"A sword takes lives, cuts friends and foe without distinction. This makes it a weapon.
Its nature thus is determined by its wielder. Neither good nor evil.
At least, that is how it is supposed to be. I have seen swords with strong intent and wills that they can influence the wielder."
Xavier listened to Bernard explain his view with great interest.
Every time he heard this kind of spiel, he would be fascinated by the creativity behind it.
"A sword accompanies its wielder through journeys. It remains by his side through all ordeals and with it in hand, its master has the confidence to move one more step. This makes it a companion.
A sword is its master's justice, his confidence, his resolve. Each swing goes to enforce his will. This makes it his most ideal tool."
*Ding*
[Your innate skill Infinite Skills has been triggered and you have acquired the derivative skill: Wordsmithery.
Wordsmithery – Use words of meaning to forge. Weave words into the smithing process to affect the final result.]
[You have met the conditions for acquiring the fifth order derivative profession [Swordsmith]]
[Your innate talent [Direct Upgrade] has upgraded your acquired job [Swordsmith] to level Max. Your profession can no longer evolve without a relevant divine blessing.]
'*Phew* Finally I can stop listening to this drivel.'
What? It would still be important if this were an eastern cultivation world, but that thing is pure nonsense when it comes to a world of swords and magic.
Not to mention, such convoluted concepts are only useful for humans and similar weak races.
Other races like the Dragons and Dragonkin are born with natural magic circuits that enable them to manipulate magic intuitively.
Given their strength, even if they are not skilled, they can brute force their way through most things.
This makes them rather boorish.
Other races such as Elves and Vampires also have powerful Racial Talents that enable them to gain impressive strength over time.
Their long lives also give them an advantage in accumulation of knowledge and other trump cards.
Still, this does not mean that they have that much of a lead over humans.
The weakness of the human race has led them to innovate and create new means of gaining strength.
Their talent for reproduction and their propensity for development has resulted in a reactive adaptive evolution that has seen them rise and even lead other races in the Infinite Frontier.
This does not make them the strongest, but it sure as hell makes them the most troublesome.
Not to mention, there are other entities who, for some reason or other, favor the human race.
Someone like Ophelia would never allow the human race to go extinct.
Got sidetracked…
Xavier Adams threw his weird thoughts to the side and focused on the skill he had just learned.
Wordsmithery is one skill that Xavier would not actively search for, but he would never underestimate its value.
Who wouldn't value a skill that enhances and augments tools and weapons as they are forged?
Hell, he can directly define a concept and imbue it on a weapon as long as the materials used can withstand it.
That said, what material can withstand such power?
Unless he kills a god for materials, it is impossible to create anything higher than a legendary weapon.
Even then, there are a ton of things that Xavier can do with such freedom.
Well, his other skills can do the same, but he wouldn't complain for having more skills.
The other thing is his new profession, Swordsmith.
A world of swords and magic, gotta have quite an impressive power system based on swords and other derivatives around it, namely Martial Arts.
Unlike other professions, Swordsmen, Mages, and Martial Artists do not need a relevant divine blessing to go beyond the fifth order.
But this makes it 10 times harder to level up and the difficulty only increases past the fifth order.
"Hey, kid! Are you listening?"
"Ah, sorry. I just comprehended something."
"Eh? You did? What did you comprehend?"
"…"
Can this be said?
Tell him that he had acquired a superb skill, or that he had acquired a max level fifth order derivative profession?!
If he did that, it would be good if all Bernard did was throw up blood.
NPCs have it rough I tell you.
But this is where the difficulty ends.
Unlike players who are only limited to a certain playing style and have a whole ton of things to consider, NPCs in the Infinite Frontier have freedom to do whatever they want.
They are not limited to a certain playing style, or even to a certain set of skills, to determine what they can and cannot do.
Mages for instance can have a myriad of magic spells in their arsenal regardless of element compatibility or affinity.
The same mage can learn swordsmanship and martial arts and use them at will without pesky restrictions or requirements.
For players, such things would require a class such as Battlemage or Magic Swordsman and a skill like Magic Combat.
That said, humans are more prone to coming up with classes and systems that define things and this gave rise to some rare types of mages like Red Mages, White Mages, Black Mages, Grey Mages, and Green Mages.
Red Mages, for instance, categorize all types of battle mages who use magic combat arts for melee with a specific focus on attack type spells.
This type of narrowed class might not seem smart at first glance, but you have to consider the difficulty of mastering a profession like Mage.
This leads to many focusing on a certain field in hopes of mastering it, rather than trying to master everything to end up with nothing.
That said, focusing on magic combat arts and attack spells does not mean that they cannot use other types of spells.
Most Red Mages have some low-level healing and cleansing spells in their arsenal. This does not make them White Mages.
White Mages on the other hand focus on support and mostly focus on Holy and Light Magic.
Their healing spells and buff skills can very easily determine the direction of a war. This makes them very valuable to any force.
That said, affinity does play a role in the direction in which a mage can develop.
A mage with a high affinity for the fire element is more suitable to be a Red Mage than a White Mage.
This does not mean that they cannot study to be a white mage. It just means that they would be no good at it.
It would be a miracle to be a qualified first-order mage. After all, classes that can advance without relevant divine blessings are 10 times harder to level up.