The next day actually managed to be calm for Ben after the hecticness of the prior two. His friends all seemed strangely on edge despite his constant assurance that he was used to just what sort of world they now lived in and would probably be fine if they wanted to do something else, but there was always at least a few hanging over his shoulder as he finally got to work on Amy’s weapon.
What he had been putting the most of his effort that day towards was cutting the white mana crystal he was going to be using, making multiple discs the size of large coins only thicker and setting them each in the mythril they would need to extract the mana from the magical gems.
He put more effort into what was a simple task for him than he ever normally would, making sure each crystal he cut was perfectly uniform in size, the mythril bound to each surface polished to a mirror finish and ending up with sixteen by the time he was finally done. It was far more than he actually needed, and given how expensive the materials were, it was beyond wasteful, but he had no choice if he wanted a chance at success. Even though he typically used the materials to help supply mana to his tools and items, that wasn’t the only area where they’d shine compared to cheaper options. They were also incredibly good at holding large complex enchantments without breaking, and given what he had in mind to do with them he still didn’t trust that he’d be able to get away without losing a few.
God, I can’t believe I’m preparing to lose half of these freaking things to make this. Having money has warped my sense of value.
He put them away for the time being, leaving the next step for later. He wanted to do some tests before it came time to properly make the various enchantments he’d be using, so he turned to Jake to give him the good news.
“Alright, it looks like I’m making you what you wanted earlier than expected so look forward to it.”
“You’re making bikini armour?” He asked enthusiastically, doubling over from the quick strike of Vasta, his non-affinitied magic teacher that was in charge of watching him for the day instead of Uliel.
“Degenerate boy,” The woman scolded him. “Don’t go teaching Yuzu about weird things. Amy told me all about your request.”
“Also there’s no way I could make that without it being inferior to properly enchanted armour. Seriously, why do you want it so bad?”
“I mean, we’re going to be in a fantasy war eventually! You need to have warriors in bikini armour to complete the scene!” He yelled in his defense. “Besides, wouldn’t it be easier for Amy to move in something like that compared to-”
He couldn’t finish the thought as this time it was Amy who shut him up, enough anger in her eyes to make him think twice about continuing to speak.
“In that case, I could make her a very good set of leather armour,” Ben told him. “With the enchantments I could put in it she wouldn’t need to worry about most piercing damage, or better yet you guys could take a look at the cloak me and Falk worked on for Steph since it’s got pretty great immunity to both physical and magical damage. To make bikini armour I’d need to be able to enchant with barrier magic in a way I just can’t at my current level, probably wouldn’t be able to unless I could use it in an awakened form too. Not to say I couldn’t make you anything interesting with it since it’s going to make your lightsaber possible.”
Jake’s eyes lit up with the news, both his teacher’s and his girlfriend's wrath forgotten as Ben's own teacher's curiosity was piqued.
“Some sort of sword from your land boy?” Falk asked, wanting to hear more about a potentially new weapon.
“More like one from a popular story. Anyway Jake, how functional do you want it to be?”
“Is that even a real question?”
“I just don’t want to be responsible for an archmage cutting something important off swinging it around. Not going to be a good look for me.”
“It will be fine, give it all the deadly force it deserves!”
Amy and Vasta shot each other a worried look but neither stopped him, so with a shrug Ben got to work.
To challenge himself he decided not to use any magic material while working on it. The ones he’d be using would be plenty high quality, but it would still take a lot of care to make it perfect, and to start it off he began heating his metal and grinding the horns and bones of a pixie dragon into a fine powder and putting it to the side until he needed it, only cutting one or two small pieces of what was in the forge for the meantime and began working it.
Surprisingly, what he had to do first would take the most care. He had to delicately shape one of the chunks into a perfect sphere, no bigger than a ball-bearing, meaning it had to be perfect and polished.
Once done, he created a shell that it could exist within, still small but giving it enough room to roll around as it moved and sealed the entire thing before building an air enchantment on it to create one of the effects it would need. It would be a minor touch in all, but enough minor touches and improvements could make something great so he didn’t slouch on it and put the ball to the side for the time being.
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With that bit done he took the rest of the metal as well as the bone and horn powder he’d produced earlier and took his hammer to both, blending and pounding together until he had it exactly as he wanted it, creating a long flat piece of metal. As much as he wanted to think of it as making a sword, it wasn’t. He was making a tool to hold a very specialized enchantment, so the entire process was completely different.
Solidifying that fact in his mind, he cut away a strip from within it before pulling out his ring library from his bag, carefully selecting each one he thought could enhance the effect he was going for before placing his hands on the cooling plate, weaving and blending together dozens of enchantments as he went and placing them on the metal.
