"I know two, but I think one of them is currently out of the city," Aron said casually.
Sol thought to himself, 'Why am I not surprised? I bet he could become close friends with the princess if he had a chance to meet her. Too bad she lives on the other side of the palace and rarely comes over here.'
Duncan suggested a different idea. "We could also request the help of the alchemists that work here in the palace."
Sol nodded. "Let's go with the palace alchemists. Duncan, send word to them and find out how much they want to synthesize all this." He then turned to Aron, who appeared a bit disappointed that Sol didn't go with his recommendation. "I have another job for you. The bigger issue is gathering the missing materials."
"The blood of 500 priests… that's not all their blood, right? I know we want to bring Lapis back, but I don't think killing 500 people is something we can do."
Rex wasn't sure if he could go along with it if that was the case. Luckily, it wasn't.
Sol shook his head. "No, we only need a pint from each. Though I'm still not sure how to go about doing that…"
He considered asking Zaman's help in doing so but didn't want to rely on him. It was better to visit the church in the capital personally and see if he could buy it or come to some other agreement.
"By the way, what church is in the capital?"
"I'm pretty sure it's the Church of Caela," Nataly said uncertainly.
Duncan and Rex nodded to confirm she was correct.
'It's always them, huh… Well, they do have the most influence in our kingdom, so it makes sense they're in the capital.'
Sol wondered how they would react if he asked for their blood. He didn't think it would result in them becoming hostile; at worst, they might tell him to screw off.
"I'll see what I can do on that front, but we are still missing a few other items on the list." Sol then pointed at the list of ingredients. "These are the ones that weren't available in the requisition center. Aron, do you think you can find them?"
Aron was surprised, "Me? Are you sure you don't want to ask Duncan or Rex?"
The two experienced knights had lived much longer in the city than him, and they likely knew where to go about obtaining such items.
Sol shook his head, "I'm certain you can do it. Just do what you do best."
"Punching stuff?"
"... The other thing you do best."
"Other thi-? OH! I getcha!" Aron quickly realized what he meant. He wasn't oblivious to his own abilities after all; he knew he was good at making connections everywhere he went. It wouldn't take him long to get in touch with the right people who had what they needed through his incredibly good networking skills.
"What about us two?" Nataly asked and pointed at Rex. It didn't sit right with her doing nothing in the efforts to revive Lapis while Aron and Duncan had their own tasks.
"Once Duncan is done speaking with the alchemist, the four of us will go do a few missions while Aron gets the ingredients we need. When we're not on a mission, just keep doing what you were doing: hitting the books, learning, getting stronger."
Nataly nodded. More than anyone, she didn't want to be a burden like last time.
Sol continued, "By the way, Rex…"
"Yeah?"
"I noticed you have been rather idle lately. Have you considered joining Aron and Duncan in their training?"
Though it had only been a few days since they returned, everyone had been training to further improve themselves except Rex. He mostly lounged around in the squad's quarters, and while Sol could understand resting after a mission, Rex didn't appear to have any plans to do anything else soon.
Being suddenly put on the spot, Rex couldn't look Sol in the eyes and turned his gaze away, embarrassed.
Sol sighed. "Look. I'm not trying to put you on the spot like that, but all of us need to be stronger. None of us want a repeat of what happened."
Rex slowly nodded. He knew Sol was right. After all, he knew the attack that killed Lapis would have killed him as well if Sol hadn't grabbed him in time. That knowledge had been silently gnawing at him from the back of his mind for a while. On top of the fact he had a recent breakup he still wasn't over, he simply couldn't bring himself to do anything besides eat and sleep. The worst part of it all was that he was doing it as a coping mechanism, and he didn't realize it until Sol pointed it out.
"I'll try," he said somewhat hesitantly.
Duncan placed his hand on his shoulder and reassured him, "Don't worry, training your body will clear your mind. I'll make sure to give you a good workout. You'll feel much better after a few days."
Duncan's words didn't reassure Rex as they made him dread what sort of exercises he had in mind, but he knew it was too late to back out now. He could only accept his fate.
