"Uhm… sixth tier?" Chrysos said after some thought.
Werian's eyes almost popped out of his sockets.
It is common knowledge that even if a genius wants to learn spells, they still need to worry about their Divinium reserves being limited. So in order to learn spells, it is also crucial to have a sufficient amount of Divinium.
"How long did it take you to learn my spell?" Werian looked at Chrysos carefully so that he wouldn't miss his answer.
Chrysos knew that Werian really wanted to know, so he said, "Fifteen minutes."
Werian shook his head. "That's impossible! Are you sure you did it without any help?"
Chrysos nodded. "Yes I did it myself. In fact, I also learned your fire claw spell." Chrysos created five magic circles on his fingers and showed it to Werian who was currently opening his mouth as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
How long has it been?
Four minutes?!
Just how fast can this guy learn spells? And he's an alchemist at that! Shouldn't alchemists be focused on brewing potions?
Thud!
Werian fell on his knees with a depressed look.
Chrysos reached his hand out. "Sir Werian are you alright?"
Werian nodded and slowly stood up thanks to Chrysos' help. "I- I'm fine.. it's just a bit to take in. That's all."
Werian looked at Chrysos with a calm gaze and patted his shoulder. "You are an amazing person to be able to do that." Werian sighed. "I am now in my seventies and I have been studying the art of fire magic almost my entire life. By the will of the Divine ones, I hope you'll have a wonderful path ahead of you."
Chrysos saw that Werian was sincere so he nodded in response. "Thank you, sir Werian."
Werian waved his hand at him. "Ah, it's nothing… Say, what's your name?"
"Chrysos… Chrysos Tylo." He replied.
"Very well Chrysos. If you didn't know, I hail from the Burneix family of mages and sorcerers. I wasn't faithful enough in my path to get married, so I never have any children to pass my heritage to." Werian then took out a small booklet from his robe and gave it to Chrysos. "This is 70 years of my research when it comes to fire magic. Do you want to accept this?"
Chrysos' eyes shone with a golden light for a second.
He smiled and said, "Of course I want to."
Werian nodded. "Good. Now take care." Werian gave the booklet to Chrysos and then he chuckled. "It seems like my accumulations aren't deep enough. I'm afraid I wasn't able to see how wide the world is." Werian had a determined attitude after seeing Chrysos. "Alright, I'll be taking my leave."
Werian walked away from Chrysos.
While Chrysos was watching his figure depart, Meiros arrived at his side and said, "Master, I got some spells." Meiros said with a proud smile on his face.
Just as Meiros was going to show Chrysos the spells he picked, Werian turned around and said, "You have a student?"
Chrysos nodded. "Yes, this is my student Meiros."
Meiros gulped in fear of being exposed as a corrupted one, so he hid behind Chrysos.
Werian showed a happy expression as he said, "To think that my heritage has a chance to sprout.. I truly am blessed to meet you."
Chrysos saw that he was about to leave, so he stopped Werian. "Actually, I feel quite guilty when I took your accumulations without paying you back. If you don't mind, I would like to exchange insights with you."
Werian's eyes shone. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Chrysos nodded.
With a laugh, Werian agreed. "Of course, it would be amazing to see what the worldview of a genius is."
Werian pointed to the academy. "I have my own quarters where we can study. I can show you around."
Chrysos revealed a surprised gesture since no one can see his facial expressions behind the mask. "Are you sure? I thought that outsiders aren't allowed inside Alzoria?"
Werian shrugged. "That's true, but if it's just the studying halls, it would be fine."
Chrysos understood and said, "Ah then I would be bothering you. So Meiros, do you want to go with me?"
Meiros looked hesitant. He patted Chrysos' arm which Chrysos responded by lowering his head.
Meiros whispered to Chrysos' ear.
"Master, are you sure? This is a highly defended area especially when it comes to corrupted ones. What happens if I get caught?" Meiros said with a hushed voice.
