Chapter 130
Stop! Just Stop!
Magic, the simplest and most beautiful thing ever created in the world of Biprism. With the advent of magic, accessing legendary floating islands is something that is clearly possible. Great and mythical beasts are considered ordinary, all because of the ability for magic to have permanently saturated all corners of this world we live in. Even machines have the ability to interact with and use magic to add prowess and efficiency, something I personally need to improve upon. Something I clearly should do more than teaching magic, as I am terrible at teaching magic, if I do say so myself.
“You know they have a saying. Those that can do, do. While those that can’t teach.” I begin, before pausing and muttering, “well I apparently cannot teach.”
Two hundred students are all staring at me with shocked faces. Well technically only one hundred and ninety-nine, as my daughter just turns her head towards the ground.
Above us are the remnants of a magical cloud of mana that is being dissipated.
“You know what. Just go. We are done here today. You all clearly know more about magic than I could ever teach you all. Just go.” I say, and I mean it too.
I had lost. Today proved beyond all shadow of a doubt that I am not meant to be a teacher. Despite having unlocked both the Teaching and Master Teaching Skills.
Skill Gained: Teaching has reached level 1. Skill Teaching is a Personality, Sociability, Perception, Intelligence, and Willpower based skill.
Skill Gained: Mater Teaching has reached level 1. Skill Master Teaching is an Endurance, Personality, Sociability, Attractiveness, Perception, Intelligence, and Willpower based skill.
Not going to lie, those skills look amazing, but they are possibly the hardest skills to earn and develop.
Yet, I tried my absolute hardest and failed. I would like to say it is a humbling experience, but really, I just feel hollow inside.
“Go on, class is over. You all win. You all are clearly better than me at casting. I clearly have no clue what I am doing, and clearly don’t deserve to be here with you all now.” I say, gesturing towards the main exit.
Shaking.
I am visibly shaking, though I think my rage is sort of justified, as it is not everyday you get targeted by a death spell that you then have to disperse overhead.
“My, my core. I, can’t feel my magic.” The mage who had just targeted me, well not just me but the whole classroom really with their attack spell that would have been wide enough to at least hit everyone here.
“Yes, you are alive, which is the most you can hope for at this point in time.” I state.
“Why you, WITCH!!” He cries out, as he rises up from the ground and then charges right towards me.
On reflex, I grab him with Telekinesis, and cause him to float in the air.
Breathe.
It would be so easy to crush him, self defense and all, right? But no, after the second breath, the tension in my chest dissipates enough. I am angry, no, I am furious at this monster, I refuse to think of them as a person. Yet even now I can see their soul, I can see the bonds of energy this person has created in their lifetime here. I can see it all, and realize, “I don’t need this.”
I cast two spells in rapid succession. The first is a simple disabling spell, as clearly destroying this former mage’s core was not enough of a warning, this time I find their spinal cord and very loosely disconnect all the nerves going to or from the brain, effectively making him paralyzed from the base of the skull down. His body is already dropping lifelessly to the ground like the world’s heaviest puppet, and then I cast Teleportation and I am gone.
With that I find myself in what others call the creepy crypt that somehow devours all light, whereas me, I call it a sealed away library that can only be accessed via personal teleportation, aka the perfect room to escape to. Yet, even looking at the hundreds of books that remain unread, I can’t help but feel that even reading has somehow lost its attraction after today.
I refuse to be one of those people that succumbs to doubt at the first true struggle, but sometimes we all need to take a moment and realize where things all went downhill.
***
(Three Hours Earlier)
There was an odd tension among the group of new mages that attempted to join my class. I figured that I was being judged in some way, anyone who was trying to teach alleged experts in any field ways to do things “better” would of course be met with ridicule and derision. Particularly when the one given the instruction was both way younger and multiple hundreds of levels lower than those they were attempting to teach. I got that, but what I didn’t understand, at least not at first, was the clear animosity that several of the older, well higher-level mages had towards me. They were all older than me, at least avatar wise. Even taking in real world age and in game age, I would be hard pressed to be older than more than half the class present.
That said, I had over seven years of growing up in and around magic, two doctoral degrees in magic, and over a year’s worth of time spent in an alternate dimension. That last part in particular is a lot tougher than most people want to give credit to. Even though I did sort of cheat by spending a good six plus months of that within the Mage’s guild, I was still there none-the-less. Yet, no one saw that when they looked at me. They just saw a cute porcelain doll who got her class a little over a year ago, and got true access to magic at around the same time.
