Chapter 9: Preparation

Besides expanding Lucas's arsenal of magical abilities, Professor Morrix kept him practicing his Will. For ten minutes straight, Lucas would have to maintain the reinforcement while receiving attacks that progressively became stronger over the months. In the beginning of March, the professor tested him, showing that he was capable of maintaining his Will for two hours straight while constantly taking small spells. 

Through this practice, Lucas also began to grasp a core part of the Will that he had not understood before, although it should have been obvious — instead of straining his body like he did when manipulating his darkness, Lucas should have been focusing on his willpower. The true essence of the Will wasn’t entirely mental fortitude like the book had mentioned — rather, the physical application of the Will to manipulate another object was dependent on how much the user could convince themselves that they truly wanted to manipulate said object. Mental fortitude was merely the protection of this prolonged straining of willpower — so that an outside factor could not distract one’s concentration. 

As the professor put it when Lucas brought up his observations, “Fortitude of the mind is like Azla — a somewhat numerical quantity that represents how much potential you have. Willpower is how you use the powers reserved to you to determine your actual ability. In your case, your fortitude is what I would consider a little too high for your age. The Will is meant to be practiced after your mind has fully finished developing and maturing; otherwise, it may negatively impact your ability to feel emotions in the future.”

Lucas also confirmed with his friends what his role would be, surprising them when he mentioned that his Will had advanced to the level where he could adequately fend against any attack that their opponents might throw at them. He also suggested that he act as a coordinator rather than merely a support type, since he could Enhance his eyes to spot the opposing team’s movements. 

Bodily Enhancement was taking its classes outside more often now. It wasn’t hot like summer and the sky wasn’t coated with clouds like winter, yielding the perfect breeze for outdoor frolicking. Except the students weren’t dancing. They were undergoing the most painful endurance training that they had ever experienced, not that the nobles had anything to compare it to. As a result, after all of the consistent multi-kilometer runs, besides Eren, Lucas himself, and Jareth, every other student was on the floor, some even twitching uncontrollably. Eren had been training excessively to catch up to Lucas whereas Jareth was, as Lucas had previously found out, from a family that heavily emphasized close combat and had put him through extensive training before his enrollment. 

After their Bodily Enhancement classes, Lucas generally worked on his Will on the walk to Professor Morrix’s office. Once, when he decided to levitate his room card on his way up the stairs, a student, somehow even smaller than he, ran past him and attempted to grab it. Lucas, surprised by the sudden extra weight, just barely managed to catch himself before slipping up on his Will control. The student fell into a crumpled pile at the foot of the stairs, and Lucas decided against pressing the student. 

Whenever Lucas arrived at the office, the professor would, as previously mentioned, simply teach Lucas about his magic and how he could use it to its fullest potential. After the lesson, Lucas would practice his Will under the professor’s supervision, also as previously mentioned. 

However, today, the professor addressed Lucas the moment he stepped over the threshold, “The Council has reached out to me. They’ve said that you can use your magic in the tournament as a last resort. They have a fallback plan that they think will be worth trying out if such a case were to occur.”

“The Council is personally making decisions over me?” Lucas asked, surprised and slightly giddy. 

“Certainly. You might think it normal since you’re, you know, you, but the fact is, you’re a novelty. The Strange Arcane is not something one comes by every morning walk, and — I’m not supposed to tell you this, but from what I’ve heard from Professor Marris, Vaelith Ensera has already connected the dots — Professor Marris has indeed foretold that there will be a rather large upheaval in the near future. In six years, she says. 

“The Council believes that it needs to prepare for her forecast, especially because it happens to coincide with the thousandth anniversary of the War of Two Doctrines. I personally believe that this cannot be a coincidence. Be it the will of the gods above or the will of magic itself, these three events — your birth, the anniversary of the war, and the fortune of Professor Marris — cannot be by chance.”

“And they think that I’ll be able to — to do anything about this?”