"Just don't use your Divinium and it'll be alright." Chrysos showed an OK sign with his hand.
Meiros thought about it for three seconds before sighing. "I agree… let's go."
…
Chrysos followed Werian to the academy where they were stopped by some guards.
One of the guards held his hand out and Werian gave his Identification Token with a rune. And after the guard verified that he is a legitimate student, he allowed him inside.
However, the guards were suspicious of Chrysos and Meiros.
"Who are they?" A guard pointed to the both of them while talking to Werian.
"They're my guests that I invited. Don't worry, they'll just be in the studying halls and they would not get close to the classes." Werian explained to the guard.
The guard looked at Chrysos and when he saw that he was an Iretoir ranked awakened one, he lost interest and looked at Meiros next.
When he confirmed that both of them are Iretoir, his suspicions lowered. "Alright, show me your Divinium."
Chrysos held his hand out and showed Heroic Divinium. Naturally, he passed.
Meiros also did the same without hesitation so that he wouldn't look suspicious. And when the guard detected it, he saw that it was fine so he let them both inside.
Meiros discreetly heaved a sigh of relief.
…
Chrysos lent Meiros his Divinium cloak so that the effects would be amplified. However, two clouding devices in one's body will make their Divinium too murky and they wouldn't be able to cast any spells at all. Although one Divinium clouding cloak doesn't affect Divinium except for its appearance, two of them would be quite troublesome.
Good thing it was just for an inspection. If Meiros was asked to cast a spell, his cover would be blown.
.
The studying hall was huge.
It was filled with students either young or old. All of their classes were magic classes so that makes Chrysos the only odd one out.
Werian found a round table and invited Chrysos to sit across the table.
When they sat down, they began discussing.
"So Chrysos, what do you know about fire magic?" Werian laid his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands. He listened carefully at what Chrysos had to say.
"Fire Divinium is a charge that can be simulated and released using a magic circle. The effect of the spell depends on the magic circle and the way it's structured." Chrysos explained.
"Mhm. But that's only the basic knowledge about them. What I want to hear is something deeper than that " Werian urged Chrysos to explain more of his insights.
Chrysos nodded. "What happens if you light up a fire in a closed area?"
Werian without any hesitation answered, "It will burn out soon."
"And why is that?" Chrysos asked.
Werian thought about it for a while and said, "It needs air to continue burning. Right?"
"Yes. And that is because fire needs outside factors for it to become powerful." Chrysos cleared his throat and said, "Fire needs air to exist but fire comes in many forms but they rely on a medium to remain. That's why fire with a continuous supply of Divinium in a closed space will not be put out and lava in a closed space will not be cooled down immediately because it has the molten earth to remain on."
Werian understood. "But what does that have to do with fire?"
"I'll explain." Chrysos summoned a small fire in his fingertip. "Fire is usually what we call a base element. But in my opinion, it isn't."
Werian knitted his eyebrows together.
"Heat comes in many forms. Fire is just one of them. Lightning can also produce heat and so can earth, humans, beasts and even light." The moment Chrysos mentioned light, he created a basic small light element magic circle and increased its output.
He shone the light on Werian's arm and Werian could feel warmth from it. He nodded and didn't speak. He waited for Chrysos to continue.
"In my opinion, fire is also a medium that carries heat. What matters is how to harness that heat with whatever medium is necessary." Chrysos flung his hand and the fire in his fingertip swayed before fading.
Werian nodded after understanding what Chrysos said. "To think that your views are this profound. As a fire element practitioner, I truly, truly am ashamed." Werian placed more emphasis in his last line.
Chrysos consoled him. "Your achievements in fire are already astounding. Of course, heat application would be a different subject for you to learn."
Werian nodded. "So how would you use heat application to improve spells?"
