A trip back through the gate got them to where they’d need to be for the next part of Ben’s plan as they arrived in Allfaith, Abrus still carrying the two before depositing them at the foot of a home they were well familiar with, belonging to Amy, Jake, and Yuzu, all of whom were already waiting outside with their two teachers by their side, giving Ben a curious look as he did his best to keep from vomiting after the rapid trip.

“So what exactly did you do that had the gods asking us to prepare for you?” Uliel asked the question that was on all of their minds, with the gods each of them worshiped forewarning of Ben’s arrival.

“To make a long story short, I created new types of magic materials. Now I just need to borrow Jake to make some more.”

The first thought that had gone through Ben’s head was to construct something that could hold some small samples of any standard element and from there pump in mana of both time and any other affinity, but it was quick enough to see an easier way. Ben had forced Jake to materialize before by connecting to him, he could simply do it again, maybe even helping his friend make some progress as he did.

It felt like a win-win and something he wanted to get over with sooner than later so he could pay Abrus to deliver everything to Nare’s people and let them handle the research side of things, but it seemed that was going to be slowed as the two older mages both grabbed his shoulders with firm hands.

“Give us the long version,” Vasta more ordered than asked, with both of them wanting to know just what he was talking about. What it seemed like he was saying was beyond ridiculous, it was unbelievable, but neither really had it in them to doubt him. All they wanted was just a bit more context first, and seeing there was going to be no skimming past it, Ben obliged.

By the time he was done, the reactions were about as surprised as he'd been expecting but he did his best to push through it all.

“-And so I just need to use Jake to materialize for a bit. It will be fine and given that nothing I’d made at first was as destructive as I was worried about when we first went to the woods, we can probably even do it in your yard. It’s definitely big enough for that.”

“Absolutely, let’s get started then, buddy!” Jake cheered before anyone else could voice a comment. It was way too exciting of a prospect to risk his teachers trying to turn things down if they got to speak first, not that they would have been able to. The fact that the gods had directed them outside to meet Ben even a little sooner meant that they were invested in whatever would happen as well, any say was out of their hands.

Still, before anyone could comment he’d taken Ben’s hand and dragged him to the center of the yard, as far away from the mansion or street as they could be as Abrus stood before them once more, prepared to deal with anything that was created and to remove it as quickly as possible should an emergency present itself.

With everything set from there, Ben began, weaving his mind into Jake’s before speaking up just a little.

“So, you’ve been properly training your non-affinity magic since I last saw you, right?”

“Uh, mostly.”

“Well, hopefully that’s good enough then. The first affinity we’ll be testing with will be the earth affinity for Abrus’s convenience, but for the act of materialization itself, you’ll be using your non-affinity magic to see if we can squeeze a level out of you. Fair warning, this is probably going to suck a little but do your best.”

With all of that said, Ben began shoving knowledge into his friend’s head as Jake began casting his spell, being corrected by Ben as he went until something was created from the mana being spent.

It was a failure, nothing new to the universe, but that wasn’t an issue. They just kept trying, going to the next of the elements that Ben hadn’t been able to do anything with and kept going till they had their first success, and then another, and another from there until they’d gone through all of the previously failed options, giving the world five new magic materials that were specifically earth affinitied.

Abrus was positively glowing, the great earth spirit more excited than anyone about then. A part of him had always been sore that the only two magic materials that were affinitied had been outside of his realm of power, but that had officially just changed, how could he be anything but thrilled? A part of him wanted to begin materializing more then and there, only holding back due to the need for proper testing.

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Ben, not aware of the temptation the earth spirit was under, spoke up from there. “Hey Abrus, we’re about to test for the water affinity next, will you still be able to help?”

“Even if I can’t materialize it and the cost is a little higher to manipulate it, I can still shape deathstone and vergatios. There should be no issue.”

“Okay, great, in that case, let’s get this over with.”

