Holy Crab...
Finn looked at Syl, who was just watching the two babies throw magic at awakened monsters like it was nothing with a calm smile.
"Are you not surprised?"
"No, I knew she was awakened as a mage the moment I saw her," she said. "She’s already in the charged state the moment she’s born, Finn. It’s quite interesting to see."
Charged Stage was the mage equivalent for warriors’ awakened stage.
"She’ll probably grow no less quickly than you," she said, an amused smile gracing her beautiful face.
"So you better train harder, otherwise she might catch up in a few years."
...
Finn was, indeed, charged up, so they planned another excursion to the extension the next day. He needed to check out the place anyway.
Speaking of which, he assigned either Durgan or Gideon to head there for at least a few days, every two weeks. This was to make sure they had a steady source of iron ores, as well as to make sure things there were decent.
Because the people there were inherently strong and had been used to getting special treatment, there were indeed a few conflicts.
There were even conflicting teams literally throwing people out. Fortunately, only staff could blacklist others, so the people thrown out would just have to head back in some other way.
He couldn’t exactly prohibit fighting per se, no matter how much he wanted, because that would discount the special features of the barrier.
He could only send the occasional staff there, and then blacklist those who just couldn’t be spoken with. It didn’t matter if they were a bit harsh. The first banned people in the extension would serve as examples instead.
Anyway, the next day, the couple headed out. Gideon came with them. The babies were watched over by Ranran, as well as whoever was assigned to the customers.
The babies were very cute, and the customers loved them, saying that their tiredness was always wiped out just by the sight of the kids.
"I never would have thought I’d see children in the danger zone, but it feels like my tiredness is gone," some said, and others agreed. Many of them didn’t even like children.
The three headed out and went their way through awakened mobs, ignoring or running away when they could, and just slicing them down when they were blocking the way.
Their levels no longer gain anything from monsters like these, so there was no point in dealing with them if there was any other choice.
They only fight when toughened-level monsters appear. Sylwen and Finn would usually fight together while Gideon watched the surroundings, making sure the threats nearby were manageable.
Syl’s level, for now, was much higher, and she didn’t have much to gain by helping him, but she said she was enjoying serving as his assistant.
There was something fun about stretching the body without worrying about danger. She had never done it before meeting him, in fact. Fighting always had deeper meanings and responsibilities before.
When there was more than one toughened monster, she’d create a freezing area that would trap the monsters for a few moments.
Finn would happily take them down as efficiently as possible as practice. It felt a bit cheating, but he just told himself that he’d grow strong enough to match her someday.
He’d get his share of the cores (which would be proportionally a lot now that he had help from Gideon and Syl) and also use this chance to master the skills he bought.
After all, after buying the skill, he would just have the know-how in his mind. Actually using it well —letting it be instinctive with his body—was a different matter altogether.
Having teammates like Gideon and Sylwen definitely allowed him to use his new skills with decent proficiency within a few days.
Finn also enjoyed watching her perform her spells a lot. She was even prettier when she did magic.
"You know a lot of spells," he couldn’t help but note when she did something she hadn’t done before, which was actually stepping on her ice shards, allowing her to float even if just a few feet off the ground.
They encountered annoying burrowing monsters, and she found them disgusting. The spell took huge amounts of mana though, so she barely used it.
"All children in the family have access to our library," she told him. "It’s just a matter of comprehension and hard work for us."
Finn nodded. He supposed it was normal.
"Wait, aren’t skill scrolls one-time use things?"
"The skill books in our Royal Library are not like skill scrolls. It is more of an instruction, rather vague, and could require months or not years of practice. Sometimes, even so, it would not be learned."
So it was the more traditional method of learning skills, including going under a teacher.
That said: How are skill scrolls formed, anyway?
While dealing with a small mob of toughened monsters, he couldn’t help but ask this.
"Skill scrolls can be formed by using an impressionist scroll," she said. "It’s another product by artefactors." she said. When there were only toughened monsters, neither Gideon nor Syl would make killing shots.
They could restrain or block the monsters, but the actual fights and kills would be Finn’s.
"It is very expensive and also a grueling process to the person who is trying to ’copy’ his skill inside.
"There are also a lot of requirements for the person, not only did they have to be a master of that skill, but their mana and health would be sucked out for a while, leaving them very vulnerable."
It was much like pushing oneself to near-death, and this wasn’t even the most intense skills. The intense skills would need to be done in places with extra regeneration rates, like temples and magic clinics. Most also had to drink slow-acting regeneration potions before starting the process.
She said this while she sent another cold snap in a direction, and Finn jumped up, just in time for it to miss him and hit the monster that came to bite him. Using his knowledge of the monsters’ weaknesses, he dealt with them with relative ease.
"That’s... interesting," Finn said, huffing a bit after a major sequence of attacks.
Knowing this place, he could imagine several people dying during the process. Not because the process was dangerous, but because the people around them could take advantage of their weakness.
"Indeed. Other than the fact that magic tools are expensive in their own right, this is also another reason why scrolls are so expensive, especially those that require special knowledge to learn."
Basic skills were cheaper because the person wouldn’t need to sacrifice so much, and they could do the process over again every couple of weeks, so the supply wasn’t too lacking. The cheapest scroll was still at least 10 gold though, so it could be said to be a lucrative business.
The two continued their highly effective teamwork like this, and whenever they got tired, they would rest together and eat from the same bread or meat wrap Finn prepared beforehand.
Anyway, other than the cores, experience, and quality time with Syl, he could be said to have learned a lot today.
Gideon: "..." Am I invincible?