Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

The day that followed ended up straying from his new norm just a little. Instead of spending so much of his time pumping out weapons to do his part for the world, he first went to visit Killi at the magic towers, submitting reports of his discoveries to get her help with handling before taking advantage of the fact he was there by reading even more, finally finishing the second floor.

That of course left him with the largest to go, the first which was made up of not only what could be found in the main building, but many of the surrounding ones as well, but that was an issue for another day. He’d made a fair bit of progress with his work and was happy to go home and indulge in a normal night, making dinner for everyone and talking before turning in, back to the archive.

Originally, he’d wanted a bit more of a break than a single day after spending so much time in it but it was hard to hold himself back. He felt the call of a mystery in those untouched pages and wanted to do everything he could to finish them, and given the work he’d already put in, was well on the way to making that happen. After all, he did have a few books he could complete right away, the only reason he hadn’t was because of the excitement that came with the enchanting modifier that he couldn’t keep himself from testing.

Now though he was able to finish the rest that shared the language without a second thought before he started on the remaining few, chipping away at them one by one as each book turned red to match his comprehension, even if he found himself getting little of value for most of it.

It wasn’t like there wasn’t anything interesting, he couldn’t say that after the enchanting discovery and a few other valuable bits of research. The issue was just that he’d seen plenty of it before. The world he was on was composed of so many races that after coming together had joined their knowledge of magic and spent so much time growing into what they now were, even if plenty of it was well done, it was hard to find anything truly novel compared to what he’d found in the uncountable number of books he’d already read in the magic towers library.

Much of what he was seeing in the archive was stuff that came naturally to some races as well, combined affinities. It seemed Galwaxians didn’t get them naturally so when someone figured out how to imitate options like lightning or plant it was a big deal to them, or at least that was Ben’s guess. All of which added together to make the most of what he’d actually learned ended up being a list of dead languages instead of anything as life-changing as that one particular book had been.

Of course, I just might be the wrong guy for plenty of this. Who’s to say that nobody else who actually holds some of these affinities wouldn’t be able to look at these memories and be inspired to reach even greater heights in their skills? I was able to get something great the moment I came across enchanting so it might just take the right eye to see the value. Plus I’m sure experiencing memories is probably a lot easier than reading a bunch of books for plenty of people if they want to improve their technique.

In the end, it didn't really matter. With time flying by he put the final book away, only to be left with a problem as he stood right before the finish line. A single blue book left, one he’d skipped over in the hopes he’d find more examples of the language it was spoken in, only to come up empty with it being the one book without any other resources.

Without more, that meant he had nothing he could go off of to help him beyond the small bit of context that each of the memories provided for what was being thought, as well as the possibility that he might find related words in the various other languages he’d learned, even if that meant the task was going to be so much more challenging right from the get-go.

It showed another combined magic, one he was deeply familiar with after being stuck in the dead god’s trial. Blessing magic, the same one that Greed possessed and was a combination of light and life. The skill the mage seemed to be using it with looked impressive by all accounts, but the fact that being able to comprehend the thoughts behind the actions was the only thing stopping him from getting that last book finished was driving him mad.

He spent tens of perceived hours going through that one book again and again, looking at every little thing along with the mage’s notes in the back, trying to see how it might compare against the other languages represented in the archive, only to still fail in the end.

He believed he could do it, it was only a matter of time, but at the very least he needed a break from the overly dull task and decided to leave the archive for the night, going up to his god’s realm to pursue a different avenue for his study.

“Oh hey, glad you’re here too, Nare. What are the odds you guys could just whip up a few dictionaries for me converting all of the languages you know into allspeak? I’d appreciate it.”

“Hit a snag I take it?” Myriad asked him, not really needing an answer when Ben’s face made it so clear.

“I hate Galwax. What a terrible way to design an item, who the hell traps a feature behind comprehension? I bet a ton of the people from his world who read it never finished all of the books either.”

“I do want to point out that you’re only assuming something is going to happen once you read them all.”

“I mean, it doesn’t feel like a bad assumption. Of course, if I’m wrong then I’m going to hate Galwax even more for wasting so much of my time. So anyway, books?”

“Alright, but before that there’s actually something we wanted to talk about. In two weeks, there’s going to be a fairly important meeting, would you and Thera be able to go?”

“Depends on why I guess. What’s happening?”

“It’s something that happened before the first wave as well. It’s for people who aren’t particularly aligned with any one nation to decide what point they’ll be going to. Since you were just joining craftsman’s tower before there was no need to bring it up last time but since then things ended up a little hectic as I’m sure you could imagine it looks like word never reached either of you that you were invited to this one.”

“Wait, I was like, properly invited? Why?”

“You are still a member of the adventurer’s guild, all third to first ranked members are invited if they aren’t already stationed in a specific nation, along with anyone else with enough known power. It’s something your guildmaster should have mentioned by now but since it looks like she’d assumed you’d already decided where to go and hasn’t brought it up, I’m stepping in. Of course, if you don’t intend to be on the front lines again then that works far better for me personally.”

