CH199

With that settled, Ben ran down to his work area to collect a spare brace as well as a few blank rings before running back to the rest of them to start.

As agreed, Mercy pulled out her card, letting him see two skills that were new to him, enthrallment and blood thinning.

“What’s this one then?”

“It pairs with enthrallment when we drink from someone, altering the consistency of a target’s blood to thin it out so we can feed easier.”

Oh, that is going to pair so well with any weapon I make, and she has it at the fifth level! This alone is worth it.

“Alright, cool,” He said after copying both onto rings. “ In that case let’s get started. I’ll need to connect with you to do it but just put on this brace and we’ll see how it goes.”

She did as she was asked, but while Ben could feel her ambient mana the same way he could any other person he’d connect to, he didn’t think simply making a brace was the solution. To be sure, he got her to suck more of his blood while he connected to her and felt it fill her mouth in a way the ambient mana never did as it made its way into his body, only to be defeated by his resistances.

“Hmm, okay so I can’t just do things the exact same way, but then that much is obvious, isn’t it? I guess I can’t just make a bunch of high-level resistance amulets either since the issue is you’re injecting your mana into someone, but then how do I deal with it? I feel like the basic principle of the enchantment still works, it’s just a matter of altering it in the right way. Or maybe not altering the enchantment itself, but the item it’s put on? It really is kind of wasteful to make an enchantment that would cover you in your entirety when I just need to focus on your mouth. Hmm, let me look at something, try not to struggle.”

Before she could ask just what he was going to do, he had her mouth open, thumbs pulling at her cheeks to get a good look at her teeth. They were mostly similar to a humans, though maybe a couple extras, as well as four thin ones near the front.

Something seemed odd about them though, they seemed too short compared to what he’d felt sliding into his neck, although that was potentially just in his head. He took a finger and carefully touched one, only for all four to immediately extend, stabbing him as they did.

He pulled away and got Pelenia to heal him while Mercy licked the blood from her lips, savouring the few drops.

“Hey Abrus, don’t suppose you could help me out by making a model of her teeth? Both before and after they extend?”

The earth spirit came and looked into the mouth of the vampire before materializing two different models for Ben to use. Taking them and looking each over in detail, he pushed aside the small part of him that felt a twinge of jealousy over the display of raw mana to focus on the task at hand.

“The right answer has to be something like a retainer,” He muttered. “Nothing else would make sense. But then how would I get an enchantment like that on a thin wire just wrapping around the teeth? And I’d need to alter the sort of weave I’d use on the enchantments as well… It might take some experimenting but it should be doable, I’d just need to find the method with the best results.”

Mercy couldn’t help but let herself feel a bit of hope. He wasn’t saying it was impossible, even better, he seemed to be optimistic. If her race’s long-standing curse could be brought under control then maybe, just maybe, their stomachs wouldn’t always be so empty and more people would be willing to help.

As she allowed herself to feel the smallest bit of optimism, Pelenia pulled her from her thoughts. “Alright, while Ben works on that I suppose we’ll have to treat you as a guest for the time being, can’t risk you going hungry. In the meantime, I’ll send a messenger to explain the situation to Alfheimr to have your companion returned. It may take a day or two since they didn’t bother having their gate constructed in their capital, but Ben can keep you fed for the time being as long as he has no problem with it.”

“Yeah, I figured that’s what would be happening anyway so fine with me,” He told them, having assumed that was how things would play out. “As long as someone heals me after, I’d rather not feel anemic for a few days.” Hearing all of this, Mercy’s first instinct was to thank them all with as much gratitude as she could, but before she could Ben was off, making his way to his workshop to experiment on just how he wanted to make this new project a success.

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