“No. To them, it’s not a question of how much you can contribute. It’s what your role itself is. Much is uncertain, and when they think of how to influence your future, they most likely wish for your success so that it may cause theirs. Thus, despite all the uncertainty, they believe that they should maximize your capabilities — Mareli Drevance, especially; the Drevance family has oft displayed their preference for raw power over diplomacy.”

“In other words, I’m a tool that they can flexibly use in reaction for anything that might happen in six years.”

“Because they do not know you personally. You can’t measure one’s potential without knowing who they are and how they act. In fact, I am the one granted the honor of fleshing out what you are capable of. Don’t think of me as a heartless spy, though. I am selfish not for my own success but for the satisfaction that my students have achieved a means for them to be happy. But this is also mischaracterizing the Council. Don’t think of them as some uppity, selfish old men, either. Their goal is for the kingdom to thrive, so in the end, they are still good people.”

“I see. But why can’t I choose how to serve the kingdom myself?”

“The same reason soldiers follow the will of their generals, isn’t it? The Council is made up of experienced men, don’t worry. They are trustworthy. Anyways, back to the point. I have not been personally made sure of what their plan is, but I trust them enough to believe that it cannot hurt you. I have seen a bit of how those snobby nobles treat you, so if it is within your desire to leave a great impression on them, I believe this is the Council’s ‘go ahead.’”

The moment Lucas finished his exercises, he ensured that Eren knew about the new development the moment he entered the dormitory. They then told Cairen, Iriyen, and Vaelith at dinner, after checking if no one was eavesdropping. Cairen and Eren were both ecstatic, clapping Lucas on the back and coming up with ideas for how to make his last resort as flashy as possible. Iriyen did nothing as she watched the three boys noiselessly. Vaelith, on the other hand, seemed to be deep in thought. 

“So you don’t know what the Council’s plan is?” she asked finally. 

“What? Well, I suppose. It’s fine, though, right?” Lucas said. 

“Yeah, yeah!” Eren joined in. “Even his special professor said that it should be fine.”

“Yes, but what could the Council ever do to bypass the fact that a human student of the most prestigious school is capable of calling darkness at will? It just doesn’t seem like there’s anything that could possibly leave Lucas unharmed while also causing everyone else to disregard the fact that his mind should be corrupted.”

“It’s the Council, come on,” Eren said. “They have crazy connections and they’re pretty powerful themselves. I’ve heard that the current representative of the Lorenx family once caused a crowd made up of four of the six intelligent races to all fall asleep. He’s an elemental mage, mind you. He didn’t use any technique or anything.”

“I actually kind of agree with Vaelith on this one,” interjected Cairen. “What you described can easily be explained by Revelation Abilities.” Spotting the looks of confusion on Lucas's and Eren’s faces, he elaborated, “Revelation Abilities are ones that you begin to unlock starting as an elemental Archmage. You get one in every stage between five and seven, yielding you three if you’re somehow a Grand Mage. They are generally similar to magic techniques in the fact that they do not require sigils to have special, perhaps even lingering, effects. What you saw could have easily been Cassian Lorenx’s Fifth Revelation.”

“Wait, why can’t I have one? Why do you have to be an Archmage to get one?” Eren pouted. 

This time, it was Iriyen who answered, “It’s generally because your magic isn’t personalized enough, yet. There is a part of your brain that regulates your magic development, especially when regarding new abilities, such as external manipulation. This part of your brain only begins churning out new, special abilities in accordance to your, for lack of a better word, personality after it has developed to a certain level.”

“Wait, then this doesn’t make sense,” Lucas said. “Professor Morrix said that there were only two Archmages on the continent, and that they were Professor Marris and the king.”

“Come on, Lucas. The professor told you that the Council had personally entrusted him with your development. Do you really think that he would disclose the already confidential nature of the Council?” Vaelith said.

