“...so you’re saying that every part of our body can use mana reinforcement?”

“Well, yeah. Prota used it and it seemed to work pretty well. I think.”

“Prota?!”

“Well, it was a theoretical-”

“You used her as a guinea pig?!”

“No, no, it was just a suggestion-”

“What the hell were you thinking?!”

“Look, if you’re gonna be such a bitch about it, why don’t you just get Kit to teach you, huh? Surely she knows something about this!”

“Kit… isn’t very comfortable here. There’s too many people who could recognize her as a Mystic.”

“But-”

“Just drop it.”

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Progress was slow but steady, and everyone but John was pleased with how things were turning out, and even John was content with watching everyone’s progress, even if he himself was getting nowhere.

Destiny was achieving his goal of learning swordsmanship that he could call his own. While his parents and mentors were excellent warriors of their own right, none of them were really teachers. None of them were people who could guide Destiny down the right path. Albert, too, was a formidable warrior, but even his advice was just the surface of what Destiny was meant to find.

The teachers at Scholaris, then, were perfect for him. The swordsmanship that had been lacking compared to his talent in magic was beginning to show. Of course, it hadn’t been all smooth sailing. He’d been forced to forget his old habits, his old way of fighting, and had been set to learn the basics all over again, but Destiny was dedicated if nothing else.

Swing after swing, stroke after stroke, and he was slowly getting there.

Danjo was learning a lot, too. In fact, of everyone present, he was probably learning the most. After all, he’d been going off of nothing but raw intuition and talent. A proper education was boosting his skills by an incredible amount. It was like having a fantastic car but no adequate fuel to run it. If Danjo were the car, Scholaris was the fuel to propel him forward. He might not be used to it yet, but soon, he’d take off at new speeds never seen before.

Of course, it’d be a bit before he could truly shine. Certain aspects of Magical Engineering still required physics and mathematics, even if they were at a lower level than the engineering of Earth. After all, magic circumvented some laws of physics that normally would’ve been a problem, but in the end, it seemed engineering would always be engineering. Thankfully, it seemed Danjo had a good head for that kind of stuff, so it wouldn’t be an issue.

Celeste, too, was learning. John wasn’t sure how to judge her progress since he wasn’t familiar with the concept of healing, but she seemed quite pleased while talking with Destiny and Danjo, so she must’ve been doing well.

The one John was paying the most attention to, though, was Prota.

Every day, she’d talk about her classes. What stood out the most was clearly her understanding of magic.

Prota had always been able to see and understand the flow of mana. After all, it was essential to her usage of magic, as she had never learned how to use chants to cast spells. The students had been learning abbreviated spells, something she mastered easily, with professors helping students with their respective elements, but it was what came next that had truly improved Prota’s skills.

“Students. While it is well known that the mana core is something we are capable of growing, there will come a time when it will grow no longer, no matter how much one may try. Some of you may be limited to a mere A rank core, or perhaps even lower.”

Leora Dawn’s words sent the class into a panic. What kind of teaching was this? Was she deliberately trying to discourage them?

“However, even a B rank can outdo an S rank. More mana does not necessarily mean one is stronger. Yes?”

A student, probably a noble based on the way they were dressed, spoke up nervously.

“I’m sorry, but… how is that possible? Unless one neglects their education, a larger core will result in more powerful spells being cast, or even simply a larger number of spells.”

“That would be correct. That is, to the average mage.”

The class went silent as the phoenix went up to a blackboard, the white chalk scraping along as she drew something.

“There are two factors in which we call “strength” in casting. One would be the circle in which our spells belong to. Now, we all know that the higher the circle of magic, the more powerful it is.”

A pillar of flame erupted from the ground while a small fireball hovered in Leora’s other hand.

“This pillar of flame will obviously hurt more than this small fireball. However, it uses up more mana, which means we will run out of mana faster.”

Moving to the side, the teacher revealed a rough but clear drawing of two pipes leading into two buckets. One fit perfectly, while the other was giant, bigger than the opening of the bucket by far.

“Which pipe is better?”

“The smaller one.”

“Correct. However, all of you are like this pipe. The big one.”

This was something Prota already knew. The idea of wasting mana when casting a spell, and maximizing efficiency when casting. Leora went over the basics of the concept, and the next couple of weeks were focused on a topic she was already familiar with. She wasn’t complaining, however, as this was a chance to learn more about it.

