The room was quiet when the two left, all of them waiting for the sounds of more doors closing before anyone decided to speak their thoughts, with Xilly being the one to break the silence.

“Yeah, I don’t like him.”

“Unfortunately, I agree,” Zallith said. “He seems a competent enough teacher, but I simply can’t make myself like anyone who would treat a god like that.”

“That’s not the problem you religious nut. Did you see his face when I said he could read our minds? He was definitely not happy, plus he tried to talk us into it again later. And that’s not even mentioning trying to invite us to dinner. Ugh, I knew it, humans are the worst.”

While Nati tried to remain neutral, she couldn’t deny a bit of distaste from the final offer as well. As one of the few on the world who could say they were a close relative of a god, she had had plenty of people try to warm up to her in the past, she didn’t want to deal with more, even if they were being sent by her grandfather.

Especially if Xilly is right about what else he might be here for.

Still, even if that was the case they would just have to make things clear that he wasn’t welcome. As long as he left after teaching them everything they were supposed to learn then it would be fine.

“Whatever else there is to say about him, there’s no denying that he’s well-educated,” She told them, trying to be positive as she walked over and flipped through the books. “Skilled too given that small display.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Showing off to get our attention? Gross.”

“I think calling this ‘showing off’ is a bit of an understatement,” Nati told her with a thin smile, still thinking about what she’d just witnessed.

While Xilly at least understood that materialization was a challenging spell, she wasn’t appreciating how hard it was to do. With Ben’s help, Nati had raised all three of her magics by succeeding at it after the strange way he’d connected to her mind, and afterwards she’d been able to keep making bits of water and iron in small quantities. Creating a proper book, with a fabric cover, paper pages, and the expected bindings was a whole other level, even before considering the fact that he’d also materialized it with dried ink, filling all of the pages with words and diagrams. If someone had told her they could do such a thing she would have laughed in their face at making such an absurd statement, the fact that it was done so casually before her was nothing but a shock. Even if she didn’t want to, she couldn’t help but be impressed.

Should I be asking for advice on materialization while he’s here… No, I don’t want him thinking this is some invitation to try getting closer. I’m aiming for mutual disinterest at best.

Xilly seemed to have a low opinion of the species as a whole and Nati was comfortable trusting her opinion, she’d heard about her other friend’s marriage often enough that it didn’t give a great impression of the race and the idea that her grandfather might be aiming for such an outcome was firmly planted in her head whether she liked it or not.

She knew that the current demigods on the world as well as her late father had been brought forth for the singular purpose of creating a strong fighting force and given how much of his blood she’d inherited, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if there was such an aim to see how it could work out. She already knew from attempts in the past that children between demigods weren’t guaranteed to bear their parents’ power and given that she’d never met Ather while the other two on the world were both from aquatic races, neither of those options stood much of a chance.

With one of the summoned though? They were an unknown variable. All of them came to the world with high attributes and awakened skills and from the few legends and records there were from the lost worlds that had used such a spell in the past, it sounded like some of their strength would stay in their blood for a generation or two, who was to say how that would work out if it met her own bloodline? It could be the sort of thing that could create enough strength that could last for another couple generations, especially given that his blessed skills seemed like they were compatible with the few drops of crafting divinity in her veins.

But I’m not just some breeding sow to pump out children to fight and die. She told herself, feeling her teeth clench. And with the points already marked it’s not like it would even do any good at this point either. Infinite hells, why do I need to deal with this?

Just considering the possibility made her want him gone, but there was only one way to speed that up so she did the little she could, opening the book and flipping through pages.

“There’s no way you’re studying already,” Xilly complained, feeling like she was going to be dragged into it. “I already feel like I’m going to fall asleep from hearing him drone on, let’s just go and eat already.”

“The sooner we’re competent in this, the sooner we can move on to a different topic of lessons and the sooner he can leave so come on and practice with me. If we get through all of the different projects he has here then he can judge them tomorrow and we deal with the next thing. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and have him out of our hair by the end of the week.”

“...Fine,” The summoned girl gave in, looking thoroughly deflated as she began reading through the list of projects and referencing the book Ben had made as well. “If we’re going to be stuck here doing this then Zallith, you’re on food duty. Hurry up and get us something.”

“I’m not your servant.”

“The granddaughter of your god needs to keep up her strength if we're going to be doing this for another few hours so chop-chop already.”

It was a simple provocation but it did the trick, getting the high priest to go bring them their meals, even if he grumbled about as he was leaving, letting the two of them get to work on the first enchantment.

It might take a few hours but we’ll be done in no time, how hard can this be?

This is impossible.

Failed attempt after failed attempt, they just couldn’t get the hang of it no matter how many hours wore on. She understood that ritual magic was treated almost as a lost art because of how hard it was to use, but she never expected it to be that bad.

I think I see why mindreading is supposed to be such an asset for this. Getting that last level looks like it’s a priority.

As long as one of them got it then they’d be able to hear each other's thoughts instead of just feeling their emotions and it was becoming more and more obvious that they wouldn’t be having any success until they got there, forcing her to consider the bit of advice for raising the skill Ben had given.

Hire tamers, get some volunteers, and rent out a zoo, I guess this is going to be a busy few days.