CH851

When he’d felt four hours pass he opened his eyes, happy enough with the break he’d gotten. In the years he’d been on that world he’d grown used to functioning on less and less sleep, his high stamina making it easier too but while he’d been expecting to prepare some more food while the others rested for a little longer he found a pair of eyes already on him, Thera watching him from his side.

“Ha, this is a surprise. Not often you’re up earlier than me.”

“I might’ve taken a small nap while you were playing around on the first floor,” She admitted. “I’m pretty rested. And you? Doing okay?”

“I’m thriving, you don’t have to worry about me. This is enough to make me wish I could challenge this tower a second time just to try out some of the different floors or doorways too. It would be cool to get a chance to take on everything the crafting gods cooked up.”

“Ha, I think this has to be the most positive I’ve ever seen you be about a trial,” She teased. “All of the practice doing them’s finally softened you on the experience?”

“Hey now, I love a good challenge when it’s not trying to kill me. If it weren’t for the fact that I really need the rewards for this, taking this one on would just be a game for me. Even getting the chance to repeat it once or twice would have been fun, I’d have loved to see how fast I could clear a floor now that I know what I’m doing. I’m willing to bet every one of them so far is finishable in twenty minutes or less so long as I go even harder with my magic right from the beginning and cut some corners on the meals. I did the best I could for those ones but there’s no way I couldn’t have made some options that would have been quicker, especially combined with the starvation strat.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me, you’re still crazy for making us do that when you don’t even know if that affected anything.”

“But I also didn’t know if it wouldn’t affect anything, I’d say it was worth the chance if it helps make sure you all get your levels and blessings.”

“I think you were just being a worrywart. I’ve gotten to enjoy some of the best food in the world growing up thanks to my mom’s position and you’re still leagues better right now. You can never leave me because I wouldn’t be able to go back to eating like that.”

“We can work on improving your cooking too, you know?”

“Mmh, let’s keep that as a maybe for if the world doesn’t end.”

“Ha, sounds good but speaking of, I only got up to make sure everyone has a meal before we do the next one. You down to give me a hand?”

“Immediately weaseling in some cooking lessons after I tried putting it off? Very sneaky.”

“And yet, we all gotta eat. Come on, it will be fun.”

Getting up, he offered his hand before pulling what he needed from his rings, the two of them whispering and working together while the others still slept.

---

Fourth floor fourth floor, what do you have in store?

Once everyone was rested and fed, all there was left to do was go on, the door to the next challenge right in front of him and with a single look back to the others he pushed it open, his heart pounding in excitement when he stepped through.

Not another continuation of the last two floors yet similar to both of them, he once more found himself in an endless void, with only a pile of tools and materials taking up space within, another pedestal sitting in front of it all.

So another construction floor then? He thought to himself as he walked over. Three floors that deal with that theme seems like a lot but considering how much it’s expecting us to make from scratch and how different building things for a kitchen is from building things for a dining room it’s been an interesting way of applying different crafting skills and techniques in every single challenge.

Even if similar, there’d been plenty of variety to be found in the other two and his excitement only rose when he read the new instructions, getting one he felt more at home with than any other.

“Create your ideal workshop. Time limit of three hours. Interesting.”

What that implied to him was that, in the same way as the previous two floors, his current one was going to be paired with the one coming next, forcing him to use what he’d built to reach some sort of end goal that he couldn’t guess at. There was plenty one could make in a workshop after all, even more if it was going to be like the previous floor and ask him to make another room at the same time, but all of that was a future problem. With a time limit lower than even the last one, his focus needed to be on the task at hand.

After all, as much as it would drive me insane, this could technically be a trick. Force me to do the last two and see how they’re connected and then give me this one to make me think I’m going to have to use what I build for whatever comes next and then give me something completely different to mess with me. I don’t think Nare’s the type but there’s other crafting gods in the world I know nothing about, it’s plenty possible some would have fun setting things up like that. Hell, I know I’d be laughing doing something like that.

He’d just need to hope that none of the crafting gods shared his sense of humour while he got started, looking at all he’d been given to use and creating multiple models in his head to decide how he wanted his end product to look.

