Chapter 174 - Healer Mage

  In the end, I failed. I could barely hold my mana for 5 seds within me. I couldn’t surpass the limit of using magiside frozen time. I tried for 1 minute, and it ure hell.

  After that excruciating minute of pain and agony, Cyl’s voice echoed in my mind, scolding me. And she was right. F the Aspect of Time ainful, but I was ed. There are forces in this world that lurk in the shadows, and they are dangerous. To many, the deities of the other ti are merely beliefs in something ent, upheld by the faith of their followers. But I’ve seen them. I know they are real.

  I saw beings with red eyes in the darkness. In that pce, there were shadowy servants around a diable, and one of them sensed my presence—a woman with eyes glowing pink. These dark figures are not mere myths; they are real.

  “Don’t ever do that again, Nathan!” Cyl reprimanded me again, her voice heavy with .

  I sighed and tried to shift my focus. "Time to get back to css…" I muttered, trating on feeling the flow of mana in my eyes while the world around me remained frozen.

  The css before me was pletely still, paralyzed in time, like statues. The ao the power of my eyes was so close, yet so far from me. Over the past years, I’d mao extend the time I could stay in this state, from mere seds to five mihen, it evolved into something that allowed me t others with me. However, I still hadn’t fully grasped the potential of my eyes.

  In addition to learning to use the powers of the Celestial Aspects, I discovered that they possess their own levels of mastery, capable of expanding their power. There are more mysteries hidden within these eyes than I currently prehend.

  Now was the final test of this little training session. I pced my hahe floating pencil, and I could feel the trajectory of its infiniteness, an invisible energy pulsing around me.

  “I ’t alter the temporal rhythm of something,” I muttered to myself. “I ’t pce my hah the pencil if, inally, it wasn’t there. I ’t interfere with the object’s ‘time.’”

  My hand stayed motionless in the air, uo i. I pulled it back slowly, feeling the slight tingling that always apahese attempts.

  “Things must follow their inal time, even when I reestablish the flow of reality,” I tihinking aloud. “So, my theory of using an object to push someone in frozen time is as futile as trying to it an assassination in this state. I ’t. I’m merely an observer in this space.”

  This was something I o fully uand. I could walk through this space, move as if the world were frozen, but I couldn’t alter anything signifit. When time resumed, everything proceeded as normal. For others, it would be as if I had ‘teleported.’

  I shifted in my chair, already knowing the pain would e when time resumed.

  Does the pain e from the excessive mana drain? My body feels as if a rge amount is being siphoned all at once when time resumes, and that’s likely what causes the disfort: my mana gem suffering from an instant drain. At least I’m here for about two minutes...

  “e on, stay in pce,” I murmured to Cyl, who had already jumped into my p, zily stretg.

  I began ting silently, preparing for the impact. “3… 2… 1…” I whispered.

  DEACTIVATE!

  I felt the e to the Aspect of Time snap abruptly, like a rope being cut. The blue dimension dissolved around me, ay started to readjust. Colors returo normal, sounds slowly came back, and the world tinued on its course, as if nothing had happened.

  The professor was expining the lesson, pointing at an image on the board that depicted an elven mage holding a pnt.

  “Let’s begin with the requirements to bee a Healer Mage. The first mandatory requirement is elemental affinity. I mentioned earlier that healing mana only ma in three elements, and that’s a universal rule. The sed requirement is that the mage must possess only oural element. For us humans, healing mana only ma withier element, which is why the elven kingdom has the highest number of Healer Mages in the world. Elves, besides having water element mages, also have pnt element mages, which are the most powerful for healing. Furthermore, some superior elves possess the light element. In the elven kingdom, Pnt Healer Mages are more advanced and effit thaer Healer Mages of the human kingdom.”

  I wao think of new sarios and experiments for the Aspect of Time, but I decided to let it go for now. Messing with it too much affected my mana els. The more I used the Celestial Eyes, the worse my trol over my Special Eyes became. It was a temporary effect, but it still disrupted me.

  I o give the Aspect of Time a break. I ’t keep training with it nonstop…

  The professor switched to another image, showing a demi-human and a human.

  “To reiterate for those who missed it, the human and demi-human kingdoms only have Water Healer Mages, and they must be fortunate enough for the water mage to possess a healing property in their mana to specialize as a Healer Mage. Meanwhile, in the elven kingdom, there be Healer Mages with the water, pnt, and light elements. That’s why the elven kingdom has a far greater number of Healer Mages, making them a magical powerhouse. Even healing potions inate from their kingdom.”

  So, the elven kingdom is vital. In the event of a war, they would trol the primary supply of healing potions and possess a rge number of Healer Mages.

  Professor Harrison flipped the page again, showing an injured person.

