*Clang*

Finally, dinner was served. In front of Teo stood a full plate of mashed potatoes, wild deer cutlets and an assortment of local vegetables, all seasoned with various regional herbs, from the nearby forest. Even though the whole clan had gathered for the occasion and proper etiquette was expected, he dug in ravenously without a care for anything else. Apparently he was very hungry.

Most family members present, even his grandfather Troy, could not help but wonder, why the boy was shoveling food into his mouth like a starved beast, but Thoralv only smiled slightly. He knew exactly how taxing the task he had demanded earlier had been.

The Enchantment went without a hitch though and they managed to complete the magically enhanced sword free of major defects. However, it was no ordinary Enchantment, it had been the first real, marketable product, Teo had worked on so far. It may not seem like much, but it was quite the achievement and marked Teo's admittance as a certified Enchanting Assistant, an impressive feat for his age.

Following the traditions of the craft, Teo even had the honor of naming the sword. Naturally he had only done so after a lengthy break, as he had been completely drained of energy. He had not been in a very good condition even before he started and obviously the further exertion did do no good for alleviating his exhaustion.

After a long thought process Teo finally had decided to christen the sword 'Eclipse', named after its smooth, black surface, seemingly able to swallow up all light.

His plate freed of all organic matter, Teo decided to retire to his room and plan out his routine for the next weeks. He was very busy and had to squeeze his new training sessions into his daily schedule somehow, but according to Goliath, the results would certainly be worth it.

***

The next few weeks were rather peaceful and apart from the increasingly harsher training sessions he continued to force on himself nothing noteworthy happened.

During the first week Teo's Mana Core had already grown from a small pea, to a slightly larger pea, but even a whole moon later, its size was still slightly inferior to a chickpea. Progress seemed to slow down a lot for every millimeter he managed to expand it.

Only after putting in several moons of daily efforts, spending dozens of hours on knitting thread after thread into the ever-growing ball of energy —and tolerating the excruciating pressure he would have to endure during the task— did Teo manage to increase its size to grape-like proportions.

Meanwhile his natural Mana Capacity was slowly but steadily increasing too, as his inner world expanded. The combined pressure of actively supercharging his system for a limited time while working on his core, as well as having Goliath retain part of that excess Mana in his body permanently, to passively stretch his limits, was beginning to show its effect.

His body was getting used to the large quantities of arcane power he sought to contain in it, allowing him to increase the pressure more and more. Not only had his Mana Capacity risen by what would have taken him over two years of traditional exercise, the effect that normal practice would have on it (its growth rate so to speak) had even risen a bit, hinting at a slight advancement of his Mana Affinity.

Overall, Teo was very happy with the tangible changes he was going through and the only thing bugging him, was that he lacked suitable opportunities to show off his newfound prowess. Goliath's striking indifference to all of his ongoing advancements was just as stinging to him as a hundred paper cuts on a single finger and by now Teo was already longing for some external validation —even though he was unwilling to share his secret with anyone.

His control over Mana and foundational Magic had continuously grown more profound over the last moons and he was already able to fell a small tree with a well placed Mana Bolt, a sharp contrast to his initial results. In fact, he could probably best many of the more talented fourth years with his skills.

His Enchanting skills also received a huge boost, thanks to his finer control and enhanced perception of Mana, making his uncle incredibly proud of the young genius he had managed to cultivate. Much of his success stemmed from the fact, that Goliath's techniques gave him a huge advantage over other youths his age, but he was not without remarkable talent himself.

Teo had also found the time to practice another Element, even though he had not made much progress with it yet. It went without saying, that his first choice had fallen on the Fire Element, as it had always held a certain charm for him.

In alignment to Goliath's suggestions Teo had started by working on his ability to sense the Fire Elemental Threads in his surroundings, just like when he first started to awaken his Mana Sense. He had spent weeks without noticeable changes though. At first he could not even tell if a candle was lit or not with his eyes closed; only when close enough to feel its warmth —or burn his fingers.

After around two moons he managed to advance to the next level and became able to instinctively sense the presence of burning or hot objects in his surroundings. Now, after almost half a year of trying, Teo felt that he was very close to awakening his Fire Vision.

For the second half of the year even the curriculum of his school would experience slight changes and starting from next week, optional courses about practical uses of foundational Magic would be offered, at least for the students talented in Magic.

Normally practical courses would only start from the third year of Magic School and even those would be quite fundamental, however, the Council had recently decided to accelerate the exposure of children to basic Magic by a year, leading to this awkward transition year and playing right into Teo's cards.

Naturally every member of his small group had already awakened their Elemental Vision and at least mastered the basics of foundational Magic, but so far, this was only encouraged for self study and not systematically taught in class. Teo had actually tutored Angelika and Jack in these aspects sometimes during the last year, he did have quite the head start thanks to Mr. Atkins special lessons after all.

Also it wasn't entirely without remuneration. Both of them shared their insights regarding their Elements with Teo and explained to him, what they felt, their nature and properties were, complementing the theoretical knowledge from class. They were not sure, why Teo was so interested in the topic, but they were happy to share their experiences with their friends.

Jack took right after his father and possessed an intermediate grade Fire Affinity, rather fitting for his hot-headed personality. Angelika however had a shocking high rank Darkness Affinity, earning her a stipend for the Saint Joujack's Magic School in Sigella and probably for wherever she decided to go after that.

Apparently she came from a lineage of simple cabbage farmers and was the first in her family to awaken a noteworthy Affinity for anything. Some fifty years back she would not even have been able to enter a school at all, since her family was unable to pay for the hefty tuition fees, but the stipend of the Association paid not only for this, it even covered her whole family's relocation to Sigella and their daily expenses. The Association had been very supportive of its talented young blood these years.

Angelika was not very gifted in practical Magic and was not even enticed by its allure of power that much, but she still poured in all of the effort she could muster and studied in every free minute she had, fearing that the Association would cut her family's support if she was found lacking. An unfounded fear, as the stipend was unconditional, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

Teo was looking forward to the fresh wind, the new courses would bring to his school life, even if they would mostly deal with repetitions of knowledge he already possessed. If it meant, that he could show off his skills a little bit and earn some good grades for that, it was already better than the boring theoretical subjects he had to deal with on a daily basis.