As fun as it would be to see how much he could do by hand, by that point it was obvious the gods expected some magic to come into play, there was no way to get everything done otherwise. He’d been given the basic of basics as far as tools went but just looking at the low quality of all of them meant he was going to need to remake those as well, creating a far longer list than anyone would be able to pull off through pure muscle alone.

But that was to his benefit as metals, woods, and stones all flew through the air around him, warping as they went to fit the shapes he’d need. An anvil and forge went down with a tool rack by its side, filled with different hammers and files and tongs while a different area got a workbench with finer tools placed in the drawers he’d made it.

Knives, saws and scissors all had their place, as did the storage room in the corner, with plenty of the materials he’d been given to make the workshop being divided up and placed in there as well in case they’d get to see some future use. There were a million little things that he’d want any workshop to have and he never stopped making them, adding more and more cabinets and drawers to hold them all and redundancy for every item for his clones to use too while his mana slowly dwindled, his massive supply and regeneration rate not quite able to keep up with the work he was doing but just before he emptied his pool it was finished, yet another floor complete.

“Alright, that wasn’t so bad,” He said, pride in his voice as he looked around the room at all that he’d made. It was clear that Falk’s shop had been a heavy inspiration for him but he’d gone beyond just recreating the familiar building, creating a bit more space for the overall floor plan while neglecting to recreate some of the yeti’s tools that didn’t match his smaller size, filling the space with more that he himself could use through whatever homunculi he had on hand and as he walked it he couldn’t help but feel like he’d perfectly captured some the goal of that floor, even if he still had loads of time left.

“Ben, my guy, as nice as seeing you thrive like this is and all, you’re killing me,” Jake complained as he turned his gaze to Amy. “Do we just suck at towers? Are they supposed to be this easy and we’ve just been taking days each time because we’re losers?”

“Feels like it.”

“Guys, chill, I’m just in my element,” He told them. “Hell, I’m thriving. God, all towers should be like this, the rest of them have too much bullshit in them to bloat them out.”

“I feel like there’s a lot more bloat in these ones than others,” Thera pointed out. “You’re just not noticing because you’re having fun.”

“Okay, well yeah, maybe but the fact that I’m having fun is making all the difference. That’s exactly what every other tower is missing then.”

“Aren’t they supposed to be challenges?” Will asked. “I think them being fun would defeat the point.”

“Who says challenges can’t be fun? In fact, I’d say plenty of the other towers would be fun too if they just took out the murdery bits. Seriously, why does anyone have to die for the chance to grow? It’s messed up.”

Considering what he’d read of some of the pre-invasion worlds that made up the ancient history of all of the races of that one, he chalked up those violent aspects to be artifacts of the past that just hadn’t been removed, back when the gods ruled over people whose days would be filled with nothing but the struggle to survive. Now though, or at least before their current invasion, food and shelter came easy and at least some leisure could be a part of most days. The fact that the gods were having them risk their lives at any point only showed their primitive roots.

Well, maybe it also has to do with Nare being a god of challenge too, I’ll have to bother him at some point about how many of the more murdery bits were his idea. He told himself. But for now…

He still had time left and his mana was returning after all of that work, leaving him to start spending it to materialize substances of all sorts that the trial hadn’t seen fit to provide itself, adding a few magic materials and other precious metals to his storage closet with the time he had left. After all, if he didn’t know what he’d be doing next then it didn’t hurt to try and be as prepared as he could be.

---

The exit came as the time ran out and passing through revealed the very thing he expected, leaving him in the same workshop he’d just made, with nothing looking out of place to his eyes. When he’d entered the third floor there’d at least been a new door but with nothing else there on the fifth, the only thing he had to go off of was the plaque at the side of the room and feeling eager he hurried over, reading the new instruction and instantly feeling his mood drop.

“Ben?” Thera asked, able to see the instant change in him. “What’s the matter, what’s it say?”

“In twelve hours, using whatever materials you can access and only the skills found within your soul, create a high legendary item.”