After he was completely healed, the fact that he’d learned how to get the trial to provide him with more food was a godsend. All of the cooked skin had been shed off in the process, and while that could be saved to give Greed plenty to eat regardless of how the crab felt about it, that meant his body had to cannibalize itself in the healing process.

It was as he was stuffing his face with the garbage bread-like substance the trial saw fit to provide that he continued to chip away at training his material user skill. Unfortunately, the trial hadn’t provided them with anything worthwhile this time for one sad fact. Everything that had been sitting in a pile that they hadn’t already seen was burnt to the point of uselessness. He could take advantage of the metals he saw, but he could only assume the dust that was piled up had been any fabrics that had been there and he quickly merged them into a single ball to keep them from getting everywhere as they went to the next section.

Instead, he was testing a few different things to see what would work. He’d already learned that his magic seemed to be useless on living things, as well as having some unknown boundary between what was alive and what wasn’t. Hair and nails for example he thought would be possible to manipulate, even while they were still attached to his body. As far as he knew they were dead, but his magic had no effect till the second they were plucked or clipped.

But destruction works on them fine, even when it’s still attached so the two don’t work in the same way.

He didn’t understand the logic behind it and didn’t know what to think. His only working theory on the matter was that since his body was technically completely different from the one he was using on earth, it was possible that neither of those parts were actually dead. It was also possible that they had his mana or spirit in them or something else along those lines that made them be treated as if they were alive right up until they were removed, but in the end he marked it all down as irrelevant for the time being. It didn’t work, that was all that mattered.

More interesting was a few of the applications he’d found that could be taken advantage of. If he grabbed chunks of both iron and bronze and ran his mana through them to change their consistency he was able to treat both like clay and was able to blend them together in a way that he normally never could without heat and a forge. The same could be done using a metal and a few of his removed hair or nail clippings, showing him something incredible. Normally when he made something, he’d need to carefully grind and add any monster or plant materials he wanted to use and in the end, their structure would still always end up at least a little damaged from the heat. Not so doing this. He didn’t think he’d ever give up using the forge completely, but this was showing to be a way he could supplement and enhance his work in the future, and he couldn’t wait to put it to the test.

Then there was an area he was currently failing at, but believed would be possible as his level and skill increased. Separating two different materials from one another. He didn’t see any reason he couldn't, other than his lack of practice and skill, but it was something for him to work on, at least a little bit, with each level he’d get. If nothing came of it then it was fine, but if he could make it work he could imagine numerous uses, all of which he would be happy to put into practice as he did.

Then there was the final application. One he couldn’t help but find to be the least helpful overall, but it was challenging enough to make good training for him. Holding an ice cube.

It might not have sounded like much, but ice was the only material he could create that wanted to change its state by itself without his intervention, all the more so as it sat in his hand. The thing that made it a challenge was keeping it from doing just that. He ran his mana through it to keep it in the shape it was in, not letting a drop of water run down it as he did until he had something absolutely peculiar. A room-temperature piece of ice.

The moment he couldn’t hold it with his mana anymore it turned to water in seconds, but he couldn’t deny how interesting he found it as he wondered if there could be any applications for such a thing.

The only way I see that working is if I attach a mana crystal to it to provide the power and then build my enchantment with my magic to hold it in place, but as for if I’ll ever have a reason to do that… Well, less-expected things have happened. I’ll keep the idea in my back pocket for now.

“Score,” He muttered to himself happily as he checked the condition of his body. In the week since they’d finished the last section of the trial, Ben had been letting himself heal naturally from as many of the wounds he’d received as safely as he could. He wanted his healing enhancement to level up, and it never would if he kept getting Greed to cover all of it without giving his body any time to do it itself, but by now he was feeling mostly normal.

