30th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

“He is a rare gem,” spiritual energy danced in Alabaster’s ear, carrying Flameax’s whispered words. “Are you sure you’re not being too hard on him? Maybe he needs a bit of acknowledgement, encouragement? Someone telling him he’s special. That he’s good.”

If any of her disciples had heard those words, Alabaster would have snorted and made a dismissive face, but free of audience, her features did not even flicker in disagreement.

“Spare the rod, spoil the child.” She sent to her fellow elder just outside the barrier. “Frosty told me Newstar has a well educated friend who seems to have taught him too much. Imperial cities are crawling with masters of theory at the third realm and lower, some even at the fourth, but what will the boy do once he hits the fifth, the sixth? Nobody’s going to serve him neatly packaged information, and he won’t know how to search for the answers he needs.”

“A word of praise isn’t lost.” Flameax’s sent words lacked emotion, but Alabaster knew he did not agree with her methods to the point of arguing. “He’s fragile, too innocent.”

“And that’s why he needs to toughen up. He’ll almost certainly choose the path of magma, but his will is too weak; he lacks the drive and determination, I fear he will burn himself before ascending high enough.”

“Even if he makes all the wrong choices, that boy will rise higher than either of us—”

“If he doesn’t kill himself. And what’s so special about someone reaching the eighth realm and getting stuck there when they could have become a tenth realm overlord? If anything, that makes us, his teachers, failures.”

“Al, he’s a kid, not twenty years old. He’s at the third realm and discovered tracing all on his own.”

“And he used it to almost incinerate himself before forming even the embryonic stage of his traces.” Alabaster’s sending failed to convey the frustrated snap of her words.

Newt’s accident annoyed her to no end. Encouraging a third realm disciple to reinvent a technique which was generally reserved for the fifth realms or prodigies at the fourth realm was something most Explorer’s Gate’s elders would call reckless. Having it blow up in her face less than a day later only made the matter worse.

“Dual elementalists have it hard, even at the higher realms. He is lucky his combination is natural and sits well with his temperament. Unfortunately, our sect lacks magma cultivators, even if we have some records—”

“Master,” Newt snapped Alabaster out of the conversation she was having while overseeing his training. “Are we done for the day?”

“Yes. Well done, you managed to survive yet another day. Elder Flameax is burning with the desire to give his first practical lesson and check your talent for fire-related arts.” Alabaster refused to back down. She was certain the boy in her care was spoiled and uneducated. What redeemed him were his willingness to learn, flexibility, and age.

She wanted to berate her disciple’s parents and teachers, but deep down she knew that they were probably doing what they could at their level. The little bit of background check she did simply indicated that their clan had declined too much, sunk too low, and lost too much.

“I will see you tomorrow,” Alabaster said, and moved at her regular speed, something most below the fifth realm could not follow with their limited senses.

***

“Newstar, it’s finally time for a real lesson.” Elder Flameax grinned, taking Elder Alabaster’s spot not a second after she had left.

Newt found their movement unnerving, and if the switch happened while he was blinking, like it did once, it made it appear like one elder shifted into the other.

Unaware of his musings, Elder Flameax started the important discussion. “Your defensive technique is very unique, and still effective. I shan’t make any suggestions on how exactly to modify it, but I will clarify several options we discussed before. But before I do that, I wish to know what exactly do you want out of it?”

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Newt thought about it. He recalled how he initially wanted to give Magmin Scales offensive capabilities, but he had grown past that childish thought. Defensive techniques were made for defense. The excursion in the Frostworm caves was a glaring confirmation of Dandelion’s offhand comment back when they first discussed cultivation.

“Magmin Scales are working as intended. The only changes I would like to make are the ones which would enhance the technique’s current function. So, increasing the efficiency with which it counters temperature changes, stabilizing the effect at extreme temperatures, and reducing its spiritual energy cost so that I could use it longer.”

Elder Flameax inclined his head, the answer had not changed in two weeks. “We can work on that later.”

