Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

Sitting in the guild that morning, ignoring the eyes of the few others around who recognized who he was while he did his best to pass the time, it wasn’t long until the three he was waiting on arrived, with Jake, Amy, and Yuzu joining him.

“Good to see you guys, hope one of you is ready for what I have in store.”

“Ah, Vasta gave me the rundown,” Jake laughed. “Hope you’ll take it easy on me buddy.”

“...”

“Buddy?”

“Anyway, let’s get back to Stonewall and get started,” Ben said with gusto, ignoring Jake’s request in a way that wasn’t lost on the others. “Just come this way for a shortcut and we can get started.”

“Why do you have a gate in here?” Amy asked as they were led into the guild master’s office, seeing it connect to his shop and getting a shrug as they walked through.

“Long story. First things first, I’ve got dark resistance amulets for all of you so put them on because this isn’t our last stop.”

He was handing them out as he said it before taking them through a different one he had set up to his personal workshop in Anailia, with his young apprentice waiting and hard at work practicing her art, as one of the few disciplines he was comfortable getting her to practice completely unsupervised. Even if Delair had been working on her own in her home village, now that she was his responsibility he was insisting on being more careful as a result and only interrupted her for introductions.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“Really?” The girl asked, her eyes lighting up at the prospect.

“Really really, you just probably won’t get the chance to use it, especially not today, Jake’s going to be busy. And on that note, let’s get started. Jake, say goodbye to Amy and Yuzu. I’m willing to give you guys a couple of minutes on it if need be.”

“Um, why? Aren’t you teaching me whatever you need to in here?”

“In a sense. Just say a quick goodbye for now.”

“Ben, buddy? You’re scaring me here, what’s about to happen?”

“You’re about to be educated, try not to resist.”

Looking in Ben’s eyes, Jake instantly had second thoughts about receiving lessons from his friend but it was too late. Ben was already in his mind and before Jake could try to make any sort of escape, Ben had pulled him into his own, materializing a new circlet on his friend’s head while the other went limp.

Let’s see, he was able to control four clones by himself comfortably enough so if we’re just going to make things a little uncomfortable then six minds in his head should be fine.

“Uh, Ben? What’s going on?” Amy asked, with the discomfort of seeing her partner slumped over and unconscious clear while he explained.

“You guys were told he was coming to learn from me, right? Well, here he is, learning. It’s fine.”

A sentiment Jake might have wanted to disagree with but wasn’t given the chance. Six instances of himself were all in Ben’s mind, under the effects of his knowledge skill while being forced to think as fast as Ben himself could while the lessons began, with plans to stretch them out for the rest of the day. As for how long it would feel to Jake…

Well, he should’ve used his chance to tell them goodbye. Oh well, I’ve got enough dark spells built in to protect his mind, it’ll be fine.

He’d planned on dedicating that first day entirely to lessons before changing the next to something far more hands-on, in essence keeping himself free to manage his own work as well as take advantage of Jake's soul and he slipped on his own jacket to do exactly that.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“So from here, things aren’t going to be the most exciting for you two but I could at least use your help a bit while you’re here Yuzu if you don’t mind?”

“Um, sure, what?” She asked, looking particularly hesitant about what she was seeing happen to her husband while Amy appeared much the same.

“Decided I’m going to strain my soul a bit today and might do the same to Jake, if you could keep the damage to the minimum that would be great.”

“...Why?”

“Because sadly my work never ends.”

He was already using Jake to materialize more voidstone and deathstone for his use, the substances being far too handy to not create as much as he could when he had someone there who was able to create them but as for himself, it was time to finish up with a few of his own supplies. He was now constantly making mana bracelets, buff bracelets, and materializers to supply the world but if he was willing to deal with a bit of pain for it then he could potentially finish up making them that day.

When he’d come back to the world, he’d materialized an entire enchanted building that was still housing thousands of his fellow prisoners. It had damaged his soul and nearly destroyed his body in the process which wasn’t exactly ideal but with a proper soul mage by his side, he could do something very similar, taking in outrageous volumes of mana to materialize dozens to hundreds of crates of those three tools in a single go.

The idea ran pretty counter to his plan to take it easier when it came to overfilling his soul but given how infrequently he’d have a soul mage around to heal the damage of that act, he couldn’t just not take advantage of her while she was there.

Which means I should also just give in and materialize the rest of the souls I need today too. Hey, Myriad Myriad Myriad, I know I was planning on taking two more days to finish up my current job but it looks like I’m going to finish this one tonight and I’ll aim to finish the next in a day or three after, think you can get arrangements made for my next round of jobs?

Let’s say this evening after I’m done teaching-

Teaching Jake. He’ll be fine and so much smarter for it and then I can reward myself after a day of hard work with some nice new job bonuses.

“Ben, whatever you’re doing I think I need to strongly inform you that you need to stop,” Yuzu said as he started, able to see the way he was filling up with mana. “I think your soul might actually explode!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve done this before.”

“That doesn’t make it better! I know you can take in mana but this is too much!”

His capacity had grown, both in thanks to his regular training as well as his soul expansion and resilience, making his upper limit balloon as all of the mana he took in was instantly spent, converted to souls and enchantments and matter as a wall of crates was materialized along the side of his warehouse, with the process repeating again and again as the things he needed were brought into being.

It was agonizing but Yuzu was already healing him, and just as importantly, the act was freeing up his future workload, giving him more time in the future to focus on other projects which was enough to bring a smile to his face through the pain.

“Look, it’s not ideal but it hasn’t killed me yet and this is important. After today I won’t have to do it again if you lend me a hand for now.”

“I don’t think I have a choice when you’re doing this in front of me.”

“Such are the perils of living on this world. I’ll make it up to you when I help you speed through your job later because it looks like we’ll be doing that today. Oh, and I have one more gift for you actually.”

“If it’s related to this then I don’t need it!”

“It’s not. It’s a spell. One second.”

He briefly pulled her into his head, albeit in a far gentler way than Jake was receiving, and gave her the information he had while improving her learning rate, with her reaction only coming once she was released.

Taking a far quieter tone than how she’d been at the suffering he was putting himself through, the look she gave when she spoke was still coloured by concern.

“Ben, where did you learn a soul spell like that?”

“I happened to have a run-in with a demon contender… Well, they were a contender when I encountered them and a third tier when I killed them but that’s not really the point. They used that spell themselves for a really, really annoying application of prophecy but it’s not like it can’t have other uses, I figured you might be able to get some benefits from employing it.”

It was a spell he had ripped from the mind of the demon who had taken over Thera, along with the other adventurers and chimeras, that had employed it to bring them all into its thrall, making them nothing more than extensions of itself to be used as it saw fit. Now though, in the hands of a third tier, it could potentially be used to a significantly greater degree, even without the time magic that had made it so dangerous.

It was something Yuzu seemed to have understood well enough, leaving her deeply uncomfortable compared to other soul spells she’d learned but that didn’t matter. She could choose to use it or not but now it was one in her arsenal, available in case she needed it.