The next day Falk woke Ben up and they went over their training plan before opening the store.
"Alright brat, here's how things are going to work. You clearly don't have any experience at a forge and I doubt you have any practice at alchemy either. Each day get here an hour before the store opens and I'll give you a bit of a rundown on how to use the forge and how to brew potions. Since I doubt you'll be able to find a way to gather all the metals and alchemic components you'll need by yourself I'll sell them to you at cost for now, and If I judge the quality of your products to be good enough you can sell them in the shop, though since they're being sold in my business and I'm taking my time to teach you I'll be taking a reasonable cut. Any questions?"
"Sounds good to me, but why alchemy? I didn't think I saw any potions in here before?"
"Probably because you didn't come in here to buy anything. I keep a few by the front desk at the register. Besides that you gotta learn at least a little alchemy if you want to use any monster parts in your weapons and armor. Which also means you can't skip out on hunting, once you have potion-making down and start applying alchemy to your blacksmithing I expect you to go gather monster parts yourself."
"Wait but I still don't get why it's used with blacksmithing?"
"Damn it all you really don't know anything do you? If you want to keep some of the monster's effects, be it affinities, resistances, or if you're particularly lucky a monster's properties that can enhance a given enchantment you need alchemy to preserve them. Potion making preserves and concentrates a plant's healing effects, it's the same idea. It can also make sure your products can hold their enchantments longer. Take the wooden spikes you were telling me about. If you had enchanted them a day before using them without putting any more mana into it then they were probably only half as effective. With the right materials the mana loss could be significantly slower, some materials could even manage to hold mana without any loss or slowly absorb mana from the environment. How effective you use your skills will determine how good the final product is. And…" he paused, giving a wicked grin. "How much you can sell them for."
"Alright! What are we starting with then?"
Flak pulled out his card and directed it at Ben. "We're starting with you paying for a week's worth of supplies. After that I'll get you working on the backup forge in the back."
Ben tapped his own card against Falks, transferring the money over to him and then went out to a back room and got to work. He was first shown how to start the forge and from there Falk gave him a basic explanation of what he would be doing.
"For today I'll loan you some tools, but you're going to be using them to make your own, so make sure you do your best so you can use them for a long time. Since these will be for your own use you won't be able to sell them, but it's an important step in learning to really appreciate the materials you work with. Now quiz time, what is the most important tool for a blacksmith?"
"Would it be a hammer?" That seemed to be what he would always see them wielding in shows and movies, so it felt like a safe bet.
"That's what most people would guess, but no. What's most important, and what you'll be making first, is a set of tongs."
"Why tongs?" They certainly didn't seem super important compared to what you would use to shape your items.
"Do you want to be grabbing some red hot metal with your bare hand's brat? Sure shaping your metal is important, but if you can't move it the way you need to efficiently the metal will cool and you'll lose too much time having to constantly reheat it. Now watch how I do it and repeat as I do afterwards."
Falk immediately got to work as Ben watched on, entranced by the work of the smith. In a process of grabbing two long metal rods, heating and shaping them, punching a pin into them, and cutting them to the proper size, Falk had a pair of tongs done in no more than fifteen minutes.
"There we go, I tried to keep it slower for you but you should have the idea of how to make these."
"You call that slow? Even if they're just tongs I can't believe you made them so quick!"
"It's what happens when you get smithing to a high enough level, the metal works the way you need it to. You'll be a fair bit longer but if you need anything come grab me from the shop, I'll be working up front and watching the counter." He started to walk away before stopping with one last thought. "Also don't try and apply any enchantments to your items while you're making them. Since your crafting level is low, focus on improving that and if you want you can work on enchanting after you're done for the day."
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Ben gave him a nod and went over to the forge to get to work. He grabbed his first metal bar and heated it up until it glowed a nice red colour. Once it looked ready he took it over to the anvil, and using one of the smaller hammers Falk had available, started shaping it in a way to make his tongs. With each strike he paid attention to how much the metal warped, how the shape changed to meet the image he had in his mind of what his tongs should look like. It didn't have to be perfect but he wanted it to at least look decent if he was going to be using them from now on.
Once the first was done he grabbed a second bar and shaped it to match, at least as best he could. There was a little unevenness at the front of it that took longer to correct than he would like to admit, but given it was his first time at the forge he was willing to cut himself some slack.
Once both sides of the tongs were ready he grabbed a punch and a pin to act as a pivot and started to set it. He took a second to collect himself and focus. He needed to make sure that when he punched both halves of his soon-to-be tool he got it in the same spot, it would do no good to have them lopsided, and went to it. It wasn't actually too hard, but given that if he messed up he would have to buy more metal from Falk he really didn't want to have to put any more strain on his wallet. With both holes punched he placed and secured his pin, then hammered a wedge into the ends until they were the proper length for him to use. With that done he went in to show Falk.
"...and here's the staff, hopefully this one lasts a bit longer than the last one. I'll see you in a few days then." It looked like he was just finishing with a customer. As he waved them off Ben went up and showed him his end product.
"Not bad. I was expecting you to mess up the first time but I guess this wasn't too hard. With this done we can start on the next step then, making you a hammer. Come and watch carefully, I'm only showing you this once."
He was brought over to the forge in the front and watched Falk skillfully take a lump of metal and shape it into a tool, with the front end being flat and the back end being a wedge. He punched a hole into the center and fitted it with a wooden handle, and it was all done even faster than his tongs from before.
Once again Ben couldn't help but be impressed by the quick and precise work Falk managed, and he was excited to try it for himself. He ran back to the small work area he had been given and got to it, taking a bar of iron and tossed it in the forge.
Using his newly made tongs he grabbed it from the forge and started striking it, feeling each blow changing its shape, the rhythmic clanging filling his mind. Again he was slower than his teacher, but he didn't mind. Now that he was making things himself, finally putting his crafting to use, he could see it was about the journey, not the destination.
He finished forging the hammer's head and secured it to a strong wooden bar to use as the handle, then took it to Falk to get his seal of approval.
"Feels like it may be a bit small, but it will do for now. I guess you're a bit small yourself anyway."
"I'm plenty tall for my race, you're just huge."
"Brat I'm the runt of my family, your race is just too small."
Well that was a terrifying thought, but with his teachers' approval for his tools Ben was given the task of making J hooks for the rest of the day to work on some of the different techniques he had learned so far.
"If I remember right your strength was only at 90 right? You also have focus?" Falk had come to check on Ben as the day was ending and prepared to send him home when he saw the small mountain of J hooks beside him.
"That's right, why?"
"No reason. Anyway I've got a few books for you to borrow, just some on alchemy and enchanting. I'm giving you tomorrow off so stay home and read them."
"Sure sounds good, see you in a couple then."
"Good luck."
Ben wasn't really sure what he meant by that but he grabbed the books and left the shop. Since it had been a long one he decided to turn in early and get to reading the next day.
As he slowly woke up he realised why Falk asked him those questions yesterday.
Oh god, everything hurts.
Not you Myriad. Wait actually can you do anything about this? I don't think I can move my arms. Actually pretty sure I can't move anything.
