I could not resist adding one more chapter. But this is last one for now.

That undeserved victory left bitter aftertaste. As I returned to my room, I decided to train my spirit capacity for some time before going to sleep. I was still lonely and bit scared, but I managed to fall asleep pretty fast, after crying for some time.

When I woke up next day, I rushed for breakfast, and met Brant, who was waiting for me. Right after we exchanged our welcomes, I asked about question that was on my mind since yesterday.

"How have you managed to not get burned by [Fireball] you blocked yesterday, Brant?“ I asked.

Brant blinked, with face of disbelief.

"Do you really not know? As long as you have mana, even if you are hit by spell, it will first have to burn all of your mana before harming you. Though it burns lot more mana than what it needs to cast. Thankfully, spell was weakened enough by my shield first, or else it would burn me bit.“ he explained to me.

"I didn't know. Uncle never explained this to me. Does it work for everyone?“ I responded surprised.

"Of course it does.“ answered Brant, who could not understand how someone who had no clue about this could be tier seven magician.

We both started eating.

Uncle actually never talked about situations where magicians would fight against one another. He only explained to me why it was necessary for village to have magic practitioners against monsters, even though tier five and maybe even tier six magic was indisputably weaker than weapons like bows and swords.

It was because monsters had special ability, that made magicians necessary. When they sensed danger, they would cover themselves in [Wild Aura], defensive monster magic shield around their skin, that protected them from any harm and also slightly improved their physical power and speed. While it was extremely hard to break [Wild Aura] with normal weapons, magic was able to exhaust it very effectively and therefore destroy their main defense. After [Wild Aura] was exhausted, only stronger monsters remained serious threat, while most of weaker monsters became easy prey. Even weakest monsters would require about ten trained non-magicians to defeat it, so it was obvious why magicians must be necessary.

I thought that there must be some connection between [Wild Aura] and this natural ability of humans, but idea did not stay in my mind for long time.

Then we went to class. Teacher Kalani started with teaching of reading and writing, which she said we would have every Tuesday from now on. While she was giving lecture about letters of alphabet, I started reading second tier seven spell book, [Wind Blade]. This spell was really interesting as it was able to penetrate through spells of similar power, but it also didn't completely block the spell of enemy, making it so that both sides would be hit.

Unlike [Freezing Wind] that I learned over few hours, this spell looked much more complex and harder to learn.

Teacher Kalani was not happy that I ignored her lecture, but she already knew that reading was not problem for me. She was however surprised when she has seen I had different book from yesterday. Even though there were no distractions today and I had much more time, after her lecture ended, I still could not fully comprehend even basic instructions for [Wind Blade].

After lecture ended, I once again asked her to help me see if I improved from yesterday. It was just excuse to be with her and show off, since I already could use spell [Freezing Wind] properly.

When she has seen me successfully cast the spell, she was really shocked. After all, she recognized it really was tier seven magic. Yesterday, when she asked headmaster, he was unwilling to reveal any information about me, only thing he told her was that my soul power was really low, to the point of making any talent I would show pointless.

But now that she has seen me cast powerful tier seven spell that I was not able to properly cast just yesterday, she had to disagree with headmaster.

"Aiken, that was really great.“ she complimented me, trying to soften me up for her question. "Could you tell me who was your teacher before? He must be really great teacher.“ she asked without hiding her interest.

Truth was, she was envious of me. After all, she only managed to reach tier seven magic in her last year of elementary magic education. As I was student in branch of generous and headmaster didn't reveal anything about my origin or my soul and spirit test scores, she assumed I was from some wealthy family. And I unknowingly made her believe her assumptions to be right when I answered.

"I am sorry teacher Kalani, but I cannot answer that question.“ I answered sadly. Even though I wanted to impress her, teacher Alaric told me not to talk about him with anybody. He also said same thing to my uncle and old man Keiran. I didn't understand why. But he was right to do so. As child I was, I had no clue that if I revealed I was his student, I would be surrounded by boot-lickers trying to use me to get closer to teacher Alaric.

