anecdotes that from an entire book.
That day Phloria wore her long black hair down, making them dance in his face every time she
turned her head suddenly.
"Why are you still growing your hair?" Lith asked. "I thought that having them short was more
convenient for a fighter."
"Yeah, you got that right. But during the last break, my mother kept nagging about me not
being feminine enough. She said that if I cut them even shorter, people would mistake me for
a boy. What a load of sh*t!" She grumbled.
Lith could only keep silent, inwardly agreeing with her mother. Phloria was very tall, even
more than most Professors, and she still had plenty of time to grow further. She also had wide
shoulders and enough strength to easily lift him, like during the mock exam.
"What do you think about it?" She abruptly asked.
"That I hope she didn't phrase it so cruelly. But I have to give it to her that you are prettier
this way." Lith dodged the question with a compliment.
"Of course not, my mother is of noble origins, she would never be so straightforward. She just
pointed out how hard it is to find suitors form me, adding how scared she is at the idea that
our bloodline would die with me and all that cr*p."
"I thought you had siblings." Lith raised an eyebrow at such arguments. He clearly
remembered that her parents had three children.
"I do. And when I pointed it out, she replied with the bogus theory that women are more
likely to pass down a greater degree of magic. At that point I gave up. You know parents, you
are always on the losing side of any discussion."
Lith nodded, not knowing what to say. No one had ever tried to control that aspect of his life.
"While we are at it, you do know that Quylla has it bad for you, right?"
"Yes." He actually suspected that Quylla was developing a crush, but he hoped that with time
and not giving her special attentions, it would pass. He did not want to openly reject her and
hurt her feelings.
"Yet I don't understand why."
"Well, she's an orphan. She clearly has daddy issues, and between your big brother and drill
sergeant vibes, I'd say you make the ideal candidate."
"But why me and not one of the Professors or something? I mean, I'm nothing special, just¡"
"Tall, good-looking, talented and caring?" Phloria cut him short. "You are right, is a complete
mystery."
Lith glared at her in annoyance.
"That's not funny. Stop ruffling my feathers."
"Well, right now I have to take back the good-looking and caring part. With that face, you are
creepy."
Lith's expression returned to normal.
"Much better. By the way, I would keep an eye on Friya too. It would not surprise me if her
family sent her after you. Talented magicians with no family name are much sought-after."
"Please, I'm just a fourth-year student." Lith scoffed. "It's too soon for that kind of
shenanigans."
"Nah, you are still too na?ve. It's the perfect moment to start an approach to develop in the
future without seeming too desperate or interested. During the fifth year it would be too late,
one needs an edge over the competition.
It's not like they are going to make you marry after all. If you do not live up to their
expectations, they can always back off at any moment."
"That makes sense." Lith furrowed his brow, thinking about the unexpected problem.
"Thanks for the heads up."
"You're welcome. But to be honest, you should thank my father. It's only when he asked me if
I would mind a younger spouse that I realized what was happening."
Lith was afraid to ask the question, but he did anyway.
"What did you reply to him?"
"After stressing out that I don't mind a 'small' age gap, don't get me wrong, I don't want to
end up marrying someone much older than me, I said that I would consider it. No reply was
the only reply.
If I said yes, he would have sent my mother to make me change my mind. If I said no, he
would have probably started arranging our marriage. He is kinda bull-headed."
"I see." Lith tried to keep his poker face, but unconsciously took a step away from her.
"Don't overestimate yourself, short stuff." She laughed at his move.
"I'm my own woman, I may bend on many things for my parents' sake, but love is not one of
those. If they try to force me, I'm ready to become independent after the graduation. If I keep
my grades as they are, people will line up to hire me."
From that point, they walked in silence, until they knocked on Quylla's door. During breakfast,
everyone expressed their curiosity about the new lessons and their Professors, making bets
about their looks.
Lith sneaked a look at Friya from time to time, and only when he realized that nothing had
changed, he managed to put his paranoia to rest.
Because dimensional magic was a compulsory course, it took place in the fourth-year lecture
class.
As soon as the last gong rang, Professor Rudd walked in.
He was a tall man, about 1,78 (5'10") high, with grey streaked black hair, and ice-cold blue
eyes. He was in his mid-fifties, wearing the robe open and revealing a slim build.
Aside from Vastor, he was the oldest teacher Lith had ever met.
"Good morning, dear students." He spoke every word like he was spitting poison.
"I'm Professor Khavos Rudd, and I'll teach you dimensional magic. As you can see, I am not
one of those hot stuff children that our beloved Headmaster Linjos placed in the academy. I'm
one of the remnants of the old guard.
