18 Transmutation (Edited)
'System, give me something, anything please!
For the love of God!
Help me!'
Ben screamed mentally, completely over the Systems strict restrictions to not reward him with anything at all, even after he'd made progress as a Smith with his daggers.
Ever since Jym picked up his daggers and the whole group Withering Roses appeared, Ben had been busy with crafting specifically requested weapons for the Withering Roses, as well as Kage and Alfred.
However, while crafting their weapons he learnt far more about each and everyone, especially after he figured out that the group had similar problems like Jym.
Roth, who was the archer of the group was equipped with a longbow, but also carried along his Knight Sword for protection, typically to fend off the attackers in close combat.
Due to the weight of the sword a little more than a kilo and length being around 90 cms, the sword would restrict Roth from reaching vantage points within trees and certain heights for a better advantage in the environment.
As a small adventurer group, they would have to adapt with the everchanging situation, therefore wielding a sword was seen as common sense and the norm in teams of their number.
For instances, when gifted with daggers to wield, Roth was finally able to move about freely in the environment, relying less on his group for support for his defence, but in turn he could provide his team with greater cover in battle.
Not only him, but Lue also, who preferred to throw his first sword and then charge with a second, ended up moving onto a spear, even though he wasn't one to prefer a spear.
As it turned out, Lue was proficient in spearmanship, however 'certain' circumstances pushed him towards swordsmanship because of his past.
Ben didn't learn much about it but what he could pry from the members of the Withering Roses was that he only wielded the spear when fighting beside an old friend.
.
The young Prince thought about revising his original plan to craft a lightweight sword that Lue could use once he threw his spear or another sharp object.
Fortunately, he thought of a double-edged spear, one of the many weapons that he had previously learnt about from Val, which were buried in the storage of the chest.
Particularly, it was one of the crafting methods the noble families had managed to utilise without magic, however no noble family had ever sold them to commoners or peasant but only other nobles.
Ben understood if he were to craft something wildly original right now, something the world had never seen or experienced, the chaos it would cause him and those around closest to him would be too much to handle.
Even if Ben was in a childs body with part of his real seal away and still building every day, he always felt far more mature than his physical appearance.
Like his mind and soul were decades older, but he had no recollection on how it was so developed or why he was there.
Ben used to have melt downs from the chaos in his mind about all the questions related to his existence.
Not knowing anything about his past as Ben Smith and trying to understand who he was as Benedict Khadraazil was difficult.
Even if the Systems intervention to stabilise his mind, Ben felt his age was having a slight effect on his mental age and stability from time to time.
Though it wasn't influencing him to greatly, Ben could tell the lines between who Ben and Benedict were had started to merge.
Fortunately, Ben knew his mind would be fine and stable with time and grown as long as he expanded his horizons within the vast world.
The pressing matter at all times was to live to a point where he could move beyond the mental fog in his head to realise who Ben Smith was… or 'is'…
.
Drav and Zio both used swords and shields, something they'd always used from the start of their training with weapons.
They both were tall and muscular men, standing at a height of 6'3 for Drav and 6'2 for Zio, respectively.
Ben found to his surprise they were both quite flexible too, furthermore they both were adapt in wielding spears and bows as well.
He found they all were quite adapted in a variety of skills and abilities, but their equipment was lacking, unable to match to their level of skill or battle style.
Ben was quite eager to start his new orders and began working diligently, unfortunately after working away to craft the specially requested items, Ben found he could not craft something even close to the daggers he made for Jym.
At first, he thought the process was incorrect and he might need to revise how he went about crafting the weapons, but after wasting several more weeks, he concluded that it was a stupid fluke or somehow related to the stupid Systems operations.
Worse yet, the Withering Roses group would randomly appear from time to time, hoping to catch a glimpse at their weapons during the forging process.
Ben understood they were behaving patiently, as any other Smith would have finished after a fortnight at the very most to make their requested items and finished the sale.
