Bratt was a level 2 Fighter and had mastered only a handful of abilities. Among the most important were Fighting Style and Weapon Mastery.
And both of those happened to overlap with Paladins and Rangers.
Anser's Fighting Style was Protection, while Bratt's was Interception. He could learn Bratt's Fighting Style, and he could also share his own with Bratt.
The same applied to Weapon Mastery. He could share his shortsword mastery with Bratt, or learn Bratt's warhammer and handaxe masteries, or even Captain Salian's shortbow mastery.
But this wasn't direct acquisition. It was more like an ability mapping.
The system first granted both parties the relevant knowledge framework and training methods. Then, through practice and gradual subconscious influence, the recipient could quickly master the shared ability.
The discovery left Anser exhilarated.
'Dice really does have this one flaw. A lot of Adventure Traits are frustratingly vague.'
Now that he had four class samples—Iris, Bratt, Finn, and Salian—covering Sorcerers, Fighters, and Rangers, there was far more material to study.
After a lengthy session of experimentation, he finally arrived at a conclusion that made his heart race:
Any ability that could be learned through study and training could be learned and shared, provided the recipient met the necessary ability score and class requirements.
The first major category was spells.
The prerequisite was possessing the appropriate spellcasting capability. Cantrips and ritual spells had relatively low requirements, while ordinary spells demanded much more.
For example, Iris could learn the 1st-level ritual spell Alarm, but she couldn't learn Mage Armor, because she wasn't a Wizard.
The second category was feats.
Salian was an older wood elf and was already proficient with shields, so he could learn Anser's feat, Shield Master.
But a feat like Elemental Adept was beyond him. Only spellcasters like Iris could learn something like that.
Because the lengthy and arduous training process was skipped, many feats might not grant their associated ability score increases. However, all the actual features would still be there.
The third category consisted of certain class abilities.
These likely included Fighting Styles, Weapon Masteries, combat maneuvers, and similar abilities. There weren't many of them, but they were highly transferable, making them accessible to many party members.
Beyond those, knowledge-based abilities such as languages and skills were even easier to share.
He selected Salian's Elvish and then closed his eyes, recalling everything he knew related to the language.
Fragments of familiar memories gradually surfaced from the depths of his mind, as though he had once studied the language long ago and merely forgotten it from lack of use.
'Maybe a few weeks would be enough for me to read and write Elvish fluently,' he estimated.
Skills such as History and Survival also improved quickly. Even when the other person's skill level was lower than his own, there was still something to gain.
After all, everyone has strengths and weaknesses.
Even within the same field, people specialized in different areas.
Take Finn, for example. He had spent years living in the wilderness and possessed a foundation in herbalism. That fell under Medicine, but it was also its own independent discipline.
And if herbalism had only modest value, what about alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, or astrology?
'These aren't teammates at all. They're nine personal tutors!'
Anser chuckled softly, finally realizing the true purpose of the Adventuring Party.
He was still far from being an all-rounder, but at least his toolkit was becoming broad enough that others would have a much harder time exploiting his weaknesses.
His advancement had been too rapid, leaving him with a serious lack of accumulated foundations:
His skill levels were low.
He had too few feats.
And his knowledge was lacking.
Even ordinary high-level adventurers, without counting scholarly Wizards, could spend decades accumulating a large collection of feats and Weapon Masteries. They became highly skilled combatants with versatile fighting styles and exceptionally high skill proficiencies.
A young gold dragon could already surpass him in many skills through inherited memories alone:
Perception +9.
Persuasion +9.
Stealth +6.
...
But the Adventuring Party could help him shore up those fundamentals, raise his baseline capabilities, and eliminate weaknesses.
The timing couldn't have been better.
Anser had one advantage that nobody else possessed:
He had multiclassed into numerous classes, his six ability scores were exceptionally high, and the range of skills he could learn from others was vast while the difficulty of learning them was low.
'I'll learn everything I don't already know first.'
