Chapter 273

“I can’t believe that took me over a freaking week,” Ben complained as he got himself out of the pool he’d made. The zeroth level he’d managed on the first day, but the first he’d only gotten more than a week later, having used the better part of each day doing it. He’d originally hoped to get to level two before considering doing the next section of the trial, but from the looks of it, that could end up taking a couple months. They could survive that time thanks to Ben applying enchantments to the trial every six hours, with the structure seeming to have some sort of self-correcting mechanism that removed them after that period, but with nine more sections to go through, if they took that much time it could still mean being stuck in there for over a year, maybe multiple. They didn’t want to rush through it, but they didn’t want to be trapped forever either.

He got out and dried himself off with some of the old clothing around, not bothering to get dressed as he did. The difference in body structure was too great between him and Greed for him to be bothered by it, and he was going to be having to deal with it for the trial soon enough anyway as he did a final check of the equipment he’d been making when he wasn’t busy working on his swimming.

Really, the swimming was an emergency backup in the event that what he truly believed in, not his oh-so-fallible body but the tools he’d made with it, somehow failed him.

The first and most important item was the sea scooter he’d made, a hand-held propeller with far too many of the safety features one would expect in such an item removed in the name of speed. It ran through an application of earth and water enchantments to rotate the blade at levels he wouldn’t be comfortable having anywhere near his face if it weren’t for the fact that the alternative was drowning and had his only white mana crystal built into it to help with powering it, though his own buffed power supply would do plenty for it as well.

In addition to that though, and as far as he was concerned, just as important, it would deploy a barrier around it to protect the front of his body. Water magic could easily mean ice after all, and he wouldn’t want to smash into any head first.

Then there were the items he only considered marginally less important, if alone for the fact that he had done everything he could to ensure that he had backups on backups for them. His means of surviving being submerged.

Ever since he and Greed got to that little rest area, he’d barely been sleeping because of just how much he had to do, with one of his tasks being making as many airtight spatial bags as he could by combining some of the discarded fabrics and metals with his material magic and blowing them each up like a balloon before fitting them all inside one another, leaving him with a single bag in the end that attached to a mask with a few different features built in.

He’d made them the best he could, but he had to admit he’d done it too early. Since they weren’t made using anything that supplied mana he had to top them up each day, lest any of them burst as a result of the amount of space within shrinking while the amount of air stayed the same. On the more positive side, they showed just how incredible his ability to make spatial enchantments had become. Even when he’d been at the seventh enchanting level he was sure he wouldn’t have been able to make anything better than the bags he already had, and until now he hadn’t considered it, there had always been something else for him to think about, but it was one of the better points of just how skilled he’d become. Each bag had been the size of the one he usually used, but with over five times the space, even without an affinity tied to it. If he survived he’d be having a much more profitable avenue for making money as he sold them, but that was a concern for much later.

Still, they were only an emergency feature. His true tool for surviving the depths would be something he had to make by not only pulling the three different branches of enchanting he used together, but also some of the knowledge he’d been getting from Quilith.

The alien had been devoted to doing exactly what he said he would, teaching Ben material science, brushing him off any time he questioned just how much was actually applicable to the field. More and more what he was learning felt like biology or physics compared to the chemistry of the universe, but now he couldn’t help but be grateful that the grey had felt the need to go beyond the boundary of what they’d initially agreed on, it let him make something to turn the water around him into air.

It was more complicated than simply splitting the liquid’s base components, but what mattered was it worked. To Greed’s displeasure, he tested it out as soon as it was done, but suffered no ill effects for the experience, even after a couple hours under.

That was still short compared to how long he might find himself there, but it gave him the faith he needed that it would work.

He thought to himself, reaching into a cooler he’d made and pulling out a block, looking it over in his hand and applying the effects of destruction to it, feeling it turn to snow in an instant. He’d gotten his magic to level one, but there was a chance they’d actually need it if they came across any ice barrier. As tempting as a fire enchantment would be, anything he could think of to use against it would be all but useless underwater.

It just made so much sense to him. The air one had him falling through the sky, why wouldn’t the water one have him swimming through it? But there was always the possibility that he was completely off the mark, that whatever god made the trial had a completely different concept about what a water section should be.

A part of him wanted to laugh as he thought about the difference from his first trial in Anailia. That time he hadn’t bothered to learn enough when he knew he was going into it and suffered for his ignorance, while this time he learned everything he could about it, thinking he had been learning for pure intellectual curiosity, and it still wasn’t enough.

He looked down at Greed beside him as he packed his jacket within the bag, along with the job crystal. He didn’t want to risk being wrong about it appearing in the next rest area, it was too important to let it get lost, so it was secured in place, tightly bound to the back of his bag.

“Alright, are you ready?” He asked, knowing his companion would be far more important than him for this. Greed’s eyes were suited for seeing through water in a way his weren’t, which meant he was in charge of finding the light of the exit.

