his face. ¡°I¡¯ll take the saw,¡± He told her, not caring in the slightest about the price. A properly made metal tool, to think it would give him so much joy after a few days of working with nothing but stone. The merchant handed it over and he paid what he needed to as she made conversation. ¡°I¡¯m surprised to see someone other than a dryad in the village, don¡¯t think I have since I started working the route.¡± ¡°I¡¯m an acquaintance of one of the women here, just came to help out with some repairs.¡± He didn¡¯t want to get too into details since it sounded bothersome, and the merchant seemed to pick up on that. ¡°I can¡¯t imagine it¡¯s been too easy, but good luck to you. I¡¯m back this day every week, so if you¡¯ll still be here by the next one let me know if you need any special orders. Of course, it can be a little more expensive having them delivered out here, but it¡¯s a lot easier than going to the city to buy them yourself.¡± He thought for a minute. He absolutely needed things, it was just a matter of what and how much. He held up his hand, asking her to wait a while as he put his thoughts together and made a list. If he could make things even a little easier on himself then it would be worth whatever price. CH160 A couple weeks passed, and as Ben''s mood only grew as the results of all of his work starting to pay off, everyone else¡¯s managed to degrade. He¡¯d just finished his repairs to the last house, his ability to cut the logs into the lengths and shapes he needed greatly increased with the purchase of a saw and other tools he¡¯d ordered from the merchant and came back to Fontesh¡¯s home to find the girls looking defeated as they sat around the table, while Skoe was fast asleep in his shed, finally getting a break from the constant work Ben had assigned him. ¡°What¡¯s got everyone so down?¡± He asked, trying to hide the spring in his step that came with finally being done his overwhelming level of work. They, on the other hand, saw no end in sight. ¡°It just doesn¡¯t make sense!¡± Sachel cried. ¡°We¡¯ve been killing about twenty a night and we wait for hours more to see if we can draw more out without luck!¡± ¡°So they¡¯re coming from somewhere else,¡± Thera said. ¡°We hunt in the evening, more must be arriving in the early hours of the morning when we¡¯re gone.¡± ¡°The issue is how we find them then,¡± Ralia sighed. ¡°Even if we keep killing the ones in the forest, it doesn¡¯t matter if we don¡¯t get the ones at the source.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you guys will manage,¡± He told them, trying to sound positive before asking for a favour. ¡°But since there¡¯s plenty of day left I could use some help. Sachel, think you could point me towards any rocky outcrops I can take advantage of?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t we get you enough that first night?¡± ¡°This is for something different. Thera, could I also bother you to help bring it back with your earth magic?¡± ¡°Sure, maybe the change of pace would help us think of something anyway.¡± Despite seeming so defeated, Sachel led them out of the village and through the woods, slowly making their way, muttering ideas to each other as Ben left them to it. He couldn¡¯t interfere with them too much so instead he reflected on his thoughts, thinking about how he¡¯d make the statue. He¡¯d at least gotten some proper tools from the merchant when she¡¯d come back, among a couple other things he wasn¡¯t sure if he would end up using or not, but he was confident it wouldn¡¯t be too hard to make a statue that would satisfy the village and their goddess. As he was thinking that though, the village managed to satisfy him instead. Defense enhancement. I absolutely want a level to defense enhancement Thrilled was putting it mildly. All of the work he¡¯d put towards helping the village had just paid off in a big way, making him slightly harder to kill. It was a bit of a shame to put the reward to something on the zeroth level instead of waiting until it was at the second, but if how long it had taken him to learn it from Zandale was any indication, then he didn¡¯t have an aptitude for the skill, completing quests was going to be the best way to get it anywhere. The sooner he got to the point that things couldn¡¯t punch or chew through his delicate flesh, the better. Since the girls seemed discouraged he decided to wait to tell Thera later, not wanting to brag about it as he called out to his god in his mind. Hey Myriad, quest complete. What else do you have for me? Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Yeah, the usual ones. Don¡¯t suppose there¡¯s any I could immediately take advantage of? Myriad had originally planned on keeping that option a secret and simply waiting for Ben to eventually pass, giving it to his next apostle after the stunt he¡¯d pulled making the church, but the boy had done nothing but good work for him since, gaining him both faith and believers and making him more appealing to the world as a whole. While it wasn¡¯t always the smoothest, he decided to extend the trust, especially since it wasn¡¯t an easy quest to fill for a god like him anyway. Ben let out a long, low whistle hearing just how much he could get from it. Damn, what do I need to do to complete that? Okay, we¡¯ll leave that on the back-burner unless it looks doable. What about the other one? For ten job levels? I¡¯ll take it. Just don¡¯t expect me to start until the job after my next. I¡¯m almost done this one and I¡¯ve got a plan to finish the next one quickly, just you watch. Considering the speed he already seemed to go through his jobs, Myriad wasn¡¯t sure how he¡¯d get it done any quicker, especially when his apostle had grown better at not letting thoughts reach his conscious mind, but he looked forward to just what Ben had in store for him. ¡°Alright, will this be good Ben?¡± Sachel asked, pulling him from his talk with his god to ask about the rocks she¡¯d brought him to. It had taken a while, but they¡¯d gotten to a hill with a solid stone face, exactly what he¡¯d hoped for. ¡°Perfect,¡± He told her. ¡°Don¡¯t suppose either of you earth mages are confident you could cut away a boulder about the size of the shed for me without cracking it, could you?¡± He was met with shaking heads, though he wasn¡¯t surprised. Sachel likely didn¡¯t have the mana for that sort of thing while Thera didn¡¯t have the control to avoid breaking it. It wasn¡¯t a big deal, it just meant that like everything else he¡¯d done in town it was going to take a while, so he pulled out his tools and got to work. Using a proper hammer and chisel he¡¯d ordered from the merchant, instead of the hastily thrown together stone ones he¡¯d produced, he etched a line to guide where he wanted to work before adding an enchantment to the chisel to aid it in splitting the stone where he hit it, applying deeper cuts then it ever would have otherwise. Even still it wasn¡¯t quick work, nor was it deep enough, he still needed to break it away. Luckily he had an idea for a trick he could use, something he remembered from an old documentary he¡¯d watched long ago. He found a variety of thick tree branches and cut them into wedges before hammering them into the cracks he¡¯d made in the stone with his tools and enchanting. After that, it came down to using the resources he had on hand. Namely Sachel. ¡°Hey, would you mind using your water magic to make those branches absorb as much water as they can?¡± ¡°Hm? Yeah, that should be easy enough, why though?¡± ¡°Just watch, it will be great.¡± She did as he asked and pulled water from the air, soaking each branch and the best she could for reasons she didn¡¯t understand until a loud crack reverberated through the forest. ¡°What was that?¡± Ralia yelled, immediately on guard as Ben tried to calm her. ¡°Relax, Sachel just split the stone. Good work by the way.¡± ¡°Uh, thanks, but how did I do that?¡± ¡°Water expands the wood and forces the cracks that already exist to run deeper. Just need to do it to the other sides and we¡¯re golden.¡± He got to work placing more wedges as Sachel soaked them, until finally they had a block of stone in the middle of the woods, too big to do anything with if it weren¡¯t for Thera¡¯s magic. She carefully lifted it into the air, moving it through the woods as she went and stopping for plenty of breaks as need be to keep it from slipping from her magical grasp until they made it back to the village. The dryads by this point had grown used to Thera¡¯s overwhelming displays of power as she brought back wood for construction, but this time someone stood in their way as they went through the village, the elder and head of the village, Hentath. CH161 ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve turned a blind eye since you¡¯ve been helping the village, but what in the infinite hells are you doing?¡± The elder dryad demanded, eyeing the lot of them suspiciously. Despite the prior conflict, Ben went back to using the more cheer-filled attitude as he spoke to her. ¡°Ah, Hentath, nice to see you. Any thoughts on letting me fix up your home a little? Maybe work on improving your enchantments?¡± She was his only holdout, and even if he¡¯d already gotten his quest complete he didn¡¯t want to leave things unfinished, especially when there was a chance her house could have some of the same issues with rot and structural damage he¡¯d seen in the others. She turned her nose up at the offer though, instead focusing on the boulder they brought with them. ¡°You can¡¯t just fly something like that through town! You might hurt someone or damage our crops!¡± Well, I¡¯m pretty sure we could have with the logs too, but she¡¯s not wrong. ¡°You¡¯re right, I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t consult you first,¡± He told her, bowing his head as he did. She didn¡¯t expect things to go that easily and seemed taken off guard. ¡°Well good, as long as you understand then do what you need to with it out of the village.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do that, sorry. I made an agreement with your goddess a little while ago so I need to do as I promised.¡± He heard a small gasp behind him and realized he hadn¡¯t actually mentioned why he needed the stone to the girls, something he probably should have considered considering it involved Sachel¡¯s former god. Oops, well it¡¯s probably fine. Hentath only looked at him with more suspicion though. ¡°You¡¯re saying Jagal made a request of you to bring a rock into town?¡± ¡°Well to be specific, it was more like a trade with my god. I¡¯m supposed to make a statue of her for the town since she doesn¡¯t have any artists or craftsmen to ask, and rather than make it out of the way and risk breaking it while moving it, I figured it¡¯s better to work on site. So is there any place in particular you would want it?¡± She still didn¡¯t seem convinced, but she led him and Thera to an empty place in the center of the village as Sachel and Ralia broke away. Well, she probably has some complicated feelings being around her grandmother right now, no harm in her taking a little distance. Thera placed the rock down where Hentath indicated and took a seat, with the older woman going to sit beside her. ¡°Um, you both planning on watching?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got nothing better to do,¡± Thera told him, not even considering checking on Sachel despite the last two weeks working together without any more issues. ¡°I need to be sure you¡¯re doing as you said since I''m letting you build this in our village.¡± He could only shrug. ¡°If you guys are sure. Can¡¯t promise how exciting it will be though. Thera, do you think you could grab me a stool while I get started?¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. With a nod she hurried off to Fontesh¡¯s home to grab it while he got to work, marking lines to figure out where to cut away rock as he waited and reflecting on what he¡¯d seen from that goddess as she¡¯d posed for him. All of his minds were devoted to making the best statue he could, and as he worked he found the goddess within the stone. Enchanting his tools to deal with the hardness of the stone he got to work on what he could, breaking away larger chunks to get to what he could, bringing the basic shape out to be seen. He didn¡¯t know how long it had taken, he¡¯d gotten lost to time as he worked, but as the sun began to fall and he noticed the world growing dark he put an end to the task for the day, to be continued the next. Thera had left at some point, but the elder stayed, watching him as he worked and seeming to have grown a sense of serenity as she saw the form of her goddess slowly emerge from the stone. As he put his tools away, ready to stop for the night she grabbed him. "Come with me." "Sure, what do you need?" "Just come on," She said, pulling him along with strength he wouldn''t have expected for her age until they were in front of her home. "I''ve got some enchanted tools I wouldn''t mind having improved, I assume your offer still stands?" "Of course," he said, only smiling on the outside but cheering within. Take that! My hard work and positivity win in the end! He let the elder lead him around her home, moving from item to item and doing his best to complete them all. "Oh sweet!" It felt like a bonus reward for finally getting the elder to accept his help and he couldn''t be more thrilled to have it done. "Don''t suppose you could point me to the nearest job change room, could you?" "Sure, the city two days away." "You''re kidding." "Not every small community like this can have something like that. I''m under the impression they''re pretty hard to make." Not so hard that I won''t though. Hey Myriad, you listening? Walk me through it. And I was so close to being done for the night. He sighed to himself. Oh well, who needs sleep anyway. "Alright, unless you need any other enchantments fixed up I''m going to work on making this place a job crystal, you can''t be traveling two whole days just to change your jobs." He wished her a good night and started to head out when she stopped him. "Hey, before you go I want to know why you were so insistent on helping out Sachel." "What, do I need a reason?" "Humor an old girl. You seemed pretty angry. Is it just because you¡¯re the apostle of her new god, or have you fallen for her charms? She''s pretty committed to her snake lady, I don''t think you have much of a chance." "What? No, there''s no charms drawing me in, you don''t have to worry about that." "Then what got you in such a tiz about it?" He thought about brushing it off with some non-answer but decided the truth might go a long way in making things better between them, creating some much-needed perspective on just how not serious changing her faith was. "It''s not exactly a secret but do me a favour and keep it to yourself, your granddaughter and her companions don''t know. You heard about the groups that were summoned about a year and a half ago? Well I''m one of them. I just didn''t like hearing you talk to her like that when she''s right there wanting to help while I''d kill for the chance to see my family again." Whatever the old woman was expecting it wasn''t that, and he left her in stunned silence. With that, he promised to work on the rest of the house once the statue was complete and went off to work on creating a job crystal. CH162 The hard part hadn¡¯t been getting the crystal itself. He already knew where a decently sized quartz boulder was from making the resistance amulets out of it, and breaking off a chunk hadn¡¯t been too terrible, even if it took a while. No, the hard part was when he got back to Fontesh¡¯s home, sitting outside by a fire, slowly chipping away at it as he tried to make a perfect sphere, using one of his minds to learn how to craft the enchantment while forcing the others to devote themselves to making sure the crystal was made correctly the first time. His entire body ached slightly, but he wouldn¡¯t forgive himself if he put it off to rest and ended up missing out on some job experience. Even though the quests rewarding him with it were far less exciting than getting a level to a skill, he didn¡¯t want to undervalue the benefits permanent growth bonuses provided, and the more he could get, the faster he could potentially grow, which meant he wouldn¡¯t be putting it off if he could help it. He stared into the crystal, feeling it was as round as he¡¯d be able to get it with the tools on hand and began polishing it to make it shine. What do you think? Good enough? It¡¯s not so bad, I just wish I had some sun. Anyway, let¡¯s get this enchantment started. Trust me Myriad, of everything I¡¯ve done tonight, this will be the easy part. He tuned the rest of the world out and focused on creating the enchantment. He had a perfect image of how it was supposed to look in his mind, and since it was made from pure mana he was on the same playing field as every other enchanter for once, his almost non-existent affinities doing nothing to hold him back. It wasn¡¯t set up like any other enchantment he¡¯d made in the past, but that was part of what made it interesting, and left him wanting to dissect the entire thing to try and learn its secrets, but that could wait for another day. He created nodes of mana throughout the crystal, connecting them with the thinnest of threads as he went. He was sure he¡¯d be able to make a much smaller version of the enchantment if he were to do it again, the only issue being it would need a better quality crystal than the common quartz to keep it from breaking, but that was another issue for another day. It was complete, yet felt strangely familiar. Why do I recognise this? I¡¯ve never even noticed an enchantment in the crystal before, I never looked that hard and I usually had other things on my mind. I¡¯m telling you, something about its structure feels familiar, like I¡¯ve seen it before. He did as his god requested, feeling that if it was important it would come to him later and let all of his options fill his mind. AVAILABLE JOBS
  • Trap user
  • Tree tamer
  • Craftsman- alchemy path
  • Craftsman- artistic path
  • Craftsman- blacksmith path
  • Craftsman- cooking path
  • Craftsman- stonecrafts path
  • Craftsman- sewing path
  • Heretic
  • Mind user
  • Holy craftsman
  • Kin
  • Tank
  • Magic item maker
I don¡¯t suppose you ever learned what Kin is, did you? He sighed, that¡¯s what he¡¯d been worried about. Neither he nor his god were exceptionally dumb, the job had appeared after his little organ transplant had resulted in a new passive skill, one that it was unlikely anyone else in the world possessed. Seeing how the brand new skill resulted in a brand new job, he couldn¡¯t help but be a little curious as to how things would change if he took it. Jobs were meant to help a skill grow after all, but his was a skill without level, how exactly did that grow? Even though Myriad knew Ben wouldn¡¯t take it, he still warned him off. Relax, I don¡¯t plan on going for it for now. I¡¯m just saying, I already have partial demonic body, that¡¯s not going to change, and the job itself doesn¡¯t sound nefarious or demon-related so long as no one knows what skill it connects to. When you think about everything my new organs do for me, don¡¯t you want to see if the job can enhance them, at least a bit? Think about keeping your precious apostle alive a while longer. <...> His silence was deafening and Ben could tell his god wasn¡¯t going for it as he put aside the issue for the time being. It wasn¡¯t the one he wanted anyway, even if he would be willing to take it in the future to increase his overall survival. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. So in any case, I got two new options, tank and magic item maker. I understand tank at least, it probably comes from me having defense enhancement, but what about magic item maker? It sounded like it would be linked to either crafting or enchantment, maybe both, but he¡¯d looked into the jobs he could get along those two paths before and he¡¯d never heard of it. That made sense. When he¡¯d taken the time to read up on his potential jobs, he¡¯d basically just skipped over anything with magic as a prerequisite, but that left him with a bit of a dilemma. Ordinarily, enchanting would be considered pretty closely linked to magic jobs since that was the main way of using it. It was more or less expected that a person would go through the apprentice mage path, completing the job and improving both their magic and enchanting at the same time before gaining access to the enchanter job at the second level. Likewise, it was expected that an enchanter would move back to mage jobs and jobs that acted as hybrids of the two before they unlocked high enchanter at the seventh, if they ever made it that far. While craftsman jobs gained experience through enchanting and presumably bonuses to the skill as well, his options there were incredibly limited. Crafting path jobs gained most of their experience from pursuing the path they were related to, meaning he couldn¡¯t count on them for enchanting experience, while the other option of holy craftsman he couldn¡¯t be sure about. There was a chance it would give bonuses to his enchanting, but it was possible it would only be in specific situations such as creating job crystals. He¡¯d promised to help Thera, but he could justify ignoring those to focus on something else for a little bit because he believed the attempt had potential and he wouldn¡¯t be able to benefit his enchanting anyway, but now he had a proper enchanting option available to him. Should he really leave it for later, even if he was sure it wouldn¡¯t be too long? I¡¯m still not sure¡­ You know what, you¡¯re right, you talked me into it. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ll be able to complete the next job in a couple weeks anyway, so what am I even worried about? Myriad thought he heard something absolutely absurd pass through the mind of his apostle, but before he could question him on it he¡¯d made his choice. Name: Ben Heph Race: Human Titles: Apostle of Myriad, The Forgotten One, Miracle Maker Jobs: Mind user (lv 6) Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman, Priest, Enchanter Attributes:
  • Vitality: 169
  • Vitality recovery rate: 1/hr
  • Mana: 101
  • Mana recovery rate: 6/min
  • Strength: 166
  • Agility: 85
  • Stamina: 658
  • Intelligence: 345
Affinities:
  • Light: 3
  • Life: 2
  • Fire: 4
  • Water: 3
  • Air: 4
  • Earth: 2
  • Death: 3
  • Dark: 1
  • Space: 4
  • Time: 5
Resistances:
  • Light: 68
  • Life: 72
  • Fire: 75
  • Water: 69
  • Air: 66
  • Earth: 81
  • Death: 78
  • Dark: 85
  • Space: 63
  • Time: 61
Blessed skills:
  • Crafting lv6
  • Enchanting lv5
  • Focus lv5
Passive skills:
  • World speak+
  • Tolerance lv2
  • Sacrilege lv3
  • Complex mind lv2
  • Bind
  • Partial demonic body
  • Defense enhancement lv1
  • Parallel thought lv0
Active skills:
  • Dismantling lv2
  • Stealth lv1
  • Connect lv5
  • Hidden mind lv4
  • Calculate lv1
  • Knife wielder lv0
  • Hammer wielder lv0
Blessings
  • Myriads Blessing
  • Anailias Blessing
Trials
  • Trial of Anailia and Tolona
As exciting as it was to finally acquire a job that not only gave him a skill level but also a brand new skill, he was reeling from the immediate change he felt to his mind. It was like his brain had immediately strengthened, changed almost to the same scale as when he leveled up complex mind. Oh Jesus Christ! Myriad what¡¯s going on in my head right now, things are feeling weird. Okay, but what¡¯s actually going on? Wait, so if I grow it with complex mind- I¡¯m already level six? Definitely part of it. I figured since I don''t struggle too much leveling up mind skills even without any job bonus I¡¯ll be able to level up the ones I have and learn some new ones easily enough, but I also have one other thing to take advantage of. Namely you. I¡¯m in your realm most nights anyway so I basically have twice the time to work on my skills, completing it should be a breeze. Might being the keyword. I¡¯m hopeful that improving my ability to think as a whole will help me come up with some solutions I might not have seen before. If I complete this as quickly as I think I will then even if I¡¯m wrong it¡¯s not a big loss. CH163 After a long night of making use of Myriad in his realm to work on his mind skills, he woke up and prepared breakfast for everyone. Over the last few weeks he¡¯d picked up a few recipes from Fontesh, and so he was putting his efforts into making the frattles Delair enjoyed that he¡¯d grown quite a taste for himself. With food served and everyone satisfied, he was going to go off to work on the statue again to try and get most, if not all, of it finished that day when Sachel stopped him, pulling him to the side to make a request. ¡°Let me hire you,¡± She asked, much to Ben¡¯s surprise. ¡°Maybe. Why, what do you need?¡± ¡°We¡¯re still stuck on how to deal with the frost bats. Thera suggested that you might be able to make something to help us find them.¡± ¡°I¡¯m touched that she has so much faith in me, but I¡¯ve never made anything for tracking before, I wouldn¡¯t know where to start,¡± Actually, how would I go about something like that? Do any affinitied magics have spells that might work? Wait, maybe I could do something with bind? No, either way I¡¯m getting ahead of myself, there¡¯s a bigger issue here. ¡°Besides, I can¡¯t help you, this is your quest. If I do too much you might not pass it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I said I want to hire you. I spoke it over with Myriad, I would just be paying you for your work. It¡¯s no different than hiring someone to make a weapon for me, so long as I¡¯m the one to use it.¡± ¡°Hmm, well in that case I guess there¡¯s no issue with it so I¡¯ll at least try to see what I can come up with, but I¡¯m not making any promises. We¡¯ll discuss price if I manage anything, alright?¡± ¡°Sounds good, thanks.¡± He waved her off and went back to work on the statue, his thoughts filled with how he would manage to make an enchantment that could help with tracking. Let¡¯s see, I feel like I''m onto something with bind. Since me and Thera can always know where the other is it¡¯s obviously a tracking skill, just highly specialized to a specific person. Maybe there¡¯s a way I could alter it to track a specific item? One tracker and one receiver, and just put the receiver on one of the bats? He felt like the idea had potential and stopped his work after a few hours to test it out. The simplest thing he could think of was to make a simple compass of sorts, but instead of using magnetism, he¡¯d be letting bind point the way. To test it he got a bucket of water and a leftover piece of wood, carving it into a shallow semi-sphere to float on the water with an arrow carved into the flat side showing the direction of the enchantment before he applied it, trying to work out the structure he thought would work best. Since it came from his copy of bind he believed it should point towards Thera, showing him whether or not the idea was viable, and he placed it in the water, hoping it would slowly drift to match the direction he felt her in, only for nothing to happen. A failure, huh? He¡¯d patiently waited a few minutes, but had no success. It wasn¡¯t too surprising. Some skills took a lot of time and effort to learn how to properly enchant with, not being anywhere as easy to draw out the effects like using magic or enchanting the effects of the sword wielder skill on a sword. If he was ever back in Anailia he would have to see if any research had been done there since it was a skill that came from their god, but for the time being he could just experiment. And experiment he did, spending a few hours alternating between working on the statue and trying to make something with bind work, getting Thera near the end to try enchanting with her copy of the skill as well to see if using both made a difference before he had to admit he couldn¡¯t do it, he¡¯d have to explore a different option. That put him back to magic. He had his rings, and while the physical magics were likely to be useless to the task, he thought there might be potential in the more spiritually oriented ones, specifically dark magic. Hey Myriad, you around? He asked, waiting a few minutes to get a reply. No, nothing crazy don¡¯t worry. I was just hoping you might have an idea on how to make an enchantment I could use for mind control. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. <...That¡¯s odd. I know I was desperate when I got you to be my believer, but I was at least confident that I¡¯d properly confirmed you weren¡¯t evil, so why is it that more and more you seem to be trying to prove me wrong?> Hey, I¡¯m a sweetheart. Not an evil bone in my body. Everything sounds bad when taken out of context, Mr. God that blew up his planet. I know using mind effects is forbidden on people, what I want to do is create something I could tie a mind effect to that could be placed on a frost bat to motivate them to return to their group. Hmm, Light magic deals in illusions and dark in hallucinations, but I¡¯d need a better understanding of either to put them to use in an enchantment like that. Maybe I could do something with the first option then. Do you think I might be able to link world speak+ to a frost bat so that it could have enough knowledge of the language that it might obey orders when charmed? Connect, got it. Considering you seemed so against me learning to do this should you really be so proud of making a skill that makes it easier? Okay, I see what you¡¯re saying, it might do well in the shop if I learn how so I might as well. I guess I should be testing it with a different mind skill first anyway to know if I succeed, rather than start from trying to get world speak on a bat. Thanks Myriad. With that done he went to find himself a test subject and found Skoe working on the same task he¡¯d left him with when he stopped needing oil and tar, preparing firewood for the village. While everyone had a magic stove, that didn¡¯t mean they could heat their entire homes with it when the temperature dropped, the mana cost would be far too high for something like that, meaning it came down to good old-fashioned fireplaces. ¡°Hey, you look like you may need a break from that!¡± He called out cheerfully as he approached the man, he looked at him with something almost akin to fear. ¡°Oh infinite hells, what do you need me to do now?¡± What¡¯s with that? I¡¯m not treating him too badly. Yeah, and he¡¯s getting to sleep before me and waking up after me, he¡¯s fine. ¡°Don¡¯t be like that, I need to make an enchantment Sachel requested, I just need you to use it when I do to see if it works.¡± He still seemed suspicious, but gave in since it was for his teammate. ¡°Alright, do you have it on you?¡± ¡°Nope, I need to make a helmet first to apply it to so I want to fit it to your head properly. Take a seat and I¡¯ll get started.¡± As with the rest of his time in the village, the materials he could use were limited to basic wood or stone, and with plenty of logs around the choice of which to use was obvious. He took a thinner log and got to work cutting it to the size he wanted, taking careful work to match it to the dimensions of Skoe¡¯s head in a way that would be reasonably comfortable as well as secure. Once that was done he started building an enchantment, not aimed at mind control since he wasn¡¯t looking to break any laws, but instead to allow him to use the full effects of complex mind that Ben had access to. By the time he had something he felt happy with, Skoe seemed antsy despite getting his desired rest. ¡°Alright, all that¡¯s left is for you to run some of your mana through it to see if it works.¡± ¡°And it will do what?¡± ¡°Make you think better, don¡¯t worry.¡± Completely unassured, the four-armed man did as he was asked, channeling a bit of his mana through the enchantment, only to double over and barf immediately. ¡°What the hell was that!¡± He demanded as soon as he could talk, a question Ben ignored in favour of examining what went wrong. ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t think I did anything that would cause vomiting. Maybe growing two new minds all at once was a bit too disorienting? Let¡¯s take it from the top but this time I¡¯ll connect to you as you activate the enchantment to see what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°Wait, hold on, give me a minute!¡± The man pleaded, but there were still plenty of things to do over the day and he couldn¡¯t just wait around, so he placed a hand on the helmet to power it himself while connecting with the man. He wanted to have the tool ready by the night, no matter how much thorough testing that meant. CH164 Theras Perspective ¡°I¡¯m sorry for how I treated you in the past, please let me help with the hunt and don¡¯t leave me alone with him.¡± Thera had just gotten back to the house after discussing what they could try with Sachel and Ralia in the event Ben couldn¡¯t make anything, but as soon as they set foot inside Skoe had immediately prostrated before her, throwing his face into the ground to try to show his sincerity. ¡°Ben¡¯s trying to improve things for the village as well as make something to help Sachel, don¡¯t be a baby.¡± She told him coldly, trying to walk past him despite the fact he wasn¡¯t giving up. ¡°Not only is that guy insane, he¡¯s a slave driver! I¡¯ve gotten the zeroth level in both woodworking and torsion enhancement because of how much he¡¯s made me do! I hadn¡¯t even heard of torsion enhancement! That isn¡¯t even mentioning whatever he¡¯d been doing to my mind for the last few hours!¡± Hmm, I guess he has been expecting Skoe to keep up with his work pace a bit more than he usually does from other people, but then again who cares? It¡¯s still to help the village and his friend, he can deal. ¡°Again, don¡¯t be a baby. You must have noticed Ben¡¯s worked just as hard for even longer hours, can the mighty warrior not keep up with the humble craftsman?¡± Even if she knew describing Ben like that was a ridiculous understatement she really wanted to drive the point home, and while he continued to grovel Ralia had her own question. ¡°Ben, what have you been doing to his mind that has him like this?¡± ¡°An excellent question but nothing much. I needed to make a tool that could interact with the user''s thoughts so I tried creating something that would let him use complex mind. I guess the feeling of constantly growing another mind or two as I fiddled with it was a little disorienting, that¡¯s all. Either way, don¡¯t worry about it because I was able to make what you¡¯d asked for. Kind of at least.¡± ¡°You created a tool that would let us track them!¡± Sachel asked, eyes sparkling with hope. ¡°Again, kind of,¡± He handed over what looked like five small quartz cups and began to explain how they worked. ¡°Basically these are mind control helmets with some mental enhancement aspects. If you capture some of the bats and give them simple instructions they should obey. It needs to be simple to understand though, I¡¯m basically making word speak+ interact with the concepts that exist in their brains already, so stick to things like ¡®go home¡¯ or ¡®come here¡¯ for best results, anything more complicated than a few simple words probably won¡¯t get through. Two things to remember is that I haven¡¯t had a chance to test them for, well legal reasons, and also that you¡¯ll have to get them to come back to you every now and then to replenish the mana as it drains. You might be able to make the bats fill it themselves, but I wouldn¡¯t count on it.¡± While Sachel was viewing him with respect, seeing a dependable apostle that was able to come through with her challenging request, both Ralia and Skoe were looking at him in horror at so easily admitting to creating a mind control enchantment. Thera wasn¡¯t overly surprised, given that she¡¯d seen some of the tools he¡¯d created in the past and knew what he was aiming for in the future, but the fact he¡¯d gone from getting the request to completing it so fast was still impressive, she¡¯d thought it would take at least a couple days before he¡¯d come up with a solution. She looked back down to the ground where Skoe continued to beg her. If Ben¡¯s tool really did work then they¡¯d probably be led to a large group of them, possibly more than the three of them could reasonably handle. If they wanted to get it done quickly then this was probably the best option. ¡°Fine, you can join us for the hunt so long as you don¡¯t do anything stupid.¡± ¡°So you forgive me?¡± ¡°What? No, don''t be an idiot. I still don¡¯t like you but it seems like we might need more hands. I¡¯m not going to put myself in danger when I can use you to reduce the risk.¡± It also makes things a bit easier if we need to run away, if he¡¯s really sorry I¡¯m sure he won¡¯t mind protecting everyone as we get to safety. Whatever the reason, he was just grateful to be out of Ben¡¯s grasp and Sachel was happy to have the extra hands before moving on to discuss payment. ¡°Alright, how much do you want for these?¡± She asked, bracing herself for the worst. There weren¡¯t many enchanters that could pull together something like that, especially without any proper tools to place it on, and she was expecting to spend a long while destitute, paying off both this and the money she owed him for getting her released from the pit she was being imprisoned in, but he shocked her with a different offer. ¡°Instead of money, how about this, I get one favour from you. I don¡¯t have anything in mind right now, but if I ever need help I get your help, sound good?¡± Her teammates were off to the side, gesturing wildly not to take the deal, thinking he was the sort of man that would ask something unreasonable and they should just owe him more money instead, but she didn¡¯t notice, not giving them a glace as she happily agreed with the apostle of the god she had so much faith in. ¡°Absolutely! Anything you need, me and the others will help you with it!¡± Her party visibly deflated as Sachel promised away not only herself, but them as well, but she didn¡¯t notice, instead focusing her full attention to making a plan for what they hoped would be their last hunt.
Sachel had made the plan, leaving the beginning and most important part to Thera. ¡°Are you ready?¡± The half dryad asked her, which she returned with a nod, slipping off her cloak and preparing for however many would come. It always took a few minutes for them to show up, so as they waited she began removing the charm from vast quantities of her dark mana, all in preparation for a single spell. Ever since she acquired the skill, her speed and ability to do so had improved, even if it left her magic useless outside of certain situations like this where she had plenty of time to prepare, but that didn¡¯t matter. Any improvement to her magic was improvement overall, and having the ability in her arsenal was proving handy as she felt the spell in her mind take shape. ¡°They¡¯re coming,¡± Ralia spoke quietly, warning the rest as Thera stretched out her staff. The mana and spell both felt they were going to burst from her, but she did her best to keep it under control. They just needed a few more seconds, just until she got her eyes on the bats to know where to fire. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Just a few more seconds, just a little more. She told herself, feeling sweat form on her brow as she did before the first bat came into her line of sight, meaning the others would be close enough that it wouldn¡¯t matter. In a feeling of release, no longer suppressing that temperamental mana, she fired it out towards the bats and watched as they fell to the ground, one by one, getting a total of nine of them with her spell, sleep. ¡°Great work,¡± Sachel told her encouragingly as she went to each of them, killing four while putting the small hats on the rest, giving each a little shake as she did, trying to pull them from their induced rest. It took a bit of waiting, but one by one they all woke up and stared at them, seeming filled with expectations as they did. Sachel took a breath, knowing that if this didn¡¯t work they¡¯d have to try all over again to come up with a solution as she made her request. ¡°Stay close and head home.¡± She¡¯d discussed the matter with her god who believed that would be the most complex phrase they could understand with the effects of world speak placed on their brains and held her breath, not daring to hope too hard as she did. There was no need to worry though, Ben¡¯s work paid off. The large bats flew close to the ground and just in front of them, bringing them all up to a jog to follow along as they did, going towards where the others could be found.
