6th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

"He is a rare gem," mana danced in Alabaster's ear, carrying Flameax's whispered words. "Are you sure you're not being too hard on him? Maybe he needs a bit of acknowledgment, encouragement? Someone telling him he's special. That he's good."

If any of her wards had heard those words, Alabaster would have snorted and made a dismissive face, but free of audience, her features didn't even flicker in disagreement.

"Spare the rod, spoil the child," she sent to her old teammate just outside the barrier. "Frosty told me Newstar has a well-educated friend who seems to have taught him too much. Imperial cities are crawling with masters of theory at the third realm and lower, some even at the fourth, but what will the boy do once he hits the fifth, the sixth? Nobody's going to serve him neatly packaged information, and he won't know how to search for the answers he needs."

"A word of praise isn't lost." Flameax's sent words lacked emotion, but Alabaster knew he did not agree with her methods to the point of arguing. "He's fragile, too innocent."

"And that's why he needs to toughen up. He'll almost certainly choose the path of magma, but his will is too weak; he lacks the drive and determination. I fear he will burn himself before ascending high enough."

"Even if he makes all the wrong choices, that boy will rise higher than either of us—"

"If he doesn't kill himself. And what's so special about someone reaching the eighth realm and getting stuck there when they could have become a damn exalt? If anything, that makes us, his teachers, failures."

Flameax paused, and Alabaster could feel the unspoken accusation many of her peers had voiced. The kid wouldn't have been close to killing himself if she hadn't taught him things he wasn't supposed to know. Fortunately, those weren't Flameax's next words.

"Al, he's a child, not twenty years old. He's at the third realm and discovered tracing all on his own."

"And he used it to almost incinerate himself before forming even the embryonic stage of his traces." Alabaster's sending failed to convey the frustrated snap of her words.

Newt's accident annoyed her to no end. Encouraging a third realm student to reinvent a technique generally reserved for the fifth realmers or prodigies at the fourth realm was something most Explorer's Gate's champions labeled as reckless. Having it blow up in her face less than a day later only made the matter worse.

"Dual elementalists have it hard," Flameax sent, "even at the higher realms. He is lucky his combination is natural and sits well with his temperament. Unfortunately, our order lacks magma mageknights, even if we have some records—"

"Master," Newt snapped Alabaster out of the conversation she was having while overseeing his training. "Are we done for the day?"

"Yes. Well done, you managed to survive yet another day. After a whole moon of nothing but theory, Lord Flameax is burning with the desire to give his first practical lesson and check your talent for fire-related arts." Alabaster refused to back down. She was certain the boy in her care was spoiled and uneducated. What redeemed him were his willingness to learn, flexibility, and youth.

She wanted to berate her ward's parents and teachers, but deep down she knew that they were probably doing what they could at their level. The little bit of background check she did simply indicated that their clan had declined too much, sunk too low, and lost too much.

"I will see you tomorrow," Alabaster said, and moved at her regular speed, something most below the fifth realm could not follow with their limited senses.

"Wait," Flameax sent, "Lady Monsoon wishes to speak with you about her ward. She wants to set up a mission for them."

***

"Newstar, it's finally time for a real lesson." Lord Flameax grinned, taking Lady Alabaster's spot not a second after she had left.

Newt found their movement unnerving, and if the switch had happened while he was blinking, like it did once, it would have appeared like one champion transformed into the other.

Unaware of his musings, Lord Flameax started the important discussion. "Your defensive technique is unique, yet still effective. I shan't make any suggestions on how to modify it exactly, but I shall clarify several options we discussed before. But before I do that, I wish to know what exactly do you want out of it? What is your goal?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Newt thought about it. He recalled how he initially wanted to give Magmin Scales offensive capabilities, but he had grown past that childish thought. Defensive techniques were made for defense. The excursion in the Frostworm caves was a glaring confirmation of Dandelion's offhand comment back when they first discussed spells and magic.

"Magmin Scales are working as intended. The only changes I would like to make are the ones which would enhance the spell's current function. So, increasing the efficiency with which it counters temperature changes, stabilizing the effect at extreme temperatures, and reducing its mana cost so that I could use it longer."

Lord Flameax inclined his head. The answer hadn't changed in two weeks. "We can work on that later."

