Falk turned with the sound of the shop door opening, seeing his niece walk in with the early rays of the sun behind her.

“Thera, perfect timing. Your boyfriend is pulling some weird crap so you need to handle him.”

“Sorry uncle, but when he’s in your shop he’s your apprentice before he’s my boyfriend. Whatever this is is your problem.”

“You’re both actually going to make me cry,” Ben grumbled with the sounds of rapidly flipping pages.

He was laying on a table, taking advantage of the vantage point to look at the twenty-five books open beneath him, each page rapidly flipping under the effects of his magic as one by one they were moved away, either piled up in a corner or else floated to Falk for his teacher to look at any marked passages as more books were pulled from a crate to do the same.

The shop was looking more like a bookstore with just how many there were with boxes and boxes of books having been pulled from Ben’s church to let the two of them read throughout the night as they worked to create the singular idea that could potentially push his teacher over the edge.

It was an application of his magic and mind skills that he hadn’t considered until late into the night as they’d read, as he realized with every book that he wasn’t hitting his full reading potential. Going through one at a time was fast, but the way he could both think and see the world had grown so much that he could do so much more.

Hell, even with all of that he still wasn’t hitting the full potential of his minds, to the point that he couldn’t help but feel just a little regret with the choices he’d made with Zandale. If he’d taken clairvoyance then he could have potentially expanded his awareness even further, letting him read all of the more, maybe even hundreds of books at a time.

But no use regretting what’s already done. I didn’t even consider that I might be doing something like this so there’s no point when I hadn’t grasped my skills potential.

“Anyway, what’s up Thera?” He asked as he read. “Not going to any clinics today?”

“Maybe later. I actually was hoping to talk to you for a bit if you don’t mind. Think you can take a break from whatever this is to go out with me for a bit?”

“Sure. Falk, you mind?”

“Just bring me back something to eat when you do.”

“Will do.”

With his teacher’s agreement, the two of them left, walking down the streets in the early morning and finding a food cart not too busy, placing their orders before finding a bench to sit.

“So, what exactly were you two doing for you to not come home last night?” Thera asked, her curiosity getting to her before she hit on the topic she really wanted to, only to learn how her and Ben’s thoughts had aligned.

“Ah, okay so don’t be mad…”

“Hearing that is absolutely priming me to be mad.”

“But I decided to confront Falk about why he’s been ignoring Sonya’s feelings.”

As soon as he said it her face leaned into him, her eyes gleaming with curiosity and anticipation in the hopes that she might get some sort of answer that could help from her aunt's perspective.

“And?”

“And, it’s because he has a goal he wants to put before romance. What you walked into was me trying to help him complete it.”

He didn’t want to go into too much detail. Falk liked his privacy, so even if it was for his teacher’s niece he wasn’t going to ignore it. Still, it seemed like enough for Thera.

“Wait, so is this something he’s wanted to do for decades then? If he hasn’t managed it yet, do you think this is something he’ll be able to pull off just because you’re helping?”

“It will be hard,” He admitted. “Maybe impossible. We’re just doing some research now and still need to work out a plan, but I don’t really know what other choice we have.”

“Mmh, well, maybe that will still be easier than on my end,” Thera told him as she deflated.

“Your end?”

“I spoke with aunty about why she hadn’t talked to him about her feelings,” She sighed. “I don’t think she feels good enough for him. We both know my uncle is… skilled, and since she hasn’t awakened anything…”

I see. I guess any feelings of inferiority could make it all the harder. So does that mean that if Falk can’t get to the third tier or Sonya doesn’t awaken a skill then neither of them will make a move? Both are hard and Falk said what he said, but if Sonya works up the courage and puts herself forward he might not turn her down. On the other hand, if he gets to the third tier and talks to her when she hasn’t managed to awaken a skill then that just might make her feelings even worse.

“Why do interpersonal relationships need to be so complicated,” He groaned. “Okay, I’m probably going to be pretty busy for the next week with Falk trying to help him as much as I can, but from there I’ll try and think about how I might be able to help Sonya with her confidence a bit.”

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“Thanks. This is really far from anything I know how to help with so I’m glad you’re with me.”

“Of course, I love them too so I’ve gotta do what I can, no matter how hard it’s going to be in both cases.”

She smiled and leaned against his as they ate, both thinking on just what they might be able to do as they let themselves talk about other things before they needed to part.

“And did anything fun happen yesterday?” He asked, wanting to catch up since he’d kept himself so busy.

“Not sure I’d call it fun, but I worked on my new magics and had a lovely little run-in with a demon,” She told him. “A flying one so I guess it was able to get out here quicker than others. Make sure you keep an eye out when you’re out, okay? I feel like you’re the most likely to get randomly attacked from the skies.”

“Will do, absolutely don’t want to end up being carried off and eaten.”