¡°This is insane,¡± Ralia muttered. As the one with the best eyesight at night, she was best equipped to judge where they were going and how many they were up against so she had taken the lead following the bats as hours passed. None of them had expected to find where all of the bats had been coming from close by, but they¡¯d followed for so long that it would only be an hour or two before the sun began to rise before they¡¯d caught sight of their targets. There was a chill in the air as deep in the woods, hundreds of frost bats made their home in the trees, altering the environment to match their desires as they coated everything in a thick layer of frost. Ralia was already shivering and wrapped herself around Sachel for warmth, as the rest of them tried to figure out how to deal with it. ¡°So if this is where they¡¯re coming from then that means we have to get rid of all of them?¡± Skoe asked in shock. ¡°There¡¯s no way, this is too many.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve worked too hard to just give up,¡± Sachel argued. ¡°Thera, do you think you¡¯ll be able to disrupt enough of them that we could stand a chance?¡± ¡°Maybe, but it looks like Ralia won¡¯t be able to fight, and to get the effect you¡¯re looking for my staff won¡¯t be able to hold up.¡± ¡°Your earth magic¡¯s improved, right? We don¡¯t need to worry about damaging any of these trees, so do you think you¡¯ll be able to use any more spells after?¡± ¡°Not well. I can use my telekinesis in tandem with my earth magic to fire earth bullets, but it¡¯s slow. I wouldn¡¯t recommend depending on it.¡± ¡°Every bit helps. Besides, I think we can make it work. The light will be up soon so they should be resting. If we just wait for that we should be able to catch them all off guard. As long as you disrupt them and are able to do a bit of attacking, me and Skoe will handle the rest.¡± While not perfect, it was the best idea they had and they agreed to wait it out, backing off a little bit to try and let Ralia recover from the cold. Unfortunately, even the best-laid plans don¡¯t always work, and this was far from the best of plans. Some passing bats, out and returning to the others, spotted them where they sat and let out a high-pitched shriek, seemingly calling the colony over in a massive drove. The air was thick with the sounds of wings beating and they needed to spring into action far earlier than they¡¯d expected. Ralia was still freezing but trying to do what she could by taking her beast form, while Skoe readied his swords and shields and Sachel readied her own earth magic, creating blades of dirt to spin above her. Of all of them, Thera took the lead, doing what she¡¯d planned and preparing a life magic spell of massive proportions. She couldn¡¯t be sure the entire group was flying towards them, so she needed to make it bigger than she¡¯d initially planned to try and stretch back farther, gathering enough of the life mana within her and forcing it through the small staff that she felt it begin to crack in her hands before the spell was even released, and exerting every bit of control she could manage, forcefully firing it off before it turned to dust in her hand. The outcome of her spell had been more powerful than any she¡¯d used before, and its effect was apparent. While they couldn¡¯t be sure they were dead, almost two-thirds of the bats flying their way collapsed to the ground, leaving Sachel and Skoe to handle the rest. Sachel focused on acting on the ones at a distance, tearing through the swarm with her earthen saw while Skoe covered her, attacking any bat that managed to grow too close. They had the advantage for the time being, the bats being thoroughly disoriented by Thera¡¯s spell and the immediate loss of so many of their colony, but they couldn¡¯t be sure the effects would last and they had to make the time count. Thera herself deviated from the initial plan slightly, trusting the others to manage as she did. It would be disastrous if the bats she¡¯d taken out were alive and able to get up after some rest, so she did her best to account for that, using her earth magic to raise a cloud of dust over the bodies, the same way she would be able to when her level was low, but with the benefits of her skill having increased so much since then that she was able to bring it down with overwhelming force, the bats on the ground unable to avoid the attack as the forest filled with the sounds of bones snapping. The others to their credit kept working at chipping through the numbers as she attempted her attack again, curious if it could be of any use on the ones still flying, but with less success. It looked like she¡¯d gotten a couple, but any that weren¡¯t taken down by her first attack had enough mobility to adjust their bodies as they felt the pressure form against it, avoiding the majority of its effect. It was possible she might be able to get a bit more out of that strategy, but for the time being she focused on what she¡¯d agreed to do, creating her oversized earth bullets and throwing them into the approaching mass. It wasn¡¯t nearly as quick as what the others were managing with their attacks, but she more than made up for it with volume, taking out tens of them as her boulder sailed through the air. In the heat of battle, it was impossible to know how long they¡¯d been at it, but it was clear exhaustion was setting in. Sachel¡¯s attacks were slowing as she tried to conserve mana, and the swings of Skoe¡¯s swords had been losing power as well, but one of them stopped. The bats were beginning to come to their senses and had been working in tandem on an attack, so slow that none had noticed, but now they were all feeling the effects. The severe chill in the air was a result of the water in it slowly being frozen, a layer of frost forming against all of their equipment as they fought. It had barely been noticeable at first, but as they all lost body heat flecks of ice began to form on their skin as well. Skoe was filling his role as the front line warrior, doing his best to take the attacks for the mages as the fight went on with his injuries beginning to pile up. Something had to give. ¡°Thera, I think I can manage to deal with the frost and keep them attacking for a bit, but I¡¯ll be spent. Is there anything you can manage?¡± Sachel asked, feeling the sting of the ice on her flesh. ¡°That depends, do you mind if your staff is destroyed?¡± ¡°Ha, not much of a price if it gets this over with and we all live. Think you can get Ben to make me a new one after?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± Sachel let out a chuckle, doing her best to ignore the feeling of the frost seeping into her bones as she threw managing her mana to the wind, instead pulling all of the water in the area to her, completely depriving the bats of their means of wearing them out as she did so and handed the staff to Thera. Removing the frost wasn¡¯t warming her up, but at the very least she wasn¡¯t getting any colder as she prepared her spell. This wasn¡¯t a staff Ben had prepared specifically for her, which meant it wasn¡¯t built to resist her magic. Staves like that had always been difficult for her to use, but it was far better than not having one, and she attempted the same thing she¡¯d done before to all of the bats on the ground, but at a much bigger scale, Raising thick clouds of dirt and dust into the sky before bringing it crashing down with such force that no bat could reasonable react in time as pebbles and dust ripped through flesh, finally bringing the battle to a close. CH165 <5864 to the power of 3?> 201,642,412,544. Why are you making these so freaking hard? Um, it should be 80631.3636 and so on and so forth forever. I¡¯m not worried, I¡¯m training my mind skills since I have nothing else to do until they all get back. He¡¯d finished the statue of Jagal to the villagers'' joy and done all the repairs to the elder¡¯s house that he could do, leaving nothing else to work on in the village, so why not train his skills while he waited for them to get back? It wasn¡¯t like he was doing it to distract himself from any concern over how late they all were with a full day almost having passed and the sun about to set. ¡°¡­¡± Whatever, just give me some more numbers while I wait. Myriad told him, sounding relieved to be free from hours of math questions as Ben let out a breath he didn¡¯t realise he was holding, rushing over to greet them. They all looked tired and more than a little worse for wear, but they were alive. ¡°How¡¯d it go?¡± He asked, hoping for the best given how they looked and getting a positive reaction despite everything. ¡°We¡¯re pretty sure it¡¯s over. Just need to check tomorrow to be sure. Also, is the job crystal you made still in the house?¡± Sachel asked, seeming to have the most energy of all of them. ¡°It is. Hentath knows it¡¯s here so the village can figure out what to do with it later.¡± ¡°Sweet, wish me luck!¡± She told them as she rushed up to get her hands on it. All of them followed but Skoe, who seemed the most dead on his feet and immediately went to the shed to rest. Fontesh was playing with Delair in the kitchen but they put whatever they had been up to on hold as Sachel came in and placed her hands on the crystal, a smile forming on her lips as she did and signifying that the option she¡¯d been hoping for was there. It took no time at all for the smile to turn into a loud cheer from her as she quickly shared the good news. ¡°Tree tamer just gave me a level to my connect and the skill ¡®spell unification¡¯!¡± She happily cheered, and he couldn¡¯t help but congratulate her. Spell unification was a skill he¡¯d looked into a bit after getting access to it from Zandale, and if connect gave her a better chance of awakening her skills into plant magic, then spell unification all but guaranteed it. It was a skill that specifically made it easier for the user to create combined spells so long as they had the correct affinities, meaning that she could start practicing plant spells in earnest. While it would have been possible before, the difficulty and mana cost would be too high to make it practical, but that limit was now significantly reduced so long as she practiced and worked to raise the skill level. Fontesh was the most emotional hearing the news, wrapping her cousin up in a tight hug. Having grown up together in the same village, she knew just how much this meant to Sachel and couldn¡¯t help but be overjoyed for her. To finally be able to use plant magic to any real extent was thrilling, and they would have celebrated in earnest if not for their desperate need for rest.
¡°Well Hentath?¡± Ben said, tapping his foot as they waited. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Ben we really don¡¯t have to-¡± ¡°Nope, you did your part now she does hers. No getting out of it.¡± Sachel was embarrassed and tried to talk Ben out of making a big deal of it, but he¡¯d insisted. Hentath had agreed to apologize to her, and he fully expected it to happen. ¡°Ah, you really are a pain,¡± The elder muttered before giving in, attitude becoming far more awkward as she did so. ¡°As for what I said before¡­ it may have been a bit much. This is your home and you¡¯re welcome here.¡± ¡°Still felt a little weak.¡± ¡°Thank you grandmother,¡± She said, trying to talk over him. ¡°If the village ever has any problems, please let me know. I¡¯ll always come to help.¡± ¡°Mmh, well maybe I¡¯ll take you up on it if I ever need to. Anyway, with that done I¡¯m going to borrow your apostle for a bit. Boy, follow me.¡± He wasn¡¯t so much asked as told as the elderly woman''s vice-like grip locked onto his arm, not letting go as she dragged him into the forest. Chances I¡¯m about to be murdered? Noted. He was dragged until they got to the edge of the sacred forest, when he was told in no uncertain terms to wait and that it might be a while as she went within, seeming to search around for the bit that she was still in his field of view. Not turned into fertilizer yet so this is probably fine. right? Ben wasn¡¯t really too worried. His god was watching and he was sure that if Myriad picked up anything from the woman''s mind he would have been warned, he was too cheerful for there to be any problems. In the meantime, he sat down and leaned against one of the trunks. Last time he¡¯d come so far out he hadn¡¯t been allowed to get so close to the woods, but since the elder had brought him here herself he assumed it was fine and let his curiosity get the better of him. The dryads were very serious about these trees after all, and seeing as how they¡¯d actually communicate with them through plant magic, he couldn¡¯t help being curious about what they had to say. Placing his hand against the trunk of the one he was leaning on, he opened his minds and connected. ¡°Fuck!¡± He accidentally yelled as he broke the connection, pain tearing through his head. I feel like I just connected to a hundred people at once! Damn it that was intense, I thought my head was about to explode. While the intelligence level seemed to be on the same level as any other plant he interacted with, potentially a little higher, the speed they were able to think was equivalent to any of the races that Ben had connected to. Stranger still, every plant in that section of the forest seemed to be linked, at least the ones that originated from the same world, and Ben was able to connect to all of them at once. Or or or, I use them for practice while I wait and you just monitor me and get me to stop if it looks like any damage is being done. Rather than answer he instead connected to the plant again, feeling an uncountable number of minds taking notice of him as he did. It was an unpleasant experience, but not as shocking as when he first connected to it and he was able to hang on as his brain was bombarded with emotions and he did his best to respond in kind.
¡°What the hell are you doing?¡± The dryad asked as she shook him back to awareness, more concern in her voice than he expected. His head was pounding and he was covered in sweat, but he thought he was mostly alright. Myriad hadn¡¯t delivered any desperate warnings at least, though his god definitely didn¡¯t like what he was doing even remotely. ¡°Since you left me here I figured I¡¯d chat with the trees for a bit. They¡¯re neat, never encountered any plants with such active minds before.¡± ¡°Yeah well, you somehow managed to scare the entire forest. The lot of them were worried that you were dying, saying they could feel your pain.¡± ¡°Ah, I was trying to tell them not to worry. Having so many minds interacting with my own was just a bit intense, but I¡¯m good. I¡¯d love to spend a few more days talking to them if I can.¡± He could only imagine the sort of growth he might be able to get from his mind skills if he did, not to mention how much faster he could complete his current job, but the elder shot him down fast. ¡°Absolutely not. I can¡¯t have you stressing the forest that much, if I knew you were going to do that I wouldn¡¯t have brought you this far. Anyway, here,¡± She handed him three long and sturdy branches that looked like they¡¯d long since fallen from the trees, seeming to be mostly dried out. ¡°I¡¯ll acknowledge you¡¯ve done a lot for the village, even if nobody asked you to meddle, so take those as a reward.¡± He looked over the branches he was handed. They were each about as thick as an arm and about as long as he was tall, with a surprising level of sturdiness to them to boot. They¡¯d clearly fallen from their trees long in the past, being light and dry. ¡°Oh cool, thanks. But what can I use them for?¡± He asked as he inspected each one. ¡°You¡¯re a craftsman, right? Use them to make staves. There¡¯s only two or three trees in the world with wood better for channeling mana than anything from our homeworld, though since I¡¯m giving you three, make one for my granddaughter as well since she went to the trouble of dealing with our bat problem. Suppose it¡¯s only right to reward her for it.¡± As he watched the old woman try to justify her gift to her granddaughter he couldn¡¯t help but give a laugh as he agreed. Seems like things between them might work out, but even more importantly, he¡¯d managed to get his hands on something good. Even if it had taken a while, the trip hadn''t been too bad. CH166 ¡°Please don¡¯t go,¡± Delair asked, clinging to his leg as he was saying goodbye to her and Fontesh before he and Thera went to catch a ride with the merchant to get back to the gate. Oh man, my heart¡¯s going to break. That would mean all the work I did on the statue would be for nothing so pass. Sachel snuck behind the young girl and scooped her up in her arms. ¡°Come on now, you¡¯ll still have me for a little longer at least so give him a friendly goodbye, alright?¡± ¡°But you¡¯re not as fun! And you can¡¯t cook!¡± Thera let out a small giggle as Fontesh told the child off for being rude. Ben couldn¡¯t help but let out a chuckle himself as he went up and patted her head. ¡°I¡¯ll write you some letters and if I ever get the chance to stop by again I will, so be good for your mom okay?¡± ¡°Mmh, okay,¡± She said, still seeming down. ¡°Tell you what, I¡¯ll send out some better toys than what I was already able to make here, so look forward to it.¡± ¡°Really!¡± She asked eyes lighting up. ¡°Really really, so be good, alright?¡± ¡°Alright!¡± ¡°Haa, thanks for looking after her so much,¡± Fontesh told him as he and Thera boarded the wagon. ¡°If you do ever make some time to visit again I¡¯ll be sure to have a room for you.¡± ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll take you up on that if I can. If Delair has any interest in being a craftsman when she grows up you can send her my way, she made an excellent helper, I¡¯m sure she has it in her.¡± ¡°Ha, sure I¡¯ll keep the offer in mind.¡± They said goodbye to the rest of the village and finally were on their way back home. It had been longer than either of them had expected, but they¡¯d both gained plenty from the trip.
¡°I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re succeeding, you shouldn¡¯t be able to meditate three times at once just because you have more minds, it doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± ¡°Makes sense or not, it¡¯s working so it doesn¡¯t matter. Now throw some math at me Myriad, I want another level to calculate before I¡¯m back.¡± ¡°There must be another mind skill we can practice, just asking you math questions for hours is so freaking boring.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°You think I¡¯m enjoying it? I don¡¯t even need calculate beyond the zeroth level, this is all to get through the job as fast as I can. If I play my cards right I might be able to change to a new one in a day or two after getting back to Stonewall, then I¡¯m never touching the skill again. Or at least not until I take another mind job, but that seriously isn¡¯t the priority after this one.¡± ¡°It better not be with how much time I¡¯m putting towards helping you train this one but fine. What¡¯s-¡± His god stopped for a moment, seeming to think before gleefully having a reason to change the topic. ¡°Sachel officially finished her quest and she¡¯s asleep so I¡¯m bringing her up. Your hours of math are going to have to wait.¡± ¡°Fine, I guess this is more important.¡± He watched and waited as Myriad brought her there, Sachel appearing in a cloud of twinkling lights and he couldn¡¯t help but wonder if he always showed up in the same fashion. After a moment her eyes opened, seeing both Ben and Myriad standing before her. While Ben couldn¡¯t read her mind without connecting to her like Myriad could, the worried look in her eyes told him she was remembering the last time he¡¯d met her with their god, and Myriad was quick to soothe her. ¡°You have nothing to worry about Sachel, just relax. We¡¯re here to congratulate you on completing your first quest.¡± As he said that a colourful light show went up in the background, something the god had arranged ahead of time to properly celebrate her first victory and the job experience that came with it. She hadn¡¯t gotten the official confirmation about having completed the quest until after she¡¯d already changed her job, but there was nothing to be done for that. It was hard to plan things out so the job levels would go to the harder ones to acquire, but she seemed thrilled enough with the result. ¡°Thank you so much!¡± She told them proudly, bowing down before them. ¡°You¡¯ve both done so much for me, if there¡¯s ever anything I can do to help the faith as a whole, I¡¯ll devote myself to it wholeheartedly.¡± She couldn¡¯t have been more pleased with having the opportunity to be of use to the god she¡¯d chosen to follow after everything that happened. Not just the blessing and skill, nor getting a quest and assistance for it along the way, her longest dream of being able to use plant magic was now a reality. Even if it still wouldn¡¯t be as good as someone who properly had the skill, she¡¯d just have to continue to work hard to awaken it as she went and do her best to repay the debt she owed to Myriad for it the entire time. Myriad sensed all of that and couldn¡¯t have been happier, feeling confident in his choice. ¡°I fully believe you will. It¡¯s actually with that in mind that I brought you here to give you an offer. Sachel, become my oracle.¡± Watching her, Ben was worried she was about to pass out from the shock. She seemed to be at a complete loss for words as she processed just what she was being offered. ¡°I- I can¡¯t,¡± She said, shocking them both before giving an explanation. ¡°This is too big of an honor for me, especially since I¡¯ve only just started worshiping you. Wouldn¡¯t the role be better for one of your older believers?¡± She asked, not knowing that aside from Ben, she was the oldest believer on the planet. Myriad did his best to talk around that issue as he tried to ease her mind on the matter. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how long someone has worshiped me, I do my best to watch all of my believers, and I trust in your sincerity. Still, this isn¡¯t something I intend to push on you, if you don¡¯t want the role then that is acceptable as well, but I made the offer because I believe you¡¯d be an excellent fit.¡± Hearing all of that, how could she resist? ¡°I¡¯ll do it!¡± She told them, voice filled with determination and cheer with small tears of happiness at the corners of her eyes. ¡°It would be the greatest honor I could receive, I promise I won¡¯t let you down.¡± ¡°I have the utmost faith in you.¡± And I¡¯m free next time something like this happens! ¡°Just remember you aren¡¯t alone, should you ever need any help and for whatever reason I can¡¯t act immediately, you can always rely on my apostle for assistance as well.¡± Myriad, what the actual hell? Don¡¯t just ignore me, I know you can hear this! Sachel, being none the wiser to Ben cursing the god they both gave their faith so deeply in his mind bowed down again. ¡°I look forward to doing everything I can to help serve you.¡± CH167- Side story, sleepovers ¡°I change my mind, this is dumb and embarrasing. What if Sonya comes home early? She¡¯ll write about this to my mother and then I¡¯ll actually die, Ben.¡± ¡°Sorry but it¡¯s too late, I¡¯ve put way too much work into making this fun so change into your pajamas then come help me make the pizza.¡± She groaned but did as she was asked, changing into one of the nightgowns she¡¯d rest in before returning to the kitchen and feeling Ben''s eyes on her as he worked on preparing ingredients with his silly cooking outfit. ¡°If you stare I¡¯m using you to practice my magic all night.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not staring,¡± He told her, raising his hands in self-defense. ¡°You came into the room and I looked at you, big difference.¡± ¡°Mmh,¡± She knew she was just feeling self-conscious about doing this when she was an adult, but it was really her own fault. She¡¯s the one that brought up the topic when they¡¯d been forced to room together in the dyrad village and it seemed like Ben thought it would be fun so he¡¯d worked hard to create a typical human sleepover for a night he learned that Sonya was taking the overnight shift. While he was used to walking around in his sleepwear in the evening, she was not, typically opting to change in her room before bed. Being about like that made her feel exposed, and somehow it made it worse that Ben really didn¡¯t seem too conscious of her in it. ¡°Come on, it will be fun so don¡¯t worry too much and help me decide what toppings to put on the dough,¡± He picked it up and threw it in the air, giving it a few good spins before getting it to the size he wanted. ¡°It¡¯s a shame I couldn¡¯t get the ingredients to make the same sort of red sauce I did for pasta, but there are no pizza purists in the house! We can throw on whatever sauces and toppings we want!¡± ¡°Why are you so pumped about this? And isn¡¯t this just a flatbread?¡± ¡°Because pizza is delicious but also maybe! We aren¡¯t going to focus on that bit, come on, it''s fun.¡± He began pulling random ingredients from the cold box and sliced them up, adding whatever he thought might be good to half of it. Knowing he was doing all of this because she asked, as well as the fact that he wouldn''t give it up, she did her best to put aside her reservations to try to have fun with it, giving in and adding some toppings herself. It seemed to raise his spirits even more to see her getting into it and he started talking up the meal. ¡°You know, on my world, or at least the part of it I¡¯m from, I could always find a pizza place somewhere in a twenty-minute walk that would be open for most of the night. It wasn¡¯t necessarily always good, but you can¡¯t beat the convenience.¡± ¡°Wait, we¡¯re making this and it won¡¯t even be good? Is it too late to switch to something else?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, it was usually good, and even bad pizza can have its charm. You could call it a party food. For lots of people it¡¯s the goto for get-togethers, although plenty do it as a weekly meal for their family¡¯s as something else if they need a day off from cooking.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll admit it¡¯s looking good. How long will it take to cook?¡± ¡°As long as I don¡¯t pass out, no more than ten minutes.¡± ¡°... And why would you pass out?¡± ¡°It needs to be cooked at a really high heat to get a good crust. Since that means pouring more mana into the oven for the enchantments it might be cutting it a bit close, but don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll stop before I get to that point.¡± She saw the cheer and enthusiasm filling his face and knew he wouldn¡¯t be dissuaded. He was plenty used to regulating his mana use for his enchantments at that point anyway so there was no reason to worry. Still, since he brought it up she found herself keeping a closer eye on him than she¡¯d planned while waiting for the food to cook. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
¡°Alright, you were right, this is really good,¡± she admitted, going back for another slice. What wasn¡¯t there to like? I was basically just bread with some toppings she personally enjoyed. ¡°Glad, you¡¯re enjoying it. In light of that, maybe go a bit easier on me?¡± ¡°I am going easy on you.¡± After the food had cooked and they were just waiting for it to cool down a bit, they began a night of board games to entertain themselves, leading to Ben being mercilessly crushed. ¡°Maybe go a bit easier then?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know how I could, I¡¯m pretty positive this game''s luck-based.¡± ¡°If it came down to luck I¡¯d be able to win occasionally. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s some complex mechanics behind go-fish I¡¯m just not getting.¡± She shot him a pitying look before immediately winning the game and moving on to the next one. Even if Ben would ask her to go easy on him, he seemed to have fun no matter how much he lost, just enjoying the act of playing. It also wasn¡¯t like he was particularly terrible at any of them. While he had no skill in low mage, he was able to give enough of a challenge in any game from his world he introduced her to, to make it entertaining no matter how many times she won, though perhaps the victory streak just felt good in and of itself. They chatted as they played, and as the games went on, Thera found herself relaxing more and more, no longer as conscious about the night as when they started. It was fun, and they were just hanging out like they usually did outside of their own work and training, they¡¯d just stretched it farther into the night than usual. Much farther actually. She wasn¡¯t sure how many hours they¡¯d spent, but she was getting tired, and yawning more and more. ¡°Hmm, if you¡¯re getting tired we should move on to the last part of the night. Give me a minute.¡± ¡°What? What else did you have planned? Please tell me it¡¯s not a pillow fight.¡± ¡°I mean, it wasn¡¯t but we can if you want. Could be fun.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s pass for now.¡± ¡°You¡¯re loss. Give me a bit to set up then.¡± He ran to his room and came back carrying something that looked large and unwieldy. She couldn¡¯t begin to guess what it was supposed to be, but he set it up on the table in front of them before giving power to a light within it, causing it to illuminate the wall in front of them and turning all the others in the house off before sitting down beside her. ¡°Alright, I have no clue what you could possibly be doing.¡± ¡°Ha, I guess that shouldn¡¯t be a surprise. It was a lot of work to make and I¡¯m just one guy so it¡¯s nothing special, but this is something called a projector. Just watch.¡± He reached forward and began turning a crank, only for music to begin playing. She couldn¡¯t put her finger on what the style of it was, forced to assume it was something from his world, but it gave off the impression of being upbeat and fun. As far as music boxes went it seemed nice enough, but she didn¡¯t understand the light until it slowly changed as he cranked it, showing simple scenes of a forest, and three small pink animals building houses within. She watched in surprise and curiosity as the images changed, occasionally being broken up with written text that Ben insisted on reading aloud, doing different voices for each character as he went. It wasn¡¯t particularly long, but it was an experience like she¡¯d never had before and by the end her eyes were sparkling. The light turned off and they were left alone in the dark. ¡°So, what did you think?¡± ¡°That a story about the value of building things well is right up your alley,¡± She told him with a laugh. ¡°Ha, I wasn¡¯t thinking about that when I chose it, I swear. It¡¯s a pretty famous fairytale from my homeland. I figured something that could be told quickly like that was the easiest option for my first attempt. I won¡¯t go into detail, but the amount of time and effort that went into making something like that was intense, it was hard to balance with my other projects.¡± ¡°Well, I think it was worth it. Thanks for taking the time to show me that Ben, it was incredible.¡± In the dark of the night, they couldn¡¯t see the smiles on eachothers faces but the joy Thera got from experiencing something new and interesting like that, paired with Ben¡¯s own happiness giving her the experience left them talking long into the night until they eventually went to sleep.
Sonya had come home from a long overnight shift. Her boss had needed to take a break which meant the duty fell to her until he was back, but it had been a dull one and she was looking forward to turning into bed for the day. As she got in she cast a fleeting glance to the living room before doing a double take, a happy smile stretched across her face. Maybe taking the occasional night shift isn¡¯t so bad, it certainly creates different opportunities. She thought to herself cheerfully as she went to Thera¡¯s room to take the blanket from her bed before returning to the living room to cover the two peacefully resting against each other on the couch. CH168 ¡°Hell yes, look at me go! I¡¯m such a great freaking craftsman!¡± Ben yelled as he peddled about, not drawing any more stares than he was already getting as he zipped through town on his freshly created bike. It had been two months since he got back from the dryad village and he hadn¡¯t wasted a second of the time, being able to change his job as fast as he predicted, acquiring the new one ¡®magic item maker¡¯ as soon as he returned to Stonewall and working on the numerous projects that captured his interest, having just finished the one he hoped would be most profitable to him. It hadn¡¯t been easy either. Creating the frame had been simple enough, but wheels were a whole other issue. As he¡¯d thought, he couldn¡¯t simply make wheels out of wood or metal like a carriage might have, it reduced the stability and handling far too much for it to be practical. He thought he was going to be completely stuck without a way to produce rubber, but after days of experimenting to find a solution, his teacher had come in with the save. It turned out there was a similar material on this world. It lacked the bounciness of its earthen counterpart, but it managed to be flexible yet firm and provided the grip he seemed to need his wheels to have. All it took was a little alchemy to extract the material from the plants it could be found in and treat it appropriately, but as soon as that was done it could do the job. He thought that had been the end of it, he created the tires he needed and built his bike, but with the first test ride came an obvious problem. The ride was horribly bumpy, and the bike felt much harder to control than he thought it should. It didn¡¯t take much to figure out the issue though, and it was his own fault. He¡¯d cut a corner, trying to simplify the construction process. He¡¯d made the wheels solid. He hadn¡¯t thought it would be a huge problem. Solid wheels should have had a number of benefits from not needing to pump then to not having to be as concerned about them breaking, but he had been short-sighted. They existed as they did on Earth for a reason, and at least one of those reasons seemed to be shock absorption. That meant he quite literally had to redesign the wheel, hollowing out the rubber component while creating an air-tight membrane to put within, and that wasn¡¯t even mentioning the fact that he had to create a pump as well, making one model that would work through hand-pumping and another powered through mana and an air magic enchantment. How many long nights had he spent trying to make it, to make his travel through the world a little quicker and his wallet a little heavier? And it was finally complete. He was sure there were ways he could improve his design a little, but this was more than enough to get his patent. ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to give it a go Thera?¡± he called out to her as he did circles up and down the street, doing a wheelie for good measure. ¡°I¡¯m as certain that it takes more skill than you¡¯re making it look as I am that I don¡¯t have the range of motion,¡± She told him, gesturing to the long cloak that covered her legs. ¡°Well, you may be right about the cloak, but I¡¯ve made training wheels and everything for getting started out, I¡¯m also an incredibly thoughtful craftsman!¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°Don¡¯t forget humble.¡± ¡°None are more humble than me!¡± He yelled. He couldn¡¯t help it, he was having too much fun. He¡¯d never even been a big cyclist back on earth, breaking his out only on occasion to ride with his brother, but the fact that he would have never gotten to do it again unless he created the chance with his own skill left him feeling great, almost as great as what happened once he finally stopped. ¡°That¡¯s right, random system notification, I guess I¡¯m also the greatest cycler on the entire planet!¡± His god spoke in his head as Thera commented on what he¡¯d just yelled out. ¡°What, did you just get ¡®riding¡¯ or something?¡± ¡°Close, I got cycling and a title. Speaking of, since you¡¯re around Myriad, do you know anything about the title skill learner?¡± He spoke aloud for Thera¡¯s sake, knowing she would be curious as well. ¡°Wait really, has anyone else yet?¡± He gave Ben a minute to feel smug and pass on what he was told to Thera before he continued. ¡°What, then isn¡¯t this like, the best thing to happen to my status since getting stuck on this world?¡± He asked, excitement leaking out of him. ¡°Alright, alright, my expectations have been thoroughly put back in check. It¡¯s not like there are too many skills I need to personally learn anyway when I have connect, so you¡¯re right, that¡¯s definitely the best thing to happen to my status since coming to the planet. Thank you Myriad,¡± He said aloud, clasping his hands in prayer to appease his god. CH169 ¡°So what now?¡± Thera asked. ¡°Going to rush to the guild and place your patent? I think the guild master will be there for another hour or two.¡± While he could have any of the staff deal with his patents as long as they weren¡¯t so potentially world-changing like the braces were, Falk had advised him to deal directly with Ceselee for anything he made from his homeworld when he went to get one for the projector he¡¯d made. While he wasn¡¯t trying to keep his race a secret, it was undoubtable that word might go around if he explained the type he needed to file to one of the regular counter staff, and he wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to deal with the potential consequences of the entire town knowing. As the guild leader, as well as an acquaintance of both Falk and Sonya, he could trust her to keep everything confidential. ¡°Nah, I have an idea I need to work on in the shop so I¡¯ll probably be home a bit late. The leftovers from yesterday should be plenty tasty cold if Sonya isn¡¯t back to heat them up.¡± ¡°Sounds good, but try not to be too late, you promised to teach me a new card game, and I don¡¯t want you sneaking in while I¡¯m asleep to work on my brace.¡± ¡°What do you take me for? I¡¯ll be back before you¡¯re in bed, don¡¯t worry.¡± With that, they parted ways for the time being as he went back into the shop. ¡°Thera¡¯s not joining you boy?¡± His teacher asked as he came back in alone. ¡°I figured she¡¯d be interested, given what you¡¯re making and all.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mention it, figured it might be a bit of a surprise for when I got home seeing as how I don¡¯t know if it will work anyway.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so negative, the idea has some merit. Having said that, it would probably go better if she was here to actually measure everything.¡± ¡°Hey, with how much I work on her enchantment I can easily make something that will fit her arm perfectly, no need to worry about that.¡± ¡°Mmh, I guess you do have a decent eye. Let me know if you need a hand,¡± The yeti told him before returning to his own work. Now alone, Ben spread the materials he¡¯d be using across the table as he looked at some designs he¡¯d sketched and ideas he¡¯d jotted down. He had one goal he was going to dedicate the next few hours to, making Thera a new brace. The idea had come to him out of nowhere, but when it did he couldn¡¯t deny the logic to it. A tool with an enchantment on it needed to be appropriate for the enchantment, or else it would be meaningless. While partial enchantments could let the enchanter skirt this basic rule by taking the attributes of a skill instead of trying to work with it in its totality, an enchanter couldn¡¯t just slap a sword wielder skill on a shield and expect any real benefit. In much the same way, the question had occurred to Ben, was the brace he¡¯d first made her truly appropriate for the enchantment? He¡¯d first made her brace when he was only level three, and now at level six he could see all sorts of ways he could improve on it. He now had access to significantly better materials, and as much as he hated to admit it, it probably wasn¡¯t even as good as he could have made it at the third level either. Not to say he¡¯d neglected his work or hadn¡¯t done the best he could, but he¡¯d rushed. He had wanted to see if his enchantment would work so badly that he was sure the tool he¡¯d made hadn¡¯t reached its full potential, a mistake he fully intended to rectify. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. With all of that in mind he got to work. Unlike last time, when he¡¯d made an alloy with copper and mythril to help stretch out his materials, this time he would be getting as close to pure mythril as he could manage, adding only a few certain monster bones they had on hand in the shop to increase the overall strength and durability of the metal as he went. Still, that meant going from fifty percent mythril from the old brace to over ninety percent in the new one, he had high hopes. He put an unreasonable level of care into doing everything as perfectly as he could, grinding the bones to the perfect consistency, getting them finer than the dust along untouched shelves before sprinkling it across the heated mythril, the temperature of the metal being just enough for him to work it to ensure the least damage to the bone powder he¡¯d produced before the long process of folding and hammering, always making sure to keep the metal at the right temperature while ensuring it all thoroughly blended together. From there he began shaping it, slowly making it take the form he wanted it to have. The last one he¡¯d made her was lovely, even if he became more and more aware of its flaws with every level up, so he wanted this one to be even more so. Unlike a staff that Thera would destroy after a handful of uses if he wasn¡¯t there to fix the sacrificial enchantments on it, this was something she would be wearing for the rest of her life, or at least until she got to a level where she had her charm magic under control. He wanted this to be something she enjoyed wearing, being both aesthetic and comfortable. With that goal set, he¡¯d casually probed her with questions since he¡¯d had the thought, trying to get the best idea he could of what she¡¯d like. While there were plenty of options he¡¯d come up with, there were two he stuck to since he was able to tie them together thematically in a way he thought would look visually pleasing. The first and most surprising came when he got to thinking about just what sort of books she¡¯d read. While most of the ones she read for fun were largely myths and historical fictions in nature, when she¡¯d described the plots to him or flipped through any himself, he was a little surprised to find that many of them had a strong romance aspect considering her own feelings on the topic. Of course, a lack of interest in real life didn¡¯t necessarily translate to no interest in fiction, and given that she worshiped a goddess of love and seduction it didn¡¯t seem too surprising. Which brought the second interest of hers, her faith. Defying his expectations, she actually prayed less than him despite arguably being more devoted, but she would still do it regularly, and all the more since she¡¯d completed her quest. With both of those things in mind, how he¡¯d decorate her brace was clear. He¡¯d gotten five rainbow mana crystals, using them instead of the white ones for this brace, and ever so carefully cut them each to the shape of the flower they¡¯d taken from her god¡¯s trial, thereby capturing themes of her faith, history, and romance. He couldn¡¯t help but pat himself on the back for that idea, he was sure he¡¯d elegantly nailed the symbolism he was hoping for and took extra care to make sure the shape of each crystal was perfect as he went. He had to get the shape as close to that of the flower as he could since he didn¡¯t have its distinct colouration, and he had no plans of covering the mana crystal¡¯s unique rainbow shine. Once that was done and each one was perfect, he went onto the final and easiest part, if only by virtue of the fact that he¡¯d prepared it ahead of time. He needed to properly set the mana crystals into the brace to let the future enchantment take advantage of their power, meaning he would need to not only add a channel of moribusial to the edges of each crystal, but cover the section where both parts met the band with more mythril to secure it, and he fully intended to build upon the visual theme he¡¯d already created with the flower. Knowing in advance he would be trying this, as soon as he had a design in mind he started shaping strips of mythril into carefully carved snakes. Specifically to match the shape of Thera¡¯s god, Anailia. He carefully wrapped each one around the crystals and finally he was done. He took a moment to admire his work, knowing in his heart that at his current level there was no possible way to make it better. ¡°MOTHER FUCKER!¡± CH170 ¡°What¡¯s gotcha yellin¡¯ boy?¡± Falk asked as he rushed to the room. ¡°Oh, sorry Falk, didn¡¯t realize you were still here.¡± ¡°Figured I¡¯d stick around for some of my own work to see how yours turns out, now out with it, what¡¯s the problem.¡± ¡°No problem, I made the new brace to the absolute best of my ability, couldn¡¯t have done it better if I tried. Then as soon as it was complete I leveled up so I¡¯m stuck wondering if I should remake the thing.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be a fool. You made something leagues ahead of the first one, you might as well see if it actually has any improvement before you waste all that time making something a bit better. Besides, from the looks of it you managed to get to lower rare before you even put the enchantment on it, no wonder you leveled up.¡± ¡°I mean, it was obviously going to be high though, right? Just look at what I used to make it up.¡± At that, his teacher delivered a powerful flick to his head. ¡°You¡¯re smarter than that. For her last brace with the enchantment on it, you only got to upper uncommon and the materials you used this time aren¡¯t so much better to make all that difference. A lot of skill went into this boy, you did fantastic work. Even if she does get another few points off her resistance, don¡¯t go melting this down to make a new one. Take my advice and don¡¯t try again until you make it to at least the ninth level.¡± He rubbed his head but accepted his teacher''s advice gratefully. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Thanks Falk.¡± ¡°Bah, it¡¯s part of being a teacher I guess,'''' The yeti told him with a toothy grin. ¡°Now go on, it¡¯s getting late and I¡¯m betting you¡¯ll want to see if it worked as fast as you can.¡± ¡°Oh man you¡¯re right, I should run home,¡± He said, before correcting himself. ¡°Wait, I get to bike home! Catch me squeezing a few more minutes out of the shop from now on!¡± ¡°Like you don¡¯t already spend most of the day here!¡± Falk called after him before getting lost in his own thoughts. He couldn¡¯t be happier to see his apprentice so dedicated to helping his niece, but even though he knew the boy enjoyed every minute of it, he hoped he would learn to relax a little. When he was an apprentice himself, Falk had always been told he leveled up quickly, but watching the boy fly through his levels was another thing entirely.
