Niphru woke again to the smell of roasti, immediately excited for breakfast. It appeared that Dawn was making enough food for several days, with jerky being made in the oven, with a closer look showing it to be heated by her magic rather than the entments. Niphru o himself; getting practice could be dohrough the basics of life, not only through dedicated practice.

  On that note, he created a pne of force beside the chair a onto it, his fall stuttering as he slowed slightly before breaking the spell.

  As Dawn finished up what she was w on, Niphru excitedly excimed, “Dawn, I finally figured it out this m! I manage a little force magiow!”

  Smiling, Dawn reached down to pick him up and hug him while replying, “That is great, now we both use it! I bet the others will be surprised!”

  After a moment, Daw him back down and turned back to focus on the food, and Niphru waited patiently for breakfast to be done. Eventually, Dawn finished breakfast, though she still had a fair amount of meat still cooking in the oven, so she had to go back to adjust her fmes once while they ate.

  Following their meal, they left their home to meet with the others before the advanced lesson, finding some new faces.

  Seeing the questioning look on Dawn’s face, Viera walked over to meet her and stated, “We aren’t the only group of talented apprentices. Several of the high mages spend some of their time w to help the adva of those below them. Our lesson will be with them today, so we will see Morris soon.”

  “High mages?” queried Dawn, fused at the term.

  “ht. I fot that you skipped most of the things new people hear because you were brought in at a higher level. There is one archmage, a pair of grand mages for each spire to trol the defenses, and then master mages below them. Below that, you have high mages, mages, high apprentices, which we t as, and then normal apprentices. Below that, you have lorentices, which are the high rank at towns before ing here, and then lesser apprentices. Each group is less firmly defiha. For example, master mages and high mages are more a matter of opinion than solid definition.”

  Dawn nodded and replied, “Thank you; I have just been thinking of them as better mages. Having specific terms for the different levels of skill is nice.”

  After this discussion, they joihe rest of their group to chat for a time as they waited. Niphru took up most of Richard’s time, however, discussing uses of wind magid how to make the most out of it.

  Eventually, Morris arrived alongside two es. Everyone quickly quieted down and shifted their attention to the teachers, who nodded in approval at the rapid focus.

  “Today, we will be going over some of the advanced cepts of magibsp; For a very quick mention, you take your basia manipution teiques and shift them to have a specific shape. Instead of moving a blob of water, try to hold it in a pyramid or cube as you work with it. Later on, you use multiple differeions of mana in different shapes to further refine your trol,” the woman beside Morris expined. She then held up her hand, water flowing from several pockets in her robe. Following this, she surrounded her hand with different shapes of water as an example.

  Morris then tinued where she left off, “This is a bit harder with earth, however, so don’t be disced if it doesn’t work on the first, or even the huh attempt. I’m sure you’ve already noticed that the stone of the tower is a bit odd. It is desigo be usable as practice material, leading it to be more malleable than most when imbued with mana. Once you succeed with it, then attempt to use stone from outside. Our mert on the first floor supply several different types for free, as long as you return them when you are finished, or at a low cost otherwise. Don’t just drop those, however. The spire only reabsorbs its own stone.”

  The other man then spoke up, “Do not fet that you also practice while perf daily life activities. Light magic is obvious enough, but you use fire magic to heat water ih or shower, if you let it e out cooler. You also use it to cook instead of the entments, or even to help fireproof objects. Water magi be used to yourself without manually scrubbing, and to pull water out of your hair after a bath or shower. Additionally, you pull the water out of wet clothing if you get caught in the rain. For that matter, either wind or water magi be used to preveing rained on.”

  Nodding, Morris remarked, “That is a very useful thing to keep in mind, everyone. Look for any ce to use magid use it anywhere you . You won’t always be able to do so if you travel, but while in Arrival or the wilderness, you will have plenty of ambient mana to use, and no one will mind you using it up. That is our purpose, after all. We have many ways of describing what we do, but in the end, oal is to use up as much mana as possible to keep it from harming humanity.”

