“Wh-What?!”
It was rare for Diego to have such an exaggerated reaction. Capitan, in contrast, seemed entirely calm.
“In the first place, spirit is a power everyone has,” he said. “So there’s no such thing as having no talent for it. I suppose there might be a handful of unfortunate exceptions out there somewhere, but you’re definitely not one of them.”
“So you’re saying...I can use spirit?”
“Yes. That much, I can say for sure. As for how well you can master it, well, that’s when talent comes in. And even then, it’s mostly a question of patience and diligent training. Of course, I suppose we have an exception here who can tell us that’s not always the case...” Capitan glanced in my direction.
“What do you mean?” Diego asked. “I thought Rentt could use spirit?”
For the record, I’d told Diego that I could use mana, spirit, and divinity. I’d figured it was just good information to share, since we’d be dungeon delving together. I hadn’t told Niedz, Lukas, or Gahedd, though. Overloading them with information they didn’t need would probably just confuse them. With Diego, I didn’t have that worry.
The curse vendor had only been a little bit surprised that I could use divinity. As a former priest, he had likely been around people like me all the time.
“He can now, yes, but that wasn’t always the case,” Capitan answered. “More accurately, he could use it, way back when, but his reserves never grew, no matter how much effort he put in. A real shame, since he’s one of the rare people with a real knack for diligence. But he just had a unique constitution that prevented his spirit from growing—something I only learned about because of him.”
Capitan’s words were a little disheartening to hear, but I could tell from his tone that he didn’t consider it a failure on my part, but rather a lesson he’d learned about his own limits as a teacher. Personally, I felt that he shouldn’t have been disappointed with himself—teaching me how to use spirit had been a great achievement on its own, not to mention that he’d taught me swordsmanship and survival skills too. Without him, I never would’ve been able to become an adventurer at all.
“That’s a surprise—he looks more than capable, I think.” Diego looked over at me. “So spirit’s a weakness of yours, then?”
“No, not anymore,” I said truthfully. “My reserves have increased since then. At least, I think they have...”
The reason I wasn’t a hundred percent confident about this was that I wasn’t sure if I ought to trust my instincts. I felt like I’d been getting stronger ever since I’d been turned into a skeleton, but when all was said and done, I just didn’t have a good understanding of what spirit was or how it worked. It wasn’t as if I always had access to a teacher who could answer my questions, after all. That being said, I currently did have access to an expert, so it was best if I got all the answers I could.
Capitan seemed to understand my hesitation. “They definitely have—and by quite a lot too.” His tone became a little less serious. “Honestly, seeing how fast you’ve grown has made me question everything I thought I knew.”
“What caused the sudden change, then?” Diego asked. “Is that just the nature of spirit? Long periods of stagnation followed by rapid growth?”
“It might be that way for some, but Rentt’s case is unique. I won’t get into the details, though, since they’re personal. I guess you could say he experienced a sudden change in constitution.”
I knew Capitan was being vague out of consideration for me, but that was one heck of a roundabout way to put it. But just as I was thinking it was rather unfair to expect Diego to understand what that was supposed to mean, the curse vendor surprised me.
“I see. I think I know what you’re getting at,” he said. “Once in a blue moon, a saint would undergo a similar change. One day, they have barely any divinity to speak of, and then some strange medicinal infusion or secret miracle drug would alter their physical constitution so drastically that they were overflowing with divinity the next day.”
Huh. That was a former priest for you, I suppose. It seemed he knew a lot about the various goings-on in the church, and he was probably acquainted with quite a few saints too. At the very least, it meant he had context to compare my situation to.
Still, I’d had no idea that members of the clergy used such methods to try to augment their divinity. It felt like I’d just learned a trade secret. But I supposed I was the last person who could point any fingers when it came to using backdoor methods to improve mana, spirit, or divinity.
I was curious about the medicinal infusions and secret miracle drugs that Diego had mentioned, though. They did sound pretty useful. I wondered if they’d work on me...
“Those methods you mentioned—are they easy to get a hold of?” I asked.
Diego shook his head. “Of course not. Medicinal infusions are one thing, but there’s a reason they’re called secret miracle drugs. Only the church’s apothecaries know the recipe. At least, that’s how it worked at the God of Appraisal’s temple. We were especially strict in that regard, given the nature of our religion.”
That made sense—a temple full of appraisers would probably be able to deduce the recipe if they so much as just saw a shopping list of the ingredients. The rest would just be trial and error until they found the right brewing method. Research was a lot easier when you knew for a fact that there was a working end product you could reach, instead of just fumbling toward an abstract goal.
“Right, makes sense,” I conceded. “I’ll forget about the miracle drug, then. But what about the infusions?”
“They give them out to believers sometimes, and on occasion even put certain brews up for sale,” Diego said. “But there are ones they keep to themselves too. You sound like you’re in the market for one, Rentt.”
“Yeah. I told you I can use divinity, right? If there’s a way for me to get stronger, I’d like to at least test it.”
“I suppose I can understand that. You know, you’re more power hungry than you look... Well, maybe ‘seem’ is a better word than ‘look.’”
Yeah, the skull mask and dark robe did sort of lean into the power-hungry image. My behavior, though? Sure, maybe I didn’t outright strut around looking for any way I could find to get stronger, but... “I’m aiming to become Mithril-class one day,” I said. “So I do need power. As much as I can get.”
“Ah. That, I can understand. After all, if I want to accomplish my goal, I’m going to need strength too.” Diego turned. “Capitan.”
“Yes?”
“Could you teach me how to use spirit?”