"Hm?" Iris stared blankly at Anser, her eyes flickering. "How can a talent be shared? Did you learn some kind of forbidden magic?"
"It's not forbidden magic. Don't worry." Anser shook a finger and carefully considered his wording. "It mainly raises your talent ceiling, but you'll still need to train and fight on your own."
"Fight?" Iris immediately caught the key word.
"Right. Combat is better at bringing out a person's potential." Anser gave a vague explanation.
The corner of Iris's lips curled upward as though she had thought of something. She didn't ask any more questions and simply blinked.
"I'm in."
The moment she finished speaking, Anser immediately received a notification from the die:
[Iris Jacqueline has applied to join the Adventuring Party. Accept?]
'Accept!'
A sense of realization washed over Iris. She raised her right hand and saw the silhouette of a six-winged creature appear on the back of it. The lines were simple, yet vividly lifelike, radiating obscure magical fluctuations.
A moment later, a nearly imperceptible current ran through her entire body and vanished in an instant. Had she not been paying close attention, she might have thought it was her imagination.
"That's it?" she asked in confusion.
"That's it. How does it feel?" Anser communicated through Telepathy.
"Doesn't feel like anything." Iris responded through the mental link just as naturally. One eyebrow arched. "I learned Telepathy?"
"It only works between party members, and the maximum range is one mile." Anser explained.
Iris sat up and actively activated the Adventuring Party mark. A dark blue void appeared before her palm.
At the same time, her mind perceived a vast space, completely empty.
"So this is the Party Storage?"
"Yep."
Anser replied while sinking his consciousness into his mind. He clicked the Adventuring Party icon on the die, and a Character Sheet bearing Iris's name popped up.
Opening it revealed a waterfall of data far longer than Nornoth's.
Level: 16
Experience: 211,255 / 225,000
'Not far off at all.'
He wasn't surprised.
If the Weave hadn't run into trouble, someone with Iris's talent would have naturally advanced into the ranks of peak-tier professionals within a few years.
Her stats were nowhere near Anser's. Her highest attribute was Charisma, which had reached the mortal limit of 20. Her second-highest attribute was Intelligence at 16, enough to qualify as a Wizard.
She only possessed four Metamagic options, but her Feats were quite good, and her skills surpassed Anser's. As expected of an elite who had received a Wizard's education since childhood.
Her biggest weakness was probably her spells. She only knew two or three spells of each level, focused mainly on Enchantment and Evocation. Most of them were grayed out and currently unusable.
Anser tapped the 4th-level spell Confusion, and the die immediately displayed two notifications:
[Innate Magic. Cannot be learned.]
[Spend 2,300 experience points to help member Iris master this Innate Magic?]
'I knew this Adventure Trait wasn't that simple!'
The corner of his mouth twitched into a smile.
If Innate Magic couldn't be learned, then that meant non-innate spells could be learned.
Realizing this, he became even more determined to recruit Brunhilde into the party. This Chosen of Azuth casually cast 7th-level spells. She had to know a huge number of spells—more than enough for him to secretly learn from for quite a while.
Not only could he learn them himself, but he could also help party members develop their Innate Magic. By that logic, ordinary combat skills and spells should be transferable as well.
"What are you smiling about?" Iris saw the strange grin on his face and poked him in the forehead with a slender finger.
"If I could restore part of your spellcasting ability right now, which spell would you want back first?" Anser asked.
"5th-level Synaptic Static."
Iris answered without hesitation. That was her signature spell.
Anser immediately selected Synaptic Static.
[Spend 4,800 experience points to help member Iris master this Innate Magic?]
'Confirm!'
[Insufficient experience]
"Uh..." Anser gave an awkward laugh. "Looks like you'll need to keep working at it for a while longer."
He hadn't expected that Iris's experience couldn't be used at all. Although she appeared to have accumulated far more than enough experience for Level 15, the effects of all that training had already been permanently integrated into her body. If she wanted to level up, she would have to earn additional experience.
In other words, party members could only accumulate usable experience after obtaining a Character Sheet.
At that, Iris rolled her eyes.
"Hmph. Got my hopes up for nothing."
"I'll go find Bratt and do some more research."
With that, Anser took a single step forward and vanished on the spot.
Only after reaching the fourth floor did he realize it was the middle of the night and everyone was fast asleep.
Left with no other choice, he returned to the top floor and tumbled onto the bed with Iris in his arms.
...
By the time daylight fully illuminated the skies above Holrewen, thin columns of cooking smoke were already rising across the island.
With more than three hundred additional residents, the once-quiet island had gained a bit of life and become noticeably livelier.
Outside the Black Tower, dozens of villagers stood in line waiting at the entrance. Those farther back in the queue looked anxious, occasionally craning their necks out of line to sneak a glance inside the hall.
Inside the hall, Bratt stood to one side, watching the flour in the sack disappear at an alarming rate. His brow furrowed deeply.
"Hey, young man, how's life as a governor?" First Mate Colin came down the stairs holding half a loaf of bread. He tore it into small pieces and fed them to Guli perched on his shoulder.
The owl looked half asleep and only deigned to take a bite now and then. It didn't like bread—especially whole wheat bread.
"This is only a few hundred people. It'll get interesting once there are a few thousand."
Bratt maintained a calm facade.
In reality, he hadn't slept well for days. Being suddenly responsible for the food, clothing, and housing of so many people was an enormous burden.
Villagers had to pay for grain. Those without money had their purchases recorded as debt. But this isolated extradimensional space couldn't sustain itself. Whether they had money or not made little difference.
If Anser disappeared for ten days or half a month, they would all starve.
Seeing that Bratt was still stubbornly putting on a brave face, Colin was about to tease him when his vision blurred.
A figure appeared out of thin air in the middle of the hall.
"It's finally starting to feel lived in."
Anser nodded in satisfaction.
"Anser, you're finally here. We're running low on grain, and we're almost out of meat too."
As though afraid Anser might disappear again, Bratt immediately stepped forward and grabbed his arm.
"Relax. I come back almost every day. I just haven't been announcing it." Anser patted his shoulder reassuringly. "I've already made preparations. I'll have supplies brought in shortly."
The matter had been handled all along by the merchant caravan from Fort Jacqueline. They still owed Anser a substantial amount of money, so they had been purchasing extra supplies in advance to avoid problems if prices surged later.
Goods were arriving at the Union warehouse on a steady basis, mostly durable tools and long-lasting food supplies.
"That's a relief."
Bratt finally let out a sigh of relief.
More than three hundred kobolds and over four hundred humans meant feeding everyone every day was a major headache. Fortunately, they hadn't made excessive promises during recruitment. Otherwise, they truly wouldn't have been able to afford supporting everyone.
After reassuring Bratt, Anser gathered Bratt, Finn, and Salian together. He explained the Adventuring Party system and then invited all of them into the party.
Bratt and Finn were both low-level and already on the verge of leveling up.
And he discovered something else as well.
It wasn't just spells that could be learned from other members.
Some skills could be secretly learned too.
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