She could have died, either by illness or by your sick brother's hand.
I can easily see him, teaching her a lesson resulting in her conditions getting worse. Sure, he
would later apologize and realize his mistake, but I still think he would have gotten himself
disowned.
Did you somehow force him to say all those mean things to Tista, making her, your mother
and Rena cry all the time? Did you manipulate him into sending those five goons to beat you
to a pulp? No. It was all his doing, and he paid the price.
It's much better having two healthy good children, instead of a hot-headed conceited a*shole.
The only way Orpal had to be happy was to be an only child." ¨C
Knowing the human nature, Lith was prone to agree with her. Stealing a newborn food, his
obsessive need for attentions, were all indicators of a twisted personality. Lith hadn't forgiven
Orpal, nor felt sorry for him. Only for his family.
Feeling Tista's warm embrace, seeing her safe and happy, quickly dispelled the doubts that
were clouding his mind. Saving a single Tista or Rena, was worth killing a thousand Orpals.
Chapter 88 Solus¡¯ Surprise
After entering inside the house, away from prying eyes, Lith made use of his newfound
knowledge as a healer.
He used Invigoration to spot and fix all bone, muscular and even intervertebral disc damages
accumulated in his parents' bodies over time, due to the hard work in the fields and the aging.
He also used tier four magic to not make them feel tired because of the treatment, borrowing
them his energy.
"What the?" Raaz moved around, feeling the subtle changes.
"I feel full of energy and my knots have disappeared. It feels like I am twenty again!"
"Glad to hear it." Lith replied hugging his father. "I have learned so much in just a month. The
academy has showed how limited my horizons were. There are many things I can still
improve."
He also performed a full check up on Tista too. She was always fit as a fiddle, but Lith never
stopped worrying about her.
They talked about his mock exam, of which Lith gave an accurate description, although
removing the encounter with the Scorpicore from the picture.
Instead he put particular emphasis on how he developed a good relationship with his
teammates and Phloria in particular.
The doctored version of the story was aimed to avoid them worrying about him being alone in
the academy, hoping to help overcome their long-term sense of guilt for him never having any
friend in the past.
His parents kept believing that Lith had spent his childhood alone, because the family needed
money and food, forcing him to become a hunter first and a healer later. But that was only
half the truth.
He had almost nothing in common with teenage magicians, let alone with young children.
Work had always been an excuse, to avoid taking any unnecessary risk of blowing his cover.
After settling the matters with his family, Lith decided to take a walk in the woods. He needed
some time alone, not only to sort out his chaotic feelings, but also to try to convert everything
he had learned from the academy and its books in true magic.
Knowing that he could be under surveillance too, he walked toward his private clearing in the
Trawn woods using Life Vision, while Solus scanned their surroundings with all the senses at
her disposal.
"Aside from us and the animals I can't find anything else." She reported.
"Same. I believe that it's possible for the Queen's men to have magical items that conceal
their presence, but I doubt they can avoid all our combined resources. I use true magic, while
you, well, beats me what you use.
Bottom line, I think we are safe. Probably they have been sent to keep an eye on external
threats, not on me."
"Yeah, but it's better be safe than sorry." Solus gave her firs paranoid remark ever.
"By the way, do you remember that before the mock exam I talked about a surprise?"
"Of course."
"Well, time to reveal my new gift. We need a special place, so I need you to follow my
instructions." ¨C
Lith casted his slipstream flight spell, moving in an irregular pattern toward the destination
Solus had pointed him to. At the same time, both of them were scanning their surroundings.
Following them at such high speed while remaining covert should have been impossible. They
kings against the Wither.
It was still a wasteland, only grass and weeds had started growing anew.
"We are in the clear. I didn't notice anyone following us. Did you choose this zone because it
provides no cover to our pursuers?"
"No, because it's one of the few spots that can serve our purpose. Thanks to my sense of self,
every time I regain a new function, I always know how to make it work. This one is special,
and needs a special spot."
"What's so great about this place? It's depressing and more dead than Julius Caesar."
Solus chuckled.
"Did you ever wonder why the Wither moved in this direction every time it managed to
escape?"
"Normally I'd say it was just desperate, but I bet you have a better explanation."
"Bingo! I noticed it the first time we came here, but back then I couldn't make head or tails
about it. You see, with my mana sense I'm not only able to differentiate people, but also
landscapes.
That's because the world is literally full of mana, and some places more than others. During
our travels, I noticed several spots were the world energy was much more abundant than
usual, and this is one of them.
I believe that the Wither was looking for this place to leech the massive amount of world
energy to survive the fight." ¨C
Solus detached from Lith's finger in her usual spider form, reaching a clearing a few meters
away, before starting to burrow into the ground.
