“So, Ritter tells me that he’s going to start teaching you applied tracing today…” Lin said after Sam finished his warm-up.

Sam nodded, adopting an offensive stance and levying his spear against the very expensive practice dummy, which was Lin himself. Lin’s statement, while an invitation for a follow-up from Sam, was not an invitation to stop the flow of their training, as Sam was well aware at this point. So he got in a few preliminary thrusts in, beginning to follow Lin’s practice exercises for static offense that by now were already rote in both his mind and muscles, before simply saying, “Yep.”

Lin’s raised eyebrow, as well as his more than usual heavy-handed parry, were a clear indicator that Sam could do better in both the exercise and providing an answer. “That’s all you have to say?”

“What else is there to say? In this room, at least? You’re the one who keeps going on about the necessity of separating magic and combat until such a time when a person is proficient enough in both to combine the two.”

“That is fair, I suppose. And you have done an admirable job of separating between the two in our lessons together.”

Sam snorted. “What’s so admirable about it? It’s not like I have any meaningful magical knowledge that I can bring into the lessons with me. And it’s not likely to change after today, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I am not worried about that, no. And I am well aware that even with your considerable rate of advancement that it will be some time before you could make use of any affecting tracings you’ve learned as part of our lessons. Of course, I’m not quite as optimistic as Ritter is concerning how much time it will actually take you to achieve that knowledge, but even if he’s right, it has nothing to do with me. As long as I’m not instructing you in magical combat, that is.”

“Surely you’re not worried about his ability to teach me magic, then? Or is it my ability to learn it sufficiently well that worries you?”

“Nothing worries me, I assure you. I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that your new studies are a source of concern for me. But since I am going to be teaching you about magical combat eventually, it is of interest to me how far you’ve come in that department. Then again…” Lin chuckled, maneuvering Sam’s slash in such a way that he was almost forced to drop the spear. “I was simply trying to ask for your attitude towards this new stage in your magical career. My question had no ulterior motive, I assure you... Aside from further ingratiating myself upon you, of course, in the hope of reaping future rewards from your benefactor.” He smiled.

Sam smiled back. It was a well-trodden joke at this point (which added to it a further meta-dimension, so far unremarked upon), and lacking any actual basis in reality. You would’ve had to be the most socially incompetent person in the Web to think Lin’s attitude towards Sam was an attempt to ingratiate himself upon him. “Don’t fault me, then, for thinking you had some other motive for that question. This is the first time you’ve raised an interest in the magical side of my studies.”

“It is the first time that side has become relevant. Or close to relevant. I assure you, if you were level 1 and your studies in patterns encompassed more than just theory, I would’ve been very interested in them as well.”

“If I were level 1, would we not also be training in magical combat, as well?”

“Not with how your skills in physical combat current stand.”

“You could afford to be more encouraging, you know?”

“I could be. But as long as I’m sure that it won’t affect you either way, I don’t have any reason to. Besides, while you might still be far off from being proficient enough with physical combat, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be proud of how far you’ve come. That counts as encouragement, no?”

Sam recovered from his, absorbed without complaint, thrust towards Lin’s abdomen with a backwards sweep of the heel of the spear to the point of Lin’s spear. “I’ve heard better. But don’t worry, my combat skill is the one field for which I need the least amount of encouragement. Needing to know how to prevent a Brute from taking my head off somehow feels less dire and urgent than understanding set theory.”

“And that’s a good attitude to have. You’re still at least three years off from having your first chance at combat. All through that time you’ll have plenty of opportunity to train, not to mention how much time and opportunities you’ll have to perfect your combat skills during the rest of your life.”

“If I stay alive, that is.”

“That’s what we’re working so hard for, no?”

Sam nodded and, following Lin’s signal for a break, stopped his thrust midway before drinking some water. “Speaking of working hard,” he said after he returned from his backpack, “are you going to be able to work as hard next week?”

“Why won’t I?”

“From my understanding, all combat instructors are pretty much on deck for the tournament.”

“Unfortunately, you are correct, but most of the sparring matches are going to take place after breakfast. So only a few instructors are required to observe the matches which will fall during our usual training hours. Luckily, I was exempted from being entered into the lot of those few due to my association with you. So my thanks for that.”

Sam laughed. “Not a big fan of this facade of a tournament, then?”

“I’m not a big fan of any tournament when it is undertaken by an educational establishment, period. I am also not a fan of being a judge. That’s just a huge waste of my time.”

