“What’s gotcha yellin’ boy?” Falk asked as he rushed to the room.

“Oh, sorry Falk, didn’t realize you were still here.”

“Figured I’d stick around for some of my own work to see how yours turns out, now out with it, what’s the problem.”

“No problem, I made the new brace to the absolute best of my ability, couldn’t have done it better if I tried. Then as soon as it was complete I leveled up so I’m stuck wondering if I should remake the thing.”

“Don’t be a fool. You made something leagues ahead of the first one, you might as well see if it actually has any improvement before you waste all that time making something a bit better. Besides, from the looks of it you managed to get to lower rare before you even put the enchantment on it, no wonder you leveled up.”

“I mean, it was obviously going to be high though, right? Just look at what I used to make it up.”

At that, his teacher delivered a powerful flick to his head. “You’re smarter than that. For her last brace with the enchantment on it, you only got to upper uncommon and the materials you used this time aren’t so much better to make all that difference. A lot of skill went into this boy, you did fantastic work. Even if she does get another few points off her resistance, don’t go melting this down to make a new one. Take my advice and don’t try again until you make it to at least the ninth level.”

He rubbed his head but accepted his teacher's advice gratefully. “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks Falk.”

“Bah, it’s part of being a teacher I guess,'' The yeti told him with a toothy grin. “Now go on, it’s getting late and I’m betting you’ll want to see if it worked as fast as you can.”

“Oh man you’re right, I should run home,” He said, before correcting himself. “Wait, I get to bike home! Catch me squeezing a few more minutes out of the shop from now on!”

“Like you don’t already spend most of the day here!” Falk called after him before getting lost in his own thoughts. He couldn’t be happier to see his apprentice so dedicated to helping his niece, but even though he knew the boy enjoyed every minute of it, he hoped he would learn to relax a little. When he was an apprentice himself, Falk had always been told he leveled up quickly, but watching the boy fly through his levels was another thing entirely.

When he got home both Thera and Sonya had already eaten, but it looked like Sonya had prepared a simple meal for him so he dug in as soon as he got back, followed by a few quick rounds of cards.

As promised, he taught them both a simple game from his world, namely old maid, and got to enjoy a few games of it, being crushed each time.

“Do I just wear my feelings on my sleeves or something?”

“I think you might just have the worst luck in the world.”

“Is my luck really that bad?” he wondered aloud as he thought back to everything that happened since he wound up on the planet. Getting the lowest level skills, being unwanted, almost eaten twice, almost murdered a few times, and just generally beaten up. When he thought about it, he’d dealt with a lot since coming to this world.

Wait, what do I mean since coming to this world, I was literally crushed to death on vacation! Hey Myriad, you listening? I don’t have bad luck tied to my soul or something, do I?

I guess that’s reassuring?

They played for a little longer but eventually, Sonya called it quits to get ready for bed.

“I guess that’s as good a time as any to stop,” Thera told him. “I’ll turn in myself so you can work on the enchantment,” She wasn’t sure what he intended to do since his level hadn’t increased at all, but since he had an idea she wouldn’t turn it down. He was trying so hard to help her after all and she’d grown used to it, at least she thought she had.

“Great, cause with that in mind I have something for you,” He told her, before pulling out the new brace and handing it to her. She looked it over, her face growing a deeper shade of gold with each passing second. “Um, Thera, you doing okay?”

“Ben, why exactly did you choose this design?”

“Since it’s something you’re going to wear all of the time I figured I should try to make it as nice as I can so I tried to pull together a theme I thought you might like. I figured since your faith is important to you that was probably a safe bet, and aside from that since you’re into history and romance books I thought the flower from the trial covered those themes well while tying it into Anailia.”

“Wait, I don’t read romances, some of the books I read just happen to have romance in them, there’s a difference!”

“Is there?”

“Yes!”

“So you don’t like it?” He asked, deflating as he did. He’d really thought he’d created something nice and nailed the theme, but in hindsight it probably would have been a better idea to discuss it with her to figure out what she’d like to wear. I didn’t give what she would want enough consideration, huh?

To his relief though that didn’t seem to be the case. “I didn’t say that,” She told him, not meeting his eyes. “It’s beautiful, I love it. It’s just…Even if you were tricked into it, it’s covered in a flower you proposed with each wrapped with a goddess of love. It was just a little… unexpected.”

When she put it that way it made it a lot easier to notice the more obvious interpretation of the symbolism he was going for, completely ignoring his desire to make something that would speak to her personally to take on a far more romantic feeling as a gift. Seeing it through that lens, he couldn’t help but notice his face getting warm as well.

