Those words made Lith whine as he finally understood why he had co close to understand how the Gatekeeper worked, had just a grasp of Ruin, and had no clue about how War had been crafted.
"Our lessons will be mostly theoretical. First, I’ll teach you the basic alphabet of the runes so that you can learn how to design different pseudo cores on your own. Then, I’ll teach you the Forgemastering diagnostic spells that will help you to both understand what went wrong with your prototypes and to steal the secrets of your competitors.
"Last, but not least, I’ll teach you how to craft basic artifacts with runes. Bytra’s thod requires careful planning because you must be careful that the set of runes you apply have no side effect on the pseudo cores. Any question?" Faluel said.
"Just one. Do you think I can obtain the sa effects with my Royal Forgemaster wand? I’m no Awakened, but most of the things you explained I had already learned from my father." Quylla said.
"Well, I guess we’ll find out. Rember that just like I don’t ask you to share with your father’s knowledge, you can’t share mine with him. Also, whatever you make is mine to study." Faluel replied.
"I’m not a Forgemaster. Should I skip those lessons?" Friya asked.
"No. If you really want to beco my Harbinger, you’ll start from scratch as a true mage and learn Forgemastering on your own. Learning the runes will help you to improve your Warden magic while Forgemastering spells will allow you to separate the wheat from the chaff when you buy enchanted items.
"Even if you’re just a beginner, my teachings will have several practical applications." Faluel said.
"What about ? I’m not an Awakened and I don’t have one of those goddamned wands." Nalrond had a hard ti keeping the edge off his voice.
"I’m sorry, but unless you manage to beco the first Awakened among the Werepeople, after we’re done with the runes, you should practice sothing else. Forgemastering spells require Spirit Magic." Faluel shook her head.
"That said, it’s lunchti. This afternoon Nalrond will teach , Lith, and Solus Light Mastery. Phloria, Tista, and Quylla, you three will co back here so that I can train your bodies.
"I’ll teach all three of you how to fight against an Awakened. While I’ll focus on making sure that Tista and Phloria don’t need help to survive their future breakthroughs anymore, Quylla requires so basic training first. Even the best strategy is pointless if your body can’t keep up with your mind.
"Friya, here’s a book about tier four Forgemastering. Study it until your eyes bleed or reading one more line makes you want to puke." This ti it was the Ernas sisters having a hard ti keeping their envy at bay.
"Why does everyone get combat training but ? I’m not interested in Forgemastering!" Friya said.
"If you were my Harbinger, you wouldn’t be able to refuse my order, even if asked you to give your wand. Unless you want to break our deal and be banned from my lair, do as you’re told." Faluel handed Friya the book and then kicked everyone out.
"What do you want to do? Do you want to have lunch together or to go back ho?" Lith asked, eager to get back to the tower and discuss with Solus what they had just learned.
"I’ll stick with you." Nalrond replied. "I would love to help Selia with the cooking, but our lunch break is usually short and Protector’s kids are great at making trouble. You can’t drop the kids whenever you want, those little monsters demand a lot of attention."
"I’ll eat with you guys and then go back ho." Friya sighed. "Gods, I didn’t practice Forgemastering exactly to not compete with you all and here we go again."
"Going back and forth from ho takes too much ti." Phloria shook her head. "We’ll eat here and use the little free ti we have to arrange our notes."
"Agreed. I was so happy to have a theoretical lesson for once. No muscle aches nor getting covered in sweat like a miner, yet it turned out much more difficult than all the other subjects so far. I need to rework my Forgemastery from scratch!" Quylla said.
"The sa can be said for all of us." Lith opened a Warp to the mana geyser and Solus assud her tower form.
While Lith and Nalrond prepared the al, the won rrily talked among them while comparing their notes. Phloria had yet to make her mind about Lith and spending so much ti together didn’t help.
’I’m grateful to him for saving my life and giving the opportunity to learn true magic, but this doesn’t an I can forgive years of lies so easily. Solus seems a wonderful woman, but this only makes things worse.
’Their bond is so deep that it’s scary and I really don’t understand how can Lith share his whole being with a woman and yet date another. I would’ve gone mad with jealousy if I knew about Solus while we were still together.’ Phloria thought.
’My life is a ss and on top of that, we have to spend 100 years together? How the heck are we going to make it work?’
"Girls, I was wondering about one thing. Sooner or later, Faluel is going to send us on a mission to put us to the test. What will you do if she splits us into groups?" Solus asked.
"I don’t think she will assign us sothing above our level so I don’t see the point of your question." Friya shrugged.
She and Quylla didn’t share their sister’s issues with Solus. They loved to spend ti with her and admire the wonders that the mage tower had to offer.
"I’m not worried about the mission, but about the food. I noticed that none of us cooks and in my experience, missions can take a while." Solus said.
"I’ve never got the ti nor the will to learn. Being born in a noble family makes you focus more on your achievents than play ho." Friya said.
"Sa here." Phloria said.
"When I was an orphan, no one trusted near food because they starved us." Quylla shivered at the mory. "Once I started to work as a healer, I devoted my full focus to magic to earn my als and then I enrolled in the academy.
"I spent years developing my eating skills, so I can only cook very simple foods."
"I guess you’ll need a few dinsional amulets filled with als." Lith said with a sneer.
"That’s the idea." Friya nodded. "By the way, Dad wanted us to give you this."
She took a bag out of her dinsional amulet and emptied it over the table. It was filled with unrefined violet crystals, each one bigger than a coconut.
"He wanted to thank you for saving our lives, but both of you have busy schedules and Dad didn’t know when he would get the opportunity to et you. He asked us if there was sothing you needed and after seeing your personal mine, I told him you could use so crystals.
"It took a while to convince him that you had developed a ’personal cutting technique’ that makes unrefined crystals a better gift than those already treated by a Crystalsmith."
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