"Lera?" Wu asked, his knuckles knocking on the door to the bedroom next to his within the Illiol college as the black and silver hair girl only appeared minutes later, rubbing her eyes and ignoring her messy hair, "Let's go to class already!"

"For someone that missed out an entire term of classes, you are very motivated." Lera joked, yawning and nearly stumbling into the frames of the door if not for Wu reaching out and catching her shoulder.

"It's for that exact reason that I am extra motivated." Wu said, smiling and shaking his head, "We are living in the college so that we can head to the classes easier, not so we can sleep for longer..."

At last, Wu was finally able to experience life as a normal student at the Infinite Academy, without worrying about stupid bullies, or accidentally breaking the school rules by sneezing onto another person or something. Lily really fulfilled her side of the bargain, and there was no catch for him at all.

Initially, Wu sort of convinced himself that the only way to strength within the Academy is through constant battles against others, but now that he is finally experiencing the other side of the equation, learning directly from world-class instructors from all around the world that teach through advanced projection Casts set up by Principal Khan all throughout the Academy, he quickly came to realize just how much more they could have done.

From the basic theories of Cast making to advanced techniques in condensing the individual modules of Casts akin to using logic units in electrical engineering, Lera and Wu quickly absorbed the knowledge within the classroom before taking it directly to the open labs in the next door where they used as much Cast making materials as they pleased.

"Again!" The instructor's sharp voice came through, a corresponding physical effect shaking the test table and nearly spilling over a bottle full of Cast-making ink. Wu let out a grunt of frustration as Lera stared into the Cast lines in silence.

There's the Caviat for using everything at the instructor's disposal. To take advantage of the world-class lessons, they will be forced to complete all of the tasks required of the instructor and receive a satisfactory grading. For some, it might mean doing the bare minimum of work, but for Wu and Lera...it's a whole different story.

The instructor is a famous teacher from one of the more prominent families in the Ethereal Realm, and his eccentrics nature is famous even among the world's elites. Or rather, especially among the world's elites. His thin grey eyebrows danced as he punctuated his instructions repeatedly.

"You. Need. To. Control. The. Cast. Through. Compartmentalization." He said, whirling his fingers around in the air, "All modules must be able to act separately, yet come together in the end. That's the true essence of Cast segmentation."

To Lera and even Wu, that's a whole new perspective when it comes to Casts. So far, Lera had been following the traditional line of Cast teaching, which preaches the simplest way of viewing Casts, each set of Cast lines fixed in place to create the desired effects. In the meanwhile, Wu had been thinking of Casts the way software is programmed on earth, with individual segments woven together into a single Cast.

However, this instructor is not only saying that each of the individual segments within a Cast is a Cast, but also that they should be a Cast?

"Hold on...this doesn't make sense..." Wu scratched his head, "There are no whole numbers if you divide zero, and there are no whole Casts within individual Casts? For example..."

Hovering his hands over the sets of Cast lines that made up the simple Store and Release Cast in front of him. The individual parts of the Cast in front are written over individual pieces of paper that were stacked against one another. Then, planting his index fingers firmly on one of the central modules, Wu slid it apart, breaking the Store and Release Cast and holding it up in front of his face.

"...You want this to be an individual Cast?" Wu asked, powering up the One-Shotter and sending a jolt of Wave through the paper as it glowed before the uncontrolled Wave started burning it up.

"Yes."

"And it's burning right now?"

"Tell me." The instructor said, dropping down the teacup and taking in a deep breath, "What is the function of this piece?"

Wu glanced down, and the spiralling patterns triggered something within him. He distinctively remembered this as one of the standard sets of patterns in the Cast-making textbook that Lera smuggled out to him when he was still in his homeless state.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"It's an amplifier." Wu said, "It takes in Wave from elsewhere, and it amplifies the input before giving it at the output."

"And what does that remind you of?" The instructor asked, and Wu's eyes shot open before he looked towards Lera who's equally as surprised by it.

"No way..." She murmured, the countless possibilities running in her head, "So all the bigger Casts are really just made up of smaller Casts...and smaller Casts are made up of even smaller Casts?"

"Not if we don't complete the circuit." Wu quickly added, "But if we just add another gate here, then this is basically a strengthening Cast, within Store and Release..."

