“Huh, looks like I was right. Alright guys, you can stop now,” Ben told the two gods who were speaking in his head, spewing a stream of information about the plants in the world as he finished up a book on the same topic. Specifically, he’d been learning about plants in so far as how they related to his crafting and alchemy, wanting to see if that would level up both of his knowledge skills and finding it did.

Helori sighed in relief as Myriad was quick to agree with the feeling.

“It was just to speed things along, don’t worry. I’ll try and improve my speed reading some more anyway, but first, I’ve got to focus on today.”

He had big plans after all. After plenty of time devoting himself to working on the god bone weapons with Falk and tending to his new, ethically dubious garden, the weekend had finally arrived, meaning he had a promise with Thera to fulfill, and with that in mind he left his room to get started on it.

Sonya had already left for the clinic for the day and he knew Thera planned to sleep in a bit with how early she’d been going to help, followed by plenty of time spent hunting with Aso after, so he was going to use it to push his culinary skills to their maximum potential.

She said she wanted the best day of her life, let’s see if I can make that happen.

Breakfast was a priority, but his main focus was things that would be enjoyed later as he began on the last thing they’d be eating that day, dessert. He wanted to have a variety of flavours, but even with as good as he was, there were limits to how much he could make, so to get around that he decided on cupcakes. After making the initial batter, it was easy enough to separate out portions to add different flavourings to, as well as all of the fillings and frostings and creams that would go with them, ending up with so many combinations that he thought would work in the end that after they were complete no two were the same, even though he had over two dozen.

“Hmm, maybe I made too many actually? Well, it will be good to let Sonya have some and who says there can’t be dessert after breakfast too? Let’s see, Thera seems to have a sweet tooth anyway but a sweet breakfast followed by a cupcake might be a little too much. We have some meat and veggies that should go well with a light syrup so let’s go with those to start.”

Plan in mind, he began exactly that as he heard Thera beginning to move around, the smell of his cupcakes making its way to her and her stomach rousing her to get up and see just what was waiting in the kitchen.

“Mmh, morning,” She said as she walked up behind him, placing her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed in a futile resistance against her hunger to stay asleep.

“Morning. Give me just a minute and I’ll have breakfast out.”

“Sounds good, it smells fantastic.”

“It will be.”

She grabbed her seat while he left the food to cook, grabbing something from the cold box to make drinks. Frederick was yielding berries year-round now, and while he enjoyed snacking on them as he worked, most went to the freezer if he ever needed them, in this case being boiled and mashed in a pot with some water and sweetener before straining to make a simple juice.

Once done, he plated everything and laid it out for them, both digging in as the last bit of sleep left Thera.

“Alright, this is definitely a good start, but you’ve got a long way to go before I’m over my title,” She teased. In the weeks since she’d gained it, she found herself caring less and less, but she still liked the idea of Ben going all out for her enough that she wasn’t going to drop it, and he was happy to anyway given how their first date turned out.

“Well, I’ve got one or two things that should entertain you, namely a new game. Come on.”

“Ben, as much as I enjoy passing the time playing games with you, beating you has lost some of its magic.”

“Ah, but you’ve never beaten me like this.”

Walking into the living room, the first thing she noticed was the square sheet of diamond sitting on the table, same as the many others Ben had bought from her father, only smaller.

In a way, it was horrifying having something like that laying around. While her dad could make it far easier than any magic material, he typically didn’t for the sole fact that there was no real demand. What he made each day would be so much more useful and valuable that it would be a waste of his time and mana, though he would take an order for it if it came up.

Because of that, though prices of the many magic materials had been dropping for years, the prices of precious gems had remained relatively stable. An equal quantity of mythril would still cost significantly more, but given the versatility of it, it made sense. A diamond sheet had value for being a diamond sheet, that was it.

Ben took a seat, picking it up and placing one of his white mana batteries into it, seeing a light enchantment activate across it as it did while two small bars appeared on either side, as well as a thin line across the middle and zeros in each corner.

“Okay, you’ve got me curious, what’s this?”

“A video game. Although that’s not technically right since nothing like video exists here. An illusion game then? A light game? Hmm, I’m going to need to figure out a name for this when I file my patent.”

He’d created it more as a side effect of studying the summoning spell than anything else. Since he wanted to try and treat his magic more like engineering than the art and science it typically was, he’d looked for a structured approach to achieving that, which led him to this. Instead of his usual way of doing it, this was more a rigid set of the activation and cancelation condition spells that all existed around a few of his rings of magic, each going off when certain conditions were met to replicate the simple game of pong.

“It’ll start when we both run some mana through it. Grab your half on both sides to move the paddle left or right depending on which side you run your mana through and once a ball appears try not to let it pass by you.”

It was far more interesting than she’d expected when he’d said he’d made a new game and her eyes were gleaming as she got her hands on it, ready to play.