When he got home both Thera and Sonya had already eaten, but it looked like Sonya had prepared a simple meal for him so he dug in as soon as he got back, followed by a few quick rounds of cards. As promised, he taught them both a simple game from his world, namely old maid, and got to enjoy a few games of it, being crushed each time. ¡°Do I just wear my feelings on my sleeves or something?¡± ¡°I think you might just have the worst luck in the world.¡± ¡°Is my luck really that bad?¡± he wondered aloud as he thought back to everything that happened since he wound up on the planet. Getting the lowest level skills, being unwanted, almost eaten twice, almost murdered a few times, and just generally beaten up. When he thought about it, he¡¯d dealt with a lot since coming to this world. Wait, what do I mean since coming to this world, I was literally crushed to death on vacation! Hey Myriad, you listening? I don¡¯t have bad luck tied to my soul or something, do I? I guess that¡¯s reassuring? They played for a little longer but eventually, Sonya called it quits to get ready for bed. ¡°I guess that¡¯s as good a time as any to stop,¡± Thera told him. ¡°I¡¯ll turn in myself so you can work on the enchantment,¡± She wasn¡¯t sure what he intended to do since his level hadn¡¯t increased at all, but since he had an idea she wouldn¡¯t turn it down. He was trying so hard to help her after all and she¡¯d grown used to it, at least she thought she had. ¡°Great, cause with that in mind I have something for you,¡± He told her, before pulling out the new brace and handing it to her. She looked it over, her face growing a deeper shade of gold with each passing second. ¡°Um, Thera, you doing okay?¡± ¡°Ben, why exactly did you choose this design?¡± ¡°Since it¡¯s something you¡¯re going to wear all of the time I figured I should try to make it as nice as I can so I tried to pull together a theme I thought you might like. I figured since your faith is important to you that was probably a safe bet, and aside from that since you¡¯re into history and romance books I thought the flower from the trial covered those themes well while tying it into Anailia.¡± ¡°Wait, I don¡¯t read romances, some of the books I read just happen to have romance in them, there¡¯s a difference!¡± ¡°Is there?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°So you don¡¯t like it?¡± He asked, deflating as he did. He¡¯d really thought he¡¯d created something nice and nailed the theme, but in hindsight it probably would have been a better idea to discuss it with her to figure out what she¡¯d like to wear. I didn¡¯t give what she would want enough consideration, huh? To his relief though that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. ¡°I didn¡¯t say that,¡± She told him, not meeting his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful, I love it. It¡¯s just¡­Even if you were tricked into it, it¡¯s covered in a flower you proposed with each wrapped with a goddess of love. It was just a little¡­ unexpected.¡± When she put it that way it made it a lot easier to notice the more obvious interpretation of the symbolism he was going for, completely ignoring his desire to make something that would speak to her personally to take on a far more romantic feeling as a gift. Seeing it through that lens, he couldn¡¯t help but notice his face getting warm as well. ¡°Ah, sorry. I probably should have noticed any other implications compared to what I was going for.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, like I said, it¡¯s beautiful so I¡¯m happy to wear it, but was there something wrong with my other one?¡± ¡°That remains to be seen. I wanted to see if a better quality one would allow the enchantment to display its effects to a greater extent so I made this, just got to put on the enchantment to see how it turns out.¡± ¡°Alright, give me a few minutes to change.¡± ¡°Sure, don¡¯t forget to take off the other brace.¡± As he waited he called out to his god. Hey Myriad, did you not think to mention any of the implications of the designs I was making when we talked about it? He sighed, knowing that placing any blame on his god was wrong as he eventually followed Thera to her room, hoping to get his work done as fast as possible so he could get a few other things complete before they went for their hunt tomorrow. Thera was long used to this at this point, having her arm over her blankets so Ben could take her brace with one hand and her hand with the other before connecting to her. As always, he put up hidden mind between them to keep his thoughts from bothering her while she rested to the best of his abilities, but that didn¡¯t stop hers from pouring through, leaving Ben to experience firsthand just how flustered the surprise gift had left her. The intensity of her emotional response was unexpected, but he did his best to push it away from his thoughts, instead focusing on the task at hand. He began the long process of constructing the enchantment on her brace, putting two of his minds to the task while the third was conversing with Myriad to try and continue his lessons on just how his god''s people used their magic. It was a subject he¡¯d been focusing on, outside of his lessons from both Quilith and Falk, since he''d first asked while in the dryad village, and the topic was far more interesting and detailed than he would have expected. While there were many specialized ways to construct an enchantment, such as the method of creating Thera¡¯s cloak, there were also a few structured systems in place that were shown to have a fair degree of flexibility for creating different results. One of these ways was the practice he¡¯d taken to of weaving his mana and enchantments together to get specific effects at a reduced mana cost. Given just how low his mana was, it was a method that worked quite well for him personally, not to mention ensured an ease of use for anyone who bought his products. Myriad''s system of magic was similar in flexibility, but with a different outcome. Instead of weaving the mana, it was all blended together, as if he was creating alloys of metal or trying to enhance a material. The outcome of this was different from weaving as well. Instead of being able to reduce the mana cost, it actually raised it, but the effects of the main magic that had the others blended into it were so enhanced that the raised cost was worth it. In a way, it reminded him of the combined magics of the world, such as lightning or plant, only without the benefits of a reasonable mana consumption those magics possessed. By blending them in the right way, he could supposedly get a variety of different effects that wouldn¡¯t otherwise be seen, but for now he was still focused on just the aspect of enhancing a magic. His god quizzed him as he worked. That depends, does it get an external fuel source like wood, or am I powering it entirely through my mana? Alright, let¡¯s see. For powering it through my mana alone I would take the base fire spell and blend it to incorporate both air and water mana, with the water mana having the purpose of drawing in moisture, and the air having the duel purpose of drawing in more air to enhance the flames, as well as working to break down the water drawn in to its basic parts, creating more fuel in the process. Well, first I immediately die from the insane mana cost of enhancing the flame. Yeah yeah, first we can obviously accept what I¡¯ve already said as still being true, the difference focusing on the aspect of the wood. Since plant magic is done through the use of water, earth, and, life mana I¡¯d assume I¡¯d treat the water within the wood the same way I would the moisture in the air to break it down, while using both earth mana and death mana in tandem to break down the wood, making it easier to burn? Myriad was silent for a moment as he thought on his apostles'' lessons. While he hadn¡¯t seen too much point in teaching the boy about magic, it proved to be an incredibly rewarding experience. Not only was his race¡¯s way of using mana being passed on after so many centuries, but Ben was like a sponge, absorbing the information so well that he was already applying it to his enchantments, and despite all that it only made Myriad curse the fate that had fallen on his apostle all the more when he came to the world. Even if Ben hadn¡¯t come with any blessed magics, if he¡¯d only had the affinities to learn three of four like an average person did then there wasn¡¯t a doubt in the god¡¯s mind the boy could have been a great mage, the sort that would be immensely valuable to the world wherever he was stationed, maybe even leaving his mark on history if he lived long enough. His inquisitive nature was perfect for magic research, it was undoubtable he could have managed something great if he only had the inborn ability to use magic. As things stood, his chances of ever even learning a non-affinitied magic were slim, not having the sort of mana pool that would make taking on the heavy task of learning it a reality. Well Myriad, I¡¯m waiting. The boy said, drawing the god from his thoughts. CH171 With the brace done, Ben discreetly tested the effectiveness of it before Thera woke up with the results being that the amount of dark resistance someone would need was down to 17 at a distance and 27 on contact, a measly one point off both. While it did show that improving the quality of the item was able to increase the power of his enchantment, considering just how much better this brace was compared to the first one, only to get a single point of resistance off, chances were good there wasn¡¯t any point in making another unless he could get it to ultra-rare through technique alone, before he applied a single enchantment to it. It was frankly disappointing. He knew it wasn¡¯t guaranteed to work, but if it did he was sure it would have taken at least three points off, not just a single one. He knew his ultimate goal of completely suppressing her charm was a slow march to progress but wasn¡¯t this too slow? He sighed and left her room, slinking to his own to work on something to take his mind off his disappointment until Thera woke up, namely tending to his plant, Fredrick. His houseplant was looking exceptionally healthy, which shouldn¡¯t have been a surprise given the amount of care he put towards it. Since he still practiced his connect with it frequently he had been able to pick up on various things about it to improve its life, some far less obvious than others, and since he had the time he focused on the current issue it need attending to as he snacked on some of its berries, namely repotting it He¡¯d had to do it once in the past already and this time he had a larger pot and soil already prepared, having made the pot himself to try and give it a specific role, namely helping his dear plants growth. While he had been in the dryad village he made sure to make a ring with plant magic on it for his use with the help of Fontesh, who had the skill at the fifth level. An interesting problem arose when he came back and showed it to Falk though, learning he¡¯d only been able to copy the skill to the third level, and while he had his theories on why that was the case there was nothing to be done. At least he could still use it as he intended. In a blatant bout of wastefulness of the magic materials in his possession, he incorporated the smallest amount of mythril he could into making the pot, before tying in a low-plant magic enchantment to aid in both the health and growth of his dear plant. As his first constant training partner, he¡¯d grown invested in its well-being, making sure it got nothing but the best for its simple life. His god asked as he watched down on them. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s because I give it so much love and affection. Ben thought positively as he briefly connected with it, feeling it respond in kind. Though not by much, he had noticed the speed of the small plant¡¯s thoughts increasing slightly as it grew, giving Ben no end of joy. Still, I¡¯m surprised you aren¡¯t annoyed at all that I¡¯m focusing on this instead of writing out your holy book. Wait, really? You had plants like this one on your world? What? Does that mean I should go around the forest and pray with some trees for you? Myriad immediately regretted sharing that as he felt Ben create a mental file in his head, labeling it as ¡®potentially abusable info¡¯ and pressing his god with a request. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. So if you can get faith from Fredrick, does that mean you could give it your blessing? <...It¡¯s not something I¡¯ve tried in the past, but it should be possible.> He felt the expectations raise in his believer¡¯s mind before he put a stop to it. Come on, it never hurts to experiment a little. Think of it this way, it¡¯s only costly to give a blessing to something that doesn¡¯t worship you, right? Since you¡¯re already getting faith from it that shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem, and wouldn¡¯t it be interesting to see if it has any effects? Ben had no reason to want this other than pure curiosity, but he seemed determined to convince his god, just to see what would happen. Myriad sensed this and decided that rather than deal with his believer¡¯s pestering, he would compromise. What? Isn¡¯t that a bit much? He thought about it for a bit. That was definitely more than he¡¯d been expecting to be asked for, but then again he did kind of feel like he owed his god it anyway considering how he twisted the actual quest for it. Alright, as long as you don¡¯t expect it to be quick I¡¯ll do it. Myriad was a little surprised, half expecting the request to get his believer to give up on the matter, but since he didn¡¯t the trade worked out well for him. Deal. With the agreement struck, Myriad did as he was asked, giving the purple houseplant a smaller version of the blessing he gave out to any of his believers. Ben eagerly connected to it again, but the only difference he felt was a small increase in the happiness the plant gave off. While not immediately exciting, it just means that he¡¯d have to watch for anything as time progressed, hoping for some interesting changes as he did. Yeah yeah, give me a minute. He told his god before leaving Fredrick to go sit at a small desk with a thick stack of paper already on it. For weeks now he¡¯d been transcribing the words of his god, slowly chipping away at the text when he could to get his current quest done. As easy and straightforward as it was compared to some of his other ones, it was also time-consuming to the extreme, with no way he could think of to cheat it and make it faster. As a result, it was also incredibly boring, and to make up for that he was splitting the time trying to get a different skill he saw that Zandale possessed when the many-tentacled apostle had been in town, one he thought might be handy to him, but not so valuable that he wouldn¡¯t just take the time to try and train it himself. With that goal in place, he used one mind to listen to his god and record what he had to say, while the other two were focused on his other hand as he carefully drew picture after picture. With just how much his crafting had leveled up since coming to the world, his art had also improved immensely, letting him capture a level of photorealism he¡¯d never managed on earth, at least when he was using his dominant hand. The task was pushing his artistic skills and his mind to the limit as he did his best to capture the level of detail he fully knew he was capable of, straining to make each line perfect. A task that could be done without any thought ordinarily becoming an actual challenge, but that just made it more fun. After all, what¡¯s the point of life if you don¡¯t push yourself a bit? Hey, you know I like to keep busy. He thought with a laugh before hearing the notifications going off in his head. The happiness of getting the skill he wanted was briefly blotted out by the feeling of the various strands of thought in his head rearranging themselves and leaving him with a fourth mind, but when things came under control he was drawing just as well as if he was using what was previously his dominant hand. His god told him as he sighed. CH172 When Thera woke up he prepared a nice breakfast for them before heading to the guild, bringing his bike and the pumps he designed in tow. After explaining the details of the type of patent he¡¯d needed to make last time with the projector, he¡¯d warned her that he was working on something else that would require the same type and she had told him that as long as he made sure to have all of the details written for her ahead of time, he could just drop in. As he went in and brought everything to the counter, Onk was there to greet them. ¡°I see you¡¯ve brought another fun thing today Ben, is this what everyone¡¯s been talking about seeing you riding on?¡± A part of him wanted to question how they saw anything without a face but left it at that. ¡°Yeah, Ceselee told me I could stop in so I just wanted to see if it was an okay time to go up.¡± ¡°And a quest we should be able to do today please,¡± Thera asked after him. They¡¯d already planned to leave their second day off for the week to give them each time to work on other things, and since Ben hadn¡¯t bothered sleeping the previous night it was better for him personally to not be stuck out too late. ¡°Well, let¡¯s put the quest on hold for now,¡± Onk told them both. ¡°The guild master actually requested you both see her the next time you came in, so she¡¯ll have time now.¡± Ben found himself mildly worried they¡¯d done something wrong, but to counter that he got the impression Thera was positively thrilled under her cloak, so he assumed she knew something about what was going on. When he arrived at her office he knocked on the door and heard a loud call to enter. When he did, Ceselee looked up from her paperwork to see just who it was. ¡°Ah, perfect timing. I have to say, you¡¯re both very convenient to always come for quests on the same day, makes you easy to expect. Not so much whatever you have with you though.¡± ¡°It¡¯s called a bike, it¡¯s the thing I told you about last time, as well as a couple maintenance tools I needed to keep the wheels in proper working order. I¡¯ve got everything written down here so it shouldn¡¯t be too much trouble for you.¡± ¡°Having an adventurer that will actually follow instructions is pretty nice, I gotta say,¡± She mused as she looked through his detailed notes, happy to have that part already done. ¡°All that¡¯s left is to see it in action to be sure it works like you say.¡± ¡°What, in here?¡± ¡°Unless you need more space?¡± He cast a quick look around the office. It wasn¡¯t cluttered and there was a decent amount of space, so he shrugged and hopped on, doing a quick circle before he stopped. ¡°Happy?¡± ¡°Very,¡± The guild leader''s eyes were shining as she got up to take a closer look at just what he¡¯d made. ¡°It looks like fun, mind if I give it a try?¡± ¡°Sure, but I should warn you it can take some practice.¡± Completely ignoring his advice, she hopped on without hesitation, skillfully doing a few tight laps around the room. Okay, what skills did she already possess that made that so easy for her? ¡°Alright, this thing is fantastic. Are you going to be selling them at Falk¡¯s shop?¡± She questioned. ¡°We¡¯re planning on having a few pre-made but mostly taking special orders. If you¡¯re interested we¡¯ll make you one to suit your size.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll have to stop by soon. With that out of the way though, let¡¯s get to the reason I asked you both to join me when you got here,¡± She could see Ben didn¡¯t have a clue on his face while Thera stood beside him, almost shaking with excitement. ¡°I¡¯d like to offer you both a rank 4 promotion quest.¡± ¡°Absolutely!¡± ¡°Pass.¡± ¡°Ben!¡± Thera yelled in exasperation. ¡°What? I¡¯ll still help you out if you want to take it, I don¡¯t personally want to rank up any more than I already have.¡± Ceselee sat and watched their interaction, chuckling as she did. ¡°As amusing as it is to see an adventurer who doesn¡¯t want to raise their rank, you aren''t getting much of a choice. Adventurers aren¡¯t given money to hunt just to take care of monsters in the area you know. The entire system is built around the idea of incentivising people to get stronger, if you don¡¯t actively work to raise your rank, you don¡¯t get the rewards. Of course, if you just don¡¯t feel like doing a quest for it, there¡¯s no issue with that. You can continue doing the regular ones you¡¯d take, it would just mean instead of ranking up immediately you do it in maybe half a year.¡± ¡°Mmh,¡± He still wasn¡¯t thrilled. He knew ranking up came with responsibility, and he wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to deal with it. Unfortunately on the other hand, he did need to make use of the guild. Their archive was the best place in town to learn about the resources in the area, and it also had books on the various magic branches he would use to study with on occasion since they were geared more towards the standard ways magic was used in the world, something his god was less familiar with. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°Don¡¯t be so glum about it, ranking up comes with other perks too. At rank four you are officially recognised as a proper adventurer so the guild helps you out in a variety of ways. In your case, we could arrange to have books sent out here for you at a far lower cost than we could give you as a member of the craftsman''s guild, though the specific books we could get our hands on would be different and more focused towards adventuring. Aside from that though, one of the biggest perks is getting to be an adventurer as a job.¡± ¡°The issue is I have no interest in this being my job.¡± ¡°I¡¯m talking about for your status. Aside from the benefit of all of your skills and aptitudes getting a minor bonus across the board, it¡¯s also a class of job similar to soldier or some leadership type jobs that merges your experience pool with your companions.¡± ¡°Um, is that a good thing?¡± She hesitated briefly, giving it some thought. ¡°It depends. If only you two intend to keep partying together alone then maybe not, but there are a lot of benefits. Adventurer is a job that can specifically gain experience from combat, using magic, or killing monsters, but since it pools your experience all party members can gain experience the way the others can too. A party only needs a single adventurer to take advantage of this effect after all, so the benefits of this are that if someone with the warrior class was to take it, they¡¯d be able to get experience for their entire party too if they ever needed to use magic, and since killing monsters gives varying experience based on how powerful they are, as long as you hunt regularly then not only will you finish your job, but you¡¯ll be able to get your entire party to finish their jobs quickly too. There are plenty of adventurer parties out there where they try to have one person always with that job until the entire party has taken it.¡± ¡°And it sounds like for a full-time craftsman like me, the entire thing would be a slog that would take up my time from pursuing more valuable jobs,¡± He told her dryly, before ultimately giving in. ¡°Still, since it doesn¡¯t seem like I have a choice, what¡¯s the quest?¡± ¡°It¡¯s actually quite simple, all you have to do is hike through the woods until you get to the city, eliminating any monsters you encounter along the way. It¡¯s important to keep the roads safe after all, and it should only take a couple weeks.¡± He couldn¡¯t help but groan. That sounded like a pain, and since he¡¯d be walking through the woods to do it he couldn¡¯t even use his bike, the thing he¡¯d specifically made to make travel quicker. He could see Thera in the corner of his eye, giddy with excitement and knew he wouldn¡¯t be able to turn it down. ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll do it but it can¡¯t be immediately. I need to talk to Falk about this since the shop is my priority. If it comes down to losing access to the archives and losing access to my teacher, I know which choice I¡¯m making.¡± ¡°Understandable, there¡¯s no rush, just let me know when you plan to so I can inform the surrounding towns and villages that we¡¯ll be working to clear the woods at that time.¡± With business done they left Ceselee to their work and left the guild, taking a simple gathering quest as they did. Ben wanting to talk to his teacher beforehand so if they were taking anything it needed to be easy, and Thera cared far less since she knew she was about to be promoted up a rank.
¡°The timing for that works out pretty well actually,¡± Falk mused when Ben got to the shop to explain the situation. ¡°Since the timeframe you¡¯ve got to do it is flexible, put it off for two months. I¡¯ve got a meeting with a client in that time that¡¯s gonna take me at least a month to deal with so it won¡¯t matter if you¡¯re busy at the same time. I was planning on letting you know a bit closer to me leaving, but now works just as well.¡± ¡°Alright, sounds good to me. Thera?¡± ¡°Yeah, I can wait two months. I¡¯ll let the guild know when we finish our quest.¡± The timing worked out at least. It felt like he had too many distractions from his actual work, so it was nice to hear that he wouldn¡¯t be missing out on time he could have spent learning. It did create another problem though, what he would do for the rest of the time that Falk would be away. He was pretty sure they could make it to the city in around two weeks of walking, but with the amount of time it would take Falk to get to his meeting and back, he¡¯d have around three weeks to do nothing with. Sure, he could just practice as he always had, but a slightly more productive idea managed to pass through his mind. ¡°Since we¡¯re going to be by the gate anyway, maybe we should stop by Anailia?¡± He thought aloud, immediately feeling Thera¡¯s good mood drop as a result. ¡°Uhg, why though? It hasn¡¯t even been a year since I¡¯ve been home. Plus the thought of dealing with my parents again after how they were last time¡­¡± ¡°I just thought if I let your mom know ahead of time she could gather me some people so I could make some braces. I made a little deal with my god to make him a real church in exchange for a small favour so boosting my wealth a little would be helpful. Not to mention the fact that I should probably greet the believers he has in the city while wearing the church, score him a bit more faith.¡± My living expenses are currently more than what I¡¯m making in the shop. No matter how well off I am I want a bit more so I don¡¯t need to worry about however expensive building a freaking church ends up being doesn¡¯t leave me in a bad place. What do you mean? He asked as he pulled it out, only to feel his eyes bulge as he saw the figure within. Thera and Falk could see his reaction clearly and wanted to know what was going on. He turned his card to them, causing Falk to let out a low whistle and Thera to yell in shock. ¡°Where did that all come from!¡± ¡°Well, it looks like my patent has started paying off,¡± He sheepishly told the other two. ¡°I¡¯d say,¡± His teacher said with a laugh. ¡°Let alone a church, May as well have a small castle constructed too.¡± ¡°How does someone not notice suddenly having so much money!¡± Thera asked in exasperation. ¡°I mean, not to brag but I was already kind of rich after my first time going there to make all those braces. I haven¡¯t had any reason to look at how much was in my account.¡± ¡°Unbelievable, but that means we don¡¯t need to see my family again, right?¡± ¡°Nope, Sonya¡¯s already got your mom trying to find some specific skills for me, remember? Since I have the chance I¡¯d like to go to their craftsman guild anyway to look into anything else I might ask her to find. I still have a long way to go with your brace after all and it just so happens your mom would probably be up there as one of the people most looking forward to my success.¡± Thera could only sigh knowing she wouldn¡¯t be getting out of a visit home. CH173 ¡°So what favour did you ask for anyway?¡± Thera asked as they made their way to the woods. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°The one that has you making your god a church? It sounds pretty expensive so I figured it must have been something big.¡± ¡°Oh, nothing crazy. I just wanted him to put a blessing on Fredrick to see what would happen.¡± Thera stared at him through her hood before giving a long, drawn-out sigh. ¡°You know what, I¡¯m not even surprised. That¡¯s exactly the sort of ridiculous thing you¡¯d want to do.¡± Electing to ignore his god, he instead focused on Thera. ¡°What can I say, it was just a bit of curiosity and I kind of owe Myriad one after making this anyway,¡± He told her as he gestured to his ever-present coat. Even if its defensive properties left something to be desired, the comfort did not. The perfect temperature control he¡¯d built it to have was immensely satisfying on a warm sunny day. ¡°The fact you did that to begin with is one of the many reasons I¡¯m not even surprised by what you do anymore.¡± He gave her a cheeky smile as they entered the forest and got to work. The task was to gather as many colitox flowers as they could, an ingredient in some mana regenerations potions, with their reward increasing with the amount they brought back. It was late enough in their life cycle that they had dropped their seeds, meaning all that could be found could be comfortably gathered without affecting the next year''s population as they sprung up, and both the guild and Ben wanted to take advantage of that. The flowers were small and green-brown in colour, making them hard to find along the forest floor, but the price for them was good and at this time of year it was a quest a good variety of adventurers would take, with Ben and Thera passing many that had party members on their hands and knees searching the ground as others kept watch, all the while the two of them went deeper into the woods, only stopping every now and then as Ben picked up some he noticed along the way. It only took another fifteen minutes till they stopped seeing others for them to get to work in all seriousness, Thera acting to guard Ben as he searched, and Ben, simply taking a wide view of the area before he went to grab the flowers and any other plants he thought might be useful to him before they moved onto the next section. As complex mind leveled up, this sort of gathering had ended up becoming a specialty of his, as not only did he have more minds to devote to the task, but the small change to how he processed the information he saw in the world grew each time, making it far easier for him to view an area as a whole and spot the many smaller details within, in this case, the flowers they needed. They kept venturing in deeper, Thera eliminating any creature that drew too close with her earth magic, until they had the spacial bag filled after a little more than an hour had passed. ¡°Think this will be enough?¡± He asked as he closed it up. ¡°I think it would be shocking if anyone else brought back this much. Maybe I should try and get a few mind skills too.¡± ¡°Seeing how you managed with an item with complex mind on it, I doubt you¡¯d enjoy it,¡± He told her with a laugh. He¡¯d made a couple items with it attached for the shop, and the majority consensus from any customers that tried it on seemed to be that while it seemed handy, it wasn¡¯t worth getting used to. Thera had managed only slightly better than when he¡¯d forced it on Skoe. ¡°I more meant a normal mind skill. Or maybe something like tracking, not whatever weird thing you have permanently happening in your head. I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s handy, I don¡¯t know how you¡¯re sane.¡± ¡°And you only tried the one with complex mind on it, I wonder what would happen if you tried one with the effects of parallel thought too?¡± ¡°I¡¯d be sick, that¡¯s what would happen.¡± They continued to chat and joke as they went on their way back to turn in their quest when they heard a noise behind them. Turning quickly and prepared to attack, they both managed to be too slow as Ben was brought to the ground, the weight of whatever it was crushing him. With the air knocked from his lungs he couldn¡¯t get a word out as he had a second to look up at the creature on top of him, seeing monkey-like features with a body covered in stone plates, before Thera reacted, firing an earthen spear she¡¯d begun pulling together as soon as they heard a noise and ripping the creature from his body, killing it instantly. ¡°Are you okay? She asked as she ran over to him, worry filling her voice. ¡°Well no bites out of me this time, so that¡¯s a plus, but that thing weighed a ton. Pretty sure I have a broken rib or two. God, I can¡¯t wait until I get defense enhancement a bit higher,¡± He managed to get out between some painful coughs. She cast a quick look around, wanting to be sure there weren¡¯t any more of those things as she did before unzipping his coat and directing her life magic to him, trying to heal the unexpected damage from an otherwise safe trip in the woods. He watched her as he laid down, trying to be aware of anything in their surroundings as well when he felt her mood brighten momentarily from the worry she¡¯d expressed for him before. ¡°Something good?¡± He asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°How can you even tell these things? The benefit of this stupid cloak is that I should have some privacy,¡± She joked awkwardly, embarrassed to have been seen through as his injuries were being treated. ¡°My life magic went up and it completed my job.¡± The difference was apparent as her control improved, and eventually he felt good enough to get up, with her transitioning to healing him as they moved. ¡°Didn¡¯t you just level up a few months ago? You can¡¯t keep saying I¡¯m fast at it if you keep up that pace.¡± He told her as he walked over to see just what had attacked him, at the same time happy for his friend''s growth. ¡°Pff, don¡¯t compare me to you. I work like a normal person. It¡¯s just that now that I¡¯m getting better control over my magic I can practice more and take advantage of my incredible mana pool. It would be weirder if I didn¡¯t start leveling up faster as I got better.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a very normal person,¡± He said in his defense. ¡°Arguably the most normal of any human on the planet considering how unreasonably powered-up every other one was when they got here. If I were to go back to earth, at this point I could probably manage to blend into society.¡± ¡°No, I met your friends, remember? It doesn¡¯t matter how strong they were, they¡¯re actually normal. Anyway, I think this thing is a stone ape,¡± She told him, directing the conversation back to just what had thrown itself at him. ¡°They have some earth affinity magic they use to lower their weight so they can hide in trees and attack you like they just did, but they¡¯re not normally in this region. We¡¯ll have to give the guild a quick report, it could mean there¡¯s going to be a change to the animal distribution to the forest.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Sounds bad.¡± ¡°We can only see how it turns out.¡± She told him with a shrug. ¡°It might become a bit more dangerous, but there¡¯s been times in the past that sort of thing has left an area safer too.¡± He could only sigh as they got up to return to the guild, leaving its mangled body and warning any other adventurers they saw along the way. God, this world is a mess.
After they got back to the guild they explained what happened, showing their cards as proof, before handing over all of the flowers Ben didn¡¯t intend to keep for his own use and giving the date they¡¯d take the rank four quest. Once that was all complete and money was received, Thera rushed straight to the job change room, placing her hand on the crystal within and feeling giddy as the options filled her mind. AVAILABLE JOBS
  • Queen of mana
  • Musician
  • Professional Dancer
  • Bard
  • Darkness mage -charm specialized
  • Life mage
  • Healer
  • Telekinetic mage
  • Dark mage
  • High earth mage
  • Spirit mage
Seeing the options, she felt positively overjoyed and immediately went to select high earth mage, until she noticed the single new one available to her and had to stop, turning to her friend in the process. ¡°Hey Ben, is your god around?¡± ¡°He is. Got something interesting?¡± The excitement was clear in her voice and it made him all the more curious about the options she¡¯d gotten. ¡°Looks like it. Can you ask him if he¡¯s ever heard of the spirit mage job?¡± He spoke in Ben¡¯s mind, able to hear the question from Thera as she asked. He passed on what he was told, but Thera only shook her head. ¡°I would have heard about it from my father if that was the case.¡± ¡°Then maybe it¡¯s new?¡± Ben offered. ¡°You are the first half-spirit, right? Maybe it came about because of that or your title?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking too, but then my choice just got a lot harder,¡± She still sounded thrilled but tried to calm down to a more thoughtful tone. ¡°New jobs are rare, and they come with the possibility of awakening new skills as well. It could be incredible, maybe something that would be a huge benefit, or it could be nothing. Should I take the chance to see what it gives me or should I just go with high earth mage like I planned?¡± ¡°In that case go with what you want more or what you think will be quickest to finish. It¡¯s not like the other option won¡¯t still be there when you get back.¡± ¡°Mmh, you aren¡¯t wrong.¡± It also made the decision significantly easier. It wasn¡¯t hard to be tempted by a new and exciting option, but there was nothing she wanted more than to improve her earth magic, and even if it was an advanced job it would still presumably be easier to level up compared to one she had no idea how to gain experience in. Name: Thera Oress Race: Succubus/Spirit Hybrid Titles: Spirit Child Jobs: High earth mage (lv0) Previous Jobs: Beginner Dancer, Dancer, Apprentice mage, Earth mage, True mage Attributes:
  • Vitality: 1017
  • Vitality recovery rate: 11/hr
  • Mana: 256,289
  • Mana recovery rate: 32/min
  • Strength: 106
  • Agility: 356
  • Stamina: 288
  • Intelligence: 269
Affinities:
  • Light: 4
  • Life: 22
  • Fire: 11
  • Water: 14
  • Air: 12
  • Earth: 103
  • Death: 3
  • Dark: 43
  • Space: 2
  • Time: 1
Resistances:
  • Light: 5
  • Life: 9
  • Fire: 11
  • Water: 16
  • Air: 12
  • Earth: 35
  • Death: 13
  • Dark: 42
  • Space: 7
  • Time: 8
Blessed skills:
  • Earth magic lv6
  • Charm magic lv1
Passive skills:
  • World speak+
  • Coordination lv3
  • Medical knowledge lv1
  • Bind
Active skills:
  • Calculate lv1
  • Dance lv4
  • String instrument lv3
  • Woodwind instrument lv2
  • Cleaning lv1
  • Staff wielder lv0
  • Meditation lv2
  • Speed reading lv2
  • Life magic lv2
  • Telekinesis lv1
  • Dark magic lv0
Blessings:
  • Anailias Blessing
Trials:
  • Trial of Anailia and Tolona
¡°No skills or level-ups with this one either it looks like. Was really hoping it would go easy on me and I¡¯d be able to get a level in earth magic.¡± Despite saying that she felt quite happy with her choice. With how she¡¯d been improving as she gained more and more control of her power she knew it would be just a matter of time. CH174 The next day Ben went to the shop while Thera focused on training her earth magic. There were too many things he wanted to work on and not enough time to do it all, but since this was regularly his day off to hunt anyway he had the benefit of not needing to help out too much, instead focusing on using the tools around for his own purposes. First and foremost what he wanted to improve came down to the church of Myriad itself, his coat. There were a variety of ways he wanted to enchant it to try and improve it now that he¡¯d grown more comfortable with his skills and knowledge, having leveled up a few times since he first made it, with defense being the biggest target to improve. When he first heard that the church would be strengthened by its believers, it seemed he¡¯d overestimated by just how much. Any enhancement it would get would come from the number of believers and years of giving their belief, meaning that for the time being it was still weak, but at least would improve as time went on and more people joined the faith. Still, that also meant he¡¯d have to improve it a bit himself to enhance its effects. With that in mind, he went to his library and pulled out his rings, choosing the perfect ones to suit his needs. Selecting the same armor, shield, and defense enhancement rings he¡¯d used for Thera¡¯s brace, as well as sturdy, and barrier magic, he slid the rings onto his already crowded fingers as he got to work. The important part was what method he would use to place them. While he was more experienced with weaving his enchantments, the method of blending that Myriad¡¯s race used might have been unusually suited for the task seeing as how it was being put on the church. Both methods had their positives and negatives, but even more important was the fact that he didn¡¯t need to choose one or the other, instead taking both to make something greater. The first task was figuring out just how he intended to arrange them and split the skills into two groups. The first would use armor enhancement as its base since it should be able to be applied to a coat in an almost completely unaltered form given the fact that the skill applied to leather armor as well. To that though he had to take the aspects of both shield enhancement and defense enhancement that would be able to complement it and blend them all together. From there he went to focus on what was left. With barrier magic as the base, he blended it with not only the properties of sturdy, but also his magic resistances, each of them but light and life, just in case he ever needed to be healed while wearing the thing. Once that was done and he had the blended mana created, each filled with the properties they would need to enhance the base one to what he considered its current maximum potential, he stretched them out, weaving them not just with each other and the coat itself, but also with an enchanting spell, activation condition. While he hadn¡¯t used too many enchanting spells since he gained access to any skill he could get his hands on, this one was arguably the most valuable for an enchanter to learn, making it so that either specific effects or entire enchantments wouldn¡¯t activate without cause. In this case, he¡¯d designed the enchantment so that a thin layer of the barrier magic wouldn¡¯t deploy around the coat unless the armor enhancement picked up any form of impact, but when it did it would be instantaneous. While hypothetically it might have been better to have it always active if the coat could support the mana cost, if any attack was fast enough to get through before the barrier went up, the enchants would be powerless to stop it anyway and he would likely become a fine red mist. As he was putting on the finishing touches he was feeling particularly proud as he looked at what he¡¯d created. Such a thing would have been all but impossible if he still only had a single mind available to him, and he couldn¡¯t deny the value that came with his mental skills, even if their improvement did tend to make his thoughts feel crowded. To push his mind to the limit, arranging skills and their aspects, blending what he needed and weaving it all into something functional, he couldn¡¯t have imagined something better as his new and improved coat was completed. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Oh I am having such a good week,¡± He muttered to himself with a smile before calling out to his god. ¡°Hey Myriad, what do you think?¡± ¡°I¡¯m making you a new one, it¡¯s fine,¡± He told his god before running off to his teacher. ¡°Hey Falk, I made some improvements, what do you think?¡± The yeti took it, looking it over in his hands. ¡°I gotta say, this technique your god¡¯s teaching you is something. Might have to try and incorporate some of it in my own work. The enchantment¡¯s good, if you ever get the chance to remake it with even just fourth or fifth-level skills then I don¡¯t think you¡¯d have too much to worry about while you wear it. Of course, your face and legs are still pretty exposed.¡± ¡°True, I¡¯ll work on that a bit too. Most of the skills are ones Sonya¡¯s asked Pelenia to try and get for me anyway so hopefully she has some good news, and if I¡¯m going to be in Anailia anyway I might as well pick up a higher copy of barrier magic.¡± ¡°Ha, then I¡¯ll keep my eye out for whatever you make when you come back,¡± Falk said before getting back to his own work. Hmm, I really should try to think of a way to keep my exposed bits a bit more protected. I could probably make some pants out of a good enough material to be able to hold their enchantments without breaking, but the mana cost is a whole other issue. That isn¡¯t even mentioning my head. There was always something. Some other project to work on, some challenge to overcome, and deciding which would be next was never easy. But there was no real rush, and as much fun as it would be to focus on crafting a new and exciting item or creating a better enchantment, he decided to his next task of the day to focus on something a little more humble, but at the same time having the potential to revolutionize his work. He was going to solve his mana problem. He wanted to keep creating bigger and better enchantments, but the issue came down to powering them after. While he was already seeing great advances to his total mana pool as a result of sleeping with the mana-sucking ring he¡¯d made, it wasn¡¯t enough to do anything truly great, meaning he¡¯d need to rely on either slowly filling items with mana that had been made from materials that could store it well with minimal loss, or use magic materials that would continue to suck mana from the environment to use. The first option would be significantly cheaper to produce, though Ben didn¡¯t exactly need to be concerned about that now that his patent was paying off, though the second option had its problems too. Magic materials weren¡¯t easy to find on the public market, and even though he was directly connected to the people in control of that supply, he worried his crafting as a whole would suffer if he tried to brute-force his creations using expensive items all of the time instead of finding different solutions to his work. With that in mind, he thought he¡¯d found the most elegant of solutions, taking inspiration from his home world. The creation of a battery. Well, he was pretty sure it wouldn¡¯t technically qualify as a battery, but he didn¡¯t know what other name to call it. The idea was simple, get a small piece of a white or rainbow mana crystal, probably shaping it to be about the size and shape of a triple-A for convenience as well as consistency, and setting it properly so that mana within would be extracted. From there, instead of permanently binding it to the tool like mana crystals typically were, he¡¯d create a divot within the ones he was making where it could be inserted. While this wasn¡¯t the sort of thing he could sell in the shop, the materials making it far outside the price range of their typical clientele, it was the perfect solution for his personal use, and one he planned on exploring immediately, the only question becoming just what to make to test it with. CH175 His first idea was for an additional shield. Even though he¡¯d just improved the cloak, all the enchantments he added to it were just to keep him from getting injured. Its immediate weakness was that it wasn¡¯t anchored, so while he may not get harmed if another stone ape threw itself at him, he wouldn¡¯t be able to avoid being knocked to the ground, where it might be able to start going for his less defended face. To do what he had in mind though, he¡¯d need to use a pretty high-quality material to keep it small and easy to use, so he immediately started digging around the storage room, seeing just what he could find. It didn¡¯t take too long to gather some materials he thought could get the job done, grabbing some good quality steel as well as the exoskeletons of a couple mind beetles, creatures that naturally possessed empathy magic and used it in their hunting. While it wasn¡¯t the same as the barrier magic he planned to use for his enchantment, the fact that they were both non-affinitied in nature meant that he¡¯d be able to have an easier time adding his enchantment to the entire thing without having to worry about the material breaking. With that selected he got to work grinding the beetle remains, cleaning it as he went of any dried-out innards before adding it to the heated steel, working the materials until he was sure they were smoothly blended together. From there came the shape the item would take. It needed to be something he could conveniently carry around. In his bag would be alright, but in a pocket would be more ideal, making it easier to be something he could just pull out and use immediately if he needed to. But then what to make? He considered a cube, built in such a way that it would disassemble itself once activated and box him in for protection, with each piece acting as a corner as a barrier emerged to form walls between them, but as much as the mental visual made it appealing, it left him with far too many moving parts and failure points. So I want one solid object, something that would be able to give me a fair bit of protection. A shield could potentially work then, I could build the enchantment to act the same as when I had my barrier gauntlet, extending outwards, but I think that would only be able to protect me from a single direction. I¡¯d still be completely vulnerable to anything coming from the sides or above. So where does that leave me? Unless maybe¡­ A ring? He wasn¡¯t thinking of making anything like the sort of ring his fingers were covered in, while they could technically act as catalysts to deploy mana through to fire off attacks and create spells, that was a one-way ticket to mana exhaustion if he tried. What he was considering was more of a cross between a bracelet and a hula-hoop, something he could wear on his arm, but when needed he could drop on the ground to encircle him, raising a barrier around him as he did so into a dome-like shape. The very top where his head was at would admittedly be a weak point, but not to the extent that he would need to really worry. Feeling the most viable option by far, he immediately got to work shaping the metal and crafting the pieces to act in the way he saw them moving in his mind. The end product wouldn¡¯t be small, it would actually cover most of the forearm that wore it, be with a little extra work he could use that to his advantage as well, adding a secondary barrier enchantment to it to act in a similar way as his gauntlet had before he lost it during his battle with the demon horde. It took some tinkering, but when he was done he had a helix-like band that would take the shape of a large circle he could comfortably stand in when he dropped it to the ground, all that was left was applying the enchantment. For that, he used the same rings as when he had added the enchantment to the coat as well as his resistances, but all aspects were blended into the base barrier enchantment. It upped the mana cost a fair bit, and once he was done he wasn¡¯t positive he¡¯d be able to power it with one of his newly made white mana batteries, so he used a rainbow one to be on the safe side for the first test. Placing his freshly made tool on he activated it, watching with his mana sense as it all activated properly, the power from his battery pouring into the enchantments and creating a nearly-transparent but powerful shield on his arm. Canceling the enchantment he moved on to the next test, dropping the band and watching it as it uncurled around him, a powerful barrier immediately forming as he did. The enchantment was designed to not only deploy the barrier to protect him, but also cling to the ground digging into it as it went off to keep it in place. He pressed his hands on the barrier, feeling it holding firm and felt the confidence to throw himself against it, making sure a strong blow wouldn¡¯t tip it over. He felt everything stay in place, and while that didn¡¯t mean it couldn¡¯t be knocked down by something with more energy than his body weight, it was a good starting sign. Everything¡¯s looking good so far, now to just¡­ Fuck. A small flaw, one he hadn¡¯t paid much mind to suddenly reared its ugly head. The barrier deployed from the inside rim of the ring, while the battery was on the outside, meaning not only could he not remove it to cancel the enchantment, he couldn¡¯t destroy the enchantment either to free himself. ¡°Well, this is going to be embarrassing,¡± He muttered to himself before calling out in a much louder voice. ¡°Hey Falk! I need a bit of help back here!¡±