With a plan of action in place, the meeting was adjourned. Aron left the palace to see if some merchants and acquaintances he knew could connect him with someone who had the missing materials. Duncan went to the alchemist's workshop that was in the palace with the blood revival instructions to find someone who was able to help them. Nataly returned to the library, while Rex went for a walk as he wasn't mentally ready to begin training just yet.
Sol went to his room and sat on his rather large bed. He then opened his status page.
Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer]
Level: 82
Exp: 13,732,000/98,417,000
HP: 1450
MP: 1650
Str: 85 (+70)
Vit: 80 (+70)
Agi: 80 (+70)
Int: 85 (+70)
Wis: 80 (+90)
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 5, [Analysis] Lv 7, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX
Siphoned Talents:
[Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 2
Passive Skills:
[Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 1, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 8, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Balance] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 3, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Omniway Footwork] Lv 6, [Poise Stance] Lv 4, [Novice Craftsman] Lv 6
Active Skills:
[Cross Slash] Lv 9, [Ground Shrink] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 7, [Terra Manipulation] Lv 8, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Primal Rend] Lv 4, [Debilitating Strike] Lv 2, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 8, [Disable] Lv 1, [Vorpal Blade] Lv 7, [Bombardment] Lv 2, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Seeking Shot] Lv 7, [Mana Slash] Lv 6, [Empowered Strike] Lv 4, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv 4, [Repair] Lv 5, [Rising Slash] Lv 4, [Shadow Body] Lv 6, [Close Combat] Lv 1
'I still have a few skills to combine, but once I'm done with those, I'll work on leveling them up further.'
Of the many skills he used [Aggregate] on to combine, the most notable ones were [Novice Craftsman], [Intermediate Elemental Magic (Variant)], [Close Combat], and [Shadow Body].
[[Novice Craftsman] Lv 6: A beginner that has dabbled in many different trades. Could barely be considered a jack of all trades, but the potential is there. The experience in multiple fields gives the user a crafter's intuition.]
The first skill was simply a collection of crafting techniques and practices he had combined from other crafting-type skills. His ability to craft didn't improve by much when combined, but he gained something called a crafter's intuition. It was a sixth sense with anything crafting-related, like being able to tell when to remove metal from a forge or the ability to sense whether an alchemical ingredient had gone slightly bad.
[[Intermediate Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 5: Adept in multiple elements, mana cost varies.]
It didn't say which elements he could cast, but Sol didn't need the system to tell him which. Nothing really changed when he added [Intermediate Light Magic] and [Basic Ice Magic], but that's to be expected. It was similar to his [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] that only contained knowledge of the weapon skills he had siphoned.
[[Close Combat] Lv 1: Unleash a series of punches and kicks that don't leave a gap between each strike. Each consecutive attack is 10% stronger than the last. Cooldown: 5 minutes.]
It was a much more powerful skill compared to its original two skills [Flash Fist] and [Low Sweep]. The combination of the two resulted in a powerful skill that could serve to break a stalemate. Not only was he able to launch an unending attack of powerful punches and kicks, each one would be stronger than the last one. Theoretically, if he continued such an attack for long enough, it should reach the level of an A-Ranker, but only if his body could handle the burden of using the skill for so long.
[[Shadow Body] Lv 5: Turn one's whole body to shadow, becoming immune to physical attacks. Physical attacks change to the shadow element, gaining corrosive properties. Can expand and shrink at the cost of mana. Mana cost: 25 per second.]
Though [Shadow Form] and [Shadow Hand] were greatly underused skills, Sol didn't abandon them. Their combination turned into a much more complete skill compared to the previous skills, making it now one of his stronger skills.
He refrained from using this skill because he was afraid of drawing the attention of those much stronger than him, but he knew this wouldn't last forever. He was aware he had made small mistakes, like when he saved the party Radiant Historia in a dungeon by using earth magic. While he never regretted saving them, if they spread word of his actions, people might investigate, especially now that he was a rather well-known figure. One day his lies would catch up to him, and he knew he had to be ready.