In front of his astonished eyes, a blue pulse lit the clearing. At every beat, something came
out of the ground. It was like looking at a fast-forwarded video, were one could see a seed
become a flower in less than ten seconds.
But in Solus' case, the small pebble grew into a tower.
A puny, demolished tower, to be precise.
It barely reached 10 meters (33 feet) of diameter, with a single door flimsy enough to get
carried away by a strong gust of wind. The tower only had the ground floor and no roof,
debris covered it's top, like it had collapsed on itself.
"This is indeed a surprise." Lith was impressed nonetheless. "Does this thing come with any
defence mechanisms? If so, wherever we go, we will always have a place to stay, avoiding
humans and beasts alike."
"First of all, this is not a thing, that's me!" Solus was quite pissed off being treated as an
object. "And yes, I do have defence mechanisms. So, get your rude a*s inside, so I can activate
them." ¨C
Lith did as instructed, discovering that the structure inside was bigger than it looked on the
outside. On his right there was a set of crumbled stairs going up, and another that seemed to
go down unimpeded.
In front of him there was a single door, leading to a bedroom almost identical to the one Lith
had made build in his house. Ye
t the bed was a king size canopy one, and the room had a
private bathroom, just like his room at the academy.
"Mass displacement?" Lith asked in amazement.
"Yes." For the first time, he could hear Solus's voice with his ears. "Only part of this form
exists in our plane, the rest is actually in the pocket dimension. Do you like this piece of home
away from home?" She was clearly eager for a praise.
"Very, it's an amazing replica. I can't thank you enough for giving me a real toilet, it means the
world to me."
Solus giggled.
"You are welcome. But this is not the surprise, just part of it. Go downstairs, please."
In the basement there were two more rooms, the first one was a perfect copy of the
forgemastering training hall, down to the last small detail.
"I was able to reproduce both the potion and the forgemastering labs, even the equipment."
She explained. "But I cannot create from nothing ingredients or consumables. Some things we
can only buy them."
Lith opened the drawer supposed to contain rings and amulets to enchant, but just as Solus
had announced, it was empty.
"Not a problem." He replied. "There is not much that I can do with my limited knowledge.
Luckily, when I told Professor Wanemyre that I wanted to do some practice on my own, she
gave me a few rings and a bottle of the liquid for drawing magic circles. We have enough for a
few attempts at applying true magic to forgemastering."
The only Forgemaster's spell Lith had seen, was the one for realizing dimensional items. He
drew the circles and the runes with the utmost care, there was no one to help him in case
something went wrong.
When he finished, he placed a pebble in its center. He wasn't expecting to succeed, only to
study to mana flow to reproduce it with true magic.
So, instead of chanting, he used Invigoration to call upon the world energy and sent it to fill
the magic circle. It was easy, and it didn't affect his mana reserves, since he was employing
external energies.
Unlike Professor Wanemyre, he didn't fill the circles to the brim. Being an experiment, the
less energy the better, not to mention he wanted to avoid creating top tier rings after just a
month.
According to the books, it was sufficient to give the circles mana until the air started to crackle
to obtain the lowest class dimensional objects.
Lith knew the thirteen runes and their spells like the back of his hand, he had performed them
countless times during the lessons and on his own.
Remembering the characteristic feeling of each one, he weaved the runes' incantations in
rapid succession. In Lith's mind, Wanemyre's performance, albeit exceptional, was like a kid
playing a piano one key at a time.
He was convinced that to maximize the effects, the different spells had to complement and
integrate each other, like in a magical symphony.
The runes rose in the air one after the other, forming a perfect ring around the pebble in the
blink of an eye. Lith then started compressing the mana inside the runes. Soon all the energy
was encompassing the little stone, trying to seep inside.
Now it was the most critical moment, Lith had to force energy and matter to fuse together.
Things were going smoothly, but in the back of his head there was a constant alarm that
something was wrong.
Suddenly, the energy mass imploded, pulverizing the pebble. Despite being unable to escape,
the mana gone wild still managed to burn the circle, leaving a crack on the floor.
"Ouch! That hurt!" Solus said.
"Sorry, my bad." Lith said embarrassed by his failure. "Any idea what has gone wrong?"
"Right off the bat, I can come up with at least eight errors you did." She actually replied at his
rhetorical question, leaving Lith in awe once again.
Chapter 89 Trial And Error
"First of all, Wanemyre said that the size of the circle matters, and you made it too big for a
pebble. A smaller one would have been better to save ink and better focus the mana.
