Ben was all but humming during dinner, still feeling the change in himself and just how worthwhile it had been going back.

The meeting when he’d returned had drastically shrunk in size as the gods had decided that having everyone there was doing nothing but creating an unproductive atmosphere. Instead, they grouped up their opinions together and selected a representative for each one, leaving him with only six gods other than the ones he was directly familiar with to talk to and work things out, with the negotiation ending better for him than he could have hoped.

The meeting ended without him getting a single blessing, but that hadn’t really been what he had been hoping for. Sure, if he managed to get enough of them then he could have potentially reached some excellent heights by the time the second wave was going to come, but he knew from the start that he’d never get to that point.

No, what he wanted was something more immediately useful to him, without having to go to the effort of gaining it himself. He wanted more mana.

Some might think it was a silly desire, given that he’d gained the ability to use what others had, but he didn’t see it like that. He couldn’t just constantly use someone else's mana for his spells and work or else it would kill his growth rates in those areas, leaving him stagnating, and that wasn’t to mention other disadvantages. Aside from the moderate discomfort to extreme pain he would go through from receiving anyones mana like that, it was also only useful if there was anyone around to take from. There were always going to be times he’d be alone and just want to work, increasing his quantity would be plenty helpful in those instances.

Exceptionally helpful even. I was expecting to be talked down to around two hundred so ending on two-fifty worked out exceptionally well. Finally broke into the thousands and got my regen raised to match. Life is good.

Considering that Jagal had once raised his mana by five on a whim for making her a statue for the dryads, along with the growth he’d received after the dead god’s trial, he knew that raising a person's mana wasn’t the hardest of things for a god to do. He had still expected to be talked down of course, with the gods coming off as thoroughly penny-pinching, but by the time they realized that he wasn’t actually going to insist on receiving a bunch of blessings for his work, they had become significantly more agreeable.

Not to mention the added bonuses that they’ll be sending an awakened skill holder to me for every person I awaken, along with every grey and human on the planet so I can make skill rings. Man oh man, life is going to be good.

“Ben, you’re drooling,” Thera chimed in, pulling him from his thoughts and back to dinner as he wiped his mouth.

“Sorry, just thinking about how good it is to be alive.”

And all of the fun stuff I’m going to be making.

“So think you guys will stick around Allfaith till it’s time then?” Jake asked. “It looks like our tower challenging is being put on pause for this too so we’ll have a bit of extra time if you want to keep meeting up for meals.”

It was going to be a few days before Ben began his work helping the eighth-level magic holders of the world awaken for the sole fact that they’d need to all be gathered and brought to Allfaith, giving them each some time before things got hectic, with the world’s two soul mages dragged in to help too. While it normally wasn’t frequent that a person could plan their awakening to such an extent, both Yuzu and Elvat were about to receive an overwhelming level of practice for any spells related to such a thing, basically having no choice in the matter but to put their skills to use. Ben had offered to help both of them negotiate literally anything for their work, but both had declined.

Which is absolutely their loss.

“I’d be down for some dinners,” Ben agreed. “But I was thinking that while I’m here I’d see about taking the test for the other library floors unless you have anything else you want to be doing?” He asked, focusing on Thera.

“That works for me, I wouldn’t mind spending a bit more time there anyway.”

“Boring,” Jake moaned. “Why do you want to be spending your time studying? Life could end up being way too short, you’ve gotta go out and have some fun.”

It looked like he was going to go on, but Vasta silenced him with a quick strike to the back of his head.

“You could stand to learn a thing or two from the both of them,” She told him sternly. “If it weren’t for your position you’d have never gotten access to the fourth floor, and here you are wasting it. When’s the last time you did any reading?”

“I mean, as long as I keep challenging the towers-”

Another smack silenced him.

“The goal is getting you to the third tier. You’re a mage, even if you’re capable of the technical skill, it’s meaningless if you don’t have the knowledge to go with it. Gods above, to think this would be my first apprentice.”

“Vasta, there’s no helping it,” Amy sighed. “He’s an idiot, he can’t be fixed.”

“He really does seem to resist any attempt to be turned into an upstanding citizen,” Uliel agreed, casting a pitying look to both Amy and Yuzu. “The skills he has really are wasted on him.”

“Alright, I wasn’t using my feelings anyway,” Jake grumbled as Yuzu tried to console him.

“So how hard is the test for the next two floors anyway?” Ben asked, changing the topic out of pity towards his friend.

“Overwhelmingly,” Uliel told him plainly. “You need a deep understanding of magic as a whole and while you get a bit of selection to choose from, the questions are going to change each time so you can’t really prepare at all.”

“Of course, things might get a bit complicated for you,” Vasta went on. “Usually you can choose the branch of magic you want the questions to be aimed at, but given how rare the ones that made up your material manipulation were and that enchanting is typically treated more as the domain of craftsmen than the magic it is, you might be asked to pick another branch, especially if none of the ones you practice have any material on the higher floors.”

“Huh, yeah I can see that being a problem,” He muttered. “I’d be shocked if there’s anything on awakened destruction or material user variants on the higher floors, even if I might have some stuff for enchanting. Not that it matters though, I’m comfortable with the majority of magic at this point so it sounds like it will be fun.”

“Past you is crying Ben,” Jake told him, shaking his head. “Tests are never supposed to be fun.”

“Ha, learning is plenty fun so long as you’re learning something you enjoy, and the more I know about magic the more I can enchant.”

Can do.

He ignored Jake’s continued grumbling, instead choosing to look forward to what was to come. Even if he didn’t know what he’d be getting out of any higher floors, that just made him want to get to whatever secrets they had for himself.

Which means I might need to do a day of hardcore studying if I can. Mmh, or maybe I’ll just risk it. I want to get this done as fast as I can to get up there. I have the knowledge so why should I wait for anything?