Drawing out mana turned out easier than expected. The initial problem was extracting the magic from the object itself. Everyone had seen how easy it was to touch a thread. However, the walls of the cube prevented the children from reaching it. Trying to crush it only resulted in an instant release and dispersal of magic, often with an amusing visual display. That wasn’t the goal of the task, though, and all they got was a replacement and a few words of encouragement.

After about a minute of meddling, Dallion did the next logical thing: focus some of his own magic into his fingers and use it to reach into the cube.

The result was immediate. A thin thread of energy emerged from the side of the cube. Overenthusiastic by the result, Dallion pulled the thread only to have it snap. After some comical mistakes, Dallion discovered that it was all a matter of consistency. As long as the thread was pulled at a constant speed, it withheld the pressure. Attempting to increase the speed gradually was only efficient up to a certain point, after which it would snap and “coil” back into the cube. The trick was to pull it fast and steady enough to get the whole thing out.

“Wow, he got it out!” someone whispered after Dallion managed to deprive the cube of its magic. Left alone, the object had transformed into a common piece of white crystal, very much like the material found in the Glass Mounts.

“How’d you do it?” the girl behind Dallion asked.

Dallion began to answer, but the moment he did, the fury negated the air vibrations, bringing silence to the room, yet again.

“No assisting,” he said in a harsh tone. “All of you need to do it by yourselves. Since the Purple Moon granted you his trait, he believes that you’re smart enough to use it.”

The explanation was nonsense, of course, but given that the target audience were children, it did the trick. Everyone focused on their cubes with increased vigor. Dallion, on the other hand, focused on the second part of the task, which, unlike the first, was a lot more fiddly.

Once entirely pulled out, the thread had turned into a ball of magic. It was squishy enough to hold, and quite stretchable, yet pushing it into its container was the same as pushing toothpaste back into its tube. Dallion tried squishing it in through the side, through the edge, even through the tips, but it always resisted.

What was supposed to be a quick task ended up lasting several hours. By noon, half the class had managed to pull the magic out, but none were able to return it.

Chimes sounded throughout the auditorium.

“That’s it for today,” Palag said, ending the imposed silence. “Since none of you managed to complete this fundamental step of magic, tomorrow we’ll continue.”

“What do we do with the magic we have?” a boy asked.

“Leave it. It’ll vanish by the end of the day. Now, go have lunch. For those who failed pulling out the magic, I suggest you visit the novice library. That is all.”

Noise erupted as everyone rushed to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Dallion, of course, remained. He wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere.

“Dallion.” The instructor approached him. “You stay.”

“Yes, sir.” Dallion did his best not to sound annoyed. Being bossed around by someone his age wasn’t particularly new. Having to deal with giants twice his height, still needed getting used to.

The two patiently waited for the last of the other children to leave, after which Palag used his magic currents to close the door.

“You’re the hunter, right?”

“Yes, I am… sir.”

A smile appeared on the fury’s face.

“You can drop that when there’s no one around. I’m just an apprentice.”

There was a time when Dallion could have thought this was the fury being nice. Life had jaded him to the point he could almost see the request on the fury’s lips.

“It takes months for a person to move to rank two. That thing about the week is part of the training experience. Unlike you, the rest of the kids need to learn how to be an awakened while also grasping the principles of magic.”

“Are you saying I can advance faster?”

“No. Even if you were a noble, it would take you about that long. The difference is that they don’t spend all that time learning. You don’t have to, either.”

Here it comes. “You’re asking for a favor, aren’t you?”

“Not exactly. I want to hire you.”

That wasn’t a response Dallion expected. The Academy frequently hired hunters for various tasks, though having it happen on the first day of school was a bit too much.

“Is that allowed? The mage in administration said that—”

“Technically, you’ll be supervised, which is good enough as far as the Academy is concerned. You’ll get used to that once you become an apprentice. Mages are great at finding loopholes everywhere.”

“I’ve been told.” Dallion sighed. “Why me, though? There are a lot less controversial hunters out there.”

“Apprentices aren’t allowed to hire hunters. The only way is for me to ask the mage I’m associated with, or send in a formal request to administration. However, I’m allowed to oversee novice development both here and in the field. And we will eventually go into the field.”

Now it made a lot more sense. Not only was this a rare chance for the fury to get something from his wish list, but to do so for free. At no point was price discussed, probably because it wasn’t of consequence. Being a mage was pretty much the same as being a high-leveled awakened: money was a non-issue.

“You’re free to say no, of course. Your progress won’t suffer too much, but you’ll have a lot more boredom to look forward to. Also, while outside the Academy, the seal can be activated entirely to my discretion. Short of using magic in your grown-up form, you’ll be able to do pretty much anything else.”

Dallion crossed his arms.

