Arriving at his next class, Kai noticed the room was larger than the last. He wouldn’t have been surprised if at least half of the first-year students were present. Again, he was unfamiliar with everyone in the room, so he picked a seat at the edge of a row alone.

If his first teacher had looked like he was teetering at the edge of death, this one was the opposite, only appearing a few years older than the students in the room. She already stood at the podium wearing a decorative lavender robe trimmed with silver highlights, coupled with a medium blue cloak down her back. Her hair was a strange blue color, nearly matching her cloak. Humming to herself, she greeted every student who walked in, not being discouraged when a student didn’t greet her back.

A few minutes later she began. “Hello students, it’s lovely to meet you all. I am Tina Lale, your professor for Introduction to Magic. All of you should have heard about the academy’s policy and standards in your first class of the day. In case you didn’t then shame on you for being late or skipping,” she said with a smile.

“Alright, I’m not quite as jaded as some of my colleagues so if you have a question, you can interrupt me, but please do not interrupt another student. Righto, intro to magic. Let me ask the most blaring question. What is magic?”

Standing up a student dressed in a white dress shirt and black trousers answered, “Magic is the phenomena or forces created or altered by using mana.”

Nodding her head, “Good answer but you don’t have to stand up to answer, just call it out from your seat. Now, will someone else tell me what mana is?” Asked the professor.

No one called out immediately this time. Even Kai was unsure what mana was. All he knew was that was the source used to cast magic, but he doubted the professor would accept that obvious answer.

After a few seconds of silence, the teacher spoke up, “No one has any idea?”

Not to be deterred, her smile didn’t falter. “We know what it is used for, which is fuel for altering and transforming properties and physics of the physical world, but that isn’t what it is. The truth is no one knows what mana is exactly. Some call it the gods’ gift, but I call it chaos. Researchers claim it’s similar to matter in that you are able to shape and mold it to suit your purposes. The elves claim it is the blood of all life and that without mana there would be no life in our universe. I agree to an extent. I believe mana is chaos incarnate. Energy or material both physical and abstract that can shape or alter the very essence of the world and life itself. Something controllable and yet uncontrollable.”

“Professor, I thought Earth didn’t have magic, so how did humans come about if what the elves say is true?” another student stated.

“There are two possible answers to that question, does anyone want to take a shot?”

Immediately a random student called out, “There was no mana and Earth was a freak accident.”.

Professor Lale nodded. “And the other?”

“There was mana on Earth,” answered Kai. This was a hotly debated subject after the human’s arrival in the Myriad of Worlds. Did magic exist on Earth? The answer varied from person to person, but most tended to agree that magic did exist on Earth. Otherwise, how did the belief of magic exist for thousands of years prior to this place when humans had no access? That answer became easier for people to accept once they experienced real magic.

Kai knew another method would be to somehow measure the magic density on Earth, but without the proper skill or device, there was no way to quantify if it truly existed there. Obviously, this method was impossible to use because access to Earth has been closed since the day humans arrived.

“Now, it is speculation among many human academics that Earth did in fact have mana. As many may not yet be aware, mana density is not the same everywhere. Mana density can differ from planet to planet marginally or substantially. And that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the same across the entire planet. There are regions, zones, or dungeons that may have a higher or lower mana density than the planet’s average. The Ashbourne Mountains are an example of this, the mountains have a higher density of mana than even our beloved capital.

“Going back to the theory that Earth did have mana, it is suspected to be at levels so low it wasn’t noticeable or significant enough to influence except on extremely rare occasions. For those of you interested in history, have a discussion with Professor Dravenport, he is knowledgeable about Earth-related topics. He has told me that there were many miracles and magic phenomena that couldn’t be explained during the time of humans on Earth. I don’t know if mana facilitated the existence of humans, if the gods helped create us, or if we are simply freak accidents. What I do know, is that humans have integrated with mana just as well as other species,” the teacher said, finishing top with a smile, as she hummed to herself.

The teacher looked across the room, a beautiful melody still being hummed. Her blue eyes locked onto Kai’s momentary. “Does anyone know what mana and magic do to and for the body?

“It makes us stronger?” Asked a brown-haired student meekly.

“Why are you phrasing your answer as a question?” The teacher shrugged when the student lowered herself further in her chair wanting to be unseen. “Yes, as you kill beings or just live your life without combat, your body increases its potential, though one will increase it faster than the other. The actually accepted terminology is gaining experience. Experience increases your body’s potential to hold and fuse with more mana. The more mana fused in it, the stronger and more perfect form of itself it will become. The skills you develop are the product of mana and its chaos changing your form on a level so small you can’t even see. What is curious is your ability to decide in which way your body improves. We call this your attributes. Five points for every level, you can choose to put your attributes into vitality, strength, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, and wisdom.”

A low groan rang out in the class. With a smile that could not be discouraged, “I can see I am boring you all. After all everyone here is at least level 5, so you all must be aware of this already. But this is material I must cover,” the professor said.

