Falk was understanding enough, even if he was going to take a few weeks off it gave him time to focus on some of his own tasks he couldn’t complete with Ben around, and to the residents of the world it made sense for an apostle to fulfill the requests of their gods.

What mattered was telling Thera. He wasn’t sure how she’d react given that her relationship with them all was rocky, especially Skoe, but hoped that things would be fine overall as he explained what had been asked of him.

“...So anyway, that’s what Myriad wanted me to do, I’ll be gone for a few weeks to try and deal with all that nonsense… Unless you’d want to join me?”

There it was. It didn’t matter if she said yes or not, he’d be fine on his own. All that mattered was putting the offer out. They were a team after all, they’d promised to work together to solve their problems. Even if she was sure to decline given the people involved, he wouldn’t rush off without even asking, and while he was dealing with this she could focus on improving her magic or reading some medical books to improve her knowledge skill.

“Alright, when are we leaving?” She asked, leaving him dumbfounded.

“Today if we can. I was going to book a carriage after I asked you, but are you sure? I know you aren’t exactly a fan of them and we may be stuck together for a while.”

“I think the entertainment of seeing them imprisoned for a bit will be worth it so I’ll start packing. Need me to get you started while you get the carriage sorted out?”

“Uh, no I should be good,” He told her and walked off to get them a ride.

Still, for her to come along for that of all reasons. What was that saying again? Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn?

He was able to get one without much issue, and they went on their way. Thera brought a few books to pass the time while Ben spent the time working on his enchanting, doing his best to get as much practice as he could while only having the magic rings he’d taken to always wearing, as well as the skills that existed within him.

He’d gotten a fair amount of job experience in the past few weeks considering some of the oversize enchantments he’d been able to make, as well as the fact that he was able to experiment using so many different skills compared to other enchanters thanks to his connect, and he didn’t want to lose that momentum by treating this time as a break. 

Even if he didn’t have all of his boxes of rings with him, he could use it as a chance to learn about enchanting with magic to an even deeper degree, although it would be more exhausting than compared to working with a skill not tied to his affinities.

As nice as it would be if I could enchant with other people’s affinities the way I can with their skills, that would be a bit too much to hope for considering all I already get out of connect, though maybe if I ever awaken it…

It was a fun thought, but he’d have to put in a lot of work for training the skill, especially since it was so hard to determine what jobs gave bonuses to a given skill unless it was obvious. Sure, connect still had the bonuses associated with it from when he had worked on completing the priest path, and it was guaranteed minor ones now that he was an enchanter, but would it also be getting the main job bonus as well since the way he used the skill was so tightly linked to his enchanting? And for that matter, what about his crafting job bonuses? He was fairly certain that enchanting received them since it was counted as a crafting skill, but what about connect? Even though he used it so closely with enchanting now, he hadn’t started to treat it that way until the end of his craftsman job, would that have any effect, and were the skills that qualified for a bonus dependent entirely on how he used them?

He’d tried asking Myriad once but was essentially told it would vary by the jobs and skills involved, the only way to be sure was to check both with an awakened analysis type skill, an extreme rarity for someone to possess. He could try to look for someone who had one by throwing some money around, it would probably be better than just blindly hoping that his skills would work out the way he wanted, but it would likely cost him a small fortune as well.

How much would I be willing to pay to improve my skills? I suppose that as I improve, I could potentially make better and better tools and weapons to sell that could replace any losses, but I’ll hold off for now. Besides, if it were really expensive I could always let Pelenia know I’ll be back in Anailia for a bit to make some braces, with how much my enchanting and connect has improved that would be easy money.

By now the majority of Myriad’s believers had the skill. So long as they were practicing hard then in a few short months he’d have a nice passive income as well. Thinking about all that, he would have to spring for a faster carriage on the way back. No point spending extra days on the road when his time was valuable. Of course, since he had the time he could also start fiddling with ideas on alternative means of transport for the future.

Hey Myriad, you around?

<I am, anything I can do for you?>

Just wanted to spitball. What do you think of the idea of making a small but light carriage with a sail attached to it and enchanted with an air magic spell to push it along? I wouldn’t need to worry about hiring a cart each time I needed to go anywhere this way.

<I think the mana cost to get anywhere that way at a decent speed would be ridiculous unless you used some of your magic materials, and even then you’d probably want to tie it to an enchantment of a higher level than you’re capable of to lower the mana cost as much as possible. That’s not even mentioning the fact that plenty of people would want to steal something like that if you just left it outside.>

Hmm, true. Maybe I could build some bikes? They’re definitely faster than a typical carriage, but the wheels might be an issue. I don’t think they’d work as well if I used wooden or metal ones like a carriage, but I haven’t seen anything like rubber around. Maybe I could make a substitute out of leather or some other material? It might take some experimenting.

<I’m not familiar with either bikes or rubber so I can’t offer too many opinions on the topic, but the thoughts going through your head make it seem a bit more feasible at least.>

Wait, hold on a minute. Are you seriously telling me that bikes haven’t been invented here? He asked his god, his interest fully piqued.

<There’s nothing like that to my knowledge.>

The gears turned in Ben's mind as he gave that some thought. Despite how common they were, he was fairly sure bikes had only been invented a couple hundred years before he was born, making them reasonably modern compared to how simple they seemed. He was certain he would be able to create one without much problem, it just created a single question in him.

Myriad, I seriously need to know how this world's copyright law would deal with the fact that I’d be introducing an invention from my world to this one. Would I own the patent as the person bringing it to this world or would it be considered public domain since I’m not actually the inventor?

He expected it to be the sort of question that Myriad would need to search a bit for an answer, but surprisingly he could tell him immediately.

<This actually came up rather early on after all the summoned arrived. A handful wanted to earn as much money as they could despite having their nations backing them and it caused quite the trouble amongst the crafting gods to figure out how to respond to it, since while it wouldn’t be them protecting their own intellectual property, they’d still be introducing new ideas into the world. The conclusion ended up being that while a patent could be made for such an invention, a working prototype must be made and the duration of the patent would only be twenty years instead of the typical hundred, and since you wouldn’t be able to patent anything without actually being able to make it the majority of the summoned had to back down. Being able to describe how something works and actually putting it together are very different things after all, and in the end, rather than spending who knows how long trying to make a functioning prototype it made more sense for them to focus on their guaranteed means of riches through properly training with their host nations.>

So you’re saying as long as I can make one I have twenty years of riches ahead of me.

<Assuming they end up popular, sure. There’s always the chance that nothing comes of it until after the designs are in public use.>

If that happens then oh well, I just wanted something that could make travel a bit nicer, if I can make some money off of it then that’s just a bonus.