Interestingly enough, as long as the teachers didn’t ask her to respond to their comments, or get close enough to touch her, she was perfectly fine with receiving instruction. Perhaps Kit had gotten her used to this type of instruction, or perhaps she was just improving when it came to dealing with other people, but she was slowly healing.

It was a few weeks later when something she’d never learned came up.

“While I don’t expect anyone here to have perfected the technique of making things more efficient, there is one more thing to go over.”

Once again, drawings of pipes and buckets were put on the blackboard, but this time, they were the same size. However, one was riddled with holes and cracks, and it was clear water would spill everywhere. The other was properly made, the only opening leading right into the bucket.

“Many of you are like this. Even if you’ve managed to use the right amount of mana for a spell, you leak out mana.”

“Leak… mana?”

Confused murmurs spread through the crowd. If they weren’t wasting mana, how was that possible?

“Listen. Mana flows from your core, spreading out and commanding reality to rewrite itself according to your command. However, if you aren’t able to contain that mana and manage it properly, it will leak. And that leakage is wasting a lot of mana.”

Leora paused, looking up at the class.

“Does anyone know why I saved this issue for last?”

The class went quiet. No one wanted to answer for fear of looking like a fool. After all, this was a foreign subject, something that was far beyond anything they’d ever imagined. They’d been taught a different syllabus their entire lives. Leaking mana? Chantless spells? That wasn’t even something they dreamed about, let alone theorized about.

Well, there was one student who was familiar with the topic.

Prota’s mind was running furiously. There was a connection to be made. She just wasn’t sure if she was right. Leaking mana from her body was something she’d never really thought about, but it made sense. She just didn’t know how it connected to anything else.

Chantless casting. Efficiency. Stronger.

For some reason, the pointers John gave the twins was coming back to mind. Accuracy. Speed. Chantless casting…

Hold on. If one was able to maximize the flow of mana to the spell directly, then wouldn’t it come out faster? If one were to use the pipes as an analogy, then the speed at which a spell could be cast depended on how quickly the mana to be used was expelled. Obviously, a larger pipe would allow all the water needed to flow out quickly, but a smaller pipe would exert more pressure. Then, the problem was finding the best ratio for pressure to amount expelled.

And in order for that to be done, the pipe needed to have no flaws. No hole, no cracks, a perfectly smooth and clean pipe. If there were flaws, the pressure would be reduced. The speed at which the flow of water came out would be lessened, and it would lower the accuracy as well. Prota had never had these issues since she’d practiced her aim and speed like a madman, but wasn’t this much easier?

“You. You look like you have a clue as to what that connection might be.”

Prota had been so lost in thought that she hadn’t realized the class had gone nowhere. Leora was truly waiting for someone to answer. With everyone averting their gaze, Prota was the only one who looked like she was trying to solve the problem.

The issue was that she was absolutely terrified of speaking up in front of everyone. Any child would get anxiety at being called upon, but added with the pressure of Scholaris, combined with Prota’s absolute trauma with dealing with strangers, she completely froze up. She hadn’t had a moment this bad since she’d first met John.

“You got this,” she heard Lilith whisper. She actually almost jumped, since she hadn’t realized Lilith was even within whispering range of her, but somehow, that shock was just enough to jumpstart her into talking.

“Um… speed. Speed and accuracy,” Prota mumbled, her thoughts stumbling over each other as they tried to make their way out of her mouth first. “Efficient mana usage. Clean pipe, better pressure, better spell, less mana…”

There were more than a few snickers among the other children. Not only did the answer make no sense, but Prota’s awful way of explanation was comical on its own.

The only one who had a thoughtful expression was the teacher herself.

“Interesting.”

At that one word, the class went dead silent.

“Could you explain a bit more?”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Prota shook her head violently. She didn’t look scared or anything, but that was more due to the fact that her face never changed more than anything. Inwardly, she was absolutely terrified.

“Hm… regardless, I didn’t expect a student to get so close to the real answer. Well, the explanation is something reserved for the second year. After all, I am explaining topics well beyond practice. Well, that will be all.”

The students dispersed, chatting loudly, but Prota remained frozen at her seat.

“You good?”

Prota nodded, slowly turning around to see Lilith looking at her with a concerned expression. Ryan stood behind her, trying to wear an uncaring expression, but mostly just looking incredibly awkward.

“Sorry about that. You just… looked like you needed a little push.”

“...nn.”

“That was a really interesting answer, though. I’m really curious as to how you thought of it!”