As it began, he kept one mind focused on the sacrificial enchantments on it, feeling pleased to see they were breaking so much slower than he expected. With what he had on there, he’d originally thought he might need to rebuild them every ten minutes, but it seemed that the control she’d gained from awakening two of her magics had left her far better off than he would have guessed. It seemed like it would be able to go hours without any upkeep if she and Sonya ever wanted to play it when he wasn’t around, news he couldn’t be happier with as he put all of himself into the game.

Even better, for a minute it looked like he might win too. He’d set up the game to be first to five points, and he’d quickly gained three at the beginning as Thera got her bearings. As with the pong he’d played a handful of times in his past, it was made to move faster as time went on, giving him just enough of an edge he could take advantage of for his first few games, or at least he’d hoped.

As the game sped up, he had his first miss, and it was all downhill from there.

After Thera got tired of beating him, they took a stroll through town to get to their next destination for lunch, the local restaurant Thera liked, the one he’d rented out for her birthday, only this time she’d be enjoying it in a far more normal way with him as they took their seats, the tables around them filled by any random patrons who’d stopped for a meal as they placed their orders.

They chatted as they waited, Thera’s interest in the game they’d played leading her to probe him on what else his world had to offer as he tried to describe it all, thinking on what would or wouldn’t be possible for him to replicate, at least in the immediate future. There were so many simple ones he was sure he’d be able to make without too much issue, but as complexity grew, so did the level of practice he’d need to achieve it.

I don’t think it was as helpful as I hoped it would be, but it was still fun so I’ll work on it a bit more in the future.

He pushed those thoughts to different minds in his head as their meals arrived, both digging in, though Thera with less gusto as she stopped and stared at Ben.

“I can’t believe this. I think you’ve actually ruined food for me. Like, this is good, but after getting to enjoy your food so often I don’t think I could go back to not eating it.”

“So I’ve got you trapped,” He laughed. “The moment you tasted the full might of my unending crafting I didn’t even need to worry about confessing to you, you can’t escape me now.”

“Ha, I think it mostly means that whenever we go out I need to only order things you haven’t cooked before so I have nothing to judge against. Also, you really should write down some of your recipes.”

“Hmm, I was thinking about that before too. I’ve replicated a bunch of recipes from my homeworld and I’ve just created a few from scratch too so there’s two volumes right there, and I’d be willing to bet the first one would sell at least a copy for every human on the planet. Probably plenty of people who’d just want to try it too. What do you think, I could call it Ma Ben’s big old book of Earth cooking.”

“I think you’re not a mother.”

“That’s completely beside the point,” He laughed as he thought about it. He didn’t need to do it to earn more money, he had plenty of that already, but it might end up as a nice way to keep a bit of his homeworld alive, even if there ever came a time that humans were all but forgotten in the universe. At the very least, he thought it would be a good way to leave a mark from his race in a purely cultural sense beyond whatever any of his classmates achieved in battle.

Well, that’s just one more thing I can send off with Falk before he leaves. I’ve got some time so maybe I’ll work on getting a few more equivalents as well. Something to consider at least.

With lunch done, the two of them wandered through the town after, enjoying the day and the sun while it was out before making their way back home. When Thera had told him she wanted to do this, she’d emphasized one point in particular, so he was happy to spend a few hours trying to manage it, failing miserably as he did.

“You are absolutely terrible at this,” She laughed as she spun in his arms, trying to teach him the moves for a dance that had no need for a tail. “I don’t think we’ll be getting you the skill today.”

“Hey, don’t give up on me so quick, it might happen.”

“It really won’t. All of those minds in your head but you can barely use them to keep your feet moving right. You get points for being good with your hands though; it’s like your top half and your bottom half are from two different people.”

“Ha, if I can figure out a way to craft with my feet I’ll get better at using them in no time. For now though, should we start to end things and I can begin dinner? I’ve been marinating a roast since yesterday and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”

“Mmh, one thing first,” She told him, guiding his hands to her hips as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “We can at least do some of your silly human dancing.”

With that they swayed to the music, Ben staring into her eyes as they sparkled from the light of his music player, and feeling the mood, began to lean in as she did as well, only stopping with the sound of the door opening, making Thera slip from his hands before anyone could walk in on them.

“Aunty, you’re home early,” She called out before Sonya joined them.

“It was a shockingly easy day at the clinic today. Of course, having my mana more than triple what it was a week ago helped so I was able to leave early for once. Though, am I maybe interrupting something?”

She saw Ben’s music playing flying around the living room and her niece’s blushing face, but Thera was quick to refute her. “Not at all, Ben was just going to start dinner.”

“Hmm, okay, but if you two ever want some time to yourself you can just let me know,”

Definitely should have let her know.

“You don’t need to worry about that aunty,” She told her, casting Ben a look from the side.

“Alright, well if you’re sure I’ll go clean up first.”

As she left, Thera leaned up, giving him a quick kiss before whispering in his ear. “Sorry.”

“Hey, it’s all good. Even if it ended a bit earlier than usual, would you say it was still a good date?”

“An excellent one.”