“Rather be teaching bumbling twenty-two-year-olds instead?”

“Teaching is what my job description requires of me, so yes. Judging people in a sparring competition is not. There is nothing to be gained for either me or my pupils by my being there. Not that the pupils have anything much to gain with or without me.”

“But surely if you’re there, then you’ll be able to educate them on what they did right and what they did wrong during the match. Helping them get better. After all, isn’t sparring one of the main methods in which the academy conducts its combat classes?”

“It is. But sparring as part of class and as part of a tournament are two completely different experiences. The academy’s attempt to present this ‘tournament’ as some sort of educational event is meant to combat that difference. But by the simple fact that people still call it a tournament, it falls off the mark.”

“So you’d be against me, for example, partaking in that tournament if I was good enough not to embarrass myself? Since you claim I have nothing to gain by joining?”

“Oh, you have plenty enough to gain. None of it important. A feeling of accomplishment, glory, social benefits, and so on. What you’re not going to do, however, is learn anything. No one becomes a better fighter simply by competing in a onetime event.”

At Lin’s gesture, Sam resumed his stance and embarked on the same exercise from before. “I’m not sure that I agree with that. Granted, most of what I think about tournaments and competitions comes from, probably unsubstantiated, fiction, but still… Just preparing in anticipation of the tournament surely makes you a better fighter, no? I mean, Felix has been training extra hard these last two weeks because of that.”

Lin nodded. “He has. He was in my class last Saturday. But that only proves my point. It is not the competition itself that brought any material improvement to his or anyone else’s martial talents. But simply their training beforehand, training they intensified not in hope—or at least rational hope—of it helping them better utilize the tournament in order to become stronger, but simply in order to become stronger for the tournament; for the other inconsequential rewards I mentioned.”

“How does that not count in the tournament favor, then? If it provides a mental benefit to a person’s will to train, either before or after, that’s still some help, no?”

“I’m wiling to grant that as a benefit, yes. A competition can provide the push necessary for people to train harder. But, in an ideal world, such help would not be required, wouldn’t you agree? Every person will be able to push themselves to the best of their abilities without needing a tournament to enclose a limited time period for them to do so. By your own logic, you, for example, would have nothing to gain by attending a tournament, as you’re already stretched thin as it is with your training to the best of your abilities.”

“By my own logic maybe, but not by my own assumptions…” Sam mumbled beneath his breath. “So in your opinion, there isn’t any chance for a person to leave any sort of tournament a better fighter than they entered?”

“No.”

“What about the opportunity to fight other talented people? Learning from them? Pushing yourself in order to beat them?”

“Anything there is to be learned from fighting other people in a competition is much better learned in a different environment. In educational sessions where the both of you are actively trying to help the other person become a better fighter. It is simply ridiculous to expect that a competitive and stressful environment would be more conducive to bringing forth in a person an advancement that an open and relaxed environment won’t. While it does happen that a person is able to push themselves, as you said, and grasp victory when they shouldn’t have. Doing so will most likely not teach them how to be a better fighter overall.”

“What? Why not? If you’ve got a… I don’t know, a sudden bolt of inspiration in the middle of the fight and figured out a better way to use your magic or something in order to help you win. How does that not make you a better fighter overall?”

Lin raised an eyebrow and forced Sam to pivot his thrust into a slash by dodging out of the way. “‘A sudden bolt of inspiration?’ Things don’t work like that in real life.”

“Don’t they?”

“At least not for low levels like you, or me, for that matter. You need to differentiate between a fight helping you reach a realization on how to become a better fighter and a fight, giving you some sort of epiphany that you can immediately utilize in order to win the fight. The latter doesn’t happen for people like us who are well trained because we’ve already brought to bear everything we can use during combat. Say you discover an ingenious new way to use one of your patterns, for example, making that change will require you to imprint it, which you obviously cannot do in the middle of combat. The former does happen, certainly, it’s why sparring is our major avenue for training, but like I said, you will have a much easier time reaching that realization when you’re fighting for the sake of bettering yourself, during training, than when you’re fighting for the sake of winning a competition.”

“So breakthroughs aren’t real? That’s… disappointing, I suppose.”