"Let's use your fire trail for example." Chrysos summoned the magic circle for the fire trail spell and used the weakest strength for it. "What you did is to make the fire move by using Divinium. But if you used a medium…"
Chrysos removed a few symbols and replaced them with S-type, P-type, and WS-type symbols. He also replaced a few formations and sequences of the magic circle using his Divinium.
Werian recognized the magic circle and saw that it has the properties of a wind type magic circle.
When Chrysos casted the spell, he visualized Methane Pyraline instead of Hydrogen. He named it Metyraline.
He shot out a little amount of fire using the magic circle and used the wind Divinium from the magic circle to shoot out Metryaline, essentially making a magical flamethrower.
Fwoosh!
Werian's face basked in the orange glow of the flamethrower powered by wind. He couldn't help but feel like unopened doors were suddenly fully revealed in front of him. He was naive. Too naive.
But what Chrysos showed him broadened his horizons.
Meiros quietly watched by the side and took notes.
Chrysos controlled how weak and how strong the wind Divinium was and the flame decreased and increased accordingly.
He then dispelled the magic circle and waited for Werian's reaction.
After a short moment of silence, Werian laughed. "Good! Very good! Chrysos Tylo, you truly are a genius!" Werian clapped his hands together.
After calming down, Werian showed Chrysos a spell that he was working on. "Mister Chrysos, what do you think I should do with this?" Werian gave Chrysos a piece of paper with a drawing of a magic circle along with his notes on what each symbol did.
Chrysos saw the magic circle and saw that Werian's goal was to create a flying fist made out of fire. However, whenever the fist landed on a physical object, it would always dissipate instead of dealing damage.
Chrysos nodded. "So from what I showed you, how would you modify this?"
Werian took the piece of paper back and said, "Should I add earth type Divinium?"
"Yes. And in my opinion, you should add wind in there as well." Chrysos suggested with a smile.
Werian wasn't sure about adding wind type Divinium into the mix. "But Mister Chrysos, how would this work?
Chrysos replied, "Easy, the way we should do this is by working with what we know. And with what I know, air unlike water and other solids can be compressed. Correct?"
Werian shook his head. "I don't know what you mean by compressed."
Chrysos took one of his vials and a small metal cylinder. The metal cylinder was the perfect size to be pushed in the vial without it letting out any air.
Chrysos gently pushed the metal cylinder down and said, "As you can see, I can push down this cylinder without any trouble. But if it was a liquid…" Chrysos took out the cylinder and filled the vial with water. He pushed the cylinder down but it couldn't go any further because there wasn't any space left for the water to go.
"What did I tell you?" Chrysos revealed a smile. He then poured out the water and filled it with a bunch of sand and pushed the cylinder down. "And just like the water, solid also cannot be compressed. Even though the space they're occupying is getting smaller, it doesn't compress the matter itself. Now, do you get it?" Chrysos gave Werian a meaningful look.
Werian nodded. "So air can be compressed but… what can it help with?"
"I'm saying that instead of using a fire fist, my idea is to use an earth attack with an air combination. My question for you is, can you create a sturdy earthen ball of spikes?" Chrysos' hands were clasped together as he used both of his index fingers to point at Werian.
Werian nodded. "Seems easy enough, but why are you asking this?"
Chrysos took a piece of paper and drew another magic circle.
Werian looked curiously at what Chrysos was currently drawing.
Chrysos finished the base magic circle and gave it to Werian. He explained his train of thought. "My plan is to create a spiked earthen ball and fill it with compressed air that has dormant fire Divinium. And to increase lethality, let's make the earthen ball on fire. The way this spell would work is.."
Werian cut him off with an excited expression in his face. "The spell would make it so that when the earthen ball breaks or makes contact with a physical object, the compressed air inside will desperately spread out, causing a powerful explosion. And not only that, the spikes of the ball will be shot out in different directions! Mister Chrysos, your idea is brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
Werian praised Chrysos again and again.
Chrysos laughed. "Now let's continue with your insights."
Werian rubbed his hands together. "Then allow me to explain…"