The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 744: Benedict’s Limits

Benedict looked at the stack of rings, then shrugged. "That shouldn’t be too bad, as long as I don’t push myself too hard to try to make large storage.

How big were you thinking?"

"Not large. Enough to put their work tools in. One cubic metre? If the shape is adjustable, fitting a broom or spear into that space with some uniforms and tools should not be an issue.

They’re more just a symbol of employment."

Benedict nodded slowly as he considered the options. He would make larger ones for his brothers in the Order. Then he could make longer and narrower ones for the militia, and cubic ones for staff.

Perhaps two cubic metre ones for staff. Some of them needed to carry a lot of stuff around. Like the maids doing the bedding, or carrying buckets of soapy water upstairs.

Those things could really use the extra storage space, and not spilling mop water on the stairs ever again would make any maid happy. At least, if that was possible. They’d still have to take the bucket out to work, and that came with risks that some inattentive person would trip over it.

Or a malicious one would kick the bucket over.

That happened more often in the Academy than most would admit, since the ones cleaning were usually students on punishment detail for poor academic performance.

If you couldn’t keep up to the standard in the Kinewen Academy’s branch location, you were basically just monster fodder the first time that you went out into the wilderness.

They made allowances for those who were bad at basic knowledge, as long as they had the power and the skills growth rate.

But if you failed both math and combat skills, you were going to end up mopping floors using a mop that constantly required mana input to move. It built magical stamina and power, while being a reliable punishment.

That might actually be an idea that he could pitch.

"Your Grace, a suggestion if you have a moment. There is a training method that we employed as a punishment in the Kinewen Academy that might actually be useful for the staff here in the Manor.

It’s a stasis charm put on tools.

In the Academy, it was a mop. You had to channel mana into it to make it move so that you could clean the floors. If you couldn’t do it, you had to use a scrub brush on your hands and knees.

But here, we could just put a low-level charm on certain tools that staff use, and let them build up their magical power and stamina while doing mundane work.

I know that you don’t overwork your staff, so there is little chance anyone is going to collapse from exhaustion, and it’s actually quite effective at building strength.

The mages who were put on punishment detail usually advanced three times as fast as their peers until the punishment detail was ended. Partially so they could stop being bullied while they cleaned, but mostly because of the tools and training method."

Dominic nodded. "Alright, but the staff is under Princess Alexis’ jurisdiction. I can help you make the items, but you’ll need her approval for the plan.

If you want to implement it, make up a proper proposal for her.

But that can wait until we have all these rings done. How long do you think that it will take?"

Benedict shrugged. "I can’t pull as much from the atmosphere as you can, but for one cubic metre storage rings, I should be able to do enough to do it continually. The spell doesn’t actually take too much, once you have it memorized.

It’s learning it that takes years to master.

There might be a few others on the team who can do it, and we’ve got the knowledge in the texts we brought. But you can’t use it from a ritual without expensive supporting materials, and learning the spell is basically memorizing word for word and image for image an entire magical theory textbook."

Dominic shuddered at the thought. That might not even be possible for a lot of people to do. Sure, Mages practiced for their entire youth to memorize spells, but that level of memorization was on a whole new level.

No wonder people just asked the Techno Witches, whose magic was more theoretical and less memorization.

Benedict started with the rings for his team, naturally.

He focused on the stack of black metal bands, and pushed his channelling abilities near their maximum, then added some of his own internal mana.

That bought him a ring that was four cubic metres in space, and took five minutes to upgrade.

He could do a bit better, but the time and mana taken increased exponentially after that point, and making one at his maximum of nearly ten cubic metres would take multiple hours and leave him exhausted.

But that outcome was excellent news.

It meant that in an hour, he could do the rings for his team, and the single cubic metre ones for the majority of the employees would take only a minute or so to do.

It would still take him a couple of days to finish, given the exhaustion that was going to set in long before he finished. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as expected, and he could do the Royal Guard and the Manor’s internal staff this afternoon.

"Your Grace, will you be returning to the Manor?" He asked as he settled into a chair to work.

"No, I’m going to start making more spears and weapons.

We need them for the shipment to Dagos as well as for the Baronies, so it’s best to keep a large stockpile of them around."

"Not a bad idea. You can never go wrong with having more weapons around. Are you going to provide the Baronies with all their militia weapons?"

Dominic nodded. "Yes, but not for free. I will trade them for the supplies we take in and ship to Dagos. No need for cash payment, and most of the farmers will take a magical spear in exchange for the excess crops they shipped to the Duchy. It’s a win for everyone."