Lilith’s cheerful smile was distracting, enough so that Prota found herself forgetting about her previous troubles.

“Come on, we’ve got a bit of time until our next class. Ryan and I have been learning this game that’s popular at the academy. Wanna try it out?”

~~~

From that point on, Prota continued to improve on her own from that one bit of advice, paying close attention to how the mana within her own body was flowing. As she worked at it, she found that she was, in fact, leaking mana when using magic.

In the meantime, John was busy studying the game that Lilith and Ryan had been learning about. Prota had actually gotten into it quite enthusiastically, as it was a game she could play with the twins that didn’t require fighting or talking.

John would’ve ignored it had it not been for the fact that it was practically a sport of its on at Scholaris. Students of all classes and ages played it. You could bet tokens on it. There was an annual tournament for it. If it were that important of a game, it would likely show up at some point as something important.

The rules were pretty simple. The matches were of a one-on-one format. Players started with three stats: health, mana, and coins. The goal of the game was to reduce the enemy’s health to zero.

The interesting part was that the common strategy of deck building was not an aspect of this card game. Instead, students pulled cards from a shared deck of thousands of cards.

Aside from a few specialty cards, they mainly fell into three categories: attack cards, defence cards, and spells.

Attack cards were straightforward: they had a numerical value that, if undefended, lowered the opponent’s health by that much. However, if an attack card was played, then the opponent had the opportunity to defend themselves. Defence cards also had a numerical value that subtracted from the value of the attack card.

Then, if an attack card of value eight was played, and a defence card of value ten was used, no damage was taken. For every card played, a player was allowed to draw a new one.

Spells were cards that did elemental damage, which was a type of damage that could only be blocked by certain elements. However, these used up mana, a limited resource. Health and mana could be replenished with potion cards, but these weren’t always guaranteed, and using one took up a turn.

Finally, there were buy and sell cards, which allowed one to buy a card from an opponent or sell a card from your own hand. As each card had an in-game monetary value, the in game coins were used for this purpose. However, one cannot refuse a card being sold to them. Then, if a player has no coins, mana is taken instead. And if neither mana nor coins are in a player’s stats, health is taken.

While the game might then seem to be up to random chance, strategy is revolved around one simple rule: while only one attack card can be played, multiple defence cards can be used to defend one attack. For every card spent, a new one could be drawn. In this way, various strategies could be developed when it came to manipulating one’s luck.

“It’s… a little too similar to a game I remember playing.”

“Well, yeah. It’s probably taking inspiration from that game.”

“Taking inspiration? Or stealing the idea?”

Zero sighed. “John, do you know how many card games follow a formula like this? It’s not that unique.”

“But you didn’t say it’s not plagiarism.”

“John, do you think the [Author] would actually plagarize something like this?”

Regardless, John had something to do now. However, as he studied the cards and considered strategies, something was on his mind.

Nothing had happened since the incident with the nobles. He went to class peacefully. He slept during lectures and continued to ace tests. Fighting classes were always something he’d never find interesting, but that much was to be expected. Obviously, school life wasn’t entirely bland, but there were no moments of great interest. Nothing that stood out.

In short, it didn’t feel like any of this was really meant to be scenes from the [Story].

At least Prota was making friends, though. The fact that she was voluntarily hanging around Lilith and Ryan meant that he didn’t have to look after her all the time, but more than that, she was healing. His concerns as to whether or not she would make friends were for nothing. She wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, but she wasn’t withdrawing into a shell, either. And that was enough, right?

He shook his head. He was getting lazy, but then again, wasn’t he always? It was fine to let things come as they went. After all, it wasn’t as if things could go all that horribly wrong in a place such as this, right?

“...now that I’ve thought of that, it’s probably going to happen,” John groaned, pulling at his hair. “This stupid fucking Chekov’s gun…”

~~~

The next day, after classes were over, John went to Lupin. The others were all busy with their own things. Danjo had apparently made a friend of his own, but John had never met this friend since he always just went straight home. Destiny was probably off somewhere with Celeste, or was up to something that John wasn’t particularly interested in knowing about.

Prota’s case was a little more interesting. Having garnered an interest in “Magecraft,” the card game of the academy, she’d actually joined a club for it along with Lilith and Ryan. While this did mean that he was a little more bored than usual, it was good to know that she was getting along just fine.