Also, you formed the mana sphere too fast, not giving it enough time to get properly imbued
with magic. Then there is the matter of how you arranged the runes¡"
Solus started nit-picking every single mistake he had done. According to his own earlier
analogy, more like someone playing a symphony, Solus was making Lith feel like a button
masher had attempted to go pro at fighting games.
Everything she said sounded right, and that made her even more irritating.
"Well, why didn't you tell me all of this earlier?" He grunted.
"How could I spot mistakes you had yet to do? It isn't my fault if being the wise one I am
capable of learning from others' mistakes, while normies like you must stumble and fall
before walking properly."
"Oh yeah, miss wisea*s? If you are that good, why don't you come here and show me how is
done?"
"Gladly."
The room started pulsing with a white light, the crack in the floor disappeared. Then, another
pebble flew on the ground, while several drops of ink hit the floor, forming the runes again in
a perfect circular pattern.
"You have forgotten the circles, Solus. So much for being a wise one." Lith playfully mocked
her.
"Do you mean this?" Suddenly the space around the pebble was filled with mana, perfectly
contained in a circular shape, just encompassing the runes.
"How did you¡"
"I learned Invigoration from you, and we are actually sitting on a geyser of world energy. Is
not that hard to keep it stable, for someone capable of space displacement." She proudly
explained, cutting him short.
"Do you mean in this form you are capable of keeping the mana stable without a limit?" Lith
stopped their cheerful quarrel, shocked by the revelation.
"Well, duh! Why?"
"Because that means that time is no matter an issue, at least while I practice in here. This is a
perfect magical furnace for a complete beginner like me!"
Lith weaved the thirteen spells again, following Solus' instructions and earlier advices. No
more worried by the mana dispersal, he bid his time, making sure that the mana sphere was
strong and stable, letting the energy seep in the pebble before the final step.
And so, the pebble melted before he could even attempt the fusion between matter and
energy.
"Another failure! What did I do wrong this time?" Lith asked in frustration.
"Honestly, I don't know." Solus mind-shrugged.
"There were some things you could have done better, but in theory it should have worked."
Just to be sure they weren't missing anything, this time Lith put on the ground one of the
spare rings, and with Solus' assistance, they repeated the whole process, but this time using
fake magic.
The forgemastering went without a hitch.
"What the heck?" Lith could not understand why true magic was failing him.
"We did the same thing, step by step. Why did it work this time?"
"Third time is a charm?" Solus said without actually believing it.
They kept crushing, melting and vaporizing many pebbles, but at the end of the day their only
success was the low-grade ring made with fake magic.
"It's almost noon, better stop, or your mother will worry."
"Yeah." Lith left the lab, heading back at the
ground floor. His eyes wandered inside the
bedroom, whose door he had left open.
"Solus, do you remember my comment about the dirty mind of those who designed the
academy's rooms?" He asked while rising an eyebrow in suspicion.
"Yes, why?"
"Why does my room have such a big bed? And why the hot tub is clearly designed to
comfortably accommodate two persons?"
"Well, I thought that maybe, sometime in the future, you would like to have some company."
If he didn't know her any better, Lith would have swore there was a hint of mischievousness
in her voice.
"Thanks for your concern, but I'll give a hard pass on that. I'll never reveal to anyone your
existence, it's too dangerous."
With a sigh on her side, both the bed and the tub shrank.
"On second thought, keep the bed big. It's more comfortable that way."
Ignoring Solus' grumblings, Lith was about to exit, but stopped at the last moment.
"Is the coast clear?"
"Yes, in this form all my capabilities are enhanced by the world energy. I can even spot the
three kings, despite how far away they are from us. I can't imagine someone escaping my
detection. Even in my weakened state, I'm always a legendary mage tower!"
"You have yet to tell me what defence measures you can use."
"Uhm, not much, actually. I can turn invisible, and when you are within the premises, I can
sink underground without leaving any trace.
At the moment my options are quite limited. I couldn't even sustain this form without
borrowing such abundant external mana."
Lith was impressed nonetheless. Her cloaking, spatial displacement and mana manipulation
were already at that level despite the yellow mana core. What would Solus be capable of
once she reached the cyan level too?
Lith returned home fast as he had gone, to make it harder spot their new special place.
"Don't you think you are wearing your paranoia cap too much?"
"No." Lith replied. "If I was the one supervising the village, keeping an eye on someone like
me would be wise. In their eyes, I'm still a kid, our family isn't poor anymore but it's not rich
either.
I have no real ties with the Kingdom, on paper I am the perfect example of a talented youth
that could be easily swayed with promises of riches, power and money." ¨C