Alric had spent the last few days organizing his underground organization, and tried to lay spies throughout the kingdom. Well, as much as he could with a handful of illiterate bandits.

Today was the first official day of the school year.

The first class of the year was ‘Fundamentals of magic’.

Alric was running late more so due to the fact that when he should have been familiarizing himself with the compounds he was nowhere near the Academy.

After almost half an hour of running around he finally found his classroom. He slammed the door open and the entire class turned to look at the sweating and panting Alric,

“Good to see you’ve finally decided to join us Mr. Alard.”

The teacher was a short old fellow. His hair fully grayed and his glasses thick. He spoke with a hint of scorn in his voice as he continued,

“As time rewinds for no man, neither shall we.

Find your seat Mr Alard.”

Alric gave an awkward smile as he took the seat nearest to the window. The class had roughly fifteen students with a few more boys than girls.

The teacher continued as though Alric was unimportant to his lesson,

“And does everyone now understand the natural flow of mana?”

The class all nodded in unison meanwhile Alric stood dumbfounded,

“And would you like to summarize for us Mr Alard?”

The class looked around chuckling knowing full well he would not understand, because on top of being late for class he was a commoner and most commoners knew nothing of the basic flow of mana.

Alric thought back. He recalled his days with his sister, well the pleasant days before everything happened.

He remembered how she would teach him after her lessons with her tutor despite him not having much magic talent at the time. Alric smiled faintly remembering fonder days before he started to speak.

“Magic is absorbed from all non living things into the earth, and is absorbed from the earth into all living things.”

The professor was shocked to hear such a response, moreover from a commoner who should not have much knowledge in the way of magic. He fixed his glasses and cleared his throat,

“A basic answer, as expected from a commoner.

But you forgot the main fundamental, magic flows from its area of highest concentration to its lowest concentration first.”

While the professor spoke, he turned to write on the board.

He erased his name that was written boldly on the chalkboard ‘Professor Terrim’. He then drew a diagram representing the flow of magic and continued to explain.

“Every living thing has its own internal magic supply, and storage called a ‘magic core’.

Obviously for magicians and magical beasts they are more defined and this is what is used to manipulate mana.

Originally it was thought that all energy for spells came from these magic cores, however research over time has proved this to not be the case.

When a spell is cast, only a portion of the magic released from the magic core is used.

The remainder is provided by the magic around us. More often than not those who we call ‘stronger’ mages are those who are simply more efficient at gathering energy from around themselves.”

While Professor Terrim continued, Alric looked around the class realizing only half the class were paying attention.

The first half of the class, mainly the nobles were half asleep while their faces held a bored expression. The nobles who all had their own personal magic teachers from a very young age knew the basics.

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On the other hand the commoners all stared in amazement and hurriedly took notes.

Professor Terrim paused, he pointed to a student with silver hair whose attention was already stolen by the scenery outside.

“And Mister Yonder Silverwing, give me an example of the practical use of this knowledge.”

The student was yanked from his daydream, as Alric also looked at the student he realized this was the same youth who had coloured the auditorium gold with his mana during the second round of exams.

The silver haired youth with a sharp expression stood from his seat and spoke,

“A group of magicians bundled in a group will consume more mana to use the same spell versus an individual who is alone by himself.”

“Excellent! as expected from a Silverwing.”

The professor praised and continued his lesson.

Silverwing before sitting down threw a glance at Alric. It was a glance sharp enough for Alric to feel a slither of killing intent. Alric was dumbfounded as to why this individual would hold such contempt for him.

The first class of the day ended in a few hours.

Alric’s second class was ‘General magic’, this class was also mandatory.

The teacher for General magic was a lady who by her looks was in her early forties, however between her deep black hair with gray streaks that gave her a mixed air and her mannerisms as refined as a noble, she stole the attention of the majority of the adolescent boys.

“Good morning everyone, I am Lady Jinvire of the Gaurdic Household, and I will be your General magic teacher.”

She glanced across the room as she bowed her head, her grace was that of a lady who had spent her entire life refining her etiquette.

“This year our main focus will be magic formations. Can anyone tell me why we need magic formations?”

Jinvire pulled a wand from her overcoat and drew a circle with strange runic symbols in the air using her fire magic with the wand as though it was an ordinary pencil. To the surprise of the class however, instead of fire, a blue ball of water was ejected from the circle of fire.

The class was stupefied more so Alric,

“But Lady Jinvire, I thought mages could only use one type of magic!?”

Before Alric could ask, Lloydd had already jumped up and interjected. Lady Jinvire chuckled and slid her wand back into her coat.

“Silly child, the world of magic is filled with rules, exceptions and omissions. Bear that in mind next time.”

“For instance, although it is known that mages can use only one element there is the once forgotten Dimachaerus family. They had powerful magicians who fully controlled two completely different elements. They are the exceptions.”

At the mention of his family name Alric who was calmly writing notes had his pencil snap in two, a short silence followed as they looked around towards him.

Regardless Lady Jinvire continued,

“An omission to the rule would be that extremely powerful mages after years of practice are able to control a sub element, like a fire mage being able to summon magma.”

She sat down on her desk and continued,

“But we digress, back to magic formations.

So with that demonstration in mind, why do we need magic formations?

How about you Christina?”

Christina was the same young lady who had collapsed and was being protected by Lloyd and his friend during the final round of the entrance exam.

She brushed her green hair back slightly before standing and spoke,

“Um, Ma’am I would guess that it allows magicians to use every element.”

Her shy expression and lack of a last name made it clear to Alric she was a commoner.

A solo applause filled the classroom along with a slight giggly,

“Exactly, a magic formation allows anyone with enough mana to use spells of any element or type.

Of course they do have quite a few drawbacks, the main one being they are only single use.

As soon as you use a magic circle it becomes broken and almost completely disappears.

But the most obvious issue is the time it takes to draw a magic circle.

So for this semester we will spend our classes learning some of the most basic magic formations and how to effectively use them.”

Alric was in disbelief that he had never seen someone use a magic formation and had thought his magic would be forever limited to gravity magic and, if he was lucky, simplified shadow magic .

The class ended after a couple hours.

Alric made his way towards the cafeteria for lunch but before he could reach the lunch room he was stopped by a group of three guys.

They all had the same silver hair but on each of their uniforms on their left shoulders were a different number of stripes, indicating that one was a first year student, and the other two were second year students.

They all had a very striking resemblance to one another, but the youngest of the lot was the same Yonder Silverwing.

He blocked the passageway while the two older students leaned to the sides,

“You little peasant from the sticks might have stolen the top student from me for now but I guarantee you, I'll make your life a living hell.

So when you're out of the picture I can get the secret training room.”

Alric smirked, did they think being the top student meant he was a push over?

He raised one finger and whispered a spell,

“ Ultimate weaken.”

In an instant the three students felt a dark and depressing aura cover their bodies and before they realized it themselves they were already on their knees sweating profusely and gasping for air.

By the time they recovered and gathered their senses Alric had already casually walked past them and had entered the lunch hall.