Those words made Lith whine as he finally understood why he had come close to understand how the Gatekeeper worked, had just a grasp of Ruin, and had no clue about how War had been crafted.
"Our lessons will be mostly theoretical. First, I'll teach you the basic alphabet of the runes so that you can learn how to design different pseudo cores on your own. Then, I'll teach you the Forgemastering diagnostic spells that will help you to both understand what went wrong with your prototypes and to steal the secrets of your competitors.
"Last, but not least, I'll teach you how to craft basic artifacts with runes. Bytra's method requires careful planning because you must be careful that the set of runes you apply have no side effect on the pseudo cores. Any question?" Faluel said.
"Just one. Do you think I can obtain the same effects with my Royal Forgemaster wand? I'm no Awakened, but most of the things you explained I had already learned from my father." Quylla said.
"Well, I guess we'll find out. Remember that just like I don't ask you to share with me your father's knowledge, you can't share mine with him. Also, whatever you make is mine to study." Faluel replied.
"I'm not a Forgemaster. Should I skip those lessons?" Friya asked.
"No. If you really want to become my Harbinger, you'll start from scratch as a true mage and learn Forgemastering on your own. Learning the runes will help you to improve your Warden magic while Forgemastering spells will allow you to separate the wheat from the chaff when you buy enchanted items.
"Even if you're just a beginner, my teachings will have several practical applications." Faluel said.
"What about me? I'm not an Awakened and I don't have one of those goddamned wands." Nalrond had a hard time keeping the edge off his voice.
"I'm sorry, but unless you manage to become the first Awakened among the Werepeople, after we're done with the runes, you should practice something else. Forgemastering spells require Spirit Magic." Faluel shook her head.
"That said, it's lunchtime. This afternoon Nalrond will teach me, Lith, and Solus Light Mastery. Phloria, Tista, and Quylla, you three will come back here so that I can train your bodies.
"I'll teach all three of you how to fight against an Awakened. While I'll focus on making sure that Tista and Phloria don't need help to survive their future breakthroughs anymore, Quylla requires some basic training first. Even the best strategy is pointless if your body can't keep up with your mind.
"Friya, here's a book about tier four Forgemastering. Study it until your eyes bleed or reading one more line makes you want to puke." This time it was the Ernas sisters having a hard time keeping their envy at bay.
"Why does everyone get combat training but me? I'm not interested in Forgemastering!" Friya said.
"If you were my Harbinger, you wouldn't be able to refuse my order, even if asked you to give me your wand. Unless you want to break our deal and be banned from my lair, do as you're told." Faluel handed Friya the book and then kicked everyone out.
"What do you want to do? Do you want to have lunch together or to go back home?" Lith asked, eager to get back to the tower and discuss with Solus what they had just learned.
"I'll stick with you." Nalrond replied. "I would love to help Selia with the cooking, but our lunch break is usually short and Protector's kids are great at making trouble. You can't drop the kids whenever you want, those little monsters demand a lot of attention."
"I'll eat with you guys and then go back home." Friya sighed. "Gods, I didn't practice Forgemastering exactly to not compete with you all and here we go again."
"Going back and forth from home takes too much time." Phloria shook her head. "We'll eat here and use the little free time we have to arrange our notes."
"Agreed. I was so happy to have a theoretical lesson for once. No muscle aches nor getting covered in sweat like a miner, yet it turned out much more difficult than all the other subjects so far. I need to rework my Forgemastery from scratch!" Quylla said.
"The same can be said for all of us." Lith opened a Warp to the mana geyser and Solus assumed her tower form.
While Lith and Nalrond prepared the meal, the women merrily talked among them while comparing their notes. Phloria had yet to make her mind about Lith and spending so much time together didn't help.
'I'm grateful to him for saving my life and giving me the opportunity to learn true magic, but this doesn't mean I can forgive years of lies so easily. Solus seems a wonderful woman, but this only makes things worse.
'Their bond is so deep that it's scary and I really don't understand how can Lith share his whole being with a woman and yet date another. I would've gone mad with jealousy if I knew about Solus while we were still together.' Phloria thought.
'My life is a mess and on top of that, we have to spend 100 years together? How the heck are we going to make it work?'
"Girls, I was wondering about one thing. Sooner or later, Faluel is going to send us on a mission to put us to the test. What will you do if she splits us into groups?" Solus asked.
"I don't think she will assign us something above our level so I don't see the point of your question." Friya shrugged.
She and Quylla didn't share their sister's issues with Solus. They loved to spend time with her and admire the wonders that the mage tower had to offer.
"I'm not worried about the mission, but about the food. I noticed that none of us cooks and in my experience, missions can take a while." Solus said.
"I've never got the time nor the will to learn. Being born in a noble family makes you focus more on your achievements than play home." Friya said.
"Same here." Phloria said.
"When I was an orphan, no one trusted me near food because they starved us." Quylla shivered at the memory. "Once I started to work as a healer, I devoted my full focus to magic to earn my meals and then I enrolled in the academy.
"I spent years developing my eating skills, so I can only cook very simple foods."
"I guess you'll need a few dimensional amulets filled with meals." Lith said with a sneer.
"That's the idea." Friya nodded. "By the way, Dad wanted us to give you this."
She took a bag out of her dimensional amulet and emptied it over the table. It was filled with unrefined violet crystals, each one bigger than a coconut.
"He wanted to thank you for saving our lives, but both of you have busy schedules and Dad didn't know when he would get the opportunity to meet you. He asked us if there was something you needed and after seeing your personal mine, I told him you could use some crystals.
"It took me a while to convince him that you had developed a 'personal cutting technique' that makes unrefined crystals a better gift than those already treated by a Crystalsmith."
