Aurelius was no longer being escorted by the two Commission sages, but he knew that a few Commission mages still tailed him in the city from a distance. It seemed they did not want to draw attention to him and Tiberius by having Mr Tona and Ms Yeltz follow them openly, but were still cautious enough not to let him get murdered on his walks.

  He checked the time, rubbing his head as he tended to the injury that Lucina had graciously inflicted on him. It was nearly 5pm, which was the agreed upon time for his ‘training’. He was almost certain that the sage would not tolerate the kind of tardiness that he was about to display, and he decided to pick up his pace.

  He had 2 sessions with his mentor so far, on Monday and then on Tuesday. The first had been the bookshelf stacking, which he suspected was actually the sage using Aurelius to get chores done or something.

  The second had been a little more intense, with Sage Yeltz making Aurelius use magic to levitate the wooden office chair for as long as he could manage.

  He had lasted around 45 minutes in the last session before the sage dismissed him in her usual foul mood.

  45 minutes were around average for a novice mage like Aurelius, but Sage Yeltz seemed rather unimpressed and even a little horrified when she peeked at him over her stacks of paper and found Aurelius sprawled on the ground in exhaustion.

  She used magic to levitate and dump Aurelius right out of the office after realising that Aurelius had really reached his limit, for which Aurleius had felt… less offended as he should have. This was the result of his delight at the end of the session overriding the rude disregard his mentor had for him.

  Overall, Aurelius wasn’t sure if he would gain anything from Sage Yeltz given her rather… off-handed approach to… ‘teaching’.

  Aurelius fell into thought about what he would do in the next loop. Currently, he saw no value in the Academy and the Commission in their ability to enhance his capabilities and to grant him ‘protection’. He was more and more towards a loop away from all of this… madness, where he would relax until he died perhaps of… old age.

  These thoughts swirled in his mind as he knocked on the simple office door of Ms. Yeltz, his mentor.

  ???

  As he entered, Aurelius saw that Sage Yeltz had left her desk and comfortable cushioned chair behind to sit in one of the short couches in the office.

  Her tall stature made the small couch feel even smaller, as she gestured impatiently for Aurelius to take his seat across from her.

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  She had, as always, a cup of coffee accompanying her in her hand, and was reading a file of what Aurelius assumed were Commission related paperwork. Even more papers were stacked on her actual desk, and the coffee table in front of her had 2 small stacks neatly placed upon them.

  “Good afternoon Ms. Yeltz.” Aurelius greeted courteously, gingerly taking a seat across from her.

  He kept his mind blank, as he desperately looked past the sage at the neatly lined bookshelf, as he tried to make out their respective titles.

  “Yes, yes. Good afternoon boy.” The sage returned, her face shrouded by a cloud of impatience.

  “We had 2 sessions so far, and I wanted to observe your magical capabilities and endurance through the two simple exercises.”

  “And much to my absolute bloody horror, you are by far the most hopeless mage that I’ve ever seen.”

  “It seems that these magic Academies are useless as EVER in nurturing mages of the future. In fact, I would go even as far to say it’s actively detrimental! Since you’ve spent 3 years in this damned institution only to get THIS FAR in your basic magic!”

  Aurelius winced at this statement, as it hit a little too close to home.

  “Your bestowal, on the other hand, clearly suggested that the Lost God has seen SOME sort of potential in you that I’m unable to pry into.”

  “That’s why I got the Commission to even use some of our resources to divine your future!”

  “AND GUESS WHAT? It was just a BUNCH of death! You’re almost definitely DESTINED to die! Truly the only notable thing about the divination results WERE the images of the Lost God!”

  “Of course I can’t possibly hope to get clear glimpses of the future relying on the commission division of diviners, especially with the anti-divination measures cast on you. BUT I can’t shake the feeling that you will just be a case of wasted effort.”

  “NEVERTHLESS. I have been given a job. An annoying, thankless job, but a job regardless. And that is to teach you to bring out the potential of your soul blueprint.”

  “We will take today’s session to understand your situation. Your soul blueprint is quite unique given that it seems to be guiding you towards a form suitable for the spirit realm rather than the material plane.”

  “Let me explain.” She lectured impatiently as she noted Aurelius’s lost expression.

  “The carvings of mortal mages allow for a simplified but more specialised form of mana channeling and manipulation with our souls.”

  “However, the spirits are more dynamic in their abilities. They’re mana entities and magic is a natural consequence of their ‘movements’.”

  “This allows for a vaster array of spells and more powerful spells as a consequence of the ease of casting.”

  “They’re basically able to fit more into the same ‘area’ of soul.”

  “However, the shapes of spirits cannot be normally attained by humans, since it takes a long long time for us to attain the soul shapes that we desire given that we must mold it.”

  “Therefore, the basis of your mastery of the blueprint would be a breakdown of the fundamental shapes and layers hidden within your shape.”

  “That means that we must do an extra step of work, not normally present in the soul blueprints we usually find.”

  “And I am here to assist you with the process.”

  “Even I am not entirely sure of what your soul will be capable of in terms of elemental mastery yet. But I’m quite sure that if you achieve even a fraction of the capacity that shape has, you will attain power beyond even me.”

  With this announcement, she slid one of the 2 stacks of paper over to Aurelius’s dumbfounded face.

  “Get reading.” She commanded.