The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

                                                    Zaos wondered if he should tell Ameria something more to motivate her, but she didn't want to spoil her any more than she already was spoiled. That being said, he didn't like hiding the truth either. If someone was working hard, that someone had the right to know if they were progressing at a decent pace or not.

"You are doing well," Zaos said. "It took me three years to be able to utilize elemental magic with my other skills. You are progressing quite fast, so I assume that you can reach a decent level of power in a few more weeks. The first person I taught had to train hard for an entire month to be able to copy a single one of my enhanced arrows."

"You already have another student?" Ameria frowned.

"Student? I guess so… her name is Tyra, the alchemist girl that I mentioned before," Zaos said. "Didn't I mention that I teach her magic?"

"No, you didn't," Ameria said.

"Well, it is just a minor detail," Zaos shrugged. "Besides, what is the difference between being the first or the second in learning that kind of technique?"

"… How fast do I have to cast the spell to reach a decent level?" Ameria asked.

"Let's see… decent archers can hit their enemies if they go through the whole motion of picking an arrow until shooting in three seconds," Zaos said. "If you can cast a Wind Sword in three seconds with your eyes open, we can proceed to the next stage."

"All right, I will reach that level in one week," Ameria declared.

                                                    Zaos almost laughed at her, but he stopped himself since that would be rude toward a princess and because Ameria would be enraged if he had done that. Regardless, even Zaos, who had been practicing magic for years, had to try hard for three months before he could fire the elemental swords in three seconds. At first, he needed seven seconds to cast those spells… After finishing that lesson, Zaos went to the magic school and then went to talk with Edea about those spells.

"You already learned all of them?" Edea frowned. "Are you really a soldier son of that muscle head?"

"Again, please answer my question first…" Zaos sighed. "Is there something that is supposed to happen once all those spells are learned?"

"Well, yes," Edea said. "Once you learn all of them, you are supposed to be able to use any of them to alleviate the effects of simple diseases. At least that I read somewhere… probably because the formulas of the spells are so close to one another."

"Why? I never heard of something like that happening with other spells," Zaos said.

"Me neither, but since those spells are pretty old, we don't know why they are like that either," Edea replied. "The wizard who created them hundreds of years ago died leaving many mysteries behind, so it can't be helped. Few people managed to learn those since they couldn't use them to earn a lot of money, so few had the chance to study them over the years. If I remember correctly, something else was needed for that to happen… but I can't remember what it was. Still, I am pretty sure that the caster needed to know how to use another type of spell."

                                                    After checking his list of spells, Zaos concluded that the one she was mentioning was Detoxification. Since it basically had the same effects, not only it worked with poison, but also it worked with food poisoning. Regardless, once again, Zaos realized that the magic of that world had too many mysteries to be solved.

"Have you tried those spells on your mother?" Edea asked.

"I made her fever go away a few times, but on the days, she is feeling really tired, it always returns after a couple of hours," Zaos replied.

"I see…" Edea said, showing a complicated expression on her face,

"Anyway, I want to try spells that recover stamina, can you recommend any?" Zaos asked.

"Those are also complicated spells…" Edea said. "There are registers that those spells had been used in the past, but the knowledge of how to use them was lost."

"Lost?" Zaos frowned.

"Yeah, you know, there is a massive number of spells out there, but even though we have a magic school, few people specialize in certain types of spells," Edea explained. "So, over the years, the knowledge was lost probably because the few people who could use them passed away without finding students and things like that."

                                                    That was weird. The wizards of the past had plenty of time to find students, but if they didn't find it, why didn't they create magic books and sell them in order to spread knowledge? That was just way too weird…

"Aside from those you already have, I don't know what to recommend to you since the next ones are basically just a little improved version of the basic spells," Edea said. "There are some changes here and there, but overall, you just have to use more mana casting the spell. I assume you can do that."

"Yeah, I can," Zaos said.

                                                    Things were getting much more complicated than Zaos had imagined. Still, he couldn't, nor he wouldn't give up so soon. Zaos knew that the quickest way for a mage to make money was by selling magic books, and he also knew that the magic academy could help with that.

"Do you have any documents here regarding the research of healing magic?" Zaos asked. "I want to study them, even if they are mostly failures."

"Indeed, we have some documents," Edea said. "You aren't the first person able to use magic that decided to find a spell that could heal some advanced diseases and help people with weak bodies… Still, that might make you feel even more depressed."

"Well, it is a risk I will have to accept," Zaos said.

"In that case, come in three days, I will have to organize them and that will take a decent amount of time," Edea said.

"Thank you for helping me, if you need help with anything, I will gladly do anything to repay the favor," Zaos said.

"I will keep that in mind," Edea said.