“Breakthroughs certainly are real, and they’re a constant part of training. You’ve had plenty of breakthroughs since we started our sessions. Breakthroughs during combat are also real. As you’ll eventuality see when you start training with other people. But they are—and I suppose I must disclaim this to be my opinion—much rarer in competitive fights than practice fights. And in both, the only way for the breakthrough to help you win the fight is if you were wholly unprepared and woefully trained up to it. After all, realizing that you can trace to your patterns during a fight is a sort of breakthrough, no? But it’s not one that you should ever be having. Of course, maybe things work differently for levels 9s and 10s, who are starting to play by different rules. As for Rulers? There certainly are enough stories and legends about Rulers becoming stronger mid-fight for me to think that the possibility for such an event is more realistic for them. But as it pertains to our topic, there has never been a tournament for Rulers…”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Still… I’m guessing your disdain towards the possibility of a competition helping a fighter better improve doesn’t extend to actual combat, though?”

Lin laughed. “Of course not. The only major downside of lethal combat as a method of training is the lethal part of it. If I could hook you up to a machine which would’ve made you think you were fighting for you life, I would’ve been able to cover all the progress we made here in just a few days. There is no better training than fighting for your life.”

“I thought that a stress-free environment was the best for training.”

“Different kinds of stress. In a competition, you’re fighting to win. In battle, you’re fighting not to lose. There is a reason why we send even our most promising prospects like you to the front line while you are still relatively weak. You’ll see this for yourself after your first real fight. You might not learn anything new or realize a way to improve your capabilities, you probably won’t. But you’ll surely leave your first encounter with death a better fighter. Of course, there is a balance to everything. Lethal combat might make you a better fighter more quickly than non-lethal practice, but to be the best fighter you could possibly be, you have to combine the two. That’s, in short, the entire goal of this academy when it comes to training you as a fighter. Prop you up to a baseline of skill and power, which will, hopefully, be enough to guarantee your survival in active combat. Then, it is your future experience with combat, together with the methodology of how to keep training correctly and improving yourself as a fighter, that should deliver the best combatant version of you possible. Notice how tournaments do not have any role to play in that guideline.”

“Fine… I get your point. No tournaments for me then.”

“Not as long as I have something to say about that, no. Once you’re ready to begin training with other people, you’ll have no lack of people to spar with, this I can assure you.”

“When’s that going to happen?”

“We’ll see…” Lin shrugged and stood up straight. “Alright, take a short break and then we’ll move on to footwork.”

Sam nodded thankfully and after laying down the spear, shook his hands before massaging them and rolling his shoulders. His ability to withstand Lin’s session greatly increased due to his fitness (and, dare he say it, his willpower to suffer through physical discomfort) improving in the passing weeks. But while the sessions’ intensity hasn’t correspondingly increased like Sarah’s workouts did, they were still not a cup of tea (especially since he was constantly recovering from Sarah’s workouts). So the number of breaks and the timing between each break remained roughly the same after his second week of training with Lin, with only the length of each break shortening somewhat. And he very much still needed those breaks because spearfighting was hard fucking work.

Unfortunately, he was well aware that his new avenue of study wasn’t going to be much help in that department any time soon. Which is why he was confused by Dan’s proposed lesson plan for which group of affecting tracings they were going to focus on second.

“Wait,” he said while straightening in the armchair, “I thought that recovery tracings were pretty much useless. Why are we rushing to learn them?”

“They’re far from useless.” Dan shook his head. “It’s just that compared to the patterns serving the same functions, they’re not quite as effective. But with your inability to imprint, and with the amount of time we spend practicing tracing anyway, that makes recovery tracings a no-brainer for your first set of ‘real’ affecting tracings. And since recovery patterns are also going to be our first major focus when we start with imprinting, better acquainting yourself with the tracings as early as possible will be very helpful.”

“I thought the recovery patterns are intrinsically different from the tracings.”

“Intrinsically more complex, but the first few that you’re going to be imprinting are pretty much solely modeled on the tracings. But since we’ve yet to begin studying applied tracing even, perhaps discussing applied patterns ought to wait for another day?”

Sam held up his hands. “Alright, alright. Recovery tracings first—err, second… third?”

“Fourth. First, we are going to be studying the different basic tracings that are required to in order to pass affecting magic from the pathways and into the body. Those are?”

“Physical foundational tracings,” Sam dutifully answered.

“And they are contrasted with?”

“Magical foundational tracings.”

“And what is the different between the two?”

“Physical foundational tracings are required for the affecting tracing to function on and in the physical medium, and magical foundational is the same for the magical medium. Which, according to you, means that as far as I’m concerned right now, the former is for my body and the latter is for my pathways.”

