62nd of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd imperial era

Newt had been developing his new technique for about an hour when he sensed an intrusion.

"Sir, it's past eight in the morning." The faintly familiar voice came from a world away, it was no heart demon, but the desk clerk.

Newt stood up, dazed, as if someone had woken him in the middle of the night, when sleep was at its sweetest. In his haze, he stared at the clerk, trying to see how different pieces of her should fit to maximize defensive capability. Newt blinked, and the illusion disappeared, the fog of deep focus lifted from his mind.

Newt took his manarium crystal and stopped the spell formation. "Thank you. I will be back tonight."

The woman turned to leave, but Newt called out after her. "Excuse me, could you tell me where I can get some paper and a quill? I need to leave a message for my roommate."

Ten minutes later, Newt left the Chamber of Instruction. In his hand, he carried a folded note, telling Obsidian he would like to talk more and asking him to seek him out at the northern training area after his training sessions with Lady Alabaster, every day at two in the afternoon.

Newt tiptoed into his room, unwilling to confront his two troublesome roommates just yet. He tapped Obsidian's door, but no reply came, so Newt slid the note under the door and headed out to take a walk and chalk the next item off his list.

The Chamber of Healing looked like all the others, with the same lobby inside the identical building. The only difference between the buildings were the smells and the decorations. A sharp, herbal scent hung in the air, a medicine or a disinfectant, Newt did not know, his experience with medicine extremely limited.

Yet another skill I need to develop. Newt was starting to think just the basic education of a real mageknight would take over a hundred years of reading or listening to others explain relevant topics.

How did Dandelion do it?

His eyes drifted to images of human bodies in various states of energy flowing through them when the desk clerk spoke.

"Hello Sir," the man said, wearing not the usual green and yellow of the Explorer's Gate, but a white robe with wider sleeves and a lower neckline. "What do you seek in the Chamber of Healing?"

The question sounded odd, and healing seemed like the logical answer, but Newt guessed someone could come to a healing institution for social reasons or perhaps to join.

"I would like to talk to a soother."

The clerk nodded and took out a thick ledger. "Joyguard, one of our best soothers, has a slot today at four. Does that suit you?"

"Yeah, sure." Newt frowned. How many soothers do you have?

Newt bade the clerk a good day and went to the training grounds.

More than two hours early… Newt glanced at those training on the vast expanse, but his focus quickly moved back to himself. He summoned Granite Crust with half the usual mana he would feed it, covering his hand with a dark, scaled glove. He covered his other hand with Magmin Scales, using an identical amount of energy to ensure Granite Crust would not dissipate.

He examined the blackish scales, focusing on their glyphs, shape, and size. Canceling and recreating it over and over, he noted that each time the configuration was identical, the flow of mana through his arm exactly the same, with zero variation.

Once more, he dismissed the barrier, then changed the flow of mana, trying to spin it just before it manifested as Granite Crust. Sharp pain stabbed through Newt's wrist. He gritted his teeth and hissed, severing the flow immediately.

Newt saw everything happen. The sudden rotation of energy, the collision with the incoming flow, how it clogged up the path, and ultimately how he lost control of the ensuing chaotic swirl of earth-aligned mana.

Newt's hand throbbed, but he disregarded the pain. The chaotic swirl was doing something interesting. A large portion of it struck his skin, with only a fraction leaving his body, and the rest bouncing back. Some of the energy flowed back up his arm, following the severed flow and returning to his heartcore.

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He tilted his head sideways, and after observing the random movement, noticed a pattern. Whatever went up his arm followed the earlier flow of energy without a fault, never straying towards his skin.

He sent a thin thread of earth-aligned mana up his arm to reach the nebula, and as soon as it did, the excess energy flowed back towards his heartcore.

What does this mean? Is it relevant, and can I use it somehow?

He sat there, staring blankly at the back of his hand. What if?