It was just another worry for his collection. After only a single day of the gates being open, the world still managed to be so much more dangerous.

And all I can do to help is make more weapons.

The fact did leave him feeling a little powerless. Sure, he could probably hold his own in a fight against one or two of them thanks to his magic, but that wouldn’t be too much help in the long run against whatever they might have to face. He’d still be better off staying in his lane and focusing on making things that would help people who were actually suited to fighting, but that didn’t leave him with the most satisfying of feelings. He had to live on this planet so he wanted to do more.

Well, if I help Falk design something powerful enough then maybe that will do for playing my part. The other humans can be heroes, I’m more suited to be the helpful arms dealer in the background.

“Uh, Ben?” Thera began, pulling him from his thoughts. “There’s one more thing I was hoping to talk to you about too if you don’t mind, it’s just a little embarrassing.”

“Sure, what’s up?”

He watched her fiddle around, looking shy and uncomfortable with whatever she wanted and seared the image into his mind as he waited for her to speak up on her thoughts.

It seemed like it was a struggle for her to do it too, but she forced herself to blurt it out. “I want your help with learning to materialize when you have the time.”

“That’s all? Absolutely, why was that so hard to ask?”

“Because getting my very talented boyfriend to give me advice on something that should be my thing feels weird,” She said with a pout.

“Hey now, I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure materialization is actually more my thing in this case. Part of my job and core skill set means I need to have a deep understanding of materials in general, it’s not something you need for typical spells, it just happens to really come in handy for that particular one.”

“I know, I know, but I’m jealous and I don’t like it so the sooner I manage this the sooner I won’t be anymore.”

She felt embarrassed to even be admitting the fact that there was any jealousy, but she didn’t want it to smoldering in her and she didn’t want it to be a problem, so the easiest way of managing it was just to be open.

“Alright, you got it. Let’s head back to the shop then. It will take a couple minutes, but I’ll make you a few notes and we can talk about it later if you want. I should be home tonight after all.”

“Sounds good, thanks Ben.”

“Of course.”

----------------------------------------

When they returned he handed his teacher the food he’d brought back before grabbing a stack of loose paper and ink as he thought about everything one needed to make the spell work. When he would do it, he’d think about everything the material was at the same time to bring it into existence, but given that a normal person wouldn’t be able to manage that he assumed that simply having and understanding the knowledge in one's head would be enough.

“Which means what’s left is deciding what material to focus on for it. As much as I’d love to get you making a magic material right off the bat, since I know less about them trying to teach you that first would lower your chances of success, so instead we’re going with something more common, iron.”

With that decision firmly made, he pulled out some ink and rather than writing normally, manipulated it with his magic, using the full power of his mind and skills to shape it into perfect letters and diagrams before placing it all on the page at once, repeating the process again and again as the stack of papers grew, with everything he knew along with the information that would give the needed context for certain things going down while she watched from the side.

“You know, I think this display of control is what I should really be being jealous of,” She sighed.

“Ha, and I’m jealous of your raw power. The grass is always greener, right?”

Though I guess compared to an average mage I’m actually pretty damn powerful right now, aren’t I?

He had ten times the mana he’d come to the planet with and he couldn’t deny it felt good to use. Even if the majority of his classmates had still come with more, he liked the feeling of putting his power into practice where he could, not to mention the fact that doing something like that was more experience for both his skill and job.

Maybe, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be leveling that in my day-to-day life enough and I’d rather get this done quickly so I can focus on helping Falk.

As he finished, an intimidating one hundred sheets of dense text created, he ran to the storage room, grabbing some leather, string, and wood before cutting everything to the sizes he'd need and binding the pages within to create a book, handing it over to Thera with a smile.

“Here we are, everything I know about iron. If you give this a read over a couple times then I’m sure you’ll know enough to be able to materialize it before you know it.”

At some point the look in her eyes had changed to pure intimidation as she flipped through the dense text, already knowing that she’d be stuck using her circlet as she read it if she wanted a chance of learning and understanding everything as she tried not to sigh. She’d asked for this and Ben had just put his all into helping her. No matter how boring it might have looked, she was going to do everything she could to make sure she could put it to use.

“Thanks Ben. I’m pretty sure I’m already going to have a lot of questions about this tonight though.”

“And I’ll absolutely help with them so look forward to the full teacher course.”

She lightly chuckled as she kissed his cheek and left both him and Falk to focus on their own work, already flipping through the text as she left for the day.

“You sure do keep a lot on your plate, you know that boy?”

“Yeah, but what can I say? Life’s precious, gotta use every moment I have to the fullest.”

It was with that frame of mind that he opened more books as he went to read through more spells and ideas, all in an effort to get a hint of inspiration for how to help his teacher transcend the limits of his soul and awaken his skill.