Rebirth of the Phoenix God

"I hope that she explained everything you wanted to know."

After what seemed like an eternal struggle of switching his focus between Keisha's eyes and the meaning of her words, the two of them finally had to leave the place in order to return for the next part of the lessons. And it just so happened that as they were making their way through the hedge labyrinth, they bumped into Stiel!

"Yes, sir. Most of my doubts were clarified, and now I believe I'm fully prepared to partake in your lessons."

Reporting in the most official and formal way that Fen could create in his mind, the young man bowed. Only to suddenly straighten himself up when he heard a silent giggle from his side and a burst of open laughter from the front.

"Seriously… You need to change that attitude or everyone will make use of you!"

Only after finally managing to come to his senses did Stiel utter those words. Reaching with his hand forward, he patted Fen's shoulder with his eyes still wet from the tears he dropped while laughing.

"Anyway. That's good to hear. It seems that pairing you with Kaisha was a good idea. Don't worry, she is a good girl."

Sending a quick wink to the young man, Stiel couldn't confuse Fen more. What pairing? Why was it important whether she was a good girl? What the heck was the meaning of this?

Sadly, the young arcanist apprentice wasn't given any time to ponder over the answer, as with the topic ending, the three of them rushed towards the class. While being late as a student would only mean losing on the valuable lesson times, doing so as the teacher would be considered gross misconduct!

"Welcome again, everyone. Take your seats now."

As soon as the trio arrived in the same clearing where Fen's adventure with education started, the place was already filled with the remaining six of the students. While some of them send clearly threatening looks to Kaisha, due to the teacher's order, no one dared to openly misbehave.

"Since this will be our first real lesson, let's start with the absolute basics. If you need to note it down, let's go with 'How to form a core' for today's lesson topic."

Taking a quick glance around himself, Fen couldn't help but notice that every single student beside him, pulled out some kind of papers and started scribbling some strange marks on it. Living his entire life in a rural village, he never got the chance to learn either writing or reading, yet, that didn't mean he would be at the disadvantage!

All the years of training under his deceased master's keen eye, along with the real experiences he had in the forest allowed him to develop certain ways of saving crucial information for himself.

Rather than wasting the time on attempting to learn how to write and read on the spot, Fen simply immersed himself in his thoughts. After a short moment, an enormous castle formed in his mind, with clear paths extending to all the directions of this illusory world. Since this was a creation of his mind alone, nothing stopped him from just appearing in the middle of this monumental building, but he still imagined taking every single step on the path that led him to the main gate!

Despite how detailed the picture was from the moment it finally formed, the closer the young man got to the insides of the fortress, everything seemed to turn even more vibrant, even more realistic. By the time his mind's projection appeared in a huge library housed within this imaginary castle, anyone else would find it troublesome to discern this imaginary world from the reality!

"How can I be of your service?"

Stepping from a shadowy corner of the place, a strange-looking, full set of armour came out before nodding its head to the master.

"Bring a new recorder for me."

Still immersed in his mind, Fen ordered this strange machine. As soon as it received its order, it disappeared back into its own corner while the sound of the pieces of metal clanging against each other continued to resound in Fen's mind.

"Awaiting your order, sir."

Just a quick moment later, a plain-looking man, dressed in nothing but plain white pants and a long shirt of the same colour appeared in front of Fen's mind projection.

"Record the words. Topic, how to form a core."

As soon as Fen's avatar's lips stopped moving, he instantly shook his head, returning from that immersive imagined world back to reality. Despite how long the entire interaction took in his mind, only a few seconds passed since Stiel started his lecture.

"At first, I need to make sure you all understand one, important point. Some will be able to form a core nearly on the spot, some will need a few days to do so, and some of you might face this hurdle even for several months. It has nothing to do with one's talent, wisdom, intelligence or looks. That's why, if I see anyone trying to flex about how quick he was to form it, or put others down because of how long they require to do the same, then it will be the last time I will see that person in my classes. Is that understood?"

Out of nowhere, Stiel's disposition changed from a sympathetic teacher, back to the furious figure Fen saw when he first entered the place. Only after this middle-aged man made sure that every single one of his students understood the message, did he return to his usual self.

"To form a core, you need to understand three things. While the name of this technique might make you think that the core is something solid, a part of your body, that's just a misconception. Even if no one ever told you this, I'm sure you have played around your talent for long enough to realise that even if you support yourself with an external source of the fire, you won't be able to hold more of it or control a fire stronger than your talent would usually allow. This is what we call endurance."

With just a simple swipe of his hand, Stiel created a multi-coloured fire, forming it into a shape of a board, marked with some kinds of glyphs.

"Outside of the endurance, there is potential. Just like the previous aspect, it's strictly bound to your talent. Just to make things easier, let's consider all the parts of the flame, from its density, through how hot it is all the way to its size to be just different sides of the general strength of your fire. In short words, your potential defines what is the limit your fires strength."

Pacing around the small part of the clearing that was free from the student benches, Stiel once again swung his hand, creating even more glyphs on his fire board. At the same time, whenever a new piece of information would appear, Fen would immerse himself back to the image of his castle, diligently repeating the words he heard to the recorder he imagined.

"I can already see a few confused faces. Nataniel, what is on your mind?"

Rather than pressing forward with his lesson, Stiel actually took notice of how some of the students had clearly some problems with understanding his lecture. Yet, rather than lashing on them for their inability to understand those simple things, this middle-aged man only smiled and actually encouraged one of the male students to stand up and convey his doubts!

"Sir, if the endurance refers to our ability to handle fires of a certain strength, and potential is about our ability to create fires of certain strength… Does that mean that our endurance and potential can differ?"

Starting with a shaky voice, this Nataniel guy quickly regained his confidence seeing how the encouraging smile didn't disappear from his teacher's mouth.

"This is actually one of the best questions you could ask! Great job!"

Instantly flaring up and praising the man, Stiel clearly got excited. At this moment, Fen understood one thing. This man was a true teacher. Someone who enjoyed both to convey the knowledge to his students, but first and foremost, revelled in their actual growth and initiative!

"At this point, I have to admit. Your endurance and potential are absolutely the same. From what I heard, this way of explaining things might be soon forbidden, as it might be confusing for the new apprentices. Thankfully, the decision was not made yet, so I can still teach it, as it can bring immense benefits when you reach a certain point of your growth!"

Suddenly stopping his journey from one end of the free space in the clearing to another, Stiel turned serious.

"For now, it's better if you just consider your potential to be the ability to create the flames and your endurance to be your ability to sustain those flames. But as I mentioned before, there is one more important thing you need to master. And it's called control."

After conveying this message, Stiel once again picked up his pace, making it slightly hard for Fen to follow the teacher's movements with his eyes due to how focused he had to be in order to invoke that memory castle of his.

"To not make it any longer than necessary, your control is the ability to balance your potential and endurance. It is the part of the skills that I will teach you, that allows an arcanist to freely bend his own flames to his will!"

This time, rather than swinging his hand, Stiel simply snapped his fingers. As if this sound was a trigger, the entire board made form his flames suddenly condensed, turning into a whip that coiled around teacher's left arm.

"For those who are worried about their talent, let me tell you a piece of good news. Your bloodline purity has absolutely nothing to do with how far you can come in terms of your control!"