Uhg. The books he needed to read were left on the other side of the room. It was going to be a long day.
The next couple months were busy. Ben's lessons were mostly split between blacksmithing and alchemy, with a bit of enchantment added here and there, while his free time was divided between reading from Falk's books, practicing some of the hobbies he already had like drawing and sculpting, as well as occasionally hunting and dismantling some beasts in a nearby woods to use for his training or to sell to Falk for the materials.
As he was working at his forge, finishing up a staff enhanced with blood elk bone, a notification sprang up.
His mind was suddenly clearer and his thoughts felt sharper, he looked at the staff he had just finished and could suddenly tell where he had gone wrong and how it could be improved upon, but that didn't matter right now. It was his first level up since he was at the church and he couldn't contain his excitement.
He ran out to tell the only acquaintance he had in the town about his good news.
"Hey Falk! Guess wha-" He stopped short when he saw his teacher was busy interacting with one of the regulars. "Sorry I'll come back in a bit."
"Hold up Brat I was just going to grab you. You've seen Thera before, havencha?"
Ben looked at the customer. It was hard to make out any details about them, they were a little shorter than himself and wearing a hooded robe and gave off a bit of an unapproachable vibe but they were definitely a frequent shopper here. The only distinguishing feature he could really see was a paper white hand grasping a new staff, which they would come in almost weekly to get. "We've never been properly introduced before, but I know they're your favourite customer. Nice to meet you, I'm Ben." Ben had never paid them much mind beyond wondering how they afforded to replace their equipment so much. He offered them his hand but not even giving it a second look they turned away from him and back to Falk.
"What's this about uncle?"
Uncle? His favourite customer is his niece and he didn't tell his wonderful student about this? What a no-good teacher.
No being right right now Myriad I'm being upset she ignored my super friendly greeting.
"What this is about is that I've gotten a job I can't turn down so I won't be able to make you any staves for a while. For the next couple months I'll be leaving it to my apprentice."
"What? Okay sure, I guess making a staff a week won't hurt."
"The staves I make can last a week." He stressed. "You'll be making one or two a day."
"Jesus Christ! What do you do with them?" He asked Thera. He had made a few staves already and was told they should be fine to sell, how could they only last a day?
"That's not my name, and I'm an adventurer, equipment breaks." she said with an air of dismissal.
"Thera has more mana and less control than a staff can handle, they shatter after a week."
"Uncle! He doesn't need to know that."
"He will if he's going to be adventuring with you."
"What!" Both Ben and Thera yelled in tandem.
"Falk, I'm not an adventurer, I'm a craftsman. If I'm trying to make her a good quality staff a day when am I going to have time to practice other things if I also have to adventure with her?"
"And why should I have to work with someone who even you think is a pain in the ass uncle?"
"Wait what? What terrible things are you saying about your wonderful apprentice behind my back?"
"Well first off I'm usually saying it right in front of you, you're just too absorbed in your work to notice. As for why you should do it Ben, I won't be charging you for any supplies you take to make her staves. She gets them for free but I'll still give you the regular pay you would be getting for her work so it's a good deal for you. As for you young lady, I know you haven't been partying with anyone recently and you know that isn't part of the deal. Party with my apprentice and I won't be telling your parents."
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"...Fine." She unhappily agreed.
"Not fine. Falk I'm all well and good for making the staves but like I said I'm no adventurer, you know I don't have a single useful skill. Why should I put myself at risk?"
"Boy don't act like I don't know that you hunt something once or twice a week, I'm the bastard you've been selling your catches to."
"Sure trapping things is fine but hunting with a proper adventurer is completely different. I won't be able to keep up."
If this girl has so much raw power that she keeps blowing up staves then yeah I should be fine. I just want to see how much more I can get from my dear teacher.
Falk for his part seemed to have caught on quick to what Ben was doing. "Alright what do you want Brat?"
No point beating around the bush then. "Two things. Use of the workshop when you're done for the day so I can stay late and practice, as well as the rights to use whatever scraps are left from making her staves."
"The workshop I can do, but how do I know you aren't going to use a small piece of something and take the rest of it as scrap?"
"Alright let's define it then. Any leftovers the size of my fist or smaller are mine for the taking, and I won't use materials specifically to get the leftovers. Sounds good?"
"I'll agree if it's items we have in steady supply, I can't very well be giving away any of the rarer materials willy nilly."
"Deal."
"Alright I can't imagine what you're going to use some small scraps for, but don't make too much of a mess with them. And since I'm leaving her safety in your hands make sure you improve your skills."
"That's what I originally came in here to tell you actually! My crafting leveled up!" Now that he thought about it, he leveled up while making a staff, and he'd been made to make quite a lot recently. Falk must have been planning this for a while.
"While on the topic." His new partner interrupted. "What skills do you have? Anything that will be useful while hunting?"
"Nothing too flashy, just got low levels in crafting, enchanting, focus, stealth, and dismantling."
"...You really don't have much at all. Uncle how exactly am I supposed to party with him?"
"He's clever, you'll be fine. Why not let him know your skills and you can meet here tomorrow to start taking a few quests."
She turned back to Ben and although he couldn't grasp any expressions because of her cloaked figure he got the distinct feeling she was unhappy. "All you need to know is I have earth magic, nothing else is relevant. I'll be here an hour after sunrise. Don't be late."
With all said and done she quickly left the shop, not having anything left to discuss.
Ben turned to Falk, looking at him expectantly.
"What?"
"You never told me your favourite customer was your niece. Or that you had a niece in town for that matter."
"Well first that's because it's none of your business, but she calls me that because I'm a long-time family friend. Me and her parents go way back."
"Okay then, and will you still be around or is this job going to be taking you away? I'm hoping you'll still be able to give my work a look over, even if you don't have time to instruct me."
"I'll be around most of the time, may have to disappear for a few weeks towards the end of the project but you should be pretty competent in your skills by then. For now show me what you've made."
At his instruction Ben ran back to his forge to grab the staff he had just finished and brought it back to Falk for an evaluation.
He looked it over for a minute before giving his opinion. "Turned out pretty well. It's upper common."
Ben threw his hands in the air and gave a cheer. Ever since he had learned how to incorporate alchemy into his blacksmithing his works had gone from being consistently lower common with the occasional middle if he was extra lucky to getting mostly middle common with the occasion upper, and every upper was worth celebrating since it meant they could sell for a higher price.
"Don't be too happy brat. There are a lot of areas you could still improve on, and the jump from upper common to lower uncommon is still a big one."
"Yeah I know, but I can already see how I can improve the next time. I didn't mix in the bone paste thoroughly enough for one, so there's probably some inconsistency in the rod, and I shouldn't have heated it as much either when I was forging it. That must have damaged the structure of the material in some small ways."
"Well it's at least good that your eyes have improved some with your level at least, now go home and sleep, this should be good enough for her to use tomorrow."
With a wag of his finger Ben told him off. "Nope, I'll be here for a bit later."
"And what exactly do you mean by that?"
"Did you already forget? I get use of the workshop when we close for the day."
"You meant immediately?"
