Once they arrived at their destination Ben set out what he was thinking. “The staff you currently have is the last one Falk gave you right? You should probably save it for emergencies. For now do you mind trying the ones I made and tell me how they feel?”

She looked at her staff hesitantly before stringing it over her back and grabbing the one Ben was offering and gave it a look over.

"The design is pretty plain and it feels rough, are you sure it will hold up?"

"No clue, but that's the one I finished before my level went up, the two I made after should be better."

She raised the staff in front of her and concentrated, forcing mana through it to bring together her spell. Ben watched in anticipation, anxious to see whatever she would bring forth. He had seen a few smaller acts of magic in his months here, but it looked like she was preparing something big.

All at once the ground shook as chunks of earth were pulled from it and coalesced into a rough ball in front of her, about two meters in diameter. With a swing of her staff the ball flew… for a couple meters, before falling to the ground and collapsing back into loose dirt.

It was a little disappointing but when he turned back to her the problem became obvious. Towards the end of the spell the staff had shattered into slivers of metal.

"Useless." Her frank evaluation hurt a little, but there was no mistake his work didn't live up to the task.

"So the first one didn't work out, we still have two more." He told her with forced cheer. "Maybe you could use a smaller spell this time? We shouldn't need something like that for hunting scrells.

"I can't," she muttered under her breath.

"Sorry what?" He hoped he misheard her, but that dream was dashed.

"That's as small of a spell as I can do okay! Have a problem with that?" she yelled at him angrily.

He couldn't even notice how defensive she was with how much was going through his head. That's as small as she can make it? Is that what they meant when they were talking about how much mana she has? Hey Myriad are you around? What am I supposed to do about this?

<Hmm well I guess I can see why she goes through so many staves. She must have incredibly high mana but low skill level. She wouldn't have any control to go along with it, I doubt she can even use magic without a staff.>

"Mind showing me what you can do without a staff so I have a reference." He asked, hoping Myriad was wrong.

To his relief she started gathering her power without argument, though she looked unhappy about it, and started to use her magic. Loose dirt tens of meters around them rose into the air. Then promptly fell to the ground again.

"...Was that it?"

"Got a problem with that?"

"Nope, just thinking is all."

Do you think either of the other staves will work?

<They should at least be able to properly fire one spell… I think.>

Not reassuring.

"Okay I have to ask, how many shots would you say you get off with Falk's staves before they break?"

“...I don’t see any relevance to the question.”

She’s trying to avoid answering.

<Falk said they last her a week, it can’t be too bad.> Myriad was trying to be optimistic but Ben heard the edge of worry in his voice.

“My first staff didn’t even really let you finish a spell. If my teacher thinks I should be able to make you something that would last a day or two I need to know what the expected number of shots should be.”

She looked away, clearly not wanting to have this conversation.

Ben did his best to contain a long sigh and continued. “Look Thera, I’m going to be doing my absolute best to make you the best product I can. They may not meet the standard you’re used to, but I want to at least know how much I need to improve if I’m going to meet my teacher's expectations. To do that I need you to work with me, I won’t judge.”

“...Fine, but keep it to yourself. About fourteen or twenty.”

I’m keeping my face straight right? Doesn't look like I’m about to scream or anything?

<You’re good.>

“Let's say twenty then. Are you going out to hunt seven days a week?”

“Six. I take one day off to relax.”

“Okay so then let's say I need to get my staves to a quality where they can last about three shots a day. Does Falk know you only get about twenty uses out of each staff?”

Again she just fidgeted about and tried to avoid the question, which was all the answer Ben needed.

“Got it. Alright we’re having a change of plans, try out the last two staves then we’re heading back. I’m going to need to experiment a little to make something that will work better.”

“But we haven’t even hunted anything yet!”

“Are you that short on money?”

“Money isn’t the issue. We’ll never get our adventurer rank up if we don’t hunt consistently.” It looked like her greed leaned more towards prestige than wealth, and Ben was going to have none of it.

“If the staves I’ve already made can’t hold up through one spell then you aren’t going to be able to hunt anything anyway. Just let me watch you fire your spells and I’ll hopefully have something a bit more usable in the next week.”

She couldn’t argue the fact that they probably wouldn’t have any success anyway, but she was still far from happy about the turn of events. Still, she did as she was asked and grabbed the next staff, a wooden one wrapped in a metal wire treated with hontar blood, and prepared the same spell as before. She began using her magic and again had a large ball of earth floating in front of them before sending it flying, this time getting about ten or fifteen meters before crashing to the ground, the staff shattering in her hand.

“Well that was an improvement at least, does wood act as a better conductor of earth magic, or could the strengthening properties of the hontar blood have kept it together for longer? Either way, try the final one then let's get out of here.”

She dropped the remaining fragments of the last staff and grabbed the final one, Ben's personal favourite. This was another metal one, but it had a soft blue glow to it from a reaction between the copper it was made with and some nightmare bone.

“Why does it look like this?” She asked, hesitant to use the mysterious item in her hands.

“Since I was allowed to use anything I tried experimenting with some of the more unusual materials in the shop. I gotta say, I’m real happy with how it turned out.”

“It looks a little evil.”

Hands grasping at his heart he tried to put aside her words. “That's probably the best staff I’ve made to date. If we take the materials I used into account then I would say it's more valuable than any staff an average rank six would be using. Well, I guess you’re used to using exceptional staves but I’m still really, really- OW FUCK.”