Chapter 147

There were still a few hours of sunlight left in the day so Ben instructed Sachel and her party to collect a variety of large stones for him, not for her quest, but as a way of completing his own while he focused on preparing the room they would be staying in. It was significantly smaller than the living room he’d first tried this enchantment on, to the point it felt more like a storage room that just happened to have a bed, but that meant he’d be able to get it done in a couple hours while Thera focused on moving the items in it around to not disrupt his workflow. Once that was complete they had to focus on the next problem, powering it.

In the future, he resolved himself to get a small piece of rainbow mana stone and carry it in his spacial bag with the first aid kit, just in case he’d ever need it like he did now, but until then he’d have to take a different approach with the only thing he had available to him. The first church of Myriad itself, his coat.

When he’d first made it all those months ago he’d gone far heavier on the mythril than he’d needed to just for powering the temperature control enchantments that were on it which had always been a small regret of his. It was wasteful and he could have put it to better use, especially considering how annoying it was to repair it each time something damaged it while attacking him, but for now at least he would be able to take advantage of that previous mistake.

The metal was able to absorb any surrounding mana to directly power the enchantments placed on it. It couldn’t hold onto the mana to the same extent a crystal could, but it also didn’t need to be prepared in any specific way to extract mana from it either. As long as he connected it to the enchantment he’d made on the room, he’d be able to power it at least a little, giving Thera some time she could remove her cloak without having to worry about others. The enchantment would be weaker overall, but not enough to be an issue so that was a smaller concern.

The fact that this enchantment worked at all was something he felt pretty proud for figuring out, though it did have its drawbacks. It didn’t decrease the charm on contact at all, and it only reduced the charm at a distance depending on how much mana was put into the enchantment itself, but it was progress in his goal of understanding how to suppress passive magics.

“All done?” Thera asked as he put on the finishing touches.

“Yep, now for everything else to worry about.”

Having said that, the two of them had very different immediate worries in their heads.

“Um, yeah. So are we splitting the bed?” She asked, voicing her personal concern. They’d camped out enough during their hunts together that spending a night together wasn’t an issue, but they’d always split the time into different watches, there was no need to do that now, and while Ben had seen her sleep multiple times, that had always been while he was focused on changing the enchantment on her brace. This was a bit more close-quarters than that, with the options being a bed barely large enough for two people or one of them sleeping on the rough wooden floor.

Ben, having given no thought to the matter when he requested the room, left it up to Thera. “Doesn’t matter to me. If you’re more comfortable with it I’ll sleep on the ground.”

“Uhg, I won’t make you do that,” She said after a moment's thought. “It’s not like you’ll try anything anyway.”

“I’m the picture of manners. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be sleeping tonight either way, so worry about that tomorrow. I decided I’m going to make this town love Myriad and by god I’m going to make that happen.”

She was going to ask just what he was planning when a knock came on the door, which he quickly got up to answer.

“We’ve got all your rocks,” Ralia said, handing one over while leaving the rest in the hallway. “There’s even more outside if you need it but hopefully this is enough.”

“This is plenty, thanks,” He said, giving them a nod before addressing Sachel beside her. “And just so I don’t do anything wrong, I’m able to cut down trees as long as they aren’t from your sacred forest, right? There’s no issue if I go to some other patch of forest?”

“That’s right, I’d just recommend you don’t go to the woods in the north at all so you avoid making any mistakes. Anything you cut down to the east should be fine.”

“Excellent, thanks.”

He wished them all a good night before getting to work. He would be needing some tools to use but didn’t bring anything from the shop since he hadn’t expected to need it, meaning he’d have to get creative.

Taking advantage of the destructive properties of enchantment, he worked the rocks down the same way he would to make his statues, slowly creating everything he would need for when he’d begin working to win the townsfolk's hearts and minds.

A hammer, a chisel, a file, and a saw. All were necessary for the plans in his head, and he could always make more if need be. The biggest issue was that he didn’t think they would hold up as well as their metal counterparts, but he could work around that.

Making use of his earth magic ring, as well as the enchanting spells, harden and strengthen, he enhanced the items to the best of his abilities, sure in himself they wouldn’t break from regular use once he was done.

