Chapter 14: Dual Enhancements

“So you’re telling me you found this thing in the library?” Alice checked the front and back covers. “There’s no title or anything.”

“Look inside. It’s even worse.”

With a yawn, Alice rubbed her eyes awake and opened the notebook. “What’s this language?”

“That’s what I want to know,” Ariella said as she paced around their room. “And I guess you don’t?”

“No, I’ve never cared to learn any languages other than our own.”

Ariella sighed. “Is there someone I could ask?”

“Why not the library? If it works as you said it does, then you might find the right book.”

“But that sounds too vague, doesn’t it? There’s no way it would work.”

“Well, you said it was an older language, so you could ask the language teacher. Maybe she knows someone.”

“You’re right. That’s perfect. I’ll have to find her later since I have that class to go to.”

“When’s that?” Alice yawned.

“Now.” Giving Alice a hug for her help, Ariella grabbed the books she needed for the class. “Oh, one more thing. Do you know someone named Chloe? She’s a mage.”

“Did you get her last name?”

“No.”

“No idea,” Alice fell onto her bed as Ariella rushed out of the room and to her class.

“Welcome everyone. I’m sure everyone knows by now, but I am Professor Ironheart. While I won’t get into the background of enhancement magic, I will explain what this class entails. We will see each other for three hours once a week. One hour will be a regular class where we go over something new. Another is practicing what we learned for the day, and the last hour will be the free period of the class. During that hour, everyone will improve their craft. You all have shown me something impressive. You don’t have to pick that specific thing, but I want everyone to be working on something involving enhancement magic, and for that hour, this classroom will no longer be a classroom, but a lab where we are all improving and helping each other. Including myself.”

To her surprise, the classroom had more people than expected. Considering a student needed to be well versed in all aspects of enhancement magic, and especially after the test she took, Ariella only expected three, maybe four people at most considering Combat 301 barely had any students, but to her surprise there were nine others.

“Oh, before we continue, there will be a presentation due by next class. For this presentation, I’m only asking for one thing, and that is to present your specialty. As I mentioned, everyone here has shown me something during the practical examination that impressed me, and if we want to uplift each other and improve our craft, everyone should know what we’re working on so we can help each other easier and better.”

The hour went by in a flash as Ariella furiously wrote every bit of information Professor Ironheart was teaching. The class was leagues above the advanced one, and even if there were some parts that she already knew, everything else was brand new, and the part that stuck out to her the most was using multiple enhancements at once.

It was something she knew was possible in theory, but was never about to make it a reality. It was how she learned to section off an enhancement skill and be able to use it on more than just her body, but her weapon at the same time. Yet she couldn’t understand how to use two completely different spells at the same time.

“Does anyone have questions?” Professor Ironheart asked.

Ariella eagerly raised her hand, and when the professor called on her, she spoke. “Why is this not taught in advanced enhancements?”

“Because it’s not something anyone can do. It’s identical to dual-casting spells. You must have the mental capacity to not only keep two enhancements channeled, but to cast them, and have the mana to do so.”

“While I didn’t have a teacher to help me when I was younger, I tried to learn how to apply more than one, but I could never do so. At least looking at it, it doesn’t seem difficult or anything, and it’s not as if it was a spell I was missing.”

“The intertwining of enhancements is the key to using more than one. It’s a delicate process when you first do it, but when you learn which parts of an enhancement can attach themselves to another, it becomes easier and quicker to cast. Now, there are other ways to use more than one enhancement that are opposites of each other, but they’re not permanent ways to do so. However, we’ll be covering all of this at a later date.”

Before Professor Ironheart could continue, Ariella flipped to the next page, read what was there, and cast strengthening enhancement, canceled it, then used enhanced armor. After getting the feel for both of them back to back, she drew the magic circles next to each other, then began erasing and drawing parts back together.

“Miss Ariella,” Professor Ironheart finally interrupted. “Care to share with the class what you’ve been doing?”

“I first wanted to see how they felt when I used them. I thought maybe that would be a quick way to find out where to connect the two enhancements, but then I realized I could just draw both of them and see what would work that way.”

“And have you discovered anything?”

“I found out that not every enhancement can be woven together, but for these two at least, yeah, they can and I think I know how to do it.”

“Then let’s see it in action.”

“If you don’t mind.”

“Of course not. If you could find that out on your own, then I would love to witness it.”

After the hint she was given and doing a quick test on paper, Ariella thought she understood how intertwining two enhancements worked. They had to combine harmoniously at just the right spots.

“If I do this,” she mumbled as she began casting both enhancements simultaneously. “Then I do this,” Ariella continued while connecting the two spells. “And there.” It wasn’t easy, but after connecting the two, the enhancements activated. “I feel it.”

Professor Ironheart clapped his hands. “I’m impressed. Simultaneously casting two spells, like you did, is not something that many people can do. Normally, we cast one, then weave the second one into the first. It’s the safest and easiest way, but it takes more mana and it takes longer to cast them both.”

“So if I can do that faster-“

“Then you’ll always be at an advantage.”

“I have one more question,” Ariella said as she sat down.

All eyes were on her. Some were surprised by her ability to grasp the concept and not only apply it but to improve on it too. But others were annoyed that the lesson was interrupted.

“And what would that be?”

“Are all the combinations known already? They need to be harmonious, so a strengthening enhancement works with an armor enhancement, but a sharpening enhancement for a weapon wouldn’t work with the armor enhancement. But is there really no way?”

“Maybe. I’m not the type of researcher who likes to disregard a possibility when there is so much to discover, but as of now, we have tried every combination possible. However, I would love to see what you do with it. I won’t spoil it for the rest of the class, but your specialties may be what we were looking for. Now then, we’ll continue these demonstrations at the start of the second hour. Until then, let’s make sure everyone understands how to cast multiple enhancements at once.”