The Sixth School

Author's note.

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All Characters in the story are 18 years of age and above...

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Chapter Thirty Six: Negotiations...

"My research hit a snag," The healer spoke up after she'd given Greg enough time to contemplate the magnitude of what it was she was undertaking. "You have to understand, I was only working towards a cure for my damaged core and mana pathways. My obsession with regaining my power had given me tunnel vision. I had only one goal and never considered other ways that my work could be applied. This led to a lull in the progress I was making. For the past year or so, I didn't make any breakthroughs or discoveries in my research. I went through everything that I've done so far trying to see if I overlooked anything or if there were new avenues that I could obtain inspiration from. However, apart from a few minor points, there was nothing worth a deeper look. For a long while, I believed that I would have to wait until I was equal in power to a fourth-tier mage before I could progress. It wasn't until I agreed to take you on as my student of magic that a new dimension came into play," The healer revealed.

"When you made the promise to help me fight my foes, though I found it foolish, I felt touched all the same. I decided then and there that I wouldn't hold anything back in trying to help you. All that I could do, I would!" She relayed. Greg knew that this was a lie. The reason she was doing all that she could to help him was because this was part of the agreement between her and Olivia. The familiar had made it clear to the healer that she would put the same amount of effort into teaching her as the healer used in teaching Greg. Greg, however, didn't point out the lie. The healer probably only told the lie to keep Greg from questioning why she would be so generous as to bring them in on such a big secret.

"Once I'd decided, I immediately thought of this research. At that point, the tunnel vision I'd been suffering from for the past few years was taken away and a whole avenue of research opened itself up to me. For the past two days, I turned my thinking from asking how to heal the damaged core and mana pathways of a seventh-tier mage to asking how what I've so far learned can be used to help someone who hasn't even begun their journey as a mage. It's safe to say that, I'm no longer in a lull. For the past two days, I've been unable to sleep because of all the possibilities that keep emerging in my head. This sigil is just the start of that line of thinking," She relayed.

"So what are its flaws?" Greg spoke up.

Olivia had said that this was an idea that could usher in a new age in magic, and from what Greg had heard so far, he was inclined to agree with this assessment. When the familiar had said this, however, the healer had responded that this was an exaggeration. According to her, it was an idea that was still in its infancy. So much so that, even the healer herself didn't know what it would look like if the idea worked. "There are several unknowns as far as the idea is concerned. Unknowns that could either make or break it," The healer replied. Greg could hear it in the open and honest way that the healer said this that she wasn't the least bit inclined to defend the idea. Like a true researcher, she wasn't attached to the theory that she had come up with. Instead, she was ready to attack it from every possible angle to see if it would hold up to scrutiny or not.

"The first and most obvious question to be asked when it comes to this project, is what will progression for its subjects look like. You see Roka, there are two aspects to the progression of a mage. The first is the concentration of the mana that they can sustain within their mana channels. A second-tier mage can hold up to five times the mana that a first-tier mage can. When considering a third-tier mage, the gap goes up to fifteen times what a first-tier mage can hold, and the gap only grows more ridiculous the higher you climb. It gets to the point that a thousand first-tier mages can't compare to a single seventh-tier mage. At the ninth tier, no amount of first-tier mages will ever be able to match a single mage at this level!" She laid out.

"The second aspect in which one needs to progress to advance through the tiers, is a deeper understanding of the base principles of magic as such, and even more specifically, of the particular school of magic that they are pursuing. Without this deeper understanding, no matter how much one increases the concentration of their mana, they'll never be able to fully express the power that access to all that mana should grant them," The healer explained. "Now, let's say I was to spend the next few years raising your mana core and pathways to the standard of a fourth-tier mage, for example. What would be your path forward beyond that? Would you only need to focus on gaining magical knowledge until you were the equal of the average fourth-tier mage and then progress normally from there? Would the mana concentration of a fourth-tier mage be the new baseline for a first-tier mage that went through this process? In other words, will the mages made through this process have a permanent advantage over other kinds of mages or will they just have a head start in one aspect that will be eroded with time?" She questioned.

"The second unknown is how will different mana types affect the process. You have to remember that I am a healer. Although I try my level best to keep the manna I pass through the materials and subjects as pure as possible, it is still tinged with elements of the healing aspect. It could be that the reason the spillover effect strengthens the area around the pathways is that I've been passing healing mana through them. Perhaps the reason my table back at the infirmary is now so tough is because of the type of mana that I've been passing through it. Would the effect be the same if an elemental mage with fire-type mana was the one passing their mana through the items and subjects? How about a necromancer? Or a summoner? Would their mana lead to different effects on the items or subjects? And what about pure mana? If we found a way to filter out the influence of the stronger mage's school of magic and only allowed the raw mana that they produced to reach the prospective mage, what effect would that have? This sigil is an attempt to answer that question. The largest and outermost layer of this sigil is an attempt to filter out the influence of the school of life on the mana I produce. Whether I have succeeded, I don't yet know as I haven't had the chance to test it out yet," she confessed.

