While Ben was cooking dinner for the two of them, the door opened, signaling Thera’s return for the day as he greeted her with a smile on his face.

“Welcome back. A little notification in my head told me that you must have had a pretty exciting day.”

“That’s maybe putting it mildly. Bet you can’t guess how I finished my job so fast.”

“You’re right, I can’t. I was sure there was still going to be another couple weeks unless you’ve secretly been doing some hardcore training when I haven’t been around?”

“Ha, as much as I enjoy practicing, I’m not you. I awakened spirit empowering.”

She was looking exceptionally proud as she’d said it and he had no issue in sharing her joy as he lifted her up and spun her around, smiling brightly at her good fortune.

“Oh, man, that’s great! Congrats, how did you manage it?”

“Okay, well that’s a bit of a long story, you see…”

She explained what had happened over the course of the day, from going up the volcano to finding the fairy and the injured elemental, along with just what she’d had to do to heal it and how that had worked out for her in the end.

“So I leveled my earth and life magic on top of awakening spirit empowering and even got a bonus skill with it! Oh, and I got my last level I needed for barrier magic too.”

“Okay, not going to comment on the whole wandering into a volcano crack thing and focus on the rest. So that's great! We can handle your non-affinitied magic tonight and- wait, you got a bonus skill for awakening spirit empowering?”

"I did."

"And you also got one when you awakened your life magic. Okay, I'm officially jealous,” He sighed. “What’s the secret Thera, how’d you pull that off?”

“I’m pretty sure it just comes down to luck Ben, which sadly means you’ll never manage it.”

While awakening a blessed skill guaranteed one would gain a bonus skill for their efforts, there should have been a one in ten chance for any other skill to give one as well upon awakening. The fact that he hadn’t managed it at all despite having awakened five beyond crafting, enchanting, and focus really did just speak of his terrible luck.

“Still, it’s a one in ten chance, maybe share a little of that luck with your poor poor boyfriend, huh?” He joked, materializing a small ten-sided die for effect and gave it a role, only for it to land on one.

“Having me as your girlfriend is already the best luck you could get,” She teased back. “And a weighted dice doesn’t really get the point across.”

She gave it a role herself, clearing her throat and looking away when it landed on ten, rushing to change the subject as Ben just watched it sadly.

“Ahem, anyway, do you think you could help me with my non-affinitied magics now or do you want to wait till after dinner?”

“We have time now so let's do it. I’m curious about what bonus skill you’ll get this time anyway.”

“Please, even if I’ve been a little lucky with that sort of thing, I’m not that lucky.”

“Whatever you say.”

Having already forcefully awakened two other non-affinitied mages, he knew how it was done and wasn’t expecting any issues given how simple it was. All she’d need to do was use those collective magics to do something outside of any of their specializations, making materialization a perfect fit. Without him, any normal mage who wanted to achieve such a thing was bound to face years of practice and struggle, but by carrying the mental load of the act, he was making it a breeze in comparison and he connected with her to get the task done, disassembling his minds to help Thera create something she had no way to with her affinitied options. He was going to help her make water.

“...You know what? Why don’t we do this outside the window to keep from making a mess.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea.”

There was no doubt she’d create a lot and they didn’t want to flood the room they were using so they moved to make sure anything created would land outside, making sure there was nobody below to get drenched as they finally started, Thera’s thoughts being filled with everything that made water what it was and she put her mana into action, leaving notifications to ring out in her thoughts and an embarrassed look to come to her face while Ben could only shake his head.

“Okay, this actually has to be the system teasing me. Me and Myriad were literally just talking about this.”

Aside from hearing that she’d completed her new job, mana embodiment, immediately, along with hearing her non-affinitied options combine into a unique variant of the skill instead of the common one, leaving her with overwhelming non-affinity magic, what really stood out was the bonus skill she’d managed to get despite her earlier protests. Magic inclination, a rare skill of the same class that he and Myriad had spoken about only a few hours prior. Even if it could only be a coincidence based on everything he knew about souls and the system, he still couldn’t help but feel like it was actively having fun with him at that point.

“Alright, maybe I’m a little lucky when it comes to awakening skills,” She admitted. “Uh, that makes two I know nothing about though.”

“I can at least tell you about your new one,” Ben said, giving her the rundown on how it would help her. He couldn’t deny that it was the perfect skill for her too, something that would help her raise all of her magics, practically acting as a second affinity to them and he got to enjoy seeing her eyes practically glow by the end of it. “But whatever spirit comprehension is sounds like it’s probably another that didn’t exist before you got it, you’ll probably need to figure that out yourself.”

“Ugh, probably, I just don’t know where to start,” She sighed while subtly touching the job crystal around her neck to replace the one she’d just finished. “I can already understand spirits so that’s not much to go off of and… no new ones, okay, I guess I’ll take dark mage.”

This time no surprises came with the notifications ringing in her mind, only telling her that she’d taken the job and gotten the expected bonuses for such a thing, even if it drew a surprised eye from Ben.

“Even with your charm sorted I honestly didn’t expect you to take that when you still have other options.”