“...No, I’ll go.”

He didn’t particularly want to, but then, he was sure Thera fully intended to keep fighting so he was going to as well.

“I figured. Anyway, since Sonya is an awakened skill holder who isn’t already tied to an organization that would be aware of it you should ask her if she’d want to participate and I can pass that information along if she does, and Sachel and her party will be attending as well so if you’d be willing to help them get there?”

“Yeah, sure. Is her party rank three now?”

He knew Sachel had gotten to the second rank by virtue of getting her awakened plant magic, but he hadn’t heard about the rest rising up as well.

“They are. They did good enough work anyway so thanks to having her with them they were raised up one.”

“Then can do. Now if that was all…”

He mimed flipping pages, wanting to start his reading for the night, only for the atmosphere to take a slight turn to the uncomfortable as Nare finally spoke up.

“Actually, there was a small favour I wanted to ask you as well.”

“And I’m immediately put on guard.”

“It’s nothing bad, you don’t need to be so concerned. With your latest discovery, you are aware of plenty of useful things, I was hoping I might get you to act as a teacher for a couple weeks when the meeting ends if you don’t mind?”

“That doesn’t sound so bad so I’m really wondering what the catch is.”

“Ahem, one of your students would be my granddaughter-”

“Disgusting.”

“Uh, what?” The god asked in confusion, not expecting that to be the bit to cause problems as Ben recoiled hearing that.

“I know how demigods are made, Nare, you have to wear a person like a suit to knock boots. It’s gross. Blegh, I can’t believe you were willing to do that.”

“Lots of gods did,” He said in his defense. “In case it wasn’t apparent, a powerful fighting force is rather handy to have around.”

“Ugh, yeah yeah, I get it. So what am I teaching her?”

“Ah, well you see, it’s not just her. There’s another she works with in my lands who I’d like you to teach as well…”

Ben waited for whatever it was. Nare was making it pretty obvious that there was some issue with the mystery person that was making him hesitate, with Myriad beside him, giving the impression that he wished the conversation was happening somewhere else.

“She’s a member of Yuzu’s race.”

“Wait, like another summoned? What could I possibly help her with that… Jesus Christ, don’t tell me.”

“Ahem, she happened to arrive with a variety of magics,” Nare explained, not meeting his judgemental gaze. “One of which happened to be an awakened enchanting.”

“There was another fucking enchanter summoned! And you took her in but not me? You bitch! You absolute bitch!”

He wasn’t even properly sure if he was mad, he was too busy dealing with the surprise. It wasn’t like he didn’t understand at all. If she arrived with awakened skills and other magics then she’d been a lot closer to what the world had been looking for than himself, but he still couldn’t help but react when he heard that. How could he not? Nare was a crafting god, was there any particular reason he couldn’t have taken Ben in too back when he’d been alone?

“None of my people were at your location, I didn’t hear about you till Myriad brought you up,” He explained. “Besides that, the gods didn’t give much input in who their people took, we just trusted them to deal with the matter themselves.”

“Yeah yeah, nobody needed poor useless Ben, I get it,” He grumbled. “That reminds me, we haven’t agreed to a newer charge for the current weapons I’m sending out. Consider the ones that already went as a small bonus and tell the other gods I’m doubling the cost if they want ultra-rare enchantments, otherwise I’ll just go down to rare again so I'll have more mana for practicing my materializing at the same time.”

“It’s not like I won’t be properly paying you for your work,” Nare told him, already having expected most of that reaction, even if he was going to have to explain to the others why the price of goods had just gone up. “We’ve gotten to know one another for a while now and I’m fond of you Ben, do me this favour and I’ll give you my blessing.”

That got him out of his funk and even perked Myriad’s attention, with the cube speaking up.

“What, are you sure about that?”

“There’s no reason not to. Even if he doesn’t give me his faith, I’ve spent enough time chatting with the boy that it won’t be as hard for me as it was Helori. Besides, I’m asking him to work, he should be properly compensated for his services.”

“...So what would I be teaching them, just the enchanting modifier?” He asked, his mood improving with the thought that he’d be able to snag another blessing from whatever work he wound up with.

“That, along with your personal enchanting system, your knowledge on ritual magic, and any help you could give them with raising connect.”

“They have connect?”

“When it became obvious how handy it was for enchanting I wanted them to get copies of it through Zandale. Which I suppose also means I’d like you to make a copy of your skill library as well to bring them.”

“Mmh, I’ll talk to Thera about it but fine. If it’s only for a couple weeks then it shouldn’t be the biggest deal and I’m assuming you’ll have an area where I can do my own work as well, right?”

“Of course, if you bring your homunculi then we also have a rather extensive library. It’s not quite as good as the one that existed at craftsman’s tower before it was torn down but since those books are still all packed up this is probably the second or third greatest one to focus on the topic.”

And now I’m definitely in. Way too much of my study has gone into magic recently, I should be putting a bit more of my knowledge skill towards learning my main subject of interest. This might just end up being pretty fun.

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