"The next unknown that naturally flows from this is whether the stronger mage will be having an undue influence on the prospective mage. You don't know about them Roka, seeing as you are not yet a mage, let alone one of a high tier. Some call them laws, others call them truths, and yet others have more esoteric names for them, but I just call them aspects. Each of the different schools of magic has these aspects. The higher a mage climbs on the path of magic, the more the fundamental aspects of their particular school of magic they have to imbibe into their magic to advance. Take an elemental mage of the water element. One aspect they might focus on is the formlessness of water, another aspect might be the ability of water to erode almost anything in its path, a third aspect might be the life-giving aspect of water, and so on. Once a mage understands and incorporates a new aspect into their magic, the traces of that aspect become present in their mana," She explained.

"Now, let's say that a seventh-tier water mage that has the formless aspect of water as part of their mana is to be the one helping a prospective earth mage. While rocks can change shapes over time, they are nowhere near as formless as water. I don't think formless is a word that can be used in association with rocks, shapeless, maybe but formless, definitely not. If this earth mage were to have their mana core and pathways created through exposure to mana that contains the aspects of water, what would be the effect? Would this raise their affinity for water? Would they no longer be earth mages but water mages? Would they have a harder time learning earth magic? Would it limit their potential in one, both, or neither of the two areas? And what about aspects, when the new mage reaches a point where they need to obtain a new aspect, would the inherited aspect count as them already having mastered one aspect? Would it interfere with the process? Or would it merge to produce something new and unexpected? The possibilities range from the stronger mage producing another copy of themselves in the new mage, to completely ruining the magical path of the new mage!" The healer laid out.

"The next unknown is much more straightforward and has to do with the issue of affinity," the healer revealed, casting a glance in Greg's direction. "How does one's affinity affect the process? Does one's affinity for magic limit what tier one can be raised using this method? Perhaps the higher one's affinity for magic the higher the tier they can be brought to? On the other hand, it could be that affinity has zero bearing on how high one can be brought using this method. It could be that the sole determiner of the limit to which one can be brought is purely dependent on the stronger mage supplying the mana. And what about the converse? If someone with a poor affinity for magic somehow made it to the higher tiers and was the stronger mage in the equation, what would be the effect if they were to use this process on a prospective mage with a higher affinity than they have? Would they be harming the affinity of the prospective mage? Or would it have no effect?" The healer raised question after question.

The final unknown that I can think of at the moment is one of complexity. So far, the only living subjects I've worked with are small, relatively simple creatures like insects and rodents. Simple beings are much more easily affected by magic compared to human beings. The largest creature I've tried this process on is a wild cat and let's just say that the results weren't that pretty. Human beings are much more complex in their makeup and magical affinities. To think that the same process will work with them as did with mice is just plain folly. Things like the concentration of mana needed, the schedule on which to administer the mana, the clash or correspondence with the affinities of the target, and so on. All these things must be taken into account before we even dare to think of trying it on a person!" She laid out. "And all that is without even mentioning the fact that I don't even know if this sigil works, I finished just an hour or two before I came to meet with you and haven't even tried it," She confessed.

Listening to her speak, Greg couldn't help but respect and admire the woman's clear and analytical thinking. She was meticulous in her analysis of the gaps in their present knowledge and all the things they would need to pay attention to in the future. The more holes she poked into her own idea, the more Greg realized why she said that it was an idea in its infancy. The healer wasn't trying to put herself down or be overly humble, she was just speaking the honest truth. Yes, the end goal of what she was trying to achieve was revolutionary. It would change the landscape of the magic world if it ever was realized. At the moment, however, it was still a vague picture off in the distance that they were yet to fully bring into reality.

"That's why you needed me here," Olivia spoke up, her gaze moving from the healer to the sigil on the floor. "You wish to get my help in bringing this idea to fruition," She stated.

The healer nodded in assent, clearly having no intention of beating around the bush. "Even on my own, I'm confident I can see it through. That, however, will take me anywhere from fifty to a hundred cycles to do," She said. Greg's brows couldn't help but rise at the casual manner in which she spoke of the timescale. Although time was measured differently in this world, Greg was almost certain that a cycle of the seasons on this world was close to if not the same as a year back on earth. The way she spoke, one might be forgiven for thinking that a century was no different from six months for the healer. "I don't think either one of you would be willing to wait that long," the healer continued.

"Will you even be alive a hundred cycles from now?" Greg couldn't help but ask.

The healer turned to him, clearly not having expected the question. A small smile crossed her lips as she asked. "How old do you think I am, Roka?" She asked.

"You don't look a day over twenty," Greg answered immediately with a charming smile. Of course, Greg knew that she had to be older than that. In his previous life back on Earth, however, his mother had always told him that if a woman asks him to guess their age, he should always give a ridiculously low figure. Even if both of you know that the guess was wildly off, she'll still be flattered.

And sure enough, despite rolling her eyes as she turned away from him, her smile had widened a bit at his words. "As of this coming winter, I will be seven hundred and ninety cycles in age," The healer gave out a number that caused the gears in Greg's brain to grind to a halt even as his eyes turned to saucers. Greg knew that some women might be offended by him reacting this way after they'd revealed their age. Greg, however, had no control over it. To hear that this woman who didn't even look thirty was just a decade shy of eight centuries old, left him too stunned to even think let alone speak. Going by the amused look on the healer's face, however, she clearly wasn't bothered by Greg's look of shock.

