Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

Bursting out of town with weapons drawn and magic on their fingertips, Ben let out a small sigh of relief for who stood at the front of the adventurers of Stonewall, Ceselee wearing a grim expression right until she found that whatever monster people had been screaming about was already gone, turning into a sigh when she locked onto Ben.

“So, are we all going to die?” She called out while waving for the adventurers behind her to pause, waiting for his answer.

“No no, everything’s fine.”

“I need a bit more than that, Ben.”

“Would you believe me if I said it was just the side effects of a gas leak?”

“No.”

“Yeah, figures,” He sighed before gesturing to the people with him. “So good news, not only is Stonewall safe but it’s actually going to be safer than usual for around the next week. This guy’s the shifter, the third tier. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. I’ve been commissioned to make him an item so he was showing off his skill to me but I didn’t consider how that would look for the rest of town. Sorry.”

“No no, it’s my fault,” The shifter said, looking far more alive as he looked to Ceselee as he started walking over, trying to offer a hand that she only glanced at before focusing back on Ben. “I can get far too invested in, well, every aspect of my life.”

“...Ben, tell me you’re joking and this isn’t the godling known specifically for his breeding fetish.”

“I prefer to think of it as academic curiosity more than anything else,” Foast said with a grin, completely failing to impress her, even as the adventurers at her back responded to the statement with the expected amount of awe. “I just think the world’s going to be a bit richer with a few more beast lineages running around.”

“Sure,” She said, not believing a word of it. “Ben, I know it might be a bit much but you’ll make sure he doesn’t get in any trouble with any of the women in town?”

“Alright, now that’s where I draw the line,” He said, instantly looking less interested. “I’ve never had a lover who was not fully aware of what they were getting into. I am aware of how my interests are viewed but I am entirely moral.”

“Psst, Ben” Delair whispered at his side. “What’s everyone talking about?”

“Nothing a crafting teacher should be responsible for explaining to you,” He whispered back. “Ask your mother or grandmother. Or don’t, I feel like I’ll still get in trouble for it.”

“Ben?” Ceselee asked him, saying no more but giving a pointed look that Ben answered.

“As far as I’m aware, he’s telling the truth,” He said, trying to make it seem like divine information rather than a result of mind reading but still leaving Foast looking grateful for the defense. “And breeding fetish or not, I’m not really into getting in the way of any consenting adults.”

“I was genuinely grateful but you didn’t need to add the fetish bit,” Foast muttered, getting elbowed by Abel as he said it, the girl looking thoroughly entertained by it all as she gave her own comments.

“That’s what you get for being a huge freaking perv.”

“Alright, alright, fine. I’ll spread the word we might have some giant monsters appearing for the next few days and that nobody should panic,” Ceselee told him. “Is there anything else I should worry about?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“...Okay, so I also have a slightly smaller shapeshifter that sometimes makes people vomit when she does it but I’m pretty positive it doesn’t leave any lasting mental damage.”

She looked at him blankly for a moment before shaking her head. “Then I guess I try to make sure people are warned at least in case anyone tries to watch the next time. Now, try not to cause any more panic again so soon after the last time, would you?”

“Yeah, my bad, I know I owe you one,” He sighed. “Next time I’m dragged on some stupid quest I’ll try not to complain.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

With everything safe though she went off, taking the other adventurers and townsfolk she dragged along with her and leaving the four, Foast whistling as she went.

“You know, her opinion of me notwithstanding, you’ve got a hell of a guild leader. Think she might warm up to me?”

“I think you’re better off not shooting your shot with anyone while you’re in town. Still, with that done, why don’t we look over how everything went?”

While he could easily replay the fight in his mind, he decided to make it a bit more visual for both his student and the two third tiers as he sat down, motioning them to do the same before flattening the ground before him and pulling up dirt models of the two to play out the exact fight they’d just seem, making it safe for Delair to enjoy since he couldn’t perfectly replicate Abel’s outer ancestry as they took in the fight in full, all of them pulled in by the small performance by its end.

“Oh, do another, do another!” Abel said as she shook his arm, Delair joining in on the other side.

“A couple more, please! You get into plenty of fights, don’t you, Ben? I wanna see some of those!”

“Okay, I don’t get into plenty of fights and if Sachel or any of her party are telling you that then they’re besmirching my good name, but fine, just a bit.”

He created scenes of some of the more visual fights he’d either witnessed or been a part of the best he could, letting them enjoy it while he went over what he’d seen in the way the two’s bodies would change under their power as he tried his best to think about how to work with it.

Both had strengths and weaknesses that needed to be approached. While Abel’s mass remained consistent, her shapeshifting had plenty of fluidity to it that Foast hadn’t used, not that Ben could be sure enough to say that the shifter never would or if he simply preferred to change into things with a skeletal structure, while that third tier’s powers affected his total scale.

He’d already seen that Foast could grow to tremendous sizes in person but the issue was the inverse. Even though he could only tell from the memories he’d seen in the other’s head, he knew the shifter could also shrink down to the size of an insect with his power as well, something that would be a far greater struggle to make work, even with all of the ideas filling his thoughts on how to go about it, leaving only production and testing to see which lines of thought would be worth pursuing.

“Well then, is there anything else you’re going to need from me?” Foast asked as they walked back to the shop following a few more rounds of less violent testing. “Because if not-”

“No if not,” Ben told him. “I’m making equipment for shapeshifters, I need you guys to both stay here basically until it’s done.”

He’d thought that since Abel’s forms of shapeshifting were both only second-tier skills that he might have been able to start with her armour as a base and then work up from there but having seen the two in action, he was left to admit that the way they both used their skills were different enough that he couldn’t just leave the way Foast would do it as a simple step above what she would require, needing to actually test and examine what would work when it came to making growing and shrinking armour.

But even if I have plenty of ideas, I need to actually test them first to see what works and what doesn’t, which is going to take a bit more time.

“Alright,” Ben said, putting his plans in order as his homunculi started to move. “Abel, you’re with clone one. We’re starting, which means you’re working.”

“Ugh, okay.”

“And Foast, you’re with the real me, this lovely body you’re currently speaking to.”

“Alright, what do you need me to do?”

“Technically not much. While other parts of me are busy getting started on making some of the pieces we’ll need for your armour, I’m going to also help you in another way. I can tell you have a hell of a lot of skills so while we wait, you’re gonna train them.”