CH279

The moment they passed through the boundary of the trial, all effects they were under vanished. Even injured and in pain, Ben felt incredible in comparison, vowing to never take for granted his body again as Greed came back to his senses.

“Fuck, my head… Legs, you okay?” He asked, filled with concern. “Didn’t hurt you too bad, did I?”

“I’ll live, but man are those things sharp,” Ben said as he laid down, letting Greed start to treat him. “On the plus side, if it’s eleven sections then we just passed the halfway mark so that’s something.”

“I wouldn’t call five more sections of that anything positive to look towards,” Greed said with a shake of his head before suddenly turning sheepish. “Er, though it looks like we both just got a bit of good news.”

“Hmm, what’s up?”

“My magic leveled up and I completed my job. Let me borrow that crystal of yours.”

“Oh freaking sweet!” He said happily as he handed it over. An increase to Greed’s magic meant an increase to their long-term chances of survival, made all the better considering that Ben was only growing more immune to it with every level his resistance skill got. The fact that Greed was getting a level to an awakened magic would more than offset that.

He watched as the crab looked at his options, weighing them as he did. “Hey, what do you think I should focus on more, buffs or healing?”

“Both are really important so I’m fine no matter what you decide, it’s not like you won’t get plenty of practice from both choices.”

“True, since I’m not much of a healer outside of here I suppose I’ll take lord of buffs.”

With that selection made Ben took the crystal back and let himself relax for a few minutes before getting up to stop the trials countdown. There was a lot to do, he needed to make sure they had the time to do all of it.

“Oh, that’s really really not good,” Ben said as he got up and looked around.

“Gods, what now?”

“The trial didn’t spit out the armour I’d left.”

When he’d taken it off and realized he didn’t have the strength to handle it after that he’d left it, believing it would show up in the piles of items that they kept finding between sections, but no such luck that time. Unlike the last time, there actually were a few items to be had, all from the dead god’s race, but none had the magic materials he craved to power his enchantments.

So that means I need to remake my armour without a power source? I mean, I guess me and Greed could provide it, but that’s going to be rough. But what else can I…

His thoughts trailed off as he considered another option. There was one more power source he had at his fingertips that didn’t rely on someone dying and leaving something good. There was his rainbow mana job crystal, and his cursed ring made with moribusial to extract from it.

Okay, there’s an idea but I still need to make a new set of armour first. I really should try to think of a better way of doing it too because it’s pretty far from quick. Let’s see, should I actually make that forge like I was thinking? I mean, it would be plenty handy so it’s possible, but I should also make a way to use my magic more efficiently too. A staff would be a little unwieldy considering how I use it but I am a mage of sorts now so being able to channel my magic more efficiently could only be useful, especially considering the fact that it’s non-affinitied. Maybe make a hammer to act as a staff? It would be handy for smithing, but flexibility is important too.

As options filled his head he went through the various items left by past trial participants, trying to see just what he could put to use.

“I hate this.”

“You can heal yourself, it’s fine. Besides, I don’t even need that much of your shell.”

“This is a major trauma of mine legs! You don’t know what it’s like to almost be eaten!”

“Not only is that exceptionally not true, I’m being eaten by you each day. Besides, I’m not trying to eat you, I just need to chip off a few pieces to use. Your kind were hunted because the living ruby is handy for mana conducting, right? Just give me a bit so I can keep on keeping us alive.”

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“Ugh, fine take what you need,” Greed gave in, turning his back to Ben to let him carefully chisel away a few flecks here and there as he healed himself, feeding on Ben’s blood to make up for what his body was cannibalizing, only so Ben could take more.

It wasn’t a quick process. It took hours of chipping and feeding until Ben got all he needed, with Greed yelling out as he did.

“What the hell is blood thinning!”

“Did you just get that?” Ben asked with interest as he gathered up all of the shell shards. “Cool, I thought that was a purely vampiric skill, but I guess anyone can get it so long as they drink enough blood. Good to know.”