These were the books he was told to read in his hospital time by his actual Master. He was instructed to ignore every other book, especially those recommended by "the wench", until he understood these ones inside out. Darius was now thoroughly invested in being a Spiritsmith, as he reckoned it to be the safest path to the peak. The boy's fear of pain in this regard was gone. Compared to absorbing an astral god, any growing pains from training would be easy.

When one enjoys something, it would be easier to get more into it. This applied even more so to Darius, who had the ability to single mindedly focus on a single task. This naturally didn't need explanation as to why.

The Praetorius curse was inactive when he was sick or injured beyond a certain level. At least according to his Master, he would be free of the curse temporarily during that duration. But not his hammer.

He quickly pulled his hammer from the shadow dimension. He was given a few tasks to complete in the duration he'd be separated from his master. The first was to always hold his hammer when no one was in the room with him. He could hide it easily because he could see outside, but not vice versa.

As if to highlight just how much he trusted in the youth, the old man had placed a spell that measured how many hours Darius would spend holding the hammer. The old man even threatened to deprive Darius of sexual actions of any kind for an entire year if he got below a certain value in hours, and worst of all he didn't even tell Darius what that amount was.

"Haha, if you are a man, then you will surely do your best to meet the requirements!" That's all he said.

'What the fuck is that supposed to mean?'

Darius was tired, both physically and mentally. He leaned back in his bed, hammer in hand and a communicator in the other.

This past week had passed by too quickly. Darius was still not used to the changes. He was now an Honourable Spiritnight!

'If only the Matron knew.'

Darius was banned from talking to anyone he knew before he entered Sahid. He had no idea why this was so, but at least that ban would be lifted when he finished school with exemplary grades.

Darius craned his neck and focused on the first book he had to read.

Smithing Chemistry 101.

…

Darius' eyes pealed open, almost involuntarily, his hands shot up to shield his eyes from the glare of the florescent light above. At that moment, the glare coming from the ceiling dimmed and shifted to a mellow, deep blue shade. His clenched jaw relaxed, wide eyes narrowed, and a certain warmth enveloped him. He fixed his gaze on the ceiling, which turned darker in its hue, making it seem like an inky navy black.

His breathing became much more relaxed. Darius slowly slithered off the bed. His left big toe was first to touch the ground, and immediately after the floor turned green. He placed more pressure in his steps, but no more change occurred. His footsteps made no sounds as the walls around him had turned a deep blue of the sea.

This was the place he had been calling home for the last few weeks. The colourful, physical rehabilitation centre. Apparently these colours and their constant change accelerated his healing process, both mentally and physically.

Just at that moment, a soft but firm female voice filled the room, "Attention, patient Darius Omen. In a few moments you shall be delivered an electronic guide. At that time, please open it and follow the instructions, thank you."

Darius was well aware that it was time to get to school. He wasn't sure what the future held for him, but he was a little bit confident that he'd be okay.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The books his Master had told him to read were a bit difficult to understand at first, but he eventually got the gist of things.

To Darius, spirit arts in essence were especially valuable. Just the knowledge in those books was bound to improve his survivability many folds!

The spirit arts he had been taught by the old man were not learned the orthodox way. The old man parted the chants and forcefully moved the spirit essence within Darius' body, causing him to pick up the spells quickly, however this was not something that could be done often, as it would cause irreparable damage to the body over time.

It was only to be used at the beginning, to get students to sense spirit essence and how to use it. But Darius still had no idea what it actually was until he read spirit arts in Essence.

Spiritual Essence was an energy that existed within the bodies of all living things. When a creature died, that spiritual essence would return to nature and become wild spirit essence. First, one had to learn to sense the spiritual essence within their bodies. Then, one had to move the essence along intangible spiritual pathways that existed in the body, like a system of complex blood vessels.

Moving spiritual essence along certain pathways along with a chant was what produced a spirit art. Some spirit arts required some extra things, like flexing certain muscles, or use of wands or of some other catalyst.

Everyone was born with these pathways. The thicker and clearer these pathways were, the more spirit essence one could hold and the better their control. These pathways were set at birth. Changing them through training was as difficult as teaching a human to walk on their arms instead of their legs. It was exceedingly difficult and expensive, albeit not completely impossible.

One thing that could not be changed no matter what was spiritual affinity. This referred to the elements one was more in tune with. If you had no affinity with fire, then your flame spells would be ridiculously weak, and vice versa. Darius had his affinities tested and was surprised.

Lightning 30%, thunder 20%, nature 15%, metal at 10%, space 10%, mental 10%, and strength 5%.

A person had their affinities represented in percentages. The mark of a talented fighter was having an element at 1 percent and above. Most people were so weak that they could have 85% compatibility with 'nothing'. This was referred to as junk compatibility, useless in spirit arts. However, Darius' entire essence was compatible with an element! He was a full-element savant!

Such prodigies were incredibly rare, not to mention that thunder and lightning could be counted as being one and the same under some circumstances. That meant he had, arguably, 50% compatibility with a single element. One that is very rare and powerful at that!

Fay almost salivated when she first saw the results. She had to have the boy! She had immediately moved him to the best rehabilitation facility in the school. It was extremely draining on resources to even use one room, but she was more than willing to bleed a little for the boy.

Thanks to his new-found knowledge, Darius had a rough idea of his circumstances. He was waiting for school to start to properly analyse everything. His wariness, however, had not dropped a bit. In fact it had risen many folds, thanks to the antics of Lionel.

Darius didn't read just those books. He had finished his initial assignment much faster than he had hoped, so he had been looking up as many books on the basics of spirit arts as much as possible. The gap he had in his common knowledge had slowly been filled with knowledge of the world's experts. Darius would often test out many things he had learned in his new room. It could handle a surprising amount of damage, and the secrecy it provided made him feel very safe.

Knowledge was power, Darius knew this very well as the Matron had spewed those very words countless times. Darius was far from being an expert, but he was no longer a country bumpkin, at least when it came to spirit arts.

The electronic guide had given him directions to the man who was supposed to give him themself a tour of the school, or to be more specific, the part Darius was going to be using. Ephemeral Forge Academy was the size of a metropolis. It could easily match a quarter of Sahid's size, and that was what was on the surface…

"Ja Man Roh, what an odd name."

According to the information Darius had been given, his guide, Ja Man Roh, was an extremely powerful and high ranking spirit knight within the academy. It was also Roh's responsibility to make sure that Darius would be safe. Darius was naturally pleased by this. After all, who wouldn't want a security guard who was a renowned powerhouse? But Darius' instinct became restless. Things were not as simple as they might seem.

Darius had been alloted some money, which he used to hail a taxi to his destination. He still was having a hard time adjusting to the high-class technology. The school seemed to be on a much higher level than just Sahid.

Here there were no beggars, no dirt, and no crowding. Nothing seemed old at all!

Darius marvelled at the academy as he was taken to his destination by the taxi driven by an artificial intelligence.

"I wonder what awaits me, and I very much hope no danger is involved... Sigh, who am I kidding. I'm screwed."