'Well this is an academy for young adults, what do you expect? Also, do I have to remind you that despite your constant pessimism each subject we attended has either given us new ideas or helped to expand our horizons?' Solus said.
Thinking back at the Necromancy class, Lith was forced to admit she was right.
Solus wanted to be supportive, yet her greatest temptation was to tell him to stop whining and enjoy the company of his friends.
The winter break had shown them how despite their bond, noble families were as busy as Lith, if not even more. They had called each other often, but aside for the Gala and Lith's birthday, the group had never managed to meet.
'They have only so much time together, yet Lith doesn't seem to realize how quickly a year pass. I'd like for him to make happy memories rather than waste time grumbling.' She thought.
"I must say, so far the fifth year seems more exciting than the fourth one." Yurial was back being his old self. There were no bags under his eyes anymore, he smiled most of the time and had regained some of the lost weight.
After the gala, Yurial had discovered that it was enough to pretend to call Lith to get rid of his fianc¨¦e for several hours. To make things even better, he had asked one of his private tutors to teach him how to emit killing intent.
Despite being a mage, it was something he had never learned to do it. On Mogar, all living being possessed mana. Emitting it was an involuntary act, just like breathing or perspiring.
Intense emotions lead to an increase in the mana emitted. That, together with an aggressive disposition inflicted a mental pressure on those who were exposed to it, causing fear, panic, or even terror.
The phenomenon was simply referred as killing intent. It wasn't necessary to be a mage to emit killing intent. As long one had mana, they could employ it. Even animals were capable of using it to scare their prey or threaten their enemies.
Being a mage made things easier, since by possessing large amounts of mana it was possible to amplify its effects. It was the way killing intent was used by calm people like Linjos.
Another method was to develop the ability to channel one's fury into the mana. It required to train the mind, allowing people like Jirni Ernas to scare even powerful mages despite her natural lack of magical talent.
Then, there were people like Lith, that had plenty of wrath and mana of their own. Ever since he and Solus had met, it had been her task to suppress Lith's mana fluctuations until he became capable of doing it on his own.
Otherwise, after he gained a green core, any animal or human in his presence would feel like a lamb in front of a slaughterhouse.
Yurial had lots of mana but little aggressiveness in him. His life had been stressful but pampered. Since he was a child, everyone had treated him with care and respect. Being gifted with a calm and collected nature, anger was something that rarely affected Yurial's judgment.
At least until he had been forced to spend so much time with Libea. His instructor was a battle veteran. He had no trouble teaching Yurial how to use his gifts to put an end to their constant squabbles.
'It may be unfair on my side to use killing intent to shut her up, but it's much better than being forced to listen to her every day.' Yurial considered it justification enough to quench his guilty conscience.
"I don't have a single spell that doesn't come from textbooks or from my mentor. Between my duties as the heir of the Deirus Household and the academy, it's already a miracle for me to keep up with all the homework they assign to us.
I can't wait to create something that I can call my own. I already have several ideas in mind.
Even Professor Farg's subject piqued my interest. Community service might sound boring, but I think it will be a great experience. I never set foot out of the high end residential areas.
It's a golden opportunity to connect with the people of the Kingdom and understand their needs."
"I can tell you what they need." Quylla was pissed off at him.
"They want tasty food, warm clothes, and some real justice. How do you expect to become a good ruler if you talk about commoners like they are some exotic animals you need to take care of? Do you have any idea how cold a winter can get? How many people starve every day?"
Quylla was usually so calm that seeing her angry was almost scary.
"She is right, Yurial." Phloria played with the food on her plate.
"I think Code of Practice is mostly aimed at us nobles as an eye-opener. Farg is right when she says we know nothing. I believe its purpose is to make us realize there is no easy solution to the Kingdom's problems." Visiting Lith's house had been almost a shock to her.
Even after all the renovations and improvements thanks to Lith's hard work, it was still worse than the servants' quarters at house Ernas.
When he had shown her the nearby village, Phloria had found it to be so small and dirty to make her heart tighten. After hearing Lith's stories about the farmers' harsh life, learning how even getting medical care was a luxury for them, she had felt guilty for days for having such a blessed life.
Friya shared Yurial's enthusiasm, but nodded at Phloria's words. She had never visited Quylla's village, yet all the stories about her previous life before she was adopted by the Ernas were enough to give Friya nightmares.
After lunch, they headed towards the Light magic department for their first lesson of the Healer specialization. Lith was really eager to discover what kind of subject they would practice during the final year.
They were already capable of healing all injuries and amputations. That left very little outside their reach.
"Welcome back, my dear students." Professor Vastor hadn't changed one bit. He still looked like someone had attempted to fuse together an egg and a man.
The top of his head was completely bald, the hair he had left on the sides was snow-white and so were his waxed handlebar mustaches. Vastor's belly was so big that it made hard to guess if he was larger than tall.
