'It's a big deal to me!' Lith and Solus thought as one as their mind was suddenly filled with doubts.
'F.u.c.k me sideways. I knew it was too good to be true. Before throwing the towel, I'm going to master a single element and try to apply what I learn in the process to regular Spirit Magic. If my discoveries don't work on natural mana, then I'll stop wasting my time.' They thought in unison.
He now focused on the darkness element because it was one of his affinities while Solus focused on earth.
"I've got a question. How do I know that I'm doing it right?" Friya asked.
"You'll know because your first magic will have the same elemental properties of the aspect you enhanced." Faluel replied. "Heat for fire, cold for water, and so on."
"Fire it is." Friya put a bit of dry grass near the tip of her wand so that she could notice the slightest hint of heat.
Tista and Nalrond whistled in approval and followed her example.
Soon it was clear that Lith's and Solus's method presented different issues from that of the others. The former had to keep the elemental balance whereas the latter had to break it.
On top of that, while Lith and Solus had the issue of keeping a single element from going haywire, the others had to find them first. The perfect balance of mana made it so uniform that without Faluel's earlier demonstration they would have never realized its true nature.
They spent the whole time before lunch emitting pure mana and trying to identify the element of their choosing. Lith, instead, after grasping how to keep the elements balanced, discovered that real mana was too stable for his technique to work.
"Dammit! I've just wasted a lot of time." He grumbled with all of his might.
"I'm not so sure about that." Faluel said to him and Solus.
"One of the most difficult things that you'll have to learn once you can manifest more than one element is to keep the mana balanced. You are taking a different route from others. Your start might be slower, but you might be able to pick up the pace later."
She suddenly Hushed them before saying:
"On top of that, I think it might help you to master Domination. That kind of balance is akin to that you have to reach in order to take control of a spell without bursting it."
Lith looked at Solus for answers since she was the one who had come up with that technique after retrieving the Hands of Menadion.
"Beats me. The only way to know is to keep practicing. It's worth a shot." She shrugged.
Using pure mana consumed a lot of energy. Even with the aid of Faluel's wands, the non-Awakened needed Invigoration as much as the Awakened, and all of them ate like famished trolls.
"If you get tired of magic, you could always open up a restaurant. I would gladly fund the project and take food as my share of the profits." Phloria said.
It was the first time they ate with Faluel and every single one of them regretted having been denied such a blessing until that moment.
"Thanks, but no thanks." The Hydra took the compliment at face value since her apprentices wolfed down her food as if they hadn't eaten for a week. "What's your status?"
"I think I'll get seconds of this delicious stew once more before moving on to the dessert." Nalrond said.
"I meant with Spirit Magic, not your stomach." She giggled.
"I think I'm getting the hang of it." Tista said. "It's hard to explain, but I feel like the worst part is finding the right element. Once you start to dig it out, the closer you get it to the surface, the easier it gets to manifest the element."
The others nodded at her words, lacking better terms to describe their experience with Spirit Magic. Lith took note of it and used such information to try a new approach once they started the afternoon session.
After he created the emerald green flow, Lith focused on making the six different elements match until he couldn't tell them apart any longer. It took him time, focus, and effort, but he managed to do it before the end of the lesson.
'At a first glance, it might seem a fool's errand, but it's far from it.' He thought. 'Just like the others, I can't make heads or tails of the natural mana flow. Yet unlike them, I need but a thought to enhance a single elemental aspect of the artificial flow.
'My ability to twist the balance of the artificial flow at will allows me to learn how mana reacts when you do things right.
'This way, once I move on normal Spirit Magic, I can easily find the best method to enhance all elemental aspects and know on the first try if I'm actually making progress or not.'
By the end of the lesson, the others started to manifest their first element. Lith, instead, had studied how fire and darkness reacted when they were stimulated in the artificial mana flow but had failed to manifest them in Spirit Magic.
"I hope you had fun today because this is what you'll do from now on aside from physical training." Faluel said to the panting stinky mass of sweat that once had been a group of fine-looking people.
"The good news is that whatever you learn about Spirit Magic also applies to the other elements so it's like you are studying all specializations at the same time. The bad news is that the effort it takes it's not much different from the real deal.
"Eat and sleep a lot. Without Invigoration, none of you would have lasted this long, and to use it again tomorrow you need to reset its effects with a good night's sleep. Overwork yourself and your next lesson will last minutes instead of hours." Faluel said while Warping them at Lith's house.
He was so tired that he gave up on walking and focused solely on keeping his eyes open.
Alas, such a demanding day was destined to have a fitting epilogue.
"I'm so glad you gave our armor self-cleaning properties, otherwise my clothes would have become see-through with the amount of sweat I-" Tista chocked on her words the moment she walked through the door and discovered that the privacy of her home had been violated.
She didn't mind Kamila's presence since Tista considered her a part of the family, but the same couldn't be said about Zinya, the parents of the two women, Professor Vastor, and more importantly, Orpal.
Elina wasn't expecting guests so after finding her long-lost son on her doorstep along with her potential in-laws, she and Zinya had sent their children to Selia's home.
Both women had high hopes for reconciliation but knew there was no limit to how ugly things might get and they didn't want to involve the children in their own mess.
"You!" Tista took a deep breath, letting Invigoration fill her up with energy as she needed sheer willpower to not emit a bright cyan aura in front of witnesses.
