CH164 Thera’s Perspective

“I’m sorry for how I treated you in the past, please let me help with the hunt and don’t leave me alone with him.”

Thera had just gotten back to the house after discussing what they could try with Sachel and Ralia in the event Ben couldn’t make anything, but as soon as they set foot inside Skoe had immediately prostrated before her, throwing his face into the ground to try to show his sincerity.

“Ben’s trying to improve things for the village as well as make something to help Sachel, don’t be a baby.” She told him coldly, trying to walk past him despite the fact he wasn’t giving up.

“Not only is that guy insane, he’s a slave driver! I’ve gotten the zeroth level in both woodworking and torsion enhancement because of how much he’s made me do! I hadn’t even heard of torsion enhancement! That isn’t even mentioning whatever he’d been doing to my mind for the last few hours!”

Hmm, I guess he has been expecting Skoe to keep up with his work pace a bit more than he usually does from other people, but then again who cares? It’s still to help the village and his friend, he can deal.

“Again, don’t be a baby. You must have noticed Ben’s worked just as hard for even longer hours, can the mighty warrior not keep up with the humble craftsman?”

Even if she knew describing Ben like that was a ridiculous understatement she really wanted to drive the point home, and while he continued to grovel Ralia had her own question.

“Ben, what have you been doing to his mind that has him like this?”

“An excellent question but nothing much. I needed to make a tool that could interact with the user’s thoughts so I tried creating something that would let him use complex mind. I guess the feeling of constantly growing another mind or two as I fiddled with it was a little disorienting, that’s all. Either way, don’t worry about it because I was able to make what you’d asked for. Kind of at least.”

“You created a tool that would let us track them!” Sachel asked, eyes sparkling with hope.

“Again, kind of,” He handed over what looked like five small quartz cups and began to explain how they worked. “Basically these are mind control helmets with some mental enhancement aspects. If you capture some of the bats and give them simple instructions they should obey. It needs to be simple to understand though, I’m basically making word speak+ interact with the concepts that exist in their brains already, so stick to things like ‘go home’ or ‘come here’ for best results, anything more complicated than a few simple words probably won’t get through. Two things to remember is that I haven’t had a chance to test them for, well legal reasons, and also that you’ll have to get them to come back to you every now and then to replenish the mana as it drains. You might be able to make the bats fill it themselves, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

While Sachel was viewing him with respect, seeing a dependable apostle that was able to come through with her challenging request, both Ralia and Skoe were looking at him in horror at so easily admitting to creating a mind control enchantment.

Thera wasn’t overly surprised, given that she’d seen some of the tools he’d created in the past and knew what he was aiming for in the future, but the fact he’d gone from getting the request to completing it so fast was still impressive, she’d thought it would take at least a couple days before he’d come up with a solution.

She looked back down to the ground where Skoe continued to beg her. If Ben’s tool really did work then they’d probably be led to a large group of them, possibly more than the three of them could reasonably handle. If they wanted to get it done quickly then this was probably the best option.

“Fine, you can join us for the hunt so long as you don’t do anything stupid.”

“So you forgive me?”

“What? No, don’t be an idiot. I still don’t like you but it seems like we might need more hands. I’m not going to put myself in danger when I can use you to reduce the risk.”

It also makes things a bit easier if we need to run away, if he’s really sorry I’m sure he won’t mind protecting everyone as we get to safety.

Whatever the reason, he was just grateful to be out of Ben’s grasp and Sachel was happy to have the extra hands before moving on to discuss payment.

“Alright, how much do you want for these?” She asked, bracing herself for the worst. There weren’t many enchanters that could pull together something like that, especially without any proper tools to place it on, and she was expecting to spend a long while destitute, paying off both this and the money she owed him for getting her released from the pit she was being imprisoned in, but he shocked her with a different offer.

“Instead of money, how about this, I get one favour from you. I don’t have anything in mind right now, but if I ever need help I get your help, sound good?”

Her teammates were off to the side, gesturing wildly not to take the deal, thinking he was the sort of man that would ask something unreasonable and they should just owe him more money instead, but she didn’t notice, not giving them a glace as she happily agreed with the apostle of the god she had so much faith in.

“Absolutely! Anything you need, me and the others will help you with it!”

Her party visibly deflated as Sachel promised away not only herself, but them as well, but she didn’t notice, instead focusing her full attention to making a plan for what they hoped would be their last hunt.

Sachel had made the plan, leaving the beginning and most important part to Thera.

“Are you ready?” The half dryad asked her, which she returned with a nod, slipping off her cloak and preparing for however many would come.

It always took a few minutes for them to show up, so as they waited she began removing the charm from vast quantities of her dark mana, all in preparation for a single spell. Ever since she acquired the skill, her speed and ability to do so had improved, even if it left her magic useless outside of certain situations like this where she had plenty of time to prepare, but that didn’t matter. Any improvement to her magic was improvement overall, and having the ability in her arsenal was proving handy as she felt the spell in her mind take shape.

“They’re coming,” Ralia spoke quietly, warning the rest as Thera stretched out her staff.

The mana and spell both felt they were going to burst from her, but she did her best to keep it under control. They just needed a few more seconds, just until she got her eyes on the bats to know where to fire.

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Just a few more seconds, just a little more. She told herself, feeling sweat form on her brow as she did before the first bat came into her line of sight, meaning the others would be close enough that it wouldn’t matter.

In a feeling of release, no longer suppressing that temperamental mana, she fired it out towards the bats and watched as they fell to the ground, one by one, getting a total of nine of them with her spell, sleep.

“Great work,” Sachel told her encouragingly as she went to each of them, killing four while putting the small hats on the rest, giving each a little shake as she did, trying to pull them from their induced rest.

It took a bit of waiting, but one by one they all woke up and stared at them, seeming filled with expectations as they did.

Sachel took a breath, knowing that if this didn’t work they’d have to try all over again to come up with a solution as she made her request. “Stay close and head home.”