Supreme Magus

With each attempt, Lith polished his technique and his speed improved.

What on the first try had required his full focus and slow, calculated adjustments to the twin elemental flows now came easier, allowing him to observe the process as a whole instead of one layer at a time.

Lith had just fixed his coin for the third time and was about to start the fourth when Solus slammed her palm on the desk.

"I did it! Check it, please, Professor Menadion."

"Let's see." Ripha turned Solus' coin in her palm, studying it from every angle. "Good job. Now do it again. The rules I established for Lith apply to you as well."

"Good job? That's it?" Solus asked in disbelief while Lith gave her a quick thumbs-up and kept working. "Did I do better or worse than him on his first success?"

"That's beyond the point and answering your question would turn our lessons toxic." Menadion swept the air with her hand. "The competition here is only with yourself. You succeeded and with a record time at that. Isn't that enough?"

"Not really." Solus sighed.

"Well, it should." Menadion said. "Because while you are still whining, Lith is working on his coin. Discipline beats pride every day of the week."

"Dammit, you're right." Solus pushed all unnecessary thoughts aside and focused solely on her coin.

She and Lith handed their coins to Ripha after each successful Dismantle to let her assess their progress.

"Ten times out of ten." Menadion said while Solus was still on her eighth attempt. "And it's much better than the first. Great job, Lith."

'Either I'm catching up because I'm faster than Lith or because he's focusing more on precision and taking his time, I don't care. Lith does Lith and I do me.' Solus filtered out the rest of her mother's words, not letting them distract her or rush her work.

"Do you want to move on to the next subject or do you want to wait for Solus?" Menadion asked.

"Isn't it better for you to explain things only once?" Lith frowned.

"There's nothing to explain." She shook her head. "This is your next assignment."

Menadion showed him a silver coin bonded with an orange crystal.

"We are working on your foundations, remember? You two skipped all the basic steps and started Dismantling artifacts with runes, crystals, and power cores. I'll make you take things one step at a time to make up for that."

"I'll wait for Solus, then." Lith bonded the coin with the red crystal and started his 11th attempt.

"Why? Don't you want a head start?" Menadion asked.

"No. This may not be a competition, but Aran is right. Having competition helps to keep you focused and not let your ego go to your head. Besides, it's not like I'm fiddling with my thumbs. I'm polishing my technique.

"In my book, that's a head start." Experience tales with My Virtual Library Empire

"Fair enough." Menadion gave him an approving nod and observed Solus' progress with the Eyes.

Inside the tower and with the minute amounts of energy in play, the artifact put no strain on Ripha's mind.

'Epphy is better at this, but it's probably because she always had a much weaker core than Lith and is used to make up for quantity with quality.' Menadion thought. 'Whatever difference in talent and technique there is between them, it will become evident at higher levels of Creation Magic.

'So far, Lith seems to have better intuition, but it's too soon to tell.'

***

Solus completed the assignment when Lith was halfway through his 12th attempt. After that, they moved on to orange crystals.

After the bonding process, the coin still presented just one mana vessel but also a few capillaries departed from it.

'I see.' Solus thought. 'The stronger the crystal, the less intact metal to use as a template remains and the harder to keep the balance between light and darkness becomes.

'On top of that, the mana capillaries are so small that, unless I carefully examine the metal after using Dismantle, the coin appears fine even when it's actually a mess.'

By the end of the afternoon lesson, they had graduated from silver coins and orange crystals and moved on to Orichalcum coins and yellow crystals.

'So little silver can't bear so much world energy but Orichalcum can.' Lith pondered. 'Ripha is keeping the size of our "patient" the same while increasing the complexity of the procedure.

'Not only does a yellow crystal generate multiple mana vessels and capillaries but Orichalcum is much more resistant to changes than silver. We must deal with many more variables than before.'

"Put down the coins and let's go home, kids." Menadion's voice snapped them out of their focus. "You don't want Elina to worry, do you?"

"Yes, ma'am." Lith and Solus said in unison, making Ripha chuckle.

There were still a few hours before sundown but they raised no objections this time

"I thought that studying Creation Magic would have been easier since we've reached tier four on our own already." Lith said while helping Elina prepare a light dinner so as not to further add to the burden of lunch on the Verhens' stomachs.

"I mean, Dismantle is a tier one spell, we worked on coins, and we had the tower to support us yet I'm exhausted."

"You think you are tired?" Solus lay with her face down on the table, happy for the first time in her life of being a messy cook. "Try doing it with a deep violet core and you'll see what being really tired feels like."

"There's a reason Creation Magic is known only to a handful of people on the entire Mogar." Menadion sat straight and enjoyed a glass of red wine. "And the reason is it's really, really hard.

"On top of that, you are not learning from scratch. You are fixing your broken foundations which makes things even harder."

"Harder?" Aran blinked several times in confusion. "Shouldn't be easier, Grandma Ripha?"

"No." She shook her head. "Because those two have learned Creation Magic wrong and then got used to using it wrong. They need to ignore the flawed notions they have considered right until this point and overcome the bad habits ingrained in their mind from countless repetitions.

"It's like searching for a new path while surrounded by road signs leading in the wrong direction and a comfortable paved road on the side. It makes you second-guess your every choice."

"You are amazing, Grandma Ripha." Leria said with eyes filled with admiration. "Your explanations are almost as clear as Uncle Lith's. You deserve the title of Ruler of the Flames."

Menadion spat out a bit of wine as a result of the unintended backhand compliment.

"What's wrong, second best?" Solus lifted her head to smirk at her mother. "You can dish it but you can't take it?"

'That's completely different!' Menadion thought while blushing a little. 'I mocked Epphy to incite her whereas Leria is just candid.'

"Tomorrow I'm going out for groceries." Elina announced during dinner, prompting cheers from her family. It was the first time since the incident that she left the safety of her house. "Do you mind accompanying me, Lith?

"I can wait until the end of your lesson or we can do it in the afternoon."