Luna stopped and looked at Silas. His sudden question threw her off. Who won't love magic? It is because she loved magic that she wanted to become a mage.
Even if she wasn't fitted for one.
She nodded. "Yes. I love magic."
"Me too." Silas lied. "Just move on your magecraft with love, passion and such feeling. Don't think about others. They have their own world and you have your own world. Just focus on you, Luna. Now, I will show you two ways to improve your crest."
"Right now, your crest doesn't really qualify as a Tier 2 spell." Silas explained. "But don't worry, it is not Tier 1 either. It is definitely higher than Tier 1."
"Then, why did your Pierce crack the barrier?" Luna asked.
"It is because I manipulated Pierce to perform two tasks. The first is to slam the barrier with a lot of force, making the barrier quite weak. And I put more mana behind the mana beam to fully penetrate the barrier. The mana consumption is still in the range of Tier 1 but you need high level mana control."
"So, don't worry. No first circle mage would pierce your barrier but you need to worry about a group of first circle mages." Silas explained.
"There are two ways to improve your barrier. What do you like in your barrier? Activation speed or Strong outer wall."
Luna silenced for a few minutes and answered. "I like it both. Can't I have both?"
Silas smiled. "You greedy mage, you can but you need a third circle for that. So I am going to teach you both spells. You have to combine yourself to create a Tier 3 spell yourself. Got it?"
Luna nodded.
Silas got closer to her and started explaining the crest in detail. Although she created the crest herself, because she didn't have a master, she didn't understand why the crest worked fundamentally.
In short, she lacked the basics of mages.
Silas guessed that she studied quite late in the magecraft field. Well, he was also the same but he got talent and influence from Viremont.
His mother hired a Sixth circle mage as his master for two years straight. And he absorbed every bit of knowledge from that mage.
Just thinking that mage hardened his soul. He would not like to meet her again if possible.
He explained the basics of craft.
Time passed quietly and slowly inside the carriage. Soon, the carriage came to a stop.
Old Gin opened the window and said, "Sir, it is lunch time."
"Oh really, I don't realize that. Come to think of it, my back hurts from all that sitting." Silas stood up and kicked the sleeping Roland.
"Wake up, you lazy knight."
Roland woke up and immediately flew from the carriage. Silas stepped onto his body and landed perfectly on the ground.
He inhaled the fresh air and smiled. "This is a good start."
He felt a presence approaching from behind. He turned to see Luna.
"Go rest. Today's lessons are over. I will resume in the morning." Silas sent her away.
Luna nodded and thanked him for the insight.
Ice-pick came from the side and smirked.
"What?"
"Nothing, you just seem so reliable. I listen to your lessons and they are so easy to understand. Although I can't use magecraft like your race, your insight helps a lot in satisfying my curiosity."
"I see. Then pay me money." Silas asked shamelessly. He didn't care that he was a noble.
Ice-pick smiled, lifting up her chest. "Haha. Do you think I am broke? I come from… I am rich. Here, take it for lessons I will be listening to. This should be enough right?"
She took out a small bag from her breast pocket and threw it to Silas. He failed to catch and smacked into his face.
"Pervert." Ice-pick murmured.
"Can't do anything about it." Silas sighed, picking up the bag.
It wasn't heavy so his expectation was not that great. He peeked into the bag and saw jewelry inside. He quickly closed and put the bag inside his pocket.
He smiled and went to Ice-pick who was looking at the chef, setting up a meal.
He went and hugged her from behind, resting his head on her soft shoulder, inhaling her sweet perfume.
"I will marry you myself, Miss Ice-pick Cube-loa Sinne." Silas said, lifting her up like a princess.
"Haha. Let me kiss you. Oh. You look so beautiful today."
" Hand of me. Stop. Stop." Ice-pick swung her hands, trying to break free from his embrace.
She then placed her hands on his shoulder and channeled Chill. He shivered, letting go of her.
Ice-pick immediately backed away. Silas flashed a smile.
After lunch, things went back to normal. At least for Silas.
He ignored Ice-pick's piercing gazes and resumed his reading. Luna was practicing her spell quietly.
But the constant nagging of Ice-pick made her lose focus and started a conversation with her. The conversation details were lost on Silas but they were most likely discussing their love life.
He needed to stop her from influencing Luna.
Roland was sleeping as usual. Well, not really sleeping because the energy inside his body was raging wildly.
Then, when the sun was setting, the carriage stopped. This time to camp for a night. Of course, Silas slept in the carriage alone. After all, he was the young master in this group.
He didn't care that there were women.
Roland said that he didn't act like a knight but Silas was not a knight so his guilt tripping was unnecessary and futile.
Silas took his sword and started sparring with Roland. It was called a spar but in reality, it was one sided beat down from Silas's side. He had ordered his young knight to stay in guard while he mercilessly executed his technique wildly.
After that, Silas wiped off the sweat from his forehead, looking satisfied with his training.
"Wow. My blood is pumping wild." He laughed.
Roland sheathed his sword and walked over to Silas, looking up and down. He didn't even change the rhythm of his breath. That was the physique of someone with a fourth circle on his heart.
Silas was not jealous at all. To achieve a circle in the heart, you have to go through an immense amount of blood, sweat and pain. And even that was not a guaranteed way of achieving a circle.
"How is my technique? Awesome right?" Silas said.
"Yeah. It is awesome. It reminds me of my past when I started walking. Ah, such a youth behind your sword." Roland said sarcasmly.
"Joke aside, I can teach you about swords."
Silas lifted up his hand, stopping Roland from speaking. "Are you nuts? I am not going to train with you. I am just maintaining my current state."
"But your talent in the sword is good." Roland came and whispered. "Better than our four knights. Even though you are just swinging your sword, I can see the improvement you make. The change was so drastic."
"Probably because of my grandfather." Silas commented, not caring about that.
He then gave his sword to the servant. The servant was not Old Gin but another one. He was a middle aged man with laid back hair.
Old Gin said that he trained this man personally to take his role in case he died.
Old people were scary. How can they say that they will die and still work? Silas was not complaining at all.
He liked Old Gin a lot. The old man was calm and understood what he was talking about. He also attended his business well.
The middle-aged servant grabbed his sword and gave him a cold tower.
"Thanks, Max. You can go now." Silas said.
Before the sun set, Silas asked Luna to set up the barrier round the camp site. And to be sure, he also added a few traps and alerts.
But he would rather let Luna do it because her mana concealment was better than him. Every spell she deployed didn't have a presence.
It blended with the natural mana quite well. It was as if she didn't want someone to see her spell.
From a typical mage's view, it was quite sad. Denying your own creation.
After that, Silas ate outside. He didn't want the smell to linger inside the carriage.
Then he fell asleep in the carriage.
Silas woke up around midnight. It was from the nightmare. They are becoming more frequent lately. If this continues, his physical condition will suffer from it.
Silas stood up. There was still so much he needed to do. The time limit was two years.
After that the outsiders will slowly enter into this world and begin full scale war. He didn't have the time to rest or to lie in bed.
But his heart was heavy. For some reason, he didn't want to do that.
He didn't know why.
Of course, he lied.
Silas rubbed his face with his hands briefly before going back to sleep. Another nightmare followed.
It would take about one month to reach Palm Mountain with the pace they were going. It was neither fast nor slow.