Assimilate All Talents

Lazuli took a moment to consider how to answer and said, “When I realized I had to go up against undead, I didn’t know where to start. But in one of the books I found in the library, I read that an undead’s bones and skin lack certain elements, making them weaker to acids. It's not a huge weakness, normal acids only work about 20% faster, but with magic acids, the effect was at least twice as strong! Knowing this, I remembered one of my spells had slightly acidic properties, so I modified it to greatly enhance its acidity. With that, I quickly made a way to fight the undead.”

Sol nodded; this was in line with what he expected. “If you already had a way to fight them, why did you create a completely new spell? Wasn’t that risky?”

He wanted to understand the reasoning behind her taking such a risk to develop a new spell in just a week. It was undeniably impressive, but it was also incredibly dangerous. If she’d gotten the spell wrong or messed up during the chant, it could have killed Aron outright. Even though it succeeded, the spell had left his body in a wrecked state. For a berserk spell, the downsides were too extreme, even for the power it provided. It only worked during the test because she had Nataly to heal Aron and three B-Rankers who could step in at a moment’s notice. The spell needed a lot of fine tuning before it could be realistically used in battle.

Lazuli didn’t disagree and explained, “At first, I was going to focus on making the modified spell better, lowering the mana cost and increasing its effects, but then I realized something. Right now, we’re fighting undead, but what if we encounter something resistant to both poisons and acids? What do I do then?”

“You mean like golems?”

Lazuli nodded. “Golems, gargoyles, elementals, there are many enemies where my magic would be useless. I knew this even when I was a regular adventurer with Lapis, you know... before I died. The reason I died in the first place was because I didn’t have a better spell for the situation.”

Sol kept a serious expression as she recounted her death. She had died when her own poison was blown back at her by a wind blast from a large avian beast. Most of her poison spells were projectile based, giving her little variety, and she often found herself in situations where her magic was either ineffective or poorly suited for the enemy.

“So, I wanted something more. After reflecting on everything I’ve learned, I found it.”

“The buff magic you cast on Aron?” Sol asked.

“Yes. It’s something I read about when I was young. It’s said that Ophis could inflict all kinds of poisons, including one that made his enemies go berserk and fight each other. I thought if I could replicate that berserk effect, I could use it on my allies to give them beneficial effects when fighting enemies immune to poison. I succeeded, but because it’s still a poison, it left Aron injured afterward.”

Lazuli then dove into a more in depth explanation of how the spell worked, from mana pathways to the specific components of the chants she used, including a lot of theoretical jargon that flew over Sol’s head. Sol only knew basic spell theory, and all his spells were ones he had siphoned from others. If he had to create a new spell from scratch, he knew he would fail. Still, he didn’t ask her to clarify where he got lost, not wanting to appear like a novice in magic when he was known as a water mage. His captain rank helped a lot here. He maintained an aloof expression, nodding as if he already understood her discoveries like some wise sage and approved of her progress.

“...So when I inverted the mana formation, it didn’t reverse the spell but created an entirely new effect. But of course, you already knew that…”

Lazuli’s words trailed off as his silence made her feel like she should have known these things already. Sol internally panicked as it seemed his acting was too effective and quickly shook his head.

“Your mistaken, I didn’t know those intricacies of poison magic. But we share the commonalities of controlling mana, so I understand some of it. You’re expanding your capabilities and learning a lot now that you’ve found a path to follow. In time, you’ll perfect that spell and create many more, so what happened before will never happen again.”

His response filled with a lot of generic rhetoric seemed to work, as Lazuli smiled and nodded. “Yeah! I promise I'll at least become as useful as my sister!”

Sol mentally celebrated and decided to end the conversation on a positive note before he made another mistake.

“Well, once again, congratulations on passing. Welcome to the squad. Normally, you’d go through a training period, but we have a mission tomorrow. Would you like to come along and get some on the job training?”

“Of course!” Lazuli agreed eagerly. She didn’t want to be left behind while her sister and new friends embarked on a new mission.

Sol smiled warmly. “Great. Get some rest, we leave early. There are five rooms available, so just pick whichever one you prefer.”

Their squad quarters had eleven private rooms, including the captain’s quarters, and the other five knights had already chosen theirs. Each of the rooms reflected the personalities of their occupants.

Duncan’s room was filled with mementos from his life, like his very first shield and pictures of his old squads. Rex’s room was full of trinkets from his travels, making it a fusion of cultures from across the kingdom and neighboring nations. Nataly’s room was filled with books and plants she was cultivating, breeding them into stronger variants. Aron’s room, on the other hand, was a mess, with nothing in its proper place. Lapis’ room was the only one that looked untouched, as she spent most of her time outside of it, using it only for sleeping.

Unsurprisingly, Lazuli chose the room next to Lapis’. After placing a few of her belongings and getting a feel for her new space, she left to visit Lapis’ room, eager to catch up on everything she had missed over the past year.