The storms outside never reached St. Marian.
Among the young mage students, there were no grand conspiracies—only complaints about how quickly the first Sunday of Traveler's Street had passed.
Then came the first class of Week Five.
Professor Sarah Sylph entered the classroom right on time as always. She no longer needed the Silence Card. The first-years had learned their lesson.
"Starting this week, we will learn how to chain Summoning Spells during a duel."
Summoning had cast times. Cooldowns. Mana had output rates, sustained output limits, and total capacity. The lower the remaining mana, the worse the output efficiency.
So how to release multiple summons within a limited window of time—
That was fundamentally a matter of mana management and time management.
Which, in essence, required arithmetic.
As the famous Dragon-Egg Mage Da Dafinchi once said:
Arithmetic is the foundation of all magic.
After a month of self-observation, Darc had a clear assessment of himself.
His total mana had already surpassed the standard of a third-year student.
His mana quality, even without refinement, was approaching that of a second-year.
As for output rate—
That part was frankly ridiculous.
With his current mastery of standard summoning, he didn't need to worry at all about "output blockage" from rapid casting.
His cast time had been compressed to under ten seconds. His cooldown was the same.
Meaning:
He could activate three standard summon cards within one minute.
This was, in fact, one of the end-of-year requirements for first-year students.
No wonder Professor Sylph favored him.
Today's class was once again shared with the Knight House.
Darc sat in his usual spot, surveying the whole room.
The material being taught was already something he had mastered, so he wasn't worried about triggering Greed. The bigger risk was Sloth, which he prevented by reading a related book.
The book in his hands was:
"Red the Mind Mage's Summoning Lectures — The Difference Between Magical Spirit Summons and Other Summons."
It introduced a controversial concept: Bond.
At first, mages had mocked the idea.
Magical spirits had an intelligence level of at most 2—lower than familiars. Talking about communicating with them? Building bonds? Absurd fantasy.
Until Red won the national championship that year.
Then everything changed.
Mages began treating spirit cards as living beings.
Some talked to them.
Fanatics even infused souls into cards, attempting to artificially raise spirit intelligence to force the creation of a "bond."
Darc wasn't there yet.
The part he was studying focused on how communicating with a magical spirit could reduce mana consumption and casting time during summoning.
"Professor Kazel is supposed to teach us how to craft our first spirit card next class…"
He couldn't help imagining what his first magical spirit would be.
And at that moment—
He noticed Vite and Robert whispering near the back door.
Clearly plotting something.
Robert whispered, glancing nervously toward the window.
"See? Sitting at the back means the professor won't call on us. Dimon hasn't been called on much lately!"
Vite whispered back:
"You mean Darc? Doesn't matter. We absolutely can't lose points today. We need to recover forty credits!"
Robert nodded confidently.
"10 + 10 + 10 + 10. Easy. Just two classes!"
Vite swallowed.
"Right…"
Professor Sylph's voice cut in like a blade.
"Gaode, answer this. How should you regulate breathing between two summoning incantations?"
Vite: "..."
"I hope you pay more attention in class. Minus five credits."
"Robert, what do we do?!"
"Relax! There are three classes today! Even if we lose fifteen more, it's fine!"
"Fifteen… we won't be that unlucky, right?"
"Stay calm. It's harder than you think to be that unlucky."
Summoning class ended under Professor Sylph's icy stare.
In the Magic Theory classroom, Kazel arrived five minutes early. The students didn't quiet down—instead, one boldly asked:
"Professor, are we really learning to make spirit cards today?"
"Of course."
Kazel pulled out a card from his sleeve and activated it.
A heavy chest appeared on the podium.
He clapped his hands.
"Can someone help distribute the materials?"
"I will!"
Several voices rang out, but it was Emma Metis who silently stood and began handing them out.
The loudest volunteers stayed seated, watching.
Kazel smiled.
"Metis, one pack per person."
Darc received his last.
A transparent pouch filled with materials.
Inside—
Two blank magic cards.
The base value of this pack alone exceeded 20 credits.
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
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