"I see. Nevermind then. Everyone has secret or two.“ she said with smile. She could not understand what kind of secret could it be. She for moment played with idea she would use obvious crush I had on her, before realizing it would be too vile thing to do to child of my age.

"So now that you learned [Freezing Wind], what spell are you learning?“ she decided to ask.

I sighed, as I was reminded that I was still not able to understand basic instructions of this spell. Spellbooks usually had about only ten pages, but this one had thirty two pages, and difficulty was many times higher than that of spell I learned before. I was still trying to memorize everything, but most importantly I needed comprehend first ten pages, where basics of spell were explained.

"I am now trying to learn [Wind Blade], but it is much harder than [Freezing Wind]. I can't still understand basics. Teacher Kalani, do you have any idea about it?“ I asked. Teacher Kalani tried to hide her surprise. She knew spell of similar name, [Whirlwind Blade], that was however tier nine spell. There were only few spells of wind and lightning element, and most of them were incomplete, because they were much harder to create than spells of other elements.

"I might be able to help you. Could I have the spellbook for a moment?“ she asked, hiding the fact that she had no clue what spell could I be talking about. I did not notice anything and lent her the book. She quickly listed through it and then returned it to me.

"Have you received this spellbook from your teacher?“ she asked me. I nodded in response. "He must care about you lot. This spell is hybrid spell that was probably made by your teacher just for you. It's based on tier nine spell [Whirlwind Blade] which is very powerful, but its tier and power were reduced so it could be used by tier seven magicians. I suspect that this magic school would be willing to pay about one or two gold coins to get hands on this spell. You should keep it safe.“ she said.

From brief view of book she could not tell how effective this hybrid spell would be, but based on precise instructions, she believed it would be second only to traditional tier seven spells. She never suspected it could actually match traditional spells equally.

She was tempted to make me let her learn the spell, since it was obvious I would lend her the book if she asked, and then sell the copy to school, but she was bit scared of pissing off the mysterious teacher as well as my anonymous powerful family that could afford such formidable teacher, so suppressed her greed.

"I see.“ I said, as I took my book back. If teacher really created this new spell just for me, I felt I had to learn it regardless of how hard it is.

"I am sorry, but I can't really help you with this spell, since I don't know it. Even though it originated from [Whirlwind Blade], it is still completely different spell so my advice would be pointless.“ she apologized. She felt uncomfortable because she has tricked me, but also because she was jealous, since I had such capable teacher backing me, while she always had to work hard on her own.

When afternoon came, there was spirit meditation practice outside of our dorm, at same park I had my battle yesterday. Thankfully, weather was good. However, first two hours of class, teacher Kalani had to explain [Spirit Capacity Meditation], one of lesser spirit capacity training methods. While I was still reading, I was trying to listen as well.

From what I understood, it had similar effects to training methods my uncle passed onto me, but it required much less concentration. It was obvious that students in branch of generous received preferable treatment over village children in branch of commons. I was able to understand this technique within less than hour of time and then I decided I would try to use this technique and read my spellbook at same time.

To my surprise, not only was it possible, it did not feel that hard at all. However, I could tell this method had only fraction of effect compared to [Mystical Spirit Expanding Technique] I was taught by teacher Alaric. But it was also way too easy method, I mean, I could even read book without being distracted by this training. From now on I can learn spells and improve my spirit capacity at same time!

I expected others to have similar results, however, when I looked around me, I noticed almost all students who were meditating showed absolute focus and quite few students had even problems with learning it at all. Especially girl with light blue hair sitting on ground in front of me. From what my I saw, she was not following instructions at all.

After watching her struggle for few minutes, I could not resist anymore, so I stood up and walked to her. I touched her shoulder, which scared her little bit. She turned around and looked at me with mix of anger and fear.

"Hello.“ I said. I did not know her name since during class introduction, I was too dreamy and too much focused on teacher Kalani to memorize anyone's name.

