Looking around in a blurry grayish abyss, Gio felt the sting of his lungs aching.

He could currently last in the mirror realm for a few seconds before he was rejected from the surface he entered with using [Mirror Jaunt]. Still, the lower-rare spell was not designed to support life and comfort while in the reflection.

Gio emerged from the reflection of the mirror he had just entered, letting out his held breath.

“I feel like I am barely making any progress on this. I don’t think I have enough control over the spell,” Gio admitted.

“Come sit. Let’s provide some perspective for you. Do you think I would be able to cast [Mirror Jaunt] easily?” asked Baphelus.

“I imagine you would. Is that not the case?” Gio asked.

“I would have a hard time interacting with the mirror dimension much at all. Try and remember that while true magic allows us to interact with all magics, it doesn’t necessarily support those interactions. While I could spend a long time studying and training to use the mirror dimension… I wouldn’t be able to do it right now just because I am an experienced mage. Imagine what it would be like for you to use your friend Jean’s flight spell, or Chandrika’s divination abilities. It takes time to learn magic. You’re doing the hard part and practicing. Perhaps we should go back to conjuring mirrors.” Baphelus offered, consoling Gio.

Gio’s time since regaining his ability to cast hadn’t been easy. He felt considerably out of sync with his mana both because of the long break and because of his class evolution. The secondary reservoir of mirror mana felt foreign to him, and he was only just beginning to be able to leverage it in his spellcasting.

Baphelus had been incredibly patient but had been firm in disallowing Gio any amount of self-pity. Gio had been trying for the past few days to make breakthroughs in any of his casting endeavors. Gio could now make up to three mirror images without having noticeable defects, and he could subtly alter the shapes that [Reflective Shard] produced. He had still not yet managed a successful cast of [Scrying Glass], and he was limited to spending less than ten seconds in the mirror realm with his new movement ability.

“When you put it like that… I feel a bit better.”

_____

Gio stared at his most recent distraction. In all of his time with Xerxes, Gio felt as if he had been making monumental leaps in his knowledge of scribing spellforms. He was uncertain, but he felt like he might only need one push to advance his [Beginner Spellwright] to the next level. Baphelus had been encouraging him to push his casting outside of the realm of what the spellforms were originally intended to do, but while the essence of true magic is freedom from the hard restrictions of magic imposed by the system, the confines of inscribed magic could instead be viewed as a helpful base from which to build on. A better spellform by rule of thumb, would also let the caster have an easier time using intent and skills to shape the magic beyond the pre-programmed instructions present on the paper.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

As such, Gio was looking down at the form of his grandfather’s spell that his parents had given him months ago before the start of the semester. Gio had felt some sentimentality, in that the spellbook his parents had fixed up for him, including the ruined page, was the only thing he had of the grandparent he had never met. In fact, Gio had never met any of his grandparents.

Francisco Benicio Cromwell was supposedly an Adventurer’s Guild pathfinder of some small renown, known at the time of his passing to have been a proficient, if not reclusive, guide capable of safely ferrying adventurer teams through water-based dungeons. Gio recalled his father speaking about Francisco’s summoned gondola, some sort of class feature that provided safe passage through the creature-filled waters of certain dungeons in the wilds outside the Ringed City.

Gio studied his notes, preparing himself for the restoration of the spellform. From Xerxes’ expertise, they had deduced that the spellform belonged to the [Flow] family of spells, a variety of simple hydrokinetic spells designed to aid in the manipulation of water. Gio had absolutely no use for such a spell, but it meant a lot to him to be able to restore the spell that he had spent most of his childhood wondering about. In his youth, he had imagined his grandfather as some sort of mythic figure of great importance, and his father had only indulged that fantasy with tales of Francisco’s adventures.

Honestly, with how much of the asphodel ink we had to remove, I’m surprised that the spell hasn’t lost most of its form. All I need to do is touch up a few lines and recharge the main sigil and it should work.

Using [Scrivener’s Charm] and trying to get in touch with his skills, Gio sank into a deep state of focus. He transitioned from inks to embossing powders, and then smoothly into the imbuement sequence. Putting the finishing touches on the refurbished spell, Gio exhaled, inspecting his work with a critical eye and finding no errors.

By restoring a ruined spellform, you have demonstrated an understanding of the principles of spellcraft sufficient to advance directly to the next tier.>

Nice. I wonder if…

Gio walked over to the bathroom in his dorm, Turning on the bathroom faucet, he sent a trickle of magic into his new spellform. The water flowing from the faucet shifted forward, bending around Gio’s hand responsively. Gio played with the water for a while, enjoying the refreshing novelty of a spell that was easy to cast, instead of the puzzling magics that he had been dealing with for the last few days.

I needed this. A win, no matter how small, is a nice reminder of why I’m at this school. Baphelus has been very patient… but I know he’s planning on setting up a test for me once I have learned all of my new spells. Tomorrow, I’m going to really dive into [Mirror Jaunt]. I know I can do it.