“I’m having naps, it’s fine. Besides, I told you I would when I had time. I clearly don’t right now.”

He had a positively outrageous amount of work to do at the moment with all of the orders he’d been receiving in the last week. Although he’d taken most of them on the first day, with only about half of the visitors kicked out of the shop, the ones he had been able to come to an agreement with had been wanting a lot, to the point that he’d have been busy for months if he was working alone.

On the plus side, his teacher had decided to be merciful to him, handling some of the smithing work for a few of the items since what most people wanted was the complex enchantments he could make, but to finish up as quickly as possible he still had to work late into the nights and early in the mornings, while also going out to Anailia again with Thera to buy more raw supplies. All in all, it was a lot, and exhausting too.

But pushing myself is good for my skills so this is fine. It might be just what the doctor ordered for finally awakening my connect.

If that happens you’ll just need to call me some help. Break some rules to keep me alive and I’ll make it up to you later.

Relax, things are finally slowing down. If I push myself to get all of this done in just a few weeks then I should be able to keep up with the order load in a regular workday.

Showing a willingness to kick anyone out on the first day had gone far in ensuring that he wouldn’t have to deal with anything too annoying, and it seemed that there were even people who’d simply left upon finding out he had no intention of working for anyone. Even if he was working himself hard for the orders he had taken, the number of them coming in now matched what he was sure he could do in a day, he just needed to get the pile that had come in the first two days over and done with.

With that frame of mind, Ben picked up a handful of mana disks, enchanting them two at a time before putting them to the side to be put into different handles after. He really hadn’t been expecting the item he’d made for Amy to be so popular, but requests for similar ones made up almost a quarter of his new orders, though for far fewer weapons than hers had, most of them wanting only two to four options and almost always one was a shield.

Still, each one needed to be slightly different to work with the skills of the person who would be using it so it was excellent practice for him overall, a fact that was reflected on his card as his job level kept going up. He was already dreaming about what option he’d take next, as well as wondering what new options would come for the enchanting branch.

No.

When Falk came in for the morning, he found Ben where he’d left him the night before, standing over his forge as he worked.

“Damn it boy, did you not sleep at all?”

“Um, since you being here means it’s morning, no. My bad.”

“Alright, I’m kicking you out when we close up today. Go home and get some proper rest. Thera and Sonya are going to worry.”

“I did let them know I was going to have a lot of work for a while.”

“And that doesn’t mean they won’t worry.”

“Okay, okay fine,” Ben relented, having to admit that he was feeling pretty tired at the end of it all. “So how’s it look out there?”

“Nobody camped outside today so I would say it’s a win. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and you will be able to just focus on your work.”

“That feels like a bit much to hope for but fingers crossed.”

Their brief exchange done, Falk got started as well, working on the elements of Ben's orders he could help with to cut down on his apprentice’s work, only stopping whenever someone from town came in to make a purchase or someone from outside of it came in to either make an order or get kicked out for saying something stupid, and it was like that the day flew by.

It was as it came to an end and Falk had Ben by the scruff of his neck, ready to make sure that his apprentice actually went home whether the boy liked it or not that they heard the sound of the door opening one final time, finding a one-armed man standing there.

It was hard to say if the state he was in looked good or not. While his body was rippling with muscle and seemed undeniably powerful, his general appearance was overall more sickly. Even ignoring the fact that his arm ended just below the shoulder, there was no escaping the gaunt flesh, pale skin, and almost dead-looking eyes that locked onto the two of them as they looked back.

“We’re about to close for the night, but if you make it quick we can get you sorted,” Falk said, putting Ben down as he did.

“Ah, I’m not sure it will be quick to be honest,” The strange man told them. “Would one of you two be the apostle of Myriad?”

Ben grimaced as he heard it, still not used to people being able to connect him to that title so easily, but gave an affirmative. “That’s me, what can I do for you mister…?”

“Kelf. My god told me to find you, something about a deal to have an item made that you agreed to?”

“Um, just one second. Myriad?”

He didn’t remember making any deals like that, but his god was happy to remind him.

Right.

“Okay, sorry about that, I thought I would get some heads up from Myriad before anyone came to collect,” Ben told the man brightly. “So what am I making you?”

From the look of him, Ben pegged the man as some sort of warrior in need of a weapon for things to come, but it seemed he was only half right as the man bowed to him.

“I understand this is an unreasonable request, but I’ve been told that if there’s anyone who might help it’s you. Please, so I might wield a sword again, make me a new arm.”