“Ben!” A young voice called out as a child ran in, jumping at him in her excitement while he caught her in surprise.

“Delair? What are you doing here?”

It was a question he knew the answer to as soon as he asked it. His previous deal with Jagal still stood, he’d be awakening the dryads who reached the eighth level of the magic without asking for any payment in return and Hentath already knew he was the one doing the awakenings. Though it had caught him off guard at first, she’d obviously asked to come along with whoever in her village had made it to that tier.

It was obvious there were going to be a few too. After all, the dryads devoted their lives to improving their plant magic to protect their forests, but in all of that, he hadn’t expected one of them to be the girl’s mother as a very tired Fontesh made her way to join them, albeit in a far slower manner.

“Fontesh, I wasn’t expecting to see you here either.”

He could see that she had in fact made it to the eighth level, but when he’d seen her before the first wave she’d only been at the sixth. While he personally didn’t think getting two levels in a year should have been so surprising, it was constantly being made clear to him by the people in his life that he shouldn’t be comparing his speed to others, with the dryad giving an answer with a tired smile.

“I actually completed my last job shortly after you left the village and the new one got me to my seventh level, and of course, once Delair heard that you were the one awakening people she made sure to pester me into doing everything I could to get the eight for this. It’s been some very long months.”

“I wasn’t pestering you!”

“You were more concerned about my practice than I’ve ever been about yours.”

Ben laughed at that as he patted the younger girl’s head. “You didn’t need to go so hard on your mom now, you know? You could have tagged along with someone else from your village. I’m assuming you’re not the only one?”

“Ah, there’s two more,” Fontesh told him. “But they’re both old enough that looking after her on the way out might have been a bit much on them.”

“I’m not that young anymore.”

“You’re not that old either.”

“Well, since you’re here, let’s get you awakened,” Ben told her. “Even if Delair pushed you a bit, I’m sure it will feel worth it after.”

He prompted Fontesh to come closer, letting the two soul mages cast their spells to help her get even more out of the event before merging his mind into her own and placing a hand on her back, pouring mana into her as he guided her in the process of creating a seed, with the mana snapping into place only seconds later and the room exploding into light with her awakening, the process ending mere minutes after they entered.

“Are you really done already?” Delair asked with a pout, while her mother seemed more surprised.

“Grandmother did mention how quick it was, but I thought she was exaggerating,” She muttered to herself before jerking with a start as she bowed her head to both him and the soul mages. “Thank you all so much, I’ll never forget this. Now come on Delair, say your goodbyes so we can get out of their hair.”

“Already?”

It was obvious she was in no hurry to leave, and Ben wasn’t going to make her.

“If you too want then you can stick around, it’s really no bother.”

“Really!”

“Are you sure Ben?” Fontesh asked a lot more cautiously. “I appreciate the offer but this seems rather important, we really shouldn’t distract you.”

Her daughter was making it clear she wasn’t appreciative of her mother’s consideration, but Ben just waved it off.

“Honestly, don’t worry about it. This is so easy for me I could make a legendary item at the same time while reading a thousand books for fun on the side. At this point, I don’t actually need my full attention span for anything.”

She didn’t have the context to guess how much of that was true or an exaggeration, but if he was going to go so far then she decided to accept his offer at face value.

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“Alright, in that case, if you don’t mind entertaining her for a bit then we’d both appreciate it. And I think I might just take a seat and rest my eyes for a little then.”

He didn’t know how hard she’d been working but Ben could see she needed some rest, so without a word he materialized both a blanket and a pillow for her, silently handing them over as she watched the display of power just as quietly, ultimately shaking her head and accepting them as she went to lay down at the side to have a nap.

That left Delair beside him, staring at him in blatant excitement as she started talking, trying to get a hundred words out at once about how her practice was going and ending up all over the place as she told him about the things she was making and how her enchanting and crafting and low plant magic were all progressing all at once as Ben did his best to encourage her, only getting her to pause as he got a word in.

“And that’s all fantastic to hear but wait just one second and I’ll see for myself and then you can tell me everything, okay?”

