“Delair, grease the pivot a bit, it doesn’t seem like it will be smooth enough. Mora, look at the counterweight and how it’s going to compare to the shot. It’s going to need to be changed just a bit, but I’ll let you be the judge of how. Once both things are done, then we can start.”
“Got it, Ben!”
“Alright!”
With both kids calling out, Ben took in the trebuchet the three of them had built based off of the children’s initial model, having spent that day putting it together in the field with Ceselee’s permission and had made the kids work on building things with an audience, leading to the coming test as both finished up.
“Alright then, what sort of target do you guys want?” Ben asked them, Mora looking unsure while Delair was practically jumping.
“Ooh, a sword! A giant sword we can hit on its edge!”
“... I’m not going to say no to that, but why?”
“I wanna watch the boulder we throw get cut in half!”
Eh, good enough reason for me.
Seeing where they’d be aiming in the distance that the boulder was expected to land, Ben materialized a giant sword to stick out from the ground, creating it so that the part hidden below would be far deeper than anyone would expect by looking at it to keep it from being knocked over before he materialized a stone ball a third of his size to sit in the siege weapon’s sling, with everything aligned and only needing to be fired still.
Most of them think I’m either a god or phenomenally powerful as it is by this point, a bit of materialization isn’t really going to change that.
I’ve taught far too many people to materialize for that to still be true.
I mean, when you put it that way, it does sound kind of fun, but I think I’ll pass. Now, give me a minute here; we’re about to get started.
“Alright then, which of you wants to take the first shot?”
“Delair can,” Mora said. “I’ll think of what I want to hit for mine.”
“Works for me. Delair, the trebuchet is yours.”
With all the glee of a child who’d just been given complete control of a giant weapon, Delair ran over to the rope that was securing the counterweight in place and used all of her strength to pull it out, releasing it to cause the weapon’s arm and sling to both swing, shooting off the stone into the distance until it met the blade of the giant sword Ben had materialized specifically to be able to handle it and comfortably split the rock in two, the kids and the crowd behind them all giving a cheer as Ben smiled and ruffled his student’s hair.
“Excellent shot, which means it’s Mora’s turn, and then we’re packing up.”
“Already?” Delair asked, clearly disappointed in the answer. “But we just got started.”
“Yeah, but the project was building it and the day’s almost over. We’ve got to get you home, and if I leave this out for anyone to use overnight and something gets destroyed, our local guild master is going to kill me. Now, Mora, have you made your choice?”
“A house.”
“Once again, I’ve gotta ask why?”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“I want to see what that would look like.”
“That works.”
Turning the distant sword to dust and using his magic to help him reset the trebuchet at the same time, Ben both used the dirt in the environment along with his materialization to create a two-story house in the exact position it would need to be to bring the next stone through the area where the wall would meet the roof and crash through all of the floors below, getting it perfectly set up for the boy before it was Mora’s turn to release the payload, the boy freeing the counterweight and watched with excited eyes as the stone sailed through the air before perfectly hitting its target with better results than Ben had expected, bringing the entire structure down as once more the watching crowd went wild.
Hmm, doing things to entertain the town occasionally might be a good idea. Doesn’t hurt to work on my reputation when I want to keep living here and if word ever does somehow get out about the part Mora played in destroying it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make sure he is already well liked enough that people are going to want to be forgiving without me going into their heads.
It would literally only be if I ever catch someone mistreating my kid.
Fine, if it ever comes to it, then I guess I’ll just go with that.
<... I really need to take more care when picking examples around you.>
Relax, someone would have to be behaving exceptionally poorly for me to want to go so far in the town I’m living in. It probably won’t happen.
Continuing the back and forth with his god, Ben got to cleaning up, breaking down the house and trebuchet both into dust and watched the crowd disperse, the show now over. As fun as it had been, it was time to take Delair home and they walked through the streets to do exactly that, talking as they did.
“So, what can we make like that next time?” Delair asked in excitement as ideas raced through her head. “How about something like a battering ram?”
“A battering ram isn’t going to be complex enough for you to be a challenge. If you want something complex, we could try building a house from scratch. I could buy a plot of land and we could make a good few days of it.”
“Okay, but that’s not as exciting, is it? What about a ballista? Those sound fun!”
“Yep, pretty sure I’ve taught you about too many weapons at this point, so the next project is definitely building a house from scratch.”
“Boo!”
“But, I can also teach you how to boobytrap it if you promise not to do anything like that on your own without my permission, okay?”
“Yes yes yes! That sounds like so much fun!”
“This seems like a bad idea,” Mora told him. “I don’t think Delair is responsible enough for that sort of knowledge.”
“Am too! I’m so responsible, I won’t even trap you once after I learn some, promise!”
“Maybe you’re right,” Ben laughed. “But don’t worry, I won’t be teaching you guys anything too crazy. I’ll save any of the really dangerous traps for when you’re a couple years older, okay?”
“Okay,” they both told him, one looking slightly relieved while the other was plain in her disappointment, making him change the topic.
“Well, we can put a pin in really deciding the next big project for the time being. Instead, Delair, how is training your magic going for you? You should be close to your next levels for the non-affinitied options at least.”
“Really?” she lit up, the news better than any disappointment about her destructive potential being limited.
“Really, really.”
His authorities told him as much, though a few of her skills painted a clearer picture than others. Considering the potential her destruction held under the effect of his destructive authority, it was more surprising that her other skills were keeping up at all, but she was putting in the effort, even if the comment led to a different bit of curiosity from Mora.
“Could you make her level faster if you give her the skill you just gave Thera?”
“Her plant magic for sure, potentially it would be a bit of a bonus to everything else, but not happening.”
“Huh, why not?” His student asked at the prospect of being deprived of a benefit, even if she wasn’t clear about just what the benefit was, with a grin from her teacher being the reward.
“Because you don’t know what Thera was risking to get that little benefit. When I get the chance to test it a bit more, then it’s something we can consider when you’re older, but by that I mean fully an adult. I had to mess with Thera’s brain to do this for her and that was scary enough. I’m not doing it on a brain that’s still maturing.”
“Oh, what about making me a demigod then?” She asked instead, trying to push her luck. “You said we could talk about that in the future and here we are.”
“... Something I’d have to talk to your mother about,” Ben told her, not against the idea but not sure how that particular conversation would go considering the fact that it involved a not insignificant surgery to pull off. “A conversation for slightly later. I’ve got a long day tomorrow, I don’t want to end this one with what’s sure to be a very complex discussion.”
“Gotcha, I’ll start working on wearing her down once you leave. I’m sure she’ll go for it.”
“Ha, you might not want to yourself when you hear about the details. I don’t know how it’s currently being done, but when I did it, it was because I’d needed to get my heart replaced.”
“Does that mean I could keep my old heart in a jar?” she asked, not at all put off and resolving Ben to push that potential conversation with Fontesh off even farther if he could help it.
“It means that I am not remotely prepared to hear your mother react to any of this.”