"I think studying at this academy is just a waste of your time. You might as well just come with me."
Hearing Loren's proposal, Paqina felt her heart stir with temptation, but she still had plenty of concerns.
In her eyes, she had only known Loren for a few days. Wouldn't it be too presumptuous to just leave with him?
Even if she was willing, she didn't think Loren's family would agree…
Loren realized this as well and changed his approach:
"For now, you can take me as your teacher. You can take your time thinking about everything else."
"Alright…"
This time, Paqina agreed without any burden. She answered without hesitation.
"I promised before that I'd teach you magic from other sequences, but then I ran into some things and broke my promise. I'll teach you now."
"So, what are you planning to do with the Langton family?"
Paqina was well-informed. She already knew what Loren had done yesterday.
But it was understandable. Although the Langton family's scale couldn't compare to the Chailros family, it was still considerable.
The commotion from exterminating an entire family wouldn't be small. Even commoners would know about it.
"I'll handle them according to the law."
Loren's answer was euphemistic. He wasn't wrong—after all, apostasy did warrant the extermination of a family, but never mind where the charge of apostasy came from.
"Luna, you oversee the other students. Paqina has already finished the content for this lesson in advance. I'm going to teach her something new separately."
Loren was openly giving Paqina special treatment, but no one dared to complain, nor should they. Loren had already done more than enough by being willing to teach them so much.
"Yes…"
Seeing that Loren was going to be alone with Paqina, Luna felt uneasy. She stared at Loren's retreating back, her emotions tangled.
"I'll keep an eye on things here. Go see what they're up to."
Jessica flashed a knowing expression and patted Luna on the shoulder.
Luna felt a surge of gratitude. After glancing at Jessica's firm gaze, she quickly followed behind Loren.
…
Loren took Paqina away simply because what he was about to say couldn't be overheard:
"What's the highest-tier spell you can currently use?"
Before officially starting the lesson, Loren first asked about Paqina's situation to tailor his teaching.
"In the past, I could at most cast fourth-tier magic. After learning your method, I successfully cast sixth-tier magic."
Being able to cast sixth-tier magic already made her a standout among mages. Even Eldrin, the former headmaster of the Gedlan Royal Magic Academy, mostly used sixth-tier magic at best.
Loren's method was indeed well-suited for witches, but being able to use sixth-tier magic so quickly also spoke to Paqina's talent.
"Is it that the highest you can use is sixth-tier magic, or that sixth-tier magic is the highest you currently have access to?"
Loren felt that Paqina's talent was likely even greater than she herself claimed, especially since she had cracked all the Abundant Magic he knew in just a few days.
"The only sixth-tier magic I know is what's in your notebook…"
Loren nodded. Now he had a clear picture of her situation. Calling her a genius was no longer enough—she was a complete monster.
This world was very strict about controlling magic. Ordinary people barely had access to any mid-tier spells, let alone high-tier ones.
"Now I'm going to teach you your first non-Abundance Sequence spell: Sin-Burning Flames."
A flame appeared in Loren's palm. His hand slowly approached Paqina. Out of fear, she instinctively wanted to dodge, but out of trust in Loren, she ultimately didn't move.
Loren pressed the Sin-Burning Flames directly onto Paqina's arm. Paqina felt nothing unusual.
"It's warm…"
"This is the sixth-tier spell Sin-Burning Flames. It deals damage based on the target's sins. If the target has no sins, it feels like this. It's a very useful offensive spell."
At the same time, Loren took the opportunity to test Paqina. It seemed she truly had no sins.
"Is this a Light and Fire Sequence spell?"
Paqina looked curiously at the flame in Loren's hand and asked.
She really did know quite a bit. Under the Church's influence, most people knew nothing about other gods except hostility.
"No, this is ancient magic. Ancient magic doesn't belong to any sequence."
Ancient magic was a classification Loren created himself. He called all magic that existed before the gods descended ancient magic.
Or, magic that hadn't been twisted by the gods—that was all ancient magic.
"Ancient magic?"
Paqina repeated this new term, feeling a surge of great interest.
Loren explained the definition of ancient magic to Paqina, but unfortunately, he didn't know much ancient magic himself.
This world's lockdown on magic was far too severe. Even magic from the Orthodox Gods' sequences was incredibly hard to obtain, let alone the deliberately erased ancient magic.
"Is there a way to get more ancient magic?"
"Some uninhabited secret realms might yield a bit of ancient magic, but there's also a more efficient method…"
When ancient magic came up, Loren thought of someone.
"What method?"
Paqina was also curious about the method Loren mentioned.
"The Dawn Princess's diary. She invented a lot of magic and wrote all her invented spells in her diary. As long as you can find the diary from the corresponding period, you can find ancient magic.
"But there's no need to obsess over ancient magic. Some modern magic was adapted from ancient magic. After we crack it, it's not much different from ancient magic anyway.
"In fact, Verdant Rapid Growth was a spell created by the Dawn Princess. Later, the God of Bountiful Harvest sealed it off…"
If there was any advantage to ancient magic, it was its diversity.
To take an obvious example, water—the most common magic element. Loren had never seen it because no god's authority was related to water. Water magic was all ancient magic, all sealed away.
The only water-related spell Loren had ever encountered was Abyssal Sea Collapse, which was super-tier magic.
"Alright, try casting Sin-Burning Flames now."
After hearing these stories, Paqina studied magic even more fervently. On her first attempt, she managed to produce a small flame. This was the first time Loren had personally witnessed just how outrageously talented she was.
After just a few tries, Paqina produced a stable flame. Loren couldn't help but applaud her:
"Your talent can only be described as monstrous. It took Luna a whole month to learn Sin-Burning Flames back then…
"Luna? What are you doing here?"
Just as he mentioned Luna, Loren spotted her following him. He didn't know if she had heard his recent remark about her.
Out of nowhere, Loren felt an ominous sense of a battlefield scenario.
