Stomp. Swing. Stop. Pump. Punch. Pull. Casimir went through these rote actions step by step, paying the bare minimum of attention as he reached out with his soul and gripped the vibrations of mana each motion generated, pulling it within his soul as force-aspected mana and binding it tightly within his mana heart. Tilt. Turn. Twist. Heave. Hop. Halt.

The Evoker's Dance mana binding ritual was one of the reasons Casimir was a patriot. Anima was the greatest country in the world, and part of that was how despite being situated on the greatest mana well in the world, wrought by will and knowledge from the ocean depths, the most common and first taught mana binding ritual was one that didn’t rely on being in a high-mana environment, so their mages could travel the world freely just by hopping on a boat. The borders were open both in theory and in fact.

Strike. Skip. Still. As long as you could move your body, force mana was always easy to generate. More importantly, it was difficult to find a mana type that allowed for a more useful set of basic spells than force magic. Mobility with the Flight spell, offense with Move Object, and defense with Magic Barrier. You could theoretically become an adventurer with just the basics of the basics of magic as taught at the Academy, which was convenient as many poorer students needed to do just that in order to afford further schooling. Flick, Flip, Fall. Kip up, Kick, Kiai.

With his mana heart nearly bursting with strength, Casimir ceased his ritual and used a few motes of it to fetch his waterskin, pouring the refreshingly cooled water all over himself after taking a deep drink.

“Still using the Evoker’s Dance?” Master Southwind said as she walked out onto her large balcony, freshly cleaned and in her house robe, watching Casimir as he magically dried himself. “Now that you’re back home, I figured you’d use the Breath of the World. It’s faster, and I know I told you that you had permission to use any of the mana in the house.”

Casimir shrugged. “Habit, I guess.” Casimir always felt twitchy for most of the day any time he used a less physically intensive method of binding mana in the morning. Hana explained the issue by saying that anything non-harmful and many harmful things, if repeated enough, could be made into a habit that threw off your soul’s equilibrium if you stopped doing it. Casimir frowned as he remembered what happened the last time he spoke to the elf, shortly after the Incident. “How quick would a trip to The Deeps be, you think?”

“Not quick enough.” Master replied softly, tracing a curse rune in the air and brushing it onto Casimir’s soul from , causing the water to vanish as it was absorbed into the skin. A mere tug of mana unraveled the curse, but his skin was still dry, the puddle underneath him was gone, and Casimir needed to pee. “I’d suggest sending a letter before thinking about a visit to little Hana. See if she ever plans on leaving the ocean ever again first, maybe ask if she managed to get hold of something to replace her legs…” She tilted her head as she reviewed what she just said. “Please let me review whatever you send her, before you send it.”

“I know how to be tactful.” Casimir protested as he ducked into the restroom. After resolving the immediate issue, he continued: “I figure I’d offer to send her some waterproofed books for her library.” The Deeps was a pretty strange place, populated nearly exclusively with introverted druids who use their spirit pacts to be able to survive in the deep ocean. It was a very powerful spirit court, though, so any druids that did act on the surface with their blessing benefited from the advanced spells they provided their vassals. “Just as a peace offering.”

Master came down from the stairs, smiling at her student. “That’s a wonderful idea. Last time I got to meet your friends, she was rather enamored of my copy of ‘On the Formation of Clouds’.” She reached out, and in a feat of memory that still baffled Casimir, the correct book flew into her hand from one of the hundreds of bookshelves that covered every possible space in the house. She checked the cover before smiling and holding it out. “You can get it copied into sturdier materials later. Oh, and be sure to read it, so you have something to talk about with her in the letter you’ll send.”

Casimir took the book and glanced through the spell diagrams within. They appeared to be mostly domain spells, given the notation. A review of the descriptions of each one indicated that they were ways to use a saturation of water mana aboveground and turn it into things like fog, snow, and lightning effects. It didn’t have instructions on how to establish or assume control of such a saturation, but Hana probably already has a book about the basics of domain magic. They were all in the back, though, so the book was probably more about the natural magical processes that created clouds. Exactly the kind of book Hana liked. “It does look interesting.” Casimir lied. “Thank you, Master.”

