“Master, can I eat them? They are all so annoying. And the boys.. they look so tasty.” Shearwood asked in a hushed voice. Kiefer could almost feel her salivating on his shirt as she poked her head out of his shirt’s neck and looked at the class.

Kiefer was standing outside the class door about to begin his first lesson in basic magic theory. He wasn’t expecting to learn much from the first class, but had somehow expected the snide remarks and crudely hidden sneers from his fellow classmates. They were young nobles coming from wealthy and significant families, only around 15 years of age, whereas he was a commoner who only started attending at the age of 21.

“Look at his clothes.. he must have been too poor to even dress decently.”

“I hear he only started at 21 because he had to save up enough money for the school fees. I hear he couldn’t even pay then and had to leave to borrow money on the application date itself.”

“His attribute was only fire. How pathetic. And his mana pool was only above average. When he’s this old, there’s no more room for improvement for him. He’s just wasting our time and his money.”

With his enhanced hearing, Kiefer could hear every whisper clear as day and chose to ignore them. There wasn’t enough time in the world to be correcting them and dealing with these baseless nonsense. Kiefer strode confidently to the back of the class and took a seat. Almost immediately, as if he was oil and they water, a gap could be seen between Kiefer and the rest of the class. Kiefer chuckled at this, glad that at least he will have some privacy if everyone decided to leave him alone.

As the class started soon after, all the student fell silent as the teacher started lecturing.

“There’s nothing I don’t know already.” Kiefer thought to himself silently. “All this stuff about mana, and how its being recycled, and high elf runes.. maybe taking this class was a mistake.”

Kiefer just spent the rest of the 2 hour class with his eyes closed and refining his mana pulse technique. He had managed to tweak it so that the pulse starts from inside his head, instead of on his palm. This would make it seem less obvious to his surroundings. Despite the teacher glaring at him several times thinking he was asleep, Kiefer continued to ignore the class that had no benefits to him.

Through his mana pulse, Kiefer could only sense 2 relatively strong individuals, and even then, he was sure Sher could make snacks out of them. They were the Knight instructor he met on application day, and another whose identity Kiefer did not know. What surprised Kiefer though was that the knight instructor had a mana pool comparable to some of the teachers in the magus department.

With the class concluded, Kiefer opened his eyes again and waited for everyone to leave the room before he slowly made his way out. Even before he stepped out the door, Kiefer sensed 4 individuals hanging outside in the corridor. He knew exactly what they were up to.

Kiefer was no stranger to bullying. He was bullied by his biological father. He was bullied by older kids in the orphanage. He was even bullied to a small extent in university. He always handled them the same way. Complete ignorance and the bullies eventually get bored. The bullies get bored, while other kids get creeped out, either way; they end up leaving him alone.

As soon as Kiefer stepped out the door, a bucket of water was thrown on him. Kiefer being Kiefer, skilfully dodged the incoming liquid by enhancing his legs and leaping forward at breakneck speeds. While the boys were still stunned that they had missed, Kiefer was already at the end of the corridor, turning a corner into the stairway. The 4 boys did not even get a chance to monologue about the disparity in their social status.

The rest of his first day in the academy was pretty much the same. During runes class, nobles made fun of his social and financial status, while during knight swordsmanship class, the physically superior knight candidates picked on the weak oddball magus that joined their activity. All the while, Kiefer just completely disregarded them and by the end of the day, he was back at his inn.

While Kiefer was feeling fine after the mentally exhausting day, Shearwood was not. She was visibly fuming, mad that her master had to endure all the humiliation he did not deserve. Humiliating her master would mean indirectly humiliating her, and she was seriously considering burning the entire city down to bedrock.

Kiefer sensing her agitation calmed her down. “Don’t worry Sher, starting tomorrow, they won’t have anything to say to me.”

Kiefer started his morning with his routine jog, increasing his speed and distance to 3 laps around the city walls. The city guards were all familiar with the young man by now, having seen him rush past them every morning.

Kiefer was not wearing his academy robe anymore. This time he stood outside the academy gate, wearing his seraplor mantle that concealed his mithril armour. He had equipped every piece except the shield and the mask. Shearwood was snoozing inside the mithril breastplate pocket. With this, Kiefer tooks large confident steps into the academy grounds and headed for his physical training class.

There was no fixed attire for classes in the academy; however, students still chose to either don the robe or armour to differentiate their department. Kiefer undressed his armour and mantle and stored it inside the locker, leaving Sher snoozing in the breastplate to guard his items. He quickly changed into a light breezy uniform designed for comfort and mobility provided by the academy. His new attire was not meant for the knights department to see.

In physical training, the students were usually too tired to pick on Kiefer and similarly, Kiefer was exhausted after the strenuous exercise. Varn (Knight Instructor) had forbidden him from using magic to enhance himself. Kiefer followed instructions like a soldier, knowing that this was meant to build up his body.

After a quick shower, Kiefer put his plan into motion, and almost immediately, he saw a reaction. Dressed in Seraplor mantle, Kiefer made his way towards the academy library. He had wanted to acquire some books on rune incantations and interpretations. With his hood up, almost no one could see his face as he sat down at a table and opened up a book.