He selected Salian's Extraordinary Talent feat, Bratt's handaxe Weapon Mastery, and Iris's Arcana skill in quick succession.
Only then did he discover that he could learn only one feat or class ability at a time. Skills and languages could be learned simultaneously, but the time required to fully master them would increase accordingly.
'That's still fine. I'll focus on shoring up my weaknesses first.'
After choosing abilities for himself, he selected one skill and one trait for each of the other party members as well.
Once that was done, he returned to Fort Jacqueline with Iris. Without even stopping for breakfast, he hurried alone to the Durlag Union and recruited the moon elf Kaleno into the Adventuring Party.
Kaleno had received an elite education, and ever since becoming the president's assistant, he had been a tremendous help to Anser. Logically and emotionally, he deserved one of the slots.
Anser encouraged him to train and engage in combat whenever appropriate but didn't explain too much, leaving him to fill in the blanks himself.
Next, he found Little Harold, the finance officer, and had him open the warehouses to transfer a portion of the supplies to Holrewen, easing the food shortage there.
From now on, he wouldn't need to handle such matters personally.
Bratt and Kaleno could manage everything themselves—one operating internally, the other externally—using the Party Storage to transport supplies.
At its current stage, the Party Storage had more than enough capacity. Leaving it unused would be a waste.
To make communication easier, he had a sudden idea.
He placed a bulletin board and twenty thousand gold pieces inside the party's extradimensional storage space. Party members could communicate through written messages and withdraw gold whenever necessary.
Unlike ordinary Bags of Holding, all movement of supplies within the Party Storage would be recorded in meticulous detail by the Adventure Log, eliminating concerns about embezzlement or people trying to play clever tricks.
After finishing those arrangements, he immediately teleported to White Stone Island and recruited Giant Tail into the Adventuring Party.
With that, the six party members effectively linked Fort Jacqueline, Holrewen, Durlag, and White Stone Island into a single network, allowing real-time communication and resource sharing.
'If I bring Osborn in as well...'
'I'm a genius. One move and I've brought the entire board to life. The only problem is that there are too few party slots. I wonder if leveling up will increase the limit?'
...
By the time Anser returned to Fort Jacqueline, it was nearly noon.
When Iris saw him, she opened the Party Storage and returned the notice explaining the establishment of the Adventuring Party and the usage rules of the storage space.
Then she crossed her arms and stared at him before teasingly saying, "I thought I was the most special one."
"You are the most special one."
Memories of the previous night's passion surfaced in Anser's mind, and he answered as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
"This adventuring party of yours is really something else," Iris said with a sigh.
Of course, she wasn't jealous of Bratt and the others.
If she had been the only member, she would have felt uneasy instead. The fact that it formed a team meant the cost wasn't too great.
"It's only just beginning. You'll understand in the future."
Anser spoke meaningfully.
His gaze swept across the sitting room. Neither Stoll nor Brunhilde was present.
"Stoll went to Durlag. Brunhilde said she wanted to take a look at the ruins in the Wood of Sharp Teeth."
Seeing his confusion, Iris volunteered the explanation.
"By herself?"
"Yes."
"She's got guts."
"Don't underestimate her because of one battle. She needs time to adapt to her dramatically fluctuating spellcasting abilities and find a combat style that suits her again."
"Fair enough."
Anser didn't know Brunhilde well enough to comment further.
He took out the maple leaf-shaped Traveler's Badge and gave it a slight shake.
"Since there hasn't been any news from the Rock of Bral, I'll make a trip to Traveler's Rest.
I made an agreement with the Magic Research Society last time, and I can also gather some recent intelligence while I'm there."
One reason for the trip was to sell his 2nd-level spells and make one final round of profit.
The other was to speak with Mage Jiandar of the Magic Research Society and learn about recent events.
Something as significant as a divine blessing descending upon the world was bound to cause enormous upheaval and trigger a chain reaction of consequences.
Durlag was isolated and remote.
They needed to prepare in advance.