The moment they passed through the boundary of the trial, all effects they were under vanished. Even injured and in pain, Ben felt incredible in comparison, vowing to never take for granted his body again as Greed came back to his senses.

“Fuck, my head… Legs, you okay?” He asked, filled with concern. “Didn’t hurt you too bad, did I?”

“I’ll live, but man are those things sharp,” Ben said as he laid down, letting Greed start to treat him. “On the plus side, if it’s eleven sections then we just passed the halfway mark so that’s something.”

“I wouldn’t call five more sections of that anything positive to look towards,” Greed said with a shake of his head before suddenly turning sheepish. “Er, though it looks like we both just got a bit of good news.”

“Hmm, what’s up?”

“My magic leveled up and I completed my job. Let me borrow that crystal of yours.”

“Oh freaking sweet!” He said happily as he handed it over. An increase to Greed’s magic meant an increase to their long-term chances of survival, made all the better considering that Ben was only growing more immune to it with every level his resistance skill got. The fact that Greed was getting a level to an awakened magic would more than offset that.

He watched as the crab looked at his options, weighing them as he did. “Hey, what do you think I should focus on more, buffs or healing?”

“Both are really important so I’m fine no matter what you decide, it’s not like you won’t get plenty of practice from both choices.”

“True, since I’m not much of a healer outside of here I suppose I’ll take lord of buffs.”

With that selection made Ben took the crystal back and let himself relax for a few minutes before getting up to stop the trials countdown. There was a lot to do, he needed to make sure they had the time to do all of it.

“Oh, that’s really really not good,” Ben said as he got up and looked around.

“Gods, what now?”

“The trial didn’t spit out the armour I’d left.”

When he’d taken it off and realized he didn’t have the strength to handle it after that he’d left it, believing it would show up in the piles of items that they kept finding between sections, but no such luck that time. Unlike the last time, there actually were a few items to be had, all from the dead god’s race, but none had the magic materials he craved to power his enchantments.

So that means I need to remake my armour without a power source? I mean, I guess me and Greed could provide it, but that’s going to be rough. But what else can I…

His thoughts trailed off as he considered another option. There was one more power source he had at his fingertips that didn’t rely on someone dying and leaving something good. There was his rainbow mana job crystal, and his cursed ring made with moribusial to extract from it.

Okay, there’s an idea but I still need to make a new set of armour first. I really should try to think of a better way of doing it too because it’s pretty far from quick. Let’s see, should I actually make that forge like I was thinking? I mean, it would be plenty handy so it’s possible, but I should also make a way to use my magic more efficiently too. A staff would be a little unwieldy considering how I use it but I am a mage of sorts now so being able to channel my magic more efficiently could only be useful, especially considering the fact that it’s non-affinitied. Maybe make a hammer to act as a staff? It would be handy for smithing, but flexibility is important too.

As options filled his head he went through the various items left by past trial participants, trying to see just what he could put to use.

“I hate this.”

“You can heal yourself, it’s fine. Besides, I don’t even need that much of your shell.”

“This is a major trauma of mine legs! You don’t know what it’s like to almost be eaten!”

“Not only is that exceptionally not true, I’m being eaten by you each day. Besides, I’m not trying to eat you, I just need to chip off a few pieces to use. Your kind were hunted because the living ruby is handy for mana conducting, right? Just give me a bit so I can keep on keeping us alive.”

“Ugh, fine take what you need,” Greed gave in, turning his back to Ben to let him carefully chisel away a few flecks here and there as he healed himself, feeding on Ben’s blood to make up for what his body was cannibalizing, only so Ben could take more.

It wasn’t a quick process. It took hours of chipping and feeding until Ben got all he needed, with Greed yelling out as he did.

“What the hell is blood thinning!”

“Did you just get that?” Ben asked with interest as he gathered up all of the shell shards. “Cool, I thought that was a purely vampiric skill, but I guess anyone can get it so long as they drink enough blood. Good to know.”

“Not good to know! What am I supposed to say if anyone sees I have it?”

“Just say you're an eighth vampire on your mom's side or something, it’s fine. Now that I have everything I need I’m getting to work.”

