Nick spent the next three days codifying the process of production for the beast capture and soul healing scrolls minus his rule path spells like Copy and he even replaced the rank 2 spell, Retrieve Soul, for a rank 1 equivalent of his own design where the spell is suitable to capture the souls of normal animals.
At the end of the three days, Nick used a secure email service to send Carla the methods of production. Carla then informed Nick that payment of his £200,000,000,000 would be made by the end of the day. She asked him:
"How does it feel to be richer than 99% of non-magical society?"
Nick replied plainly:
"Honestly, it doesn't feel much different than any other win I've received."
Carla could understand Nick's numbness to the feeling of gaining his rewards, after all, she also has a great amount of wealth but she never earned it as early on as Nick. Carla said goodbye and hung up the phone.
Nick then called Dewy into his office to ask about the progress of gathering magical materials.
"Sir, I've exhausted hundreds of millions of pounds in obtaining the materials that you've requested but I am only about 70% finished with gathering them"
Nick wasn't surprised since he had asked Dewy to purchase an outrageous amount of materials along with the fact that Dewy was just an ordinary person, as educated and experienced as he was.
"Thank you for your work so far. Please continue collecting those materials for me. In addition, I need you to rent a large gymnasium on campus for about eight months, I don't care where its located I just need it to have decent floor space and be secure. "
"I'll do that sir, but..."
Nick noticed Dewy's hesitation and asked:
"What is it?"
"Sir, I'm old and while I am perfectly capable of carrying out your instructions, it will take quite some time for me to do all this work by myself."
"Oh, so you're saying that you need help. I can have the same agency that sent you to me find additional help."
"Sir, If I may be so bold. I have a grandson that is just about your age. I would like for him to learn skills through hard work and dedication, much like how you seem to do it so well. Do you mind bringing him on to help me? I swear that he is an honest and capable young man."
Nick did not care who helped Dewy so long as they were willing and able. Nick replied:
"Start him out tomorrow then. I don't need to interview him since he is your blood, just make sure to supervise him properly. As for pay, I'll start him of at an entry level administrator pay scale, you can have a lawyer write up the contract and send it to me for review. Does that sound good to you?"
Dewy replied with much gratitude in his voice:
"Thank you, sir."
Dewy left to get back to his work and Nick went to his second floor workspace in order to finish rewriting his formation in the unnamed mystical language.
(Now that I think about it, I should really name that mystical language. Although its been difficult using it since I probably only know only a portion of it syntax and symbols, it's been pretty useful in redesigning my soul path methods. I will call it D-Soul. I'm sure that is a good name.)
Nick worked with D-Soul for the next month, trying his best to reword his formation using its symbols and apparent syntax, much of which Nick had to figure out along the way while using the portion of the mystical language that he was already familiar with.
During that time, Nick had to have almost daily conversations with Carla by phone so that she could fill him in on how the business was being developed. Carla was always eager to talk to Nick because he helped her with creating sales pitches that clearly explained how the soul healing scroll worked. Carla soon realized that Nick's attainment in soul path was higher than her own which was ordinary at best.
Nick also had to occasionally discuss magic related topics on the phone with Cindy Reece in order to help her with her classes. Cindy had decided to remain a second year in order to take advantage of its introductory classes which taught information that she was lacking. Nick didn't care about why Cindy remained in the second year but was happy to help her since she was always polite when they spoke even if that politeness was just a facade.
It turns out that Nick liked helping and teaching people. At the end of the month, Nick was finally done designing his soul refining formation using D-Soul. Nick rested for about a day, spending most of it eating and reading books on magic beasts and their anatomy. The next day, Nick finally started on his plans for soul cultivation.
Nick got up early in the morning and stored many sets of clothes and food within his space band that also had many other materials stored within it, magical or otherwise worth over one billion pounds. Nick gave instructions to Dewy and his grandson who was apparently named Nate.
Nick then used Blink several times in order to arrive at a scarcely populated area of campus that mainly had old and abandoned factories and recreational buildings erected on the land. Dewy had rented an old but secure gymnasium in this area and Nick was going to use its facilities to cultivate for some time.
