CH170

“What’s gotcha yellin’ boy?” Falk asked as he rushed to the room.

“Oh, sorry Falk, didn’t realize you were still here.”

“Figured I’d stick around for some of my own work to see how yours turns out, now out with it, what’s the problem.”

“No problem, I made the new brace to the absolute best of my ability, couldn’t have done it better if I tried. Then as soon as it was complete I leveled up so I’m stuck wondering if I should remake the thing.”

“Don’t be a fool. You made something leagues ahead of the first one, you might as well see if it actually has any improvement before you waste all that time making something a bit better. Besides, from the looks of it you managed to get to lower rare before you even put the enchantment on it, no wonder you leveled up.”

“I mean, it was obviously going to be high though, right? Just look at what I used to make it up.”

At that, his teacher delivered a powerful flick to his head. “You’re smarter than that. For her last brace with the enchantment on it, you only got to upper uncommon and the materials you used this time aren’t so much better to make all that difference. A lot of skill went into this boy, you did fantastic work. Even if she does get another few points off her resistance, don’t go melting this down to make a new one. Take my advice and don’t try again until you make it to at least the ninth level.”

He rubbed his head but accepted his teacher’s advice gratefully. “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks Falk.”

“Bah, it’s part of being a teacher I guess,” The yeti told him with a toothy grin. “Now go on, it’s getting late and I’m betting you’ll want to see if it worked as fast as you can.”

“Oh man you’re right, I should run home,” He said, before correcting himself. “Wait, I get to bike home! Catch me squeezing a few more minutes out of the shop from now on!”

“Like you don’t already spend most of the day here!” Falk called after him before getting lost in his own thoughts. He couldn’t be happier to see his apprentice so dedicated to helping his niece, but even though he knew the boy enjoyed every minute of it, he hoped he would learn to relax a little. When he was an apprentice himself, Falk had always been told he leveled up quickly, but watching the boy fly through his levels was another thing entirely.

When he got home both Thera and Sonya had already eaten, but it looked like Sonya had prepared a simple meal for him so he dug in as soon as he got back, followed by a few quick rounds of cards.

As promised, he taught them both a simple game from his world, namely old maid, and got to enjoy a few games of it, being crushed each time.

“Do I just wear my feelings on my sleeves or something?”

“I think you might just have the worst luck in the world.”

“Is my luck really that bad?” he wondered aloud as he thought back to everything that happened since he wound up on the planet. Getting the lowest level skills, being unwanted, almost eaten twice, almost murdered a few times, and just generally beaten up. When he thought about it, he’d dealt with a lot since coming to this world.

Wait, what do I mean since coming to this world, I was literally crushed to death on vacation! Hey Myriad, you listening? I don’t have bad luck tied to my soul or something, do I?

<Nobody has luck tied to their soul. At the very least, the way a universe interacts with souls is tied to the rules of that reality so you don’t need to worry about it here, any hypothetical one that did would probably be pretty horrific though.>

I guess that’s reassuring?

They played for a little longer but eventually, Sonya called it quits to get ready for bed.

“I guess that’s as good a time as any to stop,” Thera told him. “I’ll turn in myself so you can work on the enchantment,” She wasn’t sure what he intended to do since his level hadn’t increased at all, but since he had an idea she wouldn’t turn it down. He was trying so hard to help her after all and she’d grown used to it, at least she thought she had.

“Great, cause with that in mind I have something for you,” He told her, before pulling out the new brace and handing it to her. She looked it over, her face growing a deeper shade of gold with each passing second. “Um, Thera, you doing okay?”

“Ben, why exactly did you choose this design?”

“Since it’s something you’re going to wear all of the time I figured I should try to make it as nice as I can so I tried to pull together a theme I thought you might like. I figured since your faith is important to you that was probably a safe bet, and aside from that since you’re into history and romance books I thought the flower from the trial covered those themes well while tying it into Anailia.”

“Wait, I don’t read romances, some of the books I read just happen to have romance in them, there’s a difference!”

“Is there?”

“Yes!”

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