He could hear whispers, conjectures and envious remarks. Some thought he was a senior returning from a mission; others were trying to figure out which rich family he came from. However, no one dared to approach him. The well-crafted seraplor mantle was doing its job. After all, not everybody can wear a piece of apparel that costs 5 gold like it was a daily clothing piece.

Finally, some 1st years gathered up the courage and approached Kiefer. “Umm.. Sorry to bother you sir, b-but we are first years and would like to ask you something we did not understand in class.” (Female student)

Kiefer was grinning beneath the hood. He knew it would work, but he did not expect it to be so effective. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can help you, I’m quite new to this myself see?” Kiefer replied, throwing his hood back and carefully scrutinising the faces of all those in the library.

Success, in Kiefer’s eyes, is when things go according to the way he predicted, even if it was without a doubt a bad result. Like when he expected an experiment to fail and yield no positive results, or when he expected everyone to stay away from him after being bullied. Nothing satisfied Kiefer more than success.

The girl was stunned, speechless as she quickly returned to her table with her group, but not before casting a hateful glance at Kiefer for deceiving her. What they failed to realise is that they deceived themselves into believing Kiefer was a poor commoner. Kiefer had never spoken a single word to them, but instead, it was just their assumptions and delusions running wild.

It had worked, as predicted. The magus students all avoided him, out of fear that he might belong to a powerful hidden family, or out of pure hatred that he had been pulling the wool over their eyes. All that’s left are the knight candidates.

Kiefer knew that strength meant everything in Knights department, and there was nothing he could do about it. He was after weak compared to the students who have been training since young. But he showed resolve and did everything as Varn and the other instructors ordered without so much as a whine. He wasn’t trying to be a teacher’s pet, just trying to improve his physical fitness as fast as possible.

The only way to prove himself is at the weekly ranking tournaments, where students confident enough could join the test their skills. There was no prize for winning, just a sense of satisfaction. The plan to stop the discrimination in the knights department was a long and arduous journey.

Within a week, Kiefer had catalogued a majority of the high elf runic characters and even performed the most basic fireball spell. Runic classes were the most productive while Kiefer had determined that magic theory classes were absolute rubbish. What was discussed in magic theory was in the end, just theories and hypothesis developed by various famous mages on the nature of mana and how it reacts to stimulus.

While some theories came surprisingly close, others were just pure nonsense. There were even theories that said mana was a person’s spirit and soul and hence there is no way to control how fast you recover your soul once you’ve used it.

“Asviran means ‘By my will’ while Astuvhan means ‘By your help’. Interesting.. so that’s the difference between incantation and enchanting.. With incantation, we use Asviran because we are controlling it, but while enchanting items, there is no mana control from the user’s part.” Kiefer slowly deciphered the runes as he compared between spells in 2 books. “And there’s no point in just reciting the incantation if you don’t understand the meaning behind it. It would seem that the power of the spell depends on the caster’s affinity with the element and his proficiency with the spell.”

Kiefer was still trying to analyse the fireball spell that was taught to him. The incantation was as follows, “Asviran hidra no cadrin shak enro”. Kiefer understood that the incantation was somewhat similar to the mana programming that he developed, and that it controls the elements to execute spells. He had deciphered everything except ‘hidra no cadrin’. In his words, it would mean ‘By my will hidra no cadrin shoot fire ball.” The o in ‘enro’ was a pictorial depiction of a ball rather than a letter while enr represented fire.

Just as he was lost inside his head, Kiefer felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw Varn grinning at him.

“I see you’re hardworking even in mage class. How’s your body holding up? Still sore from practice?” (Varn)

“No sir. I’ve enhanced my heart after practice and it helps heal fatigue effectively. Enhancing my sarcomeres also helps improve the repair rate of my muscles while lessening the burden while I’m out of practice.” (Kiefer)

“HO.. that’s some new terms I’ve never heard of.. What are sarkomeers?” (Varn)

“It’s just another term for muscles. Sir, if you don’t mind, I don’t mean any disrespect but I’m quite busy you see. There something I don’t understand I hate the feeling of not knowing things.”(Kiefer)

“And what are you trying to figure out? Maybe I can help. I used to be a mediocre mage you know, before I became an outstanding knight.” (Varn)

“Well I’m trying to understand what the incantation is actually saying. It’s so cryptic and the grammar is poor. Its difficult to decipher the meaning behind the characters.” (Kiefer)

“Ha! They don’t teach you that until you attend intermediate runes. But usually, the incantation includes a compulsory verse, the components of the spell, the action of the spell and finally the form of the spell. That’s most of what I can remember before I left Mage School for knightship. They teach you boring useless stuff in basic courses thinking you’ll be excited with just casting spells.” (Varn)

“You know, that actually helped a great deal! Thank you sir! I think I just might be able to figure this out.” Kiefer exclaimed excitedly while standing up. This was met with angry glares inside the quiet library and Kiefer sat back down immediately.