Feeling the animosity rolling off of the older mages, that is the mages that weren’t good enough or powerful enough at storm magic to cast Cleansing Rain, which was easily about ninety-seven percent of the mages within the guild, which was all mages but five Midnight Hunter mages.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Those five, along with Penelope and the few holdovers from the morning class made it so that there were only about twelve faces that were ready to learn from me.
Also, among the crowd of students were apparently a few high-ranking delegates from other guilds who paid exorbitant prices to come here. Those were the faces that were the most disgusted by having to sit here on the ground, out in the open. Something they complained loudly about to the fellow mages next to him.
I knew he was trouble from the start, but I couldn’t kick him out for no reason as that would just lower diplomatic relations with the Midnight Hunters and whatever guild this guy was from. I could tell he wasn’t a Midnight Hunter, as he wasn’t wearing a Penelope tailored garment. As all Midnight Hunters, especially the higher echelon mages like him would have had at least the mid or advanced tier mage garments. Since he wore a robe, something that looked ridiculous. He looked like he was caught mid-fire drill while taking a shower, I had to appreciate the dedication that went into Penelope creating and designing our own uniforms.
“As we all can tell, we are all magic users. Many of us have been using magic for multiple decades. Others of us not as long,” I begin, but am cut off by a snide comment from the external mage.
“I’ll say.” The outside mage said with a voice that was clearly meant to be heard by those around him.
“But we all can focus first on the basics, and that would be on forming a simple mana thread and holding it for as long as possible.” I state, then proceed to hold up a thread of mana that is actually the size of a giant multi-colored hemp rope that is easily bigger than the size of my fists and made opaque so everyone could see the focus going into this thread.
Granted this was a bit of showing off on my part, as each woven thread was made up of a different school of magic that I had an affinity for. A few of the younger mages looked on with my creation in confusion, while others looked at the rope with a bit more bafflement than anything.
“Is this really our first lesson? Casting a magic rope spell?” The pompous mage asked.
“Southern number eight, this is not a spell. This is just the first stage of spell working, where you begin to form your intent and have it manifest in external mana. In fact, anyone.”
Dispel-Snap!
Smoking-hiss.
The sound of sizzling mana rises as I lash out and instantly try to dispel a spell from going off.
“We are not casting spells here. We are focusing on the basics fist, then once we have that down we will move on.” I state, annoyance filling my voice, as I realize this is the first of likely many so-called desk-pops I am going to get today.
“Then what are we doing?”
“You are literally using your will to manifest the form of a line on your hand. Now you don’t need to make yours visible like I did, you just need to manifest your will. This will hopefully…” I began but was again cut off as I had to angrily dispel two more casters.
Dispel-Snap!
Dispel-Snap!
Smoke clouds.
By now there is enough burnt, and ambient mana being released from people who seemingly have no control over what they are doing that I first realize Qi users are like dogs, mostly wanting to be good. While mages are like cats, think they are the rulers of the world and regardless of what they mess up, it is clearly someone else’s problem.
“STOP!” I shout, trying to get my thoughts out of what I am trying to teach that I keep losing track.
Momentary silence.
There is a brief moment of silence, where I let myself take a moment to relax.
Chuckle.
At that the obvious foreigner here chuckled at my dismay. I could tell part of his contempt for me was the fact that I had just dispersed his creation a moment ago. Seeing that he was going to be one of those students, I turned to Mallory. Then I pointed towards the mage dignitary.
Mallory just paused looking at me for a moment, which is when I said, “can you deal with him, while I try to teach students who actually want to learn.”
There was a moment where Mallory just stared at me, before nodding and gesturing to the mage she said. “Come on.”
I knew this was a sign that I was a bad teacher, that I couldn’t discipline my students. But honestly, he was a grown man, he should behave himself.
“What? This, this can’t be.” The mage said, and as he tried to do something I quickly cast Dispel-Snap on him. A poof of mana and smoke appearing over him, letting Mallory know he just tried to cast a spell. With that, Mallory took things a bit personally and with a glowing hand, she reached out and shook the soul of the mage. At which point the mage was a lot more compliant with her and her request to leave.
Awkward silence.
I waited until the problem mage was well beyond the walls of the training area before I nodded. Then turning my head towards both sets of students, I took a deep breath and decided to start over.
“Good afternoon class. Today, we will focus on two skills Arcane Understanding, and Mana Circulation. If you already have these skills great, if not then you are in the perfect spot. I am going to show you a simple trick that you all can practice in your spare time to improve these two primary skills. Why are these skills important? Well aside from making it so your spells are more concrete and harder to dispel as I am showing, they also lay the groundwork for higher level magic skills like Magical Theory and Spell Theory, both of which are needed if you want to eventually go on to create your own spells. Yes, this world lets you create your own spells, but you need to know the rules of magic first before you can break the rules of magic. That is the purpose of this class, to begin to show you what the laws of magic are, so that you can learn to insert your will into magic itself, and then alter magic to meet your everyday needs.”