"No time like the present. Besides, I want to see how having level two in crafting changes things"
Falk let out a long sigh and walked to the counter before coming back, throwing a key at Ben. "Here, don't lose it and lock up when you're done."
With that Falk walked off and Ben went to the storage room, looking at everything there that he previously couldn't touch.
"Oh yeah, this is going to be fun."
Thera woke up unhappy. Frankly she had been angry since the previous night, having been forced into partying with some random man just because she didn't have anyone else to adventure with at the moment. No matter how much gratitude she had for her uncle or how much she respected his opinion she would still much rather be going out by herself until she found a real adventurer she could work with. Still she would need staves, and if this was how she was going to get them then so be it. She would just treat it as if she were adventuring alone and hope whatever his name was could manage himself.
She ate a quick breakfast with her aunt as the sun was rising and walked over to Falk's shop, prepared to meet with her temporary companion, but saw nobody waiting outside so she went in.
Her uncle was sweeping and dusting the place, as he always did to try and keep it presentable. "Good morning Uncle, where's this boy I'm stuck with?" She couldn't keep the annoyance from her voice.
"Mornin' Thera, he's just behind the counter. Wake him up and you can be on your way."
"What?" She wasn't immediately sure what he meant by that but walked around the counter to see him asleep on the floor, one light blanket over him and another rolled under his head.
"You can't be serious."
"Nearly stepped on him myself when I got in, but it looked like he had had a long night. Figured I'd let the brat relax a bit before you got here."
She gave a loud sigh, even more unimpressed than she had been previously, and grabbed the staff Falk had given her yesterday. It was a bit longer than her arm, and nice and solid. Seeing as how it would be the last one she got from Falk for a while it seemed a waste, but she used it to poke at the boy's face until he woke up.
"Uhhg. was that really necessary." He asked, massaging his jaw.
"I told you we were leaving an hour after sunrise, it's not my fault you weren't up for it. Grab what you need and let's go already."
"Sure, sure give me a minute." he walked into the back rooms to splash some water on his face and grabbed three staves and a bag. "So what's the plan for the day?"
She eyed them, unable to help but be a little curious about how they turned out, before answering. "We're going to the adventurers guild, now come on and hurry up."
She hurried over to the adventurers guild with him and went over to the front desk where they were greeted by an employee, the faceless hominid Onk. "Morning Thera, oh and you're with Ben! I didn't know you two knew each other."
Right, his name's Ben, I guess I should at least try and remember that. Wait how does he know Onk?
"I thought you said you weren't an adventurer?"
"Well I've joined the guild but I'm not really." He responded, shifting around awkwardly.
Onk stepped in to explain on his behalf. "Oh he just joined to use our books to learn about the resources in the area. A little unusual but there's no rules against it."
Didn't uncle say something about buying materials he hunted? Maybe I'm just remembering wrong. "Well unfortunately I'm forced to party with him for a while. Can you find something you think we could handle?"
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"Hmm, Ben I have to say I don't think this is a good idea. Have you developed any combat skills in the past few months?"
"I haven't but this is the will of my teacher. For the next little while I'll be in charge of making her equipment so do you think you could give us an easy quest for now so we could see how what I already made her works out?"
"Well if it can't be avoided then I guess that's that. Thera I know you usually try one rank 6 quest a day, but for now I would recommend you accept rank 7 hunting quest. Right now I would say to try and find some scrells. There isn't a minimum quantity, we pay by the kill, and there's no time limit for it so just hunt what you can while you get used to working with Ben okay?"
She had already been unhappy, and now she had to take quests below her level. "Fine. what do they look like and where have they been spotted."
Surprising her though, Ben spoke up to answer. "They're typically in the western part of the forest, about a forty-minute walk up along the river."
"How do you know that?"
"All the monsters in the area are written in the archives."
"He's quite the voracious reader." Onk chimed in.
"Fine then, we'll take it. Come on let's go."
They walked in silence as they left the town, Ben leading the way. They didn't talk for most of the trip and Thera would have been happy to keep it like that if her curiosity didn't get the best of her.
"What are you doing?"
Ever since they left the town Ben had been picking up handfuls of rocks and twigs, stared at one for a while, then dropped it and moved on to the next, all seemingly for no reason.
"Oh this? Falk told me there was no real point in training my enchanting with him until I raised it another level or two since my skill was still too low to do anything more than just apply skill effects or use basic enchanting spells on it, so when I get the chance I practice applying them until the enchantments break and damage the material." At that he gestured to the stone in his hand and gave it a small squeeze, causing it to crumble to dust. "I only learned that enchanting actually has spells associated with it a little while ago beyond just applying skills you already have. Unfortunately, they end up being weaker than any equivalent skill that could be applied but beggars can't be choosers."
"But why sticks and stones? Surely better quality material could hold more enchantments."
"Do you have any idea how expensive that would be? I'm already barely making enough to cover my living costs, gotta pinch every penny I can."
"Is that why you wanted any scraps you could get from my uncle?"
"Well that's one reason for sure, but really it's just for any general practice. Getting free leftovers is going to net me plenty of materials I normally couldn't afford, even if the quantities are small. It should be all sorts of fun seeing what I could do with them."
There was a smile plastered on his face as Thera watched him ramble on about various things he wanted to try, and she started to just tune him out. He seemed passionate at least and she couldn't help but be a bit envious of having blessed skills that he actually enjoyed. Her thoughts darkened as she thought about her own. Having earth magic wasn't so bad, even if her level with it was low, but as for the other one…
"But don't let me ramble on by myself, tell me a bit about yourself Thera." Ben asked, pulling her away from her thoughts.
Still her life was private. Not something she would just share. "There's nothing to tell. I left my family a year ago to see a bit of the world and improve my magic, that's all."
"Do anything for fun?"
"No."
"God I hope that's not true, it's good to have some excitement in life."
"I question how exciting a craftsman's life could be."
His smile cracked and for a second Ben wore a truly sad expression before bouncing back. "Oh you may be surprised. Never know when something unexpected may happen."
She wanted to ask what he meant and was a little worried she offended him before but chose to say nothing. It was never a good idea to get too close to anyone she partied with. They walked in silence for a while longer before Ben stopped.
"Alright, this should be the general area we need to start looking."
Once they arrived at their destination Ben set out what he was thinking. "The staff you currently have is the last one Falk gave you right? You should probably save it for emergencies. For now do you mind trying the ones I made and tell me how they feel?"
She looked at her staff hesitantly before stringing it over her back and grabbing the one Ben was offering and gave it a look over.
"The design is pretty plain and it feels rough, are you sure it will hold up?"
"No clue, but that's the one I finished before my level went up, the two I made after should be better."
She raised the staff in front of her and concentrated, forcing mana through it to bring together her spell. Ben watched in anticipation, anxious to see whatever she would bring forth. He had seen a few smaller acts of magic in his months here, but it looked like she was preparing something big.
All at once the ground shook as chunks of earth were pulled from it and coalesced into a rough ball in front of her, about two meters in diameter. With a swing of her staff the ball flew… for a couple meters, before falling to the ground and collapsing back into loose dirt.
It was a little disappointing but when he turned back to her the problem became obvious. Towards the end of the spell the staff had shattered into slivers of metal.
