“... What is this?” Thera asked as soon as she entered the shop in the morning. Ben was already awake this time, just putting the finishing touches on what looked like the sort of backpack one would usually use to carry wooden logs. It was basically just two metal bars in an ‘L’ shape attached together with a few leather straps to wear it, and it was filled with maybe a dozen staves. She turned to Falk for an explanation but he was in the corner staring on with a look of confusion and concern himself, not believing what he was seeing.

“What’s the matter Thera?” Ben asked in his own confusion.

“How did you make all of these in one night? And you had time to make a carrier too?”

“Ha yeah I accidentally forgot to sleep, I’ll just have to do it when we’re done today. Anyway making them all wasn’t too hard. You saw yesterday right? The technique I was using let me stretch out the metals to make two when it was five layers, but when I tried to make a seven-layer one after leveling up it became three, and then I felt like I could push myself a bit more after that so I tried for nine layers as well and was also able to split it into three. I think I could still get a few more layers of resistance if I try but I’m pretty sure after this I would need to raise my enchanting again to make it worthwhile, like sure it would make a smoother gradient but there isn’t much difference if it starts at the same level you know? So instead I made another nine-layer one with different materials.”

He was smiling the entire time he was talking, not giving the impression he hadn’t gotten any sleep at all, but Thera didn’t know how to react. In less than twenty-four hours he had made eleven staves, certainly it wouldn’t be a big deal for someone like Falk, but he had only managed three or four the first two days he’d started this.

“Boy are you sure you’re good to go out? It wouldn’t do you any good to pass out.” Falk asked, a little worried.

“Nah I’m all good, I’ve pulled plenty of all-nighters before and we’re just going to the training grounds. When we’re done I’ll get some sleep. Plus if we can get three shots out of any of them then not only can we go hunting tomorrow but I can devote only a day or two a week to making them and have plenty of time for other things. It’s a win-win.”

“Huh, alright just don’t go getting yourself killed then. Thera sorry but if he starts seeming a bit tired come back early alright.”

“Will do uncle, don’t worry.”

“We’ll be off then. I’ll take a nap here when we’re done and then get back to work.” Ben said while leaving the shop.

They could both hear Falk yelling after him. “Just go home!”

“Has your enchanting gotten that much better? You’ve been staring at that rock forever.”

The moment they got out of town, but before they reached the training grounds, Ben picked up a rock about twice the size of his fist to start his regular enchanting practice, but he had been fiddling with it the entire time without stopping to pick up a new one.

“Oh yeah definitely. I’m not actually just adding enchantments until it breaks this time, since my level went up I have a lot more options available.”

“So what are you doing then?”

“Since my level went up instead of just applying my enchantment evenly across the entire thing I can focus it into specific sections now. From what I read this usually actually works worse in a lot of cases because it can result in instability and weakness in poor quality materials or just erases the enchantment from better quality ones, but it lets me do things like this.” Saying this he held up his rock, and instead of breaking the entire thing he only scraped away a bit of the material with his fingers.

“So you don’t break the entire thing now? Is that all?”

“I don’t break the entire thing and now the rest of the material keeps its structure.” He rapped his knuckles against the rest of it before continuing. “And now I can use my crafting at the same time to make the material a bit easier to manipulate so those sections will break faster.”

“Okay that's neat and all. But why?”

“Well it was mostly just curiosity to see if I could, but since it looks like I can I figured this would be a good way to train both skills at once. Plus I feel like sculpting something and this is an easy and cheap way to go about it.”

Ben was glad she started a bit of conversation, it seemed like the secret to getting her to talk was to spark her curiosity a bit so maybe he could finish sculpting something interesting by the time they were heading back, when she asked him another question.

“Why do you practice so much?

“What do you mean? I think I’m doing this a pretty normal amount?”

“You’re missing sleep and seem to use any spare moment to practice some more, if this is what's normal for you then I don’t think many others do quite this much.”

“Well, I mean, it’s fun? Like aside from reading there really isn't much else to do, and leveling up just feels fulfilling I guess? Don’t you like practicing magic?”

“...I don’t know.”

“Really? Then why do you do this? There has to be easier things you could do if you don’t enjoy it.”

“The worlds going to be at war in a couple years. Growing up my father would often talk about the death of his world and I just don’t want the same thing to happen here without fighting.”

“I guess that makes sense, we’re all in this together.” Even if the average person was still reasonably comfortable and enjoying their day-to-day life, the fact that could all come tumbling down in a little less than three years hung in the backs of most people's minds. It made sense to try and prepare a bit while you still could. Though something she said bothered him a little. “Wait though your father remembers his world ending? I thought the last group of refugees was a few hundred years ago.”

Thera was instantly beating herself up. Somehow she got caught up in the flow of things and started talking about her family without meaning to and ended up saying something without thinking. “Well there are plenty of long-lived races around.” She responded, desperately trying to brush off her careless remark.

Ben was able to see she wanted to drop the topic so he let it go. “Fair enough.” He told her. “I actually have an elf friend. She won’t tell me her age though, she’d usually just say ‘you shouldn’t tease an old woman’ when I would try to probe her.”

“Why what would you do?”

“Usually tease her.”

She wasn’t really sure what she was expecting but let out a groan anyway. “Alright enough of that. It looks like we’re here.”