Opening the door showed it wasn’t just one or the other but both Thera and Delair arriving at once, letting them both in to start the day, even as he slipped a thought into his girlfriend’s mind.
Make sure you compliment breakfast out loud.
Hmm? You know I always love what you cook. She thought back, catching on to the fact that there was something more to it given he’d decided to keep the thought between them.
Yeah, but Mora gave me a hand today.
“Ben, breakfast this morning was even better than usual,” Thera told him brightly, making sure her cousin was nearby enough to hear. “Me and aunty absolutely loved it.”
The clone he was working through watched the young spirit perk up a bit as she said that and he had to work to keep from looking any brighter for the result, happy that Thera played along so well.
“Well actually, Mora helped me out a bit today. He did an excellent job at it too, I’d love to get his assistance again if he’s interested.”
“...I don’t mind,” The spirit said after only a bit of hesitation. “Cooking together was… Nice.”
The boy nodded at the comment, giving the impression he was feeling positive and Ben turned to his student from there. “And on that note, Delair, today you’ll be learning with Mora. Seeing as how you’ve got more practice with this stuff than him, I hope you’ll be a good role model because now that he’s learned something from me, he’s my… Huh, you know what? I was teaching him some art before I started training Jake. Okay, Jake’s demoted to my fifth official student, Mora is my fourth, at least so long as you want to keep practicing with us?”
“He does!” Delair jumped, eager to have a new underling after what Ben had told her the day before while Mora eventually nodded.
“Fantastic, and while I have clone number one with you guys, time to let student five in.”
He knew they had to be waiting so he went to the back and activated his gate, letting the three through while Amy in particular had to drag one.
“No, I don’t wanna,” Jake yelled. “I spent the entire night having nightmares about chemistry! I haven’t done that since the beginning of high school!”
“You don’t get a choice,” His girlfriend sang at him. “Ben was right, you're fine which means the lessons from him have officially proven their worth. Now stop being a baby, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can get it over with.”
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“And you won’t be learning alone either,” Ben added. “Thera’s here today too, we’re going to try and get one more level out of her as well before we take on the tower and as for Amy and Yuzu, well, I’m going to be putting both of you to work while you’re here.”
“The good sort of work. Amy, I made identical weapons to the one you already have for all of your clones, they’re just button-activated instead of mana-activated and they replace the blow gun with a bow so you shouldn’t have any issue adapting to it. I did however make you what I’m going to call a preliminary attempt at a new weapon. It’s good so I’m going to have you learn how to use it but I’m not sure if it’s going to be the end product or not, I want to think of something a bit better if I can.”
“Well, how good are we talking?”
“An upper legendary item designed in a similar way to your original, but with around a hundred different weapon options to choose from.”
Her eyes were practically glowing with greed and excitement when he said it but he didn’t fault her, that was the exact reaction he wanted to get for his weapons.
“Wait, then why do you need to make something better?” Yuzu asked. “Actually, can you even make something better than upper legendary?”
“Listen, not all items that exist within the same ranking are created equal, and as for if I can… Probably. There’s a bit I’m unsatisfied with that I’m going to try and figure out how to fix but even if I can, the thing I already made will still make for a fine backup tool to hold onto, there’s no issue getting some practice with getting the hang of it. And as for you, Yuzu, your task for the day is trying to raise people’s growth rates. Jake, Thera, if you don’t mind my student Delair-”
“I’ve been trying to find a good time to ask about who she’s with too,” Yuzu chimed in
“Thera’s cousin, the great soul spirit Mora. We kind of adopted him, it’s complicated, don’t ask. All you guys need to know is that he’s just a kid so be nice. Anyway, one more target for you if you don’t mind. Me.”
“Since I’m here I can, although you really don’t benefit from my magic as much as most people.”
“Yeah, but that’s all relative. I get a hell of a lot more from your magic than I do anything at the first or second tiers and the skills I’m looking to get a bit of help raising are ones I’ve already got fantastic bonuses to, my soul expansion and my soul resilience.”
“Both of which frankly have extremely worrying names.”
“And fantastic effects. Look, to be honest, I want to raise my soul resilience for basic safety reasons because despite how it might look, I really don’t want to damage my soul but soul expansion is kind of for the good of the world. Remember how yesterday I said I’ve got a thing in testing that will let me raise other people’s attributes?”
“Well, the growth is based off of my own, with everyone I’d potentially raise getting a portion of the attributes I hold, meaning the higher I can get them the better the world is and seeing as how soul expansion gives me swaths of mana to use with each level, raising it is kind of a priority.”
“...Please tell me you don’t intend to destroy your soul trying to awaken that skill,” She sighed.
“I have no intention of destroying my soul ever if I can help it. As for awakening it though, yeah, I absolutely want to try to do that but I won’t be making any attempts unless my soul resilience is also at or above the ninth level for it.”
“...Okay, fine, let’s do this then.”
There was clear worry in Yuzu’s voice but he ignored it, instead focusing on both Jake and Thera and the lessons they were about to receive, working through clones and connect to manage the rest of them.
Jake had officially learned the majority of what Ben knew on non-affinitied magics and Thera had been receiving her own lessons at a far more comfortable rate, off and on since before the third wave. Knowledge-wise, there wasn’t much left to teach them, leaving only the matter of hands-on practice in the fields he himself was an expert in, so with a smile on his face and materializing two circlets in hand he spoke up.
“Alright guys, who’s ready to enchant?”