Picking up a third attunement was probably a long way off for me either way; most people never even earned a second. If I wanted to take another Judgment in a different spire, I could do that…but Judgments grew more difficult the more Judgments you’d taken.
Since I already had two attunements, but I’d only taken one Judgment, I wasn’t sure if the tests would consider me to have completed two already. If so, taking another one would probably be impossible for many years. I’d heard of people getting a second attunement at around Sunstone level, but getting a third would probably require at least a Citrine level in both, and that was extremely difficult to achieve.
I pushed that to the side and spent the rest of the evening trying to practice a basic Haste spell.
The first step was very similar to what I’d been doing to try to influence my shroud; just converting some of my gray mana into transference.
There were two differences.
One, I was using a much smaller amount — only five mana worth, rather than the thirty or forty I’d been blasting outward.
Two, I wasn’t releasing it outward. I had to learn to take that mana and spread it out throughout my body, then infuse it into my skin, muscles, and bone. That mana would then naturally dissipate over time, since it was being actively used to enhance my body.
The process was, surprisingly, not that difficult. I had a Mind Mark, and that style of mark was specifically tailored toward easily sensing and moving around the mana inside my body.
It had never felt like much of a benefit compared to what some of the other marks were capable of, but I didn’t have the personal experience to form much of a basis for comparison. Maybe if Sera had my style of mark, she’d have found it easier to cast spells with something other than her lungs.
While I hadn’t had a chance to do much with it yet, having an attunement that improved general mana control meant that I was in an ideal position to experiment with other methods of casting spells. That was a potentially huge advantage in the long term.
My muscles tingled from the infusion of energy, but aside from that, I didn’t really feel any different. Not until I took a step.
That single motion catapulted me forward, sending me into a stumble that turned into a tumble. When I hit the floor, my body bounced.
When I finally stopped bouncing and rolling, I burst into laughter.
That was amazing.
The mana itself had been cushioning my impacts. I still felt them, but only barely. I did feel a little nauseated, though, from the rapid movement.
I tried it again. And again. And again.
I was a little bruised in the aftermath, but I started to get the hang of walking.
After about five minutes of stumbling around the room and running into things, I understood why these spells weren’t more popular. The novelty had mostly worn off, and it was incredibly difficult to move.
Still, I kept practicing.
By the end of the evening, I could perform basic movements with the weakest, Quartz-ranked Haste spell active. Sadly, I was still clumsier with the spell active than without. I had to deliberately move slowly to avoid hurting myself, and that defeated the entire point of the spell.
But progress was progress, and I wasn’t giving up easily.
I resolved to ask Keras for advice the next day. It was likely he could help me with making the learning process more efficient.
I still had a smile when I went to sleep.
“Haste spells?” Keras gave me a quizzical look. “I don’t use them.”
I stared back at him with a similar expression. “…Really?”
“Yeah. I know some people who do, but transference mana isn’t really my specialty.”
I frowned. “I’ve seen you move much more rapidly in short bursts, though. How are you accomplishing that?”
“Oh, that? Hm. Nothing I could really teach, unfortunately.”
I’d been afraid of that. “Why? Because I don’t have access to the dominions that you do?”
“Precisely. I can infuse my body with energy from that dominion, and that vastly increases both my strength and my speed. It has a high cost, so I use it sparingly.”
“How do you cope with the loss of balance and coordination?”
He shook his head. “It’s not an issue for me. When I use it, everything around me seems to slow down. I don’t feel like I’m moving any faster, just that everything else is moving slower.”
“…Are you a Chronomancer?”
Keras actually laughed. “No, I’m not using time magic. I’ve seen a lot of strange things over the years, but that’s still one that I haven’t learned.”
“What dominion is it that you’re using then?”
He shifted his stance, looking uncharacteristically nervous. “I’d rather not say.”
I shrugged a shoulder. It didn’t really matter, as long as he was right that it wasn’t something I could use. “Is there any way I could do something similar, even if it’s not the same as yours?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve seen people here use similar abilities, like those Haste spells you talked about, but I’m no expert on the local magic. Derek would be a better person to ask.”
That was a good point, so I bid Keras goodbye and went to ask Derek.
“I don’t use Haste spells, either. One of my bound items enhances my movement, but that’s with air magic, not transference, so it works differently. Haste spells add additional energy to all of your movements, so you get pushed further every time you take a step, or that sort of thing. When I use air magic to increase my speed, it’s more like the wind is carrying me in the direction I want to go.”
That made sense, and it was good to know there were different types of movement magic available. It also meant that any training exercises that Derek used would be different from training with Haste spells, so he couldn’t help teach me, either.
I either needed to focus on practicing more myself, or find someone who actually had trained directly with Haste spells. Preferably both, eventually.
I spent just a little bit more time practicing with Haste that morning, but I didn’t make much progress. Hopefully, if I spent a bit of time on it every day, I’d both learn to master it eventually and increase my overall proficiency with transference magic.
I had breakfast after that, then headed to Magic Theory class.
We had to take a written exam — one of the first I’d taken that semester. Fortunately, I’d always been good with written exams, even if I wasn’t particularly good at studying what I was supposed to.
I didn’t get my results that day, but we apparently would be getting reports on our current grades for each class right before winter vacation, which was just a few weeks away.
After that, I had lunch, and then Mana Manipulation class.
Professor Edlyn was looking unusually serious. Maybe a little concerned?
She had a large box on her lectern, and she put her hands on top of it as class began.
“I’m afraid today is your final exam.”
That was…not good news. I hadn’t been too surprised when Teft had run his final exam early, but I hadn’t expected someone like Professor Edlyn to do the same.
I could see the other students tense, and heard a few confused whispers.
“Please be quiet, everyone.” The professor began to open the box. “While normally we would wait until the week before winter vacation for the test, we’ve needed to adjust the class schedule due to an unforeseen incident.”