The Importance Of Status (2)

Professor Marth was a man around forty years old, about 1.78 meters (5'10") tall, 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 gave him a small bow, accepting his apologies. They were 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 awake them, it is necessary to use a huge amount of energy.

"We are talking about so much mana that it's 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 them to survive. Otherwise, the strain from growing a full limb in a matter of minutes would drain their body of all the nutrients, killing them on the spot.

"Most organs are even trickier since time is of the utmost importance. A single mage can regenerate small organs 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 the entire process 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, would allow the healer to divide things into steps as I did for Tista.'

 Professor Marth continued.

"You are in for a treat since I was just 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 into consideration the sex and the build of the patient, then choose the best limb template at our disposal."

"Template?" Lith echoed dumbstruck, drawing reproachful looks from his peers onto himself.

"Yes, template. We can't allow the new limb to grow endlessly. The spell requires specific measurements to work properly."

An assistant brought a cart full of wooden arms to Marth and the Professor compared them with the remaining limb, searching for the closest match.

"Each of these models corresponds to a different spell. Here at the White Griffon, we have the biggest archive of regeneration spells in all the Kingdom. I like to think that in part it is thanks to my work."

After choosing the best fit, Professor Marth called the rest of the team via his communication 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 and there is no need to take unnecessary risks."

Both the spells only took 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 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 stuck behind a desk.

The only discordant note in all that joyous atmosphere was Lith. He was closely looking at both arms, noting the differences. The real arm was more muscular, with a higher bone density, and was even a bit longer than the new replacement arm.

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 signaling for him to shut up.

'Morons.' Lith inwardly sneered. 'In any scientific field, researchers are always looking for curious people who ask 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 of years of training and therapy, but after that, it should be as good as the old one. Good catch, it's rare seeing someone so young showing such attention to details, instead of pestering me to teach him some spell."

The praise made his classmates feel as stupid as sheep. 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 an 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 to the side, surprised by the apparently silly question.

"I know everything I need. The shape and position of the bones, what and where the various organs are located, and so on. I'm a healer, not a doctor. I only need to know the basics for my magic to perform at its best."

Realizing how shallow their knowledge was, 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 in relief. They had seen too many talented youths so eager to please that they made 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 hand 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 was like heaven and earth.

The spell was incapable of showing injuries, detecting the mana flow or core, or even the patient's life force. To prevent Tista to accidentally stumbling onto true magic, Lith had made sure that everything was as he had planned.

It gave no hint about any of those elements, the only way to add them into the spell, was rebuilding it from scratch and knowing exactly what to look for already. Its purpose was to teach Lith's sister anatomy in detail, without dismembering humans, as Lith did.

As it was, Vinire Mark Urth did nothing more than show a fixed 3D image 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 by 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 is 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 highlighted throughout. He was around 1.74 meters (5'9") tall, with a slender build and 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 regenerate their original limbs if it becomes necessary. That would avoid all the side effects of the spell that you have just shown 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 child throwing a tantrum, but that kind of madness was the sign of a true genius. He had been able to see farther than the spell's creator in a matter of seconds.

Manohar took his communicator amulet out, 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. I can only have a proper conversation with Marth and a few others. 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. They had never been in an academy before, so neither of them had any idea if they were a lot of points or not.

"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 fewer 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's why I'm telling you to get your ears fixed. I can do nothing for your brain, but never give up hope. Magic advances every day by leaps and bounds."

The clerk politely hung up the call.

"How did you create this spell?" Marth's interest was piqued. The idea was simple yet ground-breaking.

"He can save it for his biographer!" It was Manohar's turn to drag Marth away by the arm. "To the paperwork, for the life of 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.