In these days, the Betty territory, free from the harassment of the Blood Race, gradually recovered its vitality.
Dini often begged her brother Dio to take her out for walks. However, the ruins along the way and the lingering grief on the faces of the residents were deeply etched into her young soul. She witnessed firsthand the wounds brought by war and the fragility of life.
One day, she mustered her courage, ran to her father, and looked up at him with an unprecedentedly serious expression. “Dad, I want to learn magic!”
The Betty Patriarch was slightly taken aback. Looking at the firm light shining in his daughter’s clear eyes, his heart was filled with a mix of emotions. There was both relief and an indescribable heartache.
He knelt down to meet her gaze. “Dini, why do you suddenly want to learn magic?”
Dini clenched her small fists, her voice clear and powerful. “I don’t want to just be protected in the rear when monsters attack anymore! I want to be like Brother Dio and Sister Sarah. I want to have the ability to protect my family and our territory!”
His daughter’s words hit the Betty Patriarch’s heart like a heavy hammer. He fell silent for a moment before nodding heavily. “Alright, Dad will teach you.”
However, things did not go as smoothly as expected. The best magic tutors in the Betty family had all fallen in the previous fierce battles with the Blood Race. Although the Betty Lord’s own cultivation was decent, he was more skilled in territorial management and martial arts coordination. He lacked the experience and the necessary patience to guide a child with no foundation to perceive and condense elemental power.
For several consecutive days, the study echoed with the Patriarch’s solemn explanations and Dini’s faint gasps from her efforts. No matter how her father explained the tricks of elemental perception or demonstrated the most basic mana guidance, Dini’s face would turn red from concentration, yet she remained unable to capture any elemental energy, let alone guide it.
Watching the light of hope in his daughter’s eyes gradually dim through repeated failures, replaced by frustration and self-doubt, the Lord felt a deep sense of helplessness.
Dio saw all of this, and his heart ached. He felt for his sister’s persistence and disappointment, but he was powerless. He followed a pure martial arts path, and the cultivation system for Battle Qi was different from magic. Regarding the predicament his sister faced, he possessed the strength to cleave stone, but he could not provide a shred of substantive help.
As for his older sister, Rose, she had been leaving early and returning late during this period. Her expression carried an inscrutable quality, as if she were busy with some unknown affairs and had no time to attend to Dini’s magical initiation.
“Brother… am I very stupid?” After another futile attempt, Dini looked up, her eyes rimmed with red and her voice choking back tears.
Dio felt a pang of pain. He quickly knelt down and gently rubbed his sister’s hair with his rough palm, softening his voice. “How could that be? Dini is very smart. It’s just…” He paused, searching for the right words. “It’s just that the learning method might not be right.”
He pondered for a moment, his gaze gradually becoming firm. He couldn’t let his sister blindly hit a wall like this anymore. “Let’s go,” he said, taking Dini’s small hand. “Brother will take you to find other teachers! They might have a better way.”
He led Dini to find Izer, Swan, Sarah, and Emma, who were resting in their temporary residence.
“Teach you?”
Sarah looked at Dio and the little girl beside him, who was shyly clutching her brother’s sleeve with slightly red eyes. She was a bit surprised. Was an introduction to magic something that even needed to be taught?
Dio sighed and explained Dini’s struggle to learn magic in detail, his face written with helplessness. “My father isn’t good at initiation, and I know nothing about it myself. I had no choice but to trouble you all. Each of you has your own strengths in magic. Perhaps… you might have some unique way to help Dini?”
Emma was the first to soften. She immediately walked over to Dini and knelt down to look her in the eye, her tone gentle. “Don’t worry, Dini. Learning magic is a bit difficult at the beginning. Many people are like that.”
As she spoke, she gently held Dini’s small hand, attempting to use her own mild healing mana to carefully perceive and guide any mana circuits that might exist within Dini’s body. Sarah also put away her usual sharpness as the top student and patiently knelt to the side. She used the most vivid language possible to reconstruct the concept of elements for Dini.
