Fate exhaled a breath as he finished digesting the information he had just consumed.
His Spell Composition and Deciphering professor, Professor Faraday, had left Fate a one-use Memory Ball that projected the lecture directly into Fate's thoughts. Now he had the task of sifting through all of this information and compartmentalizing it into a usable form.
Today's class had been a brief introduction to the world of Spells. Faraday explained to the class that Spells shared the same Grades as enchantments, starting at Seed before moving to Sprout, Sapling, Tree, and then the theoretical Forest Grade.
The main two topics of discussion were the Orders of a Skill and their relation to the Orders of a Spell. A Spell, like a Skill, had three potential Realms it could fall under: Physical, Mental, and Divine. Each of these three Realms was then split into three Suborders: Self, Others, and World.
As an Apprentice and a Journeyman, a Mage only had access to Seed Spells. Seed Spells weren't really "Spells" in the true sense of the word, more like a novel way to move the metaphorical limb that was one's Skill.
Fate's Spell, Solid Surfing, was an example of such a Spell. As befitting of its Grade, it couldn't do anything outside of his Skill's capability. Based on the Realms and Suborders laid out by Professor Faraday, it was a Physical (Self) Spell of the Seed Grade. This meant its Realm was Physical, and its Suborder was Self. Together, they formed the Physical (Self) Order.
Due to the limitations of Seed Spells, it was impossible to learn Seed Spells of a different Order than one's Skill, and oftentimes required one to make each one from scratch. Two Fire Mages with the same Physical (World) Order for their Skill could still have two vastly different abilities, and thus their Seed Spells would be incompatible with the other.
Only farther along the Stages of one's Facet could one use the Spells meant for other Orders, although even those would have restrictions and clauses to them. The rest of the lecture was spent giving examples of Seed Grade Spells for several of the students present.
That wasn't important for now. What was important was the assignment Professor Faraday had left for the class, one that was due next Tuesday.
Each student was required to create three Seed Grade Spells and demonstrate them to the class. Fate's mind rang with the groans of three dozen students when Professor Faraday had said that, only to be silenced with a harsh bark from the lecturer.
"If any of you have even a lick of talent as Mage, this will be a breeze," Faraday had said. "And if you cannot do something so basic as this, then throw away all dreams you have related to your Facets. You all have four days to make these, three of which there are no classes. Get to it."
Fate had already made a Spell in the spur of the moment, so he was already a third of the way done. And after playing the lecture in his mind, he had a few ideas for some others. Whether or not they would work remained to be seen. He'd have all weekend to test them.
For now, though, he moved on to the professor's lecture summary and notes. Much of it was redundant information that he had already gotten from the Memory Ball, but he still diligently read every sentence.
He was glad he did. The professor definitely deserved his position, as every sentence Fate read expounded on subjects from the lecture he didn't even know he was confused about. Fate frequently had to look up some of the bigger words in the dictionary, but it was well worth it.
For example, Fate had thought that the Others and World Suborders were just variations of the same thing, and he was partly right. In reality, the Others Suborder defined those Skills and Spells that worked only on living things other than the host, while the World Suborder worked on only nonliving things.
He also learned that as Skills evolved with one's Facet, they may gain attributes reminiscent of other Suborders or even other Realms. The lecture touched upon this lightly, but Faraday didn't have the time to go into detail before the class was over.
Just like how Facets seemed to overlap with one another and seem indistinguishable at certain points, Skills likewise tended to branch out of their starting Order as one moved through the Stages. This was why higher-Staged Mages could learn Spells from Suborders different from their own, within certain parameters.
It looked like Fate was ahead of the class, all thanks to these notes. Not that he thought anything in here would give him much of an advantage over them, as according to Faraday all of this information could be found within the textbook for the class.
When Fate had finished the last of the notes, it was late at night and the campus had been shut down. But since he had no classes tomorrow, he stayed up late to think about this new information he was given and right down the ideas for his Spells.
As he jotted down the last note, he stifled a yawn as he checked the time.
'Two-thirty-three in the morning. Guess I should get some sleep.' He could start the testing tomorrow.
Fate awoke at eleven forty-five in the morning, bleary-eyed and sluggish as he got out of bed.
Rubbing his eyes, he made it to the bathroom and brushed his teeth before throwing on a fresh pair of brown mage robes. Just like Alessandra had said, each robe in his closet now matched his Stage.
Throwing his casual clothes into the Academy-provided washing machine, which would clean them in less than a minute, he scratched his stomach and headed toward the cafeteria.
He was pleasantly surprised to find scrambled Dracok eggs and turkey bacon on the menu, so he requested a plate from the magical interface and sat down at an empty table to eat.
Alas, his peace wouldn't last long.