One of those that, allegedly, find a waste of resources to teach magic to those that not belong
to mages' bloodline or at least noble families."
At those words, Lith, Quylla and Friya took out their Ballot, placing it on their desk. After one
too many "practical joke", Friya had decided to follow Quylla's advice and got her freedom
back.
Being noble, that speech wasn't addressed to her, but she still wanted to prove her point.
Friya wasn't scared of putting herself on the line for her friends.
Rudd continued like he didn't see anything, despite the three of them were sitting in the front
lines.
"Even in such hypothetical scenario, thought, I would still be a professional capable of leaving
his prejudices outside that door. I expect you of doing the same."
All the commoner students didn't believe a word he said. Many started regretting not having
a Guilty Ballot.
"Dimensional magic is a complex and deep subject, so do not expect of getting rid of me after
just three months. My class is where we will separate true mages from simple birds. Even a
magico can fly, but only a mage can do this."
After a quick wave of the hand and a hushed word, Rudd disappeared from the back of the
class, near the chalkboard, reappearing in front of the first row of students.
His hands never stopped, before they could even gasp, he had already disappeared,
materializing with his feet on a second-row desk, making a full round of the class before
returning back to the point of origin.
"This spell is called Blink, one of the most common battle uses of dimensional magic. It's
particularly useful to Battle Mages and Mage Knights to push forwards, since they use
weapons. But everyone can use
it to escape in a pinch.
Just to be clear, I didn't use any artifact, just my skills. If you aren't capable of doing this by
the end of the course, you will never pass it. The good news is that failing my class will not
prevent you from graduating, just mark your failure as mages."
He smirked looking at the student's worried faces.
A hand rose up from the middle row.
"What? I still have to begin explaining and you already have a question? I wonder how you
got admitted here. Nonetheless, speak freely."
"Are you going to teach us teleportation?" Asked a red-haired chubby boy.
Professor Rudd broke out in a loud laughter, full of contempt and amazement. Most of the
students understood that he wasn't laughing at the question, but at the boy himself.
"Teleportation? I haven't heard that word in years. It's a withered branch of magic, whose
only success was to get the world rid of all the idiots that practiced it."
Chapter 95 Dimensional Magic 2
"The idea of teleportation was first born after realizing the limitations of flying. As you all
should know, is impossible to move in such a way an army or its supplies.
It's not a matter of mana required, as much that it would take too much time. Not to mention
it would offer a perfect target for an ambush, since non mages would be sitting ducks.
The first idea, was to just move a body much faster, but above a certain speed threshold, dust
becomes dangerous as an arrow, insects hit like an avalanche. Adding a barrier strong enough
to endure such hazards, would make the mana consumption prohibitive, even for a small
group of persons.
So, some dumb idiot who read too many fairy tales, had the idea of teleportation, as in
convert living matter in something else that could sustain high speed traveling, and reverting
it back once arrived to destination."
Rudd laughed loudly, like it was the best joke ever, but when he noticed he was the only one
laughing, his upper lip curled in an expression of disgust.
"How can you possibly be that dumb? Do you really not understand?"
He asked, without receiving any answer besides puzzled looks.
"In a fairy tale, it's great. But in reality? Converting living matter into something else, is just a
fancy word to say 'killing'. How can you be sure that the thing that arrives on the other side is
really you? What if a part of your body, your mind, or soul gets lost?
How do you think you could get it back? And more importantly, would the newborn thing
even notice not to be the original? One thing is teleporting a rock, but living beings are much
more complicated."
"Interesting." Lith thought. "Is the same moral conundrum theoretical physicist had about
teleportation back on Earth. Someone even made a Hollywood movie about it." ¨C
"And don't let me started about the necessity of having perfect coordinates!" Professor Rudd
continued.
"Rematerialize a little too high, too low or too close to a travel companion and bam! Instant
death. Not to mention that the aforementioned insects, dust and even animals, are not bound
to make space for your arrival. The tiniest hitch, and you have a fly for brains.
The last mage that attempted teleportation, materialized in the sky, hoping to avoid such
issues, only for a flock of ducks to cross his path, making him die like the quack he was." This
time, part of the class laughed at the dark humour.
"What I'm going to teach you, is the art of manipulating space itself, allowing you to arrive
from point A to point B in complete safety in an instant, even if the two places are thousands
of miles away."
Professor Rudd waved his hands in a circular manner, and soon two tiny black spots
appeared. The first one between his palms, the second one right in front of the girl sitting in
the middle of the front row.