After he found the building, which was shaped like a small stadium which had an oval roof lined with tile, he opened its rear pedestrian door and then closed it behind him. Nick soon found the light switch and turned on all of the building's lights. Dewy made sure that the building was cleaned before Nick came here to use it so there was noting out of place. It was mostly a building with a large court lined with wooden floors and equipped with locker and shower facilities.
There were metal stands erected at its wall but Nick ignored those and brought out sets of paint and painting instruments. He was going to use these to draw his formation on the wide, wooden floor of the gymnasium.
And so, Nick began his good work. For two weeks, Nick spent everyday painting a portion of the thousands of symbols that his magic formation consisted of onto the floor. Sometimes when he made a mistake, he would paint over the mistake and be forced to draw the symbols again and this happened dozens of times during the painting process.
At the end of the two weeks Nick had his foundation for his magic formation painted with a mix of red, silver and orange colors representing three areas that specialized in one function within the formation, namely: soul refining, soul calming, and soul examination, respectively.
The soul refining worked by removing the impurities from one's soul after consuming souls. The soul calming worked by pacifying one's soul in order to neutralize the eventual irritation experienced after strengthening the soul forcefully. Nick already had a soul calming formation that originated from Slade's inheritance but it was less flexible than his own formation in that it could not be used along with a soul refining formation at the same time. The soul examination portion of the formation was set up to screen the 300,000 rank 2 magic beast souls for flaws that might indicate a threat to Nick.
Although the Spirit Nectar Company guaranteed that the souls they had given him were all fine and not tampered with, Nick had no reason to trust them so he would make sure that each soul was okay to consume before he consumed it. Nick wasn't done setting up his formation and so he walked various places and summoned soul path magic materials of specific kinds at each place in the formation. The materials were to be used as fuel, supplying essential laws and by extension the magic energy for which the formation would run on, in addition to Nick's own magic reserves.
Normally, developing a formation while taking dozens of different kinds of materials into consideration would be difficult for just a soul path scholar but with Nick's Eyes of the Fated talent, examining the laws on the materials and seeing where they best fit in the formation was relatively easy. After Nick was done arranging the soul path materials, he moved on to setting up the formation path materials.
Formation path materials of the rank 2 level were scarce and thus expensive and so those materials were responsible for about 30% of this formation's cost to set up despite their relatively small number. The formation path materials consisted of formation stabilizers that would prevent the magic power within the formation from surging, formation flags that would prevent functions and processes in the formation from corrupting the other functions and formation slates that were put at various pats of the formation to prevent the formation's own magic power from destroying the symbols that it consisted of.
Nick set up everything and rechecked the formation several times before proceeding to activate it which was done using a simple verbal command in D-Soul:
"Begin."
The formation activated and its symbols began to flow with a dull silver light. Nick sat in the middle of the formation and immediately summoned the crystal orb that was filled with 300,000 rank 2 magic beast souls. Nick started off by releasing just over six hundred of those souls into the area of the formation responsible for examination, then after the formation indicated that the souls were untainted and pure, Nick used his rank 2 method, Eat Soul, to slowly swallow the magic beast souls.
This took Nick about four hours to do at which point all the souls were consumed and absorbed into Nick's own soul, making him feel the discomfort of being 'full'.
(If I don't refine my soul of the impurities soon, I'm going to explode.)
Nick immediately used the soul refining portion of the formation to cleanse his soul of the impurities resulting from absorbing incompatible and foreign souls.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Nick screamed out in pain while the formation performed its function. Tears emerged from his eyes and he became light headed. The pain persisted for close to an hour before it subsided and Nick no longer felt 'full' but his emotions were in turmoil and his mind could hardly be focused.
(My soul is irritated. I need to pacify it.)
Nick then used the soul calming portion of the formation to soothe the irritation but the process was relatively slow, it's only saving grace being that it was more effective than sleep. Doing anything magic related without fully calming the soul first was a risky endeavor so Nick spent the next two days going through that process.
At the end of those two days, he started the whole soul cultivation process over again from examining the souls, consuming them, refining his soul, then calming his soul and he continued doing this for weeks. At first, he consumed a few hundred souls at a time but as his soul grew stronger he was able to soon consume a few thousand at a time, however, the pain from refinement and the time it took to pacify his soul was greater.
