Chapter 63

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.

“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.

Evening had come and gone, and Thera hadn’t seen anything of Ben. He’d missed all of the meals and he hadn’t been at the craftsmen’s guild when she went for a walk to check. It was only before dinner she bothered to ask anyone where he was that she found out he was in the workshop in the back, so rather than share an awkward meal with her family she went to see what he’d spent the day doing.

He was sitting at a desk peering through a magnifying glass at whatever he was working on. She was sure he hadn’t noticed her coming in, he was too focused on his work, and decided to have some fun with him since he disappeared for the entire day without a word.

As quietly as she could she crept up behind him and brought her face right to his ear.

“Boo!”

It got the desired effect and he jumped up, flinging something across the room in the process.

He took a second to catch his breath and calm his heart before turning to look at her. “Was that really necessary?”

She shrugged. “You disappeared for the entire day without a word. Seeing as how we may die in a week I thought you might want to plan something out.”

After she pointed that out he looked a little sheepish. “Okay yeah, my bad. Well, help me find the little piece of mythril I just launched across the room and then we’ll talk about it.”

She instantly felt terrible about her little prank. Even if her parents could supply it, mythril wasn’t something you let yourself just casually lose, so she got on the floor and started searching with him.

Ben moved a light around, trying to see the glitter of the metal, and after a few minutes they managed to find it.

“Thank god, hand-making all of these is honestly such a pain in the ass, I’m glad I didn’t need to do this one over.”

“What are you even making?” To Thera, it looked like nothing more than an oddly shaped piece of metal no bigger than a small seed, but it looked like there were well over a hundred on the desk and she couldn’t begin to imagine what they were for.

“It’s called a zipper. I haven’t seen any clothing with them around so I’d bet they aren’t used in this world but when it’s done it will basically act the same way as buttons do to keep clothes closed.”

She blinked as she processed what she was just told. “You’re telling me you’re using mythril, one of the rarest metals on the planet, to make some buttons.”

“Basically but hear me out, I’m enchanting an outfit and I don’t want to have to supply the mana to it myself.”

She let out a sigh. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. So what enchantments are you using then?”

“I’ll, um, tell you later when it’s done.” He could already feel the disapproval he would get when she found out what he was doing and felt the need to immediately change the topic before she got anything out of him. “So for the trial, I asked around and it sounds like people typically complete it between a week or two, so I’ve already gotten one of the staff to buy us two weeks of nonperishable food. I’ve also gotten us some sleeping rolls and a tent, and I’ve prepared a couple new tools already. I’ll test them out with you later if you’d like. Hopefully I’ll be able to make a few more things before we head in but we’ll see. I’ll also see if I can borrow a forge somewhere so I can make you a new staff to use. Anything else you think we should worry about?”

“Um no, you seem to have things well enough in hand.” Thera hadn’t given the fact they would need to eat and sleep any consideration, she had been so focused on just being strong enough to survive, so Ben having already planned for that may have actually been lifesaving. “But why not just use one of the staves I’ve already got prepared? Sounds like you have a lot you want to get done over the next week.”

“Two main reasons. First, I could only get two extra shots on your other staves when I added sacrificial enchantments to them, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get more out of it if I build the staff myself so I can design it in a way to hold more.”

“Okay? And the other one?”

“When we beat this I don’t want some other craftsman getting the glory for being the one to make the princess’s weapon.” He told her teasingly, with a roll of her eyes being his reward.

“Still not a princess.”

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