To those waiting on Homecoming, I'm very deeply sorry but I haven't much in terms of the next chapter except for a few bits and pieces since finals are here. Writing this was a way for me to de-stress so please be patient a little while longer.

This is basically an attempt by yours truly to work out and maybe explain some of the mysteries of Maple World's magic but I guess it's mostly for my own amusement and as food for thought than any real serious undertaking so it's not a full-fledged story. That said, I welcome anyone who has any ideas or something to say/add or found some kind of contradiction here somewhere to just give a shout! I'd be glad to chew on whatever you give me and I might even try to squeeze in the new ideas somewhere in this… story(?)

This will most likely be updated daily so keep your eyes peeled!

Day 1: The Challenge, Begin!

Freud blinked incredulous eyes at the man standing in front of his desk.

"You would like me to what?"

"Teach me Erithros's Principles of Equinox," Phantom repeated simply, arms crossed.

"Phantom," Freud began, putting down his quill and rubbing slender fingers against his eyes. "Erithros's Principles of Equinox is an extremely complex theory of light magic. Why on earth would you want to learn it? Where did you even hear of such advanced kno—" He abruptly stopped and sighed. "Wait, let me guess. Luminous goaded you into this didn't he?"

"Come on Freud!" Phantom groaned. "He insulted my work ethic and my competence! And I am anything but a freeloader or inept! But of course the bigot wouldn't believe it unless I spelled it out to him so he challenged me to learn Erithros's Principles within two weeks at the end of which I would give a lecture on the topic to a group of scholars from Aurora."

"So you thought the best course of action would be to fall for his taunts?" Freud asked dryly. "How very befitting of someone your age and reputation."

"Freud," Phantom whined.

Freud sighed again and leaned back, his chair creaking with the movement, and folded his hands on his desk. "If you took on his challenge because you believed you could learn those principles in that short a time span using only your photographic memory, then I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken and Luminous was one step ahead of you in that regard."

Phantom frowned. "How so?"

Freud shook his head. "Although having perfect memory could help hasten things along, Erithros's Principles of Equinox rests on a large accumulation of knowledge the premises of which builds onto each other. If you do not understand even the basics, the foundation of your entire ability to learn his principles crumbles. There is also a fair amount of mathematical proofs involved so even if you simply memorized the information, you would definitely not be able to understand what all of it means and if you were to lecture in front of scholars based on pure memorization alone, it would quickly become evident that you have no deeper understanding of the subject whatsoever. In short, it requires some critical thinking."

"Fine then," Phantom growled, slamming his hands on Freud's desk and leaning forward, eyes narrowed in determination fueled by an indignant pride. "What would it take to learn it?"

Freud paused as he considered the question. "Well," he began slowly. "If you are truly resolute in learning the principles, then I'll assume that you are willing to devote the better part of the day and night in studying the subject. If that were the case, then I could teach you the principles step by step since I believe the processes could be broken down into thirteen parts, leaving a spare day as a safety net."

Phantom nodded. "Okay. That sounds plausible," he agreed.

"But we must take into account each of our own duties. I cannot take two weeks off my own work to tutor you and similarly, you cannot shirk two weeks off your own work." Freud gave him a pointed look at that. "Which means that the majority of time would be self-study sessions during whatever is left of your free time."

"I know…" Phantom sighed, running a hand through blonde locks.

"And you're still willing to do this?" Freud asked, raising a brow. "I must warn you that it is difficult enough to learn the material in one year but to compress it into two weeks might be too much even for you."

"That's fine. I'm no scholar but I'm no idiot either. Two weeks would be plenty of time for me," Phantom scoffed confidently.

Freud smirked. "Very well then. If you are willing to learn then I see no reason not to teach you but expect me to be a very stringent instructor. I expect only your best efforts."

Phantom nodded. "And I shall give nothing less."

"Then we begin immediately," Freud announced, taking a clean sheet of parchment and scribbling something on it rapidly. "Erithros's Principles are nothing to laugh at and the enormity of what needs to be learned is made even more immense by your lack of knowledge of even the basics of general magic so we will have to speed through that. In the meantime, I would like you to go around my study and gather the following materials while I finish up the rest of my work. Here."

He handed the piece of paper over to Phantom who took it gingerly, eyes darting across the words and raising a brow at the rather elongated list.

"All this is necessary?" he asked incredulously.

Freud shrugged. "If you want a complete understanding of the topic by the end of two weeks then yes, it is quite necessary. I hope you weren't expecting that the readings would be light. You would probably have to take a lot of these books back with you since we won't have time to cover everything we need to." He glanced over at Phantom, an amused glint in his eye. "If you don't feel up to it, it's not too late to stop now."

Phantom scowled. "Never."

"Then I suggest you hop to it."