You are welcome.
On the other questions as Executor said Spectral Mage is your best bet at earth giving you 1/8 chance of getting earth 2(if you get lucky) then what you can do is summon troll king's court to get a troll with earth 3 and give him the boots for earth 4 without empowering.(also I advise you to send all the other trolls into battle as soon as possible (a.k.a suicide them) since their upkeep is huge).
There is a good guide written by sector24 on the topic about getting into the certain schools of magic at
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37423