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Chapter 337 - Showing Off
🕑 Added 2025-06-28 02:37:42 +0000 UTC----------------------
Kai threw a glance at the crisp pages of his textbook to confirm he hadn’t missed a step.
27.7) The Seven Moons’ Journey (4th permutation):
Suitable affinities: All, with preference to elements with a physical manifestation.
Description: Conjure an elemental sphere circled by seven smaller spheres in adiecent orbit: the first is the closest, moving on a horizontal axis; the second moves at half the speed of the first; the third moves three times the speed of the second on a perpendicular axis to the first; the fourth…
Locking the seventh water marble at a thirty-degree angle in the furthest orbit, he used a steady trickle of blue motes to lock the spell while he checked the speeds and angle ratios one last time.
Looks like I got everything.
The exercise tested his proficiency with Split Mind and Water Magic. Just from the morning lectures, he had learned that multitasking skills were nearly as important as Mana Sense and Manipulation for any mage above the second circle.
“Did I do it right?” Kai asked over the background chatter in the hall. His eyes remained on the spell. When he received no answers, he turned to see Valela stare at his spell with parted lips.
Uh, that means good, right?
The ice marbles she had conjured to show him the exercise now moved in stilted, wobbly orbits. Two moons collided with a click, quickly creating a chain reaction. Her cheeks flushed, looking at the state of her spell. The ice marbles froze in place before she turned them into shimmering mist.
With a little sidestep, Valela leaned to cover her blunder and inspect his spell. “It’s… very good. The execution is nearly perfect on your first try. Have you really never trained with this exercise?”
Ignoring her failed spell, Kai smiled to hide the effort of maintaining his own. After a lifetime spent underselling himself, he couldn’t resist flexing his skills a bit. “Hmm… once I’ve made orbs of unattuned mana circle around me for fun. I’ve also tried it with water, but not with exact spheres, does that count?”
Having a bunch of Water spells orbiting him made him feel like a cool mage—imitating the solar system rather than the moons. Though he had never moved them with such strict requirements on speed and angles.
It felt similar to the coordination trick of using a hand to pat your head and the other to rub your tummy. Only, he also had to hold a different tempo with each foot, count multiples of seven, and flex each finger asynchronously.
Okay, maybe a little trickier. It gets easier once you get down to the basics.
“That doesn’t count,” Valela said. Her brows knitted in cautious disbelief as she looked between him and the spell. “Have you never done this before? Maybe it didn’t have the same name. The Seven Moons’ Journey is one of the most common shaping exercises for layered spells. There are a thousand variations.”
"Never seen one. Uh… exercises aren’t really my thing. I’m more one for practical applications of elemental magic,” Kai said to put it mildly. His mind was straining to maintain the looping orbs while keeping up the conversation. He made an effort to relax his jaw to look more nonchalant. “Have you thought that I got it on the first try, because you’re a great teacher?”
“I’m…” Her face turned a deeper shade, and her gaze fled, wandering around the group of students. She really blushed too easily. When she looked up again, she had crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks. “Stop teasing me. ”
“I’m being completely serious here,” Kai switched away his smirk for an honest smile. “Summoning all the spheres and converting the speed ratios to the smallest moon was good advice. Without a plan, it would have been a mess to adjust the spell on the go.” He waved at the spell, using the excuse to make the spheres drip and evaporate. The relief to his mind almost made him sigh. He’d be an idiot to strain Split Mind at the beginning of the lesson.
“You would have come up with a plan on your own,” Valela said, though she looked mollified.
“Well… probably,” he agreed. They had spent too long speculating about the Stygian Cult in the House of Mirrors not to know how they both reasoned. “But it would have taken me more than three minutes to nail it down.”
“Five?”
“Well… I appreciate the trust in me, but you’re overestimating me. I reckon it would have taken six minutes. Maybe even six and a half!” Kai nodded gravely. “You’ve spared me half the time.”
Valela gave him a flat look, pressing her mouth to cover a smile. “You’re an idiot.”
“I?” A hand raised to his chest, mouth opened in mock shock. “How can thy words hurt me so much?”
