Supreme Magus

Chapter 3501: Shaky Foundations (Part 2)

”I see.” Lith nodded. ”But even with this knowledge, I still don’t see what we missed while we studied Creation Magic.”

”I was getting to that.” Menadion replied. ”First, I had to explain the why or you wouldn’t understand the how. Time for a simple exercise.”

She took two silver coins and two red crystals from the tower’s pocket dimension. Then she bonded them together before handing the coins to Lith and Solus.

”Why did you do that?” He asked in annoyance. ”You could have conjured the materials from the Workshop.”

”Because in that case you could have simply dispelled them and started over like you always did in the past.” Menadion said. ”If you keep doing the same thing, the result will always be the same, young man.”

”You could have at least let us study the coins before performing the bonding process.” Solus grumbled.

”If I did, I would have given you the starting and the ending point. I want you to study this problem from a completely new perspective hence you need to go in blind.” Menadion replied. ”Begin.”

Silver was the least among magical metals just like red crystals were the weakest. The task was too simple to be straightforward so Lith and Solus studied their respective coins with Invigoration before making any move.

’There’s nothing special about this.’ They thought, each on their own yet at the same time. ’The red crystal is so small and weak that it created a single mana vessel instead of a mana circulatory system. This is easy.’

They used the tier one Creation Magic spell, Dismantle, to undo Menadion’s work. Darkness magic eroded the contact points between the mana vessels and the metal, allowing light magic to draw the tendril of energy back into the crystal.

The inside of the coin was left with an internal scar that they removed by alternating pulses of darkness and light. The former scrambled the inside of the scar while the latter reorganized it until it matched the structure of the rest of the coin.

”Done.” They said in unison.

”Excellent.” Menadion had a wicked smile that didn’t bode well. ”Now exchange your coins and study them.”

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They did as instructed and the moment their breathing technique showed them the results of each other’s work, they grimaced.

”Well? What do you think?”

”No offense, Solus, but this is a sloppy job.” Lith said.

”No offense, Lith, but this is a patchwork at best.” Solus said.

”Wait, what did you say? Give that back.” They said in unison while returning the coins to their owner. ”Are you out of your mind? There is nothing wrong with it.”

”Children, stop. There’s no point arguing.” Menadion stopped them. ”I’ll be the judge of your work.”

She took both coins and examined them before saying:

”You are both right and you both did a poor job.”

”How is this possible?” Lith asked in confusion.

”We’ve done this countless times in the past. How could we never notice?” Solus couldn’t believe her own eyes.

”Each one of you has done their best but as you’ve seen, your best is actually pretty bad.” Menadion said. ”You have never noticed it in the past because you worked together and fixed each other’s mistakes to the best of your abilities.

”In your eyes, the work was perfect simply because you couldn’t imagine something better. Now that I’ve split you, however, you can look at the final result without bias. On top of that, this time you didn’t have the Eyes as a crutch.”

”What are we doing wrong?” Solus sighed.

”You know I can’t tell you the answer, sweetie.” Menadion restored the coins with Creation Magic and bonded them with the red crystals. ”Again, and this time remember the correct definition for light and darkness.”

Lith and Solus tried several times and their work improved with each attempt but the result was just less lacking than the previous, never good.

’Fuck me sideways, if we screw up so badly with a small coin and one tiny crystal, I can’t imagine how much worse things are with more complex artifacts.’ Lith thought.

’What am I missing?’ Solus stared at the coin for an answer, yet it remained silent. ’The process is supposed to be simple. Why is it so hard?’

Lunchtime was nearing and Lith found not having an inkling of what to do to move forward after all those hours unbearable.

’Let’s start this again from scratch.’ He thought. ’Ripha said our methods are good but our foundations are flawed. She also said that we thought that light and darkness control life only because life is order from chaos. How do these two things connect?’

Not knowing what do to, Lith took a second silver coin out of his pocket dimension. He was so focused on studying the mint piece of metal that he missed Menadion’s approving smile.

’Wait what?’ Yet Solus didn’t. ’Let me get a coin.’

’I knew it this was dumb.’ Lith inwardly sighed. ’There’s nothing I can learn from a different coin. Even though they are forged with the same process and the same batch of ore, the internal structure is completely different.

’The concentration of metal and the arrangement of the impurities change from coin to coin. The mold is the same, but they are like snowflakes. There are so many variables when the molten metal solidifies that no two coins are ali-.’ His thoughts trailed off as the revelation struck him.

’They are like snowflakes. That’s the whole point of this exercise. Recognizing the significance of chaos and learning how to restore it!’

’That’s why our coins suck when we restore them.’ Solus thought. ’We mastered the order part of Creation Magic but our understanding of its chaos aspect is lacking. I can still see a pattern in my coin after using Dismantle.

’The ’scar’ hasn’t healed, it just faded. We didn’t restore the previous structure of our coins, we just messed with the residual trace of the mana vessel until it more or less resembled the rest of the coin.’

’The question is, how do I fix that?’ They thought in unison.

”And it’s lunchtime.” Menadion said. ”If we are late, Elina will kill me. We’ll resume this in the afternoon or tomorrow morning, depending on when your mother kicks you out of the house again, Lith.”

”There’s still time.” Lith looked at his pocket watch.

”What part of ’late’ you didn’t understand?” Menadion clicked her tongue. ”Do you really want to go home just in time to eat and then walk away? Do you think your poor mother runs a restaurant?”

”No, ma’am.” Lith sighed while Solus laughed at his expense.

”I wouldn’t laugh if I were in your shoes, young lady.” Menadion looked daggers at Solus. ”He behaves like that because you do the same and enable him. Give me those coins back. Now!”

They jumped up their seats and returned the study materials.

”Fair warning, if I see a coin or you space out during lunch, I won’t give you lessons for a week.”

”A week?” Lith and Solus said in horror as Menadion Warped them back home.

”You are just in time, sweetie.” Elina welcomed them with a smile and a hug.