“Right… And speaking of which, why do I feel like my domain thing is already one of these Revelation Abilities?” Lucas asked. 

This question was met with a temporary silence. The other four were in deep thought, considering the implications if such a statement were true. 

“It,” Iriyen slowly began, “may be because of the fact that you are a wielder of the Strange Arcane. Since the trait distinguishes you so much as to cause your magic to be rhythmless, I don’t think it’s impossible that your magic has become unique enough to begin developing Revelations. Besides, the fact that you’re somehow veinless doesn’t exactly make you more normal.”

“I think I agree with what Iriyen said. Originally, I thought that it was a novel phenomenon that surfaced because of your special circumstances, but now that we’ve made this connection, you know,” Eren shrugged.

But then why didn’t Professor Morrix tell me about this earlier? Did he just not think it was important enough to tell me? Lucas questioned in his thoughts. To be fair, he probably couldn’t be sure that my shadow realm was a Revelation Ability, and he probably didn’t want to get my hopes up in case that it wasn’t, and I didn’t get a new, special ability every time I progressed a stage. 

“Ah, I see. Does that mean that I can expect a special ability every time I stage up?” Lucas asked excitedly. 

“It’s more likely than not, I’d say,” replied Cairen. 

“Let us look forward to every one of your advancements, Lucas,” Iriyen said with a trace of amusement.

The subsequent months flew by, the coolness of spring tainted by the coming heat of summer. Lucas, as remarked by Professor Morrix, was on the brink of advancing to sigil mage. What they lacked now was the trigger that would propel Lucas to the next stage. When he mentioned this fact to Eren and the others, he was met with four stupefied faces. 

“What?” Lucas asked. 

“Well, it took you a little more than two months to progress to the second stage, which usually takes around five years, and now it takes you only seven months to progress to the third stage? And I thought I was a special case. You do know that the average mage doesn’t even make it to the third stage before they’re past their prime, right?” Eren said. 

“Is that true?” Lucas said.

“If it wasn’t, everyone might as well just be a Grand Mage by the time they turn twenty-five,” replied Cairen. “Anyways, the tournament is in five days. This is probably a good chance, too, for you to advance.”

“The tournament’s in five days?” Lucas asked, bewildered. To him, it felt as though time had really flown by. 

“Yes, it is. How has your Will been coming along, by the way?” inquired Vaelith. 

“Well, if I’m not doing anything else, I can uproot a tree and throw it something like fifty meters. But that’s only if I’m not reinforcing all of you at the same time.”

This was now the standard that they had set for Lucas, so none of them were particularly surprised. “So, what can you do when you’re reinforcing us?” Eren asked. 

“Well, I can throw pebbles fast enough to punch a hole in a hardcover book, if that’s helpful at all. Otherwise, at most I’d probably only be able to manage a large stone.” 

“That’s good enough. As long as you can protect yourself in case an opponent jumps you, there shouldn’t be a problem,” Cairen said. “To them, the rest of us might as well be invulnerable with your protection, so they might come after you. Well, we’ll try protecting you as much as we can.”

“So, what’s the layout of the tournament like, anyways?” asked Lucas. 

“Don’t tell me you signed up for this without knowing what it was,” Vaelith said. Seeing Lucas provide no evidence to the contrary, she sighed and continued, “Well, the first thing that’s going to happen are the big elimination rounds. Three teams will be given a crystal each and be put onto the same terrain. The goal is to be the last one with an undamaged crystal. This round won’t be much of a problem for us, what with your Will reinforcement. It works on objects, right?”

“Yeah,” Lucas replied. 

“Good. That means that they won’t be able to break our crystal. If you’re not allowed to use your reinforcement, you should still be the one to keep it on you. Otherwise we might accidentally break it when we’re using our magic.