It was a little surprising for him. Most tier-one skills seemed to improve things by about five percent per level depending on what they were, and he was sure the same was true for that one. He’d have thought it would have taken him another week or two until he remembered the skill that had landed him in trouble not too long before. Partial demonic body. As much as it annoyed his god that he had it, he couldn’t help but feel the benefit. As a skill that supposedly made him heal faster and gave him an enhanced immunity to both poisons and illness, he hadn’t had any chance to see just how effective it was at those things since he got it as a result of living with two healers, but now he was seeing just how useful it could be, and all the more so with it paired with healing enhancement.

Of course, it could also be related to the rapid rise of my vitality attributes. Still not sure where its effects on my lifeforce ends and the ones on my body begins but either way I’ll be getting plenty of use out of everything now it looks like.

When his resistance enhancement leveled up, that meant healing him was going to become harder for Greed, as well as being buffed. Ben was already feeling a weakening effect from it which was more than a little worrying. He needed every bit he could get for them to survive, as well as for when he placed his own enchantments on the trial.

Of course, on the opposite end of things, it might be weakening the effects of the trial on me as well. All we can do is wait and see, I’m pretty sure I’d need to have it at the fourth level to not be able to stop the countdown anymore, but by then hopefully I’ll have improved the enchantment further so let’s just wait and see how it goes.

“You think you’re about ready Greed?”

“As I can be,” The crab replied as Ben put on his armour. “How bad do you think this section’s going to be?”

“I mean, it’s the light magic section so who knows? This should be way closer to your specialty than mine.”

He had his ideas and concerns, but the only way to know for sure was to step through, and with few preparations that could be made they stepped through the door to whatever they’d face.

Along with the enchantment on it, the armour itself had been modified for the next section, with holes put in place for Greed to see out of it as well. Given that he was a light and life mage before the skill awakened to blessing magic, they both deemed it best for him to be able to see what was going on this time, but as Ben looked around and felt a huge grin stretch across his face he thought that might have been a pointless consideration, even as he chastised himself for underestimating what he was seeing after all they’d gone through.

“This is a trap, this has to be a trap,” He muttered to himself as the same scene that gave him hope was making Greed swear up a storm.

“Of course it’s a trap! Look at it, Assface didn’t get merciful on us all of a sudden and decide to give us a million freaking exits out!”

All around them were the same doors they’d seen to get out of every other section of the trial, stretching on seemingly forever. It was clearly an aspect of the illusions that light magic could create and was enough to cause anyone worry, at least if they were all seeing the same thing.

“Greed, I need you to be exact here, what are you seeing?”

“Like I said, a million freaking exits! Why, do you see something different?”

“Well, if you can’t see that all but one are see-through with pits in the ground and things overhead most of them then I’d say yeah, we’re seeing pretty different things here.”

“...How sure are you this isn’t a trick? That it’s not showing you something slightly different it’s showing me.”

“I don’t want to say certain because I’ve already seen this god can do things with magic I’d never expect, but I’m almost certain that that’s an application of dark magic, light can’t do the same. We have nothing else to go off of man, we have to take the plunge and hope.”

“Infinite hells, fine go do it.”

Ben confidently walked the expanse, avoiding anywhere he was sure he saw something until he was at the only trial he thought he didn’t. Unlike the others, he couldn’t see through it, nor could he see any traps around it either. Still, he chose to be cautious, taking a hesitant step as he did, fully prepared to throw himself backwards if need be.

But nothing happened. They made it through the gate to the other side, only a few minutes after that section had started and before they could see whatever else the trial was going to throw at them. They were safe.

It took a moment to sink in, but when it did they were screaming with joy, neither able to contain their enthusiasm.

“Suck it Assface!” Ben yelled out as he threw his arms into the air. “Even you didn’t completely account for my overwhelming resistances! Never met a mortal like this, have you!”

While a small part of him insisted on pointing out that his residences stopped doing much in each section as the challenge grew he violently shoved the thought to the side. This was a true victory against a god he was growing to despise, he was going to focus on the win in front of him for at least a little bit.