Chapter 264

“Damn it all, where are we?” Greed swore. “I swear to any god that’s listening if this is one of my other bastards I’m going into hiding after this!”“How many do you even have?” Ben asked, the calmest one of his minds handling talking as the rest assessed the situation. They were in a large empty room, some sort of spatial effect on it giving it far more area than could be seen from outside the building, with a fountain and a table beside it at its center. The door they had gone through had vanished as it was pulled closed behind them, with a completely different one at the other side of the room, all but begging to be stepped through. More significant than that thought was the magic built into the structure, the enchantments that made the trial what it was. He wasn’t certain what was happening, but he could already tell that certain sections of the enchantments were moving.

It was a feature he couldn’t be sure if it was present in the magic on Anailia’s trial. His level had been so much lower then, along with the quality of his mana sense, that for as much as he could see he was sure he’d missed even more. It was just one more thing he’d need to investigate, at least so long as he lived.

“At least twenty,” Greed told him off-handedly. “But you won’t catch me with more! Too many already want my neck for one reason or another. Kids are a deathtrap!”

“Well, the good news for you at least is I’m pretty sure they were after me, though I have no freaking clue why. The bad news is we’re in trouble. You know where we are?”

“I was kind of distracted getting tossed in here. Enlighten me?”

“The dead god’s trial.”

“Fuck. Well, fair is fair. You already bought me a few extra days legs, I won’t hold this against you,” The crab said, already uncomfortably resigned to his fate. He’d heard about the trial before, how nobody within it had survived. He understood just what it meant to be tossed within it.

“Ha, well I appreciate your understanding Greed, but I’d rather live myself so I’m going to try some things, I’m just going to need your help a bit.”

“You think you can get us out of here?” He asked in disbelief, getting a shrug in return.

“I think I’d rather try than wait it out. Nothing has happened yet so hopefully we’re good until we go through the door. For the time being though, I need you to buff my mana and mana regen.”

The crab had blessing magic, basically an awakened combination of both light and life magic, meaning it was well-suited for both healing and buffs. Ben hadn’t forgotten how he and Thera had survived the final bit of Anailia’s trial, how he’d broken down the enchantment on one of the statues, and he had so many more advantages now than he’d had then. His understanding of enchantments was miles above where he’d had it before, along with his skills on a technical level. That plus the eleven minds in his head to speed up the process, he just needed to decipher whatever magic had made the door vanish, break it down, and let themselves out. As interesting as the structure around him was, and as much as he wanted to study it in greater detail, his first priority was surviving.

Greed did as he was asked, leaving Ben to feel the power flowing through him. He was still getting used to the changes to his attributes that came with awakening his skill, but he wanted every boost he could get. Breaking down a god's enchantments the last time had been no easy feat, he didn’t want to be stuck for hours breaking them one by one.

He moved to the wall where the door had been when they were tossed through and began examining it in detail, hoping something would stand out to him as he did. Even though he’d only examined the unique enchantment structure of the trial once, he’d been thinking about it off and on with a few of his minds ever since, theory crafting and formulating ideas on how it might act. Ideas he wanted to test out sooner or later but hadn’t been able to find the time with so much else going on.

Combined with that was the new knowledge his ninth-level enchanting gave him as he examined the wall. It wasn’t giving the magic in levels, that probably wouldn’t be an accurate way of presenting it anyway since the trial was made in a world without the system, but it acted as a guide at least, letting Ben confidently say that all ten branches of affinitied magic, as well as non-affinitied mana, had all contributed to how it was made up.

He carefully combed over it, trying to poke at it with his thoughts, not letting anything distract him as he fell into it and weighing what he was seeing against what he already understood, discarding some theories and creating new ones as the time ticked by, until at the end he gave in. His information would be too limited to truly understand for the time being if he wasn’t going to spend days on it, so instead he decided he would just break the enchantment that looked the most important to see what would happen.

He selected the one that had the most other rings of mana bound to it before he ran his own against it, trying to break it down and hoping something would unravel, or at the very least give him a greater understanding of how everything worked together, but as he did nothing happened. He could do nothing to affect the enchantment, it felt like he was trying to knock down a wall by blowing on it.

But first, he needed a break. He left the wall for the first time in hours, making Greed perk up as he did.

“Any luck?”

“None yet. I figured I’d see if the fountain is safe or not.”

If they had no water then they were on a time limit, but as Ben stood in front of the fountain, crystal clear water streaming from it he couldn’t help but want to take a sip. He did his best to be cautious as he reached his hand out to it, not certain that this wasn’t a part of the trial that could leave him dead in an instant if he did something wrong, he felt the cool liquid reach his cupped fingers and brought it to his lips, giving it a taste as he did.

“That seems fine. That just leaves…”

He cast his eyes to the table at his side, seeing the square of what looked like bread placed on top of it and carefully picked it up, only for a new one to suddenly appear in place of the old one after, almost making him drop what he held in surprise.

He grabbed the other one for Greed, only for it to not be replaced, leaving him with even more questions. Was there a limit or a time limit? Did they get two because there were two of them or was that how much it would always provide? He could only wait and see if another arrived after a while to take its place, but for the time being he cautiously took a bite.

It didn’t live up to the standards he had for his own cooking even remotely, but it would keep him alive, and feeling more confident it was safe he handed the second piece to Greed, while at the same time blocking off the end of his amplifier to fill with water for him before handing it over.

He watched the crab drink deeply as he thought. At the very least, his companion didn’t need much in the way of food compared to him, and it looked like the race that originally would have participated in the trial would have been a similar size to Ben. At worst if things got desperate they could share the food. At least that was his thought before Greed took his first bite, immediately spitting it out, coughing and swearing as he did.

“What is it, what’s wrong?” Ben asked, grabbing him more water that was immediately swished around and spat out.

“Poison,” He said as he cast healing spells on himself. “This isn’t looking great, huh legs?”

Ben carefully picked up Greed's bread and looked it over, taking care as he did. In every way it appeared the same as his, and he ever so cautiously took a bite as his companion watched at the ready, only for him to be fine.

“Looks like I can handle it at least.”

The question became why? Was it because his demon organs were helping with his poison immunity? The great life spirit had said they’d do as much. It could also be a simple incompatibility on Greed’s part. Not every creature could eat everything. It was part of why potions were less popular than just using one of the healing magics. A food or potion to one person could be toxic to another.

Whatever the reason though, they now had a new problem to deal with. If they didn’t manage to get out, Greed would starve.