He ran out to the front and waited for Falk to finish up with a customer before showing off his final product. His teacher took both from him and gave them a good look over, carefully inspecting the quality of his enchantment and commenting on what worked well and what areas he could probably improve on with a bit more practice, before telling Ben what he really wanted to know.

“Unfortunately, the spear’s only upper-uncommon,” He said. But Ben wasn’t worried. Since he didn’t say they both were, that meant some good news was coming.

“And the shield?”

“Lower-rare. Congrats boy,” Falk told him with a smile.

Through his own efforts, without having to rely on any fancy materials, he’d managed to break into rare. It was clear he still had a ways to go, this was his first success and he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it consistently, but as he improved he’d be able to get there more and more, and as long as he kept increasing the number of enchantments he had access to and his understanding of those enchantments, he would only get better.

The grin plastered across his face wouldn’t go away, but the day was still young and there was plenty of time to work still. “So since that’s done, anything else on the agenda for me, or should I just focus on replacing some stock?”

“Mmh, our storage room is still a mess so for now organize it a bit more, but try to keep in mind whatever you think you might be able to use before the day is up, I’ve got an order coming in soon and we’ll need the space.”

“You got it.”

He went to the back and gave it a look over, trying not to get stressed by just how much was in there as he did. It was completely stuffed, and it was his fault.

Wedrow had come a few weeks back to pick up the orders he put in for Steph and Will. Unfortunately, his friends couldn’t come as well, he would have loved to see how they’d react to the gauntlets and cloak he’d made, but they apparently had a strict training regiment they couldn’t get out of for the next little while, instead having Wedrow carry some letters for them.

As nice as those were to get, they weren’t the only things he received from the flying worm, as he opened up his spacial storage and took out all of the various monster parts Ben had disassembled and had him take care of during their time together. With everything that happened, he’d completely forgotten about it all, and the storage room had been filled up recently enough that things were pretty tight in there.

When Falk saw it all they closed up for the rest of the day to do their best to organize everything, as well as treat the bones and pelts to preserve them for long-term use.

The meat was even harder to deal with. To keep it all from spoiling he’d had to put his new rings to use and consult with Wedrow before he headed off about space and time magic. By being able to use fifth level enchantments, he was able to double the empty volume within a space, and though he couldn’t stop the time within it the way someone with an awakened time magic could, he was able to slow it down to a reasonable extent so long as the enchantment could get enough power.

With all that in mind, Falk had quickly thrown together a large, insulated storage chest with a white mana crystal embedded into it, which Ben did his best to add the space and time enchantments to, as well as a water one to keep a cooling effect. Just because the time within it was slowed down, didn’t mean it wouldn’t all still rot in the heat after all.

God that really was a busy day. He thought with a laugh.

The worst part was they didn’t even get any demon corpses. Since he was so close to dying, nobody wasted any time to collect them, instead focusing on getting back here as soon as they could so he could be treated. It was such a waste, but better than being dead.

Reflecting back on it, wasn’t that an idea for how he could make use of some of the materials in there? He wouldn’t be able to waste mythril or any mana stones as a means to power the enchantments, but he could easily use some of the leathers to make spacial bags, and he could add both the enchantments for slowing time and cooling to make them even better for any adventurers that might want to take them out for the day. They’d have to use some of their own mana every now and then to make sure the enchantments kept their power, but that was far from a big deal if they were just going to be out for a day.

Customers would need to be informed it might be risky to use them longer than that, given the need to sleep might let too much time pass, but if they did anyway and the bag ended up damaged by being overfilled without the benefit of the space enchantment, that just meant they’d need another.

Oh yeah, that’s going to be perfect. He thought as he got to work pulling out the leathers to use later before getting back to the storage room. He started trying to move things around, pulling different items out every now and then if he thought they looked like they’d be useful and grouping other similar ones together to find them later.

A part of him wanted to waste more of his mana crystals to make even more spacial chests as a way to make it a bit more organized, but he resisted. He still had plenty left, but he doubted he’d ever be able to get the sort of quantity again unless he was going to do something crazy like actually marry Thera so he could bug her parents for a wedding gift. Actually, when he thought about it maybe they’d give them even more if they went through with it and tied the knot? When he considered it like that maybe he would see if he could talk her into going back for a quick little ceremony…

Or not. I can’t see things ending well for me if her parents ever found out that’s the reason we got married, and I’m not positive Thera would be thrilled with the request either. Back to being thrifty with what I’ve got I guess.

He still had plenty of materials he hadn’t even touched because he couldn’t figure out a way to use them that would be justified given their rarity and expense, but there was always the future. If he went up another level or two in his crafting he’d feel a lot more confident in a couple of his crazier ideas, but that could wait.

“Damnable gods boy, how much of that are you planning on using?” Falk asked when he came back to check on him and saw just how much was sitting in the hall, pulling Ben from his thoughts in the process.

His pile had grown rather large, but the storage room was looking far more manageable at least and he explained some of his plans to his teacher.

“I figured we could get rid of a bunch of the leathers by making spacial bags, and with the way Thera’s been going through staves recently it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to make a bunch in advance, the rest is all just to replenish some of the stuff we’ve sold in the last week.”

Since Thera had gained her mothers backing from completing the trial, as well as gaining all the magic skills she was capable of, she’d been burning through staves recently by practicing her skills in the training grounds when she wasn’t busy studying to use more complex spells in the future. Even with how much Ben had improved in making them it was getting hard to keep up, but Pelenia paid well so it was worth it all.

“Alright, but this is a few days of work at least. You still got your little project at home, don’t you? Can’t be staying here all night.”

“I’ll leave on time, don’t worry. I just figured I’d get as much done as I could and leave the rest in my area for tomorrow.”

“Alright, then if you’re all set I’ll leave you to it.”

Falk left to go back to his own work, leaving Ben to get started. He decided on doing the staves first. Since they would become Theras as soon as they were complete, that meant they could charge her mom immediately and wouldn’t have to worry about waiting for a sale.

His overall technique hadn’t changed too much for producing them, nor did it need to. With Theras growth in her magic, her control had improved considerably, making it so even if he hadn't improved himself they would still last longer than otherwise. Still, his skills had increased significantly since he’d first started doing this for her and it showed. He was still making them to resist her magic, but now the staff was enchanted to resist earth, life, and dark instead of only earth as it had been previously, and the number of layers that went into it was up to twenty, creating a smoother gradient for letting out her spells.

He was also keeping detailed notes on what materials worked and what didn’t, referring to them every now and then to try and figure out superior ways of producing a staff. Some metals seemed to work better in general, but occasionally inferior ones would show shocking improvements should the right bones or horns or claws be added to it when everything was being produced. He was sure that sooner or later he’d be able to find a perfect combination, something that would stand above all the others and elevate the sum of its parts, but there was still plenty more fiddling to do to get there.

Luckily it was fast work at this point for him. He’d made far more staves than anything else to keep Thera supplied, and as a sixth-level craftsman he was already quick with his work, using his mana to make his materials bend to his will faster than they would otherwise.

It helped that his way of producing them could yield multiple staves at the same time by stretching out the metal as he went, and by the time the day was over Ben had thirty new staves ready for her to destroy.