“Well just don’t be late for sword swinging in the evening.” (Varn)

Kiefer immediately flipped the pages of his basic runes book to view another spell, excited at the thought of another breakthrough.

Comparing the spell for fireball ‘Asviran hidra no cadrin shak enro’ and the spell for water ball ‘Asviran hidra condeen shak hidro’, Kiefer became so happy he was having a hard time suppressing his laughter, coming out as stifled giggles.

“It was so simple after all. The high elves must have met the same problem as I had when trying to develop the fireball. They did not have any fuel. So they created the incantation to form fuel from water and carbon dioxide first, taking hydrogen from water and carbon from C02 to form an organic fuel to burn. So ‘hidra’ meant water and ‘cadrin’ meant carbon. ‘condeen’ could mean condense where the waterball spell would have more action verses than component verse.” Kiefer thought as he began furiously jotting down the notes in his book.

Kiefer’s notebook was special. He knew no one wold be able to read it because he had written it in English, a language completely unknown to this world. As such, he could be sure that his research was safe and no one would be able to steal his ideas and understanding, at least until they deciphered the language.

Kiefer sprinted his way to the training field, ready to test out his new understanding of the spells. Overly excited, Kiefer was already running simulations on constructing new spells inside his head. All he needed where the runic terms for the different elements in the periodic table. His thirst for knowledge was ever growing.

“Master, why do you need to learn these inferior spells anyway? Isn’t your unique magic sufficient? Why lower yourself to these selfish and vile creatures?” Shearwood whispered just as Kiefer arrived at the training field.

“There is a plan for everything Sher. I do not want my abilities to be known, and since I can control the amount of mana I leak, I am able to fool others. Deceiving your enemy is the best way to ensure your own survival. That’s why I’m learning the sword too. When my enemies think I’m a swordsman, I can surprise them with elemental magic. Even then, I still have my trump card of mana manipulation and my over the top mithril armour that inconspicuously looks like normal steel armour. If that doesn’t work, I still have you, a titan.” Kiefer explained. “The easiest way to win a battle is a battle where your opponent underestimates you. And here comes the perfect example.”

Just as Kiefer approached the middle of the field, he was confronted by the same 4 students that tried to pour water on him.

“Look at this pathetic fire mage. You may be rich, but all you have is your fireball. Why don’t we teach him what he’s been missing out in practical lessons?” (Bully)

Saying that, the 4 students began chanting the spell for waterball. The leader even chanted the spell for intermediate level water arrow. Kiefer naturally dodged the spells by circling the group and within 5 minutes of spell blasting and a couple of friendly fire, the bullies were soaking wet. The ground they stood on was damp with a few puddles of water soaking their feet.

Kiefer looked at them and laughed. “I might as well teach them a lesson, I sure hope this new spell works. Might as well test out my hypothesis on them.” Kiefer thought as an evil grin sprouted on his face.

“Asviran electron condeen shak lightnos!”. Immediately, several balls of electricity formed around Kiefer with tiny forks of lighting randomly shooting out of the spheres as if trying to escape. The lightning balls shot forwards, landing on the wet ground, none hitting the bullies. However, the water soaked bullies were still shocked and paralyzed by the electricity running through them.

“I see.. it would seem that spells aren’t restricted to elven language or runes, and as long as the concept is in my head, the spell still works. Adding an ‘s’ in the end did in fact turn it into plural form, creating multiple lightning balls, and I can still use English terms such as electrons” (Kiefer)

The academy teacher on standby came rushing over to the site of the duel and healed the 4 bullies. He did not say anything to Kiefer as it was still within school regulations. As long as it is nothing lethal and it was within the premises of the training field, any sort of magic duels was permitted.

Kiefer was satisfied with his practical test that day. He had definitively proven that his hypothesis was correct and that meant he was not limited to the spells taught to him by the academy. However, Kiefer knew that elemental spells were after all inferior to his mana manipulation in the aspect that they required verbal incantation which would be fatal against an experienced swordsman. He needed to allocate more time to developing his own skills rather than learning new incantation.

Elsewhere, on the top of an ice cold mountain, a single wyvern was returning from its trip.

“What do you mean she’s not home? Did she leave her lake? Ahahahaa it would seem my baby sister has found something interesting enough to make her lift her lazy ass out of the water. You’ve done well. You may leave.” A sweet icy voice ran through the white cave.

The weather was calm and the view was beautiful. A whole landscape of white, overseeing an entire province from the top of the tallest mountain in Aioa. The only place on Aioa where you can see both the setting sun and the rising twin moons at the same time. A place where snow was eternal, and summers were colder than winters in the rest of Aioa.

And yet, all the magnificent beauty of the view paled in comparison to the charming woman strolling out of her cave.

Skin soft and pale, long silver hair reaching her waist, and a sky blue gown that flowed like silk. The woman took a deep breathe, and then muttered “Maybe I’ll go see for myself what my sister is up to”, as her green eyes flashed and she transformed into a dragon with white scales.

The dragon took off into the crimson sky, leaving behind a snowstorm on the mountain top.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. A little more insight into the spells of Aioa and Kiefer's understanding of them.