"Elder, I have brought Duke Dominic to study with you today. He is looking for Magitech Orbs that can be integrated into a shield to give permanent bonuses to an item suitable for the Royal Guard." Amie greeted someone that Dominic couldn’t see from his position.

A moment later, an elderly mage got up from the ground, then righted a damaged chair, which promptly fell over again, with a broken leg.

"Right, visitors. Duke Dominic, you said? Welcome, Your Grace. You have come to the right spot, I am the foremost expert in esoteric Magitech Orbs within the Duskblade Sect." The Elder replied.

His eyes narrowed when Dominic didn’t respond immediately. "Don’t take one small failure as a sign of incompetence. I have been trying to create a magitech orb that will replicate the effect of the summoning ritual."

Dominic couldn’t help but be impressed.

"How is that working out? Even in a large orb, it would be incredibly impressive to replicate the effect of a blood ritual."

The mage shook his head. "Not the blood ritual version, the modified version of the Elemental Guardian spell. I’m almost there."

Amie looked around at the destroyed lab, and the Elder shrugged.

"I got an angry fire elemental last time. As it turns out, the runes for monster summoning and the runes for free will are entirely too similar. A minor setback."

"So, you were just contemplating your next adjustment. That is good news. I had feared you might be injured." Dominic added.

The old mage snorted with laughter, and then waved his hand to repair his chair, which he sat upright again.

"Something like that. But no, I’m not seriously injured. The orb was level zero, so the elemental was not a strong one. You know, that might be a good addition for the Royal Guard if they only had enough mana."

"Oh? How much more would they need?" Dominic replied.

"About fifty times what they have now? That should be enough to summon an Elemental Guardian for the day. Normally, you put a mana gem in the orb so it can be recharged in advance for emergency use.

But I think that we can come up with something functional for your needs. What does the item have now?"

"It’s got a circuit for [Area Barrier] and four sockets. What do you think?"

The mage hummed happily as he rummaged through the items in the room, and began placing partially assembled magitech orbs on the workbench.

"Yes, that. And that one, and this one. That is good. Enhancement. That too. Hmm, yes."

The rambling made Amie laugh, and within minutes, the old man had dozens of damaged or incomplete orbs on the table.

"Trust the process." She whispered.

Once he had everything that he thought he needed, the Elder began to disassemble his test pieces.

"What I am thinking is that we should make a linked orb that will take two sockets and a bit of extra circuitry.

One of them will obviously be an attack spell. Something cool, like [Corruption] or [Flaming Blade] would be perfect. Then the second half will be mana storage and effect amplification. So, they can overcharge their shield for a few minutes, burning through stored mana to increase the level and fortify the [Area Barrier].

If there is one thing that Paladins love, it’s the chance to do stupid and heroic things.

So, giving them the chance to overcharge their attacks and barriers for some heroic last stand scenario is undoubtedly what they secretly want."

Amie burst into laughter at the effort Dominic was putting into not laughing at the man’s assessment of the Royal Paladins.

"I can’t say that you’re wrong. But it is also practical. That extra bit could be the difference between the line holding and breaking when the guards are forming a spear wall." Dominic agreed.

"Exactly. Heroic and stupid. Just hit them with an Earthquake if they’re charging. No need for spears and such nonsense."

Dominic laughed at the mage’s logic. Magic was the answer to everything in his mind, and if magic wasn’t the answer, you weren’t using enough magic. It was somewhat similar to the brute force logic that the military applied to every mission.

Perhaps some things were universal, and it was only perspective that changed.

Instead of calling him out, Dominic just shrugged. "When you don’t have the mana to keep up a sustained magical battle, pointy sticks are a valid alternative. That’s what we’re going for here."

Strangely, that seemed to be exactly what the mage needed to hear, and he immediately began jotting down notes on a random piece of paper taken from the corner of his desk.

The page wasn’t even blank, it was already partially covered with notations, but the old man didn’t care.

"Alright, I know what we need to do. Lower mana cost for the commoners is the goal, right? Then I know just the orbs that we need. One is not a magitech orb at all, not in the conventional sense. It just collects and stores mana. Well, it does use circuitry, so it’s magitech without an expressed external effect? Never mind the distinction.

The second is the orb of spell amplification. That can be partially built into the shield, but some of it will need to be in an orb, as there is a focusing gem involved.

The last will be [Flaming Weapon] so that the user has an offensive spell at all times.

However, when we install and link them, it will activate through the amplification orb, so that the mana regeneration effect will partially or fully feed the spell.

If they’re only focused on defence, most of it will go to the [Area Barrier], or they can split it, or even focus completely on offence. Doing one or the other will only take a fraction of the mana of using the actual ability, see?

Then, they can overcharge to be the hero, and still fight the long fight without running out of mana."

"That only leaves one socket." Amie noted.

"Pshaw. One socket is one more than they had without the shield. You can’t let them get greedy. Besides, it already has all the spells they’ve got the mana to use, so what do they need to put in it anyhow?

I would be tempted to give up the final socket’s space to increase the mana cost reduction, but that would require a full rework of the circuitry, and reshaping the shield, and that’s a whole new blueprint.

Nobody has time for that."