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.
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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.
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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.
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.