As nice as it is to see I’m still having an easier time leveling up my mind skills and it looks like plenty of jobs are giving bonuses to fine motor control… I’m not exactly sure this is the sort of inspiration I want.

“Falk, I have an idea,” Ben sighed. In the week since they’d first started, they’d gone through so many books on so many topics, discussed potential options and tossed aside everything as either non-viable or not good enough, but he finally thought he had something that might be worth pursuing, even if he couldn’t help but find it distasteful considering their history with it.

“I’m all ears boy. Anything to get me out of this stack of papers and onto something a bit more exciting.”

They had notes and books everywhere, with the fact that the shop was a forge lost amongst them. They only made enough to replace what they were losing from the few who came in to buy something, and both made sure to work fast enough that they could go back to focusing on their main goal each time. Creating something that would push an artisanal skill to the third tier was never going to be easy, but just trying to figure out something that would let his teacher go so far beyond his limits was already pushing their mental ones.

“Well, the problem is that it’s already pretty lightly based on someone else's work. Iberu’s super weapon. A lot of the enchantments that gave it its final effect and severity came from you, right? Design anything to do something along those lines without being so absolutely evil to pull off, and it might be enough. We’d need to solve the problem of power conversion but I think if you push your skills enough and get enough resources we might be able to make something happen.”

He watched his teacher grimace, thinking over what he’d said. He’d been as much in the dark about what Iberu had been doing as Ben had and left just as filled with rage to learn what his work had gone towards, but he couldn’t deny that it was a line of thought worth pursuing.

“What are you thinking boy?”

“There were a load of ways that what he'd built could have been improved, all the more if he’d put my personal enchanting system into practice and trying to do so would be perfect for you. You have enough skills that if you push yourself to use the blending aspects of my system despite your mind being, well-”

“Normal?”

“I was actually trying to find a nice way of saying weaker but now I’m not going to. Anyway, you should be able to blend up to four things at once by yourself, even if that’s going to be really pushing you for all you have, and then it’s a matter of both personally creating the tool they’ll be on and laying everything down. Your earth magic merged with your smithing and enchanting when they awakened, right? That might make it easier for you to build everything on site considering that no matter what you do, the weapon is going to have to be huge.”

“Too huge,” His teacher countered. “Where do you think I’ll be getting all of the materials for whatever we design?”

That might actually be the easiest part.

“Give me just a minute and I’m ninety percent sure I can sort you out for that.”

His teacher looked at him curiously as Ben ran to grab a piece of paper, quickly writing down a note.

Dear Pelenia, if you and Abus supply Falk with all of the materials he needs and help him find an invasion point that would finance his work, he’ll finally talk to your sister about her feelings. Yours truly, Ben.

He quickly sealed the letter shut and handed it over to his teacher.

“If you give this to Pelenia, she’s going to be practically compelled to help you. I would be shocked if she doesn’t put her all into making sure that you’re well-supplied.”

“What could you possibly have over her to get her to do that much?” Falk asked, looking at the letter with eyes filled with suspicion.

“Secret. Just hand it to her and I’m pretty sure she’ll do the rest.”

And then she might mercilessly poke at you about what’s written, but that’s a you problem.

“Alright, fine, then all that’s left is the designs.”

They both knew that whatever his teacher made would have to be big, outrageously so even, but that was fine. They might not be able to design something that would fire at the gate from a distance, but if they made something that would wrap around the whole of the invasion point, that was a different matter.

And with the invasion point being around two hundred meters across, that means about a six hundred meter circumference. It’s going to be outrageously huge. If Falk’s really going to try and build this by himself then it will at best take months, but if this doesn’t push him past the limits of his skill then at the very least it should pile on a mountain of experience for whatever ends up being the next attempt.

As they discussed the idea, getting more and more into it, their notes turned into designs and blueprints that held the potential to give the world another third-tier skill holder.

“Ah, boy, I’m not sure about this,” His teacher grumbled, looking uncomfortable as Ben gave him a blank one in return.

“You can’t seriously be feeling weird about this. I’m just bringing you back for dinner, it’s not like you’ve never been over before.”

“I know, I know, it’s just…”

The yeti trailed off as Ben could only shake his head. Falk hadn’t seen Sonya since Ben had confronted him about the state of their relationship, and it was clear he was worried about how to handle it.

This entire time, any time Sonya had shown any signs of interest beyond the purely platonic he’d just brushed them off, but with Ben having made things so clear now he didn’t know how to approach it.

