Even though the books on spells at iron rank had contained many variants, Valar hadn’t truly understood how many spells there were.

  ‘Healing at bronze rank: Tips and tricks to become a healer your team will cherish!’ changed that.

  Page after page, paragraph after paragraph, Valar just kept finding new spells. Each one was devoted to healing, managing to achieve its effects with deliberate tweaks to the runes and their positions. Valar looked at two spells in particular, and frowned.

  Healing Hand… A healing spell that is activated through direct contact with the target. By touching their skin, the healer spreads a network of life magic to the target’s body, then floods it with healing. Lengthy setup, but quick end results… No, this seems way too situational to ever work in an adventuring setting. I want to do just the opposite, preventing deaths instead of lessening the time of actual healing…

  Restoring Palm… A healing spell that is activated through direct contact-. Wait, this is exactly the same fucking spell as the first one!

  Upon further reading, Valar sighed as he realized the difference between the two spells. They weren’t exactly the same, sure, but one achieved its effect by spreading a network of life magic through the target’s body while the other directed their healing effects straight from the point of contact. They were different, sure, but in an actual adventuring setting, he knew that both would frankly suck.

  Restoring Palm could be good with surface wounds, but it would struggle with internal injuries… Healing Hand… just no.

  Valar skimmed the book in search of something actually useful. Lots of spells were included, all with their own unique pros and cons, but none really excited him.

  I’m doing this wrong, aren’t I? The realization struck Valar when had already wasted half an hour of his life, but it struck him nonetheless. I should plan what I want by myself first, then attempt to find a match in the book… Just skimming through it without a reference for what fits me is as useless as looking for a needle in a haystack!

  He closed the book and grabbed his notebook and pen. Then, he started thinking.

  First of all, how many spells do I actually want to learn? Two? Three? Five?

  The answer to his question was simple: As many spells as there were common use cases. He thought back to his month of adventuring…

  The one that comes up most easily to my mind is self-healing… Lesser Restoration never really did its job efficiently when I tried to heal myself, as its effect was meant to work on everybody. I’m pretty sure even Lesser Restore Self suffered from the generalization, as the possibility for the tether rune had to be included in its spellform. I need something that is uniquely crafted for self-healing.

  He came up with three simple criteria for the spell. It needed to be fast, it needed to be simple and it absolutely needed to be efficient. A lot to ask for, but let’s see what I can find…

  The first spell that caught his eye was Troll’s Blood. It was a simple spell, created to mimic a troll’s ability to heal itself naturally. It was strong and simple, that was for sure… Its efficiency sucks though.

  If Valar didn’t care for efficiency—ready to possibly pass out from mana exhaustion at the end of every life and death fight—he would’ve picked the spell in a heartbeat. It was extremely strong and fast, and its simplicity made it usable in stressful situations. Still, he was not ready to possibly pass out from mana exhaustion at the end of every life and death fight. It’s a no-go…

  The second promising spell he came across was less interesting in its naming. Mend Self… Not bad, not good. The spell was simple and certainly efficient, but…

  The way it’s described suggests that healing even minor wounds would take minutes. That’s just too slow for what I need it for!

  The options kept coming, and Valar kept becoming just more and more frustrated. Each one had its strengths and weaknesses, but none fit his criteria perfectly. From the twenty or so spells he checked, the only real option ended up being Troll’s Blood, and as he had already deduced, it wasn’t the right option for him.

  The last page, however, provided another option: Berserker's Regeneration …

  A fast self-healing spell with lots of power and efficient mana use… What’s the catch? And boy, did it turn out to be a big one.

  Berserker's Regeneration was a peculiar spell. To a normal healer, who fought from the backline and supported his team members, it was perhaps the most useless spell imaginable. While the spell was certainly powerful and efficient to boot, it required a certain level of visualization a normal healer would never reach.

  Visualizations were an interesting concept to think about. Different spells, while similar in rune selections and even their positions, could achieve entirely different effects based on the visualization of the mage casting them. The common Fire Bolt was an excellent example. One user could visualize it as a ball, and the spell would manifest as an orb of fire that rocketed towards their enemy, while another could imagine it as an arrow, resulting in a completely different effect. The runes were the same and the names were identical, while the effects weren’t.

  Berserker's Regeneration was in many ways similar to Troll’s Blood. It relied on simple concepts, spreading healing magic through the bloodstream of the healer. But while Troll’s Blood focused on being a general use spell for all kinds of self-healing, Berserker's Regeneration was created for one situation and one situation only: A fight to the death.

  The spell quite literally couldn’t be used if the caster wasn’t fighting in a bloody melee. I can work with that…

  To be completely honest, Valar wasn’t sure on why he wanted to become a close-combat fighter… Okay, he knew exactly why: The fight with Edwin, The Undying Horror.

