As the scene faded Falk gave Ben a firm, comforting pat on the shoulder. “Well, I can’t say you didn’t put your heart in it boy, that was excellent. Light affinity enchanters are a rare breed because of how hard it is to work healing or illusions into enchantments, but honestly, I don’t think I need to tell you just how good you did.”

It was clear to both of them, not only from their mana sense but from how the system reacted to a ninth-level crafting skill, letting them see the rank of the item. He’d made it into upper rare, likely doing incredible things for pushing his skills in the progress.

“Thanks Falk,” He said, trying to push aside the mood he’d immersed himself in while working on that particular piece to focus on a different matter. “But are you going to tell me what’s going on now? You seem… tense maybe?”

“Ha, that’s a nice way of putting it. I got some annoying news,” He said as he flapped the letter around. “An annoyance with far too much power and a lack of respect for privacy’s decided to put me in a tough spot, and I can only really get out of it with your help.”

“Alright, I’ll do it,” He said without hesitation.

“Boy, as much as I’m grateful you really should hear me out first.”

“You’ve done a lot for me Falk, if this has you so bothered and I can help then I will, just tell me what you need.”

The yeti couldn’t help but feel his face loosen as some of the tension left it. For as much as he didn’t want to take on an apprentice, he couldn’t deny that the boy showed him some of the good sides of it.

“Well, it’s a bit of a long story, but it looks like there’s a crafting competition coming up, and I’ll need you to participate in it for me. I wanted to test your skills to see how you’d do since you’re going to be at a disadvantage compared to everyone else, but I don’t think we need to worry about that.”

“Wait, is that all?:” He asked, his interest captured. “I’m down, it sounds like fun, but is it an apprentice only thing? I’m pretty sure we’d sweep the competition with you there.”

“That’s kind of the problem,” The yeti said as he pinched his brow. “Have you heard of allfaith?”

“Um, I think?” Ben told him hesitantly as he stretched his memory back to his time at the communal church and his lessons with Lehie. “It’s basically the religious center of the world, right? Bunch of big churches gathered there, maybe a few trials too.”

“Aye, you’re on the right track. A number of faiths have important religious sites there, and it’s also where you’ll find the head branch of the communal churches. You could call it a place for pilgrimages in a way, even though they have a gate right in the city, and along with it there are two main forces. There’s of course the church that works to ensure not only the prosperity of faith for the gods, but also heads the templars who get sent off to deal with some of the messier situations you have in the world, and then you’ve got the ones who deal with the more financial side of things, running administration in the city and ensuring it’s well off beyond just whatever the gods might need. The politicians, the head of which decided to give me some trouble.”

“Trouble in the form of a crafting competition?”

“As silly as it sounds, that’s right,” Falk told him with an annoyed nod. “This isn’t a new competition, they’d do it every couple of years and let craftsmen flood the streets to show their wares and skill. It’s good for some sales and some fun if you’re starting out and don’t have so much responsibility to lock you to your town, but it has some rules about who can participate. Namely, that you can’t have any awakened skills when you join. That’s a pretty clear indicator that you’re not on the same playing field after all, wouldn’t really be fair to beat down others when you’ve already proven that you’re at the top.”

Okay, things are starting to come together. “So I take it you have to show your card or something, maybe they have someone with an appraisal skill?”

“Pfff, boy I don’t think you realize just how rare people with appraisal skills are, not to mention the fact that you need an awakened version of the skill to see a person's status. I would guess there’s only a couple in the world currently, and of the ones I could name I can say for sure a tournament couldn’t get. They do insist on seeing your card though. You don’t have to show everything, but you do need to reveal any skills you might have from a list of them. Of course, since you only have crafting and enchanting if you show those then you’ll be in the clear since you can’t have any more specialized crafting skills. The issue is that they’re doing things different this year. There’s the regular event where anyone can come, but then there’s one that’s invitation only, meant to show off some of the skill that will be going into arming the people who’ll keep the world safe whenever the invasion happens. It would be an honour for any typical craftsman to receive it, and even if you lose it would be good for business, but my shop doesn’t have that level of prestige. As much as I try to keep my skills to myself, the slimy bastard in charge has plenty of ears around and has probably heard some rumours about me and wants to know the truth. Only way to do that is to force me into a position where I show my skills and after that, he’ll likely start trying to get me to work for him.”

“And so if I compete instead there’s no reason for him to look at your card?”

His teacher nodded. “The letter requested the shop participate, but he probably thinks I still don’t take on apprentices. If I leave things to you then you can do your best and have some fun, and I can watch from the sides and know I annoyed him. Of course, if you don’t want to then I could simply decline to show up. He’ll probably take that as an answer in itself and try to apply some pressure to get me under him, but I do have a few friends in high places myself so worst to worst I’ll be okay.”

“I’m fine with it so don’t worry about that. Honestly, it sounds fun even, but why don’t you want people knowing you have an awakened skill Falk? Honestly, It would be great for business, wouldn’t it?”

“Ha, some things are more of a pain in the ass than they’re worth boy,” His teacher said with a laugh. “I don’t want to have to deal with a never-ending stream of requests from kings and priests to make whatever stupid trinkets they fancy. I have my goals, and I won’t compromise them by working for someone else, no matter how much they want me.”

He believed he understood where Falk was coming from. He couldn’t deny how annoying it was to have people constantly trying to drag you to their side, a fact he’d learned well enough while in Anailia. His only saving grace was that anyone who wanted him couldn’t just come knocking on his door to bother him, but if it was publicly known he had an awakened skill then that bit of privacy would go out the window. They could come in droves, claiming they were trying to recruit him because of that, without it having anything to do with the items he’d made. Some of them would probably be telling the truth too. If what Quilith had told him was right, there weren’t many people with awakened crafting skills, plenty of nations would be happy to move to try and get someone with them in their employ.

Well, if I ever get to that point I’ll just ask Pelenia for help.

“Alright, I got it. So when do we leave?”

“A week. We’ll probably be gone for a monthish in all so head home and start your packing, I’ll worry about stocking up the shop.”