Ben went to open the door as it was knocked on, thinking he had known who it was going to be but getting the surprise of everyone who came with her.

“Big crowd, huh?”

“The day ended up a bit busier than expected,” Thera told him as she and the others came in. She seemed worn out but in better spirits than when he’d left her which was a positive as far as he was concerned.

“Yeah? Tell me about it.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but Aso got to it first.

“We watched Thera kill a man!”

“Did she? Huh, good for her.”

“I didn’t kill anyone!”

“That’s right,” He teased, seeing that she was in a good enough place that she’d be able to handle it. “We’ve all got our stories straight, the lot of you have been here with me since this morning. You couldn’t have possibly done it.”

He got a few laughs for his comment while Thera lightly punched his arm.

“Nobody’s dead, the guy is just going to find himself in another town later but at worst he’ll be inconvenienced.”

“I mean, if you hit him hard enough that he was knocked to a different town…”

“He’s being carried there, it’s fine!”

She felt herself begin to blush under the pressure and rushed to explain most of what happened since he’d left in the morning, from Aso and Sachel paying her a visit to learning just how word had spread about her titles and family connection, ending on being confronted by the guy who had done it and dealing with his proclamation.

Definitely motivation for my current project.

I can when the guy knows she’s seeing someone but does it anyway. Don’t worry, it’s fine. I’m not a psycho.

Keeping those thoughts to himself, he instead went to place a comforting hand on Thera’s arm, giving voice to a different thought.

“You know, it is okay if you ever feel like killing someone though, I won’t hold it against you.”

“Haha, no need to be jealous, Ben,” Sonya told him, openly enjoying the show. “Thera went into a fair bit of detail about how important you are to her while turning him down.”

“Interesting, interesting. You guys said you came for cards and a few video games? They’re free if you tell me exactly what she said.”

Sachel began opening her mouth but Thera had her card out before she could speak. “I’ll buy, they’re my treat so nobody say a word.”

The girls kept silent, having had their fun and leaving him curious yet defeated. “Fine, fine, keep your secrets. And it’s not like anything I’m going to be making is going to be super difficult so don’t worry about paying, I’ll be done in a second.”

With that he held out his hands, one placed atop the other to be dramatic as the girls looked curiously before he opened it, materializing his mana as he did to create two decks of cards and a small book containing the rules for all of the games he could remember, getting the shocked expressions he’d been hoping for from that little bit of extra flair.

Well, not so much from Thera and Sonya but they already knew I could do this. The reactions from the other two were pretty worthwhile though.

Aso looked largely entertained, not knowing he could materialize his mana which made it seem more like an impressive bit of sleight-of-hand that he was way too prepared for, while Sachel was struggling between that same thought and wondering if he’d materialized it. The fact that he’d helped her make a seed meant that he could, but the degrees at which he was demonstrating the ability were beyond staggering if that really was the case here too.

Ben was happy to leave her guessing as he reached out to take just a bit of Thera’s supply to refill his reserve before immediately using it again, putting his hands behind his back for a second before pulling them out with two diamond sheets he was already enchanting on and handed them over with the requested games placed down.

“So is this what you’ve been doing all day? Practicing to go on tour with Greed if you ever get the chance?” Thera asked.

“Ah, I’m glad you asked! Actually, I’ve been…”

He trailed off as he looked at two of them. Both Thera and Sonya always ended up informed about the things he would do, but not so for Sachel and Aso. He knew he’d created something big and he wasn’t sure he was ready for word to spread about his accomplishments. Still, he wanted to show off so he was quick to make up his mind.

“Okay, as long as everyone here promises not to go spreading any rumours, you can come check out what I’ve made.”

It wasn’t hard to get promises from either, their curiosity was piqued. They knew what Ben was, how could they deny themselves the chance to see whatever he’d made if it got him that excited?

So he led them to the back, already anticipating the reactions but not prepared for one of them to immediately scream.

“Ben’s also killed people! Looks like he has the higher body count today too!” Aso said, even while both Sonya and Sachel were moving to check on the bodies laying on the ground, getting another jumpscare when they realized each had Ben’s face, with the worst of it coming when he got back in range to use them, filling each with his soul to make them get up.

“Sorry, don’t mind the tools,” He said through five mouths at once. “I left them here when I heard you knocking.”

