CH175

His first idea was for an additional shield. Even though he’d just improved the cloak, all the enchantments he added to it were just to keep him from getting injured. Its immediate weakness was that it wasn’t anchored, so while he may not get harmed if another stone ape threw itself at him, he wouldn’t be able to avoid being knocked to the ground, where it might be able to start going for his less defended face.

To do what he had in mind though, he’d need to use a pretty high-quality material to keep it small and easy to use, so he immediately started digging around the storage room, seeing just what he could find.

It didn’t take too long to gather some materials he thought could get the job done, grabbing some good quality steel as well as the exoskeletons of a couple mind beetles, creatures that naturally possessed empathy magic and used it in their hunting. While it wasn’t the same as the barrier magic he planned to use for his enchantment, the fact that they were both non-affinitied in nature meant that he’d be able to have an easier time adding his enchantment to the entire thing without having to worry about the material breaking.

With that selected he got to work grinding the beetle remains, cleaning it as he went of any dried-out innards before adding it to the heated steel, working the materials until he was sure they were smoothly blended together. From there came the shape the item would take. It needed to be something he could conveniently carry around. In his bag would be alright, but in a pocket would be more ideal, making it easier to be something he could just pull out and use immediately if he needed to.

But then what to make? He considered a cube, built in such a way that it would disassemble itself once activated and box him in for protection, with each piece acting as a corner as a barrier emerged to form walls between them, but as much as the mental visual made it appealing, it left him with far too many moving parts and failure points.

So I want one solid object, something that would be able to give me a fair bit of protection. A shield could potentially work then, I could build the enchantment to act the same as when I had my barrier gauntlet, extending outwards, but I think that would only be able to protect me from a single direction. I’d still be completely vulnerable to anything coming from the sides or above. So where does that leave me? Unless maybe… A ring?

He wasn’t thinking of making anything like the sort of ring his fingers were covered in, while they could technically act as catalysts to deploy mana through to fire off attacks and create spells, that was a one-way ticket to mana exhaustion if he tried. What he was considering was more of a cross between a bracelet and a hula-hoop, something he could wear on his arm, but when needed he could drop on the ground to encircle him, raising a barrier around him as he did so into a dome-like shape. The very top where his head was at would admittedly be a weak point, but not to the extent that he would need to really worry.

Feeling the most viable option by far, he immediately got to work shaping the metal and crafting the pieces to act in the way he saw them moving in his mind. The end product wouldn’t be small, it would actually cover most of the forearm that wore it, be with a little extra work he could use that to his advantage as well, adding a secondary barrier enchantment to it to act in a similar way as his gauntlet had before he lost it during his battle with the demon horde.

It took some tinkering, but when he was done he had a helix-like band that would take the shape of a large circle he could comfortably stand in when he dropped it to the ground, all that was left was applying the enchantment. For that, he used the same rings as when he had added the enchantment to the coat as well as his resistances, but all aspects were blended into the base barrier enchantment. It upped the mana cost a fair bit, and once he was done he wasn’t positive he’d be able to power it with one of his newly made white mana batteries, so he used a rainbow one to be on the safe side for the first test.

Placing his freshly made tool on he activated it, watching with his mana sense as it all activated properly, the power from his battery pouring into the enchantments and creating a nearly-transparent but powerful shield on his arm. Canceling the enchantment he moved on to the next test, dropping the band and watching it as it uncurled around him, a powerful barrier immediately forming as he did.

The enchantment was designed to not only deploy the barrier to protect him, but also cling to the ground digging into it as it went off to keep it in place. He pressed his hands on the barrier, feeling it holding firm and felt the confidence to throw himself against it, making sure a strong blow wouldn’t tip it over. He felt everything stay in place, and while that didn’t mean it couldn’t be knocked down by something with more energy than his body weight, it was a good starting sign.

Everything’s looking good so far, now to just… Fuck.

A small flaw, one he hadn’t paid much mind to suddenly reared its ugly head. The barrier deployed from the inside rim of the ring, while the battery was on the outside, meaning not only could he not remove it to cancel the enchantment, he couldn’t destroy the enchantment either to free himself.

“Well, this is going to be embarrassing,” He muttered to himself before calling out in a much louder voice. “Hey Falk! I need a bit of help back here!”

Once his teacher finally stopped laughing, he took out the battery and the barrier came down.

“Boy, I gotta say, it’s never a dull moment with you, is it?” The yeti chuckled as he wiped a tear from his eye. “The design is good, and the battery as you call it is a smart way to make use of a mana stone. When you’re in Anailia you should show it to Pelenia, I’m sure she’d see the value. Having said all that, I’m sure you know where you need to improve on this without me spelling it out, right?”

“Make the barrier rise from the outside of the ring instead of the inside, and remake the tool so that the battery is on the inner ring,” Ben said with a sigh, embarrassed to have made such a simple mistake.

“Good man. Don’t go letting it get to you too much, every crafter has a mistake or two to look back on, happens to the best of us. Having said that though, another way you could improve on the design of your enchantment would be to make it so things can pass through the side you’re in, while any attacks at you could be guarded against like you currently have it.”

“You aren’t wrong, but the barrier magic I have is too low-level to do something like that. Once I’m back in Anailia I’ll grab it at level six and I should be able to make that possible though.”

“Level six?” His teacher asked with a raise of an eyebrow. “You go up again?”

“When I made the enchantment on the coat.”

“Crazy brat, take a break if you need to. Isn’t this supposed to be your day off anyway?”

“It is, that’s why today’s dedicated to working on stuff exclusively for me instead of the shop.”

“God’s above, when you work yourself to death a lot of fingers are going to be pointed my way.”

“Anyone that knows me will vouch for you, you’ll be fine,” He said, waving off his teacher’s concerns as they both got back to work.

There were plenty of hours left in the day and he still had things to make. Namely a weapon.

He was none too fond of how often he found himself in a dangerous situation where his options of fighting back were limited, but he also didn’t want to take the time to train up a combat skill like the knife or hammer wielder ones he currently possessed. It simply wasn’t how he wanted to devote his time to grow, meaning that he would need to make something that would combine destructive power with ease of use, and he didn’t need to just make one.

His first immediate thought would be both wasteful and pricey, but perfect for maximum destructive power when in the event of an emergency, at least until his god shot the idea down.

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<You are not making a freaking bomb out of a rainbow mana crystal!> Came the shout in his mind.

Does that mean it’s possible?

Ben personally didn’t see any issues. He’d only be using a small amount if he did, and the idea was just to craft an enchantment the same way Myriad had quizzed him about creating a powerful fire, just to a greater extreme. If he could convert all of the mana stored into crystal into an explosion spell instantaneously then he didn’t doubt he could get quite the effect.

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