As with any time he got lost in his work, the world around him melted away. He didn’t know how long he’d devoted to such a silly project, but as the enchantments on that part finished and the plate didn’t break he placed the ball he’d made earlier within the divot he cut and using his hammer, began to carefully yet tightly roll it up into a secure tube.
With that done, all that was left was making it look nice. He went through his materials, trying to find something that would fit the look and grabbed a hunk of steel, as well as a fine black powder to colour it. After another repeat of heating and blending he wrapped the coiled plate in it, polishing it and creating a small guard at the top to help indicate which side was up to keep Jake from accidentally impaling himself, and after all of that, it was done.
Looking it over with the limited analysis that came from having a ninth-level crafting skill, he couldn’t help but be pleased with the result.
Unnamed tool from the craftsman Ben Heph
* Item Grade
* Middle rare
Oh yeah, I freaking killed it! Jake, you better be happy with this.
He was about to hand it over to its would-be owner, but before he did he had a thought and had to suppress his grin as he decided to put it into action. He wasn’t sure if it would work, and even if it did it would be something that only he would know about and find funny, but he couldn’t resist as he held it tightly and spoke within his mind.
I name you, the copyright-safe laser sword!
Copyright-safe laser sword
* Item Grade
* Middle rare
I can’t believe that actually worked. He thought, no longer able to stop himself from laughing out loud. The majority of his items had always ended up listed unnamed, and he never tried to name one himself to see if it would work, leaving that for its new owner instead if that was what they desired, but to see the system accept it so easily was a joy as he looked up to hand it off to Jake, finding both his teacher and a strange man standing over him as he did.
“What did I tell you, the boy’s good,” His teacher said with a toothy grin as the man beside him, a troll hybrid of some sort, scratched his beard as he stared at the item.
“I thought you’d just gone dumb after finally getting an apprentice after all these years, but you’re right, he is good. The naming sense could use a little work though.”
“Hey, cut me some slack,” Ben said in his defense. “The name’s a little joke for myself, I wasn’t expecting to immediately meet another person that could see it. Speaking of, who are you?”
“Ha, where are my manners? I’m an employer of your teacher and the head of the craftsman's guild. The name’s Iberu, mind if I have a closer look at what you’ve made?”
He wasn’t expecting to meet a big shot but handed the item over, assuming that it would be fine since Falk knew him but gave a warning anyway. “Just be careful where you’re pointing it if you run any mana through it, I’d rather not be skewered.”
“Nothing to worry about on that front, I just wanted to admire the craftsmanship,” He said as his eyes ran over it and he muttered his thoughts. “Marvelous, to fit together and combine so many enchantments is no easy feat. Tell me though, why do you have this one air enchantment on it? It seems out of place, though set up in an interesting way at least.”
“Customer satisfaction. The guy I made it for definitely wants it to have sound effects so I built some in, no matter how unnecessary they are.”
“Ah, I see. Making what the client is looking for is just as important as anything else, isn’t it?” He nodded approvingly as he handed it back. “A fabulous piece of work. You should have old Falk bring you around sometime, I’d love to have a longer talk if we could but I have much to see for the day.”
“Well, I’ve got a few books to pick up from the guild when this is over so I’d be happy to pick your brain a bit then.”
At that, Iberu broke into a laugh as Falk muttered quietly enough that only he would hear. “He’s not the head of the local branch boy, he’s the head of the entire guild.”
“What? Falk, how do you know so many bigwigs? Share some of these connections man!”
“Ha, I’d say by having Falk you have one of the best connections you could hope to,” Iberu told him as he waved goodbye. “If you ever have a reason to visit craftsman tower though stop by. I’d welcome the chat as well.”
Once gone, he shot his teacher a look that was loaded with questions and completely easily ignored, leaving him nothing to do but sigh.
Mysterious jerk. Just tell me these things already.
Still, he wouldn’t learn what his teacher wasn’t willing to tell and instead turned to hand off the sword to Jake who was eagerly waiting off to the side with the others, giving him a warning first.
“Just make sure you have the guard pointed away from you when you have your mana running through it and don’t activate it while pointing it at anything you don’t want to kill.”
“You got it!”
With an uncomfortable display of enthusiasm, he poured his mana into it, resulting in a narrow beam of red fire and light growing with the thin barrier enchantment that came out the end, stopping when it was about as long as an arm. Jake immediately started swinging it, causing the ball within to move along the air enchantment he’d created, giving off the exact sound effect Ben knew he would want.
“Wouldn’t it be better if it was silent?” Amy asked as she kept an eye on Jake, making sure he didn’t hurt anyone or himself. “Feels like this would just be distracting in a fight and make it so you couldn’t catch anyone by surprise.”
“Some things are more important than practicality,” Jake told her. “Ben, this is perfect and you’re the best.”
“Just don’t accidentally cut off any of your limbs please.”