Chapter 233

Chapter 233

“Oh sweet, got some levels to speed reading and my knowledge skill,” Ben happily announced as he finished his book to the yeti laying on the ground.

While Ben was having no issue with the heatwave thanks to the enchantments within his coat, his teacher wasn’t so lucky. The thick white fur that coated Falk's body may have been perfect for his race's homeworld and the colder climates on this one, but in a heatwave it was showing its harsher effects, even for someone who was used to spending all day in front of a forge.

“Don’t tell me you just finished another book already?” His teacher asked as he looked up at him. “You must have only started that an hour ago?”

It was the fifth one he’d read through that day, and none of them were particularly easy reads. From going through thick textbooks on advanced life and fire magic, to finally reading up on the awakened space magic needed to construct the gates, as well as a book on the limits of enchanting and ending on one on skills in general, previously he would have been lucky to get through even one of those in a day, but he’d figured out a handy trick to get through them faster by putting his skills to use.

“Since complex mind helps alter my perspective on top of giving me a few extra minds, I can use it with my speed reading to read multiple spots of a page at once and just rearrange it to the complete thing in my head,” He explained, feeling like he was bragging a little. “It’s pretty handy. As I keep gaining new minds and leveling up my speedreading it should only get faster too.”Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

“If you ever run into someone with a mind-reading skill I’d pity them,” Falk said with a shake of his head. “I’ve never heard of anyone using mind skills like you do.”

“What can I say, got to work to my strengths. Anyway, I know you said we aren’t turning on the forge today, but-”

“You try and I’m throwing you out. Are you trying to kill me boy?”

“But Falk, I have a theory on how to enchant with my bind skill, I’ve got to test it out!”

Ever since he failed to use it in the dryad village he’d been tossing the idea around in the back of his head, trying to figure out a way to make it work, and after making his way through his last book he thought he finally had it.

“The forge stays off unless you do something to cool down the shop, I’m melting here.”

“Hmm, I mean, I don’t think it would be too hard actually, but I’d still need to make something like an air conditioner to hold the enchantment either way.”

“Figured as much. Get to it instead of watching me suffer this entire time,” His teacher complained.

“Ha, sorry,” He said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. “I was just kind of focused on my books, you know? Anyway, will you let me use it to see if I can make you something then?”

Instead of agreeing, his teacher got up and tossed him a piece of paper and a pencil. “Just sketch up what you’d need for it and the other tool you want made, I’ll sort it out without dying in the heat.”

He did as his teacher told him, making a sketch of exactly what he’d need and explaining it in further detail as Falk listened. The tool he wanted to test bind on was simple enough, it was basically just a compass.

It was the magic air conditioner he was planning that was slightly more complex. While there were plenty of items that could produce a cooling effect, they suffered two drawbacks. The first being that unless they were enclosed like a cold box was, they tended to be weak if the user wasn’t close by, and the second being that they took a lot of mana to run for long periods of time. Even despite those issues, there simply weren’t many in town due to the weather being uncharacteristically hot. If this sort of thing was in the norm, he doubted his teacher would have ever made his home there.

“I gave the one you made a look over and your enchantment should have a low enough mana cost even without a mana crystal to power it. With the weather like this, we can’t just not sell this sort of thing so start building your enchantments and we’ll go back to using the forge tomorrow if things aren’t too busy for us.”

He couldn’t exactly deny his teacher's words. Even if it was easy for him to ignore thanks to his coat, there were surely plenty of people in town who would want something like this, and with that in mind, he got to work.

After the shop closed up he stopped by the guild to pick up some books he’d ordered. Since he was now a rank three adventurer whether he liked it or not, he intended to put all of the benefits of that role to its full use, namely the information the guild would actively work to get him. He’d been ordering even more piles of books than those he’d gotten while in Anailia, with a special emphasis on monsters around the world and the materials that could be gained from them. Thanks to his rank he was able to get them for half the cost he would have when he was rank four, and even if he didn’t exactly need the savings it was a nice little bonus.

It wasn’t strictly books on monsters he got this time though as he carried them home, but ones on ghosts. In their purest form, they were the souls of creatures that simply didn’t pass on, and given that information about souls was a point of interest to him he was going to learn all he could on the topic, using any resources he could manage.

He dropped that train of thought when he got home, as the first thing he saw when he got to the living room was Thera, laying on the ground as she listlessly read through a book while fanning herself with her tail. She usually had it wrapped around her waist, a habit she’d developed to keep people from being exposed to her charm should it ever slip out her cloak, so seeing her use it had its appeal.

Cute. He couldn’t help but think as she noticed him arriving and gave a small wave.

“You look like you’re having some trouble with the heat.” He joked. The majority of people he’d seen at the guild had been in the same boat, with a restriction even placed on skills like fire magic and augmentations until it passed.

“Not everyone has water enchantments built into their clothing you know. I'm pretty sure you’re the only one doing well in town.”

“Ha, well we can fix that,” He said cheerfully as he placed one of his air conditioners down in front of her and popped in a mana battery. As soon as the cool air started blowing out the change in her was as apparent as it was in Falk. She immediately repositioned herself to take the full force of the cold air that blew out as the temperature in the house began to lower.

“This is the greatest thing you’ve ever made,” She muttered blissfully, happy to enjoy the feeling of wind on her skin and through her hair.

“Why does everyone keep saying that? I made a church into a coat and a knife that almost killed a demigod. Heck the braces alone-”

“Nope, this is still the top by far. I’m going to have to sleep in the living room tonight with this here, aunty might too.”

“It’s powerful enough that you probably won’t need to. Give it an hour or so and it should lower the temperature of the entire place.”

“See? This is one hundred percent the greatest thing you’ve ever made,” She told him with a voice filled with contentment, the previous heat and exhaustion long gone thanks to the cool breeze.

“Yeah yeah, since we have this there shouldn’t be a problem with using the stove to cook dinner so give me a bit and I’ll get it started.”

“Wait,” She said as she grabbed his hand. “I’ll help in a bit, let's just enjoy this a little longer. Aunty may be home a little late anyway.”

With no reason to argue he took a seat beside her, enjoying the feel of the wind as they both sat and spoke about their days.