  It was the moment in his life where he had felt most powerful. Punching the bandit king’s head off in a torrent of flames had been an intoxicating feeling, and he wasn’t sure if he could return to only his regular healing duties after it. Sure, he could learn the spells to heal others, but… I want to join in too, don’t I?

  His excitement had its limits, however. Valar was no genius, but he knew that leaving his team without a healer would be kind of shitty towards his friends. They had initially recruited him as a healer, and he was pretty sure they wanted to keep him in that very same role when he returned to adventuring. I have to strike some kind of balance… Two healing spells meant to support the group and one spell meant just for me sounds good, but I can adjust that once I start actually learning the runes. For now, I have to keep in mind that I can’t go all in on body enhancement and self-healing. Regular healing is important too…

  Speaking of regular healing… Forest’s Aid sounds like a good candidate. Regarding the two spells he thought he should master before returning to adventuring, Valar was pretty sure on what he wanted. First of all, he wanted a strong single-target heal with lots of power and efficiency. In this case, simplicity didn’t matter, as he wouldn’t be casting it on himself. Valar only really wanted to have a simple spell when he was healing injuries on himself, as focusing was hard when you were bleeding out. When someone else was bleeding out in front of you, it was much easier.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  As for multi-target healing, I should be fine with healing three of my teammates at the same time. When considering these spells, Valar found something out very quickly: He could forget efficiency and simplicity.

  Whatever I choose, the multi-target healing spell seems like it will be the hardest spell to learn during bronze rank. These runes, these spellframes… This one has fifteen runes and they all connect to each other!

  Valar had wondered why the infirmaries didn’t heal masses of people simultaneously. He didn’t need to wonder anymore…

  “I can save that choice for much later,” Valar mused quietly to himself. “Next, body enhancement.”

  As it turned out, there wasn’t a lot to think about there. There were hundreds of spells for healing magic in the other book… I assumed there would be less, but three? Three?

  Fortunately, all three spells were actually quite good. Really good…

  Aspect of the Ursa, Aspect of the Panther and Aspect of the Tortoise were all excellent spells with their own uses. Aspect of the Tortoise seemed like an extension of Fortify, although it was different in the way that it couldn’t be used on others. That limitation brought some benefits, however…

  Aspect of the Tortoise was so, so much more powerful than Fortify, even if you compared it against the latter spell’s bronze rank version. The limitation to self-targeting and increase in complexity translated to a much more potent effect, enabling the caster to increase their defence to become almost as durable as someone like Rodrick. Almost…

  Aspect of the Panther was created for life mages that wanted to fight more like rogues, enhancing the caster’s speed and reflexes to new heights. Again, the spell couldn’t raise their physical attributes to that of a dedicated rogue, but it didn’t fall short by a lot. Almost, but not all the way.

  Last but not least, Aspect of the Ursa had been created with a very simple goal in mind: Crunch as many physical attribute boosts into one spell as possible. Completely forgoing any kind of specialization, it boosted everything from speed to durability and even the caster’s senses. It couldn’t raise the caster’s strength to that of a devoted warrior, but as it also raised everything else, they would never be totally dominated in any category.

  I’m definitely going to learn Aspect of the Tortoise. Maybe I’ll even be able to withstand my own fire!

  …

  Walking out of the library and back into the central tower, Valar couldn’t do anything but smile. Not only had he found some good healing spells, but body enhancement ones too!

  He would still have to think on his choices—especially regarding area-of-effect healing and body enhancement—but he had at least gathered a good amount of options to choose from. All in all, a pretty successful visit, if I do say so myself…

  Walking back to his dorm in the water tower, Valar spent his time looking down from the skybridge. Interestingly, in addition to all the normal sights, a new attraction had appeared: an arena.

  Not just any arena either, but the arena that would be used for the academy tournament!

  When Valar had first heard of the tournament, he had wondered where it would be held. The academy’s towers certainly didn’t fit the requirements. The solution was surprisingly simple.

  The academy faculty just built one from scratch.

  The stadium was still in its early stages, as the week of building and preparing had only just begun. Lectures were on pause, and essentially every faculty member was hard at work with either the construction or some other preparations. Some would be occupied with hosting the guests from other academies, some would be setting up support structures like the temporary infirmary… The responsibilities piled on so much that the staff was buried in work for the totality of the two weeks. Even Elaine, engrossed in her meditation, had been pulled to help the healing staff prepare for the likely bloody tournament ahead.

  Luckily, Valar didn’t have to care about that! He would be spending his days in the library, studying and-.

  “We have to go get tickets,” Zeke half-yelled as he shook Valar’s shoulders the following morning. “Now!”