Her lips finally quivered upwards. “We’re in a lesson.” She threw him a dirty look and discreetly punched his arm with her tiny fist. “Lys didn’t lie about professors looking for excuses to slim the classes. Try to be serious. You don’t want to get demerits on your first day.”
“Alright, alright. My bad.” Kai raised his hand in surrender and massaged his arm. She packed more Strength than he’d expected in those willowy arms.
Not like anyone is paying attention.
With the looser lecture style, many students were chatting while pretending to study their textbooks. Professor Thornwyn’s upright figure had moved from the group of exotic affinities toward the Plant branch. Her faded indigo clothes stood out among all the burgundy.
From the pale first-years she was instructing, the new intake wasn't impressing her. She noted something in the rigid folder she was holding and motioned to the line of new intakes to step forward with a slight shake.
Kai had seen convicts look more cheerful. During their interaction, the professor hadn’t seemed one to wantonly punish new students, but neither one to give a free pass.
Could the hands-off lecture be a test to see how they’d manage themselves? Or was he overthinking?
I'd better get these done before she gets here.
He couldn’t and wouldn’t let himself fall short after his boasting.
“Are you gonna show me the next exercises?” Kai grinned at his impromptu mentor. “I got lucky with this one. Casting multiple spells is my thing. Some of the others look pretty tough.”
“Do they really?” Valela narrowed her eyes, skeptical.
“Of course,” Kai said. “I wasn’t lying that I’m not used to these exercises. Your explanation helped me a ton to…” He bit his cheek, realizing maybe he had gotten ahead of himself. “Sorry, I shouldn’t monopolize your time if you need to practice.”
“I—no. Remember, I’m the one who offered.” She grabbed her open text, any hesitation replaced with stubbornness. “Professor Thornwyn also asked us to help new students. I’ll practice as I explain them to you.”
“Alright, thank you then. ” Kai leaned to read the exercises over her shoulder. From how most senior students were ignoring their junior peers, Professor Thornwyn’s words clearly were more a suggestion than a demand. He wanted to say he owed her one, but they were probably past counting favors. “Hmm, what should we do next?”
While there was value in figuring things out for himself, the morning lectures had highlighted enough subjects that he had to catch up on. The academy wouldn’t give him a second chance if he failed to keep up, and after paying the five hundred gold tuition, he would get his money’s worth. No question about it. He would wring out the academy for every last mesar, or consider himself a failure.
I won’t pay to finance some patrician’s fancy meals.
Kai pushed his thoughts aside to focus on what Valela was saying.
“Like… this.” Her brows furrowed as she fused the four symmetrical sides of the prismatic ice structure. The clear walls let him see the inner beams slide together like a puzzle; a thin web of cracks spread where one beam came a millimeter too short.
Valela pursed her lips, reversing the spreading cracks and turning the ice clear till the construct was complete—the most elaborate Christmas tree decorations Kai had ever seen.
“You did great!” he congratulated her once it wouldn't disrupt her concentration. From the clinking quiver that crossed the structure, he had done well to wait. “That was quite impressive.”
“I… well, thank you,” Valela said. “I still need to work more on this. It almost shattered.”
“But you fixed it in time and finished it. That’s what matters.”
“I did alright,” she said, clearly pleased behind her poised expression. “Do you want to try? The Reflected Puzzle works a little differently for ice than Water…”
They blazed through the assigned chapters, weaving mana increasingly complex spells, tackling new constructs past the pages Valela had studied. Each exercise required a slightly different approach, though they shared a focus on control and precision to make efficient use of elemental essence.
Thanks to Gifts of the Earth, he had an abundant reserve of Water motes. Each try didn’t cost much mana, but it’d quickly add up if you screwed up too often; several students had already sat down to meditate and refill their reserves.
General Elemental Magic Practice was the first lesson where Kai felt ahead of the curve, bringing him back to the lessons he received as a child.