The tone made Newt's skin crawl. He had a feeling those improvements involved fire-attributed mana traces, and he was unwilling to experiment with those just yet. Sensing the awkward silence, Lord Flameax changed the topic.

"You should give this matter more thought. Until then, we shall start with your mobility spell. It has a lot of room for improvement, and you seem to favor using fire for movement, which is natural; earth is the least mobile element, while fire is second only to air. You are using bursts of hot air to move around while using currents of heated air could make you lighter. If you properly master the spell, you could achieve true flight at the later layers of the fourth realm. But even without flight, you can still enhance your land speed by liquifying whatever you are standing on and skating on the surface. You could combine this with earth, but I don't know how. Then, there's also heating the air ahead of you. It's less useful at your realm, but once you hit the sixth and walk at speeds mortal eyes can't match, it helps."

Lord Flameax continued explaining various changes Newt could consider before moving onto the offensive spell.

"You lack fine control." The champion tossed a manual towards Newt, signaling the start of the practical portion of their lesson.

"Here. This technique is useless in combat, but excellent for training precision."

Lord Flameax waited while Newt browsed the twenty-page booklet. The first page had an introduction to Flame Needle along with a drawing of a woman with a thin jet of flame rising from her outstretched finger.

Newt skimmed through the text, the declaration of the technique's purpose, the problems it was supposed to tackle, and finally the circulation method. He studied the two diagrams of mana flows and closed the book.

"The technique seems deceptively simple. Are you certain you have comprehended it?" Lord Flameax tried to keep his voice neutral and instructional, but Newt caught the doubtful tone.

"Fairly certain. I will first test it out in my realm, if you don't mind, teacher?"

"Please do." Lord Flameax gestured towards the ground, and Newt sat, closed his eyes and entered his realm.

Inside the calcified forest, Newt willed his mana to move, and a flame appeared above his finger.

The spell is almost identical to the one Dandelion forced me to discover, but it can keep itself stable with only a single flame.

He used the technique he had invented with his other index finger and observed the differences.

This Flame Needle is much smaller, two times shorter, and its volume is probably a tenth of my self-invented technique.

Newt tilted his head. The shapes are similar, but my version widens before narrowing. Meanwhile, Flame Needle is the widest at the tip of my finger. The amount of fire-attributed mana fueling them is similar, though. What does that mean?

Newt guessed that the greater concentration of mana made the new technique several times more powerful. I guess that's the difference between something polished for generations and something I made up in an afternoon. But if that's the case, why are Magmin's self-invented techniques still strong enough, and they seem to be growing stronger with nothing but extra mana fueling them?

Newt had several ideas about why that was the case. The theory he believed the likeliest was that manabeasts' techniques grew with their bodies, and since Newt's physique was improving along with his realm, the techniques progressed accordingly. His second guess was that due to their simplicity, the runic formations he was filling his realm with had greater impact on them. Or perhaps if the technique wasn't good, Magmin wouldn't have grown to become a dragon.

Newt dispelled his errant thoughts and dismissed the two techniques. He summoned the new version of Flame Needle five times before confirming he could conjure the flames without difficulty.

"Teacher," Newt said, opening his eyes. "How common is it for two techniques to bear the same name even if they are different?"

Newt originally thought of his technique as the Flame Needle, only to find someone else had their own similar yet different version.

"Depends on the name. Things like Flame Needle, Flaming Needle, Fire Fist, Fire Strike, and others, are fairly common names. The Golden Dragon Soars Into The Setting Sun is a fairly unique name for a technique. So, it depends on the technique's complexity and on how common the name sounds." Lord Flameax answered without the frowning and snorts that accompanied Lady Alabaster's answers to Newt's questions outside the scope of their lesson.

"Now, return to your realm, and then we can test your deductions."

"No need." Newt focused, conjuring a flame from his finger, much too big for the Flame Needle, but smaller than his original version. He frowned, dismissed the technique and re-conjured it. The flame was smaller, appearing more concentrated in Newt's mindcore, but still not quite there.

On the third try, he got it more or less the way he wanted it.

"Is this good enough, teacher?" Newt lifted his gaze to look at his teacher, who quickly regained control of his features.

"It's great! There's still room for improvement. Lessen the flow through…"

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