After some lunch with his friends, he and Thera first stopped by the magic library before going home so he might talk to Verbum to find out about the two mysterious skills he’d gained, only to get the worst news he could.

The other summoned and Killi were both going to be away for an unknown length of time, meaning Ben had no easy means of figuring out what the skills would do, which made up most of his musings when he got back to work in Stonewall, using what little of the day he had left.

Rule bender was the easier of the two to guess at, he was at least able to make theories surrounding it. He’d gained the skill after materializing matter from a universe foreign from the one he now called home, meaning the skill likely had to do with either that or the way space had warped as he’d been doing it. If he was to guess, it might help lower the mana cost of such a thing given how high it had initially been, but he had no plans on putting the skill to the test without seeing as much as he could from Verbum first. The blowback from it had damaged orichalcum, a metal that until that point was known to only be alterable by magic. Any unadvised testing carried far too much risk.

And then there was his other new skill, one he didn’t know where to begin with. Actualization. Since it had come from a new job, there was no specific task he’d done that he could link it to, and the job in question helped even less.

If he’d gained it from a crafting or mind job then he could assume it was a skill related to those areas, but he’d instead gained it from master of all, a broad job that covered everything. The skill could be related to any part of him, from things he did to titles he’d gained or blessings attached to him, it was unpredictable.

Meaning the only thing I have to go off of is its name. Actualization, the act of bringing something into existence. To me at least, that would imply it’s related to all of the materialization I do, but…

Ben materialized a simple book from his mana, not feeling any real difference. It didn’t feel any easier than usual and if the mana cost had dropped at all it was such a small amount at the current level that he couldn’t even notice.

Of course, if it does drop the mana cost for materialization then that will be good for me if it levels I guess, but I really don’t feel a thing. Ugh, that’s just one more thing to figure out in the end, I’ll just toss it on the pile with the others. Just once, it would be nice to get an easy answer.

“Ben, we need to talk,” Thera started as they were lying in bed for the night, about to go to sleep.

“Oh wow, that’s never a good sign.”

“What? Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Just an Earth stereotype about how hearing that from a partner is generally bad news, sorry. What’s up?”

She hesitated for just a moment, making him genuinely worried that there really was some problem until she spoke up.

“Can you just tell me honestly, are you doing okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, I think I’m fine. Do I not seem okay?”

“No, you seem overworked. Well, more so than usual.”

“Ha, Thera, I have my stamina up to nearly two and a half thousand, I think it’s actually impossible for me to get overworked.”

“That would probably be true if you were a normal person, but you never rest Ben. Every waking minute you’re doing something to practice your skills and even your unwaking ones are spent entirely with the gods and I think it’s starting to show. I’ve never seen you forget about your meeting with Quilith and you were way too unenthusiastic about making what could be easily called one of the greatest discoveries of all time today. Usually, you’d be going crazy about it but instead you seemed practically eager to toss the work to someone else. That’s not mentioning that you’re still getting headaches again.”

“But off and on. Plus they’re not like my past migraines so they’re super ignorable.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I know it’s not,” He sighed. “And yeah, maybe I’m feeling a little overworked, but there’s no escaping that Thera. I can do a lot so I have to do a lot, that’s all there is to it. I’d rather not face the end of the world thinking that I should have tried a little harder.”

“It just feels like if you don’t take a break then you won’t live to see the end of the invasion, even without getting eaten by something.”

“Ha, then I’m lucky to know a fantastic healer,” He told her, trying his best to seem positive, even if she wasn’t buying it. “Listen, I’m not going to work myself to death. There’s a lot on my plate but I’m going to manage just fine like I always do.”

“I’m not sure how you think anything you’ve gone through in the last few years can count as managing fine.”

“Simple, it’s because I always survive in the end,” He said positively. “And I’ll manage fine here too so don’t worry, okay?”

“Mmh, I’m still going to be keeping an eye on you.”

“Then that just means I’ll be extra fine. Now get some rest, you don’t need to spend the night trying to level your sleep resistance today.”

“Okay, sleep well then Ben, I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He waited a minute after that, watching as his girlfriend quickly fell to sleep before closing his own eyes and forcing his mind to his god’s realm, finding both Myriad and Helori already there waiting for him.

“Sup guys, you both ready for a long, fun night full of study and cheer?”

“No,” His god told him. “We’re having a talk. Ben, you are not doing okay.”

“Seriously? You guys too?”

“Yes, us too. Since it’s clear enough to everyone who knows you, we actually need to discuss your health.”

“My health? Myriad, I’m fine. A little overworked, but I’m willing to bet that’s true of half the planet right now.”

“But they aren’t going to be in the same way as you,” Helori spoke up. “Ben, do you even know the last time you had more than one day off?”

“I guess that depends on how you define a day off,” He evaded, with his god having none of that.

“It’s been years, Ben, made worse by the fact that you’ve learned to come up here by yourself. You handle it well, I’d even say you usually thrive under it, but it’s become too much. I know you’re feeling pressured to grow.”

“Okay, but again, who isn’t? Everyone is doing their part to survive.”

“No, not everyone is going to the extent you are. I’ve given up on telling you that you need proper sleep sometimes ever since your mind skills awakened but you’re beginning to feel the effects of it all. Not just the headache, you’re becoming forgetful of things and your judgment is being affected.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my judgment.”

“You were seriously considering taking your new mage job option and blowing yourself up a hundred times just to finish it early. No matter how determined you are to finish your jobs quickly, you’re not suicidal about it and given that the plan involved creating foreign matter you learned about from the grey after the bit you already made turned out so much more dangerous than expected, why would you not consider that the rest of it could have a worse result too?”

He couldn’t answer that. When he’d considered taking multiversal material mage, the implication of his first failure hadn’t entered his head, but what Myriad said on that account was a fair argument. Until the grey adjusted their models of the universe, he couldn’t just blindly trust that some of the more dangerous things he could attempt would turn out for the best.

It didn’t seem like the two were going to let it go either, so Ben raised his hands in defeat.

“Alright, alright, fine. I’ll take a day off in a week or so, okay?”

“No, not okay. You said it yourself Ben, you need a vacation. As of tomorrow, you have two weeks off. I’ve already informed the other gods that you won’t be making weapons in that time and Anailia should be telling Thera as we speak. Have a nice romantic trip with your lover.”

“What? Two weeks! Myriad, Helori, there are one hundred and thirty-eight days left until the next wave. Are you guys seriously telling me to spend fourteen of them goofing off?”

“Yes.”

“That’s insane.”

“Ben, you have to understand, right now, you’re not a person, you’re a resource,” Helori told him in no uncertain terms. “And a deeply valuable one at that. Let’s ignore the fact that you hold so many awakened skills or the sheer quantity of ultra-rare items you can create in a single day. You can force awakenings in people which is more valuable than any weapon-”

“Hey, I make some damn good weapons-”

“Regardless,” she said, forcing him back on track. “You’re useful in ways that other people simply aren’t. We understand your drive to grow, but it’s being put on hold. You are going to take this break and when it’s done then you can spend however many years after working yourself to dust.”

“And I get no choice in this?”

“None.”

Seeing neither god was going to bend, in the end he sighed and sat down.

“In that case, what the hell am I supposed to do for two whole weeks?”