Getting up for that morning and stretching out his soul, Ben began cooking breakfast, not being present in the kitchen but instead using his alien sense with his magic to control and keep track of what he was doing while his body got washed and dressed to start the day, with the meal almost ready by the time he was done, the smell of it pulling Thera from her sleep as they both made their way to the kitchen.
“Morning,” she yawned out, rubbing her eyes.
“Morning,” Ben laughed. “You’re acting like you didn’t sleep nearly as well as I know you did.”
“Mmh, and you’re acting like yesterday wasn’t a massive nightmare. How do you go back to normal so quickly?”
“Well, I inflicted as much revenge on the people who wronged me as I could get away with. That typically helps.”
“I feel like the way you feel about getting revenge causes as many problems for you as it solves.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged. “But it always makes me feel better when I do. All of these different stories and parables on Earth about how it’s never worth it in the end, yet it never fails to brighten my mood.”
“I think that says more about you than the rest of your people.”
“Ha, also maybe. So, what’s up for the day?”
“Mmh, if you promise nobody is going to kill you or damn you or trap you forever then I was originally thinking I’d go around to do some hospital work, but since someone apparently decided to give me a bunch of new skills while I was sleeping, seeing if I can awaken a knowledge skill might be a good choice while I’m at it. On that note, what exactly do you expect me to do with artisan’s touch?”
“Whatever you feel like,” Ben laughed. “That and crafting inclination have to at least be doing a little bit for your earth magic, and considering that I taught you to enchant, they have to be helping with your non-affinitied magic too. Enjoy the free bonuses you get, because there’s going to be more on the way. As things are, a lot of people are waking up way more confused, wondering why they have the same skills and also enchanting all of a sudden.”
“You should probably start giving some sort of explanation when you’re doing this,” Thera told him. “But otherwise… I take it you’re going to be busy today?”
“There’s a few things I’m going to need to sort out, yeah.”
“In that case, I’ll see how Mora’s feeling. I can’t just leave him with Fontesh again when I was so last minute about it yesterday, so I’ll figure out my plans when we go pick him up.”
“That works.”
He was going to need to tell Delair that he wasn’t going to be able to teach her that day either, having other tasks that would need to take it up, and there was Dewdrop to pick up as well, leaving them to finish breakfast and head out; the entire day ahead of them.
Knocking on the door, it took only a second for it to open, both Mora and Delair dressed and looking ready to head out, his student yelling out when she saw them.
“Ben, Thera, what are you guys doing here? We could have met you at the shop!”
“Sorry, kiddo, but we’re going to have to skip on that today. I've got some things to take care of, so we’ll resume lessons tomorrow, alright?”
“What? Boo! I have more questions about how you built Inux though!”
“Ha, and we can go over them all tomorrow.”
He could see why she wanted to resume her lessons. Like everyone else in town, Delair had received the benefits of his new skills, leaving her not only with plant knowledge like the rest of the dryads had received, but also artisan’s touch, with that powerful skill raising her crafting and enchanting to their eighth level and both destruction and material user to their seventh, his student’s skills and power both continuing to grow to impressive heights despite her youth.
“Do you need me to stay here too?” Mora asked, wondering if part of the return was to say that whatever had pulled them yesterday was going to be prolonged, leaving Thera to reach out and rub his head.
“No. I’m sorry about yesterday, sweetheart. We shouldn’t have any other emergencies popping up again any time soon… hopefully.”
“Okay,” he nodded, happy to have them back. “So, what happened yesterday? And what are the defeated and coward gods?”
The new blessings were clear on their souls to his eyes, and they left more of an impact than the many other changes the two went through, largely seeming like the explanation for most of them. He couldn’t guess why Thera’s sacrilege might have shot up so much either, but compared to Ben’s own, hers was nothing, leaving Thera to look lost while Ben cleared his throat.
“Ah, sorry kiddo, we can’t give you the full details, but suffice to say, a few of the gods did something bad and as a result, to make up for it, they gave us their blessings. So now there’s nothing to worry about and everything is good, okay?”
“Alright.”
He could tell Mora was still curious and Delair even more so, hearing not only that they’d been blessed, but by two groups she was unfamiliar with, but both let it go, accepting that there were some things that couldn’t be discussed when it came to matters of the divine.
“So I was going to see what you wanted us to do today,” Thera went on, trying to change the subject for whatever bit of distraction it would give. “I was originally thinking of going to one of the hospitals to help out, but if you wanted to instead, we could go around another town or city and just relax for the day. I think a little break might be nice.”
“Didn’t we just have a break?” Mora asked, the vacation they’d been on having only just ended as they returned to town the day prior, with events immediately after making Thera feel like she needed one all over again, but before she could say anything, Delair shook him, scolding Mora as she did.
“Mora, if I can’t practice, then we need to do something fun instead. Who cares if we just did? Thera, can I come too? Pretty please?”
“If it’s okay with your mom, then sure.”
“And if you’re going to ask her, bring Dewdrop back with you after,” Ben added. “We need to take him home, too.”
“Okay!” she yelled before running off, returning a moment later with the scrungle in hand, already trying to fall back to sleep despite the disturbance. “She said alright!”
“Alright, then I’ll take that and I’ll see you guys later,” Ben said, taking Dewdrop and bidding farewell to the other three as he made a quick return home before he could go on to the rest he had to do, talking to the outsider as he did.
“Dewdrop, wake up for at least a minute. I’m going to want your help with something later.”
It opened one eye as he said it, clearly waiting to hear Ben’s piece so it could go back to sleep, leaving him to shake his head while it did.
How could a creature that didn’t even have a conceptual understanding of sleep already love it so much? He wondered, keeping the question to himself to focus on the real matter at hand. “I’m going to need you to come with me later so we can get you a job and have you join a party so-”
Instantly the outsider was trying to escape his grasp, the concept of employment the exact opposite of the peaceful pet life it desired, forcing Ben to keep it in place.
“I’m not talking about work, you lazy thing. I’ll need you to come with me, touch a crystal, choose the option I ask, and then when you get a notification asking you to join a party, accept it. Literally nothing else. In exchange for this brief, brief bit of time you’ll need to be awake for, the odds of the planet being destroyed will significantly drop, meaning it’ll improve the odds that you’ll continue to have a safe place to nap. Does that sound agreeable to you?”
Heaving a very noticeable sigh of relief at the thought that it wasn’t about to start being expected to pull its weight or contribute to the household, Dewdrop was instantly quick to agree, willing to do at least that much to maintain the comfortable situation it found itself in, resulting in Ben trying to look stern at it for a moment before breaking down to laugh, petting the creature for a bit before heading on his way once he had the outsider safely home.
That was one of the third tiers he would be using done, leaving Ben only to sort out the next as he went to the shop and through the gates it held in order to prepare.
Author's note
Made better time getting back from camping than I'd hoped 👍