“After the elimination rounds, there will be around eight teams left. Then we’ll progress through a ladder of team duels and hopefully get a shot in the finals. The terrain will change every match, to make sure that the people watching don’t get bored. Anyway, we basically just fight for ten minutes and see who’s in a worse condition by the end. The top four teams — first place, second place, and the two teams who tied for third — then receive rewards from the king himself. The rewards change every year and are only revealed when the elimination rounds have ended,” Vaelith added, seeing the look on Lucas's face that was practically begging for information on what they might receive.

“We shouldn’t expect to win, though,” Cairen said. “A group of first- and second-years is, well, rather inferior to the teams made up completely of external and sigil mages.”

“Speaking of which, what are all of your stages?” Lucas asked, now wondering why this question hadn’t been asked before.

Iriyen was in the late stages of being an external mage — her last stage-up trigger had been from a mission that they had accepted from the local guild in the village beside the school. Cairen was at the beginning of being a sigil mage, only requiring a trigger to progress to envoy. This, to Lucas, was rather impressive. To catch up, Lucas would have to be able to maintain his current growth; after all, progression became harder as one ascended the stages. 

Eren was still around halfway through being an external mage, which was somewhat surprising to Lucas. He had thought that Eren would be nearing his stage up, since he had been an external mage since he enrolled. At this point, if he were thrust into a life-threatening situation, he could probably progress immediately. Vaelith was on the verge of breaking through to an external mage, which would allow her to manipulate her projectiles following their casting. Lucas had learned that while many magic techniques adhered to the classifications of magic stages, like Vaelith’s, a good portion also didn’t, like Cairen’s, which had no clear difference between personal and external application.

So, in short, one inner mage, three external mages, and one sigil mage, Lucas summarized to himself. Of course, it might as well be two external mages. Anyways, if all goes well, it’ll become two external mages, and three sigil mages. For a group of people who had yet to live fifteen years and had an average of less than three and a half years of experience, this was rather impressive. This also meant that, despite their lack of confidence and battle experience, they had quite a good chance of challenging the top competitors. 

Lucas had begun practicing his Will in the mornings, competing with Eren to see who could wake up earlier. This took quite a toll on their mentality during the day, but it also demonstrated explosive results — Lucas's ability to shoot pebbles like bullets resulted primarily from this. Eren’s auxiliary cage also had its effects broaden from merely providing a simple energy recovery to being able to heal mildly deep gashes. This was one of the examples, albeit somewhat extreme, of how one’s abilities progressed as they neared the end of their stage. 

After lunch, Lucas and Eren quickly ran to the Bodily Enhancement room to get an early start on practicing their Will for the day. Coach Flint, although strict, was extremely supportive of these actions that demonstrated their willingness to improve, to the point where he allowed the students to enter the classroom without lining up first outside. 

“If only the other students could be so enthusiastic,” the duo heard him say once. 

On the other hand, Vaelith did not seem to value the Will as much as they did. Professor Marris had said that she, as a long-range magic caster, should instead equip knives or other short-ranged weapons as self-defense. There was no real need for the Will, especially since ranged attackers usually entirely relied on magic. 

“I heard that you two are participating in the tournament this year,” the rough voice of the coach sounded behind the two students. After waiting for them to turn around and present their greetings, the coach continued, “Our class will be outside for the remainder of this week, until the beginning of the tournament on the weekend. If you see fit, you may apply your Will however you wish during the physical training. I trust that you will not make irresponsible judgements.”

“Yes, sir!” Lucas and Eren yelled, bowing. They looked at each other, brimming with excitement and pride. 

“Oh, but your sets will not decrease. However effective your Will is at increasing your physical capabilities is however much extra you have to do.”

This was as expected. They had no intention of skimping on their progress, either. 

As the last of the students filed into the gym-like classroom, the coach blew his whistle to cease the chatting. He made a quick gesture, indicating that the class was to follow him. Unsurprisingly, they ended up at the vast field. The ring of flattened grass that they had trampled the week before was gone now, perhaps by the influence of some plant mage. This, however, was not an obstacle that the coach would allow to prevent the students from exercising. He laid out the same large ring with numerous pebbles, instructing the students to follow the path they drew. Instantly, the other students felt a sudden gust of wind as Lucas and Eren, long prepared to let loose, rushed past them with their Will adding reinforcement. 