"It seems I was a bit too pessimistic last year, saying that only a third of you would make it to graduation." He said while twirling his mustaches.
"Anyway, the lesser the merrier. Now that we got rid of the dead weight our lessons will surely go smoother." Of the thirty-four students that had joined the healer specialization on the fourth year, only sixteen remained.
Chapter 275 Body Sculpting Part 2
"Just like the previous year, we are going to spend the first two trimesters on a single but wide subject, while during the third one you'll get real practice in the field. This time as lead healers in the most important hospitals of the Kingdom.
"What I am about to introduce to you today, is the last branch of healing magic you need to master before achieving the privilege and the honor of being considered full fledged healers.
"Tier one to three have taught you to mend broken bones and to heal injuries. Tier four how to replace lost limbs and organs. Yet there is still a case we haven't explored.
"What if our patient never had a limb to start with? What if they were born with a deformity or a defective organ?" He asked while walking around the class.
"Are we helpless in front of such eventuality? The answer is no. There is nothing that a true healer cannot fix. Only death is beyond our reach, at least for now." Vastor declared with a proud look in his eyes.
"The first four tiers of magic are completely useless against natural deformities simply because there is nothing wrong in the first place. You can't heal a man born blind because it's his natural status.
"Even if his eyes were to be gouged and regrown, they would still be blind. Tier four magic simply gives the body the means to revert to its original status. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Tier five Light magic brings in something that we have often mentioned but never worked on. The study of the life force. During the first trimester I'll teach you how to sense your own life force and how to use it to manipulate other people's life force to give them a normal life."
The class
murmured, for all of them life force was a vague concept. They had learned how to share it with the patients, allowing them to survive critical wounds and major procedures, but nothing more.
"That's only the first step, though. Once you learn how to control the life force comes the real deal. Let's suppose our patient is born with a deformed arm. It's the easiest case you'll ever face.
"Two-bit healers will approach the problem by amputating the arm, to regenerate it in the correct shape. It works, yes. The arm will be perfectly functional, but that's a butcher execution that will teach you nothing and endangers the patient's life.
"A real Healer uses a complex mix of light and darkness magic to perform what is called 'Body Sculpting'. Mastering the life force means you can find the dissonances in its flow and correct them accordingly.
"Darkness magic is used to remove the excess parts or to clear the way, so that light magic can start the healing process while the mage teaches the body its new form, permanently altering its natural state.
"That way, if the arm gets damaged or maimed, healing magic will restore it without the need of using Body Sculpting. I want you to understand the deep implications of altering someone forever.
"Our physical appearance is something that defines us, or at least affects how others perceive us. Body sculpting is still a highly controversial ethical matter. Some worry it can be used to turn a human being into something else.
"That through human experimentation it could breed all sorts of hybrids. Such concerns I can understand, but it's something for the Crown to regulate not for us mages to care about.
"Some radical fools say that it breaches the boundaries the gods have set for humans. I say that's bogus.
"When the Crown passed a bill that forces those who oppose to Body Sculpting because it's 'unnatural' to give up all magical tools and commodities since they are unnatural too, no one dared to say a word anymore.
They are just a bunch of hypocrites." Vastor snarled.
"Another thing that you must know, before learning Body Sculpting, is that like all magic it's not omnipotent. Along with the hypocrites that would like to outlaw Body Sculpting, there are also the quacks that try to abuse it exploiting the insecurities of the rich.
"In theory, it can be used to change the shape of a nose, to make someone taller, slimmer, or to increase bust size. Quacks demand insane sums, but the results are underwhelming, if not fatal."
'Seems plastic surgery still has a long way to go here.' Lith was fascinated by Vastor's explanation. Body Sculpting sounded a lot like the procedure he had performed on Tista years before.
"Why fatal?" He asked. "A nose is external and relatively small. Compared to reshaping a whole arm, it should be much easier."
Lith unconsciously touched his own nose, while the rest of the class wondered what they would change about their bodies if given the chance.
"Excellent question." Vastor scratched his short button nose, wishing he could make it more manly.
"Once you learn to perceive the life force, you'll notice that everything has a purpose. Our bodies have something I call a voice, for a lack of a better term, and you must learn to listen to it before applying the smallest modification.
"A hand wants to grab, to touch." He said while flexing the fingers of his left hand.
"A leg wants to walk, a nose wants to breathe, a heart to beat. What about a perfectly functional nose, albeit not easy on the eyes, like mine? If you could listen to my life force, you'd find out that aside from the problems related to age there's nothing wrong with me.
"It means that altering my life force, even just on the nose, would have unpredictable consequences. Make it longer could cause me problems breathing, affecting my ability to cast spells. Becoming taller is alluring, sure, but what about the ramifications?
"Even a few centimeters more imply that all my bones, my organs, everything must be reshaped. There is a reason why powerful mages aren't all muscular studs or world class beauties. It's because the benefits are not worth the risks.
