“It does?” Alex asked, looking puzzled.
She nodded and turned to the next page, which depicted three different illustrations; one was jumping, the second was hovering, and the third was flying.
“Up, up, and away?” Her student asked curiously.
His question caused her to giggle and ask, “What is that, Alex?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugged with a wry smile. “That’s what I thought these drawings meant. You’re going up once, then you’re hovering and going up again, and then you’re flying away. That’s not how flight magic works. I think it doesn’t anyway.”
The manner in which he spoke made it clear that he firmly denied what the book claimed. She understood this might happen as he had been experiencing flying with her for a while and was most likely comparing that experience to what was written in the book.
“Let me explain, Alex, and then you’ll realise this book is not as far fetched as you might think. After all, this is how I begun my training in learning flight magic,” she said and smiled.
“What?!” He exclaimed, staring at her in shock. “You learnt it this way? How the heck does that make sense, miss? These jumping and hovering are not the same as flying.”
“You’re right, but let me explain, okay?” She asked, and he nodded in agreement. “So, from the experience you had of flying with me, what did it feel like for you?”
“Um…” He began and thought back to the experience of flying with support of his teacher. Then he said, “It feels like you’re leaping into the air, then your speed increases quickly, and you fly away. That’s how I felt it to be.”
Lucia was amazed by his explanation and said, “That’s oddly specific.” Then she serenely smiled and said, “You are right, though. One needs to jump off the ground and needs speed to fly through the air. Then, what do you do about gravity?”
“Gravity?” He asked, looking bewildered. “You mean the force that pulls you down?” As she nodded, he briefly thought about it before saying, “Wouldn’t you be flying so fast that you wouldn’t lose speed and fall?”
She blinked at him in surprise and even showed a sarcastic smile as a reaction to his words.
“Unless you’re travelling at the speed of light, that’s not how it works,” she remarked with a laugh. As he tilted his head in puzzlement, she looked serenely at him and said, “Alex, imagine you’re holding a rock, and that you threw that rock as hard as you could into the air. What do you think happens next?”
“It’ll fly through the air,” he replied promptly, but then slowed down as he realised something and finished, “and then it gradually falls back down.”
“Yes,” she agreed in a smooth voice. “Even the rock, which you threw with all your might, won’t fly forever and it’ll fall back down because of gravity. Even if that rock is flying at a constant speed, it’ll still drop all because of gravity. That’s why, jumping and hovering are there to help you fly.”
Alex remained silent for a moment a she thought about her explanation before giving her an explanation of what he understood so far.
“So, basically, after you leap into the air, you somehow increase your speed and fly off while using hover magic or something similar to keep you from falling. Is that right?”
“That is correct,” she replied with a smile.
He nodded in understanding, but he became confused and asked, “In that case, miss, how come you never needed to do it? Like, you kick off the ground, and you fly off without any additional magic for support.”
“Any additional magic that you didn’t notice,” she corrected him with a smile, and he tilted his head looking baffled before she began explaining about it.
“You see, Alex, at the beginning, I too relied on this method to fly by utilising the jumping magic, and applying hover magic to keep me afloat and then propel myself to increase my speed so that I flew to wherever I was going.
You keep doing it for a while and when it becomes a habit, you tend to find shortcuts that lets you use both flight magic and hover magic at the same time. After all, even the Spirits of Life would be hard pressed to keep you afloat on their own.”
Seeing Alex look at her in surprise, she felt pleased with herself for being able to teach her student something new. She liked teaching and spreading awareness of magic, and was enjoying it very much as she passed on her knowledge to him while also refreshing her memory with her subject.
“So, does that mean we’d be using Gravity Category and Transport Category at the same time?” He asked her with a curious face. When she nodded, he sighed and said, “I see. So, we’re basically encompassing two magic types together and calling that as flight magic. Am I right?”
“Correct!” She said and beamed at him.
He smiled weakly back at her and asked, “I just need to learn the hover magic and then the flying is easy?”
She giggled at his innocent words and said, “Flying is relatively easy to learn, Alex, but being able to keep yourself afloat long enough for you to invoke that matters. That’s where Hover Magic from the Gravity Category comes into play. Do you get it now?”
“Yes. I get it now,” replied Alex, nodding in understanding. “Sounds a little complicated, though.”
