CH335

<I can’t believe you told me you’d properly rest on the same day you stopped sleeping altogether. I’d rather not watch you kill yourself Ben.>

“I’m having naps, it’s fine. Besides, I told you I would when I had time. I clearly don’t right now.”

He had a positively outrageous amount of work to do at the moment with all of the orders he’d been receiving in the last week. Although he’d taken most of them on the first day, with only about half of the visitors kicked out of the shop, the ones he had been able to come to an agreement with had been wanting a lot, to the point that he’d have been busy for months if he was working alone.

On the plus side, his teacher had decided to be merciful to him, handling some of the smithing work for a few of the items since what most people wanted was the complex enchantments he could make, but to finish up as quickly as possible he still had to work late into the nights and early in the mornings, while also going out to Anailia again with Thera to buy more raw supplies. All in all, it was a lot, and exhausting too.

But pushing myself is good for my skills so this is fine. It might be just what the doctor ordered for finally awakening my connect.

<Or it will be what finally causes you to pass out in your forge and burn to death.>

If that happens you’ll just need to call me some help. Break some rules to keep me alive and I’ll make it up to you later.

<Or just don’t work yourself to death!>

Relax, things are finally slowing down. If I push myself to get all of this done in just a few weeks then I should be able to keep up with the order load in a regular workday.

Showing a willingness to kick anyone out on the first day had gone far in ensuring that he wouldn’t have to deal with anything too annoying, and it seemed that there were even people who’d simply left upon finding out he had no intention of working for anyone. Even if he was working himself hard for the orders he had taken, the number of them coming in now matched what he was sure he could do in a day, he just needed to get the pile that had come in the first two days over and done with.

With that frame of mind, Ben picked up a handful of mana disks, enchanting them two at a time before putting them to the side to be put into different handles after. He really hadn’t been expecting the item he’d made for Amy to be so popular, but requests for similar ones made up almost a quarter of his new orders, though for far fewer weapons than hers had, most of them wanting only two to four options and almost always one was a shield.

Still, each one needed to be slightly different to work with the skills of the person who would be using it so it was excellent practice for him overall, a fact that was reflected on his card as his job level kept going up. He was already dreaming about what option he’d take next, as well as wondering what new options would come for the enchanting branch.

This narrative has been purloined without the author’s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

<Again, stop trying to work yourself to death.>

No.

When Falk came in for the morning, he found Ben where he’d left him the night before, standing over his forge as he worked.

“Damn it boy, did you not sleep at all?”

“Um, since you being here means it’s morning, no. My bad.”

“Alright, I’m kicking you out when we close up today. Go home and get some proper rest. Thera and Sonya are going to worry.”