"That can't be true, Professor," the boy from earlier said. "I learnt a few glyphs from my dad, and they never needed to be perfect to work."

A few of the kids began nodding in agreement; all of them were demis, and Lily could assume that they had relatively strong bloodlines. If their strong blood and Mana were brute-forcing the glyphs to work, she could understand their attitude to her comment.

"Oh, have you enchanted any items?" Professor Ollie asked curiously.

"No, sir," the boy shook his head. "But I've drawn glyphs to till the ground in Thaumaturgical Agriculture, to summon large quantities of water, and to make a fuelless campfire in the dungeon."

Lily was actually impressed by his ingenuity, as so far, everyone else she had met had scoffed at the difficulty or effort one needed to put into glyphs. Why draw out a glyph to light a fire when you could do the same with a snap of your fingers?

"I've done similar things," the girl from earlier also agreed.

"Ah, yes, then I understand why you are confused," Ollie replied with a toothy grin. "I don't want to belittle your creativity; in fact, I encourage you to try to use glyphs as much as possible! But, the reason you've found this success if your work has been, shall we say, sloppy, is solely due to your blood.

"Blood glyphs are a staple and can be wonderful in a pinch, but true glyphwork, otherwise known as Enchanting, requires precision. When you carve a glyph into wood, forge it into iron, or sew it into cloth, you do not have your blood to fall back on."

The professor paused and began twirling one side of his bristly mustache into a point. As soon as he released it, the hair burst back out into its wild and unkempt appearance.

"Well, I should correctly inform you all that there are ways to add your blood to such enchantments; however, you'd be ruining yourself financially by doing that. You can't sell an enchanted cloak to someone who only works for you."

[I think I quite like this professor. He gives me hope that glyphs and inscriptions have not been entirely lost to the ages.]

Lily silently agreed, she was liking what she was hearing.

"Damn, did I waste my time with blood glyphs then?" the boy asked, his tone and expression looking regretful.

Professor Ollie sighed and shook his head. "Do you have wax clogging your ears? No, my boy, you did not waste your effort. I just praised your creativity a moment ago. But expendable glyphs are only a quarter of this subject at best, and the majority will be focused on permanent enchantments. Hence, the need for accuracy and precision above all else."

That seemed to make the boy happier, but it looked like most of the class were still in disbelief of his words. The girl from earlier in particular looked like she had a stick up her butt, and Lily thought she was moments away from exploding.

"I can see some of you are still reluctant to agree. I do, in fact, have a teaching tool to demonstrate this, but I'll save that for the end of the class if needed. I think the best way to get straight to the heart of the matter is to witness this firsthand yourselves."

He finally stood up and reached to the other side of his desk, where he opened a drawer and pulled out four identical boxes. He arranged them in an orderly line at the edge of his desk and opened them in sequence. As they opened, they all seemed to increase in size, causing a few gasps from the students.

"These are your tools for this class. Each of you must take one from each box," he explained and gestured for the students to come up.

Lily was right there, so she was first in line. She peered into the first box and saw it was full of nearly identical books. She grabbed one book for herself and then moved on to the next box. The next box held a writing slate and pencil, while the box after that had sets of the magical chalk she'd been gifted by the headmaster.

The final box contained a small pouch, which in turn held a glass vial and three corresponding stoppers. There was a flat top, one that looked like a needle, and another that looked like a pen nib. Lily briefly glared daggers at the needle before closing the pouch and moving out of the way for the next student, then heading towards an empty desk.

As everyone lined up to take their supplies, the rest of the students began arriving. Rather than question what was going on, they simply joined the line to get their supplies before taking an empty seat.

The professor then took out one item of each for himself and arranged them in front of him.

"Should you decide to leave the class after this, you're free to keep everything except the book," Ollie explained. "If you pass, you're allowed to keep it. Regardless of the outcome, you're allowed to keep any notes you might have made, so don't worry about that."

He pointed at the magical chalk.

"I'm sure all of you know what this is. Or at least recognize it from when you summoned your Familiars in the first year. This glyph chalk, obtained from the dungeon, enables the drawing of expendable glyphs without the need for blood. This is not only useful for the squeamish, but allows us to teach the importance of precision."

He pointed to the slate.

"This is an ordinary writing slate. Great for practice if you don't want to waste glyph chalk or expensive paper and parchment."

Finally, he reached his waist and pulled out a pouch, similar to the one on display. He flipped it open and revealed that it contained the same items.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"And this is your blood siphon," he explained. "A marvelous little piece of technology which lets you store blood and use it in swift succession. Due to the conflicting nature of blood, you must only ever use your own, which is why we let you keep them even if you leave the class. I'd also suggest, for hygiene reasons, to clean it frequently."

He then pulled out the vial and replaced the flat stopper with the needle one. He emotionlessly stabbed it into his shoulder, causing the vial to quickly fill with the dark red liquid.

Lily nearly fainted at the sight, her face going pale and her hands clammy. When she glanced at her own vial and its needle, she felt a large lump forming in her throat.

Why did it have to be needles!?

While Lily's internal plight was unknown to the rest of the class, the professor continued.

"Then if you want to use it, you simply replace the needle with this one," he pointed at the one resembling a pen nib. "And you can draw to your heart's content. Much more efficient than trying to fingerpaint or other crude methods I've seen attempted."

"How long does the vial store it?" a girl asked.

"A week at best. It's also quite durable, so it won't shatter if you drop it or get into a tussle."

