Chapter 394

Chapter 394

As Thera returned, Ben gathered the main items he would need to begin to see if what he was doing was even going to be possible. Diamond sheets Thera had brought him back from Anailia days prior, a hundred of them each a centimeter thick and a square meter in size, all to serve one purpose; to act as a medium for the spell.

Normally, magic was simply cast through the air or water depending on where the species doing it lived, but that wasn’t an option for Ben. He couldn’t simply fire off the spells, he needed to examine them through the lens of enchanting, yet at the same time have them structured like a regular spell instead of through any one of the enchanting systems he was aware of. To combat those limitations, what he’d come up with was the idea of creating slices of the spell at a time on a sheet before holding them all together and letting mana pass through it all to see what the outcome would be, essentially holding the spell within a solid.

It was an excellent workaround to the issue in the difficulty of testing it, though it had some flaws. One of which was that the summoning spell didn’t just incorporate mana, but faith as well, though he was sure that he and the gods could calculate the difference at the end of things. The far bigger issue was just how much time it was going to take to test every section.

The summoning spell was big. Unreasonably big. When he’d first looked at it he thought it was roughly the size of a large house, and that opinion still stood. He’d thought it had been such a good idea when he’d gotten Myriad to cut it into pieces for him, but that forced him to consider an aspect he hadn’t had to before. Volume. By dividing the entire thing into cubic meters, he’d been left with an altogether ridiculous number of 8100 to have to look through, with many more to go. His only saving grace was that there didn’t seem to be any of the same sort of detail work he’d seen on Galwax’s trial after his mana examination had improved. Everything that was there was within his current ability to replicate with his enchanting, meaning he wasn’t going to need to further subdivide it all just for his tests.

But I’m still looking at what? Months or years of work if I focus exclusively on that? I’ll at least in theory be able to cut down on time a bit if I can confirm any of the numerous effects, but there's still testing how everything works together and after I finish testing the bits I’ll need to go and combine them into their two by two meter sections to be sure nothing changes too much as they interact with each other, and from their make four by four meter sections and by that point, the mana cost is going to be ridiculous, especially when you consider the fact that I’m already going to need to be using a bunch of rainbow mana crystal for the smaller sections to power it and see how it turns out and this is really going to be so much work, isn’t it?

Helori scoffed in his head.

There are no unsolvable questions, especially if it’s possible to get an answer through brute force. Anyway Helori, since your wonderful, talented, hardworking student is going to have his hands full enough with just this, can you watch from your end and try to estimate where and how faith would affect the bits I’m testing based on the results I get?

You’ll accept me one day. Maybe today after you see just how well this goes.

And with that last back and forth he finally got started.

For each other section, those areas had shown equally unusual changes for the spells of other affinities, telling him that there was something going in in the areas mana passed through as he took detailed notes of the particular flow for each, wanting to go back and study the results in detail to see if the changes would still exist if he mimicked those particular parts or if they were dependant on the greater whole.

Beyond that, whether areas would be strengthened, weakened, or display how he’d expected would vary, while a few of each affinity didn’t seem to activate at all in sections that had been fine for the others.

There were also a couple that were consistently stronger or weaker no matter the spell attached so that could be worth looking into deeper as well. Is it a way to enhance the effects or is it a coincidence? Maybe some mana is moving from weaker sections to stronger ones to give the spell a little more oomph? This is only block one so hopefully after a few more, I’ll have a better idea.

Helori told him dryly.

What other choice do I have? Hopefully, after testing a dozen or so I’ll be able to start making predictions on how sections should act and if I get good enough at making predictions then just maybe I won’t need to test them all and can just figure it out with the information I have. Besides miss magic goddess, there’s no way you can say you aren’t interested.

Okay, well no need to be a defeatist about it, I have Myriad to watch too so you both can split your time, and it’s not like you need to watch the setup, just the results.

Myriad cut in, leaving Ben to shrug.

Then bring in some other magic gods. Nare too, he’s a god of crafting and challenge, right? The spell is basically a piece of magic craftsmanship and I can’t imagine anything much more challenging than figuring it out. Plus, let me remind you that you’re all just estimating the effects of faith on the bits you’re seeing, I’m the sucker putting the rest of it together. Now come on, complaining never gets anything done and I want to do one more tonight.

He ignored the grumbling in his head as he turned to his girlfriend, seeing Thera passed out in his bed with a book in her hands as a tiny bit of guilt gnawed at him. He couldn’t let this project consume him when either of them could be dead in a couple weeks, after the night was up he’d be sure to exclusively work on it when he knew she would be going to sleep.