I pause, letting that information settle in, before I continue.
“Now you might ask yourself what is a form of magic that meets your everyday needs. Well, I could create a spell for that, or I can show you an example. Penelope, northern number ten, will you manifest your magical tape measure.” I state, pointing to the exact spot where Penelope is sitting.
Penelope looks momentarily flustered, but then after a second, she manifests the measuring cord for everyone to see.
“As you can see, this is a manifestation of magic that is exactly what I am asking you all to perform. Also, I should point out that Penelope isn’t a magician naturally, but she has altered her main class to take on more magical components. That is why she is now able to manifest such a dense magical thread that will help her measure lengths and sizes.”
“She is but one example of using your will to influence the way the world accepts your use of magic. Now I am sure there are dozens of examples here of how people have used their own will to force personal growth over time. But this right here, the manifesting of your will and making it so solid that others cannot help but take notice, that is the true beauty of magic. Magic whose essence will be missed, if you don’t start with the basics.”
With that, I can tell the derision and callous gazes that I felt moments ago was now gone, as I was finally able to get the idea for this particular class out there.
“Now, there are four parts to any magic spell: Formulation, Interpretation, Reinforcement, and Manifestation. Or FIRM. Formulation is done somewhat automatically and often done before you even begin to cast. These are the simple checks of the body; do you have enough mana? Do you have proficiency in the respective field of magic? If you have those two things, then you meet the Formulation phase. If you don’t have proficiency, if you are skilled enough at the other steps, you can bypass, or even cheat your way to making it so you can make the Formulation check, but that will be covered in later classes.”
Taking a breath, I continue, “for now, we will just focus on Interpretation. Since we are all mages, or have classes with magical ties, we can assume that we all have the Formulation stage covered. Now it is just time to direct our focus on manifesting our mana, and by extension our Will, on the world. At first this seems like it would be the most basic of steps, even more than formulation, but it is actually the step that allows you the most fluidity. Do you want to overcharge a spell to make sure it hits, or sticks? This is the step where you would make sure that happened. Do you want the spell to go from a point to an area effect? This is the spot where you would begin shaping your spell to meet your intended need. This is also the part where you can make or break someone else’s spell, because if your will and your Interpretation of your will via spell form is better than your opponents you can have your spell destroy your opponent’s spell, or even cast their own spell against them.”
Now I had everyone’s attention.
“Now, all you are going to do is first envision a simple spell, but rather than cast it, I want you to envision the spell, and have the basics of that spell fill out in your mind. For a fireball, you want to focus on the ever-changing nature of Fire.” And with that, I alter my spell resonance to show a red line that is constantly moving and pulsing as if the spell itself is part of an expanding chemical reaction.
“If it is an earth spell this will likely be easier, as you then just have the spell take on the shape you wish to form.” With that I begin casting the outline of a brown earth spell, once again I changed my resonance to that of Earth magic, so I could show the difference between the two elements.
Then like that, the students began falling into the lull of learning on their own. Taking initiative and trying to manifest a spell to just the Interpretation phase. While I did have to use Dispel-Snap, a few times, it was nowhere near as many times as I had at first.
And like that the class went by smoothly, and I almost felt like I belonged here. Sharing what I loved doing, casting magic and showing the power and versatility of this wonderous gift we were all given.
Then the mage returned.
At first, he was escorted by Mallory, who walked him to the grounds and gestured for him to once again take his spot. For the moment he seemed completely calm and ready to learn. His posture was perfect, his eyes locked forward. He even held out his hand and seemingly tried to manifest a spell, or at least pretended to, as he didn’t cycle mana or anything. Yet not many people could see the threads I was asking for, and if someone else could see the cords then likely I would need to step in and dispel them anyways.
Mallory, who had been watching from the shadows looked at me and gave me a signal that asked if I was okay with him being back. My instincts told me that things were going so well that I didn’t want to ruin them by having him back, but I also realized that I needed this if I was going to become better at teaching, so going against my instincts I nodded my head.
With that Mallory paused for a beat, then gave her own head nod before heading out. I couldn’t blame her, as she had spent the better part of two hours talking to the troublesome mage and likely had some important guild leader actions to take, especially as she had been with me the better part of the day.
The weasel must have counted, or had some major perception-based skill, for he turned around to see that Mallory had left. As soon as he realized this, he turned back around with a malicious grin on his face, and I just knew round two was about to begin.