I teleported us right outside the dome since the density of sel was better there. She focused her attention on me as I began the lesson.
"Let's start with the basics first. How would you define magic?"
"Magic… is the way we manipulate sel to produce results."
"It's not wrong but it lacks the most important element. Here's the definition that's universally approved in my world. "Magic is the art of precise sel manipulation". Do you see what the main point is here?"
"Is it… art?"
"No. The most important point is "precise". It's not just the most important point. It's everything. Let's take you as an example. Don't take it wrong but the truth is that the way you manipulate sel is no different from what a five-year-old child could do."
"What? I've been doing it for years, you know!"
"Okay, okay, don't get upset. Look at me. I'm twenty years old but I'm rank 4. You're twenty-three and rank 0. Do you know what the difference is between us?"
"You had someone to teach you?"
"So, you know. To be exact, it's not just "someone". It's the accumulation of knowledge from hundreds of generations. And this is what you've been lacking. You see, it's not impossible to rank up without any help but that's only something for extreme geniuses. For normal people like me and you, we need outside help to get anywhere."
"Rank 4 at twenty and you don't consider yourself a genius?"
"Hmm. That's a complicated topic. I'm not a genius but I'm… talented."
"Talented? Like those children who start with a large amount of sel and sel affinity?"
"No. This isn't talent. Sure, it'll give you a small head start at the beginning. But ranking up is the effort of a lifetime. Being one or two years in front of other people means nothing in the long run. Real talent is something different. Something that'll help you for your whole life. What do you think is the most important characteristic of talent in magic?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
"It's willpower. I was selected as someone special because my willpower was higher than the norm. That's the only thing that truly matters in sel manipulation."
"Willpower… Like, mental strength?"
"Exactly. Anyway, let's go back to our main topic. Precision is the most important factor when ranking up. Let's forget about sorcerers for now and only talk about mages since we're both mages. For us, the way of ranking up is very straightforward. We "just" need to "show" that we have a perfect mastery of a specific spell. Nothing more, nothing less."
"How do we do that?"
"The spell you're using all the time is metal molding, right? Do you know any other spells?"
"No. That's all I know."
"It's a bit of a shame because I won't be able to help with that, at least not directly. I'm a spatial mage, after all. But that's fine. Your goal for now will be to rank up using the metal molding spell. Which means you'll need to master that spell."
"How do I master a spell?"
"This is something that's been tested a lot in my world. Do you know? Sel is quite an interesting energy. Half of it follows a sort of scientific logic. The other half is yet to be understood but researchers don't think it follows any rules. Anyway, it's been proved that for a mage to rank up, they need to perform an average of 76 successful perfect casts of the same spell. Another name for ranking up is "being acknowledged by sel"."
"Being acknowledged? You say that like sel is a living being."
"Well, that's not completely wrong, in a sense. It's the remaining half that people in my world still don't understand about sel. It's real, though. There's such a thing as sel recognizing your efforts."
"How mysterious. What about a perfect cast? How do I do that?"
"That's where precision comes into play. Casting a spell perfectly is hard. Incredibly hard. It means you have a perfect understanding of the spell, of the way sel should move inside and outside your body, of the quantity of sel you need to use, and that your timing in all of these actions is exact. That's why people take an average of ten years to rank up in my world."
"Ten years… That's much faster than here. But then, you're twenty and rank 4? Is that because you're talented?"
"That's part of the reason. Enough about me. Do you understand now? First, you must completely understand a spell. Then you must cast it perfectly. Finally, you must repeat that around 76 times in a row. End of the lesson. Good luck."
I turned away and began leaving.
"Huh? W-wait, Tila!"
I turned back with a teasing smile.
"I'm kidding. Shall we get started now?"
"Ugh… Your humor's terrible."
"I know. Are you ready?"
She shook her head before relaxing again and taking on a determined expression.
"Yes."
The rest of the time was spent with me going into the details of each step. Still, I was only half joking when I said the lesson was over. Since we were of different affinities and I knew nothing about being a metal mage or how to cast metal molding, there was a limit on how much I could help. At best, I could only give general advice that applied to any affinity. Had she been a spatial mage, I could have applied the "systematic training" from my world, at least partially.
Fortunately, she had a decent understanding of the spell since she had been using it for so long. Her real issue was in precise manipulation. Ranking up wasn't a natural phenomenon. It normally doesn't come to people's mind to perfect a spell that much. Suuru herself was an example of that. Since her metal molding worked fine for her daily usage, she hadn't seen the need to constantly spend a lot of effort to make it just slightly more efficient. It was better to spend more time molding metal and earning money.
I heard that people in ancient times took a long time before figuring out the principles of ranking up. Just like I told Suuru, it was only because of great geniuses who were obsessed with magic and sel that such a thing became known. Considering this world knew about ranks too, it was probably something that happened naturally over time for any civilization, probabilistically.