Ch 3 – Dad’s back!

"By channeling your mana, you can create structured formations. These take the form of Magic Circles. They are essential for the formation of magic and can be drawn in a medium for ease of use..."

'BORING!'

The cute teen mustered all her willpower to pay attention at the boring lecture.

It was not that the mage was bad or wrong... Just that she already knew everything he was saying.

Based on his knowledge and the current Mana-pool and Mana Control of this body, he could probably already cast some intermediate level magic.

"Master."

"Yes, Princess"

"What about skipping the Magic Circle and using your mana to take the form and cast the magic?"

"Ah... That's... Possible for very advanced magicians... It's extremely hard though and takes decades to master a single spell. I can only cast one such magic."

As he lifted his left hand while muttering some words to himself, a small flame burned on his fingertip.

Match.

One of the most basic magics of the Fire Attribute, second in simplicity only to the Spark fire-magic.

Necro was positive she could do the same... But realizing the level of her Master, showing it to him would only bring her trouble.

"Incredible!"

Over the years, Necro slowly started talking more. Enough that one could forget it took almost a decade for even her relatives to hear her voice. She was, however, still very much a shy girl.

Her learning of magic progressed smoothly albeit at a far quicker pace than expected. She easily learned and remembered all the circles for basic magics from all the attributes she was apt for. That is, that her master thought she was apt for. She would train Dark magic and Necromancy alone in her room at night. Sending undead insects outside to explore and trying to recover her former power.

Magicians were evaluated in several fashions: Mana Quality, Quantity, Density and Casting efficiency. To simplify and standardize the leveling, the Magician Headquarters of the Divine Institute came up with a system. The Gem System. This system categorized magicians in Gemstones, those were based on the material necessary to contain the mana of a given magician.

Glass, Quartz, Amethyst, Garnet, Peridot, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, Tourmaline, Diamond.

The 10-class system made easy to measure a Magician's potential and magic capacity.

However, it's not like it was very used. Only one in a hundred was able to use magic... and to most, that was limited to the most basic magic of a single element. Actual magicians where one in a thousand, and even those, would rarely ever reach the 4th class, Garnet.

Soleir was a Tourmaline-Class Magician. Casting efficiency was not exactly the strongest point of dark magic, which required sacrifices, catalysts, and media. Him having reached this class was an evidence of his outstanding genius. The system was rigged from the beginning. dark magic was far less efficient than Elemental magic, which in turn was also less efficient than Light Magic.

The system was made so that only Holy magicians were able to reach the highest classes. Even more so, it was rigged so that the only Diamond magician was the Pope himself.

The use of ancient artifacts was able to boost the abilities and aptitude for magicians, adventurers, and soldiers. The church however, used its influence to gather and maintain under them all known artifacts. Only those rarely found in dungeons were available, and the church would pay unsurmountable amounts to take them, leading most who found artifacts to simply take the money and retire. One can easily guess who the church gave those artifacts to.

Cardinals, Archbishops, the Pope himself. The high clergy was always above the ruby-class.

Necro was currently in between the Garnet and Peridot classes. She had no way of exactly pointing out her results without tools. But his experience told him so. For humans, magic was military power. For Necro, it was freedom.

When he first developed the theory of Non-Attribute magic, he was said to be a Genius... That was... Until the church realized Non-Attribute magic posed a serious threat to the system. The simpler the magic, the more efficient, the less mana necessary to cast it. Soleir's theory stated that so long as one is able to realize the phenomena, any magic could become attribute neutral. The mere mention of Healing magic becoming something disconnected from the church was enough to shake the very foundations of the current political balance. Soleir, a previous researcher at the Divine Institute, was excommunicated and hunted down. His very existence was a danger to the church.

Necro's legend started spreading among the general populace after she went to the nearby town with her mother once.

The princess with red eyes and a dark hair the color of night itself. Her image, wearing a renaissance black dress with white details and parasol, her dress fluttering together with her mantle with the cold breeze that came down the mountains, burned itself into the minds of the people who bore witness. As she and her family seldom left the mansion, many theories and gossip surfaced, trying to explain why the royal family was this reserved. A particularly strong conspiracy theory was that the royal family was composed of Vampires. Vlad Tepes was already known for his lack of humanity and piety. Stretching that with the fact that his wife and children had wax-like skin was already a pretty small flex... His daughter's red eyes particularly strengthened that theory. It wouldn't be long before his enemies would make their move based off of it.

Unaware of the things happening in the background, Necro studied magic diligently on her own, while faking her progress so as to not be exposed.

*knock*

"Necky? Where's my sweet Black Iris?"

Her father's voice scared her, making her dissipate the mana she was using to train.

"Dad!? You're back!"

She ran towards him, jumping into his arms.

"You've grown so much... But from what your mother told me; it seems you've already stopped growing right?"

"Yeah... It's been almost a year..."

Vlad contemplated the figure of her cute little daughter, fiddling with her dress. She'd grown spectacularly, now a cute young woman.

"haah~" He exhaled. "I never expected to age this quickly... It's almost about time you get married."

"Eh?!"

Her reaction was priceless. Her head tilting sideways as she stared at him blankly.

"Don't worry, I'm not giving my baby-girl away... You can choose your partner with you mother soon enough.

She'd completely forgotten for a second that she was the oldest daughter of someone comparable to a king.