B2 Chapter 69: Necessary Innovations

Tiberius had just finished signing off on the last of the Legion’s wages when a knock came at the door. He set down his pen and called out.

“Enter.”

The door creaked open. The armored form of Gaius stepped through, the officer’s helmet tucked under one arm. He saluted. “Legatus Tiberius, sir! You wanted to see me?”

Tiberius handed the wage orders to Lucius. The man appeared at his elbow, accepting them with a nod before retreating to the corner of the room. He began muttering quietly as he interfaced with the network of Legionnaire messenger specialists to disseminate the news.

He left the man to it. Occasionally, Lucius would find reason to personally go and communicate a matter or send a physical messenger. But that need seemed lesser and lesser every day. Now more than ever, the man felt and acted like Tiberius’s own shadow.

“I did.” Tiberius returned his attention to Gaius. “It’s my understanding that you and the mage have made some developments.”

“Correct, sir!” Gaius confirmed. “I wrote up a report about them. You should have received it.”

“I did.” Tiberius said simply. His eyes bored into the young man’s. “But I lack the time to spend my afternoon reading a full-length epic. I called upon you to summarize.”

Gaius winced. It wasn’t the first time that Tiberius had needed to reprimand him for his overly-verbose writing style. “Yes, sir.” The Legionnaire seemed to deflate slightly. “Apologies sir.”

The Legatus motioned for Gaius to take a seat. Despite his displeasure at the thick volume the boy dared to call a “report”, he had skimmed through the thing briefly. And what he’d seen certainly did look promising.

Gaius settled into the chair before his desk. “All right. I’ll begin with one of the simpler, but more impactful matters—[Warpath]. The skill is better and more versatile than we thought. We already knew that it would activate when marching towards a battle, either active or intended. But with some creative interpretation, we can extend those definitions past military conflicts and skirmishes.

“For example.” Gaius continued. “A simple workaround is to ensure that there is someone already fighting at our destination. But even if that’s not possible, we can simply intend to enter conflict at our enemy’s location. It doesn’t matter if there even is an opposing party to fight. We will still get the boost. That does mean that we can’t utilize the skill to gain insight into surprise attacks and feints. But it’s still very useful.”

“Hmmm.” Tiberius drummed his fingers on the table. “There must be limitations.”

“Indeed.” His officer nodded. “It seems that a majority of the men in marching formation must believe there will be a battle at their destination. This is true regardless of the size of the force. So as long as we can convince the troops that there is an ongoing battle or that one will commence upon our arrival, then the skill can essentially be used to always increase our marching speed.”

“So long as we are willing to mislead our men.” Tiberius pointed out. “Which is not a precedent I would like to set.”

“We’d only be misleading them in cases where battle is highly unlikely.” Gaius countered. “But I agree. It would be best to avoid deceit wherever possible. Especially if we have some way of concocting a battle at our destination, perhaps with a smaller strike force.”

“What about fighting each other? Would a sparring match count?”

Gaius shook his head sadly. “No. It has to be a battle between us and someone who could be reasonably designated as an enemy—be that a monster, an opposing force, or a criminal. If it is a criminal, however, it myst be a dangerous one. We tested it by having a pair of Legionnaires march towards an old grandmother, whom they needed to arrest for embezzlement. They did not get any boosts from [Warpath].”

Tiberius nodded. It made sense, in a way. One was not intending to go to war with every petty thief or rulebreaker on the street. Although, if the men marching toward the criminal in question intended to carry out the punishment for the crime…

“Continue looking into this.” Tiberius ordered. “In the meantime, make a report—a succinct report—to be disseminated amongst the centurions. They should be informed exactly how the skill works. Unless there is an evolution or replacement that I should be aware of?”

Gaius shook his head. “No. While there are a few alternatives available to us, they are all much more specific and actually less useful in our case. Even if they might provide faster travel in some instances, the tradeoffs are too high. I will keep you informed if that changes, however.”

“Good. What else?”

“Well…” Gaius grinned. “I’ve been working with Grand Mage Claude as you ordered, and we’ve made a breakthrough. It appears that the Legion’s mana pool is indeed shared.”

