"Why are you following me? Better yet, how can you see me in my invisible state?" Christian did not want to make the same mistake and give Ophelia the chance to discover his location.
"I'm tired of observing you from far away and decided to do it up close," replied Mimir. "As for your little spell — it's nothing before my eyes."
Christian was speechless. A talking cat just looked down on his spell. More importantly, he just learned someone was spying on him. "Haven't you heard of the right to privacy?"
"What's that?" asked Mimir, turning her head sideways to show her puzzlement. Christian could not tell whether she was serious or pretending to be, so he decided to ignore this damn cat. He walked a few steps before stopping again.
"What is it this time?" Mimir asked.
"I was supposed to find a water spell to deal with Aurelius and a spell to redirect lightning in case I face Niketas. But it slipped my mind after dealing with you two."
Mimir raised her paw to stop him from returning to the library, "There's only a Water-Controlling Charm in the second level, and no spells related to lightning. I'll teach you the charm, so there's no need to make another trip back."
Christian furrowed his brow as he was not happy with this news."What about Hymn Charms? There should be such spells, right?"
"There are a few water charms, but still no lightning," replied Mimir. "However, the third trial is in three days: can you learn a new magic system?"
"I probably can, but it might not be worth it." Christian read the description of the Acceleration Charm. He will need to train for a few days, so it might not be suitable to learn an entirely new magic system and waste time.
"You know about music?" Mimir asked.
"Classically trained in piano and violin since I was 5."
"By some odd twist of fate, you seemed well-prepared for your destiny as a Planeswalker Seed."
"Oh, I've said too much."
"Planeswalker — a walker of planes and countless dimensions?" Christian muttered. "A seed indicates a preparatory stage, so Odin Eye's purpose is to train me into a [Planeswalker]? But what exactly is that? And how can I refuse?"
"Why would you want to refuse?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because people keep telling or insinuating that I won't live long. Perhaps because I didn't choose this path, but it was thrust upon me. Or maybe, because such a fate might have taken my father away from me."
"Those are good reasons to refuse," Mimir sighed.
"So, are you going to tell me?"
"I advise you to accept your fate."
Christian glanced at the cat before heading to his hotel. He immediately entered his bag of holdings, and to his surprise, the cat ignored his defenses on the bag and followed him without permission. He ignored the cat — who seemed distracted by something in the distance — and started his training.
'Let's see,' he thought. 'Focus, point in the direction I want to travel with my wand and use the incantation.' He pointed his wand to the right: "Velomotus." His body moved more than three meters to the right, leaving shadows in its wake due to the sheer speed at which he moved. However, Christian tumbled from his state of fast movement, crashing hard on the floor, even leaving scratches.
Christian grunted in pain. More importantly, his head was slightly fuzzy due to how fast he moved. He took a moment to compose himself before starting again.
'Focus. I only need to move one meter at a time and adapt slowly.'
"Velomotus." His pronunciation reduced the emphasis on the "velox" part of the incantation. As expected, his movement speed was not as exaggerated as before, allowing him to move one meter with a controllable speed. He still tumbled on the second attempt, but it was not as bad as the first. Christian kept trying for the next two hours until he could perfectly control his movement in a one-meter diameter around him.
Then, he proceeded to the second stage of this training: distance. His pronunciation focused on the "motus" aspect of the incantation, which controlled his movement and the distance traveled. After a few hours of practice, Christian found the limit of this spell: five meters.
'This is a great spell,' Christian thought as he drank a potion for his fatigue. Such a simple spell has so many applications and uses. For example, it's much easier to learn than Apparition while granting similar mobility. Spells like the Killing Curses cannot be blocked and must be evaded, so only Apparition or physical evasion is the best way to deal with them. However, Apparition is challenging to use in battle as only skilled wizards can do so. Secondly, many places have anti-apparition jinxes, making it not applicable in every situation. But the Acceleration Charm is different.
