Supreme Magus novel Chapter 96

After dimensional magic, it was time for the specialization lessons. Professor Nalear’s course was on forced hold. The number of students requiring a second evaluation had far exceeded expectations, a day hadn’t been enough.

Phloria had the rest of the morning free, while Lith and the others went to the Master Healer class. Once at the academy’s hospital, the students discovered that Professor Vastor had organized a small refreshment before officially starting the new trimester.

The class had gone down from thirty-four to twenty-eight student, and some of them had barely broke a C. Between those who had lost a friend and the ones terrified at the idea of suffering the same fate, very few were in the mood for celebration.

Vastor didn’t seem to notice, though, and even if the report cards were supposed to be a secret, it wasn’t hard to guess grades based on how he treated the different students. He devoted a lot of attention to Quylla and Lith, arousing the envy of many.

Those who like Professor Rudd were biased against commoners’ bloodlines, would have given an arm and a leg to get the opportunity to teach them a lesson.

Yet they were well aware that because of the Ballots, the best they could do was get demoted from unsuccesful mages to expelled ones. Not to mention that instead of being reprimanded, Vastor had received an award for beating unruly students during the mock exam.

"Keep working hard, my dear pupils. And remember what I said at the beginning of our lessons. After the second trimester the class will be halved. We will be lucky if twenty of you manage to actually graduate as healers."

From how he was looking at the angered students, he had got a taste for it.

During the lesson, Lith’s group had finally the opportunity to take the lead in delicate procedures like re growing lost limbs and organs.

Previously, the three men teams, one responsible for the regeneration and the other for keeping the patient’s vitals stable, were both comprised of two professors and only one student.

Now the balance had shifted, and only a professor remained in each team.

When Quylla and Lith weren’t in charge of one of the teams, Professor Vastor would always put them as second in command, ready to take over the procedure in case anything went wrong.

It took Lith a few patients to understand all the quirks and risks of regenerating a lost limb. The tier four spell couldn’t be handled by just mindlessly pumping mana, or everyone could have done it, even without a specialization.

The whole process revolved around a delicate balance between the two groups of healers, with the patient as their fulcrum. The mage leading the regeneration had to keep the spell active, while giving the patient’s body the time to rejuvenate.

With too short intervals between mana pulses, most of their effectiveness would be lost, making the procedure longer and more difficult. Also, it would put a great stress on the patient’s body, with the risk that the new limb would be defective.

One had to give the vitals support team the time to reintegrate the patient’s lost vitality during the process, burdening his metabolism as little as possible. The second team acted as a life force IV, but the drip rate had to be manually adjusted depending on the circumstances.

Too fast and the energy would be lost, just giving the patient a sensation of euphoria. Too slow and the massive drain caused by the regeneration could kill or permanently incapacitate him.

The teams had to coordinate between themselves, the first sending mana pulses spaced enough to allow the life force infusion to be effective, the second adjusting the flow whenever was necessary, to avoid the regenerative spell to be interrupted by a too prolonged pause.

Lith and Quylla quickly mastered both roles, receiving many compliments from the medical staff and thirty points from Professor Vastor. They were the only ones that despite occasionally losing control of the spell, would manage to fix things on their own, without needing a Professor to take over.

In Lith’s case, he did it on purpose. Thanks to Invigoration, he was capable of having complete awareness of the patient’s status.

Lith could understand with a glance when more life force was necessary or not, instructing the other team to speed up or slow down, and time the regenerating pulses so that the next one would arrive only when the previous was already losing effectiveness.

Yet he had to make mistakes, achieving perfection from day one would have been too eye-catching.

Even with the help of true magic, the task took a heavy toll on both his mind and body. The stress of handling a human life put a huge pressure on everyone, the patients were real persons and not test dummies anymore.

Because of the long pre operation phase, the students had been forced to spend time with them during the previous semester, to talk and know them personally. It was impossible to consider their lives just a number in their success/failure ratio.

And while Lith used Invigoration, the others could only rely on their magic sensitivity, listening to the patients’ pulse and keeping an eye on their complexion and pain.

It was something incredibly hard, Lith had no idea how others could manage to do it.

The scariest thing was that despite all that, Quylla was just a few steps behind him. Even if stuck with fake magic, she was able to absorb like a sponge all the notions and suggestions Professor Vastor gave them, managing to get in tune with every patient.

Lith would have never been capable of doing that, at least not that fast. He learned by experience, little by little with every procedure, using Invigoration as a guiding hand whenever he had a doubt.

The more time they spent together, the more aware he was that it was only a matter of time before she revealed herself to be a genius. Her mana core was already on par with Lith’s.

- "I can only pat myself in the back for taking care of her for all this time. If necessity ever arises, she can become an invaluable asset.