"Useless." Her frank evaluation hurt a little, but there was no mistake his work didn't live up to the task.
"So the first one didn't work out, we still have two more." He told her with forced cheer. "Maybe you could use a smaller spell this time? We shouldn't need something like that for hunting scrells.
"I can't," she muttered under her breath.
"Sorry what?" He hoped he misheard her, but that dream was dashed.
"That's as small of a spell as I can do okay! Have a problem with that?" she yelled at him angrily.
He couldn't even notice how defensive she was with how much was going through his head. That's as small as she can make it? Is that what they meant when they were talking about how much mana she has? Hey Myriad are you around? What am I supposed to do about this?
"Mind showing me what you can do without a staff so I have a reference." He asked, hoping Myriad was wrong.
To his relief she started gathering her power without argument, though she looked unhappy about it, and started to use her magic. Loose dirt tens of meters around them rose into the air. Then promptly fell to the ground again.
"...Was that it?"
"Got a problem with that?"
"Nope, just thinking is all."
Do you think either of the other staves will work?
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Not reassuring.
"Okay I have to ask, how many shots would you say you get off with Falk's staves before they break?"
"...I don't see any relevance to the question."
She's trying to avoid answering.
"My first staff didn't even really let you finish a spell. If my teacher thinks I should be able to make you something that would last a day or two I need to know what the expected number of shots should be."
She looked away, clearly not wanting to have this conversation.
Ben did his best to contain a long sigh and continued. "Look Thera, I'm going to be doing my absolute best to make you the best product I can. They may not meet the standard you're used to, but I want to at least know how much I need to improve if I'm going to meet my teacher's expectations. To do that I need you to work with me, I won't judge."
"...Fine, but keep it to yourself. About fourteen or twenty."
I'm keeping my face straight right? Doesn't look like I'm about to scream or anything?
"Let's say twenty then. Are you going out to hunt seven days a week?"
"Six. I take one day off to relax."
"Okay so then let's say I need to get my staves to a quality where they can last about three shots a day. Does Falk know you only get about twenty uses out of each staff?"
Again she just fidgeted about and tried to avoid the question, which was all the answer Ben needed.
"Got it. Alright we're having a change of plans, try out the last two staves then we're heading back. I'm going to need to experiment a little to make something that will work better."
"But we haven't even hunted anything yet!"
"Are you that short on money?"
"Money isn't the issue. We'll never get our adventurer rank up if we don't hunt consistently." It looked like her greed leaned more towards prestige than wealth, and Ben was going to have none of it.
"If the staves I've already made can't hold up through one spell then you aren't going to be able to hunt anything anyway. Just let me watch you fire your spells and I'll hopefully have something a bit more usable in the next week."
She couldn't argue the fact that they probably wouldn't have any success anyway, but she was still far from happy about the turn of events. Still, she did as she was asked and grabbed the next staff, a wooden one wrapped in a metal wire treated with hontar blood, and prepared the same spell as before. She began using her magic and again had a large ball of earth floating in front of them before sending it flying, this time getting about ten or fifteen meters before crashing to the ground, the staff shattering in her hand.
"Well that was an improvement at least, does wood act as a better conductor of earth magic, or could the strengthening properties of the hontar blood have kept it together for longer? Either way, try the final one then let's get out of here."
She dropped the remaining fragments of the last staff and grabbed the final one, Ben's personal favourite. This was another metal one, but it had a soft blue glow to it from a reaction between the copper it was made with and some nightmare bone.
"Why does it look like this?" She asked, hesitant to use the mysterious item in her hands.
"Since I was allowed to use anything I tried experimenting with some of the more unusual materials in the shop. I gotta say, I'm real happy with how it turned out."
"It looks a little evil."
Hands grasping at his heart he tried to put aside her words. "That's probably the best staff I've made to date. If we take the materials I used into account then I would say it's more valuable than any staff an average rank six would be using. Well, I guess you're used to using exceptional staves but I'm still really, really- OW FUCK."
He fell to the ground in immense pain, initially not sure what had happened, though looking down at his leg the cause became clear to see. About the size of a cat with three eyes and a mouth that took up most of its face, a screll had sunk its razor-like teeth into the flesh of his calf. Though the target of their quest had come to them, it wasn't anything to be happy about.
The reason such a creature was asked to be hunted was because they were entering a dry season which also happened to be their breeding season, and scrells were known for possessing a weak fire magic. Usually not enough to do anything, but in a time of year when there was little rain the chances of a forest fire spiked drastically. It made keeping their population low a priority around this time.
That may make them sound incredibly dangerous, but in reality they would usually pose no more threat than the cats they resemble. That's only if they don't get their teeth into you of course.
Ben for his part, lacking in luck, had the small beast latched onto him, its teeth heating up to cook the flesh they were digging into. He reached down to try and pull the creature away but the moment he grabbed at it, it ended up securing four sets of claws into him as well. Latching on in such a way that he wouldn't be able to get it off without taking some large chunks of flesh as well.
Thera personally was less worried about keeping his skin where it belonged. Using the last staff he had provided she swung back with it, batting the creature in the skull and with a sickening crunch sent it flying along with about a couple golf ball's worth of meat from his leg.
Blood pouring from his calf, Ben took some deep breaths, trying to calm himself down and get his pain under control. The moment this stopped being about hunting and became focused on seeing the staves performance he should have tried to move to a safer area, he just hadn't been thinking. It could have been worse but now that he got his blood all over the place they needed to get out of there and back to town.
"Thanks for the save. Mind giving me a hand back?" He asked, trying to keep the pain from leaking into his voice as he reached up a hand towards her.
Thera barely even looked at him, instead handing over her staff. "Use this as a crutch and let's head back to town to get you treated."
He took it and forced himself up. The staff was barely long enough to act as a cane but he could tell from her attitude it would have to do.
The walk back was longer than the walk there. To Thera's credit she didn't leave him behind and she kept checking on him as they went, she just didn't support him at all as he stumbled along, heavily relying on the staff as he lost blood till they made it to the front gate.
"Gods below, you aren't looking too good boy, are you both okay?" A gatekeeper was quick to ask when seeing Ben's state.
"Nothing that a healer can't fix." He was quick to reply. "Except I'm not sure I can't really afford a healer can I? Hey Thera mind using the last staff to dig a hole in the ground? I'll crawl in and you can bury me, we'll save everyone some hassle."
Even if he was kidding she was not impressed. "You aren't going to die. Wait with the guard and I'll get some help" She said before running off.
"I was serious about not being able to afford a healer!" He yelled after her before collapsing to the ground. When they left the forest he quickly wrapped his leg in a strip of shirt to try and keep the bleeding down but he still experienced a steady amount of blood loss on the walk back. Now that he was at least back at the town he took off his make do bandage to inspect the damage.
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On the more positive side the biggest wound wasn't bleeding quite as badly as he thought it would. On the negative side it's because the muscle was slightly cooked, and every movement of his leg sent pain through it. Just walking back had been torture.
As he laid against the gate trying to ignore his body he heard the sound of feet slapping against stone and turned to see Falk running towards him with Thera trailing behind.
