It had been about a month and a half since Ben and Thera had gone off to Anailia, and both Falk and Sonya were feeling their absence.

Sonya was finding her empty house a bit too lonely without Thera there to see each day, and while Falk was more productive with his work without Ben around, not needing to spend time teaching the boy and answering his questions, he found himself strangely missing the chance to watch the fledgling craftsman grow, as well as seeing how the boy would solve the problems he faced.

Since they both found themselves in need of some company, Falk had been coming over to enjoy some late dinners with Sonya at her suggestion. Before his workload increased from his client’s orders he’d typically join her and Thera for a meal or two a week anyway, they’d just bumped it up while the other two were away.

He was grateful too. He had gained the cooking skill long ago, as most who would prepare their own meals tended to do, but he never put much work into it, leaving it permanently at a low level of one.

Sonya on the other hand had a respectable four as a result of constantly trying to make nice meals for herself and Thera, not to mention the years she’d spent cooking for the party back in their old adventuring days, and Falk could definitely taste the difference the skill made. No matter how many times he ate it, it tasted nostalgic to him, bringing back memories of when he had finished his training as both a smith and an alchemist, still going out into the wilds to collect new materials for his crafts.

“I hope you’re enjoying it,” Sonya said, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Everything you cook’s always excellent you know, getting a free meal is a treat.” Her face lit up with a gentle smile as it so often did when she was complimented, and Falk couldn't help but feel a bit scraggly in comparison. Sonya would at least make the effort to change into something nice for their dinners, while Falk typically just came from the shop, wearing the same things he’d spent the day forging in. Maybe for the next one he would at least go to the trouble of running a comb through his fur to look a little more presentable.

“You know if you like my cooking so much you could always eat it more-”

“We’re back!” Thera called out as she opened the door, interrupting whatever Sonya was going to say. Falk wasn’t positive on what sort of face she was making, even after all of these years together he wasn’t a master of the subtleties of a succubus's facial expressions, but it quickly turned into a smile as she got up to greet them, to which Falk joined her.

“It’s good to have you back Thera, the house has been too empty without you,” Sonya spoke as she pulled her niece into a hug. “And Ben, aren’t you looking sharp, is that new?”

“What, this old thing?” Ben asked, gesturing to the coat he was wearing that Falk couldn’t tear his eyes from. “I made it while we were there, it’s kind of a funny story-”

“Well, sit down and tell it immediately boy,” He said, grabbing Ben and pulling him to a chair to explain himself. There was no way he could have made it, it wouldn’t make sense with what he was seeing, but he’d be downright excited to be proven wrong.

He turned back to look at the coat his student was wearing again and couldn’t help but grin at what his various higher-level skills were showing him

First Church or Myriad

Fire affinity warming enchantment, 9th level Water affinity cooling enchantment, 9th level Myriad's essence? Item Grade- Lower ultra-rare

After Ben and Thera caught Sonya and Falk up on what had occurred while they were gone, both of them could only stare on in disbelief. Sonya looked like she’d gotten a migraine after the conversation, while Falk nursed his head in his hands.

“Well first things first, Looks like I should apologize for sending you both out there. I know she can be a handful, but I never expected things to get this bad.”

“Pelenia, what in Anailias name are you doing to your daughter?” Sonya muttered to herself. “Seems she’s let herself grow too unrestrained without me there…”

“So anyway, what about the coat caught your fancy Falk?” Ben asked, changing the subject. “Tell me it’s upper uncommon, give me the news of my dreams.” The boy was looking at him with unrestrained expectations. He knew he’d made a quality item and couldn’t wait to get his teacher's appraisal.

Falk could only sigh. “Boy that,” he said while gesturing to Theras armband. “Was upper uncommon. Your coat is lower ultra-rare.”

He could see the boy's jaw instantly drop and he couldn’t blame him.

“Ultra-rare?” He asked hesitantly. “Wasn’t that the sort of thing I wouldn’t be expected to manage unless I could make rare items consistently.”

“Best I can bet is you must have forced it using your god's essence. The quality of materials is gonna play a part on the outcome after all and you managed to make use of what could well be described as one of the rarest and most fickle materials to work to your will. Probably also why you got a couple levels in crafting. Making an ultra-rare item at your level is so far above what's expected for you the system probably had no choice but to compensate. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were close to leveling up again after that.”

“Come on Falk, you must be exaggerating a little there.”

“Boy if you managed to make that while at level nine your skill would have immediately awoken, and if you had just started your crafting job you would have gotten enough experience to complete it instantly.” His teacher told him dead serious. “For someone with the crafting skill like you, it wouldn’t be expected to even have the potential to make an item that good until you’d already awoken it, and likely not until you had completed two of your crafting path jobs and gained access to at least high craftsman.”

That’s not even getting to what the boy figured out for his connect skill. Shame it sounds like he didn’t get any rest, now that he’s back I’m working him to the bone. Falk thought to himself with a toothy grin before turning his attention back to Thera.

“So did you have any luck getting dark magic then?” He asked his niece, but she just shook her head.

“You know how long it took me to get a single level in earth magic, I doubt it will be any time soon.”

“True, but back then you couldn’t move your mana at all. I’d say you’re in a much better place to succeed at the moment.”

“Well, I can hope at least. Speaking of though, I know you’ve been giving me Ben in the mornings, but do you think I could just take him for the weekend instead?”

“Hmm? Divorcing me already?” He asked jokingly, though not understanding why she didn’t want to hunt with him each day anymore.

“You’re looking to get hit. I just thought It would be better to give you more time to work on your own skills instead of monopolizing so much of your time. With my earth magic at three right now I’m at a better place than I ever could have hoped for, so I was thinking I could use five days a week to try and work on acquiring other magics. Plus if we go for hunts two days back to back we could go farther into the woods and camp out instead of these smaller excursions and hopefully get better creatures. I think it would be a win-win all around.”

“As long as you aren’t hunting on your own I don’t mind. Probably good to give the boy some more hands-on training right now as well, ‘specially considering that his enchanting is a high enough level I could start training him on some more complex techniques.”

His student had come back so much more interesting after all, it would be a shame not to put him to the test.