novelraw Chapter 275: Flora—Teacher, You Finally Have Your Day?
Chapter 275: Flora—Teacher, You Finally Have Your Day?
Walking out of the training room, Lin Mo wore a beaming smile.
The practice just now had been extremely fruitful.
So much so that his skill proficiencies increased significantly just from practicing!
That was something rare.
After all, improving skills through pure practice is indeed how most people in this world master abilities, but it normally requires long periods of extensive repetition.
The sparring earlier was neither long nor large in volume, yet it produced very good results.
Perhaps it was because the opponent was very strong?
Or maybe Lin Mo had genuinely learned something from them and, during practice, integrated what he learned.
In any case, the skills Lin Mo used earlier each gained anywhere from a dozen to dozens of proficiency points.
As for Unyielding Body, its improvement wasn’t that large.Its current progress was only Lv1 (9/20). That’s probably because the skill mainly defends against physical damage. Although through the chosen evolution route it gained some magical damage resistance as well, that was only incidental and far weaker than its physical defense. So resisting magical damage naturally raised proficiency far less than resisting physical attacks.
After finishing the spar with Amy, it was still early—well before noon—and going straight home meant nothing much to do since everyone at home was in class. Lin Mo thought for a moment and decided to knock on the door of the adjacent practice room.
If he could learn some water-element techniques from Amy, by the same logic he should be able to learn things from Flora too.
After the knock, it took about ten seconds before the door opened.
It wasn’t Flora who opened it, but Milun.
“Eh, Lin Mo?”
Milun looked surprised at Lin Mo standing there. She knew he had become their classmate, but hadn’t Flora said Lin Mo wouldn’t be attending her class?
Hearing Milun’s voice inside, Flora’s sour expression softened.
She had suspected some inconsiderate person had come to interrupt her teaching, or perhaps Amy next door had come to pick a fight...
Lin Mo smiled at Milun and then looked at Flora. “I had nothing else to do, so I came to listen to class.”
The students practicing nearby were instantly stunned. What was that supposed to mean—“nothing else to do” so you come to class?
Oh no. With Flora’s personality, upon hearing that she’d definitely lose it!
They braced themselves for Flora’s sharp, explosive scolding. Unexpectedly, Flora showed no strong reaction—she just nodded and said, “Alright.”
What was going on?
Flora was actually a pretty nice teacher, highly skilled and caring in daily life, though she lacked some patience during lessons. But she was still young, so the students understood and often indulged her... they went along with her.
Like petting a cat—you have to follow the grain.
The scene now felt like a cat that’s normally standoffish suddenly rubbing against someone’s leg; the students, accustomed to the usual, were a bit unsure what to do.
Flora actually got angry over what he said?
They turned their curious, slightly gossiping gazes toward the late-arriving student.
Short white hair, finely chiseled features, a handsome but somewhat listless face... from appearances alone he was excellent, maybe even better-looking than Flora, who was praised as the most beautiful teacher at Saint Antonius Academy.
Was that the reason?
Gossipy looks flickered between the two, making Flora’s eye twitch.
“Did you all finish practicing what I assigned? Stop wandering around and get back to it!”
The students shrank back and obediently resumed practicing.
Lin Mo walked up smiling to Flora, glanced at the students, then back at her.
Flora grew slightly awkward, cleared her throat a couple of times, and said, “A teacher must be like this. These students are hopelessly slow and impossible to manage...”
“Ha.”
Lin Mo couldn’t help laughing. He’d never noticed this cute side of Flora before.
Flora flushed a little and lightly thumped his chest; to the peeking students it looked exactly like a playful tease.
“What about Amy?”
“She...”
Lin Mo’s expression grew odd. “She’s probably still sprawled out on the floor, unable to get up.”
Flora didn’t misunderstand; she knew what Lin Mo meant and a satisfied smile spread across her face. “Hmph, she always talks nonsense...”
“So, what do you plan to learn?”
To be honest, Flora wasn’t sure what she could teach Lin Mo.
She felt she might not even be able to beat Lin Mo herself now.
And she wasn’t certain she could defeat Amy either.
Her intuition was right... actually, in terms of raw strength, both Amy and Flora were still above Lin Mo.
But the problem was Lin Mo was far too well-rounded.
Pure mana volume aside, he also had qi and blood—being a Spellsword, the combination of qi and mana significantly boosted his damage output. Although total consumption rose, each individual resource—qi or mana—was consumed at lower rates than normal.
His opponents, to match Lin Mo, had to expend more mana than usual. That disparity in sustainability became obvious.
If you couldn’t finish him quickly, you couldn’t win.
So at first Amy could press Lin Mo, but as the fight dragged on things turned unfavorable. Especially for mages—once mana runs out, their strength drops by at least ninety-nine percent. Warriors at least can keep swinging their swords for a while.
On top of that, Lin Mo’s spirit and speed far surpassed both of them; in a true fight, the outcome was basically foregone.
“Actually Amy taught me some water-element mana circulation techniques just now. They seem useful, and they complement the methods I usually use.”
Flora keenly sensed something off in his words and immediately became alert.
“Your usual method?”
“Yeah... since you introduced me to the basics, no one taught me afterward; I explored the later parts on my own.”
“You mean you developed your own method of mana circulation and control?”
Flora’s eyes widened.