With each magic word he spoke, the spots started to enlarge and stretch themselves in a
specular manner, one extremity became almost circular, the size of a fist, while the other was
so thin and small to be point-like.
They assumed the shape of a funnel, made out of energy, with both ends spinning at
unbelievable speed.
"Is that an event horizon?!" ¨C Lith was shocked, to the point of standing up to better observe
the phenomenon.
After just a second, the energy funnels had collapsed on themselves, leaving in their places
two rifts in space. Professor Rudd extended his hand inside the first rift, making it reappear
right above the girl's desk, taking the pen away from her fingers.
"Do you understand now? Bending space requires the same amount of energy and focus than
teleportation would, but it's infinitely safer. Walking through a Gate is like going through a
door. What gets in, gets out. No more and no less.
But do not get fooled by appearances. Even a simple trick like the one I just showed you has
many limitations. First of all, it requires a clear line of sight, otherwise one cannot have a clear
focus of the entry and exit points.
Secondly, even a small Gate requires at least the ability to triple cast, since you have to mix
and control the energies of earth, air and water magic. Those are the most basic elements for
a Gate.
Adding more elements allows to create bigger rifts, and it's the only way to make them stable
enough to let more than one person walk through it. You will need to develop a deep
understanding of these three elements, just for starters.
Despite what you may think, dimensional magic does not require enormous amount of mana,
like some specializations do. The most important requirement is sensibility to small
fluctuations of energy and space.
It's not something that you can brute force your way through. You must be able to feel the
Gate growing, and adapt to its changes. If you don't feed it mana at the right time in the right
place, it will never open.
Dimensional magic is not a specialization, it has no strict requirements that cannot be
overcome with practice and hard work. On paper, is something that every good mage can do,
even those with one specialization or none at all.
Tomorrow, we will start with nothing more than a simple parlour trick."
Rudd opened two small portals, barely the size of a coin, one above the other. Then he
dropped a small pebble in the lower portal, and it reappeared from the upper one, falling
down in the lower portal in an endless loop.
"Forewarned is forearmed. Better if you start reading your book from today onward, if you
don't want to start with the wrong foot. Questions?"
Yurial raised his hand, receiving permission to speak.
"Professor, you said that teleportation does not exist, but what was Blink then? I didn't see
any Gate opening."
"Excellent question, young man." For the first time since he had entered the room, Professor
Rudd smiled kindly. Many were cursing inwardly, asking themselves if the question was really
good, or rather he was appreciating Yurial's father.
"Dimensional magic is not just a matter of logistic and transportation, in the right conditions is
also a perfect tool to defend or attack. But in such scenarios, you cannot expect the enemy to
be kind enough to wait for you to finish, everything needs to be fast.
Allow me to show you Blink again, this time
slowly."
The academy ring at Rudd's finger tapped into the castle's magic, opening two portals, one in
front of the Professor and the other in the middle of the class.
But unlike a Warp Steps, where both ends were still, the portal in front of Rudd moved
forward, making him arrive to destination without having to take a step.
"That's how Blink works, just much faster. Using dimensional magic in combat is the final test
of skill for a mage. Another useful, but even harder application is the following. Please stand
up, young man."
Yurial did as instructed, but as soon as he stood up, he found himself watching Professor Rudd
standing behind his desk, while he was now in the middle of the room.
"This spell is called Switch. The name is self-explanatory, and requires two sets of portals, that
if correctly timed, create the perfect diversion. Sometimes even an opportunity to kill.
Back in my days, I once found myself surrounded by archers using enchanted arrows. Their
commander did me the favour of standing still long enough for me to time Switch so that
while I was running away, he had become a fine spill cushion."
A cruel smile appeared on Rudd's face, remembering the shocked expression of the soldiers
when they realized what had happened.
"But don't get me wrong, Switch is even harder to pull off than Blink. It requires that both
targets are still, within a ten meters distance and a clear visual. But I digress. Anything
further?"
"Is it really possible for a single mage to open a Gate to a location hundred, if not thousands
of miles away?" Asked a petite girl.
"Yes and no. A single mage can open a portal leading to a very further destination, but he
needs to have either enough mana to support the task, or a magical item to share its burden.
Also, one cannot go in a location he has never been before.
Visualization is a key element, and so is the knowledge of the exact coordinates. Moreover,
opening such a gate requires a focus. Something like this."
From his dimensional amulet Professor Rudd took out a small sphere with many arcane red
runes engraved on it.
"Dimensional mages usually plant magical beacons in their most common destinations,
making the opening of a portal much easier and less mana consuming. As I said at the
A True Genius Worries Page 10
