Ultimately the encounter proved to be the most dangerous leg of their journey, Thera was able to handle any of the smaller threats that came their way for the rest of it, and with the city only a few hours away they let themselves relax a bit.
“See, it wasn’t so bad, was it?” She asked him, feeling pretty good about how the entire thing had gone herself. Except for one bit that ended up a bit more dangerous than expected, they’d managed without any real issues and were close to being able to give their report, planning to place special emphasis on what Ben had taken to calling time ferrets as a dangerous new creature in the woods. If they were lucky then they’d killed the entire group that had migrated to the area, but they couldn’t risk that not being the case and it was likely the towns along the road would need to be vigilant for more significant changes for the next while.
“I stand by that there were better things we could have done with the time, but it did give me a good idea so maybe it was worth it.”
“Oh?” She asked, curiosity clear in her voice as Ben laughed it off.
“I’ll need your help with it when we get to Anailia, as complicated as I feel about the idea seeing as how it makes a bunch of my other work pointless, but it could work out well in the long run.”
She was going to try and twist his arm a bit to get the explanation from him instead of leaving him to play coy as he tended to about any idea he wasn’t sure he could make work, but they both immediately suffered from their careless attitude. No matter how close they were to the city, they were still in the woods, and Thera still held the charm lantern in her hands.
While the tools' effects would draw creatures in, it didn’t draw them from a flat plain, instead drawing them from all directions, and in the same way Ben had previously been attacked by the stone ape in the trees, Thera found a creature on her. Smaller than the ape but significantly more dangerous, a pixie dragon, a creature with glittering rainbow scales about the size of an owl and deeply in the fire affinity was digging its claws in the exposed skin of her hand as she struggled to suppress a cry from the pain as she felt her flesh cooking, not wanting to risk being too close to a creature that she knew could wreak incredible havoc with the flames it could breathe if it felt inclined.
Ben was quick to react, knowing that since the creature was touching Thera’s only exposed flesh it wouldn’t be letting go any time soon and activated the enchantment on the knife he’d worked so hard to create, having taken to carrying it after and only using one hand for his enchantments after their previous big attack. Moving as fast as he could he used the enchantment on it, letting the mana battery power it from that point on and using every bit of his strength he swiped at the creature's long thin neck, managing to sever its head from the rest of it.
He was careful to grab the body before it could fall, the claws were still gouged into Thera’s skin and he didn’t want the weight of the body doing any more damage than it already was as she tried to hold in a grunt of pain.
“Give me a minute,” He told her as he carefully unhooked each claw from her flesh. He didn’t bother asking if she was okay, having received a similar wound in the past was enough to know that it sucked and instead focused on getting her free.
“Mmh, well I was probably due with how much you get injured,” She tried to joke to ignore the pain. She’d been injured occasionally in the past when she’d hunt alone and her staff would break, but it hadn’t happened since she’d started with Ben and this was one of the more unpleasant ones she’d ever received.
“Are you able to heal your own wound?” He asked after getting her free. It was far deeper than he liked to see, both blistered and bleeding, but at the very least wouldn’t prove to be too bad with the city nearby.
“My life resistance is really low and even if you make me an amulet I’m not sure how that would work when I’m using it on myself. I should probably wait till we get to town instead of risking making myself sick with my own magic.”
“Alright, well give me a second,” He told her as he reached into one of the bags and pulled out the first aid kit he’d taken to carrying and grabbed a lifeblood potion he’d previously made.
Directing mana through his life magic ring he did his best to flood it with the mana to enhance the potion’s effects before pouring it on her injury and wrapping the entire thing with a bandage.
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“That should do until we get to the city, but we’ll need to see a healer before going to the guild. I packed a resistance amulet so there shouldn’t be any issue with that at least.”
Luckily, that was their last real attack by the time they got to the city. After spending some time to get Thera properly treated and reporting the results of their quest, their cards being examined by the guild to confirm their kills and money being handed over they had both successfully become rank four adventurers.
Thera was happily looking and the mark to indicate it on her card as she let Ben drag her through the town once again, treating it in much the same way he did the last time they’d been there, though with far more disappointment after a while.
“Why does everything I see here look so meh?” He complained. He’d made sure to go to not only the shops he’d missed last time but the ones he’d previously been impressed by as well, only to be left disappointed. It was like every shop had experienced a significant drop in quality, he was positive he could make everything he’d been seeing easily.
“Isn’t the issue just that you’ve gotten so much better?” Thera pointed out. “You’ve gone up, like four levels since you were last here.”
“Uhg, yeah maybe, but I’m still only a level seven craftsman! I should be able to see at least a few things better than what I can make!”
“Well first, you’re a level seven blessed craftsman, there’s a huge difference comparing that to a typical level seven craftsman, even if I don’t have the eye to see it myself. Second and more importantly, I’m pretty positive I’ve told you before that most people don’t get their skills past the fifth level. It’s actually bizarre that you’re still apprenticed to my uncle considering how high you are, with the money and skill you have you could set up shop pretty much anywhere at this point and earn an excellent living.”
“I’m not going to do anything like that until I’ve squeezed every last bit of knowledge and skill from Falk I can so it will be a while before I even consider that. It’s so plain that his stuff is leagues above what I’m seeing here. You gotta give it to me straight Thera, Falk has some awakened skills, doesn’t he?”
The question seemed to have genuinely caught her off guard. “He doesn’t share his skills so I’m not sure, but is his stuff really so good that you’d think that? Maybe his items just seem that much better because he’s a dedicated blacksmith. No offense, but it’s common knowledge that a more specialized skill creates better results than a general one like your crafting.”
“None taken. I guess that could maybe be the case, but he has to be at least in the ninth level for both his smithing and enchanting and it’s hard to believe he’s not above it from what I’ve seen.”
As annoying as it was to not be able to get an answer on something he found himself so curious on, he made a promise to himself that he would make his teacher open up on that eventually, no matter how hard he had to work for it.