'Interesting…'
Ever since Tia entered a state of deep meditation, Theo no longer had to waste words on trying to calm her down.
Even his instructions were now limited to just describing each of the steps.
And just by feeling the fluctuations in the girl's mana, watching how his hand moved to properly mark them down, or how the ink itself appeared to move with its own will to create specific shapes in specific parts on each of the rings within the spiral on her back…
Just with this, Theo could tell Tia was doing well.
Not awesome, nowhere near the level of some of the geniuses he saw back in his original life, but far better than average.
'She wouldn't be able to reach her current cultivation level without talent, even with all the resources her father showered her with.' He sighed out. 'I guess I shouldn't be surprised, eh?'
Theo shook his head before bringing the tip of his brush back to the ink vial and dipping it in. He then gently dragged the full length of the brush's hair along the vial's edge to remove the excess of the coloring before raising it up to Tia's naked back once more.
By now, the innermost circle of the spiral was completed, marked with six distinctive sigils, each a full-on picture in its own right while also a part of the bigger whole, turning said circle into a sigil all in its own right.
With just a few more minutes and several more strokes of Theo's brush, the second circle reached its saturation too, with the leftover ink already gravitating towards the next layer of the magical foundation. Yet, before actually bringing the brush towards the third of the spiral's circles, Theo took a moment to inspect the finished state of the second ring.
'This looks like a middle ground between shapes and dimensions,' he thought, judging it through his instincts and expertise, with nothing more but the general vibe of the sigils to go by.
Contrary to the innermost ring, the second tier of the foundation wasn't split into a given number of separate markings yet consisted of one, ongoing mark that wrapped all around the circular base. And while the early strokes made it feel like there was some sort of distinction between each part of the sigil, the further Theo looked, the more holistic the sigil became, all the way to the point where it lost all of its distinctive features.
"Now, forget all about the elements, shapes and dimensions, and focus on the scale."
Theo's hand lazily repeated the same motions, wetting the hair of the brush before bringing it up to the girl's back as he finally gave her a new set of instructions.
At this point, he no longer needed to explain things in depth.
For Tia's magic to truly be her own, the less Theo interfered in her interpretations of his instructions, the better. And now that her meditation reached sufficient depth, her inner creativity was more than enough to translate Theo's unclear instructions into meanings that made sense for her.
And so, the process started all over again, with Theo's brush merely bringing up the ink to Tia's skin, only for the ink itself to synchronize with the fluctuations of the girl's mana and ride on her back to the most fitting places, arranging itself into the extremely detailed sigils all on its own.
If there was one thing that changed between the steps, it was the rate at which each of the rings would reach saturation.
With how each layer of the grand sigil would grow more ambiguous and less precise, the sigils would take shape sooner while growing progressively less detailed.
In a way, the sigils of the third circle, for Theo's eyes, served as a great gauge of Tia's talent. After all, for the layer of the grand sigil foundation responsible for nothing but the scale of the invoked spell, its sigils were famously simplistic.
Most of the time, they would appear as a set of simple, straight lines of growing length. And it was by the number of lines a practitioner could cram into the circle before it would reach the next part of the sigil that an initiator could judge the initiatee's talent.
Five lines would be a little, indicating but a fleeting focus or limited inner creativity.
Ten, fifteen lines were the general norm, an average most fledgling mages would achieve.
Anything above fifteen would mark a talented mage, while twenty lines or more would be a clear sign of a genius.
'In her case, though,' Theo raised his eyes from Tia's naked skin to the back of her head, 'I guess her standards should be a little bit higher, given the meditation experience she came with.'
Even with his eyes away from the girl's back, Theo's hand continued to push through with the task, bringing in more and more of the ink to the canvas of Tia's skin. Yet, by the time he lowered his eyes down to the ink drawing…
'Oh my…'
Tia, as it turned out, forwent the whole concept of lines altogether. And as the ink adjusted itself according to the fluctuations of her mana guided by whatever was happening on the inside of her head, it formed a sinusoidal line that dipped below the founding circle only to then rise above it and then repeat, with each cycle resulting in bigger waves than the last.
'And there are…' Theo squinted his eyes as he quickly took the count, only for his eyes to then go wide, 'nineteen?'
While not unheard of, an unnatural way of marking the scale level was rare. And while not exactly indicative of a talent or its lack, Theo never really expected Tia to actually score so damn high!
'So she isn't just a spoiled little princess,' he thought, even though he could tell that much just from her cultivation level alone.
It wouldn't be possible for Tia to reach her current cultivation level if an abundance of resources was all that she had going for herself. Heck, not even talent or hard work alone could result in that kind of growth!
Only by combining all three of those—resources, hard work, and talent—could someone reach her cultivation realm at the age she did.
Yet, even with that said, even when accounting for the different starting point to most of the initiatees Theo saw… Nineteen phases?
That really wasn't a score anyone would ever scoff at, even given Tia's special circumstances!
'Well then,' Theo sighed, chasing all his awe and surprise away as he took in a deep breath and straightened his back. Now that the most interesting part was pretty much over, it was time for the part he personally liked the least.
It was the moment when an initiate's progress would go from lazy, then slow, and jump right into quick, soon to turn into a rapid one!
Mentally prepared and with the brush already waiting in his hand, Theo took another breath before leaning over the girl's shoulder a bit.
"Now, think about purpose, an emotion," Theo whispered, only to then lean back right away, hurriedly bringing the brush to the girl's back, only to watch the drops of ink rush to take their destined positions. A moment later…
"Think of the control, the source of the intent."
Theo's movements sped up even further, growing so fast, he had to actively drive his own cultivation to supplement his muscles in a bid to maintain the pace of Tia's rapidly growing imagination.
And as soon as the drops of ink started to intrude upon the sixth of the circles within the spiral of Tia's grand sigil…
"Progress, resonance!"
Theo's instructions grew even shorter, more ambiguous, while his voice grew to cut through the fog of endless creativity likely taking over Tia's mind.
And just a few seconds later,
"Origin, manifestation!"
Theo's hands fell down by his sides, his mana stirring in response to the storm of spiritual energy rising all around the girl.
At the current stage, the ink started to flow out of the bottle on its own, carried by the intense waves of Tia's raging mana.
The air within the inn's room stirred, a storm manifesting within the confines of the four wooden walls. And as the winds grew strong enough to actually lift up lighter items within the room…
Theo's eyes snapped wide open, a wild current of mana surging from his very core throughout his entire system.
With Tia's spirituality growing beyond its natural limits, her mana started to manifest itself into the world around her, guided by nothing but the endlessly broad ideas of her grand sigil.
It turned into all of her elements at once, in all sorts of shapes, sizes, with all sorts of purposes, controlled from every point in the room and interacting with it in every possible way the girl conceived in the state of her endless creativity.
And as the manifestation reached its peak…
'Now!'
The mana in Theo's hands surged into his palm, right as he leaned to the back, only to then slam it right against the very center of the drawing on Tia's back.
"SEAL!"