How to Find Sorcerer Thops and Complete His Quest

First Meeting: Locate Sorcerer Thops at the Church of Irith in Liurnia. He is sitting on a bench. Agree to donate 10 Runes and speak with him. He wants to become a grand sorcerer but was cast out of Raya Lucaria Academy. He will teach you Sorcery spells until you retrieve an Academy Glintstone Key for him.

Obtain Academy Glintstone Key: You need an Academy Glintstone Key to enter Raya Lucaria Academy. Head northeast from the Temple Quarter Site of Grace in Liurnia to find an island with the sleeping Glintstone Dragon Smarag. You can dash in on Torrent, loot the key, and ride away if you wish to avoid combat. This key is required to enter the Academy.

Locate Second Academy Glintstone Key: Inside Raya Lucaria Academy, reach the Debate Parlor Site of Grace. Head north, turn left, and take the outside stairway up and to the left. Drop down to the west, climb more stairs to the left, and drop to the rooftops below. Follow the rooftops south to a tower. Climb the ladder to the top, head right, and walk along a ledge to another rooftop. From the edge, drop down twice, then once more to your left onto a ledge. Walk along it and drop to another roof. Access a broken window, walk along beams, drop onto a chandelier, and claim the second Academy Glintstone Key.

Return to Thops: Go back to Thops (he may have moved to Raya Lucaria Academy, or you may need to find him there). Give him the Academy Glintstone Key. He will teach you the Erudition Gesture and inform you that he is heading to Raya Lucaria Academy.

Final Meeting: Travel to the Schoolhouse Classroom Site of Grace within Raya Lucaria Academy. Exit the building and look to the side to find Thops's body. Loot him to obtain Thops’s Bell Bearing, an Academy Glintstone Staff, and the Thops’s Barrier Sorcery.

Ash of War: Thops's Barrier: Return to the Church of Irith. You will find a Teardrop Scarab near where you first met Thops. Kill it to obtain the Ash of War: Thops’s Barrier.