The wind sent sharp knives at Lucas's face, but this wasn’t unwelcome — in fact, the chilliness of spring that had not yet dissipated fueled Lucas's sprint. With the sun just beginning its descent at the top of the sky, Lucas felt, rather than heard, the aggrieved cries of the students who weren’t participating in the tournament growing fainter as the grass began to brush up to his shins. Soon, however, Lucas began circling back. The magnificent figure of the school was mildly darkened by the bright, blue sky, streaked by the cirrostratus clouds. The whole scene made Lucas feel like he, himself upside-down, was running towards a flipped castle that was levitating above an ocean. 

This was Lucas's style: sprint the beginning and deal with the consequences later. Eren was lagging behind since he felt that he was much more suited for a stable pace. Lucas took thirty seconds of rest after he passed a few other students in his second lap. However, the session ended too quickly, from Lucas's view. The class trudged into the storage room, casting Lucas and Eren envious looks. 

They seemed a little angry, Lucas noticed, amused. He hurried over to Professor Morrix’s office, hoping that the professor had any new insight to provide now that the tournament was drawing nearer. His anticipations were not met with satisfaction, though. The professor gave him the same quick lecture, this time expanding on what they had mentioned last time — using his Azla to create small pentagrams to aid his use of magic. 

“These pentagrams are usually used to strengthen some application of magic. Their combined use is called spellcasting. This is the most technical definition of the term, of course,” the professor added, seeing that Lucas was about to interrupt to ask why they had just began covering the namesake of the course. “What we have covered so far is generally considered spellcasting by the public. It’s just that some people don’t recognize anything less as such.

“On another note, these pentagrams are best used with sigils. The more capable of a mage you are, the better you will be at creating spaces in these diagrams to fit the function that you wish the spell to serve. Normally, when a sigil mage has completed the creation of a spell that he or she particularly likes or believes is useful, they will use what’s simply known as a ‘belt’ to save a drawn diagram, so that they don’t have to redraw it every time they wish to cast it.”

The professor retrieved a long, black strip set with numerous spheres at regular intervals. The spheres had a milky-white texture, as though thin, snow-colored mist was swirling through them. 

“These are just crystals shaped into balls. There’s nothing special about it. However, saving a pentagram, especially one with many sigils, is incredibly complicated, especially since the result is so simple. Normally, you wouldn’t even get to learn how to draw pentagrams at this point in your life. They take a lot of concentration to fully form, since, you saw this last time, the lines are very thin. I don’t know how well you’ll be able to do it, so let’s just try it out for now.”

The professor gave Lucas instructions that he followed without question, finally forming the most crooked circle he had ever seen. It was his Azla, given a red tint by a special type of paper. Even the lines on the square — the central shape that the professor had had him start with — seemed to cross the world before reaching their endpoint. After so many months of being gifted at magic, Lucas was rather stunned that his first major failure was so catastrophic. 

“Well,” the professor puffed his cheeks, tracing a finger over a line in the diagram that was especially bloated. “I suppose that’s not bad for a first try?”

Lucas hung his head in shame. He hadn’t expected his control to be so terrible. It had started out well at first, but it became more and more warped as he struggled to maintain the stream of Azla. 

“It’s certainly much better than any attempt that I would have made at your age,” Professor Morrix consoled. 

“Is that true?” Lucas asked, slightly skeptical. 

“Of course. I was rather abysmal at magic back then. Why do you think your friend Cairen is already only a stage below envoy mage while I’ve been stuck at this level for so many years?”

“But you’re basically on the threshold to becoming an Archmage, aren’t you?”

