Pages were fluttering through his fingers as Ben went from one book to the next, learning all he could in the time he had. With only two weeks left, he wanted to make the most of it while he could before all of the books were moved away.

Information was valuable after all, and with so much of it existing near one of the invasion points, it couldn’t simply be left there. Boxes were already being packed away as Ben stood among the librarians, picking out books before they could be stowed, flipping through them to gain all he could, and handing them off as they could only watch in awe at the speed he’d read at.

He felt himself pushing his mind skills but couldn’t help it. They were safely at the ninth level and there was no way reading would awaken them if all he’d done to try and push both connect and meditation hadn’t tipped either over the edge, so he ignored his headache and kept going, picking up a book and finishing it only minutes later before moving on to the next.

It helped that he didn’t have much else to do. Thera had been spending almost all of her time going through different gates to help Lux while Falk was busy practicing his magic in the event that things got bad enough that he’d have to use it. Sonya meanwhile was spending time with Pelenia, leaving him as the only one without any way to use his time, at least in that week.

Even Myriad had been too busy to chat. He knew the other gods he was acquainted with were going to be, but he really hadn’t been expecting his own to have much to deal with. It had been keeping the inside of his head unusually silent, minus the unending sounds of his own thoughts filling the space as they endlessly turned over ideas, examined the things he was learning and trying to fit them together in different ways to see what fun potential existed with what he’d read.

It would have been nice if Naloth had been able to stick around a bit too. I feel like there may be a way to create an item to reduce the difficulty of using ritual magic with larger groups, I wouldn’t mind someone to bounce the idea off of.

He’d liked the guy enough when they’d talked, finding a bright mind that was good for brainstorming with, but it seemed he only had the one day free when they’d met and had to leave for his own war preparations.

And the only other person I remotely know here is Iberu and I can’t bother him either. Okay, this is fine, I’ll stick to the books.

Even if he’d already spent days reading, he could do it for days more. He did still have monumental challenges to take on after all. He needed to refine his idea for making a body for Inux and the summoning spell was constantly on his mind as well, even if being in the craftsman’s guild was probably far less valuable for that line of thinking that it would be compared to going through the gate to the magic towers.

But all knowledge is valuable and I am going to actually test out the bits I can for summoning later. Who knows, maybe I’ll find a gem in all of these rocks. Just gotta keep digging.

“Woah, are you okay?” Ben asked as Thera made her way to the room he was using, flopping onto his bed as he was busy cooking dinner for the two of them. “Bad day at the hospitals?”

“The system is stupid and its naming sense sucks.”

“Well, come have some stew and tell me about it. A new skill?”

“I wish. I finished my job,” She admitted as she got up, taking a bowl and beginning to eat as she did. “I had three new options this time Ben. I’m literally half earth spirit! How did I get more options for completing my life magic branch!”

“Ha, well you are a fantastic healer, aren’t you? Obviously, the system is just acknowledging that. So what are they?”

“Mmh, I got homunculus creator and chimera maker. Both things I only practiced with Vividus and both I was exceptionally bad at. The chimeras she had me try to put together were lucky if they survived the process and the homunculus was basically a puddle of goop. I absolutely should have gotten more earth magic jobs before I got something like that.”

Ben couldn’t help but laugh as he moved beside her, rubbing her back as he did. “Well, when you consider the purpose of a job is to give you an easier time raising your skills and that your earth magic affinity is over a hundred, maybe the system just decided you’d be better off getting bonuses elsewhere. That is if it does any deciding I guess, not really clear on that and Myriad won’t tell me. More importantly, since you very subtly didn’t mention what the third one was, do you mind if I take a guess?”

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

The request only made his smile stretch out even wider as he leaned over and whispered in her ear, confident he was going to be correct. “My beautiful life princess.”