They carried on from there, the pool of elements he needed to test having shrunk but still left forty-six to go through but after passing through them all and finding five that could be changed to be water affinitied, the task instantly became easier. It was enough for Ben to see a pattern in the table, showing him that as long as he could find the first one for any affinity, he’d be able to find the rest instantly.

To put that to the test, the next affinity he chose was death. Since he already knew that deathstone had to be one of two elements, after finding which one, he knew where it existed on the periodic table and was able to predict where the rest would be, once more finding five options and getting each correct, proving his theory.

The rest of the table was a breeze from there, leaving every affinity with five magic materials unique to it, along with a side benefit Ben had hoped for when he’d gone to get his friend’s help with his work. Jake had gained a level to his non-affinity magic.

“My guy, you really are the best,” He laughed as he slapped Ben’s back. “Vasta, I got a level, that means I can have a day off, right? Just one? Pretty pretty please?”

“You just had a day off!”

“And look at me now, completely deserving of another!”

“Hmm, fine. You can relax for tomorrow.”

“You’re the best! And now I have double the reason to thank Ben. I owe you one buddy.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Ben said, waving away his gratitude and clearly deep in thought to anyone looking at him. “You becoming more powerful means that the world’s better off. Since I live here it’s kind of in my best interest to help you grow if I can.”

“And that’s exactly what makes you the best. But since you’re done, what do you guys say? Who’s up for lunch?”

The others seemed into the idea enough, but Ben shook his head.

“Sorry, I’m not actually done.”

With ten affinities, each going into five different magic materials, that only ended up with a total of fifty created, meaning there was one more. Some singular element that he hadn’t yet changed sitting at the very end of the periodic table, and based on the predictions Ben was able to make, he knew it should have been non-affinitied, something he should have been able to create in his first round of testing.

“Which means its mana cost must be huge,” He muttered to himself. “What could it be, some sort of super mana crystal that goes beyond the storage capacity of even a rainbow one? I guess only one way to find out.”

He went over to Thera again as the others watched, looking to get her to fill him with mana, even if she had her concerns.

“This isn’t going to blow you up again, is it?”

“I’m going to say probably not but unfortunately there’s no real way to know until I do it. Seeing as how the rest of it turned out though, it’s probably going to be fine and I have your dear old dad here to protect me.”

“Fine, just be careful.”

With the mana transferred over and his soul unpleasantly full, Ben once again tried to see what he could make of that final element, putting everything that he had into it and with so much more power at his fingertips compared to his first attempt, finally got the success he’d been looking for with Abrus’s reaction making that clear enough, even if it was firmly negative.

Without warning, the great spirit had shoved Ben back and materialized a different crystal in the air, looking tense as he did.

“Uh, Abrus? Everything good? If I’m about to find out whatever I just made has some sort of mind effect that’s going to make you super aggressive then can you give me a running start before ripping me limb from limb?”

“I’m fine Ben, just being overly cautious. My magic doesn’t affect the last one you’ve made.”

“Wait, what? Really?”

“Really. Even now I can’t touch it with my power. I’m holding it in the crystal to be safe.”

It was unexpected, though not necessarily worrying, and after a few more moments without any obvious reaction he seemed to calm down.

“Okay, I suppose it seems fine. Unless you need anything else Ben, I’ll take these to the institute Nare is setting up. Ah, but given the difficulty mortals might have with handling the gaseous ones, I’ll be getting Genon to test those since there’s only a few. The great air spirit is likely to be plenty excited about this herself but I’ll have her record anything she finds and send the information over to the rest if that sounds acceptable?”

“That’s fantastic, Thank’s Abrus.”

“Ha, no, thank you. It seems my own life is going to get plenty exciting as well thanks to all of this, I can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

He left soon after that, leaving Ben and Thera alone with the others, the two able to get home easily enough from there by themselves.

“But before you guys run off, lunch,” Jake told them, waving them over.

A part of Ben almost turned him down. There was still so much he needed to do and he’d even put off his typical work for the war effort for that day's discovery, but in the end, he agreed.

“Yeah, you know what, a small break would be fantastic.”