"That will simplify Cast making and speed up Casting so much, if we can just take in only the core set of Casts and combine them to form different Casts, instead of having to activate and create Casts from scratch..." Lera slouched back into the chair, allowing her mind to be fully blown.

"Precisely. That's the realization that will you an even better Caster in the future." The instructor said, satisfied with his student's reaction, "Instead of remembering individual patterns, you instead remember a core set of Cast alphabet, from which you can create infinite wonders. Infinite possibilities of plugging and playing."

So far, she had simply been creating each of the individual Casts in turn and then embedding them into the Cast array itself. However, if she thought of everything in terms of this...Cast alphabet, then she can simply create a Cast that combines Casts, and that should speed up the activation of all of her Casts.

"Now, are we ready to continue?" The instructor asked, as both Lera and Wu nodded firmly, and with pens in hand, they started drawing up the simple Store and Release Casts, but this time, viewing it from the perspective of Cast alphabets.

While Wu and Lera are acting like model students in the class, the rest of Wu's squad are each doing their own things. After being tortured by Fatera's antics throughout the entirety of the winter break, Augen had decided to return to his college for the next little while, citing experimentation of his forbidden Casts as the excuse though everyone know full well he just need a break from Fatera always bugging him to train her.

Without Augen there to keep Fatera company and in check, the lone spirit that is the winner of the Winter Wars then went around, joining the sparring sessions hosted by the various colleges and eventually finding herself facing against countless other strong Wave users. Inevitably, she fought her way to some of the Boarded members hosting the sparring sessions themselves, and after a few words were exchanged, fists were exchanged too.

"You are strong, but not that strong." Standing behind a long thin two-handed blade, the fifth-ranked Wave user on the board swirled the blade in a series of circles before returning it to its sheath smoothly. The sound of splashing water coming from within until the body of the is fully returned.

"You had the Water Weaving Sword...don't you?" Fatera chuckled, pressing herself up the ground despite the countless cuts on her arms, shoulders, and legs, and she breathed in and out calmly before finally falling forward onto her face, passing out from Nana's attacks.

"That's right, teach her a lesson, master!" The rest of the crowds cheered, but Nana's angered glance immediately shut them up fully. Nana lunged forward, placing a hand over Fatera's body before water streamed out from the countless wounds on her body. Those droplets of water returned into Nana's hands, forming a much smaller blade, and Nana pulled out the handle of the Water Weaving Sword, returning the splinters to the main body.

"Argh...argh...why couldn't I use my...full power..." Fatera grunted awake due to Nana's touch, and she quickly rolled up into a sitting position right across from Nana, "Please allow me to come and spar here often! Until I learned to beat you!"

"What?!" The other students gasped. She was just absolutely humiliated by the fifth-ranked Wave user in the school after barging into a sparring session hosted by him, and she had the audacity to turn around and ask for more?!

"Sure, but next time, please follow the rules." Nana said, "Unless you can defeat me."

"Mark my words, I will." Fatera said, slamming her fist into the ground and struggling to hide her excitement, "And I will do it without my dominance mode."

"I will be right there."

Ver said, standing up atop the roof of one of the buildings overlooking the main arena as groups of students marched around in circles around a small normal-looking house right beside it. With a single wag of her finger, she activated Whirlpool Purple, slipping right through and re-emerging on the other side of the window before she went through the stack of books, picking out the one her client asked for.

A Cast was immediately activated, sensing the touch onto the bookshelf, and before the alarms were blasted, Ver made her escape, reappearing on the rooftop seconds later before teleporting even further, handing the book to her employer as he checked his watch.

"So...Lady Fulgen." He asked, scratching his forehead uncomfortably, "How would you advice improving our security Cast?"

Acting as both a consultant and a mercenary, Ver continued to stack up her riches in the Academy through her own work while the rest of her squad each continued to learn and improve in their own ways. With the PORA going radio-silent for the next little while, they simply enjoyed their own stories in the Infinite Academy, catching up as a squad every once in a while to spar with Lily's squad.

The spring months passed quicker than any of them expected, and soon, their stories converged once more, as the Cultural Festival towards the middle of the spring term neared.