"Brat what the hell happened to you?" The giant of a man yelled.
"Just a bit of carelessness biting me in the butt is all. Well biting me in the leg actually. I'll be more careful next time." He joked as a wave of dizziness assaulted him.
"Fine, we'll talk about it later. Let's just get you to a clinic."
"I wasn't joking when I said I don't know if I can afford one before."
"We both know the owner, the cost won't be too bad." Thera said, staring at the bloody mess that was his leg. "Can you stand?"
"Give me a minute." He tried to get up but immediately stumbled and would have fallen if Falk hadn't been there to steady him. When his teacher saw that Ben would be struggling for the entire way he scooped him up in his arms.
"Falk you old gentleman, I bet the ladies love this."
"Boy don't make me drop you."
"Please no, keep carrying me in your big strong arms." He joked, feeling the blood loss catch up to him as his consciousness drifted away.
"I really shouldn't make it a habit to wake up in strange rooms," He said to himself as he regained consciousness. He wasn't expecting a response but a voice spoke up from beside him.
"Oh you're finally awake! Won't Thera be thrilled."
Turning to look at the speaker, Ben would have mistaken her for being human. She was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her thirties with pale skin and long black hair. The only things that set her apart from his own race were cat-like pupils and a long, thin, leathery black tail coming up from her waist and holding a cup to her mouth.
Still groggy he had to ask. "Where am I? What happened?"
"You ended up losing a lot of blood on the way back and passed out. I'm one of the town's healers, Sonya. My niece and Falk ran you to me. I have to say healing you was a pain, took most of the day. Falk warned me your life resistance was way too high but I haven't had to put in this much effort since I first started training in healing magic."
His leg was feeling noticeably better and when he sat up he could see the skin was smooth and healed. He could also see he was no longer wearing pants so he grabbed a blanket to tastefully cover himself.
"Thank you, I really really appreciate the help. Awkward side note though, I already mentioned to Falk and Thera I don't know if I can afford the treatment," It wasn't strictly true, he had money saved for living expenses and since he found employment with Falk right after leaving the church he hadn't spent too much of the money they had given him, but it was still slowly decreasing. He didn't know how expensive it could be since he never looked into it too deeply, but paying for a healer could end up putting a far bigger dent in his savings than he would like.
"You don't have to worry about it, Falk said he would cover the costs and I'm an old friend of his anyway, I wouldn't charge his first apprentice too much."
"What a softy," His teacher was already being far more accommodating than he led on at first, and now this? He would have to give the man some proper gratitude.
"He really is, just don't say it to his face. And don't mention that I said he's covering your costs, he didn't want you knowing."
"Man, for how gruff he acts, he's too nice of a guy."
"He's an absolute sweetheart," She agreed happily as she smiled down at him. "Now you should be good to go, you were asleep for most of the day. Just let me grab Thera for you."
"Wait you don't have to-" But she was already gone.
He took the moment of privacy to slip on his clothes that had been moved to his bedside before Thera walked in.
"Oh hey," He said, awkwardly buttoning his pants. Before he could think of whatever he should say she was bowing at him.
"I'm sorry. If I had told you about my magic earlier then you wouldn't have been hurt the forest."
"What? Don't worry about it. I should have asked more questions before we left, and it's my fault for not paying attention. I'm usually a bit more careful, I swear."
They stood in silence for a moment longer, both feeling awkward and not knowing what to say before Thera spoke up.
"Should we go report the kill to the guild? It may have only been one but I guess it will be the last we can do until you make me a new staff."
"Sure, sounds good."
As they were leaving Ben realized he hadn't been brought to a clinic, but to their actual home, and then wandered into the guild.
Onk was still at the counter and gave them both a friendly greeting when they went in.
"Back already? How did the hunt go?"
"Not ideal," Thera told them, neglecting to mention the specific events of their hunt.
"We only got one," A small problem came to Ben's mind. "Wait, we didn't bring the body. How are we supposed to prove we killed one?"
"I guess this is your first quest Ben, you don't need to bother bringing any remains unless there is a specific request for them. Now here, both of you give me your cards. Whenever you hunt something after you've joined the guild can inspect them for what you've hunted and how much you contributed. Thera it looks like you got 70 percent of the kill."
Ben came to a realization as they were giving their explanation and he wasn't sure he wanted to deal with the outcome of it. "Hey you can give mine back. I don't really care about raising my rank at all."
"Nonsense, it's important to do this to ensure everyone gets proper credit for their work. Now… this can't be right," Onk muttered as Thera looked between them both, a little confused by Ben's sudden awkwardness and Onks change in demeanor.
"Ben, you have a lot of unreported kills," If they had a face Ben was sure Onk would be staring a hole through him. "I thought you said you were just going out to gather supplies."
"I mean technically monsters are supplies." He told them with his most innocent look.
"There's a few dozen on here… and your first kill was an Amarok! I thought you didn't have any combat skills?"
"I don't, I just made some traps is all. Blame my teacher, he was insistent that I hunt one if he was going to take me on."
"Wait, how much did he contribute to hunting an Amarok?" Thera cut in.
"100 percent. He managed it without help." He couldn't tell why, but he could hear a lot of unhappiness in their voice.
"Um, is that a problem?"
"It's not exactly a problem per se. It's just, it may cause you some issues later is all."
"Wait, why?"
"You've successfully hunted enough powerful monsters to be moved up a rank. Ordinarily, this would be a matter of congratulations but ranking up also comes with its own added responsibilities. Namely that you'll now have to participate in any emergency quests. There aren't many that have happened that would take rank sixes, normally that's reserved for rank fives at the lowest, but it can happen. This regularly wouldn't be a big deal, any emergency request can be dangerous but the only time lower ranks are included is if it's something they should be able to manage or if it's expected everyone would die either way. The issue is that without any combat skills even the safer ones could leave you at risk. You could always revoke your rights as an adventurer, but then you would no longer get access to the archives."
"Ah well, I'll keep being an adventurer for now, that's not too bad after all. Aren't we expecting the world to be invaded in a few years? Seems a bit silly to worry about any other emergencies in the meantime."
"I'm not sure if that's a positive or extremely negative way of looking at things," They said while handing back his card.
"It just is what it is," He told them, glancing at his card and about to put it away before having to do a double-take. "Hey I think you made a mistake, you added a lot of money to my account."
"No mistake. An Amarok is considered a rank five monster and you've killed a few rank six as well. Even without the money you would have received if there had been requests for them it still gets you a reasonable amount of income."
It looked like a couple months of casual hunting was enough to let him live for about a week even if there weren't requests, so long as what he hunted was judged to be a great enough threat to public safety. It wasn't enough to live off of or make Ben want to start hunting full time, but now that he knew, it would be a good way to make a little extra pocket money. Especially considering he would have to hunt for materials anyway. "Cool okay then, hey Thera wanna grab a bite before going back to Falk's?"
Jerking her head when she heard her name, her mind had clearly been wondering. "Why would we? And why are we going to uncle's shop?"
"Um, we're working together now, it doesn't hurt to get better acquainted. We have to go back to the shop anyway if I'm going to start on your new staff."
