Waking up far earlier than he needed to for the contest after his illuminating conversation with his god, Ben got to work preparing breakfast, an outrageously large one at that. He not only had the supplies that the embassy provided for its guests at his disposal, but all of the ingredients he’d bought at the market the previous day as well, and it was all put to use, making enough to feed dozens of people and taking hours to cook and pack up after.
It was only by the time the contest was about to open up again for the day that he knocked on the doors of both Thera and his teacher to get them to come out, with Thera making her way first, a golden blush spreading through her cheeks as she looked at him.
“Something wrong?” He asked, having his own guesses on the matter as he handed her a plate.
“I don't think I’m cut out for girls' nights,” She said as she looked away and started eating. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Of course, what’s up?”
“Do you…” She started before trailing off. “No, it’s nothing. Actually, Yuzu mentioned that something looks weird about how your mind skills are interacting with your soul, you should probably ask your god about that.”
“Oh cool, thanks for letting me know. Hey Myriad, did you hear that?” He called out, while also directing a silent thought to the heavens as well. And did someone out me for being interested in Thera cause she’s not looking me in the eyes at all.
For both questions though, he got nothing but silence. His god had said that Helori was going to be keeping him pretty busy for a while, but it was already feeling pretty inconvenient.
“No answer, but it’s probably fine,” He said with a shrug. “He looked at my soul before, and a different goddess did less than a week ago. I’m sure it will be okay.”
“I told you all of your mind skills would eventually give you the weirdest brain in existence,” She tried to joke while still avoiding his eyes. “Looks like it’s going to give you the weirdest soul too.”
He laughed it off as Falk finally came out of his room, eating a plate of food before the both of them were recruited to bring it all down to the contest area, handing it out to all of the invited tables as they were setting up for the day.
“So what’s this for?” A dwarf asked as she picked away at her plate, happy to eat it regardless of the reason and unable to keep herself from devouring it after the first bite.
“You all tried to help when I was attacked,” He told her happily. “Giving you all some breakfast was really the least I could do.”
“Ha, well we might not have been so quick if we understood who was attacking you,” She said as she laughed. “Don’t go making any powerful enemies during a silly contest, you hear?”
“Loud and clear,” He told her as he went to distribute the food he made to the other tables, giving them his thanks as he went and exchanging a few friendly words before he went to set up for the day himself.
He’d gotten a few sales the day prior, but even more importantly he now had a direction to go as he began to make his items. He needed something for someone that could use anything, and with that in mind he took a seat and began sketching out ideas on a piece of paper as he did, letting the time pass as Falk and Thera watched him while chatting, both worried about him after the day prior.
It was only after two hours there without a single sale to his name that he was pulled from the notes he was making, both by his teacher's growl and the sound of tisking coming in front of him.
His first thought was that he got too absorbed in his work and had ignored a customer, but as he looked up and saw the beast of muscle before him, a creature that looked like a centaur, only instead of a horse's body it was more akin to a rhino’s with an eagle-like head instead of something more human.
“Hey there, looking to buy something?” He asked cheerfully with his best salesman's voice, only for Falk to answer for the man.
“He’s not,” The yeti said bluntly. “What do you want, Olop? Can’t you see my apprentice is busy?”
“Pff, you say that as if you didn’t just find him off the street,” The man said, dismissing Ben entirely. “Really, Are you so against working for me that you’d resort to this? Even the excuse that this is some sort of graduation test is ludicrous. If you were going to pull that you might as well as found an entire team like everyone else has to back him up, it would have made it at least a bit more believable. Honestly, why would you choose someone with the crafting skill of all people?”
“Finding anyone to help him would have just held him back, now off with you already. I’m not working for you, and my boy is going to blow your judges away.”
With a loud hmph, Olop stomped off, leaving an uncomfortable atmosphere as he did.
“Well, he seems… nice?” Ben said, trying to break the silence the other man had created with his presence.
“He’s a right asshole is what he is,” Falk said angrily before getting it under control. “On the plus side though, he didn’t seem to pay you any mind so you’ll blow that prick away when it comes time to judge.”
“You’re really raising the bar here Falk, I’ve seen what the other tables have to sell, it’s good.”
“Aye, but you’re no worse. More importantly, you’re working alone. That’s already enough to make you stand out at the end of this, even if you don’t place at all.”
“Well, I guess I’ll just do my best,” Ben told him confidently. “Just to be clear, he was the one to send out the invite, right?”