“It’s been nearly a year, Casimir.” Master said seriously. She didn’t need to specify what she was talking about. Luci… Magnus… “It’s the least I could do to help you reconcile with what’s left of your team.”

…Time to change the subject. “I’ll get started on breakfast.” Master was a wonderful woman and like a mother to him, but she went a bit too far when it came to accomplishing mundane tasks with magic. Most wizards just learn some active spells instead of shoehorning their specialty into things…

Immediately, Master Southwind jumped onto one of her comfortable chairs and grabbed a book. “This is why you’re my favorite student.”

“Because I won’t let you turn your food into a slurry you have to curse away your sense of taste to eat?” Casimir asked rhetorically. Mind mana was so very versatile… He opened the icebox and started fixing breakfast. Magnus was a fantastic chef, and his enchanted cookware were fantastic tools, held back only by the fact they were made for a Stone-aspected sorcerer, which was not particularly useful for any part of the cooking process, and thus each one had to be enchanted with high-end spells that accepted no other inputs. But Casimir was a wizard, so it was just an inconvenience to convert the mana rather than a problem.

“Because you make me food I can eat while reading.” Clarified Master. Dwarven mealbread, coming up.

Now, when Magnus made the traditional dwarven lunch, he took to it in the same way any dwarf would take their craft: By creating the most beautiful thing possible without sacrificing functionality. Casimir didn’t have a dwarf’s patience, so the flatbread had irregular browning instead of some fancy pattern, as he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how that part of the pan’s enchantments worked, and the food that it was wrapped around was just put in lengthwise so you got the same flavors in each bite rather than creating ‘a culinary journey to enjoy while you’re working’. Every time Casimir thought that hairy bastard had run out of original flavor profiles…

…It still hurts. Casimir took the tea set out and started to prepare more of that mind tea. It was good for pain.

“Oh, by the way.” Master said, interrupting Casimir’s musings. “You know how I said the Headmaster wanted you to do a few jobs for him in return for the solo class?”

“Yeah?” Casimir asked as he placed one of the enchanted plates near her, letting it float in place with the mealbread on top.

Master tapped the plate, seizing control over the enchantment’s direction and moving it to a convenient position for her. “There’s a club for students who want to become adventurers and he wants you to help out sometimes.”

Casimir did not like the sound of that. “How much help?”

“You’re not going to be the faculty advisor, if that’s what you’re asking.” Master said in an attempt to give reassurance. “That’s going to be Professor Thorne.” Casimir didn’t recognize that name. “Ah, he teaches Shaping magic.”

“Is he at least an adventurer?” Casimir asked.

“...No.” Master eventually said. “He was a mage-knight, though, so he’s teaching them combat and monster lore.”

Damn it. “If that windbag of a Headmaster thinks I’m going to do anything else for him on top of this, he’s got another thing coming.” Casimir said angrily after swallowing a bite of his breakfast.

“That’s more than fair. I’ll make sure he gets the message.” Master said. “Maybe you’ll find a personal student among them.”

“Fat chance.”

---------------------------

Professor Thaddeus Thorne was exactly the kind of man one would expect when one hears the words: ‘he used to be a mage-knight’. Old enough to have their hair be completely white, but with a health and vitality that could only be kept at such an advanced age because of the fortifying treatments that all members of Anima’s military received during their service. He wore his beard long, and was in the impromptu training field stripped to the waist, showing off his scars and weathered but still solid physique.

“So you’re the adventurer ol’ Gardener’s roped into being my assistant?” Thorne sent via a sound spell the moment he noticed Casimir at the far end of the field.

