The Greatest Sinner

Two hours is not such a long period of time. It will pass pretty quickly, especially if a person is doing something in that time.

<Hmm, a few days ago, I would have just gone to the library and spent those two hours reading some books, but now there's no point in me going there.>

Evan had several options, one of which was to spend those two hours on "Creation," but he immediately dismissed the idea. He wouldn't have time to condense many drops of "Void Liquid" in two hours. It was better to postpone it for later when he had more time.

Moreover, thanks to his knowledge from thousands of books, Evan knew how many drops of "Void Liquid" he needed to get to the next level. To be honest, that number scared him a little, this time, he would need not 1000 drops but 5000 drops.

Sure, after Evan had made the breakthrough, the speed of his "Creation" increased significantly, but not at five times. Moreover, the "Barriers" on the "One-Pointed Star" stage were much harder to penetrate than the previous ones.

Each "Barrier" broken in the stage of "One-Pointed Star"  was comparable to breaking three "Barriers" in the previous stage at once.

<By the way, to become a student of the first rank, you need to reach  "One-Pointed Star," but to become the second ranked student, you only need to break through one "Barrier"... is it really that hard?>

Evan thought to himself as he headed for the arena. He thought he would brighten his wait by watching the other apprentices fight. Evan also wanted to think about what he had learned.

<To become a third-ranked apprentice, you must break the second Barrier, but to become a fourth-ranked student, you must reach the "Two- Pointed Star." Those who break the first "Barrier" at the "Two- Pointed Star" stage can become a teacher of the first rank. I guess I won't be able to progress as fast as I did before.> Evan concluded as he reached the arena.

Evan had no intention of becoming a teacher, he didn't want to tie himself to this place in any way. Sure, he could become a teacher and leave town after a while, but that could be fraught with problems.

Evan had quite a few things on his mind at the moment. First, he wanted to learn how to create spells by himself. He understood that it might take years to master this art, but he was eager to get started.

Second, he needed to choose his first level spells and get into training. Third, he had to find the members of the "Demonic Tree," and to do that, he needed to find an informant. If there weren't one in this city, he'd have to look elsewhere.

What's more, Evan wanted to do experiments related to the "Gust." To do this, he needed power, money, and resources. At the same time, he had to be mindful of "Creation" and breaking through "Barriers."

As Evan had already become a first-ranked student, he had nowhere else to rush. He had 10 years to become a student of the second rank, 25 years to become a third-ranked student, and 50 years to become a fourth-ranked one. Of course, these were all deadlines, and the vast majority of apprentices progressed much longer.

Evan didn't hold on to this Academy much, though. It was only a step up for him. Of course, the Academy was an extremely useful place. Here one could complete tasks and fight in the arena, which indirectly influenced the acceleration of progress. Moreover, not to forget the rooms for "Creation," alchemy, and blacksmith stores.

Evan spent the next two hours watching the first ranked students` fight. One young man surprised him, he was a "Summoner" and summoned an Earth Golem and Stone Golem to help him. They were powerful, and his opponent could do nothing with these two.

The first level of the "Summoning Magic" spells helped the magician to summon living creatures, not only roots, chains, or stone spikes.

Evan wasn't too impressed with these fights, though. He was even bored, in his opinion, Freya was much stronger. Except, of course, that she hadn't yet reached the" One-Pointed Star." Her movements were fast and precise, and her spells suited her fighting style and personality perfectly.

<Well, the lesson should start soon, I need to hurry up> Evan thought and left the arena.

...

A few minutes, later he was already in the classroom.  Besides Evan, a large number of the other students were interested in this lesson, too. The auditorium was packed, and Evan could hardly find a place to sit down. The subject was of great interest to many students. The teacher was also a very popular man.

Evan did not understand why there were students from other classes and even other ranks, but he decided that it did not matter. The most important thing was the lesson itself, everything else was of secondary importance.

When the auditorium was full of students, it was time for the lesson to begin. A tall man in a gray mantle entered the room. He adjusted his glasses and looked at the packed audience calmly said: "I see you are interested in the topic of today's lesson, well, then it's time to begin."

It was Arve, he rarely taught any lessons, but each one was very detailed, thoughtful, and clear.

"Let me tell you right off the bat, spell creation is a very difficult, time-consuming, and little-successful process. It will take most mages several years to figure out the very basics, but that is not the main problem. Suppose you learn to create spells, what do you think is the biggest problem in that case?"

Arve paused for a moment before continuing: "Even if you create dozens of spells, there's no guarantee that any one of them will be stronger than the already invented and commonly known ones. For example, to create a spell that's better than "Fire Ball" in every way is already a daunting task, and that's considering it's a zero-level spell.

Everyone listened to him carefully, no one even whispered.

"Genius mages spend years trying to create spells better than those already known to this world. But  an incredibly small number of people can create new spells that are better than the others."

Arve adjusted his glasses and spoke slowly: "I want to warn each of you. If you are not prepared to spend decades of your life on countless attempts and experiments, you had better not waste your time on it. In this field of activity, you have to go all the way, and only then, perhaps, your wasted time and effort will pay off. Now let's get to the lesson."

  Arve's "Warp" spun, and a fireball appeared in his hand.

"Let's start with the very first step in spell creation, which is changing the simplest characteristic in any other spell. The easiest thing to change is color, which is where I advise you to start."

After these words, Arve put his other hand forward, and another fireball appeared in the palm of his hand, only it was white instead of orange.

"Now I'm going to draw two Magical Circles of zero level spell- "Fire Ball" on the board.. There will be a subtle but significant difference between them, which has changed the color of the fireball, but the other characteristics were not affected."