12 Teacher's Vow

Gaige was sitting in the lotus position inside his room, staring at the book and the potion container in front of him.

He was feeling a little conflicted. Not even a moment ago, he was silently bad-mouthing Teacher Way, only to get such expensive gifts handed to him.

He knew just how expensive the Bloodline Partial-Awakening potions were. He was a little suspicious about their quality, but he couldn't question the alchemy guild's certification attached to the container.

The cultivation method was what threw him for a loop. After reading through it, Gaige had a good idea that it was genuine. The methods and the insights in the book were top notch! As a son from a prominent clan, he had the opportunity to observe different cultivation methods. The nameless book before him was definitely new, but it was a specialised method and was perfectly tailored for him. To a frightening degree at that.

The information in some of the pages was so personal that even Gaige was surprised. Was Teacher Way spying on him?

Gaige quickly swivelled his head in place and put on a jacket to cover his body. He then closed the curtains and double-checked the locks on the door.

With a satisfied nod, he returned to face the two items.

Gaige's eyes reddened as tears threatened to burst out.

After his failure, a lot of bad things happened one after the other. Although his father didn't despise him, Gaige could see a hint of disappointment in his gaze. His mother, who was already averse to his presence, became even more disinclined. The worst part was that his childhood sweetheart, the person he was set to marry in the future, summarily cancelled the engagement. The emotional gut-punch turned into an unrelenting groin barrage when her family offered the marriage alliance to his elder brother.

He was thankful to Teacher Way for providing him with another opportunity. He vowed that even if the potion and the cultivation method didn't work, he would be forever grateful to him.

And then without a second thought, Gaige popped the stopper, brought the potion towards his lips, and drowned it with an audible gulp.

As the liquid descended his gullet, Gaige quickly returned to the lotus position and followed the instructions on the new cultivation method.

'The darkness swallows everything. It is endless and all-encompassing. To be one with darkness is to become a devourer of light…'

As he mentally chanted the mantra, he started to feel the familiar churning of mana inside his channels.

With a smile on his face, he continued. But after a while, the mana inside him started to become turbid.

Gaige frowned. It was happening again. He was preparing himself for the inevitable backlash. But contrary to his expectations, a new heat started to resonate from his core. It felt both scorching and soothing at the same time. It was as if a new body part was being added into his body forcefully, but it didn't feel foreign at all.

Gaige scrubbed his unnecessary thoughts and continued his cultivation.

The heat in his body started to spread with the mana in his channels. Following every circulation, the heat in his core started to subside, while a cooling sensation permeated through his body.

After a while, the instability inside Gaige started to settle. With one final circulation, everything returned to normal. Just as he opened his eyes, a surge rushed through his mana channels.

'I'm breaking into the middle stage!' Gaige exclaimed.

The surge burst out from the pores in his body causing his body temperature to lower slightly.

Once the dust settled Gaige stood up in place, his legs shivered in excitement.

'It worked!'

As he tried to circulate his mana once again, he didn't feel any obstructions, nor did he face any irregularities. In fact, the whole process felt much easier.

Gaige couldn't contain his glee and screamed out loudly, "YES!"

"Hey! Shut UP! People are trying to sleep here!"

____

It was now three weeks since Guy first started his delve into the academy's library. Over those weeks, he had exhausted all the books accessible to him.

He first went through all the available spellbooks. He listed down the most basic spells and had Markus try casting them. Unfortunately, none of them panned out.

Guy then went through the books on ritual formations. He wondered if he could boost Markus' mana capacity, or offer any casting cost reductions. While there were some options, none of them was sufficient to offer any substantial gains. Most of the boosting ritual formations were percentage-based, and would only amplify based on the individual's base capacity.

Exhausting those options, Guy apprehensively went through the books on alchemy. Guy was a little averse to this topic because he had a poor experience with toxic medications from his past life. After being pumped with deadly chemicals as part of his chemotherapy, he was a little jaded with alchemy as a whole.