“You don’t have to decide immediately. The task won’t be too difficult, just—”

“When?” Dallion interrupted.

“Huh?” The fury’s expression shifted. That was to be expected. While he was Dallion’s current magic instructor, he was also a sheltered awakened. It was doubtful he’d spent any serious length of time in the wilderness on his own and always had spells to shield him should anything go wrong. “You don’t want to know what you’d be doing?”

“Catch an animal, find an artifact, or protect you while doing something,” Dallion replied. “There aren’t that many options.”

“Oh, right.” The fury paused for a few moments. “Four days. We go in four days. Till then, keep on practicing.”

“Sure.” Four days couldn’t come fast enough.

“One hint. Magic is all about pulling. Never pushing.”

As the day progressed, Dallion got to know more of the spoken and unspoken rules that existed. Part of the rules were related to the trait. Possessing it allowed him access to one of the largest libraries he had ever seen. The novice library was almost the size of a realm itself, filled with so many scrolls and books that giant crossroad signs indicated the categories. Naturally, there was a catch: the contents of the books, as well as the signs themselves, were only visible after a certain level of magic. At present, all that Dallion could see were a few shelves among a vast sea of blankness.

Everything was described as it would be to a child. It seemed that while magic was universal, its nature depended on its frequency of vibration—or “speed” as it was written to be. Slow magic was most stable, while fast—more volatile, causing it to disperse faster in the air. Power was the second characteristic based on which magic was classified, although the importance of that wasn’t specified. Given the basic principles of awakening, Dallion could assume that the stronger magic one used, the more potent the spells would be. Alas, even going through all the books, visible to him, there was no mention of how magic could be used to make actual spells. Clearly, the Academy didn’t believe in skipping steps. One thing the books and scrolls were filled with was effective ways of pulling magic out without snapping.

Nil, Dallion thought, closing the book he was reading. All these are just examples.

Before you can run, you need to learn how to walk, dear boy, the echo said.

That’s not what I meant. These are just lists of magic speed within and the elements they could be found in.

Quite right. Children need to memorize as many of those as possible to get to the next stage.

Why isn’t there a formula?

Using his scholarly skills, Dallion concentrated on the problem. Initially, the task seemed impossible. There were countless cases of magic of various “speed” within one material. Even with the vast sample size, there was nothing linking them together. Yet, after a few hours of pondering, a principle began to emerge. It was a very specific pattern, only valid for certain elements, but it was enough. As it turned out, similar to sound, materials only allowed magic of a certain frequency. The common mistake that people made—something that only a person would notice—was the vast majority of examples given contained mixed elements. Pure metals, such as iron, tin, gold, and silver, had a unique frequency that was based on their atomic number. In the case of two-metal alloys, ranges emerged that depended on the ration of metals.

Dallion spent a few more hours modifying his formula to include other elements, but his recollection of chemistry wasn’t as good as he had hoped. Gassil probably had a huge advantage in that area. Still, as the fight had shown, general knowledge wasn’t what gave spellcasters the edge.

At eight, Dallion was politely kicked out of the novice library and told to get some food. In the wilderness, skipping a day or two never was an issue. Academy rules, though, required three visits to the novice dining room per day.

The good news was that it was mostly empty. The bad—that it was mostly empty.

“Hey,” the large boy who had tried to intimidate Dallion earlier that morning said. “You’re the one who thinks he’s a big shot.”

A handful of others were also there. Most were at the large boy’s table. A few more were eating on their own.

“Hey, can’t you hear me?” The boy got up. His entire posse quickly followed.

Dallion had been through school once to know exactly what that meant. This was probably the local band of bullies. Just thinking that he’d have to deal with such petty things made him simultaneously laugh and cry internally.

On paper, the Academy had rules prohibiting fighting. However, taking a close look at the boys in question, one could tell that rules probably didn’t apply to them. Judging by how well their hair was kept, and the subtle but expensive jewelry they were wearing, there could be no mistake that they came from noble families.

“I hear you,” Dallion said. In his current state, his voice sounded squeaky rather than terrifying.

“What’s your name?”

“Dal. What’s yours?”

The question made the boy hesitate again. Like most bullies, especially from a noble family, he wasn’t used to being talked back to by anyone other than another noble. That, and his vast size, gave him a large advantage in the group of novices.

“D’Erango,” he said with a slight smirk. “Phoil d’Erango.”

Count’s family, Elenot province, Nil said.

“Related to the count?” Dallion asked casually, taking a bite of his feed as he did.

“He’s my father,” Phoil said with pride.

“Good for you. It doesn’t matter until you become a mage, though. Novices are equal.”

“Some are more equal than others.”

“Oh?” It was Dallion’s turn to smirk. “Are those your words or did an echo tell you that?”

Careful, dear boy. Getting into a fight with your traits might not be seen as the best—

Phoil split into three instances.