Supreme Magus

Faluel instructed Lith, Solus, and Phloria how to modify Invigoration by taking shallower breaths and holding them in longer. That way, the world energy would only flood the outer layer of their bodies without providing useless information about the single cells.

The Hydra's breathing technique, Lifestream, could see more than just life forces and mana cores, but she couldn't entrust such abilities to someone so young whose wisdom she had yet to put to the test.

'I'm sorry, Lith, but knowledge is the greatest power a mage can achieve. Too much and too fast can be toxic for a young mind. Too many of my children became drunk on power ad let their natural gifts corrupt their personality.' Faluel thought.

Lith and Solus needed a few attempts to succeed, but mostly because changing Invigoration that much felt almost like betraying a dear friend. The breathing technique was as old as Lith and had saved their lives countless times.

Giving up on it made them mourn like the day the Gatekeeper sword broke.

"Finally!" Lith said as soon as he became able to see his own life force without Scanner. "By the Great Mother, it's so much more accurate than Scanner."

"Yeah. The best part is that we can now both regain our mana and check on our patients without a tier five spell draining our focus." Now that Faluel had shown them how to modify a breathing technique, Solus was eager to experiment on her own.

Phloria was a beginner, so it took her some guidance to succeed.

"I thought you forbid me from using breathing techniques until my body stabilized. Should I use Scanner instead of Invigoration?" Phloria said.

"No need. Invigoration is just a variation of the technique Lith uses to develop his mana core. You can't use any of those techniques to rejuvenate your body or refine your core because it might put you at risk.

"Using Invigoration as a diagnostic tool, instead, requires solely to circulate the world energy without assimilating it. The amount you'll use for the exercise is so little energy that it's safe." Faluel said.

"Wait a minute. Scarlett never taught Protector a breathing technique, so I had to teach him mine. How did he manage to Shapeshift?" Lith asked.

"She taught him just what he needed. Protector is a self-Awakened, like you, so he is bound to have his own breathing technique even if he doesn't realize it. Scarlett's teachings were meant to give him the foundation to perfect it, but when you taught Invigoration to Protector, he fused them without noticing." Faluel explained.

She then showed them a box full of black spheres the size of an orange and offered it to them.

"Take one, pass the rest along." She said.

"Why are you giving us Guilty Ballots?" Quylla looked around, almost expecting to see bullies everywhere.

"Gods, no. Those are Life Sculptures. Just take one, imprint it, and then press the big button." Faluel laughed.

"Sounds more like a Ballot by the second." Quylla mumbled.

Yet once she performed the lasts step, instead of calling for help the Life Sculpture projected in her mind how Quylla's life force was shaped down to the smallest detail.

"Good gods, this is amazing! If we had these things at the White Griffon, our studies about Body Sculpting would advance by leaps and bounds." She said.

"As I said earlier, the greatest danger of shapeshifting is being unable to restore your original body. This way, even if you forget something, the Life Sculpture will aid you to not lose your way." Faluel gave Quylla a polite bow as thank you for her compliment.

"Unlike normal enchanted items, anyone can press the button and check your life force. That means that even in case you become unable to use magic, someone else can use the Life Sculpture to understand what went wrong and save you.

"Beginners should always work in teams and practice one at a time. Start by altering your bodies and don't stop unless you're exhausted or you need help fixing a mistake."

Lith, Solus, and Phloria spent the first few minutes getting accustomed to their new and improved Invigoration. Only once they made sure that their breathing technique was in no way inferior to Scanner did they start practicing.

Lith tried to make his hair longer and ended up bald. Then he tried to shorten his nose that he always found to be a bit too long for his taste, crooking it as result.

'By my maker! You trained too much and now you look like a clone of One Fist Dude.' Solus laughed her ass off.

"Professor Faluel, what am I doing wrong?" Lith had a hard time not laughing as well.

"Ten points to Lith for asking help and ten more for lighting my cave with his brilliant mind." Faluel had no such problem while pointing at his shiny head.

She checked his Life Sculpture and then his life force.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing and listen. Lith tried to extend his life force to make his hair longer and shortened that of his nose to get it smaller. Who can tell me what he did wrong?"

No one raised their hand, making Faluel sigh with disappointment.

"Extending the hair made them brittle. He should have stimulated his metabolism to provide them with nutrients as they grew. As Lith did, instead, he had the same mass spread over double its natural length until the hair couldn't support its own weight.

"As for the nose, you can't just shorten the bits you don't like and leave the rest as it is. You have to shorten the nose as a whole, otherwise you get a zig-zag effect. Remember, if you extend something, something else must get shorter. You don't get free mass." Faluel said while fixing Lith's appearance.

Solus tried something simpler, making his hair wheat-blonde and changing the length of a single nail. Once she was done, Lith looked as if someone had spilled bleach on his head and had put his finger into acid, but at least they managed to fix everything on their own.

"How do I look?" Quylla asked after making her face resemble Friya's.

"Creepy as fuck." Her sister said.

"Your talent really is impressive." Faluel gave her applause.

"Thanks, but between your explanations and the years I spent practicing Body Sculpting, I think I have an unfair advantage compared to others." Quylla puffed her chest out with pride in contrast with her words.

"No more than Lith. Invigoration gives him more information than Scanner does and it doesn't cost mana. On top of that, it also requires less focus." Faluel said. "Yet Friya is right, you're creepy. Don't mimic others, please."

They kept practicing non-stop until dinner time came. Lith had focused on his hair, trying all the haircuts of Earth's singers he could remember. Solus, instead, focused on his eyes, trying to make them look less cruel.

By the end of the lesson, Nalrond could change his skin color at will, switching from his usual bronze to a shade of pink almost identical to the citizens of the Kingdom or to the pale skin typical of the Empire in the blink of an eye.

"I just need to change my cut eye as well to go unnoticed." He said after checking the results of his labor in a mirror.