Skadi was recovering well but it would take a bit longer until we could see the full effect of her runes. So far there were no complications with our circulation technique.

Meanwhile our classes continued. Today I had an optional class, advanced magecraft. It sounded cool. Helena was with me as well, Cassie and Skadi had not been that interested. Hatsumi was helping Gronir but Nyx was sitting on my desk. I don't think she was interested in the subject. She was mostly hoping to get some treats from Helena. We were a small group. Sadly it included Leo and Valeria. At least Archibald and his sycophants were not here.

When the teacher arrived I smiled, it was Irene!

"Hello class, welcome to advanced magecraft! I am Irene, your teacher." She introduced herself. "Advanced magecraft will help you cast more complex spells, and modify them. Some people are fine with the spells they learn in class, or find in books. Others like to experiment and push the limits!"

She was looking at me and Helena as she said that.

Irene continued: "Spells need precise runes. The better you can form them in your mind, the more efficient they are. It is very important to learn them correctly. But what if you intentionally modified a rune? Or combined some? Now, I don't expect you to simply start making your own spells. First we will focus on small things, like using a second type of mana."

Helena raised her hand.

"Helena."

"How can we use two types of mana if we only have one affinity?" She asked.

Irene grinned. "Neutral mana. It can do more than just levitate things, you know. Neutral mana spells can be attached to an elemental spell. You can make an ice bolt fly faster, for example."

Leo raised his hand.

"Leo."

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"Is that not a waste of mana?" He asked.

"In a way, yes." Irene replied. "If you wanted a faster ice bolt it would be better to use a different ice bolt spell. The problem is, memorizing spells is not easy. That is why most mages specialise, even within their element. You can always carry a book and look up runes, but without properly practicing and memorising them you will lack efficiency. Being able to perform some modifications can offer you a lot of versatility."

"But then you have to remember the modification spells." Leo pointed out.

Irene nodded. "True. But having a small core range of spells and some modifications will allow you a lot more flexibility than just having a few more core spells."

I raised my hand.

"Koyuki."

"Once I have successfully cast a spell it becomes easier to memorize the runes. Why is that? And how many spells do mages normally learn?" I wondered.

"Remembering a spell is different than remembering a picture. Your body remembers the magic too. Your body remembers the flow of mana. The more you cast a spell the easier it will become. Your body and your mind remember the magic together. When you try to picture the rune the correct form will start to feel right." Irene explained. "As to how many spells mages learn? That differs. It depends on your role, your talent and your preferences. Usually having a stronger affinity and a large core makes it easier to learn spells. It also means you can get away with being inefficient. A regular mage often wants to focus on just a few spells to ensure they get the most out of their mana."

"If you trained enough could you get a spell as efficient as an inborn ability?" I asked.

"Ah, now that is an interesting question. The inborn magic of a monster is not just a perfectly remembered spell. Their body is the rune, in a way. They don't have to remember the spell, they are the spell. That is not something you could achieve with training." Irene replied.

Valeria raised her hand.

"Valeria."

"Could you get a spell rune tattooed on your body? Like spellblades, but for casting?" She asked.

"In theory yes, but there are issues. Every time you pulled mana into your body it would try to power that rune. The only way around that would be to bind the runes directly to a part of your core, like a spellblade. But spellblades want those runes to always be on. For a fireball that would be bad. So in the first scenario, you would have to learn how to precisely direct your mana to avoid having your rune go off every time you want to cast. You lose more than you gain that way. In the other scenario your rune would always go off. Until you collapse from mana overuse. There has been an idea that you could use people whose core is almost at mage level and simply tattoo one spell onto them. That way you could get magical soldiers who are not quite mages. But it has been deemed as too expensive and not worth it." Irene explained.

When there were no further questions Irene continued: "Now let's go back to the original topic, neutral mana constructs! Open your books, we will start with a simple one that makes a projectile go faster."

When I wanted to open my book I noticed that Nyx was curled up on top of it. I picked her up and moved her next to the book. Somehow she managed to not wake up during the process. When I started reading I began to wonder: Our experiments with undead had involved a lot of modifications. Had I unintentionally used such techniques already? When I had raised tier two undead on the field, had I modified the runes instinctively? Maybe I should go over my necromancy book again and compare the actual runes in there to the ones I had been using.

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