Anomaly

„Do you think this little bit of talking has exhausted me already? You do know how these meetings normally go, you attend them regularly yourself afterall."

„I do know that my king, but you should also know that it would be quiet embarra.s.sing for me if it ever came out that i let you explain everything while i am just as qualified. Even though we are good friends you shouldn"t forget your position."

„Ah... I see, thats certainly the case, please continue.", king Joseph said, going back to his desk covered in doc.u.ments and sitting down. He looked a little bit like a little child that got scolded, despite looking the same age as the other.

„Well then, the first few things should be obvious as these are informations one can find out in different ways easily. So i will explain starting from the top. First would be the talents.

Most people, no matter the race as long as they are able to think, have at least one talent. There are very few who have a second talent and there are only a few legends about those with three or more. Actually talents, as well as t.i.tels, are G.o.d given blessings that make it possible for us to reach a higher level.

On one hand, the talents show us what profession is most suitable for us, magician, warrior, smith, carpenter, et cetera. There are many different professions and sometimes even those appear that either don"t exist in the place you are born or actually never existed before and are completely new. As an example there was once someone with the talent to become a dragonrider, until that person appeared it was always thought that dragons were one of the few untamable monster races.

Sadly, or actually obviously, ones talent doesn"t always coincidence with ones interests but that not something you can do anything about.

But, the actual function of talents is to help us grow, the skills related to the area of our talents receive a growth bonus. On the other hand skills outside of that area receive a certain restriction in their growth. That is because the G.o.ds can"t just give out power unconditionally, as much as they give, they have to take as well. That is also why it is so rare that one possesses two talents, because they would receive the full growth bonus on two different areas and still the same restrictions ob the others, only very few are considered worthy of this."

„Hmmm... Is it possible that ones talents change?", Aya asked.

„Yes, but very rarely. If it happens, than it is almost always after ones personality goes through a considerable change. One example would be a man whose wife got murdered, after he managed to catch the murderer, he started to torture him on a daily basis in his bas.e.m.e.nt. In the process the husband became devoid of all emotion and his talent changed to torturer. As i said, that happens only in rather extrem cases.

Actually, may i ask what your talents are? That way we can get a better picture of your future capabilities."

„I actually got two talents, [Leader] and [Magic-swordsman].", Cale answered promptly.

„Ohh, as expected of the person chosen by lady Arimas, to lead the heroes, those are both rare and great talents!", Eberhardt exclaimed.

„I"ve got two as well, [Spearman] and [Magician].", Loras said.

„Not [Magic-spearman]? Thats rather unusuall."

„[Shadow hunter]."

„Ah, i forgot this. There are cases like these. Normally a talent would only be granted the [magic] nomifier, but if an specific element is used that means that you are highly specialized in this element. These talents are usually much better than the normal [magic] version, at least two times better.", the cardinal explained.

„Mine is [Healer]."

„Im a [Protector]!", Aya said happily.

„I have never heard of that, i guess it"s something like a defensive warrior?"

„Isn"t it probably related the [protector] t.i.tle the G.o.ddess gave me? It says that my defense increases the more i have to protect!"

-Mine seems to be called [Profound mage].-

„[Magician] isn"t a rare talent, but i have never heard of a [Profound mage]... At least we know to train you in magic. I heard that some heroes can have rather unexplainable talents, good that it wasn"t all to bad until now. And you, sir Walker?"

Allan made a little troubled expression, but hid it before anyone could see and said:

„Scientist, someone who studies the laws if nature and puts them to use. And in this world that probably incorporates magic as well. Using my [craftsman] t.i.tle that lifts the restriction on all crafting related skills i should be able to create some interesting stuff."

„All crafting related skills? There has never been such a case before! That is something far greater than you probably realize!", king Joseph suddenly exclaimed.

„Mh? Why?", Allan asked in confusion.

„It"s actually something simple, there are many different crafts. For one, there is blacksmithing, alchemy, and enchanting, but in addition there are many different minor crafts. But there is a certainproblem when trying to combine these. As a person normally has only one talent, and only great prodigy"s two let"s not talk of two crafting related talents, there would be a need for two people to work together two combine two crafts.

There isn"t any problem if a blacksmith with a low skill level works together with an enchanter for example, that is actually rather common. But the problem starts when you reach higher levels of the crafts, as they start incorporating magic. That is were the problem starts. There are certain differences between an armor made with magic-smithing techniques and an armor that was enchanted afterwards. A magic-blacksmith can bring out the innate magic capabilities of a metall, making it stronger and creating effects like warding of intense heat, or giving of intense heat. That certainly are effects an enchanter can replicate as well, but while an enchantment has a fixed cost and effect, the innate capabilities of a metal can, more often than not, be strengthened by infusing mana into the metal, while it is still always active without using any mana at all.

But there is a problem if an enchanter were to try and enchant an magicaly smithed sword for example, as the mana isn"t the same as that of the blacksmith, the metall would try to ‚use" it. If the enchanter try"s now to forcefully change the flow of the mana, the metal would get hurt, and the enchantment not applied properly, making the metal instable and easy to brake, while also weakening the innate ability of the metal and the enchantment, in the end you have something that is worse than the original and and doesn"t even work reliably as the two magical effects interfere with each other.

In the end what i mean is simple, the magical crafting and enchanting would have to be done by the same person, but it is almost impossible to do because of the skill restrictions. There are only very few cases in history where two crafts got successfully combined on a high level of skill, those where either done by those with both talents, or by twins with the suitable talents and extremly similar mana, which is even rarer.

And you can learn and combine all crafts that exist! Do you understand now what i mean?"

„So you are saying that its pretty much up to me to find ways to optimally combine the different crafts? Sounds like a h.e.l.l lot of work. Well, in the end thats what i"m best at."

„You won"t have to do everything yourself, over the course of the years, quiet a few intelligent people made already their own a.s.sumptions and theories, it is after all one of the fields with the most potential, it"s just that there was never someone to try them out until now.

The biggest problem now is going to be to find you talented teachers in each field. That might end up looking rather suspicious..."

„Those things can still wait for a while, im still in the middle of explaining important things here.", Eberhardt interupted at that point.

„Next up should be... Right, t.i.tles!"