When Ben got back he noticed Thera in the living room, completely absorbed in her studying. Rather than bother her while she was in the middle of it he instead opted to get dinner started since Sonya wasn’t home yet.

He looked around the kitchen for whatever ingredients were on hand and decided to try and get creative with it for a change instead of going off a recipe he knew. As with every time his crafting improved he’d gained an almost instinctual understanding of how to use the different materials and ingredients he was already familiar with and thought it might be fun to see just how far that would go.

He grabbed a variety of vegetables he thought would go well together, as well as some of the spices he liked and diced them all up into fine pieces before breaking them down further into a fine puree.

Once that was done he grabbed a few pieces of meat to start marinating, while trying to figure out a sauce to go with it once he was done, ultimately deciding that a spicy cream sauce was the way to go. Well, sort of a cream sauce at least. Ben wasn’t sure it really qualified when the liquid in question wasn’t farmed from anything that would qualify as a mammal, but in the end it didn’t matter as long as it tasted good.

While that was cooking down he worked on speeding up the marinating process, having finally gotten the hang of reducing the cooking time for ingredients the same way he could reduce the crafting time of materials by running mana through them in the correct way, something he’d only begun to manage after he had gained complex mind to look after it.

By the time the sauce was done so was the marinating process, and he cooked and diced the meat soon after. Finally he ended with the veggie puree, adding an egg to it as a binder from some sort of large amphibian-like species, and taking out scoops to fry like a pancake in hot oil.

When he was done, the house was filled with the smell of his cooking and he turned around to get Thera to feed as well as see if Sonya was home, only to find them chatting at the table already.

“Oh hey, didn’t notice you guys.”

“That’s because you get way too invested in your work,” Thera told him while eyeing the food with hunger.

“I only just got in,” Sonya said, smiling. “It smells great though, what did you make?”

“I just felt like getting a little creative with it so it’s not really anything,” Given the ingredients he used he wouldn’t really be able to compare it to other things from his homeworld, but he was positive it would taste good at least, and they seemed to agree once they dug in.

“I have to say, it really is a treat having someone with a high crafting skill around to cook,” Sonya told him between bites.

“Thanks, but it’s not like a meal from someone with a pure cooking skill,” Ben said, thinking back to the meals in Anailia and how, as much as he enjoyed the jack of all trades master of none role his skill seemed to give him, some things were better when there was a specialist around. Sonya though seemed to disagree.

“Maybe that would be true if we’re comparing it to someone with blessed cooking, but people with that are exceedingly rare. You’re blessed crafting could blow away an average cook.”

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“Ha, well thanks, I’ll try to make sure I'm back at a decent enough hour to do my fair share,” It was good for his practice too, he couldn’t expect to raise his crafting if he only focused on smithing and alchemy. With that thought in mind, he looked at the two women in front of him. He’d also bought plenty of sewing supplies while in Anailia, maybe if he picked up some fabric he could make them some shirts or something to practice that aspect of his crafting skill. Assuming his teacher was right he should be close to getting the next level already, he shouldn’t neglect it.

While he let himself get lost in thought, Thera and Sonya began talking about her magic practice.

“So how is it looking for you so far?”

“Uhg, it's too early to say it’s going bad but I still don’t have a feel for life mana. On the plus side I got to enjoy something exceedingly obvious being pointed out to me that might help so maybe after I get some more reading done I’ll be able to have a better understanding of it, or at least an easier time leveling it up than I would otherwise.”

Sonya seemed to hesitate for a moment before letting herself make a suggestion. “You know, if you are struggling to feel life mana at all you could try talking to Vividus. She would be able to fill you with far more life mana than I ever could.”

Thera grimaced at the suggestion but understood where her aunt was coming from. “Maybe if I can’t get the zeroth level after a year or two,” She told her unhappily. “I’d rather not have to deal with her if I can help it.”

“Of course, and there’s no reason to do it at all if you don’t want to, it’s just the best suggestion I can think of.”

“Um, this might be a dumb question, but couldn’t a regular life spirit help?” Ben asked, prompting a thoughtful look from Thera.

It was true that regular life spirits would possess more mana than Sonya by a significant amount, they just tended not to use it since casting their spells would weaken them as they waited to regenerate it, and nothing would really interact with them anyway so they had no reason to. Having said that, if she got a few of them to do it there shouldn't be any real risk, it all just came down to finding one to ask.

“That might be worth trying,” She said thoughtfully. “I’d have to find a spirit and ask if it could contact any life spirits it knows and send them my way, but that shouldn’t be too hard, I’ll just have to see if I can find one outside of town.”

“Do none hang out in the area?”

“I’ll see some occasionally but even if things have improved for me a bit I don’t want to be caught seemingly talking to myself by anyone. The only time I know of that people can see spirits other than me is when their skill level in a given magic is high enough, and I don’t think anyone in the town meets that qualification.”

As she thought about that, Thera asked how his own training had been going, and Ben gave them both the rundown of the day, as well as getting Sonya's help to apply some of her charm to one of the rings.

Once the meal was done Ben retired to his room for the night and sat a desk within it, placing the box of mythril on top of it, as well as grabbing a pen and paper.

He placed his ringed hand on top of the mythril and using one of his minds worked on creating and destroying a variety of enchantments that would be useless to have on a mythril block. With his other mind though he did something he’d been thinking about since they left Anailia, writing a letter to his friends Will and Steph.

They kept in touch through mail like this since he arrived in the world. From his modern perspective it was horribly slow and inefficient, but there were no other options, at least for an average person like him.

He thought about what he wanted to say and how best to say it, before just giving in and writing what he felt as he put pen to paper. He wanted to visit his friends. Not immediately, he’d only just gotten back to Stonewall and needed to work on his skills, but in two or three months if they could make time with their own training to see him it would be nice. Talking to Karly about her own anxieties had made him realise he needed to actually make time for some of the people he cared about in the world.