Supreme Magus

Chapter 3500 Shaky Foundations (Part 1)

?Chapter 3500 Shaky Foundations (Part 1)

"Thank you, sweetie. Menadion bear-hugged Solus. "You have no idea how much your words mean to me. Obligatory question, do you want me to spoon-feed you Creation Magic's secrets or just explain the basic principles?"

"As I said in the past, I'd like to follow Faluel's teaching method." Lith replied.

"Great, because otherwise a single lesson would have been enough and it's been a long time since I had the pleasure of teaching to talented apprentices. I want to savor this moment." Menadion nodded.

"What do you mean, a single lesson?" Lith furrowed his brows. "Solus and I still

struggle with tier four Creation Magic and are nowhere near tier five. Even if we were both geniuses, it should take at least one lesson per tier of magic."

"You are wrong, Lith." Menadion tutted while shaking her finger under his nose. "The good kind of wrong, though. I was there during Salaark's demonstrations of Creation Magic. I've seen you two practice and develop it your own way.

"I've even admired how you two got this close to all the answers you are still looking for about Creation Magic while you worked on your Void Magic. One lesson would be enough because you have already reached the level of mastery necessary for tier five Creation Magic.

"Your problem doesn't lie in your talent or technique but in your limited understanding in a few key areas."

"Really?" Solus brimmed with enthusiasm.

"Really." Menadion replied. "I'll be honest with you. I bet that if Sally gave you a couple of lessons instead of several practical demonstrations, you would have completed Creation Magic long before my return.

"You wouldn't have mastered it yet, but that's just a matter of time and practice. Which is the reason I haven't mastered it either. I'm just one level above you since I've been focusing on learning modern magic.

"There's no point developing spells with outdated techniques. I'll start working on mastering Creation Magic once I'm done with Lochra's and Yaga's lessons."

"If you haven't mastered it and you don't know modern runes, how are you going to teach us?" Lith asked.

"With a series of exercises that will allow you to identify the aspects of Creation Magic in which you are still lacking and fix the issue yourselves." Ripha replied. "We indeed use different runes and albeit complete, my Creation Magic is inferior to yours, but they work in the same way.

"The flaws that keep you and Solus from understanding Creation Magic enough to

develop tier five spells lie in your foundations. Once you realize your mistakes, the rest should come naturally to you."

"What?" Lith and Solus said in unison while exchanging a puzzled look. "Our foundations are flawed?"

"Gods." Menadion sat down, covering her face with her hands. "I've seen this countless times yet it's still as upsetting as the first. Has anyone ever told you that using the plural while talking as one is creepy?"

"Yeah, we hear that often." They replied.

"I know." Ripha grunted. "It was a rhetorical question. Now sit down and let's start your lesson."

She conjured two chairs and desks for them and an enchanted blackboard for herself. "Let's begin by clearing my opening statement. Think about it. How did you practice learning the tier one Creation Magic spell, Dismantle?"

"First, we studied the recording of Grandma using it." Solus said and Menadion nodded for her to continue. "Then, after failing countless times to Dismantle the simplest of artifacts we could buy, we switched to our own creations." "Exactly," Menadion stopped her. "You have supplanted understanding with knowing. You studied the materials before and after the Forgemastering process to know the precise structure they had in their unaltered state and to which they had to return. "To make matters worse, you have also used the Eyes to record and study the process on all the materials and configurations available to you to derive a reliable dismantling technique."

"I know we cheated. Sort of." There was no scolding in Menadion's tone, she was just stating facts. Yet it stung at Lith's pride nonetheless. "But what were we supposed to do?

"We had to start from somewhere and our own creations were the perfect starting point to understand what went wrong and why. On top of that, the Eyes of Menadion only tell you how something works, not how to obtain it.

"We studied the data and came up with a working solution. Why are you saying that it made things worse?"

"You have already answered your question." Menadion replied. "But if you want to hear it from me, the Eyes made things worse because you didn't understand how to dismantle an artifact properly, you only learned by rote and repetition.

"Sure, you have expanded and practiced until Creation Magic became second nature to you but your foundations were still flawed. The higher the level of Creation Magic you reached, the more your unstable foundations compromised the entire process." "That's why our tier four spells feel lacking and we can't figure out tier five despite the Eyes, the Grimoire, and countless hours of practice." Solus put her professional pride aside and pondered her mother's words.

"Can you tell us what the mistake is?" Lith stopped trying to justify his failure and focused on fixing it.

"That's why we are here." Menadion replied. "The issue lies in the definition you use for the light and darkness elements during your Void Magic lessons. You claim that they represent control over life, correct?"

"Correct." Lith inwardly sighed.

'Great, so I messed up with Forgemastery, Healing magic, and now Void Magic too?"

"Your definition works fine for your students because you've developed exercises that stick to it, but it's actually incomplete." Menadion said.

"Incomplete? So it's not wrong. Solus sighed with relief.

"If it were, Void Magic wouldn't work." Menadion shook her head. "Before moving forward with the lesson, I want you two to know how impressed I am by your work.

"While I was a wandering soul, I've followed all of your lessons and even though I couldn't practice Void Magic in that state, it was still enlightening." She gave them a

small bow.

"That said, what you've missed so far is that while earth and air control space and fire and ice control speed, light and darkness control order. Like a vase is nothing but clay given shape and painted over, a human body is nothing but ordinary elements given

life through structure.

"The same applies to Forgemastery. Whether you consider the blood or mana circulatory system, the heart or the mana core, they are all small pieces that must be linked together in perfect order and harmony to work."

Lith was flabbergasted by Menadion's understanding of anatomy until he remembered she had witnessed all his discussions with Solus.

"That's why she knows all the similes we used while developing our Forgemastering

techniques.'

"As you have learned from your studies, Healing Magic and Forgemastery follow the same principles. The main difference is that one is used to manipulate living beings and the other to enchant objects.

"Creation Magic further thins the boundary between the two disciplines. Think about.

it. When Sally reforged War into Ragnarök, Creation Magic kept the 'patient' alive during the procedure.

"It was no different from fixing someone's life force from a congenital disease."