[Constable of Lomb Township]

A blue window shimmered in my right eye.

I lowered my armacus down, pointing it away from Lambert.

"Got the hang of the Identify spell?" Lambert smiled.

"Yep," I nodded.

I was wearing the body of Grogtilda, having moved my soul and one of my armaci to her after the early morning meeting at the Artificer. Juni’s body was now in Still trance, resting inside of Saccy.

We were sitting in our favorite crepe cafe. I pointed the armacus at the meal on my plate and pressed the trigger.

[Crepe with blueberry ice cream]

the armacus reported.

"I could have determined this basic definition with my eyes alone," I complained, taking a bite of the crepe. The tantalizing flavor of the delicacy was a small consolation of how useless my two armaci were.

"Cheer up," Lambert said. "If you keep investing points in Intelligence and Wisdom, the identifying power of the spell will grow.”

“Easy for you to say,” I complained. “I bet yours can define everything about everything.”

“That’s the benefit of working hard for decades on improving one’s specialization,” Lambert smiled. “You’re young - your future is still ahead of you. I do wonder if you’ll somehow be able to grow your two armaci in two divergent directions.”

“Eh?” I looked up at Lambert.

“I only have one,” he pointed to the bracelet on his right wrist. “It’s specialized entirely in Scrutimancy. You have twice the time I do to specialize in two sets of skills.”

“Should you really be saying these things out in public?” I glanced around the cafe.

“Nobody can understand what we’re saying. They aren’t able to read our lips or spy on our conversation,” Lambert said, tapping his armacus. “I have a privacy field on.”

“What if it’s a super-duper archmage spying on us?”

“I would know if an archmage was in my little town,” Lambert said.

“How?” I blinked.

“It’s my job to protect Lomb from those wishing harm to the citizens of our Empire,” the Inspector said. “The hex-beacon atop of the tower shields the entire town from phantoms, dragons and enemy wizards.”

I glanced at the shimmering beacon that sat atop the white tower of Lomb Constabulary. Could it function like a radar?

“Does the tower… scan Lomb for enemies?” I asked.

“Yes,” Inspector nodded. “It's a very powerful artifact, able to detect the presence of power or concealment spells.”

“Are all the hex-beacons of the Empire like it?”

“It varies,” Lambert replied. “A lazy or unproductive Inspector who doesn’t take care of their Station can screw up a lot, let the defense systems weaken… or even ignore crimes on purpose by accepting bribes.”

“Do you gain experience points for solving crimes?” I asked.

“Amongst other things,” Lambert nodded.

“You know, I haven’t seen you solve a single crime around Lomb all week,” I commented with a smile.

“Lomb is a very safe place, because of my diligence,” Lambert chortled. “I don’t skip on the station’s maintenance and pay Antoine a good salary to improve the hex-beacon as much as possible. There are additional hex-beacons all around town acting as backup. If something horrid comes out of the Dungeon heading our way, the perimeter defense will activate in full, shielding the entire town. It’s trained to respond to a variety of scenarios from an Almn-Inian warship invasion to a natural disaster.”

“Did you know that I came into town?” I inquired.

“The tower and perimeter defense didn’t see you as a threat,” Lambert said. “You are only level five.”

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“I see,” I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “What if... ten thousand level five bees attack the town?”

“The beacon is trained to respond to swarms,” the Inspector said. “Besides the point, the field drives monsters away, especially weak ones.”

“I got through,” I said. "What if it was a whole division of chimera infiltrators?"

“You’re not exactly a monster,” Lambert said. "I've just added chimera to the classification of the tower's defenses. The Judgement Dome is updated regularly by Antoine."

I opened my mouth and closed it. I looked at the shining beacon worryingly. Was it watching me? Could it strike me down at any moment with its ray of judgement or whatever?

“Saccy is a monster,” I pointed at my backpack.

“She’s a level five Folding Seed,” Lambert nodded. “If she was awake, conscious and her legs weren't broken and cut off, she would undoubtedly run away from my town.”

“Have you shot Identify spells at… Juni?” I asked.

“Yes,” Lambert nodded. “My armacus identified her as a human with monster features. Antoine sees her as a product of biomancy.”

“Do you think that chimeras were made? Out of people?” I whispered.

“I am currently leaning towards this hypothesis, yes,” Lambert nodded. “It is possible that a thousand years ago some extremely talented biomancer created the perfect mixture of a human and a dragon and unleashed chimera into the world without telling anyone.”

“Chimera came from the depths of the dungeon,” I insisted.

“It is also possible that something vile caught a group of human adventurers in the deep and changed them into chimera.”

