“Alright boy, we have some time so work on whatever suits you,” Falk told him once all the main shop work was done. Ben had already replaced all of the stock he needed to and spent some time cleaning up, meaning he could move on to devoting himself to his self-improvement, namely through leveling his job.

Of course, he wasn’t just focusing on his enchanting. After all, he made all of the items he’d enchant himself, so he was able to get plenty of practice for that as well, but after he’d made his flying music player it inspired him to get a bit more creative, and with that in mind he’d taken to doing some slightly more unusual projects on top of his usual weapons.

Today, he’d decided he’d be making something unlike anything he’d seen in the world prior, a floating plant display. The idea was simple enough, even if it would look a bit unusual. All he had to do was create a base with an earth magic enchantment on it designed to suspend a ball of dirt in the air, with the additional effect of giving it a slow rotation as it did.

Once that was done he ran out to get not only his ball of earth but also the flower that would be planted in it. He’d selected one with large blue petals he thought looked appealing and then put everything together, watching it float in the air once it was complete.

It ended up being far easier to create than he’d hoped, so to add to it, as well as reduce the amount of care he would need to put towards it, he attached a pole to the base before creating both a light, water, and low-plant magic enchantment to it, letting it illuminate the flower and aid in its growth, as well as collect water to sprinkle down on it once a day. He’d adjust the variables over the weeks to try and figure out what worked best for keeping the plant healthy, but he was satisfied with the final result.

“What do you think Falk, pretty nice right?”

“It is. Shame we can’t sell something like it, but not many could afford the mana crystal to power it. Still, when you’re done being my apprentice you really should consider working for Pelenia. Even if she’s a handful she’d be able to keep you supplied with all the materials you could hope for while giving you enough leeway to be creative.”

“Ah, that’s a while off so I’m not going to worry about it too much for now. Besides, I could probably have a fair bit more freedom by just stopping in occasionally to make her things to earn a little extra while living off my patents, no need to tie myself down to someone.”

“True enough, I suppose we’ll sit down and talk about your options when that's a little closer. For now, what are you going to do with the rest of the day? Anything you need help with?”

“Mmh, maybe if you have the time. I’m still working on designing some hypothetical enchantments for soul-sealing but since it depends on using levels of magic just a little outside of my grasp I’m not too sure about it, mind giving it a look?”

“Alright, it’s not like we’re busy so show me your notes.”

He pulled a stack of papers out of his bag and handed them to Falk, watching the yeti pour over them as he thought about the project. Myriad’s advice on the matter was proving invaluable, but he had to change enough that he needed a second opinion on it. After all, sealing it was really only the first part. His two main goals for attempting something like that was to allow Inux to use his body again, though that would require a high level of improvement to his enchanting as well, on top of what had originally given him the target, attempting to use it with a beast form skill on an item.

Of the two, the original goal would be much easier, even if it was far outside of what was possible for him at the moment, but both goals had the same underlying implication. He couldn’t just seal away a soul forever, he needed to give it a way it could still be interacted with after, which added a whole other level of difficulty to the task.

Well, at worst I can collect a few demon souls and then figure out how to use them after.

Which is why I’m only going to do it with demons so don’t worry. Besides, I probably won’t go out of my way to actually collect any until I think I’ve got it, unless a good opportunity comes up of course.

“Hate to say it boy, but I’m probably not going to be much help with this,” Falk told him, unknowingly interrupting his talk with his god. “This is pretty far outside of my specialty. I’ll take some time to think on it and write down any ideas I have for you, but not sure if it will be any help.”

“That’s already plenty, thanks Falk.”

“Bah, don’t worry about it. Have you thought about what you’ll be trying to seal them in when you make the attempt?”

“Oh yeah, that should be the easy part.”

It had to be a weapon. There was no real way to collect a creature's soul while letting it live after all, and by making something like a knife that would handle the job of absorbing it, it wouldn’t be too bad, that just left what he would be absorbing it into.

From what he’d learned of his god's structure, Myriad had been made of a variety of magic materials to make him possible, and Ben intended to do the same. Though there was really only one he needed to use for his goal, a rainbow mana crystal.

While the material had not only boundless space for something like mana, it could also be altered to hold other non-corporeal things. Doing so would ruin its ability to absorb mana, at least for as long as it housed a soul, but that wasn’t an issue as far as he was concerned.

And if I build it in such a way that I can change out the crystals I’ll be able to easily take advantage of a group of potential materials… I mean targets. The battery design already works well so I might as well stick with it for this too, that way I know I’ll have some on hand if need be. Other than that… Actually, is there any reason I couldn’t prepare the knife ahead of time? This really more depends on the quality of the enchantment than the item after all.

The more he thought about it the better an idea it felt, all the more so for the fact that he’d already created one that mostly fit the qualifications. His first knife was designed in such a way that it would be able to tolerate enchantments of every affinity but space, he’d just have to create something along the same line while making sure to cover that aspect as well. The sealing enchantment he was attempting to make would pull from all affinities, but at the level he thought he’d be when he’d attempt it there’d likely be no risk of destroying it so he got started.

Heating steel and grinding bones, it was a path he was long used to by this point as he lost himself to the work, blending the metal with the delicate powders to try and keep the heat from damaging them too much and costing them their properties as it did before moving on to shaping it, creating a short but sturdy blade.

After a round of sharpening, giving it the thinnest edge it could comfortably hold he looked over his new tool, smiling at the quality of his work. Until he got to the point that he’d be able to place the enchantments he couldn’t be positive that it was of a high enough quality, but he felt confident as he created a sheath and stored it away in his bag.

Having finished with that he tried to decide what would come next. There was always something to make but he wanted to design the most complex enchantment he could, at least that was the goal until an unexpected guest walked through the shop door.