After an hour, Kale stopped meditating and decided to practice spellcasting.
'Yesterday after pondering over the structure of the spell and the way I cast it, I had figured out a total of 6 new mistakes but I wasn't able to try and cast the spell again because of that brat being here, now let's try it,' Kale thought, he first removed the ring from his finger because he wanted to do it without the help of magic stabilizer, then he placed the phone beside him and cast the spell.
'Life Sense'
The magic circle appeared above his palm and just like before the spell activated, but this time the process was slightly different. Kale made minor changes like changing the rate of flow of mana, during the spell formation to reduce mana consumption while casting it.
Just like before, a wave of mana spread in all directions, the wave advanced to 5 meters, 7 meters, 10 meters… 12 meters, 18 meters all the way up to 50 meters.
A notification appeared on the phone screen.
Ding…
[Due to the increase in skill proficiency, your mastery of ‹Life Sense› has advanced from Novice to Master level.]
'What? So easy? I just corrected some mistakes and my mastery rose, is if it's that easy then…' Kale's eyes lit up, he started to analyze the new spell and find the mistakes. His ‹Auto-Photographic Memory› let him remember all the things that happened around him with precise details, which saved him trouble to cast the spell and check again.
After meditating for one hour, Kale opened his eyes and cast the spell again.
But the result was almost the same.
He meditated for another hour, observing the mistakes he made the last time, an hour passed, Kale opened his eyes and again cast the spell.
This time, the wave didn't stop at 50 meters and expanded till it was 100 meters away from him.
Another notification popped up on the screen.
Ding…
[Due to the increase in skill proficiency, your mastery of ‹Life Sense› has advanced from Master to Grand Master level.]
'If I go with this speed, I can master it to Ethereal level mastery by the end of the day, is it so simply because it's just a Mortal-Rank spell? No, maybe it is because the magic circles here are slightly similar to the contract circles in WitchCraft? Or maybe innate talent?
That aside looks like mastering three spells isn't that hard, if it's like that then instead of buying ‹Fast Growth› I should buy ‹Wooden Thorn› right now. As a Mage, an offense type spell is mandatory, I shouldn't just use Throwing Knives all the time, because I can't use Battle Qi in front of others, their attack power will worsen in the future.
As for the last spell, it's better to choose one that helps me in hiding or increase my movement speed. Anyways I cannot go and reveal that I learned the spells so soon, or instead of appreciating, the academy instructors will become suspicious of me,' Kale thought then he stopped practicing and headed towards the Grand Library.
***
After an hour, outside the Grand Library…
Kale came out with two crystal plates in his hand, a magic circle was craved in both of them.
'‹Wooden Thorn› and ‹Camouflage›, let's see how useful these are,' Kale muttered to himself then went back to his room.
In the next few days, he just focused on increasing the skill proficiency eventually increasing their mastery to the peak.
Mortal-Rank spells may appear easy to him but it was still hard for others, that's why Kale remained quiet about them, the most he displayed in front of others was how he had learned to imbued mana in the «Fallen Sakura» on his own.
After a week, Kale finally heard of someone being able to successfully learn a spell, it was none other than Layla. He wasn't sure if she was the first, as according to Arlo, many students tend to hide their abilities until they become strong enough.
Most students in the academy are the heirs of the big shots in the kingdom, it isn't unusual for their family competitors or enemies to try and finish of the rising genius in their family. Although they might not be able to do anything in the academy but students weren't imprisoned in the academy, they have to eventually go out and make their place in this world.
Layla herself kept the fact that she learned a spell a secret… Kale, Arlo, and Alice were the only ones who knew it.
Just after a day from Layla, Kale also revealed his ‹Life Sense› spell but purposely made a few mistakes to decrease its power when casting, although he was sure that they couldn't tell the difference between a Novice mastery spell and an Ethereal mastery spell, but Kale had his own reasons. His motto was…
If you want others to believe your lie then you have to deceive yourself first.
He didn't want to leave behind any loopholes, they might not understand it today but what if they had a good memory and were able to guess in the future.
During these days, Kale earned CP by participating in duels in the arena and doing hunting or gathering missions in Adventurer's Guild. Except that, the rest of the time was focused on helping Layla in subduing and enslaving beasts, it won't be wrong to say that he spent the most time with Layla compared to others.
***
Two weeks later…
Evergreen Fox Paradise…
A group of foxes was dashing through the forest, there were a total of five foxes in the group.
The one in the lead was a young fiery fox having crimson red furs that shined like blazing flames when the sunlight fell on them.
