"The answer is that you're right, at least probably, but the main piece of evidence we have about this comes from the field of thaumodynamics, which studies the quasi-physical properties of the flow of magic itself. It's a very new field but it's produced some promising research already, and one of the central observations we have about it is that magic has a certain type of inertia. In the physical sense, that is, of there being certain qualities to a magical flow that tend to remain the same unless some outside influence is exerted on it.

"But that's a rather more complex topic that these lectures could not hope to properly address; suffice to say that you are very likely perceiving a real phenomenon, however indirectly. But you are perceiving it, are you not? It wasn't a random guess."

"...yeah, I guess it wasn't." He's still moving the inkwell around, and after doing it this long it's become almost mindless—which is only possible because he's draining enough mana from the battery crystal that he can keep it up approximately indefinitely—so he can pay more direct attention stuff like his subjective experience of what's happening.

"I hope you'll continue to come to these lectures, Mr. Vallynn. They're a bit ahead of you on the theory but clearly you have a good grasp on the basics of the practice, and I believe this would be useful. —well, I'm biased, of course, as this is enough of an interest of mine to spend my retirement years studying and teaching it, but still, even people who do not wish to go into spell development would benefit from understanding its basics to apply to their practice."

He smiles a bit, at that. "I'm not sure Wizard Mara would agree."

"Oh, that girl. Don't believe half the things that come out of her mouth; she doesn't mean them."

That lecture was—grounding, in a way. He felt like he was barely not out of his depth and even then only because the professor was clearly helping him up, which means that he's got a lot to learn. Not that he didn't know that, of course, but it's one thing to know and quite another to understand. And, most importantly, it did actually feel like he could learn things there that will help with being an adventurer. He came up with the Fire Bolt example himself, after all; being able to understand his Skills well enough to be able to flexibilise them on the fly will probably be really useful.

It also occurred to him, after the lecture, while he was thinking about the spell cost of his TK—and the other spells he made but according to Professor Frij they were a lot better, probably courtesy of him having developed them after having acquired his first Skill—that efficiency and cost optimisation of highly powerful spells are probably one of the things that distinguish a good wizard from a great wizard.

He's sure there'll be diminishing returns, eventually, but he's nowhere near them, and he shouldn't worry so much about how all of this will help him be a good adventurer, because it just obviously will. He can think more about this later.

This is all really exciting.

The next day, Evelin grabs Vallynn's arm on his way to lunch with a group of mages (including Gaël, who warmed up to him reasonably quickly once Vallynn turned out not to be acting insufferably) and says, "I'm done. Come see my masterpiece."

Gaël blinks when he hears her voice and turns around to look at her. "Evelin?"

"Yes, yes, me, good to see you, long time, I'm borrowing him, goodbye."

Vallynn shoots the mages a resigned look and shrugs. Better to just go along with what she wants.

Al.......right. "Good luck," he calls after the dust left behind by the typhoon that just kidnapped Vallynn.

Once they're back at her place she says, "Tada! ...why is it so dark. Ugh." Lights on. "Tada! Actually, tada nothing, put it on, now's the time for any further adjustments that you might want. Not that you will, because it's perfect, but still, it's good to pretend."

"You're going to need better bed manners if you want to attract customers."

"My bed manners have absolutely nothing to do with the quality of my work," she sniffles. "Now put it on, I want to see my vision realised."

"Alright, alright," he says, walking over to the mannequin to inspect the robes. "...okay, I am kind of impressed, actually, this does look good."

"Oh now you're teasing me, I see. You know I have absolutely no patience for that shit."

He grins. "You have no patience at all. Except, apparently, for this, have you been working on it for two days?"

"Twenty hours with two six-hour sleep breaks."

"...you're a machine."

"Leave the compliments for after you've looked yourself in the mirror."

"Alright, alright, give me a minute," he says because she looks liable to explode out of her skin if he dawdles too much longer.

...it's actually kind of hard to put it on, which he maybe should've seen coming, but, well, what's done is done. And when he looks in the mirror...

"Wow."

"Yesssssss, it's perfect!"

As for what it is:

His waist is encircled twice by a dark red belt forming an X shape in the front and back. The top V section of that X shape follows his V-lines, and the sides are bare, showing the sides of his thighs and glutes. The lower part of the belt holds a pair of dark grey trousers, which start out skintight but then flare out nearer the shins to give space for a pair of slightly less dark grey boots with black soles.

His forearms and most of his hands are adorned by a pair of skintight gloves (except they don't cover his thumbs and middle and ring fingers), which are the same grey as the trousers except for a few dark red accents.

And finally, the ankle-length robe topping the ensemble is sleeveless, its shoulders hard and angled, pointing out away from him. Its neck is long and it has clasps holding it together from his Adam's apple to the middle of his chest, with a single, large, blood-red jewel attached to that last clasp, but below that it splits open to highlight his bare torso. The outside is the same grey as that of the boots, but the fabric on the inside is dark red like the belt and the accents on his gloves.

Everything is made out of incredibly high-quality enchantable materials: despite the skin-tightness of the gloves and trousers, they are flexible and stretchy enough to permit the full breadth of movement without rubbing against his skin; the boots are sturdy lava leather, highly resistant to damage and temperature extremes; and the robe is a light yet warm fabric that swishes pleasantly when he moves and feels very soft to the touch.

"Okay, I. Wow," he repeats, a bit breathless. "I could almost pretend to be powerful, wearing this."

"Become powerful, wearing this, Vallynn. Become famous, become renowned, achieve greatness and become the stuff of legends. And then pay me the money you owe me, when it no longer means anything to either of us," she says, grinning a sharklike grin.