Nick continued cultivating until all 300,000 souls were consumed and by the time he deactivated the formation, having used up nearly one billion pounds worth of magic materials, nearly six months had gone by.
During that time, Nick had only taken short breaks to speak with Carla and occasionally Cindy as well as eat meals and relieve himself. Nick had barely slept during the whole ordeal and as soon as he deactivated the formation, he fell backwards in exhaustion and the moment he relaxed, he became unconscious while on his back.
Nick later opened his eyes and found himself at the bottom of a familiar pit. He looked over to a section at the base of the dirt wall and saw a man with no hair on his body and only a cloth wrapping around his groin as clothing. The man had no eyes but still looked in Nick's direction like he could see him clearly. The man spoke with an unrestrained smile that revealed his missing teeth. He spoke to Nick warmly:
"I was starting to think that you would never return but I am glad that I was mistaken. Come, have a seat with this old man. I have something for you."
Nick thought that this old man was very strange, not just because of how he looked but something about him made Nick's insides churn.
(My Spacial Awareness talent has given me a look into the Pit of Suffering once again. Why is this happening?)
Since Nick was almost sure that he was in no real danger, he went close to the old man and even sat beside him at his left side out of curiosity. The old man laughed heartily and said:
"I'm glad that you are not afraid. Now, you are the only person that I have met in centuries and so I will tell you honestly. I am sick of being in this pit and I am also barely holding on to life. This Pit of Suffering is situated within an old realm, older than you could imagine. I want you to find your way here and free me."
Nick creased his brows in disbelief.
(Ha. You said before that you were a rank 8 Magician. If you ended up like this by coming here, how much better would I do? Are you trying to lure me to my death for kicks?)
"Are you crazy, old man?"
The old man soon continued:
"You must think that I am crazy but I am not. The only reasons that a rank 8 Magician like myself was caught in this trap is because this mystic land is of the soul path and has rank 9 power. I was captured because of my insufficient attainment and rank. If not, I would have taken this pit for myself long ago."
Nick mused:
(Mystic land? That word again. I already know that it is related to soul path but if it really does have rank 9 power, then I am even more convinced that what he is asking is crazy to undertake.)
"How do you propose I help you, old man?"
Nick suspected that the old man could not hear him but he spoke out anyway. The old man continued speaking:
"I don't know what rank you are but it is impossible to get here without being at least rank 5, so if your rank is inferior to that standard, I will help you along. If you come here and save me, I will definitely reward you with an entire realm of treasure that I have hidden as well as my human path inheritance."
Nick instantly became intrigued when he heard the last part. Human path was one that was spoken of in myths passed down for thousands of years but no one in modern times had ever had a strong affinity for it and there was no concrete information on it, only stories.
(This old fogy has a human path inheritance? Hmmm...this has gotten interesting.)
Nick didn't really care about the so called realm of treasures because 'treasures' weren't enough for him to risk his life dealing with a rank 8 Magician but an impossibly rare inheritance was.
"How will you help me along, old man?"
The old man slowly patted his chest and soon breathed in and out deeply. He spoke with a weakened voice:
"I have four specialties that have reached the master level in attainment, namely: light path, darkness path, shadow path and formation path. Since I am a human path archmage, it is easy for me to give you a true meaning for either one, increasing your corresponding attainment level in turn."
Nick opened both his eyes wide, thinking:
(This man is proposing to make me a master in a path just like that. He says that he is a human path archmage but I don't exactly know what that has to do with true meanings. I know from the will of Sahashi Miyamoto that true meanings are the essence of a Magician's attainment level but I have no idea what it takes to create one. This man also says that he is a master in four different paths in addition to his main path, that's insane. Then again, I have high attainment levels in two paths already - Soul path and space path.)
The old man raised his right index finger, saying:
"My name is Judas Masters by the way. Remember it! Now, I'm going to use a human path method to imprint and transmit a true meaning to you. Know that I cannot transmit it any other way because of our minimal ability to interact. If you are willing, just attempt to come into contact with my body any way you can while thinking of the true meaning that you want."
Nick already knew the path that he wanted true meaning for - formation path.