“Let’s begin at the top. Vitality is one of the most important attributes a being can have. Put simply, it determines how much damage your body can take before it begins to fail or die. Your health is directly connected to your vitality, gaining 10 health for every single stat in vitality. It also influences the resistance of your body. Take two people at the same level, each has the same skills, but they have different vitality stats. The one with a higher vitality is going to be more resilient to damage and other outside forces on the body, simply because his higher vitality gives him stronger natural defenses.

“The most interesting aspect of vitality is that it increases life expectancy. Every realm of power has an average life expectancy, but with a high vitality the time you can live before dying of natural causes will increase even further beyond the average,” the teacher said, with confidence. Her words were clear and concise as if they had been spoken right next to Kai’s head. A lot of students perked up at the last part.

Kai could hear scribbles of quills on paper, as people tried to copy the professor’s words. The young man next to him was writing everything down word for word. Kai was aware of most of what the teacher was stating. The magic and chaos were new and interesting, but the attributes had been something humans had figured out quickly during his first life. There was no chance he would have survived to the fourth realm of power in his first life if he didn’t even know what his attributes did for his body. It was an impossibility. He also got fortunate in the sense that everyone had magic for 16 years before he unlocked his own, so he didn’t have to guess or experiment since people had done that already, even though the attribute names were self-explanatory.

After the last sound of everyone scribbling had stopped the professor continued, “Strength is simple, it simply makes your physical body stronger. You will be able to exert more force when fighting or lifting objects. Again, let’s take two people pushing against each other, one has a higher strength than the other. Many would assume the one with higher strength would win, even if it’s by one single point. But that isn’t the case at all. The person with the lower strength may have a higher endurance, which may eventually allow that person to squeeze out victory after a prolonged battle,” she said pausing as she waited for the students to finish their notes again. “Or the person with a larger body and more muscle mass may be capable of beating someone smaller but with higher strength attribute.”

“So natural strength helps greatly influence a being’s strength?” A student asked.

Professor Lale shook her head. “Not greatly, but it does help, and it very much depends on the species and difference between the two. Let’s take an Ogre and a Human with no skills or abilities. For this example, the Ogre has 100 strength, and the human has 110 strength. You might think the human would win simply because he has a higher strength. But that is not true. The Ogre would win. Ogres are impressive physical specimens, built solidly and outrageously strong naturally. Their natural strength will easily make up the pitiful difference of 10 strength and more. As to how much? Well, that’s not easy to determine without extreme studies, and obviously, it varies from individual to individual. And you might be thinking to yourselves, “That’s not fair!” she mocked in a higher pitch. “Guess what. That’s life. It isn’t ever going to be fair.”

“Coming up next, we have dexterity. It doesn’t just solely improve the speed of a person, but reflexes and balance as well. Think about it, the more fluid and graceful your movements, the less stamina you will use. Dexterity will increase your hand-eye coordination and precision– “

The professor paused mid-sentence. Every student began looking up at her in question. She was frowning, it was the first time she didn’t have a smile on her face since class began. “Am I boring you?” she asked aloud, her eyes targeted on a student in the back. Kai, like many of the other students, turned around to see who she was staring at. The student’s smirk was frozen, his eyes shifting around as he noticed all the attention was on him. A miniature fireball was floating above his palm, apparently having been caught playing around with his magic.

“Leave,” the professor commanded. Kai could tell that the word wasn’t a normal command but one laced with magic. The fireball in the student’s hand winked out as if it hadn’t existed. The student responsible for the disturbance stared at his hand in confusion. “Report to the enforcement office, wait for me to arrive there.”

The student stood and gloomily walked to the exit. Once gone, the professor smiled at the class once more. “There is no magic allowed in the classroom at all times unless in self-defense. I hope there will not be a repeat.”

The chills overcame Kai for a moment. His happy-go-lucky professor’s personality had suddenly taken a 180. Only to go back to the peppy professor once more.

“Let’s continue. Endurance is your stamina. The same rates apply to your vitality, one point of endurance is equal to ten stamina. Many see endurance as the least useful of the six attributes, but I can assure you in a protracted battle, those with the most endurance usually survive. Soldiers in war know that lots of stamina and mana can save their life in those long fights.

“Second to last, we have the intelligence attribute. Mages love this stat; it often is the determining stat for the strength of their spells. And no, before you ask, it does not make you smarter,” the professor said, eliciting a giggle from the class.

“Lastly, we have wisdom. Simply stated, the higher your wisdom the more mana you have at your disposal. Mana regeneration is also tied to your wisdom. Essentially, the more mana you have the more you will recover. The rate of regeneration seems to be based on the environment, with a higher density of mana, your rate of recovery will increase, and the opposite also applies.

“So, you see, every stat is vitally important for a person’s wellbeing, especially if they are often in combat. It is not my place to tell you where to allocate your stats, but I suggest with utmost seriousness that you do so wisely.”