“Well,” she began thoughtfully, “let me tell you this, Alex; it’s not a cake walk. I never said magic is easy to learn. In fact, it was your dedication and training every single day was what brought you this far. So, you should congratulate yourself on how far you came in the last several months and keep being determined to learn more magic because it’ll only get tougher from here on.”
He nodded silently to her words and replied confidently, “Sure thing, miss! I’ll definitely get better at magic! I have to, otherwise… otherwise…!”
Alex trailed away without finishing his sentence because he was feeling the pressure of an impending doom that would destroy his world sometime later in the future. He might not have much of his old memories, but he still had the memory of the contract that was established between him and the Entity Limitless and without knowing how long he had before the destruction began, he felt a great pressure on him to quickly master his magic.
As he faltered, his teacher noticed him shaking a little and was greatly surprised by it. She rose to her feet and walked over to sit beside her student before placing a warm hand on his shoulders to calm him down.
“Relax, Alex,” she said soothingly, supporting the kid from shaking with a worried look on her face. “What is it? By any chance, am I putting too much pressure on you?”
The thought came to her when she paused and thought about all the training that they had been doing. Right from day one, she had been pushing him to master his magic as quickly as possible and move onto the harder things. Now, however, she wondered whether she had been putting too much pressure on him to meet her requirements, feeling concerned that it was her fault that he was feeling so pressured.
At her words, he looked up and saw that she was looking worriedly at him. That was when he realised that she misunderstood his shaking to mean that she had been pressuring him to the point that caused him to feel stressed.
Alarmed, he quickly stopped his body from shaking and said to her, “No, miss. You’re not putting any kind of pressure on me! Honest!”
“Then, how come you’re feeling so pressured, Alex, to the point that you shook like this?”
“Well,” he began and hesitated, trying to find a suitable excuse that would appease her. Then he remembered something and said, “Well, it’s about my battle with Luna, miss. I lost because she was faster and stronger than me whereas I couldn’t even complete a single chant. That’s why, I was feeling the pressure of not wanting to lose like that ever again.”
Lucia blinked at him in surprise and replied, “You didn’t have to feel so pressured though, Alex. I mean, we’ve already sorted this out, and we’ll soon be going to the Forest of Lone to hopefully getting you and myself contracted to the Spirit of Life. So, there’s really no need for you to pressure yourself like this.”
However, he shook his head and said, “No, miss. If I don’t feel the pressure, I would take things easily and would probably learn things a lot slower than I currently am. That’s why I think sometimes it’s necessary to have something to push you on and make you try to achieve more, to succeed and to be the greatest at it.”
Then he smiled at her and said, “On that day, I promised that I won’t lose again, and that I would put my utmost effort into mastering my magic even if I do make a contract with a Spirit of Life. After all, that’s me putting in my effort and not relying on shortcuts to bypass them all just to achieve my goals because that’ll make me weak.”
Alex finished his sentence with a determined look on his face that amazed his teacher. Then she smiled and replied in kind to his firm words.
“I see. So, keeping the pressure up and striving to achieve the best makes you a stronger and tougher person. That makes sense.”
The two of them looked at each other and smiled pleasantly, sharing a comfortable moment between a teacher and her student. Then she turned her attention back to the book showing the illustrations and description of the one method consisting of three parts and asked her student about it.
“So, do you understand what needs to be done, or do you want me to give you another explanation about this?”
He shook his head and replied, “No. I’m good.” Then he looked excited as he stated, “I’m actually excited to try whatever they explained in that book!”
She chuckled and said, “That’s the spirit!” Then she rose to her feet and took the book before saying, “I think we’re done here then. Let’s return and get started on practicing.”
“Right!” Her student replied happily.
As he stood up and followed her, he was surprised that she brought the book along with her instead of going back to wherever she got the book from.
When she glanced at him and saw his expression, she smiled and explained, “I thought I borrow this book for a while. You know? Keep it handy in case I need to clarify a few things.”
“Oh. Okay,” he said and nodded in understanding.
They headed towards the receptionist, and she handed the book over to her while pulling out a card from her purse and handing that over to them as well. Alex watched as the girl seemed to scribble down the details of the person borrowing the book before handing both of them back his teacher. Once the process was done, the two thanked the lady behind the counter and exited out of the Library.