Once his teacher finally stopped laughing, he took out the battery and the barrier came down. ¡°Boy, I gotta say, it¡¯s never a dull moment with you, is it?¡± The yeti chuckled as he wiped a tear from his eye. ¡°The design is good, and the battery as you call it is a smart way to make use of a mana stone. When you¡¯re in Anailia you should show it to Pelenia, I¡¯m sure she¡¯d see the value. Having said all that, I¡¯m sure you know where you need to improve on this without me spelling it out, right?¡± ¡°Make the barrier rise from the outside of the ring instead of the inside, and remake the tool so that the battery is on the inner ring,¡± Ben said with a sigh, embarrassed to have made such a simple mistake. ¡°Good man. Don¡¯t go letting it get to you too much, every crafter has a mistake or two to look back on, happens to the best of us. Having said that though, another way you could improve on the design of your enchantment would be to make it so things can pass through the side you¡¯re in, while any attacks at you could be guarded against like you currently have it.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t wrong, but the barrier magic I have is too low-level to do something like that. Once I¡¯m back in Anailia I¡¯ll grab it at level six and I should be able to make that possible though.¡± ¡°Level six?¡± His teacher asked with a raise of an eyebrow. ¡°You go up again?¡± ¡°When I made the enchantment on the coat.¡± ¡°Crazy brat, take a break if you need to. Isn¡¯t this supposed to be your day off anyway?¡± ¡°It is, that¡¯s why today''s dedicated to working on stuff exclusively for me instead of the shop.¡± ¡°God¡¯s above, when you work yourself to death a lot of fingers are going to be pointed my way.¡± ¡°Anyone that knows me will vouch for you, you¡¯ll be fine,¡± He said, waving off his teacher''s concerns as they both got back to work. There were plenty of hours left in the day and he still had things to make. Namely a weapon. He was none too fond of how often he found himself in a dangerous situation where his options of fighting back were limited, but he also didn¡¯t want to take the time to train up a combat skill like the knife or hammer wielder ones he currently possessed. It simply wasn¡¯t how he wanted to devote his time to grow, meaning that he would need to make something that would combine destructive power with ease of use, and he didn¡¯t need to just make one. His first immediate thought would be both wasteful and pricey, but perfect for maximum destructive power when in the event of an emergency, at least until his god shot the idea down. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Came the shout in his mind. Does that mean it¡¯s possible? Ben personally didn¡¯t see any issues. He''d only be using a small amount if he did, and the idea was just to craft an enchantment the same way Myriad had quizzed him about creating a powerful fire, just to a greater extreme. If he could convert all of the mana stored into crystal into an explosion spell instantaneously then he didn¡¯t doubt he could get quite the effect. Honestly, hearing all of this kind of makes me want to try even more. Relax, if you think it¡¯s such a bad idea then I won¡¯t. There¡¯s plenty of other options anyway. For example, a knife could potentially be made to be extremely powerful without the need to master his skill, and since they were simple to carry around on top of the fact that he was already fairly competent with them thanks to the combination of knife wielder and the basic tool proficiency that came with his crafting, it felt like a safe bet. The main issue was how to make it. When he considered just how many potential effects he could place on one it just brought out his creative spirit, making him want to stress a knife to the limit of its function, but first that meant creating the best one he could. As much as he¡¯d want to make it the same way he had Will''s gauntlets, he didn¡¯t trust himself to not immediately mess up and get himself killed by touching the blade without thinking. Unlike his friends, who had the sort of vitality and recovery rates that meant they¡¯d probably be able to walk such a mistake off, for Ben the risk was far more life-threatening. Instead, he went with steel once again, not selecting the materials he would incorporate into it until he was sure of the enchantments he would want. Sturdy and drain were the obvious choices, and he was sure he could enhance both aspects by blending in the different types of mana he could produce from the rings, but he didn¡¯t want to stop there either. While those would be excellent on a knife by themselves, he wanted more than excellent. He wanted to create something devastating, and he felt ideas take shape in his head for just how he would go about it. On top of the previously named earth and death spells, he intended to add spells of the fire, water, dark, and time affinities. He knew he could make the fire and water affinity spells synergize well, using fire to heat the blade to a downright ridiculous degree while water would be used to lower the boiling point of the liquid around it, causing overwhelming devastation to anything unfortunate enough to be on the wrong end of it, while dark would aim to spread a mental effect throughout the body so long as the knife was lodged in it, namely pain suppression. The idea was that anything cut or stabbed by the knife might not be as worried as they otherwise should if they didn¡¯t immediately feel the pain of an attack, letting the blade do damage for even longer. The final spell that would bring it all together as something that nobody would want to be on the wrong end of was a time enhancement one, speeding up the time for the blade and anything it contacted, meaning he¡¯d be able to make all the damage it could already inflict even more potent. He knew it was going to be complicated, maybe even too complicated as he was pulling the ideas together and started writing them down as he went, sketching the shape the enchantments would need to be made in for his hypothetical blade while at the same time figuring out the finer details, how each spell would be blended with other ones to enhance the overall effect, which ones would be woven together and which wouldn¡¯t, all the while trying to figure out if there was anything else he could do. ¡°It just feels like something is missing,¡± He muttered to himself as he stared down at the design he¡¯d made. ¡°Maybe, but¡­ A healer huh? Healer healer healer, I feel like there''s an idea there,¡± He pondered aloud before yelling out. ¡°Wait! Healing suppression! The final effect to tie it all together! I can use the death affinity spell as a base while blending in some light and life magic to compliment it! Myriad you¡¯re the best!¡± All that was left was making the knife itself. Looking at the design he had for his enchantment, he would be using every affinity of magic but space. A small part of him wanted to find a way to include it for completeness sake, but he pushed that back. He could always try and make another later on, and the more important issue was deciding just what materials to add to the steel for the best effect, and in what quantity. He jotted down more notes, figuring out the ratios that he thought would be best before taking it to Falk, hoping to get his work checked before he committed to it. The enchantments were complex enough that if he made any mistakes he was sure the knife would shatter, so it was best to be sure it would work. He pulled his teacher from the flail he was building when it looked like it wouldn¡¯t be too inconvenient and handed over his notes. ¡°What do you think? Any chance of this working?¡± ¡°Boy, what exactly are you trying to kill with something like this?¡± ¡°Uh, anything I need to I guess.¡± ¡°Well if anything gets within stabbing range it looks like it won¡¯t be hard. As for if it has any chance¡­ What¡¯s your current level in crafting?¡± ¡°Seven.¡± ¡°Mmh, up the amount of knightmare bone you plan on using by about one percent and it might be possible. Big emphasis on might. Frankly, if you hadn¡¯t only just leveled up both your skills I¡¯d think you were attempting this to get you to the next level, something like this is going to walk the fine line between mid and upper rare, and I can¡¯t say which side it will fall on.¡± ¡°No need to tease me with some good news Falk, I¡¯m already going to make it,¡± Hearing his teacher say that did bring his enthusiasm through the roof though. All it came down to was if he¡¯d succeed. Leaving his teacher and going back to his forge he got to work, heating up the steel while he started on grinding out more than a dozen varieties of bone, measuring out the quantities he would need before carefully adding them to the metal with as much patience as when he¡¯d done upon making Thera¡¯s new brace until the final product was perfect. From there he worked the metal, shaping it until he had a blade that would be almost as long as his forearm if he ignored the handle, with a space in the grip he could put his mana battery to power it. With that the knife itself was complete. It felt comfortable in his hand as he gave it a few good swings to feel it glide through the air before he moved on to the part that would make or break his project, the enchantment itself. With so many parts to it, he knew he would be pushing himself to his mental limit, even with the benefits of all of his minds, and that wasn¡¯t even considering his mana. With so many things to do, all of them dealing with affinities he couldn¡¯t wield, he was going to have to take it extra slow, just to be sure he didn¡¯t pass out part way through. He got to work, blending and shaping, feeling every bit of his enchantment as it came together in his hands as the time ticked by, leaving him feeling the sort of mental strain that was so rare for him as his mind skills improved. Every bit of him was dedicated to the task at hand, and as he was finally complete, enchantments built into a cohesive whole, the blade turned to dust in his hands. His god told him sympathetically. ¡°Hmm? What are you talking about Myriad? If it doesn¡¯t work the first time then I just need to try again.¡± He gave himself a minute to relax before he did just that, having some water and feeling the pounding in his head subside before he got back to it, only to fail again. Not deterred, he went back to the storage and tried again, and again, and again after that. He knew he could do it, it was right on the edge of what was possible for his current level of skill, but it just wasn¡¯t coming together. He decided to make this attempt the last for the day. It was getting late, and if he couldn¡¯t manage it this time then he would sleep on it and hope that things would go better the next. Taking a deep breath, he cleared his mind of all of his thoughts and got to work. Myriad stayed silent, seeing the determination in the mind of his apostle as Falk waited to the side, not wanting to distract his student as he put every bit of himself into his task. Mana was shaped as stretched, every bit of it bending to his will as he pushed himself to make it work. Each strand of enchantment placed with a level of delicacy and precision that he knew he was incapable of doing better if he had to, feeling deep in his core that it didn¡¯t matter how much he believed in himself, if it didn¡¯t work this time then it was beyond his abilities, and as he laid the final bit down he waited with bated breath, prepared for the entire thing to shatter to dust in his hand, but it never did. Potentially the deadliest item he¡¯d ever made was complete, and it was beautiful. CH176 Theras Perspective ¡°Hey Thera!¡± Yelled the overly enthusiastic green girl as she ran up to her in the training grounds, drawing the few other eyes around as she did and leaving Thera to groan internally. Despite her better judgement, she was going to be spending the day practicing her magic with Sachel, with that plan being one of the reasons she and Ben hadn¡¯t gone on a two-day excursion into the woods for their weekend quest. It seemed the half-dryad was committed to her goal of making a better relationship with her, and in that vein had rushed to arrange a time they could work on their skills together when they had a chance. Not that that had been easier either. Unlike Ben, Sachel didn¡¯t bother keeping the fact that she was now the oracle of a god to herself, something that earned her more than a little curiosity from the townspeople when the majority had never encountered one before and left her exceptionally busy spreading the word of Myriad when she¡¯d gotten back. Now that things had died down a bit though she¡¯d managed to make the time to all but beg Thera for the chance to try and get to know one another better. ¡°Were you waiting long? I could have met you at your house.¡± ¡°I wanted to start early so it¡¯s fine. Now that you¡¯re here, what do you actually want to do?¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to practice, right? How about catch?¡± She asked as she pulled a small ball of dirt from the ground with her magic and gently lobbed it at Thera, whose response was to step out of the way. ¡°Even if my control has gotten better I still can¡¯t manage something of that size, unless you¡¯re up to try playing catch with something like this?¡± Thera responded, ripping a mound of dirt the size of a beachball into the air, and was about to gently toss it to the side of the girl when she thought better of it, letting it fall to the ground. ¡°Um, that might be a bit much for me.¡± ¡°Unfortunately that¡¯s as small as I can go. I told you when you asked, didn¡¯t I? You lean to control and I tip pretty heavily towards power, any practice together wouldn¡¯t really benefit either of us compared to just working alone.¡± ¡°Um, what about life magic! We both have that, Why don¡¯t we practice together!¡± ¡°How exactly are you planning to do that? I mean, I guess I could break Skoe¡¯s knee again and we could rush to see which of us could repair it faster, but I¡¯m going to assume you remember how I was fighting for your village? I wouldn¡¯t recommend it unless you want to find a new warrior for your party.¡± ¡°Um, well, what about¡­¡± Sachel desperately thought but got nowhere and Thera could see the girl struggle, unable to think of anything to do, so she decided to throw her a lifeline despite her desire to just practice by herself. ¡°How about something like this, we see if you can hit me with one of your dirt balls and I¡¯ll try to stop you with my own. There¡¯s not many monsters in the area that do any ranged attacks so it could be some good practice.¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Sounds great!¡± She agreed readily as her energy came back. ¡°In that case here I come!¡± Both women jumped back from each other, making space for their magic as they went. Satchel immediately got into it, pulling a ball of dirt from the ground and throwing it at Thera without releasing it from her magical grasp to make it so she could stop it in the event things started looking dangerous, but Thera was prepared, and rather than do something as simple as throw up a wall of dirt to block it, she decided to push herself a bit more, creating the same larger ball of dirt she had before and moving it into the path of Sachel¡¯s attack, both blocking it and absorbing it into the mass of her own. The move caught her off guard, but also brought out her competitive spirit and she was quick to raise another, throwing it towards Thera in earnest while trying to direct it out of the path of the bigger mass as she quickly responded, consuming the smaller lump into her growing sphere. Back and forth they continued for a while as the day slowly passed, and a small part of Thera had to admit to herself she was having some fun. She¡¯d never been able to treat using magic as a game before, and even if she did have a few close calls, Sachel had the skill to keep her from getting injured. As the time wore on, the ball of earth Thera used only grew larger until she was managing something as big across as a person was tall, and she was prepared to put an end to their little game as Sachel prepared one final move, trying to outspeed her to bring her down from behind. Thera wasn¡¯t sure if she¡¯d be able to manage it, but she put her best effort in, shedding the mass her magic had gained so she could rapidly bring it around behind her, only for her staff to finally shatter to dust in her hands as she did so, losing control of her spell while at the same time being knocked over by Sachel¡¯s, who¡¯d never predicted such a turn of events. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry!¡± She called out as she ran over, fearing the worst. It had seemed like they¡¯d gotten a good rhythm going and had been having fun, and she was praying she hadn¡¯t just ruined it. Thankfully Thera was understanding enough. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I should have paid more attention to how long I¡¯d been using the staff. I thought I¡¯d be able to get a bit more time out of this one, but I guess I went a bit harder on it than I¡¯d thought.¡± ¡°Oh good,¡± She said, filled with relief. ¡°Still, it must be troubling to go through so many staves. Just how much mana do you have?¡± ¡°A lot. Anyway, it¡¯s not so bad now that I¡¯m a bit better with my magic and Ben¡¯s learned some tricks to increase their durability, but it would be nice to not have to worry during my hunts.¡± Saying that, she couldn¡¯t help but eye the wooden one Ben had made Sachel from a fallen branch in her village''s sacred forest. Unlike the ones she got which were plain metal rods, he¡¯d taken a bit more time to flex his creative chops on hers, giving it a smooth, ornate shape with subtle plant carvings throughout its length to decorate it. It was almost surprising he could make such a finely crafted staff considering the hundreds he¡¯d seen made for her by this point, but she understood where he was coming from. She needed function before form, there was no reason for him to go out of his way to make something that was so aesthetic if it would turn to dust in a matter of days after being made. ¡°Anyway,¡± Satchel started, pulling her from her thoughts. ¡°Want to get something to eat since we¡¯re done? It¡¯ll be my treat.¡± She had intended to end things when they finished practicing, but the prospect of food was an appealing one when she considered just how many hours there would be till either Ben or her aunt were able to cook dinner, meaning until then, her options were either to accept this or just snack on whatever fruits or vegetables were at home and ready to eat. ¡°Well, since you¡¯re offering, I guess I can.¡± CH177 ¡°I know it¡¯s not ideal Thera, but it would really be helping out both me and the clinic if you stop by for just a couple hours a day,¡± Ben overheard Sonya telling Thera as he got home. ¡°I¡¯m not¡­ entirely against the idea aunty, I just don¡¯t think it will go well. Do you really not have any alternative?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have asked if I did, it will just be a little while as we look for new hands, please?¡± ¡°Oh alright, I guess I can do this for you for at least a bit.¡± ¡°Am I missing something exciting?¡± He asked as he entered the kitchen, just in time to see the two of them finish their meal. ¡°Unfortunately, we just lost another member of the clinic,¡± Sonya explained while greeting him. ¡°Finding anyone to fill the spots with so many nations beginning to recruit healers for their armies is proving a challenge, but luckily Thera agreed to help out a bit. Anyway, you¡¯re pretty late today Ben, anything interesting happen?¡± ¡°I leveled up my enchanting again and was able to make something good. Speaking of, Thera I¡¯ll need to update your enchantment tonight again,¡± She still looked uncomfortable at the prospect of acting as a town healer, but hearing that brightened her mood. Every level up he got to enchanting was a reasonable bump to how much of her charm could be blocked after all. The issue was that after this update to it, he¡¯d no longer be able to depend on the effects of his resistances to make his enchantment for her stronger, instead being forced to rely on whatever skills he could find to tie into and enhance its effects. He¡¯d still need to try to blend the ones he already knew would work, but decided to wait until he had higher level versions of the skill since he could expect results to be far more pronounced when he did. ¡°Sure, we can start when you¡¯re done dinner if you¡¯d like.¡± ¡°Works for me.¡± ¡°Also Ben, do you mind if I ask you a favour?¡± Sonya requested as he grabbed himself a bowl of food. ¡°Hmm? Sure, of course, what do you need?¡± It was rare for her to ask anything of him like that, but he had no issue as long as it was possible. ¡°Since Thera¡¯s going to be helping out, could you prepare an amulet for the clinic? One with both dark and life resistances? Since I haven¡¯t needed to do any corrections to the life magic she uses on you recently I think your resistance level at her current skill ensures it¡¯s safe.¡± ¡°Is that all? Yeah that¡¯s fine, stop by the shop tomorrow to pick it up, I¡¯ll make sure it¡¯s done first thing.¡± ¡°Alright, thank you. So anyway, what did you make that was so good?¡± At that he went on to talk about his day, before asking about theirs in turn, learning about how Thera¡¯s practice with Sachel went, as well as Sonya¡¯s time at the clinic, before devoting some more time to redoing the enchantment on Thera¡¯s brace late into the night and getting a bit of sleep. In the day that followed, he woke up early and left breakfast at the table for the two women before biking to the shop and immediately making Thera the amulet, only to have time to focus on some more personal projects until the store actually opened for the day. He first created a sheath for the knife, tying in a spacial enchantment that could tap into some of the power in the knife''s battery so that the entire thing could comfortably fit into his pocket without him having to worry before he moved onto the next task he¡¯d set for himself. While he now had two fairly well-made defensive items, as well as one melee weapon, he still had one more thing he wanted for completing his defensive arsenal to leave him slightly less worried about meeting his untimely demise for the second time. A ranged weapon. When he¡¯d tried before to make a gun, he was stopped by the differing materials in the world and his weaker knowledge of how to make use of them, but now things were different. Along with a great level of knowledge and experience, he also had better materials and his skills in enchanting, leaving him to stop waiting for whatever development Quilith¡¯s people were hoping for to once again try crafting one with his own two hands. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. He sketched a rough outline before getting to work, with his goal being to construct a revolver. While a part of him thought to try for a musket first, thinking it would be simpler overall, he wanted something that would be easy to carry on top of the fact that he didn¡¯t want to have to reload every time. While he might get less power out of it and only six shots, he wanted to trust that Thera would be able to cover things after that. With his idea firmly in his mind he got to work, creating the handle first, followed by the cylinder for the bullets, making sure each slot was the same consistent size. With that done he focused on constructing the barrel, doing his best to add the rifling he¡¯d heard that gave bullets their spin to improve their accuracy, and immediately exhausted everything he knew about guns. They simply hadn¡¯t been of much interest to him back on Earth, he didn¡¯t have the obsession with them the way a few others he knew seemed to, and everything he did know stemmed from a combination of documentaries and other media that he was praying had given him at least semi-accurate info. Of course, given how many changes he¡¯d be making, hopefully that wouldn¡¯t matter too much. Since he still didn¡¯t know how to make anything like gunpowder, his weapon was going to be entirely powered by one of his batteries placed into the handle to activate the enchantments he¡¯d be placing on it, and with that goal set he got to work assembling it to the best of his abilities, compensating for the areas he was less sure of with the skills he¡¯d been working so hard to master. Once that was done he focused on the enchantments, strengthening each area he thought might need it before moving on to the main one that would allow the tool to work as intended. Creating a fire enchantment to release a small but powerful explosion between it and the bullet, he linked it to the trigger for the activation condition, and from there the weapon itself was complete, a small mold to create the bullets being the finishing touches to make it truly functional. ¡°Manage to pull together something interesting boy?¡± His teacher asked as Ben sighed in contentment, leaving him aware of his presence. ¡°Potentially, I need to see how well it will work with some testing, but it¡¯s based on a weapon from my homeworld with a bit of a magic flair. The main issue is I¡¯m not too familiar with them so I had to compensate a fair bit as I did.¡± He¡¯d planned on seeing how well he¡¯d done with it when he finished for the day, but it seemed his teacher''s curiosity was piqued. After all, it wasn¡¯t too often that the smith got to see something completely new related to his field of work. ¡°Why not test it out now, we aren¡¯t exactly busy this early.¡± ¡°Um, I guess it should be fine here, in that case give me a few to make up a target.¡± He got a long plank of wood and drew a large target on it before placing it against some metal as he did, thinking that would be enough to stop the bullet if it completely passed through the wood, and stood back to take aim. He was fairly certain he was breaking more than a few rules on gun safety, but he stood about ten feet back from his target, took aim, and fired. It was quieter than he¡¯d expected, all things considered and chalked it up to the fact that the projectile was being shot off with magic instead of gunpowder. The bigger issue was that he missed the target. Thankfully he still hit the surrounding wood, but it wasn¡¯t the best of starts. Still, he went up to check its penetrating power. The results were adequate. While it didn¡¯t hit the metal backing, he could see it peeking through the back of the plank, meaning that for something as dense as wood he got about an inch of penetration. On the one hand, that meant he could probably expect reasonable success against more fleshy enemies, but on the other, he probably still needed to fear anything like the stone ape or anyone like him with a defense enhancement skill. ¡°It¡¯s alright I guess,¡± His teacher told him, sounding a touch disappointed. ¡°But I think you¡¯d get better results from something like a standard bow.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll probably experiment with a few different potential enchantments later to see if I can boost its power, but the point is that this has a low barrier to entry. I don¡¯t need strength or training to get any good results out of this, I just need to be able to aim.¡±
¡°Wow, my aim is shockingly bad.¡± ¡°Much, much worse.¡± When he finished work for the day he went to the training grounds with his target to practice away from the city without worry, only to find the limits of his skill. While after a few shots he found himself able to get the target somewhat reliably at ten feet, anything past twenty he would miss without question. That wasn¡¯t even considering the fact that he needed time to properly aim beforehand, meaning it wouldn¡¯t have much use if he was on the wrong end of a surprise attack, though he did feel like he¡¯d be fine if he were to give it some limited use while hunting. Still, it wouldn¡¯t be the all-powerful tool he¡¯d hoped. ¡°I may have underestimated the amount of work it took to get good at something like this,¡± He said with a groan. ¡°Still, I think I can at least apply some of the principles I¡¯ve learned making it to other projects.¡± CH178 Oh my god, why was that so expensive? Hey, your believers just need to go in to pray, it¡¯s fine. The rest is completely necessary storage space. God, so much. Pretty much all of the money I¡¯m going to be making while in Anailia is going towards books. I need to grab as many as I can on materials, enchanting, crafting techniques, alchemic theory, pretty much all I can find on both the standard magics as well as both specialized and combined magics. Oh, and any book on skills I can get my hands on. I can¡¯t do that, what if someone borrows a book when I need it? Myriad could only groan at his apostle''s stubbornness. It¡¯s on the to-do list. Maybe when I eventually take fractured mind user for some easy job experience. Until then my reading speed is already pretty intense with my many minds. With the land bought for the church and a construction team now contracted for actually creating the designs he¡¯d made for it, he¡¯d just managed to spend more wealth than he¡¯d ever expected to considering he wasn¡¯t taken in by any nation, but he still had plenty left despite that, with more accumulating thanks to the work of the various enchanters throughout the world that shared his god. With money not an issue and his promise to his god on its way to being complete by the time he got back he couldn¡¯t help but feel he was in a good place for his rapidly approaching quest.
¡°Bad day at the clinic?¡± Ben asked as he got home for the day, finding Thera faced down on the couch, seeming to be completely drained of energy. In the weeks since she started she¡¯d been devoting about half of each day to helping out, the owner being agreeable about it since they were short-staffed overall and the fact he was already acquainted with Thera, having let her help out with some cleaning in the past. She¡¯d been rather committed to properly splitting her time between that in the morning with her afternoons being devoted to her earth magic, but it looked like all of that had started to catch up with her. ¡°Everyone in town sucks,¡± She moaned, tired of the people she¡¯d been dealing with in her day-to-day life at the clinic. ¡°I just want to start our quest already.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only a few days away. For now, why not tell me what happened this time?¡± ¡°A kid broke his arm and when I went to treat it he started crying his eyes out. I guess unlike the adults I¡¯ve dealt with, kids aren¡¯t so willing to trust when the other healers say it will be fine.¡± ¡°Oof, yeah that¡¯s rough. Try thinking of it this way though, it¡¯s only a few more days till we leave, hopefully by the time we¡¯re back the clinic will be fully staffed again.¡± ¡°Easy for you to say, you¡¯re not stuck seeing the looks people give me when I go to treat them. People don¡¯t like placing their trust in amulets.¡± Even if the town had grown to accept Thera to a much greater extent than in the past, there was still enough lingering fear to shy from her touch it seemed and Ben could only imagine how emotionally draining dealing with that for a few hours a day could be. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He sat down beside her and rubbed her head, trying to be reassuring as he did. ¡°You¡¯re right, that does suck. Here, what do you want for dinner, I¡¯ll make you something nice to cheer you up, okay?¡± ¡°Mmh, how about something new?¡± She asked, peeking out from where she laid with an upturned glance. ¡°Something new huh? That should be doable. Come on, I¡¯ll need some ingredients so let''s go shopping.¡± The promise of something tasty brought back her spirits and she got up to go at his request, making their way to the town''s butcher as Ben tried to raise her mood. They¡¯d managed to use up all of the meat Ben gathered during their demon hunt a while ago, and they both agreed they typically preferred getting it from in town when they could, the flavour that came with whatever beast they might find could be rather hit or miss. ¡°Ah Ben, how¡¯d you like the roast galvoc you got last week,¡± The butcher, a large muscular lizard man, called out as they entered. ¡°It was great!¡± He responded with as much cheer in return. ¡°I was hoping you might have something that matches the flavour I¡¯m looking for. Something salty and a fair bit of fat if you have it, and I¡¯d get it diced.¡± ¡°I think I have just the thing, making something fancy?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the goal, I¡¯ll bring the recipe by next time I need something if it works out.¡± ¡°Sounds good, the kids loved the last one you gave me.¡± They chatted a while longer while he prepared the meat before Ben paid and they parted ways. ¡°I have no clue how you manage that so well,¡± Thera sighed as they left. ¡°Hmm? Managed what?¡± ¡°People.¡± ¡°He gets his knives sharpened at the shop is all. The longer you do some work at the clinic the more others will get used to you. You¡¯re fine with Onk at the guild, right? Plus you and Sachel seem to be spending more time together.¡± ¡°Onk¡¯s been fine from the beginning, it¡¯s different. And Sachel is just trying to make up for the past.¡± It was obvious that he wasn¡¯t doing a good job convincing her, but even if he thought she¡¯d feel a bit better after some rest he kept trying and took her hand. ¡°Well you¡¯ve got me, so if there¡¯s anything I can do let me know. I don¡¯t like seeing my best friend sad.¡± ¡°I¡¯m your best friend?¡± She asked, perking up. ¡°Yeah, obviously.¡± ¡°Like, behind Will and Steph?¡± ¡°Neither of them were even my best friend on Earth. They¡¯re good friends, but I think the person I spend every day with is going to take the spot over people I¡¯m only exchanging letters with about once a month. The next one on the planet is probably Myriad. Although he¡¯s not really on the planet, is he?¡± He thought aloud, getting a small chuckle from her. ¡°Well thanks, even if you are embarrassingly open about your feelings.¡± ¡°It¡¯s part of my appeal, if I don¡¯t let people know I care then I might regret it later.¡±
¡°And dinner is served! Eat it while it¡¯s hot!¡± ¡°What did you say this was called?¡± She asked with hesitation as she saw the lump-filled sauce in front of her. ¡°Gnocchi cacio e pepe, lovingly made without a single ingredient that it should be in a dish that would already make an italian want to stab me.¡± She didn¡¯t know what she¡¯d been expecting when she¡¯d asked for something new, but it hadn¡¯t been this, and with a bit of hesitation she scooped some up and took a bite as her eyes lit up and she immediately went for another. ¡°It¡¯s good!¡± ¡°Of course it is, everything I make tastes good,¡± He told her confidently, hiding the fact that he¡¯d been worried about whether or not it would come together the way it was supposed to and feeling relieved it had worked out. Making a note, next time Thera wants a surprise cheer-up meal, pick something easier.
After food, they spent some time playing a few games before going to sleep. Sonya was stuck late at work so it had been just the two of them, leaving Thera on a winning streak without any real competition. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll make it hearts and it looks like I win!¡± ¡°Good game, but if your last card is an eight and there¡¯s nobody else playing you don¡¯t need to make it anything.¡± ¡°Ah, I guess that makes sense.¡± As he stared at her smiling face he couldn¡¯t help but be pleased to have brightened her mood, even as he began to come to a realisation the longer he looked at her. Gently cupping her face in his hands and surprising her as he did, he stared intently at her as he spoke. ¡°I really have put this off a bit longer than I should have, haven¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Um, Ben? What are you talking about?¡± She asked, face growing golden as he got closer. ¡°I really need to give you that haircut.¡± CH179 He¡¯d put off creating Thera¡¯s new staff for long enough. His crafting level was far higher than he¡¯d initially planned for it to be and with them about to embark on a long trek to hunt anything they could find along the way, a good quality staff was a must. It was with all of that in mind that he finally sat her down in front of him and pulled out a sharp pair of scissors. ¡°Are you sure you can do this?¡± She asked, sounding nervous as she did. ¡°We can always wait until we get to Anailia so my mom can do it.¡± ¡°I mean, it¡¯s your hair. If you¡¯d prefer that then we can wait.¡± ¡°Mmh¡­¡± She had a brief but intense internal debate trying to decide what was more important, the chance for a good staff or the chance for a bad haircut, and though it was close her desire to have a staff that wouldn¡¯t break won out in the end. ¡°Alright, go ahead. It¡¯s not like anyone will see it if you mess up anyway.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to mess up so don¡¯t worry,¡± He told her, trying to calm her down. ¡°At the very least I¡¯m confident that I won¡¯t do anything that would make you look terrible, if it needs a little bit of fixing up after then your mom can manage.¡± As he said that he started running his fingers through her hair, looking at the way it naturally wanted to fall along her head as he tried to figure out where would be the best way to cut it as he did, before taking the plunge and making the first snip. After he did that the rest became far easier as he treated it like any other project and let himself get lost in it. It didn¡¯t take long before he was done, having cut it to be just above her shoulders, he looked it over carefully and was personally quite happy with how it turned out. Everything was even and he hadn¡¯t left her with a bald spot, so he was sure she¡¯d be satisfied, and feeling like getting a little creative he started to style it a bit next. ¡°Aren¡¯t you done?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just doing a quick braid, it will look nice, don¡¯t worry.¡± The kind he was putting in her hair, a half-up crown braid was quick and easy enough, and once he was finished and had everything in place he grabbed a mirror to show off the result. ¡°So what do you think?¡± He asked, feeling pretty good about it. ¡°It¡¯s nice. I don¡¯t really do anything like this since I¡¯m always in my cloak, but I like it. How do you even know how to do this sort of thing?¡± ¡°When I was a kid I liked to braid bracelets and stuff, and since I was pretty good at it my mom thought it would be fun to teach me how to do her hair so I learned a few different ones. It¡¯s easy enough, I can show you how sometime if you want?¡± ¡°Mmm, I¡¯ll think about it. It¡¯s not something I can see myself doing honestly, but it might be nice to learn.¡± ¡°Well, I guess I can always just do it for you instead if you ever want to fancy up a bit, just let me know. Anyway, with that done I guess I¡¯ll head out to work on your staff so swing by the shop in the morning.¡± ¡°Ben, it¡¯s late, the rest of the town has already shut down for the day,¡± She told him incredulously. ¡°I can wait till tomorrow to get it and you need to actually sleep more than a couple of hours a night.¡± He could see she wasn¡¯t going to back down on forcing him to take care of himself and with a bit of hesitation, he gave in. It is kind of important that I get this right the first time, getting a bit of extra sleep won¡¯t hurt.