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"You're starting already? We only just got you treated."
He gave a shrug. "Yeah but I'm fine now, may as well work. So food?"
"Not interested. Let's hurry back then."
"Your loss."
They left the guild and on the way Ben stopped to grab some skewers from a cart. He still tried to offer one to Thera but she recoiled from him as he got too close with it.
Damn was it something I said?
He was a little hurt but he was only a temporary partner after all. Maybe she just didn't want to bother getting close to someone she wouldn't be working with for long.
When they went into the shop they were immediately greeted by an angry Falk.
"Damn it brat! How did you get yourself injured on your first hunt with my niece? And from a screll no less? You've never brought me any materials from a monster that weak before, but one managed to take you out?"
"Sorry Falk, I got distracted trying to figure out how to make some better items, the ones I currently made just couldn't stand up to Theras power."
"Don't give me that. I've seen what you've made boy, they wouldn't break on her first couple spells."
"It's my fault," Thera spoke up. "I haven't been strictly truthful with you uncle. While your staves last me a week or two it's because I only use them a couple times a day."
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Only that many? Why didn't you… No never mind. If I had known I would have made you sturdier ones."
"You can do that?" She asked, surprised.
"Of course, who do you think I am? I've given you some weaker ones to help you practice regulating your power. Still if that's the case then Ben won't be able to make anything worthwhile, but I'm still too busy. What to do?"
"Boss, if it's all the same to you I want to keep trying."
They both seemed surprised for a moment but Falk was quick to recover. "Why would you want to do that boy? Interested in seeing all of your hard work blow up each day."
"It just seems like good practice is all. I don't want to quit just because something is a bit challenging."
Falk put on a thoughtful look for a second before giving an answer. "Alright then, suit yourself. Saves me the trouble of finding someone else at least."
With that done Ben spent the rest of his day at the forge, experimenting with materials to try and make something that would work.
"Can you try a little harder to not get yourself killed? Dying to one of the weaker rank seven monsters would just be embarrassing."
"Hey Myriad, show a bit more enthusiasm that your favourite worshipper is in good health would you."
"I would be happier if you didn't nearly die in such a dumb way."
"Cut me some slack, that was pretty dangerous for a rank 7 animal wasn't it?"
"Most animals on the planet are dangerous, they're either the ones that lived here when the lands were primitive and savage before environmental changes could make a softer world or they came with the refugees, usually as a result of some god just scooping up a pile of land and bringing it here. Weren't you warned that leaving the protection of a town carries some dangers?"
"I guess. So I got my butt kicked by some weakling then."
"Only comparatively. When weighed against anything from Earth it could be considered pretty dangerous at least, but that's not why I brought you here. Given recent events I've decided to speed things along. It's ready."
"Really!" Ben felt his eyes light up and his face pull into an excited grin. He had been waiting for this for a while and it was finally happening.
"Yep, technically it's unfinished but hopefully that works in our favour. Plus you spent a lot of time praying for the pain to go away when your leg got mangled so as your patron god I'm in pretty good form at the moment. Now come place your hand on me."
He didn't really need to be reminded of what happened earlier anymore but he did what he was told and placed his hand on top of Myriad's cool metallic form when a voice rang out in his mind.
After months of waiting, worshipping Myriad had finally paid off and he got a gift skill from his god. It only left a question.
"What does it actually do?" The name didn't really give many hints and he wanted to test it out as fast as possible.
"It lets you connect to other living things by touching them. At low levels you will probably only be able to access feelings instead of any thoughts, but practice it and you'll get there."
"..."
"What? Got something to say?"
"No no, this is cool and all, it's just a little...underwhelming I guess? Why would you leave a skill like this unfinished anyway?"
"Underwhelming? Here I am slaving over some hot magic and soul bits for months to put this together and you're underwhelmed? You're literally the first creature in this world to have this skill, couldn't you be a bit more excited about it?" He could feel the indignation coming off of his god in waves for a moment before he seemed to calm down and answer his question. "Anyway, if I overdevelop it the skill will be more… fixed in the way it grows with time. Leaving it a little unfinished gives the world itself some room to make it more flexible. I'm hoping that will let you do some things my kind weren't able to."
"Oh? Like what?"
"Well, after your recent encounter if it could develop so it could be used without having to make physical contact that would be ideal. It wasn't a function of my own race but you would be able to use it as a sort of danger sense in that case and hopefully not die until you secure me some believers. Still, now it's out of my hands so we'll just have to wait and see if such a convenient development occurs. Even still in its base form it's a skill I put a lot of work into making so none of this being underwhelmed nonsense," He finished with a huff.
"Okay okay you're right. Sorry. Come here and let me test it out then." Ben reached out his hand and approached his god, but Myriad flew back like a bullet.
"Hey, be careful with that thing! It may be okay to use it on a mortal or anything weaker than you, but at your current level you won't be able to control what gets in, using it on a god is likely to make your head explode."
"...Noted." He withdrew his hand, more than a little uncomfortable at how close he had come to another early death. "Still seems like a bit of an odd skill, how's it related to your race then?"
"It's not that odd, we would just directly transfer information from our sub-brains by linking tentacles, it's pretty efficient. I don't know why more races don't do it."
"..."
"Anyway just make sure to practice it. I may have created the skill itself, but how it grows and changes is in the hands of you and the world."
He decided to put the information about his god's race on hold for now. "Alright will do, I guess I am a little curious about using a skill nobody has ever used before."
"Excellent, now go have fun. It looks like you're about to wake up."
Once again the hard end of a staff was shoved into Ben's delicate jaw.
"If you keep waking me like this I'm going to bruise," He told Thera as he cracked open his eyes.
"Then find somewhere better to sleep than the shop floor. Uncle, are you really okay letting him do this?"
Falk gave a shrug. "The boy cleans up well enough before he goes to sleep that I don't have to do much in the morning so it's fine. How many staves did you manage to make then?"
"Just four, but I feel pretty good about the last two."
"Alright, you two avoid the deep woods while you're testing them, don't want a repeat of yesterday."
"We'll be careful uncle."
"Actually before we leave I got a new skill I want to test out if you guys would give me a hand."
That caught both of their attentions. While getting new skills was common enough it was still an exciting event.
"Now how did you manage to get a new skill working away all night? It's not something like sleep resistance is it?"
"No, it was a gift skill from my god."
"I didn't expect you to be the pious type," Thera chimed in.
"I'm definitely not, I just give a prayer or two a day to keep on his good side," Also admittedly a few while he was limping and bleeding, but he wasn't in the mood to bring that up again.
"Well then he must be fond of you brat, what's the skill?"
"It's called connect. If I can take one of your hands it should let me link up with you and feel your emotions."
"I'll pass," Thera had seemed interested up until she learned how it was used, but Falk for his part held out his hand.
"Alright brat let's give it a go. Always exciting to see a skill I haven't heard of before."
Ben grabbed his teacher's large hand and ran mana through his body, activating the skill. Immediately he was hit with two feelings, excitement and nervousness, and instantly knew they were coming from his teacher. They came at him so hard that it was a little overwhelming and apparently Falk felt the same way, breaking off the connection and taking a step back.
