Chapter 136: Do it again
They settled on the mountainside.
The place had a mix of breeze, warmth, and heat, so getting used to this environment would be difficult, yet another training challenge.
But Louis noticed something as soon as he arrived. The threads formed a large part of the mountain’s structure and peculiarities.
In fact, if he looked carefully, even those meteorites were full of threads.
These threads were certainly peculiar and very interesting. He couldn’t understand exactly what they were. But they were really everywhere.
It could be some concept that existed in Earth’s physics, perhaps. Dark energy? Elongated atoms?
He had no idea, but he was eager to understand their secrets.
After settling in, Hardrial gathered them in front of the river.
"Since you are at different levels, you will not receive the same training. So, I will go with Laura first, as she is the most advanced and has already been through this training before," he said, focusing on Laura immediately.
"Last time I told you that the next level after what you did was to train in the water, remember?"
She nodded. "I remember. Am I going to train like that today?"
"Until you master different variations, you will."
"How many variations do I have to master this time?"
"It’s a few variations. It won’t be easy."
Laura swallowed and nodded. "All right..."
"Follow me," he said and quickly jumped onto the water, walking on it until he reached a small island in the middle of the river.
Laura took a deep breath and created two magic patterns on her feet. Then she jumped and managed to walk on the water, too.
Louis watched from behind, quite amazed by this. He wondered how long it would take him to be able to do that. In the end, he had no choice but to sit down and wait for them.
On the other side, Hardrial began to speak.
"The first thing you have to do is create a water orb big enough to fit your head inside. I taught you that fabric earlier," he said.
Laura nodded. She remembered it clearly, so she didn’t hesitate to recreate it. It was a level 1 magic, so it wasn’t very difficult for her.
Hardrial nodded. "It’s wrong. Do it again," he said.
She looked at him, stunned. What was wrong?
She looked at the water orb... it had rounded walls and was hollow inside. It wouldn’t fall apart easily.
How was it wrong?
She frowned, then looked back at the professor and realized he was serious, so she destroyed it and created a new one.
This time, she paid a little more attention to her creation. But she realized she didn’t really need to because it was too easy for her, so she ended up creating it again.
"Badly done. Do it again," Hardrial repeated.
Her jaw almost dropped in shock. "But—"
"You don’t need to question it. If I say it’s badly done, it’s badly done. So do it again."
She swallowed her words and decided to try once more...
Then again, until she reached the seventh time, when she no longer knew what to do.
"We could spend all day here, you know? You still don’t understand what I’ve told you. I told you: create a water orb, and I’ve already taught you how to do it before."
After a moment of reflection, she finally looked thoughtful and decided to try again. This time, she paid attention to every detail, every thread, and every fraction of her creation. Slowly, she was able to do it, and finally, her magic was complete.
Hardrial nodded gently. "It’s a little better, but it’s no good," he replied.
She didn’t question him and tried again for the ninth time...
"All you did was increase the time it takes you to create something so simple. I don’t think the ability of a Third Level Mage is there, really."
She then tried a tenth time, when she finally realized that she really wasn’t understanding what he was saying.
Creating a water orb was simple, wasn’t it? It has its complexities, depending on the creator’s wants, but it’s such a basic spell that it shouldn’t be complicated for her.
If it was getting complicated for her, it was because he was asking her to do more than just the spell, and her mana isn’t infinite to keep trying until he said it was okay.
So she had to think about it seriously, looking at the orb floating above her hand.
’What’s wrong?’ she thought.
She watched it carefully for several minutes, but still couldn’t find an answer.
Hardrial sighed. "Why did we come here, student Laura?" he asked.
"Why, you say? To study magic..." She suddenly stopped and frowned.
’Right. I came to study magic, but not on top of the water. It’s underneath!’ Her eyes finally lit up, and she destroyed the orb in her hand.
Of course it was wrong!
It was an orb she had to put her head in to enter the water!
She recreated it, this time almost as quickly as the first time, but this time, she added something peculiar.
It was initially difficult to control, but once you’re an expert at creating it, it’s very simple.
Oxygen!
Of course. She is not a fish that can breathe underwater, and no magic can perform that function. Even so, you can create water magic to help you achieve it.
An example of this is the most basic spell for that purpose: creating water orbs that contain oxygen inside them.
Hardrial finally smiled.
"Very good, you understand. Create nine more orbs so we can begin."
She did so without hesitation. When the ten orbs were finally ready, Hardrial spoke again.
"The moment you enter the water, make sure you put your head inside one of them and, inside, try to create more orbs, while keeping the others at rest, close to you. You will only come out when you have to change orbs. If you create 10 orbs down there, we will move on to the next level," he replied.
Laura smiled. "I understand, Professor." She seemed excited, so under Hardrial’s gaze, she began to descend.
When her head was about to go under the water, she controlled a bubble and put it on her head like a helmet.
Finally, she disappeared into the water... well, she was clearly visible because the water in this river is crystal clear, but she was completely underwater.
Hardrial stayed for a moment to keep a close eye on her, and after confirming that she was in perfect control, he jumped back to where Louis was.
"Unlike Laura, you will begin to understand water magic from the outside. We will start by mastering what you already know. If I’m not mistaken, you should know nine different water spells, right?"
"Twelve, Professor. I’ve been practicing the spells you taught me before, and I’ve mastered them."
Hardrial smiled. "Very good, that makes me proud. Now, show me the most basic one I taught you before."
"The bullet?" he asked.
"Yes, but not inside the gun. On the outside. Remember, we Armamentalists are Mages."
"I understand, Professor." Louis immediately did as he was told.
It took him a while to do it, but less than 5 minutes. Going from 30-40 minutes to 5 is relatively easy, but going from 5 minutes to 1 minute is incredibly difficult.
Even though there is only a 4-minute difference, creating magic every minute in combat is not the same as creating it every 5 minutes. Every second counts there.
After he created it, it wasn’t really a bullet. It looked more like a very elongated drop of water with certain magical characteristics.
Hardrial knew he had a long wait ahead of him, so he decided to sit down on a rock. "Do it again, that’s terrible. The speed is too slow, and your final creation is too ugly."
Louis smiled sheepishly. Yes, he knew.
But he had been trying to improve his speed for so long that it made him feel ashamed. He had improved a lot, hadn’t he?
But he didn’t doubt his teachings and immediately tried again.
Luckily for him, this spell no longer consumed him so much. It was just as Hardrial had said: once you get stronger, spells start to cost you less, both physically and in terms of mana.
"Again, that’s not even good enough to shoot."
"That one’s too long. Why are you so determined to create things like that?"
"That one’s worse. It looks like a plate. What did we say about long things?"
"Much better, but it’s still not enough."
"You slowed down. What are you supposed to be doing?"
"Very good. But again."
...
...
After a while, Louis created a much more compact spell, realizing that the more compact it was, the more powerful it was.
While a long spell has power, it is literally stretched out power. That is, it is distributed throughout the entire body of the spell.
If a water bullet measures 4 centimeters and has a power of 100, that power will be divided evenly into several parts, depending on the spell.
One part per 1 centimeter or one part per 2 centimeters.
In this case, it had a division of 4. That is, each part of the magic has 25 power points (example).
That being the case, was it effective or was it reducing its effectiveness?