CH818

He made a small detour when he got back, the day still earlier enough that he didn’t need to wait for Delair in the shop as he first ran to the church of Myriad, looking under the statue of his god and taking what had been slowly piling up there before going back to work, with all of the stopstone that had been materializing in hand.

Since he’d first turned his god’s church into a stopstone factory, slowly producing grains of the stuff while the days passed, half of a bucket had been filled up and while he didn’t yet have enough to begin all of his ideas, he had more than enough to start experimenting a bit as he created a mold to hold the powder before putting it in the forge and watching as it heated up until it slowly started to melt together.

So a slightly higher melting point than iron, neat. He thought as he let it cool down, wanting it solid enough to work before taking a hammer to it to see how it felt. Surprisingly hard too, all the more so since I can’t do any shaping with magic.

The only material in the world that he had no choice but to work entirely with raw strength, despite the inconvenience of it the fact couldn’t help but bring a smile to his face. It reminded him of the first few years he’d been working as a smith, no magic to help him with the process with the only tool he had to use being his own body.

Still, he was far stronger than he’d been then, no matter how much harder that magic material may have been, each of his strikes had a powerful effect as it was slowly turned into ingots while questions of what to do with it came to his mind when he looked at the final product.

A lot less of it when it’s not in a powdered form. He thought with a sigh seeing how the volume had shrunk once he got it all together. Not really a lot to do anything with. I could make some armour or a shield, both would be the best options for something like this but if I was doing something like that then it would be a lot less wasteful if I made a normal one of either and created a surface layer of stopstone on it but… Hmm, this is going to keep being in small supply and even if I am going to use plenty by the next wave, it wouldn’t hurt to let it build up a bit more to keep my options open and to do that, maybe I should be focusing on making more soul tiles instead so I can convert a few more churches into factories.

<Why are you trying to industrialize everything I own?>

Convenience.

He had a materializer set up to create rainbow mana crystal so he went to gather it, shaping it into tiles with his power as the souls he’d created stopped going to his god and instead went into the crystal, building them up more and more for the power they’d hold and only stopping as he remembered something else he needed to test, making a new one with only a single soul before taking the mana from it, feeling his brow crinkle as he did.

“Weird.”

<What?>

“I’m still making it with half of my total mana supply but I was expecting it to be less since part of what I currently have came from modifying my soul. I didn’t expect the new total to be counted but this means the rules or soul production haven’t changed even though my soul has. With that being the case, that means that I’ll need to modify my soul a second time before I start modifying anyone else’s for them to get the best effect and don’t get me wrong, that’s obviously great, I just wish I understood the rules my skill operates on a little better.”

Soul source continued to be one of his stranger skills but he had no way to learn more other than to experiment with the countless ones he’d create each day, feeling what worked and what didn’t as he hoped for any sort of breakthrough while finding countless configurations that just didn’t want to exist.

Well, maybe I’ll get some answers eventually. He sighed to himself, just in time for the door to open as everyone arrived, Sonya and Thera showing up and Delair with them, already tugging on Mora’s arm.

“Off to work then?”

“Yeah, back to it,” Thera sighed while looking at him in curiosity. “So, how’d it go this time?”

“Oh, so incredibly good. Small suggestion for everyone present, do your best to finish fifty jobs, the job you unlock for doing that is incredible.”

“How incredible?”

“‘Permanently increased how much job experience I get’ incredible,” He said with a grin, getting to see some surprise in her and Sonya’s eyes as a reward with the latter shaking her head.

“You really have been finding the strangest aspects of the system,” Sonya sighed. “You really should make sure you record the details of some of your stranger jobs, for future posterity if for nothing else.”

“Ha, you’re probably right but I’ll leave that on the to-do list until I take a couple more. For now though, Delair, gotta let go of Mora, we need to get you started.”

“Huh? Isn’t he going to work too?”

“He’s always welcome if he wants but I was under the impression he was going back with Thera. Mora, you joining us today?”

The boy shook his head. “I’ll go with Thera.”

It was an answer that got a pout from Delair, warming his heart that she seemed to have grown fond of the boy right until she opened her mouth.

“But now I don’t have an underling.”

He heard Sonya laugh while Thera just shook her head, giving him a look as she did.

“You’ve definitely been a bad influence.”

“I’d like to try and deny that…” But I don’t know if I can. Mmh, it’s probably fine.

He took a quick peak in his apprentice's mind and found that she liked the young spirit’s company, she was just being cheeky so he let it slide. Kids were allowed to figure out how to act with others and Mora seemed accepting enough of the attention he was getting. At the very least, Ben knew he had the strength to get away from her if he’d wanted to and while whatever he might have gone through in the first few months of his life with Vividus and Nox could have potentially warped the child’s ability to deny others, he didn’t feel like he’d seen any of that in their time together.

Mmh, well, it wouldn’t hurt to check with him later how he feels about what Delair said or about her company in general. Man, lot to think about for child-rearing.

“Think you’ll be home at a decent hour tonight then, Ben?” Sonya asked him, still chuckling at the little exchange while he nodded.

“Yeah, I should be there to cook dinner tonight, I’ll come home whenever one of you two gets back so have a good day until then.”

“We’ll try.”

Both women were already imagining the level of work ahead, with Thera especially finding herself dreading the work more than she had dreaded the idea of taking on the tower but didn’t have the mental leeway to reflect on how her priorities and sense of danger were both slowly warping as the war went on. But having no choice than to face the day, she and the other two set out, leaving him and his apprentice to start their own work as well.

“Alright, let’s see how you’re coming along.”