Chapter 49

Chapter 49

“Finally,” He quietly sighed and prepared to slink off for the night. He most certainly wasn’t expecting a reply to his casual thought, but one came anyway.

“That's what I want to say,” Thera spoke, laying down still but eyes clearly open.

“Oh sorry Thera, did I keep you up?”

“No, I went to sleep fine eventually. I’ve been awake for over an hour. It’s morning Ben.”

He looked to her window and found that though the curtains were closed, there was indeed light leaking through them, gently filling the room.

“Wow, that took a lot longer than I thought it would,” He said offhandedly.

“I’ll say. At least you were lost in your own little world. I was stuck doing nothing the entire time, dealing with those two peering in on occasion and laughing.”

She sat up and Ben did his best to not pay too close attention to the pajamas she wore, something resembling a cotton nightgown, as she gestured to the doorway with her head.

He turned to look and found both Falk and Sanya grinning.

“So how did that go lad?” His teacher asked him.

“I applied the enchantment. All that's left to do is see if it works. Should we be asking a guard again?”

“No need, I whipped something up quick before coming here, I’ll just need you to apply the enchantments,” He pulled out a stick with ten different pegs in it.

When Sonya saw it her eyes widened and she spoke out. “ Wait Falk, isn’t that-”

“Why don’t we let the boy save the reveal. Gotta see if it works first anyway,” His teacher interrupted her. “Now boy, let's leave the house for a minute and I’ll tell you how to finish this, okay?”

“Sure, can do,” He said, not really understanding the point but obeying his teacher anyway. They went outside and walked for a minute away from the house when Falk handed the stick to him. “So what is this anyway?” Ben asked.

“A simple way to measure passive magics, the only issue is you need someone with high enough resistances to set it up. Now link your dark resistance with the bind spell, and attach each peg to the base, increasing each time. Start at four and end at forty.”

Ben followed his instructions and did as he was told, quickly applying the enchantments and then started to head back to the house and Theras room. One by one the pegs began to fall as they got closer, making him realise how it worked while at the same time crushing his spirit.

Falk however was staring at it intensely as they moved back to the waiting Thera and Sonya, eventually making it back to the room.

“Sorry to have wasted your night Thera, it looks like this was a bust,” He told them, filled with disappointment.

She was going to ask what it was supposed to do anyway since she still wasn’t in the loop, when his teacher stopped him. “Not so fast boy. Hand Thera that and let's see what happens.”

There was no harm so he did as he was told and walked across the room to hand it to her. Of the remaining four standing pegs, one fell as he got closer, leaving only three remaining upright as Thera took the device. As she grabbed onto it two more fell, leaving only one remaining

They all moved to the kitchen, everyone excited to see what the result would be, and Ben got to work. He connected with Sonya for the first time, feeling excitement coming off of her in waves but he ignored that and instead focused on making the enchantment, first attempting it on the biggest brace that Falk brought.

Even if the time was flying by as he worked, Ben could tell there was no comparing how long it had taken to make Thera's to Sonya's, her magic was just that much smaller and more manageable. Before he knew it he had her mana wrapped with his enchantment and he was done. He broke off the connection and looked at the faces around him, all looking on with surprise.

“What’s with the looks?”

It was his teacher who took it upon himself to answer. “Ben, that couldn’t have taken more than thirty minutes.”

“Yeah that tracks,” He responded nonchalantly. “Sonya has significantly less mana leaking from her than Thera after all.”

“I don’t think you’re thinking of the implications right now, but fine. Thera go put on your cloak so Ben can set up the passometer, would you? And Ben just set it up from 10 to 14 and 20 to 24, would you?”

They both did as they were instructed, though Thera was disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to see the results for herself, and Ben set up the device.

“Sonya, could you release your charm? Let's see if there's any difference.”

“Um Falk, I had stopped using it when Ben started on his enchantment, I didn’t know if it would interfere at all,” She told him, looking at the passometer in Ben’s hand.

“That was probably a good call actually but...” He was eyeing the tool himself, not a single peg had fallen. “Ben, hand it to her.”

Sonya grabbed onto it, and they all stared in silence. All except Thera that is. “Can someone tell me what’s happening? I still can’t see anything.”

“None of the pegs have fallen. Not even in the 10 to 14 range,” Falk answered, looking to Ben. “Boy, Sonya's charm is in the upper-middle range of what succubi have, and you’ve completely blocked it.”

“Okay, that’s cool and all, but why won’t it work for Thera then?” That was the main reason he’d tried to make it after all, he wanted it to work out as well, though hearing this only made Falk sigh.

“The sheer scale of her mana probably causes it to leak through the enchantment. Boy I get you haven’t met your goal, but you really need to look at the broader implications of this. I told you before that tools that block passive magics are either expensive or take too long to make right? Yours just solved both issues.”

“Alright but mine has a completely different issue. I’m currently the only one with the connect skill, we would need others to get it as well as enchanting for it to have a real impact.”

“Don’t worry about that for now, there's a lot of other things we’ll need to do first before we even begin to worry about that. Let’s see, first you said your enchanting level went up, right? You have to remove the enchantment you put on Thera's brace and try to re-apply it. After that I’m going to have to get in touch with some people and set up some meetings, but if we’re going to try that I’ll have to finish Thera’s new cloak, I should be able to get that done in around five days. Of course we’ll need to see if you could apply the same level of enchantment to some of the smaller braces and bracelets as well... am I forgetting anything?”

“Um Falk? What are you all talking about?” Ben asked, unsure what to do about all of his teacher’s mutterings.

“Don’t worry about it boy. For now just focus on removing Thera’s enchantment and starting a new one, the best you can too. We need to see how leveling up impacted your ability to make hers.”

“Okay sounds good, but there’s one important thing I have to do first.”

“What could you possibly need to do that would trump this?”

“Sleep. I’ve been awake for almost a whole day, staying up for another ten or twelve hours to do that enchantment again is way too much.”