She had seen Lin Mo with Landon from Silverstream City before and assumed he at least picked up tricks from informal mages... but apparently not. He was entirely self-taught?
She couldn’t imagine how he tackled the difficult points of mana flow, circuit construction, and fine control.
Academy methods had been the product of countless predecessors refining and improving over many years.
Rogue mages typically apprenticed under someone or bought expensive books to study, so even if their methods had gaps, at least they had references to consult when problems arose.
To develop everything from scratch... how could that even be done?
Flora couldn’t picture it.
Moreover, Lin Mo had studied not just a single element, but many different elemental magics—each with unique challenges.
Flora took a slow breath. “You never encountered anything hard to solve?”
“Nope.”
Lin Mo answered naturally. Observing Flora’s expression, he hesitated a bit. “Should there normally be difficulties?”
Magic is indeed difficult. At first Lin Mo was unskilled, but as he used it more he gradually mastered it. As for mana flow and fine control... those things naturally improved through continuous practice; he’d never deliberately studied them.
Unconsciously his control over mana had reached an extremely refined level, and the speed at which he learned magic accelerated accordingly.
Flora felt like cursing, but thinking of Amy’s earlier fate calmed her down.
Forget it—people are like that...
So she said in a composed voice, “Then demonstrate for me first.”
Lin Mo nodded. Flames ignited in his palm as he began to demonstrate his usual methods for extinguishing-element magic.
He showcased how he controlled mana, how he built complex mana circuits, and how he adjusted spell forms by precisely outputting mana...
It sounded simple, but the transformations involved—especially adjusting the form of a spell through mana manipulation—required extremely high mastery of that magic and exceptional mana control. A seasoned mage would have to deconstruct the circuit and repeatedly intervene with mana to fine-tune the spell.
For example, the Fireball spell—a very basic skill—becomes an intricate problem if you try to alter the ball’s size, shape, or flight trajectory.
The more complex the magic, the harder such adjustments become.
These advanced techniques are what academy courses emphasize and what make them so difficult.
Yet the high-end operations taught in those academy classes—often taking many years even for prodigies to master—Lin Mo executed with ease.
And in many ways his approach differed from established systems...
Some parts were a bit rough, but then there were flashes of inspiration—through incredible control and wildly imaginative methods he found superior solutions to the system Flora had once learned.
No exaggeration: this was the kind of breakthrough that could found a new school of thought; if made public, even the empire’s mage community would be shaken!
Flora forcibly suppressed her shock and began correcting the incomplete aspects of Lin Mo’s practice.
This was different from Amy’s teaching.
Amy simply passed on her own techniques. Flora, however, dissected problems within Lin Mo’s system itself—undoubtedly the harder task.
But she could still cut right to the key points. Though her teaching ability wasn’t as polished as Amy’s due to less teaching experience, Lin Mo could understand and adjusted as she suggested.
Milun had finally finished Flora’s assignment and stealthily glanced over. She found Flora seemed to be teaching concepts Lin Mo already knew.
Why “seemed”? Because Lin Mo appeared to be able to do everything.
Each time Flora finished an explanation and demonstration, Lin Mo quickly replicated it, sometimes making slight modifications. Milun wasn’t skilled enough to understand all of it, but it was clearly more complex.
So they were discussing advanced magical techniques?
Flora had stopped worrying about innate talent.
She wasn’t surprised Lin Mo grasped what she said so quickly.
It was like someone with photographic memory reciting a poem—once seen, it was retained.
In short, this was a gap in fundamentals.
Lin Mo’s control over mana had reached an unimaginable level; mana obeyed his will. Given such powerful control, those operations were less surprising.
Still, Lin Mo’s imaginative maneuvers piqued Flora’s curiosity, and she asked him about them and tried them herself.
Flora’s talent was not bad—though far from Lin Mo’s level, she was still among the elite. Her fundamentals were solid, so after Lin Mo broke his methods down she could imitate them, but the process wasn’t smooth; she hit walls repeatedly.
“No, compress the mana here, route it through this circuit node, then split it. Remodel each stream separately... not like that—what are you splitting into?”
Lin Mo rolled his eyes. “How can you be so slow? Watch carefully. Each stream’s amount must be controlled, then the first stream should be inverted...”
What’s happening?
Milun was bewildered. How did it feel like Lin Mo was lecturing Flora?
And Flora’s expression... it was exactly like theirs in class—lost, half-comprehending.
Gradually, more than just Milun came to watch. Many students craned their necks curiously at this unusual scene.
The mentor who always scolded them for being hopeless at learning was now being lectured to.
What goes around comes around—Flora, teacher, you finally have your day?!
Immersed in exploring magic, Flora didn’t notice the crowd. Each time Lin Mo criticized her, she showed an embarrassed look, very reminiscent of those classmates in her school days.
Why classmates rather than teachers? Because in Flora’s student days she was never scolded like this; she was always the example to emulate. Even Archmage Elvish had only praised and admired her.
After a while, Flora managed to learn a bit and tried with excitement.
Halfway through casting the spell she snapped back to the fact she was still in class. Turning to her students and seeing their grinning faces, her pretty face flushed rapidly.
“What are you looking at? Did you learn what I taught you just now?”
“Run! Flora’s too embarrassed and she’s going to take it out on the students!”