Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

Back at the shop, Ben looked at both what he had and what he’d need, with the answer to the latter being largely vague when the only thing he’d really been told about his coming quest was that it was centered around watching as another group fought.

Still, there was one obvious standout, more apparent than anything else. His jacket, his strongest line of defense that he’d filled with tens of thousands of souls to take advantage of that he was going to have to leave behind for exactly that fact.

If he was being honest with himself he had to admit that he was in a horribly messy place with his training. He was trying to avoid overusing it which meant trying to avoid that one aspect of connect when that was the very skill he was pinning his hopes on trying to awaken. If he could and if it pulled in his divine enchanting like he so desired then in theory he’d be able to add third-tier skills to his rings to enchant with on the fly, making new items as needed when trying to deal with Oaun.

A skill he then wouldn’t be able to use any other aspect of around that same god for the fact that every other major part of it meant his soul would be expanding out of his body, leaving the safety of his vessel to expose it to a god of souls. Even if his other goal was to awaken sacrilege as well, he couldn’t count on the changes that would come with that to keep him safe.

Which created the horrible conundrum of the fact that he wanted to get to the third tier for a skill he couldn’t constantly use at its full potential. So long as he got to the ninth level of it he could think of options to push it over the edge but as it was he was slowing himself down.

“But I need to slow myself down because I can’t be relying on having infinite freaking power when facing the strongest god in the galaxy and probably this whole stupid universe,” He complained, trying to rub the forming headache out of his temples as he went. “Which really means I shouldn’t be using any non-enchanting application for it either but if I draw that line then I’m never going to get enough practice for leveling it and if I do get it to the third tier then that’s something I’ll have to consider but… Yeah, this isn’t helping. I’ve already said I’m not using the stupid jacket which means I’m making myself something new to wear for whatever defense it will give out there and seeing how I’m not the biggest armour person, that just means I’m designing an even newer jacket to use. And pants too. Okay, plan made so let’s get started.”

He walked over to his warehouse and pulled out his clones, getting bodies moving to pull materials he had stored to essentially remake the one he already had while adding any improvements he saw fit along the way.

Leather was cut and stitched, an inner lining was made and meshed and the entire structure of it was enhanced with any magic materials he could add in, creating wires and alloys that threaded through the entire thing while powders were forced within the leather itself for what bits of strength and magic resistance it would grant while the entire thing was being enchanted.

It wouldn’t have the benefits of what extra strength the church of Myriad would get for acting as a receptacle for his god’s faith but it did have the benefit of the additional levels he’d claimed for himself since he’d done his last serious renovation on the old one, making up for that small loss in every way except for the power it held. It would be even safer than the old one, with the church not having gotten to enjoy the time or faith needed for it to properly mature as a defensive structure and he was happy to slip it on, feeling right at home as he did.

“Oh god, without looking I’ve become a jacket guy. It just feels so good and right.”

The defensive properties of it would be top-notch too which was what was going to be most important but a part of him couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be until they’d be breached like the church had so often been in the past. It may have been the pessimist in him but it did at times feel like no matter how well he constructed something, something else was always going to come along to knock it down.

Myriad told him as the god popped into his head.

“Look Myriad, on the one hand, you’re absolutely correct, but on the other, and I want to stress this, I’m not actually a fighter. I haven’t trained to deal with all of the issues that come with wearing armour no matter how good I can make it for myself and I don’t have time to get good at it now. I just have to hope that little fact doesn’t eventually bite me in the ass.”

“I’ve told you how I think things will go since I’ve been back and there’s no fate in this reality to tempt. That reminds me though, I should ask the grey if it looks like any other universe has anything like that. They’ve looked around, they’ve probably seen a couple.”

“Are they completely incompatible?”

“Well, I’ll bring the question to the only multiverse watchers I know at some point, but for now it’s a matter of whatever else to make. I’ll do pants too in a similar style to the jacket and I actually modified my barrier shoes to give me an edge in running instead of protection that I think I’ll keep but I need to think about weapons too… Or do I? Let’s be real, if we look at my overall build and skill composition, if you ignore the fact that I’m so obviously a craftsman, I really am a good mage.”

“Myriad, that’s literally so offensive on so many fronts. Of course I’m a craftsman, I’m a crafty guy.”

“Quiet you. And sure, I’m a contender for three mind skills with a couple more awakened ones for good measure, and sure, my sacrilege is high and a few of my newer skills are growing uncomfortably quickly in my day-to-day life even when I really feel like I’ve been doing nothing wrong, but what matters is if I keep going I’m going to give myself an identity crisis as I question if I really am a craftsman so I’m just going to drop the topic here and go back to making things so toodeloo.”

With the first distraction from that brief conversation going to weapons. Despite whatever Myriad had to say, he was going to choose to consider being a mage as his second main group of skills and given he was the best materializer on the planet it was a position he was happy to claim, but while that brought the question of if he even needed to make new weapons he couldn’t deny the bit of comfort that came with having something to hold in his hand as he made the main two he’d usually go for, starting with a knife.

Given the demon who’d kidnapped him had destroyed his original, one he’d never even gotten to put to full use after he’d made it, he began the process of recreation, even if he was able to add a few handy modifications, both in the materials he’d used and the enchantments he had access too, improving the end product greatly as he created something he could adjust for any given situation.

It was only once he was done that he slipped it into one of his many rings and after looking at his very full fingers, decided to make more to go along with it. He’d been trying to be prepared for anything by making so many after all, it would be a shame not to use the space as more knives were made and stored away, each one made with care while he hoped things would never actually get desperate enough that he’d have to use them. A knife fight meant he was already far too close to an opponent after all and even if he had an excellent understanding of how they could be used that stemmed from his competency as a craftsman, he lacked actual training in that regard that would have helped him actually grow in his proficiency handling them.

But I’m not adding ‘learning to stab people better’ to my to-do list when I have so much other freaking crap and since I ideally won’t get close enough to anything for it to matter, I just need to make a few guns and I can finish up.

It was another task that was simple by that point, in essence just remaking things he’d created in the past and applying better enchantments to make it work, at least that had been the intention until he’d had an idea he couldn’t resist.

Taking the basic revolver design he was so used to, he pulled out a bit of his remaining voidstone and enchanted a spatial effect in it with the intent of adding it to the handle’s core next to the mana crystal he was going to put to power his shots.

It was what was going within that new magical space that mattered though, with Ben inserting one of his materializers, modifying the design just enough so the output would be shaped and sized the way he needed to create bullets when it was activated, being materialized directly into the chambers.

From there, it was only a matter of making sure it would do so the instant all previous shots were used and with hundreds of souls added to power it, he was done, grinning broadly as he held it.

“A gun with infinite ammo. Oh yeah, I really am the absolute best. Basically playing with cheat codes at this point.”

In the event he ever ran out of enough mana that he could no longer use his magic to fight, he now had a weapon that could carry on by itself without needing him to power it. He may not have known how much use it would see in the end but it didn’t matter. It would be a comfort to have on him and it had been enjoyable to create so with one done he made more to fill up his rings while the time passed.

Voidstone really is too much fun. I’m going to need to bother Jake again soon so I can make more.

His friend’s fate sealed by Ben’s greed, he made a mental note to go bother the other summoned whenever he had the chance in the future but from there went on with his work while the day went by.