Tiberius stared at him. “You say that as though it’s a big deal.”

“It is, sir. A very big deal.” The officer insisted. “One that has the potential to completely change the nature of our men’s capabilities. We have access to an amount of mana that is borderline incomprehensible—more than even the Grand Mage himself. If we can learn how to use it effectively, then we’ll have the resources to level entire cities with a single spell. And that’s not even mentioning the improvements that having real mages will allow us to make to our siege engines and other enchantments.”

That certainly did sound promising. Yet Tiberius had heard such grand promises amount to little more than bluster before. He would believe it when there were results to show.

“I assume the mage training is progressing well, then?”

That made the younger Legionnaire grimace. “Moderately well. It’s taking longer than expected. According to the Grand Mage, most who learn the arcane arts are considered apprentices for decades before they graduate to become full mages. So by that metric, things are still advancing quite quickly. But still…”

Tiberius frowned. “How long until our men would be counted as true mages?”

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“At minimum? Five years.” Gaius continued quickly as Tiberius’s frown deepened. “However, we have an intermediate solution. We should be able to train some half-mages in the meantime. We’ll have them slot the skills required to cast spells only, skipping over the training required for [Spell Inscription]. We also rounded up any men with high-level skills that could substitute for [Chanting] in order to make up for that deficiency as well. They’ll still need to train and master four skills, and they won’t be taught the background required to develop spells of their own, but that should allow us to produce a capable force that is combat-effective within the month. They’ll take at least a year or two to become truly remarkable, though.

“A year or two is a long time.” Tiberius mused.

“It is, but it’s shorter than ten. And that’s to reach something close to their full potential. They’ll be arguably far more valuable than a centurion, and those take three or four months to train.”

The Legatus nodded. It was a fair point. If these half-mages were anywhere near as powerful as Gaius suggested, then they would be well worth the wait.

“Why will training take so long? I expected that our ability to share skills would expedite things.”

The young officer nodded. “It is. It’s the only reason we’re able to manage so quickly. But the skills are merely the backbone of a mage’s abilities. There’s a lot more that the men will need to learn regarding magical theory. Not to mention they’ll need to practice those skills—another area that we’re struggling with, given the strange and unfamiliar magics of this world. But I’ve already identified some of our most promising candidates for specialized training with Claude’s apprentices. If they prove themselves, I may be able to convince the mage to take them on himself.”

Tiberius suppressed a chuckle. He shouldn’t have expected anything less. Gaius had a way of trying to weasel his way into his mentors’ good graces and extract favors wherever possible. It was a trap that Quintus had fallen into often enough—and one that Tiberius had always avoided quite intentionally.

He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. “Since these ‘half-mages’ will be ready for battle soon, I expect that you have a proposal for how to utilize them in combat?”

Gaius nodded. “Yes. The first option is that we could potentially treat them like auxiliaries. Not in the sense that they would be separated from the Legion formally, but in function and organization.”

Tiberius pursed his lips. There were issues with that approach, but he held his tongue. He wanted to see if Gaius would raise them himself.

“…However, there are a few potential pitfalls.” The young Legionnaire continued, shifting in his seat. “Should these men prove as powerful as we expect, we’ll need their loyalty to be unquestionable—something that giving them a separate and distinct identity may interfere with. It could prove divisive to the whole. Additionally, they do need to remain part of the Legion to take advantage of our mana pool, so splitting them off entirely is not an option.”

Nodding in agreement with the assessment, Tiberius gestured for Gaius to continue. “The alternative I’d like to propose is to build elite squads around the mages. A contubernium or so of mostly infantrymen whose job is to protect the mage and shepherd them around the battlefield, making sure that they stay effective and unbothered while they focus on their magic. We can potentially even add on archers or engineers to make these squads more able to tackle many different tasks.

“…Which brings me to the next matter.” Gaius cleared his throat. “I do not think that these squads should be the only ones. The second and ninth cohorts already have a considerable number of men dedicated to groups of skill specialists. I believe that we should expand this program considerably, perhaps add two or three more cohorts that utilize specialized skills or other experimental methods of combat. Whether they be siege specialists, mages, or simply users of different tactics. They will still be able to perform as Legionnaires. But experimentation will allow us to take advantage of our unique capabilities while still retaining our current ones.