“Yeah but don’t pay him any mind, I doubt he’ll stop by again before it’s time to judge.”
----------------------------------------
It was another hour after that that Ben was sitting with his face down on the table, unable to keep himself positive. As other stalls were swarmed with customers, his alone hadn’t had a single sale yet that day, something pulling him into despair.
My stuff’s no worse than any of the other contestants, what the hell? Are my prices too high? But it’s comparable to what everyone else is selling at, so there shouldn’t be a problem there. Is it because I’m the only one without a team? Maybe they don’t like the fact that I’m just sitting here making notes while the others are working. Ugh this is so annoying!
It was only as a shadow fell across his eyes that he shot up, ready to greet whoever was looking at his work and convince them to empty their pockets for him, when his mood got to crash again. It was someone he’d been expecting, along with three tagalongs.
“Hey, ready for a fun day of figuring out what to make you?” He asked Amy with forced cheer as Jake, Yuzu, and Uliel stood by her side, with the archmage in particular picking up one of his knives and looking it over.
“I can spare at least a few hours anyway,” She said. “What did you have planned?”
“Hop on over to my side of the table and we’ll get started.”
“And you can leave,” Falk told Uliel with a pointed look that she dismissed.
“It’s my job to ensure the safety of these three,” She told him as she put the knife down to look at a flail instead. “They are some of the most important individuals on the world you know. Will you take responsibility if something happens?”
“Sure, if you’ll take responsibility for the fact that my apprentice hasn’t gotten a sale all day,” Falk told her in a voice filled with anger. “Words got around that he got on your bad side and now everyone’s too scared to come by.”
“Wait, that’s why I haven’t had a single sale?” He yelled, being ignored by both of them.
“I’ll admit my guilt in that, but you shouldn’t be supporting this fraud either,” She told them as she put the flail down. “The enchantments on his items are based on the principles of ritual magic. One person couldn’t make them alone, you shouldn’t be presenting them as if they’re his work.”
Okay, now she’s actually gone too far. As interested as he was that she apparently had a good enough understanding of something as uncommon as ritual magic to spot its touches in his enchantments, he wouldn’t put up with being accused of stealing credit for another's work and spoke up to challenge her.
“So then if I prove that I made these you’ll buy all of my work?” He asked. “I made a lot for this, if I’m missing out on sales because of you then you should take responsibility.”
“Fine,” She said easily enough, doubting however he intended to argue that the items before her were made through his own efforts would prove convincing. She’d already heard from Amy and Jake earlier that he didn’t have any real magic affinities, making the enchantments on his items impossible for him to produce.
Happy to have her agreement and seeing dollar signs in his eyes when he considered just how marked up his items were compared to any that he normally sold in the shop, he picked up a smaller knife, only to stop. There was one more thing he wanted, something she was uniquely suited to help him with.
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“Wait, I’m going to be a little greedy and ask for one more thing if I prove myself.”
“Shameless.”
“Damn straight,” He said, giving her his cheekiest grin. “But I have a skill I want to learn some of the deeper mechanics behind and you’re uniquely suited to help me, so long as you awakened your archmagic skill from the magic skill and not by having it combine with all the attributed magics that is.”
“If that’s all then fine,” She didn’t expect to be proven wrong, but his continued confidence caught her interest. How did he intend to prove he made them? What argument would he bring? She supposed it was possible he’d gained access to the skills taker or borrower, but she was almost certain that without having the affinities needed for it, it wouldn’t show its effects for those magics or any affinitied skills anyway.
Instead though, he went for the simplest way of proving it he could. Looking at the knife in his hands, he stripped it of its enchantments as Uliel and the other three summoned watched in curiosity, seeing the magic inscribed on it taken apart with quick efficiency until he had nothing but a standard knife again.
Once it was free of any enchantments though he activated his connect, reaching deep into the enchantments on his ever-present rings and started to the use mana he felt, blending and weaving it all as he worked to recreate the enchantment the item originally contained before their eyes, only needing a few minutes to get it perfect and enjoying the shocked looks of everyone but Jake.
“Told you, I never doubted him for a second,” He said happily, seeming more pleased than Ben was to be proven right as Amy just came across as confused.
“How though? I thought you couldn’t use magic at all. Wasn’t that your biggest issue behind your skills when you got here?”
“That’s something I want to know as well,” Uliel said. “On top of how you’re able to create such a complex ritual as a single person.”