  “Healing properties also exist in other types of magic, such as the monstrous trees found in the elven kingdom that create the crystals used to make healing potions. These trees are said to have healing mana because they grow in soils where elven mages with healing properties used their pnt and water elements for millennia. The trees absorb mana from the ground and develop their own, stronger healing mana, which we harvest in the form of crystals. However, that’s just a theory. It could be that these trees naturally have healing mana, simir to some mages. No kingdom tries to remove them from their natural habitat for testing because we could lose an important resource for potions. Sihese trees are rare and few in hey remain in their habitat, and in elven culture, they are sidered part of their natural world, so they ot be relocated.”

  I followed along in my book, paying close attention to the lesson.

  I doubt Cyl’s Aspect of Life is reted to this.

  “Now, let’s see how powerful healing magic truly is,” the professor said, flipping the page once more.

  The board now dispyed an image of a wounded boy, followed by one of him pletely healed.

  “Our healing magic uses our mana to accelerate the body’s natural healing process. This is effective for healing cuts, bde wounds, and even arrow injuries. However, healing maginee a severed an or a missing finger. If you're unfortunate enough to lose a finger in battle or training, a Healer Mage reattach it and stimute the healing process to reect it. But there are limits. If you're cut in half, nothing be done. Some injuries are too severe to heal, or the treatment would take a proloime.”

  He flipped to the page, which dispyed a blue potion and a red potion.

  The professor was tinuing his lecture.

  “It’s not possible for a Healer Mage to create healing water and sell it as a potion. As soon as the mage stops eling their elemental mana, it loses its healing properties. This is why healing potions are so valuable—you carry them with you wherever you go.”

  It’s unfortunate about that limitation. Otherwise, any Healer Mage could be a walking factory of healing potions. This is what makes those monstrous trees so special; their crystals tain a pearl used to create healing potions.

  That pearl tains a liquid that likely stores part of the tree’s healing mana. Only the cat tribe extract the pearl from the crystal, as it forms in random locations, and if the crystal is broken incorrectly, the pearl bees useless for potion produ.

  “If you’re in this academy, you likely already know whether or not you possess healing mana. But we’ll duct the test regardless. Those of you who have only the water or pnt element, e forward and pour your mana into this sunflower. If it reacts and turns toward you, it means your mana has healing properties.”

  A line formed as students began walking toward the table where the professor ducted the test. Even those who already khe results went ahead to participate. Of course, he didn’t call on those with the light element, as only high elves possess it, and at the academy, the only high elf students were Saint Tiffania Brawen... and myself. However, I didn’t have healing properties due to having more than one element.

  “I ’t wait for lunch…” Thyra grumbled.

  Syvis had just pleted her test. She had mentioned being torween being a She or a Healer Mage. I discovered she had an affinity with the pnt element and was aer. This piqued my curiosity since, until then, the only person I knew who used that element was my mother—and she was a summoner. As for me, I could only use the pnt element because of my Special Eyes. Another iing fact was that there were no other summoners with the pnt element besides my mother ahis anomaly was due to us bypassing the elemental restris, which made our bat style different from elves who possessed that element through other mana categories.

  I was eager to see how Syvis would fight as aer. Summoners aers share the same casting pattern, but a pure per must have a greater affinity for direct attacks, somethiher my mother nor I specialized in. Additionally, each mana category has exclusive spells, and Syvis, being aer, likely had a unique bat repertoire. I also learhat, over the years, there had been a greater variation in species and teiques withi element, which made everything even more fasating.

  Like my mother, I possessed the pnt element of the high elves, grantihe unique ability to create pnts, like flowers, from nothing. Ordinary elves, in rare cases, might have the luck of geing living pnts, but most could only manipute vines or wood, limiting their bat and magical tasks. Since we desded from high elves, both my mother and I could create pnts of all kinds, from delicate flowers te trees.

  However, this ability wasn’t limitless. There were restris on what we could create. If we had a seed, we could accelerate the growth of the pnt tained within, expanding e of attacks and defenses. It was a well-known teique among elves, so much so that many carried specific seeds to use as ons, indug their growth in battle and rapidly creating powerful aile pnts.

  The major differeween my mother and me, pared to other elves, was our skill as summoners of the pnt element. While ordinary elves could only accelerate the growth of a seed, we possessed the unique ability to create a wider variety of pnts from nothing and modify seeds in ways they could never achieve. As summoners, we had the power to pletely alter a seed’s structure and gee somethiirely new from it. I was still learning and didn’t yet have full mastery over this ability, but my mother... she was a true prodigy.

  From the time I was a baby, I was surrounded by the ivorous pnts she created, and I say with certainty—those things are terrifyingly alive. My mother had been feeding each of them with her living summoner mana for years, and what was most impressive was that she even talked to them, calling them her 'daughters.' In a way, these pnts were aension of her magic, refleg her incredible ability to manipute the pnt element in ways that even the most experienced high elves couldn’t replicate.