Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“Good morning everyone,” He began as he always did when he arrived to meet his students to start the day, feeling every bit of the time he had left.

If there was one thing a week of teaching had shown him, it was that it was unappreciated, soul-crushing work. He mentally apologized to every teacher he’d ever ignored in favour of focusing on his drawing in the past while he prepared for another day of lessons as he was forced into his subpar means of educating to accommodate the desires of his students, only for a single small change to surprise him. He actually got a response.

“Good morning,” Nati told him, the first of any of them since he’d started and wearing a better expression than she had in any of the other days. Not exactly happy, but on the more positive end of neutral, not looking like he was filth that had invaded her space.

Either she’s actually grateful for my help or something good enough happened to her that she’s going to be slightly more tolerable today. Or maybe she’s just still feeling good about Falk’s awakening.

The city’s festivities were still going on, Ben suspected they’d be keeping up for a few more days, but whatever the case was for that particular student’s improved atmosphere, he would take it. If she intended to be a little more pleasant for even a single day, it was a win in his book he wasn’t going to ignore, nor was he going to comment on, lest that be enough to put an end to it.

With that one bit of positivity, mixed with the more typical reactions from the other two, he happily got to work, going over some of the material he’d already covered on all of the topics he was supposed to teach and watched the two try their best to put what they were learning into practice.

Ben had already accepted there was no way they were getting another level of connect. In only a week they had to balance their time and since they could practice on their own in the future it simply wasn’t a priority. What was more important was making sure they got the knowledge that would be useful when they reached that point.

He wanted them to finish things with a proper understanding of ritual magic, his personal enchanting system, and if he really let himself hope, the enchanting modifier he’d found in the archive, with that last one being the biggest by far. If they could at least get that, they’d be able to immediately start putting it into practice for their work, with all of the good that implied. The two were obviously doing their bit to arm the world, just like himself and Falk, and that was the main thing he could teach to instantly make their work better.

If they’d just let me… No, this is fine. They’re working hard and I think they’re making progress, they might get it before I leave.

It wasn’t certain, but it was possible so long as they kept up their attempts to get it right, with hours of practice before them as the day wore on. Hours Ben didn’t intend to waste by sitting to the side and doing nothing.

“I’ll be taking a table over there, if you guys have any questions or need anything then don’t be afraid to ask.”

Nati gave him a nod while she was focusing on her attempts, more of a response than he’d been hoping for really, and he went to the free space to do some of his own work, keeping the barest of eyes on his students as he’d been going.

After having done some testing to be sure, Ben had managed to confirm for himself that while he could gain job experience through any sort of crafting, the most came as a result of him making things from his homeworld, or at least things that would mimic them since anything he’d create would be powered by mana instead of electricity, but since he’d been spending the time he’d been teaching materializing all he could in an effort to not completely miss out on experience, for that day he wanted a change. After all, while he was getting good experience with the things he could replicate, it wasn't hard to imagine another way he could pull it off. Making a legendary item. All he’d need to do was test if the idea he had in mind was even possible.

What he was envisioning was a sword. One unlike any other on the planet that would not only take all of his skills as a craftsman, but all of the power of his magic to make as well. Something with ice enchantments that would freeze anything it would touch to an extent that normal enchantments wouldn’t, but to make the idea a reality he needed to start by doing something unconventional. He needed to create the thing to act as its core.

While some swords would arguably have a different core material based on how the metal was forged, he wasn’t going to make it in a normal sense, nor was he going to make it out of metal. He was going to create something that he’d only be capable of handling with his magic as he pushed his thought speed skill to its maximum potential and materialized what he needed, a mythril powder evenly suspended in a solid gas, its temperature so low that it had frozen solid.

A part of Ben was annoyed that he still couldn't use his magic to alter the temperature of a substance. As far as he could see it, temperature was just a matter of how atoms moved. Since his magic let him move matter, it really seemed like it should have been possible for him, but even though it wasn’t he still had a workaround.

