If you are ever employed somewhere you don’t particularly like, don’t try hard. Do not. The harder you try, the more work will be assigned to you. That’s a very simple A to B rule. You work hard, you get more work.

You want to do less work? Well, no one gives more work on a deadline to someone who can barely do their job. That’s the sweet spot. Be a decent employee, someone who cannot be fired because ‘well, he is useful – he’s just not that bright.’

The sweet spot.

What I’ve done here… is the opposite.

How?

Well, buddy, if a book tells you that the second exercise is much more difficult, but you find out that you already have a solution for it, guess what that means.

Yeah, I worked too hard!

Ok. First, apparently, I did not have to multi-cast the [Lights]. I just checked.

Second, I think I should have done what Domitilla and Lucinda do. They control the spell matrix from the outside. They do not influence the matrix’s polarity from inside the matrix. The book threw me off when it talked about matrixes and polarity because I was fixated on the squiggly lines.

And remember how the book hesitated in answering some of my questions? Well, I think I just made up something new or, at the very least, extremely advanced.

And if, on the one hand, I’m proud of the good work, on the other, the work is too good. And if you know me, it means that this will backfire spectacularly.

How?

I don’t know yet; I don’t have a crystal ball.

But yeah, apparently, I made a huge mistake.

Well, let’s get this over with.

I make a [Light], anchor one point of the spell matrix, and give the rest of the spell some polarity by distributing the starting points unevenly.

A [Light] orb appears and starts rotating in place while spinning onto itself.

After what feels like a minute – I don’t have a clock here – I dispel it and look at the book.

“Well, that was the second one, book.”

‘Congratulations on completing the Second Cantrip. Beware, the third one requires great focus.’

Yeah, yeah.

‘For the Third Cantrip, Magister Mulligan wants you to make two [Light] spells spin on themselves for ten seconds.’

Is this for real?

I just repeat the procedure while multi-casting it.

I see the fresh ink already shifting.

‘Congratulations on completing the Third Cantrip. Beware, the fourth one tests your casting speed.’

‘For the Fourth Cantrip, Magister Mulligan wants you to cast ten [Light] spells in under five minutes.’

Are you kidding me?

I do it in batches of three and then the last one. It probably takes me less than thirty seconds.

My mental capacity seems to have also somewhat increased since the first day. Now, multi-casting three [Lights] is a breeze. Plus, thanks to [Mana Well], I can’t feel any strain yet.

‘Congratulations on completing the Fourth Cantrip. Beware, the fifth one tests your control of the spell.’

‘For the Fifth Cantrip, Magister Mulligan wants you to cast a [Light] spell and have it travel for ten yards.’

I open the stupid window of this stupid room and shoot a [Light] in the air with minimum effort. It goes on for more than a hundred yards before it flickers out into the night.

‘Congratulations on completing the Fifth Cantrip. Beware, the sixth one tests your wit.’

‘For the Sixth Cantrip, Magister Mulligan wants you to cast a [Light] spell shaped like a stick and have it spin on itself for five seconds.’

[Light Shaping]

I modify the matrix with my skill and simply anchor the center of it, creating an anti-matrix for the polarity—no, two anti-matrixes on both halves.

What would be the problem here? People would probably learn to control two parts of a spell to make a stick rotate, right? Well, thankfully, I learned how to do much more than that because I’m an idiot.

Man, I could have saved myself so much time…

The light ‘stick’ starts spinning, and I look at the book again. The ink shivers for a second as if the book was having a seizure or something.

“Well, you didn’t expect that, huh?”

My body starts seizing from the current.

“Come on, now!” I say as soon as the [Thunderbolt Curse] lets go of me.

‘Congratulations on completing the Sixth Cantrip. Beware, the seventh one tests your power.’

‘For the Seventh Cantrip, Magister Mulligan wants you to cast a [Light] spell with a diameter larger than two feet.’

“Yeah?”

I visualize the same matrix as always, just bigger.

I also overload the squiggly lines with my Mana.

And there we go.

A huge ass [Light], probably three feet in diameter at the very least, starts hovering in the center of the room. If I did not have my [Eyes: Major Light Resistance], I would probably be blind by now.

“Next.”

…

I work up my way to the 23rd Cantrip in the span of an hour. After that, I can feel my body getting tired. I had a few interesting ideas while working on the Cantrips, the most important one being how to separate pieces of the main spell matrix to add a beautiful ‘shedding’ effect.

That’s going to do well with the ladies, I think.

Well, let’s sleep for a second.

As soon as my head hits the pillow, I can hear the words in my head.

[Light Mage Level 8!]

[Conditions Met: Flash → Advanced Flash!]

[Conditions Met: Light Shaping → Advanced Light Shaping!]

“Stupid class, just let me sle—”

Zap.