"Don’t apologize, Yaga." Lith shook his head. "This is far from a waste of time. You are facing the same struggle that Solus and the others will have to overcome before they can use Dread Magic.

"The better your understanding of scattered elements, the easier it will be for you to teach your technique to others and the faster they will learn."

"I couldn’t have said it better." Solus gave him the thumbs up, ignoring the frown on her mother’s and her friend’s faces.

"Then don’t mind me if I do." By the time Baba Yaga mastered tier three Zero Spells and managed to body cast them without losing a limb, Kamila called everyone for lunch.

They resumed the training immediately after the meal, starting their practice over from Chaos and focusing on the scattered Decay. Once Baba Yaga reached a sufficient grasp on Chaos, they moved back to Cinder.

"This is an incredibly rewarding experience." Lith panted.

Even with the support of the tower, the rich flow of world energy released from the Lodestar, and the rest he got while waiting for Baba Yaga to be done with her exercises, the practice of Dread Magic was demanding on the mind, the body, and the mana core.

Even the chore magic spells actually conjured two Cursed Elements, and both required a high degree of focus not to hurt their caster. Also, Dread Spell consumed lots of mana, causing mana abuse as fast as Spirit Magic.

After several hours of relentless practice, Lith needed a break.

"That’s an understatement." Baba Yaga had switched to her Crone form to ease the burden on her Mother form. "Threading a new path is always exciting. We are the first mages on Mogar to have understood a new form of magic.

"We are now equals to Tezka when he invented dimensional magic and to Salaark when she invented Creation Magic."

"You didn’t invent it on your own?" Solus asked.

"I sure did, but I already knew it existed." The Red Mother shrugged. "It made things easier, and finding the path someone else has already trodden is much less exciting than finding it yourself."

"Speaking of Grandma, I’m afraid we have to start adding cloaking runes to our Dread Spells, like she does when she uses Creation Magic in front of witnesses." Solus said.

"Otherwise, Dragons might sooner or later crack Dread Magic with Dragon Eyes, while the Master’s hybrids could resonate with it and learn stable Cursed Runes on their own."

"A fair point." Lith sighed. "Yet that’s not what I’m worried about now."

"You’re worried?" Baba Yaga echoed in disbelief. "About what?"

"Maybe it’s just my rampant paranoia talking, but isn’t this too easy?" Lith replied. "I expected to learn a thing or two about Dread Magic and maybe start researching if it’s possible to use stable Cursed Runes to cast arrays.

"Instead, we came up with several spells for the first three tiers of Dread Magic for all the Cursed Runes we are aware of, and I even found a way to harness the power of Dread Magic safely.

"I can’t help but think that progressing this fast is not natural. That maybe, we are under the influence of an unknown force that’s lulling us in a false sense of security to..." Lith’s words trailed off as Menadion and the Crone stared at him as if he had grown a second head.

"Easy?" Baba Yaga scoffed, and Menadion snorted. "You call this easy?"

"It sure wasn’t that hard." Lith shrugged.

"Well then, you runt, answer me this. When you showed me your Void Magic textbook, and I learned all the spells it contained after reading them once, was it because Void Magic is an easy discipline?"

"Of course not." Lith dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. "If that were the case, Void Magic would have been discovered long before I was born. All Awakened families would have mastered it millennia before Silverwing even shared her legacy."

"Then how do you think I’ve done it?" The Crone nodded and crossed her arms.

"You are an ancient being who has mastered all the known branches of magic and even a few that no one else on Mogar knows." Lith snorted. "It’s normal that someone as knowledgeable and experienced as you has no difficulty learning Void Magic.

"Grandma did the same after I gave her a single demonstration, and I bet it was the same for you. You two must have reached an understanding of the light and darkness element so deep that you have wandered along the edges of Void Magic more than once.

"When I’ve shown you the complete picture, all the pieces of the puzzle you had already accrued over the millennia have fallen into place. My textbook just filled the empty spaces left, assuming there was any, of course."

"Exactly." The First Ruler of the Flames nodded. "The same applies to you learning Dread Magic, Lith. You are no upstart youth who has dabbled in the mystical arts for a few weeks.

"You are someone who practiced magic for over two decades, reaching heights that most mages need centuries just to notice them on the horizon. You have learned rare and elusive disciplines like Light Mastery and Creation Magic, even creating your own branch of magic.

"What we did today looks easy because of the solid foundations you already possess, but it’s far from it. The only person of your age more accomplished than you are I’ve ever met is my Epphy."

"Solus?/Me?" They said in unison.

"You reached the violet on your own before twenty, Solus. You were a skilled Light Master and a much better Forgemaster than Lith is." Menadion replied. "Sure, you had a mage tower, the First Ruler of the Flames as your mentor, and several skilled friends, but luck is also part of someone’s talent."

"I agree. Especially on the role your amazing friends played in your education, Solus." Baba Yaga chuckled. "Still, everything you have achieved so far is no less impressive, Lith."

"Thank you." He scratched his head in embarrassment.

"Also, you now have my tower at your disposal as well." Menadion snorted. "You are one of the only three beings whose life force holds stable Cursed Elements and are using my Lodestar. If it’s not ’easy’ for you, then it would be impossible for anyone else."

"To use Ripha’s explanation for Blade Weapons, creating a new spell can be considered a hard task akin to pushing a boulder, but uphill instead of on flat ground. Having natural affinities reduces the slope, and so does your accumulated knowledge.

"Being inside a Fringe, or in our case inside the Lodestar, shifts the slope to your advantage further, to the point that gravity helps you a little."

"Mogar may not be a god and doesn’t answer prayers, but at least it seems to listen to mages." Lith pondered.

"Yes and no." Baba Yaga shook her head. "We are all children of Mogar, and the world energy enters our cores to become mana every day. Our bodies are comprised of all elements, or we wouldn’t have Fusion Magic.

"Each one of us is much smaller and weaker than Mogar, but we are not much different from our planet."