“And I’d be happy to explain both things,” He said in a voice filled with cheer. “The moment you buy all of my stuff that is.”
“Fine,” She said as she held out her card. Looking at the prices it wouldn’t be cheap, but then she was plenty wealthy anyway from her various work.
Seeming to push aside her confidence in how much she would be spending though, Ben reached down and strained himself, bringing a full crate of weapons out from under the table.
“It will be just a minute as we price all of this out,” He told her. “And I’ll even throw in the crate for free. Ain’t I sweet?”
“...Has anyone ever told you you’re a miser?” She asked as she looked at the dozens of weapons she wouldn’t even need as a mage, deciding to just pass them all off to Amy when they got back.
“Hey, you’re the one who agreed to buy everything and I need to get whatever bit of wealth I can. Some of us didn’t immediately become rich the moment we came to this world you know.”
Some of us had to wait to become rich months later.
Still, he wanted the things he made to receive proper use, so after payment was transferred he explained just what effects were on each item before they got to the main question they all seemed to have.
Slipping on a blank ring, he held out his hand to Uliel while also handing her a hunk of steel. “Alright, do me a favour and float this in the air with your magic, I’ll be able to test out my skill’s effect as you do and then we can all move on happily.”
She did as she was asked without complaint, fulfilling the second part of his request on top of wanting to have her curiosity sated. Taking his hand and using her magic, she felt the moment he connected to her and did her best not to pull away as she felt herself being peered on from all sides as almost a dozen voices filled her head.
It took a moment for her to realize he was talking, explaining for the others exactly how he managed it, the effect of his connect skill, as well as the synergy that existed between complex mind and parallel thought that made his head so crowded for anyone forced to peer within.
It was only as he let go that she was able to breathe comfortably, her head filled with nothing but her own thoughts again as Ben slipped off the previously blank ring, tossing it to his teacher to try and get a bit more evidence for just how connect worked on a deeper level.
“What do I have on it Falk?”
He knew it should have the skill at the eighth level, but given that every now and then he got skills at a much lower one than expected he still needed his teacher to confirm it for him, with results adding more evidence to his theory.
“Looks like you were only able to copy it to the fifth level,” His teacher told him after giving it a look and tossing it back.
“Interesting, I guess that matches up with my theory that different skills have weight to them. I had this issue with plant magic and it’s arguably the product of three skills, while this one is the product of ten so maybe that’s it? But some of the other skills I wasn’t able to copy to their full effect weren't obviously combined versions of other skills. Maybe they each have their own size or sub-components that dictate how much I can copy?” He muttered, making a quick note of the result for later as he went. As much as he wanted to figure it out, it wasn’t super important, especially when he could just use other skills instead. As handy as it was to get that skill on a ring, he would choose to use his level nine rings any day over it.
Shaking himself from his musings after everything was done he gave Amy a seat to talk about what he’d asked her to come for, doing his best to ignore his curiosity as he noticed Yuzu whispering to Thera off to the side in a largely animated fashion while his friend managed to come off as deeply uncomfortable, even with her cloak to hide her.
“Ahem, anyway, let’s get to the heart of this,” He told her. “I know you want to find something that suits you, but since you can use any weapon, are there any in particular you prefer?”
“It depends what I’m using it for,” She said, seeming to have no faith he’d be able to make her anything worthwhile. “I’ve been trained to fight in a bunch of different situations. In a brawl I’m happy to use brass knuckles or a knife, maybe a gauntlet too. For anything that takes a bit more distance then swords or spears are good, but then so is an ax or a bat depending on what I’m up against. Ranged weapons like a javelin or flying disks are fine, though at least in that case I prefer bows since it’s too easy to lose anything I throw if I do it with too much force. Oh, and I guess I’m not really a fan of flails,” She said, almost as an afterthought.
Ben took note of all of this as he felt ideas begin to come together in his head. “Okay, for now I think we’ve got knives, swords, brass knuckles, an ax, and a club in the crate. Want to pull out whichever ones you think suit you best? That is of course if Uliel doesn’t mind since they’re all hers.”
The archmage consented with a wave of her hand, having planned to let Amy use them all anyway as his old classmate dug through the bin to find the sizes that best fit her, and after some prompting she showed how she would use each, taking swings and jabs, treating each attack against the air as if she were in serious combat as she did.
Ben watched every movement, trying to look for what might be uncomfortable, how different designs and weights might be affecting her, but finding that no matter what she used she made it look perfect, leaving him nothing to go off of on that front other than asking her opinions on where she thought she was having issues with item weight or balance.
