It was a short week later that Ben and Thera were flying through the skies, one of them tensed in fear as the other only seemed tired.
“I still say this is insane,” Thera told him, how many times she’d brought her concerns up being impossible to remember. “The chances of leveling your mind skills are so far above your chances of awakening connect. I can’t understand why you’d be willing to risk that after all the pain you’ve gone through in the past few months.”
“Because the potential rewards far outweigh the risks. Besides, even if I do level the skills, my headache’s gone and my minds can’t split again if they’re stuck at the ninth level.”
“Sure, except you’ll just get it again for who knows how many months this time?”
“Er, from Helori’s guess, probably just a couple.”
It was the best estimate the goddess could make when he’d brought up the concern himself, comparing what he’d just gone through against how much his soul had changed to lower some of the burden it was under, and it was a risk he was more than willing to take for just what it could mean.
“Awakening it might mean I could make legendary items Thera, you can’t deny just how useful that would be to the world as a whole.”
“Mmh, the fact that I can’t is the only reason I’m taking you out here. Just consider yourself lucky that I’m ignoring your real reason.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” He said innocently, not fooling his girlfriend in the slightest.
“Please, your eyes basically glow when you start thinking about what you could do after the skill awakens. I’m not doubting you want to make some legendary items, I’m just doubting it’s coming from a place that’s looking at the world instead of just yourself.”
He gave a small laugh as she could only shake her head. As much as she thought things would end terribly, it was unfortunately worth the risk. She just wished he could seem a little hesitant about it.
Still, it wasn’t long before they landed, arriving at the edge of town and driving through, at first receiving suspicious looks from the locals, right up until they recognized them as the mood changed to the positive, happy smiles going around as they got waves from those they passed before getting to their first destination, the house of Fontesh.
It was only the second after he got off the cart, trying to make it to the door to say hello, that something small all but flew from the side of the building, a young dryad seeming to try and tackle him to the ground in her haste, instead just wrapping her arms around him.
“Ben!” Delair yelled out, more than thrilled with the surprise visit. “You should have visited sooner!”
“Ha, sorry, you’d be shocked at how crazy things had been but it’s great to see you,” He told her happily, picking her up and sitting her on his shoulders. “It’s only been what? A couple years? How did you grow so much?”
“A lot can happen in a couple years,” Fontesh said, walking out from the same area Delair had run. “Thera, it’s nice to see you again, and Ben, welcome back from the dead. I wish you’d visited sooner, Delair was a mess when we got the news.”
“I was not!” She yelled out before taking a far glummer tone. “But you should have done more than just sending a letter you know.”
“Sorry, sorry, you’re right. But hopefully we’ll be here for a couple weeks if Hentath is feeling agreeable.”
Fontesh gave him a funny look. “What do you need her agreeing to?”
“Ahem, a fair bit honestly, might be easier if you come while we talk to her. And assuming she says yes, is there any chance we could rent a room while we’re here?”
“After all you've done for the village of course you can stay. Honestly, everyone was pleased to find out you lived after what Sachel told us so seeing you might just put her in a good enough mood to be agreeable.”
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“So you really did live,” Hentath said as soon as she opened the door, trying to look as firm as usual but not able to completely keep the smile from touching her lips. “Should have known anyone who’s as much of a pain as you seem to want to be wouldn’t go out so easily.”
“And it’s great to see you too Hentath, Glad I’m alive to keep being a pain to everyone around me.”
“I feel like I need to point out that if you didn’t insist on being so blatantly antagonistic at times then you’d probably get in a lot less trouble,” Thera muttered.
Ignoring both of them, Ben instead focused on the village elder, bowing his head as he did.
“So anyway, there’s something I’m hoping you’d be willing to agree to. Two somethings really, and before you say no at least hear me out.”
“Alright then.”
Hentath, Delair, and Fontesh were all admittedly curious about what brought him out there with the invasion so close on their heels. They could have imagined him wanting to hide away there since they were blissfully far from any of the invasion points, but they would have agreed to that readily and it wasn’t the impression he was giving off.
“Okay, so the first thing I was hoping for was to get more wood from you all, and the second was that I was hoping you’d let me talk to your trees.”
“Absolutely not.”
“At least let me finish!”
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“The last time you spoke to the trees the forest thought you were dying, and giving out those three branches before was as thanks for your work. I don’t know how much you need, but we sure as hell aren’t cutting down any trees for you.”
“And I’m not asking you too,” He told her, holding up his hands in a show of innocence. “I will take literally anything that’s come down on its own, and I’m more than willing to pay well for everything. Plus trade too if you’ll join me at my cart. I guarantee that you’ll be more than satisfied with what I’m offering.”
Despite herself, Hentath couldn’t help but be curious. She’d seen the sort of work he could do when he had literally nothing and couldn’t help but acknowledge his past skill. Even without knowing how much he’d grown, she couldn’t help but wonder just what he’d made to trade.
The five of them walked over as Ben started unloading boxes from the back, straining under the weight of some as he did before opening them one by one.
The first thing they saw was toys, and lots of them. Their condition was far better than what a lot of the village's children currently got to enjoy, even considering that Ben had taken the time to mail some on occasion after he’d last left.
Delair’s eyes lit up seeing them, though Hetath was far from impressed. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“Hey, these are what I’m giving regardless of if you agree or not because I’m the absolute sweetest. Delair, make sure you distribute them all equally with your friends, okay?”
