Ch. 68 In the Days of Study (Part 2)

It’s being published this Friday, I’m doomed.

The plot doesn’t seem to be advancing to the expected node…

I will strive to release an extra chapter before Friday!

—

“Starlight!”

The young girl loudly shouted the name of the technique and raised the stargazing staff in her hand.

Points of light appeared at the tip of the stargazing staff, manifesting beneath the curtain of the starry sky.

Clap, clap, clap~

Sellen clapped her hands in satisfaction.

Today was the afternoon of the second day of Mia’s study of Glintstone Magic.

In other words, from the moment she first came into contact with Glintstone Magic to successfully casting her first Glintstone Magic, Mia had only spent one day.

After all, she had only arrived at the Waypoint Ruins yesterday and hadn’t taken a full day’s worth of lessons.

And in just this short day, Mia had already become a ‘mage’.

In the morning, under Sellen’s guidance, the young girl established a magical circuit within her body that mimicked glintstone, learning to control the energy of glintstone.

She released the energy, then controlled and stabilized it, turning it into’Starlight’ that could illuminate the darkness.

“You accidentally performed an incorrect guidance when your magic power passed through the third magic node, right?”

As her teacher, Sellen saw the small flaw in Mia’s spellcasting at a glance.

“Indeed.” Mia smiled embarrassedly.

She still lacked proficiency in casting magic.

However, being able to successfully cast’Starlight’ on the second day was all thanks to Teacher Sellen’s Magic Mirror Realm.

Magic Mirror Realm was the formal name for the starry curtain currently covering their heads.

In the past, this was a magic circle that started from the highest clock tower of the academy and covered the entire academy.

It contained inspiration that could allow one to instantly comprehend, capable of turning an infant who couldn’t even walk into a mage.

Although ‘turning an infant who couldn’t even walk into a mage’ was likely an exaggeration…

the mini version of the Magic Mirror Realm that Teacher Sellen deployed had truly allowed Mia to feel the benefits.

From the moment Sellen first used the Magic Mirror Realm yesterday, Mia had already felt the changes in herself.

Here, she was like a different Soldier, with an incredibly agile mind.

Under the inspiration of the Magic Mirror Realm, Mia learned quickly, and Sellen taught quickly as well.

“Apprentice, let’s end today’s lesson here.”

Seeing Mia, who was still full of energy, Teacher Sellen advised her the opposite way.

“Eh? But…” It shouldn’t be late yet.

She could still memorize more things.

“Because you have completed a small stage of learning.” Sellen explained: “For the remaining time today, I need you to review the knowledge you have learned over these two days.”

“Tomorrow, we will proceed to more complex subjects.”

Mia nodded very seriously.

Glintstone Magic was divided into many subjects; this was something Mia had known since Teacher Sellen introduced it to her yesterday.

Although the mages of the academy were divided into different classrooms to learn different types of magic, there were still complex general courses, including potions, crafting, magic circles, divination, arithmetic, glintstone deconstruction, and so on…

Sellen withdrew the Magic Mirror Realm, and only then did Mia feel a wave of fatigue, having been suppressed, wash over her from the depths of her mind.

“Ooh…” She subconsciously rubbed her dry eyes.

“Even with the Magic Mirror Realm, one must use it cautiously. You are not yet mature enough in the field of magic and cannot sustain long periods of study within the Magic Mirror Realm. If it causes damage to your spirit, the loss will outweigh the gain.”

This was also the reason Teacher Sellen paused today’s lessons.

“Mhm.” Mia nodded.

She had already known from yesterday’s introductory lesson that Glintstone Magic was a complex field of study.

Even though the academy had divided students into several large classrooms to teach comet magic, meteor magic, crystal magic, and other different types of magic, outside of these classroom magics, there were many general courses, such as mathematics, potionology, astrology, magic circle studies, engineering, and so on…

It could be said that the complexity of the subjects in the Magic Academy was no less than, and perhaps even more than, the compulsory education of Mia’s previous life.

But fortunately, there was the assistance of the Magic Mirror Realm.

