Morgana sat Karl down at an empty table in the hospital cafeteria, and took out her notebook, which he couldn’t help but notice was just as covered in drawings as her body.
“Alright, we will start with the basics, your future goals, growth path, anything that might not have been passed on to me by the Colonel or by Lieutenant Rita.” She began.
“It’s still odd to hear Lieutenant in front of her name. She was always Sergeant Rita, and she was promoted after we were separated. But I think most of it should be in the notes. But I would like to add that I got this shiny sword that steals life essence from things I kill, and that seems to have a rather noticeable effect on the beasts’ growth rate.
Once I got it, they started growing to full adulthood in a rather remarkably short time period. The only exception is Remi, who is still in her early growth phase, when the others would have been fully grown by now.”
Morgana nodded. “That’s just because she’s a Spirit Snake. They normally take decades to be fully grown, not just a few years like the spider or Cerro. So, it’s nothing to worry about if Remi’s journey to adulthood is slower than the others. She also has an evolution ahead of her, but from what I can tell, she is developing in the giant spirit snake direction. Most likely in the Storm Snake pattern.”
“Storm Snake?” Karl asked.
“It’s a name that the researchers have given to Spirit Snakes whose abilities favour weather manipulation. Blizzard, Lightning, and so on. Then there are the Blood Snakes, who favour blood magic or the Giant Spirit Pythons, but she’s clearly not one of them, as she has venomous fangs.” Morgana elaborated.
“That makes sense. I thought you were saying that there were even more evolutionary options available to her than I had realized. There is a chance she will grow into an actual Naga Shaman, but somehow that seems unlikely. When she was just born, she used her water manipulation to form arms, but I haven’t seen her do it since.”
“Oh, what caused her to do that?” Morgana asked.
“A celebratory gesture, marking the fact that she had safely and successfully made it into the world.” Karl elaborated, while the Witch Doctor nodded in understanding.
“Naga aren’t as bad as the Lamia, who tend to kill their clutch mates, but they don’t tend to have any sympathy for them if resources are limited.
But we can get to Remi’s development later. What were your plans for after graduation? What sort of career would you like to get into? The school is a bit lost as to what sort of path you should be on. They first thought that you should be trained to join the ranks of politicians and bureaucrats, but you have developed a habit of telling those sorts of people off at every chance you get, so I believe you might be unsuited to the task.
Did you want to take up some sort of trade? Perhaps become a business mogul? What is the dream future for Karl?” “They’re determined to set a career path for me, are they?” Karl sighed.
“It’s essential to your training. You didn’t think that you could skim through four years at the Academy without taking a single actual class, did you? The first year is more focused on your skills to determine potential without the extra education getting in the way, but we can’t neglect your future.”
Karl chuckled at her earnest determination to be a good teacher, but he really had no ambitions involving business or politics at all. If it was left up to him, he would work just enough for a luxury life and spend the rest of his time focusing on the growth of his partners.
Maybe being a librarian or teacher would suit him? He had an ability for making skill books, so it would benefit him to know as many skills as he could. That also sounded like it would give him plenty of opportunities to be in the wilderness, looking for new skills.
Karl gestured toward the book in her hands and smiled. “Actually, I have a talent for learning and teaching skills. Perhaps I could do a job along those lines? Searching for new skills and turning them into skill books to be distributed by the Blue Dragon Clerics after they’ve been duplicated.”
“You want to be a treasure hunter, or perhaps a teacher? That’s a bit of a dichotomy, but I can see that the focus is more skills for your team. Do you get access to all those skills directly?” She asked.
Karl shook his head. “I get access to racial skills of the beasts, but not their entire repertoire. For example, I have the effect of the [Offensive Adaptation] skill active on me, but I can’t create Golems on my own.
I have studied it enough times that I might be able to make the Golem book with Rae’s help, but I still can’t cast it. I suspect that I wouldn’t be able to use the book I created either.”
“What an interesting skill. Can it just be any skill that your beasts know?” She replied.
Karl shook his head. “No, I have to have a pretty solid understanding of how and why it works before I can create the book, even with their help. If it’s a new skill, there is no chance. But [Spear] is a pretty simple one, and similar in function to [Rend] and it creates a solid object, like the bow that I use. I know how both those things work, and with Rae’s help I managed to make the book for both of the Nature Priests.”
Morgana smiled. “You know how to use [Chain Lightning], correct? What do you think that the chance is that you could make that into a book that lightning magic users could use? Lightning Bolt is a common book, but [Chain Lightning] is not. The odds are that I wouldn’t be able to use it, as that isn’t my specialty as a Witch Doctor, I’m a Hex type, not an Elemental Shaman. But if we could give the book to the Cathedral Library, they would give you a nice little commission off each copy sold, the same as they do for the [Refreshing Lightning] barrier, but hopefully with a wider target audience.”
[Do Flaming Body too. More Fire Magic users to offset the evil ice giants.] Hawk insisted.
“I think that it should be possible, and I would like to do one other book as well. The more skills that are available to future Elites, the better.” Karl agreed.
Morgana gave him an odd look. “When you say it like that, without any greed in your tone, it just sounds strange.”
Karl laughed. “Hawk wants me to teach everyone [Flaming Body] as a form of vengeance against the Frost Giants, and cold in general. I strongly suspect that he learned the skill entirely to spite the water element.”
“Is that how it works?” Morgana asked, taking notes.
“Probably not, but nobody ever told Hawk that, and even if it shouldn’t be possible, it didn’t seem to stop him. He gained a number of fire skills from resources that we used for growth, but he has evolved those skills and perfected the usage of them on his own.
For example, the flaming attacks I use, and the fireballs that he throws aren’t actually a separate skill. That’s just [Flaming Body] formed in different ways. Even the cigarette lighter for Doug is the same skill.” Karl explained.
“You know, if someone taught that skill to the nature priests, they would be unstoppable, a true menace to society. Hiding their lighters is the only way to get some of them to work.” The Witch doctor laughed, and Karl noticed that the whites of her eyes went completely black when she was amused. It was kind of freaky, and he wondered if it happened for all emotions, or if it was different. “Well, if you want to learn and teach more skills, and you have a skill that makes inscription training unnecessary, then I think that we can work out a path for you. I am thinking that it will be cartography and history, with an emphasis on ancient architecture, so that you know the signs that there might be an undisturbed ruin nearby, and what era it might be from.
Then it would just be a few extra courses in public speaking, for when you need to introduce a new find to the world. Some things that you find when you’re searching for the rare and exotic won’t be what you might have expected, but they can make big news, and that means being on television, but unable to throw Thor at them to distract the reporters.”
So, she had seen his first time being part of a news broadcast. Karl was quite proud of that performance, for a first attempt at doing a public interview.