He woke up in the morning, ready to make a simple breakfast for Thera and Sonya to enjoy when they got up, only to find Thera already awake. It seemed the exciting prospect of a better staff had made it hard to stay asleep, so with more energy than she knew what to do with she decided to go watch him make it. He didn¡¯t mind the company, it being a nice alternative to the few hours he¡¯d typically spend alone so early in the morning as they went to the shop and he got started. He¡¯d been planning this for a while and an idea was firmly developed in his head. Unlike the majority of the staves he¡¯d made her, this one wouldn¡¯t be metal in its nature, at least not to the extent it normally was. Instead, he would be taking advantage of the wood he¡¯d received from the dryads, shaping one of the two remaining branches he¡¯d received into a more proper shape, cutting and sanding away the rougher, more natural look of the wood to create something smoother and more pleasant to handle. While it didn¡¯t look overly impressive for the time being though, that wouldn¡¯t be true when it was done. With the basic shape formed he carefully drilled a thin hole through its core, stretching from the bottom to almost the tip of the staff, stopping just before he¡¯d get through the top. At the head of the staff he carefully inserted a variety of thin yet sturdy pins, creating minuscule holes he planned to put to use later, and with the most delicate parts of the woodworking complete, moved on to cutting channels up the length of the staff, creating an intersecting quadruple-helix as he went to be filled in after. Finally, the time came to use the golden hair, possibly the toughest material to determine the proper way to work with. From earlier tests he confirmed the properties that seemed apparent to him. When removed from her head, it still acted as one would expect hair would, minus the fact that it could be melted down to turn into regular gold. Since he couldn¡¯t determine if doing so would destroy the properties he¡¯d wanted to preserve, that meant working it in an almost unaltered state, and that was exactly what he did. With all but a few strands he twisted them, before binding them to a sturdy silver wire and sliding it within the core of the staff, getting it exactly where he wanted it to be as he moved on to the next part, carefully sliding the few remaining hairs into the pinholes he¡¯d created, letting the strands meet the central core before he secured them the best he could before moving to the forge to heat up three different metals, one of which he¡¯d be needing shortly. To properly take advantage of it though, he needed to apply an earthen enchantment to what he currently had, blending it with water mana to more successfully achieve the effect he wanted. Once that was done the metal was ready, and he had to quickly make a separate tool to keep things from getting too dangerous. Getting a thin plate of metal, he quickly shaped it so it could act as a funnel and wrapped it around the bottom of the staff before securing it upright and carefully taking a crucible of molten silver, pouring it into the core to ensure everything was secured in place while providing power to the enchantments at the same time, the effect of which was to increase the speed the liquid metal would run as it made its way down until he saw it begin to dribble out of the end of the staff and he removed his enchantments. He looked it over from there. The wood hadn¡¯t been too damaged by the entire process, though if the quality of dryad wood weren¡¯t so great he would have had to find a different means to secure it. At worst it had gotten a mild char on the interior, nothing more. Satisfied the hardest part was complete he moved on to the remaining two metals, moribusial and iron, and finding both at the right temperature to work, began blending the two together, carefully running his mana through the super-heated mix as he did so. His goal wasn¡¯t as simple as the usual outward release of any of the mana it sucked, he was aiming to direct it at a right angle. When he was sure it was as good as he could make it and fearing mana exhaustion, he took it away, cutting it into strips and shaping it while it was still hot to get it perfect, before fitting each piece into the channels he¡¯d cut along the length of the staff and securing them in place. Carefully looking it over, he couldn¡¯t have been more pleased. The dark wood complimented the rosy metal wrapped around it and let the golden flecks at the top shine. For the finishing touches, he wrapped some leather cords around where he knew Thera would be gripping it so she wouldn¡¯t feel any effect of having her mana drained, regardless of how insignificant that would be for her, followed up with a complex arrangement of his highest possible resistances throughout the entire thing and he could finally say it was complete. Thera didn¡¯t notice Ben¡¯s eyes light up with the notification, it seemed her own were glued to the staff he¡¯d made, but in the hours since he started on it Falk had shown up, and he was a bit more observant of his pupil. ¡°Got some good news I take it boy? Don¡¯t tell me your skills leveled up again after only a few months since the last time?¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Nope, finished my job. Speaking of, mind if I take a few hours off to change it and test this out with Thera?¡± She turned to her uncle, even with her face covered it was clear she was filled with hope and expectations, and he waved them off. ¡°Sure, there¡¯s not too much to do today anyway since we¡¯re both so close to heading off so enjoy. Come back and let me know how it works out.¡±
Myriad told him as he walked to the job room with Thera in tow. What? I didn¡¯t even do anything for once. And you¡¯re mad about that, why? Myriad I like you, but if you¡¯re saying I don¡¯t put in effort then we¡¯re throwing hands when I get to sleep. Actually, no? How common is it? Come on, that can¡¯t be right. Sure, it¡¯s a lot of work and effort, but I¡¯m managing fine. What did they say when you told them about how awesome I am then? <...> What? You did tell them about how great your beloved apostle is, didn¡¯t you? <...No.> Man, why not? I¡¯m over here working my butt off, I want the praise. Maybe a new title too depending on what they have to say. ¡­Okay, ignoring the opinion you have of your incredibly dear and devoted apostle who¡¯s working to get you a church made in town, I guess that does sound like a pain in the ass. Hate to be on Falk''s side about this, but I have no interest in being a teacher when I¡¯m still growing myself. Sure, he¡¯d put the offer out to Delair and her mother when he¡¯d left, but what were actually the chances of him needing to do such a thing by the time she was old enough to make up her mind about what she¡¯d want to do with her life? Odds were best she¡¯d work on tending to their forest like the rest of her village. Shaking off their talk, he got to the guild and entered the job room, placing his hand on the crystal and letting the options fill his mind. AVAILABLE JOBS
  • Trap user
  • Tree tamer
  • Craftsman- alchemy path
  • Craftsman- artistic path
  • Craftsman- blacksmith path
  • Craftsman- cooking path
  • Craftsman- stonecrafts path
  • Craftsman- sewing path
  • Heretic
  • Holy craftsman
  • Kin
  • Tank
  • Mathematician
  • Fractured mind user
  • Magic weapon maker
Hmm, so only one new one it looks like. Both mathematician and fractured mind user had appeared after completing the mind user job, and while the second one sounded appealing as one he might be able to finish in a few months the same way he had completed the first one in a matter of weeks, he left it to the side for the time being as he considered his options, the task becoming much easier with the appearance of the new job. As much as it was a shame that he wasn¡¯t a level seven enchanter yet to get access to the one he really wanted, it looked like the benefits of taking magic item maker previously had just reared its head, giving him a new avenue to focus on his crafting and enchanting. Name: Ben Heph Race: Human Titles: Apostle of Myriad, The Forgotten One, Miracle Maker, Skill learner Jobs: Magic weapon maker (lv 1) Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman, Priest, Enchanter, Mind user, Magic item maker Attributes:
  • Vitality: 183
  • Vitality recovery rate: 2/hr
  • Mana: 120
  • Mana recovery rate: 7/min
  • Strength: 186
  • Agility: 85
  • Stamina: 689
  • Intelligence: 379
Affinities:
  • Light: 3
  • Life: 2
  • Fire: 4
  • Water: 3
  • Air: 4
  • Earth: 2
  • Death: 3
  • Dark: 1
  • Space: 4
  • Time: 5
Resistances:
  • Light: 68
  • Life: 72
  • Fire: 75
  • Water: 69
  • Air: 66
  • Earth: 81
  • Death: 78
  • Dark: 85
  • Space: 63
  • Time: 61
Blessed skills:
  • Crafting lv7
  • Enchanting lv6
  • Focus lv6
Passive skills:
  • World speak+
  • Tolerance lv2
  • Sacrilege lv3
  • Complex mind lv3
  • Bind
  • Partial demonic body
  • Defense enhancement lv1
  • Parallel thought lv1
  • Ambidexterity
Active skills:
  • Dismantling lv3
  • Stealth lv1
  • Connect lv6
  • Hidden mind lv4
  • Calculate lv3
  • Knife wielder lv0
  • Hammer wielder lv0
  • Meditation lv1
  • Cycling lv0
Blessings
  • Myriads Blessing
  • Anailias Blessing
Trials
  • Trial of Anailia and Tolona
So the bonuses are the same for magic item maker, huh? He¡¯d suspected as much, but it was still a turn of events he was quite pleased with. Even if it was his only one, enchanting did qualify as a magic skill, and since it also fell under crafting as well he harbored a small, secret hope that it meant it was drawing dual bonuses from the single job. It wasn¡¯t something he could be certain about without finding someone with an awakened analysis skill, but even if he was wrong it didn¡¯t matter too much, any job that let him get bonuses to it was a benefit. All that mattered was how he would work through the experience for it, especially when he had a few weeks he¡¯d be stuck in the woods, without a forge to make weapons for the job experience. If only I could bring the entire forge to the woods. He thought to himself before an idea struck him. Wait, maybe I don¡¯t need to? I¡¯ll have to do some testing to see what nets me job experience. ¡°Are you all done?¡± Thera asked, seeing he¡¯d finished with both the crystal and his card. ¡°Yep, you¡¯re looking at a magic weapon maker now.¡± ¡°In that case, come on, I want to try this out.¡± Her excitement was palpable and he couldn¡¯t help but muse that if it did work the drop in his staff production might end up as a loss to his current job experience as they headed out into the training grounds. CH180 With his new job selected they both made their way to the training grounds, eager to see what sort of success the new staff would have. It was probably the finest one he¡¯d ever made and loaded to the brim with sacrificial enchantments to boot. Once they arrived and Thera stood ready to cast he stood to the side and watched intensely. His mana sense had long since improved over how it had been during his first time in Anailia, transitioning from just feeling the enchantments on items he touched to seeing them faintly the same way he could with those of a god, and he eagerly watched as Thera fired her first spell, an earth bullet. ¡°Looking good so far, not a single enchantment broke!¡± he called out. ¡°Go a little crazy with it, I¡¯ll stop you if it looks like it¡¯s starting to take any damage.¡± With that bit of encouragement she let herself go wild, throwing a variety of earth bullets at a range of sizes, creating earthen spears from the ground and directing them through the air, and pulling off the same giant earth saws she¡¯d done during the trial. It was only when she attempted an earth wave like she¡¯d done while facing off against a horde of monsters that Ben stepped in, placing his hand on the staff to repair a few of the enchantments that had been broken. ¡°It looks like it was only at that last one that the enchantments started to break,¡± He told her with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. ¡°As long as I¡¯m around then doing more mana intense stuff like that is fine, but even if I¡¯m not I don¡¯t think It will be too much of a problem for you,¡± He said, casting a look around the training grounds and feeling infinitely grateful that the area existed with the intent of being destroyed. ¡°All that¡¯s left is to try it with your other types of magic to see if it can stand up to those.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll try to use telekinesis next and then maybe use it in tandem with my earth magic so let me know how it looks.¡± It took a bit longer, but visually it would seem like she hadn¡¯t changed. She was still moving the earth in much the same way she¡¯d been before, the only difference was that each spell took a significantly increased rate of time to pull off as she did. Ben kept watch from the side and gave his approval that there were no issues yet, and that was when she switched to combining its effects with her earth magic, immediately increasing the mass she could move and the power she could get from each attack as she did so, with the only cost once again being her spell activation speed. He let her fire for a bit longer before stopping her again. ¡°Alright, one of the enchantments just broke so it looks like the more you combine your magic like that the more strain it will take on, but from what I¡¯m seeing the speed is slow, as long as you bring me your staff at the end of each day I should be able to repair whatever few get damaged, but from what I¡¯m seeing I¡¯m not too worried. For now. We should probably go back and test your earth magic spells for a few hours later to be sure that nothing starts breaking down, but for the time being let¡¯s switch to your other magics.¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. She tried out her life magic next, focusing on the same sort of attack she¡¯d used to deal with the frost bats and let out an unrestrained amount of mana. Seeing no issues with that they ignored any of the regular healing spells she knew. Using them already pushed her control and ability to lower the amount of mana she released, there was no concern about that potentially damaging her staff compared to everything else she¡¯d done. All that left was the last option, her dark magic. She didn¡¯t do too much with it for fear it would bring up the level of her charm as well, but she¡¯d taken the time to read up on a few different spells for it anyway, just in case she¡¯d ever need it and tried to decide on which one to try before ultimately sticking to the dark fog her aunt Funa had recommended to her. She carefully gathered her dark mana, stripping the charm from it and shaped her spell while holding onto as much as she could. With her overall magic control having improved so much she was able to hang onto a significant amount more than the first time and released her spell. It was like night had fallen. They could both see each other, but that was as much an effect of being close by as it was their high dark resistances. It was only lucky that nobody else was using the area to practice their skills when they did so they didn¡¯t need to worry about any accidents. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t see any breakage in the enchantment, so as long as you don¡¯t go too crazy with anything I¡¯d say you have a working staff.¡± As happy as he was to have finally solved one of her problems, Thera was all the more so and completely giddy with joy as she spent the rest of the day practicing her magic to an extent she¡¯d never managed before.
After months of work, Myriad had told Ben every detail that was to make it to his holy book. From guidelines to tales of himself and the deeds of his people that had left their mark on the faith, he¡¯d spared no effort in ensuring it would be perfect, which was why it was all the more stressful that his apostle put his pen down before the final sentence. ¡°Alright cool. Well then, I¡¯ll get that last bit down when I¡¯m a bit closer to the end of my job.¡± ¡°Yeah, but if I actually cross it now then I¡¯ll be getting the job experience when I literally just started this one. I¡¯d rather save those levels for when I¡¯m a little farther in.¡± ¡°Look, I know this is important to you and I¡¯m not a complete jerk. I¡¯ll write the final sentence and hand it in just before I return, okay? I want to get at least a good chunk of job levels in before I finish this.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got a pretty good strategy to keep the entire trip from being a waste experience-wise so give me just a little trust here man, you waited centuries for this right? What¡¯s a few more weeks if it keeps your dear apostle alive?¡± ¡°Why Myriad, do I ever do anything but my absolute best?¡± CH181 ¡°Make sure you hand off my letter to Pelenia,¡± Falk said to both Ben and Thera as they prepared to leave. ¡°And mine as well,¡± Sonya told Thera as she pulled her into a tight hug. ¡°The town¡¯s going to feel so much emptier with all of you gone at once.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll only be for a bit more than a month aunty, we¡¯ll be back soon. I doubt I¡¯ll be able to handle my parents for much longer than that anyway.¡± ¡°Mmh, if your mom does anything so rash again let me know. If need be I¡¯ll rush down to straighten her out.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll send a letter if she does anything too over the top,¡± Thera told her aunt, grateful to have her for support. Sonya gave Ben a hug as well and asked him to look after Thera while Falk gave him a firm pat on the shoulder, and with that the two of them went off, walking in the woods to the left of the road and hoping to find anything they could. Thera was at the ready, staff in hand and carrying a magic tool that Ben had produced specifically for their long trek. It was a lantern of sorts, the flame within being created through a fire enchantment being mixed with the level six charm that Sonya possessed, to create an alternative to the one that naturally came off of Thera. While less powerful since it didn¡¯t have her overwhelming mana attached to it, the higher level compensated for that fact while the fire at its core served the purpose of getting rid of any bugs that were drawn to it so they wouldn¡¯t be surrounded by a constant swarm. While he¡¯d given it another effect as well, it wouldn¡¯t become relevant until night fell. As she tried to focus around her, at the ready for anything that might be drawn out to attack, she couldn¡¯t help but be distracted by whatever Ben was doing, seeming to be paying attention to the surroundings but had his hands full with two knives and something else in each as well. ¡°Okay, I give. What¡¯s going on? Are you just that excited to fight or something?¡± ¡°What, this?¡± He asked, wiggling his very full hands. ¡°It¡¯s part of a little idea I had to make sure this quest isn¡¯t too much of a waste of my time. I¡¯m just working on making some magic weapons since we¡¯re going to be out here for a couple weeks and I didn¡¯t want to miss out on the job experience,¡± He got the feeling she only had more questions, so he explained in a bit more detail. ¡°Alright, so you know how my current job is magic weapon maker, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, I was there when you took it.¡± ¡°Cool, so it follows that what gives my job the most experience is creating magic weapons right?¡± ¡°That''s what I¡¯d guess from the name.¡± ¡°Excellent, well if you look to my hands, I¡¯ve got two ordinary sets of both knives and brass knuckles. Well they aren¡¯t actually brass but whatever. I add a little enchantment to each and¡­¡± The edges of the knives burst into flame as he poured mana through them and knuckles lit up from the light spell that had been applied to them. ¡°Now they¡¯re magic weapons. Remove the enchantments that are on them and repeat, and I¡¯m spending the next two weeks making magic weapons over and over again.¡± ¡°Does that actually work?¡± She asked curiously. ¡°The job name makes me think you need to actually make the weapon.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t doubt that I¡¯m getting less experience this way compared to if I was able to work at the forge, but as long as I keep varying the enchantments as I do and make them as complex as I can I should be able to get a constant stream of experience. After all, I am turning normal weapons into magic weapons. The four at once is just to try and maximize the amount I get, though it¡¯s a bit of a trade-off because they¡¯ll be made slower than if I focused on just one. I only wish I thought of doing this sooner, there¡¯s no reason I couldn¡¯t have squeezed a few days off of my last job if I had.¡± She could only shake her head. ¡°Well, do you think you could dedicate just one hand to holding that very fancy knife you made before? I can only imagine you getting attacked with hands full of weapons you can¡¯t do anything with.¡± This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°It¡¯s sheathed in my pocket, worst to worst I¡¯ll just drop these and pull it out. I just need you to keep me safe if anything comes at me.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be better to just be at the ready?¡± ¡°I mean, maybe? It¡¯s not like I¡¯m much of a fighter and doing a quest like this where I can¡¯t just set some traps and wait is kind of a huge weakness for me, right? Since my gun idea was a bit of a bust as far as ease of use goes I should really try and find a different way to keep myself safe. Maybe I could work on something that could attack automatically? But then how would I make it work, or for that matter distinguish between friends and enemies?¡± She let out a sigh as he started getting lost in his own world. ¡°Just don¡¯t let yourself get so into it that you¡¯ll be taken by surprise.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m pushing my mind skills a bit, but that¡¯s just training too, right?¡± ¡°As long as you¡¯re giving the surroundings enough attention then alright, just try not to trip on anything I guess.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. So how long do you think it will be until we run into anything?¡± ¡°The woods along the road get cleared regularly so I doubt we¡¯ll encounter anything at all. Even if it¡¯s not as high paying as other rank four quests it has the benefit of being easy and fairly stable pay, plenty of people take it when it¡¯s not being used as a way to stabilize their finances.¡± ¡°Well then, here¡¯s hoping for an easy couple weeks.¡±
The first day of hiking through the woods, trying to draw out anything that might be a danger to them and anyone using the roads had been a bust. While there was a constant stream of smaller monsters that would appear to cause havoc and attempt to attack them after being drawn in, they hadn¡¯t seen a single more serious threat that a carriage or anyone traveling on foot couldn¡¯t simply have escaped from, and with the day almost over they decided to stop for the night to make camp. The magic lantern wasn¡¯t extinguished, instead he twisted a small nob he had on it, designed to connect to the enchantment and essentially change the setting of it, taking it from being a light that emits charm to one that emits fear instead. While Ben didn¡¯t have it as a specialized skill, using it as a level five dark spell was more than enough to give the effect he wanted, and more importantly, make it so they could both comfortably get a proper night''s sleep without needing to worry about alternating a watch thanks to it as well as a few other smaller traps he had set up. As they sat down after setting up the tent, Ben dug through his bag and handed her some food. ¡°What would you rather? Dried meat or dried meat?¡± ¡°Just hand it over,¡± She told him, depressed at the state their meals would be taking for the next little while. ¡°We¡¯ll have to get something nice while we¡¯re in the city to make up for this.¡± ¡°Absolutely. I wouldn¡¯t mind checking out some shops before we go through the gate anyway.¡± He hadn¡¯t been overly thrilled with the meals they''d be stuck having either, but he didn¡¯t want to fiddle with the enchantments on the spacial bags since whatever enchanter had made them seemed to have a ridiculously good space affinity. The mana cost was so low on them that the little mythril used to power it couldn¡¯t handle having anything else added to it, and if he tried to remake it to be better for storing food as he currently was he stood the chance of leaving it worse. Once they completed their lackluster meal they went to go to sleep for the night, splitting the tent since their time in the dryad village had dulled any awkwardness about that sort of thing, when Ben grabbed her arm and pointed, trying to be quiet enough that only Thera would hear. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what that is, but it doesn¡¯t look good,¡± He whispered, directing her attention to a glowing, translucent animal that resembled a white wolf at first glance. Thera for her own part seemed less cautious and more curious, almost excited. ¡°Oh cool, a ghost. I¡¯ve never actually seen one in real life before.¡± ¡°Wait, I¡¯m sorry. A ghost?¡± ¡°Yeah, from an Amarok from the looks of it. This is so neat, it¡¯s a shame uncle isn¡¯t here.¡± ¡°Uh, should we be worried at all?¡± He asked, more nervous than he expected to be hearing that. He was aware of them on this world at least, but unlike so many other creatures where connections were mostly being made to relevant species that existed in his native language, a ghost was exactly as it sounded like, the remaining soul of a dead creature, continuing to live on and act in the world without the flesh it had previously been bound to. ¡°Yeah, a single ghost usually can¡¯t do much by itself. If uncle was here he could either control it with his death magic or maybe help it pass on, but if left alone it should do that eventually anyway. It won¡¯t be affected by the lantern but it shouldn¡¯t bother us so you don¡¯t need to worry.¡± She could tell something about it made him uncomfortable but she simply didn¡¯t understand why. They were essentially harmless without a death magic user around, either a creature that was stubbornly hanging onto a lost life or so dumb it hadn¡¯t realised it had died. Either way it could be considered unfortunate, but the sheer rarity of spotting a being like that was enough to draw her eye to its ethereal form. They watched it for a little longer before deciding to turn in for the night, giving Ben plenty of time to ponder the strangeness of the world. CH182 The days of their small journey passed without much issue. The lantern was doing its job and drawing creatures in as they went, but anything that came their way had been small enough not to pose any real threat to a carriage going through the nearby road, and Thera was able to swiftly deal with them with her earth magic without much issue as they went. It had just been dull and Ben couldn¡¯t help but continue to reflect on what a waste of time it was for him personally to do this; instead of working to improve his skills or build better tools, he was acting as a tagalong for what was really more Thera¡¯s quest than anything. Not that he would want to leave her to walk through the woods by herself for a few weeks, there wasn¡¯t a single thing he liked about that prospect, he just wished they¡¯d been given something that could be done a little quicker as they tried to pass the time. At the very least he had his enchantments to work on, even if he was beginning to have to stretch his creativity a bit to figure out what to put on the items he had. There were only so many things he could do to some knives and brass knuckles that would actually be worthwhile, and if he were to just keep building the same ones over and over again then he¡¯d get less experience overall. Let¡¯s see, I think I¡¯ve pushed enchantments with the time attribute as much as I can, the only one I haven¡¯t combined it with yet would be space, but what would even be the point of that? Unless¡­ Could I create the enchantment to collapse space instead of expanding it like I would for a bag? A knife that could draw in flesh to it would cause significantly more damage if it stabbed someone, wouldn¡¯t it? Might as well tie in another skill as I do. Maybe sacrilege? Live the ultimate dream of making a god-killing blade? He thought to himself with a chuckle and assumed Myriad must have been busy since the thought didn¡¯t draw any comments. He took another moment to figure out what to do with the other three weapons in his hands before getting to work, experimenting with what he could do by both blending and weaving his mana as he went, trying to tease out what would be particularly efficient or if he was managing to get any unexpected results as he worked. Though he believed he hadn¡¯t gotten too lost in his task, doing his best to be aware of his surroundings as they went, he felt Thera give a strong tug on his arm. ¡°Ben I know you want to get the quest over with but you need to slow down a little, we can¡¯t just rush through it,¡± She slowly told him, breathing slightly harder than he would have expected for the pace he thought he had been going. ¡°Huh, sorry I guess I didn¡¯t notice while I was working, I¡¯ll take a little break,¡± He told her, slipping his tools away since he¡¯d been at it for hours by that point anyway and figured that giving his brain a little rest would help him have an easier time thinking of different enchantment options later on. They continued on, Ben looking to certain points in the woods as they went each time a sound caught his attention, but since neither of them were seeing anything assumed it must have been the normal sounds of the woods until Thera grabbed him again. ¡°Seriously, why are you going so fast today?¡± She wasn¡¯t exactly struggling to keep up, but if anything she was the one that typically needed to wait for him. She knew he was looking forward to getting to Anailia, but didn¡¯t think he would be in such a hurry. ¡°What are you talking about? This is how I always-¡± Something clicked in his mind and he acted fast, pulling Thera in close to him as he threw his barrier bracelet to the ground, trapping them both in a space he¡¯d originally designed to fit just one. Thera readied her staff, assuming Ben must have seen something to react like that but with nothing in her field of view. ¡°What is it? Did you see something?¡± ¡°Maybe nothing,¡± He admitted, though still feeling cautious. ¡°As far as I can tell I¡¯m walking my normal speed and we both know I¡¯m not faster than you. I¡¯m worried something might have been debuffing us.¡± ¡°Hmm, you did see unusually swift, but we would be able to feel the difference if we received a speed debuff by ourselves, I didn¡¯t feel sluggish at all. Maybe you were buffed? Are you sure you didn¡¯t feel faster or more energized?¡± ¡°No, normal,¡± He told her, going through possibilities in his head before coming to a conclusion he very much did not like. ¡°When I spoke before, how did I sound? You seemed a bit slow to me.¡± ¡°Hmm? I guess you seemed a little fast. Wait, you aren¡¯t thinking time magic, are you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s my best guess, my resistance is so much greater than yours that even if we were both hit with it I might end up faster than you,¡± The barrier had his resistances tied into it on top of the ones he naturally had they would both be barely affected by it at this point, but if he was right then this really was a whole other problem. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any creatures in this area with a strong time affinity though,¡± Thera said, sounding troubled and he completely understood why. Aside from the fact that creatures with time spells could definitely cause a much greater impact to travelers, it would also potentially signify the progression of a change to the forest they were already looking out for because of the stone ape, and a major one at that. ¡°For now why don¡¯t we wait here a bit and see if anything feels like coming out.¡± Thera agreed easily enough and they waited, watching patiently for anything to come out to attack, Ben struggling to reach into his bag to try and grab a tool in case anything came out as Thera tried to deal with the tightness of the situation, her back pressed against the barrier while her face was stuck in Ben''s chest. ¡°Might I recommend making this to be slightly larger in the future,¡± She said after a bit, feeling less on guard and more awkward as anything failed to show up. ¡°Sorry, it didn¡¯t occur to me that we might have to share this. Since nothing has come out yet there¡¯s a decent chance it isn¡¯t being affected by the lantern anymore since it would be reduced by the barriers resistances, want me to take it down?¡± ¡°Mmh, I¡¯ve heard time affinitied monsters are typically tricky, let¡¯s give it a little longer just to be on the safe side.¡± Some magic just seemed more intuitive for different creatures to use than others, meaning that if something had one like space or time, a person that ran into them needed to expect more craftiness than they might get from something that used the more physical magics. They waited a little longer, hoping something would come out to put their minds at ease, but as the minutes passed and nothing seemed to move they were prepared to give up, until they found themselves in a far worse situation than they¡¯d expected to have. They¡¯d expected only a couple targets, but in the blink of an eye they were suddenly surrounded and Ben could only curse. Time spells couldn¡¯t just slow things down after all, but also speed them up, and it seemed the human-sized, ferret-like creatures that surrounded them had taken full advantage of that fact to appear en masse. The only positive was that of the dozen that surrounded them, three had managed to injure themselves, not seeing the barrier in front of them and slamming into it head first, but they were completely trapped. Bringing down the barrier would give them an avenue to attack, while leaving it up would keep them safe but trapped. ¡°Well, I may have messed up on this judgement call,¡± he tried to joke, though unable to help but feel worried. ¡°On the plus side we have food and water, we can wait them out and hope they go to search for some easier prey.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t just do that,¡± She told him with a shake of her head. ¡°The whole reason we¡¯re out here is to deal with any dangers that might affect travelers.¡± ¡°Then what are you thinking? Hit them from behind when they start to leave?¡± ¡°Lowering the barrier when they can raise their speed and lower ours sounds a bit too risky,¡± She said with a bit of hesitation before continuing. ¡°I have a pretty bad idea, think you can trust me?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°Great, I¡¯d say you should hold on, but I guess there isn¡¯t really anything to do that on. Um, this will probably be fine,¡± She told him, lowering his confidence somewhat as she drove her staff into the ground and activated her spell. While she¡¯d struggle to create it through the barrier, that didn¡¯t apply to the area within, running her mana through the ground around them and raising both them and the barrier up into the air, bringing a few meters of earth with it. Before the creatures surrounding them could react, she treated that giant lump of earth like she would any other earth bullet, directing her mana to smash into them each with a ferocious speed until the smarter of the beasts collected their wits and began to run, their speed enhanced with their magic, though meaningless compared to the sheer amount of mana Thera had at her disposal. Mana, but still no control. ¡°I think I¡¯m going to be sick,¡± Ben croaked out as the shaking and twisting of the boulder they were attached to kept throwing them both into one another as well as the barrier itself, with Thera doing her best to keep them in a mostly upright position but the stability getting worse with every tree they plowed through to reach their targets. ¡°Just a couple more and then we¡¯re done,¡± She told him with gritted teeth, feeling the effects herself. With one last burst of speed, she threw them at the last two as they raced off, turning both creatures into a pink paste as Thera brought them to a rapid stop with it done. Too rapid. While she could control the momentum of the rock they were attacked to, the speed their bodies had picked up wasn¡¯t lost. Ben was able to get his hand behind her head to keep her from smashing it into the barrier, but it didn¡¯t protect her from his own momentum carrying him forward, smashing against her and hitting his face against the barrier himself with a loud thud. The wind was knocked out of her but when she got her voice back she checked on Ben. ¡°Oh gods are you okay? That sounded bad.¡± ¡°I¡¯m probably fine,¡± He told her as he rubbed his head. ¡°Just want to lay down for a bit after all of that.¡± She set the boulder down, in a hurry to get out of the barrier so she could start healing him, but the moment the spell was canceled the rock rolled, leaving them at the terrible angle of almost forty-five degrees, head down. Thera landed on him as Ben let out a grunt and a small, pained expression painted his face. ¡°Well, um, I guess I need a bit more practice if I¡¯m ever doing that sort of thing again,¡± She said awkwardly, gently taking his face in her hands to start applying her healing magic to him. ¡°Mmh, maybe just a little. I¡¯ll get us out of here in a few minutes, I just need to settle my everything.¡± CH183 Ultimately the encounter proved to be the most dangerous leg of their journey, Thera was able to handle any of the smaller threats that came their way for the rest of it, and with the city only a few hours away they let themselves relax a bit. ¡°See, it wasn¡¯t so bad, was it?¡± She asked him, feeling pretty good about how the entire thing had gone herself. Except for one bit that ended up a bit more dangerous than expected, they¡¯d managed without any real issues and were close to being able to give their report, planning to place special emphasis on what Ben had taken to calling time ferrets as a dangerous new creature in the woods. If they were lucky then they¡¯d killed the entire group that had migrated to the area, but they couldn¡¯t risk that not being the case and it was likely the towns along the road would need to be vigilant for more significant changes for the next while. ¡°I stand by that there were better things we could have done with the time, but it did give me a good idea so maybe it was worth it.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± She asked, curiosity clear in her voice as Ben laughed it off. ¡°I¡¯ll need your help with it when we get to Anailia, as complicated as I feel about the idea seeing as how it makes a bunch of my other work pointless, but it could work out well in the long run.¡± She was going to try and twist his arm a bit to get the explanation from him instead of leaving him to play coy as he tended to about any idea he wasn¡¯t sure he could make work, but they both immediately suffered from their careless attitude. No matter how close they were to the city, they were still in the woods, and Thera still held the charm lantern in her hands. While the tools'' effects would draw creatures in, it didn¡¯t draw them from a flat plain, instead drawing them from all directions, and in the same way Ben had previously been attacked by the stone ape in the trees, Thera found a creature on her. Smaller than the ape but significantly more dangerous, a pixie dragon, a creature with glittering rainbow scales about the size of an owl and deeply in the fire affinity was digging its claws in the exposed skin of her hand as she struggled to suppress a cry from the pain as she felt her flesh cooking, not wanting to risk being too close to a creature that she knew could wreak incredible havoc with the flames it could breathe if it felt inclined. Ben was quick to react, knowing that since the creature was touching Thera¡¯s only exposed flesh it wouldn¡¯t be letting go any time soon and activated the enchantment on the knife he¡¯d worked so hard to create, having taken to carrying it after and only using one hand for his enchantments after their previous big attack. Moving as fast as he could he used the enchantment on it, letting the mana battery power it from that point on and using every bit of his strength he swiped at the creature''s long thin neck, managing to sever its head from the rest of it. He was careful to grab the body before it could fall, the claws were still gouged into Thera¡¯s skin and he didn¡¯t want the weight of the body doing any more damage than it already was as she tried to hold in a grunt of pain. ¡°Give me a minute,¡± He told her as he carefully unhooked each claw from her flesh. He didn¡¯t bother asking if she was okay, having received a similar wound in the past was enough to know that it sucked and instead focused on getting her free. ¡°Mmh, well I was probably due with how much you get injured,¡± She tried to joke to ignore the pain. She¡¯d been injured occasionally in the past when she¡¯d hunt alone and her staff would break, but it hadn¡¯t happened since she¡¯d started with Ben and this was one of the more unpleasant ones she¡¯d ever received. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Are you able to heal your own wound?¡± He asked after getting her free. It was far deeper than he liked to see, both blistered and bleeding, but at the very least wouldn¡¯t prove to be too bad with the city nearby. ¡°My life resistance is really low and even if you make me an amulet I¡¯m not sure how that would work when I¡¯m using it on myself. I should probably wait till we get to town instead of risking making myself sick with my own magic.¡± ¡°Alright, well give me a second,¡± He told her as he reached into one of the bags and pulled out the first aid kit he¡¯d taken to carrying and grabbed a lifeblood potion he¡¯d previously made. Directing mana through his life magic ring he did his best to flood it with the mana to enhance the potion¡¯s effects before pouring it on her injury and wrapping the entire thing with a bandage. ¡°That should do until we get to the city, but we¡¯ll need to see a healer before going to the guild. I packed a resistance amulet so there shouldn¡¯t be any issue with that at least.¡±
Luckily, that was their last real attack by the time they got to the city. After spending some time to get Thera properly treated and reporting the results of their quest, their cards being examined by the guild to confirm their kills and money being handed over they had both successfully become rank four adventurers. Thera was happily looking and the mark to indicate it on her card as she let Ben drag her through the town once again, treating it in much the same way he did the last time they¡¯d been there, though with far more disappointment after a while. ¡°Why does everything I see here look so meh?¡± He complained. He¡¯d made sure to go to not only the shops he¡¯d missed last time but the ones he¡¯d previously been impressed by as well, only to be left disappointed. It was like every shop had experienced a significant drop in quality, he was positive he could make everything he¡¯d been seeing easily. ¡°Isn¡¯t the issue just that you¡¯ve gotten so much better?¡± Thera pointed out. ¡°You¡¯ve gone up, like four levels since you were last here.¡± ¡°Uhg, yeah maybe, but I¡¯m still only a level seven craftsman! I should be able to see at least a few things better than what I can make!¡± ¡°Well first, you¡¯re a level seven blessed craftsman, there¡¯s a huge difference comparing that to a typical level seven craftsman, even if I don¡¯t have the eye to see it myself. Second and more importantly, I¡¯m pretty positive I¡¯ve told you before that most people don¡¯t get their skills past the fifth level. It¡¯s actually bizarre that you¡¯re still apprenticed to my uncle considering how high you are, with the money and skill you have you could set up shop pretty much anywhere at this point and earn an excellent living.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to do anything like that until I¡¯ve squeezed every last bit of knowledge and skill from Falk I can so it will be a while before I even consider that. It¡¯s so plain that his stuff is leagues above what I¡¯m seeing here. You gotta give it to me straight Thera, Falk has some awakened skills, doesn¡¯t he?¡± The question seemed to have genuinely caught her off guard. ¡°He doesn¡¯t share his skills so I¡¯m not sure, but is his stuff really so good that you¡¯d think that? Maybe his items just seem that much better because he¡¯s a dedicated blacksmith. No offense, but it¡¯s common knowledge that a more specialized skill creates better results than a general one like your crafting.¡± ¡°None taken. I guess that could maybe be the case, but he has to be at least in the ninth level for both his smithing and enchanting and it¡¯s hard to believe he¡¯s not above it from what I¡¯ve seen.¡± As annoying as it was to not be able to get an answer on something he found himself so curious on, he made a promise to himself that he would make his teacher open up on that eventually, no matter how hard he had to work for it. CH184 As others start to move part 1 Pelenia had informed her allied nations of the coming return of the creator of the resistance braces, giving them a chance to send over anyone whose magic was too powerful to be covered by any of their nation¡¯s own enchanters and as they all prepared for his arrival, figuring out who to send and crafting plans to draw them closer to their side, word got out. It was nothing to be too surprised about, while his privacy was to be respected as a condition of his patent, other nations beyond those born with a passive magic were taking notice as many of the races who¡¯d been forced to hide themselves away from the rest of the world until that point had been coming out, interacting with the wider world more and more as time went on. It was bound to draw attention as they did, with rumors spreading just as far. Word was going around that a master enchanter had been born, a rarity when the world tended to only ever have one or two beings who¡¯d unlocked that particular job at a given time, and from the sounds of it a particularly skilled one at that. While many viewed the fact with curiosity, wondering if the creation of the resistance bands was a passing fluke or if they might show true aid in the coming war, other smaller groups had agendas of their own.
¡°... We can expect them in a few weeks,¡± An elven male said, summarizing his findings as he tried not to wither in pleasure. His eyes were dilated as he did his best to hang onto control until his leader was done, slowly extracting her long, thin teeth from his throat as she fed. Taking a moment to lick the lingering blood from her lips she thought on what she¡¯d been told, daring not to feel too much hope at what her subordinate had passed along to her. ¡°Are we sure about the accuracy of this information? I¡¯ve heard the rumors, but con artists and charlatans have been known to attempt such things in the past, saying they¡¯ve discovered solutions to a race''s problems and would happily provide aid in exchange for the right amount of coin. Some even managed to get away while keeping their heads.¡± ¡°We¡¯re certain,¡± The elf told her as he brought himself under control. ¡°We¡¯ve seen a number of races known to have passive magics leaving through the gate of Anailia without a fanet¡¯ail cloak or any of the other, rarer means of blocking their power, with each having a metallic brace on one of their arms. I can¡¯t imagine so many of them would leave for other nations without immediately being detained if the function of such a device wasn¡¯t all but certain, and given the similarities present between the succubi¡¯s charm and the issue of your own race, I can''t help but believe in the value that would come from meeting with this individual.¡± She couldn¡¯t help but grimace. If what she¡¯d heard was true, then as a leader she had no choice but to attempt a meeting. While the succubi had the benefit of being able to go on fine in isolation if they needed to, the same was far from true of her own people, an issue they¡¯d struggled with since their unfortunate birth on their home world. She would do whatever it took to get a meeting if she could, but a small problem presented itself. ¡°If only we¡¯d forged any sort of relationship with the succubi nation,¡± She lamented. ¡°But with so few of us, what would even be the point? I suppose all we can do is attempt a meeting and hope that Anailia¡¯s queen is feeling agreeable enough to at least hear out our request.¡± ¡°There is another option if our information is correct. It seems that the first time the enchanter had been there creating these braces they¡¯d stayed at the queen''s home, with rumors even spreading that it¡¯s the same person currently engaged to Pelenia''s daughter.¡± ¡°I can only see that making things even more difficult for us,¡± She said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. ¡°Do you really think the leader of a nation would want a being like I around her kin?¡± ¡°Perhaps not, but while we aren¡¯t certain of his race, we¡¯re aware he isn¡¯t an incubus. If we keep a safe watch on her home for anyone leaving, as long as it isn¡¯t an incubus or the great earth spirit we can assume that it¡¯s either the enchanter themself or one of their associates with them. If we simply talk and explain our case then we can hope they¡¯ll be agreeable.¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Hmm, that might just be the best course of action. I suppose we shouldn¡¯t bring too many people, the issues that would come with having more than a handful observe the home of a head of state would be more than I¡¯d care to imagine. To be safe, let¡¯s leave it at you and I. If we see nothing after a few days I¡¯ll do my best to open up a dialogue with the queen, no matter what it takes we need to make this work.¡± Decision made they began their arrangements in preparation to leave for the nearest gate, one feeling the weight of her people as she did.
