Going back to the academy felt a bit odd to Lith.

He didn't like being there, always forced to hide his true abilities while keeping the Ballot at hand.

After discovering that Warden's arrays could seal off dimensional items, he didn't feel safe storing it in the pocket dimension, so he took it out whenever he was going out of his room or of a cla.s.sroom.

Lith had decided to enrol into the academy because he hoped to h.o.a.rd knowledge and connections with powerful people, but so far only the former was proceeding smoothly.

Between the Specialization courses and the library, from which he never stopped borrowing and copying material, his magical knowledge was ever expanding.

As for the connections though, he was still at square one. Climbing the social ladder had proved to be impossible. The only choices were to either submit to a young lord/miss and become their gofer or get a Ballot and be isolated.

- "It was already bad before, but now I have lost even what little company I had. I knew that getting all emotional with a bunch of kids was a bad move. It's just you and me, Solus. What's worse is that without Quylla's help, mastering dimensional magic will be much more difficult."–

It was one of those rare times when Solus didn't know what to say. On one hand, she wanted to scold Lith for considering his companions like tools instead of people, but on the other one she was glad to see him back to his uncaring self.

It had been her pus.h.i.+ng Lith to open up and share his burden. Now that it had backfired, Solus couldn't help feeling partially responsible for the break up. At least with his cold att.i.tude Lith would avoid further suffering.

That was one of the many reasons why she was really surprised when someone knocked on the door of Lith's room, and even more when they discovered it wasn't a clerk sent to deliver the new books.

It was Yurial.

"Hi Lith, can I come in?"

Lith opened the door letting him inside, while noticing that Yurial didn't seem to be in good shape. He looked emaciated, paler than the last time Lith had seen him and had lost a few kilograms.

"I don't know what the girls have in mind, but I prefer this talk to be private. I'm afraid I am not as good as you at public speaking." Yurial sighed, looking around the room like he was searching for something other than the courage he needed to say what had to be said.

"I thought a lot about what you told me. I'm not talking only about the part concerning how to face my current hurdle, but about everything we rubbed in each other's face.

"You were right, I didn't approach you looking for a friend, but I was really happy when I thought I had found one. You were also right about my apology. The only time I did it I wasn't sincere. I was just trying to rope you into my group to make my life easier at your expense."

Yurial spoke while looking Lith in the eyes, his hands tightly clenched.

"I have changed, though. Everything we went through together turned me into a different person. Someone that maybe is a little too reliant on tranquiliser potions, but still someone I believe is a better person than who I was before."

Yurial extended his right hand towards Lith.

"Hi, I'm Yurial Deirus and I'm a murderer. I'm really sorry for what I did to you guys on the first day of academy. I treated you as a second rate person and Quylla as a pet. I am sorry for having always taken you guys for granted until it was too late.

I may be a little stuck up, but I'd really like to be your friend."

Lith smiled, shaking hands.

"Apologies accepted. We can't change the past, but we can learn from it and not repeat our previous mistakes. Since we got ourselves a second chance, we should do our best to not waste it."

- "Are you serious?" Solus was flabbergasted by the turn of events.

"Yes. I too tried to manipulate them all for my own gain, so I can't blame him for playing the same game. Since I'm trying to change too, maybe we can help each other.

"I consider him on probation though. Talking is always cheap, Yurial has to prove with his actions to have really matured, otherwise it would be like trusting a new year's resolution at face value."–

Yurial was so happy that his face regained colour, turning the handshake into a hug.

"Thanks, man. I was really worried that you would just kick me out of your room. I've really been a sh*tty friend so far."

Lith patted Yurial's back, waiting a couple of seconds before escaping the embrace.

"You and me both Yurial. I should have called you earlier."

The sound of the first gong forced them to hurry towards the compulsory courses' cla.s.s, they had only fifteen minutes before the start of the lessons. Using Warp Steps inside the academy was impossible, so they had to fly.

At their arrival, the girls had already taken their seats, keeping a couple of empty ones for their missing companions. Lith was happy to see all of them smile at him, yet it left him wondering why they had never contacted him in the previous days.

When the second gong resounded, Professor Nalear entered the cla.s.sroom. Lith couldn't help but think that she had gotten even more beautiful, but his heart was at peace now.

- "If only I was ten years older."– He sighed, relinquis.h.i.+ng once and for all his romantic dreams about her.

"Welcome back, boys and girls. I'm glad to see that so many of you managed to pa.s.s the second trimester. This year's promotion rate is way higher compared to previous years and that's good.

"Yet many of you have seen their grades drop compared to the first trimester, and that's bad. So I expect for you to work extra hard to make up for the lost time. Remember, perseverance and hard work are what real talent is made of."

The cla.s.s gave her a short round of applause for her kind words, to which she responded with a small bow.

"Let's get started. Today I'm not here to teach you Principles of Advanced Magic. We are done with that subject, at least for the fourth year. What I am going to introduce to you, is something that every mage must know, since it's part of our everyday life.

"I'm talking about mana crystals. You have already seen them plenty of times, but probably you never stopped asking yourselves what they are. At the academy there are mana crystals embedded in the tables of the canteen, at the prize hall, basically everywhere.

"Mana crystals light every room, provide fresh air where there aren't windows and running water in your showers and toilets. Everything in the academy relies on mana crystals to work.

"During this cla.s.s, I'll teach you what mana crystals are, how to find them and most importantly how to use them. In their raw form they are just pretty, s.h.i.+ny stones. It takes a mage to refine them and harness their power, turning them into all purpose tools.

"No specialization is needed to become a Crystalsmith. Any one of you can become one as long as you have patience, precision and steady hands. I'd add it's a well paid job, but I never heard of an alumnus struggling with money issues. All mages' jobs are good jobs."

The eyes of the students that had no specialization or that had flunked them already lit up with greed.

"First of all, what are they? Mana crystals are naturally formed minerals which hold an amazing quant.i.ty of magical power. How they form is still a mystery, we only know that usually they can be found in precise spots where wildlife thrives the most."

- "They really have no idea the world is filled with magic power." Lith thought. "Probably those spots she is talking about are like the mana geyser we use for your tower form, Solus. If I'm right, the world energy crystalizes over time into mana crystals.

This means that with your mana sense we can find them easily and get filthy rich."

"Sorry to burst your bubble…" Solus said.

"… but both the mana geysers we know of have been squeezed dry by Abominations. I doubt they left anything behind."–

Lith's dreams of wealth shattered, right when Nalear gave him another piece of bad news.

"Only the poor quality ones can be found in forests, woods or oases. To get to the motherlode, one needs to go digging quite a bit. We don't know if magical beasts, plants or monsters use the crystals too, leaving behind only sc.r.a.ps.

"What we do know, is that mana crystal veins can be found underground and that usually the deeper you go, the better the quality."

- "It makes sense." Lith thought. "Probably plants and beasts consume them to enhance their cores, or maybe they naturally absorb the world energy for triggering their evolution and that prevents high quality crystals from forming.

"Below the ground though, the world energy not only should be more abundant but also unused, so it can acc.u.mulate over time forming the veins. It's like a bank for unspent energy."–

"A mana crystal's purity can be easily a.s.sessed by its colour."

From her dimensional amulet, Nalear took out eight crystals perfectly cut like a precious gem. Each one was the size of her first.

"As you can see, worst to best are red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet and white."

Lith almost couldn't believe his eyes. Mana crystals quality grade was identical to the one for mana cores, but with one exception.

- "A white one? Does this mean that white mana cores actually exist?"