CH325

Despite how good it felt to be home, despite how much he wanted to stay in bed for just a little longer, acting as if there was nothing for him to do, Ben got up earlier than he typically would.

Both Sonya and Thera planned to go to the clinic earlier than normal. Sonya to help out as she always did, while still making time for her practice later in the day, and Thera because she felt bad for being gone so much longer than she’d planned, even if she wasn’t a true member of the clinic specifically so she could disappear for long stretches of time if need be.

Considering all of that, he cleaned up and went to the kitchen, digging around to see what ingredients Sonya had stocked up on while they were gone and decided to make something simple. Pancakes, or at least something close enough that he was comfortable calling them that, along with a fruit syrup to go with it.

All of the ingredients out and gathered, he didn’t need to put much conscious thought into how to use them. He poured out what he thought he needed, mixed the batter he’d made till it felt right and cooked it till it had the perfect combination of a light golden crust on the outside and a delicate fluffy interior and kept them warm under a cloth as he prepped the syrup, taking the juices he thought would go nicely with it and adding a sweetener along with the zest of its rind to enhance the flavour, adding pinches of a variety of spices and tasting as he went until he was sure he had something perfect.

As if to agree with that assessment, the smell of the food pulled the still-tired women to the kitchen, where they took their seats and only came to life as they started eating, digging in with gusto after the first bite.

“Ben, you’re never allowed to leave,” Sonya told him happily, the taste of the meal still on her tongue. “I don’t think I could manage eating my old meals anymore.”

“Hey, your food’s a treat Sonya, it was great getting to dig into it yesterday too.”

“And you can be very good with your words when you want to be,” She said with a laugh. “Alright, I’m just going to clean up quick and then we’ll head off Thera.”

“Sounds good.”

They both watched her leave, the two of them now alone as Thera got up and leaned against him, clearly longing for more sleep but fighting off the urge due to her guilt for leaving the clinic for so long.

“Gonna make it?” Ben asked as he rubbed her head, getting a tired nod.

“I’ll be more awake in a bit. I’m sure the introduction to the rest of the clinic is going to be weird enough honestly.”

“I’m sure it will be fine. If there’s any issues just come hang out at the shop instead.”

“Will do,” She told him, before leaning up and giving him a kiss, the same spell as the night before on her fingertips as she applied it to his back.

“Ahem, if you’d like you could always come later in the day Thera,” Her aunt said, neither of them realizing she’d returned. “Falk doesn’t open the shop for another few hours, right? Plenty of time to enjoy some privacy.”

“Don’t need it aunty,” She said, blushing in the face of Sonya’s teasing and rushing off shortly after, letting Ben make his way to work with a bright smile on his face, even as he worried about the future.

Once he arrived, the first thing he did was lug all of the boxes they’d had in the cart inside. Stonewall was a fairly safe town and he wasn’t too concerned about theft, but he had expensive things in there that he didn’t want lost so quickly.

Once that was done though, he did as he always did when he got there, giving it a quick clean to be in a good condition for when Falk arrived and then used the hours before it opened to make whatever he wanted, in that particular case, an alternative to his cursed ring.

When he’d first made it what felt like so long ago now, his attributes had been significantly lower, to the point that it felt hard to compare. As he currently had it, it was far too weak for him, but trying to just make a new ring wouldn’t be good enough. His mana and vitality had skyrocketed, not to mention his recovery rates for both. A dinky little ring would no longer cut it.

Not only that, but with how high everything he had now was, he actually had the wiggle room to make them far more dangerous than he could have in the past. Before he was always calculating how much of each material to add to keep the drain to both his vitality and his mana as close to their recovery as possible, but as much as that had proven to work, it likely wasn’t giving him all he could get in training his attribute that way. Now if he kept the drain at a reasonable level above what he could regain, he’d still be able to wear it for hours, maybe even days at a time before taking it off to let his values regenerate.