“Okay!” She yelled out, already rummaging through the box of them as he laughed and opened the next, revealing a pile of quartz sheets that all but Thera looked at curiously.
“And this is another type of game. Delair, I think you’ll get a kick out of this so why don’t you and your mom both grab an end and start running your mana through it.”
It was obvious how instantly less impressed she was from looking at it, seeing nothing but a sheet of stone, but did as she was asked, as not only she, but Fontesh as well became at first interested and then enthralled by the simple game of pong he’d put on it to be played, easily figuring out the goal as they went.
By the end, even Hentath seemed interested as Ben couldn’t keep himself from grinning. “So I made about thirty different games and three copies of each for you all to enjoy. Obviously, you’ll all need to decide for yourselves how the village is going to split or share them, but I guarantee hours of entertainment out of them. They’re getting pretty rave reviews.”
And making me even richer.
He didn’t know if it was just the one arcade Jake had found that was helping to popularize them, or if other places had done similar things. All he could say for sure was that people were making and selling them for a decent price, letting him rake in profit atop all of his other agreements and patents.
Still, it seemed Hentath was going to stand firm. “I’ll admit it’s interesting, but still no,” She told him, ignoring the instant disappointment of both Delair and Fontesh. “The safety of our forest isn’t worth some games when it’s directly tied to our species’ survival.”
“And I still have more so let me finish,” He said as he opened the next couple crates, coming out with something far more underwhelming compared to the last two, with Fontesh and Delair unable to hide their disappointment.
“Dirt?”
“Technically mulch,” He corrected. “But that’s not the important part. What is important is this is special mulch that can massively speed up a plant's growth while improving its overall health, and is Jagal approved.”
That caught her attention, and in a big way too. She didn’t doubt his words given he represented a god himself, and caring for their forest was a huge necessity for them as they slowly worked to expand their grove. If that could help then at the very least it actually would be worth the trade for any fallen wood they could gather, though she still wasn’t sure about letting him talk to the trees and was about to say as much right up until he opened the next crate.
“And in a similar vein, we have these,” He said, holding up what looked like metallic collars of various sizes, some small, while others were big enough that none of them wanted to see the sorts of creatures that could wear them. “I still need to set up the enchantments on them, but this is another thing I’ve already proven works. What we have here are a hundred items that once finished will be able to supply a constant source of plant magic aimed at making whatever trees they’re on grow. Really hoping you like these ‘cause they’re all made with some mythril and white mana crystal and assuming you take them you probably shouldn’t let anyone outside of your village know they exist.”
Hentath couldn’t stop her jaw from hanging open as she understood what he was offering. Aside from the fact that it represented a fortune in materials, that meant a hundred trees they wouldn’t need to work on growing themselves, at most only needing to do a bit of guiding as they instead focused on other ones.
It was enough to make her almost instantly agree to what he wanted, but much like Ben, she was the sort who wanted to get all she could out of someone, so instead she turned, focusing on the remaining crates.
“And the last two?”
“Okay, so this one is also unfinished and is another thing you really really can’t tell outsiders about because it would be a pain for me. I’m assuming you’ve heard about the enhancement potions going around?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“...Right, isolated village, only talks to a couple trusted merchants, I guess that tracks. Okay, so someone, well me, discovered a way to make potions that can permanently increase all of a person's attributes by three. I’ll make a potion for every member of the village, but the final ingredient I need is the wood.”
Admittedly it didn’t take much, but it was the limiting factor by a significant margin. Still, sharing the potions with about a hundred people wouldn’t be bad. His tree was growing more fruit than he and the ones he was already sharing with could ever possibly need and he’d saved up a healthy stock of them as he wondered just what to put them towards.
He thought it was a good deal, and right up until then he thought he had her, but the look in the elder’s eyes changed from temptation to fear as she processed what he said. If a potion like that existed then people would want them, plain and simple. She could only envision a future where people got their hands on the recipe and stormed their woods to take what they could.
“I feel like I’ve just been told my species is doomed,” She muttered, rubbing her temples as she did as Ben caught on to the problem.
“I mean, from the sounds of it every species is doomed, but yours isn’t going to be particularly impacted by this discovery I promise. Outside of myself, the recipe is being monopolized by the gods, and it just so happens that they have a stranglehold on all of the alternative ingredients that could be used instead of the wood. Either way, nobody but me is going to try and get it from you and if after all of this you're still against it then I’ll just leave, I promise.”
He tried to show all of the sincerity he could, and Hentath couldn’t help but believe him. Even if he had been a bit much, in his last visit to the village he’d been nothing but helpful. As it was she found herself completely willing to accommodate his need for the wood, but all of that left one thing unexplained.
“Alright, as things are I guess I can’t refuse the idea of the trade if it just means gathering our fallen branches for you, but no part of this explains why you need to talk to the trees.”
“Ah, fair, I guess I really do need to elaborate on that. When I did last time I felt the skill I’d been using being pressed from the nature of your grove and even then I hadn’t been able to interact with it to my full potential, but this time I think I might be able to. The reason I want to spend a couple weeks on it if you’ll let me is to see if it's enough to awaken my skill.”
It was only Delair in her youth who couldn’t fully appreciate what he was talking about trying, but Fontesh and Hentath couldn’t help but be shocked as the elder ended up agreeing to both things he was looking for. She was fully capable of understanding the value of an awakened skill holder and if he genuinely thought it might get him there then given the state of the world she didn’t have it in her to deny him. Not when every bit of strength that could be gained needed to be taken.