Claudia spoke briefly to Luxon about power. The ways to achieve power are different, but the result is always the same. Her family gave clear definitions, she shared this theory with her student.

Those without combat skills are called mortals. Trained soldiers are called strong mortals.

Those who have mastered mana manipulation are called elite mortals. Any archmage or knight is called a hero. Those who have achieved an understanding of the laws of the world are called legends.

Luxon had mastered both the inner and outer manipulation of magic. He could rightly be considered an elite mortal, but he had no power. Claudia decided to intensify their training.

Day by day, their training reached a bottleneck. Within a year, the boy had gained strength comparable to a supreme swordsman. The boy finally possessed the strength of an elite mortal. Such results were only possible because of Claudia's true personality.

Today he secluded himself in the forest again after stealing food. The snow was spreading with the sweeps of the sword.

Luxon tried to defeat the teacher again, the rapier chopping faster and faster. His every swing was at the level of reflexes, he made no unnecessary movements. However, the knight dodged easily.

"What is fencing to you?"

"Proper use of the sword?"

Claudia frowned and shouted out.

"The strength of a knight!"

She strengthened her wooden fingers with mana and intercepted the rapier. The boy had no time to react. The rapier flew out and hit the ground.

"The form of fencing. Fencing posture. Sword swings. All this is useless. Why is a true knight called a knight and not a swordsman?"

Claudia shook her head and materialised the mana into a sword projection. The boy stepped back and watched intently. She made only a slight swing. That swing knocked the child to the ground, sliced through the trees and cut through space itself. Swirls of energy rose from the void and began to repair the destruction.

Luxon sensed an oddity, his teacher was not using mana. Luxon would not have been surprised by the magical manipulation, but the energy of the sword was different.

"This strike does not rely on swordsmanship! This strike is not filled with huge amounts of mana! I didn't use any rusty iron! The blow is only filled with my knight's codex! The knight's code is the source of the knight's power! Not the crap everyone calls swordsmanship! Mana only helps knights fight, not powers them."

Much of the straw in the scarecrow rotted away and turned to dust. The use of the knight's strength was quickly destroying her body. Luxon sighed and stared at the floor in silence.

"It's not clear..."

"Don't repeat after me! Magic is one thing, but the strength of a knight is quite another."

"..."

"Disappointed? Observing my code of knighthood won't do you any good. Don't be disappointed, you can only become a knight by following your heart, only by having the last bastion of conscience and your own morals."

Luxon performed a magic hand spell and forced the rapier back into his hand.

"I have learned magic, after all. A knight's powers are like spells. The knight's codex is just a mental model of magic, after all..."

His words were interrupted by a strong killing aura. Luxon was used to this aura, but he stopped being clever.

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"A knight's strength is something else entirely! You can't achieve systematic training. You have felt it yourself by becoming a supreme swordsman. Until you gain the code of the knight your way forward is closed."

Luxon smiled crookedly.

"OK, but a bastion of conscience? Seriously?"

"What's so funny?"

Luxon scratched his cheek in embarrassment and compiled his thoughts.

"The teacher doesn't look like a high moral person. What bastion of conscience?"

Claudia nodded.

"It's something you'll never get over. Even if you lose your life. That's why there are no cowards among knights. Cowards rarely possess that quality."

"And the moral? Should I do some good deeds?"

"This is subjective morality. A knight should not change his morality under the influence of the outside world. A knight's morality comes from his heart. Even if the whole world speaks of you as evil incarnate. As long as you follow your heart, you are able to acquire the code of the knight."

The scarecrow turned and tilted its head towards the sky.

"A knight's code is a contract with the very world we live in. Breaking the code leads to death, abiding by the code gives strength. This is the way of the true knight."

Luxon went to rest and Claudia was lost in thought.

It had been two years since they had met. Life in a small village with an apprentice... Claudia hadn't even noticed how she was used to it.

How many centuries had she been underground? Claudia herself did not know how she had kept her wits about her. Wishes had a price, and she had had to pay for her wishes in full.

