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“So, what did you need me for today?” Thera asked as Ben and his clones were swarming her, moving her arms and legs and eyeing measurements as they did.

“Getting you outfitted. Now that the rest of the day’s work is done, you’re my main project for the time being.”

“Okay, why though?”

“Better safe than sorry,” He shrugged. “I don’t exactly want you needing something while we’re at the invasion points and not having it, hence getting as much of that sorted out now while we can. That means duplicate armours and staves and a couple other things.”

She looked at him through narrowed eyes. “What couple other things?”

“Don’t worry about it,” He told her as amongst the flurry of activity going on around them, one of the homunculi very clearly dropped a pile of mind circlets into a spatial bag. “What matters right now is getting a few copies of your armour made up in case anything goes wrong, as well as a pile of staves. I don’t exactly anticipate you breaking your current one but this is one of those better to have it and not need it situations. I’m thinking ten of each to be on the safe side.”

“That feels like overkill.”

“Probably but that’s why it’s called the safe side. I can imagine a world where things get bad enough you somehow manage to break a couple staves in that time, but ten? Absolutely not. Anyway, you’ve been using both for a while now, anything I could improve for anything you use?”

“No, it’s all comfortable so just more of the same will be fine.”

“Okay cool, that makes things easy.”

With nothing to change, his many bodies began to move, taking advantage of the new workspace he’d bought as they split themselves up between the tasks, with Thera not looking at the staff or armour groups, but instead the third, not doing any smithing but instead focusing on alchemy.

“So what are they up to then?”

“Just an experiment, one second,” He told her as the first vial of mystery liquid was complete, downing it and judging its results. “Hmm, doesn’t taste terrible which is a plus and I don’t seem poisoned which is another, although I’m supposedly poison-proof enough that I’m not really the best person to use as a standard for that. As for its effects…”

He materialized as much rainbow mana crystal as he could, bringing his total pool to its bottom before counting how long it would take to refill and finding it took only a little over five minutes, a bit less than half his normal rate, telling him the potion he’d modified was performing better than expected, all that was left was making sure it would be safe for Thera’s consumption.

“Here, drink this but keep an eye on yourself for a while afterwards. I’m not expecting any serious side effects but it never hurts when trying something new.”

She did as he asked, downing it without any immediate reaction and leaving Ben to focus on what to worry about next once he was confident he hadn’t just poisoned her.

“So with that done, the other way to make sure your mana regen gets another boost would be some light-enchanted equipment but at the same time you’ll be passing through a hospital every time you move from one point to another, there’s definitely going to be light mages there so we could just get them to buff your rates instead. Okay, that sounds like a plan. Other than that, I don’t exactly know the quality of food we’re going to have to deal with so I’ll prepare some time-enchanted boxes to hold some fresh meals and other than that…”

“And other than that, maybe work on something for yourself?” Thera told him, nodding to his jacket. “I know you like it Ben, but it doesn’t exactly hold up well.”

“Against all of the assholes with awakened skills that have tried to kill me, it would work fine otherwise!”

“Well, seeing as how you have no say in who’s going to try and kill you, maybe it’s something you could work on a bit?”

“Okay, fine, point taken, I’ll work on it when I’m done here.”

He didn’t mind giving it an upgrade, he’d just need to think a bit on how he wanted to do it, but that would be a later problem. He was happy to focus entirely on what he’d need to get set up for Thera for the time being, only stopping that bit of work when his teacher popped his head through the gate between the two workshops.

“You two have a spare minute?”

“We can. What’s up, Falk?”

“I told you I’d show you what I was working on when it was done and now it is so come on.”

He didn’t need to say another word. It took everything Ben had to make sure his homunculi were comfortably put away in their cases instead of letting them drop to the ground then and there as he rushed out to follow his teacher, Thera joining out of her own curiosity as to what someone at the third tier could have been working on. 

As they went to the main gate network and passed through to the magic towers, it took all Ben had to keep himself contained instead of bouncing and jumping through the streets in anticipation before they seemingly arrived at their destination. A warehouse, much the same as what Ben had bought for himself, only swarmed with workers and guards and officials from churches all over to manage strict control of who could get in or out, not that it was a problem for them. With Falk as the one in charge of the facility, no one was going to question who he saw fit to bring along, nor did they have the authority to. As the holder of a skill at its third tier, he arguably had more international power than the leaders of most nations, that was how highly his achievement was respected and valued.

And getting in didn’t disappoint. The second they were inside, Ben immediately was able to see the dense tangle of enchantments taking up most surfaces around them as he instantly began trying to decipher their purpose, rushing from place to place as he took it all in with no mind paid to the people trying to work around him.

“Well?” Falk asked, sounding amused as he wondered if his student would be able to get it himself, with that same student breathlessly giving the answer to its purpose.

“Enchanting factory. For weapons specifically. Holy crap, no wonder you were so busy.”

Ben already knew that third-tier skill holders could create a structure of enchantments that could further enchant on specific items it was placed on, with the only example he knew of being the cards throughout the world that let people see their status, but it appeared his teacher had just changed that in a huge way.

Throughout the building were a series of divots that weapons of all shapes and sizes could be placed in to be enchanted upon and not waiting for permission, Ben materialized a spearhead that would fit one of them before inserting it and taking it out to see what would be created.

High ultra-rare for something that wasn’t even properly forged and with no alchemic enhancers either, looks like the only reason it won’t be producing legendary items is because it needed to accommodate the fact that there isn’t going to be the sort of consistency between any weapons it works on that you’d get from having one consistent shape over and over again like the cards. Still, god damn, this is going to be huge. Man, I want to be able to do this so freaking bad.

He could only imagine everything he’d be able to make if he ever got to that level himself, weapons and tools that could reshape the world as they knew it if only he could get the skill to pull it off.

I want to go enchant something right this second.

“God, Falk, I need the world to win just so I’ll have a chance to get to this point one day,” Ben sighed. “Give me an extra decade of life to make it happen, that’s all I ask.”

“And as bizarre as it is to hear that’s the reason you want the world survivin’ in the end, I’ll admit I’m pretty proud,” His teacher laughed. “It’s all been tested so we know it works and it starts up in earnest tomorrow. Before you know it the world’s gonna be flooded with my works.”

“I’ll bet. I am so insanely jealous.”

Considering the enchantments would go down on it almost instantly, Ben could only imagine how much would be going through that building in a single day. Tens of thousands of pieces didn’t seem unreasonable but the limiting factor was going to be how many items they’d be able to make to enchant upon, meaning the total would probably drop a bit below its maximum potential.

Except they’ll probably have stuff sent from all over the world to be enchanted here. Damn, that’s gonna be a lot. Meaning all that’s left is what I can do for myself.

Just seeing it was raising his competitive spirit. Ben wanted to improve. He always did of course, but then and there he wanted to do more. He wanted to catch up to his teacher, to match that level of enchanting and apply it to his own work and his mind was already rushing to figure out how to get there.