Casimir used the same spell to convey his quiet response. “Yes. I’m elite-ranked, if it helps.” The adventurer’s guild had five ranks, half for bragging rights and half as a bureaucratic aid. While there were sometimes tasks routine enough that it was just posted for anyone to take at the guild’s job board, it was the duty of the guild to assess the jobs properly and offer the task to whichever team was most suited for it. The ranks were novice, standard, veteran, elite, and heroic. “Between us we should be able to get some survival skills in their skulls.” Direct combat wasn’t exactly Casimir’s strong suit, he was more of an ambush guy, but if Thorne was even half as skilled as he looked, they should be able to handle anything that had any realistic chance of showing up.

The knight nodded approvingly. “I heard rumors of an elite-ranked adventurer being added to the staff…”

“That’s me.” Casimir confirmed. “So when are the students showing up? You’ve met them already, right?”

“They’ll trickle in over the next half hour or so.” Thorn said idly. “I usually set them on mana binding until everyone else is here. Gets the heart pumping.”

“I suppose I could top off too…” Casimir said before walking to where the knight had left his gear, divesting himself of his own, packing it together in his magic bag, and activating the security enchantments, giving it a stone shell to disguise it as an ordinary rock.

“Isn’t leaving your weapons like that against an adventurer rule or something? We’re not indoors.” Thorne pointed out. He wasn’t wrong, the forest near the academy was as artificial as the entire country was, but this particular forest was used as monster hunting grounds, as they matured and reproduced rapidly in the high-mana environment. The grounds right next to it were far from a safe place.

Casimir drew his stiletto from his thigh holster through the slit in his pants. “This weapon?”

The knight leaned away from the pointy bit of metal. “Is that Verenium?” He said, vaguely disgusted.

“Good eye.” Casimir complimented. “This one doesn’t have any poison, I cleaned it out.” That isn’t to say that Casimir didn’t have several potent varieties on hand ready to soak the blade in, but ignoring the fact that carrying a poisoned knife was against the rules in so many places, it was far more useful for the magic-absorbing properties, augmenting itself with whatever mana was fed into it or that it was stabbed into. Excellent for penetrating the hides of monsters with powerful mana cultivation or shaped armor before channeling a nasty curse, bypassing the magical parts of those defenses. “Best knife a wizard could ask for, really.” Sheathing the stiletto, Casimir patted his other thigh. “I have some throwing knives too. The basics never become useless.” Well, Casimir usually used Propel, which is spellweaving, rather than the simpler Move Object when throwing his knives, like he did early in his career, but it’s basic spellweaving so it counts.

“Too true.” Thorne said, seeming pleased. “I think the kids will be in good hands… and you’ll be there too.” Casimir snorted as he started to bind the mana he had lost on one thing or another throughout the day. Lesson one for an adventuring wizard: Bind mana at every opportunity.

“I’ll admit to having gotten a little lazy with my adventuring habits since I started teaching.” Casimir said as the first student passed through the gate that protected the Academy from any spontaneous monster attacks. “So keep the snark to a minimum in front of the students, yeah?”

“No promises.” The old knight replied, but with a smile. He’s probably trained recruits before, so he should know the drill. Heh, drill.

The first student to show up was, surprisingly, Peter the lost duckling. “Teach?”

“Mr. Wood.” Casimir said in greeting. “Just bind mana until everyone else shows up.”

“I did that before I came.” Peter replied. “Should I not have?”

Casimir stared at the student in confusion. Why would being full stop him… Oh, right. He doesn’t know anything. “Alright, I’ll have to teach you a little magical exercise then.” Okay, his level of excitement at that statement was way too high. “First, let me…” Casimir looked around, saw a decently sized rock, and reached out with his soul to weave force mana around it, building up the power until it hit the critical point, impacting on the mana barrier Casimir erected to catch it with a thought.

“Wow!” Peter exclaimed. “That was so cool, are you going to teach that in class?”

Really? “Of course not. Propel is spellweaving, I’m teaching curses. Are you taking basic spellweaving?”

“...I thought you were a curse wizard.” Peter replied.