She did not answer me, only staring at me, unsure what was going on.

"You are doing it wrong way. Teacher Kalani said to let your mana slowly circulate within your spirit. Your mana is circulating too fast and escaping out of your spirit to the point its almost visible.“ I said.

"But I need to practice faster.“ she protested.

"What you are doing is not faster. You are just wasting mana without improving your spirit at all. If you want to practice faster, just master this technique to point when you can read book or walk while practicing.“ I answered.

"That's not possible.“ she said with disbelief.

"It is. I am currently still training my spirit while we are talking. I am sure you will be also able to do it also, if you train for long enough.“

"I don't believe you. In order to manipulate mana, you need to focus properly.“ she said with doubts in her eyes.

"It is possible. Look at this.“ I said smiling and then I increased speed of mana circulation even more than she did before, in order to make it easy to see that I was still moving mana withing my spirit, and while mana was spinning, I started dancing.

When she saw what I was doing, she started smiling and then she even laughed bit. But since there was lot of mana escaping out of my spirit, other children could feel it, so they interrupted their meditation and turned to me, realizing I was dancing while visible mana strings were flying out of my body. As I suddenly realized I am being watched, I stopped.

Moment of awkwardness followed, with some children laughing and pointing at me. But others stayed quiet and gave me weird looks.

After while, everyone returned back to meditating, but teacher Kalani just sat down speechless. Until now, she mostly believed my unusual talents were simply nurtured by the unknown teacher supporting me, but seeing this, she had to change her opinion. She has never seen person capable of training spirit while not meditating, who would be younger than fifteen.

Even she, who was really talented learned how to train her spirit while lying in her bed few years ago and now she could do so while doing some calm activity, like reading books. Seeing someone who could dance while doing so at the age of six was simply unbelievable, and not even talented child, regardless of what teacher they would have, should be able to do this. This was something only genius could achieve.

When I stood up to go to girl in front of me, she was already about to finish instructing other child and go to her, but when I myself decided to help, she instead observed me and listened carefully, interested if I would reveal something about my own background. Why she was interested in my background was obvious, there was no other child who just entered magic school capable of using tier seven spells. Ever.

Even greatest talent in branch of honor, girl that was currently in second year, was still quite far from reaching tier seven magic and it was only expected she would be able to achieve it at the end of this year. Teacher Kalani knew this because honor branch teachers really liked to proudly declare how talented their students were.

They were pointlessly proud assholes, according to her opinion, but that was to be expected since they were from practitioners families. Fact that they were forced to teach in school by their families since they did not achieve enough soul power or spirit capacity and had to stay teaching in school until they were seen as strong enough did not make them have shred of humility.

When I started talking to girl about mastering technique to point where she could be able to walk and do whatever while practicing, teacher just smiled. Since she was from branch of commons, she learned this meditation technique only after school has paid for her secondary education and she was moved to branch of generous. Even though she learned technique in two hours, mastering it to point where she was able to use it without meditating took five years.

Now, after witnessing what I did, she was utterly shocked, to the point where she was unsure whether to call me genius or monster.

At that moment I looked at teacher and immediately turned my face away with embarrassment. I had crush on her and she has seen me do something so silly now. What an idiot I am?

As I sat down at my place and opened book again, girl in front of me started practicing. It was hard for her and she needed to focus completely, but this time, she did it properly.

After lesson ended, I said goodbye to Brant and immediately headed back to dormitory. I realized I would need much more time to properly understand [Wind Blade] spell, and in dormitory, there would be silence ideal for focusing completely.

But before I sat down to table with book, I first took out spirit capacity measuring crystal.

"Eight hundred and four.“ I murmured with dissatisfaction. It was truth that it was only two days since I reached tier seven, and I did not practice at all, focusing only on learning new tier seven spells, but my mana only raised by three? Even with help of that [Spirit Capacity Meditation]? I placed down my book and decided I would spend two hours of time meditating using method from teacher Alaric before I would continue.