He still had some time left before his next task, so he got to work shaping the rest of the stone the others had already brought up for him, alternating between spinning tops and small, sturdy statues of animals from Earth and some he’d seen from this world that he attached wheels to so they could be rolled around. Without the sort of entertainment he’d had available in his homeworld, he was hopeful that these would prove enjoyable for the few kids in the village.

He noticed Thera had fallen asleep by the time he was done and quietly cleaned up a bit before slinking out of the house, trying not to disturb anyone as he went around back and started banging on the door of the shed.

It took a few minutes, but Skoe finally came out.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” Ben said cheerfully, as if he weren’t the reason for that. “I needed someone to carry things for me so come on.”

Instead of answering, Skoe just looked up at the moon for a few moments. “You know, I couldn’t have been asleep for more than a few hours.”

“And you can sleep more when we’re done, now chop-chop, we’re burning moonlight. The faster you help me the faster we all get to leave this village.”

He looked like he wanted to argue at first, but the prospect of getting to leave sooner seemed to appeal to him and he obediently followed Ben out as he left the property and began walking towards the eastern woods.

Seeing the other man following him, Ben was more than content to go on in silence as they made their way, but Skoe had other ideas.

“So um, wouldn’t it have been fine to just get Thera to help you?”

He cast a quick look back at the four-armed man, wondering if this was going anywhere as he answered. “Thera takes mage jobs, she doesn’t have any strength bonuses. Since you presumably have at least one or two warrior-type jobs under your belt, given the swords and shields, I’m assuming you must be fairly strong at least.”

“I am, but I figured you’d rather have someone else around. I don’t exactly get the impression you're my biggest fan?”

“I’d actually consider myself mostly neutral to you. I don’t like you because Thera doesn’t like you, and as far as I can see she’s justified in that, but it won’t keep me from taking advantage of you as a resource if you’re around.”

“I’ve seen adventurers die before,” the man said, anger coming to his voice. “It’s something I’d rather not repeat. Am I supposed to do nothing when I see someone driving someone else insane?”

“If by ‘seeing someone drive someone else insane’ you mean, seeing someone harass a new guild member despite being warned of the potential consequences, only to suffer from their own poor choices, then no, I don’t expect you to do nothing, I would expect you to think a bit harder about the side you’re taking.”

Just thinking about it was pissing him off, but he did his best to suppress it, no need to get in a fight when he still needed to use the guy.

It seemed like Skoe wanted to say more, but Ben didn’t care enough to push him and was content to carry on in silence into they made it to the forest's edge, where he quickly found a suitable branch to act as a handle for the ax head and wedged it in before handing it over.

He looked around and found six good trees to use for the meantime, pointing them out to be chopped down and having the branches cut off before moving on to the next one.

Once the first one was complete, Ben got to work. He wanted to have the logs ready to use as quickly as possible, which meant drying it out, and since he didn’t have months to wait to get that done he’d have to craft an enchantment to speed it up.

Going along the full length of the log, he carefully wove together one making use of fire, water, and air magics, needing to be slow to keep himself from falling mana exhausted and cursing as he went. Even though he could make use of the magics thanks to his connect, his lack of affinity with them mean that even the enchanting cost was surprisingly high and he needed to be careful, though thanks to taking the time to research a variety of magic spells after getting his rings, he at least had a good idea on how to craft enchantments with them without being instantly drained.

The fire enchantment he’d put on it was the core of it, heating up the wood enough that any water within would begin evaporating out, while the water enchantment tied to it was to speed up the rate of water loss and wind to gently move the air around the log itself to keep the humidity low. He was feeling pretty pleased with how it’d turned out, and by the time the three more logs were prepared for him he was done with the first one.

“Hey, when you’re done with that I’ll need you to start running your mana through that log for me to power my enchantment.”

“Huh, alright, but I don’t have a huge mana pool.”

“Oh, how much do you have?” He was a little worried, it made sense that a warrior may not need a lot when they’d be focused on using weapons, but he should have known better.

“Only low two hundreds so I can’t be too intense with it.”

“What? You'll be fine, just regulate your output,” He ordered before muttering under his breath. “Only low two hundreds he says as if that isn’t already above what the average non-mage has. I’d kill to say I only have low two hundreds.”

Feeling he touched a nerve, Skoe went back to getting the next trees cut while Ben focused on constructing his enchantments, and like that the night passed for the men.