“Ah, sorry. I probably should have noticed any other implications compared to what I was going for.”

“It’s fine, like I said, it’s beautiful so I’m happy to wear it, but was there something wrong with my other one?”

“That remains to be seen. I wanted to see if a better quality one would allow the enchantment to display its effects to a greater extent so I made this, just got to put on the enchantment to see how it turns out.”

“Alright, give me a few minutes to change.”

“Sure, don’t forget to take off the other brace.”

As he waited he called out to his god. Hey Myriad, did you not think to mention any of the implications of the designs I was making when we talked about it?

He sighed, knowing that placing any blame on his god was wrong as he eventually followed Thera to her room, hoping to get his work done as fast as possible so he could get a few other things complete before they went for their hunt tomorrow.

Thera was long used to this at this point, having her arm over her blankets so Ben could take her brace with one hand and her hand with the other before connecting to her.

As always, he put up hidden mind between them to keep his thoughts from bothering her while she rested to the best of his abilities, but that didn’t stop hers from pouring through, leaving Ben to experience firsthand just how flustered the surprise gift had left her.

The intensity of her emotional response was unexpected, but he did his best to push it away from his thoughts, instead focusing on the task at hand. He began the long process of constructing the enchantment on her brace, putting two of his minds to the task while the third was conversing with Myriad to try and continue his lessons on just how his god's people used their magic.

It was a subject he’d been focusing on, outside of his lessons from both Quilith and Falk, since he'd first asked while in the dryad village, and the topic was far more interesting and detailed than he would have expected. While there were many specialized ways to construct an enchantment, such as the method of creating Thera’s cloak, there were also a few structured systems in place that were shown to have a fair degree of flexibility for creating different results. One of these ways was the practice he’d taken to of weaving his mana and enchantments together to get specific effects at a reduced mana cost. Given just how low his mana was, it was a method that worked quite well for him personally, not to mention ensured an ease of use for anyone who bought his products.

Myriad's system of magic was similar in flexibility, but with a different outcome. Instead of weaving the mana, it was all blended together, as if he was creating alloys of metal or trying to enhance a material. The outcome of this was different from weaving as well. Instead of being able to reduce the mana cost, it actually raised it, but the effects of the main magic that had the others blended into it were so enhanced that the raised cost was worth it.

In a way, it reminded him of the combined magics of the world, such as lightning or plant, only without the benefits of a reasonable mana consumption those magics possessed. By blending them in the right way, he could supposedly get a variety of different effects that wouldn’t otherwise be seen, but for now he was still focused on just the aspect of enhancing a magic.

His god quizzed him as he worked.

That depends, does it get an external fuel source like wood, or am I powering it entirely through my mana?

Alright, let’s see. For powering it through my mana alone I would take the base fire spell and blend it to incorporate both air and water mana, with the water mana having the purpose of drawing in moisture, and the air having the duel purpose of drawing in more air to enhance the flames, as well as working to break down the water drawn in to its basic parts, creating more fuel in the process.

Well, first I immediately die from the insane mana cost of enhancing the flame.

Yeah yeah, first we can obviously accept what I’ve already said as still being true, the difference focusing on the aspect of the wood. Since plant magic is done through the use of water, earth, and, life mana I’d assume I’d treat the water within the wood the same way I would the moisture in the air to break it down, while using both earth mana and death mana in tandem to break down the wood, making it easier to burn?

Myriad was silent for a moment as he thought on his apostles' lessons. While he hadn’t seen too much point in teaching the boy about magic, it proved to be an incredibly rewarding experience. Not only was his race’s way of using mana being passed on after so many centuries, but Ben was like a sponge, absorbing the information so well that he was already applying it to his enchantments, and despite all that it only made Myriad curse the fate that had fallen on his apostle all the more when he came to the world.

Even if Ben hadn’t come with any blessed magics, if he’d only had the affinities to learn three of four like an average person did then there wasn’t a doubt in the god’s mind the boy could have been a great mage, the sort that would be immensely valuable to the world wherever he was stationed, maybe even leaving his mark on history if he lived long enough. His inquisitive nature was perfect for magic research, it was undoubtable he could have managed something great if he only had the inborn ability to use magic. As things stood, his chances of ever even learning a non-affinitied magic were slim, not having the sort of mana pool that would make taking on the heavy task of learning it a reality.

Well Myriad, I’m waiting. The boy said, drawing the god from his thoughts.