To understand Magic equipment one needs to understand the most common magic weapon. The battle wand. The battle wand is usually a piece of wood or a forged staff of iron. Which is inscribed with the basic runes of an element.
As Example a normal Fire element Battle wand is inscribed with all the runes you need for the spell fireball and the most frequent runes for fire spells until Rank 3. Reason for this is that Rank 3 spells are the common limit for people with a minor affinity. Rank 4 is the limit for most low-level affinity mages. After that the lines get blurry mostly because high rank spells are usually multi elemental.
Normal battle wands are mostly used by students and Mages with minor and low-level affinities. A mage with mid-level affinity or higher would either choose a high-class Battle wand with runes up to Rank 4 or even Rank 5 spells or get a custom made one like the one the Hesmaton royal family gifted Esy to our wedding.
The purpose of those runes is to have them always available for spell casting. So a normal Fire element battle wand is able to fire infinite fireballs as long as you supply it with mana even if you are half dead and lacking the focus to cast a spell normally. You only need to channel your mana in the battle wand.
Unfortunately an infinite access to Rank 1 level 1 spells doesn't necessarily save your life. A wise man once said: "It is better to have something and not need it, than to need something and not have it."
This is especially useful when you are pathetically weak and the only thing you can do is channel mana into a battle wand. This makes you stronger than some archers and there were situations where it made the difference between victory and defeat. So my advice for you, if you have any kind of magic affinity, is to get a battle wand. It might save your life one day.
That was the content of the afternoon class, listening to Olga's voice was sickening but everyone endured. Of course that wasn't everything Olga talked about. She also told us about herself how great she is and who she had supplied with what weapon, the pros and cons of every choice and so on and so forth. If you had the mental fortitude to listen to her you could learn a lot about equipment smithing. Just be aware that equipment smithing requires a thorough study of runes and only if you are able to draw runes flawlessly, will you be able to become an equipment smith.
And by flawless I mean flawless. Everything below perfect is inacceptable. Believe me that should you dare and sell flawed goods then you will be a dead man no matter how far you run. The accusation alone that you would sell flawed weapons will kill you.
You are hereby warned to never abuse the power of this knowledge. It will be your death as well.
After the seemingly endless lesson ended. The obnoxious teacher left.
The golden Mage who was still in the classroom stood up before the students could run away.
"Everyone!" his voice halted the nobles that were about to exit the classroom.
"Go back to your seats, there's something you need to know." the golden Mage looked at me. "Introduce yourself"
I turned towards the nobles. "My name is Thorus Maxima and it is a torture to make you acquaintance."
The golden mage sighed and signaled Esy to do the same. "My name is Esmeralda Maxima and I feel no pleasure in meeting you."
After Esy was done the golden Mage started to speak again. "These two newcomers in the class come from the Hesmaton Kingdom. They visit the academy because the Kingdom they were born in is our vassal. As you might have guessed they despise you and the Necron empire. You might have heard about the batch of new students that started their lessons today. Don't even try to rope them into your faction. These two already despise you, don't make them kill you for poaching their subordinates. All in all I advise you to be nice to them." the golden Mage sighed again and ran one hand through his hair. "Princess Hatari, A messenger from your father has arrived. He awaits you in the principal's office. You should meet him at once."
The golden mage walks towards the Door. "Class dismissed. Stay out of trouble."
That was my first day at the academy and many like this would follow. The morning was filled with magical exercise that increased step by step. The afternoons were filled with theory lessons about a variety of topics. equipment, formations, alchemy, beasts… you name it they thought it.
Most of my free time I was reading in the library or training somewhere else. My classmates didn't try to cause trouble with me and I was grateful for that. On the third day in the academy inside the afternoon class the featherfire eggs Freddy sold us hatched. Flick and Flack were finally born. Flick is the female featherfire Esy got and Flack it the male one I got.
Having long since studied the manual about fatherfire's up and down. Both Esy and I instinctively summoned them and fed them our mana to establish the hierarchy among us. Of course he had both fed them mana over the time we processed the eggs. Both the golden Mage and the white haired medicine teacher weren't so pleased about the disruption. Yet they said nothing and soon the lesson continued as if nothing had happened, except the happy chirping of newborn birds was mixed into the explanations of how to treat which illness.
That basically continued until we had the first exam, after 1 Month. The Imperial Academy holds 4 exams every year. the first 3 months into the school year the second 6 months into the school year during an exercise outside the academy walls. The third one is held 9 months into the School Year and the last one is held at the end of each school year.
The first exam for us was simple, cast the strongest spell you managed to learn during your stay at the academy. It was a simple task on paper. After studying one Month in the library of the academy I had found many useful spells. Unfortunately any spell of Rank 4 or above wasn't available for first years.
It was a pain in the ass. Fortunately I found enough other knowledge I could consume. A lot of complicated theories and unproven speculations led me down a path that I was surely not intended to walk.
I started to modify the Sun song and the moon song into the song of twilight. I started easy with the Rank 1 spell Shade. The spell is a dual functioning light spell. If the surroundings are too bright it dims down the light and if the surroundings are too dark it brightens the surroundings.
After I played with this spell a bit I created the rank 2 Spell Twilight eyes. It has basically the same effect but it only works for my eyes. I basically created sunglasses that let you see at night as if it was day.
The Rank 3 Section of the song is really excessive so I won't list any spell. But the most famous among my creations was Twilight which is the equivalent to Dusk and Dawn. Later the spell name changed into the famous 'Invisible Fire'. The invisible fire is burning darkness magic that is covered in light magic which makes them invisible to normal eyes.
The other famous spells are, Dusk breaker, New dawn and properly the most feared Rank 3 spell in all of history 'Eclipse of undead calling'. I believed it to be my masterpiece. Until I accidentally discovered how to cast a Rank 4 spell and created the most powerful spell 'Convergence'. It was only the experimental Rank 4 version of the spell and not the original which I created later. It was the first time I was casting a Rank 4 spell and it showed me the complexity and the power of a Rank 4 spell, for the first time.
To describe the difference between a Rank 3 and a rank 4 spell is difficult. It is the bottleneck that transforms you from a Mage to a True Mage.
If a Rank 3 spell is comparable to a crossbow, that can kill one person as long as you hit. Then a Rank 4 spell is a wall mounted ballista that is able to impale a group of people, horses, beasts and whatnot.
Or a Rank 3 spell is a hand thrown pebble and the Rank 4 Spell is a house-sized boulder launched by a trebuchet.
To make a comparison from my old life. If a Rank 3 spell is a fighter jet, then a Rank 4 spell is a star cruiser.