“Ugh, I’m so tired of reading this,” Thera groaned as she put her book down, leaning her head on Ben’s shoulder. “Golem creation, petrification, earth healing, even at the ninth level in both of my magics I don’t think I have the control to actually manage any of these.”

“Well, you won’t know until you try. When we get back to Stonewall we can go for a good long hunt and test them out after you understand the theory a bit better.”

“I know, I know. Might as well do something productive while we wait I guess,” She said as she opened her book to read through again, one devoted to the topic of spells that made use of both earth and life mana to function as Ben absentmindedly hummed a cheerful tune while working on his own magics, kneading a piece of iron in his hands to pass the time.

What? Myriad who starts a conversation like that? Ben asked, temporarily pausing his training. I’m exactly as happy as I should be, life’s been going great!

He let his eyes drift back to Thera as he watched her brow crease, trying to understand whatever concept was giving her trouble as they passed the time in the embassy. They’d been stuck in Allfaith for a week longer than either of them had expected, but if it weren’t for a certain event gripping the world in fear they would have already started on their way back to Stonewall, the only thing keeping him there being a few tasks still to do.

Hey, I’ll have you know I’m super unhappy about things kicking off. It completely ruined my date!

As soon as the beam of light appeared and they both understood what was going on, all plans they had made were canceled. They rushed back to the embassy without even receiving their food and had been waiting for things to calm down in the week since, with the city finally seeming more relaxed from the view in their window as order was restored.

Listen, I’m not going to stress about something that doesn’t involve me. The biggest benefit to not being taken in by a nation is that I get to have a comfortable distance from everything. At worst I’ll send some of my old classmates some equipment, but until then I intend to enjoy the few remaining months of peace I have, especially now that things are starting to calm down a bit. If the armies fail it’s not like there’s anything I could have done anyway.

Ha, you’re just jealous that you have work to do and I don’t. He teased, knowing that all of the gods had been pushed to exert themselves as they put plans into action and compared invasion points to what was expected. They seemed to be based mainly off population sizes in the given area, but there were a few outliers, and worst of all, a few dozen that weren’t to cities with gates. Those would be the hardest to defend, the act of supplying them with goods and soldiers being a monumental task compared to supplying anything that was only a few steps away, but Ben decided he wasn’t going to be worrying about it. He wasn’t involved, and while he hoped he’d live to see the end of it, as well as the world as a whole, all he could do was try to enjoy the time he had and make the plans he wanted to as if he was guaranteed a future.

His silent conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door though, one he’d been expecting all day long since he sent a request through the embassy to the queen. Well, to be more accurate it was Thera sending the request on his behalf. Even if he was viewed by her nation to essentially be Pelenia’s son-in-law, even if they didn’t call him that, he couldn’t just get someone to act as a messenger for him. She though could.

He opened the door and found two familiar faces, only one of whom he’d been expecting. There was Furela, Anailia’s barrier master and teacher to Glob, and in his hand was the small ruby crab he’d been through so much with, Greed.

“Hey thanks for coming. Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting to see you be the one taking him though Furela.”

He knew the other man was important, and given what was happening in the world assumed he had better things to do, though he just smiled and shook his head.

“Given the state of things, I couldn’t just let a guest go out unattended right now, and the queen asked me to check on you both. Are you well?”

“As well as we can be,” Thera chimed in. “Though hoping things have calmed down a bit.”

“They have. I still wouldn’t recommend being out too late alone, but it seems most people managed to work out their panic the first few days.”

“Cool, and while you’re here there’s something I can get from you anyway,” Ben happily said as he grabbed the other man's hand, breaking down the level eight barrier enchantment on his ring to replace it with a ninth-level one. “But with that done, sorry do you mind waiting outside? I need to have a private talk with Greed.”

“Of course, I’ll be downstairs.”

Ben took Greed in his hands as he left, with the crab giving him and Thera an exaggerated look.

“Soooo, how’d it go?” He asked.

“Good, but that’s not what I asked you to come about. I wanted to talk about what you missed for the trial.”

“Good, ‘cause I want the same,” Greed told him. “I can’t exactly make a song about it if I’m missing the ending, can I?”

“Er, well there’s just one part you might need to leave out and we kind of need to work out what we’re going to do about it.”

“Wait what? Why?”

“I found a mythic item.”

Upon exiting the trial, Ben had a lot immediately going on. From getting healed to breaking it down the tower to improving Thera’s brace, ending with his disastrous date and the potential end of the world, he’d been so busy he hadn't looked at it.

Even as he was stuck away in the embassy he didn’t immediately have the will to. As exciting as it was, everything he’d been through was just too fresh in his head, he needed some emotional distance from it, and just as important, he needed to figure out just what the two of them were going to do with it at all.

Ben couldn’t deny the fact that there was a temptation to not tell his companion through that ordeal, to hide it away and keep it entirely for himself, but that would have been horribly wrong. Greed had been thrown into a situation where he almost died numerous times because of him, and was also the reason he was still alive. He wouldn’t lie to the man for his own gain, no matter what he might want.

“...So that’s all that happened before you were healed. We’ve been through a lot together man so I want to buy out your half of it to use for my own research and study, but if you want us to try and sell it to a larger nation then I understand, all I ask for is a month to look it over, it would mean a lot.”

He knew he was making a huge request, but Greed for his part reacted in a way he never would have expected.

“I honestly wish you hadn’t even told me about it, but transfer me whatever you think is reasonable and let’s never talk about this again.”

“What?”

“You aren’t exactly living up to your name,” Thera laughed.

“Mythic-ranked items don’t go on the market ever,” The crab said, looking at them both like they were insane. “They end up locked away in the vaults of different countries waiting for the day they’re used. I’d rather not get killed or tortured for information on one that exists just out in the open, thank you very much. I’ll take the money and let’s forget we had this conversation.”

“Okay, but do you at least want to see what it does?” Ben asked as he held it, preparing to open the book up. “This could be your only chance-”

“Don’t!” He yelled, cutting Ben off. “You have no idea what it does. Listen legs, we see each other again in the future and I’m happy to learn about whatever that can do, but trying to activate a mythic item in a crowded city when you have no idea what the effects would be is asking for all sorts of trouble. Go into the middle of nowhere if you need to do it, I’d rather not have survived all of that to immediately become a corpse.”

“Fair,” Ben agreed, slipping it back into his bag. Given that it looked like a book and was called the archive he didn’t think it would be too dangerous, but Greed was right, he was being too casual with a mythic artifact. For all he knew, it was an archive of spells or curses that would shoot out when he opened the page, or something equally ridiculous. He needed to take some proper care.

“As long as you understand. So was that all you brought me for?”

“Oh no,” Ben told him with a shake of his head. “There’s one more thing I was thinking we could deal with and now that things have started to calm down it’s the perfect time, but first I’ve got to ask, how do you feel about blackmail?”