  “Why the rush?” Valar mumbled, still a bit sleepy. “At least let me go and get some breakfast…”

  “No! The best seats will be taken, and we’ll miss all the action! The ticket sales will begin in only an hour at the entrance building! We’ll get free tickets, sure, but if we aren’t fast enough, all the best spots will be taken!”

  Valar’s plans of a relaxed morning followed by some library studies were annihilated in seconds by the energetic man at his door. “Let’s go then. The tournament better be good…”

  In all honesty, the line snaking through the entrance building brought some bad memories to Valar’s mind. The mass of people looked essentially identical to the day before his iron rank semester started, but at least the amount of gazes pointed at him was lesser. Or am I just imagining it? A lot of eyes are pointed in our direction even now…

  The biggest differences between now and then were that he was with a friend and the fact that he had gotten somewhat used to the constant eyes following his every movement. The students of the academy and their noble parents were staring at and inspecting him just as much as then, but it didn’t feel as bad.

  The murmurs are less jealous, I think. Is it a result of me being at bronze rank?

  That could’ve very well been true. If the one who looked was inexperienced enough, they could chock up a young ascension to exceptional luck, but seeing someone who had already ascended through iron rank at Valar’s age was different. A fast ascension to bronze rank was more often than not a result of endless slaughter, so the fact that he was a bronze ranker could only mean that he was at least somewhat experienced in the field.

  To be clear, Valar’s fast ascension to bronze rank was an exceptional achievement, especially for a mage. His time—somewhere between three and four months—included both an exceptionally fast period of studying and an even faster period of adventuring. There weren’t many who were faster, and even fewer were mages.

  But… Everyone wasn’t a mage. Everyone didn’t need months of training to be capable of fighting beasts. Everyone didn’t fight in a team…

  The fastest ascension to bronze rank from the time of awakening that Valar knew of was two days, achieved by the son of a Khateshi soldier during their last campaign against Leoria. Based on what Elaine had told him, the boy had awakened by killing an iron ranker, and had gone to town against Leoria’s iron rank forces. Unfortunately for Leoria, that boy had survived the war, and had grown to hold some renown in the empire’s army.

  Rakan Uresh... I’ll have to remember that name. If the empire ever attacks again, I certainly don’t want to encounter a man who could do something like that…

  “How did you ascend so fast?” the voice of a teenage girl interrupted Valar’s musings, and he moved his gaze to meet the curious eyes of the girl who had approached him. “I heard about you from big sis, but she said that you’re an iron ranker! She lied!”

  Valar didn’t need many clues in order to find out which family the girl belonged to. Red hair, red eyes... she’s a Wendir all right…

  His assumption was proven to be true when Elizabeth and her mother emerged from the group of people, rushing to the girl. Helen was wearing a dress, although on closer inspection it turned out to be a fully functional mage’s robe. Her flame-red hair rustled as she grabbed her younger daughter by the ear. “Where do you think you’re going, Elina? I thought we’d agreed that you would keep close to me as long as we’re outside the estate?”

  “But mom….” Elina whined. “That’s the boy Elizabeth was speaking about! And he’s at bronze rank! Bronze!”

  Elizabeth’s expression seemed to rapidly shift between embarrassment and confusion until she inspected Valar. Confusion won out. “Wha-. How?”

  “Adventuring?” Valar grinned, trying to mask his own embarrassment. So many people are looking…

  “Now, now children,” Helen scoffed. “I remember teaching you both about early ascensions already. Have you forgotten everything I’ve taught?”

  “No-.” Elizabeth started, but she was rudely interrupted by her sister.

  “Your lessons are boring, mom!”

  “Mhm…” The glint in Helen’s eyes didn’t bode well for the yet unawakened Elina. “We’ll talk about this later… Now, where are my manners? Nice to meet you, Valar, Zeke.”

  “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Wendir,” Zeke greeted the woman politely, grinning as he noticed Valar’s confused expression. “I’ve interacted with her quite a bit through private tutoring. Helen is specialized in the early progress of iron and bronze rankers, and we’ve been trying to brainstorm ideas on how I could ascend quickly without-.”

  “And I’ll stop you right there, Forger!” Helen butted in. “I thought I was quite clear on what information you could share and what you couldn’t, but I see that we’ll have to have another discussion on secrecy…”

  “Oh..” Zeke scratched the back of his head and gave the woman an awkward smile. “Sorry.”

  “Now, it seems that we lost our spot due to Elina,” Helen remarked. “Can we wait here with you two?”

  Valar and Zeke looked at each other, both shrugging. “I guess.”

  Once again, it was time to participate in an age-old tradition: The art of the queue!