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Seeing the new quest given to him already had Damion thinking of what to do. First he had to convince the Mage Association that testing and training a person to use magic too early was the wrong approach. Then he had to get them to teach children to sense and absorb mana.

The second part was probably the easier one, after all, people could naturally absorb mana. It was not hard to teach a person to actively sense it. Most should be able to manage that after just a single lesson. The real problem would be the nobles. They liked to give their kids a head start on the commoner children at the magic academies. Even going so far as teaching them strong spells ahead of time. Even if he was able to convince everyone to push back testing and training to 18, the noble families were unlikely to listen.

One thing was certain, even with the data he had, no one would listen to him. The Mage Association certainly was not going to upend the status quo just because Damion was a promising talent. There were two ways he could change the minds of the people, by force or by example.

By force meant he would need to likely reach S Rank or maybe the mythical S+ Rank before anyone would listen to him. At that point he could just make them do as he wanted. As much as Damion might enjoy forcing the nobles to comply with his rules for a change, he knew this was not a feasible solution. Who knew how long it would take him to reach S+ Rank. How many potential mages would lose out on their future in that time?

Which meant he needed to show them he was right. He of course could show them his scans, but he was just one freak in thousands of years of history. And he was not eager to reveal his multiple affinities to more people. No, he needed more examples. He needed a whole school of high talented individuals to show the Mage Association that his way was the right way. Only if he could show them definitively, would he be able to convince them.

The question was, how could he accomplish that? Was he just supposed to start his own school? What about when the Mage Association sent people around to test the children's affinities?

Finally, when the last person was scanned, Damion put his artifact away and looked to Mage Teft and Elicia to prepare to go back to Silver Spire. It had been a long day and while he had accomplished his mission, he now had a new problem to solve, one that would take at least a generation to actually fix.

"So, did you learn what you wanted to learn?" Mage Teft asked Damion as she drove them back to the school.

For years, he kept his mentor in the dark about his abilities and while he was not about to go and mention the Magic System itself. He felt it was time for Mage Teft to know a bit more about what he was capable of. Especially since she had already seen the scan of his magic core.

"Yes. I have determined that the way we are currently training mages and testing affinities, is detrimental to the development of all mages and by extension, the development of magic."

"A bold claim," Mage Teft responded.

"The scans I took with my artifact show that the Mage Association's testing crystals, push the affinity glyphs of a person into their core. This results in the mana in the core being strictly mana of that affinity, instead of neutral."

"You were tested, and you don't have the glyphs inside the core." Elicia pointed out.

"Yes, but my magic core was sealed when I was a child, and I think it was done to prevent the testing crystal from pushing my affinity into my core."

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"Then what about when you were tested after the seal lifted and you could use magic?"

"From my scans, I can see a person's core is fully formed about when their body reaches maturity. My core was strong enough when I was 18 to prevent the testing crystal from crippling me."

"Crippling you?" Mage Teft questioned. "That is an interesting way to put it."

"But that is exactly what it does. By pushing the affinity into the core, it locks you to that affinity. For people with multiple affinities, it makes it almost impossible for them to be mages because it divides their core."

"Is this the part where you are going to explain how you gained so many affinities?"

"Since my core is neutral, I can gain other affinities and use them. I theoretically should be able to acquire all affinities."

"As amazing as that sounds, you won't be able to use that many affinities. You can't learn that many magic seals," Elicia said.

"I already know 29 magic seals," Damion told them.

When Mage Teft heard Damion's claim, she nearly lost control of the ground car in shock.

"How?" Mage Teft asked.

"The limit in spells is because most people engrave them on their core through the memorization process. I don't."

"Then what happens when you memorize them?"

"I'm not sure. I just remember them. That is a different set of questions, and I haven't spent much time trying to figure it out yet. We need to focus on what I was saying about cores. People should not train magic until their core fully develops. I think, the reason there are so few common born mages of great talent and why knights have deformed cores and why nobles tend to have many talented scions, is because of training."

"Go on."

"If we focus on teaching children just controlling mana flow and absorbing mana, like you did for me, then they should have a fully developed core by the time they are 18. And if my theory is right, they should also be very magically talented and have high affinities. But they can't be tested by the Mage Association, or their affinity will be pushed into their core."

"You think pushing the affinity into the core freezes the development of the core?"

"Possibly. I know it locks you to one affinity. And it might lock the development of the core, or at least hinders it. I would need to scan people before and for a time after being tested by the Association to figure that out. I don't know if the Mage Association does this intentionally, but if they are, they will certainly try to stop us. In order to test my theory, we have to separate a group of kids, and not let them be tested by the Association until they are my age."

"You are wanting to start an entirely new magic academy. One that starts when they are young, but they don't learn magic until they are 18?"

"It doesn't need to be an entirely new school. In their early schooling, they would still learn everything everyone else does in school. Think about how you trained me. You taught me control, and combat skills until I turned 15 and then I worked as a knight for three years until my seal lifted. I don't think you or I have the ability to do a seal like I had, but we can create an environment that acts like it."

"What you are asking is no small feat. And you will need another magic academy if you want to prove your students are superior to the current ones."

"Why is that?"

"Because none of the magic schools are going to accept any of these students to train them. Not if they wait until 18."

"They accepted me," Damion pointed out.

"You are an S+ Ranked talent. Unless you can promise the people trained this way will reach as high, you need to make other arrangements to further their training."

"I see your point. But, if we start off with one class, for one year, and then add another and another, we can slowly grow. By the time the first class reaches 18 years old, we should have been able to create a proper magic school for them."

"What's this we business?" Mage Teft scoffed.

"You don't want to help me?" Damion asked a bit shocked.

"I never said that. But you haven't actually asked me. You've just been assuming I would help you."

"Dean Teft, will you help me create this new school. I think you are the perfect candidate for headmistress."

"Don't try to butter me up now. What you are asking is not simple and will be frowned upon by the Mage Association, the nobles and by the council of any city you try to set this up in."

"I'm sure you can think of a way around that. I mean, why even bother to tell them what we are doing?"

"You are going to need more than just approval. You will need financing."

"I hadn't thought of that."

"Of course not. Your biggest expense has always been your kit. If you want to do this, you are going to need a steady income source, one that you don't need to manage much."

"Which means a dungeon," Damion added.

"Which means a labyrinth," Mage Teft clarified.

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