(I can't cultivate the other paths anyway. Wait...could this be a trap? I don't even know this old man. The fact that his name is Judas doesn't bode well either. Hmmm...I'll risk it.)
Plainly speaking, the reward was too great not to take the risk. Birds die for food, humans die for wealth. Nick was willing to put his life on the line to gain a wealth that would benefit him in unimaginable ways.
(In addition, this man is trapped here, he probably does sincerely want my help.)
Nick hesitated no more and reach out his right hand, grabbing Judas by the left shoulder, thinking:
(Formation path.)
Judas smiled in response as his method took effect.
(Humane Hope)
Nick's form suddenly started emanating beads of floating white light, at which point he removed his hand from Judas's shoulder. Judas then spoke with urgency in his tone:
"I need you to hurry up. The realm that I am in is called the Primordial Plain."
Nick committed the name of the realm to memory in that instant and said nothing else. His vision of the scene soon faded into darkness. Some time later, Nick raised himself off the ground in near panic, his heart raced like he had been pumped full of adrenaline and his mind spun rapidly with thoughts that he could not cast away at the moment.
Nick's head ached so he moved to silently lie on his back for a seemingly long time. Nick did not raise his body until hours after he woke up, at which point most of the thoughts within his mind had dissipated and his headache subsided.
Nick looked around him and remembered that he still had to clear away his formation from the floor which was easily done by using Space to remove the top layer of the wooden floor. Nick did exactly that and then quickly used Blink to leave the gymnasium, arriving at his commercial building in minutes.
He didn't even bother announcing his arrival to Dewy or Nate. He entered the building and ran to his workspace on the second floor where he sat at his work table and took out the design of his soul refining formation drawn on canvas. Nick looked at it and realized that he could understand it in a way that was never apparent to him before. He could see the possibilities for alterations that would improve the formation or even change its effect entirely and he could intuit this as if he had studied the formation for years.
"My formation path attainment has increased."
Nick was so excited that he did not want to sit down. Master path attainment in any path usually took decades to develop and even then, some amount of talent was required. Nick managed to skip decades of studying and experimenting like it was nothing and he basically obtained this boon completely free of cost.
"My luck is getting better by the day."
Nick laughed heartily before remembering why he had been cultivating for so much months.
"Oh, right. My soul path cultivation was a success too."
Nick raised his right arm slightly and cast one of his methods:
(Reinforced With Soul.)
A think miasma that seemed to have a metallic silver color oozed from Nick's arm and the condensed to hardened armor around Nick's arm, looking like the equivalent section of medieval battle armor, more fitting than before. Nick looked at the results of his months of cultivation with satisfaction.
"My soul is stronger and has a more pronounced color and consistency. I succeeded in my intentions."
Nick had basically been secluded for months on end and to normal people, such a lifestyle was crazy and hazardous but to Nick, it was the only way that he could move forward.
RING RING RING
Nick heard his smartphone ringing and looked at it screen to see that Carla was calling him. Nick answered the phone.
"What is it, Carla?"
"Nothing really. You and I haven't spoken in quite some time and I was wondering how your cultivation was going."
"I'm done with closed door cultivation for now. I just returned to my building. "
"Oh. So what do you plan on doing now?"
Nick thought for a while and then replied:
"That's a secret."
Carla internally snorted but knew that she could not force an answer out of Nick. She spoke with obvious displeasure in her tone:
"Well, since you won't talk, then I'm hanging up now. I'm going to visit you in a few days in order to check on you so be prepared for that."
"What? Why?"
"Did you forget about the ring on your finger. I need to make sure that you're not fooling around."
Nick unconsciously looked at the gold ring on his right index finger and frowned before replying:
"Do what you want, Carla."
Carla lightly chuckled:
"I will, Nick honey. I'll inform you on the progress of the business at that time."
Nick just had a huge surge in power and so he knew that the most important thing that he needed to do now was to flex his muscles on tasks.
"I need to go do some missions."
Third years mostly spent their time doing missions handed out by the academy in order to build practical experience and earn money. Nick decided that it was time for him to put his skills to use after all these months.
***************************************************************************
Within the Academy Mission Hall...
"What the fuck is wrong with you people? How hard is it to find someone willing to tag along with us?"