“Falk, if you’re leaving in the morning you sure as hell aren’t going without saying goodbye to your very good friend and niece. Who knows how long it will be until you see either of them again, huh? I’m just dragging you here for dinner, that’s all.”

“Fine, lead the way already.”

Satisfied his teacher wasn’t going to run off at the last minute, Ben let them in, calling out as he did.

“I’m home! And I brought a guest!”

“Hmm, who?” Sonya called back before walking out to see. “Oh Falk, I wish I’d known you were coming earlier.”

“Ah, yeah, I got a bit of a last-minute project so I’ll be having to leave town for a couple of months. Wanted to stop by before I go.”

Both of them could see Sonya’s face briefly fall with the news before picking back up, Falk now carrying the knowledge of what it meant. She was sad to see him go beyond the scope of their friendship.

“Well, I’m glad you stopped by. Do you need to leave now, or will you maybe be joining us for dinner first?”

“I’ll stay if it’s no trouble, your food’s always a treat Sonya.”

His words earned him a bright smile as Sonya waved him to the kitchen, wanting to chat as she cooked as Ben made his way to the couch and let himself flop onto it, resting his eyes as he did.

This has been such an exhausting week.

Hey, it’s for people I care about, along with myself. If things go well for them then Thera might be a little less embarrassed about how we spend our own time together.

Ugh, I just want a nice, easy life. Is that so wrong?

Yeah, but what can I do about Sonya? I know she’s a good life mage, but pushing someone to awaken a skill is a whole other issue. And the worst part is that I think that would be the easiest option! If she’s been stewing on this bit of insecurity for decades then a few good words aren’t going to fix anything. Genuinely, why is it that the prospect of trying to help Falk awaken his skills feels like the more realistic one?

Even if their first attempt failed, Ben at least would be spending a lot of the time that his teacher was gone thinking about other options that might do the job. Even if he personally lacked the technical skill needed to get it done, as long as he could theory-craft for something Falk might be at the edge of pulling off, it would be worth it.

And then I still need to work on my own skills, help Thera with her materialization practice, focus on all of my other big stupid projects and whatever else I need to do. Hell, why don’t I just add figuring out my own world-saving weapon to the list? Might as well given the scale of so much else I’m working on.

God, I would love a vacation, maybe I’ll take one if I ever have less to do.

A man’s allowed hope Myriad.

His thoughts with his god were broken by the feeling of someone sitting on the edge of the coach and leaning against him, with Thera there, looking as exhausted as he felt.

“I take it that studying isn’t going exceedingly well?”

“You know, I didn’t take it too seriously when Jake said it before, but you really are a smartypants, you know that? How is it you’re not only aware of so freaking much about a single metal, to the point you could put together an entire book on the topic in just a couple minutes but also fill it with some concepts and background knowledge I didn’t even know existed?”

“The knowledge skills help, plus the need to keep my mind busy. It also helps when you’ve been tutored by some extra-dimensional aliens on the material properties of the universe. You should be happy, you’re getting some cutting-edge bits of info that I’m pretty sure nobody knew about till recently and still hasn't really spread beyond whatever think groups and organizations the grey are talking with. But should I take it there’s no luck yet?”

“Ugh, no. I just can’t seem to get the knack of it,” She admitted, holding out her hand to try again but accomplishing nothing but wasting mana. “I really wish I could think with your brain.”

“Ha, it would be nice if things were that easy…” He said, trailing off as he did.

Could she?

There were so many skills in the world thats effects could be experienced by others. Magics were the obvious ones, but he’d tried to drag her into the effects of stealth when they’d first met and his connect had always been a two-way skill, letting the target of it see into his mind as well with that effect only being suppressed when he’d gained hidden mind.

And normally you wouldn’t be able to transfer mind skills to somebody, but I literally have a skill that lets me link minds with people. Who’s to say that I couldn’t use it to let someone else access my mind skills and knowledge?

He didn’t know if there was any hope of such a thing being possible, but it was more than worth the attempt, all that mattered was just how he’d go about it.

Myriad told him, not trying to stop him but wanting him to be careful.

Don’t try it on someone I love, gotcha. I think there’s one or two people in town I might be able to practice on guilt-free if I can talk them into helping.

Don’t worry, I have all of dinner to think on how I want to approach this.

It’s too late Myriad, my curiosity is piqued.

And he already knew how he’d test to see if such a thing was even possible, even if it would need to wait. As Sonya called for them they went to enjoy the last meal they’d be having with Falk for a long while to come.