Professor Marth was a man around forty years old, about 1.78 meters (5'10") high, with thick blonde hair. Aside from his goatee, his face was perfectly shaven, revealing a calm and youthful appearance.
Judging from the bags under his eyes and the slouching posture, it was evident that he lacked sleep. It was no wonder that he had asked Professor Vastor to stand in for him.
When he saw the students, he straightened up, smiling at the small crowd.
"Gladly, dear colleague. Sorry to have missed our appointment, kids. Since Professor Manohar returned, things have been hectic, there's a lot he needs to catch up with."
The class made a small bow, accepting his apologies, eager to learn from one of the two most famous heads of the White Griffon light department.
"First of all, the impossibility to regrow limbs or organs is a common misconception. The human body actually has such capabilities, but they are normally dormant. To temporarily awoke them, is necessary a huge amount of energy.
We are talking about so much mana, that is impossible for a single mage to perform the spell alone. Usually the procedure requires two teams. The first one to perform the spell, setting the regeneration process in motion.
The second one, instead, has to give energy to the patient for him to survive. Otherwise, the strain from growing a full limb in a matter of minutes would drain his body of all the nutrients, killing him on the spot.
Most organs are even trickier, since time is of the utmost importance. A single mage can regenerate small ones like kidneys, but bigger or vital organs usually require too much energy. It's best for a lone mage to keep the vitals stable while calling for help."
- "Interesting." Lith thought. "Based on the little I know, maybe the large mana expenditure is due to the fact that what they actually do without knowing it, is collecting and stimulating adult stem cells in the patient's body.
That or in this world they have a healing factor, but I highly doubt it.
If I am right, with true magic I could do all by myself, but it would take days if not weeks. The on/off nature of fake magic, makes things too hard for both the healer and the patient. True magic, instead, allows to divide things by steps, like I did for Tista." -
Professor Marth continued.
"You are in for a treat, since I was just to about to start growing captain Zarran a new right arm."
The soldier smiled awkwardly, he wasn't feeling like a market horse anymore, more like a lab rat.
"The first step is to take in consideration the sex and the build of the patient, then choose the best limb template at our disposal."
"Template?" Lith echoed dumbstruck, drawing on himself reproachful looks from his peers.
"Yes, template. We can't allow the new limb to grow endlessly, the spell needs specific measurements to work properly."
An assistant brought to Marth a cart full of wooden arms, that the Professor compared to the remaining limb, searching for the most similar one.
"Each of these models corresponds to a different spell. Here at the White Griffon we have the biggest archive of regenerating spells of all the Kingdom. I like to think that in part is thanks to my work."
After choosing the best fit, Professor Marth called the rest of the team via his communicator amulet, forming two teams of three mages each.
"Technically, two mages per group should be enough." He explained. "The third one is to be sure that everything goes fine. This is no warzone, there is no need of taking unnecessary risks."
Both the spells took only a few seconds to cast, the new arm started to grow back at an amazing rate. After about half an hour, the new limb was completely formed. The class exploded into an applause, all the medical staff accepted it with a small bow.
Captain Zarran was crying out of joy, flexing his new fingers. He still couldn't believe it, in his eyes it was a miracle. He was a cripple no more, soon he would be able to resume active duty, instead of being locked behind a desk.
The only discordant note in all that joyous atmosphere was Lith. He was closely looking to both arms, noticing the differences. The real one was much more muscular, with a higher bone density plus the new one was even a little shorter.
He offered Zarran both his index fingers.
"Squeeze them as hard as you can."
After that test, he shook his head.
"Professor Marth, is it normal for the new arm to be so out of proportions and weak?"
He could see most of his classmates glaring or signalling him to shut up.
- "Morons." He inwardly sneered. "In any scientific field, researchers are always looking for curious people, that make questions and challenge the standard knowledge. They have no need for trained monkeys that just follow orders.
Without doubts there is no progress, only stagnation. Kids are so naïve." –
"Yes, it is. It will take a couple years of training and therapy, but after that, it should be as good as the old one. Good catch, is rare seeing someone so young showing such attention to the details, instead of pestering me to teach him some spell."
The praises made his classmates feel stupid as sheeps. Professor Vastor was giggling.
- "I knew it! Pure gold. Thank the gods for my knack." –
"Why? Is there something wrong? What would you do differently?" Marth asked.
Lith pondered for a while before replying. He could not believe that such opportunity would have presented itself right off the bat. All those years spent preparing to teach Tista healing magic, were about to get him an unexpected pay-off.
"Professor, I do not mean to be rude, but how much do you know about anatomy?"
Professor Marth tilted his head by the side, surprised by the apparently silly question.
"I know everything I need. The shape and position of the bones, what and where are the various organs, and so on. I'm a healer, not a doctor. I only need to know the necessary for magic to perform at its best."
Realizing how shallow was their knowledge, Lith understood that the use of magic must had slowed down, if not completely stopped, the scientific progress in the Kingdom. He wasn't disappointed, quite the contrary.
It just made what he had to offer even more precious.
Lith ripped off a blank page from his notebook and then used water magic to write down in detail one of his fake magic personal spells that he had created for Tista years ago.
"An image is worth a thousand words." He said handing the page to Professor Marth.
"Are you really willing to share your diagnostic spell with the academy and the Kingdom?" Professor Marth was dumbstruck, while Professor Vastor was pale as a ghost.
