Dual earth and wood spiritual roots!

"Ma'am, I heard you can test people's aptitude for magic here. Could you please test ours?"

Inside the largest bookstore on the town's main street-or rather, magic shop-Chuan Wenwu addressed the owner, a rather plump elderly woman dressed as a witch.

Although he had been summoned here as the "Shield Hero," and the other three heroes likewise wielded conventional weapons-a sword, a spear, and a bow-this was actually a world of swords and sorcery. All kinds of magic existed here!

For instance, everyone in this world seemed to know "Status Magic," which let them check their personal stats as though viewing a system interface. There was also the "Appraisal Magic" the Weapon Shop owner often used, and the "Fireball" that princess had cast when she first tried to frame him.

Magic existed right here in this world, so naturally, Chuan Wenwu wanted to learn more about it.

When you were out in the world, it never hurt to have a few extra skills up your sleeve, right?

As it happened, his hero's adventuring party had gained a new member today-Raphtalia.

She was a little Racoon Demi-Human girl whose parents had both died in the disaster, with no other friends or relatives to take her in. After becoming a slave and then being rescued by him, she could only travel with him for the time being. After all, in this "human-supremacist" Melromarc, leaving a helpless Demi-Human girl with some random stranger felt terribly irresponsible.

But danger and combat were inevitable on an adventure. Although he was confident he could protect her, she still needed some means of defending herself, just in case.

Yet Raphtalia was only about ten years old. What combat skills could she learn? Was she supposed to risk her life hacking at monsters with a dagger?

Setting aside how dangerous that would be for a little girl, even if he stretched the point as far as possible, his party already had Bruce, an imposing warrior with a massive blade. They didn't need another companion swinging swords, spears, or clubs.

So, considering the conventional classes that made up an adventuring party: warrior, archer, mage, priest...

He had learned all this from games and novels, and naturally, different settings had different class systems. Some worlds even divided people into power attackers, agility attackers, controllers, and so on. Each setting had its own quirks, and he had chosen the more common otherworldly hero-adventure setup-warrior, archer, mage, priest.

Honestly, he thought there were serious problems with that party composition.

Why did a party have to challenge the big boss with just a handful of people?

Couldn't I simply assemble a division of Shield Warriors as tanks, a division of mages as artillery, another division of archers as radar, and finally three divisions of priests for logistics?

Surely there's strength in numbers! Unity is strength!

He couldn't understand it, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Besides, he couldn't put together a force that large right now, so he would have to follow the traditional approach for the time being.

As the Shield Hero, he was undoubtedly a Shield Warrior.

Bruce, meanwhile, was a shapeshifting beastman who used a gigantic sword the size of a door, making him indisputably a warrior. But when necessary, he could also activate his "Martial Soul True Body," return to his original form, and mow down everything in sight... a mutated druid warrior?

So, for their new member Raphtalia, Chuan Wenwu was considering a relatively safe class-a mage or a priest.

A magic-using teammate could simply stay quietly in the back and cast skills. With him, a Shield Hero tougher than a turtle's shell, holding the front line, the fighting wouldn't spill over into the rear.

As for why he wasn't making Raphtalia an archer...

Surely no one expected a raccoon girl whose arms were only as thick as two of Chuan Wenwu's fingers to draw a bow and kill enemies? Without some strength stats, she wouldn't even be able to pull back the string!

Seen that way, magic, which depended only on aptitude, became a good choice.

After consulting the Weapon Shop owner, Chuan Wenwu brought the group to this magic shop to test everyone's aptitude. If Raphtalia had an aptitude for offensive magic, she would become a mage; if her aptitude leaned toward support magic, she would become a priest. Either way, they would have it covered.

While they were at it, he would also find out where he and Bruce stood. If they could learn magic too, switching to a magic Shield Warrior and a magic swordsman wouldn't be a bad idea either~

Standing before the counter, Chuan Wenwu looked eagerly at the magic shop owner behind it.

"You'd like to test your aptitude for magic? Please wait a moment."

With that, the elderly woman took a large crystal ball out from behind the counter and chanted a strange incantation.

"All right, please gaze into this crystal ball," the elderly woman said. Presumably, the crystal ball was the Magic Item used to test their aptitude.

Following her instructions, Chuan Wenwu looked into the crystal ball. It seemed to sparkle, reflecting a jumble of golden-yellow and emerald-green light.

"Let me see... ah, sir, you have an aptitude for earth and wood magic!" The elderly woman quickly identified Chuan Wenwu's magical talents.

How should he put it? This felt very much like a spiritual-root testing scene in a cultivation novel: touch a testing stone, and it would reveal whether someone had the talent to cultivate. In his case, he supposed he ought to call it... dual earth and wood spiritual roots?

Oh, shit! Suddenly, I feel the sort of freedom you get from being dragged off for forced labor...

"Now, let's test the other two behind you."

"Ah, sure."

Chuan Wenwu stepped aside, and Bruce took his turn testing his aptitude, staring fixedly at the crystal ball.

"Hmm, this Mister Pello has a slightly better aptitude. His affinity for fire is very high!" The elderly woman's eyes brightened slightly. She seemed rather surprised that Bruce possessed such magical talent.

"Nice going, Bruce! You actually lucked your way into awakening a fire affinity!" Chuan Wenwu said happily, though with a hint of envy. "Now you'll be able to set every sword strike ablaze!"

After Bruce came Raphtalia. Having watched Chuan Wenwu and Bruce take the test first, she felt a little less nervous and stared blankly at the crystal ball in the elderly woman's hands.

"Hmm, this Racoon Demi-Human girl has an affinity for light and dark magic," the elderly woman gave her final assessment.

"Light and dark!"

Chuan Wenwu's eyes widened slightly, his heart filling with shock.

Good lord! Metal, wood, water, fire, earth-and Raphtalia has awakened affinities for light and dark, outside all five!

Whoa-did I stumble across a hidden gem at the Slave Trader's place and rescue a once-in-an-age prodigy? Is she the one with the protagonist template, or am I?

But the elderly woman at the magic shop soon put an end to his wild speculation and misplaced shock.

"Just as expected. Racoon Demi-Humans are naturally skilled at using the refraction of light and dark shadows to cast illusion magic."

...Damn! So light and dark weren't anything special in this world after all. They sat at the same table as all the other elements.