Two brown-furred foxes were accompanying him from sides, one on each side.
Two big white-furred foxes were following from the rear. Although both of them were foxes they were almost as big as horses. An orange-haired girl was riding the fox on the left while a boy wearing a white mask was riding the one on left.
"How far do you think they are?" Layla asked while looking in the front, during these two weeks her level had reached up to 7, she was one of the few students who figured out the word game of the academy and earn their primary cultivation technique before others and she only had mage as her main class which saved her a lot of time coupled with her good innate talent, her lifeform level was one of the highest among the whole batch.
"From the paw marks left on the wet mud, they should be just in 100-meter range, let me check, I will find them if they are closer," Kale said then cast ‹Life Sense›, he was cultivating three secondary techniques so he needed to spend more time than Layla when cultivating secondary cultivation techniques hence had less time to focus on primary cultivating technique.
But unlike her, he was familiar with cultivation and bunked all the classes to cultivate so he was able to raise his lifeform level to 6. Although he was level 6 but thinking that it may be faster in others' eyes he hid his real level and told others that he was level 4.
'They are 70 meters ahead,' Kale thought, he said "My mastery of ‹Life Sense› is at Master level but I can't sense them, so they are probably out of 50-meter range, let's proceed,"
Layla nodded, she then sent a message to the fiery fox. The fox glanced at her, then he suddenly increased his pace and ran into the distance to act as a scout.
During this time, Layla had enslaved two other Mortal-Rank Uncommon-Grade foxes, they were the two brown foxes around the fiery fox, known as Earth Measuring Foxes.
Earth Measuring Foxes are known for their tough defense and speed on the ground they are the tank type fighters among the foxes.
Layla had also enslaved other Common-Grade foxes before but she later released them on the beast peak mountain of the academy. A Beast Tamer had to choose their battle beasts carefully, her resources were limited so she focused on quality rather than quantity.
As for the two big white-furred foxes acting as mounts, they weren't her battle beasts but something she and Kale had rented from the Academy's ranch, it's a breed of foxes capable of acting as mount they are rare to find in the forest but they are very docile beasts so Academy breeds them to act as mounts, with enough point anyone can rent them but if they died or got lost then the student would have to pay the fine and suffer the penalty.
Suddenly, Layla's eyes flickered, a tiny magic circle appeared around her pupils then disappeared soon after, she turned to Kale and alerted him "Red has encountered the fox group approximately 55 meters ahead, there are 5 foxes, all are Mortal-Rank foxes, 3 of them are Common-Grade, 1 is Uncommon-Grade and… Huh? The last one is a Rare-Grade, and it's a Gale Fox on top of that!" Layla's eyes sparkled.
Gale Fox is a breed of foxes that are masters of wind at birth, they are known for their speed, Gale Foxes can move without carrying about the resistance against wind letting them move faster than others.
Kale nodded at her, he thought 'That ‹Vision Share› spell is good, that fox could actually send his thoughts in form of picture messages, if it wasn't for the fact that this spell can only be used on an enslaved beast having a good affinity with the master, it would be almost priceless,'
Layla sped up her mount and took the lead "You can ignore the other foxes but the Gale Fox needs to be caught, if you can help me caught it, I will buy one Mortal-Rank wood spell for you, whichever you want," She said.
"Got it, but Gale Foxes aren't easy to catch especially in their best condition, capturing it in good condition is hard," Kale evaluated.
"I know, it's fine as long as you don't do irreparable damage to my little fox," Layla said with a wink.
She then used her hand signal to tell them that they are just up ahead.
Kale unmounted the fox then climbed on a tree.
'Camouflage'
As soon the spell was cast, a thin membrane of mana covered his whole body then its colour changed into greenish-brown according to his surroundings. The spell didn't just change his colour but hid his smell and lowered his presence by matching it with the surroundings.
Kale stealthily moved from one branch of the tree to another, soon after he saw the five foxes surrounding the Fiery Fox, rather than try to kill him. The leader of the group, Gale Fox was trying to subdue him by force to turn him into a subordinate.
They didn't discover Kale watching them, even without ‹Camouflage› he was an expert at hiding and assassinating, the group of foxes wasn't capable enough to find a veteran trained on a real battlefield for several decades.
The Gale Fox was just like any other fox in terms of size, he had white fur all over his body except the fur on his backline which were pale blue.
There was also an Uncommon-Grade fox beside him, it was a Stone Scaled Fox, just like the name implies some of its body parts like its back and arms shoulders were covered in stone scales.