“Okay.”

With her a little calmer, Ben brought her into his mind from there, letting her actual body lean against him as she entered a dazed state while he mentally constructed an environment for her to work, both to let her show him how she’d been progressing and let her get some guidance from him as well as he watched her work in his mindscape, weaving just a single strand of his mind into hers to let her take advantage of his knowledge skill while the part of him that was focusing on the physical world turned to the soul mages before the next person to awaken came in.

“Hey, is there any chance I could ask you to cast whatever spell you guys use to reduce leveling difficulty on her? She’s still low enough in her skills that I can probably get her a couple while we’re here with your help.”

She hadn’t gained any levels since he’d last seen her but it sure seemed like she’d been doing her best and he wanted to help her get some results for her effort, with Yuzu doing it immediately, even if it left her with a question.

“So who is this? She sure was excited to see you.”

Before he could answer though, explaining that she was a relative of Myriad’s oracle whom he had promised to take as an apprentice one day, Thera spoke first, overcomplicating things by a longshot.

“Ben’s daughter. He spoils her every time he sees her.”

Before he could correct that statement, Jake was already cheering, looking far too excited to hear that.

“Yes! I’m not such a bastard now, am I! Look at me, not immediately knocking anyone up after getting here!”

“You idiot, look at her and then look at how long we’ve been here and do some basic math,” Amy sighed. “The girl’s, what? Twelvish? We’ve been here for four and a half years. Thera’s joking.”

“We don’t know that,” Jake argued, wanting far too much to have a different human to point to the next time any of the others gave him flack for how he ended up with two partners. “She’d only be half human, who’s to say she ages like a human.”

That was a good enough point that she didn’t immediately have an argument and instead looked to Ben, letting him finally get a word in as the next person he was awakening chuckled at the side conversation.

“She’s not my daughter, she’s my friend/coworker’s relative who I told I’d be willing to take as an apprentice one day.”

“Who you dote on any time she’s around,” Thera laughed.

“I do not.”

“Uh-huh, and how many strengthening potions have you sent her?”

“Irrelevant, I send them to the whole village.”

“Toys then? And books on every topic you’d ever want to teach her?”

“A few but we’ve been over this. I am at most showing brotherly affection. I’m not raising her.”

“You kind of will be if she ever moves to Stonewall to train under you, you know that, right?”

“I know nothing.”

The back and forth got some smiles, with Amy asking a question of her own, not thinking too much on it when she did.

“You had a brother back home, right? Did you dote on him this much?”

“I wish I did.”

That statement killed the conversation in its tracks, but it was the truth. Ben really believed that he’d had an excellent relationship with his brother before he’d ended up in that reality, but now that he’d never see him again, he couldn’t help but wish he’d done even more.

Well, maybe the fact that I’m not going to see Mark again makes me want to spoil her a bit while I can. He admitted to himself. She was a good kid who seemed passionate about the same things he was, given there was no way to know what the future might hold, how could he not want to support her where he could? It was nice getting to see her get some growth, with some of it happening in that very moment.

“Oh good, she just got a level of crafting so I’m going to wake her up for some hands-on practice out here. And none of you say any weird things like that to her. Dryads don’t even have fathers, I don’t want any of you getting any weird ideas in her head.”

“Hold on, it’s been like, two minutes,” Amy said, surprised that the young girl had gained a level so soon when she seemed to be doing nothing, even with the help of the soul mage.

“Two minutes for you, not her.”

“Gods above, Ben, please tell me she hasn’t just been stuck in your head for days,” Thera sighed, suddenly a lot more worried that he was going to traumatize the girl with his strange mind, even as he rushed to defend himself.

“It’s been like, eight hours for her, it’s fine.”

And with that done, that means it’s time to move on to things I can’t get her to replicate in my mind.

That meant moving and manipulating her mana. Quickly materializing a variety of things to work on, from a variety of household items so she could practice her enchanting to a few seeds to let her test out some of the plant magic spells he shoved into her head, he fully intended to make their time together as productive as possible, all while the stream of people to awaken kept making their way through.