The four other people present looked at each other bitterly in response to their group leader's rage. One man wearing black rimmed glasses spoke out to the enraged man:
"James, our group has a reputation within the third year for being untrustworthy and conniving because we supposedly treat any extras that we bring along badly. No one wants to join our group because of that."
James's rage did not abate even after he was given a reasonable excuse. James was a burly, tall man with a persistently mean grimace on his face. He wore leather combat attire. He spoke sternly to the glasses wearing man who wore a brown Magician's robe:
"The mission to clean the academy's lake requires six people, you do get that, right? Never mind that the reward includes a decent amount of money, but the academy is also offering a water path magic tool that can heal wounds. A magic tool like that would be a great help to us in further missions."
A large lake was situated on campus that was used for communal experimentation and dumping of toxic waste. The academy allowed the lake to be used for this purpose because it was not a habitat to any animals and it had become a sort of tradition that they've had a historical problem dealing with; the lake's water had properties that made it useful for cheap magic waste dumping. At some point, the administration decided that it was easier to simply have students clean the lake periodically than to get unruly Magicians to stop dumping their ruined potions into it. They provided the mission hall with the magic tools to do the job and the students would just have to spend a few days purifying the water.
The mission to clean the academy's lake, however, required six person at the minimum which was an arbitrary requirement but once set, the requirement had to be complied with. Just when James was considering whether to choose a different mission so as not to waste time, he heard the clerk at the mission dispatch counter speak:
"...Mr. Capitol, all that you need to do to accept a mission is to look on the mission board and if you find a mission that you meet the requirements for, just come back to me with the mission title and I'll set you up. Oh, since you haven't been on an academy mission before, I advise that you to find a group to help you get your feet wet."
Nick thanked the clerk and turned towards the mission board. It was simply a flat length of wide, soft board attached to the wall where many missions were posted up. Some even involved going to different academies or visiting certain realms. Nick searched for a suitable mission that he could do alone but before he could find one, a burly, tall man walked up to him and greeted him with an obviously forced smile:
"Hello, my name is James Wyatt. I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with the clerk, so if you're in the need of completing your first mission, why don't you join me and my crew doing the lake cleaning mission? We'll all split the monetary rewards equally but as the group leader, I will be requesting the magic tool part of the reward for the sake of the group."
Nick looked at the board in order to find the mission that James was referring to and soon enough, he found it.
(Lake Cleaning...remove the magical waste from the lake. The tools to effectively do so are provided by the Academy Mission Hall...Rewards are £42,000 and a water path Cleansing Pitcher magic tool...Requirements: six people is the participation minimum...)
James continued:
"This mission goes up about every eight months and the rewards are fairly good. Do you want to join us?"
Nick thought about the contents of the mission and figured that it should not be that difficult to complete. Nick turned to face James and replied:
"Sure, I'll join you but I need time to buy some materials."
James became a bit confused.
(Materials? For what? The mission hall will give us the tools for the clean up.)
"Okay, but we would like to leave to start the mission in about thirty minutes."
Nick nodded once and replied:
"Okay."
Nick cast Blink and instantly disappeared from his position. James and his observing group members were shocked. James muttered out loud:
"A space path Magician?"
James rejoined his group and asked the glasses wearing young man:
"Hey, Mathew, how long is the lake cleaning mission going to take?"
The young man apparently named Mathew adjusted his glasses and replied:
"The magic tools that they gives us should clean up the lake in two days if we work around the clock."
James nodded his head, saying:
"With the reward being what it is, it's easy money. When what's his name returns, we'll request the mission."
Some of James's other group members had concerns, though:
"That guy knows space magic, you think he has a complicated background? He kind of looks weird too, did you see his eyes?"
Another group member spoke in response:
"Many Magicians look weird."
Twenty minutes later, Nick reappeared in the mission hall and James and his group immediately moved to surround him. James quickly made introductions:
"Nick, this is Jeremy, Ruth, Michael, Jade and Witticker; they and myself are all third years. Since we'll all be a team going forward, you should introduce yourself."
Nick knew that it was common courtesy, so he complied:
"My name is Nick Capitol and I am a third year."
Mathew quickly asked Nick a question in order to satisfy his curiosity:
"We saw you use space path methods twice. Are you a space path Magician?"