It's as fast as Apparition despite its limited 5-meter scope. It does not have the weakness of anti-apparition jinxes. Of course, there are counters to it, like the Leg Locker Jinx or any spells restricting movement. Christian smiled as he could not wait to bring this spell home.
'Such a spell should drastically reduce the power the Killing Curse has on the magical world,' Christian thought.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Mimir.
"Oh, you're still here."
"How rude," said the cat in annoyance.
"Sorry. I thought you would be bored watching me train and leave."
"It's not as boring as you think. It brought me memories from long ago," Mimir sighed. When Vincent (The Curator) was young, she would watch him train for hours, just as she does now.
"So, what's on your mind?"
"I was just thinking how this charm will drastically increase casualties from the Killing Curse back home."
A brilliant light flashed in Mimir's eyes. She knew Reality 7 was in such a terrible state because the Veilbreakers had great control over it, even reducing the interferences of the other realities to the bare minimum. One of the methods they used to weaken that reality was allowing Death Magic, like the Killing Curse, to run rampant while secretly eliminating any spells that would counter or reduce its effect.
"That's good news," nodded Mimir.
"Are you done training?"
"No. On the contrary, I'm just getting started," replied Christian. He immediately entered a state of deep focus to continue his training. "Velomotus." His body moved five meters, and then he used the incantation a second time as soon as he arrived at his destination. He repeated the process until he traveled 30 meters.
Christian found himself lying on the ground, sweat dripping from his forehead and back, his body weak to an extreme, and his lungs painful as he tried to intake more oxygen; it was like he had run a 50-kilometer marathon. He cast a Stamina Charm on himself; otherwise, he might have died from fatigue.
"This is not a spell for long-term travel—duly noted," he muttered. After drinking another potion, he took a piece of paper and began dissecting the Acceleration Charm using his vast knowledge of magic theories. The process took three hours, but Christian was satisfied with the result.
He stood up from the ground and uttered the incantation, his pronunciation focusing on different words or parts of the incantation. Then, his body moved two meters to the right before returning to its original place; he did so without having to utter the incantation a second time.
He tried a different pronunciation, and his body moved in a circular pattern. On another attempt, his body moved one meter and stopped briefly before moving the remaining four meters. On his fourth attempt, Christian's body moved in a zigzag shape instead of the monotonous left, right, forward, and backward. However, this attempt required both the correct pronunciation and wand movement.
Christian tried many variations of this spell to better understand it. He did not care that many of these applications were useless in battles; he simply wanted to understand that spell on a fundamental level.
'Last attempt,' Christian thought. His body suddenly shot up one meter into the air before falling to the ground. 'The spell indeed can move in all directions, but the problem is my body cannot take a fall more than one meter. So, I need something else.'
His body moved five meters upward before falling with the same intense velocity. Christian swiftly used the Slowing Charm (Arresto Momentum); however, his timing was imperfect, and he sprained his foot as a result. Luckily, he did not break his femur or other leg bones, as the drop from such a height could have done that.
He swallowed another potion without saying a word, and ten minutes later, he was trying a second time, still missing the perfect time. It took more than an hour of injury, recuperation, and trying before he succeeded. Then, Christian moved in all directions: up, down, left, right, diagonally, sideways, or in a zigzag pattern.
"Are you going to rest? It's been 18 hours," asked Mimir, looking at Christian, who was resting and drinking another potion.
"The training is not over."
"You seemed to have mastered this spell. Well, maybe not master, but you've reached the limit of your current skills and knowledge."
"Knowledge, maybe, but not skills," Christian replied. Now that he was rejuvenated, he continued the training. He enchanted one training dummy to cast Basic Cast on him while he used the Acceleration Charm to evade. He started with a regular speed before slowly adjusting the dummy to reach the same speed as Aurielius and Niketas.
Once Christian adapted to that level of speed, he increased the number of dummies. The process was not easy since he still needed to use the spell verbally while pointing his wand in the direction he wished to travel. However, he persevered and improved at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Mimir watched as his body moved in all directions to evade numerous spells. 'Vincent was right. This kid is something special.'