Thanks to his teacher's help Ben was at least sure he’d be able to understand the spell he was placing, now all it came down to was actually enchanting with it. He grabbed the first sword and sat down, inspecting it as he got prepared. It was one of Falk’s works rather than his own, and like everything his teacher made it was perfect as far as Ben could tell.
The sword was of a simple design, not meant to be beautiful in any way, instead made to focus on its main task, killing. Ben couldn’t help but think that whatever clumsy enchantment he would end up making could only make the sword worse, at least considering the fact that if he chose to, Falk could just apply it himself, and significantly more skillfully than he could, but he pushed the thought away as he focused on the edge of the blade he would be constructing the enchantment upon.
Thanks to the ring Falk made him, he was able to use both hands to construct the enchantment, as well as taking advantage of his second mind to speed up its construction. Enchanting with a magic ate up his mana at a far faster rate than it would otherwise, but it was still nowhere near as bad as trying to properly activate a spell was for him.
When he thought he was done he moved onto the next one, then the next one, and by the time he was finished he had ten enchanted swords sitting beside him and noticed his teacher there, inspecting his work.
“There’s plenty of room for improvement,” Falk started, bringing Ben's feelings crashing down before lifting him back up again. “But considering you managed it in your first attempt and each enchantment seems better than the last I would call it a success. I’ll have to tidy up the enchantments on the first five myself, but we should be able to sell the second five as is. Excellent work boy.”
Ben found himself smiling and let himself lean back against the wall as he let his mana regenerate. “Thanks Falk, so what were you thinking now?”
His teacher hesitated, a sign Ben had grown pretty sure to mean he hadn’t thought that far ahead for his training when he looked back to the swords Ben just finished enchanting. “Change of plans boy. Remove all of the enchantments from these and do them again, after that but repeat with the earth affinity spell ‘harden’, and then do it again but instead of a spell take the sharpening effect of dismantling and add it.”
Even though his teacher clearly just decided it on the spot Ben didn’t argue. Since he just learned the technique he wanted all the practice he could get.
As hours of the day passed, Falk's challenges grew more and more demanding. Soon he was being made to enchant multiple effects at once, intertwining the enchantments and trying to push the mana consumption to its lower limit, at least for what he was capable of.
His teacher provided him with advice here and there but for the most part just let Ben work, silently watching from the side as enchantments were constructed and destroyed again and again.
In a lot of ways making a complex enchantment gave Ben the same feeling as when he would make a drawing or painting, while there was wiggle room for how he arranged things as he went, each step built upon the last, meaning that if the previous work wasn’t accounted for then the finished product could be a mess. While corrections could always be made after the fact, he would much rather get things right the first time, and with that mindset put all of his focus into his work.
Just as he was about to remove all of the enchantments he’d made and start again he felt Falk shake his shoulder to get his attention.
“Alright boy, I think that’s enough for the day.”
“Hmm? You sure? I think I could do a fair bit more.”
“It’s late and you just got back to town, no reason to work until the early hours of the morning. Besides, I can already say with confidence your work is good. Shockingly so really, Far above what I would expect of your current skills level, regardless of being blessed,” The boy's work had always been good as far as Falk was concerned, but seeing his current work was like seeing a massive jump in overall quality, at least for his enchantments.
Ben though, while happy with the complement, seemed unsatisfied with his work overall. “It’s probably a bit better now that on top of focus I can use a second mind to exam and correct my work as I go, but I can still see so many areas I can improve on. The mana cost reduction still isn’t low enough to make up for the fact that I don’t have high affinities to bind to the spells, and no matter what I try I can't seem to bind the enchantments together more tightly than they currently are.”
“Well for now don’t worry too much about the mana cost reduction, you’ll get there with time. I’m not going to say you’ll ever be able to get it down to what an enchanter with a high affinity for a magic could do, but with some practice you’ll be able to smash anything made with an average affinity out of the water. As for your enchantments, what makes you think they aren’t bound well enough?” Even though his student was at level four of enchanting, by virtue of it being his blessed skill it was more comparable to between a level six or seven enchanter, and even by those standards the boy had them beat thanks to his other skills improving the overall quality. He couldn’t imagine why the boy thought it wasn’t good enough.
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“Well, when I compare them to the enchantments on Anailias trial-”
“Let me stop you there,” Falk said, cutting him off. “Boy are you really unsatisfied that you can’t match the magic of a god?” He asked in disbelief.
“I mean, when you put it like that it sounds dumb.”
“Look, it’s good to have ambitions, and you have the makings of a master enchanter if you can keep putting in the work, so I don’t want you being discouraged by dumb things like that. Those enchantments are so perfect because they were made by a god, I’m not going to say mortals can’t make anything approaching it, but that should be something you aspire to, not something that brings you down, understand?”
“I know you’re right Falk, I just can’t help but be impatient. Seeing the flaws in my work and not having the skills to improve them is aggravating.”
“Ha, boy that’s the curse of having a good eye for things. As your work improves so does your ability to see where you went wrong. As long as you keep working to get it better you’ll overcome your current failings only to find some whole new ones,” His teacher told him with a grin. “Now I got two things for you before you go. First, since you’ve found yourself in a fair amount of wealth at the moment, transfer some over and I’ll buy you some supplies.”
“Sure, what fun things did you have in mind?”
“A surprise. It will take a few weeks but it will be worth the wait, promise.”
His curiosity was taken but he managed to resist pestering Falk too much, instead transferring over a level of wealth that would have made his eyes bulge only a month or two before.
“As for the second, here,” His teacher told him, handing him over a handful of plain metal rings.
Ben looked at it carefully. Unlike the death affinity ring he was given when he started, and the earth affinity one his teacher made for him when he began trying to apply harden to the swords, these ones didn’t seem to have any enchantments on them at all.
“Thanks, but what are they for?”
“Same thing you’re using the other two for, these are just blanks you could put other skills onto if you find anyone with any. I’d recommend snagging Sonya's level six charm when you get back but otherwise if you know anyone with any interesting ones put it on one of those too. Seems like you’ll find it a lot easier to enchant with multiple skills like that if you aren’t constantly having to change out which blocks you grab.”
He looked at them carefully, each a thin ring of metal that comfortably fit on his fingers. Falk must have eyeballed the size but he got them perfect. “Thanks Falk, but do you really think I’ll be able to enchant on something this small without breaking it? I’m not sure my skill level’s there yet.”
“If you could make a monstrous enchantment like the one you made for Thera’s brace without breaking at a lower level then you’ll manage this just fine, even if you take a while longer than you would otherwise. Just take your time on it if you aren’t sure, no need to rush.”
He thought for a moment while looking at his hands, wondering just how many he would be able to wear at once after he found a few more people willing to share their skills with him. He couldn’t help it as a smile spread across his face.