Supreme Magus novel Chapter 68

"Well, we have just passed half an hour from the start of the exercise." Nalear said after her communication amulet emitted a low ringing noise.

"Seems I have nothing more to teach you about Lift. Now, do me a favour. Soon many will start to get scared or frustrated, and will call me for help non-stop. Be a dear and give hints or suggestions to your classmates stuck at least at the third mark.

I’ll take care of the desperate cases."

Lith had nothing to do for at least another hour and a half, so he accepted, rubbing his forehead and closing his eyes, to not look at her face.

"Great! Ten points for demonstrating complete mastery of the Lift spell, and another ten for helping me out." She made a smile so radiant that would have made protocol omega useless, despite Solus’ best efforts.

But Lith had timed correctly his thank-you bow, avoiding her gaze, and immediately turned back. He had so many people to look down upon, that he felt like a kid in a candy shop.

Yurial had made no improvement, but Lith didn’t feel compelled to help him. He’d rather preferred for his help to be openly required, if not begged for.

After looking around, he noticed that Quylla too wasn’t too far away. She seemed to be swamped at the second mark, sometimes managing to reach the third.

She was 1.35 meters (4’5") high, with such a scrawny build that she could hope to weight over 30 kilograms (66 pounds) only if soaking wet. She looked so frail and weak that a gust of wind would be able to carry her away any moment.

- "It’s amazing how she managed to get a bright green mana core despite being so malnourished. If the tonic she received from Vastor really works, I wonder how powerful she will become." – Lith thought.

"Need a hand?" He asked. She was a commoner too, and up to that point, the only person that had apologized to him without a hidden agenda.

"Yeah, thanks. What am I doing wrong?"

"Nothing, is just that you failed to grasp the spell’s explanation." Quylla looked at him with a downtrodden expression, racking her brain while her neighbours at the fourth mark were sneering at her.

Lith was really tempted to kick them in the nuts, but alas, too many witnesses.

"If you remember, it mentioned that this exercise requires creating five steps, right?"

"Right." Quylla nodded, taking a break to give Lith her undivided attention.

"Every step pushes the weight above a mark, so you may think that you need to create five steps, or if you prefer, five small pulses of mana, to push the weight up to the top."

She nodded again.

"But the book never mentioned that you need to generate them all together. Lift gives you a wide window of opportunity to create the steps." _{ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm}

Noticing that she still wasn’t understanding, he dumbed down the concept.

"Imagine that you must walk a stair to get to an upper floor. You need five steps to do it, and it’s your mana that creates them. Even if you can maintain only two steps at a time, it’s plenty enough.

You just need to get up to the second step, let the first one dissolve, create the third..."

"Move up to the third, rinse and repeat!" Quylla completed the thought. "That’s why the book called them steps instead of pulses or pushes. To be honest the choice of words had puzzled me quite a bit."

Lith nodded.

"Otherwise it would require to be able to cast five pulses at a time, and it would be completely unreasonable for the second lesson."

But Quylla was listening no more. After thanking him quickly, she went back to practice, managing instantly to always reach the third mark. In less than ten minutes, another ding resounded.

Her neighbours had long stopped sneering, and once they managed to find the courage for asking Lith for an encore, he was nowhere to be found. Quylla ignored their requests for help, working hard to master what she had just understood.

After her, Lith helped Yurial and then Friya. He had yet to decide what to do with them, but he had nothing to lose in the exchange. He would kill two birds with one stone, showing them his superiority while also making them feel obligated.

Managing to establish a relationship on equal terms with the heir of an archmage and the daughter of an influential noble, would discourage his peers to show open hostility if not force them to avoid any further harassment.

Soon, his outstanding performance in the light department would be well known, very few would dare to move against him once Marth and Manohar had shown such interest towards him.

All he needed was just another push, and all the young master/mistress drama would become a relic of the past.

At the end of the lesson, Lith received ten more points from Nalear, since many of those he helped had managed to completely understand the true nature of the exercise.

- "That makes fifty points!" Solus was ecstatic. "Too bad we must also deduct the ten Trasque took away."

"It’s no use crying over spilled milk." Lith replied. "Besides, after lunch we will have our first Forgemaster lesson. I can’t wait to get my hands on it!" –

At lunch, Quylla, Yurial and Friya tried to join him once again, and this time Lith didn’t send them away. He was curious to see what they had to offer in terms of knowledge and power.

Instead, he ended up swamped in small talk. Lith had completely forgotten what high-school conversations were like, how teenagers mostly talked about boys, girls or whine about their teachers.

"Seriously..." Friya stabbed her lasagne like she had a personal vendetta against it.