Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“You doing okay Ben?”

“It’s impossible to overstate my disappointment. How did the gods let two of the world’s small supply of mythic items remain mysteries for all of these years? It kind of feels like it could have been, I don’t know, not a priority but at least somewhere on the list of things worth figuring out. What if they’re something useful? I swear to god, if any of the other ones that are left are some forgotten mysteries too then I’m going to go insane.”

“Well, at least we’re almost done.”

“That’s actually another entire issue in and of itself.”

He knew that there weren’t many mythic items in the world, at least not things that were truly items. While the trials of the world’s various gods may have technically counted, when it came to things that could be held in one's hands or at least kept in a room the number was only ten; nine when one accepted that Inux was never going to get a new body that existed at the same scale as his last one.

It was something he hadn’t been aware of before their outing to see them all either but it did put in perspective how lucky he was to have his hands on the archive, creating a small reason for him to hold off on any destructive urges the next time he felt angry at Galwax for something.

But despite that low total, it wasn’t like the ones currently on the planet were the only ones to ever exist either, with it really being a matter of the gods who had made such things not necessarily having had the chance to save them. Who could guess how many wondrous items had been lost or destroyed with their planet’s conquests, not to mention the idea that any might have fallen into the demons’ hands.

All of it culminated into what was becoming a slightly disappointing day, at least so far, but he tried to keep positive as they went to their second last destination out by a coast.

Unlike with the ones they’d already gone to see, when it came to the items of the aquatic races it wasn’t so easy for them, given their need for air and all, resulting in the few that group had being brought to them and leaving the two to wait for them to arrive.

Nor was it long. After only a few minutes of enjoying the breeze and the sea air, they began to notice ripples in the water, the forms of hundreds sitting just beneath its surface while dozens more came out, members of semi-aquatic races being sent to act as guards while Ben got his look, with four of them coming out and holding the items with care and reverence, showing each one the respect they’d give the gods who made them.

“Apostle Ben,” One in the lead spoke, a being with the common octopus body plan with the specific species unknown to him. “I understand that this is a reward for your work but I hope you understand we’d like to make this quick. Taking these items so far from their homes and where they can do the most good has made more than a few nervous.”

“Of course, I have no interest in holding you up so long as I can examine them and ask a few questions. It’s just the four?”

“It is,” He waved a tentacle at the first, bringing forth an item that by all accounts looked like a simple pole if not for the dense magics placed on it. “This one in particular we’d prefer you didn’t run your mana through though, for all of our sakes.”

“Okay, why? Is it a weapon?” He asked as he carefully took it, looking it over and memorizing the structure of it to the best of his abilities while trying to push his material sense to see if he could find anything deeper to it, all while the octopus shook his head.

“The opposite. This was a tool originally made to aid in farming. As I understand it, the world this item was made for had a type of fish that was particularly suited to act as livestock with the only issue with them being how slow they would reproduce. This item brings a multi-year incubation period down to a matter of days, though there are some issues with it due to the fact that its effect extends to any animals.”

“Gotcha, I can see how that could potentially cause some havoc if any sort of pest got within range.”

“Well, yes, there’s that too but it’s not exactly the main concern.”

“Then what is?”

“This is a pre-system artifact. In this case, animal just means any form of life that wasn’t the creator’s original race. Any will feel its effects and most aren’t interested in so casually having their fertility and gestation rates enhanced so severely.”

“...Okay, well I’ve seen all I need to so you’re free to take that one back and far away for now, thank you.”

An interesting item and he wasn’t going to fault the god who made it for that oversight when there was no way they could have reasonably predicted the turn their race’s fate was going to take but he got the distinct impression that no matter how good its uses had to be for feeding the aquatic part of the world, it was making the people around him more uncomfortable than anything else they had and he couldn’t deny that he didn’t want something like that going off in his hands either.

Thera had also backed up with that explanation and only came back once it was gone, looking far more comfortable once it was out of sight, even if she asked a question of her own.

“And what exactly is its range?”

“About a few hundred meters in all directions.”

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“And how long does its effect last?”

“It varies by species but in general a couple days, but don’t worry, you’d be able to feel if you were under its effects.”

“Mmh.”

Still looking far more concerned than she had been a few minutes ago, with that one gone they moved on to the next, carrying over the second item.

This one took two to carry and by its look was largely shaped like a tree, with branches stretched out of the top in curving, swirling offshoots as he examined it, trying to get a sense for how it worked from what he was seeing of the enchantments on it alone and coming to something of a conclusion.

“Does this act on the surrounding water around it?”

“In part,” One carrying it answered. “The gentle breath adjusts the environment around it for optimal growing and living conditions for the crops and people of Joato, though the conditions it creates are largely favourable for a majority of the peoples in the deeps. The water temperature remains consistent and the overall quality and cleanliness improves in droves where it’s activated and the ground quality is improved too for plants to grow. With a radius of a kilometer, it keeps the city that houses it rather comfortable.”

