Chương 254: Tier 5

As Arica was speaking, he was considering his own affinities. His Water, Poison and Spatial, were all under C Rank. Poison, he had not tried to cast spells with and even Water, he only had one spell he could use. Thinking back, Damion realized it had been a bit more difficult to channel the mana for the spells. There was not a way for him to tell if the spells were weaker than someone else with a higher affinity, but he was sure Arica was right.

Luckily, his affinities with his other affinities were higher, but that left him with the question of, should he increase the affinities or should he wait to try and find more Heavenly Enhancement Fruits. While Damion was debating internally, Arica was studying the Iblis spatial artifact. She was already taking detailed notes and muttering to herself how remarkable parts of the enchantments were.

The Spatial mage did not stop studying the artifact until Elicia announced it was time for lunch and at that point, she remembered that there were other people in the room with her.

"Sorry, I was just so engulfed in studying the enchantments on this spatial artifact," Arica apologized.

"I am aware of how someone can get tunnel vision when working on a project," Elicia said with a not-so-subtle jab at Damion.

"Don't you have class?" Arica suddenly asked Damion.

"I have until the start of the week. My classes were suspended for the Wilderness Survival exam," Damion told her.

"Oh, then that is great. Do you think I can stay for a few days?"

"I will arrange a room for you in Argentum," Elicia immediately offered.

"I guess that would work," Arica said, looking back down to her notes.

"I just thought you would have room here. Going back and forth between the school and the city will eat into the time I could use to study. I mean, I can sleep on the couch if you don't have a spare room."

"You can use Elicia's room," Damion said, eliciting a death glare from Elicia.

"Great, I figured it would be free," Arica said happily.

"Why would you figure it would be free?"

"Are you forgetting that I attended a magic academy as an elite student too?" A moment passed before what Arica said clicked in his mind. She had attended Erythraean Academy as an elite student. Thus, she once had an attendant of her own and attendants were known for being used to ensure recruitment of talents.

"I guess I never really thought about it before?" Damion admitted.

"Did you join your attendant's noble family?"

"My attendant was provided by my master, to make sure no one bothered me too much. Not that it deterred Theodore much. Spatial affinity students with high affinities are pretty rare. I was recruited straight to the Mage Association."

"Do you still see him?" Damion asked.

"Who?"

"Your attendant," Damion clarified, though he thought his question was obvious.

"Oh, my attendant was a lovely young lady," Arica told him.

"We did have quite a bit of fun together, but after I joined my master in the Mage Association, she was assigned to another up-and-coming student. Sadly, she isn't very magically talented, although, the things she could do with her hands were magical enough." Damion coughed and Elicia looked scandalized. Arica just smiled, amused by their shock, before continuing.

"Massages. She gave wonderful neck and back massages. I must say though, if she had offered more, I wouldn't have said no." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Yes, well, you may use my room for the duration of your stay," Elicia said, quickly changing the subject.

"I did notice that you two seem to have gotten quite close. Damion, I didn't think you would let yourself get roped into a noble family so easily."

"Elicia is no longer part of the Sorin family."

"Is that a fact?" Arica questioned, doubt clear in her voice.

"It is," Elicia snapped.

"Perhaps you should show Damion the magic seals you promised."

"Sorry," Arica said.

"I didn't mean to imply anything. I've just had a bad couple of days due to the Bianco family."

"Because Theodore is dead?" Damion asked.

"How did you know?"

"Headmaster Sorin questioned me as soon as I returned to the school yesterday. He said it was an Ice wielder; they used a spell called Frost Fire."

"I didn't think they would question you, but if what you said is true, that he was killed by an Ice mage it makes sense."

"They didn't tell you how he died?" Damion asked.

"No. They questioned me because I always spurned his advances. The Bianco family thought I might have hired someone or used an artifact to kill him since I'd had enough of his pestering."

"But Elicia is right, let me share my spells with you. Which one would you like to start with first?"

"I already know Telekinesis and Spatial Storage. Can you show me all your magic seals aside from those?"

"What do you mean you know them?"

"I mean, I have access to those magic seals," Damion tried to cover, thankfully, Arica did not push for a better explanation.

"Not asking for much then are you. Okay, well, my master has been generous, and taught me five other Spatial magic seals, though, I haven't been able to use the two tier 5 spells."

"He taught you two tier 5 spells?" Both Damion and Elicia exclaimed. Tier 5 spells were what Damion was lacking. His understanding of Nashto had progressed quite far, but he had too little access to high tier spells. If he wanted to advance his Nashto to mastery, he needed more variety and access to high tier spells, exactly what Arica was offering.

"Start with your tier 1 spells," Damion told her. He thought it would be best to build up to the tier 5 spells. Not only would it be less suspicious, it should actually help him understand the tier 5 spells better when he started to study them.

"You said you already had both tier 1 Spatial magic seals, want me to start with tier 2?"

"There are only two tier 1 Spatial spells?" Damion asked.

"Spatial magic is a fairly narrow field. There are not a lot of spells in general for it. I know seven magic seals in all, the same seven my master knows, and probably the same seven almost every Spatial mage knows. There might be some secret ones out there, passed down from master to apprentice, or owned solely by a noble family, but I wouldn't know."

"Okay, so you have two tier 5 spells, what are your other ones?"

"I have a tier 2 spell, Blink," Arica said, summoning the magic seal to her palm.

"It lets me do short range teleports. Very good at dodging attacks." Arica waited for a moment, but when Damion did not start taking any notes about her magic seal, she moved on to the next spell.

"This is Portal," the new magic seal appeared on her palm.

"It's the spell used to create travel portals. It is tier 3.

"The tier 4 spell I know is Send. It lets me teleport something to another location. It is similar to Blink, but it lets me move something else."

"Or someone else?" Damion asked.

"Yes, I can use it to teleport someone else to another location, but if their magic power is higher than mine, they can resist the move. It's easier to teleport away their weapon or, in one case when Theodore bothered me too much, I teleported his clothing to the other side of campus."

"It has a variety of uses then," Damion managed to say with a straight face.

"Can you teleport someone that has more magic power than you?"

"If they let you. But for an enemy, the spell we use is Exile. It… I guess you can say it banishes a target from our reality. And is one of my tier 5 spells," as she spoke, Arica summoned the magic seal and Damion leaned in close to examine it.

"Banishes something?" Damion mumbled as he wondered where the target was sent. If it sent someone to another realm, that could be quite the spell. But it sounded like Arica did not know where it sent a target.

"Is it possible to bring something back after you have used Exile on it?"

"Not to my knowledge. To pull something back, like reversing Send, we have to have been there before. Just like opening a Portal, or using Blink, we have to have knowledge of where something is going. As far as I've been able to understand from the spell, it sends someone into… nothing."

"What about your final spell? What does it do?"

"My other tier 5 spell is Spatial Domain. It creates this, sort of bubble around me and then I can move around it is as if I was Blinking, but there is no limit to my teleports within the area, no channeling or anything. My master showed me how he uses it, but it requires so much mana, unless I want to risk mana exhaustion just from a few minutes of practicing and chugging mana potions, I can't really use it."

Arica brought up the final magic seal and as Damion studied it, he had an idea for an Ice version of the same spell. Sure, he wouldn't be able to teleport around inside the Domain, but he would certainly be able to instantly block any attack inside or freeze any attacker.

"Why don't you study the spatial ring a bit more, I'm going to go make some notes about your magic seals," Damion told Arica before rushing off to his study and closing the door.