Ben couldn’t say he was particularly looking forward to the coming day given how the last had gone but did his best to push away his misgivings. He’d been hired to teach, not make friends, and that was exactly what he planned on doing as he went over the next morning, even if he couldn’t deny his small bit of jealousy towards Thera who was instead going out to explore the town.

His mood did manage to improve a little when he arrived though, seeing not only his very tired students, but a bench full of enchanted items, as recorded in the notes he’d left.

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting you guys to hop into it so fast but I dig the work ethic,” He said approvingly as he went over to where everything was sitting, giving it all a look over. “I guess you guys didn’t have luck working together but it looks like you both managed to properly apply the principles to your individual work so good job.”

It wasn’t close to what he could do, but then, neither of them had a couple thousand minds at their disposal to build enchantments with in tandem. As far as what could be expected for anyone with a singular mind, it was as good as he’d been expecting from anyone with an awakened enchanting to their name.

The compliments seemed to fall on deaf ears though with neither of the two caring about the praise. The fact that they hadn’t succeeded with the combined work seemed to irk them both, making the two just want to begin the day and get things over with.

“So will we be sticking with ritual magic today again?” Nati asked, getting a nod for the question.

“Correct. Yesterday was really more of a primer than anything else, we’ll be diving in for real today so hope you’re ready. Also, I’ve got something that might help ease things up.”

He pulled the two circlets he’d worked on before out of his bag and tossed them over to the two, getting a questioning at just what they could be.

“Mind-enchanted circlets,” He explained, going to say more as the two reflexively dropped them. “...They’ll help increase your learning rate, that’s it so I don’t think it called for a reaction like that.”

“What part of I don’t want you in my mind don’t you get?” Xilly glared at him, leaving Ben to sigh.

“It’s not me, it’s an enchantment but whatever. Nare’s paying me either way so if you guys don’t want to use them then don’t use them, they’re just tools to help speed things up a bit.”

Even with the explanation, neither moved to pick them up, meaning he’d be getting to enjoy a repeat of the day prior.

I long for the day that the mind-oriented of the world can live free of this sort of discrimination.

Still, if they didn’t want to use them then there was no forcing it and he instead began his lessons, eager to get the next few hours over with.

After his lessons were over he was free of his students and celebrated that fact the only way he could, by going to the local branch of the craftsman's guild to take advantage of their library.

It was one of the main things that had drawn him to that city given how Nare had described it and from Ben’s perspective it didn’t disappoint, looking almost as grand as the one that had been in the now-demolished craftsman’s tower.

Which means it’s time to dig in.

Ignoring the people around him, Ben crouched down, placing down a suitcase with a spatial effect bound to it and opened it up before reaching out with connect to inhabit the expanded space's occupants, giving each of his four clones a hand out to begin their reading as books flew from the nearby shelf and the turning of pages brought eyes to him the same way it would any time he was at the library of the magic towers.

<That’s going to be a constant as long as you keep reading like that.>

Hey, I’m just minding my own business here, using the library for its intended purpose.

<Sure, but there’s no way to make anyone else believe that. Anyway, how's teaching going?>

Ugh, bad. I miss Delair. She’s such a good little student and always motivated and positive and friendly. These people suck.

…But maybe don’t tell Nare I’m saying that about his granddaughter.

<Why, what happened? What did you do?>

What do you mean, what did I do? How is it a given that I did something?

<I mean, the years I’ve known you at this point leave me fairly confident. Did your sacrilege react in any way when you met Nati? I could easily imagine you looking at her as if she was a way of tipping you to the third tier and that making a bad impression.>

Jesus Christ, I would not kill Nare’s grandkid to make myself more powerful. Getting to the third tier means I ascend to godhood when I die, right? I don’t exactly want to ascend with one of the few gods who likes me as an enemy, even ignoring the fact that I’m not just going to murder someone.

If he was being honest, his sacrilege did react upon their meeting, but it didn’t even make her look the way a third-tier skill holder would in his eyes, let alone how it felt looking at a god. If he’d passed her while walking down the street it might have been enough to scratch at his curiosity but as things were he already had an answer as to what was causing the differences he was sensing between her and any baseline mortal, it wasn’t something he was going to cause a fuss over.

<Well, just do your best.> Myriad encouraged. <I’m sure you’ll be able to fix their impression of you eventually.>

Gee, thanks.

It wasn’t the solution he’d been hoping for to make the time a bit more tolerable, but in the end, it would only be a few weeks. He would live, and more importantly, not dwell on it while he was making use of the resource that was the giant library before him.

<KNOWLEDGE LEVEL INCREASED>