"Every time you rise a tier as a mage, you increase your lifespan by around two to three hundred cycles in the lower tiers, that is, in the first, second, and third tiers. Once you hit the middle tiers, that is, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, every increase in one's tier increases one's lifespan by anywhere from five hundred to a thousand cycles. At the higher end of the mage hierarchy, the increases are measured in the thousands of cycles. Of course, this isn't a fixed number. Depending on a number of factors some mages might live longer, others shorter than the expected amount. As a seventh-tier mage, and a healer to boot, my lifespan might come to roughly three or four thousand cycles or thereabout. And worst case scenario, even if my injuries halved my lifespan, I should still have another thousand or more cycles left to my life," She revealed. Greg couldn't help but feel a deep sense of disconnect between the casual way in which she spoke and the impossibility of what he was hearing. The woman had just casually revealed that she still had another millennium of life to live. And that was in the worst-case scenario!

"Wait, but that would mean that a ninth-tier mage can live up to..."

"Ten thousand cycles," The woman casually revealed. "Most tend to live longer. Some even hit fifteen thousand. The oldest ninth-tier mage to ever live made it to thirty-nine thousand cycles," She revealed. "Magic is such a hard and treacherous road to walk on, Roka. If not to escape the specter of death, I suspect that more than half the people that walk this path wouldn't," She calmly asserted.

A while back, Olivia had told him that just being the student of a seventh-tier mage was enough to make him the equivalent of a member of the royal family in a large kingdom. Greg hadn't really been able to wrap his mind around this concept until this moment. Mages at the higher tiers weren't just powerful entities, they were long-lived ones as well. Offend one now and even if you somehow manage to overpower and fend them off, they might just come back to take it out on your future generations down the line! When you are dealing with beings that measure their life spans in terms of millennia, one can't help but wonder if you are even dealing with the same species anymore. Most people in this world start having the next generation rather young. But even if the age was to be pushed forward to twenty-five, then by the time Roka's ancestor thirty generations back, was born, she was already forty years old back then! It simply boggled the mind to consider.

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Giving Roka the time to consider the shocking news she had just dropped on him, Alena turned in the direction of the avatar, ready to negotiate with her. Although the boy would be one of the beneficiaries of the idea if it was brought to fruition sooner, she was perfectly aware that she couldn't use this as a bargaining chip. The benefits simply didn't balance out on both sides. That would be like asking someone to build a school for you simply because their child would be one of the students in the school. Even if there were a hundred Roka's, it still wouldn't be enough to balance it out. Should Olivia provide her with the crucial help that she needed for this endeavor, the familiar would be giving her the ability to make an infinite number of high-tier mages. The higher the tier, the fewer the number of people that ever make it to that point. Out of a million people, perhaps only one or two will ever make it to the seventh tier. The fact that in the long history of this world, and of all the trillions of people that have lived, less than a hundred have ever crossed the threshold into the ninth tier, speaks for itself. To be able to guarantee that a mage will make it to the higher tiers is an ability not even the ninth-tier mages can dream of.

Alena was about to speak when she sensed it. The boy was still standing in place looking flabbergasted, unaware that his own familiar was about to cast a spell on him. Alena couldn't exactly blame the boy, if not for the fact that this was her second time sensing this particular spell, she too wouldn't have been able to pick up on it. The first time Olivia cast this spell, Alena hadn't been able to pick up on it right up until the very last second. She couldn't even begin to imagine what level of control over mana the familiar had to have such that she didn't leak any mana when casting a spell. Even now, Despite her being aware that Olivia was casting a spell and having her senses on full alert, there was only a barely perceptible disturbance in the ambient mana.

"Is there a new secret that you wish to hide from the boy?" Alena asked once Roka was frozen by Olivia's spell.

"Secrets are a part of it," The familiar calmly admitted. "The other part, however, is for protection," She added enigmatically even as she continued to weave another spell. Given her near-perfect control of mana, Alena couldn't even sense what the other spell that she was about to cast was. Like the first spell, all Alena's senses could pick up on was the barest of disturbances of the ambient mana. Still, knowing that the familiar had no reason to attack either one of them, she remained relatively calm. Had it been another mage before her, she would have remained on guard all through, knowing that the idea before them was invaluable. To a being above the nine tiers, however, she didn't think it would matter to quite the same degree.

A thin film of light formed around Roka once Olivia was done with her second spell. Alena was confused for a second before her eyes went wide with both shock and fright. As if to confirm her fears, Olivia turned from the shield to her with a serious look on her face. "I suggest you summon the strongest one that you can manage!" She offered. Alena didn't even hesitate or waste time asking stupid questions. Her hands and fingers started moving in intricate patterns through the air as she used them to aid her casting. Despite the urgency of the situation, Alena didn't go at the fastest speed that she could. Instead, she focused all her efforts on making the shield as strong as possible. Usually, it'd take Alena barely a breath of time to cast the spell. This time, however, it took ten breaths of time before a similar shield went up around the healer.