With agreement received, Ben wasted no time getting to the nitty-gritty of what he needed to have to finish up the plant collars while he waited for the wood to be collected.

“So who in the village would you say has the highest level of plant magic?”

“Me and one other have the skill at the eighth level, why?”

“Just going to need your hand for a moment,” He told her, taking it and opening the connection, unable to keep himself from peeking to see if she had any other interesting skills before copying the sole magic she possessed to a ring.

Looking at it with his limited analysis, he couldn’t help but smile to see he was able to copy the totality of the skill, unlike in the past where his attempt had left him getting only the third level when the fifth was available. It was clear proof that his connect and enchanting had grown, even if he still wanted to go farther.

Definitely going to need to update the enchantments on my possessed tree and Fredrick’s pot now that I’ve got this but for the time being, let’s get started.

Along with his new and improved plant magic ring, he also slipped on a seventh-level minor soul magic one he’d made while he was with the demidemons and picked up one of the tree collars he needed to finish, blending the two enchantments along with the highest level of earth, water, and life magic he had access to in an effort to ensure it would have the most powerful effect it could as he quickly finished it, putting it to the side and starting the next as he waited.

Seeing he would be working on it for a while, Hentath went to rally more people to gather wood for him while Fontesh patted her daughter’s head before leaving with a few words, off to finish some chores.

It was only Delair who stayed with him and Thera, staring intently at what he was doing with her weak mana sense as he did his best to speed through everything, the toys he’d brought with him forgetting in favour of seeing what he could do.

“Curious?” He asked with a grin, happy the child seemed interested in his work and getting a surprising response in return.

“Uh huh, nobody here was able to teach me how to so I gotta learn now that you’re here!” She told him with a bright smile, eager to figure out the secret of it to try herself but still managing to catch him off guard.

“You want to learn how to enchant?”

“Yeah, even though I haven’t gotten the skill yet I’ve still been working really hard, see?”

As she said that she pulled out her card, her chest puffed out with pride as she held it out to him to take a look as his eyes skimmed over it, a second surprise coming to him as he did.

“You have the zeroth level of crafting?”

“Yep,” She told him confidently, before taking a change to the bashful. “I need it if I’m going to be your apprentice one day.”

…I did put out that offer when I left last time, didn’t I?

Thera was looking at him curiously, wondering just how he would respond as he focused on the girl, wanting to probe her interest. He wasn’t just going to dismiss her desire, if she not only remembered that casual offer but had been working hard enough to get the crafting skill then she must have felt serious about it, but it seemed far outside what he would have expected her future to hold.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Well, I can help you try to get enchanting while I’m here but first, would you mind telling me why you want to be a craftsman?”

“‘Cause it makes people happy,” She said brightly. “I want to do that too. And it was really fun helping you while you were here before too.”

Well, I’m not sure about that first bit, but if she enjoys it then that’s the most important part since she’s looking to her future. If she’s planning on staying in her village as she grows up too then having someone with the crafting skill would be ideal.

Even if it wasn’t as specialized as something like smithing or enchanting, that only really mattered in bigger towns and cities where people had a larger variety of choice that gave them the liberty to get the best they could. In a remote place like the dryad village though, it would be helpful for everyone to have a jack of all trades, even if that meant a bit of a drop in quality.

Plus, as long as she gets her level high enough then that difference won’t really matter, will it?

“Alright, in that case, do you have any paper around? I’ll teach you a bit while I’m here but I’ll also make you some notes you can read over and practice with after I leave again.”

“I’ll check!” She yelled as she ran off, Thera taking a seat beside him as she did.

“Are you really going to take her as an apprentice?” She asked, filled with curiosity at the exchange she watched.

It was a question that got her a shrug. “I did offer, even if I didn’t really expect her to want to take me up on it, and it looks like she’s been working hard so why not? It’s not like I’ll be doing it now, but maybe in three or four years if she’s still interested and we aren’t all dead it could be fun. Besides, it’s not like it's going to be hard to put a single mind on giving her some lessons while I’m here, right?”

“Ha, I just thought you’d take after my uncle on the matter of training others,” She teased.

“I’ll have you know Falk loves me no matter how much he doesn’t want to show it. Besides, it would probably be different if it was some random off the street but she’s a good kid. Plus I can now say no to anyone else who asks on the grounds that I already have one.”

He hadn’t gotten any requests to take on apprentices yet, only able to assume that some of the nations who wanted him probably wanted him to train their people as well, but he had no intention of taking on anyone like that. Delair was different though. He liked the reasons she gave for wanting to be a craftsman and he thought she was a good kid. Sure, she was young enough that her dreams and entire personality could change by the time she’d be old enough to start training, but then that was a problem for the future.

“Let’s see,” He muttered to himself as he kept going through his enchantments. “It looks like she’s an apprentice mage right now so I can work on writing up a few potential training plans for her depending on what she takes next, be it apprentice craftsman or true mage, and I think with just a bit of work I can help her learn the enchanting skill before I leave. Oh, and I should also ask how long she’s had the crafting skill for. If it’s been over a year and she’s been practicing I’m sure I can get her to the first level of it while I’m here. Yeah, let’s do that. It would let her see what sort of effort has to go into training too so it might be better for her to learn early on.”

“Ben, if you work her anywhere near as hard as you work yourself you’re going to scare the poor girl off.”

“I’m not planning on doing anything extreme, don’t worry,” He said in his defense, not getting an ounce of belief back.

“I got to see and hear about how hard you trained the demidemons, Ben.”

“Only adults! Delair’s what? Nine now? I’m not going to give her a level of work that would scare her off, I just want to let her see the breadth that crafting has to offer.”

With alchemy at the top of the menu. There were a couple things about making the god potions that he could leave to her so long as he kept an eye on things and from there more plans came together in his head as she eventually came back with papers in hand before Hentath returned with the wood, and from there they could finally get started.