According to the literature, alchemical potions were basically poisons that offset the damages they did to the body with the massive benefits they offered. Guy would not, in good conscience, subject an average Joe like Markus to such a torturous experience.

However, although he was reluctant, he still went through the alchemical books for any possible solutions.

There were none.

For the heck of it, Guy decided to look through the other books in the library holding on to a modicum of hope that there would be some hidden or obscure solutions. According to most of the novels he'd read, the main character always found some heavenly cheat in the last place anyone would look.

But the reality was a bitch!

All he gained from his fervent search were a bunch of books in his RoK, as well as empathetic looks from the librarian, Al Jeeves.

Al Jeeves was a Core Condensation realm mage who had been working in the Academy's library for over 50 years. In fact, he was overqualified for this position as a librarian since Al held 2-star licences in alchemy, painting and sculpting, smithing and runecrafting, cooking, as well as herbology. With such a foundation, earning a 2-star teaching licence or higher would have been a piece of cake. But Al didn't pursue that path and had settled after gaining the 1-star licence.

His main goal was to keep learning since his cultivation method was built upon the foundation of increasing one's knowledge. After realising that teaching and pushing his cultivation forward would conflict against each other, he decided to focus on the latter.

He was a highly renowned figure in Radiant City as well as the Solar Empire. He chose to settle in Radiant Academy because he wanted to work towards a beast-taming 2-star licence. Radiant City was close to Green-Sky Forest, which was home to a myriad of beasts - some that were rumoured to be in the Tesseract Formation realm, which was a realm higher than Core Condensation.

The closeness to such an abundant resource had sling-shotted the beast-taming guild's achievements in the city. Thus Radiant City became the unofficial Mecca for beast-tamers in the Solar Empire.

Over the past few weeks, Al and Guy had gotten really close. After observing the diligence with which Guy researched for his student, Al was greatly moved and did his best in helping Guy in his efforts.

Every evening, when Guy left the library, the old librarian would offer some consoling words and take him out for dinner. Before they parted ways, Al would always gently urge Guy to give up.

Noticing the exhausted Guy slouched over a book, Al slowly approached him and patted his back.

"Come on now, Guy. You've looked through everything. There's nothing that you can do to help your student," he said gently.

"Ah! Mr. Jeeves." Guy jolted up and rubbed his eyes.

With furrowed brows, Al handed Guy a cup of hot beverage. "Here, drink some of this!"

"Thank you for this, I really needed a pick me up!" Guy commented.

As Guy slowly drank the beverage, Al pulled over a seat and sat near him.

"You've looked through all the books Guy. There is no solution. There is nothing you can do. That child Markus just isn't meant to walk the mage's path," Al said while consoling Guy.

Guy carefully placed down the empty cup and smiled. "I get what you're saying Mr. Jeeves. But it isn't fair."

Al's ears twitched and his eyes darted to a spot directly behind Guy. But he quickly lowered his vigilance after confirming something.

Guy turned his seat to face Al and continued, "If we follow orthodox logic, then only the people talented enough to walk the mage's path are worthy to be invested in. Those that don't have the inherent talent should resign themselves to their lives.

But what about those that don't want to resign themselves to their fates? Is it right for us, as teachers to tell them to just give up? Tell them that 'life just isn't fair, deal with it!'?"

Guy's gaze turned serious as he declared confidently, "If the student is unwilling, then as a teacher it is my job to support them all the way. I promised Markus that I would find a way for him to advance, and I don't plan to give up."

Al smiled wryly while shaking his head. As he stood up to leave, he added, "Well, good luck. I'll keep an eye out for any good literature. Just don't exhaust yourself Guy…"

Guy was a little conflicted himself. He spoke all righteously and confidently, but deep down he was extremely burnt-out. He had essentially wasted 3 weeks!

With a long and dejected sign, Guy decided to turn towards Mast.

'Mast. Can you help a brother out?' Guy asked with a hint of expectation.

(I… can't,) Mast replied.