Inside the carriage, the group from Balvan family was returning to the mansion. Having completed the mission, there was no reason for them to remain in Cliffshear mountain.
They had signaled the place where the encampment was and left the hostages there waiting for someone from the noble families to pick them up, in a matter between cultivators those women were treated only as casualties and were for normal soldiers to handle.
The atmosphere during the trip back was pensive, everyone was silent with their mind wandering.
Sometimes their gaze would lie on a charred corpse lying on the wooden seats of the carriage, sometimes on Orson's head on the floor.
After he stared at the mage's head, Noah broke the silence wanting clarity on a pressing question in his mind.
"Is it really that hard to get a magic spell if you don't belong to the nobles' inner circle?"
The group was a little surprised form the question but then realized that this companion that fought with them was, in fact, a kid.
Mark did a complex smile and spoke.
"I'm sure that your Master already said something to you but I'll try to be more precise. You were probably misled to think that if you put enough efforts inevitably you will receive rewards. That is true only until a certain level."
He pointed at the corpse on the ground and continued.
"Susan was the third strongest in the outer ring, below your Master and his captain. She served in the guards of the outer ring for more than twenty years. Do you know the reason why she could not receive a technique that surpassed rank 3?"
Noah's answer was immediate.
"Because she didn't join the inner ring."
Sandy broke the silence too and corrected him.
"No, because she had talent and will."
Mark nodded to the answer of his brother and continued.
"You saw the power of a magic spell now, what would happen if the nobles gave that kind of power to someone that might become stronger than them?"
'One single cultivator having a magical spell could kill and injure 5 of them, with some of them stronger than him in other aspects.'
The answer this time was obvious.
"Rebellion."
Mark nodded, his smile becoming more complex.
"Exactly, that talented person might not welcome the control of the noble's families anymore after he obtains the power to fight them. You probably thought that you could find some ways around it since you got rewarded with a rank 3 art but let me tell you: that was the most valuable reward they could give you. Remember that you gave a "Breath" blessing, which is one of the most precious treasures for low-level cultivators, for it and you had your Master help in the delivery. I'm afraid that if you lacked one of those you would have received only some amount of gold as a reward."
Noah remembered how just by standing next to that blue mineral his injuries were healed and his second cycle was completed.
'That was indeed a good stone, no wonder they gave me such a high tier martial art for it.'
"With magic spells, the process is more complex."
Mark kept explaining.
"The first issue is that you need to be at least a rank 1 mage to learn it otherwise your sea of consciousness won't be able to bear the pressure of its diagram, many cultivators would rather train in other aspects that give an earlier increase of power than spend hours looking at a rune for many years. This greatly reduces the number of people that can strive for a magic scroll."
"After that, there is a problem with the aptitude of a person. If your aptitude doesn't match the element of the spell its power will be immensely reduced. Mages would rather serve a noble family that has accumulated a sufficient variety of spells rather than going around stealing scrolls only to end up with something that they would rather not use. I believe that Orson chose to rebel when he finally found the spell matching his aptitude."
'So his aptitude was fire. I won't know mine until my dantian is formed which means that it's useless to search for a way to get spells until then.'
"The last thing is the rarity of your element. The most common spells are of the fire and water element, followed by wind and earth. Thunder has a spot over them surpassed only by light and darkness. Of course, the rarer the element the stronger would be the spell compared to those on the same level."
This was the first time Noah heard something like this. He could not help but interrupt Mark explanation to ask:
"Why is there such a division?"
Mark had to think for a bit before continuing his speech.
"Well, truth is that the creation of spells is a process that went on for thousands of years and only top cultivators with a specific talent in magical diagrams can attempt to draw them. According to the common knowledge, the rarer one element the harder is to create diagrams of it, that's why there are fewer spells of them and that's where they took the name 'rare'."
Mark then pointed at himself and his brother.
"Our element is thunder. Even if it's a rare element, with the accumulation the Balvan family has they should have some scrolls of it. Yet, do you think that they will give them to us even if we enter the inner circle?"
Sandy didn't give time for Noah to answer and spoke directly.
"The answer is: probably no! With the character that we have, the inner circle will never allow us to have that kind of power, they simply don't trust us. Why do you think we are still wandering in the outer circle doing these kinds of missions while we both have reached the level of rank 1 mage?"
'So they were indeed mages and not simply talented scouts.'
"My brother is right, our power would increase too much with a spell of a rare element in our set of abilities. Because of that, the inner circle would not let us in and will just leave us to age in the outer circle."
Noah was confused.
"Then why do you still serve the Balvan family?"
Mark's smile showed only helplessness at this point.
"Because it is the only place where we can receive something for our cultivation, and in the bigger families there is only more competition for rewards at our level. The only option would be the academy in the Royal city but alas..."
He winked at Noah.
"They only enroll people below 18 years old."