Chapter 63

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.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

"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."

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."