"Damn it lad you didn't mention it was a two-way connection. Go eat something from the back if you're that hungry."
"Oh sweet thanks," Ben ran and grabbed a quick bar of jerky to chew on before coming back. "So I was never told you would be able to feel my emotions too, or that hunger would count as an emotion, but still that was a neater experience than I thought it would be. I can't really see much use for it at the moment but I'll train it up a bit to see how it grows."
"It would be rude to neglect a skill your god saw fit to give you, just so long as you don't ignore your work here, do what you want. Though I don't think I'll be helping you with that a second time. Felt too weird."
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"Fair enough, how should I train it then?"
"Worry about that later." Thera cut in. "Let's go try these staves already."
Surprised but happy with her enthusiasm to try out his new works, they quickly went off to a field just outside of town that other adventurers and mages would go to train.
"Couldn't we go somewhere with a bit more privacy?" She asked him.
"Why? This is a designated training ground for this type of thing."
"It's just a bit embarrassing to have everyone see me fail at casting spells is all. Not to mention I know a few of the adventurers here…"
"Well if you aren't comfortable I guess we could venture a bit deeper into the woods, there are a lot of bugs in this area anyway." He told her, slapping something off the side of his neck.
She thought back to the events of the previous day and knew she had to make the responsible choice. "No, I told Falk we wouldn't go into the woods. Let's just get this over with and leave."
"Alright, in that case let's try the one you didn't end up using yesterday and then move on to the next two."
She did as she was told, starting with the first staff and trying to make her earth bullets. For all three she was able to get it off the ground, and the first two even let her throw them a couple meters, while the last one shattered with the ball of dirt floating in front of her.
"Okay then, that went about as well as expected," He said while Thera wiped away some dirt that blew all over her cloak and hood. "Now for the next two. I have a lot of confidence at least one of these will work out."
She looked at the remaining two staves a bit dubiously. Unlike the others that looked mostly like traditional staves, if not a bit rough. These two were monsters. Just thick rods that would take at least two hands to wield with no way of being useful in an actual fight.
"Aren't these a bit too big?"
"They're just prototypes, as long as they work I should be able to scale the size down a bit. Come on try the first one."
Still hesitating and with a bit more effort than she was used to for lifting a staff, Thera lifted the first one and prepared her spell. She felt her mana pass through it and started lifting up the earth. It was going surprisingly well at first and she was starting to feel confident, but as she lifted her staff above her head, preparing to swing it with her magic, it exploded, far more violently than any staff had before, as slivers of metal and dust flew all around her.
"Are you alright?" Ben yelled, reaching out to her, but she jerked away from his hand.
"I'm fine, that was just a little unexpected. What happened?"
"I was testing out a couple different ideas for the staves was all. The one you just used was made by layering different materials enchanted with varying levels of earth resistance. I put lower resistance in the center with a higher resistance on the outside so that must have caused a build-up of pressure while magic was passing through it. If you're okay let's try the second one then."
"It's not going to blow up too is it?" She asked, eyeing the rod suspiciously.
"For this one I did the opposite, giving it a resistant core that has progressively less resistance the closer to the outside it is, so probably not. Of course, I didn't expect the first one to blow up either so who's to say?"
She was far from confident after hearing his answer but she would never get a working staff if she didn't try them. She once again picked it up and started to pass her magic through it. It felt harder than before, like more of her mana was being lost compared to when she would usually use the spell, and she thought her ball of earth was slightly smaller than usual as well. Still she managed to get her earth bullet prepared in front of her. She gave her rod a swing, and it was looking good, being thrown farther than any of her previous attempts, a good twenty meters, before it fell apart.
She took a look at the staff in her hand. It was still intact, but only barely. Large cracks had formed throughout its surface, going down nearly to its core. But it hadn't shattered. Just to try she ran more mana through it to see if she could manage another spell, but that was more than it could handle and it fell apart in her hands.
So I'm on the right track then. I should be able to make it smaller no problem, but how will I get it sturdier? Is it just a question of what materials I use?" He looked up from his mutterings and turned to Thera. "How did it feel to use? Was there any issues?"
"Nothing major, I was able to use that spell about as well as I can with Falk's staff."
"That's good, but you could only do it once. I would like you to at least get four uses out of it before it breaks to put me on par with what Falk thought I could do. I'll have to experiment with some of the materials in the shop, maybe try something that has natural earth resistance? Or should I try to make a better composite material?"
"Um, so you think you'll be able to make something stronger then?"
"Without a doubt, it's more of a question of how long it will take. For now let's head back to the shop."
As they wandered back into town Ben decided it was time to ask a question that had been on his mind for a while now.
"So just to be clear, do you not like being touched in general or is it something about me in particular that bothers you?"
"What? Where did that come from?"
"I mean it's pretty obvious. Any time I've come close you've backed off immediately. It's not a problem or anything. I'll totally respect your boundaries, I just want to know if it's because of me in particular."
"It's not you, I just… I'm not one for physical contact. If you'll respect that then it's fine."
"Alright cool," A small load felt like it had been lifted from Ben's mind. Everyone has their preferences, he was just happy to know it wasn't anything against him as a person. "In that case, want to grab a bite?"
"I say I don't have a problem with you and your first thought is to make a move on me?" She responded, going on guard immediately.
He raised his hands in defense of himself. "Woah now, nobody's making a move on anybody, least of all my teacher's niece. I just thought it would be nice to try and get along since we'll be working together for a while. I don't really know anyone in town aside from Falk."
She let out a long sigh at his response, it would be easier to reject him if he was trying to flirt instead of just wanting to make a friend. "Look, you seem like a nice enough person but I'm not looking to make any friends. All that does is complicate things."
"Fair enough," He responded with a smile, though inside he was more than a little crestfallen. He really didn't have much of an idea on how to meet people and currently his only social interaction was with Falk and Myriad.
It would just be nice to have some more company outside of my head.
Still, he was hungry anyway so he stopped at a food cart for a bowl of… well it was something and the taste wasn't bad so it probably didn't matter, before scarfing it down and making it back to the shop.
They greeted Falk and Ben went back to the storage room to grab some new materials. At this point he had a pretty good idea of the properties of what was around so he grabbed a few that seemed like they could be useful and got experimenting.
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Thera had followed Ben back to the shop without much thought, but now that she was there she honestly wasn't sure why she had come. She had just finished telling him she wasn't interested in making friends and now here she was wasting her day hanging out with him.
Well, it couldn't strictly be called hanging out. "Does he always get so absorbed in his work, uncle?" The moment he grabbed everything he wanted from the storage room it was like nobody else was there.
"Why do you think he keeps falling asleep in the shop? Before I gave him a key I would always have to pull him from his work by nightfall or he wouldn't notice the time himself."
"Seems like he needs a hobby."
"He has his own problems just like you Thera, be nice to the boy."
"I'm not the one always calling him a brat," She said, giving her uncle what he suspected would be a pointed look if her face wasn't covered.
"Bah, I do it with affection. He'll start to grow on you. So are you going to head back and help Sonya at the clinic or stick around for a bit?"