To be the last is a cruel thing, especially as we stand so close to our long-sought revenge. The elderly being thought as he stood over the body of his brother, leaving him as the last of his siblings brought forth from their god, and with that very god dead and the creaking of his joints, he knew he didn¡¯t have long himself. As each century passed he couldn¡¯t help but wish for the coming invasion to simply begin, as selfish as that hope was for the other races that made their homes on the world. They knew their time was limited after all, but as years passed and one by one they broke down and passed, how cruel fate was for their most hated foes to finally be on their way, only too late for them to do anything. Even now he felt the magic within him begin to fray, coming loose after centuries with no way to repair something of such complexity, no being in the world with the skill. Even the gods, should they descend upon their apostles to use their form, had been too weakened by their losses to help. If there was some way to bring him to their realms then it would be easy to correct, but there was no point thinking on such impossible what-ifs. Another hope would be that one would exert their power on the mortal world from within their realm, but that would be nothing but an unreasonable desire. How taxing it would be to save his one life alone when the strength and faith would be better suited to other things made the idea the height of selfishness. He placed a single hand on his brother''s head and gave a brief prayer to a god no longer there to hear it before taking a seat and waiting for the end to come for him as well, at the very least getting some peace before he went, or so he hoped. ¡°Honored elders! I come to you with news!¡± Yelled the young meliae girl as she burst into his abode. ¡°I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s now only one elder in here now child, but come, speak,¡± He said kindly to the girl currently in charge of ensuring his needs were met. Even that seemed a cruel joke of sorts, the race he¡¯d been created to protect now being the one to ensure his care in his final days, but unlike the bitterness that came from not being able to join the battle, this one didn¡¯t sting. He and all of his brothers had a deep love for their people, and that love was still returned all of these centuries later. The girl for her part looked shocked and on the verge of tears seeing the body laying to the side, but pushed through to carry on her message. ¡°Then this is even more important. Rumor has it a new master enchanter will be showing up in Anailia, we have to get you there immediately and beg their aid!¡± ¡°Child, how many enchanters and divine representatives have I seen since the others began breaking down? Seeing one more at the end of my life to be told there''s nothing they could do is hardly a way to spend my final days.¡± ¡°But this one might be different!¡± She told him, all but begging him to agree. ¡°Supposedly this one even solved the issue of passive magics so many races face! Surely an enchanter that great could do something for you!¡± He could see the same look in the young girl''s eyes he saw in every member of her race as he and the others began breaking down so long ago. A determination that he might live he wasn¡¯t even sure he still possessed himself, and it was enough to make his choice. ¡°Very well, I suppose one last venture into this world would be nice, even if it doesn¡¯t work out, I¡¯ll leave for the nearest gate shortly.¡± ¡°Wonderful! I¡¯ll inform the others of where we¡¯re going immediately!¡± ¡°Not we,¡± He gently told her. ¡°Even if what you¡¯ve said about passive magics is correct, there¡¯s no guarantee everyone in Anailia is having theirs blocked, and I¡¯d rather nothing happened to you or the others on my account.¡± ¡°But if anything happens to you we¡¯ll never know!¡± Getting up, he gave her a small smile before reaching out and ruffling her hair. ¡°If I don¡¯t come back then you¡¯ll know what happened. The time draws near either way, but you¡¯re right, if my end is near then it¡¯s better to go trying to push it off than meekly accepting it.¡± CH185 Going through the gate, they arrived in Anailia a few hours earlier than the last time, the immediate change in time zones still managing to be disorientating, but Ben did his best to ignore it in favour of doing the same thing he¡¯d done before, dragging Thera to every blacksmith and enchanters shop he could get to before they started closing for the night. It wasn¡¯t like Thera¡¯s parents had been expecting them at a certain time, they¡¯d given them a small range of days they might arrive at in consideration for their quest, and Ben didn¡¯t want to waste a moment when he expected he¡¯d be quite busy when the time came for him to begin on anyone who¡¯d come to have a brace made. Unfortunately for him, he felt just as unimpressed by the various wares he¡¯d managed to see in this city as well. He knew he wasn¡¯t visiting every shop, and without being at the ninth level he couldn¡¯t be certain of an object''s rating, but he was confident he wasn¡¯t misjudging anything, everything here was within his skill level. That wasn¡¯t to say he hadn¡¯t seen anything that would be tough to make, but he was certain he could manage to reproduce most items. Feeling dejected, Thera gave him a small pat on the back to try and cheer him up. ¡°Come on, I¡¯m sure we can find a shop in town that will impress you sometime this week. Besides, isn''t it a little nice to see you¡¯re good at your job?¡± ¡°Mmh, I guess. I just know I still have so much to learn, it would be nice to see more examples beyond what Falk¡¯s made to give me an idea on how I might improve.¡± ¡°Well, when we see my parents we can ask my mom about seeing any of our nation''s artifacts, since she seems to like you I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll agree easily enough.¡± ¡°Artifacts?¡± He asked, perking up at the tantalizing word. ¡°It just means anything ultra-rare or higher, nations tend to hoard a few when they can. I¡¯m not really sure what we have here, but there should be a few.¡± His spirits immediately lifted at the thought. ¡°Okay, yes absolutely. I¡¯m going to need to give your mom the full son-in-law experience to butter her up.¡± Thera couldn¡¯t help but groan at the prospect, Ben had been so good recently at ignoring it that she could almost forget that as far as her nation was concerned they were engaged, she could only hope that her parents hadn¡¯t decided to do anything to make it worse while they were there.
When they got to Thera¡¯s home one of the staff informed them that Pelenia had requested she stop wearing her cloak upon arriving to be able to properly see her daughter''s face, and while it left her a little suspicious of her mother she agreed easily enough. Everyone that worked there had an amulet in preparation for her arrival, so there was no harm done as they made their way to the main hall and opened the door to where her family supposedly waited. Upon entering, instead of seeing the throne they were greeted with the first time they¡¯d come they instead found the hall draped in purple and green banners, empty seats all around them, bar the ones her parents were in and an altar in the middle of the room with a powerful flame burning on top of it. He turned to Thera, meaning to ask what all of it was about, but her face was a stronger shade of gold than he¡¯d ever seen on her before and was willing to make an educated guess from that as she grabbed her staff and ripped out the stone flooring with a spell before bringing chaos to the room. Her mother only chuckled in her seat as Abrus kept them both safe, and by the time Thera had managed to work out enough stress and stopped he used his powerful magic to change the room back to the state it had been in when Ben had first arrived in the country, with the exception of some thoroughly destroyed banners. ¡°A wedding ceremony? Seriously?¡± She asked her parents coldly. ¡°We only just got here.¡± ¡°Oh come now Thera, I was just having a bit of fun,¡± Her mother told her as she walked up to give her daughter a hug, getting nothing in return. ¡°I¡¯d believe that a bit more if you didn¡¯t have the authority to carry it out. Why do you have to show me what a mistake it is to come home every time?¡± ¡°Alright, maybe I was hoping you¡¯d just go with the mood, I even prepared such nice wedding gifts too. I¡¯m sure Ben especially wouldn¡¯t mind some more magic materials?¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Hearing that Ben turned to her, thinking that maybe it wouldn¡¯t be so bad for her to put up with him for a few short decades of the very long life she would lead, but she could tell what was going through his mind and shot him a look that made him hold his tongue. ¡°Anyway,¡± She said, knowing there was no point in continuing on. ¡°I¡¯ve got some letters for you from aunty and uncle.¡± She handed them over and Pelenia started giving them a skim through as Abrus gave Ben a hug and his daughter a warm smile, seeing that she still wouldn¡¯t be in the mood for more. ¡°I see your earth magic has improved quite a bit sweetheart, and you¡¯ve gotten quite a fine quality staff too,¡± He leaned in to give it a better look, rubbing his golden beard as he did before turning to Ben. ¡°So not only did you actually use her hair but some rather expensive materials as well? I honestly thought you¡¯d have saved them for some other things.¡± ¡°Making Thera a staff has been one of my two big projects so I was more than willing to put my all into it. Besides, you gave those to us, I figured using them for your daughter was probably one of the best uses I could put it towards.¡± ¡°Good man, and on that note, how would your other project be coming along?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got it pretty low, but if mom managed to get the skill rings I¡¯d asked for a few months ago I¡¯ll be able to make a lot more progress,¡± He told them, making Thera sigh while Pelenia beamed at his overly familiar way of referring to her. ¡°I¡¯ve done you one better actually,¡± The queen of the nation explained to him. ¡°Since getting enchanters who happened to have those skills at high levels was proving to be a challenge, I simply found individuals who did to put them to use. It¡¯s a bit late to call for them now but I¡¯ll bring them around in the morning for you to copy their skills, alright?¡± ¡°Sounds excellent,¡± He told them as he stopped to give it a bit of thought. ¡°Actually, assuming it works out the way I think it will, would you even need to wear your cloak if I knock your resistance down a few extra points? Everyone in the country should have a decent dark resistance, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ not sure,¡± She said, turning to her mom with a question in her eyes that Pelenia was quick to answer. ¡°As long as your effect at a distance is at ten I don¡¯t think there would be any issue,¡± She said thoughtfully. ¡°Honestly speaking, even that is mostly just to be cautious, the average person here without an amulet to protect them should have a resistance of around fifteen to twenty. I¡¯d say just wear something with sleeves when you go out in case anyone brushes up next to you.¡± The lingering displeasure she¡¯d felt from her parents'' stunt was immediately replaced with excitement. She hadn''t even considered the fact that as it was, her brace was good enough for her to be able to walk around her nation without her cloak, she¡¯d been so consumed by the fact that there were people outside of the nation she couldn¡¯t be around that she hadn¡¯t given it any thought. With the possibility open to her though, the prospect of wandering the town became significantly more exciting. ¡°Well then after you improve the enchantment we¡¯re going to have to do something a bit more fun than you just locking yourself in the craftsman''s guild while we''re here.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± he told her with a smile, happy to get the chance to do something like that with her. ¡°Aside from whatever plans you¡¯re both thinking of making, I am hoping to keep you both a bit busy if you don¡¯t mind. Ben, aside from the various delegates you¡¯ll be making braces for and meeting with your god¡¯s believers, I was also hoping I might get you to do some work for me as well?¡± ¡°Oh sure, I don¡¯t mind but what were you thinking?¡± ¡°Falk mentioned in his letter that you¡¯ve become quite proficient at your craft at this point. If I were to get my husband to set up the area I had you working in last time into a proper forge, do you think you¡¯d be able to make some weapons and armour for a few people I send your way? I¡¯ll of course provide supplies and pay you for your work.¡± ¡°Absolutely!¡± He agreed with enthusiasm. The prospect of properly making some things to earn job experience was far more exciting than just trying to make more complex enchantments for the small weapons he¡¯d brought with him. ¡°Wonderful to hear. And Thera, I know you¡¯ll probably want to practice your earth magic with your father, but there was something I was hoping you might be willing to dedicate yourself to every other day if you don¡¯t mind too much.¡± ¡°It depends,¡± She said cautiously, knowing better than to trust her mother too easily. ¡°Oh it¡¯s nothing bad, Sonya¡¯s mentioned to me that you¡¯ve been working on your life magic and it just so happens we have a very competent light mage around. I know it¡¯s not the same, but I thought they might be able to give you some guidance on the similar points between the two magics if you help them every now and then.¡± ¡°Um, sure I guess if that''s all then it will be fine.¡± ¡°Excellent, and if I¡¯m not mistaken they should just about be here.¡± ¡°What?¡± But before she got an answer the doors to the hall opened with two new figures coming inside, a male that seemed to be a Satyr, with goat-like legs and an impressive pair of horns, but more importantly the woman beside him, a mass of dull purple light in the form of a succubus that Ben was positive had to be the great light spirit, and if the bulge in her stomach was any indication, she was undeniably pregnant. CH186 His mind flashed to the conversation he¡¯d seen in Thera¡¯s memory during the trial of Anailia and he turned to his friend to see how she was reacting. Though the great light spirit wasn¡¯t among the ones gathered at that time when they¡¯d planned to try and give rise to a more successful spirit hybrid than Thera had been, what they were seeing couldn¡¯t be ignored and he could see it in her eyes. Hurt and betrayal she hadn¡¯t expected to experience so soon upon returning home. ¡°It¡¯s so good to see you Thera, it¡¯s been so long!¡± The spirit greeted as Thera ran out without a word, leaving everyone else stunned by the abrupt reaction. ¡°Um, I¡¯m going to go check on her,¡± Ben awkwardly told them as he rushed after her only to be stopped in the hallway as he ran by Abrus and Pelenia. ¡°Before that, can you tell us what that was about?¡± Pelenia said as she grabbed his arm with more strength than she meant to exert. ¡°She might need a few moments alone to pull herself together, and I¡¯d rather understand the issue sooner than later.¡± ¡°Uh, sure. Just to be clear, the light spirit is pregnant, right?¡± ¡°Lux is with child,¡± Abrus confirmed. ¡°Was that the issue? I would have thought Thera would be excited to have a cousin on the way, not to mention the fact that she wouldn¡¯t be the only half spirit anymore. Is it a jealousy issue?¡± Oh god they definitely don¡¯t know, do they? It made sense they wouldn¡¯t, he doubted they would have arranged such an immediately awkward meeting like that if they had, but he still needed to be sure. ¡°Definitely not. Sorry, do you guys not know what the other spirits have been doing for the last decade?¡± The question brought a surprised look to Pelenia¡¯s face as Abrus took on one of rage. ¡°By the gods what have they done now?¡± He asked, anger painting his voice. ¡°Uh, well, I only know this because of the trial, but for the last decade and some the life, death, air, and fire spirits have been trying to produce a more powerful half spirit than Thera. She overheard them talking about it when she was a kid,¡± He went on to explain more while wanting to get out of there, partly to make sure Thera was okay, and partly because he was pretty sure Abrus was ready to do something drastic. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill them,¡± He all but growled. ¡°Give me a moment, I¡¯ll confirm if Lux is involved with any of this nonsense.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t,¡± Pelenia told him sternly. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to her; you can¡¯t act the way I know you will with her while she¡¯s pregnant,¡± Whatever guilt the spirit might have, Pelenia wouldn¡¯t allow her husband to do anything rash with the child coming so soon, though she continued with a passing afterthought. ¡°Of course, you¡¯re free to kill the others he mentioned by name. Thank you for letting us know Ben, we''ll sort this out so please make sure Thera¡¯s doing okay.¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°On it,¡± he told them as he ran off, not wanting to see whatever chaos was going to unfold.
When he got to her room he gave a light knock on her door which was promptly ignored, though it didn¡¯t stop him as he tried the handle and felt it give. ¡°I¡¯m coming in,¡± He told her, finding her lying in her bed. She briefly looked at him before going back to laying down. On the positive side at least it didn¡¯t seem like she¡¯d been crying at all, but he could tell she wasn¡¯t feeling great. Deciding to wait for her to speak, he walked over and laid down next to her, feeling patient for her to open up. ¡°You know, it will only be more of a nightmare being here if my mother walks in and sees you in bed next to me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure it will be fine this time at least, your parents were pretty concerned.¡± ¡°I guess my exit was a bit much, I was just a little¡­ overwhelmed.¡± ¡°Want to talk about it?¡± ¡°Uhg, I don¡¯t know,¡± She said as she rubbed her eyes before turning over to face him. ¡°I thought aunty Lux actually considered me family like Funa, the fact that she might be having a child to create a powerful half spirit¡­ I guess it just hurts a bit. At least Vividus and the others were obvious enough about how they really feel, but I liked getting to see Lux whenever she¡¯d come by.¡± ¡°Well your mom is going to talk to her and it sounds like your dad may possibly attempt to murder the other great spirits. I didn¡¯t realize they didn¡¯t know what happened when you were younger so I kind of revealed it to them.¡± ¡°Mmh, it¡¯s fine, I don¡¯t even know why I kept it hidden. I guess it felt embarrassing at the time with the way I felt like a failure and mom wanting me to be a dancer, but it doesn¡¯t matter now. Still, family really does have a special way of making you feel bad.¡± ¡°Anything I can do to help you feel a bit better?¡± ¡°... Maybe just stay around for a bit? I could use the company.¡± ¡°Of course.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t seem to have much luck in this nation,¡± Myriad said as Ben entered his realm. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s more Thera who doesn¡¯t have much luck with it. Still, it might just be a misunderstanding so fingers crossed, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good to be positive I suppose. For example, I¡¯m feeling pretty positive about you meeting my other believers. Some of my ones outside the nation are coming as well when their nations got the message you¡¯d be coming to be making more braces. Feeling ready to act as an apostle?¡± ¡°It won¡¯t be too hard so I¡¯m sure it will be fine. Actually, do you think you could contact your others and I¡¯ll aim to meet them all at once? I¡¯ll ask Pelenia if she can set a day and some space aside for me to get them all out of the way.¡± ¡°Sure, there shouldn¡¯t be any issue with that. It¡¯s a bit of a shame you didn¡¯t take holy craftsman, you might have been able to get a bit of experience out of it.¡± ¡°Maybe if you get a few more believers or if I¡¯m feeling like I¡¯ve hit a wall with connect, but for now it isn¡¯t a priority.¡± CH187 Theras perspective Thera woke up far earlier than she usually would, the emotions from the previous day leaving her with a poor sleep as she cracked open her eyes and found herself surprisingly close to Ben''s face. It took a moment but she remembered asking him to stay, she just hadn¡¯t expected to wake up next to him, nor to have ended up using him as a pillow midway through the night. Actually, haven¡¯t I been in this same spot before? She thought to herself, thinking back to the dryad village before a horrifying possibility sprang to her mind. Wait, of all the times we¡¯ve had to sleep in close quarters recently, isn¡¯t this the only time I¡¯ve woken up first? Don¡¯t tell me this happens often? Ben had never mentioned anything like that, but she didn¡¯t think he would if that really was what was happening and felt her face grow warm as she tried to gently pull herself away without waking him. The embarrassing potential managed to cover some of the hurt she¡¯d felt yesterday, but she wasn¡¯t exactly sure if she liked the trade-off and promptly decided to pretend nothing had happened. They were hunting partners which meant they¡¯d find themselves in tight quarters occasionally, she would just tell herself it probably wasn¡¯t a common occurrence and leave it at that. Even awake though she wasn¡¯t sure she was ready to face the day. She knew things were going to be uncomfortable when she left and actually started interacting with her family, she just didn¡¯t know how she was going to handle it, so instead she put it off, grabbing a book from a shelf and reading for a little while until she heard her door open. Her mother walked in and she cursed herself for not locking it the night before as Pelenia cast a look to the still sleeping Ben before seeing her daughter''s blushing face. Mercifully though, she didn¡¯t make any comments, instead quietly asked Thera to join her and left the room, expecting her to follow. She did as she was asked, knowing in her heart that even if it didn¡¯t get any immediate comments she was going to regret being seen like that for the rest of her visit as they made their way down to the dining room and took a seat, a light breakfast already waiting for the two of them to enjoy. As they sat, Thera decided to get things out of the way. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I acted like that yesterday, I was just a little¡­ surprised I guess.¡± ¡°You have nothing to apologize for. I wish I¡¯d known about what happened with the others though, me and your father would have tried to announce things a little differently.¡± ¡°Well what¡¯s done is done,¡± She told her mom with a shrug as she started nibbling at the food in front of her, though her mother seemed to disagree. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t quite say so. Your father is going to be gone for a few days as he¡­ Deals with the spirits who seem to be attempting that sort of thing. As for Lux, well I spent a long time talking with her last night. Aside from the fact that she¡¯s also feeling ready to kill the others, she swears she didn¡¯t know. I was hoping you¡¯d still be willing to work with her for a bit and talk things out?¡± ¡°Um, I guess that would be fine,¡± She said, already prepared to die from how awkward it would be if it was the truth. Considering that she only got along with half of the great spirits she should have given her aunt more trust before reacting like that, so now she needed to try and make things right. ¡°Excellent, in that case she¡¯s waiting for you at the hospital, I know she really wants to talk to you as well so you should hurry over after eating.¡± ¡°Uh, I need to wait for Ben to make a life resistance amulet though, I wouldn¡¯t want anyone to get hurt,¡± She explained to her mother, trying to delay things until she was more emotionally ready. ¡°That¡¯s no issue. Sonya explained how you¡¯d been doing things in Stonewall but when I passed that along to Lux she was sure she¡¯d be able to compensate for any issues you might have so long as we have a dark resistance one on hand.¡± Great. She thought as she looked to her plate, almost empty and let out a sigh. It seemed like she wouldn¡¯t be putting things off.
She got to the main hospital of Anailia and immediately felt overwhelmed. Unlike the clinic where there¡¯d be maybe a dozen people at most waiting to be treated at a given time, the hospital was packed with people, healers and patients alike constantly moving around and being treated as they were. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. She¡¯d never gone there herself, instead always receiving any treatments she needed from her mother while she lived in the nation, with a typical healer not being trusted enough to maintain their minds while working on her, so she¡¯d never known the scale that an average person had to deal with. Taking a breath as she went, she tried to relax as she went up to the closest person who seemed to work there and be free at the moment, asking them for directions to her aunt. It wasn¡¯t hard to get them, it seemed word had spread fast about such a powerful person being present, as well as the fact that she was waiting on the queen''s daughter, and once the employee realized just who she was quickly showed her the way. Working in the children''s wing, she was focused on healing one child at a time, while also preparing illusions as she did to entertain the kids as they waited for their turn to be healed. Thera couldn¡¯t help but find it a little strange, knowing that with the power her aunt wielded she should have been able to treat everyone present in the room almost instantaneously, but ignored that as she went inside, giving a small wave as Lux noticed her. ¡°Alright children, I¡¯ll be back in just a few minutes so behave until then and I¡¯ll make sure to show you some more interesting scenes.¡± As a round of okay¡¯s and yes¡¯s filled the air she left the room, taking Thera with her. She immediately went to bow her head and apologize for how she¡¯d acted, but before she could she was pulled into a hug. ¡°Thera I¡¯m so sorry, I had no idea the others had been doing something so stupid!¡± ¡°What, no. Aunty Lux, I should have talked to you instead of just running off like that, I¡¯m the one that¡¯s sorry.¡± Her aunt smiled down at her as she shifted the colours of her radiating light to give her a more distinct face. ¡°I¡¯m just glad we were able to resolve this quickly. Now, why don¡¯t we talk while we practice your magic, come on.¡± They went back into the room as Lux brought them to the next child and Thera placed the amulet on them to be safe. Even though there was a good chance they would be fine without it since they were succubus children and her charm was being suppressed by the band, it never hurt to be cautious. Lux was easily able to determine their conditions as she looked to them and told Thera what needed to be done as she prepared another illusion to keep them all entertained. It was like that Thera got to work using her life magic, having to try to use more complex spells than she¡¯d usually need when just treating an injury while her aunt placed a hand on the child''s back, ensuring Thera¡¯s mana didn¡¯t cause any harm. ¡°I really am grateful to have your help Thera, unfortunately I can¡¯t access my full strength at the moment so the extra hands are a blessing.¡± ¡°Is something wrong?¡± Unlike a regular spirit who¡¯d have a slower mana recovery rate and might have their ability to regenerate mana impaired by different events, a great spirit should have none of those issues. They had enough mana and regeneration that her father had completely altered the world''s economy by materializing large quantities of magic materials each day, the thought that anything could weaken her aunt was beyond worrying. In the face of her concerns though, Lux just gave a small laugh. ¡°It seems that keeping a body that isn¡¯t meant for such things as reproduction bearing a child is more mana intense than I¡¯d ever expected. I¡¯ll be better in a couple weeks once it¡¯s born.¡± ¡°You¡¯re due so soon? I can¡¯t believe my parents didn¡¯t say anything sooner.¡± ¡°They only found out a few weeks ago themselves. I originally planned on keeping it to myself until they were born, but well¡­ I guess I began getting a little nervous. This will only be the second time a spirit has had a child with a mortal after all, I wanted to ask for some advice from your parents.¡± ¡°I see,¡± She¡¯d heard from her mother when she was young about how panicked her father had been right until her birth, the idea being completely foreign to him at the time and horrified that something might go wrong, but had always assumed she¡¯d been exaggerating. How could someone as powerful as her dad have anything to fear about that? Seeing her aunt now though made it a bit more believable. ¡°So do you mind if I asked how this all happened?¡± ¡°Has nobody ever given you the basics of how babies are made?¡± Lux asked with a playful wink. ¡°You know what I mean.¡± ¡°Haha, I met Writ, my partner as I was traveling to meet the various light spirits in the land a few years ago. I¡¯d always been a bit closer to mortals than some of the other spirits as a result of my affinity having healing properties and met him in a hospital I¡¯d stopped in along the way. He was on the verge of death when I got to him with almost half of his body missing at the time, making it exhausting even for me to save him, but the moment he opened his eyes he expressed his undying love for me. I immediately went to treat his head, thinking I¡¯d missed something but once I was sure he was fine he was still persistent, and I guess you could say I felt amused. I didn¡¯t give in to his advances, but I decided to let him travel with me for a while. From there, what can I say? We grew closer and before I knew it we had a child on the way.¡± She said as she smiled, gently rubbing her stomach while Thera was stuck on the beginning of her story. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, half of his body was missing?¡± ¡°Ah that? Well, an armored dragon was attacking a town and like a fool, he went to face it alone. I guess he was attempting to awaken his unarmed combat skill so he could rank up as an adventurer but almost died fighting the thing. Honesty, he¡¯s such a handful,¡± She said with a shake of her head as Thera was left to process the fact that her aunt''s lover had decided to fight a dragon with his bare hands. CH188 What does that even mean? Ben thought groggily as he came to consciousness. Absorption resistance huh, yeah I guess that tracks since I¡¯m having my mana and vitality drained each night. But wait, that means¡­ Damn it, I need to remake my ring! He was getting such good results from wearing it that even if it made getting to sleep a little hard sometimes he wouldn¡¯t give it up, despite the fact that he probably needed to remake it soon anyway since both of his regeneration rates had increased. It was a shame though, he thought he could have put it off a bit longer but it looked like that was no longer an option. ¡°Huh, I don¡¯t have any magic materials with me, maybe I could talk Abrus into making some moribusial for it at least. Let¡¯s see, since he can¡¯t make deathstone I could probably just tie the drain spell to the ring, it¡¯s not like the mana being pulled from me is being used for anything anyway.¡± He muttered to himself as he got up, trying to figure out exactly how to alter it to account for the changes in his status. Since Thera seemed to have left already he went to find the great spirit, only to run into Pelenia instead. ¡°Oh hey, is Abrus around?¡± ¡°What, not dad?¡± She asked with a smile as he shrugged in return. ¡°Thera doesn¡¯t seem to like that too much so I figured I¡¯d hold off a little until things calmed down.¡± ¡°Well, we sorted things out with Lux so that shouldn¡¯t be a worry anymore. As for my husband, he¡¯ll be gone for a day or two as he has words with the other spirits. In the meantime, come along with me, I have a few people waiting for you.¡± He did as she asked and followed her to a waiting room housing four individuals, two incubi, a fishman dressed in what seemed like a reverse wetsuit to let him walk on land, and one that Ben couldn¡¯t be certain of their race, only being able to see that they resembled a bear with unusually human-like hands. The queen pointed them out one by one, listing skills as they did. ¡°Armor enhancement level six, shield enhancement level six, defense enhancement level five, and finally dark resistance enhancement level one.¡± ¡°Dark resistance enhancement?¡± He asked as he looked to the bear person with curiosity. It was a skill he¡¯d never heard of before, but couldn¡¯t help but feel potential in as soon as the queen announced it. ¡°Since I got your request I did some looking into any skills with potential as well and came up with this, a skill that amplifies the effects of a person''s fixed resistance. Of course, this was the highest level I could find it at since resistance enhancements are an extremely rare class of skills, and who¡¯s to say if it will even do anything, but it couldn¡¯t hurt.¡± ¡°No, this is fantastic, thank you!¡± ¡°Ha, how could I do anything less when you¡¯re trying so hard for my daughter. I¡¯ve got the books you¡¯d requested as well so feel free to give them a look through when you¡¯re done. I had left them in the room you¡¯re supposed to be using but if you want them moved to Thera¡¯s¡­¡± Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°My own room will be fine, thanks.¡± ¡°A boring answer but alright. Here I was thinking things had gotten a little interesting since you stayed with her last night,¡± Pelenia complained, sounding disappointed. ¡°Anyway, the various officials who are looking to get resistance amulets made will be arriving tomorrow in the morning and I¡¯ve arranged the afternoon for you to focus on crafting armor and weapons for them, so feel free to use the rest of today however you wish when you¡¯re done here.¡± ¡°Sounds good, do you think you could have a day cleared in a week or so for me to meet up with Myriad¡¯s believers in the nation as well?¡± ¡°That should be no problem, I¡¯m sure it would be useful to get them to talk to you about any further discoveries you¡¯ve made for the bands as well.¡± ¡°Awesome thanks.¡± With all of that out of the way he got to work, going from one person to the next and copying their skills onto rings to use later. Since he could only enchant with other enchantments that were a level below his skill level, he wouldn¡¯t be able to make full use of his new level six rings until he managed to raise his enchanting again, but for the time being it was a significant boost compared to what he currently had. He was also intensely curious about just how much improvement he would get out of dark resistance enhancement but knew it would have to wait until later into the night to remake Thera¡¯s enchantment to view its effects. Once that was done he asked one of the staff if they could tell him where to find Karly. He figured it would be good to make some time to greet the only other human in the nation, but sadly it seemed that both she and her teacher Funa had gone out to travel again, visiting some of the distant friends she had in the world. With that plan over before it began he went to the room he had used during his first time in the nation, taking a look at the few books on skills the queen had gotten him before leaving her home and making his way to his favourite place, the craftsman''s guild. It had felt so long since he¡¯d been there last and he immediately wanted to go through the available archive, searching for anything that seemed like it could be interesting as he did, but he restrained himself, knowing he needed to talk to one of the staff members at the counter instead. After exchanging pleasantries, Ben cut to the heart of the matter for him. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose I¡¯m able to buy copies of the books you have here, am I?¡± ¡°In general, yes that¡¯s possible. For some of the more popular books, we have copies on hand that can be purchased immediately, but for others we may need up to a week to have copies made. If you let me know which one¡¯s you¡¯re looking to get I can find out if we have them on hand and give you a price.¡± ¡°Awesome, I¡¯ll need to figure out which one¡¯s I¡¯m looking to get but I¡¯ll be back.¡± He still had the list he¡¯d made from his first time in the nation, when he¡¯d only planned on reading them a bit more deeply, but with how much wealth he¡¯d managed to accumulate there was no reason he couldn¡¯t take them home with him. The only thing was going through the shelves again now that his skills and knowledge had increased so much, making sure there was nothing he¡¯d either overvalued or missed the first time. It took a few long hours of flipping through books, stopping occasionally if anything caught his eye, but he was finally able to return to the counter, list in hand. The friendly smile of the staff member briefly slipped, but they brought it back as they asked for confirmation. ¡°Just to be sure, you¡¯re looking for copies of almost two hundred books?¡± ¡°I am.¡± ¡°Alright, I apologize but the length of time it will take will have to be extended past what I¡¯d initially said. We¡¯ll need about two weeks for a purchase of this size as well as the pay up front,¡± They brought up the amount owed and Ben happily transferred the funds, looking forward to being able to have more resources to flip through while back home, the number of which would only grow as he asked a final question. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you could point me towards any places that I might be able to buy some books on both magic and other skills as well? Maybe jobs too.¡± ¡°All of that should be available at the mages guild. It¡¯s just down the street on the right, you shouldn¡¯t miss it.¡± ¡°Wonderful, thanks.¡± With that, his next destination was determined. CH189 He didn¡¯t know what he¡¯d been expecting, but it hadn''t been this. When he¡¯d managed to find the guild in question he¡¯d been immediately impressed by the size, but had assumed the actual amount of books available would have been smaller than that of the craftsman guild given how broad the information that could be found there was. He couldn¡¯t have been more wrong. Three floors and a basement were almost entirely devoted to books, making this the largest library he¡¯d seen in this world or his last. Not only that, but while he¡¯d been asking the same questions about buying copies of the books he¡¯d asked at the craftsman¡¯s guild, he¡¯d been informed that there was a selection of restricted books as well, containing forbidden information that only a select few were allowed access to. He immediately wanted to see if revealing himself as the queen''s future son-in-law was enough to get him said access before he decided better of it. No need to do anything that might cause him problems farther in the future and there was already more than enough to keep himself occupied, with sections conveniently divided by their type of magic, and a non-magic section as well where he went first. The mages guild seemed to be devoted to not just magic, but tangentially related scholarly pursuits as well, meaning books on both skills and jobs. Flipping through books on the latter first, he was able to confirm there was no information available on the kin job, but strangely enough also nothing to be found for heretic either. He could only assume that that one was being specifically hidden, presumably because both gods and the average mortal wouldn¡¯t want someone taking it, but the fact he couldn¡¯t learn more was a bother. It was a shame since Myriad hadn¡¯t let him know anything about it beyond the fact that it would help raise his sacrilege level, but it was still far from a priority job-wise. As for skills, information became harder to acquire as well, at least for the ones he was curious about reading up on. Once again there was no information for sacrilege, presumably for the same reason there was nothing for heretic, but both complex mind and absorption resistance were only in books that covered rare skills, meaning there was little information on them aside from the obvious. At least for the newer of the two, it looked like he was able to get something beyond what the name implied. It seemed that each level of it would make it five percent harder for his mana or vitality to be drained, meaning he could just do a little math to figure out how to remake his ring instead of needing to worry about trial and error. Once that bit of curiosity was out of the way he moved on to magics. While his god was doing his best to educate him on the way his people approached the subject and he was able to learn the more standard approach from the people in his life and the few books in the adventurers guild archives, he still felt he was lacking on the subject and was eager to fill that knowledge the best he could. He moved from shelf to shelf of the affinitied magics as the hours slowly passed, recording the names of books that went over the broadest of spells to those that covered a far more unique approach to using a given affinity, as well as books that discussed specialized forms of a given magic such as prophecy or purification before moving onto ones that looked at combined magics like decay or explosion magic. For good measure, he made sure to pick up books discussing the awakened version of each affinity, as well as one on soul magic to satisfy his curiosity on the topic. While he would have happily grabbed books on the other tier three magics as well he ran into the problem that there weren¡¯t any. He couldn¡¯t be sure if it was due to them being hidden or simply the fact that there hadn¡¯t been nearly as many tier three mages for the other affinities compared to soul magic, but whatever the case he simply moved on to the non-affinitied shelves. It was there he got his best surprise of the day. More enchanting books, some of which he hadn¡¯t seen in the craftsman guild. He knew that it was technically considered a magic, but he hadn¡¯t considered the fact he might find anything on it there. In his mind he always considered it to be a tool to enhance items, but there were surely plenty of enchanters that considered themselves mages first and would submit their research to this guild over the other one, meaning he had even more books to dive into. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. By the time he had his list the guild was preparing to close down as he put in his order for books. Even more than at the craftsman¡¯s guild, he found close to four hundred he wanted to bring back with him. It wasn¡¯t like he expected to read them all cover to cover any time soon, but they would be helpful as references should he ever need them. Really though, I really should try and pick up the speed reading skill. My speed is already pretty fast thanks to my other mind skills, but I¡¯m sure it would synergize real well. Of course, maybe I should hold off until I get the fractured mind user job for the experience, I guess it will all depend on what options are available after I complete my current one.
Once he got back for the day Ben went to meet with the barrier master Furela to get the sixth level of the skill placed on a ring for him to make use of before making his way to the dining room to eat with everyone and discuss the events of the day. It seemed that Thera had indeed successfully made up with Lux, easing everyone''s minds in the process and leaving them in good cheer. While Abrus was still gone, out dealing with the other great spirits who¡¯d had the nerve to say something like that within earshot of his daughter, that fact was glossed over as they all instead focused on what would come next for their time there, and before long they went to bed, with Ben following his friend to update the enchantment on her brace. He could tell that both she and her mother were nervous about it. While as it currently stood, a person would only need to have a resistance of thirteen to handle her charm at a distance and twenty-three on contact, that was still a long way from ensuring she would be safe for an average person to be around, meaning that if the results were worse than expected after this than he¡¯d need to find at least one new skill to attempt it on. It¡¯s going to be fine. I¡¯ll be able to work with the fifth level of all three skills, meaning I have eighteen levels total to apply. So long as four levels really does translate to removing a single point of resistance then I¡¯ll be able to get four points off, plus whatever dark resistance enhancement might be able to contribute. It will work. Having finished pumping himself up he got to it, removing the old enchantment and creating a delicate weave of the new one, combining the full power of his dark resistance with the magic resistances so tightly bound to the skills he was using. He knew that even if he succeeded it still wouldn¡¯t be enough to get it to zero, but this was the most progress he could make now that he couldn¡¯t increase the power of his resistances any more than where he was currently at, and as long as the queen was able to one day find people with skills at the ninth level for him and he continued to level up both his enchanting and connect, then the end of Thera¡¯s charm was in sight. The time passed as he pushed not just his enchanting and connect, but also his mind skills to ensure everything was perfect, quadruple checking his work as he went, and after a few short hours he was done. ¡°All finished?¡± Thera asked sleepily, alerting him to the fact that she was awake. ¡°Just did, sorry, did I wake you?¡± ¡°No, I think I was just feeling excited for how it turned out.¡± ¡°Well give me a few minutes and I¡¯ll check.¡± He quickly ran out to grab the passometer he¡¯d packed, setting it up to check the range and feeling a grin spread on his face as he came back. She knew it would be good news from his expression, but he handed it to her to get the final result before telling her. ¡°On contact, it¡¯s down to needing a resistance of nineteen, and at a distance it¡¯s nine.¡± She almost thought she¡¯d misheard him, but the happy look on his face wiped the thought from her mind. In just a year and a half, Ben had taken her charm from being something potentially devastating to every race on the planet to a level where not only her own people, but every dark affinitied race would be able to handle without issue so long as they didn¡¯t touch her, and as he happily squeezed her hand, feeling overjoyed to have made so much progress she couldn¡¯t ignore her heart pounding in excitement. CH190 Ugh, why do I have to hear this girl drone on, I just want to go hang out with Thera. I know, but if I have to hear one more of these assholes then I might kill somebody. They do know I¡¯m technically engaged, right? If that happens then I¡¯ll just beg for dear mother Pelenia¡¯s help. I¡¯m sure if I promise to marry Thera on the spot she¡¯ll happily agree, and Thera would probably accept to keep me alive, right? I¡¯m sure she¡¯d forgive me eventually, and since she doesn¡¯t plan on getting married anyway then there¡¯s no real harm in being in a small sham one. ¡°As I was saying, the frozen mountains of our land are truly a sight to behold, if you were to ever be interested in arranging a visit my people would be more than happy to entertain you in your stay. Why, I¡¯d be happy to show you around myself,¡± said the J?tunn noblewoman, an extreme beauty by his standards from a race afflicted with a passive ice magic that would freeze the environment around them. She seemed to be around his age and was wearing a seductive smile that he easily ignored. He¡¯d been caught off guard the first time he¡¯d had to deal with this today, but by the time she¡¯d arrived he¡¯d already made braces for well over fifty other people, he¡¯d grow numb to the obvious attempts at seduction. It¡¯s like they don¡¯t know I¡¯m reading their minds while I do this. ¡°Maybe sometime in the future,¡± He told her, clear to them both he was brushing off her offer. ¡°Anyway, your brace is done so you''re free to go.¡± He tried to let go of her hand but she kept a gentle grip on his, knowing she had one last shot before she needed to leave. ¡°Forgive me if I¡¯m wrong, but you¡¯re a human, aren¡¯t you?¡± She asked him, knowing full well the answer from her country''s investigations, just as many of the others that came before her knew as well. ¡°I am.¡± ¡°I thought so,¡± She beamed. ¡°The summoned hero of our country is one as well you see, a nice girl named Sarah. I¡¯m sure she¡¯d love it if you came to visit. It must be so lonely to not be able to see your own kind after all.¡± Holy fucking shit, is she actually trying to hook me up with my old classmate just to get me? What was even the point of me choosing to remain anonymous when filing my patent? At least the ones before her had acted a little more subtle. I¡¯d have well over a dozen people to report if I was going to. I¡¯ll just put up with it a little longer. As long as nobody starts arriving at my home to bother me I can deal with it while in Anailia. ¡°I believe I¡¯ll pass,¡± He told her with his brightest smile. ¡°After all, your country didn¡¯t seem to have much interest in me when I arrived, and I still don¡¯t have any awakened skills to give myself value, I¡¯m sure entertaining me for a visit would be nothing but a waste of time for your government when there are so many important things to prepare for, right?¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He wasn¡¯t even trying to make his rejection subtle as the smile slipped from the woman''s lips and she took the hint, getting up to leave. Once she was gone he was able to let out a sigh of relief and took off fourteen rings that were on one of his hands, placing them in an envelope with her name on it and putting it into his spacial bag before putting more blank ones on. What can I say, I¡¯m curious about skill distribution and who has what. Plus, maybe Pelenia would be interested. After all, even allied nations look into each other, right? If Myriad had a head to shake he would but Ben was already up, opening the door to invite the next person in. It was another beautiful woman, this time with a passive fire magic as the air around her shimmered from the heat as Ben groaned internally. Just how easily seduced do they think I am?
