From out of my bedroom, I looked out the window. Layla was sat waiting patiently, unmoving as though time had never really passed for her. She glanced toward my direction, waving me down.
"You won't be able to finish the full 5 weeks if you rest, don't you know that Miss Ophelia?"
"I have a plan, you don't have to worry. Just one more question Miss Layla before I continue."
"Go on."
"As I wasn't able to complete the 1000 reps of wind barriers and Aether skin, does that carry over to the next day and it continues on till the last day?"
She gave a quick look of confusion, "Why of course."
"Thanks."
I swiftly started my new 1000 reps of multi-casting and 1000 perfect wind bullets. I took a newer approach, this time I'd perfect wind bullet while multi-casting, thus I'd kill two birds with one stone.
It was much more difficult than I had anticipated however, I had already perfected wind bullet by itself, so why was it so much harder when performed with a simple wall of wind?
It was only until I realised its concept, it sounded simple within my head, but it was that much more complicated when I tried it. It wasn't like splitting the Aether into two different outputs, or that I wasn't applying movement to my casting.
Using actions was helpful, but later down the line, they'd cost me my life for even a split second, and that it gave away what I was preparing to do even for a split second.
I had to infuse my 100% into both spells at the same time, while maintaining them perfectly to where they didn't erupt mid flight or even at the release of my spell. It was better to work backwards so that I could refine it and reduce the cost but maintain potency when it was the real deal.
Whenever it was just the slightest percentage off, whether it was 99% or 99.99%, it'd only become more unstable. I needed maximum effort, and maximum focus. Not even the greatest talent could skip this onerous process.
The more I failed, the closer I got to the ideal result, yet the closer I got, the further I felt too. Time seemed to skip every minute of the day, and by the time I had felt like I had gotten somewhere, it was already midnight.
"How's this plan going for you, Miss Ophelia?"
"Splendidly well." I said sarcastically, I had done well over 1000 reps, was it 4009 or 4010? I couldn't remember. If the reps that I didn't complete today stacked onto the next ones, that meant that it probably went the same for the ones I completed.
Within the 5 weeks I have, 2 days had passed, and I had 34 thousand perfect wind bullets, 30 thousand multi-cast reps, and a little over 4 days for both Aether skin and the subsistence of wind barriers left to go.
My plan was to first finalise the two easier ones first before the half way mark, and then use up my remaining time to complete the more difficult ones at the same time.
It took me 3 days to successfully complete my skill, and another week to reduce the amount of Aether needed to 5% to multi-cast, of course that depended on what spell I was performing.
Once that was out of the way, I was able to quickly finish all 34 and 30 thousand reps of perfect wind bullets and multi-casting within the next 2 days without much of a sweat. Layla was still sat on her fancy chair, beside her was a small neat stack of paper with lots of annotations I presumed.
"I'm surprised, I didn't expect you to finish one half first and save the rest for last." She commented, she crossed her legs, that was the first time I saw her move while I trained. From what I observed, she never once moved even during the nights with the sole exception of when she wrote down something.
"Impressed huh?"
"Yes very. Though you do realise that doing more than the days spent won't count to the total reps." My heart sank into the floor, dropping my whole body to the ground as I watched her laugh uncontrollably. "Just kidding. I'm very surprised, I didn't expect you to fly through so quickly, maybe I should've given you more to do!"
"Please don't.."
"I shall add in one piece of information. It's nothing to do with training or refining spells, I'm going to leave soon."
"Wait what? We still have a little over 2 years left, aren't you leaving too soon?"
"When I mean soon, it's still a few months away. Precisely 3 months and 9 days away, I shall be departing from this land for some 'work' per se."
"I'll give you more details a day before departure, don't worry, I'll train you to till the flesh from your bones decay!" She was amused, her eyes glittered, and the dimples dented further in.
"How about just telling me now?" I dragged my body to face her.
"Are you sure you can afford wasting time? Getting a little confident I see."
"No no, of course not Miss Layla. I just imagined it'd be easier if you told me right now. One of my perks is remembering every little detail, I'm not a dumb girl."
"When I leave, this 'work' will be related to a little church far away. I'll be staying there for 5 years before temporarily returning." 5 whole years? What was so important that she needed to stay there every day? "While I'm gone, I'd like you to perfect my special little spell."
"Just one spell?"
"Just one." Was she underestimating me? I know I wasn't particularly talented, but I was able to get by with my smarts. "You'll need all the time you can get while I'm gone. And, this 'work' won't take 5 years, but I estimate it'll take you 5 years to perfect it fully."
"Yes, I'll do my best." We sat in silence, was it really going to take 5 years? Was she underestimating me? No, it may really take 5 years. The papers probably had all my flaws written.
"Now hurry along, you'll need all the time you can get." Shooing me with her pen, right. At this moment, I still needed every second I could use to my advantage.
That also meant sleeping! Sleep was needed to refresh my brain, and to regain my Aether. I wasn't going to do this after doing so much already.