Supreme Magus novel Chapter 103

Thanks to her outstanding talent, at the third lesson Quylla was able to execute Loop. Even though he practiced night and day, Lith needed until the fourth one, ending up as the tenth to complete the exercise.

At first, he had been frustrated by his inability to keep up with Quylla. Despite her private lessons on dimensional magic and the long hours of hard work at night, he was always up to two or three steps behind.

But then, he understood that being tenth on over two hundred students wasn’t such a bad result, especially since most of them had a way to go. Not to mention that his mana sensitivity was slowly but steadily improving.

It was an odd experience, feeling the energy flow with the mind rather than his eyes. Dimensional spells seemed to have hot and cold spots at the same time. The secret to stabilize a Gate, was to infuse water magic only on the hot spots.

Using too much of it or affecting an already cold spot, would cause the spatial distortion to collapse.

When the weekend arrived, Lith needed to vent out his frustration, so he proposed a trip to the forest to forget about their worries and fetch some ingredients for extra points or money.

Since he got admitted to the academy, Lith had stopped working, and in case he needed to get his family out of the Kingdom and rebuild their lives from scratch, it would require a lot of gold.

But aside from Quylla, the rest of the group had its hands full between understanding triple cast and managing to complete the Loop spell.

"I would love to come with you." Quylla seemed really dejected. _{fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm}

"But I’m useless in battle, and you are a great healer yourself. Without someone protecting me, I would only be a burden. The best thing I can do is help them with dimensional magic and practice for the next exercise."

Hearing those words, Lith’s mood went from good to great.

"Work hard for me too. If you find any trick or shortcut to it, I’ll make it worth your while."

After that, he only had to go to the portal connecting to the ground floor and the academy’s entrance. Before going out, he needed to get the clearance.

The clerk stationed at the front desk, besides the giant wood and metal double doors, looked at him like he was a madman.

"Are you really going out alone? Where is your team?" If that was a joke, he didn’t find it funny.

"No team, just me. Can I go now, please?" Lith snorted.

"Do you realize that once out there you are on your own? Outside the exam period, you are not bound to encounter friendly magical beasts. You are just a fourth-year student, you could meet fifth years too.

Not to mention poachers, adventurers, monsters and gods know who. The academy is in the forest, but doesn’t own it. It’s full of resources, and everyone wants a piece of it."

"No problem, I got this." Lith took out his Ballot, receiving a contemptuous look in return.

"That doesn’t work outside the academy. The only thing you can use is this." The clerk showed him a marble sized pendant.

"In case of trouble, just push its center to generate a distress beacon. But it’s not a Ballot, at all. First the rescue personnel will have to find you, only then a Warp steps can be opened. It can take minutes!"

Lith smiled at the good news.

"Fine by me. It’s that all?"

Grumbling about youngsters’ idiocy, the clerk compiled a form and had Lith signing it.

"The castle gates are open 24/7. I recommend you not going to deep and returning for the night. That’s the moment when the big predators hunt. If you still want to go, that makes two hundred points."

"Two hundred points?! I need to pay to risk my life?"

"It’s the only to make you kids realize how important this decision is. Normally, the cost would be split among the team members, but since you are alone..."

Lith exchanged the points for the pendant, without a second thought.