Two people with the same skill level could show distinctly different results depending on how they had trained it. At least in the lower grades, raising a skill was just a matter of consistency. Fight for your life in clever ways, or swing a sword at a dummy. One would take longer than the other, but a patrician tutored at home could get Swordsmanship to Yellow just as well as a soldier on the battlefield.
The difference would be their effectiveness.
The textbook taught how to efficiently weave complex spells, besides improving the fixed factors. While raw attributes, affinity and skill level mattered, they weren’t easy to raise—not in the short term.
Ding
Mana Weaving (lv37>38)
Water Magic – Advanced (lv30>31)
Split Mind (lv29>31)
Or maybe you can…
Kai grinned as he finished shaping a knot of streaming water. Training in a completely new way was clearly paying off.
He had set the notifications to warn him. A level in Split Mind came from the previous day, but the rest was from this lesson.
Let’s see the next one.
Valela was juggling with an ice construct somewhere between a chandelier or a moving carousel. Wishing not to disturb her, he skimmed through the pages of chapter thirty-two for another exercise. The Shattered Star wasn’t really suitable with Water, but looked interesting.
Summoning and twisting a stream of Water and Ice, he had almost figured it out when his ear picked up a shuffle of feet and whispers.
It’s a bit quiet…
Looking up, the new students from the Water group had gathered around a set of four tables right beside him. Several pairs of eyes shifted between him and a woman in faded indigo robes, observing him with a narrowed, measuring gaze.
They can’t have stared at me for that long. At most a few seconds, right?
Behind the professor, Valela was throwing him some very pointed looks.
“Uhm…” Kai coughed into his sleeve, dismissed his spell, and put on his brightest smile. “Professor Thornwyn. I’m so glad I have the chance to learn from you again. I’ll—”
“I’ll see you later, Matthew.” She turned to gesture to a girl with ash blonde hair, who was doing a poor job of hiding her schadenfreude. “You there. Show me the third exercise in chapter twenty-seven.”
With a scattering of envious and puzzled gazes, the collective attention moved to the girl just as quickly as it moved on him. She stammered a few words before attempting to cast Inverted Tower with Ice Magic.
Kai stared and blinked.
Uh— what?
He thought he hated getting the attention of a crowd, but being completely ignored didn’t feel much better.
Why did she call me out if she didn't want a demonstration?
Valela slipped closer to him. “Sorry, I noticed it was our turn too late. And she said not to disturb you.”
“That’s alright. I should have paid more attention.” Kai watched the newbie girl butcher the casting Inverted Tower. He probably wouldn’t be seeing the girl at the next lesson. The class had been selected based on the points in the affinity test, though that didn’t account for how they were distributed or skills.
To her credit, Professor Thornwyn watched the girl shower the audience in ice three times before stopping another attempt.
“That’s enough, thank you. You’re channeling twice as much mana as necessary. It destabilizes the construct and hinders your control.” She jotted down a note and pointed to the next student. “Seventh exercise of chapter thirty-one.”
Every newbie Water Summoner moved to perform an exercise and earned a few pieces of dry advice in short order. None as disastrous as the first girl.
Okay, now—
Kai watched the professor move past him onto the Fire group like he wasn’t even there. How has she forgotten about him?
“Mat,” Valela tapped his shoulder before he could chase the professor to voice his indignation. “I think she meant later, later.”
“Huh, you mean like… at the end of the lesson?” He glared at the back of Professor Thornwyn. That probably made sense.
Still, rude!
“No one else was singled out,” He said. “Why me?”
Valela gave him a long, long look. “I really can’t imagine why, but I’m sure it’s nothing bad. You won’t have to wait long, the lesson is almost over.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. It was just disappointing. There were twenty minutes till the lesson finished on the clock. “I’ll just have to wait.”
Resigned, Kai sank into a nearby chair and idly flipped through his textbook. He had already completed the chapters, and he didn’t want to exhaust himself in case Professor Thornwyn made some outrageous demand.
He found a curious chapter about cooperative exercises that require more than one person. Most of them pitted two people against each other—not very collaborative—though they seemed fun.
Valela sat beside him a few minutes later, sipping water from a cup. “Did you find anything interesting? I didn’t ask you how your first lessons went.” She glanced back at the Light and Fire branches. “Without Lys and Rena teasing.”