“I don’t know what kind of crappy wizards you’ve met before, “ Casimir said, honestly offended. “But any wizard worth the name can cast at least a few spells from most methodologies, not just their specialty and a smattering of active spells. Multidisciplinary casting is not just for Archmages. I can cast three spellweaves at combat proficiency, personally.” Well, come to think of it, he used Flame Stream often enough during adventures that maybe he should consider learning how to weave it into a Fireball. Why didn’t he do that… oh. Right. Luci usually handled the big burn jobs. Light mana, especially when used via her divine pact, caused a lot less collateral damage.

Thorne barked out a laugh. “Okay, I believe you now on the elite-ranked thing.” And the very expensive knife didn’t? Some people…

“Okay, so the actual thing I was going to teach you.” Casimir said, forcibly ending that tangent. “Will be to refine your usage of Move Object, and if you do it right, Domain and Negative magic will be easier to learn. First…” Casimir tapped the rock repeatedly, converting some stone aspected mana and using it to cut the rock cleanly down the middle. He repeated the technique until there were thirty-two pieces of rock. “Okay, the ideal form of this exercise is to use the Evoker’s dance, and instead of taking the mana generation from your motions, you instead shove it into an active spell matrix you’re holding together and move the pieces of this rock, without your mana well depleting at all. Do you understand?”

Peter seemed to have gotten lost somewhere, but he slowly nodded. “I think so, Teach. But… how?”

“One step at a time.” Casimir replied. “First, watch me do the whole thing.” Throw. Thrust. Throttle. At the third step, where the mana was gathered, all thirty-two pieces of rock shot upwards into the air. Quickly transitioning into one of the dozens of forms of the dance, the rocks started to orbit around Casimir, and with each iteration, the dance of the rocks became more and more complex.

“Monster.” Thorne said idly, looking towards the trees.

Taking a glance himself while continuing the exercise, it appeared to be a Titan’s Deer, so named due to their immense jumping and stomping ability rather than their large but not particularly impressive size. It must have sniffed the force magic going around and thought it might be a potential mate showing off. “I got it.” Casimir said, launching the stones at the deer. As expected, it jumped away from the scattered warning shots.

Casimir looked back at Peter, only to notice that the number of students waiting around had risen to five. “...and that’s how that exercise looks when you master it.” Casimir said after a pause to register the new people. “Hey Thorne, is this all of them?”

“Not yet. We’re only dealing with the new members today, there should be four more.” Replied the knight.

Casimir repeated the steps he used to get the first set of rocks, although the rock he found was smaller so he only split it into sixteen pieces. “When you learned the Move Object spell in the first place, you learned it one thing at a time. First you learned how to generate the force mana, how to bind it, and only then did you learn how to impart that mana into the rock in a coherent way. You learned how to lift it, launch it, curve it, each one step at a time. This exercise is no different.” Casimir paused to assess the adventurer trainees. They seemed to be following him, good. “First, you must learn how to use magic while vigorously moving, period. Each of you will take three stones, and then you will start dancing, either the binding ritual or something else, I don’t care. While you are doing that, you will rotate the rock around you. Once you have accomplished a steady rotation while dancing, we will move on to the next step. We’ll keep going for a few minutes after everyone’s here, so you all know what to do, then we’ll do whatever Thorne had planned.”

An elven student that Casimir didn’t recognize raised her hand: “What’s the point of this?”

Thorne decided to field that question, stepping in front of Casimir to take charge of the situation. “He’s teaching you combat casting! Few monsters will let you focus and take your time with your spells, so learning to overcome that weakness is crucial for an adventuring mage!” He turned to Casimir. “Good work, boy. I was going to have them do something similar, so I’ll be sure to tell the Headmaster that I’ll be keeping you on for this.”

At least the favor won’t be anything he hasn’t done before. David needed a lot of practical teaching before he was able to protect his sister like he wanted to… Not like it mattered, in the end.