Chapter 179

Chapter 179

He’d put off creating Thera’s new staff for long enough. His crafting level was far higher than he’d initially planned for it to be and with them about to embark on a long trek to hunt anything they could find along the way, a good quality staff was a must. It was with all of that in mind that he finally sat her down in front of him and pulled out a sharp pair of scissors.

“Are you sure you can do this?” She asked, sounding nervous as she did. “We can always wait until we get to Anailia so my mom can do it.”

“I mean, it’s your hair. If you’d prefer that then we can wait.”

“Mmh...” She had a brief but intense internal debate trying to decide what was more important, the chance for a good staff or the chance for a bad haircut, and though it was close her desire to have a staff that wouldn’t break won out in the end. “Alright, go ahead. It’s not like anyone will see it if you mess up anyway.”

“I’m not going to mess up so don’t worry,” He told her, trying to calm her down. “At the very least I’m confident that I won’t do anything that would make you look terrible, if it needs a little bit of fixing up after then your mom can manage.”

As he said that he started running his fingers through her hair, looking at the way it naturally wanted to fall along her head as he tried to figure out where would be the best way to cut it as he did, before taking the plunge and making the first snip. After he did that the rest became far easier as he treated it like any other project and let himself get lost in it.

It didn’t take long before he was done, having cut it to be just above her shoulders, he looked it over carefully and was personally quite happy with how it turned out. Everything was even and he hadn’t left her with a bald spot, so he was sure she’d be satisfied, and feeling like getting a little creative he started to style it a bit next.

“Aren’t you done?”

“I’m just doing a quick braid, it will look nice, don’t worry.”The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

The kind he was putting in her hair, a half-up crown braid was quick and easy enough, and once he was finished and had everything in place he grabbed a mirror to show off the result.

“So what do you think?” He asked, feeling pretty good about it.

“It’s nice. I don’t really do anything like this since I’m always in my cloak, but I like it. How do you even know how to do this sort of thing?”

“When I was a kid I liked to braid bracelets and stuff, and since I was pretty good at it my mom thought it would be fun to teach me how to do her hair so I learned a few different ones. It’s easy enough, I can show you how sometime if you want?”

“Mmm, I’ll think about it. It’s not something I can see myself doing honestly, but it might be nice to learn.”

“Well, I guess I can always just do it for you instead if you ever want to fancy up a bit, just let me know. Anyway, with that done I guess I’ll head out to work on your staff so swing by the shop in the morning.”

“Ben, it’s late, the rest of the town has already shut down for the day,” She told him incredulously. “I can wait till tomorrow to get it and you need to actually sleep more than a couple of hours a night.”

He could see she wasn’t going to back down on forcing him to take care of himself and with a bit of hesitation, he gave in.

It is kind of important that I get this right the first time, getting a bit of extra sleep won’t hurt.

He woke up in the morning, ready to make a simple breakfast for Thera and Sonya to enjoy when they got up, only to find Thera already awake. It seemed the exciting prospect of a better staff had made it hard to stay asleep, so with more energy than she knew what to do with she decided to go watch him make it.

He didn’t mind the company, it being a nice alternative to the few hours he’d typically spend alone so early in the morning as they went to the shop and he got started. He’d been planning this for a while and an idea was firmly developed in his head.

Unlike the majority of the staves he’d made her, this one wouldn’t be metal in its nature, at least not to the extent it normally was. Instead, he would be taking advantage of the wood he’d received from the dryads, shaping one of the two remaining branches he’d received into a more proper shape, cutting and sanding away the rougher, more natural look of the wood to create something smoother and more pleasant to handle. While it didn’t look overly impressive for the time being though, that wouldn’t be true when it was done.

With the basic shape formed he carefully drilled a thin hole through its core, stretching from the bottom to almost the tip of the staff, stopping just before he’d get through the top. At the head of the staff he carefully inserted a variety of thin yet sturdy pins, creating minuscule holes he planned to put to use later, and with the most delicate parts of the woodworking complete, moved on to cutting channels up the length of the staff, creating an intersecting quadruple-helix as he went to be filled in after.

Finally, the time came to use the golden hair, possibly the toughest material to determine the proper way to work with. From earlier tests he confirmed the properties that seemed apparent to him. When removed from her head, it still acted as one would expect hair would, minus the fact that it could be melted down to turn into regular gold. Since he couldn’t determine if doing so would destroy the properties he’d wanted to preserve, that meant working it in an almost unaltered state, and that was exactly what he did.

With all but a few strands he twisted them, before binding them to a sturdy silver wire and sliding it within the core of the staff, getting it exactly where he wanted it to be as he moved on to the next part, carefully sliding the few remaining hairs into the pinholes he’d created, letting the strands meet the central core before he secured them the best he could before moving to the forge to heat up three different metals, one of which he’d be needing shortly.

Trap userTree tamerCraftsman- alchemy pathCraftsman- artistic pathCraftsman- blacksmith pathCraftsman- cooking pathCraftsman- stonecrafts pathCraftsman- sewing pathHereticHoly craftsmanKinTankMathematicianFractured mind userMagic weapon maker

Name: Ben Heph

Race: Human

Titles: Apostle of Myriad, The Forgotten One, Miracle Maker, Skill learner

Jobs: Magic weapon maker (lv 1)

Previous Jobs: Apprentice craftsman, Craftsman, Priest, Enchanter, Mind user, Magic item maker

Attributes:

Vitality: 183Vitality recovery rate: 2/hrMana: 120Mana recovery rate: 7/minStrength: 186Agility: 85Stamina: 689Intelligence: 379





Affinities:

Light: 3Life: 2Fire: 4Water: 3Air: 4Earth: 2Death: 3Dark: 1Space: 4Time: 5





Resistances:

Light: 68Life: 72Fire: 75Water: 69Air: 66Earth: 81Death: 78Dark: 85Space: 63Time: 61





Blessed skills:

Crafting lv7Enchanting lv6Focus lv6





Passive skills:

World speak+Tolerance lv2Sacrilege lv3Complex mind lv3BindPartial demonic bodyDefense enhancement lv1Parallel thought lv1Ambidexterity

Active skills:

Dismantling lv3Stealth lv1Connect lv6Hidden mind lv4Calculate lv3 Knife wielder lv0Hammer wielder lv0Meditation lv1Cycling lv0

Blessings

Myriads BlessingAnailias Blessing

Trials

Trial of Anailia and Tolona

So the bonuses are the same for magic item maker, huh?

He’d suspected as much, but it was still a turn of events he was quite pleased with. Even if it was his only one, enchanting did qualify as a magic skill, and since it also fell under crafting as well he harbored a small, secret hope that it meant it was drawing dual bonuses from the single job. It wasn’t something he could be certain about without finding someone with an awakened analysis skill, but even if he was wrong it didn’t matter too much, any job that let him get bonuses to it was a benefit. All that mattered was how he would work through the experience for it, especially when he had a few weeks he’d be stuck in the woods, without a forge to make weapons for the job experience.

If only I could bring the entire forge to the woods. He thought to himself before an idea struck him. Wait, maybe I don’t need to? I’ll have to do some testing to see what nets me job experience.

“Are you all done?” Thera asked, seeing he’d finished with both the crystal and his card.

“Yep, you’re looking at a magic weapon maker now.”

“In that case, come on, I want to try this out.”

Her excitement was palpable and he couldn’t help but muse that if it did work the drop in his staff production might end up as a loss to his current job experience as they headed out into the training grounds.