However, every time they would appear at Vals Workshop, gifting Ben with words of encouragement, the young Prince would feel more guilty that his work was failing.
And as the days passed, the more they encouraged and cheered Ben on, the worse he felt and furthermore guilty for not meeting their expectations of him.
Eventually, he was left with only one thing to do and that was to blame the stupid System for letting him down, even if he knew he couldn't blame the System for his bad luck.
In the end Ben gave up and begged for help from the System, rejecting his thoughts to ask his Master about a solution to the problem, but for some reason Ben felt he couldn't ask Val right now.
He had not exhausted everything that he could utilise yet.
.
[Host, System urges you to purchase a skill from the System Store to help with your crafting abilities]
"Ohh why didn't I think of that…
Wait a minute, I've gone through that heap of locked crap a billion times!
Nothing is fucking available!" screamed Ben in a sarcastic tone, having scrolled and searched through the system plenty of times, until his mood had deteriorated into unbridled anger.
[System requests Hosts to search again…]
Begrudgingly, Ben searched again, as he scrolled through the endless items covered in gray, indicating them being locked and unavailable.
He kept cursing the 'broken' System for his troubles and problems, his attitude resembling a rebellious teen having a temper tantrum.
"Huh…"
Out of the countless locked items, one shined brightly, immediately attraction Ben's attention, unsurprisingly the item had a cost price of 1000 Pia credits, which further added to Ben's aggression.
"Take all my money why don't you, you fucking broken heap of crap!" He cursed quietly as he clicked on the bright item, the information of the item was displayed before his eyes.
.
[Transmutation
Host can manipulate materials (??????) <Error >]
.
Ben felt like splitting his own head apart at that moment with his bare hands, but he remained dead silent.
Just standing silently to the side, Ben tried to figure out why he was stuck with this broken System.
Was it designed to screw with him?
Did he hurt someone, and they thought it would be best to give him something bloody broken to the point it was going to drive him made!
Whoever they were, Ben wished to meet the bastards and strangle the life out of them with his bare hands.
It was his new life goal that he had to complete, no matter the costs, he had to make the people pay for what they made him suffer with.
Left with no other choice, Ben reluctantly purchased the Transmutation ability from the System Store, he was wondering what exactly he could achieve by manipulating materials.
He hoped he could improve the strength of the iron he was using for the weapons, as the quality was quite poor.
Ben found it hard to hear that it was considered one of the best quality irons available on the market.
Soon enough, Ben felt a deep surge of power rush throughout his body, as a warm current washed over him, like the loving warmth of a mother's embrace.
Typically, he would experience excoriating pain whenever changes would occur to his body luckily, he was spared the pain this time.
Ben noticed some changes occurring to the System Interface, as a new panel appeared for Ben to access.
wondering what it could mean, Ben clicked on the new panel before thousands upon thousands of empty squares appeared in his line of sight, stretching on endlessly above the clouds and past the horizon on either side of his body when he clicked full screen.
"System…
What the hell just happened…?!"
[Host has unlocked Inventory Spaces along with Transmutation Function!]
A surge of information downloaded itself straight into Ben's mind, bringing the miserable pain Ben had been anticipating.
Blood continued to pour out of his orifices and skin pores like an untapped fire hydrant gone off, until the blood turned dark and murky with a horrendous smell right behind.
He was close to passing out from the hardship he had to endure suddenly, however he had to focus on the information turning his brain to mush at lightning speed.
Everything that was related to the function and ability of the Inventory Spaces, as well as Transmutation was being moulded into his mind.
He squirmed about on the ground in his bedroom, clutching his head,
Ben tried to let out a scream, but all that came out was a hoarse grunt, his throat drowning in his blood, leading the young Prince slowly lose his consciousness with his heavy eyes crashing shut.
Left alone in his bedroom, Ben laid on the ground silently in a pool of his own blood and filth.
...
..
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