“The magic in your pathways. You won’t be able to study the required magical foundational tracings for interacting with your pathways until level 1.”

“Right… So I’m assuming that foundational magical tracings is third subject we learn about?”

“Indeed. Usually it comes second, but as we’re prioritizing making active use of recovery tracings as soon as you’re able, I’m delaying it for a while in order for you to practice with an assortment of the most basic physically affecting tracings there are, the so called ‘practice tracings.’ Misnamed in my opinion because some of those tracings are the basis of more complex, very important affecting tracings. So we’ll spend two to three weeks on those before moving on to magical foundational tracings. All in all, in about five to seven weeks, we should be able to start working on recovery tracings.”

“Won’t I need one of those practice affecting tracings for today, though? Otherwise, how will I know that I’m doing the physical foundational tracings correctly?”

“Good question. By themselves, foundational tracings, be they physical or magical, carry no effects. So how can we know if we traced them correctly?”

“…By doing what I just said?”

Dan smiled and paused for dramatic effects while taking a long sip of his tea. “Wrong answer, I’m afraid. But, I’ll give you a hint. You already know and practiced one type of physical foundational tracing.”

“I only know the one tracing though… Are you saying that the tracing for moving magic into my body is a foundational tracing?”

“Of course. And it is the most basic kind. The one that does not allow room for any affecting tracing to take place corresponding to it.”

“So I’ll know if my physical foundational tracings are correct if the magical energy ends up flowing into my body. But how does that work for the magical?”

“Even simpler. Think about it. What happens when you just trace energy inside your pathways into itself?”

“Well, nothing. It simply combines if it has enough space.”

“And what happens to it if you simply trace magic from one point to another through your pathways?”

“Nothing as well.”

“Exactly. So, if you’ve carried out a magical foundational tracing correctly, either away from the rest of your magical energy or surrounded by it, that would mean that some of the energy has to disappear, no? Otherwise there would’ve been no foundational effect from the tracing and the energy should’ve just continued as it has beforehand.”

Sam nodded in understanding. “And that method doesn’t work with physical foundational tracings because by attempting to bridge my pathways and my body, I am inserting resistance into the picture, so even if the tracing failed, more magic would’ve been lost than by simple dissipation.”

“Very good.” Dan smiled. “It all comes back to the fact that you don’t actually know only the one tracing. The first third of the foundational tracing we’ve been practicing all these weeks is a tracing all on its own, and it is the basis for all but one of the physical foundational tracings out there. The tracing as a whole moves magic from your pathway into the body, but the first third is what opens the connection between your body and your pathway. It’s pretty much the most important tracing in existence. And since you are well familiar with it at this point, we are thus exempt from the very first subject most people have to learn about in applied tracing. The second subject as well, since we have been working tirelessly on the Nonaffecting Physical Foundational. Which leaves us with only two subjects to study on the topic of physical foundational tracings for now.”

“Now today, or now the general future?”

“Now being this next half a year while you’re still not level 1 and thus don’t have any reason to learn the fourth type. But for the more meditate future, what we’ll be focusing on for, probably, the next two weeks, are Prior Physical Foundational and Posterior Physical Foundational. We’ll be starting with the latter, because the tracing itself is simpler. Its usage together with affecting tracings is what makes it more complex than its counterpart, but since we’re not going to be starting on affecting tracings today, that won’t matter to us.”

“And are those the same two types for magical foundational tracings?”

“Indeed. Although the tracings’ configuration themselves will be quite different from their physical counterparts. And at this point, I think that I can finally explain to you the main difference between sculpting and imprinting as well, if you forgive me the spoilers.”

“I certainly will.” Sam motioned him to continue.

Dan nodded with an understanding smile. “It’s quite simple, really. Sculpting is done through a type of pathway affecting tracings that require a prior foundational. The same holds for imprinting only that it requires a posterior foundational. Now, those two foundational tracing are not at all similar to the Prior and Posterior Magical Foundational tracings that we’re going to be studying in a couple of weeks, since they have to do with affecting the pathway itself, and, as I said, you can only being tracing them after you’re level 1. And yes, before you ask, the official name for these two foundational tracings is Foundational Sculpting and Foundational Imprinting.