Nick shook his head in denial, saying:
"No, I only know a few space path spells."
What Nick said was half true, he was not really a space path Magician since his mindscape was suited for rule path, not space path.
Mathew seemed to lose interest in Nick after getting an answer and simply went to the clerk in order the receive the lake cleaning mission. James made some small talk while Mathew was receiving the mission:
"You're a third year, huh? I've never seen you in any of our classes or among any clique. Where have you been all this time?"
Nick replied while maintaining his indifferent expression:
"Under a rock."
James's right eyelid twitched when he heard that but for the sake of fulfilling the mission requirements, he kept his peace. He replied awkwardly while trying to bury his rage:
"Okay."
Nick and the rest remained silent until Mathew brought over six strange devices on a trolley. He explained:
"These are magical water purifiers. You just need to place the hose into the lake water and monitor the device for any disturbances. The lake should be cleaned up in about two days with these."
From Nick's perspective, the magical water purifiers looked like vacuum cleaners with a plain suction hose attached to a cylindrical metallic suction device that was outfitted with a few lights and buttons.
James announced:
"Let's get to the lake."
The group walked by foot to the far east of the academy campus where the lake was situated in the middle of a flat, grassy field. All six Magicians walked up close to the edge of the lake and looked at the lake's surface. There were indeed obvious pollutants present in the lake that gave it a mix of different colors.
Mathew said aloud for the entire group to hear:
"The water has magical properties that prevent the smell and toxic vapors from escaping it. The waters also force the pollutants to the top of the lake so the bottom half of this water body is actually pure water. Alright, I am going to hand out the water purifiers."
Mathew summoned a trolley from his space band that had the six water purifiers resting on it. Everyone except Nick retrieved a water purifier while Nick remained wrapped up in his thoughts. James noticed Nick's non-movement and quickly said:
"Nick, you have to join in too. I don't want to be out here for more than two days."
Nick still remained unmoved after James's urging and James did not respond well to this. A vein bulged on his forehead; he walked up to Nick slowly and screamed at him:
"Get your ass..."
Before James finished his words, Nick was finally finished thinking through his next actions and so he cast Space, spreading his special space throughout the surroundings. James was momentarily stumped when he felt Nick's magic power envelop him. He asked furiously:
"What are you doing?"
Nick ignored him and summoned two cans of red paint and two paint brushes from his space band. He then used his special space to open the cans and then used the special space to dip each paint brush in a can. Nick then proceeded to remove all the grass within a few meters of the lake with his special space, following which he began to paint the bare ground using the cans of paint, the paint brushes and his special space.
The five other members of the group were confused by what Nick was doing but Nick was not going to explain anything to them. When James and Mathew tried to question him, he ignored them. They were angered by this but since Nick was clearly a powerful Magician, they did not carelessly act against him.
The symbols that Nick painted around the lake were Valteesian and were arranged in patterns and not random. Nick was creating an impromptu magic formation in order to complete the lake cleaning mission as soon as possible. Before he became a formation path master, this would have been impossible but now that he was a formation path master, he just needed to make use of his other masteries to invent useful formations on the spot.
Of course, designing a formation just to clean the lake was relatively easy since a rank 1 formation would probably do the job decently well. To Nick, creating a rank 1 space path spell that he could use to clean the lake was already an easy task. He decided to use a magic formation, however, because the task could be completed more efficiently that way. The situation could be likened to the difference of using a machete and a weed wacker to cut the grass on a lawn.
Nick's five group members observed Nick's actions and soon realized that he was writing magical laws on the bare ground. Mathew whispered to James:
"I think that he is going to cast some kind of spell."
James nodded his head, saying:
"He is building a magical formation."
James, despite his rough appearance was actually well learnt and knew about magical formations. The others quickly realized that this was so by comparing the results of Nick's actions and the magic formations that they had seen during past exams and classes. One of them questioned:
"Did he already have a magic formation on hand just for this mission?"
Someone else instantly denied that possibility:
"It was James who suggested that he complete the mission with us. Where would he have gotten a magic formation specifically related to this lake?"
James was also doubtful:
"Did he leave before we accepted the mission to research this formation? But then how did he become capable of drawing it after just twenty minutes of research, is he a formation path Magician?"