The strength of any magic would change with the mage casting it, including the Magic Mirror Realm that granted inspiration, because the essence of the Magic Mirror Realm was to turn the caster’s experience into inspiration and impart it to the magic apprentices within the magic circle.

And as a disciple of the Archmage, the originator of Glintstone Magic, Sellen, who was known as the ‘Witch’, could have her experience turned into countless inspirations to be passed on to Mia.

Under Sellen’s guidance, Mia’s learning progress could be completely described as ‘whale-swallowing’.

The moment the inspiration from the Magic Mirror Realm faded, it was like waking up from a dream.

However, all the memories in the dream were branded into her mind; thinking about it now, she could only marvel at her own divergent thinking at the time.

Although she felt some nostalgia for the feeling in the Magic Mirror Realm, she did not feel any lingering dissatisfaction in her heart.

If one were to make an analogy…

it was probably like catnip, right?

Although it made one feel clear-headed, it wasn’t addictive.

Of course, that was only true for Mia herself; the young girl never projected her own experiences onto others, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

She politely said goodbye to Teacher Sellen.

The sky had barely just reached dusk.

Mia wanted to take a bath.

Among the miscellaneous items Kalé had moved over to block the gap in the wall, Mia had found a small wooden bathtub.

It didn’t look like it was leaking, so it could be put to good use.

After reminding her companions, Mia first moved the bathtub next to the well and cleaned it with clear water.

Mia then asked Kalé for two thick cloths and some rope.

She moved the bathtub to a place where she could avoid others, using the corner of a wall to create a cloth curtain covering two sides.

After confirming it was safe, the young girl placed a few eternal candles by the bathtub to illuminate the surroundings, and only then began to add water into the bathtub.

Then she removed her clothes and began to boil herself in the wooden bucket.

…Ah, no, this wasn’t some kind of river dam play (although Mia was quite interested in that), but she was really just taking a bath.

She was wearing the Fire Dragon Talisman.

The flame that appeared from Mia’s hand only needed her own energy as fuel and accelerant.

As long as she didn’t let go, it could burn even in water and heat the water.

So, after tying the Fire Dragon Talisman to her wrist, Mia very decisively soaked herself in the bubbling, boiling water.

She started to boil herself…

“Whew—”

It was so comfortable.

With this way of bathing, any bacteria could be killed, right?

She also boiled her hair.

No shampoo could achieve the powerful degreasing effect of boiling water.

Mia submerged half her face in the water, and then coughed because she was choked by the bursting water bubbles.

Better get up early.

After the bath, the method of drying her body was also simple and crude.

It was just to roast herself dry with fire.

After washing, she felt much more awake.

Returning to the camp, she ate something and continued to open Teacher Sellen’s textbook to study Glintstone Magic.

—

After a Soldier has ideals and expectations, their life will be fulfilling and happy.

Mia was now immersed in such a state.

In the Magic Mirror Realm, she never worried about whether she would make progress tomorrow.

Because that was inevitable.

Every day, she could truly feel that today’s self and yesterday’s self had undergone earth-shaking changes.

From knowledge to the soul, she was growing.

Those illusory stars and the mysteries between the stars made Mia advance with the goal of becoming a true glintstone mage, rather than just borrowing the power of Glintstone Magic to become the Elden Lord.

In the twenty years she grew up in the reinforced concrete city, she had never felt that the starry sky was actually so beautiful.

The things Sellen taught increased every day, and Mia was like a starving beast, absorbing all the knowledge placed in front of her.

The textbook in Mia’s hand was replaced every two or three days.

After learning to cast’Starlight’ on the afternoon of the second day.

On the third day, Mia learned how to imbue items with magic power.

On the fourth day, she learned to use the magic power imbued in items to drive the magic circles attached to the items.

Mia successfully made a stone achieve optical invisibility in front of her.

On the fifth day, she was learning the ‘language’ of the stars, using mathematics to calculate the trajectories of the stars.

Even though the stars above The Lands Between had been sealed, the exploration of glintstone mages had never stopped.

On the sixth day, Mia had gradually perfected the magic circuits within her body, successfully guiding the energy of glintstone, turning the energy into a physical entity, and casting her first offensive magic, ‘Glintstone Pebble’

On the seventh day, she went on to master glintstone Shard and glintstone Great Shard.

