"The only way is to put real effort into industry."
"Lynn, aren't we already putting real effort into industry?" Lilim asked, bewildered. Why had Lynn felt the need to emphasize industry again?
Yuffie reached over and patted Lilim on the head. "All right, Lilim. It's because our foundations are still weak."
"Didn't we talk about this before?"
"Think about it. If every battle requires elite troops to fight other elite troops, then even if we win, the other side will still have suffered heavy losses."
"And these elite troops aren't just elite troops, either."
"Magicians are mathematicians and alchemists, too. Lynn has new names for those professions."
"Chemists, physicists, mathematicians—we magicians can all pick those fields up with ease, can't we?"
"Magicians who make magic tools can transition seamlessly into physics, and alchemists can transition seamlessly into chemistry. Or rather..."
"Lynn just changed the names."
"Magicians who work with magic runes, spells, and magic arrays are also extremely skilled in architecture and engineering."
"Even a genius in Battle Qi, like Leticia, needed five years of hard work to reach the Seventh Rank. She was eighteen then, and only reached the 8th Rank at twenty-two."
"You and Lynn are both talented. You didn't work hard before, and you said you'd make up for it later. But four years have passed. Lynn is now Seventh Rank, while you're still Sixth Order."
"If we wanted to train an army of high-ranking warriors, it would take at least fifteen or twenty years of effort."
"That's with the Empire's huge population, which lets it recover so quickly. Countries with fewer nobles might need thirty years."
"After all, when it comes to magic and Battle Qi, talent alone is a matter of probability. If both parents are magicians or Qi Warriors, their child is more likely