The day was long, as was the night with it. By the time they needed to go to the hospital, there were already people being carried through the mini-gate to receive treatment, having been brought into the relative safety of the fortress as others kept the demons from slipping through and once they got in, Thera was immediately swarmed with tasks.

She was the awakened healer of that location, something that most hospitals across the planet weren’t going to be lucky enough to have, but that meant she was also in the position to do the most and with the effort she put in she was showing it, doing her best to empty the location out, even with more patients constantly flooding in.

It was an impossible task, even with others around to help her, but she did all she was able to as the hours wore on, making what difference she could before she needed to rest.

By the time she’d made it to the beds, Ben had already been there for a while, having nothing more he could do and instead spent the time he had materializing more bullets for himself, stealing bits of mana from the surrounding sleeping healers when he was sure they’d have enough time to rest and replenish their reserves to fill up his ring and making a spatial bag from there to fill even more, trying to make up for his previous mistake as hours were spent creating bullets.

When they were reunited, without a word she leaned down to give him a brief kiss and he handed off the requested circlet, watching her choose to take the small amount of space beside him rather than one of the free bunks before she slipped it on and immediately nodded off, at least getting what mental benefits would come from having her sleep prolonged, even if she wouldn’t get to enjoy any physical ones.

And with her out, Ben suddenly had a far greater source of mana to take, creating his bullets in the sort of volume that would last him days until he finally went to sleep.

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When he got to Myriad’s realm for the night, he found himself unusually alone, something his god had already warned him about but still felt strange as he did what little he could for his mental health as he sat back, created a nice meal to snack on, and did his absolute best to try not to think.

…This is a waste of time.

That resolution had lasted him all of a few minutes as he instead began looking at what he could do while he was up there, free of distractions.

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He immediately started actualizing, creating plates he could throw and bullets to then shoot out for what little experience it would give both his aim and his marksmanship, but with how little the mental load that was, he used the time to think on other things as well, looking at all he’d seen and trying to imagine what he could do better as he played back all he’d witnessed that day in his head, trying to imagine how he’d improve.

I can see a lot of times that I could have used slightly different shots to kill more demons at once. He judged as he looked over what he’d done. The issue is with how I predicted they’d move in certain situations but here I am with all the time in the world. Let’s try and model the way I saw them reacting and see if that lets me get more killed tomorrow.

As living things, he wouldn’t be able to perfectly guess how they would react to a given situation, but he didn’t need to be perfect, only better than he had been. Against the horde, missing a few dozen potential targets compared to all he’d killed was realistically nothing, but at the same time, it was dozens of more monsters let loose onto the world, either to become another warrior’s problem as they slayed them on the battlefield or else the problem of whatever innocent life they encountered as they made their way through the world. It wasn’t some game of numbers where something could be good enough, he needed to kill all he could.

And killing all I can does also mean a buttload of experience so I should probably consider what I’m going to take for my next job before it gets to that point so I’m not wasting milliseconds deciding on the battlefield. Let’s see, if I complete this one before the third-week mark I’ll take high tank, just for any benefits that might give my defensive skills and vitality, and if I don’t finish till after the third week I’ll take connect master, it would be good to have a few bonuses that high going specifically to deep connection. Wouldn’t turn my nose up at a level either, or a new skill. Even if I have no clue what sort of skill a connect-themed job could possibly give me.

He was slipping into some idle musing as he did everything else but it helped relax him so he gave himself a pass. A part of him wanted to smile at the idea that he couldn’t help but be a downer leading into the wave while thinking about whatever silly thought entered his head now that it had started, but it wasn’t something he could help. He couldn’t be constantly positive when it felt like his death was fast approaching but now that it might have been right at his doorstep he couldn’t keep his mind from wandering either. No matter how bad things got, he needed to live while he still carried his pulse, with how he lived speaking of who he was.

But I can only do this for so long too until I need something else, so for the time being…

He actualized again, bringing forth two spells, both the summoning and mystery one and looked them both over. He had a few hours of real time until he needed to wake up and under the power of his unnatural thoughts, that might as well have been weeks or months. With all of that at his disposal, there was no reason not to make the most of it before he had to go face hell again.