CH63

Ben paid no mind to his new skill, he had far too much to do with the six days he had until the trial started, he could figure out what it meant later.

He sprung from bed and found the nearest servant he could. There was always some awake to attend to the queen and her guests, and Ben was about to give them an unreasonable amount of work.

After making a list of everything he had requested they gave him an odd look but went to prepare as much as they could in the meantime, while they would send out people in the morning to collect the rest. Ben already assured them that the money for it would be no issue and gave them an advanced payment to cover as much as they could with the promise that if it went over he would of course pay more. Ordinarily, if any of the staff were to do shopping or make any special orders for the guests they would determine a rough estimate of the price first, however as this was the apprentice of Pelenia and Abrus most trusted friend, in addition to being friends with their daughter they extended enough trust to start the ordering process.

Once that was done he went back to his room and started on his blueprints. On top of anything he wanted to make for the trial he now needed to get a church done. It was going to be a busy few days.

“He wants what?” Pelenia asked in amusement. As soon as she woke up she was given a report on Ben’s requests. It wasn’t unexpected that he would start some preparation, given that he was facing a dangerous trial some of the things even made a fair amount of sense. A tent and a couple of sleeping rolls for them both as well as enough non-perishable food for the average person who took the trial were both very reasonable requests. But then he asked for specially enchanted threads, the leather of a vangoth, a spinning wheel, and some jeweler tools of all things, amongst others. She had expected him to experiment with the newfound use of his skill when preparing, but she couldn’t begin to guess just what he would make.

“I’m still not sure about this.” Her husband said. “Thera could die. It’s not worth the risk.”

“Anailia has one of the kindest trials. If things go wrong they can run away, much better than any that traps you within. Besides, have some faith in your daughter.”

“If you have faith in her then why bully her into taking it?”

“She wouldn’t have done it otherwise and I have my own goals that need to be accomplished. Now stop worrying and go see what he wanted from you anyway.”

“Hey Abrus, thanks for coming.”

When the great earth spirit found Ben in the back house, he hadn’t expected to see an exhausted looking familiar face.

“It’s no problem. But what are you doing with Ferela?”

At some point it looked like Ben had found Glob’s barrier magic teacher and had put him through the wringer, but the old incubus was accepting of it at least.

“The boy just needed to make use of my barrier magic as well as was looking for someone with charm above the zeroth level. Since I have it at the second he’s been making use of me.”

Abrus decided not to ask for how long. A series of contraptions were set up around him; it looked like he’d taken the time to put them together and enchanted them all with Ferelas help so it could have been a while.

“Anyway, what can I do for you?”

At this Ben pulled out a ball of metal. The mythril he’d been given on the first day he came.

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“Would you mind turning about 60 percent of this into a thin thread for me? The last 40 can stay as just a chunk of metal, I’ll work on it myself later.”

It was a simple enough request, and he was starting to put together a picture of what the boy had in mind. He simply couldn’t understand why Ben would spend the last couple of days before he faced a trail making something like it. Still he did as he was asked and ran his mana through the sphere, stretching it out into as thin a thread as he could.

With that done he wound it up and gave it back to the boy, received his thanks, and went on his way. Despite himself, he was curious as to what Ben would do with some magic cloth.