Supreme Magus

Faluel handed to Nalrond a silver wand that unlike those belonging to Royal Forgemasters, had a violet crystal on its grip.

"What? How?" Friya was too afraid to formulate a proper question or even worse, allegation.

"Fake mages aren't the only ones that can learn by imitation." The Hydra shrugged. "The moment I discovered the existence of the Royal Forgemastering wands, I started working on this project.

"Seeing you use them during my lessons was enough to understand their workings since I can use Spirit Magic and I'm an experienced Forgemaster. Finding a way to replicate their effects was just a matter of time."

"Can I take a look at it?" Lith asked.

"Sure. I'm planning to share it with the Council anyway. It will allow us to put our disciples to the test in all disciplines without Awakening them so I didn't shield it from detection." Faluel gestured Nalrond to pass the wand, which he reluctantly did.

Losing his new toy right after getting it felt bad, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Faluel's wand was an improved version of the Royal Forgemasters' tool. Once imprinted, it would turn the world energy of the crystal into mana with the same signature of its owner, just like Friya's hammer.

Thanks to that, the wand could support its master's spells and reduce the mana expenditure for low tiered spells.

"This is amazing! It's much better than yours." Lith told the girls, making them curse.

"Thank you." Faluel gave him a small bow. "I made it as a learning device specifically for fake mages who can't use Invigoration. This way, people like Nalrond should be able to keep up with you during basic practice."

"Can't we have one as well?" Friya asked.

"Of course." Faluel handed a wand to each one of them.

"Yet none of you is allowed to bring it out of here. If a soldier of the Kingdom sees my wand, you'd be forced to either explain their origin and be killed by me, or be charged with treason and be killed by the Association."

"Now that you're properly equipped, let's make a quick recap about Spirit Magic before starting the real deal. How many of you have tried to develop Spirit spells on your own?" Aside from Nalrond, they all raised their hand.

"How many of you succeeded?" Every hand came down.

"I tried weaving Spirit Magic like I do with Light Mastery…" Lith said as Nalrond loudly cleared his throat, sending him a clear "shut up" message. "…but it didn't work. Spirit Magic can't sustain itself without an elemental scaffold.

"On top of that, conjuring enough mana for a spell takes a lot of time whereas the slightest interference disrupts it." Lith said.

"All correct. Otherwise I wouldn't have needed several lessons to learn Light Mastery and all Awakened who can use Spirit spells would also be Light Masters. What about you girls?" Faluel asked the rest of the class.

"I tried weaving Spirit Magic akin to Forgemastering Spells, but it always failed." Phloria said.

"That's because Forgemastering spells use as a scaffold the item they are cast upon. You actually succeeded in creating new spells, they just faded away before they could have any effect." Faluel patted her head.

"We managed to discover several Spirit Magic runes while inside the Fringe." Friya pointed at herself and Quylla. "Yet even with Mogar's help, we couldn't find a way to cast even tier one spells."

"Bravo!" Faluel gave them a round of applause. "Congratulations for your ingenuity but you could never succeed because learning a rune is like learning a single word whereas to make a spell the grammar is important as well."

"Yet don't be discouraged. Thanks to your efforts, each one of you has learned valuable lessons that strengthened your foundations of magic. What today you call a failure, tomorrow it will lead you to your greatest success.

"That said, here is the tier one Spirit Magic spells you'll learn today." Faluel pointed her right index finger against her left palm, making an emerald green bullet strike a thin emerald wall the size of a handkerchief that produced a silvery sound.

"That's it?" Nalrond blurted out in surprise.

He had expected that the fabled and elusive Spirit Magic would have great effects even at tier one, like it happened for Chaos or Decay magic.

"Those are brave words for someone who has no idea what he has just witnessed, smartass." Faluel said with a scoff. "The offensive spell is called Poke."

The impact made Nalrond double over in pain. Despite his muscular body and his training, it felt as if someone had kicked him in the guts.

"The defensive spell is called Pillow. Lith, you are the strongest of the class. Do you mind throwing a punch with all of your might?" Faluel pointed at her emerald-shrouded left hand.

'No matter how underwhelming its name is, that spell can't be simple.' Lith thought while using the maximum strength he could muster without using elemental fusion.

"What the f.u.c.k?" The moment his fist reached Faluel's hand, the silvery sound was the only thing that marked the hit.

Lith didn't feel any impact nor Faluel did move by a millimeter. Not even the mass gap between them could explain how her hand had resisted so easily to Lith's best-charged punch.

He felt akin to someone had pulled the hand brake of his arm while it passed through a foam as fluid as water and yet as soft as silk.

Lith attacked again and again, but each time his fist stopped in front of the thin barrier as if he was pulling his attack at the last second.

"Okay, that's enough. You can go back to your desk. Thanks for your help." Lith gave her a stunned small bow that Faluel returned.

"This, my disciples, is Spirit Magic. The Poke spell borrows air magic's speed, earth's hardness, and darkness' destructive power. Pillow, instead, borrows light magic's ability to rearrange and repair, uses fire magic to convert kinetic energy into heat, and water magic to instantly neutralize it."

"Wait, what? Are they tri-elemental spells?" The class said in unison.

"Not at all. Fire and water would neutralize each other while darkness would slowly erode earth." Faluel shook her head. "Spirit Magic is nothing but the power of all six elements kept in balance by your life force hence it has all of their properties and more.

"Poke and Pillow use three elements each, so by mastering them you can master all the aspects hidden in Spirit Magic. To cast them, you must learn how to amplify the characteristics of a specific element without destroying Spirit Magic's balance."

Faluel's words made something click in the heads of Lith and Solus.

"Isn't this just like enhancing an element in a white crystal?" They asked in unison as if their mind link had never been broken.

"I have no idea how you know about such a high-grade Forgemastering technique, but yes." Faluel nodded. "It works the same way. Spirit Magic is akin to a white crystal."