“W-what?” The middle aged man scrambled a reply.

“You heard me mister.” Karl continued.

“This is preposterous!” The man replied.

“Why do I have to answer your questions?!” The exclaimed in anger.

“What? Are you afraid you can’t answer them?” Karl mockingly asked.

“Y-you. YOU DARE?” The man was now infuriated.

“Why are you so agitated? I’m just going to ask you questions,” Karl shrugged.

“FINE! ASK ME ANYTHING YOU WANT!” The man exclaimed.

“Calm down everyone let’s not escalate this any further!” Silver Eye finally stepped in.

But Karl had other plans.

“It’s okay Grand Scholar, I can handle this.” Karl declared

“But-“

“It’s okay, I also want to prove something I’ve been thinking about for a while now.” Karl continued.

“Okay, do as you wish.” Silver Eye said as he shook his head.

“Now then mister” Karl began.

“First of all, I want to know your rank.” Karl asked the man.

“I-I” The man was hesitating.

“What’s wrong?” Karl asked while smiling.

“I am a student.” The middle aged man revealed.

“For real?” Karl was a bit confused.

“Is he really a student?” Karl asked Silver Eye.

“Well probably, advancement exams are rather difficult. People not getting past the student rank isn’t something out of the ordinary.” Silver Eye explained.

“I see.”

“Well anyway. Here’s my first question.” Karl then began his questioning.

“First off, what is magic?” Karl asked which surprised everyone. After all it seemed like a pointless question.

“Are you mocking me?” The man replied.

“Just answer the question.” Karl replied in a serious tone.

“Fine. Magic is a gift bestowed upon this land by the gods of old. It is a power that allows us to use unnatural abilities and elevate ourselves beyond the bounds of our humanity!” The mister replied in a rather arrogant tone.

“Hmm I see,” Karl replied.

“Then next question: What is Mana?”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“What is this farce? Mana is the source of our strength as sorcerers. It is what powers our spells and Alchemy!” The man replied.

I see, so mana is used for Alchemy too. Karl thought to himself.

“Next question: How is mana turned into power?”

The man was beginning to get even more agitated, but he bottled it in nonetheless.

“Through the use of magic spells of course!” The man exclaimed.

“No, you didn’t answer my question mister,” Karl then replied.

“What?” The man replied in confusion.

“Okay let me clarify the question. I know you use spells in the form of chants in order to use magic, but what I want to know is how the mana is converted into magic,” Karl explained.

The entire hall suddenly went silent.

“What’s wrong? Tell me. How is Mana converted into a magic spell? How does this invisible energy that seems to exist everywhere transformed into an observable, physical phenomenon? What exactly happens when you cast a spell?” Karl pressed his question.

“I uh..uh” The man was now confused. He never thought about it at all.

“What? You can’t even answer something as basic as this?” Karl said in a mocking tone.

“Fine I’ll give you an easier question then.” Karl continued.

“How is mana created? Because I recall Grand scholar Silver Eye telling me that mana flows from every living creature, but I do not possess it despite me being a living creature myself. So is mana produced by a unique Nelithean biological process? If so, then what process is this and how does it happen?” Karl asked another question.

But the man was confused and simply looked at Karl in silence. Foreign words aside he simply didn’t have the answers. His blank expression says it all. Karl could tell that he doesn’t know what to say.

“Okay then, is there anyone in this room that knows the answer to my questions?” Karl exclaimed now looking at the crowd below.

But Karl was only met with even more silence. Nobody could answer his question, not even the Grand Scholar himself. The crowd simply stood there in silence.

“Haaaa- How disappointing.” Karl let out a disapproving sigh.

“It seemed my guess was right. You people just viewed magic as a convenience and took it for granted.” Karl began his speech as If he was scolding the entirety of Dawnward.

“You view magic as some kind of special gift, when in reality it’s just a natural phenomenon on Nelithea. You never bothered to ask what it is exactly, none of you wanted to know just how it works.” Karl continued.

“Why does this even matter? So what if we don’t completely understand how it works? We can still use spells and perform amazing tasks!” The man now replied but now it sounded like he was defending himself.

“Because you are missing out on its full potential!” Karl exclaimed.

“Mastery doesn’t just involve the ability to use it, it also involves an understanding of just how it works!” Karl continued.

Karl then looked down on the crowd once again and he could see that they were whispering amongst themselves now. Karl then began talking again.

“Okay I’ll give you an example of how understanding a concept can lead to unlocking its true power.” Karl said in a confident tone.

“I supposed every one of you is familiar with lightning right? Then another question for you mister.” Karl said as he looked down on the man who started this whole incident.

“What do you think lightning is?” Karl asked.

“I-it’s the wrath of the gods condensed into a bolt of power.” The man replied in a meek tone.

“Wrong! It’s electricity!” Karl immediately replied.

“Electricity?” The man replied not even knowing what this foreign word meant.

“I’d like to explain to you what it is exactly but I don’t think you would understand it at all.” Karl shook his head.

“So let’s do it this way. Electricity to us is what mana is to you sorcerers. Meaning we use it to power our tools, to power our world.” Karl explained.

The crowd below was surprised by this. They always viewed lightning as something dangerous; they never expected lightning had another use other than destruction.

“But you possess no magic, how can you make Lightning?” The man asked Karl.

“Electricity can be produced without the use of magic. In fact we can even recreate Lightning if we want to.” Karl declared.

The crowd continued to be silent.

“You see, we discovered the hidden rules that governed what you call “the wrath of the gods” and with these rules, we bent electricity to our will.”

Karl then looked at the crowd once more and smiled.

“Now imagine what we could do if we understood something as powerful as magic!” Karl exclaimed in a rather joyous tone.

At this point Karl didn’t need to explain himself further, the crowd understood what he was trying to say. With Karl’s little speech the sorcerers began to imagine the possibilities.

Even the woman with the fiery red hair.