“Well, as much as I don’t like the name, I’m pretty much guaranteed to get dark princess after I pass the master branch and honestly it’s too good to pass up. It’s not like it will take too long either, I’m basically guaranteed to have it before the next wave if I’m focusing on it.”

“True. Hell, at your current level, you should be able to finish it after what? An hour or two of work at most? You might as well knock that out tomorrow if you have time.”

“Well, we’ll see. I already made some plans actually but maybe I can work around them,” There was a question in Ben’s eyes, obviously asking her to go on, so she did. “The fairy and elemental I met today wanted to spend some time together so I’m going to meet up with them again.”

“Oh cool, in that case, have fun. But please don’t die going caving.”

“Ha, I’m the last person you need to worry about dying like that. Of course, the city probably wouldn’t be thrilled about any lava that ends up spewing if I crack their volcano so don’t worry. The one time today was enough.”

“Hey Myriad, any chance you can grab Nare?”

“Not currently, he’s busy.”

“I’m training his granddaughter! Can’t he make some time?”

“He can’t, it’s important. Why, what’s the issue?”

“Ugh, same as before. I don’t know why but my two students’ freaking hate me and it’s making it difficult to get them to learn as much as I’d planned. They aren’t doing bad, I just know I could get them to do better if they didn’t insist on being so standoffish.”

He still had over a week and a half of teaching them and he wanted to do the best he could in that time, but with them being so clearly against both having him or his tools in their minds, all he could do was train them the way anyone else in the world would teach another. It was already showing issues for teaching the two ritual magic and it had completely messed up his plans for helping the two raise their connect levels, and he had no doubt it would make it harder for them to learn the enchanting modifier as well. It wasn’t like it couldn’t be learned without connecting to them, that’s how it had to have spread amongst Galwax’s race, but it was a very precise movement of mana. If he was able to connect to them to let them feel how he did it and let him feel what they were doing in their attempts then he had no doubt that they’d be able to get it in a day. Trying to explain it in words though? He’d write the technique down, but there wasn’t much doubt in his mind that they wouldn’t get it till weeks after he was gone. There was a reason that only a single person had discovered it by accident across thousands of worlds.

“Well, you’re not going to have much luck for a few days at least. Just do your best, even if it’s not ideal, you’re making progress, right?”

“I am, I just don’t want Nare feeling ripped off by the end of this. Oh well, hopefully I can get him before my time teaching is up but if not I’m tossing full blame on the two of them. And maybe complaining about his priest too. The guy keeps giving me the stink eye.”

“Whatever you say. And you’ll be doing more reading tonight I take it?”

“If you don’t mind.”

A pile of books appeared around Ben where he sat, letting him keep up his learning speed, even if it didn’t match what he could do in a library. He didn’t have the homunculi to use in Myriad’s realm, nor was he able to raise them up in the air with his mana. He was confined to picking up two at a time with his hands to flip through, with the entire process feeling so much slower, even if there was one small benefit that sped things up.

It wasn’t his body he was using, but instead some combination of his mind and soul when he was seeing his god, meaning it wasn’t confined to the same limits. He could flip through pages as fast as he could think, ending with him still going through a few hundreds or thousands of books a night depending on how invested he got in what he was reading. A level of investment he wasn’t currently feeling.

“As fun as it is reading about the nonsensical political structures of your world, couldn’t you give me something, I don’t know, a little more stimulating?”

“Excuse you, anepithýmocracy was only done once in my world’s history but I’ll have you know it actually worked out quite well until the pool of potential leaders threw an open revolt to keep from having to rule, and this is good for your knowledge skill. You’ve been able to level it a lot with just information on magic and crafting because of the sheer volume you can read but by this point you know too much to keep up the same pace. If you don’t branch out it’s going to be hard to get your next couple levels.”

“Sure, but it’s not one I really need to level for the sake of leveling it. If I could get a solid idea of how to awaken it then it would be worthwhile but as it stands the skill is doing its job fine. It’s helping me learn the stuff I’m interested in. I think your real reason for the strange choice in reading materials is more to do with wanting me to memorize the entire history of your race.”

“...Well, would that be so bad?”

“Not if you’re going to be honest about it,” Ben laughed as he got back to his study before a fun idea struck him. He needed a break from what the trip had thrown at him so far, why not test another limit of some of his skills? He already knew he could read quickly in his god’s realm, would he be able to move fast enough to pull a prank?

The answer was an immediate no. As soon as he stood up while he thought Myriad was distracted with his own work he pumped most of his minds up to their maximum speed as he got to enjoy the feeling of his body keeping up in a way it never would anywhere else and tried to sneak around the cube to give a surprise, only to get his own as his god quickly rotated to keep up.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah man, you could still see me? I had to be moving so fast.”

“You were, but despite what you may think I am a god, Ben. You might be able to surprise me occasionally when you appear unannounced in my realm, but you’re not losing my eye when I already know you’re there.”

Even if that was only going to be true for the time. Unnatural was the right word to add to his thought speed skill when Ben had awakened it. Myriad could keep up with his apostle for the time being, but the god knew that wouldn’t be true in a couple more levels. Not that there was a need to make Ben aware of that.

“Lame but fine. Back to reading then.”