Healthy organs have a healthy life force, their voice can't help you. Changing them means you are acting blindly, relying more on luck and wishful thinking than on scientific basis." Vastor took a brief pause, to make sure that his students had a clear understanding of his words.
"Internal organs are even more tricky. Like all magic above tier three, the procedure requires a full medical team. Unlike regenerating an organ or a limb, the process can't be performed in one go. Cutting and reshaping take a huge toll on both the healer and the patient, especially if we are working on a vital organ.
It's never wise to subject them to too much stress, because if complications arise, the body may not have the strength to make it through. Even if that's not the case, it may be necessary to switch the lead healer to allow them to rest.
Body Sculpting is probably the hardest thing you'll ever do and also the way you'll lose most of your patients." Vastor looked down on the ground, his mind couldn't forget all those he had failed.
Each death had changed him, making him more cynical and detached. They also had made him a better healer and a better man.
Chapter 276 White Part 1
"There are countless things that can go wrong during a Body Sculpting procedure." Professor Vastor continued.
"I'm not going to lie to you. Despite our best efforts, I expect you to see a few people die before you graduate. Some may die under your hands. It's going to put you under a lot of pressure, testing your will.
"Too many times in this job I've seen old men live long enough to not even remember who they were, their bodies refusing to give up, while young people not even old enough to marry would die under my care for no apparent reason.
"Many healers refuse to practice Body Sculpting, either to not affect their reputation with repeated failures or because they cannot take it. Up to tier three, you can still blame bad luck. At tier four anything seems possible.
"Once you reach tier five, you can only blame yourself. People will die because you aren't good enough, aren't prepared enough, or simply because you have let your pride get the best of you. Never be afraid to tell a patient that it's better a long but limited life than gambling everything on a maybe.
"Never hide them the risks of any procedure or make them any promise. The final choice is theirs, but the final burden is yours." Vastor sighed deeply, before resuming his usual confident attitude.
"One last thing. Don't think that once you graduate you are set for life. What we are teaching you are the basics of the basics. The difference between a quack and a real healer is the number of personal spells they develop, how much of yourselves you put into your work.
That's why we'll also cover how to alter, improve, or create from scratch spells.
The fifth year will make the fourth one look like a walk in the park. Class dismissed."
After listening to Professor Vastor's introduction to the subjects of the Healer specialization for the fifth year, the students were gloomy rather than excited. Up to that point, they had always worked in teams comprised of Professors and medical staff.
They were a safety net, boosting the students' confidence that no matter what happened, things could still be salvaged. Now the rules of the game had changed. Only a few, like Lith and Quylla had lost a patient in the past, but no one had ever been responsible for a death.
The thought was scary and not because most of the students had such a good heart. The reason was that the majority of the patients admitted in the White Griffon hospital were powerful mages or influential figures in the political world.
Killing a commoner was one thing, explaining a powerful and well connected family why their loved one wasn't among them anymore could easily destroy lives. The Healer's life, to be precise.
Lith was insensible to such worries. Partly because killing was second nature to him, mostly because lots of people had already died indirectly by his hand. Back at Lutia or during the plague, he could have saved dozens o
f lives if he had given up his secret and used true magic.
'Seems I actually performed tier five light magic twice already. The first time with Tista, the second on mom.' Lith thought.
'Yeah, but you only succeeded because of true magic. Tista's treatment took months since we lacked tier four magic, while Elina's would have gone badly if you acted alone.
'I'm really curious to see how much our abilities will improve once we learn how to listen to the life force.' Solus considered all the fifth year subjects amazing. They had managed to mimic tier five spells despite missing so many pieces of the puzzle. She was eager to see how far they could get after mastering so much knowledge.
Being the first day, they received no homework. It allowed Lith to go straight to the library and borrow books about the other specializations to copy them. During the fourth year, he and Solus had stockpiled an impressive number of tomes.
Every time Lith had spent the night practicing a specific spell, Solus would use that time to make copies. The information amassed in Soluspedia gave Lith an edge while studying most of the magic related problems.
Even if his understanding of the basics of each specialization was shallow, he could analyze each situation from different angles to find the best possible approach.
Lith decided to keep up the pace, using the time before dinner to work together with Solus and complete the first batch of copies. They could only borrow three books at a time and needed to return them before getting new ones.
Since they used water magic to control the ink, each page took barely a few seconds to be reproduced. The problem was that each book was composed of hundreds of pages. They worked on a different book each to make things faster.
'Don't you think it would be better to spend this time with your friends? Or at least with Phloria? You two only saw each other twice in the last three months.' Solus liked to be alone with Lith, yet since having a full free afternoon was a rare event, she would have preferred for him to socialize.
During winter, at night or whenever his family was away and he wasn't busy with clients, Lith had already spent countless hours studying and researching magic inside the tower. After his speech in Phloria's room, she had hoped Lith would be more considerate, instead of having her making the first move as usual.
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