Chapter 255

Chapter 255

The next day actually managed to be calm for Ben after the hecticness of the prior two. His friends all seemed strangely on edge despite his constant assurance that he was used to just what sort of world they now lived in and would probably be fine if they wanted to do something else, but there was always at least a few hanging over his shoulder as he finally got to work on Amy’s weapon.

What he had been putting the most of his effort that day towards was cutting the white mana crystal he was going to be using, making multiple discs the size of large coins only thicker and setting them each in the mythril they would need to extract the mana from the magical gems.

He put more effort into what was a simple task for him than he ever normally would, making sure each crystal he cut was perfectly uniform in size, the mythril bound to each surface polished to a mirror finish and ending up with sixteen by the time he was finally done. It was far more than he actually needed, and given how expensive the materials were, it was beyond wasteful, but he had no choice if he wanted a chance at success. Even though he typically used the materials to help supply mana to his tools and items, that wasn’t the only area where they’d shine compared to cheaper options. They were also incredibly good at holding large complex enchantments without breaking, and given what he had in mind to do with them he still didn’t trust that he’d be able to get away without losing a few.

God, I can’t believe I’m preparing to lose half of these freaking things to make this. Having money has warped my sense of value.

He put them away for the time being, leaving the next step for later. He wanted to do some tests before it came time to properly make the various enchantments he’d be using, so he turned to Jake to give him the good news.

“Alright, it looks like I’m making you what you wanted earlier than expected so look forward to it.”

“You’re making bikini armour?” He asked enthusiastically, doubling over from the quick strike of Vasta, his non-affinitied magic teacher that was in charge of watching him for the day instead of Uliel.

“Degenerate boy,” The woman scolded him. “Don’t go teaching Yuzu about weird things. Amy told me all about your request.”

“Also there’s no way I could make that without it being inferior to properly enchanted armour. Seriously, why do you want it so bad?”

“I mean, we’re going to be in a fantasy war eventually! You need to have warriors in bikini armour to complete the scene!” He yelled in his defense. “Besides, wouldn’t it be easier for Amy to move in something like that compared to-”

He couldn’t finish the thought as this time it was Amy who shut him up, enough anger in her eyes to make him think twice about continuing to speak.

“In that case, I could make her a very good set of leather armour,” Ben told him. “With the enchantments I could put in it she wouldn’t need to worry about most piercing damage, or better yet you guys could take a look at the cloak me and Falk worked on for Steph since it’s got pretty great immunity to both physical and magical damage. To make bikini armour I’d need to be able to enchant with barrier magic in a way I just can’t at my current level, probably wouldn’t be able to unless I could use it in an awakened form too. Not to say I couldn’t make you anything interesting with it since it’s going to make your lightsaber possible.”

Jake’s eyes lit up with the news, both his teacher’s and his girlfriend's wrath forgotten as Ben's own teacher's curiosity was piqued.

“Some sort of sword from your land boy?” Falk asked, wanting to hear more about a potentially new weapon.

“More like one from a popular story. Anyway Jake, how functional do you want it to be?”

“Is that even a real question?”

“I just don’t want to be responsible for an archmage cutting something important off swinging it around. Not going to be a good look for me.”

“It will be fine, give it all the deadly force it deserves!”

Item GradeMiddle rareItem GradeMiddle rare

“Ha, where are my manners? I’m an employer of your teacher and the head of the craftsman's guild. The name’s Iberu, mind if I have a closer look at what you’ve made?”

He wasn’t expecting to meet a big shot but handed the item over, assuming that it would be fine since Falk knew him but gave a warning anyway. “Just be careful where you’re pointing it if you run any mana through it, I’d rather not be skewered.”

“Nothing to worry about on that front, I just wanted to admire the craftsmanship,” He said as his eyes ran over it and he muttered his thoughts. “Marvelous, to fit together and combine so many enchantments is no easy feat. Tell me though, why do you have this one air enchantment on it? It seems out of place, though set up in an interesting way at least.”

“Customer satisfaction. The guy I made it for definitely wants it to have sound effects so I built some in, no matter how unnecessary they are.”

“Ah, I see. Making what the client is looking for is just as important as anything else, isn’t it?” He nodded approvingly as he handed it back. “A fabulous piece of work. You should have old Falk bring you around sometime, I’d love to have a longer talk if we could but I have much to see for the day.”

“Well, I’ve got a few books to pick up from the guild when this is over so I’d be happy to pick your brain a bit then.”

At that, Iberu broke into a laugh as Falk muttered quietly enough that only he would hear. “He’s not the head of the local branch boy, he’s the head of the entire guild.”

“What? Falk, how do you know so many bigwigs? Share some of these connections man!”

“Ha, I’d say by having Falk you have one of the best connections you could hope to,” Iberu told him as he waved goodbye. “If you ever have a reason to visit craftsman tower though stop by. I’d welcome the chat as well.”

Once gone, he shot his teacher a look that was loaded with questions and completely easily ignored, leaving him nothing to do but sigh.

Mysterious jerk. Just tell me these things already.

Still, he wouldn’t learn what his teacher wasn’t willing to tell and instead turned to hand off the sword to Jake who was eagerly waiting off to the side with the others, giving him a warning first.

“Just make sure you have the guard pointed away from you when you have your mana running through it and don’t activate it while pointing it at anything you don’t want to kill.”

“You got it!”

With an uncomfortable display of enthusiasm, he poured his mana into it, resulting in a narrow beam of red fire and light growing with the thin barrier enchantment that came out the end, stopping when it was about as long as an arm. Jake immediately started swinging it, causing the ball within to move along the air enchantment he’d created, giving off the exact sound effect Ben knew he would want.

“Wouldn’t it be better if it was silent?” Amy asked as she kept an eye on Jake, making sure he didn’t hurt anyone or himself. “Feels like this would just be distracting in a fight and make it so you couldn’t catch anyone by surprise.”

“Some things are more important than practicality,” Jake told her. “Ben, this is perfect and you’re the best.”

“Just don’t accidentally cut off any of your limbs please.”