A True Genius Worries

by Sophia Schmidt

  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