Holy crap finally. He thought to himself after hours of brace making. That was getting exhausting. That actually sounds like a nightmare. He thought to his god, not wanting to deal with the sort of stress an arrangement like that was bound to bring with it. That isn¡¯t even mentioning the fact that Pelenia might have me put to death. It wasn¡¯t like there had only been young attractive women coming to him to have braces made, but they were the majority, with the few men and races outside of his strike zone focusing more on subtle offers of wealth and power. Still, he was free of that at least and on to something far more exciting as he welcomed the next group of people in, about a dozen high-ranked warriors from the nation''s army. They came in, dressed as if they were prepared for battle already with armor on and weapons in hand, but as they filled the small workspace they each gave him a small polite nod. ¡°I am, Galara, as ordered by her majesty, queen Pelenia we are here to have our equipment and items upgraded,¡± Said the incubus who appeared to be in charge by way of introduction. ¡°Good to meet you all, I¡¯m the craftsman Ben. I¡¯m planning on making you all new weapons from scratch if you¡¯d tell me what sort you each prefer, though if you¡¯re attached to the one you currently use I can see about applying different enchantments to it to try and improve it if I can. As well, while I don¡¯t plan on making armors at the moment I¡¯ll enchant the ones you have and modify them to house a small white mana crystal to power them so we¡¯ll start with that while you each tell me about whatever sort of weapons you¡¯d prefer. Oh, and if you¡¯re comfortable with it, show me your cards so I can avoid building my enchantments in a way that would inhibit your skills growth. If you¡¯re not, it''s fine, but then I¡¯ll have to explain every little choice I¡¯m making and you¡¯ll need to tell me if there¡¯s any areas that could cause conflict.¡± The leader gave the others a look and as one they pulled out their cards for him to inspect. All in all, there were a few minor things to look out for, but it was all skills he could easily cover by using alternatives, and with that he reached into his bag, pulling out what had taken up the most space, boxes and boxes of skill rings. In the days leading up to their quest he¡¯d been hard at work, making copies of all the ones that he had in the shop to bring with him, not wanting to take the originals for fear that they could end up lost or damaged as he did. Fully prepared he got to work, first punching holes into each piece of armor to put a small mana crystal in before applying the same enchantments that were on his coat, though at a much higher level now that he could use each skill to the fifth level. As he was working his way through that he listened to each of their requirements for a weapon and mentally planned just how he would go about making them, suggesting ideas and getting their personal input on each as he tried to give whatever recommendations he thought were most suitable, wanting to be sure there¡¯d be no difference in opinion for the people who¡¯d actually be using the tools he¡¯d be producing. Once the enchantments for the armors were complete and he got everything he thought he needed from them to make the best weapons he could he let them be on their way, promising to have them ready in a few days as he got to work picking what materials to use of the many that had been prepared for him. It seemed that the queen had spared no expense, getting him some rare and valuable monster parts he normally wouldn¡¯t get to play with, and he was eager to put them to work when he heard the door of the workshop open and turned to see who it was, fearing he was about to be bothered by any of the more persistent individuals he¡¯d prepared braces for when he felt his jaw hit the floor. CH191 Theras perspective After her second day of helping her aunt at the hospital, Thera finished a bit earlier than she had the day before. She had originally planned on only helping every other day, but since her father was still away dealing with the other great spirits she decided to do a bit more and was already seeing a benefit with a level up to her medical knowledge during the day. Besides that benefit, even if it wasn¡¯t for her current job after all, it was still worthwhile to train her life magic when she could, and without the fear she¡¯d gotten in Stonewall it was a more pleasant experience overall. Of course, that lack of fear was mostly related to the patients not knowing who she was, but that didn¡¯t matter too much. It felt surprisingly nice to be genuinely thanked for her work, it was an experience she wasn¡¯t used to but it made her want to improve and she understood why Lux spent so much time going from hospital to hospital, doing what she could. It did leave her to wonder why Vividus didn¡¯t do more for the various races of the world, but then again the great life spirit wasn¡¯t so inclined to help out of charity when she could focus on whatever nightmares she was preparing in the life valley. She felt herself getting worked up and took a breath, not wanting thoughts of her least favourite aunt getting to her given where she was and took a seat at her destination, the first church of Anailia. While she made sure to pray semi-regularly, given the fact that her goddess had not only given her a quest that she¡¯d been greatly rewarded for, she¡¯d also actively worked to save her life. Given all of that, it was probably a mistake that she hadn¡¯t immediately gone there upon arriving in the nation, but she did her best to make up for that with the sheer amount of gratitude she put into her prayer as she closed her eyes. ¡°Ah, as nice as your gratitude feels, I do hope you¡¯ll open your eyes so we might have a talk Thera,¡± A voice she recognised said light-heartedly as her eyes shot open, only to be blinded by the force of the divinity before her. Realizing she was in the realm of her god, she quickly took a knee as she bowed to show her respect. ¡°Anailia, it¡¯s an honor to have the chance to talk to you again, what do I owe the pleasure?¡± ¡°Hmm? Does a mother need a reason to visit any of her children?¡± She told her in amusement, though feeling Thera¡¯s panic grow at the answer. ¡°Not at all, I didn¡¯t mean any disrespect.¡± ¡°I¡¯m only teasing you Thera, please be at ease. Perhaps take a page from the child of Myriad,¡± She said before thinking better of it. ¡°Well, maybe don¡¯t be quite that liberal, it caused quite the headache up here when he mentioned an interest in attempting to seal a soul to put to use.¡± ¡°Uh, I¡¯ll try my best to keep him from doing anything too bad,¡± She said, knowing in her heart that if Ben¡¯s interest was caught he wouldn¡¯t listen to reason, a fact her god easily picked up on. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as long as he only tests it on demons like he said he would in the event he succeeds in making such a tool then there¡¯s no issue. Actually, I¡¯ve come to you about another matter.¡± ¡°If there¡¯s anything at all I can do for you I¡¯d be happy to.¡± Her goddess smiled with her thin reptilian lips at the prompt answer. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear it, but try not to be too quick to agree to things without learning what it is you¡¯re agreeing to first, even if it¡¯s coming from a god. Having said that, I doubt you¡¯d find any issue with this. You¡¯ve done excellent work completing your quest so quickly, and I was particularly moved to watch you gaining the zeroth level of life magic. To push beyond your limits for the sake of a loved one is something to be rewarded, and it is with that in mind that I¡¯ve come to you with another should you choose to accept it. Thera, I offer you this, awaken one of your magic skills. If you succeed in doing so I¡¯ll grant you a level to any non-awakened skill.¡± She felt herself stunned to silence as she processed just what had been said. A level to any non-awakened skill, meaning that it could even go to a ninth level skill to awaken it. The gods simply didn¡¯t make offers like this to individuals as far as she knew, a quest with such a reward that was entirely focused on her own growth was beyond reason. ¡°It really isn¡¯t as great as it seems,¡± Anailia told her as she read Thera¡¯s thoughts. ¡°Even though you struggle with your magic control, your soul is so tightly bound to the ones that you¡¯ve gained that providing a level for anything less than an awakened skill is a trifle. As for why you don¡¯t hear about quests like this often, well it comes down to the fact that we try not to give challenges if we don¡¯t believe a person can succeed, even to issue the quest costs some faith after all, but ones like this have been made in the past. I¡¯m offering it to you now because awakening your magic skills isn¡¯t a question of if but when. Given the lifespan you can expect there is no doubt in my mind that you¡¯ll be able to one day awaken any of your magics to even the third tier so long as you have the opportunity, I¡¯m simply hoping to help speed things along given the timeframe we¡¯re all forced to work on.¡± She felt stunned. In her heart she always dreamed of awakening her magic, beginning the path that would let her see the great spirits of the world as equals, but to make it to tier three? That went beyond her already ambitious dream. It was a goal countless people worked towards but few had the talent and skill to pull it off. Still, if it was to meet her god''s expectations then she would put herself to the test. ¡°I¡¯ll gratefully accept this opportunity.¡± ¡°I look forward to seeing what you¡¯ll accomplish,¡± Anailia told her, placing a gentle kiss on her brow before Thera found herself opening her eyes back in the church.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. It took all of her effort to keep from merrily skipping back to her home, the excitement she felt could barely be contained as she tried to plan just how to go about her quest. Obviously, I have to try to awaken my earth magic, the only question is which other skill should I try to raise up to level nine at the same time? Dark magic is out so it really comes down to life magic or telekinesis. Oh, an awakened telekinesis skill would pair so well with my earth magic, but with an awakened life magic I¡¯d be able to help so many people and keep Ben from dying next time something decided to eat him. I really should aim for that one, right? Well, I guess I work on my telekinesis at the same time as a lot of my earth spells anyway now so I can just see what¡¯s closer by the time I¡¯m close to level nine in my earth magic. When she got home her mother was already outside the house, seemingly waiting for her. She couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the nation would be alright when the queen seemed to have such a casual attitude about all but the most pressing work but pushed the thought to the side as she greeted her. ¡°Hello mother, isn¡¯t it just a wonderful day?¡± She asked, filled with a level of cheer that Pelenia hadn¡¯t heard from her daughter since she was a child and it took her by surprise. ¡°Any day you¡¯re so happy is wonderful sweetheart, what¡¯s the good news? Unless you¡¯re still so overjoyed about your brace.¡± As thrilling as that particular development was, she still wasn¡¯t used to the idea that she could wander her home nation now without too much fear of harming someone, to the point she¡¯d forgotten she didn¡¯t need her cloak while out for the day and was still wearing it, but that was all but irrelevant as she gave the good news about her meeting with Anailia. ¡°That¡¯s incredible honey! To receive such a quest, what an honor!¡± She smiled through her hood as her mother reached over to lower it. ¡°Come now, I don¡¯t get to see you looking so happy often, you should let me see your smiling face.¡± ¡°Well, I guess it¡¯s fine. Anyway, what are you doing out here? Don¡¯t you have work?¡± There was a subtle change to her mother¡¯s smile, the same she¡¯d get on occasions when she saw an opportunity to have some fun and it immediately left her worried. ¡°Oh I was just taking a peek at the various people lined up to receive a brace from Ben, why not come with me to have a look?¡± She looked at her mother with curiosity but went along with her around back, finding a variety of individuals from the races afflicted with passive magics, each with a healthy selection of amulets to keep themselves safe from the others around them, as well as one more thing that stood out. Isn¡¯t that disproportionately women? She thought. They were all around her age and seemed incredibly beautiful, at least by the standards of her race, and for whatever reason it left her a sense of unease. ¡°Well, it looks like everyone is behaving so come with me to my room for a bit Thera, there¡¯s something we should probably work on.¡± ¡°Um, what?¡± ¡°Why you¡¯re outfit of course.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not wearing that.¡± ¡°Oh come on, please? You¡¯d look so nice in it.¡± ¡°It shows way too much skin.¡± ¡°What are you talking about, it leaves you almost completely covered. At worst it has a bit of a V-neck, but it¡¯s a tasteful amount of exposure. You¡¯d had far more skin showing when you wore a toga last time you were here.¡± ¡°That¡¯s traditional wear, it¡¯s different. Why do you want me dressing up anyway?¡± She asked. Upon arriving in her mother¡¯s room Pelenia had begun pulling out outfits, holding them in front of her and either shaking her head and tossing them to the side or saving them for another inspection after she was done. ¡°You¡¯re going out with your friend once he¡¯s done, aren¡¯t you? You should wear something nice. Come on, at least try it on.¡± The one her mother had her heart set on was a royal blue dress with long sleeves to keep anyone from touching her arms by mistake. Admittedly the V-neck wasn¡¯t too deep, it was more of an excuse, she wasn¡¯t used to wearing dresses like that since she always had her cloak on when going out and there was no need to wear anything like that indoors. ¡°What does going out with Ben have to do with this? At most we¡¯re going to wander the town and maybe visit a restaurant, I can wear something a bit plainer.¡± Despite saying that though she at least put it on and looked at herself in a mirror. She had to admit she liked the colour on her, it went well with her golden hair and marble skin. It was also far more comfortable than she¡¯d expected. The fabric felt nice and the fit allowed her to leave her tail hanging instead of having it coiled around her waist like she usually did. She found herself half tempted to keep it on until she caught the mischievous look in her mother¡¯s eye as she gazed at her reflection. ¡°It¡¯s nice, but maybe I¡¯ll wear it for some other time.¡± ¡°Oh don¡¯t be like that, if you don¡¯t put in a bit of effort then someone¡¯s going to take Ben from you.¡± ¡°Regardless of the fact that you forced an engagement on us, Ben isn¡¯t mine.¡± ¡°Oh, so you don¡¯t have any issue with the fact that all those women getting their braces made were specifically sent by their countries to try and seduce him?¡± She froze as she prepared to take off the dress in favour of something a bit more common. ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean, that would be breaking the craftsman guilds policy.¡± ¡°More like carefully skirting it. They can¡¯t send people to his home because that would be in clear violation of guild rules, but we put the offer out for them to send people to have their braces made. If Ben just so happens to fall in love with one of the women he talks to then no rules have been broken, have they? Really, the fact that this didn¡¯t happen the first time is almost entirely due to the chaos that the creation of the braces brought, each nation has had plenty of time since then to try and figure out how they want to go about winning him over, and well, he is a young man after all. Would you be surprised if someone managed to catch his eye?¡± She knew she was being manipulated. Even though she was sure her mother was telling her the truth about the goals of each person waiting to get a brace made, she didn¡¯t doubt the fact for a second that she¡¯d only been told to get a particular emotional response. Ben had never shown interest in anyone in Stonewall, and if he had she was sure he would tell her. He simply cared more about focusing on his skills than finding love or sex, and that wasn¡¯t mentioning the fact that he wasn¡¯t dumb. A bit clueless about the world sometimes, sure, but not dumb. He¡¯d pick up on the fact that seduction was the goal from the start, he wouldn¡¯t just go along with it. Why would she even be worried about it anyway? She knew he might want to have a family of his own one day, at which point they¡¯d have to call off their farce of an engagement, and he was her best friend, of course she¡¯d want him to be happy if that was what he wanted. Sure, it would hurt to not have him in Stonewall if he was to leave, but it wasn¡¯t like she would never see him again if that was the case. So there was no reason to give into the outcome her mother so clearly wanted. He wouldn¡¯t fall for something like that, and even if he did it was his life, she¡¯d be happy for him. Casting one last look in the mirror, she bit her lower lip as she tried not to be swayed by the nagging feeling inside of her. CH192 ¡°Wow,¡± He involuntarily spoke as he saw his friend entering his work area. Instead of the cloak he was used to seeing her wearing or the clothes she would lounge in at home, Thera appeared in a gorgeous blue dress. He took a second to compose himself before continuing. ¡°You look beautiful, what¡¯s the occasion?¡± ¡°Finding out my mother is rather good at manipulating me apparently,¡± She said as a golden blush spread through her cheeks when she felt his eyes on her. Before he could ask what she meant by that though she elaborated. ¡°She thought that since we were going out once you finished I should wear something nice since it will be my first time going around Anailia without the cloak. Does it look weird?¡± ¡°You look stunning. I¡¯m just sorry you¡¯ll be stuck with me dressed like this, I didn¡¯t exactly pack anything nice,¡± For that matter, he didn¡¯t own anything exceptionally nice. He mostly had work clothing and that was it, just a variety of outfits he wouldn¡¯t mind getting damaged in the shop with only a handful of exceptions. ¡°Anyway, if you¡¯re all ready to go then just give me a minute to clean up and we can head out.¡± He did some brief tidying as he said that, but there really wasn¡¯t much to do. He didn¡¯t have any of the weapons started beyond the materials being gathered, all he really needed was for his heart to calm down. After a day of seeing beauties from across a variety of races, this was what caught him off guard the most, but once he was feeling a bit more his usual self they went out to the town. Thera told him about her day, giving the good news of the amazing quest her god had granted her while he couldn''t help but be ecstatic about it. Though he personally had his fingers crossed that she would be able to awaken her life magic with her earth magic to leave him a little safer in the long run, he couldn¡¯t help but look forward to however it worked out. ¡°So that was my bit of excitement, how about you? Anything interesting happen today?¡± She asked with a surprising amount of curiosity, making him feel bad that he mostly had complaints. ¡°God, unfortunately. Preparing the weapons wasn¡¯t bad, but dealing with the braces was nuts. It seemed like every nation I¡¯d dealt with last time was trying to either bribe or seduce me into working for their homeland, it was a nightmare. I don¡¯t know how I¡¯m going to manage if this is just what¡¯s going to happen for the entire time we¡¯re here, I¡¯m half tempted to quit but even if I¡¯m already rich the money¡¯s really good,¡± He took a breath after the little spiel and let himself relax, he was at least done for the day. ¡°Sorry about that, it¡¯s been a long one.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± She told him, her mood instantly seeming brighter. ¡°Still, I saw some of those women, none tempted you?¡± ¡°Man, maybe I would have been a little if they weren¡¯t so grossly obvious. Some of them tried to hide their thoughts while I was connected to them but they did a terrible job, and others seemed to have been instructed to try and win me over without getting any more details. I¡¯m pretty sure one of them even offered to try and hook me up with an old classmate while she flirted with me herself. Actually, give me one second,¡± He told her as he called up to the sky and drew eyes to them. ¡°Hey Myriad! Do me a favour and check with the other gods how Sarah¡¯s doing. If her country is willing to pull something like that I want to be sure she isn¡¯t being mistreated.¡± ¡°Were you close with this girl?¡± Thera asked him, curiosity plain on her face. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d never said more than two words to her, it¡¯s just since there¡¯s so few of us I don¡¯t want anything distasteful happening to any of the other humans on the planet. Of course, if there is something, what would I do? Pretty sure every option going through my head would count as a small act of terror that might get Myriad some trouble, but I¡¯m sure he¡¯d understand.¡± ¡°If your acquaintance is in any trouble just tell my mom,¡± Thera said, acting as a voice of reason. ¡°While all races with passive magics are closely allied, the succubi have the greatest population and international power, she could easily apply pressure to a nation to make them behave if she wanted to, or if things were bad enough rally the other nations to get their hero. No offense, but they are valuable resources after all, they can¡¯t just be mistreated without serious consequences.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°None taken, I get what you¡¯re saying.¡± Are you done? Relax, what are the chances I would have been able to actually pull something like that off anyway? <...> Taking the silence as agreement from his god about his kind and ultimately harmless nature he came to a sudden stop during their walk. ¡°Hold on a minute Thera, let¡¯s check this place out,¡± He said, dragging her inside of a clothing shop before she could even ask why. While it was a store that catered to succubi and incubi, the body type was similar enough with the exception of the fact that he lacked a tail, and he was happy to have seen the place before they closed. Walking up to the only staff member, he made his request. ¡°Hi there, I¡¯m looking for an outfit I could wear that wouldn¡¯t leave me looking so shabby beside her, got any recommendations?¡± He was looked up and down by the incubus who gave a small sigh as he compared Ben¡¯s rundown outfit to Thera¡¯s dress before pulling him to the back for a few minutes, leaving Thera alone to browse through the clothes. She liked what she was seeing and made a mental note to return later to pick a few things up for when they returned to Stonewall when Ben was brought back, instantly looking sharper. It may have just been a result of wearing something that was both undamaged and that he hadn¡¯t been working in all day, but it was nice, even if it was just a new set of pants and a shirt. While the pants were a darker colour like he seemed to prefer, the shirt was a deep blue, darker than the one she was currently wearing but complimented it nonetheless, with small gold accents to match her hair and eyes. Seeming to be happy with what was selected for him he paid for it, as well as a small pair of gloves he¡¯d planned to put to use for a project in a few days, and they left to go back to their walk, looking for a place to have dinner along the way. ¡°You really didn¡¯t have to you know, I don¡¯t mind how you normally dress.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s a special occasion so I might as well try and look a little nicer for it. Besides, I feel like it will be easier to get a seat in a nicer restaurant if I don¡¯t look like garbage.¡± They continued to chat as they wandered, waiting for somewhere to catch their eye when Thera hesitated as they passed one of the fancier options. ¡°Alright, this one it is,¡± ¡°What, I didn''t even say anything!¡± ¡°Sorry, am I wrong? I thought you looked interested.¡± ¡°Well no, I guess I would like to try it,¡± She admitted bashfully. ¡°But you don¡¯t need to go somewhere just because I¡¯m interested.¡± He took her hand and gave it a small squeeze. ¡°Thera, I¡¯m open to anything and this is your first day being able to enjoy the city without being stuck in your cloak, of course we¡¯re going to be going somewhere you want. Now, come on, let¡¯s see if they have a seat available.¡± They were able to get seats easily enough and were led to a large room with comfortable lighting and a live band playing for entertainment before being left to browse the menu. Ben found himself having his decision made quickly enough, but Thera seemed antsy, as if she were struggling with something. ¡°You doing alright?¡± He asked with some concern and seemed to surprise her. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m fine. I think it just might take a while to really be used to going out like this. I guess I feel a bit exposed.¡± At the very least it helped that she didn¡¯t feel too many eyes on her. Though she bore a strong resemblance to her father, the average member of her nation would have no idea what she looked like under her cloak, leaving anyone they passed by to assume she was a member of a foreign race as long as they didn¡¯t look too closely. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll feel a bit more used to it after a bit of time passes. Maybe you won¡¯t even want to return to stonewall by then,¡± He said with a joking tone, though that was a very real possibility. As things were, she could now live in Anailia without issue so long as she was careful not to touch anyone. It would surely be a nicer life than having to hide herself away in stonewall. Relieving him though she shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t think I would survive dealing with whatever my parents would constantly do to keep themselves entertained. Besides, you¡¯ll still be working on the brace right? Maybe it won¡¯t be much longer until I can ignore it altogether.¡± Trust filled her eyes as a gentle smile touched her lips and Ben felt his heart pound. ¡°I won¡¯t let you down.¡± CH193 ¡°Well, that¡¯s interesting.¡± ¡°What?¡± Pelenia asked as she looked down at the brace on her arm. She didn¡¯t need one, having the sixth level in charm like her sister did as well, but she was helping Ben test something. ¡°Having dark resistance enhancement lowered the amount of resistance a person would need to handle your charm by four per level. If it¡¯s playing by the same rules as how the magic resistance tied to the other skills I¡¯ve used has then it probably brought what a person would need to resist Thera¡¯s down by two points total,¡± The math didn¡¯t quite work when he looked at the results he¡¯d gotten, but he didn¡¯t want to spend the days of making and remaking Thera¡¯s enchantment to try and learn specifically how each skill affected things. He was close enough to work with, and unless determining the exact values would give him a better chance of success then it was just a waste of time when he could assume that the various skills he was using worked out to a few decimal points short of what he thought. ¡°Isn¡¯t that incredible? As soon as more of our enchanters get your god¡¯s skill to the second level then they¡¯ll be able to make even more powerful versions of the brace even if some of their resistances are lacking.¡± ¡°Yeah it¡¯s great, and if other nations can find people with the resistance enhancement skills they need then this will be quite the boon, but for now it comes down to how it will work out for Thera. Let¡¯s see, if I get the first three skills I was using at level nine then at the very best I might get her effect at a distance down to four, though let''s say six to account for the variance I¡¯m seeing just to be on the safe side. From there I can assume that dark resistance enhancement would be able to bring it down from one per level then if I was able to find that at the ninth level as well then I¡¯d be able to potentially bring it down to negative three. Well I guess actually just zero because it¡¯s not going to cause a repulsion effect by hitting the negatives so whatever. Let¡¯s see, that would mean our effect on contact would be left at seven, which isn¡¯t terrible but still not ideal. It also leaves the issue of Thera¡¯s charm level increasing. If she gets it up to five then she¡¯d be back up to five at a distance and fifteen on contact meaning I need to find one more skill that might work to help future proof her brace.¡± Pelenia gave him a gentle smile and patted his cheek after he finished his rambling. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear you''re working so hard for Thera, but there¡¯s one other issue with what you¡¯d planned. While I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll eventually be able to find you ninth-level holders of the first three skills if I take the time to contact the country¡¯s various allied nations, I¡¯m almost certain you won¡¯t find anyone with a higher dark resistance enhancement than the one I¡¯ve gotten. Resistance enhancements are rare skills after all, they come as a result of facing a magic multiple times and surviving, as well as having a naturally good resistance as it is.¡± ¡°Wait, so could I get it?¡± ¡°Perhaps. It couldn¡¯t be said you don¡¯t have the right constitution for the skill, but there''s no guarantee you¡¯d manage to get it, even if you keep throwing yourself into situations where you¡¯d be afflicted with dark magic. Besides, it would do no good if you got yourself killed when we need you to make Thera¡¯s brace.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that was really more of an idle curiosity. As an actual idea, I was thinking I could offer the bear-person a monetary reward for each time they level up their skill, with the amount growing each level.¡± ¡°A decent idea, but with a similar issue. If he dies then we lose the resource, we can¡¯t just let him go out to fight dark affinitied creatures in the hopes he¡¯ll take enough damage to level up.¡± ¡°I think I have a way around that too if you don¡¯t mind sparing a bit¡­ well maybe a lot of mythril.¡± ¡°What are you thinking?¡± ¡°Make a variety of jackets like mine. I¡¯ll enchant them with as many dark spells as I can to constantly afflict the wearer, with the strength of the spells increasing with each jacket. It won¡¯t exactly be pleasant to wear, but I¡¯m pretty sure it will get the job done.¡± She drummed her fingers across her seat as she gave it some thought. ¡°Alright, it might be a bit of a tough sell but so long as we financially compensate them appropriately then I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be able to convince them. As for the jackets, well I¡¯ll have seven sent your way tomorrow in his size so apply whatever you think would be powerful enough without causing too much harm.¡± With that done he turned to leave as the queen gave him some parting words. ¡°And Ben, thank you for trying so hard.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Of course,¡± He said with a smile and a nod as he went to work on his next tasks.
He still had hours left in the day after making all of the braces he¡¯d planned to as well as completing the weapons he¡¯d promised for the first group of soldiers, though he was expecting more, and thought he would go back to the work area he¡¯d been given to start preparing more as a way of getting some of the job experience he desired while he was still in the country. At least that had been his plan, but it had been thrown awry by the scene taking place before him. Abrus had come back acting as if he hadn¡¯t even been gone, and he was in the middle of engaging in a fight with Lux¡¯s lover Writ as Thera, Glob, and his teacher Furela watched to the side. Even calling it a fight wasn¡¯t really accurate. Writ was doing his best to land a single hit on the great earth spirit but managed to just barely miss each time while having to desperately dodge the few attacks Abrus threw back. Ben was certain that he wasn¡¯t even trying too hard. With the amount of power he was sure to have tied with the control that came with being at the pinnacle of his skill, he was certain to be going easy as he occasionally ripped blades of earth from the ground, sharpened to the point that it would be able to split a hair and as large as a person was tall. More than anything it looked like one person was fighting for their very life as the other was having a casual day out, and finding the spectacle entertaining he took a seat beside his friend. ¡°So what¡¯s going on here?¡± ¡°I guess Writ is doing his best to awaken his unarmed combat skill with my father¡¯s help, though I question how handy this experience is when he can¡¯t land an attack. They¡¯ve been at it for almost an hour.¡± It showed. The satyr was clearly feeling exhausted as he went down before their eyes, almost being struck by an earthen blade before Abrus stopped his attack, millimeters from the other man''s face. ¡°Hey, you came a little bit close there, don¡¯t you think?¡± Writ called out, cheerful despite what he was saying. ¡°You could never be in any real danger fighting me. This isn¡¯t even a workout if I¡¯m not going up against at least an army, though the one here doesn¡¯t seem to like playing with me much,¡± He said back with a shrug, before turning to call out to the onlookers. ¡°What did you all think? Ready to go next?¡± ¡°Can you go a bit easier than that? It would be nice to get a win eventually you know!¡± Glob called out, long used to numerous losses whenever he and Karly fought against Abrus for practice. ¡°No can do, if I go any easier you just might win, now come on, no need to dally.¡± With Thera and Glob''s turn beginning, Writ switched places with them and took their seat, leaving Ben to make small talk. ¡°That was really cool, I can¡¯t imagine going up against Abrus like that.¡± ¡°Ha, well it¡¯s not so bad when you know he¡¯s not actually going to kill you, though he¡¯s quite the beast. Are you giving him a go after?¡± ¡°Ha no way, I¡¯m a craftsman, no fighting skills to my name. Well, that¡¯s not strictly true but they¡¯re level zero and I only worked to get them to help improve my crafting even more.¡± ¡°Still no reason not to, facing an insurmountable mountain like that can be a good experience for personal growth and Abrus won¡¯t actually do you any harm.¡± He was about to tell him that he¡¯d already faced far more mountains than he ever wanted to again, but was stopped as the other two began their battle. The strategy of using life magic to cause havoc to the target''s body wasn¡¯t viable for Abrus and Thera hadn¡¯t practiced with her dark magic enough to be able to cause any harm to her father, leaving her with only the earth magic she favoured. It should have been detrimental in the fight, her father having a level of power and control to simply stop Thera¡¯s attacks from happening, but instead he opted to leave each spell she fired alone, choosing to just move to avoid it as they were shot off, much the same way he¡¯d dogged Writ¡¯s punches and kicks. Defense was left entirely to Glob, making him focus on building barriers between them to block each of Abrus¡¯s attacks and leaving Ben to wonder while the small alien didn¡¯t simply leave a barrier up at all times. He had an awakened version of the skill after all, he was sure to have a mana pool that would allow for that as well as the potential to leave it selectively permeable, making it so Thera¡¯s attacks could leave without anything else getting in, but he¡¯d been wrong. He watched as Thera directed a giant earth saw at her father, hearing it tear through the air as it did, only for him to simply step out of its way, firing his own back at her without missing a beat. As Glob threw up his barrier between the spell and Thera though it easily tore through, alerting Ben to the fact that he¡¯s been putting his all into reinforcing his barriers to keep just such an event from happening, and he couldn¡¯t hold on any longer. Abrus¡¯s earthen saw stopped just short of his daughter''s neck before he let it crumble to dust to the ground, but despite how quick their fight had been the great spirit couldn¡¯t have been more thrilled. ¡°Thera, you¡¯ve improved so much in such a short time, that was exceptional!¡± ¡°And still not enough to land a hit on you,¡± She told her dad with a sigh. ¡°Don¡¯t be so hard on yourself, even those with awakened skills and decades of combat experience would struggle against me, this is just for your own growth. Anyway, Glob probably needs to take some time to recover a bit of mana but shall we go again?¡± ¡°Abrus, give your daughter a break and let her friend have a turn!¡± Writ called out and brought all eyes on Ben. CH194 ¡°Have you gotten yourself some combat skills since I¡¯ve seen you last Ben?¡± Abrus asked curiously. ¡°I mean, yes but they¡¯re level zero so not much good against someone like you.¡± ¡°Come on, give it a go,¡± Writ told him encouragingly. ¡°Take it from me, you don¡¯t get many chances to fight against a being that powerful without having to worry about being hurt.¡± He was planning on declining but felt some curious eyes on him, including Thera¡¯s. They knew he was competent at his actual work and Thera had seen him use his traps to deal with a variety of animals, including a demon horde, they couldn¡¯t help but wonder just how long he¡¯d last. ¡°Fine, if you think it would be such a good idea then give me a minute. I at least need my equipment.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± The spirit told him, sounding uncomfortably excited as he did. ¡°Thera, let¡¯s have another round while we wait.¡± He would have liked to watch, but instead he went to his room and grabbed everything he thought he¡¯d need, namely his knife, his barrier bracelet, and his gun before he headed back out to find their fight had already finished. ¡°Alright, I think I have everything I need if you want to give it a go,¡± He said, standing away from the spirit with weapons in hand. ¡°Sounds good, how hard do you want me to go on you? I can take things a bit easier than I did for Thera and Glob if you want.¡± ¡°Just do whatever you want,¡± He told him, knowing it wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference considering the sheer difference in strength and skill but regretting it as soon as he saw the grin stretch across the other being''s face. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll do exactly what I want. Writ, call to start, would you?¡± ¡°Very well, on go. Three! Two! One! GO!¡± The satyr called out, bringing a gust of wind with the words as the match ended. Ben hadn¡¯t even blinked, he simply hadn¡¯t been able to react. By the time he was aware that anything happened the earth spirit was right in front of him, a finger gently pressed against his forehead as Abrus let out a laugh. Teleportation? No, Abrus has the wrong affinity for that. So it was just speed then? But that¡¯s ridiculous, how fast would he need to be able to move to manage that? So this is what Writ meant by an insurmountable mountain. ¡°Dad come on, you obviously went too hard!¡± Thera yelled out at him, annoyance sharp in her tone. ¡°Haha, sorry honey I just wanted to have some fun! Why don¡¯t we give it a proper try Ben, I¡¯ll only go about as hard as I did for Thera and Glob.¡± ¡°I think that¡¯s alright, I got plenty out of that so I should go back to work,¡± He told the earth spirit as he started to walk off, stopping for one more thing. ¡°But would you mind if I try again next time?¡± The laughter slipped away as Abrus changed to a more curious tone. ¡°I don¡¯t mind, but you don¡¯t mean the same way I just did, do you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s just to help with my curiosity is all,¡± He lied as he waved them off to get back to his work area. He knew that he was going to lose, it was obvious. All of his hunts always depended on plenty of setup to be successful and dealt with mostly dumb animals. He¡¯d had no time and was going against an ancient being who was a master of their magic, the thought that anything else could happen was outlandish. But the fact he hadn¡¯t even been able to attempt to use any of his tools hurt his craftsman''s pride. He wanted to see if he could at least make things a little more interesting the next time.
Getting to his area he thought about just how he¡¯d tackle going against someone like Abrus, deciding to redo the enchantments on his jacket as he did, replacing them with the higher-level skills he¡¯d just gained access to. The first question was how to deal with that speed. When a creature moved that fast there was basically no difference from teleportation, minus the fact that they would have to go through barriers the long way instead of skipping them entirely. Let alone weapons, his barrier bracelet would be worthless as well. ¡°If I want to go against someone that powerful, I need not only better items, I need to be able to activate them almost instantly.¡± His bracelet might have been able to create a shield, but it showed its full effects when he threw it down to create a barrier around him. He hadn¡¯t even updated it with the higher level of barrier magic yet either but it was obvious that it would be meaningless. He needed a barrier that would be able to do what he¡¯d designed this one to do without the step of sliding it off his arm. As for his knife, well as proud of it as he was, there was no escaping the fact that it had no hope either. It did well against the pixie dragon, but against an earth spirit, most of its enchantments would be meaningless. He supposed there was the chance it could do some damage if he managed to restrain him, but by that point he would have already won, it wasn¡¯t like he was looking for a fight to the death or anything. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. That left his last weapon, his gun. Even though he knew it wouldn¡¯t make much difference with his abysmal aim, the fact that he hadn¡¯t at least tried to line up a shot beforehand was a glaring mistake. On the one hand, doing so might not have exactly been fair, he was pretty sure that in a spar like that archers wouldn¡¯t be allowed to have a bow and arrow already prepared ahead of time, but on the other if he was trying his luck against a being as powerful as Abrus then it didn¡¯t much matter, at most having a shot ready was the difference between a guaranteed loss and an almost-certain loss. It would give him a sliver of hope for the next time. Hmm, for now let¡¯s just remake everything with the more powerful skills I have access to, from there I can start thinking on how to do better.