“I suppose you could see it that way, yes. But the fact that I am not an Archmage is what really matters. But…” the professor frowned. He looked closer at Lucas, seemingly scrutinizing his whole being. “Did you tell your friends that you were on the verge of becoming a sigil mage?”

“Yes. Was there a problem?” questioned Lucas, suddenly apprehensive. 

“Well, I think I might have made a misjudgement.  Your magical output and control is on par with a mage who is about to break through to a sigil mage, which is why I mentioned to you that that was the case. But you haven’t felt the same pinnacle feeling that you had when you were about to break through to external mage, have you?”

Now that the professor had mentioned it, Lucas did realize that the same restless feeling that he had automatically associated with being able to advance to external magecraft did not surface. “So, what’s really happening?”

“I can only provide two possibilities — your extra condensed Azla is somehow aiding your magic output or the fact that you lack Azla rhythm contributes to its output. But the fact still stands that you might not be able to create sigils for quite some time. From what I can tell right now, you’re actually somewhere between the beginning and the middle of being an external mage.”

This struck Lucas as very disappointing. He was so proud of himself for surpassing Eren, who was already an external mage before enrolling. He was catching up, at least. As long as he continued at this pace, he would sooner or later outdo him. “So, how much do I need to practice until I can actually break through to sigil mage? And on the same note, how much stronger will I be than other people of the same stage?”

“I believe the difference between you and normal mages will increase over time, so I can’t really give you a comparison that stays constant throughout. Perhaps, if you make it to Grand Mage, you might even surpass the commonly accepted domain of the gods. Well, that’s just a hypothetical. But you might be able to make it to Grand Mage by the time you grow old and pass away. Who knows.”

“I see.” Lucas felt that this might not be a terrible thing for him. Looks like it’ll still be three external mages and two sigil mages, no matter how well this tournament goes. I have to update everyone, but they probably won’t be too disappointed. It’s not like my performance will be any worse because of this. Even though it means that my progression wasn’t as quick as I thought it was, it also means that my potential is much greater. 

There it was again — that word “potential.” It stressed him out every time someone mentioned their hope for his growth. Now he was using it for himself. So far, it had only really been the headmaster and Professor Morrix who had placed this pressure upon him, despite also mentioning that the higher-ups and the Council held the same stance as them. Professor Morrix said that he wouldn’t have to feel so much pressure, but Lucas could really not avoid the anxiety, now that he began to feel it. 

Lucas hurriedly exited the office as the bell’s voice once again drummed through the walls. To quickly distract himself, Lucas decided to ask Eren where the bell was and how it could produce such a large vibration. The path back to his dormitory had become second nature to Lucas, allowing him to arrive smoothly while having his brain adrift. 

As Lucas walked through the door, he saw that Eren had at some point created a wooden bench with his magic, allowing Lucas to view the mountain ranges along the fields without having to angle himself off of the bed. At present, there was no backrest, but just as Lucas was about to take it into his own hands to create one, he remembered that there would likely be a cleanup of sorts after the school year ended. If any custodian were to discover the residues of darkness magic in a room that had been reserved for humans, they were bound to raise some questions. Lucas wasn’t afraid of his normal practice of magic, but it did concern him that it would be possible that sustained physical magic might result in traces being left behind. 

At present, Lucas could only make do with the plain bench, avoiding the one or two flowers that grew on it. However, Eren didn’t keep him waiting for long. After a short while, Lucas heard the door whir as the figure of Eren appeared. He was quite a bit more bulked up than he was when Lucas had first seen him when they had just arrived at the school from the intense extra trainings that he had put himself through to catch up to him. 

“Morning,” Eren greeted, well aware that it was nearly three in the afternoon. 

“Morning,” copied Lucas. “Could you create a backrest for me? Sitting like this is a little hard on my back.”

“What are you, my grandpa?” Eren bantered. Nevertheless, he caused the wooden bench to protrude with vines that intertwined to create a backrest. The only problem was that the backrest was on Lucas's front side, crossing itself above Lucas's legs and preventing him from getting up. 