“So, while the study of both sculpting and imprinting begins with learning those two types of foundational tracings, it mostly consists of learning and practicing the different affecting magical tracings each field has to offer. All in all, those four types of magical foundational tracings, together with the four types of physical foundational tracings, are all the foundational tracings that you will study here in the academy. They have some addons and variations, which you will learn in due time once you are talented enough, but they only have to do with making the affecting tracing more time and energy efficient. The foundational tracing themselves will remain the same, both conceptually and mechanically.”

“So, what’s the fourth type of physical foundational tracing?” Sam asked. “If we’re already going full spoilers?”

“Post Patterns Foundational. Conceptually, it is the same as Posterior Physical Foundational, but there are some major usage and technical differences which we will cover once there’s need for it.”

“And are those the only types of foundational tracings there are? Or just those that the academy is going to teach us?”

Dan smiled. “There are two more. But they are way above your pay grade.”

“Tell me anyway?”

“Hm… Only if you promise not to think about the ramifications of them too deeply. Look and forget as it were.”

“I’ll try.”

“Well… this knowledge is a short google search away for a change, so I suppose you trying is good enough for me.” Dan laughed. “So there is one more physical foundational tracing and one more magical. Both of them are prior to affecting tracing, although they do not build on or resemble the other three prior foundational tracings at all. The physical tracing is the foundation for an affecting tracing that’s traced in a purely physical medium. And the magical tracing is the foundation for a tracing that affects the core.”

Sam stared at him, dumbstruck. “How is that possible? It goes against everything we’ve been studying about magic.”

“Well, we’ve been studying about how magic works at the lower levels. Things are different once you reach higher. But remember, you promised no questions.”

Sam tsked and grit his teeth. “Does that mean that none of the cadets here know why that stuff makes sense as well?”

“Oh, no. They should understand the theory at the end of their studies.”

“Care to tell me that theory?”

Dan laughed. “Nope. That’s third year material. Google it at your own peril.”

“Hmm…” Sam grumbled. “Fine, whatever. Let’s start, shall we? I’ve wasted enough time as it is.”

“You’ve wasted no time, I assure you. I’ve told you this many times before, but your tendency to ask questions, even if you think it harmful to your studies by diverting us off track, is something that should be encouraged, not criticized. Besides, even if there is some fault to be found with that behavior of yours on occasion, today’s lesson was the farthest our lessons can be from such an occasion. But if you have no more questions, then I’m happy to start.”

“No more questions, no. For now.”

“Excellent. So let’s start with the theory and mechanics behind Posterior Physical Foundational. If all goes well, we’ll be able to begin practicing it sometime after lunch. And if all goes really well, we might have time for a lesson in patterns. Either way, we’ll be relegating magical theory to just Fridays, for now. Which means that you should also downgrade studying it on your own to just two or three sessions a week. In the meantime, you’ll have plenty of other homework to make up for all that free time. But, I’ve wandered off,” Dan apologized and rubbed his nose, before bringing out a textbook from his storage artifact and moving to sit next to Sam. “Chapter three covers our topic for today, so let’s begin, shall we?”

Sam nodded as Dan turned the pages over. With the only introductory textbook (re, highschool level that no one else at the academy had any use for) that didn’t have an accompanying exercises textbook back in play, Sam was well on his way to catching up to the level of knowledge the academy required of all its applicants. Actual level, skills for making use of that knowledge, and the many other miscellaneous requirements, surely soon to follow.

In the end, things went really well, so they did have enough time to squeeze in a patterns lesson for the last part of the day. Sam’s tracing laden schedule, encompassing on average three to four hours a day, six days a week for the last month or so, made the practical part of the lesson on Posterior Physical Foundational much easier than the theoretical part preceding it. Not that the theoretical part was all that hard, as at this point, Sam was much more knowledgeable about both tracing and magical theory than most people were when it was time for them to learn about foundational tracings. It would most likely still take him until next week for Dan to decide he was proficient enough in practice and knowledgeable enough in theory for them to move on to the prior physical tracing, but for a first day’s effort, Sam was more than pleased.

He was much less pleased a couple of minutes later, when a thought suddenly occurred to him as he was walking to dinner. Today’s efforts were good and all, and the knowledge and understanding he gained were paramount in importance and very welcome. But what he hadn’t done today was actual real magic, like he was looking forward to doing exactly a week ago. “Learning to do magic shouldn’t be this slow,” he muttered. “This is bullshit. I’d like to add to the Epicurean paradox a line about no benevolent god making a magical setting this slow and boring.”