The four other students gasped when they heard the possibility. They had been quite surprised before by the possibility that Nick might be a space path Magician but this new possibility was a shocker. Formation path Magicians were even rarer than space path Magicians and were guarded like treasures within any organization that employed them.
That was because the ability to invent magic formations could greatly increase the output of work done by manifolds with minimal man power. The advantages are the same as for the development of machines to replace hand manufacturing. The former even revolutionized industries thousands of years ago, multiplying goods production by hundreds of times.
The five continued to watch Nick in silence.
Nick continued drawing symbols around the lake uninterrupted and twenty minutes later, he had the foundation for a space path formation drawn in Valteese. It took on the shape of the lake's perimeter as it encircled it completely. Nick immediately began the next phase of creating the formation.
He summoned space path materials and formation path materials from his space band and placed them at various points of the formation. The space path materials were meant to act as magical fuel for the formation while the formation path materials were meant to stabilize the formation and keep it in place.
(Space path master...formation path master. I'm unstoppable. This space path formation should clean this lake within a reasonable amount of time without the need for the others to get involved)
Using his special space, placing the materials only took several minutes. His Eyes of the Fated played a very significant role in advising him of the most suitable places to place the space path materials. Nick soon cancelled Space and then spoke the formation's trigger phrase in Valteese:
"Begin."
Nick and the other five Magicians stood at the edge of the formation as it suddenly glowed a dull-grey color and sounded with a light buzzing. Nick stood without coming into direct contact with the formation.
(For a rank 1 formation like this, the magical materials that I supplied will suffice as fuel and so I don't need to contribute my own magic energy like when I used the soul refining formation.)
Formations with relatively simple purposes did not need a Magician to manually control it and since cleaning the polluted water needed minimal amounts of magic energy, Nick did not need to support the formation's functions with his own magic energy.
Everyone watched as the stagnant lake water began to suddenly ripple and what seemed like magical bubbles then started emerging from it with fluids of different colors, some fluids being gas and others being liquids. The bubbles rose into the air over the next ten minutes until the lake water became clear and lacking visible pollutants.
Hundreds of magic bubbles filled with pollutants had hovered above the lake and gathered into a cluster, remaining in place. The formation soon deactivated and Nick rubbed his chin with his right hand, thinking:
(What do I do with the pollutants? The formation's task was only to remove the pollutants from the lake using those 'space bubbles' which was easy since the pollutants have different physical and/or chemical characteristics than the water itself.)
An idea suddenly popped into Nick's head. He quickly raised his right index finger to the level of his face and cast his spell. A sphere of red light the size of a basket ball rapidly formed at his finger tip before shrinking down to the size of a marble. Nick then blew at the 'red marble' and it flew rapidly towards the cluster of pollutants.
(Mars.)
As soon as the red marble came into contact with the space bubbles, red light flashed out in all directions, enveloping the space bubbles and then just as rapidly shrunk into seemingly nothingness.
Feint dust could be seen blowing away from the area after the red light dissipated. Nick folded his arms and nodded his head in approval.
(Mars uses its internal gravitational pull to crush what it envelops into dust. That should be an effective way of dealing with the waste.)
The five other students watched the entire course of events from start to finish and they were shocked internally. Nick's use of space path magic was just too stunning.
James looked at the magic formation on the ground in front of him and commented:
"This has to be a space path formation and the spell that he used to get rid of the pollutants was space path too. Did he lie about not being a space path Magician?"
Before James could investigate further, Nick indifferently instructed him:
"Leave my £7,000 at he clerk's counter."
Nick quickly cast Absolute Push to force the top soil on which he drew the magic formation on into the lake while collecting the remaining magic materials with Absolute Pull and storing them within his space band. He then disappeared like he was never there.
James looked at Nick's former position bitterly since he just lost the chance to be acquainted with a very skilled Magician. Mathew came over to James and said:
"Well...on the bright side, this was truly free money."
A smile instantly returned to James's face. He instructed everyone:
"Nick Capitol did all the work for us like a fool. What space path or formation path Magician? He was only our tool. Let's go get our money."
The others did not feel that James's words were right but they were more concerned about getting paid than anything else.