As Thera returned, Ben gathered the main items he would need to begin to see if what he was doing was even going to be possible. Diamond sheets Thera had brought him back from Anailia days prior, a hundred of them each a centimeter thick and a square meter in size, all to serve one purpose; to act as a medium for the spell.

Normally, magic was simply cast through the air or water depending on where the species doing it lived, but that wasn’t an option for Ben. He couldn’t simply fire off the spells, he needed to examine them through the lens of enchanting, yet at the same time have them structured like a regular spell instead of through any one of the enchanting systems he was aware of. To combat those limitations, what he’d come up with was the idea of creating slices of the spell at a time on a sheet before holding them all together and letting mana pass through it all to see what the outcome would be, essentially holding the spell within a solid.

It was an excellent workaround to the issue in the difficulty of testing it, though it had some flaws. One of which was that the summoning spell didn’t just incorporate mana, but faith as well, though he was sure that he and the gods could calculate the difference at the end of things. The far bigger issue was just how much time it was going to take to test every section.

The summoning spell was big. Unreasonably big. When he’d first looked at it he thought it was roughly the size of a large house, and that opinion still stood. He’d thought it had been such a good idea when he’d gotten Myriad to cut it into pieces for him, but that forced him to consider an aspect he hadn’t had to before. Volume. By dividing the entire thing into cubic meters, he’d been left with an altogether ridiculous number of 8100 to have to look through, with many more to go. His only saving grace was that there didn’t seem to be any of the same sort of detail work he’d seen on Galwax’s trial after his mana examination had improved. Everything that was there was within his current ability to replicate with his enchanting, meaning he wasn’t going to need to further subdivide it all just for his tests.

But I’m still looking at what? Months or years of work if I focus exclusively on that? I’ll at least in theory be able to cut down on time a bit if I can confirm any of the numerous effects, but there's still testing how everything works together and after I finish testing the bits I’ll need to go and combine them into their two by two meter sections to be sure nothing changes too much as they interact with each other, and from their make four by four meter sections and by that point, the mana cost is going to be ridiculous, especially when you consider the fact that I’m already going to need to be using a bunch of rainbow mana crystal for the smaller sections to power it and see how it turns out and this is really going to be so much work, isn’t it?

Helori scoffed in his head.

There are no unsolvable questions, especially if it’s possible to get an answer through brute force. Anyway Helori, since your wonderful, talented, hardworking student is going to have his hands full enough with just this, can you watch from your end and try to estimate where and how faith would affect the bits I’m testing based on the results I get?

You’ll accept me one day. Maybe today after you see just how well this goes.

And with that last back and forth he finally got started.

With all of his magic rings on his fingers, Ben began what he needed to, grabbing his first sheet and placing his hands on it, using his connect to create dots and patches of magic throughout it with his enchanting. Some sections being pure mana of whatever affinity it represented, others having the mana mixed and blended in ways reminiscent of ritual magic and his blending system, only in precise quantities that were meant to achieve goals he couldn’t begin to imagine.

It was comparatively simple work, even if it did require a bit of care to ensure the placement of it all was correct, and as he finished the first one he moved on to the next, and the one after it and so on, with all one hundred taking just over an hour to complete between ensuring everything went down correctly and letting his mana regenerate as need be.

From there he lined each sheet up, making sure all of the edges were flush before he used his material skill, gently blending the sides to keep everything in place without damaging what he’d already done as he looked at the way the mana would move through what he had set up, constructing yet more enchantments to activate at the endpoints.

He would need to test all of the affinities to be sure they wouldn’t react in different ways, but to start he used what he was sure would be safe. Barrier magic, specifically an enchantment built onto each endpoint of the manas flow, with the barrier not being enchanted in any of the ways he normally would in order to let him see how it would be affected in its purest form.

With that setup, he moved to attach bits of rainbow mana crystal to each starting point, letting the bound spell take in the mana each crystal stored as it moved through the strange and unusual paths created in the enchantments till it reached the barriers, as each of them exhibited a different effect.

Perhaps it wasn’t correct to say each of them considering that some simply didn’t activate, but that was still a result in itself as Ben took different notes of what had happened in each area, making down the changes he could see. It was early enough in his research that he couldn’t begin to determine why some of the enchantments were stronger or weaker as he poked at them or hammered his finger against them, let alone any of the stranger effects.

In at least three areas, the enchantment had taken on properties he hadn’t built it to have, being either warm to the touch, the colour changing from a translucent greyish white to a sold blue, and one where it had taken a property that he’d never been able to achieve through his own efforts, the barrier bending under his finger, the rigidity of the spell completely lost as it felt more like cling wrap, yet not breaking as he tried to push through.

“Okay, I extra want to figure out why that one happened,” He muttered to himself, imagining a future of impenetrable barrier outfits before getting back on track. There was a lot more to test after all, and once he’d finished recording everything he’d seen to the greatest level of detail he could he removed the mana crystals and destroyed the barrier enchantments, replacing them with dark for as the very visual dark spell activated with its effects as he continued through each affinity.

Well, that’s a decent start. He told himself as he flipped through his notes for the first block.

Even if he didn’t know what was happening yet, he’d gotten some interesting results. While a few of the sections that hadn’t worked the first time had for later ones, many of them continued to do nothing, telling him that they must have needed some of the following bits to show their worth, but the more interesting ones were the three that had altered the barrier.

For each other section, those areas had shown equally unusual changes for the spells of other affinities, telling him that there was something going in in the areas mana passed through as he took detailed notes of the particular flow for each, wanting to go back and study the results in detail to see if the changes would still exist if he mimicked those particular parts or if they were dependant on the greater whole.

Beyond that, whether areas would be strengthened, weakened, or display how he’d expected would vary, while a few of each affinity didn’t seem to activate at all in sections that had been fine for the others.

There were also a couple that were consistently stronger or weaker no matter the spell attached so that could be worth looking into deeper as well. Is it a way to enhance the effects or is it a coincidence? Maybe some mana is moving from weaker sections to stronger ones to give the spell a little more oomph? This is only block one so hopefully after a few more, I’ll have a better idea.

Helori told him dryly.

What other choice do I have? Hopefully, after testing a dozen or so I’ll be able to start making predictions on how sections should act and if I get good enough at making predictions then just maybe I won’t need to test them all and can just figure it out with the information I have. Besides miss magic goddess, there’s no way you can say you aren’t interested.

Okay, well no need to be a defeatist about it, I have Myriad to watch too so you both can split your time, and it’s not like you need to watch the setup, just the results.

Myriad cut in, leaving Ben to shrug.

Then bring in some other magic gods. Nare too, he’s a god of crafting and challenge, right? The spell is basically a piece of magic craftsmanship and I can’t imagine anything much more challenging than figuring it out. Plus, let me remind you that you’re all just estimating the effects of faith on the bits you’re seeing, I’m the sucker putting the rest of it together. Now come on, complaining never gets anything done and I want to do one more tonight.

He ignored the grumbling in his head as he turned to his girlfriend, seeing Thera passed out in his bed with a book in her hands as a tiny bit of guilt gnawed at him. He couldn’t let this project consume him when either of them could be dead in a couple weeks, after the night was up he’d be sure to exclusively work on it when he knew she would be going to sleep.