BXBX NOVEL Vol. 7 - Chapter 387 - Thomas' Talent Change
The development of Heavy User Island was progressing nicely. Roads were laid connecting all the cities, and people were starting to interact across them. It had not even been half a year since they started living there, but some farms were already starting their second harvest. Thanks to the elves and dark elves\' power with spirits of earth and trees, the plants on the fields grew much faster. If they took no breaks, the fields could produce up to three harvests in a year. While the island was small, it seemed possible to become self-sustaining by working the fields.
Allen\'s Army\'s magic engineers had also completed the magic devices to communicate with the ground, so now anyone in the world could contact them.
The quality of life in the cities had improved greatly thanks to the magic devices obtained by Allen\'s party after hunting Iron Golems and Gordino.
Usually the party would split into two and hunt 600 Iron Golems in a day, though there were some days when they would take breaks too. Allen had meetings with the army sometimes, or he would go check how the cities were doing, or his friends would need a breather too. Today they were all taking a break from hunting too.
Allen was together with Cecile, at the end of the Talent Change Dungeon where Talent Changes were conducted. The three assignments had been cleared, and those eligible could undergo a Talent Change there.
"Thomas should be able to get a Talent too now, right?"
"Yes, I guess."
"What is it, Thomas? Try to cheer up a little!"
Thomas and Princess Leirana were there too. Some of Leirana\'s friends and servants came along as well. Leirana held a halberd on her shoulders as she happily spoke to Thomas.
Allen had been helping them level up, and after many months Thomas finally reached Level 60.
"So now I\'ll have a Talent too…"
His sister Cecile had been born a Mage. His late older brother Mihai was born a Swordsman.
He was the middle brother, and had always felt a certain envy for his siblings. Leirana was telling him to cheer up, but there were so many emotions swirling in his mind that he was unsure of what to do. He struggled to think of what to do, but at least he knew for certain that Leirana\'s joy was genuine.
\'Now, please choose which role suits you best, frontliner, rear guard, or halfback.\'
The cube device reacted to Thomas.
"Right, Allen mentioned this. I want to become a Priest."
Allen had explained the specifics of Talent Changes to Leirana. She had come to terms with the facts that specific Talents could not be chosen. One could only specify a broad type of Talents, and the specific one would be chosen at random from those that fit the criteria.
\'I\'m truly sorry, you can\'t choose a specific Talent like that.\'
"Well, whatever. Let\'s just hope he gets that talent then."
Leirana fought with axes and halberds, so she wanted Thomas to be her healer.
(Let\'s see if he gets that Talents then.)
Almost all the mercenaries in Peromus\' Security Corps had Talents, though there were a handful who did not. Raven and Rita had been there since the start, and there were some other members who had been there for a long time even though they had no Talents.
Quite some time had passed since Allen founded his army, and now everyone in both the army and the Security Corps had undergone their Talent Changes. But no one had been able to choose exactly what Talent they got.
"Umm Allen? I guess I should pick rear guard then?"
"Yes, if you pick rear guard you have a chance at becoming a Priest."
Allen answered Thomas\' question.
"Okay, I pick rear guard then."
\'Understood. Your choice is rear guard then. Please take this and throw it higher than me.\'
Thomas received what looked like a twenty sided dice.
(So I guess rolling the dice will decide the outcome.)
Each of the 20 sides of the dice had a different Talent written on it. Thomas would have to throw it, and he would obtain whichever Talent he rolled.
Allen had accompanied others when they obtained their first Talent, so he understood that system. It was always done with chance, sometimes with dice, other times through a lottery, or sometimes a roulette.
One of the faces of the 20-sided dice had Priest written on it, and there were two sides which were empty. Apparently if one of those two came out, one could freely choose their Talent.
The chances of Thomas becoming a Priest were 3 in 20, and Thomas could feel a lot of pressure from Leirana as he threw the dice high into the air.
(I wonder what he\'ll get, I wonder what he\'ll get.)
Allen replayed a certain chime he had memorized from his past life in his mind. A moment later the dice landed on the ground, bounced a few times, and finally showed the result.
"Huh…what\'s this?! Musician?! Redo it Thomas!!"
"Eek?! I\'m sorry!!"
Thomas had rolled the [Musician] Talent.
Leirana held Thomas in a cobra twist because he had not rolled Priest. Allen watched them feeling like she was being exceedingly unreasonable.
Cecile just watched them silently. Allen was really hoping she could realize that violence was never the answer, and that she would stop hitting Allen for no reason too.
"Allen, what is the Musician Talent?"
Cecile looked away from her older brother who was being held in a deadlock, and asked Allen about that [Musician] 1 Star Talent she was seeing for the first time.
"A Musician basically stands back and uses musical instruments to cast buffs and enhance the stats of those fighting. It\'s similar to a Bard, except that those lean more on singing."
Thomas got a support Talent Allen had been trying to find for a while. There were a few Talents that Allen was looking for. Including a supportive one to cast buffs on allies.
Sophie could already do that with her spirits, but Allen still wanted a different Talent, so that their buffs could stack up and become more efficient. He had already noticed that in the S Rank Dungeon, but buffs from different Talents could stack on top of each other, so the larger the Talent variety, the bigger the buffs.
"I guess it\'s similar to Lepe then?"
Allen and Cecile still remembered Lepe, one of the Ten Heroic Beasts who had helped them go through the S Rank Dungeon the first time.
"Yes, something like that. And I guess Thomas is a Musician now then."
(I guess Thomas is really walking down the path of a noble turned to music. It wasn\'t my fault this happened though.)
Thomas had obtained a Talent that allowed him to play music to invigorate his friends. Allen knew that nobles turning to music was a common cliche, but he tried to wash his hands from the matter.