After a few more hours of practicing with her father, Writ, and Glob, Thera decided to go see how Ben was doing. She couldn¡¯t help but be a little annoyed at how over the top her dad had been, that was Ben¡¯s first proper fight with him, of course he would feel a little discouraged to be crushed so badly. She let herself into the work area he¡¯d been given, not sure what she¡¯d been expecting but even then finding something completely outside the norm. Hanging in the air were dozens of frisbees, the sort he¡¯d made to sell at the market so long ago and Ben just ignored them as if they were the most normal thing in the world as he instead was looking at whatever project was pulling his attention. She made her way to him, taking care to avoid all of the items spinning in the air, until she hit her head off seemingly nothing and gave a small cry, catching his attention in the process. He stopped what he was doing to go over to her. ¡°Sorry Thera, you alright? I guess you found the invisible one,¡± He told her, waving his hands in the air until he seemed to catch whatever it was and breaking the enchantment on it to reveal yet another frisbee. ¡°I¡¯m fine, just surprised. I actually wanted to see if you¡¯re okay?¡± She asked as she rubbed her head. ¡°Of course, why wouldn¡¯t I be?¡± ¡°You kind of just ran off after dad beat you and never ended up coming back.¡± ¡°Oh well, I ended up making myself busy trying to figure out how to do a bit better next time, but speaking of your dad, just how powerful is he?¡± Ben asked curiously. ¡°If I didn¡¯t know he couldn¡¯t get space magic I would have thought he¡¯d teleported when he attacked me.¡± In all the time Ben had spent trying to figure out how to do better on the next fight, that question was the wall he kept coming up against. He knew great spirits were immensely powerful, but he wasn¡¯t sure how powerful. Thera took a minute, putting on a thoughtful face as she tried to figure out how to answer. ¡°I can tell you he has a total mana quantity of about a million and a regeneration rate that¡¯s measured in mana gained per second, but beyond that it¡¯s a bit hard to tell. From what I know the system was built before the existence of mana-based lifeforms was known to the gods so it struggles to properly express their other values. For example, their mana and mana regen are both listed with the same numbers as their vitality and vitality regen, so when dad uses a spell, not only does his mana go down but so does his vitality. Strength, agility and stamina are also all listed as zero, even though that¡¯s clearly not the case because his body is made of mana. Literally any speed, force, and effort he can exert comes down to how well he can control the mana that makes up his body, with a bit being burned up by how hard he pushes himself.¡± ¡°God damn, okay good to know. I guess I can assume his resistances are all pretty high as well since he isn¡¯t bothered by your charm, but what about his skill level itself? He must be in the third tier unless it¡¯s possible to go beyond that,¡± It was already clear that winning against her dad would be impossible, but he was going to enjoy going against the futile struggle of it. Everything else he asked was just to sate his own curiosity as Thera caught him off guard by shaking her head. ¡°A spirit''s magic isn¡¯t listed the same way a regular mortal''s magic is. In the case of a regular earth spirit, they would have ¡®earth spirit magic¡¯ instead of earth magic, and as for my dad, he has great earth spirit magic. Their skills aren¡¯t leveled like a normal mage''s magic would be but from what I understand spirits magic is the equivalent of a ninth level mage, while a great spirit is equal to an awakened magic at the ninth level.¡± ¡°Wait wait wait, does that mean a standard mortal that made it to the third tier of their magic would be better than your dad?¡± ¡°That is¡­ a complicated question. From what I know a typical mage at the third tier wouldn¡¯t have mana anywhere near that of my father. It would actually be shocking if they had mana close to what I possess, but that¡¯s neither here nor there. You could say that from a technical standpoint, they would be better than my dad, being able to do a few things he wouldn¡¯t, but honestly there wouldn¡¯t be much difference when you consider not only the raw power he has access to, but the fact that a spirits affinity to their element is so high it¡¯s probably impossible for a regular person to be born with one that¡¯s even close.¡± ¡°Interesting, thanks,¡± He told her with a smile as he turned to get back to his work, only to feel a firm grip on his arm. ¡°So if you weren¡¯t disappointed by how your fight went, what the heck is all this?¡± She asked him as she waved her hand in the air at all of the disks flying around. ¡°Oh that, I was just experimenting a bit. I thought if I had enough space between me and Abrus when I tried to fight him again I might be able to throw a bunch of these after attaching a few other spells to them, maybe like drain and a few other debuffs to basically create a flying weakening area, but now I¡¯m not so sure. Glad I gave it a try though, it has the side effect of cool things like this.¡± He grabbed one of the frisbees as well as her hand, dragging her outside and giving it a throw. They both stood there, watching it gently glide away, presumably until it was stopped by one of the surrounding buildings or trees. ¡°As long as it doesn¡¯t hit anything that¡¯s going to just keep going until it runs out of mana. Pretty cool, right?¡± He told her with a stretched-out grin. ¡°Um, I guess? Kind of defeats the point of what you were hoping to use it for if they would keep flying one you throw them though, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Sure but I made a workaround, not that it matters since I don¡¯t think this idea¡¯s going anywhere.¡± ¡°So what are you working on now?¡± ¡°Mostly a new way to do barriers since the brace won¡¯t work, just watch, it¡¯s going to be great.¡± CH195 ¡°Uhg, why is everything so terrible,¡± Ben whined during breakfast, face down on the table. After a full week since his first crushing defeat he¡¯d tried again each day, working on new tools and weapons he thought might give him an edge but completely losing in the process. Abrus seemed amused by the fact he wanted to keep trying against him at his full strength and was happy to oblige, giving commentary on the few items he¡¯d managed to get off that continued to be all but powerless against the spirit as they were easily avoided. The only reason it happened before breakfast on this day was due to the fact that Ben expected to be extremely busy and wouldn¡¯t be able to make time otherwise, but had still wanted to give his attempt and manage even the smallest of things before the spirit placed a single finger against his head. Thera, sitting beside him, gave him a reassuring pat on his back. ¡°Come on, it will be okay. It¡¯s not like you didn¡¯t know you wouldn¡¯t be winning, right?¡± ¡°I mean, yeah but I thought I¡¯d have a little bit of progress by now to make the defeats slightly less humiliating.¡± ¡°For what it¡¯s worth I think you¡¯re doing well,¡± The great spirit told him. ¡°Most people aren¡¯t willing to go against the full force of my skill again and again, you¡¯ve got good tenacity.¡± ¡°And I¡¯m rather pleased that you¡¯re managing to keep my husband entertained,¡± Pelenia added. ¡°Since the generals ever so politely asked if our army could stop having to try fighting against him all those years ago he hasn¡¯t gotten to have this much fun in a while, so if you¡¯d keep it up I¡¯d appreciate it.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t plan on quitting,¡± He told them, no matter how defeats he ended with. ¡°It is good practice to see my items in action, at least for the few I managed to activate, and I think I¡¯ve been able to make some progress for how I build my enchantments at least.¡± ¡°Well tell you what, if you manage to land a hit before you leave I¡¯ll give you a reward so don¡¯t go giving up on me yet.¡± The spirit told him with a laugh. ¡°I¡¯ll make it worth your while.¡± ¡°Deal!¡± Ben quickly agreed, eyes lighting up as he did. Even if he wasn¡¯t going to win, it was a good extra bit of motivation for him. They continued the meal, chatting about their plans for the day and discussing how their stay had been so far. Thera seemed to be making good progress with both her earth and life magic while Ben was doing his best to deal with the advances and subtle bribes that came with each person he made a brace for when the door quietly opened and one of the queen''s aides ran in to whisper something in her ear. Pelenia made a brief unhappy face before sending them on their way. ¡°Everything alright?¡± Thera asked her mother. In the past, if their meals were ever interrupted it tended to mean an emergency, but Pelenia waved away her daughter''s worries. ¡°It seems security found an elf attempting to keep our home under observation from a distance. It¡¯s nothing major since he was caught easily enough, though a little annoying we have to depend on Alfheimr to properly inform us of just what he was doing, but diplomacy is diplomacy.¡± ¡°Wait, why are you sending him back to Alfheimr?¡± Ben asked. He was already aware it was the home nation of the elves as a result of reading up on the race as a whole in his attempts to try and figure out Lehie¡¯s age, but he would have assumed he would be sent away after whatever information they¡¯d wanted was obtained. ¡°Extradition treaties. Since succubi have a decent chance of finding trouble in other nations if their charm isn¡¯t properly suppressed, we have arrangements with many others for the safe exchange of prisoners in the event of any wrongdoing, with the trust that it will be handled appropriately. It¡¯s not satisfying but it keeps things civil and safe for our people.¡± ¡°But how can you be sure that¡¯s his nation? He could easily be from elsewhere.¡± ¡°True, but as a rule of Alfheimr all elves automatically receive citizenship. If he originally lived elsewhere then he¡¯ll probably be allowed to return so long as whatever reason he was observing our home wasn¡¯t anything too distasteful.¡± The politics of the whole situation seemed like a pain and he was happy it was nothing he needed to worry about as he finished up and moved on to his main task of the day, heading down to his workshop, where just outside around thirty people were waiting. It wasn¡¯t another group there to get braces and attempt to win him over though, it was his god¡¯s other believers. What sort of person do you think I am? He asked his god and getting no answer. As he got closer, one by one each waiting believer shifted their attention towards him as he gave a friendly wave and put on his most winning smile. Myriad had told them what he looked like so he¡¯d be easily identified and they knew who he was, there was just a single thing he found strange. Why do they all look so worried? He thought he picked up a guilty tone from the voice of his god, but as curious as it left him he pushed it aside for later. He had to focus on the task at hand, being an official apostle. Still, a shame I couldn¡¯t have forced this on Sachel. He gave as his final thought before speaking up to the crowd. ¡°Hello everyone, I¡¯m the apostle of our god Myriad, but you can just call me Ben. I¡¯m also the creator of the resistance braces as I¡¯m sure you all know, and seeing as how the reason all of you converted was because of that fact I¡¯d be happy to discuss that with you, but I¡¯ve also had a long, long week dealing with your various nations trying to ever-so-subtly convince me to move to their lands, so first I¡¯m going to make one thing clear. If any of you do the same, you can leave immediately, understood?¡± His god asked as the other believers'' eyes widened and quickly nodded their heads. I¡¯m just setting the record straight. It¡¯s hard to express what a pain in the ass it¡¯s been to deal with, after this I¡¯m not making them for anyone but Thera and I¡¯ll just live off of the profit I¡¯m getting from your other believers making them. ¡°Alright, with that out of the way let¡¯s get to the main event. I hope you¡¯ll all bear with me, this is my first time acting in such an official capacity as an apostle. Now, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve all heard of the details of Myriad¡¯s first church, right?¡± Confused looks went around as one succubus spoke up. ¡°We were just told the church would be coming to Anailia, I think I can speak for everyone when I say we didn¡¯t really understand what that meant, but we¡¯re here to give our faith.¡± You didn¡¯t explain it to them?¡± He let out a long sigh. ¡°Alright, in that case, you, would you mind coming up here?¡± He spoke to the succubus, a woman maybe a couple years older than he was, with long dark hair and a nervous expression. She did as she was asked, though looking hesitant the entire time as he took off his coat and handed it to her. ¡°Due to some unique circumstances,¡± And some minor- Minor sacrilege. ¡°The church of Myriad is this very nice coat. With the defensive enchantments on it, not to mention the built-in temperature control and the fact that it will only become stronger as it receives more faith, I¡¯d say you¡¯d struggle to find a better coat in the world than this.¡± ¡°Anyway, as odd as it may seem, this is our church. Myriad can gather more faith than usual if you pray to it or while wearing it, so please, go ahead. Let¡¯s see, I¡¯d say maybe each person should spend ten minutes in the coat while the others pray before switching out, and while that¡¯s happening¡­¡± The eyes he was seeing from the other believers told him they couldn¡¯t believe what they were seeing and he gave them a small wave, telling them to get started as he pulled out the holy book he¡¯d written for Myriad, reading some of the more interesting passages from it as they began to pray while at the same time taking out a knife to add and break enchantments on it for the job experience. Hey, it¡¯s not my fault I was forced into a leadership position like this, I don¡¯t know the first thing about faith. Is it getting you the faith you need or not? Then it¡¯s fine. Let¡¯s be real here, now that Sachel¡¯s your oracle that is one hundred percent her job. She¡¯s definitely got more passion for it than I can manage. Sure, that¡¯s fair.
It took hours but finally, everyone finished praying. Ben had long since gone from sitting on the ground to just laying down as he read out from the text while all of the believers seemed to be pushed to their limits and were visibly relieved for things to be finished. No matter how much faith a person had, praying for hours on end was a bit much for all but the most devoted, the sort of people that definitely wouldn¡¯t change their faith simply if their country asked. That wasn¡¯t even considering the discomfort of being in the coat. Sure, physically it was fantastic, being able to warm or cool a person to perfection thanks to the contained enchantments, but having so many eyes quietly staring at you as they prayed was an experience he wasn¡¯t looking to repeat and a big reason he decided to pass the coat around instead of wearing it himself. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Alright everyone, good meet up,¡± He told them as he took it back. ¡°Keep up the good work believing in Myriad and see you if I ever do this again.¡± He gave them a small wave and turned to go on his way when he was called out to by the same succubus as before. ¡°Excuse me, I know this might be impudent to ask, but I think we were all hoping we could get a bit of guidance from you?¡± He turned back to see everyone looking at him expectantly, with a few giving the succubus a thankful look as well. Is she their official spokesperson or something? You sound fond of her. His god¡¯s response made him look at her in a new light. This was no longer just another believer, but a potential future coworker he might be able to pass some of his work off onto. ¡°Ask away, I don¡¯t really have anything else going on so if you all have any questions I can stay to help out.¡± She seemed relieved that he was willing and cut straight to the matter. ¡°In that case, at least for the succubi among us, we were hoping to receive guidance on how to improve our connect skill, as well as maybe have you look at some of the braces we¡¯ve made to see if you can offer any advice on how to improve them?¡± ¡°Sure, I guess that¡¯s no problem. Is that the same for the rest of you?¡± Getting another round of nods it seemed that this would be a bit more interesting to him than the previous work, and put his best effort in. ¡°Alright it will be easiest if I take you all one by one, so you¡¯re free to listen to the advice I give each of you but you all need to be patient. Now you, Valaria right? Give me your hand and I¡¯ll let you experience what a higher level of connect is like.¡± She seemed surprised he knew her name but did as she was told, taking his hand and revealing the resistance band on her arm in the process. He felt pleasantly surprised as he looked at it, but focused on the connection, feeling her mind and leaving her exposed to the full force of his own. It only lasted a second before she pulled away, looking sick as she did. ¡°Something wrong?¡± ¡°Um, no, sorry. Myriad did warn me, but experiencing it in person was a whole other matter.¡± ¡°What do you mean he warned you?¡± Ben asked, casting a look to the other believers that grew a worried look as they saw Valaria¡¯s immediate reaction. She stayed silent, acting like she was caught admitting something she shouldn¡¯t have and leading Ben to call up to the heavens for all to hear. ¡°Hey Myriad, what the hell man!¡± As with any time he swore at his god it brought a range of shocked reactions but he didn¡¯t particularly care, not when it seemed like he was being badmouthed behind his back. He could only let out a sigh. Freaking no good god. ¡°Alright everyone, look. I have a few skills that make my mind a little different from what you¡¯re used to but that¡¯s it. Normally I¡¯d hide the extras from you, but you need to remember that connect is a mind skill before it¡¯s an enchanting one, experiencing a variety of different minds will only help it grow so take the experience of trying out mine and try and get something from it. That is, if you want the practice of course.¡± He held out his hand again, leaving it for Valaria to take if she so wished, which she did after a few seconds of hesitation. Activating the connection again went smoother this time at least, she didn¡¯t pull away but he could clearly feel the discomfort. While that was happening he went over what he could see from her brace. ¡°I assume you enchanted this yourself?¡± ¡°Um, yes that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good work, you could stand to make the enchantments themselves a little tighter, but that might just come down to practice. More importantly, I see you¡¯ve pulled aspects of other skills into it to enhance its effects. Did you just happen to have the skills or were you able to enchant with other enchantments?¡± ¡°The second, I gained the ability at the second level.¡± ¡°Fantastic,¡± He told her before addressing the rest. ¡°Thanks to queen Pelenia we¡¯ve found another type of skill with an even greater ability to enhance the effects of the enchantment than the one I wrote to you all about. Dark resistance enhancement, at least for those of you who have a dark affinitied passive magic. For the others, you should try to get your nations to look for a resistance enhancement that would match the affinity of your magic to try and block it. Of course, if you can manage with just the other skills then that¡¯s fine, but it could be a good way to help make up for anything that might be lacking while your skills still need to level up. Anyway Valaria, do you think you got enough out of that?¡± ¡°I do, thank you.¡± ¡°Good, in that case, who¡¯s next?¡±
Hours passed and the lessons and advice stretched well into the evening until he managed to get through everyone, giving advice and answering questions as he went until everyone was done and they were able to call it a night. He bid farewell to the others, though they still seemed uncomfortable with him, but there was a single one he stopped as they went to leave. ¡°Valaria, if you don¡¯t mind I¡¯ll walk with you, there¡¯s something I want to discuss.¡± A look of fear passed her eyes but she did as she was asked, not having it in her to disobey the request of her apostle. If she¡¯s scared it¡¯s because of whatever you¡¯re saying behind my back you jerk. Anyway, I¡¯m going to do a bit of proper apostling so sit back and watch. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be worried about,¡± He told her with his best smile as he motioned for her to walk. ¡°I¡¯m actually really impressed with how good your enchantment was, not to mention the fact that you¡¯re apparently the first of Myriad''s new believers to get the skill to the second level. That must have taken a lot of work.¡± ¡°Oh, well thank you but I was just the first in Anailia to get the skill so I¡¯ve had the most time to practice it is all. The nation was in a hurry to get us to develop it the best we can so we¡¯ve been thoroughly put to work.¡± ¡°No need to sell yourself short, everyone else has had it almost as long as you but you¡¯re still the only one to get it so high, you should be proud.¡± She gave a small nod in thanks and wasn¡¯t sure what to say. When Myriad had informed her of his apostle¡¯s visit she hadn¡¯t expected it to end in the one-on-one attention she was receiving and wasn¡¯t sure how to interact with someone at the top of her faith. ¡°Anyway though, there¡¯s actually something else I wanted to talk about if you¡¯d be willing. I got the impression you might be struggling with something,¡± Admittedly the impression came from being told directly by Myriad, but whatever. ¡°I just wanted to see if you¡¯d want to talk. I am the apostle of Myriad after all, it¡¯s important that his believers feel comfortable in relying on me.¡± And if that leads to you eventually taking the head priestess role so I¡¯ll have even less work to do then all the better. Are you saying you don¡¯t want me trying to help her work through her issues? Then just relax and let me do my best, it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be able to get her to take it immediately, maybe just nudge her in the direction. As he had his back and forth with his god, Valaria walked in silence, debating about opening up before she gave in and explained where her issues lay. ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ I don¡¯t regret converting to Myriad, he¡¯s been very good to me. Too good even, giving me not just a blessing and his skill, but also a quest as well. That¡¯s kind of the problem though, even if he says not to worry about it, my reasons for converting had nothing to do with faith, it all came down to both my country, as well as Anailia herself making the request of me. As understanding as he is, it feels like I¡¯m taking advantage of his goodwill when I feel like I haven¡¯t been able to completely commit. All of my family and many friends as well give their faith to Anailia, even if it helps my people, it can feel like it¡¯s created distance between me and them, you know?¡± ¡°So to sum it up, you feel bad because Myriad¡¯s done so much for you, and you¡¯re feeling some distance from others in your life?¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s right.¡± He thought for a moment before answering, trying his best to put together some advice that he thought might work for her. ¡°You know, faith can feel like such a complex and meaningful thing, but ultimately it¡¯s such a small part of your life. After all, when you were worshiping Anailia, how often would you actually talk about her with your friends and family?¡± ¡°Um, I¡¯m not sure.¡± ¡°But then it¡¯s pretty safe to say not too often right? Sure, she was something you all had in common, but in the background, not as the foundation your relationships were built upon. Your conversion is so recent it¡¯s probably at the front of yours and their minds, making it seem like a bigger deal than it is, but honestly try to ignore it and just act like you always would with them in the past. Who you are hasn¡¯t changed, the important thing is making sure others see that.¡± He could tell from her eyes that she was listening attentively and he knew he had her, so he pushed forward to the most important part. ¡°As for feeling guilty about how much Myriad has done for you, well I¡¯d say he did it of his own free will so you shouldn¡¯t let it bother you, but I know things are never that easy, are they? I¡¯ve heard it said that too much kindness from one party can be a weight for the other if not paid back. If you feel guilty for how much Myriad has given you, why not do something for him? It just might make you feel better for all you¡¯ve received.¡± ¡°But what could I possibly give a god?¡± She asked, completely pulled in by his speech. ¡°What does one do for someone so far above them?¡± ¡°It¡¯s actually rather easy,¡± He told her gently. ¡°Even the quest is a way for him to reward you for doing something for his sake, but if that doesn¡¯t feel like enough then I would simply say talk about him. Maybe not to your friends and family since trying to force your new god on them would have the chance of making whatever divide you think exists into a reality, but when you¡¯re making braces for your people, take a minute to let them know that it¡¯s thanks to the god Myriad that such a thing is possible and suggest they give just a single prayer of thanks. Gods need faith after all, and even if it isn¡¯t as much, they can still get it from nonbelievers.¡± She put on a thoughtful look and they continued to walk until reaching her home. Before she went in she gave him a small bow. ¡°Thank you. For taking the time to talk, that is. I¡¯ll think on what you¡¯ve told me.¡± ¡°Of course, it¡¯s my job to help his believers after all so if I was able to ease your worries even a little then that¡¯s enough for me. You have a good night now.¡± He walked away, not looking back for fear that it would ruin the atmosphere of the wise and helpful apostle he¡¯d just tried so hard to set up until he was sure he was out of sight and gave a small cheer for himself. ¡°Freaking killed it!¡± All of my good apostle vibes can only truly express themselves when they¡¯re directed to making running your faith someone else''s problem. As an aside I like the idea of her as head priestess. Since the biggest group of believers you have is in Anailia it makes sense for a succubus to take the role, and since her people seem to be the most powerful of all those afflicted with passive magics she could probably do a good job leading your other believers too. Add that to the fact that she¡¯s both an enchanter and having the easiest time of everyone leveling connect and I¡¯d say it¡¯s the perfect role. Cool. One thing I¡¯m curious about though. She said Anailia asked her to convert? I thought it was just Pelenia who made the request. Even if it wasn¡¯t an ideal way to spend the day it had been more productive than he¡¯d expected and Ben couldn¡¯t help but feel good as he neared Thera¡¯s home. He¡¯d finally made good on his promise to visit the other believers with the church to boost the faith Myriad would receive and even helped motivate a potential future priestess, not to mention spread the info on how to improve the braces a bit more, meaning that as soon as the others leveled up connect just once more they¡¯d be able to help any member of their species outside of their current resistance range. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but I¡¯ve absolutely killed it today. Grin plastered on his face, he made his way past a passerby to walk to the property gates, only to hear Myriad scream as he felt something pierce his neck. CH196 As others start to move part 2 To be in the world again after so long. This really was the right choice. The elderly being thought to himself as he limped through the gate and entered Anailia, feeling a smile touch his lips as he did. He¡¯d spent so long simply sitting and waiting, hoping to slow the decay that had been consuming his magic that he¡¯d forgotten how beautiful the world could be, even if it wasn¡¯t the one his heart longed for, but had gained the chance to see it all over again at the end of his life. Making his way from his home to the closest gate had taken ages, but it had been the most alive he¡¯d felt in centuries, actually doing something and getting to experience just a little bit of the world as he did. He only wished the last of his brothers could have held out just slightly longer to go on this journey with him. If he was to die, then this was the way to do it. But I can¡¯t be so negative yet. He thought with a small shake of his head. I swore to them that I would try. I can¡¯t simply accept my fate until after I beg a meeting with the enchanter and learn once again that nothing can be done. Only then can I return to the Meliae, tell them I love them, and finally give in to the inevitable. Even as he was telling himself not to be negative he was doing it without a hint of hope for his circumstances. His body had only gotten worse during the journey, leaving one leg barely functional, and as he made his way to the home of the queen, trying to take a shortcut to save what little time he had left in the world the other gave out as well, leaving him to collapse on the ground. All he could do was let out a small laugh. Even if it was pointless, to fall this close to his goal was too much, and as he looked at the back alley he found himself in, not having the strength to drag his body, he gave in and closed his eyes, waiting for the end.
He¡¯slatehe¡¯slatehe¡¯slate. She thought to herself, getting antsy as her elven companion never returned. A series of minor mistakes and assumptions on both their parts had led to her current situation. Potential starvation and the slipping of her mind. When they¡¯d arrived in Anailia and they¡¯d found a room, she¡¯d let her companion rest before feeding, and the exhaustion of the trip led her to falling asleep before he¡¯d woken up. As potentially bad as that would have been, it would have been fine if she¡¯d been able to drink from him as soon as she woke up, but he had left, assuming she¡¯d had her fill as he rested to go observe as they had planned. Even that wouldn¡¯t have been disastrous. It was far from good, sure, but she could hold on a little while as long as he came back, but as the hours passed and he never arrived, the sun falling low in the sky, she felt her hold slipping as her reasoning grew worse. IneedtowaitIneedtowaitIneedtowait. But what if he doesn¡¯t come back? Why did I only bring one? No, there isn¡¯t enough to go around, could only bring one. Whereishewhereishewhereishe? What would she do if he didn¡¯t come back though? She could already tell things were looking bad for her, waiting any longer would be a disaster, leaving her with a single option. She put on a long cloak to protect her from the final rays of the day''s light and hurried out, not even locking up as she rushed to where her companion would be, somewhere in the area of the queen''s home. She hadn¡¯t been there herself yet and ended up lost on the way more than once, the gnawing hunger and growing pain making it hard for her to keep her thoughts straight as she tried to avoid drawing more attention than she had to until she was finally in the area of her destination. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Not here not here not here! She carefully rushed around, trying not to draw the attention of the nearby guard she spotted as she looked for the elf, trying to catch his scent in the air if nothing else would work but without any success. As a last-ditch effort as the reason began to leave her she walked past the open gate, hoping to catch a hint that he might be inside but coming up empty, having no choice but to continue walking past, seeing someone else walking towards her as she did. Her nose told her it wasn¡¯t an incubus, a fact confirmed by her eyes as she got closer. Instead of having slit pupils, the man¡¯s before her were clearly round, and no tail to be seen, but why did such a thing matter? Seeing someone like that so close to the residence of the ruler of the country brought something to her thoughts, but she couldn¡¯t tell what. The hunger had gotten too strong, and worse, he smelled incredibly good. Justatastejustataste. Just something to hold me over. It wouldn¡¯t be so wrong, would it? He wouldn¡¯t mind, would he? She knew she had to contain herself, but as he walked by and his scent in the air filled her nose she couldn¡¯t stop, forcing through the surprising level of resistance his flesh gave as she sank her teeth into his firm warm throat while she pressed him against a wall, keeping him from the sight of any nearby guard as she drank and running her tongue along his neck, savouring every drop of a flavour unlike any she¡¯d enjoyed before. Almost by instinct, she¡¯d covered his mouth to keep him from screaming, but as the warm blood passed her lips and her sense of reason returned to her, what came with it was a deep sense of personal horror. She¡¯d attacked an innocent person, and if he had really been going to the home of the queen it might have even been the one she''d come to this very nation to try and meet. If that really was the case then what was she going to do? She needed time to think, but that meant doing something just as unethical, something that would be a crime in almost every part of the world she found herself in. It was too late to worry though, the moment she¡¯d sunk her teeth into him he was already under her thrall, the dark mana within her flooding him as she drank, and without the years of mental training that the few elves in her community went through to help keep her people fed while resisting the side effects he would be defenseless against her. Even the typical succubus wouldn¡¯t have the resistance of thirty needed to keep her powers at bay. She let go of him, ignoring the sense of hunger that remained and the flavour that clung to her tongue to look him in the eyes. She thought she saw worry there, but that was impossible, his mind should be blank, waiting for the orders she would give him. It was surely just the shape of his face. With so many races in the world, it was easily possible to misread an expression, that was almost certainly the case here. She was about to give the order. To forget what had happened and go rest immediately, hoping that it would stick and his mind would be clear in the morning when the unexpected happened, something she never would have predicted. He spoke first. ¡°Are you okay?¡± He asked, concern clear in his voice and showing that the worry she¡¯d seen in his eyes wasn¡¯t just in her head, but that just made the situation worse. That meant he wasn¡¯t under her thrall. Seeing the fear and panic in her eyes he slowly raised his hands and spoke in a gentle voice. ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯m not mad. You aren¡¯t the first thing to take a bite out of me and you won¡¯t be the last so don¡¯t worry. You¡¯re a vampire, right? Your kind doesn¡¯t attack unless they''re desperate, right? So do you need some help?¡± Whatever she¡¯d been expecting the moment she couldn¡¯t control him, it hadn¡¯t been that. She couldn¡¯t help but hesitate, fearing a trap to imprison her for her crime as he held out a hand to her. ¡°It would be dangerous if you¡¯re still hungry, wouldn¡¯t it? I don¡¯t mind if you have more, let''s just go inside and you can eat a bit. Then if you¡¯re feeling up to it you can tell me what happened, alright?¡± He gestured to the queen''s home with a nod of his head and she couldn¡¯t help but agree. For a non-succubus to be there, there was a good chance he was the one she¡¯d be looking for, or at least one of his associates, and even if she ran she¡¯d never make it back home without losing herself to a rampage along the way. It had been so long since she¡¯d truly eaten her fill, she knew that what few mouthfuls she¡¯d gotten hadn¡¯t been enough. CH197 Theras Perspective In the days she¡¯d been helping her aunt Lux at the hospital, she¡¯d been forced to push her life magic in ways she never had to back at Stonewall or during any of their hunts, doing things with the magic she wasn¡¯t even aware of until her aunt had taken the time to explain the spells, and it had just paid off in to form of her level raising. Considering it wasn¡¯t even the magic her job was focused on it felt extraordinary good, and given the work her father was putting her through she was sure she¡¯d get that one soon enough, but before she could share the good news with her aunt, she was taken off guard by the little hands of their last patient of the day trying to give her a hug. ¡°Thank you very much,¡± The small incubus, a child of no more than four or five, told her as he stared up at her with a big smile on his pudgy little cheeks and it was enough for her heart to melt. ¡°You¡¯re welcome, but you really should be thanking Lux, not me,¡± She told him gently as the child turned to the great spirit to give her a hug as well. Thera really felt she hadn¡¯t done much for him, she had just been in charge of helping to suppress his symptoms while Lux cured the root of his ailment, an issue that couldn¡¯t be properly treated without an awakened magic to use, but seeing the child so happy left her feeling good in the part she played, no matter how minor. As one of the other healers went to take him away, bringing him to his parents, she and Lux found themselves alone in the now empty room, all of their patients for the day fully healed. ¡°Doesn¡¯t it just warm your heart,¡± Her aunt asked her with a smile. ¡°It does feel a bit nicer when they aren¡¯t scared of you,¡± She admitted, finding herself happy to be able to not only help but feel appreciated while doing it. It was nice and gave her a sense of fulfillment she typically only got when leveling her magic or completing her job. As she looked to her aunt though, wearing the happy little smile that came to her face whenever she looked down at her pregnant belly, she found herself wanting to give voice to a question that couldn¡¯t help but come to her mind. One she¡¯d been avoiding for a while now. ¡°Um, aunty Lux, you mind if I ask you something a little personal?¡± ¡°Of course not Thera, what¡¯s on your mind?¡± ¡°Why did you decide to have a child with Writ?¡± She knew it was a bit of a rude question, but her aunt only laughed it off like it was the most obvious thing in the world. ¡°Because I love him of course, it does tend to be the sort of thing two people do when that happens.¡± ¡°I understand that, but¡­ Obviously my parents didn¡¯t expect me since they didn¡¯t even know something like this is possible, but if your child ends up anything like me, they¡¯ll probably be mortal, right? Doesn¡¯t that worry you? For that matter, doesn¡¯t being with Writ when he¡¯s going to have such a shorter lifespan than you bother you at all?¡± It was a question she¡¯d thought she¡¯d long since stopped struggling with, putting it to rest when she was still no more than a child. Even knowing the other great spirits were attempting such things didn¡¯t make her think about it, she doubted that if any of them ever succeeded that they¡¯d feel any real love for their partners and children. Lux was different though. She¡¯d loved a mortal, the same way her father did, but unlike her dad, she¡¯d knowingly decided to have a child when her lifespan would put whatever Thera could expect to shame. While she had personally decided that those aspects would never be part of her future, the fact that Lux seemed to have embraced them just left her curious. In response, Lux just placed a gentle hand on her head, rubbing her hair as she did. ¡°You might start to understand as you get older, but it doesn¡¯t matter how short the time may be for it to be meaningful, the fact that it¡¯s short just means I need to work all the harder to get the most out of it. Whether Writ lives another year or fifty, whether our child lives for a thousand or ten thousand, I plan on getting all I can out of the time I''ll have with them. Your mother understands that from the opposite side of things you know, though she could probably do better at saying it.¡± Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Doesn¡¯t the thought scare you at all though?¡± ¡°Assuming we survive what¡¯s coming Thera, you and I will both need to get used to those sorts of goodbyes eventually. Since coming to this world I¡¯ve had plenty, one day I¡¯ll even have to do the same with you, but I¡¯d never wish to have not gotten to meet the people I have in that time. Well, I guess I¡¯m saying I just hope you don¡¯t let your lifespan keep you from living, okay?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ I¡¯ll think about what you¡¯ve said.¡± She¡¯d had similar talks with her parents in the past, but given how less seriously they¡¯d tend to act at all times it was hard for her to put much stock in their opinions. Talking to Lux was different. She¡¯d made the choices knowing full well what it entailed and seemed to be at peace with it. Thera didn¡¯t know if she could do the same, but it gave her more to reflect on than she¡¯d expected from the conversation. ¡°Anyway,¡± Lux started. ¡°Why don¡¯t we head back for now, I¡¯m sure Abrus is itching to get the chance to practice with you while you¡¯re here.¡± ¡°Sure, sounds good.¡± With all intents of going home, they left the room, making their way through the hospital, only to be confronted with a scene of chaos. The healers at the hospital were in a frenzy, rushing about and preparing space. It was worrying enough that Lux stopped to get word of just what was happening, leaving Thera for a moment before going back to explain. ¡°It looks like a large group that went through one of the wildland gates were attacked, Thera I¡¯m sorry but you go on ahead, I need to stay back to help.¡± ¡°No, if it¡¯s an emergency then I¡¯ll stay too. My life magic just went up to three so if it¡¯s an emergency I can¡¯t just leave you while you''re pregnant.¡± Memories of her own time in the wildlands flashed through her mind. It was where she¡¯d gain life magic and where she¡¯d almost watched Ben die. It was surprising that anything could have happened close enough to whatever gate they¡¯d gone through that they¡¯d be able to make it back, even if injured, but no matter how cleared out the closer areas were from the constant stream of adventurers and soldiers going through it for their training, it was just another thing that showed the lack of stability in the world. Lux squeezed her hand before leading Thera around, directing her on how she could help. They didn¡¯t know just how many would need treatment, but it didn¡¯t seem like it would be quick.
By the time they were done the day had long since ended. It seemed almost fifty of the city''s adventurers had gone through the gate for a training exercise, only for it to have ended in disaster as a herd of giant insectoid monsters passed by, leaving the group to act to defend the gate and keep them from passing through. They¡¯d managed to get away without any death at least, but the injuries were numerous and Lux handled most of them as Thera assisted, leaving what spare healers were available to help as well but letting the rest focus on the patients that were already there. It was physically and mentally exhausting, but it was done. With the both of them needing a break they went straight to the living room when they got there, looking to lounge and relax. A desire that failed to come to being as Thera saw just what was going on in there. Her parents were there, though that fact barely crossed her mind as her eyes were drawn not only to Ben, but the woman behind him running her tongue along his neck. She didn¡¯t know why it brought such a strong reaction to her, but without even meaning to she felt her mana move, briefly shaking the house and catching everyone''s attention as Lux took her hand and whispered to her. ¡°Why don¡¯t we see what¡¯s happening before you let yourself get too upset, alright?¡± She took a breath. She wasn¡¯t upset, why would she be upset? Ben could do what he wanted. Well, maybe she would be a little bothered by the fact that he knew that so many of the people getting their braces done were sent there specifically to seduce him, to fall for it anyway would show a tremendous lack of judgement, but she definitely wasn¡¯t upset about that, if anything she was just surprised. Still, she found it was helping to focus on the feeling of Lux¡¯s hand as she spoke in what was meant to be a calm voice but ended up coming out far colder than intended. ¡°So what exactly is going on here?¡± She was immediately able to pick up on her mom''s amusement which was enough of an indicator that she¡¯d misunderstood something as she entered. If Ben had been discussing breaking off their engagement to pursue this woman then she didn¡¯t imagine her mother would be in a laughing mood. Not that it would matter because the engagement is a shame and I¡¯m not bothered by anything. She told herself as Ben answered. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a bit complicated but Thera, meet Mercy, a vampire I ran into.¡± CH198 Does she seem mad to you? ¡­Alright, well whether that¡¯s the case or not, we¡¯re gonna put a pin in that for the moment to focus on the matter at hand. Ben went to explain what happened shortly before Thera and Lux arrived. Meeting Mercy on the streets as she lost control to her hunger and in her need to eat having his blood drained by her, only to bring her in, explaining the situation to the queen so she could use her healing magic to regenerate his blood while the vampire drank her fill. Of course, regenerating so much blood left him rather hungry as well as his body cannibalized itself to make up for the loss, but it wasn¡¯t much of a price to pay. As he explained though, Thera looked more and more horrified. ¡°You¡¯re just letting her eat you? Why not just get an animal or something to munch on?¡± Mercy was going to explain but managed to be surprised by Ben¡¯s answer, as well as the fact that he was unusually knowledgeable about a group as small as her people on the whole. ¡°Vampires are a race modified from their original by an evil god of their world, so among other things they can only survive by drinking the blood of intelligent races. If they go too long without food they can lose their reason, but in general they¡¯re just people who want to live.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprised you know so much about us,¡± She said, giving him an appraising look. ¡°There¡¯s only a few hundred of my kind, it¡¯s not rare to meet someone who either hasn¡¯t heard of our race or thought we died out.¡± ¡°I have an elf acquaintance so I just so happened to read up on the subraces while trying to figure out her age. I guess since they have one of the more interesting histories it just stuck.¡± A race that originated on the second planet of a system with four habitable worlds, the elves came into being before any of the gods ruling over the other ones raised up their own species, a fact that let the evil god of the elven homeworld strike up a deal with them, not knowing they weren¡¯t his race to use. He sold groups of them in exchange for faith and brought them to each planet where those gods modified them as they saw fit, resulting in the birth of the high elves, dark elves, and drow. Once he¡¯d gained all of that faith, he¡¯d used it to curse a group of particularly pious worshipers of the elven creator god, altering them into vampires. While Ben hadn¡¯t paid too much attention to the histories and prehistories of the various races in the world, the origin of the five elven variants was interesting enough to stick in his head all this time since. What? I mean, on one hand very cool, but on the other hand there really are too many elven subspecies.