“It went…” Kai closed the book, opting for honesty. “Well, it was a bit overwhelming. Especially the lesson with the skill paths. It seems everybody here has their status planned for the next century.”
Once he opened the lid, his thoughts came gushing out. Valela listened to his tangled speech with an understanding look till he finished.
“If it’s any consolation, it wasn’t much different for me,” she said with a rueful look. “I knew about skill paths, but that was about it. What I had prepared was… hmm… so awfully insufficient that it’d be embarrassing to show.” She cupped her face with her hands. “Sorry, I didn’t warn you. I thought it’d just be confusing. The topic isn’t something you can explain in an hour or ten.”
“That was probably for the better,” Kai agreed. Knowing a little would have just made him anxious. “Have you figured out your skill paths? Any tips are welcome.”
“Do your best and study. A lot,” she said. “There is no easy way to catch up. I’ve been working on my plan for the last five months, and I’ll likely still be working on it when I graduate. The best advice I can give is to ask the professors who work as counselors. I’m not sure how it works for the Winter Intake. Look for one that fits your path. Even if you have to pay, it’s worth every credit.”
Guess nothing beats decades of experience.
Kai nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind—.”
A chime announced the end of the lesson, just as Professor Thorwyn finished assessing the last student. “Matthew, please wait here.”
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A/N: Hope y'all have a great weekend! :)
Comments
Brianna Stormcloud
Great chapter, thank you!
An Than
This is so true 😭😭
An Than
Iirc, Virya, Elijah and Dora didn’t really spend a lot of time with Kai on his elemental magic. So it might be a good thing for him to start getting professionally tutored in it, especially since this whole time he’s mostly been advancing his elemental magic on his own.
Doug Wills
My assumption would be that it uses "water sphere" as an example. Since it says that the skill is best for those whose affinities are of a physical manifestation. It's likely easier to give an example of a sphere being made from affinity X, than to try to give a general descriptor.
Chuck K
I think she will. I wonder how far she will push his shaping, whether just water or all the elements including space. If she pushes space will she figure out he can already teleport?
SAB
Kai demonstrates mastery and gets put into advanced course > refuses to go without Valela > Valela joins him but struggles > Kai tutors her > lots of quality time spent together > ship sails?
Lola
I wonder if Professor Thorwyn will wind up being one of Kai’s mentors for his skills?
Kris Piskorski
A doubt these basic exercises would be of any use to an actual siren who lived in the ocean, better he focuses on his weaknesses
Gabriel Medeiros
its odd that the excercise description mentions water spheres specifically when it is meant for all physical affinities.
Gabriel Medeiros
if the class was selected based on affinity, where is Oraine? Did he go to the next step immediately?
M_Lo
That Kai has been underselling himself is the biggest understatement. The guy uses every opportunity to flex with anythinh he can flex
Mina She
Tftc. I am seriously considering stacking these chapters aaaahhhh. It’s been torture having to wait for the next chapter for this arc.
Trevayne
Thanks for the chapter.
Viria
'Evil' is the word you are looking for 😭
Lucas Demarch
whole class: OoOoOooOOoooooohh!! Someone is in trOooOoouble!
Daniel C Williams
Other editing suggestions; Conjure a sphere of water> remove 'of water'. It's an exercise that works for multiple affinities, so it shouldn't specify elements. "Have you thought that I got it on the first try, because you’re a great teacher?"> "Have you considered that the reason I got it on the first try is because you're a great teacher?" weaving mana increasingly complex> weaving mana into increasingly complex between a chandelier or a moving carousel.>between a chandelier and a moving carousel.
George
Matthew please wait here and have a great weekend is craaazy
Some Guy
TFTC
Stephen Pearson
Thanks for the chapter! :-)
Darcyspride
CLIFFHANGER
Sean
Really leaving me on a cliffhanger here😭
A B
Edit suggestion: adiecent -> adjacent Although just 'orbit' is sufficient; you could leave 'adjacent' out altogether
