CH891

“Alright, Abel, you’re learning to forge today and Delair, you’re in charge of teaching her.”

“Really?” Delair asked, perking right up at the thought of having her own student while Abel shrunk back.

“What? Come on, Ben. Don’t make me learn from a kid, just force some knowledge in my head like you did yesterday.”

“Nope, sorry Abel but this counts as work, as promised. Delair needs some experience teaching so she’s going to do her best to explain and guide you through it all until you get the skill.”

“But-”

“Are you unhappy with the armour you got?”

“No, but-”

“Abel,” He said, trying to sound polite but firm as he spoke to her. “You asked me to make you something even though you couldn’t afford it and I did because we’re friends but you agreed to work for me while you’re here and this is a really easy way to do it. Delair might be younger than you and she might not be stronger than you either, but she’s a hard worker and an excellent craftsman. This is an experience I’d like you both to get so I would really appreciate it if you’d do your best here. I know it can feel embarrassing at times to learn from someone younger than you but Delair’s skilled and if you listen and work hard, you’ll definitely see results.”

“Mmh, okay, fine but I’m not forgetting this! You still haven’t fought me at all, if I’m going to do my best then we need to play later!”

“I’ll make sure we spar once before you have to leave, don’t worry about that. If you do your best here then I’ll do my best there.”

“You better,” She said, beaming as he reached out and ruffled her hair before focusing on his student.

“And Delair, you need to do your best too, alright kiddo? As you can see, Abel’s a bit apprehensive so prove her wrong by taking this seriously and showing off just how good at smithing you are.”

“Got it, Ben!”

“Good,” He smiled, patting her head too before sending them both off, leaving him to turn to his own project for the day, getting to see the shifter rubbing his eyes. “And I take it you didn’t sleep well again?”

“Mmh, when this war is done I’ll employ a dark mage to keep me in a dreamless sleep but for now I don’t have the luxury.”

“Alright, well maybe you could have a different luxury. Give me a few minutes before I start trying to put together my idea for your armour.”

From the storage room flew out tools and ingredients, all carried by his power as he started preparing what he had, the shifter watching on in mild curiosity.

“What’s this then?”

“Sleeping potions, I’m preparing you a few as a small bonus.”

“Mmh, I appreciate the thought but not much of that works on me.”

“Yeah, I can imagine there’s plenty about your biology that would make it complicated. Your skill affects how poisons act on you?”

“At this point, there aren’t many that can even harm me, let alone weaker medical effects.”

“Maybe nothing so casually over the counter but I can probably make a couple things that will at least keep you asleep, although that’s going to come with the side effect of not letting you wake up from your nightmares if you’re willing to have to deal with that?”

“I already have to deal with them, exhaustion or not. If you think you can at least leave me feeling rested in the morning then I don’t care about how horrid the night itself ends up.”

“Okay, cool, in that case, I just need to ask a couple questions first while I get things started. For one, how does your body work?”

“You know, I’ve had more than a few lovers ask me that same thing,” The shifter said coyly, leaving Ben to roll his eyes.

“I’m sure but that’s not the point. Unlike Abel, you’re able to change your total mass. How are you doing it? Is it all still there and part of you, even when you’re at your smallest?”

“Ah, that. In short, yes it is always a part of me, just put away. As for how, well, shapeshifting always had its inconveniences with one being a tendency to lose the things I was either wearing or carrying but luckily, I had a decent affinity for space, even if that didn’t translate to much of a talent for the magic itself. I only managed a couple levels of it and never anything as complex as teleportation but creating a separate space to hold my things was doable and when my beastform reached the third tier that application began to apply to my flesh as well. It doesn’t seem to be something others can access but I can feel it, the rest of myself tucked away for when it’s needed, even if it doesn’t seem like it.”

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“Okay, then a different reason other potions might not have worked for you is that your doses and concentrations were going to be wrong,” Ben muttered. “Which means I might genuinely need to make something strong enough that would put a leviathan to sleep if that’s going to be around your upper limits of mass. Okay, to be on the safe side, I’m going to make this as non-toxic as possible at the same time but if anything goes wrong, well, we’ve got some good healers only a gate away. We’ll make it work.”

“This instantly sounds far more worrying.”

“Yeah, well trying to adjust medicine is hard enough even within a single species, let alone on a world like this or for someone with a skill like yours so next time you see an apothecary of any sort, make sure you appreciate all of the effort they need to put into it. As for if you should be worried though, there’s always some risk but genuinely, don’t. Not to come off too strong but I’m a genius, the biggest risk is that it will do nothing because I’m going to be playing it too safe.”