Second last day. Ben thought to himself as he started to feel the pressure. He knew he’d be able to basically get everything he needed to done, but as he experimented he was beginning to realize one aspect of his design wouldn’t work.

Maybe if I had awakened versions of my skills I could, but for now I’m just out of luck. He thought sadly as he knocked his hand against a firm barrier he’d created, unable to give it anything more than a minor level of spring and flexibility no matter what he tried. That meant the item either wasn’t going to be as complex and interesting as he would have liked, or he’d have to go back to the drawing board again. Neither option was particularly appealing, but for the time being he went back to his notes, trying to think of what to replace it with.

“Well, don’t you look deep in thought,” One of the competing gnomes said from the other side of his table. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a problem so late into this?”

“Ah, well more like a minor hiccup,” Ben admitted. “How’s your team doing?”

“We should be basically done by the end of the day,” He said happily. “Tomorrow will mostly just be some decorating work to make it look nice, but at least my part is complete so I can relax a bit as the others work away.”

“Oh man, I was expecting everyone to be pushing things till the bitter end.”

“Ha, no way, can you imagine the stress of leaving it all that late? I think almost all the tables are basically finishing today.”

“In that case, everyone but me,” Ben admitted. “But if the rest of you are going to have some free time you should all swing by tomorrow, watch me flail about trying to get this done on time.”

“Sounds like fun, will do,” The gnome told him with cheer. “Pretty sure we’re all interested in what you’ve come up with. Being the only one without a team is a bold choice for something like this.”

“Ha, well I’ll do my best to impress.”

With that his fellow competitor went on his way, leaving Ben a little more relaxed after the chat as he did.

I can just think of an alternative. Even if it’s not exactly what I had in mind it will be fine. For now, I should at least start up on the other parts.

With a direction in mind for where to go at least, he grabbed his mythril and steel and began heating them up before he dug through all of the materials he’d brought, pulling out dozens of different things. Bones and horns, claws and shells, dried-out plants and a rainbow of stones. He would need so little of each, in most cases no more than a fleck, but if he wanted his enchantments to have the best chance of holding he needed to put each to work, so without putting it off he triple-checked his math and ratios before getting to work on it all.

Ever so carefully he cut off pieces of each, putting them all in their own mortar and pestle to grind into the fine powders he would need to allow their effects to influence the metals. Normally he wouldn’t go to such an extreme for it. The difference it would make would be minor compared to putting them all in the same one to grind together to add to his heating materials, but he was working on the edge of what was possible for him and he wanted to improve his odd in any way he could, even if that meant spending long hours of the day carefully adding each powder during different parts of the heating process, doing his best to keep them from being scorched or charred in a way that could reduce their effects.

To do it he needed to work quickly, but with care. As soon as he took the mythril out he needed to pound it into a sheet, evenly pour over a stone powder he’d produced, fold and blend it until it was incorporated, and then in one smooth movement add the next and repeat, doing his best to keep reheating the metal to a minimum with each time and forcing every mind in his head to devote itself to the task.

Once done to the best of his abilities, he shaped it into the form he’d need for the next day, before moving onto the steel to do it all over again.

“Man I’ll tell you, it’s going to be nice when this is done. As interesting as it is to plan out a long project like this, I definitely could have managed my planning better. Having to finish everything tomorrow feels tight,” Ben told his god as he woke up in his empty realm.

“Just do your best and it will be fine,” Myriad told him, seeming distracted. “Anyway though, that’s not why I brought you here.”

“Oh man, what is it now?” He asked, feeling exasperated. “This has felt like one of the most hectic two weeks I’ve had since coming to this planet Myriad, I can’t take much more.”

“Cheele and about ten of his men have decided to convert to me.”

“Oh what? Man, don’t worry me like that. I thought you were going to tell me there was some more nonsense I needed to deal with. In that case look at me go! Aren’t I just a great apostle, managing to snag you some more believers despite everything else I have going on?”

The fact that he hadn’t tried to get them to convert at all wasn’t going to keep him from patting himself on the back. He’d clearly made a good impression as an apostle and made his god look good, why wouldn’t he let himself feel positive about it? Myriad though seemed much more conflicted on the matter.

“They’re criminals Ben, what am I supposed to do about this?”

“Since when can gods not have criminal believers? Hell, aren’t you composed of the totality of your race? You’ve got to have a little bit of criminal in you too, don’t judge.”

“My own history has nothing to do with this. Until now I’ve made sure to give all of my believers a blessing and a skill, but I can’t just bless someone who might break the law or hurt people!”

“Then don’t,” Ben told him with a shrug. “Or tell them you only can if they act justly and treat people with kindness. Or watch them for a bit to see how bad their crimes are. Feel like there’s a lot of options here, why don’t you ask a different god for advice?”

“Most other gods aren’t as liberal with their blessings and skills as I am. They’re all saving their power for the invasion so they only pass these things along to people who really stand out.”

“Well, your generosity is one of your good points man, you’ll figure it out.”

“Mmh, thanks. So what were you talking about? Your contest?”

“One part of my plan fell through,” Ben admitted, feeling annoyed as he did. “It’s fine, I thought of an alternative, even if it isn’t as great. Hoping it doesn’t leave Amy turning down my weapon in the end because of it, but if it does it’s not the biggest loss. Since I can pick Helori’s brain on things, the payment of getting to chat with all of Jake's teachers isn’t super important.”

“So you’re only having issues with one part of nine and you’ve already found a replacement? You’ll be fine. If you pull it off and this can’t satisfy her then nothing will.”