Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 7

The class ends up taking about an hour, and it was actually pretty interesting.

Putting the threat level of it aside for now, having a Class C magician as my instructor is very helpful in learning magic. Which is to be expected.

Anyways, it takes me about four minutes to get to my next class, and when I enter the class, my eyes almost immediately turn towards the back, where Aidan, Cyria, and Sophia are sitting.

Time for mana manipulation.

After sitting down next to Cyria, I open my laptop and pull out my notes just like with the last classes, pausing only slightly as she asks, “So how was your Fundamentals of Fire class?”

I glance at her before continuing what I’m doing as I answer, “It was actually pretty good.” Once I finish pulling out my notes from the book I’ve been lugging around with me, I turn towards her and ask, “What about your Fundamentals of Water?”

Is it just me, or is she a lot more talkative now than when we first met? Because she really seems like she is.

Makes me wonder what’s different between now and then. Or it could just be that she's not good at talking to strangers.

“It was a pain,” she answers, slumping her shoulders slightly in exhaustion, “not only was the instructor not as good as the one for Magic Circuitry, but the other cadets in the class were obnoxious, both before and after the class.”

I guess they don’t have a Class C magician for the Fundamentals of Water class then.

“Sounds about right for a Fundamentals class. I was pleasantly surprised that the cadets in my class were strangely silent the entire time,” I say whilst leaning back in my chair, “and Instructor Leo was the same in Fundamentals of Fire as he was in Magic Circuitry, if not slightly better.”

In fact, the instructor actually looked more motivated to teach the class than Magic Circuitry.

Maybe it’s because it’s a fire class?

Regardless of why, it should help me a lot.

My thoughts are interrupted as a woman enters the classroom through the portal. A familiar woman at that.

“Hello, I will be your Mana Manipulation instructor,” Instructor Dawn says without pausing in her stride towards the desk at the front of the lecture hall, “my name is Dawn Suess, and as you’ve heard in your Magic Circuitry class, you shall call me Instructor Dawn.”

“Now,” she continues after coming to a stop at the desk and sitting down on top of it, “if you aren’t going to listen to what I have to say, get the hell out of here. I’m not like Instructor Leo. I won’t let moronic actions slide just because they tend to result in the one making the actions in a lot of pain.” She pointedly looks at Muscles at this statement, causing him to stiffen up before she continues. “So if you aren’t planning on listening, leave now. Because I will take off points from your final grade for every single time you do something moronic in here.”

Several seconds pass by, but no one moves from their seat.

After seeing this, Instructor Dawn simply nods her head, crosses her arms beneath her chest, and says, “Alright, if that’s the case, then let’s begin.”

She snaps her fingers, causing a portal with edges made out of torrential rapids to appear above each student before a book falls down onto the tables in front of us. The books are blue with the title ‘Mana Manipulation for Dummies’ on it, along with Instructor Dawn’s name written as the author.

Well, that’s interesting.

“I will explain what you need to do with the textbooks later,” she says before waving her hands, making a blue magic circle appear in the air in front of her, followed by some sort of water stool that she simply puts her feet up on, “for now, let me ask this question. What is mana manipulation?”

She looks around the classroom for a few seconds, waiting for someone to raise their hand, only to sigh in disappointment and breathe in to speak. However, before she can say anything, Sophia suddenly raises her hand, drawing a surprised expression from the instructor.

The surprise quickly turns to a pleasant smile – the first one I’ve seen from the instructor since meeting her – before she points at Sophia and asks, “What’s your name, young lady?”

“Sophia Inverno,” she answers, surprising me slightly with her last name.

Instructor Dawn continues smiling as she waves her hand and says, “Alright, please tell me. What is mana manipulation?”

Sophia takes in a breath and lets it out again a few seconds later before answering, “Mana manipulation is a term that can be used to refer to two different things. In both my case – as someone who isn’t even classified as a magician yet – and in your case – someone who is not able to free-cast – mana manipulation is a bit of a loose term. It refers to the act of training and stretching the arcs of mana within our bodies until they are strong and large enough to withstand splitting. This will increase the total amount of mana a magician has in their body, while also strengthening them against rips or other such damage. And the flexibility and speed at which a magician can train their arcs of mana, along with their arcs' natural development rate after splitting apart, is determined by their talent level.”

Instructor Dawn’s smile grows wider, and she begins to lean forwards slightly as Sophia continues her explanation, “Next up is for the S Class magicians. For S Class magicians, mana manipulation refers to the act of controlling their mana to do what they want. It is a lot more efficient than our method of using magic through magic circles, and it requires a lot more focus and understanding of their element to be able to do.”

At this point, the instructor begins clapping with an excited look on her face before exclaiming, “Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!” only to suddenly turn serious again as she says, “However, there are a few details that I need to correct you on, young miss Inverno.”

Instructor Dawn hops off of the desk and waves at the magi-tech board behind her.

“Now, everything you said was technically correct, but,” she pauses here while pointing at the screen that changes to show the images of two humans, one labeled as S Class and one not, “and this is a huge one. Those are not exclusive to the two types of magicians. After all, S Class magicians still have to train and replicate their mana arcs as well.”

Sophia’s eyes widen at this before she begins writing down notes.

“It’s just that they do it in a much more efficient manner than we do.” The instructor continues with her excitement growing. “With the S Class magicians’ ability to freely control and manipulate their mana, they're able to freely stretch and split their mana arcs without having to worry about tearing or damaging them in any way, while also being able to freely manipulate their natural development. This allows them to exponentially increase the number of arcs they have, which leads to part of their ability to use what many people call ‘strategic level magic.’”

She pauses at this point and turns to the cadets – most of whom are listening – and clarifies, “Which generally means magic that can end an entire war on its own, to the point that it can even damage reality itself.”

My face twitches slightly at the ‘damage reality’ part before returning to normal as she turns back to the board and continues speaking.

“In the end, mana manipulation is one of the most important parts to growing a magician’s power,” she says, facing away from us towards the board as a magi-tech-scanned image of a mana arc – which literally just looks like an arc of energy given solid form with the color of whoever’s element it belongs to – appears on the board. “After all, the number of arcs a magician has also determines how much mana they have, and how strong of spells they can use. Not to mention the number of spells they can use before running out of mana.”

She turns back to face us again as she finishes, “And they are one of the tell-tale determining factors for which Class of magician you are.”

Several seconds of silence reign through the room before she claps her hands again and says, “Now, I will get straight to the point! To be classified as an E Class magician, which is the bottom of the barrel, the weakest class, one of the requirements that you must fulfil-”

She waves her hand towards the screen again, causing it to change to show ten different arcs of mana.

“-is to have a total of at least ten arcs of mana!!! Which will also,” she pauses before looking around the room at the unsurprised faces of the gathered cadets and grinning, “be one of the requirements to pass this class.”

This announcement has whispers breaking out amongst the cadets.

“Yes! You heard it right! To pass this class as a high course student, you must have at least ten arcs of mana by the end of the semester!” she exclaims, causing the whispering to grow louder.

I frown at this before closing my eyes and looking inwards.

What I find are just two single arcs of mana flowing through my body.

I open my eyes again, my frown growing even deeper as I look at the ten arcs on the board.

This might be difficult.