Huh, would that basically be some sort of terraforming tool then? Or I guess aquaforming might be a more accurate description but either way, it’s an item that modifies a fair chunk of the environment. Neat, I’m sure they’ll want this back as soon as possible but let's make sure to give it a good look over first then.

He happily went over it, asking the two who held it to move and twist it as need be to let him get the full view of everything that made it up while pouring in mana here and there to see how it would activate, ensuring he had as perfect of a mental model as he could by the time he was finished and let them carry it back to begin its trip home, leaving only two more to go as the next one was brought forth, letting him see what was by all accounts a trident.

Now this is an aesthetic I can get behind, let’s give it a look.

He carefully took it as he looked it over, examining the magic bound to it with one thing becoming abundantly clear. Its entire purpose was to hold power over water.

It couldn’t have been more obvious and it could be nothing less than a tool for war, making Ben wonder if the history of the world it originally belonged to held an evil god as he took it all in.

Unlike others, there wasn’t actually much to ask. He could understand the enchantments with ease, the only thing he couldn’t replicate was the incredible density of them or the bits of divinity the tool held but he could still make predictions as to what it could do.

It wasn’t like a staff, all magic would be coming from it, not the wielder so even he could have taken advantage of it if he wanted and it wasn’t hard to predict the scale it would act on. After asking first he activated it, pulling water from the air itself instead of the sea and watching as it gathered more and more without any sense of strain to imply it might not be able to handle it, even as it stretched out tens of meters above him.

He was sure it could manage significantly more too, the only reason he stopped was out of consideration for the people around him who were only growing more nervous as he went, all of them breathing a comfortable sigh as he forced all he’d gathered back into the air itself instead of just dropping it.

If it was so strong above the water then he could only imagine how powerful it would be below. He could easily envision creating whirlpools or increasing water density at a scale that could kill an army, or else just ripping all of the moisture from their bodies to end things.

Hell, you could use this to manipulate the properties of water as well to a big enough extent that the things within it would just dissolve. Okay, this is officially as cool as the space sword.

It was only once he was sure he’d gotten all he could from it that he handed the item back, feeling far more satisfied with what he’d seen so far compared to the last two land options as he went to look at the last aquatic one, finding something that looked both more simple and humble than the others.

Sitting only at the low end of mythic, the final one in that stop was shaped largely like a steamer basket. It may not have been made been made of wood but the size was right and it had two levels to it that could both be accessed while the magic it held was largely a combination of light, life, and death, arranged in a way that left Ben unable to immediately guess its purpose, forcing him to ask.

“So what does this one do then?”

“While unfortunately small, this is a healing chamber. As long as one still has any life in them and is of a race small enough to fit, any wound or illness can be healed by placing them in here.”

“Wait, really? So it can be used for two at a time then? And how long does it take to work?”

Healing items in general were on the rarer end so it couldn’t help but catch his curiosity as he looked it over while he got his answers.

“It can usually finish up in minutes but it only does one at a time. The lower compartment is for raw materials. In the case of the loss of flesh or limb, the injured will be put in the top while mass to pull from will be placed in the bottom to help reconstruct them.”

“Okay, makes sense since this planet is pretty lacking in items that can materialize but I wonder how it does that? Even typical healing spells require some flexibility from the caster, it's part of the reason items like this aren’t common so does it examine the person it holds somehow?”

“Ah, while I’m by no means an expert on the subject, from what I understand it reads the information held within the soul of the one it’s healing, though I couldn’t tell you anything more than that.”

“Okay, a pretty clever solution, even if hard,” Ben muttered.

He could understand the theory behind it, the soul was a record of everything a person was. On top of holding the basic skills and experiences of a person's life, it also held memories for sure and while he wasn’t positive on it, with everything else he wouldn’t be surprised if it somehow recorded the makeup and structure of the vessel that contained it. One thing he was becoming more and more aware of was the depths of complexity a soul could hold which only showed him that despite being able to create them himself, he still had more to learn.

But to use the information stored on a soul to facilitate how a spell is cast… That’s an idea, isn’t it?

Just thinking about it left him feeling more and more inspired as a certain prospect filled his thoughts, a direct application of that for some of his own work that was threatening to make him want to run off then and there, only stopping himself from a quick return to Stonewall because they still had one more place to go.

The people around could pick up the change in him, the rising excitement in a way that seemed to put a few on guard that only dropped as he handed the final item back.

“Okay, well thank you all for your time, it’s been a pleasure but it looks like we’ve gotta hurry for our last appointment so I’ll let you all go.”

He was already dragging Thera along as he said it, eager to get his last visit done to see if he could put his new bit of inspiration to the test.

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