  “To tinue on, I’m sure you’ve all heard us talking about talent. This is somewhat of an inaccurate term, as it be ged, with suffit effort. The mind works with the spirit to trol mana, but the mind is not a singur thing, there are yers to it. The part relevant today is called the subscious, which you do not notially, but it works to help keep you alive as well as numerous other tasks. I’m sure you don’t actively try to breathe, or make your heart beat. These are examples of what it does for you. Simirly, suppose you do something so many times you no lohink about it as you do it. In that case, it is an example of having trained your subsind,” the woman said before catg her breath and tinuing, “This leads to the cept of training talent. You work with magic a certain way for long enough that it bees natural, no longer requiring thought. This is part of how the more skilled mages manage plex effects without signifit time spent on each a. Again, this is part of why we focus so heavily to get you to practice mana shaping. In time, it will bee something you no lohink about, you will simply get the result you want immediately.”

  Morris then remarked, “You will find that to go beyond a certain point, you ’t really ma without w on improving your talent this way. That said, there are limits that most ot surpass, and everyone has their own limits on each type of magibsp; As an example, Richard over there is better than I am at wind magi terms of talent. I brute-force more than he do, but I simply ot fully prehend what I am doing, and thus, I ake it natural to myself.”

  The other man nodded before speaking up at a measured pace, “The different types of magic each fun differently, leading to different levels of uanding. That said, they fun the same for different people, so it is possible to teach what you know to ahough their ability to uand is limited by their own knowledge, as well as the inaccuracy of nguage. Additionally, uanding how they fun in a non-magical setting vastly increase your ability to work with ea of magibsp; For example, fire requires a fuel source as well as fresh air, and puts off exhausted air and smoke. With magic, you use mana as the fuel, which does not produce smoke, but you rely on natural airflow. If you bi with a bit of air magic, you make it burn much hotter. Likewise, if you have fuel, you make the fire easier to maintain. An example would be using water magic to hold a sphere of oil, air magic to suck air in and spit it out above, then ig with fire magibsp; This will result in a low-maintenance ball of fire that you split smaller fireballs from.”

  The woman followed up by stating, “Sometimes there are also factors that make it more or less difficult to use a given form of magibsp; Using the former example of fire magic, it is very difficult to perform uer. Simirly, water magidenses water from the air, so in dry air, you will struggle. The trick, therefore, is to carry your own source with you. I have multiple roof pouches in my robes to carry water. Morris learo press normal dirt into stone. One of the mages specialized in fire discovered a mixture of powders that burn uer. Each of these allows the usage of magi a pce it normally would be difficult to perform.”

  These expnations tinued for a while, though they were less iing, as water ah magic were of little io either Niphru or Dawn. Unfortunately, there was ion of force magic, leaving both disappointed as they spoke over their bond about what they had learned.

  Surprisingly, there were no questions from the gathered individuals, and Morris mentioned, “We will be ba two days to teae bat teiques. Part of oals is to push back the wilderness, which requires being able to deal with the twisted creatures it creates. We have retly decided that each of roups will be going for some hands-on training soon.”

  Hearing this, multiple people started muttering to each other worriedly. Seeing this, Morris shook his head and tinued, “You don’t o worry too much, your teachers will be there with you. We have each set aside a full week, not including travel time, in order to assist if needed, and give advibsp; I reeing some rest and then practig what has been discussed today; the mana shaping exercises are quite helpful.”

  Following this, the three returned upstairs, leaving the students to talk amongst themselves. Niphru saw several people worried about the trip and remarked, “I came from the wilderness, it isn’t that bad on the edges, and I don’t think they’d want everyoo go too deep.”

  Dawn nodded, stating, “Niphru spent quite a bit of time hunting, including hunting twisted creatures, and only needed help a few times. He does have some advantages, but pared to a group, that isn’t anything special.”

  Hearing this, most of the people brightened up, less worried about the danger. With their fear partially gone, everyone split up, with the agreement to meet up again tomorrow for practice.

  Dawn and Niphru returo their resideo have something to eat, after arranging to meet up with the rest of their group in an hour or so to practice together.

  Shard