Now that Thomas had a Talent, it was possible for him to undergo another Talent Change. Allen had to make sure that his Talent Level and all his Skill Levels had reached their max before that happened though.
"...Oh well, guess that\'s it. Either way, you have a Talent now, so a celebration is in order."
Saying that, Leirana turned to look at Allen.
(Hm? I guess she\'s over that already, she really seems more mature than I though.)
"I\'m truly sorry. I\'d absolutely love to join you, Princess Leirana, but I have other business to attend to after this…"
"I see! That\'s not your fault then. We\'ll just celebrate ourselves."
Leirana had been looking at Allen as if hinting at something, so Allen decided to rescind his seat at the celebration. He felt like she wanted to celebrate with Thomas alone.
Cecile glared at her brother Thomas, as if saying "Don\'t even think of doing anything weird." Thomas just nodded submissively.
They were clearly brother and sister, they could communicate without needing to say a word. After that, Allen left the Talent Change Dungeon and the Academy City together with Cecile.
"We\'re back."
"Allen! That was fast!!"
The general renewal of the two city blocks near the S Rank Dungeon Allen bought for his base was complete as well. Once the work on Heavy User Island was complete, he focused the construction of the bases to make Allen\'s Army\'s work easier.
Allen\'s Army spent nearly every day in various dungeons, so he felt like the base needed to be good enough to let them relax and have a change of scenery. Allen himself did not mind spending his entire life inside a dungeon if needed, but that did not apply to everyone.
Having various buildings dotted around the lots of land would be inefficient, so Allen had torn down all the old buildings, populating the two blocks with just one large building in each. The center of them could be used as a training arena as well.
Kurena and Dogora would train whenever they had a day off. They would leave right after eating breakfast, gorge on as much food as they could for lunch, and then continue training until late at night. Kurena seemed happy that Dogora had finally overtaken her stats. She essentially did not have to worry about Dogora anymore. Meanwhile Dogora\'s Level kept rising, having reached Level 95 recently.
Dogora felt like he needed a lot more practice with his twin battleaxes. The Iron Golems and Gordino had incredibly large bodies, making them an easy target even with sloppy movements. He really needed to polish his movements to deal with an enemy like Basque, learning how to dodge swift attacks, counterattacks, and the proper form to hold his weapons.
To gain the type of experience that was not expressed as numbers in his stats, he would spar with Kurena and other soldiers during his free days.
"Hey Shea. Trying to learn something too?"
Allen saw Shea near the entrance, watching those sparring in a daze.
"Hm? Ah, yeah. It\'s almost lunch so I was just waiting for them."
It was almost lunch time, so she was there to call them to eat. But they were still engrossed in their training, and she felt it was worth to watch and learn from them.
Allen then went to tell Kurena and Dogora they were going to get lunch, before heading to the dining hall while Kurena ran after them.
They entered the dining hall, which was filled with people from Heavy User Island, who were happily chatting with each other while eating. While their homes were on the island, the bases on the surface were like a second home for them.
Allen felt it was part of his job to make sure that lifestyle was comfortable for everyone. When the army was first built up, he put a lot of effort into giving them a good home.
By now, Allen had already spent more than a hundred million gold coins in the army. All his expenses and investments to get the army going had cost more than a hundred million gold coins. He was starting to think it was time to send them to battle soon.
As the mayor of Heavy User Island, Peromus had also offered work openings in the bases to the townsfolk.
He offered triple the average wages for such positions, so there had been an onrush of applications. Thanks to that they had plenty of people to choose from, and they picked those with prior experience cooking and such.
Allen\'s group sat down at a corner of the bustling dining hall.
The dining hall had been Allen\'s idea as well, he felt that having lunch together was another way to bond with each other. He first consulted with Sophie to hear what she thought of the idea, also suggesting that all highest ranks of the army, himself included, ate together whenever possible too. Allen felt like eating together like that was the obvious thing to do.
They sat down, and Kurena began chomping down on meat soon after. The other soldiers used to pull back when they saw that at first, but lately they had gotten used to it.
"Hm? Lud is still talking with Albahar?"
"It seems so, they\'ve been talking for a while now."
Lud had told them before that Albahar had already started discussing who the next Beast King would be. The candidates were Prince Bek, Prince Zew, and Princess Shea. The discussion had been ongoing for a while, and Lud was using the guild\'s communications device to talk with Albahar about it.
Allen thought a decision might have been reached, but Lud was taking unusually long. If the decision had been made, Lud would have rushed back to the dining hall to tell them, but he was not back yet. The news from Albahar was also the reason why Allen did not accompany Thomas and Princess Leirana to celebrate.
Some time later, Luck, another member of Allen\'s party, entered the dining hall.
"Oh?! But it\'s lunchtime already. I\'m starvinggggg."
"Lord Lucktod, you still haven\'t finished everything you promised you\'d do this morning."
"I want lunch first," said Luck as he entered the dining hall, a dark elf entrusted as his lecturer and caretaker rushing after him while trying to convince Luck of something. They were always like that, Luck skipping on his studies, and his teacher desperately rushing after him trying to reel him back to the books.
"I know, I\'ll do it later," answered Luck, reaching the table Allen sat at.
Allen turned to look at him, who approached from the side where Cecile was sitting too.
And then it happened. As Luck walked behind Cecile, he somehow flipped her skirt without any needless movements. His movements looked so natural that everyone was left in shock.
(Interesting, she\'s wearing pumpkin pants.)
"...?! I-I\'ll kill you! You snotty pervert!!"
It was like time froze for a moment as Cecile slowly raised her fist and clenched it with incredible force. When time finally seemed to flow again, Luck ran like the devil as Cecile chased after him, her face contorted in anger.