Link pondered for a mont before answering, "Aside from all that, I guess the Orcs’ most unique trait must be... their strange customs?"
"Congratulations," Ryze snapped his fingers, grinning. "That’s the correct answer once again."
"Indeed, the most unusual thing about the Orcs lies in their odd behavior, which stands in stark contrast to that of most other moonfolk. Unlike the more aggressive races, Orcs have never shown any excessive hostility toward us humans. Sure, they have a strong sense of territoriality, but as long as you’re not dumb enough to swagger arrogantly into their holand, they generally won’t bother you."
"If you look back at the centuries of conflict between humans and moonfolk, the Orcs are one of the few races that have remained neutral from beginning to end. Even now, academia still hasn’t reached a solid conclusion as to why this anomaly exists."
Listening to Ryze rattle off yet another stream of obscure knowledge, Link blinked and finally asked in confusion, "ntor, you’ve told so much already, but you still haven’t explained—why exactly are we going to the Skullsplitter Clan Highlands?"
Ryze let out a hearty laugh. "Ah, my apologies. That’s an old habit from my years of lecturing—hard to shake, I suppose. Ahem. The reason I’m bringing you to the Skullsplitter Clan is because they follow a custom that’s bizarre even by Orc standards."
"What kind of custom?" Link’s eyes widened with curiosity. He had no desire for wealth or fa—what burned within him was a boundless thirst for knowledge.
Leaning closer, Ryze lowered his voice and whispered mysteriously into Link’s ear: "They enslave and raise other moonfolk to serve them. And not just any moonfolk. Ordinary ones aren’t even worth their attention. The ones they target and keep... are all born with powerful talents."
"What?!"
Link couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.
Hearing strange lore explained like this is so much more interesting than just pulling it up from Lib’s archive.
After a mont of stunned silence, Link continued, "So what you’re saying is... we’re not going to the Skullsplitter Clan to copy Orc talents, but rather to find highly talented individuals among their captives and copy from them?"
"Exactly."
"But here’s what I don’t get—Orcs mostly awaken physical enhancent-type talents. Do they even have any sensory talents? How can they tell which moonfolk slaves have powerful abilities?"
Ryze gave him a few pats on the shoulder, speaking with the weary tone of soone who had seen much of the world. "Link, this brings to the second lesson I want to teach you today: there are no absolutes in this world."
"Although the majority of Orcs are renowned for their sheer physical prowess, there exists a tiny minority who are born frail and sickly. They are outcasts, completely different from the rest of their kin."
"Perhaps out of sympathy, the Abyssal Apostles blessed these unfortunate newborns. While these weak-bodied Orcs are unable to awaken strength-based talents, they instead develop incredibly potent sensory or soul-type talents."
"These special Orcs are called Orc Shamans. It is thanks to their guidance that the clans are able to identify which moonfolk are worthy of being made into slaves."
"And these Orc Shamans do more than just talent identification. Their abilities also allow them to sense danger before it arrives."
"It’s precisely because of these sharp-sensed ’sentinels’ that no other moonfolk dares to carelessly trespass into Orc territory—let alone challenge them."
Ryze paused and turned to look at Link, the gleam of an old teacher burning in his eyes again.
"You see, talents capable of sensing or analyzing the abilities of others are exceedingly rare—not just among us humans, but also within the Orc race and across all of moonfolk society."
"But in your case, I don’t think you need to worry too much."
"Why?" Ryze smiled. "Because you already possess a UR-rank talent. That alone shields you from most conventional detection thods."
"But like I said—there are no absolutes."
"So just in case, I’m going to teach you a thod right now. One that will let you disrupt, or even block, the sensory talents others may use against you."
"And learning it won’t hurt. In fact, it might co in handy at our next destination."
This instantly struck a chord with Link.
He had been wracking his brain for ways to conceal his ever-growing list of talents. Ryze’s proposal was like offering a pillow to a man dozing off—a perfect solution delivered at just the right ti.
What a relief!
"ntor, what’s the thod? Tell quick!" Link couldn’t contain his excitent.
Ryze chuckled at his eagerness, then asked, "No rush. First, let ask you—how’s that domain-type talent you got from Nate, the Infinite Void Domain? Are you getting the hang of it?"
Link blinked, caught off guard. "It’s alright... but what does that have to do with sensory masking?"
Ryze saw that Link hadn’t made the connection yet and offered a hint. "Co on, think. What does Infinite Void Domain actually do?"
Link paused to recall the talent description. And then—he froze.
There had been one line in the ability’s tooltip that he had completely glossed over at the ti:
"Non-talent users who enter the Infinite Void Domain will have all of their sensory abilities suppressed."
Back then, he’d ignored it—distracted by the flashier effects of the domain.
But now... now it beca clear that the real power of Infinite Void Domain was precisely this suppression of sensory capabilities.
Ryze, seeing the realization dawn on his student’s face, laughed softly. "Exactly. Think of your domain as a one-way mirror—you can see out, but no one can see in."
"To mask others from perceiving your talents, all you need to do is keep your Infinite Void Domain minimally active—just large enough to cover yourself."
"That way, the domain only surrounds your body, like a one-way shell. Anyone trying to use sensory talents on you will find nothing—they’ll be completely cut off."
"Wait—you can use it like that?!" Link was stunned. "I never even thought of that!"
His admiration for Ryze soared. So this is what separates a real esper from a student. Only soone capable of climbing to the top of a prestigious city academy could’ve figured out a trick like this.
Running a domain at minimum capacity—not to fight, not to trap enemies, but purely to block detection?
Genius. Pure genius.
Just then, Ryze gave one final reminder.
"Oh, and one more thing. You can use this thod freely—use it often if you like. But just... don’t do it in front of Nate. You understand why, right?"
Link nodded vigorously.
Still, Ryze couldn’t help muttering under his breath with a mischievous smile, "Then again... even if you do get caught, it’s no big deal. I’ll just make up so excuse to fool him. Worst case scenario, you just reset the tiline anyway, right?"
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