With the decision made, Ben pulled out the moribusial and deathstone he’d gained from the trial, seeing a grim irony in the idea of using something from it in particular to help him grow through the suffering it caused him, and got to work heating both up to bend and shape into two different braces.

After making sure he didn’t use too much, he finished the death stone bracelet by adding a layer of copper to the top of it, just in case anyone ever grabbed his wrist when he wasn’t thinking, and cooled it down before putting it on, instantly feeling his life force draining. As for the moribusial bracelet, he slipped it into his pocket, planning to mostly use that one as he slept, just as he’d previously done for his cursed ring.

Let’s see, for the deathstone one, two days on and half a day off should work out okay, though I might need to occasionally have it off longer to make up for what I’m losing. Either way, not a big deal, but I should keep an eye on my card anyway. Don’t want to get too comfortable and forget it completely. What an insanely stupid way to die that would be.

As one final thing, he made three more bracelets. Nothing as inherently dangerous as the last two, all of them just simple mythril bands he could fit a rainbow mana battery into as a way to constantly work on his enchanting before his teacher arrived.

“How did I know you would be here already doing something insane?” The yeti said from beside him, shaking his head as he did. “You just avoided a certain death and now it looks like you’re trying to kill yourself in my shop.”

“Oh, hey Falk. This is just an extension of my ring, don’t worry. My attributes have gone up so much that if I don’t use something like this I won’t get the same extent out of it. Not to mention my absorption resistance leveled up and I got a new skill too that would weaken the deathstone even more. Think of it as a good thing. The bigger I need to make these, the harder I am to kill.”

“Mmh, I suppose, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re off in the head. Anyway, show me.”

“Show you what?” He asked, playing coy. He knew exactly what his teacher wanted and was happy to show it off, it was just a matter of wanting to hear him say it.

“Your enchanting boy, obviously your enchanting. You’re gone for months, dead to the world and you come back with the skill awakened, you have to have an example or two of what you’ve made on you so show it already.”

Hearing exactly what he wanted, he reached into his bag and pulled out what he’d had on him, the things he’d made sure to bring along specifically to show off. Both a soul crystal containing a demon’s soul, as well as the knife he’d been using to hold it.

With a single glance, his teacher let out a long, low whistle. He knew what it was in an instant without needing to be told, his apprentice’s long-held goal come true, but even more impressive was the enchantments on it. It was plain to see that it used a similar enchanting system as the trial Ben had been stuck in, but the fact he could see that he’d combined it with the two other main systems he used showed a shocking level of mastery.

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“May I?” He asked, holding out a hand.

“Just don’t activate it. It has the very minor and unexpected problem of the soul possessing you if you do, and I don’t know if there’s actually a way to use it without that being a problem.”

“Hmm, if it can possess you then it likely has something of a mind still. If you could work a mental compulsion into it, trying to tame or enslave the soul it contains then you might be able to do something with it. More than that though, seeing this on top of the brace I can say that divine enchanting is no joke. Maybe two or three more levels and you’ll be a better enchanter than me.”

“Ha, thanks, but I’ve seen your stuff Falk, I don’t think I could compare.”

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t think it boy. Even ignoring the infinite amount of skills at your disposal, from a purely technical standpoint this is incredible. I may not have seen what you’ve pulled off at the zeroth level of it, but I’ve seen enough work from other enchanters to estimate how big the jump in your proficiency is going to be. You’ve got the talent. Hell, figuring out however the rings work alone, I was planning on keeping the shop closed today for some other stuff, but one of the things added to the list already is you explaining how your ring system works. Actually, that reminds me, I got a request from Iberu asking for you to submit a report on the blending enchanting system you use, as well as one on ritual magic for the mages guild to access since there’s not too many detailed works on it. You should submit one for the ring system too, as well as how you’ve combined the three. I’ll be heading to craftsman’s tower in a month or two for some war prep, if you have them done in time I’ll drop them off for you.”

It was a casual statement, but a reminder that Falk, Sonya, and Thera all intended to fight made his stomach drop, and his teacher could see it.