Newt sent a much thicker thread, splitting it into twenty when it reached his hand. The thin strands of energy twisted, obeying Newt's will, forming rows perpendicular to his arm. He once more summoned Granite Crust, but had its energy follow the filaments he had just created.

The blackish scales manifested, following a new, unnatural direction, their runes rotated by ninety degrees.

Newt smiled.

"I'm glad El called me," Lady Alabaster said right beside Newt's ear, startling death at the youth.

He tumbled down onto the grass and turned around, looking at his dead-serious master.

"Master, could you please not sneak up on me like that again?"

"Sure, kid," she said offhandedly, watching the unused mana flow back to Newt's heartcore and reenter his realm. "You're a genius and an idiot at the same time. Can you tell me what uses the thing you have made has?"

Newt stared at her blankly, still panting and clenching his chest. "No."

"Think about it. I'm issuing that question to you as a mission. The reward is one piece of third realm manarium per correct answer. There are five. You have two weeks to report your answers, and consulting others or the library on the subject is an automatic failure."

Newt nodded, void of the enthusiasm his master had expected.

"We need to work on your reactions." She crossed her arms, glaring down at Newt. "The first thing you do when something terrifies you to that extent isn't falling over, but slamming it with an attack, or better yet, not being caught by surprise in the first place."

Once more, Newt nodded, recalling his first encounter with Magmin.

"All right," Lady Alabaster drew out the words. "I will stand in front of you while you practice. Don't worry if you mess up or blow your hand off, Elmshade can patch you up, or I could divert the energy before it becomes critical."

Blow my hand off? Newt stared at his master.

"There's practically no chance of it happening," she said, smiling, as if reading his nervous thoughts.

Newt did not move. He gazed at his hands, then back at his master. "How dangerous was what I was doing?"

"Not much, practically not dangerous at all, until you connect two different traces, and the flows of mana coursing through them collide. But that shouldn't happen if you're careful and your control of mana is good enough."

That sounds exactly like what happened when I hurt my hand.

"Master, what are traces?"

"Traces are the assignment I just gave you to figure out. Now, enough talking, I want to see you practice."

Newt once more summoned his Granite Crust in the regular way, tried to recall it, then created the 'traces', as his master called the fine filaments of energy. He released the technique through them and paid close attention to any differences.

The only one he found was that the scattered energy immediately clung to the traces he had created, and followed them down the entirety of his arm, all the way to his hand.

I might be wasting less energy with this controlled approach, but summoning Granite Crust takes longer. In real combat, quick and dirty solutions will outperform this meticulous approach.

Newt frowned, dismissing Granite Crust. Maybe that's just because I lack practice. Maybe I could summon the technique even faster once I master traces?

Newt tried summoning Granite Crust perpendicular to his previous attempt, and the blackish scales formed. He half expected his master would jump in front of him to check out his success, but Lady Alabaster didn't move a muscle. Her eyes glistened with interest, but she kept quiet, waiting to see what Newt planned to do next. The youth simply watched the energy circulating and flowing into his technique.

Abruptly, he slapped the back of his hand with the other. At the moment of contact, the barrier drew more mana from Newt, before returning to the low energy operation.

Very carefully, Newt created another set of tendrils through his hand, perpendicular to the existing ones.

The fibers of mana swam through his flesh, much like they did through the maze he had taken at the scribes' guild. He kept the threads away from the existing ones, and once he moved them in place, Newt sent a surge of mana through them. The fine threads trembled, and one of them touched three strands above it.

Those three twisted, striking several more below, cascading further. Earth-aligned mana flared through Newt's hand, but the pain he had expected never came. Lady Alabaster's hand had appeared atop his in a blur of movement, drawing his berserk mana and releasing it into their surroundings.

"Rest a bit and try again. You're close," the woman smiled and let go.

Newt was confused with the surreal speed with which she moved, but nodded.

"Thank you, Master," he smiled gratefully while Lady Alabaster rolled her eyes.

"It's my job to educate you. Now rest, then try again. You have half an hour to make this work before our training session begins."

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