“The reason we are struggling so much with things like Alchemy and Forgemastering is because we got it all wrong. Since we have stepped into the academy, we have been looking at the problem from the wrong angle.

“Fake magic and all its branches are strict, full of rules and boundaries that the mage can never overcome. Fake mages can’t change the shape, size or even the temperature of a fireball, unless they rewrite the spell from scratch.

“True magic instead, is a free flow. There is no set number of steps or limits to what you can do, as long as you have the willpower and imagination to make it happen. Our problem since the beginning is that we are trying to beat a game at its own rules instead of making our own.

“Most of the things I have learned at the academy about tier four spells are redundant.

I could have managed to perform everything they explained so far at the Healer, Combat Magic and Advanced magic classes on my own. I simply lacked the ingenuity to connect the dots between what I already knew about tier three and below.

That’s why as soon as I learned the trick behind regrowing a limb or share life energy, I was already able to do it better with true magic. Forgemastering though, is something I am deeply ignorant about, hence my mistake.

Instead of focusing on runes and circles, I should have tried to understand the logic behind the mana pathways’ number and positioning. I should have studied what kind of form and properties a pseudo core needs to grant the enchanted item its effects.