I shuddered at Lambert’s words. There were certainly horrid things in the Dungeon. Intelligent, clever monstrosities like the Heart of the Twisted Forest that were able to reshape their victims into whatever they desired.

“As for your other inquiry, I don’t need to be actively solving crimes to gain experience. Experience is found in a lot of things. Food for example.”

“Like these crepes?” I mulled.

“Indeed,” Lambert smiled. “These crepes contain ingredients infused with magic spilling out of the Dungeon. If you’re an expert at eating, you’ll gain more experience from eating.”

“Huh?” I looked up at the Inspector. “So what you’re saying is that experience gain is influenced by specialization too?”

“Indeed,” Lambert nodded. “The more you specialize your skills, the more experience you will gain by accomplishing something in your chosen field. I’ve gained a lot of experience for working on your case already. Figuring out that you were from Inaria gave me lots of experience points. When I figure something out, my skills unlock more relevant questions for me to ask, more paths to investigate.”

“I don’t get it,” I mulled. “I understand how eating food provides me with the magical power of the stuff I ate… but how do you gain experience for figuring things out?”

“The Astral Ocean,” Lambert said. “My Scrutimancy skills utilize it. I gain experience, am rewarded for working with information, it’s as simple as that.”

“Ehhh?” I scratched my head.

“When I solve something, be it a crossword puzzle or discover something new - I am using, training my Wisdom and Intelligence skills. Power doesn’t need to come from living creatures. It can come from ideas.”

“You eat ideas and gain power to level up?” I mulled.

“Essentially,” Lambert said. “Ideas live in the Astral Ocean. Wisdom is a harpoon that hunts them down and Intelligence is a fish-carving factory that processes them and also a restaurant that cooks them. The two work in conjunction to grant me experience.”

“Holy shit,” I blinked. “So it’s not just gods or paintings. Everything is alive. Everything can be eaten, nibbled upon for experience.”

“Indeed! Every action, idea, word or concept leaves an imprint in the Astral that can be reached and evaluated,” Lambert nodded. “Every door can be opened with the right key, every secret can be discovered with enough persistence, Wisdom and Intelligence.”

"Some doors are dangerous to open..." I murmured.

"That's why I also have Luck skills," Lambert nodded. "They help me avoid opening doors leading to my untimely demise or disaster during an investigation."

“I think I get it,” I nodded, putting another spoon of ice cream into my mouth. “You hunt down and eat answers.”

“More or less,” Lambert smiled, his round spectacles glinting in the light. “Like all other children of Illatius, I started out by eating monster-steaks in the Arcanarium until my Wisdom and Intelligence skills got strong enough to hunt down really juicy answers for experience.”

“Have you already figured out why Dawn is so insistent that I go to Nemendias?” I asked.

“I have some theories,” Lambert nodded.

“You’re good at getting to the truth,” I exhaled. “Mind sharing them?”

“Define her two core skills for me,” Lambert replied.

“Umm… being a drawing and showing people what they’re going to look like in the future?” I answered ponderously. “Vitality and Luck?”

“Yes,” Lambert nodded. “Extrapolating these skills across a thousand paintings linked together we can see that she’s really hard to kill and also very good at gambling.”

“Good at gambling?” I laughed.

“Good at predicting the best possible path forward,” Lambert said. “Dawn can see that going to Nemendias will be good for your future.”

“How am I getting in?” I asked.

“Fortunamancers don’t always see such precise details,” Lambert waved his hand. “She probably knows that being at Nemendias will be good for you, but she might not have a clue of how you’ll get there.”

“Do you think that being at Nemendias will be good for me?” I asked.

“It will be good for our case,” Lambert nodded.

“How so?” I inquired.

“Children of the Heroes study in Nemendias,” Lambert said. “It is likely that we won’t be able to reach them directly, so you might have to befriend their kids first.”

“They have f-f-freaking children?!” I stammered. The thought of a chimera cendai having kids with people had somehow never crossed my mind.

“It is a recent development - the second generation of Heroes is in full bloom. Were you not paying attention to what Antoine revealed when he saw you?” Lambert raised an eyebrow. “I’ve looked up the girl he spoke of - the one with monster-features and perfect grades. She’s the eldest daughter of Baroness Amadea. Her name is Princess Agatha Amadea and it seems that she is perfectly positioned to inherit the Throne of the Empire.”

“What?” I sputtered.

“She’s engaged to the crown prince of Emperor Bolsh the 2nd,” Lambert explained. “Prince Licor Bolsh Terny.”

I hiccuped.

I heard wedding bell music in my head. The jubilant organ music slowly transitioned into a somber funeral March. The Basquenate Empire was sliding towards being completely, irrevocably ruled by chimera!