NOVEL NEXT CH47
Falk stopped in his tracks. “Boy, I’ve said before that there's only a handful of ways to deal with passive magics, but that's not from lack of trying. Over a dozen races have some sort of passive effects they need to deal with if they want to interact with the larger world, and you’re saying you figured out a method in the few weeks I was gone?”
“I maybe figured out a method,” Ben clarified. “Unfortunately, it’s proven impossible to test given the size of the enchantment I would need to make breaks literally every single material I’ve tried it on,” And try he did. Ben was more than a little worried about what his teacher would say when he saw some of the supplies he took and ultimately broke, but it was still less than he would have used to make Thera's staves in that time, so hopefully he would get a pass.
Falk for his part was at a loss, no wonder he wasn’t telling the other two about this. No need to raise their hopes about something that was probably impossible. Still, if on the off chance it would work he would do everything he could to help. “Alright boy, tell me how you’re planning on doing it. My enchantment’s still going to be better than yours, I should be able to bind it to a weaker material,” But Ben only shook his head.
“It won’t work, to do what I’m thinking you’d need to be able to feel Thera's ambient mana. Maybe there’s other skills that would make it possible, but I only know for sure that I can do it with connect. If I can’t make the enchantment smaller then I’ll have to wait until my skill levels increase, not to mention that since it’s an enchantment Thera would have to be able to power it, which means making it robust enough that it could withstand her power, which mean making the enchantment even bigger. If I had thought of this earlier I would have changed my job to Enchanter instead of Craftsman, maybe that would have helped,” He spoke while staring up at the sky, filled with exasperation.
His teacher's thoughts were in turmoil. He knew Ben was the only holder of this skill at the moment and there was plenty of precedent for new skills being able to change the world. Wouldn’t it be worth taking a little risk to see? At worst he could probably get Thera's parents to replace anything they used. They got to Falk's residence and Ben was about to turn away for the night, but his teacher stopped him.
“Hold on a moment. What sort of item were you looking at using to hold the enchantment?”
“I figured an arm brace would be good. While making something like a shirt may work a little better, any material I could conceivable make it out of would be far too rigid and uncomfortable for practical everyday use.”
“A decent choice, hold on for a minute. I’ll be right back,” His teacher walked into his home for a few minutes before coming back and handing Ben a small lump of metal and a stone.
“What is this? Silver and quartz?” He asked.
“Try mythril and a white mana crystal.”
Ben almost dropped the items when his teacher told him that. “Jesus Falk! I knew you were holding out on me but I didn’t think you’d have magic materials just laying around your house!” From what he knew, there were nine magic materials that existed, seven metals and two crystals, and even if the ones currently in his hands were two of the most common of the nine Falk had handed them over like it was nothing.
“When you have things like this it’s better to keep them away from prying eyes. Even if those aren’t too rare comparatively at least and the costs have been going down over the last few decades I’m still not going to just let anyone see them. Especially not an apprentice who may be tempted to use them for a staff that’s destined to explode.”
“Well you don’t have to worry about that, I don’t actually think I’m comfortable using these at all. These would be the most valuable materials I’ve ever worked with.”
“You have nothing to worry about, the crystal’s already properly set so you don’t need to do much with it, just attach it to whatever you make with the mythril along the rim.”
Ben took a closer look and saw that there was in fact a channel of mythril carved along the inside of the stone but he still couldn’t help but worry. “God, I don’t know Falk, do you think you could put the armband together? I only need to apply the enchantment after all.”
His teacher put a large hand on his shoulder and tried to ease his mind. “Boy listen up, if you intend to be a great craftsman then you’ll have to get used to handling materials like this eventually, I may be starting you a bit earlier than most but I have the utmost faith in your abilities. Besides that I basically got no sleep on the entire trip back so I’m turning in. Just do your best.”
Ben was still staring at the items in his hands but he had to admit, even if he was nervous he wanted to give it a go. “Alright Falk, in that case I’ll go for it. Stop by Sonya's in the morning and we’ll see how it goes.”
“Wait, I didn’t mean you have to work at it immediately,” His teacher said.
“No time like the present. Anyway, have a good night.”
“Alright boy I’ll be by in the morning. You better wow me.”
Ben went into the shop and started up the forge for the first time in weeks, having spent a lot of time either working on the cloak, hanging with Thera, or after the events with Roan refining his idea, trying to force a chance of success into it through sheer power of will. Now it felt good to be back, and his excitement was palpable.
A few books on different materials were kept on one of the nearby shelves as a reference, but Ben didn’t need to check on what to do, he’d already read them over multiple times. Mythril was a softer metal, better as a core in many of the items it was used in, if not just made into an alloy, but it had the excellent property of being able to absorb surrounding mana to activate and sustain any enchantments that were placed on it, or as a means to help the wearer of anything mythril regenerate their magic slightly faster. It was prized by adventurers for that particular property, but with a war coming, possibly as soon as two years off by this point, many nations were buying up all they could to use for their armies, making it harder for a common person to get a hold of it unless you could get in contact with a supplier. Ben had an inkling of how Falk managed it, but it wasn’t immediately important.
To do what he wanted he would need a bit more material than what he had, so first he worked to make an alloy with it and copper, a metal that wouldn’t dampen the mythril's absorptive effects. He heated up the forge before turning it off, the magics used to power it could affect the metal as it was being shaped, and once he was sure all of the mana dispersed, he put both metals inside to heat up as much as they could before he took it out and started to combine them, hammering and folding together repeatedly and reheating as necessary, having to repeat the process of turning the forge on, letting the mana dissipate, heating, and holding repeatedly until he was confident the materials were properly blended. After that it became a matter of shaping his new composite metal, meaning repeating the same process again and again as he worked on it until it had the shape he wanted, that of a thin wire, about a quarter centimeter in diameter.
With his work at the forge done he coiled up the wire and made his way back to the house to continue the process there.