One week later, Sellen began to teach her meteor magic, and another week later, Sellen also taught her crystal magic and Carian magic.

Although Sellen had always disliked Carian’s dominance over the academy, she understood even more that only knowledge was innocent.

And when time reached the end of the first month.

Another lesson ended, and Sellen did not say goodbye to Mia as easily as usual.

Instead, she looked at her and said: “Apprentice.”

“Teacher?”

Sellen nodded: “In terms of theory, I have nothing left to teach you.”

“Huh? But it’s only been a month…”

Mia looked at Sellen in surprise.

For a moment, she didn’t understand what Sellen meant by these words.

She had prepared herself to learn magic from Teacher Sellen, ready to spend several years on it.

But she never expected it to be just one month?! Even the college entrance exam sprint lasts a hundred days!

“Although it’s only a month, think back on it yourself,” Sellen replied. “But what you learned in the Magic Mirror Realm over this month is knowledge that countless people couldn’t master even after several years, even a dozen years.”

“Your teacher merely helped you condense the key points of magic and spared you the examination process.”

Mia tilted her head, looking at Sellen.

Only after Sellen said this did Mia realize she hadn’t taken any exams this month.

Recalling her past life, well, it did seem to make sense.

Years’ worth of knowledge points were summarized into just a thin book, and ninety-five percent of a student’s life was spent on exams…

Monthly exams, weekly tests, daily written exams, homework… then the teacher would go over the test questions. Sometimes a whole week would pass like that, yet the progress in the textbook hadn’t budged.

This led to schools taking away holidays, even starting the next semester early during the winter break of the previous semester, just to catch up on the schedule.

Although the goal was to make students firmly remember what they had learned.

But, it was so annoying ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

However, in Teacher Sellen’s class…

In the Magic Mirror Realm, the inspiration transformed from her experience imprinted all the knowledge she had taught, branding it into Mia’s mind.

“What you lack now is proficiency and experience,” Sellen pointed out sharply what Mia was missing.

Sharp, of course, because Sellen had personally taught her.

“So, I will have you undergo your first examination.”

“Examination…” Mia stared blankly at Sellen.

Bad memories were becoming clearer!

But this was no longer her past life.

Her current self could definitely handle it.

Mia swallowed, nervously awaiting Sellen’s explanation.

“Of course, I won’t make it too hard for you. This examination is open-book.”

Mia nodded.

Her confidence increased considerably.

“Well, the examination topic is…” Sellen deliberately paused, to see if Mia truly cared about this matter.

She was not disappointed, of course, so Sellen proceeded to announce the topic.

“I want you to create a new spell.”

“Huh?”

Starting off with such a huge goal?!

Creating a new spell… isn’t that something only grand mages can do?

Seeing Mia frozen in place, Sellen guessed what she was thinking.

She explained, “Don’t think creating a spell is too difficult. It’s a way to test if you’ve truly integrated and mastered the knowledge you’ve learned.”

“Let me give you an example, hoping it will make you less confused.”

As she spoke, Sellen raised her staff, and a silver starlight appeared above her head.

Normal starlight should be cyan.

“Actually, this counts as a new spell. Its creator was a former classmate of mine,” Sellen said.

“Only someone who understands the’Starlight’ spell extremely thoroughly and is highly skilled in casting it can create silver’Starlight’. Not only silver starlight, but also purple, green… their creators are different, but without exception, they are all unique spells belonging to specific individuals.”

Mia nodded thoughtfully.

It sounded…

like a graduation thesis.

Before university, she thought all theses were impressive scientific literature…

But in reality, most people just pieced together all sorts of messy things and called it their own thesis.

“As a mage, never fear new things. ‘Creating a new spell’ is not something unattainably distant. As I said, you must learn to walk before you can run.”

Mia suddenly interjected, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step?”

“Exactly right. What matters is not how great your creation is, but whether you possess an innovative spirit,” Sellen nodded.

“So the examination I’m giving you is to create a spell that belongs to you. Understood?”

“Understood,” Mia nodded vigorously.