"The ingredients don't restore the balance by simply countering the elemental energies during the enchanting process, they actually pass their pseudo cores. This means that multiple enchantments require multiple pseudo cores coexisting in the same item."–
Lith was still studying the phenomenon, pondering if a living body could hold multiple cores too, when Invigoration suddenly stopped working. Wanemyre had taken the sword back.
"You must really love swords to get so lost in thought by simply holding one."
"You are right, sorry." Lith realized he had spaced out for over a minute.
"Go back to your seat and rest. You'll need all your strength before attempting the spell on your own." She ruffled his hair, making him feel like a dog again.
"You used my Frost Dew." Lith was confused.
"How am I supposed to perform the spell without one?"
"Don't worry, I got it covered." She handed him a Frost Dew emitting such a faint glow to seem just a cheap knock off of the one Wanemyre had consumed.
"Why do you give me that funny look?" She scolded Lith.
"It would have been a crime against magic to let such a perfectly purified natural treasure go to waste during a test run. No one will miss this one, instead."
Lith had many things to say, but was smart enough to keep them for himself. Wanemyre was an excellent Professor and their relationship was good. There was no reason to ruin everything over a single ingredient.
After a few minutes, the students completed the second step and were ready to try out the new magic circle. Wanemyre took away properly cleansed Frost Dews from a few other students too, assigning them points accordingly to the purity level reached, before replacing them with mediocre counterparts.
The ones that did a poor job could keep their flowers, making them grit their teeth with frustration.
Wanemyre handed out to each student an unremarkable iron dagger that couldn't be worth more than a silver coin. Clearly, she wasn't expecting them to succeed.
For a good reason, though.
"Don't worry if you fail. In my experience, infusing elemental properties is much harder than Forgemastering a neutral item. It takes a few tries to handle so many spells and two kinds of energies at once. Only special talents, like me, succeed at the first try."
She puffed her chest with pride, making her ample bosom stand out even more.
- "Thank heavens with her personality she has zero charm, otherwise I would have a new crush already."– Lith thought.
One after the other, his classmates tried and failed. Most botched the procedure during the last steps, making the dagger shatter like glass. Only a few managed to screw up during the initial steps, losing their chanting rhythm and receiving extra homework as punishment.
Having helped the Professor earlier, Lith and the red headed girl were last, to give them time to rest.
Remembering so many magic words and hand signs was hard. Even if he had them stored in Soluspedia, his hands couldn't afford to stumble, his tongue to stutter or miss even a single accent.
That was why every time a student performed their experiment, Lith would chant alongside them, using that time to practice rather than to relax. When Lith's turn came, he was ready. He had even used Invigoration to be at peak condition.
The words rolled off Lith's tongue, his hands moved non stop forming signs and magic seals. Controlling the energy flows was definitely the easiest part for him. With true magic he was used to weaving even six elements at a time, manipulating just two of them was child play, allowing him to focus on the rest of the incantation.
During the last spell, the red and blue sphere clashed violently compared to Wanemyre's execution, emitting a blinding light when they attempted to fuse with the dagger.
"Another failure." Wanemyre sighed. "Too bad, that was really close. Twenty points for an excellent first attempt."
Then the dagger fell on the table, piercing through it until only the hilt was visible.
"Good gods, I was wrong. It's a success!" Wanemyre hugged Lith too close for his comfort, kissing his forehead with excitement.
"Finally a promising rival!"
"I did it." Was all that Lith managed to say. He was so used to failure that success was the most shocking thing that could happen to him.
- "I told you so! You do have talent."– Solus rejoiced.
Wanemyre took the dagger out of the stone table, holding it like it was a treasure.
"Who cares about the sword, this is much more important." Wanemyre took out from her dimensional amulet a golden liquid, inscribing on the surface of the blade Lith's name, the date, and her name before handing it to him.
"Raise that twenty points to fifty. It's no attempt, it's a success." She screamed almost deafening the clerk on the other side of the communication amulet.