All but Thera were left unnerved, with his girlfriend being the only one who’d seen them already, and he was forced to give a bit of an explanation about what they were and how he was using them. It didn’t seem to help much though so in the end he put them away, guiding each back into their storage boxes.

“Okay, now if you could all ignore that, we could instead focus on the absolutely incredible thing I have just a bit farther down,” He said, rushing over to what looked like a pair of simple door frames to them, right until he stepped through one and came out the other, revealing their true nature as gates.

This time he got to enjoy the look of shock from each and every one of them with what they were seeing. Miniature gates, the first in the world, had been built in a small shop in a small town under the power of one motivated man, and as things stood they were his best work.

They went over to give a closer look, walking through themselves while Thera stayed by his side, a question on her lips.

“So did you finally do it?”

He didn’t need to ask what she was talking about, it could only be one thing and made him smile all the wider.

“Finally broke through to lower legendary. Got a few levels for it too and honestly it feels great.”

A part of him felt bad about giving his own good news when he knew she had been feeling so low, but he didn’t want to hide it either. He didn’t believe Thera would fault him for any small celebration of his success and by all accounts she seemed happy for him.

“It’s incredible. I can already imagine you getting flooded with orders if anyone ever finds out. Is this what you’ve been working on all day?”

“Ah, no, I finished it a couple hours ago. Since then I’ve been trying and failing to make something else of the same quality. I was actually going to give it one more attempt and go home after regardless of how it turns out so you all came at the perfect time. ‘Course, since you’re here I can just leave it for tomorrow and head back when they’re done,” He told her, prepared to start packing up while the others were still looking over his gate, only for Thera to stop him.

“No, do your last one, I’ll stay and watch.”

“You sure? It’s not actually going to be the most visual, I just have enchanting left.”

“Then that won’t even take too long. It’s fine. Besides, I like watching you work.”

“Well, if you’re sure then I’ll give it a go.”

He walked over to an anvil where he’d left a knife resting, meant to act as a replacement for the one the invader had destroyed, only made to be even more savage. He’d worked every affinity of magic into the first one when he’d made it so long ago after constant failures and he intended to do the same again, with dozens of failed attempts under his belt already.

With more bodies along with his high level of unending crafting and his material manipulation, he had been able to pump out high-quality knives at a constant rate, but even still they weren’t able to handle the enchantments he wanted to apply. Even after the levels he’d just received, he was pushing the limits of his skill to bring his vision to reality.

His fingers laden with enchanted rings, he connected to them all, taking what he could as he thought about the aspects he wanted. It was going to be the same general spells as his original knife, only on a completely different level of power. Sturdy, drain, heat application, mental effects, time acceleration, healing suppression, all of them were being reused with one big addition coming to the list. Spatial collapse to pull any flesh it touched into the blade.

If that was all he needed to do though, it wouldn’t actually be that hard. That was just recreating something he’d already made at a higher level, nothing compared to what he could do. No, the problems came with what he wanted to add to it, flexibility.

The weapon he’d created for Amy was still a masterpiece in his eyes for how he’d made it. It was something that played to her strengths, letting her pick from a range of weapons to give her the right one for the right job, and now he wanted the same for himself to match his own abilities.

What he was trying to do was create a series of inputs for the knife to alter the enchantments, but on a far deeper level. He wanted to be able to manually control each aspect of the knife as he was using it, able to adjust the strength of each feature on the fly or turn them off altogether. It would make it a worthless weapon to anyone else, but for himself, it couldn’t be better. It would be something that would take advantage of both how he could think to make constant adjustments as need be, along with his shocking level of mana control to manipulate his supply in a way to alter the output of each individual enchantment on it. At least, it would so long as he could get it to work.

He didn’t consider his earlier failures, those weren’t important. He had new levels in most of his core skills, all that was left was getting everything he had to click into place in just the right way as he bent his mana under his power, making it pour out of him in a flood while weaves and rings blended together before binding with the tool in his grasp.

He knew he was pressing his luck with the level of detail he’d put into it to make the knife hold all that he wanted but that didn’t matter. If he failed again then he’d just try another hundred times till he got it right. As far as he was concerned, being on the edge of success meant that success was possible, it just took the will to make that happen, and to his small fortune he didn’t need to waste dozens more knives and untold hours. He felt his enchantments fall into place without the knife crumbling to dust, giving him his second legendary item that day.