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.”
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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.
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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?”