90. Cooperation Job

Ben wakes up at night after he fainted. He feels his body is sluggish and his muscles are sore. He looks at his body and it is covered in a layer of dried-up blood that has a brownish color.

The blood came out from his pores after he fainted. It is a small side effect of the magic that he used. But he doesn't think much about it because he already knows about it.

"AI Chip, have I succeeded?" asks Ben to AI Chip.

[Yes, congratulation. The magic has affected your body and stopped all its physical growth.]

"Show my stats," says Ben.

[Name: Ben Cooper

Real Age: 15

Body Age: 15 (halted)

Status: Alive

MP: 154,452/154,452

STR: 230 (halted)

AGI: 230 (halted)

STA: 230 (halted)

INT: 241]

"Hmm? Body age?" asks Ben curiously.

[Your body will stop growing until the magic is dispelled. So your body won't age and remain the same as your 15 y.o self. But you will still become older, that's why there is a Real Age.]

"Oh, alright then," says Ben.

Ben sighs in relief after knowing that the magic is working. What he did was very painful, but it paid out now. Still, he will stay the same physically for 3 years, and it's quite disturbing for him.

"Sigh, at least I am not that short & small now. So it will be fine until I turn 18," says Ben to humor himself.

Ben's current height is 170 cm and he is quite muscular. At least he is not too short now and his height is still acceptable even until he turns 18. Not that he cares much about height, but it's better to not be too short for him.

AI Chip then scans Ben's body thoroughly because Ben wants to check the details. It takes 5 minutes for the scan to finish and AI Chip shows the result on the screen. The result made Ben rather speechless now.

His body parts are covered by invisible magic letters. They're planted on his skin, organs, and bones. The magic can only get removed by the caster, which is why Ben needs to use it himself.

Ben goes out and boils water for a bath. He needs to clean his sweats and the dried up blood on his skin. He boils a lot of water to make sure that he can remove all of those.

When he gets inside the wooden bath, the hot water suddenly turns brownish. The layer of dried-up blood peeled off of his body and float on the water. The hot water has made it easier for the dried-up blood to get peeled off.

Ben rubs all his skin surfaces to remove the dried-up blood. Then he changes the water and cleans himself again. Now he can relax in the warm water to ease his sore muscles.

"I need to test the magic's effect tomorrow. It should stop my physical growth, so there shouldn't be any progress even if I train my physique for a whole day. AI Chip, scan my training tomorrow and find if my growth really stops," says Ben.

[Understood]

Ben bath for 15 minutes before he returns to his house and sleep. The next morning, he wakes up and immediately trains. It's a normal physical training that he did every day.

After finishing his training, Ben checks his progress on AI Chip's screen. There isn't any change even after AI Chip counts the stats to details. It makes him relieved because it means he is safe until he dispels the magic.

Now he can take jobs again after 2 months of rest. Ben asks Roubaul for a job and the old man says that he will find a job for Ben next month. He wants Ben to rest for now and adapt to his body that has stopped growing.

Ben accepts it and does as Roubaul said. He starts to train like usual, but he trains his magic more than his physique. He still does physical training, but it's just to keep his body's condition.

The next month, Ben gets a job. But it's not like his usual job where he works alone. He will work together with other Mages from another Guild. It surprises him when he meets with the Mages that will work with him.

"So it's you guys," says Ben while looking at 2 Mages that will work with him.

"Long time no see, Ben," says Elfman with vigor.

The mages that will work with Ben are the Strauss siblings, minus Lisanna. She is still in a coma, so only Mira & Elfman work now. Ben meets them in front of Magnolia's town gate.

They started to take less dangerous jobs after that incident. Both of them agree to not take S-Class jobs even though Mira is an S-Class. But today, they made an exception because they will work with Ben.

"Well, it's a good thing that I will work with you. At least I know you, so it won't be too awkward. But why's she hide behind you like that?" asks Ben while pointing at Mira who hides behind Elfman.

"She's just shy to meet you again after some months. Come on, Nee-chan, you need to greet him too," says Elfman while looking at Mira.

"I-I know, h-hi, long time no see," says Mira while peeking from Elfman's left side.

"Y-yeah, long time no see," Ben sweatdrops at Mira who doesn't come out from her hiding and just peeks.

Elfman sighs and then he pulls Mira's arm so she comes out of her hiding.

"E-Elfman!" says Mira with a rather angry tone.

"You are being inappropriate by greeting him like that. Also, don't you want to show him your new look?" says Elfman.

Mira is blushing and looks down a little. She has a new appearance now that is very in contrast with her previous one. It surprises Ben because now she looks gentler and mature. Very different from her ruffian and angry kid appearance.

Ben smiles and says, "As I thought, you look more beautiful this way, Mira."

Mira's face gets redder and steams comes out from her head. Ben is stunned seeing this and he raised an eyebrow.

"Do you have a fever?" asks Ben while touching Mira's forehead.

It makes her even redder and makes her forehead hot.

"Hot!? Oi, are you sure you want to take a job now? I think you need to rest with a high fever like this," says Ben with a worried tone.

"It's fine, she doesn't have a fever. She's just too happy to see yo- UGH!" Elfman can't finish his sentence because Mira punches his stomach strongly.

"I-I'm fine, don't worry. The temperature outside is just too hot, so it affects me," says Mira before taking some breaths to calm herself.

Ben looks at Elfman who got wasted on the ground and says, "Well, you should be fine if you can do that."

"Then, let's go to the job's location," says Mira.

Ben nods and then they enter his old model car. He hasn't made a new car even though he has got the materials from the Kingdom as compensation. There's no time to build a new car because he was focusing on the magic to stop his growth.

Elfman walks weakly to the car because Mira punched him without holding back. Ben wants to help him, but he says that a man can handle something like this. So Ben let him and enter the car with Mira sitting in the front seat & Elfman on the back.

Then they go to the job's location which is in the southern forest. They talk on their way there and Ben tells them the story of his last job. It surprises the siblings that there were such dangerous creatures out there.

"There might be more strong creatures like that out there. Unless we explore the world and see it ourselves, then we will never know. The world is full of mysteries that we can't find just from books. That's why I want to see and find it myself," says Ben while smiling.

"You want to explore the world?" asks Mira.

"Yeah, it must be very exciting to see all things in the world. New places, new cultures, new creatures, a new challenge, etc. I want to see it all," says Ben excitedly.

Mira is surprised to see Ben gets very excited. But then she looks sad because that means she won't be able to meet him anymore after he leaves.

However, she widens her eyes when Ben says, "Do you want to join me?"

______________________________________________________________

You can read up to 30+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.

I've uploaded:

1. Chapter 120 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater

2. Chapter 131 of Transcended as Lord Buggy

https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain

(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)