Standing in front of the door, John looked up at the golden name plaque reading “Lupin Wolfhound.” What he was doing was stupid, but after the thoughts he’d had last night, he didn’t really have another option.

“Yes? I don’t remember having any appointments,” the gruff voice called out in response to John’s knock.

“Sir. It’s me.”

There was a long pause.

“Come in.”

When John entered, he found Lupin sitting at his desk, chained glasses sitting on the edge of his nose as he went over various papers. These were taken off and neatly put aside as he beckoned for John to come forward.

“What is it?”

“Um… hey, look. This is gonna send incredibly bold, but, well…”

“I am listening.”

“Your technique you showed. Um, at the beginning, when you were talking about aura. You coated your cells with aura, didn’t you?”

Lupin studied John’s face carefully.

“Who told you this?”

Lupin’s voice was dangerously quiet. To someone ignorant, it might have seemed like he was just asking another question, but those words carried the grim reaper himself. One wrong move, and there would be a scythe at your neck.

“No one. I figured it out myself.”

“That’s not possible. In the first place, cells are something known to very few. And those who graduate from this academy are not eager to share our secrets. This is a technique that takes hundreds upon hundreds of hours to understand. Just because someone explains it to you does not mean you can say what you said as easily as you did.”

“So you think I’m lying? If I was taught this little hush hush secret, as you put it, why would I go about telling you this?”

“...hmph. Continue.”

John felt a bead of sweat dripping down his neck. Despite all his years of experience, the aura Lupin was emitting was truly nervewracking. It wasn’t even his status as a Mythic. It was simply the feeling of being a schoolboy in front of a teacher.

“You know Destiny?”

“Of course. I am aware of all my pupils.”

“Hear me out. Teach him this technique. Like, now. Not in a couple of years. Not after months of training. Like, right now. Or maybe more like in a week. He can take it.”

“...you would ask this of me? To train not you, who personally figured out such a rare technique, but your friend?”

“I can’t do it.” John clenched his fists, preparing himself for what he’d say next. This was it. All or nothing.

“You know those rumours about mana and shit? They’re not wrong. Like, not at all.”

“...so it was true.”

“So… are you gonna expel me now?”

“Perhaps. After all, all of our teachings depend on mana. But still. Despite your lack of mana, you continue to perform… adequately. You are no star pupil, but you also do not fall behind. So I will continue to think about this. Now, continue.”

“Look. Destiny is someone special. He has the talent and power to handle this. So, please. Teach him.”

“Again, why? You do not seem like the selfless sort.”

John grimaced. “Yeah. I’m not. But again, I can’t use this technique. And we need it. I… I need it. I need Destiny to know how to do this. Sooner than later.”

Silence once more, broken only by the tapping of Lupin’s fingers on the table. He continued to sit stiffly in his chair, staring deeply into John’s eyes, as if trying to get past them and into his brain.

“Do you consider yourself to be strong, boy?”

“No.”

“Do you think you could win against your friend, Destiny?”

“No.”

“Hm. You are too arrogant to lie about that. It seems you are telling the truth.”

John opened his mouth to protest, but Lupin spun around in his chair before he could say anything. Without turning back, he spoke once more.

“So you believe this Destiny boy to be stronger than you. Then any test you pass, he, too, should be able to pass. Is that correct?”

“Uh… yeah?”

John didn’t like where this was going.

“Our duel last time ended unsatisfactorily. Come. Follow me.”

They wound up in the grand stadium, empty now, devoid of students or professors save for the two standing on the dusty grounds.

“This isn’t the illusion world. You can be hurt.”

Just like what’d happened in the exam, Lupin pulled out a sword and tossed it on the ground, the tip plunging straight down, leaving the handle facing up for John to take.

“You do not have your arsenal of tricks. Come. Take the sword.”

“And fight you?” John said incredulously.

“No. You must simply survive.”

“Hold on, if I can survive, then aura isn’t needed-”

“But a certain level of focus is. And if you can survive, then this Destiny boy can handle the training needed to learn my technique.”

There was a slow scraping sound as Lupin unsheathed his sword. It must’ve been intentional. There was no way someone as professional as Lupin would keep his weapon ill kept. Despite John knowing this, the sound of metal against metal still sent a single shiver down his spine.

“Then. En guarde.”

“Hey, what’re you-”

The sun glinted of the rapier’s edge as it shot toward John like a bullet, aimed right between his eyes.

“Hey, hey, wait a minute, what the fu-!”