Every student around her seemed pleased about that information. Meanwhile, poor Lily was not the least bit happy. She'd predicted there would probably be something on blood glyphs, but she'd hoped it somehow wouldn't involve needles.

"Now, as mentioned earlier, we will show the importance of precision," the professor said before he gave a short recap to the late arrivals.

Once he was done, he moved to his large chalkboard at the front of the class and began to draw a large yet relatively simple glyph. Before he even finished drawing it, Lily already guessed it was just a simple light orb spell.

"Now, I want each of you to draw this in two minutes using the glyph chalk," he explained. "Don't worry if you've never seen this one before, or practiced it. I want an emphasis on speed. Just do your best to complete it in the time limit."

He waited for everyone to take out a piece of chalk before he began a countdown. The second he said "go," the entire classroom erupted into the sound of chalk hitting the slate and the corresponding scribbles.

Lily was precise yet fast, and she managed to complete the work with half a minute to spare. She used it to quickly double-check her work, and while there was maybe a single line she was a little dissatisfied with, ultimately, she knew it was near perfect.

Well, as perfect as I can be while following the set instructions. I'd love to have modified this to be more efficient by placing some limiter sigils. At least spheres are efficient with light spells, and I'm not being forced to use one in a flame glyph.

"Stop!" Professor Ollie declared, accompanied by the loud clap of his hands.

Some of the students groaned, while others whined about not enough time, but they all listened to the order and placed the chalk on their desks.

The professor then reached into his coat and pulled out a small golden rod. Engraved on its side was a big "1" but otherwise it looked relatively unadorned.

"Now, does anyone know what this is?" he asked.

Nobody answered. Even Lily had no idea what it was.

"I guess nobody in the class comes from a family of Enchanters this year," he chuckled before pointing at the device. "This is a Mana regulator. No matter how much Mana you put into it, it will always release a fixed amount when activated. This is used for testing permanent enchantments. Can anyone tell me why?"

"To look for imperfections?" one of the boys guessed.

"Correct. But can anyone explain why one would use this tool? Why not do it personally?"

"To check that the user isn't overcompensating to overcome a flaw?" a girl began answering. "That way, you can ensure the average person can use the item?"

"Yes and yes," Ollie nodded happily. "Another reason is for grading, and I don't mean just in a teaching sense. It is the only way to ensure fairness and prevent any foul play, so yes, these will be used to grade your work in this class.

"However, outside in the real world, if you want to sell your items without worry, then they will need to be professionally graded. Sure, there will always be some suckers who buy ungraded works, but you could potentially lose your license if it causes an accident, or worse, a fatality."

The class shared a collective gulp on that dire warning.

"Now, let's see how you all did, shall we? Come up with your glyphs, and I will use the Mana regulator to activate them. We will go clockwise around the room."

He pointed at the first student who brought up their work. The professor channeled his Mana through the tool and tapped the glyph to activate it. It barely formed a ball of light for a few seconds before winking out.

Professor Ollie quickly pointed out the major flaw in the glyph and told the student to redraw the glyph from scratch while he attended to the rest of the class. He emphasized taking his time with the redraw and trying to focus on precision.

He repeated this with each student, and the results were wildly varying depending on where the major flaw was. Some failed to activate entirely, others were a momentarily bright light before instantly ending, while others weren't even a sphere. Every time, he only pointed out the major flaw in the drawing before.

Not all of them were deemed "failures," however, and some yielded impressive results that the professor congratulated them on. He still pointed out areas for improvement, although it mostly boiled down to "your circle wasn't good enough."

Finally, it was Lily's turn, and she handed over her glyph. She immediately caught the look of surprise in his eyes as he looked over it.

"I think I owe that damn cat a bottle of wine," he whispered, barely audible if not for Lily's sensitive ears.

He touched the glyph with the rod and activated it, causing a perfect sphere to appear in the class. It continued shining brightly for a full minute before it finally turned off. It was the longest-lasting by far, and it had no fluctuations in its brightness.

"Well, congratulations on a perfect glyph," he replied cheerfully. "I sadly don't think I can offer any advice for improvement."

Lily, however, shook her head. "One of my lines was a little too long. I'd normally go a lot slower, but I wanted to meet the time limit."

The professor let out an uproarious laugh as he threw his head back. "One line was a little too long. Gods, we really can be our own harshest critics." When Ollie stopped laughing and wiped a few tears from his eyes, he continued with the rest of the class.

After the last student from the rush jobs finished, he repeated the process with the first students again. This time, they had their slowly drawn glyphs activated, and the results were far, far better. Having had a proper amount of time, and the innate simplicity of this basic glyph, meant that nearly everyone passed the second round.

Lily herself corrected the minuscule flaw in her previous one, although the result when activated appeared to be the same. Evidently, her flaw would have only shown with a much lower and precise amount of Mana.

"I hope that shows the importance of perfection," Ollie said with a grin. "At least for Enchanting. You're free to continue slapping together rushed blood glyphs; the heavens know how crucial they can be in a dangerous situation. Of course, if you can somehow keep their overall integrity together with time, well, you'd get even better results."

The class seemed much happier now that they'd witnessed it firsthand. Even the boy and girl, earlier, who had expressed their outrage, looked pleased.

The professor explained a few more tidbits of information before finally dismissing the class, Lily catching a few grumbles from him about how he needed to change the rest of the week's lessons to match this one.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.