The Bountiful Magic Academy’s training ground was vast, equipped with various terrains including grasslands, forests, wastelands, and deserts—all designed to train students in casting Bountiful Magic across different environments.
As the weakest type of magic, Bountiful Magic had restrictions on where it could be cast. In barren areas, it could even become difficult to unleash.
Loren had now brought the group to the wasteland. These students were no longer juniors; they could handle a bit more intensity.
“Show me a spell first. Paqina, you go first.”
“Okay...”
At Loren’s signal, Paqina stepped forward. Facing the target on the field, she condensed mana, chanted, prayed, and released—all in one smooth motion. The target was quickly entangled by a mass of thorny vines, and the wooden target was violently torn apart by the thorns.
If a person had been standing there, their fate would have been even worse.
“Third-tier magic, Thorn Entanglement. Your casting speed is indeed much faster than the others...”
Loren directed a few noble students to bring him a chair. Now seated with Movila cradled in his arms, he looked thoroughly at ease as he casually commented on Paqina.
“The rest of you, give it a try too.”
While instructing the others, Loren had already figured out how he would teach them next.
The Orthodox Church’s magic all followed the same procedure: first condense mana, then shape the spell through chanting, then pray to the Orthodox Gods for permission to release the magic, and finally, after completing this entire sequence, successfully cast the spell.
As a result, Orthodox magic was never efficient in its release. This was exactly why Eldrin had desperately pursued Crimson Magic before—Crimson Magic didn’t require prayer.
If the steps weren’t reduced, modifying a spell was actually quite fast. The most troublesome part was eliminating the prayer step.
After a few more students had attempted the spell, Loren had already finished improving it.
Loren could freely teach these students these spells without concern. As long as they still needed to pray, their casting speed would never surpass that of Witches, who didn’t require prayer. So even if Loren taught them, they wouldn’t pose a threat.
“Alright, you there—come over here. Everyone else, gather around.”
Loren pointed at the girl who had been actively answering questions in class earlier, signaling for her to approach. She had just finished casting her spell—though not as fast as Paqina, she was still the fastest among the rest of the students.
That was why Loren chose to teach her the new method first. He hadn’t called on Paqina because he had already prepared a Witch-exclusive version of the spell for her.
The space around Loren was limited, and everyone was scrambling to get closer. They all knew just how valuable what Loren was about to say would be—claiming each word was worth a gold coin wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Paqina easily squeezed her way next to Loren. Everyone had seen Loren pat her head earlier and knew she was his favorite, so none of them dared to push her aside.
“I’ll explain the simplified version of Thorn Entanglement. This is a pretty useful offensive tool, so I chose to simplify this spell...”
They knew whatever Loren was about to say would be important, but they hadn’t expected it to be this incredible. The students wished they could memorize every single word, just like Paqina.
After Loren finished speaking, most of them felt completely lost—they hadn’t quite understood it. Only Paqina’s eyes lit up, as if she were telling Loren, “You can do that?”
Meanwhile, Luna was standing outside the crowd, and Jessica was getting anxious watching her:
“Why aren’t you going to listen too?”
“Master Mentor has already taught me an even better method in private. There’s no need for me to join the crowd...”
“You really...”
Jessica shook her head with a look of frustration. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease. You noticed it back at Master Mentor’s house, didn’t you? Even though they have the same status, Anna, who knows how to act spoiled, gets Master Mentor’s attention far more easily than Naclis, who doesn’t...”
“Isn’t that just because Anna is younger?”
“Of course not. In Master Mentor’s eyes, the age gap between two ordinary humans like Naclis and Anna is barely noticeable. It’s simply because Naclis is too shy to act spoiled...”
Luna nodded with a vague understanding. She realized that her friend seemed to have a real talent in some areas.
But it was already too late—Loren had finished teaching the spell. Even though many students hadn’t understood it, they didn’t dare to ask him again and could only discuss it among themselves.
By now, Paqina had already begun practicing. She had learned Loren’s method after just one hearing, and this time her spell was nearly instant, stunning the other students.
Loren nodded approvingly. Paqina was truly a genius. If Loren taught her the Witch-exclusive method, she would have considerable combat power relying solely on magic—and that wasn’t even considering her Arcane Ability.
But Loren still didn’t know what Paqina’s Arcane Ability was. Still, there was no rush.
While the other students busied themselves with practicing, Luna sidled up to Loren:
“Master Mentor, I didn’t catch what you just said...”
“That’s fine, you don’t need to. I’ve already taught you a simpler method.”
Loren casually reached out and patted Luna’s hair. He wasn’t good at communicating with girls—the girl he’d talked to most in the past was Sylphy—so the only thing he’d learned was head pats.
But judging by the happy expression on Luna’s face after he patted her head, this move seemed to work well enough.
The remaining time was spent watching the others practice. Before class ended, finally another person succeeded—the girl who was very active in answering questions.
“Alright, I’m heading back. You all keep practicing.
“Paqina, come with me to the office.”
Loren yawned and stood up from the chair. Movila, nestled in his arms, flew up to perch on his shoulder.
Today, Loren planned to teach Paqina the Witch-exclusive version of the spell, saving her the trouble of wasting time practicing other spells.
As Paqina followed Loren away, the other students wore expressions of envy.
“Why does Master Mentor like Paqina so much? He’s even giving her extra lessons before leaving...”
A few classmates voiced their confusion, and soon someone answered—the girl who had been the second to successfully cast the spell:
“Maybe Master Mentor looked at the grade records before coming. Paqina is ranked first in our class, far ahead of the second place...”
The girl clenched her fists and began practicing even harder. Even though her mana had run dry, she continued rehearsing her chants and prayers.
Hearing the girl’s words, the others felt relieved and resumed their own practice.
Meanwhile, Casper, who had been waiting for the class to end all along, humbly trailed behind Loren.
