'Interesting…'
Zarek sat in the feeling of the new Profession for a while before he stepped forward and grabbed one of the fallen crossbow-shields from the ground.
He cast Harmonic Recall on it—first on the overall item, and then down to its individual pieces.
—
[Profession {E Class Gnome Craftsman} has shown great progress]
[Gnome Craftsman: F-]
[Gnome Craftsman: F]
…
[Gnome Craftsman: E+]
—
In three minutes, Zarek had progressed the Profession to the limit, streams of information coming to him in waves. The bits and pieces missing from the initial information infusion were filled in—and then some.
'This synergy really isn't bad…'
He stood in silence for a moment and then closed his eyes.
'Temp Duplicate…'
There was a rush of Godsfall out of his body and he felt himself being quickly drained. But interestingly enough, unlike with the shield that drained him completely, this only took up about 20% of his reserves.
Of course, he was also far stronger now than back then, but not enough for such an enormous difference—especially since the shield was a weaker item than these crossbow-shields.
Without an Appraiser or Appraisal Skill, it was hard to tell exactly, but the parrying shield was probably just on the cusp of an E-Grade item, though Zarek wouldn't be surprised if it was just a very good F-Grade item.
By comparison, this crossbow-shield—at least the one the BOSS of his Godsfall Tear used—was approaching elite territory within E-Grade items. One was definitely far harder to recreate than the other, but it took up maybe a third of the previously required energy.
'I see… a blueprint really does make things very different.'
In one path, Zarek was essentially relying on the system to fill in the gaps in his understanding. While he could use Harmonic Recall to grasp the intricacies of an item, it was somewhat like a layman going back in time to experience a war sequence.
Would the layman be able to understand as much about what they saw as a historian would? Would they understand why the battle was happening? What significance a victory in it held? What cascading aftereffects would come?
'Do I really have to become a craftsman?'
Zarek shook his head, not liking the idea. He had never wasted any time on secondary professions in his previous lives because they diverted his attention too much.
He had seen how those strong in secondary professions were treated. Suki should have been the main character in his own story, but he had to remain attached to Jiade for a reason. The two needed one another.
What Zarek was thinking sounded ridiculous. He had spent three lives honing his combat effectiveness and skills. Why couldn't he spend one on another path?
But setting aside the fact he didn't like wasting time on external matters like this, Zarek felt that in the path of combat, there was no such thing as reaching the end.
He still felt like there was so much he needed to improve, and he had yet to knock all the dust off of him and return to his truest peak.
He hadn't even finished synergizing his Core Stats to their highest point yet.
But if his original path was cut off from him…
Zarek felt a palm on his forearm. He hadn't even paid attention to the crossbow-shield he had just successfully formed.
"That's amazing, Zarek. You just popped it up out of thin air. It looks exactly the same."
He could tell by the tone in Priya's voice that she was trying to comfort him. There was something in his tone and actions that made it clear that he was not happy right now.
"It's alright. It's weaker than the original by a substantial margin. As far as I can tell, that blow you sent as a final attack would crack this shield, but the original wasn't harmed. Plus, this one can probably only fire about ten bolts before the mechanism gives out."
"Yeah, but you can fix it."
Zarek froze, his gaze slowly panning over to Priya as though he were seeing her for the first time.
"Say that again. Slowly." Zarek looked at her intensely.
Priya blinked, and then blushed. Usually when Zarek used those words, he was referring to something completely different.
"Be serious, Zarek!"
"I am. Really, repeat that."
Priya looked a bit confused now. "… I said… you can just fix it."
"Why do you say that?"
Zarek tossed the crossbow-shield to the side, lightly grabbing both of her shoulders.
"… Isn't it obvious?"
This time, it was Zarek's turn to blink.
No. No, it wasn't obvious.
The creation process wasn't a multi-step one. It was almost like a stamp into reality. He couldn't just fix any cracks or imperfections that might appear—he would have to start from scratch.
Or so he thought.
"Explain." Zarek said.
"… I don't know… I don't get what you're trying to get at?" Priya looked at Zarek in confusion.
"Do your best."
"I mean… it's just Godsfall rearranging itself in a unique way. I can feel like it's communicating with something to form itself? The Godsfall you use to create it in the first place can just be communicated with again."
Zarek let go of Priya's shoulders and began to pace back and forth, rubbing a hand through his hair.
He could never sense something like that, let alone execute on it. Only Priya could, but given the perfect synergy between Priya's natural Talents, it didn't make sense for him to try to think of a way to pass the Talents along to her either.
Theoretically, if he could get his hands on Atom Link, he might be able to sense the changes in energy down to a micro enough level that he would be able to understand what Priya was saying—but he didn't want to rely on that possibility too much given how that ship may very well have sailed.
But what if he used his last Talent on something that would bolster his Intelligence considerably. Would that make it worth it?
Zarek recalled that of the Godsfall Tears they had to go through, there was one like that… it was just that that Godsfall Tear was very far from a "useless" Talent, and it would probably trigger a bloody war over it—one of the wars that would reshape this city completely.
Zarek stopped pacing. "Let's do it."