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With his jacket finished and beyond his expectations, along with a couple new levels to go with it, Ben took some time to look at the rest of his equipment as well.

Of the things he would regularly wear, he had all of his rings which there was no real way to improve on given that they were just there for the convenience of his enchanting and connect. Likewise were his three mythril bands that were ever-wrapped around his arm to be enchanted on at all times, letting him practice and grow his enchanting in a manner that felt almost passive with how casual it was for him, even if anyone else would see enchantments forming and breaking constantly across all of them at all times.

When it came to his moribusial and deathstone bands, there wasn’t much he could do to improve them either. He’d periodically compare the amount of mana and life force that would be drained from him against his regeneration rates but since both were largely just worn while he was asleep neither were things to be improved.

Which just leaves the bracelet Falk gave me and my barrier shoes for my more permanent bits of equipment, along with my knife and gun for when I’m going for a fight. I can’t improve the first but I can work on the shoes at least, I might end up needing them with everything to come, and then I think I’m happy with where the other two currently stand. Okay, just improving the barrier shoes it is I guess.

That at least was mostly a matter of remaking their enchantments, trying to make them stronger while at the same time activating faster so he wouldn’t have another unfortunate moment where he’d be forced to watch it slowly going up as attacks were already getting past the barrier as it went up.

Of course, there’s only so much I can do about that. He thought with a sigh. As my minds gets faster then there’s only so much I can do to make the enchantment activation speed keep up. I’ll just need to try and be mindful of that fact when activating them. Oh well, what’s next?

By that point he’d decided he wasn’t going to bother with sleep that night so wanted to move on to another project, finding one waiting in the form of some ongoing work he was still struggling with. Among his many projects, he still had a body to make for Inux, with the talos’s soul still contained back at home, and with a brand new level to both his crafting and enchanting it had officially become the perfect time to put them to the test.

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“Okay, here’s hoping this doesn’t work too well, otherwise I may end up a little hurt.”

<Which is why you should be waiting for either your teacher or else grabbing Thera to protect you.>

“Don’t worry, if I’m in danger then that’s good news! It means that I’m on the right track!”

<I hate hearing you calling something like that good news. Just try not to get yourself killed by your own creation. I’d rather you didn’t become an allegory for hubris.>

“Not to worry, in a pinch I think I’ll be able to handle myself, just gotta add the finishing touches.”

Unlike in the past when Ben had focused on making miniature robot bodies to house the souls he would shove in them, he decided to move on to a full-sized model at that point, wanting to see the effects of scaling it up, even if that meant getting a little more creative with construction.

When it would get to the point that he was confident then he’d make sure to construct the body properly for best results, but as he was still in the testing phase of things he was leaning towards convenience instead, materializing different smaller sections of the body into modular segments that he could then snap into place as he brought the pieces together into a greater whole, finishing with the addition of a single soul crystal, housing the soul of one of the demons he’d killed during the discovery of just what the forbidden gods had done.

It was the same demon soul he used any time he did his testing, meaning it was growing used to things at least. The form he gave it may not have matched its original body but after being shoved into various bipedal shapes it understood the gist of it.

Ben watched as it moved its arms and clenched and unclenched its hands before getting up and looking around, all while he looked back at it, taking it in through multiple angles with the eyes of his clones to examine its movements.

Looks fluid enough. Smooth and natural… well, maybe a little jerky but that’s likely an aspect of it getting used to the new body as much as anything. Lower legendary too which is a good sign, though how good remains to be seen. Inux was mythic and I know there’s a big gap between each barrier, if I have to compromise at all in terms of quality then it really can’t be less than upper legendary and I haven’t even made it to there yet. Having my first middle legendary is good progress, but-

His thoughts were cut off as his creation lunged at him, arms outstretched and ready to go for the kill, but far too slow. Even distracted, Ben was able to sidestep out of the way, dodging the sloppy attack, with himself feeling more disappointed than anything else as he held back a sigh.

“Yeah, if that’s the best this thing can do then it’s absolutely not good enough. A wonder of robotics and enchanting, this would make an excellent substitute body for any random soul that needed one, but its combat potential is terrible.”

Just to confirm it, he let the robot attack for a bit longer, watching it struggle against its captor in a form that simply didn’t have a level of power that someone with as many awakened skills as Ben could lose to. Every move was too obvious and weak, with it only stopping when he got close enough to rip out its soul crystal, letting the product fall to the ground below.

“Ugh, I can see a few places where I could immediately improve but I think I’m about to start hitting some fundamental limits to both the materials at use and my knowledge here,” He groaned. “I guess knowledge is only kind of an issue. I learn more as I practice and that gives me a chance to see what bits of robotics I’ve learned from the grey are either applicable or adaptable to this universe, but when it comes to materials…”

He supposed that was another issue he’d have to work through with experimentation and practice but his thoughts just kept drifting back to Inux’s original body.

He may not have been sure what it was made of, every single material that went into it felt almost biological in nature but obviously weren’t given the fact that neither light nor life magic could be used on it, but as things were it wasn’t something he could replicate, maybe being something he’d never be able to replicate. Without knowing exactly what it was, it was something that only a god could create.

Except not even a god since none of the ones I know could tell me anything either. He sighed. So where does that even leave me?

He needed better materials and given that he wasn’t prepared to revolutionize chemistry and material science to the point where it might almost be considered biology, where did that possibly leave him with where to go from there?

…Actually, don’t I have Nare looking into an entire periodic table of new materials? Looks like it might be time to see how that’s working out.