He’d already condensed the ruby shell fragments into a ball, but from there he got the other two materials he planned on using, steel and cloth.

From his testing, he already knew that he could use his magic on fabrics to condense them to one solid lump, almost woody in character, but so long as it was stretched out thin enough after it would return to its more flexible structure. Since metal also had plenty of bend and give to it so long as it was a thin enough wire, that meant it was only the ruby that lacked that property, something he hoped to change as he filled all three materials with his mana and began kneading them together.

It didn’t take long until it was a homogenous blend, and after only a bit of time waiting for his mana to regenerate he moved on to the next bit. Slowly and carefully, he used his hands and magic to pull at the new reddish stone out until it formed a thread. It wasn’t quick by any means, he constantly needed to check that everything was uniform during the process while also doing his best to ensure he didn’t break it either, but by the time he was done he could move on to the last and final step, weaving it into a glove.

With how long this is going to take I really hope it works.

The idea was simple enough. Most mages would use staves for their magic if they insisted on using a medium for it at all. It let them conduct their power and help both with control and preventing lost mana as they went, but that was mostly when attacking or for any spells at a distance. Since that wasn’t how his was used at all that meant he needed something else, with the solution he’d come to being a glove.

He couldn’t be sure if it would work until he finished and put it on so he poured his focus into the task, aiming to be done as fast as he could.

It had taken hours of careful work, but by the end he was able to smile down on his brand-new glove, eager to test it out.

He moved all of his rings to his left hand as the glove went on the right, giving it a few squeezes and finding it comfortable. It didn’t feel like it was going to tear or break in any place, nor was it too tight, all that mattered was if it would work.

Picking up a piece of metal, he ran his mana through it and immediately felt a difference in the quality of manipulating it. It wasn’t that he had been bad before, even prior to gaining a magic skill his mana manipulation had been extremely good, but as he bent it and fiddled with it he couldn’t help but notice he was able to go for longer before feeling the effects of mana exhaustion begin to approach, meaning he’d be able to get more practice in as he went, something to be incredibly happy about.

With a new tool in hand, he was originally going to immediately start making a forge to create armour with to have something of a higher quality than what he could hand sculpt with his magic, only to stop as Greed screamed.

“Gotta say, having someone appear out of nowhere doesn’t get less freaky!” He yelled out as Quilith showed up to Ben's surprise.

“Oh hey, has it been a month already? I honestly wasn’t expecting to see you again while I was in here. Unless you have anything handy for me we can put the lesson on hold, but if you want to stay and chat the company would be nice enough.”

It wasn’t that he and Greed were growing sick of each other so much as it was that there was only so much for them to talk about, but given the opportunity for someone else to entertain them, they were both ready to jump at the option as the alien shook his head.

“I don’t have that much time. Unfortunately, my superiors have you labeled as a lost cause while you remain in the trial so before I couldn’t visit again I wanted to confirm that there was nothing you wanted me to tell the outside world on your behalf?”

“I think I got everything I needed to already,” Greed told him, disappointed that he wasn’t getting a bit more entertainment as Ben stood there and thought before shaking his head.

“No, I think I’m good. Thanks though, I appreciate it.”

He thought that would be the end of it but the alien remained, so he simply stared back, waiting to see what it had to say.

“Your friend is struggling without you.”

“What? You mean Thera? Is she okay? What are you talking about?” he asked, suddenly feeling a sense of urgency to go through the next section and all the others without waiting.

“Nothing bad so relax, she’s simply taking your loss hard, even if that skill you share lets her know you’re still alive. Are you sure there’s nothing you want me to tell her for you?”

He felt himself relax knowing that she wasn’t in trouble, but didn’t know what to do with that information. It felt like anything he could say would be nothing but false hope. Did he have any right to give her that? If he died then it might hurt all the more for it.

No, I said I need to stay positive. I will get out of here, I want her to know that.

“Alright, I guess there is one thing I want you to tell her for me if you would…”

“You ready Greed?” Ben asked as he put on his last piece of armour, a piece of his rainbow mana crystal embedded into it to give it far more power than the white mana crystal he’d used before ever could.

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Cool, then let’s do this,” He said as positively as he could before stepping into the space section of the trial.