However, perhaps because the continuous failures had already formed a thick barrier in Dini’s heart, or perhaps because the method still failed to touch the key, her progress remained minimal. Feeling the expectant gazes of her brother and sisters, Dini’s small face was a mix of anxiety and disappointment. She was almost on the verge of tears.
Just then, Swan spoke up and asked Dio, “Senior Dio, has Dini tested her Element Affinity?”
Dio nodded, his tone carrying a faint sigh. “She has. Dini’s Element Affinity… isn’t high. Although she possesses affinity for all basic elements, every single one is only at a level just over 10%.”
That value echoed clearly in the room.
Emma realized the situation and said softly with sympathy, “That Element Affinity… it truly would be difficult to sense elemental power.”
Everyone present, except for Izer, was a standout on the path of magic. Sarah, the top student of the Starry Academy, was exceptionally talented; sensing elemental power was almost as natural as breathing to her. Emma and Swan were also talented, and their entry into magic had been smooth. They were used to a genius’s perspective. Now, facing a beginner with ordinary talent — one who could even be said to be on the verge of the passing line — they were all at a loss. Conventional methods seemed to have lost their effect.
Izer had originally been watching quietly from the side like an outsider. Suddenly, Emma seemed to remember something. Her gaze turned directly toward him, filled with curiosity and expectation. “Junior Izer, speaking of which… how did you sense elemental power back then? How long did it take?”
This question instantly drew everyone’s attention to Izer. That was right! If Dini’s affinity of just over 10% was this difficult, then how did Izer, whose Element Affinity was a mere 5%, manage it back then?
Meeting everyone’s gaze, Izer calmly spoke two words: “3 days.”
“3 days?” Dio was stunned, subconsciously looking at his sister. “Today is already Dini’s 5th day.”
He couldn’t help but ask the others, “What about you all? How long did it take back then?”
Emma thought back, feeling a bit embarrassed. “About… 3 hours.”
Swan was concise. “2 hours.”
Sarah’s tone was flat, as if she were talking about the most ordinary thing. “Less than half an hour.”
‘Hehe,’ Izer chuckled inwardly, a mix of helplessness and a hint of envy spreading through him.
He thought back to when Professor Claire taught him magic — she had simply thrown the theoretical books at him, gave a rough explanation, and then adopted a policy of complete neglect. His path to learning magic could be described as fumbling alone in the dark; every step had been accompanied by countless failures and self-doubt. These genius seniors and juniors would probably never understand the hardships he faced back then.
Sarah’s gaze fell on Izer again. “Brother Izer, it seems you have the most experience. Why don’t you try teaching Dini?”
Dini also seemed to grab onto a final straw. She walked up to Izer, looking up at him with eyes full of expectation and pleading. “Brother Izer…”
Looking at Dini’s pure and longing eyes, Izer sighed to himself. He knew his method might be a bit bizarre.
“My way… might be a bit extreme,” he said, choosing his words carefully as he tried to provide a warning in advance. “And the process will be very hard. It might not be suitable for Dini…”
However, Dini shook her head vigorously, her gaze firm. “Brother Izer, I’m willing to learn no matter how hard it is! I don’t want to be unable to do anything anymore!”
Izer looked at Dio and gave another solemn reminder, his tone even carrying a subtle hint of caution. “Senior Dio, my method really is hard… unusually hard. I’m afraid… you’ll feel bad for her when the time comes.”
Dio looked at his sister’s determined profile and remembered her resolution in his previous life, when she preferred death over submission. Back then, the vampire-transformed Dini didn’t want to continue harming people, yet she couldn’t bring herself to end it…
Thinking of this, he felt a pang of pain in his heart. He believed his sister possessed a resilience that surpassed her age.
