Kidnapping the Spirit Tower

Archaeologists...

Alester really did know one.

That was Professor Bard, Avalon's most authoritative historian and the university mentor of Iver and Lily.

There were not many native Stibium archaeologists—indeed, among the lands split off from the Herasul Empire, Stibium had the fewest.

The original inhabitants of the Isle of Avalon had been giants, so there was not much worth excavating there. Yet Avalon's archaeological development was far superior to Stibium's.

One important reason was that Stibium People placed too much emphasis on "practicality"—just like the Stibium Alchemy they had inherited.

A great artist was most likely a high-level Extraordinary Ability user of the Path of Beauty; a great mathematician might be a favored subject of the Geometric Angel, while a sage in the fields of speculation and philosophy might likewise receive the favor of the Wise Philosopher.

Not to mention theology, alchemy, astrology, Ritual Studies, and other forms of mystical knowledge originally tied to Extraordinary Skills. They inherently represented power. An Equilibrium devotee specializing in plant knowledge was called a "botanist," while someone specializing in animal knowledge could become a "Hunter." Even merely understanding law and politics well enough could allow someone to become a Law Mage.

But history was different.

It should originally have belonged to the "Imprinting" domain of the Amber Angel, or to Amber's concept of "preservation"... Yet the skills extended from those two domains were respectively called necromancy and preservation arts.

In other words, even if an archaeologist became the greatest in the world, they would not gain any Extraordinary Ability from it.

Ordinary people were unlike Iver and Alester, who could gain "experience" by killing powerful beings. The advancement of an ordinary person's profession level basically came from practicing their own Path, extensive reading and study, or great achievements based on their own Path. Whichever