CH283

It had taken two agonizing weeks to heal all of the damage to his body, but as it went Ben spent the entire time thinking on what was coming next. He knew the life section was still to come, and while if he was lucky that would be the end of it, he was feeling like he’d just used up his entire lifetime supply by getting through the death section.

What mattered was what was still to come. If he was to think about what he could expect from life magic and ignored anything that could be beneficial to him, then there were only a few options. His body could be weakened, his body could be forced to overproduce things within itself to cause him harm, or there could be living things in that section that would be strengthened, either monsters like he was used to going against with Thera or those of the smaller variety, forcing him to grow sick and possibly eating him alive from the inside out.

More troubling for him was considering the possibility of a non-affinitied trial. The longer he thought on just what he could expect from something like that, the more he was forced to come to a single conclusion. Anything. His material user skill was akin to aspects of earth, water and death magic, with destruction having similar properties. Telekinesis was too. Corpse song showed signs of being like death and time magic and empathy was similar to dark. None of that was even considering what he’d learned was possible with materialization.

The more he thought on it the more he kept making these connections, forcing him to a single conclusion. Non-affinitied magics could do anything an affinitied magic could and more.

Sure, the mana cost would be higher for a mortal to have to deal with, but that was irrelevant to the trial, and it would have the far worse trade-off that he would have no resistances to it. As rough as it had already been, he couldn’t imagine going through all of that again without them.

As much as I want to be positive, we might be screwed. He thought with a sigh. He wasn’t giving up, but the fact that he couldn’t even begin to plan for how to deal with whatever was to come was horrifying. Still, nothing to bother Greed about.

“Are you feeling ready buddy?” He asked the crab as he finished laying down the new enchantments on his armour for the life section.

“No, but let’s get this over with anyway.”

“That’s the spirit, come on.”

It was with that bit of false positivity that he stepped through the door, into the life section of the trial.

If there was one thing he liked about the later sections compared to the earlier ones, it was that the end was easy enough to find in the empty expanse that made it up. The light in the distance was a clear indicator of which way to go and he was happy to let it lead him as Greed voiced his complaint.

“Augh, already feel my body weakening. How about you legs?”

“I feel fine, but it’s nice to see that prediction was right at least.”

“Ha, let’s see if you feel the same when it starts to get you. I’ll tell you, you have me real jealous of those resistances you got.”

“Yeah, well bear in mind that despite them I’m still taking way more damage in all of this than you are.”

“Oh I’m so sorry,” The crab said sarcastically. “Here, you lay down. I’ll carry you on my back and get us out of here.”

“Ha careful, I might just take you up on that. Wouldn’t mind seeing how much power you can get out with that little body-destroying spell you got.”

“I take it all back. I’ve seen enough of you dealing with the consequences that I never want to have to deal with that myself.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

They continued on, staying vigilant as they went but seeing nothing as Ben ran, at the very least removing any chance that there were monsters waiting for them off in the distance but leaving them all the more worried about what might be to come. All while Ben did his best to ignore a growing bother. A persistent itch.

It wasn’t unusual, he’d found himself having one he needed to scratch multiple times throughout the trial and with armour on it wasn’t possible unless it was somewhere he could ask Greed to reach. It was only as the feeling began to grow, completely covering him as they went that he was about to speak up and say that something was wrong, only for Greed to say it first.

“Oh gods legs, I’m not feeling so good,” The crab said in a small voice and immediately Ben connected to him to try and understand just what was going on at a deeper level, finding nothing but illness and pain coming from his companion’s body.