“As I’ll ever be.”

“And you remember what to do in an emergency?”

“Unfortunately,” He said as he tapped a metal ring that was tightly bound around his claw against the ground. “You sure you want to do something so crazy?”

“There’s not one thing I’m doing here that isn’t crazy man. If the choice is certain death or a coin flip on if we live or die, I’ll at least take the coin flip.”

“Fine fine, let’s just get this over with.”

Ben picked up his companion and secured him to the back of his neck tightly so they wouldn’t get separated, letting Greed steer him in a way they’d already figured out as they went, as well as giving him a way to touch the spatial bag if things got desperate. There was always a chance that something would make it hard to communicate using his connect skill while they were down there, so just in case it was at his sole discretion if he was going to use their final option, but Ben chose to place his faith in the little crab. With the situation they were in, all they could believe in was each other.

As they stepped through the door and found themselves immediately being crushed by the force of water around them, Ben couldn’t help but be a little satisfied he got it right, even if it was objectively bad news for them, as he tightly gripped the overpowered sea scooter he’d created, feeling its powerful blade all too close to his face as they went through the depths with him doing his best to keep his breathing calm.

There was more visibility than he’d been expecting from the trial, but only a little. He could see a couple meters in front of his face but that was it, and with nothing coming from Greed he had no choice but to wander aimlessly through the depths, looking for any glimmer of light that stood out to them.

For the first little while nothing happened, but that left them on edge more than anything else as they wondered just what was about to be thrown at them, with Ben connecting to Greed as he sat pressed against his flesh.

Ben asked, feeling antsy from the situation as he wondered just what else would be thrown their way.

Greed thought back with a laugh.

He kept the connection open as they went through the depths, not wanting to miss anything as they went, even if they moved in silence. They both needed their full attention in case anything happened, until Greed spoke up.

Ben couldn't help but think sarcastically.

The thought hung between them as they kept going. As annoying as the currents were, with his tool in hand they were all but harmless to them, at least for the time being.

They got stronger as time went on, but not so much as to be unmanageable, and Ben couldn't help but feel worried by it. Things had been going too smoothly. He was so tense from worry that he didn't even notice what was happening at first until things started to click. He was cold.

He still wore his rings and quickly built a fire enchantment into the handles metal sea scooter he was holding to help his hands, making it far hotter than he'd need to in preparation for what was likely to come. Even if he'd taken the precaution of securing himself to it, he couldn't be too careful. Losing it was as dangerous for him as losing anything else without the exit in either of their sights.

He began to meditate, using every level he had of the skill for each of his minds, remembering that it would be used as a way to handle the cold back on his old world by daredevils and performers, letting his heart rate and breathing slow as he did.

Things were only getting colder with each passing minute, and while it was starting to be bad, he didn't think it was dangerous yet. His skin was beginning to sting, but he ignored that too. The only real issue came when his scooter started slowing down.

He roused half of his minds, trying to grasp the problem and finding it quickly enough. Water would freeze around nucleating points first, meaning his tools and them, though their body heat was providing some protection for the time. The thin layer of frost forming around the item he held was a whole other matter.

In seconds he had built a new enchantment onto the tool, a fire one that completely covered it instead of just helping his hands, but at that point the change could be felt in all of the endless ocean. Flecks of ice were appearing everywhere, slowly rising up from the depths as the water started to freeze. It was getting colder faster, and hope was quickly vanishing with it as they went.

It was only as he felt a signal from Greed that he realized he accidentally dropped the connection at one point, reactivating it as he went where he was directed. Down.

Ben told him.

He dumped all the mana he had to spare into his tool, giving them a burst of speed while he could, the flecks of ice around them growing bigger as they plunged into the depths and bounced against the barrier in front of him.

As their speed rose his body began rebelling against him despite the desperation of the situation. He was going too deep too fast. The pressure was building and everything ached, his stomach felt like it was tearing itself apart and it felt as though his ears had been stabbed, but he kept going.

He had no way of knowing if they were close except for Greed's encouragement. Even if they were, it would have been impossible to tell. His vision was blocked with bigger and bigger chunks of ice, many the size of fists and only growing larger as they went.

It was getting hard to think or even hear Greed, and the crab knew it.

Just before he felt himself begin to fade away entirely he heard the scream in his mind from the connection he was desperately trying to keep in place.

With his last bit of strength and as the world began going black he did as he was told, turning off his tool and moving his body as Greed took the moribusial ring Ben had reshaped to fit his claw and pressed it against the spatial bag filled to the brim of other bags of air, ripping the mana from it and causing it all to burst out at a designed weak point and creating a powerful explosion of air.

Even though it happened right against his body, Ben couldn't feel it. He was too numb by that point. All he could do was hope that Greed's aim had been true as he shot through the abyss, either to live or meet his cold end.