“I can’t believe we’re about to waste two weeks,” Ben sighed as he handed out breakfast to Thera and Sonya, the last meal the three would be having together for a while. The gods knew well that if Ben stayed in Stonewall he’d sneak back to the forge for practice so they told him to go off to see more of the world while he could, but it still seemed like nothing but a waste of time. 

So what if he was a bit overworked at the moment? Plenty of people were. If they were really so concerned, a weekend off would have been more than enough to let him unwind, having so much free time felt like it would be more likely to loop back around to stressful by the end of it as he worried about not using even a few of the days he had before the next wave effectively.

It was a feeling he was alone in though, with Thera coming across as thrilled.

“No getting out of it Ben, gods and girlfriend’s orders,” She said happily. “Besides, it’s going to be fun! This has to be our first proper vacation together that doesn’t have some other work reason driving it.”

Well, that’s true enough.

If it wasn’t for the looming threat of the end of the world, he would have loved to do this sort of thing with her too. It wasn’t like he was against going on vacation and seeing a bit more of the world he now called home, it was purely a matter of timing. It felt insane to do in a time he thought he should have been focusing on his skills.

“It’s good to get a break while you can, Ben,” Sonya added. “Things worked out well for the first wave but after the second starts there’s no way the world will be relaxed enough to even consider this much leisure time. Enjoy it while you can.”

“And it’s not like it’s going to be a huge loss for your job progress either,” Thera chimed in. “If you’re getting that much passive experience, anything else you could be doing wasn’t going to make the biggest difference in the world.”

“That’s… true.”

Sonya was right about how much busier he could expect to be with the second and third waves, and Thera was right about his job. Originally, he’d been thinking of it too similarly to the master adventurer job because of the similarities in bonuses they both gave, but it had become clear how wrong he was when he checked his card in the morning and saw he’d already gained a couple levels.

While the adventurer job gained experience through both combat as well as through the types of experience party members would require for their own job, master of all was far more straightforward. It was a job that grew everything, and as a result gained experience from everything as well, including using his mind skills.

When looked at that way, the fact that he hadn’t completed it instantly the same way he had for his last mind job was surprising and spoke to just how much experience such a broad job required, even with everything his insane mental structure could create. When he looked at it from that perspective, it was unlikely that anything Ben would actively do would net him as much experience as he would gain from just passively thinking.

Of course, I’m sure that pumping out a few more legendary items would give me plenty of experience too, but as things stand I’ll still have this job finished in a couple months tops so I guess losing out on a tiny bit of experience isn’t the end of the world but-

His thoughts were cut off as Thera flicked his head, bringing him back to reality.

“No hyperfocusing on how to gain experience right now,” She said, seeing right through him. “Come on, this will be good for you. Even if you like it Ben, you can’t be spending every hour of the day trying to improve. The gods and Aunty are right. You’re going to burn yourself out if this keeps up, it’s better to take a break now while you can instead of waiting till you need one when there’s going to be a billion important things going on.”

“Huu, I know, it’s not like you guys are wrong so I won’t complain. As of today, I’m officially taking a break from carpeing that diem.”

I guess I have basically spent years at this point trying to min-max my existence. Turning everything off for a bit might be good for me.

“Good. So with that in mind,” She held out her hand, clearly waiting for something and not knowing what else to do, Ben took it in his own. “No, give me all of the bracelets you wear. This is a break, you’re not enchanting a hundred times a second.”

“...Can I at least keep one?”

“Ben-”

“Fine, fine,” He gave in, slipping them off and handing them all over. “But can you at least bring them, just in case anything comes up? And can I keep the deathstone and moribusial ones?”

“Fine.”

He only slept with those last two to help passively raise his mana and vitality so they weren’t the biggest deal, and even if they’d be uncomfortable for anyone else, he had long gotten used to them after wearing that sort of thing for years by that point. They were basically ignorable.

The sudden lack of enchanting couldn’t help but feel strange to him with all of his mythril bracelets gone. Casually making and breaking enchantments as he went about his day had become as natural as breathing to him at some point, making it practically feel like the same sort of passive experience he created just by thinking. He could already tell he was going to accidentally try to enchant on something that was no longer there at some point, but it would just be a couple weeks. Once everyone was happy and assured he wasn’t going to burn himself out he could get back to his regular work, he just needed to enjoy the vacation that had fallen into his lap.

“Okay then, should we head out?”

With breakfast finished and goodbyes said to Sonya, they made their way to the shop and gave the same to Falk before stepping through the gate to Thera’s old room in Anailia, and after stopping in only for a bit, both to talk to everyone there and to let Thera see both of her cousins for a little while, they walked through the city streets, making their way to the main gate network.

“So where to first?”

“I have an idea for tomorrow but today’s open for anything.”

“Wait, you actually made some plans?” Thera asked in surprise before teasing. “I guess you were looking forward to it more than you let on.”

“I’m not out to have a bad time just because I think there’s more important things to do. It will be fun. And anyway, since you’re with me that just means it’s even more important we enjoy ourselves so don’t worry, I have zero plans on being a downer.”

“Ha, good. In that case, what’s the plan?”

“Tomorrow Greed has a show, so long as he hasn’t changed his mind since we last saw him he should be keeping a couple seats open for up and it’s in a gate city so there’s no trouble getting there, I figured it would be fun.”

“Sounds like a plan, anything else?”

“The gods gave me some suggestions but we can talk about that later. For now, since I didn’t have anything for today, was there anywhere you wanted to go or see?”

“Hmm, nope. I’m super open so why don’t we just pick a random gate and see what we end up finding?”

“Sure, sounds like a plan to me then, let’s go.”

Their decision made, Ben took Thera’s hand as the two of them made their way into the gate network, and on a whim, picked the first one that looked interesting to walk through to begin their vacation.