He’d known since he’d had his disastrous awakening that he could create ice, all he’d done was taken it a step further, picking a gas that had no earthen equivalent but had the lowest freezing temperature in his new world’s periodic table and brought it into the form he needed, not touching it for the instant harm that would cause him but instead letting it come into being on the table before him as he worked his mana immediately to enchant upon it, making it not only colder by forcing the material to give up the energy with it but also hold its shape to prevent it from melting and to give it strength enough that it wouldn’t break when used, at least not after the next part was complete.

Before he got to that next stage of his creation though he took a second to look it over, letting his mind move at the pace that a normal mortal’s would to check for any signs of melt, finding nothing had gone wrong.

Okay, excellent, the bit of mythril throughout is powering the enchantment like I’d wanted. Now just for the slightly difficult part.

What he had there was a core, plain and simple, but he wanted it to be properly hugged by a metal shell to have the blade do all one needed of that sort of weapon, as well as the handle to deal with heat. Ice would always be trying to absorb what warmth it could, he needed a proper place to direct it and he stopped to make sure he had all of his enchantments correct for what would come next, letting his mana pool recoup its losses at the same time as a few minutes passed.

The second he felt ready he got back to work, envisioning the condition of the metal he’d be making. Since he wasn’t properly forging it he needed to know the exact state he wanted it in as he brought it forth into reality, wrapped around the frozen core like it had always been there and ready to be enchanted to keep it in the state he needed, only for an unexpected noise to pull his eyes.

Unlike so often when he worked, Ben couldn’t give his full attention to what he was creating. He had students to teach and when a loud noise filled the room, drawn out all the more by his thought speed skill, it made his eyes flicker to them, letting him see that Zallith had knocked a bowl off a table during his own work, with that brief mistake setting off a small chain reaction for what Ben had been doing.

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Only fractions of a second late, it was still too long for placing his enchantments down. The metal instantly warped against the unnaturally low temperatures of the core, no magic on it to keep it whole, and as it essentially flash froze it did what most materials were inclined to do under those circumstances, it became brittle and it shrank.

Or at least it tried to. The core that was freezing it was solid and strong from the enchantments keeping it cold, resulting in a build-up of pressure that shouldn’t have been there, and in an instant the metal shell didn’t just shatter, it exploded.

For those in the room without a way of speeding up their thoughts, it happened practically simultaneously as Zallith’s mistake, but Ben felt the gap in time as his innate luck showed that it was going to continue to swing to the negative.

Shards of metal didn’t go everywhere, but the biggest one ended up going into him, digging into his flesh and hitting a region he was far too familiar with after his time watching his body be reconstructed in the life tower.

As it tore through the skin and muscle of his thigh, Ben was left with no doubt it had cut into his femoral artery.

God damn it, why do my defensive skills suck so much.

It wasn’t the most fair of assessments of his abilities. With the force it had just broken at, he was fairly sure it would have passed through his leg instead of getting stuck within it if he didn’t have those skills, but in that moment he had bigger problems and turned to one of his students to get it solved.

“Ah, pardon me, Xilly, I could use a little help.”

She pulled her eyes off Zallith, only looking at him since his accident had made the biggest noise, to find Ben inexplicably bleeding from her perspective, a few small cuts flecked across his face but nothing compared to the gouge in his pants.

“How did you manage this?”

“Perils of letting yourself get distracted I suppose, but if I could please have a little healing?”

“...if you’re going to do something stupid to get yourself hurt then go find a healer.”

“Wait what? You’re a blessing mage that’s literally right here! And not to put too fine of a point on it but I’m pretty sure I’m actually going to die in like three minutes so I don’t have time to find someone else. So pretty pretty please?”

“Xilly, I think you should help him,” Nati told her, raising Ben’s hopes that he wasn’t going to be left to bleed out when someone who could probably help was literally right there, only for his only option of a healer to be firm in her rejection.

“Don’t want to. I’m not touching a human, especially not when he’s just looking for attention.”

“Looking for attention? I’m bleeding all over the floor!”

“Please, who’s ever died from a leg wound?” The girl asked, rolling her eyes and telling him plenty about the robustness of her peoples’ biology that his own kind lacked.

