Chapter 1017: Derivative Skill
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
Just like Lucia's Day of Adulthood, Lightning's promotion was a joyous one, but it also caused a bit of trouble for Roland.
"Did anyone in the area get hurt last night?"
The next day, after listening to Barov's report, he could not help but raise his eyebrow.
"Yes, Your Majesty..." Roland could hear him lamenting from the other end of the phone. "An unlucky guy was planning to go to the toilet, but the explosion scared him so much that he fell and broke his foot. There are another two guys who rolled off their beds and hurt their heads. In the morning, a large group of anxious citizens came to the City Hall and asked if Neverwinter was being attacked by the demons or demonic beasts. The staff spent a great deal of effort before persuading them otherwise. Your Majesty, if such a thing were to happen in the future, could you kindly tell me beforehand?"
Roland could just see Barov's woeful face even through the earpiece.
The chief himself was probably scared out of his wits and couldn't wait for the sunrise.
"How are the wounded now?"
"They've all been sent to the hospital. Their lives aren't in danger, but the citizens are still talking about it. In the central square, people are still crowded in front of the bulletin boards and waiting for the announcements. This must've been caused by the witches' ability, right? If you'd informed me ahead of time, I wouldn't need to bother you in the aftermath of such a small incident."
"I know, but things related to magic are inherently unpredictable. It's not because I don't trust you." Roland consoled him by saying, "As for the announcement, just tell the citizens that I'm researching new weapons, so there will be similar incidents in the future, so rest assured about their safety. When there's a real enemy attack, the emergency alert will be the sound. By the way, City Hall will pay for the medical expenses for those that got injured."
"Yes... Your Highness," Barov answered unwillingly.
Roland shook his head and hung up the phone.
Roland did not understand why the City Hall Director was starting to be quite clingy. Although he handled the government affairs well, this tone of "Your Majesty, I've dedicated my heart and soul to serving you, you can't let me down" gave Roland goosebumps.
On the contrary, his communication with Pearl of the Northern Region was much quicker and smoother.
He wondered where she was now.
As he recovered from his distractions, he looked at Lightning who was at the desk and playing with her hair. Roland asked laughingly, "You must've heard the conversation just now, right?"
"Oh..." the little girl said despairingly, "Your Majesty, I've made a mistake. Please punish me by making me do two exercises."
Roland once again turned his gaze to Maggie who was on top of her head, and she struggled to turn her gaze away, and put on a disinterested expression, "Coo—"
Although the members of the Exploration Group were close, when Maggie was faced with these mixed exercises, she chose to remain silent.
He tried to resist but still burst out laughing. "Haha... Come on and lift your head, it's not your fault—After all, I was the one who agreed to let you fly. I should also bear some of the responsibility."
"Rea... Really?" Lightning raised her head and her eyes sparkled.
"Of course, you didn't know that your new power would cause any harm. Anyways, the damage wasn't too bad, so you don't have to worry about the practice exercises."
As Lightning's flight route last night was towards the direction of the Impassable Mountain Range, the impact on the residential area was minimal—other than cracking some glass windows in the castle and the diplomatic building; the other buildings were still well intact. While passing through the Furnace Area, Lightning had already climbed to a certain height, so the damage was further reduced, and no additional damage was done.
"Your Majesty, you're really... so kind!" She seemed to have regained all her energy in that instant, and Maggie was so relieved that she spread her wings.
Seeing that both of them were about to tackle him, Roland quickly raised his hand and stopped them in their tracks. "But does high-speed flight really consume that much magic power? Didn't you only fly for fifteen minutes last night?"
As soon as he asked this, Lightning suddenly felt embarrassed. "I was very surprised as well. I wanted to leave part of my magic for testing at that time. I tried to speed it up to test where its limit was, but I didn't expect the magic power to be consumed so quickly, and I even almost fell out of the sky."
"Could you still get faster?" Wendy, who was recording her account, immediately raised a key point.
"Yes," said Lightning with confidence, "as long as I have enough magic—there wasn't even any sound of the wind in my ears at the time. I even felt that nothing would stop me from flying even faster."
"What about Maggie? Was she always squatting on top of your head?"
"Coo!" Before Lightning answered, Maggie had already turned and said, "Too fast, dizzy, bosom coo!"
Was she saying that it was too fast and uncomfortable, so she was taken into Lightning's arms? Roland realized that his ability to understand pigeon language had significantly improved and his mind could automatically fill in the blanks.
"You only felt dizzy?" Agatha, who was also in charge of the ability test, said, "Didn't you feel the change in the airflow?"
"Uhmm..." Lightning pondered for a moment and said, "although I was wearing wind goggles at the time, when I was halfway through, the wind seemed to have suddenly disappeared."
"What do you think?" Roland looked at the Ice Witch. "Was this type of derivative ability recorded in the Union?"
Lightning almost accidentally exhausted all of her magic power and had disrupted the assessment. But the Witch Union had already established a system of assessment procedures. That, together with the experience of the Union, would be enough to form a rough estimate using the Stone of Measuring even if the ability could not be displayed.
According to Lightning, she spent only about three minutes to cross the Impassable Mountain Range before she flew into the Barbarian Land. This part usually took about half an hour to travel. The thunder in the night sky could also confirm this—Her ability after evolving had given her the ability to break the sound barrier in flight.
Regarding the concept of sound barriers, Roland did not have to spend too much time on it— Agatha's ability to learn had always been one of the best among the witches. A little bit of explanation was enough for her to understand the reason for the thunder.
There were no shortages of creatures in nature that could reach the speed of sound in a short period, and even human beings had managed to travel at the speed of sound in their flesh and bones. However, this did not mean that this could be easily achieved. There was no doubt that the reason why Lightning was not affected was related to her derivate ability after awakening.
"I think this would be 'magic synchronization." Agatha pondered for a moment then said, "This kind of derivative skill usually appeared in those witches whose main ability was dangerous to themselves. Hence, there weren't too many records about it. It'd usually expand into a cocoon and wrap witches in it, providing a safe environment within the cocoon. But maintaining it requires a lot of magic power. The bigger the gap between the internal and external environment, the higher the speed of magic consumption. In other words..."
"So Lightning exhausted her magic power in such a short time not because of the flight, but because of her derivative ability?" Wendy replied.
"That's right," Agatha nodded her head and said, "most derivative abilities were formed to aid the main ability, like Scroll's Book of Magic, and Lucia's colored world—Without them, the effect of the main ability would be greatly reduced and difficult to used to their potential. The synchronization of her magic powers was the same. Rather than incurring severe injuries, it would be a wiser decision to fly less instead.