At the end, I was able to raise my spirit capacity by ten more and I thought I started to understand absolute basics of [Wind Blade]. Before I went to sleep, I was not satisfied with my progress today.

Next morning I arrived to class early and I noticed something. Those people who were already here were talking to each other in groups. But there was one person out of all of those groups, who was just lifelessly sitting at her place. It was girl from yesterday whose hair color was similar to color of sky.

When Brant arrived, i decided to ask him about it.

"What is going on? Is everyone avoiding that girl? Why?“ I asked him.

"Don't you know who she is?“ he asked.

"Well, I was not really paying attention much during introductions, to be honest.“ I said trying to look apologetically.

"She is Saffron Sable, of Sable family. Sable family is enemy of Randolph family, everyone knows that. Since Ryan Randolph has his group of companions, who are lot scary, to not provoke him, wouldn't it be better to avoid her obviously?“

As he started explaining, I bit my tongue. Only now have I realised I completely forgot about my promise to lady Sable. She probably even had me attend same class as her daughter intentionally and I not only forgot but did not even notice it. Damn, I have betrayed her trust. Moreover, I finally realised, why when everyone saw me dancing, less than half of them laughed and instead gave me weird stares. Most of children were probably thinking why did I even talk with her.

"Then we should go and talk to her.“ I said, trying to correct my previous mistakes.

"Are you mad? We already had one conflict with Randolph and his friends few days ago, and we escaped only by miracle. I know he managed to get at least three people from first years into his companions, and one might be easily at this class. Also not only Randolph family, but Bantinc family is also at odds with Sable family, and while Bantinc group is not as powerful as Randolph group, they are known to be really terrifying bullies.“ he protested.

"Coward.“ I said, as I took first steps towards her seat. After few seconds, Brant decided to follow me, silently cursing me to hell.

When I was next to her, she turned to me with surprised look.

"Hello again. How are you doing?“ I asked.

She did not respond, and gave me suspicious glance. She realised everyone else avoided her and was suspicious of me. It was my mistake to not notice her before. I could have helped her right away.

"Did my advice help you?“ I asked again.

"Yes, thank you. It seems like I can at least meditate properly now.“ she answered and bowed her head little unknowingly.

"It's nothing much. If you practice properly, maybe in few months, you will be able to practice like this even during lessons.“ I encouraged her. I had no heart to tell her I was able to do it instantly. I already noticed that this was not usual, and was thinking if my case was weird.

"I hope so.“ she said silently, with look of sadness.

"Is there any problem?“ I asked, surprised.

"You know, my sister is really smart and talented, and I feel like I am getting more and more far away from her. I am only able to use tier four spells and my soul power is only two hundred, but my sister... she is already able to use tier six magic and she is only in second year.“ she said.

"Tier six you say. That's not much.“ I puffed proudly.

But I could see anger in her face appear at that moment.

"Listen, don't make light of my sister. She is really talented and powerful, she would be able to beat you with one spell.“ she said. She really idolized her sister and my rude remark was.

I wanted to disagree, but I had no ground to do so. After having battle with that Randolph's companion Landon, I realized that soul power was extremely important and if her sister had even more soulpower than Landon, she could easily beat me with just tier six magic.

"That might be true.“ I said with dissatisfaction.

For few seconds, neither of us said anything.

"You are also able to use tier six magic already?“ she asked.

"I already can use tier seven spells.“ I puffed with pride. "But my soul power is almost non-existent.“ I added after few second with sadness.

"You are really talented!“ she said with surprise which made me bit angry. Is it really surprise that I am talented? After all, I helped her with spirit training, why is she surprised about it?

"Nice weather we are having today, right?“

Brant finally found courage to step in and enter our conversation.

"I am Brant, his friend. And this idiot who has yet to introduce himself is Aiken.“

I realized I really did not introduce myself and felt really stupid.

"My name is Saffron.“ she said and smiled.

But our conversation ended right there, as teacher Kalani entered room, and we had to return to our seats.

So that's it. Until friday.