"There's not really any reason to stay, I just thought I would say hi."
"Well why not watch the boy work for a bit? You might enjoy it."
"Why would I do that?"
"Let's say it's to teach you to appreciate the amount of work that goes into one of your staves. Besides I remember when you were a kid you'd always fall asleep after watching me work for hours."
"I'm not a child anymore," She replied reflexively, before giving it a little more thought. "But I guess it couldn't hurt to stay for a little at least."
Falk gave her a smile which she ignored and went to sit a little way from Ben. He really didn't notice she was there and she had to remember he had the focus skill, though she personally wasn't sure of its effects it seemed clear enough, and she had to wonder if he could tune out the world like that because he had the skill or if he had the skill because he was so naturally good at it.
Whatever it was he was completely absorbed in his work, which at the moment entailed grinding a variety of horns and bones in a mortar and pestle into a fine powder. She remembered watching Falk do the same when she was younger and thought he had been able to do it a lot quicker, but then again her uncle's levels were probably a lot higher than Ben's at the time, she shouldn't compare.
He was thorough in his work though, not taking his eyes off each material until it reached his standards, before putting the finished powder into a bowl off to the side and starting on the next one. Once all of that was done he went to the forge and pulled out some metal bars he must have put into it before she had come over and started pounding it out into a flatter sheet, and sprinkled some of the powdered bone or claw onto it before folding it in on itself, pounding it down again, and adding more.
The process repeated for six or seven more times, reheating as necessary before he was apparently satisfied with that particular sheet. It was left just outside the forge, but close enough that it would keep some of its heat. From there he repeated the processes again and again with different powders and different metals.
Thera would be embarrassed to admit that Falk had been right, this really was reminding her of when she would watch him work as a child. Seeing Ben's focus on his task helped the time flow by easily, it was at least more entertaining than helping clean for her aunt.
Once all the metals were apparently done, at least in his eyes, he started to cut a few smaller strips from two of them while leaving the other three in their original state, and started to wrap one around the other, and then the next on top of it and so on, until he had something a bit more thick and stout than the staves he had given her to use earlier that day.
When she saw what he'd made she thought it was about done, that it would still be a while before he could get it any smaller and she would just have to get used to using a bulkier tool for a while, but he continued to process it. It was put back into the forge and once heated was hammered and rolled out, stretching the material in length.
Once he had it a little longer than twice the length she would normally use, he hammered a wedge into the middle of it, breaking it in two before taking some time to round the ends off both into a nicer shape.
With that done he took a second to appraise his work, before stopping and yelling.
"Ah god damn it!"
Remove
And I would prefer if I hadn't just wasted a bunch of time.
"What's wrong?" Thera asked him, and Falk came to the back as well after hearing him yell.
"Oh hey, I didn't realize you were still here. Nothing wrong, in fact it's the opposite of wrong, it's good news. Just would have rather gotten it before starting on the new staves. My enchanting went up."
"Isn't that great though?" She was a little vexed at his apparent unhappiness. In the few days she'd known him his level went up for two separate skills, if only she could be so lucky.
"It is! It's fantastic. I just wish it happened before I started this is all."
"Ha boy I get you. There isn't a craftsman alive who doesn't know the pain of working hard on something only to suddenly become able to do a better job at it after the fact," Falk told him surprisingly sympathetically. "Unfortunately it comes with leveling. Your greatest gains in improvement always come after your best work. Speaking of, may I?" Gesturing at the two staves at the forge, he clearly wanted a look and Ben was happy to comply. It never hurt to have his teacher's opinion.
As he gave one a quick appraisal Falk couldn't help but let out a low satisfied whistle. "I gotta say boy, even if you're still learning a lot of the craft, you're probably the only one who could make a staff like this at your level. It's a clever idea, though definitely unusable to anyone but Thera."
"Wait, why?" Thera wanted to know. "Don't get me wrong it looks fine and all, but what has you so impressed?"
"Ben, did you tell her at all how you enchanted the staff?"
"I mentioned it a bit when she tried out the prototype earlier today, though that one was bulkier and only used three layers."
"Can you guys just tell me what you're talking about?" She asked in some exasperation.
Ben took the lead. "I didn't do anything too crazy, I was just able to create a five layer gradient of earth resistance enchantments. I'm pretty sure anyone could do it."
"But there's only a handful of people who could do it like you boy," He saw that Thera continued to not understand, so he went on to explain. "I'm not sure how much of his skills he's mentioned, but if he doesn't mind," Ben gave him a quick okay. "Alright, so one of the boys' blessed skills is enchanting. Now regularly enchanting can only apply about 10% of any affinity or resistance for every level you have in it, but since his is blessed that means he can get 15%, or 30% total since he was level one. Now ordinarily that still wouldn't be a ton but the boy has some really good earth resistance. Just the core of the staff alone has a resistance of 24."
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"Wait, that's almost as good as my actual earth resistance?"
"Well with the level up he could make something even greater, around 36 I believe."
"That's insane!" Falk had been right, she really needed to try and appreciate the work that went into one of the staves she could only get a few uses out of. Gods know she wouldn't have guessed it would take a resistance level that high just to make a staff she could use once.
Ben for his part had something else on his mind. "Come on now Falk, you know what I want to know."
His teacher let out a long sigh. "Now boy, this here is really good work. You shouldn't let an appraisal get to you."
"Aannd that means it's bad."
"Huuh… middle common."
"Middle common! Not even upper? I don't want to say I thought it would make it into uncommon, but this is some of my best work!"
"Uncle, that does seem a bit low. What's the issue with it? Will it not work?"
"No it will work fine. Like I said, it's good work. The issue is that it's a specialized tool. Wait, I'm not explaining this well, specialized tools don't get lower ratings, it's just a matter of how this particular one was specialized."
"What do you mean?" Ben asked, curious on where to improve.
"Let me show you, I have a bit of earth magic myself so let's use a simple spell." Falk held the staff in front of him and prepared his magic, forcing mana through the rod… only for nothing to happen.
"Um, Falk? Are you going to show us?"
"Brat I am. To any ordinary earth mage this is literally worse than a stick. The small amount of mana I was able to channel through it couldn't even pull together a few grains of dust, let alone an actual ball of earth. It's a staff only Thera could use. Since it's basically useless unless someone has enough raw power to deal with it you're lucky to get mid common."
"Man, that's way too disappointing."
"And that's why I said not to worry about it. You're too caught up in some arbitrary evaluation. What really matters is if the item you've made does the job the client needs."
"Your right, your right." Ben conceded before turning to Thera. "Hey I'm going to try and spend the rest of the day making some more staves with my new enchantment so hopefully we can have better luck tomorrow. Meet up just after sunrise as usual?"
"Sure."
"Okay sounds good, I'll see you then. Also Falk thanks for the advice I'll try not to let the ratings get to me."
"Of course brat. If I'm still here when you finish the next one come and grab me, I wouldn't mind giving it a look."
"Sounds good," With that he turned away from them both and got back to it. The next ones would be quicker at least since he still had some material prepped from his last batch. It was time to get to work.