Tiberius frowned. “That is quite the proposal.”

“Yes,” Gaius said. He met Tiberius’s gaze head on with uncharacteristic seriousness. “It’s something I’ve come to realize after studying this world, its skills, and its System. While our initial tactics have taken us quite far, we need to continue innovating. It is the only way we’ll manage to maintain our dominance. Resting on our laurels and sticking to what we know would make us no better than these barbarians that we have conquered.”

The Legatus remained silent and impassive as Gaius finished. The idea, while reasonable on its surface, had absolutely monumental implications. If they did as Gaius suggested, it would open the door to a complete overhaul of the Legion itself.

On one hand, Rome thrived on innovation, especially in their military. They didn’t always change fast, but throughout history, the types of weapons used and their tactics had always evolved to face whatever enemy stood in their way. But there were some things that had remained constant even though all of it. One of them was the idea of easily trainable troops that could cover a variety of situations, whether on the battlefield or building a city.

It only took three to four months to train a new auxiliary or Legionnaire, as opposed to the decade of practice it might take to prepare an individually-skilled warrior to fight on a battlefield. The latter would be able to take any single man in combat, but as a group? A shield wall could stymie most advances, and was much simpler to learn.

“I will consider it.” Tiberius finally allowed. “For each role you intend to add, I want to see a training plan with timelines and estimates of combat effectiveness.”

“Of course, sir.” Gaius straightened. “I’ll see to it right away. Before that, though, there are a few other smaller matters I wanted to bring your attention to…”

They covered a few other topics, such as skills that might prove useful for the Legion and potential upgrades to their current ones. [Coordinated Bulwark] seemed to fill their needs best for the moment, but there were other candidates for a shield wall skill that could potentially better serve them in the future. Additionally, Gaius covered a variety of skill evolutions that the men had earned over the past week, as well as a few standouts in the fields of crafting and construction.

After finishing, Gaius had one more question of his own. “If I may ask, sir… How is Quintus doing in Habersville? I haven’t had a chance to review the reports.”

A small smile cracked through Tiberius’s stony exterior. “He’s hating every second of command. It comes through in his writing, though he tries to hide it. But his results are acceptable.”

“Acceptable may not be good enough.” Gaius said simply.

Tiberius nodded. “Normally I would agree. But we don’t have enough candidates to be picky—or to ease him into things. It will have to be good enough.”

“Are you sure you want to go through with the plan, then?”

“Yes.” The Legatus confirmed. “Even if he does not consider a role like this as one that he is suited for, he recognizes his weaknesses and is clearly able to delegate accordingly. That is more valuable than him being perfect. And as I said, we lack other options. No one else is as qualified or experienced, and you are unfortunately far too young.”

Gaius shrugged. He didn’t seem offended at the estimation, though Tiberius couldn’t be sure whether that was just an act. He would keep a close eye to ensure that the young officer wasn’t dissatisfied—or the other officers, for that matter.

“Are you sure you can spare him?”

Tiberius shook his head. “Not at all. Quintus is the best Primus Pilus I’ve ever worked with. But I need him more elsewhere.”

“There’s still no guarantee that it works out the way you hope. I don’t mean to doubt him. I simply want to ensure that we’re making the right choice.”

“I know,” Tiberius sighed. “But his chances are better here than they would be back at home. There is no Senate here to mire him in politics—not yet. He will be able to focus primarily on combat effectiveness. And who do you know is a better leader of men than Quintus?”

Gaius had no answer. Instead, he just shook his head. “Well, I suppose there’s no helping it. At least he’ll have a bit of time. Based on what I’ve seen regarding the auxiliaries’ training, we’re still a few months away from the second Legion being ready.”

“Third.”

The young officer blinked. “Pardon, sir?”

“The third Legion.” Tiberius corrected him again. His eyes shone with savage amusement. “The second is on their way to meet us as we speak.”

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