“Teach her without worry,” Dio’s voice was steady and powerful. “Whether it is martial arts or magic, the path to obtaining power is destined to be covered in thorns. None of them are easy; I understand this truth. Besides, I believe in Dini. She can handle the hardship!”
Hearing this, a strange expression appeared on Izer’s face. He hesitated repeatedly before finally speaking. “Then… Senior, you must first swear that no matter what happens in a moment, you absolutely cannot hit me.”
Dio was taken aback by this nonsensical request and laughed. “You are teaching my sister magic. Why would I hit you?” He truly could not understand the logic behind it.
However, Izer was exceptionally insistent, his expression even turning serious. “If you don’t swear, I don’t dare to teach.”
Seeing Izer’s attitude, which didn’t seem faked, and looking at his sister whose eyes were full of longing, Dio followed Izer’s request despite being full of suspicion. He swore solemnly upon the Betty family honor that no matter how the teaching process went, he would never lay a hand on Izer.
Having received Dio’s guarantee, Izer seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, finally daring to let loose. He turned to the group, cleared his throat, and began to explain his unique teaching philosophy. “For a beginner with ordinary talent, vague theoretical explanations or relying on external forces to forcibly guide perception often have minimal effect.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, before slowly uttering his core point. “Practice leads to true knowledge! Only through personal experience can one truly understand!”
As he spoke, he held up one finger in front of Dini. At the tip of his finger, an extremely weak, almost imperceptible electric arc quietly emerged, making a faint crackling sound. It was the lowest-tier lightning magic — **[Lightning Flash]**. However, the scale of this **[Lightning Flash]** had been deliberately suppressed to the limit by Izer, making it look incredibly weak.
Dini blinked curiously, watching the tiny jumping arc. She whispered, “Brother Izer, why is your electric arc so small? It feels… kind of cute!”
Izer’s Element Affinity was pitifully low to begin with, and combined with his freakishly precise mana control, suppressing the power to this extent was not difficult.
Emma looked at the tiny arc and asked doubtfully, “Dini, did you see how it works?”
Dini shook her head honestly. “I didn’t…”
Emma couldn’t help but look at Izer, her tone carrying doubt. “Junior Izer, it seems your ‘practice leads to true knowledge’ isn’t working either?”
Izer shook his head and replied calmly, “No, my teaching has only just begun.”
Before his voice had even faded, under everyone’s astonished gazes, the seemingly “cute” little arc at Izer’s fingertip suddenly flashed. As if it had a life of its own, it struck Dini’s arm with precision!
“Ah!” Dini was caught off guard and let out a short scream. Her entire body jolted from the shock, and her small frame instantly stiffened. A strong sensation of numbness and stinging pain spread from the point of impact.
However, Izer did not stop.
One must know that when he was learning magic, he didn’t have such a “considerate” teacher. He had deliberately provoked other students in private, and the various Tier 1 spells he had been hit with were far more powerful than this.
Expressionless, he tapped his finger. Another, then another, and another miniature version of **[Lightning Flash]** shot out in succession, landing ruthlessly on different parts of Dini’s body.
“Waaa…” Dini finally couldn’t hold it back. Stimulated by the continuous electric shocks, she burst into tears. Her small body curled up, and large tears began to fall.
This sudden and practically “cruel” teaching method stunned everyone present! Sarah and Emma’s eyes widened instantly, almost unable to believe what they were seeing. Swan also subconsciously covered her mouth, her eyes full of shock.
After the initial daze, Dio watched his sister being shocked until she was crying and trembling. An uncontrollable fury surged straight to his head! The veins on his forehead bulged, and his face turned frighteningly grim. Almost instinctively, he took a step forward and tightly grabbed Izer’s wrist as he was preparing to release magic again.
Dio’s voice was bone-chilling. Every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, containing a world-shaking rage.
“I — zer! This — is — what — you — meant — by — ‘prac — tice — leads — to — true — knowl — edge’?”
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