Chapter 160
Discover the story in "Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube" Chapter 160: A couple weeks passed, and as Ben's mood only grew as the results of all... Continue exploring!
A couple weeks passed, and as Ben's mood only grew as the results of all of his work starting to pay off, everyone elseâs managed to degrade. Heâd just finished his repairs to the last house, his ability to cut the logs into the lengths and shapes he needed greatly increased with the purchase of a saw and other tools heâd ordered from the merchant and came back to Fonteshâs home to find the girls looking defeated as they sat around the table, while Skoe was fast asleep in his shed, finally getting a break from the constant work Ben had assigned him.âWhatâs got everyone so down?â He asked, trying to hide the spring in his step that came with finally being done his overwhelming level of work. They, on the other hand, saw no end in sight.
âIt just doesnât make sense!â Sachel cried. âWeâve been killing about twenty a night and we wait for hours more to see if we can draw more out without luck!â
âSo theyâre coming from somewhere else,â Thera said. âWe hunt in the evening, more must be arriving in the early hours of the morning when weâre gone.â
âThe issue is how we find them then,â Ralia sighed. âEven if we keep killing the ones in the forest, it doesnât matter if we donât get the ones at the source.â
âIâm sure you guys will manage,â He told them, trying to sound positive before asking for a favour. âBut since thereâs plenty of day left I could use some help. Sachel, think you could point me towards any rocky outcrops I can take advantage of?â
âDidnât we get you enough that first night?â
âThis is for something different. Thera, could I also bother you to help bring it back with your earth magic?â
âSure, maybe the change of pace would help us think of something anyway.â
Despite seeming so defeated, Sachel led them out of the village and through the woods, slowly making their way, muttering ideas to each other as Ben left them to it. He couldnât interfere with them too much so instead he reflected on his thoughts, thinking about how heâd make the statue. Heâd at least gotten some proper tools from the merchant when sheâd come back, among a couple other things he wasnât sure if he would end up using or not, but he was confident it wouldnât be too hard to make a statue that would satisfy the village and their goddess.
As he was thinking that though, the village managed to satisfy him instead.
Thrilled was putting it mildly. All of the work heâd put towards helping the village had just paid off in a big way, making him slightly harder to kill. It was a bit of a shame to put the reward to something on the zeroth level instead of waiting until it was at the second, but if how long it had taken him to learn it from Zandale was any indication, then he didnât have an aptitude for the skill, completing quests was going to be the best way to get it anywhere. The sooner he got to the point that things couldnât punch or chew through his delicate flesh, the better.
Since the girls seemed discouraged he decided to wait to tell Thera later, not wanting to brag about it as he called out to his god in his mind.
Myriad had originally planned on keeping that option a secret and simply waiting for Ben to eventually pass, giving it to his next apostle after the stunt heâd pulled making the church, but the boy had done nothing but good work for him since, gaining him both faith and believers and making him more appealing to the world as a whole. While it wasnât always the smoothest, he decided to extend the trust, especially since it wasnât an easy quest to fill for a god like him anyway.
Ben let out a long, low whistle hearing just how much he could get from it.
Considering the speed he already seemed to go through his jobs, Myriad wasnât sure how heâd get it done any quicker, especially when his apostle had grown better at not letting thoughts reach his conscious mind, but he looked forward to just what Ben had in store for him.
âAlright, will this be good Ben?â Sachel asked, pulling him from his talk with his god to ask about the rocks sheâd brought him to.
It had taken a while, but theyâd gotten to a hill with a solid stone face, exactly what heâd hoped for.
âPerfect,â He told her. âDonât suppose either of you earth mages are confident you could cut away a boulder about the size of the shed for me without cracking it, could you?â
He was met with shaking heads, though he wasnât surprised. Sachel likely didnât have the mana for that sort of thing while Thera didnât have the control to avoid breaking it. It wasnât a big deal, it just meant that like everything else heâd done in town it was going to take a while, so he pulled out his tools and got to work.
Using a proper hammer and chisel heâd ordered from the merchant, instead of the hastily thrown together stone ones heâd produced, he etched a line to guide where he wanted to work before adding an enchantment to the chisel to aid it in splitting the stone where he hit it, applying deeper cuts then it ever would have otherwise. Even still it wasnât quick work, nor was it deep enough, he still needed to break it away.
Luckily he had an idea for a trick he could use, something he remembered from an old documentary heâd watched long ago. He found a variety of thick tree branches and cut them into wedges before hammering them into the cracks heâd made in the stone with his tools and enchanting. After that, it came down to using the resources he had on hand. Namely Sachel.
âHey, would you mind using your water magic to make those branches absorb as much water as they can?â
âHm? Yeah, that should be easy enough, why though?â
âJust watch, it will be great.â
She did as he asked and pulled water from the air, soaking each branch and the best she could for reasons she didnât understand until a loud crack reverberated through the forest.
âWhat was that?â Ralia yelled, immediately on guard as Ben tried to calm her.
âRelax, Sachel just split the stone. Good work by the way.â
âUh, thanks, but how did I do that?â
âWater expands the wood and forces the cracks that already exist to run deeper. Just need to do it to the other sides and weâre golden.â
He got to work placing more wedges as Sachel soaked them, until finally they had a block of stone in the middle of the woods, too big to do anything with if it werenât for Theraâs magic.
She carefully lifted it into the air, moving it through the woods as she went and stopping for plenty of breaks as need be to keep it from slipping from her magical grasp until they made it back to the village.
The dryads by this point had grown used to Theraâs overwhelming displays of power as she brought back wood for construction, but this time someone stood in their way as they went through the village, the elder and head of the village, Hentath.