Claudia became even more lost in thought.

Her brother was a knight and her younger sister a mage. She had long forgotten what their faces looked like. Why is she training Luxon?

A psychological substitute? Perhaps... Claudia didn't want to delve any deeper into her thoughts.

Scarecrow took a closer look at the forest, she clearly felt a strange energy fluctuation.

Claudia temporarily left Lucson asleep and raced into the woods. The snow did not sag beneath her feet. Claudia's speed reached a third of her true potential, but it was enough.

A few bundles of her straw were already beginning to rot, but Claudia was not paying attention. She ran for several minutes, finally reaching the anomaly.

In front of the true knight was a dying mage. The man was not bleeding, but was experiencing anemia. It was as if someone had sucked his blood.

The skin was covered with scabs and was slowly turning black. Claudia had seen such marks, the man had caught a clot of negative energy with his body.

The man was walking straight towards their house. His head was down and he was in constant pain.

*rustling *

The magician began to raise his head, but his life was cut short. Claudia had already made the cut. The magician's thin magical protection tore like paper, and the poor man himself could not understand what had killed him.

The mage clutched at his cut throat and then collapsed into a snowdrift.

Claudia's decision came from rationality. The magician was a threat... Communicating with Luxon was the only moment of her current emotional existence.

Claudia could not let the wizard live. An unnecessary nuisance, he might bring an enemy after him. Claudia took the book and the ring from the mage's body. The knight immediately ran back.

She had seen vampires in the woods many times.

Such a number of vampires and vampire servants was an anomaly. What was even stranger was that they were not attacking the villagers.

It suggested she was in vampire land. She remembered her life as a human and felt sad. Her ancient kingdom forgotten and buried under a layer of earth...

Climbing out of her sarcophagus she walked north, but everything was different. Where there had been forest, now there was desert. Where there had been a city was now gorges...

Luxon's village is close to the destination of her journey... She must know, whatever it takes! Claudia wanted to find her sister's tower, but she will need help with the archaeological work.

The vampire lands give her little choice of allies. However, she must train Luxon...

Claudia was torn between finding the tower and training Luxon. The knight briefly stopped running.

Luxon was an anomaly to her... The boy had invented a name for himself. Luxon is a magical term, as a knight she felt it with her intuition.

A sorcerer's talent is a gift for the descendants of powerful magical beings. Sorcerers' intuition is repelled by the ancestor's knowledge. Sorcerers inherit spells, skills, talents and much knowledge. The higher the compatibility of a sorcerer's soul with his or her ancestor, the more benefits the talent brings.

Any mage or magical creature that breaks through to hero level gives descendants a sorcerer's talent. Not all descendants are compatible with the ancestral talent, it all depends on luck. Sometimes a talent is obtained thirty generations later.

The biggest advantage of sorcerers was the internal source of magic. The ability to generate magic with their own bodies greatly speeds up mana regeneration.

The weaker was the wizarding talent, it was necessary for both parents to be wizards. The talent only gave a quicker understanding of magic than mages without the wizarding talent were able to do.

Mages, on the other hand, were usually the first generation of scientists. Without mage parents, without powerful ancestors, they sought to obtain for themselves the secrets of magic.

There are other magical talents, but Claudia knows little about them.

She glanced at the magic book, the village boy would finally get something to teach him about magic. She was not in a position to give him a deep knowledge of magic, and the way of the knight was not for Luxon.

Claudia's younger sister suffered from the same problems. Luxon is unable to feel the knight's power. He is too sensitive to mana.

Until he learns to control his sorcerer's talent, teaching him the way of a knight is pointless.

Claudia returned to the house and finally looked at the magician's book. On the pages were initial spells, research notes and meditation tips.

The book was printed on a loom and showed the stamp of the magic academy. Then she checked the ring, disappointed. There was no magical circuitry on the gem, just three magical runes.

The ring help in stabilising the magical currents.

"Too bad it's not a spatial ring."