- "He can't be that dumb! Why the heck is he giving up such an advantage against his competitors? Can my knack have finally failed me?" He thought. –
"It's not a diagnostic spell." Lith explained. "It's something I created long ago to get a better understanding of the human body. I don't even use it anymore, but I think it could be critical to your research in this field."
Both the Professor sighed of relief, they both had seen too many talented youths so eager to please to make irreparable mistakes.
Full of curiosity, Professor Marth studied the spell. It was really easy, without a doubt a tier one spell.
"Done. Now?"
"Please, use it on the captain's original arm."
After performing the hands signs perfectly, Professor Marth said:
"Vinire Mark Urth!" Generating a small wisp of light, that on contact, enveloped the arm in a warm white light. Suddenly his mind received streams of information, that left him speechless.
The spell was an intentionally weaker, flawed and inaccurate version of what Lith was able to see thanks to Invigoration. The difference between the two were like heaven and earth.
The spell was incapable of showing injuries, to detect the mana flow or core or even the life force. To prevent Tista to accidentally stumble on true magic, Lith had made sure that everything was as he had planned.
It had no hint about any of those elements, the only way to add them to the spell, was rebuilding it from scratch and knowing already what to look for. Its purpose was to teach Lith's sister anatomy in detail, without dismembering humans, like he did.
As it was, Vinire Mark Urth did nothing more than show a fixed 3D imaging of the body part it was used on, giving the user a perfect understanding of the patient's body.
"This… This is…" Professor Marth was flabbergasted, considering all the possible applications of the spell.
"You see, If I were in your shoes, using this spell…"
"Hold that thought!" Marth cut him short, running away with the page clenched in his fist.
He returned after barely a minute, dragging another man from the arm, like a petulant child.
"No means no!" The dragged man screamed. "You cannot disturb me every time some stupid noble is about to die! Be it the King or his children, I don't care. If I spend another hour with all that paperwork, it will drive me crazy!"
"For the last time, no one is dying! Shut up and listen!"
Everyone was pointing to the new guy like he was some mythical beast.
- "Purple core! My money on him being Manohar." Solus yelled.
"Why do you keep trying to con me? What use do you have for money?" –
While Lith and Solus were having a mind-quarrel, Marth explained everything to Manohar, handing him the spell. After he performed it too, both Professors looked at Lith with eyes full of expectation.
Manohar was a man in his late twenties, with black hair and shades of silver. He was around 1.74 meters (5'9") meters high, with a slender build and a stubble at least three days old.
"Please, continue." Said Marth.
"As I was saying, I would use this spell before sending the most valuable soldiers to the front to be able to recreate their original limbs if necessity arises. That would avoid all the side effects of the spell that you just showed me.
Also, in cases like this one, I would take the information from the remaining arm and use it to generate a mirror image to replace the lost limb. The left and right limbs are not the same, but the result would still be much better than this one."
"And that is not all!" Manohar chimed in, a crazy light had appeared in his eyes.
"We could even devise a spell that's capable of taking that information by itself, and generate the limbs accordingly! We could finally throw away all those useless templates, using only one spell instead of many."
Everyone was shocked at the idea. Manohar often disappeared without notice or acted like a tantrumming child, but that kind of madness was the sign of the true genius. He had been able to see farther than the spell's creator in a matter of seconds.
Manohar took out his communicator amulet, opening the connection with the administrative department.
"What's your name, kid?" He asked.
"Lith from Lutia, sir."
"Ah! I should have known it! Finally, another smart mage to talk to. You have no idea how hard it is for me. Only Marth and a few others are able to have a proper conversation, everyone around here is so stupid!"
"Harrumph." A voice from the communicator amulet stopped his ramblings.
"Oh yes, I almost forgot. Points assignation for the student Lith from Lustria for sharing a tier one spell. 1000 points."
"1000 points?!" Repeated the male voice from the communicator amulet in disbelief.
"1000 points!?" Exclaimed almost all his classmates becoming green with envy.
"1000 points?" Asked both Lith and Quylla, that being for the first time in the academy had no idea if they were many or few.
"Yes, 1000 points! Is it so hard to understand?" Manohar was outraged by the academy having the gall to hire a clerk dumb or deaf if not both.
"I know it's too little…" He said apologetically to Lith.
"… but I can't give you more until I discuss it with the board. Also, you'll get compensation for each and every one of your suggestions. Good ideas are priceless in the research field. Be kind and graduate quickly.
I need more people like you and less idiots like this secretary, around these parts."
"Sir, the communication is still open." The clerk did a great job keeping his voice emotionless.
"I know it's open, you idiot. That why I'm telling you to get your ears fixed. I can't do nothing for your brain, but never give up hope. Magic advances every day by leap and bounds."
The clerk politely hanged up the call.
"How did you create this spell?" Marth interest was piqued. The idea was simple yet ground-breaking.
"He can save it for his biographer!" It was Manohar turn to drag Marth away by the arm. "To the paperwork, for the life on me! And then to the board! You do the talking, I don't speak stupids."
The gong resounded once more, marking the end of the lessons. After saying his goodbyes to Professor Vastor and to his three competitors, Lith walked away towards the Prize Hall.
Based on his understanding, it was time for a little shopping spree.