“I see how it is,” said Lucas, nodding. He drew the shadows around himself and immediately sunk into his domain. Without wasting a moment, he conjured a portal and stepped out of the shadows of the dormitory. 

“Woah. I still can’t get used to that.” 

Lucas understood why he would say that. To Eren, this looked like black mist exuding itself from the shadows to form the vague shape of Lucas's body before condensing into his actual features. Through everyday antics like this, the duo made themselves much more familiar with their own magic. Of course, this was much more beneficial to the inexperienced Lucas, since Eren had had much more time to play around with his abilities, what with his background as a noble.

Eren also seemed to have no clue about where the bell sounds usually came from. When Lucas brought it up, he suggested to go find it together. Lucas felt a little too lazy at this moment, since he wanted to take a short nap before practicing more of his magic. Eren didn’t feel like leaving alone, so he contented himself by testing the duration of his plant cage. He felt a little disappointed, as he always did when he used his ability, that he couldn’t test its healing effects. A large and complex cage like this was overkill for small injuries like papercuts, but the injuries that it was made to treat, such as broken bones, seemed to be slightly uncommon. 

After Lucas's hourlong nap, he decided to try out something that he had thought of quite a while ago. If he could bring others into his shadow realm, could he also assign certain concepts to them, like he could with objects made out of his shadows? Lucas immediately put this idea to work. Without Eren’s permission and before the other party had even realized that he was awake, Lucas covered him in shadows, sending him into the shadow world. He quickly sent himself as well. 

Eren, who had been closing his eyes to concentrate, didn’t notice the transfer until his connection with his cage suddenly disappeared. Opening his eyes to check what had happened, he jumped up in alarm. He was quite familiar with the alternate world now, since Lucas had not left any chance to trap him there untaken, but usually this imprisonment took place when his eyes were open. Eren looked around and saw a dark purple bubble emerge from the ground, rapidly manifesting into Lucas's form. 

“What’s this about?” he asked. 

Lucas quickly straightened up and didn’t say anything. He was worried that if Eren had the slightest inkling of what he was about to do, it would result in some sort of mental or metaphysical clash between the assigned concept and Eren’s knowledge. Without giving Eren a chance to comprehend his actions, Lucas gave Eren the concept of leftward movement. 

The instant Lucas felt the concept land, Eren began sliding to his left. Whenever Eren adjusted his body, the movement adapted to his new left. “You know, it’s really creepy when you just do an experiment out of the blue without consulting me for my permission.”

Lucas could not help but let out a chuckle. The resentful remark had come from a helpless twelve-year-old who was aimlessly spinning circles. “Sorry, this’ll be the last time. It’s just that this might not have worked if you knew what was going to happen.”

Eren sighed and replied, “Well, whatever. Can you stop this? I’m getting kind of dizzy.”

“You look like you’re enjoying it,” Lucas said. Then spotting Eren’s increasingly discontent face, he added, “Okay, okay. I’ll remove it,” and lifted the concept, halting Eren’s motion. 

The duo quickly left the shadow realm, with Lucas extremely content. At this point, it was almost dinnertime. They decided to prematurely head to the dining hall. Lucas had to break the news to everyone that he wasn’t about to progress to being a sigil mage after all. 

When they arrived and Lucas clarified his situation to the three who were coincidentally already there, none of them reacted with disappointment. They all seemed to think that this was the most reasonable outcome. 

“If anything, I’m a little relieved. If you actually progressed at this speed, you might actually become a Grand Mage,” Cairen said. The other three responded with nods. Lucas was at least happy that they didn’t blame him for turning out to be weaker than he had said he was. 

With that matter settled, they ate their dinner and each returned to their own dormitories. 

The remaining four days flew by, with Lucas making no qualitative change to his plans for his performance in the tournament and his role in his team.