“Humans do! Evolution’s kind of shit like that!”

He cast his eyes to Zallith, hoping that the priest might say something but he was happy to ignore the situation and focus on his work, while Nati looked like she didn’t know what to do, with however long it would be for her to decide to force the issue with the other summoned likely meaning it would be too late for Ben given how his body would resist light and life magics, giving him only a single choice.

Myriad! He screamed in his head with every mind at his disposal. Code red man, literally! I am bleeding and probably gonna die!

You’re the best.

Five minutes might have been asking a lot though. He was fairly sure humans typically only lived a couple when an artery was damaged but with both his demon body skill and his high vitality there was a chance he’d manage a little longer, all he needed to do was extend that with the bits of useful knowledge he had.

The first thing he did was materialize a new metal ring around his thigh, tightening it for all he could to make a tourniquet of sorts to slow the blood flow, leaving him with only a little mana left to work with that he did what he could with, creating thin metal pins from the mythril bands on his arm that he enchanted on using life, death, and time magic before shoving them into different points in his leg, ignoring the additional pain it was causing to let the effects they’d have take place.

Those quick enchantments had been made to do two things. Slow down his blood flow and slow down the way time would act on his leg, giving him a bit longer to work with, even if it was going to cause different issues later with blood starting to pile up there as it tried and failed to move through his body, but that was something that would sort itself out so long as he lived.

With everything on that front done he let himself sit down and used everything he knew about meditating to bring his heart rate as low as he could and contented himself to wait.

“See, it’s clearly not a problem if he’s not even leaving,” Xilly said before getting back to work, even as Nati still looked worried.

…As long as I live a couple more minutes, I can use the mana I regain to make a bullet to shoot at her as a final act. It will be my little treat to myself for dealing with these assholes for so long. If I live, note to self, never make anything risky around people who hate me again.

“Xilly, he’s kind of not looking good. I really think he might be serious here.”

“He just wants attention. Playing hero yesterday didn’t work so now he’s playing the injured victim-”

Her words were cut off as the front of the mansion they were in was torn away, letting Ben see the help Myriad had got him. He’d assumed his favourite cube was going to go to Nare to tell him to tell Xilly to actually do something, but it seemed he’d chosen another god instead, getting Anailia to reach out to the best healer Ben knew as Thera flew through the giant entrance she’d created on a pillar of stone, landing beside him while his three students were struggling to react after that entrance.

She didn’t say a word as she looked at him but Ben could tell she was fuming as she reached down and began her treatment, pouring out her mana as the metal in his leg was pulled out and his wounds closed in minutes, leaving him back in an almost normal shape, even if lacking a little in blood.

In that entire time she’d been quiet, focusing on her breathing as she tried to figure out where to begin when Zallith was the first to speak up.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done? This mansion is a masterpiece, to destroy it instead of just using the-”

His words were cut off as Thera looked at him and the others, murder in her eyes as she used her magic to entrap them, with the stone floors rising up around them and squeezing each one tight.

“You all have exactly one minute to give me a good reason as to why you were leaving Ben to bleed out on the ground before I crush you.”

She wasn’t even trying to hide her rage and they could tell she was serious, the stone constricting around them and leaving each barely able to breathe.

Nati was the only one with earth magic herself and in the first level of its awakened form too, so she tried to use it to free herself, but no matter how much mana she put in she got nothing. She hadn’t known about the almost unlimited supply Thera had before, but trying to fight against it was making it perfectly clear.

Thera for her part couldn’t actually imagine any sort of explanation that they could give that would keep her from killing them, with just who they were completely ignored. Even with one of them being a priest, even with one of them potentially being someone Yuzu might have known and even as a notification entered her head to tell her she’d just gained the sacrilege skill, she couldn’t have cared less. Ben had been lying there hurt. If they were content to leave him like that then she saw absolutely nothing that should have made her feel merciful until a god she didn’t recognize but Ben did spoke into the mind of everyone in the room.

Spoke Nare, letting Ben hear the god he’d been wanting to reach for the first time since he’d arrived.

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