For each review she gave he made notes and sketched designs of different shapes, doing his best to work out what would work better for her, in the end showing her and asking for her opinion.
“These all look good,” She conceded. “But these are just items I could get from anyone. I’m looking for something that would really suit me.”
“Hey, this is all a part of the decision-making process. I need to at least experiment a bit and get some ideas. One more thing for today though, do you use shields at all?”
“Sometimes, but they’re pretty situational for me too. I can fight with one well enough, but there’s plenty of instances where I'd rather have a good weapon in hand and use my augmentations for defense than worry about carrying a shield around.”
“Hmm. Okay, well just for the sake of argument, what sort of shield do you prefer when you do use one? Shape, size, anything really?”
“God, I guess a circular one is what I'll usually go for during practice, maybe two feet across?”
“Perfect, that’s all I need from you today, but if you’d come back tomorrow I’ll have a few more things to go over.”
Though she didn’t seem excited she agreed easily enough, and it made Ben want to make her something worthwhile all the more. The fact that she so clearly didn’t believe he could create what she wanted just raised his competitive spirit, not to mention that he desperately wanted the agreed-upon payment as well, and as they left, Yuzu enthusiastically waving goodbye to Thera as she seemed completely drained in return and everyone else worked to carry their new crate of weapons, he tuned out the world to focus on the things he needed to make.
Using the forge provided, he first began heating up large amounts of steel, taking out what he needed each time to quickly make up the items that Amy had already tested, but redesigned to fit her specifications and without any enchantments added. He was planning on melting them all down again after she verified how the changes felt, so there was no need to put in the extra work.
After that though, he moved on to the other items she’d mentioned, as well as the shield he suggested. The spear and shield were both easy enough, he’d made plenty of each as he worked for Falk during his training, and while the gauntlet was a little more difficult without her there to properly fit it to her, after spending an hour watching her use the various weapons, combined with his observant eye, he was sure he’d managed to put together something that would fit nicely.
The problem was the bow. He had some experience making them, but not much. The typical archer simply didn’t go for one made of metal. There were enough high-quality woods in the world that were perfect for the task and kept the weight down enough to keep it manageable, and while his crafting skill left him as proficient at working that material as he was with any other, he didn’t want to waste the bit of wood he brought on something like that in case he needed it later.
Well, she must have a strength attribute above a thousand at a minimum, she can deal with using a metal bow for the time being. Hell, she could probably use one normally without any issues. I’ll just need to scrounge up something to use for the string.
With that decided he finished it up quickly before starting on the next thing he would need her to use tomorrow, though it was far simpler in its design. He took a square plate of metal and etched in the numbers one to five in a semicircle, keeping it just wide enough that the tips of all of his fingers could comfortably touch each number.
From there he embedded five small pieces of crystal on the plate in a line, creating a different light enchantment for each one that linked with the number and placed his fingers down on it, running mana through each one by one and seeing the appropriate crystal lighted up, getting red, yellow, green, blue and purple shining out as each had the appropriate bit of mana running through it.
“What’s that for?” Thera asked, surprising him with how close she’d gotten without him realizing, despite the fact that she still wasn’t looking into his eyes, instead choosing to direct her full attention to the tool he’d made.
“It’s a simple way to measure someone's mana control,” He explained. “Here, give me some numbers, one to five.”
“Sure, one, three, two, one, five, four, one…”
She continued on as he touched the plate, with each number she said the corresponding light went off until she eventually stopped.
“Okay, you’re just showing off at this point,” She told him with a nudge. “Have some sympathy for those of us who would break your little toy there.”
“Ha, yeah I’ve got all of this control and nothing to do with it. The point is to see how Amy manages with it though. If she has control as good as mine then that will open up the options a bit for what I can make her.”
“What are you thinking?” She couldn’t help but be curious. She felt like the only time she ever saw Ben thinking so hard on how to make an item was either when he’d been trying to make her a staff in the past, working on improving her brace, or his current, slightly unsavoury goal of trying to trap a soul. Seeing him work as hard as he was currently, she couldn’t help but flash back to times in her youth, watching her uncle work away on whatever project he had with just as much dedication.
He was going to answer, he didn’t just have one idea after all and it seemed like it might help to get some opinions on it, but it was as he opened his mouth that he heard a quiet voice seem to yell at him.
“Hey legs, you still open?”