Innate Talent was an illusion created by people who have no understanding of souls. Some creatures are given advantages based on their biology, but when great differences are shown between individual humans, the reason is always the soul. Whether it’s because of their personality or memories from past and future lives, the soul is always the main perpetrator in regards to talent.

Azrael was a craftsman. It was ingrained into his soul so deeply that even if he never awakened to his past memories, he would always be drawn towards crafting professions: Carpentry, blacksmithing, clockmaking, gunsmithing, building vehicles, creating atomic bombs, making computers… He had reached the pinnacle many times before, but he never stopped inventing new and amazing things in every field of expertise he tried out.

On the other hand, Uriel loved nature. More specifically, twisting nature in various ways to see what would happen. Her craft was biological engineering, in all of its many facets. Raising entire races of sentient species as her test subjects…

Unfortunately, their personalities often caused their own destruction. That was one of the main purposes that the Divine Chess Set served: To guide their growth in a safe and structured environment. If they were immediately given the power to create anything they wanted, then it wouldn’t be long before they accidentally made more mistakes like ‘Rapture-777’.

However, regardless of how creative and resourceful Azra was, he needed tools in order to do anything significant. In fact, he had to make tools, just to make other tools. Fortunately, there was a blacksmith workshop in Salmon Creek. The old owner was the elderly spearman who died during the bandit raid, so it was practically abandoned. Of course, the equipment was rather shoddy compared to what Azra read about, but it was better than nothing.

The problem was something far more serious…

“Ugh, I don’t want to go over there though! What if people try to talk to me?! I can’t do it…” Azra was afraid to return to his territory. He was only looking at a screen that was showing a 3D rendering of what was inside of that blacksmith shop.

Yuri sighed, murmuring “It’s fine Brother… I’ll just attempt to teach this foolish creature to avoid accidentally impaling the other Ratkin… Or us.”

“Damn it! Fine! I’ll just… I’ll figure it out somehow! Don’t worry… Talking to people was so much easier when I was controlling Ailyn, but we can’t do that outside of combat, right?”

[No. It is possible. However, you must synchronize completely with your avatar. Your true body must enter a state of meditation, while your avatar is fully rested. It is something that will come naturally to you eventually.]

“But I can’t do it right now though? Shit! Ugh, I’ll just… I’ll wait until there aren’t that many people around I guess? I don’t need to actually go there, right? I could ask Henry or Joanna to go pick up some stuff for me…”

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