“Ugh, I don’t want to think about it,” She complained, his guess being spot on. “Anailia doesn’t pass on succession through blood and my father isn’t a king of spirits, why did they all have to decide that I’m their princess? To this day, not one will give me a straight answer no matter how nicely I ask. If they’ve gone and decided they’re my subjects then shouldn’t they be telling me these things?”

Her complaints were lost in the sounds of Ben’s laughter, him only stopping to wipe a tear from his eye after a quick elbow to the ribs.

“Sorry, sorry, but if it’s anything like the last job it’s not bad, right?”

“Hmph, that’s why I took it,” She grumbled. “And since it went and leveled my spirit empowering, mana examination, and mana regen I can’t complain as much as I want to.”

“And if it gives you passive experience like the last one then you’ll be done in no time. Besides, I believe I remember a certain someone being shocked when I used to complain about the things the system gave me.”

“Don’t bring up my foolish younger self, she didn’t know what she was talking about. If I ever exhaust all of my magic jobs I’m going to start needing to train to get the zeroth and first level in as many skills as I can to get their associated jobs to bury the options I’ve taken. Maybe if I get twenty more then if anyone sees my card there's a chance they won’t immediately lock onto those two.”

“Those two so far. If you ever awaken your dark magic I’d bet there’s going to be one for that too. And what about your telekinesis? Do you think telekinetic princess or non-affinity princess sounds better?” He teased.

“There’s no non-affinity spirits so I should be safe from that last one,” She muttered. The fact that she couldn’t argue against the potential for the dark magic job was annoying in its own way though. Even if she didn’t actively practice the magic too much, eventually it was likely she’d awaken the skill, even if it could end up taking a decade or two as she neglected it.

“Ha, well I’m sure you’ll be happy about them eventually. Easy jobs are literally the best after all.”

“Yeah yeah, you’re right you’re right,” She said, looking to change the topic from something so embarrassing as they finished up eating, wanting to broach what had been in her thoughts for so long. “So, ahem, do you have anything planned for the rest of the night?”

She felt a blush tinge her cheeks as she fingered at the rings that had been sitting in her pockets for days, waiting for her to gather her courage to bring up the prospect, but what she saw on his face brought the mood crashing down.

“Ben, what’s wrong?”

She had asked as a simple segway to forcing herself to actually talk to him about what she wanted, but it was obvious looking at him that he did in fact have something planned, something that was weighing on his mind in a very real way as he failed to hide the emotions it brought forth in him.

“Uh, nothing’s really wrong, I just have a few enchanting experiments to run.”

“Yeah? Well, your face is saying something different so talk to me,” She told him, cupping his cheeks and bringing his eyes to hers. “What sort of experiment could have you looking like that?”

“Ah, I didn’t really want to bother you about it,” He sighed. “I mean, it’s not like there’s anything I can actually do about it either, I’m really just scratching at my own curiosity here is all.”

“Ben, talk to me.”

“The grey’s star died early. I’ve just got some ideas on how to progress my study on the summoning spell that I want to put into practice.”

The look on his face suddenly made a whole lot more sense. She’d known since they’d first learned about the fate that was going to befall that foreign world that Ben had started to look into the spell that had brought him there, just as much as she knew that while he insisted that he was doing it to indulge his own curiosity, he just didn’t want to admit how instantly devoted he’d become to helping with what had seemed like an impossible goal. It was yet another thing weighing on his mind as she let her original goal slip from her own, instead resting her head on his shoulder.

“Alright, well you do your work then, I’ll hang out and keep you company.”

“You sure? It’s honestly going to be extremely boring.”

“I have some books I can read, give me a minute to grab them and let me know if you need any help.”

She leaned in to kiss him before rushing off to get her stuff as Ben let himself lay back for a second before getting to work.

You know, despite how much it can feel like the universe wants me dead, I absolutely feel like a lucky guy.

What?

Literally no clue what I’ve done to deserve that, but whatever. Don’t know how long you’ve been watching Myriad, but you’re just in time. Get Helori so both of you can bear witness to me discovering more about the summoning spell than the gods ever have in their millennia of having it.