CH274

Ben opened his eyes, still cold and wet but thankfully on the floor of the next rest area, Greed already working on healing him as he laid there. He worried about how long he’d been out but cast a look to the area of the wall he knew the countdown would be and saw it was only a few hours.

“So how’s it look Greed, am I losing any limbs to frostbite?”

“A couple of your toes were looking bad so I worked on them first, you should keep everything. I’m more surprised your fingers look fine.”

“I modified the scooter on the fly when I realized what was happening. What about the rest of me? What’s the damage?”

He was afraid to move and look at himself. Like each other time he’d finished a section, the pain was intense, making him wonder if he’d ever get so lucky as to gain the pain resistance skill. His biggest concern was how they’d gotten out though. By having Greed forcefully rip the mana from the nesting spatial bags he’d set up, he’d more or less created a bomb right against his body, he didn’t think it would be pretty, even if the fact that he could still feel his limbs was a good sign.

Shockingly though, his companion actually had some good news for him. “Looks like your fancy jacket you packed away saved you from most of the damage, at least that’s my best guess. I’ll tell you legs, you really live a little too on the edge.”

“Ha, we’re alive, aren’t we? Just let me know when I’m good enough to stand, I want to add my enchantment and then figure out what sort of hell we’re dealing with next.”

“You can probably move now, though I doubt you’ll like it much. Do what you need to and I’ll finish up after.”

He’d actually hoped he would have been made to lie down longer, but with his healer’s consent given he forced himself up and applied the enchantment to the trial again.

<MENTAL EXPANSION LEVEL INCREASED>

He felt the size of his minds increase and breathed a happy sigh as he did. The enchantment was still difficult for him, he needed to keep the entire thing in his thoughts at once before placing it, so the added wiggle room to his mind felt like a blessing as he moved to the pile of items that had been left there.

He hadn’t given any thought to what would happen to the entire pool he’d created, but it had been brought to the next rest area, water and all. He didn’t need it now that the water section was done with, but it had a light and death enchantment on it to keep the water from growing stagnant and an earth one to keep it from rusting so he could always make use of it later if he wanted.

At worst I can just break it down and use it for parts.

He moved on to look at the rest of what was there. It seemed that everything that hadn’t gone into making the pool was still there, though the items from the last two trials had been tossed together into a single pile, with a newer, much smaller one present for this area.

As each pile they saw shrank, it stood as a marker for just how many people actually survived, but as depressing as it was he’d need to go through it later. For the time being, he grabbed some old clothing left in the first pile to dry himself off with before grabbing a couple broken chunks of metal to practice his magics with as he waited for Greed to finish treating him before he wandered over to the doorway of the next section, doing his best to contain a scream as he did.

“So we’re probably in a fair amount of trouble because the next section is going to be fire!” He yelled out to the waiting crab, who only seemed defeated by the news, even if he tried to be optimistic.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad?”

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“I’d say the past three are evidence to the contrary,” Ben told him dryly, already thinking on how he might prepare.

“Well, what’s the worst-case scenario?”