The tone made Newt’s skin crawl. He had a feeling those improvements involved fire-attributed spiritual energy traces, and he was unwilling to experiment with those just yet. Sensing the awkward silence, Elder Flameax changed the topic.

“You should give this matter more thought. Until then, we shall start with your movement technique. It has a lot of room for improvement, and you seem to favor using fire for movement, which is natural, earth is the least mobile element, while fire is second only to air. You are using bursts of hot air to move around, but using currents of heated air could make you lighter. If you properly master the technique, you could achieve true flight at the fourth realm. But even without flight, you can still enhance your land speed by liquifying whatever you are standing on and skating on the surface. There’s also heating the air ahead of you, it’s less useful at your realm, but once you hit the sixth and walk at speeds mortal eyes can’t match, it helps.”

Elder Flameax continued explaining various changes Newt could consider before moving onto the offensive techniques.

“You lack fine control over your fire techniques.” The elder tossed a manual towards Newt, signaling the start of the practical portion of their lesson.

“Here. This technique is useless in combat, but excellent to train precision.”

The elder waited while Newt browsed the twenty-page booklet. The first page had an introduction to Flame Needle along with a drawing of a woman with a thin jet of flame rising from her outstretched finger.

Newt skimmed through the text, the declaration of the technique’s purpose, the problems it was supposed to tackle, and finally the circulation method. He studied the two diagrams of spiritual energy flows and closed the book.

“The technique seems deceptively simple. Are you certain you have comprehended it?” Elder Flameax tried to keep his voice neutral and instructional, but Newt caught the doubtful tone.

“Fairly certain. I will first test it out in my realm, if you don’t mind, teacher?”

“Please do.” Elder Flameax gestured towards the ground, and Newt sat, closed his eyes and entered his realm.

Inside the calcified forest, Newt willed his energy to move, and a flame appeared above his finger.

The technique is almost identical to the one Dandelion forced me to discover, but it can keep itself stable with only a single flame.

He used the technique he had invented from his other index finger and observed the differences.

Flame Needle is much smaller, two times shorter, and its volume is probably a tenth of my self-invented technique.

Newt tilted his head. The shape is similar, but my version widens before narrowing. Meanwhile Flame Needle is the widest at the tip of my finger. The amount of fire-attributed spiritual energy fueling them is similar, though.

Newt guessed that the greater concentration of spiritual energy made the new technique several times more powerful. I guess that’s the difference between something polished for generations and something I made up in an afternoon. But if that’s the case, why are Magmin’s self-invented techniques still strong enough, and they seem to be growing stronger?

Newt had several ideas on why that was the case. The theory he believed the likeliest was that spiritual beasts’ technique grew with their bodies, and since Newt’s physique was improving along with his cultivation, the techniques progressed accordingly. His second guess was that due to their simplicity, the runic formations he was filling his realm with had greater impact on them.

Newt dispelled his errant thoughts and dismissed the two techniques. He summoned the new version of Flame Needle five times, before confirming he could conjure the flames without difficulty.

“Teacher,” Newt said, opening his eyes. “How common is it for two techniques to bear the same name even if they are different?”

Newt originally thought of his technique as the Flame Needle, only to find someone else had their own similar yet different version.

“Depends on the name. Things like Flame Needle, Flaming Needle, Fire Fist, Fire Strike, and others, are fairly common names. The Golden Dragon Soars Into The Setting Sun is a fairly unique name for a technique. So, it depends on the technique’s complexity and on how common the name sounds.” Elder Flameax answered without the frowning and snorts which followed Elder Alabaster’s answers to Newt’s question outside the scope of their lesson.

“Now, go back to cultivation, and then we can test your deductions.”

“No need.” Newt focused, conjuring a flame from his finger, much too big for the Flame Needle, but smaller than his original version. He frowned, dismissed the technique, and re-conjured it. The flame was smaller, appearing more concentrated in Newt’s third eye, but still not quite there.

On the third try he got it more or less as he wanted it.

“Is this good enough teacher?” Newt lifted his gaze to look at his teacher, who regained control of his features.

“It’s great! There’s still room for improvement. Lessen the flow through…”